Tag Archives: Maresca

Current Events

Black Lives Matter “Too”

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Another must read gem from Greg Maresca

Sign of the times

By: G. Maresca

The political signage has sprouted among the inescapable roofing, paving, and real estate placards, as November’s election count down is underway.  On my daily jaunt, there was even one “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) sign among them nearly equaling the support for Joe Biden in a neighborhood as ethnically diverse as the Augusta National Golf Club.

Unlike the two Biden signs, the BLM one is sequestered away from the road and practically hidden from view.  The sign situated just off their manicured lawn and in the shadow of their well-upholstered Wayne Manor facade, appears to be a first-degree case of virtue signaling serving as free publicity for the Pied Pipers of Marxism.

What’s in a name?

Shakespeare’s Juliet may have believed, a rose by any other name is still a rose, but it was the Romans trusted “nomen est omen” — a name is a destiny because names, do in fact, matter.  If BLM had instead labeled themselves, Black Lives Matter, Too, perhaps they would have had a more benevolent welcoming.

BLM sounds like a social justice crusade for blacks, but they actually represent very few.

Perhaps the folks with the signage and those in professional sports fail to realize how BLM has hijacked George Floyd’s death in order to stage a second and perverted sexual revolution.

BLM was founded by a trio of Marxist lesbians whose online manifesto: “What We Believe,” seeks to “disrupt” the “Western-prescribed” family (traditional mother and father), who have emancipated themselves from “heteronormative thinking” (anti-heterosexual).  They also demand “reproductive justice” (abortions) and “foster a queer‐affirming network” (pro-gay/transgender) that is the core of their creed to remake America in their image.

When anyone takes a knee or plants a sign, they pay homage to BLM’s anti-Christian credo.

More proof was when BLM activist Sean King tweeted: “All murals and stained glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends should also come down. They are a gross form of white supremacy.”  Christian churches and statues are desecrated with the BLM campaign as its cover.

Their phrase “Black Lives Matter” emphasizes the duality of convenience.  In one instance, it’s a slogan.  However, when someone tries to extend it to all of humanity it becomes exclusive.

Objecting to painting BLM on the street is unassailable.  BLM’s fanatic platform cannot be questioned because, after all, “black” is in its name.

Bestselling black author Shelby Steele said BLM is a “distraction” from the real issues.  If black lives really mattered, they would be tearing down abortion mills and crack houses instead of statues and burning Bibles.  Likewise, they would address the high murder rate perpetrated by blacks against blacks.  By focusing on police racism, which by every available statistic has been in decline for decades, they reveal their true agenda: nullify the police so that chaos reigns over civic comity without which a unified republic cannot endure.

BLM demands that racism is systemic and that you either support them or you are racist.  The only thing systemic is leftism as BLM completely ignores the greater quantity of crime, deprived education, and fatherless homes infecting black communities.

By claiming to fight bigotry, they not only excuse, but abet it, which is just another form of bigotry.  You cannot simultaneously fight against violence while endorsing it.

Despite such radical ambitions, many folks stop at nothing to coddle and praise BLM.  Such is the consequence of today’s remorseless zero-sum politics.

When BLM supports charter schools and educational vouchers, fights against the tens of thousands of black abortions annually, and promotes that families with both a mother and father are the best chance of a child succeeding in life, their mantra and theatrics is just more divisive and violent political theater.

By displaying BLM signage, you not only sympathize with their cause, but provide license for them to engage in wanton violence and destruction.

Whether they can figure it out or not, but BLM are the heirs of the Jim Crow racists as they continue to mock everything the American nation was founded upon.

What really matters is how and why BLM wars against the Christian values of Western Civilization, and does so by sawing away at the very limb they stand on.

 

Originally posted 2020-08-21 12:31:48.

Current Events

Comedic Lives Matter

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Another great article filled with truths about the sick society in which we find ourselves today. Thank you Greg.

