Thursday, December 29, 2016

Jeff Barta, R.I.P.

With the conclusion of this year, amid the joy of the
season with all its gaiety, your faithful Peasant wishes
to pay tribute to an old friend, a fellow conservative,
and an avid reader of this blog who passed away this year;
Jeff Barta, a schoolmate from our days at Waukesha (WI)
Catholic Memorial High School, suffered from a heart
infection which proved fatal.

Jeff and I met when we were Spanish students at CMH
and went on a trip to Mexico for Easter vacation with
our fellow Spanish students, a few parents along for
chaperones, and the head of the Spanish Language
Department, Sister Virginia, a rather cheerful but
sometimes stern nun. We stayed at a decent hotel in
Mexico City, going on jaunts around the city and
farther out, such as visits to the Aztec temples of
the sun and the moon, both of which we climbed
to their very tops to enjoy magnificent views of
the Mexican countryside. We even attended a wedding
on Easter Sunday, held at Mexico City's famous
Cathedral, and got to meet the newlywed couple.
A trip to Taxco, the Silver Mining Capital of the World
as it is known, was on our itinerary as well, with
traveling through some of Mexico's desert land
thrown in. All great adventure and fun!

Jeff provided what I would come to recognize as his
inexhaustible good humor, an integral part of his easy-
going nature, which made an enjoyable trip even more so.
Always cracking jokes, especially on the dangers of drinking
water not in a sealed bottle so as to avoid the malady known
south of the border as "Montezuma's Revenge" ("Don't 'Zuma
now! Stay healthy!"), and involved in some delightful
horseplay, Jeff was the life of a very lively contingent of
travelers. One night Jeff and some of the fellows were tossing
water bombs (plastic bottles and water balloons) at passerby
outside our hotel. They hit a few people on the sidewalk, as
well as a few passing cars, one a police squad car! Finally,
someone in our group came to warn that the hotel management
was sending someone up to investigate the aquatic bedlam,
and everyone quickly disappeared -- no one got caught.
Your swiftly-thinking and moving Peasant fled to the
relaxing confines of the hotel bar, which was on the top floor.

One night I was in said bar, on my own, as we had the evening
free and could do as we wished. As is my wont as an experienced
traveler, desiring to sample as much of Mexico's life and
staple, I ordered a Tequilla Sunrise. Knowing that this drink
would be powerful and potent, I nursed it gently, taking all of
forty-five minutes to finish. But as I took the last swallow, I
felt a warm sensation in my gut -- and it was getting warmer.
I stood up, walked from my table, and went out into the hall
to the elevators. Once I got inside an available lift, my gut felt
like it was ablaze; I could barely remain standing. When I got
to my floor, I made my way to our room, unlocked the door,
made it inside, tried to reach my bed, but instead collapsed on
the floor next to it, and lost consciousness. when I finally
awakened it was morning, Jeff and my other roomies were in
our quarters, and I noticed that my pillow was under my head,
my blanket covering me, and my clothes still on. Jeff asked how
I was, saying that he saw that I was in a bad way so he took down
the pillow and blanket from my bed to make me comfortable.
He cared about my well-being, and figured that I had run afoul of
some of the local booze (damn straight I did!). I thanked him
profusely, and we cemented an already established friendship.
This was in my junior year, Jeff's sophomore year. After I
graduated we lost touch but got back together on Facebook.
Availing himself of the link I provide to this blog, Jeff became
an enthusiastic reader, enjoying my take on the political and
economic news on a regular basis until his sad and sudden demise.
If heaven has wi-fi you can bet Jeff is still enjoying my essays and
missives!

In recent years Jeff and his dear wife Joette owned and operated
a delightful cigar bar in downtown Waukesha, the city of our
alma mater, that they dubbed "A Nice Ash". Not at all a smoker,
I still enjoyed my visits there, and go there when I can. Many
of our friends frequent the establishment, and some of them
perform there in their bands. And I can feel Jeff's joyful presence,
especially when standing and chatting with friends enjoying some
of the fine cigars from the bar's walk-in humidor. I get a feeling of
comfort from it.


I miss you Jeff more than I can say, and I am told that I have an
impressive vocabulary! We'll catch up on everything when I
am invited up to partake of our Lord's hospitality as you have
been. And we'll enjoy His fine drinks together and maybe I'll
try one of His divine cigars in that heavenly cigar bar!

Thank you for being a wonderful friend and a grand part of
my life! Rest well, my friend and brother conservative!



MEM


Wednesday, December 28, 2016

A Happy New Year to All!

My dear readers, your favorite Peasant wishes all of you
a beautiful, blessed, joyful, prosperous, happy new year!
We're certainly getting it off to a fantastic start with the
inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump, finally
and mercifully concluding the misbegotten presidency
of Barack Obama and beginning a new and bound to be
happier era with the new administration. May all your
fondest wishes and cherished dreams for 2017 come true!


MEM

Monday, December 19, 2016

Christmas Greetings and Good Wishes!

My dear readers, your grateful Peasant wishes all of you
a truly Merry Christmas and a truly Happy New Year!
We had a fantastic year, this blessed year of 2016, and
derailing Hillary Clinton's presidential election bid was
a Christmas present come early! Let us enjoy this beautiful,
magical time of the year and gather round with our families
and friends to not merely give each other lovely presents but
give each other our love, and to reflect on the loving gift
to our world that our loving God gave us on that first
Christmas over two thousand years ago, the gift of gifts,
the very gift that started it all.

God bless you all, your families and friends, and our
beautiful and beloved country! Your faithful Peasant
shall be back with you after the day!


MEM

Monday, December 12, 2016

Jill Stein and Her Army of Malcontents

Well, the people have spoken loud and clear on Tuesday
November 8; no Hillary, no third term of Obama policies,
no more ramming statism down our throats; Donald Trump
was voted in, and Hillary Clinton was told to take a long walk
off a short pier. But some of the lefties just won't accept defeat;
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, who didn't win a
single state, has filed to recount the votes in some key swing
states, which happen to include your favorite Peasant's home
state of Wisconsin, claiming to "stand up for a vote that is
accurate, secure, fair, and just, in which every vote counts."

Now, this is just what it looks like, folks: a quixotic campaign,
even more than the one she ran in her attempt to win election to
the presidency, for the purpose of embarrassing and/or deligitimi-
tizing President-Elect Donald Trump's victory and his nascent
presidency. While the lefties always demand that we conservatives
respect and live with the results of elections, especially those with
the presidency on the line, which they win, they will behave like
spoiled and unruly children when we win these elections and get our
presidential candidate elected. These hypocritical dimwits will and do
make excuses, accusations, and conspiracy theories as to why they
lost, and this year's presidential election is certainly no exception!
They have gotten behind Jill Stein to march onward in a feeble
attempt to make mischief for Trump and those who voted for him.

So what has greenie Jill Stein gotten for her efforts? Not a heck of
a lot. Pennsylvania has shut her out, as Stein could not get her papers
filed on time there to get the Keystone State folks to recount their
votes. In my state a judge has declined a request by the Steinies to
have the recount there done by hand, which would have been more
prone to ballot hanky-panky than the other methods. And while
defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton initially cheered Stein
on, many in Clinton's party have come to realize that Stein's efforts
shall be for naught both in terms of changing the election outcome
as well as to denigrate victor Donald Trump. Finally, the cruelest and
deepest cut of all, Stein's own Green Party has turned away from her
and her ploy. The Green Party recently issued the following statement:

"There are significant electoral reforms needed to make elections more
democratic and more representative of the people. While we support
electoral reforms, including how the vote is counted, we do not support
the current recount being undertaken by Jill Stein ... The decision to
pursue a recount was not made in a democratic or strategic way, nor
did it the established decision making process and structures of the
Green Party of the United States."

OW! It sounds like poor ol' Jill cheesed off not only the Trump voters
and the Republican Party, and perhaps the Democrats as well, but
her own party pals to boot! It appears that Stein has embarrassed her
fellow greenies with her cockeyed crusade. And the last your amused
Peasant heard, the recount in Wisconsin has shown Donald Trump
GAINING more votes, rather than losing votes, with similar findings
in some of the other states' recounts.

The Green Party gave a fitting coda to this comic farce in their
summation of their statement: "As a candidate, Dr. Stein has a right
to call for a recount. However, we urge the GPUS (Green Party of
the United States) to distance itself from any appearance of support
for either Democrats or Republicans. We are well aware of the
undemocratic actions taken by the DNC and the Clinton Campaign.
Greens cannot be perceived to be allied with such a party."

The Green Party has acquitted itself admirably on this matter.
Their failed (in more ways than one) candidate Jill Stein should,
for the good of not only her party but for the good of the nation's
electorate, pack it in.


MEM

Thursday, December 8, 2016

Remembering Pearl Harbor and Its Lessons

Your overworked Peasant apologizes for not getting this
post put up for you on the day, but am grateful for being
able to seize the time to share this with you, my dear
readers, on this, the day after. I am referring to the
75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
which brought our country into the Second World War.

When this territorial target was hit (Hawaii was still a
territory at that time) Americans were enraged and wanted
to defend themselves, not wanting to wait to see if Japan
would attack any of the then 48 states on the mainland.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day, America
quickly mobilized, and we joined the then two year old
fray which was enveloping the world. The outcome showed
Japan, their axis chums, and all the world that the United
States was not a nation to be trifled with, not to be disrespected,
not to be bullied, and certainly not to be attacked.

