Here are just a few things on my mind:
A Chinese insurance company trying to buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts
A Chinese group buying the Chicago Stock Exchange
Chinese buying US companies at record rate
Strange bio notes – pay attention to #1
The strange Soros vs. Murdoch endless agitation propaganda that is tearing America apart.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, Politics
As a child, I was scared of my own shadow and a total wimp. The only thing that made me so angry that I would charge ahead, without a second thought, was a bully picking on weaker people. To this day, I’m pretty much the same way. In most things, I back away from a fight and turn the other cheek, but bullies make me see red. Something about a con man exploiting a lot of innocent people makes me want to do battle and there you have why I argue so determinedly to expose the con man, Trump, but back in 2013, I was noticing another con man, Glenn Beck. Although I wanted to believe his patriotic spiel, a lot of red flags popped up, so I’m going to repost a piece I wrote about a Glenn Beck show, where he was giving credibility to an obvious con man, yet the audience, angry at Obama and the Washington pols, were buying into this fraud. Trump with his “great wall” reminds me of the deluxe version of this Beck, con man, selling a fortress community in Idaho called “The Citadel.” So, here’s my June 22, 2013 – “Sweet land of liberty….. (or land of the gullible)?”:
Glenn Beck had guests on his show who talked about a new gated community they’re putting together called The Citadel. Through a careful, highly selective application process they hope to find people united by their belief in patriotism, liberty, pride in American exceptionalism and preparedness. This community will require everyone to be self-supporting and these organizers, about as efficiently as the central planners in the old USSR, decided to start a firearms manufacturing factory as a means for the first wave of it’s “pioneers” to support themselves. Guess, they miss the humor in a community touting “liberty” as it’s keystone, building a community with central planners setting up all the rules to become part of the neighborhood, to include what you must believe.
So far, this new community exists only on a webpage and the developers don’t even own the real land to build this oasis of liberty. Not to worry about this being a ponzi scheme, they assure you this beacon of liberty will be located somewhere in Idaho, where they’ve thus far acquired land for the weapons factory. Don’t worry that one of the developers has a criminal record for extortion, which he explained away as his being naive about speaking out. Not to worry that if you fill out the application (with it’s $33 application fee) and if you make it through the Skype interview as a worthy new neighbor for the Citadel community, you must begin paying $50 per month to help secure enough money for these developers to actually buy real property to build this proposed community.
What would living be, where liberty reigns supreme, without the central planners specifying, “All homes will be built of poured concrete for exceptional strength and durability” (even the Three Little Pigs had more freedom). Rest assured, you will be free to build your home to whatever specifications you choose. You’ve also got to be part of the community militia and own a firearm to be able to defend the community. So, you’ll be providing business for the community factory, as well as the work force for it.
I’m going to talk about neighbors and the neighborhood I love best, being part of the United States Army neighborhood. We, as all Army families do, moved frequently and lived overseas as well as all over the US. From my very first days around the Army decades ago, one of the most amazing opportunities to me was to actually be able to meet people, up close and personal, from all over the United States. Due to the traveling and also soldiers’ propensity to marry women in far-flung locales, I even met many people from all over the globe. My husband retired from the Army more than a decade ago and we live in a typical southern town next to a large US Army installation with a population like an international smorgasbord. Just a few days ago, my primary care doctor, who is Syrian, was talking about the situation in Syria and he pulled out his cell phone to show me pictures of his parents home, where the next-door neighbor’s house had recently been bombed. His parents are here living with him, so thankfully they are safe.
From a post I wrote in January titled, “Multiculturism My Way”, you can glean that I consider the world “my neighborhood” too and even growing up in the backwoods of rural PA, I longed to meet people from all over the world. Luck definitely lit my way in life, because it’s been a privilege to have a retired solider hand me a slip of paper that opened the door to first meeting people all over the globe and then to spend decades as part of the US Army neighborhood, where patriotism shines bright. It’s been an opportunity to meet wonderful neighbors and hopefully to be a good neighbor too. So, I want to talk about my neighborhood, where all the values this proposed phony Citadel scheme purports to value is part of the very fabric of the US Army community.
