Ronald E. Yates's Blog, page 61

Will 2020 be “Deju Vu All Over Again” of the Ill-fated 1876 Presidential Election?

Will 2020 be a Reprise of the 1876 Presidential Election?

What a question, you might ask. But let’s look at what happened in 1876 and then you can make up your mind.

The similarities between 1876 to 2020 are striking.

Let’s set the scene.

In 1876 the Democrats controlled the House. The Republicans controlled the Senate. The nation was in political and economic crisis, still staggering from the disastrous Panic of 1873.

Ulysses S. Grant was the incumbent Republican president, but at the last minute, he decided not to run for a third term. Of course, the scenario is different today. Donald Trump is running for a second term, not a third term.

(Historical Note: From George Washington until Harry S Truman, presidents could serve as many terms as they could win. President Franklin D. Roosevelt won four consecutive terms between 1932 and 1944. On Feb. 27, 1951, the 22nd Amendment was ratified which established a two-term limit for presidents.)

So, with Grant out of the picture, the Republican who did run in 1876 was a dark horse candidate named Rutherford B. Hayes. His Democrat challenger in the intensely disputed election was New York, Gov. Samuel Tilden.

Tilden was widely expected to win the general election against the little-known Hayes, who was a Civil War hero and Ohio governor.

Now here is where things get interesting. There are some political pundits today who say the 2020 election could play out in similar fashion to the 1876 election.

Just how might that happen? Let’s look back at the 1876 election.

When Election Day came, neither candidate had a majority of the electoral votes. Tilden had easily won the popular vote, but he needed one more electoral vote.

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However, in four states, each party claimed that their candidate had won the state, which obviously could not be true. If the Democratic reports of the election were accepted, Tilden would be the President. If the Republican reports were accepted, Hayes would be the President.

The Constitution didn’t account for this scenario: There was no provision for settling a dispute involving rival electors. An additional problem was that the Vice President needed to certify the election. But Vice-President Henry Wilson had died a year earlier, and there was no sitting Vice President.

A special Electoral Commission of Senators, House members, and Supreme Court justices was appointed by Congress to settle the dispute and avert a constitutional crisis before March when a new president was supposed to take office.

The commission awarded all of the electoral votes of the four disputed states to Hayes in an 8-7 vote. The Democrats allegedly agreed to the decision in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana, marking the end of Reconstruction in the South, in what is called the Compromise of 1877.

That’s quite a legacy for Hayes, who essentially slinked into the White House via a backroom deal.

The second part of Hayes’ legacy was the fallout from Reconstruction’s end and the subsequent enactment of Jim Crow laws by Democrats that mandated racial segregation in the South and disenfranchise black voters. Under terms of the deal, Hayes removed the last federal troops from the South, and the rest, as they say, is history. Rather than the reconstruction of the south that ensured political and social equality for former slaves, the South entered a period of Jim Crow laws that didn’t end until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

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Now, here’s another similarity between 1876 and 2020. After his controversial election, Hayes promised not to run for re-election.

Does THAT sound familiar? If Biden beats Trump, he has promised to be a one-term president—that is, if he lasts through his first term.

I can hear Kamala Harris licking her political chops now.

Hayes kept his promise to be a one-term president and that helped restore the nation’s faith in the office of the presidency. During his time in office Hayes also attacked run-away patronage in the nation’s corrupt civil service system and triggered the recovery of the American economy.

Nevertheless, the results of the 1876 election remain among the most disputed ever.

Today, with the controversy over the mass-mailing of ballots to voters and the potential of voter fraud, you have to wonder that lies ahead after November 3.

Will the 2020 Presidential election come off without a hitch?

Or will we experience, as baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once declared, “Déjà vu all over again?”

 

Interview with the Online Book Club

I am pleased to share this interview that I did recently with Sarah Creeley of the Online Book Club. I hope you find it thought-provoking.

Today’s chat with Sarah features Ronald E. Yates, author of The Lost Years of Billy Battles, Book #3 of the Finding Billy Battles Trilogy. The book has won multiple awards, including the Best Book of the Year from the Chanticleer International Book Awards and the Goethe Grand Prize for Historical Fiction.

1. Tell us about your first experience with writing?

I knew I liked writing when I was in the sixth grade. I loved writing stories, and I had a teacher (Mrs. Gooch) who encouraged me. My mother also bought me books and took me often to the library—a place that I found magical and magnetic. She often read to me, and when she did, I could “see” the stories unfolding before me. When I could read myself, I began to devour everything I could get my hands on. Reading took me places I could not, as a growing boy, otherwise go. I used to tell my journalism students at the University of Illinois if you want to write well, read well.

My training as a journalist has been invaluable. Journalism teaches you to use words economically, to be accurate, and to write fast. The transition from journalism to writing fiction has not been too difficult. Both utilize many of the same literary devices: transition, pacing, character development, etc. Ultimately, the goal is to tell a good story no matter if you are writing fiction or non-fiction. My experiences as a journalist have been priceless and vital as I transitioned from journalism to fiction. I think any author who started as a journalist will tell you that. Hemingway once said, “Everything I ever learned about writing I learned from the Kansas City Star style sheet and covering the streets of Kansas City.” I could say the same about my 27 years with the Chicago Tribune.

2. Where do you write? What does your environment look like?

I have taken over the upstairs bonus room in our house. It is about 400 square feet. In it, I have my rather prodigious library, a good sound system for playing classical music or jazz, a large screen T.V. for watching sports, Discovery, History, and National Geographic channels when I need a break from writing. My window looks out onto a plant and boulder-strewn foothill that rises in front of my house. Another window looks down onto the Temecula valley some 2,000 feet below. It is quiet and soothing. I couldn’t have a better place to write.

