You crazy bastards …

The more Trump is attacked, the more it helps him.  

This is making his critics even crazier than ever before. 

Sure, his supporters wish he wouldn’t tweet as much.  Of course they wish he’d stop getting into Twitter wars at 3AM.  Or saying outrageous things.  But that’s who he is, for better or worse, and on the whole they’re happy with his policies if not his behavior.   

They’re especially happy that he is pissing off the left-leaning media, pissing off the Republican establishment, and pissing off Democrats like Schumer and Pelosi.

As Michael Moore noted, voting for Trump was a symbolic way to give the middle finger to the political establishment of both parties. That’s precisely what Trump’s doing. 

A majority of Americans do disapprove of his job performance as President. I suspect that’s more about his style than his actual performance.  Many just wish he’d act more like a traditional President. Instead he’s the Happy Gilmore of Presidents – purists hate the way he plays; his fans love when he beats the snooty elites at their own game. 

He is beating them at their own game, BTW.  He’s controlling the narrative, bypassing the media through his Twitter account. He’s not above rubbing their collective noses in it when they get something wrong. So what most people remember – especially among his base – is when the media screw up. That makes the media more likely to lash out, but in their fervor they get sloppy, stretch the truth, and make even more mistakes which he’s all too happy to highlight. 

Again. And again. 

The majority of Americans now believe the media are generally untrustworthy. The media can thank themselves as much as Trump for this. 

In the meantime, Trump is also delivering what he promised his supporters. That’s despite all the attacks on him personally and how he treats the sacred cows here and abroad.   

The economy is picking up, unemployment is way down, wages are going up, and consumer confidence is now higher than it’s been in years. Tax cuts and tax reform have also just been passed, and workers will start seeing the effect in their paychecks as early as February. 

Americans may dislike how Trump does his job but economic results are more important to voters.  As James Carville said when running the campaign for Bill Clinton: “It’s the economy, stupid.” The rest is background noise.  That’s not working out so well for the haters, either. 

The Russian collusion investigation is a bust. Democrats know this. Even Adam Schiff who keeps flogging that dead horse knows it. The media know it, too. They all keep saying the same crap: with this much smoke there must be a fire somewhere. Really? Then show us. They can’t. 

The infamous Trump dossier? It’s becoming more likely to entrap the DNC and Hillary’s campaign, and some “intel community” poohbahs, including top FBI bureaucrats, than Trump.  

Democrats, the left, and the media are desperately trying to find something.  After more than a year there’s still nothing. No collusion. No corruption. No fascist tendencies. No ties to white supremacists or neo-Nazis. No treason. No “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Nada. Zip.  Bupkis.

What about Trump’s possible obstruction of justice by firing James Comey?  As more comes out about Comey the more it appears he broke any number of laws himself as the head of the FBI. Comey will be lucky to avoid being indicted. 

Firing Comey appears more justified every day. Not just because he was breaking established FBI protocols and overstepping his authority, which he clearly did, but because he was too ethically challenged to be the head of the FBI. And that’s saying a lot, since J. Edgar Hoover brought a whole new meaning to ethically challenged long ago. 

What about the decades-old allegations that Trump groped or kissed some women against their wishes? Unfortunately, some of those women have only been persuaded to come forth again with the promise of payoffs. One had her mortgage paid off by a DNC donor to the tune of about $30,000.  Yeah, that always helps one’s credibility. 

In short, there’s no there “there” for the Trump haters. Every time they think they have something to hammer Trump, it falls apart. Trump’s certainly no angel, nor is he a monster. 

And by relentlessly portraying him as a monster, they help him. 

That’s lost on the media, the Democrats, the far left and some in the Republican establishment. They don’t know when to give up.

They keep going for the kill shot – the home run that will seal the deal.  But they keep striking out.  It’s starting to get embarrassing. 

CNN hyped “proof” Donald Jr. had access to the Wikileaks e-mails of Hillary’s well in advance of their release to the public, demonstrating collusion with the Russians. Oops.  According to the Washington Post those were in the public domain at least 10 days before he saw them.

How about the report Trump was getting ready to fire Mueller in days? Oops.  Trump made a public statement he had no intention of firing Mueller. A few days ago, Trump also said he expected Mueller to treat him fairly and that he wanted the investigation to go forward. 

Swing, and a miss.  

Trumps been attacked more often than a piñata at a birthday party for starving kids.  So far, nobody seems able to land a solid hit on him. It’s certainly not for trying. 

He’s had to fight against the media, the Democrats, and even members of his own party.  

There have been marches and violent protests against Trump’s election across the country. Trump has been deemed a racist, a misogynist, a white supremacist, a sexual predator, a neo-Nazi, and of course a fascist.  There were Antifa riots on various campuses. There was a Pussy Hats march, where Madonna said she had thought seriously about blowing up the White House.

Let’s not forget the screaming at the sky event.    

In Congress there was and still is talk of impeachment   

You know what all this has accomplished? Not a damn thing. 

Except, of course, to add proof to Trump’s claim that he’s the target of the media, the political elites and government bureaucrats afraid that he may actually drain the Swamp.

When the top dogs at the FBI get caught red-handed trying to put their thumbs on the scales of justice, when bureaucrats and politicized judges ignore lawful orders, when states like California and New York defy Federal laws, and when illegal immigrants march in the streets demanding amnesty, it shows ordinary Americans why Trump was elected in the first place.

