Thank god that she's now in the kiddie table debates

I have no problems with "Honest Conservatives".  People like William Buckley more than had my respect.  Their views were well thought out, and yet, were flexible enough to reflect the realities of the current day.  But most important, people like Buckley had a certain form of integrity - unlike today's crop of wingnut politicians.

Early in this campaign, I felt like Carly Fiorina had a good chance of being in the top tier of GOP politicians running for president. She was not the kind of person I'd have wanted in charge of our country, because if she were to run this country like the business she once ran, we'd have thrown her out of office in the middle of her term.

Recently, I had the misfortune of hearing about Fiorina's latest gaffe.  Children who were touring an Iowa Botanical Garden as part of a class tour made it into the background of Fiorina's anti-abortion event. Although the first amendment to the US Constitution protects speech, who protects the children from being used as political pawns?  Their parents did not authorize the use of their children's images in Fiorina's political event.  Who was looking out for the children?

If I felt that Fiorina had some qualifications to be president before, I have none now.  She has no respect for anyone but herself.  She does not make sure that she has the right to use others for her own purposes - and when she uses children without permission, she crosses over an ethical line as well of one of taste.... 

Thankfully, at the time I wrote this, Trump is in the GOP lead and not Fiorina....

Making America Great Again

In a recent issue of "The Economist" there were 4 separate mentions of Trump's candidacy for POTUS.  One of them was an editorial piece where the magazine states that it doesn't want Trump for a candidate, because of his offensive nature.  The problem here is that they do not address the root of the problem - the political elite in much of the Western world (I should say its "democracies") has done little to address the need of the average citizen in these countries.  The rich are getting richer (especially in the USA), and everyone else is losing ground.  In short, the "Trickle Down" policies that the GOP has promoted has been shown not to work - on a worldwide basis.

Normally, I'd agree with The Economist.  But in this case, the "Angry White Men" supporting the Trump candidacy may be on to something.  Trump is financing his candidacy with his own money, showing virtually everyone else (save maybe, Bernie Sanders) to be political whores of the financial elite. Even the Bushes can't prostitute themselves enough to raise enough campaign funds to compete with Trump.  There may be only two or three Republicans who stand a remote chance for the long term: Cruz, Carson, and Fiorina. And Cruz is trying to stay in Trump's shadow, hoping that Trump will self destruct after cleaning out most of the opposition, so that he can grab a ready made base.

The same forces at work that benefit Trump are also benefiting Bernie Sanders.  He is the true "Anti Wall Street" person (read: "Not Hillary Clinton") running in this election, and he is getting the Liberal equivalent to Trump's base - save Sanders' base is more educated and more aware of what is going on.  Hillary's performance is so lackluster, that an unannounced Joe Biden beats her in the polls against all GOP candidates.  (And Biden is being floated as a candidate for POTUS, because the people who fund the Democrats are just as afraid of Sanders as the GOP funders are afraid of Trump.)

Now, let's look at this in the context of world affairs.  Moderate Muslims are being pushed out of Syria and Iraq due to the growth of ISIS.  It is interesting to note that the wealthiest Muslim nations of the Middle East are doing nothing to help these refugees - it is the nominally Christian countries of Europe who are being forced to absorb these people.  And the problem is that most people may change their nationality and customs easy, but they do not follow a reworked adage: "When in Rome, Worship as the Romans do."  So many people become isolated, and tend to live in ghettos instead of being assimilated into the larger society.  

There is push-back coming from the "Angry White Men" of Europe.  In places like Denmark, the far right party runs the country, and says that no Muslims need enter. Even though Europe has a below zero population replenishment rate, the hard right rightfully worries about the changes to their societies that these uninvited immigrants bring.  No one from the traditional political elite is discussing the drawbacks to social change - so the "common" person is taking affairs in his own right, and voting a non functional elite out of office, replacing with people who may listen to their concerns.

A while back, Mark Steyn wrote a book called America Alone - The End of the World as We Know It.  One review of this book notes:


Why has Mark Steyn's book "America Alone" been labeled "alarmist" by his opponents? Look at the title: America Alone. Its meaning is obvious, but concerning what? When the Soviet Union fell, America was left standing as the sole super power in the world. But that is not the meaning of America Alone. However, do you remember what Nikita Kruschchev said? America would fall from within, without one shot fired. America would destroy herself through societal softness and the Soviets would walk in and take over.

Steyn states that Muslims have adopted this concept of a country falling from within, beginning in Europe. Through immigration, Muslims are establishing themselves as a stronghold. Belgium, Sweden, England, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France are on their way to becoming majority Muslim and geo-political. In fact, he says, Eurotopia is fast becoming "Eurabia."

