الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهذا وما كنا بنحتد يلولا أن هدان الله والصلاة والسلام على أنبياء الله جميعا وعلى خاتامهم حبيبي إله العالمين أب القاسم مصطفا محمد صم الله عليه وعلاه بيته الطيبين الطاهرين المقصومين ثلاثة مقصومين مهم في حالة الإسلام والمهمات المهمة في حالة الإسلام أولا هي المساعدة من محمد صلى الله عليه وعلى صلى الله عليه وعلاه وذلك بدأت أربع سنوات بعد بلده على سنوات سنوات رجب when he received the very first five verses of the Holy Qur'an while he was meditating at the top of the mountain when he was 30 years old he would leave his family and he would go there and meditate and worship and reflect until one day Gabriel came to him with this message إقرأ باسم ربك الذي خلق خلق الإنسان من عالق إقرأ وربه وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق وعالق إسمي ربك الذي خلق خلق الإنسان من عالق إقرأ وربك الأكرم الذي علم بالقلم علم الإنسان ما لم يعلم أو محمد ريد في نام ربك ريد ما ربك ربك ريد هذا البلد ربك الذي ربك ببن ببن وبلد بلد sliding when the mantell of our religion is the pen of the book education our religion base on reading a research on contemplation so that was the first event the second important event in the history of Islam took place nineteen years later and that was the hydro المقبول من المفتاح when he left his hometown Makkah because he had to leave, God ordered him to leave, his life was under threat of his own tribe, of the people that he lived among them. لن يكون هناك بعضهم الذين يمتلونه but the vast majority of them because of their arrogance and conceit they could not believe that he is the messenger of God because he posed a threat to their interest, to their worldly interest so they could not accept him they insisted on idol worshipping, they insisted on dividing the community and the society into two groups, the rich, the influential, the powerful, the abusers versus those who are deprived and hungry so Muhammad came to change this formula but those influential were unhappy with him so they refused him, they rejected him, only a handful of people accepted him for 13 years God said to him this environment would not work for you, you have to move, go find another environment and this is where he found the city of Medina, received him with open arms, people accepted the message of God and it was the second important event in the history of Islam the Hijra, the immigration of the Prophet from the city of Makkah to the city of Medina, he lived there for 10 years and he died and he was buried in Medina now we come to the third event and I welcome Tom Thorkelson, my friend from the Mormon church, a man of honor and dignity, he always stood, always he has been standing as a loyal friend and defender of the Islamic faith in Orange County in Southern California since I came to this land, I met him, always loyal, good friend, thank you for your surprise visit today, may Allah bless you the third event in the history of Islam was the day of Ghadir, equally important to the first two, the day of Ghadir, what is the day of Ghadir, the day of Ghadir the Prophet worked very hard 23 years to teach, to educate, to transform barbaric people into civilized people, people who used to kill their daughters alive, people of Arabia used to kill their daughters alive they had no respect for females, females were treated like cattle, animals, worse than animals, in a society where there was no security when you go to your tent, to your house in the evening, you would not be assured that tomorrow morning you will be alive because your house, your tent, your neighborhood will be raided by your neighbors, not by foreigners, by your neighbors in a society based on cowboy ethics, people would be killed for no reason the land of Makkah was saturated with the blood, the blood of the brothers and the sisters from the same tribe, same people, they used to kill each other one of these wars lasted for 100 years, 100 years, between two main tribes and the reason for that war, because they had horse racing, they had horse racing and then they had a dispute between them which horse won the race, this dispute erupted in a war, in a war fighting among two tribes which lasted for 100 years and Muhammad came to put an end to that war when he came as a message society based on arrogance, exploitation, racism, bigotry, the Prophet worked 23 years to transform them through his patience, he never lost patience, through his endurance God says to him had you been heart hearted, they would have left you, but because you were patient and tolerant you did not leave your community, they treated him in a miserable way they called him nays, they threw stones at him for 13 years the Prophet, 13 full years he leaves his house in the morning, he comes back home while he was bleeding by his own people but he never lost faith in God, he never lost patience so he built this community with patience, with tolerance now, does he leave this community, does he leave this community without appointing a successor the Sunnis they say yes the Prophet Muhammad left his community without leaving a successor the Shia believed that the Prophet would never do that he would never do that no person today, no rabbi, no minister of religion no priest, no Imam, no sheikh would leave his community without appointing someone have you seen this mosque for 19 years would you come on a Friday and there is no Imam, never ever for 19 years since September 20th 1996 when we started this community September 20th 1996 until today whenever the Imam is absent there is someone there am I smarter than Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم I am not 90% of the Muslims they think that the Prophet left his community without successor 10% the Shias they say no God would not allow him to do that he worked hard, he built strong community how could he leave his community in disarray, in confusion while he knows that some of his companions they were vying for power and politics and influence and government and leadership he would not do that so on his first Hajj and last Hajj the Prophet did Hajj only one time and he did the Hajj 3 months before his death the Hajj is in the month of the Hijj and the Prophet died in the month of Safar so the Hajj is in the month of Safar less than 3 months God asked the Prophet to leave Madinah go to Makkah to perform the pilgrimage Hajj Muslims knew that the leader is going to go to Hajj so they decided to go with him people of Madinah, people of Arabia 5000 people came from Yemen Yemen which is today under the bombardment of Saudi regime at that time they converted to Islam Yemenis were mostly Christians and Jews many of them converted to Islam when they heard that the Prophet is coming to Hajj they decided to leave their home and travel north and come to join the Prophet the Prophet reached Makkah on the 5th of the Hijj on the 8th he left Makkah to Minah in Minah there is a huge congregation all the pilgrims they gather in that desert of Minah which witnessed 10 days ago a tragedy over 1000 people were killed in a stampede in Minah because of the mismanagement of the family of Ali Saud family of Ali Saud are not focusing on Hajj focusing on their corruption focusing on killing people of Yemen so this is what happened 10 days ago over 1000 people lost their life however the Prophet took that opportunity the gathering of the Hajj, pilgrims in Minah and he said to them he gave a hint that soon I am going to leave my community for my final destination going back to God and there is an important thing I want to tell you I want to appoint a successor so you don't have a dispute after me you don't have a war after me you don't kill each other after me you unify the Ummah the community around this successor and that successor's name is Ali Ibn Abi Talim so in Minah he declared that not only in Minah God said to him you need to remind them again again so when the Prophet left Mecca after performing the Hajj going to Medina he said that I want all the people who performed the Hajj with me to come with me to the direction of Medina even those who are supposed to go south to Yemen back home they should come with me to the north the direction of north because I have another statement to make even the Yemenis you know Mecca is in the middle Medina is in the north Yemen is in the south the Prophet said the Yemenis also have to come with me towards Medina to listen to this declaration so they joined them 100.000 100.000 at that time is a big number 100.000 Muslims men and women they joined him when he reached an area an oasis Gabriel came from God descended upon the Prophet he said to him now you have to make this declaration in the middle of this area the weather was very hot very hot scorching sun Gabriel said to the Prophet this is Medina God wants you to stop here and give them this declaration and appoint Imam Ali as a successor the Prophet the Quran says يا أيها الرسول this is chapter 5 verse 67 all messenger of God immediately deliver what God is asking you to deliver ما أنزل عليك يا رب and if you don't do if you don't deliver if you decline as if you have done nothing for me for God imagine the Prophet worked hard 23 years and God tell him listen if you don't deliver this final message as if you have done nothing for me all your work is going to go in vain going to be destroyed why God is talking to his beloved Muhammad with this harsh tone threatening him why because the Prophet he was reluctant to deliver this message he knew that many of those Arabs would not accept it why because Ali first of all is his first cousin Imam Ali is his first cousin so they would blame the Prophet of nepotism and favoritism they would say he is bringing his cousin second of all Ali was his friend although the difference between them in ages 30 years but Ali was the sweet heart of Muhammad and the Prophet Muhammad could not afford to be alone without Ali Ibn Abi Talib whenever he misses him for a half a day he would say where is he where is Ali