Archives for 2016

During his presidential run, Donald Trump was able to successfully brand Hillary Clinton as “Crooked Hillary.” Now that he no longer has his former opponent to stir up his faithful followers, he is aiming his ire at the crooked media.

And there is no news outlet more hated by Trump than The New York Times.

A few days ago, the “King of the Tweets” was at his media-bashing best when he denounced The New York Times as a “failing” institution that covered him inaccurately — “and with a nasty tone!”

Yesterday, instead of holding a post-election press conference as has been the custom of a president-elect, Trump invited major media bigwigs for a private, off-the-record meeting at his gold-plated lair on Fifth Avenue. According to many who attended, the meeting did not go well.

“It was like a f−−−ing firing squad,” one source said of the encounter.

“Trump kept saying, ‘We’re in a room of liars, the deceitful, dishonest media who got it all wrong.’ He addressed everyone in the room, calling the media dishonest, deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was [a] network of liars,” the source said.

Trump’s distrust for the media is best reflected in the fact that he has not held a press conference since July. Many analysts are predicting once Trump takes over the Oval Office, he will emulate his political idol, Vladimir Putin. It is the Russian autocrat’s custom to give a press conference just once a year… and the Russian media is thrilled with that small crumb!

What Trump is doing by vilifying an independent press is standard fare for autocrats. Like his peers in Argentina, Turkey, Ecuador, Venezuela and Russia, Trump views a free media as something to be crushed. He tells his supporters it represents the corrupt elites, both inside and outside the country. But the truth is a free media represents a threat to his power.

The media is now the new enemy of the people. The rallying cry has gone from “Crooked Hillary” to the “Crooked Media.” Any media outlet that has the temerity to print negative articles about our new tyrant … I mean president … runs the risk of Trump’s wrath!

Maybe he will threaten to sue? If history is any guide, that idle threat just might placate his diehard sycophants.

But sorry Don, our great country was founded on freedom of speech and the corresponding democrat bulwark of freedom of the press. We are not a third word country that lacks the institutions to put you in your place… or out of office.

Photo | theimaginativeconservative

Anyone who has ever witnessed a courtroom trial is familiar with the question: “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” It is the oath a witness is sworn to take before being asked to testify. Discovering “the truth,” after all, is the basic goal of our judicial system. If a witness, under oath, lies to the court, they can be found guilty of perjury and sentenced to jail time. “The truth” reigns supreme inside the halls of justice.

But outside the courthouse? “The truth” has come under serious assault.

Thanks to the candidacy of Donald Trump, “ the truth” no longer has the primacy it once had. Thanks to fake news sources and the increasing popularity of social media such as Facebook, “the truth” is whatever a writer wants it to be.

One would think that in the age of the Internet and Google, “the truth” would be such an easy thing to ascertain. But as we are seeing, many Americans are too lazy to do their homework. It is much easier to believe a favored politician, or “news source,” than to do some fact-checking of one’s own.

Just yesterday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was booed at a Broadway play. The cast of the hit musical Hamilton asked Pence, who was sitting in the audience of their show, to make sure both he and Trump safeguard their constitutional rights.

As soon as Trump got wind of the situation, he immediately took to his bully pulpit, otherwise known as Twitter, and condemned the cast for their “rude” speech:

“Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing. This should not happen!”

“The Theater must always be a safe and special place. The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!”  

Now if someone were to take Trump’s words as “true,” without reading what was actually said, they might come away thinking a Broadway theater is no place to attack an incoming vice president. They would rightly be angry with those liberal performers for embarrassing the “good man.”

But if those Trump believers were to dig into the situation just a little, they would see a completely different picture. Here is what was actually said to Pence … a far cry from “rude” speech:

“Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us at ‘Hamilton: An American Musical.’ ”

“We are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. We hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us.”

We are truly entering dangerous times if “the truth” is only respected and revered in a court of law under penalty of perjury.

Photo | linkedin.com

Some would have you believe the reason we, along with the rest of the world, are today mourning our nation’s demise is because of FBI Director James Comey’s illegal actions just days before the presidential election. While that certainly may be plausible, the real reason we have a President Trump may be traced more directly to the actions of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

As chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Wasserman Schultz paved the way for Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. How do we know this? Simple. We learned she and the DNC had their thumbs on the scales for Hillary through hacked emails released by WikiLeaks. Far from being the impartial body it was supposed to be, the DNC took actions that favored their desired candidate, Clinton, from the get go.

It didn’t matter that polls showed Bernie Sanders beating Donald Trump in head to head match ups more consistently than Hillary Clinton. It didn’t matter that Bernie had more of what makes campaigns successful … voter enthusiasm. It didn’t matter that Bernie’s approval ratings were miles ahead of Clinton’s.

Not surprisingly, in a private pre-election poll, as reported by the Huffington Post, Sanders would have beaten Donald Trump by a historic margin if he had been the Democratic nominee.

As it turned out, many loyal Sanders supporters became so outraged over the news that Wasserman Schultz and her cronies were trying to sabotage Bernie’s chances at the nomination they swore never to vote for Hillary. The actions of the DNC just reinforced the belief that the Democratic primary was being rigged. It played right into the hands of Trump who portrayed his opponent as “Crooked Hillary.”

If the Democratic primary contest had been allowed to take place on a level playing field, and Hillary had still came out on top, it is likely many Sanders supporters would have gotten behind their party’s nominee.

In a move that showed the shear tone-deafness of the Hillary camp, once Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign as Democratic National Committee chairwoman, she was immediately hired by the Clinton campaign!

