This BBC story reports on a China opening the highest and longest glass bridge in the world. Definitely won’t be adding that to my bucket list of things to experience, but it is amazing.
Category Archives: General Interest
New diapers?
The sanctimony, perhaps acrimony is the better term, expressed in these articles blaming #NeverTrump for Trump’s self-inflicted wounds, grows daily, as more and more of the Trump followers look for someone else to blame for this vile fraud’s problems.
At PJ Media, Michael Walsh wrote another blistering attack:
“The time for opposition was during the primaries. But now, for better or worse, the issue is settled. Increasingly sounding like leftists, the “never Trumpers” appeal to a higher morality to justify their electoral sabotage, but the fact is their stance is profoundly immoral; sore losers, they demand a rules change after the game is over, and refuse to accept the results.”
https://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2016/08/17/the-moral-cowardice-of-the-nevertrumpumpkins/
Well, a commenter wrote the most succinct response, in the comment section and here’s the deal, Trump used the Clinton-style scorched earth in the primary and as I endlessly repeated, that takes a lot of media collusion to pull off. Now
Trump is being buried alive by that same liberal media running the Clinton scorched earth and it is brutal (just like his 24/7 “GOP Insurgency” was brutal). I believe these scorched earth campaigns are corrupt and unethical, but I don’t know if it’s illegal for mass media elites to collude with politicians to manipulate media coverage, to allow one candidate to dominate the 24/7 news cycle for 8 months, to the tune of several billion dollars in free media coverage. It sounds to me like it should be illegal, but I am not a legal scholar. That said, Trump is helping the Clinton scorched earth, by making endless incendiary comments. The following commenter rebutted Walsh’s tirade against #NeverTrumpers, so with his permission, here is his response:
” Increasingly sounding like leftists, the “never Trumpers” appeal to a higher morality to justify their electoral sabotage…”
Oh really? Who sounds like leftists here?
I haven’t heard this kind of mindless devotion to an unqualified candidate since 2008.
And Trump himself is already doing what we conservatives supposedly revile – He’s playing the victim. “It’s not fair. The system is biased against me. The debate schedule isn’t the way I want it. Hillary is getting illegals to vote. If I lose, it’s everyone else’s fault. They cheated.”Game recap: Trump 1,000,000 excuses
Personal responsibility ZERO!Trump and his army of Trumpanzees charged into this election on a tidal wave of boasts and braggadocio. They told us that we needed someone “tough.” They told us Trump “tells it like it is!” We need a hard-as-nails deal maker and businessman!” They said.
Now he’s down in the polls and the Trumpanzees and their candidate are squealing like a herd of stuck pigs!
“The media is biased against us!”
“The GOP is not loyal to us!”
“Conservative Never-Trumpers are betraying us.”
“Our panties are too tight. We have menstrual cramps. Megyn Kelly was mean to us! George Will isn’t being nice. Mexican judges aren’t fair. Boohooo!Sounds like a pack of simpering liberals waiting for “hope and change.” Sounds like the change they need is for some new diapers.
Filed under General Interest, Politics, The Media
Another Donald Diatribe
As I’ve mentioned before, I comment on politics at a few conservative sites and since the TrumpNation populism fueled to life, the Republican camp still seems very divided, where even the term “frenemies” seems too mild for the rancor. Trump and his “GOP Insurgency” can be blamed for the escalation and the cynical use of his “GOPe conspiracy theories” to divide and conquer the Republican Party. He has been completely successful at laying waste to the GOP as a functioning political party, in a critical election year.
Lately, the charge against #NeverTrumpers centers on railing at them about how if Trump loses in November, their refusal to get on the Trump Train caused it. Trump is losing this race on his own and he set himself up to fail from the beginning. Now I do believe that Clinton operatives had rats inside the Potemkin Trump campaign, to feed Trump advice and lead him into bad campaign decisions, but ultimately if you are a dupe, you only have yourself to blame in the end. That said, an angry Trump follower challenged me and asked what I would suggest, so first I will relate what I think the GOP’s only chance in November is and due to the lateness in the game, it’s a long-shot and then he asked what I would do if I were running, so here goes:
The GOP Last Ditch Option
The best thing to do would be get a Republican (moderate) out there and jump behind him and let Trump self-destruct. Doing that would catch Americans’ attention and if enough Republicans actually rallied to save the Republic – Hillary could be defeated.
Trump is a lost cause – he is heading back to his scorched earth from the primary – attacking the GOP. Let him go! That is my advice. Get someone competent out there, back him and ignore Trump like a child throwing a temper-tantrum.
Focus all the attention on having a positive American message and countering Hillary. The more Trump spews, the more he will lose voters, who will then be looking for another choice in the middle. Right now Hillary has staked out the middle – challenge her hold on the middle ground with someone competent and in the (middle).
Desperate times call for desperate measures – Trump really is a LOOSE CANNON, that’s the truth and he will do what he set out to do – burn the GOP to the ground. Republicans should take away his matches.
