The NFL Boycott: It’s Real!

Sure, were told that the historically low National Football League (NFL) TV ratings for the first five (5) weeks of the 2016 Regular Season has nothing to do with a boycott.* It's the election, stupid!

The fact that a Rasmussen Poll found one-third (33%) of the country is boycotting the NFL is not important, according to NFL executives, Messrs. Brian Rolapp and Howard Katz, in a letter to NFL team owners recently.  The purpose of the letter was to inform owners that the low ratings were likely due to an “unprecedented interest in the Presidential election.”

The NFL executives also posited that there are multiple factors for the low ratings, but see no evidence that it is a result of some players not standing for the national anthem and other disrespectful gestures to our nation and its’ institutions.

If I'm a billionaire owner of an NFL team and Goodell’s underlings tell me that disgracing Flag and Country, has nothing to do with the atrocious ratings for the first 5 weeks of the season, I would be extremely insulted.

In other words Mr. Goodell, "don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.”

What is left unsaid is that today there is a fracture between the NFL and society, as it pertains to social issues. Any social issue will by definition have both supporters and opposition. Accordingly, if you take up a cause, especially one that is in opposition to strongly held beliefs in society; you risk offending a large number people.

It is only incredible arrogance that can explain the NFL's Commissioner Roger Goodell refusal to understand what is happening here. America wants to be entertained. Sport, is in part, a value to release the pressure of everyday annoyances in society. And today we have more than we need.

It is important to understand, there is no free speech all the time – everywhere. There is no free speech in your house; ask your mother. And there is no legal right to free speech or expression at work. Employers such as the NFL, are generally free to restrict employee speech, at least while they are at work.

The NFL must cease and desist their shameful politically correct / social justice agenda. A simple apology is not sufficient. There is a place for social protest, but a sporting event is not that place. The NFL may delude themselves and refuse to acknowledge the boycott, and refuse to connect the dots. But the boycott is real, and the low ratings will persist.

Are you listening Jerry?

And one other thing, Mr. Goodell, your fired!

* The only NFL broadcast I watch is my home team, period. And, I’m not coming back until this is put right.

CLINTON / OBAMA SYRIAN FIASCO

The consequences of limiting your circle of advisers to a small, relatively inexperienced coterie, with no creditable foreign policy experience, and a dubious record for wisdom, can prove disastrous.

The world should be very concerned what Mr. Obama may do in Syria. Mr. Obama had 5 years to deal with the Syrian Civil War. The "Syrian Revolution" (Civil War) began on March 15, 2011, and continues to this day. 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on March 27, 2011, that ‘the U.S. would not intervene militarily in Syria as it did in Libya,’ and drew a distinction between Libya's Muammar Qaddafi and Syria's Bashar Assad. The latter, she explained, is seen as “a reformer.” Yet, today, she says she wants his head. This is not foreign policy – this is schizophrenia. 

The significance of this for the United States and the free world is the failure of Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton, to understand what the hell is going on out there.

Tumult and upheaval are sweeping the world. The world is on fire! Yet, on July 20, 2016, Mr. Obama said at the White House Summit on Global Development that “we are living in the most peaceful” era in human history and that “the world has never been less violent.” Incongruity doesn't begin to describe the intellectual bankruptcy and insult of such delusional drivel. 

Mr Obama's and Mrs. Clinton's record of failures, e.g., Libya, Muslim Brotherhood, Iraq, ISIS, Russian Reset, Iran Deal, Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, are not individual acts of misjudgments, but repeated acts of institutional incompetence that manifest itself in indefensible ignorance.

Never Never Trump: Foolish and Naïve

“Because something is happening here but you don't know what it is

Do you, Mr. Jones (Bush)?”

Bob Dylan, Ballad Of A Thin Man

Every American needs to read, Victor Davis Hanson’s, September 20, 2016 essay, Never Never Trump (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/440198/never-nevertrump-not-voting-trump-republican-suicide) It is simply brilliant!

If you still can’t decide why you should support and vote for Trump in this 2016 Presidential Election, this essay will leave you without doubt. For those who do not wish to read the whole essay, here are some of the salient passages (the footnotes are mine):

"The media have devolved into a weird Ministry of Truth. News seems defined now as what information is necessary to release to arrive at correct views.  

Republicans — were reinvented, by the Media, as caricatures of Potterville scoundrels right out of a Frank Capra movie.

Then came along the Trump, the seducer of the Right when the Republican establishment was busy early on coronating Jeb Bush.

