I Can’t Never Did Anything…Making America Great Again May Be A Simple Matter Of Changing How We Think

I am going to start this piece with a little gift of five magic words for you: “I CAN’T never did anything.”  They are words that I heard many times growing up. They were sometimes spoken harshly, other times spoken as encouragement. They were never spoken to deride, diminish or demean. They were spoken by a man that lived by them. That man was my father.

 

My Dad was a fighter. He lost his own father when he was 9 years old. In order to help support his family, he worked several jobs while he went to school. He did his homework late at night after he got home from work. In 1944, he graduated as class valedictorian then went into the Navy to fight for his country. He was near the top of his class in radio school where he learned the emerging technologies of RADAR and LORAN systems. He was on one of the first hurricane hunter missions where the Navy flew a plane into the eye of a storm. On that mission they lost an engine and nearly went down, but they fought their way back.

 

In his career, my father advanced by solving problems. Adversity was his friend and constant companion, and he used it to excel. As a result, the young man who started out climbing poles for the phone company in 1946 retired from one of its executive offices in 1982. Along that journey, he lived by his personal standards of fairness and hard work. He imparted those standards to the people around him, and held them to account. I suspect that he pulled many of those people along with him. Those of us who were privileged to know him were taught a valuable lesson: It’s not what happens to you in life, it’s what you do with it.

 

“I CAN’T never did anything.” It was a phrase that defined my father, his generation, and many generations before his that had the benefit of being born in this country. The term “American Exceptionalism” is often confused with patriotism and nationalism. Those things do grow from it but we as Americans are not exceptional because of some genetic trait. America is exceptional because its founding permitted citizens to profit from their dreams, to express what they felt, to freely create and produce, and to be who they were without interference from a king, sovereign, or politburo. Americans by benefit of our Constitution are free spiritually, intellectually and economically. Liberty combined with free markets empowers all men and women. That power feeds the human spirit with inspiration, imagination, and faith. It makes an individual think “I CAN”.

 

Put more simply, when I told my father:  “I CAN’T” do so and so because of such and such his response was “I CAN’T never did anything” (often accompanied by a cuff to the back of my head).  The lesson was that you won’t know what you can do until you try. You may try and fail, but when you try and succeed you gain character and self-worth. Once that lesson is learned, a person will try on their own to extend themselves and take risks toward further accomplishments, and they will do so without a smack in the head.  Dreams and successes perpetuate themselves, and when human beings are permitted to think in such a way, Greatness often occurs. This is Who We Are as Americans.

 

So how, you may ask, did Donald Trump win a presidential election running on the slogan “Make America Great Again?” It’s because Who We Are has changed. Who We Are is beaten down and stepped on. Who We Are is confused, depressed, angry and afraid. Anger and fear are the enemies of creativity. Confusion and depression sap the foundations of hard work and accomplishment.

 

The things that are changing us have been growing in this country for decades. Consider that in 1930 we built the Empire State Building in 410 days. In 1968, we built the two World Trade towers in three years; they were taken from us on September 11, 2001. The Freedom Tower that replaced them was not completed until 2013. It took us six years to build it and five years before that to figure out how we wanted to do it. The Keystone XL Pipeline was started in 2010 and it may never be finished. We seem to have developed an inherent inability to move, to focus on what needs to be done, to isolate what problems need to be solved. We have changed how we think.

 

There are two fundamental reasons for this change, and the first one is our government. The government of our founding was an enabler. Its job was to ensure our safety, enforce our laws and to hold an even playing field so that we as individuals could grow. The government we have now is an oppressor, here to tell us what we must and must not do. It stops us at every turn to check in and make sure we are still doing those things correctly. It stifles our ability to think freely and slows our ability to grow.  It makes us think “I CAN’T.”

 

When Barack Obama had the unmitigated arrogance to tell our nation’s business owners “you didn’t build that,” he was in essence saying, “You pathetic little people. You cannot create anything without us. You cannot succeed unless we tell you how to make your products, who you will hire, where you will get your health care, and how you will distribute your profits.” This really sucks the enthusiasm out of the old entrepreneurial spirit.

Facing such obstacles, it’s easy to think “why bother?” Just put your dream aside and become one of the 49.5% of Americans now on some form of public assistance. Public assistance is not a bad thing mind you, but when it becomes a way of life it too saps the basic human need for fulfillment and fosters thoughts of “I CAN’T.”

 

When I was having trouble getting my own business off the ground my father gave me another quote. He said, “the only way an airplane ever takes off is by running it flat out and straight into the wind.” I think of these words often when in need of inspiration, but lately I am reminded that no airplane can take to the sky with two tons of government on each wing.

 

The other problem we have with how we think is how we speak. Your words are a reflection of your thoughts and likewise what you say changes how you think. Just ask Winston Smith from Orwell’s 1984. Our current national lexicon is changing, and not for the better. Our confusion and loss of self-worth is supported by our very language. Less than two years ago, a person claiming that “All lives matter” was considered to be fair and moral. Say it today, and you are labeled a deplorable racist.

 

We are continually fed euphemisms that obfuscate the true meaning of things. Global Cooling became Global Warming, which then became Climate Change. The underlying message is that whenever the weather is bad, it’s your fault. That part is still the same.

