Backlash Back into Reality

Backlash Back into Reality.

From Radio Head to leading psychological research to the results of the last election it is becoming clear that the American people are fighting back. What are they fighting? Simply put they are fighting the rush into a virtual reality the elites and the media are trying to take us. That is a magic place where fake news is applauded and where the end no matter how whimsical and nonsensical is justified, even when the most hurtful effects are upon the most vulnerable among us.

The people are getting hit in the pocketbook by this headlong rush and the billions no trillions it is costing ordinary Americans. They are finally demanding results. All Americans are feeling the pinch and they are at a minimum demanding concrete results.

The leak in the dam is beginning and will soon become a flood. When I read an article about the band RadioHead not giving into demands from the liberals to cancel its trip to Israel, I see hope. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4566578/Radiohead-hit-Israel-boycott-calls-divisive.html

When I see that Connecticut is finally seeing the effects of unlimited tax and spend and bad policy upon their people and the Democrat leaders are waking up to defeat, I have hope. Connecticut is going broke, they are currently over $5 billion in deficit. The big companies and rich are leaving because the Democrat politicians in their pie in the sky liberal promises of a utopian world decided to finally kill the golden goose and take all her eggs. Ayn Rand’s cry of “Who is John Gault” is becoming known. https://www.wsj.com/articles/connecticuts-tax-comeuppance-1496443958 A word of advice on this Wall Street Journal article. The article is dulled out to non-subscribers, but here is a trick I learned. Simply tilt back your laptop screen and it comes in fine. The article is worth reading as it is the problem of the effects upon everyday Americans when forced into the liberal virtual reality utopia. Everyone suffers even those it is set up to protect.

I’m a conservative and believe in conservative principles. I’ve read all the books or at least most of them that sings its praises but in the back of my mind I’ve always wondered why the liberals believed what to me was nonsense. I got my first clues when studying the constitution and its creation. That document was put together by both the conservatives and liberals of the time.

My next insight came after reading Thomas Sowell’s book, “Conflict of Visions” which basically says there are two ways people look at their world and that has evolved into what we call liberal and conservative. Mr. Sowell was beginning to lift the curtain for me. Below is a link to a good review of that work. https://fee.org/articles/book-review-a-conflict-of-visions-by-reviewed-by-david-m-stewart/?gclid=CJCwxsDrodQCFQctaQodmnYGwA

Then in 2012 came a book, actually more like a psychological treatise about “Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion”. The title of the book is “The Righteous Mind”, by Jonathan Haidt. I just found it. Although Haidt is a confessed liberal he bends over backwards in trying to figure out the underpinnings of Dr. Sowell’s two types of visions. And he does it in a scientific way. This is not an easy read, it is a well indexed, referenced and massively footnoted work. I have not finished reading it and really only just started but I see it is setting my mind to working again on this problem. It seems like a good book but I don’t know yet if it is a great book.

It is a good study of the two views people have of life and it is pointing out the righteousness of both. It is really diving into and trying to prove that indeed both “visions” are right but that reality lies somewhere in the middle. Haidt talks of emotional vs. rational thinking. He shows through clinical testing how they both need each other to survive. Here is a quote. “When the Master (passion) drops dead, the Servant (reasoning) has neither the ability nor the desire to keep the estate running.” I remembered something from the bible and I looked it up.

Proverbs 29:18 King James Version.

“Where there is no vision the people perish: but he that keepth the law happy he is.”

I could write a lot here about the wisdom of the bible or the second part of the quote about keeping the law but suffice it for me to write that as a rule of law person I believe the above means that when the laws are inspired by vision/passion/faith in a higher power he that keeps it is indeed happy.

I hope the rest of the book is as good as the first 40 pages.

But back to my title “Backlash Back into Reality”. Ordinary people have had enough. This was clear in the last election. People are beginning to stand up and their voices are being heard from their outcry against the diabolical misdeed of Kathy Griffin with President Trump’s severed head to the public pressure towards the wayward sponsors of the Hannity show which have motivated them to come back to his show as sponsors. I see people voicing their own “righteous” anger. Even with the Governor of Connecticut beginning to see the “righteousness” of Free Enterprise there is hope that the crowning gift of Individual Freedom will be not far behind.

I hope for a day when people see that the Common Good is best served not by government regulations but by protecting and enshrining the Freedom of the one to pursue what his or her passions and visions dictate.



Regards, Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
Bob carr
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

Getting back Reality

The Promise of Andrew Breitbart

Alive and Kicking.

Andrew Breitbart was a bear of a man. Put him in a fur coat strap on some snow shoes and a fur hat and he would be the picture of a Mountain Man. The reality is far from it. Andrew was a confessed liberal to start with and partied with the best of them. That is perhaps why he knew what buttons to push when arguing with liberals. Plus he had no fear of pushing those buttons, in fact he reveled in it. The hate the left had for him could be explained by his cross over to the other side as well as his vociferousness.  But also his effectiveness at fighting them with their own tools.

We see others who have crossed over which ignited the rage of the left. Ronald Reagan immediately comes to mind. Also on the more esoteric side there is author and playwright David Mamet who wrote a book titled “The Secret Knowledge” which tells of the Left’s effort to dismantle American Culture. I read it and found it pretty insightful. He too was attacked but he never wavered, he just kept on producing great plays with great bottom lines, while the "critics and tastemakers" who control the media would have you believe Mamet is dead, the general public says the opposite. http://thefederalist.com/2014/11/07/conservative-playwright-david-mamet-isnt-going-anywhere/

Also there are other Conservatives who actually practice what the Left preaches and are hated all the more for it. Think Sarah Palin. The left talks of women’s rights and the right of women to be strong and how they should take on the male dominated power structure. Well Ms. Palin did just that and outed the Old Boys Club in Alaska and became Governor. She raised a “damaged” child, the Left you would think would be singing her praises. Why then did the Left reap so much hate upon her? It seems obvious that they disliked her because the Conservative Principles she used worked while the Progressive Principles the left has been espousing have never worked. They hate her for this.

This brings me to the topic of my blog. What matters more, the reality or the appearance of reality? As I write this blog and research through the internet I find myself at the mercy of the “critics and tastemakers”. Even when I search for an alternative to the lefts mind numbing prodigiousness to spin everything their way I too admit to being forced into an alternative route with alternative "tastemakers". To find some truth in between is hard.  However the control of the media by the left’s “tastemakers” needs to be fought against.

Andrew Breitbart knew (and let me borrow Mamet’s title) that “Secret Knowledge”. He tried to create internet platforms for an alternative to the left wing media in all aspects of it from movie to plays to music to news to government to politics to business. His main focus was to break into pop culture to give the young a conservative alternative to what they are inundated with. He tried to break the generational cycle and counteract the liberal educational system in his own way.  He did this through the internet.

