April 12th was Equal Pay Day. You didn’t miss it, did you? That’s the day where we are all supposed to mourn the fact that women are paid seventy-six cents for every dollar a man earns for the same work. There’s only one little problem with this whole day of remembrance; it’s based on a total load of crap.
Most of you probably already know this, but for Pete’s sake, this same old lie has lived way past its prime. This weak, sickly, feeble argument has been surviving on scraps of encouragement from fibbers with an agenda, and it’s past time for this old lie to be taken out to the back yard and put out of its misery. If you don’t already know why the 76-Cent Pay Gap argument is bunk, let me explain, and if you do already know, I urge you to memorize the basic facts so you can correct people every time you hear them repeating this nonsense.
The studies that show that women earn seventy-six cents for every dollar men earn reach this figure by comparing the earnings of all men and women who work full-time. Sure enough, women do make about 24% less than men, but this stat does not take into account the work being done by the men and women. This isn’t unequal pay for unequal work but unequal pay for vastly different kinds of work.
One of the biggest causes of the wage gap is the fact that men and women tend to go into different fields. More men become doctors. More women become elementary school teachers. Doctors get paid more than elementary school teachers.
Another big factor is that women often choose to take time off from work to raise children. It’s not infrequent for mothers to take a couple of years or even a couple of decades off to focus on raising a family, and that’s perfectly fine, but you cannot work your way up the economic ladder when you’ve left the workforce. Plenty of women renew their careers in their fifties after raising several children and they find that they are once again starting at the bottom.
Studies that take into account these and other factors like the amount of hours worked, the number of sick and vacation days taken, aggressiveness in contract negotiation, education level, years of experience in the field, amount of time with a company and management status show that the Pay Gap all but disappears. When actually comparing apples to apples, studies have shown that women make 98% of what men make, and that’s pretty darn close to the margin of error for any statistical analysis, so the actual Pay Gap might even disappear completely.
The people perpetuating the Pay Gap myth don’t even have a defense for their views. The Huffington Post had several articles on the front page promoting, “Equal Pad Day,” but it also has an article posted four years ago where a feminist writer admitted the 76-Cents argument is nonsense. Even though they know Pay Gap story is untrue, leftist sites like Huff Po still promote the same old lie because they know if they can convince women that they are being abused they can get them to vote Democrat to combat this crisis which they’ve largely fabricated.
We have got to kill this lie. Every time somebody repeats it, we should quickly point out the truth. You can explain the way the data is being manipulated in thirty seconds, there are loads of articles from mainstream and even some leftist sites which admit the 76-cent Wage Gap is a lie and there’s no need to be confrontational about it. You share the info, mention a mainstream source that supports your case and let it go. If they care about the truth, they can learn it in a few minutes of Googling. If they don’t care about the truth, then there’s little hope for them, but maybe they’ll start to feel foolish promoting an obvious lie and stop indoctrinating women to feel victimized.
The United States provides an environment where both women and men can thrive. The only thing that will keep women from succeeding is the belief that the system is rigged against them.
Check out this video for the same basic argument and links to more sources:
(For more from the author of “Equal Pay Day and the Pay Gap Deception” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/22382224587_d4b8d6bfcf_b.jpg453680Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-13 02:25:452016-04-13 02:25:45Equal Pay Day and the Pay Gap Deception
There’s something else about these delegate fights that have taken place over the weekend where Cruz has just skunked Trump. It isn’t even a contest. It is fascinating to watch. And, of course, the Trump people think that games are being played and that tricks are being pulled. But that’s not happening. This is just somebody who understands the system using it. You know, we could go into a little discussion if you want about insider versus outsider, and I’ve tried to tell people: “These insiders are not just gonna let this stuff go, folks. They’re not just gonna sit idly by and let you take it away from ’em.”
This morning on the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, the guest, the Trumpster. During a discussion about Trump’s loss at the Colorado Republican convention, Ainsley Earhardt is talking here to Trump, and Ainsley Earhardt says, “Over the weekend you lost the state of Colorado, and you tweeted about it. You said you were angry. You said it was unfair. Why do you think that?”
TRUMP: In the Denver area and Colorado itself they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. It’s a crooked deal. And I see it. And honestly I see it with Bernie, too. I’ve gotten millions more votes, millions, not just a couple, millions more votes than Cruz. Now they’re trying to pick off those delegates one by one. That’s not the way democracy is supposed to work. You know, and they offer ’em trips, they offer ’em all sorts of things. What kind of a system is this? I’m an outsider and I came into the system and I’m winning the votes by millions of votes. But the system is rigged, it’s crooked. When you look, even at Bernie, I’m not a fan of Bernie, but every time I turn on your show, Bernie wins, Bernie wins, Bernie wins, but yet Bernie is not winning.
That’s true. That’s true about Crazy Bernie. They have rigged it over to the Democrat side. They’re using their superdelegates. It’s not rigged on the Republican side. This is just the establishment taking advantage. You know, what they’ve done is fake everybody out here. And look, this is multileveled here, to get an idea of what’s going on. The establishment has had everybody looking at rule 40, for example. I mean, there have been all kinds of leaks in Politico. I mean, the last series of months we’ve had story after story about how supposedly the establishment is panicking, and the steps that they’re going to take to try to stop Trump. And we hear about maybe a third-party candidate that we’ve never heard of being nominated on the floor in a brokered convention. Everything.
