Washington Produces Narcissistic, Selfish, Back Stabbing, Lying, Hypocritical Bigots
The View from the Middle
In Romans 3:10, the Bible says that, “There is no one who is good, not even one!” As if to put an exclamation point on that thought, this week Washington D.C. put on a display of the most childish, crude, disgusting, dishonest and downright despicable behavior I have ever witnessed. To be clear, our politicians proved last week that no person or party holds the moral high ground in our nation's capital. In fact, I doubt they can even see the moral high ground from the sewer system they all occupy.
First, our President continued his 3rd grade, name-calling tweets that most of the country wishes he would stop. Even for those people who agree with his policies, it makes it difficult to defend him. But for those of you who believe Washington was ever an oasis of camaraderie and harmony, wake up! Before Trump, people in Washington would smile in your face and shake your hand and then try to destroy you behind your back. Some people say Trump is the most transparent President in our history and they applaud his blunt honesty. I personally don’t like the name-calling or the backstabbing but prefer that people actually show respect for each other and work together to solve problems.
Then you have Frederica Wilson’s hit job on the President. Even when the President has the best of intentions, there are some who will try to politicize it for their own benefit. Frederica said she was invited on this call. By whom? Did Trump invite you, Frederica? I doubt it. Did Trump even know you were listening? Even if what she did were not illegal, speakerphone etiquette would suggest that you should identify yourself if you are listening. Frederica, your 15 minutes are up. Go howl at the moon.
Then you had two Republican Senators, who didn’t have a prayer of re-election, stoop even below the President’s low bar for decorum and throw public verbal tantrums as they left. They kind of reminded me of Hillary Clinton. Which brings me to Hillary. Where should I start?
After denying any connection to Fusion GPS for months, it has been proven that Hillary and her campaign and the DNC not only knew about these slime balls, but they funded their work. And let’s stop calling this “opposition research”. Every politician does research on their opponents to find out what they have supported in the past or if there is any hypocrisy with their positions today. The word “research” implies a search for actual FACTS. What Hillary and the DNC did was to create a dossier of total BS that they could peddle to the media hoping to get someone to dip so low as to publish it. Their hope, I’m sure, was that by the time the actual truth came out, the election would be over and she would have won. This was a “smear job’ not opposition research.
And now we have the Uranium One deal, where we (that is Hillary, Eric Holder and others) decided to sell 20% of America’s Uranium supply to the Russians. Go back and read that sentence again. Does that even make sense? Now let’s add to this story the fact that the Clinton Foundation received $145 million from Russian companies connected with the Uranium One deal and Bill Clinton received a half million dollars for a twenty minute speech from a Russian bank with ties to Uranium One.
Of course, Hillary will claim that there is no connection between these payments and her decision to approve the deal. The Russians were giving money to the Clinton Foundation because of all the good work they do. Yah! And Bill’s inspiring words are worth $25,000 a minute (plus expenses of course). There are a few people who will fall for that line of bull, but the fact is even President Obama asked Hillary not to accept funds from these sources because of the optics it created. I have to agree with our former President on that.
Hillary has used the “I misremembered” and “I don’t recall” defense to keep her out of jail up to now. James Comey let her off the hook for her improper server because he couldn’t prove “intent” to break the law, but at some point in time we all have to admit that some facts speak for themselves. As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton should not have been taking money from foreign entities while making decisions that impacted those same countries. Would you want Trump to sell Alaska to the Russians and then build a hotel in Moscow for free the next week? No connection of course.
Yes, this week has simply validated in my mind that Washington is full of narcissistic, selfish, backstabbing, lying hypocritical bigots on both sides of the political spectrum. The only question is – do they come there with that disposition or does the atmosphere of absolute power in Washington produce them over time. I believe it is the latter, so term limits will slowly weed out the converted, while not creating new ones and allow our government to work for “we the people” as our founders intended.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Monday, October 16, 2017
The Real Disgrace in the Harvey Weinstein Case
The Real Disgrace in the Harvey Weinstein Case
The View from the Middle
The levels of disgrace in the Harvey Weinstein scandal are as numerous and disturbing as the circles in Dante’s inferno. First, there is Harvey himself. His actions, over decades, are as disgusting and disturbing and deranged as they can be. Harvey has been a serial rapist, a chronic abuser and a regular insulter of women. And when I say “insulter” I’m trying to describe how a woman might feel as Harvey masturbated in front of her. I’m insulted that I even have to write that sentence.
The second layer of disgrace comes compliments of the slime ball, scumbag politicians that took Mr. Weinstein’s money in the name of social justice and women’s rights. This would be the equivalent of B’nai B’rith taking money from Hitler. It would be like the NAACP taking money from David Duke. It would be like the International Union of Chickens taking money from Colonel Sanders.
And the people who took millions of dollars from Harvey Weinstein read like a “who’s who” from the Democrat party. Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, Cory Booker, Chuck Schumer, Richard Blumenthal, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are just a few of the hypocrites that gladly took Harvey’s contributions while knowing FULL WELL what he was doing. And if there is a Republican who took money from this jerk, I condemn you too!!
Most of these politically correct narcissists are now saying that they will give his money back. Might I just suggest that the press should keep an eye on these people and make sure that they actually return these funds. I think that these people are no more likely to return Harvey’s money than those Hollywood stars who promised to leave the country if Trump got elected made good on those vows.
