Stupid Bastards

In 2016, Joe Biden “ jokingly” calls our overseas military personnel “stupid bastards” ... not alleged by four anonymous sources who won’t come forward ... but in the above video.

STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

New Newspeak

Sometimes I, like George Orwell, believe that liberal brains are mis-wired and they are “unable to process.” It seems that they have an uncanny way of offering up arguments that, by their mystical quality, sound possible ... but fall apart upon closer inspection. The following is a comment on a recent blog post here that has Swiss cheese holes all through it:

“People yearn for simple ways to describe complex issues. In the political realm, unlike science, the simplest solution is too often a short term fix, which fails in the long run due to those pesky unintended consequences.

This is Trump's appeal: He offers simple solutions. A Wall to stem illegal immigration, Tariffs to punish China, Hydroxychloriquine, cancelling Treaties, on and on. The ramifications of his actions are beyond his ability to process. It will take a long tome to fix the mess he has created.”

 A few observations:

- William of Ocean did not say the his “razor” only applied to science. He obviously meant that the simpler solution applied across the board.

- How does this commenter know that Trump’s solutions will fail in the long run ...  does he have a Magic 8 Ball? And does his observation imply that they are working at least in the short term? The wall and Trump’s standing up to China are seminal events that, I predict, will make the history books.

- Trump’s jettisoning of the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran Nuclear Deal was legit because they were NOT treaties since they had never been ratified by Congress. The remake of NAFTA WAS ratified by Congress.

- Are these Biden solutions also short-term: the Green New Deal, huge tax increases, open borders, eliminate cash bail, defund the police, no fracking, Medicaid for All (including illegals), more regulations, gut our armed forces, eliminate prisons, rewrite our history, more regulations, voting from prison, scuttle tariffs, Socialism, etc.?


Bottom line: With many of these cockamamie Democrat proposals, there is no long-term ...


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

Today’s Poser

How come ‘virtually’ all the speakers at the Democrat Nomination Convention have not touched on our China challenge, the riots in our streets, “redirecting”  police funding, soaring US crime rates, homelessness in blue cities, Middle East peace progress, ISIS destruction, Iran sanctions, the Afghanistan pullout and our military’s rebuilding? All that we have heard is how evil Trump is ... and what a visionary Biden is.  Are none of these other things worth talking about?


STAND UP FOR AMERICA!

The Trump Doctrine

MAGA!

A country without borders is not a country

Free trade is not necessarily fair trade

The US is not the world’s police force

Nationalism over failed globalism

This country will never be socialist

America needs to be energy independent

Bring manufacturing back to the United States

We must have the world’s premier military force

Be careful who you pick for your enemies ... and for your friends

Immigration should be welcoming but selective ... aim for contributors

We must take care of our veterans

Repeal and replace Obamacare

Strong economic growth and full employment across all ethnic groups

Our cities should be clean and crime-free

Alliances should be lived up to ... by all parties

Love of country and pride in country

Headlines

Labor anger over Green New Deal greets 2020 contenders in California

China releases critical document that blames America for the trade war

Amazon primed for antitrust

James Comey accuses AG Barr of ‘echoing conspiracy theories’

Trump’s tariff war leaves allies fretting about the economy

Mexican President hints at migration concessions to avoid Trump tariffs

India heatwave temperatures pass 123 degrees!

Warren: ‘America that elected’ Trump has ‘serious peoblems’

Trump backs Johnson, takes pop at Macron ahead of European trip

Beijing targets Fedex for ‘damaging rights of Chinese clients amid Huawei dispute

Mayor of Londonstan calls Trump ‘fascist’ ...

Bernie: Slash military spending and move ‘toward global community’

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

Headlines

Justice Ginsberg gets surgery to remove cancerous nodules

US government begins third shutdown of 2018 amid fight over Trump's border wall

Two drone pilots arrested after Gatwick [UK airport] chaos ...

Southern California highway named after Obama

Shutdown begins as talks falter over Trump's wall

Dow dives 400 points to end its worst week in ten years

How much border wall does $5 billion buy? 215 miles ...

Trump urges Mitch McConnell to use 'nuclear option' to fund government

Supreme Court rejects Trump's plea to reject asylum ban

Top finance execs losing confidence in China's economy, survey says

Is America's military loyal to its commander-in-chief?

[Bernie] Sanders: 'I'm not going to support spending for a wall'

Bowling for Greatness

Nothing ventured, nothing gained -- Old Saw

President Trump is determined to bring the U.S. back from the brink. For the last 40 years this country has tried to lift up the rest of the underdeveloped world, particularly China, out of poverty into prosperity. We have succeeded ... possibly too well. Although this strategy was not a zero-sum game, Pat Buchanan was right that NAFTA would cause a "giant sucking sound" as jobs went south into Mexico. China has also  benefited enormously ... to the point where, if things don't change, it is poised to become the world's dominant economy before 2030!