today bring him to me the Prophet I can say this with full mouth with full confidence and there is a big witness there listening to me the Prophet could not survive without the service and the defense of Ali Ibn Abi Talib Islam could not survive Ali was the defense minister protecting the Prophet protecting religion putting his life online always the bravest among the Muslims so the Prophet needed him he needed his help so therefore he gave him the best gift the Prophet had four daughters but the last one the youngest one was the favorite not because the Prophet was a prejudice against others no no no فاطمة was the favorite of God not only Muhammad all Muslims agree all Muslims in their books God there is nothing bigger than God in this universe nothing greater than God nothing greater than God in this universe God says when Fatima becomes happy I become happy when she becomes sad angry I will become sad and angry for her sadness this is Fatima so the Prophet all the Muslims the companions they came asking for his daughter's hand oh Muhammad give me your daughter Fatima I want to marry her one of them said from Benny Omeya what do you think I'll give gold silver land property camels horses the Prophet listened to him first and then he took a bunch of and then the Prophet is very polite but he wanted to teach this man a lesson that my daughter is not for sale I cannot exchange I don't think I'm exchanging and he threw the couples into his face because that man was filthy and arrogant he was intimidating blackmailing the Prophet give me your daughter I'll give you money he thinks that the Prophet sells his daughter for for money and the Prophet decided to give his daughter to the poorest person in the community to Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali was 24 years old his job was farmer he used to work for a Jewish farm owner in exchange not for money in exchange for some pieces of dates to eat them and survive on them do you imagine that a farmer who works the whole day in the farm and then the landlord gives him dates food although Ali is working with the palm trees but he would not do that does not belong to him at the end of the day he would give him 10 pieces here you are this is your wage Ali had no single penny in his pocket the Prophet gave him his daughter when he came the Prophet he knew he knew everything about Ali the Prophet was the one who raised Ali Ali was a baby the Prophet took him from his father he said to his father give him to me I will raise him so he knew everything about Ali but he wanted to ask him to make it public so people would know he said to him Ali what gift you would offer my daughter Fatima dowry what marriage gift you would offer her Ali said my beloved Prophet you know everything about me you know about my bank account go and check it out check my balance Ali said I have 3 pieces that I own beside my clothing humble clothing I have 3 pieces one thing one piece is the sword the second is the shield you know the fighter they use in one hand sword and the second shield the third is the water container I put it on my shoulder to water the trees I have these 3 pieces only nothing else this is my all assets the Prophet said to him you need the sword we need your sword we can't afford that you lose your sword if you lose your sword we lose Islam the entire religion the Islam is going to be defeated so you need this weapon the sword to defend Islam and you need the water container because you work with that these are your tools you need them but Ali I you were my baby I took care of you I was the one who is raising you I know you are brave you don't need a shield you are a fighter who is in no need of shield so sell your shield give it give it to my daughter he took his shield to the market he sold it for 480 dirhams 480 dirhams he brought the money to the Prophet so the Prophet gave his daughter to the to Imam Ali the poorest man in the community the poorest materially when it comes to money he is the poorest but to the richest man in terms of ethics in terms of faith in terms of ethical standards and manners and outstanding youth in the community so the Prophet had some fear that if I tell them that my successor is Ali Ali is my first cousin Ali is my baby he is my son-in-law immediately they will blame me oh look at Muhammad he is doing favoritism today God said to him don't worry I will defend you you deliver the message I will protect you because I want I am insisting that Ali should be your successor Ali can unify the Muslims after him so he declared that 100.000 people came the Prophet took the hand of Ali he said من كنت مولاه whosoever I am his leader and guardian and a Prophet فهذا علي المولاه after my death Ali is going to be his leader and his guardian and then the Prophet said اللهم والمن والح oh Lord support whoever supports Ali وعادي من عادة and be the enemy of all those who become his enemy وانصر من نصر and give victory to those who give victory to Ali واخضل من خدلة and give defeat to those who defeat Ali or disappoint Ali the prayers of the Prophet 1400 years ago we see materialization of these prayers today those who stand with Ali are always victorious those who turn away from Ali they are always defeated and always disgraced and in the forefront of those who are disgraced because they turned their back to Ali and the Prophet and God are the Wahhabis the Takfiris ISIS Al Qaeda those forces of evil who turned their back to God 1400 years ago so this is the third important occasion in the history of Islam first the beginning of Islam the beginning of the mission second the hijrah the immigration of the Prophet from Makkah to Medina where he established the very first Islamic community based on justice and love and care and third the appointment the declaration on the 18th of their hijrah the declaration of the successorship the Imamah the leadership the guardianship of Imam Amir al-Mu'mineen Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi Talib let me conclude some people ask they say well what difference it makes whether Ali was the first successor to the Prophet or Abu Bakr or this or that what difference it makes what difference it makes don't you have this question in your mind do you have this question in your mind or not i'm sure you have it in your mind but you don't share it with me sometimes you think what difference it makes whether Ali became the first successor or Abu Bakr became now 2015 what difference it makes the Prophet answers this question on his deathbed the Prophet on his deathbed 3 days before his death he died on Monday Thursday before his death he said allow me to give you my will my last will my most important will to the Ummah bring me pen and paper so I write a will for you لأكتب لكم كتابا لن تضلوا بعد أبدا if you accept this will you would never be this grace you would never be weak you would never be disunited you would never all Muslims you would never go backward you would have democracies in your countries you know how many victims every single day the Mediterranean how many victims claims every single day people fleeing Syria Iraq Libya Yemen Egypt North Africa how many of them they drown in the Mediterranean every single day rather than taking shelter in Mecca and Medina the holiest place in Islam they take shelter in Germany in Britain they travel from a Muslim country and take shelter in a non-Muslim country isn't this ironic a Muslim who is supposed to enjoy Islam in his community he runs away to the non-Muslims he seeks refuge and comfort and peace in a non-Muslim country you know why because Muslim countries are just Muslim by name not by character because we have dictatorship because in Muslim countries we have Islam but we don't have Muslims we only have the name we carry the name have you seen some counterfeit products t-shirt counterfeit they put the designer name but it is counterfeit not real this is our Islam in these Muslim countries Islam is a counterfeit version not authentic had it been an authentic version the Americans would come and seek shelter the Europeans would come and seek shelter in Muslim countries not vice versa because Islam is absent from our countries and the very first country that Islam is absent from it is Saudi Arabia is Saudi Arabia country that is based on abuse of a human rights and a human dignity and the stampede in Mina is an example of that this is one example so the prophet says if you follow this Kitab Allah the book of God if you follow this book and implement this book which is very beautiful this is the most tolerant book in this book Tom this book says this book says that I have to respect you and love you and care for you and protect you in this book don't listen to ISIS listen to this book لا ينهاكم الله عن الذين لم يقاتلوكم في الدين ولم يخرجوكم من دياركم أنت بروهم وتقسطوا إليهم إن الله يحب المقصطين الله يقول في this book that I urge you all Muslims I urge you that when it comes to the people of the book the Jews and the Christians who did no harm to you like you your honor here that you love them and care for them and defend them and be nice to them and kind to them this is the book this is the message of Muhammad and this is the message of Imam Ali Imam Ali was the caliph for four years and nine months they did not allow him to be the first they pushed him back when they had a failure for 25 years we had three caliphs they were a big failure then when the first caliph second caliph third caliph they died they came begging Imam Ali now we want you to be the caliph because you are the only one who can save Islam please please Ali accept leadership he was reluctant he said leave me alone I'm not about power I'm not dying for power leave me alone I'm doing my job here they said no please Islam is collapsing you are the only one who can save Islam he said okay he accepted but even when he became caliph they rejected him many people they fought against him so he ruled for four