Moonwalking

                To celebrate the 48^th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s historic moonwalk The Denver Post ran an editorial by Gregg Dobbs who happens to live in Evergreen, CO.  I didn’t google Greg’s career but I seem to remember him as a foreign war correspondent in Iraq or Afghanistan during W’s administration.

                If you saw the movie “Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot,” it might help explain why, after his experience as a war correspondent, Gregg chose to settle in Colorado where we are helping pioneer legal marijuana.

                In his editorial (and credit to the staff at DP for running it as an editorial instead of on the front page where they usually run opinion pieces) Dobbs asserts that America can no longer feel the pride it felt when Armstrong footprinted the moon dust because Donald Trump is President and the falling of the sky cannot be far behind.

                Obviously not everyone feels that way and Dobbs even graciously acknowledges that, citing a July 17, ABC poll showing Trump’s approval rating at 36% and calling anyone who doesn’t believe this is the “worst presidency ever” a bunch of “diehards in denial.”

                Well golly Gregger, if I didn’t know you for the flaming joke you are from previous opinion pieces I think my little diehard feelings would be hurt.

                Let me cite a January 17, ABC poll, three days before Trump was even sworn in as president, that had his approval rating at only 40%.  It kind of makes you wonder who voted for him in the 306-232 electoral college shellacking of Hillary Clinton.

                In that poll, according to Media Research Group, ABC only sampled 23% republicans. That did shame them to step their game up and this time include in their survey 23% republicans.  I did not commit a type-o. Still 23%.

                What result did they think they would get?

                As usual with the leftwing media, it makes what they “report” kind of hard to take seriously. If you only listen to CNN, MSNBC, ABC, etc., (I probably don’t want to know you) you may have missed the June 17 Rasmussen poll that had Trump at a 50% approval rating.  Of course, that is fake news because the left didn’t make it up.

                That same poll had the American public (both parties) claiming 61% confidence in the job Trump is doing with the economy, as opposed to only 42% in the last poll taken the previous October when Obama still mattered.

                So, one has to wonder, are the pollsters at ABC the same ones who predicted a landslide HRC victory in the presidential election? At one point they had her pegged as a landslide victor by 20 percentage points.

                Mr. Dobbs, tell me again which side it is you think is in denial?

                Dobb’s also asserts that American supremacy is slipping because so many national leaders are losing respect for President Trump.

 

                Well, I can’t presume to know what foreign leaders are actually thinking like Mr. Dobb’s can but we deplorable diehards are kind of happy to have a leader who is finally telling other world leader’s “no.” No we won’t continue to fund all the fun things they can think of that they’d like to have us pay for like NATO, NAFTA, a climate accord and hopefully the UN.

                Don’t let Maxine Waters convince you Spanky is going to kick us out of the gang because we don’t think it’s right we were the only ones paying for the clubhouse. We can still be a world leader; still defend our traditional western hemisphere allies from hostile threats (except maybe the internal ones they are bringing on themselves from Islam) and we have always been and will continue to be the world’s most generous nation to countries in times of disaster.

                We will also continue to lead most of the world in clean air standards (for real, not just in passing laws no one will be accountable for ‘til 2040) and environmental protection.  I still steadfastly believe that when a sustainable, practical, efficient and affordable energy source is developed that it will come from this country. That’s what we do.

                And did Dobb’s really mean we have less respect globally now than under Obama in his lead-from-behind approach to apologizing for having been born in America? (Well, maybe he was born here.)

                I cannot imagine we garnered much respect as a nation when Obama kept moving his “line in the sand” in Syria when they kept using chemical weapons. Who do you think had Syrian President Bashar al-Assad laughing harder, Obama when he kept moving said line around as Assad ignored him or Trump when he tore up Syria’s airbase with Tomahawk missiles the first time Assad used chemicals on President Trump’s watch?

