Politics and Current Events

What you tolerate will happen!

What you tolerate will happen.

Rules or regulations are part of everyday life. Whether it is the rules that your employer has for each employee to follow or maybe it is standard operating procedures that tell you how to do something. It could be just your own personal rules that you have. If you watch the show and CIS you know that Leroy Jethro Gibbs has a whole list of rules that he lives by and he hopes that they will rub off on his subordinates and coworkers.

This week I watched our President send a very clear message to every federal employee. A lot of people are upset because he fired the acting Atty. Gen. Why did he do it? Well, she told the Department of Justice that they should not follow the President’s executive order because she didn’t believe that it was lawful or moral. And because she did that President Trump fired her. Now many in the news media were very upset in many congressmen and other federal employees were upset. They said she shouldn’t be fired for telling the president that his order was illegal or immoral. The problem is that’s not what she did. I’ve worked for a lot of people in my lifetime and I’ve had a lot of people work for me in that same timeframe. What this employee did was defied her boss. Now she may have had a legitimate disagreement with him but she went about it in the wrong way.

Many years ago (1992)  I had a discussion with the Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force. We were discussing the new uniform that our Chief of Staff at that time had decided all of us were going to switch to. He sent the uniform out to a number of people around the country officers and enlisted to have them try out the uniform. The7 were to look at the material to see how did it wear, was it easy to maintain and did it travel well. They were asked to look at every aspect of this new uniform and give their feedback. Then they asked the troops what they thought of it. The result was, nobody liked the uniform. They said “you look like an airline pilot” and other less complementary responses. They were concerned because it bore no resemblance to the traditional military uniforms they had been wearing for well over 40 years. But the Chief of Staff told us this is uniform were switching to and the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force backed him up.  When we had as part of a seminar the opportunity to talk with the Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force we asked him why he didn’t fight harder to keep the old uniform.

What he said was this. He said he did go in and tell the General exactly what he thought of the uniform and what the people thought about the uniform. The Chief explained that it didn’t wear as well as it was advertised. He told the General that it was not easy to maintain when you are on the road. He pointed out all of the other problems people had regarding the uniform, its appearance and anything else they told him. They had a good long debate on the uniform change over several weeks. But the bottom line the general said “we are changing to this uniform”, the discussion is over.

Now, what was he to do? There comes a time when you argue a point and then the boss make a  decision. In this case, it was not one the Chief completely agreed with, so he had a choice.  He told us if the decisions is one you don’t agree with you have to figure out is this something worth resigning for or is it really not that big a deal? Is this decision something so big and I disagree with it so much that I would rather resign my position than have to enforce it, or can I live with it and go out and support the decision.   The Chief’s  decision, at that time, was in the big picture this uniform issue wasn’t worth resigning for. His job at that point was then to go out and sell the decision. He asked us, “How long do you think the General would have kept me on the job if I went out to the bases and said I didn’t like the uniform and we shouldn’t switch.  Not very long!”

Getting back to the events of this week with the acting Attorney General. What she should have done since she disagreed with this executive order on the grounds that she stated, she should have made an appointment to talk to the President about it privately. She should have discussed with him her points of view on the subject. When the discussion was over if the president decided to continue on with the course of action he had initially set out on, then she needed to make a decision. Is this something she can live with or is this something worth resigning for? At that point, she should have informed the president of her decision that she could not agree with that decision and would have to resign because she could not carry out his order. That would have been the correct way to handle the situation.

Instead of talking to him about this, she very openly directed those people working for her within the Department of Justice to openly defy the President of the United States. Many people say that this was a very courageous thing to do. I disagree. She was grand standing to make a name for herself for some future goal.  What she did was, what we in the military would call, mutiny and sedition.  By doing this she boxed the President of the United States into a corner or so she thought. What could the President have done? If he let her stay, what would’ve happened throughout the government the next time he issued an order that somebody didn’t like? They would know he wouldn’t do anything so nothing would get done. Why,  because if he had tolerated her open defiance (Mutiny) and her directing the people below her to defy the President (sedition), he would be undermining his own authority and the authority of his office. He had no choice but to fire her immediately. From a leadership position, he did exactly the right thing.

