Opuscula Poorly timed Cheap shots

BECAUSE PRESIDENT TRUMP said John McCain was not a hero – Trump NEVER said McCain was a coward, contrary to Democrat lies – McCain’s daughter and a few others used McCain’s lying in state as a bully pulpit to castigate the president.

If the late Arizona senator wanted to, as he claimed, “bring the nation together,” she chose to speak enthusiastically against his hope.

MCCAIN invited political foes to eulogize him, which they did, and specifically did NOT want President Trump at his lying in state.

McCain’s daughter, without naming the president, attacked him by stating:

We gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness; the real thing," McCain said. "Not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly, nor the opportunistic appropriation of those who lived lives of comfort and privilege while he suffered and served."¹

Interesting. She could have been reviling invited speakers Obama and Bush. Obama never saw a day of military service and Bush dodged real service by joining the Texas Air National Guard. Obama keeps company with fellow Democrat Wm. Clinton.²

Vice President Pence, like Obama and Clinton, also managed to avoid military service³. Joe Biden “got a draft notice but flunked the physical due to asthma,” according to a 1987 Washington Post profile.

No argument that McCain served in the U.S. Navy as a pilot. Also no argument that being the son and grandson of Navy admirals McCain had “Vitamin P” that helped get several wrecked Navy planes forgiven⁴ and gained for him special treatment in the Navy.

It is true that McCain refused repatriation (early release) from a Vietnamese prison believing it unfair to other prisoners. There are those who suggest that McCain may have earned the Vietnamese offer due to his father’s position.

If bombing people you cannot identify from a fast moving aircraft is heroic, then John McCain was a hero.

McCain, on return from Vietnam, was promoted to Navy Captain (O-6) and assigned to Washington D.C.⁵ He and his first wife divorced and he married an Arizona woman whose influential father helped his new son-in-law enter politics.

McCain twice ran for president in GOP primaries.

In 2000, he lost his primary bid to Geo. W. Bush (who he invited to speak at his lying in state.) Bush defeated Al Gore in the infamous “hanging chad” election.

In 2008, after winning a majority of delegates in the Republican primaries, he selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate for Vice President.

He lost to Obama in the general elections. It might be suggested that the election was race vs. sex (Obama the mulatto and Palin the woman.)

In both cases, McCain kept his seat in the Senate.

Interestingly, while McCain supported normalization with Vietnam, he was against President Trump’s efforts to denuclearize North Korea. McCain’s daughter, who vilified Trump at the lying in state,

slammed President Trump on Tuesday (6/12/18) for his "buddy-buddy" meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, whom she denounced as a "dictator."⁶

The cohost of ABC’s “The View” and daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said from her bully pulpit that, though she was initially on board with the summit, she was disturbed by the symbolism of both nations’ flags flying together in Singapore.

“We are not the same,” she continued. “[Kim’s North Korea] is completely and utterly the closest thing to Hitler’s Germany that exists in modern time. My problem was how far it went with the buddy-buddy, and there was no talk whatsoever of the human rights violations going on in that country.”

No doubt her description of North Korea’s government is correct, but someone had to open communications with China (Nixon) and look what that got the U.S. Her father pressed for normalization with Vietnam despite its treatment of him and other U.S. POWs. The U.S. still deals with Saudi Arabia – in fact Obama bowed to a Saudi price (but he bowed to many people).⁷ It also deals with a host of undemocratic governments that suppress human dignity. The only “excuse” is that no progress can be expected if there is no communication between governments.

You can’t catch a fish unless you go where the fish live.

I understand McCain’s daughter’s pain at the loss of her father, but using the lying in state as an opportunity to castigate her father’s sometime political opponents was unfortunate and in bad taste. For once Trump showed some restraint (something he should practice more often).

