Born and raised on Staten Island, New York, USA. I'm retired after working in the FDNY for over 31 years years. I've written freelance commentary for the past thirtyty years and have one book published "Looking Up (A Working View)," Quiet Storm Publishers. For those of you with whom my ideas resonate, we probably share a common love of Liberty. If you like anything you read here, feel free to reuse...just please add my appellation. Life's been more than fair to me and this is a part of my humble offering back. If you have any corrections, or additions, please email me (my email address is in my profile) and I’ll both appreciate and consider them all and do my best to get back to you with my thoughts on it. My ideas are always evolving and I’m open to persuasion in all areas. I thank all those who've taken some of their time to read here.
In this morning's Press Conference (Thursday, April 18, 2019), AG William Barr noted that, "It's not a crime to publish information, so long as you didn't steal it," which is both TRUE and something our mainstream media relies upon.
William Barr has said that according to the Mueller Report, Russian hackers had already published those emails on their own Russian website before Wikileaks published them. (https://youtu.be/FQXmn8v9J8w)
I don't get the vitriol over Assange and Snowden. They've both exposed some serious abuses of government and many of those involved in politics.
What's sad to me is recalling how so many Americans applauded Assange when he was exposing the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld gang, but were then outraged when he exposed the Clinton's as being just as bad.
As for Snowden, before he came forward, no one wanted to believe just how extensive our government's surveillance is...if anything, it's far deeper, and worse than Snowden's exposed.
Regardless of whether AG Barr is right that Assange may not be legally culpable in the DNC emails issue, he still appears to be on the hook over charges related to, "Aiding Chelsea Manning in hacking and releasing his Army data dump."
However, since the previous administration pardoned Manning on that crime, it's hard to see why Assange should be treated any more harshly than Manning was. .
While America's pro Globalist/One Worlders talk of a "Globalist multicultural resurgence," the rest of the world moves on...toward Nationalism.
Nationalism amounts to a respect for human diversity, the diversity of mankind's disparate and different cultures, heritages and ethnicities.
The "Globalism"/One Worldism pushed by America's political-media class is a movement opposed to that diversity. One that would plow all of mankind's disparate heritages, cultures and ethnicities under a more homogeneous global culture.
That's probably why Nationalism appeals to far more people. My wife, born and raised in Jamaica, visited Paris with me, some 18 months ago and was distressed at the number of African street peddlers there.
"How much money do you think they earn, doing that," she asked.
"I have no idea," I responded, "Not much, I'd guess."
Then she said, "They don't belong here. When I visit France I want to see French people and French culture."
I thought about that and, while I did agree, I still found that view puzzling coming from her. Then, I realized that she no more wanted the face and culture of France to change, then she'd want to see the face and culture of Jamaica change.
I feel that same way...about BOTH places.
A few months back she'd spoken of a co-worker at her accounting firm, here from Nigeria, who'd said pretty much what John Cleese has said about London, England. Her co-worker said, "When I go back to vist Lagos, I no longer recognize the city I was born in." Sub-Saharan Africa has been flooded with Chinese immigrants over the past 10 years, or so.
EVERYONE respects their culture.
NO ONE happily welcomes demographic and cultural change. It's dislocating and can be jarring to those who've grown up immersed in that original culture.
I think EVERY existing culture in the world is vital. Different people, from different groups, with different cultures, often think differently, increasing the possibility of mankind finding more potential solutions to some of life's most vexing problems and challenges.
That's probably why Nationalism is ascendant now.
Asia had it's own Nationalist Pan Asian movement awhile back. The Arab-Muslim world re-embraced traditional Sharia-based Islam in it's own Nationalist movement. Sub-Saharan Africa has been persecuting and in some places (Zimbabwe) expelling its white populations as African Nationalism has swept that country.
Over the past decade, Europe has seen the rise of a vehement Euro Nationalism in response to a million-plus migrant invasion, mostly from Muslim countries.