We of the right need to make our feelings known as we did in the last election. But not once every four years. Not just in politics either, we need to do it in everything we do. We need to make it personal.  Sure we voted for Trump but where were we when Shelby school canceled an appearance of a Constitutional speaker? 

We need to get local and vocal.We need to go to conservative movies and not go to liberal ones. We need to go to stores that espouse conservative values and not buy at Liberal espousing ones. We need at this point to climb out of the pity pot and choose sides.

If the financial “bottom line” is the only avenue left for us to use in our free enterprise system, so be it, let’s not shy away from using it. As David Mamet’s plays are still popular in the larger audience hence his continued successful “bottom line”, so too can we say no to the “critics and tastemasters” who try to tell us what we should like. Come to think of it lets support Conservative “critic and tastemasters”. I realize to the pure of heart this seems like trading one taskmaster for another but sometimes sides have to be chosen. After the war the pure of heart can blame it all on Churchill and throw him out after the victory as long as they chose his side till won the war.

I think this is that time to choose.

I think the conservatives have for so long been in the minority position that they do not know how to actually lead anymore. Plus human nature is to complain rather than to actually do something. I’ve seen this from the beginning of the Tea Party and since. Conservative groups like to sit around and complain but not do anything. When it comes time to gather up volunteers, from the 50 people in the group you are lucky to get 4 or 5. This is just not found in the conservative world but in the whole of human nature. The problem is the liberals are in control and those “4 or 5” liberals of the 50 have the control of the media and the government. They are the taste and task masters now. As the government takes over more and more of what we individually had to be responsible for we as a people are becoming more and more reliant upon that government and less and less upon ourselves.

The giant wheel of government now takes so much effort just to slow down that I fear sometimes in my darkest thoughts that we will never be able to reverse it.

We are seeing more and more of Orwell’s “1984”s predictions coming true but thankfully we are not there yet. But is “2084” that far away. My kids may live to see it, my grandchildren will grow up in it. Do I want to be part of changing what they will see or not? What will the world we give them be like.?  What am I willing to do to change that dire future? That is the question.

I’ve heard Rush lament about this and he says that the truth will overwhelm the wall of falsehoods the media erects, but Rush mispoke because that wall will not crumble without us as a people pushing it over.  Without our demanding that the truth be told?

Now more than ever is the time to pick sides and start demanding.



Regards,
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
Bob Carr
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

Here is a film I haven't watched but will.

The Circle staring Tom Hanks.  Not a great film by any means and this probably isn't meant to be Conservative but it definitely tears down the Progressive panasea.
Also I'm re-checking out "Pursuit of Happiness" with Will Smith all about working hard and family struggles.

When something you make to help you decides to help itself instead.

When is a System Too Big?

Simply stated a system is too big when it can’t accomplish the goals it was set up to fix. A corollary to that would be that the system becomes too big to be accountable for making the changes necessary to accomplish its original goals. Or again simply, the institution becomes more important than those it’s trying to help. The case below shows how a Hospital in its drive to save money and get the patients out leads to a pretty sad and catastrophic end. Its inability to change is causing deaths.

Case in point.

The tragic death of Lauren Bloomstein 20 hours after giving birth to a healthy child. She was a neo-natal nurse and Larry her husband was a doctor.

https://www.propublica.org/article/die-in-childbirth-maternal-death-rate-health-care-system

Please read the entire article and keep in mind the problem we are having with the education system which seems unable to change its practices and punish the unqualified with the resulting dumbing down of the educational system through a model which seems based more on what is good for the system than what is good for the students.

You will see the parallels - to me they were obvious. Everyone shifting blame until they landed on the fact that maybe the system was a fault and everyone seemed to agree that to fix that was too big to handle and it wasn’t their job. Nothing got changed.

Does this remind you of any other problems?

It does me.

I see this in all aspects of society today, as industries whether it be schools, governments or businesses as they consolidate and become these mammoth entities incapable of change whose main goal in life is to protect themselves and less about protecting the individual for which they were started in the first place. If you still have doubts look at the VA Hospitals.

A great movie about the inability of the education system to change is “Waiting for Superman”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbCZB_sy6Ws

The problem is - there is no such thing as superman. It is only when enough individual people get together and create the political will does something get done. Or as the case in education, a system I feel is beyond fixing, individuals out of self-defense for their children have been able to over decades drop out and educate their own children. That has proved to be dare I say it, educational.

Individual liberty when actively pursued will force institutions to change or go under.

We do this in the free enterprise system when it is not monopolized.

Perhaps Lauren and Larry Bloomstein were too much of the system to see it clearly, but their lawyers are not and I expect they will hit the system where they hurt. But will that really solve anything? Probably the only changes will be the hospital will have to raise the costs to the patients for the bungling of its doctors and nurses to cover its rise in mal-practice insurance rates. Just another example of a system too big to fail passing on the costs of its failures to those they are supposed to be helping.

That is what I call the breakdown of the “Free Enterprise of Ideas” that used to run this country that made it great.

Why is it so hard to change something as simple as reading charts and taking the patients’ blood pressure? Why does it take a Superman?

Because we have let the villains become a Supervillains.



Regards
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
Bob Carr
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

"Rule of Law"

“Rule of Law” Now and Forever

After years of working for the election of a “Rule of Law” Supreme Court in Michigan, I was apprehensive when I heard Chief Justice Robert P. Young was resigning. Who would Snyder pick to fill the vital role Justice Taylor played in our “Rule of Law” Court?

I was pleased when Governor Rick Snyder picked Kurtis Wilder. http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2017/05/09/snyder-judge-kurtis-wilder-supreme-court/101469748/

As to his bonefides concerning “Rule of Law”, he is quoted in the above article as follows. "The court ought to say what the law is -- not what it ought to be." Add to that he is an appointee of Gov. John Engler. On top of that our new Supreme Court Chief Justice Stephan Markman had this to say about Justice Kurtis Wilder. "(he) brings what has been a consistent commitment to the equal rule of law and unwavering support for the values of the constitutions of the United States and the State of Michigan."

That is good enough for me, if you’ll remember I was able to get various candidates for the Supreme Court to come to speak to us in Hart over the years. The “Rule of Law” in my opinion is the corner stone of a free and independent people. It is the check upon Mob Rule or as Former Chief Justice Robert P. Young categorized it an “empathy court”.

There will soon have to be another appointee to the Mi. Supreme Court as current Justice Joan Larson has been nominated Trump to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. As you remember her name was in the running for the recent vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. All of these people were initially appointed by Governor John Engler. Mi. could be said to be the hotbed of “Rule of Law” judgeships.

We need to keep that all in mind as these Justices face re-election in the future.

Let us all remain ever vigilant.