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Sources

1. http://tinyurl.com/yawg6jvp

2. http://tinyurl.com/qjumhq5

3. http://tinyurl.com/y7xvyppz

4. http://tinyurl.com/y959bgwp

5. http://tinyurl.com/y8fu22nr

6. http://tinyurl.com/ybpvmxsu

7. http://tinyurl.com/ya7983kz

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Comments on Poor timing

Opuscula Silent Dems bow As GOP’s Trump Speaks and acts

ALL GENERALITIES ARE LIES.
However, there is a grain of truth in all generalities; smoke and fire if you will.

THERE ARE MANY WHO condemn President Trump for everything he says and does – and a few who condemn him for things he does NOT say or do.

But unlike some of his Democratic predecessors in the White House, Trump DOES what he says he will do (if the Congress and the Courts don’t overrule him).

AMERICA AS “RODNEY DANGERFIELD”

American lost the world’s respect starting with one-termer Jimmy Carter who gave in to the Iranians and allowed them to capture and humiliate U.S. diplomats when the embassy was seized.

What did Mr. Carter do?

Nothing.

Mr. Clinton was no better.

When the Iranians – same folks that should have caused Mr. Carter a red face – successfully attacked the USS Cole, what did Mr. Clinton do?

Same as Mr. Carter: Nothing.

There are equally silent Republicans.

Ex-president Geo. W. Bush, a/k/a Bush 2, not only was silent after Muslim terrorists brought down the Twin Towers (9-11-2001), along with more than 3,000 innocents (including those who died in the disaster and the aftermath), but was a propagandist for the Muslims.

Geo. W also famously told the world that the invasion of Iraq was “successfully completed.” As the world knows, it wasn’t completed.

On the flip side, former president Lyndon Baines Johnson usually did what he promised; sometimes to the nation’s benefit (e.g., Head Start) and sometimes not (e.g., Vietnam). Granted, Vietnam was not LBJ’s war.

BOWING OBAMA

Two-term leftist president Barack Obama kowtowed to his Muslim friends and declared an “Arab spring,” but then did nothing when he and his secretary of state allowed Muslims to murder Americans during a planned “spontaneous” uprising in Benghazi. It was the secretary’s “do nothing” attitude before the “spontaneous” attack that directly led to the American deaths. (Imagine if she became president!)

Bowing, showing submission to someone or something¹ is Mr. Obama’s trademark.

According to The Atlantic², the ex-president has bowed to

1. 2009: Obama bows to the Saudi King
2. 2009: Obama bows to the Queen of England
3. 2009: Obama bows to the Japanese Emperor
4. 2010: Obama bows to a Republican
5. 2010: Obama bows to the mayor of Tampa
6. 2010: Obama bows to the Chinese
7. 2012: Obama bows to Felipe Calderon
8. 2013: Obama bows to a Communist

TRADITION

It’s a grand Democrat tradition to do nothing – at least until the polls and soothsayers approve an action. This goes back at least to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) who preferred to violate U.S. citizens basic rights (by putting them into concentration camps) while sending a boatload of Jews back to Germany and death. FDR also forbade American bomber crews from dropping bombs on railroad tracks beneath them on their way to and from bomb runs on "approved" nazi targets.

Once the polls and soothsayers said it was OK – and with a little help from the Imperial Japanese Navy’s attack on Pearl Harbor (allegedly known to the White House BEFORE the attack) – FDR finally allowed Americans to save Europe (once again).

WHERE THE BUCK STOPS

President Harry S (no period) Truman proved that some Democrats are doers.

FDR had plans in motion to create and use an atomic bomb. Would he or wouldn’t he?

He failed to share his thoughts with his vice-president.

Mr. Truman who, having served in WW 1 knew the horrors of war first hand, decided “the bomb” could end the war in the Pacific and save American and allied lives. He ordered the bombing of two Japanese cities. That led to the surrender.

Mr. Truman, protecting the sovereignty of the president’s role as Commander-in-Chief, cashiered a popular general for disobeying orders. The president was roundly criticized for his action, an act that preserved presidential (civilian) control of the military and one that may have cost him election to a full four-year term. (He lost to a general.)

