Guest Author Rodney Shands writes to refute Steve Patterson

By Rodney Shands

My friend, Steve Patterson, who so often is eloquent and well spoken has lobbed a political diatribe that demands a response. Entitled “Have We Become Too Stupid to Live?”, he begins with the premise that everyday stupidity is a more dangerous enemy than malice has ever been. I wouldn’t agree with that statement with the world having suffered tremendously with the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Marx, Osama bin Laden, et al. Their ilk have been responsible for many more deaths and terrorism than stupidity will ever cause, although, without question, stupidity isn’t far behind. Fortunately, outrage does occasionally rise over really bad stupidity of which I will give some examples later. One should be careful about appearing to be elitist by labeling others as “stupid” when honest disagreement could exist between differing opinions, especially when experts in the fields disagree among themselves over causes, effects and cures. With that premise, let’s delve into his rant over stupidity.

Let’s take his 3 crises: I agree with Steve that stupidity appears more abundant, prevalent and, especially, arrogantly confident these days than anyone in our generation or past generations has ever experienced. However, I disagree with the 3 crises that he has named: attempted insurrection, environmental catastrophe and unchecked pandemic as embodying stupidity today by a long shot. Being the “yellow dog Democrat” that he is, he naturally lists the only things Democrats try to blame on Republicans/Trump.

1. An Attempted Insurrection – Now I’m not in any way condoning the actions of the ones that rioted and broke into the capital in January. That was bad and a criminal act. Demonstrations were ok but the few of the throng that actually participated in the horrific scenes that we saw cannot be justified. However, look at the Antifa/BLM riots with burning, looting and shooting that were a precursor months previously. These somehow got little attention and response from Democratic officials, except to blame law enforcement. I can imagine some folks seeing that on their screens for weeks figured that if they (Antifa/BLM) can do it and get away with it, maybe we can also since we believe that something was taken from us, right or wrong. Two wrongs never make a right but one has to maintain some perspective about outrage over criminal acts. If it’s wrong for one, it’s wrong for the other. The Democratic mayors and elected officials encouraged it until it got to be too much – “Summer of Love” spake the Democratic Seattle mayor.

Understandably, voting had to be in a different method and format due to Covid but without much, if any, attempt to prove identification, the mail out ballots and potential ballot harvesting led itself to accusations of fraud and ballot box stuffing. Without some semblance of sanity in identifying Americans who are actual citizens and legally able to cast a ballot, there will be a credible high potential for fraud for certain. It’s the Democrats who are attempting to take over voting with little to no restrictions on proof of identity or citizenship at all. You have to prove who you are to board an airplane, buy a car, open a bank account, etc., etc. but try to put the least of these credentials to do the most important act in our free republic country and the Democrats scream.

2. An Environmental Catastrophe – The U.N. report has been largely recognized, even by some Democrats, as alarmist and unreasonable to the max. Chicken Littleism. There are many, many highly regarded professionals in the climate field who have been shut down and denigrated by the “regressives” (I refuse to call the leftist “progressive”; they are not – They are regressive just as socialism/communism is regressive). In fact, for any expert in their field to dare to disagree with the regressive mantra being spouted by the mainstream media cabal is to be labeled as “kooky conspiracy theorist” like my friend Steve has done. That’s their style. No honest open dialogue, no comparison of data, metrics, etc., just name calling and labels. Our universities and schools have become the hotbed of forced strict Taliban-style thinking. You agree with us or you’re kooky and an extremist. That’s the regressive modus operandi.

Of course, we can take the Democratic Representative AOC’s “Green New Deal” which Biden, et al, has poked into the multi-trillion bill and kill all cows, stop flying airplanes, stop natural gas and oil drilling and go back to living like we did in the 1700’s except without the cows. I suggest my friend Steve read the well known author, Michael Crichton’s, book entitled “State of Fear”. Although a novel, it is so thoroughly documented with annotations and research about climate change theorist that facts are hard things to ignore. Political parties control the masses by the drumbeat of constant fear. The journalism trade, once a well respected advocate for open and honest evaluation, contrasting opinions and straightforward reporting of news have become so infiltrated with the slanted mush they’re spoon feeding us, that very little is actually believed. NBC, CBS, ABC, Associated Press, etc. once highly regarded bastions of news are now no more believable than what Russia or China put out as propaganda. Scientist have said that hurricanes hitting the U.S have not increased in frequency since 1900. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said that “it is premature to conclude that human activities and particularly greenhouse gases have had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane or global tropical cyclone activity”. The U.N Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it too lacks evidence to show that warming is making storms and flooding worse. Without China and India signing on, two of the world’s biggest economies, population and land mass, any changes done by the western nations are minimal effect on climate – a fraction of a percentage of a degree. As Democrat Rahm Emanuel said: “Never allow a crisis to go to waste”. Crisis’s provide a wonderful opportunity for those who want greater control over our lives.

