Schumer Shutdown, DACA, and Roe v. Wade

Things have been hectic for me lately so my writing has unfortunately taken short shrift again accordingly.  That said, I wanted to share a few thoughts on important topics to me.  Each of these issues is deserving of a more thorough article, but instead, with the constraints on my time, I am forced to give you the Reader’s Digest versions.

First, the asinine and cynically corrupt fools that participated in the Schumer shutdown of the government should be held accountable with the loss of their seats of power, if there were indeed any justice left in this nation.  Why these folks would vote against a spending bill which funds all the pet projects that the Democrats adore and contains nothing of substance for which they loathe is beyond me.

They have chosen, under the “leadership” of Senate minority leader Schumer to place the desires of DACA people over that of all other Americans.  The truly ironic fact that displays the cynicism of these folks that care more for illegal aliens and expanding their own political power through the immigration of more future Democrats is that congressional work on DACA was proceeding well already.  There was no need to attach a non-related immigration rider onto this spending bill.

Perhaps President Trump is right.  The senate may need to use the nuclear option and return to a simple majority to end debate and pass spending bills.  Oh, and by the way, Senators of both parties, why don’t you ALL do your damned jobs and pass a yearly budget for once and stop running the government on these continuing resolutions and then we wouldn’t be faced with these impending shutdowns every so often.  I am disgusted beyond belief with the Senate, and particularly with those that would fail to fund our nation’s defenders by holding them hostage if we don’t allow more illegal immigrants into our nation.

Second, regarding DACA, this is an issue which absolutely needs to be addressed, and should be the next priority after the Schumer shutdown is put to rest.  I have just listened to this blowhard asshat Schumer on TV blame the president, the Republicans, and everyone but himself and his cynical power-hungry crew, for this unnecessary shutdown.

His predecessor, Harry Reid, was a liar of such magnitude that he would make Hillary blush.  He was completely without any sense of honor or decency.  I had hoped that Senator Schumer would restore some sense of honor to the leadership of the senate on the Democrat side.  This speech doesn’t bode well for that notion, but I digress.

It is my opinion, that people who were minors when brought to the United States by their illegal alien parents should not be forced to leave the United States.  A bill should be passed that allows them and their parents permanent legal status to work and enjoy all of the rights and responsibilities of the United States with the exception of not being allowed to vote -- EVER for the parents and at least for ten years for the DACA child in question.  No, it is not the fault of these dreamers that their parents brought them illegally to the U.S., but a price must still be paid for breaking our immigration laws.

Further, as these good folks are granted legal status, an end to extended chain migration MUST be a non-negotiable part of this new law.  No aunts, uncles, third cousins and so forth should be granted legal immigration status simply on the fact that a related minor child was illegally brought into this country.  Of course this will not ever pass congress, as the very reason the cynical Democrats want passage of this is not out of any altruistic caring for the people in question, but because of the largely supported assumption that these people will become reliable Democrat voters.  THAT is the truth of which they will never publicly admit.

Finally, today, January 22, 2018, marks the 45th anniversary of the egregious Roe. V. Wade decision by the Supreme Court of the United States of America.  Since this “right” to kill our unborn children was dubiously discovered within the United State Constitution by our Supreme Court, over 60 MILLION children have been “legally” killed by abortion.  Further, this pernicious evil has occurred in defiance of our founding document as a nation, the Declaration of Independence, which states that we are endowed by our Creator with the inalienable right to life.   
               
Our third President and author of our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, once stated, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”  And while the great Thomas Jefferson was referring to the evil institution of slavery, of which he paradoxically participated, the concept of God’s justice is still as valid today as it was those several hundred years ago.

When a nation destroys our innocent unborn, while God may not smite us all from the heavens above, He will allow us to suffer the consequences of our evil actions when it comes to our support of abortion.  And just like we had to suffer through our bloodiest war that nearly ripped our country asunder at the loss of over 600,000 American lives to finally end the evils of slavery, one wonders what the cost of justice will be for 60 million innocent unborn lives?

Oh, and on this horrific anniversary, ironically there is a blessed silver lining for me.  Happy birthday to my amazing daughter!