Then, we move on to what I said I would do, if I was hypothetically running:
My campaign strategy
If I were running, I would be out there with a positive American message, organized speeches and trying to be able to speak knowledgeably about most of the world’s hot spots and domestic issues. I would have the humility to know I don’t know a lot and rather than bluster my way through like Trump does, I would say I need to do more research to speak confidently to that issue. I would be spending every spare minute compiling coherent policies and researching issues.
I would NOT be blaming everyone else for my mistakes and I would NOT be on Twitter ranting.
And I would NOT be demonizing and spewing endless demagoguery constantly.
All he knows how to do is pathetic character assassinations or play at pitting one group against another. His own campaign staff is a prime example of his toxic leadership. Just about any of those real Republicans in the primary would fare better against this Witch of Chappaqua. Trump makes her look better every single day. He stayed on message 2 days and that cramped his style too much – so it’s back to the LOOSE CANNON, let Trump be Trump. She’s out there sounding upbeat and Reaganesque and he is stomping back into the weeds.
PS: I am a lifelong recovering stutterer, so I will never seek any job that requires public speaking….. I learned to write, to have a voice:-)
So, now that the magical thinking options are dispensed with, because the GOP does not have the leadership to unite for a common purpose and in the second case, I am terrible at public speaking, which is a critical skill in politics. You can add on that I am a very private person, avoid cameras always, lack any desire for a public job and hate confrontations in real life. Funny that, because I am fine arguing about politics online writing out my arguments, but in real life having to verbally present them, well let’s just say I quickly become a stuttering mess.
With my prognostications on Trump’s campaign shake-up (meltdown, perhaps), let me go on record as reminding everyone of my August 2nd blog post, “Burning the GOP to the ground”:
“During the past day Trump started alleging that he is sure the election in November will be rigged against him. Republicans leaders should be worried, because that is Trump preparing to jump ship before November and leave the GOP hanging. Whether that was his plan all along or it’s an escape route to avoid a crushing defeat, who knows, but Trump will bail, just like he bailed on the debates when Cruz and Rubio made him look like the imbecilic clown, he is. Trump will not stick around until November if his polls numbers continue to dive and he continues to come under fire from all sides. His campaign remains a chaotic mess, because Trump is in charge and there is no other calm head or hand to grab the steering wheel from him, to avoid this train wreck.
If Trump does bail, he will rail about how the Republicans treated him so badly and unfairly…. you can count on that.”
https://libertybellediaries.com/2016/08/02/burning-the-gop-to-the-ground/
Politics does indeed make strange bedfellows, because now, my “crackpot” theory is gaining steam with several conservative pundits and in some very odd locations. Michael Moore wrote an opinion piece, at The Huffington Post, laying out his theory that Trump entered the race to gain leverage in his reality TV deal with NBC, never intending to be successful in the race. Moore believes that once Trump started winning and had these huge crowds, the fame and attention went to his head. In the end here is Moore’s theory on what he believes Trump plans on doing and assuredly it’s a safe bet he never reads my blog, lol:
“But, let me throw out another theory, one that assumes that Trump isn’t as dumb or crazy as he looks. Maybe the meltdown of the past three weeks was no accident. Maybe it’s all part of his new strategy to get the hell out of a race he never intended to see through to its end anyway. Because, unless he is just “crazy,” the only explanation for the unusual ramping up, day after day, of one disgustingly reckless statement after another is that he’s doing it consciously (or subconsciously) so that he’ll have to bow out or blame “others” for forcing him out. Many now are sensing the end game here because they know Trump seriously doesn’t want to do the actual job — and, most importantly, he cannot and WILL NOT suffer through being officially and legally declared a loser — LOSER! — on the night of November 8th.
Trust me, I’ve met the guy. Spent an afternoon with him. He would rather invite the Clintons AND the Obamas to his next wedding than have that scarlet letter (“L”) branded on his forehead seconds after the last polls have closed on that night, the evening of the final episode of the permanently cancelled Donald Trump Shit-Show.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/trump-self-sabotage_b_11545026.html
Trump doesn’t want to be bothered with having to “act presidential”, which requires studying policy issues and paying close attention to current events and details. He prefers to schmooze and be adored by his fans. So, it will be back to Trump the LOOSE CANNON campaign style. He does NOT like to pay attention to details and he always leaves himself wiggle-room to slither out of his professed policy positions or beliefs….. everything in Trump’s world is negotiable, no values or principles are sacrosanct, meaning, he can be bought and sold. That’s the truth. I expect him to bail before November, but rest assured, in the process his goal won’t be to attack Hillary, it will be inflicting as much damage as possible on the GOP as he can. His lovely life will be back in NYC hobnobbing with the elite liberal crowd (his lifelong friends) .
Filed under General Interest, Politics
Trump is deliberately throwing the race
The Trump chaos marches on. In recent days, Paul Manafort, the de facto Trump campaign manager, after Corey Lewandowski’s firing, has been hit with a barrage of media attacks about his connections to the deposed Ukrainian president, Victor Yanukovych…… million dollar under-the-table payment, etc.
