If Donald Trump has done nothing else, apart from entertaining us, he has raised some uncomfortable truths for Americans to face.
For too many years people in America have had the luxury of sitting on the fence, avoiding taking stands on moral issues, or issues affecting minority groups in their country.
They’re frightened.
Frightened of looking like cranks.
Frightened of pseudo-intellectuals (who really know very little) mocking them.
Frightened of not being part of the herd.
Frightened of not appearing ‘nice’.
Lower that Confederate flag and raise a white one, quick!
Dear help us.
Confederate flag comes down at South Carolina Capitol after half century
People, and not only in America, have been conditioned to act the same, buy the same gadgets, watch the same TV shows and even dress the same. If it continues they’ll all be dressed in similar suits like China in the days of Chairman Mao, only with little red smartphones instead of little red books.
More importantly than all these, the people are being conditioned to ‘think’ the same. ‘Sheeple’ are easier to control than ‘free thinking people’ and as we know it is all about control.
When I said they’re ‘frightened’, I meant Americans have been conditioned into being afraid to stick their own heads above the parapet.
But when occasionally someone does it for them then they secretly cheer – but not too loud mind you in case someone hears.
That’s why Trump enjoyed a surge in the polls after his remarks about illegal immigrants and how they are not all perfect human beings. Everybody knew it but were afraid to say it.
The political elites, most of them anyway, would never be caught saying what they really think – in public. Admittedly Trump said it in his own brash and loud style, but at least he said it.
You don’t have to agree with him – far from it – but you do have to acknowledge that he said what many thousands of ordinary Americans were thinking yet were afraid to say.
Many of these ordinary Americans are probably living in areas where there have been massive influxes of immigrants. They know how it has affected them. In these areas English has become a second language. Social problems have increased and crime has gone up. And everyone is afraid to say why.
More to the point, they know from first-hand experience that this new ethnic diversity has failed to provide the benefits that the liberal political elites promised it would.
Facts are facts are facts.
Many people have come to America to live the ‘dream’ and better themselves. But many others have come to take advantage of what they regard as a soft target for crime.
Many of Trump’s critics are just as guilty of trying to get publicity for themselves as perhaps Trump is making the remarks in the first place.
But the critics exhibit a sadly familiar and predictable pattern. They see an empty talking head on TV, think it’s smart, and then say the same things or a slight variation thereof. That makes them think they look smart too, except of course it doesn’t, because the talking head on TV was empty, not smart at all.
Many of these detractors have gone so far as to say that Trump’s remarks are not “presidential”.
The big question, that unfortunately is not being asked in blazing headlines in the media, is why in America today is it not ‘presidential’ to tell the truth, or to give a true expression of what you believe?
If that is now really the case then it is a sad reflection of American society and not something to be proud of.
You have another choice though.
If you want a liar in the White House there’s always Hillary.
There is a lot of nonsense surrounding Friday 13th.
Many superstitious people consider it to be unlucky. So much so in fact that they spend most, if not all, of that day in their homes, afraid to venture out into the great world beyond in case something bad happens to them.
In fact it has been estimated that around a billion dollars are lost every Friday the 13th because people are scared to work and travel on this date.
The really unfortunate thing is that sometimes circumstances play right into their hands, which only serves to reinforce their superstitions.
You can find some of them below along with other facts about Friday 13th that I hope you enjoy reading.
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Every month has a 13th but no single year
has more than three Friday the 13th’s
and on average there are two.
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Months with a Friday the 13th
always begin on a Sunday.
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Folklore remedies for triskaidekaphobia
include climbing to the top of a mountain
or skyscraper and burning all the socks you own
that have holes in them.
Another is to stand on your head
and eat a piece of gristle.
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It is from the Norse goddess Frigg, or Freyja,
that we get Frigg’s Day, or Freyja’s Day
which became the English Friday.
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On Friday 13 2006,
36 inches of snow fell on upstate New York.
The ensuing chaos claimed three lives
and caused $130 million worth of damage.
