Eight Months... And NOTHING Significant!

I just received this email message from Ken Kuccinelli of the Senate Conservative Fund. It may be stating an already obvious realization - Rush has been beating this drum for some time now - but I am using it on this post because I believe it illustrates just how effective the liberal brainwashing of not just the general public, but the elected representatives in the Republican Party - otherwise known in conservative parlance as "Establishment" or "Deep State" - is significantly impacting our government's ability to make changes voters elected their president to implement, which may well lead to national crisis in the near to mid-term future. However, I reserve the possibility that Trump's current tactics - ie: his Tweeting - may well cause the media to loose control of the reigns of power and things might thus shift in his favor.

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Establishment Republicans always promise to fight for conservative policies in the future, but when that day comes they make excuses and repeat the empty promise to fight another day.

A friend recently simplified the establishment's plug-and-play message that they use in almost every debate. It goes like this:

"If only we had [more power], things would be great. We need to just get past [current fight] and focus on [future election] so we can have [new higher electoral number] and then we will be able to [win policy we are not currently fighting for]."

How many times have we heard this different version of this excuse? Too many to count.

As we watch in utter disbelief as establishment Republicans squander a once in a lifetime opportunity to enact conservative policies, it's important to remember why it's so important to elect conservatives who believe in our principles and will fight for them.

The lie that the GOP establishment has told voters – that they will advance a conservative agenda if they win the next election – is a complete joke. After eight months of controlling everything in Washington, they have no legislative accomplishments.

Majorities in Congress are meaningless if they fail to keep their promises and fail to produce real policy results.

It's why our founder, Senator Jim DeMint, once famously said that he would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who believe in our principles than 60 Republicans who don't. You see, we can fill the Senate with 60 or even 70 Republicans, but if they are all closet liberals nothing good will be achieved.

So when the GOP establishment tells us we can only achieve policy goals if we settle for more pro-establishment Republicans, do not be fooled. It's a flat out lie.

We must remain focused on electing true conservatives who can be counted on to fight for our principles and values, especially when it's hard. That is the only way to achieve our policy goals and advance the first principles upon which this country was founded.

Thank you for standing strong for freedom and for doing so much to help us promote conservative leadership in Washington.

Sincerely,

Ken Cuccinelli II
President
Senate Conservatives Fund

Trump's lack of decorum, dignity, and statesmanship

The author is unknown, but knows how to say what we all realize.

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My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent #NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the office.” 

 

Here’s my answer: 

 

We Right-thinking people have tried dignity.  There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency.

 

We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney? 

 

And the results were always the same. This is because, while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.

 

I don’t find anything “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper” about Barack Obama’s lying about what went down on the streets of Ferguson in order to ramp up racial hatreds because racial hatreds serve the Democratic Party. I don’t see anything “dignified” in lying about the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi and imprisoning an innocent filmmaker to cover your tracks. I don’t see anything “statesman-like” in weaponizing the IRS to be used to destroy your political opponents and any dissent. Yes, Obama was “articulate” and “polished” but in no way was he in the least bit “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper.” 

 

The Left has been engaged in a war against America since the rise of the Children of the ‘60s. To them, it has been an all-out war where nothing is held sacred and nothing is seen as beyond the pale. It has been a war they’ve fought with violence, the threat of violence, demagoguery and lies from day one – the violent take-over of the universities – till today. The problem is that, through these years, the Left has been the only side fighting this war. While the Left has been taking a knife to anyone who stands in their way, the Right has continued to act with dignity, collegiality and propriety. With Donald Trump, this all has come to an end. Donald Trump is America ’s first wartime president in the Culture War.

 

During wartime, things like “dignity” and “collegiality” simply aren’t the most essential qualities one looks for in their warriors. Ulysses Grant was a drunk whose behavior in peacetime might well have seen him drummed out of the Army for conduct unbecoming. Had Abraham Lincoln applied the peacetime rules of propriety and booted Grant, the Democrats might well still be holding their slaves today. Lincoln rightly recognized that, “I cannot spare this man. He fights.”