years and nine months ultimately he was assassinated in the mosque he was doing his prayers in the sanctuary they killed him when he was a ruler one day one of the people came from Basra you know Basra in southern Iraq in Basra there were mixed community there were Christians Jews and Muslims the governor did something bad to one of the Christians citizens so this Christian citizen he traveled all the way from Basra to Kufa Kufa was the capital the seat of the Islamic capital were Ali had a small house not in a palace not in a mansion Ali he built this house with his hand when he decided to move the capital from Medina to Kufa there was already a palace there they said to him this is the seat of the governor he said no no no this is a wicked mansion keep me away from this I don't want to see this mansion this is not for me I will build my own house he built a small house he himself he built it with his children with him helping him a very small house the house still exists today after 1400 years the house still exists so this Christian man came all the way traveling for one week from Basra 500 kilometers to Kufa he stood before Ali he said Ali I am your subject I am a Christian your governor of Basra he abused me he wronged me so I am seeking justice Ali was so disturbed he was so angry at the governor so he wrote a letter to him he said to him listen listen I want you to discipline yourself otherwise I am going to remove you from this post and let it be known to you اعلم ان من آذا انجليا فقد آذاني if a Christian if anyone abuses a Christian under my leadership my caliphate as if he has abused the caliph himself so give him his right back to this man when he comes to you treat him well do justice to him Christians enjoyed Ali's justice Muslims enjoyed his justice the Jews enjoyed his justice you know another Jewish man took him to court in Kufa he took the leader to court so they stood before the judge a judge that was appointed by Imam Ali so the judge he wanted to be respectful to Imam Ali he asked the Jew about his name first name last name so the Jew said this is my name and then he turned to Imam Ali and he said to him يا امير المؤمنين all the commander of the faithful the caliph what would you say what is your re-battle against this man Imam Ali said to him stop stop stop don't call me يا امير المؤمنين call me Ali Yubnu Abi Talib with my first name and last name in the court I'm a citizen now I'm a citizen just like him in the same way that you addressed the man with his first name and last name you must do it with me you would never discriminate in the court I'm a citizen here outside the court yes I'm a leader you may call me يا امير المؤمنين inside the court call me by my first name and last name with no titles no titles this is the justice of Ali why people don't like Ali because he's a man of justice he's a man of justice many people they rejected him because he does not believe in corruption he does not believe in a bribery now we have a man sitting here by the name of Ali Yulfarouk but this is his not real name his real name is Omar Yulfarouk when he picked me up at Denver airport I never knew anything about him he told to me he said Sayed you know what is my real name I said isn't it Ali he said no I'm Omar I said really I wanted to escape open the door and run away immediate he said don't worry you are safe and he told me the story very capturing story very moving story in the shrine of Imam Hussein 10 days ago I mentioned his story in front of huge congregation and I saw the tears rolling down this man originally from the city of Mosul which is now under the control of ISIS in Northern Iraq he was born in Baghdad he was a very prominent family in Iraq atta'i atta'i comes from the tribe very prominent tribe originally they were Christians before Islam they were Christians then they converted to Islam his family were always the supporters of the regimes in Iraq his grandfather was a military pilot during the monarchy in Iraq do you remember the monarchy in Iraq which ended in 1958 I know you are young but you still remember that his grandfather was a pilot his uncles were pilots working for the military in Iraq but then when he joined the salinity in Syria he was listening to his professor one day speaking about religions so someone from Chechnya asks the professor that what do you think of Shia you mentioned all religions all traditions, all schools but you never mentioned about Shia immediately the professor becomes crazy he becomes mad, he starts yelling he says no no no don't mention Shia they are worse than Jews and Christians they are this and that they are dangerous don't even mention them so Omar was sitting and listening so he decided he is curious he decides that let me go and find out of how bad the Shias are so he goes and travels to one of the neighborhoods in Zeina in Damascus and there his journey to the truth begins of course when he goes there he was so frustrated and angry and he went there to fight and to kill and to damage because he is a professor he is a professor spoke very well about Shia and he made all the students angry and frustrated so he went there to take revenge from the Shia but imagine imagine you go with one intention and you come back with another intention why? because there is God there and God says I am behind the guidance من يحدي الله فهو الموتدي if I decide to guide I will guide despite all circumstances and then after 6 months but the journey begins with something very interesting very interesting and this is why I want you to listen to this because I want you to do the same when you confront someone okay someone whose heart on you don't be heart on him don't return it our prophet says something very important our prophet says treat people with your own manners not with their manners so if some people are low don't treat them with the same level treat them with your level which is high very beautiful treat people with your own ethics with your own standards don't go down to their own standards لا بأخلاق him so he went there to the seminary one of the seminaries that I happened to teach an study there 30 years ago but I am still young now so he goes there full of anger, frustration and he will mention the rest do you want me to mention the rest of it or you will say it let me say this part and then I will leave the podium for him so he goes and he finds a Shi'a scholar there and immediately he opens his mouth with all these the cliches of accusations against the Shi'as the Shi'as have a different Quran they fabricated another Quran they don't believe in this same Quran the Shi'as they don't face Makkah in their prayers they face Najaf of Ali this is exactly what his a professor told him the Shi'a do not believe in God and the Shi'a they have if you examine them they have a tail yeah yeah this is I am not joking you really this is what they say about it they have a tail and so on and so forth so he goes with this mentality and when he starts attacking that man standing before him after a few minutes the man tells him Shaykh take a seat please bring him a cup of tea bring him a cup of tea magical word he tells me that this was the beginning of accepting Shi'a Islam bring him a cup of tea he said I expected that he will attack back and he will call me names at least he will kick me out of the building he didn't do that he embraced me he said take a seat rest you are tired you are hungry bring him a cup of tea that is the beginning of the journey we deserve to make a movie the name of the movie bring him a cup of tea yeah treat people well you never know what happens after that be like the prophet be like Ali ibn Abi Fadiq be like our imams we the Shi'as we have to follow Muhammad al-Ali alayhim as-salam in their ethics in their manners in the way they treated people


Hi, and welcome to Sitrep, army news that affects you. It's the holiday season, which brings a time of family, friends, food, and festivities. But this time of year can also be challenging. Many people find themselves dealing with the holiday blues and become sad, lonely, and even depressed. There's many reasons people find themselves struggling during the holidays, reminders of lost loved ones, pressure to feel merry, and financial hardships are just a few. But military families can add one more important reason to that list, deployments. Coping with deployments can take a toll on emotional well-being even under normal circumstances, and this can be increased if a service member is away from their family during this important time. So, what are some signs that you or a loved one may be suffering from the holiday blues? While some obvious clues are withdrawing from fun and social activities, reflecting on loss, ambivalence, excessive drinking, unrealistic expectations, or a sadness that affects the quality of life. If you or someone you know seems to be feeling the blues, you can do one or all of the following. Take it one day at a time. Think of it as Thanksgiving Day or New Year's Day. It can be easier to think, I can get through today, rather than thinking, I can get through this whole season. Get in touch with family members by Skype. Get letters, visit, make phone calls, anything that you need to get in touch. Avoid retail therapy. Fight the temptation to overspend, as this can lead to increased stress when the credit card bills arrive. Have fun. It's normal to be social during the holidays, even if your loved one is not available to attend these events with you. Ask for help. You don't need to face it alone. Depend on family and friends to help you. And most importantly, reach out. There's anonymous chat lines that are available 24-7 that give you the opportunity to talk without embarrassment, no matter your level of sadness. For more information and resources, go to militarymentalhealth.org. And if you have a question or topic idea for SITREP, let us know on Facebook and Twitter. Sgt. Martin, signing off.


Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and I learned a term, I don't know, a couple weeks ago, maybe a couple months now, I don't remember, that I thought was super, super helpful. And that is, of course, anarchy tyranny, or tyranny anarchy, or I'm going to say anarchy tyranny. And it's this term to describe the current state of affairs in our nation. So on one hand you have tyranny, right? You have, which we're all familiar with at this point, but you have an oppressive government that's here to lord rules over you, not to protect you or to keep you safe, or to generally order society, but simply to make your life difficult and make you obey their will, so that they are the master, you are the servant, and they can profit and benefit from your subservience. Right? That's tyranny. And we've seen that, I mean, COVID, obviously being one of the biggest examples in recent memory was pretty bad. And it's all over the place, right? So we understand tyranny pretty well in America. Then there's the anarchy part, which in general, we do not. And in the past couple of years, again with COVID and riots and all this stuff, you've started to see that where there's just, it's anarchy in the streets, right? You have riots. In Minneapolis, when they had the George Floyd riots, right, they burned down a police precinct. The police abandoned the precinct. Mob went in and burned it to the ground. At the time, I lived a couple of miles away. All right? So that anarchy, if that's not anarchy, again, really not sure what is. So you have these. Now, when you combine them, that's the current state of affairs that we reach, which is you have the thugs in the street, right? Doing the anarchy, burning down businesses and buildings and police precincts and all this stuff. And then you have the tyranny where the government will enforce laws against that kind of stuff, but only if you do it. And if they do it, well, you know, there's not actually any enforcement or consequence, right? How many people were arrested for burning down the police precinct in Minneapolis, I would ask you. So you now live in this time where you are squeezed from both ends. The government is here to oppress you because you're an American, or you like the Betsy Ross flag, or you have a Gatson flag, or whatever. You're a potential extremist, right? There's a problem here when you start believing in liberty and quoting constitution, right? That that's a problem.  So we enter this time where then you start to get squeezed from both ends, right? The government is here to oppress you and make sure that you follow the laws as they determine them. But then they don't apply those same laws to the people that are knocking on your door to try to burn your house down. And so it's this compression where you get squeezed from both ends. And I think it's a very accurate descriptor of our current culture and where things stand and the kind of life that we're going to have to live in for a while now. You know, I used to teach a permit to carry law for like seven years, quite a while. And back then, when I taught that, I was very concerned about what the law says and you want to follow the law and you want to make sure that if you get in a shooting it's legal and that if you have to go to court it's defensible and all this kind of thing. But over the past couple of years, I've realized that of course the law at this point is not applied equally or fairly or justly or with equity. Rather, the law is applied in a extremely biased manner towards the left, right? So if of course you are considered a part of the left conglomerate, whatever that means, the law will not be applied to you in the same way that would be applied to someone like me or like you. Whereas the law will be applied with harshness and directness to someone that is not politically aligned with the establishment, it will of course be lenient to those that are politically aligned with the establishment. So in part because of that over the past couple of years I quit teaching permit to carry because I realized it is a fruitless endeavor and I am not equipping people with accurate knowledge on how to navigate through those circumstances. Rather, I'm just telling them what the things say in the book but that's not what it's out, that's not what's reality, right? Reality is not what the law is on paper. Unfortunately that is not the case. So as you enter this new era of history and again I won't be alive but I would love to read history on this era in about 100, 200 years from now. I would love to see what the history says about this era. And as we enter this era, I think it would behoove you to consider this change in circumstances and how you think about defensive tactics, defensive procedures, just generally survival. You need to remember that you're always going to get squeezed from both ends. You're going to get squeezed from the long-term government oppression end, where they're long-term looking for you, looking for a way to imprison you for wandering through the Capitol building when they set it up to begin with because that's what we're finding out now which not like we all didn't know that. Okay, that's probably another video. And you're also going to get squeezed from the, again, blood in the streets thuggery, right? And those are both coming for you. So don't make the mistake of thinking that you somehow live in a society where laws are applied fairly or justly. Remember that unfortunately, there are people that hate you on both ends of those spectrum and they're both coming for you one way or another. Man, that's bleak. I do not think that a society can exist long in this anarchy tyranny stage. How do I know that one? I'm basing that off historical examples, right? Like the fall of the Roman Republic was such a case, right? Where they had hired thugs, they got out in the streets and caused riots and problems for their political purposes, right? This is nothing new. There's nothing new under the sun. And eventually the Republic collapsed and there was an empire that came after it, right? But there was something after. My point is there's always something after. And this anarchy tyranny stage, just by its nature because it's so volatile, it is going to be short-lived. Now, what does that mean, 20, 50, 60 years? I don't know, maybe something like that. But I don't think it'll go much beyond that.  Don't bury your head like an ostrich and just realize that we live in a time of anarchy tyranny. And that might mean, it might not, but it might mean you have to adjust some of the ways that you plan to live your life for the next however long that is. Think about it. Do brave deeds and endure.


Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with musicteacher.com and in this video we're gonna learn another classic riff. This time we're gonna learn the riff from the Death Leopard Track photograph. All the tones you're hearing in this video are coming direct from the Blackstar IDCore V3. This is running via the Cabrig software straight into my DAW over a USB cable. The patch I'm using for this tone is also available on the Architect online community. There's a link for that down below in the description. So the tone you're hearing is not based exactly on the original studio recording because the original studio recording is actually a very bright brittle tone with a lot of background noise. So I've based this tone loosely off a more modern live guitar sound that you'd expect Death Leopard to use. This is using the super crunch voice of the amp with the gain just over halfway. It's actually quite a scooped sound so I've got the bass and treble just above midnight and the mids down quite low. The ISF is also over to the American side. There's also quite a lot of effects processing on this so I've actually got some chorus on the guitar. I've got some fast slapback delay and a plate reverb. The original tone actually has this kind of metallic overtone to it from a lot of delay and reverb set very, very fast. So I've tried to recreate that with the effect in the amp as well. So the riff we're gonna be taking a look at is the introduction riff. There are two different guitar parts going on at once here but we're just gonna learn the simpler version of the two. So anyone that's starting out playing guitar can learn this fun riff. So here's the riff in full. So this riff is actually based around some very simple double stops. So the first thing I'm doing is playing the ninth fret on the D and G together. Now all of this riff is based just on those two strings. So the first thing I'm doing is playing those ninth fret notes together three times. Then I'm moving this note that my third finger is playing down to the eighth fret. So to do this I can play these two notes with my second and third finger.  The second half of the riff then is this power chord shape. So the seven on the D and the nine on the G. Play that twice and then play a double stop on the seven of the D and G. So in the track you just repeat that part twice. The second half of the riff uses all the same notes but we are changing the rhythm slightly. So once again I'm starting with that ninth fret double stop but this time just playing it twice. Then I'm moving the third finger down to my first finger on the eighth and playing that three times. Then I'm coming to the power chord on the seven and the nine playing that twice. And the double stop on the seven three times. And then as it is in the track that part is also played twice. So once you've got those two parts learned you just have to put them together. That is the entirety of the intro riff. So here it is in full slowly. And then once more all the way through at full speed. So there you go. There is the intro riff from the Death Leopard track photograph. I hope you guys have enjoyed this riff. It's a great format to learn even if you're new to playing this is a great fun riff to pick up and learn. Let me know down below in the comments if there are any other classic riffs you'd like to see us talk about in this series of videos. We'd love to hear which riffs and which licks you guys want to learn. And don't forget you can download the patch that I've used for this video from the architect online community and add this to your own ID course series amps. Like I said, this is not based exactly on the studio version of the track because of all the factors I explained at the start of the video. It's based more on a modern live Death Leopard style guitar sound. Thank you all so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this riff. Like I said, let me know down below in the comments if there's any other riffs you guys want to learn. Don't forget to check out the Blackstar Amplification YouTube channel for more videos just like this. And don't forget to check out musicteacher.com if you're looking for a guitar teacher in your local area. Thank you guys so much for watching and I'll see you soon.


