Sunday, September 3, 2023

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson 

https://www.amazon.com/Warmth-Other-Suns-Americas-Migration/dp/0679763880/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1XW8ISFWADMZ2&keywords=the+warmth+of+other+suns-+by+isabel+wilkerson&qid=1693774793&s=books&sprefix=the+Warmth+of+Other+Suns%2Cstripbooks%2C116&sr=1-1

This was the author’s first book and she won the Pulitzer Prize fir it. In my opinion it was well deserved. This book about the black migration from the south to the rest of the country (1914-1975) fills a gap in social history. She did a tremendous amount of research and interviews. The writing is like velvet. I am not the only writer who envies her talent.

 

She follows the migration of three people who sought in three different decades to escape the indignities and violence of Jim Crow. She follows their life and families in New York, Chicago, and Las Angeles, and the racism they found there. People who say we are a racist country would have been right in those years. Coming home from Camp Lejeune in 1864, we stopped in Rocky Mount, NC to change buses. I went into the snack bar and found I was invisible to the waitresses. I realized they were all black. Serving me would have put them at risk. I found the larger, white snack bar on the other side of the building.

 

The great migration not only changed America and the cities, but destroyed overt racism in the country, eventually the south as well when they found they had a labor shortage. If you have any empathy at all, parts of this book will make you angry. Parts will make you admire it as well. I knew about the great migration, but not the details and the ongoing impact on people and the country. I highly recommend this book.


Robert A. Hall, Amazon Author

“Quotes for the Conservative Heart

Random Thoughts for September 2023

 

Random Thoughts for September 2023

Robert A. Hall

Feel free to post or forward.

 

Health: My back aches. I’m tired all the time. My hearing seems to be getting worse. My balance is bad. So, I’m fine. Had a renal appointment. My kidneys are doing well, creatinine is 1.4, but there were traces of blood in my urine and the amount of protein in my urine is growing. They had me do another urine test the same day, scheduled more blood work in two weeks, and will schedule an ultra sound to be sure it isn’t caused by cancer. Gave me pills for the protein.

 

I have decided to give up teaching chess, though I will miss the kids. One girl said she wanted to be a chess teacher like me when she grew up. A boy sent me a post card thanking me. A girl drew a thank-you card with a dragon on it. Several had their picture taken with me, often with the trophies they bought by earning chess dollars. I had many nice comments from parents. But after teaching six weeks of chess summer camp, Monday-Thursday, three hours a day, I realized I was putting in twice as many hours as I was compensated for, and putting a lot more gas in the tank than what they pay in gas money covered. Not to mention running the printer with special handouts for my kids, or picking up used chess sets at thrift stores to give to kids who don’t have one. Of course, the fact that my vision and hearing is getting worse, and I’m too tired to haul around the 70-80lb. suitcase with 10 chess sets, books, demo board, etc. contributed to my decision.

 

What does Sen. Tim Scott stand for?

https://www.ontheissues.org/House/Tim_Scott.htm

 

I read in National Review that 3/4th of university Diversity Officers are white. And can make up to $424k a year! There’s a lot of money in discriminating against the Whites, Asians, and Jews.

 

Jim Crow recognized a person as black with one drop of black blood. Will Jim Reparations use the same standard?

 

If parents had a way to determine if a child was going to be Gay, would the left support their right to abort that child?

 

Violence has always been normal around the world in political disputes. Now that Antifa and BLM are bringing increasing political violence to America they will provoke increasing counter violence.

 

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” ~ John Stuart Mill

 

Fight Fuzzy Thinking!

 

“There remain 73 countries in the world where it is illegal to be gay, and eight in which being gay is punishable by death.” ~ The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murrey.

 

Contrary to what the Left tells you, the Roberts Court has overturned precedent less often than the Warren, Burger, or Rehnquist courts.

 

Nothing is obnoxious as a fundamentalist progressive.

 

Progressives think that if you don’t think just as they do, you are evil. And if their leaders change their minds—say like the Clintons on Gay marriage—they will change their minds, and you better too!

 

When a tech company says you have violated their “Community Standards,” they mean the standards of their far-left Silicon Valley community.

