Month: September 2024

Reagan – The Movie Reviewed

My wife wanted to go see Reagan. Me? I could wait until it came out whenever. Now I’m glad we went. Why? Timeliness. More on that in a bit. First I’ll point out I did not take notes. I did not “fact check” anything for historical accuracy. As with any dramatic portrayal, I expect there were some literary licenses taken, some facts shaded, overlooked, or ignored. Yeah, okay, I get that. For instance Jane Wyatt was portrayed as a bit of a bitch before her and Reagan’s divorce. Maybe she was and maybe she wasn’t. At the end they did display several pictures with captions. One was with her stating she voted for Reagan twice for President. I remember she refused to comment on Reagan’s presidency at all until after his passing. Divorces can be a bitch. Maybe she was as well. Emotions run high. I don’t know the woman nor the circumstances but I feel they were a bit hard on her. As for this review, I’ll aim more for the “sense” of the movie – the overall feeling.

Let me tell you that “sense” is a mixed bag. Overall the movie was positive yet unafraid to show some of the negative side. Ron Reagan’s father Jack, for instance. He was a drunk and not a great influence. This may be to my own difficulty I have decoding audio – it is kind of like audio dyslexia – but I couldn’t’ tell if Ron called his father “dad” or “Jack”. It seems he always called him “Jack”. At times in the movie he surely did. Odd.

I have to admit my eyes welled up several times. Mostly I’m reminded of how much I miss President Reagan. No one, not even Donald J. Trump can compare to the Gipper. He was never once called this in the movie, by the way. Several times he was called “Dutch”. Either way, the quality, the genuineness of the man shone through.

Dennis Quaid did a masterful job in his portrayal. No, he didn’t look all that much like Ron Reagan most of the time. It wasn’t a pure mimic, but he had Reagan’s cadence down well and it was easy to see the man the film was about.

Penelope Ann Miller did well as Nancy Reagan. Her part was harder to compare as I didn’t know Nancy all that well. Penelope has always been a favorite of mine so I’m biased about her. The writer’s showed Nancy as decent and strong, and I expect that to be accurate. My wife commented that she actually liked Nancy Reagan where she’d never cared for her before. I thought the producers demonstrated the love and devotion the Reagan’s had for each other admirably and, I think, believably.

The other notable character for me was Tip O’Neil. Personally, I never could stand the man. Maybe I’m taking this the wrong way and the movie unveiled O’Neil for the phony he was. I never felt at ease with the way they made him likable. Maybe he was up close and personal but I’d still check my pockets and count my fingers after having a beer with him.

Why Watch Reagan NOW?

If the local movie house was any indication, you won’t be standing in line to see this flick. There were five others watching besides my wife and I by my count. This is a shame because given the current political environment, now is exactly the time to watch this.

The film opens with the attempted assassination of President Reagan. This is chilling considering the two attempts on Trump already. How or why the movie came to open with this is unnerving. It also fits even though Reagan’s story begins toward the end rather than at the beginning. Throughout the film the timeline shifts. Unlike many other films that try this, it works here.

As you watch, you’ll see other parallels and themes directly relating to up to the moment events. If you pay attention, you’ll also see misses – not so much by the producers but misses by Reagan and those around him. He nailed the tax cut and presented one of the best simple explanation of why tax cuts are effective I’ve ever heard. Some of what Reagan said in the movie are absolutely relevant today.

One notable thing Reagan missed – what we all missed and continue to overlook is the globalist agenda. Reagan was hell on communism. In the movie he stood fast against efforts to aggregate all of our nation’s unions into a single entity and led the Screen Actor’s Guild to vote to keep their independence. He also outlined his strategy of breaking the Soviets financially to Nancy before he became Governor of California. It seems the globalists are deploying this same strategy against our nation to this day. Even so, Reagan missed the bigger picture. Many contend Socialism leads to Communism and it does. What he and most fail to recognize is Socialism and Communism lead to globalization. A one-world government is the ultimate prize – one we are speeding towards.

The movie is well worth watching. It will move you, possibly inspire you. It could even help you make sense of what is happening to us in this nation today.

P.S. A couple of notes here.