3. Over the years, what was the best piece of advice you’ve gotten?

I have received a LOT of advice over the years. For example, as I was being sent to Asia as a foreign correspondent by the Chicago Tribune, a crusty old editor gave me this advice: “When you get over there in Asia where people eat a lot of strange food and if you are ever offered something that you’ve never seen or eaten before, go ahead and eat it, because, in Asia, it’s not polite to turn down a dish from a host. And just remember this, everything tastes more or less like chicken.”

When it comes to writing, I was fortunate to receive this advice from Elmore Leonard several years ago. “You have to be mean to your characters. Don’t let ’em off easy. Hurt ’em, knock ’em around. Hell, even kill ’em. And remember this: life is hard, then you die.”

4. Let’s talk about your book The Lost Years of Billy Battles. You state that the book is “faction.” What do you mean by that?

I call my work “Faction,” because it is both fact and fiction. Some of the events in the book–especially those dealing with real people, did happen. Was my character directly involved in them? No. However, members of my family were native Kansans, and some of the experiences I write about did happen. I also used many of the expressions and adages I heard my great-grandparents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and even my parents use when I was growing up in Kansas. I also have woven some of my experiences covering war and revolution in Asia and Latin America into the storyline.

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I was intrigued by the idea of a 19th Century Kansas boy forced to deal with a string of tragedies and misadventures who eventually makes his way to the Far East in search of himself. How would he handle himself in such strange places as French Indochina, the Spanish-controlled Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc.? I spent most of my career as a foreign correspondent in Asia and I often wondered what it would have been like to have been in that part of the world in the 19th Century. This book gives me (and my readers) an opportunity to find out.

5. Considering that this book is partly fact, which characters are based on real people?

There are several “real” people in the trilogy, including such western legends as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and Bat Masterson. There are also other real people that Billy interacts with, including General Frederick Funston, George S. Patton (when he was a shave tail lieutenant), General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, Mexican revolutionaries Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. My fictional characters, such as Billy’s cousin, Charlie Higgins, and the baroness Katharina von Schreiber are composites of people I knew.

6. Which character was your favorite, and why?

Well, William Fitzroy Raglan Battles is the main character in the book, so naturally is my favorite. His father is killed during the Civil War, so he is reared by his mother, Hannelore, a second-generation German-American woman who has to be both mother and father to her only son. It is a tall order, but Billy grows up properly and is seemingly on the right path. His mother, a hardy and resilient woman, makes a decent living as a dressmaker in Lawrence, Kansas. An ardent believer in the value of a good education, she insists that Billy attend the newly minted University of Kansas in Lawrence. She is a strong influence in his life, as are several other people he meets along the way.

One of those he meets who is also one of my favorite characters is the Baroness (and widow) Katharina von Schreiber, who Billy meets on an ocean liner bound for the orient in 1894. Katharina is a strong woman of keen intelligence. While at first Billy and Katharina don’t hit it off, they are eventually flung together because of their unique backgrounds and the fact they are both at vulnerable places in their lives. Katharina and Billy become soul mates.

Another of my favorite characters is Billy’s semi-outlaw cousin, Charlie Higgins. Higgins is what they called a “shadow rider” in the old west. A man who lived his life on both sides of the law. Charlie and Billy are not only cousins; they are the best of friends. Charlie helps Billy out of several scrapes and is not afraid to use violence to do so.

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7. Much of the book is in Mexico. How did you learn so much about Mexico and its history?

I spent a lot of time in Mexico (and other parts of Central and South America) as a foreign correspondent with the Chicago Tribune. I made it a point to learn as much history about Mexico as I could so I could better understand the country and provide a relevant background for the news stories I filed from there. I also learned Spanish. One of the things that I wanted to do with the entire trilogy was to focus on little-known historical events. Most of the events and incidents that Billy finds himself involved with were relatively obscure. They were not things that we learned very much about in our high school or college history classes. I love focusing on those types of events.

8. What was the hardest part of the book for you to write?

I always hate to kill off characters, but of course, death is a part of life, and no character in a historical fiction novel is immortal. So, I won’t say which characters I had to send to the “great majority,” but suffice it to say they were ones that I liked.

9. This is the last book in a trilogy, so what’s next for you?

I am currently finishing a novel about foreign correspondents in Asia. It is not historical fiction, and it is based on some of my own experiences covering war, revolution, and mayhem around the world. The working title is Asia Hands: A Tale of Foreign Correspondents & Other Miscreants in the Orient.

Here is a short blurb that will appear at the front of the book:

A mysterious object of unknown origin hidden in the heart of an impenetrable S.E. Asian jungle. A covert alliance of dangerous people determined to keep it concealed. Treacherous secret agents. Betrayal. Assassination. Murder.

It’s one hell of a story, and two foreign correspondents—one recently retired and the other approaching burn out—are on the scent.

Meet Cooper McGrath and Clayton Brandt.

They have just stumbled onto the biggest story of their lives—one that could have staggering ramifications for the planet and its people.

Now all they have to do is live long enough to tell it.

Will they meet their deadlines, or will they meet their deaths?

I like to end on some fun questions.

10. Cats or dogs?

Dogs. I have nothing against cats, but a dog seems more friendly and responsive than a cat. Besides that, I grew up with dogs and horses.

11. Black and white or color?

Color. I want to see every hue that nature offers us. Black and white seems just too limiting.

12. Notepad, typewriter, phone, computer, or a combination?

I have used all of the above at one time or another in my career as a journalist. Of course, now I use a computer, and I can’t imagine returning to a typewriter.

13. What’s on your nightstand right now?

I am beta reading a memoir by a Vietnamese-American woman named An Ngo Lang that tells of her harrowing escape from Vietnam when it was falling in 1975. I just finished reading “The Lost Side of an Orphan’s Moon,” by Caleb Pirtle III that I have just reviewed on Amazon.

An Ode to America

I am always amazed that everyone in the world seems to appreciate how exceptional America is, BUT AMERICANS—at least those who are out burning, looting, and attempting to impose socialism and Marxism on us as ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter are.