But the one thing that nobody leaked, the one thing that nobody had a heads-up on was how Cruz was going to go into all of these states and arrange to get most of the delegates. We’re talking second and third ballot here. On the first ballot the delegates — for the most part; there are exceptions — are pledged to vote the way the people in their state voted. Pennsylvania, however, is different. Pennsylvania is coming up. You want to know about Pennsylvania? Only 17 out of Pennsylvania’s 70 some odd delegates vote the way voters in the primary go. Some 51, 54, I don’t have the number right in front of me, over 50 delegates in Pennsylvania are unbound, on the first ballot.
Just use an example. If Trump wins Pennsylvania by 75%, he likely will only get 17 of the 60 or 70 delegates, because only 17 are pledged and bound to whoever wins the state primary. Well, Trump has not been working any of these delegates. Why? Who knows. It could be that he didn’t think he had to. It could be he didn’t even know. It could be he had nobody on his staff that really knows how this works.
You do because you have been treated to in-depth explanations of how this whole delegate process works, particularly once we get to second and third ballots. And even I pointed out to you that it’s very possible — we won’t know actually ’til the convention starts — very possible that a lot of delegates that have to vote Trump on the first ballot don’t actually support him. And if we get to second or third ballot then they’ll abandon him and go for whoever. Right now Cruz is calling dibs.
Now, what happened in Colorado is, I’m sorry to say, it’s not a trick. What happened in Colorado is right out in the open. Everybody’s known how Colorado runs its affairs. Everybody has known. Nobody just chose to look at it. It’s no secret that Colorado was gonna have a convention and they’re gonna choose their delegates before the primary. It’s not a secret. It’s just nobody leaked it. Nobody talked about it. Nobody bragged about it. So it was left to be discovered by people who didn’t know. And it turns out that people on the Trump campaign didn’t know.
Now, I can understand how they might feel tricked here. I can understand how they might feel bugabooed because millions of votes, theoretically, are gonna happen that aren’t going to count. Hey, welcome to establishment politics. We have played for you the sound bites on this program of delegates — I’m sorry — of officials, rules committee officials. We played the sound bite of one of these guys that said, “Hey, what you all have to understand is the people don’t select our nominee; the delegates do, we do.” None of this is a mystery. This is the definition of insider versus outsider. This is a classic illustration of how an outsider has to learn the insider game to play it.
Every business has its rules and laws, bylaws, and specific ways that you have to climb the ladder of success. In addition to that, people that run the club — in this case, the Republican establishment — are not gonna sit idly by and let a bunch of outsiders, the peasants with pitch forks, however you want to visualize them, they’re just not gonna sit idly by and let people come in and take it. It’s too valuable. In most cases this is how all of these people value themselves. This is from which they derive their self-worth, is their membership in this club.
So I don’t see Ted Cruz lying and cheating his way to the convention. I see a lot of hard work. I see some people who know what they have to do, given where they are. They’re in second place in both the vote count and the delegate count. They’re serious about winning. The Cruz team is serious about winning. They have made themselves fully aware of how the process works, and they’ve been out working it for quite a while. They went into Louisiana where Trump scored a massive win but they’ve come out of there with many more delegates than, by appearances, they should have.
Ted Cruz had goals. He worked the problem ’til he got the result he wanted. What he’s demonstrating, folks, he’s demonstrating he knows how to work himself within this insider labyrinth. He knows how to navigate it. He knows how to work it. He knows how to turn it to his advantage. You have to look at this and say, “Okay, what does this tell us about Cruz, if he should become president?” No matter how enamored you are — and a lot of people are — no matter how enamored you are of the notion of a total outsider with no links to the establishment, no links to insider politics, nothing whatsoever, you’re fascinated by that happening, somebody coming in and just totally wrecking the castle, finding out that you can’t do that without getting inside the castle first. ‘Cause people inside the castle are not gonna let you crumble the walls.
You know, being an outsider, it has benefits, but it has drawbacks, too, and knowing the rules inside out and outworking the competition is not cheating. If you happen to be more knowledgeable of how things work and are able to work it to your advantage, that’s just hard work. That isn’t cheating. I think the entire lesson, if look at the Obama campaign and the Cruz campaign, organization matters, from the grassroots on up. Obama has charisma. Trump has loads of charisma. They connect with their audiences.
But I think what happened to Trump — and I’m just wild guessing here — I think the assumption was made at some point that our lead is so massive and that our love is so great and we’re just skunking everybody, if you go back to the early months of the primary, we’re skunking everything, we’re getting all that free media, we’re getting all these votes, we’re winning in every one of these primaries, most of ’em that count, losing some of the caucuses, but our poll numbers, we’re getting double-digit leads over people. And it was probably assumed that that would translate to delegates, and maybe even assumed it would translate to massive public and inside-the-party support. But of course it doesn’t.
People that don’t want Trump to win are going to get even more worked up about it and do what they can to stop it. And they’re gonna use the tools that they have available. And it happened to be the tools that they wrote. It happened to be the tools that they, who run the establishment, put in place. And every business has them, folks. Every business. Every career, every industry, no matter what, every organization, even Planned Parenthood, there is a way you get to the top in that crowd. At every homeless shelter there’s a structure. There’s a way you get to the top there. There’s a way you get to the top at Harvard. There’s a way you get to the top in a professional sports organization.