 

The term “Sanctuary Cities” is a dangerous euphemism. “Sanctuary Cities” are places where the local government protects illegal immigrants (undocumented workers) from federal prosecution for violating our immigration laws. It does this while providing these people taxpayer funded services meant for its citizens. Previously, this activity would be referred to as “aiding and abetting”, or “harboring a fugitive”, both of which are felonies.

 

In December 2016, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser asked her city council to deny shelter to homeless people if they couldn’t prove they were from her city. It seems the district was spending $80,000 a day on hotel rooms because their homeless shelters were full of outsiders who crossed their borders. The mayor’s concern was that the city’s budget would soon be exhausted and there would be no money to take care of their citizens. Interestingly, the same mayor proudly proclaimed that the District of Columbia would remain a “Sanctuary City”. Was she insane or just confused?  It’s hard to tell these days.

 

President Obama was fond of telling us “That’s not Who We Are” when trying to convince us to accept things that he thought were ok, but we were too small minded, selfish, imperialistic or racist to agree. He used this phrase 46 times during his presidency to support things like open borders, Islamic terrorism in our homeland, or the takeover of our healthcare system. I find this particularly distressing because I don’t think he ever had a clue as to Who We Are, and after eight years of his leadership WE no longer know Who We Are. We don’t even know which bathroom to use. 

 

In 2016, Boston, Chicago, and New York were among many major metropolitan areas that saw a surge in their rat populations. Health concerns became serious. Rat abatement budgets swelled. People even began using feral cats to help with this growing problem. Then someone came up with the idea of putting dry ice down the rats’ burrows and covering their holes. When dry ice melts, it turns into Carbon Dioxide (CO2), which is actually used in laboratories to humanely euthanize test animals. CO2 is also heavier than air, so it sinks to the bottom of a burrow and kills the rats underground where they die peacefully and don’t even need to be picked up. Carbon Dioxide is a gas found naturally in our environment, it is what we exhale and what plants absorb. It is not only better for the environment than rat poison, it’s cheaper. Genius! The idea started in Boston, then quickly spread to New York and Chicago which reported a 60% decrease in its rat population that summer. Ideas like this are what used to make people rich in this country. But now…

 

In September of 2016, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) began protests in Chicago claiming that rats do not deserve to die from dry ice and instead “merit our protection.” Then in October, all three cities were told to stop the use of dry ice for rat abatement because they were in violation of federal law. It seems that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have dry ice registered as an accepted rodenticide. As 2016 came to a close the practice was stopped, and once again “Who We Are” was defined by complicated federal guidelines and “I CAN’T” raised its ugly head. But wait, stop and look at how obvious the solution to this really is…

 

When President Elect Trump made the deal to keep Carrier from moving jobs to Mexico, he inspired a brilliant observation from The View’s chief economic analyst, professor Joy Bahar. While trashing Trump’s idea she noted that, “the problem is we’re losing jobs to robots not to Mexicans…we’re losing it to technology.” I found this a fascinating example of where we are right now, because if you turn this negative thought around, you will see opportunity. If we have for decades been losing manufacturing jobs to cheap foreign labor, and if new robotic technology replaces the need for that labor, then why don’t we focus on becoming the leaders in high tech robotic manufacturing? We could change the labor force from assemblers and laborers to programmers and technicians.  With the help of some corporate tax cuts from an enabling government we could bring manufacturing jobs back from all over the world and end the decades old problem of losing American jobs to cheap foreign labor. It’s all in how you look at the problem, how you think about “Who We Are.”

 

We need to be able to think for ourselves again and, in doing so, realize that the repressive rules and defeatist brainwashing we have been living with is, in the words of Sheldon Cooper “Complete Hokum.” Part of what has been beating us down is the continual claim from those in charge that nothing is “that simple”, that every problem is fraught with a complexity that only our most esteemed intellectuals and brightest politicians (truly a contradiction in terms) can figure out for us. This Hokum is what tells us not to try.

 

Maybe it’s time to start looking inward and realizing that we are not as stupid as our leadership keeps telling us. Maybe we should start to realize that “Who We Are” is the product of what WE do and that WE are the ones who once made this country great. When WE are the brains behind the operation again, and government “for the people, by the people” starts working for us instead of against us, then “Making America Great Again” really will be “that simple”. When we change the way we think and believe in ourselves again, we will start to see problems as challenges instead of insurmountable obstacles. Pick up your dry ice people, and throw it down the rat hole of self-doubt. Stop listening to all the Hokum and listen to yourselves again, and say it with me…“I CAN’T NEVER DID ANYTHING!”

 

Once that is done, “Making America Great Again” requires only three simple steps…

 

First, change government from an oppressor to an enabler. Dismantle our onerous rules, taxes, and regulations. It CAN be done if the people insist on it.

 

Second, give us some positive leadership that believes in the American people for a change. Leadership that supports “Who We Are”, and what we can do. We need leaders who acknowledge an individual’s inherent need to achieve. 

 

Third, get out of the way and let us, the American people do the rest.

 

It Is That Simple!

 

I am thinking of sending this to President Trump to see if it comports with his current agenda. While I’m at it I will ask if in 2020 he can change his campaign slogan from “Making America Great Again” to “I CAN’T Never Did Anything”.  Maybe he will give it some thought. After all, it worked for my father.

 

Buddy Walker

www.buddysays.net

The 2016 Republican Presidential Debates, Roll Up.. See The Show!