To date Euro Nationalism has been led by the likes of Hungary's Viktor Orban, Poland's Description Andrzej Duda, Austria's Sebastian Kurz, and Italy's Matteo Salvini, France is leaning more Nationalist, as is Spain and Finland and most recently, the Dutch have given a two year old Conservative Nationalist Party sweeping wins across that country's 12 Provinces. That new ruling Party didn't even exist in 2015!
Here's an interesting video on those recent Dutch elections; .
Like myself, she's not a "white Nationalist," as these Antifa fools claim, nor a "black Nationalist," just a Nationalist...like the Dalai and me.
Like us, she respects the diverse and disparate cultures and heritages of mankind, believing each has a place and each is important...oh yeah, and she's a Conservative, so there's that, as well.
Yes, I admire and respect the likes of Candace Owens and seeing these Antifa thugs, makes me wonder about the future of America
For those of you who may not have seen this, Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda hurled a five y/o child from a 3rd floor balcony in the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday, April 12th.
Aranda, 24 had an outstanding warrant on an open assault case and had an order of protection against him, barring him from entering the Mall of America.
Many have made this incident a "racial issue," as Emmanuel Aranda is black, the child is white and it DID NOT appear to be a "random act."
Some correctly note that had the races been reversed, this would've been front page news for the rest of April and the trial coverage would be followed every step of the way.
THAT is correct, BUT it's NOT primarily a racial issue (black Americans don't control the media), it's entirely a political-media class issue. THIS is THEIR agenda - the highlighting of any and every incident that can be construed as "anti black" bigotry, while ignoring the far more prevalent "anti white" bigotry.
All of that is on this archaic and out of touch media, not on any ethnic group.
No, this issue highlights the failure of our justice system to deal with violent crime.
Our misguided "War on Drugs" has failed. We can't even keep illicit drugs out of prisons. The "War on Drugs" is misguided because you CAN'T save self destructive people from themselves.
We CAN and SHOULD look to save decent, law-abiding citizens from violent offenders.
Mandatory sentences and draconian punishments should be reserved for violent felons.
A first violent offense should get a mandatory minimum of 10 years and subsequent sentences would get more and more severe from there and there should be no parole for violent offenses.
It's a disgrace that this wanted felon with an open warrant felt safe enough to walk into a mall he was barred from (not the first time for that either) and commit this cowardly act.
Violating a legal order of protection must come with a harsh penalty itself. Far too many ex spouses and stalking victims have been killed by perpetrators who'd violated such protection orders.
A suspect who violates an order of protection and commits an assault as 1st offenses, should serve 5 years minimum mandatory on violating the order of protection and a consecutive (NOT concurrent) 10 year minimum mandatory on the assault. The penalties should increase exponentially on succeeding violations.
If this had been the case, then Emmanuel Aranda would've been sentenced to at least 15 years (probably more, if he'd had previous violent crime convictions), putting him in prison for at least another 14 years, had he been sentenced last year.
If that had been the case, this attack would've never happened.
We DO badly need criminal justice reform, just not the kind many Liberals/"Progressives" are calling for.
We need mandatory minimums with no parole for violent offenders. We need a return to prisons (reserved for violent offenders) designed to break a convict. Ones with draconian conditions. Ones that DON'T allow them to read, workout, etc. ANDwe need to scrap our sterile and secreted death penalty for a quicker, more efficient one (hanging, or the guillotine) and one expanded to be used against pedophiles and human traffickers.
This incident highlights our failed criminal justice system more than anything else.
After pro Somali, Somali-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar characterized 9/11 as, "Some people did something...," the pro American Trump took umbrage at that anti American characterization of that horrific event.
Democrats have reflexively come to Omar's defense, led by an embarrassment from NYC, Gerald Nadler, who said, "He (Trump) has no moral authority to be talking about 9/11 at all." (https://nypost.com/…/democrats-rush-to-omars-defense-after…/)
The New York Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he'd worked on getting funding for small business grants for victims with businesses that were impacted when the World Trade Center fell.
Yeah so did a LOT of Washington, D.C. and ALL of that was passed and signed into law by a Republican Congress (House & Senate) and a Republican President.
Gerald Nadler had little, to nothing to do with it.
