Saturday, April 27, 2019

Entitlement, Prosperity and Social Justice: Snowflakes Want It All

“If fascism comes to America, it will be through our college and university system.” - Roger Simon, PJ Media

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Since I covered AOC’s  completely ignorant, entitled comment regarding prosperity last week I feel it’s only fair to use today’s post to point out that not all Millennials are ignorant, uneducated and oblivious to reality. Alyssa Ahlgren, in her article Thoughts From a hipster Coffee Shop…gives me hope.

My generation is becoming the largest voting bloc in the country. We have an opportunity to continue to propel us forward with the gifts capitalism and democracy has given us. The other option is that we can fall into the trap of entitlement and relapse into restrictive socialist destitution. The choice doesn’t seem too hard, does it?

Related imageWell, you sure wouldn’t think so…

But when everything you’ve been taught was to the contrary your brainwashing is complete. You’ve been conditioned to believe not your lyin’ eyes but rather the hogwash perpetrated by the progressive cabal. You have been assimilated. You will vote Democratic Socialist, straight ticket.

I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of Democratic candidates calling for policies to “fix” the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around. I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook’s, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me.

We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we’ve become completely blind to it. Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose. These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don’t give them a second thought. We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty. One. Times. Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful.

…Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, “An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity.”

…When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I’ve ever heard in my 26 years on this earth…My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity.

We were warned about this 50 years ago by none other than Nikita Khrushchev. Somehow I thought people would be more vigilant.

Anyway, just some musings from the road: perhaps there will always be 10 (or 36 per Hasidic legend, h/t Janice the Elder) righteous men (which includes women like Alyssa) on this earth to hold God’s anger in abeyance.  I certainly hope so, because I know that the snowflakes currently demanding ‘social justice’ will not fare well in the event God decides to unleash some real justice.

Stay strong out there, the righteous are counting on us.

Friday, April 26, 2019

It’s Tulip Time, With Snow

I leave you all to your own devices today – don’t make me regret it.

We are leaving at the crack of dawn to head back to Michigan.

And wouldn’t you know it? The weather gods, who seem to be heavily invested in “winter” in all of its inglorious incarnations this year, are still stuck in the loop. Headline from today’s Detroit Free Press:

Snow expected in metro Detroit this weekend. We give up.

Me too. As of right now the forecast is for rain today which will follow us east across the fruited plains for the entire duration of our trip until such time as we approach our home bunker in Greater Detroit. Then it will turn to snow. You would think that all the snow we’ve had this winter would warrant if not full-out sunshine at least a few croci and daffodils at the tail end of a 3 day cross country journey. But no - Groundhog day.

I was really looking forward to tulips, but snow will be nice too.

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Well, enjoy FLOTUS Friday, I’ll see you somewhere along the rainy road.

Image result for melania trump white house easter egg roll

Thursday, April 25, 2019

Run Joe, Run!

Finally, Joe announced he is running for president.

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Yesterday people were speculating that despite having been in the political game his entire life and running for president since 1987 that Joe couldn’t even pull off a rally in Pittsburg today where he was expected to make his announcement. They were right, he did it via video and will try again for a Pittsburg rally next week.

From the video you might conclude that he’s running as Barack Obama light, in both senses of the word. No  mention of real policies so I guess he’s going to run on 1% growth, Food Stamps for all, Obamacare, and identity politics.

Related imageYou could say he’s running in circles.

But mostly identity politics. Joe’s announcement was clear on only one thing: smearing President Trump as a white supremacist. After playing a clip from the 2017 Charlottesville in which Progressives swear ODJT supported the white supremacists he talks about “a battle for the soul of this nation,” and then tells the cameraman:

“If we give Donald Trump 8 years in the White House he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation.”

Sorry Joe, but that’s already been done, remember?

Related image“Oh, God love you. What am I talking about?”

Perhaps Joe really doesn’t know this, but the primary reason Donald Trump was elected in 2017 was because we, the deplorables, didn’t like the way he and Barry fundamentally transformed the country on their watch.

We elected Donald J. Trump to change it back. And he’s not done yet, thanks to your team’s determination to continue to undermine him.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Socialism: The Only Cure For Western Prosperity

If it makes anyone feel better – and I don’t know why it should – Alexandrea Ocasio Cortez is not the only Millennial economically challenged.

Image result for alexandria ocasio-cortez“Under capitalism man oppresses man, under socialism it’s the other way around.” – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Apparently a good swath of the Millennial generation mis-misunderstands the facts and realities of finance and  economics.

Exhibit #1: 68% of Millennials Feel They Have It Worse Than Any Other Generation. Millennials were asked a total of 15 questions to gauge how much more or less difficult they believe life is for their generation compared with other age groups.

Nearly 70 percent of respondents said the financial impediments they face are as bad or worse than any other generation.

Roughly two-thirds of millennials polled either "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that they have it worse than any other past generations.

