What Distinguishes Trump

Are the wheels about to come off Trump? Stories with specifics are beginning to surface, that in themselves are difficult to ignore, even for Trump supporters. The question we must ask ourselves; Are these stories ‘trumped’ up or is something in the narrative beginning to not ring true?

Admittedly, Trump offers three things that appeal – candor, political incorrectness, and self-claimed transactions insight. The no-nonsense talk is cut-rate but exciting, like reduced wine drunk too fast. It leaves you exhilarated for a bit, then battling a headache. Following the last couple of debates and post-debate interviews, I have noticed Trump hurls insults, then doubles back to correct and retract them.

Trump is right to protest political correctness. He is right on the judgmental and one-sided media. He is right to decry the drag of bureaucracy on politics and markets. But what is he doing – isn’t he just reflecting popular sentiment back to us? Is he not “admiring the problem,” which we all do now and then? Does, just saying “Make America great again,” fix America? If words are not cheap, what would he do? Where are his credentials? Who is he, really? How will he make us “Great Again”? Saying it does not make it so? This writer needs to see a plan and its gateway to or path of execution. Making us “Great Again’ is not a plan it is mere words.

Personally, like others, I like much of what Trump says. I need to see what distinguishes him from Cruz and Rubio. All three would be a step above their democratic rivals. I just want to know which GOP candidate would serve our nation’s best interests. For those who respond, please give me more than a personal dogma based on someone else’s ideology. 

Why not Bernie's Socialism

Why not vote for Bernie Sanders, he’s the man with the plan. The socialist (and to a lesser extent, Hillary), who promises more entitlement, free education, expansive socialized (at-no-cost) medical care, redistribution of your wealth, higher taxes and the all invasive bigger government. Now let me clue those who support collectivism with some gratis tutelage.

In a time where consumers have almost unlimited choices of music, movies, websites and every product you can imagine in the supermarket, socialism is an outdated economic system that no longer fits with the world we live in. Socialism requires the intervention and control of the marketplace by an overwhelmingly powerful centralized government. It penalizes high achievers, rewards laziness and stifles choice.

Socialism is a government regulation that stops you from creating a successful business. It’s the Bureau of Land Management or the EPA making arbitrary decisions about what you can do with your own land. It’s the IRS taking the money you busted your butt to earn and giving it to people who didn’t work as hard as you did.

Almost every socialist policy requires taking resources from someone who’s earned them and giving them to someone who hasn’t. Even programs that are supposed to be self-funding rarely are because the nectar is never quite worth the squeeze. The real reason we’re so deeply in debt is because if the middle class was forced to choose between paying for what our government is spending or dramatically cutting back, our government would already be much smaller than it is – and no wonder.

What does our government do well anymore? Do you trust the IRS? FEMA? Are our borders secure? How does the customer service of the post office or DMV compare to, let’s say USAA, Apple or Amazon? Who wants to live in government housing? Who wants a minimum wage job? Who wants to answer to bureaucrats, jump through their hoops and do as he’s told by people who see him as a nameless, faceless slob dependent upon them for his livelihood?

This is what socialism offers. Socialism will take something from someone else who earned it and give it to you and in return, you will do what socialists want you to do. If you’re irresponsible, lazy, have a habit of making poor decisions or just need a master, this can seem like a good deal. You can work a menial job and get paid more than you are worth! You can go to college and you don’t have to pay for it! Someone else will give you a place to live, food stamps, welfare and health care! In return, you just have to give up on your pride, your dreams and control of your own life.

We are Spectators to Events in Development Part 5 of 5

Have we not been told by the present administration that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace? The fact is that the extremists rule Islam, both now and in history past. Is it not the extremists who march? Is it not the extremists who produce wars? Is it not the extremists who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave? Are these not the extremists who plant bombs, decapitate, murder, rape, enslave and pillage, all in the name of Islam? Is it not the extremists who take over mosque after mosque?

It is the Muslim extremists who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. Is it not the Muslim extremists who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers? The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority' is cowed and by and large, imperceptible. The lessons of history are often incredibly simple and blunt frequency. However, despite all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and simple points: The peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. The peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if not pronounced, because like the typical Deutsch citizen in WW II Nazi Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the extremists own them, and the end of their world will have begun. The Germans, who love peace, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not rule until it was too late.

