It's a Flighty Fight That Keeps on Giving Thing

Dear America,

welcome back,

welcome back to the continuing saga, of the ever enlightening, ever changing, Diary of a Flighty Whitey American Girl.  It may not be in the "every day" per se, or by definition, but when I do...you know...show up --- it comes to you with a certain discriminating flare,  in multiple languages....English (duh), Sarcasm, Cliche, and my personal favorite -- however sparingly -- Profanity.  It's all about current events meeting up with the twists and turns and tumult inside the mind of me -- G.    

Your welcome.

And today, once again, as I gaze upon the political horizon of yet another election cycle in America -- this thing called Trump is whipping up some kind of fury; the opposition, with the Republican establishment surely included, continues to get it's little fanny handed to it, smacked down with no apologies, as The Donald keeps on giving.

For another possible explanation, let's hurry over to The Daily Bell, Nelson Hultberg, in a post from just this morning:

Why? Because Trump represents something untamed and untamable. He represents an outsider who refuses to play the game of "politics as usual" that the good ol' boys have been playing throughout the past 80 years. What the establishment fears about Trump is that he doesn't need to play the role of sycophant to their corporate-banking-bureaucratic combine that rules America. -    (or for that matter, to Univision's Jorge Ramos, either -- to which I say, 'WHATEVER'  LA Times...)

See more, at The Daily Bell, here.

Ramos didn't come into the presser like everybody else -- he spoke out of turn, crossing a border and out of line.  Boom, Get out, you community organizer/activist  masquerading as a journalist/antagonist.  You have a right to ask a question when you are called upon, so sit down and wait your turn.


Now do you get it?
Now do you see why I started with calling myself FLIGHTY right from the get go?

I'm for him before I was against and now finding myself for him all over again.  Stop the insanity.

But now, back to Hultberg's bullet point bucket list on Immigration, crafted from the intentions of a Trump Administration....

It Starts with this:
1. Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Until they do, the U.S. will impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages, increase fees on millions of Mexican visas, and if necessary enact tariffs on all Mexican imports. 

And Ends with this:

8. Mandatory return of all criminal aliens to their home countries. 

 But now, you will just have to visit The Daily Bell for 2 through 7.



And now -- about those ANCHOR BABIES.

Let's scurry over to Ann Coulter.  Having written an entire book about the subject of ILLEGAL Immigration and all of it's absurdities, I find her commentary exceptional, witty, and thoroughly researched, bar none.

While if ever there was a need for a good explanation of the 14th Amendment and it's intentions-- mind you, of a post- CIVIL WAR America of the late 1800's! -- the need is NOW.

Here she is  --  the one, the only, Ann Coulter:

In response to O'Reilly's statement that "there is no question the Supreme Court decisions have upheld that portion of the 14th Amendment that says any person, any person born in the U.S.A. is entitled to citizenship ... for 150 years" -- Yoo concurred, claiming: "This has been the rule in American history since the founding of the republic." 

Yes, Americans fought at Valley Forge to ensure that any illegal alien who breaks into our country and drops a baby would have full citizenship for that child! Why, when Washington crossed the Delaware, he actually was taking Lupe, a Mexican illegal, to a birthing center in Trenton, N.J. 

Going back to how I began the day -- commenting upon my own flightiness -- Coulter is another one who sends me swirling in between a love her, love her not, love her, love her not soap opera of my own making.  Vigilance is such a daily curse, isn't it?  But no matter where you fall on Coulter, just gotta give her props for her consummate, unmitigated sarcasm used to perfection every time.

Needless to say,  CONTEXT and CRITICAL THINKING is becoming a lost art in America, kid you not.

Flighty is as flighty does, let's get on with it, shall we........

How did America get here?

yeah,

sit down,

That was rhetorical all the way.


The thing is, it may come down to just this -- the unimaginable loss of an educated electorate to crafty corruption left and right.  