The movie was loosely based on The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, a 2006 book written by Paul Kengor. Kengor himself said the script was “faithful” to both his book and history.

In the film, one book Ron Reagan read early in his life, the book that inspired him to accept Christ and “left an abiding belief in the triumph of good over evil” was That Printer of Udell’s is a 1902 work of fiction by Harold Bell Wright. I linked this title to the free version(s) from Project Gutenburg.

Noah’s Ark FOUND! (The WHEN Will Shock You) The Bigger Surprise Is What It ALL Means to YOU!

This news is stunning – really stunning. It was revealed on yesterday’s Lance Wallnau’s “Firewall” on Real America’s Voice yesterday.

I found it broadcast on Rumble so I’m  linking to that because I can post one link instead of four.

Before you check the video out (about 43 minutes), I’ll offer a bit of a preview:

You won’t believe the WHEN Noah’s Ark was discovered. (Hint: if you’ve ever watched a broadcast about Noah’s Ark, you’ll wonder why NONE of them revealed what you see here.)

The HOW God Almighty supernaturally uncovered the ark and the divine timing of this revelation will chill you.

WHAT it means to you today will shock you.

But that’s not all…

The biblical scholar, Rick Renner, has not only studied and documented these revelations about Noah’s Ark, he has done so while living in Russia for the past 32 years. What he has to say about Russia, America, and the reality of what is happening in both nations will shake you to your bones.

You owe it to yourself to watch the whole thing.

 

My New Project – Spiritual Warfare

Just a note here, I am working on a book about spiritual warfare. I hope to complete and release it soon. The sooner the better as I see a great need for our nation.

Ephesians 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

The topic is spiritual warfare. The title of this work is yet to be finalized. I may just leave it at “Spiritual Warfare” but God may reveal something else.

Please do keep me in prayer as well.

Why Thomas Massie’s National Constitutional Carry Act Is ALL WRONG

This from Ammoland:
The National Constitutional Carry Act (HR 9534) would remove permitting requirements for Americans to carry firearms nationwide.

A few days ago I commented on Twitter about this. It’s ALL WRONG. Yes, I am still a strong advocate for our right to keep and bear arms and that is exactly why a bill such as this pains me. Fact is, nobody – NOBODY – should have to file such a bill. The Second Amendment is clear as day.

“the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Exactly what part of “shall not be infringed” needs further explanation?

I’ll take this one step further:

To infringe upon the God-given, Constitutionally guaranteed right of every law-abiding citizen to keep and bear arms inherently declares said right depends not on the actions of our citizens but on the conduct of the guilty and lawless.

In other words – the gun grabbers keep insisting on infringing upon our rights because of criminal conduct.

No. Just no.

In the same batch of articles from Ammoland, another judge refused to recognize the right of yet another citizen to own two firearms banned by the NFA – National Firearms Act. Among his “reasoning” is these weapons are not in common use. So what? First of all they cannot be in “common use” because most citizens refuse to jump through government hoops to avoid landing in a federal court as Christopher Chan did. Here’s a cute challenge – repeal the NFA, wait a few months then tell me automatic weapons, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and noise suppressors are “not in common use”. I dare you.

Fact is the use of noise suppressors is becoming more and more common despite the feds overbearing efforts to squelch our rights to these tools. Yes they helped matters tremendously by clearing their backlog of applications so it now only takes weeks instead of months to be approved. How droll.

For once I’m not going to present a long-winded argument stating my case for trashing not only the NFA but every stinking piece of gun legislation that infringes upon the rights of law-abiding citizens. You’re welcome. The argument is simple. As citizens, we have every right to keep and bear arms. Period. End of discussion.

Trump/Harris – Half a Debate – All The Commentary

Call it literary license or whatever, if the “fact checkers” could they’d nail me on this one. I didn’t make it through even half the debate. It was just too painful on both sides. That said, I just gotta say stuff about what I did see.

No Word Salad – Kamala did not deliver what I wanted most – one of her famous word salads. She was often incoherent enough for even her staunchest fans but alas she seemed to keep it together. Maybe she denigrated later in the debate. No matter. Point for her.

