Fast Food Activism

Posted: April 11, 2018 in Political, Social Commentary
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By R.C. Seely

IS BURGER KING THE king of burgers? Hard to say since the Burger industry has so many choices. And the king has decided to go social activists rather than focus on their product.

Starting with a misleading video on Net Neutrality, the chain now introduced an anti-bullying PSA.

Now what’s wrong with that? You might be asking. It could be nothing, but it gives the impression that they care more about social justice than their customers.

Take the new ad, they have teen actors pretend to bully another teen and send their customers “bullied” burgers, and record the reactions. Will the customers be more upset about the burgers or the bullied? If it were me, I’d be furious that they care more about catering to activists than to paying customers.

I don’t go to Burger King often, so losing my business would be imperceptible to their bottom line but that they value their customers, so little is troubling. Especially when the market has so many options and burgers, are not their only competition. Fast food and restaurants are a demonstration of the success possible in the free market.

If examined, there are probably already signs of distress within the company because this. Keep in mind this merely speculation on my part.

Besides the willingness to dismiss their customers, the causes they are advancing, and the marketing campaigns are baffling. So far, Net Neutrality and bullying are their causes. And both campaigns have issues; the Net Neutrality one is blatantly wrong in their analogy and the bullying one is inviting a lawsuit.

Either they don’t understand Net Neutrality, or they are on the wrong side. To do their concept accurately it would have to be, the customers getting more than the asked for. Net Neutrality using their burger analogy would be the customer orders a a burger and they are served the burger and a chicken sandwich, fries, a chocolate shake, a dessert and everything else off the menu. Or they never get the burger at all and only get everything else that you don’t want.

As for the other ad, I’m confused exactly what they were expecting the customers in their establishment to do. Verbally confront the “bullies?” But what if the patrons turned violent on the actors? That’s not even all that unlikely given how passionately people have gotten on the issue. Or worse what if one of the patrons were armed? Is the little impromptu theater worth the life of one of these actors? It’s not the patrons’ responsibility to make and keep a safe environment, it’s the business owners.

However you look at it, this idea by Burger King management is asking for trouble, starting with that it appears both ads are online only. The chain could have put these ads online and on TV, a plan that would make more sense. Maybe it’s just my skeptical nature, but when things don’t add up, it generally is because of the worst case scenario. In this case, I suspect they are trying to reach a specific demographic, the youth. Those passionate youth, that will cause “the next social revolution” and won’t question these causes. Can we just get the fries and hold the social justice, please?

R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture and has an upcoming new release–Confused Yet?: Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible.

Hollywood Republicans

Posted: April 3, 2018 in Political, Social Commentary
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By R.C. Seely

AS PERPLEXED AS I GET from Democrats who vehemently hate Trump or the Hollywood Republicans that continually dismiss his faltering there is a group that confuses me more than both combined. The Hollywood Republicans who hate Trump. Most of them seem confused on the Republican part.

The two most noteworthy are Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Both are confused about guns in the party platform. Stallone calling for an all-out ban that makes Michael Moore sound reasonable. He adopted this attitude shortly after the death of Phil Hartman. Arnold’s not much better but has a far less benevolent justification saying he’s a “peace loving kind of guy.” If that’s true, then start by leaving us gun owners alone.

This is not the only issue the “Terminator” is confused on, he’s also a hard-core environmentalist. And he’s eager to take on the oil companies with full force. He charges that the oil companies are intentionally and without regards “killing people all over the world” by providing manipulated data on environmental change, and he’s determined to take them to court currently meeting with private law firms.

From The Hill:

“Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is planning to sue oil companies, alleging they are ‘knowingly killing people all over the world.’

‘This is no different from the smoking issue. The tobacco industry knew for years and years and years and decades that smoking would kill people, would harm people and create cancer, and were hiding that fact from the people and denied it. Then eventually they were taken to court and had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars because of that,’ Schwarzenegger, a global environmental activist, said.

