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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Friday, January 3, 2025

Let's Play DOGE Ball

By Robin Itzler

Editor's Note:  This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Any cartoons appearing will have been added by me.  If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

 

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is going to help stop insanity spending. Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul highlights in his 2024 Festivus Report $1 TRILLION of government waste using OUR tax dollars. Here are a few examples and please note, we are NOT listing the torturous experiments performed on animals, but it’s in Senator Rand’s report:

  • Department of the Interior: spent $12 million on a Las Vegas pickleball complex.
  • State Department: gave $4,840,082 to Ukrainian influencers reported as “KYIV, Ukraine public affairs—Influencer Staff.”
  • Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): awarded a $2 million grant to study kids looking at Facebook ads about food.
  • The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): spent $365,000 to promote circuses in city parks.
  • Department of State (DOS): spent $3 Million for ‘Girl-Centered Climate Action’ in Brazil.
  • Department of State (DOS): allocated $32,596.12 for break dancing and another $330,000 to fund censorship of non-liberal and conservative media.
  • National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA): spent $2.24 million on COVID experiments.
  • Agency for International Development (USAID): $20 million on a Sesame Street spin-off show in Iraq, titled "Ahlan Simsim," to promote "inclusion" and "mutual respect."
  • Department of Energy (DOE): gave automakers $15.5 billion to push the industry into the electric vehicle sector. 
  • Another $388,000 was given to "Magic in the United States," a podcast discussing how magical beliefs and practices have evolved in the U.S. 
  • Biden/Harris Grant: $10,000 to “Beards on Ice,” an ice skating drag show on climate change put on by the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a self-described “queer cabaret arts organization.”
  • Biden/Harris Grant: $2.1 million to fund Paraguay's border.  You have to see the irony in that. 
  • Other: $2 billion spent to maintain empty office buildings.  
More here:  The Details Are in on How the Feds Are Blowing Your Tax Dollars -  The complaints are documented in a lengthy "Festivus" report spanning 41-pages.  "This year, I am highlighting a whopping $1,008,313,329,626.12. That’s over $1 trillion in government waste, including things like ice-skating drag queens, a $12 Million Las Vegas pickleball complex, $4,840,082 on Ukrainian influencers, and more! No matter how much money the government has wasted, politicians keep demanding even more," Paul said.  This kind of wasteful spending is so obviously ridiculous it's entirely too easy to think fixing it will be easy.  And entirely too many think so.  Let's not be delusional, the left, and their RINO paramours will fight for each and every one of these wasteful programs and more.  The next two years will be an ugly fight, and it will be going on daily.  

This is what the sane in America need to focus on.  This isn't just our money!  With the vastness of our national debt it's our children's, our grand children's, and our great grandchildren's money, and that's if the nation can survive this insanity.  

Terror in America: Just the Facts

The latest news on NOLA and the Las Vegas attacks. 

By | Jan 2, 2025 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags:  Articles, Crime & Punishment, Law

On New Year’s Day, an assailant drove a rented truck into a crowd of revelers on New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street. So far, there have been at least 15 confirmed deaths and about 30 others injured. The attacker has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas. Authorities are currently investigating whether the attack was part of a coordinated strike and if the exploding Tesla cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas was connected.

Terrorism in NOLA

Jabbar, reportedly a US citizen who had formerly served in the army, was shot and killed after trading gunfire with law enforcement. His rented truck had an ISIS flag attached to it, and according to President Biden’s statement on the deadly assault, he had made social media videos “mere hours before the attack,” indicating he was inspired by the Islamic State extremist group and expressing a “desire to kill.”

The FBI is investigating this as a terrorist incident and stated that Jabbar had accomplices. Officers discovered improvised explosive devices in the truck and the surrounding area. Authorities believe his accomplices were responsible for planting the outside devices.

“Investigators found multiple improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin,” the Associated Press reported.

The French Quarter of New Orleans is usually a heavily regulated zone for vehicles with adjustable bollards (steel columns) in place to prevent access. However, starting in November of 2024, the replacement of the bollards began and left the area more vulnerable.

Las Vegas Explosion

Just hours after the New Orleans attack, a rented Tesla cybertruck exploded outside the front entrance of the Trump Las Vegas hotel. Investigators said the explosion was caused by firework mortars and camp fuel canisters in the back of the truck and was not related to the actual vehicle. The driver of the car was killed in the explosion, and at least seven other people were injured.

Witnesses report that the truck driver – now identified by local media as Matthew Livelsberger from Colorado Springs, also an army veteran – drove up to the valet area in front of the Trump International Hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard and Sammy Davis Jr. Drive and stayed in the vehicle for around 20 seconds before the explosion occurred.

So far, it is believed that Livelsberger rented the truck in Colorado and drove it to Nevada.

Denver 7 Colorado News Chief Investigator Tony Kovaleski posted that:

“Sources also confirming Livelsberger served at the same military base as the terrorist responsible for the attack in New Orleans and authorities are investigating a possible connection between the two men.”

A connection between Jabbar and Livelsberger has not been confirmed by investigators.

Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill suggested that this may also be a terror attack. He said, “This is a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it’s the Trump Tower … So there’s obviously things to be concerned about and it’s something we continue to look at.

“We are absolutely investigating any connectivity to what happened in New Orleans as well as other attacks that have been occurring around the world … We aren’t ruling anything out,” McMahill said.

The Daily Mail reports that “Law enforcement sources revealed that Livelsberger, who died Wednesday in the explosion outside the hotel, had previously served at the same military base as New Orleans terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar.” Both the Ford Truck used in New Orleans and the cybertruck were electric vehicles, both rented through the rideshare company Turo.

This is a developing story. Liberty Nation News will keep you updated as facts emerge.

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

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Let's Not Get Too Happy

So, Trump won, now what?

