Michael Moore's Insane Rant

According to news reports,Director Michael Moore is claiming that President Donald Trump is "pretending to have COVID-19 to win sympathy amid his dwindling poll numbers, or attempting to have the election day pushed back from November 3."

First of all, where is the sympathy? Immediately following the reports of Trump having COVID-19, many of the Left went to social media to express their joy at the news and their wish that Trump die of the disease.

Secondly, to believe that Trump is lying, you have to believe that the medical professionals in charge of treating the President are also lying. There's no whistle blower at Walter Reed hospital willing to expose the lie?

Moore also believes the lying is an attempt to postpone the election. Sorry, Michael, the election cannot legally be postponed regardless of Trump's (or Biden's) health.

Not wanting to waste an opportunity to concoct a conspiracy theory extraordinaire, Moore also believes this could be Trump's way of stepping down before the election so that President Pence can pardon Trump of any crimes he may have committed.

Moore finished his rant by admitting that Trump 'probably does' have COVID-19.

Fun With GIMP

Music Most Lame

For the first time in his fifty eight year career, Bob Dylan has finally charted a number hit on Billboard with a 17 minute "song" entitled Murder Most Foul.

I was tempted to refer to it as Music Most Foul after my attempt to listen to it, but that changed to Music Most Boring until finally deciding on the title of this post, Music Most Lame.

 I couldn't force myself to listen to the entire song, although I was able to scan over the lyrics found online.

Dylan was 22 when JFK was assassinated - I was 11 - and he's still processing it's meaning today. For many years, when I was growing up, no one spoke any ill of President Kennedy. We were convinced that he had been a saint. My generation came to hate the Vietnam War and the U.S. Presidents involved in the war - particularly Johnson and Nixon, but we were ignorant for the most part, of Kennedy's role in the war.

Being currently trapped at home during this covid19 pandemic I've been spending a good deal of my time watching Netflix. As I write this, I've just finished watching two episodes of Ken Burn's documentary of the Vietnam war and my opinion of JFK has fallen. Kennedy's reputation had suffered in my view years ago when I first learned of his extramarital affairs and now it's at rock bottom.

Little wonder that he was so admired by Bill Clinton.

ECQ Day One

Today is the first day of what we've been told will be a two week Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in an attempt by the Provincial Governor of Negros Oriental to stem the tide of the corona virus here.

We've been pretty much on a lock down status for a few weeks, but this will be Quarantine on Steroids.

Students and seniors, 65 and older had been ordered to stay at home a while back, and that rule remains in effect. We've all been under a 9:00PM to 5:00 AM curfew for weeks, however now the restrictions on everyone else in the province have gotten tighter.

Only one person from a household will be allowed outside the home, and that person is severely limited as to where and when he can go out. Each household has been issued a quarantine pass which must be presented at checkpoints. I've been told that the person going out must surrender his ID at the checkpoint and must return home through the same checkpoint within a certain time frame in order to retrieve the ID.

I'm pretty much a homebody, so the quarantine hasn't been a burden for me, although now it will be a little more complicated getting my money from the bank. That is my main complain now.

This call for an ECQ apparently comes a recent event at a port in Sibulan, Negros Oriental. The borders of the Province had been closed, with only cargo being allowed to enter. Out of humanitarian concerns, a passenger ferry was allowed to bring home stranded residents of Negros from Cebu island. Photos of the arriving passengers were posted onto social media. These photos showed that these passengers were not practicing "social distancing" and most were not wearing masks. None of these arriving passengers underwent any medical exam, we're told that the passengers were not instructed to self quarantine.

These photos sent the local medical community into a frenzy; generating a petition from front liners to the Governor demanding an ECQ.

I suspect this move by the Governor is based more on politics than on anything else.

The powers that be in our area are notorious for not enforcing laws and regulations. It remains to be seen how this will work out.

Clint, Say It Ain't So

It's not easy for me to criticize Clint Eastwood. I've been a fan of his since the days when he played Rowdy Yates in the t.v. series, Rawhide. I'm a bit confused, however after reading about a couple of comments he is reported to have made in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.

For the article, he spoke briefly on his two year term as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in the late 1980s.

One of Mayor Eastwood’s first acts—widely reported at the time—was to reduce the onerous municipal prohibitions on the public sale of ice cream. More than three decades later, he laments that the Golden State is “like Regulation City right now.” An excess of rules is “making California a place other than a democracy.”