 

General George Patton was a vulgar-talking, son-of-a-bitch. In peacetime, this might have seen him stripped of rank. But, had Franklin Roosevelt applied the normal rules of decorum then, Hitler and the Socialists would barely be five decades into their thousand-year Reich.

 

Trump is fighting. And what’s particularly delicious is that, like Patton standing over the battlefield as his tanks obliterated Rommel’s, he’s shouting, “You magnificent bastards, I read your book!” 

 

That is just the icing on the cake, but it’s wonderful to see that not only is Trump fighting, he’s defeating the Left using their own tactics. That book is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – a book so essential to the Liberals’ war against America that it is and was the playbook for the entire Obama administration and the subject of Hillary Clinton’s senior thesis. It is a book of such pure evil, that, just as the rest of us would dedicate our book to those we most love or those to whom we are most indebted, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.

 

Trump’s tweets may seem rash and unconsidered but, in reality, he is doing exactly what Alinsky suggested his followers do. First, instead of going after “the fake media” — and they are so fake that they have literally gotten every single significant story of the past 60 years not just wrong, but diametrically opposed to the truth, from the Tet Offensive to Benghazi, to what really happened on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri — Trump isolated CNN. He made it personal.     

 

Then, just as Alinsky suggests, he employs ridicule which Alinsky described as “the most powerful weapon of all.” ... Most importantly, Trump’s tweets have put CNN in an untenable and unwinnable position. ... They need to respond. This leaves them with only two choices. They can either “go high” (as Hillary would disingenuously declare of herself and the fake news would disingenuously report as the truth) and begin to honestly and accurately report the news or they can double-down on their usual tactics and hope to defeat Trump with twice their usual hysteria and demagoguery. The problem for CNN (et al.) with the former is that, if they were to start honestly reporting the news, that would be the end of the Democratic Party they serve.   

 

It is nothing but the incessant use of fake news (read: propaganda) that keeps the Left alive. Imagine, for example, if CNN had honestly and accurately reported then-candidate Barack Obama’s close ties to foreign terrorists (Rashid Khalidi), domestic terrorists (William Ayers), the mafia (Tony Rezko) or the true evils of his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright’s church. Imagine if they had honestly and accurately conveyed the evils of the Obama administration’s weaponizing of the IRS to be used against their political opponents or his running of guns to the Mexican cartels or the truth about the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the Obama administration’s cover-up.  So, to my friends on the Left — and the #NeverTrumpers as well — do I wish we lived in a time when our president could be “collegial” and “dignified” and “proper”? Of course I do. These aren’t those times. This is war. And it’s a war that the Left has been fighting without opposition for the past 50 years. So, say anything you want about this president - I get it - he can be vulgar, he can be crude, he can be undignified at times. I don’t care. I can’t spare this man. He fights for America!

Establishment Psychology of The Swamp

Psychology

Start with a cage containing four monkeys, and

inside the cage you hang a banana on a string, and

then you place a set of stairs under the banana.

Before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb

toward the banana.

You then spray ALL the monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt. As

soon as he touches the stairs, you spray ALL the

monkeys with cold water.

  

Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the

stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey

from the cage and replace it with a new monkey. The

new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the

stairs. To his shock, ALL of the other monkeys beat

the crap out of him. After another attempt and

attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the

stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original four monkeys,

replacing it with a new monkey. The newcomer goes

to the stairs and is attacked. The previous

newcomer takes part in the punishment - with

enthusiasm - because he is now part of the "team."

Then, replace a third original monkey with a new

monkey, followed by the fourth. Every time the

newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Now, the monkeys that are beating him up have no

idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs.

Neither do they know why they are participating in

the beating of the newest monkey. Having replaced

all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining

monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water.

Nevertheless, not one of the monkeys will try to

climb the stairway for the Banana.

Why, you ask? Because in their minds, that is the

way it has always been!

This is how today's House and Senate operates, and

this is why from time to time, ALL of the monkeys

need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME!

