Category Archives: American Character

#NoMoreScorchedEarth

The video above highlights some of Donald Trump’s ways of manipulating people.  He is a very talented con man.  If he were religious, he could give Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker a run for their money.  While the video lays out Trump’s personal talents as a con man, the special sauce for Trump is how he took those talents and applied them to controlling the 24/7 news cycle and manufacturing opinion cascades, using a mass media saturation strategy (information warfare) that the Left originated and controlled for decades.  Trump fixates on perpetuating this image that he’s massively popular (crowd size), so expect him to stage more big rally events to bolster his “popular” image.  He is running the Reality TV Presidency and it’s as phony as he is.

Every time President Trump launches one of his over the top attacks against the “dishonest media”, I’m torn between cheering that he’s taking on the relentless liberal spin cycle and disgust at his destroying the dignity of the Office of the President.

The mainstream media acts as a propaganda front of the Left and Democratic Party.  The mainstream media really did work to legitimize Trump during the GOP primary, to aid in what John Podesta’s leaked email referred to as their Pied Piper strategy.  By late February, early March of 2016, the mainstream media flipped to running the Clinton Scorched Earth 2.0 to take down Trump and help Hillary.  To see how spin works, Twitter is a good place to see American journalists and news organizations in action.  All it takes is a handful of journalists or news organizations colluding with the Dems & Left to create a 24/7 spin cycle, by repeating the same story.  Two of the biggest aggregators of  “fake news” (or at least numerous stories with many factual errors) are the New York Times and the Washington Post.  However, laziness, poor journalistic standards, and liberal hive mentality (groupthink) all play into the 24/7 spin cycle that has allowed the Left’s political messaging to dominate in mainstream media since the early 90s.

The disgusting part of the media collusion with the Left is that the Hollywood crowd jumps in to reinforce the news media spin.  Being no fan of Kellyanne Conway and acknowledging that she has played as big a role in her credibility problems as the mainstream media’s hostile treatment of her, here’s what infuriates about how the media sets out to destroy Trump and his inner-circle.  Conway misspoke about what happened at Bowling Green, KY.  She mentioned a “massacre”.  The media pounced to ridicule Conway with relentless repetition of “no massacre at Bowling Green”.

Conway botched the single best case for thorough vetting.  What really happened is two Al Qaeda bombmakers from Iraq came to the US as refugees and settled in Bowling Green, KY:

In that case, the two Iraqi nationals were indicted on federal terrorism charges accusing them, in part, of providing material support to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The Iraqi nationals were Waad Ramadan Alwan, who was 30 at the time of his indictment in 2011, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, who was then 23.

The FBI launched its investigation into Alwan in 2009, the year he entered the US. He bragged to an FBI source in 2010 about how he’d “f—ked up” US Hummers in Iraq with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and expressed an interest in providing support to terrorists in Iraq. He eventually recruited his friend Hammadi into his scheme to ship money and weapons (including machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Stinger missiles, and C4 plastic explosives) to terrorists in Iraq.

The operation was a sting operation — the FBI’s source convinced Alwan and Hammadi that the money and weapons were actually going to terrorists abroad, but they were not.

Alwan and Hammadi entered the US as refugees. They lied about their terrorism ties.”

And the story continues:

“Alwan was sentenced to 40 years in prison and Hammadi was sentenced to life. Both pleaded guilty to the charges against them.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/bowling-green-massacre-2017-2

This story buries the details starting on the fifth paragraph, devoting the first four to Conway stating a terror attack that never happened.  Even after stating the facts, this story emphasizes that these two Al Qaeda bombmakers weren’t planning attacks in the US, but were plotting to ship weapons and money to Al Qaeda in Iraq, as if to say they were no threat to America.  Hello, their support of Al Qaeda would put US troops in Iraq at risk, but you see what I mean about spinning stories to prop up the Left’s talking points.

Being sick to death of Trump’s theatrics and the media’s total dishonesty and collusion with the Dems & Left, most days I just wonder how far Trump vs. the media will push this never ending scorched earth information warfare, where both sides use any means necessary to discredit the other and where the American people are held captive to this corrupt, demoralizing, destructive Alinkskyite battle.  Of course, Trump and his followers embrace using scorched earth against, not only against the Left, but against any Republicans or conservatives who object to “any means necessary” scorched earth information war.  Ostensibly, once they annihilate the enemy (Leftists and any who dare object to their behavior), America will be made safe for “normal” Americans…  Judging by their tossing out all the rules on public decorum, manners, and leading by example, where Trump lies outrageously and engages in embarrassing name-calling tantrums, it is hard to see how at the end of this “war”,  America will have any reputation or values left to defend, but that isn’t stopping those engaged in scorched earth information war.