Fine, I certainly approve of any attempt to reduce government regulations. However, at the very end of the article, Eastwood is quoted as saying, regarding the upcoming Presidential election, "The best thing we could do is just get Mike Bloomberg in there".

Wait a minute. As mayor of NYC, Bloomberg was the emperor of the "sugary drinks portion cap rule" (aka soda ban). As mayor, Michael Bloomberg never saw a government regulation he didn't love.

If Eastwood is critical of California being "Regulation City right now", how could he support a candidate that would make the entire U.S. just like California?

Is Anyone Buying This?

We all get advertisements popping up on Facebook. However, because of the nature of Facebook, we aren't necessarily seeing the same ads.

Because I live in Philippines, I often see ads for an online store here - shoppe.ph -. I'm posting screenshots of items recently featured in the shoppe.ph Facebook ads. These items all display an old style hammer and sickle from the now defunct Soviet Union. Is there really a market for these items here in Philippines? I can't imagine these things being purchased in this country.

Am I wrong?

On the other hand, after coming upon coffee mugs with swastikas I shouldn't be surprised at anything.

Not A Laughing Matter

Or should I say NALM?

A couple of days ago, Rush Limbaugh made reference to an article at U.K Telegraph which stated that, according to a survey, in the United States seventy percent of people between the ages of 16 and 24 had never heard of Mao Tse-tung and 40% of them had never heard of Joseph Stalin.

Perhaps that's why I received so little response to a MAO - LMAO meme I had posted on Facebook or the jpeg of Hillary Clinton dressed like the Chairman. I guess nobody understood the reference.

I'm reasonably sure that even though these young people might not know of Mao Tse-tung and all the horrendous things he did to the Chinese people, they should recognize Bernie and AOC.

New Democrat House Member Calls for Trump Impeachment

I want to state at the beginning that I will not censor so-called profanity in this post. If you find such words objectionable, then discontinue reading this and retreat to your safe zone.

Rashida Tlaib is half of the duo that became the first Muslim women to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the other being Ilhan Omar, of whom I wrote about when some became upset when they believed the removal of the House ban on headgear would allow Omar to wear a Hijab on the House floor.

I've come upon a few comments on Facebook by some folks who've gotten the vapors over Muslims being elected to office. Ironically, these are the same folks objecting to government discriminating against Christians. If someone wants to cast their vote for a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Atheist or worshiper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then it's none of our business.

It isn't Tlaib's religion that has her in the news today. Speaking to a crowd at an event sponsored by progressive Democrats - yes, I know I'm being redundant - Tlaib said, regarding President Trump, ".......we're gonna go in there and we're going to impeach the motherfucker."

Of course, that comment caused more Americans to get the aforementioned vapors. One isn't allowed to say the word "motherfucker" in polite society, after all.

Others were upset that the vulgar word "impeach" was also used.

Obviously, I'm not easily offended by the word "motherfucker" - I wouldn't have used it so many times in this post if I were. You know, "sticks and stone......." and all that.

I just see the absurdity of trying to impeach Trump. Sure, there are enough far-out Democrats -again I'm being redundant - in the House to impeach him, but the whole thing will come to nothing because the Republican controlled Senate will not vote to remove him from office.

Any Democrat who believes otherwise is just a stupid motherfucker.

Obama Fans/Trump Fans - Birds of a Feather

A little over three years ago, before Trump was elected President of the United States, I wrote a blog post where in I said that Barack Obama and Donald Trump were two sides of the same coin. Now, after two years into the Trump presidency, my belief in that position is even stronger.

I observed as early as January 2016 that both Trump and Obama are narcissists with followers that have fallen victim to a cult of personality.

When I read Internet comments of Obama lovers/Trump haters and the Internet comments of the Trump lovers/Obama haters, I see that both sides are operating under intense emotions with little or no objectivity.

A quote from an article on goodtherapy.org can be used to describe both groups :
"A common theme in hatred is a complete negation of the humanity of the other person or an inability to believe that the other person has any redeeming qualities or any worth".

Neither side is able to accept any criticism of their guy and anyone speaking in the least way about a positive quality the other might have is branded an enemy as well, and perhaps the spawn of Satan.

Both sides love comparing the other guy to Adolf Hitler without realizing that you immediately lose any argument once you've resorted to Reductio ad Hitlerum.

I haven't gained any friends or changed any minds trying to point out the flaws in either side. I'm attacked while attempting to remain reasonable.

The Trump haters will say vile and vicious things about Trump's wife and children just as the Obama haters will give no quarter to his family.