Nadler went on, “The president – he wasn’t president, but Donald Trump actually took a $150,000 grant from the Bush administration,” Nadler said. “He stole $150,000 from some small businessperson who could have used it to help rehabilitate himself.”
THAT last part ("stole") is a LIE and Nadler knows it.
Even Left-leaning fact-checking website Snopes had previously investigated the claim that the president improperly received $150,000 after 9/11 and found that the grant money wasn’t specifically earmarked for small businesses, nor was it improperly accessed by Trump.
Nadler told CNN that he had no problem with how Omar had characterized the attacks by al-Qaida terrorists on 9/11/2001.
In the Netherlands a Nationalist-Right Party Wins! . . While America's pro Globalist/One Worlders talk of a "Globalist multicultural resurgence," the rest of the world moves on...toward Nationalism.
Nationalism amounts to a respect for human diversity, the diversity of mankind's disparate and different cultures, heritages and ethnicities.
The "Globalism"/One Worldism pushed by America's political-media class is a movement opposed to that diversity. One that would plow all of mankind's disparate heritages, cultures and ethnicities under a more homogeneous global culture.
That's probably why Nationalism appeals to far more people. My wife, born and raised in Jamaica, visited Paris with me, some 18 months ago and was distressed at the number of African street peddlers there.
"How much money do you think they earn, doing that," she asked.
"I have no idea," I responded, "Not much, I'd guess."
Then she said, "They don't belong here. When I visit France I want to see French people and French culture."
I thought about that and, while I did agree, I still found that view puzzling coming from her. Then, I realized that she no more wanted the face and culture of France to change, then she'd want to see the face and culture of Jamaica change.
I feel that same way...about BOTH places.
A few months back she'd spoken of a co-worker at her accounting firm, here from Nigeria, who'd said pretty much what John Cleese has said about London, England. Her co-worker said, "When I go back to visit Lagos, I no longer recognize the city I was born in." Sub-Saharan Africa has been flooded with Chinese immigrants over the past 10 years, or so.
EVERYONE respects their culture.
NO ONE happily welcomes demographic and cultural change. It's dislocating and can be jarring to those who've grown up immersed in that original culture.
I think EVERY existing culture in the world is vital. Different people, from different groups, with different cultures, often think differently, increasing the possibility of mankind finding more potential solutions to some of life's most vexing problems and challenges.
That's probably why Nationalism is ascendant now.
Asia had it's own Nationalist Pan Asian movement awhile back. The Arab-Muslim world re-embraced traditional Sharia-based Islam in it's own Nationalist movement. Sub-Saharan Africa has been persecuting and in some places (Zimbabwe) expelling its white populations as African Nationalism has swept that country.
Over the past decade, Europe has seen the rise of a vehement Euro Nationalism in response to a million-plus migrant invasion, mostly from Muslim countries.
To date Euro Nationalism has been led by the likes of Hungary's Viktor Orban, Poland's Description Andrzej Duda, Austria's Sebastian Kurz, and Italy's Matteo Salvini, France is leaning more Nationalist, as is Spain and Finland and most recently, the Dutch have given a two year old Conservative Nationalist Party sweeping wins across that country's 12 Provinces. That new ruling Party didn't even exist in 2015!
Here's an interesting video on those recent Dutch elections;
Free speech has been under attack for a long time, in America. Ironically enough, it's been primarily confined to College campuses.
Now the media is embracing the idea that "offensive," "controversial" and "unpopular" speech should be responded to with violence.
Shows like "The Good Fight," lionize that view and on Bill Maher's show, guests strongly supported that view as well, rebuffing Maher's support for defending basic principles, like freedom of expression.
The 1st Amendment was written specifically to protect controversial, offensive, unpopular, even seditious speech, as all of America's Founders were guilty of sedition before the Revolution, and treason, once they signed the Declaration of Independence.
There WAS a time when America's Left supported unfettered free speech. That was when the Left DIDN'T want Marxists and other Collectivist voices silenced.
That is no longer the case. Now that far Left views predominate in our media and among political "Progressives," they no longer support freedom of expression for those who disagree.
That's why America's Left no longer holds any claim to any "moral high ground."