Lies, Lies, Lies – Kamala again. I swear the woman needs to be bitch slapped with the truth. While even that is not likely to sink in, at least some of us could gain some measure of satisfaction.

Trump was classic Trump but it did not serve him well. Now maybe you see Trump in another light but what I saw was someone who came across as one who was straining to hold it together even though he was pissed off. He was off message much of the time. Oh he made good points but his timing sucked.

The Mods – I have to ask, are there no rules for them? First of all they failed to abide by the rules as stated. This was especially evident when both mics were turned on at the same time. Then I gotta ask – who died and made them fact checkers? More on that real soon.

Neither debater did well answering questions. Harris packaged her non-answers with more glitter and ribbon but that’s about it. She did seem to have mastered the fine art of deflection.

So let’s dig into some meat – shall we? Vegans – feel free to abstain or just sit and chew your cud.

The economy. What a freaking disaster. Okay Kamala, first you attack Trump. Now your first talking point wasn’t exactly a lie – unemployment was high when Trump left office. Your nose should have grown a foot when you blamed Trump for it. We all know the reason for the high unemployment and the most fingers should be pointing directly at the bluest states where they came down hardest with all the lockdown BS.

Then you talked about all these wonderful “tax credits” and how you are going to help poor families buy homes with them and start businesses. Not only is your “economic quotient” at retard level but you have zero understanding of the tax system. For a moment, let’s just go with your “plan”.

So on your first day in office you convince Congress – both houses to pass your tax credits. Wonderful. How much money does this put in the pockets of those poor families you wear on your sleeve? Zero. That’s right – nothing. Nada. They will have to wait a year before they can even file for your tax credit. Same goes for the business tax credit. Worse, unless it is a “refundable” tax credit – it only applies against income you earn. If they aren’t making any money, most tax credits won’t do them any good. So that family you want to give money to so they can buy a child car seat are plum out of luck if they need one in 2025. What does happen is should they get that pretty “refundable tax credit” – a nice fat check that redistributes wealth from those that have to those than don’t – how are they likely to spend it? They ain’t buying a car seat – they will buy the car, or a boat, or a vacation. Those checks are windfalls – money that burns holes in their pockets.

Let’s move on to your $50K “business tax credit”. Again if it is non-refundable, any business will have to spend money to make money. That is not bad business but where will they get the money? They need capitol. There was a pool of COVID money that offered business “loans” to help businesses. They were forgivable. “You borrow the money but you won’t need to pay it back.” Trouble is those business had to already be in business for two years to apply. So what if you redistributed more wealth to help aspiring business owners start new business? Bad idea. Really REALLY bad idea. Overwhelmingly, most businesses fail. One of the biggest culprits is over funding. It’s that fat check syndrome all over again.

What’s wrong with your economic ideas? Can you say Marxism? Trump called you a Marxist to your face and he was spot on. We all know the basic tenant of your ideology is redistribution of wealth. There ya go.

Then you whined about Trumps tariffs – calling them a “sales tax”. That analogy was so brilliant I had to wonder who put those words in your mouth. Face it Kamala – original ideas are not your forté. Once again your economic ignorance is showing.

In this case both you and Donald J. Trump earn a major fail. Donald, you are on the right track with tariffs if you could only express the principle better. Here’s the scoop.

For those who don’t know – a tariff is a tax on imported goods. Thus the actual genius of Kamala’s assertion that it amounts to a national “sales tax”. It kinda really is. Funny thing, many democrats and RINOs alike champ at the bit at the very thought of picking more out of taxpayer pockets with a national sales tax. The idea is not new. That said, while tariffs indeed add to the price of imported goods, the main reason we need tariffs is not to generate revenue (are you hearing me Donald?) but to protect American workers. (Kamala?) Hear me out.

Probably my favorite modern expert here is non other the Kevin O’Leary, aka “Mr. Wonderful” of Shark Tank fame. Lately he’s been quote vocal about national economics and business and he’s usually quite right. (I’ll take the pun.) For the purposes of my example here, I’ll rather look to Kevin’s often stated strategy when talking deals in the Tank. You see what he loves to do is take a great product overseas so he can mass produce it at rock bottom cost to make big profits selling it in the States.

