I have a fairly large number of subscribers and upwards to more than one third do open these memos each day.. I try to send two out, one in the morning and then one later in the day for two reasons:
a) it cuts down on the length of each and
b) I try to capture commentary of topical day's events.
I also often re-send what I believe is something of real interest and value so more readers will not miss it and this is why I am res-ending this lucid link: https://www.realclearpolitics.
Rubin has captured the essence of why I refer to myself as a conservative and not a Republican. A true conservative is what a liberal once was but is no longer. Progressiveness has morphed into something else that I am irreversibly against and find repugnant.
I do not believe what the far left espouses, how it favors government intrusion and treats the individual. I am a free thinker and am perfectly happy to allow others that sacred privilege. I am not formally religious but I do not scoff at those who are as long as they profess to be religious and then do not engage in hypocrisy, ie. The Elmer Gantry's.
I firmly believe government has a responsibility to extend the benefits that can accrue to all Americans as far and wide as possible but I also believe the cost should not be born by those who come after me. I am a pay as you go conservative and that means there are limits to everything.
The only thing we are entitled to is the right to fail and succeed, the right to pursue happiness and the right to be free. All the other entitlements are mythical as long as we are unwilling to pay for them because they are basically given to secure votes.
I believe the first function of government is to protect and the second is to encourage commerce because I also believe capitalism does more for more than any other economic system.
I also believe America started going off the tracks back in Wilson's reign and we have "progressed" in ways that are harmful to what our founders intended. If Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington etc. were to return they would be pleased at our growth, at our prosperity at how technology has brought comforts, eliminated disease etc.
I also believe they would be appalled at government encroachment , duplicity, and how politics has taken a direction they would consider frightening. I believe they would be shocked at American education and our abysmal ignorance of what being an American means.
I believe, if they were to go on many American campuses and espouse what they believed in and were shouted down by other students and treated like infidels, by cowardly administrators they would actually cry, as they should.
Finally, I believe they would understand Trump's election as the deplorable's backlash to "progressivism" and applaud. The would take a modicum of comfort in the fact that everything Obama did, by telling us he had a pen and a phone, was being rejected.
So I hope you listen to Rubin's explanation of why he left the left and think about his reasoning. I also hope you have or will read Kim Strassel's book about intimidation. This young lady is courageous and a true defender of what our nation is all about and what our founders intended.
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Tobin shoots down those who believe Trump's renouncing of The Iran Deal threatens Israel. In fact, virtually everything Obama did in The Middle East threatened not only Israel but also America.
A foreign policy based on reality is far less dangerous than one based on pacifying a bully. Weakness begets danger but Democrats , for some strange reason, prefer weakness. (See 1 below.)
Now John Kerry has decided to become Obama's surrogate lobbyist for Iran. Disgusting.
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Livermore, Ca. Mayor understands Trump and the head in the sand Democrats. (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1)
Did Trump endanger Israel?
Withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal raised tensions, but it’s Iran that’s more isolated and weaker now, not Israel.
(May 11, 2018 / JNS) While the government of Israel and most of its people cheered when U.S. President Donald Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, others worried that the Jewish state would be the first suffer from the decision. That view seemed to be vindicated when, within a day, Iran launched its first direct attack on Israel from its military bases in Syria. The Iranian rockets were either intercepted or fell short and landed in Syria. But there are those who are interpreting that barrage—and the subsequent Israeli retaliation—as an indication that Trump has made Israel more vulnerable and increased the chances of war.
But truth is quite the opposite. Far from the U.S. exit of the deal increasing the peril to Israel, it was the nuclear pact itself that brought Tehran’s forces to Israel’s doorstep and raised the possibility of war. Trump’s move got rid of any theoretical restraints from Israel’s ability to strike, and the results were devastating for the Iranians. Equally important, the reaction to the Israeli attack from Russia—an ally of the United States, Europe and of Iran—spoke volumes about the growing problems in Tehran. While the situation is still both dangerous and fluid, thanks to the strength being shown by America and Israel, Iran is starting to lose ground in the region for the first time since the Obama administration began its push for détente with the Islamist regime.
Iran’s ability to threaten Israel from Syria has rightly raised fears of a new regional war in the last year. But in assessing the danger that this situation has created—and whether or not Trump is making it worse—it’s important to note how the situation arrived at this point.
