Author: haroldblackphd

Trump and MLK, Jr

Trump was inaugurated on Martin Luther King, Jr Day. The next time that a presidential inauguration is on MLK,Jr day will be 2053. Somehow it is appropriate that a republican president’s inauguration and MLK day coincide. While the democrats favored keeping slavery, Abraham Lincoln, the republican led the charge to abolish it. The southerners knew this and opted to secede from the Union. Lincoln first fought to reunite the Union and did not issue the Emancipation Proclamation until January 1, 1863. The Union victory at the Battle of Antietam allowed Lincoln to issue the proclamation which then led to the enlistment of over 100,000 black soldiers in the Union army.

While MLK, Jr Day is on the third Monday in January, King’s birthday is January 15 (which is also my son’s birthday). After King was assassinated in 1968, there was a campaign for a holiday on the federal level led by Rep. John Conyers. The first vote was in 1979 and failed by five votes in the House. Jimmy Carter was president and although the democrats had congressional majorities, he could not get the bill passed. Many southern democrats were opposed in the House and Jesse Helms and John East – both North Carolina republicans – led the opposition in the Senate. Although Helms was characterized as a racist, he had black staff members, supported my nomination to the National Credit Union Administration Board (I was on the Chapel Hill faculty at the time), and hosted my parents at my installation giving my father an American flag that was flown over the Capitol. He was courteous, courtly, called my parents as “sir” and “ma’am” and told them of how proud that I was a North Carolinian. The irony is that he always rallied about the “communists in Chapel Hill”.

There was pressure on Carter to get the bill passed. Stevie Wonder’s song “Happy Birthday” kept the campaign in the public’s eye. But Carter failed to get the southerners on board. Finally when Ronald Reagan became president he pressured the republicans to back the bill. They did and Reagan signed it into law in 1983. The holiday was first observed January 20, 1986. The holiday got a bumpy reception in the states. Arizona’s passage was particularly contentious with the NFL threatening to move its Super Bowl from Glendale in 1993 if the state had not adopted the holiday. New Hampshire did not pass the holiday until 2000.

I know that someone somewhere is probably decrying that Trump was inaugurated on MLKJr Day given the mantra that Trump is a homophobe xenophobe sexist and racist. But yet it is somewhat fitting given that his support in minority communities surpasses that of all republican presidents since Eisenhower in 1956.

How will Trump govern in this his second term? My friends on the right say that with Biden’s exit our national nightmare has ended. My friends on the left say that with the advent of Trump, our national nightmare is just beginning. I have a suspicion that they both may be right.

Happy Birthday

Stevie Wonder

You know it doesn’t make much sense 
There ought to be a law against 
Anyone who takes offense 
At a day in your celebration ’cause we all know in our minds

That there ought to be a time 
That we can set aside 
To show just how much we love you 
And I’m sure you would agree 
What could fit more perfectly 
Than to have a world party on the day you came to be

Happy birthday to you 

I just never understood 
How a man who died for good 
Could not have a day that would 
Be set aside for his recognition

Because it should never be 
Just because some cannot see 
The dream as clear as he 
That they should make it become an illusion

And we all know everything 
That he stood for time will bring 
For in peace, our hearts will sing 
Thanks to Martin Luther King

Happy birthday to you 

Why has there never been a holiday 
Where peace is celebrated 
All throughout the world

The time is overdue 
For people like me and you 
Who know the way to truth 
Is love and unity to all God’s children

It should be a great event 
And the whole day should be spent 
In full remembrance 
Of those who lived and died for the oneness of all people

So let us all begin 
We know that love can win 
Let it out, don’t hold it in 
Sing it loud as you can

Happy birthday

We know the key to unity of all people 
Is in the dream that you had so long ago 
That lives in all of the hearts of people 
That believe in unity 
We’ll make the dream become a reality 
I know we will 
Because our hearts tell us so

Happy birthday 

Does Trump read my blog? For years I have been writing the following:

1. Drian the swamp by moving the Federal agencies out of DC. I even made suggestions as to where they could go. Now Joni Ernst has proposed the same thing only she says that at a minimum 30 percent of each agency’s workforce should leave DC. Why 30 percent?
2. I like Kash Patel’s idea of shutting down the DC headquarters of the FBI and moving all agents into the field. No wonder Patel scares the swamp denizens to death.
3. I also suggested that if a new regulation were enacted then an old one should be eliminated. Trump is now talking about a 10 to 1 ratio. Great idea.
4. I suggested limiting the number of pages in the federal register. Biden added over 90,000 pages last year which is obscene. I would enact a law either putting on an absolute limit of pages or saying that the number of new pages cannot grow by more than a certain percent. This would in and of itself limit the number of new regulations.

I wonder how many new regulations, especially environmental regulations have been enacted by Biden’s administration? I would bet that the number is in the thousands. Just in the environment alone I found the following: clean fuel regulations, emissions cap for certain sectors (oil, gas, aviation, railways), coal phase-outs, new energy efficiency rules for building (old and new), performance mandates for natural gas plants, regulatory hurdles to liquified natural gas exports, new and tighter vehicle fuel economy standards, subsidies to ethanol productions, electric vehicle mandates, subsidies to electric vehicles, subsidies to battery makers, carbon sequestration mandates, government purchases of electric vehicles. 

Luckily the president has an autopen to do all the signing.

Yes Trump has a lot to do. He says that he has 100 executive orders to be signed on Day 1. Only 100? He probably needs to sign several thousand to begin to undo all the damage done by Biden. There’s the environment, energy, DEI, trans, inflation, out of control spending, disastrous foreign policy. Get signing Donald!

Trump obviously hates Canada. I have no clue why. His tariffs on Canadian goods makes no sense. His excuse that illegals and fentanyl flow over the border is lame since 99 percent of both come across the southern border. Trudeau hastily put together a $1.2 billion border security plan but Trump has ignored it. Apparently, the border security excuse is just a ruse.

Canada is our largest trading partner and tariffs will likely plunge that economy into recession and significantly raise the price of energy, dairy, energy, steel and lumber to American citizens. So what does Trump really want – other than to humiliate the Canadian government? We import around $450 billion in goods from Canada while we export around $350 billion. That’s 77 percent of Canadian exports and 63 percent of all Canadian imports. Obviously, tariffs will severely hurt the Canadians. 

Surely Trump isn’t trying to balance the trade budget, is he? That would be even more stupid than the tariffs since Canada is much smaller than the US, being not that much larger in population than California. But no one ever claimed rationality for Trump. In fact he has said “We’re spending hundreds of billions a year to take care of Canada. Why should we have a $200-billion deficit?” Of course, the trade deficit is $100 billion but hey what’s a $100 billion among friends?  Trump says that we do not need Canadian automobiles, lumber or dairy products. Trump also said “They make 20 percent of our cars. We don’t need that. I’d rather make them in Detroit.” 

Note that he left out the major good we import from Canada – oil. A tariff on oil would raise the price of energy in the US. Didn’t I say once about tariffs throwing Trump supporters under the bus? Also Ontario Premier Doug Ford has threatened to cut off the electricity exports to the northern tier of US states in the Eastern interconnection power grid. Once again, an imposition of tariffs would violate Trump’s own trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Trump apparently doesn’t care – and neither should anyone else who has to deal with him.

For the democrats the climate is the existential threat. For the rest of us it is China. China, like Russia, is a bully. Both countries are poor, third world with bravado stemming from an inferiority complex. China, like Russia, would rather squander its resources trying to buy and/or curry favors throughout the world than tend to its own domestic problems. Both countries fund foreign terror cells, academic think tanks, student radicals, political organizations, politicians, environmental zealots, other dissident groups and social misfits around the globe. Their objective is to sow discontent and social upheaval with no objective other than being destabilizing. Although the money could be better spent dealing with problems at home, both the Russians and the Chinese would rather run their own economies into the ground, oppress their own people if it means sowing discord abroad. Russia is a Potemkin village and now we are seeing that China is one also.