UPDATE:  It has now been reported as of mid-day today that Senator Schumer and his crew have duplicitously "ended the Schumer shutdown" by basically striking a deal with Republicans that mirrored the exact same deal offered on Friday night.  They basically shut things down to get a guarantee on a DACA vote that was not stalled and was moving forward.  This was nothing more than cynical political posturing.

Guest Post: Israel's Accomplishments and Contributions to the World

Contributed by Carrie

A bit of research points out that Israel is the best ally we have had since WWII! Whether you know it or not, many of the triumphs listed below have benefited you in one way or another.
Israel is driven to help others around the world. This tiny nation’s accomplishments have been shared world-wide to benefit humanity, no matter the politics. Just look at the sample list of highlights of this amazing nation’s achievements.

1. The Middle East has been growing date palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year.  Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds per year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.

2. Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world's population, can lay claim to the following:
     a. The cell phone was developed in Israel by working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
     b. Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft - Israel.
     c. The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium - 4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel. The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.
     d.  Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
     e.  Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.

     f.  The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.

3. Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia, and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel's air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16's. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the United States.

4. Israel's $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.

5. Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.

6. According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry's most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.

7. Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world.

8. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin - 109 per 10,000 people - as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.

9. In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute numbers, Israel has the largest number of start-up companies compared to every other country in the world, except the U.S.! (3,500 companies mostly in high-tech).  With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of high-tech companies in the world, apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.

10. Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S.
Outside of the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies.

11. Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East.

12. On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.

13. Twenty-four per cent of Israel's workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland.  Further, 12 percent hold advanced degrees.

14. Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.

15. In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon and Moses) at Risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel.

16. When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern times.

17. When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day and consequently saved three victims from the rubble.

18. Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship, and the highest rate among women and among people over 55, in the world.

19. Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity.  (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)

20. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as "conflict free."

21. Israel has the world's second highest per capita number of new books.

22. Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert!

23. Israel has more museums per capita than any other country in the world.

24. Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

25. Regarding the medical field, an Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment.  Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.

26. Israel’s Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. It is used to view the small intestine from the inside to spot cancer and digestive disorders.

27. Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device is synchronized with the camera and helps doctors diagnose a heart's mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

28. Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the workforce, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions, Israel places first in this category as well.

29. A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct, all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.

30. An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant in southern California's Mojave Desert.

31. Israel has proven itself as a world leader in desalination after decades of research and entrepreneurship. Despite the criticism that it is expensive, (Israel is working on this issue too) desalination is being used globally as a major solution to water shortages. As a world-leader in water technologies, Israel’s experts are helping communities around the globe to harvest water from the ocean.


All of the above have been accomplished while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.

Thanks to Carrie for contributing this post!

The Destructiveness of Identity Politics

In 1998 a brilliant engineer friend of mine called me and enticed me to come to work for him in starting up a new wireless network engineering consulting firm based out of the San Francisco area.  I was intrigued, so I jumped into my pickup and left Dallas, and gladly sped out to this most paradoxically amazing city.  It was a beautiful place with many interesting people.  It was also a mess and its intrinsic progressivism was not helping to make it better.  That said, the company got off to a good start in spite of this as we had signed several big contracts with large national wireless carriers in the region for our engineering and tower construction services despite the local governmental red tape.

One particular day, my friend and I met with a perspective new client that had agreed in principle to retain our services.  We were sitting together at a business lunch as my friend provided the resumes and profiles of several of the engineers we were offering for the project.  First were the two brothers from South Korea who were smart and knew how to get things done.  Next was the gentleman who was born in Nigeria and educated in the United States.  Then there was the young girl who was a recent college graduate, and then a white gentleman who was originally from the upper mid-west.

The client looked at the profiles, which included pictures, and then commented that he was impressed by the diversity of our engineering staff we had offered and thought very highly of this.  My friend and I looked at each other with a slightly confounded look on each of our faces.  It never occurred to either of us that we were presenting Asians, African-Americans, women, and a token white guy as a matter of filling some diversity quota, but rather these were the people that interviewed with us whom were best qualified for the job.  While obviously being aware of identity politics, it was the first time that it really came clearly into my conscious focus; it was my first real first-hand experience demonstrating that many of our leftist brothers and sisters do indeed look at people first through the prism of race and gender.

