Category: Politics

The political genius who contrived Hillary Clinton’s response to the revelations of Clinton Foundation and State Department corruption that there may be smoke but there’s no fire should be, and likely will be considering who he/she works for, taken out to a park somewhere and suicided with several shots to the back of the head (just kidding of course, but…). If there is any folk wisdom that goes back further in the history of mankind than the common sense knowledge that indeed, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” I don’t know what it is. I’d wager it most likely precedes Homo Sapiens’ adoption of fire to his own uses, first for warming, then for cooking, as in situations where rising smoke on the horizon meant grass or forest fire to be avoided, or even exploited for tasty roasted animal carcasses.

Not only is this bit of common sense universal, with some version being a part of virtually every culture in the world, it is a truth that is instilled into virtually every child’s learning from an early age. This is a truth so widespread it is known even in the animal world although it may be sensed there more by smell than sight, although humans as well also frequently are alerted to the presence of fire by a first whiff of smoke rather than a billowing cloud. Show me someone who doesn’t know the meaning of, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire” and I’ll show you someone with a severe mental or educational deficiency. Let smoke appear on any skyline and it’s likely the children who will demonstrate the first excitement as to the possibility of an impending inferno.

So how in the world did the Clinton campaign seize on such a lame defense as there may be smoke but there’s no fire when we all know that the very admission of the presence of smoke is a de facto admission that there must be fire somewhere? Every time Clinton and her defenders raise that argument they remind us of the common sense wisdom we have been taught all our lives that, “Oh yeah, where there’s smoke, there is indeed fire,” which just reinforces the suspicion that Clinton is trying to blow this particular smoke up our rear ends.

Crossposted at American Thinker

Salena Zito at the New York Post, a friend of TAH, I believe, has taken it upon herself to do what all political journalists should do and that is to get out from behind her desk and get away from the liberal echo box of New York City and go look at the political landscape in the rest of America. She drives through rural Pennsylvania and what she finds does not surprise me at all, the support for Trump there is overwhelming:

If you drive anywhere in Pennsylvania, from the turnpike to the old US routes to the dirt roads connecting small towns like Hooversville with “bigger” small towns like Somerset, you might conclude that Donald Trump is ahead in this state by double digits.

Large signs, small signs, homemade signs, signs that wrap around barns, signs that go from one end of a fence to another dot the landscape with such frequency that, if you were playing the old-fashioned road-trip game of counting cows, you would hit 100 in just one small town like this one.

Yet if you listen to the liberal media, Trump is several points behind in all their polls in the Keystone State which is one of the key swing states in the coming election. As soon as I read her article I thought of a piece here yesterday that our military is strongly pro-Trump and a comment from an old TAH regular, a person in a position to know, that fellow O-4/O5 officers were more supportive of Hillary. While some of you may see it as a stretch, I see a parallel here between urban elites and these officers when compared to the rural and small town voters Zito visited and our military enlisted. The urban elites and the officer corps tend to be better educated, better paid and more attuned to that favored term of John Kerry, the nuances of politics, while the small town, rural folks are more attuned to the deteriorating conditions within the ranks.

Some of you officers who read here may find this observation too broad and unfair, an over-simplification of a much more complex issue, which is precisely why I have sent it to Jonn, to stimulate some discussion on the topic.

Fire for effect…

Are you going to be The Donald or the President?

The Donald is a cartoon character. I do not want a cartoon character in the Whitehouse or leading America’s Armed Forces.

Instead of spending days in slap fights with the liberal media and Democrat red herring Khizr Khans, spend your days battling our nation’s problems. Continually define Mrs. Clinton. Be clear about why she is Crooked Hillary and never let up. How are you going to bring us back to “greatness” from the eve of destruction caused by her policies? You have made some speeches with substance, but you are singing to the choir. Those who consume liberal media by the bucket load have not heard them or read the transcripts. They have only heard the progressive critique.

I do not wish to massage your ego, but you need to understand that you are quite likely our last chance to save a country headed over the edge. Yep, I know. Scary. We simply cannot wait for the next shot at it. The “we will get it next time wink, wink” strategy the progressive globalists used for the last two elections is, for Americans, clearly a loser. It fails because they pit one progressive against another ensuring the like-minded occupies the Whitehouse, which is always their goal.

Unless you are Captain America (probably a bad analogy since he is a cartoon character too), saving a country is a tremendous load to bear. It is hard for me to tell whether or not you have embraced the full weight of that. The urgency of it. And for clarity’s sake if my choice is between Mrs. Clinton and a steaming pile of dog turds, I am voting for the turds. Not making an equivalency here, just letting you know that for a multitude of reasons – national security, state of our Armed Forces, the Supreme Court, state of our economy, giving a damn about America and Americans… – I believe you are the remaining viable choice to lead our country. I will not willingly cast a vote for a proven felon and pathological liar who is a progressive communist puppet to boot. Nor will I risk the future of my granddaughters by making a protest vote for some unicorn on the ballot with no chance of defeating the corrupt liberal-progressive-communism that is destroying the country – so I can feel good about myself. So you have my vote, but I am not your problem.

Is not there always a but? There are many out there who will also never vote for Mrs. Clinton but, with whom you have not yet sealed the deal. They are unsure if you are serious or are not certain who you are. To many of them, who you are is the only important question and it takes priority over the fate of the nation. No joke. The remainder wonders if you are serious. Is this just another reality show? A game? I have heard all of those questions along with the theory that your goal is to go out there and lose big to the friends you invited to your wedding, the Clintons.

It is time to throw down bubba. Time to convince the undecided. It is time to abandon the insults and comedy – and insults and comedy are all that is making it into the liberal media that most still consume – and put the big boy shoes on and close the deal.

I was convinced of this long before the recently leaked Soros documents. If elected, Mrs. Clinton will no more be the President of the USA than is Obama. She will be controlled and steered by the George Soros branded and funded progressive globalists whose goal is the eradication of international borders and ending national sovereignty. They will compete with the Muslim Brotherhood that is inside the highest levels of the globalist Democrat party. All of them standing by with pre written legislation and executive orders. Thanks to America the ignorant, (thanks again “journalists” and “educators”) these worms own the Whitehouse and their enablers are progressive establishment Republicans and Democrats, who are helping them systematically dismantle our country. That message needs to run loud and clear across the media spectrum. Unless you are, as are apparently every politician in Washington and every media outlet, owned by Soros the billionaire convicted criminal Nazi collaborator with his messianic complex and one world government ambitions. These are dangerous big boys and they will never play fair and never easily forfeit gains made over the past few years. Body armor up brother and make sure you can trust each member of your security team. And then only those vetted by you.

The President of the United States of America is a world leader. As goes America so goes the world. Just take a look around. Decline for us is chaos elsewhere else. As Mr. Regan (also despised by establishment Washington and communists) so aptly put it, when freedom is gone from the United States of America brother it is gone from everywhere. The light goes out and the world becomes a very dark dangerous place. People are scared about their future, the future of their children, the future of their country and their freedom. I may be wrong, but I believe beneath the persona and showmanship is the serious, contemplative, and generous man described by those who know you well and those with whom you have discussed our country’s problems. If that man, humbled by the idea of leading the greatest nation God ever allowed, truly exists then those not yet sold need to meet him. If you have Christian faith as you proclaimed, then turn your Bible to Micah 6:8 and follow the instructions. Maybe your latest speech is a turn in that direction. You need every last vote to overcome the impending massive voter fraud.

Many in your adopted party, with robust media support, are actively trying to Goldwater you. You have the Mitt Romney globalist establishment doing to you the same as his daddy did to Goldwater. You just may want to study that some. Allied with them by default are the self-proclaimed puritan conservatives searching for their unicorn. I question who among the 16 or so others that you defeated was their unicorn? Ted Cruz? Perhaps, but he had his big bank connections too, supported TPP and fast track before he was against it, some questionable immigration positions, and most damning he lied to us about his commitment to supporting the Republican nominee. Hard to trust a liar, ask Mrs. Clinton.

If these smitten establishment globalists and puritans – sore losers – were concerned with saving our country, or making it great again, or even defeating the progressive globalists they would be trying to influence you and your policies rather than by default electing Mrs. Clinton. Just so they can have a shot at her the “next time.” The same strategy they used against Obama. We will just wait and get them next time. Problem is we are out of next times and do overs. Put these guys in your rear view mirror and keep your eye on the prize. This one is for keeps.

Nowadays people want to place everyone into identity or ideological boxes. That is how we have been conditioned to think about people and especially politicians. The progressives and the establishment Republicans and self-proclaimed puritan conservatives cannot find a box that fits you. You have them flabbergasted. Are you conservative, moderate, a liberal progressive communist, a libertarian, or something as yet undefined? They cannot figure you out because you do not fit neatly into any of their boxes. Could it be that you do not view the world through any well defined ideological prism? The missing box is not a box at all. I believe you have a practical deal making and solutions view of the world that a successful businessman and leader needs. You are not a conservative puritan by any stretch, but if surrounded by the right people I believe you would operate within the parameters of our laws and Constitution. If the objective is truly to “make America great again”, then it is the best ideas and not pure ideology that will win the day. No ideology has cornered the market on good ideas. Besides, you do not get harmony when everyone sings the same note.

