Transforming America

Posted on 15/11/2023 by Grumpa Joe

During 2007-2016, my one goal was to bash Obama at every chance. I even published a book of my cartoons and editorial opinions titled “Nightmares from Obama.” When I first listened to Mr. Smooth, I suspected he was a political charlatan. He was definitely a word master. His ability to say many things and make them sound logical and essential was masterful. The one promise he kept declaring during his campaign was that he wanted to transform America. He never, once, told us what he wanted to transform us into.

I am old enough to remember Fidel Castro’s rise to become the Cuban leader. He, too, was famous for his speeches, smooth talk, and promises. Barack emulated Fidel in too many ways. For one thing, Fidel kept his intentions a secret during his campaign. When he finally achieved success, he released his real intent to turn Cuba into a communist state. Obama never came out to declare what he wished the USA to become, but it was clear that he was overly sympathetic to Muslims and Socialists. Even the church he attended was a sign of his leftist leanings.

The internet was loaded with articles about Obama’s Kenyan birthplace, which should have disqualified him from being president, but behind him was an organization that kept those facts away from the public. Before he ran for President, his meteoric rise within the Illinois state government was a tip-off. When he was elected State Senator, the ink was still wet on the ballots when the press asked him if he would run for president. How can someone so obscure rise to the highest position in the land without the backing of many influential people who saw him as their political messiah?

One story that was printed then disappeared almost immediately had Obama visiting the Man’s Country, a gay bathhouse with Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel. His affinity for men is supported by reports from Hawaii, where he was raised and mentored by Frank Marshall Davis, a card-carrying communist. Obama’s Kenyan father eventually returned to Kenya and was given an elite government job. During his tenure with the Kenyan president, the father promoted the idea that Kenya adopt a plan to redistribute wealth. The Kenyan president was wise enough to reject the plan and demoted the father to a menial position. My point is that many clues were pointing at Obama’s transformation plans. If only the press had the balls to follow up and investigate his past. Instead, they chose to become hypnotized by his slick delivery of words that made him sound educated and presidential.

Obama’s cabinet controlled the narrative. They suppressed the need for the press to investigate by putting government-drafted news articles into their hands. Again, the press, whose job is to seek the truth, slept on the job by taking what was handed to them, thus avoiding the need to work. If ever there was a “fake news” distributor, it was Obama.

The whole reason I am telling all of this is that since Biden has been president, Obama has been invisible, that is, until the last couple of months when he suddenly became a voice again. As Biden sinks in the polls, it has become clear to Obama that his puppet Joe will not be president again. What, then, will Obama do to retain his hold on the testicles of the US Government? Whoever that might be, the new man could quickly shelve Obama and his ideas forever.

Congress, the Supreme Court, and Legislative branches cannot fix our problem. The one thing they can’t do anything about is the bureaucracy. Obama infiltrated the bureaucratic agencies with progressive democrats who gladly continue to over-regulate within their non-elected agencies to bypass the Constitution and make things impossible to control. I also believe the entire Bureaucracy should be disbanded (drain the swamp) to reset the government. Whatever chaos and confusion resulting from this action will be worth the benefit. The Lobby industry will be upset, and the cost of doing business will be reduced and confusing until Congress can legislate out the confusion. A significant benefit of draining the swamp is that it will give Congress something worthwhile to do again. They now pass laws to provide the lobbyists with what they want.

Here is what I want:

  1. Banish Obama to Kenya, where he can become King and rule his people.
  2. Disband every Bureaucracy, and begin with a clean sheet of paper.
  3. Put Joe Biden to pasture at one of our best and most comfortable Federal Prisons.
  4. Limit spending on National Campaigns for President, Senate, and Congress to Fifty million dollars. That gives candidates one million dollars per state to spend on campaigning.
  5. Forbid stipends from outside interests to any government member while in office. They get paid enough for what little they do.
  6. A set of national guidelines for elections. The States can pass election laws if they meet the federal guidelines. Define voter eligibility
  7. Winners of National elections must be announced within 24 hours of the vote.
  8. Charge any country that we support with armaments for the stuff we send them
  9. Support only our staunchest allies with military help.
  10. Rewrite our immigration laws:
  11. a. Open all borders to allow free passage in or out / OR
    • b. Reset immigration laws to make them simple and manageable with a limit on the number of people that can enter based on what can be assimilated into the population and the economy.
  12. Settle national abortion based on what is morally correct. Define the moment of conception as the instant the sperm makes it into the egg.
  13. Add Capitalism as the only system the economy will operate under
  14. Prohibit Socialized medicine within the Constitution.

