Elected Officials Glorify Stupidity

I told my children back in the day that they must never refer to anyone as stupid. I considered that an insult of the highest (or lowest) magnitude. Stupid is defined (Merriam-Webster, 11th edition) as: slow of mind; OBTUSE; given to unintelligent decisions or acts; acting in an unintelligent or careless manner; lacking intelligence or reason; BRUTISH.

President Obama said publicly and without knowing any facts in 2009 that a white policeman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, acted stupidly, so this definition explains what the president meant. It developed that the policeman was simply doing his duty according to law-enforcement protocols, so the president acted stupidly in letting the clutch out on his tongue before his brain put it in gear.

Since that time long ago, I've had reason to question my injunction to my children as I've watched elected officials and government bureaucrats, one conclusion being that they can act stupidly, sometimes exponentially as in the case just mentioned, especially since the president owned a law degree. Roland Burris, former Illinois attorney general, was appointed by the Illinois governor in 2009 to Obama's vacated Senate seat, according to the state constitution's requirement, but Obama, Majority Leader Reid and Illinois Senator Durbin—all of them lawyers—stupidly decided that Burris would not get the seat.

Reid even stupidly disallowed Burris on the floor of the Senate and stupidly made him conduct his press conference in the rain. With the nation still laughing at this stupidity—excellent example of unchaperoned ninnies—Burris was sworn in, with his detractors suffering a ton of egg-on-their-faces. Besides their stupidity, the “politically terroristic trio” evinced the nth degree of corruptibility.

Stupidity ran amok during the days after Michael Brown, a black, was killed by a white policeman on 09 August within minutes after he had been caught on surveillance camera in Ferguson, Missouri, assaulting a store-clerk and then robbing him. The policeman, Darren Wilson, simply asked Brown, who was high on marijuana, and his friend to stop walking in the middle of a two-lane street, so Brown allegedly assaulted the policeman inside the police-car, necessitating treatment for Wilson in the nearby hospital emergency room but not until after he had shot Brown, who probably thought Wilson knew about the robbery and may have tried to take him down outside the car.

The facts have not been made public by law-enforcement or other agency, so no one knows yet precisely what happened. The affair is being examined by a grand jury, meaning that responsible (not stupid) officials should wait until this examination is complete before saying or doing anything. The key witness, Brown's friend, lied to police in 2011 in Jefferson City (gave wrong name and age), when he was arrested for alleged theft, didn't show up in court and is now under an outstanding arrest warrant, so his already expressed account is worth zilch.

Stupidity on a grand scale! U.S. Attorney General Holder stupidly sent at least 40 FBI agents to push out the locals in a garden variety death-by-cop episode handled every day in courthouses across the nation. He had already established Wilson's guilt and stupidly meant to prove it. The Missouri governor stupidly got in on the act by calling for a thorough prosecution, certainly not of Brown. Later, President Obama directed the Department of Justice (Holder again) to whip up a separate federal civil rights investigation, all of this without any actionable information about what happened! That will come from the grand jury while all the legal eagles chill out, maybe by October.

It was obvious that a marvelous excuse for looting and burning buildings had fallen into the laps of the New Black Panther ilk—all in the form of protests, of course. Rabble-rousing outfits invaded from all over the country and cowed the the town. The governor called out the state police, then stupidly called out the National Guard, a stupid bit of overkill, and declared an ignored curfew, all while stupid pundits and officials were screaming about an overkill-military-police-presence, stupidly expecting the law-guys to be Molotov-cocktail-bombed to death without raising even a pea-shooter.

Stupidity grew incomprehensibly when Obama appointed Al Sharpton as liaison between the White House and Ferguson, reporting to White House hack Valerie Jarrett (taking the sun in New England with the prez). Sharpton, best known for the Tawana Brawley fraud, for which he was convicted, owes New York state $806,875 in back-taxes, but that's chump change to what he owes the U.S. government in unpaid personal income taxes, a cool $2.6 million.

The epitome of stupidity was reached when Obama sent a delegation from the White House to the Brown funeral, sort of like his “selfie” trip to Mandela's funeral in South Africa. During this time-frame, there was no delegation (certainly not the president or vice president) just across the river in Arlington at the funeral of Major General Green, killed in action in Afghanistan (shot four times in the back and once in the leg by a “friendly Afghan policeman”). Obama was in golfing-mode and Biden might have had trouble finding Arlington anyway.

Naw...stupidity is too nice. The definition of idiocy is extreme mental retardation: something notably stupid or foolish. The administration is a mental hospital run by the idiots.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

The Ransom/Hostage Question

Especially in light of the beheading of Global Post reporter James Foley by an ISIS Muslim butcher in Syria a few days ago, the question of ransoms-for-cash (or anything else) deserves attention. Some believe the U.S. government should have made an effort, and, indeed, the ISIS gang had offered Foley up for $132.5 million, according to reports (probably untrue). The Global Post was in the process of trying to come up with $5 million, sort of the going rate for ransoms these days but ISIS is said to be loaded with cash and probably meant to kill Foley anyway.

