There Must be an "i" in Cruz

There Must be an “i” in Cruz

The View from the Middle

And there is an “i” in Kasich.  What do these guys not understand about teamwork?  Both Cruiz and Kasich stood on the stage at the very first debate and pompously committed to support whatever candidate “the people” selected to represent them through the Republican primary process.  There weren’t any exceptions then, when they were still dreaming that they would be the ultimate winner. 

When the dust settled, however, Donald Trump was the clear winner.  Did the people like his tough, take no prisoners approach to campaigning?  Did they like his simple but clear policies, like building a wall or creating more “America friendly” trade agreements?  Did they like the idea that Trump was going shake up Washington and actually make it work for “we the people”?  It doesn’t matter.  In the beginning I would have preferred Kasich and Cruiz to Donald Trump, particularly Kasich who I saw as a guy from the middle, but today I wouldn’t vote for either of them for any political office.  Just to remind you, my number one choice was Carly Fiorina, whom I voted for despite the fact that she had already suspended her campaign.

The only thing Cruiz and Kasich are proving now is that they never understood the concept of “taking one for the team”.   I guess their parents never taught them the lesson of putting others before themselves.  Maybe they just got the definitions of selfless and selfish mixed up.  Whatever their psychological issues are, these two jerks have just confirmed in the minds of virtually every American that politicians are sleazy, dishonest, self-serving, narcissistic prima donnas. 

But, the more I thought about it; this snobby, self-absorbed approach may just backfire on these guys.  I didn’t think it was possible, but the actions of Cruiz and Kasich actually make Donald Trump look reasonable.  He hasn’t blasted Kasich for his truancy at a convention held in his own state, and he even gave Rubio and Cruiz speaking slots at the convention. 

I’m sure that one of the main purposes of this convention was to make the tough, unyielding, and often childish Donald Trump look soft, caring and magnanimous.  Unwittingly, Cruiz and Kasich may have accomplished that goal for Trump singlehandedly.

And just to be sure you understand me; I would call this disgraceful conduct for either party.  This was a violation of the basic principles of right behavior.  If you make a promise – keep it.  How can you put an entire country first if you can’t see beyond your own pride?

Half Truths in Solutions to Racial Equality

Half Truths and Half Measures

The View from the Middle

In the wake of the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the assassination of five white police officers in Dallas, I have heard our politicians spout the usual politically correct and self-serving rhetoric.  Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton and our President have suggested that the blame goes to white people and white police.  This is despite the fact that Micah Johnson was very clear that his motive was to kill white people and particularly white cops.  Hillary Clinton said she would “talk to white people” and tell them that they must listen to the legitimate cries of our African American citizens. 

I actually don’t disagree with Hillary’s suggestion.  I have been saying for a long time that whites must be empathic to the challenges that young African American men and women still face in this country. The reality is, however, that any black leader or person who believes that they have no role in the solution is delusional.  While whites have the dual responsibility of empathy and action, African Americans have the more difficult challenge to forgive and to take personal responsibility for their future.

In my opinion, there have been two strategies used in this country to subjugate the black community.  From the slave owners of the 17^th and 18^th centuries to our welfare system today, there have been intentional and or misguided efforts to destroy black families.  Slave owners ripped fathers away from mothers and children and even today our welfare system encourages black fathers to leave their families.  These actions have led to some very predictable negative results even today.

Seventy-two percent of black children are born out of wedlock compared to 29% for white children. These out of wedlock births lead to high levels of single parent households in America (66% for African Americans and 25% for whites), which is a key driver of poverty.  Our leaders should be telling our kids not to have children out of wedlock.  This is tough message, however, because it implies that people are responsible for their own actions and are not victims.

The other strategy used by slave owners to repress blacks was to deny them an education.  They knew that education was the key to freedom and independence, and that is exactly what they didn’t want for the people that they considered no more than chattel.  Unfortunately, this scheme is alive and well today in our dilapidated and dysfunctional public school system. 

