Random Thoughts for August, 2016. By Robert A. Hall

Feel free to post or forward.

The Dems have nominated the only candidate that Trump could beat. The GOP has nominated the only candidate that Hillary could beat. Stay tuned for November's "Battle of the Bottom-feeders."

Gun Free Zones, appeasement and the TSA all give the appearance, but not the reality, of security.

When General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell was promoted to Major General before WWII, he was surprised by a ceremony he didn't like or want by his staff and troops. He told them that in Asia they say, "The higher a monkey climbs the pole, the more of its ass it shows." Reminds me of the presidential campaign.

Liberals love Islam because they believe they, personally, will never have to live under the oppression of Shari'a law. They may be wrong. Then they will say, "This can't be happening. it's impossible. Why didn't someone do something?

Quote: "The dynamics of a Messiah Complex do not admit of the impossible." --Historian Barbara Tuchman.

Political correctness is the theory that the freedom to say and think what you want is outmoded and must be punished.

Pense is ambitious Republican will took Trump's VP slot in hopes of being the GOP nominee in four years, Trump being 74 then. But not only do I think Trump is likely to be beaten, I think being associated with his administration, if there is one, will be the kiss of political death.

Bernie Sanders, having campaigned against Wall Street excesses, has now endorsed Hillary, the major beneficiary of Wall Street Money--second only to the money she has received from, foreign governments like the Saudis.

Tyrannies of Thought always try to destroy any reference or symbol of the past that existed before they held sway. See the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban, the destruction of churches and monuments by ISIS, the conversion into mosques through history by victorious Muslim conquerors, the currant assault on the rebel battle flag, or Stalingrad, Leningrad and Ho Chi Minh City.

Faced with a crisis, the progressives solution is always to call for a conference, which is as effective as declaring the Orlando nightclub a "gun Free Zone."

Madison, WI where we live has people holding public office who are far to the left of Bernie Sanders.

In my view, I'd have a lot more hope for the country if Mike Pense and Tim Kaine were the GOP and Dem presidential nominees, not the VP picks. Both have sons who are Lieutenants of Marines. Which is not to suggest either of them are close to ideal candidates, just better than Trump and Hillary.

After the convention and Trump's nomination, he is still attacking Ted Cruz. Donaldcrats on Facebook are still sending me memes mocking Cruz. Apparently their strategy for defeating Hillary is to attack Cruz right up to November, so conservatives get his message that he doesn't need or want them. Fine with me.

Just as the left believes in a "Living Constitution" which says whatever they want it to say at a given time, so too do they believe in "Living Language," where words means whatever they want them to mean at the time; e.g. "Justice."

The left must continue to come up with new concepts to fustigate western culture and anyone who resists conformity to the agenda of the hive in their efforts to destroy freedom. Who heard of "white privilege," "microaggressions" or transgenders in the military ten years ago?

I ran into a racist who said that blacks must be encouraged to stay in their own spaces and black students in their own dorms to keep whites safe from them, and that in order that they can get jobs and thus off welfare, there must be lower standards for them in college admissions, grading and hiring because of their lower IQs. I told him he was too late, that liberals had already done all this. Segregated "black dorms" were a fact of life when I was at UMass in 1971. Racists of both colors were delighted with this.

For many atheists atheism is a religion, and they feel as compelled to preach it to convert the unenlightened to their viewpoint as any colonial missionary trying to bring third-world heathens to God.

"The problem is guns," is a Democrat dog whistle to tell Islamists and thugs, "Vote for us; we've got your back."

People are often like kids building sand castles, taking pride in construction and delight in destruction.

People who make "Christian" a curse and anti-Semitism a catechism always want to lecture the rest of us on "tolerance."

It has become a standard for candidates to say they will, "Have our backs." I don't trust either Hillary or Trump to have my back; I keep my wallet in my back pocket.

If the progressive media was forced to cover the famines created by Mao in China and Stalin in the Ukraine to increase their power, resulting in tens of millions of deaths, they would refer to them as "anti-obesity" programs.

