Category Archives: The Constitution

January 26, 2018 · 2:22 pm

Spinning out of control…

Warning: This is another post about mass media information war in America.

The Left is ginning up  a spin attack to set the stage for obstruction of justice against Trump and Trump forces are ginning up attacks against the extreme bias in the Obama DOJ and FBI, which led to the Mueller investigation.  The original rationale for the Mueller investigation was the allegation that Trump colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election.

To date, the Steele dossier has been exposed as another Clinton funded dirty trick and it’s still unknown if that dossier, which James Comey asserted, under oath in 2017, was salacious and unverified, was used to secure FISA warrants during 2016 to investigate some Trump campaign officials.  Two members of the DOJ, who were involved in both the Hillary email investigation and who had joined Mueller’s team to investigate Trump/Russian collusion, have been exposed as having an affair and of texting many extremely anti-Trump political views.

To date no evidence of actual Trump/Russian collusion in 2016 has been released to the American people.  The Democrats pushing the Trump/Russian collusion spin have now pivoted to changing the spin to Trump obstructed justice when he fired James Comey last year.  The New York Times launched another big spin gambit last night  for the Dems, with a report that last summer Trump ordered the WH legal counsel to fire Mueller, but aides talked Trump out of it and the WH counsel threatened to resign.   This breathless NY Times “revelation” was launched to counter the Strzok/Page texts story, which has been gaining traction in the 24/7 spin battle.

The 2016 scorched earth information war continues to blow out of control.

I always keep coming back to writing about SPIN.  America is reaching a critical stage in this endless 2016 SPIN information war.  The reason I still keep trying to sound the warning against SPIN, which requires extreme levels of mass media collusion to gain control of America’s 24/7 news cycle, is because it is fueling extreme partisanship in America and destroying the core principles required for our constitutional system to survive.

Our constitutional system was founded on compromise.  Our founders who met in Philadelphia in 1787, to iron out details for the United States Constitution, arrived with many deeply opposing views and political demands for the new government being formed.  To reach a consensus, a great deal of debate ensued, but in the end a great deal of compromising ensued.   Compromising and working to find some common ground remain central requirements for our constitutional republic to function and remain strong.

Extreme partisanship is an enemy of The Constitution.  This escalating domestic SPIN information war is as much of a threat to America as anything the Russians or our other enemies can do to us using information warfare.

Since 1998, I’ve remained committed to using whatever small internet voice I have, to write about the dangers of SPIN.  The constantly escalating SPIN attacks have fostered a political environment where conspiracy theories on both sides spread rapidly, fuel partisan fears and distrust, and destroy any hope of Americans finding common ground for fixing problems in America.  This heightened distrust permeates down to main street America and even among many school children, where teachers have drawn children into the partisan divisiveness.

The 2016 election SPIN was highly corrupt, with the mainstream media and FOX News giving Trump billions of dollars during the GOP primary to aid his “GOP Insurgency”.  The mainstream media sat on dirt about Trump during those months, because they were aiding the Clinton Pied Piper strategy to promote the most divisive GOP candidates.  This was part of Bill Clinton’s signature triangulation strategy.

Bill Clinton’s triangulation strategy, of which this Pied Piper strategy was a vital part, was meant to set the general election stage, so that Hillary could claim the middle political ground, while casting  Bernie Sanders as a far-left kook and have a Republican opponent, whom could be cast as a far-right kook.  Trump and Cruz both fit that bill in the GOP primary.   Trump was learning how to use SPIN during the GOP primary and there were many times where he seemed amazed at how well spinning was working for him.  FOX News moved to becoming the 24/7 Trump Channel.

Unlike every other Republican candidate since 1992, Trump is the first GOP candidate ever to go all-in on using the Dems form of scorched earth information warfare and he is the first GOP candidate to have the connections to wield a powerful mass media platform ( FOX News, several newspapers, numerous online sites, Twitter, and of course right-wing talk radio) that could defeat the Left’s control of the mass media 24/7 news spin cycle.

In late 2015/early 2016 with the “GOP Insurgency” leaving the GOP in disarray, the mainstream media made a dramatic pivot to unleashing the piles of dirt on Trump that they had been sitting on, while aiding the Clinton Pied Piper effort to destroy the GOP with the “GOP Insurgency”.

The evolution of SPIN in 2016 election

1. Mainstream media & FOX news gave Trump BILLIONS of dollars in free media during the GOP primary.

2. The mainstream media sat on mountains of dirt on Trump during this time. They were aiding the Clinton Pied Piper strategy.

3. Mainstream media pivoted in late 2015 to early 2016 timeframe to dump on Trump, once Trump had succeeded to tear the GOP apart.

4. FOX News went full throttle Trump propaganda 24/7.

5. Mainstream media went full throttle when Trump unexpectedly won the election.

6. FOX News & mainstream media are participating (not objectively reporting) in this scorched earth information war.

7. Americans are bombarded with extreme partisan propaganda dressed up as “news” 24/7.

8. Mass media collusion is required  for partisans to wage this type of mass media information war.

We all know what happened when Trump surprisingly won the 2016 election.  The Left, with the constant collusion of the mainstream media, launched efforts to cast doubt on Trump’s win and fuel hysteria about Trump colluding with the Russians.  The Left has worked feverishly to #Resist – which is a euphemism for destroying Trump and doing everything possible to get him impeached.

This war is still raging.  Many “warriors” on both sides have sacrificed their own integrity and lost all sense of perspective, by convincing themselves that the cause to either take down Trump or prop him up is an existential threat to our political system.  There’s been endless hysterical opining about dangerous “attacks on our institutions” … by both sides.