DISCLAIMER: This is meant as no disrespect to monkeys.***

Russian Collusion Apparently Confirmed - Not Trump

I've long believed that the media narrative is serving a duel purpose; distraction and misdirection, the core strategies of any magician practicing his/her craft. Distraction is used to present enough plausible information to the public such that, after repeating it for six months or more, people who don't get information from any alternative sources than the alphabet soup networks actually believe it to be true.The misdirection involves putting blame on their target; in this case with the "Russian / Trump Collusion" story it's been the man who "stole" Hillary Clinton's presidency.
 
It seems, from the evidence gathered thus far by a veteran CIA agent's research, that there actually is a Russian effort to influence the U.S., but not when it comes to the election. Instead, its efforts are to impact the U.S. energy policy regarding fracking.

Why? Use this link to not only read the article, but to watch a brief and concise video clip from the Tucker Carlson Show with guest reporter Kevin Mooney to learn the details. The dots between Russia and U.S. Environmental groups being funneled millions of dollars to protest and lobby to stop fracking in the U.S. is clearly and convincingly explained.

Obscured in the Fog of Media Misdirection

I've been following national politics for decades. Does that make me an expert on the subject? Not by a long shot! However, I have acquired a reasonably decent education despite the efforts of the colleges and universities I've attended over those decades and my parents taught me well to recognize a smoke screen when I encountered it.

What's going on today with the protests at various venues - mostly on the east coast - has revealed with all the more clarity what's really going on. As I've stated in previous posts here, and as I've been following details of information here and there from an array of sources, the current reaction to the nation electing a man who clearly intends to "drain the swamp" of its infestation and putrid odors has forced the globalist elites to engage at a more intense, in your face, level in order to push back.

Just who is "Antifa"? Where do they come from? Who funds them? Obviously they are coordinated through the Internet on various platforms of social media and are organized to move about the country quickly in order to utilize their assets of thugs who are willing to do their bidding in various regions. Reading this article provides us with some interesting perspectives and revelations on this issue, and, more interestingly, reveals just how the media provides them cover when public reaction to their violence begins to heat up. Anyone with a modicum of common sense can see right through the B.S. that seeking peace through violence is double speak and clarifies to us their mantra, "By any means necessary!"

IMHO, this example clearly illustrates some revelations which much of the public is oblivious to. The media is clearly leftist oriented. This has been proven multiple times over the past decades, but has been focused sine the election. The media is a tool which is being used by the globalist elites to lie and cover for their "boots on the ground" of which many are cowardly in that they wear scarfs over their faces to hide behind while attacking their targets. I don't believe for one second these "Antifa" thugs are grassroots. I seem to recall the previous president stating, "I want a civilian security force, just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." Why do you think his administration engaged in "Fast & Furious"? It irks the Left that the nation already has a national civilian security force; it' called the millions of 2nd amendment advocates they've been trying so hard to neuter for decades. The media is engaging in full-on propaganda in an effort to deceive and confuse consumers who are ignorant of the truths and facts behind their true agenda.

Why Pres. Trump has yet to launch an investigation into this is perplexing to me. But then, it's clear from what's transpired over his first nine months in office, that he's got his hands full with the diversions and insurrection by the media of destroying key cabinet members and advisors in the "swamp". The corruption is clearly so pervasive there - especially from the previous administration members and his campaign opponent - that it seems to me Trump is having to carefully and strategically pick which battle in the war is dealt with next. 

It's clear to me that this is a struggle of epic proportions for our nation's future existence. Leftists, having had control of the agenda for decades, are now pulling out the stops to deal with what they know to be a rising up and resisting of the shrinking middle-class fighting back against their agenda of bigger government and greater regulatory control of our lives in every respect.

A Lesson In Prosperity

A modern parable on the effectiveness of socialism:

An economics professor at a local college made a statement to his colleagues that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism was a good idea, that no one would feel bad, and they looked forward to to a society where no one would be poor or rich, but that everyone one would be equal and happy.