 

Maybe it’s guilt. While companies like Google preach diversity, according to The Madness of Crowds, “Google’s workforce is only 4% Hispanics and 2% African American. At 56%, whites are not over represented compared to the wider population, but Asians make up 35% of Google staff and have been steadily reducing the number of white employees despite making up only 5% of the population.” I guess at Google, competence matters more than diversity.

 

Teaching chess summer camp in DeForest, I turned at a bar and grill that also offered bait and tackle. Welcome to Wisconsin.

 

Gratitude is as dead as chivalry.

 

“The Wolf at the door is your greatest Danger, and not only in Winter.” ~ Russian Proverb, from The Wolf at the Door by Jack Higgins.

 

Putting diversity ahead of ability is racism.

 

If Trump had committed the irregularities that Biden has, the Democrats would be screaming. And vice versa.

 

Sometimes I put my GPS on just to piss it off by taking back roads.

 

When I was a young man, people dreamed of fulfilling Martin Luther king’s dream of a color-blind society. Now “color blind” is racist. Does that make King as racist? After all, anything you did in the past can still be held against you. And everything your ancestors did—except for Kamela Harris’ slave-owning ancestors—can be held against you.

 

And when I was a young man, black people were referred to as colored people. That now is racist, but “people of color” is the height of political correctness. Go figure. There is no avoiding the woke landmines unless you are in a favored group.

 

If you can’t trust the scientists, you can’t trust the science.

 

“A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies, form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against enterprises of an aspiring prince.” ~ Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic.

 

Do not fall in love with a politician. You will find yourself defending the indefensible. Support the ones you believe in, but keep a clear head.

 

Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — “No, you move.” ~ Mark Twain

 

Nothing fills Wisconsin drivers with despair like a “Road Construction Ahead” sign.

 

Ultinatims are usually a mistake.

 

Money is fungible. If you give a terrorist-supporting country humanitarian aid, it frees up other money to support terrorism.

 

*****

 

Email from a professor: “Your book of quotations arrived and I plunged right into it! Yes, the section on guns was one if the first things that I read. You have compiled an impressive set of wise comments. Bravo.”

 

Quotes for the Conservative Heart: Ideas as Weapons of Defense

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B576XFSX?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Print $9.99:

Kindle $2.99:

 

Quotes for the Conservative Heart is a collection of over 1,900 quotes, thoughts, and adages that will make you think (which may be an uncomfortable experience), which will help you defend yourself against ad hominin attacks, and which will help your writing and speaking. They will inspire you to fight a bit harder and a bit longer. As necessary to your security as an extra magazine, this book will help you identify threats to you, your family, and your culture. Open carry (of this book) is encouraged. We hope it will be a constant companion and a treasured possession. If you like it, please review on Amazon, and tell your friends.

 

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 other books are listed here: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7362663422037727028/9086317755245136353

His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com. He was a writer-editor in the My Life, My Story program as the Madison VA Hospital, interviewing vets and writing up their life histories. He now teaching chess to kids after school.

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

AI

 I've been reading up on this, listening to lectures, watching videos.

It's getting to where you wonder how many jobs AI can make redundant,
what will be left for intelligent and skilled people to do.

Minor example from BBC is that the expertise of London cabbies was
critical to their business, it took years to really get familiar with the
mixture of streets there.  Same would be true for Boston and other
places.  Now the cab has a GPS in it and the driver only has to know how
to follow directions.

Kids cheating on essay assignments is already very well known and schools
are trying to figure out what to do about it.

There have been nice examples of how clever the AI program can be.  For
instance, ask for and 800 word article on why it was a truly terrible
thing for the USA to ever get involved with the war in Viet Nam and what
the terrible results were.  Then ask for an 800 word article on why it
was so important for the USA and what the positive results were.

You get two essays, both in excellent English, with very well structured
arguments and references that leave little doubt as to how correct each
is.  Both will have at least some elements of factual truth in them.
Only an expert historian could go through them and show why one is less
correct or more correct than the other, where the inputs have some bias
or inaccuracies in them.