The educated electorate is being undermined by a massive, organic, regenerating flow of illiterate,  uneducated, sorry lot, creating the ever expanding demographic of Americans fully dependent upon the welfare state to save them -- alongside the unconscionable, crony capitalist takeover of our elected body of "Public Servants," perverted and impaired by a penchant for corruption under the guise of social justice and equality and political correctness, masterminding a course correction for all the "imbalances"  of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."   It's all a progressive ruse for the ages.

"Adios America"

Thank you, Ann.

This is what's wrong with America today, the contrasts of mindsets among us -- of intellect, ambition, enlightenment, of a certain  pioneering spirit and self-reliance of the America, and specifically of the Americans,  intended -- and made real by law by our Declaration of Independence and Constitution!

Let's us return to Alexis de Tocueville, tying in remarks of a time gone by:

At the extreme borders of the confederated states, upon the confines of society and wilderness, a population of bold adventurers have taken up their abode, who pierce the solitudes of the American woods....As soon as the pioneer reaches the place which is to serve him for retreat, he fells a  few trees and builds a log house.  Nothing can offer a more miserable aspect than these isolated dwellings....Yet no sort of comparison can be drawn between the pioneer and the dwelling that shelters him.  Everything about him is primitive and wild, but he is himself the result of the labor and experience of eighteen centuries.  He wears the dress and speaks the language of cities; he is acquainted with the past, curious about the future, and ready for argument about the present; he is, in short, a highly civilized being, who penetrates into the wilds of the New World with the Bible, an axe, and some newspapers.  It is difficult to imagine the incredible rapidity with which thought circulates in the midst of these deserts[wilderness].   I do not think that so much intellectual activity exists  in the most enlightened and populous districts of France.  [The 5,000 Year Leap, pg, 253]

And yet, here we are.


Arguing on behalf of the real intentions of the 14th Amendment, written and clarified by numerous cases, as articulated in Coulter's post, summarizing for us in neat, sweet, little nuggets dripping in dulce de leche --

-- Supreme Court opinion in Elk v. Wilkins (1884): 

"The main object of the opening sentence of the 14th Amendment was ... to put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black, and whether formerly slaves or not, born or naturalized in the United States, and owing no allegiance to any alien power, should be citizens of the United States ... The evident meaning of (the words, "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof") is, not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance. ... Persons not thus subject to the jurisdiction of the United States at the time of birth cannot become so afterward, except by being naturalized ...

Here we are, America.

So --

One candidate really wants to "build a wall and make Mexico pay for it."

One candidate really wants the "mandatory return of all criminal aliens."

One candidate really wants to protect America's sovereignty and make America great again.

Now, there just may be a few things to roll our eyes upon -- even laced with a little attitude con diablo --  but what's not to love?  And just why is the GOP gaming to escort the guy out of the room?

Sure -- one day we love him, the next day we don't; one day he's presidential, the next day he's not.  

This campaign process is a flight of fancy, in a fight or flight kind of way but make no mistake -- America loves this stuff!  Debate is great!   Vigilance is a duty!    Critical thinking, with full context in mind, absolute and required!  This is the stuff Constitutions are written -- and written well!   This is the stuff nations are made or ruined!


Back to Coulter:

But it is a fact that the citizenship of illegal alien kids has never been argued, briefed or ruled on by the Supreme Court. [italicized in bold of my own unruly doing]

Perhaps, given the year 2015, a wee bit of clarification is needed.

But I think --  and speaking for all of us now --  I think we know the truth.

We know that back in 18...whatever...a fourteenth amendment was written for the "African-Americans"  -- formerly known as Negroes, blacks, and at one time in American history,  slaves, and even the children of slaves.   Come the year 2015,  illegal and pregnant South American and Mexican women --  choosing to not only have their baby!  yay! but break American Immigration Law -- crossing America's southern border and giving birth to their pequeño bebé had nothing to do with it.  The 14th Amendment was written for a different time and place (and how!).

It's a fact worthy to mitigate at any time, yet know this:  the facts support American sovereignty and a border that means something.
So ¡siéntese por favor! [Do sit down, please] 
OR better still, 
ponerse a la cola [get in line].