The professor told the class, "Okay, let's conduct an economics experiment in this class and see how well Obama's plan works." After the initial stir of excitement from the class, he explained that all grades for the class will be averaged and that everyone will receive the same grade, so that no one will fail and no one will exceed by getting an A grade (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home for the students and more readily understood).

After the classes first test, the grades were averaged and the class was told that everyone got a B. The student who studied hard were a bit upset and the students who hardly studied - if at all - were pleased. (These students were confident socialism was a good thing.) As the second test was taken, the students who studied very little had studied even less for the test, and the ones who studied hard on the first test, resentful of what had happened on the first test, wanted a free ride, so they studied even less than before.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy with this outcome. When the third test rolled around, the class average was an F. As the tests came and went, the average score for the class never improved. Bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in negative feelings towards other classmates, and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, at the end of the course all failed and the professor told them that socialism applied in the real world as an economic model would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to put any effort to succeed into their work.

The following five sentences are possibly the most important ones anyone will ever read and all apply to the lesson of this class's experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the rich out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anyone anything that the government did not take from someone else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of providing financial support for them, and when the other half realizes that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they worked for, then that point is the beginning of the end of any nation. 

For a current, real world, example of how well socialism works, just take a look at the country of Venezuela.

Socialism is nothing more than a con on the ignorant!

Dropping Like Flies

It's not looking good... the darkness seems to be looming over the horizon.

Over the past several months the President Trump's people chosen to assist him in making policy decisions has been consistently resigned, or been fired for various reasons. I don't recall this many, although there were a few here or there, in previous administrations; especially the democrat ones.

What's going on? As always, there are different ways to look at this. One way is that those who've left had skeletons that were outed from the closet which were damaging enough to force them out either through a request to resign, or not skilled adequately for the demands entailed in the position. Another is that the political opposition is digging into their background and using the media to do one of two things; expose questionable character issues about them, or manufacture them, promote them through the media - "people have a right to know" - long enough to damage their credibility to the point of them bowing out.

The latest is Sabastian Gorka, (the people's comments are most interesting in this article) preceded by Steve Bannon, Anthony Scaramucci, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, and Preet Bharara. One can't help but wonder how many more will be ousted in the coming months. 

The media narrative is that Trump's administration is in chaos. The loyalists who still support him see it from another perspective; the establishment in D.C. who don't want to see their control of a global agenda modified are patiently working behind the scenes to strip from the staff of those who would advise the President on policy decision and effectively isolate him to the point of ineffectiveness regarding his campaign promises. The elite currently in control view it as threatening their ability to maintain the status quo that's been in place for decades.

Some might say, "But, Trump's flip-flopped on the Afghanistan situation!" To those who pay attention to the media spin on everything regarding his administration which has only been in for nine months will buy it hook, line and sinker. For those who listened to Trump explain why he changed his tune from the campaign and understand that as a candidate limited knowledge and understanding of what's actually going on and at stake, will realize he's making a more informed and appropriate decision. If it were Obama suddenly reversing his Afghanistan policy for whatever reason, you could be certain that the media would've supported him with devotional accolades.

What I am disappointed about Trump's dealing with the media opposition is that he's not utilized the resources available to him like Pres. Reagan did. I believe he would be much more effective if he were to make occasional outreach messages to the country explaining in specifics what and why he's doing what he's decided to do on a particular policy decision. Get the country informed directly rather than allowing the press to spin it.

If he doesn't incorporate at least some level of this proven approach, I tend to feel that the current tactics from the likes of Waters, Schumer, Pelosi, and McConnell will neutralize his ability to remain the President for long. The rhetoric and hype of the social justice faction in the country are gaining too much momentum with their statues take-downs, reactions to the SDSU's president asking the Muslim Student Assoc. to condemn the recent Barcelona attack, and forcing opposition groups to cancel their rally, like freedom of speech advocate groups in San Francisco today.