Thirty-one percent of black children drop out of high school compared to 14% in the white community.  While this number is an improvement from five years ago, it is still way too high as it is another key driver of poverty.  The message that black leaders should be blasting out is that young people should take their education seriously.  No white person can make you cut school or drop out. 

This breakdown of the family and denial of education has led to yet another problem for the African American community, and that is crime.  Black men represent 40% of the prison population while they only represent 13% of the general citizenry.  Some would suggest this is because of prejudice, but that’s the easy response.  I’m going to suggest that some of this imbalance in criminal activity is driven by the statistics mentioned above.  Poverty and lack of opportunity place more black youth at risk and susceptible to the temptations of crime.  Traffic citations and non-violent drug charges can be skewed by prejudice, but African American men also commit 38% of murders.  Murder is a crime that is unlikely to be manufactured by an unscrupulous law enforcement officer.  After all, they do need a dead body to make the accusation!

The black community has a daunting task to overcome these transgressions, but they must address these issues if they expect to balance the scales of opportunity in this country.

 Forgiveness will be difficult, but little headway can be made if we focus on the evil in the world and deny the progress that has been made. We do have a black President, for goodness sakes.  Bitterness and anger are enemies of advancement in this area, but once forgiveness extinguishes those feelings (again, no small task) real healing can take place.  Then we can focus on the other half of the solution that the black community must embrace – personal responsibility.

There are some things that society can do to create a path to equal opportunity.  First, offer all families real choice when it comes to education.  A school voucher system will put power in the hands of every family, black and white; to choose what school their children should attend.  Will this work for every family?  No, but it will work for some and will make our current failing system compete or perish.

Next, we could reform our welfare system so that it encourages fathers to stay home with their families.  This should be accompanied by a message from black leaders that emphasizes the benefits of intact families and the hardships that accompany out of wedlock births.  I’m also in favor of enterprise zones to entice businesses to build in black neighborhoods, but there must be qualified workers there to greet these enterprises once they take that risk.

Yes, there are some things that white America can do to advance the causes of black America, but black America will still have to take the initiative to take advantage of these opportunities.  This is the dual responsibility message that I believe needs to be communicated by all of our leaders if the journey to racial harmony in America is to continue.

Finally, I must add my personal opinion that what we all need is the Master of empathy, the King of forgiveness, the Good Shepherd, the King of Kings, the ultimate Good Samaritan and the Prince of Peace – Jesus Christ.

Race in America - Solutions

In light of the shootings of black men by police this week and the ambush of police in Dallas, I thought it would be good for you to watch this video on "Solutions" to our racial issues in America.  This is an interview with Joseph Woods, Dep. Secretary of State for the State of Arkansas, a man who knows of what he speaks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kVsN7TO-XU

Click on this link and let me know what you think.

Comey Disappoints

Comey Still Disappoints

The View from the Middle

At the beginning of the hearing today, Elijah Cummings hit the nail on the head.  He told Director Comey that there was a “gap” between the Director’s outline of Hillary Clinton’s misuse of her personal server and his conclusion not to indict her.  Unfortunately, Director Comey did not fill that gap.

I listened to his statement two days ago and was mystified, as many people in America were, at his conclusion.  Today, I listened to the entire hearing, and I am no closer to agreement.  Mr. Comey’s main defense of his decision is that he couldn’t prove Hillary’s “intent”.  He reiterated that Ms. Clinton was extremely careless with sensitive and even top secret information, and that if she were an employee of the FBI she would at least be subject to termination, loss of her security clearance or formal reprimand.

But I am still convince, even after listening to Director Comey for at least three hours today, that Mrs. Clinton DID have intent.  She didn’t accidently move her email account to a private server in her basement.  She didn’t accidentally destroy over 30,000 emails; of which the FBI was able to find over 2,000 government related messages even though most are lost forever.  In my mind her intent was clear – to control all of her messages and to avoid FOIA requests. 

Trey Gowdy asked a series of questions that confirmed in my mind Hillary’s intent and another questioner pointed out that ignorance of the law is no excuse, although I sincerely doubt that Hillary Clinton was ignorant of the law. 

