An Anniversary and a Passing

Friends, today is a special day for us: this day,  September 23,

is the eleventh anniversary of the day in 2009 when I debuted 

this blog, "Peasant With A Pitchfork". This blog is a passion

for me, and a great source of joy, for I get to share my thoughts 

and observations on the political and economic news of the day

with you, my grand and fantastic readers! Your grateful and joyful

Peasant is thankful to you all for for your readership, encouragement,

and friendship. Although I publish this blog for a conservative 

readership, as I want to give my political brethren some ideas as

well as encouragement and good cheer, I welcome readers of any

and all political persuasions to read its content. One liberal reader

even entered words of praise for me and this blog (!); I just wish

he would have given his name or at least an online moniker.

I reckon he didn't want his political brethren to find out that

A) he was reading my conservative/libertarian blog and B)

was actually enjoying it. Politics are so polarized these days that

such an admission would bring much opprobrium and ostracization

to one from his own on his side of the political spectrum, be it 

a liberal enjoying a conservative publication or a conservative 

enjoying a liberal one. I thanked and complimented that reader

most wholeheartedly. And I thank and compliment each one of 

you, my fellow conservatives who enjoy PWAP. You are the reason

I keep going, posting and publishing articles supporting the cause 

of limited government and abundant liberty. 

And in this small space of time here at the beginning of Autumn, 

a longtime member of the United States Supreme Court has passed;

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the most liberal member of our top

court, died at 87 on Friday September 19 at her home surrounded by

her family, losing a long, on-again off-again battle with cancer.

An archliberal ideologue, she bore no malice for those with whom

she disagreed; she had a warm friendship with the late Supreme Court

Justice and ideological opposite Antonin Scalia. They even shared an 

elephant ride in India (!!) a few years back, your favorite Peasant 

doesn't know the occasion which brought the justices to India, but 

they had a lot of fun. Although I of course rarely agreed with her ideas

and her rulings, I respect her for having the door open to people of

differing viewpoints on law and politics, always willing to discuss 

the differences between them in an amicable manner. A rarity in

a person of the Left today. R.I.P, Madam Justice. 

MEM

 

Blaming America First and Always

A few months ago, President Trump ordered our
military to eradicate Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani,
who was said to be a bigger terrorist than
Osama Bin Laden. Our military people
made good on their order from the Commander-
in-Chief, and in so doing has made Americans
safer, not just in that part of the world but in
many other places as well. This could, just could,
prove to be a turning point in the war in the
Middle East benefiting the U.S. So why is
one of our two major political parties so unhappy
with this turn of events?

This successful effort deserves more bipartisan
support and congratulations to the president and
the soldiers who were involved. But the Democrats
are raising questions while the Republicans are
giving all the congratulations. Now, the president's
move was both bold and unconventional, to be sure.
Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds
of Americans, both military and civilian, and was
planning to kill a great deal more. And the Dems are
all bent out of shape. What gives?

Once there was bipartisanship in our foreign policy
and our military decision-making. After the Second
World War, Republican U.S. Sen. Arthur Vandenberg
from Michigan formed a bipartisan partnership with
Democrat President Harry Truman which was instru-
mental in securing the postwar peace and greatly
strengthened America's position in the subsequent
Cold War. Sen. Vandenberg stated "Politics stops at
the water's edge," when he was questioned as to why
he worked so closely with a president from the other
party. He went on to say that "if we can keep partisan
politics out of foreign foreign affairs, it is entirely
obvious that we shall speak with infinitely greater
authority abroad." But fast-forward about seventy years
later and you'll find nothing of Vandenberg's standard;
the Democrats are loathe to give any credit to a president
whom they hate with an unbelievable passion and have
been trying without letup to get him removed from office.

No one in the United States can dispute that Soleimani
created and directed a terrorist network that spread
bloodshed over the Middle East; in Syria, Soleimani
enabled the Assad regime to violently respond to the
Syrian people's demands for freedom. Over half a
million Syrians have been killed since 2011 by Assad
with the Iranian thug's support.

During the war in Iraq, Soleimani ran three camps in
Iran where his elite soldiers, the Quds Force trained and
armed Iraqi militias. U.S. government figures state that
these Quds fighters have killed over 600 American
soldiers since 2003.

