Trump and the New Syria Policy

 

Trump has a new Syria policy which, except for one major change, which may not even really be any change, looks awfully similar to the Trump old Syria policy. What we witnessed last Friday was the Trump policy on the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilians. It mattered not whether it had been Syria, North Korea, Libya or any other place where such hideous acts might have been carried out. Wherever there would have been any use of chemical, biological, nuclear or any other weapons of mass destruction against civilians; whoever or whichever nation or leader who would have utilized weapons of mass destruction murdering any number large or small of civilians; would have probably been the recipients of an American strike by Tomahawk Cruise Missiles or B-52 long-range heavy bombers or other long arm of United States military reach to send the message that the United States would no longer stand by and simply twiddle our thumbs or make empty threats setting erasable red lines against such use of these weapons. The message might even have been extended for any mass murdering of civilians using even normative weapons such as barrel bombs or even artillery bombardment. This was President Trump announcing that the United States of old has returned and that nations and their leaders will be held responsible for their actions. We bet that exactly what Trump announced as a challenge to the rest of the world during his short commentary on the Syria attack was the meat that we should take away from the action against Syria, that he desires leading the world in efforts to end the horrors of terrorism by targeting the terror leadership.

 

So, what about this war against Syria everybody claims President Trump just declared? Well, first thing is that, as a number of Congresspersons mentioned, Congress is the body of the government which declares wars and also must be conferred with and approve any sustained military engagements. If President Trump plans an extended military confrontation against Syria, he will be required to get Congressional approval. We would advise not holding your breath waiting for the speech from President Trump before Congress asking for either a declaration of war or an extension for military operations in Syria. President Trump was simply sending a message with an exclamation point. His promise not to enter the Syrian war remains in place as does his promise not to get mired down in any Middle East war. Syria will remain a Russian playground unless Bashir al-Assad has not learned his lesson. Even if Assad is thinking that he might just desire to test the mettle of this new American President and see if this was just simply a one-off and that President Trump simply really is no different than his predecessor, President Obama; the odds are that Russian President Putin likely would advise him against any such stupidity. Even if Bashir al-Assad did not get the message or believes the message which was sent, we can trust that President Putin definitely got the message and that will serve just as well.

 

 

But what about the long term cost of this military adventure? Has President Trump completely alienated President Putin? After all, President Putin did cancel the agreement where the United States and Russia exchanged information between their military commands so as not to have any misunderstandings or run any risk of their two militaries running into one another as a surprise. That action by President Putin was more posturing than actual anger as that communication likely was used before the attack so that the Russians were advised, likely with insufficient time to warn the Syrians and just sufficient time to get their own people to safety. Even if the Russians were able to warn the Syrians, the message still was received and both leaders, Putin and Assad, likely also know if another such punitive attack should become necessary, there will be no warnings next time. This was a message for more than Assad or Putin; this was a message to the world and most definitely was not a declaration of the United States entering the Syrian war. Those claiming such are simply attempting to be alarmist and are simply people who were not strongly supportive of Trump and were seeking a reason, any reason to run from him and joining those bashing him daily on social media. Those others who would love nothing more than for President Trump to get mired down in the Syrian war and have come out of the woodwork to support this military actions and are calling for more follow-on military actions are not friends of the President and are not seeking the best for him. These are the ones who have opposed President Trump and his non-interventionist policies and are hoping beyond hope that they can finally force him into supporting their policies. They will lose as President Trump if nothing else is his own man and will do as he desires. He signaled exactly his desired path during the campaign and this attack was no deviation.