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On a Friday 13th in 1307.
thousands of soldier monks of the powerful
Knights Templar were massacred
by French king Louis IV.
Many people believe this is where
our fear of the date springs from.
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Friday 13 January, 1939
in Australia is known as Black Friday
because on that date bushfires
decimated 20,000 km² of land,
killing 71 people and
destroying several towns entirely.
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Retired bus conductor Bob Renphrey of North Wales
decided to spend every Friday 13 in bed
after a run of bad luck on the
fateful day during the early 1990s.
Among other misfortunes
he wrote off four cars,
got made redundant,
fell into a river,
crashed a motorcycle
and walked through a plate glass door.
When Bob died of cancer in 1998,
his widow Betty, who on previous Friday 13ths
had fallen downstairs,
been hit by falling guttering
and been hospitalized
after Bob hit her in the face
with a stick he was throwing to a dog,
decided to book his funeral for
Friday 13 March as a final tribute.
Alas, all Rhyl’s undertakers were too busy.
“Bob would have seen the funny side,”
said Mrs Renphrey.
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On Friday 13 July, 1951
in Kansas ‘The Great Flood’
left 2 million acres of land underwater,
causing $760 million and killing 24 people.
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Friday 13 August, 1976
was particularly unlucky
for New York man Daz Baxter.
Having elected to stay in bed
to ward off bad luck,
the floor of his apartment block collapsed
and he fell six storeys to his death.
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Black Sabbath’s self-titled first album
was released in the UK on
Friday, February 13, 1970.
It wasn’t unlucky for them.
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Michelle and Gary Docherty had a
memorable wedding on Friday 13 August 2004.
First, a swarm of wasps attacked guests
at East Kilbride Registry Office, Lanarkshire,
as they waited for Michelle’s arrival.
Her aunt Mary Strachan
smashed an expensive digital camera
trying to swat one of the pests,
and when Michelle finally did turn up,
an insect flew up her dress,
triggering a panic attack.
After the ceremony,
two minibuses booked to transport guests
to the reception failed to turn up
and the couple lost their wedding video.
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On Friday November 13, 1970
a monster South Asian storm hit Bangladesh
killing 300,000 people in Chittagong
and creating floods that killed one million people
living on the Ganges Delta.
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Women drivers have a 64% increased chance
of death when driving on Friday the 13th.
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Friday 13 February, 1998
was simply business as usual for Manchester man,
John Sheridan, dubbed Britain’s unluckiest man
after once having his car stolen five times in one day,
making 16 trips to casualty in two years,
seeing eight TVs explode in six months
and losing out on a £4000 lottery win when he
put the ticket in the washing machine with his jeans.
John’s big day began when his Saab ran out of petrol.
He hitched a lift with a sympathetic policeman,
whose car broke down at the garage.
John returned to his car with a can of petrol,
got it started but lost a wheel as he turned a corner.
He returned home on a bus, which broke down.
Completing his journey on foot,
he realized he’d left his keys inside the car
and had to return in case in was stolen.
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Friday, October 13th, 1989,
the stock exchange suffered a serious crash,
the second most damaging in market history at the time
(this was in the pre-recession era).
Brokers were in a state of shock,
as the Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 190.58 points.
In Britain a deadly virus crashed IBM computers,
terrifying people and deleting lots of data
that could not be recovered.
This was before backup systems were used.
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A full moon on Friday February 13 1987
drove troubled Robert Bullard, 21,
to attempt suicide by putting his head in a gas oven.
Not only was his methodology flawed,
suicide by natural gassing is virtually impossible
since Britain moved from lethal coke gas
to less dangerous natural gas,
but a flicked light switch caused an explosion
which injured his mother and a policeman
and caused £35,000 of damage.
Robert was unharmed.
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On Friday the 13th, 2012,
the cruise ship Costa Concordia partially sank
killing more than 30 people.
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Friday 13 October 1972 was the date
a plane carrying Uruguayan rugby team
Montevideo Old Christians crashed
on its way from Montevideo to Santiago, Chile.