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Sources

1. http://kencarlson.org/bible/worship/we-bow-down-2/

2. http://tinyurl.com/y9qodvk8

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Comments on Do vs. Don’t do

Opuscula Who pays price For pols’ promises?

Presidential candidates are rather like the perfume commercial: “Promise them anything but give them Arpege.” Unfortunately for the voters, what they get may smell, but hardly a fragrance akin to Andre Fraysse’s concoction for Lanvin in 1927 (or the 1993 variation).

During “silly season,” candidates for offices from local to national promise that “If you vote for me, I’ll make sure you get” … pie in the sky.

What they do NOT tell John and Jane Voter is who will pay for the candidate’ largesse.

It should come as no surprise to the weary middle class taxpayer; people in that category will bear the burden, whether or not they enjoy any benefits of the politician’s promises.

Still, things could be worse.

Wikipedia offers a page titled List of countries by tax rates. Fortunately, the Wiki table’s columns can be sorted.

If you want to keep ALL your money, move to Bahrain. No taxes on anything, and no Value Added Tax (VAT). On the other end of the spectrum is Belgium; it has a 33.99% corporate tax, a 64% individual tax, 38% income tax, and a maximum VAT of 21%.

The U.S. taxpayer falls somewhere in the middle. What the Wiki table fails to show (but does point out) that property taxes are not included in Americans’ tax bite. Renters pay property tax, too; they just may not realize it.

Benefit taxes for American taxpayers total roughly 20.2%, of which 12.4% goes to Social Security, another 3.8% for Medicare and the remaining % for state and local use. Again, this excludes property taxes that pay for schools, hospitals, emergency services (fire, police), libraries, trash collection, etc. Water usually is billed separately. Some locations pay an additional local assessment for special projects, e.g., street lights.

Benefits such as Headstart, congressional salaries, the military, congressional and presidential pensions, VA operations, and similar are culled from payroll and business taxes.

The bottom line is that the more the government claims it is providing the populace – legal and “undocumented aliens” – the more the government is going to take from the middle class taxpayer.

When a candidate – any candidate for any office – promises this or that benefit, understand that the benefit has a price. Most of the time, the price is paid by the middle class taxpayer.

Think about it.

Opuscula Speak out Against violence

 

WM. CLINTON'S WIFE wants to be president.

Senator Bernie Sanders wants to be president.

Neither is acting very presidential.

WERE EITHER "ACTING PRESIDENTIAL" they would call for an end to the rioting by their supporters at rallies for presidential candidate Donald Trump.

I fail to hear or read that either Democrat candidate condemns the attacks on Trump supporters. Where are these "leaders" when they should be telling their supporters to act civilized, to restrain themselves, to take their anger out at - not on - the ballot box.

Silence.

Funny enough, Trump supporters don't seem to be attacking Clinton or Sanders supporters. Are they better people? Is Trump a more civilized candidate than his opponents?

You have to wonder.

Clinton's and Sander's silence on the attacks gives their supporters tacit approval to continue the attacks. Their silence condones the attacks.

Perhaps candidates Clinton and Sanders also support the attacks on the police who are assigned to try to maintain peace in the face of, apparently, candidate-sanctioned mob violence.

Is that the type person we want to lead our nation?

This is not the first time in recent history that riots have been associated with Democrats. Think back - or use the computer to study history - to the Democrat's Chicago Convention in 1968. The rioters were NOT from the Republican candidate's camp.

America in recent years has been polarized; the middle-of-the-road American has been marginalized while the far left and far right have taken over the political parties and the media. What civilized discussions moderates might attempt have been high jacked by the those who figuratively scream My way or the highway and tolerate no one who might dare to challenge their opinion.

Are were watching the end to an almost democracy and the birth of rule by organized violence, violence condoned by the people who would lead the nation?

