Iowa Results and Insights

 

The biggest lesson we learned was that the media placed far too much emphasis on the caucuses. What we learned was that in cases where there was no definitive winner, then the entire choice would come down to a coin toss, how perfectly random. In the six instances where these rules were applied it was apparent that team Hillary got to call the coin-toss and call them they did. Apparently Bernie Sanders was perfectly happy to allow her team to call it, “Heads we win and Tails you lose.” And in six caucuses that appears to have been the call as Hillary either won each or Bernie lost, either way, Hillary went forth and declared a great victory while Bernie, being Bernie, claimed he and his supporters gave it a good fight and promised to continue the “Revolution” on to New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and beyond. When one looks beyond the primary delegates to the “Super Delegates” which are more or less decided by the Democrat Central Committee, one sees the reality of the delegate race as Hillary has 357, Bernie has 14 and O’Malley has 2 all going towards garnering the 2382 delegates needed to win.

 

We learned that Hillary can place way too much emphasis on her phantasmal ability or luck by her precinct chairs abilities to call coin tosses. Her grand claims of victory soon turned to sand in her mouth and she probably sputtered and spurted still insisting she had a mandate. Perhaps she was looking at the super delegate count which is made up of party hacks and people of whom Hillary had their FBI files on another server which was not used for State department e-mails but whose contents would be just as interesting to the voting public but has zero chance of ever seeing the light of day as it would be burned as soon as it was taken in as evidence. There are far too many people the files held there could damage and who have the power to destroy evidence just as well as Bill and Hill have proven capable. We also learned that Bernie has excited and tapped into an interesting voter group, the young and first time voters. Some of these first time voters have been of sufficient age to vote before but have now found their candidate. This is a large part of the voters eight years ago which propelled Obama into the White House and are just as likely to spoil Hillary’s last chance saloon and give her a really bad case of déja vu hiccups as she watches another upstart, this time a seventy-four year old hippie socialist who never let go of the dream from his college days, or is it daze? Should Bernie Sanders pull this off he will have proven that Hillary is fated to never grasp the golden ring in politics and Bill will never hear the end of how it was supposed to be hers but that Obama beat her and then Bernie the crazed lunatic stole it and it just was not fair. I guess nobody ever had the nerve or the suicidal tendencies to tell Hillary that life quite often is not fair. We learned also that Bernie had a solid and faithful following and that his challenge to the chosen one is real and very possible no matter how many delegates Bill can line up on Hillary’s side as in this day and age of the voters, as a collective intelligence, choose the candidates and the final elevations of a President. We also have seen the inside of the “Feel the Bern” generations and they are coming on strong and this might make Bernie Sanders the more electable Democrat and the real candidate the Republicans should fear facing.

 

The Republicans gave us a different message. The evangelicals, the Christian Right, was supposed to decide the Iowa vote and put one of two candidates on the short list for failure; they did not come through that way but have written the last swan song for Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz needed to corral, he is from Texas you know, the Evangelicals but he somehow lost about half the herd which left him limping into first place by a small margin, though it was a landslide by Hillary standards. Ted Cruz did do well as many had predicted claiming that the majority of the polling numbers for ‘The Donald’ (Donald Trump from here on) were mostly fictitious and when the time came to actually support a candidate, these polling numbers would prove to be a phantasm and disappear. Well, they actually did but not as far as predicted and Donald Trump has proven he is for real and will become a viable and potential winner should he start to actually express serious steps and reasons for his bombastic statements and clarify them into a reasonable platform people can stand behind. Ted Cruz, as wonderful as his supporters claim, will very likely fall flat in New Hampshire and rebound in South Carolina and Florida though it will remain to be seen if that is sufficient for him to remain in the race. After the caucuses in Nevada and Colorado it will be definitively decided who is the acceptable alternative to the establishment choice which appears currently to have fallen from Jeb Bush to Chris Christie to John Kasich and now on the Marco Rubio. Other than Cruz, Trump and Rubio who finished in close proximity to one-another, the rest should start taking stock of how much is this worth pursuing and what actually are your actual chances of emerging from the background in a positive manner. The media will ignore you until you make a mistake, and then they will crucify you until you fall on your sword; trust me, I’ve been there. For a good number, probably larger than those willing to vote for him, Ben Carson leaving will be heart-wrenching. We want so much to just once have the nice guy who refused to go negative and was an exemplary person whose life reads like a storybook where underprivileged youth from the worst part of town rise to prominence and was not only a success but also a solid positive force and contribution to society become Mr. Smith Goes to Washington except with a much happier result as he rises above the political machinery and does great and wonderful things lifting the nation by his inspirations. That would have been Ben Carson but perhaps this is better as the media have not torn him to shreds which would have come next had he shown he might succeed. The media will praise you to the hills and as soon as you start to succeed, partially due to their building you up, they will tear into you until you let out a personal secret, say that one time you lost your temper, we all have at least one such moment, and then that will become your defining moment as if nothing else you ever accomplished really made up for the momentary weakness when you were eight years old.