Debate- Noun: A formal discussion using skills of reasoned argument with participants taking opposite sides of a specified question.

 

Spectacle – Noun: A public show or exhibition on a grand scale which is mainly attractive to the eye.

 

As television ratings for the Republican presidential debates continue to soar I cannot help but wonder if a Republican party so recently declared dead has found its way to relevance again. Could it be that the Republicans finally have such compelling candidates that people cannot help but tune in to watch them? Or is it that these debates have turned into such a political version of the WWE that like any good train wreck, the public simply can’t look away.

 

Much of the attention paid to these ‘debate presentations’ is of course due to Donald Trump, a man who is difficult not to watch.  He is like nothing else recently seen on any political stage. Add to this the preening, self-important moderators with politically biased agendas, questions predetermined to set the ‘contestants’ against one another, media hype akin playoff football, and the resulting spectacle is something reminiscent of  Emerson Lake and Palmer’s ‘Karn Evil 9’. Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.. and oh, did I mention we have Donald Trump?

 

I really enjoy watching Donald Trump handle the media. After years of watching frightened Republicans dance around the press’s ‘gotcha’ questions The Donald is a real hoot. I must also admit that I enjoyed watching him repeatedly beat up on Jeb Bush and then take his political lunch money. It was like being a kid and watching the Three Stooges again. But it soon wore thin and started to feel ridiculous and ugly. Moe and Curly were a lot more likeable. And other than realizing that old Jeb had no business even being on the stage, none of it helped me decide who to vote for. Soon the Trump supreme with red hair in Cosmoline will eviscerate Jeb’s meme what a scene what a scene.

 

The fun all started during the very first debate when Fox moderator Megyn Kelly asked Donald Trump about his references to women as fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals. She continued with a rather salacious reference he made concerning a certain Celebrity Apprentice contestant ‘on her knees’.  Trump responded with a series of twitter rages and other media attacks that took over the news cycle for the next two weeks. Kelly took a mysterious unscheduled vacation, and from there we were on our way. In the aftermath of the first Fox debate Trump got lots of free campaign coverage,  Megyn Kelly’s celebrity shot to the moon, and we the electorate were fed two weeks’ coverage of sex, innuendo  and ‘bleeding from wherever’. The celebrity Cage Match did nothing to help us review the political ideas and opinions put forth by Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Ben Carson et al. Seven virgins and a mule keep it cool keep it cool..

 

As a conservative I found the initial group of candidates refreshing. They brought more knowledge of the Constitution and strength of character to the primaries than has been seen in a very long time. Not to mention qualities of youth, vigor, and diversity that are usually attributed to those the other side. I wanted to hear what they had to say, and I have not enjoyed watching them asked pointedly self-destructive questions or being pitted against one another as participants in some kind of sleazy political cock fight.

 

I did enjoy the candidates’ revolt against moderators John Harwood and Carl Quintanilla during CNBC debate.  After too many questions concerning why he was NOT qualified to be President Ted Cruz finally pointed out to Carl Quintanilla that this was ‘why the American people don’t trust the media’. The line received much applause. Later Chris Christie after continual interruptions from John Harwood said ‘John, do you want me to answer or do you want to answer?’  In the second Fox debate Cruz once again complained that the questions being asked were nothing more than invitations for the other candidates to attack him. Moderator Chris Wallace responded ‘It is a debate, sir’.  Wallace, who in my opinion was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple, could benefit from reading the definitions listed at the top of this page. In the end the narrative of these debates became about the agenda of the moderators, not the participants, and the electorate was once again denied substantive information. But the ratings were great.

We've got thrills and shocks, supersonic fighting cocks... Come Inside Come Inside…

 

ABC staged its Republican debate the day before The Super Bowl and the similarities were not subtle. ABC opened the broadcast with such pomp and hype that I expected to see roman numerals in event’s title. Then they introduced the candidates with such fervor that I was waiting to see them come running out onto the stage with helmets under their arms…And now from the University of Delaware, weighing in at .136 metric tons, starting wide end Chris Christie... Christie then runs out of the wings passing pom-pom waving Martha Raddatz while fireworks shoot across the stage. The story of this debate, however was how confused the introductions got after Ben Carson missed his que to enter. Some of the candidates hung out in the wings talking while others took to their podiums waiting to begin and when the moderators finally got things sorted out they realized that they totally forgot John Kasich – an omission that I find completely forgivable. Come inside, the show's about to start Guaranteed to blow your head apart… You've got to see the show..

 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) allegedly stacked the deck at the CBS Debate by filling the audience with boisterous pro-establishment voters who vigorously cheered for Bush, Kasich and Rubio while violently booing Trump and Cruz. Google Trends reported a spike in web searches for ‘why are people booing’ by confused viewers trying to figure out what was going on while waiting for rotten tomatoes to start flying onto the stage. It was another example of an outside agenda – in this case the RNC’s – over shadowing the substance of what the candidates had to say. Who won the debate? Certainly not the electorate. The audience was the story of this show and they got so raucous that they sounded like a crowd at the Roman Colosseum. I thought RNC chairman Reince Priebus would come out of the wings wearing a toga and olive branches, walk up behind Donald Trump and give him a thumbs down.