She’s actually very lucky she was a political appointee. In the military mutiny and sedition, which are the offenses she committed, are punishable by prison time and at one time was punished by death, but we haven’t done that since the 1950’s. So if the president had tolerated the Atty. General’s actions what would’ve happened the next time someone working for him openly disagreed and encouraged others to defy the order?  With each new order, more people would become emboldened and refused to obey and direct others to disobey because they believe nothing will be done.

You see what you tolerate will happen!  So if President Trump did NOTHING or gave her a slap on the wrist, then Presidential Executive Orders would be meaningless.  What you tolerate will happen!  

President Trump did exactly what any good leader would do.  He was steel on target he fired her.  If she had just talked to him instead of trying to make a name for herself in politics this could have had a better ending.  Mutiny, sedition, and disloyalty aren’t really what one might want in their resume when applying for a new job.

It’s Not Her Fault? REALLY!

In this political season, we have seen a lot of unusual things happen. We have seen the rise of Donald Trump as the leader for the Republican nomination and on the other hand, we have seen Hillary Clinton who was all but coronated as the Democratic nominee falling behind a socialist Bernie Sanders. Who would’ve thought?

We see on the news that Mrs. Clinton has a credibility and likability problem. For some that’s coming as some sort of new revelation and it shouldn’t. Mrs. Clinton has had ethical issues ever since Watergate when she was fired for unethical behavior and lying. Guess what, back thenc she says it wasn’t her fault. Does that sound familiar? When she had problems with White Water and the Rose Law firm, and all of the things that were going on before and while her husband was president, it was suddenly a vast right-wing conspiracy, but it wasn’t her fault. Now she is gone from having her own server to do all of the electronic communication as Secretary of State, she deleted thousands and thousands of emails and told us that there was no classified material on her server. We now know that is not true.

Since that time. It’s gone from there was no classified material on the server two it wasn’t classified at that time, to now that they have found top-secret information residing on her server and some of it above top-secret. Now it’s the government’s fault because they over classify and most of this should not have been classified in the first place. So again it’s not her fault. It’s the fault of Fox news, other news media, the Republican Party, and now the state department and the federal government. I’m sorry Mrs. Clinton but that’s not the way it works.

I spent 30 years in the military and during that time I had various levels of security clearances and access to classified mnaterial of all sorts and regardless of my security clearance. I had to receive training every year on operation security and communication security (OPSEC COMSEC) where it was stressed just how important it was to follow the various classifications of information and intelligence and what happens if you violate the regulations. We were not given an option to say “well I don’t think that was really classified” and Mrs. Clinton doesn’t have that choice either. The level of security, the level of secrecy is based upon the material that is there its sensitivity to the security of the united states and/or allies, could it do harm or irreprable harm to the nation. Neither she nor others at her level get to decide “I don’t think that’s really classified and just put it on the home server”. If I had done that during my career, I would’ve gone to jail, ot passed go and certianly not been eligible to run for the highest office in the land. .

Are government documents over classified? Probably! But does that give her or any individual the right to disregard the classification or tell her subordinates to just cut off or eliminate the part that says its confidential or secret or top secret. Go ahead and make an electronic and send it to me. Again, if a lower level person a done that they would be fired and they would be in jail. By telling her staff to take off those classifications to turn it into an electronic document she knowingly violated government policy as well as the communication and operation security of that document. She compromised American secrets. First, having them on an unsecure server, second telling her staff to remove the classification of the material and to take the printed material and make an electronic. Once it was electronic and sent to her it was compromised.

The most recent excuse for Mrs. Clinton now is that she never initiated sending any classified material. She did not write any emails that contained classified material. Again I’m sorry Mrs. Clinton but you’re wrong. The minute you refer to that classified document that you received by email and utilized information found within that document your new email is now classified. It is classified at the same level as the material you are using to base your email upon.

These scandals, these emails and all of the things that have been plaguing Mrs. Clinton since the 70s are all of her own doing. There is no vast right-wing conspiracy, the hearings on Benghazi were to find out what went wrong what happened. The only reason she is feeling targeted by then is because first she did not do anything to help the people in Benghazi, she lied to the families of those who were killed stating that the event happened because of a video even though she’d already told her own daughter as we found in her emails that it was a terrorist attack.

