April 2018 – The McCullough Report

Words of wisdom from Charles Krauthammer.

A TAKE ON DONALD TRUMP …

A different take on Donald Trump: (a non-political agenda)

Trump Is Not A Liberal or Conservative, He’s a “Pragmatist.” (Definition: A pragmatist is someone who is practical and focused on reaching a goal. A pragmatist usually has a straightforward, matter-of-fact approach and doesn’t let emotion distract him or her.)

“We recently enjoyed a belated holiday dinner with friends at the home of other friends. The dinner conversation varied from discussions about antique glass and china to theology and politics.

At one point, reference was made to Donald Trump being a conservative, to which I responded that Trump is not a conservative.

I said that I neither view nor do I believe Trump views himself as a conservative. I stated it was my opinion that Trump is a pragmatist. He sees a problem and understands it must be fixed. He doesn’t see the problem as liberal or conservative, he sees it only as a problem. That is a quality that should be admired and applauded, not condemned. But I get ahead of myself.

Viewing problems from a Liberal perspective has resulted in the creation of more problems, more entitlement programs, more victims, more government, more political correctness, and more attacks on the working class in all economic strata.

Viewing things according to the so-called Republican conservative perspective has brought continued spending and globalism to the detriment of American interests and well being, denial of what the real problems are, weak, ineffective, milquetoast, leadership that amounts to Barney Fife Deputy Sheriff, appeasement oriented and afraid of its own shadow. In brief, it has brought liberal ideology with a pachyderm as a mascot juxtaposed to the ass of the Democrat Party.

Immigration isn’t a Republican problem, it isn’t a Liberal problem, it is a problem that threatens the very fabric and infrastructure of America. It demands a pragmatic approach not an approach that is intended to appease one group or another.

The impending collapse of the economy wasn’t a Liberal or Conservative problem, it is an American problem. That said, until it is viewed as a problem that demands a common sense approach to resolution, it will never be fixed because the Democrats and Republicans know only one way to fix things and the longevity of their impracticality has proven to have no lasting effect.

Successful businessmen like Donald Trump find ways to make things work, they do not promise to accommodate.

Trump uniquely understands that China’s manipulation of currency is not a Republican problem or a Democrat problem. It is a problem that threatens our financial stability and he understands the proper balance needed to fix it.

Here again, successful businessmen, like Trump, who have weathered the changing tides of economic reality understand what is necessary to make business work, and they, unlike both sides of the political aisle, know that if something doesn’t work, you don’t continue trying to make it work hoping that at some point it will.

As a pragmatist, Donald Trump hasn’t made wild pie-in-the-sky promises of a cell phone in every pocket, free college tuition, and a $15 hour minimum wage for working the drive-through at Carl’s Hamburgers.

I argue that America needs pragmatists because pragmatists see a problem and find ways to fix them. They do not see a problem and compound it by creating more problems.

You may not like Donald Trump, but I suspect that the reason some people do not like him is because:

(1) he is antithetical to the “good old boy” method of brokering back room deals that fatten the coffers of politicians;

(2) they are unaccustomed to hearing a president speak who is unencumbered
by the financial shackles of those who he owes vis-a-vis donations;

(3) he is someone who is free of idiomatic political ideology;

(4) he says what he is thinking, is unapologetic for his outspoken thoughts, speaks very straightforward using everyday language that can be understood by all (and is offensive to some who dislike him anyway) making him a great communicator, for the most part, does what he says he will do and;

(5) he is someone who understands that it takes more than hollow promises and political correctness to make America great again.

Listening to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders talk about fixing America is like listening to two lunatics trying to “out crazy” one another. Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio are owned lock, stock, and barrel by the bankers, corporations, and big dollar donors funding their campaigns. Bush can deny it, but common sense tells anyone willing to face facts is that people don’t give tens of millions without expecting something in return.

We have had Democrats and Republican ideologues and what has it brought us?
Are we better off today or worse off? Has it happened overnight or has it been a steady decline brought on by both parties?

I submit that a pragmatist is just what America needs right now. People are quick to confuse and despise confidence as arrogance, but that is common among those who have never accomplished anything in their lives (or politicians who never really solved a problem, because it’s better to still have an “issue(s) to be solved,” so re-elect me to solve it, (which never happens) and those who have always played it safe (again, all politicians) not willing to risk failure, to try and achieve success).