To keep what we’ve gained and continue moving forward.

It is as always up to us to keep the “Rule of Law” now and forever.



Regards,
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

The Slings and Arrows of being in the Middle.

The Slings and Arrows of being in the Middle.

and

Some Fun Stuff

We all know who the sling throwers and arrow shooters are. They are too numerous to mention because they have picked the easy way. It has and always has been easiest to tear down someone or something that is trying to do something. To pick apart what has been done. To destruct vs. construct.

Usually they cloak themselves in far left/right rhetoric to disguise their lack of understanding of the real world or their inability to think original thoughts. You know the ones – the people who like labeling others and decry being so labeled themselves.

The real world we live in is not that way.  Individuals are not one thing –never one thing- they are many things all mixed up and self-formed to make a package that can survive in reality. Everyone makes compromises with reality in order to survive. We see it in literature. The greatest novels are all about the conflicts within ourselves over the righteous and self-righteous, over the ideal and the real. Of what we dream of doing and what we end up doing. Even the best of us can’t come close to perfection. But the best of us try.  That is where real beauty is sometimes found, along with the happiness in overcoming the struggles found in that journey.

People such as Glen Beck revel in labeling people and telling us what the “real” reality is. Other people such as Al Gore tinker with computer models and flimsy science while they both run around pontificating and getting rich by saying that the “sky is falling”.

What is their answer to the question of what can we do to avert disaster? Nothing except Pollyanna/Miss America answers like - do what I do and everything will be wonderful and the world will be saved and peace and harmony will be here. While one says all we have to do is use one sheet of toilet paper, the other is saying buy gold. The sad thing is – people believe them – a lot of people.

So what side should we be on? Wow – Now that is a really stupid question I just asked. It accomplishes nothing. I say neither side is right. If you really want to fight the good fight and suffer the slings and arrows try being in-between – in the middle of those two forces. Try getting something constructive done.  That is exactly what elected officials are elected to do. They have to dig through all the BS piled up on both sides and decide what to do. They have to actually construct something then listen to all the criticisms from those of a more destructive ilk.

But that is what makes a good leader, his ability to dig out the reality of the matter and find a solution that works for the group they are leading. The far Left and far Right seem to all have Right on their side and they all claim at some point to be best for the majority or the common good so how do we decide what to actually try to get people to do. What concrete things do we try to do?

First above all is to figure out what allows American Individuals to decide for themselves – then let them.

Thomas Sowell in his book “Conflict of Visions” which was his definition of the difference between the right and the left came to the conclusion from history that the Right thought we were born flawed and had to work at overcoming our baser instincts to create a workable society. While the left believed we were all born perfect and if we just passed the right laws that perfection would assert itself and create a perfect world. That is a great book and while my summary is a cheap shot at his great book, the point is that neither side is right and in my opinion we need to quit attacking everything from one side or the other and try sitting in the middle more. We need to find solutions that simply work. Americans are getting fed up with the inability of Congress to get things done.

It is from the middle where reality is found. Woodrow Wilson (whom Beck would call the father of American Liberalism) had a counselor by the name of Louise Brandeis whom he later appointed to the US Supreme Court. Below is a NY Time article about monopolies of the current day and they allude to Wilson and Brandeis.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/opinion/sunday/is-it-time-to-break-up-google.html

From that I quote the author of the article, Jonathan Taplin.

“While Brandeis generally opposed regulation — which, he worried, inevitably led to the corruption of the regulator — and instead advocated breaking up “bigness,” he made an exception for “natural” monopolies, like telephone, water and power companies and railroads, where it made sense to have one or a few companies in control of an industry.”  A compromise in the face of adamant Ideological opposites.

This Brandeis fellow didn’t like regulation of companies which would seem to put him at odds with the “Father of Liberalism” because he saw how corruption followed but at the same time something was needed that would keep the efficiency of monopoly while keeping some type of curb on the corruption monopolies too inevitably caused. In a word he needed a compromise from the middle. That compromise was the forming of a semi-regulated of what he defined as a “natural” monopoly. Today we call them utilities.

Brandeis at this point was as I would say jumping in the middle in order to actually solve a problem with two conflicting sides. He soon found out how much harder that is because the slings and arrows were coming from both sides at once.

It is in this middle that the President we call Trump is putting himself as he tries to do what is best for all America. He is catching it from all sides because he is trying to govern from there, a space that includes the Hard Hat working steel workers, the coal miners to the small town folks trying to get by and just want to be left alone.

When most of America understands that the President needs all in his administration working with him to do the job, the media and the political elites do not get that concept. –  The truth is in the pudding.  Trump is getting results.

The steel workers applaud him as their industry is rebounding as this quote from the New York Times by Patricia Cohen shows. {“If you could design a perfect administration from the perspective of the steel industry, this would be it,” said Thomas Gibson, president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, ticking off the president’s promises to hack away regulations and lower taxes, while fending off foreign competitors and embarking on a “Buy America” building program.”} https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/business/economy/steel-nucor-trump-policy.html?_r=0

The coal miners applauded him too as he signed an executive order that starts to unravel Obama’s war on coal in March this year. Vice President Mike Pence said “The war on coal is over.” The President said. “The action I’m taking today will eliminate federal overreach, restore economic freedom and allow our companies and our workers to thrive, compete and succeed on a level playing field,” http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/03/28/coal-miners-rejoice-as-trump-unwinds-obama-era-rules.html

Good works will out albeit faster in business than in politics. The stock market is on a tear and the Dow is setting new all-time records.

Who says trickle-down economics doesn’t work? The US Government just recorded a surplus of $182 billion. Need I say that what Trump is doing is working with business? https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-government-posts-182-billion-surplus-april-180943488--business.html

As Trump goes on attack from one front to another the Dems are losing their minds as Rush Limbaugh gleefully says “the Democrat Party is going bananas — completely, totally unhinged — on the road to literal insanity.”

The beauty of all this is that the Dems still don’t see why they lost the election. Any old line “CIO – Democrat” could tell them. They have lost the blue collar voters in droves. What used to be their solid go to base of support is leaving the Democrat Party. Why? Because the Democrats ignored and took them for granted and ended up calling them all the filthy names they used to reserve for Republicans. They in effect put them in the “Deplorable Basket”. The question is can the Republicans get their head out of D.C. long enough to take advantage of that?

So my advice is to keep the faith and keep talking about the positives of what Trump is doing and let the Left walk off the cliff by themselves.

Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
Bob Carr
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

Crisis in the West

Crisis in the West. 

What is that crisis? “… a crisis both of our church, a crisis of our faith, a crisis of the West, a crisis of capitalism.” By Steve Bannon.

