One Goal
They may be Democrat, Republican, Congressman, Senator, Supreme Justice, whatever….the end game is the same.
Of course, expediting this case is unusual. The reason for the rush is Obama is leaving office in a year. There we see one element of the managerial class helping the other without thinking too much about it. This would not have happened, of course, if Paul Ryan and the Republicans had not gone along with the scheme by funding it in the last budget. So we have one side of the class pushing open borders, another element signing off on it, despite claiming to be mortal enemies of the former. Then another side comes in to help expedite it.
Again, that looks a lot like coordination and one would be forgiven for thinking it is a conspiracy. But wait, there’s more! The court now has the opportunity to remove this issue from public consideration. They will most likely rule that the executive can issue citizenship to whoever he likes whenever he likes. This removes the issue from Congress. From there, it just takes one president to issue green cards to South America for the circle to be complete. Citizenship, as a practical matter, ceases to exist.
The court did not take up the case because they intend to block the administration. They took up the case for fear it could languish until after Obama was gone and the public had become fully aware of what’s happening. Once the court rules in Obama’s favor in a few months, the game is lost. It’s just a matter of time before the ruling elite is completely decoupled from the people over whom they rule. They will have their managerial state, if they can keep it. Keep Reading…..
The Fall Of Hope & Change
As 2019 approached President Cruz reflected on the accomplishments of his first two years. He was satisfied that congress had finally repealed Obamacare, though it wasn’t necessarily their idea. Without a President willing to throw billions at the system, the health care experiment was upside down six months after his inauguration, unable to sustain itself. Many insurance companies jumped ship long ago, and the few remaining that were holding out for a monopoly went bankrupt. The Affordable Care Act and it’s $500 billion price tag was a disastrous failure, not only for the tax payer, but for the insurance industry as well.
President Cruz was thrilled, and frankly quite surprised, at the effectiveness of health insurance portability across state lines. Insurance company start ups and investors flocked to the new competitive markets, premiums and deductibles had already fallen by 62 percent and experts say if the competition continues, health insurance could cost as little as auto insurance by 2020. Cruz’s approval rating had spiked at 72% but may climb even higher as working Americans continue to benefit from this legislation.
His illegal immigration policy was a mixed bag but seemed to be effective, the immigration penalty program, where illegals were allowed to stay but had to sacrifice all paid income taxes for twenty years was a deal breaker for many. The requirement to accept the program or be deported had two effects, many self deported refusing to accept the agreement, others embraced the program and immediately began the assimilation classes. Experts assume 2 million illegals went back to Mexico over the past year and a half, another 4.2 million were deported for not agreeing to the program or had a criminal history which was tagged for automatic and immediate deportation. By cutting the illegal alien population in half, having the border 100% secured, and a rigid deportation policy in place for criminal illegals, the Cruz administration offered citizenship to the remaining illegals with a number of caveats, the 20 year tax penalty, no welfare benefits, and zero tolerance on criminal activity. You either came to work or you went back to whatever homeland you came from……period.
When the wall was finally finished on the southern border, it was proven to be very effective, President Cruz was amused that they actually got Mexico to pay for it. After the first wave of illegal Mexicans held in California prisons were repatriated back to Mexico, President Enrique Peña Nieto called the White House to stop the program, he was told not only would it continue but was going to increase in scope as more Mexican prisoners across the country were being processed for deportation. Mexico caved in and ponied up $700 million as their part in building the wall. It was going to be be built regardless of Mexico’s participation, but the thought of losing $24 billion in remittance money from immigrants already in the U.S. the Mexican authorities deemed it cheaper to pay for the wall. All though panned by some conservatives, the “Amnesty for 20” program was reasonable noting that border was 100% secure, and the taxes paid in by the illegals who stayed had been diverted to help pay for schools and medical facilities effected by the illegals. They even got a new title, no longer illegal immigrants or undocumented workers, they were considered “20 Compliant”.
