;
I am constantly bemused by the mass media who chided Trump for thinking he was competent enough to run for president when all he had, by way of gravitas, (Cokie Roberts just loves that word) was his TV successes, an art of the deal book and a few buildings and golf courses.
Now the headlines and liberal news and TV reporters are gaga over Oprah. Go figure.
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The final end of my car brake saga. (See 1 below.)
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Apparently Trump pulled the plug on Bannon's support by telling, ' you support either me and my son or him.' Once the Mercer's folded, Bannon was finished. Politics is a nasty business and when you step in your own excrement and are left without funding and friends it is hard to wash away the stench. Bannon is damaged goods and unlikely to make a recovery because he is brash, not well liked. and now has made powerful enemies
Meanwhile, Trump is seeking a big deal regarding illegal immigration and a wall. Democrats are not likely to agree but they are out there on the limb Trump put them on and for all to see. Yeah, crazy like a Fox. Trump likes scale not something tiny. He reminded Little Rubio about this, remember?
To understand Trump, one must not forget he is from New York, is brash, does not suffer fools easily and has been in tough situations before and always has come out fighting, and mostly winning.
Because he is not your typical Central Casting politician, many standard politicians, are slowly beginning to understand where he is coming from but the mass media continues to lag because of their bruised egos and liberal bias which is part of their DNA.
The various Journalism Departments of our Colleges and Universities are full of left wing professors and, like a magnet, attract innocents of the same ilk. So it is little wonder why they do not understand Trump and even think he is not their equal. They live in their cocoon of smugness and superiority. I always remind my memo readers "Never believe you can drink your own bath water."
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Though Elliott Abrams did not write this I believe he would agree. (See 2 below.)
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Lynn and I wanted to relax after Monday night's football game so we watched a movie we had received from Netflix, entitled "The Stoning of Soraya M," not knowing that is was about a true story that took place in a small village in Iran.
I will not give the story line away but as I watched it I kept thinking of the witch hunt going on in our own Capital against Trump and believe there are parallels.
Russia's Gulag's are full of people who were declared insane because they were different and protested against the ruling class and sought to change the system.
In America we have not reached the barbaric level called for and practiced by the peaceful Muslim society which worships and follows the dictates of The Koran but we seem to be heading in that direction. When the hysterical Maxine Waters' of this country are allowed to supplant the Martin Luther King's then we will have proven Shakespeare was right when he wrote: " there is something rotten in Denmark."
What most concerns me is that many radical nations like the Saudis, a large segment of Iranians are beginning to turn toward and/or demand a form of democracy and what are we doing? We are forgetting the blessings of democracy. We don't teach it, we don't practice it and we don't care to observe its minor socially accepted and historical dictates. Far too many of the next generation want Socialism and do not even understand its lousy history and perils.
Obama 's eight years opened the suppressed bitterness and discord that has been building and residing in Pandora's box. He did everything imaginable to stir matters up even further. He attacked our police, he rid the military of proven battle tested commanders who disagreed with his foolishness, he told the world we were not special and went around apologizing for our past. He gave illegal largess to our sworn enemies and looked the other way as Russia made enormous inroads they had sought since Stalin. Domestically he transferred private stock and bond wealth to the government, supported green type companies that bankrupted and his union friends. He wrecked the health care system and presided over one of the weakest economic periods in recent history.
He talked about shovel ready projects and spent millions on signs but nothing came of it because he was a dreaming incompetent with a shovel ready silver tongue.
No wonder many of our uninformed , easily manipulated citizens are upset with Capitalism. It has been strangled by those with ideas that do not work, have been proven wrong every time they have been tried, by capacious attitudes/policies among those who run our major public businesses and crushed by government interference.
Currently, Trump is trying to right the ship of state but the anti-Trump crowd, which includes the mass media, are virtually opposed to everything he tries and his own personality gets in his way as well.
I still have faith if the "deplorables" are allowed to be free of the burdens imposed on them by those who believe big and distant government is the solution to everything, we might get back on course but then that spiraling debt remains a steel trap. Time will tell.
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Dick
_________________________
1)Ms. Mary T Barra, CEO January 10, 2018
General Motors
300 Renaissance Center
Detroit, Mi 48265
Dear Ms Barra:
Today I received a call from your customer representative,
Ms. Danielle, and was apprised that the local Crtiz dealer’s representative
said the defective brake booster they replaced with an equally deficient brake
booster was out of warranty and they could do nothing else.
I expected no less because they told me that some months ago
when I brought my car in for a normal maintenance and I brought up the squeaky
brake issue again. I also have dealt
with enough dealerships, in my 60 plus years of driving, they are only
interested in selling cars not keeping satisfied customers
Ms. Danielle said she would take the matter up with someone
at General Motors and I told her there was no need because after this
experience and our previous one with our son’s Oldsmobile’s transmission issues
(mentioned in a previous letter) I would not be buying any more General Motors
cars.