To stop this nonsense and restore order and the rule of law.          

So keep it up you crazy bastards. You’re helping Trump. 

The swamp never changes …

Real Federal tax reform should be a relatively simple thing. 

Eliminate all the subsidies, special tax treatments, tax offsets, tax credits, loopholes and the like, and start over. Get back to basics: tax income however it’s received and from wherever it’s derived. Keep graduated tax brackets if that makes you happy. 

But stop the rest of the nonsense. 

I know that’s hopelessly naïve on my part.  I can always hope. 

Of course, that’s not going to happen. Too many people, too many companies, too many state legislatures, and too many special interests are in the way. Everybody wants to keep what they have now, or even expand what they’re already getting.

That parliament of whores we call Congress are all salivating at the renewed opportunity to kiss the butts of their campaign donors and constituents by bending, twisting, and perverting arcane sections of the tax code to keep them happy.

There’s absolutely no reason – economic or otherwise – that our tax code is so complex.  Our tax code should only be focused on getting revenue to support Federal government operations.  Everything else in the code is crap put there by special interests. 

It’s a tax code; it’s not supposed to be a cornucopia of handouts for corporate welfare or social engineering. As such, it should be designed solely to raise money, not give it away. 

People who expect the Federal tax code be “fair” are fooling themselves. The courts ruled long ago that nothing about taxes needs to be fair or equitable. 

Moreover, those who usually argue vehemently for “fairness” aren’t really interested in that; if they were they’d be in favor of a flat tax where everybody – the poor, the middle class, and the rich – would all pay the same rate on their income. And it would cover all income. 

Don’t hear self-anointed champions of the poor hollering for that, do you?  Nope.  What they want is to dramatically raise the income threshold for who qualifies to be “poor” so more get more tax payer dollars and benefits without paying anything in. And Congress goes along. 

Doubt that? Consider this: Congress under both parties routinely passes laws to give tax rebates and other payouts to people who don’t pay any Federal income tax at all.    

Think about that logic for a moment.

People get tax rebates on taxes they didn’t pay.  Our government also sends checks to non-taxpayers who claim multiple dependents they don’t have, people who have jobs but fall below a certain income level, and others, including people here illegally. 

And now that same Congress is debating whether to raise those payouts even more.  Just to get the votes Republicans need to pass this “tax reform.”

Our media have generally focused on only a few issues in this legislative effort.

First, the rich might pay a bit less in taxes. Corporations would see their tax rates go down. In about 10 years the middle class might have to pay a bit more in taxes.  The poor won’t benefit. And the now heavily subsidized premiums for ObamaCare will go up, affecting millions. 

Got to be honest here: I’m okay with all that. Especially if loopholes are closed.   

The rich pay almost all the Federal income tax already; close all the loopholes and they’ll probably pay more. The lowering of the tax rate on corporations is meaningless – hardly any big corporations pay much if any tax at present because of all the credits, subsidies and loopholes.

The middle class should pay a bit more in taxes when all their specious tax breaks and credits go away; those have never accomplished anything that wouldn’t have happened anyway without them. Most of these are designed more to tilt the marketplace for special interests, like realtors, childcare providers, and solar energy panel installers, for example, by subsidizing their cost. Strip away the tax breaks and  credits and the free market will drive prices down for the middle class.

What about the poor?  Honestly, why should people who don't pay any tax now get an additional tax break? On what? 

Here's a better idea.  How about we stop subsidizing and incentivizing poverty?  If we really want to help the poor then don’t reward able-bodied people for pushing themselves into poverty. Don’t reward getting pregnant at 15, dropping out of school, becoming a drug addict, or committing a felony. That way people can qualify for a real job, make real money, work hard and do better. Tax policy has nothing to do with poverty, defeating it or increasing it. 

Finally, ObamaCare premiums were already skyrocketing long before there was talk of eliminating the personal mandate and payoffs to the insurance companies. The people who couldn’t afford health insurance before didn’t gain practical, useful health insurance under ObamaCare.  If they were only paying a few bucks per month for ObamaCare. but couldn’t afford the deductibles in the thousands, did they ever have real coverage?    

One thing I particularly like about the tax reform package in its present form is that it rights a grievous wrong that's been perpetuated for decades. It could eliminate some of the Federal tax offsets given to residents of high-tax states.   

Right now that’s a $100-billion a year tax break people in high-tax states enjoy, at the expense of the residents of other states. Politicians in those states rightfully worry their current residents, especially the rich, will flee to lower-tax states once they can’t offset their state and local taxes against their Federal tax anymore. That’s a possibility. 

However, what really keeps these state and local politicians awake at night is that they finally may have to rein in their spending on increasing the size and cost of government.  They’ll lose the freedom to raise state, local, and property taxes whenever they want on whomever they wish, knowing the offset minimizes the bite. The speaker of the New Jersey Assembly already said they might need to reconsider the recent “millionaire tax” they passed if they lose the offset.  Boo-hoo. 

Then there’s the supposed closing of other loopholes that continue to favor the rich and corporations.  There are so many of these hardly anyone can keep track of them.

