Donald Trump manipulates the Media and Congress

Donald Trump know exactly what he is doing when he claims there has been wiretapping of Trump Tower.

I have not read or heard any of the any commentator’s explanation for the latest tweets that Barack Obama was instrumental in the phone wiretap at the Trump Tower in New York. After all it was Trump in his address to congress who said “The time for small thinking is over. The time for trivial fights is behind us.”

Did he forget the speech or was that the words of his speech writer?

My theory is quick and easy to understand. Use the media to redirect the focus of the American people. In doing that his administration will not be the center of attention. Trump, I suspect, believes the public focus on wire tapping or other Alt-facts will enable him to carry out his agenda without a great deal of media focus.  In other words, get the media and the congress to focus on fake news.

As of today he has succeeded. The Sunday morning TV talk shows have been talking about wire tapping. In coming days Trump will say other things to distract the media and the congress.

This Huffington Post report supports my contention that we are now focused on the Alt-news. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday that if former President Barack Obama actually wiretapped Donald Trump’s phones, either legally or illegally, it would be the biggest scandal since Watergate.

Speaking at a town hall in Clemson, South Carolina, Graham addressed Trump’s baseless claims that Obama eavesdropped on him prior to the 2016 election. Trump claimed Obama’s actions were as scandalous as “Nixon/Watergate” in one of several tweets on Saturday morning.

“I don’t know if it’s true or not, but if it is true, illegally, it would be the biggest political scandal since Watergate,” Graham said, referring to a scenario in which the Obama administration tapped Trump’s phones without a warrant. The crowd, which was evidently packed with anti-Trump residents, booed at this suggestion.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham addressed Trump’s baseless claim Saturday that former president Barack Obama had wire tapped Trump Tower phones.

Age and the American Presidency

 Ronald Reagan was the oldest president of the United States. He was the oldest to be inaugurated for his first term, 69 years old and consequently was the oldest when leaving the office eight years later (77 years old). It was rumored that he fell asleep during briefings in his second term.

Now we have the two oldest people who have ever run for presidency. Donald Trump is 70 years old and Hillary Clinton will be 69 in this coming October.

For the population to accept the idea that these two people, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, are as fit as Barack Obama who leaves office at a 55 is utterly ridiculous. If his hair color is any indication, Obama took a serious physical beating.

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A young Barack Obama, 2008

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August 20, 2014 Barack Obama

The likelihood that Clinton or Trump could experience a serious health issue is very high. Mrs. Clinton will undoubtedly insist she has no consequential health problems. Mr. Trump will make similar comments.  The public deserves to know both Clinton’s and Trump’s health condition.

If the question of candidate health becomes a significant campaign issue I anticipate that will be a deciding factor on November 8. It shouldn’t!

Look at the vice presidential candidates. Mike Pence as president would be pushing and enforcing his conservative views that include discriminatory views against the LGBT community and his total opposition to abortion under any circumstance. Tim Kane has a record of inclusiveness. The choice between them is clear.

This is a frightening election season. We are forced to choose between a loud mouth, bully, racist, know-it-all and someone who has no other campaign slogan than “I’m with her; Stronger together.”

Maybe best not to vote for either candidate.

President Obama’s Aspirational State of the Union Address

No one wants to admit their errors and no president wants to tell the people that we are failing as nation.

It is with that understanding that I listened to the president’s state of the union address.

The following excerpt from a transcript of his speech tells us what he believes and really how he failed. After all his Hope and Change message in his first campaign for president was about the future. He just did not accomplish his goals. In my view he is an excellent speaker but he lacked the skills needed to achieve his goals.

Following is an excerpt from the transcript of the president’s speech. All very aspirational just as his victory speech in Chicago 2008.

So let’s talk about the future, and four big questions that I believe we as a country have to answer, regardless of who the next president is or who controls the next Congress.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy?

(APPLAUSE)

Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us, especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change?

(APPLAUSE)

Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

(APPLAUSE)

And finally, how can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?

Yes, the economy has recovered from the worst recession since the Great Depression and yes we are militarily very strong but most Americans are unhappy with our place in the world.

Barack Obama was not our worst president but he was far from our best.