The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 that toppled the Saddam Hussein regime began the process by which Iran’s goal of regional hegemony became a realistic project. With its principle rival removed and the Shi’ite majority allied to Tehran empowered in Iraq, Iran immediately became stronger. That got even worse after the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, which created a power vacuum filled by ISIS and Iran. But it was not until 2013, when the United States began to seek a nuclear deal in earnest that Iran’s position fundamentally changed.
At that point in time, Iran was completely isolated. With its economy tottering, Tehran was vulnerable; nevertheless, President Barack Obama provided it a lifeline when he demonstrated his eagerness for a nuclear deal at virtually any price. Iran benefited from negotiations during which America made concession after concession, effectively legalizing the Iranian nuclear program. A desire not to scare the Iranians away from the talks also led to a series of catastrophic American decisions about Syria.
While the world remembers Obama’s retreat from his “red line” threat to the Bashar Assad regime, the context for the U.S. decision not to punish the beleaguered Syrian government—and instead give the Russians carte blanch there—was the administration’s worry about alienating Syria’s Iranian ally. By staying out of Syria and handing over responsibility for eliminating chemical weapons there to Moscow, Obama put the nail in the coffin of any hopes of defeating Assad. U.S. timidity was a signal for both Moscow and Tehran to step up their intervention in Syria. That ensured victory for Assad’s allies as Iran’s Hezbollah auxiliaries and own forces made themselves at home in Syria after a war in which Assad’s atrocities drove millions from their homes and killed hundreds of thousands. By 2017, the Iranians were already building bases there.
The cross-border sparring between Israel and Iran didn’t start this week. But the consequences of actually firing on Israel have not been to Iran’s advantage. That move not only provoked Israel to hit back and take out much of their military capabilities, it also demonstrated that the Iranians are the ones who remain truly isolated.
Iran’s main goal right now is to separate the United States from its allies. That’s why it hasn’t—contrary to the fears of Obama loyalists and Trump critics—restarted its race for a nuclear weapon. The attack on Israel was a test to see how aggressively Israel would respond and whether the Europeans would criticize the Jewish state for defending itself. But those hopes were dashed when the Europeans condemned Iran. Israel’s actions were also strongly supported by the United States and also by Sunni Arab nations that fear Iran as much as the Israelis.
Even more troubling for the Iranians was the reaction from Russia. Moscow not only didn’t blast the Israelis for hitting their ally, but announced that it wouldn’t be supplying Iran’s Syrian allies with advanced S-300 missiles. That’s a sign that Tehran may be losing the diplomatic shield that has allowed it to operate with impunity in Damascus.
Is this the start of a turning of the tide in which Iran’s position will grow even weaker? That depends on whether Trump is serious about re-imposing sanctions and forcing Europe to decide whether they want to do business with Iran or maintain commercial relations with the United States. It’s also vital that he not withdraw U.S. troops from Eastern Syria, where they are fighting ISIS. The ground won from the Islamists cannot be handed over to Damascus or Tehran.
With its finances in tatters, a restive populace straining under difficult economic conditions and the yoke of a brutal theocracy, the ayatollah’s regime is in trouble. It can’t afford to defy the world and try to build a bomb, and it also knows that a U.S. administration no longer interested in creating daylight between its position and that of the Jewish state’s will not restrain Netanyahu’s counter-attacks.
The nuclear deal enriched and empowered Iran, giving it both the opportunity and cash to threatened Israel’s security. America’s decision to withdraw will make it poorer and, as we’ve already seen, more cut off. Though Trump will have to continue to prove that he understands the need to keep the pressure up, the first days after his announcement have already shown that it’s Iran that is getting weaker as a result of this move, not Israel.
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2) The mayor of Livermore California explains Trump’s
Could there be another human being on this earth who so
desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain?
2) The mayor of Livermore California explains Trump’s
popularity and success. This is perhaps the best
explanation for Trump's popularity ....
Marshall is a registered Democrat and was elected mayor
of Livermore, CA.. He ran on the democratic ticket as he knew a Bay Area city would never vote for a Republican. He is as conservative as they come. He wrote the following:
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Trump’s 'lack of decorum, dignity, and statesmanship'
By Marshall Kamena, Mayor of Livermore, CA.
My Leftist friends (as well as many ardent
#NeverTrumpers) constantly ask me if I’m not bothered by Donald Trump’s lack of decorum. They ask if I don’t
think his tweets are “beneath the dignity of the
office.”
Here’s my answer: We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency.
We tried statesmanship
Could there be another human being on this earth who so
desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain?
We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being
ever than Mitt Romney?