There’s a way you get to the top in politics. People who don’t like certain rules may call them loopholes and may say somebody’s cheating. But that’s just people using the rules as they have been written. Politico has a story: “Trump’s Saturday Delegate Disaster.” But it’s interesting; there’s no mention of Cruz in this story. That’s quite telling to me, because, remember, The Politico is the chosen receptacle for GOP establishment leaks. This is a long story, “Trump’s Saturday Delegate Disaster,” and there’s not a single mention of Ted Cruz.
Why is Trump having a delegate disaster? It’s Ted Cruz. It isn’t the establishment. And I’m gonna remind you again, I don’t know how many times, but I’ll say it again. If the establishment or Cruz succeed, if Trump doesn’t get his 1,237 before the convention, it may be over, the way this is going. Because what Cruz is sewing up is delegates on the second ballot.
But my humble belief is that if and after the powers that be dispatch Trump, they will then next seek to dispatch Cruz. Over there Paul Ryan’s running a campaign for something, and everybody’s marveling at it. He was just in Israel talking to Bibi Netanyahu. And there are people whispering Kasich, Kasich, Kasich. So this is by no means settled…
…NBC News has a story. I know, I know, NBC News. But their headline is this: “Despite Complaints, Delegate System Has Given Trump a 22 Percent Bonus.” And their point is that Trump leads with 756 delegates, or 45% of all delegates awarded, yet he’s won 37% of all votes. Meaning Trump’s delegate support is greater than his actual support from voters. As a matter of Republican Party math, Trump has been awarded a delegate bonus 22% above his raw support from voters.
So their point here is that even if you apply the same thinking to Cruz, you still end up with Trump has been awarded 8% more delegates than Cruz for the same rate of voter support. And they say Trump’s not factoring this in. They list the reasons why Trump has had a delegate bonus, if you will. Some of it benefits from crossover voters in open primary states. But their point here at NBC News — I know it’s NBC News — is that Trump really’s got nothing to complain about, because he has benefited from some of these very rules that have garnered him more delegates than the vote totals he’s amassed have actually earned him. (For more from the author of “RUSH: Cruz Isn’t Cheating Trump, He’s Outwitting and Outworking Trump” please click HERE)
Writing at, of all places, Salon, H.A. Goodman poses 10 questions that the FBI should ask Hillary that will, if answered at all, “end her White House dreams”. Here are all 10, interspersed with some additional color commentary and follow-ups from me, in case the feds happen to read my blog.
1. What was the political utility in owning a private server and never using a State.gov email address? There was no political utility, nor was it about “personal convenience”. It was about hiding. Hiding the co-mingling of Clinton Foundation business with that of the State Department. It was about preventing the public — and federal inspectors general — from ever learning the real story of one of the most corrupt officials in the history of the Republic.
2. Were all 31,830 deleted private emails about yoga? Of course not. Based upon her inability to even navigate a set of stairs unassisted, Hillary’s into yoga the way I’m into Pinterest. No, the deleted emails were about quid pro quo deals that traded donations and speaking fees for government favors. Everyone with even a modicum of sense — which excludes Democrats, liberals and other Marxists — knows that.
3. Why didn’t you know that intelligence could be retroactively classified? Oh, “the most qualified presidential candidate ever” certainly knew the dangers of handling classified documents, none of which had to be marked classified to fall into a category demanding special safeguards and handling. In fact, some of her recovered emails clearly show her instructing underlings to send sensitive data over insecure channels. And her bathroom server was almost certainly hacked by at least three foreign governments — and possibly many more.
4. Why did you use a Blackberry that wasn’t approved by the NSA? Because she didn’t give a s*** about national security.
5. What did you say to Bryan Pagliano? Let me say up front, that based upon what I’ve read about Pagliano, he’s about as qualified to set up a secure email server for the government as Hillary Clinton is to teach yoga. If I were tasked with setting up such a system, I’d be using virtual machines, a hardened OS like SE Linux, host intrusion prevention, honeypots over the VM’s network, etc. I can almost guarantee that Pagliano did none of that. Her instructions were probably as simple as “set me up an email server that the government can’t access.”
6. Why were 22 Top Secret emails on a private server? Because she didn’t give a s*** about national security.
7. Was any information about the Clinton Foundation mingled with State Department documents? Was this question added for comic relief? If so, cue the laugh-track.
8. Did President Obama or his staff express any reservations about your private server? If they’d known about it ahead of time, I would bet they’d have explicitly prohibited it. Who sets up their own private email server for official business? Wait, don’t answer that.
9. Did Bill Clinton send or receive any emails on your private network? Mr. Clinton once claimed that he never sent or received emails; only recently did he admit being more tech savvy. Nonetheless, my sense is Hillary Clinton is the central character in this entire affront to national security.
10. How was your private server guarded against hacking attempts? Hillary clearly has all of the computer skills of LBJ, so her answers will be both incoherent and idiotic. Like I said, I’m guessing Pagliano had no clue how to set up a military grade computer system. So all of Hill’s emails are probably in the hands of the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians and Anonymous.
(For more from the author of “10 Questions That Will Destroy Hillary’s Campaign” please click HERE)
New Yorkers got a chuckle on Thursday morning when Hillary Clinton rode the subway. On her way into the station, Clinton had a little bit of trouble swiping her MetroCard: it took five goes for her to finally get the green light and pass through the turnstile.
