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Doug Smith: Shared power and dealing with the Democrats

13 Dec

doug-for-fsp

Doug Smith:  Author, historian, patriot and lead contributor to FSP.

 

“When you’re in command, Command!”

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz

 

This idea is trotted out from time to time by the Democrats when they are out of power.

Remember 2000?  We had a Republican President, and a 50-50 split in the Senate. Now our Constitution provides for such an arrangement: the (White) House wins all ties. (Just like in blackjack). The Vice President is President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and may, at need, vote to break all ties. This means, 50 plus the White House is a majority. But the Democrats in 2000 made the point that such a close house should mean a sharing of power, a sharing of committee assignments and heads. The Republicans, more fools they, agreed and began an odd and short lived experiment in such shared government. It lived until the Harry Reid was able to convince Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords to become an Independent, and vote with the Dems) which made it 51 49.

(But wait, what about our shared Senate agreement, Harry? moaned the GOP.  And, laughing with maniacal glee, Harry Reid took over as Senate MAJORITY leader. )

Fast forward 16 years. Donald Trump is POTUS presumptive. (Actually President Elect after the 19th when the Electoral College meets.) The GOP is poised to take massive majorities of power: State Houses, Governors, The Senate, The House, POTUS, the Scalia SCOTUS seat, ( and, Kennedy, Ginsberg, and Breyer all being of advanced years, likely at least one more, maybe 2, so we may have a 7-3 Conservative Court in 4 years.) But the Dems are urging him, since he only won the Presidency, and not the nonexistent popularity contest of the most raw votes, which neither he, nor HRC, nor Obama, nor Bush, nor Billy, nor Algore, nor any other President has ever competed in, because, listen carefully: “Popular vote is not how we elect a President. “Not to govern like he has a mandate, but bashfully, like he just barely one. Perhaps he should share power with the world class losers of the Democrat party.

Have you seen Donald Trump? I think we can be sure of one thing: he is NOT going to be a bashful President. Whether due to the wisdom of others ( like BOTH President Bushes, who found, to their dismay, that making a deal with the Dems is like making a deal with the Devil, all except for the smoke and signing in blood), or due to his own nature, is not going to act like someone who just barely won.  He is not going to ask Hillary to be Secretary of State again, because she just barely lost.  He is going to say, I won, and the folks have spoken, and I’m going to do things the way I want to. He may make mistakes, and he may screw up. He will not do so out of wishy-washy, weak willed, spineless indecision (al la Jimmy Carter.) He is going to lead!

Now the Dems, who have given us riots and, the murders in failed cities, the failed economies, identity politics, the snowflake generation of Harvard and Wellesley grads with Degrees in Thinking Deep Thoughts, who can nevertheless not balance their checkbooks, pass the DC bar exam, or run a lunch counter, seem not to have the ability to convince folks that their way is the best way. Yes, we are all puzzled at that little quirk.  They are at their weakest point politically since Woodrow Wilson was POTUS, at the beginning of the Progressive era. What a repudiation of the ruins those make up the progressive movement. They have just been set back a century! And they are looking at an administration that unabashedly intends to unwind as much of their destructive nonsense as possible, as quickly as possible.   They have lost, in favor of falling on their swords for the Clintons, and Obama, and the march to the Left of admirers of the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro, thousands of political seats. West Virginia and Kentucky, of all places, have GOP legislatures. KY has a GOP governor, and WV has a Dem Governor elect, who happens to be a businessman. The last one we had like that was Joe Manchin, who governed more like a Republican. I suspect Justice will not be the traditional good ole boy Dem WV has been used to.

It is little wonder the progressives are in a hysterical tizzy. Death threats! We couldn’t win in an election, we couldn’t win with recounts, we couldn’t get the courts to throw out the election, so, in typical progressive fashion, and they are using the tried and true mob rule approach: threaten duly elected electors if they don’t break the law and disenfranchise the voters who chose Donald Trump. Curious, how often the progressives want mob rule, right up till a mob comes for them, at which point they become staunch law and order people.

No, Trump and the GOP won. The GOP has not been used to winning, and even when they won, quickly acted embarrassed at the fact, and backed off governing like winners. They compromised with the folks to the left, who would only compromise when they were out of power.  They caved in so their adversaries would call them nice guys, which they only did when they lost. They did not understand the use and exercise of power.

Now, enter Donald Trump. He has known failure, and had to endure businesses bankrupting. He has known success, and parlayed a successful business into a billion dollar Empire. When you have built Stark Tower, Iron Man is not likely to be a shrinking violet. No, I don t expect President Trump will emulate the (Progressive Democrat) Mayor of Baltimore and “give the rioters room to burn and destroy. “  I’m pretty sure the professional rioters know that as well.