By Rich Kozlovich

No political party can withstand adversity when there's no common unified social paradigm  or shared perception of who they are.  They are in effect like conflicting primitive tribes within a social boundary presented as a party.  They're all feeling oppressed, and yet they're not even sure who their real enemy is, the opposition, or their  own party, and this is only going to get worse.  The real issue that will trigger a national political explosion will be cutting spending, and/or reforming the entitlement mandates like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  

There's a lot of joy for conservatives over Trump's victory right now, but we need to see things clearly. Trump has not been good at cutting spending, and he wanted the debt limit raised.  Why?  While Libertarians rail against his tariffs, I applaud them.  He wants to gut government massively, which in my view will cut spending massively, but both the Democrats and the Republicans are in resistance. 

He's created DOGE being headed up by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to cut costs, massively.  The trouble is both them are elitists and support H-1B visas, which I addressed here.  I don't support expanding it, and this is creating conflict with the America First base, and that's a base that's been abused by both parties for decades, and they're on a short fuse.  As for me, I support banning all immigration to America until the illegals are gone, and the border is secure.   

I've said this before, and I'm gonna keep saying it again.  I've little respect for Elon Musk who I consider to be a massively self serving con artist, feeding at the government's subsidy trough on electric cars, and even promoting global warming, and he now wants to send a ship to land on Mars, and I ask why?  There's nothing there, and life couldn't be sustained on Mars except by artificial means, and that's not sustainable.  There's gotta be a government finance scheme somewhere in that mix wherein he benefits in some way.

Personally, I think he's nuts and I think he's a strange man.  Not exactly my cup of tea when it comes to confidence and trust.  However, even a blind monkey can find a coconut on occasion, and it appears he's stumbled onto a big coconut with DOGE.  I just can't figure out what his angle is, but time and truth are on the same side.   

Having said that, Trump hired him to cut costs, and he's good at that.  When he took over Twitter he eliminated 6,500 of the 8,500 hundred employees, that's 70%, and he fired the moderators who of their own initiative, and values, decided what was acceptable or not on Twitter, and while he took an economic hit for a while, advertisers are coming back.  

As for Vivek, I think he was chosen to partner with Musk as an insurance policy, as I think Musk will get out of control, and he'll be gone in the first year, and Vivek will follow some time later, but he may still have a place in the Trump administration.  We'll see. 

The battle over Speaker Johnson is just one more example of how the Republican party is Balkanized, and one more example of how confused they are.   The Democrats stand for big government tyranny, big spending, big taxes, "corrupting that legal system to block and subvert the will of the American people and their chosen government", and destruction of the Constitution.  What do the Republicans stand for?  It can't be for cutting costs, cutting spending, cutting government, and stop raising taxes, as they buckle every time on all that, and Speaker Johnson has been a consistent party to that.  So, as a party what do they stand for? No one knows, including the Republicans.

As John Mauldin notes:

Politicians and think-tank wonks of all stripes love to condemn government “waste, fraud, and abuse.” But saying it isn’t hard. Who is the opposition? No one says we need more waste, fraud, and abuse. We’re all 100% agreed all three are bad.  It’s when you get specific—saying this agency or that program isn’t accomplishing what it should—that disagreement arises. Sometimes it’s pure self-interest. As I said last week, one man’s waste is another man’s revenue. But more often, people just have different objectives.

Then he goes on to define why waste, which is "when the government spends money but receives no corresponding benefit. Fraud is "the use of deception to get something you aren’t authorized to receive." And abuse, which is always with us is, "when people apply a legitimate privilege selfishly."

Most are small potatoes in dollar terms, but over hundreds of agencies, they add up. To name just one, a recent inspector general audit of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s travel expenses found a slew of waste and potential fraud, including nearly $50,000 in unallowed first-class flights between 2020 and 2023. They spent a total of $27 million on travel in the last four years, most of it in the last year. This is a small agency.

He then goes on to show the history of major efforts to reform government and cut spending, waste, fraud, and .... yes.... abuse, and how they always have failed.  The reason they fail is because they fail to understand "everything is the basics", and the basic truth is nothing will be fixed until you eliminate government agencies.... massively, at least 80% of them, and that won't just be a floor fight, it will be a dog fight.

Now we have all this controversy surrounding Speaker Johnson and I keep wondering why he doesn't just say these floor fights are detrimental to the party and the administration and graciously withdraw from the vote for speaker.  Then get all the leaders of the conflicting parties together, along with the President and Vice President and ask who they think should be speaker, and keep hashing it out until they can come together and agree. 

We'll see, but no matter who the Speaker is, the make up of the Congress will still leave the Democrats in control since in both the Senate and the House the Democrats will for the most part vote in lockstep, and there is always a percentage of Republicans who will follow, which means the Democrats will determine what's voted on and what passes.  I don't envy any legitimate conservative who would get that job, so let's not get too happy, because the next two years are going to be ugly.

There is a potential upside.  The Democrats are as delusional as Biden, and as dumb as Jimmy Carter, and they have no leader.  

Schumer isn't, Pelosi isn't, her hand puppet Hakeem Jeffries isn't, and most certainly Kamala Harris is not.  

AOC thinks she should be, and even thinks she can get the nomination to be the 2028 Democrat nominee for President, which is really telling about the Democrat party bench.  

Nitwits, misfits, halfwits, and dipsticks, even Carville thinks they're clueless.  C'mon man, how bad is that? They're even blaming George Clooney for their loss for forcing Biden out of the race, and we know Biden is now claiming he could have beaten Trump.  So, according to Wendell Husebo they're fractured, and they're scared.  

Scared is good.  

We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. - C.S. Lewis

In One Chart, Everything You Need to Know about America’s Fiscal Mess

Governments' view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. Ff it keeps moving, regulate it.  If it stops moving, subsidize it.  Ronald Reagan

Many people mistakenly think that America’s main fiscal problem is annual budget deficits that are now approaching $2 trillion.

It is not good to have so much red ink, to be sure, but the real problem is that the federal government is spending far too much money.

Excessive government is a bad idea whether it is financed by taxes, by borrowing, of by money-printing.

All of which explains why I think my Golden Rule is the key to good fiscal policy. And that means focusing on trend lines.

Speaking of which, here’s a very depressing chart. Using historical data from Biden’s last budget, it shows that the federal budget expanded dramatically during the COVID pandemic, then declined slightly, but never returned to the pre-pandemic trendline.