 

On another front, this attack should remove some of the silliness that President Trump was nothing but President Putin’s marionette. The distraction from the real scandal should be dead and buried and we can now get on to looking for how deep the rabbit hole which starts with President Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice and likely leads right to the President himself. Even if the Russians did actually purloin e-mails from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Chief, John Podesta, e-mails and make them public, had the media been worth their salt they would have found this information themselves. The Democratic National Committee e-mails were not stolen anyway as it is already a known fact that they were leaked by somebody inside the DNC. This means that the media was probably given access to this information and decided to sit on it as it did not serve placing Hillary into the White House. That would even include FOX News as many of the reporters and editorialists even at FOX were in the, “Anybody but Trump Camp,” even if that meant Hillary Clinton. It took somebody not so much interested in the election as they are in releasing anything which was factual and the public should have the right to know. Information on a Presidential candidate definitely fell into those criteria. That was likely the main driving factor behind Wikileaks putting out the information which was in those communications. They actually provided a service for the American voters by placing before them news which the media refused to provide despite its obvious importance. These leaks were more of a shaming of the media than it was a shaming of Hillary Clinton, as it was Hillary Clinton which shamed Hillary Clinton. President Abraham Lincoln loved the truth and trusted the people and his words should be revered by the media and rejoiced by bartenders. President Lincoln is quoted having written or said, “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer.” We too favor his opinion, waitress, another pitcher if you please.

 

Pitcher of Beer

 

Kidding aside, Wikileaks should be given a great amount of thanks for revealing truths which the American media refused to release. Where we doubt that their releases actually cost Hillary Clinton a single vote, but we do believe that they may have pushed a few wavering voters to change from simply sleeping in and then going golfing to actually voting for Donald Trump. Our friends in Michigan and Wisconsin will tell us that their going for Trump had nothing to do with people not going to play golf; nobody plays golf there except in July or August because the rest of the year the weather and lake effect storms make such an unpleasant venture. Whatever those few people who were swayed by the information, the truths, released by Wikileaks may or may not have made the difference, but we doubt they did sway the election for Trump as the two camps in the United States have drifted to such extremes that there are probably not sufficient people sitting on the fence and the majority of voters are all from each candidate’s base. The problem is for the candidate who does not excite or have the trust of their party base of voters. As far as getting into the war in Syria, that would have been Hillary’s game, not President Trump. We can close telling our friends in the United States and elsewhere, President Trump was taking a shot across the bow of any state actor who might be misjudging him and thinking that they can use weapons of mass destruction or any weapons indiscriminately, and they had best rethink, as that is something he will not suffer. Instead, President Trump will make such a reckless leader suffer and take the side of any suffering people as long as it will not lead to harming the United States. Do not get to thinking President Trump changed as his number one love and devotion outside of his family is his country, the United States of America.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Left’s War Against Trump and the Media

 

Well, the leftist temper tantrum is a month old today so it only seemed right to acknowledge the courage, dedication and stamina of so many of these demonstrators to continue this long and with such enthusiasm, it is almost admirable. One might ask to what end they believe they are working towards but that would be silly, they have made that evidently clear. Their aim is to drive President Trump from office and put the rightful winner of the election in the Oval Office, Hillary Clinton. Somebody should inform them that there is a huge snag in their plan, that darned Constitution thing again. Drive Donald Trump from office and then there will be Mike Pence taking the Oath of Office. And should they then chase Mike Pence from office before he could have his appointment for his replacement through the Senate, something their allies in the Senate appear to be quite adept at doing, then the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, would become the President. I’m not sure if this force Trump from office idea has been completely thought out as each step appears to make things get even worse as people more familiar with how to get things through Washington come into power and each time with even further right views. As a matter of fact, if one goes through the entire list of progression you need to go really deep, wait a minute, no, Hillary Clinton is nowhere on that list whatsoever. Well, perhaps they have some other ideas on how to get Hillary Clinton or whomever they desire into the Oval Office, though short of a revolution I do not see how. We gave that idea a brief glancing concern in our article The Fascist Playbook is Being Repeated Now all in hopes that whoever and whatever is behind, pushing and financing these protests, and especially the senseless violence, are not hoping to force a revolution and end the great experiment in self-governance which is the United States of America.