This little incident became the cause of much mirth. “Clinton struggles to get through subway entrance,” said Politico. “Former New York Senator Hillary Clinton Struggles to Swipe Her Subway MetroCard,” reported ABC. “Video Shows Hillary Clinton Struggling With MetroCard At Bronx Subway Station,” said the local CBS affiliate’s website.
There was another problem with Clinton’s ride aboard the 4 Train, one that the media all but ignored: Hillary Clinton broke the subway rules, and did so not only within full sight of New York City officials and law enforcement, who stood around and watched her do it . . .
However, Section 1050.6(c)1 of the subway rules states unequivocally that none of these activities may be performed on the actual subway cars.
This is the rule Clinton broke. Clinton’s defenders might think the short subway trip wasn’t actually campaigning, but I’d urge them to watch a video of her two-stop ride – from Yankee Stadium to 170th Street – that clearly shows Clinton glad-handing on the train itself. (Read more from “Hillary Clinton Broke the Rules on the NYC Subway. That’s Not Fair” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/NYC_Subway_R160A_9237_on_the_E.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-09 03:08:562016-04-14 18:47:32Hillary Clinton Broke the Rules on the NYC Subway. That’s Not Fair
By Russell Berman. How late is too late for an independent or third-party presidential run?
That question is becoming paramount as the Republican Party barrels through its primary season bitterly divided and with the chances growing that it will open its July convention without a nominee in hand. Conservatives resolutely opposed to a Donald Trump presidency have been investigating a third-party bid for weeks, hoping that if they can’t rally the party behind Ted Cruz then at least they’ll be to give the Never Trump movement an alternative not named Clinton in November. And the recent, if hardly surprising, demise of the paper-thin “loyalty pledge” that Republican candidates signed last year means that either Trump or Cruz could conceivably mount an independent campaign if they lose the GOP nomination in Cleveland.
The short answer is that no, it’s not too late for a third-party or independent run, and it might even be possible for someone as wealthy and well-known as Trump to launch a serious campaign as late as July. (Note: Serious does not necessarily mean winning) . . .
The most organized Never Trump group includes Erick Erickson, the Georgia-based conservative activist and radio host, and William Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard. They met in Washington last month with about a dozen other supporters, and Erickson said another meeting is planned for next week. They settled on a two-track strategy of trying to deny Trump the GOP nomination while simultaneously laying the groundwork for a third-party bid if they can’t. With Trump stumbling recently and Cruz defeating him in Wisconsin, the group is, for the moment, focused more on stopping him in Cleveland. For Erickson, that means trying to rally the party around Cruz, a candidate who many members of the anti-Trump GOP establishment despise nearly as much as Trump. Yet as Erickson acknowledged in a Monday phone interview, “there is a real risk if we wait too long.” (Read more from “There’s Still Time for a Serious Third-Party Presidential Run” HERE)
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24% of GOP Voters Are Very Likely to Vote for Trump If He Runs as a Third-Party Candidate
By Rasmussen Reports. It could be bad news for the Republican establishment as it wages an unprecedented effort to stop Donald Trump from winning the party’s presidential nomination: GOP voters feel even more strongly that they will support Trump if he runs as an independent.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 36% of Likely Republican Voters say they are likely to vote for Trump if he runs as a third-party presidential candidate. That’s unchanged from last July when we first asked the question, but it now includes 24% who say they are Very Likely to vote for Trump if he runs independently, up six points from 18% in the previous survey. (Read more from “24% of GOP Voters Are Very Likely to Vote for Trump If He Runs as a Third-Party Candidate” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/5842609586_bc8f7969af_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-08 01:48:232016-04-14 19:18:42There’s Still Time for a Serious Third-Party Presidential Run
Has the U.S. economy gotten better over the past six months or has it gotten worse? In this article, you will find solid proof that the U.S. economy has continued to get worse over the past six months. Unfortunately, most people seem to think that since the stock market has rebounded significantly in recent weeks that everything must be okay, but of course that is not true at all. If you look at a chart of the Dow, a very ominous head and shoulders pattern is forming, and all of the economic fundamentals are screaming that big trouble is ahead. When Donald Trump told the Washington Post that we are heading for a “very massive recession“, he wasn’t just making stuff up. We are already seeing lots of things happen that never take place outside of a recession, and the U.S. economy has already been sliding downhill fairly rapidly over the past several months. With all that being said, the following are 19 facts that prove things in America are worse than they were six months ago…
#1 U.S. factory orders have now declined on a year over year basis for 16 months in a row. As Zero Hedge has noted, in the post-World War II era this has never happened outside of a recession…
In 60 years, the US economy has not suffered a 16-month continuous YoY drop in Factory orders without being in recession. Moments ago the Department of Commerce confirmed that this is precisely what the US economy did, when factory orders not only dropped for the 16th consecutive month Y/Y, after declining 1.7% from last month
#2 Factory orders have now reached the lowest level that we have seen since the summer of 2011.
#3 It is being projected that corporate earnings will be down 8.5 percent for the first quarter of 2016 compared to one year ago. This will be the fourth quarter in a row that we have seen year over year declines, and the last time that happened was during the last recession.
#4 Total business sales have fallen 5 percent since the peak in mid-2014.