An educational firm is using AI to create tutoring programs for students.
 So far the results have been really excellent, the students have all
benefited from the help of the tutoring.  This sounds great, but my
suspicious mind wonders if someone writing an AI tutor for students
studying history could build in a bias to slant how that history is
taught.  I bet it's possible, next thing you know kids are learning,
slowly and subtly, that Marxism is really a great idea.  Or that racism
and atrocities make up more of US history than anything else.

How far can the creative capacities of the more advanced AI programs go?
I have no firm idea.

AI controlled machines have lots of possible applications.  How about a
real hot point, AI controlled fighter planes?  Now the aircraft doesn't
need the weight of a life support system or escape mechanisms, can take
high G turns that a human cannot, and has faster reflexes than any human.
 Would flying such crafts against human pilots be like a wolf in a herd
of sheep?  How about compact low profile tracked vehicles with a
specialized anti-tank weapon like the 30mm gun in the A-10, that can
scream up fast from the side or rear of enemy tanks to take them out,
night or day, rain or shine?

What I'm sure of is that we are on the very edge of a huge change in the
world in lots of ways.  But I cannot really imagine with any clarity
where this will take us.  Various science fiction writers have explored
some of this.  When they get into how advanced technology can be used to
really, really control people..... it gets scary.  And it's already
started in China with the millions of facial recognition cameras and the
AI system that tracks everyone.  Will 2084 be so much more than Orwell's
1984 was?  Or maybe even sooner.

Just something to think about.....

Del

Americans Are Being Gaslit Over Gun Research

 Americans Are Being Gaslit Over Gun Research

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Actually, Joe, All Your ‘Objectives’ Were Failures

 https://amgreatness.com/2023/08/21/actually-joe-all-your-objectives-were-failures/

 
Actually, Joe, All Your ‘Objectives’ Were Failures
Here's a list of what he should actually apologize for

Monday, August 21, 2023

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard

 

Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard

https://www.amazon.com/Hero-Empire-Daring-Winston-Churchill/dp/0307948781/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ZQZ1VEX4X2XQ&keywords=hero+of+the+empire%2C+winston+churchill&qid=1692567451&s=books&sprefix=hero+of+the+Empire%2Cstripbooks%2C127&sr=1-1

I enjoyed the movie some time ago. On the theory that the book is always better, I picked up a copy. It was. This is a dashing account of the Boar war adventure that made Churchill a household name in Britain and beyond, and assured the political career that saved not only Britian but western civilization. Full of the self-confident derring-do you expect of Churchill, it reads like a thriller. His escape from the Boars was full of risk and the most incredible good luck that makes one think Churchill really did have a star that watched over him. This is not only an interesting piece of history, but a thriller to read.

Guns

 Great discussion by Riley, and a bonus is the next link which is about women owning guns.

 
Del
 

Video on the Hunter coverup.

 


In the first several minutes of this video from a congressional hearing,
a reporter details her investigation of the Hunter laptop and the
articles she wrote about it, and then how an entire apparatus of
government and social media and other media swung into action to totally
suppress the information.  All of which has subsequently been proven to
be valid.

I think this is important for people to see, to understand just how
twisted the system has become, how whether you call it "deep state" or
Leftist conspiracies or utterly indefensible partisan acts by people
supposedly sworn to the truth, we as citizens have been let down, to say
the very, very least, by people who should know better.  For me it
indicates a huge, compelling need to elect people who will actually start
doing whatever it takes to drain the swamp, if we want this nation to
continue to exist as the beacon of freedom it used to be.

Del

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

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Saturday, August 12, 2023

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murrey

 

The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murrey

https://www.amazon.com/Madness-Crowds-Gender-Race-Identity/dp/1635579945/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2T9YE0Y4RMT50&keywords=the+madness+of+crowds+douglas+murray&qid=1691871315&sprefix=the+madness+of+crowds%2Caps%2C124&sr=8-1

The book lays open the craziness infecting American culture: The struggle within the gay movement between those who want to be accepted by society and those who want to be in your face. The contradictions of the “Raciel Justice” movement. The struggles within feminism and the fight between feminists and transwomen. The examples he cites are heartbreaking and infuriating. I highly recommend this book.