Soldiers believe in a strong national defense, almost down to the last man and woman. Soldiers believe in patriotism too and a cloak of values shields our neighborhood: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service , honor, integrity, personal courage (Army values here) As the standard-bearers of General George Washington’s army, we certainly take very seriously the trust invested in us to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States. Unlike these, hummm, I’m searching for a word that isn’t a cuss word, because ‘jackasses” came to mind. Here, I’ll settle on calling them deluded people, unlike them, the Army community is strong enough to welcome people from all over the US and the world and still be a place where our values flourish. In basic training at Fort Dix, NJ, I learned about how a foreigner seeking citizenship, could acquire it by serving in the US Army. So, we’re strong enough to welcome diverse people into our ranks and still stay true to our values.
I had all kinds of neighbors living in the barracks as a young private and once I married we found wonderful neighbors everywhere we lived – on Army posts, in German villages and in civilian communities in America. I’ve managed to make friends and learn a heck of a lot by embracing people who are different than me. I’ve learned to make some darned good egg rolls from an Army wife from Thailand, who came to my home and spent the afternoon showing me. I’ve acquired recipes galore and much more. I had an Army wife from Korea (who married a Cuban guy) show me how to make sushi (yes, I know Japanese, right) in her kitchen. She was trying to learn how to make Cuban dishes. I learned to prepare many German dishes from numerous German friends. I had a Cuban neighbor in one neighborhood, who loved to cook and she was constantly bringing food to me and telling me, “here try this, you’ll love it!” and I did. That Cuban lady was friends with my next-door neighbor who was Puerto-Rican, so I often got a combination of foods to try. When my oldest daughter was in kindergarten, I met a Lebanese neighbor down the street and she asked me to bring my kids down to her house to play with her son, who was my daughter’s classmate. We became friends and I learned about Lebanese food, because this family ran a Lebanese restaurant. Lebanese food ranks as some of the best food in the world.
In my food from around the world saga, I can’t leave out this wonderful Southern lady, who was married to a retired Special Forces soldier, who lived down the street from me when we lived off-post at Fort Bragg. This wonderful lady and her husband had adopted two special needs children and this lady struck up a friendship with me, because her little daughter was the same age as my oldest daughter. This lady taught me about Southern cooking and boy, she loved to cook. She often would call in the morning and tell me to bring my daughter down to her house and she’d list the lunch menu and many times she’d say, “come early and we can chat and I’ll show you how to cook”….- fill-in-the-blank with a Southern dish.
Now, some of my forays into international cooking do go awry and I provided a good laugh for my youngest daughter’s friend several years ago when she was in my kitchen watching me roll up burritos. This neighbor has a Mexican mother and she had this dismayed look on her face and said, “What are you doing!” She told me how to properly roll up burritos and I am sure her mother got a good laugh out of her story about my pathetic burrito-rolling skills, but hey, this girl loves my potato salad, so we all have our strong suits:-)
I must confess that my favorite cuisine is authentic Chinese. Unfortunately, I never met a Chinese woman to come teach me how to cook Chinese food. I do have a friend who is half-Japanese who offered lots of advice on Japanese cooking, but I’ve been winging it on Chinese cooking with cookbooks and experimenting over the years. When I did volunteer work at the American Red Cross doing Red Cross messages, a lovely Puerto-Rican friend frequently brought in food. I learned that the Caribbean is sort of an international mishmash of cultures and thus I still use this handwritten recipe from this friend called , “Puertorican Chinese Arroz”, where she helpfully put “rice” in parentheses.