 

There has always been a group of elitists who held that mankind is too ignorant, too stupid, too impatient, too selfish, too immature, too anything you could mention to be permitted the luxury of ruling themselves. Initially they were the royalty, the emperors, kings, queens, barons and the land owners. At the same time there was a second group who also believed mankind, including the ruling class of kings, queens, etcetera were too limited in all manner of ways to rule themselves; this was the Church centered in Rome. The kings and queens and their ilk figured their exceptional breeding made them the special chosen by Hashem to rule and this gave them the right and wisdom to rule. That idea does not even deserve argument as a simple perusing through the kings and queens and other nobles and one sees they were so wrong as many were seriously flawed and ignorant little people. The Church was a different subject as the Church could rely on a group intellect which gave them a better position for wisdom and proper rule but they too had a damning limitation, their reliance on the Bible as they interpreted it and their blindness to science and change. They saw science as a threat rather than a tool and refused to use any of its wisdom or ideas which had them living with falsehoods similar to the fake news of today. The Church splintered in the Protestant Reformation and never recovered their lost power and today only maintains an advisory role with merely a fragment of their former power. Now there are some elites with great wealth who believe their wealth means they have the superior abilities and should craft the society in their images. One such is George Soros who once stated, “I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control otherwise they might get me into trouble.” Just like those elitists from the past, today’s wunderkind are just as clueless and blind to their weaknesses and faults which will have their attempts to guide humanity fail just as have the previous attempts. There is another group which has always believed they are actually the ones who should lead the whole of humankind as they have this concept where the savior is government and if only the government with its collective wisdom was granted ultimate power they could solve every problem and steer society through all the potential storms, threats and difficulties.

 

George Soros who once stated,
“I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies
with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control
otherwise they might get me into trouble.”

 

This group is made up of predominantly the socialist, big government, regulation intensive leftists. These politically active individuals believe that they are correct and know the only solutions which could possibly work and insist that because of their superior intellects and greater education and other singular attributes, they should be the sole people to hold the reins of power. That is the problem, their selected candidate, Hillary Clinton, somehow was not as unbeatable as the media had painted her during the campaign. Making matters all the worse, the candidate who won the election was, according to the leftist elites, an idiot and incompetent buffoon full of bluster, braggadocios and simple minded to boot. They view President Donald Trump as completely unfit to hold the office of President and are willing to go to any extent to remove him from office and place somebody who is knowledgeable and competent into the Oval Office. One recent example comes from President Trump’s claim that he has tried and tried to arrange a meeting with Maryland Representative and Chairman of the Congressional Black Congress Elijah Cummings stating inferring actuality that, “He [Congressman Elijah Cummings], wanted it [a meeting], but we called, called, called, called. They can’t make a meeting with him. Every day I walk in I say, ‘I would like to meet with him, because I do want to solve the problem.’ But he probably was told by [Senator Chuck] Schumer or somebody like that — some other lightweight — he was probably told, ‘Don’t meet with Trump. It’s bad politics.’ And that’s part of the problem with this country.” It will be a matter of time, if it has not already happened, that some journalist or political figure will come out stating that they have talked with or have it on the highest authority that Donald Trump has not asked to meet Representative Cummings more than one reference in a speech somewhere or that Senator Schumer has not told Representative Cummings whether or not to meet with the President, that is if they refer to President Trump by his office or simply as Donald Trump as some have a habit claiming he is not dignified, intelligent, decent or sophisticated enough to deserve such reference. Apparently for Donald Trump winning the election was insufficient for him to have earned being referred to as President, imagine if such were to have been said of Hillary Clinton had she won the election by the Wall Street Journal or Glen Beck; the liberal media would come unglued.

 