President Obama had no problem giving up five Muslim butchers from Gitmo earlier this year for the freedom of Bowe Bergdahl, promoted to sergeant while in “captivity” (or whatever his status was) accruing to his connection with Afghan rebels for five years or so. Bergdahl, according to reports, shipped his personal stuff home, dumped his military gear in his living facility and in front of witnesses simply walked away from camp with no obvious intent to return to the U.S. Army. Either that, or he was dumb as a gourd to take a solo walk downtown, or down-village, armed or unarmed.

Concerning army regulations, Bergdahl committed desertion but was heartily welcomed home by Obama and is treated royally in Texas. Reportedly, six fellow GIs were killed in the search for Bergdahl in Afghanistan. He's been considered a prisoner-of-war by some though he was not taken prisoner in any action and, anyway, the U.S. is not in a declared war. If it were and Bergdahl judged to be a deserter, he would be subject to the death penalty.

At least two desertion protocols that apply to Bergdahl are, (1) If a member deserted, but voluntarily returned to military control: Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to the lowest enlisted grade, and confinement for two years. (2) If the member deserted with the intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service (an example of this would be a member ordered to deploy to Iraq and then deserts to avoid the deployment): Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to the lowest enlisted grade, and confinement for 5 years.

In the warm-fuzzy political-correctness atmosphere of today, Bergdahl, deserter or not, will probably escape unharmed and may even get his back pay ($200,000) plus appropriate perks such as housing allowances amounting to some $150,000 or so—total: around $350,000. According to fellow soldiers, Bergdahl deserted; however, he returned voluntarily (or was he even asked?) in taking part in the Gitmo swap. That would seem to accrue to (1) above.

If he actually deserted account dodging his duty and showed up back home due to the U.S. grabbing him (actually bartering for him), Number (2) would seem to apply, though Bergdahl is reportedly looking forward to an imminent discharge anyway and “getting on with his life.” It remains to be seen whether that happens or he winds up penniless in the stockade or some federal prison for five years.

His legal eagles (available in military, also) may take the PTSD route for him or simply try to prove he was insane when he walked out of camp. He had joined the Coast Guard previously but left after only 26 days of boot camp and was given an “uncharacterized discharge” with no specifics. He may come clean strictly on the basis of the fact that he should never have been in the army in the first place...with $350,000 in the bargain.

If he was unfit and improperly vetted (both possible), the government may owe him because it owns him. If he was just clever, the same applies and rescue was appropriate. This is not the case with Foley, for whom the Global Post, if any entity other than himself, was responsible, and not the government.

CBS reporter Lara Logan claimed she was gang-raped during the celebrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square in early 2011 but she didn't have to be there, just as Foley didn't have to be in Syria. The president authorized an unsuccessful operation to rescue Foley and some others but in doing so he merely put the safety of civilians above that of American GIs. They could all have been killed.

Civilians entering danger-zones on their own, especially after being warned away, should not be eligible for always-risky rescue-by-government. This is the difference between the Foley case and President Carter's failed attempt to rescue U.S.-embassy personnel in Teheran in 1979.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

A RACIST Attorney General

In invading Ferguson, Mo., on 20 August, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has joined Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the usual generic provocateurs like the New Black Panthers in not wasting a chance for inciting (and profiting from) racially-fueled issues (euphemism for riots), especially during the sweaty dog-days of August. A black thief high on marijuana, Michael Brown, who had assaulted and robbed a store-clerk just minutes before, was killed by a white policeman, Darren Wilson, on 09 August, so, ipso facto, the policeman is guilty of murder, never mind making that determination before any of the facts are made public by law-enforcement and judicial operatives.

One of the saddest aspects of the affair—whether or not the policeman is guilty of anything—is the ignorance of the people concerning a matter such as this. The protocol is to put the policeman on administrative leave, gather the facts, turn them over to the prosecutor, who will take the case to a grand jury for a determination as to trial or not. The grand jury will make a decision and the matter will be settled. If the case goes to trial, charges will be brought and the judicial system will be engaged to discover guilt or innocence. Simple.

The so-called protesters in Ferguson demanded that the policeman be arrested and jailed, virtually within minutes of the shooting. He will be arrested if the grand jury determines the possibility of guilt and be given the opportunity to make bail like any other arrested person. This process could take months or even years as in the notorious Trayvon Martin case in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, in which the accused (not a policeman) was found innocent.

