Showing all posts in Encore

Every component of the Western world is building like converging plot lines. Trump is up in Iowa and beats Hillary. Terrorists in the country climb in number. NASA is gearing up for warfare against meteors. Ebola was just the beginning. Christians are getting burned alive. Police need more money to secure an NRA gun show. US entitlements are scary-huge. And Americans are more and more concerned about religions freedom.

These trends don’t forecast the size of approaching problems as much as they foreshadow the growth of people capable of finding solutions.

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The trouble with so-called “sovereign citizens” seems to be spreading from America to Canada. It’s no longer able to be blamed on people who merely believe that the US Constitution is the Constitution of the US. But, the elaborate and well-researched KC Star article seems to miss one point: The connection between angry citizens and angry terrorists is anger, more specifically, anger against Israel.

If we consider all the information, Trump shouldn’t just try to stop Muslims from coming into the country; he should stop Israel-haters from coming into the country because they have the stronger history of violence. This is probably why Trump still can’t defeat Hillary hands-down in the Rasmussen polls. Trump to Hillary decisions don’t seem to have changed since October. It’s still too far out and too hard to tell whether 2016 will be showing a blue or red November.

Obama’s administration is planning to deport about 100k illegally immigrated families it deems dangerous, and giving plenty of notice. The press can’t stop talking about it and the stories are consistent. Many of these families already have court orders that they leave the country. Whether or not this is just a publicity stunt, whether Obama is doing a 180-turn, or whether he only thinks there are 100k dangerous Latin Americans in America, his new policy indicates that he knows that the people know that he knows that he needs to listen to the people.

Immigration is not the only storm in the Americas. Water and wind are wreaking havoc in North and South America.

And, the Southern Baptist President addressed an audience of 15,000 young people in Kansas City at IHOPKC’s annual OneThing conference. He made it abundantly clear that he did not agree with them on theology, but that he agreed with them on prayer and that he was there because the nation needs prayer so badly. His charge was to lead with hope. The audience welcomed him and his message with open arms.

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Newsflash: Trump’s polls are up. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. The establishment should have been so smart. But, a “smart establishment” is an oxymoron.

A new deal from the UN could provide peace for a decade. Everyone stops fighting. Syria holds an election. The people have the final say on their leader. ISIL remains open game. If peace in the Mid East ensues, it will ensue elsewhere.

Carson has been talking about the possibility of Martial Law preventing an election for some time. Talking about it is probably what has prevented it, not because the powers that be are afraid to implement such plans (which probably don’t exist,) but because talking about the consequences of anger will make Americans think. Thinking Americans will remain too civil for Martial Law to become necessary… at least in the near future. With short-term peace on the horizon in Syria, peace at home is also.

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The story is out: censorship. When science has a consensus, there’s no need to burn science heretics. Honest discussion helps the truth; it doesn’t hurt it. Few things have convinced the public as effectively as martyring climate dissidents. Something is missing in the climate discussion. And, that “something” is big and important enough to “someone” “somewhere” that climate experts, professors, researchers, and now those in media who cover them, need to be fired to keep that “something” missing.

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America could be looking at a third political party really soon. It wouldn’t be led by Trump, nor Carson nor Cruz; it would be led by the overwhelming majority who are learning that they aren’t the only ones who want to thrive rather than just survive. It would be led by the Blacks and Whites and Hispanics who are learning that they are equally despised by power-leveraging weaklings, hiding behind wizard curtains, corralling the masses like cattle.

A political party taking out its own frontrunner was recently attempted by the “Titanic” Nationalist party living in refuge on Taiwan—hiding from Mainland China who supported the Communists over them. It didn’t help their cause as Taiwan’s January election will likely demonstrate. Will the GOP look across the Pacific and watch their own anti-Trump strategery as it is tested? Probably not. So, watch Taiwan’s January elections to get a glimpse of what November could look like. 2016 is shaping up to be educational, at least for the young blood who remain teachable.