What’s magical about Chinese cuisine, as well as their culture, is how they take what little they have and through a long, long history, as one of the oldest cultures on earth, developed ways to adjust and thrive, through good times and bad. Chinese people demonstrate amazing resilience. Their cooking encapsulates this, how with a few varied cooking techniques or a few spices, they can take a few simple ingredients and turn it into something unique and flavorful. The Chinese spirit to adapt and persevere always amazes me. Of course, they offer Sun Tzu too, which I just love- all that ancient wisdom on military strategy that still resonates today;-)
This is a true story about a neighbor I had one time – a lovely, good neighbor with a very kind heart and the kind of trusting soul – like the type of people who will start sending money to some schemers like these Citadel planners (yes, this liberty-based community is a “scheme” – it exists only on their webpage). We were living in military quarters in Germany at the time and my neighbor (a lovely German lady) was preparing to move back to the States with her soldier husband. My neighbor had an extensive David Winter cottage collection, which she decided to sell. She sold them to a soldier who didn’t have the money up front, so she accepted a stack of postdated checks, which she agreed to deposit each month and he assured her that he would have money in this checking account to cover them. I urged her to hold on to her collection until she found a buyer with cash in hand.
That same neighbor was planning to buy some lovely lakefront property in the US, dirt cheap and sight unseen, but she needed to send money fast before someone else snatched up this almost too good to be true deal. I forget where she heard about this property, but I begged her to hold on to her money until she got back to the US and could actually walk around this property and see what she was buying. When I thought her naive trust had reached its limit, she told me about this puppy her dog had. Her close friend down the street headed back to the States and my neighbor said her friend was going to send money to her to fly that puppy back to the States as soon as they were settled at their next duty station. The friend had said she wanted the puppy, but then had endless excuses why she couldn’t take the puppy with them. I gently tried to tell my neighbor that if her friend had really wanted that puppy, she would have taken it with them when they left. Naturally, my neighbor was stuck keeping that puppy.
My neighbor would help anyone and she had a wonderful sense of humor. She was the type of neighbor I loved having and you know I couldn’t tell you exactly what her politics were, nor did I ever think about her patriotism. What I did value was that if I needed a helping hand or help in an emergency, I knew she would do whatever she could to help me. I judged her on her character and she had a sterling character, albeit a bit too trusting of a soul. It might be better to teach your kids to respect and value people with differing views rather than enclosing your family behind a fortress to shield them from people with different views.
Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, General Interest, Military
Here are a few more links about that “American spirit”:
“My Bondage and My Freedom” – one of the finest autobiographies in American history, as Frederick Douglass describes his journey from slave to a free man in America
Looking Back at Lewis and Clark – an essay by David M. Lenard, published at The American Thinker, September 2, 2012
The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition -By the University of Nebraska, where the intro states, “This website makes available the text of the celebrated Nebraska edition of the Lewis and Clark journals, edited by Gary E. Moulton. Moulton’s edition — the most accurate and inclusive edition ever published — is one of the major scholarly achievements of the late twentieth century.”
Survival: The Mind-set – a LB post from December 26, 2012
Self-help projects: an American tradition – a LB post I wrote January 3, 2016
To mark my first year of U.S. citizenship, I read Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America.” Turns out, it explains everything” – a Washington Post article by Carlos Lozada, December 20, 2015
Democracy in America – Alexis deTocqueville, classic on what being American is all about, the Lozada article above contain a link to amazon.com to purchase a copy, but save yourself the money, because you can find Vol 1 and Vol 2 free at gutenberg.org. Here’s another pointer, as a frequent amazon.com shopper, scroll through the entire listing for old books – often a free version is way down the list;-)
On December 16, 2012, I entered the world of blogging online and posted my first liberybelle diaries post. It sure seems like an eternity ago, so I am going to repost some LB oldies in coming days, to give new readers an idea of who I am and what I believe. I’ve used some material from others at times, with their permission to print in its entirety, so Gladius Maximus’ wonderful essay, “Gimme A Knife” sure hearkens to that American spirit Ian Tuttle touched upon. Gladius is a Texan, a former US Army officer and a state judge. He is also my son-in-law’s uncle and he performed my daughter and son-in-law’s marriage ceremony one fine Spring day in 2008. The bluebonnets were blooming all along the country road heading to the small country church in Texas, putting kind thoughts about Ladybird Johnson and her “beautify America” campaign into my mind that morning , lol. Surely, that was a miracle of sorts for conservative ol’ me.