Nearly half of millennials believe they're facing a worse economic climate than the generation who lived through the Great Depression.

The Great Depression!!

The Reality:  According to researchers, every generation has experienced periods of financial hardship as well as long stretches of rapid economic growth. While the Great Recession of 2008 is still fresh in the minds of Millennials, it pales in comparison to the Great Depression in the 1930s which happened when the Silent Generation were children. Also, Baby Boomers lived through an extended period of unemployment while the economy was suffering through stagflation in the early 1980’s.

Let me add that the entire decade of the 70s was pretty crappy too.

Exhibit #2: Millennials feel they face more financial woes than other generations

Millennials think they are facing the toughest housing market - evah! Far tougher than the one Baby Boomers had. A full 74% of them think they have it much harder trying to buy that first house than any previous generation.

Survey Question: Which of the following generations do you think has (or had) the hardest time buying and owning a home?

Generation (age range)                % of Millennial Responses

Millennials (ages 23-38)                74.1%

Generation X (ages 39-54)            11.1%

Baby Boomers (ages 55-73)          7.9%

Silent Generation (ages 74-91)    6.9%

Ha! I guess they don’t remember when mortgage rates hit 18%.

By October 1981, the average rate for 30-year mortgages reached its all-time high of 18.63%. Today's rates, while currently on the rise, are still at all-time lows compared to previous decades.

Nor would they have any idea what that kind of rate did to the monthly payment. Oh that’s right, how could they? They weren’t born yet.

The Reality:  Researchers concluded, based on Zillow’s mortgage affordability index, Millennials are completely off base on this one. According to the numbers, a mortgage averaged 15.1 percent of a median income from 2008 to 2018, which is lower than any quarter going back to 1979.

“Boomers searching for a starter home in Q3 of 1981 could expect to pay a whopping 42.2% of their income to their mortgage,” the report said.

Exhibit #3: Millennials feel their generation faces the toughest job market ever as well.

The Reality:  Older Millennials, who were hitting the job market just as the Great Recession started may have more of a case than younger Millennials, who have been experiencing record gains in employment for 118 straight months. But researchers conclude that Baby Boomers might have actually had it the worst.

“For boomers, the 9.7% unemployment rate in 1982 was the highest since 1947, and the 9.6% rate in 1983 ties the level in 2010 at the peak of the post-housing crash slump,” the report said.

But let’s not allow facts to intrude on our little pity party.

Here’s what I find most interesting though: despite the fact that Millennials are less wealthy than previous generations were at their age at any point between 1989 and 2007, with lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth," they still by and large expect to be rich “when they grow up.”

More than 50% of them think they'll be millionaires one day, according to a 2018 TD Ameritrade survey, and more than a quarter of that group believes they'll reach that milestone by age 40. - BI

It would seem that, all evidence to the contrary, they still remain pretty optimistic about the American Dream. Yet they all plan to vote for some moron who will promise to waive their student loans, give ‘free’ medical to all, eliminate the Electoral College and expand the size of the Supreme Court to make things ‘more fair.’

Image result for millennials for bernie sanders  economicsA Future To Believe In? Socialism? Really?

Like I said, AOC isn’t the only Millennial without a firm grasp of basic economic principles. Although she is currently the only one serving on the House Banking Committee.

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Tuesday, April 23, 2019

Doubleplusungood

I note there was a great deal of discussion yesterday about the Elites latest Newspeak word for ‘Christians,’ i.e. ‘Easter worshippers.’

Image result for political newspeak definition

I will say it’s impressive how quickly and uniformly the Super-Elitist are capable of getting their freshly approved newspeak terms dispersed.

This latest newspeak entry in the Super-Elites lexicon - “Easter Worshipper” - was concocted by the same people who crafted “Happy Holidays” as a fine, politically correct substitute for “Merry Christmas.”

And using the term “Easter Worshippers” instead of “Christians” is totally In keeping with previously State sponsored, terms like Manmade Disasters for ‘terrorist attacks’ and Kinetic Military Activity for war.

Just to ensure that everyone’s on the same page, let’s define the key terms here:

newspeak - noun: Ambiguous euphemistic language used chiefly in political propaganda, aka political correctness

political correctnessmore of a cultural ethos than a noun: Organized Orwellian intolerance disguised as compassionate liberalism, aka newspeak

Newspeak is fostered by the Super-Elite and rabidly promoted by the Super-Elite wannabe mainstream media who spend the majority of their journalistic efforts on newsplaining everything to the doubleunsuper-non-elites.

It’s like watching Orwell’s nightmare of the manipulation of the English language in order to manipulate us in real time. It’s doubleplusungood.

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Monday, April 22, 2019

Nowhere To Go, Nothing To Do: Happy Earth Day

  

Image result for jack kerouac quotes on the road

What’s wrong with kids these days? And by “kids” I mean anyone under 40. They don’t want to get their drivers’ license, don’t want to drive, don’t want to be out on their own. They seem perfectly happy relying on mom, dad, public transportation to get them anywhere they think they want to be.

