I’m not new to writing about political issues. I spent pretty much the entirety of the Obama administration pointing out his disdain of transparency, his refusal to challenge the rich and powerful even after they inflicted significant harm on the American public, and his dangerous expansion of militarism across the globe. Over the course of those eight years, I solidified and refined my views on a wide variety of issues that are important to me. Though I’ve been extremely troubled by the people Trump has decided to surround himself with, and the fact he’s essentially outsourced his economic policy to the boys at vampire squid Goldman Sachs, I’ve held off on my harshest criticism while waiting to see where he comes down on a wider variety of issues. At this point, I think I’ve seen enough.
Trump and his spokespeople recently have made their opinions known on a variety of issues on which I hold strong beliefs. The three I will focus on today are: 1) Civil Asset Forfeiture. 2) Private Prisons. 3) Legalization of Recreational Marijuana. On all three of these issues, Trump has taken an authoritarian, unethical and quite unpopular position. Rather than challenge the oligarchs who’ve run this country into the ground, he’s appointed them to be his top advisors. Now he wants to make life increasingly unfree and miserable for average Americans. Not a very populist agenda.
I’m not a cheerleader for political figures and I find cult of personality worship to be an extraordinarily grotesque and destructive practice. We all have issues we care about. The things that matter to me may not be what matter to you, but it’s important that we remain consistent in whatever principles we hold dear, irrespective of who happens to be in power at any given moment. One of the reasons Obama was able to do so much harm is because he was given a pass by millions of phony liberals who suddenly didn’t care about war crimes once Mr. Hope & Change became President. If you’re a Trump supporter who wants to see him succeed, it’s your job to hold him to account on these issues, otherwise he will go down in flames.
I have a long history of writing on these three issues. My opinions aren’t new, and don’t change based on who gets elected. Let’s start with civil asset forfeiture, a topic I’ve written at least 10-20 articles on. I outlined my position quite clearly in my very first post on the topic all the way back in 2013. Here’s a brief excerpt from the piece, Why You Should Never, Ever Drive Through Tenaha, Texas.
In a nutshell, civil forfeiture is the practice of confiscating items from people, ranging from cash, cars, even homes based on no criminal conviction or charges, merely suspicion. This practice first became widespread for use against pirates, as a way to take possession of contraband goods despite the fact that the ships’ owners in many cases were located thousands of miles away and couldn’t easily be prosecuted. As is often the case, what starts out reasonable becomes a gigantic organized crime ring of criminality, particularly in a society where the rule of law no longer exists for the “elite,” yet anything goes when it comes to pillaging the average citizen.
One of the major reasons these programs have become so abused is that the police departments themselves are able to keep much of the confiscated money. So they actually have a perverse incentive to steal. As might be expected, a program that is often touted as being effective against going after major drug kingpins, actually targets the poor and disenfranchised more than anything else.
Obama was terrible on this issue, as I highlighted time and time again. It appears Trump wants to be even worse. As Reuters reported earlier this month:
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday there was “no reason” to curb law enforcement agencies that seize cash, vehicles and other assets of people suspected of crimes, a practice that some lawmakers and activists have criticized for denying legal rights.
The issue of civil asset forfeiture, created to disrupt the activities of organized crime groups, arose when sheriffs from around the United States told Trump at a White House meeting that they were under pressure to ease the practice.
“I’d like to look into that,” Trump said. “There’s no reason for that.”
In 2016, a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill, which did not become law, that would have required the government to do more to show that seized property was connected to a crime. Critics have said suspects have few avenues to challenge the seizures and that forfeiture laws were sometimes abused. Police in some cases seize property from people who are never charged or convicted.
Trump, a Republican, asked acting U.S. Attorney General Dana Boente, who was at the gathering, whether executive orders or legislation were needed to support forfeiture. Boente said that was unnecessary but law enforcement agencies needed encouragement.
Trump voiced disagreement with lawmakers who want to change asset forfeiture laws, and some of the sheriffs laughed when Trump suggested he might want to “destroy” the career of one Texas legislator.
He said members of the U.S. Congress would “get beat up really badly by the voters” if they interfered with law enforcement’s activities.
Trump is completely delusional on this topic. Not only is the practice unethical, it’s extremely unpopular. As Cato demonstrated in a poll late last year:
Eighty-four percent (84%) of Americans oppose civil asset forfeiture–police “taking a person’s money or property that is suspected to have been involved in a drug crime before the person is convicted of a crime,” according to a new Cato Institute/YouGov survey of 2,000 Americans. Only 16% think police ought to be allowed to seize property before a person is convicted.
