Tag Archives: Constitution

Chess or Checkers?

For years the political establishment was like playing the game of chess and they were quite good at it.  They had the money from the Political Action Committees, Wall Street, and the propaganda mill donated by the Media.  Their electorate was contained and bowed to their will at call.  Their strategies were really good and for every move, there was a counter move.  The Elite could skirt the Rules at any time or completely disregard the Laws at will.  The laws that they generated was never top of the line, they wanted an out at every corner.  If you are elected to Congress, you are on the fast track to be part of the rich and powerful elite.

When it came time for re-election, you could almost have a free pass in the primary but if someone came out of left field to challenge your position, you would have a laugh.  For an outsider or a complete unknown to step into the ring, the odds were stacked against him or her.  It is amazing how easy it is to speak up and toss your hat into the political ring but once you are there you have to get the backing from some money source and galvanise the electorate.  The Founders of our country wanted the elected leaders to be people who did well enough in their occupation or companies to want to set it aside for a term and step up help run a country, then return to their life knowing that they helped the country with their service.  But over time, the only ones being elected where people who knew how to gather money and prestige without actually doing nothing or being at the top of their profession.

Now, along comes a person that is a successful business person which helped him accrue some great wealth and after looking around, throws his hat into the ring.  This person is not some nobody.  The people have heard about him.  He is out-spoken.  He doesn’t fall into the category of  the established political realm or a Media darling.  He speaks to the common people like he is at a family dinner table and what he says hits home.  He does not use the Media to filter his message, he speaks over them.  He is playing checkers with the common folks.

The political elite on both sides have been playing their game for ages and now this person has come along and worse than the running of the bulls, he is upsetting their apple cart.  He forces everyone to follow the laws of the land that the elite have spent little time reading over before passing.  He finds the loopholes that will make them scream.  They have had years and many options to fix these laws and didn’t.

Now you look at all the campaign promises that was made, you will find that he has bucked the establishment at ever turn.  He is following the laws enacted by the establishment and the previous administrations.  He has asked and at times, demanded that both parties involved, step up and fix the problems that they both have made.  They both have denied him.  When will they see the error of their ways?  Both sides of the Establishment think that their spines have been reinforced with iron, that it is their way of doing things, and they can outlast him.  They do not think that the laws that they made need to be changed.  They wrote them to keep the money pouring into their pockets.  They wrote them to keep their supporters in the electorate  docile and wanting the free things that others have worked for.

The common electorate on both the republican and democratic sides, as well as all the other fringe parties are starting to sit up and take notice.  Those that vote really do have the right and duty to take the blinders off.  The electorate does have the ability to soften iron or break it.  They may not leave the center base of their parties but in the General Election, a person does not have to vote the party line.  Hopefully they will vote for real leaders, not like the scum that conned their way to leadership.

 

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A Delaying tactic for Term Limits

If people think that Congress is talking about it then they don’t have to force the issue.  WRONG!

via Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Pushes for Term Limits

An old approach to draining the Washington swamp has become new again as members of Congress push for congressional term limits.

Term limits were one of the items proposed in the 1994 Contract with America, developed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Although the issue was widely debated at the time, and term limits were imposed on some local and state elected positions, the bid to create term limits at the federal level never succeeded. Although some states sought to limit congressional terms, The Washington Post noted that a court rejected those efforts. Instead, imposing congressional term limits requires a constitutional amendment, which would require two-thirds passage in the bitterly divided houses of Congress and then ratification by 36 states.

Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania said he told Trump that there is a connection between length of service and corruption, according to the Washington Examiner. 

“I made clear to the president that, as a former FBI special agent who oversaw the FBI’s Political Corruption Unit for the entire nation, I witnessed firsthand an undeniable correlation between the length of time in office and the instances of corruption,” Fitzpatrick said. “The lines that were very bright for elected officials on day one in office were not so bright in year seven or eight, and even less so in years 15 or 20.”

It is clear that if we wait for Congress to get around to doing this themselves, the proverbial hot place will freeze over first.  Those that are currently riding the establishment of power in Congress will always come up with the one vote not to allow something to curtail their power or cut off the millions they receive in office for doing something the highest bidder will pay for.  That folks,  will not be what you voted for them to do.