I’ve written in the past of what I call “the rhyme to the reason”. In other words what is behind the reasoning that makes it work? We can spew facts all day to prove any point or theory we wish to prove, but without a solid underpinning based upon what really works for humanity in general all you end up with is what we have now. A bunch of ideologues left and right screaming their own facts without listening to the people they claim to represent. This leads to what Europe has and we are beginning to see it here. Riots in the streets.

Steve Bannon said the quote above to a group of Conservative Catholics in the Vatican in 2014. I picked this thread up from a recent article ironically by Peggy Noonan who was complimentary of Mr. Bannon.

Ms. Noonan seems instinctually adverse to the tone of Mr. Trump and his advisers of which Mr. Bannon is one. She however does try to understand that which she is naturally disposed to be against. I give her credit for that. That is the least that journalism should be. That is what humanity can and should be.

As an alcoholic I learned the same lesson Ms. Noonan said she learned from William Safire albeit in a different way. Safire’s advice was not to take the easy way which was piling on when someone is down but to look deeper and find the good that may be hidden. My lesson came at a smoke filled “round table” at the back of an AA meeting room after a meeting where some of the old timers would sit and share their wisdom in some blunt down home ways over cards coffee and caffeine. I was complaining about a certain person and after I was done venting my “friend” told me to quit bitching as it was giving him a headache and take that guy out for coffee and find something good about him. It wasn’t a suggestion at least the “shut up” part. But I did and although we didn’t become lifelong friends we did find common ground.

I’m tired of being told to act and think about how I and humanity should go back to our natural state. I want to lead my life by something more. Something more than how much money I can make, how many times I can have sex in a day or who I can manipulate into doing what I want them to do. Or simply just doing what makes me feel good. I’m of the age of Woodstock and what was there outside of great music and an enraptured press, was a mess. Most people had to leave after a couple of days because of hunger, thirst or just downright primitive conditions. People had to leave just to survive.

It is a place to visit, but you sure didn’t want to live there.

The rise of civilization is a constant work in progress. When we all do our share civilization prospers. Steve Bannon talked of “enlightened capitalism” as the best method we have found to date to help spread the wealth and the work of civilization to the most people. It is the “enlightened” part that Bannon was talking about – the part that Judeo-Christian religion has played in putting the “Rhyme to the reason” of capitalism and has made it a good influence on civilization.

If people had to live only for themselves in a natural state we would soon find ourselves in another dark age of the strong living off the weak. In Bannon’s Vatican speech transcript… https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/this-is-how-steve-bannon-sees-the-entire-world?utm_term=.hmZVeODy5#.xg6PdQOy8 he said “… I think we are in a crisis of the underpinnings of capitalism, and on top of that we're now, I believe, at the beginning stages of a global war against Islamic fascism.”

Those underpinnings are; “… the underlying spiritual and moral foundations of Christianity and, really, Judeo-Christian belief.”

The barbaric form of the struggle, the fight against Islamic fascism is the obvious struggle from without; but he also talked of the more nuanced forms attacking Western Civilization from within.

The obvious at least to conservatives is the rise of “crony capitalism” or in old fashioned terms fascism. Even the communist countries in their need to “spread the wealth” have had to allow capitalism to come in. This capitalism however was state run not what we think of as Free Enterprise. The great thing hidden in this was the tacit acknowledgement that Capitalism works.

Bannon then turns to another dire threat to capitalism and that is the Objective school of libertarianism of Ayn Rand. He said “Ayn Rand or the Objectivist School of libertarian capitalism.”

“…is quite different when you really look at it to what I call the “enlightened capitalism” of the Judeo-Christian West. It is a capitalism that really looks to make people commodities, and to objectify people, and to use them almost — as many of the precepts of Marx — and that is a form of capitalism, particularly to a younger generation [that] they’re really finding quite attractive. And if they don’t see another alternative, it’s going to be an alternative that they gravitate to under this kind of rubric of “personal freedom.”

Let me now use this youthful over exuberance as a sedgeway back to “Piling on”.

When “personal freedom” is used to avoid the rule of law, or to live off of what others have worked for, we see civilization start to fall apart. We start to lose the rhyme that makes the reason or what we do make sense.

Bannon talks of both the “crony capitalism” and “Objective Libertarianism” as systems which treat people as commodities. As in my terms “de humanizing” humanity – or advancing civilization at the expense of humanity.

Think about it. Objectivism relies upon a select few leaders of industry to control things. All the rest of humanity are but cogs in the wheels of progress. That is not much different than communism where everyone has a job to do and the state tells them what that job is and how to do it.

The point is. It matters not what ideology we have but how we practice it – that is the rhyme to the reason. There is no ideology that achieves perfection without taking into account humanity with all its flaws. In other words it still remains up to us to live within whatever system the current ideology puts up in our way. Laws are simply society’s compromises on freedom. I’m just always looking to support whatever ideology that puts the least obstacles in our path yet advances civilization along the Judeo-Christian path.

I too as I write this understand that because people have the right to free speech it doesn’t mean that what they say is guaranteed to be right.

If we lose the ability to talk with our enemies – to find common ground – to compromise then we might as well.

Have sex with our neighbor’s wife, then shoot him because we covet his car which we then steal, and tell the cops that you saw your other neighbor do it, all the while you are cursing God while worshipping the mighty dollar and doing it all on Sunday. Oh yeah least we forget, we ship our parents off to the re-education center or old folks home because they thought what we did was bad.

Who needs the 10 commandments? They are only the foundation for the Judeo-Christian beliefs which have guided Western Civilization since its conception.

Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
231-728-3455
glhotdogs513@gmail.com

Trump's Bellweather -- April 18th, 2017

Trump Election – Heartfelt or Aberration of the American People

First Test of President Trump’s Electoral Power.

Coming Up Quick - April 18th, 2017

Long time and well liked Representative Tom Price from Georgia’s 6th District was picked by President Donald Trump to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services in his new Cabinet. An outspoken critic of Obamacare Representative Dr. Tom Price a long time Conservative and member of the Congressional Study Group was perhaps the most knowledgeable Health Care Congressman and will fit into his new role well.

However that leaves his seat in Congress vacant – it needs to be filled. -- By a Republican.

Progressive Democrats are chomping at the bit – they smell blood in the water.

Are they right?

The Special Election in Georgia’s 6th District will be held this April 18th (less than a month away). All candidates from all parties will be on the same ballot. A candidate needs to get 50% of the vote to win. If not the two leading vote getters from whatever party will run June 30th in a run-off election.

