Diane's question about Presidents Obama and Trump

"Here's a question for all of my Democrat/liberal friends who are decrying the US capture of Maduro in Venezuela. What’s the difference between President Obama ordering US forces to enter a sovereign nation, without their permission, to intentionally kill Osama Bin Laden, who was under a US indictment (issued in 1998, under the Clinton administration) and President Trump ordering US forces to capture Nicolas Maduro—unharmed--to prosecute him under a US indictment for narcotrafficking issued in 2020? If you have a cogent answer other than “Orange Man Bad,”

I would be delighted to hear it.

Don't forget Manuel Noriega in Panama when George HW Bush ordered troops on the ground to capture him."

Affordable. We've heard this before about health care.

Although President Trump is best in his field as a business man, he's fast becoming a politician. The latest plug about cars being affordable if the government gets involved is a page out of Obama's book on affordable health care. Barack gave us neither affordable nor healthy and left it to others to write the gazillion rules and stab us in the back. With cars, remember what they did the last time to make them "green?" They destroyed the older non-green models so there were no used cars to be "affordable." Only the rich benefitted. What will they do now? Manufacturers are owned by investors, and although it always looks like they go along with whoever is in power, they need to dance with the one who brought them.

https://youtu.be/ZCPId-2CABs?si=nvfIOwpJ-8kAsPAEAsPAE

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Don't be a fickle fool
You came here with a gal, who's always been your pal
Don't leave her for the first unattached girl, it just ain't cool

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Life ain't no forty-yard dash
Be in it for the long run
In the long run you'll have more fun
If you dance with who brung you to the bash

I had a friend in Texas
He really had some style
He sang that good old Western Swing and drove 'em wild
Then a talent scout from Vegas said,
"Boy, play and sing this way"
And in one short year he was broke in L.A

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Life ain't no forty-yard dash
Be in it for the long run
In the long run you'll have more fun
If you dance with who brung you to the bash

You gotta be real careful what you wish for
'Cause you just might get
The whole darn thing
Be sure what you want is really something you can use
Or you might wind up half dead
Just singing the Blues

You got to dance with who brung you
Swing with who swung you
Life ain't no forty-yard dash
Be in it for the long run
In the long run you'll have more fun
If you dance with who brung you to the bash (yeah)

Dance with who brung you to the bash (yeah)

The White House Ballroom

" . . . But the biggest White House remodel to date started in the 1940s. That's when President Harry S. Truman fully gutted and rebuilt the interior in response to concerns about severe structural damage. When the Trumans moved into the Executive Mansion in 1945, engineers warned them that the building was on the verge of collapse. His family relocated to temporary quarters nearby during construction, which took around three years.

 
Other presidents have directed smaller projects, like President Barack Obama. He adapted an existing tennis court so it could be used for basketball. In his second term, President Trump has already undertaken several projects — including an entirely remodeled Rose Garden. That feature was first added by First Lady Edith Wilson in 1913 and updated to its most iconic form during the Kennedy administration." (WPTZ)

And here's what Teddy Roosevelt did to it.  https://www.whitehousehistory.org/theodore-roosevelts-white-house?  

And because of the hissy fits, the WH put out a complete list.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/10/white-house-ballroom-proud-presidential-legacy/?   

Let's face it, folks, If President Trump had regrouted the bathroom tile, the Demikratz would have been screeching because this is about hate, not remodeling, not even money, They stomp on the unborn, mutilate children, import sex slaves, allow thousands to be poisoned by drugs, ignore terrorists crossing our borders, and elected an auto-pen to lead us. Do you really think they are bothered by some bricks and mortar?

Presidential immunity

I think Democrats should be thrilled with the clarification of presidential immunity by SCOTUS. Both Obama and Biden have serious crimes that could come back to haunt them. But Democrats are so damaged by their hate for Trump they think anything in the Constitution they don't support is about Trump.

The decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, established a broad new immunity from prosecution, not just for Trump, but for past and future presidents, too. Presidents may not be prosecuted for exercising their “core” constitutional powers, and even in situations where former presidents might be prosecuted after leaving office, they are entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for official actions they took as president.

Such immunity is needed, said the chief justice, in order to protect an “energetic,” and “independent executive,” willing to take “bold” actions and make unpopular decisions when needed. And while Roberts said that private actions by a former president are not protected from prosecution, his opinion seemed to inexorably intertwine private and public actions. Supreme Court says Trump has absolute immunity for core acts only : NPR

Clarence Thomas swipes at Special Counsel Jack Smith's appointment in SCOTUS immunity case | Fox News

Takeaways from the Supreme Court’s historic decision granting Donald Trump immunity | CNN Politics

Nostalgia for Y2K

 Was it only a quarter of a century ago? Almost. Remember the preparation for the big 2000 celebration and how Y2K bonded us? Communism was defeated and Naziism gone, but we had wised up about pie in the sky humanism. Both U.S. parties believed in and advocated for "western style democracy" as the best method to raise 3rd world people out of poverty and to defeat totalitarianism.