Filed under: Biography, Election, Immigration | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

Public Service-221009

Posted on 09/10/2022 by Grumpa Joe

During the four years of Donald Trump’s term as president I often wondered why he gave his son-in-law Jared Kushner recognition. Kushner served as Trump’s advisor, but in his memoir he writes very detailed accounts of his role as a leader on several high level and huge projects. Among them were re-negotiating the NAFTA trade agreement with Mexico, Criminal Justice Reform, Middle-East peace, and the COVID-19 response. All of these yielded major benefits to the country.

Jared tells his story in a fast moving narrative that held my interest through out. His writing style is mesmerizing. Since I lived through this period, it was refreshing to learn the inside details of how success was achieved, i.e. not easily, but required persistence and constant brainstorming to come up with creative solutions to problems. I was particularly moved by the response to the pandemic. The process used was classic engineering project management, and reminded me of similar situations that I faced in my role as Chief Engineer of a manufacturing company. His process as facilitator of the Mid-Eastern peace deal was one of classic “think outside the box” management. Unfortunately, bureaucratic thinking and processes cannot move past the traditional forms and age old methodology of years of failure. Each administration and career diplomats merely continued to rehash old talking points for the past fifty years. Too many people within the system are interested only in advancing their own career over what is best for the country. The result is a swamp full of creatures whose only interest is to live off each other, and to procreate the process. Kushner kept repeating the old adage that he must not keep repeating the same unsuccessful steps over and over and expecting a different outcome. He made this point repeatedly to Arab leaders throughout his negotiations.

One fact that Kushner writes about never appeared in the press. During his tenure, he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and underwent surgery and follow-up treatment. He never let the diagnoses affect his ability to serve, and he continued to look forward and not let the past affect his drive. Luckily, his treatment solved the problem.

As an engineer, I had many opportunities to write reports and to present them. So many times I was disappointed by the revisions that the CEO made to my work. Eventually, I learned that drafting a report from scratch is much more difficult than it is to revise it. Once the main man has the basis for a decision he can then modify it to arrive at a better outcome. I used this argument in mentoring sessions with engineers. I followed the same process as my boss, and learned that my revisions made a report more valuable than the original. I always gave credit for the final report to the engineer. Kushner’s presentations to the President almost always triggered Trump to make revisions that led to a better solution.

Working in the White House is vicious, stressful, fast paced, and relentless. Too many of the people who work there are constantly seeking power and favor from the president. The most notable tactic for a staff member to feel powerful is to become a leaker. It seems that people who feed inside information to the outside gain an adrenaline rush from the knowledge that their information was obtained because of their position next to the president. Many times the leaker is someone who opposes the president and is seeking to destroy his agenda. Kushner describes experiencing many incidents of leaking. One of the advantages Trump had within the White House was to have his son-in-law. Working directly for him. Kushner being a family member was there to serve his country and to protect his father-in-law.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a penchant for history and the inside machinations of top level government. If you are not that interested in government I still recommend the book as a biography of a young man who served his country at the highest level.

Filed under: Book Review, Election, family, Government | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Free, Free, Free, I Am Free!

Posted on 11/09/2022 by Grumpa Joe

There is a burgeoning fad sweeping across America, and possibly the world. I can’t call it new because this way of life was at one time just that, the way of life. I am speaking of native people who lived as nomads. Early inhabitants of North America were nomadic mainly because they chased a food supply. The new nomads are comprised of rather young people who consider working for a company a waste of their talent. They live to be free from constraints, rules, superiors, and labor on demand. Instead they mysteriously find income by working under their own rules. The number one rule is to work in a place you choose, at a time you choose, and at a pace that you choose. Second rule is to make money from several income streams. A popular income stream comes from Youtube or any of it’s competitors. The term for making money by this method is “monetization” of your content. The content is most often a video that you make. Another income stream comes from sponsors who send you money to keep your videos coming, and the Vlogger spends a few seconds giving a commercial for the sponsors product or service.. Neither of these streams yields enough to support a nomadic lifestyle. Most likely the nomad has a third stream consisting of contract work performing some service related to a field of expertise.