Donald Trump put his total financial empire at risk in running for president and certainly did not need or possibly even want the job; that says it all.
He wants success for the U.S. and her citizens because he loves his country.

God Bless America
Charles Krauthammer

REPORT ON THE KAMALA HARRIS “TOWN HALL IN LONG BEACH 4/6/2018

My wife and I went to her town hall today to cover this event for our readers. The event was not that well attended. She didn’t fill the room with supporters as she hoped.

She started the Town Hall off about 20 minutes late, to a crowd that filled about 70% of the available seats. Her opening monologue was one that I can only describe as moving center left, but that did not last long after the first few minutes.

She stated that in her mind the Federal Government had 3 basic functions:
1. Public Safety
2. Public Health
3. Public Education

She identified public safety as a catch all phrase that gives the federal government control over police and eliminates racial bias to policing. She made a few quips about Attorney General Sessions and how he is not going along with this time honored plan. She made fun of the “border wall” to the delight of the audience and stated that we don’t need a wall, we need immigration reform, and those immigrants in limbo only help make America great again! She got a lot of applause for that! I found it interesting that border security and national defense was never mentioned.

She discussed Public Health with Obama Care and eventually forming a single payer health system. Kamala stated that health care is a human right, not a right for citizens, and that all in our country should be allowed to participate, regardless of immigration status. The crowd clapped continuously for this, and after the applause, she explained; Women are the creators of life, and should never have to pay more than their fair share for reproductive health. More applause. She indicated that health care is a right, not a product, and a right that all should be able to access “free of charge”. More applause came, the crowd was ecstatic! What she did not address was who would pay for this new free service.

Her explanation of how public education was part of this all important triad was interesting. She said that there is nothing more important than education, and that education was the way to fight crime and inequality, not prisons. More cheering for that statement! She said that public education was the only way to go, and that it should always be free. Kamala said again, that education should be available, free, and given to all in the country regardless of immigration status. She indicated that private education was a “for profit” business and should never be allowed if we are to progress to a higher societal level. She also said that College should be free to all. The applause for this was deafening! At that, she made the inference that student loans are a big problem, and should be forgiven. More applause, the crowd was in her trance!

She then embraced historical revisionism to cement her points in the minds of her followers. She had talking points that countered actual history to show that free medical care, free education and federal control of policing was the only way that we could continue in the 21st century. Without spending too much time identifying all the revisionist points, she indicated that our educational system has not progressed beyond where it was 150 years ago, and that has to change, and only can with federal control. That medical care was broken by the Republicans after Obama had it fixed, and the only way out now is single payer. That making policing equitable for all, federal control was the only way to go there. Although she did not explicitly say so, it sounded an awful like she supports a federal police force to replace the localized system we have now.

Then she moved on to the tax reform. She indicated that it was destructive, did not give the Federal Government the assets needed to do its work, and that it needs to be rescinded. She put in a few jokes about our current President and how he has no background or sense to run the country, let alone re-write the tax code. She also put in a plug for all to turn out and vote in the mid-terms, because it is the only way for them to “take the country back”. Lot’s of applause for this!

She mentioned immigration reform, and how the current President was not interested in it, and how he actually threw the DACA people “under the bus”. She elevated the DACA recipients to a very high level, indicating that they are well-educated, highly productive, in the military and serving in the highest positions in corporate America. She said that they were vetted and only those that met those highest of standards were allowed to participate. Then she indicated how she wondered how they came up with the money to pay the $450 filing fee for DACA, and how these DACA hero’s can actually afford to walk the halls of the congressional offices daily to express their plight, based on a $7.50 per hour federal minimum wage. That was a total disconnect with her original argument, but it did elicit cheers and applause from this audience.

