president.
The Little Nuns who believe they are entitled to
simple justice because they are religious! How dare
they protest their rights! Who do they think they
are ? They must pray not to God but our monarch!
====
This from an old friend and fellow memo reader who is very disconcerted about our nation's direction.
| "When the Founding Fathers of our nation were in the process 0f creating this novel form of government called a Constitutional Republic, they were aware of many factors that were necessary to make it work properly. Among them: |
1. An educated electorate.
2. A restriction on who could vote because they knew that only those with "skin in the game" would vote for the benefit of the country and not to grant themselves government largess.
Their solution for this was the restriction that only property owners could vote.
3. A totally free and independent press to keep the electorate informed.
4. Elected officials who, under Judeo-Christian influence would act for the benefit of the country and its citizens and not themselves.
5. That holding elective office was not to be a career, but a patriotic undertaking of giving service to their country on a temporary basis, and then getting on with your life.
I believe that we are suffering today, because these fundamentals have been ignored or worse, Machiavellianly modified, to get us to where we are today.
On one side, Democrat, we have a Socialist running against a career politician; the former, an affirmed Socialist, and the other, at best a liar, and at worst, a conniving criminal.
On the other side, Republican, we have an outsider who reminds me of Adolph Hitler in the early 20th century, a man who promises solutions to all our problems without disclosure nor knowledge of how he will accomplish them; a Hispanic, who has a penchant for fighting as a loaner against the very government he wishes to lead, but leans too heavily (in my opinion) on Evangelical Christianity; and finally, a former Governor who believes in his star rising, which I believe is based solely upon his own ego. Trump has recently resorted to the most base of personal attacks against his opponent's wife, which in my mind disqualifies him from holding the Presidency. We all went through this kind of name-calling when we were pre-teenagers. We need an adult President.
There is a story, most likely a fable, that during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin as he was leaving the meeting one evening : "What kind of government are you giving us, Mr. Franklin?" He replied: "A Constitutional Republic; may you have the strength to keep it."
The Public Schools have failed us, giving us rising adults who pay attention only to what Hollywood and sports teams are doing. Very few read (look at the condition of the nation's newspapers.) Most of today's young voters have no idea of how our government is supposed to work. They vote for candidates for office as if they were voting for movie star popularity awards. They have no idea of the Role that America has and could play in their lives. They think they are poor, while they have cars, color TVs, refrigerators and reasonable living quarters. Very few are really hungry. They don't know what the poor suffer in 2/3 of the world population. They have no sense of history, of the role that our country has played in world leadership, nor the roles that dictators (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc,) have played in the extermination of those they disapproved of.
When the Founding Fathers contemplated the different forms of government, they agreed that the simplest and most efficient form was the Benign Dictatorship. However history, and especially modern history shows that the "Benign" part often gets lost in the dictator's assumption of power. In the 20th and 21st centuries, more people have been executed than in all the recorded wars of the world preceding 1900 by Benign Dictators.
We are at a monumental crossroads. Our Constitutional Republic is at the precipice of a high cliff overlooking the failed "Empires of the Past Graveyard." Do we have the strength to turn , or must we, like lemmings, follow our "leadership" blindly and plummet into the cesspool of history?
I will swallow my tongue and vote for the Republican candidate, but I'm afraid the Republican Party has shot itself in the foot...... again. H===."
2. A restriction on who could vote because they knew that only those with "skin in the game" would vote for the benefit of the country and not to grant themselves government largess.
Their solution for this was the restriction that only property owners could vote.
3. A totally free and independent press to keep the electorate informed.
4. Elected officials who, under Judeo-Christian influence would act for the benefit of the country and its citizens and not themselves.
5. That holding elective office was not to be a career, but a patriotic undertaking of giving service to their country on a temporary basis, and then getting on with your life.
I believe that we are suffering today, because these fundamentals have been ignored or worse, Machiavellianly modified, to get us to where we are today.
On one side, Democrat, we have a Socialist running against a career politician; the former, an affirmed Socialist, and the other, at best a liar, and at worst, a conniving criminal.
