America, forget not your history, or who you are

I'm a Canadian, living in Canada.  I like my country, but I don't love it.  I certainly don't like our current facsimile of a leader. I do love what the United States is supposed to be, and throughout most of it's history, has been.  In the United States you have your own facsimile of a leader at the moment. One who can barely stand, who can barely speak, barely walk, and clearly barely think, is no leader.

America has the capacity, as a country, of unparalleled greatness. If that greatness is not eroded by the people who would have you forget your history.

Here is one small sample of what it means to be American.  This used to be celebrated. It should be celebrated again, instead of your pronouns:

Woke Latino racists versus truth and logic

In this reaction video, HistoryLegends points out what we are dealing with intellectually when we are talking about woke racism. The reactor has a wonderful knowledge of history and his smart interpretive look at the potential reasons for some of the DNA infusion results, using logic and his knowledge of history (and DNA tests for that matter).

Let's Go Brandon hasn't learned from history

History provides a guide in how to deal with Putin's imperialism, but Let's Go Brandon doesn't know history. I'm not a fan of the Bush family, but when Iraq invaded Kuwait, George Bush (41) got a sizable international coalition together and used a coordinated invasion to crush Iraq. Europe responded, Middle Eastern nations responded and other countries did as well.  Now that we have Let's Go Brandon in charge, we've gone back to the Obama years of leading from behind.  We have a lack of coordinated effort, and we have sanctions that, despite all the claims of "harshest possible", are at best mildly annoying  to Russia while they invade Ukraine.  They may matter to some degree in the long run, but Ukraine doesn't have a long run at this point.  What's needed, if it's to be an economic battle only, is a complete financial freeze on Russia.

That means full removal from the SWIFT systems (along with anyone else who provides support for Russia, like China or Belarus), complete sanctions, impounding of foreign assets as well as other efforts such as a concentrated cyber warfare effort, war crime charges, as well as massive arming of the Ukrainians and a declaration of a No Fly Zone over the Ukrainian territory.

While people fret about Putin's threats of a nuclear war or further invasions, it's not real.  His approach is a combination of Soviet era propaganda and Hitleresque go as far as you can while the West hasn't got it's act together.  A lot of people aren't old enough to recollect the cold war, let alone WWII.  We had to live with a nuclear threat every day during the cold war, but it never happened.  Mutually assured destruction prevented it.

What needs to happen is exactly what I said above - a massive coalition with agreed upon steps, taken with the highest degree of urgency.

Never forget

 On this day in history, Pearl Harbor.

Thomas Sowell teaches

 Thomas Sowell explains what you don't hear about slavery in history.

Andy Ngo speaks at Hillsdale College about ANTIFA's history and tactics

 If you've never heard of Hillsdale College, you owe it to yourself to check them out. If you don't know Andy Ngo, you owe it to yourself to research his story (not on CNN mind you).  Andy Ngo talks about ANTIFA's history and tactics.  And if you don't know the history and tactics of ANTIFA, you really owe it to yourself to watch this.

Things just got a lot tougher

Democrats appear to have 'won' the two Georgia seats.  I'm not sure where this massive, highly localized (Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan) Democrat voter turnout came from and I suspect it's mainly dead and phantom voters.  Regardless, the job of conservative patriots just got a lot tougher.  Democrats now enjoy the presidency and both houses of congress.  That is really bad news.  Expect them to warp-speed through inane legislation and do significant damage to the country in their efforts to not only undo president Trump's legacy, but also drag the country much further left.  

Many Americans will be dragged kicking and screaming (as witnessed in the Capitol yesterday), many simply trying to fight it, and many just blindly following along believing the Democrats have the best interest of the country at heart.  WRONG.  They don't have hearts, they just play that on TV.  They are self-serving and vile criminals, and that is what we are up against.

ALL IS NOT LOST.

I've heard a lot of chatter about a third party.  That's about the worst thing that can happen on the right-leaning side of the political ledger. In-fighting between say a Patriot party or a Libertarian party and the GOP dooms America to decades of progressive rule.  Take Canada as an example.  We've been through this exact scenario.  After multiple decades of  Liberal Party rule, with one brief Conservative Party stint in the 1980's coinciding with the Reagan-Thatcher era of geopolitics, Liberal Party domination of the Canadian political landscape seemed inevitable and eternal. It caused a split and a Reform Party was born.  It was Canada's version of MAGA. It was born in 1987 during a 'conservative' era. It was a populist party borne of frustration at liberal conservatives (think establishment-GOP or RINOs).  For over a decade, they split conservative votes with the traditional Conservative Party, adding another decade to the Liberal party hegemony. The country swung far further left during that time.

