Temperament

The never ending question is: Does Donald Trump have the temperament to be president of the United States?

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist in 2008, “This issue of temperament is central to the whole debate.” He cited a line from Clinton’s speech: “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man you can trust with nuclear weapons.”

Merriam-Webster defines temperament as “the usual attitude, mood, or behavior of a person or animal.”

American Heritage Dictionary

The manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting characteristic of a specific person: a nervous temperament. See Synonyms at disposition.
The distinguishing mental and physical characteristics of a human according to medieval physiology, resulting from dominance of one of the four humors.

2. Excessive irritability or sensitiveness: an actor with too much temperament.

The synonym “disposition” I believe is a better word to describe Donald Trump’s temperament. That definition by American Heritage is One’s usual mood; temperament: a sweet disposition.

Trump’s shoot from the hip style does not give anyone the impression that he has thought about the things he says.

A good example of Trump’s words is his concern about Muslims coming to the United States to preform terrorist acts. The truth is that only the couple in San Bernardino were not natural born citizens. All the rest were born in this country.

What would he do to control the possible terrorist acts of American Muslims or others? I want one of the people interviewing him to ask that question.

Donald Trump says one thing about a subject and sometimes in the same day says something totally contradictory.

Does this man have the temperament / disposition for the job of president? Not in my book.

A Pin Drop

This article is appropriate for Memorial Day.
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Once upon a time when our politicians did not tend to apologize for our country’s prior actions, here’s a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our great country.

JFK’S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60’s when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO.

DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.

Rusk responded, “Does that include those who are buried here?”

DeGaulle did not respond. You could have heard a pin drop.

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When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of ’empire building’ by George Bush.

He answered by saying, “Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

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There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?”

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?”

You could have heard a pin drop.

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A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?”

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the Brit’s, Canadians, Aussie’s and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

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AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE…

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.

“You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically.

Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.

“Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”

The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.”

“Impossible.. Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!”

The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then, he quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchman to show a passport to.”

You could have heard a pin drop.

Socialism

When Chris Matthews asked Debbie Wasserman Schultz explain the difference between Democrats and Socialists she wouldn’t answer the question. Instead she chose to respond by comparing Democrats to Republicans. The question was again brought up on Meet the Press.

So even after that Hardball interview Ms. Schultz either was not prepared to answer the question restated by Chuck Todd or she fears the comparison. However Chris Matthews did define the difference in stating that America is the country of free enterprise that is supported by both political parties.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: “Democrats have had a record in this country for 200-some years of being for social security, Medicare, civil rights, interventions in the market, but not getting rid of the market. Clearly, they accept the power and the efficiency of a capitalist system. Socialists do not. This is a fundamental difference.”

Too bad Wasserman Schultz didn’t say that.

A socialist is someone who supports the political philosophy of socialism, which is a governmental system that advocates community ownership and control of all lands and businesses rather than individual ownership.

Bernie Sanders is an Independent and an avowed socialist. He admits it.

That definition of socialism forces me to not support Bernie Sanders for the presidency.

A Less Than United Nation

The rift between rural America and urban America reached its peak when the South declared itself a separate country. Many differences were not resolved with the end of the Civil War. Yes slavery was ended but the bitterness remains palpable. This issue really revolves around the choice of change or keep things the way they have always been. Conservatives abhor change. “(Give Me That) Old-Time Religion” is a traditional Gospel song dating from 1873.

It was good for our mothers,…
It was good for our fathers,…
It will take us all to heaven,…

The song and its sentiments have been recited in many movies because they are, in my opinion, the beliefs and philosophy of most southern and mid-western families. “Inherit the Wind” really does tell us the differences between the big city view of the world and the small town/country view.

“Five days after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, a federal judge for the Southern District of Alabama on Wednesday clarified that such couples should be granted licenses to marry. But neither judicial action cuts much ice in parts of Alabama and in other devout areas of the South where same-sex marriage is looked on as anathema. In Kentucky, four county clerks were refusing to issue licenses to same-sex couples and one in Louisiana was refusing, according to a count by Amanda Snipes, campaign manager for Southerners for Freedom to Marry. In Hood County, south of Ft. Worth, County Clerk Katie Lang initially posted a statement saying she would not issue same-sex marriage licenses due to her religious beliefs, but she posted another statement online late Tuesday saying her office will issue them.”

“The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote blocked the state of Texas, at least for now, from enforcing a strict new abortion law that was likely to close most of the state’s remaining abortion clinics. Gov. Greg Abbott had defended the abortion restrictions as Texas’ then-attorney general, and continued to support the restrictions after winning the gubernatorial election in November. He described HB 2 as “a constitutional exercise of Texas’ lawmaking authority,” and said in a statement Monday that he is “confident the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold this law.” An abortion bill that would require women in North Carolina to wait 72 hours before having the procedure cleared the state Legislature on Wednesday June 1 and is now heading to the desk of Gov. Pat McCrory.”