Without further ado, from December 22, 2012, here is Gladius Maximus:
Last Sunday the Pastor posed the question of what we would consider to be necessities in today’s life. He gave some statistics from an earlier, time, maybe 50 or so years ago, wherein there were only about 19 things listed whereas in the current time were listed about 98 items. I’m not sure of the exact numbers, but those are close. Wow, 98 items considered necessities for an American.
Well, me being me, when he said “necessities” I immediately began thinking of survival, as opposed to microwave ovens and hand-held devices. The first item on my list was a good knife as I figured with a good knife I could either build or kill my way into most everything else. With some effort, after reaching only about five essential items on my list, I quit the inventory and got back to the sermon. Since then, though, I’ve had a chance to reflect on that question and the meaning of it to our society.
It came to me that our inability as Americans to survive in meager circumstances, or put another way, our dependence on technology, gadgets and the government, is evidence of the decay of character in our society. By that, I mean, our inability to be independent, innovative and willing to put up with hardship reflects how truly weak we have become. Our lack of perseverance in the face of adversity is evidence of our impotence. Unless we are surrounded by what many in the world would consider sumptuousness, we don’t believe we can make it.
If we don’t get our water out of a tap from a government approved water system, where will we get it? If we don’t get our protein from the local mega-store, sliced, diced, shrink-wrapped and priced, how do we get it and process it? If the burners on the range don’t work, or if we at least can’t get charcoal for the grill, how do we cook it? Need vegetables? How do they grow? Where do we get seed? When our shoes wear out, what do we do? When it’s cold outside, how do we stay warm?
I understand that folks growing up in the cities don’t have some of the outdoor opportunities that some of us have, but I am convinced that there are opportunities to develop individuality, independence, self-confidence and other survival skills without having to spend a year in the Rockies on some kind of sabbatical. Survival is more a mind-set than a setting. Attitude is everything.
Being innovative and imaginative is essential whether you’re in downtown Houston or central Nebraska. Skills of observation and patience are not natural talents, but acquired skills; both are essential and both can be acquired through discipline. The ability to reason and employ a rational, decision making process is needed in order to survive and thrive. Again, that is an acquired skill. Determination, grit if you will, is a trait to be cherished, not erased.
Why do I address this idea of necessities and survival in this column? What, you may ask, does that have to do with Taking Back America?
Our nation was founded by independent free-thinkers who were able to craft in their collective imaginations the essence of liberty. That imagination did not come from a dependence on the Crown of England to provide for their every need, but a willingness to be innovative; a willingness to persevere in the face of scarcity; a willingness to survive. The lack of that spirit is at the heart of the troubles we now face in America.
Health care issues; let the government fix them. Poor education in our schools, the government will fix it. Lack of discipline in the schools, we will regulate that by the government, too. Economy is weak; the government will provide for us. Coffee too hot at McDonald’s, let’s file a lawsuit. Offended by someone’s callous comments, get legislation to make that a hate crime. Don’t want to pray in public, make sure nobody else can either through lawsuits and legislation. Too lazy to work, go on welfare. Too lazy to get job training, get welfare. Want to make the stupid decision to quit school; that’s ok, there’s welfare for that, too. Have babies out of wedlock because of dumb decisions; that’s ok, we will give you money, medical care, food stamps and tell you it is a personal decision (even though tax money from productive citizens supports your dumb choices).
Whatever the problems we may face, the government will take care of us; cradle to grave. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem.
We have lost our independent spirit. We have lost the ability to innovate. We have lost the desire to stand on our own. We no longer want to be self-sufficient. We no longer teach our children what discipline is and why it is important. In short, we have become a nation of parasites.
Fortunately, not all of us are parasites as there are still enough productive tax payers out there to support the rest who are, but the numbers are dwindling. The decisions being made in congress will continue the crippling of our society until finally, the parasites will be the majority. And, when the parasites are the majority, we will be finished.
As for me, though, I’ll take a good knife.
Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, General Interest, Gladius Maximus
“Hitch your wagon to a star” – Emerson
I’m backkk, lol. Lately, I’ve been spending a good bit of time reading the articles at National Review Online as The Trump Divide within the GOP deepens and hardens. So many of the writers there keep making the compelling case for why Donald Trump should NEVER be the GOP candidate, but along with those arguments, some of their writers went beyond that to highlight what America is and isn’t.