This isn’t really a new trend, it started with certain Millennials. I first noted it when my friends’ granddaughter – who they raised – was reluctant to take drivers training, reluctant to get her license and then reluctant to drive herself around. In fact I doubt she ever would have if her grandfather hadn’t insisted. Several of her friends actually graduated from high school without ever learning to drive - and this was 20 years ago.

Patient like maybe for another 20 years or so

I was stunned at the time by this lack of interest in driving, but considered it a fluke. Not so, and it only grew worse. PBS reported on the phenomenon in 2017:

The share of high school seniors across the country who have a driver’s license dropped from 85.3 percent in 1996 to a record low 71.5 percent in 2015, according to data from the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey. - PBS

They also reported on 16 year old Henry Stock who reported he didn’t see much reason to drive as he could talk to his fellow gamers online and call a rideshare if he needed to go somewhere. So while he had his learner’s permit, he hadn’t yet made much of a dent in the 50 hours of supervised driving he needed to get a full license in Florida.

“It’s more time and effort than I want to put into something that won’t benefit me a lot right now,” Stock said.

Wow. The indoctrination program has finally realized its objective: kids don’t believe independence is worth the hassle. The WSJ reported on it last Friday. Their focus was on the impact the trend will have on Detroit’s auto makers:

The percentage of teens with a driver’s license has tumbled in the last few decades and more young people are delaying purchasing their first car—if buying one at all, say analysts, generational experts and car industry executives. About a quarter of 16-year-olds had a driver’s license in 2017, a sharp decline from nearly half in 1983.

They fail to comment on the fact that 1983 was also a sharp decline from 1963 when nearly everybody got their driver’s license as soon as their state allowed. We had things to do (riding the circuit), places to go (after school jobs), people to see (real friends, in real time) – not to mention dates. There are no circuits anymore, fewer and fewer kids have jobs in high school and even “dating” as once defined is growing obsolete.

PBS tried to blame the “Great Recession” for kids not having after school jobs but that’s malarkey. Parents don’t want their kids further burdened with a job when they have to think about the grades, community service, sports and music lessons required to get into a good college. And to relieve the kids from the added pressure of having to get to their appointed rounds by themselves, they chauffeur them everywhere.

As a result, kids today really don’t want to be free:

Whereas a driver’s license once was a symbol of freedom, teenagers are reaching their driving age at a time when most have access to ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft to shuttle them around town. At the same time, social media and video chat let them hang out with friends without actually leaving the house.  – WSJ

They want to be Europeans, pretending to be free but not, really.

Image result for car trips across americaWait, what? Why’s the steering wheel on the wrong side?

We’ve got a lot more to worry about than the impact on Detroit’s bottom line. We now have two generations totally indoctrinated with the belief that the internal combustion engines are an evil force contributing to global warming by burning dirty carbon fuels. They believe that being dependent on somebody other than themselves is a grand solution, they will willingly cede personal independence to the government “for the greater good.”

How very sad.

Image result for car trips across america

When they could all be off to look for America.

Image result for jack kerouac quotes on the road

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Easter Sunday 2019

And he said unto them, Be not amazed: you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he is risen;

He is not here: behold the place where they laid him.

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And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. - Mark 16:6

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And Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

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And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? John 11: 25-26

Jim Urquhart/straylighteffect.com

On this day when Christians around the world celebrate this most holy of Christian holidays I would like to wish all who gather here a very happy and blessed Easter. If you are a believer celebrate with joy the miracle of the Resurrection and the promise of salvation. And if you are not, enjoy this beautiful, joyful spring day to rest, reflect, renew. The old world will pick up and continue on its way tomorrow and, God willing, we shall too.

And Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends as well, I do love it when Passover and Easter fall within days of each other. Everyone is happy and festive at the same time. And it makes our annual Easter viewing of The Ten Commandments seem more appropriate.

Raj and I are fixing a rack of lamb this year. Last year we did a non-traditional Easter meal  - paella on the grill – because it was unseasonably warm. It was fabulous but this year it’s seasonally cool and rainy so we’ll be tossing the rack, which has been marinating in for 2 days in a honey/curry mixture, into the oven sometime later, where it will be finished off with a hoisin glaze.

backfoodRack of Lamb Genghis Kahn recipe comes from The Lark Restaurant in West Bloomfield, MI where it first appeared on the menu in 1981 and where they served over 75,0000 racks before the Larks closed the doors permanently in 2015.

Since we entertained some friends last night, and since there were multiple desserts, I’m going to try to skip both the candy and dessert courses today.  I hope everyone enjoys your day, despite your religion, sugar tolerance or weather. We’ll all be back on duty tomorrow.

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Happy Easter from Groucho bunny who is brown, Jewish and currently gender confused. (An original Cripes Suzette creation)