On September 11, 2001, we were attacked again, this time
in two of our states and in our nation's capital city, and by
a stealthy band of low-rent thugs from the Middle East.
We went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, been over there
for over a decade, had some successes in both countries,
then ... didn't follow up and follow through. We still have
some major (and more than a few minor) radical Muslim
groups at large over there and in other countries in the
greater region; some radical Islamists in our country have
struck against Americans in San Bernardino, Fort Hood,
and Columbus, with one attempt at terror thwarted in your
favorite Peasant's hometown of Milwaukee. We have a
national media which has downplayed 9/11 and the smaller
subsequent terror strikes, and has tried to play up President
Obama's weak responses to the latter, and has even refused
to call these incidents what they are: acts of terror, adhering
to some politically correct code so as to "not be offensive"
and to be more "sensitive"(!?). Meanwhile, our friends
are wondering what's up with us and our enemies are falling
down laughing at us; maybe we can hope that they'll
pop a few ribs and rupture some internal organs?

Well, now we have a president-elect waiting to be inaugurated
in about six weeks who has pledged to reverse this sad and
tragic backtracking from our commitment and responsibility
to protect our country and our allies from this radical scourge.
Donald Trump will respond and act more like 1941 than
2009-today, and has already gotten some cheers from our
beleaguered and frustrated military, eagerly awaiting a new
commander-in-chief who will allow them to do their jobs,
to do the work that they signed up to do, and to demonstrate
support and encouragement rather than disdain and contempt
for these brave and patriotic fellow Americans. And once in
office, our new president and CIC will do what the soon-to-be-
leaving president failed to do --- follow up and follow through!
Our WWII veterans understood that there is no substitute for
victory and fought their war accordingly. It will be refreshing
to have a president who shares this understanding.


MEM

Thursday, December 1, 2016

A Way to Reduce Student Loan Debt (In Some Cases)

Much has been said about the many college students
who are deep in debt re: the loans they obtained to
finance their educations, only to find that there are
precious few jobs in our present economy that they
can both start their careers with and start earning and
saving money to service their student loan debt as
well as establish their savings. Your favorite Peasant
is going to share with you a plan that, while it will
not solve this problem for all or most of these
bewildered students, it can help those who became
ensnared in this predicament via fraudulent
misrepresentation by some institutions of higher
learning.

I shall explain: there is an idea coming from
Washington in which federal student loans would
be forgiven if the applicants were bamboozled
into enrolling at colleges making false promises.
This idea, which was recently announced
by the White House, was developed to assist former
students of Corinthian Colleges Inc., a large for-
profit chain that underwent bankruptcy reorganization
this spring. This organization was accused last year
by federal officials of misleading prospective students
about its graduates' success in finding and excelling
at career-relevant jobs. Among the shenanigans
perpetrated by Corinthian was paying temp agencies
to hire its graduates for as little as two days' time (!)
just so they could count these grads as being
employed. One of Corinthian's campuses counted one
grad as being employed in her field major based on
her having worked in a fast-food restaurant, not as a
manager, but as one of the food preparers.

Federal government officials said that under this new plan
they would consider forgiving any loans made directly
by the government --- those held by a majority of the
43 million Americans with student debt --- provided that
the borrower can document that a school lured him to
apply for the loan under conditions which would violate
state laws. Now Washington has admitted that this plan
potentially would come with a very high price on its
sticker, a price that would certainly be in the billions of
dollars, although federal officials have declined to
estimate the potential total amount of loans that could
be eligible for forgiveness.

This plan was created in the wake of former Corinthian
students holding demonstrations. Some of these students
have organized a "debt strike" in which they are refusing
to make payments on their outstanding loans. Education
Department officials and the president have said that the
plan would relieve borrowers of mounting debts that were
the result of fraudulent representation by dishonest schools.
Critics of the plan, including some members of Congress,
state that the plan would punish taxpayers instead of the
fraud-perpetrating colleges. One related danger would be
false claims put out by dishonest borrowers who simply
don't want to repay their loans.

What might --- just might --- make this plan successful
would be verifiable documentation provided by the
recipients of said loans, so that fraud from the other end
of the equation would be greatly minimized. This would
help the real victims of these crooked colleges while
not further burdening the taxpayers with exorbitant costs.
In the meantime, no legislation to enact this plan
should even be considered at all without this proviso;
for it would distinguish said plan from other debt
forgiveness proposals that in recent months
have come out of Washington which have put taxpayers
on the hook for billions of dollars already. And it
potentially can reduce the total delinquent debt by
a considerable amount in the process.

This may seem like an iffy plan at best to some. But it is
a far better plan than many of, if not all, of the other
plans which have come before.


MEM

Thursday, November 17, 2016

The Peasant Takes Medical Leave & Happy Thanksgiving!

My grand readers, your favorite Peasant is taking
next week off in order to undergo a medical procedure,
one that all people, especially men, once they reach
then pass the age of 50 should have. On Tuesday,
November 22 at 1:30 PM, I shall undergo a
colonoscopy, my first ever. As I must take my "prep"
medicine the day before, I shall be indisposed for that
entire day, and as this will be the week of Thanksgiving,
I shall not be posting anyway.

This is not as arduous a procedure as some might think,
and it is vital in order to ascertain and maintain sound
intestinal and colorectal health. If one or more polyps
turn up, the doctor can remove them at once and do tests
on them to look for any signs of malignancy. If any
are detected, treatment can swiftly take place, and will
be beneficial in stopping colon cancer in its starting
stages. Colon cancer is the second most deadly type of
cancer, but if caught early it is one of the most treatable.
That is why having a colonoscopy is so crucial when you
hit 50, and why it's good to have one every five years
hence, as this is the time when people are most likely
to get this malady.

In the meantime, your faithful Peasant is taking a breather
from the political storms, whipped by the winds of
public opinion and polls, fed by the news out of Washington
as well as the capitals of the states and the cities dotting
the country from coast to coast. But worry not; I shall return
very soon, when we shall pick up where we're leaving off.

I'll be in good hands and in good shape! As Sean Hannity
likes to say, "Let not your heart be troubled."

Be back soon! Love, joy, and a Happy Thanksgiving to you!
And oh, do we have much to be thankful for! We turned back
Hillary Clinton in the presidential election and we helped
the Republicans to hold both chambers of Congress, as well as
hold onto the Republican-held governorships and state
legislatures around the country. Conservatism is alive and well,
and along with it our liberty!


MEM


Saturday, November 12, 2016

Excelsior!

With the presidential election now concluded, and the outcome
in our favor, let us my dear and loyal readers savor this golden
moment and join together in celebration!

Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential show-
down, and the Obama-Clinton socialist hex of the past nearly eight
years! Trump, with the help of so very many cheesed-off Americans
overcame the vicious, hateful name-calling of the left-wingers;
their pom-pom girls and boys in the lamestream media backing them
up, the political prognosticators and pundits across the political spec-
trum proclaiming en masse that Trump never had a chance; the
Republican National Committee turning its back on Trump,
begrudging him funds to help get his message out; so many more
obstacles and challenges in addition to win the big prize!
And this being the Veterans Day holiday weekend, what a gift
to our long-suffering military people, past and present, who have
been given the back of the current regime's hand all this while!
And Veteran's Day greetings to you, our brave warriors!

Lord knows Donald Trump wasn't our ideal candidate, my grand
readers; your skeptical Peasant has voiced his concerns on this
blog, and I couldn't bring myself to endorse Trump in this
election, but I urged you all to vote for our country and elect
a candidate who would be much more likely to help us to turn
her and both her political and economic fortunes around as
opposed to a technocratic elitist who would double down on
the debilitating policies of her predecessor. And you delivered
the knockout punch to clinch the victory for Donald Trump
and for We the People! Congratulations and heartfelt gratitude
to you!

We and Donald Trump are the Chicago Cubs of politics; as the
Cubs went to the World Series for the first time in a lifetime
and won it for the first time in two lifetimes, we upset the
formidable and forboding forces which stood in our way!
2016 is the year of miracles!

Thank you all for your hard work, your prayers, your financial
contributions to the campaign, your letters to the editors of
your local newspapers and national publications, e.g. The Wall
Street Journal and such, and most importantly, your votes! We
showed the world what people can do when they are motivated,
informed, and determined to establish and maintain the govern-
ment they demand, ignoring the odds and the dangers! This is
what the United States is all about! This is what the American
people, the "can do" people, are all about! Excelsior!


MEM

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

The Peasant's Take on This Election

Your grateful Peasant is so happy that you, my fabulous readers,
have so warmly received my dear friend and fellow conservative
April Dubis, enjoying her guest post so! This is the first time that
I have had a guest write a piece on this blog, and your favorite
Peasant will certainly bring April back in the future, and shall
have some other fellow conservatives to share their thoughts
and observations on the political scene as well!

In the meantime, as today is indeed our D-Day, as dear April
put it so aptly in her post, and the polls will remain open for a
little while more, my message regarding the election is this:
Donald Trump is, to be sure, not an ideal candidate for the
presidency, I cannot excuse let alone condone the outrageous
things he has said, and his lack of study on some very crucial
issues has been mind-numbing. But at least he is not rotten to
the core like Hillary Clinton, just megalomaniacal. Yes, that
can certainly pose some problems down the road, but Trump
at least seems to have an appreciation for our Constitution
and its enumeration of rights and restraints, especially restraints
on our government, while Clinton has the same disdain for same,
just like the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and will
certainly pick up where he will leave off when his final term
concludes in January. And for all the despicable things that Trump
has said about women, at least he never tried to have his way
with them as Clinton's husband has done --- and let's not
forget that Hill has enabled Bill to cut a swath through not a small
quanitity of women in their shared political career by heading
up their "bimbo eruption" team, designed to discredit and
disgrace his victims. I cannot endorse Trump, with all his baggage,
but I do endorse our great country and therefore urge support
for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton for the president. Trump
may help it, Clinton would definitely harm it!