They Know Not of What They Support

The youth of today who, because of their insatiable desire to be "cool", "with it", and "in the know" about what's considered acceptable in their circles today, are philosophically jumping on the band wagon of socialist ideals, mainly because they've not been exposed to the basics of economics and the benefits of a free enterprise system. Thus, they are convinced that those ideals will actually result in something better than what they're currently enjoying while indulging in the most affluent society ever known to man. 

How can, and why do, I say this? Just watch Ami Horwitz's short video of "Man on the street: Income Inequality" and listen to how they respond to his questions/points he shares with them and it will become obvious. 

If this trend doesn't get turned around, I personally predict the country doesn't have more than 30 years, tops, to become like Venezuela. Maybe sooner!

House Democrats Hold WA State Hostage

The Washington State House of Representative Democrats are letting politics rule over common sense, ruining the states economy and destroying the hopes of anyone wishing to develop rural lands in the state, by refusing to vote on the Hirsch decision of the State Supreme Court.

Following are excerpts from three legislators - one Republican and two Democrats - who've written their constituents to explain the impact of this failure to act on resolving this critical issue during the state's longest legislative session in its history this year. 

Reading them, both to compare how the Democrats spin this issue, illustrates just how disingenuous the Democrats are about telling the truth regarding this critical issue. Note who's to blame in the Democrat's message, compared to who's to blame in the Republican's message.

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First, Rep. Vick from the 18th District:

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

After the longest legislative session in state history, 193 days, there still remains some unfinished business – passing a comprehensive, long-term Hirst fix.

For those of you not familiar with Hirst, you will be soon if a solution is not reached in short order. Hirst refers to the flawed state Supreme Court decision from last October in which the court ruled that in order for counties to comply with the Growth Management Act, they have the responsibility to ensure water availability for land-use decisions, instead of relying on the Department of Ecology (DOE).

To say this is problematic and concerning is an understatement. In fact, Hirst is the single largest property rights issue I have faced since being elected to the Legislature. Many do not realize the critical nature of this ruling. It will effect property values, curb construction and development – exacerbating the affordable housing crisis that is hitting every corner of our state, and stretch our local government resources.

Counties don’t have the resources to pay for the necessary legal and on-site hydrogeological analysis that would be required for each and every building permit within their jurisdictions, nor do they want the responsibility of this unfunded mandate.

The court’s decision also states residential permit-exempt wells are no longer exempt, making it next to impossible for landowners to dig wells on their private property. It should be pointed out that the permit-exempt wells account for only about 1 percent of statewide water usage. For decades, the tradition in Washington has been that residential wells (generally defined as ones that draw less than 5,000 gallons of water a day) do not need a permit. If you own land and want to build a home on it, you could drill a well without asking permission of the government. Not now.

The ramifications of this ruling are substantial. When you have the DOE telling you how bad this could be, there is reason to worry. The department actually testified before the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee during the legislative session, calling the Hirst decision “an…enormous hardship for families that looks like it could be getting worse in the next few years.” You can watch the public hearing here.

The Hirst decision would be devastating to our real estate market and construction industry. Real estate and construction are how we measure the strength of our local economy.

This will not only negatively impact the economy in rural communities, but urban areas will also feel the effects. Those of you familiar with our property tax system, understand this would cause a tax shift. As land is devalued in rural areas, property owners in our urban regions will end up paying more in taxes to make up the loss.

We are already seeing the effects on our banking, building and real estate industries. Washington Federal has said it will not be lending on properties in the state of Washington that have had wells drilled after Oct. 6, 2016. You can read more by clicking “Citing Hirst, lender limits real estate loans” from the Columbia Basin Herald on Aug. 8, 2017.

It was frustrating we could not get a solution passed during the legislative session. Washington state has enough water and families should be allowed to access it on their private property. With this in mind, Republicans felt a comprehensive, long-term Hirst solution was a priority when the 2017 legislative session began.

The Senate passed a measure early in the regular session, Senate Bill 5239, which would have returned us to the system the way it was prior to the court decision. The Senate ended up passing the bill four times: Once in the regular session, and again in each of the three special sessions. Unfortunately, the majority party in the House refused to allow a vote on the measure. This was very disappointing as the Senate bill was bipartisan, and I believe there would have been bipartisan support in the House if we would have voted on the bill. Rural Democrats understand the ramifications of this ruling on the communities in their legislative districts.