If the GOP hadn't made guns so easy to get, the Paris Massacre (whose motive will never be known) would never have happened. Not to mention the mass knife murder in Tokyo and the mass truck murder in Nice.

Sometimes an old friend remembers things differently than you do. And for the friendship, you decide to remember them the same way.

Politically Correct History is fiction.

The problem with too many politicians is that they often have large and fragile ego, thus surround themselves with sycophants and yes-men.

When Americans deal with foreigners, here or there, we are expected to change our customs, habits and behavior so as not to offend them. They have no such requirements.

I read that Asian males make an average of $24 per hour in America, compared to an average of $21 per hour for white males. I suppose this is just another case of Yellow Privilege.

A lot of people are more "patriotic" about local sports teams than about their country.

Election forecast: Gusts of hot air up to 90 MPH, with frequent scattered lies.

A good political slogan produces emotion without conveying information or meaning. There is hardly one, on either side, of which you cannot ask, "What the hell does that mean?"

I'm thinking of starting Bob's Politically Incorrect Brewery. Offerings will include:

• The Raj IPA
• Yellow Pearl Porter
• All Lives Matter Black Stout
• Wetback Wheat
• White Privilege Dark Ale
• Submissive Woman Light
• Rebel Flag Amber
• Income Inequality One Percent Lager
• Transgender Crossover NA
• Too Gay For Me Fruit Flavored Beer
• Mohammad's Pedophile Pilsner
• Trump's Oktoberfest Bankruptcy Beer
• Hillary's Erased Email Ale
• Bill's Blue Dress Bock Beer
• Obama's Black and Tan
• Bernie's Socialist Shandy

Let me know if I missed offending you and I'll try again.

If you vote for someone you know to be an ethical slimeball, regardless of your reason, doesn't that make you a slimeball as well?

You Europeans who smugly blamed 9/11 on the US for provoking Muslims by supporting Israel, please explain the Paris and Nice atrocities to us. France, like most of Europe, has turned a blind eye, and even aided Muslim terrorist attacks on Israel, and bent over backwards to support the Jihadist efforts to fulfill Hitler's dream of extirpating the Israelis. Having swallowed the poison of multiculturalism, unrestricted immigration of a non-assimilating, culturally oppressive Muslim population, and the destruction of its native birthrates, Europe faces a long and bitter illness with the most likely outcome cultural death and submission to oppression. As ye sow...

I hear a lot of folks say that something--a hot car, a new dress, a dessert--is "to die for." I only hear veterans say this about the Republic or about values and principles.

Hillary does everything possible to hide, cover up and distract from her lies and corruption. Trump glories in his. Except, I suppose for his broken promise to release his tax returns. Funny I read he had demanded tax returns from those he is vetting for VP.

Give Obama credit; no one can politicize a funeral like he can.

Election Haiku

The Orange Man speaks.

What broken promise today?

What new lies are told?

Foundation slush fund,

Benghazi dead, email read,

The lies grow quite stale.

If you deny or give a person a job because of the individual's race or gender, you are racist or sexist. Period.

When a system of governance becomes stagnated with petty bureaucratic rules strangling initiative, with corruption, rent-seeking, self-dealing and special pleading, and when the elites display openly their contempt for both the common people and the troops and police who protect them, the system is headed for collapse, usually violent collapse, follow too often by something worse. See Rome, the Byzantine Empire, the Ancien Régime in France, or Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang. Alas, all systems eventually do.

No polemicist worth his spin is ever deterred by facts or outcomes.

No matter how many times braggarts lose battles or elections they "guaranteed" to win, they never seem to learn.

My candidate is candid, yours is tactless.

Ireland's projected growth rate this year has been raised to a whopping 26.3%, mostly due to US corporations moving there to take advantage of the low corporate tax rate. Is there a lesson here for the US, with the highest or second highest corporate tax rate in the world? Nah.

The self-satisfied leftist "America is so terrible" crowd is not going to like what comes next. Guaranteed.

