Random Thoughts for July,
2016. By Robert A. Hall
Feel free to post or forward.
Sorry this is posted late; I was in the VA hospital. I
coughed up some blood, which they seemed to think was a bad sign. Apparently have
pneumonia in my old lung. Home now on an
antibiotic IV. I think I'll be fine.
One of the nurses, Heather, said to me, "I don't see
how anyone can work at the VA and not believe in God."
Nurses seem to spend more time entering data into the
computer than they are allowed to spend on direct patient care.
The stock market seems back from the Brexit panic. I sat
tight in our IRA. These bumps always are recovered from. Some people lost money
selling, others made it by buying at the bottom, but trying to guess when that
is is tough.
To Republicans withdrawing their endorsements of Donald
Trump--what, you couldn't see this disaster coming? It's going to get worse.
Prayer for the
Candidates
Heavenly Father, we pray that you are watching over our
presidential candidates, Hillary and Donald, and will see they get everything
they deserve, everything they have coming to them. We pray you will fill their
hearts with humility, so they may come humbly before you to seek forgiveness
for their Earthly transgressions, as should we all. We pray for the election of
a candidate with humility an integrity, who has the welfare of the people at
heart, and not self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. We ask that your
protective hand be over your people so that we may come through this trial by
fire, and build a better, freer, more just society that keeps famine and pestilence
and coercion and violence at bay, where everyone may worship you according to
the dictates of their own hearts. Amen.
June 30 is gone. I can't believe it. Summer is flashing by.
(Just wanted to be first to say it.)
Racists used the slogan, "Segregation Today, Segregation
Tomorrow, Segregation Forever." At some point, segregation stopped being
racist and became a scared liberal talking point. When I was at UMass, blacks
segregated themselves in an all black dorm beyond Lester Maddox's fondest
hopes. That movement has grown with BLM and current universities where blacks
have to have segregated "safe spaces," so they won't have to mingle
with whites. Wasn't that what the KKK wanted in the bad old days? Wasn't that
the goal of Jim Crow? I mean back when Blacks were "colored people"
instead of "people of color."
I know a lot of conservatives who are not fanatic
Donaldcrats, but will vote for Trump as being marginally better than Clinton on some issues.
"Yes, he stinks," they say, "But I hope as President he'll do a few
good things too." (What a fervent endorsement!) "Besides," they say. "Congress
will keep him in check." Oh, you mean like it kept Obama in check?"
If a Hollywood star is
against your candidate, you say, "That over-paid, under-educated airhead
should stick to entertainment." If the star is for your candidate you say,
"It's nice to know there are still some clear-headed, intelligent thinkers
in Hollywood ."
Q: What will Donald Trump do about the latest political
development? A: Relentless whining, vile insults, bullying and threats. Same as
always.
Here's an idea for a two-hour presidential debate. The
questions do not come from the moderators or public. Each candidate gets to
submit ten questions that the moderator will ask in turn of the other candidate.
Questions limited to fifteen words, so they do not become infomercials. Each
candidate gets five minutes to respond, warning at four, mike cut off at five.
Then the candidate who submitted the question gets three minutes to respond,
doubtless with a prepared answer. Unless the first candidate answered so well
or poorly that the prepared response was screwed up. Five minute opening and
five minute closing statements. We might learn as much from the questions they
choose to ask as from their responses. (A friend suggested penalties, maybe
electric shocks, for not answering the question. Great idea--that would triple
the audience size.)
When you yell at the dog, and he comes and licks your hand,
it's hard to stay angry.
Donald Trump is destitute of the most rudimentary knowledge
we need in a president. His knowledge of economics, foreign affairs, the
military, the mechanics of government, the Constitution, the balance of powers
and much else is about an inch deep. Unfortunately, both Hillary Clinton and her
long-time friend, supporter and contributor, Donald Trump, are lacking in the
most basic integrity, honesty and principles we would want on the Town Council.
I cannot vote for either.
One of the Iron Laws of Economics is that if you reward a
behavior, you get more of it. And if you punish a behavior, you get less. When
we recognize, validate and even honor the purveyors of violence, chaos, anarchy
and barbarism, be they Bernie supporters, Trump supporters or BLM activists, we
get more violence, chaos, anarchy and barbarism. If you make breaking the law
respectable, you get more law breaking. If you make free-riders into a
protected class, you get more free riders. And thus the Republic spirals down
to collapse or authoritarianism.