On July 20, we were brought back to Olympia to vote on a bipartisan striking amendment to Senate Bill 5239 that we hoped would finally give us a fix. Once again, the majority party in the House refused to bring this solution up for consideration, despite the likelihood of it passing in both chambers.

Republicans in the House and Senate have continued to negotiate in good faith. Unfortunately, as part of negotiations in the last month, the majority party in the House said they wanted tribes to be given the authority to demand that the DOE close basins. This is a relinquishment of our constitutional duties. I would not support this, nor do I see any of my colleagues in the Republican Caucus supporting it.

A final point, the court ruling passed on a 6-3 vote. Washington State Supreme Court Justice Debra L. Stephens’ stated in her dissent: “The majority’s decision hinges on an interpretation of RCW 19.27.097 that is unsupported by the plain language of the statute, precedent, or common sense.”

With that, I am hoping common sense will prevail. We need it to prevail. The longer we go without a Hirst solution, uncertainty will continue to grow for families, builders, lenders and local governments. The economic effects will become a stark reality – banks won’t be issuing loans, counties won’t issue building permits, and undeveloped property will be rendered worthless. However, we must not give in just to reach a solution in this critical property rights issue, but stand strong for what is right and in this case, is just common sense.

Sincerely,

Brandon Vick
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Next, there's this message from Reps. Lori Dolan and Beth Doglio:

A quick summary of the last few days of session:

A deal was reached last week between House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, on the state's $4 billion capital budget. This budget would have supported tens of thousands of good-paying construction jobs around the state.

It would have financed critical improvements to North Thurston High School, Roosevelt Elementary, and several other schools in our community. The Thurston County Readiness Center and Evergreen also had projects on the list.

(Click here for a full listing of capital projects in the 22nd Legislative District.)

These critical infrastructure projects will not be funded in the near term because Senate Republicans held the capital budget hostage. They killed $4 billion in community investments and tens of thousands of jobs during the height of construction season because they wouldn't compromise with our Democratic proposal to hold all property owners harmless who have been caught in the Supreme Court Hirst decision for the next 24 months while a more permanent water management solution is created.

We are extremely disappointed with this outcome. Killing an agreed-to capital budget that benefits the entire state is a complete failure of leadership from the Senate Republicans.

Additional background:

The capital budget (sometimes known as the construction budget) creates tens of thousands of jobs across the state. These resources build schools, colleges, state parks, dental clinics, and make improvements to our mental health facilities.

This year’s capital budget would have included over $1 billion for new school construction – a state record and a critical investment to meet our obligation to fully fund education.

Negotiators representing both parties in the Senate and the House reached an agreement on a $4 billion capital budget.

Here are some of the investments the capital budget would make:

• Tens of thousands of jobs in construction, engineering and natural resources
• A record $1 billion to build new public schools, which would help satisfy the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision to fully fund our schools
• $800 million in projects at our colleges and universities
• Improvements to state and community mental health facilities
• Local construction projects in every corner of the state
• Affordable housing funding when the housing crisis is reaching its peak
• Projects to bring safe, clean water to communities throughout Washington

Regrettably, the Republican-led Senate killed these vital investments in our state’s future when they adjourned without voting on the budget.

Up until this past Tuesday, Senate Republicans refused to meet on the capital budget until an agreement was reached on a water rights dispute regarding the state Supreme Court’s Hirst decision.

Hirst is a complex water issue that affects landowners, builders, tribes, and the environment. House Democrats negotiated in good faith to solve the issue. Most recently, Democrats offered to provide immediate relief for the next two years for every property owner currently in limbo over the Hirst issue, which would give lawmakers and key stakeholders additional time to find a long-term solution agreeable to all sides, but Senate Republicans rejected all our proposals.