There are three things to understand about this chart. The first two things matter when looking at the past.

  • First, spending was growing too fast before the pandemic.
  • Second, spending exploded during the pandemic.

But our final thing to understand is critically important when looking at the future.

  • Third, politicians used the pandemic to ratchet upwards the spending trendline.

One member of the U.S. Senate seems to understand that this is the real problem. Here are some excerpts from a column in the Wall Street Journal by Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.


Federal spending is out of control. In fiscal 2019, which ran from Oct. 1, 2018, to Sept. 30, 2019, federal outlays totaled $4.447 trillion. In fiscal 2020, federal outlays jumped to $6.554 trillion because of the pandemic spending spree. …Even if you think Covid relief spending levels were appropriate (I don’t), there was no justification for maintaining that level of spending once the pandemic was over. Yet we’ve turned pandemic spending into the new baseline, spending $6.6 trillion…

In a sane world, Covid spending levels would have been an extreme aberration, and we would have already returned to a more reasonable level of spending. …I think most people would agree that if you were able to grow your family budget based on the increase in your family size plus the rate of inflation…

Why not apply that same discipline to the federal budget? …Using 2014 outlays as a base would establish a 2025 budget of $6.2 trillion with a deficit of $700 billion. Using 2019 outlays results in a 2025 budget of $6.5 trillion with a deficit of $1 trillion. …setting baseline spending to one of those budget years isn’t only reasonable but doable.

Needless to say, it warms my heart when anyone endorses spending caps.

From a practical perspective, Sen. Johnson’s spending cap would bring the future spending burden down closer to the yellow line in the above chart.

Sadly, I expect that Trump will have no interest in that goal.

P.S. As always, the titles of my “everything-you-need-to-know” columns are an exaggeration. I use that literary tool to highlight key facts.

P.P.S. The exact same spending trendline problem exists in the United Kingdom.

Critically Thinking about America's 2025 Priorities

A Wish List that covers a lot of ground...

John Droz jr. Jan 02, 2025 @ Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues

There are many “lists” this time of year. This commentary by Stephen Moore (and originally published in the Daily Caller), is excellent.

One improvement I’d make is to include fixing the K-12 school curricula — especially in Science — in #6. The importance of School Choice pales in comparison to the significance of 55± million of our children being indoctrinated by Left ideology, and being taught the opposite of Critical Thinking (conformity). Regretfully almost no one (other than the Left) is paying serious attention to K-12 content.

Another observation is that nothing was said about improving the policies of our healthcare agencies — e.g., the FDA and CDC. Arguably their unscientific policies likely caused the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans (e.g., see here and here). As concerning as our healthcare costs are (see #5), the federal healthcare policies are significantly more important.

“Here is my wish list for the incoming Trump administration to make America healthy and prosperous and great again in 2025.

1. Slash Job-Killing Regulations

The regulatory state is a $2 trillion tax on the American economy. We all want worker safety, a clean environment and consumer protections, but in too many cases the costs of regulations far outweigh the societal benefits. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to slash 10 rules for every new rule. Just do it, Mr. President.

2. Make The Trump Tax Cuts Permanent

As JFK, Ronald Reagan and others have proven throughout history, lower tax rates lead to more growth, more investment and more jobs. The Trump tax cuts meant that a typical family of four earning $75,000 a year saw their tax bill fall by half — a benefit valued at more than $2,000. And the corporate tax rate fell from 35% — the highest in the world — to 21%, bringing jobs and capital to America. Trump has promised to make all these tax cuts permanent. Why? Because they worked almost exactly as we anticipated they would.

3. Replace Welfare With Work

Growth will require more able-bodied Americans getting off welfare and into jobs. Welfare — which includes cash assistance, public housing, food stamps, disability payments, unemployment benefits and Medicaid — needs to be a hand up, not a handout.

4. Use America’s Abundant Natural Resources

America has well more than $50 trillion of natural resources that are accessible with existing drilling and mining technologies. This is a vast storehouse of wealth that far surpasses what any other nation is endowed with. We can use the royalty payments and leases to reduce our national debt while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

5. Cut Medical Costs by Demanding Health Care Price Transparency

One of many ways to bring health care costs down to consumers (and taxpayers, who pay half the costs) is to require hospitals, pharmacies, doctors and health clinics to list prices for what they are charging. The Committee to Unleash Prosperity estimates that $1 trillion to $2 trillion could be reduced from health care costs, with no reduction in the quality of care, by allowing consumers to shop around on the internet for the best price — just as we do when we buy groceries, a home or a car. This will foster free market competition and lower prices.

6. Allow School Choice for All Families

Test scores in America have been plummeting. Kids are graduating from high school — if at all — without even being able to read the diploma. America no longer ranks in the top 10 in many academic achievement ratings. A child can get a better education at half the cost in the Catholic school system and in many charters. Trump has endorsed universal school choice for all children regardless of income or ethnicity or race. This is the civil rights issue of our time.

7. Implement A Pro-America Immigration Policy

Trump’s committed to securing our border, but we also need legal immigrants through a merit-based immigration system. This visa system would select immigrants based on their skills, talents, investment capital, English language ability and education level. These characteristics all presage success in America.

8. Revive America’s Great Cities

Our once-great cities in America — from New York to Chicago to Detroit to San Francisco to Seattle — have come to look like war zones. Crime has run rampant. Businesses and people and capital are fleeing and leaving the poorest Americans — mostly minorities — stranded with tragically limited opportunities other than working at Walmart or McDonald’s for minimum wage. Since 2020, our major cities have lost nearly 1 million residents. And tens of thousands of businesses.

Trump wants to revitalize our cities and abandoned rural areas through deregulation, reduction in tax rates, changes in zoning policies and infrastructure investments.

9. Pull the U.S. Out Of The Paris Climate Change Treaty And Other Anti-America Agreements

We must end American participation in globalist treaties that hurt America most. This includes the Paris Climate Accords — a treaty with which most other nations have failed to comply, yet which places huge burdens on American companies and workers. Trump also has pledged to end global taxation — such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s global minimum tax. Do we even need a United Nations?