Democracy NOT at work Politicians' Fun & games

 

TED CRUZ who "suspended" his campaign after repeatedly losing to Donald Trump is, according to the tv talking heads, considering "unsuspending" his campaign.

Will he resurrect his failed campaign as an independent or will he try to deny the voters' mandates via the GOP convention?

MEANWHILE Hillary Clinton, determined to carry on her mentor's "awful" legacy* is unconcerned about the fact that Bernie Sanders seems to be winning in both town and country elections, expecting "super delegates" to save her no matter how popular Sanders is with voters across the country.

The question for Hillary: Is Sander's message getting the votes of are Clinton's lies and scandals losing her votes?

Cruz managed to win 500-plus delegates before Trump took a commanding delegate lead. Then Cruz, and his political partner, John Kasich - having agreed to a non-compete contract to win delegates where each thought he had a chance against Trump - dropped out of the race.

So far, Kasich has stood by his word and not, as has Cruz, threatened to renege and re-enter the race.

Rumor is that Cruz is heartily disliked by his fellows in Congress. There are multiple web sites attesting to this and what Cruz did to earn the displeasure of his fellow club members, including:

Why D.C. Hates Ted Cruz (Atlantic) Why Everyone (in Congress) Hates Ted Cruz (NYMag) The most hated man in Congress: Ted Cruz’s laughable difficulty in landing endorsements from Senate colleagues (Salon)

To cite just three sites (that I sighted?)

Being disliked by Congress isn't necessarily fatal to a president's plans, but belong respected by Congress - because he knew where "the bodies were buried" - allowed LBJ to get a number of not-particularly-popular-in-Congress programs passed; Head Start and the War on Poverty to name two.

Admittedly, many members of Cruz' Capitol Hill club also would like to see an establishment, old guard, easy-to-keep-in-line candidate rather than the spoiler Trump. It seems only the people - who really do NOT have a vote (at the convention) - want Trump as their candidate.

If you failed to learn it in grammar school. The U.S. has a "republican" (lower case "r") form of government. We "sort of" elect people to vote our proxy at the conventions. A "democratic" (lower case "d") form of government would have all eligible citizens directly vote for the candidate of their choice, doing away with conventions and the (in)famous "smoke-filled back room deals."

ON THE DEMOCRATIC (party) side, Sanders is gaining on Clinton. One reason may be Clinton is playing the conservative card while Sanders is a "died-in-the-wool and happy to admit it" Socialist. Sanders apparently has the youth vote, but then he promises free university education.

QUESTION: Who is going to pay for this "free" education? The taxpayer pays for every other "free" benefit. Perhaps this benefit will be paid by mortgaging our great grandchildren - the grandchildren already are mortgaged to the hilt (and owned by China).

On the other hand, the LA Times' David Lauter considers Why the more liberal Bernie Sanders beats Hillary Clinton among more conservative Democrats

At one point, Sanders admitted he probably could not defeat Clinton, but he wanted to have a say in building the party platform.

Sanders - to date - has far fewer earned-by-vote count delegates to the convention than Clinton. Clinton considers the party's super delegates to be in her hand, so no matter how many voters prefer Sanders, she has the nomination locked up.

ABOUT THOSE "SUPER DELEGATES"

infoplease.com describes super delegates thusly:

Super delegates are not selected on the basis of party primaries and caucuses in each state. Instead, super delegate standing is based on the status of current or former officeholders and party officials, including all Democratic members of Congress. Super delegate is a term that arose in the 1970s.

In order for a candidate to win the party nomination for president, he or she must gain the majority of delegate votes. The purpose of super delegates is for high-ranking Democrats to maintain some control over the nominating process. Super delegates make up one-fifth of the delegates at the Democratic National Convention. So, 747 of the 5,083 delegates attending the 2016 Democratic National Convention can choose whichever candidate they prefer.

Wikipedia identifies the super delegates and the candidates they are pledged to support. Clinton has far and away the most super delegates.