But I have to give it to Hillary Clinton who basically said that she’s going to keep the money. Now, we all have to read between her muddy and murky lines to get to that truth, but that’s what she said. When asked what she was going to do with his money, her actually words were, “There’s nowhere to give it back to!” Besides being a very poor example of the English language, that is factually incorrect. She CAN give it back to Harvey himself, or she could give it to his company. There are no laws that prevent her from doing that. So basically she is either lying or terribly misinformed.
Then, when reporters suggested that she could give it to charity, she said, “I give 10% of my income every year, so this will be part of that.” In other words, she is going to deduct Mr. Weinstein’s contributions from her normal giving and thus reduce the amount of her own money that she gives to charity. Wow, how cheap can she be?
The acceptance of Mr. Weinstein’s money also serves as a soft endorsement of his activities. This gives a green light to his minions, like Ben Affleck, that his kind of behavior will be tolerated, as long as they support the right people financially.
But the final and deepest and darkest disgrace in this whole story is that these people knew what Harvey Weinstein was doing for decades. He has been publicly outed multiple times by the likes of Seth MacFarlane. He even had a clause in his contract with his company that allowed this behavior as long as Harvey paid off litigants to keep the stench down to an acceptable level.
Yes, they all knew what Harvey was doing for decades, but here’s the big sin. They did nothing about it. This allowed him to rape and abuse women for years and blackmail women with threats to their careers to gain their silence. How many of these women could have been saved the humiliation if Mr. Weinstein’s practices had been exposed at the very beginning. At least Jane Fonda (and believe me, I’m not a fan) had the decency to admit that she was “ashamed” of her silence.
The saddest note of all is that this simply exposes the absolute depth of hypocrisy that exists in Washington and Hollywood. When will we learn that these people do not serve the public that pays their salaries through their taxes and box office support? They serve only themselves and their unquenchable thirst for power, money and an unlimited need for self-adulation.
There are two small things we can do. We can create a constitutional amendment that will limit the terms of our congressmen and women and we can stay home and play charades instead of going to the movies. We might actually get to know each other better.
The View from the Middle
The levels of disgrace in the Harvey Weinstein scandal are as numerous and disturbing as the circles in Dante’s inferno. First, there is Harvey himself. His actions, over decades, are as disgusting and disturbing and deranged as they can be. Harvey has been a serial rapist, a chronic abuser and a regular insulter of women. And when I say “insulter” I’m trying to describe how a woman might feel as Harvey masturbated in front of her. I’m insulted that I even have to write that sentence.
The second layer of disgrace comes compliments of the slime ball, scumbag politicians that took Mr. Weinstein’s money in the name of social justice and women’s rights. This would be the equivalent of B’nai B’rith taking money from Hitler. It would be like the NAACP taking money from David Duke. It would be like the International Union of Chickens taking money from Colonel Sanders.
And the people who took millions of dollars from Harvey Weinstein read like a “who’s who” from the Democrat party. Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, Cory Booker, Chuck Schumer, Richard Blumenthal, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are just a few of the hypocrites that gladly took Harvey’s contributions while knowing FULL WELL what he was doing. And if there is a Republican who took money from this jerk, I condemn you too!!
Most of these politically correct narcissists are now saying that they will give his money back. Might I just suggest that the press should keep an eye on these people and make sure that they actually return these funds. I think that these people are no more likely to return Harvey’s money than those Hollywood stars who promised to leave the country if Trump got elected made good on those vows.
But I have to give it to Hillary Clinton who basically said that she’s going to keep the money. Now, we all have to read between her muddy and murky lines to get to that truth, but that’s what she said. When asked what she was going to do with his money, her actually words were, “There’s nowhere to give it back to!” Besides being a very poor example of the English language, that is factually incorrect. She CAN give it back to Harvey himself, or she could give it to his company. There are no laws that prevent her from doing that. So basically she is either lying or terribly misinformed.
Then, when reporters suggested that she could give it to charity, she said, “I give 10% of my income every year, so this will be part of that.” In other words, she is going to deduct Mr. Weinstein’s contributions from her normal giving and thus reduce the amount of her own money that she gives to charity. Wow, how cheap can she be?
The acceptance of Mr. Weinstein’s money also serves as a soft endorsement of his activities. This gives a green light to his minions, like Ben Affleck, that his kind of behavior will be tolerated, as long as they support the right people financially.
But the final and deepest and darkest disgrace in this whole story is that these people knew what Harvey Weinstein was doing for decades. He has been publicly outed multiple times by the likes of Seth MacFarlane. He even had a clause in his contract with his company that allowed this behavior as long as Harvey paid off litigants to keep the stench down to an acceptable level.
Yes, they all knew what Harvey was doing for decades, but here’s the big sin. They did nothing about it. This allowed him to rape and abuse women for years and blackmail women with threats to their careers to gain their silence. How many of these women could have been saved the humiliation if Mr. Weinstein’s practices had been exposed at the very beginning. At least Jane Fonda (and believe me, I’m not a fan) had the decency to admit that she was “ashamed” of her silence.
The saddest note of all is that this simply exposes the absolute depth of hypocrisy that exists in Washington and Hollywood. When will we learn that these people do not serve the public that pays their salaries through their taxes and box office support? They serve only themselves and their unquenchable thirst for power, money and an unlimited need for self-adulation.