Trump now is lowering Manafort’s profile and has promoted the clueless, Kellyanne Conway and Breitbart News executive, Stephen Bannon, to run his campaign. The leftist news site/blog, The Daily Beast, reports that:
“According to The Washington Post, the decision is intended to curtail Manafort’s efforts to temper Trump’s campaign style. Trump had reportedly begun to feel “boxed in” and “controlled.” Manafort will remain part of the team, but his role will be internally diminished. The decisions, essentially, are a way for Trump to return to former aide Corey Lewandowski’s style, which was “let Trump be Trump.””
You can read that as Trump doesn’t want to “act” presidential or be bothered with policy details. He is throwing the race to Hillary Clinton. He is a total fraud. No ground game, no ads yet, and a bevy of bimbos and bozos surrounding him.
He is sure to go down in flames rapidly with this ditz Conway running his campaign. “Trump being Trump” is Trump acting like a LOOSE CANNON and proving the Clinton caricature right, day after day. What a nightmare, where this “GOP Insurgent” is deliberately throwing the race for the Witch of Chappaqua and the RNC leadership still wanders around in circles without any plan or guts to ditch this con man.
Filed under General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption
The Clinton Scandal Survival Strategy
Hillary’s email scandal remains a stubborn stain, that despite every stain removal remedy known to her crew of scandal white-washers, still keeps reappearing every time she thinks the latest SPIN cycle has washed it away. (SPIN is orchestrated LYING by government officials to deceive the American people and to manufacture opinion cascades)
That this woman is above the law disgusts me. It’s bad enough that the Leftist partisans, to include some Democratic hack, high-ranking retired generals, who assuredly know her email server jeopardized national security, keep going in public and lying for the Clintons, but now many so-called Republican foreign policy experts have joined the Clinton bandwagon too. They all know her setting up a home-brew server was such a reckless, deliberate, grossly negligent action, that she should face criminal charges, but they’re so entrenched in their own careers and the politicking, that they’re willing to throw their support behind the horse that looks like it’s going to win in November. Their actions are about their own personal careers, NOT about principles or national security.
I am disgusted with the “Republican foreign policy elites” who have come out and backed Hillary and my disgust has nothing to do with Trump at all. They are unfit to work in foreign policy positions in the United States, if they could follow the facts about her handling of highly sensitive information on her home-brew server and still support her.
She is not fit to ever handle any sensitive information and should be prosecuted.
All of them, having years of experience with handling classified information, know this.
I can understand not supporting Trump on foreign policy, but to ignore her email scandal speaks to moral bankruptcy.
“Move On” is an integral part of the Clinton Scandal Survival Strategy. We all know how they wage scorched earth and create endless strawmen to light ablaze, as the cause of these never-ending, mean, “vast, right-wing conspiracies”, you know the ones, like those dastardly Koch Brothers or their evil, arch-nemesis Karl Rove or heck, anyone who tries to stand up for the rule of law, when the Clintons trample it. The Clintons behave like the kids in that comic strip, whom when their parents confront them about wrong-doing, all blurt out, “Not ME!” “Not ME” is Hillary’s constant refrain.
James Comey is in their sights now, as Bill Clinton, a perjurer, will now work to destroy Comey’s credibility and reputation. Before caving to the Clinton/Obama pressure, Comey exacted a desperate Hail Mary pass effort to expose Hillary Clinton in the “court of public opinion”, since every avenue to expose her in a “court of law” was cut off by Loretta Lynch. Comey will now receive the Ken Starr treatment from the Clinton Crime Family.
Everyone who enters into the Clinton orbit becomes corrupted and the longer they remain “Clinton friends”, the more they sacrifice all their principles, because assuredly, as the Clintons grasp for more money and power, their lawlessness escalates. With the Clintons, they will always need their water-carriers to keep trying to put out the flames on their never-ending scandals and they need their talking points messengers repeating, ” TIME TO MOVE ON!”, so hey, the Clintons turn out to be lifetime employment for these gutless, immoral sycophantic lowlifes…… Who knows, perhaps the Clintons should give out annual “Lanny Davis Awards” for their best sycophantic sewer rats….
Kevin Williamson penned a very interesting piece on the Clinton’s “Move On” motto:
“Move on” is of course the Clinton family motto. If the Clintons had a family crest, the Latin at the top would read: “movete!”
In fact, you can quickly get a read on a particular individual or organization’s dedication to kissing Clinton ass by noting how quickly it deployed “move on!” and how deeply it is dedicated to that motto.
The gold standard there for many years was MoveOn.org. For you youngsters out there, MoveOn.org is a self-described progressive group that was founded in 1998 in response to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, who committed perjury and suborned perjury in the course of trying to cover up his sexual exploitation of White House intern Monica Lewinsky, a crime for which he eventually was disbarred, though Senate Democrats ensured that his impeachment did not end in conviction and removal from office. Once he had exhausted every possible avenue of dishonesty, Clinton issued an angry denunciation that nearly took the form of an apology, and his minions immediately began demanding that the country “move on!”