It wasn't until the Reform Party and Conservative Party merged that they became a powerful force that led to a decade of strong conservative leadership of the country.

You are a conservative, learn from history and improve upon it, not repeat its mistakes.  The idea of a third party is fine if America had time to waste on in-fighting and an eventual reconciliation of the two right-leaning entities.  It doesn't though. You are the leader of the free world and you do not have time to mess around while the Democrats take the country further down the path of socialism.

A third party though is the answer.  What you want to foment is a split between liberals and progressives - two left-leaning parties vying for the liberal and radical vote, splitting those votes and  ensuring that a populist slate of candidates has an easier path to victory. That's what we want, not the reverse.  

Democrats have done a great job infiltrating government, big tech, education and even seemingly the ranks of RINO Republicans. We have not done anything similar with the possible exception of Project Veritas.  It's time we start influencing the Left's behavior and sew discord among the ranks.  It's time we peel off some potential DINOs like Joe Manchin.  He won't be a strong Republican, but we need the votes. These are just some preliminary thoughts, there's more to come, soon. I promise.

Joe Biden steps in it again (of course he did)

Joe Biden made yet another racist gaffe today, watch the first 36 seconds of the clip below for details:

It's not the first time Joe has said racist stuff, not by far. By way of background, here is just a small sample:

Brainwashed America - is it too late?

Prager U's Goodbye America explains how America's sense of it's own history has been lost in far too many circles.

After decades of the warping of history and America's sense of self, is a reawakening to the truth impossible?  I don't think so, or else Hillary Clinton would be president today.  A sense that something was, and still is, wrong clearly exists.  President Trump is just the first salvo in fixing the problem, much more needs to be done. But it's not too late.

U.K. moving right,populist, or both

Unlike France, which is a muddle, in Britain conservative prime minister Theresa May has called a June election where she is expected to rout both the far left Labor party and the centrist party.  She could be headed for a historic majority thanks to disarray on Brexit on the left (among other things).

British Prime Minister Theresa May is sending the United Kingdom to the polls on June 8, three years early, citing the need for a strong mandate to negotiate Britain's exit from the European Union.

It is an about-face from May's earlier statements about an early election, but it is hard to blame her for wanting to go early. The polls suggest her Conservative Party is on track for a smashing majority against a divided Labour Party led by the hapless Jeremy Corbyn.

It would take a miracle for her not to have a powerful majority come this summer. Again, stay tuned.

Saturday Learning Series - on Russell Kirk

"In Russell Kirk, Bradley J. Birzer investigates the life and work of the man known as the founder of postwar conservatism in America."

Saturday Learning Series - History of the Conservative Movement, William F. Buckley, Jr.

History of the Conservative Movement: Politics in America - William F. Buckley, Jr. an interview.

UPDATED - Historical Auction

So, I got contacted to do some free advertising for an Auction House on my blog.  I get stuff like that all of the time, and I usually ignore it because implicit in the request is the notion that my blog has little monetary value - zero to be exact.  Now I know that might be the case, but it's kind of insulting to have it put to you that way.  Nevertheless, this particular request intrigued me because of the nature of the auction, so I'm actually going to share it.  The auction consists of some impressive historical items.

The item depicted here, and here, for example, requires a starting bid of $30,000. It's described in part as follows:

Historic autograph letter signed (“A. Lincoln”), 2 pages on two sheets of blue-lined paper (7.75 x 9.75 in.; 197 x 248 mm.), [Washington, D.C., ca. 2 May 1864], “To the Honorable the House of Representatives,” being a transcript penned in Lincoln’s hand of his 2 November 1863 letter to “Hon. Montgomery Blair”. First page slightly toned with some ink smudges; both pages have two filing holes in the upper left margins with minor adhesive residue stains at the lower verso.

Other items include a rare signed document from Sir Isaac Newton, and a Francis Scott Key printing. Check it out for yourself. I haven't got a lot of information on the auction house (Invaluable), but I personally am keenly interested in the auction given the item list. The auction is scheduled for June 13th. If anyone has any additional details to share, please feel free to add info in the commentary. And if you end up buying something, let me know - it'd be cool if someone who reads my blog ends up with an item from the auction.