10. Finally, Drain The Swamp

There is a reason why three of the five wealthiest counties in America are in or around Washington, D.C. Washington is getting rich at the expense of the rest of us. Fewer than 10% of overpaid federal workers (of which there are more than 2 million) are working full time in the office even though COVID-19 ended three years ago. These are swamp employees that often get paid $150,000 or more a year. Fire them if they don’t show up. And relocate federal agencies in other cities.

These are admittedly bold aspirations for an economic transformation toward freedom and free enterprise. But the one person who can get it done is Trump.”

Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation. His new book, coauthored with Arthur Laffer, is “The Trump Economic Miracle.” The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting:

I am now offering incentives for you to sign up new subscribers!

I also consider reader submissions on Critical Thinking on my topics of interest.

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2024 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?

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Thursday, January 2, 2025

Hopes and Fears for 2025

January 1, 2025 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

As usual (2024, 202320222021202020192018etc), let’s start the year by listing three things I’m hoping for and three things I worry may happen.

Let’s start with the good things that hopefully will happen this year.

Continued policy success and economic success for Argentina – it’s been great to see Javier Milei follow through on his libertarian principles and it’s been great to see quick positive results (balanced the budgetconquered inflationrestored growth, and lowered poverty). If he can achieve the same degree of progress in 2015, Argentina will be on the way to becoming one of the world’s freest economies. A stunning turnaround.

Pierre Poilievre defeats Justin Trudeau and winds up being the Ronald Reagan of Canada – Justin Trudeau is arguably the worst leader of any developed nation. 

His economic policies have been a disaster. The spending burden has increased. The tax burden has increased. Economic freedom has declined. So it’s hardly a surprise that Canada is lagging. The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, seems to have a very good agenda and is currently favored to win next year’s election. Let’s hope he becomes the Reagan of Canada. Or the Thatcher. Or, best of all, the Milei of Canada.

School choice in Texas – I want school choice everywhere, and it’s been great to see so many states move in that direction in recent years. For 2025, Texas is the big prize. Many anti-choice Republicans were defeated in primaries, so hopefully that’s a precursor to enactment of good reform this year.

Now let’s look at the things that I’m afraid might happen this year.

Progress is blocked in Argentina – I have complete confidence that Milei’s policies will produce growth, but will the benefits continue to materialize quick enough for the population to be happy? Will the Peronist-controlled legislature decide to block everything he is trying to achieve? Milei has a chance to become a role model for global economic reform so what happens in Argentina matters far outside the nation’s borders.

Republicans pursue a border adjustment tax – Because Trump and congressional Republicans have no interest in restraining spending, that makes it much harder to push for tax cuts and tax reform. This leads them to consider offsetting tax increases. In 2017, they pushed for a terrible idea known as border-adjustable taxation (I fretted that it was a pre-VAT). The same temptation will exist in 2025. The bad news is that it will lead to internecine warfare and derail any chance of good tax policy. The worse news is that it might actually get enacted, causing all sorts of problems.

Fiscal crisis (or crises) in Europe – I fully expect that Italy will suffer a Greek-style fiscal collapse at some point in the not-too-distant future.

 

But Italy is just the tip of the iceberg. Many European nations face similar problems of excessive spending, stifling taxation, and over-regulation. The continent is falling farther and farther behind the United States, and ordinary people are losing because of government-caused stagnation. The only silver lining to this dark cloud is that maybe, just maybe, a fiscal crisis in Europe will cause Republicans to sober up and realize that the United States needs spending restraint (but I won’t hold my breath).

P.S. All of my hopes for 2024 (libertarian success in Argentina, defeat of anti-school choice Republicans in Texas and Georgia, and reversal of the Chevron Doctrine) basically became reality. My number one fear (a Biden-Trump rematch) didn’t happen, but the Trump-Harris choice was rather depressing.

H-1 Visas and the Window of Opportunity

By Rich Kozlovich

First let's take a look at Patrica McCarthy's article Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s big mistake, where she notes:

Well, how about this “fly in the ointment, monkey in the wrench, a pain in the a--” (Die Hard, 1988)?  Just when we thought everything was in place for a single-minded new era — a closed border, reduced inflation, and an end to wokery (among relief from other insane policies of the Biden regime), we have an internecine war on our hands.  Who knew that Vivek and Elon both viewed us as lazy, retarded, and unskilled, unworthy of the jobs millions of foreigners, mostly Indians, have been imported to fill?.....
 
She goes on to say:
 
 The brilliant Batya Unger-Sargon argued: I find it so utterly infuriating,.....  Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy calling American workers lazy and stupid, and anti-Indian racists of all things because they are saying no to the selling out of the future of their children.  And it is so dispiriting to see this coming from the so-called right......Sargon accused Musk and Ramaswamy of not knowing “what a nation is.”

Let me say this, I don't like Elon Musk.  I didn't like him yesterday, I don't like him today, and I won't like him tomorrow, and I respect him even less.  I consider Musk to be a massively self serving con artist, feeding at the government's subsidy trough on electric cars, and even promoting global warming, and has a personal life that's not exactly awe inspiring.  He named his child with his third wife,  X Æ A-Xii. What sane person in the world would name their child X Æ A-Xii?

I wouldn't trust him if he said day was light and night was dark without looking for myself. I have serious doubts he'll last long in the Trump administration which is why I said I didn't consider Vivek Ramaswamy's appointment to be a partnership so much as an insurance policy.

Here's my Trump dumped that massively vile and fraudulent Global Warming Paris Agreement.  Fortunately Trump listened to my now passed friend Dr. Jay Lehr instead, and did dump it.  

For many years I've written about the green movement and I learned from very early on, they lie, so when I write, I start with that foundational premise, and guess what, the more I research a subject what do I find?  They lie!  

As for their doom and gloom, Chicken Little, the sky is falling predictions, they're pathetic. Here is my Failed Predictions file, along with my commentaries, If Green Prediction Was a Corporation, They'd Have a Monopoly on Being Wrong! And I particularly like this one, A Prince Who Was Potty, is Now a King Who is Potty, and Dangerously So! 