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/439023/hillary-clinton-family-motto-move-on
Their Clinton Scandal Survival Strategy follows the same steps always:
- Demonize those calling for the investigation and those tasked with the investigation as right-wing partisans and the investigation as another “vast, right-wing witch hunt”
- Stall the investigation by any means possible, to include obfuscation, obstruction of justice, intimidation of witnesses, etc.
- Destroy the reputation of any and all witnesses, who do step forward.
- Toss out endless streams of diversionary talking points to confuse the legal issues involved in the investigation
- After the investigation appears stonewalled and the talking points messaging has permeated for months, demand an end to “just another vast, right-wing witch hunt”
- Send out the “TIME TO MOVE ON” choir,
When you hear the “Move On” choir reach crescendo pitch, you can be assured that the Clintons believe they have successfully killed another investigation into their Clinton Crime, Inc. family business and believe the final nail in the investigation has been driven home. This email server scandal keeps refusing to die, because since the House Benghazi hearing last October, the Clinton “Move On” choir now sounds like croaking frogs and the scandal just keeps rising haunting them ….. trails of email pop up everywhere, new facts keep making it to reporters’ desks and people just aren’t buying the Clinton lies as easily as they used to. It’s like more and more people are so sick of the Clinton’s BULL, that more and more are refusing to go along with the emperor’s new clothes storyline and seeing the naked truth…. and it ain’t pretty.
Bill Clinton’s public attack on James Comey was a warning shot, that he, being ABOVE THE LAW, like his coattail-riding wife, and being a former US President believes he holds all the power. Jonah Goldberg often refers to the Clintons as the Medici of the Ozarks….. That is an understatement.
More Bill Clinton strong-arm moves?
In the past couple days news stories started percolating that the Clinton Foundation is under investigation for corruption, in several states, by FBI field offices and US Attorneys. The Daily Caller reported it first:
“Joint investigations by the FBI and various U.S. Attorneys of Clinton Foundation activities are most likely underway in Little Rock, Arkansas, Washington, D.C. and New York, according to a former assistant director of the FBI.
“To me, those would be the three most logical cities,” Ron Hosko told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Discrete information has made its way to local field offices and is being shared with their counterparts at the U.S. Attorney offices.”
Hosko is a 30-year veteran of the FBI and was the second highest ranking official behind director James Comey when he left the bureau in 2014.
Hosko was responding to TheDCNF report Friday that multiple FBI field offices and U.S. Attorneys in various cities are leading investigations about possible corrupt practices among Clinton Foundation officials, foundation donors, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and inner circle of aides during her years as America’s chief international diplomat.
Last week Hillary kept repeating lies about what FBI Director Comey said about her email server in his public statement. Okay, no biggie, when you consider every time Hillary Clinton makes a public statement she LIES. There were also reports that the FBI is deliberating whether to release the official report of Hillary’s three and a half hour interview with the FBI to Congress.
That sets the stage for my next amateur analysis of how the Clintons operate. Some odd things have occurred with both, Bill and Hillary’s comments in recent days. Bill Clinton started making statements yesterday asserting that James Comey is serving up a load of bull. Lest you think he’s senile or crazy, let me expound on how the Clintons and Obama use public comments to intimidate people.
A few months back Obama was putting the screws to General Petraeus about his retirement pay. I believe Obama wanted Petraeus to do something for him, that Petraeus was reluctant to do. I am sure when Petraeus’ scandal was settled with only one misdemeanor charge – they have a lot more serious charges that they dropped. The ones reported are serious – his mistress had hundreds of classified documents on her unsecure laptop, and his black books. Petraeus hired the Clinton lawyer, David Kendall, so you know Kendall knows where all the Clinton bodies are buried. A few days later, Ash Carter announced that they weren’t going to mess with Petraeus’ retirement benefits.
With this FBI investigation, several months ago, Obama commented on the ongoing FBI investigation into Hillary’s home-brew server and stated that it was careless, but not criminal. Bam, when Comey made his announcement he stated that her use of this unsecured server was “extremely careless” and gave a laundry list of serious findings, but then he caved and stated that while her actions were “extremely careless”, it wasn’t “criminal”. This is how the sending signals works.
These public shots across the bow are vintage Clinton tactics too. So, when I heard Bill Clinton so boldly saying what Comey said was “bull” – that was a challenge. Bill Clinton is the one behind the scenes strong-arming everyone from Obama on down to clear the path for Hillary. I believe the Clinton dirt-diggers found something on Comey and let him know they have it. Comey’s statement about the investigation looked like a hostage video. In front of Congress he made an odd off-hand comment, that he cares about his family and reputation most. As the FBI director testifying, he should have cared most about protecting and defending The Constitution. Oh, well time will tell….