Third party is a big deal. One cannot just choose to inject a third party in any normal election. On most ballots, “odd-ball” parties fail. But, when parties dismiss their most popular candidates on grounds of being most popular, third parties can’t lose. I submit to you Roosevelt and Lincoln. But, wait, there’s more…

Most political parties began as sweep-in third parties. These moments come around every 70 years or so, like Haley’s comet. It’s rare, but regular as Old Faithful.

Not if, WHEN an overwhelming third-party sweeps-in, there is a demoralizing factor for establishment dogs. I’m talking about the “old dogs” who will only vote for the same party no matter what. It is almost has a psychology to it. Some people are truly incapable of changing, even when most called for. These people tend to take their positions for granted, such as the boss who manages the downfall of a company he didn’t found or the elite on the Titanic deciding to plow right into an ice berg field or, say, RNC leaders who really aren’t Republican as the voters define “Republican”. Rather than pontificating the psychology of adaptation-rejection complexes, let’s just say this…

People who refuse to adapt tend to stay home when they don’t like the weather.

This is not always because they know they will get rained on, though they are smart enough to figure that out on occasion. More importantly, the people who hate Trump really believe that he, as well as Carson and Cruz, can’t be elected. The writing is on the wall. Cruz-Carson-Trump talking points are polled to go strong against Hillary in the general election. But no-changers don’t listen. They truly believe the “TCC” gang are crazy, fringe, and unelectable because the “majority” they listen to are comedy hosts.

Millennial Hippies, for just one example, truly believe that if the majority of the hosts on their favorite comedy shows agree on something (which they usually do) then the majority of the entire country also agrees. But, they never look at the bigger numbers: Comedy show audiences dwarf in contrast to news shows; Liberal news shows dwarf in contrast to Conservative news shows; and TV news dwarfs in contrast to audio news—podcasts and radio alike.

This breaks into an entirely different topic. The majority of Americans are more interested in audio than video. Why else is SoundCloud so popular? Why are so many YouTube videos actually just music albums? And, why else did Apple really make its break with the iPod-iTunes platform—which supported music and podcasts? Video is fun, but audio isn’t going away anytime soon. And, comedy loyalists tend to listen to music more than audio politics.

Ideologically speaking, comedy TV audiences are the minority of the minority of the minority, but they think they are mainstream. It’s textbook narcissism.

So, on the one hand we have demoralization. When you know you’ll lose, and you know you won’t change, you tend to dress well for your own death and rationalize sinking with the Titanic. But, on the other hand, we have denialism. Narcissists don’t know when they are losing. And, that’s a problem because of the other topic of elections: energy vs apathy.

While voters and pundits niggle over political stance, the donors should buy energy. Too bad for them, Trump isn’t for sale.

Statistically, Obama defeated Romney because 4 million Republican voters stayed home. Obama won his first election because voters who normally would never vote registered just to vote for him. This is consistent with history: Energy draws people out to vote, boredom sends them home—and nothing is more boring than an establishment that invited the very third political party that will sweep the election.

So, if Trump, Carson, or Cruz go third party… The Jeb supporters will stay home because they will assume that he will win. The Hillary supporters will stay home because they will assume she will win. And why shouldn’t they think so? Establishment types are narcissistic. Why not assume that history will never change and that the cheese will never move? Comedy and news TV, Conservative and Liberal alike, laugh at a third party, like a mouse mocking the cat who plays with its food.

Every time that new third-party sweep-in cycle comes around, the establishment always thinks that this time will be the first time that comet won’t return.

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It was a tough sell when execs from Chrysler and GM flew in to DC on corporate jets to ask for cash. That didn’t stop them from doing both. Nor does hypocrisy seem to stop governments from gobbling up the air for a costly summit in Paris, talking long past their time limits, then accusing the rest of the world of breathing too much.

Governments will have the same problem over the “clie-mate” summit in Paris. Beijing plans to launch satellites to monitor carbon from space while Beijing itself remains under smog so thick that it pegged the pollution scale a few years ago. Are Western leaders expecting the people to take this seriously?