Like our federal government, Gen. Motors is big and
therefore distant. Sad but that is the downside of capitalism and companies who
have prospered and then lose touch. Eastman Kodak, IBM, Procter & Gamble ,
Xerox, Bausch and Lomb and more recently, GE, for a variety of unrelated reasons,
have lost their MO JO.
Wishing you a year of good health.
I remain,
Sincerely,
“Squeaky Brake” Dick
Berkowitz
6 Pineside Lane
Savannah, Ga. 31411
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2)POLITICO Magazine
On Iran, Trump Should Be Like Reagan
The president can sanction Iran while strengthening the nuclear deal. History shows it can be done.
In just three days, President Donald Trump must once again decide what to do about the much-debated Iran nuclear deal. Most are framing his choice as a binary one: Kill it or keep it? Although the emergence of a popular uprising against the Iranian regime undoubtedly complicates the politics of Trump’s decision, the president should reject such false choices and find a path that can sustain broad consensus at home and abroad. There is always a middle path to discover in foreign policy—and, in this case, a path that can uphold American values, defend our national security and keep our commitments to close allies.
This basic idea is not ours alone; it can be credited to President Ronald Reagan, who successfully negotiated a major arms control agreement with the Soviet Union—all while publicly calling it an “evil empire,” building up America’s strategic deterrence, promoting regime change and applying economic pressure tied to the Soviet record on human rights.
Republicans and Democrats may differ over the strengths and weaknesses of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran nuclear deal is formally known. But the White House, Congress and our allies share legitimate concerns—most significantly, the difficulty of fully verifying Iran’s compliance with the agreement. Iran’s ballistic missile program, which was not part of the JCPOA, continues to make alarming progress. And so-called sunset provisions in the deal could allow Iran to build a more robust uranium enrichment capability in a few short years, once certain restrictions expire.
But where we should not differ is in our commitment to core American values—human rights and democracy. It is inside this commitment where we can find a way forward together.
In Iran today, people have been taking to the streets to denounce a regime that diverts the resources of its population toward terrorism, regional destabilization and proliferation while denying its citizens the basic values of freedom and democracy the West takes for granted. The Iranian people, it appears, have finally had enough of a financial system that launders their small but hard-earned wages to export terror, Shia militias and missiles to foreign lands. They’ve had enough of a regime that cares more about investing in the religious trusts—known in Farsi as bonyads—and the very same Revolutionary Guard now deployed against them.
The Iranian protesters are making a statement and we should not ignore it. The president would be well within his rights under the JCPOA and international law to follow Reagan’s example and answer them with action. Just as the Iranian regime feels free to spread its power and reach within the region notwithstanding the JCPOA, so should the United States and Europe feel free to impose sanctions tied to human rights, terror and missiles notwithstanding the same.
The sanctions relief provided under the JCPOA should not be interpreted as a blanket immunity for Iranian officials, banks and other government instrumentalities to expand their illicit activities. If such a person or entity is found to be connected to the Revolutionary Guard, terrorism, missile proliferation and human rights abuses, it most certainly can and should be subject to sanctions—even if sanctions for that person or entity were initially suspended by the JCPOA.
The JCPOA must not prevent us from fulfilling our international obligations on human rights, terrorism and proliferation. It cannot handcuff the United States and its allies from using all available means of state power to stop these illicit activities. Indeed, the American people were repeatedly assured by then-Secretary of State John Kerry that nothing in the JCPOA precluded the United States from imposing sanctions for such non-nuclear activities.
Many international agreements throughout history were hatched by adopting vague language that could be interpreted in different ways by different parties. That is especially true for arms-control agreements, and the JCPOA is no exception. The administration would be wise to try to convince the Europeans that non-nuclear sanctions are an acceptable and highly effective way of raising both the internal and external costs to the Iranian regime for its aggressive behavior.
Of course, the Iranian dictators won’t like it. They might even claim such sanctions violate the nuclear deal and threaten to abandon their commitments. But they would be wrong—and they alone would bear the blame and consequences of exiting the JCPOA.
Next week’s presidential decision needs to rise above partisanship in a manner that galvanizes the support of the free world. Silence is not an option, nor is keeping money flowing to regime officials, banks and government entities that suppress the basic rights of the Iranian people. Those managing the Iranian economy and those financial institutions in Iran that seek to do business with the international community should know they will pay a price for engaging in illicit behavior.
Richard Goldberg, an architect of congressionally enacted sanctions against Iran, is senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Ambassador Dennis B. Ross, former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the William Davidson distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
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