Filed under General Interest, Hillary's Email Scandal, Politics, Public Corruption
“Post-reality” America: a Path to Perdition
I wrote the following in a comment in an online discussion elsewhere, but decided to post it here. I’ve used the B.H. Liddell Hart quote before, but it bears repeating. I’ve been very concerned about the acceptance of lying as no big deal, by too many Americans, our politicians and especially by the news media, for decades. When I first heard the Clinton “war room” normalizing “spin” and the liberal media using that term as if it was some sort of clever media strategy and not an affront to American civic values, the rule of law and even to their journalistic ethics, I was dismayed. Journalists should be seekers of the facts. They should be digging for the who, what, when, where, why and how on the matters they report. Here’s my comment:
“Civilization is built on the practice of keeping promises. It may not sound a high attainment, but if trust in its observance be shaken the whole structure cracks and sinks. Any constructive effort and all human relations – personal, political, and commercial – depend on being able to depend on promises.”
– B.H. Liddell Hart, “Why We Don’t Learn From History”
Sorry, I went really long again, so if you don’t want to wade through this – the main gist is lying is not just a personal character flaw – it’s a battering ram smashing against the pillars of our republic.
That phrase “post-reality” speaks to a very dangerous, horrific state of being and when it’s being imposed with the power of the state, you’re looking at a totalitarian nightmare. The hijacking of words that matter and completely turning them on their heads has been the goal of communists since the early part of the last century and for American Alinskyite/Marxists in America to continue that long march leaves us headed down a very dark road.
Living in a “post-reality” America is where we’ve allowed the very underpinnings of our republic to be corrupted. When words lose their meaning, so does the rule of law and so does our societal cohesiveness, because the common ground necessary to keep our republic girded against collapse or anarchy, rests on a shared understanding of our shared civic values.
The technology of the past century fueled mass media and our ability to communicate with others, to levels never imagined, but it has also fostered an ability for those with power and money to engage in mass deception and massively corrupt the American character (and not just Hollywood). It moved from the media blithely talking about Clinton “spin” (deliberate lying by politicians) to the Obama “narratives”, where the President of the United States has the executive branch busily rewriting facts to create a fictional version of events.
It’s so pervasive in the Obama administration, that they are purging official records, editing out portions of video from news briefings and obstructing justice whenever asked to produce records to Congress or the courts. That is the executive branch deliberately usurping the other two branches of the federal government’s power to check executive power and it should alarm everyone.
For journalists to utter the words “the administration’s narrative” is an affront to journalistic integrity, where the goal is supposed to be to report: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
The media helped the Obama administration and liberal loons spread that “narrative”, to alter the public perception of the Orlando terrorist attack, into being the result of “Christian bigotry and hate” in just two weeks. Ferguson gave us “hands up, don’t shoot” – a total lie and even more disturbing in Ferguson is the fact that there were dozens of witnesses to this incident of a white cop in an altercation with a young black man and not a single cell phone video has ever made it out into the public. That is a community willing to LIE and HIDE evidence of the truth from law enforcement, because many of these people were interviewed by police and the district attorney’s office. C’mon dozens of witnesses in a black community watching this white cop and young black man and no one pulled out a cell phone and videotaped it???
The FBI Director went on national TV and gave a list of very serious offenses and he then dismissed it as “extremely careless” handling of sensitive information, which is “grossly negligent” and even now Hillary, not only continues to lie about her email server, she’s even begun to lie about what Comey said. She has an army of political operatives and friends in the media spreading and bolstering her lies. She knows if she repeats the lies often enough, they will become the reality. It’s wholesale public corruption.
Trump doesn’t have the vast political operation of the Clinton machine yet, but he’s borrowed their talking points/scorched earth strategy to win, win, win. He blithely throws out smears, no matter their veracity, and his followers cheer that he is willing to sink as low as the Clintons. If he acquires the power of the presidency, he will be just like the Clintons. He hasn’t shown any remorse about using the Carville approach of throwing as much dirt as you can and hoping some of it sticks.
Hillary and Trump’s lying aren’t just bad personal character traits. Their lying creates large numbers of partisans engaged in, not only believing their lies, but hordes of their political followers, operatives, friends in the media and political allies jump into action to bolster, prop-up, repeat, defend their lies. It rapidly corrupts America and it feeds the rabid factionalization that is destroying America.
B.H. Liddell Hart’s , “Why We Don’t Learn From History” is available free in PDF format:
Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption
The “great” Trump Reset….
The campaign media messaging from Team Clinton and Team Trump continues its downhill race to the bottom. After a disastrous week, Team Trump began another supposed “reset”, with Trump set to launch some big economic plan today, while the Stone/Manafort duo wage an all-out crapfest of attacks on Hillary in their friendly media venues, like The Drudge Report, InfoWars, Breitbart, etc. with photos of Hillary looking either decrepit or “unhinged”. These smear attacks are to feed their counter-attack against the liberal media’s coordinated, nuclear option level, smear attack with the Clinton campaign last week, to make Trump radioactive as the LOOSE CANNON, you know, the deranged madman intent on starting a nuclear war…
Trump’s big “reset” today will be about as successful as Hillary’s string of “campaign relaunches”, ostensibly to do a personality makeover, from arrogant, harpy bitch, to America’s sweet grandmother, all sugar and spice and Charlotte face time nice… We can see how that turned out…. same old sniping, thatwitch2016…. Jonah Goldberg penned a dissection of Trump and his endless “pivots” to “acting” presidential, “Waiting for the Pivot at the End of the Universe” He writes:
Donald Trump isn’t running a presidential campaign; he’s running a national speaking tour. When a normal presidential campaign gets into trouble you can change tactics and strategy. When a cult of personality gets into trouble, what can you do? Only one thing: Change the personality. And, again, that isn’t going to happen. Ever.
