Hillary Clinton to give her private email server to Justice
– CNN reports.
Category Archives: Politics
For the future in the distance
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance
– George Linneaus Banks
Jeb Bush, whom I don’t support at this point (and doubt I ever will), keeps getting asked questions about invading Iraq, which he stumbles over continuously. It’s become almost a ritual to repeat this question and demand a public repudiation of his brother’s decision. I didn’t wholheartedly buy the rationale back then, but I remained hopeful that a free, democratic Iraq would be a very positive development for the entire region. Whether we could nurture that flower of hope into bloom, I remained skeptical, but truly Iraq seemed more likely than Afghanistan, which had no infrastructure from which to build a modern democratic state. If I had been voting, I most likely would have voted yes – that’s the truth.
That said, my point is, if we continually debate the invading Iraq decision, we remain stuck in endless political carping that precludes any meaningful efforts to move forward and forge a comprehensive strategy to help stabilize the entire region, repatriate the hordes of refugees, end the constant fighting, and last, but not least, defeat IS. That’s the thing, defeating IS can only be accomplished if we work with other countries, especially those in the ME, but also including our adversaries, like Russia and China at some diplomatic agreements on some very complex issues.
This is not a Rambo movie, where one American warrior can take on the world. We must seriously gauge our American actions to not foster more regional instability. We could go in and defeat IS in a matter of weeks, if not days, depending what level of force we chose to use, but we would be left with another power vacuum that various factions and neighboring countries would quickly move to seize territory and control – more fighting would ensue.
Without a comprehensive strategy, determined, careful diplomatic efforts and serious, careful analysis of the complex issues involved, talking about upping the op tempo of our military efforts to defeat IS makes good, tough-sounding sound-bites, but it’s just blowing smoke. Military action is needed to defeat IS, but before we waste any more American lives or military materiel, we need a comprehensive strategy.
Ranting that Bush was wrong to invade Iraq or that Obama abandoned Iraq, unto perpetuity, gets us nowhere – it’s time to look to the future and act like America is not a reactionary, immature, reckless, or clueless country. It’s way past time for politicians to shut-up about their pet theories and lame, short-sighted, simplistic strategies and do their homework. The politicians need to seek a wide array of expertise – from military leaders, academia, think tanks, foreign diplomats and leaders, even ordinary people. Heck, I’m a homemaker who loves to study military strategy and I am always trying to look for new ways to move mountains in my strategic ponderings, because I believe nothing is impossible. Why can’t our leaders start looking ahead, instead of squabbling about the past? America was built by people who believed that the future does not have to be a repeat of the past!
A smart strategist, in my opinion, should seek out those contrarians, whose viewpoint differs widely from his/her own. If you only read opinions and talk to people who agree with you – you’ve boxed yourself into a very dangerous strategic corner. We’ve got politicians stuck like barnacles in just such a corner and political pundits and their preferred experts repeating the same tired talking points to a clueless American people – I mean really, who in their right-mind can still believe there are any “moderates” left in Syria fighting after this protracted civil war? Yet, here we are trying to vet and train “Syrian moderates”. $500 million American taxpayer dollars are earmarked for this training too and it has ZERO chance of helping to defeat IS. America needs a foreign policy that isn’t a mishmash of partisan-political posturing and sound-bites.
The other day I read a post at the American Thinker:
“Former Saddam officers form the core of a rampant ISIS horde”
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/08/former_saddam_officers_form_the_core_of_a_rampant_isis_horde.html#ixzz3iWuH83c9
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
I disagreed with the author’s premise and commented under the user name: susanholly, but I enjoyed reading the comments from another poster, Dixie-Pixie, which prodded me to consider some other issues. That’s where we need to go with coming up with a winning strategy – consider more options and be open to new ones. Re-fighting the Iraq war decision and every move since then leaves us flailing about in, to repeat that popular political buzzword, – a quagmire.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Islam, Military, Politics
Opposition research full throttle
In the era of the information superhighway, let’s just call this a facer to the Megyn-Kelly-champion-of-women hysteria after Donald Trump’s comments. Shoebat.com posted this five year-old video of Megyn Kelly sitting there talking about the size of her breasts, whether she has implants, intimate details of her marital sex life with none other than Howard Stern, who talks about women as sex objects in the basest terms possible.