Kevin Williamson penned an excellent piece today, “What John Adams Knew,” highlighting that America is a republic, not a democracy:
“John Adams hated democracy and he feared what was known in the language of the time as “passion.” Adams’s famous assessment: “I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either.” Democracy, he wrote, “never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432941/donald-trump-populist-demagogue-john-adams-anticipated
Regular LB readers will be familiar with my republic vs. democracy concern too, which I expressed in a January blog post, “On America’s side”:
“A couple weeks ago my 10 year old granddaughter, a very bright student enrolled in the gifted program at her public school, mentioned something she learned at school, which I told her is not correct and what she learned really plays into the problems plaguing America and it also speaks to our future. My granddaughter said, “America is a democracy.” Reflexively, I corrected her and said, “No, America is a republic!” Thus began a stream of back and forth, because as of yesterday she told me that her teacher still says, “America is a democracy.” I told her again that her teacher is mistaken, because assuredly, America is a republic, set up as a constitutional federal republic. However, watching the demise of federalism and the reliance on pop culture and public opinion polls to silence dissenting opinion, I’m wondering if America has descended into that hellish, brutish state where on the whims of ginning up anger and use of slick mass media manipulation (propaganda) to sway the mob, the only thing that matters is the “majority rules”.”
Kevin D. Williamson has been joined in expanding on what “America” is, with an excellent post by Ian Tuttle, “Go-Getters, Gone?” Tuttle showcases the American spirit through the words of a pioneer woman, Lodisa Frizzell, making the journey from Illinois to California in 1852:
“That this journey is tiresome, no one will doubt, that it is perilous, the deaths of many testify, and the heart has a thousand missgivings, & the mind is tortured with anxiety, & often as I passed the fresh made graves, I have glanced at the side boards of the waggon, not knowing how soon it might serve as a coffin for some one of us.”
Mr. Tuttle’s piece carries a Marco Rubio quote that really deserves wide-reading, because “Little Marco,” as the vile Donald Trump (you know the vulgar jerk, whom Rudy Giuliani last night on Hannity described as “gentlemanly), explained this American spirit so eloquently, that I apologize for using so much of Mr. Tuttle’s article here, but I’m still going to post Marco Rubio’s words and at the same time urge you to go to NRO and read Tuttle’s wonderful piece:
“We are a hopeful people, and we have every right to be hopeful. For we in this nation are the descendants of go-getters. In our veins runs the blood of people who gave it all up so we would have the chances they never did. We are all the descendants of someone who made our future the purpose of their lives. We are the descendants of pilgrims. We are the descendants of settlers. We are the descendants of men and women that headed westward in the Great Plains not knowing what awaited them. We are the descendants of slaves who overcame that horrible institution to stake their claim in the American Dream. We are the descendants of immigrants and exiles who knew and believed that they were destined for more, and that there was only one place on earth where that was possible.”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432928/americas-pioneer-spirit-dead-gone
Amen, Mr. Tuttle and thank-you Senator Marco Rubio for once again trying to hitch America’s wagon to a star.
With too much going on in the news to keep adequate track of, I’m waiting to filter it into a coherent blog post. So, with all the anger and hate swirling, until I have something original composed, here’s a repost of an old LB blog post from May 15, 2015:
Finally, here is a post on factions, that’s so simple even a 5 year-old can understand the problem. Adults might get stuck in their rigid ideological beliefs. All beliefs are not morally equal – some when carried to extremes have horrific consequences for millions of innocent people, while others can do remarkable good for the entire world. That is the TRUTH.
Let’s say you believe very strongly that a color is aquamarine and I believe equally as strongly that that color is turquoise. Being that we both believe a different thing, many avenues are there for us to choose. We could argue and get so angry that we end up hating each other and never speak to each other again. I could feel so strongly about my belief that I kill you. We might even kill each other fighting over who is right. I could even decide that it’s not enough to just kill you, but because you’ve convinced your whole town that the color is aquamarine, it’s necessary to kill all of them too.