There are two small things we can do. We can create a constitutional amendment that will limit the terms of our congressmen and women and we can stay home and play charades instead of going to the movies. We might actually get to know each other better.
Monday, October 2, 2017
NFL - Look to Vegas
NFL – Look to Vegas for Answers
The View from the Middle
Yesterday, I didn’t watch any NFL games, but I did hear some news reports about what was happening around the league. At the New Orleans Saints vs. Miami Dolphins game, the players knelt before the national anthem and stood with looked arms during it, taking a hint from the Dallas Cowboys. They announced that the players were standing because they love our country and had respect for out veterans and current armed forces personnel. While that was a step in the right direction, they left off a couple of other groups that they should honor - our police and first responders.
This morning, I woke up to the horror that occurred in Las Vegas last night. A mad man took an elevated position and sprayed bullets on an audience of over 20,000 people attending a country music festival, killing 58 and wounding over 500 innocents. It was chaos. People were running for their lives, but one concert attendee pointed out that there was one group that was running towards the gunfire, shielding civilians and giving badly needed direction to those who were fleeing. Who was that group – The POLICE, on and off duty.
It is easy to forget (at least for the NFL) the millions of heroic, compassionate and unselfish actions our police take for us all when we close our eyes to all of the good and focus only on the sliver of bad. Let me quote Abraham Lincoln again who said, “If you look for the bad in people, expecting to find it, you surely will.” The NFL can kneel in protest of the police, protected by whom? The Police! Black Lives Matter can march and chant, “What do we need? Dead cops! When do we need them? Now” protect by, guess who? The Police. Colin Kaepernick can wear socks with policemen depicted as pigs, and who protects him? The police. Marshawn Lynch can even wear an anti-Trump t-shirt (which totally misses the point of this protest) and he is protected by the police.
And while our police are getting verbally abused and literally spit on, they continue to protect us from ourselves. Last year 135 policemen and women were killed in the line of duty. 21 of those officers were ambushed or assassinated, which demonstrates planning and intent. These were no accidents. Note that this is five more than the number of unarmed black men who were killed by police in the same year.
The NFL is condemning an entire group of people for the sins and or mistakes of a tiny few. What do you call that? Oh yah, PREJUDICE! So the NFL is crying prejudice as they perform prejudice against all of our men and women in blue. Is that ironic, paradoxical or just plain stupid? You tell me.
The players in the NFL have driven the league down a dead end alley and now it is trying to scratch and claw its way out. Until they figure out how to express their love for this country and support for our soldiers and veterans and law enforcement officers and first responders, the players and the league will not win over the country to support their cause.
Let me give the NFL a solution. The players can kneel, lie down or stand on their heads before the national anthem, but they must tell the crowds that they are doing it to unite the country in the support of equal justice for all. Then they must stand for the anthem and announce that they are doing that to show love for our country and appreciation for our soldiers, veterans, policemen and women and first responders. THIS will shine a light on the issue and win the hearts of the fans, supporters and ticketholders.
The View from the Middle
Yesterday, I didn’t watch any NFL games, but I did hear some news reports about what was happening around the league. At the New Orleans Saints vs. Miami Dolphins game, the players knelt before the national anthem and stood with looked arms during it, taking a hint from the Dallas Cowboys. They announced that the players were standing because they love our country and had respect for out veterans and current armed forces personnel. While that was a step in the right direction, they left off a couple of other groups that they should honor - our police and first responders.
This morning, I woke up to the horror that occurred in Las Vegas last night. A mad man took an elevated position and sprayed bullets on an audience of over 20,000 people attending a country music festival, killing 58 and wounding over 500 innocents. It was chaos. People were running for their lives, but one concert attendee pointed out that there was one group that was running towards the gunfire, shielding civilians and giving badly needed direction to those who were fleeing. Who was that group – The POLICE, on and off duty.
It is easy to forget (at least for the NFL) the millions of heroic, compassionate and unselfish actions our police take for us all when we close our eyes to all of the good and focus only on the sliver of bad. Let me quote Abraham Lincoln again who said, “If you look for the bad in people, expecting to find it, you surely will.” The NFL can kneel in protest of the police, protected by whom? The Police! Black Lives Matter can march and chant, “What do we need? Dead cops! When do we need them? Now” protect by, guess who? The Police. Colin Kaepernick can wear socks with policemen depicted as pigs, and who protects him? The police. Marshawn Lynch can even wear an anti-Trump t-shirt (which totally misses the point of this protest) and he is protected by the police.
And while our police are getting verbally abused and literally spit on, they continue to protect us from ourselves. Last year 135 policemen and women were killed in the line of duty. 21 of those officers were ambushed or assassinated, which demonstrates planning and intent. These were no accidents. Note that this is five more than the number of unarmed black men who were killed by police in the same year.
The NFL is condemning an entire group of people for the sins and or mistakes of a tiny few. What do you call that? Oh yah, PREJUDICE! So the NFL is crying prejudice as they perform prejudice against all of our men and women in blue. Is that ironic, paradoxical or just plain stupid? You tell me.
The players in the NFL have driven the league down a dead end alley and now it is trying to scratch and claw its way out. Until they figure out how to express their love for this country and support for our soldiers and veterans and law enforcement officers and first responders, the players and the league will not win over the country to support their cause.