‘The oil companies knew from 1959 on, they did their own study that there would be global warming happening because of fossil fuels, and on top of it that it would be risky for people’s lives, that it would kill.’

Schwarzenegger accused oil companies of being irresponsible and vowed to go after them.

‘It’s absolutely irresponsible to know that your product is killing people and not have a warning label on it, like tobacco,’ he said.

‘Every gas station on it, every car should have a warning label on it, every product that has fossil fuels should have a warning label on it.’

He said he hopes to spread awareness about the harmful effects of fossil fuels.

‘I don’t think there’s any difference: If you walk into a room and you know you’re going to kill someone, it’s first-degree murder,’ he said during the interview.

‘I think it’s the same thing with the oil companies.’ “

I don’t put stake on the opinions of celebrities when it comes to the issues anyways but this idea of “labeling all fossil fuel” consuming products and taking out companies is particularly absurd. That will cost them massive amounts of money in a pointless Kabuki theater for egotistical means.

Schwarzenegger may believe what he claims or he’s simply trying to get attention, I don’t really care his goals, I do care that if he succeeds this will cost the consumer at the gas pumps. I care that he’s not using his influence to privatize the energy market, giving the consumer better access to alternative fuels. Getting rid of the federal subsidies on energy would force them to listen to the consumer and start manufacturing products that are more environmental friendly. Because that’s what the consumer demands.

When Trump cut the funding for social services–Meals on Wheels and after school programs–Schwarzenegger stepped up and started his own charity program to aid them, I applaud him for that. But why not do that for other issues he feels passionately about?

Instead he would rather side with the environmental activists and Trump haters. Parroting the “Russians make him say certain things” and condemning his failure to call out racists after the Charlottesville shooting.

Trump and Schwarzenegger have been having a very public feud for quite a while now on Twitter. It’s covered both men’s shortcomings, and both have had bruised egos. It makes sense that Schwarzenegger is holding a grudge but get over it and start researching.

He derides Trump if he wants to bring back more coal mines that it would be detrimental to the since it’s “dirty energy.” Actually, it’s not, and majority of our energy is coal. Our energy sector is based on a system that utilizes fossil fuels, changing that takes time and money, a cost that taxpayers shouldn’t have to burden. Environmental activists are the ones concerned, they should be the ones to take the burden. The “warning signs” of environmental calamity have been going off for hundreds of years, there’s no excuse for letting it reach critical.

The Republican Party is supposed to be about limiting government, not limiting personal choices. While the party has a history of faltering on that, the stances these two Hollywood “Republicans” have taken are even worse. They don’t understand the consequences of what they propose. What they want will hurt people and leave them less safe. It hurts those that haven’t done anything wrong, takes away their choices and makes them further subservient to federal government.

R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture and has a new upcoming release–Confused Yet?: Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible.

Human rights can’t be granted by humans

Posted: March 28, 2018 in Political, Social Commentary
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By R.C. Seely

ONE TERM THAT IS A favorite one amongst collectivists is “human rights.” It’s a term further advanced by the United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt, a former U.N. member. Problem is “human rights” don’t exist and those rights in question are either “natural rights” or free market products and services that they are trying to claim for their agenda of control.

That aside, there is the question of efficiency as well. The legislative actions of those in power have given valid cause of concern.

One such question is the concerns with health care. Should health care be conducted as a free market concern or government one.

I have had limited need for health care services at this stage in my life but have seen the differences when being there for family members. This is the observations I’ve made with health care: primary care is altogether superior to hospital care. It’s easy to see why too. You are treated as an individual, not a number. You have to set an appointment, you’re generally in faster and given more personal care.

Keep in mind this is not an indictment of the service providers but the nature of the business. The service providers I think do care and it’s not they who are not at fault. The business side of hospitals is inefficient and similar to the assembly line. Your done and on to the next one. It’s also not to say that hospitals are bad or unnecessary, emergency care is a needed social service–it could be provided in a better manner though.