Here’s the thing and it’s why I have continued to write about SPIN, when in truth I wish I had never even heard of SPIN information warfare in America:

  1. It creates an atmosphere in America where Americans perceive those with opposing political views as enemies of America and a threat to The Constitution.
  2. It makes Americans more willing to believe the worst possible things and the most bizarre conspiracy theories about other Americans.
  3. It creates an atmosphere where Americans believe those with differing political views are an existential threat to America

SPIN information warfare turns American citizens against other American citizens.

This escalating 2016 scorched earth SPIN information warfare is a more urgent threat to The Constitution than any information warfare operations the Russians or our other foreign enemies can wage against Americans.

Our domestic scorched earth information warfare leaves us completely vulnerable to foreign disinformation aimed at fueling divisions in American.

Even worse it leaves us fractured and hinders us from uniting to counter foreign threats.

It’s time to end the 2016 scorched earth information war in America and it’s way past time for American partisans to stop engaging in mass media information warfare.

 

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Information War, Messages of mhere, Politics, The Constitution

December 18, 2017 · 8:51 am

Final Battle Approaches

Just a short post this morning.   Hysteria on the left is building, in anticipation of President Trump firing Robert Mueller.  The White House insists that isn’t even being discussed.  The Left, including fast and furious Eric Holder, were all over Twitter this past weekend ginning up hysteria, urging people to organize massive street protests – once again going for their “crowd size” street optic, which they will spin across the mainstream media relentlessly, to create the impression that most of America wants Trump removed from office.  The mainstream media will, of course, jump into action carrying the Left’s talking points and spin messaging, as they’ve been conditioned to do for decades.

The #Resist crowd rails about Trump’s attacks on our institutions and his comments often are an attack on our institutions, however he has taken no official action that is really an attack on our institutions.  He has the constitutional power to fire the FBI director.  He may go too far at some point, but he hasn’t yet.

However, the Left’s non-stop efforts to overturn a duly elected president are a true affront to our constitutional system.  They rant and rave daily about how Trump must be removed, they have the mainstream media engaged in spreading innuendo, highly distorted leaked information, and constant fear mongering as “legitimate, vetted news”.  They refuse to accept the outcome of the 2016 election.

They refuse to abide by The Constitution.

What is really going on is the Left refuses to play by the rules and accept the outcome of the 2016 election.

We are approaching the final battle in the never-ending 2016 information war, between the sorest loser ever and the sorest winner.

I pray that America will survive these subversives, on both left and right, who have no respect for the rule of law.

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, Gladius Maximus, Information War, Politics, The Constitution, The Media

October 26, 2017 · 6:07 am

Laws are for little people

Every time I try to move away from the 2016 scorched earth information war, more news breaks taking us back to 2016.  So, I’m going to rehash some of the 2016 campaign messaging battle.

The Clintons ran Bill Clinton’s triangulation strategy.  At times during the GOP primary and 2016 campaign, I suspected that Trump might even be a Clinton dupe to throw the GOP into disarray and assure a Hillary win, beginning as far back as October 2015.   By the end of 2015, I was sure the Clintons were running Bill Clinton’s triangulation strategy- painting Trump as a fascist (the far-right kook) and Bernie as the far-left kook, clearing the path for the Queen to prance back into the White House.  Who really was behind “Trump’s GOP Insurgency”, I still do not know.  The Bill Clinton triangulation strategy  failed, despite the mainstream media blatantly colluding with the Clinton campaign to run non-stop “Dump on Trump” stories.  Back in January 2017, I wrote:

“Trump mastered the Clinton scorched earth,  Sure, he benefited from the Wikileaks leaks and the FBI criminal investigation being reopened, but he also benefited from Hillary’s terrible missteps like calling Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables” and sanctimonious speeches, poor campaign planning on which states to visit and a lack of a campaign message.  She campaigned on “Trump is Deplorable” and it backfired.

Trump’s talking points – the “Make America Great Again” slogan, the focus on jobs, securing the border, and rebuilding the military resonated with many Americans as meat and potatoes issues.

If anything provided Trump the boost to winning this election, I would argue it’s the very corrupt billions of dollars of free media he was given by the media in the primary to wage his GOP Insurgency on the cheap. Who the media colluded with for the Trump primary spin messaging has not been reported.  Who fed Trump those primary campaign talking points and who advised him to spin the “winning in all the polls” and other memes, has not been revealed yet either.

Wikileaks exposed the Clinton campaign’s corrupt media collusion, but make no mistake of it Trump’s GOP Insurgency was a product of corrupt media collusion too.  Who taught Trump how to spin?  Who was behind the “GOP insurgency” primary messaging?  Who managed Trump’s primary campaign messaging collusion with the media, spreading those “winning” messages?   Why did the mainstream media give Trump billions in free media for his “GOP insurgency”?

That’s why I was #NeverTump&NeverHillary all along.  Trump won the corrupt scorched earth battle, but the long war of protecting and defending The Constitution is the one every American should be fighting.  Both political parties in American are now completely controlled by very corrupt leadership.”

*highlights just added

https://libertybellediaries.com/2017/01/06/defendtheconstitutionalways/

The mainstream media continued to run many stories to trash Trump after he was elected.  The #Resist movement started, which was really just a lawless mob effort, conflating angry mobs (crowd size) of marching women, as some sort of justification to overturn a legal election.  Dems floated ditching the electoral college to stop the electoral college vote, and they tried to prevent Trump from being inaugurated, by boycotting his inauguration.  Intelligence officials, like James Clapper and John Brennan, and  FBI director, James Comey played a role in trashing Trump too and plenty of former Obama officials broke the law leaking classified information to the media to destroy Trump.  Rosie O’Donnell and other angry lefties even tweeted we become a tinpot military dictatorship, by ditching the 2016 election and installing one of the generals as president.  There was also the salacious Trump dossier leaked by Buzz Feed.  Then the Russian collusion narrative started.