 

 

Mr. Carson Goes to Washington

 

 

So the result in Iowa placed Ted Cruz momentarily in the cat bird seat with Donald Trump close behind and Marco Rubio in tightly behind Donald Trump. There being merely 8,500 votes between the three out of close to 175,000 they finished in a photo finish which their margins only looked large compared to the difference, or lack thereof, between the top Democrat candidates who basically resulted in a dead heat. The reality hopefully will become obvious to the three that for the race to be determined honestly then one of the non-establishment candidates will need to bow out if the other will have even a chance of taking the nomination. Should all three remain in the race and the contest continue to have similar results then there will be the definite possibility that at the Republican Convention there will be no definitive winner and as long as the three remain holding their delegates to their vote then there will be an arranged result which is basically a fixed convention where a candidate is chosen in some back room with some establishment and insiders making a choice and then bringing their golden boy forward and sweeping the convention as the party machinery steamrolls any opposition and presto, Jeb Bush is brought forward as the great hope of the party and we end up with the potentially lowest turnout election percentage in American history as we end up with that dreaded Clinton-Bush family rerun of the 1992 election without the drama or concern as the people show their disgust by staying home. Should this scenario become reality, then there need be a slight Constitutional Amendment making every Federal elected office have an additional choice at the bottom such that the people can demand better choices than the party line who has scratched the most backs and it is decided to reward them by making it their turn for the House of Representatives and then later the Senate and finally, for the real party hardliners, the Presidency by voting for “None of the Above” and if “None of the Above” receives the greatest plurality then the parties must find new candidates and a reelection will take place six weeks later, so they better choose well and somebody the people would rally to or they could face embarrassment after embarrassment and perhaps allow a primary if it is a Senate or House of Representatives for unaligned people to attempt to gain ballot access and allow the highest independent vote getter to also be on the ballot as it is doubtful such a person could do any worse in the performance than some of those currently in office. We really need to get better quality candidates and until the parties are forced to consider that they have to win over the people or face challenges from what are usually referred to as Joe-six-pack meaning it as a pejorative label when actually that may be a person who would do a far better job of representing the people with their being from amongst them. Still, there are the gems amongst a sea of party functionaries and the quality, or lack thereof, of the candidates on the average ballot simply proves George Washington correct when he claimed, “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” Enough said.

 

We regret that nowhere in the conglomerate of offerings is there a single candidate with military service in their background. Some of the candidates I doubt could reduce their self-worth to a sufficient level to survive basic training nor would they know when to stand on principle and when to stand down as that is also something they test in basic training and for the select few who respond accordingly they offer them to attend OCS which is the one way that an enlisted man can become an officer, and maybe a gentleman. The world stage being what it is, we believe would be best served by somebody who has served and our first choice would be Lt. Col. Alan West.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Why Palestinian Israeli Conflict Appears Open-Ended

The recent flaring of violence between the terror groups of Gaza, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others, with the seemingly weekly ceasefires almost all of which broken within hours by rockets flying over the Gaza border onto Israeli farms, towns and cities usually to minimal damage is just the latest flare-up in the series of Arab attempts to prevent or destroy the Jewish state which dates back to before the beginning of the last century. The exception recently was the tragic death of Daniel Tregerman, an innocent four year old who had as one of his idols the Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi. Then there was a set of somewhat baffling events in which the Israeli Shin Bet security agency along with an assist from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) where their actions over the previous few days in arresting over ninety Palestinians and uncovering and confiscating a large cache of weapons, explosives, grenades and other tools of war all while uncovering a coup plot by Hamas to topple Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority through a series of terror attacks and performing the actual coup during the ensuing confusion similarly to the coup by Hamas in Gaza over five days of June 2007. People were surprised and even shocked when the different anti-Bashir Assad groups began fighting each other almost more regularly than they did the Syrian military. This should not have been such a surprise as the same differences defined the rift between the nationalist Palestinian Authority and the religious jihadist Hamas and allied groups such as Islamic Jihad. The difference is simply their motivational driving force, secular nationalism which can have religious overtones but religious purity is not demanded or a high priority while the jihadist places adherence to Islam as paramount and as the central driving force it inevitably drives those who lead these jihadist groups to take their Islamic adherence to such extremes that they have earned a special label of Islamist extremists. The jihadist becomes such a purist adherent to Islam that they classify the nationalists as heretics, disbelievers or apostates; all of which are to be punished by the sword. This is the driving force behind Hamas needing to destroy and replace the Palestinian Authority; it is all a matter or religious purity versus the unbelievers or those whose belief does not meet the jihadist standards.