Civil asset forfeiture is a process by which police officers seize a person’s property (e.g. their car, home, or cash) if they suspect the individual or property is involved with criminal activity. The individual does not need to be charged with, or convicted of, any crime for police to seize assets. In most jurisdictions police departments may keep the property they seize or the proceeds from its sale. However, as these survey results demonstrate, most Americans oppose this practice.
Let’s now move on to the private prison industry, another topic I’ve written extensively about over the years. Here’s an excerpt from the 2013 post, A Deep Look into the Shady World of the Private Prison Industry:
Private prisons are antithetical to a free people. Of all the functions a civilized society should relegate to the public sector, it’s abundantly clear incarceration should be at the very top of the list. Jailing individuals is a public cost that a society takes on in order to ensure there are consequences to breaking certain rules that have been deemed dangerous to the happiness and quality of life within a given population. However, the end goal of any civilized culture must be to try to keep these cost as low possible. This should be achieved by having as few people as possible incarcerated, which is most optimally achieved by reducing incidents of criminality within the population. Given incarceration is an undesirable (albeit necessary) part of any society, the idea is certainly not to incentivize increased incarceration by making it extremely profitable. This is a perverse incentive, and one that is strongly encouraged by the private prison industry to the detriment of society.
Perhaps the only thing I applauded from Obama’s Justice Department over the entirety of his eight years was the announced phasing out of private prisons at the federal level. As such, it’s extremely troubling to me that reinstating such an idiotic policy became a priority for Trump.
Here’s what happened just yesterday as reported by USA Today:
WASHINGTON — Private prison companies, which stand to make big gains under President Trump’s tough new immigration orders, also have contributed big sums to pro-Trump groups, including the organization that raised a record $100 million for his inauguration last month.
GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest for-profit prison operators, donated $250,000 to support Trump’s inaugural festivities, Pablo Paez, the company’s vice president of corporate relations, told USA TODAY.
That’s on top of the $225,000 that a company subsidiary donated to a super PAC that spent some $22 million to help elect the real-estate magnate. Another prison operator, CoreCivic, gave $250,000 to support Trump’s inauguration, recently filed congressional reports show.
For-profit prison companies’ hopes for significant gains under the Trump administration already are coming to fruition. On Thursday, the Justice Department rescinded an Obama administration order to phase out the use of private-prison contracts in the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Smells a lot like swamp.
Finally, let’s discuss what will certainly be the most politically toxic of all Trump’s policies, if he’s actually stupid enough to pursue it. Namely, a crackdown on recreational marijuana in states where voters approved it.
I’m a proud resident of the wonderful state of Colorado, the first place in the nation to legalize cannabis for recreational use in 2012. Following that vote, I wrote an article titled, Colorado Legalizes Marijuana: Your Move Eric Holder. Here’s some of what I wrote:
I’m proud to say that my state of Colorado led the way nationally by becoming the first state to legalize marijuana (although Washington passed a similar measure shortly after). I supported this Amendment and voted yes on it for several reasons.
1) Based on personal experience as well as observations of others I believe that marijuana is a much more benign drug than alcohol, and in fact I think its benefits to society outweigh the negatives. Like with anything in life, moderation is key.
2) I philosophically do not believe the Federal government should have any say in what people put into their bodies. This is not to say that I believe the full legalization of all drugs is ideal. For example, I would vote against the legalization of harder drugs like cocaine or heroin in Colorado if that was on the ballot. That’s not to say I don’t think it has a right to be on the ballot, it’s just that I would vote against it. We have 50 states for a reason. These individual communities should be able to decide for themselves what they want to allow within their respective borders. The Federal government should have absolutely zero say on this matter.
3) It’s about time we had a little confrontation with the Federal government on the issue of States rights. As has been documented endlessly, civil liberties have been decimated since 9/11 and the overreaction to the endless “war on terror.” The Federal government has become bolder, more aggressive and increasingly tyrannical. While the degree is debatable the trend is not. Marijuana legalization provides the ideal battleground on the issue of States rights at the moment. The measure passed in a landslide in Colorado. 55% voted yes and 45% voted no (Obama only won the state 51% vs. 46%). The people have clearly spoken.