By: G. Maresca

 With the recent death of Carl Reiner, some perspective is in order.  The longtime actor, writer, director, and straight man for Mel Brooks believed humor fostered his longevity and his curtain call proved it by enduring two years short of a century.

For decades, Reiner’s witticisms and wisecracks were a perennial favorite that crossed generations.  He was the last regular of “Your Show of Shows” and “Caesar’s Hour” that had no hidden agenda other than obtaining laughs.  The comedians, writers and producers of Reiner’s era possessed intelligence, imagination and talent.

 Today’s comedic monologues, quips and routines have been lost to angry, political diatribes that are more lecture than laughter – Fractured Farley Tales, they ain’t.

 Late night television has devolved into ghastly versions of an agonizing Chris Cuomo and Maureen Dowd where self-righteous, condescension is the standard.

Comedy?

It departed with Johnny Carson.

Even David Letterman in his later years succumbed to spreading the butter of the leftist credo.  Proving that comedy, through political correctness, had become another weapon of leftism.

The entertainment industry promotes leftism and maligns anyone who disagrees.  One’s humor is another’s insult and the left has taken this to the extreme.  Leftists are anything but funny because their partisan snark and loathing is dispiriting and adds nothing to the conversation.

Once upon a time in America, we didn’t know the personal politics of Carson, Jack Parr, Bob Hope or Carl Reiner, nor did we really care.  Comics were not intimidated by anyone or anything and every person, place and thing was fair game and everyone was in on the jokes.

Today, any political satire from the conservative or libertarian side of the house that fails to meet leftist orthodoxy is deemed hateful.  You are “racist” if you joke about Barack Obama, a “homophobe” if you poke fun at gays, “transphobic” if you do an impression of PA Secretary of Health Dr. Levine, and “sexist” if you are not on board with the platoon of fuming feminists who populate The View.

Since the time of the ancient Greeks, free societies have used political satire as a means for introspection, while at the same time keeping government in check. Autonomous and unconstrained comedic talent has the trifecta capacity to make one laugh, contemplate and think about an issue(s).

The problem with today’s political satire is not that it derides and ridicules. Rather, our politically correct epoch has rendered it archaic and vain.  Lost is our collective sense of humor and the unrestricted resolve to actually be amused and enjoy a good laugh.

When things are difficult and challenging, we find the humor in it not because it will change the situation, but because it can help alleviate how we feel about it. Jokes are rarely singular in meaning as there is always an undefined nuance to every quip.

With the ability to laugh and make fun of ourselves lost, everyone loses.  Few, if any of the old great comedians, would exist today.  Plenty of comics, even those who are non-ideological make it a point to avoid college campuses, with their interrogational and hypercritical environment.

“We have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy,” Mel Brooks said in 2017.  This lack of humor is a legacy of the leftist orthodoxy that is sweeping the country.

In leftism’s utopia, nothing would be allowed to be funny unless they declared it so.  Think of the comedy talents of Yakov Smirnoff, or the minions leading North Korea.

Is this what we need, or worse, want?

Perhaps the joke is on us on how we used to laugh.

Psychologists tell us that possessing a sense of humor does indeed matter.  Sigmund Freud believed there was no better human interaction than two people laughing at the same joke.

Popular culture was once defined by its willingness to challenge, enlighten and awaken.  Artists, musicians, comedians and writers enriched us by delivering specific slights to the sensibilities of those who were cultural avatars and lawmakers.  Today’s performers mostly fall over each other to demonstrate how much they are “woke” with leftist bona fides.

They may believe to be woke, but in reality, they are on life support.

And we are all poorer because of it.

Amen!

Originally posted 2020-08-15 10:42:55.

Current Events

One More Time

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I thought I was done with Mr. Mattis, but then I received an email with an attachment from a gentleman who writes for several magazine. I was moved by his article and asked if he minded I use it on the blog and he enthusiastically endorsed the use of it. So, here it is. Enjoy one last spit balls at Mr. Mattis. In case you cannot pick it out, he is a Marine, albeit, a poor one in my eyes, but he is still a Marine.

