libertybelle diaries

June 23, 2016 · 12:48 am

Humor would work better

Trump delivered his speech in response to Hillary’s speech today. He used a teleprompter and stayed on message. Yes, really, with Trump that’s the low-bar we’re reduced to – his mouthpieces think it’s a big accomplishment that he stayed on message. The speech struck me as a sledgehammer to clobber the listener, as much as Hillary, with an endless barrage about her history. She came out afterwards, in a speech in NC, and played the victim on another vast, right-wing conspiracy.

Today’s speech showed Trump is trying to improve at giving prepared speeches and that’s a plus, but Trump seems flat and bored reading speeches and staying on message, which bodes poorly for a President. His speeches should reflect more about him than be one long character assassination of his opponent. He needs to find some personality of his own, that moves beyond bragging about himself or name-calling.

The “let Trump be Trump” chorus have it all wrong here, because Trump needs to be presidential and his behavior should be to the level befitting the highest office in the land to even be considered for this position. Public decorum is a must and with that in mind, here’s where I differ with all the pundits who cheered his red-meat attack today. I think Trump could have done himself more good if he came out and talked in-depth about his vision for America, with some gibes at Hillary that were humorous or clever. Does he have any charming or witty stories to make him seem less of a vulgar jerk? This overloaded speech, with every piece of dirt on Hillary packed into one speech, detracted and actually trivialized the most serious ones, like her email server, which put national security at risk.

Trump’s speech played to her speech from yesterday and she has him dancing to her tune. He responded and that’s a defensive posture. Watching him deliver this speech, his followers cheered it as proof positive Trump can “act” presidential, but he seemed miserable “acting” presidential and that should concern his big name GOP enablers. I feel sure the old, real Trump will burst forth again and they will need to keep their slop buckets at the ready to do damage control and continuously clean-up after him.

Above is a video of a President delivering humor that made everyone laugh, even his political adversaries. Hillary delivered her speech perfectly and her speechwriter(s) had some clever lines, like the one about Trump writing many books, but they all end at Chapter 11. That was a very clever line and Hillary delivered it perfectly. She pulled it off, despite being a very humorless, wooden political hack, so she’s working to soften her image as “America’s Grandma”.

Trump seems most human talking about his kids and that’s where he seems genuine and he would come across much better if he quit with the relentless character assassinations, shared some amusing anecdotes and showed a bit of charm, wit, humor.

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June 22, 2016 · 12:19 am

Another funny dog video

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Filed under General Interest, Humor

June 21, 2016 · 11:41 pm

Hillary’s perfect triangulation strategy advances

Today, Hillary perfectly delivered a kick-ass speech on the economy. Yep, even though all her cringe-worthy policy ideas, in truth, remain as old and tired as she is, whomever wrote this speech masterfully hit a home run and perfectly advanced the Clinton triangulation strategy. She played the calm, doting America’s grandma, determined to keep America safe from that far-right, LOOSE CANNON, Donald J. Trump. Who could have seen Hillary playing Bill Clinton’s triangulation strategy ….perfectly?

FOX News, formerly the host of the 24/7 Trumpathon, broke in and covered her speech live and in its entirety. Ahh, yes, that glorious “free” media went to Hillary today. Trump will now be playing defense and he will be in the same position he put 16 fellow Republicans using the Clinton’s scorched earth for his now defunct “GOP Insurgency Show”. The only thing Trump will be doing is trying to defend himself against a barrage of media attacks. You can’t be “winning” if you are stuck playing defense.

The news that Trump fired Lewandowski yesterday, might give Trump’s big name GOP enablers hope that Trump can turn his disorganized, unprofessional, inept, clueless Potemkin campaign into a top-notch campaign, prepared to compete with the Clinton machine juggernaut, if anything was going right in Trump World. Today’s news heralds more bad omens, of Trump’s FEC campaign filing and the realization that his campaign is, ahem, prepare to be shocked…….. broke, a train wreck, filled with red flags to possible financial shenanigans. The Atlantic reports:

“Another excuse for poor fundraising is that Trump is wealthy enough to self-fund, so that his shortcomings in collecting other people’s money matter less. “If need be, there could be unlimited ‘cash on hand’ as I would put up my own money, as I have already done through the primaries, spending over $50 million dollars,” Trump said in his statement. In theory, that is true—though doubts persist about how much money he really has, and will continue until and unless he releases tax returns. Trump loaned his campaign more than $2 million to cover expenses, but that’s classified as a loan, rather than giving the money. In fact, one the most striking things about the report is how much money the campaign is paying to Trump-affiliated companies. The Mar-a-Lago Club, which he owns, received more than $432,000 for catering. Tag Air, which Trump also owns, got $350,000 for use of planes and helicopters. Even Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing pulled in $4,000. Trump Tower received rent for office space.