Regretlyss

I have struck upon several of these nomads producing videos of their solitary lifestyles. One is called “Regretlyss” which is a Vlog (Video Log) produced by a twenty-eight year old who lives in a school bus that she designed and had built for her. The term used to describe this type of motor home is a “Schoolie.” Her’s is a short wheel-base bus usually used for taking special needs kids to school. These vehicles are often named and have the name emblazoned upon the vehicle similar to that done on a boat. Nomads prefer diesel engine vehicles because they are more reliable and get better miles per gallon. One of the most popular vehicles being converted to nomadic living is a Mercedes Benz Sprinter van. Again, probably because Mercedes vehicles are consider very rugged, reliable, are available, and relatively inexpensive to buy used. The challenge is to do the conversion by yourself and make a video while doing it.

One reason I am fascinated by these people is their youthful enthusiasm as they go to places that peak my interest as well. Among the most popular regions of the country to live alone is in the western states among mountains. The photography is outstanding and they bring scenery into my living room from places that I also have traveled to and wake up neurons from travels past.

Very often, the video the Vlogger is narrating some limited wisdom of life, and their search to overcome some traumatic life lesson that occurred during childhood. In some cases they have been reared by single parent who dumped an abusive spouse. Or, they them self encountered an abusive relationship. I tend not to understand what is being proclaimed because the speaker uses flowery language that sounds poetic, but doesn’t make any sense. I never did understand poetry and to this day I shy away from the classics of Shakespeare, Yeats, Bronte, Burns, and Frost, but am amused by the “Mary had a little lamb” type of prose.

When I was very young my dream was to convert a van into a camper and I did a limited conversion on my very first van. The idea of moving across the country into remote regions to experience the hardships of the early settlers crossing the wilds of North America to find a place they could call home appealed to my sense of adventure. I believe we (my wife, and three kids) successfully accomplished that goal as we embraced camping as a vacation lifestyle. My wife often boasted to her girlfriends that she would rather see the world by camping than to dream about taking lavish unaffordable trips staying in hotels, and eating in restaurants. In later years, we switched to the hotel route when we took trips abroad.

A few years ago I read a book titled Nomadland, Surviving America In The Twenty-First Century, by Jessica Bruder in which she tells her story about a different class of nomads. Her story is not about twenty somethings looking for the meaning of life, but about people who have been forced to live in their cars, and move about the country from job to job in places where the climate is livable. The nomads I speak of in this post are college grads that choose not to accept the commercial world, and prefer to live a life style based on complete freedom using personal talents to make a living.

Filed under: Election, family, Society | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

A Little Bitty Bird Made Me Lie

Posted on 16/03/2022 by Grumpa Joe

A few days ago I posted a bit about the coming of spring. In it, I mentioned that the Junco, a bird from up north, left to go home. This morning as I looked out on the yard I spotted a Junco hopping around under the feeder picking up sunflower seeds. Damn, I exclaimed to myself. He made me a liar.

What I suspect is that the Juncos are migrating south to north, and this guy is late. Probably because he winters further south. It doesn’t matter except I wrote a bald faced lie in my last post. I don’t like to lie, telling lies is reserved for politicians on the stump, or defending their shoddy records. Politi-speak has evolved into something that is widely accepted even though we all know it is wrong. So then, why do we continue to vote for the people that live to tell untruths? A great example of this type of talk was displayed during the last election cycle when then candidate Biden stood before the country and said he would eliminate COVID. We all knew that was BS, but the Trump haters were so anxious to get rid of someone who knew how to run the country that they accepted that lie and many more.

Just as we all know that state run elections are running over with fraud, but the chiefs in charge continue to accept the lies told by state attorney generals who certify results. As long as those who oversee the election run by the laws in their state they cannot see the real fraud going on because they followed the law to the letter.