As for us, we are spectators to events in development, we must pay attention to the only group that counts: Muslim extremists who threaten our way of life. Finally, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. Since early 2014 there have been more than 113 arrests (and counting) of Muslims implicated in terrorist activity on U.S. soil and the Obama administration refuses to provide an immigration history on any of them. Most of the cases have received little or no coverage in the national media.

America and The West had Better Wake-up Part 4 of 5

According to research data, last year there were 452 suicide terror attacks across the world. Four hundred and fifty of them were committed by Muslims. In early December, Muslims pledging allegiance to ISIS murdered 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Over the past couple of months thousands of Muslims around Europe, particularly Germany and Sweden but not exclusively, sexually assaulted hundreds of young women on New Year's Eve. Just a few days ago, a Muslim man shot a Philadelphia cop at arm’s length and declared that he did it in the name of Islam.

In response, Hillary Clinton declared, "Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with Islam." She further stated that "white terrorism and extremism" are just as much a threat to Americans as ISIS and radical Islam, and then proceeded to blame "gun violence." My question to you, the reader, is Hillary brain dead or just half-baked?

Presumably, some people who don't make America great include Syrian Christian refugees, who have largely been excluded from the United States by the Obama administration (makes one question Obama's ideology). Simultaneously, ISIS happily continues to exploit the “Radical Islam Denial Syndrome” of the West’s liberal left. Purportedly, ISIS has been planning a "sophisticated" smuggling operation to move people across the border into Turkey, from where refugees then enter the West. Out of gratitude to Turkey, ISIS does what they do best. They kill and maim people. In this case they bit the hand that fed them. They murdered ten German tourists.

The West, to include America is far too powerful to lose to ISIS or radical Islam -- unless the West decides to pretend that radical Islam doesn't exist. In typical pathological manner that is just what most of the West’s leaders, to include Barack and Hillary have ostensibly decided to do.

Little Red Hen Twist

LITTLE RED HEN -- Who would have ever thought that The Barnyard story could be told so well??

"Who will help me plant my wheat?" asked the little red hen. "Not I," said the cow.  "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the pig.  "Not I," said the goose."  "Then I will do it by myself."

She planted her crop and the wheat grew and ripened.  "Who will help me reap my wheat?" asked the little red hen.  "Not I," said the duck.  "Out of my classification," said the pig.  "I'd lose my seniority," said the cow.  "I'd lose my unemployment compensation," said the goose.  "Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen, and so she did.

"Who will help me bake the bread?" asked the little red hen.  "That would be overtime for me," said the cow.  "I'd lose my welfare benefits," said the duck.  "I'm a dropout and never learned how," said the pig.  "If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination," said the goose."  "Then I will do it by myself," said the little red hen. 

She baked five loaves and the wonderful aroma filled the land, all of her neighbors couldn't help but enjoy the fragrance. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share but the little red hen Said "No, I have worked hard on all five loaves, and I will freeze what I don't eat."

"Excess profits!" cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi) "Capitalist leech!" screamed the duck. (Bernie Sanders) "I demand equal rights!" yelled the goose. ('Lil' Al Sharpton) The pig just grunted in disdain. (Harry Reid)

And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities. Then the farmer (Obama) came.  He said to the little red hen, "You must not be so greedy." "But I worked and earned the bread," said the little red hen.

"Exactly," said Barack the farmer. "That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful.  Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants.  But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are not working and idle."

And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, "I am grateful, for now I truly understand."  But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her since she never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free.  'Fairness' had been stablished.  Individual initiative had died but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared, so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.

EPILOGUE

Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs. Hillary got $8 million for hers. That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything...and one is now running for President!!! And she still can't remember anything.

IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?

The Mosque has An "All American Story." Really! Part 3 of 5

Does it not appear that President Obama is taking the old adage "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" to a whole new level?  This being the case, we might as well get to know our neighbors. 

Last week, the president made a highly revealed and aired visit to the Islamic Society of Baltimore. This particular American mosque has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and purportedly other Muslim fringe groups. The mosque, according to Obama, has "an All-American story." This statement raises a question. Which story is the President telling? A story of all religions being equal? Obama said "Think of your own church or synagogue or temple… And mosques like this will be very familiar. This is where families come to worship and express their love for God and for each other." Has not this particular mosque been a prejudiced place of worship? Has it not been a hot spot for radical rumination? 

