“In this for the long haul”

After more than forty years as a political activist, volunteer, and paid consultant at the local, state, and national levels, I guess it’s somewhat a given that I might have become a little jaded or suspect, when it comes to the motives of those seeking office. Yet I’ve been told numerous times that I am one who tends to believe in someone, it’s my natural tendency, to accept them at face value…initially.

I honestly think that every candidate that I’ve ever worked with or for, who was new to the political process always started their campaign and career in politics by claiming they’re NOT a politician, that they aren’t seeking a career in politics, that they just want to make a difference, make the country better, for their children and children’s children.  And I can report there actually are a few who, over time, proved that was who they were and are. But the vast majority…not so much.

I talked last week to an elected official whom I asked to introduce a bill to authorize the state legislature to impeach a Governor. I recently learned that Oregon is the only state in the Union that does not have that provision in their constitution. Now this is not a piece of legislation with a high probability of passage, with a democrat majority, and a scandal ridden democrat governor who would need to sign it into law, but it is at least worth engaging in the dialogue with the voters of Oregon, I believe.

The elected official I spoke with said that they couldn’t introduce such a bill because they have to work with the governor, and across the aisle, and that they are “in this for the long haul”.  I responded that it sounded as though they were planning on being a professional politician then. They didn’t like that, and said I should know better than that. Should I?

I worked on a commissioner candidate’s campaign several years back, which was a successful campaign and they won their election. They were the typical candidate who said they were just getting in to try and make a difference, not to seek a job in politics. But after about three weeks on the job as a newly elected commissioner, I attended a meeting where they said publicly “I used to see things like you all do, before I was elected, but now I have come to appreciate the quality of the good people working here [for the government]”. Translated; I used to be one of you, and now I’m one of them. This happens a lot!

President Trump I believe, starting with his inaugural address and throughout his first three weeks in office, has proven so far that he really takes seriously his campaign commitment to return the power to the people, rather than accrue more power and authority to the government. From his inaugural address:  “Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.”

Every action, every appointment, and every policy he has brought forth all have that common thread, returning power to the people; in education, immigration, energy, foreign policy, economics, healthcare, you name it. As far as I can recall, he has accomplished more these first three weeks than any president in modern history.

Who’s Afraid of a Fair Election?

Boy, if only I could have prepped Mr. Trump for that last debate! Overall I thought he owned the evening, but there were some sizeable missed opportunities!

The first one had to do with him not conceding the election, accepting the results. This one was low hanging fruit. I would have had him respond; ‘Why wouldn’t I accept the results, when I am quite certain we will win this election handily? Are you kidding why would I contest our victory?’  But on a more serious note Mr. Trump could have, in the follow up that Wallace would certainly have thrown back at him, responded; ‘If you’re asking me, that if I have been provided with evidence that election fraud had occurred and that our election laws had been broken, would I turn a blind eye? What do you think?’

You see, that would have taken all the wind out of Wallace and the Democrat’s sails. That ship would never have left the dock! Again Trump simply goes on the record and states that ‘of course I would not be complicit in any incident of election law violation, nor could I allow it go unchecked’. And of course he says ‘I realize that the current administration has a very long and consistent track record of NOT enforcing our laws, but mine will be a new type of administration, we’re going to bring justice back into fashion!’ The American people deserve nothing less! ‘We are going to have the greatest justice system in the world, once again, I promise you! And I might add we won’t be needing a world court ever!’

The Obama justice department has flagrantly violated our laws, and outright refused to enforce others, not the least of which is the Hillary e-mail scandal, a case of her violating confidential and classified document handling procedures, putting at risk our intelligence assets and personnel, and lying under oath before a congressional panel. Many experts have written on the subject and have found that she could be charged with treason. Even agents within the FBI are at odds with Comey’s get out of jail free card.

The other issue Trump could have buried Hillary on was the whole ‘Middle East’ question. When Wallace asked about troop escalation in Mosul, the Donald could have simply pointed to his opponent and said; ‘If she were to handle Mosul with the same finesse that she handled Benghazi, I cannot imagine the catastrophe and horror that awaits the region. Four Americans died needlessly in large part due to her negligence. And to make matters worse, she created a false narrative that she tried to sell the American people!’

As to the possibility of election fraud, it’s very high, in my opinion. Whether it’s dead voters, or Soros owned voting machines, there is plenty to be concerned with. But widespread voter fraud is only possible in a very close race, which it’s looking more and more to me like it is not! In early voting in Wisconsin Trump is winning, and polling in key states like Ohio, and Florida, Trump is looking good.

The reality though is, we don’t know. What we do know is that the corporate media is in the tank for Hillary, and the pollsters are oversampling democrats and are outright lying in an effort to push the result.