The President was also extremely relieved to have the ISIS issue under control. After removing Obama’s Pentagon puppets, Secretary of Defense Colonel Allen West recruited the most aggressive group of experienced war Generals both active duty and veterans across all branches of the military. His one demand of these leaders…..think outside the box in defeating ISIS with minimal U.S. troop casualties. The group came up with a two tiered plan falling back on the lessons of Desert Storm implemented into the modern advancements of today’s military. Keeping this massive attack a secret is to this day an astonishing accomplishment. This could not have happened without Russian President Putin’s blessing in Syria, but the surprising relationship between Cruz and Putin continues to pay dividends. Although regarded as a ruthless leader, Mr. Putin still has common sense, and agreements reached by the two super powers with each country securing energy arrangements, nuclear arms reduction, and military base realignment in the UK. These historical agreements likely ended any talk of another “Cold War”, and a far cry from the Hillary Clinton reset button. With the U.S. and Russia in agreement that the rise of Radical Islam has become a tactical threat in Europe, partnering up against them seemed a logical step. A nuetered United Nations complained and passed resolutions which were promptly ignored by Secretary of State Bolton.
Calling up the largest military action since D-Day the combined branches of the U.S. military, along with Britain, France, Australia, and Jordan attacked cities, towns, compounds, and facilities held by ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq. These were not surgical or pin prick strikes, it was massive brute force. Allied sorties unloaded an arsenal that would make “Shock and Awe” pale in comparison, the air campaign lasted three days, each country participating 24/7. Real time sat images along with special ops on the ground directed the ground assault on the fourth day. Assad sat back on instructions from Putin and the ground troops were free to attack from the eastern border of Iraq, which had been assessed from Jordan traveling undetected north for three days during the relentless aerial assault.
Allied ground forces comprised of four divisions per target spread across Syria and Iraq. Ar Raqqa fell first followed by Kobani and Allepo, in Iraq, Rammadi, Mosul, and Fulluja were liberated. The bombing had done its job, although there was intense fighting on the ground, ISIS fighters were not trained military units. After three days of constant aerial bombardment and word spread that allied forces were in country, thousands of ISIS fighters headed north to Turkey to escape the onslaught. Kurdish fighters, supplied and trained by US special ops, ambushed these ISIS deserters. In their rush to escape attacks from the south they had no supplies to counter the the Kurds, witnesses said that ISIS fighters began shaving and dressing like women to escape. Acknowledging that their fight was over ISIS prisoners, (those not executed immediately), quickly gave up intelligence on locations and names of ISIS leaders in exchange for letting them continue their retreat. The U.S. has not been told the fate of these fighters, and the Kurds remain silent of their whereabouts. There is no evidence that any of the estimated 15 thousand ISIS deserters ever made it to Turkey.
The victories were quick and decisive, after four weeks all allied forces were removed from the battlefield. Putin’s agreement with Assad to keep power in Syria after the war was a tough pill to swallow, but it was the only way for allied forces to enter the country without having to fight Assad and ISIS at the same time. Putin gets Syrian oil in return for abandoning Iran, which was part of the Assad deal to stay in power. The arrangement also secured U.S. interest in dropping any and all Obama agreements with Iran, along with the immediate freeze of all Iranian assets and the ending of Russian arms sold to Iran. The Iranians were furious and vowed vengeance against the Unites States, but they had been screaming this during the Obama administrations pandering. After losing Russian support and U.S. sanctions being re-imposed, Iranian rebel groups began fighting regime forces across the country keeping the Iranian military busy trying to quell the uprising. Iran was no threat to anyone other than it’s own people at that point.
The Cruz administration decided that a large expense dedicated to a short battle, trumped a long intermittent air campaign which Obama attempted and failed. The strategy worked, there were casualties on both sides but at 1000 to 1 in favor of the Allied forces Col. West’s dictate to commanders worked. There were large civilian casualties as well, but the only way to be sure the war would be successful was to take the gloves off, the U.S. did everything they could to minimize the damage, but this is war, and one not started by United States. ISIS committed terror attacks all over Europe in response to the war, but that decision backfired, as EU countries fought back with intelligence gained from the battle in Syria and Iraq. Documents siezed gave names and locations of terror cells around the globe, not just ISIS but Al-Nusra, Al Quaeda, and lone wolf operators who aligned with these terror organizations. In the end the war did more in 30 days then all of Obama’s efforts combined, effectively stopping terrorism in it’s tracks, over the following year you would hear of daily news reports around the world of terrorists either killed or imprisoned from intelligence gleaned from the war. There was no grand name given war, no Operation This or Operation That, President Cruz gave very clear instructions, win it, and get the hell out, failure was not on option.
