thebigp

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“The 1960s people are in power … And they still think they know better than everyone else. The worst of them … haven’t learned any lessons from the 1960s. They don’t have any new ideas; just a bunch of tired, old notions that have failed every time they’ve been tried.” — me, See I Told You So, 1993
“We’re dealing with some of the greatest collective ignorance ever to be assembled in humanity in my lifetime in this country, and it’s the most expensive commodity that we have: sheer, unadulterated, undiluted, purebred, thoroughbred ignorance.” — me, at the Golden eib Microphone, 11/3/08
“There are a lot of publicly known people who are said to be very smart, and they’re dead wrong about so many things. So my question always is, what is smart about being wrong?” — me, 12/17/10
Do not doubt me, folks. Our country is floundering in a crisis of ignorance. And I’m not just talking about the low-information voters here. I’m talking about those who give the low-information their marching orders, the source of the rampant stupidity in this country: the Establishment. That is, the denizens of the Beltway — elected officials, agency staffers, political media, punditry, and so on. The bureaucratic scaffolding that’s caging the American dream.
Never underestimate the Establishment’s jaw-dropping lack of common sense. And because their hands are on the levers of power, we are flailing as a nation. We’re a ship heading straight into a Cat 5 hurricane. All because they lack the convictions, or even a moral compass, to get us out of harm’s way.
Think about the alt-left in Berkeley and Oakland. The people in Occupy Wall Street. Or the thugs who rioted in Ferguson and Baltimore and St. Louis. Or the pink-vagina-hat-wearing crowd. Those are the people being listened to by the Establishment — the gop and Democrat leadership.
There is nothing new about this leftist crowd — they are same people that have been protesting for leftist causes my entire life. What’s new is that the drive-bys and the Democrat Establishment have joined. They are part of this movement. And the gop Establishment, either blind to what is happening or too afraid to lose power, is complicit by their passivity.
If you look at what Trump campaigned on and what he’s trying to do — particularly on immigration — his agenda is a no-brainer. White House advisor Stephen Miller’s comments at the press conference announcing Trump’s support for the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act [raise] were the most refreshing on immigration I have heard from a White House in a long time:
“Every year we issue a million green cards to foreign nationals from all the countries of the world, but we do so without regard to whether that applicant has demonstrated the skill that can add to the U.S. economy, whether they can pay their own way or be reliant on welfare, or whether they’ll displace or take a job from an American worker … [W]e’ve seen significant reductions in wages … it’s been very unfair for American workers … President Trump … will support … a merit-based point system for foreigners who apply for legal permanent status, or green cards, through their employer.”
Nothing but common sense here, yet the Establishment was outraged. The New York Times worried, “[Trump’s] proposal would undercut the fundamental vision of the United States as a haven for the poor and huddled masses.” dnc Chair Tom Perez whined, without regard to whether that applicant has demonstrated the skill that can add to the U.S. economy, whether they can pay their own way or be reliant on welfare, That’s not what America stands for.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R, SC) cried, “If this proposal were to become law, it would be devastating to our state’s economy, which relies on this immigrant workforce.”
In the Miller press conference itself, cnn grandstander Jim Acosta immediately provided the most embarrassing display of misunderstanding of the Statue of Liberty you’ve ever heard:
“What the President’s proposing here does not sound like it’s in keeping with American tradition when it comes to immigration. The Statue of Liberty says, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ It doesn’t say anything about speaking English or being able to be a computer programmer. Aren’t you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming into this country, if you’re telling them you have to speak English?”
The Statue of Liberty is a symbol of American liberty lighting the world. The poem … was added later. It’s not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.”
To which Acosta sneered, “Stephen, I’m sorry, that sounds like National Park revisionism.”
DUMB AS SKUNKS
No wonder we’re in such a mess. This is what passes for the political and media elite in America. It took many generations for that level of stupidity to take hold in the supposedly educated classes. These are people who believe U.S. immigration policy is determined by an 1883 fundraising poem to build the statue’s base. A base for a statue that represents liberty. The Statue of Liberty never had a thing to do with immigration; in any event it’s ridiculous to think that either a statue or poem would set national citizenship law.
But that’s exactly what Jim Acosta — and much of the Establishment — does think. Because of this kind of utter ignorance and mal-education, the immigration system in America has been misrepresented to mean: “The world is filled with oppression and tyranny and corruption and crime and terror, and we are your destination. If you don’t want to stay where you are, our duty is to accept you no matter what. The more downtrodden you are, the more you can demand access to our benefits.”
The truth is, we have the most generous legal immigration system in the world — over a million immigrants a year are admitted. Only 5 to 12 percent of those immigrants are selected based on education and skills. More than 60 percent of the immigrants accepted by Canada, the UK, and Australia are chosen based on skills. And at about a third of our numbers.
This entire issue illustrates so much of what is wrong throughout our civic, political, and public policy debates. It shows just how paralyzed we are by virtue of ignorance, stupidity, and political bias. We are literally paralyzed, unable to progress. We are frozen, prevented from advancing as a society, moving forward as a culture, because so many of the influential people in our country are idiots who can’t understand common sense when they hear it.
The drive-bys and academia are overpopulated with people who are not just biased but bigoted. They are the victims of a pathetic education system. They have not been taught truth. They have not been taught history, except through the warped prism of Howard Zinn. They’ve not been taught reason and analysis — and on top of that, their smug, arrogant condescension is more than I can handle.
It’s really about what Houston looks like. It’s a majority, minority nation.” Translation: Immigration policy = racism. “In 2037 your children or children’s children or children’s children’s children will ask which side you took when Trump tried to end America.”
The ignorant are now in positions of prominence and power. Though they are arrogant idiots, they believe they’re far smarter than and superior to everybody else. It’s embarrassing.
This is why there can no longer be intelligent debate. Any information that doesn’t comport with their political narrative and agenda, they dismiss as “divisive” or “racist” or somehow beyond the pale and should not be “normalized” — thus shutting down any dialogue. The only end game they have is to send this nation further down a regressive path that will ultimately benefit only one group, the Democrat Party, whose success and acquisition of power depends upon more and more Americans being stupid, ignorant, and helpless.
And so, this country appears stymied. It seems we cannot return to our greatness. We cannot recapture a time when we were triumphant and positive and moving forward. So many people now in positions of power with influence over others have been dumbed down that we’re worse than paralyzed. We are moving backwards. We are regressing. It’s deeply distressing.
It is ticking off the American people to a degree that is not understood inside the Beltway. If I’m mad about it, I know you are livid. This goes beyond ideology. Americans of all stripes are sick to death of the inaction, the sense that the necessary things aren’t getting done, that the things that are wrong aren’t being made right, that the things that need to happen in this country aren’t happening.
Trump got elected to fix things. Every solution he’s proposing, including immigration, is nothing more than common sense. Yet it’s all being opposed — by the same Establishment, colossal jewels of ignorance that they are. Stupidity is the one thing that stands in our way. And stupidity must be defeated. Do not doubt me: the safety and health and flourishing freedom of the American people are at stake.
source-rush, miller, stephen-nyt-perez,tom-acosta,jim-zinn, howard-,eddie-glaude jr, hendrickson,john-

out of the woods Loc: to hell and gone New York State

So, so true. We are mired in a swamp of stupidity, find myself in a futile battle of deprogramming my children, because I cannot lock them in a closet. The stupidity prevails in the schools and media. We allowed this to happen. Now what?