Monthly Archives: August 2015

August 25, 2015 · 9:11 pm

Trump’s his own bimbo eruption

Donald Trump continues to lead in the GOP field and if you didn’t know that, just listen to one of his speeches, where he will remind you of that in every other breath.  He uses his poll numbers as vindication that he is right, but the truth is when it gets down to details – he’s vague, vacillates and frankly hasn’t offered much in the way of concrete proposals that have any real plan behind them.  He will build a Great Wall of Trump, but do we even need a “Great Wall” or do we need modern enhanced border security, faster interdiction of illegals trying to enter the US, enhanced e-verify, an end to sanctuary cities  and a revamped program to keep track of visa-holders?  He has offered no idea of how his mass deportation plan would work or how he would decide how the “good ones” would be determined and be allowed back in, which is nothing more than a tricky and costly word play that is really amnesty. Why not just deport the bad ones and save us the money of mass deportation of the “good ones”, if he’s going to have expedited reentry?  It does not make any sense.

Beyond illegal immigration, Trump’s plan to defeat ISIS ranks as ludicrous – he’s going to circle them and take their oil.  One can only wonder which of his friends he’ll appoint to oversee the Defense Department, because believe me, he knows the “best” people for everything, as he brags.  He’s for affirmative action and universal health care, he’s for taking care of women (whatever that means) and the rest of his platform may unfold as he rambles along, but rest assured the disjointed, angry tirades against anyone who treats him “unfairly” or disagrees with him, should clue people in to his character, but his “fans” love him and sadly many have begun emulating him.  I have watched in amazement as the comment sections on conservative pundits who disagree with Trump have become angry, name-calling, like you’d expect at a WWF match.

Polls don’t make Donald Trump’s policy ideas (vague as they are) right, all they indicate is the conservative base and some of his celebrity fan base have gravitated to his illegal immigration-anti-Washington spiel and his campaign slogan, “make America great again”.

Last week I bought one of Trump’s books, as I mentioned before, and I read it.  Assuredly, Trump offered many interesting insights into, as the book’s title stated, “TRUMP: How to Get Rich”.  The pride he takes in his children comes across and he offers some worthwhile advice on investing and negotiating, but trying to get to the character of who exactly is Donald Trump, well, he’s a man who has chapters in his book like “Be Strategically Dramatic”, “Sometimes You Still Have To Screw Them”, and “Sometimes You Have To Hold a Grudge”, replete with examples from his life and his guiding principles. Here are some quotes (page 138):

“When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can.  Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.”

Be paranoid.  I know this observation doesn’t make any of us sound very good, but let’s face the fact that it’s possible that even your best friend wants to steal your spouse and your money.”

The chapter on holding a grudge is even more interesting, because Trump relates how for years he had donated huge amounts of money to NY governor, Mario Cuomo and when he called Cuomo to ask for a favor from Cuomo’s son, Andrew, who was running the Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Mario Cuomo refused to do the favor (which Trump doesn’t explain in detail other than to say it was an appropriate favor involving attention to a detail). Trump blew up and for any who are confused with Trump’s vendetta against Megyn Kelly on Twitter, calling her a bimbo last night or his refusing to entertain a question by Jorge Ramos from Univision this evening, well, this chapter on holding a grudge (page 142) explains it.  Trump called in a political favor believing it was owed to him, because he donated a lot of money to Mario Cuomo  (crony capitalism is what most people call this greasing of palms).  Here is how Trump describes the phone call:

“I did the only thing that felt right to me.  I began screaming.  “You son of a bitch!  For years I’ve helped you and never asked for a thing, and when I finally need something, and a totally proper thing at that, you aren’t there for me.  You’re no good.  You’re one of the most disloyal people I’ve known and as far as I’m concerned, you can go to hell.”

My screaming was so loud that two or three people came in from adjoining offices and asked who I was screaming at.  I told them it was Mario Cuomo., a total stiff, a lousy governor, and a disloyal former friend.  Now whenever I see Mario at dinner, I refuse to acknowledge him, talk to him, or even look at him.”