So, our new and unlikely team of Avengers, ( Say, Stan, is it ok if I make a Marvel reference here, since you are getting the traditional Stan Lee cameo?) may just learn to fight like they won, flex their muscles like they have some, and take a real, no nonsense look around and conclude: Dang. These guys have really screwed things up. No, thanks but I don t think we will be asking for your help. We have been to Chicago, and Detroit, and San Francisco. We have seen what affordable means in your lexicon. We have seen how you approach National Security. We have seen what passes as the best economy we can hope for in your eyes. So, no, we will not be sharing power. We will not be asking for your input, since we have the ruins of 8 years of that to clean up. We will not need your ideas, since we know what those are. So, apparently, do a lot of other people, and since they just yelled a resounding ENOUGH! why so will we.

So you folks go find yourselves a nice safe place, free from microagressions, or harsh words, or real people.

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz had another quote which I admire, and will, I think, characterize the Trump years.

Leadership consists of picking good men and helping them do their best.

That he is working on now.

Let us hope he combines that with the Shepherd’s Prayer. Alan Shepherd, while perched on top of his Mercury Space capsule , ready to become the 1st American in space, pleaded into a hot mike, Dear Lord, please don’t let me “expletive” this up.

Amen.

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Doug Smith: “A Day which will live in infamy”

7 Dec

doug-for-fsp

Doug Smith:  Author, historian, lead contributor to FSP and a Navy Chief Electronics Technician Submarine Qualified.

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75 years ago, right now, it was a Saturday evening, in early December. It is 14 years before my birth. An idyllic American outpost crammed with sailors is enjoying their liberty with little drinks full of fruit, pretty Hawaiian girls, and a pleasant tropical sunset. Aboard the USS Oklahoma, and USS West Virginia, and USS Arizona, the duty section was on watch, grumbling no doubt, about having the duty on such a promising night. But at least, they would get relieved in the morning and hit the beach Sunday, December 7, 1941.

Except, of course, they never would be relieved. Many of them would go ashore, later, burned, disfigured, torn to pieces, and gently carried by their shipmates to rest covered by American Flags in a temporary morgue. Many more would begin the painful journey of recovering from battle wounds. Yet for many, their final journey had begun when they took the duty Saturday morning, December 6, 1941. The last day of peace. And for sailors aboard Arizona and Oklahoma, their last day of life.

While most of America slept, a tiger crept toward their beds. Thousands of sailors kept watch; unwarned, unprotected, unready for what few knew, but most disbelieved, was about to happen. American sailors stood watch to keep their homes and loved ones safe, not knowing the hammer blow was about to fall on them. Halsey’s carriers patrolled and watched, but in the wrong direction.

Hundreds of miles to the Northeast, the Japanese carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Zuikaku, and Shokaku positioned themselves for a predawn attack against our sleeping Navy.

24 hours from now, over 2000 would be dead. Arizona would take her place on the bottom of the harbor, blown 20 feet in the air and sinking in just 9 minutes. There she remains to this day. Oklahoma would capsize, trapping sailors who would die off one by one over the next days and weeks. America would be drawn into a war that would leave half a million Americans dead before it ended, and 10s of millions worldwide.

The world would suffer, bleed, and burn for 4 more years.

But it began with a sneak attack. And it began with American sailors shot, burned, blown up, drowned.

33 years later, on Dec 7, 1974, I would be an American sailor. Those images, and these words: Never forget, were drummed into me.

I never will. I took it personally, what was done to my brothers. I still do. I take any attack on Americans, but in particular on American sailors, very personally.

They were and are my brothers. They will never forget. Nor will I.

Watch. Be alert. Be prepared. Be strong. Those are the lessons of that awful, awful morning 75 years ago.

Get over it? I don’t think so.

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Doug Smith: Obama, “Elections have consequences.” Now, it’s up to the GOP to provide one for Obamacare!

27 Nov

doug-for-fsp

Doug Smith:  Author, historian, patriot and lead contributor to FSP.

 

What a chuckle!

Have you listened to the pundits, press, Democrats, and most especially Obama offering sage advice to Trump and the (GOP majority) Congress on how tough it might be to repeal Obamacare?  And what a political price they might pay for doing so? And how they cannot just repeal it, they MUST have a viable replacement.

Well, just for fun, while I am busy laughing at the pundits, press, Democrats, and Obama, all of whom were so wrong about all of 2016 s politics, let’s examine those claims.

 