Holding the capital budget hostage in order to extract a policy concession elsewhere is counterproductive. Rejecting an agreed-to $4 billion investment in our state’s economy over the next two years will hurt Washington’s economy as a whole - including those looking for relief from Hirst.

While the actions of the Senate Republicans have the Legislature ending on a major down note, 2017 did have many wins. Those wins include a historic investment in K-12 education, the creation of the new Department of Children, Youth and Families and the passage of paid family and medical leave, which will help working families across the state.

Even with all these successes, House Democrats understand how important the capital budget is and are committed to continue working on the water issue. We will gladly come back to pass a capital budget and a Hirst fix whenever the Senate Republicans are ready to compromise.

Beth & Laurie

By comparing these two ideological views, it becomes obvious who's bullshitting whom.

The Interview of Unexpected Outcomes

Two men sit facing each other on a television set; one, a prominent and accomplished newscaster on a global news network station. The other, a prominent and accomplished actor, admired for his consummate acting career.

A series of questions follow after a brief introduction about the actor's television series which poses questions about our universe and life on this planet. The segment from one of his shows obviously was selected to make a segway for one particular question. The questions, coming from the newscaster host have a certain tone to them. But the response the guest actor gives aren't what the newscaster host expects to hear, and it catches him off guard. So, he skips over the rest of his interview and moves directly to the end of the interview where a planned surprise of presenting a gift with the recognition of the actor's birthday is performed and the interview ends.

As you watch this interview you'll notice a date stamp is in the upper left corner of the screen, so we can be certain of when this was - during the Obama administration, revealing the tone the newscaster was presenting in his questions is clearly promoting the president's agenda regarding race. But when the actor replies with answers to his questions about the underlying concept of that agenda, things get a bit uncomfortable.

I share this because this interview clearly reveals a profound truth; that your genetic makeup has nothing to do with your personal ability to succeed in life, and, just because you have a particular ethnicity in common doesn't mean that your life experience, or personal philosophy, will be alike or in agreement on the premise of the question asked. If you watch carefully and with full attention throughout the interview, it will become rather obvious that the interviewer didn't do his homework on his interviewee. 

I would suspect that the newscaster doing this interview would just as soon prefer that the Internet, and its instant ability to archive in multiple places at once, never existed.

The Consequences of Ignorance

The post Charlottesville, VA riots earlier this month have seen anti-slavery sentiment on the east coast by revolutionary thugs in the form of "antifa" and "Black Lives Matter" accelerate like one of Kim Jung Un's test missiles. This has been happening in the past few days in the form of groups going to locations in states around the south and pulling down from their pedestals statues of Confederate Generals.

What's next? Well, Al Sharpton has - within days - called for removing the Jefferson Memorial on the National Park Mall. Will it be all and anything even remotely connected to those who were slave owners? Keep in mind that the leftists and media are doing anything and everything to remove Pres. Trump from his office; a "silent coup" as Rush Limbaugh has clearly stated only a week ago.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This mentality, which is being given much attention in the mainstream media, has its origin in what has been the gradual breakdown and consequent dumbing down of our educational system by design. As I've stated in previous posts, a nation of people ignorant of their past are doomed by ignorance to ruin the best thing the world has ever had; a nation of freedoms and liberties which no other nation on earth has had the blessing of enjoying for the past 240+ years.

History, accurate and deep history, which explains the social norms and context of circumstance in the period, has not been taught by the educational system in our nation for decades. (Here's a prime example.) The textbooks which students have had over the past 40 years have gradually been watered down and modified in the explanation of the facts to the point where, despite the tomes that they are, the students today don't even know the actual reason behind why the Civil War was fought.

The following article, and please, note that this article was written years ago, provides an example which nicely illustrates my point about this level of ignorance by the vast majority of younger generations.
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IN DEFENSE OF GENERAL LEE

By Edward C. SmithSaturday, August 21, 1999
© Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company

Let me begin on a personal note. I am a 56-year-old, third-generation, African American Washingtonian who is a graduate of the D.C. public schools and who happens also to be a great admirer of Robert E. Lee's.