I am always stumped by this question: If America is so systemically racist, so brutally unfair, so lacking in opportunity, so morally corrupt, why are millions of people from other parts of the world clamoring to get in? You know the answer, and so do I. Because America is an exceptional country where people who are willing to work hard, are free to achieve their dreams.

Take a look: The following article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title ‘C’ntarea Americii, meaning ‘Ode America ‘) in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei ‘The Daily Event’ or ‘News of the Day’ – 20 years ago.

AN ODE TO AMERICA

BY

Cornel Nistorescu

Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.

On 9/ll, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about.

Instead, the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps, and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing: ‘God Bless America!’

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I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy. What on earth unites the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their history? Their economic Power? Money?

I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion… Only freedom can work such miracles.

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The Untouchable Chameleon Called Kamala

Have you been wondering what happened to America’s once free, curious, and probing media?

Yeah, me too.

Today’s news media is apparently getting its marching orders from the Democrat Party Machine.

Don’t believe me?

Earlier this week, an ad hoc group of Democrat Party operatives sent an extraordinary memo to all news media outlets warning them how they should cover Kamala Harris, Joe Biden’s vice-presidential running mate.

If that had happened 30 or 40 years ago, that memo would have gone on the bulletin boards of newsrooms everywhere, and reporters would have thrown darts at it.

But not in today’s newsrooms.

The memo went out before Harris’s name was made public. Here’s what the memo said, in part:

“Our country — and your newsrooms — have learned a lot since the [death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody] and the subsequent protests for racial equality that his death spurred … We know from public reporting that many of your newsrooms had internal conversations about your coverage, your diversity, and your editorial judgments.

“A woman VP candidate, and possibly a Black or Brown woman candidate, requires the same kind of internal consideration about systemic inequality as you undertook earlier this year. We are here to help you with this challenge … We intend to collectively and individually monitor coverage, and we will call out those we believe take our country backward with sexist and racist coverage. As we enter another historic moment, we will be watching you.”

Okay, news media. Let that last phrase sink in: “WE WILL BE WATCHING YOU.”

Got it? Any criticism of Kamala Harris will be considered racist and sexist.

In other words, any news media organization that dares probe too profoundly into Harris’s political past, questions her incessant flip-flopping on issues, or her radical leftist ideas, will be branded with the dreaded scarlet letters “R” and “S” (Racist and Sexist).

The panicked legacy media are already scrambling to create a list of softball questions their toady, and sycophantic reporters can hurl at Harris with the force and punch of nerf balls.

Forget about questions that explore how Kamala Harris came into politics as the mistress of Willie Brown, the unscrupulous speaker of the House in California.

Say what?

Yes, Harris was an attractive woman in her mid-20s, who the married Brown flaunted at state political and social events. It was an open secret in California.

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And no, Californians haven’t forgotten it, Kamala. But I bet the legacy media have.

As a reward for her (ahem) companionship, Harris obtained several prominent, potent, and profitable political appointments in state government, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I dare any legacy media reporter to question Harris’s barefaced unscrupulousness at a press conference or vice-presidential debate.

Don’t hold your breath. It will never happen because if any news media outlet dared raise those facts, it would be attacked by the DNC for being sexist, misogynistic, and racist.

As political commentator and radio talk show host Tammy Bruce said recently:

“For decades, the Democrats have enjoyed a pliant media. Ranging from covering up for John F. Kennedy’s affairs, to ignoring Hillary Clinton’s health and corruption issues during the 2016 race, the media certainly have never needed such a public reminder about their duty to handle a Democratic politician like a fragile, and special, golden egg. So why now? Because identity politics demands it, and with news now disseminated beyond the broadcast networks and just a few loyal newspapers, Democrats need to reinforce the need for media protection in order to gaslight the public about their real agenda and inherent incompetence.

“Hiding Mr. Biden in a basement has been absurdly accepted by the media. Unable to toss Ms. Harris into a literal basement, they’re now trying to construct a virtual bunker for her.”

My introduction to Kamala Harris was during the disgraceful 2018 Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. Like millions of other Americans, I watched as Kamala Harris harangued Kavanaugh and was, without a doubt, the most disrespectful and vicious of the Democrat senators.  The fact that she accepted the flimsiest of evidence in attacking Kavanaugh for the implausible and unsubstantiated accusation of gang rape speaks volumes about her judgment.

But watch out legacy media. Do not question her on her abysmal performance during the Kavanaugh hearings. After all, Kamala Harris is likely to become president if Joe Biden is somehow elected.

Think about it. At 77, “Sleepy” Joe has already said he’d be a “transitional” president, and it is generally acknowledged that he is more likely than other previous candidates to become incapacitated after he is elected.

We all know what that means. Harris is more than a vice-presidential candidate; she is a pinch hitter for Joe and therefore, must be viewed as a possible presidential contender.

Here is what Janice Shaw Crouse, former executive director of the World Congress of Families and Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America, had to say about Kamala’s qualities as a president.

“She fails on every measure — significantly! 

“Leadership?  She is obviously, much like Hillary, a ruthless opportunist willing to do or say whatever it takes to get ahead. 

“Ideas/Policies?  She can be swayed; however, the political winds are blowing at the time.  Even her friends explain that she is “not ideological,” meaning she doesn’t take principled stances on important issues. 

“Experience?  She has dramatically failed upward!  The media have frequently acknowledged her “history of flip-flopping and deceit.”

Nevertheless, the Democrat Party has warned the media to handle Kamala Harris with kid gloves—not the vicious way they went after Sarah Palin in 2008.

You have been warned, legacy media.

Thou shalt not offend the untouchable chameleon called Kamala.