Another common form of lying, that is publicized, is when a politician makes a statement based on his knowledge of the facts at hand, and newly uncovered facts come up. On the basis of the new facts the old statements are now false, therefore the subject is telling a lie.

I wonder if America will ever get any of this stuff straightened out to correct the system. Until then, I have to rely on my own judgement of what is, and what isn’t a lie. Reading opposing viewpoints makes things worse because because often a lie is challenged with another lie. I tend to believe the people I want to believe in, and anyone else is a liar. I don’t think I’m alone on that point. In the meantime, I’ll try to correct my own lies with fresh news based on new facts about the migratory habits of my bird residents. Or, are they residents if they only stay here for the winter? That poses another question, just where does a migratory bird call home? Since he commutes between places one or the other must take precedence. I guess I’ll just go sit on my rock and strike a Rodin pose whilst pondering the issue.

Filed under: Aging, Birds, Election, Government, politics | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

This Is Who We Are

Posted on 26/01/2022 by Grumpa Joe

I wish I had written this piece because they are my thoughts as well. To me it means that the true author has identified with the general population of America. Bravo!

It is a fact of life in our country today that there are people who live to be offended.   They’re called Progressives.   

 

They are offended by Confederate statues and the Confederate Flag, by monuments that they say celebrate white supremacy and colonialism, by Trump supporters, by Trump himself, and by those who refuse to get on their knees and grovel before Black Lives Matter. 

 

1.   I’m white – I was born white and I don’t feel guilty about slavery, segregation, the Trail of Tears or the treatment of Chinese railroad workers – because (now get this)  I didn’t have anything to do with any of these. It is history and you can’t change it. I’m no more responsible for these injustices than the Indian of today is responsible for the Black Hole of Calcutta.   The idea of racial guilt is absurd.  White privilege and white supremacy is a myth. Where is the White Miss America Contest, White History Month and White Entertainment Television? Where are the white-only colleges and universities, white-only dating sites or white-only bars and restaurants? Where are the quotas and set-asides for Caucasians?  Do we need to address these things?  To some degree, yes, but not by rioting, tearing down statues, looting and destroying businesses, changing names of sports teams and products.  We can and should address these things with civility and dialogue by all concerned.

 

2.   I love America – I believe in American exceptionalism.  America pioneered representative government guided by a written constitution. We fought a war with 620,000 dead to end slavery. We defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan and liberated the death camps. We saved Europe from tyranny, twice, in the 20th century and then, with American investment, innovation, resourcefulness and generosity, rebuilt the economies of 17 nations of Europe and the nation of Japan. Our arms kept communism from conquering the world. Our factories and workshops produced a flood of inventions and products that benefited humanity. We built the greatest most respected medical system in the world and earned more Nobel Prizes in Medicine than any other nation on earth by a factor of ten!   What country has done as much – especially in 244 years, a relative hiccup in time?

 

3. I also believe in the State of Israel.  Modern Israel is a miracle and a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.  Israel is a beleaguered outpost of civilization in a savage region and a bulwark against the forces of darkness.   The next time your physician gives you a shot of penicillin, look up who discovered this miracle drug.

 

4. My heroes include George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt – Washington and Lincoln were indispensable men. Washington defeated the greatest army on earth and led our country for the first quarter-century of its existence. Lincoln saved the Union, abolished slavery and inspired generations with his rhetoric.  The Declaration of Independence flames with the eloquence of Thomas Jefferson, arguably the most intelligent man to ever serve as President of the United States.  Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, represented the pioneer spirit.  Teddy Roosevelt led the charge into the 20th century, the American Century.   Together, they gave us a country so free that malcontents like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib and Ayanna Pressley can dump on it without fear of reprisal.   As representatives of the American people they are a disgrace to our nation. They all incite turmoil and division in our country. They are most certainly Anti-American. Indeed, if you listen to all the complaints voiced from all the liberal/progressive democrats and communists like NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio, you are hard pressed to understand why there are so few people leaving our country!  It is harder still to understand why, with all of our so called “problems”, millions of people from around the world want to come here. 