                In fact, I’m trying to figure out whose respect we gained with Obama’s apologetic approach to foreign policy and such masterful moves as announcing the exact dates we would be pulling out of Iraq and/or Afghanistan (but only part of the way, it seems); for brilliantly negotiating a path for Iran to pursue a nuclear weapon; and for declaring Al-Qaeda dead and ISIS the JV of terrorism.

                If it weren’t so embarrassing it would be laughable.

                Part of what Gregg Dobbs is trying to do is what the entire leftwing media is trying to do—wear down the right with mostly imaginary tales of conservative loss of heart and will and support so that we stay home when it’s time to vote out the cowardly republicans currently taking up space in Washington and replace them with real conservatives. Don’t worry about it. The way you still feel is still the way most of us who voted for Trump feel plus many who have since seen the light.

                But a lot of what Dobbs is doing is sincere on his part.  He really is angry and feels bucket loads of hate and outrage for President Trump and, in fact, all things conservative.  It makes him furious that he has to share a planet, let alone a nation with us. Because he doesn’t get it. And if we are lucky the left will never get it.

                We aren’t as enamored with Donald Trump as they think, although every day I like him more and gain more and more respect for what he’s trying to do in spite of the obstruction and his own obvious blemishes. The reason Trump got the nomination and eventually won the Presidency isn’t because he’s Donald Trump. It’s because of all the candidates in the field he’s the only one who stood up and said “enough.”

                Enough of the loss of American identity and sense of exceptionalism. He advocated repealing and replacing that abomination of a health care bill (c’mon legislators, grow a pair). He was the only one who talked strongly about American jobs, tax cuts, secure borders, an undefeatable military, eliminating bureaucracy and over regulation, and no more governmental decisions that fail to put America first and make America great again.

                So I do believe Gregg Dobbs was very depressed about celebrating the anniversary of the day American exceptionalism put us on the moon. I do believe he hates me and all the rest of us who voted and won a presidential election for wanting things put right in this country.

                I felt a whole different feeling on “Neil Armstrong Day.” I felt pride and optimism and hope. And I hope you did too.

                Stay strong and quit listening to them. They’re goofy.

                (And no blog next week. Going on vacation again. Probably nothing will go on anyway...)

Bedtime Stories and Other Things That Will Keep You Awake

                It’s as fun as it is frustrating that there is never a shortage of things to write about every week. The hysteria of the left wing media over everything Trump drums up a new topic every other day or so. They are super fun to deconstruct but it becomes such a waste of time boxing their shadows and straw men.

                Somebody is just going to have to wake me up when this Russian fairy tale is over. Like Peter and The Wolf (speaking of Russian fairy tales), the left has cried, “Wolf!” so many times my ears only partially register that they are squawking again.

           
                So now Donald Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer Loretta Lynch let stay in the country for “unknown reasons” after her visa expired. Said lawyer claimed to have dirt on HRC but did not, but the fact DJ would take the meeting proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Russians rigged the election. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

                I’m still way more fascinated by the way we completely ignore Hillary accepting $145 million from Russian-owned Uranium One right before she sold them 20% of our plutonium mining operations than I am in any of the banal stuff they make up every week about the Trumps and their sinister meetings with Boris and Natasha.

                But that’s just me and most of the people between California and New York and we don’t control the press so I guess nobody will investigate anything. Pity.

                Oh, and speaking of smoking guns, it appears another of HRC’s associates who could have done her harm coincidentally committed suicide before he could do it.  Silly Right Wing Conspiracy Theory. There can be such a thing as 68 coincidences all almost exactly the same.

Sure. It is amazing the kind of protection from scrutiny you can buy with 145 million Russian dollars.

                Or we could just talk about repealing and replacing Obamacare a bit, which is also starting to remind me of the Peter and The Wolf story. At least I agree with the left that the current Republican bill is horrible.

                It includes none of the elements President Trump asked for:

1.       New health care legislation must protect and benefit ALL Americans.

2.       Pre-existing conditions should be covered.

3.       Tax credits on a sliding scale and HSA’s made available to all if they so choose.

4.       Medicaid should be all-inclusive and be administered at the state level.

5.       Protect patients and doctors from artificial costs by bringing down inflated drug costs for the former and putting torte limitations in place for the latter.