 

Robert A. Hall, Amazon Author

“Quotes for the Conservative heart.

In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat by Rick Atkinson

 

In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat by Rick Atkinson

https://www.amazon.com/Company-Soldiers-Chronicle-Combat-ebook/dp/B002UZ5J54/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3QTZTJFQS3KOF&keywords=in+the+company+of+soldiers&qid=1691872741&s=books&sprefix=In+the+company+of+soldiers%2Cstripbooks%2C117&sr=1-1

Atkinson is the best-selling author of the WWII in Europe trilogy, An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light. During the invasion of Iraq, he was embedded with the 101srt Airbourne division, specifically with the CO, MGen David Petraeus. This put him close to both command and the action. His take on Petraeus is very interesting. For those who want to know more about how it feels at the sharp end, I recommend this book.

Disney Continues To Collapse As Multiple Revenue Streams Spiral Down The Toilet

 


Disney Continues To
Collapse As Multiple Revenue Streams Spiral Down The Toilet
https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/10/walt-disney-plus-revenue-streams/

Thursday, August 10, 2023

The slow fall of Tony Fauci

 It's taken quite a while, but bit by bit various things have come out.

Like his helping fund the Wuhan lab where they were doing "gain of
function" work on viruses.  Like his coordinating others to support the
wildlife origin theory and actively suppress the lab leak theory.  Like
his serious over statements about how masks would keep us safe.  Like how
when others said there could be massive crowds for social justice
protests, but you couldn't go to church he remained very silent about how
seriously unscientific such thinking was.  He did a great wise old
super-doc impression, but he didn't really do anything that helped us all
very much, and I would argue he supported the super overdone control
stuff that hurt an awful lot of people badly.

His old college (and mine) went total ga-ga over him did the only 14 page
pean of praise to him and his achievement ever seen in the alumni
magazine.  I think the longest one ever before that might have been 6
pages, certainly no more than 8.  That's embarrassing now.

But he's retired and surviving on his retirement income of something over
$400K/yr.  I'm just happy to not see or hear him on my TV anymore.

Del

Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?

 Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?


Biden Said EV Maker Proterra Was 'Getting Us in the Game.' It Just Declared Bankruptcy.

 Biden Said EV Maker Proterra Was 'Getting Us in the Game.' It Just Declared Bankruptcy.

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Random Thoughts for August 2023

 

Random Thoughts for August 2023

Robert A. Hall

Feel free to post or forward.

 

Health: I had my six-month review July 7 at the VA 7/6. FEV numbers and 6-minute walk were better than last time. Tired a lot but I think that goes with being 77. All else fine.

 

Facts about Sen. Tim Scott, candidate for president. (I have a Scott bumper sticker on my car.)

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/22/tim-scott-55-things-you-need-to-know-00097711

 

Today is the first day of the rest of your wasted life.

 

“To override the Constitution with a racial agenda is to make the same error as segregationists of the past.”  ~ Justice Clarence Thomas

 

“My hope is constant in thee, Clan Donald.”  ~ Robert the Bruce

 

I’m sure the Canadian Wildfire have released so much carbon into the air that they have negated all the carbon-reduction efforts worldwide this year. All we need is a volcano or two.

 

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers.” ~ Socrates

 

I just read Britian after Rome; a history focused on the common people. Despite the ignorance of Sen. Tim Kane, who believes that slavery was, “Invented in America,” both the Romans and their British and Saxon successors held slaves. Income inequality was rampant too, as in every society, with the elites receiving tribute from the common folk.

 

Given that every society before Western Civilization and Capitalism had slaves, and that your ancestors double with each generation, the conclusion is inescapable: We are all descended from slaves.

 

“This I believe” by Robert A. Hall, has been posted on the 2nd Congressional District Republican website.

https://wi2cd.com/2023/07/01/this-i-believe/

 

New horror movie: “Night of the living woke.”

 

If Bud is the “King of Beers” as they say, does that not make Bud Light the “Queen of Beers”?

 

“Progressives need only hate a group for it to be labeled a hate group.’ ~ National Review.

