Poetry from Shell McClendon

(Poetry from Shell McClendon, you may recognize her as ZanneQuinn, her pen name)

shall come soon

the wind chimes wild

will sound with heavy their haunting bells

and I will wait by the window

peering through the frosted glass

for the pink blush of sky

sure sign of winter’s first snow

& I will dance in the falling

remembering the ghost of you

I love you Poem by Lauren Bies and read by ZanneQuinn

I love You

I sought ways to find the words to say

Stealing time I stole ancients scrolls

Enamored the scribes

Bled my knees raw before the gods

Pressed my ears against the standing stones

Journeyed deep within a vortex

Only to discover the words I couldn’t say

I love you

https://www.speakpipe.com/voice-recorder/msg/aecrgfngff17skhe

Final Thoughts on Kavanaugh by Tom Donelson

Kavanaugh is now a Supreme Court Justice but what we witnessed was nothing less than smear campaign organized by the Democrats and the left to sink the reputation of a good man.  The more we are learning about all of this, the more we should realize that this was ambush that had nothing to do with truth.

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While Kavanaugh is now confirmed, there are many questions that need to answer, beginning did Dr. Ford commit perjury?  Federalist columnist Margot Cleveland reported, “Most significantly, following Ford’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a former long-time boyfriend of Ford’s provided the committee a statement claiming that years ago he had witnessed Ford help her close friend, Monica L. McLean, “prepare for a potential polygraph exam.” Ford’s former flame added that his then-girlfriend “explained in detail what to expect, how polygraphs worked and helped McLean become familiar and less nervous about the exam…If the ex-boyfriend’s letter proves accurate, Ford risks criminal liability for making a false statement to the Judiciary Committee because  Ford unequivocally testified that she had never “had discussions with anyone, beside [her] attorneys, on how to take a polygraph,” and had never “given tips or advice to somebody who was looking to take a polygraph test.”

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Grassley also received information that Ms. McLean may have pressured a witness to change her statement and Ms. Cleveland added, “In a statement to the Judiciary Committee, Keyser had stated under penalty of perjury that she did not remember any such party as Ford describes and did not know Kavanaugh. Yet she later did “clarify” that she believes Ford’s claim that Kavanaugh attacked her. Whether McLean, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, contacted other supposed witnesses or otherwise helped Ford craft her instigating letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein—or possibly leaked that letter—is unknown. Grassley seemed focused on obtaining the requested material. And if Ford won’t provide the information voluntarily, Grassley (or the FBI upon launching an investigation into whether Ford testified falsely before the Judiciary Committee) may seek subpoenas for the relevant material.”

So did Ms. McLean tamper with witnesses and what else did she do?  This story could unravel even further and American voters may be more convinced that Dr. Ford and other accusers lied about Kavanaugh and many Democrats will have to defend their no vote.  Of the political consequences, Cleveland warns, “Consequentially, Democrat senators who vote “no” later today will thus likely face an electorate a month from now that is less divided over Ford’s veracity. Rather, they too shall see a failed political assassination attempt of a now-seated Supreme Court justice…Democrats’ failure to consider the trajectory of Ford’s uncorroborated sexual assault claim was a huge miscalculation for red-state Democrats up for reelection. While it already appears that Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s re-election bid in North Dakota is doomed, the more damage Ford’s tale takes—and the more individuals implicated in her last-minute attempt to derail Kavanaugh’s nomination—the more Democrats are going down.”

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We truly don’t know what happened to Dr. Ford but it is apparent that she has no evidence that it was Kavanaugh who sexually assaulted her and as for others, Debbie Ramirez, there was no collaborating evidence and then there is weird case of Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick, the college student who cruised the various high school parties where gang bangs and drugs were prevalent.  Ms. Swetnick may have committed perjury and her interview on NBC, where she walked most of her accusation was a disaster and reinforced in the minds of many voters that she was lying and with her, the case against Kavanaugh started to collapsed.  Avenatti whose own goal is self -aggrandizement and not the benefit of his client, may have helped save Kavanaugh.  Michael Avenatti views himself a Presidential candidate in 2020 and his action is about showing he is a fighter and a leader of the resistance but his introduction of Swetnick was not only a disaster but it began the imploding of the case against Brett Kavanaugh.

The tactics used by the Democrats and the left were beyond abomination.  As Ms. Cleveland, the case against Kavanaugh has imploded with evidence that that any of the events Kavanaugh was accused even happened.  We saw a coordination of groups and the Democrats to smear Kavanaugh and do what it took to sink the nomination, now they will campaign against an illegitimate Supreme Court. The left forever will state there are two sexual predators on the court, which is rich considering that they tolerated a sexual predator in Bill Clinton for decades and willing to go after any woman who dared to accuse of him of sexual assaulting them.   Where are the metoo leftist when it comes to Keith Ellison or since he is one of them, is he off limits?  It is time for those on the right remember the Rules for Radicals and force the left to live up to their own standards.  There is far more evidence that Ellison committed abuse than Kavanaugh ever did. Yet the left and Democratic Party support his candidacy for Attorney General and the Minnesota Senators running for re-election this year have no only not condemn him but endorsed his candidacy.