When you hear Trump whining about being treated unfairly, here’s what I believe he means: If you agree with him, fawn over him and puff up his ego, that’s treating him fairly.  If you disagree or criticize him, I believe, he will wage an all out campaign to destroy you.  So, I keep wondering how his character will play in the long, arduous rough and tumble of presidential politics, where being ripped apart by opposition research, pundits and reporters only escalates as the campaign wears on.  We’ve got plenty of rounds to go, so it’s certainly not going to be boring.

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Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics

August 25, 2015 · 6:22 pm

You’ve got mail… problems

An alarming trend is emerging from Hillary Clinton’s email scandal, that offers hints that the Obama administration private email use is a problem that pervades the administration.  Claudia Rossett penned an article at PJ Media, “Inspector General Slams Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy’s Embassy as Amateur Hour”, which dissects a State Department IG’s report on the US embassy in Japan. Rossett states:

“The report lists numerous problems of waste and mismanagement, including one that sounds especially intriguing in view of the controversy surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email practices. (Boldface is mine):

 OIG’s Office of Evaluations and Special Projects conducted a review and confirmed that senior embassy staff, including the Ambassador, used personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business. In addition, OIG identified instances where emails labeled Sensitive but Unclassified were sent from, or received by, personal email accounts.”

The email issue extends beyond the State Department’s door, because today the Washington Times reports that the IRS located another personal email account for  Lois Lerner that was used to conduct IRS business: “IRS finds yet another Lois Lerner email account”.

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

August 25, 2015 · 12:34 pm

Ben Carson’s essay: A must read

For some insights into what is wrong in America, please read :

Ben Carson: #BlackLivesMatter misfire in USA Today

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August 25, 2015 · 12:24 pm

I am the Greatest….

For a lighter look at Donald Trump, here’s a National Review piece: “Donald Trump’s Eight Best Lines Ever”, replete with videos.

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Filed under General Interest, Humor, Politics

August 23, 2015 · 12:05 pm

My thoughts on “Making America great again!”

A few months ago, after more than a decade, I left my job working at a big-box store in my Southern small town.  Before working there, I had spent 18 years as a homemaker, until my husband retired from his 24 and a half years in the Army.  We moved frequently and at each Army post, I devoted time to volunteering in my community.  Presently, I am at home caring for my husband, who is a 100% disabled veteran.  I may seek a part-time job at some point, but for now I am unemployed.  Neither my blog nor I are in any way connected with any political group or political party.

The main problem I see, from my small window into America as a whole, is not any particular hot button issue, not even illegal immigration, which Donald Trump blasted into the headline-grabbing menace.  Trump throws out other people as the cause of our problems, when the real problem is our culture as a whole. The truth we don’t recognize is that the politicians, whom the minuscule portion of the electorate that even bothers to vote for, DO accurately represent us.  Yes, they do, they like to promise a lot and deliver very little, but much of America lives the same way.  Trump seized on the “making American great again” slogan, but blaming illegal immigrants or the Chinese for our woes rests as self-delusion.  America, being all of us, have allowed our culture to decline into factionalized herds of ignorant, rude sheep.  I see very little difference between the far-left # movements and Trump, frankly.

The things I observed working in a blue-collar job, humm, let me offer some home truths.  There was an endless turnover of employees at my store (typical of retail and fast-food jobs).  Many of the new hires were young people and most didn’t last 90-days. A frequent lament, “They aren’t paying me enough to do this!”,  began many times within the first week.  In fact, many times, I had new hires say this the very first day of work, prompting me to retort, “You haven’t even done anything yet to earn the pay your are getting!”  So, the things I encountered very often were young people who either could not or would not follow simple instructions.  Many required constant babysitting or they wandered off.  Many expressed how working in our store was beneath them and they were destined for better things.  And the overwhelming problem I observed was ATTENDANCE – some did follow the proper call-out procedures to inform us they weren’t coming to work, but many didn’t even bother to do that.  Another recurring problem was employees calling out from work one day and then expecting to be given more hours later in the week to make up for the hours they missed by calling out – yes, they expected their work schedule to conform to their desires.  This is the reality.

Now, nearby my small town is a large agricultural area, with many Mexican workers (lots are probably illegal immigrants too).  They live isolated out in that rural area and on weekends some of the farms have old school buses painted white, which transport these workers to our store to shop.  Most are men, but there are lots of families too.  I’ve often wondered what their life is like living isolated and not assimilated.

Are these farm workers, who will work for less than minimum wage, really stealing jobs from Americans?  I doubt it, because when I ran the lawn and garden department in my store,  the young employees would high-tail it inside when the temperature was over 100 degrees some days and I found myself working on the patio with an elderly German lady and an older Puerto-Rican man and an old white man, all of  whom complained daily about the lazy young people.  And as a cultural note, for the oh-so-superior American view expressed by so many wailing about Mexicans, the Mexican families I saw here – the children were invariably dressed nicely with the mothers wearing dresses and the little girls in bright-colored dresses too.  I saw hordes of Americans shopping with their kids in pajamas or just a dirty diaper, their hair uncombed, and quite frankly looking like orphans.  Of course, often the parents hadn’t bothered to change out of pajamas or comb their hair either, just slid into flip-flops to slouch along.

It’s easy to blame other ethnic groups for America’s problems, but frankly our major problem is we’ve allowed our culture to decline into a disgusting mess of vulgarity, incivility and volatile factions.  We’ve lost our shared values and dedication to common American principles.  Trump’s brand of vulgarity, touted as being “anti-PC”, offers nothing to emulate or admire.  It is possible to express disagreements thoughtfully and respectfully in the public square, without turning it into a mud-wrestling contest. We need to encourage open debate of issues and herein lies the thing, Trump doesn’t argue his points, he just hurls insults, whines and brags about his poll numbers.   Poll numbers tell us about what people feel, but what we need is for more people to actually THINK and read more, then decide on issues.

The main problem in America is NOT illegal immigration, it’s US (as in we the people) and until we realize that we’ve allowed our culture to decline into herds of angry, ignorant sheep being herded by a host of  political wolves in sheep’s clothing, we remain doomed.  To make America great again we need to find our way back to being an America that believes that each of us is responsible for whether we succeed and whether we fail.  It begins at the dinner-table teaching our children manners, into the local community, where citizens meet and organize to transform their own communities and then it gains momentum in our civic organizations and political structures.  We need to rebuild America from the ground up and quit looking for magical solutions, like his Great Wall of Trump.   What we really need is a Great Awakening of our American spirit!

America was built by the sweat, toil and tears of many immigrants who traveled here, often with little beyond the shirts on their backs.  They invested every fiber of their being into creating a home here in America.  They built America!  They organized and funded local schools to educate their children, they took pride in organizing civic organizations and they believed in the power of the individual to determine his/her own destiny.  We must be  willing to invest every fiber of our being into rebuilding a better, stronger, more vibrant America, one that reflects the hopes and aspirations of those who sacrificed their very lives for our freedom, but first we need to make sure that we know what America means.  Making America great again doesn’t start with Donald Trump – it  starts with each and every one of us!

