Intelligence is a G od Given Tool

Other than the fact that intelligence is something we are born with, it's simply a tool like all others. It can be used for good or bad. Depending on who's using it, one can get hurt badly. 

Have you ever witnessed someone using a chain saw for the first time? It often makes you want to look away to avoid seeing the pending danger. 

I used to have a love affair with intelligence. As a young child enrolled in a Jewish parochial school where  students were segregated based on intelligence, I managed to move my way up the ladder to the 'smart' class. The school administration decided that the uber smart ones needed to be further split up by gender. The thinking being that those smart kids need no further distractions (boys from girls and girls from boys).

I found myself surrounded by super smart boys. I was arguably the dummy amongst them. While most of these boys turned out to be extremely successful in various professions and businesses I eventually managed to eke out a career in the software industry. My colleagues became doctors and lawyers. But not just any lawyer, Harvard graduates. Not just any doctor, John Hopkins doctors. I'm in no way objecting to how my school segregated us. That is a discussion for another blog. But what resulted from all of this was my obsession with intelligent people. I held them in super high esteem. I put this human characteristic above all others by a mile. 

It took me many years later to get over this errant obsession. At one point in my career I was hired to work for a small consulting firm. My boss who actually hired me was a bonafide genius. He was a child prodigy with a photographic memory. While it might have taken me weeks to design a new system for a client, it would take him only hours to do so. I was enamoured by his brilliance. I worked for the firm for about 6 years. Then Black Tuesday or Blue Monday came. We were in the midst of a devastating recession. For the previous 6 years I worked my back off, staying late hours often daily, always billable,  at client offices. My boss and his partners did well by me. Every hour I put in, helped them buy better cars and houses. Good for them and me. The firm grew from about 6 people to about 30 in those 6 years. But when the recession hit, my boss called me in to the office. I finished my latest project at the client site in record time. My reward was to get laid off. I certainly understood that times were looking dire and he had every right to save his business. But this is what he said:

'Leon I'll give you 2 choices: We have a potential new client. We are waiting for him to sign a contract. We have no work for you now but why don't you go home without pay and as soon as he signs, I'll call you. Alternatively I can terminate your employment right now and issue you a pink slip so you can apply for employment insurance. As I was still green back then and had never been laid off or fired before, I didn't know what to do. Although I wasn't nearly as smart as my boss I did realize that what he was offering me was not a choice. I had a new born daughter at the time and a big looming mortgage too. I was hurt and felt insulted. So I told him that I could not afford to go home and wait for the phone to (maybe) ring. Give me the pink slip ASAP! I also asked him about severance. He said that he could give me 2 weeks pay. Again despite my ignorance on this subject, I responded that 2 weeks pay after working for 6 years didn't sound adequate. He quickly ushered me out of the office and made it clear to the remaining employees that I was persona non grata. Worse still is what happened later. 

With no prospect of getting a job anytime soon and the bills piling up quickly, I needed whatever severance was due to me NOW!. After calling him and asking for my money he responded that his accountant was out of town for a few weeks but as soon as he returns my boss will get back to me. That's when I contacted a lawyer who said that typically I should be owed 2 weeks pay per year of employment. That was the industry standard back then. If I went to court, I could get more. I paid my lawyer to write him a letter threatening court action unless he paid me 12 weeks severance within a certain time frame. I got my money in the end without going to court and I lost all respect for my boss. 

After enduring this seminal event,  it changed my way of thinking about intelligence. From that time on I no longer revered intelligence at all. I realized that it was simply a G-d given tool.

Why this story now? 

Because I see a lot of 'intelligent' people turning the world upside down (sorry for using my blog title). In particular I see many judges in the US including state attorney generals and even Supreme Court justices who appear to have lost their way. So many 'intelligent' people have let politics and their extreme hatred of the president, influence their decisions. I see the exact same thing happening to my Jewish homeland in Israel as well. The Leftists in Israel have managed to control the courts and as such have pushed the elected government officials aside despite the wishes of the majority of the people who voted for them. I see it in my own country where many well educated people for various reasons (some nefarious) continue to keep one of our worst PM's ever, in power. 

Moreover I see case after case of the average blue collar worker getting the existential things right while the highly educated and opinionated  intelligentsia get mired in silly unimportant details while missing the big picture. 

I see many bright people let themselves be brainwashed by the mainstream media. From advocating to shutting down the world over the corona virus to calling Israel an apartheid state, there are far too many 'bright' people on the wrong side of things. 

Welcome to the New Banana Republic

I'm talking about the United States of America. 

For the last 4 years the Trump administration has been undermined in every possible way. It has been spied upon by its own organizations like the FBI & FISA courts who are normally relied on to uphold the law. It all began under Obama's watch when he decided to spy on Trump's campaign and it continues on until now. All means of hoaxes were brought on Trump and his associates. Hillary Clinton and her pals were behind some of the most nefarious of these. There are too many to mention here so I'll just mention a couple. The multiple investigations on the president for collusion with the Russians and later the Ukrainians stand out. You might recall the multi-year, multi-million dollar scam known now as the Muller Report which yielded absolutely nothing but somehow still managed to 'indict' Trump for misbehaviour. So many innocent people including generals in the US armed forces were scapegoated under the guise of Russian collusion. Turned out that the real collusion was done by the former Obama administration. The Hillary campaign used their money and influence to buy a disgraced British spy (Steele) who was a Trump hater (what else is new) who made up the entire story of Trump's Russian collusion. Actual fact that it was Hillary and the Clinton Foundation who were paying off the Russians to try and turn the election in her favour. The Biden family similarly enriched themselves by colluding with enemy states.

For far too long we have seen a 24/7 attack against a sitting president. The Democratic party, the MSM (mainstream media like CNN, MSNBC and just about every news outlet in the world), the Tech social giants (Google, Facebook, Twitter), our higher learning institutions which are all Leftwing and continue to brainwash our children, government law and order organizations (as mentioned above), nefarious billionaires like George Soros & Michael Bloomberg who fund the constant attacks on Trump and try to commit chaos unto normal American citizens and others. 

So what this had done is made us think that this is acceptable. This has become the new normal. Heck, if I didn't wake up on any given day to hear about some new charge against the president, I'd be surprised. 

The swamp that the President referred to in Washington was/is deep. It also contained many two faced Republicans who would be only too happy to throw the president under the bus and certainly have done so. 

Nothing like this has happened in US history. Despite doing the things he promised, like turning the US economy around, bringing manufacturing back to the States (Obama said it couldn't be done), bringing a semblance of peace to the world (have you noticed that under his watch there was no 9/11 like disasters?), moved the US embassy to it's long term and most reliable ally in the world, Israel, more real jobs to every segment of the US population including Blacks, Hispanics, women and other minorities, the steady stream of libellous attacks on him continue.  Despite people saying that he'll bring us into WWIII with the Russians, North Koreans, China and Iran he has done the opposite. He rebuilt the military which Obama emasculated. Peace through power is the Reagan policy he followed and it worked. There are far too many fantastic things that President Trump has managed to accomplish in less than 4 short years. Far too many to document here. It probably works out to about the same number of attacks against him. There is no doubt that he is the hardest working president who refuses to accept a dime from his salary (as promised). 

He wisely used his power (American power) to coerce uncooperative states (both friends and enemies) to do their share to combat terror. Unlike all previous administrations, he thinks out of the box and tries new ideas. No longer letting the Palestinians run the show is just one example of this. By bypassing them he was able to  negotiate once unheard of peace deals between Israel and some Muslim Gulf states.