Now a word for my fellow Wisconsinites: U.S. Senator Ron Johnson
is again facing the man he defeated for the senate seat he has so ably
held for a full term. We elected Johnson in 2010 and he has represented
us and our dear Badger State so wonderfully, working for a fairer, saner
tax code, loosening the regulatory noose around the neck of all
businesses big and small, and to make a favorable economic climate
to enable the creation of jobs for displaced workers in Wisconsin
and throughout the country. One must, however, credit his opponent
former Sen. Russ Feingold with having the chutzpah to challenge
Sen. Johnson for that very seat; after being a rubber stamp for the
Obama regime with his votes for passage of Obamacare (and
parroting Obama's lies as to its alleged benefits), the so-called
stimulus packages which only benefited Obama's big business cronies,
not the beleaguered employees in their corporations, the outrageous
expenditures which made for not only larger budget deficits but
record-setting national debt, presently approaching the $20 trillion (!)
mark. And Feingold claimed that he wanted to shrink these two
things; pie crust promises, just like with Obama! Our choice is clear,
your enthusiastic Peasant enthusiastically endorses Se. Ron Johnson
for another term in the U.S. Senate.

And don't forget to support all the fine conservative candidates on the
downticket in your states and communities! We must elect as many
constitution-minded conservatives as we can to turn our country
around and restore our liberty and prosperity, and to leave our
children and coming generations a land where they can follow
their dreams instead of the dictates of elitist politicians and
untouchable, ensconced, unaccountable bureaucrats behind the
pols. If you haven't been to your polling places yet GET DOWN
THERE NOW!!! Our country and our way of life is at stake.
Good luck everyone!


MEM



Monday, November 7, 2016

Guest Post by April Dubis: D-Day

November 8th is our country's D-Day. No, we are not storming
the beaches at Normandy again, but never before has there been
so much at stake in recent history for both our nation and even
the world.

It is common knowledge that Hillary Clinton is anti-life, anti-family,
and may well get us into a nuclear war in the Middle East. She has
also proven by her plethora of repeated scandals that she is not to be
trusted, not to mention hold the office of the presidency.

Clinton advocates the merciless and horrific killing of innocent
unborn babies through abortion at any time during pregnancy.
If these voiceless little ones have no chance of survival through
these unjust and evil laws that sanction their deaths then what's
to protect anyone who is less than her ideal? A person's age,
fitness, race, creed, ideology, etc. could then be used as an
excuse to declare then expendable. This is not far fetched!

The former First Lady, acceding to the LGBT mentality, again
reflects that she has no respect for the natural law as given by our
Creator.

Sadly, Clinton has not minced words regarding the use of nuclear
warheads being used as a first strike against Iran and Russia.
Does she want to ignite World War III?

Regarding the decisive, far-reaching consequences of Hillary being
elected, an item of crucial importance here: According to Texas
State Supreme Court Justice Don Willet, "When Americans vote in
November they're choosing not just a president but thousands of
presidential appointments, including hundreds of life-tenured judges."
And these judges presiding over the lower federal courts have many
more cases than does our U.S. Supreme Court (not to mention that
several Supreme Court justices will be appointed as well!). Do we
trust Hillary to make these crucial appointments? I think not!

Clinton is a woman without scruples or even a heart. Case in point:
the infamous Benghazi debacle. Those familiar with the tragic story
know that Ambassador Christopher Stevens made repeated pleas
over 600 (!) for months, begging for more and better security. With no
response forthcoming from then Secretary of State Clinton the
Pentagon stepped in and importuned her to authorize special U.S.
forces to be deployed (they were ready and able!). She coldly
declined, leaving Stevens, along with U.S. Foreign Information Service
Officer Glen Smith, with security specialists Glen Doherty and
Tyrone Woods perish in the eight-hour siege at our compound.
Then, for bad measure she lied to their family members as to how
and why they died, as well as to the entire nation. Is this someone
we want for President? I think not! Basically, one's life isn't worth
a dime to Clinton unless it is valuable to her agenda!

There is so very much more that I could say regarding Clinton's sordid
past, not to mention her husband Bill's past. Suffice it to say that all
this and more can be found on the Internet.

Finally, as William Wilberforce, who bravely spent thirty years leading
the battle to abolish slavery in his native England once said, "You may
choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did
not know." We do in fact know that Jesus Christ said, "The truth shall
set you free." Free from lies, corruption, selfishness, violence, fear, and
all manner of evil.

May we as a country once again welcome God and His life-giving
principles as our American forefathers espoused. And may we all
pray for a good outcome to this most decisive and crucial election
and vote according to enlightened consciences. May the best man win!


April Dubis

Thursday, November 3, 2016

A Special Announcement

My grand readers, your favorite Peasant has a special
treat in store for you! I was asked by a dear friend and
fellow conservative if I could let her be a guest on this
blog, posting a special piece to share regarding the fast-
upcoming election (next week!). We shall be getting
together before the big day, Tuesday November 8, to
put her essay forth for your perusal and edification.

This friend of mine, April Dubis, like me, is a conserva-
tive independent, disenchanted with the Republican Party
and for the same reasons, Catholic, pro-life, and very
concerned about the election upon us and the course
our country is on and its prospects for changing course
and trajectory. I think you're going to find that her
thoughts will resonate with you, and that you will get
much from what she has to say! And, she is an avid reader
of this blog as well!

Anyway, we'll be posting before November 8, but we're
not sure which day, so check back here every so often
between now and the day. Thank you, my beloved readers,
for welcoming April! God bless!


MEM


NOTE: All guests' opinions posted here on Peasant With A 
Pitchfork are solely those of the guest contributors. 
The views expressed in this, and all subsequent guest
opinion pieces, are the author's own and do not necessarily
represent those of this blogger. 

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Halloween Ideas and Musings

Friends, Halloween is but four days away, and your
spooktacular Peasant has a wonderfully fun idea for
you: Buy an Obama mask at your local Halloween
costume store, and scare up some big laughs!

Last year I bought one and have been having a ball
with it ever since; I have danced out to greet friends
in it, singing a fitting Irish ditty "The Liar" all the while!
Some of my friends nearly popped some ribs they were
laughing so hard!

As President Barack Obama winds down his time in the
White House, this is a fine and fitting tribute to the man
and his legacy; a legacy of disingenuousness, double-talking,
four-flushing, empty promises, baseless boasts, and just
plain bad old-fashioned lies (if you like your doctor/health plan,
you can keep your doctor/health care plan!). We may as well
have a laugh or two to shake off the tribulations of these past
eight years!

And while you're shopping for your Halloween cheer, why not
pick up a Hillary mask as well? Double the spooktacular political
fun with the presidential election coming right behind Halloween!
You can go out trick-or-treating and tell people that you're imposing
a candy tax, to be paid in candy!

Enjoy! And have a Happy Halloween!


MEM


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Hillary's Hypocrisy

The latest imbroglio surrounding former First Lady,
former U.S. Senator, former Secretary of State and
Democrat nominee for the Presidency, has
Hillary Clinton centering on her plan to rid American
politics of big money and the shroud of secrecy.
There it is: the joke and the punch line all in one
statement.

Clinton recently announced that as President
she would have the federal government provide
matching funds for campaign donations below a
given dollar amount, as well as lower the cap on the
amount individuals can give to candidates, and mandate
independent groups to disclose their donors. Oh, and
she would push for rewriting the First Amendment
to allow more regulation of political speech.

Gee, your quizzical Peasant wonders how this would
affect the Clinton Foundation? Would the foundation begun
by Clinton and her husband even be included in the coverage
of her legislation? Now we know that their cozy little group
has happily accepted contributions from other countries
including Qatar --- while she was our nation's top diplomat,
no less. Moreover, this outfit raised money to hire
unofficial advisers such as Sidney Blumenthal and new
campaign aides such as Huma Abedin. Does anyone seriously
believe that the Clintons are going to, along with their
foundation, submit to these rules and regulations?
Hillary Clinton already has an ever-widening credibility gap
concerning many subjects, including Benghazi and her
e-mails. She is a liar like her husband, except that she lacks
Bill's smoothness and panache in the art of speaking the blarney.
And this is threatening to catch up with her in a big, nasty way,
with the election coming up in thirteen days.

The ongoing spectacle is not unlike a car wreck in the making;
you know it's coming, you know it will be horrible, yet you
feel you cannot avert your gaze.


MEM




Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Wanted: A Good, Pro-Growth Tax Plan

A note to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump
and running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence:

Here is a tax plan worth closer study and certainly of
serious discussion: The Main Street Tax Plan, an idea
from the Hudson Institute, a conservative non-profit
think tank specializing in economic and foreign policy
issues. This tax plan would give a tax cut to nearly all
American taxpayers: $2,153 to a single person earning
$60,000; $2,020 to a couple earning $80,000; and $2,055
to a family of four earning $95,000. The middle-class
would be the plan's biggest beneficiaries, and would fare
twice as well as those in the lofty top 1% of earners.

The Hudson Institute's plan would expand the U.S.
economy by $2 trillion within ten years, according to
the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, which took a close look
at it. This tax cut would raise revenues by $679 billion
over ten years, and taxes on increased growth would
replace and exceed lost revenues in that time frame.