#5 S&P 500 earnings have now fallen a total of 18.5 percent from their peak in late 2014.
#6 Corporate debt defaults have soared to the highest level that we have seen since 2009.
#7 The average rating on U.S. corporate debt has fallen to “BB”, which is lower than it has been at any point since the last financial crisis.
#8 The U.S. oil rig count just hit a 41 year low.
#9 51 oil and gas drillers in North America have filed for bankruptcy since the beginning of last year, and according to CNN we could be on the verge of seeing the biggest one yet…
Shale oil driller SandRidge Energy (SD) warned there was “substantial doubt” it would survive the oil downturn. The Oklahoma City company said this week it is exploring a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Based on its $3.6 billion of debt, SandRidge would be the biggest North American oil-focused company to go bust during the current downturn, according to a CNNMoney analysis of stats compiled by law firm Haynes and Boone.
#10 According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, job cut announcements by major firms in the United States were up 32 percent during the first quarter of 2016 compared to the first quarter of 2015.
#11 Consumers in the United States accumulated more new credit card debt during the 4th quarter of 2015 than they did during the entire years of 2009, 2010 and 2011 combined.
#12 Existing home sales in the U.S. were down 7.1 percent during the month of February, and this was the biggest decline that we have witnessed in six years.
#13 Subprime auto loan delinquencies have hit their highest level since the last recession.
#14 The Restaurant Performance Index in the U.S. recently dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008.
#15 Major retailers all over the country are shutting down hundreds of stores as the “retail apocalypse” accelerates.
#16 If you take the number of working age Americans that are officially unemployed (8.1 million) and add that number to the number of working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force” (93.9 million), that gives us a grand total of 102 million working age Americans that do not have a job right now
#17 Since peaking during the 3rd quarter of 2014, U.S. exports of goods and services have been steadily declining. This is something that we never see outside of a recession…
#18 The cost of everything related to medical care just continues to skyrocket even though our wages are stagnating. According to the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of all American workers make less than $30,000 a year, and yet the cost of medical care just hit a brand new all-time high…
#19 Our government debt continues to spiral out of control. At this point it is sitting at a staggering total of $19,218,516,838,306.52, but when Barack Obama first entered the White House it was only 10.6 trillion dollars. That means that our government has been stealing an average of more than 100 million dollars an hour from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day since Barack Obama was inaugurated…
How in the world can anyone look at those numbers and suggest that everything is okay?
I simply do not understand how that could be possible.
Part of the problem is that Americans have been trained to be irrationally optimistic. It is fine to have an optimistic outlook on life, but when it causes you to throw logic and reason out the window that is not good.
For example, you can be “optimistic” about your ability to fly all you want, but if you step off a 10 story building you are going to take a very hard fall to the ground.
Similarly, you can ignore all of the facts and pretend that our economic prosperity is sustainable all you want, but it won’t change the fundamental laws of economics.
On a personal note, I would like to thank everyone that has helped make my new book the #1 new release in Christian eschatology on Amazon.com. I understand that a lot of my secular readers are not going to understand my fascination with Bible prophecy, and that is okay. I felt that I needed to write this book to address some very serious errors that are being taught in churches all over America today, and I also wanted to inspire believers to face the great hardships and persecution that are coming.
Just because very difficult times are approaching does not mean that it will be time to run and hide. My wife and I always live our lives with no fear, and when things get crazy we believe that it will be an opportunity to do even more good. We believe that the greatest chapters of our lives are still ahead of us, and we want people to understand why they can look forward to the future even though great darkness is rising all around us.
So yes, I definitely carry a message of warning.
But I also bring a message of hope.
As we look toward the future, there is much to be concerned about, but there are also things happening that are worth getting extremely excited about.
It is when times are the darkest that the light is needed the most, and very soon light will be greatly, greatly needed in the United States of America. (For more from the author of “19 Facts That Prove Things in America Are Worse Than They Were Six Months Ago” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/7595930250_0103ec8af1_z.jpg480640Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-06 01:43:102016-04-11 10:50:4319 Facts That Prove Things in America Are Worse Than They Were Six Months Ago
By virtue of experience, I know that a majority of people who just read that title will now desperately want to punch me in the crotch and yell, “Shut up!” Though I’ve been trying to be more concise in my articles, I think this one is going to take a little longer for me to explain myself fully. If I cut this one short, I think people will have a warped understanding of my views on this matter. All I ask is that you give me a fair hearing and lend me your ears for a few minutes as I make my case. If you will hear me out, I feel confident that you will want to crush my gonads a little less by the time I finish than you do at this present moment.
This past week, I found myself in a bizarre situation. For the first time, I defended a policy position of Donald Trump while the rest of the world railed against him. When Trump was asked if he would support punishment for women who had abortions if the procedure was made illegal, Trump replied, “There has to be some form of punishment.” This immediately set off a firestorm of condemnations from pro-abortion groups and pro-life groups who skewered Trump for his comments.
Staying true to form, the straight-talking, politically incorrect Donnie reversed himself a few hours later when he realized potential supporters were upset with him seemingly leaving me as the only person in the United States to hold this view, but I have to say that even after reading the arguments of Trump’s critics, I still don’t understand why pro-lifers condemn him.
Let’s talk about abortion real quick. There are only two options. Either an unborn human is a person or an unborn human is not a person. There is no middle ground on this issue. Pick a side.