Since then, people have spoken in several other areas of the country, and 7 other states have legalized pot for recreational use (California, Washington, Oregon, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada and Alaska). The trend is clear and there’s no going back at this point.
Whether you like it or not, cannabis is now a part of American culture and the notion of criminalizing people for ingesting a relatively benign substance into their own bodies is simply absurd. This concept will become increasingly absurd as the years go by, which is why Trump would have to be the biggest fool on earth to pick this battle. It is a battle he cannot win, and any attempt to send federal agents into states to prevent people from legally doing something in peace that they themselves voted to make available, will be viewed very poorly by most Americans, including many Trump supporters. There is zero upside to such a policy, and a tremendous amount of downside. Naturally, this didn’t stop Sean Spicer from incoherently mouthing off yesterday.
As The Intercept reported:
WHITE HOUSE PRESS Secretary Sean Spicer cited “states’ rights” on Tuesday in defending the Trump administration’s decision to end the Obama administration’s federal protections for transgender students.
“The president has maintained for a long time that this is a states’ rights issue and not one for the federal government,” he said. “All you have to do is look at what the president’s view has been for a long time that this is not something that the federal government should be involved in. This is a states’ rights issue.”
But on Thursday, asked about federal marijuana enforcement, it was like the states had no rights at all. Arkansas-based reporter Roby Brock asked Spicer about the administration’s posture towards Arkansas’s new medical marijuana law.
Spicer suggested that the Trump administration would respect state laws related to medical marijuana — but not offer the same respect for recreational marijuana.
“There are two distinct issues here. Medical marijuana and recreational marijuana,” Spicer said. “Medical marijuana, I’ve said before that the president understands the pain and suffering that many people go through who are facing especially terminal diseases and the comfort that some of these drugs including medical marijuana can bring to them.”
But Spicer compared recreational marijuana use to deadly opioid addictions. “I think that when you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country the last thing that we should doing is encouraging people, there’s still a federal law that we need to abide by in terms of … when it comes to recreational marijuana and other drugs of that nature.”
Actually, the exact opposite is true. See: The Real Reason Pharma Companies Hate Medical Marijuana (It Works)
“I think that’s a question for the Department of Justice. I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement of it. Because again there’s a big difference between the medical use, which Congress has through an appropriations rider in 2014 made very clear what the intent, what their intent was in terms of how the Department of Justice would handle that issue,” he replied, referring to a 2014 law that directed the federal government to respect state medical marijuana laws. “That’s very different than the recreational use which is something the Department of Justice I think will be further looking into.”
Actually…The Real Reason Pharma Companies Hate Medical Marijuana (It Works)
Unfortunately for the Trump team, this position is definitely not popular. As Reason notes:
Yesterday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer suggested that the Justice Department under newly installed Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be more inclined to enforce the federal ban on marijuana in states that have legalized the drug for recreational use. A large majority of Americans, including most Republicans, think that’s a bad idea, according to poll numbers released the same day as Spicer’s comments.
While Spicer emphasized the difference between medical and recreational marijuana, he overlooked a more important distinction: between opposing state laws that allow recreational use of marijuana and supporting federal intervention aimed at overriding them. That distinction is clear in the latest Quinnipiac University poll, which finds that 71 percent of Americans “oppose the government enforcing federal laws against marijuana in states that have already legalized medical or recreational marijuana.” By comparison, 59 percent think marijuana “should be made legal in the United States.” That means many Americans who oppose legalization nevertheless think states should be free to adopt that policy. A disproportionate number of those people are members of Trump’s party: While only 35 percent of Republicans in the Quinnipiac poll supported marijuana legalization, 55 percent opposed federal interference with it.
A CBS News poll conducted last April found even stronger Republican opposition to the sort of meddling Spicer predicted. Asked if “laws regarding whether the use of marijuana is legal” should be “determined by the federal government” or “left to each individual state government to decide,” 70 percent of Republicans said the latter, compared to 55 percent of Democrats (who as usual were more likely to favor legalization). These results make sense to the extent that conservatives take seriously their avowed commitment to federalism, which Trump also claims to support. At the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said he favored medical marijuana but had concerns about broader legalization, a decision he nevertheless said should be left to the states. “If they vote for it, they vote for it,” he said. Trump confirmed that position at a 2015 rally in Nevada: “In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state by state.”
