The Democrats' Dilemma

Even with the revealed anti Trump attitude in the FBI making them leave his opponent, HRC, off the hook; they vowed to do everything necessary to keep Trump from winning the election. Even with the mainstream media doing everything it can to ridicule Trump, and with a special prosecutor trying hard to find then President guilty if only for firing Comey, who succeeded Mueller as the head of the FBI,  he is still in office with higher approval ratings than his last two predecessors.

The press had a negative response to Trump's hard line with North Korea, getting an embargo on everything they buy and sell and promising if North Korea attacks U.S. states he would annihilate the whole country. What happened? For the first time, North Korea has met with the Secretary of State and then with Trump. He signed an agreement with North Korea promising to destroy its nuclear weapons. Even some Democrats praised his success but rushed to question why all the details were not stated in the agreement. And when Trump ended the U.S. participation in war games with South Korea, we  read that the South is now defenseless. We are not reminded that we have been in South Korea for almost 70 years. The South is richer, bigger and more equipped to take on the North if need be. Our 30,000 troops there cost $1.5 billion a year with the U.S. paying the majority of the costs. Isn't it time we bring these troops home?

Trump dropped out of the Iran deal because it was too short lived. The former president took pride in his deal with Iran and rewarded that nation with $100 billion, plus $1.8 billion in cash to give the leaders there some spending money. This gave Iran's struggling economy money to pay for their role in destroying Yemen, Syria and Iraq. The Iranians continued to build and test missiles that could reach Israel, the country Iran said it wants destroyed. But Trump was criticized for doing so. Now Iran and the other signatories are struggling to make changes to satisfy the U.S.

Trump withdrew from the global climate initiative signed by almost 190 other countries. The pact was set up to not only lower pollution but also to redistribute billions to the poor nations. He was roundly critiqued for doing so.

The president threatened a trade war with China, the EU, Canada and Mexico. While some realized that we have been taken for granted for too long, others fear it will hurt American business. What if these countries change their trade policies to avoid high tariffs ( maybe agreeing to drop all tariffs) on American imports and exports and that our costs as consumers will not rise? What fault will be found for this new trade policy?

The stock market grew from about 16,000 to 26,000 making many Americans with 401k's much better off. The Democrats tried to say it was because of Trump's predecessor. When the unemployment went down to its lowest level in 18 years, the media tried to say that was also because of the former president.

Trump simplified the tax code so it has almost no itemized deductions and raised the standard deduction saving American taxpayers hundreds if not thousands of dollars. He lowered taxes American companies paid making them able to hire more people and pay them more. When a company gave a $1,000 bonus to each employee, minority leader Pelosi downplayed it saying that $1,000 is nothing. Meanwhile she and her husband are worth more than $100 million and make about $10 million a year. To her $1,000 is peanuts, but not to many of us.

President Trump is trying to curb, if not eliminate, illegal immigration. He wants to stop 100s of thousands of undocumented migrants from Mexico and Central America coming here illegally in order to have a better life, though most have been told to say that they are afraid to live in their beloved country when in truth they can no longer stand living there because of poverty and corruption.

Trump wanted to build a wall separating Latin America and the U.S. to dramatically reduce illegal immigration. Being unable to get the funding, he resorted to holding parents for crossing without invitation and separating children from their parent. The left and its media allies, were desperate to stop Trump's rise in the polls, threatening their dream of taking over Congress and ridding us of our President.

We hear stories about 2,300 children being separated from their parent. What we don't hear is that the previous administration did the same. We are not reminded that more than 20,000 children who were unaccompanied remain in custody. They came when DACA was implemented believing that they would also have the American dream. These 20,000 children separated from their parents voluntarily. It did not mention the hundreds of thousands of American children are separated from their parent who is fighting in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan to help those people have a better, freer life. The media fails to remind us repeatedly that President Obama, Clinton and his wife Hillary as well as Senator Feinstein said almost the same words Trump did. They wanted it ended because illegal immigrants take entry level jobs like construction, housecleaning, landscaping, restaurant and hotel work and furniture moving from less educated Americans including Americans of African and Latin American descent who are in most need of jobs.

We are supporting those who enter illegally to help them escape poverty, providing  medical, housing, education, free breakfast and lunch benefits. If we want to help the poor, we should start here at home. We have 45+ million Americans living in poverty with 600,000 long term homeless. Our public schools are overcrowded and underachieving. We cannot afford to ensure that every American who wants affordable healthcare coverage can get it. Our infrastructure is in great need of repair. We need to cover these needy Americans and our systems first.

There is a solution. Let those who want to come here to escape poverty apply for visas at the American consulate nearest to them. The same with those claiming their need for asylum. The asylum seekers will be investigated to see the validity. Those approved would get a free trip to America instead of paying gang members as much as $10,000 to be smuggled in. This is much like what other countries do.

In order to reduce the cost and motivation that leads people to want to leave their country because of poverty and corruption, the American special forces should go in and eliminate the threat of gang violence with American advisors to help route out corruption and conditions leading to poverty - a new "Marshall Plan."