If you believe an unborn human isn’t a person, then of course there should be no punishment for women who have abortions. If a fetal human is no different than a cancerous lump or a failing kidney, then a woman should be able to do whatever she chooses with that unborn human. If the mother and doctor agree that it would be fun to start slicing apart the fetal human one toe at a time, slowing working up the legs cutting off an inch or two with every slice, then switching to the same procedure on the fingers, hands and arms and eventually beheading the torso, that’s their business, and if the woman further decides to keep the head, take it to a taxidermist, hollow out the innards and have the head stuffed and mounted to hang above her desk, that’s also perfectly okay. Though someone might find this eccentric, nobody who believes that the fetal human is merely a clump of irrelevant cells should be remotely bothered by any of this because it’s just a hunk of unnecessary flesh. It’s not like anybody died, so who cares? No punishment is necessary.
However if you believe an unborn human is a person, then it logically follows that the fetal human has human rights and deserves legal protection. It must be illegal to poison and/or dismember an unborn child just like it is illegal to poison and/or dismember a child that has left the womb. It also follows that anyone who would kill an unborn child must be murderer and must suffer negative consequences.
Here is where we get the giant disconnect. For the pro-abortion crowd, I disagree with you strongly, but at least you guys are being mentally consistent as long as you say a mother should be able to do anything to the unborn human without consequence, but for whatever reason, a large portion of conservatives say, “Killing an unborn child is murderer, but the mother who chooses to kill the child is an innocent victim.” No, pro-lifers. This makes no sense. You have failed. Please try again.
The pro-life crowd is united in declaring that abortion doctors must be brought to justice, but many pro-lifers somehow think that a woman who chooses to have an abortion bears no responsibility. This is the exact same line of thinking that argues a hitman deserves prosecution but the person who hired the hitman is an innocent victim. I find that to be nonsense. They both chose to end a human life, and they both deserve to share the blame. To argue otherwise is to make the sexist assumption that pregnant women cannot make decisions for themselves and are simply too stupid to be morally responsible for their actions.
Obviously, abortion is legal and nobody is suggesting women or doctors should be prosecuted for activity that is currently allowed, but in a theoretical society which has recognized that the unborn child is a person, why is it so radical to suggest that a woman who kills her child should be prosecuted for a crime? What other law in society can be broken without consequence? Nobody would ever propose such a law!
I’ve looked into the reasons many pro-lifers are against punishment for women who have abortions, and they’ve offered some ideas worth exploring.
Some have pointed out that women who abort only do so because they are desperate and cannot find ways to support themselves, and yet no conservative would accept this as an excuse for thievery, a much less serious crime than murder. Why should this same argument work for abortion?
Some point out that abortion mills like Planned Parenthood lie to women and push them towards bad decisions, but remember this scenario presumes that abortion has been made illegal, and in all other cases where someone is urged to commit a crime by people who have lied about the nature of the crime, the individual still bears the responsibility for wrong actions.
Some have argued that the guilt women often feel upon having an abortion is punishment enough, but though it’s true that many regret their actions, it’s equally true that many do not, and since when have guilty feelings ever excused murder?
Some have suggested that a desire for punishment can only be motivated by a desire for vengeance, but this wrongly assume that punishment equals vengeance. Good parents always try to make sure there are negative consequences to their children’s misbehavior out of a desire of justice, deterrence and personal growth; punishment should have nothing to do with spite and vengeance. If we can understand this in parenting and in most areas of the justice system, why do so many assume vindictive motives in this case?
Some say that abortion doctors are the root of the problem and that women should be given a free pass if they turn evidence agains abortion doctors, but the doctors greater guilt doesn’t excuse the mother’s role, and it’s not hard to imagine ways to catch abortion doctors without the mother’s testimony.
Many have pointed to the ambiguous status of the unborn child as a reason for leniency. Since the life of the unborn would presumably still be an issue of some debate, mercy should be extended. I actually agree, but mercy should be extended in the form of a lighter sentence rather than no sentence at all.
Finally, some argue that we risk alienating women to the pro-life cause if we suggest that women should bear some responsibility for their choice to murder the unborn. They say that if we can save more lives by allowing amnesty for murderers, then the rescue of innocents outweighs the lack of justice. This perspective is worth considering, but I wonder are we really convincing more people when we will not admit to the logical conclusion that if abortion is murderer then those who have abortions are murderers? Aren’t we watering down our argument and showing critics that we don’t really mean what we say? The pro-life movement has been taking the light touch approach ever since Roe V. Wade, and has the pro-life cause been prevailing? Polls show the approval for abortion today is about the same as it was forty years ago, and even if it does save more lives, aren’t we still embracing a dangerous ends justify the means mentality if we agree to ignore the crime of murder to save lives? I’m willing to consider it, but where is the evidence that this strategy even works?