But now the US has entered a new low. It is on the cusp of stealing an election. Despite the constant mantra by his aforementioned enemies calling for a blue Democratic wave with fake pollsters predicting a 17% gain in some states, the election was close. As Trump predicted, the Dems changed the voting rules to allow all sorts of crazy mail in ballots which would put the election in a handful of swing states in limbo. 

It's obvious that voter fraud has been committed in all of these swing states and probably others as well. Secretly, large dumps of weird (democratic only) ballots were delivered in the middle of the night to many election poll offices. Magically computer glitches appeared whereby thousands of Republican votes were tabulated as Democrat votes. Large numbers of deceased people voted for Biden. Many Democrats voted in multiple states. The math doesn't add up either. Read this.

Despite all of the odds stacked against him, President Trump still managed to garner over 70 million votes. But it's not enough. One can expect this type of behaviour from a typical banana republic. I would expect this to happen in Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela or one of a dozen other dictatorial regimes whereby elections are a joke. Everyone in their respective countries know this, as do we. When Iran has an election, does anyone really think that the radical Muslim Ayatollahs would lose?

Welcome to 2020 where one of the most fair minded and powerful countries in the world has finally crossed the line to join up with their former enemies. 

This story has not yet ended. Trump is still the president until January. He has every right and in fact obligation to prove voter fraud to the courts. The problem is that there is not much time for these complex cases to be investigated and litigated before the Supreme Court which is where this must ultimately be heard. 

I suspect that one day, (if in fact Trump gives up) years from now, the history books might see this election as I see it. The title might be '2020, the Year that the Election was Stolen'. If we let this happen, democracy will be dealt a sharp blow to the once largest democratic country in the world. 

Bari Weiss, Why are you shocked?

Dear Ms. Weiss,

You used to work for the New York Times (NYT) and recently quit after seeing the insidious antisemitism that is allowed to grow like fungus over there. Now you recently wrote a good article titled:

Stop Being Shocked - American Liberalism Is In Danger

I am not in the least shocked with Leftist/Liberal institutional antisemitism. They have a long record of hating Jews and attacking Israel. These institutions include the Democratic Party, the Mainstream Media (including the NYT), our educational system and others. The difference between you and I is that I have never been sucked in to believe their arrogant paradigms. Before I would have ever even applied to work at the NYT I would have researched their historical record on Israel and other Jewish matters. After doing that, I would have surely ran the other way. The NYT in particular had a hand in helping to forget about Jews being slaughtered and gassed in places like Auschwitz during the war. And for all these years since then, they have almost always sided against Israel and the Jews. 

So after a few years working at the infamous NYT you finally realized that the place is an antisemitic shit hole? Now you are telling us not to be shocked?

Perhaps you should remove your blinders alltogether and realize that the man you hate (President Trump) is your friend. He is the Jews best friend in the US right now and has been his entire life (this you too can and should research). 

I’m thrilled that you finally realized exactly who you were working for  and more thrilled that you are speaking out against them and against the big powerful progressive machine. But you still seem to be sitting on the fence. Why? You still have a Leftist style ‘hate’ for President Trump. Perhaps you have swallowed so much of the disinformation, lies and garbage being spoken and written by organizations like your previous employer that you are not even aware of it. 

As a journalist who’s now finally free of the tangled web of the NYT, I urge you to do what you do best and independently identify who the real Donald Trump is, based on his policies and actions. Please try to ignore his many mispoken words or words taken out of context. He is a man of action after all and has a great resume as President to prove it. Unlike you and perhaps myself, he is not the best communicator. He as much said so in his previous debate. But like you and perhaps me has courage. But he has it in spades! He also has an excellent instinct to do what is right, at the right time. I sure hope that this post reaches you in good time!

Best Regards,

Leon Kushner

Toronto, Canada

 

Don't be fooled by the Liberal's candidate in our riding of York Centre

The previous Liberal MP (Member of parliament) for our mostly Jewish suburb in Toronto, (called York Centre) was a Jewish man named Michael Levitt who resigned in order to take the CEO of the Canadian Simon Wiesenthal Centre after they fired Avi Benlolo from this post. 

Much like in the US where Jews tend to vote Democratic, here in Canada, Jews tend to vote for the Liberal party which currently holds power with the likes of PM Justin Trudeau. Even when Liberal party policy and actions prove that they are not our best friends (our = Jews and Israel) and in fact have an ongoing love affair with Islam, Palestinians and Arabs, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. This holds doubly true for the Democrats as many of their leaders are vile Jew haters. 

Sadly, I have little faith in my Jewish community to change this practise. The last time a Conservative won in my riding of York Centre was 9 years ago when Stephen Harper was our PM. I see the problem as a mix of blind stupidity and laziness. The Liberal party leaders know this too since despite the many serious, treasonous actions and behaviours that our current PM has gotten away with proves this point. Despite all the damage that he has done to us and our beautiful country, he was elected again in a second term. So all they had to do was to find a Jewish candidate and a female to boot. Heck she’s even an Israeli and a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem! I know her personally as she taught yoga classes (as a substitute instructor) at the Jewish Y a few years ago. A pleasant woman to look at and talk to, she’s arguably the perfect candidate, right? After all, if you want to win this seat you must appease the mostly Jewish constituents here. Her name (a nice Israeli one) is Ya'ara Saks.

The only problem is that she is a self hater. Like Bernie Sanders in the US, he was touted by many Jewish (even Israeli) organizations as a Jewish hero. Some of the headlines I recall went something like this: "For the first time in American history, they may get a Jewish president!” They were too lazy to look into his history. As soon as they found out that he was Jewish, they looked no farther. 

So the Liberals found Ya’ara Saks. Here are but a few of her thoughts:

She wants Jews all over the world to end the ‘occupation’ of Palestinians.

She supported the AirBNB boycott of Israel.

She said: We must explore the darker chapters in Zionism.

She supported the 2019 anti-Israel at the UN.

You can see these points on a flyer from our Conservative party candidate. They finally gave up on the Jews (who can blame them) and brought forward a Philippine candidate by the name of Julius Tiangson. Here are the bullet points for his party on that same flyer:

Voted with Israel in the UN during Harper’s tenure.

Opposed BDS including the failed AirBNB boycott of Israel.

Recognized Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel.

Wants to move our embassy to Jerusalem.

Supports the right of Israelis to self determination.

Supports the only true democracy in the region - Israel.

Our neighbourhood has a large Philippino population. Thanks to many Jewish families, we brought mostly young Philippino nannies here to help raise our children. They thrived here. They grew so large that every year in our neighbourhood they have a huge street party here with all sorts of vendors & entertainment. In our local park where I often walk my dogs, there is a huge outdoor amphitheatre where their community usually performs (music and dancing) on Israel’s birthday. 

So please, don’t be fooled by the Liberal’s candidate. If you hate Jews/Israel then by all means for the self hating Jew, Ya’ara Saks. If you like Jews and support Israel then you must vote for Julius Tiangson.

If you want to know more about her, read this.

Let Me Spell It Out For You

The upcoming US election brings 2 extreme opposites up for contention and the results will be extremely different. 

On the one hand, if President Trump is reelected, the world will be in a better place. He has proved his capability in turning around a stilted economy to one that has resulted in more jobs for ALL citizens, women, men, young, old, Black, White, poor & rich. And these are good jobs in valuable sectors like manufacturing and energy, not the low paying service jobs that the previous administration bragged about creating. These are real jobs in the private sector, not the 'fake' jobs in the bureaucratic government sector. These jobs are the same jobs that Obama said were lost forever and will never come back. 