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Free Speech and Academic Freedom under Attack in Colleges & Universities

Having spent thirteen years as an administrator (department head & dean) at the University of Illinois, I learned early on how heavy-handed academia can be when it comes to practicing political correctness on campus.

The First Amendment right of free speech is too often denied students and faculty who don’t support or adhere to established liberal orthodoxy, which is the reigning type of groupthink on college campuses today.

I also learned that the presumption of innocence, the legal principle that a person is considered innocent until proven guilty, often is not adhered to in academia as it is in the rest of society.

Instead, when a faculty member at a university is accused of some violation or breach by a student or fellow faculty member, he or she is generally assumed to be guilty until proven innocent—a process that can take a year or longer, hold up a faculty member’s tenure vote, or obstruct a student’s graduation as a campus committee investigates the charges.

Is it possible that this obstreperous and fractious climate could get any worse on college campuses?

You bet. And it already has.

Take this edict just handed down at the University of Southern Maine.

That University requires all members of the community to sign a “Black Lives Matter Statement and Antiracism Pledge.” The pledge mentions Ibram Kendi, a historian, and author who popularized the concept of “antiracism.”

“We stand in solidarity with those who are working for justice and change. And we invite you to join us in pledging to be a practicing antiracist at the University of Southern Maine and in all aspects of your life. We believe, as Ibram Kendi writes, that ‘the only way to undo racism is to constantly identify it and describe it — and then dismantle it.’ The University will publish the list of antiracists. There very well may be retaliation against those who do not sign the pledge.

Let that last sentence sink in. There very well may be retaliation against those who do not sign the pledge.

Retaliation. Reprisal. Retribution. Vengeance.

That’s what will happen to you if you refuse to abandon your right to free speech, free thought, and freedom to oppose a mandated pledge. Not everybody agrees with the Marxist ideals of Black Lives Matter, so why should they be forced to pledge allegiance to it?

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The pledge is not only unconstitutional; it is a violation of the sacrosanct principle of academic freedom. Universities cannot nor should not prescribe how students and faculty think or to follow a prescribed orthodoxy.

Well, guess what? More and more universities and colleges are doing just that.

Recently, a political science professor at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, told Inside Higher Ed News that he is facing “possible termination” for refusing to view “diversity” videos that the administration is mandating.

“My quarrel is not so much with the content of the materials the administration would impose upon us but rather the coercive imposition itself,” Jeffrey Poelvoorde wrote in an open letter to Converse.

Catholic scholars issued a letter of disapproval after Loyola University Maryland, a Jesuit-run college in Baltimore, announced last month that it would remove the name of the Southern short story writer and essayist Flannery O’Connor from a dormitory after the school’s president said “racist leanings” emerged in the writer’s correspondence.

In Louisiana, Nicholls State University President Jay Clune asserted in a campus-wide email in June that “free speech does not protect hate speech,” worrying advocates of free speech on campuses.

Even the American Civil Liberties Union says there is no such thing as hate speech. There is only free speech.

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“With faculty, we see an uptick in universities requiring mandatory diversity training and sensitivity training,” Zach Greenberg, a program officer with campus free speech group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, told The Washington Times.

Greenberg noted that universities have their free speech rights as organizations but added, “Generally, they can’t force faculty to conform to any political orthodoxy.”

Do you want to bet?

When Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson blogged disparagingly about the Black Lives Matter movement, saying its “Hands up, don’t shoot” mantra was a “fabricated narrative” he was reprimanded in a statement by his dean, who called his analysis “offensive and poorly reasoned.”

At several schools, including Missouri State University and the University of South Carolina, students who have yet to arrive on campus are being told to stay home for writing social media posts that are viewed as racist.

Marquette University in Milwaukee revoked admission of an incoming lacrosse player after learning that she had posted to Twitter “some ppl think it’s okay to [expletive] kneel during the national anthem, so it’s okay to kneel on someone’s head.”

Was the student’s tweet tactless and juvenile? No doubt. Nevertheless, the First Amendment protects her right to say it.

“We’re seeing a lot of universities investigate and punish students for allegedly hateful speech that they say online,” said Mr. Greenberg, of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. “And the vast majority of this expression is protected under the First Amendment.”

The crackdown on speech, for some, represents a disingenuous attempt to stifle dissent, not uproot racism. Some of the academic clashes have already landed in court.

Ilana Redstone, who is affiliated with the Heterodox Academy, a group of professors dedicated to “open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement,” said viewpoint diversity needs to remain critical for colleges, even in turbulent times.

“Engaging with a diversity of viewpoints should be a priority within higher education,” Ms. Redstone, associate professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in an email. “We can and should encourage intellectual humility and a curiosity about the ways different people understand the world.”

I couldn’t agree more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein

One of the most puzzling things I have seen from the Democrat party in the past three years has been its unremitting support for China and the Chinese Communist Party that runs it.

Democrats like Diane Feinstein have short memories when it comes to China. I don’t. I was in Beijing on June 4, 1989 when I witnessed the CCP unleash the Chinese army on the students and demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

By the time the army was finished thousands of students and demonstrators had been slaughtered in the square and in the surrounding neighborhoods.

More recently, the world has witnessed China’s deplorable behavior toward religious organizations. It is in the process of striking the final blow to religious liberty with new “Administrative Measures for Religious Groups” that went into effect in February.

“In practice, your religion no longer matters, if you are Buddhist, or Taoist, or Muslim or Christian,” a Chinese Catholic priest told reporters recently. “The only religion allowed is faith in the Chinese Communist Party.”

In the western region of Xinjiang, the home of the majority-Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, authorities have installed a massive police state and is estimated to have imprisoned up to 1.5 million residents.

[image error] Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang

Most recently, the world has learned of China’s internecine behavior regarding the Wuhan Coronavirus. Instead of warning the world about the virus, the CCP coldly and calculatedly shut off the rest of China from Wuhan but allowed hundreds of thousands of Chinese to travel from Wuhan to the United States, Europe and other Asian nations. In effect, the CCP was saying “we won’t be the only ones who suffer from the virus.”