Of course, on the less extreme side we might agree to consult an outside expert on color to settle the matter, perhaps, we could call the Crayola Company, after all they’ve been naming colors since 1885 in Easton, PA, near where I grew up.
We might argue, passionately and often, clinging to our beliefs (as President Obama accused those rural people in PA), but in the American tradition, we could agree to disagree and at some point, shake hands and say, “Let’s go have pizza!” Presented to most 5 year-olds, the vast majority will agree that it’s stupid to kill other people just because we disagree, on the other hand most adults refuse to even listen to differing opinions. Maya Angleou, renowned poet, expressed it exactly right:
“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.” –
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/26244-hate-it-has-caused-a-lot-of-problems-in-the
So, in America, being a country forged together by a people committed to INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM, we have The Declaration of Independence to ensure our God-given, unalienable rights are not infringed upon:
Sadly, in America our political partisanship swirls dangerously to extremes – where hate has swelled to such a level that many Americans choose to receive all of their news from sources that align with their political views. The hate and extremism goes so far that even the President of the United States works to divide Americans into hostile camps. Distrust turns Americans into furtive enemies, partisans avoiding those who hold an opposing view, with ideological walls being girded to lock out all who dare to disagree. Even codes are enacted in our universities to silence opposition.
We must tear down these partisan walls! We must work to find common ground, or we can not face the threats beyond our borders. President George Washington warned about the dangers of extreme partisanship in his Farewell Address:
“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
So, beyond my stating it is a parental duty in a civil society to train your children to respect the rule of law. George Washington tells you that it’s a duty to discourage extremist politics – the duties are required to be a good citizen. I wrote a post in 2013 titled, “The duty of a wise people”. on this subject.
There was a time, not so long ago, when American school children were routinely taught about this speech and American principles. Sadly, today I suspect many school children don’t even know who George Washington was. And mentioning The Constitution, too often and too loudly, will get your name on a Homeland Security watch list as a right-wing extremist…
Andrew McCarthy at NRO penned an excellent, must-read piece:
“Culture Rot: Donald Trump Is the Effect, Not the Cause”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432380/donald-trump-culture-rot
McCarthy writes:
Before our very eyes, the corruption of cultural standards begets the corruption of law and politics. The coarsest part of the debate was Trump’s boorish boast (for which I’m willing to take him at his word, lest the next debate sink to a new low). The most egregious part, though, was Trump’s vow that, as commander-in-chief, he would compel the finest, best-trained armed forces in the history of the planet to commit war crimes — because there are evil people doing unspeakable things, as if that never happened before.
For a number of years in the mid-aughts, we debated the merits vel non of waterboarding. I defended the legality of this interrogation method — in the restrained practice of the CIA, not as cruelly administered historically — mostly based on a strict interpretation of the federal torture statute. It was not an endorsement of the tactic in any particular case. The opposition’s point was well taken that the existence of a legal justification (which they did not concede) would not necessarily make the use of waterboarding good policy. We volleyed ticking-bomb scenarios and slippery slopes back and forth.
As a lawyer, I instinctively believed we should be able to write rules clarifying the extremely rare circumstances in which aggressive tactics could be used. Critics forcefully countered that the very writing of rules was an authorization that would be stretched to cover non-dire circumstances. Jonah Goldberg reminded us about the “hidden law,” which as applied here, counsels forbidding across the board that which should be forbidden in almost all situations, in the belief that if a dire emergency did arise, good people would act outside the law, do what had to be done, and hope that others would understand and forgive.
Since I have already vented in the comments on Mr. McCarthy’s piece, let me just paste it here and be done for today:
Here’s why I believe the media deliberately went in the tank promoting Trump. An article from Reuters approaches the issue as if the media is just now realizing how much money they lost by giving Trump so much free air time, but the truth is they went with Trump to boost their ratings, make money, and to aid and abet Trump’s rise – they knew exactly what they were doing, aiding in Trump’s war against the GOP establishment and facilitating Trump’s fracturing the GOP.