The poll results above are significant. Even those who don’t want it legal where they live, are in favor of leaving others alone. You know it’s bad when Roger Stone is out there pleading for these Trump admin nitwits to get a clue. Here are a few of his tweets.
I am so concerned about @SeanSpicer’s comments re 420 I meeting w/ NORML Chair @normkent -This is not why we elected @realDonaldTrump #420
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) February 24, 2017
A crackdown on legal marijuana in the states will cost thousands of jobs & bankrupt local govt- huge mistake #StatesRights @realDonaldTrump
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) February 24, 2017
If Trump wants his Presidency to become a heaping pile of rubble before the first 100 days are up, be my guest. If not, he better get his act together and start working on policies that will help Americans, as opposed to further criminalizing them.
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Michael Krieger
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The liberal left championed identity politics.
The traditional worries about the gap between those at the bottom and those at the top were abandoned.
Identity politics actually divided those at the bottom into different groups and took away any collective power they may have once had.
Liberals find it hard to understand women voting for Trump as they forget there are poor women often married to poor men; liberals are locked into identity politics.
Inequality exists on two axes:
The y-axis from top to bottom
The x-axis across different groups within society.
The liberal x-axis thinkers are thus surprised by support for Trump from groups they are concerned with, not thinking they are suffering from y-axis inequality too, which is their main concern.
Labour should be about y-axis inequality but since they are focused on the x-axis the Conservatives will have to do it.
The Conservatives find the JAMs and Labour find the transgender group.
The Right are picking up those the liberal left leave behind.
Trump Has Treason in White House-Robert David Steele
Steele goes on to point out that the real enemy of “We the People” is the so-called Deep State. Steels, who is Latino, contends, “We are all black now. White people are feeling what it is like to be black with no resources, nobody on your side and the state against you and the authorities against you. We are all black now. We need to unite the people of color and the white people and the Latinos and all others against the Deep State. That is what (George) Soros’ whole point is. He is trying to create a race war because, all of a sudden in the last 90 days, it’s become possible for the 99% to unite around Donald Trump against the 1%. That is the center of gravity for Trump’s success.”
Steele says unrigging the voting system should be a top priority in the Trump Administration, and, yes, there is voter fraud by the millions. Steele contends there are “at least three million illegal voters in this last election, period. It’s not disputable.” Steele goes on to say, “The key thing is the Electoral Reform Act with 50 states in thirty days . . . that stops the violent American spring in its tracks. That’s priority one, not all this nonsense about Russia and Iran. In my “Memo for Trump,” I say all of your enemies are right here at home, in Washington D.C., New York City and in some areas of California and Texas.”
http://usawatchdog.com/trump-has-treason-in-white-house-robert-david-steele/
Listen to this…very, very messed up.
To take/steal someone’s property on the mere suspicion of criminal connectivity seems absurd and unconstitutional. Perhaps law enforcement should start seizing all the assets of the CIA and those major banking corporations involved massively in the drug trade and get the big payoff instead of hitting the CIA-Bankers street dealers or others unfairly being cleaned out. Of course that would take some real ballsy sheriffs to go after the big boys, especially when they can get their miniscule ‘cut’ targeting everyday citizens besides those who may or not be working indirectly for the CIA-Bankers at the street level in the illicit drug trade.
The idea of private for profit prisons in a country where corruption is so rampant begs the question of corruption in this endeavor with aspects to crony capitalism running amok.When you read of “school to prison pipelines” you have to know it is dollars over people’s lives that are really the meat of the matter.
Lastly, States rights are quickly being eroded and the idea of them equally being tossed aside as the States themselves are offered or seek Federal money which necessarily comes with Federal directives as to State operations. Play to get paid or refund the money and the Fed can get its hands on all the money it wants. Not so the States.
In all three cases money, coercion or out right corruption is the name of the game and the games rules are getting tougher on the public as time goes by as the public IS the enemy because of and with their love of democratic principles.
Awesome article, love the references, and I agree whole-heartedly, with your analogy on the topics, I am a Trump supporter, but I hope he will take a good long look before he jumps into these extremely important issues. Kudos!
If Trump follows through on (or allows Sessions to) undermine the will of the people in those states that have chosen to allow adult use of marijuana, he risks losing the confidence of many of the young folks who supported and voted for him.
Then again, the previous Messiah-President promised repeatedly not to interfere with medical marijuana as a candidate, only to allow his Sergent-at-arms Holder to raid clinics across the nation for most of his first term.