Oooh look at the time, gotta go.
Adios,
and until we meet again, adieu.


Make it a Good Day, G

It's the Dust Bowl Revisited Thing

Dear America,

and then again...

a word from Aristotle:

"Even the best of men 

in authority 

are liable to be corrupted

 by passion.  

We may conclude then 

that the law is reason 

without passion, 

and it is therefore preferable

 to any individual."

And thus -- given what the ages have taught us about mother nature and the faults of humanity -- becoming the very reason America was set up, and fully intended to grow and prosper, under a Rule of Law and NOT men.  Because MEN (aka mankind) can be stupid.

Now yesterday, I finished the day commenting on the awareness that Trump was "growing on me."

But it's funny, for today I have returned to not so much.

What is he thinking?

What in tar-nation is this pompous, arrogant, bloviating, presidential wanna-be doing?

Just bullying Megyn into submission now, is that his tactic?  Sounds like an Alinsky rule to me; and I don't like it.

Picking on her through twitter like he is in 7th grade?  Seriously?

After endearingly calling him just a boy yesterday, given another context in mind  -- I take it all  back today.

Cue the TWITTER troll scroll now.........HERE, fire away...(And thank you, Daily Caller for the early morning mail alert...)

.@megynkelly must have had a terrible vacation, she is really off her game. Was afraid to confront Dr. Cornel West. No clue on immigration!

6:42 PM - 24 Aug 2015 · Manhattan, NY, United States

I liked The Kelly File much better without @megynkelly. Perhaps she could take another eleven day unscheduled vacation!

6:50 PM - 24 Aug 2015 · Manhattan, NY, United States

There is no reason for this whatsoever.

After all of the debate dust-up was finally settled down....it's the dust bowl revisited!

THIS IS NOT presidential, Donald!   Knock it off!

A quote from yesterday, revisited:

Donald Trump is the prototypical, archetypal and testosterone-driven alpha male who rules by the sheer force of his personality, imposing physique, quick wit, mastery of repartee and almost hypnotic control over his gathering masses of adoring followers. He is Attila to the Huns, Henry V to the outnumbered English army, Winston Churchill to desperate allied forces, and now our fearless leader against the pagan forces of progressivism and political correctness. He is the unapologetic, quintessential warrior male of yore capable of vanquishing any and all opposition in his way.

There is no need for "Attila" to come out against Megyn Kelly; just put that warrior to better use...Use "Attila" to rail against the Obama Administration's causing great damage against our healthcare system, the job market, our relationships with our allies; use "Attila" to confront the illegal immigration and this administration's use of Executive Order to usurp Immigration Law; use "Attila" to explain exactly how a Trump Administration would change the IRS, the Energy Department, the Department of Education, the Department of Justice.   But make no mistake, using "Attila" as a warrior force against Megyn Kelly will get you nowhere and will fully diminish any respect you may well deserve in your hopes of Making America Great Again.


So here's my parting shot before I go -- and it's mostly directed to The Donald, but if the Cole Haan fits:

Grow Up.  

And may your life 

someday be as awesome 

as you pretend it is 

on social media.

huh.
now how cathartic is that?
I feel better.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Day Angling to Tame a Tempestuous Summer Thing

Dear America,

dear dear america...

the summer recess, the tempest
...who knew?

Over the last few months -- beginning at the barbecue and ending with the first day of school (today! YAY!)  -- we've had a ruckus, riotous republican debate, a tenacious Trump Takeover of the conversation (all of them), a thoroughly corrupted, and catastrophically crumbling,  of the Clinton campaign -- complete with viable contenders just waiting for the nod (Biden/Warren), and now a stock market -- in free fall.

good times, eh?

Personally, my summer was all over the place.

My days were a lost cause and perpetually one glass of one from telling everyone what I really think ----- given up to a heavier work schedule, my girl home and never home all at the same time (ugh yeah, you figure it out...so tired), with no time to write, no time to myself, no space to percolate and opine on the thoughts of the day, all I could do was listen to my mind rattle, non-stop.  And boy, it was noisy.

