Stunning Pro-Trump Rant

I have copied this in entirety from the Daily Star which is the newspaper for the town I was born in.  I am stunned by the ignorance and untruths accepted as fact, but I have to accept the anger at all politicians that it represents.  Globalization, technology, and a failure to understand comparative advantage by policymakers have given rise to the anger that if I were a policymaker, I would have to figure out how to address.  In the case of NY, corruption of state level politicians of both parties at the expense of comprehensive reform of policies have assisted this rise to anger.

"We live in interesting times. Forget the destruction of Florida by climate change, the tens of thousands of people who have been killed by fracking, and the millions who have died from secondhand cigarette smoke."

"Never mind the 50,000 species that will go extinct this year, the desalination of our oceans, and the drop in blood pressure that may be caused by Viagra. Our national debt will soon reach $20 trillion, ISIS is killing Christians by the thousands, and a gamma burst from the sun will scorch the Earth, kill the remaining 650,000 species, and ruin satellite reception for a week."

"Like Robert De Niro would say, “Fuhgeddaboudit.” The real Armageddon, the true Anti-Christ, the grim reaper himself is a businessman from Manhattan called Donald Trump. Just the mention of his name invokes phrases like, “The man is a bigot, xenophobe, misogynist and has lied more than Cruz, Mao, Stalin and both Castros and Clintons combined.”

"Others call him “Hitler” and predict the demise of the Republican Party and the whole USA. Wow! “Lies more than Clinton?” That’s below the belt."

"I wonder? Whom did we compare people to before Hitler was born. Was it Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Hannibal, or maybe, Bernie Sanders? OK, Bernie isn’t quite that old."

"Celebrities threaten to leave the United States if Trump’s elected. What will we do without Rosie O’ Donnell and Kanye West?"

"People call him a “bully” and I hope he is. We live in times of turmoil and unrest. Not really on a par with Old Abe and the Civil War, or FDR and the armies of Germany and Japan, or George Washington and the British Empire, but nevertheless, we need a man with passion and guts."

"In reality, Putin is a punk, and ISIS could be toast in a week. The real threat is the liberal elites in our educational system, the so-called mainstream media, and our elected officials. Formidable enemies they are, and should not be underestimated."

"There is little more dangerous than a fool who speaks with authority. Many will follow. In 2016 America, we are being taught by those who have never done, informed by those who interpret rather than report, and governed by those who swore to uphold and defend, but instead, rule without responsibility, dictate without knowledge, mandate without consent, and believe authority comes from them, rather than God and the people."

"They are the real enemy, and do not underestimate them. They don’t give a damn about your health care, the downtrodden, immigrants, minorities, transgenders, gays, animal rights, women’s rights, minimum wage, single moms, or the environment."

"These are but a ruse to pit Americans against Americans, and ensure their power. That power is the $3 trillion-$4 trillion that funnels its way through Washington each year, and in our 50 state capitals, another $3 trillion-$4 trillion is spent. It is disbursed according to their will."

"With that kind of money and power, elections are won and careers are assured. Our input is negligible. Anyone who believes otherwise is a fool. Doubt me? Ask yourself, “Does it matter if a school budget is voted down?”"

"Along comes Trump. He’s a businessman, a billionaire, married a few times, has good children, no criminal record, and employs thousands. Trump is liberal on some issues, conservative on others, and changes his mind like the rest of us. At times, he seems like a bully. At times, he’s crude. So were Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Andrew Jackson. And, add to that LBJ, Bill Clinton, U.S. Grant and John Adams."

"Like it or not, he speaks the truth, and to paraphrase Jack Nicholson in the movie “A Few Good Men,” many people “can’t handle the truth!” I don’t mean statistics like trade deficits of $69 billion vs $99 billion, or 15 million illegals when it’s only a paltry 11 million. I mean, when was he wrong on big issues like immigration, radical Islam, the way our country is run, etc…?"

"We are Americans, and we are being hurt by illegal immigration. Jobs are taken, crimes are committed, and health care and welfare rolls are stressed. Many in the Muslim world wish our destruction. To protect Americans from immigrants, who may mean us harm, only makes sense. Think about your child being in the Twin Towers or at the Boston Marathon. Does anyone approve of the way our country is being run?"

"Trump is not a “bigot, xenophobe, misogynist, or blah, blah, blah.” Why is he hated and loathed by the media, liberals, pundits, Democrats and establishment, inside-the-beltway, RINO Republicans? Because, Trump is not one of them. He’s not a big government liberal or a Washington insider. They have much to lose, and they are afraid. That’s a good reason to vote “Trump!” 

CHUCK PINKEY is a retired area businessman. He can be reached at chuck.ontherightside@gmail.com. The views expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of The Daily Star and its editorial board, but the author thinks they ought to. 

Terrorism & Lack of U.S. effective Gun Control are kissing cousins

When means of death are readily available, there is little law enforcement can do to protect citizens from random acts of violence.

I am not advocating people stop going about their daily activities.  Randomness, means that most people will be safe and only the unlucky ones will be caught in those random acts of terror.

But there is little difference between a radicalized Islamic terrorist with little economic hope and a young caucasian American male who finds sexuality and growing up in a competitive social environment frustrating; with the result that both try to kill numerous number of the people who they perceive cause them grief.

So how does a Belgium terrorist get bomb making materials?  How does an American teenager get a semi-automatic weapon?

And what Donald Trump and Ted Cruz want to do is torture Muslims and flood their neighborhoods with police.  Yet, Belgium did flood the neighborhood with police and the bombers went somewhere else.  Only if we defend law abiding Muslims and provide them with equal economic opportunity, will we get their cooperation in turning out the bad ones who live amongst them.

Just as, absent effective gun control, we need to provide disturbed teenagers with support and encourage their friends to both help them and provide intelligence.

The Emperor Has No Clothes

or as Ross Douthat has finally realized, throwing all the RINO's out of the GOP moved the GOP too far to the right by becoming completely beholden to Grover Norquist.  The result is Donald Trump!!!

Link to Douthat column


Meanwhile, certain GOP thought leaders are trying to find someone to run as a 3rd Party candidate on  the theory that tax cuts, anti-global warming policies, cut government spending so you can give tax cuts while raising defense spending must be a choice in the November election to preserve the Republican Party principles.

Insight and comprehensive thought is not a strength of the GOP establishment.


Link to Nobel Prize Winner who agrees with me

Sequestration is Helping the GOP Destroy Regulation, while George Will speaks common sense

If the Democrat's don't start calling out the GOP for this in a concise easily understood manner, there are going to be more Flints and eventually a dismantling of Dodd Frank and another banking crisis, not to mention what other environmental disasters may happen.

After using sequestration to reduce many agencies ability to enforce laws, and passing other laws to make the Federal Agency subservient to the States, the Congressional GOP is accusing the EPA of failing to do their job when all they did was follow the instruction the GOP Congress gave them.

And people wonder why so many voters are disgusted with the GOP establishment.  The only thing I wonder is why they flock to Donald Trump rather than the Democrats, but I guess his discriminatory bent is the answer to that.

Link to "poisonous conservative thinking that cause Flint crisis"

And George Will slams the Senate GOP on their desire to ignore the Supreme Court nomination.

Link to George Will

The GOP Leadership Tried to Delegitimize President Obama

and in the process they delegitimized themselves.

You might have thought that the rise of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz despite the absolute disgust most GOP Leaders have for both them would have been sufficient evidence for that statement.

But then I saw a news article that illustrates the difference in the delegate rules for each party.  It is well worth reading as it shows the danger of market policies running amok without wise people being able to put a stop to out of control tendencies.  And if you don't stop out of control tendencies when they are small, they become bigger.

If people were individually wise and moral, there wouldn't be religion.  The powers that be 1394, 2016, 3102, 4714, 5774 years ago wouldn't have felt the need to encourage people to behave morally. By the way for the odd creationist who comes across this blog, those years are the year it is today for the Islamic, Christian, Hindu, Chinese and Hebrew calendars.

But I digress.  I am a person of the markets and a product of big bank risk management processes.  I believed to my great personal financial detriment that big bank risk management processes combined with regulation would be able to control greed and other motivating things that can cause a financial crisis.  I was wrong and I now even more firmly believe that sound regulation is needed of certain things; banks, financial markets and monopoly industries for a start.

You would think the failure of the Bush II administration to balance the budget and regulate effectively would have caused the GOP to rethink there adherence to the wishes of Grover Norquist and the policies of less regulation.  But no, so far the only effective policy implemented by the GOP during the Obama administration is sequestration which arbitrarily reduces the money available to run the government effectively.  The result of this ineffectiveness is people are mad at Washington and a sufficient number of the GOP are voting for Donald Trump, who may or may not fund the government effectively, but will certainly try to keep Social Security and Medicare funded.

And the rise of Trump/Cruz can be directly tied to the GOP belief in the power of the market.  That is the way their delegate rules are designed.  The Democrats delegate rules reflect their belief that senior leaders should be able to control the masses.  This campaign illustrates very well why the GOP is not a legitimate party at this time with their over reliance on a faith in markets should rule at all times.  It was a very good article to read and I post the link below.

Link to Delegate Rules article

Ross Douthat Analyzes Just How Bad GOP Policies Have Been and Are

Only a GOP policy pundit wonk could write this.  While he is correct about immigration in his analysis of the GOP, he fails to look at it in broader terms of what is best for the country.

Link To column



And Thomas Friedman lays out how politicians from both parties are using global trade in a false manner.

Link to Friedman defense of Trade Treaties

The Trump Conundrum for the GOP

Finally, some parts of the GOP are saying that they will not support Donald Trump and will vote for the Democrat or not vote at all.  These appear to be mostly neoconservatives who might vote for Hillary but are not likely to vote for Bernie.

But Ross Douthat has a radical idea that was a normal part of party politics in the 1800's; the smokey back room party leadership should just nominate who they want to.  While this would upset the 30% to 40% of GOP primary voters who believe in Donald Trump and are angry at both party's leadership for failing to protect them from technological advance, globalization, and immigration, it would at least sustain the GOP as a party of some type of conservative standing at the likely cost of the 2016 Presidential election.  But so would a Trump candidacy, I hope and secularly pray.

What Douthat does not address in this idea, is how will the GOP ever address the real world concerns of these angry voters.  Doesn't it involve some concept of accepting a certain concept of the safety net? Doesn't it involve some concept that the Government has functions to perform and there is a need to pay for it with tax revenues?  Doesn't it involve some concept of tax reform so our tax structure is competitive with other nations?  Just campaigning on a pledge to cut taxes and never raise them again does not address these issues.

And let me say, I don't think anything would have protected many of these workers from: (i)  technological advance - that is a home grown development; (ii) from globalization - China is an enormous engine and multi-national companies are free to go where the growth is; and (iii) immigration - most jobs undocumented immigrants do are jobs an insufficient number of white American's want to do.

So finding some policies that appease these angry voters should be a point of policy debate.  I don't have the answer.

Link to Douthat column


And the Washington Post has 7 leaders of the GOP posting what they think.  Jim Leach agrees with me and Ari Fleischer puts forth my worst fear.  Also commenting are Eric Cantor, Newt Gingrich, William Kristol , Haley Barber and Danielle Pletka.

Link to 7 Conservatives


And lastly a view on how this may play out over time with a realignment of voters supporting which party.


Link to Realignment column

David Brooks Analyzes the GOP

and in the process starts agreeing with Thomas Friedman and me.  But his words are more eloquent and his thought process clearer than mine.  Which is why he gets the big bucks for punditry.

"Since Goldwater/Reagan, the GOP has been governed by a free-market, anti-government philosophy.  But over the ensuing decades new problems have emerged.  First, the economy has gotten crueler.  Technology is displacing workers and globalization is dampening wages.  Second, the social structure has atomized and frayed, especially among the less educated.  Third, demography is shifting."

"Orthodox Republicans, see no positive role for government, have no affirmative agenda to help people deal with these new problems.  Occasionally, some conservative policy mavens have proposed such an agenda - anti-poverty programs, human capital policies, wage subsidies and the like - but the proposals were killed, usually in the House, by the anti-government crowd."

The 1980's anti-government orthodoxy still has many followers; Ted Cruz is the extreme embodiment of this tendency.  But it has grown increasingly rigid, unresponsive and obsolete."

"Along comes Donald Trump offering to replace it and change the nature of the GOP.  He tramples all over the anti-government ideology of modern Republicanism.  He would replace the free-market orthodoxy with authoritarian nationalism."

"He offers to use government on behalf of the American working class, but in negative and defensive ways:  to build walls, to close trade, to ban outsiders, to smash enemies.  According to him, America's problems aren't caused by deep structural shifts.  They're caused by morons and parasites......"

"If the GOP is going to survive as a decent and viable national party, it can't cling to the fading orthodoxy Cruz represents.  But it can't shift to ugly Trumpism, either.  It has to find a third alternative:  limited but energetic use of the government to expand mobility and widen openness and opportunity.  That is what Kasich, Rubio and Paul Ryan and others are stumbling toward."


I would add, on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders represents a similar set of policies to Donald Trump and Hillary is stumbling toward a moderate balanced set of policies with somewhat more energetic use of government than Paul Ryan.

Link to Brooks column

Honesty is a Moral Value

As I have written before, as a manager of people, my philosophy was if you worked for me and you lied to me, that was a fireable offense because I could no longer trust you.  How can you trust someone who lies to you?

Ross Douthat and Maureen Dowd nailed today just how morally bankrupt the entire leadership of the GOP is because they lie.  And the fact that they lie is why Donald Trump, who lies, is doing so well.

I give you links to their columns.


Ross Douthat column


Maureen Dowd

The Fault Line That Donald Trump Reveals

The point of political parties is to win elections by satisfying the policy desires of a sufficient number of people.  But within that there is also a need to lead.  After all the original governments back when we were all tribes were the religious leaders who told us how to live a community oriented life in a healthy righteous manner.  And they organized society.

So when the GOP followed Grover Norquist into the abyss of all we stand for is cutting taxes and letting people live their lives however they want to, they drove the moderate voters, who used to be Rockefeller Republicans or even Reagan/George Bush I Republicans into the Democratic party.  These people were called RINO's because they believed that women deserve the right to control their bodies, that all people are deserving of respect and legal protection, that the government plays a role in keeping society safe from financial misdeeds and that government should play a role in helping people have access to health care and a funded retirement.  It goes without saying that people of all persuasions want a strong national defense used intelligently to protect us.

Without the RINO's, what is left in the GOP had a big fault line covered over by the GOP Congressional pandering to the Tea Party, Religious Right, and the racist tinged Obama is a Kenyan Muslim movement.  Donald Trump was a vocal member of that latter group for reasons that I cannot figure out.  And when Mitt Romney accepted Donald Trump's endorsement in 2012, he was implicitly offering his approval of that type of untrue slander in the mainstream political process.  So too when the GOP Congressional leaders did not punish the S.C. Congressman who yelled out "You Lie" at the President during a State of the Union speech.  So too when Congressman and Senators run around the country spouting untruth statement's about the President's policies and don't disavow the slander on GOP talk radio and Fox News.  They accepted all that to gain the votes of the people who listen to it.

Well a lot of those people are unhinged racists who don't like anybody who isn't white and Protestant.  And they are anti-government except when it comes to their social benefits: the V.A., Medicare and Social Security.   So they are going to support someone who says he is there guy.  These people don't make a lot of money.  They need their government benefits.  I think the reason Donald Trump knew to tap into these people is that they are his customers in his casinos.

And that is the fault line in the GOP today.  This Presidential Primary has brought out the fact that a substantial percentage of the GOP bases likes government benefits and wants a strong government program to validate their racist beliefs.  And they are fearful of the foreign and want the government to protect them from the foreign.

The establishment wing of the GOP drove out the RINO's, who would be supporting John Kasich or Jeb Bush today, only to find out that they need those RINO's to beat back the people who wanted to keep Jim Crow in place 60 years ago.  Remember, Obama Care was a GOP think tank design to keep the market involved in health insurance and avoid a Single Payer Plan.  That is why RINO's support Obamacare.

And one should remember that both Kansas and Louisiana, which implemented Grover Norquist's preferred policies now have state budgets that are in crisis with services being cut and GOP people upset by those cuts in services.  These services must be paid for, but in Kansas at least, people who own business don't pay any state income tax on their earnings now in the belief that these people will reinvest their money in their business and hire people who will pay taxes, but instead many save the taxes for retirement and have not hired anybody additional.

Link to Tom Egan column, "The Beast is Us"

Paul Krugman is Priceless Today

"The answer, I’d suggest, is that the establishment’s problem with Mr. Trump isn’t the con he brings; it’s the cons he disrupts."

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"First, there’s the con Republicans usually manage to pull off in national elections — the one where they pose as a serious, grown-up party honestly trying to grapple with America’s problems. The truth is that that party died a long time ago, that these days it’s voodoo economics and neocon fantasies all the way down. But the establishment wants to preserve the facade, which will be hard if the nominee is someone who refuses to play his part."

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"By the way, I predict that even if Mr. Trump is the nominee, pundits and others who claim to be thoughtful conservatives will stroke their chins and declare, after a great show of careful deliberation, that he’s the better choice given Hillary’s character flaws, or something. And self-proclaimed centrists will still find a way to claim that the sides are equally bad. But both acts will look especially strained."

You Reap What You Sow

or once a seed is planted, the plant grows to whatever height it was genetically programmed for.

This analogy applies to the GOP.  They trafficked in racist undertones ever since President Obama was elected with leadership that did not refute Birthism, Socialism, statements of being a Muslim which ties into birthism, and of course calling the President a liar during the State of the Union.

And now they have Donald Trump leading that hatred right out into the open and the leaders wonder why they can't contain it.

We can only hope the voters do a better job of refuting this bad behavior by the now dominate wing of the GOP.

Link to EJ Dionne column that inspired this rant

Observe, Orient, Decide, Act or Do Not and Die: Today's GOP is doing the latter as they do not Observe or Orient

Thomas Friedman as usual has some coherent observations.

The link is below and you should read the entire column, but I cannot help but emphasize his observation that the GOP "deep" Presidential bench "resembled nothing more than the "Star Wars" bar scene at the planet of Tatooine - that assortment of alien species, each more bizarre than the last, from a "galaxy far, far away."


Link to Friedman column

The Danger's of Incivility or You Get What You Don't Anticipate

Two worthy reads on the NYT opinion page today.

1st, Peter Wehner, who has served in 3 Republican administrations, and is an evangelical individual writes about how Donald Trump lives a life that should be anathema to evangelical voters and expresses dismay that such a large percentage of evangelical voters support Trump.  Well, consistency is not something I have found in every evangelical individual I know and some certainly used religion as a cover for sinning, saying no one is perfect, but you can earn forgiveness.

I might offer a different view for Mr. Wehner.  A certain substantial percentage of evangelicals use religion as a cover for bigotry and ignorance and can be lead by lambs to slaughter.  That after all is what GOP leaders have been doing with them by promulgating untruths since President Obama was elected and advocating policies that are completely unacceptable to Democrats, who have the power to stop them in our Democracy.

Link to Peter Wehne column

And Roger Cohen recounts Congressional GOP responsibility for the rise of Trump Fascism by their undemocratic and rude behaviors of the last 7 years.  This column is actually about Europe's alarm at the rise of Trump, but it contains the following:

"Trump is telling people something is rotten in the state of America. The message resonates because the rot is there."

"He has emerged from a political system corrupted by money, locked in an echo chamber of insults, reduced to the show business of an endless campaign, blocked by a kind of partisanship run amok that leads Republican members of Congress to declare they will not meet with President Obama’s eventual nominee for the Supreme Court, let alone listen to him or her. This is an outrage! The public interest has become less than an afterthought."

"Enter the smart, savvy, scowling showman. He is self-financed and promises restored greatness. He has a bully’s instinct for the jugular and a sense of how sick an angry America is of politics as usual and political correctness. He hijacks a Republican Party that has paved the way for him with years of ranting, bigotry, bellicosity and what Robert Kagan, in The Washington Post, has rightly called “racially tinged derangement syndrome” with respect to President Obama."

Link to Roger Cohen Column