You may get what you pay for, but you seldom get what you vote for.
Do you even listen to what you say? You are upset because Trump wants to enforce federal law concerning drugs. I do agree about states rights. Drugs, abortion, as well as other issues, should be left to the states.
I care more about what he does then what he says. If he keeps us out of war for the next 4 years, I will be satisfied with my decision in supporting him. Though, I am already disappointed that he has allowed a military operation planned during Obama’s time.
In addition, I have not found one thing he has actually done that I disapprove of, other than the previously military operation.
Oh, and I am not a blind follower of him or anyone else. All your criticisms are that he is not changing things that are already accepted by the government. It is the things he is changing, for the good, that I care about.
I don’t have a problem with confiscation of large amounts of cash but there need to be safeguards to protect the innocent. Firstly the onus to prove guilt is on the authorities. Secondly if guilt is not proven within a reasonable time frame the money needs to go back to its owner. Beyond that, if you really have to carry cash, beware. Why do it, carry a credit card in a metal wallet so they can’t steal your money remotely. Clearly, Trump doesn’t consider this issue a priority, so people need to get wise. It also occurs to me that your 2nd and third points are related to #1. Namely, drug dealers can’t operate without cash, nor would large numbers of prison cells be needed if recreational drugs were to be legalised in all states. Neither of those last 2 issues is going to be addressed by Trump, who probably needs prison cells for other reasons. Illegal immigrant crime whether drug related or not IS one of Trump’s hot button issues. He did clearly make law and order a major distinction between himself and Hillary Clinton.
What is currently crystal clear:
Marijuana should be removed from DEA schedule I.
Civil Asset forfeiture can only be enforced by federal or state executive authority and when enforced is a direct violation of the 4th amendment.
There are powerful lobbies trying to obfuscate these facts. If the first domino falls, the need for civil asset forfeiture and private prison proliferation diminishes swiftly.
Did anyone else notice that as civil asset forfeiture proliferated, advertisements for traveller’s checks disappeared?
We all want less violent crime and must admit much of it is due to bad laws. Enforcement of bad laws contributes to overall crime.
All three of these examples you gave are legacy policies and don’t necessarily demonstrate that Trump is going to govern as an authoritarian. I would think a better indicator of things to come is his severe policies on immigration, which will affect us all, including US citizens. Consider this: Jeffery Tucker just reported that as he boarded a flight to Mexico out of Atlanta, after security, after passport checks, and all of that — as the passengers walked down the jet bridge, there were heavily-armed US Marshals positioned before the entrance to the plane requiring everyone to submit to a retina eye scan. Jeffery Tucker is a very reliable source and he was an eye witness as he was on this flight. Although Mr. Tucker can’t quite figure out why – is this new policy? was it a one-off thing? He suspects it has to do with Trump’s new rules for homeland security. Now that is a scary authoritarian boots on the ground example of where we may be headed. Tucker’s article: https://fee.org/articles/welcome-aboard-but-first-us-marshals-will-scan-your-retina/
This is indeed, very disturbing. Thank you for sharing.
Another reason not to travel by plane, in or out, of the USA.
His immigration policy is just enforcing the law. You have no proof the retina scan came from Trump. TSA can already feel you up and x-ray you so that they can see you under your clothes.
We have globalist/corporatist/financial elites colluding with intelligence agencies and the media to undermine the will of people. We have the possibility of Satanists and pedophiles in government. And you are most concerned about those 3 issues. I agree with you about them, but when I look at the bigger issues, those 3 seem trivial.
Marijuana is going to destroy this country. Sorry but true. While kids in China and India put their heads down and study hard, C students in the USA will start smoking pot before the age of 25 (when their brains aren’t fully developed yet), grow up to whine about politics and drag their tails at some bland 40 hour a week job until they die (if they’re lucky).
How do I know this? Cause I’ve lived in Asia for 20 years and just recently moved back.
I personally only know one alcoholic, but I know dozens of “would’ve, should’ve, could’ve” pot smokers that sit on their sofas and explain how one day they’re going to do something great at 40+ years of age. It’s sad and pathetic and it’s directly related to marijuana.
I recently moved my oldest son to a charter school (I hope others can enjoy charter schools now that Betsy Devos is confirmed) and to my surprise more than half the kids are Indians and East Asians and I live in a very white area of the country. I was honestly pleasantly surprised because my kid is half Asian, but disappointed at the same time.
