Individual responsibility versus "privilege "

Individual responsibility versus privilege  

I listened to “The Daily” (NYT) podcast about hurricane Ida.  My heart goes out to the millions of people who are suffering and at risk due to the lack of air conditioning when it’s extremely hot and humid down there, lack of water, lack of food, and lack of gas. 

However, there were two aspects that bothered me. 

The first was the speaker’s us of the word “privileged” when comparing those who lived in areas or that had more resources that were better able to deal with the horrible conditions. Priviledge is defined as, “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.” 

I know of nothing in the US that prevents anyone from working harder, longer, smarter to better their position, other than any inherent limitations a individual has. I find it particularly unfair, and a threat to our country, when people claim that disparities in outcomes is primarily due to some undefined and unclear “privilege” rather than effort, self reliance, individual responsibility, and environment during developmental years.

The second point is that I can’t help but wonder how the New York Times along with the rest of the main stream media would be talking about the role of the government and the failure of the government to immediately resolve the problems and issues millions of people are suffering right now if there was a Republican president.  Note this is not a criticism of Biden or the governments response. It is a criticism of the NYT’s and main stream media’s  and complete hypocrisy.

Waking up more important than keeping your word

 Hmmm. Why is it that now using certain words like “birthing person” instead of “birthing mother” is more important than keeping our word “we will leave no one behind.”

Cryptos are cryptic (to me)

 

Given the total supply of crypto currencies (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) is infinite

AND given the price of something in infinite supply is its marginal cost of production,

HOW can anybody justify the current values of crypto currencies?

Not to mention that the transaction cost driven by the cost to validate transactions is not free. In fact this cost can be significant.

Where’s BLM, Biden, Lebron?

Where’s the outrage? Where’s BLM? Where’s Lebron?

Another week and more lives lost. Until the Democrats stop propagating the false narrative nothing will change.

Black lives matter - I support the words but cannot support the organization because it propagates the false narrative that systemic racism is the primary cause of the disparities(incarceration, teen mothers, fatherless households, income, wealth, etc.) between blacks and whites.

Racism exists, it’s bad, and we should continue to work to reduce it. Excess police force is bad and we should continue to work to reduce it.

BLM organization’s positions and policies do not address the problems (murders, fatherless households, teen pregnancy) and do not address the key root causes (it’s not excessive police force or systemic racism.)

Fair Share?

Democrats continually say that they want everyone to pay their "fair share".  The most recently available data on household income shows that there is already a very progressive Federal taxing of households with the bottom quintile of households paying zero tax and the richest households paying 46.2% of their income as tax.  How much fairer do they want?

In fact, what would be unfair if somebody works a little harder, a little smarter or a little longer and makes a little more that they pay the same percent on the extra as everyone else.  Wouldn't it be fair to treat everyone the same?  Wouldn't it be better if everyone contributed (pay taxes) instead of developing an entire group of people that are not asked to contribute but at the same time are being promised more? 

UPDATE in 2020, with the significant expansion of credits, it is estimated that over 60% of households had ZERO net federal tax payments. https://taxfoundation.org/us-households-paying-no-income-tax/

If Mr. Sanders were to con­fis­cate every as­set of every Amer­i­can bil­lion­aire—Jeff Be­zos’s rock­ets; Elon Musk’s bit­coin; Larry El­li­son’s boats; Oprah Win­frey’s houses; Ted Turn­er’s ranches; Jay-Z’s car col­lec­tion; even the starched shirt off the back of poor Larry Fink, who tied for last place on the Forbes list, at $1 bil­lion—it still wouldn’t cover the cost of De­moc­rats’ next two leg­isla­tive plans. That’s to say noth­ing of fund­ing the gov­ern­ment’s reg­u­lar op­er­a­tions, a base­line bud­get that’s ex­pected to be roughly $4 tril­lion a year. And we haven’t al­lo­cated a dime yet to Mr. Sanders’s larger am­bi­tions, in­clud­ing Medicare for All.

Biden - Military Genius - NOT!