 

Speaking of Reince Priebus and the RNC, aren’t they responsible for these debates?  Is it not their job to put forth these candidates in the most positive light? Should not their highest priority be to help the voting public decide who is the best Republican candidate for President?  Shouldn’t we be able to count on them to produce substantive debates and not spectacles? Given what we have seen to date, their answer to adding substance would include hot dog cannons shooting copies of the Constitution into debate crowds.  Reince Priebus needs to go. And some serious questions need to be asked of the RNC.

 

Why are Republican debates being produced by liberal networks using progressive moderators to ask questions that are irrelevant to anyone voting in the Republican primaries? Why are the debates being run by networks at all?  Is the Republican National Committee getting paid to let these networks take over what is ostensibly their product?  How much are they getting?  Who decided that putting 43 people on a stage and making them hack at one another for two hours constitutes a debate?

 

Here is an idea. Why not change the format to a round-robin series of one on one debates where the questions are written by the voting public, selected by the RNC and published in advance for all to review. Why not use one set of classic parliamentary or debate society rules instead of Marquess Of Queensberry rules and make the moderator little more than a time keeper, not some overblow agenda laden celebrity news buffoon. Why not let the RNC produce the debates, pick and pay for the venue themselves and then open it up to simultaneous coverage by any media outlet that wants to broadcast it. Let the Republican National Committee control the venue, content and questions, let the people voting in the Republican primary finally have a fair and unbiased look at the people they are voting for and let the Republican candidates do the rest. We would like it to be known the exhibits that were shown
were exclusively our own, All our own. All our own…

 

Buddy Walker

Buddysays.net

 

Special thanks to Emerson Lake and Palmer for use of their lyrics.

Here is a link to Karn Evil 9 in case you have forgotten or are too young to remember.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwSTe9uit48

The Progressive Left’s Revised Rules For Hate Speech: It’s Wrong As Long As You Don’t Piss Us Off

While making a speech in North Carolina, conservative presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson made a statement concerning the use of the Confederate flag, saying that its display on private property was not a problem for him. This led Ivy League professor Anthea Butler to tweet that Carson deserved the “Coon Of  The Year Award” for taking such a stand. I find it curious that a prominent member of Ivy League academia would use the word Coon to refer to a black man while the hottest concept on college campuses today is enforcement of the new discourse rules called “Micro Aggression”


Micro Aggression was originally intended to describe implied or loosely veiled insults used to marginalize people in a minority group, particularly those of African descent.  It has now grown into an Orwellian Newspeak used to coerce and control a student’s thoughts and what they can actually say to one another while on campus.


Here are some phrases that students are being told not to use due to their micro aggressive nature:
“America is a melting pot.”
“I believe the most qualified person should get the job.”
“Everyone can succeed in this society, if they work hard enough.”


These are true statements that should offend no one, but the loss of common sense in our progressive educational culture has become epidemic. Colleges that were once intended to educate, provoke thought, and build character now seem to be centers for sensitivity training and indoctrination.  To further promote a culture of victimhood some of these bastions of higher learning are also providing Safe Rooms where students can go if they have heard or experienced anything that has been troubling or traumatic to them. Here the student is supplied with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, play-doh, or video of frolicking puppies to soothe their bruised sensibilities. So much for character building. 

So how is it that the “Coon Of The Year” comment did not cause a massive outrage. Why are we not seeing a tearful apology like that of Paula Deen before she lost her cooking show or a resignation like that of Brendan Eich when he was forced out as CEO of Mozilla?  Anthea Butler is a member of the progressive establishment and for them it’s ok to use hate speech. That’s because they are the ones making the rules. It is a double standard but it cannot be argued with. If you are part of the progressive elite in education, media, entertainment or politics, you are riding the wave of these new enlightened rules and if you decide to break them in order to get one of the rest of us in line, well that’s ok. See? 


Let’s look at a few examples, shall we…


Dr. Carson stepped in it again when he suggested that Hitler would have had much more difficulty with his program to exterminate the Jews had he not first confiscated their guns. Carson went on to say that in mass shooting situations people should not cower and hide but rush their attacker before he has a chance to control the situation. The implication of these comments violates progressive doctrine in two very important ways. First, in suggesting that the confiscation of guns is bad because it can lead to tyranny and holocaust (an absolute truth: see Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin etc.) he violates the doctrine that guns are always the problem and the average citizen is not worthy of their possession – at least not without the blessing of The State. His second statement implies that when one’s life is threatened it is better to fight back as an empowered individual. This is wrong headed and goes against the accepted recommendation to ‘shelter in place’ while waiting for authorities of The State to come and rescue you. Dr. Ben Carson needed to be put in his place for making these outrageous statements. The response was swift and eloquent. 


Movie star Seth Rogen expressed his anger by tweeting out “Fuck You @realBenCarson” and Gentleman’s Quarterly magazine, aka GQ, featured an article by word smith Drew Magary that was not gentlemanly at all. It was titled simply “Fuck Ben Carson”. You may notice a theme here.  Mr. Magary also wrote that Carson, and anyone that would vote for him, was indeed “stupid”. So much for intellectual political discourse on the field of ideas.


Earlier in the year after Dr. Carson made some controversial remarks about homosexuality he was invited by columnist Dan Savage – a man repeatedly hired by educational institutions to talk to our children about bullying – to “ Suck my dick and see if you turn gay”.  As attractive as that invitation may have seemed at the time I believed that the good doctor turned it down.