Considering American values and interests one cannot
see how any Americans can mourn the death of such a
bloodthirsty monster. The Dems haven't gone that far,
but they have taken a questioning tack regarding this
action. They have even opined that Iran will seek
revenge by going after any Americans they can find.
But President Trump understands something that the
Democrats do not; that if we succumb to fear of a self-
declared enemy to determine our actions in response to
their threats, then said enemy will be emboldened to
the point of attacking us and our allies with greater
aggression. It is summed up by the truth that if one
does not stand up to a bully, then that bully will become
an even more dangerous bully, but if one does make a stand
then the bully will back down and slink away. As your
favorite Peasant avers, show me a bully and I'll show you
a coward. And these Iranian terrorists are cowards of the
lowest order. Remember how quickly so many of Iran's
elite soldiers (of that time) surrendered in the six-week
Gulf War nearly twenty years ago? Not much has changed.

And, as so often when the U.S. has any contretemps with
a hostile nation, regardless of whether any bullets or bombs
were fired, the Democrats and many of the lefties blame
America first. It's become an all too predictable pattern of
behavior with them. And your angry Peasant for one wishes
that they would give it a permanent rest.


MEM

Wisconsin's Unemployment Follies

Upon the shutdown of many schools, churches, and businesses
in our country due to the Coronovirus pandemic which sent our
most vibrant, bustling economy into a sudden reversal, many
of our work force have suddenly found themselves out of a job
and without further paychecks. While the economy has made
remarkable progress in regaining ground, there are still many
Americans out of work, particularly here in Wisconsin, where
Gov. Tony Evers had locked down much of the state before the
Republican majorities in both chambers of the state legislature
sued the Evers Administration in the Wisconsin State Supreme
Court to stop the widespread closure. While successful, the
defeat for Evers and company has not brought back all of the
economic activity which gave the Badger State her economic
strength.

One sign of this is the still astounding number of workers who
filed for unemployment compensation upon getting furloughed
or permanently released from their jobs by their employers.
While Evers and his people have been swift in shutting down
many businesses, especially small businesses such as restaurants,
bars, bookstores, clothing boutiques and such they have been
shockingly negligent in preparing Wisconsin's unemployment
offices for the mass of people scrambling to get that particular
relief so that they could pay their rent, mortgages, car payments,
electricity bills, buy their groceries and such; many who have
applied in March have yet to receive a single check, including
your furloughed Peasant --- I was working for the local Goodwill
store near my home after suspending operation of my handyman
business due to some health challenges. Early on, it was difficult to
even reach their local unemployment offices online due to their
constantly crashing from the onslaught of displaced workers trying
to apply; telephoning did nothing either, as the offices had too few
lines and too few staff to receive and handle the crush of calls.

Now, Gov. Evers must have known that there would be a huge rush
of people trying to apply for unemployment due to the lockdown; 
One would think he would have arranged for more phone lines for
the unemployment offices and to hire more staff to take the calls and
assist the applicants in accessing their rightful benefits. But nothing
of the sort was done. Thousands of Wisconsites are in increasingly
dire circumstances, having been evicted from their homes, having
cars and other items repossessed, having the lights shut off, and
having their lives turned upside down. All by the inertia (or worse)
on the part of a governor who belongs to the political party which
claims to care about the Little Guy and Gal.

As of August 29 the Department of Workforce Development, which
handles the unemployment claims, received 6.15 million weekly
claims and paid 5.46 million of these claims, according to a recent
release by the department and reported in the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel. More than 685,000 claims still have not been paid out and
are in adjudication. The department finally did hire extra staff to help
with the sea of claims, calls, and online inquiries, but the process
took months to complete. They did not give any indication, not even
a ballpark estimate, as to when the backlog of claims would be all
taken care of. And not a peep from our governor.

Many Wisconsin residents in the meantime lost the extra $600
provided by the CARES Act at the end of July because they couldn't
contact the unemployment offices in time. President Trump, along 
with Congressional Republicans and Democrats crafted this provision,
and it's being blocked by a Democrat governor who may be inert but
may be deliberately causing pain in order to attempt to con
Wisconsin's hurting workers into believing that President Trump
and the GOP do not care about their plight, that they are only
looking out for the interests of wealthy supporters, thereby angering
them into turning out at the polls for their candidate Joe Biden in
November. Similar things have been said about other Democrat
governors around the country.

Your resilient Peasant has since been recalled by the New Berlin
Goodwill store, and with receiving President Trump's arranged
$1,200 stimulus check in May, in addition to a very generous
income tax refund and some passive incomes I have been receiving
for some time, I have not had to face the hardships which many of
my fellow Wisconsinites waiting in vain for their unemployment
checks have suffered. I count myself lucky, and I pray for those
who have not been so fortunate. I also pray for a second term for
our president in November, and for the election of a Republican
governor for our state in 2022. May my fellow Badgers not be
inert two months from now when President Trump vies for 

re-election (yes!) nor two years from now when Governor Evers 

makes his re-election bid (NO!!!!!)

MEM

When Might Makes Right

 As the long hot summer, made even hotter by the violence 

ravaging many of our cities mercifully winds down, the tide 

is beginning to turn in the direction of order and safety

with the actions taken by President Trump offering to send

federal troops to the afflicted cities, some of whose mayors 

having (after initially strenuously refusing) accepted his offer.

After recent rioting and destruction in Kenosha, a small city

in my home state of Wisconsin, over the shooting by local 

police of a black crime suspect who lunged into his car

(perhaps to get a weapon? The matter is under investigation

as your faithful Peasant types this post) using seven bullets

to bring him down, city officials begged Gov. Tony Evers to

send the state's National Guard troops to aid in the quelling 

of the mayhem; asking for 750 troops, Gov. Evers sent just

150. After pleading for more troops, Evers sent another 100 

troops; still not enough to get the job done. All the while,

Evers tried his damndest to publicly downplay the situation

and its seriousness. Meanwhile in Portland, Oregon, where

there were riots for almost 100 consecutive days (!), that 

state's governor, no conservative by any stretch, allowed 

for the federal deputizing of Portland's police so that they

could make federal charges stick to those whom they would 

arrest. And this strategy has proved effective in reducing

the violence in that torn and tattered city.

President Trump, upon learning of the trouble while making 

public safety a central theme of his campaign for re-election,

planned a visit to Kenosha to view the carnage and visit the

people who lost businesses and other property, city officials,

and law enforcement officials. Gov. Evers and Kenosha Mayor

John Antaramian, both Democrats, wrote to President Trump

asking him not to come to Kenosha due to their worries of

"exacerbating tensions" in that city. Big joke; they seemed to 

have no problem with the tensions which boiled over into 

rage, followed by full-blown violence after the shooting of

the aforementioned crime suspect. They seemed rather hesitant 

to have the National Guard come to help. But they didn't want

the president to come to town to assess the aftermath and 

offer $1 million to Kenosha law enforcement, $4 million to 

aid small businesses with their losses, and $2 million to aid 

public safety in Wisconsin? 

Here, politics played a key role: both the Democrat governor and

mayor didn't want the Republican president to come to town

just two months out from the election, and with the latter 

gaining momentum in polls around the country, largely because

of his open support for the restoration of good old fashioned 

law and order as opposed to left-wing Democrat mayors and

governors refusing to publicly acknowledge the bloody out-

breaks for what they are. And with President Trump having 

won the Badger State four years earlier, Evers and Antaramian 

didn't want to risk having a presidential appearance tilt this 

Battleground state toward the GOP again. However, this 

time they are likely too late to stem that particular tide.

The American people want these few, simple, yet important

things from their government, especially from their president:

A strong economy with many jobs and few (and low!) taxes; 

Strong, effective defense of our shores, and strong, effective

preservation of law, order, and safety. They know that they can

rely on President Trump to deliver these goods, whereas they

are leery of former Vice President Joe Biden's willingness and

ability to do likewise if elected. And this sentiment holds for

their respective political parties as well. Additionally, the 

Lamestream Media has been unable to sway enough voters 

to support their candidate Biden, and this is likely to affect

the Democrat Party down their ticket as well. 

The Dems certainly haven't learned from history, especially

their own. In 1968, riots over the Vietnam War and urban

poverty broke out in Chicago during the Democrats' conven-

tion there; this made many Americans, Democrat voters as 

well, rethink voting Democratic that year, resulting in 

Republican Richard Nixon's election over Democrat Hubert

Humphrey. Message to the Dems: It's about law, order, and

public safety, stupid! And the one thing, and likely only

thing that these radical left-wing thugs understand is the 

presence of well-armed police and national guardsmen

with the means to subdue them coupled with the will to 

do so.

Gee, your confident Peasant can't wait for November.

MEM