If you do any research, you will see that what they have made over their years in elected public service far exceeds what they are actually paid for.  With this, there are a few that say they are not making enough.  Is that after they just bought their second or third beach house?

A constitutional amendment for congressional term limits could never achieve the blessing of Congress; it could be initiated only by the states.  Dwight D. Eisenhower

To get anything done in this way will require that every state place it on the ballot and force a Constitutional Convention.  This would be a very steep hill to walk and a hard fight against the established political power and the media giants to return us to the original democratic republic we are supposed to be.    What former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was trying to say is that it is up to the people who cast the ballots to collect the signatures and force the issue.  It is not enough to just stand and be counted.  It is up to all of us to get the conversation started and ram it past the elected establishment, the media, the judges, and the naysayers.

In states that have passed term limits, there have been large changes in the diversity of those elected to office and a greater discussion of what really to be done within the state.

The Truth – How do we find you?

You read or see a report in the newspaper, on TV, or hear it on the radio. Do you accept it as true or do you dismiss it as propaganda?  In the last few years you cannot accept anything at face value anymore.  You will actually find more truth at the local coffee shop or gossip mill than you will find in print or on the boob tube.  Gone are the days when you could pick up the paper or tune into the news on the television and be confident that what you read or heard was the truth or really, really close to the real truth you would ever get to outside a courtroom or a church confessional.

We used to rely on the Media to gather all the facts and then present them to us as un-biased as they could. Now, they would rather speculate some out of this world story that fits their agenda.  Remember when they would do all sorts of things to get ALL the facts before trying to tell us what has happened?  Some of those reporters really went too far at times but the Truth or as close to the Truth came out.

Do you remember growing up and first learning about the Truth? As we got older the Truth started to have varying degrees of Truth to fit the needs of the one telling it.  As it stands now, you cannot trust what the media is telling us and you most definitely cannot believe what our elected officials keep spouting.

We need to take every story told to us and do our own research to try to find the real TRUTH. Unfortunately, most people today cannot handle the Truth.

Government Shutdown

All this talk of a Federal Government shutdown is a bunch of hot air. Politics and the mainstream media, in its dimwitted wisdom, think that the average citizen will buy it, lock, stock, and barrel.  Shutting down non-essential bureaucracies will give the people the feeling of loss and they will come pleading for its return to the status quo.  This has happened so many times before that the average citizen will not notice.  The Media will scream about so many people that work in these offices will not be paid for one, two, maybe four weeks, that it is just absolutely devastating will be the headlines.  Then some back room deal will be made and those federal employees will get all that back pay they did not have to work for.  Compared to the rest of us, if the company we worked for shut down for the same amount of time we would get nothing.  At the end we will be back to the same old pile of manure that we have now.

So let’s call their bluff. Shut everything down.  No power and utilities to any Federal government building.  No payments of any type to anyone or company contractor(s).  No Social Security payments.  No Federal entitlement payments.  Shut down any port or airport that uses Federal employees in its operations.  Tell the troops in the barracks that they are on leave till further notice.  Alert the troops in the field or on bases on foreign soil to draw back to a secured site and hold till relieved.  I can bet that no elected member of Congress would leave their darkened offices and return to their home states to face the overwhelming feedback of those they were elected to represent.  While they live in the candlelight and use five gallon buckets to collect their waste the Citizens can work with our local and State governments to find replacements that actually will work for the People.

There will be some that think that this is politics as usual or that I am not looking at the whole picture. If you want to talk about the budget, then talk about the budget.  Not try to cram every little snowflake or redneck idea into the budget.  It just causes problem that our elected officials are not equipped to handle all at the same time.  Some people can walk, but ask them to walk and chew gum at the same time.  They fail at the task.

Same Old Rut

What is this country coming to? Before the election we had mainstream news reports flying all over telling us that Hillary Clinton, in her position of Security of State, had a private email server and some classified documents somehow got routed to it.  The FBI was not allowed to check it out but somehow everything that was in this server got hacked and released to the public by possibly Russian hackers.  We had people showing us the law that says it is illegal to send classified stuff to or from a private server.  We had hearings in Congress about this and the FBI could not find anything was wrong.  The Press had a field day saying or printing things from known “sources”.  These same “sources” hinted to the Press that there where agents, possibly foreign or domestic, trying to get information on Trump at the time.  I remember seeing or hearing something like this but unable to find any proof at this time, but I digress.