GW Bush was naive and thought we could impose western values on tribal cultures, allowing people to vote, liberating women and supporting an endless war. At home BH Obama wanted to reduce our next generation and poverty through abortion, take over the largest sector of the economy with socialist medicine, and pay back the sins of the past with old family feuds by imposing on 21st century white Americans, the discrimination and laws of the 19th century that hurt black Americans.

With Biden and his blue state cronies we have the worst of the first 2 administrations of the 21 century. Wars, death, destruction but with inflation, gnosticism, higher taxes, millions invading at our borders, and more tribalism at home.

Biden's cronies as Obama 2.0 have brought back the totalitarianism, slavery (both labor and sex), discrimination, endless wars, and tribal battles that we had hoped had been eliminated by "western democracy."

Durham report. It was all made up.

"A report by Special Counsel John Durham released Monday found the FBI should not have launched a full investigation into the connections between former President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, with the report saying the FBI used “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence” to justify the investigation." Forbes, May 15.

And the media were the pimps for four years, even to this day helping elect Basement Biden. We must never ridicule a 3rd World country's politics again.

"Former U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told Newsmax on Monday that even after a cursory reading, the Durham Report on FBI misconduct in its investigation of ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign should “scare the living hell out of everyone.” Newsmax, May 15

"Two special counsels, several inspector general reports and six years later, the country finally has a more complete account of the FBI’s Russia collusion probe of the 2016 Donald Trump campaign. Special counsel John Durham’s final report makes clear that a partisan FBI became a funnel for disinformation from the Hillary Clinton campaign through a secret investigation the bureau never should have launched.

The 306-page Durham report released Monday afternoon is far more comprehensive than anything issued by original special counsel Robert Mueller. Mr. Durham had already unfurled some of the narrative with his prosecutions of Russian national Igor Danchenko and Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann. He lost those cases, though the indictments laid out how the Clinton campaign used foreign nationals, an oppo-research outfit, and political insiders to feed the FBI and the media lies about Trump collusion." Wall St. Journal, May 16

The 306-page Durham report

Once upon a time there were two presidents

President Donald Trump froze travel from China as too risky when a city with a SARS lab showed an unusual uptick in deaths. Nancy Pelosi and other leftists called him a racist.

President Barack Obama froze funding (both federal and private) of gain of function research in the U.S. as too risky. But someone at NIH found a way to fund it in China.

So which President is the racist with the most damage to the Chinese people as a result of his executive action?

Doing Diligence to Assess the Risks and Benefits of Life Sciences Gain-of-Function Research | whitehouse.gov (archives.gov)

Biden ‘Believes’ Gain-Of-Function Research Is Necessary To Stop Future Pandemics, Kirby Says | The Daily Caller

Putin's war on Ukraine is our proxy war

Why does Putin think those territories belong to Russia? We helped. Check your history books, Democrats. 

When Obama was running for re-election in March 2012, a live microphone picked up his conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

"Obama told Medvedev it was important for incoming President Vladimir Putin to "give me space" on missile defense and other difficult issues and that after the 2012 presidential election he would have "more flexibility." (cns.news) No one tried to impeach him, but that message was far more dangerous and with a death toll far worse than anything Trump said to Zelensky on the phone, which he had every right to do and which was recorded live with no secrecy or whispers.

 
After Putin had that nod of approval from Obama, Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in Feb-March 2014 and sided with the Assad regime in Syria's civil war. It's been chaos in that region since.

 
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden got involved with Burisma for $50,000 a month, with no evidence he knew anything except his paternity. They were too smart to hand him a check--it was laundered through New York-based capital management firm Rosemont Seneca Bohai. And our media were too dumb or too bought to ever follow up on the corruption of the Biden Crime Family.

We're now in a proxy war, killing Russians and paying Ukrainians to do it.

Unfriending on social media--divisive or deserved?

"Democratic voters are almost three times as likely to have “blocked, unfriended, or stopped following someone on social media” after Donald Trump’s victory, according to a study released Monday [Dec. 2016]."

No surprise here. Democrats are not inclusive and hate diversity of thought or opinion. IMO, they are also more likely to be racist in their support of policies that hurt blacks and other minorities through their own good intentions. That said, that article is 6 years old. So I am also less likely to "friend" a Democrat whereas before I was much more forgiving and open minded. It really began with the BDS--Bush derangement syndrome--before a black president, an orange president, and the current confused resident of the WH. Now, if I don't know they are conservatives but we are acquainted, I choose not to put up with it. And so the divide widens.