Oh sure, his poll numbers will go up again. He’ll have a good few days, maybe even a good week. And given how we’ve lowered the bar when it comes to Trump’s behavior you can be sure Newt and Christie and, of course, Hannity will celebrate it like the demoralized parents of a junkie teenager who manages to get a B on his report card. “He’s got his act together!” Back in September, I wrote about the tendency of Trump boosters to over invest in Trump’s political accomplishments:
“But this is not an argument for Trump as a serious presidential candidate. It is really no argument at all. It is catharsis masquerading as principle, venting and resentment pretending to be some kind of higher argument. Every principle used to defend Trump is subjective, graded on a curve. Trump is like a cat trained to piss in a human toilet. It’s amazing! It’s remarkable! Yes, yes, it is: for a cat. But we don’t judge humans by the same standard.”
In the days ahead, Trump will stay on message for a day or two and the reaction from many will be “The Prophecies Are True!” and “Watch out Hillary!” and “Behold! The Cat Who Pees!” Never mind that serious presidential candidates are expected to be disciplined for months on end. We’ve so downgraded our expectations of Trump that even minimal or sub-minimal professionalism from him is greeted like unprecedented statesmanship. But it won’t last. It won’t last because it can’t. The “Days Since an Unpresidential Screw-Up” Clock will never hit double digits.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/438732/donald-trump-pivot-isnt-coming
This messaging sinks to such levels of absurdity, yet the media minions and a large chunk of the yammering political punditry class are little more than large-mouth bass taking any bait tossed their way. So many supposed political wizards leap at all these shallow, campaign messaging sleaze dumps and treat them as serious news and legitimate “campaign issues”.
It’s still stunning that the political punditry class and supposed Republican political operatives don’t know how to discern how the Clinton “spin cycle” works after all these years and can’t seem to identify the talking points messaging. Most of them seemed clueless that the “GOP Insurgent sent to burn the GOP to the ground” meme was a typical Clinton sewer rat meme from the start. The trick is to not get sucked in emotionally by the messaging and just dispassionately identify the messaging, how often they’re repeated, where they originate in the media messaging stream, who all is working to spread the messages and then dispassionately determine, who the messaging benefits and to what ends is the messaging working to advance.
Cokie Roberts, on ABC’s This Week reacted to the Trump messaging counter-attack:
Roberts said, “About unhinged and she doesn’t look presidential, is totally code for we shouldn’t elect a woman. That is exactly what that is.”
So, who the heck is Cokie Roberts, well she isn’t some professional, unbiased journalist. She’s the daughter of two very prominent Democrats, Congressman and Congresswoman, Hale and Lindy Boggs. That should be added as a disclaimer to every word she utters on any partisan political issues, the same as ABC’s Georger Stephanopoulos, should have a disclaimer that he was is a top Democratic political operative and former White House Communications Director for President Bill Clinton. These people aren’t journalists; they’re Democratic political operatives.
Newsflash to Cokie, if you live by character assassinations in politics, you might die by them too. This campaign has moved way beyond trying to pull the “mean Rick Lazio attacking a defenseless woman” tactic
Time to put on the big girl panties, Cokie, and quit playing the “victim of sexism card” every time someone uses the same Clinton smear tactics against Saint Hillary. Her whining about the Trump counter-attack serves as a clear-sign that she fears the Trump counterattack will gain some traction. The Clinton spin machine went “nuclear” last week against Trump, with the relentless, over-the-top, liberal media onslaught, casting Trump as a deranged madman, intent on starting a nuclear war (a LOOSE CANNON).
Too bad Trump has spent more time feeding their messaging than his own, so all he’s left with is getting into the gutter like the Clintons.
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH;
The reason for the schizophrenia inside the Potemkin Trump campaign, I firmly believe, stems from the battle over Trump’s messaging campaign inside the Potemkin Trump campaign. There’s been this endless battle between the Lewandowski faction and the Roger Stone/big name GOP enabler faction. The Trump children seem to be torn between the two political operative factions. Trump was sold early on the Clinton talking points. scorched earth approach and his “GOP Insurgent” campaign, even though that messaging was a Clinton set-up. That is obvious!
Roger Stone and the big name GOP enablers have been trying to pull Trump away from the Lewandowki (CLINTON) messaging, but truthfully that kind of throwing as much dirt as you can and hoping it sticks (the Carville approach) fits Trump’s bullying personality perfectly. Last week was Trump deciding to try what worked to burn the GOP to the ground in the primary, with disastrous results. The liberal media that colluded for his 24/7 “GOP Insurgency” Show is now doing what was planned all along – running the Clinton scorched earth to destroy the Republican nominee. Despite Lewandowski finally being ousted, Stone and his friend, Paul Manafort have little control or influence on Trump, because Trump revels in the Clinton-style scorched earth messaging. Manafort and Trump’s big name GOP enablers promise that today is the Trump “reset”…. So start counting how many days he can stay on message before he goes back to the LOOSE CANNON….