Then there is the whole dust-up over “Fake News” and all which such entails. There have been some misleading stories and other simply made-up out of whole cloth stories either making the “Fake News” label valid or the entire “Fake News” story is “Fake News” all depending on which side of the political spectrum one resides. That is the basis of the problem in the United States, which we had pointed to first with The Mirage of the Unaligned Middle Voters back on June 17, 2011 and much later in Republicans Need a Real, Honest and True Blue Candidate on February 18, 2016, is the near complete lack of a true and palpable number of middle of the political spectrum voters. The American public has split nearly evenly and has polarized near completely. This has been the case for quite some time and everybody in the game understands this though often they wish to deny such and claim there is still huge numbers of middle of the road votes to be had. The media likes to pretend that there are votes to be gained by catering to the middle and running a campaign to match. Often we will see the Democrat candidate make speeches sounding out middle of the road principles and the media making a big deal about the Democrats playing it smart and running towards the middle. The reality is their voters are fully aware that it is all an act made to try and force the republican candidate to do likewise. Often this ploy in tandem with the media trumpeting the wisdom and campaign advisors who still remember what can only be called ‘the good old days’ when winning the middle of the road vote was essential and they advise the Republican to fish in those same waters as the Democrat using the old agenda that the true conservatives have no other choice and they may as well compete for the middle voters against the Democrats. The problem is in recent elections the conservative voters have been burned so often they stay home if they doubt the true intentions of the Republican candidate hoping that by doing so they can force the Republicans to nominate a true and real conservative. The Republicans, for reasons unknown, continued to play for the nonexistent center and lose with few exceptions. This last election Donald Trump refused to run to the center and simply stayed on his message and battled head to head with the media and his formula won.

 

The media is upset with President Trump because he did not fall for their trap of moving to the middle which would have cost him the election. They are upset that President Trump appears to have gotten the better of the media by winning the election. They have become even further enraged because President Trump refuses to let up on their biases and have been giving as good as he has gotten. They are furious that he defeated Hillary Clinton, the candidate they had all but elected a week before the election and that President Trump has not been humble in his victory and refuses to allow himself to be humbled by the media. He has called the media out for their lies and false accusations against him. The media simply wants President Trump to respect them as the holders of the holy grail by telling the stories as they see fit except President Trump just continues to insist on telling the stories his way and managing to get his side out to the people with or without the media. His Tweets drive them completely up the wall and into the crazy places of the attic as it allows President Trump access to his supporters without going through the formerly all-powerful media. He ignores them and then goads them whenever he deals with them. President Trump refuses to respect the media in the way they have grown accustomed to having politicians grovel. That President Trump basically used the media as an arm of his campaign by using a mixture of policy statements and completely ludicrous and taunting statements which they carried. The media saw Donald Trump as a series of insane commentary and ignored his policy statements while carrying them because they saw them as wrong-headed and unpopular while his supporters ignored his inane, insane, accusational statements which the media took as so important and loved his message and policy statements to heart and these won him the election. The election came down to the media and Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton using their tried and true personal attacks and characterization of Trump as a dangerous and evil, hateful and mean-spirited old fool while Trump ignored every nasty attack except for the occasional quoting of these nasty commentaries or mean coverage and otherwise stuck to his message pretending that he had seldom heard a discouraging word. In the end message won over accusations. The biggest drawing from the Trump campaign was the message on immigration while the most crucial is the one least talked about as if to talk about it is stepping on the third rail of journalism, but we are not journalists or normal, so here it is as plain as we can state it, the reason that Trump won. Donald Trump remembered from history that the British said much the same disparaging things calling Winston Churchill an old fool ringing the bells of war and hatred and seeing evil hiding behind every tree and that that same old fool saved the Western World from the evil clutches of fascism. Trump also sees a rising fascism in the world in the form of radicalized Islamic extremism and names it as such and Hillary Clinton claims there is no such threat and wanted to open the floodgates allowing in as many refugees from areas where just such threats are most rampant. Donald Trump saw the danger and Hillary Clinton did not thus Donald Trump won because he was willing to call things exactly as they appear and Hillary Clinton insisted on painting pretty pictures of Kumbaya and Shangri-La where nothing was wrong and everybody was playing nice together. That was the deciding factor and nobody really wants to talk about it in the media, nobody.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Hating From the Word Go!