Letter from 2016 on abortion

 On Apr 7, 2016, at 2:30 PM, Norma Bruce wrote:

Today I mailed a contribution for the legal defense of David Daleiden, facing three crippling law suits from 1) Planned Parenthood which receives half a billion in federal funds every year to kill the unborn, 2) The National Abortion Federation, and 3) the biotech company Stem Express. They are after him for those damning videos--you remember, don't you? The Planned Parenthood abortionist who sipped her wine and nibbled her salad while discussing how she could crush a living baby just right to keep the body parts in good shape for sale to a medical research lab. Or the PP council member who joked about hoping to get enough to buy a Lamborghini sports car ($200,000). Now the AG of California (running for Barbara Boxer’s seat) who has contributed over $80,000 to PP is going after him with a raid on his home. It’s not nice to expose the President’s favorite charity and donor to his campaigns.

Francis Fukuyama on Ukraine and the U.S. problems

I don't know if Francis Fukuyama is a liberal or a conservative, but he is an anti-Trumper and an academic who will not give Trump his due. From a Bari Weiss round table podcast with Niall Ferguson, Walter Russell Mead ,and Francis Fukuyama on Ukraine: he was alarmed by Trump supporters who believe he won in 2020, but apparently not alarmed by the chaos of BLM and Antifa taking over cities controlled by Quisling Democrats in 2020. So he thinks our divided nation is a weakness exploited by Putin (and I'd agree). Here he barely condemns Biden's weakness on protecting Ukraine, yet blames Trump for saying Putin was tough, smart opponent.

"FF: I think that many American presidents have a role in bringing us to where we were. I think that we should really begin with the Bucharest summit in 2008 [he leaves out Clinton's role], when Ukraine was first promised a NATO membership [U.S. says no, that's Putin's interpretation]. At the time, I thought that was a big mistake, because we couldn’t actually fulfill that promise. That was under George W. Bush. And I would agree with the criticisms of Obama: I think his refusal to sell weapons to Ukraine and not observing the red line in Syria were bad moves.

But I think that you guys have let Donald Trump off the hook. It’s not just that he was upset about Russiagate [which was all a hoax, but FF apparently believed the Democrats and doesn't know Hillary was behind it]. He has been issuing statements supporting Vladimir Putin from well before he was elected president [he says complimentary things about all international opponents]. Even after the invasion, he talked about Putin being a genius and very savvy. He gave a speech just a few days ago at CPAC where he attacked who as a global tyrant? Justin Trudeau—not a single word about Vladimir Putin. [Yes, we were all alarmed at what was happening in the country closest to the U.S. and Biden said nothing.] He and his followers on the right have a real affinity for strongman leadership [as opposed to the leftist 2-faced Democrats?]. That’s really what is at stake. When you go to Helsinki and you say, “I believe Vladimir Putin more than my own intelligence community,” that’s giving aid and comfort [no, it's the truth--his own intelligence community was part of the deep state]. That’s close to being treasonous, in my view [perhaps FF's favorite theories have been blown up too?].

There is good reason for Putin to think that America is weak under Joe Biden—partly because Trump hasn’t gone away after January 6, and a significant part of the Republican Party believes this lie that the election was stolen. [And Hillary still believes she was elected in 2016.] The country is seriously divided because of the failure of the Republicans to concede the peaceful transfer of power [it was divided long before that--remember when Bush was being called Hitler?]. And so if you’re Putin, you’re thinking that you can rely on your Republican friends to soften any blow. [That's ridiculous, and another lie of the left wing media who can't accept what a joke the Biden-Harris team is.]

Finally, on Biden, yes, I think that he did not do certain things [like helping Putin finance this war by not shutting off his oil]. I was very disappointed when he pulled back on trying to cancel Nord Stream 2. Really, four presidents [don't forget Clinton]  have contributed to this image of American weakness and have made mistakes on policy. But where we are right now, I think, is pretty good given, you know, given that legacy.

Putin and Biden and sanctions

Presidents Clinton and Obama set the stage to weaken Ukraine, so there's no reason for Putin to fear Biden who bugged out in shame from Afghanistan. Why is Biden waiting to shut down the Nord Stream pipeline (a system of offshore natural gas pipelines in Europe, running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany)? Why did he shut down our Keystone pipeline making us dependent on others and unable to export energy to European countries at risk of Russian terrorism?

Biden has a REAL Russia, Russia, Russia scandal on his hands, and not a phony baloney good times fake story passed along to the Clinton campaign in 2016. Will the legacy media remain true blue?

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/17/crimea-six-years-after-illegal-annexation/

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-11-mn-10675-story.html

Biden ended 3 Trump measures that protected Europe from Russia and which allowed U.S. energy superiority and independence. "MedEast is the second major pipeline that the Biden administration has put a damper on: the first being the Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada and North Dakota to the Gulf States. Canadian oil is heavy oil needed for U.S. refineries that retooled decades ago when U.S. light oil production was declining. Keystone XL would also provide more oil to the United States from an ally rather than being dependent on OPEC and Russia for oil. For several months since the pandemic began, Russia was the number 2 supplier of oil to the United States, competing with Mexico for that distinction. When Biden blocked the Keystone XL pipeline by canceling its Presidential permit, he blocked a project that went over and above existing standards to address issues such as carbon emissions, safety standards, and cooperation with indigenous people impacted by the pipeline.