The only manufacturing that the Democrats are good at is the manufacturing of bold lies. We all know that the bigger the lie, the best chance it has to stick. And boy have they ever told some big ones. Their entire policy (yes they do have a policy) has been to not allow Donald Trump to be their president. They built every possible lie up front, prior to the 2016 election and of course over the past 4 years. They are experts at projection. They accused Trump of colluding with the Russians to generate dirt against the Hillary campaign, when in fact that's exactly what THEY did. Every hoax they put in place to attack the president was built on exactly the terrible, treasonous actions that they themselves did. 

The President has made the world a whole lot safer with his policies and actions. Like abrogating Obama's Iran deal. You know the one where the former president and VP Biden air lifted millions of dollars of cold hard cash to the mullahs in Iran in the middle of the night to try to convince them (appease) not to continue to develop nuclear bombs and missiles. Making the US energy independent by cancelling ridiculous laws from the previous regime, that made it impossible for American companies to drill for oil either by fracking or off shore in their own country instead of relying on enemies to supply it. 

The Trump administration stands for law and order which means that its citizens will be safe. This should be the prime focus for every state leader. He has the support of every police office in the country because they know he means it because he not only says it, he's done it. As opposed to Biden and his handlers who want to defund the police and eliminate other security agencies.

His accomplishments are so staggering that it would take me hundreds of pages to list them all. Likewise it would take many pages to list all the policies and actions that Biden has gotten wrong during his 47 years in politics. 

The president is not a good a communicator. We know it, the Dems know it and the president knows it. But actions speak louder than words. Always have, always will. He is a man of action. I wish he was better at using words but it's certainly not my first wish. His handling of just about every issue (with policy and actions) has been right on. From being the first president to really stand by its closest and most reliable ally, Israel to his razor focus on a giant enemy, China who has managed somehow to slip under the radar all these years until now. He is arguably one of the most courageous presidents of all time. He has no problem with holding our enemies to the fire and asking our 'friends' for moneys that are owed (a great example of this is how he managed to get members of NATO to fork up the billions of dollars of delinquent payments). 

While Trump was dealing with the Corona virus and other real, existential threats (like eliminating the worlds most dangerous terrorists: Bin Laden's son, al-Baghdadi, al-Muhajir of ISIS & Soleimani to name a few), the Dems were busy building a coup to up-seat him. But despite investigation after investigation they came up empty. The multi-year Muller report yielded nothing for example. While the president took the virus seriously (I know that's not the narrative that the Dems want you to believe) by early on stopping incoming flights from China (exactly where the virus was created), the Dems (Biden in particular) accused him of xenophobia. Nancy Pelosi rushed to China Town on camera to help make their point. Now suddenly they accuse him of not taking the virus seriously. 

So thanks to the President's excellent good sense, he and his excellent people would turn the economy around again and soon. He wants to open it up. He wants to keep you safe while not destroying the lives and businesses of ordinary citizens. The Dems who have clearly turned sharp left in the last 10 years, want to bring Socialism to the US. This is not just a statement by me. This is their stated goal. It's part of their Green New Deal. It's about getting rid of cars, cows, coal, nuclear energy (in fact all and any American energy sectors). It includes policies like open borders. Their plans are designed to create a larger government with more power than ever before, built to control Americans. It's designed to make us dependant on the government for EVERYTHING while destroying the natural ingenuuity, work ethic and morality of its citizens. These combined policies will destroy America from the inside out. And since America is currently the world's largest and most powerful country, it will have a disastrous impact on the world. 

While the Dems are composed and support nasty, racist, violent organizations like BLM, Antifa, CAIR and other vile, terror sponsoring, war mongering states like Iran & China, the Republicans and their mensch of a leader Donald Trump fights these existential threats and supports and rewards their allies like Israel.  And he's done all of this while being attacked at home by the Democratic party, the MSM (mainstream media), colleges and universities &  the worlds largest tech giants and even some members within his own party who are part of the swamp. 

If G-d forbid Biden wins, the stock market will plummet that very day and will proceed lower in the weeks and months ahead. Because businesses know that Trump policies helped them succeed and Biden's policies will help them go bankrupt. Once again manufacturing will leave the US. The Excellent (fair) trade deals that the president had worked so hard to create would be destroyed over night. All those very real jobs that existed thanks to Trump that were created due to his trade deals, tax code simplification and removal of vast chunks of crippling red tape regulations from previous administrations would come flying back. 

Biden's love affair with the US's enemies like China and Iran would help destroy us all. Spying on American citizens and their opponents in particular would increase 100 fold. Islam terror which if you haven't noticed has been very quiet lately, will come back to haunt us. He is the first president from either party who has thrown away previous insane foreign policies like the one that has let Arabs who call themselves 'Palestinians'  (who have been led by some of the most nefarious leaders of our time), call the shots. Every prior president (especially Obama) has bent over backwards to appease them in order to achieve 'peace' in the Middle East. Trump and his team who are definitely the opposite of insane and who in fact saw the insanity of prior administrations and the EU in particular, finally came to the only logical conclusion. If you want to help make peace over there, one must go around the problem players (The Palis!). And he did. His latest deals with some Gulf States help to prove this point. Under Obama or even Bush, these deals would never have a chance, and they did not. They were never even attempted. 

Those nefarious people who want Biden to win, want him to win for their own slimy reasons. This post is not meant for them. They won't read it and if they did they'd want to shut me down. I'm writing this for those folks who know at heart that at least some of the facts I've mentioned are true. They know that finally under Trump's administration they had finally found real, well paying jobs despite some of them being Black and the president being White (at least before the pandemic hit). They know that thanks to Trump the world is a safer place. They know that their leaders have never admitted defeat in 2016 and have tried every trick in the book (going as far as impeaching him for nothing) to oust him. They know that despite Trump being a poor talker, he is one of the hardest workers they've ever seen. They know deep down (they might not admit it), that Biden suffers from dementia. They know that he's a puppet and that soon after he becomes president, he'd be removed. His handlers would appoint Harris who's record is no less dismal than that of Biden's. And who is equally (if not more so) beholden to the uber Left Islamic-Socialists Squad, led by AOC. While sleepy Joe spends most of his time hiding in his basement, the president never ceases to do his job (the most important job in the world) even when sick with the Covid virus.

Those who continue to call the President names, like children do to one another, names like racist, women hater and too many other nasty names (including 'clown' by Biden during the debate) have devolved into small people. When you've got no facts to back up your argument you always revert to name calling. They suffer from cognitive dissonance. This is a form of self brain washing. They have been told by almost every TV show, be it news channels like CNN or MSNBC, entertainment shows like Saturday Night Live who have constantly insulted the president in the most demeaning ways or sports where they get to watch their favourite athletes take a knee when the Star Spangled Banner is being played, to hate Donald Trump. After all he has orange hair!  Most of these people are not fools. Deep down they know that something is wrong with this picture. But they've swallowed too much of the kool-aid to back out now. It's simply easier to follow this charade despite this being their (and our) demise. It might be painful (ie. they might get a head ache) to even consider alternate views now. But believe me, it will be (not might be) far more painful if they take the easy route, put their blinders on and vote for Biden. He is the real racist. He stands for all the wrong things (if he even stands for anything). He is the real crook. He represents all of the evil in the world right now.  

President Trump is not perfect. Far from it. Because after all, he is a human being like the rest of us. But he is the real patriot in the room. He truly wants the best for all Americans. While Biden and his family (his son Hunter in particular) have made a career in politics to help them gain money (lots of it) and power, the president who was a successful businessman has pushed aside his aspirations to succeed in business for the sake of his country. He risks his life to do so every day.