His approach strips away the mystery of tariffs. What is the major cost of producing most products? Labor. So what Mr. Wonderful likes to do is find the absolute rock bottom labor to produce goods – slave labor is fine as long as it is not called such. What does this do for American workers? Nothing. In fact outsourcing manufacturing to take advantage of cheap labor kills American jobs. Tariffs level the playing field providing an incentive to produce more goods employing American workers. And THAT Donald, makes a far better case for tariffs than “it brings in so much money”.

Immigration – rather illegal immigration came up early in the debate. Trump correctly tagged it as an important economic factor but he alluded to the idea that criminals were coming to this country to take American jobs. Uh, no, they are not. Nor are the mentally ill so much. Sure the message got mixed up in the heat of the debate. I’m not sure I would do much better. Chances are I’d sound like a blubbering idiot so no judgment here, just a bit of armchair quarterbacking. Okay, I prefer to think of this as an after action report from an observer – impartial I am not.

While I did cringe a bit when Donald bought up Haitians eating pets, it was because FOX (so kill me) brought it up just before the debate began saying the reports may not be accurate. But Trump is Trum and he said what he said. Furthermore, I cannot remember a time when Trump made some outrageous statement that later proved to be untrue. Several times I’ve seen him vindicated. This last assertion is no different. ZeroHedge this morning reported where a 27 year-old woman was charged with killing and eating a cat. That was fast. The mods were quick to point out a Springfield “city official” stated there was no evidence of such happenings. Oops. I forget how Trump replied but I think another tactic would have served him better. First, if he had said something like, “City official? You mean a politician? You do know how to tell if a politician is lying don’t you?” Then I would look directly at Kamala. Continuing, I would remind all how it was also a “city official” who literally videoed a segment at the wrong complex to “prove” (air quotes here) the reports of Venezuelan Gangs rampaging apartment complexes were false. I might also note how two gang members were arrested then released on $1000 bail.

So, Kamala’s immigration defense centered around a “bi-partisan bill” that Trump supposedly squelched. I know nothing about this particular bill but no doubt is was crap legislation. Most likely it provided a “path to citizenship” for illegal aliens, among other things. Trump should have pointed out the wall that the Biden-Harris administration stopped, as well as the “Stay in Mexico” and other policies that ended with Biden despite their huge success.

The the debacle turned to abortion. I could only groan. It is a stupid argument. It is settled. SCOTUS has rightfully ruled abortion is a state and not a federal issue. Hello. Why – WHY ask the candidates if they would sign a “national abortion bill”? IT IS NOT A FEDERAL ISSUE! It doesn’t matter. As for Kamala’s whining and lying about all those poor working women who can’t afford to go out of state to abort their pregnancies, I’ll chalk up a point for her. I did not know some states have outlawed abortion entirely, or nearly so. Possibly a better response from Trump might have been – Kamala, you have a point, but it is no longer a federal issue. We should have an open discussion on how to approach these contingencies.

That is about as far as I got. I left soon after the “debate” turned into a shouting match with both mics left on. The “moderators” were terrible at their jobs. They didn’t moderate so much as advocate and it was clear what side they were on. Shame on you both.

Word on FOX (don’t go there, my wife told me) is Kamala came out better than Trump. From what I saw, I have to agree. Sadly my assessment is more about the optics than the substance. Kamala Harris did not impress me at all with her presentation. What she did do was appear to at least not be the word salad queen she has become famous for. On Trump’s side, he failed to nail her on many major points. She left the door open many times and he insisted on ramming his head on the door jam. Bad Donald – BAD!

Overall I am not at all enthused about this election. My earlier hopes this opportunity – this ONE shot we have at finally taking the White House AND Congress by storm has dwindled to a thin hope that maybe we can keep that Globalist puppet out of the White House. Of course, in 2016 I had all but conceded to Killary’s inevitable rise to the throne of power. I was wrong then and while I will not give in to despair until the last vote is counted this time around, I do not expect to be surprised no matter how the final tally comes out.

IF we make it to election day. (to be continued…)