If you think I exaggerate the scorched earth information war, here’s a piece by Kurt Schlichter, former Army colonel, Trump Twitter commando and senior editor at Townhall.com;

“The Left is getting massively out-Alinskyed, and the hilarious thing is that this band of withered hippies, unemployable millennial safe-space cases, and unlovable + unshaven libfeminists don’t even know it. Oh, their masters sure know it. Soros is bitterly having to ramp up his infusions of blood money to keep his community-organized “grassroots” movements afloat. The less dumb ones among the lying dinosaur media are panicking as their influence fades, and Chuck Schumer is enduring such a non-stop parade of serial humiliations that if the Senate were a penitentiary, he’d be McConnell’s prison Mitch.

The Leftist mafia godmaleidentifyingparents pulling the strings of the Marxist Muppets know the score – they are losing. And it’s awesome. Because, finally, the Right has taken Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and shoved it up where #TheResistance don’t shine.”

Schlichter continues:

“Alinsky’s Rules are relatively simple, and they make sense when you are fighting a conventional opponent with an interest in maintaining the status quo. The Rules are terrific for dealing with an old-school conservative guy who drives a Buick, enjoys gardening, and doesn’t want any trouble. They aren’t so effective against conservative brawlers who like to punch, and who aren’t too fussy about whether it’s with tweets or with fists.

The Rules are not some magic incantation; they are simply some tactical principles that work in certain kinds of fights against certain kinds of opponents – particularly ones willing to unilaterally disarm in the face of an unprincipled enemy. But once the secret is out, it’s relatively easy to turn them around on an enemy that is so stupid it thinks it’s going to gain widespread acceptance among normal Americans by dressing up as genitalia. That’s why the thirteen classic Alinsky Rules are playing out right now in a way the Left did not expect.”

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/02/13/shoving-alinskys-rules-for-radicals-right-back-in-the-lefts-ugly-face-n2284892

Schlichter then lays out the Alinsky rules for radicals.  One can easily see how people who believe in  “by any means necessary” could fall sway to following a venal, self-absorbed, petty, vindictive, lying bully like Donald Trump, but the cost of falling in with Scorched Earth and Alinsky rules is your conscience and what gets burned to the ground in the process is American values and America’s reputation around the world.

We don’t need to burn America to the ground to save it.

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Filed under American Character, Corrupt Media Collusion, Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics

Speech by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster

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#NeverEndingScorchedEarth

Don’t get suckered into the media’s Russian influence hysteria.  Sure, there was Russian influence in the 2016 election, but the real problem is both parties picked totally corrupt candidates in 2016.  Both candidates ran extremely corrupt scorched earth campaigns, where both political parties overlooked glaring red flags of wholesale public corruption with Hillary Clinton’s home-brew server/ Clinton Foundation pay-to-play and Trump’s King of Crony Capitalism history. :

Two Corrupt Scorched Earth campaigns;

  • Trump relied on BILLIONS of dollars in free media to wage his GOP Insurgency.
  • Hillary relied on media to sit on Trump dirt throughout GOP primary/lob it in general.
  • Media willingly participated in scorched earth campaigns
  • Trump benefited from foreign influence with Wikileaks leaks
  • Hillary benefited from media downplaying her email scandal

Scorched Earth campaigns are dependent on mass media collusion to generate the SPIN. If the mass media didn’t collude with politicians, a politician would have a difficult time waging a scorched earth campaign that could reach enough Americans to impact presidential politics.

Certainly, Congress needs to investigate Russian influence in our elections, but keep in mind they used hacked information that showed corrupt media collusion between the Democrats and the media. President Obama downplayed the Russian cyber threat until Hillary lost the election. Then the Dems latched onto Russian influence as a talking point and Obama finally imposed some long overdue sanctions against Russia.

Improving cyber-security is a national security imperative.  Imposing stringent cyber-safe practices, for all government officials and employees to follow should be defensive measure #1.  This is why Hillary should never have access to classified information again.  The Obama administration, to include President Obama, used private unsecure email to conduct government business (FBI Notes state an Obama gmail, pertaining to government business, was shown to Abedin, who was sure that email had to be classified).  Time for everyone in the federal government to up their game on safer cyber practices.

If you thought the 2016 Presidential election was over, you were wrong.  Trust me, the scorched earth campaigns march on.  Yes, that’s true.  America is now entering a #NeverEndingScorchedEarth political war  between the Dems/Clinton machines vs. President Donald Trump.

On my home page there’s a heading #NeverTrup&NeverHillary, where I chronicled the Scorched Earth campaigns of 2016. I wrote extensively about scorched earth and information warfare.

This media-generated takedown of General Mike Flynn is part of the same 2016 scorched earth.  The Clinton/Dem machines are reigniting the Russian influence hysteria to try and takedown President Trump – that is part and parcel what these latest leaks to the media are all about.  They want to create public support to impeach President Trump.

If all these breathless revelations the media dishes out, that are 99.9% innuendo, with no concrete conclusions of wrongdoing, were such a threat to the national security of America, why haven’t the FBI and intelligence officials been rushing to Congress to apprise them of this crisis?

Answer:  It’s another Dem SPIN scorched earth attack in collusion with the media and not a crisis at all.