On occasions like this, it’s hard not to think of Trump’s comment in 2000: “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.” Politico points out that Trump spent $208,000 on hats, while “by comparison, the campaign spent only $48,000 on data management and $115,000 on online advertising.” Those “Make America Great Again” hats are great merchandise, and useful for spreading the Trump brand. Data management? Not so much. But Trump has loaned himself more than $40 million now, and if he can’t ramp up his fundraising, he’ll never be able to pay himself back.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/trump-fundraising-bad/488003/

Yes, the ~~great businessman, billionaire, only hired the best people,~~ CON MAN Trump is exposing that the emperor has no clothes, yet one wonders how long his apologists will continue to be 5th Avenue Loyalists. His political hack big name GOP enablers will head for the lifeboats soon if the Trumptanic takes on much more water, I suspect.

The sinking feeling in my stomach, as I listened to Hillary’ calm, perfectly modulated speech, left me angry at the GOP leadership, those gutless wonders who stood by and let this fraud takeover the party and burn it to the ground. In fact, most of those GOP politicians in Washington were getting on board the Trump train, even as the large donors have been holding tight to their wallets.

My loyalty is to America and the Constitution before any political party, but with the Obama “fundamental transformation” moving at warp speed to destroy the US military and undermine the rule of law as much as possible in his last few months, it seemed like the only two institutions with any hope of protecting and defending America and the rule of law, were the US Armed Forces and the GOP, which still preached fidelity to the Constitution. Of course, the GOP feckless and hollow promises are why Trump’s “GOP Insurgency” even gained support in the first place.

Perhaps, the GOP leadership will orchestrate a counter-insurgency and dump Trump at the convention or perhaps Hillary’s campaign will be derailed by the email server fall-out.

“Perhaps”, we are doomed without a miracle.

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Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics, Public Corruption, Uncategorized

June 20, 2016 · 12:38 am

BREXIT explained

Across the pond, the Brits will be voting in a few days on whether to leave the European Union. I saw JK had posted this video link in comments on another site, so I watched the entire video, which runs a little over an hour.

If you want to understand the views of the British people supporting BREXIT, this video explains it quite clearly.

If you ever wondered how does the EU really work, this video does a smashingly good job explaining the nightmarish bureaucratic maze that is the EU and how it doesn’t work.

If you want to know why Trump-style tariffs and a trade war with China would be disastrous for America, well, this video explains that too.

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June 19, 2016 · 10:04 am

Obama’s final “transformation”

Obama’s final transformation (read DESTRUCTION) of the US military is now on the table:

The Pentagon’s controversial plan to hire military leaders off the street

Defense Secretary Ash Carter wants to open the door for more “lateral entry” into the military’s upper ranks, clearing the way for lifelong civilians with vital skills and strong résumés to enter the officer corps as high as the O-6 paygrade.

The idea is controversial, to say the very least. For many in the rank-and-file military, it seems absurd, a bewildering cultural change that threatens to upend many assumptions about military life and traditional career paths. But while it’s not universally embraced, there is interest in Congress and among some of the military’s uniformed leaders — even, they say, in exploring how the services could apply this concept to the enlisted force.

This is a key piece of Carter’s “Force of the Future” personnel reform. Unveiled June 9, it aims to help the military bring in more top talent, especially for high-tech career fields focused on cyber warfare and space. Advocates say it will help the military fill important manpower shortfalls with highly skilled professionals and, more broadly, create greater “permeability” between the active-duty military and the civilian sector.