Why is this relevant? Because big government pushes out the primary care competition. If they had their way all medical care would be done at the hospital. That would be a bad thing! Prices for services would go up exponentially and quality of care would be atrocious. Think the soup kitchen lines during the great depression.

The U.N. has even made it a goal to indoctrinate the children to misunderstand human rights by including educational materials, so they “understand” human rights and their importance. The most important thing we can do with human rights is avoid them.

We have something better, we have “natural rights.” The right to speak our minds, believe what we want, defend our selves in the manner we decide and private property rights and all not by an authority figure. Even the United States Constitution doesn’t grant its citizens it’s right but simply defines those rights.

Other concerns are dealt with by consumer discretion. Through boycotts, word of mouth and online ratings; the world is far more efficient and safe than any federal consumer protection agency or health and human services could employ.

Before we give the United Nations full governing power in our daily lives–the environment, gun rights, free speech, health care, foreign policy, etc.–the cost of adopting “human rights” over “natural rights” should be examined.

R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture with an upcoming new release–Confused Yet?: Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible.

Putin for President

Posted: March 20, 2018 in Uncategorized
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By R.C. Seely

FROM THE MOMENT Trump was declared president, the Democrats have been apoplectic and undeterred in their claims if fraud or impropriety. This imbalance is nothing new and the worse started with with George W. Bush. Commentator Charles Krauthammer referred to it as “Bush Derangement Syndrome.” Then it was “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” Now, as the logic would follow, we gave “Trump Derangement Syndrome” which seems the most extreme.

It has gotten so bad that even those in Hollywood have come out to defend Trump. Tom Hanks said that he “hopes Trump does so well he would vote to reelect him.” Both Mathew McConaughey and Jeff Bridges pleaded that Trump should be “given a chance.” Morgan Freeman takes it to the next level stating the president,”has to be a good president. He can’t not be.”

The leading criticism of Trump is the declaration of collusion with Russia and Vladimir Putin, to win the election. Most media sources covering the claims already agree with anti-Trump crowd. But not all are so bias.

From the Washington Examiner:

“The House Intelligence Committee has released findings from its upcoming report on the Trump-Russia affair–and its main conclusion is that it has discovered no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election.

‘We have found no evidence of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians,’ the committee said in a one-page summary of its findings released…

In addition, the committee took issue with the Intelligence Community assessment of Russian motivations in the 2016 election. The committee agrees with the assessment that the Russians did, in fact, try to interfere… (but) the committee disagrees with the Intelligence Community judgment that Russian leader Vladimir Putin specifically tried to help Donald Trump win the election.
The committee’s findings say investigators came to ‘concurrence with the Intelligence Community Assessment’s judgments, except with respect to Putin’s supposed preference for candidate Trump.’

The collusion question has been the most basic, and the most contentious, of the entire Trump-Russia investigation. After this or that revelation — the emergence of the Trump dossier, the June 9 meeting, the plea bargain of George Papadopoulos, the activities of Carter Page, the analysis of Facebook ads — partisans on both sides claimed that collusion had been either proved or not.

Republicans released the findings in bullet-point form. They were condensed from a larger report that will not be made public for several weeks.

But the question of collusion remained a key issue for the committee, as well as for the other two big Trump-Russia investigations, by the Senate Intelligence Committee and special counsel Robert Mueller. And Republicans and Democrats have differed sharply on whether collusion did or did not take place.”

“We found no evidence of collusion. We found perhaps bad judgment,…” commented Republican Representative Mike Conaway, who ran the committee’s probe.

“But only Tom Clancy or Vince Flynn … that could take this series of inadvertent contacts with each other … and weave that into a some sort of fictional page-turner spy thriller,” Conaway added.

“There is already, in my view, ample evidence in the public domain on the issue of collusion if you’re willing to see it,” Democrat Representative Adam Schiff reported.

It appears the Washington Examiner was spot on when the Democrats “will come up with their own version of events” and the results of the investigation “are sure to be disputed.”