Sadly, I don't see any end in sight and I'm not optimistic about the sanity of the United States.

A Ghost From Decembers Past

Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled Oh, He's Such a Trump.

Being the old fart that I am, I had forgotten that I had written a post covering the same subject in February of 2017 - Trump : Are We Finally On "The Road to Understanding" ?

Can one plagiarize oneself?

At any rate, it gave me the idea of looking at previous posts with the idea of possible updates. I began by looking at what might be called the ghosts of Christmases past, or at least the ghosts of Decembers past.

That look brought me to this jewel from December of 2014 - The Warren/Clinton Slugfest , when some felt that Elizabeth Warren might make a good POTUS. That was four years ago, and I think there are very few today who would give Warren the same chances in 2020.

That being said, the highlight of that previous post was my inclusion of a Youtube video called "Run Liz Run". When I added the video, I said that, if I were a Hillary Clinton supporter, I would make every effort to make "Run Liz Run" go viral.

The song in the video is horrible. It still remains to be seen if Hillary will make another attempt at the White House, but should Warren test the waters, any Democrat opponent should encourage this video to sweep the Internet.

Gandhi: India's Robert E. Lee?

Although it had once been the latest craze in civil disobedience and protest, one doesn't see much in the news of late, concerning the removal of Confederate monuments throughout the U.S. . There was a time when you couldn't go to an online news source without reading a story covering the public cries for - and against - the removals. The last one I recall coming across was a story from more than a year ago, when then Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams from Georgia was calling for the removal of the three Confederate war leaders carved on to the face of state-owned Stone Mountain.

My personal view is that it is long past time for any monument to the Confederacy to be removed from places of prominence. I see no reason to honor the likes of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, or any of their ilk.

It's come to my attention, that there are calls being made outside the United States, to remove statues of other notable figures, who are now looked upon as less than admirable by some. A statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi has been removed from Ghana's most prestigious university following complaints that he was racist against the black Africans, and over 3,000 people have signed a petition opposing a planned statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Malawi's commercial capital Blantyre.

Though Gandhi is more commonly remembered for his non-violent resistance to British colonial rule in his native India, his legacy in Africa is mixed.

One website detailing Gandhi's dark side gives the following :

"While Gandhi's time fighting for the rights of Indians in South Africa is often now mythologized as the heroic precursor to his later efforts in India, the dark side of this tale reveals that Gandhi's motivations in South Africa included his strident racism against the local black populations there."

'Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir [a slur now classified as hate speech and generally considered to be the equivalent of "nigger" in the United States] whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness,'   Gandhi said during an address in Bombay in 1896.

It's more than a little bit ironic that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had noted Gandhi as a positive influence on his philosophy and non-violent approach, without knowing Gandhi's racist views toward black Africans.

House Rules Might Now Allow Hijab on House Floor.

Normally, I tend not to disagree with Rush Limbaugh very often, but I believe that with a recent Facebook post, he's needlessly causing a fuss over nothing.

When posting a link to his comments on Democrats' plans to change a House rule that bans the wearing of hats on the House Floor, in order to accommodate Minnesota Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar, a Muslim who wears a headscarf, he added this line above the Facebook entry :

"A 181-year-old rule in the House of Representatives says no religious head wear may be worn. She’s the one challenging that."

Naturally, thousands of comments were left on that post - most probably ridiculous and over the top. Of course, I didn't read all of the more than five thousand comments, but those I did read were highly critical of changing the 181 year old rule in order to accommodate a Muslim - separation of Church and State and all that.

If one were to take a moment to do a bit of research, it becomes pretty clear that the ban has nothing at all to do with "religious headwear". Put simply, it's a ban on hats and all head coverings while on the House floor.

I don't really see the harm in allowing female Muslim members of the House of Representatives to wear a head scarf, if they choose to wear one. That's contrary to one comment, however, which reads:

"She will brazenly wear her hijab. And NO ONE will stop her. Muslim Privilege. IT will be the DEMISE of America and Western Civilization".

There were also comments on the (current) ban on yarmulkes, like this one:

"Why do we have to change our rules/laws to accommodate when Jewish members never asked asked [sic]."

I'm no authority on Jewish law, but it is my understanding that there is considerable debate as to whether or not wearing a yarmulke at all times is required. I'm quite sure that, had a Jewish member of the House felt he was required to wear one, he would have been accommodated.

