Category: Politics

everything to do with the execution of politics

Closing Thought–24Sep18

The Ghost Of Politics Past

As always Ben Carson the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is a babble tool…….he has shown that his grasp of politics or for government for that matter is non-existent….he has been mumbling his way through several presidential campaigns and still has his supporters based on what no one is quite sure.

But at least for me he showed what a total moron he is when he weighed in on the Kavanaugh mash up……

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson on Friday appeared to tie the sexual assault allegations levied against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to a centuries-old socialist group.

“If you really understand the big picture of what’s going on, then what’s going on with Kavanaugh will make perfectly good sense to you,” Carson said at the annual Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.

“There’ve been people in this country for a very long time, going all the way back to the Fabians, people who’ve wanted to fundamentally change this country,” Carson said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/407892-ben-carson-claims-sexual-assault-accusation-against-kavanaugh-has

Just like that BS Carson is a tired cliche from a moronic past…..time to move on and into the 21st century.

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Cahoots! Or Collusion! Or Conspiracy!

“We have a wonderful economic week…..and there was no collusion we all know that…….we won big against Crooked Hillary…..and there was no collusion on my part……Build that big beautiful wall…..was there any collusion……”

First of all….collusion is not a legal term.  But conspiracy is!

Bob Woodward of “All The President’s Men” fame has just released a book on Our Dear Leader…..and he has panned it as trash, lies and sensationalism…..but deep down Trump should be shaking Woodward’s hand for he made a case for Trump….

Bob Woodward’s book Fear has been a sensation in many respects. But one aspect has barely been mentioned. After two years of exhaustive research for his book, Woodward says that he has found no evidence of collusion between Putin’s government and Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. Zilch, nada, zero. And Woodward strained very hard looking for it.

This largely ignored blockbuster admission came in a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt reported by Real Clear Politics here, where a recording of the full interview can also be found. Real Clear Politics reports the text of the exchange thus:

https://original.antiwar.com/john-v-walsh/2018/09/19/woodward-no-evidence-of-trump-russia-collusion-i-searched-hard-for-two-years/

Please keep in mind when thinking about Our Dear Leader….collusion is not illegal, unethical but not illegal.

I am personally sick of all the media attention…..I am not saying that it should be terminated just that the process needs to continue without all the worthless speculation.

Thoughts?

Pick A Country, Any Country

These days it seems that the US just throws a dart at a map of the world and where it lands we will attack in some form or another.

Apparently the dart flew straight and true and hit the South American country of Venezuela.

For about 20 years the US government has been dropping not so subtle hints of some form of “action” against Venezuela….It was not just from Our Dear Leader…no as far back as GW Bush Venezuela has been in our sights.

More recently, 2015, Venezuela has been called a threat to our national security….https://lobotero.com/2015/03/11/venezuela-did-i-miss-something/

Then Dear Leader Sneaked into the White House through the back door and was wondering when we could attack Venezuela….https://lobotero.com/2017/08/14/what-the-hell-did-venezuela-do/

We have a new SecState, Pompeo, a die hard Neocon and he has issued a statement concerning Venezuela…..

Citing the US desire to increase pressure “against the Venezuelan leadership folks,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that in the days to come, the administration will announce a series of actions against Venezuela.

Pompeo declined to offer any specifics, which is probably going to lead to speculation of something major coming, since recent reports of US policy toward Venezuela has been uniformly hostile.

President Trump threatened to attack Venezuela back in August of 2017, and this summer reports are that he’d repeatedly had to be talked out of such attacks. Early this month, the administration was confirmed to be engaging in secret coup talks with Venezuelan rebels.

None of this is to say that the new actions are liable to be anything so grand. The fact that the US has been known to be talking about such measures, however, is likely to add to serious concerns about US intentions ahead of any announcements.

(antiwar.com)

True to his Neocon upbringing Pompeo has pretty much threatened everyone with some sort of American violence.

When did we become the country that dictates everyone’s internal policies?

Here Comes The Neighborhood!

We see/hear/read stories about the urban turn around……how a developer goes into an area and develop the crap out of it and makes it a success…..with Starbuck, trendy eateries, upscale shops with candles and retro clothing….something you can find anywhere they have developed the uniqueness out of the neighborhood.

I have a friend that was born and lived in Harlem most of his life….today he hates the neighborhood….he says it is soulless and cold.  He says that the whole feeling of a neighborhood is gone and the people were left with a cold hollow shell that they can only remember for they cannot afford it as it has become.

I witnessed this phenom in Santa Fe, New Mexico….originally it was a colony of writers and artists…..living was simple then the “developers” found it…. they turned it into a haven for the rich and disgusting.

These are the same tools that transformed “The Village” and Soho in NYC

Can you build a neighborhood out of money? It’s a defining question in America’s fastest-growing cities. When a major residential project rises, who suffers? When a tax incentive is granted, who benefits? When occupied land is redeveloped, how do city dwellers reconcile the pressure for economic growth with the need to safeguard vulnerable communities?

As a regular reader of Eater or Curbed, you may be wondering who gets to decide the target audience for these real estate megaplexes: Which retail and restaurant tenants get in? How much do they pay? What kind of economic incentives do they benefit from? And what’s the special sauce that actually makes a viable, dynamic, livable neighborhood?

https://www.curbed.com/2018/9/19/17841682/city-development-urban-planning-neighborhood-restaurant-economy

That illustrates exactly what is happening to our neighborhoods.  It is always about turning a buck….never about preserving the culture of that area.

Detroit is next in the sights of “developers” ……….this time it will be a whole city to lose its uniqueness…..not just a part of a whole like Harlem was…..yes it may become an “In” spot but at what cost?

Today is my better half’s birthday….so we will spend the day doing what she would like to do….

Thanx everyone for the visits hopefully we will see each other next week.

In closing I offer a musical interlude…..

Money And Elections

The 2018 mid-terms is just days away…..and as with every election for decades the talking points will be about which party and/or candidate has put together the most donors and cash.

Everybody knows the old talking points about campaign cash…..he who spends the most wins….Dark money……yada yada…..

But there is a bit more to the effects of cash on elections than the 30 second sound bite network TV gives the listeners….

The Nerds at geeky website, fivethirtyeight.com, has put together a good piece to explain the effects of cash on elections.

To quote the great political philosopher Cyndi Lauper, “Money changes everything.” 1 And nowhere is that proverb more taken to heart than in a federal election, where billions of dollars are raised and spent on the understanding that money is a crucial determinant of whether or not a candidate will win.

This year, the money has been coming in and out of political campaigns at a particularly furious pace. Collectively, U.S. House candidates raised more money by Aug. 27 than House candidates raised during the entire 2014 midterm election cycle, and Senate candidates weren’t far behind. Ad volumes are up 86 percent compared to that previous midterm. Dark money — flowing to political action committees from undisclosed donors — is up 26 percent.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/money-and-elections-a-complicated-love-story/

SCOTUS has made corporations equal to individuals and in doing so made the dark money a driving force in elections…..it has replaced real issues with the direction of donors.

Just 15 groups were responsible for more than 75 percent of dark money political spending from 2010 to 2016, and together poured more than $600 million—out of a total of $800+ million—into campaigns in the wake of the landmark Citizens United case, according to a new analysis from Issue One, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for stricter campaign finance rules.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/09/13/citizens-united-just-15-groups-account-75-percent-800-million-dark-money-spent-us

Dems are just as bad as the GOP…..they talk a mean game but do little to change anything…..

For voters concerned about the bad consequences of big business spending on elections, a New York Times reportlast month promised mid-summer relief. “Tired of Money in Politics, Some Democrats Think Small,” the headline read.

The accompanying article, which focused on a Minnesota Congressional contest, noted that, “in mid-term races around the country…dozens of Democrats [are] rejecting donations from political action committees, or PACs, that are sponsored by corporations or industry groups.”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/12/big-money-in-politics-are-leading-democrats-really-on-the-wagon-or-still-sneaking-a-drink/

Dems are always bitching about the money in politics and all the while are standing with their hands out.  There is only one way to remove big money from politics……by law and by making elections a federal funded operation…..no private money.

STOP Whining!

Our Dear Leader has finally imposed the tariffs that he basically promised while a candidate…..the agriculture sector in the US is starting to hurt those people that voted for Trump……and soon it will extend into the auto industry……

The lobster fishermen in New England are whining….potato farmers in Idaho are whining……cranberry framers are whining……soybean farmers in Nebraska are whining….are you getting the picture?

Time for these whiners to face reality…..they voted for the person that is slowly strangling them……they voted for the person that said what he had in mind as a new trade policy.

So these people need to STOP whining!

Take responsibility for the the shitty vote they gave the person that is killing their future….the control of that future.

Ignorance has consequences.

And the whining continues……this time it is over the turn that the Kavanaugh nomination has taken…..it seems that he has been accused (notice I used “accused”) of a drunken grope and possible rape attempt…..and the GOP has been whining about the timing of the information release……and then of course the Fat Man in the Oval Office had to inject his feelings into the debate….

President Trump weighed in Monday on the allegation against his Supreme Court nominee, Politico reports. “We want to go through a full process” to air Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that, when they were high school students, Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her, Trump said. If that “takes a little delay, it’ll take a little delay. It shouldn’t certainly be very much,” he said, per Breitbart News. But the president, speaking during an event at the White House in what Fox News notes are his first public comments on the matter, added that he was certain everything would “work out very well” as Kavanaugh is “as high a quality individual as you’ll ever see.” He said Kavanaugh has “never had even a little blemish on his record. The FBI has, I think, gone through a process six times with him over the years where he went to higher and higher positions. He is somebody very special.”

Trump also said Blasey Ford’s accusation “should have been brought up long before.” “I wish the Democrats could have done this a lot sooner,” he said. “Because they had this information for many months, and they shouldn’t have waited until literally the last days. They should have done it a lot sooner. But with all of that being said, we want to go through the process. I’d like to see a complete process. I’d like everybody to be very happy. Most importantly, I want the American people to be happy. Because they’re getting somebody that is great. … We want to make sure everything is perfect, everything is just right.” Asked if Kavanaugh had offered to withdraw from consideration, Trump responded, per Daily Caller video, “Next question. What a ridiculous question.” He noted he has not spoken to Kavanaugh about the matter.

They are whining like the cowards they are……think back to when another guy was nominated for SCOTUS and the games played …..now does anyone think that there would not be a tit for tat?

Keep whining fools!  If the House goes Democratic then the paybacks have just begun……

Personally, I do not think these “paybacks” accomplish anything ……but I do understand why the Dems will be doing it…..and anyone with half a brain will understand it also.

Whining accomplishes nothing…..to avoid having to use the “whining gambit” then do the work of the nation and leave political games behind.

The voters are the worse whiners….I guess it is easier than learning the issues and voting for the benefit of the nation….not some party.

That Leadership Question

AS the 2018 Midterms are looming large and the 2020 presidential election is only two short years away…..the question of leadership from our elected officials should be a paramount question that needs a definitive answer.

I tried to touch on this question recently with a post here on IST……https://lobotero.com/2018/08/29/what-does-it-take-to-be-a-good-leader/

This country desperately needs a good leader….in my opinion we have not had such for at least 50 years…we have had popular leaders but that does not mean they were good leaders.

Leadership is a difficult quality to obtain and there are fallacies that come with the title of “Good Leader”……

Six Leadership Fallacies

1. Burton Brender

One of the hardest things a leader will ever have to do is accurately assess the performance and potential of his or her workers.  Often, leaders have so much on their plate that really observing their people is a challenge, and it doesn’t help that there are false signals out there that can fool even the wisest of supervisors.  These fallacies can make people who are less competent, and less scrupulous, appear better than they are.  To be on guard against them, leaders must constantly assess themselves when meting out rewards, promotions, and punishment.  Falling for a leadership fallacy can see the wrong person advanced and drive the right people away.

(Please read on about the fallacies)

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/six-leadership-fallacies

There are many qualities that a “Good Leader” must have if they are to be successful….again let me emphasize that good does not necessarily mean popular.