Trump early on the President restricted people from seven Muslim majority countries known for violence. The left tried to make this an issue. Liberals wanted us to admit as many Muslims as possible to come to the U.S. Muslims generally subjugate women, in some nations making women cover themselves head to toe and do not let women come and go without a man's permission. Many are fervently anti Semitic and against Israel, wanting it conquered by people of their faith. Many do not appreciate members of the LGBTQ community with some of these nations banning and severely punishing these people. Some have been followers of ISIS and conspire to kill as many Americans as possible. What do liberals think about downgrading women while we want gender equality and freedom from sexual harassment and assault? What do they think about strict distaste of Jews some of our greatest people who suffered enough oppression for 2,000 years? Is it OK then to despise the LGBTQ community while we are trying to fully accept them?

While the media is desperate to jump on Trump's many faux pas, they never show us what the liberals are doing wrong. Leader Pelosi has gone crazy going so far as to embrace MS13 gang members saying that they make our country safe.

Liberals have all these dilemmas, but one may be the worst - hypocrisy. They are united in being against Trump. They feel he is hateful, so they can be hateful; is dishonest so they can be dishonest. He is labeled intolerant, so Democrats can be intolerant of him. He is known to be rude and crude, so we all  can be rude and crude to him going to new heights in rudeness and crudeness. Liberals don't seem to see the irony and hypocricy of doing exactly what they feel is unacceptable.
   
As I have written before, the mainstream media is sensationalist, superficial, and subjective (read biased). President Trump has given them a lot of  ammunition by writing or saying inflammatory comments. Being a narcissist he actually enjoys being the center of attention.

Some who read this will think "here is a right wing conservative Republican." It would be nice to call people like me deplorable. In fact I am a a moderate Independent. My family has been Democrats ever since my parents came to this country. They came here legally. I voted for Democratic presidential candidates Clinton and  Obama, twice, but cannot help but see how far left the Democrats have gone and cannot be one or share their opinions.

The Free Speech Misunderstanding

There has been a lot of talk about free speech. Since the Supreme Court decided that burning the flag, panhandling, disrespecting the country, demonstrations by White Supremacists, are all covered by the First Amendment right to free speech. This could also include walking around naked, saying whatever we want to our bosses and about our current and past presidents. A tenured professor born in America came out with disgraceful comments about Barbara Bush after her passing. Her free speech will result in the school finding a way to fire her.

The misunderstanding is now that almost everything can be called free speech and can not have any consequences. If we tell our boss what we really think of him using insults that reflect our thoughts and opinion, there will be consequences. If we walk around naked, something I avoid doing, we can be cited for indecent exposure. If an athlete shows disrespect for our country and its symbols, like the Pledge of Allegiance or the National Anthem, there will be consequences as a washed out S.F. 49er has learned. He was released and no other team would hire him. Still, Amnesty International honored him for his unforgivable behavior. The fans turned against him and his followers meaning that their services could be no longer needed. The 49're tried to blame the exercise of his first amendment right for not being hired by any team and tried to file a lawsuit against the NFL and all of its teams.

Entertainment celebrities use their free speech to say whatever they want about our current President including using foul language and even saying that they want him dead. The consequence is that many viewers are turning off these celebrities and their shows, like SNL

The mainstream media is surely protected by the First Amendment. News sources like the N.Y. Times, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, CNN,  NBC, CBS and ABC are so biased it is almost laughable. They have exercised their Free Speech to write whatever they can that's negative and omitting everything that is favorable about the current administration. Once again, there are consequences. People fast forward all the inaccurate and biased reports leaving little to watch on the news. People are also dropping papers like the N.Y. Times and the Washington Post. It makes viewers and readers question the accuracy of other reports as well. If they can misrepresent one kind of story, what else is untrustworthy? CNN ratings are at their lowest and getting worse because their bias is showing.

Even our college campuses are reacting against different forms of free speech. At U.C. Berkeley, the leaders of the free speech movement, would not permit two conservative speakers. Students had to go to a safe space to get over the reaction to the fact that some people have different opinions. On a few campuses professors who express themselves in disagreement with the loss of free speech are forced to resign. It seems as though the students feel that political correctness trumps free speech.

Mobs exercised their free speech to riot and destroy property for four months under the mistaken impression that their victim/hero was unarmed with hands raised, when he was actually killed trying to kill a police officer. Free speech does not protect acts of violence, but does protect ignorance, apparently.

Now, I am exercising my First Amendment right and saying what I see and believe. This blog does not have speech from the Far Left or the Far Right. I do not use or endorse the use of foul language and am repelled by the false labeling of people we disagree with. It's another way of silencing dissent.
I worry that college students are not learning to think well enough to realize that there are usually at least two sides to every idea and belief. I find it helps to hear both sides of a disagreement but it involves thinking not just following the herd.

I'd like to see an end to unproductive protest marches and more expression to our elected officials and policy makers, to the media and to your public on Facebook, et al.