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We would like to give you this pencil with the theme of National Student Leadership Week written on it student leaders building America's future Ladies and gentlemen the president of the United States Mr. Ronald Reagan Well, thank you Bob Goodling and thank all of you I'm delighted to be back in Kansas and to bring you a Piece of breaking news truly good news I spoke last night in my press conference about that unfair tax cap that was being pushed by some of the liberal spenders in Washington, and I promised that the tax cap would not become law in In fact, I would have been prepared with the that pencil for a veto Well, I'm pleased to report that the drive to increase taxes on millions of hard-working married couples small businesses and Family farms many of them right here in Kansas has just been beaten back and defeated in the Senate this morning 55 to 45 now I realize that you are from all over the country But speaking of our host state here, Kansas that one of the champions in the battle that for that victory was that outstanding Kansas Senator Bob Dole and A vote for it was the other Kansas senator Nancy Casablan The full 10% tax cut will go into effect as we promised day after tomorrow July 1st We're on the right path America's economy is moving this morning. We learned the leading economic Indicators were up another 1.2% in May and that's the 11th straight monthly increase in those indicators and just yesterday We raised again our gross estimate for 1983 the the stronger growth could shrink the deficit by up to 15 billion dollars and We intend to keep America moving forward Wacking down that deficit with higher growth and spending restraint but not with higher taxes on hard-working people. I Just thought that we could open with a news note of that kind But I understand that today does mark an historic first that every NASC conference has its share of presidents But I believe this is the first time that a president of the United States has attended and it's about time In fact, you could say that for me it's a long overdue arrival and I was going to surprise you by telling you that I was the former president of the Dixon, Illinois high school student body I should have known that Someone would have beat me to it already But I should have been at one of these conferences a long well years ago. There's only one slight hitch I was student body president at Dixon High a little too early several years before there was an NASC Founded in 1931 in politics. They would say that I peaked too soon and Unfortunately what with sports and part-time work. I never quite made the honor society Now I won't say that was a long time ago. Let me just put it this way Not only wasn't there a nuclear freeze movement back then they hadn't even split the atom yet But even so after all these years, I remember vividly my days as student body president at Dixon and a little later as chairman of the Student's Body Senate at Eureka College. I Suppose you could say that those two jobs were my first exposure to elective office The issues may have been different, but the lessons of leadership were the same Hard work a knowledge of the facts The willingness to listen and be understanding a strong sense of duty and direction and a determination to do your best on behalf of the people you serve These are the hallmarks of good leadership at every level whether it's the political arena is High school student council to the capital of the mightiest nation on earth Well, I've tried both and frankly I Had more fun in student government Your duties in student government like the efforts you put into your individual studies are worth it they may seem heavy at times and They are a big responsibility, but it's by accepting duty and responsibility that we learn and grow the dividends your experience will pay in Lessons learned in pride taken in a job. Well done. It is a kind of basic training course for future leadership These are things that will keep on rewarding you all your lives There's something else that I'm sure Each one of you has come to believe from personal experience. I know I have It's the sentiment summed up in the motto of this conference Leadership begins in the heart You can't get out of your public service more than you put into it in terms of caring commitment and dedication The most precious assets that you can bring to any job Teddy Roosevelt once called the presidency a bully pulpit Well by that he meant that it offered an ideal platform for getting important messages and ideas across to the American people That was what I had in mind a few weeks ago when I launched what may be one of the most important initiatives of this administration a great national debate on the future of American education It's an important debate because you're important because the degree to which we can improve American education now will have a big effect on the opportunities you and your fellow students will have in the years ahead Your chance to play a productive part in the great adventure in new ideas new technology and new opportunities That awaits your generation We care about education because we care about you and we care about you Not just because you're our children and grandchildren, but because you're the future of America The ones who will carry the torch of freedom and idealism into the 21st century The ones that will keep the American dream alive and in your turn pass it on To future generations of young Americans But you can't do that job. You can't achieve that destiny without a good education as Woodrow Wilson a great statesman It was also a great educator once said without popular education No government which rests on popular action can long endure And that's why the great Debate and the quality of our schools is building today in the nation and that's why it's so important I've been speaking with parents with teachers with school principals Superintendents and state and local officials all people with a vital interest in putting our schools back on the track to excellence But I feel no group has a fresher awareness of the problems in our schools a Greater understanding of the grassroots issues involved or a deeper deeper personal interest in the outcome of this debate Than you the student leaders who are gathered here today You represent the generation which is paying the price for past mistakes in education You've shown your willingness to accept the responsibilities of leadership And I hope that you will stay involved as your community sort out their priorities and Begin anew to fulfill the promise of a good education that this nation has always offered its people I'm sure the recent report of the Commission on excellence in education wasn't news to you Many of you come from classrooms where teachers are struggling against mounting odds to maintain order and to teach You and your older brothers and sisters have often seen basic required courses Replaced by electives and homework reduced or ignored and you know that too many of your classmates will graduate from high school Without some of the skills they'll need to realize their fullest potential of citizens They'll enter a world of great opportunity But some of them haven't been taught the things they will need to take advantage of the opportunities that are available Technology has been advancing at a faster rate than ever before in human history All over America even in cities with high unemployment among young people Employers are running page after page of want ads offering good well-paying jobs for people educated in math and science They're also spending Billions to train people to control the sophisticated equipment in modern factories and offices But they need more people with a solid background in reading writing calculating and thinking People practiced in the art of modern learning. I Sometimes wonder what future historians will think looking back on our era We live in a time when rapid startling advances are being made in science when men and women are traveling in space When the secrets of nature are being unlocked in laboratories when electronic computers have revolutionized everything from space travel to home appliances How will posterity reconcile these facts with the clear evidence that too many of our schools are teaching less I Find it puzzling myself and particularly so when we know that during this 20-year period of decline in the quality of education The cost of educating a student in the public schools has doubled and that is in constant dollars not inflated dollars a Major factor in that decline has been the unfortunate side effects of the federal government's efforts to aid the schools The transfer of authority and education from the states and communities of the nation to Washington, D.C. History shows that during the time when America built the greatest system of education the world has ever seen and it is still a great system The work the planning and the money were all supplied by states and local school districts with no federal interference authority to conduct education had been Strictly left to the states schools were run by elected school boards according to requirements set by state governments And they answered directly to the people they served and then about 20 years ago Congress passed the first large-scale aid to the public schools. It's not hard to understand why school systems were struggling desperately to serve the children of the post-World War two baby boom and Millions of affluent taxpayers were leaving the cities for the suburbs state school finance formulas couldn't keep up with the shifts in population But as some of us had warned with federal aid Came federal control the growing demand for reports and detailed applications for all the various categories of aid The federal government eventually offered Over the same period the schools were charged by the federal courts with leading in the correcting of long-standing injustices in our society Racial segregation sex discrimination lack of opportunity for the handicapped Perhaps there was simply too much to do in too little time even for the most dedicated teachers and administrators But there's no question that somewhere along the line many schools Lost sight of their main purpose Giving our students the quality teaching they need and deserve took a backseat to other objectives We're trying to turn that around and with your help we can I'm happy to say that once again Our schools are beginning to focus in on excellence in education. The question is no longer What should schools be doing but how they can prepare students to take an active and rewarding part in the age of high Technology that we've entered Our goal is as clear as it is vital the best possible education for all our citizens And I intend to work with all who share that goal If the record of the past 20 years proves anything it is that money alone is not a solution to the problems in our schools First we must have agreement on goals and plans on how to reach those goals and this process must involve the whole Community particularly the parents and students of the nation I Commend to all of you the report of the Commission on Excellence in Education a Nation at risk is its title. It is clear. It's readable and makes recommendations that every community should consider In its planning to revitalize its schools I'll just mention one of these the recommendation on high school curriculum the Commission recommends for all high school Graduates a foundation in it. What could it calls the five new basics? Four years of English three years of mathematics three years of science three years of social studies and a half a year of computer science And for students planning to attend college it recommends at least two years of foreign language in high school I'd be interested to know how many of you student leaders feel that you will have the equivalent of that background behind you when you go to college Your Well, I see the hands going up great. That's That's great and your work is cut out for you when you go back to your communities I hope you'll do so with a sense that you're part of something very important that is happening in this country America's finally Waking up to a threat to this nation caused by neglect of the most important function of our schools Teaching the skills that people need to succeed in life The problem is clear. It's up to you as leaders to become a part of the solution together Generation to generation from coast to coast we can make American education great again and We're counting on you to help in that. Thank you and God bless you Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead But you can see maybe I didn't learn all that I did learn because I understand now that we're going to have at least a Brief period here of some questions and answers, and I don't know how this is programmed There I understood that they're going to be microphones and Mr. President my name is Tracy Park, and I'm from Sunerville, Iowa My question is you are on record as favoring the abolition of the Department of Education Since the publication of a nation at risk the Educational Commission's report Education appears to be a higher priority with you Does this mean that you have changed your mind about the importance of a Department of Education? No, I Have never favored and did not favor when it was started making a cabinet Agency out of that because once again remember the federal government is only Contributes about 8% of the cost of education the rest comes from local and state governments And I just felt that elevating that department there are legitimate functions that the federal government should fund and Some of those programs were already in existence, but under other departments of the government I felt that this was giving the federal government More importance and enabling it to interfere more with what should be Education controlled at the local and state level there are those in Washington who actually believe that we should change the whole system into a Single federal educational system not recognizing the great diversity of all of our our states So our intention never was to eliminate what government was doing other than Eliminate the unnecessary interference. I think I could sum it up Secretary bell hears in sympathy with this He is the cabinet officer who is working trying to eliminate his own department but not to eliminate some of the necessary federal functions, but I I think I could Sum it up for you and telling you that some of the paperwork that Administrators in your schools know about that have forced on them by the federal government in return for that 8% a lot more paperwork than is forced on them for by the governments