The Left's Derangement Syndrome

My wonderful readers, the political atmosphere in these
United States has become absolutely toxic, the political
rhetoric has become downright hateful, and violent behavior
is becoming the order (disorder?) of the day. And we have
the Left to thank for it all.

Last week your faithful Peasant made mention of the assas-
ination attempt on House Majority Whip Steven Scalise when
he was at a team practice in Alexandria, Virginia to get ready
for the annual Congressional baseball game between teams
of Democrats and Republicans, a game that is supposed to
lessen political tensions between the elected representatives
from both parties and to raise money for charity. The gunman
was a Bernie Sanders supporter and campaign volunteer from
Belleville, Illinois, who traveled all the way to the Washington
D.C. area with a list of Republican members of Congress in
his pocket. It seems pretty obvious what the purpose for the
list was, given his actions in Alexandria. Moreover, he had been
very vocal about his fierce hatred for President Donald Trump
and the Republican Party, with the recent presidential election's
results being more than his fevered mind could handle. A
deeply left-wing activist, he had been calling for an even more
progressive tax schedule, and was a staunch supporter of
labor unions.

The people back in Belleville who knew the gunman expressed
shock and disbelief over the news of what he had done; the
former mayor of Alexandria, Bill Euille, told the Washington Post
that he had spoken with him nearly every morning when they
saw each other at the local YMCA, nearby the ballpark where
the shooting took place. The gunman had been in town for several
days before committing his heinous crime, shooting the congressman
and three other people, one of whom was a Washington police
officer assigned to guard Rep. Scalise. All victims as of this posting
are alive and being treated for their wounds, with Rep. Scalise's
condition having been upgraded from critical to serious.

Now, in the days and months since the inauguration of President
Trump the Left has become even more unhinged than they had
previously been; witness the march in Washington by the radical
feminists wearing caps resembling vaginas, the speeches made by
show biz libs Madonna and Ashley Judd, the former stating that
she had a wish to "blow up the White House" and F-bombing
the "detractors" of the march and its participants, just this for a start.
Add to the mix still more hateful, violence-flavored rhetoric from
other left-wingers in Hollywood and Broadway, the mean-spirited
"humor" from late night talk show hosts and other alleged comedians,
the incessant calls for the impeachment of President Trump from
Democrat members of Congress (never mind the fact that the president
has not committed any impeachable offenses, nor has he committed
any offenses, period!), and some deranged lunatics in the ranks of the
Far Left absorb this vile bile, then someone acts on these vicious,
violent sentiments. This explains the would-be assassin from Illinois
and his actions in Alexandria.

I can't say that I am surprised by this ugly turn of events, as someone
who has observed the Left for many years. They always accuse their
enemies, the conservatives, of saying what they say, doing what they
do, and being what they are. They would have you, and in fact demand
you believe that the conservatives are the uncivil, unhinged, vicious,
racist, misogynistic, homophobic bullies.  But consider: we conser-
vatives made no hateful remarks about President Obama or his family
when he was in the White House, nor were we the ones who advocated
blowing up the White House; we weren't the ones who formed groups
to "resist" the president when we had a president from the other party;
we weren't the ones who exhorted for the stoning of elected officials
from the opposing party; we weren't the ones who called for raping any
women from the opposing party; we weren't the ones who hurled racist
epithets at black people in the other party, nor sexist and misogynistic
slurs at various women from the other party. And we sure as hell didn't
make any death threats against anyone from the other party or
ideology. Rather, the Left had done all of these things to our people,
and are stepping up their evil behavior, as witnessed in the shooting
of Rep. Scalise. MSNBC recently asked on their network "Do we
HAVE to feel bad about Steve Scalise?", and they along with other
voices on the Left intoned that the House Majority Whip brought the
shooting upon himself (!). The lefties are not only the real bullies,
they also blame their victims for their situations.