Biden and his administration still want their participation trophies. It’s not what they did (saved some) but what they didn’t do (leave no one behind.) 

Biden is a military genius, NOT!

18 months before Biden abandoned Bagram and handed Afghanistan security to the terrorist Taliban  – zero deaths

9 weeks after Biden’s abandoning Bagram - 13 deaths (and possibly/likely more)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghanistan-withdrawal-fiasco-biden-mcchrystal-gates-holbrooke-obama-military-taliban-11630612285?st=rhfs38u0qziwo26&reflink=article_copyURL_share

Psaki-“We will leave when our mission is completed. Our mission is to leave.”  Huh?

Nearly 90 retired U.S. generals and admirals penned an open letter asking Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley to resign from their positions following their “negligence in performing their duties primarily involving events surrounding the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.”

https://flagofficers4america.com/read-and-sign-our-letters

Ben Crenshaw - “ The world just witnessed the President of the United States take orders from a band of barbaric terrorists while ignoring the pleas of our international allies and Americans he will leave behind … Joe Biden is a coward”.

Military genius - abandoning your large, secure, easily defended airbase in order to use a small airport surrounded by a congested city that you have allowed your enemy, known terrorists, to surround. 

Allies thoughts. London Telegraph 

“A few days ago, the G7 met – not to agree any plan of action, but to beg Biden to hold the airport for a few days longer. He refused. 

The integrity of Nato is certainly up for question now. Afghanistan was supposed to be a Nato mission but it was ended by Washington without involving any of the supposed allies.”

Washington Post - “Every stoning. Every beheading. Every terrorist act that is born in Afghanistan over the next many decades can be traced to the events of August 2021. When the Taliban attacked Forward Operating Base Chapman in March — violating the Doha agreement signed the year before — Biden chose not to abrogate the pact. This passive response was the only signal the Taliban needed. Biden unleashed the dogs of war by not fighting back, just in time for the spring fighting season.”

Lara Seligman - SCOOP: U.S. officials gave the Taliban a list of names of U.S. citizens, green card holders & Afghan allies to grant entry into the outer perimeter of the city’s airport, prompting outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials.

My Analogy

[Biden ]IS TO [Biden’s claims about his Afghanistan withdrawal]

AS

[A fireman starting a fire in an apartment] IS TO [that fireman bragging about saving 1/2 of the lives (ignoring the 1/2 that he killed)] 

Biden’s Failure (or lies)

 No indications our people are having difficulty getting to the airport

There’s no Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan

We needed tens of thousands of troops and trillions of dollars to maintain the stalemate in Afghanistan

Nothing but respect from our allies

There’s no national interest in stopping Afghanistan from becoming a terrorist state again

We will protect women’s rights in Afghanistan

We planned for every contingency

Washington Post - This is a moral disaster, one attributable not to the actions of military and diplomatic personnel in Kabul — who have been courageous and professional, in the face of deadly dangers — but to mistakes, strategic and tactical, by Mr. Biden and his administration.

Biden not willing to enforce Trump’ agreement. He’s more than willing to abrogate Trump’s other policies and agreements.

Taliban violating key provisions: ceasefire;Afghan negotiations; not allow use of Afghanistan soil to threaten the US; and allow Afghans to seek asylum.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali “The recklessness of the Biden team continues to astound me. It really is as if they are deaf, dumb, and blind – ignoring not only what is happening on the ground in Afghanistan but also what has happened in multiple similar situations throughout history.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/28/joe-biden-deaf-dumb-blind-chaos-us-has-unleashed/

Allies thoughts. London Telegraph 

“A few days ago, the G7 met – not to agree any plan of action, but to beg Biden to hold the airport for a few days longer. He refused. 

The integrity of Nato is certainly up for question now. Afghanistan was supposed to be a Nato mission but it was ended by Washington without involving any of the supposed allies.”