Identity politics has continuously crept into American society and has indeed been an integral part of most college curriculums and cultures for decades now as the militant Left in academia have taken the reigns of control over most of our universities and colleges.

Author Bruce Bawer in The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Politics and the Closing of the Liberal Mind regarding this leftist infestation in our institutions of higher learning, wrote the following, 

“The point [became] simply to ‘prove’ – repetitively, endlessly – certain facile, reductive, and invariably left-wing points about the nature of power and oppression.  In this new version of the humanities, all of Western civilization is not analyzed through the use of reason or judged according to aesthetic standards that have been developed over the centuries; rather, it is viewed through prisms of race, class, and gender, and is hailed or condemned in accordance with certain political checklists.”  

But why?  What was the reason and supposed necessity for the Leftist ascendancy of identity politics?

Matthew Continetti, the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon gave a speech last October that provides some insight as to why he thinks this came to be:

“The beginnings of identity politics can be traced to 1973, the year the first volume of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago – a book that demolished any pretense of communism’s moral authority – was published in the West.  The ideological challenge of socialism was fading, its fighting spirit dwindling.  This presented a challenge for the Left: how to carry on the fight against capitalism when its major ideological alternative was no longer viable?

The Left found its answer in an identity politics that grew out of anti-colonialism.  Marx’s class struggle was reformulated into an ethno-racial struggle – a ceaseless competition between colonizer and colonized, victimizer and victim, oppressor and oppressed.  Instead of presenting collectivism and central planning as the gateway to the realization of genuine freedom, the new multiculturalist Left turned to unmasking the supposed power relations that subordinated minorities and exploited third world nations.” 

And so the Left began indoctrinating our impressionable college students during the genesis of this nefarious ideology.  English classes became the study of texts to uncover power relations hidden within them.  History courses became “people’s history and their oppression”.  And of course we saw the rise and development at nearly every university of African-American Studies, Women’s studies, Chicano Studies, Queer Studies, and so forth, as we further tried to balkanize our national populace into disparate sub-groups of Americans. 

Of course anyone having the temerity to point this out was met with being labeled a racist, just as this practice of playing the race card has persisted among our sisters and brothers on the far Left today.

This pernicious ideology of dividing Americans through identity politics has become increasingly pervasive in our national culture.  Indeed on May 5, 2010, Live Oak High School south of San Jose in the Bay area banned “white students” from wearing shirts and clothing with the American flag on it as being provocative to Hispanic students on the Mexican national holiday of Cinco de Mayo.  Never mind that the Hispanic students roamed the campus with a Mexican Flag in celebrating a day that is not an official holiday of their current home nation.  Instead of the principal using this as a teaching moment between Americans of different ancestry, he simply forbid the wearing or displaying of the American flag by students on May 5th. 

While I do find fault with any students attempting to be intentionally provocative and belligerent to their fellow students of Hispanic ancestry, the principal basically curtailed their free speech as Americans.  The case went to court, and the hyper-leftist 9th Circuit of course upheld the principal’s actions.  The Supreme Court later refused to hear the case.

If we continue down this mine-laden path of identity politics and thus continue to divide our citizens into myriads of hyphenated-American subgroups, how can we expect to continue this great American experiment?  How can we keep this melting pot of many various and diverse citizens all coming together as Americans and not as a conglomeration of balkanized sub-groups whom are wary, suspicious, and antagonistic towards other sub-groups?

Last year, Columbia humanities professor Mark Lilla, who is himself a liberal, wrote,

“Identity politics on the left was at first about large classes of people… seeking to redress major historical wrongs by mobilizing and then working through our political institutions to secure their rights.  But by the 1980’s, it had given way to a pseudo-politics of self-regard and increasingly narrow, and exclusionary self-definition that is now cultivated in our colleges and universities.  The main result has been to turn people back onto themselves, rather than turning them outward towards the wider world they share with others.  It has left them unprepared to think about the common good in non-identity terms and what must be done practically to secure it – especially the hard and unglamorous task of persuading people very different from themselves to join a common effort.”

Of course Professor Lilla’s comments were condemned by others on the Left as racist.

