Forum: Do You Like Trump’s Cabinet Picks?

Tags

cabinet picks, Donald Trump, Election 2016

Every week on Monday, the WoW! community and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week’s question:Do You Like Trump’s Cabinet Picks?

Don Surber: My thoughts are all his Cabinet picks make it because he works well with others. Serious.What are his goals?
1. Protect the nation 2. Fix the economy 3. Reduce government. 4. Drain the swamp.

To do this, he hires good people and lets them do their thing. They fail, they get fired.
Hence generals take over security and defense, business executives take over economic positions, and politicians come in to reduce government. Which leaves draining the swamp — welcome Jeff Sessions as AG.

Trump will run his own foreign policy. It’s the one area Congress has little say. His Secretary of State needs to be a competent administrator to reduce and drain Foggy Bottom. Romney?

Puma By Design: I am concerned about President-elect, Donald Trump’s pick, Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary. While DeVos, who is pro-school choice, pro-charter schools and school vouchers, I am hoping that she will not revert to pro common core status.

Okay, although DeVos, never publicly stated her support for Common Core, Jeb Bush’s approval and the fact that the DeVos’ are donors to Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) has many concerned and rightfully so.

Hopefully, the confirmation hearings will give us insight as to what DeVos has in store as Secretary of the Department of Education.

Missouri Education Watchdog:

….If she doesn’t see major problems with ESSA, FERPA regulations which are meaningless and the increased data tracking of students from birth/Pre-K through their careers, then your concerns about Ms. Devos as Education Secretary (her lack of educational experience, NGO connections) are probably well-founded. It will also be incumbent upon those in the confirmation hearings to question her on exactly what she has done to raise student achievement….

Pursuant to a short Q&A on her website, DeVos admits supporting pro-Common Core but insists that she is not a supporter of Common Core.

Have organizations that I have been a part of supported Common Core? Of course. But that’s not my position. Sometimes it’s not just students who need to do their homework. However, along the way, it got turned into a federalized boondoggle….

For years, condescending pro-Common Core bureaucrats such as Jeb Bush and his cronies have pushed back and assaulted the integrity of those who opposed data mining, Common Core standards, etc.

Now I might be overthinking this but Bush is a bitter loser on two fronts, Common Core and the 2016 GOP presidential primary who suddenly finds himself with a friend in the Department of Education. Will he push DeVos to spearhead the Common Core agenda once in place?

Doing so would be a slap in the face to Donald Trump and to the stop Common Core movement. See, American Principle’s Project article entitled,“PRESS RELEASE: Will Betsy DeVos Be Jeb’s Revenge?”

On the plus side, American Federation of Teachers President, Randi Weingarten, is besides herself accusing Trump of selecting…

“the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of Education. In nominating DeVos, Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America…Installing her in the Department of Education is the opposite of Trump’s promise to drain the swamp.”

Weingarten, a swamp critter herself has been in the swamp so long that she no longer of recognizes it as such.

As a grandmother and great aunt of school aged children, I am praying that DeVos stays true to her word. If not, she and the president-elect will hear from us.

Finally, I have no objection to any other cabinet picks by Trump especially those that Progressives find cringe worthy. As with his predecessors, if a cabinet pick does not work out, he or she will be replaced.

Finally: My Secretary of State choice? Definitely NOT Mitt Romney.

JoshuaPundit : There are a few things I’m keeping in mind as I watch the roll out.

First, that while cabinet members advise and propose things to the president, it will be Donald Trump who decides on policy, and his cabinet members who will be in charge of implementing and administrating it.

Second, while I knew Trump was smart and a quick study, I’m delighted at how quickly he’s learned politics. Elaine Chao for instance, as Secretary of Transportation. Aside from having experience and being a reasonably good administrator, she also just happens to be sleeping with the Senate Majority Leader. Can you think of a better way to get Mitch McConnell fully on board?

And then there’s his way of picking certain potential nominees to meet with. Trump just met with Heidi Heitkamp. She’s a U.S. Senator, from a very Red State (North Dakota), a rare examples of a sane, relatively conservative Democrat and facing a tough re-election battle in 2018. Heitkamp is already being mentioned as the front runner for Secretary of Agriculture.Oh, and did I mention that her state has a Republican governor who gets to appoint who serves out the rest of her term? I can’t think of a better way to pick up another senate seat and make allowances for disgusting renegades like John McCain and Lindsay Graham who will join the Dems in demonizing his nominees, can you? Like a boss, I tell you!

Speaking of which, I also am keeping in mind that his nominees, no matter how qualified will be Borked, insulted and slandered. So things could change. My chief concerns were the DHS, the CIA, NSA and Secretary of Defense and the Attorney General anyway and I couldn’t be more pleased. Mike Pompeo, General Mattis, General Flynn and General Kelly all have some things in common. They’re all illegal migration hawks, all old school strong defense proponents, all ex-military, all scary smart. Pompeo is an expert on cyber security among other things, the ex-generals are all accomplished in organizing a command and carrying out difficult missions, and none of them suffer fools gladly. And as an added bonus all four men have a jaundiced view of Islamism and a knowledge of how deeply it has penetrated America during the Obama years.

All of them will be confirmed, too. I’m hoping some Lefturd actually has the stones to insult Mad Dog Mattis or General Flynn to their faces and question their competence. That’ll be one viral video, believe me. Mattis in particular can be almost poetic in such circumstances.

As for the other picks, we’ll see. Jeff Sessions shares the feelings of the above men on Islamism and illegal migration, and will be the Left’s worse nightmare if he’s confirmed, as I think he will be after some flack. As for Secretary of State, if it’s Rex Tillerson, that reflects Trump’s affinity for people who make BIG deals, and Tillerson, who knows foreign leaders all over the world might be a decent pick. Especially with John Bolton as under secretary to drain the swamp at state and contribute his expertise in nuclear proliferation. A surprise pick, and one I think would be a really good one would be former Navy Secretary and Assistant Secretary of Defense Jim Webb, but perhaps Trump has something else in mind for him.

The Glittering Eye :Despite all the wailing, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments in the media, his nominations aren’t bad and they’re consistent with the priorities he laid out during his campaign.

I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more interest in his nominee as Secretary of Commerce since Commerce will have a lot of influence over the next four years.

For Secretary of State I’d prefer John Huntsman but given the premium Mr. Trump places on personal loyalty I think he’s unlikely.

The Razor : Overall I’m pleased. Mad Dog Mattis is a definite plus, and putting critics in charge of agencies is quite smart, even though it leads to parodies like SNL’s Walter White from Breaking Bad as head of the DEA. Agencies should be led by people who criticize their mission, if only to overturn the group think that has infected them and make them fear for their jobs. They should question their missions. They should ask whether it’s possible for them to do more with less. Over the past few generations we’ve built bureaucracies out of these agencies whose sole purposes seem to be to expand and protect their little kingdoms. If Scott Pruitt comes in and slims the EPA down, so much the better.

My only concern is with his apparent Sec of State pick. I don’t get what Rex Tillerson has to offer as the former CEO of ExxonMobil. I would much rather have seen the post given to John Bolton, who apparently will be the undersecretary. He apparently has close ties to Putin, and even though I’m suspicious of Russia mainly because it views us as its enemy, I don’t necessarily see that as a bad thing.

I don’t want a war with Russia, and the way the Democrats and their media allies are getting all McCarthyite towards Russia now is really a laugh. Weren’t these the same guys who criticized Bush for being too hard on Russia and offering their stupid “reset” button? Russia isn’t ISIS. It has nukes, a world-class albeit poorly equipped navy, and a well-trained elite class of soldiers. If they want to hurt us badly they can, so we have to approach them carefully. In the long run I view them as our allies but Russia “has issues” it needs to work out before we can trust it. Until then, however I don’t think it hurts to have people in power who aren’t reactionary against the power.

But in the end he can’t be any worse than Kerry, Clinton and Albright – the Unholy Trinity of American Foreign Policy. Seriously, if our diplomacy can survive their blatant mismanagement and disregard for our nation’s best interest it can survive Tillerson.

Stately McDaniel Manor :Donald Trump’s cabinet picks have, thus far, been outstanding. Of course, Democrats will oppose them to whatever degree they believe they can without causing themselves lasting damage, and some Democrats, incapable of recognizing reality outside progressive narrative, will oppose them with the ferocity of the fanatic.

General Mattis, particularly, is an excellent choice for Defense Chief. It has been fascinating to watch progressives and the media–I know; I repeat myself–scream Trump’s choices are radicals that must be denied. So far leftward has American been pulled in the last eight years, men and women who seek to obey the law, uphold and defend the Constitution, and restore the understanding government serves the people, are surely seen as radicals by our self-imagined elite rulers.

I have been particularly enjoying the horror with which bureaucrats at the EPA, and presumably, every other federal bureau, view Mr. Trump’s presidency. It must be very hard indeed to suddenly have to obey the law, and to avoid brutalizing Americans simply because you can. Giving up racist treatment of flyover country Americans, possibly even being fired or prosecuted for wantonly breaking the law? Terrifying. It’s like Leslie Neilson’s Det. Sgt. Lt. Frank Drebin in the Police Squad movies saying: “The next time I shoot somebody, I could be arrested.”

Much ink has been spilled over the next Secretary of State, even though John Kerry has conclusively proved the position may, for many years, be completely inconsequential. Mitt Romney? I think not. John Bolton would be, in many respects, a good candidate. Not only is he experienced, he’s an American, and has demonstrated over many years his willingness to look out for America’s interests. That would be very rate indeed in the Sec. State job. It might even work to America’s advantage!

Can these “radical candidates be confirmed?” For some of them, that will depend on the backbones of the Republican leadership. In other words, it’s likely that people that should be confirmed, and could be confirmed if the Republicans used the powers the Democrats used so well against them for so many years, will not be. I fully expect the Republicans to, once again, and still, prove they richly deserve the title: “the stupid party.”

It’s time for reasonably skepticism. Donald Trump’s principles are still evolving, but his choices thus far are encouraging. What is not encouraging is feckless Republicans, who whined that if they only had control of both houses of Congress and the presidency, they could do great, conservative things, already backing away from conservative goals. Why, they might not repeal Obamacare at all, and if they sort of do, it might take years from them to sort of repeal it, or not, and sort of take their time to replace it with something, or not.

One can only hope that strong, capable, constitutionally grounded candidates for cabinet and other posts don’t find themselves permanently at sea while weak Republicans whine they can’t accomplish anything absent total control of Congress and the courts. It’s time for us all to hold these weakling’s feet to the fire, and if they wimp out, to see it electorally consumes them.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason:The cabinet members Trump has picked so far show he has been deliberative for the most part and has assembled a good transition team when it comes to finding talent for his cabinet positions. He has made some good selections. Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General is a great choice, as are Retired General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense, Retired General John F. Kelley for Homeland Security, Georgia Rep. Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and National Security Advisor retired General Michael Flynn, along with Kansas Rep. Michael Pompeo as head of the CIA. It seems our military and national intelligence agencies will be in good hands.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is an outstanding choice for head of the Environmental Protection Agency, since he has personally dealt with the damage the out of control agency has inflicted on states with job and business crushing regulations and bureaucratic nightmares far outside of its constitutional powers. The fact that the environmentalists are aghast at his selection proves he is the right choice.

Two of the cabinet positions that concern me are Dr. Ben Carson for Secretary of HUD and Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. These departments in particular, along with the EPA, are filled with progressive ideologues and need to be stripped of any and all control over the states, counties and municipalities.

Dr. Ben Carson as Secretary of HUD seems an odd selection. While HUD might have started out as a beneficial program, its tentacles have become far reaching and the agency is obsessed with economic, social and environmental justice. The social engineering aspects of HUD will destroy the American way of life if permitted to continue as it has over the last decade or so. Dr. Carson has no experience in the housing and financial markets and will need to learn quickly. Hopefully he will recognize the progressive ideology within the agency and seek to curtail the destructive objectives of the department.

Betsy DeVos as Secretary of the Department of Education is also a questionable choice. Trump promised to return education to local and state control. This alone is one reason many conservatives voted for him. DeVos is a big proponent of school choice; giving public monies (taxes) to private schools as a way for parents to opt out of public education. Parents should not be fooled into believing school choice and vouchers as the way to improve the education of our children. Private or charter schools include the International Baccalaureate Programme, which has programs for primary, middle and high school. Public money is being funneled to the United Nations through UNESCO and the program promotes diversity, cultural relativity, and global citizenship. Another private entity, the Gulen Schools, promotes Islamic studies and has middle and high school programs.

If the Department of Education continues to exist, which most conservatives believe it should not, the goal should be to return the decision making of curriculum and testing to the states or local school boards. We are spending so much money on public education and that money should stay within and improve the public school system. The more money being diverted to private corporations means the less money we have to spend improving our public schools. We should settle for nothing less than the elimination of the Common Core State Standards.

Trumps choices for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, formerly of Goldman Sachs, and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao are of some concern and we will need to see how they respond during their appointment hearings.

As for Secretary of State, the latest name being bandied about is Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson. This concerns me as I am not convinced international business experience is compatible with making or participating in national security decisions and agreements. There are more qualified people Trump could choose as his Secretary of State.

I look forward to the additional appointments and the appointment hearings early next year.

Well, there it is!

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Forum: What Was Your Reaction To Trump’s Acceptance Speech?

Tags

2016 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Forum Responses, RNC, Watcher of Weasels

 

Every week on Monday, the Council, members of the Watcher’s Council Community and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week’s question: What Was Your Reaction To Trump’s Acceptance Speech?

Stately McDaniel Manor : Donald Trump’s Convention acceptance speech embodied everything I like about him, and everything I fear could easily derail his campaign and allow Hillary Clinton, the most hateful, angry and corrupt harridan imaginable, to seize the White House at a time when the Supreme Court, and the future of Western Civilization are up for grabs.

I suspect Trump’s popularity comes from his willingness to say, loudly and even a little crudely and clumsily, what so many Americans think and feel. There is no politically correct filter there. He is a self-made man, a genuine American success story, and he does get things done when others can’t. His deal-making skills may be of great value, as might his stubbornness and self-assurance.

But what scares me more than a little are the same things, and more. His speech was ridiculously long. People inexperienced in public speaking often try to throw everything into every speech as though it’s the only chance they’ll ever get. Some just love the sound of their own voice, even though they, like Trump, tend to endlessly repeat themselves, and fill their speeches with verbal fillers, particularly when they speak without notes or a teleprompter.

Trump also tends not to focus on the issues of the moment, and flies off on tangents, particularly when he thinks someone has personally slighted or attacked him just as he did today when he went after Ted Cruz. He earlier tweeted that Cruz’s failure to endorse him was no big deal. He should have left it there and looked magnanimous, but nooooo! He just has to go after people personally, and when he does, he runs his mouth and might say anything. If he can’t drop that habit, he won’t become president. And if he does it as president, that’s all he’ll be doing. George W. Bush had that part of presidential temperament right. He knew everyone and their dog would go after him, and he just let them have at it. To do otherwise, elevates ankle biters to the level of President of the United States.

Trump has to learn, and very soon, to stay on message. He can do it without becoming wooden and inflexible. Learning to prioritize, to focus on what is most important, is an essential adult skill that Trump has seemingly yet to master. Being outrageous is cute and endearing for a time, but eventually, presidents have to identify big problems, explain how they are going to solve them, and do it.

We’ve had eight years of Barack Obama’s personal references. Today after the attack in Munich, I heard him on radio saying he knew nothing about what happened, but proceeded to rattle on anyway mouthing meaningless platitudes that did nothing to suppress terrorism or further international relations. Sometimes presidents accomplish most by saying least. A trumpian version of that kind of meaningless twaddle will get old very fast. We really don’t need to hear from the president every day, about everything that happens, and when we do, we quit listening. He becomes the boy that cried wolf, and isn’t heard or believed when it really matters.

It’s time for Donald Trump and his advisors to sit down and lay out a coherent plan for the rest of the campaign. That plan has to include focus on specific issues, particularly those on which Hillary is uniquely vulnerable–there are more than enough of those–Trump’s solutions and how he’ll implement them, and little or nothing else.

One other important issue: someone needs to whack Trump upside the head and convince him the President can’t “make” anything happen alone. Donald Trump, businessman, can do that; Presidents can’t. They can set agendas, cajole, guide, maneuver, use the moral bully pulpit for good and to support the Constitution. He has to learn how to play the political game for the benefit of America.

“I’ll make America great again, “ “I’m the only one that can do it,” is meaningless without answers about how that’s going to happen, and after the conventions, people are going to demand those answers. If Trump can’t provide them, if he can’t incorporate presidential demeanor without abandoning the personal qualities that have thus far inspired so many, enough people are going to go with the devil they know to elect Hillary.

Always, it’s important to remember if it’s not close, Democrats can’t win through vote fraud. We’re going to see unprecedented vote fraud in this election. Trump and the Republican National Committee need to be very concerned, and very focused, on that issue too.

The Razor : He scares the living daylights out of the Left, quite a few centrists and even a smattering of conservatives. Given the Left’s demonization of every Republican candidate since Nixon as a demagogue along the lines of, well, Nixon – it’s refreshing to actually have a candidate that lives up to their hateful rhetoric.

One thing’s for sure: if he becomes president the next 4 years are going to be interesting. Very interesting.

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason : Donald Trump’s acceptance speech appealed to the concerns of many if not most Americans. He promised to be the law and order president and would keep us safe, build a wall to keep out illegal immigrants, and return jobs to our country.

He recited a litany of the failures of the Obama administration and the Clinton State Department, which have made us less safe at home and is leaving us a less safe world. Under the current administration we have higher rates of unemployment in minority populations, poverty, people relying on food stamps, and crime in the inner cities.

In several attacks on his Democrat opponent, he said Hillary’s greatest accomplishment might be getting away with the many crimes she committed during her term as Secretary of State.

Trump explained that “nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” He promised the American people that “I am your voice.” While it would have been better to say “I hear your voices” hopefully that is merely a quibble over semantics. Time will tell.

When he becomes president Trump promised we will defeat the barbarians of ISIS and we will defeat them fast. It would have been preferable to have given some specific details of his plans to defeat this radical Islamic terrorist group whose barbarism is growing and reaching across the globe.

Trump’s speech was well delivered and well received. The main stream media outlets all focused on how dark it was but unless you have not been paying attention to national and world events we truly do find ourselves in a dark place.

I look forward in the coming months to hear more substantive comments on exactly what his plans entail and how Trump will Make America Great Again.

I reserve my concerns that Trump is just another big government politician. He appears to believe he alone can do all the things he promises. Hopefully that is just ego, for if that were the case we no longer live under the laws of our constitutional republic; a Constitution which provides a balance of powers to keep despots in check.

GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD : The speech hit mostly high notes: the country is on the wrong track.

Crime and violence are serious concerns. Trump promised to be a “law and order” president, specifics to come. Many believe race relations have deteriorated since 44 took office. Cops are under attack. Poor kids are trapped in failing public schools and Democrats won’t let them escape. Trump promises school choice.

Terrorism is on the rise at home and overseas. Instead of focusing on battle readiness, our depleted military focuses on goofy fakebelieve stuff like Climate change or worse, the inclusion of transgender and women soldiers. Veterans are not being adequately cared for.

Bad trade deals are notorious for helping certain elements at the expense of the country and Democrat policies are the reason for the sorry shape the nation is in.

JoshuaPundit : Honestly, I’d give the speech a B++ if there is such a thing. By that I mean it was a really good speech with some flaws.

I’ve always loved hearing Donald Trump speak. His rallies didn’t involve scripted, jowl shaking oratory but a sort of down to earth conversation between him and say, 30,000 people. He was so relaxed, so comfortable in his own skin it was almost eerie. Unlike most pols, he wasn’t talking at them, but with them. He’d come up to the podium, take that sheet of folded paper out of his pocket and have at it. He’d get the talking points out at each spot and say what needed saying, but he’d mix them in with anecdotes about the campaign, or whatever else was on his mind, and there were always a few jokes at his own expense. And then there was the impromptu audience responses, like singing along to your favorite singer’s hit songs. Going to his rallies was fun!

Trump’s acceptance speech was different. The content was just fine, and it mirrored what a lot of Americans are concerned about right now, with outreach to a lot of groups who Trump is going to get more votes from than most people think. I mean, if you were LGBT and in your right mind, would you vote for Hillary who wants to bring boatloads more unvetted Muslim ‘refugees’ into America and take away your guns too? Ditto if you’re a young woman unless you enjoy the thought of being raped.

And his attack on Hillary Clinton was bone-crushing, which is why a lot of the Democrat media ignored it.According to pollster  Frank Luntz’s Democrat and Republican focus groups, that part of Trump’s speech was off the charts as far as approval went.

The problem was that it was about 20-25 minutes too long, and it needed to touch the bases in a more succinct, sound bitey way. It reminded me of some rock concerts where things start out energetic, hit a lull in the middle with the drum solo and then pep up for a high energy finish.

And that relaxed, natural Trump wasn’t visible enough, although it was there. One of my favorite bits was when Trump was talking about the rigged system we have and how he was going to fix it and then looked at the audience, grinned, spread his hands out and said ” And who would know better than me?”

It broke the audience up, and it broke me up watching the stream.

I also was a little uneasy about his refrain that he was going to fix this and that and ‘we’re gonna do it fast.’ Government doesn’t work that way, and especially not for this outsider taking on entrenched interests in both parties. Things need to be parsed, refined and done by consensus. That, by the way is why I’ve never been bothered by Trump’s not getting into too many details but focusing on goals. That’s how business gets done. The goals come first and the mechanisms come later after the pros and cons have been weighed and agreed on.

And while Ivanka was absolutely wonderful, I couldn’t help wondering if a real fire breather like the Reverend Mark Burns as an opener might not have been better. The Rev reminds me of a clerical Howlin’ Wolf, and that’s some heavy duty praise. It would have gotten that crowd fired up like nobody’s business and perhaps then The  Donald would have felt able to be a bit less strident in places.

All in all though, a really good job. And as we’ve seen in the past, it will likely get better because if nothing else, we’ve seen that Trump has an astonishing ability to recover, step back and learn from his mistakes.

Well, there you have it.

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Wikileaks Releases 1200+ Clinton Iraq War Emails

Tags

Clinton emails, Clinton server, CrookedHillary, Election 2016, goverment coverups, Government corruption, Hillary Clinton, Julian Assange, Wikileaks

In the above interview nearly three weeks ago, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder, said that this year he will leak information on Hillary Clinton that could be extremely damaging to the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Enter Independence Day, 2016:

Hillary Clinton Email Archive

On March 16, 2016 WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive for 30,322 emails & email attachments sent to and from Hillary Clinton’s private email server while she was Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents span from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton. The emails were made available in the form of thousands of PDFs by the US State Department as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request. The final PDFs were made available on February 29, 2016.

A search will net you, 30322 results.

A search for the terms, iraq|baghdad|basra|mosoul will net you 1258 results which can be viewed here.

H/t Robert Trent.

Forum: What Was Your Reaction To Donald Trump’s Speech This Week?

Tags

anti-Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Forum Responses, National Security, Watcher of Weasels

 

Every week on Monday, the Council, members of the Watcher’s Council Community and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week’s question: What Was Your Reaction To Donald Trump’s Speech This Week?

Don Surber :My reaction, courtesy of the late Mister James Brown :

GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD: Powerful meds for Americans!

Trump nailed HRC’s hair to the floor so tight – she’s unable to even blink!

“The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions of dollars – and unleashed ISIS across the world. No Secretary of State has been more wrong, more often, and in more places than Hillary Clinton. Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched.”

Like a torpedo strike, the speech blasted great gaping holes in HRC’s curious blend of failed progressivism, unbridled globalism and self enriching international crony socialism that may very well be criminal.

Trump’s first 100 Days agenda should totally close the deal with many including any stand offish cats.

 Stately McDaniel Manor: The Republican Party has a well-deserved reputation of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The “Stupid Party,” routinely violates Ronald Reagan’s 11 th Commandment, and brilliantly attacks its own,leaving Democrats unscathed. But this election year, Donald Trump may serve as a Republican red on red force multiplier beyond imagination.

For perhaps the first time since his campaign began, Trump delivered a professional, rational, and necessary speech in which he actually attacked Hillary Clinton by telling the truth about her. What’s that you say? He’s done that before? Yes, but not consistently, coherently, and primarily by tweeting.

Trump’s biggest problem thus far, beside the fact that he is a dangerous narcissist, is that his entire focus has been on maintaining the purity of being Donald Trump. He absolutely, pig-headedly refuses to adapt to the demands of a presidential campaign. He does not work and play well with others, and behaves like a cheap, prickly street thug: “who you lookin’ at? You dissin’ me? You dissin’ me?!” This leads him to continually go off message– as though he has a consistent, coherent message from which to deviate– attacking primarily potential friends and supporters, including Republicans of all stripes, and ignoring his actual political enemies. He whines that this person, or that group, hasn’t been nice to him or treated him with proper respect. He threatens to take his marbles and go home if he isn’t treated in the manner to which he has become accustomed.

Grow the hell up, Trump.

He seems incapable of realizing that the thousands that come to his rallies are already in the bag. He doesn’t know that their numbers aren’t sufficient to elect him president, and that it is the far, far larger numbers of Americans that he never sees that he must convince to vote for him. He thinks he can get away with ignoring the Republican Party and he can win without it, despite the fact that he has built no national mechanisms to get out the vote and November is coming–fast.

Trump thinks vacuous slogans like “make America great again,” are all he needs. How will you make America great again Mr. Trump? “I’ll make America so great you won’t believe it!” But how? “Because I will; you’ll see.”

Part of his arrogance has been his insistence on not using a teleprompter, on winging it onstage, which at this stage of the campaign ensures not only that he won’t consistently communicate coherent, rational policies and principle, he’ll ramble, make idiotic gaffes, and fail to effectively define Hillary Clinton, the most corrupt, weak, and dangerous candidate the Democrats may have ever put forth. Trump need not use a teleprompter all the time– Ronald Reagan often spoke from notes he wrote — but Trump needs it. That he is not a professional politician has aided him to this point, but no longer.

The speech was a good start. It framed Hillary Clinton as the liar, criminal and national security disaster she already is, but those messages must be driven home again and again and again, consistently, every day, every week, not only with speeches, but clever ads.

Trump can’t do it himself. He has no consistent principles that inform policies. His life has been dedicated to deal making, to doing whatever is necessary to make more and more money. Those skills can be an asset for any president, but only if he makes the adjustments necessary to obtain advantage for America instead of Trump. It’s time to discover those principles, to pledge belief in and adherence to those policies, and to shut down the ego machine and spin up the political machine.

It’s time, over and over again, and absolutely consistently, to tell America exactly how Trump intends to make America great again. If Trump can’t do that, he’ll lead the Stupid Party into being the Insanely, Terminally Stupid Party. We’ll end up with a progressive Supreme Court, a Progressive Congress, and a Progressive President.

The Republicans have been able to do almost nothing when they hold majority control of Congress. If they lose even one house, they’ll have the perfect excuse to do nothing but help Progressives enact their agenda. America will be no more, but by all that is holy, Trump will still be, pure and shining, Trump.

He needs to decide– yesterday– which is more important: America or his ego?

The Glittering Eye: The speech was pretty good. Mr. Trump certainly can play offense. Whether he can play defense or needs to remains to be seen. He clearly understands Sec. Clinton’s defects and what his supporters think of her. I don’t think he’ll convince anyone because everyone’s already made up their minds. The only real question is who will turn out and vote?

As to whether he can win, I genuinely have no idea. As I’ve repeatedly said over at my place, I find this election cycle completely baffling. I think that everyone has lost their minds. We have a corrupt, incompetent criminal running against a hipshooting blowhard.

I also think that lying to pollsters has become incredibly commonplace.

Bookworm Room : The speech showed four things that I think are all to the good:

1. Trump did what his supporters wanted, which was to go directly to Hillary’s jugular.

2. He’s working his way towards slightly more conventional statesmanship in his speeches. If he could just learn not to use every speech as a business promo, he’d be more effective.

3. He was smart to fire Lewandowski, who was the right man for the primaries, but too much of a mafia enforcer type for the general campaign.

4. If it was indeed his children and their spouses who urged him to fire Lewandowski and become more disciplined, he should continue to listen to them.

If Trump can master discipline and statesmanship, while keeping close to his primary promises (blogging illegal immigration, greater protections against the Islamist threat, supporting Israel, knocking the pins out from under the media, getting things done, etc), I think he will — as Scott Adams promises — run a successful campaign. To the extent Hillary’s polling higher now, I see three things at work: the post-primary bounce now that Bernie is gone; slanted polls from the Dems, the media (but I repeat myself), and the GOP, all of which weight Democrats too heavily; and the Shy Tory effect, which is to say that many people are embarrassed to admit, even to a pollster, that they like Trump. I suspect that the Shy Tory effect was at work in England again, explaining the ruling class’s absolute shock that the Brexit vote went to “Leave.”

JoshuaPundit:The speech itself was so on target that it shocked a lot of people…a sign of how used we’ve become to our political figures  lying to us and avoiding the obvious. The Clintonista media tried to downplay it of course, but failed miserably. CNN in particular wound up with egg all over its porcine face when they ‘fact checked’ Trump’s claim about Mrs. Clinton okaying the sale of  a large chunk of America’s uranium uranium holdings to Russia, in exchange for the funneling of $145 million from nine investors to the Clinton Foundation as ‘false’. They later had to eat their words publicly.

The campaign itself has taken an interesting turn.  Here we have a Republican nominee who won overwhelmingly with record numbers and did it in part by doing exactly what the GOP always claimed it wanted, getting more black, Hispanic and crossover Democrat support. But of course, all that became insignificant when it involved  an outsider insurgent candidate who couldn’t be bought and controlled. So Trump’s biggest problem isn’t defeating Hillary Clinton – given how the publicly released polls are being cooked, I’d say  the real numbers are a lot different than the six point average spread Real Clear Politics is showing.  His real problem is the ‘friendly’ fire at his rear from the GOP establishment. And the narrative they’re pushing is strikingly familiar to me.

Trump is being criticized for not being able to raise money or put together a campaign staff. Isn’t it logical that a candidate who wants to end the flow of cheap labor coming across the border, clamp down on outsourcing and and renegotiate ruinous trade deals and globalization might have trouble getting support from the donor class who profit from these things and  from the politicians and pundits they own? The only big ones willing to publicly put country before their own greed and self interest so far are Sheldon Adleson, Rupert Murdoch  and some of Trump’s friends like Carl Icahn.

The same thing applies to building a campaign staff. In the face of  threats  from the GOP establishment that their careers are over if they sign on to Trump’s campaign, a lot of  political operatives and potential staffers  have decided that employment opportunities  with down ticket campaigns  and even anti-Trump organizations funded by the donor class like Free The Delegates that are a lot safer for them.

Trump’s also being urged to make concessions ‘to unify the party.’ But what if they don’t want to be unified? What if they’d rather see business as usual with a President Clinton? All of the candidates signed a pledge early in the campaign that they would all support whoever the eventual nominee was. Out of the major candidates, the only one to keep his word was Marco Rubio, and the Republican National Committee (RNC) has done nothing about it. 

A quarter of a billion dollars was spent to stop Donald Trump from getting the nomination, much of it in the form a relentless negative attack ads. Yet in his victory speech in New York, Trump went out of his way to extend an olive branch to his opponents, especially Ted Cruz. Imagine how different the current climate might be if Ted Cruz had accepted that, swallowed his bitterness and kept his word.

When I say that what’s going on here is strikingly familiar to me, it’s because it reminds me of what’s been happening in the Middle East. Israel was and is the victim of aggression, terrorism and constant incitement, yet it is Israel whom is repeatedly being asked to make concessions, release convicted murderers and to give up land no matter how many genuine offers of peace get slapped away by the Arabs. And when that happens, it’s usually Israel who gets blamed for not being ‘flexible’ enough. If they were as ‘flexible’ as President Obama wanted, they would soon no longer have a country.

Trump’s getting a similar treatment. Any Republican nominee could count on being labeled as a racist, a homophobe and a hater of women by the Democrat minions in the media no matter what he did or didn’t say, but here, they’re getting ample assistance from the GOP establishment.  Because Trump’s real crime is exactly what got him the nomination…his willingness to  look at Islamist terrorism, globalization and illegal migration as problems that need desperately to be solved, along with plain speaking about Obama’s agenda and the damage it has done to America.  For him to change that stance significantly would destroy him as a viable candidate for those whom support him.

If Trump gets the nomination – and I put the odds at 60-40 in his favor, just because he won by such a huge majority – I predict that his acceptance speech will remind Republicans of the consequences  if they fail to unite and allow the Clintons back in the White House again. Here’s hoping they listen, but based on their usual behavior, The Donald will likely have to fight that battle without them.

We’ll see…

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason :If Donald Trump continues to speak as well as he did last week he could well become our next president. He did well and appeared more presidential than he has in the past. Trump needs to continue to stay on point; focusing on jobs, the economy, making sure we do not allow refugees into our country without a comprehensive vetting process, and preventing illegal aliens from coming here and draining our limited welfare programs and threatening the safety of Americans.

He should keep talking about Clinton’s corruption and untrustworthiness going as far back as her and her husband’s career in “public service.” He needs to attack her on her ties with Wall Street, her exorbitant speaking fees, her setting up a private server for her emails during her term as Secretary of State which jeopardized our national security, and her dealings and receipt of monies personally and through The Clinton Foundation from countries with horrific records of human rights violations and barbaric Islamic shari’ah in exchange for obvious favors granted through her position in government.

Hopefully he will stay focused and keep from making any comments the media will perceive and publicize as racist, bigoted, misogynistic and vulgar, especially going into the Republican National Convention next month. Trump must present himself as the president he promises he will be if elected; restoring the power to the people and tearing down the “rigged system” our government has become.

Well, there you have it.

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Judge Jeanine Blasts the Globalists, Makes a Dramatic Prediction

Tags

Brexit, Election 2016

 

Independent Sentinel by S. Noble

It’s hard to disagree with anything Judge Jeanine says on this video. She blasted the open borders globalists and, based on Brexit, made a dramatic predication.

She holds nothing back.

Is she right?

OUCH! Senator Jeff Sessions Endorses Donald Trump.

Tags

2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Illegal Immigration, Republican Party, Senator Jeff Sessions

“I told Donald Trump, this is a campaign. This is a movement…The American people are not happy with their government.” Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

In what is surely to be a major blow to the campaign of Senator Ted Cruz heading in to Super Tuesday March 1 primary elections, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) just hours ago endorsed Donald Trump for president during a rally in Sessions hometown of Madison, Alabama before a crowd of 32,000.

Below is the full rally.  Trump begins at 1:09:15 of the video.

You can bet the Senator from Texas didn’t see that one coming.  Now that is going to leave a mark.