Buy American - Don't Destroy America.
And:
AG Barr: 500 Investigations Underway Into Riots. Antifa Involved, They Want To ‘Tear Down’ The U.S.
And:
Black Lives Matter Leader Threatens to Burn the Country Down
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As between the two if I have to only have one and there is not theft I will take results:
What’s more important in a president? Policy or character?
John Bolton’s tell-all book reminds the pro-Israel community of the choice Trump poses for them. But like most Democrats, they care more about issues than character flaws.
For Republicans and many supporters of Israel, former National Security Advisor John Bolton went from hero to zero in the last year. For opponents of President Donald Trump, it’s different. They always intensely disliked the veteran policy wonk and deeply resent his refusal to help them impeach the president, but are now prepared to use the ammunition he’s given them to defeat Trump in November.
Bolton’s tell-all memoir, The Room Where It Happened, has put him at the center of the national conversation as his scathing denunciations of the president as unfit for office and a threat to the republic were more bad news for a Trump campaign that has already had more than its share of setbacks this year. But the interesting question to ask about Bolton’s broadside is not so much about the highly unflattering behind-the-scenes details that he relates about his former boss, egregious though some of them may be.
Rather, the importance of this episode rests on the way it answers a question that Trump’s detractors are continually asking of his supporters. They don’t understand how it is possible for anyone to support a man who would behave or speak the way Trump does.
Many Trump supporters do delight in the way he trolls opponents and his willingness to fight dirty against liberals in a way that more gentlemanly Republicans would never consider. But Trump’s 90 percent approval ratings from Republicans are a product of their affection for Trump’s policies and fear of what will happen if the Democrats win. As far as they are concerned, the importance of Trump’s foibles and sometimes-indefensible behavior pales in comparison to what he has accomplished and what he has prevented the Democrats from doing.
Bolton’s book reminds us that conservatives are now prioritizing policy over character. And there is no group about which that is truer than the pro-Israel conservatives who were fans of Bolton.
A foreign-policy hawk, Bolton served in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush before his stormy 17 months with Trump. His prickly personality and outsized ego earned him many enemies. The same is true about his role in the U.S. decision to launch the Iraq war and his support for an aggressive stand against Iran.
But Bolton has always been a favorite of the pro-Israel crowd.
That dates back to his time in the administration of the first President Bush, when he led the successful U.S. effort to get the United Nations to rescind its infamous “Zionism is Racism” resolution. During his short tenure as U.N. ambassador, he also earned the affection of friends of the Jewish state.
That’s why pro-Israel conservatives openly campaigned to get Trump to name Bolton as either secretary of state or national security advisor, eventually getting their way when he was named to the latter post in April 2018. Some of Trump’s first appointees, such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, played the “adults” in the room seeking to prevent the president from keeping his pledges to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and to move the U.S. embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But with Bolton as national security advisor and Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, Jewish conservatives had a “dream team” that enabled Trump to keep both promises.
Bolton, however, had neither the patience nor the political skill to get along with Trump. He also was far more hawkish than the president on a number of issues. Bolton was appalled by Trump’s callous attitude towards traditional allies, his contempt for human-rights concerns, his desire to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and his reluctance to use force to hit back against Iranian provocations.
Some of Bolton’s criticisms are on target, especially those about Trump’s attitude towards Chinese atrocities and the consequences of his indifference to the ongoing catastrophe in Syria. But Trump was right to resist Bolton’s desire to escalate the conflict with Iran since he correctly realized that doing so would serve Tehran’s interests more than that of America’s.
It was that difference that led to Bolton being forced out, and that grievance, coupled with his contempt for the president’s conduct, has led him now to insist that even someone like former Vice President Joe Biden would be preferable to Trump.
But even if the quarter of Jews who voted for Trump in 2016 and will do so again this year agreed with Bolton about the president’s defects, it’s clear that the overwhelming majority of them value policy over character.