BERNARD-HENRI LéVY - Worse than a crime, this is a mistake. And, worse than a mistake, it is a stain. A stain on the term of Joe Biden, whose first dramatic error this is. But also, in a greater sense, this stain dishonours the modern conscience. It will take a long time for that conscience to forget this failure, this shame.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/the-day-afghanistan-died/

Covid Update August 23, 2021- Hopefully Delta is waning( and it appears to be)

It appears, hopefully, that the Delta wave may have peaked here in the US.  Also, reassuringly, is that the UK, which opened up  July 19th, does not appear to have run away hospitalizations or deaths.

Comment on vaccines.  Vaccines are not force fields and do not stop the virus from entering your body.  What the vaccines do is to have your adaptive immune system primed to fight the virus if/when it enters your body preventing you from experiencing symptoms or greatly reduce the morbidity and mortality of the virus. 

Without random testing of representative populations, it is difficult to know for certain what is actually happening with the virus and vaccines in the population. It should not be a surprise, depending on the number and frequency of testing and the number of cycles used in the PCR amplification to detect virus or virus remnants in people, even with vaccination, if those people have been exposed to others with the virus (think Providence Rhode Island.)

Insurrections - which one concerns you more?

 Two movements

One was the BLM protests.  Other was the Trump Protest.  Which one looks more like an insurrection?

Over 70 million people voted for Trump. Tens of thousands of supporters went to Washington to support him on January 6. Thousands march to the capital. Hundreds broke into the capital. Tens had evil intent. This was wrong. It is condemned by all.   It wasn’t a significant threat to our Democracy. It wasn’t an armed insurrection.  The protesters did not kill anybody. [UPDATE  August 20, 2021 - FBI concludes The events of January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol were not "the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result, no evidence that President Trump or people directly around him were involved in organizing the violence]

There were over 1000 BLM riots in hundreds of cities, with repeated riots in multiple cities, causing billions of dollars of damage resulting in over 50 deaths  

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-fbi-finds-scant-evidence-us-capitol-attack-was-coordinated-sources-2021-08-20/

https://thefederalist.com/2021/07/29/report-reveals-shocking-double-standards-for-bringing-u-s-rioters-to-justice/

Biden raises taxes on the poor

 

Biden raises taxes on the poor

Biden launches new terrorist state

Way to go Joe!  

What f’ing idiots thought that Afghanistan could stand against the Taliban after we leave without air power?

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/08/the-day-afghanistan-died/

Number 2Taliban leader is Haqqani-known Al Qaeda leader  

Reuters November 2020  "The president{Trump) has acted appropriately in this, has never said: 'Hey, we're going to zero. Let's go tomorrow.' It has always been a conditions-based effort and that effort continues," the senior U.S. defense official said, without explicitly detailing future drawdown plans.

Pentagon Chief Says Hopes Fading for More Open Taliban Government in Afghanistan

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pentagon-chief-says-hopes-fading-for-more-open-taliban-government-in-afghanistan-11631175830?st=2o9eoo5libfl8qs&reflink=article_copyURL_share

June 6 2021 NBC News-Without the contractors' help, Afghan forces will no longer be able to keep dozens of fighter planes, cargo aircraft, U.S.-made helicopters and drones flying for more than a few more months, according to military experts and a recent Defense Department inspector general's report.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/without-u-s-contractors-afghan-military-will-lose-its-main-n1269686

July 24th - Forbes “The United States has said it will provide Afghanistan’s military with “over-the-horizon” air support after completing its troop withdrawal from the country. How it can do so with the significant number of potential constraints that may soon emerge, however, isn’t all that clear.” But the official, speaking after the calls with allies, suggested that Trump would not push a withdrawal faster than conditions on the ground allow.

U.S. and Afghan officials are warning of troubling levels of violence by Taliban insurgents and persistent Taliban links to al Qaeda.

WSJ Aug 14 KABUL—The Afghan gov­ern­ment out­post in Imam Sahib, a dis­trict of north­ern Kun­duz prov­ince, held out for two months af­ter be­ing sur­rounded by the Tal­iban. At first, elite com­mando units would come once a week on a re­sup­ply run. Then, these runs be­came more scarce, as did the sup­plies.