Biden’s Keystone XL and MedEast pronouncements both overturn decisions made by President Trump. When Joe Biden agreed to set aside U.S. objections to the controversial Russian undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline, he reversed former President Trump’s policy of opposing the project due to security concerns. The 760-mile Baltic Sea pipeline allows direct Russian natural gas supply to Germany and other western European countries and allows Russia to dominate the European energy market, making Putin a power player in continental Europe, where Russia already supplies over 40 percent of its natural gas." https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/international-issues/biden-anti-energy-onslaught-continues/

Democrats have their wish

Democrats wanted an alternative to mean tweets and the art of making deals. And they got their desire. They hated Trump's style and could never give a reason why strong border security and energy freedom were bad for Democracy. So, they elected an elderly "moderate" with Big Tech manipulation of the vote, mainstream media lies and a worldwide pandemic stoking fear.

So now we have ISIS resurgence in Syria after Trump practically wiped them out and new ground troops from U.S. stepping up to "advise." How'd that work out the last 3 decades? Then there's the pesky border civil war between Ukraine and Russia and 8500 U.S. troops on alert. Our friends and enemies around the world know how weakened by his advisors Biden is--they saw it in the Afghanistan withdrawal disaster. They see his inability to negotiate with Mexico or follow Trump's plan to stop the millions pouring over our own border. They know he's Obama 2.0 and they remember the red lines and lines in the shifting sand for 8 years. Add to this miserable record, the military leaders Biden has chosen for guidance are more concerned about woke soldiers than skilled and trained troops. How helpful is a Marxist social theory when the Russians and Ukrainians, two former Communist states, are the same race, culture and religion, and the Syrian fighters are all some version of Islam?

The attack on al-Sina Prison points to a broader ISIS resurgence | Middle East Institute (mei.edu)

US orders 8,500 troops on heightened alert amid Russia worry (msn.com)

Thoughts on Cuba

Why now, Cuba? First, when Castro took over they were propped up by the USSR. Then when it collapsed they turned to Venezuela which Cuba had infected with Communism. In turn it collapsed and Cuba lost again in the game of dictators. Both countries lost enormously in the exodus of its middle and upper class. When tourism finally came back to Cuba under Obama's circumventing the law, the pandemic soon followed. Supported by relatives in the U.S. for decades with remittances (billions), the Cuban government and its lackeys and apologists in the U.S. media and the Democrat party, the people have said, ENOUGH. Is it too late?

We could learn from Cuba and Venezuela, but will we? We have powerful socialism lovers in Congress and the White House.

https://providencemag.com/video/venezuelas-chavismo-disaster/  

Our media flunkies are bragging about the literacy rate in Cuba. What's to read? More Communist propaganda about how great the Castros were? More lies about the heroic Motherland? And who can trust the data from a Communist country? Other Latin American countries also saw literacy and health care improve in the same decades, and they didn't have to give up their freedoms. Also, if a family tried to provide their children with religious instruction, those children would then not be allowed a higher education and a career. How's that for literacy?

And it's all coming to the USA if you don't pay attention to your local school board, stop the cancel culture workshops in your churches and community organizations, if you don't put the NFL and MLB owners in their place by refusing to play (watch) their games or support their sponsors, if you don't go to the polls in 2022, if you don't insist on honest elections free of "pandemic" special rules for some.

Senator Sanders Is Wrong on Cuban Education and Healthcare | Cato at Liberty Blog

Cuba isn't the only western country with political prisoners. Compare the January 6 prisoners with those arrested for the ongoing assaults on Democrat run cities and federal property. You can't even find a total because our "free press" refuses to investigate. Here's just ONE list for ONE riot in ONE city. Our Columbus still hasn't recovered from the Floyd riots. 

More than two dozen Antifa rioters charged for Portland mayhem (nypost.com)

There will never be a fair investigation as long as Nancy Pelosi is in charge, because she's the one who dropped the ball (deliberately, I believe) when she knew from undercover investigation that people planned to storm the capitol. That said, she's ordered no investigation of who killed Ashli Babbitt, and unless that's included there should be no investigation.

2008 and 2016--one president failed, the other one didn't

When Obama was elected in 2008, people were dancing in the streets--going wild--at last the USA had overcome. 99% of black voters voted for him and white liberals sighed with relief! Yet the country spiraled downward for 8 years under more oppressive government control. No progress for blacks, economy slumbered, war didn't end, took forever to get the wealth transfers out the door.

 
Then Trump was elected in 2016, and the same people wept, got hysterical, screamed, marched in pink hats. Yet he actually met his commitments, best employment record ever for minorities, Europe had to step up and pay its bills, the border although not solved (it's Congress' problem) settled down and criminals were stopped, and religious freedom blossomed. Yet, the crooks in government, both parties, were horrified. They ramped up the intersectionality, and called everything, EVERYTHING, racism. They threw everything at him. Biggest con job ever. If Obama ushered in a glorious black renaissance for 8 years, how did it change overnight when things got better for everyone?