Except lobbyists. Make no mistake, when tax policy is being written, the lobbyists come out in droves, like ants at a picnic. They all want their piece of the goodies.    

That’s when you can see the real swamp in action. 

And that’s when you can clearly see how our elected representatives are willing to sell us out at the bidding of powerful special interests.

How they are willing to trade their vote – or hold up the passage of a bill – for some bit of pork that benefits a single company or handful of companies in their state or district. How they preach about simplifying the tax code at the same time they weave in more complexity, written so specifically that it can only apply to a favored few.  

How achieving the promise of substantive tax reform always fails these days because practically everyone in Congress is beholden to someone or some group opposed to anything that might strip away some of their special deals and require them to pay more taxes.  

Last but certainly not least, how petty they are, using their vote to settle old political scores. Think Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and John McCain.   

Or as a bargaining chip to get something else that has absolutely nothing to do with the tax-reform legislation at hand. Think Susan Collins.   

Then you have the grandstanders now opposed to anything that might increase the deficit, unless it’s something they want which would also increase the deficit.  Or the clowns on the left like Schumer who never met deficit spending he didn’t like until now; now he’s a budget hawk. 

Does everybody in Congress think we’re idiots? They must. 

After all, we keep voting them in. What does that say about us?    

The swamp never changes. It will never change on its own. The tax-reform package just floats the crap to the top again so it’s more visible. 

There’s only one way to change it. Vote them all out.  Every last one of them. 

Then maybe we’ll get term limits.  Ethics Committees with teeth. And a reduction in the pay-to-play mentality of incumbents from both parties that thrive in the swamp.   

Explaining this country …

It’s usually when you’re travelling. Someone from Canada or from Europe will ask you how we could have elected Trump instead of Hillary, why everybody here can have a gun, and why we don’t have free nationalized healthcare as they do, for example.   

What they really want to know is why we aren’t more like them.    

I seriously doubt citizens of other nations get questioned as much so frequently. I’ve never asked someone from Canada or Europe why they aren’t more like us.

The less-than-subtle implication of their questions is that their country and its people are somehow morally and socially superior to us. And that we really aren’t as smart or enlightened as they are, or we would be more like them. 

It’s easy to chalk some of that up to ethnocentrism. But clearly they don’t understand us. Nor should we expect them to.  

Our own media consistently distort reality here to feed a specific narrative. Foreign media then pick that up and never bother to do their own homework. It’s dishonest, disingenuous, and lazy, but it is what it is. That’s why the world has trouble understanding us.    

If your entire opinion of America is shaped by what’s presented by CNN or MSNBC or the Washington Post or New York Times, or the AP wire services, you’ll never understand us.

There are millions of other Americans that don’t live or work in New York, on the West Coast, or in the D.C. metro. And those millions don’t necessarily share the same values or political views of those places. Or support the same agenda. Those millions are not ignorant hayseeds, they’re not religious bigots, they’re not homophobes, they’re not racists, either. 

Despite how our media and the entertainment industry here typically portray them.    

They’re just ordinary folks. Their concerns are pretty down-to-earth: protecting their families, keeping food on the table, earning a decent living, safety and security. They have about as much in common with the talking heads in the media and Hollywood stars as a fish does with a horse.

These folks weren’t stunned Trump won over Hillary – they voted for him. They weren’t alone. However, they were conveniently overlooked by our media leading up to the election. Their opinions simply didn’t matter as much to big-city journalists, news anchors, and pollsters.

Or the Democrat Party or Republican Establishment, for that matter.   

That’s why so many in the media – and the major political parties – were shocked that Donald Trump won the Republican primaries. When he won the election, the media and their Liberal and Democrat pals were caught completely by surprise; everybody they knew, everybody whose opinion mattered to them, voted for Hillary.

Based on how our media had constantly dismissed Trump as a blow-hard buffoon with absolutely no chance to win, imagine how the world felt. How did this happen?   

The answer is in a map showing which individual voting precincts went for Hillary and which for Trump. There’s a sea of red – for Trump – and scattered little pockets of blue for Hillary. 

That map makes it startlingly clear how ridiculous it is to judge all Americans’ opinions only by what’s important to a relatively tiny part of America – that tiny part obsessively covered by our media as the supposed bellwether of American public opinion.      

Listening only to our media, you’d never suspect that the number one concern of Americans is the economy and jobs – and has has been for years – not protecting illegal immigrants, transgender rights, or alleged Russian meddling in our elections or possible Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

As widely reported, it's true that healthcare is a top concern for most Americans, too.

But Americans’ concerns are focused primarily on skyrocketing rates and deductibles under ObamaCare, and little on whether women should get free contraceptives. 

Here’s what our media rarely if ever report: most working Americans still get their health insurance through their employers. Less than 3% - 5% of American citizens lack any health insurance, and even they can’t be turned away from hospital emergency rooms because they lack coverage or the ability to pay. Everybody here gets healthcare already. Citizen or not. 

It’s the law.    

Contrary to media reports, there’s no great groundswell of support for nationalized single-payer healthcare either, especially if means higher taxes for everyone and limits on the doctors you can see and longer wait times to see them. That may work for people in Canada and other countries, but it simply won’t fly here; Americans aren’t willing to make those tradeoffs.   