For some time, I have questioned whether this administration was standing idle while terrorism was being manufactured in radical American mosques (for that matter, prisons also). Because the situation is growing worse, I no longer see the Obama administration just standing idle, I now see it standing by radical American mosques, and doing so under the auspices of religious freedom and goodwill.

Is it a secret that those who will lead the next attack on America have grown up and gone to school here? Has not FBI reports and eyewitness accounts made it clear that a large number of the mosques in the United States urge their congregations to wage jihad against the infidels and impose Sharia Law first on all Muslims and then on all Americans?  

Sharia Law is not only vicious - justifying murder, the oppression of women, and the annihilation of other religions - but it's also incompatible with the U.S. Constitution. Can one be a strict adherent of Sharia Law and still swear an oath to our Constitution? Yet, we allow Sharia to be advanced on a daily basis in hundreds of mosques across America. 

Redical Islam is a Threat Part 2 of 5

Let's be clear, in alerting American and other nation’s citizens on the threat from radical Islam, I am and we can together accomplish what our government and it's leaders are refusing to do. While they have their heads in the sand or up their posterior and remain ignorant, willfully or otherwise, of the grave threat that our nation, other Western nations and the world faces, we as a society must speak out. I will speak out all over the blogosphere, periodically informing citizens of the dangers of acquiescing to political correctness as it pertains to radical Islam and its method of conversion to its brand of Islam. To forewarn a populous is to arm its citizens with the knowledge they must have to counter the miscreants, social deviants, sociopaths and psychopaths of a wayward and evil order of Islam. 

What Islam is and What it is Not Part 1 of 5

One only has to possess an historical mindset to understand Islam. From the beginning our nation’s founders knew that Islam was not a religion of peace. Why, because it reigned over the citizenry by the sword. In the past wherever Islam was dominating, you had conflict and fighting. At present, all one has to do is look at the Islamic nations around the Mediterranean, Africa, and elsewhere to see if they are nations of peace. It's not a religion of peace. And our forefathers recognized that. If they recognized it, why cannot Western leaders? Why cannot Obama? Why does Obama talk about how Islam is a religion of peace? Why does he attempt to portray Islam as a major part of American history? If Islam is so good why are so many Muslims seeking asylum or migrating to non-Muslim nations? If I were residing in a country whose government desires to take them in, I would seek assurances from the government that all immigrants be thoroughly vetted and they agree to assimilate into the host nations culture, learn their language and follow their established laws. In essence they must be willing to adapt. The reason for adaptation/caution is two-fold. first, Islam is not everyone's religion, therefore Muslims must co-exist with others of differing faith/beliefs. Second, both recent and past history tells this writer that adaptability is not Islam's strength but it's weakness. Note; this is not an indictment against all Muslims. Many do contribute to the betterment of a given society. The religion itself does not always get along with others. Buyers beware! 

<https://www.youtube.com/embed/tJnW8HRHLLw?feature=player_embedded%3E;

The Letter, the Warning and My Thoughts

Ronald Reagan once said, "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." Now if only our Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches would act on what President Reagan said.

Have you received a letter titled "Isn't It Strange?" The letter is again making the rounds in social media circles. It asks questions to which our fellow Americans should know the answers, save for those caught up in modernity. It starts off asking, "Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, his upbringing, his environment, his culture but ... after a shooting, the problem is the gun?" My take on this requires little discernment and even less logic. In other words, after a shooting, it is the gun, an inanimate object, that is the culprit, but after a bombing, it is not the bomb that receives the blame but the evil individual. In both cases it is not the evil individual who is to blame? I would like to ask America's anti-Second Amendment extremists what accounts for today's mayhem: Have guns become more evil or have people become more evil?

Later on in the same letter (admittedly, I have authored similar views in past script postings), there is a statement asking us to rename government programs, saying, "Get it straight: Welfare, Food Stamps, WIC ... are not entitlements. They are taxpayer-funded handouts, and shouldn't be called entitlements. Social Security and Veterans Benefits are 'Entitlements' because the people receiving them are entitled to them. They were earned and paid for by the recipients...no society ever thrived because it had a large and growing class of parasites living off those who produced."