  1. In 2008, the Democrat Majority Congress pushed bills through without any input from the GOP at all. When it came down to it, and even with their majorities, the death of Ted Kennedy left the final vote to overcome a filibuster, Massachusetts, (Massachusetts!) elected Scott Brown, a Republican to succeed a Kennedy in Mass., solely on his promise to be the vote that killed Obamacare.
  2. When it became obvious the majority of Americans did not want the bill passed after that loss, the Democrats resorted to a fast one: approving a Senate version not yet reconciled with the House, and therefore not constitutionally sound, as all bills involving spending must originate in the House. No matter, in order to get something the Senate had voted for, Harry Reid took a non-related bill, and cut and pasted the entire text of the bill into it, even though that had never been approved by both houses, and sent it to Obama.  Obama, desperate to pass anything, signed it.
  3. Think the loss of the “Kennedy” seat was bad? Since the passage of Obamacare, the Democrats have lost 13 Senate seats (and control of the Senate), 69 House seats (and control of the House) 12 Governors, 900 state legislative seats (leaving them with only 5 states under Democrat control.) Indeed, in my own state of WV, we have a GOP controlled legislature for the 1st time in 80 years, and in my neighboring state of KY, the GOP controls all three for the first time since Harding (R) was President.
  4. Obamacare, despite some who are fans because they benefitted from it, has remained overwhelmingly the most unpopular law in US history; never enjoying majority support. Most Democrats refuse to run for office on its merits, and Republicans do well running on a promise to repeal it. (More on that below.)
  5. Obamacare mandates by law that everyone sign up, but cannot even yet, after 6 years, meet its enrollment goals.
  6. Has broken promise after promise, keep your Doctor, keep your plan, lower your premiums,
  7. Obamacare has cost jobs and hurt business competitiveness in the most anemic “recovery” in US history. Medical device manufacturers were hit with an extra tax just to help pay for it, which cost jobs. Employers who saw the trip points which would make them participate avoided expansion and did not hire people they otherwise would have.  Many saw their jobs become part time because the alternative to 39 hour employees was to go broke and have no employees.
  8. Now, as to the Grand Old Party, after 6 years of promise after promise to “repeal it, root and branch, “followed time after time by caving when they had the leverage, the passing “sure to be vetoed” bills which were rendered meaningless, and without risk, they saw the result in 2015 in the person of Donald Trump. (Ted Cruz could be included in that revolt against the status quo and the lies and broken promises of the GOP leadership with respect to Obama, but Trump won, so he makes the point)

 

So, let me see. The political cost of supporting Obama and Obamacare has been a decimated Democrat party, reduced to a powerlessness not seen since the Roaring Twenties.

The political cost of waffling on fighting Obamacare has been the Tea Party, anti-establishment insurrection within the GOP.  Ask John Boehner and Eric Cantor if that mattered.

The cost to Donald Trump of opposing Obama s agenda, including Obamacare, which he promised to repeal, was being elected President.

All things considered, if I am President Trump and the GOP, I must say, along with Brer Rabbit, “Throw me in that briar patch!”

Repeal it! On day one, and pay the cost. The record of the last 6 years suggests that “price” will be veto proof majorities in both houses of Congress in 2019.

As for the ridiculous claim that because the Democrats unilaterally, and against the will of the electorate, forced through Obamacare, it is incumbent on the GOP to come up with an alternative plan before they can repeal it, nonsense!

As Dr. Ben Carson noted “”Everything that these programs were supposed to fix has gotten worse,”.  If a vandal breaks your window, you don’t have to get a replacement window before you patch the hole with plastic or plywood or whatever you have at hand.

The Dems and Obama were in such a hurry to achieve their decades long dream of controlling healthcare that they rammed the most flawed bill in history through to law. There may have been gaps in the greatest healthcare system in the world in 2008, and improvements that could be made. But the Premier of Newfoundland, Canada, (with socialized medicine) did not fly to Cuba (with socialized medicine that Obama touts as an example) to get heart surgery.

As Premier Danny Williams said ““I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”  So, he flew to Mt. Sinai in Miami, to be treated on his own dime, by an American cardiac surgeon.

Well, he said a mouthful, didn’t he?

Obama and crew broke it, big time. We don’t have to go back and fix what was wrong then before we clean up the mess that they made.

Repeal the turkey.

Then take an unrushed, and less secretive and coerced look at what improvements can be made. Then watch things get better as markets take over; employment improves, and work on fixing what is broken, not scrapping everything in a system 90% excellent in a vain quest for that final 10%.

But, just as it was rammed down our throats, forget the filibuster, unless you have Joe Manchin and a bevy of Dems who are not anxious to be the next to fall on the Obama/Clinton sword.

They rammed it through on budget reconciliation, with a simple majority, and told us to like it, it was law. They told us we would like it once we knew what was in it.

They were wrong. We know it. And we don’t like it. It has been a huge budget buster.

So, reconcile it out of existence, and tell them to learn to like it.

Or tell them elections have consequences, we won, deal with it.

 

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Doug Smith: So, what now? How about stopping the crying and figuring it out?

18 Nov

doug-for-fsp

Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to FSP

 

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There is a French song called “What Now My Love” which became a jazz standard in the US.

It goes like this:

“What now my love, now that you’ve left me? How can I live through another day? What now my love, now that you’ve left me? How can I live through another day? Watching my dreams turning to ashes

 And all of my hopes into bits of clay

  Once I could see, once I could feel Now I am numb, I’ve become unreal I walked the night, without a goal Stripped of my heart, my heart and my soul

 What now my love? Now that it’s over I feel the world closing in on me Here come the stars, falling around me Here’s the sky where the sea should be

What now my love? Now that you’re gone I’d be a fool to go on and on and on No one would care, nobody would cry If I should live or even if I should die

What now my love? Now that it’s over Nothing is left, my last goodbye My last goodbye”

This is apparently the theme song of what’s left of the Democrat Party and the Hillary campaign. So, I have an answer for their question “What Now?” The time to voice an opinion about what the candidate says or proposes ended on Nov 8. Then, we voice our opinion in the way that counts, the way our Constitution provides – we vote.