But you wouldn’t know that if all you see are interviews with people and groups focused on promoting liberal and progressive agendas and single-payer healthcare for all. And that’s pretty much all the world sees in our media. 

It’s too much to ask that Canadians and Europeans look beyond that and discover what really is important to most Americans. Honestly, I don’t blame them for their ignorance of us. Much of the time we are woefully ignorant of them, too. 

One thing that would be especially useful for people from other countries to know is how our distrust of too much power in too few hands is such a big part of our cultural DNA.

We always want to prevent the consolidation of power by a privileged few and instinctively distrust anyone or any entity that makes an attempt to gather and wield too much power. We are leery of banks and businesses that get too big, politicians and special-interest groups that get too powerful, and faceless bureaucrats accountable only to each other.

It’s why we don’t think highly of the United Nations or other world bodies making decisions for and about us. We would never tolerate having our lives and our economy managed by something like the European Commission, either. 

Our instinctive resistance to centralized authority and world opinion may be the most puzzling part of our culture and politics to citizens of other countries. They welcome the “one world” concept of some commission or another dealing with global issues. We are the outlier.

Foreigners also routinely underestimate how much Americans in general hate what they see as bullshit. More to the point, especially when we suspect someone is feeding us bullshit, whether that’s from diplomats, our politicians, our media, or even a salesperson.  We have an extraordinarily low tolerance for “political speak” or political correctness.  It’s all bullshit to us.   

Want to know a big reason Trump was elected? Part of it was our aversion to bullshit.  He spoke plainly like a regular guy and cut through the politically correct bullshit; he said out loud what a lot of us thought. Warts and all, he came across as genuine.

Hillary kept spewing the same old stuff, got caught in outright lies, and then tried to pass off more bullshit to distort what she’d done, who she was and what she really thought.  She came across as a phony who relied on bullshit more than honesty. 

Want to know why so many here oppose ObamaCare? Again, too much bullshit – you can keep your plan, you can keep your doctor, rates will go down by thousands per family. All bullshit. 

You can dress up bullshit any way you like, but if it still seems like bullshit to ordinary Americans they simply won’t buy it. That applies to blaming humans as the sole cause of climate change, saying illegal immigrants are a plus for our economy and never receive government benefits, and that lax gun laws alone are why “gun violence” is increasing.           

But that’s what our media keep reporting, even when the facts don’t bear them out. That feeds our  distrust of the media. Our media have been caught so many times making up stuff or reporting as fact what turned out to be false, they’ve lost our trust. When Trump called the media liars many Americans knew that was an overly broad overstatement but essentially true. 

That’s why there’s been so little pushback from the general public to his attacks on the media. Which is probably a shock to many in the world because we put such a high value on “freedom of the press.” Sure, the media are outraged as are their fans on the left, but the rest of us are “meh.” Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Welcome to America. 

Relatively easy access to guns here puzzles a lot of people from other countries, too. They seem to be under the false impression – fostered by our media – that we don’t have any real laws to control the sale of guns.  And that gun owners here, especially members of the NRA, fight tooth and nail to stop any reasonable gun control legislation.     

That, of course, is not true.  Despite our Second Amendment, the right to own a gun here has limitations. The NRA is on record as supporting extensive background checks to prevent the wrong people from buying guns.  We also have more than enough laws on the books to prevent people who shouldn’t have access to guns from getting them. 

But those laws aren’t enforced, not because people ignore them or the laws are too loosely written, but because our sloppy and inefficient bureaucracy doesn’t do its job screening out people legally disqualified from buying a gun. Like people with a history of mental illness. People with a history of domestic violence. Convicted felons, etc.

The laws are there. The requirements for background checks are there. But in almost every recent case of mass shootings in America, some bureaucrat dropped the ball. That, and people close to the shooters failed to step up and let authorities know in advance something was dreadfully wrong; rather than risk hurting someone’s feelings they did nothing. 

Incompetence and political correctness resulted in the mass shootings, not the lack of laws controlling access to guns. And not because of the Second Amendment, or the NRA.   

Now, there’s no way you can expect anyone from somewhere else to sit through all this. Yet these are the real answers to foreigners’ FAQs.

But as long as the rest of the world gets their news second-hand from our own media, they’ll never believe you.     

Just don’t go …

There’s no law that says you have to listen to entertainers you don’t like, go to movies you don’t want to see, watch sports you don’t enjoy, or go to lectures and speeches you don’t want to hear.

You have the right to blow off any or all of these. 

That’s your God-given right as an American citizen. If there’s something on TV you don’t like, change channels. If there’s a book that offends you, don’t buy it.  If you don’t believe in God, fine; you don’t have to.  If you are offended by pro athletes kneeling during the national anthem, you don’t have to watch or go to their games. 

In short, you have the freedom to choose what you want to see, hear or buy.  But your freedom, as they say, begins and ends at the tip of your nose.   

I exercise my right to blow off things I don’t like all the time.  

You could give me free front-row seats to a Rolling Stones concert and I wouldn’t go.  I don’t like the Stones or their music and never have. Not one single song.  At the same time, I wouldn’t bother to talk anyone else out of going, much less prevent them from going. 

Just because I don’t like the Stones doesn’t give me the right to stop other people from going to their shows or buying their music. I don’t have that right. So, if you’re a big Stones fan I may not understand why, but hey, it’s your time and money.  Go for it. 