The Chinese economy is a mess. It is currently in the throes of a deflation. The economic planners stimulated the economy by massive amounts of spending. Keynes would be proud. The result is a vastly overbuilt economy with ghost cities full of crumbling estates and 80 million vacant housing units. China’s population is contracting as a result of its inane one child policy and its not allowing workers from the rural areas to bring their families into the cities. Those workers are also denied full rights as citizens as well. The result is a shrinking of population even in the rural areas as adults do not want their children raised by relatives left behind. Those children have lower social status than children living with their parents. China’s population is projected to decline by half by 2100.

China’s real estate mess is compounded by its price controls. Officials have put price floors on apartments and new homes and will not allow developers to offer lower prices. The government is afraid that loosening price controls will cause the bottom to fall out of the housing market precipitating a larger crisis. This crisis is only part of the failure of China’s industrial policy – that America’s left loves so much. The CHIPS bill throws $50 billion of our dollars at semiconductor manufacturers to better compete with China while China is busily throwing billions of yuan at their industries to churn out more and more manufactured goods for export. So the Chinese throw their money at their firms and we counter by throwing money at our firms. Genius. It seems to me that if China wants to waste its resources and bankrupt itself we should let it. If China is headed over a cliff the question is why do we want to follow them?

China is saddled with the wrong leader who is threatened by the forces that have moved China from an economic backwater to a third world standard of living. Those in the west who want to emulate China are misguided. What is there to admire? Certainly not innovation. The Chinese are notorious for stealing technology rather than innovating. On the Global Innovation Index, China ranks twelfth. The United States is third (Switzerland is first and Sweden is second). China’s track record does not demonstrate that government industrial policy works better than one of relative laissez-faire. Rather it shows the opposite. China spends in excess of 5 percent of its GDP on inefficient state run industries, on cronies and wasteful ventures.

Yes China is a world leader in electric vehicles. However, it is manufacturing too many vehicles. Some estimates are that half of the cars produced go unsold and are being dumped into foreign markets. It is also producing too many goods period and has resorted dumping them at a considerable loss. Yes, it is the world leader in the rare earth minerals used in batteries, solar panels and other components of “green energy.” It should not therefore be surprising that the Chinese uses its financial resources to ensure that western competitors are crippled in their efforts to compete by funding organizations like environmental groups and even federal government agencies. China’s dominance in “renewables” would vanish were it not for the green energy mandates of western governments. Those governments bray that the climate change is an existential threat. I wonder how many are in reality mainly influenced by Chinese money flowing into their coffers? 

If the Chinese are really behind the West’s push for “green” energy, then they are succeeding beyond their wildest dreams. Germany seems on the verge of collapse. Its automakers forced to make unprofitable vehicles are contracting. Germany energy costs are three times that of America. The government has just collapsed. They have shut down coal and nuclear plants and are dependent upon costly and erratic energy from “renewables”. American automobile makers are also losing billions of dollars. Energy costs are up. All this in the name of climate change. The Chinese in the meanwhile keep building coal plants and laughing at the foolish West that is intent on destroying itself to save the planet. Does anyone not think that the Chinese are aiding the process by spreading around a few billion dollars to Western politicians and environmental activists?

But China’s bullying is leading to some countries reducing their exposure to China. Production is moving out of China and into Viet Nam, Thailand, the Philippines and India. Some in the US and other countries are actively seeking to rein in China and to limit its acquisition of technology and components that it needs to fuel its manufacturing sector. As economic indicators in China have worsened the Chinese have resorted to hiding the data. They simply stopped publishing bad economic statistics, perhaps in hopes that the bad news would not scare off new investment. However, any company foolish enough to invest in China deserves whatever it gets. As one businessman said “worsening transparency in data and policy-making in China “adds another layer of risk” to investing in the world’s second-largest economy”. China’s economic statistics show high rates of youth unemployment, slow or no economic growth, low foreign investment, and falling consumer prices. The government remedy is to do more of what got it in the mess in the first place, more government spending and interest rate cuts from the Bank of China. Currently debt is 300% of GDP and growing.