Does character matter to you, Pt. 2

TRUMP’S REELECTION BID:

As Joe Biden himself declared, in a colossal political gaffe: “We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.”

And they did just that.

In 2016, with a 55.7% voter turnout, Trump managed to defeat Clinton with 46.1% of the popular vote (62,984,828) to her 48.2% (65,853,514), but amazingly he managed to win 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227.

In 2020, with a 66.7% voter turnout, Biden defeated Trump with 51.3% of the popular vote (81,268,757) compared to Trump’s 46.9% (74,216,722), for 306 electoral votes over Trump’s 232. (Libertarian Party candidate Jo Jorgensen received 1.2% (1,865,873).)

Not since Herbert Hoover lost to Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 has a Republican presidential loss left the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives under Democrat control.

A New York second after the election results were in, Trump protested: “This election was stolen. It was a rigged election, 100 percent, and everyone knows it. It’s going to be that I got about 74 million votes, and I lost? It’s not possible.”

As I noted previously, Trump inspired seven million more Democrat votes than he was able to garner for himself. He energized his opponents, though I should note that in key swing states the numbers were very close.

Fact is, Trump was not wrong about the election being rigged, but his claim about voting-machine irregularities was not how the Democrat Party rigged it. As it turns out, voter fraud was the Demos’ final coup against Trump. But the fraud was perpetrated by way of what I outlined in “The Left’s Bulk-Mail Ballot Fraud Strategy.” The Democrats beat Trump on the ground with their bulk-registration and bulk-mail balloting strategy, including the receipt of millions of votes that were undocumented by any reasonable standard of identification. It worked, and it will work in future elections if it goes unchecked.

Prior to the November election defeat of Trump along with otherwise mixed results, I declared that the Democrat bulk-mail balloting and ballot harvesting programs opened the election to massive fraud. There is no way to adequately verify the identification of those receiving or returning bulk-mail ballots. There is no way to authenticate ballot signatures, which requires a substantial level of expertise.

Recall that the Democrats made reference to the “red mirage” ahead of the November election, noting that initially it would look like Trump had won in some states but that would change when the bulk-mail ballot totals were calculated. That’s exactly what happened.

To fully comprehend the Demos’ fraudulent bulk-mail strategy, consider the following voter regulations as proposed by Nancy Pelosi in House Resolution, the grossly misnamed “For the People Act of 2021.” It is an effort to pass the same HR 1 bill that failed in 2019 — except now there is no Senate majority gauntlet to reject this effort to establish a Democrat majority in perpetuity.

Pelosi’s HR 1 stipulates that the federal government will, contrary to our Constitution, have the power to set universal regulations regarding voter-identity requirements, in order to implement universal bulk-mail balloting. HR 1 asserts: “A state may not require an individual to provide any form of identification as a condition of obtaining an absentee ballot. … A state(s) may not require notarization or a witness signature or other formal authentication (other than voter attestation) as a condition of obtaining or casting an absentee ballot.”

That should alarm every American dedicated to the future of American Liberty.

Despite Joe Biden’s “unity” theme, the Democrat agenda is anything but.

TRUMP IMPEACHMENT CHARADE 2.0:

Unfortunately, given the elevated rhetoric about election fraud, on January 6th, a fractional faction of thugs undermined Trump’s entire legacy and MAGA movement by rioting in our nation’s Capitol building. These badly misguided jackasses were not “Patriots”; they were adherents of a personality cult, which is inevitably and irrevocably antithetical to Liberty. As I have written previously, I hope Trump’s “election fraud” protests and the DC riot don’t overshadow the legitimate concerns about election fraud — but Democrats and their Leftmedia are doing everything possible to ensure that disgraceful event defines Trump and all who have supported his policies.

To that end, the House and Senate are now undertaking another impeachment charade to spit shame and embarrassment on conservatives, particularly those in Congress whose seats will be contested in 2022. This absurd political theater, the unconstitutional trial of a former president, is scheduled for the week of February 8, but Demos will drag out this theatrical farce as long as possible before citizen Trump will be acquitted.

Signaling the asininity of this charade, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in what competes with the latest Biden gaffes, declared, “Senators will have to decide if Donald John Trump incited the erection.” (Make up your own joke here…)

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has already removed himself from presiding over this political pretense, which now falls to president pro tempore of the Senate, Patrick Leahy, (D-VT). Leahy administered the oath to Senate “jurors” earlier Monday: “Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of Donald John Trump, former president of the United States, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the laws, so help you God?” Anyone repeating those words who does not object to this proceeding is violation of that oath.

And to bolster their impeachment theatrics (which any seasoned security analyst will tell you invites trouble), Washington is still occupied by armed battalions of National Guard troops and armored vehicles manning barricades topped with concertina wire. Additionally, DHS has issued a national terrorism alert to extend the theatrics nationwide! Meanwhile, leftists continue their urban attacks and assaults on police officers at unprecedented rates.