Here is a link with all the candidates and info.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia's_6th_congressional_district_special_election,_2017

Here also is a link explaining who the candidates are.

http://www.mdjonline.com/news/in-race-to-take-tom-price-s-place-in-washington/article_432f8978-f3f5-11e6-9428-6b9388cb788f.html

The news along with Progressive Activists are calling the upcoming Special Election in Georgia’s 6th District a Litmus test of Donald Trump.  They and their money are pouring into Georgia's 6th.
Here is a link showing how messy this could be. The new Progressive darling is Jon Ossoff.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a53785/jon-ossoff-georgia-anti-trump/

Note from the article. The GA-6th was where Newt Gingrich started and that from then till this last election it was considered a safe Republican seat by double digits. From another source.

http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/02/28/all-about-the-georgia-6th-congressional-district-election/

Mitt Romney won it by 20 points, while President Trump barely won it with only 1 ½ points. Tom Price in his last election won it by 24 points. The explanation the article gives for this seeming anti-Trump feeling. – “The 6th District, which includes part of Atlanta and its affluent northern suburbs, is loaded with college graduates.”

That is at least consistent, younger affluent (mostly white) college educated suburban voters trying to fit in by casting off their white guilt by voting Democrat. Well I certainly, as a biased reporter hope they will in a month need some crying towels and safe spaces as their candidate loses.

Well back to basics, there are 18 people in the Special Election. Looks like Bob Grey is the leading Republican Trump guy but not one of the leaders in the polls.

http://www.11alive.com/news/politics/gray-launches-web-ad-defending-trump-attacking-ossoff/422189407

However the snarking and the name calling has begun - Bruce LeVelle see the link below. Reminds me of the Presidential Primary – you? Also a wide spectrum of Candidates to choose from Tea Party to Libertarian and I’m sure some never Trumpers, the slate is full.

http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2017/03/16/pro-trump-boosters-clash-in-georgias-sixth-district/

As for polls, the leading Republican with good local and state connections would be Karen Handel and for the Dems it is Jon Ossoff. They both hold substantial leads over the other candidates at this point.

While I don’t care for Ossoff, it would be unwise to under rate him because of his youth and some pretty stupid looking videos of him. (Do your own googling). He has a lot of experience in politics grass roots style.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Ossoff 

He also seems politically astute, he put “Make Trump Furious” on his website and has been taking in money hand over fist since then. In two months he has taken in $2 million. He like Hillary will be flooding the airways with money. To tell you the truth I’m worried not so much about him as a person but of the image they will be making him into. The media is a mighty tool to fight.

The field is full and we need to pay close attention. (As I find out more I’ll post about it). If nobody get 50% in the primary then there will be a runoff of the 2 top vote getters April 30th for a final vote to see who's going to Washington.  Once we have two candidates we need to do all we can from outside to help the Republican candidate win.

I remember in 2010 Republicans winning most of these pre-election elections which gave them a boost to their momentum going into that election cycle in which they took back the US House. Remember the Special Election that Scott Brown won and the boost that victory gave Republicans in that election?

We need to do all we can to be sure the Dems don’t do that to us with the likes of Jon Ossoff.

I’m expecting no Candidate will get 50% of the vote April 18th and there will be a run-off June 30th. I’m curious to see how both Price and Trump will try to help out the Republican in the run-off and how much it helps.



Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs517@gmail.com
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The Dems Inversion Policy.

Speak Truth to Power

What does “Speak Truth to Power mean”? I’ve been hearing that phrase a lot lately so I did some digging.

The simplest definition is that when talking to “Power”, truth as simply stated as possible will eventually win out. Why? – Well, it’s the truth.

It was first used in the 1950’s by the Quakers in trying to convince governments to work towards peace. Their truth simply stated was the Love of God.

http://www.quaker.org/sttp.html

Since the Quakers the Left has, as it does with most truths, turned that saying on its head along with the “Speak Truth to Power” programs of Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Thomas Moore, to fit their own agenda. The Quakers, Gandhi and King talked of non-violence, the left as evidenced by the riots of late and since the 1960’s seems to relish and thrive on violence as SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA) said “…fight in the streets.” “Speak Truth to Power” was changed to “Truth to Power” and now simply “Fight the Power”.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/12/1597418/-Rage-Against-Trump-FIGHT-FIGHT-FIGHT . Like the name implies their cry is fight-fight-fight. Not Speak to Power but to Fight Power.

That “upside down syndrome” the Left has is never more obvious than in their stance against “rugged individualism”.

David Davenport and Gordon Lloyd recently published the book “Rugged Individualism – Dead or Alive” in which they trace what they call “Rugged Individualism” from our country’s founding to the present and what they think the future holds. They too are worried about it but are cautiously optimistic.

https://www.amazon.com/Rugged-Individualism-Alive-David-Davenport/dp/0817920242/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488817192&sr=1-1&keywords=rugged+individualism+dead+or+alive



I have constantly wondered whether in this new modern age with populations so large and interconnected that chances for “Rugged Individualism” to succeed seemed doomed and a thing of the past. I try in my own way to up hold that concept of individual freedom upon which our Constitution is based to the best of my ability but find the going “rugged”.

I have taken some solace from what I’ve read so far from their book. In their eyes there is still hope. I posit that this last election was proof that “Rugged Individualism” was still alive and well though fighting for its life.

Here is my thought process.

The whole notion of Civilization implies several people in order to live together adopting laws and rules that all have to abide by in order for society to function. That in itself while necessary is the first encroachment upon individual freedom.

I like the safety those rules give us. I like the idea of police protecting me and my family when I cannot. I don’t mind paying taxes to ensure my safety and my ability to drive on nice roads, eat untainted food and in general live a life free of dire want for food, water and shelter and to be protected from common thieves and or homicidal maniacs.

That is all well and good but this feeling of safety can be addicting. I sit for example on the County Road Board of Commissioners and I hear the saying “If we can save just one life it’s worth it.” It is said as an argument against the cost of a project that someday might just save one life. As a board member I have to weigh these things. I also have to weigh all these decisions in reality. The reality is that people die because we have roads which allow people to drive at speeds which cause death when accidents occur. So while all life is important the choice is really what can we do with the limited resources we have that will save the most lives?

The trap here in Oceana County is the same as it is in Washington D.C. – Who wants to feel cold and heartless? Politicians definitely don’t want to. The only way out is to frame the answer as I just did into one of saving the most lives.

On the other side of liking the safety of laws there is this and it is a big one: I at the same time want to be protected from tyranny. I want to be able to do what I want when I want as long as I accept the consequences and know what those consequences are.

There’s the rub, how can individualism survive? As communities get bigger and bigger we need more laws which if we don’t watch it will continue to shrink our individual freedoms. This brings us back to the meaning of “Rugged” in “Rugged Individualism”.

While most of us think of a “Rugged Individual” as one in rough appearance for example a “Mountain Man” wearing a fur coat from the bear he killed, walking with snow shoes checking his traps and living in the little log shack he built himself. Today as in the past, the term should be defined by actions not by appearance.

Davenport and Lloyd in their book look to the internet as perhaps the savior of “Rugged Individualism”.