3. Unchecked Pandemic – Yes, Mississippi is leading the country with the new Delta variant Covid cases. The media fav, Dr. Fauci, said at the beginning of the pandemic that masks did no good. Now it’s the savior. Many physicians, virologist and epidemiologist think he had it right the first time with a highly contagious virus. Nevertheless, It is known that the two groups who have been the most reluctant to get vaccinated are Latinos and blacks. I watched NBC News ask various Americans if they intended to get the shot a few months ago and the majority of black Americans said “no”. One said “That would be a hard no.”. With a virus, you either get the shot or you get the virus. The odds of missing the virus without any protection other than a mask are slim to none and slim left town a while ago. Mississippi has the highest percentage of black citizens per capita so if they don’t get the vaccine, our Covid numbers go sky high. With the historical reluctance to get shots due, in large part, to the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study between 1932 and 1972, when governmental researchers withheld treatment while promising free medical care, meals and burial insurance, this is understandable. This is not a Republican Governor’s fault. He has encouraged vaccinations and in reality, that’s about all he can do. Steve, if you believe masks are a big help, by all means go ahead and wear one. Unless it’s a KN-95 or N-95, it’s not going to do much according to many experts.

Now, here’s where I find that the real dumb basic stupidity is rampant:

1. Biden’s disastrous abandonment of Americans, Afghan allies and billions and billions of dollars of sophisticated secret military hardware that is the most disturbing, infuriating and erratic event in modern history. He has appointed “woke” military advisors and incompetent political hacks that have apparently given him some super stupid advice and counsel. If departure was inevitable (not the point here) then anyone with an ounce of common sense says you:

a.) Don’t announce a deadline to a terrorist group,

b.) Locate all Americans and safely evacuate them with avenues of secured roads guarded by troops and take them to the airport and fly them out while you still have adequate weapons to protect,

c.) Locate all allied Afghans who depended on America and our promises and safely evacuate them with the same avenues of secured roads with guarded troops to the airport and fly them out,

d.) Start withdrawing all of your super secret military equipment to keep it safe from enemy’s hands and use it against you,

e.) Once you have all Americans, Allies and hardware out, then start pulling down the troops until all are safe and home. This gives your State Department together with the Department of Homeland Security adequate time to vet and doublecheck that the allies who want out are, in fact, allies and not ISIS or Taliban, etc. Instead, he sits at Camp David playing golf, deer-in-headlights look that he has now and is clueless.

Our allies around the world now know they cannot trust America. China and Russia now know they have nothing to fear for encroaching on Taiwan or Lithuania or anywhere else. This is so supremely stupid that it totally refutes Steve’s premise that stupid isn’t confronted by outrage and that it isn’t viewed as dangerous, as harmful, as deadly. There will be Americans, Afghan allies and a lot of women who have enjoyed freedom, safety and respect for 20 years that will disagree with that and die as a result. This is the American Dunkirk, caused totally and absolutely by Biden. He owns it and proudly it seems. STUPID!

2. This could be a tie – maybe not. You decide. Stupidity of Democratic officials kowtowing to:

•  “defund the police” demands. This is beyond stupid if there is such a thing. Anarchy? Democratic cities have become war zones now and who pays the highest price? The urban core central who want police and want their presence so they won’t have to continue burying their children.
• Open borders. When Biden and Harris announced that the walls would be torn down, a flood of illegal immigrants came across. Children in unsanitary conditions brought over by Coyotes, Covid cases exploded. Even Democratic Sheriffs and City officials were begging for help. Kamala stayed home and did her thing. This is another criminal stupid act by this administration. The area down there is in chaos, and, of course, mainstream media turns their heads except for some very minor middle of the time coverage with journalist not allowed in to see and film. No coverage, no problem – it doesn’t exist. Except, of course, it does and is a very real problem. Democrats want the votes of the illegals.

President Clinton said in his 1969 State of the Union address: “There are some areas that the federal government should not leave and should address and address strongly, one of these areas is the problem of illegal immigration…We are increasing border patrols by 50%, increasing inspections to prevent the hiring of illegal immigrants…We should honor every legal immigrant here, working hard to become a new citizen, But we are also a nation of laws.” That was the old Democratic party – Welcome to the new Democratic party.