Having said that, little old gthang was lucky enough to get a mini-vacation in Disneyland.  Truth be told, it was awfully hard to return.   I wanted to stay.  Perhaps forever.   Perhaps hiding out on Tom Sawyer's island, or better still, the Swiss Family Robinson tree house!  Frontier land take me away!  

Which reminds me --

One of my favorite childhood memories was an evening in the Going Family station-wagon (circa 1972), overflowing with popcorn and giggles at the drive-in, and falling in love with the big screen while cultivating the itty bitty imagination just under the surface, and just beginning to settle in under the blankets and starlight, leaving imprints large and small for a lifetime of inspiration and budding ambitions.   Easily, my dream of living in a tree house was doable --  and upon my own private island even better; the family Swiss told me so and in no uncertain terms. 

Wait a minute...

perhaps we need a refresher of some thoughts long, long ago.

THE GIVING TREE day, one of my best days, if I don't say so myself.  (And I did.)

America, the ever evocative Giving Tree -- inspires dreams far and wide.

And speaking of immigration --   Constitution, be damned; is that our final answer?  No.

How ironic -- this thing called a border -- but otherwise fully recognized, in a slimy, suspect, politically correct, raising baby-leftists kind of way, a sordid port of entry, come one, come all.   This border -- unnaturally becoming world renowned as a porous, lawless, senseless 2000 miles of imaginary lines, thereby allowing for unconscionable acts against the sovereignty of a nation that once prided itself upon the Rule of Law in which it supposedly stands.

Hold UP
Here's some BREAKING NEWS FROM THE BORDER (and considering my homestead being only a cool 45 minute coastal drive south to Mexico -- the San Ysidro border town is local news to me):

Courtesy of NPR, just August 20, 2015:

As of Wednesday, foreign pedestrians crossing into Mexico between San Diego and Tijuana are required to present a passport, fill out paperwork and, if they are staying for longer than one week, pay a 330-peso fee (about $20).

Oh really?

Hilarious, isn't it?

Carlos de la Fuente is quoted as saying:

"The way that people enter Mexico has been growing very disorganized, and now we are making it organized, that's the big difference."

Are we laughing, or what?

And yet, here's some fine print for you --    although this new law is great and is designed to coincide with the Mexican Law, it has it's limitations; it only applies to pedestrians; if you drive across the border, no questions, no paperwork, no fuss.

But let's not get lost in the details, shall we...

The thing is, how difficult would it be just to duplicate Mexican Law at this point?   What difference at this point does it make?  Whether following our own Immigration law, our Constitution, or Mexican Law --- let's just ask for all people crossing the border into America to physically stand in line and show a passport like everybody else.  The wait alone should curb many from even trying.

Oh wait.  Right.  We have a line.

Lines, spines, America has keines...none, zilch, nada, nil... (Und das ist alles nicht gut.   Exactly;  and what else would you expect from just a girl, her name is Gretchen?)


"[G]rowing very disorganized" he says.

Would just love to hear how would he characterize the free style border crossing going the other way? A Godsend?  perhaps...

Perhaps this is the money tree for which they come?   (Thank you Judicial Watch, data circa 2011)


Now, realizing I am swinging from branch to branch without the full capacity or energy to detail all that needs to be said (after all it is my first day back...), allow me to tie in just one more thing before I go;  let me just add this -- The Donald is growing on me.

So for your final read today,  here's a great article that might come close to explaining the phenomenon that is the tempest-in-campaign-mode who might just be the next American president...From WND, Kent G. Bailey Ph.D.:

Donald Trump is the prototypical, archetypal and testosterone-driven alpha male who rules by the sheer force of his personality, imposing physique, quick wit, mastery of repartee and almost hypnotic control over his gathering masses of adoring followers. He is Attila to the Huns, Henry V to the outnumbered English army, Winston Churchill to desperate allied forces, and now our fearless leader against the pagan forces of progressivism and political correctness. He is the unapologetic, quintessential warrior male of yore capable of vanquishing any and all opposition in his way.