6.       Allow insurance buy-ins across state lines to bring down the cost of insurance and increase the amount of health care an individual gets for his or her dollar.

None.

                    I had a conversation with a young man this past week who thinks Donald Trump himself is responsible for us not having a healthcare bill and that he is the one who is being bought off by the insurance companies. Sigh.

                So, civics lesson: Congress and the Senate are the only ones who can draft legislation, not the President.  All he can do is sign it into law or veto it. He has said he will sign any law legislators give him that repeals Obamacare and the asshat republicans in D.C. can’t even agree enough to get that done.

                They have completely ignored the President’s proposal outlined above and continue to bicker amongst themselves over which elements are necessary and which elements will hurt their polling numbers and reduce the amount of insurance company money flowing into their campaign coffers, much of which surreptitiously finds its way into their personal bank accounts. Or so I believe.

                Here’s a shocker, I wouldn’t even care if they sent the President a law supporting single-payer insurance.  I think it is an absolutely horrible idea but I think it is a better idea than the albatross we all know and despise that is Obamacare.

                I don’t believe the government can run anything well or efficiently but I do believe a poor plan executed excellently can outperform a brilliant plan executed poorly and I have a glimmer of hope that with a businessman like Donald Trump in the White House there is a slightly better than snowball’s chance in Hell the government could actually execute a plan as if they knew what they were doing.

                I know. Probably not. And don’t mistake that I am not still strongly in favor of a free enterprise solution.  I know as certainly as any AP reporter knows Russians stole the election that if all we did is take down the artificial boundaries between states and forced insurance companies to compete in a free and open market that your insurance rates would come down within 30 days, or whenever your next sign up period is, however that matters.

                So that dead horse is really starting to stink.

                And now I only have a couple hundred words to talk about what I wanted to wreak a thousand exclamations of shock and wonder about: Are we actually upset that the government wants to verify voter registration information?

                It is suspected that between 3.5 and 5.6 million illegal aliens were allowed to vote in the 2016 election—“without evidence” the left wing media is always quick to add. So where is the evidence they didn’t, I would be quick to add.

                I know. Let’s verify the voter registration rolls and make sure we’re playing kosher ball.

                Is there any reason to oppose that unless your side is afraid of what might be discovered?

                The Commission on Election Integrity has requested from all 50 states a record of each voter’s name, address, party affiliation, election participation since 2006, partial Social Security numbers and a voter’s date of birth.

                The most shocking thing to me is that the Feds don’t already know that, but ok. If you’re playing by the rules you have supplied most of that information to your state already. In the state of Colorado I guess we don’t require a date of birth (really????) or a Social Security number to vote so we can't supply those.

                Didn’t we all get our Social Security numbers from the Federal Government? How can they not know that already?

                Well, I guess if you are an illegal alien voting in California you either borrowed some dead guy’s SS# or you don’t have one at all, so maybe that’s the point. Without evidence, of course.

                But as for the rest of it, c’mon. Voting is a sacred right of all legal U.S. citizens not incarcerated for a felony—each and every one of us but no one else. That is also a heck of a privilege and if you don’t believe me ask a North Korean. Do you really think you are entitled to vote if you aren’t willing to provide your name and address and some sort of proof that you are a legal U.S. citizen?

                No one can quite create a tempest in a teacup like what passes for American journalism.

                Colorado’s liberal democrat Sec of State also made an emotional statement that he would not, under any circumstances, surrender Colorado citizen’s driver’s license numbers or email addresses to this Hitlerian commission.

                The Commission on Election Integrity did NOT request driver’s license numbers or email addresses but good for you Secretary Williams.

                You just have to laugh sometimes.

Chasing Their Own Tail

                I’m not sure how much more bad journalism I can take. Nor do I know how much more whining I can take about how unfairly alleged journalists and the media they work for are treated or how we are in danger of destroying our first amendment if we continue not to believe the left wing agenda the fourth branch keeps heaping on us.