On the other side, Republican, we have an outsider who reminds me of Adolph Hitler in the early 20th century, a man who promises solutions to all our problems without disclosure nor knowledge of how he will accomplish them; a Hispanic, who has a penchant for fighting as a loaner against the very government he wishes to lead, but leans too heavily (in my opinion) on Evangelical Christianity; and finally, a former Governor who believes in his star rising, which I believe is based solely upon his own ego. Trump has recently resorted to the most base of personal attacks against his opponent's wife, which in my mind disqualifies him from holding the Presidency. We all went through this kind of name-calling when we were pre-teenagers. We need an adult President.
There is a story, most likely a fable, that during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin as he was leaving the meeting one evening : "What kind of government are you giving us, Mr. Franklin?" He replied: "A Constitutional Republic; may you have the strength to keep it."
The Public Schools have failed us, giving us rising adults who pay attention only to what Hollywood and sports teams are doing. Very few read (look at the condition of the nation's newspapers.) Most of today's young voters have no idea of how our government is supposed to work. They vote for candidates for office as if they were voting for movie star popularity awards. They have no idea of the Role that America has and could play in their lives. They think they are poor, while they have cars, color TVs, refrigerators and reasonable living quarters. Very few are really hungry. They don't know what the poor suffer in 2/3 of the world population. They have no sense of history, of the role that our country has played in world leadership, nor the roles that dictators (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc,) have played in the extermination of those they disapproved of.
When the Founding Fathers contemplated the different forms of government, they agreed that the simplest and most efficient form was the Benign Dictatorship. However history, and especially modern history shows that the "Benign" part often gets lost in the dictator's assumption of power. In the 20th and 21st centuries, more people have been executed than in all the recorded wars of the world preceding 1900 by Benign Dictators.
We are at a monumental crossroads. Our Constitutional Republic is at the precipice of a high cliff overlooking the failed "Empires of the Past Graveyard." Do we have the strength to turn , or must we, like lemmings, follow our "leadership" blindly and plummet into the cesspool of history?
I will swallow my tongue and vote for the Republican candidate, but I'm afraid the Republican Party has shot itself in the foot...... again. H===."
===
Are Turkey and Saudi Arabia getting ready to walk into a Syrian Trap? (See 1a below.)
===
Can Marine General James Mattis come out of left field and save The Republican Party and America? If he can will he? If he will is he the right man? If he is the right man who is he?
Is it too late to think outside the box? (See 2 below)
===
Op Ed writers for this Canadian Newspaper think Cruz is a nut case. (See 3 below.)
===
A fascinating review of the impact of history and whether the future portends something comparable.
Considering the advances already made it is highly doubtful (unrepeatable) the future will be as bright as those in politics suggest partially because we came so far from being so backwards and partly because of demographic restraint. (See 4 below.)
===
Left is at war with free speech unless it says what they want to hear and support. The resort to support their case. (See 5 below.)
===
Dick
=======================================================================
1)
'Al-Sharq Al-Awsat' Columnist: The Arab Spring Exposed The Failure Of All Shades Of Arab Opposition
In his column in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, 'Uthman Al-Mirghani argued that the Arab Spring had exposed not only the failure of the Arab regimes, but also the various Arab oppositions' failure to constitute an alternative to the tyrannical regimes that had been brought down. He stated that these oppositions, of all political shades – liberal, leftist, rightist, and Islamic – were just as opportunistic, egocentric, and dictatorial as the regimes they had deposed. Furthermore, he wrote, they had distanced themselves from the Arab peoples so much that the peoples now yearned for the previous regimes. In light of the powerlessness and failure of all the oppositions in the Arab world, he added, it is no wonder that the young people have abandoned them and turned to the 'online party' as an arena for opposition and for voicing their distress."
Below are translated excerpts from the column:[1]
'Uthman Al-Mirghani (Image: Alarabiya.net)
"Many maintain that the 'Arab Spring' failed to actualize even one of the hopes and dreams pinned on it in its initial days and months – and that, on the contrary, it even led the region to a series of disasters and crises. Undoubtedly, there are many factors in how the fleeting '[Arab] Spring ended as it did, in chaos, crises and wars...