that pay the 92 percent and One example was a teacher that realized one day that the form that he kept getting and kept filling out and sending in Asked some of the same questions over and over again that once should have been enough such as what was the size of his classroom So he got curious as to whether anybody in Washington never read those reports So he began filling it out and increasing each time the size of his classroom till he got it up at the size of the Coliseum and No protest from Washington so then he went the other way and he started reducing it down to where his classroom was smaller than a steamer trunk And still no word from Washington and that's when he decided why fill them out no one's reading them but this is the type of Excess bureaucracy that we can do without See the federal government has to learn and we're trying to teach them the federal government has to learn if it ain't broke Don't fix it Mr. President My name is Darren McCullough from Metterley, Louisiana, and my question is besides the opportunities already available Is there going to be an attempt to broaden the availability of federal aid grants and loans for eligible college students? I Think that we I know you're To those of you who may have to help find your way through school. Let me tell you it wasn't all bad one of the better jobs I ever had Eureka College was washing dishes in the girls dormitory Yes, and There is I think a misperception that in some way we have been trimming back on programs of that kind What we found when we got to Washington was that some of those programs as they spread and as Washington tries to help everybody We're actually going to people that didn't have a legitimate excuse to be getting help at their fellow taxpayers expense their incomes were such and this ranged all the way from school lunches subsidized school lunches on up to college loans and what we did was changed the requirements and increase The number of grants and loans and help that was and even school lunches that were available at the bottom of the earning scale Down for the people who had the least ability to afford This kind of help for their children or their young sons and daughters in college And this is still our goal and what we're we're trying to do But there has not been in the sense of actually reducing the help No, it has been a shifting of it from people that were above a certain percentage of income is related to the poverty level Down to those who truly needed the help Mr. President My name is Jerome Ballard. I'm from Capitol Heights, Maryland and my question is You recently appointed several persons to the Civil Rights Commission who do not advocate the use of busing to integrate public schools This along with your administration's lackluster enforcement of civil rights laws passed in 1960s has led many Americans to believe that you are willing to send us back to the toms before the Montgomery bus boycott and Dr. King's March on Washington How would you respond to these critics who say that you're spending more time worrying about the civil rights in El Salvador? Then worry about those people who are being discriminated against here in America I'm glad you asked that question. I hope sometime that some press conferences It'll be asked more often. There is a perception that I have to tell you my own behalf is Totally false about our approach to anything of that kind. I can call to your attention that the idea of forced busing now is one that the polls show that both minority and The majority in America Parents disapprove of they don't believe that while it started with the most worthwhile of of ideas That it is It is not achieved the purpose that it should and that we could find better ways To bring about what we want I am wholeheartedly in favor of integration and was long before there was a term called civil rights back at a time when Well, some of the things that went on it's hard to to believe now That back when I was your age that we lived in a time in which there was such injustice Such discrimination But I fortunately was raised by a mother and father Who believed that the well the only intolerance they had was they were intolerant of intolerance And I was raised to believe something else and when I was a sports announcer in Iowa not too far from Centerville Announcing Major League Baseball, how many of you remember that Within that span of time Major League Baseball No blacks were allowed to play It was in the spaulding guide. It said baseball is a game for Caucasian gentlemen and There were some of us at that time that began campaigning That this was wrong and this was immoral and it should be changed and I am proud to say I was one of those now the I think you mentioned our Appointment to the Civil Rights Commission. Well, one of them and Dr. Abrams Was the lawyer who defended Martin Luther King when he was arrested for the sit-in in a lunch counter in in Atlanta, Georgia a Bunzel who was the head of San Jose State University for eight years has been involved in civil rights activities for 35 years and Was honored by the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco For his work in civil rights in 1974 the We the other member that I have nominated has an equally solid record in that and The young Hispanic woman that I have named as director of the board the executive director She is not only a of a minority community herself But she was the assistant to Albert Shanker the head of the American Federation of teachers union and also participated in Civil rights in education. I think there's been some misinformation About what we're trying to do and what we've done as a matter of fact our Justice Department right now is Engaged in more investigations of suspected discrimination in school districts Then I believe any of the past several Administrations have been and I can only tell you this My own feeling and belief is that wherever in this country any Individual is being denied his or her constitutional rights. It is the Responsibility of the federal government with all the power it possesses to go to the aid of that single individual Mr. President, my name is Christine Thompson and I'm from New Baltimore, Michigan You are in a room with 1400 student leaders as students We hear from many of your contemporaries that America does not have as many heroes and leaders as it once did What is your opinion as to why this has occurred? Who are your heroes and why? heroes you know We seem to be in a kind of a cult and the entertainment world is partly guilty of this as well as other things We seem to be obsessed with wanting to tear down our heroes But you know something we're a country of heroes and the greatest unsung heroes in the world go unnoticed No, they're not out there Manning the parapets or riding to the rescue They're getting up every morning. They're sending you their sons and daughters to school. They're going to work They're contributing to their church and their charities. They're making this society run We have started a thing called the private sector initiative since we've been there This is to turn and find out how many things Can the private sector do that government has increasingly insisted that only it could do I? just left Kentucky and there in Louisville, Kentucky. I was meeting with a group as big or bigger than you Who are the leaders and the students of vocational education and they're there for the vocational skills? Olympics that will take place tomorrow in which they will compete with each other in Their knowledge and they're what they can do with high technology with constructive things with engineering and so forth But Speaking of heroes there was a group of very top chief executives of major corporations in this country They have volunteered and are helping and are furnishing the equipment and the training and they put up seven million dollars to finance these Olympics and all over the country this is going on and The Yes, we have heroes I think the hundred Kids in our Marine Corps stationed in Italy that sent me a letter the other day and said if By them doing without a cost of living pay raise it would help our country in this time of deficits Count on them. They'll do without the pay raise. I think that's kind of Time for one more question. Oh dear one more question All right, mr. President. Hi, my name shall a little and I'm from Spokane, Washington, and my question is Has there been a historical chain of events commensurate to the nuclear arms race of today? Historically has there been a chain of events that is commensurate to this Yes, probably not in the scale of of how quickly potential Devastation could occur as it can with nuclear weapons But I remember back when Franklin down in a Roosevelt was president 1938 Hitler had begun his rise to power in Germany Hitler at a time when still in that Aftermath of all trade all communication across those borders until he joins the rest of the free world in eliminating these weapons and searching for peace Well, he was almost hooded out of public office for having made such a statement because there were There was too much communication and trade going back and forth at the time. You ask yourself Had he succeeded had anyone listened to him? Would there have been world war two and we know the answer to that Now today we have another power in the world That has built the greatest war machine the world has ever seen Fower out numbers anything that we have and it can't be described as just purely for defense Because the Soviet Union's military structure is built for offense we in turn Have we've managed to keep the peace for almost 40 years now since World War two the longest period virtually in in European history and certainly in this century and We've kept it by a deterrent We're not up to them in strength yet, but we maintain a deterrent that says to them if you try it If you try to do this world conquering thing that other dictators have tried in the past The punishment to you will be unacceptable and this is the only purpose of our arms We have a team in Vienna that is negotiating and has been for some time on conventional weapons We have two teams in Geneva one negotiating Hopefully and prayerfully for a Reduction in the strategic nuclear weapons the long-range the missiles that if they push the button would be here in 20 to 30 minutes Exploding all over our land the other one is in Intermediate-range weapons the Soviet Union has about 1300 warheads in intermediate-range weapons posted in Near the NATO front in which in five minutes those could be destroying all the targets in the cities of Europe We have nothing of the kind on our side and our NATO allies have asked us to provide a deterrent force there and We agreed and before the end of this year the deployment will start of this deterrent the Soviet Union is very upset about this but They came to the negotiating table and they are there Now we have offered that why don't we negotiate a total elimination of those intermediate-range weapons They do away with theirs, and we won't send any of ours and there won't be any nuclear weapons in Europe They've said no so we We want an agreement so we've said all right We'll negotiate with you on a reduced level then as far down as you will reduce it But I would like to call your attention also on behalf of our country because a lot of times it doesn't seem as if the reports about our country or what we're doing are What we actually as a nation deserve in 1946 we were the only ones with the weapon the nuclear weapon We could have dominated the world but in 1946 we called a meeting of all the world leaders and Said let us create an international commission To supervise the use of peaceful nuclear power and to totally eliminate all Nuclear weapons and think of it. We had the monopoly then The Soviet Union was the only country that refused to go along and so today We have this arms race which we're trying to stop now They say in their military manuals, and I have read this phrase that a nuclear war is winnable And they've said that it is all right if it furthers the progressive kinds of government and changes that they think should be made Well, we say that a nuclear war is not winnable. It must never be fought It can do nothing but destroy people on both sides, and we're going to keep I'm gonna get out of here. I've stayed here too long, but I'm for all of you But let me just say one thing that I like to say to young people like yourselves No generation in history has ever been treated to as many words as you are You have our communications our media now you You can hear them you can hear and see them you can read them there And they people like me stand up here and talk to you on them. Let me just say one thing I've answered a few questions here with some things that I said were facts and figures Don't let me get away with it Check me out and do that with everyone who tries to bring a message to you. Don't become a sucker generation It isn't insulting or anything. Just make sure always that you're being told the truth Thank you very much


