American Decline: Is it real?

By MacPundit

Growing up, most of us were cautioned to not discuss religion or politics while in polite company. This was and is good advice—generally speaking. But some general rules when applied too strictly can be disadvantageous, even to an entire society. For example, if our founders had not been aggressively vocal with their political opinions, it is almost certain that the United States of America would not exist.

Yet they angered a lot of people back then. Not everyone agreed with them and would rather they had kept their big mouths shut.

Ben Franklin’s own son was loyal to the King so he opposed revolution. The split with his father was never resolved and to his last breath, Franklin’s estrangement from his son hurt him deeply. Franklin paid a terribly high price for his beliefs.

By speaking out, our founders were deemed traitors by the British Crown. They became hunted men—wanted dead or alive. To be clear, they not only spoke out, they fomented discontent among their fellow colonists, which led to a full-blown revolution. They formed an army and took up arms against the government of which they were citizens. They waged full-out war and ultimately created an entirely new nation. In so doing, they had a profound effect on the future of mankind by taking power from a monarch and giving it to the people. How impolite of them!

Some situations call for polite small talk but some situations call for robust debate. So how do we know when to be cautious with our words and when to speak out, even provocatively? When, as our founders did, should we risk condemnation by friends and family by telling what we believe to be important truths? Here are my personal rules:

1. First be sure of your facts. By this I mean that your opinions should be informed by the most reliable information you can find. Above all, don’t base your opinions on hearsay or rhetoric from self-interested politicians or biased media, no matter what their ideology.
2. Remain as rational as possible in your deliberations in order to arrive at intellectually honest conclusions. Passion is good once you are sure of your beliefs, but it can cloud your judgment while forming your beliefs.
3. Finally, ask yourself if what you want to say is important enough to risk being condemned by people you respect or even the loss of friendships. Be convinced that your message can have a seriously positive effect on other’s lives before you speak out.

Most of us want to be liked. It’s a natural human trait. But living one’s life for the sole purpose of being liked is actually quite selfish. It’s all about you. True friends sometimes risk an angry response when they express an uncomfortable truth to someone they love. But they risk it anyway because they care that much.

Our nation is in trouble—serious trouble. American decline is real. It is my belief that our very existence as the greatest nation in human history is in great jeopardy. I have followed the rules I set out above and have arrived at this conclusion after much study and personal deliberation. I have made my case based on the best available information.

News traveled slowly in eighteenth century America. But now it can reach all parts of the globe in seconds. We can have real-time conversations with people on the other side of the planet. Yet in many ways we are less informed on things that matter than ever before. And common sense? – I rarely hear the phrase spoken any more. It is truly a shame that while we now have the ability to inform and educate great masses of people throughout the world, our technology is too often used to misinform them or to use it for shallow commercial projects. Our mainstream news media are corrupt, biased, agenda-driven propagandists and our colleges and universities brainwash our children with worn out, disproved left-wing political ideologies. The result is an ignorant electorate who are vulnerable to any skilled rhetorician that comes along—hence the Obama phenomenon.

Again, American decline is real. So what is to be done? How can we save our nation? Well it won’t be easy because far too many among us don’t even have a clue that anything is wrong. But some of us do know what is wrong and we know how serious it is. So we are the ones who must begin to change things. We must become the Paul Reveres of the 21^st century. Just as our founders did hundreds of years ago, we need to speak out with conviction and determination. We must engage others in a new and robust American political conversation. We must alert the clueless among us to the peril we are in and urge them to become informed and engaged.

If we are to survive, if we are to reverse American decline, we must talk more about politics, not less. It’s simple: If we fail to do these things America will continue to decline. We will continue to become weaker until one day—a few generations from now—America will be at the mercy of more powerful nations and the world will be a far more dangerous place than it is today.

Paul Revere and others warned their fellow colonists that the British were coming. We must alert our fellow Americans that our enemies are already here, that they have already gained great power over us and that we are in imminent danger of losing the very things that made the United States of America the greatest, most admired nation in the history of mankind.

Who are these enemies of whom I speak? They are some of the very people we elected to lead and protect us. They are our politicians who for decades have whittled away at our freedoms and who have overtaxed us and recklessly spent our hard-earned money. Among so many other unconscionable acts, they have burdened us and countless future generations with a literally unimaginable massive debt of almost $18 trillion. And it continues to grow larger by the second! President Obama added more debt than all our other presidents combined!

But it is worse, far worse than our loss of freedoms and massive debt. We are not only weaker economically, we are weaker militarily and ineffective diplomatically. The Middle East has become a significantly greater threat to world peace than it was six years ago. ISIS has taken control of a third of Syria and a third of Iraq and has established a caliphate—a new Islamic state. Our friends no longer respect or trust us and our enemies no longer fear us. Russia under Vladimir Putin mocks our president and takes land from sovereign nations while we and the world do nothing. And there is much more, which will be discussed here in future articles. Yes, American decline is real.