Trump decided to continue fighting the information war as his #1 focus.  The Clintons are still orchestrating their Dump On Trump efforts, as are many in the mainstream media and the Democratic Party.  Many in the mainstream media attack Trump after each messaging win by recycling through old Trump spin attacks, like his tax returns or even days on end of retweeting a story about Trump having a fake Renoir painting in his home that he tells people is real.  The Hill is an avid repetitive anti-Trump spinner.

The Russians don’t have to work hard to create chaos in America, because our political class and media, engaged in endless, scorched earth information war, work tirelessly, 24/7 trying to “win” the 24/7 news spin cycle in America.  The Russians can just add fuel to this flaming American hot war of words, to agitate, inflame partisan animosity,  and spread wild conspiracy theories.

Trump makes it easy for his enemies to attack him on many fronts, because his antics are a national disgrace.  With that said, the truth is Trump has now sunk to attacking a grieving Gold Star widow, but the truth also is it does look like an extreme partisan Congresswoman, determined to impeach Trump, wants to turn this into an “impeachable offense” and that sure seems like a likely motive for her going public with the story in the first place.

MSNBC has been running a full-court press to turn these fallen soldiers in Niger into “Trump’s Benghazi”, to take down Trump.

The Trump mouthpieces have been shifting the story to the Clinton Uranium One deal.  Then there’s the added breaking news that a lawyer working for the Clintons and DNC paid Fusion GPS to put together the Trump dossier, which makes the dossier look like another Clinton dirty trick.

FOX News is in full spin mode hyping the Uranium One deal and Trump dossier story, while many in the mainstream media are trying to downplay it.

If the FBI investigations or Mueller’s investigation begin to look like they might seriously damage the Clintons, I expect the Clintons to align with Trump, crazy as that sounds.  I would not be surprised to see Trump and the Clintons aligning to try to shut down the investigations under the guise of spinning it like it’s time for all the rancor to end and for the country to work to unite.  They will try to thwart the FBI and Mueller’s investigation.

There is no way the Clintons, one of the most corrupt political machines in American history, will allow themselves to be exposed or charged with any crimes ever.  They are above the law.  Donald J. Trump, likewise will thwart any law that gets in his way.

Congress assuredly will never be a check on the abuse of power of either the Clintons or Trump.  Congress can’t find the intestinal fortitude to unite on anything.

Trump really could walk down 5th Avenue and shoot someone and get away with it.

What’s really under attack is The Constitution and rule of law in America.

James Comey caved on the Clinton email investigation and with his handling of the Abedin/Weiner laptop and the Trump dossier.   Senator John McCain gave the FBI the Trump dossier and today there’s a report that McCain wouldn’t answer the question if he knew the Trump dossier came from the Clinton campaign.  Comey’s investigative decisions and leaking his “personal notes” of his meetings with Trump, have put the FBI’s reputation in jeopardy.  On July 10, 2016, I wrote a blog post, The Comey “tell”:

“Last Thursday, July 7, 2016, Comey testified before Congress and without rehashing the legalities, it’s the one incongruent comment he made that struck me, as if he was unintentionally telling us something.  He seemed pained and almost embarrassed by some of his tortured explanations to explain how “extremely careless” differs from “grossly negligent”.  He went to great lengths about how Hillary’s celebrity requires that she be treated “fairly”.  She was NOT a celebrity, she was one of our nation’s highest-level government officials and she grossly violated that trust.  Government officials,  in whom great trust is placed, should be held to the highest standards – not treated like a “celebrity”.  All the Democrats shameless pandering to him and lauding his integrity seemed to make him uncomfortable.

The tell was when Comey testified that he cares most about his family and his reputation. When he said that, I thought it odd, when what he should be most concerned about is protecting and defending The Constitution. His testimony seemed to me  a desperate self-preservation effort to salvage his reputation (and protect his family), which he completely compromised with falling in line with the Clinton “talking points”.  When you submit to the Clinton intimidation, they own you.  With all the Bill Clinton strong-arm tactics employed to clear the path to the White House for Hillary, everyone whom Bill Clinton has pressured, from Obama through Loretta Lynch, Comey was hailed as the exemplar of integrity.  I believe Bill Clinton’s enforcers let Comey know they have some very personal dirt on him that would hurt his family and his reputation.  The Clinton sewer rats, as I’ve said many times, operate like the old KGB.  If there’s any dirt, they will find it.  There is no sewer too vile for them to scurry through.  The Clintons are not only above the law, but a law unto themselves.

Friday, July, 6 2016, Loretta Lynch came out and followed the talking points to the letter – she announced that she accepted the FBI recommendation.

Time to move on…”

https://libertybellediaries.com/2016/07/10/the-comey-tell/

I wrote several blog posts about questions I have about Hillary’s email scandal and the FBI investigation into it:

Bill Clinton’s Email Scandal – September 2, 2016

The Servers – September 3, 2016

Keyword Searches – September 4, 2016

Cheryl Mills is NOT the mastermind of the cover-up – September 4, 2016

The Bill Clinton server becomes the Hillary server – September 5, 2016

Let me count the ways…. – September 5, 2016

Who was there??? – September 6, 2016

Did I miss the thumb-drives in the FBI report? – September 9, 2016

The worst case scenario for America and The Constitution would be the Clintons and Trump uniting to crush the Congressional Russian investigation, the FBI investigation and Mueller’s investigation.  Both the Clintons and Trump have a strong motive to scapegoat James Comey and the FBI.  Crazy as Trump and the Clintons joining forces sounds, that is my best hunch of what might happen if the investigative pressure escalates.

The Clintons have been above the law for decades.  Trump is a law unto himself too (“Trump doesn’t play by the rules”, remember that selling point Trump followers?).

