Two Nations. Same Outcome? Critical Decision Time.

I am combining a historic event with our current situation. Stay with me and I promise it will make sense in the end.

Once upon a time, a nation prospered in peace and affluence for many years. But trouble lay just across the border. The neighboring lands were over populated and the people eyed the vast inviting lands with envy. For a few years small numbers of intruders would sneak across the border, and the government would catch them and force them out. But many avoided detection and many more intruders followed.

Before long the intruders were pouring into the nation. Some were legitimately hired, but others sneaked in. Quite a few committed crimes.

Finally, citizens got so annoyed they contacted elected officials of the nation. One wrote, “Are we powerless to enforce our own laws? Are we to submit to these people who are not citizens? Our laws are not enforced. How in the world can we hold up as a nation when our leaders don’t respect the law and the oath they took to uphold the law?”

Ok, this is where “history” gets scary.

 The U. S. Congress jumped into the fray. After much debate Congress made a decision: they came down firmly on the side of the… intruders.  How could this be? Prosperity in the nation was not good enough to satisfy the U.S. Congress and keep this nation protected from intruders.

Five years after the U.S. government got involved, Congress passed a bill abolishing the laws of this “nation” and mandating that all land be divided up equally among its citizens.

WHAT?! Can the President and Congress abolish or ignore our laws? Could this actually happen to American citizens in just 5 years, by 2026??

The end of that “nation” as we knew it occurred in 1898. That “nation” was the Cherokee Nation. It was part of Indian Territory, now the state of Oklahoma. The “intruders” were mainly from Kansas and Arkansas.

(The “citizen” quoted above was Clem Rogers, Will’s dad. The U.S. government divided the 7000 square miles of land among every Cherokee man, woman and child listed on the “Dawes Rolls.” A primary source for these facts is Ben Yagoda’s biography of Will Rogers, published in 1993.)

Thanks for staying with me.

Why is President Biden determined to welcome millions of “intruders” regardless of the effects on over 300 million citizens? Why did Vice-President Harris go to El Paso, Texas, 600 miles from where the bulk of intruders are wading across the Rio Grande? Yes, El Paso is on the border. But she never got within 8 miles of the actual border. She may as well have been in Amarillo. (Or Paris, TX, which could have counted as being in Europe.)

El Paso is protected by 131 miles of wall along the Mexican border. VP Harris did not want to be photographed standing in front of a 30-ft tall border wall. That wall was built by our previous president. Somehow, she blames him for the current crisis.

She pretends to search for “root causes” while ignoring global polls that show over 100 million people would move here tomorrow if they had a chance. The “root cause” is that Americans live better than 95% of the world’s population.

Biden does not want to control the border. Democrat leaders want to add twenty million immigrants before they lose an election. Not a crisis, an opportunity. Having a President whisper, “We aim to ruin the country,” is no different than shouting it. (He didn’t say that, but actions imply it.)

Is the Biden Administration (supported by Congressional leaders) dismantling the United States as the Cherokee Nation was dismantled in 1898?

We can only hope and pray, as Will Rogers said in 1928, “None of them from any party are going to purposely ruin the country.”

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“America is a land of opportunity and don’t ever forget it.” DT #1541, July 1, 1931

“I generally give the party in power, whether Republican or Democrat, the more digs because they are generally doing the country more damage.” WA #100, Nov. 9, 1924

Who’s No. 17? And can Victoria’s Secret Thrive without Angels? Plus Juneteenth

President Biden got serious with Russia’s Putin on cyber-attacks. A pipeline company and meat processor recently paid millions in ransom. Biden gave Putin a list of our Top16 critical entities and ordered him to call off the Russian hackers. Putin glanced over the list, pondered a moment, and thought, “Which is Number 1?”

Americans are pondering, “What is Number 17?” And how would President Biden retaliate?

In case you are wondering, the Top 16 includes energy, food, dams, banks, trains, manufacturers, hospitals and nine more.

But it’s personally scary to realize that comedians and professional speakers are not on the protected list. But we may be safe from attack anyhow. It would take a whole passel of us to come up with, say, a $20 million ransom payment. Considering how many motivational messages, worn out starfish stories, and old jokes they would have to endure to collect, Putin would decide it just ain’t worth it.

Victoria’s Secret is famous for their provocative lingerie. They have stores in almost every Mall in the country (but oddly, not in Strip Malls). They’re very popular. It’s a $7 Billion industry. Maybe you’ve noticed, when husbands get tired of following their wife from store to store, they’ll often find a bench opposite one of those shops. Just sit there, stare and smile, waiting for her to return from Lane Bryant or Sears.

Unfortunately, low sales have ended the runway shows with beautiful models. Instead of showcasing lingerie-clad Angels on network television, they are replacing the models with female activists. Apparently, Victoria’s Secret will interview these women and broadcast only in audio. Based on the list of women I’ve seen, there aren’t many men, even old husbands, who would be captivated by seeing them in lingerie. (I made up my own list but my Editor made me take ‘em out, to keep me from being canceled.)

Are you annoyed by the WOKE notion that seems to permeate life today? The 99 percent of us need to ignore the self-proclaimed WOKE police and stop giving them a platform. A few people are scouring through huge, fifty-year old unabridged dictionaries searching for words to be offended by. In the old days, these overly zealous, pretentious people would be ignored or sent to an institution. Now, with Twitter, they claim “Mother” must be replaced by “birthing person.” I guess that relegates “Father” to “birth contributor” or “sperm donor.”