We may never know if the CCP created and released this virus purposely as a form of biological warfare or if it was released by accident. It is clear the virus was made in a Wuhan laboratory.

So when I saw this letter that Maura Moynihan sent to Senator Dianne Feinstein regarding her vigorous defense of Communist China in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, I had to share it with my followers. Maura Moynihan is the daughter of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York.

Here is that letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. I wonder if she will answer it.

Dear Senator Feinstein,

I have known you since 1992 when you won your first term as Democratic Senator from California. You served with my late father Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York.

I am writing to express my shock, nay, horror, when I listened to your vigorous defense of Communist China in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week when you stated; “We hold China as a potential trading partner, as a country that has pulled tens of millions of people out of poverty in a short period of time and as a country growing into a respectable nation. I deeply believe that.”

You made no mention of the death and destruction wrought by the deadly virus from Wuhan which the Chinese authorities deliberately covered up and allowed to spread across the USA. To date the virus has killed more than 150,000 American citizens and caused unspeakable economic and psychological carnage, which Chinese Communist officials have celebrated in official statements, stating “Go ahead and Die USA!” Do you deeply believe that this is the conduct of a “respectable nation?”

China’s rise has lifted millions out of poverty, but its growth has come at a fearsome price for the Chinese people. You stated that you “have been to China and I know China well.” So, you know the Chinese Communist Party’s grotesque record of crimes against humanity, because it is well known.

[image error]You know that the Chinese government holds millions of its citizens in massive concentration camps where they are subject to slave labor, torture, slaughter and deprivation that would make a Nazi proud. You know that the Chinese Communists imprison and murder their citizens for the crime of “counterrevolutionary thought” the sentence imposed on the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo, a poet, and author, who died in a Chinese jail in 2017. You know that China operates a multibillion-dollar organ transplant industry, where organs are carved from the bodies of living political prisoners. Does this support your assertion that China is a “respectable nation?”

In 1979 when you served as Mayor of San Francisco you made Shanghai your Sister City, and you are known to be a close friend of Jiang Zemin, who in 1999 created his Gestapo – the PLAC – to persecute people of faith and critics the Chinese Communist Party. In 2014 Jiang was found guilty of genocide in Tibet in the Spanish High Court.

Your husband Richard Blum is the director of the American Himalayan Foundation so you know that China has just started a border war with India from Occupied Tibet and that the Chinese Communist Party – CCP- will torture a child if they are caught with a photograph of the exiled Dalai Lama. You also know that Communist China has built thousands of hydro dams in Tibet, thereby stealing and weaponizing Asia’s water supply. And of course, you know how the CCP violated its pledges to Hong Kong and now rules the city with CCP law, not English Common Law. Is this how you define the conduct of a “respectable nation?”

You supported President Clinton’s delinking of trade and human rights in 1994, stating that holding China to international standards of conduct was “unproductive” and that such measure would “inflame Beijing’s insecurities.”

Are you more concerned about preserving financial support from Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley, which openly collaborate with the CCP to further enslave their people? Official records show that you are the 2nd wealthiest member of the Senate, with a net worth of $94 million. Is your vigorous defense of the CCP due to your husband Richard Blum’s firm Newbridge Capital earning millions by investing US pension funds and more in China?

As Democratic Senator from California, you have sworn to defend the United States from “all enemies foreign and domestic.” For decades, the CCP has declared the United States “Enemy #1” in official statements, laying out their plans to “destroy the US from within.” This is happening in every sphere of our society, in plain sight.

Have the standards of conduct and human dignity fallen so low that the Senior Democratic Senator from California, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, hails Communist China as a “respectable nation” with such brazen confidence, as our country has been brought to its knees by the CCP Virus, assured that not only will nobody notice, but worse, nobody will care?

Senator Feinstein, which side are you on?

I await your timely response.

Sincerely,

Maura Moynihan

 

Depression Era Whodunnit Keeps You Guessing

Below is my review of Caleb Pirtle III’s book Lost Side of an Orphan’s Moon–the third book in his BoomTown saga series.

Here is Caleb’s biography on Amazon:

“Caleb lives in the present but prefers the past. He is the author of more than eighty books, including four noir thrillers in the Ambrose Lincoln series: Secrets of the Dead, Conspiracy of Lies, Night Side of Dark, and Place of Skulls. Secrets and Conspiracy are also audiobooks on audible.com. All of the novels are set against the haunting backdrop of World War II. His Lonely Night to Die features three noir thrillers in one book, following the exploits of the Quiet Assassin, a rogue agent who has fled the CIA. He takes the missions no one else wants. He is expendable, and he knows it.

“Pirtle is a graduate of The University of Texas in Austin and became the first student at the university to win the National William Randolph Hearst Award for feature writing. Several of his books and his magazine writing have received national and regional awards.

Pirtle has written two teleplays: Gambler V: Playing for Keeps, a mini-series for CBS television starring Kenny Rogers, Loni Anderson, Dixie Carter, and Mariska Hargitay, and The Texas Rangers, a TV movie for John Milius and TNT television. He wrote two novels for Berkeley based on the Gambler series: Dead Man’s Hand and Jokers Are Wild. He wrote the screenplay for one motion picture, Hot Wire, starring George Kennedy, Strother Martin, and John Terry.

“Pirtle’s narrative nonfiction, Gamble in the Devil’s Chalk is a true-life book about the fights and feuds during the founding of the controversial Giddings oilfield and From the Dark Side of the Rainbow, the story of a woman’s escape from the Nazis in Poland during World War II. His coffee-table quality book, XIT: The American Cowboy, became the publishing industry’s third bestselling art book of all time.