If anti-trade tariffs are so great, as Trump, Clinton and Sanders say, why not let states protect jobs by putting tariffs on products from other states. California and Florida could put protective tariffs on oranges from each other, for example. If this sounds like economic disaster for states, it is for countries too. See the Smoot-Hawley Tariff bill and the resulting Great Depression.

Successful rebellions usually become that which they rebelled against. Revolutionary France was likely more oppressive than the Ancien Regime. In many ways the Chinese Communist Party has become the Kuomintang. And the American republic has proved that Taxation With Representation can be far more onerous than Taxation Without Representation.

Which presidential candidate, known for meretricious mendacity, cares about other people only as long as they are of use?

A. Hillary Clinton

B. Donald Trump

C. All of the above.

Red or blue Kool-Aid drinkers will get this wrong.

Have you noticed that people say, "I freaked out," as though panic and emotional turmoil were an admirable response to a perceived crisis?

Black lives Matter: Purveyors of black racism, promoters of white racism.

Do not be surprised if a President Trump, lacking a deep understanding of the ramifications of political and military action, should launch an air campaign to topple some government that has given offence, without reference to congress. He will have the example of Obama's and Hillary's non-congressional-authorized war in Libya to use as precedent. And the results may be as bad as Libya, where Obama and Hillary have created a failed state and terrorist hellhole.

People always make the statement, "History will say..." Shut up. History will say what it is told to say by the winners.

It is difficult to look at the European Union's relentless, vicious and anti-Semitic campaign against the life of Israel and not conclude that the Vichyists, the fascists and the Nazis have won.

My friend George says he's learned three things this year:

1. It doesn't matter what bathroom you use as long as you can decide to be ambiguous about your gender.

2. You can break a priceless artifact and still keep your job, as long as the right people can agree that the artifact may be offensive.  Remember...they must be the right people who get to decide this...not just anyone...so be careful what you choose to break.

3. You can ignore your oath to protect classified government property and suffer no repercussions ... and even continue to run for president.

We are all products of our times and circumstances. If you had been born the scion of a white, wealthy plantation owner in the ante-bellum South, you would have ridden with Jeb Stuart.

Our problem is almost every one in politics today is a professional, there for self-interest, not principles. And self interest dictates holding your nose and sticking with your party. Plus the Dems and GOP have fixed the laws to make starting a new party almost impossible. In the old days, Bernie supporters and Never Trump folks would have bolted the conventions and held a rump convention, nominating a candidate who would then get on the ballot. Not now. See Conservatives for Trump and Progressives for Hillary.... Alas.

One of the great things about the Internet is all the terrific stories that get circulated. I suspect that a few of them are even true.

Thank God for common sense. Now if He would just make it a bit more common.

To those insisting I have to vote for Trump of Clinton, I say, "Neek Hallak!"

Politically Correct is Mentally Inert. You just have to recite the talking points, vilifying anyone or anything that violates the current tenants. Which the elites are making up daily. No thinking required.

I know a Drama Queen who cries "Crisis" so often it reminds me of the boy who cried "Wolf."

A pretty girl getting a tattoo makes me think of a vandal drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

From a Mental Health professional friend: I find both candidates equally disheartening. Both seem to have the characteristics of psychopaths. (See the research of Robert D. Hare.)

Get the collection! My “Random Thoughts” from 2008 through July, 2013 are collected in this book: The Old Jarhead's Journal: Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership by Robert A. Hall

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Jarheads-Journal-Thoughts-Leadership/dp/1490500162/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1373907206andsr=1-1andkeywords=Old+Jarhead%27s+Journal

The Old Jarhead’s Journal is a collection of Random Thoughts on politics and life and Conservative Political Essays, mostly published on the author’s blog, including the essay “I’m Tired” which went viral on the Internet in 2009, “The Hall Platform,” “This I Believe,” and “Why I’m a Republican.” While they will be of interest to conservative thinkers, they are collected here in book form as a service to readers who wish to give a copy to favorite liberals and watch their heads explode. All royalties are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=booksandie=UTF8andqid=1304815980andsr=1-5 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html. His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.