The Left wants to take down President Trump by any means necessary.

So, what is the Russian connection to Trump’s campaign, well, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the most concerning connection is Trump and possible financing by Russian mob/oligarchs.  We need to know if President Trump owes money to Russian mobsters.

We need the Clinton Foundation corruption exposed.

Both parties need to do some serious housecleaning, so let’s start with airing the wholesale public corruption on both sides, so we can begin to rebuild an America based on shared American values.

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Filed under American Character, Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Hillary's Email Scandal, Politics, Public Corruption

Sewing that does change lives

Here’s an inspirational story about a young woman in Detroit, who started a non-profit that hires  homeless people to manufacture multi-functional coats.  She designed this coat, which converts into a sleeping bag, for homeless people.

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Nasty Women on the march…

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Thursday evening, February 9, 2017, the 9th Circuit Court upheld the stay on President Trump’s immigration executive order.  Hillary Clinton (or her aides) jumped on Twitter and tweeted  “3-0”.   Kellyanne Conway retweeted Hillary tweet with the comment: “PA, WI, MI.”

Conway won that round in the catty career women, “thems some bitches”, battle. If you scratch beneath the surface, both Hillary and Conway are feminists, who not only live and breathe politics, but both use similar deflections to “stand by their man”, even when that involves shredding every sense of self-respect and dignity.

During impeachment, Hillary and feminists, whose lifeblood was fighting against the evil patriarchy, demeaned themselves propping up President Bill Clinton’s sleazy conduct.  Gloria Steinem’s linguistic contortions, basically giving Bill Clinton a pass, because he groped and stopped when told his advances weren’t welcome, became the political lipstick on a pig, dubbed the “one free grope rule”.

With Donald Trump’s “grabbing them by the pu**y” behavior, Conway and many  other Republicans, even professed Evangelical Christians,  have opted to pretend none of that matters, using the same political reasoning as Gloria Steinem, that amounts to : “the other side excuses even worse and my candidate is doing all these great things”.  The excusing inexcusable personal conduct based on political calculations is not only short-sighted politically, it’s poisoning our national character.

I ordered a book, World Without Men, from amazon a couple weeks ago, which I wanted to read before diving into the feminism issue, but I’m still waiting on the book to include in blog posts on feminism.  The amazon book blurb for World Without Men states:
“2012 Reprint of 1958 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The blurb on the thirty-five cent Ace paperback likens Charles Eric Maine’s 1958 novel “World Without Men” to George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” Ordinarily one would regard such a comparison skeptically. Nevertheless, while not rising to the artistic level of the Orwell and Huxley masterpieces, “World Without Men” merits being rescued from the large catalogue of 1950s paperback throwaways. Maine’s bases his vision of an ideological dystopia not on criticism of socialism or communism per se, nor of technocracy per se, but rather of feminism. Maine saw in the nascent feminism of his day (the immediate postwar period) a dehumanizing and destructive force, tending towards totalitarianism, which had the potential to deform society in radical, unnatural ways. Maine believed that feminism, as he understood it, derived its fundamental premises from hatred of, not respect for, the natural order. He also believed that feminism entailed a rebellion against sexual dimorphism.”

Maine wrote this dystopian novel in 1958, before Betty Friedan’s, The Female Mystique, feminist manifesto was published in 1963.  Assuredly, modern feminism, in whatever “wave”, is not only a rebellion demanding “equality”, but is in fact, a rebellion against sexual dimorphism.  In less than half a century of modern feminism, American society is littered with the carnage, not only of collapsing traditional families, but against human nature itself, as strident totalitarians on the political Left demand acceptance of  their ever-increasing demands that we reject reality and live in their alternative reality, where males and females are not distinct sexes, but an ever fluid mix of “gender identities”.

Sadly, most American women, even “conservative” women buy into much of the feminist social dogma, as more and more women define themselves in terms of their  careers and homemakers as useless, lazy, ignorant, living in bondage to men, clueless idiots.  Growing up in the midst of the sexual revolution/women’s movement,  I read my fair share of feminist literature when I was young.  I rejected most of it before I left my teens.  While I have written several blog posts in the past about feminism, in light of the #Women’s March and this new movement, more will be forthcoming.

The media and liberal pundits are churning out “BIG SCARE” pieces on 1984 in the past few weeks, as flashing warnings about the dangers of President Trump and his “strong-man” tendencies, while the Left is engaging in big street theater efforts and scare pieces in the media, like the 1984 scare.  1984 was about socialism run amok resulting in a frightening totalitarian state, where independent thought is not tolerated.  It was not about a Hitler seizing control.