Hillary would rely on the old Obama team of progressive hit men in the public-employee unions, the news ministries, the pajama-boy bloggers, the race industry, and the open-borders lobbies to brand Trump supporters as racist, sexist, misogynist, Islamophobic, nativist, homophobic. The shades of Obama’s old white reprehensible “Clingers” would spring back to life as “The Deplorables.”

Yet for all Hillary’s hundreds of millions of corporate dollars[1] and legions of Clinton Foundation strategists, she could never quite shake Trump, who at 70 seemed more like a frenzied 55.

Trump’s Jacksonian populism and foreign policy.[2]

All that news buzz is sandwiched by almost hourly reports of hacked e-mails, Clinton Foundation scandals, and violations of federal protocols — drip, drip, drip disclosures with more promised on the horizon. Some wondered, why did not Hillary just come clean and end the psychodramas? But that is like asking blue jays to become songbirds.

Ask the ambidextrous and once iconic Colin Powell.

Trump planned a simple enough strategy of an outraged outsider not nibbling, but blasting away, at political correctness, reminding audiences that he was not a traditional conservative, but certainly more conservative than Hillary, and a roguish celebrity billionaire with a propensity to talk with, not down to, the lower middle classes. The more Trump grew unnaturally calmer, he became somewhat presentable, and the more he did, the more a flummoxed Hillary returned to her natural shrillness — and likewise became less viable.

But the proper question is a reductionist “compared to what?” Never Trumpers assume that the latest insincerely packaged Trump is less conservative than the latest incarnation of an insincere Clinton on matters of border enforcement, military spending, tax and regulation reform, abortion, school choice, and cabinet and Supreme Court appointments. That is simply not a sustainable proposition.

Is Trump uncooked all that much more odious than the sautéed orneriness of the present incumbent, who has variously insulted the Special Olympics, racially stereotyped at will, resorted to braggadocio laced with violent rhetoric, racially hyped ongoing criminal trials, serially lied about ObamaCare and Benghazi, ridiculed the grandmother who scrimped to send him to a private prep school, oversaw government corruption from the IRS to the VA to the GSA, and has grown the national debt in a fashion never before envisioned? Trump on occasion did not recognize the “nuclear triad,” but then he probably does not say “corpse men” either or believe we added 57 states.

Did the scandals and divisiveness of the last eight years ever prompt in 2012 a Democratic #NeverObama walkout or a 2016 progressive “not in my name” disowning of Obama? Are there 50 former Democratic foreign-policy veterans who cannot stomach Hillary’s prevarications and what she has done to national security, and therefore will sign a letter of principled non-support? Did socialist idealist and self-appointed ethicist Bernie Sanders play a Ted Cruz, John Kasich, or Jeb Bush, and plead that Hillary’s Wall Street and pay-for-play grifting was so antithetical to his share-the-wealth fantasies that he would stay home?

Replying in kind to a Gold Star Muslim family or attacking a Mexican-American judge who is a member of a La Raza legal group is, of course, stupid and crass, but perhaps not as stupid as Hillary, before a Manhattan crowd of millionaires, writing off a quarter of America as deplorable, not American, and reprobate racists and bigots.

As for Trump’s bombast, I wish there was an accepted and consistent standard of political discourse by which to censure his past insensitiveness and worse, but there has not been one for some time. Examine, for example, the level of racial invective used in the past by Hillary Clinton (“working, hard-working Americans, white Americans”), Harry Reid (“light-skinned African American with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”), Joe Biden (“first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”), or Barack Obama (his own grandmother became a “typical white person”), and it’s hard to make the argument that Trump’s vocabulary marks a new low, especially given that few if any liberals bothered much about the racist tripe of their own. Trump so far has not appeared in linguistic blackface to patronize and mock the intelligence of an African-American audience with a 30-second, manufactured, and bad Southern accent in the manner of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

Outsourcing and off shoring did not make the U.S more competitive, at least for most Americans outside of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Boutique corporate multiculturalism was always driven by profits while undermining the rare American idea of e pluribus unum assimilation — as the canny multimillionaires like Colin Kaepernick and Beyoncé grasped.

It may be discomforting for some conservatives to vote for the Republican party’s duly nominated candidate ... but it is now becoming suicidal not to."

---

[1] Reference John Ellis “Jeb” Bush’s Republican presidential primary race, where he spent 130 Million and won 2% of the vote in his home state of Florida, 2.75% of the total Republican primary votes cast, and 4 delegates. It would seem that it will take more than $’s to buy an election in 2016.

[2] The basic tenets of a Jacksonian foreign policy are the following: The US is different from the rest of the world, and therefore the US should not try to remake the world in its own image; The US must ensure its honor abroad by abiding by its commitments and maintaining its standing with its allies; The US must take action to defend its interests; The US must fight to win or not fight at all; And, the US should only respect those foes that fight by the same rules as the US does.