There was no gloating or spiking of the football after the war and it’s amazing success, the loss of U.S. troops killed in a military action he ordered weighed heavily on his mind, it was not a time to celebrate. President Cruz addressed the nation and informed them the war was over and all soldiers had been given orders to return home, he announced the number of American troops killed and read each name aloud, then thanked the families of those killed and wounded acknowledging that their sacrifices were not in vain. It was a short and emotional speech.
President Cruz assumed his two years in office so far have been effective, yet it was not without turmoil. Domestically he is still being slandered by the liberal media, even after all of his successes. His efforts in suspending both former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s public service pensions for their failure to send help for Americans in Benghazi and the corresponding cover up, the media has been doing all it can to disparage him. Even after Hillary’s emails proved that she was personally involved in pay to play politics as Secretary of State the media denied they were real, even after Obama’s college transcripts were released showing his affirmative action magic carpet ride, the media still looked the other way. President Cruz has mentioned that this ideology or cult of leftist media will probably never end due to the fact that the majority of the media are products of liberal academia brainwashed in the ways of the liberal Cult from grade school on.
After the announcement of the closings of the alphabet departments, (IRS, EPA, Department of Energy & Education), and the shutting down of lobbyists and K Street, the politics of Washington began to change. Establishment Republicans started working with conservatives to find other ways to run the government more effectively, once the changes of the first two years began to bear fruit, Republican approval ratings began to climb. Even center left Democrats started reaching across the isle, something that was a one way street made only by Republicans during previous administrations.
All in all President Cruz was satisfied with his first two years, and with China coming around due to Trump’s currency and trade deals and manufacturing jobs coming back to America with the new corporate tax code, things seemed to be going in the right direction. If the next two years of this term go like the first two, a second term is almost assured.
Yep
Republicans Gone Wild
It’s stunning to think that we need to elect a conservative Republican President to stop….Republicans. We didn’t give the House and Senate to these people only to give Democrats everything they want, they were elected to stop liberal Democratic agendas in their tracks. Ryan’s omnibus spending bill does nothing to stop them, quite the contrary, it pays for them.
At this point and time there are no distinguishable differences between Establishment Republicans and Democrats.
Paul Ryan’s first deal is just like John Boehner’s old ones.
The agreement Ryan reached with fellow congressional negotiators also looks much like one Boehner would have reached: Each side scores some points, but Republican congressional majorities again will fail to deliver a high-profile, base-pumping, ideological victory over some nefarious aspect of the “Obama agenda” on which conservatives had drawn a red line. Will this land Ryan in the same hot water that eventually cooked Boehner? He’ll get a pass, for now.
Language restricting Syrian and Iraqi refugee resettlement, defunding Planned Parenthood, or blocking President Obama’s executive actions on immigration will not be included.
Learn Something New Every Day
Didn’t have an opinion on the TPP. After reading this article, sounds like the people making decisions in our government are, as Trump puts it, idiots.
What’s in the Trans Pacific Partnership?
1. A Legislative Body Superior To Congress
The Commission would not be particularly powerful if its decisions could be ignored. However, the “Arbitration Tribunals” in the pact will have the power to award multi-billion dollar judgments against any member government that violates its decisions.
2. A Vehicle to Pass Obama’s Climate Change Treaty
When President Obama finished negotiating the Iran Nuclear Deal, he went first to the UN Security Council, not to Congress, to get the deal approved. More or less the same thing could happen with the multilateral environmental agreement that Obama negotiates in Paris. It will be incorporated into the TPP, whether Congress agrees with its terms or not.
This wouldn’t matter, except that the “Arbitration Tribunals” in the TPP can impose multi-billion dollar fines upon the U.S. government if the U.S. violates anything that is in the pact. In other words, the tribunals can force whatever Obama negotiates in Paris upon the American people, and Congress will have very little say.
