If Donald Trump Becomes President of the United States

I saw the above presentation by Donald Trump on Fox News channel this morning. It is apparent that he has not backed down on any of his opinions. That is a troubling possibility for the U.S.A.

Just listen to his words!

Besides building a wall between the United States and Mexico he would impose a 35% tariff on goods manufactured in Mexico. The consequence of that would be 1) higher prices for all the consumer items bought in the United States from Mexico and 2) the United States has a positive trade balance with Mexico of $182 Billion and the million jobs created by that trade balance would be lost.

China holds $1.3 Trillion in U.S. treasury notes. A 45% tariff on those goods imported from China (his plan) would not only destroy their sales of consumer goods to America, it would create a trade war. China would most likely demand repayment of the notes. Donald Trump, who believes in bankruptcies when he doesn’t want to pay his debts, would do what? Refuse payment. That decision would cause worldwide economic panic and the destruction of the American economy.

Saudi Arabia would also demand payment on the notes it holds ($116.8 billion) and just might embargo the oil sold to American oil companies.

Japan holds $1.1 Trillion in American notes. You think they will simply pay 100% of the bill for our troops in their country?

Market Watch says on their web site that “45% of Americans pay no federal income tax” and that converts to “77.5 million households do not pay federal individual income tax.” So when Donald Trump on his web site says “If you are single and earn less than $25,000, or married and jointly earn less than $50,000, you will not owe any income tax. That removes nearly 75 million households – over 50% – from the income tax rolls”, what is he telling you?

When Donald Trump says we will have the most powerful military in the world, what is he telling you? Well actually nothing. You see America’s military is the most powerful in the world today.

There is no drought in California. The weatherman are all wrong. Donald Trump says so. So it must be true!

Think smoke and mirrors. Think of Alice in Wonderland. Think the powerful Oz. That would be someone behind a curtain who has no power at all.

You think we have problems now. Donald Trump will destroy in just a few years what has taken over 200 years to build. The United States is the greatest country in the world today!

President Obama’s nuclear non-apology, apology

The following column was printed in today’s Los Angeles Daily News. The author, Doug McIntyre, has written almost exactly what I was thinking. I was asking myself, Why did Barack Obama feel the need to go to Hiroshima, Japan? Those who have accused Obama of being the president who apologizes for America’s strength in the world have hit upon his weakness.

I emphasized one paragraph in bold that looks to the future.

—

Barack Obama never said the words “sorry” or “I apologize,” so technically it wasn’t an apology.

As the first sitting American president to ever visit Hiroshima, Japan, the world was focused on every syllable Obama would say.

“Seventy-one years ago” began the president, “on a bright, cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed.”

Of course, 75 years ago, on a bright, cloudless morning in Hawaii, death also fell from the sky. But the president — a native son of Hawaii — had not traveled to Hiroshima to talk about World War II’s beginning, rather, its morally complex end.

The president’s critics (and more than a few friends) feared he might apologize for America’s use of atomic weapons to bring an end to the war in the Pacific; so concerned, the White House issued an unprecedented denial in advance, assuring the nation their president had no such intention.

Unfortunately, he did everything but.

In tone and demeanor, it was impossible to watch or read the text of President Obama’s Hiroshima address and not conclude the president regrets President Truman’s decision to drop the atomic bomb in August of 1945.

“The memory of the morning of August 6, 1945, must never fade,” Obama said.

Neither must the memory of Dec. 7, 1941.

Obama has a history of offering mea culpas for American foreign policy both past and present. He has not only apologized for the actions of his predecessors, he has frequently objected to his own foreign policy, bemoaning his inability to close the terrorist prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while struggling to reconcile his use of drone strikes that also “rain death from cloudless skies” with his 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Barack Obama is hardly the first American president to have grave concerns about the horrific consequences of nuclear weapons. For this reason alone Donald Trump disqualifies himself to be commander-in-chief. The possibility of nuclear war has kept every president up at night. The possibility that Trump could be president should keep everyone up at night.

“With such weapons, war has become not just tragic, but preposterous,” the president said.

But the president who said this wasn’t Barack Obama. Rather, it was Dwight Eisenhower.

Eisenhower knew war. He understood its horrors. He understood the waste of it all.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed,” said the former Supreme Allied Commander in March 1953.