MOVING FORWARD — OUR MISSION:

The Biden/Harris regime declared before the election: “This election is a ‘BATTLE for the SOUL of the NATION.” Post election, it is now a BATTLE for the FUTURE of AMERICAN LIBERTY.

I hope Trump will put whatever voice he has moving forward behind the most capable congressional candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm election — that he will do nothing to further foment division. Fortunately he has indicated that he does not support, and in fact rejects, the defeatist notion of a third party. And, according to his post-presidential advisory team, Trump’s goal “is to win back the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022.”

Despite all the handwringing about political divisions on the Right, that split is over support for Trump the personality. There is no split over support for the Trump administration’s considerable policy successes. As Biden disables those policies with a flash flood of executive orders, and his fellow socialist Democrats reverse policies with legislation, that will have the net effect of further unifying conservatives going into the 2022 midterms.. . “ 

Mark Alexander, Patriot Post, January 27, 2021  And I’m posting this because sometimes links are delete.

Does character matter to you? Pt. 1

Any conservative that praises Trump always qualifies his words with comments about his character. Matching Joe Biden's abortion plans for American babies against Trump's plans to allow them to live and prosper for me is hardly a character match. Trump always wins.

Mark Alexander, January 27, 2021, Patriot Post:

“What follows is a compilation of observations and references regarding the election, administration, and unfortunately the defeat of Donald J. Trump after one tumultuous term as president by the corrupt socialist Democrat Party regime.

Astoundingly, Trump was displaced by a dullard baked potato, Joe Biden, who has accomplished virtually nothing to make America a better place for those he ostensibly has represented over the course of his almost five decades as a Beltway politician. But as I have argued, the Biden ticket is actually headed by the leftist who will soon replace him, Kamala Harris.

I have divided my observations into several categories in order to be as concise as possible about Trump’s four years as president.

TRUMP THE CANDIDATE:

A quick review of my early columns about primary candidate Donald Trump reveals that my greatest concern was that of his character — it was not comparable in the least to George Washington or Ronald Reagan. Full disclosure: I was firmly in the Ted Cruz camp, with Marco Rubio as a running mate.

Soon after Trump became the Republican nominee in 2016, I contacted a longtime friend who had security responsibilities for Trump and his family, and I asked him what I needed to know about his boss. He said that Trump’s personal interactions with people, be they friends or his employees, are totally different from his public persona — that there was a deep shared respect and loyalty among those who knew him best.

Ahead of the election, I wrote about why I was voting for Trump — as if I would’ve ever considered an ounce of support for Hillary Clinton. I responded to inquiries from conservatives that I was confident that Mike Pence, whom I first met decades earlier, would not have joined Trump’s ticket if he were not confident that Trump would take the country in the right direction. And I was totally confident that Trump would follow through on his commitment to nominate constructionist jurists to the Supreme Court.

Within a month of Trump’s shocking Electoral College victory over Clinton, it became clear that his administration was shaping up to be the most conservative and consequential in decades, what I called a “Reagan revival.” But even so, I still had concern about his “New York values” and wondered whether his presidency would be hamstrung by his brash bravado.

But we praised his administration’s policies, if not his character, from day one. Ironically, in the years that followed, we regularly and simultaneously took fire from those claiming we were either “too pro-Trump” or “too anti-Trump.” I guess that’s indicative of being devoted, first and foremost, to American Liberty above any politician or party affiliation.

TRUMP THE PRESIDENT:

Perhaps Trump’s most obvious leadership “style” was that he was a bomb dropper. As I wrote shortly after he took office in 2017: “The day he arrived in DC, he dropped a bomb on the status quo in Congress and its special interests. He dropped a bomb on the regulatory behemoths and their bureaucratic bottlenecks. He dropped a bomb on the trade and national security institutions and alliances that failed miserably over the previous eight years. And he dropped a bomb on all the pundits and mainstream media outlets.”

The net results of Trump’s take-no-prisoners style is that he left office with an extraordinary list of accomplishments eclipsing those of any president since Reagan.

TRUMP THE TARGET:

No president has ever been more relentlessly assailed by the enemies of Liberty than Donald Trump. The deep-state coup against Trump was not broad but it was certainly deep.

Orchestrated by his predecessor, Barack Obama, whose fingerprints are all over the coup crime scene, in collusion with Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators who fabricated the “Russian Collusion” charade, the effort to undermine the Trump administration from within was staggering in its callous defiance of the law.

While the cutouts in this operation have been exposed, it is former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan who should be indicted for their roles in setting up the fake FISA warrants that seeded the entire conspiracy.

I’ve taken some shots in regard to my consistent use of “deep state” and “coup,” but the fact is this was a deep-state coup, as the most recent evidence about the origins of Crossfire Hurricane, the early layup for taking down Trump, reveals.

When Robert Mueller’s investigation fell flat, it led to Coup d'État 2.0, the phony effort to impeach President Trump for what Joe Biden actually did in Ukraine. Of course, that effort also failed.