"[However,] what is most important of all is that the Arab Spring exposed not only our crisis and the crisis of the regimes against which the peoples rose up, but also the failure of the [various] Arab oppositions to present themselves as a convincing, credible alternative [to these regimes] that could actualize the peoples' hopes and aspirations. The crisis of the Arab oppositions definitely preceded the Arab Spring, but is etched more deeply in the people's minds [since the Arab Spring] because of these oppositions' frustrating performance, the disappointing outcomes[of their actions], and the current regression, wars, and chaos.
"The widespread impression today is that the weakness of the opposition parties and groups, and likewise their internal division and their intense preoccupation with their own interests and dreams of power, have distanced them from the people, and they have become detached from the issues that preoccupy the people. For this reason, [these opposition elements] can no longer convince [the people] that they are fit to rule as an option that is better than the regimes that they oppose. To prove this, we need only point out that today the people are lamenting, yearning for the past and for the era of the regimes that [the opposition elements] brought down, against the backdrop of widespread fear that change could mean [only] chaos and wars.
"The problem with the Arab oppositions is not with a specific stream of thought, but is general and crosses ideological boundaries. It includes the liberal streams as well as parties of the left or those who wield religious slogans. Many of the opposition parties accusing the existing regimes of tyranny are, within themselves, undemocratic. Thus, for example, some opposition leaders' leadership of their own parties predates the regimes of the rulers whom they oppose and accuse of dictatorship and of stubbornly clinging to power. The leftist parties have, in the eyes of the people, become a model of the elitism that is sunk in developing theories, while the Islamic parties have become a model of egocentrism and opportunism.
"In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood showed an additional model, according to which the Islamic Arab parties, or most of them, tend to impose a dictatorship because they do not believe in democracy. They adopt it as a tactic only in order to attain their objectives, and when they take power, their true face is revealed, and they turn to tyranny and absolute rule. In Sudan, the Islamists carried out a military coup against democracy when they were still part of the parliament, and saw fit to impose their rule with tanks instead of obeying the ballot box.
"Some may argue that the Islamic parties in Tunisia and Morocco are currently presenting a different model, and that they have proven their desire for a peaceful and democratic transfer of power. A response to this is that, while the experience in both these countries justifiably sparks hope, it is [just] at the beginning of its path, and we must wait and monitor it to see how it develops before taking a stand on it.
"It is not only the Islamists who have not passed the test of democracy. The left, with its communist and national parties, has also [failed it],by turning to coups that they call revolutions; the region's history is rife with examples [of such revolutions] that have left in their wake dictatorships, wars and crises. There are of course other streams and parties, that transcend the label of political left and religious right, but they too are helpless and failing, like the other Arab oppositions, with all their elements.
"So it is no wonder that the young people have abandoned the traditional opposition, as became clear in the Arab Spring revolutions, and have turned to what can be called 'the online party' as an arena for opposition and for voicing their distress... The young people are not alone in this, of course, because frustration becomes generalized when people see the internecine wars and the internal rift – such as in Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen – that is caused by the failure of the political elites and opposition [there]...
"The Arab Spring...was not a message just to the regimes, as some people think. Its outcomes are an indictment of the Arab oppositions, which seem, to this day, not to have gotten the message."
Endnote:
[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 21, 2016.
1a)Saudi Arabia and Turkey Are Walking into a Trap
by Burak Bekdil
After Russia's increasingly bold military engagement in war-torn Syria in favor of President Bashar al-Assad and the Shiite bloc, the regional Sunni powers – Turkey and its ally, Saudi Arabia – have felt nervous and incapable of influencing the civil war in favor of the many Islamist groups fighting Assad's forces.
Most recently, the Turks and Saudis, after weeks of negotiations, decided to flex their muscles and join forces to engage a higher-intensity war in the Syrian theater. This is dangerous for the West. It risks provoking further Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria, and sparking a NATO-Russia confrontation.