Enter stage right, Donald Trump.  Unlike his shrinking-violet predecessors, this president is willing to take risks -- trade risks, economic risks, military risks, diplomatic risks, coalition risks, political risks -- all to reverse the decline that this country has clearly suffered.  He has identified this country's sluggish growth as being a consequence of our deference to the rest of the world on most fronts ... particularly the fact that the anticipated customer growth  in those countries, which have benefited from our pump priming, has not happened. Now the time is up ... and it is America's turn to return to our natural economic greatness.

Trump is willing to risk war with North Korea and Iran to defang these bad actors. He is wiling to risk trade wars with the EU, China, Mexico, Korea, Canada and Japan in order to restore America's industrial might. He is willing to risk the wrath of our liberal media to correct our insane immigration policies, tax structure, divisive race relations, weakened military, destructive environmental regulations, activist judiciary system and bloated bureaucracy. He is leading our country out of the liberal lethargy in which both political parties have allowed us to wallow.

Trump is a risk taker ... and, so far, things generally seem to be paying off. His detractors keep predicting disaster for all his ventures. But, although not all his bowling has yet yielded strikes, President Trump has mot thrown a real gutter ball.

Democrat Manifesto

The Democrat party has moved far left in the last decade ... to a point that would be unrecognizable to the party of JFK or even Bill Clinton. It's as though George Soros has tattooed his manifesto on the donkey's rump. However, not all recent Blue candidates are using this manifesto as their platform because the smarter ones realize that it is a loser. But, once elected if elected, Nancy Pelosi tells them how to vote.

The question becomes then, how much of this Democrat manifesto will be visible in the next presidential election and maybe even in this Fall's midterm elections? But be mot mistaken, this is the guts of their agenda. So let's get on to what this manifesto contains:

- Single-payer healthcare
- World government
- Destroy the U.S. coal industry
- Increase third-world migration into America
- Higher income taxes (to redistribute wealth)
- Sanctuary cities and states
- "Strategic patience"  (passive foreign policy)
- Open national borders
- Nuclear disarmament or at least unilateral reduction
- Crony capitalism
- Promoting Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA
- Mote government transfer payments (welfare)
- Fewer illicit drug laws and lesser punishments ("sentencing reform")
- Facilitation of illegal voting
- Weaker military
- Removing Civil War (and other historic) statues
- Free higher education
- Diversity quotas and more "inclusion" of hyphenated Americans
- Nullifying the Second Amendment
-Taxpayer funded abortion and birth control
- Free but not necessarily fair (multilateral) trade
- Carbon taxes and much tighter emissions standards
- "Green" energy production at the expense of  fossil fuels
- More government regulations
- LBGTQ and transgender rights advocacy
- Suppression of "offensive" speech

This list is not by a long shot comprehensive ... and they are not all excessively malignant ... but. taken as a whole, they would "fundamentally transform" this country ... if we survive at all.

Trump Trope

D - defanging progress with ISIS, North Korea and Iran

O - opioid crisis pushback

N - NATO shaming (to pay their fair share)

A - anti-fake news

L - legal system leveling (with conservative judges)

D - developing America's infrastructure


J - Jerusalem embassy to be


T - tax cuts and trade (free but fair)

R - rigorous military

U - un-opening of our borders

M - manufacturing Renaissance

P - patriotism

Euclidean Proof

Theorem: Trump has already shown himself to be a better president than Obama (or, by extension,  Hillary)

Postulate: Trump's policies, in almost every arena, are diametrically opposed to Obama/Hillary's

Axiom: The American Judiciary is returning to its Constitutional role of interpreting the laws

Axiom: GNP growth under Trump is better than 3% vs. under 2% with Obama

Axiom: The American stock market (Dow) is up 7,000 points (38%) since Trump's election

Axiom: Unemployment is at historic lows despite many more workers entering the labor force

Axiom: The ISIS caliphate in Iraq and Syria has finally been obliterated

Lemma: Increasingly, America is reestablishing its global leadership and hegemony

Axiom: First major tax overhaul in 31 years

Axiom: There has been a dramatic drop in government regulations

Axiom: Illegal immigration is down while deportations of criminals is way up

Lemma: Unfavorable trade agreements are being renegotiated

Axiom: The U.S. military and nuclear arsenal are being revitalized

Ergo: Being that his policies are the anthisis of Obama's, Trump's winners have been far better for America than Obama's or would-be Hillary's.

Is This You?