Racism In America: It's Different This Time

Headlines of the last week include: the editor of Ebony magazine believes that killing white people is not a hate crime; black Baton Rouge police killer was a member of “Nation of Islam; Milwaukee cop ambushed while sitting in police car by black assailant; ‘Black Lives Matter’ organizer Ashleigh Shackelford shouts that white people aren’t welcome at BLM rallies, and should just hand over “reparations” to black people; and all this just happen over the weekend (July 15 – 17, 2016). And, Obama gives another lecture. 

"So, with white homicides at a 25 year low, and black homicides  at a all time high, mostly confined to the urban ghettos where young black men kill other young black men, (Obama says) we need new gun laws to restrict what white people can own?" (Zero Hedge, July 17, 2016 4:31 PM)

Someone needs to open a window and get the stink out of here!

I am a white male, born and raised in the United States of America. I have interacted with black people my entire life, and, not always as a majority. It was the summer of 1969. I was the only white player on a fast-pitch softball team, the Metropolitan Mets, in Harlem (132nd and Lenox Ave). The manager was a black man and I respected him. We drank in bars after the games when I was the only white face. I didn’t have a problem with my teammates and they didn’t have a problem with me. Since Obama became President, I don’t know if this experience is still possible.  

The point is this, I am not a racist, and I never have been. Moreover, I have nothing, nothing, to apologize (for). 

As a young boy and into adulthood, I had to work for everything that came to me. So did most of the people I knew. Growing up in Milwaukee, my friends and I were the ones discriminated against. There were places we did not go because we were Jewish. My family could not live in certain parts of Milwaukee and its suburbs because we were Jewish. We had fights, mostly with Catholics, because we were Jewish. 

The point I want you to remember is this: we didn't care! We looked to ourselves to make things right. We had our own organizations, clubs, hospitals, businesses, neighborhoods, etc. We (the vast majority) worked hard in school. We went to college or into business and we became something. There was no welfare, no affirmative action, no reparations, and no special anything. We had to compete, and where others did not want us -- we made our own way. America gave us the opportunity and we took it. And, we were happy!

There is no question that some white people are racist. But, and this is important, it has been my experience in recent years that more black people hate whites than the other way around. Look around you, blacks are everywhere: in government, in military (not new), in academia, in entertainment, in media, and yes in sports. Should I "demand" that there are more white professional athletes in professional sports? That there be a quota -- ridiculous of course. But, that is exactly what is going on in our feckless politically correct society. 

On Friday, July 15, 2016, throughout America, blacks have called for "a day of rage." They’re anger? Is that a fact? They have no idea the anger that is building up in this country. It can't and wouldn't continue like this for much longer. Continuation of this absurd, imbecilic, institutionalized recrimination and discrimination against whites and the police will boil over.

I say again, 'Open up the window an’ let this foul air out.'

The rule of law only can work when there is respect for our institutions and equal treatment under it. These last 8 years, under Obama, has seen the destruction of that construct.

I regret I must be the bearer of these ill tidings. But I am a father, and I have a responsibility to impart my beliefs to my daughter. Today, more than ever, you must take care of yourself and your children.

Brussels: Fighting Islamic Terrorism

‘the first obligation of the tolerant man

is to be intolerant to intolerance.’

George Santayana

Some terrorism experts will say ‘any successful counter to terrorism can’t be carried out by security forces.’ It must be carried out by intelligence services. Or we just have to accept it. I do not agree.

The problems and important questions are many, the following are some:

1. The problem is that terrorism, by its nature, gives out limited signals -- it can be carried out by very few people.

2. How do you find the terrorists? To the extent they can be found, it requires an intrusion into society.

3. Some would say, profiling doesn’t work. Well, I disagree. Here’s a personnel example. In 1997, coming out of Bosnia where I was working and returning to the United States, with a connection through Zurich, Switzerland -- I was profiled! The fact that I was coming out of the Balkans brought greater than normal scrutiny. I was taken to a second security official and asked a number of questions. Once the agent was satisfied, I was allowed to board the aircraft (Delta). I did not have a problem with this. In fact, I was pleased that the Swiss authorities were doing their due diligence to ensure my safety and the safety of the other passengers. I believe Americans do not have a problem with intrusion into their privacy – if it is reasonable to do so. That means profiling and other strategies. It does not mean random security checks. An intelligent watchful society doesn't do random. 

