PRESIDENT TRUMP CONTINUES TO PROVE HE’S NO RACIST…

Yes, by all means, President Trump is indeed a racist.  After all, how else is it that one can possibly refer to a president who has put into place policies that have made it possible for the unemployment rate for black men to be the lowest it has been in history?  And the truth of the matter is that President Trump has done more to improve the lives of black Americans in the three years he has been in office than his predecessor, the first black president, Barry ‘O’, did during his entire eight year reign in the White House.  And yet he’s routinely referred to, by Democrats and their ‘fake news’ minions, as being a racist, a white supremacist and, worse, a Nazi.

All of the policies that President Trump has worked to put in place are now all working together.  And it’s really nothing that anyone else could have done had they only been interested.  But President Trump was, apparently, the only one willing to do what it was that everyone knew needed be done.  That being to: First, cut back regulations on businesses, cut taxes, reduce our number of illegal immigrants and bring about energy independence for America.  Second, level the playing field regarding trade with China. And third, sign USMCA, institute welfare reform and win reelection.  This is an agenda that results in the creating of more jobs.

The economy added 266,000 jobs in the month of November, which was far more than the supposed ‘experts’ had expected.  And it was Black men over 20 who picked up over 14,000 of those jobs.  As a result, the unemployment rate for black men stayed at the all-time low of 5.1 percent that was hit in October. The total number of black men employed in the U.S. rose to a seasonally adjusted 9,014,000, which is the highest on record. The total black male civilian labor force is comprised of just under 9.5 million individuals. And it is President Trump who can take credit for these number.  Also, the labor force participation rate held steady at 68 percent.

And while the unemployment rate for black women ticked up a notch to 4.9 percent, it still remains near to its recent record low of 4.8 percent.  The combined unemployment rate for black men, women, and young people between 16 and 19 is a 5.5 percent, that too is a tick above the all-time low of 5.4 percent hit last month.  And this all the while we’re continually being told that the president is some clueless stooge who is destroying the country.  And oddly enough, such drivel usually comes from the very same ones who thought, and continue to think, that Barry ‘O’ was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  And it’s just the opposite that’s so very true.

It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that the Democrat Party has done precious little to improve the lives of the black Americans.  In fact, I think it fair to say that at times the Democrats seem to have gone out of their way in what has been an ongoing effort to ensure the lives of your average black American becomes considerable worse.  And despite all that has been said about him, it has been President Trump who has worked the hardest to make sure that these people, too, are able to live out the American dream.  And what is it that he gets in return?  He’s repeatedly called names by those who, while they know it to be true, just can’t bring themselves to admit it.

Contrary to what may be popular belief, there a great many blacks who actually would prefer not to be on food stamps.  And who actually want the opportunity to earn their own incomes and to support themselves and their families instead of being dependent upon government.  And it continues to amaze me how it is that so many liberals continue to misjudge and mischaracterize black families.  But that said, I’m not naïve enough to believe that if Barry ‘O’ were eligible to run against President Trump in 2020 that it would still be roughly 90 percent of blacks who would vote for Barry.  Because it’s just what they do, even if it’s against their best interest.

But I think there may yet be some hope, here, as more and more black folks are finally beginning to see the light. When you have working class black people starting to appear in larger and larger numbers in support of a white guy who is not some nutty leftist and who is allegedly a racist, who helped them get jobs, put more money in their pockets, and to become more successful overall, it’s obviously not good news for the Democrats.  What makes it all worse is the fact that we had a black president in office for eight years who did absolutely NOTHING whatsoever to help anyone but himself.  He spewed the same racist tripe Democrats always have.

Blacks choosing to leave the Democrat plantation in droves will not likely be happening any time soon.  But an awakening is taking place, and it is the reason why the Democrats want larger numbers of illegal immigrants to keep flooding in across the border.  Democrats see absolutely no need for a border wall, are for an open border, want amnesty for all of those already here, albeit illegally, and see no need for placing any sort of restrictions when it comes to how many people, from just about anywhere, enter into our country.  Democrats need more voters for the very simply reason that their hold on the black vote is slipping, however slightly.

Blacks have been owned by the Democrats in one way or another practically from the very beginning.  What’s taken place over time is that one form of slavery has essentially been supplanted by another. Lyndon Johnson was like most Democrats. He hated blacks. So he and his fellow Democrats came up with, and passed, the ‘Great Society,’ the purpose of which was to destroy the black community.  Poverty is nothing more than a tool of the Democrat Party. For five generations now, Democrats have followed Democrat President Johnson’s philosophy, when he said, with welfare, the Democrats could keep the blacks voting for them for the next 200 years.

Democrats do not want people to work, because once a man begins to work he tends to become less dependent on government, and therefore the Democrats.  Democrats do not want people to be prosperous, they want people to be poor and needy so that they will depend completely on government, aka the Democrats.  Democrats are perfectly willing to give money to the ‘needy,’ as long as the ‘needy’ follow orders. If the Blacks are prosperous and have their own money they have worked for, they don’t have to obey the Democrats’ orders. They can leave the plantation and take care of themselves, building a family and making a home for that family.  Imagine that!

