Month: January 2021

These Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes are still, if not more, relevant in today’s world. He was a kind, loving, insightful man of his time who only wanted to peaceably co-exist with one another. He wanted justice for all, not just for African-Americans. We are all human, our skin color is not important. It infuriates me that the left continually pound this racial divide and yet they claim they want unity and are “tolerant” of others.

If you want unity and tolerance, then practice what you preach. Actions speak louder than words.

We will never, NEVER, all see eye-to-eye. It will never happen. And bullying your views onto people who don’t believe or think the same as you WILL NOT UNIFIY US. It will only serve to further divide us. Perhaps that’s the end goal, to drive a wedge so deeply that the gap will never be closed. And if that’s the goal, then own it. Don’t pretend you want to unify and compromise with people as long as they unify and compromise your way.

That’s not the definition of unity and/or compromise. Look it up.

Realistically, I think we are too divided to be united at this point in time. Especially with an incoming party who are prepared to do anything and everything in their power to silence you. Newsflash, that is NOT going to unify America. And of course they know that but they continue to do what they do best, lie to our faces and a large part of the country just mindlessly lap it up.

Here are more MLK quotes that I hope inspire you:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Meaning: “Justice is an abstraction, a generic and theoretical state of perfect harmony in which everything is in a fair balance. But each injustice is a very real, very specific flaw in that balance. Even if we can’t really pin down what we mean by “justice” overall, it’s relatively easy and deeply true to identify specific injustices, and do something about them. And the thing about injustice is, once one realizes that is what it means (i.e. an unfair imbalance in the social order), it does no good to shrug one’s shoulders and say, “Who cares? Those poor souls may be getting a raw deal but it’s not affecting me any.” Because an imbalance in the system does affect you — it affects everyone. If a boat is capsizing because it’s out of balance, everyone on board is going to get wet, not just the fools who are causing the imbalance. Thus, if we let an injustice — an imbalance — get too far out of hand anywhere, it threatens to undermine and capsize the entire ship of state, to everyone’s harm. That’s why “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Source

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Meaning: “If you’re going to try to drive out hate, you need to bring the love. It won’t be pleasant, but it’s the truth. Bringing the love doesn’t mean you believe as they do, or even that you like them. It simply means that you consider the human bond to be stronger than their hate.

If you match them hate for hate, the world will not be a better place for your effort. What little satisfaction you gain will be temporary at best, and will eventually be to the determent of everyone. That’s neither a good plan, nor is it much of a legacy for our children to inherit, a world filled with more hate than ever.

It is my belief that most hatred is based on inaccurate information, or on stories told about injustices of old. The hate can only be kept alive if the recipients of the hate act according to the script. The most disruptive thing we can do to the script is to show them love and compassion, and blow the narrative apart. Are you willing to try?” Source

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

I love this quote because I think it perfectly summarizes the times we live in right now. It’s easy to step onto our podium, point fingers and “preach” about how we should, or should not live  our lives according to the group who yells the loudest, or throw labels loosely around like so much confetti, especially when everything is peaceful and quiet. We have food, shelter, security, we can afford to be magnanimous. But when things get tough, like it’s starting to get now, our freedoms start being stripped way, our voices are being actively muted, our votes are not worth the paper they are printed on, THAT is when our true characters will shine through. Are we tough enough to stand up and say enough is enough? I think we can be, but I also think we’re not quite there …. yet.

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Meaning: “He’s essentially saying that freedom has to be fought for. It will be not be given to us by those in power and authority; we need to take it for ourselves. Yes, as human beings we’re all free and the Constitution says we’re all equal, but out in the real world we need to struggle in order to gain and secure our civic freedoms. This is King’s general message, one that has universal application to all of us, irrespective of race.” Source

Our freedoms are being attacked right now. You can roll your eyes or you can pull your head from the sand, it’s happening. The oppressor is our government, both federal and local, media, and social media. They are attacking our freedom to voice our concerns, to vote for our candidates and suppressing information. If the thought of no longer having a voice and being part of a collective doesn’t scare the shit out of you, it should.