“In the last days, there was no food, no wa­ter and no weapons,” said trooper Taj Mo­ham­mad, 38. Flee­ing in one ar­mored per­son­nel car­rier and one Ford Ranger, the re­main­ing men fi­nally made a run to the rel­a­tive safety of the pro­vincial cap­i­tal, which col­lapsed weeks later. They left be­hind an­other 11 APCs to the Tal­iban.

The Afghan army re­lies heav­ily on ground air power, us­ing air­craft to re­sup­ply out­posts, strike tar­gets, ferry the wounded, and col­lect re­con­nais­sance and in­tel­li-gence.

In the wake of Pres­i­dent Biden’s with­drawal de­ci­sion, the U.S. pulled its air sup­port, in­tel­li­gence and con­trac-tors ser­vic­ing Af­ghanistan’s planes and he­li­copters. That meant the Afghan mil­i­tary sim­ply couldn’t op­er­ate any­more. The same hap­pened with an­other failed Amer­i­can ef­fort, the South Viet­namese army in the 1970s, said re­tired Lt. Gen. Daniel Bol­ger, who com­manded the U.S.-led coali­tion’s mis­sion to train Afghan forces in 2011-2013.

https://twitter.com/saeedshah/status/1425861403089453062?s=21

https://twitter.com/julianroepcke/status/1425751441629716485?s=21

Why don’t these lives matter?

What systemic environment results in these four examples of senseless killings.  

What systemic environment results in the leading cause for young black male death? 

Why do the Democrats continue to propagate the false narrative that systemic racism is the cause of all disparities?

Ella French - https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/who-was-officer-ella-french-what-we-know-about-the-officer-killed-in-the-line-of-duty/2585953/

Tessa Majors - https://abc7ny.com/tessa-majors-tess-murder-barnard-college/8703568/

Jaslyn Adams- https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-shooting-7-year-old-shot-homan-square-jaslyn-adams/10527570/

Pak Ho - https://amp.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article249946329.html

Teachers’ Unions hurting Kids

 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-school-kids-lost-education-learning-gap

https://emilyoster.substack.com/p/how-should-i-think-about-school-and

Joe Joe Joe Stop the lying

 

https://twitter.com/cvpayne/status/1433778429002981376?s=21

Politicizing the vaccine and pausing J&J vaccine were mistake

Kamala Harris November 2020. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/2020-vp-debate-kamala-harris-on-coronavirus-vaccine/

Pfizer delayed announcing the vaccine efficacy. Articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times were clear that Pfizer planned to look at their data once 32 trial participants had been infected. Instead Pfizer announced their terrific results on Monday November 9, after the election. Why?  The companies said they had decided not to conduct the 32-case analysis “after a discussion with the FDA.” Instead, they planned to conduct the analysis after 62 cases.

Government pausing the J&J vaccine was a mistake. 

https://www.cato.org/commentary/polling-shows-persuasion-better-mandates-boost-vaccination

Illinois’ “Fair” Voting Districts

Don’t be fooled by the Democratic lies and liars

Maybe BLM needs to get out more

 I don’t know about you, but these do not look like white supremacists to me.

Why don’t these Black Lives Matter?

Where’s the outrage? Where’s BLM? Where’s Labron?

Another week and more lives lost. Until the Democrats stop propagating the false narrative nothing will change.

Black lives matter - I support the words but cannot support the organization because it propagates the false narrative that systemic racism is the primary cause of the disparities (incarceration, teen mothers, fatherless households, income, wealth, etc.) between blacks and whites.

Racism exists, it’s bad, and we should continue to work to reduce it. Excess police force is bad and we should continue to work to reduce it.

BLM organization’s positions and policies do not address the problems (murders, fatherless households, teen pregnancy) and do not address the key root causes (it’s not excessive police force or systemic racism.)

America

 

America isn’t a place, it is an idea. 

If you reject the idea, then we do not have a country left. 

Equal Opportunity >> Equal Outcome

Freedom = Equal Opportunity >> Equal Outcome = Communism or Socialism