That was way too long for internet reading. I am not the only American with a lot to ponder. From here, it is up to you.

© 2016 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved

It was in February 1972 that I first saw Uijongbu, South Korea. Since then, I have been back a few times. The only thing unchanged since that first time is the rocky hilltops surrounding the valley, the Uijongbu corridor, which is the traditional invasion route from the north. My month long trip to the Land of the Morning Calm was restful and mind clearing. I long for those days of being a carefree Army private. For me, it was the time when political issues and the state of our country were things that confounded the minds of others. I lived through the hippie era, racial strife in the ranks, drug abuse, and alcoholic senior noncommissioned officers and all of it during the Vietnam drawdown. I was as disconnected from the truth of the political world then as much of America is today. Historically only about half of us vote in general elections and odds are much of that half is politically ignorant.

I suppose all of us can look back on a time and long for the days of blissful ignorance. Especially during a time when so much information is coming toward us that we can barely comprehend it and much less determine fact from fabrication and all of it during a time when the fate of the nation relies on our ability to do just that. Our crucial freedom of the press has been abused and forfeited by ideologues. No such freedom exists for them who are steered in thought and action by ideology and the unscrupulous neither of which is the least bit interested in truth – at least not interested in the people knowing the truth. Sadly, they and the many who consume massive quantities of their daily dose of gibberish, would not recognize the truth if it smacked them straight in mouth. Most remain wholly ignorant because of it, although it is not a blissful ignorance. These days it is an anger filled ignorance fueled by lies and many years of brain washing indoctrination. Out of ignorance, they will burn down their own towns and ultimately invite in tyrant saviors who are not ignorant of the truth to control their lives. As wrong and misguided as they are, they remain passionate about what they believe and who they support all of it antithetical to the free representative republic that is the United States of America.

A nation that has wondered so far from the pathway to greatness laid out in our founding documents, desperately needs leaders. Over many years, those elected as guardians of our great nation have failed us. They have failed because they are no longer a government of the people, by the people and for the people. They are the living example that power corrupts. These are men and women who have spent lifetimes in national politics. They love the television cameras, the Washington social scene, their privileged lives, and people willing to steer large amounts of money to them and their families for the right piece of legislation. These under the table legal bribes hardly differ from the in your face hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars donated to bogus charitable foundations or for speeches paid for by banks and foreign countries. No matter their party alignment, all of them prey on the gullible and ignorant. In the foreground and from all sides, they stir up the ignorant with many promises never delivered. In the background they are great buddies sipping bourbon, smoking cigars and working out the next cash deal. Only strong leaders can put our country back on course.

The theory goes society creates the event and the man (man is gender neutral here – not my theory so I will not rename it). If you do not have a great event then you cannot have a great man. Without World War II, would there been an Ike or Patton? Or would both have ended their military time as Colonels? That is the question raised by the great man, great event leadership theory. Leaders are born, not made the theory declares and without a great event they become history’s everyman. Audie Murphy practically begged his way into the Army and once in Europe he had to plead for a combat assignment. He became our most decorated Soldier. But without the event?

I do not know if we have a great leader on the horizon. But, a wholly corrupted national government from Congress, to the Whitehouse, to the Cabinet Secretaries, to the Courts to the top echelons of the military, to an economy teetering on collapse, to big money from corporate lobbyists, to social justice warriors, terminal political correctness and all of it driven by a gigantic propaganda machine (also known as the main stream media) and a populace that largely gets its information from Facebook, Twitter, and that same ideologically driven media, and with the rejection of any moral authority, we certainly have an event. A nation driven dangerously close to its tipping point – a place from which, if not corrected, it will never return.

We have two people battling to be that great man or great woman to either save this nation or complete its fundamental destruction. For clarity, the issue is the fate of our nation and ideology aside there are only two choices. One is a product of this cesspool of corruption. A charter member of the Washington establishment, proven liar, as corrupt as the day is long, of seriously questionable health and mental capacity, and glorified each day by a doting sycophantic media and billed as better than the alternative by much of the like-minded establishment. The other, never held a political office and was never part of the Washington establishment, although it is likely he greased some of their palms along the way as the cost of doing business. In speech he is not politically correct, but with plain language he is touching the everyman. The media and establishment Washington, even to the extent they would prefer the dishonest and corrupt – for them a kindred worldview, hate his guts and try daily to derail his journey to the Presidency.

Each of us must decide who and from here to where.

© 2016 J. D. Pendry All Rights Reserved