It made me wonder why more whites, blacks and Hispanics weren’t in this school, and then I thought… “Oh yeah, their parents are home smoking a bong or getting a chest tattoo.”
In a decade or so, all those C students will be home smoking weed complaining that the only jobs left are government jobs and those are filled by East Asians and Indians.
When you grant freedom to stupid people, they tend to want to spell it freeDUMB and act accordingly.
Lastly, Trump wants to cut regulations on business by 75%. This means you will be able to go out and make money for your family’s future while he’s president–until the next nutcase “progressive” gets into office. This puts us head and shoulders above many other countries. This is what I call FREEDOM. Money buys freedom, drugs and alcohol do not. BTW, what other successful countries can you go into a shop and buy marijuana gummy bears or lollipops??? Absolutely none!!! There’s a reason for that….
So smoke up, kiddies, you’re burying yourself and the next generation too with every bong hit.
Here’s the great thing about your claims. Because certain states in America have decided to legalize recreational marijuana and others have not, we’ll have a great experimentation over the next 5, 10 and 20 years. Since Colorado legalized pot in 2012, it’s been one of the fastest growing states in the country, both based on population and GDP. It has one of the most dynamic and productive economies in the entire country. It is also a state were cannabis has been a integral part of the culture for a very long time, particularly in the front range and the mountains. If cannabis was the horrible scourge that you claim, the state simply shouldn’t be doing as well as it is.
I’m sure you will claim that it will take a long time for the effect to, as you say, “destroy the country.” I’d gladly take the other side of that trade and put Colorado up against other states that continue to criminalize pot over the next decade or two and see which ones come out on top. We should start to see Colorado’s economy lag the non-recreational pot states significantly in the coming years if you’re right, and I feel highly confident that will not be the case.
More importantly, this piece wasn’t even making the case for legalization. That ship has sailed, as the poll data shows. The main reason poll data comes out that way is most people have either used cannabis or have been around enough people who do, and their conclusion is very distinct from yours. The conclusion is that it is a far more benign substance than alcohol and that used in moderation can be very beneficial. As such, my point wasn’t coming from a point of fear about Trump’s policies, but rather to explain how clownish and out of touch they are. Also the fact he can’t win this fight. It would be the most politically idiotic move in at least a generation.
If you think the country is about to be “destroyed by pot,” you should probably move back to Asia.
Safe travels.
Ms. Devos is also a staunch supporter of the common core curriculum. If it infects the charter schools, the kids will be indistinguishable from pot heads all across the country. She has already been curbed by the administration in her zeal to enforce transgender “bathroom rights”.
“Refer Madness” was not a documentary.
hillary plotting to become mayor of nyc . http://nypost.com/2017/01/24/hillary-50-50-on-running-for-nyc-mayor-insider-claims/
seems like you have plenty to keep you busy mike.
@MKrieger
You’re right, marijuana alone isn’t going to destroy the country (maybe I should rephrase this), but it will act as the lubricant on the very near and very real slippery slope humanity is on (robots/AI/authoritarian govt not drugs).
Americans need to prepare for what’s coming, and sitting on the sofa, smoking weed, and watching Netflix is not healthy preparation, especially for teens and twenty-somethings.
C, even B, students have BIG (basic income guarantee) to look forward to in the very near future, plus a whole host of mental and physical diseases and illnesses associated with this coming lackadaisical lifestyle. Meanwhile, the A students will either be creating government policies, pandering for your ineffective vote, or entertaining you on Netflix (these being the only foreseeable human career choices in the near future).
One thing I learned in Asia is that Asians live long, healthy lifestyles because of hard work not in spite of it. What happens when hard work becomes a privilege not a necessity?
Thanks for the advice. And it’s right, yes, once Trump is out of office and the next Progressive neo-Maoist is in office clamping down and monopolizing all industries, trying to handcuff the economy, trying to get men into dresses and women into suits, and turning the United States over to the global power elite structure then I will be back in Asia where things will be less polarized. For now, I’m going to enjoy Trump for the next 4 – 8 years and go out and make as much money as I possible can.
I suggest all of you do the same because what follows Trump will be pure ugliness thanks to US colleges and Universities. The US is headed towards a cultural revolution and some very dark times–maybe weed is the answer?!?!? But I think I’ll stick with making money and GTFO!
