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By S.B. Goldsmith

In the 80’s Classic movie, The Breakfast Club, the nerd, Brian (Anthony Michael Hall) and the Rebel, Bender (Judd Nelson) are arguing about shop class. At one point Brian says to Bender, “I’m an idiot because I can’t make a lamp?” Bender responds, “No you’re a genius cuz you can’t make a lamp!” Brian then says, “Without Trigonometry there’d be no engineering”. Bender replies, “Without lamps, there’d be no light!”

The Covid virus is apparently running amok like a teen movie with a brain of its own. There are lockdown orders in almost all 50 states instituted by governors and not the President. The rule is to maintain social distancing of up to six feet so as not to spread or come in contact with the virus and not leave home unless for essentials. Only essential workers are allowed to go to work. Has anyone noticed the inconsistency in these orders. It’s enough to make you blast Peter Gabriel outside a chick’s window.

Drive throughs and take outs are open. So if you work in a fast food restaurant, presumably in a crowded kitchen, there is no social distancing. Also most people working in a kitchen are not wearing masks.

Additionally one area that has not been discussed it seems is hay fever, allergies and asthma. Without landscapers to keep weeds at bay, this may trigger all of the above in some people. Asthma and difficulty breathing are risk factors for people should they catch the virus. As well, it is technically spring now and not every state is experiencing winter like weather. Golf greens, apartment complexes, community trees, bushes, pollen creating plants all need to be managed. Lastly, the supply chain of asthmatics and inhalers also may be at risk right now.

So, without trigonometry there’d be no lawnmowers. But without landscapers there’d be asthma, hay fever, shortness of breath, increased ER visits and the Breakfast Club playing on a constant loop in your living room.

Recently, Joaquin Phoenix was arrested along with Martin Sheen and Jane Fonda at a climate change protest. In an apparent show of environmental hubris he announced to a crowd, (and I am paraphrasing here), “I had to fly here today… but there is something you can all do now, you can eat veggie burgers!”  The crowd applauded apparently missing the irony of do as I say not as I do.

Now imagine if you will, a person of equal wealth as The Joker, estimated to be around 30 million dollars, who was not a movie star or a media darling, making the same public statements.  They were just an individually wealthy person who “had to fly here today…” and suggested everyone else go vegan.

It prompted me to have an idea: why don’t A-list celebrity superstars pay people to counter their carbon footprints.  We could be surrogates.  We could sign a limited air miles contract, agree to eat a set amount of veggie burgers, and agree to cheer them on at the next protest (as long as we can walk, bike or take the train).  We can also applaud as they make their way to jail. It’s a win-win.

People Magazine Is Hot On The Trail of Hunter Biden

By S.B. Goldsmith

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and what never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson

Steve King (R) Iowa has been quoted as saying during a New York Times interview “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Also, in reference to the Democratic controlled House and the increase in women and minority representation he remarked, “You could look over there and think the Democratic Party is no country for white men.” After these remarks there was bipartisan condemnation. He was subsequently relieved of his committee assignments of the Judiciary, Agriculture, and Small Business.

“Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel,” is a tweet Ilhan Omar sent out in 2012. Omar (D) Minnesota, further tweeted in February 2019, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby” in reference to American polticians support of Israel and in specific AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee). The Democrats did not demand the ouster of Omar from her committee assignments. In fact, Omar remains on the Congressional Committee of Foreign Affairs.

It is fair to say King’s remarks were ignorant. The price he paid was denunciation from his own political party as well as removal from committees. The removals were demanded by other Republicans, not just Democrats. Omar’s remarks, one could argue equally ignorant, and also criticized, yet no price paid. No demands from her own party to step down from committee assignments. Like King, she too apologized, but still no rebuke, no censure. The results beg the question: when will the Democratic Party use the same measuring stick against themselves that they love to use against everyone else?

For the first year of the Trump Presidency there was widespread criticism of his own children, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and daughter Ivanka Trump, for holding positions within the White House, when they possessed no government experience whatsoever. Kushner was widely criticized by many in the industrial news media complex. Most especially from CNN who had headlines like, “Jared Kushner is profoundly clueless,” and “Jared Kushner is the ultimate test for U.S. ethics laws.” NBC with headlines like, “Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump took in 135 million dollars last year.” Or ABC with this one, “Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have gone into self service.”

Well before, Trump became president, and his own family members became official Whitehouse employees, Vice President Joe Biden’s own son, Hunter was on the board of directors of an oil Company in the Ukraine. Hunter, growing up in Connecticut, a Yale law school graduate, had no previous experience in the energy business, nor any knowledge of business dealings in Eastern Europe. Both Joe Biden, now a Democratic Presidential contender and Hunter have publicly said that neither one of them ever discussed Hunter’s business dealings.

In a complete 180 of the aforementioned media giants, ABC, NBC and CNN, to name only a few, have dished out the same mantra about the Biden’s dealing in Ukraine, “The accusations against the Bidens are baseless. There is no evidence of wrongdoing.” The only evidence in this statement is the further hypocrisy of the Democratic Party.