We also know that the establishment, including the globalists and New World Order types, are scared out of their collective minds that they are losing control of this election. My sense is that Trump will win this by a landslide. But we cannot assume anything, and must fight clear to the end, and must be leaning into the tape at the finish line!   

Who Ya’ Gonna Call?

When the entire system breaks down, and when there is apparently no justice to be found in the justice system, what is our next option, where do we turn?

I’m referring specifically, and most recently to the onslaught of information coming out on the ‘Clinton machine’; the WikiLeaks, that each day are revealing new violations of law such as the Clinton Foundation’s pay to play list of donors, the Podesta e-mails, Hillary’s link to the sale of arms to ISIS, the shocking attacks on the Catholic church, on today’s report on Drudge showing the headline on the front page of the National Enquirer “HILLARY HITMAN TELLS ALL”. And the Clinton team’s response to these shocking revelations, besides Hillary calling for the drone assassination of Assange, is, well, this is nothing more than Russian psyops!   

When the Attorney General of the United States has a secret meeting with former President Bill Clinton on her private airplane just days before FBI Director Comey, who reports to the AG, comes out with the statement that there are no chargeable offenses committed by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and not so much as an eyebrow is raised in the mainstream press, who ya’ gonna call?

A good friend of mine, a real patriot, has been asking me that question for years; when looking at the corruption in our county, state and federal governments, that once uncovered, gets no action, nobody gets arrested, nobody goes to jail. His question; Who ya’ gonna call, ghostbusters?  

Governor Kitzhaber resigns in disgrace, his common law wife under suspicion of criminal acts, indictments being considered by the justice department against Kitzhaber himself, and low and behold….NOTHING! He’s back on the speaking circuit.

The Clintons, who for years have weathered scandal after scandal after scandal; Whitewater, Travelgate, Vince Foster, Web Hubbell, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown’s mysterious death, President Clinton’s Impeachment and disbarring, the never ending sexcapades, and the body count that won’t quit, the consequences of which are time and again and again, NOTHING!

Then there’s Hillary, lying to a Senate Committee about her e-mails, swearing that she turned them all over and that none of them contained classified information anyway. Do you think for one minute that you would get a pass on this behavior?  And how about Benghazi?  Hillary was central in the scheme to create a false narrative about the terrorist attacks that occurred, which resulted in the loss of four American lives, and could have been much worse but for the heroic acts of our Special Forces under contract. Again, who ya’ gonna call?

And how about the O’Keefe recordings, have you heard these yet? This is huge, so huge that FOX News’s Shep Smith’s coming out as a homosexual, replaced it as the lead story this week. Yeah James O’Keefe of Veritas, the same man behind the taping of the Planned Parenthood baby parts wholesale business operation, now has tapes of the Clinton’s campaign operatives and the DNC, orchestrating and paying for provocateurs to cause violent outbreaks at Trump events. You must go listen to the tapes yourself! They admit, on tape, to actually paying the elderly and disabled to provoke violence at Trump rallies.  

But hey, what’s that compared to some private locker room banter from 11 years ago about imaginary exploits with women?  

No, we need to be very clear on this. What is at stake is who will be Commander in Chief of the most powerful military in the world, who will chose the next Attorney General, who will direct a foreign policy that provokes conflict or promotes peace through strength, who will choose the next 2 (3) Supreme Court justices, and who will restore law and order, and some semblance of justice in this great nation?

While Barack Fiddles

It is very fascinating to me, and more than a little terrifying, that our world is moving rapidly towards war and we don’t hear a thing about it.  All the headlines we get at home are about locker room profanity, who’s ahead in the polls? and Trump’s tax returns.

Meanwhile Russia is moving nuclear capable missiles into Europe and has been building up troops on the Ukraine border since August. They have also declared a “No-Fly” zone over Syrian airspace, and threaten to shoot down American aircraft. This is in response to Obama’s reckless scheme of covert airstrikes against the Syrian air force. Keep in mind that in spite of the smear campaign against him, Assad is the only thing preventing the wholesale slaughter of Christians in Syria. Besides it is not our fight!

U.S. intelligence has also learned that Russia is building dozens of underground bunkers capable of withstanding nuclear blasts. Are they preparing for something?  And at the same time, guess what America spends on Civil Defense? Nothing!

And all this comes at a time of extreme vulnerability following Obama’s steady evisceration of our military; depleting our forces and our armaments over the past eight years, and our morale.

And at home we are bemoaning the “unequal” treatment of minorities, as the militant radicals from Black Lives Matter, who would make the Black Panthers blush, wreak havoc in our urban centers, putting at risk not only our law enforcement officers, but law and order in general, while our cry-baby millionaire athletes stage a sit-in.

The question this all begs is; who do you want as Commander in Chief when it all comes down?  Hillary is practically salivating at the prospect of war, along with her establishment hawks in Washington.