Let me give the NFL a solution. The players can kneel, lie down or stand on their heads before the national anthem, but they must tell the crowds that they are doing it to unite the country in the support of equal justice for all. Then they must stand for the anthem and announce that they are doing that to show love for our country and appreciation for our soldiers, veterans, policemen and women and first responders. THIS will shine a light on the issue and win the hearts of the fans, supporters and ticketholders.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Is the NFL right?
America, Built to Last
The View from the Middle
Let me give some badly needed factual counter evidence to the fatalistic, extremist stories that are being passed around on college campuses, the Democrat party and even the NFL these days. If you just listened to them, you would think that America is a horrible place to live that hasn’t made any progress since 1776 and needs fundamental change for us to survive. According to critics and Hillary Clinton, anyone who doesn’t agree with the Democrat Party’s agenda is a bunch of racist bigots who are deplorable and irredeemable. I take offense to those charges.
While we are not perfect, I believe that The United States of America is the greatest place in the world to live and we will only get better because of the foundation that our founding fathers put together for our country. I don’t think, for example, that the words “all men are created equal” were thoughtlessly plugged into our Declaration of Independence because they just sounded good. In 1776 those words were not true in America and I believe the founders knew it. It was their hope, however, that over time we could live up to that vision.
And we have made fantastic progress toward that end since then. We fought a civil war at least in part over the issue of equal rights for all and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation to legally make that wish become a reality. But, with difficult issues like this, it takes time for legality to become reality.
In 1870 the first two Black Americans, Hiram Revels and Joseph Rainey, were elected to Congress. After some set backs and a complete dry period from 1901 to 1929, Black America truly began it’s journey. By 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act was signed, there were six African Americans in Congress. Today there are 51, which is almost 10% of the 535 members of the House and Senate. We’ve come a long way, and I expect that we will continue to make progress in the future.
Under Jim Crow, Blacks saw little justice in America as they were regularly harassed, and over 4,000 were brutally lynched. Today, while our policemen and women are accused systemic racism, the actual facts tell a different story. In 2015, law enforcement made over 11 million arrests and only 965 of those arrests, .0086% or one in every 11,674, ended in a fatality. Only 90 of those deadly shootings were of unarmed people (one out of every 125,166) and 36 of those were black males. 36 of 90 is 40% of the total while black men represent only 13% of the male population in America, so there is a discrepancy. While prejudice is a factor in that discrepancy, it is not the only factor, so solutions need to address more that just racism in our law enforcement.
I will bet that these numbers shocked most people, in a positive way. With all the emotion over this issue most people would guess that there were 900 fatal unarmed shootings, not 90, and 360 Black males killed, not 36. And 2016 brought us even better news. In 2016 the number of unarmed black males killed by police was down to just 16. I don’t want to be insensitive by calling this “better news” and saying “just” 16 unarmed Black males were killed by police. Every life is precious. Each of these deaths is tragic, but this also represents progress, not an epidemic. BTW – most of all unarmed shooting victims were resisting arrest or fleeing police, which is another lesson.
Finally, the NFL needs some fact checkers on their staffs. They not only should check out the real figures as I have outlined them above, but they need to realize that 72% of Americans think that kneeling for the National Anthem is unpatriotic. These are the people who fill the stands each week or watch games on TV. It is a big industry, but no business can alienate its customer base with impunity and survive. Ratings are down and will continue to decline until the NFL figures out how to address the issue and celebrate the country at the same time.
Maybe the Cowboys are on to something. The team knelt BEFORE the anthem and then stood for it. They still got booed when they knelt, but got applauded when they stood. Bottom line, the NFL needs to become about football again and maybe the Cowboys can be America’s team again by leading the way through this issue.
I didn’t write this article because I think that America is perfect or that we have experienced total harmony of the races. I write this to bring some balance to this discussion. I believe that America today is the best place to live in this world and even at any time in its history. Because of our foundation, we have made great progress over the years and I have no doubt that we will make more in the future. I have great confidence in the vast majority of the American people who are united behind the concepts of equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all people.
We all need to ignore the emotionally charged, vitriolic rhetoric of the extremists who are trying to tear this country apart for their own selfish purposes, and listen to the good hearts of the average American. We need to stop the finger pointing and focus on solutions, and for that just watch my video entitled – Race in America, Solutions. Here is a link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kVsN7TO-XU.
The View from the Middle
Let me give some badly needed factual counter evidence to the fatalistic, extremist stories that are being passed around on college campuses, the Democrat party and even the NFL these days. If you just listened to them, you would think that America is a horrible place to live that hasn’t made any progress since 1776 and needs fundamental change for us to survive. According to critics and Hillary Clinton, anyone who doesn’t agree with the Democrat Party’s agenda is a bunch of racist bigots who are deplorable and irredeemable. I take offense to those charges.
While we are not perfect, I believe that The United States of America is the greatest place in the world to live and we will only get better because of the foundation that our founding fathers put together for our country. I don’t think, for example, that the words “all men are created equal” were thoughtlessly plugged into our Declaration of Independence because they just sounded good. In 1776 those words were not true in America and I believe the founders knew it. It was their hope, however, that over time we could live up to that vision.
And we have made fantastic progress toward that end since then. We fought a civil war at least in part over the issue of equal rights for all and in 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation to legally make that wish become a reality. But, with difficult issues like this, it takes time for legality to become reality.