What this Individualism has to do with “Speaking Truth to Power” is simple. In this day and age when speaking the truth of Individual Freedom to Power we need to be rugged not in looks (although it helps) but in spirit. While this should be easy because the basis of all the law in the land is the Constitution which enshrines individual freedom. The first line writ large, boldly states

It further does this through the “enumerated powers” clause. These are found in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.

This lists or enumerates the only powers given to the Federal government by the Constitution. The rest are reserved for the individual states or the individuals of the states. Here is a quote from Section 8. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The framers had a reason when they added “…or to the people.” That reason is to highlight the importance of and to protect individual freedom in the working of our form of government – federal, state and local.

I’m an alcoholic and a saying we have about our program seems apropos here. “It works if you work it”. For a long time we haven’t been working it. Along the same line Benjamin Franklin at the end of the Constitutional Convention replied when asked what they had given us. “A Republic Madam, if you can keep it.”

Our American experiment in self-governing through “individual freedom” will work only if we work it. We need to speak the message of individual freedom to the Power of government any chance we get.

While it is our job to protest what is wrong, it is also our responsibility to make the system work. That is what the rule of law creed implies. The rules we set up we should follow or we need to change the rules. The whole concept of majority ruling without any checks upon itself leads to suppression and subjugation of the minority simply because the majority can. (The French found that out in their revolution.) Eventually power will corrupt.

There has been nothing worse throughout history than a self-righteous majority. The term “Rugged Individualism” was first used by President Herbert Hoover. He wrote a book called “American Individualism” in 1922 which was very short essay but got a lot of attention.

https://books.google.com/books?id=rwBhmEfAd1oC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Remember this is 1922 between the world wars. His concept of American Individualism transcended politics and ideologies – That always seems a good thing. That is real Truth to Power and refreshing, as it was coming from Power.

That is what President Trump is trying to do. He is speaking Truth to the real Power, the American People. Remember them? Those were the ones everybody, ignored, flew over and made fun of -- you know the ones who elected Donald John Trump as President of the United States of America. It is time for us to listen and do our part, seek out the truth and speak it.



Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
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WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY?

“WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY”

10 years ago Dinesh D’souza wrote “WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT CHRISTIANITY”. In it Dinesh D’souza writes that religion is on the upswing all around the world. He reminds us that Christianity is still the fastest growing religion with Islam second and that secularism is losing the battle. To us in the West that doesn’t seem right or true but Dinesh proves it out with statistics. Christianity is losing ground in the US and Europe but gaining in all the rest of the world. China and India have the fastest growing Christian populations for example.

It's a good read.

http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/Z5253P.pdf

Why is this so? How can un-provable beliefs in the likes of miracles and impossible events be winning over secularism and plain old facts?  Being a "Just the Facts Mam" guy I was curious.

Dinesh writes {The Reverend Randy Alcorn, founder of Eternal Perspective Ministries in Oregon, sometimes presents his audiences with two creation stories and asks them whether it matters which one is true. In the secular account, "You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach three and a half billion years ago. You are the blind and arbitrary product of time, chance, and natural forces. You are a mere grab-bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You exist on a tiny planet in a minute solar system in an empty corner of a meaningless universe. You are a purely biological entity, different only in degree but not in kind from a microbe, virus, or amoeba. You have no essence beyond your body, and at death you will cease to exist entirely. In short, you came from nothing and are going nowhere?' In the Christian view, by contrast, "You are the special creation of a good and all powerful God. You are created in His image, with capacities to think, feel, and worship that set you above all other life forms. You differ from the animals not simply in degree but in kind. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. Your Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He has a perfect plan for your life. In addition, God gave the life of His only son that you might spend eternity with Him. If you are willing to accept the gift of salvation, you can become a child of God:' Now imagine two groups of people—let's call them the secular tribe and the religious tribe—who subscribe to these two worldviews. Which of the two tribes is more likely to survive, prosper, and multiply? The religious tribe is made up of people who have an animating sense of purpose. The secular tribe is made up of people who are not sure why they exist at all. The religious tribe is composed of individuals who view their every thought and action as consequential. The secular tribe is made up of matter that cannot explain why it is able to think at all.}

The religious tribe’s “animating sense of purpose” is the key I feel to religion winning out over secularism. Science’s ignoble facts and reasoning provide us with all sorts and kinds of life improving luxuries and comforts. Nothing is wrong with that. But what is the why?

Religion is the why.  It provides the rhyme to the reason. Religion makes sense of reasoning - gives it a rhyme. Facts are one thing. Reasoning is another but the rhyme which makes sense of the reasoning is hope in something beyond oneself – religion – or the “animating sense of purpose”. As I would argue at AA meetings, our ability to reason and free will are the God given tools we have but it is how we use them that will determine how we go through life.

Arthur Brooke of American Enterprise Institute in defining the basis of what makes capitalism work came up with the term “earned success”. 

He stated in his book, “The Battle”, “Knowing as we do that earning success is the key to happiness,...” we should as a society enable it. Please note that he talks of earning success. Not success given to you or money for that matter. 

It is my idea that this act of earning is what triggers the mechanism in the brain which makes us feel happiness and it is that definition of “Happiness” that the founders thought of, as in the “Pursuit of Happiness”.

http://www.aei.org/publication/the-secret-to-human-happiness-is-earned-success/

Brooks went on to say this. “To truly flourish, we need to know that the ways in which we occupy our waking hours are not based on the mere pursuit of pleasure or money or any other superficial goal. We need to know that our endeavors have a deeper purpose.”

So now I’ve talked about the human desires for an “animating sense of purpose” and lastly to a “deeper purpose”; why are these important to us?

I read an article recently about how religious or spiritual thoughts cause the brain to release endorphins stimulating the brain into a sense of well-being and pleasure. The article compared this religious endorphin release to thoughts about sex, drugs, and thoughts of peace and love etc. all of which release these endorphins.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/sex-drugs-ancient-scrolls-scientists-9356777?service=responsive

The article equated the good religious expressions with the bad – with a Lutheran woman reading the bible in Minnesota to an ISIS member contemplating violence. This endorphin secretion is again the tool, how we use it – for hope or self-destruction – is our own choice. The point is that the very thing – this thought of hope – while on the face of it may not be sensible or factual is the very thing that allows people to overcome insurmountable obstacles and perhaps the key to man progressing though history. Ironically the key to what makes Darwinism possible is religious fervor.



Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

Trump is Making America Great Again

What Will Make America Great Again?

What IS Making America Great Again?

Donald Trump.

We all know that Trump promised to “Make America Great Again” – It is not a state secret.

His whole focus is upon this effort to “Make America Great Again” foreign and domestic.