“Pirtle was a newspaper reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and served ten years as the travel editor for Southern Living Magazine. He was an editorial director for a Dallas custom publisher for more than twenty-five years. He and his wife, Linda, live in the rolling, timbered hills of East Texas. She is the author of two cozy mysteries.

Now that you know something about this accomplished author and writer take a look at my review of Lost Side of an Orphan’s Moon.

Depression Era Whodunnit Keeps You Guessing

Review By

Ronald E. Yates

When I began reading Caleb Pirtle III’s Lost Side of an Orphan’s Moon, the third book in the author’s Boom Town Saga, I immediately recognized the East Texas town of Ashland in which the novel is set. No, I have never been there, and I don’t even know if Ashland, Texas exists.

But small towns in the Midwest all seem to exude the same mood and texture—especially ones in depression-era rural America.

That was the first thing that impressed me about Pirtle’s prose. The descriptions of people and places are inspired and vivid. Ashland could have been the small town in Northeast Kansas where I grew up, and the people and places in the town could have been in Greenleaf, Kansas, population 650.

Good writers compel readers to “see” the scenes they are creating. The words they use are carefully crafted to create pictures in the reader’s mind. Good writers enable readers to employ all relevant senses when they create a scene. I can go on and on here about the basic literary rule that says writers must “show” and not “tell.”

Instead, I’ll let the author himself demonstrate what I am talking about. Here is a scene from Chapter 22 of the book in which the newly appointed African-American constable of Ashland named Waskom Brown, who is investigating the murder of a young “taxi dancer,” enters the Dinner Bell café.

“Waskom left the crime scene, turned his face into the wind, and climbed the hill toward the Dinner Bell. The cold followed him inside. The rain stopped at the door.

“He glanced around the café. Faces were staring down into empty plates, sopped clean by chunks of day-old biscuits. Few were talking, and it sounded as if they had little to talk about when they did, nothing more than simple eulogies to the weather, their jobs, the sonuvabitches who hired them, the sonuvabitches who fired them, how much money they were making, and how many hours they were working to earn it, how much they were worth, and the shame and disgrace of remaining poor while laboring eighteen hours a day and longer on the weekends to make other sonuvabitches rich. Waskom figured they were talking about him and Doc. Nobody liked their jobs. Nobody dared quit. The bread was stale, the meat tough, the potatoes cold, the coffee as watered down as the barrow ditch where Louise Fontaine fell, but, thank God, they could afford to eat, and they would not forget the days when they couldn’t.”

[image error] Author Caleb Pirtle

I have spent hours and hours in small-town cafes like that. I can almost “hear” the despondent, melancholic grumbling; “smell” the chicken fried steak, potatoes, coffee, and cigarette smoke; “see” the diners sopping up the gravy with dried biscuits from greasy white plates; and “feel” the desolate, cheerless ambiance.

The Lost Side of an Orphan’s Moon is saturated with a “film noir” consciousness that takes you by the hand and leads you into the lives of richly developed characters such as Eudora Durant, publisher of the Ashland Reporter-Times newspaper; Doc Bannister, a con-man, card sharp, and wheeler-dealer; Ollie Porter, a 12-year-old boy who is looking for his father; and Waskom Brown, a scammer, and schemer with a checkered past.

As I was reading Lost Side of an Orphan’s Moon, I kept thinking about the advice Chicago author Nelson Algren once gave in his depression-era novel, A Walk on the Wild Side:

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Moms. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

Somehow Algren’s counsel seemed relevant for this book.

Pirtle has deftly recreated the depression-era oil fields and boomtowns of East Texas, with their clammy black sludge, stagnant oleaginous stench, and assemblages of roughnecks, drillers, and speculators.

After reading a few pages of Pirtle’s book, I had the odd urge to wipe my shoes on something so that I wouldn’t dirty up the carpet.

At its heart, this is a murder mystery about a young woman named Louise Fontaine, who is found dead in a ditch on the outskirts of Ashland with a single bullet hole in her neck. Who could have done such a thing—even to a taxi-dancer who earned her living at 10 cents a dance and perhaps a few dollars more for dancing horizontally at Maizie Thompson’s Sporting House?

You’ll get no spoiler alert from me. If you want to know whodunnit, you’ll have to pick up the book yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

What Ever Happened to Impartiality and Objectivity in the Media?

I know it’s no longer de rigueur to talk about objectivity in the news media. And if you do bring up the concept of objective news coverage, you are likely to hear rejoinders like: “Objectivity in the news is impossible because human beings are not objective creatures.”  

Okay, I get it. We are all subjective beings. All of us carry biases with us wherever we go. No argument there. Every news story is influenced by the attitudes and background of its interviewers, writers, photographers and editors.

But during the 30 years I worked as a reporter and editor, I always felt it was my duty to make every effort to achieve the journalistic ideals of objectivity and fairness.

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I believe most of my colleagues at the Chicago Tribune did the same.

And if we didn’t, some crusty and crabby editor would come over to our desk and yell at us.

“Keep your opinions out of your stories, Yates. Nobody gives a (insert appropriate noun here) what YOU think.”

It took just a couple of interactions like that with a few legendary Tribune editors to learn to keep my opinions to myself.

Sadly, too many reporters today aren’t given those marching orders.

As a result, I see stories that are filled with the reporter’s biases. Even worse, are stories that are incomplete, one-sided, or just plain deceitful.

Take the coverage of the so-called “protests” that are still ongoing in places like Portland and Chicago.

Mainstream media outlets have consistently failed the public by refusing to focus on the devastation left behind by rioters in those and other cities across America, according to independent journalist Michael Tracey.

In a self-published article titled “Two months since the riots and still no ‘National Conversation,'” Tracey traveled to cities affected by violent protests and documented his findings using photographs and conversations with store owners and residents.

Those he interviewed told him media outlets like CNN, the New York Times, MSNBC and all of the networks, didn’t want to hear about the destruction Black Lives Matter agitators and ANTIFA thugs were causing because it didn’t fit the narrative that President Trump was at fault for sending in federal agents to protect federal property.