In 1870 the first two Black Americans, Hiram Revels and Joseph Rainey, were elected to Congress. After some set backs and a complete dry period from 1901 to 1929, Black America truly began it’s journey. By 1965, a year after the Civil Rights Act was signed, there were six African Americans in Congress. Today there are 51, which is almost 10% of the 535 members of the House and Senate. We’ve come a long way, and I expect that we will continue to make progress in the future.
Under Jim Crow, Blacks saw little justice in America as they were regularly harassed, and over 4,000 were brutally lynched. Today, while our policemen and women are accused systemic racism, the actual facts tell a different story. In 2015, law enforcement made over 11 million arrests and only 965 of those arrests, .0086% or one in every 11,674, ended in a fatality. Only 90 of those deadly shootings were of unarmed people (one out of every 125,166) and 36 of those were black males. 36 of 90 is 40% of the total while black men represent only 13% of the male population in America, so there is a discrepancy. While prejudice is a factor in that discrepancy, it is not the only factor, so solutions need to address more that just racism in our law enforcement.
I will bet that these numbers shocked most people, in a positive way. With all the emotion over this issue most people would guess that there were 900 fatal unarmed shootings, not 90, and 360 Black males killed, not 36. And 2016 brought us even better news. In 2016 the number of unarmed black males killed by police was down to just 16. I don’t want to be insensitive by calling this “better news” and saying “just” 16 unarmed Black males were killed by police. Every life is precious. Each of these deaths is tragic, but this also represents progress, not an epidemic. BTW – most of all unarmed shooting victims were resisting arrest or fleeing police, which is another lesson.
Finally, the NFL needs some fact checkers on their staffs. They not only should check out the real figures as I have outlined them above, but they need to realize that 72% of Americans think that kneeling for the National Anthem is unpatriotic. These are the people who fill the stands each week or watch games on TV. It is a big industry, but no business can alienate its customer base with impunity and survive. Ratings are down and will continue to decline until the NFL figures out how to address the issue and celebrate the country at the same time.
Maybe the Cowboys are on to something. The team knelt BEFORE the anthem and then stood for it. They still got booed when they knelt, but got applauded when they stood. Bottom line, the NFL needs to become about football again and maybe the Cowboys can be America’s team again by leading the way through this issue.
I didn’t write this article because I think that America is perfect or that we have experienced total harmony of the races. I write this to bring some balance to this discussion. I believe that America today is the best place to live in this world and even at any time in its history. Because of our foundation, we have made great progress over the years and I have no doubt that we will make more in the future. I have great confidence in the vast majority of the American people who are united behind the concepts of equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all people.
We all need to ignore the emotionally charged, vitriolic rhetoric of the extremists who are trying to tear this country apart for their own selfish purposes, and listen to the good hearts of the average American. We need to stop the finger pointing and focus on solutions, and for that just watch my video entitled – Race in America, Solutions. Here is a link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kVsN7TO-XU.
Thursday, September 7, 2017
DACA - What Does it Really Mean?
DACA – Don’t Ask Congress to do Anything
The View from the Middle
President Trump has just given our Congress an opportunity to begin to claw its way back to credibility. So far, this Republican Congress has delivered an epic failure in passing any meaningful legislation. Paul Ryan specifically misled President Trump when he suggested that he start his legislative agenda by repealing and replacing Obamacare. He led Trump to believe that this was a slam-dunk and yet he failed to get his initial proposal through the House and ended up barely passing a weak alternative, which Mitch McConnell pronounced DOA in the Senate.
Then Mitch McConnell botched his effort to pass anything on repeal and replace. This was a slap in the face to the President and to every person who voted for a Republican Senate based on Republican promises to fix our healthcare problem. Finally, John McCain made a mockery of his promises to his constituents and to the President with his grandstanding rejection of repeal of Obamacare in the Senate.
I’m not even going to get into the appropriateness of Obamacare. This is impotence, plain and simple, and is exactly what the American people are sick of. Now Trump has served up a soft ball for the Republicans in Congress. 86% of Democrats and even 69% of Republicans (about 80% overall) support this group defined as “dreamers”.
Who are these people anyway? They are young people who were brought into this country when they two, three, four years old and now are productive citizens. This is not MS-13. These are not rapists, murderers or thieves. They know no other country than the US! Even if we were able to round them up, where would we send them? Yes, we must secure the border as we come to grips this group, but there should be no doubt that these are the very people to whom we should show compassion.
This is the biggest favor that the President could have done for Congress. DACA is an unconstitutional executive order, which was about to be challenged, and I’m sure thrown out by our judicial branch. Even President Obama alluded to this before he signed this order when he said, “I’m President, not a king.” Even after he signed it he said that it was not a permanent solution. DACA was a short term measure meant to give these young people some piece of mind while Congress delivered the appropriate, constitutional, legislative answer which would deliver real security and peace of mind for this group. Of course, in classic “swamp” style, Congress has delivered nothing.
Now is your chance, Republicans. Trump has cleared the decks for you by compromising with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi (not my favorite people) on the debt ceiling, government funding and Hurricane Harvey relief. There are two messages in this compromise. First, to the Republican Congress - get your s—t together. Here’s an issue with massive public support and you better deal with it now. You’ve got six months you slugs. Get off your dead butts and pass some meaningful legislation.
