53percenter's Blog

As we head into another NFL Season I wanted to share some photos. The young man on the right of this photo bought these tickets to take his Dad to the 2012 playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots. It was Tim Tebow’s last game as a Bronco.

Zach used his pay from being a LCpl ($1,918.86/month) in the USMC to treat me to the game. He left the Marines in 2014 as a Sergeant.

Football was something Zach and I shared. We both loved it. I saw every game he played and we thrilled to talking about the games over the phone while he was in the Marines. I used to send him the stats and articles about the previous week’s games while he was deployed to the Middle East.

The National Anthem/Flag Controversy has cost the NFL me as a fan. I will do everything in my power to dissuade friends, family, anyone from supporting the NFL in any way. I’m sure many of them are nice young men. Many with families who share the same sensibilities that I and my son share.

The NFL players are paid enormous sums of money to do what they do — because it is entertainment and American’s have bought into football as our game. That is no longer the case.

It is the players’ choice to kneel, sit, spit, or exercise their right to object to the flag and National Anthem. Their opinion is their right. My opinion is my right. Decisions have consequences.

I will not support the NFL because they don’t get . Roger Goodell is a fool. The fact that the NFL owners gave him a raise proves their elitist arrogance and that they are as worthy of my derision as their players. Their arrogance, self-importance, and contempt for their brand and for their customers is exemplified by their disrespect for the US Flag and the National Anthem. It is no longer a unifying or even fun event to sit in the stands and support “my team”.

I will not be lectured about my politics by Bob Costas, or any other announcer on ESPN or any other network. The players, owners and announcers need to know that my contempt for them exceeds whatever they may hold for me as Joe Nobody former football fan.

It’s not just the anthem controversy but that is the genesis of my disgust. I no longer trust the game. Let me explain. Following the Anthem protest in last season’s Oakland vs. Washington game in September, 2017 it is alleged that the offensive line of the Raiders, upset at their quarterback’s failure to support their protest, allowed him to be sacked and ultimately injured.

Now, it’s not just the players’ political opinions that separate us, it is their potential lack of integrity that I question as well. Did this player drop the pass because of some other event? Did that player miss the tackle because he wants to send a message? What about that tide turning fumble? I no longer have to worry about it. But, you as a fan, player, coach, owner, sports-writer or announcer do.

In 1919 the Chicago White Sox conspired to throw the World Series. They succeeded and eight players were identified as the conspirators. Major League Baseball had to figure out how to save their brand and the game. The owners brought in Kenesaw Mountain Landis as commissioner, and whatever his faults, he restored the American public’s trust in baseball.

Major League Baseball has no Anthem controversy. In fact, this year’s MLB All Star Game went out of its way to recognize 29 Congressional Medal of Honor Awardees and all other veterans. They honored these men. The stadium announcer introduced each of these men as the true heroes they are. Tears were shed. Players and all in the stands seemed awed and humbled. I know that I was.

I was thrilled to see those true heroes recognized. Roger Goodell and the NFL Owners should take note of baseball’s greatness as the NFL grovels for a decreasing share of a diminishing market.

(These other two photos are of me, 2nd Lt TS Ziegler, in Beirut, Lebanon, October, 1983. LCpl Zach Ziegler leaving San Diego with VMFA 323 in 2013.)

Tim Ziegler is the Co-author with Scott Swett of To Set the Record Straight – – How Swift Boat Veterans, POW’s and the New Media Defeated John Kerry. He is a former Marine Captain, Chef and Spice-Expert who now lives in Broomfield, Colorado with his family.

As we head into another NFL Season I wanted to share some photos. The young man on the right of this photo bought these tickets to take his Dad to the 2012 playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots. It was Tim Tebow’s last game as a Bronco.

Zach used his pay from being a LCpl ($1,918.86/month) in the USMC to treat me to the game. He left the Marines in 2014 as a Sergeant.