Laws are for little people in America – that’s the truth.

I will always plant my feet behind #DefendTheConstitutionAlways and I hope America unites behind this solemn commitment too.

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Filed under Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, The Constitution

August 31, 2017 · 1:37 pm

How To Defeat Scorched Earth Information Warfare

Every American has the power to help defeat scorched earth information warfare.  It doesn’t take military might, new laws to restrict the media or trying to shut down free speech.

Stop being a participant in the scorched earth information warfare.

Don’t be a participant in engaging in scorched earth information warfare and learn to recognize it and not fall for it.

Here’s my battle plan to defeat scorched earth information warfare:

The best thing leaders can do is pull our politics back from the extremes, condemn violence by fringe kooks on the extreme ends and work to find ways to build a few bridges between the virulent partisan factions, that are our two major political parties.

The drumbeat that we are approaching a civil war or that our political system is on the verge of collapse may feed the scorched earth partisans, but it does nothing to fix anything that is wrong in America.

I think what everyone should be doing is work to bolster The Constitution and that means respecting the results at the ballot box. I think people should be working to try to get Trump to rein in the scorched earth, quit the crazy reality TV presidency show, and buckle down and do the job.

Trump’s “war against the media” isn’t happening in a vacuum. Much of the media, the Clinton political machine and many factions on the Left are working tirelessly waging a scorched earth information warfare campaign to #Resist, which is a euphemism for overturn the results of a legal election, by any means necessary.

The best thing the news media could do is take a long, hard look at their news reporting operations & strive to get back to “who, what, when, where, why and how” reporting rather than rushing to retweet the latest “hot take” or editorializing in hard news reporting.  Trust is earned and every time reporters leap into retweeting or running news stories that aren’t true, they erode the trust Americans have in their reporting.

Those entrusted with safeguarding our nation’s most sensitive information should quit with the endless leaking of intel, to try and destroy Trump.

This endless scorched earth information warfare is a serious national security threat, in my opinion.  Many of America’s foreign adversaries are working to foment chaos in this ongoing scorched earth information war, because a divided, chaotic, dysfunctional American political system and the constant visuals of America in chaos feed their political objective of taking down America.

Our elected officials in Washington should spend more time buckling down and finding bi-partisan solutions, to fix many of our nation’s problems, rather than regurgitating partisan talking points and rushing for photo-ops to get attention.

It would be very bad for our republic, if President Trump was impeached over frivolous charges and I am very dubious about that “unfit” gambit under the 25th. Trying to contain the damage he does as a loose cannon, while trying to teach him some restraint (tall order there) would be better for our constitutional order than to have a president ousted, basically by a massive media campaign and unpopular polls numbers.  Poll numbers should never substitute for the ballot box in America, especially in light of the massive information warfare used to generate manufactured public opinion (creating opinion cascades).

If Mueller finds things that warrant impeachment; he should send that information to Congress.

If there aren’t any grounds to impeach him, America will survive a bad president. We’ve survived others.

And most of all, more Americans need to read more and think more, before falling for media-generated outrage and hysteria or leaping onto the bandwagon of these media-driven hot button issues. Quit falling for these media-generated contentious topics that the media punditry and social media spread under the guise of “national conversations”.

What America really needs is more citizens talking to their neighbors and within their own communities, to find solutions for most of the problems within their own communities.  They also need to work to get to know each other.   The putrid punditry fueling anger, distrust and hate, from the partisan fringes poisons our politics.

Everyone should work to promote respect and civility in the public square.

To quote Maya Angelou, a poet, whose poetry I don’t care for at all, but who sure had some memorable quotes that speak the truth:

“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but it has not solved one yet.”

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

August 23, 2017 · 2:34 pm

Trump launches MAGA 2.0 campaign

President Trump began his reinvigorated Make America Great Again 2.o propaganda campaign this week.  It’s sure to be more vicious than the 2016 campaign.

President Trump does have a strategy to defeat his political enemies, using mass media manipulation, but it is one that will further divide the country and lead to more violence in the streets.  He wants that violence in the street by Leftists, so he can rally for crackdowns and solidify his support for “tough” law enforcement.  Last night’s Phoenix rally, where he shamelessly lied about his Charlottesville statements, glaringly omitting his “many sides” equivocation, juxtaposed to his using the backdrop of Fort Myers and an audience of soldiers for his “acting presidential” speech, the night before, was just a prelude to his new and invigorated campaign to destroy his enemies.

He wants to bolster his support among soldiers.  He wants to rally support among the military using the generals around him, so expect to see him use more military backdrops for appearances, where he can cheer on the troops and tell them he is with them.  The US military is a captive audience to any president.  They can’t disrespect the commander-in-chief.

He wants the media and his political enemies to attack him.

Igniting racial strife over divisive racial issues, is part of his plan.  Expect to see more black pundits popping up on FOX and other Trump media fronts.  His media operation is using black pundits and black people in memes to convince people he’s not racist and to try and counter the fall-out from his Charlottesville comments. Memes with black people supporting Trump over his Charlottesville comments are already circulating on facebook – using the same equivocation Trump used.   I expect his online troll armies to return in force too.

I hope the generals in his administration stay, to work to persuade the president from his loose cannon tendencies and the last thing America needs is more Bannon/Gorka types nearby egging on this president in his “slash and burn insurgency politics”.  Sadly, many Americans don’t read much and think even less.  He will still have a large base of supporters.

President Trump loves to mention the generals around him and he borrows their honor as his own.  I believe he is a coward at heart.  If the president was not a wealthy, pampered, spoiled egotist, he would likely be one of those “stolen valor” scumbags, whom I detest.  His followers look at those generals and believe that if they are supporting him, he must be great.