It is my hope that the FBI does not allow politics to enter into their investigation and even though I know better I would hope that the Obama Justice Department does not allow politics to have any effect on whether or not they decide to prosecute Mrs. Clinton, if the FBI investigation recommends it. As much as I believe that Mrs. Clinton should be indicted on a number of counts with the current administration in the White House and their Justice Department, I am not going to hold my breath. They’ve shown all too often just how political they could be. I hope that if the Justice Department does not prosecute that the FBI hold the case open until we have a new administration and a new Justice Department. In my hope above all, is that the American voters see just how dishonest Mrs. Clinton is and get over this whole thing about the first woman president. There are many other women who are more qualified to hold that office than Mrs. Hillary Clinton.

14 months to go

I’ve been watching the last few months of politics and it really is pretty interesting. We have a huge field of candidates in the Republican side and for a long time it looks like there was only going to be one viable Democratic candidate, It is amazing how things can change in just a couple of weeks.

It is also amazing to me how Hillary Clinton could go from the Democratic darling, who was all set for the  coronation as the Democratic presidential candidate,  to dropping so far down in the polls that Vice President Biden, who has not even announced that he’s running for president, has almost as much support as she does. It also amazes me that Bernie Sanders is doing so well. Self-proclaimed Socialists haven’t done well in the past but it does appear  even the Democratic voters are looking for someone who is not a career politician like Hillary Clinton is. Yes Bernie been around for a number of years but his populist message resonates with many people and he doesn’t sound like a typical politician.  Mrs. Clinton’s tired rhetoric doesn’t seem to be catching on as well as she had hoped.  It could be her scandals, her lack of a close personal relationship with the truth and simply her personality have become off-putting enough that folks are looking for anybody but Hillary.

On the other side we have some strange things happening. Donald Trump leads the pack. Many people say that he doesn’t have any solid policies. I don’t know that that’s true. He put together and immigration package. He has discussed in as good a detail as any other politician has how he wants to reform taxes. And yes he does say some stupid things once in awhile but then so does Uncle Joe Biden on the Democrats side and he’s got 20%. Donald is brash, self-promoting and yes sometimes downright nasty to folks but he is proud to be an American and does not appologize for being an American. He wants to put America first and bring back the pride, the exceptional-ism and the American Dream we once had.  Isn’t that a nice change after what we’ve seen for the last 6 and a half years under the current administration?  People are tired of race bating, leading from behind, and a lack of transparency of this administration. They are tired of an administration that is slow to recognize or support the military, police, firefighters and first responders failing to send representatives to the funerals of slain law enforcement officers at the same time making sure they are seen holding press conferences and sending administration representatives to funerals for criminals who have been killed by police.   

Dr. Ben Carson continues to surprise me by doing so well in the national polls and he doing very well in Iowa. His soft spoken articulate manner of speaking  is very appealing to many people who don’t respond to the bombastic orations of Mr. Trump.. He does not attack. He responds to attacks made about him but not in a mean manner.  Dr. Carson may grow to regret not attacking but so far it is working. He appears to be making this run for the nomination about issues and not color or personalities.   He is thoughtful in his answers and does he make occasional mistakes and he has made his fair share of them,  but unlike some other candidates he learns from the experience. He is not politically correct. That in itself is refreshing.  We see that same lack of political correctness in Donald Trump but The Donald isn’t quite a quiet about it.  Between the two of them they have captured nearly 50% of the republican support. Maybe a few others could learn from this. Many Americans are tired of all the political correctness going on in today’s world. They are tired of politicians who appear to be in it for themselves and not for the American people.

Thirteen others in the Republican race range from the former head of HP to governors, senators and congressmen.  The news commentators on many of the cable news channels as well as broadcast news go crazy because of this, saying that the Republican Party is in disarray and is tearing itself apart. They forget that in the seventies the Democratic Party had the very same thing going on.  I believe they had just as many running then as the republicans do now but then it was apparently OK. Personally, I would like to see both parties have as many people as possible running for their party’s nomination. I think with more people we have running the more ideas and solutions that may be presented and the more choice that it gives us. In the past it’s been one or two people running for their parties first position and we haven’t done very well with the candidates that have been selected on either side. I think a broader look at people from different backgrounds, different points of view, some are very far right, some very far left. But it gives us a good chance to actually discuss the issues.  That discussion of multiple points of view doesn’t happen very often when you only have one or two candidates running for their party’s nomination. Somebody said “all of us are smarter than one of us”.  That is true so why not get more involved in the process the more opinions and ideas we have allow us to make better decisions and find better solutions to our problems. 