One of the problems with attacking Clinton 's or Trump's character is that
neither one has any character. And neither they nor their core supporters care
a whit or are the slightest bit embarrassed.
If thugs stopped carrying guns, we'd have a lot fewer dead
thugs. If cops stopped carrying guns, we'd have a lot more dead cops.
I think both Clinton
and Trump could use the slogan, "Not as bad as her/his past would make you
think." And, "Not as bad as the other candidate."
Individuals who are rich in opinions while being poor in knowledge
are usually flush with excuses as well.
If you believe that the law should silence opinions that you
find hateful, or that people who disagree with you on political issues should
be punished with fines, job loss or perhaps more stringent measures, you are in
very good company: Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, Hitler and the fundamentalist
Islamic Imams, among others.
I think Donald Trump's idea of "giving back" is
paying his creditors three cents on the dollar.
From my friend Todd: I admire those who can suffer in
silence. I can do the suffering part, but the silence is a real challenge.
Nothing is as common on all sides of the political divide as
fervently held beliefs unsupported by facts.
If it weren't for people trying to get money out of us, we'd
get very little mail.
Not that my wife is squeamish about violence, but she shuts
her eyes when the boulder falls on the coyote.
The Hillary versus Trump debates should be called the
Featherweight Championship of the World.
When someone says, "I can't cook," it either means
they are too lazy to do so, or too dumb to follow directions.
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because you got away with
it.
Trump treats everyone who disagrees with him with contempt.
Republicans who he demeaned, bullied and insulted now getting in to bed with
him for party unity or hope of political reward have earned that contempt.
"If I had a nickel every time a GOP official called
Trump's behavior 'unacceptable' but accepted him as the nominee, I could start
a fake college." –Andy Smarick
Compassion for those who deserve compassion spreads love and
compassion in ever-widening ripples. Compassion for those who deserve contempt
spreads contemptible behavior even further and faster. Which is why seeing
American soldiers and Marines risking their lives to save kids in the midst of
killing the enemy should come as no surprise.
Donald Trump may be the only Republican who could lose to
Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton may be the only Democrat who could lose to
Donald Trump. Both parties put their worst candidate forward.
Too many people think they should tell you how to run your
life when they are not doing a decent job running their own.
"When the party system regulates, argument address the
deaf" --Barbara Tuckman, The First
Salute.
People see my Marine hat or tee shirt and say, "Thank
you for your service" to me all the time. I was thinking recently that I
don't believe I heard that once in the first twenty years after I came home
from Vietnam .
It's going to be a long campaign between two bottom-feeders,
to see which sociopath wins in November. You will need an expanded vocabulary
to describe both candidates. May I offer odious, mendacious, meretricious,
execrable, abhorrent, abominable, repugnant, repellent, duplicitous, paltering,
perfidious, prevaricating, and spurious to get you started.
If you don't raise your sons to be warriors, your daughters
will be the slaves of the sons of warriors.
Since gender is now "just a social construct,"
doesn't that make languages that have gender for nouns, like German and
Spanish, sexist and non-PC?
The day is fast coming when liberals will have to decide if
they wish to defend gays from murder, apostates from execution, accused
adulterers from stoning, little girls against having their genitals mutilated
at age four and being married to old men at age nine, and women against a
suffocating blanket of oppression and complete male dominance, or they wish to
defend multiculturalism by defending these abominations of Shari'a Law against
a supposed "Islamophobia."
When you are clearly smarter than someone, you must realize
that they probably don't know it. And if they do, it may create an animus
towards you.
21st century invitation: "Let's go to lunch. Don't
forget your phone so we won't have to talk."
Being a citizen doesn't make you an American. Being a
patriot who believe in American values like tolerance, free speech, free press,
free markets, freedom of religion, individual rights, limited government with
checks and balances, and so on makes you an American. That pretty much leaves
out white supremacists, black supremacists, Hispanic supremacists and Islamic
supremacists, among others, though they are often citizens.
I prefer poetry from the era when it wasn't considered great
because it was incomprehensible.
When reporters approach their stories with an agenda, they
inevitably prefer and emphasize facts that support their cherished narrative,
and downplay or disregard those that do not. This is not journalism, it is
writing fiction.
The same people who fret that Trump is going to establish a
dictatorship are also working hard to be sure everyone is disarmed in
anticipation of that event.
