Encore of Revival: America, August 21, 2017

Popularity collided with reality. The departure of Peter Strzok from Mueller’s investigative team comes in the wake of revelations that Russianewsgategate is “nonsense”. Strzok wasn’t wet behind the ears; he knows counter intel. An experienced investigator doesn’t leave a team for no reason. With the financial-legal load of people being investigated and the widespread opinion that Mueller had stepped way beyond scope, Mueller and his team could be looking at being investigated for investigating a “known nothing”.

It takes two to fight. There are always heroes, cowards, and hate mongers on every side. Not everyone in Charlottesville, VA wanted violence. Many wanted to peacefully make their point. But, ideologies don’t always lead where their supporters intend. Trump said as much and condemned everyone who contributed to violence in Charlottesville. But, that didn’t fit the pre-scribed “who to condemn before seeing evidence” playscript of populism and “looking cool” tactics of business leaders. So, the big money CEO council Trump put together condemned Trump’s remarks about the riot and resigned from giving the country business advice.

Their resignations, and Trump’s disbanding the group likely due to their resignations, are out of place. It’s a business advisory committee, not a counter-riot think tank. If IBM and General Electric know so much about riots, they should have provided a privatized solution, if nothing other than research. But, they didn’t. They were simply trying to look good by throwing people under the bus at the right moment. Many companies, including NBC and Macy’s tried similar tactics, which consistently backfired.

The resignation-instigated dissolution of that business advisory council carries two implications: 1. They will no-longer have voice, much like North Korea cutting off relations, which only hurts itself. 2. Business leaders aren’t political experts and should stick to their purpose, no matter how tempting it is to parrot populist mantra. Both of these two reasons will come back to haunt these very companies because their comments were a departure from the mission of their businesses and the task of their council. By commenting off topic, they were the ones who lost.

Republicans in Congress, also, seem to be unwilling to publicly defend Trump, merely because the timing makes it “not cool”. It is interesting that corporate leadership, political leadership, and FBI investigation leadership disbanded after their teams had gotten off task. The country is in a “mission-statement” crisis and the establishment is hammering itself in the foot over and over again with playbook grandstanding. Sooner or later, unnecessary appendixes of the establishment will do themselves in, most likely for the better.

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Encore of Revival: America, August 14, 2017

Jared Kushner was fined $200 for being late in a financial statement filing, and it’s apparently news. Investigators, including the Leftist publication, The Nation, have determined that Russianewsgategate is nonsense. And, someone wrote a think piece for inside baseball at Google and was fired shortly thereafter.

The so-dubbed “Google Manifesto” is a critical thinking piece, carefully defining terms, using many qualifications so there is no doubt that it is not stereotypical and that the author is willing to listen and evaluate his own ideas. The opening clearly states that nothing is intended to be discriminatory, no “blamer-mode” language is used. Shortly after it was released, he was fired. The CEO’s response included reservations about the term “Neuroticism”. When the “Google Manifesto’s” author used the term, it was linked to a Wikipedia article and used in a thoughtful and academic way, not in a name-calling or “categorical” way.

Now, that “Google Manifesto” is being reported as having support from niche, idiosyncratic, “alt-right” political groups. But, agreement with the “Google Manifesto” is anything but a minority. On the other hand, as much as many would like to think the author was fired for his ideology, his primary crime was making waves in “corporate America”.

Never stir discussion that the boss didn’t invent. Never question rank and file conformity in “the company”. Never outshine the de facto emperor best known as “the boss”. Never make waves.

That was the crime of the “Google Manifesto” by corporate standards. The author’s punishment is to be immediately fired so that the company doesn’t have to “deal with the wave-maker” anymore. But this time, that firing backfired. Google has now been seen as a bureaucratic thug that doesn’t want “necessary disrupters” propelling the company forward. This is the public beginning of the end for Google. It’s coming: “Sell, sell, sell.”

Corporate wave-making was his first crime, in the corporate world. Now, he’s a martyr. His second crime was committed against the public: He exercised “critical thinking” use of words.

In “critical thinking” conversation, people speak objectively about problems in order to understand and solve those problems. But, people who only “blame” when they consider a problem don’t know about “critical thinking” conversation. Hearing a critical thinker, they say, “How dare he mention a problem! He’s only complaining because that’s what I do when I talk about problems!”

How dare the writer of the “Google Manifesto” think carefully to solve a problem! How dare he even suggest that our first knee-jerk reaction isn’t the best and only solution! How dare he say ideas that haven’t been said already! He’s just trying to sound clever to sell us into a pyramid scheme! He’s really just a “big meanie face”.

That was the crime of the “Google Manifesto” by  blamer-mode group-think standards. The problem is that problems don’t go away without critical thinking. So, this author of the “Google Manifesto” will actually be able to solve his problems. But, people who find fault with “critical thinking” conversation won’t solve their problems, including no-brain, all-bureaucracy “corporate America”.

And, to think that people are worried Google will be able to create “artificial intelligence”! Actually, AI will more likely be invented by misunderstood people like the author of the “Google Manifesto”. It takes critical thinking to develop software that can think critically.

