2024 Election Eve Thoughts

We are now down to the final day of the 2024 election cycle.  I believe we are also hearing the dying gasps of the failed Harris-Walz candidacy - the most radically leftist ticket this country has ever seen.  Having neither a proven track-record of achievement, nor past positions they are willing to defend, or even discernible issues to run on (unless you count expanding the gruesome torture and slaughter of innocent unborn children at the hands of an abortionist).  Instead, they are forced to resort to desperate slander and dishonest attack ads funded by the globalist corporatist interests that find their home with Democrats these day

But the truth will prevail - Past, Present, and Future.  We saw Donald Trump's past record of peace, prosperity, and safety during his term.  We see what Harris and Joe Biden has been doing to this country in the past 4 years - inflation, war, and lawlessness.  And we know what a future of a Harris-Walz administration will continue to do to this country, if given another 4 years to extend the decline, misery, and malaise.  Their path to victory, if you can call it that, is predicated on ignorance.  It is based largely on convincing you not to believe your own eyes, forgetting how good we had it during the Trump presidency, or not noticing the shrinking buying power of your paycheck.

 

Thus, it is not to say there is no message there.  There is a clear overarching message - summarized in one word: IGNORE.

- Ignore her long history of Marxist economics and promised price controls learned from her Stanford economist father and her own studies at Howard University

- Ignore her unremarkable record of public service in CA, and how her career was only launched because of her adulterous relationship with Willie Brown - the most powerful man in California at the time

- Ignore her past hard left public stands on the issues and unwillingness to defend them

- Ignore her record in the Senate where she was ranked to the left of even the radical Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders

- Ignore her failed record as a Vice President, President of the Senate, and Border Czar

- Ignore her almost complete lack of positive accomplishments in all those years in government

- Ignore her wholehearted insistence that "the border is secure" and "Bidenomics is working"

- and ignore the fact that you can barely afford a gallon of orange juice, a 12-pack of Pepsi, a couple dozen eggs, or even a Big Mac.

Ignore all of this and vote for four more years of it, because of the man they want you to hate.  

First they tried to convince voters Donald Trump was a threat to democracy (despite the fact that we have a Representative Republic, not a democracy).  When that didn't work, it was that Donald Trump is a Fascist.  And when they still couldn't get traction for their failing campaign, it became Donald Trump is Hitler incarnate and his followers are Third Reich throwbacks and human garbage.

Frankly, this is as clear an example of psychological projection as you can find.  As cynical, as hysterical, and yes, as diabolical as the Democrats themselves are, anyone who actually understands the absolute horrors wrought by fascism in the 1930s and 1940s, would still hesitate to call them fascists.  And that is despite the fact that one can rather safely say that they exhibit similar lawless, heavy-handed and tyrannical tendencies. 

But since they are the ones so freely throwing around the words Nazi and Fascist, it is worth the effort to examine more deeply the basis of their disingenuous exercise in projection...

As you know, it was the Biden Harris regime - not Donald Trump - who actually weaponized the judicial system to persecute those who opposed them, be it parents at school board meetings, grandmothers peacefully protesting outside abortion clinics, Republican political opponents, and ultimately, targeting and attempting to imprison their chief political rival.  So, who is it that is effectively utilizing fascist tactics? 

You see, it was their corrupt DOJ, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrrick Garland which colluded with corrupt, partisan local and state prosecutors from hostile venues to bring multiple expired, frivolous, and unprecedented felony charges against the other political party's presidential nominee.  So who's actually employing fascist methodology?

It was her Orwellian-sounding Dept. of Homeland Security, under Alejandro Mayorkas, that perjured himself, violated his oath of office, and blatantly ignored the department's mandate by turning the border patrol into a welcome wagon for tens of millions of illegal aliens, including criminals, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and even would-be terrorists who were invited across the porous southern border.  Who are the lawless fascists?

They attempted to remove their political opposition - actually their opposition from both parties,  (Trump and Kennedy) from the primary and general election ballots. That certainly sounds fascist-like, doesn't it?

And it was she who was nominated - or more accurately coronated - by party insiders to head her political party's ticket, without appearing on any state ballot or the benefit of winning a single primary.  So who exactly is the Fascist?