If one listens to the current debate and rhetoric of most politicians, both Democrats and to a smaller extent Republicans, it is about expanding the class of Americans who live at the expense of other Americans, whether they are promising "free" education and medical care or forcing Americans to purchase products such as ethanol in order to enrich others.

Toward the letter's end there is a statement that rings true and beyond debate: "I vote Democratic, because I'm pro-choice ... except on schools, guns, trade, health care, energy, smoking, union membership, light bulbs, plastic containers, health insurance coverage, what kinds of food you can eat.”

Being one who keeps track of citations, allow me to quote John Wayne, particularly for my peers, political representatives and my friends within academia; "I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living." I think John Wayne hit the nail on the head.

Open Doors Weakens National Security

Were you as astonished as I that the Obama administration is ordering Border Patrol agents to release illegal immigrants without making them appear in court or keeping track of their whereabouts, and it’s also noticeably rolling back aerial surveillance along the southern border, leading a senior congressman, as well as some others like me, to suggest that American citizens are being deceived by its commander in chief. Sadder still, is the people of the United States don’t recognize that they’re being deceived by their own president and also betrayed by those people in the Congress and the Senate who have been going along with this amnesty program.

Is not our president supposed to be watching out for the people of the United States? Evidentially, our president has decided that he will not do so. The Democratic Party needs to be held accountable for this. And the people in the Republican Party that have been going along with this open-borders, amnesty approach to immigration deserve to be held accountable as well.

To this writer, President Obama has done so many things that are contrary to the interests of the safety and security and prosperity of the people of the United States that this is no surprise, especially in dealing with foreign entities, whether it’s Muslims overseas or whether it’s illegal immigrants coming in here from various countries. Is it not disconcerting that Obama’s open-door policy could further weaken national security and extend the tax payers economic woes? Do you think the radical Islamist terrorists that have declared war on America have not taken notice of the open or revolving door?

Is There a Warped Image of Islam

I agree with the sentiments voiced by Franklin Graham. The media is making a lot of noise about President Obama visiting a mosque in an attempt to recast what he said was “a warped image of Islam.” The foundations of this nation have nothing to do with Islam, but everything to do with the Church of Jesus Christ. Islam cannot save anyone from Hell or open the gates of Heaven. Only One can do that—Jesus Christ, the Son of God who paid the debt of sin for all mankind by giving His life as a sacrifice on Calvary’s cross where He suffered and died for our sins, took our sins to the grave, and on the third day God raised Him triumphantly to life. He’s alive today. Is Muhammad not dead? I worship a risen Lord! Can Islam compete with that? This being the case, is Islam not a gateway to hell? To say otherwise is to deny the Word of God and what is written therein.

The Immortal Four

Feb. 3 is “Four Chaplains Day” in America by the unanimous resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1988 – so Americans might remember, honor and be inspired by the example of the four military chaplains who sacrificed their lives in World War II “so that others might live.” On Feb. 3, 2016, the 73rd anniversary of their deaths, American veterans’ organizations all across the country held annual ceremonies honoring “The Immortal Four Chaplains.”

But will Americans generally honor and remember the Four Chaplains? Will the example of their lives be taught to our American children in their schools? Do most Americans, especially new Americans, the young and immigrants, even know who the Four Chaplains are and what they did?

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” instructs St. John in the Bible. The Immortal Four Chaplains lived and embodied that truth: On Feb. 3, 1943, the Dorchester, a converted luxury cruise ship, was transporting Army troops to Greenland in World War II, escorted by three Coast Guard cutters and accompanied by two slow-moving freighters. On board were some 900 troops and four chaplains, of diverse religions and backgrounds but of a common faith and commitment to serve God, country and all the troops, regardless of their religious beliefs, or non-belief.

The Four Chaplains are: Rev. George Fox (Methodist); Father John Washington (Roman Catholic); Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode; and Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed).

At approximately 12:55 a.m., in the dead of a freezing night, the Dorchester was hit by a torpedo fired by German U-boat. The blast ripped a hole in the ship from below the waterline to the top deck. The engine room was instantly flooded. Crewmen not scalded to death by steam escaping from broken pipes and the ship’s boiler drowned. Hundreds of troops in the flooded lower compartments drowned, or washed out to the frigid waters, where most would die.