We vote. Because half a million men died, and many more took great risks, black folks and even, gracious sakes, women, can register their opinion by exercising that precious franchise.

That is a good thing . We exercise the rights of citizens of a constitutional republic. And the choice is made, and we deal with it. The time to say vocally ” I don’t want X as President ended on Nov 8. ” This is the United States. We do not change governments based on shrieking crowds. We use the ballot. Those of us who rejected Barack Obama had to accept that he won.

Now the time to criticize what he did was once he did it. Thus the results of his actions and policies caused the decimation of the Democrat Party, which has lost 900 offices nationwide between 2010 and now. They have lost the Congress, the White House, 33 Governors, and only hold full control of 5 states.

So America has spoken loudly its rejection of progressive policy, and the face, and certainly the mouth of that rejection is Donald Trump.

So what now?

When he does something to object to, and you disagree, by all means object. But for now, his positions beat those of Obama and Hillary.

Rather than shriek, weep, moan, and skip work ( well hardly, working folks, by and large, go to work disappointed if they lose, but work anyway) or class, it might be time to consider, why did we lose, so much, so often, and again.

To keep doing the same thing and expect a different result is the definition of insanity.

The politics of emotion is very loud. The politics of reason is quieter but sound. The greatest politics is the politics of interest. The coalition of fringe interests has been very loud. The interests of kitchen table issues and personal safety were much quieter.

Until Nov 8.

What now?

Learn that there are no participation awards. There are winners and losers.

For 8 years, the winners were elitists.

The losers were the folks trying to make a living and raise kids. And the Democrat party.

What now? Stop crying. Pull up your big boy pants and find out why!

Those of you who know my politics and sentiments may be shocked at this, but Bill Clinton was right.

It’s the economy, stupid.

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Doug Smith: The Long National Nightmare of the Clintons

3 Nov

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Doug Smith:  Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

 

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There are things in politics which I can understand, even while disagreeing. For instance, I understand that liberals have a certain world view which involved bigger, more intrusive government than conservatives like me. So it follows logically that my friends on the left will prefer more liberal politicians than I will.

What I can never get my arms around is who they choose, and the unending, cult-like love affair with the Clintons. I recall that the Senate and House GOP leaders went to Nixon when it became obvious that Watergate was not going away and said “ Mr. President, it’s time for you to go. “ And Nixon went.

I also recall the Democrats of Capitol Hill holding hands, singing Kum By Ya and professing their belief in Bill Clinton’s veracity. Before he had to admit he lied. The list of Democrats who have fallen on their swords, (figuratively, let’s not go into   the dozens who have committed suicide under questionable circumstances) is impressive. In medieval times it was more common for knights to ride into mortal danger to protect the king. For the last 30 years, everyone knows the only thing worse than being an enemy of Bill is being a friend of Bill who becomes inconvenient.

Time and again, Democrats and Liberals have found themselves defending the indefensible, all for the sake of keeping William J and Hillary R Clinton in the clover and out of the slammer. We are faced with the hilarious spectacle of avowed feminists reacting to one of his serial abuses of women by saying “ If he gets elected, I d ( perform oral sex on him). “, or POTUS being asked, and answering , what kind of underwear he wears.

Dems cheerfully tramp into the sewers of our culture, ignoring the infiltration of sex acts into middle schools because “ President Clinton said its not really sex”, the smearing of women, the unending , nauseating stream of sleaze, perversion, and corruption flowing from the nation’s First Couple of the Gutter.

Even now, with thunderous echoes of corruption and bribery that threatens the security of the nation, the reemergence of Bill and the Bimbos, the political whoring, (although, at a million or more a pop, you gotta give them points for something, brass?) , the deals which directly sold US energy and weapons capabilities to Russia and Putin, where is the principled Democrat to say “ Madam Secretary, it’s time for you to go, and for God’s sake, take Bubba with you?”

Nowhere, it seems.

So, once again, I understand that liberals want liberals. I fail to understand why anybody wants Hillary Clinton. Their arguments for her are specious at best. Unable to defend her actions, they resort to the weakest of arguments:

Everyone does it.

It s not a big deal.

It s just because she s a Democrat.

It s just because she s a woman.

Nonsense. Reagan and Bush 43 would find fault with those arguments. As would Cap Weinberger, Scooter Libby, Tom DeLay, Rick Perry, Scott Walker. All men. All Republicans. All charged with crimes, called Hitler, ultimately exonerated, but damaged politically by the process. In none of those cases were there actual crimes involved, as in Hillary and crew.