The Quest For American Leadership In The 21st Century: A Few Home Truths

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Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, Education, Food for Thought, General Interest, Politics

August 22, 2015 · 10:22 pm

Minta handicaps the 2016 GOP field

I already crossed Trump off of my list – I find so much about his bombastic, rambling blather repulsive and disingenuous, that it’s an onerous chore for me to listen to him. Sure, don’t all conservatives long to make America great again! One man spouting on and on about illegal immigration, as if he’s the only GOP candidate to be aware of that problem makes me wonder if he’s been paying attention for the past 30 years. I bought a Trump book this past week at an antique/junk store for $2, because I figured perhaps I am missing something about him. So before I go on too long with a let-me-count-the-reasons-why “I think Trump is a phony!”, I thought it might be more interesting to post another view.  Of course, I am curious why many smart people like him and since Minta sent me an email with her favorable view of Trump, along with her insights on the rest of the GOP field, without further comment, I’ll just post her views:

I’ve been very impressed with Dr. Carson going to Harlem and talking about the real problems in inner city life, and then down to the border to find out the truth of the situation from the people fighting it. Fiorina, even though she has different takes on her business experience—you can’t tell anything by corporate politics—I love the way she answers questions and makes sense.

I’ve been carefully watching Trump’s speeches and interviews, so I can get a good handle on what he is and what he wants, and I think there are some interesting aspects that people aren’t talking about.

The following is not an endorsement or commercial, but an analysis. There is a lot I like about Trump, and a lot that worries me. So, purely as my momentary judgment, here goes:

My guesses about Trump:

He is probably a-political, in the sense of being basically involved with business and dealing with politicians only when he wanted something or wanted to stay in good favor with them. He probably considered himself vaguely as a Democrat, as that is basically the default position in the world in which he maneuvered, not as an ideology.

He called Clinton the day before his announcement as a Republican candidate the way you might call a friend to give him a heads-up—note that Trump has mentioned Juanita Broderick, the emails, etc., and gone after HRC and the corruption.

He sees that America is in crisis, and that everything he’s done might be destroyed in a Detroit-like depression, and that his children’s lives might be spent in a much more tyrannical USA. Despite having a lot of money, if you are living in a country where you can’t be an entrepreneur or speak your mind, and where companies can be nationalized at the whim of a truly corrupt system—which will come if something is not done—you have a life that is not what “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” preaches.

We live in a country that is no longer honored and loved by freedom-loving people, and is laughed at by our enemies. The inner cities are Hellholes, because the Left needs victims. And we are looking at the making of a “Black Spring” being deliberately whipped-up, and the new illegal aliens getting so many privileges and social services adding to the antagonisms in the streets—the next year could be horrible.

Trump is a pragmatic businessman—it’s in his blood. He decided to do something to bring the USA back to where it is what it used to be: Great. He looks around, like he would at a failing business, and he sees where it needs change: economically, in personnel, in corporate divisions, in rules and regulations, in security, etc. These changes are Conservative ideas. So he announces he is a Conservative—and this is the key: the only way America can be re-established as a great country is through Conservative ideas.

So Trump starts talking about the problems we face, and because he is not a politician, he is doing what a businessman would do: he’s proposing solutions, seeking out experts, selecting and rejecting ideas, etc. Unlike a politician, he says a lot of what he believes, and his views are undergoing changes as he learns more. But because he is a pragmatist, and used to creating enterprises, and actually solving problems to get them done, he is set on rebuilding the military to a great power, getting rid of a lot of regulations, re-invigorating the entrepreneurial spirit, re-enforcing capitalism, and dealing with a lot of other obvious problems.

Whatever he believes in his heart-of-hearts, he knows that only a great, free America will insure his and his children’s future, and he is going after it. The most interesting thing about a problem-solver like Trump is that he wants what works and not what sounds or looks good. Even if what works is against something he otherwise wishes.

I believe Trump loves America. His ego and the greatness of America are joined, and he has the ability to get things done in a practical way: he is on a mission, a crusade. It is this joining of ego and the country that is so intriguing. The One, because he loathes America, has joined his ego to destroying our country; Trump, because he identifies with the ideas that make the American Ideal great, wants America to be a rip-roaring, great, powerful, dynamic country again.

Trump will seek out the pragmatic experts who have a track-record of positive, American-type achievement. The key to Trump is that he views the situation as, if he can make America great again—capitalistic, entrepreneur-friendly, militarily dominant, outspoken, the American as the bringer of freedom and the Shining City on the Hill—then his ego will be served.