And that's not all: the Main Street Tax Plan would make
for 7% of increased GDP growth over ten years for every
$1 trillion in tax cuts. And the plan would do away with
the business tax deduction for interest paid, thereby
ending Uncle Sam's preference for debt-financing.
And the plan would streamline the tax code by cutting
back on the number of different federal taxes. This plan
would end the Medicare payroll tax and would fund
Medicare through general revenues. The $679 billion in
extra revenue would leave more money for Medicare
funding, not less.

Furthermore, the plan would maintain the deduction for
charitable donations and for the mortgage-interest donation
(for one home), while eliminating almost all other deductions
currently in force.

The Main Street Tax Plan concentrates on the typical Amer-
ican. There would be no ordained winners or losers.
So how about it, Misters Trump and Pence? Worth a look
to you? It is certainly worth a look to Americans fed up with
ever-escalating taxes and getting little or nothing for their tax
payments.


MEM

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Trying to Have It Both Ways

Your beloved Peasant saw this story headlining a recent copy
of USA Today: Well-heeled Democrat donors have to date
donated $134 million to help their party's presidential nominee
Hillary Clinton's campaign, a sum being 2 1/2 times that given
by Republicans to aid GOP nominee Donald Trump. The 'Pubs
have given $51 million thus far, and the reasons being many
Republicans with deep pockets are still not very keen on the
party's presidential hopeful, many of whom had supported
with votes and money other GOP candidates who unsuccessfully
vied for the party's presidential blessings. Moreover, these
big-boppin' Republicans have been instead donating to
down-ballot candidates on the ticket, from the senatorial
hopefuls to House candidates to gubernatorial contestants to
state legislature office seekers.

These folks think, and your observant Peasant isn't going to
dispute them, that Trump hasn't the temperament, the tact,
the command of the issues of the day, his sudden changes of
opinion regarding same, or the sufficiently thick skin to
withstand the barrage of attacks that he is presently facing,
and will face more of if elected, from the opposition.
I share these criticisms and concerns as well, but I maintain
that Donald Trump is not as awful a candidate and would not
be as awful a president as Clinton would be.

Meanwhile, former hedge fund manager and now a
radical environmentalist billionaire Tom Steyer is frantically
busy raising money for Hillary Clinton and the Democrats'
candidates for the Senate. His own super PAC, NextGen
Climate Action, has been an indispensable tool in his efforts;
he donated over ten million dollars to his creation, and
over $20 million to other fundraising organizations raising
money for this and for sufficiently left-wing candidates.
Just yesterday Steyer announced a $2 million campaign with
the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and
Planned Parenthood Votes to reach out to approximately
200,000 voters in New Hampshire, a battleground state
which is featuring a fiercely contested battle for the U.S.
Senate seat currently held by first-term GOP incumbent Sen.
Kelly Ayotte. She is being challenged by the state's Democrat
Governor Maggie Hassan, a very far left-wing politician.
Steyer crowed "We are committed to doing everything in
our power to deliver (Trump) a resounding defeat on
November 8,". And this is just one limousine liberal donor!

Again, I hold the same concerns and worries about Donald
Trump as do the big GOP donors. But let's not kid ourselves,
Hillary Clinton is the bigger danger to our republic, to our
country, to our prosperity, to our liberty, and to our way of life.
If I were a cash-laden fellow I would write a check right now
to assist Trump by making sure he has the essential funds
to mount an effective and triumphant campaign against Hillary
Clinton and her fellow left-wing elites. As it is, your determined
Peasant is certainly going to mark my ballot on the day for
Donald Trump, even though I may need to hold my nose,
even if I need to bring incense, an air freshener, maybe a
gas mask, for the simple reason being that Trump is at least
pro-marketplace rather than pro-state, and we can get him to
lend an ear to us, whereas Clinton would give us a deaf ear
and the middle finger.

And as for the Dems raising all that cash for Clinton and their
party's entire ticket, keep in mind that this is the same bunch
that decried the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court which upheld the right of
large organizations such as corporations and labor unions (yes,
labor unions!) to donate money to influence political campaigns
under the First Amendment, yet they have no compunction
regarding raising astronomical sums of money for the same
purpose. And of course they are getting lots of dollars from
both the unions and from corporations and fat cats like Steyer
to load their campaign war chests! In other words, they are
benefiting from the very ruling which they lambasted!

With each and every day that passes, the Democrats and the
Left demonstrate their unfitness to hold political power.
Between now and November, Republicans and conservatives
both in and out of the party, wealthy and not, have an opportunity
to level the playing field, so come November we can prevail.
Let us take advantage of this great gift while we can!


MEM


Thursday, October 6, 2016

Shimon Peres, R.I.P.

One of Israel's greatest political leaders,
a guiding figure to this nation since its
nationhood in 1948, a staunch ally to
the United States and the west, and always
in the midst of the action, Shimon Peres,
passed away September 28 after several
years of increasingly debilitating illness.
including two strokes, aged 93.

A protege' of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's
first head of state and a founding father,
Peres himself was Prime Minister on three
separate occasions, Foreign Minister as
many times, and president from 2007 until
2014. Peres was pivotal in building Israel's
defensive capabilities through helping to
establish Israel's electronics and aircraft
industries, as well as building his country's
nuclear arsenal. The leader of Israel's Labor
Party, Peres had no illusions of the dangers
posed by Israel's dangerous Arab neighbors.
Peres also revitalized Israel's economy in addition
to expanding and upgrading her defense
capability, as well as her economy.

A farmer and a shepherd in his younger days,
Peres rose to lofty heights as a political leader.
Statesman, warrior, then peace advocate, speaker
of several languages including Polish, Russian,
Hebrew, English and French, poet, songwriter,
an all-around renaissance man, Peres made his
mark not only upon Israel, but upon the Middle
East and the world. Principled yet pragmatic,
strong yet flexible, single-minded yet open to
new ideas, Shimon Peres was a great leader
for his people and an indefatigable ally of
the United States, he leaves a huge pair of
shoes to fill and a vast void in his part of the world.
Repose in comfort, sir. Enjoy your everlasting
reward after your yeoman's work. R.I.P.


MEM


Wednesday, September 28, 2016

The Myth of Free Health Care

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, independent
(but caucuses with the Senate Democrats), who was
recently a candidate for the presidency,  met up with a
Swedish reporter who claimed that "(Swedes pay)
like next to nothing" for health care. I suppose the
Swede was trying to one-up socialist Sanders, who
is a big proponent of President Obama's Affordable
Health Care Plan (a/k/a Obamacare). As we know,
Obama's health care scheme is anything but affordable
for so many Americans who have already enrolled in
it; the premiums are astronomical, then there's the
deductibles!

But it was stated by a reader of The Wall Street Journal,
who related this event in a letter to the editor which the WSJ
published on June 17 of last year that the Swedes pay for
the upkeep of their system with a tax, which all Swedes must
pay. Additionally, there is a copay for every doctor's visit.
Therefore, this is not free health care. This, by the way, is
common knowledge to anyone who pays any attention to
this subject.

Your inquisitive Peasant mentions this wee bit of news only
because, as so many conservatives are convinced that Obama's
plan is the gateway to a system which would be similar to
Sweden's, or at least to that of Canada's single-payer program,
this could loom in our future if Obamacare is not
finally repealed. Sharing this view, I can state that we think
that the present system forced on us by Obama and the
Democrats was not meant to operate all that smoothly,
especially concerning the costs to be paid for the policies
along with the associated costs. Thus the Dems could, and
would, replace that system with a completely government-run
system, all in the name of guaranteeing controlled costs and
efficiency. Problem is, the efficiency would be not unlike
that of too many other programs administered by Uncle Sam
and the costs would still be steep --- our tax burdens would
bear that out.

Socialism isn't free; it's not even cheap!


MEM

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Thank You for Seven Fantastic Years!

My dear and wonderful readers, your grateful Peasant
wants to thank you for seven fantastic years together
here at this blog! From the day, September 23, 2009
when we first got together to examine and discuss
the news and issues facing us, we have covered much
and learned even more, enjoying the journey as we
went. And I am so thankful for your all coming along
for the ride!

You are the reason I write and publish "Peasant
With A Pitchfork". You gather round every week
to read my take on the political and economic
news of the day, giving the conservative perspective
in a way that speaks, I hope, to your concerns and
puts things in a way that sparks something in each of
you, to stir you to action by contacting your elected
representatives and the president, to gather your families,
friends and neighbors to discuss what to do about a
particular issue and its inherent challenges, or perhaps
even to run for elected office yourselves. And to have
some fun while we gather here at this blog site!

God bless you all, I treasure each and every one of you,
even though I haven't met most of you and may never!
And God bless America!


MEM

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

The Maximum Rage Over the Minimum Wage

Although California Governor Jerry Brown is as staunch
a liberal Democrat as you are ever likely to find, he recently
balked at raising his state's minimum wage, already well
above the present national minimum wage of $7.25 per hour,
stating that it would "put a lot of poor people out of work".
However, he regained his ideological moorings, relearned his
ideological catechism, and signed into law a bill mandating
raising California's minimum wage to $15 per hour, the lofty
new wage floor to reach this mandated level by 2022.

Gov. Brown made a bargain with Democrat lawmakers and union
leaders to jack up the minimum wage in their state every year
for the next six years until the targeted wage is reached. California's
current minimum wage is $10 per hour, considerably above the
aforementioned current U.S. minimum wage, but the union chieftans
want to hike California's wage because --- dirty little secret --- the
unions' contracts all mandate that the workers in their rank-and-file
membership MUST be paid AT LEAST a certain percentage above
the prevailing minimum wage in the state where they work. The
more the workers are paid, the more the union can charge and extract
from them in union dues. This is standard practice with unions all
over the country, and it is of course why unions are big fans of the
minimum wage.