Today, Lee, who surrendered his troops to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House 134 years ago, is under attack by people -- black and white -- who have incorrectly characterized him as a traitorous, slaveholding racist. He was recently besieged in Richmond by those opposed to having his portrait displayed prominently in a new park. My first visit to Lee's former home, now Arlington National Cemetery, came when I was 12 years old, and it had a profound and lasting effect on me. Since then I have visited the cemetery hundreds of times searching for grave sites and conducting study tours for the Smithsonian Institution and various other groups interested in learning more about Lee and his family as well as many others buried at Arlington. Lee's life story is in some ways the story of early America. He was born in 1807 to a loving mother, whom he adored. His relationship with his father, Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, (who was George Washington's chief of staff during the Revolutionary War) was strained at best. Thus, as he matured in years, Lee adopted Washington (who had died in 1799) as a father figure and patterned his life after him. Two of Lee's ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence, and his wife, Mary Custis, was George Washington's foster great-granddaughter.

Lee was a top-of-the-class graduate of West Point, a Mexican War hero and superintendent of West Point. I can think of no family for which the Union meant as much as it did for his.  But it is important to remember that the 13 colonies that became 13 states reserved for themselves a tremendous amount of political autonomy. In pre-Civil War America, most citizens' first loyalty went to their state and the local community in which they lived. Referring to the United States of America in the singular is a purely post-Civil War phenomenon.

All this should help explain why Lee declined command of the Union forces -- by Abraham Lincoln -- after the firing on Fort Sumter. After much agonizing, he resigned his commission in the Union army and became a Confederate commander, fighting in defense of Virginia, which at the outbreak of the war possessed the largest population of free blacks (more than 60,000) of any Southern state.

Lee never owned a single slave, because he felt that slavery was morally reprehensible. He even opposed secession. (His slaveholding was confined to the period when he managed the estate of his late father-in-law, who had willed eventual freedom for all of his slaves.)

Regarding the institution, it's useful to remember that slavery was not abolished in the nation's capital until April 1862, when the country was in the second year of the war. The final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was not written until September 1862, to take effect the following Jan. 1, and it was intended to apply only to those slave states that had left the Union.  Lincoln's preeminent ally, Frederick Douglass, was deeply disturbed by these limitations but determined that it was necessary to suppress his disappointment and "take what we can get now and go for the rest later." The "rest" came after the war.  Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the few civil rights leaders who clearly understood that the era of the 1960s was a distant echo of the 1860s, and thus he read deeply into Civil War literature. He came to admire and respect Lee, and to this day, no member of his family, former associate or fellow activist that I know of has protested the fact that in Virginia Dr. King's birthday -- a federal holiday -- is officially celebrated as "Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson-Martin Luther King Day."

Lee is memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol and in stained glass in the Washington Cathedral.  It is indeed ironic that he has long been embraced by the city he fought against and yet has now encountered some degree of rejection in the city he fought for.

In any event, his most fitting memorial is in Lexington, Va.: a living institution where he spent his final five years. There the much-esteemed general metamorphosed into a teacher, becoming the president of small, debt-ridden Washington College, which now stands as the well-endowed Washington and Lee University.

It was in Lexington that he made a most poignant remark a few months before his death. "Before and during the War Between the States I was a Virginian," he said. "After the war I became an American."  I have been teaching college students for 30 years, and learned early in my career that the twin maladies of ignorance and misinformation are not incurable diseases. The antidote for them is simply to make a lifelong commitment to reading widely and deeply. I recommend it for anyone who would make judgment on figures from the past, including Robert E. Lee.

[Dr. Smith is co-director of the Civil War Institute at American University in Washington, D.C.]

Footnote: Just today I viewed a report on the Tucker Carlson Show on FOXNews that ESPN has pulled an Asian sports commentary employee from covering a football game because, wait for it, wait for it... his name is Robert Lee. I kid you NOT! How's that for political correctness? We're in a very dangerous spot today. And, then there's this from the U.N.!