And the results were always the same. This is because,
while we were playing by the rules of dignity, collegiality and propriety, the Left has been, for the past 60 years, engaged in a knife fight where the only rules are those of Saul Alinsky and the Chicago mob.
I don’t find anything “dignified,” “collegial or “proper” about Barack Obama’s lying about what went down on the streets of Ferguson in order to ramp up racial hatreds because racial hatreds serve the Democratic Party.
I don’t see anything “dignified” in lying about the deaths of four
Americans in Benghazi and imprisoning an innocent filmmaker to
cover your tracks.
I don’t see anything “statesman-like” in weaponizing the IRS to be used to destroy your political opponents and any dissent.
Yes, Obama was “articulate” and “polished” but in no way was
he in the least bit “dignified,” “collegial” or “proper.”
The Left has been engaged in a war against America since
the rise of the Children of the ‘60s. To them, it has been an
all-out war where nothing is held sacred and nothing is seen
as beyond the pale..
It has been a war they’ve fought with violence, the threat of
violence, demagoguery and lies from day one – the violent
take-over of the universities – till today.
The problem is that, through these years, the Left has been
the only side fighting this war. While the Left has been taking a knife to anyone who stands in their way, the Right has continued to act with dignity, collegiality and propriety.
With Donald Trump, this all has come to an end. Donald Trump is America ’s first wartime president in the Culture War.
During wartime, things like “dignity” and “collegiality” simply aren’t the most essential qualities one looks for in their warriors.
Ulysses Grant was a drunk whose behavior in peacetime might well have seen him drummed out of the Army for conduct unbecoming.
Had Abraham Lincoln applied the peacetime rules of propriety and booted Grant the Democrats might well still be holding their slaves today. Lincoln rightly recognized that, “I cannot spare this man. He fights.”
General George Patton was a vulgar-talking.. In peacetime, this might have seen him stripped of rank. But, had Franklin Roosevelt applied the normal rules of decorum then, Hitler and the Socialists would barely be five decades into their thousand-year Reich.
Trump is fighting. And what’s particularly delicious is that, like Patton standing over the battlefield as his tanks obliterated Rommel’s, he’s shouting, “You magnificent bastards, I read your book!”
That is just the icing on the cake, but it’s wonderful to see that not only is Trump fighting, he’s defeating the Left using their own tactics. That book is Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals – a book so essential to the Liberals’ war against America that it is and was the playbook for the entire Obama administration and the subject of Hillary Clinton’s senior thesis.
It is a book of such pure evil, that, just as the rest of us would dedicate our book to those we most love or those to whom we are most indebted, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.
Trump’s tweets may seem rash and unconsidered but, in reality,
he is doing exactly what Alinsky suggested his followers do. First, instead of going after “the fake media” — and they are so fake that they have literally gotten every single significant story of the past 60 years not just wrong, but diametrically opposed to the truth, from the Tet Offensive to Benghazi, to what really happened on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri — Trump isolated CNN.. He made it personal.
Then, just as Alinsky suggests, he employs ridicule which
Alinsky described as “the most powerful weapon of all.”... Most
importantly, Trump’s tweets have put CNN in an untenable and position. ... They need to respond.
This leaves them with only two choices. They can either
“go high” (as Hillary would disingenuously declare of herself and the fake news would disingenuously report as the truth) and begin to honestly and accurately report the news or they can double-down on their usual tactics and hope to defeat Trump with twice their usual hysteria and demagoguery. The problem for CNN (et al.) with the former is that, if they were to start honestly reporting the news, that would be the end of the
Democratic Party they serve. It is nothing but the incessant use of fake news (read: propaganda) that keeps the Left alive.
Imagine, for example, if CNN had honestly and accurately reported then-candidate Barack Obama’s close ties to foreign terrorists (Rashid Khalidi), domestic terrorists (William Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn), the mafia (Tony Rezko) or the true evils of his spiritual mentor, Jeremiah Wright’s church.
Imagine if they had honestly and accurately conveyed the evils
of the Obama administration’s weaponizing of the IRS to be used
against their political opponents or his running of guns to the Mexican cartels or the truth about the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the Obama administration’s cover-up.
So, to my friends on the Left — and the #NeverTrumpers as well — do I wish we lived in a time when our president could be “collegial” and “dignified” and “proper”? Of course I do.
These aren’t those times. This is war. And it’s a war that the Left has been fighting without opposition for the past 50 years.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++So, say anything you want about this president - I get it - he can be vulgar he can be crude, he can be undignified at times. I don’t care. I can’t spare this man. He fights for America
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