The BILLIONS of dollars of free media Trump was given by the likes of liberal CNN and MSNBC should have clued people in that this was a set-up. Even the fascist memes back in February, the timeline points to Trump was sold on those strong-man talking points being a good idea by someone in his campaign. Trump did that pledge rally, where he read a prepared pledge from a card and immediately, the likes of Chuck Todd were prepared to hype the “Nuremberg Rally” charge – it was a set-up, but someone inside Trump’s campaign convinced him that pledge rally was a good idea and set-up that pledge rally for him. That two-week strong-man messaging of his led to the showdown against Soros funded mobs in Chicago and after that CNN and MSNBC pivoted to running Hillary’s scorched earth and Trump 24/7 friendly media there ended.
The bigger picture is way more than whether one of these two corrupt sleazes wins in November – it’s the WHOLESALE PUBLIC CORRUPTION.
MY OWN ECHO:
Starting with the Clinton “war room” in the early 90s, and now we’re at Obama “narratives”, where every tool of the executive branch is used as a partisan tool, to include 50 military intelligence analysts reports being altered to fit the “Obama narrative” and a WH effort to corrupt the Army chain of command, by interfering in the prosecution of a deserter, the corruption has spread to undercutting military justice. Susan Rice going on national TV to declare Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction” was a blatant “undue command influence” trying to interfere in a UCMJ matter. That Bergdahl’s case is still in limbo is solely because of Obama administration pressure on the Army to drop the case. Then there are all the other “narratives” the Obama administration spread to cover-up – Benghazi, the IRS scandal, and the list goes on and on.
So, the Democratic Party is little more than an organized crime syndicate, where laws are for the little people and Republicans, but not for the likes of Hillary Clinton. If the email and electronic message traffic, between the Clinton operatives/the Potemkin Trump campaign and media conduits to smear and destroy 16 Republicans, gets leaked it will prove that the Clintons set in motion a corrupt effort to destroy the GOP primary and if the mass media collusion is proven, then that’s a totally corrupt system.
#NeverTrump&NeverHillary
#NoMoreScorchedEarth
#SayNoToPublicCorruption
Blog Note: In the next few days, I’m going to do a chronological thematic list with links to my blog posts about the 2016 Presidential Election and post it somewhere at the top of my home page.
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Military, Politics, Public Corruption, The Media
#PurpleHeartDay
At his headquarters in Newburgh, New York, on August 7, 1782, General George Washington devised two new badges of distinction for enlisted men and noncommissioned officers. To signify loyal military service, he ordered a chevron to be worn on the left sleeve of the uniform coat for the rank and file who had completed three years of duty “with bravery, fidelity, and good conduct”; two chevrons signified six years of service. The second badge, for “any singularly meritorious Action,” was the “Figure of a Heart in Purple Cloth or Silk edged with narrow Lace or Binding.” This device, the Badge of Military Merit, was affixed to the uniform coat above the left breast and permitted its wearer to pass guards and sentinels without challenge and to have his name and regiment inscribed in a Book of Merit. The Badge specifically honored the lower ranks, where decorations were unknown in contemporary European Armies. As Washington intended, the road to glory in a patriot army is thus open to all.”
Three badges were awarded in the waning days of the Revolutionary War, all to volunteers from Connecticut. On May 3, 1783, Sergeant Elijah Churchill and William Brown received badges and certificates from Washington’s hand at the Newburgh headquarters. Sergeant Daniel Bissell, Jr., received the award on June 10, 1783.
Churchill was a 32-year old carpenter from Enfield who entered the 8th Connecticut as a private on July 7, 1775. On May 7, 1777, he re-enlisted for the duration of the war as a corporal in the 2d Continental Light Dragoon Regiment, later the 2d Legionary Corps, and was promoted to sergeant on October 2, 1780. He was cited for gallantry in action at Fort St. George near Brookhaven on Long Island, at Coram, New York, in November 1780, and at Tarrytown, New York, in July 1781.
A native of Stamford, Brown enlisted in the 5th Connecticut Regiment as a corporal on May 23, 1775, and re-enlisted as a private on April 9, 1777, for the duration in the 8th Connecticut. He was promoted to corporal on May 8, 1779, and to sergeant on August 1, 1780, transferring with the consolidation of units to the 5th Connecticut on January 1, 1781, and to the 2d Connecticut on January 1, 1783. No record of his citation has been uncovered, but it is believed that he participated in the assault on Redoubt No. 10 during the siege of Yorktown.
Bissell, from East Windsor, enlisted on July 7, 1775, as a fifer in the 8th Connecticut Regiment, and on April 1, 1775, signed on for the duration as a corporal in the 5th Connecticut. He became a sergeant on September 1, 1777, and ended the war with the 2d Connecticut. Under Washington’s direct orders he posed as a deserter in the city of New York from August 14, 1781, to September 29, 1782, relaying valuable information to the Continental command.