 

Fatah was the originating organization which bridged Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat and the rest of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists into recognized, by the United States and Europe, acceptable peace partners for Israel to now be able to find some common ground. This provided the basis for the two state solution and the heart of its theories being the canard of land for peace. After this transformation Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas were no longer defined as terrorists and instead became men who represented the epitome of peace and compromise, or at least that has been the mantra repeated religiously by Western national leaders and the concept shoved down Israeli throats requiring ever more force as time has removed the layers of lies which have clouded the entirety of the Palestinian-Israel peace process, something which has as its origins the Arab-Israeli conflict which was simply rebranded to make Israel no longer the victim of the larger Arab world into the oppressor and occupier against the helpless Palestinian people. The war is still between the Arab world and Israel but the name was changed to dupe willing Western leaders from supporters of Israel, a position which was growing more difficult as Israel proved capable of defending herself, to mediators who could be fair and even-handed or even Palestinian sympathizers with growing animosity towards Israel. This devious plan worked to perfection and the fruits can be viewed around the Western world where anti-Semitism had grown right along with anti-Zionism and anti-Israel hatreds with the same old canards and blood libels being reinvented and given a twenty-first century face and told and accepted around the world. The most repeated accusations revolve around that Jews control the world’s governments making them do their bidding, control the media, control the banks, and steal the blood or organs of non-Jews to give to Jews or to use in the making of Matzos. In numerous Arab and Muslim nations the slanderous hoax perpetrated by the Czars in a publication they had authored and printed called “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” which purports to detail the plan whereby the Jews, all 0. 2% of the globe’s population, will take complete control over the world is only outsold by the Quran and Mein Kampf, which says even more about the Arab world and its preoccupation with eradicating the World’s Jewry.

 

The root source of the problem can be traced to the positions taken by the separate Palestinian groups. Islamic Jihad and Hamas have near identical views and definitions of their goals in fighting Israel and the Jews. Both groups believe in liberating Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea which means destroying all of Israel. The place where these two groups have a degree of difference is when it comes to what to do after destroying Israel and murdering the Jews of Israel. Hamas believes that immediately after murdering all the Jews of Israel they must proceed to murder the remaining Jews worldwide, while Islamic Jihad places that task as a future event to be completed as part of making Islam the sole religion in the world. The Palestinian Authority also believes that all of Israel is occupied Palestine and that Palestine stretches from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea but they believe that initially the Jews could be permitted to live as long as they were under Muslim rule, paid the Jiyza tax and accepted their Dhimmi status and acted sufficiently cowed and subservient. All of the Palestinian leadership aims for a one state solution all the while some will agree to support a two state solution. This is their use of taqiyya which permits a Muslim to lie to an infidel for the cause of advancing Islam, thus agreeing they want a two state solution. Their acceptance of the two state solution is simply a way station on their way to their way to their preferred one state solution and the complete destruction of Israel. The Palestinian Authority, the group which falsely claims to adhere to the general ideas of the two state solution aim to maximize their gains before accepting the final borders and settlement. As they will forever believe they can force more concessions out of the Israelis, especially with the assistance by the anti-Israel Western NGOs and governments. They see such things as the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as proof that they have the support to push Israel to the cusp of economic ruin with the extensive assistance of the West’s useful idiots and their invaluable assistance. Add a hostile set of politicians who speak loud and proud of their hatred and denunciations of Israel from around the world, Mr. George Galloway who recently declared, “We have declared Bradford an Israel-free zone. We don’t want any Israeli goods. We don’t want any Israeli services. We don’t want any Israeli academics, coming to the university or the college. We don’t even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford, if any of them had thought of doing so. We reject this illegal, barbarous, savage state that calls itself Israel. And you have to do the same.”