She moves on to Dodd-Frank, and how she voted against weakening it for smaller business. She tied it into the housing crisis of 2009, and how Dodd-Frank would have eliminated that. She talked about all the people who lost their homes, and how she did not want that to ever happen again, and felt that this regulation was part and partial to eliminating that problem in the future. She skirted around the massive amount of paperwork it generates for smaller lenders, and how it gives the biggest banks a “leg up” competing for future mortgages. She also did not address the prohibitively large down payments first time buyers have to acquire to buy a house. No one seemed to notice that. Nothing was said about the Democrats pushing for liberalizing lending practices prior to the crash, putting unfit people into the purchasing mix, but that did not fit her narrative.

Kamala then hit hard on how the 11 million “undocumented citizens” in our country should be given an immediate path to citizenship (that figure has been used for at least 10 years, and an estimated 500,000 to 750,000 illegal aliens come in every year?). She said that was unconscionable that we have not made these people whole, and that chain migration has to continue because the families of these people made them the productive citizens that they are. Much applause here!

Then she made an appeal to all in the room that pay inequities due to race and sex should be eliminated. She said that women only being paid 75% of men in similar jobs, and minorities paid 55% of whites in similar jobs has to end, and she said she is prepared to end it by legislation. Sans that, she indicated that the federal court system can also do this in the form of rulings if the legislation cannot currently pass due to adverse political circumstances. She stated that she believes in equal outcomes for all, and that this is long overdue in our society. Lots of cheering there, especially by the union members that were there in mass.

That then bounced us to her proposal that farm workers and hospitality workers be granted minimum wage and overtime. There were unions there for these people and that elicited a lot of cheering from the crowd. She said it is only fair for these forgotten people to be given a break, and the only reason on the federal level that they were not, was because of Southern Democrats, inferring that it would included their personal servants, descendants of former slaves, and that got her a standing ovation.

The Q&A session was a set up. Lot’s of people raised hands to be picked, but few were. Most picked were officials of the democrat party, union officials, and college and university leaders. One that was picked at random was an elderly black man, that simply stated that his group has been largely forgotten, and that the focus of the Democrat Party now seems to be supporting the plight of illegal immigrants to the detriment of the Black community. Kamala indicated that she was black, and would never let that happen on her watch. It already has happened, so this seemed to me as a disingenuous statement on her part.

There were no counter-protesters there, unlike when conservative politicians give their town halls. There were no dissenting voices in the crowd, simply accolades for the Liberal Progressive Socialist cause. For all out there that love America and what our country stands for, don’t boycott the mid-term elections, or you will be having the likes of Kamala Harris running our country! Imagine that!

THE BARBARY WARS AND ISLAMIST EXTREMISM

Ask just about anyone today when Islamist extremism originated, you might hear that it started with 9/11, or if you ask someone a little older it might be with the takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran. Some may even point to skyjackings that were common in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Many of us think this is a relatively recent phenomenon. In fact, as it concerns the United States of America, this could not be further from the historical truth.

Islamist pirates were active in the southern Mediterranean Sea for in the 18^th century. These were the “Barbary Pirates” and they were based in the Independent Sultanate of Morocco, the 3 regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. These North African city states comprised the northwest corner of Africa. Collectively they were called the ‘Barbary States”. They regularly attacked and captured merchant ships with their cargo and crew. A ransom was demanded and if it was not paid by the specified date, the crew would be sold into slavery, and the ship and cargo would be either sold or used by the pirate states.

France and England both separately worked out deals with the pirates where their ships were allowed free passage. They both paid tribute that amounted to billions of dollars in todays currency in order to acquire free ship movement in the Mediterranean. Until the American Revolution, American ships were included in the English agreement. After the Revolution, the English let it be known that they were no longer paying tribute to protect American ships, and many were captured and their crews were sold into slavery.

In 1786 Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both went to London to negotiate with the Tripoli Envoy Sidi Haji Abdrahaman. When asked why they make war on nations that have done them no injury, he had this reply: “It is written in the Quran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.” “Also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth’ which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for a quarter at once.

At this point in time, the United States did not have money to build a Navy or to pay tribute. The country was just forming and there were massive debts to pay off as the result of the revolution, and there was no real authority to raise taxes at the national level. It wasn’t until the adoption of the Constitution that the federal government could raise taxes nationally, and that was the beginning of the building program for the fledgling United States Navy. As the navy was being built, the United States paid tribute to insure that no more of its merchant ships were molested in the Mediterranean. It was an expensive proposition, and totaled over 10% of total federal revenue, an amount that was deemed unsustainable in the long-term.

