Why Trump Won

- He is genuine in thought and action

- He is a patriot and loves his country

- He identified many issues* that were being ignored by our betters

- He promised to fix them ... and the voters believed him

- He said he would make America great again

- He knew that Washington was corrupt to the core

- And promised to “drain this swamp”

- He identified our fake media ... something that many suspected

- He wasn’t Hillary

* uncontrolled immigration, unfair trading pacts, anemic economic growth, Chinese hegemony, pointless international nation building, tolerance of terrorism at home and abroad, NATO slackers, climate change hoax, Obamacare disaster, liberal courts, insane Iran nuclear deal, North Korea nuclear and missile problems

At War? (Part One)

Dear reader, I am somewhat reluctant to begin this blog post ... in effect, opening up this frightening can of worms ... but it seems to be writing itself.

Are we at war with China? I am unfortunately concluding that we are. Let’s look at events:

For decades, China has been striving for worldwide hegemony ... by forced technology transfer, by undercutting other nations’ manufacturing with cheap, even slave labor, by spying and espionage on developed nations,, by manipulating its currency, by buying up critical Western assets, by commercial extortions, by infiltrating UN agencies, by bribing Western politicians  (and their relatives), by assembling belligerent nation proxies, by insidious propaganda campaigns, by huge military spending, by territorial expansions ... and on and on.

And until President Trump appeared, the rest of the world was hypnotized under the rubric of “globalism” ... a term invented by those commercial interests that were profiting through China’s expansion. This incredibly stupid world leader was the first to recognize this Sino-threat publicly ... and started pushing back. He imposed tariffs on strategic products that China was dumping on the world. He began the process of putting some of China’s proxy nations in a box. He began using his bully pulpit to point out exactly what China had been doing. He rebuilt America’s and NATO’s military. He gradually increased the scope and size of tariffs on China. He assembled our other trading partners in bulwarks against China. He exposed “global warming” hysteria as just another tool of the globalists. He cut a huge trade deal with China that helped level the playing field ... and on and on.

And he was making a big difference in slowing China’s march to world domination ... remarkable for such an orange-tinted ignoramus! So, what did China do to respond? Tune in next time, dear readers, and you will see much of the rest of the story ...

Headlines

NATO suspends Iraq training mission

Trump says US not seeking war or regime change in Iraq, but is still ready to act if ‘necessary’

Iran unveils red flag at mosque warning of severe battle to come ...

Zumwalt: Soleimani demise could end Iran’s long, one-way war with America

Booker raises $6.6 million in fourth quarter

Oil prices surge to highest level since April after US kills Iran’s top commander in airstrike

Poll: Bloomberg pops to third place in Dem race ...

Russian pranksters: Maxine Waters fell for call from ‘Greta Thunberg’

Fed officials saw decreased recession risk in December meeting

Australia fires kill half a billion animals as crisis mounts

Worst flu season in decades ...

Gaetz: The world is witnessing a ‘change in doctrine’

Unreal Realities

This blog has pointed out that America has been living with unreal realities ... see: Reality Check. Pre-Trump, the United States was embracing many media- and politician-inspired “truths” that the Orangeman is attempting to kick into a cocked hat. They include:

- We can trust Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions and stop its sponsorship of terrorism

- Once China embraced capitalism, its 1.3 billion people would become huge customers for U.S. companies

- The Chinese model of totalitarian capitalism is superior to free-market capitalism

- Abortion, even right before birth, is moral and a woman’s legal right

- The European model of democratic socialism is superior to the U.S.’s free-market capitalism

- Large numbers of unscreened immigrants (even illegals) enhance American diversity and makes us stronger and safer

- Anti-ballistic missile defense and atomic weapons upgrades were a waste of money

- The Second Amendment is causing mass shootings

- The US. needs to continue to be the major financial supporter of NATO and the UN

- America’s middle working class is a basket of deplorables

- The United States needs to continue to insure peace in the the world ... and even nation-build where necessary

- High taxes and more government regulation is necessary and good for a strong America

- The checkered history of the United States makes it a flawed country not to be revered

- Carbon dioxide emissions from burning hydrocarbons are creating climate havoc that will shortly destroy mankind

- Israel and Great Britain are not America's friends

- Russia is our mortal enemy

- North Korea, even with its nuclear weapons and missiles, can be appeased and safely ignored

- Islam is a religion of peace

- America cannot be and will never be again another manufacturing powerhouse


If you agree with pushing back against even half of these reality illusions, you might ignore his sandpaper personality and reconsider your adversity to the Orangeman.