H. Lewis Amselem, in the  Diplomad 2.0 Blog, thinks liberals are nuts. (He calls them lefties or progs.)  To back up this charge he has penned a gem of a paragraph explaining himself;

As far as I can tell they are for children but also for killing unborn ones with no restriction, no apology, and no need for a fee. They are for LBGT and women's "rights," but ally themselves with Muslims who practice FGM, oppose abortion, treat women like cattle, and promote and engage in honor killings, and advocate death for LBGT people. They are for women's rights, but want men who think they are women to use women's washrooms. They are for free speech, but shut down anybody who disagrees with them, and, of course, ally themselves with Muslims who oppose freedom of speech and thought as part of their core dogma. They are against racism but try to stir up old racial animosities and conflicts that had long been resolved, buried, and forgotten. They are for poor working people, but oppose the tax and the regulatory structures that create jobs. They are for poor working people but favor unrestricted immigration that drives down wages, crowds out jobs, and absorbs the funds of public welfare schemes. They want free education for all, but oppose letting poor and middle class people have the right to choose their schools, unlike the rich people who do. They shout "Love Trumps Hate!" as they bash opponents with bricks and poles. They have spent decades denouncing the military, the CIA, the NSA, and the FBI as oppressors of the people, but now want those agencies to sabotage an elected president. The wealthy ones denounce gun ownership and walls but live behind protective shields of men with guns and walls around their exclusive properties. Hollywood stars who made millions living in the land of make-believe denounce non-existent Trumpian "brownshirts" and bravely proclaim their resistance! They are for the environment and prove it by flying to environmental rallies in their private jets. They, well . . . you can go on with this sad litany.

Is this you?

Afterward: Just read a poignant comment on this same blog entry -- "Trump's election did not create the Left's hatred, it revealed it."

Fixin' Things

Donald J. Trump is now our new president. When he entered the White House, he found the following To-Do list on the refrigerator:

Fix immigration
Repair our foreign relations
Renegotiate trade pacts

Fix the tax system

Defeat ISIL
More economic growth

Reduce over-regulation

Fix veterans' affairs

Rebuild our military

Fix Obamacare

Solve cyber security problems

Fix our schools

Bring government spending under control

Fix our infrastructure
Box in North Korea

Inprove race relations
Bring jobs back

Stop terrorist attacks

Fix our entitlement system

There were no check marks ...

Obummer's Legacy

Obummer may not be the worst president in American history, but he still has six more months to sew up the title. He promised us hope and change ... and he certainly changed most things for the worse ... to the point where many of us are willing to take a flyer on a loud-mouth self promoter who just might repair enough things to save our nation's bacon. To reprise Obummer's last 7 1/2 years, here is the legacy he has left us with:

- More than a doubling of our national debt to an unsustainable level

- Race relations at an all-time low

- Corruption tainting almost every cabinet department

- Growing income inequality squeezing the middle class

- Urban crime rates back on the rise

- Economic and wage growth in the toilet

- Negative balance of payment at an all-time high

- Number of people dropping out of the workforce at an all-time high

- Swarms of illegal immigrants from Latin America countries

- An open door policy for unvetted Muslim immigrants

- A doubling of families receiving food stamps

- Zero tax reform

- Zero entitlement reform

- Huge increase in burdensome government regulations

- A gutting of our military

- Disastrous remaking of our health-care system

- The Middle East in smoking ruins

- Much more belligerent Russia, China, North Korea and Iran

- An alienated and abandoned Israel

- Deteriorating national infrastructure

- Serious loss of our international hegemony


And Hellery Clinton has promised to continue us down Obummer's primrose path!

!

Counterpoint

Recently I wrote a blog specifying all the good things that can be said about the United States ... see: Rose-Colored Glasses. However, daily we see media articles that show these advantages often slip-sliding away. To illustrate this I have juxtaposed below, next to my previously-stated advantages, media stories that show the slow dulling of our nation's edges:

We have a capitalism-driven growing economy ... the largest in the world. See: China Overtakes the U.S. as World;s Largest Economy.

We have a plentiful supply of cheap labor to our south ... anxious to experience our American life. See: Donald Trump Was Right.

We have a premier higher-education system ... the envy of the world ... and one which keeps supplying us with gifted entrepreneurs. See: Higher Education -- Not What It Used To Be.

We have the geographic advantage of being isolated from most of the rest of the world by two large oceans. See: How Geography Explains The United States.

We have a very low inflation rate. See: What Official Inflation Figures Aren't Telling Us.

We have a generally benign climate. See: Scientists Warn Sun Will Go To Sleep In 2020, Cause Temperatures To Plummet.

We have a national park system that is the envy of the world. See: Obama Designates More Than 1 Million Acres For Three New Monuments.

We have the world's best health-care professionals and technology. See: Healthcare Is Getting Worse Under Obamacare.                 

Despite continuing declines, we still have an enormous manufacturing capacity. See: Fast Track To Lost Jobs.