Trump on the other hand favors a more non-interventionist foreign policy. In a Washington Post article he is quoted as saying; "I do think it’s a different world today, and I don’t think we should be nation-building anymore," He added "I think it’s proven not to work, and we have a different country than we did then. We have $19 trillion in debt. We’re sitting, probably, on a bubble. And it’s a bubble that if it breaks, it’s going to be very nasty. I just think we have to rebuild our country."

Hillary doesn’t see a bubble at all, at least not one that a few more billion dollars in government spending couldn’t fix.

Trump recognizes that with the instability of the dollar and our depleted military due to years of neglect, this is not a time to be engaging in multi-theatre conflicts with powers such as Russia or China.

He has also questioned our continued support of NATO, which in my mind is nothing more than American taxpayers underwriting the defense of Europe.

The same is true of the United Nations, whose mission is a complete joke! The UN is meddling in issues like the phony ‘climate change’ fraud, gun control and abortion, while undermining America’s right to control our own borders. The entire UN stronghold on American soil should be terminated as we withdraw our financial support.

Eisenhower warned us back in the fifties to be wary of the military industrial complex. They are alive and well, and they have strong advocacy in the congress from McCain and McConnell on the Senate side to Ryan in the House.

The globalists who are hell bent on the New World Order are backing Hillary and are terrified of a Trump presidency.

These are very tenuous and unstable times, and we had better come to grip with the fact that we cannot continue to intervene in the internal affairs of other nations. It does not work, and engenders more mistrust and resentment overseas, especially the Middle East.

Instead we should be supporting our allies, especially Great Britain and Canada following their repudiation of the globalist EU. Other European nations are soon to follow, and they could use our support as well.

But we need a bold new start in Washington, and we must throw out those who would merely fiddle about before our very future as a free people goes up in flames.

Who would you fly with?

Every once in a while there comes a movie that is well worth your time to see.  Normally I wouldn’t take this column to review a movie, but in this case there’s more to it than that.

The movie is Sully, starring Tom Hanks.  Now that’s a good start, I mean when was the last bad Tom Hanks movie you watched? But then add Laura Linney and Aaron Eckert, and oh, and I guess it’s worth mentioning that Clint Eastwood is the director! Grand slam!

So the plot of this little gem of cinematography we all know.  After all, it’s the true story of Captain Chelsea “Sully” Sullivan, the US Airways pilot who successfully landed his Airbus A320 on the Hudson River in New York City, shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, January 15, 2009.  I remember that day well, when the first reports came in describing a crash into the Hudson, as we all held our collective breaths, waiting to hear the number of survivors.  Spoiler warning; all 155 passengers and crew survived! But this doesn’t spoil the movie, because we already knew that.

What is remarkable about this movie though is the back story about Sully’s experience as a pilot dating back tom his teenage years, his career in the military and commercial aviation, and the exceptional nerve it took that day, to make the split second decision and land safely on the surface of the Hudson River, saving all on board. And even more remarkable was the government’s response, thru the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board)! Their efforts to find him guilty of negligence, even though he was considered a hero by the passengers and their families, and all of New York, was chilling, to say the least. Their sanctimonious attitude and shoddy research were brought to bear upon Sully with the full weight and power of the mighty federal government. No spoiler here, I won’t tell you what happens, go see the movie.

After the both tears and laughter, you’ll be glad you did. And stay till the credits are all done too…all the way to the end, a real treat awaits.

But now I’m going to take you down a different flight path if you will.

I walked out of this film with a unique, maybe even a little weird, thought, which I first shared with my wife, then the theater manager Nathan, as we exited. After watching this terrific reenactment of one of the most heroic and talented feats in aviation history, I asked myself; if Sully wasn’t the pilot that day, who would I rather have in the cockpit of US Airways Flight 1549, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump?

I wondered, considering not just the physical attributes and health of the two candidates, but about the nerve it took to bring that plane down safely atop the frigid waters of the Hudson. By the way, the NTSB kept referring to the crash into the Hudson; Sully corrected them with, “you mean the landing on the water”.  Well, when it comes to calm, practiced judgement, I concluded that I’d pick Trump, hands down over Hillary.

Hillary has demonstrated over and over her unwillingness to accept responsibility for anything, as in Benghazi. She would likely blame the entire incident on the airline, the flight attendants, or possibly even the passengers. Trump on the other hand has presided over building skyscrapers, working with engineers and contractors, who hold in their hands the lives of those on the construction site, but also the finished building. In this type of enterprise there is no room for “close enough” or excuses, engineering and construction must be precise, and the entire process is built upon accountability. Plus I figured, Trump owns enough airplanes and helicopters, he’s probably even been up front a time or two.

But the allegory is a good one I think. Who can best bring our economy and our security in for a safe landing?  I would rather fly with Trump any day!