Now we have Congress having more hearings about the possible wire-tap on Mr. Trump before the election and the same Director of the FBI cannot find any truth to this? We have been hearing from “Sources” within the CIA and NSA that officially nothing of the sort was happening but the same “Sources” from both said it did happen.  It is kind of funny because the CIA, from what I have always heard, are supposed to do all their work outside the borders of the United States.

As a private citizen, it is getting to the point where it is time to just shut off any national news coverage and when the next elections come around, vote for anyone not holding office. That is an option.  Congress was scared right after the elections but they are falling right back into that old groove. The Judicial branch is legislating from the bench again and not even trying to hide it.  You thought the results from the last election was bad.  The next one might be over the top.

Why?

The American citizen is getting tired of all that is happening in Washington. We have permanently elected officials that will not change.  They are not there to represent the people that elected them but are only there to fill their own pockets.  We have political groups that have no idea what they are doing.  We have department Directors that are even now checking which way the political wind is blowing before doing anything.  The propaganda machine is getting ready for another round.  The question is: Will the American Citizen continue to sit and wait?

Privacy Bubble Popped?

How secure do you feel being in your own home with the doors and windows locked? You have the top of the line home defense system, best that money can buy.  You have a smart phone, smart TV, smart stereo, smart kitchen appliances, and all in all, a smart home, with all the cable and wireless devices all wired together.  Congratulations, you bought and set up your own surveillance system that Big Brother can now access, without getting a judge’s approval.

You can be sitting in your “own” living room with family and friends, any one of them may have one of these “smart” items and big brother can now use them to at least hear anything you say. What is this world coming to?

Don’t get me wrong, advances in electronics have helped in many ways improve the lives of many. Everyone feels much safer.  There have even been new languages to communicate in.  Everyone seems connected in a good socialist ways and they don’t even realize that no one actually talks to people one on one any more.  Everyone is in their own little bubble.

You can now go to work, the store, or even walk down the street, you will see people that can walk and text but are still unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. At work, you see your fellow workers constantly texting and talking with their friends and really accomplishing anything and still getting paid for it.  At the stores, you cannot get any help because the associates are always on their personal phones and can’t be bothered.  This is our safe society.

 

With the Wikileaks release of possibly classified documents and such, we are finding for the first time that the majority of people have no idea what is going on about them. They are shocked and dismayed.  Everything they have in their hand or home can and probably and will be used against them at one point or another.  Welcome to the new world.

Congress was put on Notice

A show of hands, for those that watched President Trump’s address Tuesday night?

Did you enjoy the floor show that Congress put on?

Did you know that the President could have done the same thing by inviting the congressional leaders and small groups to the White House and spent the next four years trying to get a consensus for his agenda?

Did you know he could have done a Press conference and we would not have heard exactly how something was going to get done? We would have heard a different version, I bet.

Both houses of Congress were present, along with the members of the Supreme Court and some invited guests. President Trump was not there to talk to them.  He did talk about some of the life changes of the invited guests as bullet points to his speech.  All of this was done on live television without the ability of the Press cutting up all the sound bites.

President Trump was talking to the American People. Democrat, Republican, Independent, or whatever political affiliation you want to name them.  He presented his plan to the American Public in the name of talking to Congress.  Because it doesn’t matter what the Congressional members political affiliation is, if the people they represent, start yelling at them to go with or fight this plan, when it is time for reelection, you may see many just quit or actually start listening to their constitute.  President Trump has just put the political elite on the proverbial hot seat.

It is the job of the American Citizen to make our thoughts heard by them in a legal way. Not like some of those so called protesters that some say are being paid to riot in the streets in the name of free speech.  Change is not made overnight but if we keep Congress’s nose to the grindstone, we may see the light at the end of the pit we are in.