Is he a clown, who will become more fragmented? Is he a proto-Patton, who will learn quickly and become more focused on workable solutions? I don’t know. There are elements of both in him.

My conclusion:

I’m keeping my options open. All of our candidates will be tested over the next year by events that will absolutely necessitate them being either shattered or tempered by the power of the Left to cause trouble.

So, who knows? The people who are actually taking heavily pragmatic, pro-America stands are Cruz, Carly, Dr. Carson, Trump, and to a lesser, but still powerful extent, Rubio and Jindal. The rest, even Walker lately, damn him!, are mostly political, even where they are or seem Conservative. Trump sounds foolish on a lot of what he says, but then he narrows or broadens those views and it gets more interesting. Unlike the Left, he will not try to do something that can’t be done. His ideas will tighten as he focuses more. What will they become?

How will his outspoken manner affect the other candidates? Already, some words have been reborn.

Right now, because of Trump, issues and ideas and even words are being discussed openly that would never have been spoken about or discussed before. People who ignore politics are becoming interested. I can’t guess where it will go, because the situation has never happened before.

I always listen to the interviews and speeches, etc., of the candidates, so I am curious to see how things change with time.

The Establishment—on both sides—is horrified and antagonistic to the point of almost foaming at the mouth. Their corruption in politics is so entrenched and so dependent upon playing political games while growing their own power and wealth that they view the Trump phenomena with the anger of an aristocracy against an upstart no-one—i.e., a non-politician, a non-intellectual—who has hit them out of nowhere—they NEVER counted on this.

We are in the most dangerous position the world has ever seen, because the enemies of America may choose to strike us because of our obvious weakness, and because we have leaders who are corrupt and hate America, and want to punish everyone who disagrees with them. Will they wait to see if the One keeps his power even through the next election—after all, the time period between the election and the handover of power will give them a striking moment, which they might use if it looks like the “wrong” candidate was elected, etc., etc. There are so many possibilities and windows of opportunity against us, the next year and a half is scarier than any I’ve been through.

The Left will try to deflect, change, or destroy Trump. As long as Trump is The Great American Hope, this is going to be a huge challenge. No matter what, more people will hear more ideas actually spoken about than ever before.

Remember that The One probably has plans to continue in power no matter what.

This is going to be fascinating, as well as scary.

I never expected this kind of campaign.

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August 21, 2015 · 12:38 am

Rick Perry disagrees with Trump on wall

Rick Perry pushes back against building a wall;

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/08/20/perry-continues-to-be-the-anti-trump-building-a-wall-not-the-best-way-to-secure-border-video/

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Filed under General Interest, Politics

August 20, 2015 · 4:28 pm

About the Great Wall of China

With politicians saying that we need something like the Great Wall of China for America, here’s an article, with a quick 2 minute video, covering the Great Wall’s history.  For the record, the Great Wall of China did not prove to be an effective defense against invaders. Here’s the link from history.com:

http://www.history.com/topics/great-wall-of-china

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Filed under General Interest, History

August 19, 2015 · 9:36 pm

The devil is in Trump’s illegal immigration details

I’m an ordinary person and not an expert on anything, so I like to listen to ideas and people who claim to be experts. Donald Trump stirred up a lot of conservatives and other people who are angry about illegal immigration.  The media coverage of illegal aliens, who should have been deported long ago, committing heinous crimes stirs justifiable anger and a demand that our laws be followed and I agree, illegal immigration must be addressed.

Trump’s promise to build a big wall sounds good and if that’s what border patrol officials believe will quell the flow, I can support that wholeheartedly.  I also don’t believe cities should be allowed to defy federal laws and that issue should have been nipped in the bud, instead of allowing one political party to encourage lawlessness.  If federal funds can be withheld to force compliance with popular liberal programs, then the Republicans should have the guts to compel cities to comply with federal immigration laws.