Football was something Zach and I shared. We both loved it. I saw every game he played and we thrilled to talking about the games over the phone while he was in the Marines. I used to send him the stats and articles about the previous week’s games while he was deployed to the Middle East.

The National Anthem/Flag Controversy has cost the NFL me as a fan. I will do everything in my power to dissuade friends, family, anyone from supporting the NFL in any way. I’m sure many of them are nice young men. Many with families who share the same sensibilities that I and my son share.

The NFL players are paid enormous sums of money to do what they do — because it is entertainment and American’s have bought into football as our game. That is no longer the case.

It is the players’ choice to kneel, sit, spit, or exercise their right to object to the flag and National Anthem. Their opinion is their right. My opinion is my right. Decisions have consequences.

I will not support the NFL because they don’t get . Roger Goodell is a fool. The fact that the NFL owners gave him a raise proves their elitist arrogance and that they are as worthy of my derision as their players. Their arrogance, self-importance, and contempt for their brand and for their customers is exemplified by their disrespect for the US Flag and the National Anthem. It is no longer a unifying or even fun event to sit in the stands and support “my team”.

I will not be lectured about my politics by Bob Costas, or any other announcer on ESPN or any other network. The players, owners and announcers need to know that my contempt for them exceeds whatever they may hold for me as Joe Nobody former football fan.

It’s not just the anthem controversy but that is the genesis of my disgust. I no longer trust the game. Let me explain. Following the Anthem protest in last season’s Oakland vs. Washington game in September, 2017 it is alleged that the offensive line of the Raiders, upset at their quarterback’s failure to support their protest, allowed him to be sacked and ultimately injured.

Now, it’s not just the players’ political opinions that separate us, it is their potential lack of integrity that I question as well. Did this player drop the pass because of some other event? Did that player miss the tackle because he wants to send a message? What about that tide turning fumble? I no longer have to worry about it. But, you as a fan, player, coach, owner, sports-writer or announcer do.

In 1919 the Chicago White Sox conspired to throw the World Series. They succeeded and eight players were identified as the conspirators. Major League Baseball had to figure out how to save their brand and the game. The owners brought in Kenesaw Mountain Landis as commissioner, and whatever his faults, he restored the American public’s trust in baseball.

Major League Baseball has no Anthem controversy. In fact, this year’s MLB All Star Game went out of its way to recognize 29 Congressional Medal of Honor Awardees and all other veterans. They honored these men. The stadium announcer introduced each of these men as the true heroes they are. Tears were shed. Players and all in the stands seemed awed and humbled. I know that I was.

I was thrilled to see those true heroes recognized. Roger Goodell and the NFL Owners should take note of baseball’s greatness as the NFL grovels for a decreasing share of a diminishing market.

(These other two photos are of me, 2nd Lt TS Ziegler, in Beirut, Lebanon, October, 1983. LCpl Zach Ziegler leaving San Diego with VMFA 323 in 2013.)

Tim Ziegler is the Co-author with Scott Swett of To Set the Record Straight – – How Swift Boat Veterans, POW’s and the New Media Defeated John Kerry. He is a former Marine Captain, Chef and Spice-Expert who now lives in Broomfield, Colorado with his family.

There’s been something of a revolving door going on inside the Trump administration, with various staff members coming and going at a rate at least equal to (if not surpassing) most other modern presidencies. And as with past administrations, those departing the White House need to find new employment. Several of them have followed the paths of their predecessors and taken positions in academia. These include Marc Short, who took a position with the University of Virginia, and Corey Lewandowski, who was named a Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Both of these appointments resulted in protests, particularly by liberal faculty members who didn’t feel that anyone associated with the Trump White House should sully the good name of those institutes of higher learning. But what to do about it? One of Lewandowski’s new colleagues at Harvard has a modest proposal to address this crisis. Dani Rodrik, a Turkish born economist and Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard, penned an op-ed in the Boston Globe suggesting that the academic world needs to stop offering jobs, fellowships or any sort of honors to anyone who was in any way associated with the Trump administration.