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

Without law and order, we can not have peace. Think of what happened with the BLM and Antifa riots, how out-of-control they were allowed to get because we pushed, and continue to push, to defund the police. Entire blocks of cities were burned to the ground. People were murdered and continue to be murdered because there are not as many law enforcement officers patrolling. And an entire block was “captured” and “renamed” as it’s own province because we were all too scared to stop it.

Would you say it’s peaceful right now? Of course not. Things are worse than ever because we have fallen in line with a radical group of people who tout getting rid of law enforcement. We will never experience peace if we don’t have law and justice.

Never.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Again, this is more true today than ever. Our way of lives, our freedoms, our constitution, is being threatened because we do not speak up about the injustices that are happening right now. But we’re just protecting you from the big-bad virus, we’re just protecting you from social injustice, we’re protecting you from YOURSELVES. It’s a guise to make people feel like they are being cared for when really they are being controlled. And they, meaning the Socialists and the Marxists who are in control right now, will only continue to chip away at your right to live your life the way you see fit because no one will stand up, no one will speak because they are afraid of being called names.

Being called names, or being labeled this or that is PRECISELY the strategy they play because they know it works. Stop caring what people think. Stop caring if someone labels you. If you are standing up for what is right then who cares what others think. At least you’re not going down without a fight.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Precisely. When we look back on this time period, we will not remember how our enemy took over or what  our enemy said, we will remember that we, the people, did not stand up and fight back. We allowed it to happen.

“Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail. If you can’t be a sun, be a star. For it isn’t by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”

I love this quote. So many people say, “but what can I do?” Something. Anything. Start small. Talk to your friends and family. Volunteer in your community. Rally for candidates that you believe in. SPEAK UP. Sitting passively back and allowing the shit to be thrown at you just makes a mess. And no one is happy living in squalor.

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

That time is right now.

Read Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speech here. You can listen to it here.

Watch this:

Did you laugh? Crack a smile?

If not, I’ve got nothing more to offer you.

*sigh*

What a week, right? In a lot of ways, I feel like this actress in the above video – I keep circling back to the same place but I’m lost every time I get there. Nothing makes sense and yet, it all seems familiar.

I had no idea what was happening on Wednesday. I was at work and (thankfully) immersed and focused on clinic. It wasn’t until Kevin text me that I had an inkling of what was happening.

Huge crowds in Washington DC. Trump making speech.

Protestors storm the capital – people have been shot. 

At first, I was like, “cool! People showed up! I wonder if that will help at all.”

And then, “crap. People storming the capital will NOT help at all.”

After clinic was over, I started trolling (reliable) news sources. It looked bad but I reserved judgement.

When I came home, I watched (trusted) commentaries and I. GOT. FIRED. UP.

I sat down and pounded out a heated blog post. I got my frustrations off my chest and I felt satisfied with my words. I scheduled it to post the next day. I went to bed.

I got up the next morning and deleted my post.

It was too heated. It was too biased. And I didn’t want to be a typical Democrat and run off my emotions. I needed to take a minute to breathe and look at the BIG picture. Remember? I challenge myself to remain balance and look at all sides of an issue. It’s not always easy, but I think we all need to challenge ourselves to approach difficult times this way.

And now, here we are several days later and honestly, I think the violence at the capital is the least of our concerns at this point in time.

It’s official, Biden/Harris will be in the White House for the next four years. Georgia elected their Democrat candidates (whether that was a fair election or not remains to be seen – isn’t it sad that we will continue to question the validity of elections from this point on? Even if the Republicans win, we’ll ask ourselves – was it fair??) and now we have a one-party rule. The Democrats are in power and there is NO telling what kind of damage they will inflict the next four years (hopefully two years if we can get more Republican candidates into the House or Senate). They have the power to pass anything. A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G. Whose going to stop them?

NOBODY.

This fact alone makes me very uncomfortable. And a little scared, to be honest. Take notice, readers, who knows what our country will look like by 2024.

The attack on the capital was not cool. I don’t support it. Violence is never the answer. But I understand it. People were worked up into a frenzy these past two months. We had Trump yelling from the rooftops that the election was a fraud and he actually won. We had Sidney Powell yelling from the rooftops that “she was going to bring on the Kracken.” We had Rudy Guiliano touting his legal team and they were building evidence and were confident they could turn this around. These people gave us hope. They made us believe, though not easy, we had one last chance to turn this nightmare around.