3. Increased Legal Immigration
These provisions could lead to a massive flow of immigrants who had been hired abroad by foreign companies to provide services within the United States. Germany’s experience with “temporary” workers from Turkey demonstrates that once they arrive in a developed country from a poor country, they find a way to stay. Under some interpretations of U.S. law, if they have a baby while they are in the United States, that baby is awarded automatic U.S. citizenship.
If Congress were to try to slow the massive immigration flow that could stem from these provisions, it could be sued by the foreign service providing companies under the arbitration procedures of the TPP. Under the threat of billions of dollars of damage assessments, Congress would be forced to withdraw such limitations.
4. Reduced Patent Protection on U.S. Pharmaceuticals
A few weeks before Chapter 18 was leaked to Wikileaks, the stock prices for companies in the U.S. pharmaceutical and biotech industries fell 10% in stock value, probably due to insider trading by people who knew the then-secret treaty’s terms. But it is not just falling stock prices that should concern the American people. The pharmaceuticals industry generates exports and growth to the American economy. Also, many people will be condemned to premature deaths because the drugs that would have saved them would no longer be profitable to develop.
5. Quotas On U.S. Agriculture Exports
The small co-ops that share their profits with their farmer owners won’t get very many of these certificates. Only the big agribusinesses will have the resources and knowledge needed to game the system. They are the ones that can afford to pay the necessary political contributions.
But this treaty is not designed to open markets to free trade. It is designed to give big American agricultural companies big profits in return for big campaign contributions. This is the crony capitalist deal of trade deals. Governments decide who gets the profits, and only the biggest companies will be able to pay to play.
6. Increased Currency Manipulation
Moreover, the Declaration just says that governments that engage in currency manipulations should not do it. There are no penalties, whatsoever. In fact the Group can’t even complain about a country’s currency manipulations unless such a conclusion reflects “the collective views of the Group.” That means that any decision to condemn must be agreed to by the country being condemned!
All of this is simply unenforceable window dressing that ignores the fact that Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico and Japan (four of the countries in the agreement) are already active currency manipulators, giving them huge trade surpluses with the United States. For the 12 months ending in September 2015, they had merchandise trade surpluses with the U.S. of $21 billion (Malaysia), $30 billion (Vietnam), $57 billion (Mexico) and $68 billion (Japan).
7. Reduced U.S. Power
After World-War II, the U.S. adopted a low tariff system, which worked great until Japan and Germany and then many other countries, mostly in Asia, discovered the power of currency manipulation. Their government-owned banks, especially their central banks, forced loans upon the United States by buying U.S. assets such as U.S. Treasury Bonds, so that the United States dollar would go up in exchange rate and their currencies would go down in exchange rate.
As a result, the currency-manipulating countries, especially China, Japan and Germany rapidly grew in wealth and power while the U.S. lost wealth and power. The TPP could be another nail on America’s coffin by further constraining U.S. action to rebalance trade.
Doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.
If the TPP is enacted, some Americans will benefit, but the effect upon the American economy would be unambiguously bad. There would be soaring electricity prices resulting from the climate treaty. There would be a loss in service sector jobs due to increased immigration. There would be a reduction in the research and development of pharmaceuticals and biologics due to reduced patent protection. There would be a loss of factories due to continuing currency manipulation. And there would be a decline in U.S. power due to continuing trade deficits.
In short, the TPP is not worth the 5,466 pages that it is printed upon. A free trade treaty just with countries that don’t cheat, such as Canada, would be worthwhile. But this trade agreement includes countries that manipulate exchange rates to give themselves trade surpluses and give the U.S. trade deficits.
The End Game In Syria?
If Libya is any indication of what could happen if Assad were ousted, it would be wise to focus on ISIS and leave the Assad regime intact.
To me this is the key fault line. Are you willing to fight a war to beat ISIS without “liberating” Syria from Assad? If so, I’m in. If not, we’ll be creating bigger problems than we solve. Namely, the American people are not likely to sign on for “a multi generational” occupation and rebuilding of Syria that we are unlikely to be able to accomplish. If you demand that as the price of fighting ISIS, you won’t get the chance to fight ISIS.
And how are we to prosecute this new war? Will it be a WWII destruction mission or counter insurgency mission where “courageous restraint” will be the order of the day? Again, sign me up for the former but not the latter.