It is time for all Americans to learn the truth about our great history; to learn why countless millions of people from all over the world have for over two hundred years come to our shores seeking freedom and opportunity—and why they still do. It is time for all Americans to become political just as the colonists were when they fought and died to create the nation we now take for granted. It is time to make politics popular and to realize that it is the most important topic of all—because it is. After all, when we the people don’t get the politics right, the politicians take our power away. It is human nature and it has always been that way.

Recent surveys reveal that for the first time in our history a majority of Americans believe that future generations will not have the same freedoms and opportunities that we inherited from our parents and grandparents. Think of that for a moment. Do we really want to be the first generation of Americans that gave our children less than we received? I refuse to believe that. I believe that we are as strong and as caring as those who came before us. I believe that if the people are told the truth and if they know the danger they will rise up by the millions and do whatever is necessary to take back the power and restore the greatness of our nation.

President Obama and the Democrats are still chanting their Global Warming mantra!

Here’s what the founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, had to say about it on November 11, 2007:

“It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus.”

Here’s what blogger Robert McKinley had to say about John Coleman’s remarks and Global Warming on November 27, 2009:

Those are harsh words; yet, given the source, credible. To be sure, as you will learn, there is much more criticism and direct rebuttal of Al Gore’s proselytizing of Global Warming than is likely to reach the general population through traditional media outlets.

Global Warming has been made into a highly-charged political issue mainly by the efforts of a single politician. As a result, millions of people with virtually no scientific expertise on the matter and with the blind fervor of religious zealots, have sworn allegiance to the call. While they march forward to save the earth and all living things from the catastrophic calamity promised by their unapproachable and unaccountable leader, Al Gore, they belittle their “uncaring”, “ignorant” detractors who in fact seem to have investigated the subject more than they—if they have investigated it at all.

Further, as is often the case with such things, millions of “Warmers” have become so intellectually rigid and so emotionally attached to their belief in Global Warming that any chance of reasoned discourse with them is about as likely as an actual teleportation to the moon by Mr. Gore. But then our world is becoming less actual every day.

So here is where I stand at the moment: After reading much conflicting material from scientific experts I believe there is nothing that even begins to approach a consensus. Because of this, it is clear to me that Al Gore has grossly misled all of us by repeatedly insisting that “There is a consensus.” and that “The debate is over.” When his detractors criticize or (Good God!) actually insist on public debate, he simply repeats the mantras—“There is a consensus.” “The debate is over.” and tries to belittle and embarrass his opponents with specious declarations delivered with the practiced condescension of an arrogant demagogue.

Mr. Gore’s horde of Orwellian automatons—the zealots known as “Warmers”— further attempt to make all opposition look ignorant, uncaring, and foolish—and at all costs—try to stifle criticism and cutoff or avoid debate. The tactics are ageless. Fascists have been using them to maintain their totalitarian states for centuries. But  we must expose and hold accountable these self-serving political bullies if we are to avoid straddling our children with unimaginable mountains of debt and leaving them with a nation more akin to a banana republic than the America the world has admired for so long.

Is there a consensus when large portions of the scientific community disagree with Gore’s assertions? Is the debate over when highly respected climatologists call Al Gore a fraud and seek public debate in order to get their views aired? Is this the “Information Age” or the “Misinformation Age”? At the very least, charlatanism is alive and well.

Does this mean that everything Al Gore told us in his book is wrong? No, that would have been too obvious. But given his gross misrepresentations and outright lies it should tell all honest thinkers who are politically unbiased and independent to be particularly suspicious of anything Mr. Gore has to say on the subject. One does not establish his bona fides by grossly misleading his audience about anything—large or small.

Is our planet warming? I don’t know. Some say yes. Some say no. Some say yes and we are causing it. Some say yes but we have nothing to do with it. Many say we simply do not know because we are not yet capable of knowing. And so it goes. But this is certain: It is not static. This we do know because we know that it is always in a state of change. It was that way before we got here and will be that way after we are gone.

I suspect Al Gore knows these things and doesn’t care. Also, it is clear that Al Gore and large numbers of scientists and businesses have and continue to profit handsomely as a result of spreading the fear of global warming to all the people of planet earth—the very people and the very planet he and they profess to care so much about. I suspect that the full sense of his message is false and that in knowing it is false he has committed an insidiously unconscionable act of mass deception on us all—and, ultimately, one of inestimable cost and suffering to all people on this planet if we do not consider this matter well and are not circumspect and very smart about it in the years to come.

Are there scientists who are legitimate proponents of the man-made global warming model? I think there must be many and I can only hope they are and will continue to have serious, sound scientific dialog with their peers—and that they steer clear of disingenuous politicians.