Reconciliation

If Trump keeps winning ... on trade, on employment, on the economy, on immigration,  on NATO, on the climate, on Russia, on Hong Kong, on the stock market, on impeachment(?) ... then there will be an even greater divide ... between the never-Trumpers and those of sound mind.

The problem persists: How do we bring these two factions back together? I have a suggestion ... we need to have a month of reconciliation! Maybe it’ll take a year? Anyway, during this period, the progressives will be given a chance to confess their sins to AG Barr ... wire tapping, phony dossiers, cut-outs, pay-for-play foundations, voter fraud, political dirty tricks, set-ups of naive campaigners, perjury, spying on political opponents, destruction of incriminating evidence (like 33,000 emails), soliciting graft, selling 20% of US ‘s uranium to the Ruskies ... maybe some out-of-statute-of-limitations Arkancides.

Then, after all these reconciliation confessions have taken place, the DOJ can drop the hammer on all these reprobates.

Headlines

NATO chief says Trump remains committed to alliance

Bezos says ‘the country is in trouble’ if big tech turns its back on Pentagon: ‘We are the good guys’

FBI hunts missing Saudis in Florida ... 10 more detained ...

Hawkins: Gun-free military bases make U.S. troops sitting ducks

France’s Macron determined to push forward with pension reform

Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler says impeachment articles ‘presumably’ introduced this week

NKorea conducts ‘important test’ at once-dismantled site ...

House Judiciary Committee Report: ‘Motives’ are impeachable

How the cool kids on the left turned on Elizabeth Warren

Wall Street bets international stocks will top US equities in 2020 after a decade-long slump

Sources: Biden tells ‘Axios on HBO’ he will slap restrictions on Hunter if elected ...

Nadler: If Trump is acquitted, I don’t know that 2020 will be fair

Headlines

U.S., Mexico resolve differences in USMCA talks

Warren’s antitrust bill would dramatically boost government control over biggest US companies

Six other [Saudis] arrested; filmed attack ...

Trump backs down on designating Mexican cartels as terrorists

DeVos orders partial loan relief for many duped student borrowers

It’s possible US economy is not just ‘late cycle’ but rather just recharging

Kudlow claims Dec 15 ‘important [China trade deal] date ...

Pope Francis compares Trump to murderous King Herod

Hostilities between Warren and Buttigieg boil over

Managing China is NATO’s biggest challenge yet

Release of Trump banking records delayed by Ruth Bader Ginsburg ...

Trump Science Advisor Will Harper: Global warming is a ‘scam’

Headlines

Hillary Clinton on Lindsey Graham: ‘It’s like he had a brain snatch’

Next year will be hard on the housing market, especially in some big cities

Turley: ‘Even my dog seems mad’ ...

Jonathan Turley: ‘This is not the way you impeach an American president’

China denounces ‘political’ attack on Huawei by Pompeo

Trump lawyer Giuliani travels to Europe to meet ex-Ukrainian prosecutors, report says

Hillary had coughing fit on Howard Stern ...

Judiciary Democrats block motion to subpoena the ‘whistleblower’

Trump threatens to punish Germany over military spending

Trump abruptly cancels NATO news conference as summit turns sour

Now Trump caught on hot mic gossiping about Trudeau?