 

Right from the start let us set the record straight, the Republicans who refused publically to attend the Inauguration of Barack Obama were wrong to make it public, especially if they made a big show of such in the mainstream media, social media, alternative media and elsewhere. The current identical actions by those boycotting the Inauguration of Donald Trump are equally wrong. The big difference is the mainstream media and their joyous celebration of the boycotts being performed as a grand show now and the critical coverage they gave such in 2008. I will grant everybody a miniscule but infinitely important morsel of credit; at least nobody tried to make a mockery of the President elect and Vice President elect laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, well, except the most petty. Such mockery would have been so below the belt and uncouth beyond measure and as unacceptable as anything possible. Do not get me wrong, I respect these people’s right to do exactly what they are committing to do. My admonition goes to those from his party, the Republicans, the “Never Trump” Republicans, the Republicans who used every piece of rumor, dirt, suspicion of evil deeds and anything found against Trump even to repeating charges made by the Democrats amplifying their voices, the Republicans who used everything in the Republican National Committee computers such that the Russians found nothing new there to throw at Trump as they found with Hillary Clinton. News to everybody, News Flash, important news; Donald Trump is President and the United States is really in crisis with a government far too huge and cumbersome which is the exact swamp which needs draining. The problem which Trump will run up against first is that he cannot under the law just tell people in government, “You’re Fired,” and make it stick because the rules forbid exactly that. That is the reality, the swamp is protected by law and Trump and his administration will need to find some way of removing the dead wood sitting smug and comfortable pretending nothing can touch them. Well, there are other means of forcing one to depart the government such as making their working conditions too demanding and uncomforting. Force them to perform acts under their definition of office which are against their very principles and finally simply transfer them somewhere that does not permit family to also be allowed and repeat transfers until they decide it really is not worth the aggravation just to oppose the President. Should the President require somebody with experience and knowledge on how to make a workplace support only that which is the President’s promises, we are available.

 

One ideal example is Columbia Professor of Modern Arab Studies Rashid Khalidi who fears that these people supporting Israel, “And unfortunately, these people infest the Trump transition team, these people are going to infest our government as of January 20.” Professor Khalidi is an Islamic Arab who believes that all of Israel is occupied and that Jews are not entitled to any “Arab lands” and the Zionists are colonizers. Needless to understand is that Professor Khalidi is an atypical Arab spokesperson, American born, pro-Palestinian, reputed but denied being a PLO spokesperson in Beirut in the 1970’s and 1980’s, when Israel and the US considered the group a terrorist organization (see photo below). Obviously Professor Khalidi is among those who are less than exuberant about the new day with President Trump in the White House. Professor Khalidi was welcome at the White House during President Obama’s administration. He was hopeful that President Obama would hinder and possibly lead to the destruction of the Jewish State. The end of Israel and the imposition of Islam on the world making the world safe for the Arab people throughout all the continents, well, possibly except Antarctica as it might be just slightly too chilly during the winter that close to the South Pole. If one has surveyed the lands which were conquered by the Arabs between 620 and 750 and the indigenous peoples in these areas which remain under Arab rule, they would notice they have become an almost unnoticeable minority. The area of Egypt had a large population of Coptic Christians and a very active Jewish society before 625 and by the year 1700 the Jewish population was disappearing and the Christians were relegated to small enclaves and today there is no Jewish community and the Coptic Christians are a threatened group who, if we had lists of endangered human societies, the Coptic Christians would be amongst those on the list.

 

Columbia Professor of Modern Arab Studies Rashid Khalidi

 