Hillary and Bill Clinton are uniquely and disturbingly corrupt, greedy, and ruthless. Any Republican, and frankly most Democrats, would have faded from public view decades ago, either from shame, or by force from the Party leadership.

Billery, however, are utterly without shame, and they have the unique ability to control or coerce the Democrat party to the point where there is no scandal, no immorality, no corruption, no crime that they are not willing to swallow to defend these historically warped, corrupt, and bent individuals and permit them all the power, and influence, and money they desire.

But that is a zero sum game, for Democrats like Donna Brazile will continue to fall on the sword for them, mores and standards will continue to be lowered or destroyed for them, and all that they touch; the party, their sycophants, the government, and the country, will be sullied by their presence and influence, and nothing will ever be enough for them. They are so utterly avaricious that they will always want more, and consider it their due that others take the bullet for them.

Jerry Ford said, when he pardoned Nixon, Our long national nightmare is over. He had no idea. The Clintons manage their pardons in advance, and go on to corrupt more and gather more to themselves. As the festering cess-pile that is their legacy grows ever higher and threatens, at last, to collapse on them, the refuse to fade away, unless dragged off the national stage.

Hillary is not under criminal investigation because she has a vagina. It is because she utterly lacks a conscience. Just as the long corrupt reign of John Plantagenet sullied and enraged England, till he was forced to sign the Magna Carta, so the Clintons have been the long , growing nightmare of American culture and politics for 30 years.

Some of us wait to wake up and say, Oh Finally, they are gone.

Others will wake up, a little embarrassed, and say, Wow, really? How did I not see that part of them?

Some, sadly, even after they are gone, will sleep in that long dream till the Trump of Doom.

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Doug Smith: Xanadu is not real

19 Oct

doug smith

Doug Smith:  Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

 

But the choice is very, very real

trump-and-hillary

”God save thee Ancient Mariner, from fiends that plague thee thus! Why lookst thou so?

With my crossbow I shot the albatross.”

 

I’ve always loved that bit of verse, especially now that I am both ancient, and once a mariner. But if I may put it in modern English:

What’s wrong with you, buddy?

I really screwed up.

So, in an effort to avert an albatross around the necks of many people permit me a bit of common sense reasoning.

There are 2 choices before America right now for the direction of the next 4 years, and the vibrations for the next 20.

Only 2

Those who suddenly discover, after years of caving in to Obama that Principle matters more than winning, are living in Poe s Opium induced Xanadu. In politics, if you don’t win, you don’t get to “principle”. But the “Feel the Johnson” crowd, the Never Trump crowd, the plague on both your houses crowd, is living the Never Utopia reality. We can say both of them are awful people, and we don’t want any of them. Therefore, we will

Never vote for Trump, even though Hillary is awful.

Vote for Hillary, even though Hillary is awful. After all, she has lots of experience at being awful.

Vote for Johnson, because This could finally be the year of the 3rd party. (Einstein had something to say about doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.)

All of them still ignore the most basic realities of the situation. Hillary IS truly awful. And no matter what you all think or dream, grab onto this:

Either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump WILL be the next President.

Now, my assessment of Trump has not changed. He is an ass. He is arrogant, brash, crude, and slow to change. I would not care to have a beer with him. I don’t particularly like him, and I am sorry the GOP, (my party since Reagan,) created him, and nominated him. We had better choices available,   but the GOP leadership helped create the conditions, and their Keystone Cops primary season antics did not help.

So, we have Trump.

Hillary Clinton has a 30 year track record of paranoid secrecy, disdain, shady or criminal avarice, and an easily demonstrated adherence to the most radical Leftist ideologies; the same ones which have ruined or murdered millions in misery in the 20th Century. But she is hard invested in the Left which loves Castro, Che, and the Soviet Union. She is, and has been comfortable with terrorists and despots. The image of her hugging Yasser Arafat is hard to ignore.

Harry Truman once said “There is no way to get rich in politics unless you are a crook. “

Hillary went from “broke leaving the White House” to being worth $300 million dollars. There is nothing not for sale with her, from access, to deals, to bills, to arms, to national security. Her words paint her an advocate of the little guy. Her actions paint her as available to the highest bidder.

She will push hard to the Left; ignore Law and Constitution, because she thinks she is above the law, and immune to penalties. She will seek to rule, not govern.

Will she bring on the end of the Republic? The Oracle at Delphi has not revealed that one to me.

Will she continue us in a dangerous and damaging direction, on the way to 40 trillion in debt?

Well. One need not be Einstein or the Oracle to see that coming.

If you are a voter in America, you ARE going to make a choice between now and my birthday, Nov 8.

You are going to hold your nose, along with me, and vote for Trump, for all the reasons you already know, that he will not do what Hillary does, to the extent she does, or sell the White House furniture and rent the Lincoln Bedroom. Will he be a great President? Probably not. Will he be better than Hillary? Without a doubt.

Or, you are going to do anything else at all, vote for Hillary, stay home, vote for a 3rd party, write me in because you are just overcome with my wisdom, and you will be contributing to the awfulness that is Hillary. We are very close to a lost decade. Hillary will ensure it, and perhaps stretch it out to 2.