At the same time, it suggests eroding the military’s tradition of growing its own leaders and cultivating a force with a distinct culture and tight social fabric, which many believe to be the heart of military effectiveness. Critics worry it will create a new subcaste of military service members who are fundamentally disconnected from the traditional career force.” (bold is my emphasis)

If this happens, the US Armed Forces is finished as the finest fighting force in the world.

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Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Military

June 19, 2016 · 12:04 am

“Anything but Islam” again…

The “anything but Islam” obfuscation from the Left, in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack continues to rapidly spread, carried by vicious alien brain-eating spiders, which have taken over liberal rags and mass media.

Let’s see this radicalized Muslim whackado murdered 49 people and injured scores of others, while proclaiming his allegiance to ISIS. Nope, his motive couldn’t be his radical religious beliefs, that would make perfect sense.

So, let’s review the lies. Right off the bat they insisted the terrorist’s motives weren’t clear, but they were sure he wasn’t motivated by his Islamic faith, afterall, just because this guy had become very devout in his religious practices, had expressed support for Al Qaeda and Islamic-inspired attacks against Americans is no reason to link his jihadist beliefs to actually committing jihad. That would be Islamophobic to make that connection. “Islam is a peaceful religion”, you must repeat….. or else.

Then it was the plethora of attacking evil guns and the alleged Christian hate against gays is so pervasive that somehow Christians are responsible for this Muslim who pledged allegiance to ISIS and waged jihad. When you believe the insanity from the Left couldn’t get much worse, well, a political writer, Amanda Marcotte, at Salon explains the real cause:

In the wake of the horrific shooting in Orlando that left 50 dead, a political struggle is forming on whether to define this act as an anti-gay crime or an act of radical Islamic terrorism.

The answer, it’s quickly starting to seem, is both of these, and more. A picture is quickly starting to form of who Omar Mateen, the shooter, was. His ex-wife describes a man who was controlling and abusive. A colleague says he was always using racial and sexual slurs and “talked about killing people all the time.” Both his ex-wife and his father describe him as homophobic, with his father saying he spun into a rage at the sight of two men kissing. He was clearly fond of guns, having not one, but two concealed carry licenses. He worked at a security firm, a career that can be attractive to men with dominance and control issues. He was investigated by the FBI in 2013 for making threats to a coworker.

There is a common theme here: Toxic masculinity.

Every time feminists talk about toxic masculinity, there is a chorus of whiny dudes who will immediately assume — or pretend to assume — that feminists are condemning all masculinity, even though the modifier “toxic” inherently suggests that there are forms of masculinity that are not toxic.

So, to be excruciatingly clear, toxic masculinity is a specific model of manhood, geared towards dominance and control. It’s a manhood that views women and LGBT people as inferior, sees sex as an act not of affection but domination, and which valorizes violence as the way to prove one’s self to the world.

For obvious political reasons, conservatives are hustling as fast as they can to make this about “radical Islam,” which is to say they are trying to imply that there’s something inherent to Islam and not Christianity that causes such violence. This, of course, is hoary nonsense, as there is a long and ignoble history of Christian-identified men, caught up in the cult of toxic masculinity, sowing discord and causing violence in our country: The gun-toting militiamen that caused a showdown in Oregon, the self-appointed border patrol called the Minutemen that recently made news again as their founder was convicted of child molestation, men who attack abortion clinics and providers.

http://www.salon.com/2016/06/13/overcompensation_nation_its_time_to_admit_that_toxic_masculinity_drives_gun_violence/

There you have it……… “toxic masculinity” made him do it.

Ahem, Ms Marcotte, as to your assertion: “they are trying to imply that there’s something inherent to Islam and not Christianity that causes such violence.”, let me answer that in one word for you – JIHAD. That is what is inherent in Islam that is NOT in Christianity.

My head is going to explode… where is my fainting couch?

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Filed under Culture Wars, General Interest, Islam, Politics, Terrorism

June 18, 2016 · 3:12 am

Who said subtitles can’t be funny?

Steve Hayward posted this video. Here’s the link to the his article.

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Filed under General Interest, Humor, Politics

June 16, 2016 · 10:02 am

After Orlando: Clinton 2.0 scorched earth unleashed

I’ve hesitated commenting on Orlando, so first here’s the political situation. In the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack, while Donald Trump added another talking point for the Democratic party, the rest of their script remained predictable, totally dishonest, deliberately deceptive and a messaging marvel to behold. While Bernie still clings to a few threads to be relevant, for all intents and purposes, the Dems are unified and Orlando appears to be a watershed event to get them all marching in lockstep.