Yet, while Eisenhower loathed industrialized murder — and that’s what warfare is — he was not a utopian. Ike’s feet were firmly planted on the ground. Americans trusted him. America’s enemies feared him. There was more to Eisenhower than pretty words.

While Obama seems conflicted about the use of American military power, the men responsible for ending the Second World War had clarity of purpose. With millions upon millions slaughtered, any president, maybe even Obama, would have used any tool at his disposal to bring that war to an end.

To harshly judge his predecessors from the safety of the post-Cold War world they gave us is to diminish what it took to get us here.

Doug McIntyre’s column appears Sundays. Hear him weekday mornings 5-10 on AM 790. He can be reached at: Doug@DougMcIntyre.com.

Trump’s Discrimination Against Muslims

A Pin Drop

This article is appropriate for Memorial Day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

$12 Billion Man Buys into Tribune Publishing

Tribune Publishing said this morning that Patrick Soon-Shiong, by some accounts the wealthiest man in Los Angeles, is buying 12.9 percent of the company’s stock and paying $15 a share, the elevated price that Gannett has offered in a bid to take over the company. Soon-Shiong will become the second-largest shareholder, get a seat on the board of Tribune Publishing and be vice-chairman. The Los Angeles Times says it will be a $70.5 million investment. The company is also entering into a licensing deal with Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks for use of what Forbes calls in its story “over 100 machine vision and artificial intelligence technology patents for news media applications.” Per Forbes, Tribune would earn the first $80 million in revenues from NantWorks’s AI patents and a 6% royalty after that. Tribune would issue 333,333 shares of stock to a NantWorks subsidiary, NantStudio.

Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African-born American surgeon, medical researcher, businessman, philanthropist, and professor at University of California at Los Angeles.

Forbes magazine estimates Mr. Soon-Shiong’s wealth at $11.9 Billion as of today. He was born in South Africa and holds degrees from University of the Witwatersrand, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of British Columbia. He is 63 years old and married. He is currently chairman of the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation and chairman and CEO of the Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Advanced Health, National LambdaRail, the Healthcare Transformation Institute and NantWorks, LLC.^[5] In October 2010, he bought Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s minority ownership stake in the Los Angeles Lakers. He lives in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

This proves you don’t have to be a flamboyant loudmouth to be a billionaire.

Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump and The Media Circus

You may have thought that Megyn Kelly was a serious reporter when she challenged Donald Trump at the first GOP debate on August 6, 2015. That was where she challenged Mr. Trump on his treatment of women. You would be wrong. Her real intent, and the intent of Fox News, was to obtain attention grabbing headlines that would result in higher viewership of that cable station. The plan worked even better than they had anticipated.

How do I know this? Watch yesterday’s interview by Kelly of Trump. (the video appears to be blocked. It can be found on Youtube) Not one serous question was asked about the campaign for president. Not one serious question was asked about anything. It was all fluff. Why now? Fox wants to continue the appearance of Mr. Trump on their programs. So they made nice. In addition the ending of the program was an advertisement for a Megyn Kelly written book. The new book about her year covering — and feuding — with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Fox News and Megyn Kelly are not alone in their pursuit of the money that the election generates. MSNBC and CNN have coverage every hour of the day and night on the election and of course their focus on Donald Trump. When it comes to in depth analysis DO NOT look for any of that, even on Sunday morning programs like Meet the Press and Face the Nation.

That leaves the citizenry of America to figure out who should receive their vote based upon the limited, media controlled information and the information posted on line by “independent” thinkers. Is anyone really non-partisan?

Only in LA: Our Cold Property edition

Only in LA: Our Cold Property edition

By Steve Harvey | May 15, 2016 10:20 PM

Welcome to the tour, where you’ll get the real dirt on housing in this region.

We don’t need to tell you: real estate is sexy around here

Even the weeds are special.

But Cold Property has something for everyone. You like to pay way too much for stuff? No problem.

Sure it might hurt a little.

Tired of those deadly dull neighborhoods? There’s action afoot here!

You want to discourage visitors. Easy.

Speaking of no-frills places.

Cold Property can show you a unique one-room dwelling that won’t attract many solicitors.

On another property, a bit further inland, we remind you to read the directions carefully.