This is not unlike a battle in which one side takes peashooters and
slingshots to the battlefield while the other side brings machine
guns, flamethrowers, and howitzers to the fray. We conservatives
have always prided ourselves on combating the liberals and others
on the left side of the political divide with respectful debate, logic,
employing logic and facts. We have left the ad hominem attacks
and the rancor to the left-wingers, feeling sorry for them since they
don't have logic and facts in their arsenal and therefore feel the need
to take the low road when we engage in battle. But in the wake
of the shooting of Rep. Scalise, we must not show such for our
lefty foes, for they do not deserve any sympathy; they are taking
our country down a dark path which leads to the experiences of
other countries where base passions drown out comity, and
to be outspoken is to wear a target on your back. The Democrats
and the Left in general are not like their forerunners from 50 years
ago, nor 40, nor 25, nor even 10; these people (and I use this term
loosely) are totalitarians. They will never acknowledge defeat,
even when decisively defeated in a national election as what
happened last November; they won't listen to any differing voices
with differing ideas. This bunch perceive their political opponents
as the enemy army on a battlefield, and attempt to destroy them by
demonization, discrediting, slander and libel, and now bullets.

Senator Sanders, to his credit, publicly condemned the shooting and
the shooter, sorrowfully acknowledging the gunman's having been
one of his presidential campaign volunteers. This was most gratifying,
coming from the most left-leaning major political figure in the country.
Sanders also wished Rep. Scalise a full and speedy recovery. Let us
fervently hope against hope that others on the Left follow their
hero's example and follow suit, going further by renouncing gross
incivility and embracing clean, honest, respectful, civil and open
debate and discourse.

Otherwise we shall be in danger of having a second civil war, one
that will make the one in the 1860s look like a children's pillow
fight.


MEM

A Tragedy in Virginia

With the increasing fever pitch on our nation's political scene,
your concerned Peasant has been worried about the accompanying
increase in violence between the partisans on both sides of the
political divide. Now a member of Congress has been shot while
preparing to play in Congress' traditional annual baseball game
pitting Democrats and Republicans for fun and for charity.
While engaging in a team practice at a field in Alexandria,
Virginia, House Majority Whip Steven Scalise was shot in the
hip by a gunman who also shot several other people before police
shot him dead. What is known about the gunman at the present
time is that he is a Bernie Sanders volunteer, having helped on
Sanders' unsuccessful presidential campaign, and has been
a member of some rather controversial left-wing political
groups. Moreover, he had a history of scrapes with the law
which included domestic abuse and aiding damage to a motor
vehicle. And he was allegedly distraught over Donald Trump
winning last year's presidential election, with the Republicans
also doing well in the Congressional and state races, so he
traveled from his home in Belleville, Illinois, to the Washington
D.C. area to vent his frustrations on Capitol Hill Republicans
with a gun.

I want to take the time to address this horrible event in the way
it needs to be addressed, but time is not proving generous today.
So, I shall do so next week, when I can more easily set aside
a block of time to do justice to this terrible act. Meanwhile,
please keep Rep. Scalise and his family in your prayers as he
is fighting for his life; he has had two operations just to stop
the internal bleeding, and faces more surgeries to repair his hip
and some internal organs. I have been praying the rosary for
them. Thank you and God bless. God be with Rep. Scalise
and the other victims.


MEM

Roger Ailes, R.I.P.

Sometimes a person comes along who makes such a great impact
on a field of endeavor that the both the field and society, are never
again the same. Roger Ailes was just such a person, having created
FOX News, the news network that gave television viewers an
alternative source for their TV news which did not have a left-
wing tilt, a place to turn for a fresh perspective on the news of
the day. A Republican operative for many years beforehand,
Ailes saw the potential which television had for the GOP to
overcome the establishment broadcast media cartel with its
Dan Rathers, Tom Brokaws, Peter Jenningses, and Sam
Donaldsons delivering only what the establishment wanted the
public to hear. As an aide to President Richard Nixon, Ailes
wrote a 300-page memorandum titled "A Plan for Putting the
GOP on TV News", in which he detailed his ideas which he
would implement for founding FOX News.

Along the way, he had encountered lots of adversity --- much of it
in the form of hate from the Left --- for upsetting their cartel
apple cart. But Ailes was a patriot who cared deeply for our
country and he wanted people to get different takes on the news,
especially American political news in order to make well-informed
political decisions, especially at election time. In this instance Roger
Ailes was a liberator as well as a pioneer in the national media.