Trump’s lack of respect or rather, lack of interest might be more accurate, in The Constitution and his infatuation with “tough” talk and being “strong” are worrisome.  However, the Left’s surrender to the far-left extremes in their party, taking to the streets to demand #Resist, a movement to overthrow a duly elected president, by any means possible, worries me more.  These people have no respect for The Constitution, only on using any means necessary to oust Trump.  Rosie O’Donnell and some other celebrities even tweeted about the imposition of marital law to prevent Trump from being sworn in as President and they worked to damage his image and strong-arm any celebrities from participating in his inauguration.  The news media, while touting their journalistic ethics, have far too many top names retweeting news stories and Trump dirt that is false.

Since this new movement, #Resist, has a large female face to it, many women are being sucked into this on feminist terms that Trump is a misogynistic pig and must be stopped.

I was all for impeaching President Clinton for lying under oath and I do believe the other charges in the impeachment, like intimidating witnesses and obstruction of justice, although the House only voted in favor of two out of the 12 charges.  I will support impeachment of Donald Trump if the FBI or some other investigative body produces evidence and/or grounds for impeachment are presented, following the formal legal process

What I don’t believe in is trying to scream loud enough to force actions outside The Constitution.

Too many on the Left, and even many policy “experts”, who should know better, get caught up in the media-generated hysteria machine and abandon constitutional principles reacting to media generated fear-mongering.

All that said, trying to make sense of the foaming at the mouth feminists, who led the #Women’s March reinforced my belief that feminism is an abhorrent ideology and under the guise of  “equal rights for women”, which sounds fair and just, lies dangerous extremists, just as dedicated to destroying western civilization as full-throated communists, marxists, islamists or fascists.  In fact, in the #Women’s March it looks like all of these rabid ideologies merged, where strident American feminists, communists like Angela Davis, and islamofascists like Linda Sarsour, who champions sharia law in America, melded with Hollywood celeb kooks, like Madonna, “thinking about blowing up the White House” or Ashley Judd’s bizarre poetry reading:

All of which brings me to pink pussy hats and the “lady parts” costumes, that were not only “nasty”, vulgar, and tasteless,  but serve as a perfect example of the shallowness of modern feminism.

I am not a feminist.  I am an American citizen and I am a lady.  That’s how I choose to live my life and I think America would be much better, all around, if more women defined themselves by dedicating themselves to civility, treating all people with respect, dedication to their families and communities and most all placing caring for children, the elderly, the disabled and the weakest among us as the highest priority in our lives.

Civil society depends on civil behavior.

Caring for our families, our neighbors, our communities determines if the American dream is even attainable for all Americans.  Screaming, “I am a nasty woman” and marching around in vagina costumes or pink, pussy hats was just more hollow screeching, tasteless, pointless exhibitionism, from brainless bimbos, who are intent on destroying the “evil male patriarchy”, which is code for destroying western civilization.  What they intend to replace it with, I’m not sure, but I do know it’s not The Constitution.  Their every action is dedicated to using street protests and hyping “crowd size” to force politicians to abandon The Constitution and submit to their demands.

Really, there are several youtube videos on how to knit a pussy hat…  I am also a needlewoman and the first thought that struck me seeing the vagina costumes and pink, pussy hats, was how so much energy went into something so pointless.  I thought about how much real, tangible good could have been accomplished if these women put that pink yarn to knitting hats and scarves for needy girls in poor neighborhoods or baby caps.  I thought about what if women who could sew vagina costumes put that effort toward making quilts or stuffed animals for kids with cancer in hospitals or for police to give to children in traumatic situations.

And, here’s a message to screeching feminist harpies everywhere: wearing a vagina costume turns you into a pathetic joke, not a serious person with a serious statement.  Try for some dignity, try for forming some coherent arguments rather than protest signs with ridiculous slogans and most of all try acting like adults.

I will never be a “nasty woman”… my mother taught me manners and I am sorry so many other American mothers are falling down on the job or too busy crafting “vagina costumes”…

Grow up – every neighborhood in America has children and families in crisis.

Do something constructive that matters.

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Filed under American Character, Civility, Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Nasty Women, The Constitution

Definitely on the wrong road

Last week a video posted to social media of a vehicle in U.S. Navy convoy on a Ky interstate, with a Trump flag flying in the back, caused a buzz.   Flying a partisan flag on a U.S. Armed Forces vehicle should cause a ripple of unease, even if those service members meant no harm.  It is against military regulations, but aside from that it speaks to several alarming trends in recent years.

The crazy partisanship in America has reached boiling over point.  Without a doubt there are politicians and big money behind the effort to delegitimize Trump, without a doubt the news media have many opportunities to improve not only accurate reporting, but to address the liberal bias in much of the coverage, their being willing conduits for Dem. talking points, and an opportunity to break the spin cycle.  However, at the end of the day, each American needs to calmly reflect on what he/she believes and where his/her moral compass lies.  The scorched earth campaigns on the Left and Right are escalating, not abating since the November election of President Donald Trump.