Of course, the Demos’ agenda received 24/7/365 assistance from their Leftmedia propagandists and their Big Tech silencers. Mainstream and social media platforms are the primary propagators of “fake news,” such adulteration being the “true enemy of the people.” And with Biden/Harris in office, now herds of so-called “journalists” are promoting the suppression of free speech, when it is speech that does not comport with their political or social views.

As I have often pondered, consider what the American political landscape would look like if the mainstream and social media platforms were actually politically neutral, or if they actually affirmed the First Amendment.

TRUMP THE MISCOMMUNICATOR:

(Warning: If you are among the small number of Trump supporters who are not capable of reading well-reasoned criticism without emotionally decompensating, skip this section…)

President Ronald Reagan was described by friend and foe as “the great communicator.” However, he disclaimed that attribute, saying in typical humility, “I wasn’t a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn’t spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation – from our experience, our wisdom and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.”

Unfortunately Donald Trump was unable to comprehend or exhibit an ounce of the humility which earned President Reagan the great communicator accolade.

Trump’s communications proliferated an unmitigated arrogance never before witnessed in a president. He made all things politically divisive all the time, and he was omnipresent — he never gave his social media accounts a much-needed rest. The Democrats and Leftmedia had Trump’s number; they knew how to trigger him, and they mastered it.

Soon after his inauguration, seeing the communication catastrophe around the bend, I wrote, “Memo to POTUS: Stop Swapping Stupid With Jackasses.” The point was that Trump’s endless cycle of inane insults was a significant obstacle to his agenda, and he can be his own worst enemy and was engendering a meteoric rise in those who hated him.

It was as if he thrived on the “Trump Derangement Syndrome” his social media posts triggered. But the result would ultimately prove to be his most prominent “Achilles Heel.”

While many of his supporters rightly reveled in his blistering attacks against Democrats and Leftmedia talkingheads, too often Trump’s relentless attacks drifted into fratricide, which served only to undermine his leadership. He would have benefited from a broader application of President Reagan’s wise counsel — his “Eleventh Commandment” against fratricidal attacks: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

The brashness and brawn that made President Trump an effective bomb dropper dominated his social media bombs and fomented enormous division and hate. With a modicum of self-restraint, he could have gained much more ground with a broader constituency, while still keeping his base fired up. But he never exercised restraint.

As for Trump’s relentless and unmitigated self-aggrandizement, I’m reminded of Aslan’s wise advice to Prince Caspian in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia: “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not.”

But what hurt Trump most was his erratic communications during the course of the ChiCom Virus pandemic this past year. In April I warned, “Mr. President, Don’t Be the Poster Child for CV19 Misery,” but his self-destruction was evident, and the corrupt mainstream media was only too happy to oblige. The media helped Demos hang COVID-19 around Trump’s neck like an albatross.

To that end, a wise friend and a very astute political observer, Cal Thomas, offered this observation: “Last August, Trump was questioned at a White House press briefing about polls showing his popularity was declining. Asked to explain, he responded, ‘Nobody likes me. It can only be my personality. That’s all.’ It was a rare moment of transparency for him.”

Cal continued: “There is still a remnant of old-fashioned values my grandparents’ generation embraced and tried to instill in their descendants. One was not to belittle, demean, talk down to, or call other people names. Trump has consistently ignored that advice. While a large number of Americans still support him and the number who voted for him far outpaced any other Republican presidential candidate, or incumbent president, it wasn’t enough. The reason can only be his personality. Most Americans expect a certain amount of dignity emanating from one who temporarily holds our highest office. Could Trump have achieved all he has without the name-calling? I think so.”

Rarely do I agree with WaPo political analyst Charles Lane, but I agree with every word of this recent assessment: “I was just reminded by how much more his celebrators might have to celebrate if the president had managed to modulate his behavior and behave decently, and speak in a civil tongue even in the face of a lot of criticism — much of which was, inevitably, unfair. He might have been reelected if he had been able to manage his impulses and personality. … Those who are disappointed that he has been defeated ought to consider how much he has been his own worst enemy over the last four years.

If then-President Trump could have mastered a degree of consistency and humility in his ubiquitous communications, I believe he would be in his second presidential term. It was Donald Trump’s election to lose, and he did. He did not lose because of something he did this year, but because of what he did not do over the last four years: listen to wise voices about moderating his caustic and chaotic communications. He would not have lost a single core voter over that moderation, but he did manage to incite a massive groundswell of opposition that cost him — and all of us who have backed him over the last four years — the continuation of his administration’s policies, which have in virtually every area served our whole nation well.

Elections are almost all about personality, 90% the person and 10% the policy. Trump did not understand that his efforts to rally supporters rallied far more adversaries.

First, make two columns

Whether a Democrat or Republican, a Trump supporter or not, take an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and fold it in half length wise. At the top left column, write OBAMA. At the top right column, write TRUMP. Then write the numbers 1 through 15. For each president fill in the numbers with policies YOU believe have helped the American people.