If that were my focus then I would weigh every decision I made upon that simple question. I would base my domestic (social and economic) along with foreign policy decisions upon that simple question. "Will this make America great again?"

Come to think about it – bottom line, Trump seems to be doing just that.

It seems to be working already in the first month of his administration.

Economically we have all heard how directly after the election the stock market took off and broke new records. Below is a link from Bloomberg to an article 3/8/2017 by Patricia Laya about Trump’s effect on jobs and wages.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-10/u-s-jobs-wages-show-solid-gains-in-trump-s-first-full-month .

Wages have gone up, unemployment has gone down. Even the dreaded “Participation Rate” has gone up. That tells us people are starting to get back into the work force. This article is filled with good news – one good thing after another. The Obama administration would have been ecstatic if they had a month with just one of those things happening. The only bad news is that government continued to grow albeit slower due to Trump’s hiring freeze.

Politically the Dems are falling over themselves trying to see which one can be the most disconnected from the general public and reality. 

During Trump’s joint Congressional speech he said the following. “We are joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of U.S. Navy Special Operator Senior Chief William Ryan Owens. Ryan died as he lived a warrior and a hero, battling against terrorism and securing our nation.” America saw and reacted to that reality with a long outburst of applause that seemed very genuine. Even the Dems stood and as they sat back down (around the 1:30 spot on the video below, the applause ascended to an even higher level and the tears of gratitude from Mrs. Owens came forth anew as she realized this outpouring was real.

That was an American moment – this was a true moment of Unity of bringing America together, this was a perfect example of Trump’s “magic”.

Emotionally this was a stunner. Politically it was a perfect example of “Speaking Truth to Power” as I will elaborate on in my next post. The “magic” of President Trump politically is shown when he interweaves a glimpse of how he governs personally when he added this. “I just spoke to our great General Mattis just now, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, ‘Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemy.’ Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity.”

Even the Congress when spoken to with such stark reality stood in awe and celebrated it.

http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02/28/heres-the-powerful-moment-from-trumps-speech-that-left-even-democrats-stunned/

America runs best when it follows simple rules. Our Constitution is a simple document. It said all people have rights. It enumerates (lists) the few jobs the government is allowed to do, and then says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” 

“or to the people”, was not an afterthought but a reminder of who runs this country as enshrined in the first line of the Constitution written large, proud and in your face.

The founders understood America will work best when Americans are free to make their own rules and take charge of themselves. Not the other way around.

Trump knows this – Trump ran on this – Trump won on this – America will become great again on this.

We the American people do our best when government is simple. America runs into trouble when those concepts become too complicated for us and others step in to help us understand why things can’t get better. When others tell us what actions to take, we feel less responsibility for our actions.

It’s a responsibility thing. The disconnect we see between “self-governance” and what we have now starts there. When I decide which actions I take, by definition I take responsibility for them. When others tell me what to do they become responsible for my actions. For me to have freedom I need to take back the responsibility for my actions.

When this happens across the board America will be Great Again.

I’m happy to see it is starting to happen.



Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

The "Big and the Small" of it.

Big and Small.

The “Big” comes with our new Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his fast and early movement in changing the Justice Department. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PIVOTING_JUSTICE_DEPARTMENT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-04-09-13-22

The article points out Sessions self-recusal may clear his path for what he wants to accomplish and the reshaping of a bureaucracy he must do to accomplish those goals. The article talks of Sessions being tougher on violent crime, immigration and drugs. I’m focusing on his marijuana stance in this blog post.

In another article linked below

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jeff-sessions-marijuana-comments_us_58b4b189e4b0780bac2c9fd8

Sessions is quoted as saying 2/27/2017 -

“I don’t think America is going to be a better place when people of all ages, and particularly young people, are smoking pot,” Sessions said to reporters Monday at the Department of Justice. “I believe it’s an unhealthy practice, and current levels of THC in marijuana are very high compared to what they were a few years ago, and we’re seeing real violence around that.”

That brings me to the “Small” in the title of my blog.

Those almost exact thoughts were expressed at a Michigan Township Association (MTA) meeting I attended Friday night in my Township of Newfield. I had a Republican meeting in Fremont earlier so I was late getting to the MTA meeting. The highlighted topic of the meeting was about the effects of marijuana dispensaries upon townships. Luckily I was not overly late for that.

Guest speakers were Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast and two members of the State Police Drug team. As I walked in Craig Mast took the stage and talked about how opposed he was to marijuana use. While this could have turned into a moral type of thing it didn’t. Craig backed up everything he said with facts. He talked about all the crimes that currently occurs at the places that legally grow marijuana here in Oceana County. Whether it is grown indoors or out. He said if you grow it you will have someone breaking into your house or cutting/digging through/under your fencing to steal it and then the Sheriff will have to send an officer out to write a report on it. He has already had many calls to investigate these crimes.

The thrust of the meeting was informational. It focused on facts relevant to whether Townships would be better off - or not - passing ordinances allowing dispensaries into their areas. Sheriff Mast thought creating dispensaries would only escalate the theft problem into more violent acts.

He and the State Police talked about how younger kids were getting involved and the widespread corruption of the doctors and the over production of the home growers and in general how hard it was to try to police this activity along with all the added expenses.

--------------------------

I have been torn on the marijuana use question for a long time. All I seem to hear is pro-legalization talk from the media and most politicians. Even Jeff Sessions had to walk back some of what he said about being against “medical marijuana”.

To tell the truth it was actually refreshing to hear the facts against its use at this meeting. I got up quick after the talk and shook Craig’s hand and thanked him for saying what he said. I told him it needed to be said. (I didn't vote for him but I will admit he is growing into the job well).  Unlike Sheriff Mast I have done more than my share of drugs including marijuana and have seen the effects it has on me and upon my friends especially after prolonged use. After 20 some years of abstinence I occasionally meet friends I had back in the day that are still using and I’m shocked at how “burnt out” they seem. Trying to talk to them about anything current is a struggle. They seem stuck in time.

I’m still on the fence about medical marijuana but am definitely against recreational legalization of it.

So there you have the big and the small of it.

Believe me, I have a lot of libertarian friends and I hear all the time about the arguments for “de-criminalizing” marijuana. How it is an individual choice and doesn’t hurt others, how it would get rid of the overcrowding in our jails and on and on.

It was nice to hear some common sense based on facts for a change refuting those arguments at the MTA meeting. I know most politicians are seeing a “new revenue source” and are in favor of it. Some of them are conservatives and I ask them if you are a conservative why do we need more money for the government? 

Well this argument will not go away no matter what the Sec. of Justice, the Oceana County Sheriff or the Mi. State Police does. But it was refreshing to hear the other side of the story. Being a “Rule of Law” guy I think you know where I stand. I also sit on the Newfield Township Planning Commission and I will have my say – at least on the “Small” of it.

Come next election I’ll have my say on the “Big” of it.

Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
231-728-3455

Long, Hard and Bitter - Trump's Cabinet Confirmations

Thoughts on Trump’s Cabinet Picks.

The Senate confirmation process has been one of the longest, hardest and bitterest in US history.

But honestly did we expect any of this to be easy.

Case in point as to the longest.

Steven Mnuchin confirmed by the US Senate 2/16/2016. According to the Forbes article below it was the longest wait any President - ever had to wait for his Treasury Secretary to be confirmed. The article was written by Champaign Williams.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/bisnow/2017/02/16/after-much-scrutiny-senate-confirms-trumps-treasury-pick-steven-mnuchin/#467931a146f3

Case in point as to the bitterest in and out of the Senate. Betsy DeVos for Education. 

As to the bitterness, click on link for the article and please read the tweets at the end for some common sense.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/10/politics/devos-protest-at-washington-school/

The radical left seems lately to be shooting themselves in the foot. The public isn’t as dumb or gullible as they think, the public expects the Education Department head to have access to public schools.

The Senate Confirmation of Mnuchin also points to the hardness of the process. The article above notes, the Mnuchin confirmation was the first time in the history of the US that a cabinet confirmation vote in the Senate needed a tie-breaker from the sitting Vice President. Again for explanation this is the guy who will be leading the changes to Obamacare Trump desires to see.

Also along the line of foot dragging the Dems in the Senate have obstructed and tried to drag their Constitutional Duty out to the max. Here is an article about the troubles Sessions, Price and Mnuchin had with the minority in the Senate.

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/elections/dems-force-delays-in-votes-on-price-mnuchin-sessions/article_e693c3da-904b-516a-8f4d-eaec8be10a66.html

Why all the ruckus. 

In life as in most things when a new Coach, CEO or Governor or most other leaders are hired, it is expected that they will bring along with them people that they think will help them carry out their new duties and responsibilities. People understand this. As for the Presidency, there is usually grumbling and some protests from the minority but not in recent memory to this extent.

Again Why – Simple Trump is seeking a nearly primordial change to government and his Cabinet are the pieces on the chess board.

In Trumpeze it is called a Yuge change. A change in how we look at government and the private sector and ultimately how we look at ourselves individually and our individual place and importance in the world.

Kenedy said “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” After he was shot, his successor LBJ basically said go ahead ask us we’ll give it to you and now Trump is asking in effect; if you don’t want government always telling you what to do, ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your own damn self. Those were my words but I think you get the idea.

Trump is asking for a really - really big change in the government. (Oops a little more Trumpeze it's catchy).  A change back to people which will ask them to take more care of themselves.  That is what he believes his mandate from the people is.  We will see if that is what the people really want.

The government is up in arms. This change is far bigger than I realized until I started looking at the numbers.

For example this is a change from Teachers Unions in state run schools to Educational Choice championed by Betsy DeVos. Educational Choice is where public money (your tax money) follows the students to whatever school you want them to attend whether it be public or private – union or not. 

In other words parents have a choice in which schools they want to send their children to and to which schools their taxes go,.

Is it any wonder the teacher’s unions were and are up in arms about DeVos?

 

Donald Trump promised this type of change and is nominating a cabinet he feels will help him institute it. This change includes breaking up the status quo. Sounds easy, but remember the US Government employs nearly 22 million people not counting the Military. Putting that in context there are only a little over 12 million Americans employed in manufacturing.

Wow.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/21955000-12329000-government-employees-outnumber-manufacturing

See the difficulty.  Then think of all the government grant money that flows out to the local communities, and the jobs currently dependent upon it.  Think about it - this will be a huge change.   Conservatives when they talk about jobs mean the private sector, when Democrats talk of jobs they mean government jobs.

Over the last decades our country has gone from manufacturing to the service industry. Here is a quote from an article. “Most Americans work in the service sector. …., the biggest was education and health services (22.7 million workers), followed by professional and business services (20.3 million) and retail trade (just under 16 million). Manufacturing employed 12.3 million Americans; about 22.2 million were government workers (nearly two-thirds of them at the local level).”

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/01/8-facts-about-american-workers/

No matter how you look at it, to swing the American economy back into Manufacturing from the service sector is going to be a huge task if not impossible. As in all things a big push needs to be made just to stop the momentum away from manufacturing.

The media is all over President Trump for not dealing with Obamacare and giving us a new tax plan. 

Well the Senate has just confirmed his Treasury Secretary (Steven Mnuchin) who would lead the change in tax laws and his Health and Human Services Secretary (Dr. Tom Price) who would lead the dismantling of Obamacare. Remember that these department heads once sworn in have to set up their own leadership team. That takes time.

The media is not giving him time, but most people are willing to.
That is why new administrations in the past were allowed a “honeymoon” to be able to get the kinks worked out. The media has not given a honeymoon to Trump and is lambasting him for not doing his job before they’ve given him a team to do it with.

Just some thoughts on Steven Mnuchin the newly confirmed Secretary of Treasury.

Remember Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which caused the implosion in home prices? Remember the Dems up in arms defending them. Mr. Mnuchin has vowed to get rid of them. (That was just after the election).  More recently there is this article which says Mnuchin wants to re-capitalize them putting them back into the private sector. This would level the playing field of mortages.

https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/17/02/9074950/steven-mnuchin-may-now-be-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac-inv

For all this from government back to the private hands type of change to work Trump needs overwhelming support from his base. 

A lot of his base get some form of government help, either they work for government or get some benefits from them. I sit on the elected County Road Commission Board, I’m also on a couple of local boards and our job seems to be to seek and spend government money. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where you often hear people saying “If we don’t quick grab that (government) money some other county will”.  

I have never heard any of my board members say we have enough money.  Not once at least in public.
Politics is personal and as the quote above said, “…22.2 million were government workers (nearly two-thirds of them at the local level).” That is a lot of local people, local voters. I worry what happens when the cuts hit their wallets, what will they do - what will the local politicians do?

That will be President Trump’s job, to sell this slowing down of government to the people. He needs to show them how those changes are going to help Americans and their children and their grandchildren.

That is a job for a great leader and now with most of Donald’s Cabinet in place he needs to focus and start doing what he was hired to do. Now and onward we will be judging his pudding on the proof of his actions.

Sorry for the mutilated cliché but in these exciting fast changing times it seemed ok.

Oh and to all my conspiracy nuts out there. Steven Mnuchin worked as a "Professional" of Soros Fund Management LLC. I can already see the wheels spinning. Trump must really be the new Manchurian Candidate made by and run by George Soros. No doubt he is really a robot.

Well seriously -



Regards, Bob Carr
Live Dangerously, Tell the Truth
glhotdogs513@gmail.com
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