Troops are always expendable to protect the national
interest, as defined by our imperfect political leadership. We knew that when
we raised our hand to take the oath. What sticks in the craw of Americans about
Benghazi is
that it appears that four American lives were expended to protect the interests
of the Obama reelection campaign.
Some people's idea of conversation is a never-ending
stream-of-consciousness litany of unrelated complaints.
Perhaps we could convince the White Supremacists and the
Islamic Supremacists that Gutenberg was a Jew and thus they should have nothing
to do with the printed word.
Progressives build castles in the sky--and then cannot
escape from them.
The anti-Trump protestors are nourishing the demagogue.
When you ask a teen what's new, good chance they will say,
'Nothing." But "nothing" is very scary. You jump in the getaway
car, turn the key, and nothing! You pray for rain to save your crops and
nothing! The bad guys are coming up the hill. You pull the trigger and nothing!
Ideological purity is often a fatal disease, as you deal
with those without your worldview. "My way or the highway," often leaves
you without less pure allies with whom you might have won. People will unite
against you, leaving you going down the highway without that attainable
half-a-loaf and your opponents victorious. But you will feel self-righteous in
your defeat, so I guess that's worth something.
There is almost nothing of substance that you can do that
some cleric of some religion will not happily declare to be the blackest sin. I
tend to agree with Robert Heinlein that sin is hurting other people
unnecessarily. But I also believe there are sins of omission, where you fail to
extend help or friendship or interest or even a listening ear to someone badly
in need. Unlike Mr. Trump, I ask God for forgiveness of these transgressions
every day, and to help me do better.
Do you think that coexist bumper stickers and Gun free Zone
signs would have stopped the Nazis? It takes two sides to make a peace, only
one to make a war.
Ah, summer. Saw some kids playing "Kick the Can,"
and "Capture the Flag." Just kidding--I didn't see anybody. They were
all inside playing video games.
Only in America :
I read that Catlin Jenner is upset that only one of her kids invited her over
for father's day.
I prefer the small, local celebrations. I'd take a fair or
festival in a small country town over New Year's Eve in Times
Square or Mardi Gras any day.
The more they award kids unearned self esteem, the more
those kids do things that are not worth being esteemed for. If you want to earn
self esteem, try Parris Island or MCRD San
Diego.
I have friends who plan to hold their noses and vote for
Donald Trump and friends who plan to hold their noses and vote for Hillary
Clinton, judging one or the other marginally less odious than the opposing
candidate. From my conversations, perhaps a majority of the country finds both
odious. Personally, I cannot hold my nose tight enough to vote for either. I
think the stench would cling to me for the rest of my days.
14 people are dead in a hotel siege in Somalia .
Doubtless Obama will blame the NRA, our weak gun laws and bitter Christians.
You cannot have socialism without coercion, as people have
to be forced to do what they don't believe is in their interests, but the
socialist elites believe is in the general interest. Of course, the general
interest always requires the elites to live well.
The Brexit doesn't surprise me. I've always thought the EU
was a nutty idea. It's like forming an economic union with your feckless,
spendthrift brother-in-law. You both get to spend what you want, but are
responsible for each other's debts.
How about a USExit from the UN. I'm tired of paying people
to under-mind freedom and bash our laws and culture.
If Benedict Arnold ran for office as a Democrat, the media
would say his efforts to shop West Point were
"old news."
The breathtaking complete lack of principles in Hilary
Clinton and Donald Trump is so strong that most people cannot believe it. It's
like meeting a person who is alive but has no heart. You assume there just has
to be one there somewhere and use verbal make-up to disguise your discomfort
with the phenomenon.
I wonder if being an old, beat-up veteran entitles me to a
service dog. My preference is for one that plays the bagpipes.
If wishing worked, I'd be young, healthy, wealthy and
good-looking. And all the murders, drug dealers and jihadist in the world would
be dead.
For the True Believes, any suggestion that Trump or Clinton is not perfect in
everyway is ignored at best or savaged at worst.
I expect some mainstream Republican will accept the VP spot
under Trump out of a sense of duty, hoping to moderate him. I expect that
person will be bullied, insulted, demeaned and marginalized anytime he or she
goes off the reservation, and will end up disillusioned with a damaged
reputation by November.
I received a fund-raising letter from Trump. I wrote back
that he had promised to self-fund, didn't need my money.
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
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.
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