Finally, I disagree that gross negligence is not a reason for an indictment here.  Mr. Comey admits that negligence is punishable under this statute, but he suggests that since it has only been used once since its passing, that he shouldn’t consider it.  I disagree.  To do that rewrites the statute.  He should have followed it and given Hillary her day in court.  If that portion of the statute is unconstitutional, then any conviction will be challenged and the law will have to be changed.  But his job is not to rewrite laws, it is to enforce them.

Mr. Comey did admit that reasonable people can disagree with his findings and not question his integrity.  He is correct, because while I think he did a good job of standing up for himself and the FBI today, I still totally disagree with his conclusion.  I would also suggest that he did not do what Elijah Cummings asked him to do. 

And the biggest problem for me and millions of Americans is that there will be no consequences for her actions.  Everyone agrees that she was grossly negligent in her duties, and everyone knows that if they were grossly negligent in their jobs, there would be consequences, Hillary, however, gets off scot-free.  THAT is what the people of America are sick of – no accountability in Washington.

The Clinton Double Standard

The Clinton Lower, Double Standard

The View from the Middle

I am officially numb.  My senses are completely deadened.  We have been told for months now that the FBI is completely independent and nonpartisan.  James Comey is the shining example of fairness in Washington and we can be assured that justice will be done in the Hillary Clinton e-mail server case.  His actions today, however, leave me without a shred of confidence that our government can be anything but corrupt, inept and self-serving.

The good news is that he actually did indict Hillary Clinton on every charge leveled against her.  He even used the words that describe “gross negligence” which is the trigger condemnation to suggest felony, criminal activity.  Unfortunately, he then came to a conclusion that was totally disconnected with all of his findings.  Let me remind you of what he and his team found.

First, Director Comey said that Mrs. Clinton was “extremely careless” in her handling of sensitive and even top-secret information.  Now, I don’t know about you, but being “extremely careless” is hardly a quality I’m looking for in the next President of The United States.  He added that, “any reasonable person should have known that an unclassified system (such as this) was no place for these conversations.”  I guess he doesn’t even consider Hillary a “reasonable person”, yet she is running to be the leader of the free world. 

Second, Comey spotlighted through implication a series of lies that Mrs. Clinton has been spewing for over a year now.  Remember, that she originally said that she did not send or receive any confidential or sensitive information through her private server.  Of course, we now know that to be a complete inaccuracy as over two thousand of such documents were found.  Then she changed her claim to “ no messages ‘marked’ confidential” were sent. 

Mr. Comey finally shined a light on that little fib when he stated today that they “found information that was properly classified as secret at the time it was discussed on her email”.   He continued on saying that these did not include up-classified information that changed over time, which is another excuse she has given for her total disregard for informational sensitivity.

Mrs. Clinton has also promised that none of the 34,000 emails, which she claimed were personal, contained any business related information and certainly not classified or secret information.  Wrong!  By digging and scratching through the emails of people who received Hillary’s emails, Mr. Comey found many emails that contained governmental business, but he also found three that contained classified and even secret information.  And most of those 34,000 deleted emails are gone forever because of how Hillary and her lawyers destroyed them.  How many more secret and maybe even embarrassing emails are in that collection?

Finally, Mr. Comey pointed out that it was highly likely that Hillary’s emails were hacked because of the casual way she used her system even when she was traveling in countries that we consider hostile to us.  I would include Russia, China and South Korea to be in that group. 

Then, as if he had just delivered a sparkling endorsement of Mrs. Clinton and cleared her of all accusations, Comey concluded that the FBI would not recommend that criminal charges be brought against Mrs. Clinton.  It was like reading Moby Dick, but in the end, Capt. Ahab killed the white whale and was promoted to admiral.  What?

Then, as if to put an exclamation point on the absurdity of his conclusion, Mr. Comey added this statement, “To be clear, this is not to say that in similar circumstances a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences.”  Let me translate that for you.  You and I would be in jail if we did the very same thing, but Hillary Clinton (and probably Bill) will get off scot-free.  Do we need any more evidence that Washington is corrupt, inept and dysfunctional?  Solution – Term limits.