Donald Trump’s cheerleading section, as usual, applauded that he was saying things no one else will say, touching on common sense themes like a moratorium on taking in Muslim refugees, in light of fact that despite Jeh Johnson’s disingenuous assurances, there’s no way to thoroughly vet refugees from Iraq and Syria, due to the political instability, ditto that for Somalia and ISIS stated they will use the refugee crisis to get ISIS militants into the US. Trump made a common sense point, except with the terrorist in Orlando, he wasn’t a refugee or an immigrant, but a born and raised, American citizen and Trump’s common sense policy would not have prevented this terrorist from being in the US.

Then Trump played identity politics, as he tried to use the tragedy to shamelessly and clumsily pander to the LGBT community. If there were any doubts that his Sunday tweets and comments, instead of winning over gays, backfired and helped galvanize the fractious Dem minority and special interest groups, well just look at how fast the LGBT community smacked down Trump’s pathetic political pandering.

Trump could have demonstrated some calm, resolute leadership, but instead it was the same old loudmouth bragging, callous and bizarre tweets, insensitive remarks and the same old need to eclipse any story, no matter how grave, with himself. He sent a tweet on Sunday thanking his followers for congratulating him for being right on terrorism , trying to capitalize on being seen as a tough and resolute leader in a crisis, but by yesterday he looked to be desperately searching for an angle to be heard over the Dem talking points… Without any warning he knifed the NRA in the back, completely overlooking the politicization of terrorist watch lists by the Obama administration, when he announced he supports restricting people on terror watch lists from buying guns.

Since Monday, Republican leaders, as usual, seem unsure of how to deal with Donald Trump, who spends more time sabotaging and undermining the GOP than he does fighting Hillary Clinton. So, many GOP leaders are avoiding the press….. abandoning the media field and allowing the Dems to control the 24/7 news cycle, unchallenged.

Sure, President Obama came out and blasted Trump in a very petulant, hyper-partisan manner. Hillary came out and bashed Trump more than she addressed the terrorist attack too, but the difference is the media pivoted and moved in unison to get in line with the Dem talking points. A main Dem talking point IS “Trump is a loose cannon”, so they were completely on message. The cable news networks, not even Trump central (FOX News), were giving Trump 24/7 control of the news cycle, to relentlessly repeat his talking points, ergo he’s sinking fast. Trump has no plan other than his “GOP Insurgency”. He has no viable ground game and added to the GOP disunity, his campaign remains disorganized and internally an internecine battleground too.

All of this was completely predictable watching how he operated rather than grasping at his buzz words as if they were actual complete ideas and policies. If you want to figure out how people will perform any job, first gauge their character and then watch how they operate and by operate I mean see how they handle different tasks and challenges, how they utilize resources, both staff and material resources. Good leadership is mostly about the leader’s character and how he operates with his team. Any person who engages in vicious character assassinations within his own party, plays people against each other constantly, delights in publicly humiliating people and most of all makes every issue almost entirely about his own vanity will be a terrible leader. Even Trump’s delight in being rude speaks to a person who has no respect for others. As I’ve said many times, Trump, in every discernible way he operates, screams “toxic leader”.

Lest, anyone doubt it, the Clintons 2.0 scorched earth/mass media saturation strategy moved into full assault mode and it is a take no prisoners ruthless offensive to destroy Donald Trump and the GOP. The unified messaging coming from President Obama, Hillary, Dem Congressional leaders, on down to the LGBT community activists, who smacked down Trump’s attempt to woo them, should alarm GOP leaders. The liberal media moved into general election high gear too, spinning Orlando as the result of Christian bigots fomenting “hate” against the LGBT community and gun violence. This messaging marvel, where the Dems circulated their talking points and got all their spokespeople and the media on message within hours, should clue the GOP leaders in that the undisciplined, raving primary Trump, who loves to launch character assassinations is the real Trump, who would still rather attack fellow Republicans. He’s going to be a disaster in November.