Turley warns Congress on impeachment for ‘obstruction’: ‘It’s your abuse of power’

Hate

Why do so many people despise Trump with a white-hot hate? Let me count the ways:

He’s a phony, a fraud.
He reminds them of Mussolini.
He named his son Baron.
He is a serial liar
He’s a billionaire.
He has a very attractive wife who has a foreign accent.
He embarrassed the deadbeat NATO members.
He plays too much golf.
He is against late-term abortions.
He does not embrace shit-hole nations.
He fires people who work against him.
He uses locker-room language from time to time.
He is too opinionated and speaks his mind.
He is adored by the smelly shoppers at Walmart.
He fights back against those who are trying to take him down,
He is vainglorious.
He is a global-warming skeptic.
He would like to find common ground with Russia (against China?)
He calls out corruption and incompetence.
He is a racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, fascist homophobe.
He likes to get something back for US taxpayer dollars.
He is overweight and has orange hair.
He loves America and wants to make it great again.

Afterward: Yes, even Nancy Pelosi too!

Ready, Shoot, Aim

Many politicians have waded in on the Turkey invasion of Syria. I’ve even put my toe in the water ... see: Tough One. The vast majority of politicians have thumped Trump for his tough decision ... often without knowing all the give-and-take behind Trump’s stance. Maybe some circumspection is called for.

Somehow it appears to this observer that there is more to Trump’s move than is immediately apparent ... since abandoning previous allies comes with a large potential cost. When he ran for president, Trump had pledged to remove US troops from foreign entanglements ... and this is part of his rational for stepping aside during Turkey’s rash move.

But this, as Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says, is obviously a very complex situation. Recently there is some friction between the Kurds and American forces ... see: Breitbart Story, Turkey’s membership in NATO makes things more difficult (is Trump setting it up for expulsion?), Trump has been trying to force countries in the region to step up to their responsibilities, etc. And I’m sure that there are many sub rosa issues which few politicians understand.

Therefore, it would seem to me that a little time should be invested in fully understanding things before stepping in front of the national media and saying words that might have to be eaten later.

Trump’s Legacy

I know it’s rather early to start considering what Trump’s legacy will be. But there are some rather clear things that he has changed that will live on after he has departed the White House. Here are my takes:

- The president’s “magic wand” of tax cuts and regulation reforms has kicked up the rate of economic growth to above 3% from the previous “new normal” of below 2%. And the stock market is up over 50% combined with energy independence, strong consumer confidence, employment and domestic manufacturing. And inflation has been modest to boot. Not bad!

- The U.S.’s national image will have flipped from apologizing for our success to being proud of it ... and resolving to return to our past glories. We will have recaptured our greatness ... and be proud of it.

- Like Ronald Reagan did to restore our defense dominance, so Donald Trump will be equally lauded ... but he will also be praised for his restraint in using this military might. In the process, he has put, at least for the moment, North Korea and Iran in a box. If either of these countries capitulates, it will be the first sentence in his history book write up.

- Exactly opposite to the current media narrative, NATO will have been substantially strengthened by Trump’s insistence that our European partners live up to their financial and troop obligations under this decades-old pact.

- Although Trump will not have destroyed terrorism, he likely will have partially defanged it.

- Despite enormous sticky resistance in Congress and in the courts, Trump has made some progress in securing our borders and reforming our immigration process ... less than the majority of Americans want ... but still progress.

- Trump’s agenda has pushed the Democrat party to show its colors as being far more radical left in its actions than its deceptive rhetoric.

- If nothing else, President Trump will be remembered for his focusing on how China has become a hegemonic threat to America ... and his developing strategies to counter same. So far his success here has been modest but, if re-elected, I expect much more progress.

Headlines

Kamala Harris proposes $100 billion plan for black homeownership

El-Erian: The market ‘has gotten carried away’ with its Fed rate cut predictions

7.1 mag [quake] rocks CA 125 miles N of LA

Judges reconvict Tommy Robinson for contempt of court

Biden predicts ‘there will be no NATO’ if Trump wins re-election

Fed’s seek $12.6 billion in drug money from ‘El Chapo’

MAGA on Mall ... Future belongs to the brave ...

Biden: We shouldn’t decriminalize entering the U.S. illegally

US adds 224,000 solid jobs, Fed rate cut may be less certain

Beto O’Rourke pushes student loan forgiveness for public school teachers

Explosion reported at University of Nevada, Reno dorm ...