     

            To believe the Biden’s story that “they never discussed their business dealings” is to believe that basically, they are not really father and son. They are just casual acquaintances. They barely know each other and maybe even the younger one isn’t really aware that his father, at the time that the son had the job, was even Vice-President of the United States.  

            CNN reported that “There is no evidence Hunter Biden was ever under investigation. The investigation was into the business dealings of the owner of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, where Hunter Biden sat on the board of directors. In addition, a former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor and top anti-corruption activist have said the investigation was dormant at the time. And chief prosecutor Viktor Shokin’s successor, Yuriy Lutsenko, has said in interviews this year that Hunter Biden didn’t violate any Ukrainian laws.” It is important to note that the statement does not reveal who did the investigation?  Perhaps it was TMZ or maybe People Magazine.  Just after determining this year’s twenty-five sexiest celebrity pets People Magazine’s best and brightest were hot and the trail of Hunter Biden and his tenuous connection between him and a guy named Joe who was VP of the U.S. at the time Hunter had a job at Burisma in the Ukraine.  People Magazine was there, speaking Ukranian to the other board members and asking the most pointed of questions such as: “Gosh, don’t you think it is weird that this guy Hunter has the same last name as the Vice-President of the U.S.?” or maybe over some cold potato soup as they slurped away and asked, “Yeah, but I mean how did he get this job?  I mean, isn’t it kinda weird that he is from Connecticut but now he is on the board of directors of an energy company in Eastern Europe?”  Or maybe after pulling an olive out of a dry Martini the People Magazine reporter says, “Say, can I get a job here?  I am totally qualified.  I am not from Connecticut but I am good at making lists.  Like I can make a list of the 25 most unfashionable Russians.”

To be “ignorant and free” in a civilized society requires a fair and even measuring stick for all.

            

By S.B. Goldsmith 

“My husband told me he needed his space, so I locked him outside”. 

-Rosanne Barr 

When I was growing up the greatest safe space I had was anywhere outside of my house.  I liked going outside.  I liked going to school.  It’s where I learned my first bad word.  It’s where I got into fights.  It’s where I got into trouble.  It’s where I became a person.  I learned to become a member of the human race by knowing that school was sometimes safe and sometimes not, sometimes fun, and mostly boring.   

I couldn’t wait to get outside and play football with my friends.  My freshman year in high school I was so small and underdeveloped, that I was a perfect candidate for steroids while I was on the football team.  Yet, I showed up each day after school only to get my ass kicked.  Over and over again.  Despite this, I still went back to practice and I still completed the season. 

The safe space movement, on the other hand is trying to script moments of serenity and peace in a place where you are inevitably going to get hurt.  Yet that is how we learn.  It’s how we grow.  It’s how we learn to take a hit and keep going anyway. 

                    

The GI Bill was created to offer tuition assistance to GIs returning home after World War II.  My uncle who was a World War II vet, used it to attend Northwestern after serving in the Philippines.  I have personally met many brave men and women who served tours of duty in combat zones, such as Fallujah, Tikrit, and places in Afghanistan, who returned to the States to attend college.  The impression I got from all of them was this: they wanted to be treated like every other college student.  They wanted to fit in, to belong.  They didn’t want special treatment.  They wanted to receive their degree just like every other student in school.  

I wonder if any purveyors of the safe space movement have thought about the Battle of the Bulge, Normandy, Pearl Harbor, the Doolittle Raid?  Certainly, there were American survivors of those battles and attacks who went on to use their GI Bill and attend college.  The notion of safe spaces wasn’t invented yet.  But, the thought may have been absurd to those surviving Veterans.

                                    

I am a strong proponent of mental health care.  Almost all colleges offer these services on campus and for those that do not, they contract with local organizations to provide this type of care for students.  With the advent of SSRIs or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, as well as anti-psychotics, the institutions for the mentally ill have ostensibly been delegitimized as long term housing.  Many decades ago, the push to encourage the seriously mentally ill, to a level of functioning on par with the rest of the world was considered a ground-breaking notion.  It was the concept that those who suffer from psychiatric maladies could lead happy, productive, and constructive lives just like everyone else.  The concept is widely known as deinstitutionalization.   There are outpatient mental health services available to nearly everyone in these United States, even if you don’t have health care.  

Yet, safe space proponents are proposing that the entire world be one gigantic psychiatric ward.  Or in the Mel Brooks movie, High Anxiety wherein there is a hospital with a sign that says, “Hospital for the very, very, very, very, very nervous”! 

The notion that the world must provide a safe space for anyone is tantamount to an alcoholic being triggered by advertisements on a billboard.  “I saw this billboard with alcohol on it.  They should really know better”!  So, the next time someone gets a DUI or worse, injures someone in an accident due to being intoxicated, they can just say, “It’s not my fault, it’s that dang billboard”! 