My son came up with the best historical figure to compare President Trump to –  Peter III, minus the Prussian uniforms. I think there are many similarities in their personalities, except ours is not an idiot and even more concerning is ours has many wealthy backers, understands mass media propaganda and has millions of American citizens, who do not read history, do not think, and who are mindless followers, led by pop culture icons, celebrities and mass media propaganda.

Considering how much Trump can’t stand women making him look small, Peter III is a good comparison, because Peter III was outclassed and outmaneuvered in his power struggle by a woman, his wife, Catherine The Great.  Unlike Trump, she really was a “great” historical figure (one of my favorite female historical figures too).  And unlike Trump, she studied government policy, she read history and she had real leadership skills.  She paid attention to the details.   I doubt America will resurrect any statues to President Trump or call him a “great” leader, once his presidency is over.

President Trump knows exactly what he is doing, he planned that rally and he planned exactly what he was going to say. My son, who came up with the Peter III comparison, and I have had many discussions over the years about The Constitution and one of the things I have often mentioned was that sometimes I think America would be much better with the office of the President being separate from the duties of the commander-in-chief.   The very argument made for a President to be able to act swiftly in a time of crisis was my argument for why, in a nuclear age, we should have the duties of commander-in-chief vested in a person, who has the credentials, military background, resumé and calm temperament to carry out those duties. I would prefer the nuclear codes in the hands of military leaders who have demonstrated their trustworthiness, by decades of dedicated service to our country.  I would prefer an additional office, whereby Congress and the President must confer before using military force, especially a nuclear strike, and then a separate commander-in-chief has responsibility for carrying out those decisions.   Of course, I understand the opposing arguments to my position.

The Founding Fathers trusted that Americans would choose wise, moral leaders.  That trust was misplaced.

After Trump’s 70+ minute rally last night, where he fixated on relitigating his Charlottesville statements, attacked his enemies and went full scorched earth, the media reacted as usual – overreaction.  James Clapper went Pelosi about Trump’s mental stability, but that will help Trump.  Trump and all his spinners will spin Clapper as a Democrat hack, which to a large extent – he is.

Not engaging with Trump or Trump Derangement hysteria and avoiding escalation in rhetoric is probably the best course of action – ignore his efforts to incitement.  Speak to unity and calming people down. Ignoring him, dismissing him or treating him like a child throwing a tantrum is probably the best course.  I doubt the media or the Left will do that.

During the Obama administration, due to his political ideology, I did not trust President Obama’s judgment on military matters.   I don’t trust President Trump’s temperament when making decisions.  However, I do agree with President Trump’s new strategy on Afghanistan and I am glad he listened to the generals around him.  The risks to national security with pulling out and handing Afghanistan to the jihadists are far greater than staying.  Like many complex geopolitical issues, there are no easy solutions for the larger civilizational challenge of the rise of Islamic imperialism, Islamic radicalism, or whatever term you choose to use for this phenomenon, by a segment of Islamic world,  rejecting modernity and embracing terrorism and religious extremism.  We can’t decide the Islamic world’s future, but we must do what we can to protect American national security interests, at home and abroad, no matter how long it takes.

Americans, at the ballot box, decided our future was better getting behind President Trump rather than Hillary Clinton.  I left the top of my ballot blank in 2016.  I still believe both were choices I could never support.

The most important thing all Americans can do is support The Constitution.

The #Resist movement set out to overturn a legitimate election before President Trump’s inauguration.   That movement will gain many more supporters, as Trump ramps up his scorched earth campaign against the media, the Left, Republicans in Congress and anyone who crosses him.  The calls for impeachment or using the 25th Amendment mechanism to remove him from office will grow.

I don’t support impeaching him or removing him from office, unless there are solid grounds to do so.  Watching his reprehensible attacks on people, the vicious name-calling, the bold-faced lying and shameless manipulation, I wonder when he will cross the line for many of his followers?  Many religious leaders still sit idly by his side, as he engages in his petty name-calling and lying.   They still support him and praise him as a “great” leader.  Sadly, I believe that many of his followers are so trapped in binary thinking and rabid partisanship, that they would follow him, even if he did shoot someone on 5th Avenue.   I suspect many of them would rationalize that the person deserved it.

America is in for a very rocky 3.5 years.

I expect a lot more violence.

Once the smouldering ashes from President Trump’s campaign to “Make America Great Again 2.0” die out,  I hope Americans can find a way back to being the United States of America.

 

 

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Filed under Civility, Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics, The Constitution, The Media

August 17, 2017 · 1:02 pm

America desperately needs moral guidance

One of the worst aspects about “civil wars” is that the political divides often get down to tearing people’s most personal relationships apart too.  Lifelong friendships and even families can be sundered when people feel compelled to choose sides in civil wars.  Few people can maintain neutrality or as my one son says, in most family disputes, “I’m Switzerland on this!”

During the 2016 campaign, many articles reported about the election causing friction and angry disputes within many American families, as the extremely contentious choice between Trump or Hillary began to be hyped as an existential election for America’s future.

Throughout history there have been many of these stories and the American Civil War is rife with stories of the painful “brother against brother” personal tragedy.  During the American Revolution, one of the most famous American founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, and his son, William, who remained loyal to the British crown, severed their relationship over their political divides during the American Revolution:

“On his way back to Philadelphia, Franklin stopped in Rhode Island to meet his sister, Jane Mecom, and take her home with him. The carriage ride through Connecticut and New Jersey was a delight for both Jane and Franklin. The good feelings were so strong that they were able to overcome any political tensions when they made a brief stop at the governor’s mansion in Perth Amboy to call on William. It would turn out to be the last time Franklin would see his son other than a final, tense encounter in England ten years later.”

Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/benjamin-franklin-joins-the-revolution-87199988/#fUU7xOxf8f3vUMLQ.99
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The 2016 election divided the country between left and right, but Donald Trump divided the Republican Party and conservatives with his scorched earth “GOP Insurgency”, in ways that the ashes are still smoldering.

Trump’s divisive “GOP insurgency” tactic melded with his strong-arm rhetoric and vicious online mobs (some alleged to be Russian trolls) leading gang-up attacks on conservative sites’ comment forums left the Republican Party fractured and bleeding. Among the conservative punditry circle, many of these divides have led to the destruction of longtime friendships and have been played out in public.  Bill Kristol and Tucker Carlson are engaged in one now.

I’ve written about experiencing the troll gang-up tactics when commenting on some conservative sites, being called a slut and much worse, and I wrote about a night where I was reading the Disqus comments at National Review Online, for a Jonah Goldberg article, when the Disqus comment forum was taken over by people spewing neo-nazi and reprehensible anti-Semitic comments.  That night, the mob of neo-nazis, who were also Trump supporters, had figured out a way to hijack forum moderators’ names, so they were posting their hateful garbage using moderators’ names.  You could check the user profile and see these were new profiles with hardly any comments.  This attack went on for hours, as National Review moderators worked to delete those comments and ban that mob.

David French, a conservative pundit at National Review, and many Jewish reporters and writers experienced receiving threats, but so did some of their families.  I never considered supporting Donald Trump, because his personal behavior is antisocial, where his “he’s a fighter” ethos amounts to juvenile, vicious name-calling and insults,  but even worse he rallies, figuratively and literally, to encourage mob violence.  That is a fact.

Megyn Kelly asked him a question at a debate in August 2015.  What followed was a concerted campaign led by Donald Trump, to destroy her career and encourage his friends in the media to trash her personally.  He personally asked Roger Ailes to remove her as a debate moderator and he waged an 8 month campaign, publicly urging his followers not to watch her show.   Megyn Kelly’s family was threatened.  Donald Trump waged his 8 month campaign to destroy her, because she dared to ask him a question he thought was “unfair”.

David French, a conservative writer at National Review, wrote about what happened to his family from gung-ho Trump supporters:

“I distinctly remember the first time I saw a picture of my then-seven-year-old daughter’s face in a gas chamber. It was the evening of September 17, 2015. I had just posted a short item to the Corner calling out notorious Trump ally Ann Coulter for aping the white-nationalist language and rhetoric of the so-called alt-right. Within minutes, the tweets came flooding in. My youngest daughter is African American, adopted from Ethiopia, and in alt-right circles that’s an unforgivable sin. It’s called “race-cucking” or “raising the enemy.”

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/441319/donald-trump-alt-right-internet-abuse-never-trump-movement

Donald Trump and his mouthpieces always lie and say he never encouraged violence, but he did – many times.  During several rallies he urged his followers to punch protesters.  There is plenty of video footage of him doing it.

Why I think it’s important not to lose sight of the real issue about Donald Trump’s moral character is because his performance Tuesday and the smokescreen, about preserving history and “aren’t monuments beautiful”, isn’t the issue.

The issue is the President of the United States gave cover to vile neo-nazis and deliberately mixed a few facts to bolster that lie.

In light of Trump’s some “fine people on both sides” comment on Tuesday and his insistence that the neo-nazis were in Charlottesville to peacefully protest about monuments, it’s important to not lose sight of those “fine people” Donald Trump was talking about.  Here is John Podhoretz’s tweet with their “Unite the Right” poster for the march of “fine people”:

The speakers are a Who’s Who of white supremacists.  Here’s how Robert Tracinski, at The Federalist,  explains:

“Aside from the blatant Nazi style of the imagery, it includes a roster of headliners chosen from various white nationalist groups. So this was a Nazi march from the beginning, planned by Nazis, for Nazis. As to whether any hapless moderates strolled in there thinking this was just about the statue—well, I live in this area and used to be active in the local Tea Party group. I know people who are not white nationalists who oppose the removal of the statues based on high-minded ideas about preserving history. None of them were there, and if they had been, they would have bolted the moment they saw a bunch of guys with torches chanting “Blood and soil.”

What’s truly shocking is that Trump refers twice to “the night before,” that is, to the rally Friday night, before the deadly clash on Saturday, as evidence that some of the protesters weren’t white nationalists. But Friday night was the notorious Citronellanacht, the march with all those tiki-torch-wielding marchers yelling “Blood and soil” and “Jews will not replace us.””

http://thefederalist.com/2017/08/16/donald-trump-needs-to-not-be-president-yesterday/

Yes, there were violent anti-fascists at Charlottesville and yes, I am concerned about preserving our history, although for me, I believe in federalism, so with most of these monuments, the decisions should be left up to the cities and states. With those on federal property, a peaceful, thoughtful debate should take place and a decision rendered.  For anyone to believe these tiki-torch wielding neo-nazis parading through Charlottesville represent preserving American history and values, we hold dear, is reprehensible. President Trump gave them legitimacy and cover.

America would be better off if everyone cared more about our moral foundation and principles as a nation than about jumping on the bandwagon of hot button causes.  The idiocy and moral vacuum are stunning.  In Berkeley, Yvette Felarca, a middle school teacher no less, is facing three charges:

“The charges stem from a June 2016 fight at the state capitol.

Felarca’s group, By Any Means Necessary, was protesting against a white nationalist group.

A video shows Felarca repeatedly punching a man.

The man had both hands up, walking to a line of police officers for help.

Felarca and others dragged the man down and kicked him.”