Three events are rapidly leading to Eurabia:
1. Demographic decline
2. The unsustainability of the advanced Western social-democratic state
3. Civilizational exhaustion

Do you remember years ago forecasters urged population control? Europe heeded this warning and now faces two factors that will change it drastically: its population is aging and couples are not reproducing themselves.

...

With an aging population and declining birthrate and a swelling benefits package supplied by the government, who will pay for this social welfare? Answer: incoming immigrants with high birthrates.

Therein, Steyn says, lies the problem. While people of Europe have abandoned their churches and religious beliefs, Islam immigrants bring with them "a religion, and an explicitly political one." In fact, if a European wants to marry a Muslim, he must convert, or as they call it, revert. Muslims believe that everyone is born Muslim--he/she must find that calling. And no one may leave the religion.

How pervasive are Islam and Muslims in Europe? "Go to any children's store in Amsterdam or Marseilles or Vienna or Stockholm. Look at women in headscarves or full abaya. That's the future"

...

In France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden, riots over equal rights have disturbed traditional peace. Women feel safer walking neighborhoods in Muslim garb in order to be left alone by Muslim men. When Muslims take over, they take the land and distribute it to Muslims, creating reverts out of the native people. Because the United States doesn't take land, Muslims consider the US weak and defeatable. As Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of Singapore said in 2004, " The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail".

Steyn concludes in outlining America's exceptional nature and how it can prevent Muslim reversion of an entire country.

Sadly, there are many of us (including myself) who believe that Steyn is correct.  Although I have nothing against Islam, I do have something against the cultures of the Middle East where Islam has flourished - their core nature prevents people from looking at themselves and their culture critically, and stands in the way of progress.  (Please note that this is not an indictment of Islam as it is of tendencies in the Muslim world in the Middle East to enforce rigid conformity among the masses and subjugate those masses.)

So we go back to Trump's candidacy.  What do we do about it?  For me, I prefer to see Trump win the GOP nomination, as he is more "Liberal" than many of the wingnuts in his party.  (For example, some of his ideas about healthcare make sense - when he isn't pandering to the official GOP party line.) If Trump wins the nomination, it is possible that the GOP may undo its "Southern Strategy" and become a more moderate political party. And if both Trump and Sanders get their parties' POTUS nominations, meaningful campaign finance reform could take place, as the political whores may find that it is better to be freelancers than to be pimped out by the likes of the Koch Brothers.

Am I sure of this?  No.  But I see the signs of world turmoil, and we ignore the needs of the common person at our own peril....

Political Inequality - Even some conservatives see this as a risk

A while back, Andrew Sullivan commented in his blog about the political threat of soaring inequality. That problem is still with us, and is getting worse.

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One of the things noted in the chart below is Elite Fratricide preceding Political Disorder.

This is a very dangerous time for any nation, as the lunatics come out and are at risk of gaining power.  Recently, the Governor of Texas put the state guard on alert, claiming to protect Texas from an invasion from the United States. Even Forbes Magazine (where this link originated) senses that people who would believe this are Right Wing Nut Jobs!  And yet, the polity in many of the Red States keeps electing people who in other times, would only be fit for a clown car.

In the past, I posed the question:

How many clowns can be fit into a typical Clown Car?

And I realized that I already had the answer:

No one knows - it is still spewing out clowns.

In the case of the GOP's field for 2016, we now have so many candidates, that it will be impossible to have all of them on the debate floor at the same time.

The "Tea Party" said that giving financial aid to Hurricane Sandy victims would be a big mistake because of all the fraud that would be involved. (And they were right.  Does anyone remember the "Stronger than the Storm" campaign, which had Governor Chris Christie prominent in every ad?") And now that Texas has been hit by a natural disaster, they have changed their tune....

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What we're seeing here is a political party that is out of control, a party which favors the political elite over the common good of society, and one that wants to continue adding to the economic inequality which is now disrupting the body politic.

An example of the disconnect between the GOP and reality is the candidacy of Carly Fiorina for the presidency. She is running, using her experience as CEO of Hewlett Packard as her way of showing she is qualified to hold high office.  One problem - HP kicked her out of the "C-Suite", as the firm under performed during her tenure. Can we risk having a poorly performing business person running the country, if we want America run as if it were a business?

- - - - - -

Right now, there is a case working its way through the court system which is geared to disrupt the idea that congressional districts are to contain equal numbers of people, by posing that the districts should contain equal numbers of voters.  Is this fair? Probably not. But, like Jim Crow, we've seen unfair systems established before in this country to keep a ruling elite in power. And I keep wondering - how long will it be before the disenfranchised say: "We're not going to take it anymore?"