I look forward to seeing what the next year brings as we  work closer to the various party conventions. It should be fun  

Remedial training isn’t just for the police.

In the past several months in the last several months there have been a number of incidents involving the police and members of minority groups.  Because of these incidents there has been an increased call for additional training on the part of the police.  This call has been made by various special interest groups, the mayor of New York, the Atty. Gen. of the United States as well as the President.  I do believe there are members of our police force that do need additional training to deal with minorities but they are few in number.

I don’t believe the training ends with the police.  Our children, as well as many of our adults need to undergo training as well.  They need to have instilled in them a respect for authority.  People need to quit believing themselves to be victims and getting offended and/or hostile whenever they are confronted by authority.  People need to respect the authority of the police, regardless whether an individual believes the police are being fair.  When a policeman says stop, then stop.  When a policeman says drop what is in your hand, don’t argue with them, and certainly do not point it at them, drop whatever it is.  If the police are wrong, in most cases, they will apologize and people are allowed to go their way.   If they don’t  or if the police  are abusive, there are ways to deal with that through the legal system not getting in their face or fighting with them.  There is no reason that any of the incidents that occurred in Kansas and New York needed to result the way they did.  If the individuals had simply followed the direction of the police and not fought with them.  They most probably would still be alive today.

We as a society need to look at both sides of every incident and not simply believe because one individual as a minority, they are correct and the other individual is in a position of authority and they are wrong.  When we look at these situations intellectually instead of emotionally we can find that there is room for improvement on both sides.

I have lived long enough, and traveled far enough that I have seen racism and prejudice is found in every race of mankind.  Racism and prejudice is not solely a white problem, it is a human problem. Everyone is capable of being racist.

Bibles, Guns and Knives

I have watched with great interest over the past several months concerning what’s going on with our children in our schools concerning religious liberties and safety.  In the past several months we’ve had children forbidden to have a Bible in school and to read it during free reading time, because the school felt that they would be endorsing Christianity if they allowed this practice.  “In addition, it might make other students” uncomfortable”.  At the same time.  In other schools, children have been suspended for drawing a picture that looks like it might be a gun, wearing T-shirts that have guns on them, pointing their finger in a manner that some interpret as looking like a gun and making sounds that sound like a gun ricocheting or firing.  Yet at the same time schools are allowing Muslim students to carry knives because it’s part of their faith.

Why is there a double standard in more than just one area?  A Bible is a symbol of the Christian’s faith.  Yet they’re not allowed to carry it with them or read it.  While a Muslim may carry a knife that is a symbol of his religion.  Can someone please explain the difference to me, because I certainly can’t see it?  The other part of this, it bothers me is in the name of safety children cannot bring a G.I. Joe toy that has a gun in its hand. They  cannot have a miniature toy gun that is less than an inch long that came from a Lego toy.  They cannot wear shirts that have any type of weapon specifically guns on them because it might frighten students.  They can’t even point their finger at someone in a manner that someone might interpret as resembling a gun without getting suspended.  Yet the same school districts are allowing Muslim students to actually carry a knife in the school without being sent home without being chastised without being told to leave it in their car or leave it at home.  Explain to me if you can, help pointing your finger, a toy gun, a drawing or a picture of a gun is more of a threat than a child carrying a knife.  If you will remember over the last several years we have seen students suspended from school because they had a knife in their fishing tackle box which was locked inside their car.  Yet it’s okay for Muslim students to carry a knife on their person in that same school.

If you have an answer to any of these questions, please feel free to leave me a response because I would really like to understand why it’s okay to carry a “religious knife” but not a Bible.  I would like to know where the danger is in a picture of a gun, a toy gun that comes with an action figure, or pointing your finger is considered more dangerous than carrying a knife.

Is this knife somehow less dangerous

Than This

or This

Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

If our nation’s flag offends you, leave!