Of course, I like watching Megyn Kelly, but let’s face it, on FOX News, female looks matter just as much as talent and if Kelly was not a blond bombshell, she would have never gotten her foot in the door. The real “war on women” is actually being fought between women, with men being accused of waging it. There’s old, hardline harpy feminists like Hillary Clinton screeching about glass ceilings holding women down and there are career women divided along ideological lines, BUT the vast majority identify with “feminism” almost down to the last woman. They differ slightly only in viewpoint on where society is on the “equality” issue scale.
In the mix are the Megyn Kellys who didn’t hesitate to sit there and play along with voyeuristic sex talk with Howard Stern to promote her career. FOX News has become a place where only beauty-pageant-looks-women need apply. Many “conservative” women buy into many of the same feminist claptrap, defining deviancy down PC social issues as far-left feminists.
Frankly, way too many women want it both ways – they use their “sex appeal” to sell themselves, while at the same time bashing men for “objectifying them as sex objects”. Men (and Trump) should have known better than to wade into this no-win minefield. I didn’t like his comment, but more for it displaying an alarming lack of self-restraint than on it being an attack on women.
The real issue with dealing with the “war on women” is women define this elusive, undefined war, won’t admit they are the ones creating the double standards at issue, while men are confused with what the rules are in dealing with women. As a woman, I will state that women aren’t men, they don’t think like men and their approach to problem-solving is completely different, as science has proved. It’s a public outrage to acknowledge this fact and frankly, it’s much safer to buy into men and women are interchangeable parts in society, ignoring reality. Some unknown woman in TX got publicly shamed for making a similar type of comment on facebook, as Trump used.
Personally, in politics, I have no problem envisioning a woman as President, because women can be great leaders. But I prefer to see how they deal under pressure and know more about their record. The truth is cattiness is inherent in human females, from my life’s observation and even grown women can change sides faster than you’d believe possible – going from best friends one minute, but upon hearing gossip, they can switch sides on the drop of a dime to being mortal enemies, then later, all in the same day be back to being best friends. Being a woman, and making it a life-long hobby to watch people interact, women display some loyalty issues and very often react to personal slights emotionally rather than intellectually.
My pragmatic view is there are logical reasons for sayings like: “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” and it’s called living in the real world. In our current wimpified country, many men act just as catty as women, so let’s say I am looking for a person who can rise above the reality-show theatrics, lay out some plans to set America on a better course and display a personal history of behaving with integrity in both his/her personal and professional life – I want an honest, decent person, of good character to lead America. And that’s a very tall order these days.
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics
American Thinker article on Carly
Here’s a view on Carly Fiorina that challenges her “fighter” claim. She definitely does her homework and makes it clear she’s studied the issues for interviews, but it’s important to look at her past comments and record:
The part about waxing romantic about the old Islamic Caliphate does sound tone-deaf, but it fits in with the PC attitude permeating after 9/11, from the White House on down – all that “Islam means Peace”, thin gruel we were being fed. The Islamic Caliphate, spurred trade and advancements in science and math, just as she mentioned, that we should learn about. That is not to champion Islam or an ancient theocracy and I understand the criticism of this being right after 9/11.
I’m still undecided.
Filed under General Interest, Politics
More opinions on The Donald
FOX news is doing a rerun of the first GOP debate as I type this. After a few days of reading news reports, watching TV news coverage, reading blogs, Twitter comments, it’s become apparent that the Donald Trump supporters believe he’s a Washington outsider who will change Washington. Now, he has used his money to buy politicians, making him part of that thing his supporters claim to hate – big money interests controlling Washington, but there you have it – they believe he is a reformer.
He was a liberal Democrat until a few months ago, but he spouts off about illegal immigration, jobs going to China with language that barely rises above overt bigotry and here he is, a contender for the GOP presidential nomination. Call me stupid, but I have not heard him offer any concrete plans or even calm rational policy ideas – all he does is brag and bluster along, hurling insults at anyone who appears to have irritated him that day. He runs on sheer vitriol and from my observation, displays more moodiness than any woman I’ve ever dealt with at that time of the month, which sure seems what he was saying. Okay, he backtracked off that “blood coming from her eyes or wherever” comment, but he’s the one who displays the symptoms often attributed to the female menstrual cycle. Please, someone buy him some Pamprin!
