The Price Is Right- Good Man! The Problem With Many Liberals! Pathetic Carter. Scales Weighs In.

Our son-in-law was a national ski champ. Dagny at 4 years of age.     Blake will be next  - now 2 years of age. Our oldest and youngest daughters - Debra and Abby. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ When I was in Atlanta recently with Kim Strassel, after her presentation, Rep. Price and his wife joined us for dinner.  Tom is a solid conservative and a sound choice to run The Department of Health and Human Services. He is a physician, was one of the first to propose an alternative plan to Obamacare and is the first visible nail in Obamacare's coffin. Nothing about his serving in the Trump Administration was discussed at the table but I have been a proponent of his for many years. Tom is a good man. This means the Democrats will oppose him simply because the Price is right. (See 1 below.) === Liberals are inclusive as long as you agree with them and their ideas. However, once they learn you do not agree with them many become testy, do not want to associate with you, will turn on you and start calling you names - like racists and you know the drill. They would be a lot better off, more believable and effective if they did not take themselves so seriously, thought about the impact of their ideas and if they did not believe because they say it, it becomes so. But then, that would mean they would have to reason and for many liberals emotion supplants thinking. If their attitude and response to challenges are not bad enough, many start foaming at the mouth when  they cannot articulate their reasons for thinking as they do. Bless their souls. If you believe I am being too judgmental and wrong just observe their response to Trump's election. (See 2 below.) === An Israeli medicine may have helped shrink Carter's cancerous brain tumor but it did not improve his ability to reason or his blind bitterness towards Israel. Carter's attitude towards Israel has largely been shaped by his extreme interpretation of The New Testament Bible scriptures and his very conservative rock-ribbed Baptist upbringing. Carter proved his narrow mindedness while Governor and it was reinforced after his defeat because he blamed much of it on lack of Jewish support. The god father of our children, a pre-imminent Atlanta psychiatrist, who served in Carter's State Administration for a brief period before resigning, told me he resigned because Carter was one of the worst administrators he had ever seen. He also told me to watch out for Carter because he would ultimately cause Israel great pain. This was said to me over 35 years ago and I have never forgotten it.  This dean of Atlanta psychiatrists is now long gone and this is the first time I have ever posted this or said anything about it other than to my wife. (See 3 below.) === Last night I wrote about the son of dear friends who serves in The Coast Guard and flies planes that are older and in worse shape than he is and then I just read Bob Scales op ed.  (See 4 below.) === A very good summation of  the prospects of what could go right and wrong regarding Trump's initial areas where he hopes to bring about change. (See 5 below.) === Today is my wife's birthday.  I owe her a great deal because she has provided me and our children more than 44 years of caring , good judgement and love. She is a female version of Holden Caufield and has kept me from going over the cliff many times. +++ Dick ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1)Tom Price Trump's Choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services The New York Times reported Monday night that Georgia Rep. Tom Price is President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Price, a physician who leads the House Budget Committee, has served in Congress since 2005 and is a vocal opponent of Obamacare — he's led efforts to strike broad sections of the Affordable Care Act and could be key in Trump's effort to get major parts of it repealed and replaced. He's also been a Trump supporter from the very beginning. "The things that we all believe about health care — we want a system that is affordable for everybody, that is accessible for everybody, that is of the highest quality and provides choices for patients — all of those things have been destroyed by Obamacare," Price said at a rally earlier this year while campaigning for Trump. That is "why we need Donald Trump and Mike Pence to work with us and make sure we put in place a real health solution." Price’s appointment is expected to be announced as soon as Tuesday, according to an official who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been released. Republicans have attacked Obamacare without proposing an alternative. But Price has introduced bills offering a detailed, comprehensive replacement plan in every Congress since 2009, when Democrats started work on the legislation, the Times pointed out. Price has been a solid voice for doctors, often aligned with the positions of the American Medical Association and the Medical Association of Georgia. As secretary, Price would be responsible for a department with an annual budget of more than $1 trillion. The department's health programs insure more than 100 million Americans. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2) 10 Reasons Left-Wingers Cut Trump Voters From Their Lives By Dennis Prager Many Hillary Clinton voters have ceased communicating with friends, and even family members, who voted for Donald Trump. It is so common that The New York Times published a front-page article on the subject headlined, "Political Divide Splits Relationships -- and Thanksgiving, Too." The article begins with three stories: "Matthew Horn, a software engineer from Boulder, Colo., canceled Christmas plans with his family in Texas. Nancy Sundin, a social worker in Spokane, Wash., has called off Thanksgiving with her mother and brother. Ruth Dorancy, a software designer in Chicago, decided to move her wedding so that her fiancé's grandmother and aunt, strong Trump supporters from Florida, could not attend." The Times acknowledges that this phenomenon is one-sided, saying, "Democrats have dug in their heels, and in some cases are refusing to sit across the table from relatives who voted for President-elect Donald J. Trump." A number of people who voted for Trump called my show to tell me that their daughters had informed them that they would no longer allow their parents to see their grandchildren. And one man sent me an email reporting that his brother-in-law's mother told him that she "no longer had a son." All of this raises an obvious question: Why is this phenomenon of cutting off contact with friends and relatives so one-sided? Why don't we hear about conservatives shunning friends and relatives who supported Hillary Clinton? After all, almost every conservative considered Clinton to be ethically and morally challenged. And most believed that another four years of left-wing rule would complete what Barack Obama promised he would do in 2008 if he were elected president -- "fundamentally (transform) the United States of America." In other words, conservatives were not one whit less fearful of Clinton and the Democrats than Democrats were of Trump and Republicans. Yet virtually no conservatives cut off contact with friends, let alone parents, who supported Clinton. Here are 10 reasons left-wingers cut Trump voters from their lives. 1. Just like our universities shut out conservative ideas and speakers, more and more individuals on the left now shut out conservative friends and relatives as well as conservative ideas. 2. Many, if not most, leftists have been indoctrinated with leftism their entire lives. This is easily shown. There are far more conservatives who read articles, listen to and watch broadcasts of the left and have studied under left-wing teachers than there are people on the left who have read, listened to or watched anything of the right or taken classes with conservative instructors. As a result, those on the left really believe that those on the right are all SIXHIRB: sexist, intolerant, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, racist and bigoted. Not to mention misogynistic and transphobic. 3. Most left-wing positions are emotion-based. That's a major reason people who hold leftist views will sever relations with people they previously cared for or even loved. Their emotions (in this case, irrational fear and hatred) simply overwhelm them. 4. Since Karl Marx, leftists have loved ideas more than people. All Trump voters who have been cut off by children, in-laws and lifelong friends now know how true that is. 5. People on the right think that most people on the left are wrong; people on the left think that most people on the right are evil. Decades of labeling conservative positions as "hateful" and labeling conservative individuals as "sexist," "intolerant," "xenophobic," "homophobic," "racist" and "bigoted" have had their desired effect. 6. The left associates human decency not so much with personal integrity as with having correct -- i.e. progressive -- political positions. Therefore, if you don't hold progressive positions, you lack decency. Ask your left-wing friends if they'd rather their high school son or daughter cheat on tests or support Trump. 7. Most individuals on the left are irreligious, so the commandment "Honor your father and your mother" means nothing to those who have cut off relations with parents because they voted for Trump. 8. Unlike conservatives, politics gives most leftists' lives meaning. Climate change is a good example. For leftists, fighting carbon emissions means saving human existence on Earth. Now, how often does anyone get a chance to literally save the world? Therefore, to most leftists, if you voted for Trump, you have both negated their reason for living and are literally destroying planet Earth. Why would they have Thanksgiving or Christmas with such a person? 9. The left tends toward the totalitarian. And every totalitarian ideology seeks to weaken the bonds between children and parents. The left seeks to dilute parental authority and replace it with school authority and government authority. So when your children sever their bond with you because you voted for Trump, they are acting like the good totalitarians the left has molded. 10. While there are kind and mean individuals on both sides of the political spectrum, as a result of all of the above, there are more mean people on the left than on the right. What other word than "mean" would anyone use to describe a daughter who banished her parents from their grandchildren's lives because of their vote? I wish none of this were true. But there is a way to prove me wrong: Re-friend your friends and relatives who voted for Trump, and tell everyone who has ended relations with family members -- especially with parents -- to reach out to them and welcome them back into their lives. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3)  Jimmy Carter: US must recognize a Palestinian state Former US president urges Obama administration to push for a UN Security Council resolution "laying out the parameters for resolving the conflict." Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has called on the outgoing Obama administration to take steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state before leaving office in January. The 39th US president made the call in an op-edpublished Monday in the New York Times under the title "America Must Recognize Palestine." "We do not yet know the policy of the next administration toward Israel and Palestine, but we do know that the current administration is keen on achieving a two state solution," Carter wrote. "That prospect is now in grave doubt," Carter said, pointing toward the uncertainty surrounding incoming US President-elect Donald Trump's exact policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Carter urged the US to push for a UN Security Council resolution "laying out the parameters for resolving the conflict." The resolution, he added, should "reaffirm the illegality of all Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 borders, while leaving open the possibility that the parties could negotiate modifications." Carter, who in recent year has been viewed as harboring an anti-Israel stance, asserted that his "primary foreign policy goal of my life has been to help bring peace to Israel and its neighbors." In his op-ed, Carter praised the Obama administration as well as other previous administrations for their role in trying to reach a peace deal, but said that the prospects of such a agreement are now growing slim. He made the charge placing the onus on Israel, and criticizing Jerusalem's policies without mention of Palestinian terrorism or Palestinian rejections of past offers. "Israel is building more and more settlements, displacing Palestinians and entrenching its occupation of Palestinian lands," he charged. This process, Carter claimed, will bring about "a one-state reality that could destroy Israeli democracy and will result in intensifying international condemnation of Israel." American recognition of an independent Palestinian state will make it easier for other countries to follow suit, Carter argued. "I fear for the spirit of Camp David. We must not squander this chance," he said in reference to the 1978 peace accord between Israel and Egypt that was signed during his presidency. Israel has urged outgoing US President Barack Obama against backing any such attempt to place outside influence on the conflict in the final weeks of his term. Carter has been one of Israel's most ardent critics in recent years and last year President Reuven Rivlin refused to meet him when he visited the region. An Israeli diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post's Hebrew sister publication Ma'ariv at the time, that the Foreign Ministry recommended Rivlin not meet with Carter, in order to transmit the message that those who harm Israel will not meet with the president. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4)  Give Our Fighting Men and Women the Equipment They Need For less than half the cost of a Navy destroyer, we can give all our infantrymen better, lifesaving materiel. By ROBERT H. SCALES I recently spent two days with leaders from the Seventh Marine Regiment, the “Rippers,” at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, also known as 29 Palms, in Southern California. I was the last speaker before they split for leave, then deployment to the Middle East just a few weeks before the holidays. But what I took away from my visit with those who are “the first to fight” was far more important than what I said. Whether the nation knows it or not, these incredible young men and women are going to war. And they are fully aware of war and its consequences. My escort officer, a bright young lieutenant colonel, was still shaken by the experience of serving as survival assistance officer to a family whose son was among 12 Marines who died in a tragic helicopter collision last January in Hawaii. A young Marine captain reminded me that the week before three American soldiers were gunned down at a check point in Jordan, one Middle Eastern country among many that will soon host members of his regiment. No matter where they are deployed, these men and women are full of the enthusiasm, grit and confidence that make American fighting forces so lethal. My favorite was Warrant Officer (Gunner) Keith Marine (no, really, that’s his name). According to his regiment’s commander, Gunner Marine is the finest infantryman in the Marine Corps. He’s small, wiry, tough, full of wisdom and more than willing to lecture me on the complexities of the infantryman’s art. If I were an Islamic State terrorist I wouldn’t want him deployed anywhere near me. Yet while I know Gunner Marine is part of the best trained and equipped fighting force in the world, I wonder if there isn’t more we can do for him and his comrades. My hope is that when allocating defense dollars, President-elect Trump, the next defense secretary and the new Congress will pay particular attention to the needs of men like Gunner Marine, the close-combat soldiers and Marines who do most of the actual fighting. Too often these front-line warriors are at the back of the line when our elected officials are debating what will or will not keep them alive. Too many Marines die by ambush. Why can’t we buy them enough drones to hover constantly over them while on patrol? We spend over $100 million per fighter plane and millions more to train a single fighter pilot. Yet the last time a fighter pilot was killed in air-to-air combat was during the Vietnam War. By contrast, according to my analysis of recent Pentagon figures, the U.S. spends less than 1% of its military budget to equip and train men like Gunner Marine and his buddies. The last time a front-line soldier died in combat? Sadly, last week. On Thanksgiving Day a U.S. Special Forces soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device in northern Syria in the fight against ISIS. Teenagers tweet a zillion times a day, but when they join the Marine Corps they go to war virtually disconnected from their buddies. If rag pickers in Mumbai have cellphones, why can’t we give every infantryman a cellphone so he can avoid the terrors of isolation on the battlefield? Commercial and military pilots are required to spend hours in multimillion-dollar simulators that replicate situations too hazardous to deal with in the air. So why can’t young infantrymen be exposed to simulated combat environments before they are immersed in the most deadly and terror-filled experiences on the planet? Mr. Trump vows to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps. Thank you. But the new administration must match bigger numbers with better materiel that will help keep our infantrymen alive. That includes sensors, night-vision devices, shoulder-fired antitank and antiaircraft missiles and new, lighter body armor. What is needed is relatively cheap. We can, for instance, issue every infantryman a rifle superior to the Soviet models in the hands of our enemies for the cost of a single F-35 fighter. A fully equipped infantryman costs about $20,000. Think how dominant we can make this same soldier or Marine for $50,000. That comes to $1.5 billion, half the cost of a Navy destroyer. So, Mr. Trump, please remember Gunner Marine and his mates when you sit down with your national security staff to prepare for tomorrow’s wars. He’s cheap. And well worth the expense. Maj. Gen. Scales retired from active duty in 2000 as commandant of the Army War College. He is the author of “Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk” (Naval Institute Press, 2016). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++5) Will Political Reality Derail Markets’ Bet on Donald Trump? Investors seem to assume that two risks won’t short-circuit the good times: the budget deficit and possibility of a trade war By GERALD F. SEIB   So far, the financial markets love the coming Donald Trump presidency, and why not? They look at the combination of a big tax cut, big infrastructure spending and lower regulations and see economic stimulus all around—big-league stimulus, as the president-elect might say. Less obvious is the implicit assumption the markets are making that two looming problems with all this stimulation won’t short-circuit the good times. The first is that Mr.Trump won’t set off a crippling global trade war with some of his more protectionist impulses, and the second is that the federal budget deficit won’t grow into the kind of problem that can derail everything else. So far, though, optimism prevails, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen more than 4% since Election Day. But are the markets making a safe bet? Will a Trump administration get the economic stimulus it envisions without the trade and deficit drags that could pull it down? Let’s look at each element in turn: TAX CUTS: The climate for a big tax cut next year will be better than at any time since the second set of President George W. Bush’s cuts passed Congress in 2003. That’s because Republicans have full control of all the levers of government—presidency, House and Senate—for the first time in a decade. That doesn’t mean a tax cut is certain. Republicans have a working majority in the House, but barely hung on to their majority in the Senate. They have 51 seats there now, and probably will have 52 after a Senate runoff in Louisiana. Given that tax bills can pass the Senate with a simple majority that might be enough. Still, with likely across-the-board Democratic opposition, it also leaves little margin for error. Historical reminder: Vice President Dick Cheney had to cast the tie breaking vote to get that 2003 tax cut through a Republican Congress. INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING: In theory, everybody in Washington loves more infrastructure spending. In reality, there are enormous differences, between parties and within the GOP, on how to pay for it.Chances for Republican unity were enhanced considerably when the Trump team scaled back its tax cut plan late in the campaign to bring it closer to the blueprint drawn up by House Speaker Paul Ryan. There remain important differences on offsetting items to reduce the deficit impact, but chances for a significant tax cut are pretty good. Some Republicans, especially House conservatives, aren’t nearly as enthused as Mr. Trump seems to be about using deficit spending to improve roads, bridges and airports—a reality he seemed to acknowledge in an interview with the New York Times last week when he said his infrastructure plan is “not a very Republican thing.” Can Mr. Trump use Republican votes to pass a big tax cut and then Democratic votes to get a big infrastructure plan through? Perhaps that is what an unorthodox president who essentially ran as an independent can do. But it will be trickier than it looks on the potholed surface. LOWER REGULATIONS: A rollback of regulations may be the safest bet of all, simply because the executive branch can largely act on its own. Already, the expectation that bank regulations will ease, if only through looser enforcement, has helped drive up bank stocks. Beyond that, environmental regulations top the business wish list; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce points to ozone rules, power plant emission requirements and clean-water regulations as areas where it would like changes. A word of caution, though: Changing regulations takes time, and lawsuits inevitably will tie up some changes in court. TRADE WARS: This may be the biggest question mark. Loose campaign talk about imposing big tariffs on goods coming from China and Mexico raised fears of a global trade war that would drag down economic activity all around. Since the election, Mr. Trump has reiterated his promise to pull the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pending free-trade agreement in Asia. But other trade talk has softened. Trump rhetoric has focused more toward renegotiating elements of the North American Free Trade Agreement than on simply bolting from it, and the talk of unilaterally imposing big, protectionist tariffs has faded. Trade tensions still lie ahead, and China is stepping into the free-trade void in Asia quite nicely, to the potential detriment of American companies. But visions of an all-out trade war aren’t as vivid as some feared. DEFICITS: This is the big potential showstopper for the Trump stimulus. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that Trump’s plans would add $5.3 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade. House Republicans, in particular, don’t like that kind of number, and that has the potential to mess with both tax-cut and infrastructure plans. Look for a moment of truth in mid-2017, when a Republican president and a Republican Congress have to agree on a plan to raise the federal debt ceiling or face a market-rattling default on American debt.