I'll start with Obama.

#1. His race lifted the pride of many black people causing them to vote in unprecedented numbers. I don't discount this--pride, a sense of self worth even if borrowed, is important.

#2. His race lifted the burden of guilt for racism and personal bad behavior from the shoulders of millions of Americans who sighed with relief.

OK. I'm done with that column. There's something to be said for feelings, although as policy, it's pretty weak. And that race thing has certainly come back to bite us as it was fertilizer for BLM, Soviet style reeducation classes in critical race theory and the virus of Woke.

I'm aware that many Democrats would put Obamacare at the top Left, but when you look at the loss of insurance for millions who already had good insurance and liked their doctors/hospitals and then lost them, it wasn't a sound plan. Certainly not for "feelings." Compare those 85% to those 15% uninsured who received very expensive, poor insurance or who had never signed up for one of the government plans already available, In my opinion, it was a very poor and expensive swap. Also the mandate to buy a product or be fined or go to jail was a very bad precedent.

Now for President Trump.

#1 Life. Protection for the unborn, the disabled and the elderly. Although the Democrats responded with powerful penalties against the unborn--like no aid for those born alive if intended for death, even in the 9th month, he supported both with his person at pro-life events and actions the unborn. I'm a one issue voter, so of course, LIFE would be at the top of my list. President Trump was dedicated to advancing policies that protect the fundamental right to life for the unborn, the elderly, and the medically dependent and disabled. Democrats in Congress, who spent 4 years trying to impeach him, saw abortion as pitting the rights of the child against the rights of the mother, and abortion as an act of political courage and charity, to combat poverty and poor health. The President believed Americans were better than that.

#2 Protect and advance lower income Americans were key for the President. Lower taxes and better jobs help the poor far more than one more government program which primarily goes to the middle class bureaucracy. Lowest unemployment rate in my life time. Lower taxes did nothing for those who paid no taxes at all (close to 50%), and for that the Left criticized him. Pelosi called it crumbs. It's hard to give back what the government didn't take.

#3 The border was strengthened with moral, physical, technical and political walls. This directly affected #2.  The flood of illegal immigrants has hurt American workers for decades. This brought attention back to legal immigration, one of our strengths which builds the country. It also brought attention to the "sanctuary city" controversy, where local governments use our tax money to expand their population which enlarges their state representation which hurts the entire country.

I've got more, but I need to go to the store. I'm sure you can think of a few issues specifically important to you. And if you can find anything good about Obama's administration that I missed, please add that.

The Census and critical race theory

Why did the Left oppose a citizenship question on the 2020 census? Why wouldn't the government want to know during enumeration how many are citizens? For over 40 years various interest groups have been artificially dividing us into racial and ethnic groups--they've created victim groups based on the Civil Rights movement and Act of 1964. There's a lot of money involved just for the pickin', and ready made jealousy and finger pointing that can be used for agitation and demanding more.

By emphasizing citizenship (but not ethnic ties), the government tells all people, but especially immigrants and their children, that it is concerned with their relationship not with the land of their ancestors but with the land to which they now belong. But how can you build grievances with such an outlandish idea.

https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/report/eliminating-identity-politics-the-us-census?

The Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations (NAC) was created by Barack Obama in 2012. But not out of whole cloth, it was birthed in the "1960s and 70s, when the census office first began to create National Advisory Committees on race and ethnicity. It was in those heady days of postmodernism’s birth—when Marxism in its academic form was embarking on “the long march through the institutions”. The definitions of ethnic groups were etched into law. Each of the pan-ethnic groups that racial activists and government functionaries were adding to the census and other government surveys at the time (“Hispanics,” “Asians,” “Pacific Islanders,” etc.) were the subjects of a special census committee, starting in 1974. Four decades later, the Obama administration pulled all the difference committees into one giant NAC." We almost got (or maybe it's still in the works) MENA, Middle East and North Africa so yet another group could get a piece of the budget pie and a slice of power.

I suppose you could call it part of Obama's legacy. Suspicion, jealously, bean counting, inventing new words for differences, redistributing wealth based on grievances through special grants and poking "whites" (anything from Swede to Welsh to Spanish to Serbian) in the eye. When you understand how critical race theory academics have helped create identity groupings, you'll be better prepared to understand the distrust and unrest among artificially created groups are being churned today.

https://quillette.com/2018/10/23/inside-the-us-government-agency-where-identity-politics-was-born/?

The Obama legacy

Larry Elder writes, and I agree, that in 2008, Barack Obama "got a higher % of the white vote than did Kerry in '04. Obama won with 52%, but by the time he entered office Obama's ratings stood at 67%. To show his gratitude, Obama spent his presidency and post presidency telling whites how racist they are.‬"

And his legacy of bigotry, racism, division and turmoil lives on in all the major Democrat run cities experiencing rioting, in academe, in churches, in "woke" corporations," in entertainment, and the Democrats in Congress today.