And underneath it all,  just a boy with big dreams and a wild imagination and the ambition to climb the tree all the way to the top.  He must have seen the movie, Swiss Family Robinson, too.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's About the Equity Theory of Motivation Thing

Dear America,

is it too late to add to your summer reading list?

First -- as a teaser --  just go to a little something from The Daily Signal,  here.

Alexis de Tocqueville Predicted the Tyranny of the Majority in Our Modern World

Arthur Milikh does a superb job breaking down a few of   deTocqueville's observations and words of warning from his book, "Democracy in America"   -- while he also reminds us just how long ago it was written! In  1831!   Just how in the world could he have ever known?   

Incredible, really, this grasp of human nature, characterizing "the new breed of democratic despotism" which would one day be ultimately, totally, controllable  --  shaped by political correctness, with help from mass media and propaganda, either by a slow nudge by nudge or by force, taking full advantage of the gut wrenching fear to speak out against the popular opinion... as Milikh explains:

That is, the majority reaches into citizens’ minds and hearts. It breaks citizens’ will to resist, to question its authority, and to think for themselves. The majority’s moral power makes individuals internally ashamed to contradict it, which in effect silences them, and this silencing culminates in a cessation of thinking. We see this happen almost daily: to stand against the majority is to ruin yourself.

hello, Spot --   meet  On.

Thank you, Milikh, for the cliff notes on a classic, but with all due respect while revisiting our summer to-do list, the real read is really "Democracy in America"  --  for within we apparently find such a gem as this:

“remember constantly that a nation cannot long remain strong when each man in it is individually weak, and that neither social forms nor political schemes have yet been found that can make a people energetic by composing it of pusillanimous and soft citizens.”

Oh and did I say cliff?  Perhaps the metaphor fits.  Perhaps America is on the precipice of a very long fall.

For there it is, right in front of us -- if not also our friends, neighbors, entire communities --  the unimaginable growth of a certain demographic:  the individually weak.

Here's something funny and totally unrelated (or is it...) --

GOOGLE CAN FIND

YOU 100,000 ANSWERS

A LIBRARIAN WILL FIND

YOU THE RIGHT ONE

Now I love to find examples of people who go against the prevailing wind of the overwhelming majority, and to that end and to my surprise, Salon.com and Camille Paglia join together in the production of a rather fascinating interview.    

Of course, being hardly aligned in her liberal, atheist, experience and world view, please don't misconstrue --  it doesn't change a thing for me other than this;  I find Camille's honesty and candidness and fearlessness such a breath of fresh air.   Especially when she says things like this:

"The resistance of liberals in the media to new ideas was enormous. Liberals think of themselves as very open-minded, but that’s simply not true!  Liberalism has sadly become a knee-jerk ideology, with people barricaded in their comfortable little cells. They think that their views are the only rational ones, and everyone else is not only evil but financed by the Koch brothers.  It’s so simplistic!"

Thank you.

Of course, what does she have to fear?
  

Long lauded for her intellectual prowess, who would dare say anything against such a cultural icon, right?   I mean, c'mon, it's Camille Paglia!   [ooh, and happen to love this part, too --  speaking of Jon Stewart, no less, Camille says:  "I cannot stand that smug, snarky, superior tone. I hated the fact that young people were getting their news through that filter of sophomoric snark."]   Can I get an amen to the guest atheist in the house?

The thing is --

in America --

we should all fear becoming one note.

We should all fear social engineering and policy making by facebook, twitter and hash tags.

We should all fear the day we not only stop thinking for ourselves, but with vitriol and brimstone put the fear of God in the hearts and minds of  those who think against the blue tide, the majority ruling class with a smug, sophomoric, tyrannical force, silencing any and all brave opposition, large and small.

We should all fear the day we march to the same beat, crushing the radical thought that breaks away from the popular rhythm according to the law of mass appeal.

We should all fear the day we become one with an often alienating and off-putting "smug, snarky, superior tone."