When rescuers finally found the fourteen
survivors two months later,
it emerged that they had survived
by eating human flesh from some of the
thirty-one crew and passengers
who had perished in the crash.
In 1992, the story was filmed as
Alive, starring Ethan Hawke.
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On the same day, Friday October 13, 1972,
an Aeroflot Il-62 airplane carrying 176 people
took off from Paris on a commuter flight
bound for Leningrad and Moscow.
The plane landed at Leningrad
and then took off for Sheremetyevo airport,
located just outside Moscow.
The weather was bad with rain and poor visibility.
The pilots were told to descend on approach to
the airport, but for unknown reasons,
they attempted and failed to land twice.
On the third attempt to land,
the plane crashed into a large pond
about 4 miles short of the airport.
There were no survivors.
No cause of the accident was ever established.
At the time, the crash resulted in one of the worst
loss of life incidents for a single plane crash, in history.
Time for another rant, now known as the Sunday Sermon.
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For many years there has been an influx of Muslims into Western countries like, for example, America and Britain. And for years these people arrived and set to work to provide a better life for their families, which was reason they chose our countries in the first place.
Sometimes we treated them with respect. At other times their treatment was not so welcoming. But the vast majority accepted things as they were and worked hard, with the result that they did make a better life for themselves.
However, now all of a sudden, because of the rants of a few demented and evil clerics who have corrupted the words of Allah and the meaning of the Koran, some Muslims are now offended by everything, including the very presence of the citizens of the countries they have chosen to come and live among.
How absurd is that?
Worse, however, is that we are supposed to pander to this nonsense and tippy toe around them afraid to do or say anything in case it will be distorted and manufactured into something offensive.
And if we don’t?
Well then they will cut our head’s off in the middle of a street and stand bragging about it afterwards.
That is exactly what happened in London this week when Drummer Lee Rigby, a British soldier, was first knocked down by a car driven by two blood-thirsty killers and then decapitated as he lay helpless on the street.
murdered soldier Drummer Lee Rigby
On any scale of things that are offensive, it just doesn’t get any more offensive than that.
Yet we are supposed to tolerate the intolerable and excuse the inexcusable!
Let’s get real folks.
Some things are unacceptable in western society. And if you choose to live in western society then you live by our rules, not yours.
When I visit a Muslim country where, for example, drinking alcohol is forbidden, I don’t put on the pretense of being offended, I don’t whine about my rights being denied, in fact I don’t complain at all. I am in their country, those are their rules, and while I am there I am happy to respect them and abide by them.
Why is there no reciprocal respect any more?
And even more to the point, why is that reciprocal respect not demanded?
We have allowed our politicians to cloud the issue by blundering about in foreign lands. They say they are doing it to fight terrorism and protect us, but in reality it has much more to do with securing commodities and distracting us from much more serious economic problems they have created at home.
Politicians manipulate their people by creating ‘bogey men’ and fomenting fear where none should really exist. They do it, not for the benefit of their constituents, but for their own self promotion and their attempt to cling on to power. It happens in every country, east or west, north or south, and it has been happening for centuries.
And what is happening to elements of the Muslim population today is no different. In their case the manipulation is made slightly easier because the evil clerics are able to deceive their largely uneducated and ignorant followers with the promise of seventy virgins and a place in heaven if they either kill themselves or other innocent people – preferably both at the same time. Strange, if the reward is so great, that you never see the clerics themselves pushing to the front of the queue to participate!
There is a horrible trend nowadays that standards must be allowed to come down to the lowest level. Exams in schools and degrees at universities have to be made easier and easier to pass, lest some be deemed not to have qualified. Everyone has to be treated as a potential terrorist at airports in case selective targeting of possible suspects be labeled as racial or ethnic profiling. And every effort has to be made try to understand and excuse the criminals in our society who prey on the law-abiding.
We have completely lost our way. And the only solution is to take a stand on these important issues. Try to be nice, and understanding, and liked by everyone and you doom yourself and your society. There comes a time when the proverbial line has to be drawn in the sand. And there comes a time when zero tolerance is the only option.
fasab 