Of course, Professor Rodrik takes great pains to assure you that he’s not trying to stifle free speech. Perish the thought! He wants conservative voices, including those from the Trump White House, to be able to speak or show up on campus. A failure to do so would give the appearance of heavy-handed suppression of thought.

The Trump administration confronts universities with a serious dilemma. On one hand, universities must be open to diverse viewpoints, including those that conflict with mainstream opinion or may seem threatening to specific groups. Students and faculty who share Trump’s viewpoint should be free to speak without censorship. Universities must remain for free inquiry and debate. Moreover, schools and institutes of public affairs must offer student and faculty opportunities to engage with the policy makers of the day.

So far, so good. But what is this “dilemma” of which you speak, and how do you propose to address it? Here’s where we get to the meat of Rodrik’s very one-sided demands.(Emphasis added)

On the other hand, there is the danger of normalizing and legitimizing what can only be described as an odious presidency…

Those who serve with him are necessarily tainted by the experience. Trump’s close associates and political appointees are his enablers — regardless of their personal merits and how much they try to disassociate themselves from Trump’s utterances…

The most important principle to uphold is the distinction between hearing someone and honoring someone. Trump’s immediate circle and senior appointees should be welcome for discussion and debate. They should be treated in a civil manner when they show up. But they should not be accorded the degree of respect or deference that their seniority and government positions would normally merit. We do not, after all, have a normal administration that can be served honorably.

This means no honorific titles (fellow, senior fellow), no named lectures, no keynote speeches headlining conferences or events. While individual faculty members and student groups should be free to invite Trump appointees to speak on campus, as a rule such invitations should not be issued by senior university officers.

There you have it. A call from a senior figure from Harvard to establish what can only be honestly described as a blacklist. It doesn’t matter what the person’s individual opinions, qualifications or record may include. Simply having served anywhere in the White House or any of the Cabinet departments under President Trump marks one as being “tainted by the experience” and they should be disqualified from employment or honors in the academic community. For the sin of having answered the call to serve your government, you should henceforth be treated like a black person trying to get a drink from the whites-only water fountain during the early part of the 20th century.

I assume that the professor would include people such as UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has amassed a formidable record of both domestic governance and international diplomacy credentials while frequently contradicting positions taken by the President. Too bad, Ambassador Haley. Having served in this “odious” administration, you should now be barred for life from any form of service in academia.

The sad part is that this proposal will doubtless be taken seriously across much of the higher education spectrum. While perhaps not being publicly or officially adopted, it’s not hard to see this attitude taking hold. It’s discrimination, pure and simple. This is ironically one of the things that the professor accuses Donald Trump and his supporters of demonstrating. We have a serious problem in our nation’s universities and it’s not one that’s going to change without a generational shift in attitude. Perhaps we could start by eliminating the tenure system.

In Taos, New Mexico, investigators executed a search warrant at a training camp where a man was conducting weapon-familiarization sessions with at least 11 children to train them to become school shooters, according to WAGA.

Adding to the disturbing nature of that discovery is the fact that nationally known Muslim women activist Linda Sarsour is not only connected to, but has even heaped praise upon, the father of the man police have arrested and named as the leader of that training camp.

Many may know Sarsour as a Democrat civil activist and leader of the “Women’s March.” She is also a leader of MPower Change, a “Muslim Grassroots Movement,” according to the website.

As seen on social media accounts, Sarsour busies herself advocating for the female Muslim community across the U.S. According to the MPower Change website, she was named one of the top 500 influential Muslims worldwide.

Her social media accounts make it clear that Sarsour is a big fan of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a leader at a mosque in Brooklyn, New York, where Sarsour herself was born.