The above were copied from the Los Angeles Times. They accurately report the difference between Southern and Mid-Western states compared to the North East and West Coast states. The views on gay marriage and abortion are 180 degrees from each other. Those are the two most significant differences that really separate Americans. There are other issue that separate Americans too. Right-to-work states are primarily those in the South but include many mid-western states.

The above map of the Right-to-work states is similar to the maps of those states that have been more likely to oppose abortions. The also happen to be the states that fought the Affordable Care Act and other more progressive (liberal) laws.

I am not convinced America is really the united States.

N**R, FK

You know the two words written in the title of this commentary. Everyone in America knows those two words. So who are we fooling when we won’t put them in print and bleep them out in news casts or other programs where they are used? No one!

The need to be politically correct drives our decision making. I still use the word “Oriental” to designate people from the Far East. Instead the currently preferred word is “Asian.” Aren’t people from India, Pakistan, and Turkey also Asian? The last time I checked a map everyone east of the Ural Mountains are from Asia. What exactly is wrong with the word “Oriental?”

Watching Part one of CNN’s “The Seventies” there is a clip that includes the word “Nigger” and “Honky” “used on an episode of “The Jefferson.” Maybe we were shocked by the use of those words on television but it certainly did not cause us to turn of the program. Archie Bunker of “All in the Family” helped us confront bigotry. It wasn’t just television that used those words. Movies in the 70s also used those words too. Blazing Saddles used the word “Nigger” numerous times and the movie was a great success.

“Fuck” “is used profusely in many movies. It is overdone when script writers lack the ability to write worthwhile dialog. I have turned many movies off when that happens.

What does this all prove? As a nation we are hypocrites.

Genocide

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious or national group.

Just yesterday a former SS sergeant, Oskar Groening, described in chilling detail Wednesday how cattle cars full of Jews were brought to the Auschwitz death camp, the people stripped of their belongings and then most led directly into gas chambers. Groening is being tried on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder, related to a period between May and July 1944 when around 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex in Nazi-occupied Poland and most immediately gassed to death. The Holocaust was the largest killing of any group in the world. This man should be put to death in a gas chamber.

The Hamidian massacres also referred to as the Armenian Massacres of 1894–1896 occurred in the Ottoman Empire. The genocide began on April 24, 1915, when Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, without food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres ignored age and gender, with rape and other acts of sexual abuse being commonplace. The majority of Armenian diaspora communities were founded as a result of these events. Mass killings continued under the Republic of Turkey during the Turkish–Armenian War phase of Turkish War of Independence.

Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915. It has in recent years been faced with repeated calls to recognize them as genocide. To date, twenty-three countries have officially recognized the mass killings as genocide,^[19] a view which is shared by most genocide scholars and historians.

President Barack Obama promised he would declare the killing of Armenians a genocide in 2008. His refusal to do so now is another blunder that continues to make the United States appear weak. Turkey has not been a friend of the United States. The loss of their cooperation with America in the Middle East has already occurred. America gains nothing by refusing to define a crime against humanity.

Elected to Office but Unaware and Really Don’t Care

Inside the beltway: Is your representative aware of happenings in the world?

As reported in the Los Angeles Times

A bipartisan group of senators is seeking a federal investigation into alleged abuses in a popular visa program that has been linked to layoffs of U.S. workers in favor of cheaper foreign labor, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

“We are concerned about recent information that has come to light regarding the abuse of the H-1B visa program by Southern California Edison (SCE) and other employers to replace large numbers of American workers,” wrote Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who led the bipartisan group.

All of these senators are in league because they all know they must show concern for their constituents. This is a case of crocodile tears for those who are have lost their job or about to experience the same fate as Edison employees. Our free enterprise system says employers have every right to lower all their costs no matter who is impacted. Bank and technology companies are two of the most obvious adopters of the programs to cut labor costs. The shock is that it has taken this long for our senators to become aware of the outsourcing of American jobs. Maybe it’s not such a shock. After all some senators deny having ever used e-mail.

One must ask, where have these senators been? Haven’t they had at least one situation when they needed telephone help from a company and been transferred to a help line in India or the Philippines? Wait perhaps it is accurate to say they have been unaware. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday March 8 said has never, ever sent an email.

As reported in the New York Times

Nor does Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. “Maybe once every four months, I do one email,” he said, with evident relish. “I like to communicate by talking directly to people. I find it’s an important part of humanity to understand not just the words that are said, but how they’re said, the tone they’re said in, the speed they’re said with.”

Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and longtime former Hill staff member, recalled that one of his bosses, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, could not use his BlackBerry “if his life depended on it.”

Luddite: One who fears technology (or new technology, as they seem pleased with how things currently are…why can’t everything just be the same?)

Ethical Behavior

This is all about politicians. The issue revolves around the words “Everything I have done is within the law.” Former President Bill Clinton asked for a definition of the word “is.” Going back in time former president Richard Nixon said that by definition everything he did was within the law simply because he was president. Clinton was impeached but not found guilty. Nixon didn’t wait to be impeached and simply resigned.