The current ban would also apply to House members wanting to wear baseball caps in support of their local team. House members from Massachusetts can't wear Red Sox caps to celebrate their team winning the World Series this year. That would probably suit the New York and Los Angeles Representatives just fine.

I'm sure the rule change will be supported by all House Democrats - there may be some grumble from a few House Republicans. The shoe would've been on the other foot, so to speak, had a newly elected House member asked to have the ban dropped in order to allow him to wear his MAGA cap.

It would then be the Democrats supporting the 181 year old tradition.

Mark Shea is Such a F***ing Liar

So-called "Catholic writer" Mark Shea hates Donald Trump with a fiery passion. This isn't just a mild dislike, but a blinding hatred which seems to force Mr.Shea into posting lies about the President.

Look, I can understand not wanting Trump to be POTUS. He's hardly my first choice. During the 2016 Presidential race, I frequently compared having to choose between Trump or Clinton to being the equivalent of deciding if you want mustard or mayo on your shit sandwich.

That being said, Shea's hatred of Trump has pushed Shea over the edge. In a recent post, Shea posted the above photo while stating "This is a bus for babies snatched away from their parents at the border by our sadistic border policies." The statement provides a link to Shea's "proof". Clicking on his link takes one to Snopes.com for a fact check, and he uses the link and photo to provide evidence that Trump is a Fascist and a racist.

First of all, the bus is not the product of Donald Trump. According to the Snopes fact check, the photograph "was featured in a 29 April 2016 Geo Group press release describing the purchase of two 'New Specialized Transport Buses' outfitted with convertible child safety seats, intended to be used to carry children ranging from ages 4 to 17 for medical treatment, to court appointments, and on monthly offsite field trips". In other words, the bus is a creation of the Obama administration.

Secondly, according to the link, the babies carried on this particular bus are not "snatched away from their parents at the border". U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) maintains a family detention facility for undocumented immigrants called the Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas. The Karnes facility houses women with children, and it provides educational services (as well monthly field trips) to the school age children held there.

"Residents are provided education programming, medical care, recreation, visitation facilities, recreation, life skills/chores, study time, group interaction, free time, and access to religious and legal services. All residents of school age are offered educational services through a certified charter school. Each classroom is equipped with state-of-the-art smart-boards which allow children to interactively participate in classroom instruction. Field trips are provided monthly for all children to local parks, libraries, and other community events."

Either Shea did not read the entire article he linked to, or he has poor reading comprehension.

I wanted to leave a comment on Shea's blog to call him out on his lie and his calumny toward the President, but I'm banned from leaving comments on his blog.

Trump's Military Parade

Everything has become so predictable. This is especially true regarding any and all reactions to President Trump.One group will support the President, regardless of what he says or does. Likewise, another group will attack Trump as a matter of course.

The Trumpanistas probably would support the POTUS if he committed a murder on Times Square and the Leftist anti-Trumpists would attack him even if he favored something which they had supported themselves.

Folks like myself, who try to remain objective, will not receive slack from either side should we say something even slightly for or against the President.

It came as no surprise to me when I received an email from change.org alerting me to a petition against Trump's plan to have a military parade and anyone who reads Mark Shea already knows how he'd react to the parade.

Just as we all know that the folks at the hill.com would love the idea of a military parade, we all know the Huffington Post would declare the parade to be a waste of money.

I'm not even surprised that the Atlantic would publish 2 opinion pieces - one 'fer it and one agin it.

Me?

Maybe, as an American living outside the USA, some might say I shouldn't have a say in all this. Perhaps they're right. But, really, this parade kerfuffle seems a bit much about nothing. Not even as a nothing burger.....more like a nothing tuna sandwich.

I've No "Core Canadian Values".

According to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Bieber Justin Trudeau, being pro-life, I am not in-line with the Canadian government nor who Canadians are as a society.

Just what I need.....another reason not to visit Canada.

Hopefully, No More Moore.

For reasons that I do not understand, I have been receiving emails from Roy Moore's campaign for close to two years. I am not now, nor have I ever been registered to vote in Alabama. I have disliked Moore for years - ever since his attempts to post Ten Commandment monuments on government property.

His emails have been going straight into my spam box since the very beginning.

I would never vote for Moore; the claims that he had tried to have sex with a 14 year old girl when he was in his thirties certainly didn't change my mind.

In spite of the fact that Roy Moore says the 'Battle Is Not Over' in Alabama Senate Race, I'm no longer getting spam emails from his campaign. Thank goodness.

I'm hoping I'll hear no more from Moore.

The Left Embraces the Anti-Science Label.