This is the conclusion that rationale people came to from the beginning. There was nothing to suggest voter fraud and Russia didn’t help Trump, Putin had nothing to gain by it. Trump is an unpredictable lose cannon, not a schemer. While I don’t doubt that he would have no qualms about committing such volations of ethics there’s never been anything to suggest he did.

Neither Trump or Clinton are ethical and both have blood on their hands from personal and professional dealings. But Putin acts in his own best interest, which does not seem to be having Trump as president.

R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture and has a new one–Confused Yet?: Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible–soon to be released.

For the Kids

Posted: March 13, 2018 in Social Commentary
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By R.C. Seely

WE HAVE TO DO IT, IT’S “for the kids.” We have to continue the War on Drugs, “for the kids.” We have to pass gun control, “for the kids.” We have to enforce EPA regulations, “for the kids.” We have to go to war, “for the kids.” We have stop internet porn, “for the kids.” We have to empower NAMBLA, “for the kids.”… Okay that last one could be a little far-fetched, but I think you see my point. We have to pass all these laws and give up all our rights, “for the kids.” This could be some of the most disturbing and gross manipulative emotional and psychological tactics utilized by activists. And clearly, it’s used by moralists on both sides, Republican and Democrats alike.

The worst I’ve seen is the rampant manipulation of the children prior to the Parkland shooting, especially of David Hogg. I don’t know if the shooting is his only intention or not, and it doesn’t really matter. Either way, Hogg is being used by the gun control activists. He’s still a minor and easily swayed by emotional arguments rather than logical–as we all are when we are younger.

This is not to say he doesn’t have arguments that should be ignored, he has an opinion and he’s entitled to it and to speak freely. It doesn’t mean action should be done because of it. He’s scared and believes stricter gun control is the right course, I doubt he’s read up on the information that discredits that. Before a few months ago, he probably didn’t read anything other than his textbooks. And his biggest concerns were his acne and the girl (or maybe boy) in the row in front of him.

Another activist, Emma Gonzalez, is a different matter, even before the shooting she was an activist for gay rights and started the Never Again movement in response to the shooting. Just what the world needs, another emotional activist, getting her ego fed. I’ll bet these two loved their kudos from Oprah. Yea! You’re a winner!

The mantra during this has been there’s an “epidemic of gun violence” in the US. An epidemic! The numbers reported killed by guns–even if you include the leading cause, which are suicides, according to the CDC study–are in the low thousands. The population of the US is 300 million–what epidemic? How can you possibly be so heartless as to belittle these children? They suffered such a tragedy and are scared? It’s not only gun control activists that are scared after a shooting, it’s gun owners and gun rights activists that are and rightly so.

For that short period after a tragedy, activists will use anything and anyone for their agenda. Children become emotional pawns in the game because they act before they think. It makes them perfect spokesmen for political action. Calls for gun control, for example, are at an all time high after a shooting but return to normal a couple of months later, that leaves a short window for gun grabbers. Having the children out campaigning for it makes it all the more difficult to say no.

The children activists are basically the political version of the temper tantrums at the grocery store for not getting their favorite cereal. It’s okay to tell them no.

While the focus of this writing has been on gun control, this despicable tactic has been effectively used to advance many other goals, many noted at the beginning paragraph. It’s effective in getting prohibitions passed because we have an innate primordial instinct to protect children, even they are not related to us in any way. That makes it an evolutionary Achilles heel, but if you want to protect the children, protect their rights not attempt to protect them from their rights.

The world isn’t perfect and complete security is an unobtainable utopian dream, things happen, some good some tragic, but making your children safe won’t be accomplished by giving into fear or emotional blackmail. That’s the best thing you can do “for the kids.”

R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture and has new upcoming book–Confused Yet?: Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible–soon to be released.