In less than a minute, the Dorchester listed on a 30-degree angle. Troops on deck searched for life jackets in panic, clung to rails and other handholds, saw overloaded lifeboats overturn in the turgid water, or leaped overboard as a last desperate hope for life. Many with life jackets drowned when the life preservers became water-logged. Of the 900 troops and crew on board, two-thirds would ultimately die. Most of those who survived had lifelong infirmities and pain from their time in the icy waters.

Dorchester survivors told of the wild pandemonium on board when it was hit and began sinking. Many men had not slept in their clothes and life vests as ordered because of the heat in the crowded quarters below. There was panic, fear, terror – death was no abstraction but real, immediate, seemingly inescapable. The Four Chaplains acted together to try bring some order to the chaos, to calm the panic of the troops, to alleviate their fear and terror, to pray with and for them, to help save their lives and souls. The chaplains passed out life jackets, helping those too panicked to put them on correctly, until the awful moment arrived when there were no more life jackets to be given out. It was then that one of the most remarkable acts of heroism, courage, faith and love in American, and human, history took place:

Each of the Four Chaplains took off his life jacket and, knowing that act made death certain, put his life jacket on a soldier who didn’t have one, refusing to listen to any protest that they should not make such a sacrifice. They continued to help the troops until the last moment. Then, as the ship sank into the raging sea, the Four Chaplains linked hands and arms and could be seen and heard by the survivors praying together, even singing hymns, joined together in faith, love and unity as they sacrificed their lives so “that others might live.” The few survivors testified to the selfless act of the Four Chaplains.

Congress awarded the Four Chaplains an unprecedented “Congressional Medal of Valor” in 1961. Earlier, in 1944, they were awarded Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross. They did not receive the Medal of Honor because of restrictions limiting that medal to combatants. Veterans organizations have called on Congress to make an exception and award the Medal of Honor to the Four Chaplains.

At the dedication of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1951, then-President Harry Truman said their sacrifice reflected the fact that “the unity of our country is a unity under God...“This interfaith shrine … will stand through long generations to teach Americans that as men can die heroically as brothers, so should they live together in mutual faith and good will.”

My Friend Bob's Good Idea

Let me tell my readers about a friend of mine, whose name is Bob Duke. Some refer to Bob as a golfer, fisherman, flag-waving retired Army Master Sergeant and all around good guy. He is certainly all that and much more. I am here to expound on that “much more.”

Bob is a patriot, who talks the talk and walks the walk. A few years back Bob Duke started thinking about ways he could help Wounded Warriors. Not being a man of fiscal wealth he sought out ways he could assist those veterans who had suffered some debilitating injuries while in the service of their nation. His first thought was not, how to establishing yet another warrior type benevolence organization but utilizing one that already existed. He chose to assist the Wounded Warrior project. According to Bob that decision was relatively easy. The hard part was deciding the route to traverse in order to raise funds for our Wounded Warriors. While retrieving errant golf balls from the woods and yards that border the fairways and recalling his wife telling him to get rid of the six thousand golf balls he had accumulated over the years, an idea was born. Why not collect golf balls, errant, hoarded or otherwise, spruce them up and market them as a “Golf Balls as Gifts” to other golfers? By doing this you have a gift for both golfers and warriors. Being the renown handicapper and hacker he is, Bob recognized that contributions from any foursome or local golf tournament winnings alone would probably not serve the purpose he most desired. He wanted to raise a lot of money for Wounded Warriors not a little bit. Did I also mention Bob is smart?

To make a long story short, Bob began collecting golf balls, refurbishing them and “gifting” them for a mere donation to Wounded Warriors. Golfers residing in the community were enthusiastically supportive of the endeavor and began contributing additional golf balls and donating to the cause by purchasing refurbished ones. Within months, word spread to other golfing communities along the Wilmington-Myrtle Beach corridor and donations began to climb. So much so, that Bob’s storage and work area had to be moved from his man-cave to his garage.  And I mean the entire garage, from top to bottom.

How successful has Bob’s “Golf Balls as Gifts” been? Since its inception in December 2011, he, with the help of other handicappers and or hackers have raised in excess of $97,000.00 for America’s Wounded Warriors. Was this not a good idea? Was this not a worthy cause? Is Bob not worthy of the label Patriot, all-around-good-guy and “much more”? The answers are obviously, yes.