For quite some time, Democrats and other assorted Leftists have attempted to mock Republicans and Conservatives as anti- science. Republicans are seen as anti-science by the Left because of some Republicans views on Climate Change and Evolution/Creationism.

According to an article at theatlantic.com, however, that while it's sadly true that half of all Republicans believe the Earth is only 10,000 years old, 34% of Democrats believe the same. Also, according to the same article, twice as many Democrats as Republicans believe in astrology.

Democrats most often reject science when it deals with sexuality; Liberals and Progressives reject the scientific fact that the fetus growing inside a human female during pregnancy is a unique, human being in its own right. Despite having it's own unique DNA showing otherwise, the pro-abortion Left believe this human being is actually a body part of the female; or worse; that the fetus is a parasite growing inside the female host.

While eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth, most Democrats and Democratic leaning voters (64%) take the opposite view and say a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth. This unscientific belief held by a majority of Democrats is contrary to what scientists know about DNA and the different chromosomal makeup of males and females.

Now, to further show that Democrats make up the anti-science Party, Sara Giordano, assistant professor of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at UC Davis, maintains that science is rooted in racism, and has been used to perpetuate racism and colonial practices. Giordano has vowed to "challenge the authority of Science" by "rewriting knowledge" through a feminist lens. She also believes "We need to disrupt the epistemic authority of Science…[and] the assumption that science = truth."

Giordano hopes that people will soon come to "embrace an irreverent disdain for traditional science and instead practice feminist science," adding that this is time for a "much needed anti-science, antiracist, feminist approach to knowledge production."

It appears that science has rejected her views on "gender", and now Giordano wants to reject science.

Grace is no longer Slick

It doesn't bother me that Grace Slick doesn't care for Donald Trump, Madonna, or Kim Kardashian. She's not a fan of the current "younger generation" either. I suppose that's ok because they're probably not fans of her.



No, what did bother me about the recent Variety.com article on Grace Slick is Variety's use of a photograph for the article that has to be at least fifty years old.

Grace Slick is a 'has-been' who hasn't been relevant musically for many, many years; not even as a nostalgia act. The only way Slick's opinion of the current POSTUS could be relevant to today's young radicals is for news about her to use her younger, more attractive, hipper photos.

Grace Slick will be 78 soon. Show her as she really is.

If You Post Confederate Flags on Facebook..........

........go ahead and unfriend me now.

I've been quiet about the riots going on in the U.S. now. I've thought, I'm not there now, let those folks sort this out without my comments. However, after seeing one of my Facebook "friends" post a Confederate flag onto his Facebook page, and write something about our heritage blah, blah, blah, blah, I've changed my mind about keeping silent.

Four years ago, when I discovered that someone I went to high school with was behind the movement to permit homosexuals into the Boy Scouts, I wrote a blog piece entitled Go Ahead, Unfriend Me. It that piece, I mentioned that I had "unfriended" four people over their support of homosexuals in Scouts, and asked that, if I had missed anyone then, by all means unfriend me now.

I feel the same now about this Confederate flag and monument dust up. Within the next 24 hours, after allowing one Facebook friend the opportunity to read this link on Facebook, I will remove him from my list. Should any of my other "friends" post the flag, and I'm not aware of it, go ahead and "unfriend" me.

To show the seriousness of this, I am uploading onto this post a photo of the man most hated by Confederate supporters, the man who burned Atlanta - William Tecumseh Sherman.

Mark Shea Reluctantly Finds Agreement With Jonah Goldberg

In a recent post, Mark Shea reluctantly finds himself in agreement with conservative writer, Jonah Goldberg. I say reluctantly because I suspect that Shea does not normally agree with Goldberg on very much, but now, because Goldberg is being critical of Donald Trump, Shea gives Goldberg faint praise.

I've been a fan of Goldberg for quite a long time. His 2008 book, Liberal Fascism is a favorite of mine. Goldberg's criticisms of Trump do not surprise me at all.

In Shea's blog piece - linked to above - he mentions re-reading Perelandra. My immediate reaction was that it's so typical of Shea to reference "sci-fi nerdy stuff" when trying to make a point. In all fairness, I haven't read any of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy and I should give it a shot before being too harsh toward the work. I'm hoping that the trilogy is better than Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. I read that book in 2016 and was sadly disappointed.

The books in the trilogy - Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength - are in the public domain in Canada, and are available as pdf at a Canadian website. A Google search of each title, plus "pdf" will lead one where one wants to go in order to download the books.