The award fell into disuse following the Revolution and was not proposed again officially until after World War I. On October 10, 1927, Army Chief of Staff General Charles P. Summerall directed that a draft bill be sent to Congress “to revive the Badge of Military Merit.”
For reasons unclear, the bill was withdrawn and action on the case ceased on January 3, 1928, but the Office of The Adjutant General was instructed to file all materials collected for possible future use.
The rough sketch accompanying this proposal showed a circular disc medal with a concave center in which a relief heart appeared. The reverse carried the legend: For Military Merit.
A number of private interests sought to have the medal reinstituted in the Army. One of these was the board of directors of the For Ticonderoga Museum in New York.
On January 7, 1931, Summerall’s successor, General Douglas MacArthur, confidentially reopened work on a new design, involved the Washington Commission of Fine Arts. His object was medal issued on the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth.
Miss Elizabeth Will, an Army heraldic specialist in the Office of the Quartermaster General, was named to redesign the newly revive medal, which became known as the Purple Heart. Using general specifications provided to her, Ms. Will created the design sketch for the present medal of the Purple Heart. Her obituary , in the February 8, 1975 edition of The Washington Post newspaper, reflects her many contributions to military heraldry.
The Commission of Fine Arts solicited plaster models from three leading sculptors for the medal, selecting that of John R. Sinnock of the Philadelphia Mint in May 1931.
As described in Army Regulations 600-35 of November 10, 1941, the design consisted of a purple enameled heart within a bronze quarter-inch border showing a relief profile of George Washington in Continental uniform. Surmounting the enameled shield is Washington’s family coat of arms, the same used by the heart shape and the coat of arms of the obverse is repeated without enamel; within the heart lies the inscription, For Military Merit, with space beneath for the engraved name of the recipient. The device is 1-11/16 inches in length and 1-3/8 inches in width, and is suspended by a rounded rectangular length displaying a vertical purple band with quarter-inch white borders.
The War Department announced the new award in General Order No. 3, February 22, 1932:
By order of the President of the United States, the Purple Heart established by General George Washington at Newburgh, August 7, 1782, during the War of the Revolution, is hereby revived out of respect to his memory and military achievements.
By Order of the Secretary War:
Douglas MacArthur,
General
Chief of Staff
The association of the Purple Heart with wounds or fatality suffered in the line of meritorious service also stems from this time. Eligibility for the new award was defined to include:
•Those in possession of a Meritorious Service Citation Certificate issued by the Commander-in Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. The Certificates had to be exchanged for the Purple Heat or the award and Oak Leaf Clusters as appropriate. This preserved the ideal of presenting the award for military merit and loyal service.
•Those authorized by Army Regulations 600-95 to wear wound chevrons. These men also had to apply for the new award.
•Those not authorized wound chevrons prior to February 22, 1931, but who would otherwise be authorized them under stipulations of Army Regulations 600-95.
Revisions to AR 600-45 at the time, defining conditions of the award, elaborated upon the “singularly meritorious act of extraordinary fidelity service” required. “A wound which necessitates treatment by a medical officer and which is received in action with an enemy may, in the judgment of the commander authorized to make the award, be construed as resulting from a singularly meritorious act of essential service.” War Department Circular No 6 dated February 22, 1931, carried the same instructions.
The Navy Department at this time saw no reason to authorize the Purple Heart for its officers and men. The Department maintained that the award was “purely an army decoration.”
No record survives today of the identity of the first individual to revive the revived and redesigned Purple Heart. Local posts of the American Legion held ceremonies to honor recipients, and it was also common to invite the Adjutant General of state National Guards to preside over the ceremonies and present awards, but the practice was nowhere standard.
Developments concerning the Purple Heart after 1931 served to define further eligibility requirements for the award and to identify it even more closely with bloodshed or loss of life in the nation’s service.
In Executive Order 9277 of December 3, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt extended the use of the award to the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard after December 6, 1941, and established a uniform application of standards for the award in the Army and the Navy.
President Harry S. Truman, in Executive Order 10409 of November 12, 1952, retroactively extended Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard eligibility for the Purple Heart back to April 5, 1917, to cover World War I.
President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11016 on April 25, 1962, extending eligibility as well to “any civilian national o the United States, who while serving under competent authority in any capacity with an armed force, has been, or may hereafter be, wounded.”
Current eligibility and conditions for the award are defined in Army Regulations 600-8-22. Paragraph 2-8e, added June 20, 1969, carries the notice that “any member of the Army who was awarded the Purple Heart for meritorious achievement or service, as opposed to wounds received in action, between 7 December 1941 and 22 September 1943, may apply for award of an appropriate decoration instead of the Purple Heart.”
The Purple Heart is ranked immediately behind the bronze star in order of precedence among the personal awards; however, it is generally acknowledged to be among the most aesthetically pleasing of American awards and decorations.
The above article in from the U.S. Army Center Of Military History
Filed under American Character, American History, General Interest, Military
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