The Huffington Post apparently neither a fan of Clinton or the super delegate process, claims in a headline that Clinton and the DNC Are Not Just Colluding — They’re Changing the Rules for Super delegates.

The Post contends that

in the context of Democratic National Committee rules — which, as DNC officials Luis Miranda and Debbie Wasserman Schultz have both explained to the media repeatedly, dictate that super-delegates cannot be tallied until July — there can be no doubt about which sentence in the above-cited NBC News story is the most important. It’s this one, about what the Clinton campaign and the DNC have been up to since April (more than three months prior to the Party’s late-July convention).

The Post goes on to state

On February 19th, only two states — Iowa and New Hampshire — had held primary votes for the Democratic presidential nomination. The results in Iowa (a tie) and New Hampshire (a landslide victory for Bernie Sanders) had at that point made Sanders the front-runner for the nomination.

Sanders was the leader in the popular vote.

Sanders was the early leader in the all-important pledged-delegate count.

And here’s where the super-delegate count stood on February 19th:

Hillary Clinton: 451 Bernie Sanders: 19

The U.S. electoral system was put into place before we had access to nearly instantaneous communication over great distances. Now, at least in theory, American's eligible and legal voters could directly cast their ballots for this candidate or that - turning America into a democracy! The "in theory" is because that has been, since voting first began, voting fraud. Add to that we now have lost all protection that our communications are private or that they will arrive in the same way they were sent - a vote for candidate "A" will remain a vote for candidate "A" when the votes are counted.

The Politico web sites reported that as of March 24, Trump had 1,134 delegates to Cruz' 564. Marco Rubio had 166 before he dropped out. No other GOP candidates had double-digit pledged delegates. If Cruz "drops back in," the best he can do in the delegate race is a poor second behind Trump, even if Rubio gives him his delegates. Again, this delegate count is from March.

If Trump, Sanders, and Clinton fail to win your vote, consider the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson or the Green Party's Dr. Jill Stein.

 

* According to Hillary's husband, ex-president Wm. Clinton.

Opuscula The Donald: Nothing new

 

Is The Donald (Trump) original?

Not really.

Trump goes to the Arizona-Mexico border and calls for the U.S. to "build a wall.:

Outrageous?

Fences, Walls, & other Barriers

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Us-mexico-border.jpg

From the EBSCO web site:

In 1986, Congress passed, and President Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), granting lawful permanent residence to 2.7 million people. Instead of ending the flow of illegal immigration, it actually caused a brief spike, as family members of the newly legal residents entered the country illegally. Within a decade, the number of illegal immigrants was back to more than five million.

In 1990, (Geo. H. Bush administration) the United States constructed a 66-mile (106-kilometer) fence along the California coast from San Diego to the Pacific Ocean to deter illegal immigration. Arrests of illegal immigrants in the San Diego region declined sharply as a result of the fence, but increased nearly 600 percent in Arizona, where the number of accidental deaths also climbed as Mexicans attempted to traverse the harsh desert environment.

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. The act increased fines for illegal aliens, provided additional funding for border patrol and surveillance, and also approved the installation of an additional 14-mile (22-kilometer) fence near San Diego. Some landowners in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas erected their own fences, often with the help of militia, but no permanent barrier had been constructed by the government in these areas until recently.

The Secure Fence Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2006, promised 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border; however, lawsuits and protests from citizen groups halted construction. The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit challenging the ability of the Bush administration to waive important environmental regulations in order to build the wall on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona. These regulations include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In October 2007, a U.S. district court sided with the organizations and stopped construction.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), introduced the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act (HR 2593) in 2007. The bill would mitigate some of problems cited by critics of the Secure Fence Act.

The EBSCO site cited above, History of Border Walls in the U.S. and Around the World, includes interesting information on other, more famous, walls, including:

The Great Wall of China was constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644

Hadrian's Wall (76-138 CE) stretched more than 73 miles and was as thick as 10 feet.

The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, was 96-miles long and nearly 12 feet high.