We are currently not in a hot war draining our treasury and supply of young people. See: Pentagon Official Lists Militants, Russia and China As Threats To The U.S.

Most crime in this country is on the decline except in a few hot spots. See: Murder Rate Surges In Major U.S. Cities.

We have a democratic-elected government and all the freedoms provided by our Bill of Rights. See: The Constitution Is Eroding.

We are abundantly supplied with raw materials. See: How Putin's Russia Gained Control Of A U.S. Uranium Mine.

We have a stable currency ... the basis of most world-wide commerce. See: Momentum Builds To Label Chinese Yuan A Reserve Currency

We have the strongest military in the world. See: Lawmakers Blast US Army Force Cuts.

We have a very large middle class that supports our democracy and our way of life. See: The Shrinking American Middle Class.

We have an enormously efficient food-supply chain. See: America.s Fragile Food Supply Chain.

We lead the world in most technological advances. See: U.S. Moving From Technology Leader To Laggard.

We still carry a large surplus of prestige with most world governments. See: The Decline Of U.S. Power?

Now you see "the rest of the story."

Rose-Colored Glasses

This blog, like most of the Internet commentary, has a decidedly negative flavor. Not so good ... ergo, I've decided to try, at least for this one post, to walk on the sunny side of the street. One of Ronald Reagan's strong points was that he was always looking at things through rose-colored glasses. And the genius of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign was it slogan, "Hope and Change." Accentuating the positive is almost always the better strategy. People like to feel good ... and therefore they like people who try to make them feel good.

So what is so positive in our lives in America today? We have a capitalism-driven growing economy ... the largest in the world. We have a plentiful supply of cheap labor to our south ... anxious to experience our American life. We have a premier higher-education system ... the envy of the world ... and one which keeps supplying us with gifted entrepreneurs. We have the geographic advantage of being isolated from most of the rest of the world by two large oceans  We have a very low inflation rate. We have a generally benign climate. We have a national park system that is the envy of the world. We have the world's best health-care professionals and technology. Despite continuing declines, we still have an enormous manufacturing capacity.

And we are currently not in a hot war draining our treasury and supply of young people. Most crime in this country is on the decline except in a few hot spots. We have a democratic-elected government and all the freedoms provided by our Bill of Rights. We are abundantly supplied with raw materials. We have a stable currency ... the basis of most world-wide commerce. We have the strongest military in the world. We have a very large middle class that supports our democracy and our way of life. We have an enormously efficient food-supply chain. We lead the world in most technological advances. We still carry a large surplus of prestige with most world governments.

Enough? Feeling better?

Yes, we also have problems ... but I leave these for later comment.

Towering Over

It looks like our spooks might be even more invasive than we imagined. Cell-phone towers have been erected all around the country whose functions are not to forward cell-phone calls … but to intercept and surveil them and possibly download spyware onto your packet communicator. Already seventeen such towers have been uncovered and I suspect there are more ... see: We Live Security Article. Even though this article does not identify the source of these mysterious interceptor towers, it clearly hints at our federal government, possibly our military.

I am of mixed feelings about such government chicanery. Yes, I do want it to root out the bad guys, but then, as we know, once such a capability exists; it can be used for evil or even just mischief … just as well as good. And when we have an untrustworthy and often inattentive administration, it makes me even more chary.

The Difference

Delta -- the Mathematical Symbol for Difference

Because of the tremendous polarity that is now prevalent in Washington, I’ve lately got to thinking about what are the fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans … some are quite obvious and some are a little less blatant.  Here are my assessments:

Republicans                                          Democrats                      

Guided by their heads                      Guided by their hearts

Put their country first                      Put their party first

Clustered in the heartland              Clustered on both coasts

Are for less regulation                     Are for more regulation

Male dominated                                  Female dominated

Driven by policy                                 Driven by politics

Support Israel                                      Support the Arab world

Wish a strong military (hawks)     Wish a weak military (doves)

Want less social welfare                   Want more social welfare

Anti-federalists                                    Federalists

Driven by morality                            Driven by mammon

Realistic foreign policy                     Naive foreign policy

Regulate for less taxes                      Regulate for more taxes

Pro life                                                      Pro abortion

Listen to talk radio                              Listed to network news

Very much non-ethnic                      Very much ethnic

Are mostly conservative                 Are mostly liberal

More humble                                         More hubristic

Effective administrators                   Sloppy administrators

Middle class                                           Upper and lower class

Respect religion                                   Disrespect religion

Patriotic                                                   Often unpatriotic

More passive                                          More active

Believe in the Constitution               Suspect the Constitution
Don't use Botox/plastic surgery    Use Botox/plastic surgery

And so kind reader, if you want to decide with which party you should identify, print out this list and put a check mark next to your prime tenets.  Then count up the marks and see in what party you may really belong.