I think that at this point under our new rules for Micro Aggression Dr. Carson has suffered enough to declare an “Ouchy” and crawl off the stage, but isn’t that really what these people want? So you see, with ends justifying the means, once again hateful and offensive speech for those on the progressive left is ok.


Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, another conservative, when commenting on the Oregon community college shooting suggested that broken family structures contribute to such tragic incidents and that more present and stronger male role models would help solve this problem. Unfortunately that is not the accepted progressive solution. The correct answer here is for government to support unwed mothers and broken families and to care for the broken children that come from them.  Thus fostering more votes for more and bigger government.  Further, as mentioned earlier, they believe in confiscation of firearms from the general population.  That particular solution is not yet a popular one so, using NewSpeak it has been code named , “common sense gun control reforms” and if you do not embrace it you must be attacked.


So we should not be surprised when Esquire magazine published an article by the enlightened intellectual Charles Pierce entitled “Please Punch This Man InThe Dick”.  The article does not seem to focus on any specifics or debate Jindal’s premise but goes on to say “There is no national tragedy that this charlatan cannot make worse.”  This to me would seem to pass right through the boundaries of Micro Aggression speech and moves on toward full blown attack. Perhaps if Governor Jindal were a college student he would need to spend an entire week in the Quite Room staring at puppies.


As a libertarian I do not in fact have a problem with any of these incidents, in fact I condone them as part of the social discourse guaranteed to us in this country under the Second Amendment. It is dangerously wrong, however, that the elite progressive left will not let anyone that disagrees with them enjoy the same freedom of expression.  Right now, these are the people who appear to be calling all the shots. That IS my problem, and I strongly advise that more U.S. Citizens should make it their problem as well.  Before all of us lose our liberty.
Buddy Walker

www.buddysays.net

To Preserve, Protect and Defend....Would President Trump Reinstate the US Constitution Or Become Our First King?

 

Donald Trump has often been accused of not being specific enough when discussing his proposed plans to “Make America Great Again”.  But while the media focuses on whose feelings he has hurt or which racial group he has offended, Trump has published three very impressive position papers, one on immigration policy, another on the Second Amendment and a third on tax reform. Together they look like the plans of a true constitutional conservative. But is that really Donald Trump? Does he really even want to be President Of  The United States, and if he gets the job will he uphold the Constitution or will he uphold Donald Trump?

 

 I think that these questions are exceedingly important considering the constitutional tipping point that we currently face in this country. I believe that the 2016 presidential election will be one of the most important in this country’s history. I also believe that Donald Trump is a real and viable candidate for the presidency and is indeed qualified to do the job.  But as I watch his never ending self-promotion and constant chest thumping I grow concerned as to whether a Trump presidency would help this nation re-assert its constitutional roots or continue the executive branch’s current rise to royalty.

 

In August Mr. Trump published an immigration policy plan that was very specific and very strong in its assertion that immigration laws should protect and serve the interests of American citizens, not those trying to get into the country illegally. The plan was comprehensive, well written, and embraced by many as a program that would really work and work quickly.

 

Trump released another policy paper in September detailing his stand on the Second Amendment. It advocated gun ownership, state reciprocity of concealed carry permits, and an end to government gun and magazine bans. This is the second very specific plan that Trump has put forth, and the second plan that supports the view of a true constitutional conservative.

Most recently he has generated a tax plan that reduces income tax from 7 brackets to 4, cuts the business tax rate to 15%, abolishes inheritance taxes and cuts capital gains. Constitutional conservative Mark Levin called it “a hell of a plan”.

 

How do such detailed and intellectual outlines come from Donald Trump? Known for his bombastic speeches, his showmanship, and his huge ego, Trump is often portrayed as a boorish buffoon and not an intellectual. ‘The Donald’ should not be expected to compose detailed positions on domestic policy. Should he?

 

Let us not forget that Mr. Trump is also an accomplished executive. He sits atop a hugely successful real estate empire and literally wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’ (which he claims sold more copies than any other business book in history). He is not just an executive, he is an executive of considerable success and power and one that should not be trifled with. Just ask him.

 

Detractors will point out that Trump had help with his immigration plan. He did not actually compose the plan by himself. Good executives, however do not need to know everything or do everything themselves. Instead they know how to find the best talents available and use them as advisors or managers who get the job done. This is an extremely important and valuable talent in a leader and at least in part defines the difference between the Carter and Reagan presidencies. Donald Trump does indeed have this executive quality. 

 

To create his immigration plan, Trump engaged the help of Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama who is an expert on immigration and chairman of the Senate subcommittee on same. I do not know if he had someone’s help writing his tax plan or his policy paper on the Second Amendment. If he got help there it could have been from Charlton Heston’s ghost. It is that good, and I could vote for Donald Trump if he really stands by what he wrote. Add to that his ability to cut through the oppressive mire of political correctness, his refusal to back down to the bullying left wing media and wow, suddenly his speeches need to be made from a stadium. …. Let there be no mistake, Donald Trump is for real.

 

The problem is that our country is at a tipping point, teetering between liberty and tyranny. The US constitution and it’s separation of powers have been dismantled and the executive branch of the federal government is gobbling up power like a python in the Florida Everglades. President Obama’s use of the EPA, DOJ, DOE, TSA, FEC, FTC, OSHA, NLRB,  along with his famed pen and phone are quickly transforming the office of president into the office of King, and by 2017’s inauguration there will be in place all of the pieces to build the throne onto which our next leader could ascend.