PRESIDENT TRUMP PROVES TO BE WORTH THE GAMBLE FOR BLACKS…

It was on several occasions throughout the 2016 presidential campaign that I remember then candidate Trump asking black voters what it was that they had to lose by voting for him.  He asked what it was that the Democrats had done for them that deserved their continuing loyalty.  And he asked if their lives had gotten appreciably better after voting Democrat for decades.  Well it’s just a little over two short years later and what we’re seeing is that blacks had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Because, you see, it’s another fact that’s in stark contrast to the ‘fake news’ message that continues to be used in an attempt to convince the American people that the Trump presidency somehow hurts minorities.  But if one took the time to look beyond all of the noise one would quickly find out that nothing could be further from the truth. You see, since 2017 all, yes ALL, minorities in America have seen significant gains in employment and wages regardless of gender or socio-economic background.

The conditions of minority communities have improved so much since the presidency of Barry ‘O’ it should stun anyone who bothers to take a moment to learn about that improvement.  It’s why the president’s support among minority voters is at historic highs for a Republican president of the modern era.  President Trump is rewriting the political landscape in real time even as the ‘fake news’ media continues to claim differently.  To them the president is nothing but a racist who hates all black folks.

But despite all of the drivel coming from those in ‘fake news’ it’s the improvements for those in the Black community that have, quite possibly, been the most dramatic of all during the Trump presidency, given how dire life was for them during the eight year reign of Barry ‘O’.  During that time Black unemployment spiked to truly depressing levels.  And yet, even with a black man in the White House, conditions only managed to get worse, will little interest in trying to make things any better.

I’m sure there are those who remember how the first two years of the Barry’s presidency were especially bad for Black families when Black unemployment reached nearly 18% and didn’t start to significantly improve until Republicans took control of Congress and slowed the centralized government madness that was the hallmark of the Obama era.  And despite all the “experts” warning after Trump won the White House in 2016 that the economy would plummet the opposite has been true.

You’d have to be blind not to recognize the fact, in spite of the all the ‘fake news’ being pumped out on a daily basis, that our economy continues to strengthen and that it is minority America that is benefitting the most.  As of right now Black unemployment is at an all-time low and wage growth is improving as well. And it was President Trump that did that, not Barry ‘O’, our first black president.  Although it has been a number of times that Barry has done his best to take all the credit.

And what of the justice system reform that has been initiated by President Trump? For years DC politicians have been campaigning on the issue of sentencing and prison reform, calling it unfairly biased toward minorities, particularly Black Americans. Nothing was done about it though, until Mr. Trump.  Within months real justice reform became a reality and yet few would know that because the ‘fake news’ media did so little reporting on it.  President Trump made that reform a reality, NOT Barry.

It’s the simple truth that very American, regardless of skin color, has a choice of how best to deal with what has become an onslaught of ‘fake news’ from our media types. You can believe what is fed to you or you can question it and seek out the truth.  The futures of tens of millions of minority Americans all across the country are shining brighter right now than they ever have and President Trump should be applauded for that, not vilified.  He has truly proven himself to be America’s President.

I CONTINUE TO TRUST PRESIDENT TRUMP…FOR NOW…

As the Trump presidency continues I’m beginning to get increasingly nervous when it comes to how much of what I was told during the presidential campaign may actually come to fruition.  And I can’t help but wonder if I believed much of what I was told simply because I wanted to believe it.  I have not yet gotten to the point where I regret my vote for Trump because when that thought does cross my mind all I have to do is to imagine how much worse things would now be if Hitlery had been the one to win the election and the thought quickly goes away.

And while I would like to think that this recent coziness with the Democrats, on the part of the president, might be his way of lighting a fire under the congressional Republicans, I suppose only time will tell us if that is in fact the case.  But in the meantime I must admit that it is causing me some level of concern.  Of course it doesn’t help matters when the supposed leaders of our party in Congress are men like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan.  President Trump may now feel that he has no other option than to deal with the Democrats.

We went into the 2016 election with many of us on the right viewing it as being our last opportunity to salvage what’s left of our country.  And we saw Donald Trump as being the right man at the right time.  Now here we are over seven months into his presidency and what exactly do we have to show for it?  Precious little, I’m afraid, thanks in part to our weak-kneed congressional Republicans, our dishonest, obstructionist Democrats, and a state-controlled media that has been absolutely rabid in its effort to undermine and de-legitimize our president.

And what also worries me to some degree is that come next year’s election there will likely be many folks who may decide, because of their frustration with our current batch of congressional Republicans, to exact some level of retribution by voting out the Republicans and replacing them with Democrats.  Now as far as I’m concerned such an act would be nothing short of suicidal.  My recommendation has always been that we force certain Republicans to face a primary contest, vote them out and then, in the general election, we elect their replacement.

I must add that I do have this growing fear that our country will likely never fully recover from the last eight years of having Obummer in the White House.  I think it safe to say that our country is now hanging by a thread, literally, and so we must now focus all of our attention on electing only those who we think are the most qualified to address the task at hand.  But the very LAST thing we should even consider doing is to elect more Democrats to any public office be it local, state or federal.  Because they have no interest whatsoever in ensuring our country survives.