In 1801, the Pasha of Tripoli, Yusuf Qaramanli, citing late payments, demanded additional tribute from the USA. In addition, he declared war on the USA. This was the tipping point, and America responded by sending a fleet of new, powerful ships of the line to the Mediterranean to blockade their ports, subsequently sinking many of their pirate ships.

The turning point in this war was when the combined fleet assaulted the port city of Derma, which was the stronghold of the Pasha of Tripoli. The fleet bombarded the city while the United States Marines prepared to assault the city from behind. This daring plan was implemented because all the cannon in Derma pointed towards the sea, the thinking was that no force would ever attack from behind because of the inhospitable desert environment. They didn’t count on the innovative and tough Marine Lt. Presley O’Banion.

Lieutenant O’Banion, along with 10 enlisted Marines, led a mixed force of 500 Greek, Arab, and Berber mercenaries across the desert from Alexandria Egypt to assault the Tripolitan city of Derma from behind. This was a 1000-mile forced march through very unhospitable terrain. They got to Derma, and coordinating with the US Navy bombardment, they captured the city in just a matter of hours. This actually is the reason why the Marine Hymn starts with “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli”. This action sent a message to the world in general and to the Islamist pirates, and that was the American Navy was a force to be recognized. This marked the end of the 1^st Barbary War, and American ships were unmolested until the start of the war of 1812, where the British fought a campaign against the USA, and enlisted the pirates to resume capturing American ships, refusing any tribute or ransom. It wasn’t until 1815 when the USA was in a position to once again fight back against the tyranny of the pirates.

On March 3, 1815, the United States Congress authorized the use of force against the pirates. The US Navy, greatly increased in size and capability since the 1^st Barbary war, was dispatched to end the pirate threat once and for all. They sent 2 entire fleets of “state of the art” warships to the Mediterranean, led by Commodore Stephen Decatur and Commodore Steven Bainbridge.

Shortly after passing through the straight of Gibraltar, Decatur’s fleet encountered the Algerian flagship Meshuda, and in a battle off of Cape Gata, captured it. Shortly after, the fleet off fCape Palos captured the Algerian brig Estedio. After another week passed by, both fleets arrived at Algiers. They threatened total destruction of the city and port, and at that point they had the firepower to do so. All cannon was aimed at the city, and there was much fear in the population. The Dey himself was intimidated to the point where he capitulated. A peace treaty was signed on the American ship Guerriere in the Bay of Algiers. This treaty gave the Islamist’s back their ships and crews, they gave back captured Americans and their ships, and also gave back numerous captured Europeans. They paid the USA $10,000 for seized shipping (a lot of money back then). They also guaranteed that no ship from the USA would ever be pirated again. No tribute was paid after that by America, and American ships had full shipping rights in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

The American Navy proved to the world that they were a force to be reckoned with. They suppressed the Islamic pirates and got a treaty where American ships were no longer targeted again for ransoms and tributes. The Islamists then understood that any deviation from this agreement would mean total destruction for their fleets and their city states. That was made perfectly clear, and they never again harassed ships flying the American flag. The 2 Barbary wars brought America into the world of major military powers.

The Europeans were still being preyed upon. Their ships were still attacked and captured, held for ransom, and if not paid the crew were sold into slavery, and the ships and the cargoes were sold for hard cash. The piracy did not end for Europeans until the French conquest of Algeria in 1830.

The truth to be told is that Islamic extremism as it pertains to America has been around as long as the country has existed. It is not a new phenomenon, but something as old as Islam itself. Even today, Islamic pirates operate off the coast of Somalia, and they regularly attack commercial shipping. They use the Quran as their right to piracy, just as the Barbary pirates did centuries ago. They do now know that if they are caught pirating by the US Navy, there will be a price to pay, and that price is expensive. These pirates will forever remember the USS Bainbridge, and the Navy Seal team that put an end to the capture of the Maersk Alabama. They now know that if they even survive, the rest of their lives will be spent in a federal prison under heavy watch. In a way they are lucky. In the 1900’s, pirates were summarily hanged for their crimes.