Democratic Senator Tom Carper admitted that he hit his wife hard enough to give her black eye and he is running for Senator this year but where are the demands that he resign his Senate seat and not run for office?  When Dan Abrams Law and Crime website asked Democrats in August what they thought of Carper run for office and not one responded back.  Maybe when some Democrat complains about Kavanaugh, just simply ask them, “What about Ellison, What about Carper?”  And don’t quit until they answer! As the case against Kavanaugh imploded, the Democrats need to answer for their smear campaign and be forced to account for those among their own ranks who have their own abuse history to answer for.

 

Poetry by Lauren Bies

(Ms. Bies is in Ireland and presently a  Graduate student at Trinity College, Dublin Ireland. M.Phil. in Film Studies and the Media Arts.  She has been a guest on Donelson Files and will be on our program over the next four weeks, plus look for her pieces on other issues.)

 

Out of Depth

I didn’t always know

I didn’t always care

I didn’t understand that innocence could leave one bare

I didn’t know you’d leave at my hesitancy from above

I’d only wished for safety, Strong arms to brace my fall

An illusion of a dreamer

Out of one’s depth alone

 

Journal

I found your journal by our past

Among your regrets and recriminations,

I read the pages of me

Illusions for what you thought I’d be

I left My journal by your heart to read for your beloved soul

Someday you’ll clearly see my words

I now lay faded upon your shelves

 

Flicker in One Eye

You didn’t reach out a hand as I tethered your ledge

I faltered on every word

I trembled as I shattered

Yet all you did was stare

Piercing were your eyes

I dreamed hoping one flicker would dawn in your blue eyes

In my descent I finally saw the darkness of your soul

Immigrant Or Expat? By Loredana Gasparotto

Recently, I had an interesting discussion with a friend about a hot topic: are we immigrants or expats? The classic immigrant struggle – terrible living conditions, scrubbing floors, sacrificing the best years of one’s life for a remote possibility of “making it in NY” – makes sense when one has nothing to lose. For my friend, who fled her home country for political reasons, the choice was simple: struggle or die. But what if you come to New York not running from persecution, poverty or starvation? What if your hunger is of a more sophisticated nature, like a burning desire to join a Broadway show? What if the life you left behind in your fairly “privileged” Western European country wasn’t a survival story but rather a comfortable and enjoyable middle-class existence? Are you still an immigrant or did you become an expat? Does it make any sense to scrub floors for an indefinite period of time, and when are your sacrifices no longer justified?

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I often wonder whether I am an immigrant or an expat myself, and I have no definite answer to that. A highly educated Western European from a reasonably well-off family, I came to NY with a specific goal in mind: I wanted to become an artist. But why on earth would you come to America to become an artist instead of going to Paris or Florence? If you are an expat, you continuously examine alternative ways to invest your life. It is not a coincidence that most of my friends from Western European countries have left New York after 2-7 years, as soon as their visas expired. These escapes from home that turn into “runs to go back home” arise because the amount of effort and sacrifice a person needs to stay in America is so tremendous that for most people from privileged countries is not worth it.

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I guess the need to expat to another country must be beyond escaping wars, and survival. Perhaps that need informs you more about who the person is. Maybe it’s about the values that a person identify with. It must sound silly, but I’ve never identified with being an Italian. I always felt like a “legal Alien” in Italy. It was a struggle to live according to Italian cultural values and policies. Like Jerry Seinfeld said, “Italy is like a pretty girl who never gets old.” So true! It is gorgeous, but then you get tired of pretty things when they don’t bring anything else to make you grow.

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Somehow Italy felt small, too small, too narrow-minded for me. I felt paralyzed living there. Everything was slow or didn’t seem to move at all. Ideals were old, actions were suffocated. The place looked and still seems immersed in supernatural inertia. I needed more than just afternoon delicious ice creams. My imagination required somewhere more prominent, a country where it is believed that everything is possible. I found my home in America, and believe it or not I knew I belonged here since I was seven years old.

Italians can’t understand patriotism and regularly observe American patriotism with suspicion. They can’t relate to the pride Americans feel about their country, because themselves have none about their own. They envy the value of teamwork so prevalent in American culture. They crave it, they recognize its profound importance, but they don’t want to sacrifice their selfish interests for it. At the end is indeed about love. If you can’t love yourself, you can’t love others and cannot love the country you inhabit. And since it is about love, I couldn’t be in a country that had so little love to offer.