There's been a lot of controversy over these H-1B visas, and in principle, I understand the value, but I also understand what's really behind them, and Elon Musk has shot his obnoxious mouth off to the point I think Trump finally told him to shut up, and Vivek Ramaswamy called Americans dumb and lazy, but say H1-B is broken, needs fixed, and only wants to only import those who are truly the brightest and best.

Except there already is a visa system for bringing in the best and brightest, it's called O-1A.  So, this really gives us the answer why they're all so attached to H-1B instead of O-1A.  I'll tell you what, we'll come back to that, but no matter what, this is bad timing, and is creating a "breach of trust" between the leadership and base.

Monica Showalter published this piece on D3cember 28, H-1B: Caution about importing only the best and brightest I thought was excellent, and insightful, saying:

........ the H-1B visa program......is being gamed, particularly from India, as a means of exporting mediocrities who can supplant American workers for cheaper prices to their employers......as Silicon Valley barons keep these workers in indentured servitude, lowering the wages of all workers........America should be importing only the best and brightest -- on merit, meritocratic principles -- to help the economy innovate, excel, and grow, so the consensus thinking goes.  I'm not entirely onboard, actually......... America should be importing immigrants on character grounds.......... not hyphenated Americans, not takers of public benefits......It's far better to import patriots-in-waiting who love America and....... work hard, show family values.....

The intellectuals are invariably elitists who have no interests except for those things that benefit them, even to the detriment of the nation, and we already have enough to them.  We call them academics, corporate executives, and politicians, elitists all,  so why do we need to import more people who will take advantage of Americans.  Don't we have enough of them?    

Monica then says, "when Gandhi was asked by an American clergyman what it was that worried him the most, he replied: "The hardness of heart of the educated."'   And then she goes on to show how true that is now, and it has always been that way. 

Andrea Widburg writes that Vivek calls out a major problem with America’s competitive edge, going on about how for decades America's culture has celebrated mediocrity over excellence, and  Andrea says:

"Once, America had a culture of success. That’s no longer the case. The left encourages failure, and our media and marijuana culture encourage passivity."

While all of that is true, the fact is all this is the result of a totally corrupt system of higher education, lawsuits, government interference, and all this DEI insanity.   As a result the nation has ended up with weak managers afraid to fire the lazy and incompetent on their staffs. Fix that first, then look for options, but if that's all fixed, options won't be necessary. 

So, what's the real goal behind all this?  Let's take a look at Elon Musk first, who claims he couldn't have made his fortune without being able to take advantage of these foreign employees.  As it turns out Musk replaced Americans with foreigners with these visas, laying off of approximately 15,000 U.S. workers, and then had the nerve to condemned conservatives for not supporting him, and those employees are working under threat of deportation.  Cheap labor that borders on the same kind of indenturedness the coal miners labored under in the late 19th and early 20th century in America, and my family was among them.

It's a scam where these workers are ‘vastly underpaid’ compared to Americans with the goal of enriching the elite at the short term and long term expense of America, and doing it with the force of law.  It's an immoral scam, and any fix their claiming to support is a flat out fake. 

Trump has come out in support of these visas, here, and here, claiming it's a great program, but he's in trouble with the America first base, and there's a storm coming his way over this, and rightly so.   Let's try and get this right once, just once, please, as the author notes:

Businesses love cheap labor like a fat kid loves cake. The reason we have so many illegal aliens in the United States is we have so many companies willing and wanting to hire them.....this isn't meritocracy........it's manipulation.... 

End "all" immigration right now, and for at least a year.  Deport all the illegal aliens, and prosecute those who aid and abet them, including state and federal officials and employees.  Completely secure the borders.  Intellectually challenge any of these people who for decades sold out America with their "liberal" initiatives.  

The window of opportunity to fix this is now open, and if that open window isn't taken advantage of it will close, and it may not open again.

Republican Echo Chamber Politics

By Robin Itzler

Editor's Note:  This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Any cartoons appearing will have been added by me.  If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. RK

Going After Gaetz, Going After Maga

When Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress, it was assumed the House Ethics Committee would not release its report because he was no longer a member of the House. But after a secret vote, that’s exactly what the House Ethics Committee did on December 23. Since it was a secret vote (cough-cough), should we assume that the two Republicans on the committee who are loyal allies of ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy voted to embarrass Gaetz? They are:

  • Ohio Representative Dave Joyce:  Email (media): sarah.young@mail.house.gov,  Phone: 202-225-5731, Write: 2065 Rayburn House Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20515 
  • New York Representative Andrew Garbarino: Email: Click here for form, Phone: 202-225-7896,  Write: 2344 Rayburn House Office Bldg., Washington, DC 20515

Until we rid Congress of RINOs, having the “majority” isn’t going to mean that much. If you want to share your thoughts with Reps. Joyce and Garbarino, remember it was a secret vote.

Mollie Hemingway posted on X on the day the report was released:

“Sometimes I feel like I was the only reporter to look into details of the Gaetz allegations. That’s how I learned the accuser is in prison for making the same false sex-with-minors accusation against someone else.”

Patriot Neighbors reached out to a national opinion writer who asked to remain anonymous about the report. This was their comment:

“Gaetz wasn't allowed to mount a defense to the ethics committee. There was no due process, so nothing is believable.”

Gaetz said the same on X:

“There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.”

As I see it, these McCarthy acolytes represent echo chamber politics where the resonance is pure stupidity and ignorance, and they don't represent a winning strategy.  Think about this. They railed at Matt Gaetz and his Heroic Eight for daring to stand against the time, vilifying and condemning them, but what happens after the next election in two years and more conservatives take seats in the House?  Gaetz and his supporters were the heroes, Joyce, my Rep., and that entire crowd are disgraceful.   