China shows the folly of being a mercantilist country – something Donald Trump should heed. Here are the words of Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations: 

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer. …. But in the mercantile system, the interest of the consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce.

China ignores these words but more importantly so do Trump and his cohorts. Trump with his tariffs is seeking to isolate China but at the expense of the American consumer. However, that China is becoming more and more isolated due to its own policies. China’s president Xi has shown to be more interested in ideological control than in economic growth. He has emphasized military growth at the expense of economic wellbeing. I don’t think that there is any doubt that Xi is scared of his own people, Around the world, the Chinese are the capitalist innovative entrepreneurial class everywhere but in China. Getting rid of Communism would unleash this giant that would easily surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy. But this will never happen with Xi in power. The question is whether Xi will try to salvage his failures by becoming more aggressive militarily. 

Crazy Mazie, Diesel (my bad) and Our Food

The confirmation hearings thus far have featured the democrats more obsessed with sex than with how the nominees will manage their agencies and how they would address their problem areas. Hawaii’s Mazie Hirono begins every hearing with “As part of my responsibilities to ensure the fitness of nominees before any of the committees on which I sit, I ask the following two initial questions. First is, since you became a legal adult, have you ever made unwanted requests for sexual favors or committed any verbal or physical harassment or assault of a sexual nature?” I guess she does not want another Bill Clinton or Doug Emhoff overseeing a federal agency. But if I were a resident of Hawaii I would be embarrassed to have her as my senator.

I would like to apologize to all owners of diesel vehicles. I have noticed my entire life that I must be responsible for certain happenings. I have mentioned that if I like a product, it will be discontinued. So I apologize to everyone who used to buy them as well. Before I bought my first diesel pickup, diesel prices were 20 cents a gallon less than regular. Then I bought my truck and the following week, diesel prices went to 20 cents above regular. Every time I buy a new truck, the differential between diesel and regular prices widen. Surely, this is no coincidence.

The FDA finally got around to banning red dye #3. Now if they would ban all artificial colorings from food. I guess the red dye #3 lobby lost their clout. Weren’t they paying enough in bribes? Guess not. I read labels. I buy very few process foods. I will not buy anything with artificial colors. I will not buy anything with high fructose sugar either. When RFK, jr pointed out the difference between Canadian Fruit Loops and Froot Loops sold in the States, he may have struck a cord with the public. I know that his hearing will be particularly contentious. But it will be interesting. Sure he has some opinions that make him seem like a kook but he is right on when it comes to food. 

Why is it that Canadians and Europeans live longer than Americans? Some on the left argue that it is because of the health systems. But the Canadian and British systems suck. I think it is because of the food. American food is loaded with artificial ingredients, high fructose sugar and hydrogenated oils. Consider the following products (none of which I eat).

One real issue is that the junk version is more expensive than the more healthy version. If food were made healthier would this mean that the poor would be worse – rather than better – off? I eat cereal free from artificial colors, processed oils, high fructose sugars and it is twice as expensive as the junk food cereals. One cereal I buy is Nutrail nut granola. It is expensive – $10.29 at Sams Club for 22 ounces. Here are the ingredients

         Nutrail Cinnamon pecan granola

Ingredients: Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Coconut, Almonds, Pecans, Erythritol, Butter (Pasteurized Cream, Natural Flavor), Dried Blueberries, Cinnamon, Salt, Monk Fruit Extract.

I could have bought Quaker Simply granola which is really cheap. The name would imply a healthy cereal. Here are the ingredients.

Ingredients: Whole grain oats, whole grain wheat, sugar, dried sweetened cranberries (sugar, dried cranberries, glycerin, sunflower oil), canola oil, almonds, dried apples, inulin, whey, nonfat dry milk, molasses, whey protein concentrate, honey, sunflower oil, natural flavor, tocopherols (to preserve freshness).