India: Group hacks man, pregnant wife to death over inter-caste marriage

Obama Legacy

Paris Climate Accord           Nixed

Obamacare                             Partialy Nixed

Iran Nuclear Agreement      Nixed

Economic malaise                  Corrected

ISIS                                           Partialy Nixed

Over regulation                       Nixed

Pipeline blockings                   Nixed

North Korea hegonomy         Partialy Nixed

Poor trade agreements           Partialy Nixed

Scandal-free administration   Just Wait

Open borders                           Partialy Nixed

Muslim tilt                                Israeli tilt

Poor military readiness           Nixed

Ignoring NATO slackers         Partialy nixed

Neural Networks

Your humble poster here once headed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software project. One of my best programmers quit because of his frustration over complex nested conditionals (neural networks). The ultimate success of AI will depend on the ability to identify nodes in such networks as well as being able to deal with the almost infinite levels of conditional complexities.

It seems to this author that one of Trump’s great strengths as a policy maker is his ability to include in our country’s decision-making process an uncanny knack to identify previously ignored nodes in our neural network — unfair trade alliances, over regulation, Russian pipeline into Germany, NATO slackers, open borders, steel and aluminum being strategic US native industries, etc.

The jury is somewhat out on Trump’s ability to navigate these new expanded decision trees ... but he is still way, way ahead of our last four presidents.

Back to the subject at hand. Yes, quantum computers may someday be able to handle the huge number of complex conditionals involved in true AI. But, if a butterfly flapping it wings in Japan can cause a tornado in Alabama, I still have some doubts about the logistics of the data amassing project needed to account for all possible inputs into such an ultimate AI breakthrough.

How about it Elon?

On His Plate

President Trump has had to address so very many items that his predecessors chose to ignore. Here are just a few of the unsavory things he found on his plate on inauguration day:

- North Korean nuclear threat

- Grossly unfair trade relations with China and the EU

- Broken immigration laws, law enforcement and policies

- Run-away big tech and its insidious invasion of our privacy

- An untamed ISIS caliphate in Iraq and Syria

- Venezuelan economic and social decay

- Sluggish economic growth driven by bad tax laws and over regulation

- NAFTA’s  hollowing out of American industrial base (inc. steel and aluminum)

- NATO financial and forces slackers

- American armed forces reconstruction

- Activists US judicial system (inc. Supreme Court)

- Iranian nuclear threat and its sponsorship of worldwide terrorism

- A grossly biased American media

- Russian and Chinese worldwide hegemonic mischief making

- And many, many more ...

And, all the while, Trump, as he was addressing this unappetizing fare, was being spit on by the Deep State, the media ... and the Mueller Russian investigation.

Game Changer

Let us draw a few presidential contrasts:

Clinton,  Bush. and Obama did not try to address the North Korean nuclear threat ... Trump appears to be making some progress

Clinton,  Bush. and Obama did not effectively push back against the NATO payment slackers ... Trump has

Obama did nothing when Russia invaded the Ukraine ... Trump has armed them to resist

Clinton,  Bush. and Obama had ineffective and expensive Middle East strategies ... Trump appears to reversed both stumbles

Clinton, Bush and Obama had ignored Russian violations of the cruise missile treaty ... Trump hasn’t

Obama, with the Federal Reserve Bank’s help, was happy with GDP growth below 2% ... Trump has taken it above 3% even with the Fed working against him

Clinton, Bush and Obama had ignored the growing Venezuelan disaster, Trump hasn’t

Clinton, Bush. and especially Obama did not  address the Iranian threats ... Trump appears to have put Iran’s mullahs back in a box

Obama did not resist the Russian pipeline into Germany ... Trump has

Clinton, Bush and Obama had ineffective immigration policies and enforcement ... Trump is trying to fix things, resisted by Democrats and much of corporate America

Clinton and Obama were clearly anti-Israel ... Trump is just the opposite

ISIS was created due to Obama’s ineptitude and he would not defeat them ... Trump has

... Is this enough evidence that Trump is a game changer?

Trumpisms

Trump is evil. Absolutely everything he does as president is pulling this country down. He has accomplish nothing in his over two years in office. All he does is play golf and watch TV. Anything that is good today was accomplished by his Nobel-Prize winning predecessors. He is an absolute doofus and has orange hair to boot. Here are some of his braggadocios policy statements and self-puffing accomplishments. Agree or disagree?