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Imam Siraj is the man. ~ @imamzaidshakir #taqwa30

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) December 18, 2011

Imam Siraj Wahhaj is Black American and most loved religious leader amongst diverse groups of Muslims. #blackmuslimfuture

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) February 20, 2014

Had a dream last night that I was chillin on my Brooklyn stoops with Imam Siraj, @ImamSuhaibWebb and @DawudWalid. It was awesome.

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) April 8, 2014

Sarsour not only places high esteem on Wahhaj, but also has had the opportunity to share the stage with the religious leader in several different instances.

The Islamic Society of North America posted a video to YouTube that shows Sarsour and the imam participating in one such discussion. A disaster relief organization, Islamic Circle of North America, also held a conference in New York that featured both activists as speakers.

Join Us this weekend in NY for a Family conference hosted by ICNA! Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Linda Sarsour, & http://t.co/2l23vdgNdm

— ICNA Relief USA (@ICNARelief) October 16, 2014

Police first became interested in Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the imam’s son, in December, 2017, when he was accused of picking up his then-3-year-old son from his mother’s home and not returning him. Later that month, he was involved in a car accident involving a “box truck” containing nine passengers, “several weapons and a bullet-proof vest,” WAGA reported.

Police were reluctant to approach the compound where at least some of these individuals were reportedly staying without a special team because of the weapons find, according to court documents cited by WAGA.

However, on Aug. 3, after receiving “electronic messages” from within the compound in Costilla, New Mexico, roughly 150 miles northeast of Albuquerque, authorities executed a search warrant, finding 11 children living in atrocious and unsafe conditions, at least five adults who were taken into custody — and almost no food for any of them to live on.

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“The property is best described as a compound surrounded in part with an earthen berm and old tires stacked up around it, with open trenches and pits, with numerous trip hazards and wood with nails sticking up and broken glass and bottles litter around the grounds — overall this is readily identifiable and hazardous with extremely filthy living conditions which greatly resemble that of what could be considered ‘third world country in nature’ with odorous trash everywhere, no clean water, no electricity, no plumbing/sewer, and children were not clean, without shoes and without proper hygiene, and rags for clothes,” the court documents said.

Authorities did, however, find numerous weapons and a firing range.

Also found at this site were the remains of a child. At the time, the remains could not be identified because they were so decomposed. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the son of Imam Siraj Wahhaj, was arrested and identified as the training camp’s leader.

Later, Imam Siraj Wahhaj was able to confirm that the remains of the child were his 3-year-old grandson’s. As the story continued to unfold, the elder Wahhaj’s Brooklyn mosque claimed the report was “fake news.”

In addition to all of this, according to Breitbart, the imam was an alleged “unindicted co-conspirator” of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

After the younger Wahhaj was arrested, Sarsour shared a statement from the Muslim Anti-Racisim Collaborative decrying the “sensationalist and Islamophobic news coverage of the arrest of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the son of our beloved Imam Siraj Wahhaj.”

“There are children at the center of this story and that’s where the focus should be,” Sarsour wrote in the post.

Sarsour, rather than distance herself from what authorities called a compound filled with “extremists of the Islamic faith,” has instead chosen to confirm her alliance with an alleged conspirator involved in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 who also happens to be the father of the man accused of running a training center for future school shooters.

Of course, the imam has apparently suffered the loss of his young grandson, and we should honor that grief — we should, in fact, weep with those who weep, as we have been commanded to do.

But we cannot allow that weeping to blind our eyes to the danger of radical Islam to the most vulnerable people in our nation — our schoolchildren.

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When even Lindsay Graham sees it…

Via Fox News Insider:

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said he is sending a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking for an explanation of DOJ policy after news of a troubling incident five years ago involving a top Democratic senator and a suspected Chinese spy.

At the time, the FBI informed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that a man employed by her office was suspected of being a spy for the Chinese government. Feinstein took action and fired the man.

Graham said President Donald Trump was not afforded the same courtesy during a similar counter-intelligence investigation by the FBI into Russian election hacking.

Keep reading…