The continuing ascendancy of identity politics on the Left has proceeded unabated, especially on the national stage.  In 2012 during the Democrat National Convention, the inclusion of God in their Democrat platform was booed, while issues such as transgender rights to use the restroom of their choice, forcing nuns to purchase health insurance that necessarily included abortifacients, and fining Christian Bakers who refused to use their artistic abilities to furnish a cake for a gay marriage all became pertinent and immediate issues to the Left.

When Hillary Clinton ran for the presidency in 2016, one could find on her campaign website any number of tabs for various ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities, but not a single one about a shared vision of American unity.

It was a far cry from then-Senator Obama’s 2004 DNC keynote speech at John Kerry’s official nomination for president, “There’s not a black America and a white America and a Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”

It is ironic that such a grand and unifying theme was later abandoned during his own presidency as President Obama seemingly intentionally pitted black and white Americans against each other.  Rather than bringing us together as the United States of America, he proceeded to stoke the flames of race and turned us more into splintered and suspicious groups more akin to the former Yugoslavia.

The Left’s often dismissive, insulting, and self-righteous stance on the issue of identity politics will only continue to further fracture our increasingly-divided nation.  We must return to a love of our history and founding principles as expressed by our founding documents that we are ALL created equal.  We are united by freedom and equality and we should strive to ensure that all of our American brothers and sisters are treated as such, regardless of race, faith, gender, or whatever other potentially dividing characteristic that can be exploited. 

Unlike my client decades ago who reviewed the profiles of perspective engineers to work on his project and saw only their skin color and outward physical characteristics, we should strive to see each other as Americans first and foremost always - as fellow brothers and sisters created in the likeness of God.

Our motto as an American nation is “E pluribus unum” – or “Out of many, one”.  That is the ideal we should strive once again to achieve in this American melting pot, and throw away the divisive and destructive ideology of identity politics into the ash heap of history where it rightly belongs.

Israel's Capital, the Palestinian Authority's Rejection of it, and the Forthcoming Taylor Force Act

I mentioned in a previous post how President Trump recently acknowledged Israel’s capital of Jerusalem as such and stated that the United States would start working to move our embassy there accordingly. 

President Trump did not unilaterally make this decision, but actually responded to a law passed during the Clinton administration that has been delayed in its implementation on a semi-annual basis since the time it was passed.  President Trump finally stopped the proverbial kicking-of-the-can-down-the-road and decided to not defer action when the most recent six month review came up yet again.

Of course the response from most of the Muslim world and other hateful anti-Semitic nations was immediate and vociferous.  U. N. representatives of the 57 mostly Muslim-majority members slammed Trump's decision and called on all countries to respond by recognizing east Jerusalem as the “capital of the State of Palestine.”

The corrupt and anti-Israel United Nations drafted a resolution that, without explicitly naming the U.S. or President Trump, expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem" and said such decisions "have no legal effect, are null and void, and must be rescinded."

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley's lone vote against the resolution scuttled the measure which gained support from all 14 other current Security Council members.  Ambassador Haley called the resolution an "insult" and said it "won't be forgotten."  Haley further characterized the failed resolution as "one more example of the United Nations doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Haley then went on and pointed out the fact that the U.S. has given more than $5 billion in aid to the Palestinians since 1994, which is significantly more than the combined contributions from all other nations on the Security Council.  Despite this fact, the Palestinian Authority enriches itself while many of its people live in poverty, all the while they denounce Israel and America.

Regardless, the resolution came on the heels of an emergency summit of Muslim nations two weeks ago in Turkey. There, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared, "Jerusalem has been, and will remain forever, the capital of the State of Palestine."  He further proclaimed that this “ancient Palestinian capital” of Jerusalem was not of the Jews, as history and archaeology attest, but of the Palestinian people. "We have been there in this location for thousands of years," Abbas claimed, linking Palestinians, who are Arabs, to the ancient Canaanites.  That's a claim for which there is no evidence.

But Abbas was just getting started, as he further declared, 

"[Jerusalem] is a Palestinian Arab Muslim Christian city, the eternal capital of the state of Palestine. There can be no Palestinian state without the city of Jerusalem as its capital and there will be no peace in the region and in the world without it."