A Mad Dog’s Lament

By: G. Maresca

When Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis was nominated as President Trump’s secretary of defense, he needed a congressional waiver to be confirmed because federal law prohibits former military officers from serving as secretary of defense within seven years of retiring. That waiver came without restraint as Mattis was well-known and respected throughout Capitol Hill.

Many veterans were pleased Mattis would be serving again especially Marines, as one of their own would be at the pinnacle at the Department of Defense. Those who follow the Corps were well acquainted with Mattis and many anticipated he would eventually be named commandant. That was not to be as Mattis’ days were numbered when he rightfully disagreed with President Obama’s dreadful multi billion dollar Iranian nuclear deal.

That only endeared Mattis even more.

Being a hero is no guarantee that one day your ego will not get the best of you. History is littered with such individuals like Alcibiades, Napoleon, and even Benedict Arnold.

Throughout the Corps’ storied history, no Marine has ever served as president, or vice president and only two have been appointed as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since that rank’s inception in 1949.

Over the past half century, Mattis is likely the most recognized Marine since the legendary, Chesty Puller.

In the latest issue of the Atlantic, a magazine that has scaled the leftist alps for over a decade, Mattis lives up to his Jarhead moniker of “mad dog” going on the offensive criticizing President Trump.

Mattis condemns Trump’s walk to St. John’s, an historic church that was torched the night before that the Washington D.C. mayor refused to stop, “as a bizarre photo op.” Trump’s appearance underscored religious liberty that is enshrined within the Constitution that Mattis once swore to defend against all enemies both foreign and domestic.

Mattis continued: “Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”

For eight years Barack Obama fanned the flames of racial enmity in such a way that the media and apparently Mattis advocated.

We are now agonizing through its consequences.

Speaking after the launch of NASA/SpaceX Trump declared: “The death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis was a grave tragedy. It should never have happened. It has filled Americans all over the country with horror, anger, and grief. Yesterday, I spoke to George’s family and expressed the sorrow of our entire nation for their loss. I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace and I stand before you in firm opposition to anyone exploiting this tragedy to loot, rob, attack, and menace. Healing, not hatred, justice, not chaos, are the missions at hand.”

Divisive?

Where is Mattis’ condemnation of the Democrats’ condoning riots that has killed and destroyed the businesses of hundreds, if not thousands? Where is his disapproval of the politicization of federal law enforcement agencies arranging clearly false plots against political opponents, including a fellow Gen. Michael Flynn, and a sitting president?

Where is the outrage about such seditious, if not treasonous acts that continues to divide the nation that threatens the constitutional order Mattis professes to revere?

Mattis went on to denounce Trump’s threat to use the military to restore order. Perhaps Mattis is not the historian he claims to be possessing a personal library of over 7,000 books, or that he has no qualms about ignoring how prior presidents utilized the military to quell riots in order to serve his own political agenda.

After all, generals are inherently political as all senior officers are congressional appointees.

Mattis is revealing himself to be another covered and concealed member of the D.C. swamp, who doesn’t want to participate in its demise, maintaining what the last general who called the White House home (Eisenhower) dubbed, “the military industrial complex.”

Mattis resigned as Secretary of Defense because he objected to Trump removing our troops from Syria where Mattis believed the Kurd’s would be decimated, but weren’t.

It appears Mattis and Trump are probably more alike than not with a dominating personality.

Mattis’ diatribe does nothing to heal the nation. Perhaps these former high-ranking military officers need to continue the tradition of self-censorship to maintain the reputation of the armed forces as non-political.

However, it is certainly Mattis’ First Amendment right not to abide.

Mattis might want to undertake Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s advice and “just fade away”. If not, then he needs to stop with the political pontificating, and book writing, and throw his cover in the ring and run for public office.

Bottom line in November: Trump or Biden.

If Mattis believes Biden is the answer, the general has more than his crossed rifles – crossed.

 

Originally posted 2020-06-11 15:48:46.

Current Events

All-Star Strikeout

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Greg hits another Home Run!