I’m constantly surprised so many people ignore their right to ignore something they don’t want to see, or avoid listening to something they don’t want to hear. More puzzling is why so many of them feel that just because something offends them, they have the right to decide that others shouldn’t be allowed to see or hear whatever that is.    

If you don’t want to see or hear something, don’t.  It’s that simple. You cross a line when you prevent others from even having that choice. 

What brought this up again was that recently some white supremacist booked a venue at the University of Florida to spew his nonsense.  Over 500 protesters showed up to heckle him, with some even getting tickets to his event so they could shout him down inside the hall.

For the life of me I don’t understand that.  

Sure, he’s got a First Amendment right to speak. He also paid to rent the venue.  That means he not only had the right to speak but also the right as a paying customer to use that facility. As a public university, the school had an obligation to let him do both.   

But nobody had an obligation to attend. So why did they?

What did the protesters hope to accomplish? To diminish him and his followers by showing how many people refuse to accept his racist rhetoric?     

Honestly, if nobody had showed up except for his handful of looney-tune followers wouldn’t that have accomplished exactly the same thing? 

By mounting massive protests and threatening violence, protestors elevated the media coverage of this loser. The university also piled on by spending more than $500,000 for enhanced security just in case things turned violent.  The governor of Florida even declared a state of emergency over this event.  That all made it the lead on nightly news broadcasts and online.   

If nobody had paid any attention to this loon in the first place, he’d be just another right-wing nutjob baying at the moon. Kind of like the jerks in a bar who’ve had too much to drink and want to hold court on their pet peeve. Sooner or later everybody just starts ignoring them. 

That’s what we all should be doing.  Instead of turning our backs on the purveyors of this crap, we give them more attention.  That only encourages the jackasses.  

That seems to be lost on the protesters. 

The tragedy in Charlottesville might never have happened if the counter protesters hadn’t come out in such numbers intent on causing a commotion.  The small number of far-right extremists would probably have just marched around a bit, spouted stupid drivel, and when nobody paid any attention would have skulked away back under the rock from which they came. 

But no.  By aggressively engaging and taunting the right-wing extremists, the counter protestors got what they apparently wanted – a full-fledged riot. It also unexpectedly culminated in the death of one of their own.  What the protesters didn’t realize is that they gave the handful of neo-Nazis and Klan wannabes there exactly what they wanted, too: widespread media coverage. 

The same thing happened at the University of Florida the other night. Hundreds of protesters gathered to challenge a couple dozen white supremacists, catapulting what would otherwise have been a silly evening of crackpot theories into the national spotlight. 

Okay, in their defense some talking heads will quote Edmund Burke, who said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Yet I suspect most of the protesters at UF or Charlottesville weren’t as high minded.  They were there for their own selfish reasons.  They wanted to act up under the pretense of opposing “evil” – which they believe gave them the freedom to break laws, violate the rights of others, and cause chaos.  It had little to do with stopping the “triumph of evil,” and more to do with smug, self-centered, self-righteous overreaction to inconsequential threats just to prove their own virtue.

And to become part of the news.  And part of a “movement.” Kind of a latter-day Woodstock for people to talk about with their like-minded friends for years. How brave they were to stand up to white supremacists and neo-Nazis.  How they risked life and limb to “do the right thing.”  

There was nothing brave in what they did either in Charlottesville or at UF.  It takes no guts to be part of a mob. It takes real courage not to join in. 

Whether it’s BLM, Antifa, far-left liberals, or middle-aged Madge and Tom reliving their glory days protesting the 60s draft, they are the new witch hunters who do more damage than the evil they are supposed to be preventing.

They are always on the lookout for new transgressors, or potential threats. It makes little difference if their targets have no more than a dozen lame-brained followers or the cause is completely nebulous, such as protesting racial injustice or income inequality, they are always ready with hand-painted signs, pepper spray and an excess of attitude to jump into the fray.   

They don’t realize what they are doing, and usually not what they want, either. It’s all about showing a “united front” against whatever.  Being part of the crowd.  And getting on the news.   

The world has changed since Burke. Now the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil and stupidity is excessive media coverage of those who should otherwise be ignored.

There’s plenty of real evil in the world that should command our attention.  ISIS, Al Qaeda, a nuclear North Korea, a nuclear Iran, human trafficking, and genocide come to mind. 

Some jerk who thinks we should kick out anyone who isn’t white isn’t up there.  Nor are monuments to Confederate soldiers, or the people who don’t want them removed.  

Get a life.  If you don’t want to hear someone or see something, don’t go. 

But leave everyone else alone to make their own choices. 

It really is that simple.  

My comfort duck …

I was pretty sure I could find someone somewhere to certify my duck as a “service animal.” In fact, after a little research, I found I can even do it online. 

I’ll just tell them I feel anxiety without my duck; I need to take my duck to comfort me and assuage my fears wherever I go. My duck will be an “emotional support animal.”  That’s actually an official government designation: an ESA.   

Then I could get an official “service animal” vest for my duck. Maybe a little leash, too. I could take my duck anywhere – on planes, trains, out shopping, to restaurants, wherever.    