They are opposed to voter ID laws and ballot drop box surveillance. Her administration has fought at every turn those states which attempted to clean up voter rolls and remove non-residents, illegal aliens, and even the dead.  Who's the fascist?

They also have a callous disregard for the Constitution.  For nearly 4 years, Kamala and Joe's lawless regime waged relentless attacks against the First amendment, the Second amendment, the Fourth amendment, the Fifth amendment, and the Tenth amendment.  That is a direct threat to our democratic republic.  So who's really the Fascist?

It was her Biden-Harris administration which strong-armed tech companies in an effort to censor important information about COVID from the public?  In addition, it was Tim Walz's administration which opened liquor stores and candy stores but closed churches in Minnesota.  Who are the Fascists?

On top of that, they also want to add two along states with four additional Senators, remove the filibuster, and pack the Supreme Court with judicial activists to ram through their agenda.  All of which sounds a lot like fascist tactics to me.

So when Democrats cynically say " 'Democracy' is at stake in this election," take it with a grain of salt.   Truly, our Representative Republic is at stake, but only if she wins.  It is true that they want the purest form of Democracy - mob rule - when it benefits them, as it did during the summer of 2020 or when Antifa was terrorizing Supreme Court justices.  But when popular sentiment is against them, they are not above ruling against the will of the people, subverting the law, and imposing their will by any method they can get by with.

So my advice on election day is to ignore the angry epitaphs these people are hurling about, things such as:  Donald Trump is Hitler, those who don't support Harris are misogynistic and racist, and patriotic Americans who don't support their unqualified puppet candidate are deplorables, garbage, and fascists.

 

These are the accusations of a power-hungry, wannabe tyrant.

Despising of our system of government, persecuting political opponents, and upending the Constitution are not things to fear from Trump, should he be elected.  Rather, they are the simple reality of the past four years of Democrat control that Kamala and Tim will double down on if they are given power.

Much is at stake on Tuesday, November 5th.  Choose wisely.

The Fragility of Freedom

 

“Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” ~ Ronald Reagan (January 5, 1967)

In the weeks since President's Day and George Washington's birthday, I have been thinking about the history and the office of the Presidency. Washington is a president admired by all but perhaps the most extreme elements of our society. Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Lincoln are others who are similarly respected. Some would add Coolidge, FDR, and Reagan to that list. These great men brought qualities to the office such as: extraordinary courage and vision, inspirational leadership, recognition of our country's unique & Godly heritage, and a healthy respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.

At the same time as one ponders these Presidents past, it's difficult to think of these great men without at some point making the inevitable comparison to the current inhabitant of the Oval Office. And that comparison, in my estimation, isn't a favorable one.

What we have seen thus far, as he stumbles and bumbles about from one domestic and foreign policy misadventure to another - reminiscent of Mr. Magoo - is a lack of coherent policy combined with an inability to articulate any discernible vision to the American people. We see in Biden, a dazed bewilderment, rheumy-eyed perplexment, and dithering indecision on the domestic front, combined with a dangerous projection of spineless weakness and dithering on the international stage. There is a demonstrable propensity to side with the leftist fringe elements of his political party, on issues such as the 2^nd amendment, the southern border, COVID policy, crime policy, or energy policy, even though these unpopular policies severely punish the American people. Sadly, there is also a clear willingness to flaunt the rule of law to consolidate executive power, restrict individual liberty, and silence dissent – as evidenced by their authoritarian response to the Chinese COVID virus.

That said, I don't want to divert into a discussion of the many and obvious failures of the Biden regime, but rather, to keep the focus on how swiftly hard-earned liberty and freedom can be taken away, when not vigorously defended.

In the past two weeks, we have all been shocked to watch the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, invading without provocation the sovereign nation of Ukraine (a country that I can trace some of my family roots through). While Ukraine has some of the world's richest farmland, energy and mineral stocks, it lacked robust military alliances and had previously ceded it's defensive nuclear weapon capability, leaving itself a tempting and vulnerable target for the neighborhood bully – Putin's Russian Confederation. The attack came by sending in tanks and troops, along with the indiscriminate shelling of cities from land, sea, and air in an attempt to terrorize civilian populations. Since the initial hostilities, we heard rumors of the use of internationally banned thermobaric and cluster bombs. We also saw reckless attacks on operating nuclear reactors, hospitals, schools, and a maternity hospital in acts of cold, calculating war crimes.