In his later years Ailes had been accused by some of the female
staff at FOX of sexual harassment;  He claimed that the first such
action was taken by one of FOX's news show hosts because she
was angry about not having her contract with FOX renewed.
However, five more women at FOX filed suits of their own
making the same complaints, and FOX paid one woman a
$1 million out of court settlement. Your diligent Peasant does
not have all the information concerning this serious matter,
but will posit that if Ailes were innocent of the charges made,
he and FOX would have fought them, telling the complainants
to do their worst in court, and Ailes would never have resigned
from the organization he founded. Having followed similar stories
over the years, I would have to say that a blameless person could,
and should, fight with all they've got any attempts to besmirch
his good name and reputation, for these are the most valuable
possessions that any one of us have in life. In the wake of
Roger Ailes' passing on May 18, I shall hold out hope for
Ailes to be cleared and vindicated so that he shall be remembered
in a positive light, remembered for his considerable contributions
to news broadcasting and to our national political discourse
rather than for some alleged instances of poor judgement and
resultant misbehavior. Rest in Peace.


MEM

A Study in Contrasts

Your favorite Peasant had a wonderful, and rather interesting
Memorial Day.

Every Memorial Day I head over to Elm Grove, a lovely and
charming village which I have loved since boyhood. Living
in nearby New Berlin and later Brookfield, and having attended
high school with a few chums from The Grove, as the locals call
their quaint community, I discovered their wonderful Memorial
Day parade and except for the years that I lived out of state I have
attended this parade every year. The usual features of such a parade
are always present ---  marching military honor guards, local celebrities
and politicians, beauty pageant queens, and decorated military
heroes riding in classic cars; floats with bands playing, students from
a local martial arts dojo, members of a village gardening club,
staff from the village library and such; the village police and
firefighters in their respective vehicles; some villagers walking
their dogs, both clad in red, white and blue decor for the occasion,
and clowns doing delightful stunts. But this year, the parade had
an entrant that they never before had, at least to my memory.
And they certainly stood out!

The Waukesha County Democratic Party sent a contingent to march
in Elm Grove's Memorial Day parade. They marched right down
the main street of rock-ribbed, unabashed, proudly conservative
Elm Grove, where Republicans outnumber Democrats by God-knows-
how-many to one.

No blarney, about fifteen members of their party marched with their
party banner, nearly every one of them carrying an American flag,
some also carrying signs which said things like "patriotism" and
"veterans". And the crowd became very silent. Everyone just
quietly and respectfully watched as the Dems marched by. No one
yelled any obscenities, any threats, any slurs of any kind; no one
threw garbage; no one charged at them to assault them; no one
so much as gave them the finger. Everyone was very polite.
All of this in this bastion of conservatism and small-town values
and virtues, a community which would give a lefty anything from
conniptions to apoplexy.

Now contrast this to the events in places like Berkely, where on
separate occasions conservative speakers were shouted down and
all but run off of the University of California Berkely campus,
and in one of these incidents left-wing students and other "activists"
rioted in the streets. They bragged afterward that they didn't allow
"fascists" to speak on their campus; and affirmed their visceral
hatred of President Donald Trump. In Portland, Oregon, Black
Lives Matter thugs teamed up with other radical groups and rag-tag
individual hooligans to force local Republican Party members and
elected officials from marching in an annual parade in which they
have always marched, with no problems of any kind, until
this year. The GOP folk were told that they would be physically
attacked by the left-wingers if they appeared in the parade, and
since they could not (or perhaps would not?) be guaranteed
safety by the city and its police, they cancelled their scheduled
appearances in the parade.

And your faithful Peasant can come up with more, many more,
such instances of leftist thugs silencing the people whose views
differ from their own, going so far as to threaten them with mayhem
if they appeared in their cities and on their college campuses.
This behavior from the people (I use this term VERY loosely!) who
boast of their supposed tolerance, inclusion, pluralism, and, yes,
love, while accusing conservatives and other non-lefties of
intolerance, exclusion, elitism, and hatred. I have asked this
question here on this blog before, and now ask it again; don't you
love it when the Left accuses we conservatives of behaving as they
do?

I think that these stories are perfectly illustrative and revealing as
to the true behavior of each side, and no more remains to be said.
This was certainly a most interesting, and instructive Memorial
Day for your observant Peasant; a tale of two ideologies and their
adherents.