So don’t fool yourself. You ARE going to vote for Trump, or you ARE going to vote for Hillary. One way or another. Put down the opium pipe. Hillary has a plan. She won’t let you in on it, but peer over her shoulder at her leaked emails and you ll see it. It is not a pretty picture for you.

If you are a conservative and sit home in a self-righteous snit because Trump is not pure, you are helping Hillary.

And if they are both that bad, well impeach Hillary and you get Kaine, who is no prize either. Impeach Trump; you get Pence, who is a fairly decent guy and a successful Governor. We might just stumble into a good solution.

But brother, Hillary isn’t it!

 

 

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Doug Smith: The Medici Foundation

2 Sep

doug smith

Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

9.2.16

house of medici

For the non-history geeks, a book I am reading on the rise and fall of the House of Medici will likely be boring. I find it fascinating and instructive. The Medici was a Florentine family of growing wealth and influence in Renaissance Italy. At their apex, they wielded great power in the formation of the 14th century world. This is not to say it was all a good influence, but they changed the world around them.

One of their most notorious and flawed sons, Giovanni, certainly had his little foibles. He launched a war to install his nephew in power in one Italian city. He borrowed exorbitant amounts for his war, and his hobbies, which included hiring famous artists of the day for such projects as the St Peter’s Basilica. He spent far more than he had on his pet projects, and set out to thoroughly enjoy the position of power he held, regardless the cost, or who had to pay, or what he had to do. He was notorious for his debauchery as well as his extravagance, and if he had any shame in selling his office to support his desires, it was well hidden and not recorded.

He is remembered to the world as Pope Leo X.

One of his more ingenious ways of selling his office was indulgences. On the theory that the Pope had the power of earth to forgive sins on God’s behalf, Leo came up with a divine get out of hell free card: the Indulgence. For a price, wealthy donors could wipe out what they had done, or even invest in what they intended to do in the future, that was forbidden by their faith, and have the sin wiped out, or indulged, by good old Leo. Adultery? Theft? Murder? Extortion? Let me consult the menu, and see how many ducats we need to keep the artists painting, the soldiers fighting, the consorts cavorting naked, and the various deals alive. (I suppose his vows of poverty and chastity were indulged as well). Does a bishop need money to send to the Pope to purchase his office? Indulgences. There was even a bureaucrat in the church in charge of indulgences. It was argued that, after all, the church did some good with its money, and paid for some great works of art, so its little foibles ought to be overlooked, after all, everyone did it; that was just the way of the world.

Then along came a young priest with a conscience deeply troubled by the debauchery and corruption he witnessed at Rome. So troubled was this young man that he took exception. In point of fact, he took 95 exceptions, which he wished to debate. So troubled was the Pope by his daring to challenge his authority, and income, that he excommunicated the young man and invited him to come to Rome and be imprisoned. He declined the offer, and took his list of 95 problems, and his conscience, and his understanding of truth and right, and began to teach others. Many who were also disturbed with the corruption and avarice of those who sought to lead them self-righteously, while living in such debauchery, followed the young man and began a movement that rejected the old, corrupt ways.

That man was Martin Luther. His influence is still evident today, 5 centuries after the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church no longer sells indulgences.

Now, if you see many parallels between current or aspiring leaders of today and Giovanni De Medici, you are not alone.

For whatever good the Medici Foundation may do with a few of its ducats, it does not make the corruption with which it obtains them any less objectionable.

So where is our Luther?

 

 

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Doug Smith: The Clinton Coarsening

18 Aug

doug smith

 

 

 

 

Doug Smith: Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot

8.18.16

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This is just one more example of the Clinton Effect on our society. It is a decidedly coarsening one. Bill Clinton testified under oath that he didn’t think a certain sexual act was truly sexual, and in the decades since the Clinton effect has made that a more common thing in our schools, as low as middle school, because “Bill Clinton said that s not really doing it”.

Not so long before Clinton, Gary Hart saw the end of his political career in a photo of his secretary sitting on his lap in a bathing suit. In the Clinton era, none of that seems to matter.

Clinton perjured himself. He was disbarred, but still gets hundreds of thousands for a speech, and millions for a no show job at a university. Lying, even under oath, is apparently now ok.

The net and long term result of the Clinton infection on the body politic and the society at large has been a coarser, less moral, less honest society. Standards have been pushed down to the level of “anything the Clintons do must be alright, because…”

Now there is the part I don’t quite put my arms around. Has the left in our society lowered standards for the Clintons because of their love for them, or are they simply the most blatant in pushing the limits downward? Perhaps the left prefers the lack of standards and a moral code, because they do not wish to be judged by any standard, so they let the Clintons take the lead in debauchery, dishonesty, avarice, and disregard for life. They defend them furiously, so they don t have to defend themselves. Then, once a Clinton has gotten away with it, it is forever ok for them. Perhaps that is the Clinton effect: a push of the left to eliminate all sense of morality and judgment in our society, so they can all live the life Libertine.