So here's some Left-stream narratives that seem to run counter-productive to the betterment of the whole to consider, thereby calling upon common sense and individual will to overcome --

• #BlackLivesMatter...um, no, ALL lives matter.   But -- if you want to talk about just the BLACK lives, let's.   What about the black lives in the inner-cities, like Chicago?   Where is the outrage within the community about black on black crime?    And heck, if  black lives matter, how then could anyone within the black community abort their own black baby?  
• #CeciltheLion outrage  turns into # kill the doctor.   Oh okay, that makes a whole lot of sense.   Certainly, Cecil was a gorgeous creature and a legend in his protected habitat, but let's circle back to the hunt in America, shall we?    Enough with the hypocrisy, human lives are lost everyday on our city streets, hunted down in gang violence!  Where is the equally passionate outrage for loss of human life!????

Oh enough with the hash tags!

Newsflash, everything is becoming a politically motivated argument and it is crushing America's true liberty and freedom for all as it simply destroys our Rule of Law by Republic, not to mention a fair portion of our Bill of Rights.

We do not all agree about same-sex marriage --   and the conflict is rooted in something far greater and far deeper than what is paraded in the news; it has nothing to do with being gay.   And it is not up for a Supreme Court of nine judges to decide...

We do not all agree about abortion -- and especially that bit about being partially funded by taxpayers, whether we are discussing partial birth to the birth and salvage of body parts of a 24 week old baby!  See The Patriot Post for more on that.  Or maybe, don't...you have been warned.

We do not all agree about the wide open border and the unconscionable growth of illegal immigrants by Executive Order, usurping the lawful immigration policy and regulations on the books.

AND We certainly do not agree about Left's man-made climate change fraud for pete's fucking sake! [sorry, g thing lost her cool there for a minute...]

We do not all agree on a $15/hour living wage that works against the economic freedoms of a true capitalist, free enterprise economy  -- one that leaves the laws of supply and demand fully in tact, allowing for the market to dictate the proper relationship of production and cost, employee and employer, customer and sale, in proportion, thus protecting the possibility for ample growth and profit all the way around.  

Check out the travesty of Gravity Payments in Seattle on this...um, what,“He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump." 

oh really now?  And it's not working out?

And you know what they say:  what goes up ---- un-tethered in reality and purely manufactured out of thin air -- must come down.

wow color me surprised.

David Burkus, who wrote the post for Forbes, cites a theory to explain this disgruntled employee conundrum, made famous by J. Stacey Adams in the sixties; it's something called the "equity theory of motivation."  Now, for another surprise, he sends the reader to a Wikipedia page to explain it.  ???But whatever; whatever gets it done, right, let's not hate.

The theory goes something like this:

According to equity theory, individuals are constantly calculating a ratio of their inputs (time, effort, skills, experience, etc.) to the outputs the organization gives them (salary, benefits, recognition, security, etc.). When their ratio appears equitable to that of their coworkers, the organization runs smoothly. When the comparisons are out of whack, that’s when demotivation and strife set in.

Thus people, long story short, we finally arrive at the main thing on this day. 

Not only do we not agree on many, many things these days -- we have an "equity theory of motivation" setting into our daily landscape en masse.   For the poorly thinking majority is making some grave errors while supposedly speaking for the whole -- or at least, speaking the loudest, the smuggest, the snarkiest anyway.

The BENEFITS are increasing for the uneducated, uninformed, unlawful, illegal, unproductive, unincorporated, un-assimilated, the smug and the snarky, and just out and out individually weak of our citizenry upon the shoulders of the educated, informed, lawful, legal, productive, incorporated, assimilated and just simply out and out individually strong of our citizenry,  We're losing our integrity along with our equity.

And Alexis de Tocqueville saw it coming over two hundred years ago; as tyranny reigns, liberty is almost becoming a no show. 

We are out of balance; the exchange of goods and services, costs and rewards, is breaking America's back as the "equity theory of motivation"  shapes our response to the nation's evolution by majority rule.

Have a nice day. 

Make it a Good Day, G