For a while, “critical-thinking”, backbone Americans executed that “quick to listen, slow to judge” ethic they learned from the Bible. They were fair with people they disagreed with. They heard-out their political opposites more than enough, then continued listening. But, being heard only emboldened the talking blamers. They thought being heard meant they didn’t need to listen themselves. They talked more and more and more. And now, they have over-talked.

Racism and slavery in America grew in the South, where the first British colonies began. The Pilgrims landed in the North on Plymouth Rock, the part of the country that fought to end slavery. They taught their children to read so they could read the Bible. They taught their children to think on their own so they could think about the Bible without dogma. Consequentially, the first constitution attempted to ban slavery, but the England empire-influenced South wouldn’t have it. The North had to pry the South away from British imperial values a century later in a Civil War, while those evil values continued yet another century in segregationist laws. Pilgrim-valued America has fought against that same “British supremacy” culture since its founding, yet the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock have been blamed for it.

America can no more be blamed for bigotry than an Ebola victim can be blamed for having Ebola. The true, Bible-believing, Pilgrim-founded, northern-value heart of America is no longer only in the north; it is fighting the problem throughout the nation, not causing it. It was the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock who taught “critical thinking” in America and it was the “critical thinkers”, both in the North and the underground in the South, who defeated slavery.

America’s problem is neither Black people nor White people, but anyone who doesn’t love his neighbor as himself. There are demographic ratios to be seen in anything, but when searching for the cause, demographics only fix stereotypes; demographics don’t fix problems.

Constant and misplaced blaming isn’t helping. To the blamers, nothing is good enough; apologizing and changing is evidence of further guilt, not something to be welcomed. A compliment is an insult only in the minds of people who hate themselves, hate others, and only give compliments to serve their own dubious, selfish goals.

“How dare you say I look good!” is the motto of insecurity. Such people would have us bloat our language with politically correct disclaimers at every line of every paragraph so that no one needs to learn to not feel offended. They expect the rest of the world to change so that victims don’t need to heal. Such are people who fix nothing except blame.

There are two Americas: Those who thoughtfully listen and those who thoughtlessly blame. The blamers aren’t entirely wrong, no one is, but their blaming has over-reached and it is becoming clear that they never wanted a conversation. The stress is snapping.

The listeners of America are taking the long, deep breath, just as they did with Pearl Harbor on 12/7/1941 and New York on 9/11/2001. They are looking at the the manner of firings, scandals, investigations, and reporting in business and government. They see that “political correctness” is an attack against themselves in their own situations across the nation.

We are witnessing the culmination of a century of propaganda efforts coming to a head and it’s about to change history. The listeners are about to tune out the blamers entirely. When they do, they will work and they won’t stop. They will create infrastructure without limits and justice without borders. They will take on both the corporate-bureaucrat giants and the blamer-mode masses and they will succeed for the sole reason that they have “critical thinking”.

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Encore of Revival: America, August 7, 2017

Smoke is clearing and the lines are being drawn. First Sessions is in, then he’s out, then back in again. Democrats quickly supported Trump’s nominee, FBI Director Christopher Wray. Yet, Trump is always about to be “finished this time”, oops, wait, not this time, but “next time for sure”. The DOJ is going after the press to crackdown on leakers, or well, not quite exactly. Greenspan finally figured out how to have an opinion on the economy, or maybe not; it was just “irrational exuberance”, again. Would he be surprised if the market cracked? No. Would he be surprised if the market didn’t crack for a while? No. The stories change, or not, all depending on the day of the week.

Sheriff Joe could be in trouble for profiling illegals before he caught them, but expect a pardon from Trump if Joe Arpaio only detained illegal immigrants. A pardon for Sheriff Joe could even lead to renewed popular support for mild profiling as a way of “softening” security screening in many venues, not just with immigration, but also with airport security and others. If Joe Arpaio hit his mark, there is no way the Trump administration would turn a blind eye.

The feds and the States are clashing over procedures. Democratic-controlled States are learning to assert “States rights”, a position usually reserved for Conservatives. Still sanctuary cities aren’t as easy to pull off as they once were.

New Chief of Staff Kelly is laying down the law, implementing procedures that should be expected in any White House. Reince Priebus not having implemented such rules restricting Oval Office access begs questions about Republican Party infighting, that as RNC Chairman he may have caught a contagious “smile and ignore the chaos” bug.

The economy is up, for now. Bible studies are starting at the White House. Hannity is making a “Christian” movie. MSNBC is pounding Fox News in ratings. Apple gave in to China’s demands to remove VPN support apps; some think this will have “capitulation” backlash and hurt Apple’s business in its second-largest market to the US. Maryland is thinking about letting non-citizens vote in local elections, but not national or State. Then, there’s the transgender issue…

Trump never said the US military would not protect transgenders; he said, mostly, that they were too burdensome to do the protecting. People oppose Trump’s decision, arguing it is a violation of their “rights”. Usually people who serve their countries in uniform seek to lay down their rights to preserve the rights of others. Transgenders will still be protected by the US Armed Services, along with everyone else on the shores of America. The US situation is certainly better than in Thailand, where all transgenders are expected to appear for military draft physical exams. Perhaps transgenders could start the “trans-corps”, as minorities overlooked for military service in the past have. But, putting anything high-maintenance in the military isn’t an option for lean-steam Trump. If transgenders force the issue, they could alienate themselves further and lose ground.