In hindsight, it seems fairly clear that but for Wasserman Schultz’s meddling in the Democratic primary, we would be celebrating a Sanders victory today and not trying to wrap our heads around the thought of a President Trump.

This election was supposed to signal the fall of the GOP. Instead we may be witnessing the death of the Democratic Party.

Photo | 34justice.com

We’ve all seen this. You’re up late watching TV when up pops an infomercial promising amazing weight loss within only two weeks. All you have to do is call the toll-free number for your very own supply of “Twenty Pounds In Two Weeks.” You are skeptical but decide to order because you are protected against any possible foolishness … the product comes with a full money-back guarantee.

Of course any sane person would know such a weight loss claim is nonsense … pure hucksterism at its very best. But you want to believe and heck, you can always get your money back!

Donald Trump won the presidency by making some pretty bold and outlandish promises. He is going to build a large wall along the entire 2000-mile Mexican border (“It’s going to be a wall that’s going to make that ceiling look quite low, and it’s fairly high”) He is going to roundup and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. He is going to ban Muslims from entering the United States. He is going to bomb the hell out of ISIS.

Surveys have shown Trump voters actually believe the man they just elected president can, and will, do all that he said he would. It doesn’t matter that what’s been promised is either beyond a president’s power or simply unconstitutional.

Trump voters are in for a big letdown. It is only a matter of time before they realize they have been duped by perhaps the greatest political con artist in American history.

The bad thing for them, and the nation, is that Trump’s election does not come with a money-back guarantee. We are all stuck with the great con man, and the potential harm his presidency will inflict on our great country, for four years.

There are no do-overs in presidential elections.

God help those Trump voters who will have to live with the shame of their foolish purchase; who will have to explain to their children and grandchildren how they could have been so gullible as to believe what, in the light of day, was pure horsefeathers.

Photo | businessinsider.com

While Hillary Clinton promised voters to fix all that is wrong with Washington D.C., Donald Trump promised to “drain the swap.” Instead of some minor White House renovations, the billionaire real estate developer called for a complete tear down and rebuild.

While pundits and pollsters try to come up with reasons why they were so wrong in their forecasts, it might be as simple as the American voter having had enough of politics as usual. They were willing to roll the dice on a TV celebrity with zero political experience than to vote for the ultimate political insider, Hillary Clinton. Her brilliant resume of governmental service actually turned out to be the kiss of death.

Donald Trump went up against a formidable group of experienced Republican politicians in the primary. He came out on top for the same reason he was able to defeat Clinton. Trump’s primary opponents, except for Carson and Fiorina, were all establishment types who promised more of the same, not a shock to the system.

Bernie Sanders’ strong showing in the Democrat primary revealed that the appetite for political revolution was not limited to Republicans. It is a safe bet that many of those Bernie revolutionaries helped get Trump elected.

The fact that Trump was light on policy proposals throughout his presidential run, and the American voter was fine with that, speaks to the level of disdain voters had for what used to be called standard political fare.

If GOP establishment types think Trump’s win is a victory for them, they better think twice. Trump has surrounded himself with members of the fringe alt-right who despise them as much as they do Democrats.

The GOP is now the party of Trump, not Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell. How this is going to play out or how anything is going to get accomplished in Washington remains to be seen.

Trump, and his supporters, will soon learn he has not been elected Czar of the United States. He cannot simply order a huge wall to be built along the Mexican border; he cannot simply start deporting all illegal immigrants; he simply cannot repeal Obamacare; he simply cannot undo treaties; he simply cannot ban all Muslims from entering the country; he simply cannot order manufacturers to move back to the United States.

But Trump supporters are hopeful of one thing … they start winning so much they will be sick of winning.

Photo | libertyfriends.blogspot.com

With Election Day less than 48 hours away, American voters are being told this election is the most important political choice they may make in their lifetimes.

Funny thing. It seems the exact same warning is sounded every presidential election cycle. Voters hear the message and shrug. They’ve been conditioned to see all that gloom and doom stuff as just campaign fodder to drive members of their party to get out and vote, nothing more, nothing less.

But something feels different this time around.

Far from being just another “boy cries wolf” analogy, this could actually be the most consequential election in generations.

And it is not because Donald Trump, the least qualified presidential candidate in terms of experience, temperament or judgment ever to run for office, might be elected president. No, the country, and the world … with any luck … might be able to withstand four years of almost certain chaos such a prospect could bring.

What makes this election so important is that the next president, through his or her appointments, could shape the Supreme Court for perhaps the next 30 years!

This fact cannot be overstressed.

The new president is likely to take office with one Supreme Court appointment to make, as it is unlikely President Obama will get his nominee, Merrick Garland, considered by the Senate before he leaves office. But here’s the kicker … the next president could have one or even two additional appointments to the high court before their time as president is up, even if they only serve one term! This could ultimately end up being a presidency that sways the balance of the court, progressive or conservative, for generations.

A President Trump would no doubt yield to the most conservative members of his party who would look for him to appoint the most conservative justices. Does anyone think Trump really cares who sits on the highest court? The man knows, or cares, as much about the Constitution as he does the Bible. Was that one or two Corinthians?

In deriding George H.W. Bush in the 1992 presidential election, Bill Clinton famously said, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

With the election of 2016 upon us, it cannot be stressed enough… this time “It’s the Supreme Court, stupid.”

Vote as if the next 20-30 years of your life depends on it … because it just might.

Photo | politico.com