The world at large, college campuses, work environments, any public property are never a guarantee of security.  In fact, “triggers” are everywhere.  The world is inherently dangerous, rife with troubled people, mean actors, racism, sexism, and disappointments.  But, if you can’t acknowledge the downside of life, you’ll never know the upside.  Life is a dichotomy of both good and evil.  Or as educator David O. McKay said, “The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of our soul”. 

The next time a college student asks for a safe space or a trigger warning, hopefully they will pause and recall the veterans who have risked their lives and returned to the college campus with the simple goal of completing their college education – without special treatment, without a safe space, without a trigger warning – only the notion that they’re there to be a student, just like everyone else. 

By S.B. Goldsmith 

Transcendental Meditation, or TM, was all the rage among celebrities in the 1970’s.  It was supposedly the way to bliss, peace of mind, and overall well-being.  The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had taken The Beatles along with Mia Farrow under his wing and supposedly was a meditation master who could enlighten them through his teachings.  He had even managed to convince them that they could levitate if they only believed and followed his directions.  Eventually, John Lennon called the Maharishi a “con man” and in a song, denounced him by saying he had “made a fool of everyone”.  The KGB loved the Maharishi while he lasted.  Why?  Because the Maharishi played on the vanity of the famous.  He convinced them of things that were not true.  Even obvious untruths, like being able to levitate! 

The KGB knew that they way to defeat a nation was not through physical war, but through ideological warfare.  If the population was softened, malleable, pliable, made to believe lies that would weaken and demoralize them, then a people would self-destruct under the weight of their own misbeliefs. 

Who would believe you could levitate through meditation any more than anyone would believe that placing an egg-shaped gem stone in your vagina is good for your health? (See Gwyneth Paltrow at goop.com). The answer: an American celebrity.

                      

Today instead of TM, it’s Scientology.  Tom Cruise, an avowed Scientologist, declared in a now famous television interview that he knew what was best for women who might be suffering from Post-Partum Depression by declaring there is no such thing.  Or more accurately, that psychiatry is a pseudo-science.  Who would take medical advice from a celebrity?  Yet, many people do just that. 

The KGB loved fads or anything that would distract from real issues that might affect the United States.  TM, Scientology, questionable “medical advice”, all given by celebrities with thousands, maybe millions of followers who would believe anything they say, would be a gold mine for anyone attempting to weaken a country. 

But, why celebrities? 

Because they have large egos and soft brains. 

Although the KGB no longer exists as it used to under Communist rule in the USSR (it’s now called the FSB) these tactics were deployed time and again, prior to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1991.  Through an intricate network of “useful idiots” they would deploy misinformation in the hopes that these intellectually dishonest, morally un-principled, and self-important messengers would pass along these falsehoods in order to destabilize a country.  This is called psychological warfare or active measures. 

Celebrities operate on fear.  Fear of losing status, money, followers, fame, and mostly fear of offending anyone.  Celebrities can also earn their own popularity by acting as a mediary for propaganda.  Gender inequality, white privilege as exploitative of people of color, and transgender issues are all examples of manufactured crises that celebrities tend to support because they believe them to be legitimate social concerns.      

Vice President Joe Biden is credited with writing this to a rape victim in an open letter: 

“You were failed by a culture on our college campuses where one in five women is sexually assaulted—year after year after year. A culture that promotes passivity. That encourages young men and women on campuses to simply turn a blind eye. 

The statistics on college sexual assault haven’t gone down in the past two decades. It’s obscene, and it’s a failure that lies at all our feet.” 

Who, for example, would knowingly send their young daughter away to college if they really believed that their child stood a one in five chance of being sexually assaulted during their four year career?  No one would.  On the other hand, the type of person that would believe this, is someone who believes that they are part of a war on patriarchy and that against all odds they will get their education, even if it means putting themselves at great risk.   

The one in five myth has been debunked several times over *.  The real statistic is somewhere around 2% or about one in fifty women are victims of sexual assault during their four year career.  Of course, one is too many, but the real statistic is not 20%. 

There are 5 ways in which Russian active measures are designed to topple democracy: 

1. Undermine citizen confidence in democratic governance
2. Foment and exacerbate divisive political fractures
3. Erode trust between citizens and elected officials and democratic institutions
4. Popularize Russian policy agendas within foreign populations
5. Create general distrust or confusion over information sources by blurring the lines between fact and fiction

One KGB operative, Yuri Bezmenov, had claimed in his book, Deception Was My Job, that the radical feminist movement started in the 1970’s was supported, funded and implemented by the KGB.  Is believing this any more difficult than believing that Alicia Silverstone chewing her son’s food and then spitting in his mouth is normal? (There’s an actual youtube video).    

The purpose of finding people with big egos and soft brains to pass out false information, is to ultimately make a population believe that they are fighting a war that doesn’t exist.  It creates divisions within a community and within a country.  It pits countryman against countryman.  So that when the real war happens, a country will be so divided they won’t be able to resist.    

Of course, we could always just make Gwyneth Paltrow Surgeon General.

* the Bureau of Justice Statistics www.bjs.gov or https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/App_E_Sex-Assault-Rape-Battery.pdf

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5XMuTAomNk