In a full vote of U.N. members of 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions (including Canada and Mexico) the U.N. passed a resolution that declared President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital "null and void" accordingly.  Of course this has no impact on Israel’s choice of its capital or the United States of America as recognizing it as such.  It is simply another meaningless resolution by an impotent and corrupt organization that desperately needs to be reformatted, if not totally scrapped.
President Trump and Ambassador Haley said they were taking note of which friends and allies voted against the U.S. with its declaration and intimated that future U.S. foreign aid might be impacted accordingly. 

As for the U.S. taxpayer funding of the Palestinian Authority, I have long been of the opinion that not a single dime should be spent to that end until they fully renounce and work to end terrorism against Israel.  Finally, the United States is one step closer to actually doing so, as on December 5, the House of Representatives finally passed the Taylor Force Act.  It is a bill that calls for defunding the Palestinian Authority until they end their “pay to slay” policy. 

The bill, which has also been passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, now awaits the full Senate to take up the bill for a vote.  The Taylor Force Act will compel the Palestinian Authority to face the consequences of its violence or end this abhorrent practice immediately. If the bill is enacted, they will have to revoke any law, decree, or document authorizing a compensation scheme for prisoners "that uses the sentence or period of incarceration to determine the level of compensation paid."

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has steadfastly rejected all calls to stop funding terror,

"I don't intend to cease payment for families of prisoner martyrs, even if it costs me my seat," he vowed. "I will continue to pay them until my last day."

Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-CO), the bill's sponsor, issued this statement following the previous vote out of the House committee:

"I am very encouraged that my bill, the Taylor Force Act, has passed with bipartisan support in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. This is an important first step in stopping U.S. tax dollars from funding Palestinian Terrorism. The Palestinian Authority must be held accountable for glorifying terrorism by paying terrorists and naming streets in Ramallah after Palestinians who murder Jews.

The Palestinian Authority devotes almost half of its foreign ‘aid’ to rewarding acts of terror against Israelis and innocent bystanders, including American war hero Taylor Force. It is outrageous that our government would, for so long, turn a blind eye to actions that violate international law and fan the flames of hatred, terrorism, and murder.”

With the United States officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, we have been warned that this will incite further violence.  It is ironic that some Leftists and indeed Muslim factions in the Middle East have acknowledged that they will resort to violence as a tactic when they do not get their way on issues when it comes to the Israel/Palestinian debate.  “Do as we demand, or we will act with further terrorism” seems to be the standard operating procedure for the Palestinian Authority.

The fact that the Palestinian Authority does not truly want peace, but rather a full and complete capitulation and dismantling of the state of Israel suggests to me that there was no reason for the U.S. to not move forward in acknowledgement of the truth of Israel’s capital.  Further, as the PA has refused to negotiate in good faith towards peace, we should remove all further funding from them accordingly, and I suspect we will start to do so shortly with the upcoming passage of the Taylor Force Act.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and the 95th anniversary of the League of Nations mandate, both of which established legal title of the land to the Jewish people.  Even more  importantly, the status of Jerusalem has been determined by God, and his decree is not subject to human opinion.

Tax Reform and Its Ramifications for America

As I type this post, the United States House of Representatives has just passed the reconciled tax reform bill by a 227 to 203 vote, which now goes to the Senate for a vote later today.  It too will pass there, barring any totally unforeseen last minute defections of "yes" voters.  President Trump will likely sign the bill into law later this evening.  The enormously positive ramifications on the passage and implementation of this act will be felt for nearly all tax paying Americans for many years to come as middle class tax payers get to keep more of their own money.

Yes, we absolutely should have preceded this tax reform with a spending cut reform bill.  There are huge amounts of waste, fraud, abuse, and frankly extra-constitutional (un-constitutional) spending sprees that occur every year in our federal government.  Billions of dollars need to be trimmed there, but frankly it simply is not ever going to happen with the progressive, foolish, and entrenched members of congress that we currently have from both parties sitting there. 

All of that said, I find it amusing how some of our good leftist friends are  all of a sudden concerned about this tax reform act and what it will do to the national debt.  While I can think of one or two of them who are sincere and consistent in this concern, most of these otherwise well-meaning leftist folk are simply playing partisan politics.  If they were legitimately concerned about our national debt, they would have been protesting like I did when President Obama's policies saw a doubling of our national debt from $10 trillion to nearly $20 trillion during his administration.  Needless to say, their concern rings a bit hollow now.