Some of you might think that the terrible violence that's going on in many Democrat led cities will stop if only we elect Biden. You couldn't be more wrong. That would only embolden them to attack more and harder. 

Some of you might think that I'm exaggerating the issue. That even if Biden wins and even if some of what I say comes true, after 4 years we can throw the Dems out and try again. Again, you couldn't be more wrong. They have stated (if not clearly) that they want to change the rules to help keep them in power.  If elected they plan to appoint more (stack the Supreme Court) Left leaning Democrat judges. Even the Left leaning, late, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg was against this (read this) idea. Remember people that these are life time appointments! 

Perhaps even more devious is their plan to 'stack the electoral college' by creating 2 more Democratic voting states (Washington DC & Puerto Rico). They don't want what's best for the country, they want what's best for them to get into power and stay there forever. Their policies all point to this. Open borders whereby illegal aliens are encouraged to sneak in here and become citizens instantly and of course vote for them are more proof of this. 

If you believe in G-d and agree with what I've said here, I urge you to pray for a Trump/Pence win. 

Even if you don't believe in G-d I urge you to stand with the president. 

I hope I spelled it out for you!

MAGA!

 

Add Chris Wallace to my list of Self Haters

I’ve watched the journalist, Chris Wallace move up through the ranks over his career. His father was the late, famous, Mike Wallace of the TV show ’60 Minutes’. In the US there is only one right wing news channel ‘Fox News’. There one can watch shows like Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Ingraham Angle and others. People like Sean Hannity are super patriots who adore President Trump. But even on Fox there are those who are Left if not official Democrats. People like Juan Williams is definitely one of these. You can watch him on The Five. He is usually one of 5 pundits who analyze the latest news bites. He typically attacks Trump (regardless of the issue) while the rest usually defend and praise the president. Chris Wallace also fits in there like Juan. The pretence is to appear neutral and objective. But in actuality he is neither. It’s a facade.

 My proof is the last debate. As is usually the case, when the president is involved in an official, public debate, he is tag teamed by both his opponents and the moderator. In the recent Trump vs Biden debate, this was no different. If you missed it, let me point out some disgusting points by the moderator, Mr. Wallace:

1. While the president often interrupted Biden, the VP treated the president with the most disrespect ever given to a sitting president in public and aired on TV on a debate that was watched by millions of people (if not billions). Amongst other comments, he told the president to shut up, called him a clown and a liar (more than once). Like him or not, one must treat the President of the USA with respect (in public at least). And what did the moderator (Chris) do? Nothing. In fact he admonished the president for interrupting. What would have happened had Romney told then president Obama during their televised debate to shut up? A decent moderator would have admonished Biden to watch his tongue and offer an apology immediately. With Chris appeasing Biden at every opportunity, Biden obviously felt emboldened to continue to insult the President at will. Can you imagine what world leaders were thinking when they watched that? They were probably shocked and appalled that in the US anyone can insult the President to his face in public on TV, including a former VP and not only get a pass by the moderator but also by the Democratic party and the MSM like CNN approves. 

2. As I write this, terrible violence is ongoing in many cities throughout the US. Mostly in Democratic run cities. Everyone knows that 99% of the violence is caused by Leftists. Uber left wing organizations like Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) are doing the violence. President Trump knows it and certainly speaks up about it regularly. But Biden and Wallace know it too. It’s such a big problem, that everyone knows about it whether they’ll admit it or not. It is arguably the biggest issue facing the US right now. Of course the second wave of the Covid virus and its economic impacts are huge. But if you lived in any of the many Democratic run cities that are under siege by violent rioters, looters, many carrying weapons who have murdered innocent citizens and police and caused millions of dollars of damage to property (both private and public), you would quickly forget about the loss of income or the danger of contracting Covid. You would rightly be concerned about protecting your family and your community. These places are like war zones with fires raging in the streets, sirens wailing and shots fired. So it begs the question, why would the moderator not ask Biden why he and his party seem okay with the violence. Or perhaps ask him directly if he’d disavow Black Lives Matter or Antifa. Instead he asks the President (he’s been asked this a million times already) if he would disavow white supremists who Chris claimed were also behind the violence. To make his point, Chris found a case of a white supremacist who was guilty of being a violent demonstrator. 

One would have thought that this issue of cities throughout the US being torn apart while Biden and his party are pushing to defund police departments throughout the country, close down the DEA (federal drug enforcement) and ICE (Immigration enforcement) and support violent, racist, murdering, Marxist groups like BLM and Antifa would be one of the first questions that must be put to Biden. 

Besides all of the great accomplishments that President Trump has done in less than 4 years (economy, foreign relations, trade, deregulation, jobs, etc.) he has been the best friend to Jews and Israel. Far better than any American president in history. Therefore anyone who disparages Trump for any reason is attacking the Jewish people and of course the one and only tiny Jewish nation, Israel, whether they intended to or not. 

Chris Wallace certainly helped to disparage the president (again). He made it clear who’s side he’s on. In fact just now I heard that both the President and his wife have unfortunately contracted Covid-19.  G-d willing they will both get through it in good health! But even now, instead of wishing them a quick recovery, Chris had to throw in his 2 cents here, admonishing the President’s family for not wearing masks during the debate. If any of Biden’s family were not wearing masks, I doubt we’d hear it from Chris. 

A while back I posted ‘Some Jews are the Cause of Antisemitism’ on my blog. There I laid out a short list of prominent Jewish people who are not only self haters but they promote antisemitism. Since Chris Wallace is Jewish (I have no idea how he sees himself) I hereby add him to my list. 

You Are Not Alone!

I write this column today to honour all of those people who are on the Right. That is, they believe that those on the Left have gone so far Left that they've lost complete focus on what's real vs what's imagined. What's important vs what might seem important. What's true and what's absolutely false. 

Trying to speak out publicly on the Right can cause you harm. It often does. Today there are so many cases of Right wingers getting hurt or even killed for wearing a Trump cap. 

Is it any wonder that most Conservatives or Republicans are quiet when it comes to everything but mundane things like talking about the weather?

That's why all the polls in the 2016 American election were wrong. They all predicted a strong win for Hillary and they all predicted that Trump had no chance of ever becoming the president. We are not looking for trouble. We are not looking for a fight. And most of us are not even looking for an argument. We are convinced that our wishes align with the policies of the leaders that WE choose. 

Despite living in a Left leaning, Liberal country (Canada), I am constantly, happily surprised to meet and hear from people on the Right. Some are people I might have known for years but out of fear of attacks or otherwise negative consequences for them liking President Trump, being avid Zionists, disliking our PM Trudeau, identifying BLM for the antisemitic, communist organization that it really is and conforming to other Right wing thinking, have kept quiet. They have done their best to keep their innermost feelings under wraps. Rather than getting into heated debates with family, friends, colleagues at work, employers or even strangers and risk losing close relationships or even a job, they have decided that it's best to keep quiet. I can certainly relate. Although I

consider myself an exception to a point as I am quite vociferous when it comes to antisemitism and other important issues, I too do not look for a fight. I consider myself non-confrontational. I think most people who know me would agree. Yet I can't tell you how many times I've been sucked in to arguments (actually more like attacks) surrounded by people who can't fathom why anyone would like President Trump or why anyone doesn't like PM Trudeau or why people like me don't agree with THEM on the thought of the day (ie. anything they might come up with on any given moment because tomorrow they might reverse course and think the opposite). I never look for trouble but if asked a question I don't hesitate to give an honest answer. 