"Treason is an ugly word and an even uglier crime. In simple language treason is the act of betraying one’s country to those who would destroy it and enslave its people. This definition is so simple that leftwing sophisticated journalists sneer at it. To them treason is merely relative with one country’s traitor being another country’s hero. This is the appalling moral and intellectual state of current Western journalism. The moral rot runs so deep that one despairs of living long enough to see any improvement." - Gerard Jackson

The Reality of Jimmy Carter, Part III

By Rich Kozlovich, Tags: Part I, and Part II

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Let's talk about the Carter legacy.  First, have you heard about the "surprising greatness of Jimmy Carter?"  Well, here it is with all it's vile historical misrepresentations, You Won't Believe How Washington Monthly Compared Carter and Reagan, actually giving Carter the credit for the fall of the Soviet Union versus anything Reagan did.

They even claim Reagan conspired with the Iranian hostage takers to "delay the release of the American embassy hostages in order to damage Carter’s reelection chances."  And while they admitted they were biased still claimed these lies, misrepresentations, and delusions devoid of facts was "the best assessment of Carter you'll read today." 

As I said in Part II, "The Pravda media is guilty of lying, massively.  Lies of commission, as well as lies of omission.  And I'm sure more will be coming out because the Pravda media never stops vilely rewriting history forcing those who know the truth to stand up to refute their lies.  The upside is the Pravda media has so little credibility it's swirling around the drain to oblivion, and from now on it will be far more easy to refute their lies," well that's exactly what's happening. 

Here's an article by Jeff Charles, "Scott Jennings Drops Truth Bomb About the Real Jimmy Carter", saying:

“He was a terrible president,” Jennings said. “That’s why he lost in a landslide after his one term.”.........[an]“even worse ex-president because of his meddling in US foreign policy, because of his saddling up to dictators around the world, because off he vehement…anti-Israel views, and more than dabbling in anti-Semitism over the years.” 

The conversation went on about his belief he even though he wasn't President was "uniquely" positioned to meddle in foreign affairs , which “was meddlesome to his successors” and “forgot sometimes that he still wasn’t president.”   Then one Carter supporter commented none of that should "mar the record of global humanitarian good that he did", but doing something right doesn't eliminate all the vile things a person does.  Jennings noted that during the Persian War: 

“He wrote letters to all of our allies and to Arab states, asking them to abandon their cooperation and coalition with the United States of America.”......“If it’s not treasonous, it’s borderline treasonous.....showed that he cared more about his own legacy than he did about the country, and I think that is wrong......"

Carter was vile, and so is the media, and in point of fact, has always been vile with their depredations against truth, with delusions they try to foist off on to an unsuspecting public, and have been doing it for decades, and getting away with it.  

In 2021 posted how the Washington Post rewrote history, blaming Reagan for "global warming" saying if Carter had gotten an extra term in office, we likely wouldn’t be having a climate crisis right now".  A lie within a lie since there is no such thing as manmade climate crisis, but if Carter had gotten re-elected I'm sure he would have been more that willing to create one.  

As my now passed friend Dr. Jay Lehr noted in 2011:

Climate change is not a scientific problem that found political support; this is about eco-activists and politicians who found a scientific issue they feel can leverage them into power and control. The environment is a great way to advance a political agenda that favors central planning and an intrusive government. What better way to control someone’s property than to subordinate one’s private property rights to environmental concerns.

In 2019 Jimmy Carter claimed Donald Trump is an illegitimate president, put in office by the Russians, and even lied regarding "President Trump’s reaction to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, saying:

 .......“we tried when I was president, we tried to put human rights as a measuring stick in every incident.” Carter is lying. President Carter abandoned the pro-America Shah of Iran, enabling the murdering mullahs to take over the once thriving state.....[was an] ally of the murdering terrorist Yasser Arafat, despite his horrific human rights violations against the people of Israel. Even to this day the viciously anti-Semitic Carter slanders Israel when defending itself against Palestinian terrorists, and will often refer to Israel as an apartheid state..... [a] pathetic and incompetent president. 40 years after his presidency many are still suffering for his ineptitude and his appeasement of human rights abusers who thrived during his administration. No rational person should take anything Carter says seriously...........

Carter was a disgrace as President, and even the Democrats thought so back then, but he was an even bigger disgrace as a past President.  He had the dubious honor of being the dumbest man to ever occupy the White House, at least until Biden rescued him.  However, it might even be reasonably claimed both Obama and Biden rescued him.  Even in 2018 Bruce Thornton called it "The Worst Ex-President Derby", and that was before Biden.

A great deal of what we've had to contend with these last decades was caused by his incompetent administration, including the the Community Reinvestment Act, which my article goes into great detail of how it caused the housing bubble that exploded creating a worldwide economic downturn.  

That was a Carter legacy.

But worse yet, he allowed the Shah of Iran to be overcome, and with support from American generals.  The end result?  The Middle East became a breeding ground for governments that supported Islamic terrorists.  

That was a Carter legacy.

Then there was the deal with North Korea to advance their nuclear program.  Who in their right minds would want to help that lunatic advance a nuclear program.  Answer: Bill Clinton and the second dumbest President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, but Kim promised he wouldn't use that technology to build bombs, and they accepted that.   Dimwits, nitwits, halfwits, and dipsticks, what a bench.  Kim and his crowd must have really thought that was hilarious, and Obama, who was even dumber than Carter, continued to support Kim and then make a similar deal with Iran.  Dumb, dumber, and dumbest! 

That was a Carter legacy.

For this moron to have publicly criticized anyone else about anything was disgraceful, and moreover, for anyone to invite him to spout on about geopolitics or national politics in public was not only disgraceful, it's a clear demonstration of leftist stupidity, and insanity. 

But here's what's telling.  There was a time when Democrats also thought he was the dumbest man to ever occupy the White House, but now, with the collective intelligence of the Democrat Party being on par with Jimmy Carter, they're all as dumb as dirt. 

P&D Geopolitics Edition: Russia

By Rich Kozlovich
 
I get irritated over so many articles that claim Russia's economy is growing alluding to the idea all is fine, and I have no idea where that comes from, over 30 percent of their budget is defense spending, and Russian industry still can't supply their military or meet the needs of their civilian population. 
 