Let alone take a step.

There’s only a small chance that you will be trampled by wandering cabinets.

And we have some interesting fixtures. Hey! You said no-frills.

The appearance of some rooms may surprise you a bit. But that’s part of the fun!

One word of caution: Please don’t disturb the owners, even those who live in their cars.

Oh, and by the way, if you’re not ready to buy yet we have other tantalizing possibilities for you.

Steve Harvey can be reached at steveharvey9@gmail.com. His Twitter address is @sharvey9.

The Domino Effect of Outsourcing

From coast to coast, middle-class communities are shrinking

Fully 1 in 3 Americans who work in the manufacturing sector are receiving some form of public assistance, according to a study released this week by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. Of those who came to their positions through temp agencies half are on some type of safety net program. This was reported by CNBC.

I took a drive up to the Griffith Park Observatory here in Los Angeles last month. It wasn’t for going inside the building. It was a windy day and I anticipated a beautiful view from the parking lot. I was not disappointed. I obtained a photo that included a view of Catalina Island on the horizon. The distance is about 35 miles from the observatory.

I chose an alternate route back home and drove by Los Angeles City College. To my shock the sidewalk across the boulevard was lined with the tents and shelters of the homeless packed closely together. According to the Los Angeles Times there are now an estimated 44,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County. How did the numbers get so big?

Sports Chalet (more than 50 locations primarily in California) and Sports Authority (463 stores) are closing all of their stores. They started those closings last month. Kohl’s is closing 18 stores and laying off more than 1,500 employees. Where will the laid off workers go?

Back in November 2015 Macy’s Department stores reported a sharp drop in quarterly sales and lowered their forecast for 2016. Macy’s reported unsold goods piling up in their stores. Today they reported another quarter of sinking sales and once again slashed its financial targets for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile where are the jobs of the past here in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the United States? Those were the thousands of aerospace engineering jobs that were a major contributor to the strong California middle class that are mostly gone. The falloff in manufacturing jobs during the past 14-year period has caused factories to shed about 5 million workers from their payrolls nationally. Factories from all over the nation have moved to other countries. In their place are low paying service jobs that offer pay rates as low as $7.25, $15, and $25 an hour. Those jobs do not support a middle class family. They certainly do not support a Macy’s or Sports Authority price line.

Discount chains like T.J. Maxx and fast-fashion retailers such as H&M offering jeans as cheap as $17 and polo shirts for $10 are succeeding because that’s all today’s workers can afford.

So businesses keep outsourcing your work to low cost countries because you see it as a way to higher profits. Just remember that those of us left with those low paid jobs will be shopping at Walmart, Target, and the other afore-mentioned discount stores. The vicious cycle continues to drive people from the middle class to poor and homeless.

Don’t tell me you do not know what happened to the middle class.

Change Your Thinking

Change Your Thinking

It will take just 37 seconds to read this and change your thinking..

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.

One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.

His bed was next to the room’s only window.

The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation..

Every afternoon, when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake

Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance.

As the man by the window described all this in exquisite details, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine this picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon, the man by the window described a parade passing by.

Although the other man could not hear the band – he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days, weeks and months passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep.

She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away.

As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside.
He strained to slowly turn to look out the window besides the bed.

It faced a blank wall..

The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window.

The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, ‘Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.’

Epilogue:

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations.

Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled.

If you want to feel rich, just count all the things you have that money can’t buy.

‘Today is a gift, that is why it is called The Present .’

The origin of this article is unknown

A Too Happy Hillary Clinton

My opinion is that Donald Trump is not a Republican. Too many of his views match the Democratic Party views and many of Bernie Sanders’ views.

By Damon Linker in The Week magazine, May 11, 2016

The Clinton campaign seems almost giddy at the prospect of facing Donald Trump on November. That’s a mistake.

Dear Hillary,

I have to admit, you have me worried. And for more than just the usual reasons.

In the week since it became clear you would be facing Donald Trump in the general election, I’ve sensed giddy delight coming from your camp.

Believe me, I get it.

Trump has incredibly high unfavorable ratings. Women hate him, as do Hispanic voters. The very things that made him attractive to the Republican base — the anger, the fear-mongering, the misogyny — could drive millions of undecided voters into your outstretched, welcoming arms.