I'm in a good position because I'm old and I'm retired. I'm also not famous or wealthy. So I have little to lose by exposing myself as a Jewish activist, proud white Conservative male. Although not a fan of labels like Conservative, I'm okay with using them as a general way to describe who I am. No one can fire me for my Right Wing remarks. Suing me won't get them any money either. Calling me out publicly would probably help my cause. I feel sorry for my fellow colleagues who would love to speak out about their innermost feelings about the dangers facing the world today and our grandchildren tomorrow. The indoctrination of our youth by a Left Wing educational system, the constant brainwashing of the rest of us by the Mainstream Media (MSM), the disturbing lawlessness by many on the Left and cooperation and in fact push for the destruction of democracy, capitalism, family, freedom of speech and many other hallmarks of good people by some in government and by many large social media giants are just a few points that many of us on the Right want to fix. The first step in fixing a problem is to identify it in words. If we can't get to that first step, then we'll never fix the problem. 

Do a search for something like 'boy attacked for wearing a Maga hat' on youtube and you will find an endless list of videos depicting all sorts of people being attacked by those on the Left. From children to war vets, you can watch all of the disturbing things taking place on a daily basis and that's just in the US. I picked one at random here.

There are many ways to express yourself without exposing yourself to trouble. One can often post articles or comments on social media anonymously for example. Similarly one can make donations to excellent organizations anonymously as well. I will never judge someone on the Right who keeps silent, negatively. Maybe he or she runs a business and does not want to risk losing customers. Maybe someone is an employee and does not want to lose their job. There are a myriad reasons why one keeps quiet on political issues. An obvious baseline reason is that 'It's no one's business who I plan to vote for' for example. 

The point is that you are not alone. Please rest assured that there are many of us who share your well thought out views. These same thoughts that were rolling around in your mind for years have also been shared by many others who might be as silent as you or as loud as me. So let me suggest to you, the silent majority that you need not let the Left silence you. I'm not saying not to use common sense when you want to voice your opinion.  But I am saying not to totally give in or give up. Together we can make a difference. Together we can set an example for others who either share our views or are thirsting for another opinion. We don't all have to agree on everything. People rarely do. But we would be wise to seek out like minded people from whom we can draw strength and gain insights. It's not healthy to keep your concerns to yourself. It is healthy to talk them over with friends (real friends) who care about you and the things that concern you. Do yourself a favour. If you are the silent type, write your thoughts/concern down. Afterwards you are free to share your written words just like I'm doing now. Even if no one reads them, you'll feel better. Trust me!

Ode to Ageing Skiers

I thought I'd take a break from politics and write about something that's personal to me. Water skiing! 

Here's a great pic of my daughter water skiing into the sunset! (She is not however, who I'm referring to in this post)

I just turned 64 last week and celebrated with my family and some cottage friends up north at our cottage. One of them lent us a portable karaoke machine and we sang, ate and drank on our dock. It was a blast.

The point is, I'm no longer young. Now when I get injured or sick, it seems to take forever to recover. So prior to every cottage season I get anxious about one of my favourite past times: water skiing. My wife and late father in law taught me how to ski when I joined their family in my twenties. I had never had the chance to water ski before. In fact until then, I had never seen a cottage that was on the shore of a lake with a boat! I fell, what seemed like hundreds of times before I finally got up on 2 skis. Then I proceeded to fall another hundred times before I got up on one ski and finally learned how to slalom ski. The more my wife and friends laughed at my spectacular falls and after drinking half the lake, the more I was determined to learn this sport and excel at it. By the time I hit 30 I was a fairly good water skier.

We are on a small lake called Dark Lake which is about 1 km long and less than half a km wide. Thankfully it does connect to the much larger Lake Muskoka through a small channel. 

When the stars line up -Ie. no serious injuries, the boat works, my wife (an excellent boat driver) is available and up to it driving, a spotter is available (one needs another person in the boat besides the driver to watch the skier),  the weather is good, the lake is calm and there are no other boats on the lake, I just might have the ski of my life. But as I age, the stars seem to rarely line up. Mostly it's me. Every year I develop more issues. This year it was tennis elbow on both arms (no I don't play tennis so I don't even know why I have this) and breathing issues. My knees have been shot for many years now. I tore my ACL on my right knee years ago and have 2 metal screws holding it together. I think the screws are loosening up now so when I ski hard or ski on choppy water they hurt even more. 

I know I'm not alone. I have a few friends that are also not young anymore who also love to ski. We all share the same concerns. One of them I've yet to mention is lake etiquette. This happens so often to many of us. We get ready to go skiing. We get the driver, the spotter, setup the tow rope, life jacket, water ski and gloves ready. In my case I wear a double boot ski which takes a bit of extra time to put on. Since we are old farts, it's a good idea to stretch prior to ski in order to avoid injury. I am usually exhausted before I even put my ski in the water!  So just when we are ready to begin our wild ride on the water at good speed, an exhilarating ride that typically lasts no more than 10 minutes, another boat magically appears on the water shlepping kids on a tube or maybe some sea doers pop up out of no where running circles on our little lake. So we wait patiently on our docks hoping that they will quit soon and give someone else a chance to enjoy the water (us). But it rarely works out that way. They are having too much fun to realize that maybe someone else wants to use the lake if only for 10 minutes. So quite often we either try to ski somewhere else (ie. in a quiet bay in the larger Lake Muskoka) or we simply give up. Sometimes (I've done this before out of rage- not a good idea), I've gone skiing amidst the mayhem. What usually ends up happening is that I have a terrible ski. The waves caused by the tube riders or other boats make my ability to cut back and forth and get into a nice slalom rhythm, impossible. Rarely do they get the message that they don't own the lake. My knees hurt more and more injuries are likely. 

Is there a solution? I doubt it. Some of us are considering publishing and distributing a short list of rules for lakeside etiquette. An example might be to take the tube rides and sea doers out in the big lake. Another might be to wait 10 minutes after towing someone in order to give someone else a turn. Yet another would be to drive in the same direction as any other boat(s) that might already be on the water. Believe it or not I recall way too often on a busy summer long weekend watching 2 boats going in one direction and a third going in the opposite direction. This is a recipe for disaster! One might think this should be a matter of common sense yet this happens so often it's hard to believe. I also know the psychology of many cottagers. Especially ones that are new to the lake. They have a limited time frame to use it and by gosh nothing is going to stop them form enjoying every minute of it. 

Many of us elders have tried to talk nicely to a cottager who needed to understand for safety sake what the required lakeside etiquette is, only to be told in few words exactly where to go. 

But water skiing is like golf. I'm a typical, average player (if that). I don't get out that often but when I do I enjoy myself. I can't forget learning the game not that many years ago. My first couple dozen shots either went a few yards forwards or worse, a few yards backwards. Eventually though I finally hit the ball high and kind of far and more or less in the right direction. It reminded me of watching a professional golfer hit the ball. (It was nothing like a pro though, believe me.)

Video of me water skiing on our little lake

That's what draws us back to the game. That one good shot is what we remember. Hopefully we forget the dozens of terrible shots we made. The same holds true with water skiing. Despite all of the hurdles we face (especially us ageing skiers) like the ones I already mentioned, when the stars line up and we manage to ski on glass like water and have some of the best cuts ever with large rooster tails, our eyes light up and the adrenaline kicks in. Those skies at sunset flying over the boat wake at sun set, looking at the beautiful purple and orange colours reflecting on the water as we criss cross over it are memories that are etched in our minds and call us back for more.