 

If our next president is truly a constitutional conservative, he or she will dismantle this throne and put the balance of power back where the founders intended it – in the hands of the people. The temptation, however, to become King will be stronger than it has been for any president since George Washington, who was actually offered the job. George Washington was a man of great character who put the concepts laid out in our constitution ahead of any personal glory or gain. Can that same statement be made of Donald Trump?

 

As much as I enjoy watching Donald Trump chew up the arrogant icons in media, culture and politics, his underlying character and intent concern me. Maybe if he presents a plan to abolish rule making by executive agencies, stop run away executive orders and make laws come from Congress again I will be convinced to support him. In the mean time I will sit back and enjoy the show, it has been a really fun ride so far. But I remain cautious. POTUS has become an incredibly powerful office. It is ripe for a King and Donald Trump looks really good in a crown. It shows off his hair.

 

Buddy Walker

The True Crime Of The Confederate Flag                                                                                                                             

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Ever since the Confederate Flag walked into Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and shot and killed nine people it has been under tremendous scrutiny.

 

Within days of the shooting the state of California banned the flag’s display and sale on state property and South Carolina removed it from their capitol. Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia all stopped the display of Confederate Flag license plates, and Alabama ordered that four Confederate flags be removed from a monument on their capitol grounds. Facebook announced that its ban on any posts containing The Confederate Flag that would go into effect the week after Independence Day. Walmart, Amazon, Sears, and eBay all stopped selling The Confederate Flag. Then they stopped selling merchandise that displayed contained, mentioned or slightly resembled The Confederate Flag.

 

None of this is surprising considering the horrible nature of the crime that The Confederate Flag has committed, and by week’s end many more would exact their just and much deserved punishments upon it.

 

The same Confederate Flag that committed the horrific murders in Charleston, South Carolina was painted on the roof of an orange Dodge Charger in the 1970’s TV show "Dukes of Hazzard" and for that reason TV Land pulled reruns of the show and Warner Bros. stopped making and selling "Dukes of Hazzard" merchandise. Golfer Bubba Watson who owns the show’s original car the “General Lee”, announced that he will repaint the car’s roof to remove the offending symbol.  NASCAR announced its plans to limit The Confederate Flag’s presence at its tracks (best of luck with that one) and Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, has taken down its Confederate Flags under a directive by the National Park Service. Gettysburg National Park also removed Confederate Flag items from its bookstore. This makes a great deal of sense because the last place we need to see The Confederate Flag is in a book about the Civil War.

 

During this same historic week North Charleston police Sgt. Shannon Dildine was fired for posting a picture of himself wearing Confederate Flag boxer shorts on his Facebook page. His termination letter said the photo undermined the officer’s “ability to improve trust and instill confidence when working with our citizens.” Chuck Netzhammer walked into a Walmart bakery in Slidell, Louisiana and ordered a cake with an image of The Confederate Flag and the words, "Heritage Not Hate" on it.  His request was denied. As you know, cakes are now a leading barometer of the political and social climate in this country.

 

Yes, the Confederate Flag has been getting more bad press than Donald Trump hosting a Cinco DeMaio pageant, and I think its treatment demonstrates a true need for us to reflect on who we really are as individuals, as a culture, and as citizens living in a nation of laws. What does our response to this tragedy say about our principles and our collective character? Where do we go from here? I have some ideas.

 

First, this is another glaring example of the need for sweeping changes in our gun control regulations. How does the Confederate Flag legally purchase a 45-caliber Glock handgun in the first place? Did they DO a background check?  I know, some of you are still saying guns don’t kill people, flags with guns kill people, but I think that the problem here is obvious and needs to be addressed.

 

Next, we need a drastic rewrite of our history. If the National Park Service sees the need to pull down the flags that flew over Fort Sumter and stop the sale of certain books at Gettysburg, well what more do we need.  Just remove The Confederate Flag from history. How hard can it be? In just one week we have removed it from most of our culture. There is already a detailed design of how to do this in George Orwell's 1984. In the book Winston Smith spends his days at Ministry of Truth "rectifying" historical records to conform to Big Brother's most recent pronouncements. I’m sure that our President would have no problem using his pen one more time to create a Ministry of Truth for us, and our new and improved history will fit right into federal Common Core education standards.

 

Further, in light of our legal system’s embrace of hate crime legislation, a jury will need consider what motive the Confederate Flag had in committing this crime. What was it thinking?  What was it standing for at the time?

 

It has been said that the Confederate Flag stands for many things to many different people. Some say that the flag stands for slavery, others say it stands for southern heritage, there are those from the north as well as south that say it stands for state’s rights. I think we can be sure of one thing here. If the Confederate Flag is truly tied to state’s rights they need not consider the death penalty.  The flag will be dying of natural causes very soon anyway. This should help the jury during the penalty phase of the trial.

 

Seeing what is happening to The Confederate Flag should have a great influence on keeping other flags on the straight and narrow. If there is any debate left on what the Confederate Flag stands for it should be pretty obvious. It stands as an example to other flags that they better not get out of line. I heard a rumor recently that the state flag of Colorado has a drug problem. Don’t say anything..