 

Is there anything the left touches that doesn’t turn to shit?” ~ George

 

At the start of WWII, the British military had long favored class over merit. They paid in lives until that folly was discarded. Our military now favors diversity over merit. And the country will pay in lives for that folly.

 

“The left (would) prefer a world where everyone is destitute to one in which most people are middle class and a few are rich.” ~ Lionel Shriver

 

To have equity, you must keep the best people from reaching their full potential.

 

“Boredom is the root of all evil.” ~ Kiekegaard

 

For the left “Justice” means Just Us.

 

“Si vis pacem, para bellum.” ~ Rome

 

Abortion has become the holy sacrament of the left.

 

“A nation cannot survive treason from within.” ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero.

 

The Army has done away with physical fitness standards for transgender soldiers. That tells you a lot about women trying to become men and vice versa.

 

I find the world is full of useless people. Or maybe my patience is gone in my old age.

 

“I have a good strategy for dealing with student loans. I think that the original culprit in this loan situation (scam) is the over inflated cost of the schools for which the loans was taken out. All of these schools should assume 1/4 to 1/3 of each of their student's debt. The remaining debt should be paid off by the ultra-rich advocates for loan cancellation. The borrower student should then be required to make payments commensurate with their ability to pay. The new loans would only increase by the yearly inflation rate, plus a 3 percent penalty to be imposed if they allow the loan to go delinquent, yet again. Make the liberal/progressives put their money where their mouth is. The well off, but not ultra-rich, progressives could be formed into collectives, since they like communism so much, and pool their money to "buy" these student loans, as part of this system.” ~ JP

 

Some people think they are rebels, when most other people think they are assholes.

 

“Sometimes you have to burn a few bridges to keep the crazies from following you.” ~ BISS

 

There will be trouble in Wokeland when they find out how Muslims feel about blacks and gays.

 

“They were challenging a powerful, authoritarian…who equated criticism of his policies with treason and employed a full complement of dirty tricks to stamp our dissent.” Trump? Obama? Biden? No Chamberlain. ~Lynne Olson, Troublesome Young Men (The MPs who brought Churchill to power in 1940.)

 

It seems I spend half my life waiting for others to do what they are supposed to do so I can do what I’m supposed to do.

 

“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” ~ Thomas Paine

 

Where is Guy Fawkes now that we need him?

 

“…while freedom of the press continued to exist in Britain, there was little freedom within the press.” ~ 1937, “Troublesome Young Men.”

 

In the 1939, Churchill was regarded by most MPs as unfit for higher office because his anti-appeasement views made him “far right.”

 

At 77, I’ve grown feebler.

 

“You can lead a Palestinian leader to water but he prefers to blow up the well.” ~ GS

 

“Bullshit moving at the speed of light is still bullshit.” ~ Army sergeant preparing to invade Iraq, quoted from “In the Company of Soldiers.”

 

Old age is a shipwreck." ~ Charles de Gaulle.

 

“Smart phone use by teenage girls predicts poor mental health more accurately than sexual assault, hard drug use, and binge drinking do.” ~ Sabastian Junger, NR

 

 

*****

 

Email from a professor: “Your book of quotations arrived and I plunged right into it! Yes, the section on guns was one if the first things that I read. You have compiled an impressive set of wise comments. Bravo.”

 

Quotes for the Conservative Heart: Ideas as Weapons of Defense

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B576XFSX?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

Print $9.99:

Kindle $2.99:

 

Quotes for the Conservative Heart is a collection of over 1,900 quotes, thoughts, and adages that will make you think (which may be an uncomfortable experience), which will help you defend yourself against ad hominin attacks, and which will help your writing and speaking. They will inspire you to fight a bit harder and a bit longer. As necessary to your security as an extra magazine, this book will help you identify threats to you, your family, and your culture. Open carry (of this book) is encouraged. We hope it will be a constant companion and a treasured possession. If you like it, please review on Amazon, and tell your friends.

 

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 other books are listed here: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7362663422037727028/9086317755245136353

His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com. He was a writer-editor in the My Life, My Story program as the Madison VA Hospital, interviewing vets and writing up their life histories. He now teaching chess to kids after school.