The Dishonesty of our Opponents

 I recall a post I wrote years ago decrying that I prefer then president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over then president of the US, Barak Obama. Because Mahmoud was honest about his hatred for us. He made no secret about his desire to wipe Israel and the US off the map. Obama on the other hand tried to hide his hatred for Israel and America. He would from time to time say the right things, like: 'Don't worry Israel, we've got your back' but his actions were to constantly stab Israel & America in the back. At election time he declared that there is no black or white Americans, there are simply Americans yet today he is on a mission to divide Americans by colour (something he started when he became president). 

Democrat leaders in the US and Liberal leaders in Canada and elsewhere seem to be consistent in their dishonesty. One can see thousands of videos and statements of these people saying one thing years ago and saying quite the opposite today. Here is a clip of Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer voicing his opposition to letting in illegal immigrants into the US from 11 years ago. His immigration policy then mirrors President Trump's immigration policy today. Today he stands for open borders because he takes his orders from the Squad with members like Ilhan Omar and AOC.  

Here is a clip of Obama prior to becoming president on immigration reform. Although his policy then didn't mirror that of Schumer at the time or President Trump, it certainly didn't match his immigration policy when he became president. 

Here is a clip of an interview of senator Gabbord in 2019 on her calling out senator Harris (when they were both running for the Democratic nominee) on her promise to reform prisoners. Here is another clip of Harris (chosen by Biden's handlers to be his VP and she of course accepted the nomination) calling him out as a racist and sexual predator. Watch at 3:50 minutes into the clip. Now it's a virtual love in between them. Biden has said that because 'he is an old guy' we can expect her to lead the country as early as 2021!

Here is the infamous clip in 2012 of then president Obama declaring to an AIPAC (mostly Jewish) audience that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and that it must remain undivided. Here he walks back his previous statement that Jerusalem must remain undivided.

I think you get the point. Now I'm not saying that one can't change their minds on things. Sometimes events change causing the person to change their minds on policy issues. I'm also not saying that Conservative, Republican or otherwise Right leaning people haven't also behaved this way. I even admit to having confirmation bias. That is since I agree with most right wing policies I have obviously attempted to prove my case right here. But I'll leave it to you to decide if this insidious and dangerous behaviour is more common on the Republican/Conservative/Right or more common on the Democrat/Liberal/Left. To me it's blatantly obvious who is more guilty of this dishonesty. 

To make a more general point, let's use the Iran deal as an example. There are many people out there (I won't even use labels like Left or Right) who claimed that they supported Obama's Iran deal because as he stated 'it would stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons and in fact would protect Israel. '

Most Israelis of all parties and many of us outside of Israel knew better. We knew that Obama was trying to befriend Iran mainly so he could add to his legacy that he brokered the biggest and most important peace deal in history. At the time Iran could have (and did) ask for anything including all kinds of loop holes and money in order to get Obama to sign the deal which he did with a smile. He bent over backwards to appease them. 

Most of those people who claimed to support the deal because they wanted peace in the Middle East were lying. Not all of them because some of them believed the main stream media who defended Obama at every corner and helped to paint the picture that he wanted them to paint. But as for the rest of them: They were DISHONEST. The truth was that they really didn't give a crap whether or not Israel ceased to exist. They were no fans of Jews so why worry about Israel. Why start a potential war with Iran just because Iran is threatening to wipe Israel off the map? (They did neglect Iran's same threat against the great satan, the USA). It was a similar mindset to most of the world who looked the other way when the Nazis were gassing Jews during the Holocaust. 

I'd respect our opponents who are honest with their hatred or indifference towards us much more than those who are dishonest in their approach for attacking us or not defending us. It's so important to know the policies of our leaders and the reasons for their policies. If our leaders only policy is to get elected and therefore behave like a leaf in the wind and consult surveys of the public on every issue prior to deciding their own policy, we are in big trouble. 

All Lives Matter

The world is not in a good place right now. We are always in a perpetual war between good and evil. That will never change. When evil pushes good down, we are in trouble. 

The way I see it is that evil is winning. To me it’s dead obvious. I live in Canada. A relatively safe place. Actually one of the safest places to live in the world right now. But even here, evil is flourishing. Starting with our PM who is enjoying his second term, Trudeau junior must be living the dream. He and his people (those are the ones actually running the show) are grabbing a little more power every day. The Conservative party which normally acts as counter balance to the left leaning Liberal and NDP parties is weak. Conservative citizens have lost their collective voice. They are either intimidated to speak their minds or have slowly been brainwashed by everyone else. The anti-Trump movement combined with Antifa and BLM (Black Lives Matter) movements have spilled into Canada as expected. My casual interactions with Canadians of all backgrounds backs this up. Even if the discussion revolves around BLM and even if the people I talk to believe in the rule of law and are against the looting & violence caused by BLM or Antifa they somehow think it’s all president Trump’s fault. While he is one of the few leaders who is trying to protect Americans from BLM or Antifa (an almost impossible job), he continues to be attacked on all sides. Meanwhile his opponents continue to get away with murder. I suspect that the current world view of Trump from almost all Westernized countries is the same. Israel is the notable exception. But even there one can see huge cracks. 

So I appear to stand alone in Canada as the sole Trump supporter. I’m alone in my abhorrence of BLM. I’m alone in my objection to shutting down the world over covid-19. I’m alone in my dislike of my own prime minister. I’m alone in my absolute support of Israel. I’m alone in my decree that Jewish Lives Matter. I even stand alone in my shout out that All Lives Matter. I’m alone in my cries to fix our education system. My calls to shut down the UN and Canada’s CBC (Cdn Broadcasting Corp) have fallen on deaf ears. My insistence that Israel is an owner of Judea and Samaria (aka West Bank), not an occupier seems also to be a minority opinion. 

I don’t have a solution. I can only hope that good people will prevail in the end. Is this wishful thinking? Perhaps. Like minded voices seem to be getting quiet. With the economic crisis affecting the world thanks to those nefarious people, organizations, politicians and corporations who are using the pandemic to exploit their dark plans to destroy the West, many of us are just too busy trying to stay afloat than bother to react to any of this.  That’s why I cherish those that do react properly. Those that vociferously oppose evil. I can’t wait to read the many emails I get that continue to posit wonderful ideas and unfortunately but necessarily inform us of ongoing evils all around us that I receive  every day. From big names like Caroline Glick to the far too many to name, lessor known people who often write insightful articles about these important topics. 

But the pressure to conform is great. Those of us who watch TV regularly are exposed to a constant array of insidious, left wing brainwashing. It’s impossible to escape. The MSM (main stream media) are not our friends. They are in a de facto partnership with Leftist politicians and states.  

So I’m asking you now. Please do your best to ignore all of the lies and dishonesty. If you can please speak out. Speak out now or forever hold your words. The Left certainly has been emboldened. Antisemitic and anti-white organizations like BLM continue to make gains. Many businesses including large corporations as well as governments have been intimidated enough to appease them. Even many Jewish organizations such as the ADL have bought their poison. They partner with vile antisemites like Al Sharpton and Linda Sarsour. One can attend many liberal synagogues (especially Reform ones) and expect to hear cries of support for the Black community while hearing silence in support of our own Jewish community. No one dares mention the antisemitism that prevails within the BLM movement. If we can’t be an example to the world of how people should behave, then how are third wold countries supposed to behave? And the third world has a huge segment of the world’s population. They may be poor but they are many. 