This is particularly true because this tax reform act will absolutely grow the economy and expand the tax base accordingly.  More jobs will be created, and many of them will be good paying jobs.  This means more taxes paid and more federal income accordingly.  Will the expanding economy pay for the tax cuts that will ensue?  Most objective economists don't think it will... as it is predicted to add $1 trillion over ten years by some of the more objective prognosticators.  Some of the more partisanly optimistic ones are sure it will pay for itself, while the partisans on the left are predictably claiming doom and gloom and ridiculously that it will increase taxes for the middle class, as per the congenital liar Nancy Pelosi.

The fact that this was passed without any Democrat support at all in the House and likely none in the Senate to come this afternoon means that when the already-improving economy further accelerates, the Democrats will have no cover with the American people of why they voted against giving more of OUR OWN MONEY back to us.

And then of course we have some leftists that wish to play the class warfare card as they continue to hate the rich first, last, and always.  This comes out particularly in the case of the decreased corporate tax rate reduction from 35 to 21%.  Now I am the first to agree that large corporations in particular should not be subsidized with tax payer dollars to effectively lower their tax rate; however, it is a pretty basic economic fact that the consumers and share-holders are the ones that end up paying that tax in the form of higher prices of goods and services needed to offset the companies' tax liabilities and in reduced returns and dividends to stock holders.  By making American corporations more competitive on a global scale, we will further see a growth in our economy and the creation of more jobs. 

Indeed, here are just a few examples of corporations that will be investing in our economy specifically because of Trump economic policies and  the tax reform: 

• Foxconn Technology Group announced it was investing $10 billion in Wisconsin to build a factory that will employ 3,000 workers. The company predicted it will benefit another 22,000 workers indirectly.

• Corning Inc. announced during a White House ceremony with Trump that it was investing $500 million in new U.S. production, creating 1,000 jobs.

• Broadcom Limited announced at another White House ceremony its plan to move headquarters back to the United States, bringing $20 billion in annual revenue.

• My own company of AT&T has said that if this tax reform is passed, they will invest $1 billion creating 7000 new high paying jobs domestically.

While serious debt reduction needs to take place, and I will continue to lobby my elected officials ad nauseum on this issue, I think this once-in-a-generation tax reform has far more upside to it than not.  It will indeed help far more Americans directly in their pocketbooks than anything done by the Democrats over the last eight years of the Obama administration.  Despite the sycophantic media towing the Democrat line as always, I truly think come mid-term elections in 2018 when people vote with their pocket-books that the Democrats will be horrified at the outcome once again, and the nation will be better off for it.

Crazy Life and Random Topics

Life has been crazily hectic for me lately, hence my silence in the blogosphere over the last several weeks.  That said, I have noted so many things going on in the world which I would really have loved to spend the time putting virtual pen to paper on the blog  to discuss lately.  As I am still pretty busy, I figured I'd do a quick summary of some random topics and my overall thoughts regarding them.  Cheers!

Tax Reform

While congress should also be introducing legislation into where they are going to cut spending that is wasteful, redundant, inefficient, or not in line with our constitution, I think that the tax reform legislation that is going into reconciliation between the House and the Senate is pretty good thus far overall.  First, despite our friends on the left's predictable whining on the topic, the return of some of our tax dollars is a good thing.  After all, this is NOT the government's money.  It is ours.  If the tax reform stays pretty close to its current iteration, it will help spur the economy via corporate tax cuts that finally make the U.S. competitive on the global stage.  (And it is not corporations that pay taxes anyway, but rather the consumers that do.)  Further, the increase in deductions for children and in improved tax rates will help a vast majority of middle class Americans.  No, my Leftist friends, the poorest half of Americans do not get a tax cut per se, as they do not currently PAY any income taxes.

Jerusalem is Israel's Capital

Duh.  It has been the capital of the Jewish people since the time of King David.  President Trump's official recognition of this fact along with the promise of moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is long overdue.  Legislation was passed and signed into law stating this was to be done all the way back in the Clinton administration.  It has been waived every six months for decades now.  Every nation has the sovereign right to declare its own capital.  Israel has done so.  President Trump did a good thing by finally officially recognizing what has always been.  Kudos accordingly on this issue.

