June 2017 – Smoke Signals

Only voting DNC shows you’re highly educated

I shouldn’t be surprised any more by how low the left will sink, just to further their cause of oppressing the people who earn the most money, to take that money and give it to those who do nothing at all, but they still manage to say things that just beg the question “were you actually thinking when you said that?” The most recent is a tweet showing the “best and worst educated states, and who they voted for.”

With just a glance at the states that went red (9 of the 10 “worst” educated states) they show states that are not centered on high tech jobs or the like. When you think of “the south” you should think of ranches, construction, and other trades as dominating the economy. It doesn’t take a college degree to work for someone who runs a cattle ranch, or work on an assembly line at Bell Hellicopter. Yes, it requires a great deal of knowledge, normally meaning a degree, to know all of the ins and outs of running a cattle ranch, or growing crops, or designing/building the V-22 or other aircraft, but those with said degree can supervise those without a degree, and do very well. Add to this, those without college who work to build aircraft, or work the ranch or harvest corn can earn GREAT salaries doing that. I know people who work in those industries, with no college at all, or a degree that is useless in that industry, who love their work and do well, but to the left, who you vote for is the only indicator of intelligence, and they have no problem telling you that you’re ignorant or stupid for not voting for who they want you to. This, sadly, isn’t new nor is it anything they’ll even consider arguments against. To give one argument for “intelligence vs education” I’ll tell my own story.

From Kindergarten on, all my parents said was they wanted me to try harder. My teachers would remark that I was a bright and engaging student, but rarely showed the motivation to truly apply myself. By fourth grade, I was diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, but the only thing given for that was Ritalin, which turned me into “a zombie” according to stories still told today. So, my parents asked my Doctor to pull me off of that, then my school put me into their Challenge class, where the teacher didn’t use traditional methods, and my grades improved for a time. By high school, I was a solid B student in all but a few classes, and for those I was a high C student, without much effort at all. Had I put in the effort asked of me, I’d likely have graduated in the top 10% or even top 5% of my class, but I was happy with my grades and not working at all.

My parents wanted me to go to college, as my sister had, so I registered for 12 hours at the local community college, bought the books, and only attended classes for the first few days, then quit going and just worked as many hours as I could, so I’d have more money. As I never dropped the classes, I ended with a true 0.0 GPA (zero grade points earned divided by 12 attempted credits) rather than the non-existent GPA all students start with. In 2001 I tried to go back, but my schedule didn’t work out, although I actually did drop the classes then. In 2004, I was in a good job with a local Retail Electric Provider, until early October, when I was laid off due to reduction in force. The stars aligned for me though, and after a weekend in Tyler walking and campaigning for Louie Gohmert, and helping him unseat a Democrat incumbent, I moved back in with my parents, and at their urging, re-enrolled at Community College in Spring ’05, driving pizza and mowing lawns.

Here’s the difference, I wanted to be there, I wanted to work and learn, and I did, earning mid to high A’s in virtually every class (math is still not a good subject for me.) Working almost full time meant I didn’t take heavy loads, so 5 semesters later, I transferred to a four year University, then later to a different one due to a move, and in December 2010, I graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in History and a certification to teach Secondary Social Studies. My GPA started in 2005 as a true 0.0, and in December 2010, was 3.7, a feat which my advisors all told me was very rare, especially as that 0.0 was from a 12 hour semester.

What does this say about my intelligence? Not much, I know many people who are very intelligent, and have only a High School degree, and many with degrees who are very unintelligent. What does it say otherwise? That I had a drive to learn, to grow, and to work for what I wanted. Yes, I am highly educated, and yes, I’m proud of that, but that has zero bearing on my politics, as I didn’t vote for Clinton or Obama. I knew the Constitution in 1995 when I graduated high school, and I listened to the candidates in 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016, and what I heard from the DNC candidate was a desire to raise taxes, to tell people “you can’t say that, it hurts feelings,” or “you didn’t build that,” or more plainly, an arrogance that led me to not vote for them, that’s it.