Listening to the experts argue back and forth, it seems that securing the border isn’t the only avenue where illegal immigrants enter our country.  Foreigners who overstay their visas create another problem and that one should be addressed.  And American businesses who hire illegals should be cracked down on too.

The problem with Trump is he throws out overly simplistic ideas that aren’t in the realm of doable.  He said he is going to triple the number of ICE agents, so an agency of 15,00 could jump to 45,000, okay, that sounds fine. 

Where he loses me is he insists that all illegal immigrants are going to be deported and I’m wondering how the logistics of that could possibly work and how much it would cost.  The figure of 11 million illegal immigrants in the US gets tossed around a lot as a ballpark estimate, so how could that many people be rounded up, fed, sheltered and provided emergency medical care, and then processed and transported  back to their home country?  11 million people is about the population of the state of Georgia.  My mind can’t fathom how costly and difficult a process this would be.

Securing the border and eliminating sanctuary cities make sense, but some mass deportation and then some plan to bring back the “good ones” sounds kind of convoluted, imho.  Start enforcing the laws and increase deportations, but how would immigration courts handle hearings and how expensive would it be to pay for lawyers for millions of illegal immigrants, if we went to some mass rounding up and deportations?  Just from watching large movements of people and reading a lot about the refugee situations in areas where war or natural disasters compels mass movement – it’s quite an undertaking to provide basic humanitarian needs to large groups of people.  Has Donald Trump even thought about the complexities and the enormous cost to what he’s proposing?  Can anyone explain to me how this mass deportation effort would work, because I can’t imagine even a 45,000 ICE agency being able to cope with something of that magnitude?

And at the end of the day, when we’re talking about illegal immigrants, we need to keep in mind the cost vs. the benefit.  Frankly, a lot of the “facts” on illegal immigrants bear little resemblance to the truth, because both sides excessively politicize the issue.   Securing the border, coming up with better tracking of those here on visas, ending sanctuary cities – all speak to good steps to follow, but I am lost on how Trump’s mass deportation would work and I suspect he doesn’t even have a clue either.  Illegal immigrants come in all types, and in a perfect world none of them has any right to be here, but I’d be happy if ICE was allowed to deport the drug traffickers and hardened criminals first,  and then once they’ve got a handle on that we could decide on the illegals who are quietly working as housekeepers, agricultural workers, and children. A phased in program sounds more sensible to me.

 

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August 18, 2015 · 4:09 pm

Compromised six ways to Sunday

The UK’s Daily Mail offers better investigative reporting than our American press, so let me post a link to an older story from the Daily Mail, when this story about Hillary’s private email account broke in March of this year:

“Hillary Clinton’s secret email address is revealed as infamous ‘Guccifer’ hack exposed some of her messages and the White House washes its hands of the mess”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2978290/Hillary-Clinton-s-secret-email-address-revealed-infamous-Guccifer-hack-exposed-messages-White-House-washes-hands-mess.html#ixzz3jCJ215kd
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This report contains the information on Sidney Blumenthal’s email being hacked in 2013 by a Romanian hacker named Guccifer. The Daily Mail articles links to a Russia Today article, where they  (being a Russian state-funded news organization) so helpfully published 4 of Blumenthal’s emails to Hillary Clinton. Now, if they accessed Blumethal’s emails to Hillary, it can be assumed they also have Hillary’s emails to Blumenthal.  ALL of this information, not only the emails on Hillary’s server, but all those who used her server will be investigated, as the FBI traces who had access to this classified information found on the emails Hillary turned over to the State Department.  How did it get on her server in the first place, who sent it, and did she relay it to others.  If Blumenthal’s email was hacked, then it stands to reason that foreign intelligence not only targeted Hillary’s email, but also all of her close associates.  This whole email scandal will only escalate in seriousness, because having this private server speaks to a reckless and criminal disregard for handling our nation’s most sensitive information.  She is compromised six ways to Sunday and apparently she is the only one who doesn’t realize it….

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics