The Promise of Power

They just keep coming, nut cases that appear seriously demented enough to be in need of immediate institutionalization, but instead are running for elected office. The latest is Mark Robinson, self-proclaimed black Nazi who is trying to be the next governor of North Carolina. This nut has generated comments on porn sites and has made enough controversial statements to force the GOP to get Lindsay Graham off the links and into the studio at Meet the Press to try to offset the damage that Robinson is doing by association to Trump’s campaign. Lovable, Lying Lindsay took a break from allowing The Donald  to cheat him on alternate holes and did his thing with Kristin Welker seriously distancing Robinson from Trump even though Trump had endorsed the nut without actually knowing him.

I don’t know why but there’s something likable about Lindsay even though he is a lying snake in all things political.

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Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was on Meet the Press last weekend and one has to wonder why? Sure, Fetterman is an outlier and tries too hard to be “The Biker Guy” but there has to be some logic or reasoning behind what he does and says.

This time it was a question about fracking posed by host Kristin Welker. Fetterman just flat out refused to deal with it, despite the fact that fracking is a huge economic deal in Pennsylvania and one on which he has been on both sides of the argument. Fetterman, costumed in his dumpster-diving shorts and artfully stained shirt wouldn’t touch it, forcing the discussion over to eating pets in Ohio.

But the fact is, this is an important area and should be dealt with by both Fetterman and Vice-President Harris. Why has fracking suddenly become acceptable to the left after years of needing to be outlawed?  I really can’t say. It certainly hasn’t become less toxic to the environment.

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Siamak Namanzi was interviewed by Cristiane Amanpour last week. Siamak is a former Iranian hostage, a US citizen born in Iran.  He was mistreated while in captivity, as are most hostages. He was passed over during other negotiations in the eight years he was held and now a year after his release he is able to speak to what happened to him.

There are no lessons to be learned from Siamak’s internment other than this kind of International, state sponsored kidnapping must stop. Easier said than done.

Like any other criminal activity, this state sponsored crime must be punished strongly enough that the state that sponsors it must suffer. And that’s where it gets tough. What is an appropriate punishment for a country that kidnaps one of our citizens and holds him or her hostage? Just as important, when does said punishment become an act of war?

That question is  exactly why we need some kind of treaty with our allies or possibly NATO binding them in agreement to back up any of the treaty nations that will be forced to punish a rogue nation that kidnapped a citizen of the treaty nations. This would make the treaty signatories strong enough to be unattackable by the kidnapping nation after it was punished.

What would the punishment be?  That would have to be negotiated by the  treaty nations, but I would suggest the demolition of one government building for each hostage. Said building to be identified and evacuated so there would be no loss of life. Additionally, the punishment would be applied after the hostages were returned in order to guarantee there be no retaliation.

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Everybody talks about the economy, particularly inflation, but Trump lies, and Harris tells the truth. Unbelievably we have managed to shrink inflation without causing a recession. This is almost unheard of in our economic history. Donald Trump hasn’t discovered this yet but that’s okay, he won’t recognize it when he does.

America had hit a forty-year high of over 9% inflation. It has now come down to about 2.5%, The reality is, most of this is due to the Federal Reserve and its ability to course correct. We like to give the praise or blame for the economy to the current administration but it’s the Federal Reserve, more than any elected official, that is responsible for how our economy goes.

The American economy is the envy of the world. It has recovered from the pandemic faster and stronger than any other country in the world. Our companies dominate the world’s financial scene. If you were to add up the top ten companies in Europe, their market value would not equal that of Amazon or Microsoft or NVIDA. It isn’t even close, and it surely isn’t competitive, which has taken Trump’s last possible bragging point away, just as his reasons for  being elected have all tanked.

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Hillary Clinton was on Fareed Zacharia’s show on Sunday and she was talking about how Kamala Harris was the right choice at the right time, how Harris was promoting the future in a joyous, positive manner while Trump was trying to dredge up a calamitous past that was very much his own responsibility.

Trump wants us to believe that there’s something wrong with America and that somehow, it’s Kamala’s fault. But she’s never been President, and he has with disastrous results.

So why are almost fifty percent of Americans ready to vote for a dump like Trump? This writer thinks it’s’ because for the last fifty years Americans have been sold short by their leaders. They have been promised the moon and delivered  a garbage can full of broken parts. Especially the working class which  has a surprisingly large percentage of Trump voters. They have been promised jobs that didn’t materialize, healthcare that wasn’t delivered, infrastructure that never happened and education that was sub-par. Sure it happened in the administrations of both parties but if you take the trouble to check it out you will see that it was Republicans that  were almost 100% responsible for shutting these programs down no matter who was in the White House. That will happen again regardless of  who wins the Presidency if  the voters allow the GOP to win the down ticket races. It’s up to you. Progress or paranoia.  I hope I don’t have to explain who’s behind what.

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