This time it’s not about race

Posted: March 8, 2018 in Uncategorized
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By R.C. Seely

MARVEL HAS SCORED another hit with the release of the film adaptation Black Panther. Just like other Marvel movies, this one has had its share of controversy but this one wasn’t unexpected.

From the onset, it was almost guaranteed the predictable racial rants–on both sides.

Comments on Twitter and Facebook, makes one wonder how many were actually familiar with the character or story; and who though it was a black nationalism propaganda piece.

Critics condemned it because of its lack of diversity, this time with few whites. It was set in Africa! Of course, it would be a mostly black cast! Both sides are turning this into a race issue when it’s simply a movie.

It could be pointed out that there is a discussion about English colonialism in it. That is true, but it’s less about social justice and more about legitimate historical accuracy. It was less subjective, than say the feminism in Wonder Woman, and more reflective of genuine sentiment and history. That’s where the racial discussion should be focused not on the film itself.

To be fair, there was a few social media posts by clueless social justice warriors who didn’t appear to have a clue what the film was really about. I’m hoping that is what brought this on. Either side are really reaching if they genuinely believe the movie to be anything other than a harmless piece of artistic expression.

R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture and has an upcoming new release Confused Yet? Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible.

Doesn’t Add Up

Posted: February 22, 2018 in Uncategorized
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By R.C. Seely

THE PARKLAND SHOOTING HAS been cast as unusual but it’s not. The activists for gun control go on their rampage and call for measures that make no sense. I could get into the argument about the futility of gun control but instead let’s look at the possibility of it.

The renewal of Assault Weapons ban of the Brady Bill is one of the greatest pushes by these advocates. Since the firearm involved in this shooting is the AR-15–one of the so called assault weapons–it has gained traction. So, let’s just ban those for now.

From the logistical stand point alone, this is not improbable but impossible. There are 51 million AR-15 rifles in the United States. Think about that for a moment. 51 million of just one type of gun. And this isn’t a cheap gun, it’s over a thousand dollars. That means there are a lot more handguns and shotguns–because of cost for one thing, in the $200-$400 range for most. The total number of firearms in the US is 300 million, or basically a gun for every one of it’s citizens. That’s just the registered firearms, that doesn’t include “ghost guns” or illegal ones.

This is part of the logistical problem. The land mass of the United States is approximately 3,800,000 miles. Europe’s largest country, Russia, isn’t as large as the United States.

Gun control activists bring out Australia, the UK and now the Netherlands for examples that it works. But the math isn’t right here either. The population of the UK is approximately 65 million, Australia is about 24 million and the Netherlands is only around 17 million. Of course, there will be more crime in a country with such a larger population density.

Voluntary relinquishing your firearms is the only methodology that could even come close to being feasible, a forced home-to-home theft (and it is theft!) would be impossible. If it were, Senator Dianne Feinstein would have already done so.

In a 60 Minutes interview in 1995 Feinstein had this to say:

“If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them . . . Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ’em all in, I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren’t here.”

At least she saw how pointless that would be and still is. As much as gun haters hate to admit it, a confiscation of firearms in the United States doesn’t add up in any way. The size of the country, the population, the number of firearms, make it quite challenging. But there’s still the problems of enforcement.

Many state lawmakers in states strong on the second amendment would be essentially ending their careers if they tried any type of seizure or even restrictions. If that did happen, the next hurdle is law enforcement, many refuse to enforce the strict and unconstitutional restrictions in place already. It would again come down to a voluntary relinquishing of the owner’s firearms, an act that I personally would have no intention of doing.

The youth of the nation are being used as pawns by the gun-grabbers. They are scared and naturally inclined to emotional responses over logical ones. It’s easy to either look at them with scorn or pride, but in the end they simply want “something done.” That’s why it’s important to not give in to their proposals and show them the adult way of handling situations is logically and not act brash because of fear.

R.C. Seely is the founder of americanuslibertae.com and ALTV. He has written books on pop culture, with an upcoming new book Confused Yet?: Understanding the Utterly Incomprehensible.

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