If we continue to act on Mr. Gore’s proclamations without insisting on responsible, unbiased, objective science to guide us, the results could be as costly, if not as catastrophic, as Mr. Gore’s debatable and highly suspect predictions. Gore has successfully made political (and profitable) that which is by definition, scientific. This must be changed.

Some final comments: Many, seem to confuse the Gore-style politically-charged issue of Global Warming with common sense considerations regarding the overall health of our planet. So to be clear, it should be self-evident that a clean environment is healthier than a dirty one and that we humans should engage in all appropriate environmental pursuits that will contribute to a clean and healthy mother earth.

If you missed the Time Magazine headlines at the top of this page, take another look. In 1977 they and others warned us about the coming ice age. Oops! And of course whether we have a heat spell or a cold spell, they blame it all on Global Warming.

What I do know for certain: There is no consensus and the Democrats have made it a vote-getting political issue.

Learn more at Al Gore and WMD

By MacPundit

Obama’s were wrong.

It seems like everyone is taking another look at Mitt Romney. His popularity is soaring even among many who voted for him only because they were more certain that Obama was the wrong guy than they were that Romney was the right guy.

So what is this all about? Well, it turns out that Mitt is something of a prophet while Barack still doesn’t have a clue. You see, some important Romney predictions and recommendations that were roundly ridiculed by President Obama have since come true—and the recommendations turned out to be very good ones.

Obama’s liberal supporters laughed at any and all Romney predictions and the so-called mainstream media joined in by derisively mocking Romney every chance they got. In case you’re wondering, they are all stone-dead silent on Romney these days.

Here are some of the Romney predictions and recommendations and what has happened since then:

He said that the way Obamacare was designed it would have a negative impact on millions of Americans. Do we really need a detailed account of how destructive it has been so far? Millions have lost the healthcare plans they liked even though President Obama promised that they would be able to keep them.

He predicted that if we pulled all of our troops out of Iraq prematurely, the country would be taken over by terrorists. President Obama dismissed this idea and after he had removed every single one of our troops, he bragged that he had ended the war in Iraq. Incredibly, Vice-President Joe Biden claimed that the stability of Iraq would prove to be one of the Obama Administration’s greatest accomplishments! As I write this, the Islamist terrorist organization, ISIS, has taken over the northern part of Syria and a third of Iraq and they have established a Caliphate—a new Islamic state.

He recommended that our veterans be given vouchers so they could have access to private healthcare. In light of the current VA scandal, his idea would most likely have saved some lives.

And then there was the infamous moment in one of the debates when Mr. Obama ridiculed Mitt Romney for saying that Russia was “our number one geopolitical foe.” Obama was harshly condescending toward Romney, speaking to Romney in a hurtful, personal tone. Obama’s main point was that the Cold War was long over and that anyone who would think that Russia was still a geopolitical foe, is just about the dumbest, most naive human alive. Of course as I write this, Russia has long since annexed Crimea—simply taken it from Ukraine—and earlier this week it has once again invaded Ukraine with thousands of armed troops.

Many Americans now realize that when Mitt Romney lost the election to Obama in 2012, America was the big loser. By all rational standards, Mitt Romney would have made an outstanding President and Commander-in-Chief.

I voted for Mitt Romney because I thought he was the right choice in 2012. Unless something changes, I believe he is the right choice for 2016.

By MacPundit

Today’s Democratic Party is not the party of JFK

There was a time not too long ago when President John F. Kennedy—JFK—was the Democrat’s King Arthur of Camelot. Like Barack Obama, he was idolized by the party devotees. Like Barack Obama, he knew how to deliver a speech well. But that is where the similarities end. In almost all other respects, these men could not be more different.

By even the most rigid standards John F. Kennedy was a legitimate American war hero, and while Mr. Obama’s lack of military service should not be held against him, JFK was also a self-avowed American patriot. His personal history, his grasp of American History, his love of country, were all apparent and, often, eloquently expressed in his speeches and his writings. Additionally, Kennedy always sought to unite us.

Barack Obama cannot make such claims. After almost six years into his presidency, his words, his actions, and his general behavior and demeanor, continue to cause millions of Americans to question his intentions as well as his belief in American Exceptionalism. By the same ageless standards we and other nations have always used, our current president does not appear to be a patriot. Instead, his motives are all too often, suspect. At the very least, he does not rally or inspire the people to be proud of their American heritage and their citizenship. Studies by many credible, non-partisan organizations have declared him to be one of the most polarizing presidents in US History—if not the most. Of course many of us did not need the studies to know that.