Walls around cities were - are - so common they don't rate a mention on the site.

John McCain & "Sitting out the War"

Image from the Dry Bones blog

Although he claimed it was just a joke, Al Frankel - before he became the Democratic senator from Minnesota, he was quoted by CNN stating:

"I have tremendous respect for McCain but I don't buy the war hero thing. Anybody can be captured. I thought the idea was to capture them. As far as I'm concerned he sat out the war," Franken quipped to Salon for a 2000 article about the stakes of that year's presidential election.

So, while The Donald's remarks may seem scandalous and outrageous, they are anything but original and they manage to cross party lines.

AmeriBluff Iran shreds what China Declared is a Paper Tiger

 

Obama=Chamberlain; Ayatollah=Hitler
Washington's promises just empty words

 

THE UNITED STATES had, until it abrogated it, an agreement with the Marshall Islands government to defend it as if it was US. soil, and that pledge included Marshall Islands flagged vessels on the high seas.

USA Today reports that

Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship on Tuesday after claiming it ventured into Iranian waters in the Strait of Hormuz, defense officials said, an incident that could complicate talks about Tehran's nuclear program.


There were no Americans among the crew of the Maersk Tigris, though the United States has security responsibilities with regard to the Marshall Islands.

Meanwhile, the BBC relates that the US military 'monitoring' Iran ship seizure

A US naval destroyer has been ordered to the region to "monitor" the situation.

The ship was in an area recognized as an international shipping lane, he went on.

So much for American promises and official commitments.

The BCC also reported that

Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif, said that the Maersk shipping company, which charters the vessel, had been ordered by an Iranian court to pay damages to a private firm.

No longer will America decisively act "from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli"; no longer are America's promises - already compromised by previous administrations - be considered of any value by the country's "allies."

A number of years ago the Chinese, before they bought America, called the nation a "paper tiger." I'm not so sure "paper" is not too solid a word for America today.

Without question most Americans are tired of war, of sending their young men and women to fight wars in foreign lands for foreign causes.

But the ayatollahs' chutzpah, especially gross given the current administration's acquiescence to every Iranian demand while, like Israel and the "Palestinians," getting nothing in return, is beyond all civilized comprehension.

Don't the politicians in Washington "get it"?

The ayatollahs seized the embassy during the administration of Democrat Carter - the example of a bungling administration that only current the one may surpass for ineptitude - but the U.S. still held out hope for the regime.

When the USS Cole was attacked and sailors killed, Democrat Clinton was the president and commander in chief who failed to effectively act against the ayatollahs.

China was wrong - the U.S. is not a "paper tiger," it is, at best, a gossamer tiger, smoke and mirrors.

Cartainly no one wants to harm "innocent" Iranians - Persians - in an effort to eliminate the ayatollahs, but collaterial damage must be expected - along with the howls of outrage from the world's liberals.

I am reminded of the story from Germany following its capitulation to the nazis:

When they came for the Jews, I said nothing; I am not a Jew.
When they came for the Communists, I said nothing; I am not a Communist.
When they came for the Roma, I said nothing; I am not Roma.
Now they are coming for me, and there is no one left fo speak up for me.

Eventually the ayatollahs will come for the liberals, their political allies du jour, and who will cry for the liberals then?

King Solomon was right when he opined that there is a time for war and a time for peace.

It's time that the U.S. meets its commitments. It is time that the U.S. must adandon its failed diplomatic efforts vis-à-vis Iran. It's time to remove power from the aayatollahs and their army.

But, unlike the fiasco in Iraq, it's time for the U.S. to realize it will need to guide the Persians toward a peaceful Iran as it guided Japan and Germany after WW2. It cannot re-establish a shah, but it need not establish a U.S.-style democracy, either. The type government for Iran is best determined by the Iranians, bearing in mind that they always - from Cyrus on - have lived under a heavy-handed rule. In other words, the U.S. should avoid making the mistakes it made in Iraq - and Cuba, and …