It can’t be all that tough. I see people all the time in airports or out shopping with ancient bug-eyed little rat dogs in service animal wraps. If it’s not chihuahuas, or teeny-tiny Dobermans, it’s miniature poodles or cockapoos with that red-brown gunk under their eyes.

And they are all tagged as service animals. In what capacity?   

I understand real service animals, like guide dogs for the visually impaired.   

I don’t understand that designation for yappy little pets people get certified just so they don’t have to leave Muffy or Sparky at home when they travel or go out shopping. 

I suspect these are the same folks who continue to use handicap hang tags for better parking spots years after they once had some ingrown toenail surgery. Or the ones in handicap spots with twin bike racks on their cars.  It kind of makes you wonder what’s going on.     

I feel the same about so many animals tagged with the service animal designation for no apparent reason. I’ve yet to see a teacup cockapoo, poodle, chihuahua, or other miniature animal with a harness on to guide their owner. So they must be “comfort animals”: that strange, relatively new category seemingly created to indulge the whims of self-absorbed owners.

It’s actually pretty easy to do this.  In fact, here’s a link to get started:

www.usserviceanimals.org

They also sell the cute little vests, and will provide a doctor’s note for travel. Now, there are real rules for service animals to qualify under the Americans with Disabilities Act – those animals actually have to be trained to perform some specific function. But the standard is much, much lower for an emotional support animal.

Go ahead. Go up to that site.  You’ll see that an ESA can be a cat, a dog, a pig, a ferret, a miniature horse, or something else, which, I suspect, would also cover a duck. 

I am not making this up.  

At a time when some colleges are providing puppy encounters and kitten cuddling for students distressed by the possibility of hurtful speech, or even by exams, the idea of ESAs for everyone only seems logical.  Why can’t the parents of these emotionally fragile students have access to the same therapeutic benefits of an ESA?  Aren’t they just as special?  And needy? 

It took these latest generations to teach us how special everyone can be, and the benefits of being special.  And a lot of people have now taken that lesson to heart, in everything. 

Since there are now so many special people in this country, with so many special needs, particularly emotional needs, I’m feeling somewhat left out.  That’s why I think a comfort duck might be a way to join their ranks. 

Of course, I’d go through all the proper paperwork to get my duck certified as a service animal under the “emotional support” category. I might even buy the doctor’s note so my duck could travel on planes with me. (It would be faster than trying to fly wherever I’m going on his own.)

Who is to say my duck doesn’t reduce my anxiety? That’s the beauty of it: I’ll claim I need my comfort duck to keep me calm. Try to disprove that.   

There are so many other benefits to having a comfort duck.  People don’t instinctively hate ducks; most people think ducks are pretty neat.  Everybody loves the Aflac duck, don’t they? Then there’s Donald Duck, Daffy Duck, and the Peabody Ducks. 

I think the biggest problem will be people who want to pet my duck. At which point I’ll have to tell them please don’t because my duck is actually working.   

I just imagine how many people would look at my duck and think of me: “why, he must be some kind of special to have that comfort duck.” Some might be brave enough to ask me if my duck knows any tricks. “He eats, poops and quacks,” I’ll respond, “that’s pretty much his day.”

My comfort duck may look like any other duck but he’ll make me special.   

And in this day and age, doesn’t everybody have a right to be special?   

The myth of the “honest conversation …”

That’s usually followed by “about (fill in the blank) in this country.”

The topic can be any number of things: racial injustice, income inequality, immigration, gun violence, or whatever.

The implication is that we’ve never actually discussed any of these things. At least not had an “honest” discussion. But we need to. Right now.

Anytime someone says this I already know they aren’t interested at all in an “honest” conversation. They don’t want a “conversation.” They want something quite different. They want yet another opportunity to “discuss” something they’ve been yammering about for years.

Nine times out of ten whatever that is has no realistic solution because it’s not intended to ever be “solved.”  Often it’s a purely manufactured “problem,” invented simply to be a wedge issue. Their proposed “honest conversation” will just rehash the same pointless crap once again. 

Let’s take “racial injustice” for a moment.  It seems to be the issue of the day that’s brought pro athletes to their knees during the national anthem. 

What exactly is racial injustice? Seriously, what is it?

It implies that people aren’t getting impartial treatment under the law solely because of their race.  The only “evidence” anyone can present for “racial injustice” is based entirely on outcomes, where blacks are disproportionately more likely to end up in prison than whites. And black offenders are disproportionately more likely to be shot by police than whites.

Here’s my problem with that “proof” of racial injustice – those claims typically and conveniently ignore prior arrests and convictions, and the specific circumstances of the incident. That usually explains any difference in outcomes.

Let’s take perp A and perp B, for example, who are both arrested for selling the same amount of the same drugs. If A has no prior arrests or convictions and B has a record stretching back to when he was 15 with multiple arrests and convictions for selling drugs, the one with more priors is most likely to get a harsher sentence. Race has nothing to do with that outcome; prior bad behavior does. 

Step it up a notch.  Perp C is accused of shooting someone in commission of a robbery, so is perp D.  Both serious crimes. But C has done this several times before, and has also served time in prison for attempted murder. D has one prior conviction for robbery when he was 16, served time in juvenile hall, and hasn’t been arrested again until now.  

Guess who gets a stiffer sentence.  