And then … crickets. Nothing. All of the hoopla just sort of died down. Still. I was hopeful. Maybe they were keeping their cards close to their chest, I thought. They didn’t want to show their hand too soon. I could understand that. I was thankful they were doing that. I was hopeful they had an ace up their sleeve. And who knows, maybe they did? But when the courts came back and told them they didn’t have standing and then the Supreme Court refused to hear their case, I knew it was over. I just didn’t see how Trump would pull it off. Still. I had a bit of hope. He’s always managed to get things done in the past. Surely he would pull this off? And he continued to give people hope. He refused to concede. He made it seem like we had a chance at the January 6th Electoral Count. He encouraged people to show up to help support him. And he led people to believe if they would just show up in support on January 6th, we could turn this around.

Now maybe Trump didn’t come right out and say this, but he certainly implied it – I don’t think he ever flat out denied it. But it was enough to spur people into action and they showed up. By the thousands. Which was cool – it showed that people still cared what happened to our country and were worried a Democrat monopoly would ruin our country. But as is often the case when you have thousands of people show up to an event and emotions are running high and they are frustrated and tired of being ignored and/or labeled every time they express concerns or dare to ask a question, you have chaos.

Who knows what sparked the deluge on the capital. Emotions were running so high it wouldn’t have taken much to light that powder keg to begin with. It was a desperate attempt to try and take back control over something they didn’t have any control over for a very long time. Was it right? No. Of course not. But it was human.

And let’s be honest. The woman who got shot trying to climb into a window with a backpack on … it was the only thing that COULD happen. In the moment, in the middle of sheer chaos, those security guys had no idea what her intention was. They had no idea what was in the backpack. They did their jobs, they protected the capital. It was sad it turned out that way, but you can’t act aggressive in situations like that and not expect consequences.

When that happened, I knew it was over for Trump. And indeed, he has had people jumping ship ever since that incident. People are distancing themselves from him because they don’t want to go down with him. Trump is now toxic, politically speaking. It’s sad, but again, I understand the emotion behind it.

Did I think Trump wanted that to happen? Of course not. Do I think Trump encouraged people to show up and act like fools? No. But I think his rhetoric had that unintentional effect.

Biden had the perfect, PERFECT, opportunity to practice what he has been preaching from the beginning of his campaign – unity. Let’s all come together. That situation was the perfect backdrop – everyone agreed it was unacceptable. No one defended the attack on the capital. But Biden/Harris didn’t do that because they do what every Democrat is pre-programmed to do – they took advantage of the crisis and turned it political. Not only did they turn it political, but they further twisted that screw into the narrative to try and blame racial divide. If this is not positive proof that the Biden/Harris administration has NO DESIRE to bring people together, I honestly don’t know what further proof you need.

This is just a TASTE of the divisiveness heading our way. I hope you have a firm hold of something because it’s going to be a bumpy and ugly ride.

It absolutely sickened me the way Biden and Harris handled that situation. They were almost gleeful that they were able to use this as yet another hit on the wedge between sides. They want it their way, or no way. There is no compromise.

Which leads me to the issue I feel is the most serious – the way the social platforms are treating this. Facebook / Twitter have banned President Trump’s account. Facebook has been going through and deleting conservative groups consisting of a million people. These platforms are systematically “purging” any and all opinions that do not support their agenda. And remember the Section 230 hearing that I broke down for you? It’s been voted down. Approving Section 230 would have made Facebook and Twitter publishers, meaning they would not be able to censor people on their platform – they would, under law, have to allow dissenting viewpoints. But since it was not approved, they are not publishers, they remain private companies and they can do what they please. Which, to be fair, is right. They are private companies. People do not have to use them, but what are the alternatives? Facebook and Twitter have been successful in squashing every competitor. Their latest attempt has been to try and de-platform Parler, a site that is similar to Twitter. Apple Play Store and Google Play Store have already removed the ability to download the Parler app onto your phone. Their rationale? They don’t want to promote hate speech. They believe these platforms are what instigated and coordinated the attack on the capital. The real reason? They don’t want to give people a platform in which they dare to express opinions different than their own. They want to make it difficult for conservatives to have a place where they can voice their thoughts and opinions.