 

5. I support our Police, and I believe police officers are generally decent/honorable men and women who are doing a difficult, dangerous, often thankless job – You couldn’t pay me enough today to do it. Besides risking their lives every time they go to work, they bear the added burden of listening to insults shouted at them by spoiled, ungrateful people many of whom are wet behind their ears and probably still wearing diapers. Police today have become the punching bag for the nation and, sadly, they receive little or no respect or support from their superiors and the gaggle of incompetent democratic mayors around the country. And, like our military, they are all that stands between us and the abyss.   When the Twin Towers were attacked in New York City on 9/11, we were reminded by liberals to not judge all Muslims by the actions of a few. Yet today, mobs are willing to judge all police by the actions of a few police. Explain that one to me.   Defunding the police because of a few “bad apples” is just plain STUPID because the end result will be more crime. If you find that difficult to comprehend, just check the crime statistics for these liberal democratic controlled cities: New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis, Newark, Trenton and check out the number of shootings and stabbings on any given weekend!  You would think these cities are in a war zone.

 

6. I support the Second Amendment.  It’s one of the reasons why Japan thought long and hard about attacking us It’s a major reason why we’ll never have a Holocaust here. Europe has had the divine right of kings, religious persecution, Communism and Nazism. We have the Second Amendment.   The anarchy in our streets, coupled with calls to defund the police, only serve to underscore the need for civilian gun ownership.

 

7.  Reparations are racial plunder. The idea of racial guilt is an obscenity from the dark recesses of 19th century European history – There’s no group in the world that hasn’t been oppressed at some point in time. Will Denmark pay reparations to the English for the Danelaw?  Will Mongols and Manchus compensate the Chinese?  Will Japan compensate the Chinese for the Rape of Nanjing?  How about the English and the Irish, the Mongols and the Russians, the Cossacks and Jews?  Will bi-racial Barack Obama take money out of one pocket and put it in another?

 

8. There are only two genders. Deal with it – Gender is determined at birth by your DNA. Just as you can’t change your DNA, you can’t change your sex. You should not be able to force others to participate in your fantasy.  Reality isn’t hateful.

 

9. I support what President Trump advocated and accomplished during his four years in office.  The 45th president loves this country. He had Israel’s back. Who else was strong enough to stand up to China and Iran? Unlike almost everyone else in Washington, as a businessman, he understood finance and the market economy. He’s gave us judges who deliberate instead of legislate. And he had the guts not to be liked.  Prior to COVID-19, President Trump built the greatest most prosperous economy in the world and he gave power back to the people.  He understood that we are a people who happen to have a government, not the other way around, and this American experiment in which government derives its just power from the consent of the governed is still the most unique, treasured and progressive form of government in the history of mankind.  He may or may not be the best candidate in 2024, but his policies should be followed by the Republican nominee, whoever that might be.

 

10. You have a right to disagree with me, but you do not have a right to try to silence me – Being offended doesn’t trump the First Amendment.  Attacking statues and assaulting those with different values is the kind of thing we saw in Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia. Generations of Americans died for freedom of speech, not freedom to suppress speech.  To say you’re offended is merely an attempt to prioritize your feelings above everyone and everything else. It’s not an argument, but a call to end discussion – an admission of intellectual impotence. Being offended isn’t a mark of virtue; it’s a sign that you’re a big, blubbering baby who will throw a tantrum if you can’t get your way.  Wagging fingers and shouting obscenities at me is just plain disrespectful and might get you a punch in the nose.   Sadly, that is what we see today with liberals and progressives.   They do not maintain a dialogue, they respond with insults and attacks, and that is fundamentally because they have not done their homework, lack historical perspective, and context and have no inclination or desire to reason.   We have the right to disagree… but what I see taking place in our country today is simply not right from any reasonable perspective. Many in politics have lost their sanity for political reasons. I heard AOC state this morning that the riots and looting are taking place because of the pandemic.  People don’t have food, so they must riot.  Does anyone believe this drivel?  For what food were they looking at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Macy’s, Gucci, Louis Vuitton,  etc.?  I may be wrong, but I would bet that the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. is looking down from Heaven at all the rioting looting, black on black killing, BLM and saying to himself, “I can’t believe I died for this.”

 

If you believe in “One Nation Under God,” you pass this letter on. Our nation can’t survive in any other way!

Filed under: Conservative, Election | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

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