Doctor Ben Carson is a Nice Man but…

Doctor Ben CarsonFrom the Huffington Post

The “Fox News Sunday” host, Chris Wallace, challenged the 2016 presidential candidate on some of his most inflammatory remarks, including Carson’s comparing the Obama administration to Hitler’s Germany.

“I want to ask you about some remarks you’ve made that you say that you stand by,” Wallace said. “You have compared our government today to Nazi Germany. Do you really believe that?”

“Well, a lot of people like to say that,” Carson responded. “But what I said is that in Nazi Germany, most of those people didn’t believe in what Hitler was doing, but did they say anything? They did not. That’s what allowed people to progress to that point. We need to be willing to stand up and speak up for what we believe.”

Wallace jumped in: “But people oppose Barack Obama all the time!”

The Fox News host also brought up Carson’s claim that Obamacare is the worst thing to happen to the country since slavery.

“Well, you have to understand what I’m talking about,” Carson explained. “You know, Obamacare fundamentally changes the relationship between the people and the government. The government is supposed to respond to the will of the people. Not dictate to the people what they are doing. And with this program, we’re allowing that whole paradigm to be switched around.”

Hannity on Fox News

“Well, my thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality. It doesn’t matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.” -2013 interview

“A lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay.” – CNN interview on March 4, 2015

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.

America’s Racist Society

(CNN)One of the two University of Oklahoma students expelled for their role in leading a racist chant has issued an apology, The Dallas Morning News reported.

“I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night. It was wrong and reckless. I made a horrible mistake by joining into the singing and encouraging others to do the same,” Parker Rice said in a statement printed by the newspaper.

Did you see the video of the students singing on the bus? It was nothing but disgusting.

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He is “deeply sorry” – sorry that he was caught leading the singing. If that video did not exist no one would have known. Parker Rice has not changed. He is a racist.

The problem is that many White Americans hold the views of those students. They won’t admit it of course but consider the insults the president has experienced. The list of those insults is unbelievable. Barack Obama was born in Kenya, not an American, is a monkey, does not love America, a socialist, a communist, hates America, etc.

We can pass all kinds of laws but we can’t change what is in the hearts of the people. White Christian Americans believe they are superior to everyone else on this planet. They teach their children that this is fact and that they have every right to hate. It is passed on to each generation.

My hate is that Americans cannot see their own failings.

A Blueprint for Middle-Class Economics

This is a DOA (Dead on arrival) plan that has little to no chance of passing into law. Frankly it does nothing to stop the wealthiest in our country from becoming even wealthier.  The president seems to be unaware that his political party is now in the minority.  This is all about his legacy.  His ideas will be prominently posted in his library.

Released statement by the president of the United States, Barack Obama

America’s resurgence is real. With a growing economy, shrinking deficits, bustling industry, and booming energy production, we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth.

Now we have to choose what we want that future to look like. Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and rising chances for everyone who makes the effort?

In my State of the Union Address last week, I focused on making sure middle-class economics helps more Americans get ahead in the new economy. As a country, we need to do more to make working families’ paychecks go farther, give Americans of every age the chance to upgrade their skills so they earn higher wages, and build the world’s most competitive economy for our businesses.

On Monday, I will present Congress with my budget, a plan for bringing middle-class economics into the 21st Century. First, I’m proposing we make the kinds of investments we need to continue to grow our economy and enhance our national security. We would establish new advanced manufacturing hubs, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and lead a new age of precision medicine that uses cutting-edge science to find new treatments for diseases like diabetes and cancer. We would give working parents a chance to get ahead with guaranteed paid sick leave, and we’d give Americans of all ages a chance to earn new skills by making community college free for responsible students. And we should invest in a 21st century military to confront global challenges with strong and sustained American leadership. These proposals are pragmatic; they’re the types of things both parties should be able to support.

But where Democrats and Republicans often disagree is in how to pay for these kinds of ideas. I’m proud that since I took office, we’ve experienced the fastest period of sustained deficit reduction since the end of World War II. My budget will build on that progress with reforms to health programs, our tax code, and our broken immigration system. It would eliminate the trust fund loophole that allows the wealthiest Americans to avoid paying taxes on their unearned income, and use the savings to cut taxes for middle class families. If Congress passes my budget, our country would meet the key test of fiscal sustainability, with our debt declining as a share of our GDP.