Temper tantrums and endless outbursts and so much rudeness and anger and yet no real ideas, heck he seems clueless on history and foreign policy. Any who criticize, dare to question him or even disagree with – beware, as his former reality TV star turned campaign official , Tana Goertz, boasted, “If you mess with the bull you’ll get the horns, sweetheart!” Yeah, she’s another class act in this “GOP-goes-reality-TV mode”.
Earth to conservatives, you are being played! Donald Trump will end up making all of you look like fools, because he’s not a conservative, he’s friends with all the people in Washington you despise the most (MANY of them liberal Democrats whom he was supporting until a few months ago), he’s shamelessly using conservative anger, but he has not offered a single true plan to change anything. Maybe, he will call his friends, the Clintons, for some policy ideas. Really, I am confused with how to take his undisciplined, petty, mean-spirited tweets seriously as policy or as befitting the future President of the United States. He exhibits the self-control of a 12 year-old!
On the bright side, at least the Christie team prepped him to tone down his brash New Jersey mannerisms, because I don’t know if I could have endured the loud-mouth bragging from both a New Yorker and New Jerseyan in one debate. Phewww, lucky escape for all of us!
Filed under General Interest, Politics
Sophisticated political manipulation?
Being tech un-savvy, I’ll leave the tech talk to this article, but with the impact social media has on everything from cute baby videos going viral to the Islamic State spreading its jihad, the power of its ability to influence people can not be underestimated. Opinions form quickly and many political activist groups successfully use this tool for successful public relations operations. Some use it to spread disinformation, misinformation and as a battleground to launch scorched-earth political nuclear attacks, effectively annihilating their political opponents. With this in mind, here’s a thought-provoking piece from Wired:
Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics, The Media
Iran: The Big Sell | Foreign Policy Research Institute
Iran: The Big Sell | Foreign Policy Research Institute. Hat tip to JK.
Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Military, Politics, Terrorism
Don’t forget to watch the sleight of hand
While all the oxygen has been sucked up by Donald Trump, the Hillary Clinton email server fell to the back pages. She and her minions are defying a federal judge’s orders:
So, while the press and we blabber on about Donald Trump, his friend, Hillary Clinton, and her girls club are stalling and doing the latest version of the Rose Law Firm billing records hokey-pokey dance. They’re particularly adept at the “shaking it all about” part – deflecting and obfuscating, hoping eventually those asking questions can be cast as the villains and Saint Hillary can boldly prance around proclaiming she’s been the victim of a vicious right-wing inquisition again.
The rule of law is for little people, not for Hillary Clinton.
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics
Trump – the influence-peddler in chief
The first Republican debate ended with no clear winner emerging. Sure, there were plenty of gotcha questions, but Donald Trump didn’t answer any questions in detail, except the one explaining his support for Democrats in the past. His followers will latch onto his bombastic, red meat, xenophobic rhetoric, missing that Trump personifies exactly what these supporters hate about Washington. He eloquently described buying politicians and peddling influence. He represents the worst part of big money greasing palms in DC. I would have asked him why he wanted Hillary Clinton at his wedding, since he said his big donations compelled her to attend.
Nothing Trump said demonstrated he studied the issues and did some research prior to this debate. His performance reminded me of Sarah Palin, who reveled in throwing out the same sort of red meat rhetoric, devoid of any substantive details. If he doesn’t bother to read up on and research the complex issues facing America for this debate, one can only wonder how he would handle them as President. It speaks to a narcissism that echoes the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, another “I am the greatest” ego.
The other non-politician on the stage, Ben Carson, displays a genuine humility and seriousness. He talked about studying issues, while Trump acts like the details are beneath him. Interestingly, Carly Fiorina, another non-politician, shone in the earlier debate, specifically because she does her homework. Trump has lots of money, as he reminds us in every other breath, so why didn’t he hire top-notch coaches to prepare for this debate? I suspect the answer is he thinks his money will buy him the Presidency, after all that is how he understands the American political system. Sadly, so many conservatives are so angry at the state of our country and fed-up with Washington and the GOP establishment that they hunger for the red meat he’s offering. In reality, all he really has to offer is bologna.
Filed under General Interest, Politics
libertybelle diaries 