The Ukrainian army, air force, and navy found themselves hopelessly out-manned and outgunned. For example, their tiny naval fleet of 20 warships – left decimated, but unreplenished after the Russian seizure of Crimea in 2014 - proved completely unable to defend their own Black Sea port cities. Early in the attack, they were forced to scuttle their own flagship frigate to avoid its capture by the Russians.

With a history of highly restrictive firearms licensing and magazine limit laws (there is only one firearm per ten Ukrainian civilians), only a very small percentage of the population were adequately prepared to defend themselves and their families, while the rest of the world watched on the sidelines.  Only after the Russian invasion, did the Ukrainian parliament finally decriminalize gun ownership for self defense, allowing the people to protect themselves and their loved ones. Hopefully, the Ukrainian people didn't come to realize too late how fleeting the freedom of a naive and unarmed people can be.

The words of the Ukrainian-born congresswoman, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), serve to remind Americans of the importance of not allowing politicians or political parties to erode that precious right:

I'm so proud that strong, brave Ukrainians are willing to fight, again and again, to be free. It should inspire all of us in their bravery and actions – unbelievable. It should teach us and, maybe remind us, what it means to be a free country and how hard it is to get your rights and freedoms back when you lose it. We've had so many people die for our freedoms, so lets value and cherish them.

Indeed we should!

Before you say, "Yeah, but all that's over there," - we don't have to look as far away as Europe to see how quickly a formerly free people can be subjugated by a tyrant.  In fact, we only have to look to our northern neighbor.

While Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may appear to some to be a harmless “leftist wimp,” (as former CIA officer and radio host Buck Sexton called him), he has in fact proved to be the heir-apparent of Saul Alinsky and a wanna-be dictator.  Like so many opportunistic socialists-turned-fascists before him, this little man has mastered the art of verbal subterfuge and political propaganda – by demonizing his detractors and accusing his opponents of being the very detestable thing he has himself become – which is, quite honestly, a fascist.  

Unfortunately for the targets of Trudeau's tyrannies, Putin's even greater brutality has - if only temporarily - caused the eyes of the world to turn elsewhere.

When faced with peaceful protests against what they considered his onerous COVID-related restrictions, Trudeau refused to meet or talk to them to hear out their concerns. Instead he and his fellow Liberal Party members first hid and ignored them, then demonized them, and finally dismissed these sympathetic and plain-spoken Canadian truckers – as laughable as it seems – as being terrorists, racists, Confederate sympathizers, and white supremacists.

Yes, you read that right. Trudeau literally compared the Canadian Freedom Convoy truck drivers, their families, and their supporters to terrorists and Confederates, while one of his Parliamental allies claimed the trucker's horn-honking was the equivalent of chanting “Heil Hitler” – simply because they opposed his onerous vaccine mandates and his other restrictions on their freedoms.

Using this false narrative as a pretext, and aided by a docile and fawning state-controlled Canadian media, Trudeau declared a marshal law-like state. By utilizing existing anti-terrorist statutes – the Emergencies Act – a statute intended for threats to national security and territorial integrity and designed for wartime and terrorist attacks, he aimed the full power of the police state against his own citizens. He froze the private bank accounts of both middle class truck drivers and their financial supporters, intimidated non-state-controlled reporters, shut down businesses and seized private property without the benefit of a warrant, and even subjected crowd-funding organizations to money-laundering and terrorist rules - all too reminiscent of Stalin starving Ukrainian peasant farmers.

In a final act of brutality, seen in a widely circulated video, we saw his shock troops beating a truck driver who was already on his knees with his hands behind his head and watched Ottawa mounted police forces violently charging in and breaking up the crowds whereby trampling an elderly woman on her mobility scooter (and reportedly joking about it later).

Just a reminder, this wasn't Chechnya, Syria, or Somalia - this was Canada.

Will Americans take heed before it comes here?  Or will we stand by complacently as our freedoms are taken from us, bit by bit, or in large bites?  Sadly, the verdict is still out on the question.

Small thoughts about a big problem

This was going to be a March blog post, then my belated April blog post, and now it is the first day of July.  Essentially, this post has now been in the works - subject to writer's block - since late-March.