While it is healthier than Froot Loops, sugar is the third ingredient and has 17 grams per serving. It also has sunflower oil which is unhealthy if cooked above a certain temperature. Why can’t they ditch the sugar and the sunflower oil? I actually tried it once and ended up tossing it in the trash.

Can we get rid of this junk out of our processed foods? Soybeans, corn sugar and other agriculture products are heavily subsidized and have powerful lobbies. These ingredients are then cheaper than more nutritious versions. You can bet that the lobbies will fight RFJ, Jr in the Congress to preserve (no pun intended) their place in the American diet. 

When I saw Biden’s statement on dropping the state sponsor of terror designation from Cuba I thought I was reading a parody from the Babylon Bee. It said: 

(i)The Government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding 6-month period; and

(ii) The Government of Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future.

Is this serious? Cuba has not acted up in the past six months and promises not to be bad in the future? Wow, that is reassuring.

When he was in his eighties, my Dad once said to me to tell him if he had become a fool. The indicator would be if he started giving in to all the scams that are directed toward the elderly. Dad never became a fool. But Joe, you just fell for a scam so now officially you are a fool.

Seth Moulton is gutless. Moulton who is a congressman from Massachusetts went against the democrats trans narrative when he said that as the father of two young girls, he did not want boys in their locker room. The dems exploded and the mayor in one of his towns threatened to primary him. Well he voted against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Initially when I saw that all the democrats but two voted against the act, I assumed that Moulton was one of them. But no. Both of the democrats who voted “no” were from Texas, Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. Cuellar had previously voiced the same sentiments of Moulton’s. He actually was primaried by the democrats but won reelection. Not Moulton who claimed he had not changed his views but the legislation was “extreme”. Moulton said “Because it fails to distinguish between children and adults and different levels of athletics, school-aged kids who simply want to play recreational sports and build camaraderie like everybody else could be targeted by the federal government. My kids play co-ed sports today just as I did when I was their age.” Then he said he did not want children “subjected to the invasive violations of personal privacy this bill allows.” This is the strawman that the democrats erected – that girls would be subject to genital inspections. In reality, if a child claimed to be trans then the authorities would rely on a birth certificate rather than a physical inspection. This is the same point that was the subject of AOC’s hysterical rant that “trans girls are girls!” No AOC, ”trans” girls are boys. Girls are girls. Does Moulton really think that republicans would want their girls subjected to a genital inspection in order to play volleyball? Of course not but it gives Moulton a reason to bow to the radicals in his party. I repeat, Seth Moulton is gutless.

Speaking of hysterical rants, did you see any of the Hegseth confirmation hearings? All the democrats were in hysterics. Tim Kaine was obsessed with sex. Mazie Hirono again demonstrated why she is called the dumbest senator. Kristen Guillibrand, Jeanne Shaheen, Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth all quizzed Hegseth on his views of women in combat. Duckworth was a helicopter pilot and lost both her legs in Iraq. However, there was little substance in the hearing. The republicans tossed him softballs like what is the caliber of an M1 rifle and whether Hegseth favored building more ships and airplanes.

None of the questions had much to do with Hegseth’s views and positions on issues of importance. So I was wondering what does the secretary of defense do other than overseeing the military and reporting to the president? Well the secretary is charged with crafting US national defense policy, managing the Pentagon, coordinating intelligence operations and reporting its findings to the National Security Council. The secretary sets priorities and oversees a budget of almost $2 trillion and a workforce of over 3.5 million people. It is a big job, seemingly too big to rest on one person’s shoulders. All Hegseth emphasized was returning the military to its mission of being a lethal force and purging it of woke. I guess that means no more drag shows. What about all the rest because I could get rid of the drag shows. It is important that his deputy play an outsized role in running the Pentagon. Yet the deputy designee, Stephen Feinberg of Cerebus Capital Management has no military experience or experience at large enterprise management. Hegseth will likely be confirmed because the one republican skeptic on the committee Joni Ernst has voiced support for him. Whether Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitch McConnell or John Curtis do will await the full senate vote.