4. What would work best is inside intelligence. But, that is exceptionally difficult -- but not impossible. Ask the Israelis. What would also need to be in place is a network of outside intelligence, i.e., the Islamic Community and others who interact with it.

5. Finally, if you can’t name the enemy, than you can’t defeat the enemy. I would proffer, that the next Conservative Republican President request from Congress a declaration of war on ISIS and Islamic terrorism both foreign and domestic. A declaration of war will provide the legal defense for what needs to be done. However, I would never suggest that we give Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton this authority!

While the fight against Islamic Terrorism both foreign and domestic is complex, it is not unwinnable. The problem under the Bush and Obama Administrations is that we do not try to win. 

What has not been done (especially under the Obama Administration) is the destruction of Islamic Terrorist where they live (Iraq, Syria, Libya). Not 15 sorties a day, but massive air attacks with troop deployment as needed. The mission must be the total destruction of the “terrorist’s state” and Islamic terrorism everywhere we find it in the free world. There will be blood, and some of it will be innocent, but there is innocent civilian blood being spilled now.

It should also be noted, that success will require intelligent diplomatic solutions in the aftermath. This is again where the Bush and Obama Administration have failed horribly. The invasion and subsequent “surge” in Iraq were military victories, but the mission failed because the diplomatic aftermath was naïve and foolish. There were and are solutions, for example: (http://www.thegreygrater.blogspot.com/2014/06/iraq-told-you-so.html). 

After the enemy (yes, this is a war) is destroyed, the remaining imbedded terrorist can be dealt (with). This will require a different strategy, but it is doable. We have the technology and ability -- we haven’t had the will. 

Americans and free people all over the world have a right to expect their elected representatives will protect them.

2015: The Banality of Leadership

“1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure ... it has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis.”

                                                         Elizabeth II, Her Majesty the Queen,

speech in London, on November 24, 1992, 

to mark the 40th anniversary of her Accession 

as Queen of England and the Commonwealth.

Her Majesty’s reflections are also an apt description of 2015. The phrase, Annus Horribilis, in the parlance of our time, means a disastrous or unfortunate year. 

‘What the hell is going on out there?’

If you don’t understand it by now, then you are either a parasite or a moron.

Judeo – Christian societies, the foundation of Western Civilization, are lead by feckless leaders, in a banality of leadership. Failed policies and outrageous lies define, by and large, the leadership of our world today. Most prominent are the United States of America (Mr. Obama), Germany (Mrs. Merkel), England (Mr. Cameron), France (Mr. Holland), and the supercilious imperious bureaucrats of the European Union (Messieurs Junker and van Rompuy, et al.).

All seem to engage in expiation and demonstration of an obscene political correctness, in which the enshrinement of social injustice is only the most egregious example. Yet, it should be fully understood, that the liberal secular political agenda is not altruistic, but rather an arrogant, selfish, narcissistic, gambit for power.

Still, it should also be clear, 2015 was not a horrible year for all nations. For the autocratic leaders of Russia (Mr. Putin) and China (Mr. Xi Jinping), 2015 is a year to celebrate. Both nations have successfully expanded their borders without so much as a genuine threat from the world’s democratic leadership. Certainly, one leader preens and prattles on endlessly, but the world has taken measure of the man, and has concluded, for good reason, there is nothing there.

For theocrats, 2015 was an extraordinary year. Iran (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Mr. Hassan Rouhani) and the Islamic State of the Levant, aka ISIS (Abu Bakr al – Baghdadi), are succeeding in their quest to dominate the western world and establish an Islamic caliphate. Messieurs Obama and Kerry, the Democrats and Establishment Republicans in Congress, the United Nations, and et al. have given Iran the means for a Shia theocracy in the Middle East. Continuation of this path, the Middle East will generate not just in a regional conflict, but also an apocalyptic world on fire.

These men and women are “neroisticly” fiddling with the viability of western civilization. The Ten Commandments, Greco – Roman Civilization, the Sermon on the Mount, the Magna Carta, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, are under assault by a 7^th Century fictional cult dedicated to world conquest by the sword.

Some otherwise intelligent people will defend the indefensible, and excuse the corruption and deceit, in their allegiance to a principle(s). Who knows how far and where their mindless devotion will take them? The path to National Socialism is paved with good intentions.

Are we about to ask ourselves again, how could this happen? How could the leadership of the western civilization allow themselves to destroy their own societies?

The answer may be found in an abundance of greed and arrogance, and a paucity of religious conviction. The liberal secular state will be the downfall of western civilization. In good times mediocre conceited leadership is benign, but in bad times, like today, it is disastrous.

Indeed, 2015 was a horrible year. 