Ah, but here's the rub: Many California workers will become jobless.
Why? Employers will not pay more for in labor costs than they think
the labor is worth, governmental mandates be damned. So while they
will have to pay their employees at least the new minimum wage of
$15, the minimum wage law does not mandate that they have to keep,
let alone hire, more workers at that wage level. What will these firms
do? For starters, they can automate their workplaces. They will simply
acquire machines, or computers, or robotics to perform the tasks that
they used to hire people to do via their physical activity. Another tack
that employers can take is to cut their staff and parcel out the tasks that
their low-level workers used to perform to their remaining workers who
are up a step or two on the company rungs, increasing their workloads.
And the employers figure that even after increasing the wages of these
workers in exchange for assigning them more work, they will still save
on wages by not having the low-level workers that they used to employ
and having to pay them artificially-inflated wages, inflated by govern-
ment fiat.

The unemployment rates in various cities and regions of California are
presently at dire levels: Fresno's rate is currently 10.5%, Merced suffers
from a 12.6%  rate of joblessness. These are just two examples of that
state's troubling situation. And the legislation Gov. Brown signed into
law will only exacerbate these numbers and their accompanying pain,
while benefiting the union and Gov. Brown, along of course
with his fellow Democrats who have not just control but dominance
over both chambers of California's legislature, as these Dems all receive
most generous campaign donations from their union supporters.
And this law is being handed down at a time of great economic hard-
ship, much of it due to the caprices of the Democrat's Fearless Leader
in the White House.

The California Department of Finance had, in 2015, opposed a gradual,
more modest increase in the state's minimum wage to $13 per hour due
to "significant, unbudgeted costs." California would, for example, have
had to pay billions in higher wages for government workers, even
seasonal employees at parks. The CDF's analysis also found that the
minimum wage raise would make for slower job and income growth,
thus claiming considerable tax revenue. Unemployment benefits to
resultant displaced workers would have soared to $115 million by this
current year, and over a half-billion dollars by 2019 with the climbing
wage.

People and businesses have already been leaving California in droves
over the past few years thanks to the already towering minimum wage
there, along with astronomic taxes and entangling regulations. Texas
and Florida are favorite places of refuge for the departing beleaguered
Californians, as these states have fewer taxes, less regulation, and
lower minimum wage levels. But with Gov. Brown, the Democrat
legislators in Sacramento, and their union pals, it's Statism uber alles,
and anyone choosing to remain in California has to live and deal with
it.

There is a lesson for the rest of the country here. Let us pray that it will
be learned and profited from.


MEM


Wednesday, September 14, 2016

On Deplorable Behavior

Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton recently
lambasted the supporters, well, half of them, of her
Republican opponent Donald Trump "a basket of
deplorables" in New York at an exclusive Manhattan
fundraising event. She elaborated that these people
were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic,
Islamophobic, you name it,". Your quizzical Peasant
wonders what she thinks of the other half of Trump's
supporters then?

Well, one doesn't have to wonder very much if one is
at all familiar with the former First Lady and her public
pronouncements. Even in a rough-and-tumble, no-holds-
barred, anything goes field such as American politics
she is an especially nasty, vituperative, poisonous
figure, even by left-wing standards. She should realize,
though apparently she doesn't, that such attacks are much
more likely to backfire than to advance a candidate's
chances for victory. Just four years ago GOP presidential
hopeful Mitt Romney remarked, also at a private fundraising
event, that 47% of the American electorate were
moochers who "believe they are victims" and that "(his) job
(was) not to worry about those people". Romney was
widely castigated, then defeated by incumbent President
Obama in the general election. Although I personally don't
believe that he actually meant the perceived awfulness of
his words, that he was instead trying to point out that a certain
segment of American voters truly but wrongly believe that
they are not financially successful because they are subject
to the whim of others, and think that their best chance to
remedy this is to vote for candidates who would take from
the more successful and dole out to these people, Romney's
gist was lost behind a questionable choice of words.
Clinton is, on the other hand, simply mean and mean-spirited,
and now she has had her own "47% moment". We'll see
what the consequences of it are.

Then across the pond, as the British refer to the Atlantic Ocean,
the recent fierce battle between those who want Britain to leave
the European Union (the Brexit backers) and those wanting Britain
to stay (the Remain backers) was likely decided by remarks
uttered by prominent members of the latter camp regarding
the Brexit advocates, remarks similar in vehement nature to
those made by Clinton against Trump's backers.

What your deplorable Peasant is trying to convey here is the point
that if one attacks one's opponent and/or one's opponent's supporters
too harshly, there could be a boomerang effect. And even when
making such utterances in the company of one's most ardent
supporters, one must know that one's words are very apt to travel,
traveling to both one's foes and to the general public, some of whom
may not have made up their minds yet but would be swayed
by said remarks toward one's challenger. And it doesn't look
becoming for one to spew such venom in place of sharing ideas
on how one would govern and what the resultant benefits would be.
But then Clinton doesn't have any ideas that would be at all
beneficial; she would merely take over from President Obama
if elected and be the liberals' Phase 2 in transforming our country
into a socialist wasteland. So Hillary does what Hillary does best:
hurl invective.

And as such Hillary Clinton has only disdain for the very people
whom she would rule with the iron hand of statism. Do carry on,
Hillary. You're making our efforts to defeat you in November go
all the more smoothly!


Deplorably Yours,
MEM




Saturday, September 10, 2016

Phyllis Schlafly, R.I.P.

A true star in the conservative firmament, a grand lady
and patriot, a sterling example of a citizen using her right
to speak up about our governance and to participate in
our political process, Phyllis Schlafly, passed away on
Monday September 5, at the age of 92.

Born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart in Saint Louis, Missouri
on August 15, 1924, the eldest daughter of a
machinist and industrial equipment salesman father
and a schoolteacher mother, the Stewart family
was hit hard by the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Schlafly's mother went to work at various jobs which
included librarian at the Saint Louis, elementary school-
teacher and department store saleswoman. Mrs. Stewart
decried having to work outside their home rather than be
a homemaker and work for good causes, such as aiding
charities. Schlafly's quarrel with women who denigrated
homemaking and ridiculed homemakers originated
when she watched her mother sacrifice her time at home
with her husband and children. Contrary to what radical
feminists believed, Schlafly never said that women should
not work outside the home, but instead advocated that
women who wanted to be home to take care of home
and family should have their choice respected. Funny how
that works; left-wingers want their choices and wishes
respected and validated, but not those of others who may
want different things. One of those great political mysteries,
along with how deficit spending and increasing debt improves
the health of the economy.

Schafly received a law degree from Washington University
in Saint Louis, and received a scholarship to study political
science at Radcliffe, and earned a master's degree while there.
In subsequent years she was introduced to conservatism,
met and married her husband, John F. Schlafly Jr., himself an
attorney and a member of a politically-engaged conservative
family.

Among her achievements in her long and rich life were
founding The Eagle Forum, an organization which champions
limited government and adherence to the Constitution.
When feminists advocated for the passage of the
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1970s, Schlafly and her
organization successfully fought to prevent its passage.
When she debated prominent feminist author Betty Friedan
on the ERA, Friedan told her that she should burn at the stake
for opposing its passage, and called Schlafly an "Aunt Tom".
Schlafly calmly pointed out that this was the difference between
how conservatives maintain civility while disagreeing while
the lefties simply attack whoever dares to disagree with their
points, as they have nothing else to battle back with ---
like facts and logic. Schlafly had always maintained that we have
enough laws on the books, at all levels of government, to ensure
the rights of women in all areas of their lives.

Schlafly also was deeply involved in the pro-life movement,
speaking out for the unborn so as to provide a voice to the
voiceless. She fought to preserve their vulnerable lives and
to preserve the sanctity of human life with the same zeal she
brought to the other causes which she worked for.

The main accomplishment which Phyllis Schlafly achieved
in all her political activism has been to tell the radical feminists
that they did not speak for all women, because they didn't speak
for her, let alone millions of American women who, like
Schlafly, were uncomfortable with their radical notions regarding
women and society, and weren't going to let them dictate how
they and society were going to be. Dissent is indeed patriotic,
and Phyllis Schlafly was one of its greatest practitioners.

Rest in peace, gallant lady. A job well done.


MEM



Thursday, September 8, 2016

Socialism and Student Loans

Of late some financially shaky colleges have been
receiving help from Washington with their student
loan default troubles. While it is sadly true that some
of the students struggling to pay off their loans have
found themselves in tough straits despite their efforts
to be responsible and timely with their payments, some
others have treated their loans as giveaways, veritable
entitlements from Uncle Sam. Moreover, it looks
like the federal government and the taxpayers have
been, and still are being taken for a ride.

The eager willingness of Washington to institute and
implement socialistic programs, along with their inept-
itude in managing them make it a fantasy that the
federal folks would ever, could ever one day manage
these programs efficiently and inexpensively. And
some colleges greatly encourage students to take out
student loans as an open-ended revenue source with
little or no downside. After all, the government will
always step in to guarantee that the colleges will always
get their money, won't it? So these schools have no
real incentive nor discipline to refrain from raising
tuition costs for their students. And now the two leading
Democrat presidential candidates are calling for free
college educations, at least two years' worth, for
newly-graduated high school students? Guess who's
going to be stuck with the tab for that? On top of what
all they've been stuck with for the costs of the many
defaulted loans that have been accumulating over the
years? Socialism comes with a big price tag!