My Parents are both highly educated, and aside from that they would have voted for JFK, had they not been 10 at the time, they voted for Republicans more than Democrats too, it’s not about Education, or Intelligence, it’s about listening to the candidate and deciding which one more aligns with your beliefs about how to run the country. But, that’s never been what the left wants, they want to order everyone around, take money from those who work so it can be “redistributed” as only they see fit, and to order the world to never criticize anyone but Christians who call for morals and values to be brought back into daily life.

So, where do you fall? Do you believe that voting DNC is any type of indication of intelligence, or do you believe that intelligence doesn’t require a degree, but a degree requires intelligence, and neither are any indicator of how a person will vote?

If you don’t like the evidence, ignore it and push forward

As many of us expected, Comey testified yesterday, confirming that not only did he tell President Trump he was not under investigation, that he was not ordered to drop the Flynn investigation, and that he leaked information to the press, he also confirmed that he purposely did not tell the public that the President was not under investigation. The media, of course, still has plenty of anonymously sourced information and will continue screaming about Russia, ignoring what they don’t like. Sadly, this is an extremely pervasive attitude and has been for a long time.

While Kathy Griffin screams and cries that she’s being bullied and it’s only because she’s a liberal, the media ignores that a man who wore an Obama mask at a state fair rodeo in Missouri in 2012 truly was bullied, as he lost his job, was banned for life from that state fair, and has been dragged in by the Secret Service for anything and everything, but that doesn’t fit the narrative that the GOP is the evil group, as it was a DNC President and far more innocent than Griffin’s “joke.” Before that, we had people screaming that vaccines cause autism, despite the only study that supports that being debunked and thousands of studies showing they don’t, and naturally, the screaming that the NRA wants to take us back to the wild west and the crocodile tears by paid shills at ever candlelight vigil after a shooting.

I’ve responded to several tweets lying about the NRA, as have many others, and the response is always the same. Accuse the person actually daring to defend the NRA of being a paid spokesperson, of lying, of being ignorant, lather, rinse, repeat. I got tired of that long ago, so I tried a new tactic, starting my replies to lies about the NRA, Trump, or anything really, with three simple words “CITE! YOUR! SOURCES!” – Naturally, none of the people lying about anything will, but it’s having an interesting effect. Several people have responded to me, asking if I can cite my sources, which I can. The NRA is not, for example, trying to remove all restrictions on firearm purchase, thus allowing felons and other violent offenders to once again legally purchase a weapon, in fact their stance against those who have proven to be the kind of person who would kill without hesitation is rather clear, they are a prohibited possessor. I have had someone ask, years ago, why the NRA says they want to enforce the Second Amendment, if they also support not allowing prohibited possessors to purchase weapons, and it’s pretty simple. The Second Amendment states “the right of The People,” notice the capitalization, meaning The People as in American Citizens, not an individual. Even before the Revolutionary War, there were criminals, and thus, people who had a right taken away as punishment. You steal, you lose your right to walk about freely for a time. You murder, you lose that right for a long time, along with others. That isn’t a violation of the Second Amendment, that is punishment for a crime, and not something the NRA wants. As with yesterday’s hearing, the facts of the case came out, and the media and the left went insane about everything. Comey admitted, under oath, that he was not investigating Trump, and told Trump that, but of course, that means he’s either lying, or lied to the President, or both. He said that the whole Russia situation was at least mostly false, but we still have the New York Times crying about it.