When I read, analyze, and write about anything I start with this foundational truth: Everything is the basics.  Most things aren't as complicated as they're presented.  They all have root foundations to them and that's what has to be identified.  If what I'm reading violates "the basics" I know it's wrong, and all I have to do is gather sufficient information to explain why it's wrong.
 
Russia will win in Ukraine, sort of, and it will be a massive loss to Russia.  The world's second army hasn't been able to beat the world's 22nd army in over two years.  They can't manufacture their own military hardware, they can't field their army with their own citizens, and the only reason they will win is because Ukraine is running out of people, along with the fact Zelenskyy and his cabal are totally corrupt and have no credibility, even with their own people.  I will say I am impressed with those who remain and are still fighting even though they must know it's a lost cause. 
 
After this is over, Russia will find they have no credibility, they can't afford to rebuild all the infrastructure they've destroyed, the population they hoped to absorb into the Russian population to help against their demographic time bomb is now either dead or fled the nation, and more will flee, giving Europe the manpower they claimed they needed justifying bringing in all these Muslim migrants ....the vast majority of whom are on welfare.... and they will suffer economically, no matter what deals are struck. 
 
Is it possible there will be a deal to save Ukraine in some fashion?  If anyone can broker such a deal I think it's Trump, and if Ukraine does continue to exist, that will further erode Russian, and especially Putin's credibility.  One thing is clear though, Putin's ruling class is committed to the idiotic idea that NATO wants to attack Russia, at least that's what they're promoting to the Russian population, whether they believe it or not, in order to justifying continuing their  military expenditures, and that's as far as the eye can see. 
 
One final thought.  Failed Russian leaders do not fare well, so, do you know why the Soviets didn't kill Khrushchev after they dethroned him?  I believe it was because during his reign there were attempts to overthrow him and when they failed, he didn't kill his adversaries.   And if I remember correctly, some remained in the government.  After the Stalin mass murdering depredations I think that shocked them, and Khrushchev lived out the rest of his life comfortably.
 
However, Putin has been a murderous thug, and anything less than a total occupation of Ukraine is a failure.  It's my view there will be an attempt to overthrow him, as I'm sure there's a Stauffenberg cabal in their government, and their military, and if he's overthrown, I think he will fall prey to a major accident, or have a major accident that avoids an overthrow.  Afterward  there will be a massive restructuring of their government, and their military, but will there be a massive restructuring of their thinking?  
 
Who knows, they're Russian, and Russia is a "hordesland" nation, hence their historical goal of conquering smaller nations at their borders to be barriers to attack.  While in times past that was understandable, but today, that's paranoia, unfortunately and that paranoia is almost inbred in Russians.  
 

Sanctuary Cities Face a Tough 2025

Fines and even prison sentences could be enforced. 

By | Jan 2, 2025 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Opinion, Politics

Sanctuary cities beware: The incoming administration will have no tolerance for those who protect immigrants in this country illegally.

The new year will see a drastic change from the past four under the Biden administration, especially when it comes to illegal migrants. President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans – and border czar Tom Homan’s determination to enforce them – have sent waves of panic through the blue parts of the country. States and cities have been working on ways to thwart the incoming administration’s plans, but can they?

Sanctuary Cities Beware

“Sanctuary jurisdictions aren’t going to stop what we’re going to do,” Homan said during an interview with NewsNation. “If they don’t want to protect their communities, then the Trump administration will.” During an airing of Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures in early December, the incoming border czar was very specific and had a clear warning for people who try to circumvent the proposed immigration policies, especially those who refuse to cooperate with ICE and federal agencies:

“Here’s what’s going to happen – you release that guy in the community, I’m going to send an entire team to go look for the guy in your community. And what’s going to happen? We’ll find that guy. And when we find that guy, there’s probably going to be others that are not a priority. However, if they’re in the country illegally, they’ll be arrested, too, because we’re not going to tell an immigration officer like this [Biden] administration did, that you’re going to turn your back on an illegal immigrant. When you’re an immigration officer, you have an oath to uphold, so you are forcing us into community in large numbers where other non-priority aliens will be arrested.

“That’s the exact result you don’t want, so let us in the jail. It’s safer for everybody.”

One of the most horrendous crime incidents committed by an illegal migrant in 2024 happened in a New York subway in December. Sebastian Zapeta, 33, a Guatemalan national, was previously deported in June 2018. According to a surveillance video, a woman was sitting motionless, perhaps sleeping, aboard an F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station.

“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.” Zapeta then reportedly stayed on the scene, sitting on a bench just outside the train car while officers tried to put out the flames. The victim – recently identified as Debrina Kawam, a 57-year-old woman from New Jersey – was pronounced dead at the scene.

Since this took place in New York City, a sanctuary city, authorities have said they will not honor ICE’s request for a detainer. Right now, not much can be done about it, but if the new administration has anything to say, those who refuse to work with federal immigration agents may have to suffer the consequences.

Activists for sanctuary rights suggest migrants are too afraid to go to the police when a crime is committed and that witnesses and victims will suffer more with Trump’s immigration policies. However, as Homan told NewsNation, “The victims and witnesses of crime certainly don’t want the bad guy released back into their neighborhood.”

Penalties and Prison Sentences

Trump has threatened to hit sanctuary cities where it hurts: the pocketbook. For those that refuse to work with immigration agencies, they may see a drastic reduction in their budgets. But that hasn’t stopped some blue territories from trying to go around the incoming policies. Boston’s city council, for example, voted to “double down” on obstructing Trump’s plans for mass deportation, Fox News reported. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has vowed to have citizen volunteers block federal authorities who try to deport illegals. And California Governor Gavin Newsom has had litigation meetings to create a $25-million fund to help fight against any policies that would “harm the state,” as Liberty Nation News reported.

If cutting funding doesn’t encourage officials to respect and obey the law of the land, then maybe serving some time behind bars will. The America First Legal Foundation, an organization led by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, wrote a warning letter to elected leaders of sanctuary cities, saying they could be held “criminally liable” if they try to thwart immigration enforcement.