By: G. Maresca

As Major League Baseball (MLB) opened its season to sunny skies with every team playing on the same day since 1937, the game’s executives seem intent on beheading the golden goose with the woke ax of the Cancel Culture.

Given the issues with two recent Georgian elections, the state’s legislature passed a bill that would strengthen the integrity and fairness of their voting laws.  The MLB suits and their Democrat allies including President Biden disagreed labeling the legislation “an atrocity” and “Jim Crow.”  As a result, MLB’s midseason summer classic – its annual All-Star game and amateur draft that were to take place in Atlanta – will be relocated to Colorado that has similar voting laws.

The president’s distortion of the Georgia law is intentionally divisive since he promised to unite the nation at his inauguration.  Even the left leaning Washington Post awarded Biden four Pinocchio’s.

MLB’s certitude is business as usual.  During last year’s abbreviated season, MLB stenciled a Marxist organization’s initials on pitching mounds leaguewide.  Despite their All-Star boycott of Georgia, MLB announced an expanded television deal with China.  MLB must not realize that in China they eat their bats rather than swing them.

MLB should showcase their All-Star game in Wuhan.  Surely, the Uighurs in their Xinjiang province “re-education” camps would tune in. Even Secretary of State Antony Binken said China is committing genocide against the Uighurs.

The media needs to question Biden on how a law committed to voter integrity in a state that he won warrants a boycott, while communist China gets a pass.

The Georgia law will require absentee voters to provide identification when requesting and mailing in their ballot.  Likewise, ballot drop boxes that were temporary during the pandemic will continue but be reduced.  There were no drop boxes prior to COVID, ever.

What will MLB do when other states pass similar voter integrity laws? Stop playing games in those states?  Why are any of the 81 regular season games being played in Atlanta if this law is so egregious?

Politics injecting itself into professional sports is vogue.  In July 2016, the NBA pulled its All-Star Game from Charlotte, N.C. because a state law mandated that transgenders use bathrooms according to their birth gender. After the law was repealed, the NBA rewarded Charlotte their 2019 All-Star game.

Political division is nothing new, but the ridiculous and despotic reactions are.  Perhaps MLB is auditioning for their future masters – the Chinese Communist Party?  No need to concern yourself with voter suppression when there are no elections.

Georgia is in no way suppressing legitimate voters, but their law does make it harder for illegitimate voters – and that is the crux – for Democrats.  MLB has smeared Georgia’s elected majority as racist and anti-democratic.

State officials should sue for defamation.

Here is MLB lecturing on election integrity when nothing is more fraudulent than an MLB All-Star ballot, where voting early and often is creed.

Drive to the park, buy a beer at the game and you will need identification.  Producing identification is not voter suppression; it is voter certification.  And you better have your immunization card updated to enter because that is next.

Sports should be apolitical, but it is the weak and craven who fail to step up to the plate and make it so.  Georgia showed uncharacteristic courage for politicians something MLB and the crony and woke CEOs at Atlanta based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola severely lack.

If other legislatures and organizations would exhibit such resolve perhaps, a real examination, without the name calling about why one group has lagged behind in most metrics despite decades of unconstitutional subsidies and preferences.  Then we could address some real causes: 70% children born out of wedlock, 52% of murders, 37% of abortions among a culture that is only 13% of the population where entitlement and victimization handcuff advancement while atrophying young minds.

Bureaucratic elites are in lockstep with the anti-liberty, totalitarian, Constitution-hating zealots who occupy Washington.  This decision by MLB is just the latest example.

Sports is entertainment, not a political movement.

Until conservatives can boycott as effectively as leftists, expect more of the same.

Conservatives need to take a final homerun trot around the MLB bases of going, going… gone.

Good luck with your new friends, MLB.

 

Originally posted 2021-04-09 11:02:17.

Current Events

Dr. Seuss Under Siege

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I always enjoy posting Greg’s great  articles. Here’s another dandy

 

By: G. Maresca

 

It was not a favorable week for some iconic childhood stalwarts. It began with the castration of Mr. Potato Head who is now just another vegetable with feigned expressions making it the ideal co-host for The View. No matter how odd life is there are some folks overtly concerned about the gender of a plastic toy potato.