The Fear of Change

We have all had to watch that movie where a common man gets elected to Congress. How that person is all full of spit and vinegar to change things and is fully confident that they know how things are going to be.  Upon arrival as a first term Congressperson, is alienated by the old timers, the Press and by the all-knowing bureaucrats.  It takes them a whole term just to learn all the nooks and crannies of being a politician.  Oh, they might find a platform or idea that they are trying to champion but it is under the watchful eye of their fellow politicians.  They might even get that Hollywood ending to their first term if they are careful.  This is the way of politics.

On the news now, many of Congress are trying to have a town hall meeting and some people are perplexed and overwhelming them with questions that they themselves, being worried, have no answer. Why are they worried you ask, because something is happening that is not the normal way things have been done for many many years.  Something our founding fathers wanted to see happen all the time.  A successful business person, taking time out of their business to step up and take a swing at running this country.  Not some insecure lifelong politician.

Congress has had an easy life up to now. They had the press in their pocket.  They treated the bureaucrats like the maître d.  With the press at their side, the citizen had no real knowledge of what was going on in Washington.  The Press had turned from being the watchdog for the people to being the mouth piece for the establishment.  Now with a newly elected President, who is not a lifelong politician, is actually using the laws passed by Congress to his advantage, is trying to change Washington to what it is supposed to have been doing all those years.

The bureaucrats, that when told to do something have been smarting back, “That’s not the way things are done.” Are being given ‘Pink Slips’ and shown the door.  Smart Bureaucrats are still doing their job.

The Press is still whining. They were making easy money by being the establishment’s propaganda machine.  Now they need to work for a living being the watchdogs they are supposed to be.  You want me to listen to you?  Start putting facts and figures that will stand up in a real court.  Not the court of public opinion.  Put your job on the line for your story if you know you are lawfully right.

For you members of Congress, it may be time to throw out your party lines and actually work for your constituents. You may have gotten there by party line but you work for everyone in your district.  Since most of you use your position as a career instead of an actually job.  Maybe it is past time for the establishment to feel real fear by actually having a President that actually does something and is not beholding to the political line.

Cry Wolf

I was reading a story this morning about the Associated Press fake news by Andy Cush and it got me to thinking about the boy who cried wolf. You can see that the media is a cut throat business.  First one with a story wins.  And here lies the problem.

Any good reporter or news agency knows, you must have hard confirmation of any fact or facts before you run it. As a reader, I expect the story I am reading to be true and factually.  If it is a theory or an opinion piece, it should state that at the beginning and ending of a story to let the reader know.

In any administration or business you get “idea” or “draft” memos flying around. These can be anything from “good” thoughts to “are you out of your mind” thoughts.  These are not the final run or signed executive actions.  Even if this was a planned event to try to find a “Leaker” in what is supposed to be a working administration, a good reporter should have not run with a draft copy.  I just hope the Reporter who got this leak did not pay cash money for it.

The Media is crying wolf too much now that the public had no idea what is true any more.  What will happen when they actually write a truth and nothing happens.

A Day without Immigrants March?

 

I would like to know “Who” thought this one up.  Somebody actually thought it was a good idea for ‘mostly’ undocumented immigrants to skip class, miss work and not shop on this day.  This to prove the point that this nation cannot survive without you?  I am sure that shop owners might miss the sales, but for the rest of the country will be something completely different.

 

Business and shop owners will see missing staff and wonder if they should have HR start looking for replacements.  They may even have started pulling your employment files and started double checking all your employment paperwork.  I am sure that if you went to the big marches or even a little one, there were cameras taking all kinds of pictures and now someone in government is having to go through all social media and other news sources with the top of the line facial recognition software. 

 

While you are thinking about that, you can be assured that those legal immigrants, the ones that followed the law and have all their paperwork in order are keeping that in mind for the day they will be allowed to stand and say the oath to become citizens of this country. 

 

This nation is a nation of immigrants.  We all came from somewhere else.  There has been some stutter in our steps at times.  We even fell down a time or two.  We have laws that govern us.  We all came here to make something bigger than ourselves.  We strive to see a future that does not discriminate by color of skin but how high in self-esteem and confidence that we open the door for the future generations. 

 

For the person or persons that thought up this day, I don’t know for which political side you work, but this could be a good day for those that are unemployed and looking for a job.  Those looking for a cheap home that will soon be opening up.  For those that are trying to do everything lawful and correctly.

 

 

 

Thank You.