Chapter 9, Political Ideology. Okay, so what is a political ideology? Well, according to your textbook, a political ideology is a belief system that consists of ideas, attitudes, or values about government and politics, and the public policies that are designed to length the values or achieve the goals. So basically, political ideology is what people think about government, what people think government should do. So it's a set of ideas that dictate, that govern how we think about politics, how we think about government, how we vote, right? Because people vote for the person they believe most shares their political ideology. So here in the United States, our two main political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, are based on two competing political ideologies, right? They compete with each other. Republicans and Democrats disagree, and that's because they believe in two very different political ideologies. One is the conservative ideology, which is what Republicans tend to believe in, and the liberal ideology, which is what Democrats tend to believe in. So the Republican Party is basically a conservative party, and the Democratic Party is a liberal party. Now, we need to be careful to know that not all Republicans are very conservative, not all Democrats are very liberal. Some Democrats have conservative beliefs in some areas, some Republicans have more liberal beliefs in some areas. So it's not correct to say that every single Republican is very conservative or every single Democrat is very liberal, but for the most part, as a general rule, the Republican Party is mostly conservative and the Democratic Party is mostly liberal. And I'll get to discussing what that means and what sort of specific beliefs a conservative has and what specific beliefs a liberal has. Okay, for the most part, Republicans believe in limited government and sticking to traditional social and religious based moral principles. So what do I mean by limited government? A government that doesn't do a whole lot, a government that is not very active in people's lives, a government that doesn't tell people what they should be doing. Republicans believe in limited government. Republicans pretty much believe that really the only thing that government should do is protect us from both external threats where that's where the military comes in and from internal threats, internal crime, domestic crime, and that's where you get policing. So for the most part, Republicans believe that is what government should be doing and Republicans also believe that we should be sticking to traditional social and religious based moral principles. So I think it's fair to say that for the most part, Republicans tend to be more religious than Democrats, conservatives tend to be more religious than liberals. So what do we mean by traditional social and religious based moral principles? Well, take for example the issue of gay marriage.   Why? Because they believe in traditional social and religious based moral principles, the traditional social principle that marriage is only between a man and a woman and that principle is based on a religious belief. For the most part, a Judeo-Christian belief, a Jewish and Christian belief that homosexuality is a sin and therefore gay marriage should not be allowed. Democrats, on the other hand, believe in a more activist government. So Democrats don't just believe that the role of government is to keep us safe, but also that the role of government is to achieve fairness in society. Democrats and liberals tend to believe that government has a role to play in eliminating the inequalities that exist in society, especially class-based and race-based inequalities. So racism, for example, is something that liberals think that government should try to eliminate through civil rights laws. And also that class-based economic differences can be addressed and eliminated or at least reduced by government in the form of more social spending, higher taxes on the wealthy in order to provide more funding for government assistance to poor people. And Democrats also believe in the power of government to advance social progress, especially when that social progress is something that aligns with current public opinion. And to explain that a little more, I'll go right back to the example of gay marriage. 30 years ago, even 20 years ago, most of the public did not support gay marriage.  Or even equal rights for gay and lesbians. Today, that's a completely different story. And even five, ten years ago, that really began to change where more and more Americans began to support legalizing gay marriage and more and more Americans believed that gay and lesbians deserve the same equal rights as heterosexual Americans. And so because of that change in public opinion, governments around the country, first state governments around the country began to legalize gay marriage.  Okay, so that in a nutshell is a very clear difference between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, between the Serbs and Liberals, the idea of how active government should be in our lives, in society, and also what role government should play in advancing social progress or keeping us tied to traditional, social, and religious-based moral principles. So what Republicans conservatives tend to believe in and to delve in even deeper into specific policy ideas, specific beliefs about government, Republicans and conservatives tend to believe in free market economic independence from government. And what that means is that the government should not be controlling the economy. The government should really have a hands-off policy on the economy and let the economy, which is made up of mostly private businesses, control themselves. That government should not have high taxes on government, so free market economic independence from government means two things, low taxes and low regulation. Well, why low taxes? Because Republicans believe that when you tax business greatly, what you're doing is you're taking away money from businesses that they could use to reinvigorate their businesses, grow their businesses. And when businesses grow, they hire more people, which gives jobs to more people, which generates more money for the economy. So Republicans and conservatives tend to believe that high taxes prevents businesses from making money, prevents businesses from growing, and it actually hinders economic growth and hinders the well-being of American society, American workers, the American people. And tied to that is the Republican conservative belief in low regulation. What is regulation? Regulation is rules that the government imposes on businesses that forces them to abide by certain rules in order to be able to do business. And regulation often costs businesses money. So for example, several years ago, many state and local governments, including here in New York City, began to require businesses, certain restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, to start publicizing the calorie counts of their food on both the signs in their restaurants and also in some cases on the menus that they give to prospective customers. So the recent New York City's government and other governments around the country began to do this was because of a concern for improving the health of citizens, that if people who went to McDonald's knew just how many calories are in a Big Mac or in large fries, they might think twice about eating that kind of food very often and that would lead to improved health. And even though it would cost business money, governments, local governments argued that in the long run it's actually good to save money because a lot of the people who eat a lot of fast food like that tend to develop bad health outcomes like diabetes, obesity, which leads to heart conditions, heart attacks, things like that, hypertension, high blood pressure, things like that. And so governments argued that what we're doing here is both good for the government in the long run, it will help us save healthcare on the healthcare cross and it's good for people to keep them healthier. But the downside was that it costs businesses money to redo their signage and redo their menus and it actually cost them customers in the fact because people when they were confronted with the calorie counts and the levels of fat and sodium in these foods started to not eat as much fast food and so it hurt the fast food business. And so that is an example of a regulation that changes a lot of things about how businesses are run, how the government gets involved in people's lives, and so on and so forth. Another example is smoking, anti-smoking laws like Mike Bloomberg put into effect when he first became mayor of New York before Mike Bloomberg became mayor, you could smoke in restaurants and bars, now you cannot in New York City. So Republicans tend to believe that the government has no role, the government should not be doing these kinds of things that people should be allowed to make their own choices and be freer from government intrusion and that business should also be free from government intrusion so that they can be as profitable as they can be. So Republicans deserve to believe in free marketing, economic independence from government and they believe in low taxes and low regulation. Republicans also believe in less social spending, social spending on things like welfare, healthcare for the poor, things like that. The Republicans and conservatives tend to disapprove of social spending like on welfare food stamps, for example, unemployment compensation because they argue that what this does is inhibit people from going out and finding jobs that people who are out of work, who are receiving public assistance have an incentive not to go look for work and it's not fair to people who do work hard and Republican conservatives also believe that it costs the government too much money and is one of the reasons why the government is currently in debt. Now Democrats and Liberals totally disagree with that but this is what Republicans deserve to believe and that what you're doing by having so much social spending is that you're disincentivizing people from working hard. Another thing that Republicans and conservatives believe is having a strong military in order to defend the United States from threats and in order to prevent anyone else from trying to become a greater superpower than we are. So Republicans and conservatives tend to believe in strong military spending and many of them argue that the best way to win wars is not to have wars in the first place and the best way to prevent war is to have a strong military so that no other country would dare threaten the United States. So Republicans tend to not favor lots of spending from the government except in the area of military spending. Another thing that Republicans and conservatives believe in is law and order and what I mean by that is the idea of fighting crime through aggressive policing through strong policing. So for example Republicans are very supportive of the idea of stopping frisk the police strategy that has been so controversial here in New York City and other parts of the country because statistics show that most of the people who were stopped by the police were not engaged in criminal activity and most of the people stopped by the police were not white, were either black or Hispanic, black or Latino. And lastly, Republicans and conservatives tend to believe in traditional social values so what that means is that they only believe that heterosexual marriage should be legal, that gay marriage should not be legal although that's changing more and more Republicans and conservatives believe in gay marriage now or at least believe that it should be legal especially since the Supreme Court ruled that it is constitutional. Republicans and conservatives also do not believe that civil rights laws should extend to transgendered persons and a couple of lectures ago when I talked about civil rights I talked about the very recent Supreme Court case where the Supreme Court ruled that civil rights laws do apply to transgendered persons, that transgendered persons may not be legally fired from a job simply because they are transgendered but Republicans do not agree with that. That civil rights laws should not apply to transgendered people. Republicans and conservatives are also anti-abortion they believe that abortion is a sin, that abortion is the murder of human life and Republicans and conservatives believe in maximum freedom for religious institutions what I mean by that they believe that religious institutions because of the First Amendment