Here’s Felarca’s defense from the same article:

“Felarca said, “Standing up against fascism and the rise of Nazism and fascism in this country is not a crime. We have the right to defend ourselves.””

 http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/08/10/berkeley-teacher-filmed-punching-neo-nazi-arraigned-sacramento/

There have been protests against white supremacists, breaking out around the country, with people wearing, “Punch a Nazi” shirts.  That you don’t have a right to punch other people, because you disagree with what they believe  is a simple, fundamental moral construct for civil society.   The scarier thought is this woman is a teacher and she’s got supporters protesting on her behalf.

President Trump fails the moral leadership test, but so many on the Left do too.  President Obama always couched the BLM and attacks on police officers with comments about, “we need to understand their pain”, giving the same kind of cover and legitimacy to people who engage in violent, criminal conduct.

Civil society depends on leaders, who will stand up and speak clearly to who we are as an American people.

President Obama was an expert at framing everything as “this is not who we are”, fueling racial animus by giving cover to violence committed in the name of  civil rights. President Trump is fighting out of petty spite and vanity.  He believes:

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

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

p. 138, Trump: How To Get Rich, by Donald J. Trump

I prefer the affirmative form of leadership, leading by clear moral example and setting the standard.  Treat everyone with respect and work to develop some core values.  I was raised with Christian values.  If you don’t want religious values, here are some excellent secular ones to set you on the path to being a good citizen:

In short, the Seven Core Army Values listed below are what being a Soldier is all about.
  • Loyalty. Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other Soldiers. …
  • Duty. Fulfill your obligations. …
  • Respect. …
  • Selfless Service. …
  • Honor. …
  • Integrity. …
  • Personal Courage.

https://www.army.mil/values/

 

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Filed under American Character, American History, Civility, Culture Wars, General Interest, Making a Difference, Politics, The Constitution

February 11, 2017 · 6:05 pm

Nasty Women on the march…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Civil society depends on civil behavior.

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

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

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

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

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

Do something constructive that matters.

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

February 5, 2017 · 8:37 pm

Definitely on the wrong road

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only Senator Sasse speaks with moral clarity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

January 19, 2017 · 9:37 pm

Senator Ben Sasse explains Inauguration Day

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Filed under American Character, American History, General Interest, The Constitution

January 11, 2017 · 10:59 pm

Trump: the Russian patsy

Trump uses Twitter not only to get out his messaging, without having to go through the media, but he also uses it constantly to set-up the media with inflammatory tweets, to get them to overreact.

The mainstream media went all-in on running the Clinton Scorched Earth 2.0 pile-on to bury Trump in dirt during the general election.  Wikileaks used hacked emails to expose the Democrats corrupt media collusion to run the Clinton talking points, memes and even emails exposing Donna Brazile sneaking debate questions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, which assuredly is cheating.

Trump won the election legitimately despite massive corruption, from the “GOP Insurgency” where the mainstream media and FOX News gave Trump BILLIONS of dollars in free media to promote Trump.  Without that unfair advantage, I doubt Trump would have been able to pull off his “winning in all the polls” and “Trump doesn’t play by the rules” mantra.  The spin effort also railroaded Republican leaders into endless set-up questioning, asserting, “Trump is winning in the polls, don’t you need to get behind the winner?”  This was an orchestrated messaging campaign.  However, in the end no one coerced anyone to vote for a particular candidate and the Department of Homeland Security reported that there were no irregular cyber activities to hack into voting machines detected.

There were plenty of statements made by Trump sleazes, like Roger Stone, throughout the campaign that presaged Wikileaks hits, as if they knew about the Wikileaks email releases in advance of their release. There’s plenty of evidence that the mainstream media went along with the GOP Insurgency in the primary to throw the GOP into chaos and help Hillary.  There was plenty of corruption in both presidential camps and also with the media participating in scorched earth campaign efforts, Trump glorying in Wikileaks leaks, in addition to unsavory campaign attacks like Hillary’s campaign orchestrating the Alicia Machado hit on Trump and DrudgeReport and Breitbart launching stories to hype Hillary the decrepit old woman spin efforts.

The 2016 presidential election was a national embarrassment, with two candidates who will do or say anything, no matter how low, to win.

The FBI Notes on Hillary’s email server have been glossed over by Democrats and the mainstream media, who are content to repeat that FBI director, James Comey, said there was nothing criminal about Hillary and her cronies using an unsecured private server to send highly classified information.  The media and Dems also latch onto and repeat that the FBI said her server wasn’t hacked.  Well, the FBI Notes show, another server the Clintons used, 13 blackberries Hillary used and none of them were ever handed over to the FBI, plus some laptops that had server emails on them.  The Platte River Network also had Hillary’s emails on a server and they Bleach Bit the emails and they put those emails on a laptop and mailed it to Hillary’s lawyers, but it got lost in the mail.

What the FBI was investigating was email CHAINS.  From the FBI notes and released emails, it’s apparent that people beyond the State Department were involved in these CHAINS and some of them used private email to email Hillary – that exposed classified information too.  How anyone can be sure information on Hillary’s servers was not compromised by hostile foreign intelligence boggles the mind when one considers how many unsecure and unaccounted for devices were used to send and receive these emails.  Then along comes the perv Weiner’s laptop and lo’ and behold Huma Abedin had lots of State Department emails stored on that laptop, which she never turned over.  My hunch is we have not heard the last of that Weiner/Abedin laptop and those emails.  I have never believed the story that the Clinton criminal investigation was reopened, that close to the election, just so the FBI could get a subpoena and read them.  I believe there’s a lot more to this story.