So with all that being said I will, for now, continue to place my trust in President Trump, but I can’t guarantee that there will not come a day when I will no longer be able to do that.  And I continue to pray, every single day, that my trust has not been misplaced.  I have to believe that he loves this country as much as I do and will do all that he thinks is best in his effort to “Make America Great Again.”  Hopefully he will not be foolish enough to expect the Democrats to assist him in that endeavor.  Because they have absolutely no interest, whatsoever, in doing so.

PRESIDENT TRUMP CAUSES A FEW MORE HEADS TO EXPLODE…

Yes folks, those explosions that you’ve likely been hearing for most of the day, and, I imagine, will continue to hear for quite some time, are the heads exploding of liberals all across this great nation.  And why is that, you ask?  Well it’s because President Donald J. Trump announced today, via Twitter, that he is not allowing transgender people to serve in the U.S. military, a complete reversal of ex-president Obummers’s decision last year to let them serve.  In a series of tweets, President Trump said:  “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical cost and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”  Finally some commonsense, and I LOVE it!

The sweeping policy decision reverses the gradual transformation of the military under Obummer, whose administration announced last year that transgender people could serve openly in the military. Obummer’s Defense Secretary, Ash Carter, also opened all combat roles to women and appointed the first openly gay Army secretary.  It was not clear what prompted Mr. Trump’s announcement earlier today.  In June, the administration delayed a decision on whether to allow transgender recruits to join the military.  At the time, Defense Secretary James Mattis said an extra six months would give military leaders a chance to review its potential impact.  The president’s announcement came amid a debate on Capitol Hill over the Obummer-era practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay for medical treatment related to gender transition.  The dispute has unfolded as Congress considers a nearly $700 Billion spending bill to fund the Pentagon.

Troops earlier this year had begun receiving military training on accommodating transgender troops, but Defense Secretary Mattis this summer decided to delay allowing them to serve.  The decision also comes after Mattis issued multiple memos indicating that decisions should be based on whether it makes the military more lethal.  One memo put an end to all training that was not related to military readiness and blasted Pentagon officials for wasting as much as $28 Million on Afghan camouflage uniforms that don’t actually blend in with Afghan terrain.  All I can say is, it’s about damn time.  Thank God our country has a real Commander in Chief again.  Thank you President Trump for stopping this madness.  As someone who retired from the Navy back in 2002, all this transgender crap hadn’t come along yet.  When I was in it was during the ‘Slick Willy’s’ “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and personally I had no issues with that.  But that just wasn’t good enough for Obummer.

Ya know, it’s so annoying when people like Obummer, and just about every other Democrat who would NEVER even consider risking life or limb for their country, go around expecting those who chose to do so to adopt something that will only increase the chances of their injury or death by pulling resources and focus away from the real training that’s required for their mission.  Obummer did everything he could to undermine and demoralize men in general, the military was an easy target for him and a high value one at that.  This was a great decision by President Trump. The military is not the place for gender or sexual politics.  It is a simple matter of fact that transgender individuals are more prone to depression and suicide and to give them guns in a stressful situation is almost certain to lead to the loss of innocent lives.  Furthermore, the American taxpayer should not be forced to subsidize the tremendous costs associated with these surgical procedures.

Just because those serving in the military are essentially little more than a captive audience, doesn’t mean that they should be exploited by Democrats trying to force their twisted morals on the rest of us.  What the vast majority of those on the left seem to forget is that the military is not there to be treated as some sort of Petri dish for kinky leftists to conduct their perverted experiments on.  The military is there as a fighting force, and the sole purpose for its existence is to keep this country safe from attack and to put the fear of God into anyone who might think that attacking the United States would be in any way a good idea.  Allowing gays and transgenders to serve does absolutely nothing to improve combat readiness.  If anything it only serves to weaken it, which is just what those on the left want to see happen.  After eight long years of having someone who was simply not up to the task of being Commander in Chief, it would appear that at last we finally do.

PRESIDENT TRUMP, PROMISES MADE, MUST BE PROMISES KEPT…

I must admit that I was rather late in getting onboard the ‘Trump Train’.  Frankly, I was one of those who were quite confident that he would come to flame out long before the final decision would be made regarding who would ultimately become our Republican presidential nominee.  But as members of his competition slowly began to fall by the wayside I was essentially forced to mover ever closer to becoming a Trump supporter.  And when he came to be the last man standing I was left with little choice but to support him.  While I was never a “Never Trumper”, I was a “Trump Doubter.”  But once it was clear that Mr. Trump was gonna be our guy, even though I still had my doubts, I, somewhat reluctantly, jumped aboard the ‘Trump Train.’

But over time I’ve come to believe that Donald Trump has the potential to become a truly great president.  But in order for that to happen, two things must occur:  He must follow through on key campaign commitments, and the Republican Congress must ‘act’ on them.  After 8 long years that have resulted in nothing more than the doubling of our national debt, the decimating of our healthcare system, more Americans than ever before now living in poverty and on some form of government assistance and the fewest number of Americans in the nation’s workforce since the days of Jimmy Carter, the American people, by electing Donald Trump, showed, very clearly, that they wanted something different.  Something better.