 

Over the last several weeks The American Flag has been taking a beating in this country as well. It has been burned and stomped on in the streets and public squares across our nation by people telling us that black lives matter and gay pride matters and others that are just really pissed off but have not assigned themselves to a popular cause yet. I am not sure what horrible crime the American Flag has committed. I know over the years it has been accused of many. I think back before prohibition it robbed a liquor store or two. Anyway, I am sure it deserves the punishment that it is now receiving.

 

Perhaps it’s time that we went out and got a new flag. One with less baggage. Maybe the flag of Greece. I hear that we could get a pretty good deal on it about now.

 

 

Buddy Walker

www.buddysays.net

 

Special thanks to Phil Valentine for leading me to this concept. Thanks Phil hope to meet you someday.

 

 

 

 

 

Life In The Land Of Lies

While reading the news last week you may have come to the conclusion as I did that everyone in this country is lying. A more important revelation is that most of these lies are coming from people in positions of leadership and power. My mother has often told me that “there is nothing new under the sun” but I am getting a sick feeling that we are progressing far beyond a few lying politicians. The extent to which everything we are being told is nearly devoid of the truth is to me frightening and becoming downright dangerous.

Am I wrong to be so scared? Here is a review of some highlights from just last week.

 

The week started with Brian Williams taking flak for not taking flak when some Iraq veterans exposed his dramatic 2003 war story as a lie. Williams had claimed for years that the military helicopter he occupied was forced to land while taking RPG fire. This was not true, and once it was reported the flood gates containing a myriad of William’s factual inaccuracies was opened.  By weeks end it was clear that the NBC News anchor was more than someone who creatively embellished a story. He appeared to have a seemingly pathological habit of putting himself into the news events on which he reported. These included stories from hurricane Katrina, the Brandenburg Gate, the Pope, Seal Team Six and one or more puppies that he rescued from a burning building.

 

What is of greater concern here is the credibility of NBC. The last shoe to drop before they suspended Williams was a report that the network had known of his credibility issues for years and ignored them. This is not the first time that the temerity of NBC news has been questioned. In 1993 they were caught placing incendiary devices in Chevrolet trucks to prove they had an exploding problem, and in 2012 they were caught inserting themselves into the Trayvon Martin case by selectively editing George Zimmerman's taped 911 call. They also employ Al Sharpton.

 

 “The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever” was the title of a story The UK Daily Telegraph published the same week.  The story documents the extent to which official temperature records were systematically “adjusted” to show the earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.  This story comes just a week after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claimed 2014 was the warmest year on record, a widely disputed allegation that made headlines worldwide almost instantly. Apparently the taxpayer-funded agency employed fudge factors and dubious temperature estimates rather than objective global data.  The “undisputed scientific fact” of  global-warming that has been beaten into our heads for the past 30 years by educators,  politicians, entertainers, government agencies, movies, commercials, green businesses, the UN  and whatever it is Al Gore has become is quite possibly neither science or fact and could be, dare I say it, a great big fat lie.

 

The credibility of the administration’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also made the news when the CEO of Gallup, Jim Clifton, wrote an opinion piece on the organization’s web site stating that the number of full time jobs in this country as a percent of the adult population “is the worst it’s been in 30 years” and called the government’s 5.6 percent unemployment figure “The Big Lie” in the article’s headline. These unemployment numbers are published by the BLS every month and have been touted since the Great Depression as an important economic indicator.  Of late they are being heralded by both the media and the administration as proof that the US economy is doing just dandy even though most of us living in it have very good personal reasons to believe that it is not. Mr. Clifton is not the first to suggest that these numbers may somehow have become skewed to support current economic policy and may be in the words of George W. Bush “misunderestimated”.

 

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler has acknowledged that the commission decided to avoid congressional input for its new “Net Neutrality” program while adopting Franklin Roosevelt’s 1934 Communications Act to regulate the Internet. To hide this decision from those who care about free speech, markets, and commerce, Wheeler “embargoed” the release of any specifics. The President has touted the plan as a way to make the internet “an even playing field”.  Last Thursday Ajit Pai, a Republican FCC commissioner inferred that the 332-page document is really a scheme by the federal government to extract billions in new taxes and enforce content regulation contingent with the progressive left’s idea of fairness. The FCC’s actions include lies, cover ups, and a blatant act of disregard for the Constitution, but if tyranny exists on an even playing field then I guess its ok.

 

Midweek came revelations from a book written by former presidential adviser David Axelrod claiming that President Obama lied about his support for gay marriage before his election in 2008. Axelrod defended the President’s “evolution” on gay marriage as a matter of political expediency thus proving that the “most transparent administration ever” was off on the wrong foot before Mr. Obama ever took office. Media indignation on this reported lie was at best tepid. One can only assume this is due to the current and widely publicized narrative that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights are without doubt among the most important topics of our time. So it’s ok to lie a little.

 

The President confronted another of our country’s crucial issues during last week’s Grammy Awards presentation when he inserted himself into the festivities with a PSA to bring awareness to rape and domestic violence against women. This is especially poignant considering Kayla Mueller’s recent death at the hands of ISIS. This is beyond a lie. It is an absolute insult to the American people to tell us that we should focus on the ‘abuses’ against women committed by Our culture, Our laws, Our own people while true evil is abusing, enslaving, raping, prostituting, torturing, and killing women all over the rest of the world. Our President has no trouble discussing changing "our culture for the better by ending violence against women and girls" or for that matter the “terrible deeds” performed during the Crusades but he seems unable to string together the words "Islamic Terrorist".