Hillary’s email server was really Bill Clinton’s private server, which he had set-up in his home to for his Clinton Foundation emails.  When Hillary became Secretary of State, that server was upgraded to what the FBI referred to as the Pagliano server.  So, while the FBI’s focus was classified State Department emails on Hillary’s private server, that server contained not only Hillary’s emails, but also Bill Clinton foundation & personal emails, Chelsea Clinton had an account on that server also Huma Abedin.  The foundation emails were why, I believe,  so much effort was made to Bleach Bit the Platte River server and why David Kendall, Cheryl Mills, went to such extraordinary lengths to cover-up the scandal and why Heather Samuelson, refused to even tell the FBI what keywords were used in searching Hillary’s emails ostensibly for State Dept. work-related emails.  Hillary kept saying that she never told anyone to delete any emails and that’s probably true, because I believe the real scandal that needed to be covered up was not classified emails on her home-brew server, but Bill Clinton’s Clinton Foundation emails and that Bill Clinton orchestrated this cover-up with his long-time lawyer and friend, David Kendall.  Mainstream media reported that David Kendall had a thumb drive of the entire email content on that server, so where is that thumb drive?  Patrick Kennedy, the State Department employee, who has done his best to thwart the Congressional Oversight Committee’s investigation, under oath stated that he believed the FBI has that thumb drive.  That thumb drive of the server contents should exonerate the Clintons, who claim to be innocent victims of a right-wing witch hunt.

Let’s move on to Trump, the lying, corrupt, con man and his latest antics attacking US intelligence over the Russian hacking.   Trump has been playing this game touting Wikileaks and trashing US intelligence, which undermines US national security.

We have a president-elect who is touting a Russian front, while openly attacking US intelligence agencies.

Yesterday, Buzzfeed published a dossier of unverified information about compromising intelligence the Russians have on Trump.  The media went into frenzies on Twitter, but Trump attacked the media, the dossier and US intelligence agencies today.  He started off the morning with some tweets touting the Russian government as stating the dossier is false.  Got that – the president-elect of the United States trusts Russian intelligence, but does not trust US intelligence agencies.

Here are Trump’s morning tweets:

15h15 hours ago

Russia just said the unverified report paid for by political opponents is “A COMPLETE AND TOTAL FABRICATION, UTTER NONSENSE.” Very unfair!

15h15 hours ago

Russia has never tried to use leverage over me. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RUSSIA – NO DEALS, NO LOANS, NO NOTHING!

15h15 hours ago

I win an election easily, a great “movement” is verified, and crooked opponents try to belittle our victory with FAKE NEWS. A sorry state!

14h14 hours ago

Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to “leak” into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?

Then Donald Trump set-up a press conference where he did his usual sideshow.  He had stage props of course, but in this one he had a table of folders supposedly containing information on how he will separate himself from his business, where in that VA fundraiser press conference he had a million dollar check to a Marine charity as a stage prop or the press conference where he had Trump steak, wine and magazines to tout his great businesses.  He attacked the media today , but he also attacked US intelligence agencies.

I think he’s a national security threat to the United States.  That is my gut feeling and I believe he lashed out like this because he knows the FBI and US intelligence agencies are investigating his ties to the Russian mob.  I believe there’s way more to the Clinton investigation than her unsecured email server too.  Knowing how she jeopardized highly classified information, because she didn’t want to have to carry two devices (that was her lame explanation) she is definitely a threat to national security and should never be allowed to handle sensitive information again.

And since Trump lives on Twitter, I suspect what set him and his corrupt cronies in Trump Tower off into staging this sideshow today were tweets by various people on Twitter alluding to US intelligence investigations, like former NSA analyst, John Schindler’s tweetstorm January 9th:

 https://storify.com/Ayei_Eloheichem/trump-the-russian-mob-and-the-fsb.

Schindler lays out allegations that Trump is a long-time money-launderer for the Russian mob in 15 tweets, like this one:

John Schindler ✔@20committee

There are literally dozens of Russian OC scams, some gargantuan, that we know were based at Trump properties — quite a coincidence. /10

10:43 AM – 9 Jan 2017

And along with the Russians and Trump playing tag team at the expense of US intelligence, Wikileaks kept tweeting crap like this:

13h13 hours ago

WikiLeaks Retweeted Donald J. Trump

Trump understanding the difference between a leak and a “leak” (a pseudo-leak or plant with pet media by CIA/admin)

WikiLeaks added,

Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to “leak” into the public. One last shot at me.Are we living in Nazi Germany?
231 replies2,589 retweets4,709 likes

This is where I’m at in regards to Trump – I hope the FBI and US Intelligence agencies complete their investigations quickly and I hope they find enough to impeach Trump.  The sooner the better.  I have watched his tweets praising Putin and the way they tag team messages back and forth for several weeks, but seeing him insinuate US intelligence agencies are Nazis, while accepting Russian intel without question shows he is  the MOST USEFUL IDIOT the Russians have ever acquired.

 

I sure don’t support a do-over election.  The election was legitimate.  For weeks, I’ve been saying he deserves a chance and he does.  I never thought I would hope a President of the United States gets impeached, but after watching Trump undercut, belittle, and undermine US intelligence, while praising Wikileaks, Putin and now Russian intelligence, playing right into their propaganda, well, I believe Donald J. Trump is a threat to The Constitution.  I hope we have some leaders who will abide by The Constitution and vigilantly watch every step Trump takes as President and I pray that our intelligence agencies come up with enough compelling evidence to impeach him.  It feels odd to have a president-elect, whom I hope the FBI can build a case for Congress to say to Donald J. Trump, “You’re fired!”

His games with Putin are a threat to the United States, because he is not only undermining Americans’ confidence in US intelligence agencies, every time he pulls these sideshow gimmicks, he’s undercutting America’s standing with our long-time allies.

I also hope the FBI can make a case against the Clintons and their massive money-laundering operation through the Clinton Foundation.

I would love to see Trump and the Clintons wholesale public corruption exposed and their money-laundering operations hung out to dry.

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Filed under Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, The Constitution