Your frustrated Peasant says that the colleges should
be made to assume at least some of the risks and the
resultant pain from the student loans that they toss at
their incoming students. And the students have to be
made to realize that their student loans are not unlike
any other types of loans, i.e. auto, home equity, and
such in that while less difficult payment terms can
be negotiated and arranged, the loans are still loans,
and therefore are financial obligations which must be
met. In short, they must be paid, interests and all.
And Washington officials have to be made to realize
that we are not their piggy banks!


MEM

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

An Ungrateful Heart

It both saddens and perplexes your favorite Peasant
when someone in our wonderful country makes it big,
makes a fortune at what he enjoys doing, gets
lots of encouragement along the way, yet finds
it necessary to demean our country as somehow
being unfair, oppressive, or prejudiced. The latest
such story centers on San Francisco 49ers
quarterback Colin Kaepernik, who has, beginning
with the first pre-season exhibition football game
he and his teammates played a few weeks ago,
begun a protest of sorts by remaining seated during
the playing of the National Anthem before each game.
His reason? He stated "I am not going to stand up
to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses
black people and people of color, ... To me, this is
bigger than football and it would be selfish to
look the other way... "

Now Kaepernik, who is black, was adopted and
raised by a well-to-do white family. They gave
him a life of plentitude, including a college education
which enabled him to develop his football skills to
the point of being drafted by an NFL team. And the
scouts that discovered him, and got him signed to
a pro contract, were white. He makes more money
than most people dare dream of making. Can Kaepernik
please explain how he has been "oppressed" for any
reason, particularly in regard to the color of
his skin?

Does Kaepernik know how well (or, more likely, not)
black people in other countries are faring? There
are many in various African countries that are living
in what can only be charitable called abject poverty.
Many of them are fortunate to be earning two dollars
a day at whatever work they can get. And some of these
countries have black dictators who oppress them to a
shocking degree, far beyond what most people can imagine.
Many flee, or at least attempt to, and many do not make
it out alive. they don't live in huge, fancy homes; they
have, with any luck, tiny huts of mud and grass. Cars?
hardly. Clothes? Not on the order of what an American
professional football player can afford. You, my wonderful
readers, get the picture, while Kaepernik needs to get a clue.

And Kaepernik has not been arrested and jailed for his
public display of misguided outrage and accompanying
peurile behavior. In the aforementioned parts of the world
he would have faced this along with torture and maybe execution.
But these facts apparently have escaped this spoiled dolt.
Perhaps he has been knocked on his head too many times
by hard-charging 300-pound-plus defensive ends?

This jock's ignorance has fed his ungrateful heart, and has
led him to play the fool. What he should do in his off-season
free time is to travel to the African continent to visit these
countries and see just how his black counterparts are faring
in their homelands. Maybe Kaeprenik needs a big jolt of
reality to change his heart and his attitude.

Finally, Colin Kaepernik, while not violating any law in not
standing for the playing of our nation's anthem (as a matter
of fact the Constitution allows for him to so express himself),
it must be noted that there are countries which severely punish
its citizens for not standing for their national anthems,
not saluting their flags and related infractions, and that is
shameful. Our country, where we cherish our freedom,
does not and never shall impose any such display of allegiance,
because we are, after all, a free country which zealously
protects our liberty and our many freedoms, which include
the freedom of expression --- and that includes choosing
not to stand for our National Anthem. Even the 49ers do
not require its personnel to stand for the anthem, but
rather encourages doing so. But in remaining seated for
the anthem, and for the reason which the 49ers' quarter-brained
quarterback has given, reveals great ignorance and ingratitude,
and should be recognized as such and called out. Your faithful
Peasant is doing just that here on this blog.


MEM






Friday, August 26, 2016

Regarding the Republican and Democrat Nominees

Now that the two major American political parties
have held their conventions and selected their
presidential candidates, your observant Peasant
has two things to say about it all: one, there were
no surprises, not really. Anyone paying attention to
the primaries and caucuses leading up to the
conventions knew which candidates would run away
with their parties' laurels; two, the big two picked the
absolute worst candidates that they possibly could.
Yes, Sen. Bernie Sanders is plenty atrocious in his
own right, but he does not have Hillary Clinton's
baggage -- all those scandals, you see.

A bumper sticker that I saw here in Milwaukee recently
summed it all up: "WHERE ARE THE REAL
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES?" That's what I'd like
to know!

Republican nominee Donald Trump is a true newcomer
to the party, and to conservatism. Until recently, the New
York real estate investor had been heavily involved in
the Democrat Party, having given mountains of money
to the party and to their candidates in many elections,
including their presidential candidates. Trump even hosted
a fundraising party for Hillary Clinton herself (!) when she
ran for the United States Senate just a few years back.
There is a widely viewed photograph of Trump mugging
for the camera with Hillary and her ex-president husband
Bill, appearing to all as jolly ol' chums for life. Now,
Trump and Hillary are trading barbs about each others'
character (or lack thereof), their politics, and their plans
for the country if elected. It has only been very recently
that Trump has given any specifics as to his plans but
has yet to share how he would implement said plans.
Hillary, for her part, has been quite forthcoming on her
plans and their implementation; it's just that what she has
in mind is merely an extention of the present policies of
the soon to be leaving President Obama. She is, after all,
the Dems' Heir Apparent, their Phase II of their plan to
turn our country into a statist hell. What she would not
continue as is from Obama she would build upon to
further regulate, manipulate, and dominate us with the
help of all-too-happy-to-help allies in Congress and
in the federal bureaucracy.

Trump only became the GOP presidential nominee
because the party has, over the years since President
Ronald Reagan, ceased to stand for anything; it even
went on a spending spree during the second President
Bush years that rivaled anything that past Democrat
administrations had engaged in! Moreover, the 'Pubs
also racked up what was then a record amount of debt
along with what was then record budget deficits; they
were spending money faster than they could get it through
borrowing and taxing. The very things that they had long
accused the Democrats of doing! Add to that the growing
number of illegal immigrants coming into our country
and the Bush II administration doing little more than
beginning to build a fence on our southern border
(it is STILL not complete, although one must note that
Obama has no interest whatsoever in finishing its
construction, as he seems more interested in allowing
still more such immigration). Many people, fed up with
the Republicans turning their backs on their heretofore
core values along with their party platform, got behind
Donald Trump when he strode into the political vacuum
created by the GOP to declare himself a candidate for
their presidential nomination. Just as it is with nature,
politics will not tolerate a vacuum; something must fill
the space, even if it is an opportunistic candidate for the
highest elected office in the land who had never run for
any office and has no discernible ties to the party whose
nomination he is seeking. And the flip-flopping; oh, God,
the flip-flopping! If you don't like Trump's view on a par-
ticular issue, just wait a couple minutes. He's bound to have
one you might care for. And what a thin skin! Say anything
that casts even a speck of doubt on the man and his ideas
and he'll turn on you with a barrage of low-hitting insults
(remember his remarks about Fox TV's Megyn Kelly
after she had vigorously questioned him in one of the early
GOP candidate debates? I'm not going to repeat then here,
but you night be able to find them on YouTube if you want
to hear them badly enough).

As for Hillary, she's more crooked than a spine with scoliosis.
She and her hubby founded and run The Best Little Charitable
Trust Fund in Washington, the Clinton Foundation, which
receives money from some of the scummiest dictators and
potentates in the world as well as from various representatives
from other countries, all whose governments are willing to
"pay to play" with Washington should Hillary become president.
The Clintons, in the meantime, use some of that money for,
among other things, their considerable living expenses (hey,
they have a fancy mansion in Chappaqua, New York, as well
as homes elsewhere to keep up, give 'em a little sympathy,
these words oozing sarcasm). And let's not forget Benghazi,
much as the lamestream media would dearly love us to.
For there is where Hillary left four Americans to a deadly fate
after one of them, Ambassador Christopher Stevens,
repeatedly requested extra security for backup and was
ignored by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And what
did she do after the fact? She lied about what instigated the
attack on our compound, even repeating the lie to the family
members of the dead RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR FLAG-
DRAPED CASKETS! She claimed that a video which was
derogatory to the Moslem prophet Mohammad stirred up
the violence that took place, a video that does not and never
did exist.

It's clear that neither of these turds are worthy of being our
president, but they are the nominees of the two major political
parties, and one of them will sadly be elected to that office
in November. But while Donald Trump, with his sudden
glomming onto various stands on various issues and flip-
flopping when thinking it expedient, is a wild card, Hillary
Clinton is the Queen of Corruption with her lies, her greed,
her double-standards and double-talk. Trump may now and
then do the right thing, while Clinton can always be counted
on to do the wrong thing. We likely could get Trump to listen
to us, while Clinton would give us a deaf ear and the middle
finger.

I am not making any endorsement here. I am saying, though,
that our choice as conservatives is clear.


MEM








Wednesday, August 24, 2016

A Bitter Lesson Learned

Private health insurers jumped at the chance to
enter a dubious bargain with the Democrats
six years ago: support passage of the Affordable
Care Act in exchange for being able to grow
their businesses with federally subsidized customers
who were required, under the ACA's Individual
Mandate, to purchase insurance. What could
go wrong?