They believe that having a president who stands solidly with Israel—rather than one that pressures it and seeks to “save it from itself,” and who has reversed Barack Obama’s appeasement of Iran—is more important than Trump’s flaws. The vast majority of Republicans and conservatives agree since they think Trump has kept other promises about conservative judges, deregulation and taxes, which outweigh his foibles and missteps.
While Democrats concur with Bolton that Trump is especially bad, they made the same calculation when they loyally supported Bill Clinton in spite of his character flaws and misbehavior. And they are making the same calculation by sticking with Biden in spite of his shortcomings and by the way they largely dismissed out of hand the sexual-misconduct accusation lodged against him by a former staffer. In both instances, they made it clear that ideology, as well as their belief that their party must take back control of the government, is more important than any other consideration. As one liberal columnist wrote in The Nation earlier this year, she would vote for Biden even if she learned that he “boiled babies and ate them.” That kind of thinking dominates both parties this year.
So while Bolton has added to the catalogue of Trump’s shortcomings, he won’t change many minds. Though Americans like to talk about public virtue, when push comes to shove, both pro-Israel Republicans and liberals Democrats prefer policy to character.
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Americans fed up and tired.
Shocker! Poll Shows Americans are Unhappy
We’re tired of the pandemic. We’re tired of the political unrest. And we’re really tired of the riots. But, back up, let’s get rid of the riots. Are we still unhappy? Yes.
NBC News really scraped the bottom of the barrel with this news story…as if people didn’t already know that a poll would show we’re unhappy.
Why wouldn’t we be?
We’ve got Joe Biden as a presidential candidate and a pandemic keeping us socially distanced from everyone and everything that we love.
But, hey, let’s play along. The survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, says that only 14% of American adults classify themselves as “very happy” – and that’s down from 31 percent in 2018.
In 2018, the same survey showed that 23% of American adults felt sometimes isolated. That percentage is now 50%. Not exactly news, right? Actually, it’s surprising that the percentage isn’t higher considering that most Americans have literally been isolated at some point during the pandemic. For most of the month of April, we were told to stay inside unless we were a frontline employee.
What is interesting about the survey, which was conducted in late May before the death of George Floyd (and, as a result, before the rioting), is that it is based on nearly 50 years of data research from the General Social Survey. Every other year since 1972, they look at American attitudes and behaviors. Since 1972, no less than 29% of Americans have identified themselves as “very happy.” So, when the number dropped to 14%, it became newsworthy.
But, is it? Since 1972, there hasn’t been a pandemic that has swept across the globe, infecting millions, and killing hundreds of thousands. And, even though some of the world is opening back up and going back to the way things were, that’s not the way that it is in the U.S. Even the places that are opening aren’t normal. Restaurants were only at 25 to 50% capacity at the end of May. Masks are still being strongly encouraged. Social distancing stickers are still in every store. It’s hard to be happy.
And it’s not just the pandemic, either. People have lost their jobs. Schooling children has had to be done at home. Socializing is done on Zoom instead of at a bar.
The poll actually helped to shed some light on the mess that is 2020. People are less optimistic about the standard of living improving.
Surveys conducted following the assassination of JFK and the attacks of 9/11 show many people having emotional and psychological stress reactions. There were reports of crying, smoking, and feeling dazed. There are fewer of those reports. Now, there are more people saying that they’ve lost their temper or wanting to get drunk. That is likely back to feeling as though they are isolated.
The survey has highlighted what we’ve all known: 2020 is not a good year. It’s affected our mental health because it’s not just one event. It’s a constant struggle because the pandemic still lingers. It brings with it a significant amount of unrest because of fear of going out into the public and fear of what’s to come next.
More people are feeling lonely now than the surveys in 2018 – and that, again, comes back to the isolation.
There is a silver lining in the poll. Most Americans are assessing their families’ finances the same as they were in 2018. Their ability to get along financially is as high as its been since 1972, so there’s that.
If the study had been conducted a month later, it could have painted a hugely different picture – perhaps with more loneliness, more isolation, and even more pain. With the political unrest added to the equation and the rioting in the streets, it leaves people with more stress and more questions. What will the General Election in November bring to the country if the polls are already showing a general consensus of unhappiness?++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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