It’s 1984 come to life. It’s what Communist China does to their people. They are allowed to use tightly controlled programs that their government manages so they can ensure their message, and no opposing thoughts or opinions, gets to the people. It gives me goosebumps to think we’re heading in the same direction. And do you think Biden/Harris will stop it? NO. They want to do MORE. They don’t think we’ve done ENOUGH censoring.

And it’s all fine and dandy to agree with this censorship when you agree with what is being pushed, how are you going to feel when YOU’RE censored? How would you feel right now if the conservatives were doing this to you and your opinions were left out to dry? I’m betting you wouldn’t be so supportive at that point. Who’s to say it won’t happen to you? What are you going to do? What can you do? Any and all people who might be able to help have already been silenced.

Was Trump annoying with his messages? Yes. Was he less than tactful at times and a bit of a bully? Unquestionably. Did he deserve to be censored? No. Our freedoms of speech are being seriously attacked here and if we don’t fight this it will disappear.

Even if you’re NOT a conservative, would you want that? Remember. As long as you are agreeing with the agenda and going along with the plan, you’re fine to speak up. What happens if you disagree? What happens when you’re no longer allowed to voice your concerns? What happens when your questions are twisted and distorted and you’re called a racist for simply ASKING A DAMN QUESTION?

*takes a breath*

Whew. I need to calm down. I’m getting heated again. But what is happening right now? SHOCKS AND SADDENS ME. And scares me, quite frankly.

I deleted my Twitter account today. My Facebook account has been deleted for quite some time. And not using those platforms does not bother me, they are free platforms free to do what they want. I figure as long as you’re using their product you have to play by their rules. Don’t like them apples? Them dump the basket. But the fact that they are a monopoly and SO big and virtually untouchable, that scares me. What’s the alterative? Right now, we don’t have one.

But then again, why does it really matter? We have certainly survived without these social platforms before, we shall survive without them again. We have the media to …

Oh wait.

We DON’T have the media. The big names, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX  are just as bad as Facebook and Twitter. In fact, they are worse. Because they cherry pick news stories. They take things out of context and twist them into something that resembles THEIR truth. And people buy it, hook, line and sinker. They bend over and cough. They open their mouths and say, “spoon feed me more of your truth please because it hurts my brain too much to resist your crap.”

*sigh*

This is madness, people. Absolute madness. Where do we go from here? What’s next? I think President Trump has given us a hint:

This was posted on the POTUS Twitter account that Obama set up and will transfer to Biden. I think it’s still active, who knows. But the fact that Trump eludes to something coming gives me hope.

Look. This whole situation goes way beyond Trump. In fact, it’s not even about Trump anymore, it’s about Freedom of Speech. There are some people out there that think Trump should run in 2024. I disagree. I think he needs to be done with politics. I’m confident he will never win the presidency again. And if he ran, that would just prevent another Republican candidate of having any chance at all.

No. I think he should stay out of politics. What I think he should do is build a company, a network, a social media platform, that will give Facebook and Twitter a serious run for their money. I think he should build a platform where conservatives can voice their opinion and have a place to express their freedoms of speech. I think that is the only way we’re going to squelch this gross abuse of power from Facebook and Twitter. Trump has the money, he has the brains, and he has the business sense to get it done. And it would give him the ultimate revenge against these companies that tried to muzzle him, and his followers. I have no idea what he has up his sleeve, but I really hope this idea is on the table for him.

So now what? What do we do now? We stay alert and pay attention to what is going on around us. We take a stand and we do NOT allow anyone to silence us. We have gotten to a point where we can’t even ask questions. If you think the Democrats will be satisfied now that Trump is out of office? Think again friends. With Trump gone, who’s left? Conservatives. Us, the people who dare disagree with their radical agendas.

If this sounds dramatic it’s because it is. We’re reached that point. There are no more obstacles. The Democrats have nothing standing in their way. They can do whatever they want because they have complete control.

You asked for it. Here we go. Whatever happens? Is on the people who voted for Biden/Harris. Be careful what you wish for.

Since we started with something funny, let’s end on something funny. I’ve been a fan of JP’s for a while now. Enjoy.