Poems By Zanne Quinn

(Ms. Quinn is a Pen Name used by this poet.  She will be a feature contributor to the DonelsonFiles webpage and future guest on the podcast.)

Thoughts of Dreams and Love by Zanne Quinn

My body grows tired but my mind racing with thoughts

Ten of them to be exact but nine can wait and only one remains

You and I intend on bringing that to bed with me and dream a little dream

I’ll wear that little red number you love so well

The one conjures up heaven and hell

 

Autumn & Winter by Zanne Quinn

a time to get ready

for change cold slowly

creeping in the grey

and we look for warmth

hiding in our houses sipping on steaming cups of feel good

behind blankets of cashmere

that hold our melancholy in comfortable embrace

 

 

Academic Freedom by Lawrence Fedewa

 

Two Keys

There are two keys to understanding these demonstrations:

  1. First, these student protests are flourishing in an environment fostered by the faculties at these institutions; and
  2. Second, the faculty preaches dogmas which mark a generational shift in values.

The fundamental analysis therefore must begin with the faculty. Student behavior is primarily an acting out of faculty teaching. Administrators, while generally sympathetic to the students, are caught between angry students and their Boards and other supporters demanding a stop to these outrageous demonstrations.

What is the faculty teaching and why?

An ideology has developed over the past two generations which has several names, such as the New Left, secular humanism and others, as well as several differing versions. The dedication to this ideology on the part of its true believers cannot be overestimated. It is based on a series of high moral convictions which are common to most variations of the new doctrine:

  • the absolute equality of ALL human beings, no matter their age, race, gender, physical capacities, religion or social position;
  • a central reality of this dogma is the existence of a universal racism in the America;
  • the absolute obligation to oppose ALL limitations on human behavior whether religious, civil law, or cultural prejudice;
  • to protect and foster government control of all institutions
  • any means of furthering these ideals is justified, including physical violence and terrorism, since there is a war against traditionalists for control of society.

These high moral goals motivate the feeling of superiority which is characteristic of the New Left, as well as the ferocity with which they attack their opponents. In the most dedicated adherents of the New Left, there is a religious fervor not unlike that which motivates the radical Islamists. Those who disagree must be defeated at any cost, even at the cost of their destruction. The New Left are not as violent as the Islamic extremists, but there are similarities.

The New Left’s 2008 victory

In 2008, they finally won their long battle for control of the American government. They elected Barack Hussein Obama as President with a Democrat Congress to back him up. It took the Great Recession to do it. But the New Left — spawned by the crisis of 1968, hardened by 40 years in the wilderness, and preaching an expanded view of human equality, anti-war idealism, anti-business bias, an anti-family and anti-religion world-view – the New Left now finally controlled the federal government of the United States of America.

The New Left’s reaction to the 2016 election of the deplorable Donald Trump

The main reason for the extreme reaction of the New Left to the election of Donald Trump is that they were convinced they had finally won their generational battle with the silent majority. They were so intoxicated by the victories of Barack Obama – especially after he defeated businessman Mitt Romney in 2012 – that LOSING was unthinkable! They had been confident that they now controlled the future of America.

The New Left values dominated, they believed, the new American culture, never again to be denied. The Democrat Party, one of only two major political parties in the United States, had become the vessel of the New Left, and was considered by all the New Left press and pundits to be firmly enthroned as the majority party for the foreseeable future. Their agenda had already skipped over the 2016 election and concentrated on what their next priority, climate change, meant to the world.

Then the deplorable Donald Trump won the presidency! His Republicans won both Houses of Congress, and most of the governorships and state legislatures! The man who had threatened to undue most of what Obama did was now in the position to do it!

How could this happen? Their answer: The New Left had allowed the Old Left to control the Democratic nomination until it was too late. Throughout the campaign that followed, they were continually referred to as “the status quo”, and most gallingly as “the establishment”! That critical mistake, they opined, opened the door to the silent majority – who finally spoke.

Does it mean, they asked, that we are now destined to return to the shadows, that we never really won the hearts and minds of the American people? That America is condemned to live forever in free market capitalism, restricted immigration, a monetary economy, a war-like world? Must we now accept the possibility that all our beliefs about the society and the nature of human beings have been false?

The New Left enclaves: universities, big cities, and the media

In New Left enclaves, such as the universities and the big cities and the media, the outcome of the election just cannot be accepted without a fight. “Send out the students, the activists, the camp followers – TV will cover. Somewhere someone will figure out a way to destroy the opposition, reverse the election, and return the nation to sanity.”

Opposing the university’s New Left

This is what we are up against in the universities and in American society. The only way to regain control of the hearts and minds of our youth is to teach them ourselves the meaning of the Constitution, the value of capitalism limited by laws, and the moral values of our religious heritage. Most of all, it is up to parents, coaches, and clergy to arm our own youth with the understandings to stand up against the faculties who proselytize the doctrines of the New Left in our schools. This begins with local school boards, with student-centered financing of education, with sharpened protections of free speech on our campuses — especially publicly funded institutions — and by protection of students who are in effect whistle-blowers on extremist teachers and professors.