I confess I do not know the answer, although that one makes as much sense as any. I do know the Clinton effect has been a coarser, and worse place to live than before they came on the scene.

Donald Trump may be coarser in language and discourse, but he does not seem to lead the society into that direction. He says I am what I am, take me or leave me. Not so the Clintons. They say we are what we are. Love us. And follow us.

With Trump it is somewhat like having a large, boisterous dog that knocks things over in your house. With the Clintons, it is more like sleeping in a den of wolves, and wondering why you itch all the time and find you have a taste for sheep.

Trump is a unique phenomenon. I don’t expect to see another on the scene. But the Clintons want a dynasty. If Hillary is entitled to high office for putting up with Bill, then surely Chelsea is as well. She was entitled to a $ 600,000 starting salary at NBC.

Surely she is entitled to move her scamming, hedge fund husband into the White House someday.

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Or perhaps. Just perhaps. We might say, a barbarian who is very good at war may win power, but ought not to drive the culture for generations. A coarse, uncultured lothario who is very good at politics may likewise win power, for a time. But should we let the vices of the Clintons drive our society for generations to come?

Perhaps it is time for a long corporate shower.

 

 

 

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Doug Smith: A brief history lesson, and a hard reality check

16 Aug

doug smith

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Smith:  Author, historian and lead contributor to Free State Patriot 

 

 

GTY_Clinton_Trump3_MEM_160808

 

So many people in this political cycle are opting for the magical approach. Donald Trump is, well, Donald, not your Daddy’s candidate. He has an irritating penchant for speaking directly from the mouth, sans the filters most of us put on our speech. He is not a comforting, traditional GOP candidate like President Dole, or President McCain, or even President Romney. (They didn’t? Really?) Without rehashing the septicemia of the Grand Old Party that has led in cascading sequence to The Tea Party, the Freedom Caucus, and The Donald, things just aren’t what they used to be.

There are a few approaches to this new and unsettling development in American politics.

  • Hold on tight. Don t worry, the folks will come back around when they realize that their GOP liars are better than the Democrat liars. A 20 year run of blatantly broken promises, ineffectual or non-existent opposition to Barack Obama’s ideas and decisions that are abhorrent to conservatives will fade if we just let the folks see how bad it is if liberal Democrats get the reins of power.

The problem with this approach is that the folks, after a while, get tired of being the butt of that awful joke, and wonder just what difference it really made when part of their party goes along to get along, a al McConnell, while part of it actively supports the lib/Dem agenda, a la McCain, Graham, and even wonder boy Rubio. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for 20 years? Well, first you get the rebuke of the Tea Party. Then you get the rebuke of the Freedom Caucus, Ted Cruz, and Mike Lee. Finally, you get the ”Up Yours” of Donald Trump.

  • The Magic approach. Well, magic worked in literature and everyone loved it. Wave a wand (unbind the delegates), speak magic words (Romney’s a Nice Guy! David French writes for NRO, wouldn’t HE be a great candidate.) And we can FIX this.

Well, the problems with that approach are numerous. Magic doesn’t work in the real world. (Sorry, but no Merlin, and no Harry Potter. An earlier generation was convinced that Sherlock Holmes was really solving crimes. Just a fantasy. ) Besides, coming up with a candidate acceptable to the Good Ole Boys network doesn’t change the reality that for all his ( Admitted!) faults, Trump got more people voting for him in the GOP primary than any previous candidate in history, including Lincoln and Reagan. You can fix attitudes and disappointment by putting in a pinch hitter. At this dance, we are “going to dance with the fella that brung ya. “

  • The White Knight. Somebody out there is so appealing to the folks that he can ride in, say, ok, I’m here    to save you, and the folks will dutifully swoon and fall in step behind him.

Well. If such a knight existed, why didn’t he run? We have to rule out the 16 who did run, because a plurality of the folks rejected all of them in favor of Trump. (This should again tell the GOP stalwarts just how much they have to fix. But it won’t. And they won’t. ) Nor can such a mythical creature just pop into existence and enter the fray. Politics being what it is, he just cannot get from myth to votes cast in November in time.

So for you who can vote in November, a brief history lesson and reality check. You are on the roller coaster. You might be regretting it and wishing you did not have to go over the big hill, but the bar is down, the chain is pulling you up the hill, and soon, very soon, you and I are going to plunge down the big dip.

So. How many times has a 3rd party candidate done more than sway the race to ( ALWAYS) the more liberal, progressive candidate?

One. Abraham Lincoln defeated the Whigs and the Democrats on a platform of national unity and opposition to slavery. It is worth noting that the result of that was the end of the Whig party, secession, and Civil War.

Since then, 3rd parties have ended up helping to sway the outcome to Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton, but they have never won. Not once in a century. So if your magical hopes are pinned on Gary Johnson, you are about to be disappointed.