So, when the LGBT community threw his shallow pandering back in his face, Trump pivoted and tried to steal some of the Dems thunder by attempting to steal one of their main their talking points on gun control. He made this abrupt policy change without even so much as discussing his new epiphany beforehand with GOP leaders or the NRA.

Perhaps more GOP leaders will abandon the Trump train, but at this point either with Trump as the nominee or going through the fractious process of dumping him at the convention, Trump’s “GOP insurgency” leaves the GOP a smoldering rubble. That Trump, without so much as a phone call, could sign on to a key Dem gun control plank in their messaging blitz should finally clue in even the most deluded Republicans that Trump is a total fraud and loose cannon.

Absent the FBI playing some wild card, Hillary, corrupt, vile and politically tone deaf, sits well-positioned to win by a huge margin in November against Donald Trump.

The other stunning takeaway from Orlando is the Dems hate Republicans more than they care about Islamist terrorism – that’s a reality Republicans still don’t understand and that reality is a topic I want to broach in another post.

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Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, General Interest, Politics

June 14, 2016 · 11:55 pm

“American identity”

Today is almost over, but I wanted to mention that today was Flag Day and I came across this passage from the Roger Kimball book, “The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia”, that eloquently expresses the hope for America:

Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. —J. H. St. John de Crèvecœur, Letters from an American Farmer, 1782

The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin … would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. —Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography, 1913

A FEW YEARS AGO, on a trip to Maryland, I stopped at Baltimore Harbor with my wife and five-year-old son to see Fort McHenry, the site, in September 1814, of the Battle of Baltimore, a decisive episode in the War of 1812. It was a glorious spring day: the sky was an infinite azure punctuated by a flotilla of stately white clouds. Our first stop was a modern outbuilding adjacent to the eighteenth-century fort. We crowded into a small theater with about thirty fourth-graders and their teachers to watch a short film. Among other things, we learned about the origins of the war, about how the British took and burned Washington, about how at last a thousand U.S. troops under George Armistead at Fort McHenry successfully defended their bastion against the British naval onslaught, saving Baltimore and turning the tide of the war.

It was (as the Duke of Wellington said of Waterloo) “a damn nice thing— the nearest run thing you ever saw.” The British ships, anchored out of range of Armistead’s cannons, pounded the fort with mortar and Congreve rocket fire over the course of twenty-five hours. Sitting on a truce ship behind the British fleet was a young American lawyer and amateur poet named Francis Scott Key. He watched as the battle raged, dappling the night sky with noisy coruscations.

Sometime before sunrise, the bombardment suddenly stopped. Key was uncertain of the battle’s outcome until dawn broke and he saw the American flag fluttering boldly above Fort McHenry. (When he had taken command, Armistead asked for an extra large flag so that “the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance.”) There would be no surrender. The Brits abandoned their plans to invade Baltimore. The war would soon be over. As soon as he caught sight of Old Glory, Francis Scott Key began scribbling what would become “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the back of a letter. He finished it in a hotel in Baltimore a day or two later. The poem was an instant hit and was soon set to “The Anacreontic Song,” an eighteenth-century English drinking tune. It became the official national anthem in 1931.

The film ended and strains of the song began floating out from the loudspeakers— softly at first, then louder and louder. Everyone in the room scrambled to his feet.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The schoolchildren stood reverently, each with his right hand over his heart. A floor-length curtain wheeled back, flooding the room with light. There was Fort McHenry. And there, rising above it, was the American flag, waving gently in the breeze. With the possible exception of our son, who was busy attacking The Enemy with his toy F14, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Of course, that calculated piece of theater was in part an exercise in sentimentality. Is that a bad thing? Wallace Stevens may have been right that, in general, “sentimentality is a failure of feeling”— a sign of counterfeit emotion rather than the real thing. Nevertheless, there is a place for a bit of affirmative sentimentality in the moral economy of our society. Among other things, it provides emotional glue for our shared identity as Americans. These days, perhaps more than ever before, that identity needs glue. As we contemplate the prospects for America and its institutions in the twenty-first century, it is not only particular cultural and social institutions that deserve scrutiny. What we might call the institution of American identity— of who we are as a people— also requires our attention.

Kimball, Roger (2012-07-04). The Fortunes of Permanence: Culture and Anarchy in an Age of Amnesia (Kindle Locations 754-793). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.