Sexual Harassment

Al Franken and John Conyers are resigning from congress for their disgusting behavior towards women.  Further, Roy Moore was not elected to the senate for his behavior also.  These are all good things, as our government should hold accountable those members of the House, Senate, and other federal offices to the same standards that the rest of the civilized world shares.  Further, the secret "settlement account" that is funded by the Treasury Department to the tune of $17 million over the last decade should have its expenditures brought forth into the public eye so we the people can see who has had TAX PAYER money used to settle sexual harassment claims against them.  If we cannot get these scum out of office via term limits, perhaps we can clean house somewhat through some more forced resignations.

Concealed Carry Reciprocity

The House of Representatives has passed a measure which now the Senate should take up that allows anyone with a valid concealed carry permit issued in a given state to travel so armed to another state legally.  This removes some of the legal liabilities that anti-gun states have erected in order to circumvent our second amendment rights, which effectively legally disarms law-abiding gun owners as they travel from their home state to certain other states.  This is akin to states being required to acknowledge and accept a drivers license issued in another state as legal and valid in their own state.

Planned Parenthood Investigation

The Department of Justice is finally starting an investigation into the illegal, barbaric, and ghoulishly reprehensible acts of Planned Parenthood selling body parts of aborted children.  If there is truly any justice in this world then the most innocent of all people, our unborn children, will finally have our government working on their behalf to hopefully serve justice and shut down this heinous practice of Planned Parenthood's.  Perhaps then we can start by removing all tax payer dollars from this vile agency next.

Hiking in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

Last, I did manage to spend a few warm autumn days with my wife hiking in some of the red rock country in the south part of the state of Utah right before Thanksgiving.  The crowds were non-existent in Canyonlands and for the first time in a long long time, I was able to look out over a magnificent landscape of desert canyons and hear... absolutely nothing!  It was truly something for which I was thankful.  I hope everyone had a similarly wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

 

 Cheers to all, as I hope to return to regular posts soon hopefully.

Bowe Bergdahl and the Subsequent Silence From America

The ebb and flow of political discussions and the passionate disagreement on issues between good people with sincerely held and diametrically opposed beliefs on what is best for our nation is an intrinsic and vital part of our nation’s life blood.  That said, there are a few issues that should unite nearly all Americans in their support or scorn, as the situation warrants.  Such is my humble opinion. 

One of those “should-be” uniting issues is the disposition of military traitors. 

Last Friday, November 3rd, with little fanfare or even public acknowledgment, it was announced that military judge Colonel Jeffrey R. Nance decided that former Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl would be released from custody without having to serve any prison time at the conclusion of his court martial.  He would be stripped of his rank back to private (the lowest Army rank) and given a dishonorable discharge. 

Bowe Bergdahl was charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after abandoning his outpost in Afghanistan in 2009; charges to which he pleaded guilty.  He then asked that his court martial be adjudicated by the judge alone rather than by a military jury.  I am sure this was done as a smart legal calculation by his lawyer, as a sitting jury comprised of his military comrades would probably be less inclined to provide a favorable outcome for Bergdahl.  Evidently this legal gambit worked.

Leading up to his court martial, military investigators found that Bergdahl willfully and with intention walked away from his unit. His actions were planned and premeditated. One soldier in his unit said that Bergdahl mailed his belongings back home to his parents before deserting. Further, Bergdahl sent an e-mail back to his parents saying that he was ashamed to be an American.

Bergdahl has said he abandoned his post because he wanted to travel to a larger base to report "a critical problem in my chain of command," though he did not specify what the problem was.  As a result of his deserting his unit, he was subsequently captured by the Taliban and remained in their custody for nearly five years.

Capt. John Billings was Bergdahl's platoon leader in Afghanistan and stated that the platoon initially searched for the then-private first class for 19 days, going nearly without food or water during the time of the search.  Retired Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer James Hatch testified that he and his dog came under fire while looking for Bergdahl. He was shot in the leg, and his K-9 partner, Remco, was shot in the face and killed.  "I thought I was dead," said Hatch, who now walks with a heavy limp after 18 surgeries. He said he was concerned because there was little time to plan the search for Bergdahl, and other soldiers knew he had willfully walked away.