After Turkey, citing violation of its airspace, shot down a Russian Su-24 military jet on Nov. 24, Russia has used the incident as a pretext to reinforce its military deployments in Syria and bomb the "moderate Islamists." Those are the Islamists who fight Assad's forces and are supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Russian move included installing the advanced S-400 long-range air and anti-missile defense systems.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia say they
are ready to directly challenge Russian-backed pro-regime forces in Syria.
|
Fearing that the new player in the game could vitally damage their plans to install a Sunni regime in Damascus, Turkey and Saudi Arabia now say they are ready to challenge the bloc consisting of Assad's forces, Russia, and Shiite militants from Iran and Lebanon.
As always, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke in a way that forcefully reminded Turkey-watchers of the well-known phrase: Turkey's bark is worse than its bite. "No one," he said on Feb. 9, "should forget how the Soviet forces, which were a mighty, super force during the Cold War and entered Afghanistan, then left Afghanistan in a servile situation. Those who entered Syria today will also leave Syria in a servile way." In other words, Davutoglu was telling the Russians: Get out of Syria; we are coming in. The Russians did not even reply. They just kept on bombing.
Turkey keeps threatening to increase its military role in Syria. Deputy Prime Minister Yalcin Akdogan pledged that Turkey will no longer be in a "defensive position" over maintaining its national security interests amid developments in Syria. "Can any team," he said, "play defensively at all times but still win a match? ... You can win nothing by playing defensively and you can lose whatever you have. There is a very dynamic situation in the region and one has to read this situation properly. One should end up withdrawn because of concerns and fears."
Is NATO member Turkey going to war in order to fulfill its Sunni sectarian objectives? And are its Saudi allies joining in? If the Sunni allies are not bluffing, they are already giving signals of what may eventually turn into a new bloody chapter in the sectarian proxy war in Syria.
First, Saudi Arabia announced that it was sending fighter jets to the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, where U.S. and other allied aircraft have been hitting Islamic State strongholds inside Syria. Saudi military officials said that their warplanes would intensify aerial operations in Syria.
"[A] ground operation is necessary ... But to expect this only from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar is neither right nor realistic," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on February 16.
|
Second, and more worryingly, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu saidthat Turkey and Saudi Arabia could engage in ground operations inside Syria. He also said that the two countries had long been weighing a cross-border operation into Syria – with the pretext of fighting Islamic State, but in fact hoping to bolster the Sunni groups fighting against the Shiite bloc – but they have not yet made a decision.
In contrast, Saudi officials look more certain about a military
intervention. A Saudi brigadier-general said that a joint Turkish-Saudi ground operation in Syria was being planned. He even said that Turkish and Saudi military experts would meet in the coming days to finalize "the details, the task force and the role to be played by each country."
In Damascus, the Syrian regime said that any ground operation inside Syria's sovereign borders would "amount to aggression that must be resisted."
It should be alarming for the West if Turkey and Saudi Arabia, two important U.S. allies, have decided to fight a strange cocktail of enemies on Syrian territory, including Syrian forces, radical jihadists, various Shiite forces and, most critically, Russia – all in order to support "moderate" Islamists. That may be the opening of a worse disaster in Syria, possibly spanning over the next 10 to 15 years.
Allowing Sunni supremacists into a sectarian war is not a rational way to block Russian expansion.
|
The new Sunni adventurism will likely force Iran to augment its military engagement in Syria. It will create new tensions between Turkey-Saudi Arabia and Iraq's Shiite-dominated government. It may also spread and destabilize other Middle Eastern theaters, where the Sunni bloc, consisting of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, may have to engage in new proxy wars with the Shiite bloc plus Russia.
Washington should think more than twice about allowing its Sunni allies militarily to engage their Shiite enemies. This may be a war with no winners but plenty of casualties and collateral damage. Allowing Sunni supremacists into a deeper sectarian war is not a rational way to block Russian expansion in the eastern Mediterranean. And it certainly will not serve America's interests.
Turkey and Saudi Arabia are too weak militarily to damage Russia's interests. It is a Russian trap – and precisely what the Russians are hoping their enemies will fall into.
Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based columnist for the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet Daily News and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.
=======================================================
2)
This Man Can Save Us From Trump—and Clinton
He’s retired Marine General James Mattis. He’s an extraordinary American. Yes, it’s a longshot. But he is exactly what we need.
By John Noonan
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