Trump’s Presidential Medals

Why did Joe Biden give Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson the Presidential Citizens Medal? And why did Biden give Hillary Clinton and George Soros the Presidential Medal of Freedom? He – and his handlers – knew it would infuriate the Republicans and those on the right.

So why not have Donald Trump give medals to the following? BTW please add to this list if I omitted someone you think is deserving.

Koch Brothers

Elon Musk

Thomas Sowell

Walter Williams

Daniel Penny

Benjamin Netanyahu

Joe Manchin

Larry Arnn

Carol Swain

Robert Woodson

Dinesh D’Souza

Robert Bork

Allen West

Ron Paul

Newt Gingrich

Tony Dungy

Clarence Thomas

Condoleezza Rice

Richard and Betsy Devos

Peter Thiel

Michelle Malkin

Dolly Parton

Clint Eastwood

Sylvester Stallone

Allie Stuckey

Ben Shapiro

Seth Dillon

Rupert Murdoch

Steve Bannon

Riley Gaines

There are two wildlife management areas on the highway going toward the family farm in Georgia. One day there were brush fires burning on them. I stopped and asked a ranger who was casually observing them, what was going on. He said it was a controlled burn and was a “cool fire.” Cool fire? Sounds like a 60s R&B band. He said that the brush would burn but the trees would not. That way they could guard against brush fires. Now how you get a fire to burn cool is beyond me. But the forest did not burn even though the base of the trees were singed. However, I know that if I tried this, I would burn down the whole county.

First I called my relatives who live in the LA MSA to see if they were all right. They are but have friends who were affected. Second, I thought about the cool fires of Jones County when I saw the horrors of the LA wildfire where the environmentalists have prevented burning of underbrush. There is a lot of finger pointing amongst all the hand wringing. One side is saying that the fires are a result of climate change. The other side is blaming state and local priorities. Of course, if the cause is climate change, I presume that there is nothing one can do to prevent the fires. But one could still limit the damage with the right policies. If the reason that the fire is not being contained is due to incompetence or priorities, the question is whether those will be addressed. At this writing, the fire is zero contained. Why? We all know that there is going to be a fire season in California. Why weren’t they prepared? Here are some of the reasons.

1. The fire hydrants ran out of water. But why?
2. The mayor cut the fire department’s budget $17.6 million. The fire chief said that they were understaffed, under-resourced ad underfunded.
3. A key reservoir was taken offline for maintenance (during fire season?)
4. One of the firefighting aircraft was disabled after colliding with a drone
5. The CEO of LA’s department of water and power responsible for the water pumping facilities and hydrant system was incompetent and focused on “advancing the department into 100% clean energy”. She was also focused on equity and social justice to “right the wrongs that we’ve done in the past from an infrastructure perspective.” I guess the fire hydrants and reservoirs in LA are racist.
6. The fire chief who was hailed as the first LGBTQ person in that position spent some of her limited funds to create a DEI bureau. She wants to hire more women and gay firefighters. The DEI head said that “You want to see somebody that responds to your house, your emergency whether it’s a medical emergency or a fire call, that looks like you.” Huh? How would they know to send a bunch of elderly black bald male firefighters with white beards to my house?
7. The water from the Sierra Nevada snow pack doesn’t get stored and is flushed out into the Pacific Ocean.
8. The state’s priority is to focus on green energy rather than renovating the aging LA water infrastructure.
9. Too little money is spent on wildfire mitigation with $2.6 billion while $14.7 billion is allocated for clean energy transition.

And the venerable Maxine Waters blames the rich for the fires. Excuse me – the rich? Yes she said “The first thing we’ve got to understand is, services cost money and we should be willing to get the richest people in this country, the richest one percent that is protected, make sure they pay their fair taxes so that we can have the money to provide the services.” Does this mean she wants the rich Californians to be taxed more or is she saying that the rest of the country should subsidize California? Regardless, the statement is typical Maxine Waters except she forgot to say that either the fire was racist or racism was the blame for the lack of containment. The state has a budget of $300 billion. You would think that they would be taking a hard look at their spending priorities. BTW how is that $100 billion bullet train coming?