Back in October 2016, I wrote a post The GOP’s moral collapse, delving into how many Republican politicians and mouthpieces waffled back and forth, as Trump’s erratic behavior, past bad behavior and totally unacceptable behavior ebbed and flowed.  Many elected Republican officials supported, then withdrew support, then went back to supporting Donald Trump.  Even many of the #NeverTrump pundits, who banded together for the February 2016, National Review, Against Trump, issue explaining in clear language why Trump’s character made him unfit to be president, eventually caved and supported him.  Neither Trump’s behavior nor his character changed, only partisan political calculations changed.   Few people remained resolute in their convictions.  Here’s what I wrote:

“Last week’s video of Trump talking about sexually predatory behavior, a behavior that certainly falls into the category of sexual assault, gave Republican leaders a clear warning, that Trump likely engaged in predatory sexual conduct.  Now, if he actually did grab women by their private parts without their consent, well that is sexual assault – END OF CONVERSATION!  That Republican officials are quibbling over semantics or making all sorts of qualifiers out of political-posturing to prop up Trump, shows the complete collapse of their moral character.  The moral dissonance for Republican officials to denounce, un-endorse, re-endorse Trump speaks to a lack of sound moral principles – sorry that’s the truth.  If you need to couch everything, due to political calculations, you’ve lost you way on moral clarity.

The most absurd pronouncements are those who refuse to endorse Trump, but say they will still vote for him.  Saying you will vote for him is endorsing him.  So many Republicans are exposing their weak characters by this back and forth, endorsing, un-endorsing, re-endorsing sad spectacle.

Trump’s vetting should have occurred during the primary, but the Republican Party failed to vet him at all.  Each bombshell that these Trump leaks detonates should be destroying not just Trump, but the Republican leadership, who failed to properly vet their own candidate.”

https://libertybellediaries.com/2016/10/12/the-gops-moral-collapse/

Yesterday, President Trump continued with his controversial tweeting and then by evening FOX News released a small excerpt of Trump’s pre-Superbowl interview with Bill O’Reilly, where President Trump appears to be equating America’s moral character with Putin’s thugocracy:

“O’Reilly asked Trump whether he “respects” the former KGB agent:

“I do respect him, but I respect a lot of people,” Trump said, “That doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with him.”

Trump said he would appreciate any assistance from Russia in the fight against ISIS terrorists, adding that he would rather get along with the former Cold War-era foe than otherwise.

“But, [Putin] is a killer,” O’Reilly said.

“There are a lot of killers,” Trump responded, “We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?””

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/04/preview-bill-oreilly-donald-trump-super-bowl-interview

Trump’s comment, “What do you think?  Our country’s so innocent?” is a standard Russian “whataboutism” propaganda and Trump using this tact rather than condemn Putin is alarming.  Trump is a con man, so perhaps using that tactic is par for the course  with him.  Trump bends over backwards to not offend Putin, that is how I viewed Trump’s outrageous comment.

Certainly, what else Trump said in this interview matters, but the excerpt, on its face, deserves to be denounced and rejected.  So, here are three top GOP responses this morning:

Vice President Mike Pence:  “Pence on MTP about Trump’s Putin comments: “What you have in President Trump is someone who is not going to look in the rear view mirror” – Brad Jaffy at NBC News

Governor Chris Christie:  “Christie explains President Trump’s comments on respecting Putin: “[Trump] believes leaders of countries deserve respect around the world”- Face the Nation

Senator Ben Sasse: “There is no moral equivalency” between the U.S.—and Putin’s “murderous thugs,” Ben Sasse says of Trump’s comments” – Brad Jaffy at NBC News

Only Senator Sasse speaks with moral clarity.

I decided I would never support Trump back in August 2015, when he had his spat with Megyn Kelly.  He used his celebrity and following as the GOP Insurgent to try to harm Megyn Kelly’s job.  Then I read his book, Trump: How To Get Rich, which I bought at an antique/junk store for a couple of dollars.  Watching Trump’s behavior, listening to Roger Stone’s comments, then reading this book convinced me Donald Trump is an extreme sociopath:

“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.

https://libertybellediaries.com/2015/08/25/trumps-his-own-bimbo-eruption/

The Navy vehicle with a Trump flag disturbed me, by jarring me into thinking about how politicized even our national security services have become.  Retired generals signing letters to support political candidates, rally at national party conventions, become vocal spokespeople on campaigns, all feeds to politicize the military.  President Trump does have support from many service-members, he even has generals on board.  He is the man who said he would order U.S troops to murder ISIS family members to scare ISIS terrorists into submission, yet he was not roundly condemned by Republicans and his big name mouthpieces did damage control glossing over his lawless and immoral strategy, plus constantly pointing out how Hillary was worse.

As with everything about President Trump, his closest supporters will say just about anything to deflect, so with the Left fueling more hysteria and street violence, I worry about Trump’s “strong-man” impulses and overreaction.  I worry about people around him and their motivations to foment chaos.  I worry about what happens when the military and intelligence agencies lose their moral compass as apolitical professionals dedicated to keeping all Americans safe and defending The Constitution.