At this point, I doubt anything will convince anyone that Trump did not collude with Russia to win, that Hillary has committed many crimes, or even that Trump is actually human and just different from them. So, how do we proceed? It’s simple, don’t let up! Keep demanding proof, and picking anything provided apart, for all claims of racism, sexism, bigotry, crimes, and so on. If someone tweets about a racist incident where it seems fishy, pick the story apart! We’ve seen people forced to recant, and admit that no one so much as said boo to them, we’ve seen it proven that a black man painted a church with pro-Trump graffiti just to make the President look bad. This must continue! When you see a tweet about Russia, demand proof, and don’t accept any form of “It’s in the paper, just read it,” demand the actual source material, and ignore any “Sources Say” story. You’ll be attacked for “ignoring the evidence” and when you are, ask why they ignore that a massive number of hate crimes just after November were fake, why they ignore what Comey said, and watch their brain grind to a halt. We’ve had 8 years of “turn the other cheek” or “we need to be tolerant,” and it’s time to stop. Use their tactics against them, they scream that every form of proof that doesn’t vindicate them is a lie, do the same to these anonymous sources stories. When you get sent a source that is wrong, pick it apart and destroy it. When you get told to provide sources, provide only those that are true and honest, those are the only ones that count anyway, right?

Maybe, just maybe, four years of low taxes, low unemployment, increased security, and lies being shown in the light of day to be lies, well, I may be dreaming, but maybe all of those will help not only re-elect President Trump, but drive a nail into the heart of the “I’M SPECIAL, YOU HAVE TO LET ME HAVE MY WAY, GIVE ME FREE STUFF, GIVE ME MONEY, DON’T ARGUE OR YOU’RE RACIST” BS we’ve had crammed down our throats for too long.

An open letter to Kathy Griffin and Lisa Bloom

Ladies,

For a moment, think about the children in your lives, and how they would react to seeing a celebrity, staring into the camera with a serious expression, only to slowly raise, what appears to be, the severed head of their father, or mother, or aunt, or uncle. This, to the letter, is what Barron Trump saw when Ms. Griffin did exactly that earlier this week. Leaving aside that it’s a crime to threaten someone’s life, and in the case of a U.S. President, that crime is investigated by the Secret Service, you traumatized a child, and now you’re the victim? You didn’t mock or criticize the President, Kathy, you actively worked to depict a scene that no one should plan for anyone.

Five years ago, however, someone did poke a little fun at the President, and CNN was instrumental in not only that person losing his job, but far more. You see, the Missouri State Fair and Rodeo has a running gag they like to use, where one of their clowns wears a mask to look like a President, normally a former President, but the only mask they could find was an Obama mask. Naturally, someone was “sickened” by this, so they posted their outrage, and five years later, there is a man who McDonalds refused to hire because of the controversy. Ms. Bloom, will you be taking his case on? It would have to be Pro Bono of course, but he’s being bullied by an entire state, just for mocking the President. Will you demand CNN work to get him restored to his former life, and pay his salary until then? After all, he’s been bullied by one of the largest news organizations on the planet for mocking the President.

At this point, I’m sure there’s at least one person gearing up for a caps lock ridden tirade about how I just don’t understand comedy, and how the rodeo clown was so much worse than the mock beheading, well, educate me. Tell me how a rodeo clown wearing a mask and taunting a bull, and this is a highly skilled man at avoiding said animal, meaning all that happened was a man in an obvious mask running around for a while, is worse than someone staring coldly into a camera while slowing raising the apparent bloody and severed head of someone? I don’t remember anything about the Obama girls screaming when they saw the skit, although it’s doubtful two girls from Illinois, who live in DC at the time, would even know the MO state fair was happening, while Barrow Trump lives in either NY or DC, very news oriented towns, and this was on a major TV channel, viewed nationally!

Now, I will admit I hold little hope that a woman who feels mock decapitation is not only acceptable, but also a form of humor, or an attorney who takes that person as a client and then accuses the people who are having to comfort an eleven year old child who saw that of being bullies, but I can hope that at least some part of you will realize that you were completely in the wrong, Kathy, you need to apologize for real, not just to slow the Twitter storm aimed at you, and you Ms Bloom should be encouraging both of those actions. I guess time will tell as to how well the plan of defending someone who mocks the death of a parent, and that parent’s child sees it, and calling that family bullies goes, won’t we?