Plenty, as it turned out. These insurers are losing
money on what they thought was a can't-miss
deal. Aetna was the most recent insurer to admit
as much in its quarterly earning report. Although
Aetna managed to reduce its losses accrued from
being conned by the Obama regime, the firm
remained unprofitable in 2015. "We continue to
have serious concerns about the sustainability of
the public exchanges," CEO Mark Bertolini
confessed in a call with investment analysts.
Aetna is very worried about the stability of the
risk pool, including enforcement of standards.
To hike enrollment the Department of Health
and Human Services eased the way for customers
to wait until they were sick to purchase insurance,
offering coverage of "pre-existing conditions",
something akin to buying auto insurance after
wrecking one's car. This loads the risk pool with
sicker people and disrupts normal insurance
actuarial calculations.

Aetna is quite lucky, however, compared to some
of their competitors; UnitedHealth reported that
it may lose $1 billion (!) over 2015-2016 on its
involvement with ObamaCare. And Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of North Carolina says it expects to lose
$400 million on snapping up the bait. Many critics of
the ACA a/k/a ObamaCare claim that it is designed
to work precisely this way, to drive out private
health insurers and thus pave the way for government-
run health coverage, a' la Canadian "Single Payer"
insurance or Britain's monsterous, red tape-entangled
plan, and they may be proven right in due course.

Some health insurance CEOs flocked to sign
up people for the ACA plans not out of eagerness for
easy and plentiful profits, but because they would have
been dragooned into participation by Washington if
they didn't freely throw in. Now, they have to worry that
the government may simply throw them out, like
yesterday's garbage.

It's time to throw out the ACA, like the garbage that it is!

MEM



Monday, August 1, 2016

Making Time for Family (and Other Things)

My friends, your faithful Peasant is going to
take a break to get together with family and
friends out of town. And upon return, I shall
be busying myself with enjoying the Milwaukee
Irish Fest; it will, in fact, be two consecutive Irish
festivals which I shall be attending, as I shall be
going to the Minnesota Irish Fair in Saint Paul
the week before with my cousin and her husband,
along with a friend or two. So I shall not be posting
for the first two weeks in August (with the exception
of today), but shall return to you, my loyal and
wonderful readers, in the latter half of the month.

When I return, however, I shall share my thoughts
with you, my wonderful readers, regarding the recently
concluded Republican and Democrat national
conventions and what transpired at each.

Meanwhile, do enjoy this conservative online pub-
lication:

www.nationalreview.com National Review Online

Thank you for your ongoing support of this blog!
Your grateful Peasant treasures you, my grand readers,
more than I can say with words!

See you soon!


MEM


Tuesday, July 26, 2016

More Fun With Fannie & Freddie

After the housing bubble fiasco near the end of
the last decade, one would think that Fannie Mae
and Freddie Mac would have been sufficiently
chastised and taken to the woodshed, so to speak.
That little episode begat the biggest recession in
many a year in these United States; it knocked your
beloved Peasant to the curb along with many other
Americans.

But Washington has found a way to help these two
mischief makers continue to dominate the mortgage
market for a long time to come. First, a little back-
ground information:

Before the aforementioned financial crisis, the Bevis
and Butthead of mortgage finance owned or guaranteed
over $5 trillion (!) in mortgage debt. When the housing
boom popped with the housing bubble, a $188 billion
bailout was forced upon the taxpayers. Then, the
Federal Housing and Finance Agency that supervises
these troublesome twins has decided to become the
preserver, and enabler, of their market share. What
this means is that the FHFA has been encouraging
the use of further complex financial instruments to
keep Fannie and Freddie in a prominent position
within this huge market.

The dubious duo then began using collateralized debt
obligations (CDOs) to dump much of the mortgage risk
that they are holding. The CDOs are a means of purchasing
insurance to protect against the risk that more than a few
mortgagees default on their mortgages. It seems that it
never occurred to them that they should not hold these
risks to begin with, so as to negate the need for taxpayers
to have insurance. Fannie and Freddie are selling the CDOS
to investors in the private sector, who in turn receive
generous yields for their assuming much of the default risk
in the bundle of mortgages held by the Fs (Gee, what a handy
and fitting way to refer to these wayward organizations!).

As the two companies are backed by Uncle Sam and can
therefore borrow money at incredibly low rates, there is only
political motivation to create this instrument --- but that
seems to be reason enough in Washington. It certainly is a
means of thwarting reform-minded members of Congress
to either overhaul Fannie and Freddie, or shut them down.
Private investors find the deals most tempting, and a
guarantee to taxpayers is included in the blend, that being
having the taxpayers made to pay for the redemption of these
instruments if anything were to go wrong, custom-made for the
juiciness of it all to investors. Fannie Mae executives swore
up and down that this would not happen, but guess what?
It happened!

That is another item for the next Republican president and
for Congress to write on their to-do list, should a GOP candidate
be elected this November and Congress kept in that party's
hands as well. Either seriously reform this gruesome twosome,
or close them for good! No more "too big to fail" scam jobs
to ensnare the taxpayers with!


MEM

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Justice Scalia, Ye Left Us Much Too Soon

A recent Supreme Court ruling illustrated just how much
the recently departed Justice Antonin Scalia's absence is
being felt, and how it has affected and will continue to affect
SCOTUS rulings until Scalia's seat is filled by a conserva-
tive appointee, provided that we succeed in electing a
conservative presidential candidate in November.

The eight justices remaining on the Court split evenly on
a closely watched First Amendment case whose upshot is
that public employee unions can continue to force public
employees to pay "agency fees" even if they choose not to
join a union. What this ruling means is that public employees
will still be made to pay something similar to union dues to
the union who represents their co-workers who have chosen to
join the union, because the union claims to represent and bargain
for all of the employees in said workplace. It matters not that
the non-union member workers may not be happy with the
compensation packages or any other features in the contract
bargained for by the union, that they believe they could
obtain something with points more to their satisfaction
without the union speaking for them; they are all, in a
manner of speaking, "locked in" to the workplace status quo.
The justices stated in a one-sentence opinion: "The judgement
is affirmed by an equally divided Court", a 4-4 tie which
lets a lower court decision stand, also leaving in place
the Court's 1977 precedent, Abood v. Detroit Board of Education,
which allowed the deduction of fees even if the employees
object to how the money they paid is spent. The recent ruling
pertaining to the California public school teachers and their
battle with their union creates no precedent, so the First
Amendment issues at this case's core will be around for
rehearing in a future case. But oh, if only the justices had
reversed Abood! Justice Samuel Alito was quite willing,
but the brakes were applied by Chief Justice John Roberts,
the same justice who let Obamacare stand by inexplicably and
illogically calling it a "tax"(!). It appears that Chief Justice
Roberts wanted to move "incrementally" --- even in overturning
bad Supreme Court errors that resulted in questionable rulings.
The incrementalism could work, provided that the Court retains
a center-right majority, which it had while Justice Scalia lived.
But unless a conservative Republican is elected president in
the fall, a Democrat president will appoint a liberal justice,
giving the Court a center-left majority whose influence will
be felt, uninterrupted, for many years to come. This is
precisely why Republicans want to hold off on picking a
replacement for Justice Scalia until after the election, so that
the voters can have a say as to who the next president will be
and will therefore get to nominate a candidate for that seat.
The people would thus be, in effect, choosing both our next
president and our next Supreme Court Justice. Although
this idea gets the Democrats' undies in a twist, your aware
Peasant thinks it only fair, as the people can decide upon
which ideology should be the guiding factor in the kind
of government we are to have from this year's election
forward. If they choose liberal governance by electing a
Democrat for president, then the Dems can rest easy; they
will have gotten what they want via the expressed will of
the people and that will be that. If the electorate chooses
conservative governance by placing a Republican in the
White House, then the Democrats will have to wait for
their next opportunity to put a liberal on the Court ---
and likely will have to wait for quite a while.

So this is what is at stake with the passing of Justice
Antonin Scalia, a conservative jurist and First Amendment
champion, and the timing of his death coinciding with a
presidential election year. All the more reason for we
conservatives to turn out to vote, in as large a force as we
can muster.


MEM


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Tom Marr, R.I.P.

In the realm of talk radio this man was truly a star;
so many people in the field, as well as in the media
as a whole are proclaimed as such, to the point of
the term almost ceasing to mean anything from the
inflationary assignation of it to every Tom, Dick,
Harry and Jane that pops into the limelight. But this
Tom -- Tom Marr -- was the real McCoy.

Marr, who had been the play-by-play voice of the
Baltimore Orioles for eight seasons, and who had been
either a sportscaster or a conservative talk show host
in his hometown of Baltimore, and a superb guest host
for national conservative radio talk show host Mark
Levin, passed away on July 7 after complications
following back surgery, resulting in a massive stroke
which he could not recover from. The 73-year-old
Marr hosted a radio sports talk show while in high
school, followed by a stint in the Marines. Afterward,
Marr worked for several radio stations on the East Coast
before becoming an anchor and news director for WBFR
of Baltimore in 1967. he also was a panelist on the award-
winning radio show Conference Call.  After WBFR
changed its format from news and talk radio to
pop music, Marr worked at other stations in the region
before landing a talk show position at WCBM radio
in Baltimore, where he had been for many years up until
his death. Marr was also ranked among the top 100 most
influential radio talk show hosts by Talkers Magazine.

A friend of Mark Levin and fellow conservative, Marr
was invited to be one of Levin's guest hosts for Levin's
show and had done beautifully. Your favorite Peasant
enjoyed Tom Marr's commentary on those occasions,
and considered Marr my favorite Levin guest host
(although the others are quite wonderful too!). Marr
was an eloquent, unflinching, vigorous advocate for
the conservative cause, and presented his arguments
with humor as well as sweet reason and flawless logic.
He was a happy warrior for his politics and his
country.