On 19 August in St. Louis about 2-3 miles from Ferguson, another black man who had made two trips into a store to steal things was accosted by the police and killed after he had threatened them with a knife. He was acting erratically at the time, according to media accounts, and may have been high on something or other. There was a fairly large gathering at that location of “protesters,” also, but there was no violence and none reported since then. The professional troublemakers like Jackson and Sharpton may show up for their photo-op, but St. Louis is not like the suburb of tiny Ferguson of 21,000 population, so inciting mischief may not be as attractive there.

Ironically, Holder added to the divisiveness already in place on the day a “leak” from the prosecutor's office (or somewhere) noted that Brown managed to break one of the eye-socket bones in Wilson's face and severely beat him before disobeying an order to “freeze” before lunging toward the officer and inviting the shots that killed him, none in his back. Holder, the country's top law-officer, did not visit with Wilson (total lack of support), but visited Brown's family. He and Obama both got in on the “outraged act” in the Trayvon Martin case in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, leading the public to believe that Martin's killer was white when he was actually a Latino.

The tragedy lies in the fact that Obama was supposed to “bring the country together,” a foolish mechanism used by most politicians out of power; however, Obama was in power when reelected in 2012. During the Obama/Holder era, the country has become so divided along racial lines that one wonders if this has been the plan of the two men all along. If so, they have succeeded, and Holder's trip having to do with a generic local murder case to which he's assigned at least 40 FBI agents is proof.

In a recent speech, Holder whined that Americans are cowards of some kind, perhaps not having the guts to face their racism. He was referencing only whites, of course, since racism does not exist in the black community. In another recent performance, he claimed that Obama's political opponents (especially evil republicans) operated on racist principles (or non-principles), not on the basis of statehood. It's this kind of garbage (hate-speech) that actually fuels racial hostilities across-the-board and is beneath contempt.

The looters made out in Ferguson (the main reason for the protesting), ruining, burning businesses and otherwise robbing store-owners of their sustenance. In this, they emulated Brown. What goes around comes around.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Cartoonist Stumbles into Truth

The Missouri governor has been foolishly claiming on TV that the eyes of the world are on Ferguson, Missouri, where a white policeman, Darren Wilson, shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed African American, on 09 August. Brown, who apparently had just assaulted a clerk in a robbery only minutes before, and a friend were walking down the middle of a street and were told by Wilson to remove themselves account hindering traffic.

Wilson didn't know about the robbery but Brown did, of course, and a violent exchange took place between him and the officer, perhaps because Brown thought he was about to be arrested for the crime (petty theft). The facts are not known at this point but a protest was mounted in the community, 65% black, with the inevitable looting, rioting and burning of properties virtually every night since then. The governor announced a state-of-emergency, called in the State Police, instituted a curfew, which meant nothing, and finally deployed the National Guard to a town of 21,000 inhabitants.

In the Lexington Herald-Leader of 17 August, editorial cartoonist Joel Pett established the fact that Brown might have amounted to “anything” but for his demise, and devoted a panel to the fact that President Obama and Attorney General Holder have been unfairly demonized, the connection to Brown being a mystery. Bringing up the subject, however, provides a construct vis-a-vis the Brown matter.

Some black youths (and whites, too) hate the police, seldom justifiably. If Brown's killing is proved to be murder, Wilson should be held accountable...and he will be. Holder has dispatched 40 FBI agents to what amounts to a local case to handle an event of minutes that took place in broad daylight about lunch-hour. The robbery was caught on store-surveillance tape and indicated Brown, tagged by his uncle as a “gentle giant,” to be a thug who shoved, towered over and intimidated the small store-clerk.

Young blacks conceive of Obama and Holder as role models and thus reflect the thinking of the two men. Neither man ever loses the opportunity to play the race-card. In March 2008, Obama attempted in a Philadelphia “race speech” to lionize the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah (God damn America) Wright. Wright took exception and publicly expressed his hate for the U.S. at the Washington Press Club shortly after. In July 2008, Obama made clear in a Berlin, Germany, speech that he was “different,” dealing the race-card.

In July 2009, Obama, without knowing the facts, said a white policeman acted stupidly in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The policeman arrested an Obama-friend for apparently trying to break in a house that turned out to belong to the man, who had locked himself out. The policeman didn't know that, of course, and simply did his duty. In March 2012 without knowing the facts, Obama referred to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, by a Hispanic civilian (found innocent), indicating that if he had a son, the boy would resemble Martin. He hasn't said that about Brown...yet.

Soon after taking office in 2009, Obama and wife used three Air Force planes and a multitude of operatives to virtually shut down the city so they could have a date in New York. An insensitive, excessive display of tax-waste, this was an in-your-face-whitey act that says something to the young black man, so walking down the middle of a street is okay – in-your-face-whitey-policeman. A shameless liar (Obamacare, Benghazi, Libya, Syria, Crimea), Obama toys with the presidency and said to his Hollywood crowd about the Pennsylvania whiteys that they grasp their Bibles and guns and go looking for illegals...the race card.

