Day: November 14, 2016

Are Emails Still Important?

All the back and forth during the campaign of 2016 about the emails from Sec. Clinton…..some even say that it was this issue that brought the mighty Clinton clan down……

But are they still as important now as they were during the campaigns?

(I will give a long pause to give the Right thuugs a chance to contemplate their answer)

If the election has not dampened their resolve then the subject of emails would still be of importance…..

If so, is that all email?

Vice President-elect Mike Pence has gone to court to make sure that the American people never get to see the emails that he wrote as governor of Indiana.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Mike Pence is going to court to argue that all of his emails should not be made public:

Now that the presidential campaign and most of the furor over Hillary Clinton’s email scandal are behind us, the Pence administration is going to court to argue for its own brand of email secrecy.

The administration is fighting to conceal the contents of an email sent to Gov. Mike Pence by a political ally. That email is being sought by a prominent Democratic labor lawyer who says he wants to expose waste in the Republican administration.

The Mike Pence who is going to court to argue that his emails should remain a secret is the same guy who just spent months on the presidential campaign trail campaigning against Hillary Clinton because she used a private email server. Clinton also did something that Pence is fighting not to do. She released her emails to the public.

Hypocrisy will be the norm in the Trump/Pence administration, but the bigger question is what is Mike Pence hiding? Why doesn’t Pence want the American people to see his emails?

Both Trump and Pence favor increasing spying on American citizens, and less transparency for themselves. The incoming administration is destined to be the least transparent in US history.

(politicususa.com)

Now that the shoe is on the other foot…I expect there to be some push back by the Right wing thugs…..after all who is better at hypocrisy?

Does Trump Have A Foreign Policy?

For me foreign policy was the most important issue in this election…..I am pleased that the war hawk did not make the cut…..and I am dubious about the direction Trump will try to take this country……

He may change his tune once he gets that total intel briefing just before he is sworn in….we will just have to go with what he has said for the time being…..but as it is now……what will his foreign policy look like…..

Daniel Byman, Senior Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy: For those looking for some consolation after Donald Trump’s triumph, it is tempting to hope that his actual power will be limited. On the domestic side, of course, there is the constraining power of Congress, America’s federal structure, and the courts. And on the foreign policy side, scholars often point to the international system, arguing that power balances, the demands of allies, and other factors beyond the control of any one country will limit foreign policy options. For those who want the president to shake things up, this is bad news. But for those who worry about a new president’s agenda, this view of things is reassuring.

Source: What This Election Means for US Foreign Policy and Next Steps | World Affairs Journal

There so many opinions at this point that it is getting overwhelming for NOBODY has any idea what his role for the US will be….we have had lots of rhetoric….but how accurate will that be?

I am not a big fan of the WaPo….but this close to the election there is not much to write about when referring to trump’s foreign policy…..I will take them at their word….until I find different…..

The inexperienced executive could dismantle traditional U.S. alliances and more.

Donald Trump proclaimed “America First” on his way to his head-spinning victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, and the success of that message will rock many foreign capitals where leaders have feared that Trump would alter the basics of U.S. foreign policy.

Making predictions about Trump’s foreign policy is difficult, given his lack of experience. But the most likely bet is that as president he will seek to do what he promised during the campaign in breaking from current U.S. approaches to Russia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

Source: What President Trump’s foreign policy will look like – The Washington Post

I do not trust the WaPo…I included their point of view because I try to give as much info as possible…….I will be watching his appointments for DoD and State….that should tell me the direction that he is going to travel……

Then there is Time’s take on the Trump foreign policy……..

Donald Trump’s foreign policy? Still up in the air at this point. With Hillary Clinton, we would have known exactly what we were getting. That was her biggest selling point—and a big part of the problem. But Trump is the ultimate black box. Much of this was by design—making America great again was always about America itself, allies and enemies be damned. That makes for an effective political pitch, but it’s a wholly unrealistic governing philosophy for a person whose main responsibility is to navigate the country through choppy geopolitical waters.

And these days, the waters are heaving. The foreign policy challenges Trump will face on Jan. 20 are much more complex than those that Obama inherited from George W. Bush. Technological change, particularly in communications and in the workplace, creates risks and problems that are entirely new. Russia is looking to undermine U.S. power and influence whenever and wherever possible, and a Trump presidency could well embolden Vladimir Putin. Trump becomes the face of Western capitalism at a moment China is offering the world an alternative economic model. For fans of globalization as it has progressed for the past few decades, that’s cause for concern.

Source: Donald Trump’s Foreign Policy Is a Black Box | TIME

If he holds true to his rhetoric then the Trump foreign policy will look like this……

And if he follows through on some of his foreign policy promises, the world will look vastly different. Here’s a quick rundown:

Source: Under President Donald Trump, What Does The World Look Like? Nuclear Missiles And War On The Table

I am not criticizing the president elect just that we have NOTHING by which to judge the direction he will choose other than his words……The reader could go through my archives and find my posts on Trump and his foreign policy and they will see that I had written that there were some aspects of his campaign foreign policy rhetoric that I liked….we will just have to wait and see…..I will return to turn the beast out…….once he starts naming names……

Will this be a new era of American foreign policy….or more of the same?

Stay tuned for the continuing story of president-elect Trump……

Until then……peace out…….

Let’s Blame Lefties

I apologize to my international readers that have come to expect my foreign policy posts…I will return to those soon….but right now there is so much going on in American politics I feel I need to add my voice.

I know that everyone has seen the street protests that have been all over the TV……for one they are not pros that are doing this……second, everyone is concerned….but where was all that concern when the DNC robbed Bernie on a fair primary season?  Where?

Now there is a large population that is butt hurt by the result of the election and soon they will start blaming someone for their ignorance…..

STOP! whining….I mean when 49% of the voting age adults vote what can you expect….but then Americans are good at hindsight and bitching…..and learn nothing in the end.

More than likely it will be the “Lefties” that will get the call…..pure and total CRAP!

I would like to see the mental midgets on the Right learn the difference between a “Lefty” and a Democrat….regardless of what their tiny minds think…they are NOT the same thing.

I am a Lefty and that does NOT mean that I am a Democrat….so do not blame me or any “Lefty” that voted their principles……….it is not our fault that others could not bring themselves to do the same…….

As we witness the post mortem of this troubling election, you can bet that pretty soon, someone soon is going to blame the Left – the hardcore progressives and young Independents who rallied around Bernie – for the result.

In 2000, Al Gore embraced “Free Trade” and international trade pacts that gave corporations power over sovereign nations. Gore supported space-based weapons and Capital Punishment. He was instrumental in crafting the Telecommunications bill that led to the media consolidation we have been seeing (and which made it easier for Rupert Murdoch to own newspapers and TV outlets in the same media markets). He picked one of the most right-wing Democratic senators as his running mate.

Source: Let’s Blame Lefties – LA Progressive

Another thing….STOP! using the word “change”!…..until you actually learn what it means.  You mean nothing by that overused term…. you mean nothing more than a change of your masters not actual change in the society or the system.

Non-Trump Supporters–What To Do?

These are the days of whine and moans……the mighty Clintons have been sidelined……the Dems need to stop crying in their beer and move on….but how? (he heard between the sniffles and the sobbing)…….

There are many things to do….there is so much work that needs to be done…..now that the Dems are nowhere near in charge anywhere in the government what needs to be done to begin the next 4 years……if they are to ever regain their once great standing……

One of the people the Right loves to hate, Michael Moore, has offered a plan…….

1. Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.

2. Fire all pundits, predictors, pollsters and anyone else in the media who had a narrative they wouldn’t let go of and refused to listen to or acknowledge what was really going on. Those same bloviators will now tell us we must “heal the divide” and “come together.” They will pull more hooey like that out of their ass in the days to come. Turn them off.

3. Any Democratic member of Congress who didn’t wake up this morning ready to fight, resist and obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years must step out of the way and let those of us who know the score lead the way in stopping the meanness and the madness that’s about to begin.

4. Everyone must stop saying they are “stunned” and “shocked.” What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren’t paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all “You’re fired!” Trump’s victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that.

5. You must say this sentence to everyone you meet today: “HILLARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE!” The MAJORITY of our fellow Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Period. Fact. If you woke up this morning thinking you live in an effed-up country, you don’t. The majority of your fellow Americans wanted Hillary, not Trump. The only reason he’s president is because of an arcane, insane 18th-century idea called the Electoral College. Until we change that, we’ll continue to have presidents we didn’t elect and didn’t want. You live in a country where a majority of its citizens have said they believe there’s climate change, they believe women should be paid the same as men, they want a debt-free college education, they don’t want us invading countries, they want a raise in the minimum wage and they want a single-payer true universal health care system. None of that has changed. We live in a country where the majority agree with the “liberal” position. We just lack the liberal leadership to make that happen

Some this sounds so damn familiar….just can’t put my finger on it…..wait!  The GOP did these same announcements back in 2008 when Obama was elected…..the question is….do the Dems have the nuts to do what they need to do?

A soul searching as it were…..(pause for laughter)…..really?  That from a pack of soule-less SOBs?

My guess is that they will lick their wounds until it is too late and will fail again……something they are good at…….. ever since 2010…..

If you are a true progressive then NOW is the time to THINK GREEN for the future!

Yemen: Back To The Future?

This is an article that I wrote for my friends over at Ace News Room…..If the reader likes their news then I recommend the site….news from the world over……

We have a new president and he will have to deal with the cycle of violence that this country helped to spiral out of control…….

This American election has pushed Yemen from the headlines….for over a year now the Saudis have been bombing the crap out of Yemen...mostly under the pretense that the Shia Houthis were a threat to the sacred sites of Islam….not so sure.…I think it is that the monarchs were afraid of their hold on the wealth and power….

The conflict has destroyed much of Yemen…killed many civilians and left survivors hungry and without hope for the world has sort of pretended that it is a just cause for the Saudis….

Source: Yemen: Back To The Future? | Ace News Room