The second message is also clear. If the Republican majority doesn’t start supporting the Trump agenda, there are things Trump can accomplish with Democratic support. Remember, he was once a Democrat and even ran as President with some very moderate positions on healthcare and even immigration. Trump may turn to the Democrats, be successful and run for a second term…as a Democrat. Not since Teddy Roosevelt has anything like that happened. Now, that would be historic. Is that what this Congress wants to be remembered for?
The View from the Middle
President Trump has just given our Congress an opportunity to begin to claw its way back to credibility. So far, this Republican Congress has delivered an epic failure in passing any meaningful legislation. Paul Ryan specifically misled President Trump when he suggested that he start his legislative agenda by repealing and replacing Obamacare. He led Trump to believe that this was a slam-dunk and yet he failed to get his initial proposal through the House and ended up barely passing a weak alternative, which Mitch McConnell pronounced DOA in the Senate.
Then Mitch McConnell botched his effort to pass anything on repeal and replace. This was a slap in the face to the President and to every person who voted for a Republican Senate based on Republican promises to fix our healthcare problem. Finally, John McCain made a mockery of his promises to his constituents and to the President with his grandstanding rejection of repeal of Obamacare in the Senate.
I’m not even going to get into the appropriateness of Obamacare. This is impotence, plain and simple, and is exactly what the American people are sick of. Now Trump has served up a soft ball for the Republicans in Congress. 86% of Democrats and even 69% of Republicans (about 80% overall) support this group defined as “dreamers”.
Who are these people anyway? They are young people who were brought into this country when they two, three, four years old and now are productive citizens. This is not MS-13. These are not rapists, murderers or thieves. They know no other country than the US! Even if we were able to round them up, where would we send them? Yes, we must secure the border as we come to grips this group, but there should be no doubt that these are the very people to whom we should show compassion.
This is the biggest favor that the President could have done for Congress. DACA is an unconstitutional executive order, which was about to be challenged, and I’m sure thrown out by our judicial branch. Even President Obama alluded to this before he signed this order when he said, “I’m President, not a king.” Even after he signed it he said that it was not a permanent solution. DACA was a short term measure meant to give these young people some piece of mind while Congress delivered the appropriate, constitutional, legislative answer which would deliver real security and peace of mind for this group. Of course, in classic “swamp” style, Congress has delivered nothing.
Now is your chance, Republicans. Trump has cleared the decks for you by compromising with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi (not my favorite people) on the debt ceiling, government funding and Hurricane Harvey relief. There are two messages in this compromise. First, to the Republican Congress - get your s—t together. Here’s an issue with massive public support and you better deal with it now. You’ve got six months you slugs. Get off your dead butts and pass some meaningful legislation.
The second message is also clear. If the Republican majority doesn’t start supporting the Trump agenda, there are things Trump can accomplish with Democratic support. Remember, he was once a Democrat and even ran as President with some very moderate positions on healthcare and even immigration. Trump may turn to the Democrats, be successful and run for a second term…as a Democrat. Not since Teddy Roosevelt has anything like that happened. Now, that would be historic. Is that what this Congress wants to be remembered for?
Thursday, August 31, 2017
All's Fair in Love & War & Politics - Not!
All’s Fair is Love and War and Politics, Right?
The View from the Middle
Last night I was sitting on my back porch discussing the issues of the day with two friends who are often opposed to my political positions. Yes, some of my best friends are liberal Democrats. During our discussion, the subject of the condemnation of Melania Trump’s shoes came up. In case you missed this ludicrous story, Melania was resoundingly denounced by the lame stream media for wearing high heel shoes as she boarded Air Force One for her trip to the Hurricane Harvey disaster area. I brought it up to demonstrate the new low to which the media has dipped in their desperate effort to criticize anything Trump.
Believe it or not, one of my friends argued that this was a legitimate story because, “All’s fair in love and war and politics” and if your goal is to destroy our sitting President then even this piece of trivia was worth highlighting. Like most people, he hadn’t heard “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would have said. Melania got off the Air Force One in a pair of tennis shoes. Most people will, in fact, miss the second half of this story because, as usual, the lie or distortion appears on the front page but the correction and or clarification appears on page 15 of section Z.
Two points became clear to me after I heard this “all’s fair” comment. First, while this cliché’ may be very clever, it is not true. People who want to rationalize their own lying, cheating and abusive behavior use it. I’m sure Hitler was a big fan of this saying as is ISIS as they burn people alive in cages. Even in war we have rules and you would think that love would deliver even purer motives. 1st Corinthians says, “Love is patient and kind. It does not boast and is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs.” It also says that love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth and it always protects, trusts, hopes and preserves. It says nothing about deception, demonization and ridicule.
People ask me why I defend Trump so much. After all, he’s not a politician (that’s actually a plus for me) and he often says things that make me cringe, and I will criticize him when he does. I defend him because he is under relentless attack from Democrats, the lame stream media and “the swamp” who wake up every morning with the goal to condemn whatever he does, no matter what! These are the kind of people who will resort to denouncing Melania’s shoes. These people will even figure out how to criticize her change into tennis shoes when she got to Corpus Christie.
Trump denounced the violence in Charlottesville, on both sides. How dare he?! Even if it was absolutely true, he should have only criticized the Neo-Nazis, KKK and white supremacists. Then when he actually does condemn all of those parties by name. “Sorry, it’s too late!!” his critics will chant. Antifa has been escalating their violence for eight months and we finally got Nancy Pelosi to condemn their violence. That was eight months after the start and three days after the most recent event in Berkley, but that’s not too late? And that’s just Pelosi. What about Schumer? Clinton? Obama?