The Paris’s hypocrisy alone has removed any expectation of cooperation from voters across the spectrum. Hereafter, climate control laws will be met with public resistance. So, why have the summit in the first place? The most likely explanation is that leaders are so out of touch that they won’t be able to deal with any problems.

Just wait until they try to tell us that aliens have landed. Beam me up, Scotty. At least the carbon footprint will be lower.

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Muslims are reaching out, trying to tell the world that Islam isn’t so bad. Recent kooks among them have given Islam a bad wrap. There is one thing that many don’t seem to have considered, which would give unequivocal proof that Islam is a religion of peace: support for Israel.

The best-kept secret of Islam is that there are only two types: not Sunni and Shiite, but pro-Israel and anti-Israel; the second type only has two extremes. In anti-Israel there is only small and big Islam, there is none “peaceful”, as the West calls it; pro-Israel Islam is as peaceful as it is strong by definition, exempli gratia Jordan. The more Muslims in a country, the easier for militants to gain control and later impose their will, et cetera. Many Muslims may be peaceful who are surprised by their own religion after it gets big. Islamic ideologies should surprise no one who understands them. This is why support for Israel should be at the top of every political campaign questionnaire and at the front of everyone’s mind, Muslim, Christian, or otherwise.

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The recent and swelling trend is for unlikely establishmentarians to throw Obama under the bus. Many establishments would normally support the president of their party, resume, or tenure. But, not now. Examples are National Review, CNN, Bloomberg, POLITICO, MSNBC, nat’l intel community, Sec. of Defense Ashton Carter, the Pentagon, Congressional Democrats Feinstein and Gabbard… The laundry list grows. Obama is being thrown under the bus by those least likely.

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Repentance is not bad. It was the motto of John the Baptist, who lost his head to a queen tyrant. Today, people want to keep crying, “Victim!” Let them! A Wesleyan college president finally had the umph to tell a dissident that if he wants a daycare to graduate from he should look plenty of places elsewhere in the State. The president didn’t tell the student he was wrong. There is no argument here. But there is an effort in America to vilify “repentance unto hope”. Consider the implications and the motives.

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“White guys” in Australia are fed up and getting organized. Since the Civil Rights movement marched, White Caucasians have remained mostly silent, congenial, agreeable, helpful, cooperative, and even trumpeted minority causes. Whites saw groups like the KKK as fringe and alien. The young adults of the 1960’s grew up, had kids who grew up and had kids who are now young adults. That new generation doesn’t even identify with the accusations they are bombarded with over the sins of their great great grandparents—sins which four generations have now denounced.

Not even God in the Old Testament visited sins past the fourth generation, but many Bible teachers do today. Finally, the White majority has had enough. They are no longer interested in being accused of the very things they hate—things which their parents and grandparents and great grandparents hate. After half a century of failing to declare victory, the angry minorities finally convinced the surrendered majority to get back in the ring. It began in Australia.

Racism hasn’t left our world. Racism and prejudice never do; they morph and change like a infection adapting to survive. Prejudice is a contagious disease that hurts the prejudicial and infects people around them who don’t even know it. It is the responsibility of every human to search out his new prejudices each and every morning; to exercise better and smarter adaptive abilities than an ever-changing virus.

Sadly, while prejudice has been smart enough to change, Civil Rights’ boilerplate has not. Prejudice and “subconscious” racism continue because they have been ignored—because they have been improperly labelled. If, truly, there has been zero progress with Civil Rights, as five decades of recycled talking points suggest, then Civil Rights needs new management that can get the job done. Perhaps if today’s Civil Rights speakers had addressed today’s issues today instead of addressing yesterday’s issues as if they were the issues of today, there wouldn’t be “White student unions” starting in Australia. But, history took another course.

The past serves us best as a rudder, not an anchor. Let the record indicate that America loves to get inspiration from Down Under. Both Hillsong Christian worship music and soon-to-be “White student unions” came to America only after they were long established elsewhere. America did not create this one; the anchor daggers drudged this carcass up from the depths of the sunken past and the Aussies swallowed the bait—hook, line, and anchor.

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