Have Democrats forgotten JFK? Yes, I think they have, conveniently. President Obama as well as other current Democrat leaders are far to the left of President Kennedy. When compared to Obama, Kennedy would be a Republican. Did I just hear an outcry from some of you Democrats? If so, I’ll bet it’s from the far-left radicals who have taken control of the Democratic Party—a party that JFK would not recognize were he here today. But don’t take my word for it, let’s look at some things that JFK himself said.

“We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”

JFK welcomed and encouraged diverse views and debate. Obama seems to be forever annoyed by both. It has become a standard practice of his and his administration to denigrate and mock those with opposing views or anyone who criticizes Mr. Obama. Beyond public denigration and mocking, Mr. Obama regularly attempts to suppress media access to his administration. These practices have become so persistent that even left-leaning media outlets are now voicing their disapproval. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter James Risen had this to say:

“A lot of people still think this is some kind of game or signal or spin,” he told [Maureen] Dowd. “They don’t want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistle-blowers. But he does. He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.”

As to the Bill of Rights, unlike JFK who confirmed and protected it, Obama seems to view it as an impediment to his audacious intention to “… fundamentally transform the United States of America.” Thankfully, the Supreme Court has done its job by at least preventing him from becoming an absolute dictator. The top court has ruled against President Obama, unanimously, 20 times during the five and a half years of his presidency.

His own court appointees ruled against him in many cases, as well as in some non-unanimous decisions.

“I believe in an America where the free enterprise system flourishes for all other systems to see and admire – where no businessman lacks either competition or credit – and where no monopoly, no racketeer, no government bureaucracy can put him out of a business that he built up with his own initiative.”

Kennedy was a strong advocate of the free enterprise system. While he believed in common sense government regulation, he opposed big government overregulation that would put a business owner “… out of a business that he built up with his own initiative.” What did Obama have to say about American business and its entrepreneurs? “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” (See more on that topic here.)

“Every dollar released from taxation that is spared or invested will help create a new job and a new salary.”

That was President Kennedy’s view on taxation and job creation, and his actions mirrored his rhetoric.

What about President Obama? Well on his very long list of broken promises is this rather infamous one:

“I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

Not only did he break that promise, he seems to have more new tax “tricks” up his sleeve than a professional magician has card tricks. Politicians are expert at disguising new taxes and Obama is a master at it. Kennedy’s tax cuts helped to create jobs and grow the economy; Obama’s tax increases and overbearing regulations on business have given us the slowest, weakest, and longest recovery from a recession in seventy years.

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.”

JFK was an honest man and he saw the world as it was, not as he wished it to be. He once remarked that “I’m an idealist without illusions.” And unlike Obama, he didn’t con us. By now, it is well known by all objective and informed people that Barack Obama is a very dishonest man. The well-documented list of his false statements is rather astonishing as is the list of his broken promises. Call them misstatements if you are in denial, but I encourage you to visit PolitiFact.com as well as other non-partisan sources if you are actually unaware of the extent of Mr. Obama’s dishonesty. Only 22% of the Obama statements rated by PolitiFact are considered to be true. Even when we add the mostly true statements the total is still only 47%.

If you haven’t already, I also recommend that you read Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. Barack Obama once taught the “Rules” to eager young students and he is a master practitioner of them.

“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.”

Kennedy said that the rights of man come from the hand of God. He was echoing the words of our founders. Yet Obama clearly believes that they come from the government. Frankly, I find it hard to understand why any free citizen would choose to give their government the power to choose which rights will be given to which citizens. In fact, our founding documents made it quite clear that our rights were bestowed on us at birth and that it was the job of government to make sure they were not taken away from us. Yet Mr. Obama and our liberal Democrat leaders think that they—hence the government—should be the ones to decide who has a right to what.

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

Need I even begin to comment on that one? The world has become exponentially more dangerous under Barack Obama. His stated foreign policy principle is “Don’t do stupid stuff.” Yet given the state of the world, he has done nothing but stupid stuff. Even Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state, criticized him for this when she said that great nations need organizing principles and that “Don’t do stupid stuff.” is not an organizing principle. She also said that Obama’s failure to support the Syrian rebels led to the rise of ISIS. I rarely agree with Hillary Clinton, but I do this time. However, this is merely the tip of a very large and dangerous foreign-policy iceberg.

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

Barack Obama’s beliefs and policies are antithetical to virtually everything that John F. Kennedy believed in and promoted. Obama is a hardcore, radical ideologue whose intention is to transform the United States of America into the kind of big government nation that our founders feared most. In little over five years, we have seen a massive transfer of power from the people to the federal government. It is no secret that Mr. Obama and his political machine buy votes through government handouts. As a result, he has successfully transformed America from a society based on individual self-reliance into an entitlement society. Instead of asking what they can do for their country, millions of Americans now ask what their country can do for them. In the process, Mr. Obama has added more debt in less than six years than all previous presidents combined. The results have been catastrophic.

Highly recommended: President Obama Tell All Videos.