Are we at the crisis point where we need to worry about 1984?  I hope not.  The past two weeks of constant drama, hysterics and extreme partisan fighting do worry me and the Trump flag on a U.S military vehicle was definitely on the wrong road.  Let’s hope some principled leaders emerge to guide us back to safer middle ground, eschewing the partisan extremes.

Senator Sasse politely, but firmly stood his ground against boarding the Trump train.  He is emerging as a portrait of moral courage and clarity.  Let’s hope more politicians in Washington follow his example

It’s time for America to get off of the extreme partisan highway and make some “extreme” efforts to pull Americans back to being Americans first, last, always.

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Filed under American Character, General Interest, Military, Politics, The Constitution

On-ramp to a dangerous road

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Three more plastic canvas needlepoint tissue box covers I finished.  The one in the middle is the same size as the other two – bad photography perhaps accounts for it looking so much smaller.

In light of the breakneck speed of the partisan and news media spin cycle, I’m slowing down on writing blog posts about each new hysterical headline.  My focus centers on timelines and trying to analyze, not just the little picture immediate headline, but instead trying to discern bigger picture patterns and trends.

Thinking back over the 2016 election, one of the most interesting aspects of the election was not Trump or Hillary or anything they said or did, but to watch people who identified as “principled conservatives” (people who claim to value good personal character as a prerequisite for good leadership) waffle back and forth on whether to support Trump, a man bereft of good character, or even basic manners and civility, for that matter.

I’m going to write this in two blog posts, first from a personal micro-perspective, which is going to be a personal story and then the second post will be a wider perspective.

Discussions about President Trump have fueled angry outbursts in my family, just like many others.  Regular readers already know, that I am a 56 year-old homemaker, at home taking care of my disabled husband, who is a retired Army sergeant major, veteran of Grenada and Desert Storm.  My husband suffers from normal pressure hydrocephalus, an adult onset type of hydrocephalus, which affected his ability to walk and especially impaired his short-term memory.  He also gets confused easily if several people are involved in a conversation and he struggles to keep reading, because if he puts his book down for a while, when he goes back to reading, he can’t remember what he had read previously.  He also gets lost following TV shows and movies on TV, with the commercial breaks interfering with his concentration.  He can remember things that happened years ago, with more clarity than I can, and he often mentions things I had forgotten about, but everyday living for him is filled with frustrations over physical limitations and short-term memory struggles.

My husband doesn’t like politics, but he greatly admired President Reagan, he admired President Bush, and he greatly disliked President Clinton.   Being a career soldier, my husband views presidents based on national security.  President Clinton’s finger-to-the-wind foreign policy upset my husband, but the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 turned my husband into loathing President Clinton, to the point he refused to even watch President Clinton on TV.  My husband admired GWB, believing he is honest and sincere.  With President Obama, the initial apology tour, where President Obama traveled around the world apologizing for America, infuriated my husband and he spent the rest of President Obama’s presidency fuming about everything President Obama said and did.  I also did plenty of fuming about President Obama’s policies, especially his foreign policy.  Likewise, Michelle Obama made a comment about for the first time in her life, she was proud to be an American, which infuriated my husband, so he never wanted to listen to anything she said.

People on the Left react like this too and in fact, most of us form, all or nothing opinions about politicians and political issues.  This tribalism in America, where Americans live in partisan camps, viewing those in another political tribe as “enemies” has escalated to the point, just about everything is hyper-politicized, even children.  I am a recovering Republican-partisan, where I try to catch myself from the endless rationalizing Trump’s bad behavior by pointing out what Hillary or Obama did.

Since my husband’s illness, he spends a lot of time watching TV,  especially FOX News and that is his only news source. There are rabid Leftists, who only watch MSNBC or CNN too, where during the 2016 general election, a full-court press went into aiding the “dump on Trump” scorched earth Clinton campaign effort.

During the GOP primary, my husband complained constantly that he couldn’t wait until the primary was over, so he wouldn’t have to listen to “this loudmouth, jackass”, referring to Donald Trump.  My husband told me he voted for John Kasich in the GOP primary, because Kasich is sensible and talks reasonable.

Along came the general election, with the relentless spin on both sides, but my husband only watches FOX News, so he gradually went from being a John Kasich supporter to now sounding like Sean Hannity some days.  He bought into the “ABC – Anyone But Clinton” line of reasoning, that Trump was the lesser of two evils.  Of course, my husband would insist he isn’t influenced by propaganda, but the truth is we are all influenced by propaganda, just like we all react to advertising.   FOX News is a potent agitation propaganda front for Trump, just like it promoted the Tea Party, which was designed to fracture the GOP.  Steve Bannon, btw, was a big player producing Tea Party propaganda too.

Often, I try to talk to my husband calmly and point out something a Trump propagandist, like Jeanine Pirro or Sean Hannity, is saying is morally bankrupt, but my husband sees the far-Left protests and that reinforces his willingness to listen to the Trump train morally bankrupt propaganda and excusing Trump’s erratic, corrupt behavior.