That leaves us, as it has since 1860, at least, with a simple reality. Absent an act of God, one of the 2 major party candidates now running will become the next President.

Donald Trump has a lot of faults, though he is not without virtue. The first article I wrote about him at the start of his campaign is unchanged: I think he is something of an ass. He is hardly the ideal candidate I would build in my Weird Science experiment. He shoots his mouth off without thinking, is brash, often crude, and reminds us regularly that a builder may end up sounding like the construction workers wolf whistling at a pretty girl who walks by. We don t know how much his move to a more conservative position will affect his judgment and actions.

Still. He is not Hillary Clinton.

And we do know with certainty what she will do. She will appoint progressive liberal judges to SCOTUS and the federal bench. She will raise taxes. She will continue the Obama war on coal, and the economy. She will, as is the wont of progressives, continue to chip away at basic rights. She will lie consistently. She will, in collusion with her husband, sell the office of the President in unprecedented ways to enrich her family.

And this one deserves a line of its own.

She will certainly involve us in at least one major war.

She will not, most likely, do so with a reasoned approach about our national security interests. Instead she will muddle along, incompetently, making misstep after misstep, until one of them lands her, and us, squarely in a major conflict.

That is Hillary.

Wm F Buckley maintained we ought to support the most right leaning viable candidate for President. To support the most right leaning candidate around, who cannot get elected, ensures that the most left leaning will win. To support a candidate who could viably win, but is markedly to the left, ensures the same. Basic logic of politics

So if you are still crying in your milk that “If only” the GOP had nominated ANYONE else, you would NEVER support Hillary Clinton, because she is dishonest and incompetent, and far left, then wake up friend. Get over it.

“If only” lost the primary. “If only” is not running against Hillary.

There are 2 choices. President Hillary Clinton. Or President Donald Trump.

Don’t let yourself be saying in a year, if Only I had helped stop her.

I’m not crazy about Trump. He is not ideal. But he is the better of the only 2 choices available. So I’m going to vote for him.

And so should you.

 

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Doug Smith: Words Matter

20 Jul

doug smith

Doug Smith:  Author, historian and lead contributor for Free State Patriot

“Don’t tell me words don’t matter.”

Barack Obama, Feb 2008

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Truly, they do. Would you rather have the desiccated muscle tissue of a bovine mammal which had to have feces washed off its deceased carcass before slicing it away, or a nicely marbled, juicy steak? Both statements reflect the truth, but how and what was said makes a difference.

One must marvel at Barak Obama’s fluid association with words, meanings, and truth. Hillary’s association with the truth is like that of the parents of a child who never knew his father: a brief and forgettable encounter, never to be repeated, but with lasting ramifications.

So, words. When Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali, it was pretty clear to him and the world that he had adopted Islam as his religion. The words were a clear statement of where his allegiance and sympathies lay. Barry Soweto changed his name to Barak Hussein Obama, but insists he is not a Muslim, but a Christian. Perhaps he is. But the words matter: the name he uses sends a clear message to the world that his sympathies and a romantic attachment for all things Muslim characterizes him.

When the latest Islamic terrorist shoots/runs over/blows up innocent people in a murderous rage while shouting what the entire world recognizes as the Muslim battle cry, the entire world knows who and what the murderer was. But not Barak Obama. He agonizes over what the motivation might have been. He calls them radical extremists. He calls them bad Muslims who do not truly embrace Islam. While of course the Islamic State of Syria calls them Muslim martyrs, as they call themselves.

When a Muslim extremist government arises, having had their one and only election, complete with armed terrorists to ensure the vote goes the right way, and then begins moving toward a repressive Sharia regime, Barack Obama latches onto the fact that they voted once and calls them Democratic. He supports them with money and weapons. He ignores pro liberty protestors to the Ayatollahs of Iran and permits then to be slaughtered, while making deals with Iran to ensure they get a Nuclear weapon.

With a civil war fraught with repression of Kurds, and Coptic Christians, and the genocide of Syrian Christians rages, Obama makes no provision for the Christian victims of genocide by Isis or Assad to receive asylum, nor does he press regional Muslim nations to provide safe havens close at hand. Instead he proposes to bring thousands of Muslims from Syria to the US, ignoring the terrorists sure to come with them.

Now when I was a sailor, my language could be colorfully described as salty. There is the oft told story of a young sailor coming home and asking Grandma for the mashed potatoes using his newly learned salty language to everyone’s chagrin. Some of the salt never goes away. And my language reflected my work, and my life as a sailor, and what I was. (Not just the salty and blue terms, but no sailor goes to the bathroom: we make a Head call.) So words matter. I could deny being a sailor, but it would be obvious that my words matter and that they were influenced by my time at sea. As were my actions and my choices.

They say you can take the boy out of the Navy, but you can never get the Navy out of the boy. How I thought and how I would act was reflected by my language.

So words matter.

For me.

And for Barack Obama. I don’t presume to know if he is a Muslim or not.

But his words make it clear that for him, it is Muslims first, and America far behind.

And that matters, a great deal.

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