All such activities must be conducted with a careful view toward protecting the freedom of speech even of the extremists. That can only be done with a liberal use of freedom of choices by individual students, namely, careful selection of schools and colleges and scrutiny of required courses, and of parents supporting school choice. Persecution of violators, however defined, would simply desecrate the mandates in the American

Constitution. Witch hunts are not recommended. We can only fight excesses of freedom by providing more options of freedom. But fight it we must – or we will lose another generation of young Americans!

(Dr. Larry Fedewa has his own podcast Dr. Larry Wednesday following the Donelson Files, from https://drlarryonline.com/the-new-left-in-american-colleges/#more-789)

Iowa Consistency by Tom Donelson

Kirk Ferentz has become one of my favorite coaches and two decades ago, I became a Hawkeye fan.  For many Iowans, Iowa is their professional team and Saturday is their day to love their Hawkeye with tailgate parties beginning in the morning.

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Kirk Ferentz is not the greatest coach in college football but he is a good coach and Iowa understand that in Ferentz, they have a coach that fits their state and their expectation.  The reality is that most college teams are Iowa and not Alabama.  Alabama is a super team that expect to win championships and very few schools actually are truly contenders.  Most teams finish 8-4, 9-3 or maybe a few will win 10 games and make a bowl game.  Iowa is one of those teams that almost every year goes to a bowl games while winning an average of 8 games.  Since 1979, Iowa has had only two coaches, Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz.  Fry has won 143 games over 20 years and retired with most victories of any other head before Ferentz won his 144 victory the first game this year.   Ferentz and Iowa have been competitive since the turn of the century including winning more games than SEC power Tennessee and as many as Notre Dame.   Over the past five years, Iowa has defeated Nebraska four times and all of the victories by double digit.  Nebraska was once a leading power and when it joined the Big 10, it was presume that Nebraska would add another power team to the Big Ten. Instead, Nebraska has drifted back to the pack in a weak Big Ten West.  This year Nebraska is off to a 0-4 start and now is starting to rebuild.  Scott Frost, the new head coach and a former Nebraska star, want to rebuild Nebraska to its glory days of Tom Osborne but the question is Nebraska can actually return to its glory day or will they be a eight, nine or occasionally ten victories and occasional major bowl game and will Nebraska be satisfied with being like Iowa?

For four decades, Iowa have had two head coaches, big victories and a few bowl wins, averaging nearly 8 victories per year.  Bowl victories in the Ferentz years included victory over SEC powers such as Florida and Louisiana State, so Iowan fans have managed to enjoy their team, knowing that that at least team will have a winning record and go to a bowl game.  Iowa fans travel to bowl games and many bowl games love to have Iowa knowing the fan base shows up.

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Most college teams are like Iowa and not Alabama, teams that will have good years, a few bad and maybe magical year. Iowa in 2015 had a magical year finishing the regular season 12 -0 followed up by a pair of 8-5 records which included a victory in the Pin Stripe Bowl in 2017 along with a big upset of Ohio State 55 to 24.

Alabama fans expect their team to be in the playoffs and Clemson fans have similar expectation. Notre Dame fans for years have had similar expectation and yet since the turn of the century, Notre Dame has not been much better than Iowa and while Notre Dame have been to a final, Alabama merely crushed the Fighting Irish and this year, they are looking to be in the playoffs again. The Irish name gives the advantages when selection time comes but Iowa program has been as good as Notre Dame over the past two decades.

In the 1990’s, Tennessee was a National Champion and now they are no better than Iowa as a program.  Notre Dame was a national powerhouse but haven’t won a national title since 1988, and the meantime, Iowa has had only two coaches who led their team to success, bowl games and consistency.  Iowa has settle for consistency and sent players to the NFL, and Fry assistant coaches have become head coaches in their right including Bob Stoops, Bill Snyder and Kirk Ferentz.

The lesson for college fans is to be satisfied with what they have. Iowa has developed a successful program that has won 489 wins over the past four decades, several bowl victories and sent several of their players to the NFL.  The problem that many schools are not as satisfied with who they are as they fire coaches and start all over.  Nebraska is now in the same position as Iowa but fans will not forgive Frost if he doesn’t return Nebraska to the glory days of National titles.  Bo Pelini was fired despite averaging 9 victories and winning at 70% rate.  After getting fired beating Iowa, Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst arrogantly responded, “We are supposed to beat Iowa.”  Last year, Eichorst got fired after Nebraska lost their third straight to Iowa, all by lopsided fashion and Nebraska was only 19-19 after Pelini was fired.  What Iowa gives their fans is consistency and stability, virtues rarely appreciated.