MEM

Memorial Day Thoughts

Friends, Memorial Day is drawing near again.
On this day, as you enjoy picnics, cookouts,
visiting family and friends, going to the beach,
perhaps going to a Memorial Day parade near you,
always remember your fellow Americans, past and
present, who made our country, our freedom, and
this special day possible. Tell a vet, be he or she a
family member, a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker,
or a vet selling poppies to raise money to help vets,
thank you for your service and sacrifice. For it was
their standing up to assume such staggering duties
that has made our lives so rich, so bright, so free.

Thus The Peasant thanks all our vets for all you've done
for our dear country. I for one am forever in your debt.
God bless!


MEM

Nat Hentoff, R.I.P.

Nat Hentoff was a ferocious champion of the First Amendment.
The political activist, journalist, author, jazz affecionado, pro-life
advocate, atheist, and liberal who often found common ground with
conservatives and libertarians, believed strongly in the right to
express oneself, no matter how unpopular, controversial, and
provocative one's opinions were. Hentoff defended people from
both sides of the political spectrum, pleasantly surprising and edifying
those on the right while confounding and dismaying those on the left.
A man of many talents, as well as many passions, Hentoff was
a true Renaissance Man in the realms of politics and the arts.

During his long life and career, Hentoff received many awards for
his work and his advocacy of civil liberties. Among the awards he
garnered were the American Bar Association (ABA) Silver Gavel
for his coverage of the law and criminal justice in his columns. He
was a columnist and was for over 50 years a staff writer of the
very left-wing newspaper The Village Voice. A firm opponent of
the death penalty, Hentoff was also vociferously opposed to abortion
on demand, further confounding as well as angering many on the left.
Hentoff stood for civil rights for all, regardless of color, creed, gender,
sexual orientation, already born or waiting to be born, with neither
compromise nor apology.

Hentoff was also on the advisory board of the Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education (FIRE), advocating for First Amendment rights
for students battling political correctness-grounded speech codes on
campuses. He could not abide even the slightest restriction on speech
in our society, and detested censorship of both the spoken and the
written word, making many friends as well as enemies on both sides
of the political spectrum. But whether one loved Nat Hentoff or
loathed him, one couldn't help but  him for his scholarliness, his
determination, his rigorous examination of all of the facts, and his
balanced solutions to the disputes which he weighed in on.

Just a few days into 2017, Nat Hentoff took his rest from his tireless
advocational work which he dedicated most of his 91 years to. Rest
in peace, Nat, and may you receive a most pleasant surprise upon
having shed this mortal coil!


MEM

Oh Give Me a Home Where Uncle Sam Doesn't Roam ...

President Trump has recently undertaken the task of stopping
the grabbing and hoarding of land by the federal government.
He has begun by ordering a review of national monument
designations with this purpose in mind, to "end another
egregious use of government power" as he so aptly termed it.

His executive order directs the Interior Secretary to review all
national monuments of over 100,000 acres that have been
established since 1996. There is a federal law which limits
the size of national monuments to "the smallest area compatible
with the proper care and management of the objects to be
protected (the 1906 Antiquities Act)". The last two democrat
presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, stood this law on
its ear by establishing vast areas of land in order to block
resource development, such as timber, mining, farming and
ranching. They, in so doing, went against the wishes of the
local citizens, also running an end-around of environmental
review and public comment rules, both required in the public
land-use planning process.

Presidents may also reduce or expand the size of national
monuments; three past presidents have reduced Mount
Olympus, and just before leaving office President Obama
enlarged to nearly double the size of Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument in Oregon just to impose further
restrictions on commercial timber harvesting. Such acts
are one reason for the tough times our country's lumber
industry is undergoing.

Here, President Trump has a golden opportunity to advance his
two-pronged agenda of growing the economy and shrinking
the size and scope of the federal government. After listening
to the concerns of the local stakeholders who have been
elbowed aside by liberal presidents he can return to them the power
to determine the best use of these lands to them and promote
greater prosperity in the process. Your hopeful Peasant believes
that the president will follow through, given his course which
he has set for himself and his administration. Now that would
be power to the people!


MEM