So here are nine commitments Trump made during the campaign, that the incoming Congress should, and very much need to, assist in making a reality:

1. Completely repeal Obamacare. Trump’s position paper on health care said: “Our elected representatives in the House and Senate must: Completely repeal Obamacare. Our elected representatives must eliminate the individual mandate. No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to.” It further stated that reforms put in place after the repeal should “follow free market principles that will restore economic freedom and certainty to everyone in this country.” Congress must immediately repeal Obamacare — and enact only reforms that “follow free market principles.”
2. Confirm pro-life constitutionalists to the Supreme Court. “The freedoms we cherish and the constitutional values and principles our country was founded on are in jeopardy,” Trump stated in September. “The responsibility is greater than ever to protect and uphold these freedoms and I will appoint justices, who, like Justice Scalia, will protect our liberty with the highest regard for the Constitution.” In a letter to pro-life leaders, Trump added: “I am committed to … (n)ominating pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.”  The Senate should confirm only nominees who fit the model Trump advocated.
3. Build the wall and enforce the immigration laws. In his immigration plan, Trump promised to: “Begin working on an impenetrable physical wall on the southern border, on Day One.” “All immigration laws will be enforced — we will triple the number of ICE agents,” said the plan. “Anyone who enters the U.S. illegally is subject to deportation.”  Trump’s plan also would “turn off the jobs and benefits magnet” for illegal immigrants. “Many immigrants come to the U.S. illegally in search of jobs,” it said, “even though federal law prohibits the employment of illegal immigrants.”   Congress should enact all legislation needed to build Trump’s wall and fully enforce the immigration laws.

And any city that insists upon identifying itself as being a ‘sanctuary’ for those in this country illegally, must be made to forfeit ALL federal funding they currently receive.

4. Pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. “I am committed to … (s)igning into law the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide,” Trump said in his letter to pro-life leaders. Congress should place that bill on Trump’s desk by Jan. 27, the day of the 2017 March for Life.
5. Defund Planned Parenthood. “I am committed to … (d)efunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions,” Trump said in his letter. Congress should defund Planned Parenthood in the first spending bill it sends Trump.
6. Cut income tax rates and end the “death tax.” “The Trump Plan will collapse the current seven tax brackets to three brackets,” says Trump’s tax plan. It would cut the top rate from 39.6 percent to 33 percent. Additionally, Trump’s plan would “repeal the death tax,” which can be a confiscatory tax on family owned businesses. It also drops the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent.  A great Congress would go further than Trump’s plan. It would enact the “Fair Tax Act” that would eliminate the income tax, replace it with a sales tax and set the stage for repeal of the 16th Amendment, which made direct federal taxation of individual incomes plausible.  But enacting Trump’s plan to cut tax rates and abolish the death tax is a good start to reining in federal tax collections.
7. Make better trade deals. In 2015, the U.S. had a merchandise trade deficit of $745.66 billion, according to the Census Bureau. Since 1979, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nation has lost more than 7 million manufacturing jobs. Trump’s trade plan calls for negotiating “fair trade deals that create American jobs, increase American wages, and reduce America’s trade deficit.” That includes withdrawing from the not-yet-approved Trans-Pacific Partnership and renegotiating NAFTA.  The Senate should ratify better trade deals when they are negotiated.
8. End our nation-building foreign policy. Trump’s foreign policy plan says he will end “the current strategy of nation-building and regime change.” Congress should support this, including by reasserting its constitutional authority over the use of military force. That means the president may not use force — except to repel a sudden attack on the United States — unless Congress authorizes it.
9. Enact a balanced budget. Sean Hannity asked Trump on Fox News on June 17, 2015: “Would you insist on a balanced budget as president?” Trump responded: “I would insist on it relatively soon.” When President Barack Obama took office, the federal debt was about 10.6 Trillion. Now it is about $19.9 Trillion.  Barry “Almighty” and the last Republican Congress kept America on the road to bankruptcy. President Trump and the new Republican Congress must lead us back the other way — and they cannot do it too soon.

And finally there’s one other issue that our new President and our congressional leaders must come together on, and on the very first day of the new administration.  And that would the total and complete defunding of the United Nations when it comes to any and all money furnished to this very corrupt organization that has as its source the American taxpayer.  As far as the other items listed above are concerned, Trump, and our congressional Republicans, will have only a very brief window of opportunity to prove that they are up to the challenge of governing.  And all eyes will be on them, we will be waiting and watching.  They will have less than two years to make progress in getting this country back on the right track.  Time is of the essence.

DONALD TRUMP AND ‘THE JUDGE’…

Look, I am now well beyond caring anything about what Trump may have said, or continues to say, about this ‘Mexican’ judge presiding over the ‘Trump University’ case.  Because whatever he has said pales in comparison to the vile, disgusting and toxic rhetoric that we’ve heard coming from Democrats for decades whenever talking about conservative judges.  And with this judge being a Barry ‘O’ appointment you’d have a hard time convincing me that there isn’t at least some level of politics involved in allowing this particular case to proceed.  But maybe that’s just me.