Sanders too, according to the media’s “year of the insurgent candidate,” was an insurgent candidate, but the media did NOT devote endless hours to Sanders, to ramble on and repeat buzz words, hollow phrases and most of all repeat that “winning in every poll” Trumpathon. The heads of media outlets are well-versed in how the mass media saturation and repetition of phrases creates a manufactured opinion cascade. They know how this propaganda technique works too! They choose when to aid and abet politicians, who choose to engage in the swarming strategy. So, just as they aided the Clinton machine to survive impeachment, they knowingly and willingly, were a part of the Trump political propaganda campaign too – with an obvious end in mind.
These cable news networks set up this left vs right agitprop from the beginning of cable news – to foment deep partisan divides in America – it started with CNN, but the other 24 hour cable news networks joined right in. It’s the endless supposed neutral moderator refereeing , the GOP spokesperson on one side and a Dem spokesperson on the other, as the sparks fly. The GOP has never benefited from these exchanges, only the Democrats, who engage in spinning – they repeat the same messages over and over, diffusing anyone who speaks in complete sentences or offers more than repeated hollow messages – because that spin blocks out real discourse – it’s a swarming strategy that blocks out one side. The louder, relentlessly repeated messages are what the masses remember and it moves poll numbers. Then those poll numbers become as much a part of the story as the issue, as they are endlessly reinforced by the media to declare, who is the winner on that issue (winning in the polls). In Trump’s case, they’ve been repeating “Trump is winning, so doesn’t the GOP have to back their own front-runner?”
Here’s a portion of the Reuters article:
“Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has upended the presidential primaries this year by relying heavily on free air time and Twitter at the expense of local-ad buying, throwing into question estimates that the November presidential election could translate into $6 billion spent on TV advertising.
Now, with no Trump TV ads scheduled going into the 11-state Super Tuesday primaries, some investors and analysts are growing increasingly concerned that Trump could continue with an advertising-light strategy built on bruising debate performances and large rallies – often shown on cable TV – even if he wins the Republican Party nomination.
“For the broadcast industry, which has pinned its 2016 on local TV ad spend, you have to believe that someone who is pretty amazing at leveraging the power of social media would be a real problem for television,” said media analyst Rich Greenfield with New York-based equity firm BTIG Research. “I think Trump elevates that to a whole new level.”
So far, some $10-million has been spent on advertising for Donald Trump, compared with $32 million for Hillary Clinton, $49 million for Marco Rubio, and almost $85 million for Jeb Bush, according to data from Ad Age. Bush dropped out of the Republican contest earlier this month after trailing badly.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-mediaspend-idUSMTZSAPEC31DC1REH
Perhaps the biggest con artist is not Donald Trump; it’s the mass media in America and their endless agitprop script, where they win big and the American people are the biggest losers.
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, The Media
The Pope jumped into the American political race yesterday, so while the Vatican is trying to clarify the Pope’s comment about Trump’s always talking about building a wall, as not being Christian, and offering the building bridges between people as the proper Christian way, lest we get sidetracked, some things struck me as odd, that go well beyond the Pope’s statement and timing to interject himself into US politics.
First, the Pope gave Trump more oxygen to get back to his original appeal, from which he has drifted considerably in recent months – that America’s national security is threatened by uncontrolled borders and illegal immigration. A “wall” and or whatever means are necessary to secure our borders is a primary duty of our federal government, one both political parties have abdicated for decades.
Second, the Pope allowed for Trump to monopolize the media coverage and news cycle heading into a critical GOP primary in South Carolina, on Saturday.
Who knows why the Pope gave Trump more attention, when a Trump loss in SC could speed up a Trump demise, which assuredly the Pope would welcome, as one who obviously aligns with leftist South American social justice politics.
As to Trump’s response, one thing struck me as very odd. For once Trump came out and appeared to be reading prepared remarks and seemed at great pains to keep his emotions in check. I wondered who wrote those remarks for him, because the remarks seemed very tempered compared to Trump’s usual rants and rambling spiels. I’d love to know who Trump’s closest political advisers really are? They aren’t his campaign manager or his snotty campaign spokeswoman, that’s for sure. Once again, who are the real Trump political advisers?
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics
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