What really hurts is that Jews should know better. We should have learned by now, that we are alone. We can’t rely on anyone else to protect us (other than G-d if you believe in him). When Jews were attacked and murdered earlier this year in the US mostly by Black people, the silence was deafening.  Other than a few Jewish rags who reported it, it was mostly ignored by the MSM. And what was the reaction by us? Did we start looting stores? Damage property? Attack Blacks? Ask to defund the police? Attack the President? Can you imagine what would have happened if that cop who killed the black criminal was Jewish?

G-d Help Us!

Covid 19 - Overreaction?

A friend of mine sent this email to me. It's from an American. I have been bombarded with all sorts of information about the virus we call Covid 19. I assume you have as well. This email poses a new paradigm that I think is not only worth considering but it has been totally ignored by most of us, especially in the media:

I have never posted a “my thoughts“ narrative on Facebook before, and I hope never will again, but the hysteria, political posturing, and unreasonable virtue signaling stemming from the current coronavirus pandemic has compelled me to do so - so here goes:
What is most needed is to analyze what we know about the virus and it’s effects, how to minimize it spread (within reason and social acceptability), assess our relative risk as individuals, look at collective characteristics for group risk determination, and balance our response within a cost/benefit framework.
With that approach in mind, I offer the following (my thesis is derived from a cross-section of sources, and I recognize the data is in flux, but the reasoning I have used is sound):

— The risk of death to healthy individuals under the age of 50 is extremely low, even if one contracts the virus. People over 60 and those with underlying health conditions are the most vulnerable, but over 90% of them are not going to die from this virus.
— The death rates reported are not reflective of the actual number of cases out there, just the number that are confirmed. Thus, it represents a maximum rate of death, not the actual rate of death. Since this virus is often undetected, and many cases go unreported, the actual death rate is almost certain to be well under 1% when all the data is collected. There is good statistical evidence to suggest that the rate of infection is much higher than has been assumed. It is not unreasonable to anticipate that we will learn the death rate from this virus is much closer to a conventional flu death rate than it is to the current stated rate of 1.4% in the U.S.   Keep in mind that this is the death rate for those who are infected. The death rate for the entire population will be less than 1/10 of 1%. So the absolute risk of death for a US citizen is EXTREMELY low. And the relative risk for healthy, young individuals is virtually zero. And that is the best news we could hope for, as children die from conventional flu at much higher rates than they do from covid 19. That is a bright spot that is too often overlooked as we deal with this pandemic.
I suspect we will develop an accurate test for antibodies that will at some point in the future determine the death rate to be much lower than the current rate stated in the media, and we will become fully aware that the media fueled panic was extremely overdone.
   Given these facts, why aren’t we focusing on isolating/quarantining the most at risk individuals, with measures as extreme as necessary to prevent them from being infected? If one is at high risk, their self interest should  make them much more amenable to extreme measures, and much more likely to follow recommended protocol than is the general population. Keeping them protected would have the greatest likelihood of preventing the healthcare system from being overwhelmed when the viral peak occurs since they are the ones being hospitalized most frequently. Self interest and the will to survive are great motivators, and the most vulnerable have the most at stake. Let’s harness that rather than relying on the non existent wisdom and understanding of a younger population who simply are not at risk of death from this virus. Their sense of invincibility makes them poor allies in the effort to fight this virus in the current approach. The existing shut down of business and industry across the board will be less effective in protecting the most vulnerable than what I propose. In terms of protecting the most vulnerable, it doesn’t matter what the infection rate is among the younger and healthy population if we keep the vulnerable isolated and protected from them. If this were the focus of our efforts it would allow a more rapid peak of the virus and allow the vulnerable to return to normal life more quickly in a controlled manner based upon their level of vulnerability. This approach would prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed, which is the fundamental purpose behind our efforts.
     The continued shut down of our economy will have cascading affects resulting in more overall harm to our society then will the health effects from the virus. These effects happen to be diffuse and not transparently linked to the shut down, and are too easily ignored in the calculus of a cost/benefit analysis. But they are real and quantifiable with close scrutiny and study. I know I set myself up for criticism as a cold, heartless person to state this, but the emotionally appealing mantra of “anything it takes to save even one life is worth it“ is simply intellectual fraud, usually invoked as a virtue signal to rally others to embrace a course of action that may not be the best when viewed through a broader and deeper perspective. Our real world experience is based upon trade offs that frequently accept a level of lives lost. We are dealing with a novel virus that is forcing us to confront this harsh, painful reality. A prolonged economic shutdown could easily be more deadly and more painful than the approach I am suggesting.
    Finally, there is the danger of losing something that is as precious and valuable as life itself, something that can be easily lost in the “fog of war” that the fight against the virus has caused to descend upon us. That “something” is the ability to live our lives as free people, protected by the United States Constitution from the tyranny of unrestrained government. Restrictions on our freedom of movement, our right to assembly, the use and control of our property, and the ability to provide for and defend our families and loved ones are all at stake in our response to this virus. The risks to our health are real and must be addressed, but let’s do so without fear, panic, and devoid of reasoned analysis. We have much more at stake than we can readily see.

I loved that and agree with it and it’s pretty much what I’ve been saying. That in every decision we make in life we do a cost/benefit analysis. We’ve done it so often, thousands of times a day, that it’s almost done by rote. The rush to shut down the world over this virus seems like an over reaction to me. We’ve never done this before yet we’ve had serious pandemics before. Why then are we doing this now? 

I certainly agree that the challenge to save every life is a noble one and worth pursuing but at what cost? I think that the combination of economic hardship that will be with us for years after this pandemic is over plus the emotional scars and other real illnesses and deaths from dealing with the isolation, job loss, school loss and huge financial losses is a far bigger threat to us than the virus itself. 

I'm in no way saying that we shouldn't take this virus seriously. But what both the gentleman who wrote the email above and I am saying is that like in all existential events, we must consider all options, calmly and rationally and then act.  This mantra ties back to my previous post 'We Must Dig Deeper'.  

Stay safe and don't panic!

We Must Dig Deeper

This latest virus attack from China is a terrible tragedy. Mostly because it could have been averted.

Had China behaved like a normal democracy, they would have asked for and received help immediately from other states who have the expertise to limit the damage from this new virus.

Wuhan, China

But since China is the farthest thing from a 'normal democracy', the worst possible scenario came out of this. A deadly pandemic that has attacked the world and is still growing. Possibly worse than the illness is the dreadful economic impact. Sadly I think it is this impact that will affect far more people than just the illness alone. When the world is racing to stand still, when people both wealthy and poor stop working, when students stop learning, when our elderly and sick are stuck in isolation for an untold time period, when life savings disappear in mere weeks and when people are literally losing their minds, we are in serious trouble. 

And again who must we thank for all of this? China.

But wait. China on her own is not solely to blame. We are also guilty. Because we opted to buy their products that albeit were of cheaper quality but cost us less. Wealthy businesses and entrepreneurs all followed the same mantra. Make it in China. With their slave labour and government interference in private business (they give them subsidies), they obviously have an unfair advantage in keeping their costs down. How many times have I heard Kevin O'Leary on 'The Dragon's Den' (an interesting show where wealthy business people listen to all sorts of entrepreneurs pitch business ideas) lecture the guests on making the new products in China...

To save $20 dollars years ago, we chose a Chinese made TV over the US made one. Of course that had a domino effect. The less American products we bought, the fewer sales the US companies had, the more they had to raise the cost. Until finally they gave up and closed shop or worse, moved production to China. That last move was one of desperation. I guess the CEO's went for short term gain. Even they must have known that in time the Chinese would copy their products that were being made for them in China and eventually would sell them directly to the West and put these American businesses out of business. 

So greed won us over. Now we are paying the price. We should have thought this through a little deeper. Had Nazi Germany started building cheaper TV's using slave labour (ie. 6 million starving Jews and others) would we have bought them?

This concept of digging deeper is so important. So many of us read a headline or heard a rumour and run with it. Instead of spending a little bit of time to research the facts, we seem to love to parrot ideas that others have parroted to us. That's why I was worried when Obama got elected president. Based on limited research on him, like his love of Communism, his love of Arabism and his hatred of America (amongst other things) I had every right to be worried. That's why I was worried when Bernie Sanders came on the scene. When some of my friends thought that simply based on his 'great idea' that Bernie had in offering free education for all, I dug a little deeper. Without much difficulty I was able discern that there was no way in hell for Americans to afford this without destroying their economy. 

Many ideas from the left, on the surface, might sound great. Sure in a perfect world where all people are good, where all people are in good shape, healthy both physically and economically, maybe open borders might work. But obviously this is a dangerous dream. When various political leaders say they have Israel's back, dig a little deeper. Focus far more on what they do rather than on what they say. 

Unwarranted attacks on President Trump right now fall into this category. I certainly understand that many people don't like him. I think that most simply don't like his personality or more likely they don't like the persona that the Leftist media has portrayed in him. But now is not the time to attack him. If you want to remain healthy, beat this virus and regain your wealth, we must support him and his administration's efforts to win this war. I know it's easy to find fault with every little thing he said or might have said. Hopefully those that hate him, can wait until after this war is won before they continue to attack him. 

Back to China and what they've done to us with the spread of the corona virus. We must absolutely hold them to account. Likewise we must hold our political leaders and business leaders who have also helped China to succeed, to account as well. And lastly we must hold ourselves to account. China is a very large and powerful adversary with nefarious ambitions. They have already threatened to withhold medicines to us, which are mostly produced there. This is no less an act of war. 

If we learn anything from this terrible situation, I hope that we isolate China and other nefarious states like them. And make them pay! On a more general note, we must learn to dig deeper before we react.

In good health,
Leon

I Picked the Right Name for My Blog

It seems that I couldn't have picked a better name for my blog 'The World is Upside Down'.

Look at the election in the US. On the one hand we have a former TV personality (amongst other professions) from a German background  who is currently the president and who is without a doubt the most pro-Israel and Jew-friendly president in the history of the United States. On the other we have the leading Democratic nominee who is a senator and Jewish, who comes from a Polish/Jewish background and who lost many relatives in the Holocaust. He is without a doubt the most anti-Israel (read antisemitic) candidate in US history. I'm talking about Bernie Sanders of course. 

This is the stuff one might read in a fiction novel. In fact one would have to have quite an imagination to even come up with this. I could see writing a novel with this theme and getting it rejected by publishers because it was too off the top. 

I, like most people, (even including Democrats) don't believe Bernie Sanders has a hope in hell of being the next president. Based on their performance to date, none of the Democratic candidates have that chance. Based on President Trump's performance he not only looks unbeatable, he deserves to win and G-d help us if he doesn't.

Bernie is not only a self hating Jew, but he is also a Communist (yes Trump said it correctly) and is quite willing to destroy America, a country that he despises. Whereas President Trump considers America to be the greatest country the world has ever seen and wants to make it even better, Bernie thinks that America is rotten to the core and needs to be reinvented as yet one more failed, communist state. He wants to bankrupt America with his multi-trillion dollar policies including but not limited to: free healthcare for all (which includes illegal aliens who have committed crimes), free college tuition for all (which includes illegal aliens who have committed crimes), higher taxes for all, open borders (anyone in the world including criminals can come to the US), income limits (ie. if you work your ass off and make try to get ahead, your income will be capped), more government, more spending (higher debt), cut off aid to Israel, more aid to the murderous Palestinians, etc, etc. 

Again, anyone running for the leader of the US with these horrific policies, one might think can only be the fantasy of a creative, fictional writer. But this is real. Unlike some of his competitors on the Democratic stage, he sincerely believes them and if given the chance, he will make them happen. He could easily be running for the president of communist, dictatorships or Islamic theocracies like Russia, Cuba, China or Iran. His policies mostly match theirs and he would fit right in. The notable exception is his open border policy. This btw, is one he's flip flopped on. For thirty years he was all about jobs (a laudable objective no doubt). Back then he was against open borders because he rightly claimed that the more illegal immigrants came in, the fewer jobs would be left for Americans. But now he has conceded this policy to follow the current Leftist agenda. It makes sense for them because after all, the more illegals you let in, the more votes you'll get. 

He is constantly decrying the many great things these and other countries have accomplished. At least he's not as two faced as his predecessor Obama. Obama held similar beliefs but realized that he couldn't come totally out of the closet at the time. Bernie is different. He's held those beliefs his entire life and now he sees that the time is right to not only not hide them, but shout them out at rallies and on TV to millions of viewers. His honeymoon in the Soviet Union years ago, speaks volumes. I mean, who does that?

You can see him drunk and almost naked in the USSR in this video here.

On every debate he consistently mentions how the dictator Fidel Castro helped get Cubans to be literate. That's like me saying I love dogs (which I absolutely do) and then saying how Adolf Hitler liked dogs too so he wasn't all bad. Hitler and Castro had many things in common. They were both brutal dictators who killed many innocent people. The fact that Castro helped teach his people to write is so irrelevant it hurts my ears to hear it. Tens of thousands of Cubans risked their lives to escape Cuba to come to the States on flimsy rafts, many not making it. That's how great the communist state of Cuba was and still is. My wife's cousin died in Cuba in some backwater 'hospital' because they wouldn't even examine his chest pains because he left his passport at his hotel. That's how great their medical system is. But don't tell that to Bernie. 

It should be no surprise that most young Americans love him. After all, they have been indoctrinated by Leftist educators at colleges all over the country for years. And we let them get away with it. Free stuff has an appeal to all of us. For most people, when we hear the word 'free' our ears perk up. I run the other way. For other, older Americans who love Bernie, they are simply ignorant. They have no idea what communism is or what it represents. They are sick of the wealthy getting away without paying their fair share of taxes while there is still so much poverty all around them. I am too. But I'm not nearly that naive to think that Socialism/Communism (whatever you wish to call it) is the answer. Capitalism isn't perfect. Neither is Trump. But any objective person or anyone who's studied history can't ignore the benefits of both. I'm sure I've said this before but I'll say it again. My dear mother who survived the Holocaust in a gulag in Siberia explained communism to me when I was just a child with this short story: 
"Leon, there is nothing more humiliating than being slowly starved to death in the stark cold, waiting for hours every day in long lines to get a piece of bread while listening to speakers telling us how great the Soviet Union was."

If anyone of the Democrats became president, the US and the world would suffer irreparable damage.  But if Bernie won, the economy of the States would plummet before he would even begin his acceptance speech. 

The problem is, thanks to Bernie and his quartet (AOC, Omar, et all) they have legitimized a far Left paradigm that promotes communism, antisemitism, anti-Americanism and polices that would absolutely cripple Americans. The only people that would benefit would be illegal alien criminals. I doubt the he wins and hopefully he won't but his agenda is so powerful that he's got ALL of the other Democratic candidates crawling over each other to sign on to most of his insane, far left policies. Even the so called 'moderates' have crossed the line to Bernie's party. 

Trump won't be president forever. One day a Democrat will be voted back in and the millions of Americans who voted for Bernie will have their chance to rule the world again and to put it mildly, it won't be good.