Who’s next, Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken?

Never mind.

Then the woke mob came for Dr. Seuss, an inside job if there ever was one. Branding this famed author of classic children’s literature, a racist was the foundation tasked with preserving his own legacy. They did so on the Read Across America Day that recognizes children’s literacy that also happens to be the anniversary of the author’s birth.

The foundation quashed publication of six of Dr. Seuss’s books that “portray people (blacks and Asians) in ways that are hurtful and wrong.” No doubt removal of those titles will have a substantive impact on our societal prejudices. Apparently, the foundation is oblivious to the violent video games children have glued to their hands and with rap music and its racist, sexist, and drug glorifying lyrics.

Once upon a time in America, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved several resolutions praising Dr. Seuss. In 2015, First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed the Cat in the Hat to the White House. That same year, President Obama told interns that “Pretty much all the stuff you need to know is in Dr. Seuss.”

Two years later the National Education Association (NEA) would reduce its emphasis on Dr. Seuss to encourage diversity. The NEA recommended replacing Dr. Seuss with “Julián is a Mermaid,” about a boy who wants to be a mermaid, and “The Prince and the Dressmaker,” about a cross-dressing prince.

A political cartoonist during World War II, Dr. Seuss was a frequent critic of racism, and anti-Semitism – strong convictions that were lacking in his time.

While Amazon banished the six Seuss titles in question, the public responded by moving Dr. Seuss’ other works into eight of the top 10 on Amazon’s best-sellers list. Internet behemoth, eBay also put the kibosh on Dr. Seuss, but still makes available for purchase Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book,” not to mention a plethora of pornography.

 Is Curious George, Winnie the Pooh and Charlie Brown next in the cancel crosshairs? To say nothing of the Weebles, who reinforce obesity, as they wobble but never fall down.

Not allowing a crisis to waste away, New York Times columnist Charles Blow chimed in saying the cartoon Pepé Le Pew perpetuates “rape culture” and Speedy Gonzalez does the same with “corrosive stereotypes.” No word on what Blow thought about Popeye whose legacy is that men are strong and there are some women who actually welcome a strong and humble man.

Being offended everywhere you look is vanity disguised as virtue. What the woke crowd understands is how most will concede in the name of expediency. Make no mistake, these tactics are not uncalculated.  Marxists exploit our freedoms to divide and seek to usurp the American ethos without firing a shot. The real question is whether Americans truly comprehend the threat and possess the will to push back.

The easiest way to make your bones as a leftist is to attack the accomplished work from eighty years ago of a dead white male. Dr. Seuss’ whimsical imagery stands as a testament to morality, while his portrayals of blacks and Asians were acts of inclusion in an era when there was little.

Tyrants understand the education of children is the key to obtaining and maintaining power. Marx, Hitler and Stalin all knew that indoctrinating children was their avenue to domination and that is why Marx included public education as the final plank of his Communist Manifesto.

With apologies to Dr. Seuss and compliments of a Wall Street Journal blog:

The Left is acting like a vulture.
When they impose their cancel culture.
If they don’t like your point of view,
You’re fired. You’re banned. Shame on you.

So now, in the manner of an empty-headed goose.
They have successfully canceled Dr. Seuss.
I won’t stop reading Green Eggs and Ham.
I am pro First Amendment, oh yes, I am.

Theodor Seuss Geisel (AKA Dr. Suesspassed on 24 September 1991

YONKERS, NY – MARCH 1: Theodor Geisel attends Dr. Suess In-Store Appearance on March 1, 1986 at Caldor in Yonkers, New York. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)

 

Who knows what will be next. Maybe Jack and Jill since we know they went up there to fetch a pail of water, right? But what did they do while there? Hmm. What did Jill do to cause his disaster and get her whipped. Standby, for they may be next.

Originally posted 2021-03-13 13:29:30.