Okay, it’s time to take on police shootings.  Perp E is found in a stolen car with unregistered guns and a large amount of cocaine during a routine traffic stop. So is perp F. When officers try to arrest E, he races off leading police on a high-speed chase through a residential area before he is finally stopped and gives up.  F does exactly the same thing, but when he’s stopped he refuses to remain in the car as instructed and instead walks toward the officers while reaching into his waistband for something as he screams profanities at the arresting officers. 

Who is more likely to be shot? 

Race has little if anything to do with these outcomes. Except for one thing: black males are significantly more likely to have prior arrest records than white or Hispanic males.   

At any time up to 25% of all adult black males are in the justice system – they’ve either done time, are on parole, or are awaiting trial. Blacks are only 13% of the U.S. population, yet they account for 40% of our prison population. That’s way too high to blame solely on racial injustice.

Consider this: one report speculates that if this trend continues one in three black males will go to prison in their lifetimes. The number for white males is one in 17, and one in six for Hispanics. That’s not about racial injustice; that’s about paying the price for committing crimes.  And that’s also why blacks are far more likely to have prior arrest and convictions than whites or Hispanics charged with the same crimes, and consequently, why they often get harsher sentences.

Proponents of the claim of widespread racial injustice against blacks think that shouldn’t matter. Just because someone commits the same type of crime, or worse, repeatedly, that shouldn’t matter in how they are treated by the justice system. 

Of course it matters.  If a reasonable person on a jury discovers that a defendant has a history of violent crime and is now being charged with yet another violent crime, it’s certain to affect their opinion. Nobody sane wants a repeat offender like that back on the streets. If someone has a history of convictions for armed robbery, and is convicted of yet another armed robbery, you can bet they are going to get more than a slap on the wrist this time, regardless of skin color.  

That’s an “honest conversation” about “racial injustice.” I doubt many on the other side care to have that one, ever.     

As if to prove my point, last night I saw an interview with a Chicago alderman. He was asked about the possible link between so many kids in the black community without fathers and the murder rate in Chicago, especially among black males. He conceded that there was likely a link.

However he blamed the lack of black fathers on the incarceration rate of black males. His solution was to stop incarcerating so many black males for so long. 

Not stop the crimes. Not stop so many black kids being born to single mothers. Not stop a culture that equates manhood with how many different baby mamas some male can impregnate. 

Nope. Just give black males lighter sentences, regardless of any crimes they’ve committed or their prior criminal history.    

In effect, he was asking for a break solely based on the race of the criminal.   

Yeah, that's fair. That's textbook racial injustice if you don't happen to be black.   

So much for an “honest conversation.”    

Or what …

I’m tired of being told I have to kiss everybody’s butt.

Regardless of what they do. Regardless of how they act up. Regardless of how clearly irresponsible they are.  Regardless of how often they try to make a mountain out of a molehill.   

I’m apparently supposed to have sympathy and understanding for those who offer neither in return.  I guess I should be ashamed of stuff I haven’t done, or had no responsibility for.

I have a moral obligation to care about whatever they care about, in other words.

That’s what a lot of people want. Well, you know what, that’s not going to happen.

I’ve hit my limit. I’m fed up with people and the media trying to intimidate me, either with their madness or their misinformation. 

I can’t discuss anything at all with Democrats or anybody on the left. They are insane. They are incapable of listening to any other opinion other than their own. Don’t bother with facts; it’s a complete waste of time because they simply ignore them. When you do bring out facts, they respond with specious bullshit from some left-leaning think tank, or unfounded urban myths.

A common refrain from them is: “a group of experts has determined …” Or “everybody knows,” when, in fact, nobody can prove a damn thing they’re saying. 

It makes me crazy to even endure such childish logic. 

For example, there are the BS claims that Trump’s a racist. That Trump hates gay people. That Trump’s anti-Semitic. That Trump supports white supremacists. That Trump colluded with the Russians to win the last election. Or that Trump fired Comey just to stop an investigation.

He’s got a lot of faults, no doubt.  But not one of those has been proven to be true.

Trump’s been in the public eye for decades and the subject of intense media scrutiny during that time. If he were a racist, a homophobe, anti-Semitic, or a supporter of white supremacists, it would have been substantiated long ago. And as for the claims that he colluded with the Russians, or fired Comey to stop that investigation, that’s just another pile of unproven crap.

Don’t take my word for it. Go ahead, try to find a single substantive thing that actually “proves” any one of these. You won’t be able to, because there’s no there, there.

There’s just speculation about what Trump “really” believes, and his motives, which is about as valid as determining either by reading the bumps on his head. 

It’s all just complete and utter nonsense.  

Democrats, the left, and the left-leaning media know they don’t have any proof. Yet they keep spinning yarns about Trump’s “hidden” motives all the time to make it appear they have the goods on him.  The tinfoil-hat crowd eats it up and begs for more. And they deliver. 

You’ll get more “real” news these days from the supermarket tabloids. There’s just as much truth in tabloid stories about Elvis returning from the dead aboard a UFO with a miracle diet that cures cancer, and that survivors of Atlantis have been found in the Amazon jungle.  

This stupidity and duplicity continue well past Trump.

Professional athletes are taking a knee when the national anthem is played. I couldn’t care less if they kneel, do the Macarena, or the hand jive during the anthem.  Sure, their actions are disrespectful and offensive to a lot of folks, but they are kneeling to raise awareness for something that isn’t true; that black males are systematically being targeted by white police.    