One of the things Americans can do well is come together in a crisis. Of course, it depends on the crisis. Sometimes when an essential, critical, positively “must act now” emergency comes along the House, Senate and President can git ‘er done. Take this week, for example. It was not the virus from a China Lab, nor higher payments to NATO, nor retaliation for Putin’s hackers. No, it was a different issue that required (and received) rocket-fast action: On Tuesday, the House passed the bill; Wednesday, the Senate passed the House bill; Thursday, President Biden signed it; and Friday, yes Friday, all federal employees got a new day off because Saturday became a National Holiday! Juneteenth.

Although most schools are out before mid-June every year, the #1 question students will be asking is, what day is Juneteenth? And #2, then why isn’t it called Junenineteenth?

A better question is: Why isn’t the day Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves, named as the official holiday. That was January 1, 1863. But because they didn’t have long-distance telephones or internet, it took two and a half years, until June 19, 1865, for the news to reach Galveston, Texas. Now, I can poke fun at the “slow speed” in the 1860s and the “super-fast speed” in 2021. But establishment of this national holiday has been in process for over 150 years.

And today is Father’s Day. It’s always on Sunday, so no paid time off. I recently learned the first Father’s Day in America was held in Fairmont, West Virginia. It was in memory of more than 350 men who died in a coal mine disaster in 1907 at nearby Monongah, leaving a thousand without fathers. Father’s Day slowly caught on across the country, mainly promoted by commercial interests selling items such as fishing gear, tools, and ties. It became an official national day in 1972. Those “commercial interests” collected about a billion dollars today.

Happy Father’s Day!

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

(A day after FDR’s inauguration) “Say, this Roosevelt is a fast worker… this President closed all the banks and called Congress into extra session.” DT #2055, March 6, 1933

(Ending Prohibition, unofficially) “Roosevelt says, ‘Let ‘em drink.’ That’s all. And he collected $10 million in revenue in the first two weeks. And if he’d had good beer, he’d have paid the national debt by now.” Radio, Apr. 30, 1933

(In a tribute on Mother’s Day) “Father had a day, but you can’t find anybody who remembers when it was. It’s been so confused with April the first.” Radio, May 12, 1935

The Domino Effect on the 2020 Election

 

If you got all your news from the so-called mainstream media for the last couple of years, you may want to stop reading. The information and opinions that follow may be too much to digest. I don’t want your head to explode.

Have you played dominoes? Regardless, I bet you have seen dominoes set on end in a line so if the first one is tipped it knocks over the next one. And the next one, and so on. Some elaborate patterns might have 5 or 6 starting points with the domino lines all ending up at the same point.

Suppose we use a domino pattern to explain the 2020 Trump-Biden Presidential campaign. One starting point, the main one, was Covid-19. President Trump said it might have started in a virology lab in Wuhan, China. The mainstream media scolded Trump for saying it started in China and insisted it was probably from a bat. China officials could identify the source, but refused then and now to let unbiased scientists investigate.

President Trump suggested hydroxychloroquine was a possible treatment for Covid. The media said it was dangerous quackery even though it has been used to treat malaria and arthritis for 80 years.

Trump sometimes questioned the views of Dr. Fauci. At various times Dr. Fauci said, “Do not wear a mask,” “Shut down all non-essentials so we don’t overwhelm the hospitals,” “Wear a mask outside,” “Get vaccinated so life can return to normal,” “Even if vaccinated, wear a mask,” “Wear 2 masks,” and “We did not fund gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Lab.” The media worshiped Dr. Fauci (and they still do).

Trump was criticized for not wearing a mask in public, while Biden has worn a mask constantly, even outside alone or on Zoom calls. In reflection, the sanity of the country would have benefitted if they had “met in the middle” on mask-wearing.

Trump pushed a vaccine development program called Warp Speed, supported by Congress, with the goal of having millions of doses available by October. Media insisted it would take at least 3 to 5 years, not a few months. One company, miraculously, had a vaccine ready for FDA approval in October. But the “good news” announcement was delayed until 3 days after the election. Back to the domino analogy, this line failed Trump because of timing.

On June 1, 2020, Trump walked to Lafayette Square and held up a Bible in front of St John’s Episcopal Church. Earlier, federal officials had forced protesters to move back a block or two so construction of a more secure fence could be started. Media shamed Trump for tear-gassing peaceful protesters (who had set fire to the church the previous day) simply for a photo-op. This was the start of another “domino line” which resulted in reluctance of federal officials to bring in National Guard reinforcements to protect the Capitol on January 6, the day Congress verified the election results.

In October, a computer belonging to Hunter Biden was left (abandoned) at a computer shop. The hard drive had incriminating evidence against Hunter, and tied his dad to Hunter’s business dealings in China and Ukraine. Media blocked this evidence that would have swayed votes in November. An intricate “domino line” where the first domino was never tipped.

While President Trump was out and about almost every day in 2020, answering reporters’ questions, Joe Biden claimed he had to stay home because of Covid. Why didn’t the media insist he answer serious questions the same as Trump? (He had a phone and Zoom.)

All of these examples are “lines of dominoes” that help show how Joe Biden beat Donald Trump on November 8. The June 1 incident directly affected both the election and the lack of Capitol security for January 6.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“People ask me: ‘Will, where do you get your jokes?’ I just tell ‘em, ‘Well, I just watch the government and report the facts, that’s all I do, and I don’t even have to exaggerate.’” June 11, 1933 (Notes?)