The Constitution is “just a damn piece of paper.” Bush said it, Obama covered Bush’s rear end on it and now Trump is the beneficiary of that attitude becoming normal among the ruling class.
As for the chances that Trump’s core voters will hold him accountable, that is highly unlikely. Brain dead partisanship is killing this country–and it gets worse with every passing year.
@Chris
In all due respect, what do you honestly know about Common Core?
If I showed you Singapore Math, I’d bet you’d curse me for it. What about Indian math, or what my son’s school uses “Saxon math?”
There are different ways of teaching math, and I believe that’s what Common Core is trying to introduce. I suggest studying exactly what Common Core is before believing all the conspiracies on the internet.
Arizona has been running the charter school model for years and it’s great. I don’t have to settle for my neighborhood school if it sucks–I can choose from a whole host of charter schools until I find the right fit. You cannot do that on the East Coast. You’re stuck with the neighborhood school because the teacher unions want 6 figure paychecks for their idiot lazy teachers.
My kid’s new school doesn’t teach critical thinking, it’s all about the data and tests which is fine by me. I’ll teach my kid all the critical thinking he needs out in the wilderness. Let the school teach him how to get into the system, and I’ll teach him how to maneuver in it.
Devos should be praised because she wants choice. This is what “libertarianism” is all about, yeah?
@Michael M.
That you follow stories on Mr. Krieger’s Web site I trust you will teach your kids well. But as you previously mentioned above, there are many adults who are uncritical and they bring kids into the world. I am not aware of any leading mathematicians endorsing the common core curriculum as it teaches math. There are parents reporting that their children are not being taught basic multiplication tables but they are being exposed to complex sexual ideas as basic concepts before they have a mental capacity to understand them.
You also mention that your son’s school does not teach critical thinking. Some people who send their kids to Charter schools are simple people who want their kids to do better than they have. If the Charter school doesn’t teach critical thinking then where are these kids going to aquire it? My point is that if the kids are simply segregated from the social problems of public schools and we have a Secretary of Education advocating the same curriculum in Charter schools as public schools, that isn’t really much of a choice.
I agree with most everything else you say about the public school structure. I am not a huge fan of recreational Marijuana use either but it does have documented legitimate medicinal value and it’s getting to the point where we can have either illegal Marijuana with major crime or legal Marijuana with much less crime. I have a problem with making criminals out of patients who need it to alleviate suffering.
EX CIA ROBERT STEELE INTERVIEW
@Chris
I do believe many charter schools are not beholden to standards rather than results. For example, my son’s prior public school only did PE twice a week, but the charter school teaches martial arts and other sports every single day.
In my opinion, Mrs. Devos is on our team. I believe she understands that the only way to break the teacher’s union (ultimately a government curriculum) is through a charter school system and I firmly agree.
In Japan, they don’t teach multiplication tables. They have no idea what it is, but Japanese score much higher on math tests than we do. Fact is, there are so many ways to teach math it’s mind boggling, and I think that is what scares Americans. Unfortunately, Americans are taught at a young age that math is hard, or math is boring, or math is taught one way, etc. and that’s the real problem. Parents need to stop brainwashing their kids.
As far as “complex sexual ideas,” that sounds like something they would try in a public school not a charter. We have friend’s kids that attend the same school and I’m quite positive they’d pull their kid out if that was the case.
BTW, critical thinking can be taught on a playground. If parents can’t take 30 minutes out of their day to teach critical thinking then they deserve a sheep for a child.
Anyway, I agree with you on medical marijuana which I believe the Trump administration does, too. But for “edibles” and the rest of the recreational scene, no thanks. I don’t want my kid exposed to that at all. I personally believe that the neo-Maoists want people smoking pot to keep them docile and focused on pop culture while they plot to exterminate us all.
Trump might not be Ron or Rand Paul, but at least he’s not a globalist and that small fact is 1000Xs better than every leader we’ve had in recent memory.
We need to watch if Trump is representing the demos or slips into asserting the ethnos. The danger of course is when he becomes champion of the homogenized “Volkskoerper” or embodiment of the people it becomes dictatorial rule but if there is an open source connect between the actual voice of the people not distorted by media or compromised by third party interests then he is the executor of an expressed and articulate Zeitgeist as Realpolitik.
Trump is an idiot. He will fail catastrophically.
The solutions are so simple yet he cannot see them.
End the War on Drugs
Lower Taxes
Cut the military budget….not increase it.