Trump followers have bought into “don’t take what Trump says literally, but take him seriously”, which serves as a flimsy deflection to manipulate people into not holding Trump accountable for his words.  A president’s word is his bond with the American people, so if his words aren’t literal or not to be taken literally, he can never be pinned down as to what he meant.  This tactic was used by President Bill Clinton in a less overt and way more sophisticated manner.   This is the same as the Trump train sales pitch during the campaign that “Trump doesn’t play by the rules” as a good thing.  Trump and his propagandists keep working to chip away at the moral character of Republicans and conservatives, with morally bankrupt propaganda.  They’ve even recruited leaders in the Christian-right community to assist in spreading this morally bankrupt propaganda.

Many liberal journalists and pundits have run Trump scare pieces on authoritarianism and 1984.  About a week ago, CNN and others in the media reported amazon.com was sold out of copies of 1984.  This announcement followed a week of media hype about 1984.  I checked amazon and they were sold out of the cheapest paperback version, but they had other editions and a kindle format version.   They didn’t report how many copies amazon actually sold, but implied this “concern” about Trump was widespread.  I’m concerned about Trump, but I’m concerned about the Left and Dem/Clinton machines too.

The hyper-partisan propaganda used to fuel anger, hate and to keep Americans raging against fellow Americans should worry every American. Even more alarming is the relentless manipulation of words and situations to create hysteria, anxiety, fear, rage and endless chaos. The 1984 scare tactics are bad enough, but the moves from Clinton spin, to Obama narratives, to Trump “alternative facts”, leaves us in uncharted territory. Confusing the meanings of words is part of the information war both sides waged in the 2016 scorched earth presidential campaigns, but even more alarming is the moral wasteland this campaign has left in its wake.

We’ve gotten on the on-ramp to a dangerous road.

The extreme partisans, driving the Trump train on the right and the street rage/media hysteria on the left, don’t care about ordinary Americans, but only about advancing their political agendas and power. However, when even children are engaged in this extreme partisan flame-throwing, it’s time for adults to restore some civility to the American political order and it all starts with each one of us committing to stopping this extreme, divisive partisan fighting.

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Filed under American Character, General Interest, Politics, The Media

Senator Ben Sasse explains Inauguration Day

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The road to becoming an “information specialist”

Growing up in the 60s & 70s, with America divided over the Vietnam War, the endless partisan one-upmanship between the Left and the Right is all I’ve ever known. For a few moments after 9/11 it seemed like America had united for a common purpose, but it quickly turned into more of the rancorous partisan flame-throwing, blame games, and jockeying for political advantage atop the World Trade Center rubble and thousands of dead victims. Despite the divides in America, I had the privilege to be a part of a unified team – the United States Army.

I became a Cold War warrior in 1979, when I enlisted in the United States Army. That experience reinforced my core values, which already aligned with the Army’s Values, but it also greatly shaped my world view. Reading about foreign policy, foreign intelligence operations, military affairs and being an unrepentant news junkie became life-long habits, but I am not an expert on anything.

My overriding political belief is that every American should diligently protect and defend The Constitution, because the rule of law protects the rights that keep us free. Everyone has to play by the rules, no exceptions.

This blog and everything I write is MY OPINION. I make no claims to being an expert on anything. After my short time in the Army, I devoted my time from 1981 to 1999 to being a homemaker and volunteer in Army communities wherever we lived. While everything I write is my opinion, I do try to cite sources and explain how and why I believe the things that I do. If anything I write is not properly attributed to a source, please tell me and I will edit it immediately.

In 1980, I was assigned to a Pershing missile battalion, as a public affairs specialist. Of course, being 19 yrs. old and having completed a three-month basic journalism course at the Defense Information School, I really wasn’t much of a journalist and knowing next to nothing about the Army, I assuredly wasn’t a “specialist” on anything.

I’ve written plenty about my family, my life and assuredly more about my political opinions than anyone wants to read. However, this post is going to be a another personal story, except this time I’m trekking back to 1980 and some important things I learned serving in a Pershing missile battalion.

My trip from the Defense Information School (DINFOS) at Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN to my Pershing missile battalion in southern West Germany went about like most trips in my life – some bad luck with my baggage. I flew to Philadelphia and was supposed to go from Philadelphia to McGuire Air Force Base and from there to Germany.

When I went to retrieve my bags in Philadelphia, which consisted of a large suitcase and my duffel bag with all my Army uniforms, my suitcase was missing. At the counter I was informed that my suitcase had likely been sent back to Pittsburgh. So, I filled out the necessary paperwork for missing baggage, then found the bus I was supposed to take to McGuire.

At McGuire, my parents were waiting, having driven from the Pocono Mountains in PA to see me off to Germany. My mother was very worried about me flying to Germany by myself, but I kept telling her that I wasn’t alone, I was with soldiers who are all part of my team and besides that a girl, who had become a good friend at DINFOS, was on the same flight as me. I introduced her to my parents.