                Alexander Hamilton back at the turn of the 19^th century complained about the rampant bias in the press so I guess this isn’t really anything new. Someone always feels slighted by the opinions of the media masquerading as news. But this is as bad as I’ve seen it in my lifetime.

Deep Throat during the Watergate investigation was one of the first anonymous sources that could never be checked, verified, or questioned that I remember but that may have been because of my tender young age.

Back then I still believed that journalism was a noble profession. I really wanted to be Woodward or Bernstein but if I had gone the direction I wanted to go I’d have ended up in a Clinton body bag after I shot myself in the back of the head twice.

                As much as the media and the left hated the great Ronaldus Magnus, and as slanted as the news was to the left even in the 80’s I don’t remember outright lies, fabrication and straw boogeymen like we are subjected to currently. In fact, Dan Rather fabricating a false service record for George W. Bush so that Rather could call him a coward and advance his Bush-bashing campaign was the first major outright lie I can remember by a major journalist and Hollywood still made a movie about it and someone actually said, “Just because he lied doesn’t mean he was wrong.”

                Since then there have been more journalistic lies than I can recount.  I’d have started a list if I’d known it was going to get this bad. I could try and name them all but I’d probably misremember some.

                On June 26 of this year CNN sought and received the resignations of a reporter and two editors for fabricating a story about a member of Trump’s campaign “colluding” with a Russian investment fund and bank for fun and profit. When it first aired on CNN the week before it was hailed as “the smoking gun” in the Great Russian Collusion Conspiracy (Zzzzzzzzzz) and as “the story of the year.”

                Sadly. for the left and their poor excuse for a media it turned out to be completely untrue. They got caught lying by a conservative news agency and, of all sources, a Russian news agency.  And I suppose no one was surprised that the story of the three CNN investigative journalists and editors who seem to have had a little problem with the truth ended up on the inside pages (at least in my own beloved Denver Post) instead of on page one as it was when it was the story of the year.

                And in the face of outright media lies, The Washington Post on July 4 and July 6 unashamedly ran pieces bemoaning the threat to the First Amendment represented by our current President because he dared to suggest “the media is the enemy of the American people.” Some WaPo asshat named Laurence Peters suggested that was “Hitlerian.”

                So there goes the left again, unable to remember that the Nazi Party was comprised of a bunch of socialists.

                I don’t think most of us needed the President to point out that the leftist media is currently the enemy of the American people. In my opinion, the biggest threat right now to the First Amendment is the loss of credibility the media suffers as their rape and perversion of information is peddled as fact in an effort to advance their own agenda and discredit the half of the nation they don’t like as represented by Donald Trump.

                He has called out CNN because they lie about him, which as of June 26, even they had to admit. Conveniently forgotten in this hysteria over an imagined attack on the first amendment is the fact that Obama stonewalled Fox News and repeatedly suggested that Americans quit listening to Rush Limbaugh.  When it’s their guy saying it, I guess incriminating news sources is just good leadership.

                And maybe the craziest part is the media and the left (should I continue to make a distinction between them?) don’t even see that their ineffectual cries and alleged reporting make no difference whatsoever.

                They refuse to recognize that the base of people who elected Donald Trump President still exists and may, in fact, be growing to include former democrats who are sickened by the left’s childish reaction to a conservative administration and who are objective enough to give the President credit for his impressive checklist of accomplishments.

                Prior to the few months before the 2016 elections Rush Limbaugh’s daily radio audience numbered 12-15 million—the largest single consuming media audience in the world. It is usual for all media outlets to experience a positive bump in consumption right before a presidential election and Limbaugh’s audience was no exception. It grew to 20 million per day leading up to the election.

  

After an election it is also customary for audiences to decline to prior levels although I’m not sure that has been the case for any of them this year.  Limbaugh is no exception other than his post-election growth may be exceptional amongst a sea of improvement.  His audience has swelled to 26 million listeners daily.  Double what it was before the election season.

                As I said, all media outlets may be able to claim a boost in ratings this year. Donald Trump is an entertaining guy—maybe, for some, in the same way it’s hard not to look at a trainwreck but it’s undeniably entertaining.  And what would it take, really, for leftist outlets to have an increase?

 

                I do believe, and this is just my theory which I will not attempt to advance as a fact like, you know, the lamestream media would: That so many liberals have heretofore been so uninformed that even a mild interest on their part would result in a ratings boost for traditional leftist channels.

            

The left wing media is losing folks. Badly. The only threat to the First Amendment is the one they represent to themselves. Those liberal viewing increases are just an opportunity for the conservative point of view to win over people who already voted for the loser. I am thrilled that more people than ever are trying to educate themselves on politics and the world around them because in a battle of ideas conservatism wins.

Thomas Sowell wrote it so well: “If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting the news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and chooses their news sources accordingly.”

Hallelujah. Amen.

The Grinch Who Stole Politics

                So some of you may be relieved to know my wife, Barb, and I survived our California vacation. We did all the touristy things in San Diego—SeaWorld; The San Diego Zoo; The Safari Park; the USS Midway museum; a couple of harbor cruises; took in a Padres game; Coronado Beach; sat on our patio drinking beer and singing along with Frankie Valli on my Jam Touch (we may have been the only tourists we saw doing that.)

                It was fun, and as advertised, the weather was great. However, I know I have been to California at least 15 times because that’s how many sweatshirts and hoodies I have that say “California” on them. It is always cooler there in the evening than I think it is going to be.

                A couple observations about California and Californians: What struck me first of all is there are a lot of them. In San Diego County, 3.3 million of them. A drop in the bucket compared to L.A. or San Francisco but enough to make it hard for me to breathe at times. It’s a personal thing, not a criticism.

                Oh, and they all have cars. Which made the value of a parking space anywhere remarkably precious in ways it is difficult to relate to in other parts of the country. We drove around La Jolla one afternoon for 45 minutes just trying to find a place to put the car. Another afternoon we were lucky enough to find a place 2 blocks from our restaurant in Little Italy (it’s centered around India Street in San Diego, which seems like it should be odd) but between being early and in no hurry to leave we had to feed the meter a couple of times.

                Once you find a space you do not leave. I am uncertain for how long. The resort we stayed at was across the street from the San Diego County Fair and on our early morning walks to the beach we saw some of the same cars parked in some of the same spots for most of the week.

                Some of them had clothes and blankets and trash filling most of the car except the driver’s seat. One of them was a BMW. I’m not judging, I’m just curious.

                The second thing was that almost everyone we met was really friendly and kind of normal.

                Oh, to be sure there were some nut jobs and we overheard some leftist conversations that made it hard to finish a meal or two but for the most part people were great. We didn’t see anyone dragging bloody Trump heads down the street or carrying baseball bats looking for conservatives to beat. Not even a single Molotov cocktail, but we tried to stay in nicer areas.

                We did see one #onlyblacklivesmatter t-shirt at the Padres game but the guy looked like he could kick my ass so I didn’t even make eye contact with him. My days of staring down tough guys are at least a dozen years or so in my rearview mirror.

                We ran into one woman whose family owns a ranch in Yuma, AZ. She spends her winters there but spends warmer months with her kids in San Diego or at her summer place in Prescott, AZ, because it gets over 120 degrees in Yuma in the summer and she just couldn’t take the heat. I don’t blame her.

                In fact, it gets so hot they “can’t even get white people to work on their ranch anymore.” Whatever are they going to do when “Trump gets rid of all the illegals.”

That is wrong and racist on so many levels my head almost exploded but I did promise Barb to keep my mouth shut on politics for a week and so I did.

But here are the show stoppers; the things that rocked my world and caused me to rethink the origin of the universe:          

We were at Sea World in the morning right when they opened. Apparently 364 days a year (they’re closed on Christmas) they play the National Anthem a few minutes after they open. No, really. The same one we listen to. The Star Spangled one.