Many of you know by now that I spent two weeks in Greece a couple months ago, working with the hordes of refugees and immigrants flooding into Europe through Turkey.  I won't flatter myself by assuming that many of you have been waiting to read a post about my experience, nonetheless, it was always my intention to do so.  I think the problem was, I kept waiting for a grand solution to this immense problem, that exceptionally profound thought to come to me, or at least something deemed worthy of my friends who read my occasional musings.

Since I am still waiting for such profundity to strike me some three months later, I thought I'd just better go ahead and post something anyway.

In late February and early March, I went on a mission trip sponsored by the Mountain Lake Christian and Missionary Alliance church - the church the Niessen family has been attending since the early 80's.  Mom and Dad went there and my brother and I attended until we moved off on our own - so it is what I consider my 'home' church. Our group went out through Greater Europe Missions (GEM) and under the auspices of the Greek Evangelical organization EuroRelief to assist with the ongoing humanitarian work on the Greek island of Lesvos.

For those of you who are interested in a brief update on what led up to the humanitarian crisis, here's a short synopsis.  With the ongoing Syrian civil war enjoined by upwards of a dozen different groups and factions fighting each other, Syrian refugees began to flee war-torn areas and to make their way to Europe.  When Russia joined the effort on behalf of the Syrian government, it only added to the tumult.  The mass migration of refugees snowballed as they were soon joined by Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, Africans, a few Asians (and strangely, even some Cubans) etc. - people who for the most part simply seeking a better life for themselves in Europe. Many of these people made their way to Turkey, following the path of least resistance into Europe by a dangerous, but short, crossing of the narrower parts (2 - 4 miles) of the Mytiline straits - that body of water that separates the Turkish mainland from the Greek island - and arrived en masse to the island of Lesvos.

The problem was, that however kind and generous the Greek people were, a relatively small island such as Lesvos, with a population of around 80,000, simply could not keep up with and provide support for the estimated 500,000 refugees and immigrants (2015 estimate) flooding onto their shores annually.  And it wasn't that much easier for mainland Greece as thousands of people poured into the port of Piraeus in Athens via ferries hoping to make their way north through the countryside toward the Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian borders.  You must understand that the overwhelming majority of these people did not wish to remain in economically depressed Greece.  Rather,they preferred the job opportunities - and the promise of generous social welfare benefits - offered by the more economically prosperous countries of the E.U. in northern Europe.

To compound the issue, as the flow of mostly Muslim asylum seekers continued to increase, the countries neighboring the Greek mainland understandably began to shut down their shared borders to maintain some semblance of sanity and sovereignty for their own homelands.  This left Greece to absorb the brunt of the economic impact and to sort out the dealing with the hundreds of thousands of potential asylum seekers and economic immigrants.

At this point, I can safely say that I still don't and probably never will have any of the big geo-political answers I assumed I would when I returned home with firsthand knowledge of the situation.  Some suggest the humane thing is to simply open up the borders and let them in without limits.  Then, I believe it was Ben Carson who suggested the answer is maintaining militarily enforced "safe zones" within Syria - but as long as Russia remains an active participant at the behest of the Bashar al-Assad, such a solution involves grave risks of military confrontation between superpowers.  Still others say simply "send them back to Turkey!" - but that solution presupposes unprecedented cooperation between traditional enemies Greece and Turkey  In addition, from a Christian point of view, that keeps the refugees fleeing the Muslim world largely locked up and outside the reach of Christian Evangelism.  And as to those who say the U.S. and our European allies should open up the gates to any and all... well, we see how well the lack of proper immigration enforcement, sane screening processes, and the lack of cultural assimilation processes has done to Belgium, the U.K, and our own southern border.

So having said all that, since the brightest minds in the world have yet to agree on a solution, I probably needn't feel too bad about not having one either.  I have no false illusions now that there are any easy answers.  Ultimately, war has caused human suffering throughout human history and continues to do so in the 21st century.  The Bible informs us that that will continue until Christ's reign.

Did we make a profound impact toward solving the global crisis?  Certainly not.  But we did help a few people who crossed our paths by meeting their immediate physical needs  And each of us in our own way were able to point some toward Christ - and that is no small thing.  Personally, it was a great to be privileged to serve in Christ's name for those two weeks.  Thank you to all of you who supported me through your prayers and financial support.