Thomas Aquinas Marr, Irish Catholic, Marine, radio
talker expounding on sports and politics, and proud,
unabashed American. We have precious few like Marr
in our media today, and now we are missing one more.
Hard to surpass, harder to replace. Rest in Peace.


MEM

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Elie Wiesel, R.I.P.

Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born American Jewish political activist,
writer, professor, and holocaust survivor, passed away quietly
at his Manhattan home on July 2, aged 87. Author of 57 books,
including writing of his experiences in Hitler's concentration
camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald, he helped establish the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Wiesel dedicated the rest of his life after liberation from
Buchenwald by the U.S. Third Army on April 11, 1945,
at the end of the Second World War. Weak and emaciated,
he appeared in a famous and haunting photo with some of his
fellow prisoners taken by one of the soldiers, a photo which
became tragically iconic.

After the war, Wiesel lived in Paris where he studied French and
studied philosophy, psychology, and literature at the Sorbonne.
In time he became a journalist as well as a choirmaster. It would
be another decade following the war before Wiesel would begin
to write about his years in Nazi death camps. But once he began
to share his harrowing story, the world followed along in shock,
horror, sorrow, and ultimately hope, hope for understanding and
the beginning of a better, closer, more just world.

Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his speaking
out against violence, repression, and racism. He became renown
as not only an activist but as spiritual leader for his work.
Wiesel stated in his acceptance speech: "Silence encourages the
tormentor, never the tormented. When human lives are endangered,
when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities
become irrelevant."

Words of wisdom for us all. Rest in Peace, great soul.


MEM



Monday, June 27, 2016

A Most Special Independence Day!

Your beloved Peasant is proud and grateful to be
celebrating our dear country's 240th anniversary
this Fourth of July! I do, of course, know that you,
my fine and wonderful readers, are just as happy
to be celebrating as well. And we do have a lot to
celebrate.

Let us always remember the sacrifices, the sufferings,
and the privations that our forefathers went through
to establish and bequeath our free and wonderful
country to us, and to remember them on this grand
day. When you say Grace before tucking into the
hamburgers, the hot dogs, the potato salad, and
the soda pop, say a prayer for our brave founders
of our country as well, for they made our country,
our freedom, our way of life, and our Fourth of July
picnics possible.

Enjoy our great and good country's big day.
And God bless America! 240 years young and looking
beautiful!


MEM

Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Orlando Tragedy, and Washington's Response

The hellish tragedy that befell attendees of a popular
Orlando, Florida nightclub, has had repercussions and
responses innumerable in the days that followed.
We all know the gory numbers: 49 dead, 53 wounded.
We also know that the killer had pledged himself to
ISIS and to their jihad, taking a gun into Pulse nightclub
to make his bloody contribution to the cause he embraced.
Our president's response? At least this time, unlike the
Fort Hood and San Bernadino shootings, Obama actually
used the word "terror" in connection to this horrible event.
But he still couldn't bring himself to use the term
"Islamic terror" to describe it. And his fellow Democrats
on Capitol Hill? They are, as I write this, having a sit-in
a' la the '60s, calling for new federal gun control legis-
lation as a "preventative measure" to ensure that no more
such slaughters will take place in the U.S.

But here's the rub: the shooter was employed as a security
guard, and had been issued a Class 3 licence, which allowed
him to carry a firearm in the course of his duties. He also
had no difficulty in obtaining a firearm for his personal use,
as he had been able to obtain a firearm licence with ease.
He passed a psychological exam as a condition of his employ-
ment. He underwent a background check which produced no
red flags.

But in May 2013 and in July 2014 the killer became a person
of interest to the FBI in connection with remarks he made to
coworkers about having family connections to Al -Qaeda
and being a member of Hezbollah. He was removed by his
employer from his post and the county sheriff reported him
to the FBI. He also made remarks about hating Jews and
other minorities, as well as homosexuals while on the job
and in social situations away from work. Did this bring any
serious scrutiny to bear? Hardly.

And then, on June 12, the murderous jihadist shot up Pulse,
a gay nightclub in Orlando. Obama blamed the slaughter on
a lack of gun control laws and his fellow Dems fell in line
with him. But something noteworthy happened: some gay
people in Orlando, as well as in other cities around the
country, have openly disagreed with Obama and the Dems
as to the cause of the tragedy: they pin the blame on radical
Islam and its adherents, who consider anyone who isn't
Muslim (as well as anyone who is gay) to be fit only for
wiping out. One of the Democrat Party's major constituency
groups isn't buying their party's line on this terrible episode,
and they also are not in agreement regarding any need for more
gun control laws; moreover, many of these folks are planing
on buying firearms and taking training in how to use their
weapons. They must be asking themselves whom does
President Obama and the Democrats place a higher political
value upon, gay Americans or the followers of Islam, be they
citizens or visitors?

These aforementioned gays are not fools; they know who their
enemy is, they know the threat that their enemy poses to not only
them but to us all in the U.S. And they certainly realize that the
president's response to the Orlando nightmare is not merely
inadequate but feckless and irresponsible, for among other things
Obama would not name the very enemy which we must, as a
nation, acknowledge as our enemy, the danger it poses to us,
and the need to actually take steps to resist and repel said
enemy. Political correctness, nicey-nicey thoughts and wishy-
washy sentiments are not going to cut it. The question, then,
is can they get the president, which so many of them supported
for the office, to listen to them and take appropriate action?
And how about the Democrat members of Congress, basking
in their '60s style moralistic self-indulgence?

The Orlando gay community, and all Americans, deserve better
then what Washington is treating us to. This November, we
have an opportunity to get that better thing.


MEM



Monday, June 13, 2016

The Peasant Takes A Break

Your faithful Peasant needs just a week or so to take care of some
personal business, and will return to you directly. In the meantime,
enjoy these wonderful online conservative publications:

National Review Online www.nationalreview.com

Newsmax.com www.newsmax.com

And let us take a moment to reflect on the tragedy which took place
in Orlando this past weekend, and to pray for the dead and wounded,
and for their families and friends. May the slain in that Orlando night
club rest in everlasting, splendid peace.

Thank you, my understanding and wonderful readers!
I'll be back ASAP!


MEM

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

A Bold and Daring Move

A study in retrospect: One of the presidential
contenders has, long before the staging of his
party's convention, chosen a Vice Presidential running
mate. Republican Ted Cruz has offered former presi-
dential candidate Carly Fiorina the position, and the
former CEO of Hewlett Packard happily accepted.
Cruz announced his choice this Spring while attending
a rally for his presidential candidacy in Indianapolis.

Why the early VP pick? Isn't this move not only a bit
premature, but also rather foolhardy, in that it gives
one the impression that Sen. Cruz believes that he
already has the GOP nomination in the bag, or soon
shall have, despite front-runner Donald Trump leading
Cruz by 400 delegates at this stage and the mathematics
of Cruz overtaking Trump before the Republican Party's
convention in July? Actually, this gambit has been
employed before, and by a Republican candidate, before
the party's convention in 1976: Ronald Reagan chose
U.S. Sen. Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania to be
his running mate just a few weeks before the GOP
gathering in Kansas City. The conservative Reagan
picked liberal Republican Schweiker to run with him
in order to attract delegates who worried that Reagan
might be seen as too conservative for the electorate
in the general election. Although Schweiker was indeed
politically liberal, he opposed gun control and court-
mandated busing to desegregate public schools, making
him at least somewhat palatable to the party's base.
Although Reagan narrowly lost the Republican nomina-
tion to incumbent President Gerald Ford, his ploy was
considered a bold maneuver, one that may well have
netted Reagan nearly enough delegates to wrest the
nomination from a sitting president, the first time that
such a feat would have occurred in over one hundred
years.

Another reason for Cruz' pick of Fiorina: her presence
on this ticket, if Cruz wins the GOP nod, will be a
wonderful counter to Hillary Clinton if she gets the
Democrats' nomination, and at this point that is looking
increasingly likely. But know this: Carly Fiorina is
not simply a hook to get delegates who may place any
stock in playing the gender card in order to battle with
Hillary for the women's vote. This lady is very much
up on the issues of the day, and has strong conservative
stands on them --- pro-life on abortion; economic growth
rather than government growth, especially regarding
lowering taxes on businesses, families, and individuals;
maintaining a strong defense for our country; standing by
our allies rather than turn from them, carping at them all
the while (as our current president has done vis-vis Israel).
And Fiorina has a keen intellect, as well as fine debating
skills (she had exhibited these in the early debates with
the Republican field of presidential hopefuls). She is
neither a  wallflower, nor a shrinking violet.

Cruz explained his borrowing a page from The Gipper's
book thus: "After a great deal of consideration and prayer,
I have come to the conclusion that if I am nominated to be
President of the United States that I will run on a ticket
with my vice presidential nominee Carly Fiorina,".
With these words, he introduced his running mate to the
assembly at the Cruz rally to thunderous applause and cheers.
Carly added, "Ted could not be more right in what he said:
There is a lot at stake, and, in fact, this is a fight, ... for the
soul of our party and the future of our nation ... everything
about the campaign, everything about this election, is
unprecedented ... I think this is a confident leader who knows
what he wants to do for this nation and who wants the nation
to understand who he is, what he believes and who he wants
by his side to fight this fight on behalf of the American
people."

Did this audacious move bring the desired results for Ted Cruz?
Sadly, this strategy did not pan out for Cruz any more than it
did for Ronald Reagan forty years earlier. But when your back
is against the wall, boldness and daring will do more for you than
caution and discretion.

MEM