 

The Grammy’s also brought us more evidence of what a colossal ass-hat Kanye West is as he rushed the stage to once again insult another artist. You may remember Kanye from the fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina when he ditched his lines to proclaim that "George Bush doesn't care about black people". Mr. West did not mention New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin who let hundreds of busses go under water and hundreds of thousands of people go un-evacuated. The former mayor is now doing a 10 year stint in federal prison for corruption charges but hey, he meant well, everyone knows that Bush was the real problem. I bring this story up because George Bush has been gone for 7 years and yet the racism in this country apparently continues. With the first black president and first black attorney general it is interesting to see that it’s not George Bush but the nation’s police departments who now “don’t care about black people”.  Instead of putting an end to any perceived race problems we had under the Bush administration, the Obama administration has continued to instigate, foster, and support a narrative of racism in this country, particularly with law enforcement.  It is at best a blatant misrepresentation of the truth. It is extremely dangerous and it’s starting to get people killed.

 

Hillary Clinton has been strangely unobserved of late which is making some curious considering all of the 2016 presidential posturing that’s going on. This prompted RNC chairman Reince Priebus late last week to send a letter to the DNC asking their chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz if the Democratic Party has “suspended” Hillary Clinton in the same way NBC News suspended Brian Williams. You see there is a striking similarity between William’s Iraq helicopter lie and a whopper that Mrs. Clinton told in 2008 about having to do a corkscrew landing while taking sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia as First Lady. She further embellished the story explaining that once on the ground they were told to run for it.  None of this was true and she later recanted saying that she “misspoke” due to “sleep deprivation”.

 

Human nature tells us that someone who is exaggerating on such a large scale for self-aggrandizement is quite capable of doing so for other reasons, and when as Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton made a conscious decision to repeatedly blame the sacking of our Benghazi consulate on a little known internet video called “Innocence of Muslims” she was promoting a serious and dangerous lie. And it is a lie that she may have taken part in fabricating. But, as she said to Congress, “at this point what difference does it make?” Is she right?  If we continue to accept the lies fed to us every day by the people that we elected (or those appointed by the people we elected) to run this country then are we not just getting what we deserve?

 

Last week ended with a story about the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and their plans to regulate the internet. It seems they cannot let the Federal Communication Commission have all of the fun. The FEC is calling for burdensome new rules on Internet-based campaigning that would in effect allow them to control content on ‘political based’ web sites from The Drudge Report to Jib Jab. In the words of FEC Chair Ann M. Ravel. “A reexamination of the commission’s approach to the internet and other emerging technologies is long overdue.” 

 

Ann Ravel’s statement may not be a lie, but the foreboding conclusions one can derive from it create a chilling portent of a grave new direction for this country, one where the very definition of the truth is removed from the citizenry and placed firmly in the hands of the federal government. Anyone else thinking of Orwell’s Big Brother?  Be afraid, be very, very afraid…..

Buddy Walker

What have we become?

Last week four US citizens were kidnapped on the high seas, held hostage, and then murdered buy Somali pirates.
Pirates!?

In response to this atrocity our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged “international partners to provide material, financial and logistical support to an African peacekeeping mission in Somalia”. The last I checked the Somali pirates were holding 30 ships and more than 660 hostages. I’ll bet those folks are really fired up about a ‘peacekeeping mission’.

Excuse my rather boorish and simplistic view of the world but instead of  a ‘peacekeeping mission’ why have we not been watching stuff blow up? Please don’t tell me that Somalia has no organized government and that we have no place to focus our aggression. I’m pretty sure that we know where these ‘pirates’ are hanging out and I see no problem in quickly making that particular place look nothing like it did a week ago.
Pirates!?

In 1801 then president Thomas Jefferson put together a naval force to go half way around the world to Tripoli for the sole purpose of stopping the Barbary Pirates. These pirates had been stealing ships and cargo, as well as kidnapping and murdering U.S. citizens. He did not ask the other nations of the world to support a ‘peacekeeping mission’, he sent a naval force to where the ‘pirating’ was occurring and stopped it. I’d be willing to bet some blood was shed before they got the message, but they did stop and the issue was resolved. Except for one thing… the group formed to go and stop it stuck around. They became known as the U.S. Marine Corps.

That’s right, the same U.S. Marine Corps that has been protecting America and making it proud for 200 years was initiated to stop pirates. Is it possible that the world in the 21st century has become too complicated to have the Marines fix this current problem? Are the Marines still around? Are they available to help us? Oh, I know where they are. They are all stuffed into some university lecture hall learning how to be sensitive to homosexual service men and women.

Now just so you know,  I care not a flying ferret about the sexual preference of any member of the armed forces. What I do feel strongly about is that our military be properly trained to fight and win wars. Not to deal with the identity politics of the persons with whom they are fighting.

Concerning our secretary of state. Do you remember last year when James Carville uttered this jem: "If Hillary gave Obama one of her balls, they'd both have two". If Mrs. Clinton is sporting the pair of danglers that James Carville gives her credit for then why am I not looking at a section of the African coast through the slowly clearing smoke of a bunker buster? Oh, I know why. Hillary is busy attending a sensitivity course for women with testicles and the men who love them.

Thomas Jefferson would be so proud.

Buddy Walker