UPDATE: Here's the link to the auction site.

Also, I wanted to point out that this request to promote their auction did not offend me, as I may have given the impression in the first paragraph.  Unlike prior emails of this nature, the request was polite, and informative as well as being related to my content.  My ire was directed at the barrage in general, as well as other emails that did not share the tone of this request.

John Hawkins has a great read

If John Candy were a smart conservative.

John Hawkins (pictured right) of RightWingNews fame has long been one of the bloggers/writers that I've really admired.  His site has been a success because of his insightful views into the political landscape combined with his ability to parse events into commentary that is easy to connect with as a reader.

He has a great article at Townhall about liberals being on the wrong side of history.  Here's a brief excerpt:

Liberals dream of one day seeing all Americans permanently locked in the smothering, cradle-to-grave death grip of the nanny state. Nothing excites a liberal more than the idea of controlling where you go to school, regulating your work and play, deciding what type of health care you're going to have and then deciding when you get to retire and how much money you have when you do. Even if you want to choose, you can't. Even if you want to break free, you're stuck. You're not allowed to make different choices because liberals have made it illegal...

It's a kinder, gentler version of George Orwell's horrific "boot stamping on a human face - forever." In the liberal version, it's a boot gently pressing you to the ground, forever, "for your own good" -- as if liberals have the slightest idea of what "your own good" might be. Certainly, they believe they know what's best for you. It's what they were told by their college professors, the New York Times and their friends. There's a whole echo chamber dedicated to telling them exactly what they want to hear about how other people should be living.

It's worth the full read.

Obama repeats the past, only worse

Decades ago when Social Security was enacted,  and later Medicare and Medicaid as well, planners planned based on assumptions about what I would call a static growth model.  That is to say that the success (or more correctly, sustainability)  of those programs was, and is, dependent upon two things:

1. that the population would continue to grow, or at least not shrink, and 
2. that the make up of the population would not change significantly over time.  

Of course neither of those conditions are certain and one has in fact, already proven to be wrong.

Saturday Learning Series - Lewis and Clark

A documentary on the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark expedition.

Americans should have known Obama was not ready

Fail.

History is replete with people who came into power or wealth and were unprepared for it, leading to significant negative consequences.  When someone is unprepared for such a profound paradigm shift, they are ill-equipped to handle the responsibility or the dangers that come with the new situation.  President Obama is a prime example - he was snot equipped to answer that 3 a.m. phone call Hillary Clinton said he could not handle.  He was not equipped to handle the economic crisis he faced.  He was not equipped to handle the details of a 2200 page health care bill and that is becoming clearer with every passing day.  He was not ready to be president.  Americans should have known, but history and current events apparently did not provide enough lessons for voters prior to his election.

Often times, aspirations far outstrip qualifications. While you can argue that experience doesn't matter, it does.  Preparedness comes from experience.  Here are some examples of people not ready for prime time and the unfortunate consequences that ensued.

Saturday Learning Series - The roots of the financial crisis

The Yale course by Douglas W. Rae continues, with guest lecturer Will Goetzmann, Director of the Yale International Center for Finance and professor at the Yale School of Management, who takes a look at the history of debt and financial crises.

Sarah Palin knows her history

Not only does she know it, she knows it well, and she knows it far better than President Obama knows his geography. Democrats had a field day with Sarah Palin's seemingly incorrect version of Paul Revere warning the British. The only problem for them is she's right.

Niall Ferguson pwns Obama and MSNBC

I know, I know, "pwns" is such a stupid non-word but it so aptly describes the exchange.  Over at The Right Scoop there was a great documentary series from British Harvard professor Niall Ferguson on the history of the West and whether the West is now set for a decline.  It led me to three distinct thoughts.  Firstly, even though it's been covered off by Right Scoop, I want to restart my Saturday Learning Series and I think the series is so important and well done, that I have to include it in the near future, perhaps even starting with the first episode of six this weekend.  Secondly, it gave me a couple of great post ideas that I definitely will follow up on as soon as I can*.  Thirdly it made me question who Niall Ferguson is and I did a bit of research on him. The results turned out to be pretty sweet.