Just a few days ago several hundred people dressed in black and carrying BLM signs descended on Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best’s home in an effort to intimidate her because she has condemned the violence and destruction caused by BLM and ANTIFA.

[image error] Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best

As the protestors approached the police chief’s house, dozens of neighbors, some carrying rifles and shotguns, came out and formed a perimeter to protect her home. That would have been considered a major newsworthy event 20 or 30 years ago.

Not in today’s highly subjective news environment.

Monday, Best begged the Seattle City Council not to cut the police budget by 50 percent and to forcefully condemn the rioting and destruction in Seattle.

She implored the city council “to stand up for what is right. These direct actions against elected officials, and especially civil servants like myself, are out of line with and go against every democratic principle that guides our nation.

“Before this devolves into the new way of doing business by mob rule here in Seattle, and across the nation, elected officials like you must forcefully call for the end of these tactics.”

The response from the Seattle city council? Crickets. More importantly, this incident was NOT covered by the mainstream media.

This is not journalism. This is what Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels would have called “news management.”

It is bias through selection and omission. An editor or producer expresses a bias by choosing to use, or not to use, a specific news item or story. Within a given story, some details can be ignored, and others included, to give readers or viewers a different opinion about the events reported.

I am seeing this again and again in the American news media. If the story doesn’t fit the preferred narrative, don’t run the story—no matter how relevant and significant it is.

Recently, the Media Research Center conducted a study of how the media cover President Donald Trump. For anyone who watches CNN, MSNBC, the networks, or who reads the nation’s newspapers, the results were not surprising.

The Center viewed some 1,007 evening news stories about the Trump White House on cable news channels, ABC, CBS, and NBC for three months over the summer. That’s the equivalent of about 36.7 hours of coverage, by TV standards an eternity of news time.

Here’s what the Media Research Center found:

“Over the summer, cable and broadcast networks have continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a president in TV news history — 92% negative, vs. just 8% positive.”

Joseph Goebbels would be proud of this kind of faux journalism.

The news media no longer even pretend to care about journalistic standards of objectivity, integrity, professionalism, or the well-being of this country. They think the American people are a bunch of naïve blithering idiots.

Sometimes I wonder if they aren’t right when I talk to people who regurgitate the propaganda and lies that saturate cable and network newscasts.

I make it a point to watch all White House press briefings. I know. I must be masochistic. But I guess once a journalist, always a journalist. You can take the journalist out of journalism, but you can’t journalism out of the journalist.

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Anyway, it’s an amazing show as reporters drop all pretense of objectivity and fairness and interrupt, rant, and rave as they ask press secretary Kayleigh McEnany the most ludicrous questions I have ever heard.

Recently I heard these gems regarding our nation’s battle with the China coronavirus:

–“How many deaths are acceptable to President Trump?”

–“You’ve said many times that the U.S. is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing. Why is this a global competition to President Trump, if every day Americans are still losing their lives?”

–“Is it possible that President Trump’s impulse to put a positive spin on things may be giving Americans a false sense of hope?”

And finally, this brilliant bit of questioning about the ripping down of Confederate statues by a masterful CNN reporter:

“Does President Trump believe that it was a good thing that the South lost the Civil War?”

That’s when Kayleigh McEnany shook her head and walked out of the briefing room.

Good for her. No press secretary should have to endure such a journalistic clown show.

So where do we go from here? It all depends on who wins the presidential election on November 3.

If it’s Trump, expect more of the kind of ersatz journalism that abets the Democrat party while it assails Trump and his army of deplorables.

If it’s Joe Biden, expect a breathless media love fest the likes of which we haven’t seen since the sainted Barack Obama occupied the oval office.

In the meantime, stay tuned, if you can stand it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

America, You’ve Really Had a Wonderful Life

Today, I am reposting this perceptive article by political commentator Peggy Ryan. I think it rings true today as America navigates its way through multiple crises.

America, You’ve Really Had a Wonderful Life

By: Peggy Ryan

In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, an angel, Clarence, is sent to help George Bailey, a man who’s sacrificed his dreams for family and community but is now falsely accused of stealing $8,000 and facing jail.  When George wishes he’d never been born, Clarence grants that wish.

Suddenly, George finds himself in a world where his beloved hometown, Bedford Falls, has been turned into anarchy and slums.  The town’s named Pottersville after a greedy, power-hungry oligarch, Henry Potter, who now owns everything.  In this new world, George sees people he’d helped to succeed now destitute, living in run-down projects, with no hope for anything but survival.  Here his once-quiet, peaceful town is a cacophony of flashing lights, sirens, drunken brawls, and strip clubs.  Those who haven’t turned to drink or chaos are locked behind closed doors, trapped in fear, depression, and hopelessness.

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Like George Bailey, America’s been given a glimpse of what our country would look like if Hillary Clinton had been elected president or what it will look like if Joe Biden wins in November.  In this new world, our beloved country is now the People’s Republic of America.

In the People’s Republic, people stand helplessly by as their jobs disappear, as shortages of water, meat, toilet paper, and other essentials drive hoarding, panic.  They’re confined to quarters, denied freedom of movement even on beaches and in parks.

Here there’s no competition, no pesky ads and commercials for restaurants, high-end sneakers, or luxury cars, because government allows only state stores, Walmart, Target, big-box stores.  Gone are the small businesses that offer designer clothes and shoes, the mom-and-pop ice cream shops, bookstores, jewelry stores, hair salons — the list goes on of businesses deemed nonessential.  In the People’s Republic, it doesn’t matter what people want; they’ll get only what they need to survive.

“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.” —John Adams

In this new world, paltry government handouts (stimulus checks) are supposed to heal the wounds of people forced out of business, of private schools that couldn’t survive shutdowns, of people  who couldn’t pay rent or feed their families once their paycheck stopped coming.