Nobody’s denying that black males are being shot by police at a disproportionate rate to whites or Hispanics. That's absolutely true.  

Want to know why they’re being shot more often?

The simple – but true – answer is that they are disproportionately committing more crimes that draw armed police response than whites or Hispanics, especially in high-crime areas. 

You can argue why they are committing more crimes that get them shot. But blacks getting shot by police has little to do with racism.  The stats show blacks are no more likely to be shot by a white officer than a black officer, either – that rate follows pretty much the makeup of a specific police force and the crime rate in the area where they were shot.   

Go ahead.  Look it up. These are equal-opportunity shootings.

If pro athletes want to protest something, maybe they should focus on the fact that the number one cause of death among young black males is murder, typically by another black male.  The number one cause of death among young white males is car accidents.

Now that’s something valid to protest. 

Given the rampant stupidity on the left and among Democrats, I’m surprised someone hasn’t suggested giving cars to young black males so their deaths in car accidents can equal those of young white males. Clearly there’s a racist death inequality that must be addressed. 

Nope. They are blaming guns. And systemic racial injustice.

I’m also weary of the bald-faced lies about illegal immigrants that have been here for years. If they’ve been here that long, and want to be citizens, why didn’t they ever apply for citizenship? 

Next, there’s the BS that they are a net positive to our economy and give back more than they ever take.  Nobody with the good sense God gave a sweet potato believes – despite what Democrats and activists claim – that these illegals haven’t been fraudulently collecting public assistance, receiving subsidized healthcare, getting a driver’s license, and even sometimes voting, all along.

Of course they have. That’s why they are still here.  

They’ve been getting all the benefits of being a citizen without the bother of doing the paperwork. And as to the amount of taxes they pay, get real; they’ve gotten a lot more out of our system than they’ve ever paid in. That’s if they pay taxes at all. 

They also send more untraceable money out of this country than they ever spend here. Remittances from illegals are a major source of income for Mexico. Doubt that? Just wait in line some afternoon at any grocery store that does money orders.  See who is buying and sending money orders.

These illegals aren’t cowering in the shadows, fearful of being found and deported, either. We know who and where they are – we could easily round them up any time if we wanted.

But our politicians from both parties don’t want to. 

The only reason they haven’t been tossed out by now has nothing to do with compassion.

It has to do with political power and economics.

Democrat mayors in major cities don’t want them out because they fill the population void left by middle class families fleeing urban crime and corruption.  Overall population – not just legal citizens – is a big part of the Federal funding formula. Federal money covers a lot of sins and keeps Democrats in power. It subsidizes projects that reward their friends in the unions, who return the favor by supporting Democrats at election time. 

Big business also doesn’t want illegals out. Illegals work cheaper than citizens. It’s not just big business, either: the agriculture industry here – whether that’s mushroom farmers, poultry processors, or even small family farms – all depend on cheap labor from illegals, too.  Finally, the Catholic Church, which has seen declining numbers of worshippers over the years, sees more illegal immigrants, especially Hispanics, as a way to reverse that trend.        

Then there’s the nonsense about the “dreamers.” True, they didn’t ask to come into this country, but they are still here illegally. What part of “illegally” don’t people get?  

There’s a case to be made that they should be offered a path to citizenship – after all, they’ve been here almost all of their lives already.  Yet that’s not what they want – they want immediate citizenship; total amnesty, with no strings attached. In fact, that’s what they are demanding. 

To which I say, or what? If we don’t give that to them, what can they do? 

Leave?

That’s the problem I keep having. There are so many groups demanding something. They always threaten – something   Pro athletes, social activists, BLM, Antifa, immigration advocates, whomever. But exactly what are they threatening? And should anyone care?  

Nobody in power is willing to call their bluff. Somebody should.   

This nation is enduring what now seems like an endless series of tantrums. Against Trump. Against alleged racist attitudes. Against police shootings. Against deporting illegals. Against building a wall on our southern border.  Against reducing our spending on stupid social programs that don’t accomplish anything. Against eliminating ObamaCare and reining in Medicaid. Against closing failing public schools and allowing parents more choice.  Against restoring Constitutional rights on college campuses. Against draining the swamp that’s DC. 

I have to keep asking this question: If we don’t accede to these tantrums, what happens? 

What is the “or what,” quite simply?

Suppose we simply ignore them. What’s their recourse?       

Not a Hell of a lot. They can protest peacefully all they want. But if they break the law – any law – while protesting just arrest them. Forget about the optics. Forget about their skin color, where they’re from, or where their parents are from. And if the media interfere with the arrests, arrest them, too. 

We need to get back to being a nation of laws, instead of a nation of constant complainers. 

I’m not endorsing a police state, by any means. 

But I am saying it’s time we stop letting the whiners run the show.  If they have a legitimate complaint, and a realistic solution, fine.  Let’s discuss it, rationally, without the implied threats. 

Otherwise, I say call their bluff.  Make them put up or shut up. 

Or just ignore them. That’s what I’m planning on doing. 

Everybody needs to understand that you should never deliver an ultimatum without a clear understanding of the consequences. 

And sometimes people will call you out.