And almost everyone stopped and faced the gigantic flag and pole with hats off and hands over their hearts. I was certain they were playing it just to expose conservatives, but no, almost everyone stopped and stood still. There were lots of foreigners there—huge tourist attraction—and even they stopped walking and were respectful. I have no idea what they were saying but have no reason to believe it was evil.           

And then at Petco Park at the Padres game I was up on the concourse purchasing a couple of adult beverages when they played it again and the same thing happened: almost everybody stopped and removed their hats and placed hands over hearts and faced the field. Sure, there were a few jerks who kept walking and talking but we see that in Denver too. I suspect those idiots exist everywhere.

Honestly folks I felt like The Grinch when he stands atop Mount Crumpet Christmas morning waiting to hear the Who’s wail and instead hears the old “Welcome Christmas. Wa-Hoo Doray” song.

                Maybe liberals, I thought, don’t all hate the flag.

                Perhaps many, in fact, should not make me gag.

                They are all singing—not one has a bat

                To beat conservative men who are old, white and fat.

                It can’t be this simple. How could it be?

                That we both love America and just disagree?

                I do think I know an answer although it is painful to admit my own guilt. I think we are all affected by what passes for media these days playing “let’s you and him fight.”

                Every single media outlet is claiming record viewing numbers, from CNN to Fox News. America is tuning in to see who did or said what outrageous thing today and the wish-we-were-journalists are giving us all of it we can digest whether it’s true or not.

                I think that is more a result of supply and demand capitalism at work for ratings than it is either side merely advancing their political agendas although that’s what they think they’re doing.

                The media on the left continues to show us beatings, riots, burnings and beheadings to reinforce their own outrage (I’m talking about the media more than the typical liberal) and parading a bunch of who-gives-a-damn-Hollywood-airheads in front of cameras to give us their well-educated and sharply honed political opinions or simply to volunteer to assassinate the President of The United States of America.

                They are certain that at any moment we on the right will come to our senses and “join the revolution.” They remain oblivious to the fact that what they show us reinforces our outrage at a bunch of ungrateful, American-hating, disrespectful, parasitic ne’er do wells.

                They leftwing media are such geniuses that they remain oblivious to the fact that it was just this “reporting” strategy that gave Donald Trump $2 billion worth of totally free media coverage and got him elected president. Unless of course you are still hoping that somehow the Russians did it.

                The media on the right continues to show us Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters raving about past presidents creating current havoc, 750 billion people dying from being in the same country with republicans, and conservatives hiding their car keys because they were here just a minute ago, damnit. They have Alzheimer’s for God’s sake. Even though liberals are stupid enough to keep electing them it doesn’t mean they are all as stupid as them.

                They may be dumb enough to believe that what Chuck Schumer says today is what he will say in three months but we have guys like that too with their own fan clubs (Paul Ryan).

                My point is that even though we know the media is a bunch of unethical, lying pigs, we allow ourselves to be duped by them daily. And it’s hard not to be. We all want our core beliefs reinforced and the media is totally willing to provide that no matter which side you’re on.

                Don’t get me wrong, I think an agenda of strict liberalism would be the death of this country (see a California financial statement or the end of history for any purely socialist nation). I think to subscribe to liberalism you not only have multiple screws loose but you must be missing parts.  Big important ones.

                But they think the same thing about me. And if it’s just a matter of disagreeing can’t we work that out? Marriages do about half the time. I’m not sure it will be as easy for a nation. Both sides might have to compromise a few things and neither side is willing to right now, but that’s a whole other 1000 words. Or 1500. Sorry.

                At any rate, today I feel good that in spite of the media scouring the countryside to find schools banning the Pledge of Allegiance, three or four pro football goofs kneeling during the national anthem, and schools teaching the Koran but not the Bible, I think those may be isolated incidents that the media would like us to think are common so they can advance their agendas no matter how badly it backfires on them on a daily basis (see Georgia special election.) At least I hope so.

                If you don’t believe me go to a ballgame in California and get ready to have your jaw drop.