3. How about printing money 24/7/365 and giving away “free” money? Employers cannot find people who want to work. They’re drawing their weekly checks sitting at home doing what they want to do. Businesses, small, huge, black, white, yellow, red, whatever are suffering tremendously by not having enough employees to sell products. What do you see with inflation? Oh, the fed chairman said not to worry. Yeah? What’s happened to gas, vehicles, food, medicine, etc., etc. Who gets hurt by this? Middle class people. The elites with their pontificating don’t. Wait until inflation really spools up and it will soon with the proliferation of cash floating around and then you’re going to really see people mad about stupidity when their shrinking dollar leaves them with less and less. The Washington Post columnist, George Will said: “Today’s stunning leakage is of prestige from government. Biden has exhorted congressional progressives to force the most comprehensive peacetime expansion of government in U.S. history”.

4. President Biden has earned more “Pinocchios” than can be counted. Befuddled? Sunset dementia? Outright lying? Who knows but he’s lost and his speech’s as well as his erroneous “facts”, bless his heart, are telling that he’s out of sync.

5. Now that the Democrats have control of all 3 levers of power in our nation, this is what they want to do before their stupidity results in losses next year and 2024:

a.) Control elections. Do away with any semblance of validation of identification and legality to vote. Mail ballots regardless of anyone requesting them so they can be collected and filled out by Democrat supplicants. Ballot harvesting by Democrats to allow them to fill out their candidates. Voting by illegal aliens who would tend to vote democratic – so no identification, no border, no problem – come on in and vote Democratic.
b.) Pass multi-trillions of dollars of “social justice” aid, indoctrinate our children and military with Critical Race Theory (CRT) where you’re a racist simply by being born white and/or Christian. Much of what is in the bill that Ms. Fancy Nancy stuffed down the moderate Democrat’s (is there such a thing nowadays?) throats cannot be repealed when they lose the house next year.
c.) Stuff the Supreme Court while they can. This is heretical, beyond the pale stuff. Steve talks about the “attempted insurrection” in January, that was child’s play to the scripted insurrection the Democrats blatantly crow over. This so incredibly stupid and such a naked grab of power that it’s beyond outrageous, yet the socialist Democrats keep that play in force, if nothing else, to coerce the Justices to “play/rule their way or else”.
d.) Indoctrination to reduce life to a racial binary of whites versus “people of color”. Extreme intolerance has now replaced the liberal notion of negotiated compromise that is the sine qua non of democracy. The assault on the right to speak freely unless they first affirm the increasingly intolerant orthodoxy is unrelenting. The world sees America now as unravelling and unreliable. Mississippian icon Morgan Freeman was asked what could be done about racism. He said “stop talking about it!”. He said no one can choose their race, nationality and gender and he declines to call his fellow black Americans “disadvantaged”.

Historically, black leaders like Martin Luther King, Booker T. Washington, et al emphasized human agency and individual responsibility for advancement. Instead the left wants to divide the races into battle groups. When Trump got a larger percentage of black and Latino votes than previous Republicans, the left and media went crazy.

Anyone can go on and on, ad nauseum, to the litany of insane ideas and plans the Democrats have in mind. All define the very definition of “STUPID”. The Democrat strategist, James Carville, was bemoaning on CNN recently that the Democrats are playing to the extreme left wing of the party, which he states is only 15% and ignoring the majority of those who voted Democratic and that they will suffer big time in the next election. This was before “Biden Debacle 5,439” – the Afghan exit. He sees the writing on the wall.

People are sincerely incensed over the incomprehensible stupidity of the Democratic party in general and Biden, now, in particular. I was amazed when I first saw an AP article criticizing Biden on his exit “strategy” and now it’s commonplace even in the New York Times and Washington Post as well as ABC (still not NBC nearly as much). That will change soon of course. People put serene “Uncle Joe” in office as the sanest candidate out of the huge assembly of misfits running. Kamala couldn’t draw a top 5-6 in any primary. Socialist Bernie Sanders assured AOC, Elizabeth Warren and other radicals that he had conversations with Joe after the election and that he would be the most liberal President in American history. Bernie, AOC and Elizabeth, among others, pull the strings and Joe dances.

Steve, I agree you can’t fix stupidity. We disagree on the source but I agree it’s terminal. I suspect the egregious behavior of your party will cost them their one chance to continue in strong power next year and in 2024 (prayerfully) and it’s sad as Democrat Sen. John Stennis was one of my favorite Mississippi politicians. He wrote me a personal letter that I still have when I was first elected County Attorney back in 1972. That’s where he started he said. The Democratic party ain’t what she used to be – by a looooong shot. Stupidity reigns.

I rest my case. Still love you though brother!

Rodney Shands