Obama's Foreign Policy Alternate Universe

Denial - a psychological defense mechanism in which confrontation with a personal problem or with reality is avoided by denying the existence of the problem or reality.  (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denial)
 
In the context of world events and the wake of the Paris terror attacks, it seems self-evident to an objective observer that until President Obama comes to a place where he is actually willing to utter the words “Radical Islamic extremism”, he doesn't completely understand the problem.  And until Obama is willing to name the problem, we won’t as a nation come up with an effective a solution.  If our Commander-in-Chief is unwilling to identify the enemy (and by that I mean someone other than George W. Bush, the NRA, or the Congressional Republicans), how will we possibly be able to confront and defeat them?
 
But therein lies the problem: His worldview is demonstrably in conflict with reality and he is pitifully unwilling to abandon his faulty worldview.
 
It is increasingly obvious that our president is ill-equipped to deal with the ever-more-complex international situations that we are facing as a country.  He seemingly cannot force himself to admit the fact that – whether we like it or not - we have had war declared on us.  Sadly, it appears he is too proud, he has too much invested, he is simply too much of an ideologue to admit when he is wrong.  And thus we have the current chaos.
 
Known to be thin-skinned and defensive, he has chosen to surround himself with people who agree with him to avoid being challenged.  Throughout his life - at law school, as a community organizer, as a Senator, and as Commander in Chief  his mentors and advisors have consistently been radical ideological leftists (Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Jeremiah Wright, David Axelrod, Eric Holder, etc.) holding a consistently Marxist outlook on life that says that the United States is the foci of most of the evil in this world.
 
No doubt this explains at least in part, why he reserves his harshest critiques not for Vladimir Putin, but for Congressional Republicans.  This explains why he will negotiate with the radical leadership of Iran, but refuses to talk with the House Budget Committee.  This accounts for why he condemns the NRA louder than he does Islamic terrorists.
 
Recall that it wasn’t all that long ago that Obama called ISIS  Al Qaeda’s “JV team” and that just the day before the Paris massacres he was hailing ISIS as “contained”.  He was clearly wrong on both counts.  This refusal to accept facts that contradict the White House’s crumbling narrative was profoundly illustrated by his noticeably testy responses to Journalist’s queries questioning the effectiveness of his strategy (if it can be called that) at the G20 conference on Monday.
 
He was impassionate in his statements.  What the French President called "an Act of War”, Obama referred to as a “setback”.  He was defensive.  And predictably, he reserved the brunt of his wrath, not for the terrorists, but for Republican critics who have suggested a halt to importing into our country 10,000 Syrian refugees that Arab states won’t touch – despite the fact that at least one of the Paris terrorists held a Syrian passport.
 
Our President is in utter denial. The world as it is and the world as he wishes it to be are diametrically opposed.  His worldview and the reality this country finds itself in are in direct conflict.  And sadly, he has chosen to stick with the faulty worldview.
 
Of course this makes him look extremely silly, but it also makes this country look weak – and more dangerously, emboldens our adversaries and enemies such as China, Putin, and ISIS.  Evil does exist in this world, and if not called out and resisted, it tends to move quickly to fill the vacuum of power.
 
Because our President is unwilling to face this reality, we have no coherent Middle East foreign policy; and his successor - and our children – face a much more dangerous world.




11/18/15 Addendum - Perhaps some of you caught Bill O'Reillys interview with Gov. Chris Christie last night on The O'Reilly Factor.  Christie said of the President's policies, "This is a guy who lives in a fantasy world... He sees the world as he likes to see it, as fantasy."


11/23/15 Addendum - A CBS News poll released today reports the following:  "Just over a week after the terrorist attacks in Paris, only 23 percent of Americans think President Barack Obama has a clear plan for dealing with the militant group ISIS, the lowest number yet recorded in the CBS News Poll.  Sixty-six percent do not think he has a clear plan - a new high."  While Republicans and Democrats differ sharply on whether they should be allowed in at this time, "there is widespread agreement on a stricter screening process for Syrian refugees.  Nearly eight in 10 Americans (78 percent) - including majorities of all partisan stripes - say it is necessary for Syrian refugees to go through a stricter security process than they do now."(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-do-americans-think-of-isis-syrian-refugees-terrorism/)