 

Despite the fact that the Palestinian and Arab representatives will not cease their animosities and violence against Israel, Israelis and Jews particularly; the real reason this conflicts appears destined to remain into the foreseeable future revolves around much of the current Israeli leadership. There is a sizeable segment of the Israeli leadership who willingly believe the platitudes and lies which Mahmoud and others speak in English to the Western mainstream media and who ignore the loud, brash and hateful rhetoric spoken by these very same Palestinian leaders when they speak in Arabic, their native language. It is an apparently virulent condition which has infected the reporting and agendas of many Western nations and national leaders. Despite glaringly contradictory evidence and actions any casual observer would be able to perceive, these useful idiots demand that the two state solution has not been given sufficient effort, sufficient time, sufficient investments, sufficient candy canes and chocolate bunnies. These fools remain blind and tear into an uncontrollable rage whenever anybody dares speak against their beloved negotiations to find the magic sacrifice that Israel must finally make that will seal the deal on that ever elusive two state solution. Their overriding obsession drives them to castigate other Israelis as being those who have destroyed the atmosphere and poisoned the wells which are necessary to nurture the environment such that the perfect two state solution can be grown and tended lovingly bring a period of Messianic tranquility and harmony where the lamb will lie with the lion and their Kalashnikov AK-47s will be ground into fine dinnerware, and their mortars into knitting hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

 

Even these delusional peace-blinded fools are not the final resting place for the blame or for not ending this perpetual cycle of violence, a cycle that at this immediate juncture is the closest it has ever been to being solvable. The most frustrating and simultaneously infuriating item about all of this is that the three people who could bring all these impasses and frustration to a close if only they would open their eyes and see. There are a select few who are calling for the necessary first step to reaching the solution even if their visions may fall a little short of a complete solution, they perceive the new path and at least desire to take a bold new approach. Those at the very top, the ones most essential to break with the past are the one’s listening and fearing the most blinded in their midst while demeaning and attempting to silence the ones who bear the message and the path to peace, real and palpable long term peace. The main culprit, as most have probably ascertained, is Prime Minister Netanyahu who is backed in this misadventure by Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon. Both of these politicians have the inbuilt fear which will eventually cower even the strongest of politicians while blunting and softening their initial rough edges, those pronouncements which are often only existant within the young or inexperienced in the political arena, making them docile and fearful of again going boldly beyond the lines drawn by the not so loyal opposition. Additionally is the IDF Chief of Staff General Benny Gantz who commands an IDF which has displayed the greatest unity and spirited enthusiasm to complete their mission and surpass expectations with a willingness to answer any challenge with what is known in military circles as ‘can do’ yet his main driving idea is to end the current mission Defensive Edge before it becomes once again necessary to reenter Gaza and face the potential additional losses such an eventuality would entail. Saving his men’s lives and health have to be one of a commander’s highest concerns and it should be a driving consideration in their every decision, but it also must not become such an obsession that it paralyzes their ability to apply force when appropriate out of a desire to avoid further casualties. The protection of the IDF weighs on each of these Israeli leaders but is hopefully not acting as a paralyzing element; there exist too many other such forces which need no additional help.

 

The final puzzle piece, which makes the inability of the very top of the chain of command to act even more unbelievable, is the unity of the people of Israel. There is a unity beyond that anyone has witnessed since decades ago. The Israelis are fully behind their leadership doing whatever it might take to bring peace and security to the south of Israel and the ever widening areas which have come under the striking range of the Hamas rockets. They have witnessed miracles which have shown even the biggest skeptics that G0d is on their side and with their efforts. The three misses by the Iron Dome battery protecting Tel Aviv had its crew, especially the commanding officer, beside themselves with concern as the rocket’s trajectory according to all the data provided by their equipment placed it delivering its deadly explosive warhead on central Tel Aviv where it could have killed thousands of innocent Israelis, Jews, Arabs, Muslims, Christians, Druze and others. Perhaps the description given by that unit commander best tells of their shock and awe experience. His report, anonymous, as to reveal his name might endanger him or his family, stated, “A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or a central Tel Aviv railway station. Hundreds could have died. We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock. At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident. Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that…sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, ‘There is a God!’ I witnessed this miracle with my own eyes. It was not told or reported to me. I saw the hand of God send that missile into the sea.” What more can be said except finish the job and do that which is right and would benefit the people of Gaza as much as the people of southern Israel, both of which are living under the threat of Hamas violence, the Israelis to rockets, the Gazan people to random murders for the sake of retaining control over the people by violent oppression. Free Gaza and Israel from the brutalities and terrorism of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and those others who would act to continue to persecute both of these peoples.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Guess the Campaigns Have Started Without Me