Of course the idea of trying to fight ISIS while removing Assad has become even more ludicrous since I wrote that post in February. When you hear candidates talk about removing him, ask yourself, “how are you going to get the Russians to throw him under the bus?
So while Assad’s regime is happy to do business with ISiS and use them as a shield against regime change, there’s not much we can do about it.
We have to accept certain realities. The US has done business with far worse regimes than the Syrian Baathists in the name of fighting an even worse enemy (think Stalin and Hitler in WWII), we can suck it up and crush ISIS while working with Assad and the Russians. Keep Reading…..
I Am Back
It’s rare that I climb on a plane to go anywhere, this trip required four flights. The flights themselves were your basic plane ride, climb on board, go to your seat, watch some asshole loading an over sized carry on into the overhead bin, listen to the screaming kid, the obnoxious loud talker, the flight attendant instructions blaring through the ear splitting speakers, and watching varying forms of weird personal behavior. All of this, I assume, was a normal flight. I survived.
I can handle the irritation of flying in exchange for the speed of travel, but the one thing, the only thing that absolutely chaps my ass is dealing with TSA.
As your standing in a line that wraps around, down, over, back up, twisting through stanchion barriers, you get an opportunity to people watch. For the most part normal people with blank stares being directed like cattle to a TSA ticket taker at the end of the previously mentioned unbelievably long line.
I get the curtly nod to move on after ticket and picture ID are approved to the next segment of my lost personal freedoms. I am greeted by a very large TSA lady loudly and sternly giving directions as to what our next tasks are.Attaining the goal of hitting the conveyor belts I am ordered to lose the shoes and empty pockets, I load up the plastic bin and shove it on its merry way down the conveyor belt as I go stand in the next line to the body scanner. 
Another irritatingly bitchy TSA female orders me to the yellow footprints in the scanner, motions me to raise my arms, the scanner hums by and I am waved out like I have been standing there far to long. I stand with other shoe-less travelers awaiting the plastic bins holding our belongings and footwear, one young woman is getting the pat down treatment, she is in tears, my wife is having her carry on checked for some unknown reason, we were never told why, an old man is having a difficult time gathering his items and getting his shoes and belt back on, he nearly has his pants fall to his knees.
Finally we are free of the TSA and head to the next line to await our boarding call.
Of the four flights I took this kind of thing happened every time.
As I stood there in line for the TSA screenings I couldn’t help think that there were a large number of TSA personnel on shift. This is one terminal handling four airlines, there must have been over a hundred TSA employees working, multiply that by the terminals and gates that have TSA entries and the number of TSA agents is astounding and they are government employees, unionized and paid for by Joe taxpayer in every airport in the country. The cost has got to be enormous.
I feel for people who have to travel frequently for business, I assume that the security is worth it, I do think there must be a better way.
They Lied
Hillary admitted to her family, Libya, and Egypt that the Benghazi attacks were done by terrorists. It’s in her emails, it’s beyond doubt.
She said it was a you-tube video, so did Obama.
They lied because there was an election in two months.
They lied to protect their political ambitions.
They lied to the families of the victims.
They lied to the American people, and apologized to Muslims around the world for the video.
What more do you need to do to be removed from office and sent to prison?
The Company You Keep
Me thinks it’s time for a true third party.
Political parties in America have always been coalitions of divergent interests with one or two unifying items. From FDR to Jimmy Carter, the Democrats were Yankee elites running a coalition of ethnic groups, unions, southern populists and intellectuals. That’s given way to a party of Yankee elites running a coalition of fringe weirdos, blacks, immigrants, academic elites and their students. The Democrats are mostly the party of people who went to college and would have preferred to stay there.
The Republicans are not a coalition of anything now. If you are a Southern conservative, you have little in common with the conservative of the northeast. People in Massachusetts, for example, who call themselves conservative and vote Republican, are not religious and they are indifferent on the homos and abortion. Their leaders are often pro-abortion and gay marriage. Contrast that with the Democrats where everyone is violently in favor of abortion.
My formulation of the Republican elected officials is that one third wish they were Democrats, one third just like the easy life of elected office and the rest are genuine conservatives in the traditional meaning of the term. Here….