I am so tired of reading about homeowners, school children, vets, and others being told to take down their American Flag, the symbol of our nation, because it “might offend Muslims and others.   Hey sparky, get real, this is OUR country and it’s OUR flag. If it offends you so much please pack you bags and go to a place where the symbol of freedom can’t be found and you won’t be offended.  OH wait a minute, you want our freedoms and our education and our money, you want us to respect you but you can’t and won’t respect us, our culture or our beliefs.

I was a member of the Air Force for more than 30 years. If I want to fly my flag and exercise my rights as an American to express myself, I will.  Many of us have sacrificed for that symbol and what it represents some sacrificed some many of my friends sacrificed all.  We have a RIGHT to display the flag we fought for in the nation that we fought for and if you don’t like it, if it offends you then L E A V E ! ! ! !

IF your offended by this post.  Good.  Because,  “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

President Obama’s Do as I say, not as I do moment (again).

While I was driving car last week listening to Fox News on my XM radio, I heard Pres. Obama addressing the G-8 conference. I’ve included a small excerpt from his speech below. What amazed me as he started out so very good. In the first paragraph, he was talking about freedoms and what has made America great, a government of the people by the people and for the people, and then he slipped into the usual hypocrisy of his administration. Please read the short excerpt below from his speech, paying particular attention to the area that is highlighted.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article183027.html

” Leaders and dignitaries of the European Union, representatives of our NATO alliance, distinguished guests, we meet here at a moment of testing for Europe and the United States and for the international order that we have worked for generations to build. Throughout human history, societies have grappled with fundamental questions of how to organize themselves, the proper relationship between the individual and the state, the best means to resolve the inevitable conflicts between states.
And it was here in Europe, through centuries of struggle, through war and enlightenment, repression and revolution, that a particular set of ideals began to emerge, the belief that through conscience and free will, each of us has the right to live as we choose, the belief that power is derived from the consent of the governed and that laws and institutions should be established to protect that understanding. And those ideas eventually inspired a band of colonialists across an ocean, and they wrote them into the founding documents that still guide America today, including the simple truth that all men, and women, are created equal.
But those ideals have also been tested, here in Europe and around the world. Those ideals have often been threatened by an older, more traditional view of power. This alternative vision argues that ordinary men and women are too small-minded to govern their own affairs, that order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign. Often this alternative vision roots itself in the notion that by virtue of race or faith or ethnicity, some are inherently superior to others and that individual identity must be defined by us versus them, or that national greatness must flow not by what people stand for, but what they are against.”

He was talking about Russia’s takeover of a portion of the Ukraine, were Russian forces forced to take over of a portion of a sovereign nation and impose their will upon the government there. In that particular case, he is absolutely correct. Don’t die of shock that I agreed with Pres. Obama because even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while. But when you look at what he has done with the affordable care act, he has done the very same thing to the American people that he is complaining that Russia did to the Ukraine and Crimea. Look again at where he says “this alternative vision argues that ordinary men and women are too small minded to govern their own affairs, that order and progress can only come when individuals surrender their rights to an all-powerful sovereign.” Now doesn’t that sound like the individual mandates of the affordable care act? The polls tell us most Americans don’t want this, but we’re told by people within his administration and people like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi that the American people are just not smart enough to understand that this is really good for us and that those who point out flaws and problems with the law or complain that it infringes upon our freedom, are liars and/or too small minded to understand the “greater good”.

Doesn’t that sound like the same things that the president was arguing against in the Ukraine and Crimea? Russia has forced it’s will upon the people of Ukraine and Crimea and here at home, the American people must surrender their healthcare to an all-powerful sovereign, the United States Government and Pres. Obama’s “Affordable Care Act” because they are too small minded to know what’s good for them.

To me, he is again being hypocritical, telling other countries how they should do things utilizing the freedoms of the United States. While here at home, acting more like a third world dictator taking away our freedom to choose our own healthcare simply because he feels the American people are just too stupid to know what is best for them.

While the president likes to think that he is the smartest person in the room, I believe he must spend a lot of time in that room all by himself. In my opinion, that’s the only way he can be the smartest one in the room. Because he is the smartest, he knows what’s best for the rest of us, or at least that’s what he believes.