should not have to fall under the requirements of many of our civil rights laws so for example Republicans and conservatives believe that a Catholic school should be allowed to fire a teacher who is gay or not hire a teacher somebody who applies for a job and is gay whereas in a public government-funded setting like city tech those laws apply so because city tech is a state institution is run by the state of New York as a public college we cannot not hire somebody who applies for a job as a professor simply because that person is gay or transgendered or black or Latino whereas conservatives believe Republicans and conservatives believe that because religious institutions follow their own moral principles their own religious principles that to require them to not abide by them in order to follow civil rights laws would be a violation of the First Amendment even if it means discriminating against people Democrats and liberals tend to believe in an active government regulation of the economy and Democrats believe that regulation is good to some degree because it protects people so for example one of the main types of regulations that the government has on food businesses is safety regulations that are designed to make sure that the food that food companies produce for us to eat is safe for us to eat now there's no doubt that following these regulations costs these food companies money and food companies tend to pass that cost on to us so these regulations make the food we buy a little bit more expensive but Democrats and liberals say that's worth it that's a good trade off because these regulations also ensure that the food we're buying is safe for us to eat Democrats and Republicans say that if we allowed companies to self-regulate like many conservatives and Republicans want them to be able to do then certain food companies might tend to cut corners in order to save money and that might lead to people getting sick from buying food that's not really safe enough to eat Democrats and Republicans tend to believe in more social spending because Democrats and liberals believe that there are serious inequities inequalities in our economy between classes of people between the upper classes and the working and lower classes and so by having more social spending on things like food stamps, housing assistance affordable healthcare that what the government can do is help to alleviate those inequalities and allow people on the poor end of the social scale to be able to live a good life and be safe and secure which Democrats and liberals would say is the role of government not only to keep us safe and alive but to let us live a good life and toward that end Democrats and liberals believe that high military spending should be reallocated to social programs so it's not that Democrats and liberals don't support the military and don't believe that the US should have a military it's just that most Democrats and liberals would believe would say that we don't need to spend as much money as we do on the military that a lot of that money would be better spent helping people by being reallocated to social programs and if we did that more kids would have an equal education because there wouldn't be such a big difference between the quality of schools in rich neighborhoods and the quality of schools in poor neighborhoods there wouldn't be such so many people without healthcare if we allocated more spending to social programs and when it comes to law and order Democrats and liberals favor having a less emphasis on policing prosecution and incarceration meaning putting people in jail and more emphasis on combating the social problems that lead to crime like poverty joblessness lack of educational opportunities so it's not that Democrats and liberals don't want to combat crime it's just that Democrats and liberals have a very different attitude about how to combat crime than do Republicans and conservatives and Democrats and liberals tend to hold progressive social values meaning that we need to change our laws and upgrade our laws especially our civil rights laws in order to meet the changed attitudes of modern day America which includes a more open and more open embrace and more tolerance for all GDBQ persons gay, lesbian, transgendered, bisexual, queer people keeping abortion legal is another thing that Democrats and liberals believe in so Democrats and liberals believe that the government that women have a right to an abortion they believe in Roe v. Wade and what the Supreme Court said about women having a constitutional right to abortion and Democrats and liberals believe in a separation of church and state so Democrats and liberals believe that the First Amendment should be respected that religious people's beliefs should be respected but that the government should not suspend civil rights laws for example and other laws for the benefit of churches and religion that churches should be kept separate from government that the freedom of churches should be kept separate from the laws of government many Americans believe in another type of ideology a third type of ideology called the Libertarian ideology so not everyone in the United States is either Republican or Democrat conservative or liberal some people are Libertarian there are fewer Libertarians than there are conservatives or liberals or Republicans or Democrats but many Americans believe in the Libertarian ideology and Libertarians believe that the government's only role is to protect people from harm so Libertarians believe that government should do very, very little so Libertarians believe in an even more limited idea of government than even conservatives and Republicans do like conservatives Libertarians believe in free marketing and economic independence from government so they also believe in low taxes and low regulation again because they believe that government should not be really doing really much in terms of its effect on people's lives unlike so when it comes to their economic beliefs conservatives tend to be more like Libertarians I mean tend to be more like conservatives and Republicans but when it comes to military and foreign policy they tend to be more like Democrats and liberals because they believe in an isolationist military and foreign policy Libertarians believe that the only role of the military should be to protect us from threats, direct threats they don't believe that the U.S. should be involved in the rest of the world to the extent that we are today and to the extent that many conservatives believe we should be so for example when Donald Trump ran for president he said I'm going to get us out of all these wars I'm going to remove a lot of our troops from around the world and bring them home that's an isolationist idea of not being so engaged in the world because Libertarians believe that one of the reasons why the U.S. gets involved in so many messes around the world is because we are there and so if we're not in other parts of the world if we're not meddling in other parts of the world then we wouldn't need to have such a big military we could focus the militaries on just protecting the American people from foreign invasions but unlike liberals and Democrats and more like conservatives and Republicans Libertarians believe in less social spending and when it comes to social policy the Libertarians believe more like Democrats and liberals do that govern to stay out of people's more religious lives that there should be a separate state but they also believe that government should stay out of people's health choices so for example Libertarians would totally oppose the idea of forcing businesses to put calorie counts on signs and menus Libertarians oppose anti-smoking laws because they say if people want to smoke that's their freedom, that's their liberty and that's where the term Libertarian comes from Libertarians believe that government should allow people to be as free as they can and not meddling in their moral lives or religious lives or even their health choices so Libertarians also oppose Michael Bloomberg for his anti-smoking laws but also when Michael Bloomberg tried to limit the large size of soda somebody could buy at a 7-Eleven or at a movie theater or at a fast food restaurant Libertarians said that's not the government's job to tell people that they can't buy a 64 ounce slurpee if I want to buy a 64 ounce slurpee that's my right as an American and I should be able to do it so when it comes to Libertarians they share some beliefs with conservatives and Democrats and they share some of their ideology with Democrats and liberals so they're a mix of both depending on what the particular issue is many Americans are also socialists believe in socialist ideology socialists believe that the government's main function is to eradicate the social class differences that exist between people so in this respect they're more like Democrats and liberals than they are like Republicans so remember what I said a few minutes ago about how Democrats and liberals believe in high social spending because they believe that the government's use of social spending can help eradicate the differences that exist between the social classes well that's pretty much exactly what socialism is about so in that respect Democrats and liberals have a social ideology very much like socialists socialists believe in a great deal of economic regulation even more economic regulation than Democrats and liberals so even though Democrats and liberals have a lot of similarity with socialists most Democrats and liberals are not actually socialists they have agreements with socialists but they are not exactly socialists because socialists believe in even more economic regulation and even more large amounts of social spending than Democrats and liberals do and a last ideology that I'm going to mention is the anarchist ideology anarchists oppose the very existence of organized government so anarchists are very much extreme in that they don't even believe in government so every other ideology has very defined ideas about what they believe government should be doing and shouldn't be doing anarchists believe that there shouldn't even be government anarchists believe that people would be the most free without government that anarchists believe that people would be happier and freer and ultimately safer without government because people would learn how to live together peacefully and freely now a lot of people I think would probably say that's kind of a naive idea it sounds great but it would probably never be able to happen in our modern world but that is what anarchists believe the idea of no government at all so that is the end of chapter 9 and political ideology I will see you for our next lecture


Hi everyone, Sean with jaspyscasebreaks.com here doing a random number block randomizer for Black Diamond hockey pick your team number nine 17 team random number block including the rangers senators maple leaves Canadian blackhawks Bruins capitals Kings Hurricanes red wings flyers blues predators jets ducks flames and the Panthers Sold out all cards ship Every spot gets a random number in the break from zero through nine for example if you get the number three You'll get all cards for those 17 teams with the three being the first number next to the slash on the left side of the slash If the card is numbered 243 out of 299 1399 9 3 out of 25 43 out of 49 93 out of 99 And so on the number three will get the card zero will get any and all redemptions for the teams The 17 teams including one of one redemptions while the one spot will get any live one-of-ones Here is list of customers from Steve Burch down to Sean Dodie with the last spot mojo and our numbers from zero through nine dice roll to randomize both lists and pair them up a six and a two eight times Eighth and final time on the names from Hank down to Travis Eight times the randomizer eight times the dice now eight times on the numbers eighth and final time from nine down to eight Eight times on the randomizer eight times on the dice So Hank Radecki with nine Greg Dilecki was six Hank Radecki was zero Sean Dodie with four Carolyn Lambie with one and five Hank Radecki was seven Carolyn Lambie with three Steve Burch with two and Travis Dowell with eight Sort this by number So Hank Radecki with the zero spot will get any and all redemptions for the 17 teams in this random Block even known one-of-one redemptions while Carolyn Lambie will get any in-person one-of-ones And there you go. That was the random number block randomizer for upper deck black diamond hockey picker team number nine 17 team random number block Rangers senators Maple Leafs Canadian to Blackhawks Bruins Capitals Kings Hurricanes Red Wings Flyers Blues Predators Jets Ducks Flames and Panthers I'm Sean Jasper's case breaks calm the break itself coming up next. See you guys then