It will be interesting to see if anyone pays the price for this debacle. The mayor, the fire chief, the city council, the state government are all the blame. They all should either resign or be fired. If they stay in power, then the citizens have endorsed their priorities of green energy and DEI over safety. Another interesting question is what will be the impact on Gavin Newsom’s presidential ambitions?

But thank goodness for the cool fires of Jones County, GA.

A good friend sent me the following. It is from 2016 but is as current as today’s headlines.

Canada Building a Wall to Keep Out American Leftists Fleeing Trump’s America

Canadian border residents say it’s not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, liberal arts majors, global-warming activists, and “green” energy proponents crossing their fields at night.

Santa Monica Observer

COMMUNITY, DIVERSITY, SUSTAINABILITY AND OTHER OVERUSED WORDS

November 18, 2016

The flood of Trump-fearing American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week. The Republican presidential campaign is prompting an exodus among left-leaning Americans who fear they’ll soon be required to hunt, pray, pay taxes, and live according to the Constitution.

Canadian border residents say it’s not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, liberal arts majors, global-warming activists, and “green” energy proponents crossing their fields at night.

“I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn,” said southern Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. “He was cold, exhausted and hungry, and begged me for a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn’t have any, he left before I even got a chance to show him my screenplay, eh?”

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. He then installed loudspeakers that blared Rush Limbaugh across the fields, but they just stuck their fingers in their ears and kept coming. Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals just south of the border, pack them into electric cars, and drive them across the border, where they are simply left to fend for themselves after the battery dies.

“A lot of these people are not prepared for our rugged conditions,” an Alberta border patrolman said. “I found one carload without a single bottle of Perrier water, or any gemelli with shrimp and arugula. All they had was a nice little Napa Valley cabernet and some kale chips. When liberals are caught, they’re sent back across the border, often wailing that they fear persecution from Trump high-hairers.

Rumors are circulating about plans being made to build re-education camps where liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer, study the Constitution, and find jobs that actually contribute to the economy.

In recent days, liberals have turned to ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have been disguised as senior citizens taking a bus trip to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans in blue-hair wig disguises, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior citizens about Perry Como and Rosemary Clooney to prove that they were alive in the ’50s.

“If they can’t identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we become very suspicious about their age,” an official said. Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage, are buying up all the Barbara Streisand CD’s, and are overloading the internet while downloading jazzercise apps to their cell phones.

“I really feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can’t support them,” an Ottawa resident said. “After all, how many art-history majors does one country need?

https://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/11/18/news/canada-building-a-wall-to-keep-out-american-leftists-fleeing-trumps-america/2268.html

https://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/11/18/news/canada-building-a-wall-to-keep-out-american-leftists-fleeing-trumps-america/2268.html

There they go again

I am writing this as winter storm Cora is dumping snow on my driveway. I didn’t even know that winter storms had names. But lo and behold, they do. It’s the brainchild of the Weather Channel. I expect that in the future there will be a winter storm Cantore. Here are this year’s names:

Anya

Blair

Cora

Demi

Enzo

Freya

Garnett

Harlow

Iliana

Jett

Kingston

Lola

Marisol

Nyla

Omari

Pascale

Quentin

Roman

Spencer

Theo

Usman

Vincenzo

Wilhelm

Xia

Ygenny

Zahir

Obviously the Weather Channel naming bureau is populated by a bunch of anti-black racists – well Omari is passable. Why racists? Well back on August 1, 2021 in the Knoxville Focus I wrote “In 2013 Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee labelled the naming of hurricanes as racist and wondered why the National Hurricane Center didn’t have black names for hurricanes. They have “white” names and Hispanic names but no black names.” Look at the names for the  2025 hurricanes and there is not a Lebron, Jaquan, Quinshon, LaTeisha  or the 40 or so variants of Jalen to be found. Here are the names from

(http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml).