“Federal law is clear: aliens unlawfully present in the United States are subject to removal from the country, and it is a crime to conceal, harbor, or shield them. It is also a crime to prevent federal officials from enforcing immigration law,” the letter begins.

Without going into all the legal jargon, the letter suggests various prison terms associated with ignoring federal immigration laws. Those involved in “any misleading actions that help an alien to avoid removal proceedings” could face up to 20 years in prison. Furthermore:

“Anyone who ‘conceals, harbors, or shields from detection’ ‘an alien [who] has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law,’ or who attempts to do so, is committing a federal crime if that person knew or acted ‘in reckless disregard of the’ alien’s unlawful presence or entrance in the United States. Similarly, it is a crime if an individual ‘encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.’ It is also a crime to aid and abet the above violations or to engage in conspiracy to commit them. The penalty for any of the above crimes is five years’ imprisonment per alien involved.”

It’s not just ICE that sanctuary cities need to watch out for, though. With the re-election of Trump, sheriffs across the country are coming together to help remove unlawful migrants under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Although it was dismantled by ICE a few years ago, the plan is to start it back up, and a lot of sheriffs are on board, eager to help in any way they can.

So, the message for sanctuary cities in 2025 is simple: Beware.

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

Read More From Kelli Ballard National Correspondent

Toxic Ideology: Progressives Are Less Happy, Sane Than Conservatives

Study finds leftists aren’t quite the happy warriors they like to portray themselves as. 

By Jan 2, 2025 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Opinion, Politics

It is often said in conservative circles that liberalism is a mental disorder. That’s not really accurate, though, and it’s a result of many people continuing to conflate liberalism with progressivism or socialism. In truth, the two latter ideologies bear almost no resemblance to classical liberalism. Still, studies have found correlations between political views and state of mind. Progressives, on the whole, are less happy than conservatives. Harvard professor Arthur Brooks recently discussed his latest findings on the subject, which show that not only are conservatives collectively happier than progressives, but the latter are more prone to mental health challenges.

It should be noted, as any statistician will confirm, that correlation does not mean causation. A connection between two data sets is not proof that one set has directly affected the other. But we are dealing with human beings and emotions, here, and not just numerical variables. For anyone passionate about their political and cultural values, psychological well-being is surely not an unrelated issue.

Happy Warriors and Haters

Brooks sat for an episode of The Genius Life podcast in September, discussing the state of “happiness” in America today. The study of happiness is, for Brooks, a specialty that he’s been pursuing for years. Indeed, around ten years ago, the professor wrote in The New York Times that, when political identification is factored into the study of happiness, conservative women were the most blissful demographic and liberal men the least content with their lives. Brooks mostly used the label “liberal” but also acknowledged the shift to progressivism among those on the political left.

The distinction should be considered significant. There’s really nothing in classical liberal philosophy that might evoke unhappiness or mental disorders. But progressives, in attempting to rationalize and justify their worldview, must deal with a host of contradictions, hypocrisies, and rejections of traditional values. Perhaps, above all, they feel the need to commit to the practices of dehumanizing – and disassociating themselves from – anyone who does not share their beliefs. Essentially, unbridled hatred for dissenters has unfortunately become a core tenet for modern progressives. It can’t be easy to feel happy and maintain perspective when so much of one’s time and energy is spent on despising everyone who thinks differently from you.

Spend some time perusing the posts on Bluesky, the social media platform now favored by progressives. The fanatical commitment to hating their political opponents is so pervasive – and often expressed in the most extreme terms – that it’s a wonder anyone active on the political left could be either sane or happy.

Brooks says that “liberal” women (and, again, one should probably read that as progressive women) have now sunk lower than their male counterparts on the mental and emotional health scale. Back when Brooks wrote his piece for The Times a decade ago, 40% of conservative women felt very happy – just a bit happier than conservative men and considerably more cheerful than liberal women. Meanwhile, only around one-fifth of liberal men considered themselves very happy.

Troublingly, the professor observed, “New data show that white liberal women under 30 have almost a six in 10 chance of having been diagnosed with a mental illness in America today.”

Progressives Reject the Keys to Happiness

In his years of research into what he terms “the art and science of happiness,” Brooks has discovered what seems to be the “big four” founding dynamics of happiness: faith, family, friends, and purpose – or “work that serves,” as he put it during the podcast. Faith, Brooks pointed out, doesn’t have to be religious devotion but “doing something that makes the universe big and you little.”

As host Max Lugavere observed, these seem to be the values embraced by conservatives. More pertinent is that they are all values categorically rejected by progressives. While it isn’t difficult to find moderate Democrats who consider themselves either religious or spiritual, progressives scoff at the notion of a God or higher power in some other form. For them, the government is the Alpha and the Omega, supposedly providing everything we need and guiding every aspect of our lives. Interestingly, this idea forms the very foundation of fascist doctrine – a system progressives claim to oppose. That’s one of those many contradictions with which progressivism constantly wrestles.

Family is also rejected. The institution of marriage is trivialized, abortion for any reason – or no reason at all – celebrated, and even the disowning of family members who hold opposing viewpoints is now encouraged on the extreme left. Progressive politicians, along with healthcare and education officials, sneer at the concept of parental rights, seemingly determined to promote and enforce the idea that children are, from birth, essentially wards of the state.

Friends, too, must be chosen based on ideological kinship. As for purpose or fulfillment through work, progressives, much like their socialist cousins, see employment as oppression or even a form of slavery. The one and only purpose they appear to revere is a battle for control over their fellow human beings.

Couple all this with bizarre and confusing notions of “gender fluidity,” the destruction of traditional community life, and the mindset that vilifies the idea of citizens defending themselves or others from physical assault. It‘s little wonder progressives are unhappy when everything that they or anyone else does or says must be measured against an unbendable standard of ideological purity. If the standard isn’t met, the thing said or done must be raged against, ridiculed, vilified, and ultimately suppressed or destroyed – along with the person responsible for the said words or actions.

Such a philosophy requires a tremendous amount of negative energy. So much, in fact, that there can’t be very much room left for happiness.

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

Read More From Graham J Noble Chief Political Correspondent & Satirist