Perspective: Deflategate

Much, in this case the term much is an understatement, has already been written about the New England Patriot’s star quarterback, Tom Brady, and the Patriot organization deflating game footballs to get an illegal edge. This is the news of the day, but it is not the real story.

The undeniable fact is that the American culture is morally bankrupt. From sport stars to politicians to celebrities, to the Main Stream Media, the American character of high standards, integrity, God, Country, and the Green Bay Packers, no longer exists. Lying and deceit at the highest level of government have replaced honesty and doing the right thing. Accountability and responsibility are dead. Farce and incompetence are rewarded. Obscenity is applauded. Excuses, straw men, and Aunt Sally are the preferred methods of discourse of today’s progressive political class.

You are not going to find a "smoking gun," to prove Brady's quilt. You will not find video evidence of Brady deflating the footballs. But you do have the "stained blue dress," manifested in Brady's email(s).

Clark Judge, a NFL Hall of Fame Journalist wrote recently: "when he (Brady) had a chance to tell us exactly what happened … he didn’t, and don’t ask me why. But when someone doesn’t respond to inquiries, the presumption is that he’s hiding something." Indeed, Brady stonewalled the investigation, providing some information, but withholding other possible evidence.

This should be clear; this is not just an issue of one man's character. It is a reflection of the Patriot's organizational culture, beginning with the owner, Robert Kraft, and Head Coach, Bill Belichick.

Do you remember the Patriot’s clearing snow off the field of play during a timeout so their kicker would have a better chance to make a game winning field goal against the Oakland Raiders, in the January 19, 2002, infamous "tuck rule" game? And, do you remember in 2007 there was “Spygate, where the Patriots videotaped the opposing team’s defensive coaches in violation of NFL rules? Now, we have “Deflategate,” another violation of NFL rules. This doesn't happen unless an organization's culture condones such behavior. You might say Brady and the Patriots have a few skeletons in their closets.

Yet, there needs to be some perspective here. This is sport -- and players and coaches from the beginning of competitive sport have always looked for an edge. Deflating a football does not rise to the level of Armageddon.

Moreover, the NFL shares an equal portion of responsibility. Allowing teams to handle the footballs used in a game is just foolish and amateurish.

Tom Brady, like Hillary Clinton and her emails, will never tell the truth, because Brady like Hillary will not admit that they did something wrong or illegal. Both are guilty as hell. For both of them, the ends justify the means. Brady wanted a Championship and Super Bowl, and Clinton wants to be President.

Like Brady and the Patriots, Clinton also carries considerable baggage to stain her character. Here’s a reminder: Whitewater (fraudulent real estate, improper campaign contributions, political favors); Cattle-Futures (a $1,000.00 investment netted $100,000.00 in ten months); Chinagate (Clinton – Gore campaign in 1996 took bribes from Chinese banks); Travelgate (White House fired career travel office employees and replaced with Arkansas friends); Vince Foster (death of Clinton colleague and friend apparently of suicide); Filegate (Clinton aide improperly accessed FBI files on individual citizens Hillary viewed as Republican political adversaries); Monica Lewinsky (perjury and that right wing conspiracy); Lootergate (Clintons ship White House furniture to their private home in Chappaqua, NY); White House Pardons (140 pardons on January 20, 2001 for Marc Rich, Clinton’s brother Roger and Whitewater criminal Susan McDougal, Puerto Rican FALN terrorists, and drug dealers); Political Favors (Norman Yung Yuen Hsu for fraud and manipulating the political process); Benghazi (see below); Destruction of Government Property (Emails); and the Clinton Foundation (still to be investigated).

Hillary Clinton doesn’t just have a skeleton in her closet – she has a whole cemetery.

Still, there is at least one huge difference between Brady and Clinton. Brady deflated a football, in a professional sporting event. Clinton got Americans killed.

Clinton was directly responsible for Islamic terrorists murdering the United States Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, in Benghazi Libya, on September 11, 2012. Clinton put Americans in harm's way and left them to die; when it interfered with her political agenda. Clinton deep-six requests for military support to save the life of her Ambassador and the men who tried to save him, and then lied and destroyed evidence to cover up her acts.

What Clinton did was illegal (destroying government property), despicable (not authorizing military intervention to save the lives of Americans, and then lying to the families about it), unethical (“what difference does it make”), and a cover up (blaming the cause of the attack on the US Consulate office in Benghazi on a YouTube video).

What Brady did was to violate the rules of the game (deflate footballs) and then lied about it (cover up).

It’s that perspective thing again.

I can live with Brady.

I cannot abide by Clinton.