With Mitt Romney having declared his candidacy this week we have to resign that the campaign season is upon us once again, as if it ever actually went away. I have already resigned myself that the people I would most desire run and who would get my vote even if they were to run under the banner of the Jiminy Cricket Never-never-land Party will most likely show great intelligence and not take the plunge. Who can blame anyone for not voluntarily putting their family, friends, acquaintances, and even their grade school teachers from the ever invasive press looking for dirt, any dirt, on any candidate that breaks with the approved party and viewpoints, you know, progressive, far-left, liberal, big government, one world, Democrat. My brainiac candidate, which those read here often might already know, is former United Nations Ambassador and all around foreign policy genius, John Bolton. My hands down, win if he runs candidate has the guts and won’t back down from anybody no matter the consequences attitude, is the man who willingly and intentionally acted in a way that could force him to retire from a twenty year military career because that action would save his men, and now Congressman from Florida, Lieutenant Colonel Allen West. Both of these fine men have shown that they fully understand the situation and realize, unlike much of the press, many of our political leaders and seemingly the vast majority of our population, we are in a war for the very survival of our way of life and the freedoms we hold dear, or actually seem to take for granted, and realize the consequences should the radical Islamists, as they are erroneously called, attain the victory and change the world to match their strict Islamic code. But, this article is going to be about what it will take for any candidate to wrench the Presidency from the hands of the Democrats and replace Barack Obama with somebody who will uphold the original intent of the Constitution and return to a traditional approach of supporting our friends and keeping a watchful eye on our enemies.

The first and most important point is to not try to win by repeatedly stating what is currently wrong with the United States. Candidates other than the incumbent do not need to attack or defend or even talk about the current state of things other than to point out what you plan to do differently and how that will make life better for every American. Voters listening to those who run against the incumbent are already looking for somebody who, like them, thinks that things are not going well and that a change is needed. The best opportunity is to have five to at most a dozen platform planks that will be your core message. These are the ideas you will pound home and also the things that set you apart from the rest. Not all of them have to differ from the other candidates against whom you are competing, but at least a couple should be unique to your candidacy. You make sure you own these core principles and are heard expounding them consistently. Along with these principles, you need to paint a picture of how they will make the United States a better place, improve people’s lives, protect people from harms, and how you will use them in an innovative way that differentiates you from everybody else. Plainly put, be a candidate who is positive, not one who is only claiming not to be as bad as the other guy. Running against an incumbent you cannot simply be not as bad, but better and a completely positive improvement rather than just less damaging. You must give people the hope that you will turn everything around and give them a country to once again be proud of. A campaign is much like a title prize fight and the incumbent holds the belt. You do not take the belt away from a champion by fighting a slightly better fight; you get the belt only if you decisively beat the champion. In what appears to be a close contest, the champion and the incumbent will win because people and judges of a fight will stay with what they know unless given a very good reason to change. In a title fight, which is done best with a knockout and the same applies to running for President. To win you must stand out as different as and better than everybody else. For the vast majority of people, if everything looks fairly much the same, they go with the most optimistic offer and President Obama is very good at giving optimistic speeches. To beat him you must be more optimistic and offer a better alternative that distinguishes you from what President Obama is offering.

Thus far, what I have heard from conservative pundits, talk show hosts, and candidates has been a litany of what is wrong with America and pinning these difficulties on President Obama. Where that may play well right now, it will not play in the general election. Much of what is being touted are, for example, Obama has done this, Obama has caused that, Obama didn’t take this opportunity until too late, Obama should have acted sooner, and such. Great, so Obama is doing and the other side is complaining. That will not win an election. You feel a need to claim that President Obama has done a terrible job as President, fine! Do it by saying things along the line of, unlike Obama I will lower taxes, remove restrictions on drilling, promote and support industries staying in America and whatever other positive messages you have. And, whatever you do, be earnest and honest and really say and believe everything you place before the public, they tend to figure out if you are feeding them a line more often than not. President Lincoln was correct with the fool some of the people but not all of the people. He knew the people have a collective truth detector that is difficult to fool, though President Obama seems to have done so and is going to try to again. Should those running against President Obama remain negative and run by slamming the actions and inactions of President Obama, then we will be facing four more years of a President Obama. If this scares you, then find your positive message, forget about Obama, and tell the people over and over and over why you will be their knight in shining armor and bring them a shining city on a hill. That was the positive message of President Reagan and he defeated President Carter not by blaming Carter for his failed Presidency, but by telling us about what a glorious America a President Reagan would help us to build and realize. That is what is needed again if we are to defeat what I like to call Jimmy Carter on steroids.

Beyond the Cusp