Hypocrisy, telling the rest of the world to do what I say, let the people of Ukraine and Crimea decide their own fate without the outside interference of Russia; not what I do, forcing Americans to give up their healthcare for a more inferior plan that costs more, because we’re not as smart as he is and he knows what is best for us.

I have a phone and a pen as well!

In the state of the union address, the president complained very strongly about a Congress that is deadlocked that he is going to get around it by utilizing his phone and his pen. The deadlocked is caused by Sen. Harry Reid and the majority in the Senate.  The House of Representatives has been passing and submitting bills to the Senate, however, Sen. Reid won’t let them come to the floor for discussion or for vote. Well guess what Mr. President, I have a phone and a pen as well  and I want to help you with that deadlocked Congress.  I want to do everything I can to help give the Republicans a majority in both houses. I’m willing to use my phone to contact people to vote and to inform them, I’m willing to write editorials and blogs and posts in Facebook, twitter, and anyplace else that I can think of  and I’m also willing to use my pen to write a check to help support those who are running against your Democratic friends in the Senate. Once the Republicans take over the Senate, you can no longer say that they are deadlocked and you won’t have to deal with it anymore.  Bills passed by the House will actually make it to the floor of the Senate to be discussed or debated and then actually  get voted upon,  something your little buddy Harry Reid has not allowed.  So while Harry may not be up for reelection this time, other Democrat Senators are.  These are the same Democrats that voted for your health care bill without reading it and are now running away from it in droves. Mr. President,   I’m going to use my phone and my pen as mentioned before to do everything I can to make sure they lose their seats and the Democrats lose the majority in the United States Senate.

The really nice part about it is when I use my pen in my phone.  I’m not breaking the law, Mr. President, as you are, nor am I circumventing the law and the Constitution, as you are.  I’m simply exercising my right of free speech to help people make informed decisions for the upcoming midterm election.  When these are over, I’ll turn my phone in my pen towards whoever your party decides to run for president.

It’s too bad you could not live up to the ideals of Pres. John F. Kennedy, nor could you live up to the high ideals of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior.  You and your friends want you judged by the color of your skin, not by the quality of your character.  You forgotten what made this country great, asking not what your country could do for you, but what you could do for your country.  Now it’s all about what my country do for me without doing anything for my country, because I’m a victim, and I deserve it.

So while we the people don’t have the power of the press that you do, nor do we have access to the media.  We can make our voices heard by using our phones and our pens to do everything we can to stop the abuse of power  we see occurring now.  We can call voters and let them know what’s going on.  We can use our pens to write blogs and Facebook messages. We can use twitter to get our message out.  You see we don’t need NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC or any of the other networks that have stopped reporting the news.  We have the internet, we have word of mouth, and many other forms of communication that don’t depend on your friends.    Do you remember how the word was spread in the original American Revolution?  While the founders didn’t have phones, they had word of mouth and they had the Pen.  It was a pen that wrote the Declaration of Independance and do you remember what that started?  It was speeches like Patrick Henry and other patriots of the day that inflamed the people to take a stand.  We have the pen to provide the truth and we have people who have the same fire and desire to use their voice to inflame today’s patriots using  the rights given them by the consititution and the bill of rights to start a new revolution, not through violence or lawlessness but through the use of the phone and the pen to fundimentally change the way our country is being run.  We have our phones equipped with webcams to post our pictures, words and the truth through YouTube and other venues.

So, Mr. Pres., you have your one phone and you have your one pen, but then so do all of the rest of us.  Just something for you to think about the next time you choose to use your phone and your pen to attempt to fundamentally change this great country.

Difference of Vision

I saw a cartoon recently with JFK’s vision of going to the moon and Obama’s vision of building trains. I thought about their visions of America. I remember clearly John Kennedy’s speech. where he said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Compare that to Pres Obama’s vision which comes down to “ask not what you can do for your country ask what your country can do for you” While many have compared the Obama administration to that of the Camelot years of JFK’s administration. With these glaring differences in the Presidential Vision I just don’t see it.

Which of these two visions of America do you prefer, Kennedy or Obama? Think about what you want when you vote.

Double standard continues

Another example of double standard. The WH wants Romney to release more tax records yet Obama won’t open up his college records.