Let us return back to the new American President, Donald Trump. If one were to simply search here at BTC entering with quotes “Trump” “failure” one would find this has been a repeated subject as it is rampant and amplified by the mainstream media making it appear to be a pandemic when actually it is only three to four times the size from the people equally infuriated with President Obama being elected and being also equally boisterous. One of our favorites and we think almost amusing was It’s In, Trump’s Failed Presidency. Now that the inauguration is history and we are officially in the start of what will be those fateful first one-hundred days of the Trump Presidency, it is going to be interesting to see what the mainstream media makes of his successes and failures. It can be bet that what they term as a disaster or really terrible for the nation and the world will be the exact items where President Trump delivers upon his campaign promises. One item which will be interesting to read will be how as President Trump, providing the Republican congress actually work with him and not join those opposing everything he does, actually delivers on lowering taxes for the majority of people, deregulates businesses following through on what small businesses and others have noted are worthless busywork regulations and other things which would be approved by many people providing they were presented with these actions as theoretical and not attached to any political party or special interests. What many people do not understand and something I found out about as my Mother ended up working at home filling in forms and checking everything at least twice as errors on these forms were criminally punishable by long prison terms. Imagine having dozens of regulations each month with each averaging two pages of forms all requiring a grasp of basic math, some accounting, understanding poorly and distressfully worded instructions with vague meanings (yes, potentially double meanings) and deadlines for filing and this was way back in ancient history, the 1960’s to the 1980’s just to keep my Father’s tailor shop which employed himself, assistance from my mother and more often than not one tailor as an employee. Now imagine a plumber who has a small one city plumbing service and contracting company with twenty or thirty plumbers and fifteen trucks. Such a small company would require at least one person if not more to handle the required paperwork spawned by regulations. Ever wonder what happened to the neighborhood doctor’s office? When I was a kid, yes, I know I still act like one, we had a lady doctor who we could get treatment and she would assist in cover stories on how we injured ourselves, even when she saw you break your arm car surfing. She closed up the office in her house and joined three other doctors in a clinic which had a receptionist and two people who handled billing and regulation forms and they were considering hiring another. Take a look at the local school and remember back to your school days and there is little comparison if you are over thirty. There are three times the councilors, more than one principal, numerous vice principles (my high school of almost 4500 students had two), and an EEOC advisor (at least one), and a near uncountable number of secretaries spread around the various offices, and positions we never even heard of back in the day all because there are numerous requirements that the schools must fulfill, many having to do with sex education, equal opportunity for students, special education programs, physical education requirements and more and more federally imposed programs which the schools must document that every last one of these additional educational requirements are provided for the students or covered by teachers even to the point of students having to document receiving some required courses. None of these courses have anything to do with reading, writing, arithmetic, math, history, civics or any other educational subject but are usually more along the line of indoctrination.

 

So as Trump gets rid of regulations we will hear how Trump is releasing the polluters to destroy the air and water, killing endangered animals, allowing for price gouging, releasing restraints on bad things, vague bad things which will be left undefined other than they were bad things being loosed on the people. Imagine the productivity that could be increased if the numbers of regulations and required documentations by businesses. What could be wrong with that? Well, it will allow the people who own these businesses to enjoy larger profits, you know, allowing the rich to get richer. Further, the screams of his making certain jobs no longer necessary are simply outlandish. I doubt Donald Trump could ever get rid of so many regulations and other demands from government to cause widespread unemployment. Honestly, if President Trump can force the revocation of sufficient regulations and required documentation which would require also reducing state regulatory agencies which were initially brought into being by the Federal Government and many even financed initially by the Federal Government and later were just unloaded onto the states. Such a present to the American people would be unprecedented and unbelievably liberating freeing businesses and beyond but the media and special interests would howl and declare foul because they depend on these regulations to enforce their will on the hapless public. So what might result in the most voluminous in quantity and levels of sound could also be the greatest favor President Trump could give the people, regulation depletion allowing people to act with less tethers and restrictions or unnecessary paperwork all because the simple presumed fact that if Trump does something, then it must necessarily be an evil thing and must be denounced. I can hardly wait to hear the squealing from the mainstream media at every turn as President Trump and his administration move forward. The first circus we are already witnessing, the Senate hearings and approval of his Cabinet and other appointments requiring Senate affirmation. Allow us to give you a simple and different way of viewing Trump’s appointments, the Cabinet appointees are not supposed to necessarily be experts in whatever field of their administration, they are to be managers who know how to listen to experts, have an ability to understand even complicated explanations, manage people and use their skills, know how to balance those who work with them and setting up the administrative structure to best advantage to produce the most efficient results. Imagine an efficient government department, any one of them, just imagine. The problem is it would be difficult because doing so would make so many government employees superfluous and imagine how the media would howl if, by fiat, the government let one third of their employees go and have to find real jobs. The screaming would be that President Trump was causing massive unemployment because where would these government employees find work with their skills? We would be led to believe that government employees are unacceptable as employees in the real world, imagine that. Could that be true or is that simply fear mongering, but then again, we are talking about people screaming whose deepest skill is warning of catastrophic disasters should their warnings not be heeded. Oh, by the way, they are, more often than not, simply wrong. So, let the games begin.

 

Beyond the Cusp