It is obvious that the leaders of this “Trump can NEVER do anything right” campaign will do anything to distract, disrupt and hinder this President’s efforts. They would rather see him fail even if that would have devastating consequences for our country, than see him succeed and have the country prosper. Why? Just follow the money, and the power. The American people may suffer tremendously if we handicap our President to these unprecedented levels, but the leaders of the “Hate Trump” thug groups will do just fine.
My other friend, interestingly, suggested that there were selfish, evil, corrupt and narcissistic people on both sides of the political spectrum and that we should come together “in the middle” (his words, not mine) and work to actually find solutions to our problems. I must agree with that wisdom.
So, when you see the unhinged, unbalanced, hyperbolic reports on either side of the political argument, reject them!! Let me even appeal to Obama fans out there who complained that he had obstructionist elements in his path. Is what you condemned before now commendable because the shoe is on the other foot? Is it OK to lie, cheat, distort and demonize to further your side’s argument? If your answer is yes, then you can wrap yourself up in your “All’s fair” blanket, but recognize that we’ll never resolve any of our issues if we play with this divisive, selfish and even inaccurate philosophy.
The View from the Middle
Last night I was sitting on my back porch discussing the issues of the day with two friends who are often opposed to my political positions. Yes, some of my best friends are liberal Democrats. During our discussion, the subject of the condemnation of Melania Trump’s shoes came up. In case you missed this ludicrous story, Melania was resoundingly denounced by the lame stream media for wearing high heel shoes as she boarded Air Force One for her trip to the Hurricane Harvey disaster area. I brought it up to demonstrate the new low to which the media has dipped in their desperate effort to criticize anything Trump.
Believe it or not, one of my friends argued that this was a legitimate story because, “All’s fair in love and war and politics” and if your goal is to destroy our sitting President then even this piece of trivia was worth highlighting. Like most people, he hadn’t heard “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would have said. Melania got off the Air Force One in a pair of tennis shoes. Most people will, in fact, miss the second half of this story because, as usual, the lie or distortion appears on the front page but the correction and or clarification appears on page 15 of section Z.
Two points became clear to me after I heard this “all’s fair” comment. First, while this cliché’ may be very clever, it is not true. People who want to rationalize their own lying, cheating and abusive behavior use it. I’m sure Hitler was a big fan of this saying as is ISIS as they burn people alive in cages. Even in war we have rules and you would think that love would deliver even purer motives. 1st Corinthians says, “Love is patient and kind. It does not boast and is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs.” It also says that love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth and it always protects, trusts, hopes and preserves. It says nothing about deception, demonization and ridicule.
People ask me why I defend Trump so much. After all, he’s not a politician (that’s actually a plus for me) and he often says things that make me cringe, and I will criticize him when he does. I defend him because he is under relentless attack from Democrats, the lame stream media and “the swamp” who wake up every morning with the goal to condemn whatever he does, no matter what! These are the kind of people who will resort to denouncing Melania’s shoes. These people will even figure out how to criticize her change into tennis shoes when she got to Corpus Christie.
Trump denounced the violence in Charlottesville, on both sides. How dare he?! Even if it was absolutely true, he should have only criticized the Neo-Nazis, KKK and white supremacists. Then when he actually does condemn all of those parties by name. “Sorry, it’s too late!!” his critics will chant. Antifa has been escalating their violence for eight months and we finally got Nancy Pelosi to condemn their violence. That was eight months after the start and three days after the most recent event in Berkley, but that’s not too late? And that’s just Pelosi. What about Schumer? Clinton? Obama?
It is obvious that the leaders of this “Trump can NEVER do anything right” campaign will do anything to distract, disrupt and hinder this President’s efforts. They would rather see him fail even if that would have devastating consequences for our country, than see him succeed and have the country prosper. Why? Just follow the money, and the power. The American people may suffer tremendously if we handicap our President to these unprecedented levels, but the leaders of the “Hate Trump” thug groups will do just fine.
My other friend, interestingly, suggested that there were selfish, evil, corrupt and narcissistic people on both sides of the political spectrum and that we should come together “in the middle” (his words, not mine) and work to actually find solutions to our problems. I must agree with that wisdom.
So, when you see the unhinged, unbalanced, hyperbolic reports on either side of the political argument, reject them!! Let me even appeal to Obama fans out there who complained that he had obstructionist elements in his path. Is what you condemned before now commendable because the shoe is on the other foot? Is it OK to lie, cheat, distort and demonize to further your side’s argument? If your answer is yes, then you can wrap yourself up in your “All’s fair” blanket, but recognize that we’ll never resolve any of our issues if we play with this divisive, selfish and even inaccurate philosophy.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Lincoln - With Him or Against Him?
Abraham Lincoln – Are You With Him or Against Him?
The View from the Middle
Abraham Lincoln once pondered that only about 10% of our country held extreme political views. He suggested that 90% of Americans are ideological moderates who are fundamentally good and fair people who can disagree without resorting to hate and often compromise for the greater good. To be fair, he also implied that the radical 10% was evenly split between the fanatical right and the rabid left. I tend to agree with Mr. Lincoln, which always makes me feel safe.