And all of this comes on top of fundamentals that give a substantial edge to the Democrat in any presidential contest these days. From 1992 to 2012, the Democratic nominee always won 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, that are worth a combined 242 electoral votes — just 28 short of the 270 needed to win the presidency. Over the same six elections, Republicans have consistently won 13 states with a total of 102 electoral votes. That means a generic GOP candidate has a much narrower path to victory than a generic Democrat. Add in The Donald’s distinctive negatives, and it probably looks like you’ll be facing a cakewalk in the fall.

Don’t believe it.

For starters, I hate to break it to you, but you’re not especially popular either. Sure, Trump’s unfavorables are higher than yours — but yours are pretty damn high! And it’s not like those numbers are likely to move very much. You’ve been a fixture on the political scene for close to a quarter century now. And those young people who know the least about you have been Bernie Sanders’ most passionate supporters in the primaries. That might not prove fatal in the general election, but it’s not exactly good either.

And then there’s Trump.

With 10 contests left to go in the primaries, Trump has already surpassed Mitt Romney’s vote total for the entire 2012 primary season by roughly 700,000 votes. And he did it against a more sharply divided field, and while winning a smaller portion of overall votes cast (though that number will narrow between now and the end of the primary season on June 7). Republicans are energized, with turnout up sharply from four years ago. This means that the baseline assumptions that have held since 1992 may not pertain this time around.

In every single one of those elections, the Republican candidate has run on pretty much the same cluster of issues: tax cuts, especially for the wealthy; muscular internationalism; social conservatism; free trade. That’s also the matrix of positions Democrats of your generation are conditioned to respond to and attack.

But Trump is different. He will hit you from the populist far right on immigration and free trade. He will hit you from the far left on the Iraq war, Libya, and Syria. He will directly challenge you on economic policy by supporting an increase in the minimum wage and higher taxes for the wealthy.

And he will relentlessly, mercilessly attack you (and your husband) personally.

How will you respond to the onslaught? I sure hope the answer is that you have no idea yet. Because if you think the answer is obvious or simple, you’re deluding yourself.

It’s certainly going to take more than selling merchandise emblazoned with utterly lame slogans like “Dangerous Donald” and “America Is Already Great.” Isn’t it a tenet of progressivism that America isn’t already great? That our national greatness is always a work in progress, a goal achieved only in the fullness of time? If conservatives are prone to nostalgia, the left is inspired by eschatological hopes for the future. Barack Obama, with his frequent references to the arc of history bending toward justice, certainly knows this, and I’m sure you do, too. After these feeble gestures, I can’t say the same about DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. You might need to have a talk with her.

No Democrat has ever run against a candidate like Trump. He overturns every settled ideological and temperamental expectation of normal politics. He will go after you with a ferocity we’ve never seen before, and the assault will be unremitting — yes, on the stump, in TV and radio ads, and in the debates, but also in 24/7 cable news coverage and an endless stream of infectiously quotable tweets, half of them capped by what’s become this election cycle’s all-purpose three-letter dismissal: Sad!

So don’t be cocky. Fire anyone on your staff who tells you this is going to be easy.

Then tell the staffers who remain that they need to be nimble, thinking on their feet and outside of the proverbial box. Yes, the Democrats have very real demographic advantages, and that will help — but not as much as the usual consultants and data crunchers want to assume.

Don’t try to define Trump, whether by labeling him “dangerous” or anything else. He’s a master of rhetorical jujitsu, instantly turning criticisms and insults into honorifics. Let Trump define himself. Of course he’ll try to define you, too — as “Crooked Hillary,” among other things — but your self-definition needs to prevail over the one he tries to pin on you. If it doesn’t, you’ll lose.

Most crucially, you need to show voters by your words and actions that you’re everything Trump is not: sober, smart, informed, sensible, level-headed, presidential. Yes, a lot of Americans at all points on the spectrum are angry these days. But are they so angry that when presented with a clear and obvious choice a plurality of them will actually opt for the candidate who is manifestly less sober, less smart, less informed, less sensible, less level-headed, and less presidential?

I don’t think they will.

If I’m wrong, your bid for the presidency is doomed — and so, perhaps, is the country.

Sincerely yours, A concerned anti-Republican