The Army back then didn’t do direct assignments for lower enlisted soldiers, so at the 21st Replacement in Frankfurt, it was a routine of standing in formations constantly, as names were called out and soldiers given their assignments, processed and sent on their merry way to an Army unit in Germany. I ended up being sent to a Pershing missile battalion.

Being very scared of guns, the bus trip to my unit was hours of reading my information packet over and over, then staring at the big Pershing missile on the front of the packet. All I did was worry about what I had gotten myself into. I joined the Army after refusing to go back to college after my freshman year. My parents were hounding me to death that summer of 1979 and I decided I needed to get a job.

I don’t know why I settled on the Army, but along with receiving a lot of college information in high school, I also had military recruiting brochures. The recruiting information made it sound like travel and interesting jobs, more than signing up to protect America. I called the Army recruiter, who came to our home and I signed my paperwork without even telling my parents. My mother was beside herself, to say the least. During my swearing-in ceremony, in a group of dozens of other enlistees, there was this woman loudly sobbing in the back of the room… that was my mother.

It was very cold when I arrived in southern Germany, in January 1980, with only my duffel bag of military uniforms and no civilian clothes, because my suitcase was still in the States. The battalion had around 1000 men and less than 100 females. The little PX on our kaserne had no women’s clothes, so I bought a couple of pairs of men’s jeans, a couple sweatshirts, and a tan, bomber-style corduroy jacket.

Even though I had bad luck with my luggage and I had worried myself sick on the bus ride, I hit the jackpot on leadership there.

Some people can inspire you for life, even though they’re only in your life a very short time. Many teachers are like this. In the Army there are many outstanding leaders, who can do that too. The Army has two tracts of leadership – commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs), with two distinct military missions. NCOs are the leaders who carry out the day-to-day training and execution of the mission in the military – they are the leaders soldiers rely on for daily guidance. My first sergeant in my battery (field artillery units call their companies – batteries) was a hard-as-nails, 82nd Airborne/Vietnam vet, who had a single focus on being prepared for war. He was also one of the best leaders I have ever met. Despite the gruffness, he took the time to get to know his soldiers. He not only talked to his soldiers – he listened to them. What I liked best was he was willing to listen to questions and patiently answer them.

My first battalion commander also left a lasting impression and was an outstanding leader. He also talked to his soldiers and listened to them. He explained the Army and our mission in terms that made me feel like I was part of a long-tradition of warriors dedicated to the most important mission – national defense. He also often mentioned bits of military history that inspired in me a life-long love of reading military history. In a few months, he inspired me for life – that is a great leader.

I met my husband in that unit too and he was a very good NCO, who taught me one of the most important life lessons: The mind controls the body, the body does not control the mind. He also convinced me that I could conquer fear and win, even when fear had convinced me that I couldn’t do something.

He also inspired in me a belief in diligently reading and studying boring training manuals, regulations, reports, etc. Although my job was ostensibly an “information specialist” and he was an 82nd paratrooper, he taught me that every soldier should become an “information specialist”, in the sense of learning as much about soldiering and how the Army works from top to bottom. He was like a walking encyclopedia of Army knowledge, even as a young sergeant.

He taught me that other people are counting on me to be part of the Army team.

Learning that it’s not about “me”, but about “we” is a lesson all Americans, especially the partisans, should learn.

The word count for this post is well over a 1000 and I didn’t tell the story I intended to, so I’m going to write about that story in another post. That story fits in with being an “information specialist” too.

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Happy New Year!

memorial day

Happy New Year!

At the end of 2015, I wrote about moving my blog in another direction:

“Instead of endless political and foreign policy commentary (402 posts in 2015), I’m going to attempt to move my blog in another direction.  Anyone can be an armchair critic about all that is wrong in American politics and culture, but let’s face the truth, it’s not the politicians’ fault for the state of our culture, our communities or the problems in our own lives.  Despite the hype about the 2016 election, neither political party can fix America.  Only committed citizens can do that.

Assuredly, failed social programs do deserve criticism, but let’s enter the new year facing the truth.  Rebuilding the American team starts at the individual level, in fact, it starts with each of us.  So, with this wide open internet why can’t we start working to share ideas, resources, and most of all inspirations geared toward that mission:  rebuilding the American team.”

https://libertybellediaries.com/2015/12/31/rebuilding-the-american-team/

With a US presidential election in 2016 and so much else happening in the world, I didn’t stick to that goal of writing about inspirations to rebuild the American team as much as I wanted.  Like most of America, I got caught up in the Witch of Chappaqua vs. Drumpzilla endless battles,  but with that national embarrassment of two vile candidates running down-in-the-mud scorched earth campaigns over, it’s time to take a deep breath and refocus on that goal.

And after last year’s Reality TV national embarrassment, it’s time for all Americans to recommit to rebuilding the American team;-)

Wishing everyone a safe, happy, blessed New Year!

 

Sincerely,

Libertybelle

 

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Filed under American Character, Blog Notes, Food for Thought, General Interest