Most recently the questions surrounding Benghazi have continued to haunt Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her refusal to explain what she knew and when she knew it pertaining to the attack on the U.S. consular facility there, continues to be a source of doubt that will only grow more pronounced if she announces her candidacy for president. Why can’t she simply explain her knowledge of the facts? Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server only adds to questions about her honesty.

Robert “Bob” Menendez is the senior United States Senator from New Jersey. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The Justice Department is preparing to bring criminal corruption charges against the senator. Menendez told reporters last Friday night he has “always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with the law.”

Events in Ferguson, Missouri have resulted in a federal report alleging racially biased policing but the mayor, James Knowles III said that the resignations or firings of six city officials implicated in the scandal have given the troubled city the clean slate it needs to begin the reforming itself. Some in the community have demanded a recall election. He refuses to resign.

Relatives on campaign payrolls? Now, a bill recently introduced by US Representative Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, would prohibit members of Congress from hiring family members through their campaign committees or political action committees and set strict disclosure requirements, as well as other reforms. My guess is that even if passed into law our representatives will find a way to evade such a regulation and claim they are “within the law.”

Will this evasion of the law and a lack of ethical behavior end any time soon? Anyone reading this will not see a change in their life time.

Is it Greed or Simply Evolution?

Greed: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed. That is the Merriam-Webster definition.

When I was a boy reading comic books there was a character in the Donald Duck series named Scrooge McDuck. He loved money and the cartoon showed him rolling in dollar bills and dancing on the money. That was a characterization of some people in this world. Was that greed?

The stock market continues to hit new highs every several months. The S&P 500 reached another new high on Friday, February 13, 2015. Apple Computer shares are at or near their highest level ever. Most people do not own enough stocks to feel a significant impact. The wealthy, whose source of income is the stock market, are the beneficiaries of this situation.

Meanwhile BBC.com and Fareed Zakaria GPS reports the findings of Oxfam, an anti-poverty group, that the combined wealth of the world’s richest 1% will overtake that of the other 99% of the world’s population by 2016. Furthermore the richest 80 people in the world have collected the same amount of wealth as the bottom 3.5 million people-$1.9 Trillion.

There are two facts that are slowly destroying the middle class and causing even greater harm to blue collar laboring classes.

Without government involvement jobs are performed at the lowest pay rate which moves jobs to the poorest countries.
Technology enables employers to replace workers performing repetitive work with a machine.

These are not new facts. Queen Elizabeth I (queen of England 1558–1603) denied a patent for the first knitting machine in 1589. It was denied because of her concern for the security of the kingdom’s many hand knitters.

Robots install rivets on a 2015 Ford F-150

Paul Wiseman of the Associated Press posted an article titled “Robots replacing workers at a faster pace”. The report was replicated by many news media outlets including ABC, Fox Business, etc. The article said “A new report says that cheaper, better robots will replace human workers in the world’s factories at a faster pace over the next decade, pushing labor costs down 16 percent.” The mechanization has impacted only 10% of the possible uses for robots. 90% of the changeover is still in the future.

Recently two public parking lots I had occasion to use had no pay clerk at the exit. The system was automated. Soon there will be no one to take your order at McDonald’s.

I could go on with more examples of lost jobs thanks to technology or replacing middle income workers with low paid workers but you already understand the point I am making.

The question to candidates for the next president of the United States is what will you do to change the obvious decline in the income of the majority of Americans? You ought to ask your congressional representative and senators that same question.

“1984” Revisited

George Orwell’s 1984 was a classic tale of a world where the government watched everyone all of the time. Televisions were everywhere and every one of them had a camera that spied on everyone no matter where they were. If that wasn’t horrible enough, the government redefined everything and required everyone to accept their definitions.

Thus green could be called blue and black could be called white. Junk yards could be called beautiful and torture could be called pleasure.

Could the story of 1984 happen in America? Most of you would say “No.”
– Eric Snowden divulged the fact that our phone lines and e-mail contacts are being monitored by the CIA.
– Cameras identified the Boston Marathon bombers within a few hours thanks to cameras mounted on the streets.
– The Fort Hood massacre by Army Maj. Nidal Hasan has been called “work place violence” but not a terrorist attack. Interesting definition when you consider that just before the shooting began, many of the witnesses recounted, the gunman yelled “Allahu Akbar,” the Arabic exhortation meaning “God is great.”
– Former Vice President Dick Cheney on this past Sunday’s Meet the Press was asked by moderator Chuck Todd how he defined torture:
Well, torture, to me, Chuck, is an American citizen on a cell phone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center in New York City on 9/11.

Todd followed up by asking whether rectal feeding was torture, and Cheney continued his distract-with-shiny-objects strategy.
I’ve told you what meets the definition of torture. It’s what 19 guys armed with airline tickets and box cutters did to 3,000 Americans on 9/11.

Killing unarmed Black men is justifiable homicide. We have grand juries that confirm it!