I’m not claiming I have all the answers here, but this is what makes sense to me. If we get to a point in society where the law is changed to say abortion is illegal, then we must have negative consequences for those who break the law just as we do with every other law. To do otherwise is madness. I’m not saying that women who have abortions should necessarily be thrown in prison. It seems to me that we should give juries a wide latitude between some light fines and a few years in jail. The jury can look at the specific circumstances of each case and make a fair judgment. I can understand some of the concerns of the pro-life crowd that opposes sentences for women who have abortions, and I think much of this is motivated by compassion for the women who have gone through this procedure, and I share the concern for those who have taken an innocent life without truly understanding what they were doing, but we cannot let our desire for mercy negate our desire for justice, and I don’t see how it makes any sense to say that women who murder their children should receive nothing more than a firm scolding. (For more from the author of “Of Course Women Should Be Punished for Having an Abortion” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/126147235_cb83476870_z.jpg333500Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-06 01:40:392016-04-11 10:50:43Of Course Women Should Be Punished for Having an Abortion
Or, to put it differently, in a presidential race that many increasingly see as a choice between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz—and in which many establishment Republicans see the Texas senator as the only viable choice to stop the Trump movement—why is Ohio Gov. John Kasich hanging around?
In fact, many Republicans are quietly hoping Kasich will drop out, fearing he will dilute the anti-Trump vote, starting Tuesday in Wisconsin, and enable the real-estate developer to win despite the kinds of difficulties he has encountered on questions such as abortion and nuclear arms.
Kasich and his supporters insist they see a path to the nomination. It’s circuitous and some would say implausible, but here it is in a nutshell:
It starts with an assumption that Trump won’t win the 1,237 delegates needed for a majority on the first ballot in Cleveland. That’s not implausible. He needs to win roughly two-thirds of the delegates bound to a specific candidate who remain to be chosen to get to that total, and that will be tougher if he loses in Wisconsin, where he trails Cruz in polls.
That would produce a convention that’s thrown wide open after the first ballot, because most delegates would be free to move to a candidate of their choosing. Some Trump delegates would move to Cruz, because they come from states where the party is choosing delegates that are, in fact, Cruz supporters, but not enough to give him the hundreds of additional delegates he would need. Dyed-in-the-wool Trump delegates who have bought into their candidate’s disdain of Cruz wouldn’t move into the Cruz camp. Cruz delegates angry at Trump for mocking and belittling their candidate and his wife wouldn’t move into the Trump camp. (Read more from “John Kasich: What’s the Case for Staying in Republican Race?” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/24618701701_d22952d2ae_b.jpg5761024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-04 01:48:292016-04-11 10:50:46John Kasich: What’s the Case for Staying in Republican Race?
Thursday I was talking on the radio to my old friend Eric Metaxas, who had brought me on to balance out an appearance by Ann Coulter — one of Donald Trump’s loudest supporters.
I was grateful for the opportunity, but I’ll confess: The conversation, and this election, puts me in a rather awkward position: Many of my old friends and mentors, including a man I backed and looked up to for decades, Patrick Buchanan, are supporting Donald Trump. They see him as an imperfect but hopeful vehicle for reshaping a Republican party they think has fallen out of balance. They’re right about the problem, but Trump is no solution.
The GOP has long been a reflection of what makes America work, a vital tension between two different but equally crucial elements:
1. The Golden Egg: moral, civic, and economic principles that could, in theory, be applied to any country on earth, and to any group of immigrants we admitted to America, however large. These principles are simply true for every human being, and we must insist on that fact. Instead of the left’s relativism and politics of group resentment, these principles offer conservatives an inclusive, persuasive program which should appeal to any voter of good will. You can find an excellent summary of America’s guiding principles right here at The Stream. Key among them are truths such as “Every human being has equal value and dignity,” and “Judeo-Christian religious faith guards our freedom.” If pursued consistently, these principles should always produce a more peaceful, prosperous, free country than would otherwise be possible. (For a deeper analysis, see my 2003 essay, “America the Abstraction,” which Timothy Carney of the Washington Examiner was citing just this past month to explain the Trump phenomenon.)
2. The Goose: real, existing, historically-founded facts that explain why these principles have worked here in America, while failing spectacularly when tried elsewhere — for instance in the Latin American republics that declared independence shortly after the 13 colonies did, wrote similar declarations and comparable constitutions, and degenerated into a 200-year cycle of dictatorships and chaos. The most important of these facts was the dominance of a tolerant, Anglo-Protestant culture grounded in some 800 years of English resistance to oppressive governments. (I’m a faithful Catholic, by the way.) Change this fact too radically or too quickly, and the principles we treasure will wither and die. Another critical fact is broad economic and social mobility, which has generally made Americans unwilling to tax the successful to death because they hope someday to join them, or to watch their children join them. Income inequality in America is both greater than in Europe, and much less politically explosive — at least, until this election, which has seen the rise both of a radical socialist and an angry populist contender. (For a deeper look at the historical, Anglo heritage that gave birth to freedom, see Daniel Hannan’s Inventing Freedom.)
The word “establishment” in reference to the GOP’s donors, thinkers and leaders has been bandied about almost to the point of meaninglessness. But we can reclaim some use for it in light of the Egg and the Goose — and explain the profound alienation that has erupted in this election. Those who support Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in this election think that the GOP establishment has mastered the art of shining and selling the Golden Egg, but forgot to care for the Goose.
By promoting massive low-skill immigration from countries (ranging from Mexico to Syria) that are completely devoid of the Anglo-Protestant ethos, and into a spendthrift American welfare state, GOP elites have served the interests of large companies seeking cheap labor. But they have endangered the crucial social matrix that makes the free market and a free society possible — a matrix that one of the great free market economists (and an anti-Nazi hero), Wilhelm Röpke, warned is the very foundation of freedom.
Conversely, mainstream conservative critics of Donald Trump have been pointing with grave alarm to his role in the rise of angry, racially motivated white activists — many of whom call themselves, wonkishly, “alt-right.” They reject America’s principles. Some even denounce the Constitution itself as a “boring,” antiquated “piece of paper” that stands in the way of their pursuing what they consider the legitimate self-interests of the “white community.” Indeed, these activists accept many of the multiculturalist principles of the left, and seek to hijack them for the benefit of a new political movement: a white ethnic lobby, with race-specific demands that take no account of American liberty, or universal moral principles. This tribal cult scrambles the Golden Egg, but kneels to worship the Goose.
This “alt-right” group is ugly, and I have fought them for many years. Their views cannot possibly be the basis for a unifying agenda that could govern modern America. It is telling that the vast majority of these “alt-right” activists reject Christianity for paganism or neo-Darwinian eugenics. Few object to abortion, and some even mutter cynically about the “benefits” of poor people “breeding” more slowly. They’re bad news, and they deserve to remain in obscurity.
“Trump!” Is the Noise the Goose Makes as It’s Dying
But the eruption of such activists should not be some deep mystery. Yes, they are a pathological phenomenon, but they are a symptom as much as a sickness. They’re the noise the Goose makes as it’s dying. Take the reckless, cynical willingness of leftist elites to trash Western culture, vilify our national heritage and treat tolerant Christianity as something worse than jihadist Islam — then add to that the total disinterest that conservative elites have shown in the care and feeding, the defense and preservation, of any aspect of that culture beyond “small government” and the “free market,” and it’s no surprise that many have rushed to back a demagogue like Trump, who claims that he can cure the Goose. Or as he might say it on Twitter: “Only I can solve.”
Trump’s problem is that he doesn’t really value America’s principles of freedom and equality. He shrugs at its Golden Egg. But too many of his critics fail to realize that we need a live Goose as well. GOP contender Ted Cruz, by contrast, has based his campaign squarely on both crucial elements of a successful, responsible conservative movement in modern America. He will defend the Goose, while also championing and polishing the Golden Egg. Thus, Cruz knows and fiercely believes that we are fallen creatures called to be free, whose freedom and virtue thrive best in the context of a strictly limited government. He also sees that such principles can only thrive in a stable nation with the rule of law and some continuity of culture, which isn’t constantly choking to assimilate millions of foreign newcomers, many of whom have little or no commitment to our principles of civic, religious, and economic liberty.
Should the GOP convention get as far as a second ballot, will the leaders of the party attempt to shove Cruz aside in favor of some safe establishment figure? That’s an option Karl Rove is already floating. If that happens, many among the vast majority of GOP voters who rejected the “egg-only” establishment candidates will be sorely tempted to back sore loser Trump in a third-party kamikaze mission that will elect Hillary Clinton. That’s what voters do when their own party refuses to listen to them. They act recklessly, convinced that things couldn’t get much worse.
But of course, they can. (For more from the author of “Why Conservatism Is Cracking up in the Age of Trump” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/4594193164_26d1a4dbf7_b.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-04 01:41:292016-04-11 10:50:47Why Conservatism Is Cracking up in the Age of Trump
The path to the Republican nomination this year could run through the Virgin Islands.
The tiny U.S. territory is one of a handful of places where Republicans can select “unbound” delegates who have the ability to cast a vote on the first ballot at the national convention for any candidate they choose. These hundred or so delegates nationwide — the Virgin Islands has nine — could emerge as critical power brokers at the party’s convention in Cleveland if GOP front-runner Donald Trump fails to amass the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination beforehand.
This is not just hypothetical: “That is how the 1976 Republican convention was decided as President Ford had less than a majority of delegates pledged to him but won the lion’s share of uncommitted delegates in states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York,” said Frank Donatelli, a former Republican National Committee official. These uncommitted delegates are “where the leading candidate will look to get delegates to go over the top.”
The total number of unbound GOP delegates is a bit unclear, because each state sets its own delegate rules. But a furious shadow campaign is under way in several pockets of the country to influence who nabs these spots.
This weekend, North Dakota Republicans will meet in a convention to select 25 convention delegates who, in addition to the three state officials with already reserved delegate spots, can all be unbound in Cleveland. State GOP Executive Director Roz Leighton said presidential campaigns have been recruiting people in the state to run for delegate spots so they can count on having supporters in the delegation at the convention. (Read more from “How the Virgin Islands Could Decide the GOP Presidential Nomination” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/25810827555_7291611380_k.jpg15352048Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-02 01:58:252016-04-11 10:50:49How the Virgin Islands Could Decide the GOP Presidential Nomination
April 12th was Equal Pay Day. You didn’t miss it, did you? That’s the day where we are all supposed to mourn the fact that women are paid seventy-six cents for every dollar a man earns for the same work. There’s only one little problem with this whole day of remembrance; it’s based on a total load of crap.
There’s something else about these delegate fights that have taken place over the weekend where Cruz has just skunked Trump. It isn’t even a contest. It is fascinating to watch. And, of course, the Trump people think that games are being played and that tricks are being pulled. But that’s not happening. This is just somebody who understands the system using it. You know, we could go into a little discussion if you want about insider versus outsider, and I’ve tried to tell people: “These insiders are not just gonna let this stuff go, folks. They’re not just gonna sit idly by and let you take it away from ’em.”