Of course, to make these common-sense investments in our future without adding to our deficits, we need to turn the page on the manufactured crises that have defined the debates over our budget in recent years. Our recovery was held back when Congress shut down the government and risked the full faith and credit of the United States. We can’t afford to do that again. And we have to build on the bipartisan budget agreement I signed in 2013 that helped us end some of the arbitrary, across-the-board budget cuts known as “sequestration.” Last year’s agreement helped boost our economic growth without undermining fiscal responsibility. We were able to invest in key national priorities while cutting our deficits to their lowest level since 2007.

In order to get wages and incomes rising faster, we need to take the next step. That’s why my Budget will fully reverse the sequestration cuts for domestic priorities in 2016. It will match those investments with equal dollar increases for defense funding. If Congress rejects my plan and refuses to undo these arbitrary cuts, it will threaten our economy and our military. Investments in key areas will fall to their lowest level in ten years, adjusted for inflation, putting American research, education, infrastructure, and national security at risk. But if Congress joins me, we can make sure that ending sequestration is fully paid for by cutting inefficient spending and closing tax loopholes.

The Budget I’m sending to Congress is a blueprint for success in the new economy. I know that there are Republicans in Congress who disagree with my approach, and I look forward to hearing their ideas for how we can pay for what the middle class needs to grow. But what we can’t do is simply pretend that things like child care or college aren’t important, or that there’s nothing we can do to help middle class families get ahead.

Because we still have work to do. As a country, we have made it through some hard times. But we’ve laid a new foundation. We’ve got a new future to write. And I am eager to get to work.

Follow Barack Obama on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BarackObama

State of the Union 2015

Barack Obama at 2015 State of the Union SpeechFor a president who has lost control of both houses of Congress, Barack Obama seems to be oblivious to his situation. That may be a good thing. After all he will hold office for another two years. He wants to be remembered for more than being the first Black president. His will defend his signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, forever. Beyond that he wants to be remembered as a leader who cared about all the people.

His speech gave comfort to every group that makes up the Democratic Party. He made references to illegal immigrants, the LGBT community, the conservationists, those wanting more foreign trade, etc. It’s what good speech writers do. They recognize everyone in the hope of creating unity.

The president intentionally minmized every troubling foreign affairs issue from Ukraine to Iran and not word was spoken about the economic divide that separates the very wealthy from the rest of American society. A smart decision since that would only enflame his opponents.

So naturally his State of the Union address was a litany of all the legislation he wishes to sign into law in the next two years. Of course most of it won’t be approved by the congress but at least he had the opportunity to state his wishes. Those wishes are probably the basis for the next Democratic Party platform that will be part of the 2016 election.

Sadly opposition to Obama comes from both political parties. Our system of government has survived these kinds of divides in the past. As a nation the country will continue its dominant position in world affairs.

Russia Resuming Cold War Behavior

President Obama belittled Mitt Romney for his prediction over the course of the 2012 campaign, Romney repeatedly called Russia “our number one geopolitical foe.”  Then came this debate confrontation.

 

Now in response to NATO’s “anti-Russia inclinations,” the Kremlin will resume its Cold War-era practice of sending long-range bombers to patrol the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific.  The flights, which will extend to the borders of U.S. territorial waters, follow a markedly more aggressive air defense posture by Russia in the eight months since it seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March, according to European strategic analysts.

 

Newsweek reports:
“Russia has announced plans to build a drone base for military reconnaissance in a town just 420 miles off mainland Alaska and just over 300 miles off the US state’s St Lawrence Island, Russia’s state news agency reported on Thursday.”

“The command of the eastern military district in charge of the military development of the Arctic zone has moved forward with plans to form an unmanned aerial vehicle division,” Alexandr Gordeev, spokesperson for the district said.”

Hungarian leadership is now saying that it feels a kinship with Russia.  Russian speaking Latvians are leaning towards Russia. Russia does not need to be communist to stand as the opposition to western style democracy.  Mikhail Gorbachev recently warned of a renewal of the Cold War.

Barack Obama as leader of a new Cold War is very frightening.  I am looking forward to a new tough American leader.