Here the streets are filled with violence, racist mobs who attack people for the color of their skin (white).  Looting, burning, even killing is condoned, even encouraged by  leaders.  These supposed leaders refuse federal help to put down riots because they don’t want the violence to end.  It’s their violence, their cause, their country.

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In the People’s Republic, the Constitution is dead, the Declaration of Independence but a memory.  Americans have surrendered their right to free movement, religious freedom, property rights to a single despot, a governor.  One man or woman brought down an entire state with pen and phone.  Obama must be so proud.

But most devastating is Americans’ loss of their God-given right to pursue happiness.  From morning to night, America’s airwaves carry nothing but soul-sucking, spirit-killing hatred.  Leftists preach either directly or through their mouthpieces abject hatred for white people, Christians, conservatives, pro-life advocates, the president of the United States and any who support him.  They preach seething hatred for America.

“The hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom – they are animated with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp their swords, can look up to heaven for assistance. Your adversaries are composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who turn religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct their swords against their leaders or their country.”

—Samuel Adams, American Independence speech, 1776

Media savage the American people with a daily dose of fear, panic over an epidemic that doesn’t threaten our country’s survival but promises to destroy our country’s economy, our spirit, our liberty.

Thus, in the People’s Republic, cheerful waves and smiles of neighbors or strangers are replaced by suspicious stares, accusatory shouts that people are standing too close or missing their masks.  Here people can’t be all chummy with neighbors and friends because any one of them could be the silent carrier of the death virus.  Better to do without friends, not to see family, not to trust or welcome anyone if a lonely, destitute existence will “keep them safe.”

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Gone is the rush of joy when proud parents watch their kids or grandkids “walk,” because in this world, there are no graduations, no celebrations, no joys.  Gone is the pride and sense of accomplishment when Americans land a great job, buy their first homes, or start their own businesses.  In the  People’s Republic, these aren’t accomplishments — merely proof of white supremacy, proof of capitalist greed.

In It’s a Wonderful Life, George no longer recognizes his hometown. He confronts his guardian angel, demands an explanation for all the strange things he’s seeing.  Clarence tells him there is no George Bailey, no driver’s license, no 4-F card, no insurance policy because George Bailey was never born. “You’ve been given a great gift, George: a chance to see what the world would be like without you.”

And you’ve been given a great gift, America: a chance to see what this country would be like if Donald Trump had never been elected president, a preview of if Joe Biden wins in November.

But will we make it to November?   Governors drunk on power aren’t releasing their grip on the people; they’re doubling down, rolling back plans to reopen their states.  Many order everyone to wear a mask, proving they can control the people right down to the air they breathe.  Some are defunding police, paving the way for unopposed violent insurrection.

For those who think government seizure of private business is justified because a pandemic calls for drastic measures or who see house arrest as citizens just doing their part, or excuse rampant anarchy and violent mobs because we’re all racists and need to be punished, you’ve found your home: the People’s Republic of America.

But if you want the unbridled joy of true freedom, the miracle of America, then speak now or forever hold your peace.  Americans are settling into subjugation, tyranny is becoming “normalized.”  Today, most Americans don’t plan resistance; they quietly await their overlords’ next edict, another shutdown, mail-in voting, mandatory chips.

“The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them.  The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission.”  —George Washington

Governors will never cede their newfound power back to the people, will only tighten their grip, expand their orders.  They’ll use their unchallenged authority to steal the 2020 election.

And then it will be as if Donald J. Trump had never been elected president.

To paraphrase Clarence’s final appeal from It’s a Wonderful Life: “You see, [America], you’ve really had a wonderful life.  Don’t you see what a mistake it would be to throw it all away?”

Don’t you see, America?

Peggy Ryan is an IT specialist. Currently, she is an author and political commentator. She’s been widely published on multiple conservative Internet sites. Peggy Ryan can be reached at PeggyRyan1203 @ gmail.com

I Never Cared

I don’t know who wrote this little treatise entitled “I Never Cared,” but I think it reflects the feelings of millions of Americans today who are fed up with those who want to destroy our way of life, who promulgate the culture of victimhood, who propagate the myth of “white privilege,” who kneel, burn, and loot, and who unremittingly disperse the ludicrous notion that some lives matter more than others.

I for one, have had it with these bleating throngs of malcontents who are fearless when it comes to attacking statues and monuments that can’t fight back, but who don’t have the cojones to put on the uniform and defend the freedoms that permit these same losers to remonstrate and rampage through our streets.

Read on:

I Never Cared

By

Anonymous

I never cared if you were “gay” or whatever acronym you chose to call yourself. Until you started shoving it down my throat.

I never cared what color you were, if you were a good human being. Until you started blaming me for your problems.

I never cared about your political affiliation. Until you started to condemn me for mine.

I never cared where you were from in this great Republic. Until you began condemning people based on where they were born and the history that makes them who they are.

I have never cared if you were well off or poor because I’ve been both. Until you started calling me names for working hard and bettering myself.

I’ve never cared if your beliefs are different from mine. Until you said my beliefs are wrong.

I’ve never cared if you don’t like guns. Until you tried to take my guns away.

Now. I care. I’ve given all the tolerance I have to give.

This is no longer my problem. It’s your problem.

You can still fix it. It’s not too late.

But it will be. Soon.

I’m a very patient person. But I’m rapidly running out of patience.

There are millions of people just like me who are sick of your Anti-American crap!

We are done caring about your immature and irrational feelings.

You are not entitled to enjoy the freedoms America offers you if you attempt to take those same freedoms from fellow Americans.

We have had enough!

America is the greatest country on earth and if you hate it, then, by all means, leave.

It’s as simple as that.

We won’t miss you.

And there are plenty of Americans who will be happy to show you the door.

I’m one of them!