Now of course, those on the left, including the vast majority of our stellar members of the state-controlled media, seem to be totally aghast that Trump would even dare to make the accusations that he has, but at the same they never seem to be the least bit offended whenever it’s a conservative judge who is being chastised or even slandered.  And it doesn’t seem to matter just how outrageous the accusations become.  So I find all of the complaints, even those coming from those on the right, to be more than just a little hypocritical.  Am I wrong?  I don’t think so.

But be that as it may Trump does have the rather peculiar habit of continuing to keep his political adversaries well supplied with all manner of ammunition.  Most recently, of course, are his continuing attacks on, Barry appointed, Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over lawsuits against Trump University.  Now I suppose that in a perfect world, or at least in the pre-Barry world, we could all reasonably assume that what’s going on here has absolutely nothing to with politics.  But in the world as it become, that would seem to be more than a little foolish.

Democrats and their many allies in the state-controlled media have been working very hard in their effort to portray this as being an attack on “judicial independence.”  But let’s be real here, shall we, criticizing the judiciary is neither new nor beyond the pale. Perhaps those on the left have forgotten, or have chosen to simply ignore, how it was that Barry chose to slam the Supreme Court for its Citizens United ruling in 2010 while the Justices were a captive audience during the State of the Union address.  But again that’s acceptable because Barry was slamming conservatives.

Oh, and let’s not forget that it was also Barry “Almighty” who also contributed to the Democrat intimidation campaign against Chief Justice John Roberts ahead of the 2012 ObamaCare ruling. “I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress,” Barry said at an April 2012 press conference. And as it just happens the Chief Justice the proceeded to fold like the proverbial cheap suit and ruled just as Barry has ‘recommended’.

Robert Maldonado, who happens to be the head of the Hispanic National Bar Association, yes we actually have one of those, referred to Trump’s remarks as divisive and bigoted. He said, “Donald Trump continues to belligerently inject bigotry and divisive politics into the 2016 presidential contest, and now it has bled over into his legal troubles. As the presumptive presidential nominee of a major political party, his attempts to undermine the integrity of our federal judicial system are truly unprecedented and place undue stress on our democracy.”  Yes, this guy is just another hypocrite.

But Judge Curiel, who has been criticized by Trump was recently defended by both the New York Times and the Washington Post.  Media Matters, the propaganda shop run by Clinton operative David Brock and partially underwritten by George Soros has also been busy promoting the Trump is a racist meme, but the mad rush by the Democrats to rehash the failed attacks regarding the controversial real estate school may be about to backfire. It’s being reported that the judge is a member of a legal group affiliated with Latino supremacist organization La Raza.  Oops!

You see, in his 2011 judicial questionnaire to become a federal judge, Curiel revealed his history with La Raza. Curiel lists “La Raza Lawyers of San Diego” as a legal association he has been a part of in the questionnaire. Curiel’s office at the United States District Court for the Southern District of California has confirmed the judge’s membership in the group.  Curiel reveals more ties to the group in his questionnaire. He has spoken at two receptions held by La Raza Lawyers of San Diego, the most recent being in 2011. Last year, the group also held a reception for Curiel.

A description of this particular event states, “This year we are proud to be honoring Judge Gonzalo Curiel at our reception and recognizing him for his leadership and support to the community and to our Association.  In addition, Curiel served on the selection committee in 2014 for the La Raza Lawyers of San Diego Scholarship Fund. Six of seven of the recipients of these scholarships ranging from $1500 to $1600 were born in Central America. One of them, Ricardo Elorza, described himself as “undocumented.”  So, maybe Trump’s right to see potential bias from this judge.

So today I am a supporter of Trump more by default than because of any specific position he has taken.  Having said that, while I do not agree with everything that he says, I must say that the one thing I like about Trump is the fact that he has managed to spend a good deal more time on offense than have our previous two presidential candidates who spent nearly their entire campaigns on defense.  And anytime there is a Barry appointed judge involved you simply cannot rule out the fact that there is some level of politics being applied.  To do so would be beyond naïve.

TRUMP TALKS ABOUT RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE…

The thought has crossed my mind that now that ‘The Donald’ has essentially locked up the GOP nomination we might come to see him perhaps start drifting a bit to the left.  And the only reason I bring such a thing up is the fact that our presumptive Republican presidential nominee recently made a comment about raising the minimum wage, saying that you can’t live on the current federal minimum wage of $7.25-an-hour.  And when he asked about it he said he was “looking at that, because I’m very different from most Republicans. I mean, you have to have something that you can live on.”  While I think his being a different from most Republicans is pretty much a given, he’s going to need to remember that he IS a Republican and that such comments may cause some to begin to wonder.

He made his comments in response to a question during an interview broadcast on Wednesday’s “Situation Room” on the Communist News Network (CNN).  It all started when Trump was asked: “Bernie Sanders says he wants $15-an-hour minimum wage, and he has really gone after you lately for saying you’re happy with $7.25, the current federal minimum wage. You can’t live on $7.25-an-hour.”  He responded, “No, and I’m actually looking at that, because I’m very different from most Republicans. I mean, you have to have something that you can live on, but what I’m really looking to do, is get people great jobs so they make much more money than that, so they make much money — more money than the $15. Now, if you start playing around too much with the lower level, the lower level number, you’re not going to be competitive.”

When asked what he would likely recommend as a federal minimum wage, Trump would only say, “I’m looking at it.”  He was then asked if he was open to raising the wage to which he responded, “I’m open to doing something with it, because I don’t like that. But what I really do like bringing our jobs back, so they’re making much more than the $15.”  Now I do agree that we need to work on creating an economic environment where wages, which have now essentially remained stagnant for over 15 years, are made to naturally rise through job creation.  But I am against the mandating of a minimum wage, as that does little more than to exacerbate an already difficult employment picture even worse.  And if that’s what Trump has in mind then he may yet convince me to simply stay home on Election Day.

I’m kind of an old school kind of guy, and my way of thinking goes back to a wise man who once told me that if raising the minimum wage really worked, they’d have a moral duty to make it $40 per hour so we would all be rich.  Granted, that wise man was my Dad and he was explaining it to likely a 10 year old me, but he did have a point.  The best example I can think of for why minimum wage increases disappear so quickly is the humble cheeseburger. Labor is required to raise the cow, to butcher the meat, to milk the milk cows, to process the cheese, to harvest the lettuce, to pick the tomatoes, and pick the onions, harvest cucumbers, pickle the cucumbers, and finally, to ship all of it from the farms to the warehouses, from the warehouses to the kitchen, and to process them into a cheeseburger.

The vast majority of the cost of that cheeseburger is labor, and every component of it is affected by changing the price of labor. So when you double the price of labor, the cost of a cheeseburger instantly doubles along with it and the gains to the workers from the higher wage are lost. The cheeseburger example works on almost any product you can think of, even manufactured products. Every product and service in the entire economy is affected, and almost instantly.  So if minimum wages don’t work, why does the cost of living keep rising relative to inflation? This is Econ 101 stuff. The reason the cost of living is out of whack is due to supply and demand. Demand for products and housing has been dramatically overinflated thanks to the influx of immigrants, and supplies have been relatively static.

The reverse is true of labor – demand is static, and the supply has been artificially inflated, keeping wages down.  So I guess what I’m trying to say here is that after years of having someone in the White house who is about as ignorant as one can possibly be when it comes to possessing even a minimum understanding of how it is that our economy actually works, or is supposed to work, I’m glad that we will finally have the opportunity to vote for someone who has more than a very limited understanding of the complexities of our free market system.  Of course, we still have to elect him.  And wouldn’t it be a shame if after finally electing such a person he were to turn out to be nothing more than the equivalent of your very basic sleazy, pandering politician.  And we’ve had enough of those.

SHOULD WE REALLY BE TREATING TRUMP AS A SERIOUS CANDIDATE???

I’ll admit that when he first declared his candidacy, and actually for more than a few months after, I was actually considering Trump as a serious candidate, and one worthy of my vote.  But as time has gone by, how shall I say it, the novelty of a Trump presidency has begun to wear off.  Because as we have progressed through this campaign season he continues to comes across as being less and less of a serious candidate.  I guess the straw that broke the camel’s back, at least for me, was his blaming Bush for 9/11.  Because that’s something that I feel can be laid, at rightly so, right at the feet of ‘Slick Willie’ Clinton.

And now once again he’s begun loudly threatening to launch a third-party run which, to me, makes all the more plain that he’s less concerned about making America great again, than he is about Donald Trump.  You see, it was again just this past Monday that he said that will not only might he launch a third-party run for the White House but would also file a birther lawsuit against Ted Cruz if the Texas senator doesn’t remove what Trump called his “false ads and retract his lies.”  To me that just sounds a lot like whining, and isn’t that what he’s constantly ridiculing Jeb for doing?  Anyway, I’m just not able to take him seriously.

But it isn’t only Cruz who has been the recipient of Trump’s latest tantrum.  He also called on the Republican National Committee (RNC) to intervene and force Cruz to revise his campaign antics. And he accused the RNC of giving too many GOP debate tickets to donors.  You see, ‘The Donald’ isn’t partial to being booed. Trump also said that the pledge he signed to support the GOP nominee was “a double-edged pledge,” and the RNC isn’t honoring its end.  It was at a news conference Monday in Charleston, South Carolina that he said, “The RNC is in default.”  He added, “The RNC is controlled by the establishment, and the special interests and the donors.”

That particular threat came the same day which he warned he’d file a birther lawsuit against Cruz after he released an attack ad targeting Trump’s past liberal positions on hot-button issues. It was in a news release posted on his website, as well as also being posted on Facebook, that Trump said, “Ted Cruz is a totally unstable individual.”   Trump added, “He is the single biggest liar I’ve ever come across, in politics or otherwise…Cruz says I am pro-choice, when in fact I am staunchly pro-life and have been for a long time. Like Ronald Reagan, on many issues, I have evolved.”  But where we felt we could trust Reagan, that same sentiment doesn’t exist for Trump.

In Cruz’s “Supreme Trust” ad, a narrator claims “Life, marriage, religious liberty, the Second Amendment. We’re just one Supreme Court justice away from losing them all.”  This apparently prompted Trump to respond via a news release on his website by saying, “One of the ways I can fight back is to bring a lawsuit against him relative to the fact that he was born in Canada and therefore cannot be President.”  Trump added, “If he doesn’t take down his false ads and retract his lies, I will do so immediately.”  And he said, “Additionally, the [Republican National Committee] should intervene and if they don’t they are in default of their pledge to me.”

And look, this is not the first time Trump has raised the spectra of legal action over Cruz’s eligibility to run for president. At a campaign rally in New Hampshire earlier this month, Trump warned if Cruz wins the nomination, Democrats would “sue his ass off.”  Meanwhile, Trump is also, once again, floating a potential third-party run, accusing the RNC of giving too many GOP debates tickets to donors, saying the pledge he signed to support the GOP nominee was “a double-edged pledge,” and the RNC didn’t seem to be honoring its end.  The truth is that Trump kinda expects that everybody is going to kiss his ass, and the reality is that everybody isn’t going to.

Cruz blasted out a Twitter response to Trump’s charges, saying “You cannot simply scream ‘liar’ when someone points out your actual positions.”  And I would tend to agree with that.  But as a disclaimer, of sorts, I freely admit that at this point in the campaign my candidate in the race remains Ted Cruz.  However, if Trump does turn out to be our candidate, I will vote for him because, no matter what, even a President Trump, on his worst day in office, would be better, than a President Hitlery Clinton on her best day.  But, having said that, when it comes to my state’s primary I will be voting for Cruz.  Trump needs to put his big-boy pants on.

ALL I’M SUGGESTING IS THAT A LITTLE CAUTION BE USED WHEN CHOOSING TO SUPPORT TRUMP…

Trust me when I tell you that there is absolutely nothing that would make me happier than to find out that Donald Trump would actually come to prove himself to be the second coming of Ronald Reagan.  But I have this nagging little voice in the back of my head warning me to very wary of Mr. Trump.  And while he most certainly has been saying all the right things, as my dear old dad used to say, “Talk is cheap, it takes money to buy whiskey.”  So at the end of the day I am at the point where I still can’t quite bring myself to vote for Trump as I simply don’t trust him to follow through on so much of what he has promised, and continues to promise.

But be that as it may, as we all know, Trump currently leads, and has been leading, the polls nationally and in most states in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, and essentially since the very first day he declared himself a candidate. And there are certainly some very understandable reasons for his maintaining what has become, in some polls, a very impressive lead.  And while he has shown himself to be a skillful campaigner, I would caution conservatives in offering up their support to Mr. Trump in the caucuses and primaries.  And please don’t misunderstand, I am not saying don’t vote for the man, just that you should think it through first.

Because in looking back over the history of our current Republican front-runner what we see is someone who has been described as being a “philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.”  And upon closer inspection we find that the real-estate mogul and reality-TV star has supported everything from abortion to gun control to single-payer health care à la Canada, and even punitive taxes on the wealthy.  So, again, all I’m asking for folks to do is that a little caution be used when going to the polls.

Now I will admit that since first declaring his candidacy, back in June of last year, Trump has tended to take a more conservative approach than he has in the past.  Particularly on those issues that remain near and dear to the heart of those who closely identify themselves as being conservatives.  And yet, one must admit that there does remain some rather sizable holes in Trump’s plan for addressing some of these issues, most of which tend to go ignored by a great many of his supporters.  He has succeeded in exploiting the discontent regarding a government continues to be seen by many as one that can’t be bothered to enforce its own laws.

Trump’s mantra since then has been, and remains, one that has as its primary focus that Washington is full of problems, his claim of being a problem-solver and a leader, and a ‘let me at ‘em’ kind of an attitude.  But if, like Trump, you have no real familiarity with the relevant details and the levers of power, and no clear principles to guide you, you will, like most tenderfeet, end up getting rolled. Especially if you are, at least by all outward indications, the most poll-obsessed politician in all of American history. Trump has shown very little interest in limiting government, in reforming entitlements, or in defending our Constitution.

As we have seen after listening to the three Democrat candidates, any candidate can, and usually will, promise the moon if only voters will elect him, or her, to higher office.  But politicians have records of success, of failure, or plain of backsliding by which their promises must be judged. And while Trump can try to turn his blankness into some sort of virtue by referring to it as a kind of innocence, voters need to be taking such a claim with a grain of salt.  Because like a man with no credit history applying for a mortgage, or, in this case, applying to manage a $3.8 Trillion budget and the most fearsome military on earth, Trump may be in over his head.

And if Trump were to become the president, the Republican nominee, or even a failed candidate with strong conservative support, what would that necessarily say about conservatives?   Could it then be said, and with some degree of accuracy, that the movement that ground down the Soviet Union and took the shine, at least temporarily, off socialism would have fallen in behind a huckster?  The movement concerned with such “permanent things” as constitutional government, marriage, and the right to life would have become a claque for a Twitter feed.  Trump, nevertheless, has provided to the Republican Party with a valuable warning.

That being, of course, that if responsible men irresponsibly ignore, or simply refuse to address in any meaningful way, those issues deemed as being most important to those voters who proudly identify as conservative, then those in power should not be surprised when such behavior is then seized upon, and taken advantage of, by someone like Trump.  If they cannot explain their Beltway maneuvers — worse, if their maneuvering is indefensible — they will be rejected by their own voters. If they cannot advance a compelling working-class agenda, the legitimate anxieties and discontents of blue-collar voters will be exploited by demagogues.

And, you know, I totally get the complaints coming from those who call themselves supporters of Trump when it comes to ‘Establishment Republicans”, I really do.  But that doesn’t make him any less of a flawed candidate for them to get behind.  And while I am certainly not going to be telling anyone that they should not vote for Trump, because that’s not my purpose here, what I am asking for is that those of you who do intend to vote for him, at least do some level of research on the man before doing so.  But then, you should be doing that regardless of whomever, Republican or Democrat, it is that you intend on voting for.

ARE WE NOW WITNESSING ‘TRUMP DERANGEMENT DISORDER’???

Is it just me or do I seem to recall that it wasn’t all that long ago, politically speaking, when we were hearing many on the right taking a certain amount of joy in accusing many on the left of being afflicted with what they referred as a psychological disorder they called Bush Derangement Syndrome.  This affliction was described as follows: the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency — nay — the very existence of George W. Bush.   And apparently it’s contagious since these days I would argue that it’s now many on the right who have come down with what sounds like a very similar type of psychological disorder.

And it’s this new disorder that could, at least as far as I’m concerned, very easily be identified as, Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Symptoms of this latest condition seem to include, but are not be limited to: the coming completely unhinged over Donald Trump as well as those who support him, and seem to cause anti-Trump journalists, as well as those pundits and political strategists who reside on the Right, to exhibit some of the most rank and disgustingly juvenile reactions.  It’s really quite amazing and should call into question how it is that these individuals should be viewed as conservatives when acting so much like liberals.

Now it’s one thing for some liberal rag like the Washington Post to run pictures of Trump grimacing under the headline, “Trump Runs for the Spite House,” etc., but the intensity, and the absolute crudity, coming from of those who are the supposed voices of brand-name conservatism is nowhere to be exceeded.  And frankly I find it as being nothing short of appalling that those whom I once viewed as being serious journalists may in fact more closely resemble the intellectual lightweights that reside on the left.  Let’s just call them ‘CINO’ Conservatives.  Because like RINOs, most of these ‘journalists’ are simply ‘Conservative In Name Only’.

Cindy Simpson, writing in the ‘American Thinker’, collected a recent sample of the visceral, and even pornographically-themed, hostility toward Trump and his supporters which has now erupted amid the punditry on the Right.  While I’m assuming there’s an attempt by some to be witty, what generally comes out is the equivalent of graffiti. Simpson sees the trend as off-putting not only to Trump supporters but also to those seeking a “Big Tent”.  After reading through Simpson’s collection one finds that disgusting examples abound. After all, who in their right mind would want to get inside a shrinking tent with these smut-talking men?

And it’s in reading Simpson’s piece one is struck by how often it is that the arguments and conversations all too often begin with name-calling — Trump supporters are, in the (maybe humorous?) tweet of a leading NR writer/author, “mouth breathing anti-Semites and white nationalists” (Jonah Goldberg). Another NR correspondent writes in a column that Trump supporters are “engaged in the political version of masturbation: sterile, fruitless self-indulgence” (Kevin Williamson). Tweeted approval from a Commentary editor ping-pongs back: “Man. This piece. @KevinNR grabs Trump supporters by the… well, you know” (Noah Rothman).

And so, welcome to the metaphorical gutter of anti-Trump/supporter debate and journalism, where “vomit” and “rape-lovers” also pass as terms of political repartee (Commentary editor John Podhoretz). Seriously?  And then there was this headline of an essay by David Harsanyi at The Federalist: “Trump’s Immigration Plan Is Hardcore Porn for Nativists”.  I can only assume that many on our side have now taken up with hanging out with those more skilled practitioners of ‘journalistic malpractice who typically operate within the confines of the liberal gutter.  This is not the kind of language that we have come to expect from those supposedly on our side.

I’m thinking that far too many on our side are losing, or may have already lost, sight of the real objective here.  And that is, of course, to prevent Hitlery, or any other Democrat, from winning the keys to the White House.  And I can only come to the conclusion that those now busying themselves by going after Trump and his supporters would be much more comfortable if it were someone the likes of a Jeb Bush or perhaps a Christie, both sure losers in a general election, were to win the nomination.  Ya know, I’ve always thought that those on the right were a bit more adult in their behavior than those on the left.  But apparently I was wrong.  Dead wrong!