Many NATO members should be paying up for what they had committed to — True  False
North Korea needs to denuclearize or be vaporized — True  False
Germany connecting to a Russian oil pipeline defeats the purpose of NATO — True  False
We have destroyed the ISIS caliphate and should withdraw from Syria — True  False
China’s trade practises with the US are very unfair and need fixing — True  False
Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation is a witch hunt — True  False
If a nation does not protect its borders, it is not a nation ... we need a wall — True  False
Tax cuts and regulation reform will jump start the American economy — True  False
We have long promised to move our embassy to Jerusalem. Now is the time — True False
After 18 years of war, it is time to get out of Afghanistan — True  False
The Iranian nuclear deal is a complicit disaster and needs to be nullified — True  False
Middle East nations should pay us for their defense — True  False
The Iranian theocracy does not serve its people and needs to be reformed — True  False
Our intelligence agencies don’t always get things right — True  False
We need to make America energy independent — True  False
We need a more thorough migrant vetting process in countries rife with terrorists — True  False
Saudi Arabia is key to Middle East peace — True  False
Visa lotteries do not produce the best migrants, should be stopped — True  False
We need to bring manufacturing back to our country— True False
Chain migration is also insane and needs to be stopped — True  False
We need to arm the Ukrainian government to push back against the Russians — True  false
NAFTA has been a disaster for US manufacturing and needs renegotiating — True  False
Why are we  taking migrants from “shithole” countries — True  False
The Paris Climate Accord was a gigantic wealth transfer mechanism and should die — True  False
The United States will never be a socialist country — True  False
Our military needs to refunded and  revitalized — True  False

And this is not the half of it. Romney said Trump was “a fake and a fraud.” And he is not getting anything done. Agree?

Headlines

California’s move to Super Tuesday hands Harris a big edge in 2020

As Trump ponders auto tariffs, free trade Republicans push back

Spending binge worse than under Obama, Bush

Washington Post: Democrats hid border security win from Trump

Dems prepare to force Trump to reveal private talks with Putin

Trade talks with the U.S. are ‘making a final sprint,’ Chinese state media claim

Kaepernick settles collusion case against NFL ... $60 - $80 million?

Trump decries catch and release as spending bill expands program

Vatican defrocks former Washington cardinal over sex abuse

Trump’s message is having an impact on NATO, secretary general says

Just 1 in 4 Americans pass US citizenship test ...

Lindsey Graham congratulates Trump on defeating ISIS caliphate

Headlines

Democrats barrel toward Election Day confident of House takeover

Data suggest renters could be a silent electoral majority in midterms, 2020 elections

Amazon hiring fewer holiday workers, a sign robots replacing ...

Ocasio-Cortez: Impeaching Trump 'no-brainer'

Iran seeks EU guarantees against Trump sanctions

Luxury car owners trade up for American pickups as Ford, GM and  Dodge trucks dominate market

Supreme Court rejects bid to halt 'climate change' trial ...

Jeff Flake: Obama has better 'tone' than Trump

Trump cancels Columbia trip

Amazon reportedly eyes Northern VA for its 2nd headquarters, and decision is 'close'

Russia turns up uninvited to major NATO war games ...

Pope Francis: 'Nations are built by migrants'

Headlines

Trump launches early blame game on market and the economy

Facebook daily users are down in Europe, flat in North America, but revenue keeps rising

Kanye [West] is done with politics: Ive been used!  Breaks with POTUS ...

Central American migrants set fire to Mexican immigration facility

Trump announces plan to end birthright citizenship by executive order

Mueller accuses opponents of offering women money to make 'false claims' against him

Whitey [Bulger] whacked in prison ...

U.S., Canada only nations in developed world with unrestricted birthright citizenship

David Axelrod: Democrats are walking into Trump's trap

Southern California suffers its worse housing slump in over a decade

Russia tests missiles in NATO [military] exercise zone ...

Mexican ambassador to U.S.: Some in migrant caravan 'very violent'