Andrea Barry Chantal Dexter Erin Fernand Gabrielle Humberto Imelda Jerry Karen Lorenzo Melissa Nestor Olga Pablo Rebekah Sebastien Tanya Van Wendy I thought Biden had issued an edict that all federal agencies must aggressively pursue an agenda of diversity, equity and inclusion? The White House required each federal agency to submit detailed DEI progress reports regularly, appoint a chief diversity officer, and create agency equity teams whose leaders were tasked with “delivering equitable outcomes” In order to create a whole-of-government equity agenda.” Whatever all that means. Somehow that edict obviously did not make it to the National Hurricane Center except that Chantal and Tanya are marginally black names. One way to rectify this egregious wrong is simple: just put “La” in front of all the names so that the list is now:  LaAndrea LaBarry LaChantal LaDexter LaErin LaFernand LaGabrielle LaHumberto LaImelda LaJerry LaKaren LaLorenzo LaMelissa LaNestor LaOlga LaPablo LaRebekah LaSebastien LaTanya LaVan LaWendy

Only Me?

Am I the only one who thinks that merchants watch what I buy and then discontinue the items? When I had a Walmart card and would go to their website it showed all my purchases using their card. Then all of a sudden they stopped carrying my favorite salsas, mustards and books. The same was true at Sams. There my favorite candy, tea, chicken broth, protein bars and cargo pants suddenly vanished. When Sams put in a gas station nearest to me, they didn’t include diesel fuel yet the Sams 30 miles away carries diesel. Of course the reason they don’t carry diesel is because I have a Ford F-250 diesel pickup. The Sams far away carries the Greek yogurt I like but not the Sams closest to me. 

I ditched my Walmart card knowing that now they can no longer follow my purchases. I still use my Sams card because of Sams cash and hope that they will still carry the toilet paper, paper towels and bottled water that I buy. I also have a home at the family farm in Georgia. There we use bottled water exclusively. Of course the Sams in Macon does not carry the gallon jugs of water that we use at the farm. So I have to buy them at the Sams in Knoxville and take them down to the farm. I know that if I stop buying the water, that they will start carrying it in Macon. The same is true at Kroger where I use their credit card. They send me coupons for the things I buy. I use them. But they stopped carrying my yogurt, the chocolate peanut clusters, discontinued my cereal, hot sauce and their tasting bar stopped carrying the beer I like.

Also why is it that virtually every time I walk into a store and go to the register, the computers go down? It got so bad at my doctor’s office that the receptionist used to joke (I think) that they knew when I was coming to my appointment because the computers would crash. Speaking of which, aren’t you glad that Bill Gates was not an airline engineer? 

At the grocery store, they always either run out of tape when I get to the register or all my tapes have that red stripe on them indicating that they are about to run out. Naturally, the person in front of me always has an item that won’t scan or has only one credit card and it keeps getting rejected. I’ve gotten to the point where I just apologize to the cashier because of the problems that I cause when I walk up to the register.

I also have this thing with elevators. When I walk into the elevator bank, more often than not the elevators open and no one comes out. This used to bother me but now I expect it. Its like the elevators are saying “Hi HB.” However, the one thing that always bothers me is that if I am at the elevators and a (white) woman is walking toward them, she will either not get on the elevator with me or will walk up the stairs. I don’t think that I have ever looked particularly threatening, even when I used to ride my motorcycle to work wearing full leathers. Actually, my other half told me my leather pants were what attracted her to me. I find it hard to believe that a woman feels safer in a stairwell than in an elevator with me. 

But I am used to stuff happening to me. Its gotten to the point where I expect it. Once my youngest granddaughter said shaking her head “only you Granddad, only you.” Case in point is that we were in a skybox at a Georgia football game and she was talking with a vice president of a large sports retailer. I chastised him saying that I went on their website looking for a fitted cap with the new Georgia bulldog logo and none was to be found. He then opened up a box that he had brought in to give to the athletic director and pulled out a prototype of the exact cap and said “Can you wear a 7 ½?” It was my exact size. My granddaughter said “only you Granddad, only you.”