In an effort to support the 16th President’s position, let me be so bold as to speak for the 90%, to which I think Lincoln not only alluded, but also identified with. I will unequivocally denounce the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo-Nazi’s and all white supremacists groups in this country and around the world. Any group that denies equal justice and opportunity for any other group not only violates the spirit of our country as expressed in The Declaration of Independence, but also the letter of out laws as laid out in our Constitution.
Call them what you will (bigots, racists, supremacist), I condemn them all. But while I castigate the extreme of what some might call the right side of the political spectrum, let me do the same for the other extremists. I denounce any group or individual who encourages the murder of our law enforcement officers. No collection of humans is perfect, but I believe the VAST majority of our police officers are just trying to keep us safe and deserve our respect. When I hear people chanting, “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!” I must condemn that strenuously. When I hear these chants, I wonder why our police officers would even do that job for the piddling amount of money we pay them, and how our lives with really be without them.
I will also admonish anyone who will deny others the right of free speech. The Supreme Court has defined free speech very broadly and would definitely agree with Patrick Henry (or Evelyn Beatrice Hall) who declared that while, “I disagree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This, fortunately, includes racists and Neo-Nazis. I say “fortunately” purposefully, because I believe that the best rebuke to bigots, or racists or Neo-Nazis is their own words. The 90% will never be convinced by the ugly, malicious, absurd lies of these monsters. In fact, they may even enlighten some of their own extreme followers as they spew their vitriol.
Of course, I also disavow any group or individual who hates white people just because of the color of their skin. While it has become fashionable to demonize Caucasians, especially older white males, I have found no race, gender, creed or age group that has a monopoly on nobility or evil. All people have the capacity for decency and wickedness and have proved that time and again over history. If we are honest with ourselves we will admit to that undeniable truth.
Now, as polar opposite as these groups are, what could they possibly have in common? Prejudice! When you peal back these ugly onions you find that they all need to get their following to hate some other group without real cause. They must convince the 90% to leave the truth and their senses behind and prejudge scores of people according to their preconceived, erroneous and often imaginary notions.
Don’t be persuaded by the malignant dribble spouted by these extreme groups. Denounce all of them. As Americans we want and need more dialogue, not less. We need more understanding, empathy and forgiveness, not less. And certainly we need more real compromise, and not the childish obstructionism we see in Washington. Get on the side of Abraham Lincoln who resolved one of our country’s greatest challenges by listening, even to his rivals, and looked for the good in people, expecting to find it. If we do the same, as with Abe, we will surely find it!
The View from the Middle
Abraham Lincoln once pondered that only about 10% of our country held extreme political views. He suggested that 90% of Americans are ideological moderates who are fundamentally good and fair people who can disagree without resorting to hate and often compromise for the greater good. To be fair, he also implied that the radical 10% was evenly split between the fanatical right and the rabid left. I tend to agree with Mr. Lincoln, which always makes me feel safe.
In an effort to support the 16th President’s position, let me be so bold as to speak for the 90%, to which I think Lincoln not only alluded, but also identified with. I will unequivocally denounce the Ku Klux Klan, the Neo-Nazi’s and all white supremacists groups in this country and around the world. Any group that denies equal justice and opportunity for any other group not only violates the spirit of our country as expressed in The Declaration of Independence, but also the letter of out laws as laid out in our Constitution.
Call them what you will (bigots, racists, supremacist), I condemn them all. But while I castigate the extreme of what some might call the right side of the political spectrum, let me do the same for the other extremists. I denounce any group or individual who encourages the murder of our law enforcement officers. No collection of humans is perfect, but I believe the VAST majority of our police officers are just trying to keep us safe and deserve our respect. When I hear people chanting, “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!” I must condemn that strenuously. When I hear these chants, I wonder why our police officers would even do that job for the piddling amount of money we pay them, and how our lives with really be without them.
I will also admonish anyone who will deny others the right of free speech. The Supreme Court has defined free speech very broadly and would definitely agree with Patrick Henry (or Evelyn Beatrice Hall) who declared that while, “I disagree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This, fortunately, includes racists and Neo-Nazis. I say “fortunately” purposefully, because I believe that the best rebuke to bigots, or racists or Neo-Nazis is their own words. The 90% will never be convinced by the ugly, malicious, absurd lies of these monsters. In fact, they may even enlighten some of their own extreme followers as they spew their vitriol.
Of course, I also disavow any group or individual who hates white people just because of the color of their skin. While it has become fashionable to demonize Caucasians, especially older white males, I have found no race, gender, creed or age group that has a monopoly on nobility or evil. All people have the capacity for decency and wickedness and have proved that time and again over history. If we are honest with ourselves we will admit to that undeniable truth.
Now, as polar opposite as these groups are, what could they possibly have in common? Prejudice! When you peal back these ugly onions you find that they all need to get their following to hate some other group without real cause. They must convince the 90% to leave the truth and their senses behind and prejudge scores of people according to their preconceived, erroneous and often imaginary notions.
Don’t be persuaded by the malignant dribble spouted by these extreme groups. Denounce all of them. As Americans we want and need more dialogue, not less. We need more understanding, empathy and forgiveness, not less. And certainly we need more real compromise, and not the childish obstructionism we see in Washington. Get on the side of Abraham Lincoln who resolved one of our country’s greatest challenges by listening, even to his rivals, and looked for the good in people, expecting to find it. If we do the same, as with Abe, we will surely find it!
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