Holder is suing the state of Arizona for attempting to enforce FEDERAL laws regarding illegal immigrants. Last year, Holder sued Texas over a voter ID-law, something legal in Kentucky. He used a government plane to treat his family members and guests to a day at the Belmont a few weeks ago. Government's cost – $14,440; paid by Holder – $955, an in-your-face-taxpayer insult.

This conduct by O&H is picked up by young black men, only 52% of whom finish high school in four years (MSNBC, Sept. 2012). The vast majority of policemen in most police forces such as Ferguson's is white partly because a high school diploma is necessary for even applying for a law-enforcement job. The screamers like Jackson and Sharpton never mention this.

During August 1-5, nine blacks and one Hispanic were gunned down in Chicago, Obama's home town. For the last three years, the gunshot murder rate there is well over one a day, or about half of the U.S. deaths in Afghanistan in the last 13 years of actual fighting. Obama has not sent the Guard there to establish order, but he un-complimentarily tagged his own (white) grandmother, who raised him, as the “typical white person,” dealing the race-card in his own family.

Brown might have taken his cue from Obama, who with a stroke of the pen lawlessly changes or nullifies laws when it suits him (in-your-face-Congress-whiteys), and took over the street. If he hadn't done that, he would be alive today...in jail or out on bail.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

World Ruler

In an op-ed piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader of 02 August, Baptist pastor Joe Phelps wrote of a “hopeful trajectory of the world,” presumably indicating a world becoming better. He then presented a long catalog of current happenings that indicate the trajectory to be off-target and writes, “Sadly, more frequent are scenes bereft of any sense of the sacred trajectory to this world,” equating “hope” with “sacred.”

Phelps wrote, “Could our common horror to bleak headlines be an indication that we know intuitively how our humanity is intertwined, and that we are all being drawn to a more harmonious and hopeful future?” The answer is No. Mankind has been spiraling toward disaster ever since the beginning and will continue on that hopeless trajectory probably at ever increasing speed.

Pastors and other religionists have consistently given the impression that man (generic for everyone) is inherently good and left to his own devices will do what Phelps mentioned...create a harmonious future. According to scripture, this will never happen. If it were a possibility, the ministry of Christ would have been unnecessary.

The reason is simple, to wit, that the mover and shaker of the world is not God, though he can intervene in the world's affairs. The primary power governing the globe is Satan, the personification of Evil. In fact, Jesus made it clear on more than one occasion that Satan is the “ruler of the world.” The apostle Paul also made that fact clear more than once, in one writing referencing Satan as the “evil god of this world.”

Virtually from beginning to end, the scripture points toward the inevitability of catastrophes in real time and a final destruction, its most vivid accounts being in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, which most notably describes such things as the “Battle of Armageddon,” about which theologians argue incessantly and self-styled prophets make erroneous projections as to timing, participants and outcomes.

Inherent in misunderstandings of what scriptures indicate is the strange practice of preachers in constantly emphasizing “love” as the great unifier (harmonizer) of people. It isn't. Perhaps the greatest unifier is fear, which unmistakably is the case today. NATO, formed to forever stop the Soviet Union from conquering the world after World War II, is a good example.

Jesus did say to “love your enemy,” but there's such a thing as “tough love,” which is the kind of love accruing to the ilk of bin Laden, Saddam or, during WWII, Hitler. Preachers notoriously neglect to mention that Jesus, at his last meal with the disciples before the crucifixion, told them to purchase swords even if clothing had to be sold for funds. He explained that they were for defense, not aggression. He was talking about the exercise of “tough love.”

On another occasion, Jesus made a whip and administered corporal punishment to defilers of the temple – tough love. On another occasion, he called church leaders whitewashed tombs and vipers – tough love. He endured the crucifixion – tough love. In a world he acknowledged was/is ruled by Evil, Jesus was no wimp, but he recognized the enemy.

In 1983, President Reagan fingered the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.” In 2002, President Bush 43 labeled Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as the “axis evil.” Communism, undergirded by atheism, is an example of Evil ruling entire countries such as China and Russia, in both of which their leaders killed mega-millions of their own citizens – cannibalism, the opposite of love.

The “hopeful trajectory of the world” is an illusion...doesn't exist and never has. The world, as judged by Jesus Christ, is on a trajectory of evil that will never be interdicted, no matter how hard many good people try...and there are millions of good people. Collectively, however, the human race is inherently evil, notwithstanding the contradictions by the self-righteous. Satan rules.

The current moral trajectory in this country is evil, not least because of the inordinate emphasis on “diversity/political-correctness,” which insists on the “anything goes” philosophy, no matter how seamy or perverted or protected. The paradigm for Evil expressed by Jesus was Sodom (Matthew 11). So, the business at hand for the folks who try to “harmonize” accrues to making life as bearable as possible for as many people as possible, i.e., fighting Evil.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark