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

Olivia de Havilland, R.I.P.

Olivia de Havilland, a very beloved actress from the Golden Age
of Film, appearing in classics such as Captain Blood,
Gone With The Wind, To Each His Own, The Heiress,
The Adventures of Robin Hood, and They Died With Their
Boots On, and the last surviving film luminary of her era,
went to join her friends and colleagues shortly after her 104th
birthday in July. Best known for her role as Melanie Wilkes
in the second of these aforementioned films, in which she
played a physically unimposing yet indomitable woman
with a blend of graciousness and quiet strength, and a
dash of courage. In real life, de Havilland exhibited these
same qualities during some tense times in the film industry.

In the 1940s de Havilland played a key role in thwarting the
Communist subversion of Hollywood. After having met
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 as a 24-year-old
actress, she became an ardent supporter. Four years later
she joined the pro-FDR Independent Citizens' Committee
of the Arts, Sciences, and Professions, which had for its
members famous actors such as Humphrey Bogart, Gregory
Peck, and Bette Davis. British-born and having recently
become a U.S. citizen, she thought this a fine thing to do.
She would soon get more than she bargained for; the
ICCASP's membership had more than a few Communists
in its numbers. Its leader, Hannah Dorner, was a secret
member of the Communist Party. De Havilland soon
discovered that the Executive Committee of the group
always sided with the Soviet Union in foreign policy
matters and was always critical of the United States.
This was a dead giveaway to de Havilland; wondering
why this was so, some investigating on her part revealed
a small cadre of people controlling the organization made
these decisions without the knowledge of the majority
of the general membership.

De Havilland took immediate action by inviting a small
group of actors, writers, and producers to her home to
discuss what course of action to take to wrest control of
the ICCASP from the reds. One of the actors present was
a friend who would go on to have quite a career in politics,
future U.S. President Ronald Reagan. They drafted a
declaration to oppose the Communist control of the
group, with the latter using the FDR-supporting organiza-
tion as a front group. The declaration was roundly rejected,
and de Havilland soon after resigned her membership, followed
by Reagan and other Hollywood figures. But not much later on,
de Havilland and her allies would win out, as the
ICCASP consequentially folded and the communist threat to
the U.S. film industry would dissipate in the 1950s. She made
her Hollywood colleagues choose between being
advocates for liberal democracy and being stooges for the
Communism, spreading Soviet propaganda through the
industry and onto movie screens around the country;
for this Olivia de Havilland should be praised and
remembered for her courage and her patriotism even
more than for her wonderful acting and the films she
appeared in.

Oh, and she fought the Hollywood studios and their powerful
moguls for actors' rights; she won that battle, too.

Requiescat in pace, courageous lady. You have set both an example
and a standard on the silver screen, and more importantly,
in life. Thank you for your legacy.



MEM

The Democrats' Inclusiveness Does Not Include Pro-Lifers

Your favorite Peasant has commented here on the dwindling
ranks of the pro-lifers in the Democrat Party. Here is an update:
Some time earlier the Democratic Attorneys General Association
announced to the party faithful that they will from now on give
monetary and strategic assistance only to AG candidates who
publicly commit and adhere to the Dem's pro-abortion orthodoxy,
which includes opposing any restrictions on abortion. Those who
stand for the right to life for the unborn humans or have even the
tiniest qualm about eliminating the tiny humans awaiting their births
need not apply for said help, nor even run for their states' AG offices
(or any offices, period); the Democrat Party will even run candidates
more to their liking against them in the state Democrat primaries.

Now, in Louisiana pro-life Governor John Bel Edwards was re-elected
to another gubernatorial term; this after having signed a bill that
requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges
at a nearby hospital. There in the South, Democrats that win statewide
races largely do so by demonstrating their independence from their
party's predominant national left wing -- especially its stand on
abortion.

Your supportive Peasant commends these courageous Democrats for
their principled and unwavering stands. Whether they will ever make
a comeback in their increasingly extremist party, or one day exit
the party to join the Republicans, form a pro-life third party, or
take some different political tack is something that only the future
can reveal, but their party is making itself more and more irrelevant
to the mainstream voters in our electorate --- who are pro-life or at
least have serious questions and concerns regarding the morality
of abortion --- and just happen to be the majority of said electorate.
Something's got to give; stay tuned.


MEM

To Debate or Not Debate?

Recently the Commission on Presidential Debates scheduled
three debates for the presumptive Democrat nominee, Joe
Biden and the incumbent President Donald Trump. But some
observers of our political scene think that perhaps the debates
should not be held at all. Elizabeth Drew, a liberal journalist
who was a panelist during one of the 1976 debates, declared
"The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential
leadership," because points get awarded for "snappy comebacks
and one-liners."

There is some truth to her argument, but in this uniquely weird
and unsettling year it is all the more important that the debates
are held, for the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the postponement
and/or cancellations of many political rallies, making for less
opportunities to see the candidates in the flesh. The conventions
will be almost totally online. Biden hasn't done any Sunday
shows since the pandemic arrived on our shores. Then, too,
one must note that Biden has been kept out of the public eye
as much as possible by his campaign team because of his increased
(and increasing) propensity for uttering more gaffes; a few years
ago on this blog your favorite Peasant called Biden "The Gaffemaster
General of the United States". With his seemingly diminished
mental facilities which has been increasingly obvious in recent
months Team Biden has been anxious to prevent further instances
of what has become the country's worst-kept secret.

The former Vice President, if he were to win the presidential election
in November, would take office at age 78 ---  making him the oldest
president American history. Biden has already confused Iowa with
Ohio on a campaign stop there a few months earlier, has confused
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson with the late former PM
Margaret Thatcher, and bragged about putting together the Paris
climate accord with Chinese head of state Deng Xiaoping ---
perhaps Biden enlisted the aid of a medium to do this, as Deng
has been dead since 1997. And these are but a few examples of
his increasing cognitive lapses.

The debates can certainly be overhauled so as to improve the quality
of the candidates' responses to questions and retorts to verbal jabs.
Better this than cancel the debates altogether, which will leave much
of the public out of the loop for getting a feel for the candidates and
their stands on the pressing issues of the day, thus helping them to
make up their minds as to whom to vote for. And since Biden likes
to rip on President Trump, calling him a racist, a liar, and inept as
our president from the safety of his bunker, as it were, he should
have the courage to face his target up close and personal and repeat
his slurs.

Let the candidates compete; keep and hold the debates!


MEM

How to Restore Order to Troubled Cities

After over sixty straight days of rioting and destruction,
Portland, Oregon has had a dramatic reversal in its
sorry fortunes. What happened?

Portland, like some other major U.S. cities, have seen
violent outbreaks after the death of George Floyd, the
black man who died when a white Minneapolis police
officer kneeled on his neck in order to restrain him,
but cut off his oxygen in the process resulting in Floyd's
death. Portland's mayor, Ted Wheeler, prior to the
violence there, had in effect given control of Portland
to radical groups not adverse to relying on violence in
order to get what they want, refused to let the city's
officers do their jobs and quell the rioting and looting.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown likewise refused to dispatch
the state's National Guard to Portland to restore order.
So President Trump stepped in, sending federal marshals
to Portland to do the work that the local police should
have done had they not been ordered to stand down by
Mayor Wheeler.

In the short time that the marshals were there,
they succeeded in preventing any further attacks on the
federal courthouse as well as any subsequent rioting
and general violence. After this episode the local
police were then freed up to do their jobs, and have
been keeping a lid on further mayhem. Acting Homeland
Security Secretary Chad Wolf hailed the relative calm,
tweeting that "stepping up and doing the right thing should
not take 60 days."

With President Trump's intervention in Portland, as well as
similar ones in some other cities (including your Peasant's
Milwaukee), he is letting city residents know that there is
nothing making shooting, looting, and burning unavoidable,
that it is the result of the horrible choices to let it all happen
by the mayors and other public officials who couldn't care
less about the safety of their cities' residents. These same
officials then criticize the actions of the president and the
feds sent to their cities instead of the rioters.

This summer has had some parallels to the summer of 1968
in which a riot broke out in Chicago, just outside the site
of the Democrats' national convention. There were riots in
other cities, Milwaukee included, in reaction to the Vietnam
War and to racial tensions. The American people reacted
by electing Republican Richard Nixon president, steering
clear of the Democrats and the view of what the country
might have looked like under their governance. One big
difference here is that Republican Donald Trump is the
incumbent seeking a second term, and the electorate is
seeing the contrast between President Trump's decisive
actions taken to restore and preserve order and safety in
our urban areas as opposed to the Democrat mayors and
governors enabling the forces of anarchy and attendant
crimes by sitting on their hands. President Trump
and the Republicans will reap a victorious harvest in
November, and history will have repeated itself.

This is how you restore order to the troubled cities;
you do the jobs of the local authorities in order to get
them to do their jobs themselves.


MEM