Sadly there are some extreme leftists in America that have embraced Bergdahl’s weak explanation that he only meant to stroll through a dozen miles or so of hostile territory to the next military base in order that he could report on conditions in his own unit, which PFC Bergdahl found to be not to his liking.  Indeed there is even some evidence to suggest that Bergdahl intended to go over to the enemy, whom he had expected to welcome him.

Now Bergdahl was not some hapless kid whom was unwillingly drafted into the Army.  He volunteered, as do all of our current military members.  He took an oath and subsequently violated it in the worst possible way.  The crime of deserting your post in a tactical combat zone is the worst offense a soldier could commit, short of turning your own weapon against your comrades.  Even had no one been wounded or killed in the efforts to find and retrieve Bergdahl, he betrayed a most fundamental trust and thus endangered those who counted on him to do his part in their mutual defense.

Perhaps even more disturbingly, President Obama decided in May of 2014 to reportedly give up cash and to swap five terrorists in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay in exchange with the Taliban for Bowe Bergdahl.  This was not a POW exchange, as the military knew Bergdahl willingly walked away from his post, and therefore had classified him as a deserter and not as a prisoner of war accordingly. 
President Obama surely knew these circumstances when he arranged for the swap, and yet he decided to put further American lives at risk by trading these vile terrorists in exchange for the traitorous Bergdahl.  When asked about the wisdom of releasing these terrorists, Obama stated in a press conference, “Is there the possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely.  There’s a certain recidivism rate that takes place.” 

One has to wonder who showed the worse judgement in critical thinking: Bowe Bergdahl or President Obama.  The fact that Obama invited Bergdahl’s parents to the White House for a public ceremony celebrating Bergdahl’s release only served to further disrespect Americans and the military members that Bergdahl abandoned, endangered, and even got killed through his treacherous actions.

Second Lieutenant Darryn Andrews, 34, died when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with a roadside bomb and a rocket-propelled grenade. Private First Class Matthew Martinek, 20, died a week later from wounds sustained in the same attack. The parents of both Andrews and Martinek told Reuters that they believe their sons died searching for Bergdahl, saying they were told this by other soldiers in the platoon.

Desertion in a combat theater during war time used to be grounds for the death penalty.  Indeed Bergdahl’s actions condemned far better men to injury and death as they searched for him.  The prosecution in Bergdahl’s court martial asked for 14 years imprisonment for the traitor instead, while he could have conceivably received a term of life in prison.  Instead, Colonel Nance inexplicably excused the actions of the traitorous Bergdahl with little more than a slap on the wrist.

Bergdahl “suffered enough” according to his lawyer.  "As everyone knows, he was a captive of the Taliban for nearly five years, and three more years have elapsed while the legal process unfolded. He has lost nearly a decade of his life" Eugene Fidell, Bergdahl's civilian attorney, said at a news conference after the proceedings.  And yet Chief Petty Officer Hatch will walk with a limp for the remainder of his life, while Second Lieutenant Andrews and PFC Martinek will never come home as a result of their search to find and secure Bowe Bergdahl.  One wonders if they and their families have suffered enough too.

The bottom line is that we must hold those that commit the most despicable acts accountable for their traitorous actions, especially in combat theaters.  “Chelsea” Manning and Bowe Bergdahl are now free to happily ever after live their pathetically dishonorable lives after committing such horrific acts of treason.  President Obama further exacerbated the situation by trading five Taliban commanders, who almost surely returned to the battle field against Americans, in exchange for Bowe Bergdahl. 

This should infuriate all Americans, as much as it angers and causes great disillusionment among those military men and women that have vowed to protect us and our nation; that have looked beyond themselves in their sacrifices of protecting something far greater.  When there is little consequence to those that commit such treason, it dishonors those that willingly put themselves in harm’s way.  It serves to only further undermine military morale and discipline.  It weakens our nation.  This is something that all Americans, regardless of our political ideologies, should agree upon.  It is something that should make all of us exceptionally angry.

Ironically, this travesty of injustice continues.

After last Friday’s announcement that Bergdahl would spend no prison time for his traitorous actions, for which he pleaded guilty, his lawyer stated that they now plan on appealing Bergdahl’s dishonorable discharge. 

Fury is too trifling a word to capture what all Americans should be feeling.