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Encore of Revival: America, July 31, 2017

Revelations this week about the Russians’ involvement indited Putin more than anyone. This occurred along side more sanctions against Russia and Putin seriously diminishing Moscow-DC ties. If Putin wanted Trump, he isn’t acting like it. But, what Putin did want can only be conjecture for anything beyond expansion of Russia and chaos in the West to get it. That’s what they got.

This hopeless-from-the-beginning investigation into Russian collusion was mere grandstanding from a defeated political party—the Democrats. Their foreseen-fruitless pursuit has now resulted in revelations that have escalated the very conflict they campaign on preventing. But, since when have keeping campaign platform promises ever mattered in reelection for either main political party?

Bill Browder’s testimony to the Senate was blocked by Democrats. When he finally testified, many Democrats didn’t show up, nor their media entourage. The information he brings to the table is vast. So far, his testimony and understanding into Russia’s meddling in the US is the most extensive. Russia wasn’t just trying to get one politician elected, but to create chaos in America altogether, to lobby for certain laws, and to distract Americans with things that never actually happened. No one has cooperated with that effort as well as the media—wittingly or otherwise.

To date, reports include that the document James Comey had as evidence against Trump—the infamous Trump dossier—was a known fake. The FBI knew it was made by a former MI6 member and has zero evidence to back it. If the MI6 member could find evidence, the FBI was ready to pay $50k. The FBI did get a FISA warrant with the very dossier that they knew was so phony that they wouldn’t pay the $50k for. This was the same dossier Comey took to Trump as evidence against him. Trump knew Comey was using fake evidence.

Now, the question arises: Why did Comey and the media push so hard for an investigation into something completely made up with Russian money? If there was Russian meddling and US cooperation, the most likely suspects to investigate are leaders in the US media and Comey himself, though Comey would never get a fair trial.

Comey has helped these Russian efforts greatly, whether he intended to or not. If an FBI director’s help of Russian meddling turned out to be intentional, the US government would never let that be made known to the public. But, the swamp is being drained.

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Encore of Revival: America, July 24, 2017

Obama’s legacy will not be destroyed by repealing his health care plan.

Of course, it must be repealed and/or replaced since he himself would not allow it to be enforced.

Repeal and Replace voters shout, “Give us something that works!” while Obama supporters shout, “Don’t you care about children?” It’s that whole “talking about two different things, pretending we’re talking about the same thing”, deal. One side argues the label while the other side disputes the label’s accuracy; everyone wants good health care.

…And, that’s what Obama gave us.

Before “Obamacare”, Americans would not agree on whether the nation needed to nationalize health care. Democratic voters hailed the system as broken—which it was. Republican voters hailed their old song—everything government gives it first takes, then never does as good of a job.

But, with Obamacare being passed—even though it was so terrible that Obama himself suspended its enforcement—the nation finally agreed on one thing: We need to nationalize health care.

So, Democratic and Republican voters agree and they don’t even know it. Republican and Democratic politicians agree and the people never noticed. Shouldn’t that make Democratic voters panic?—that Republican politicians are advocating for Democrats. Why don’t Republican voters remember their own concerns two decades ago, during the “Hillarycare” debates, that “Hitler first nationalized health care.”

The nation’s health care system is broken. Frivolous lawsuits are among the largest culprits—and most ignored. Everything needs some form of regulation, which was an argument in the Declaration of Independence in the first place—”laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

But, there remains the argument from history. Taiwan nationalized health care over a decade ago. It was well researched, but now is in trouble. Nazi Germany did happen to do the same thing.

For some reason, historically, nationalizing health care seals the doom of a nation. Maybe it’s “bread and circuses” in disguise. This is a warning to the United States: Obama succeeded, the nation will finally accept nationalized health care.

Democrats and Republicans will work together, while the voters still think they are fighting. No one advocating “Trumpcare” explains why this will be the first nationalized health care program in history not to destroy a nation.

As good as fixing a broken system is, something is not right about the health care debate. Great and wonderful as it is, nationalized health care could also be the herald prophesying the end of the United States if for no other reason than that we needed it.

How will the nation solve health care? Republicans in Washington don’t know what to do, yet. Google and Amazon argue for first chance to tell governments that they are irrelevant. Governments don’t know what to do, yet. Foreign monkeys attack in Florida where officials don’t know what to do, yet. A man in Alabama shoots an 820lb foreign wild boar in his front yard and officials think he did the right thing.

Well, at least with wild pigs in the front yard, Alabama knows what to do.

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Encore of Revival: America, July 17, 2017

Donald Trump, Jr. was asked by the Russians to look at information that could indite the Clintons. He agreed, contacted some peers, met and listened, then decided it was a dead end. The New York Times made the first disclosure about this information, but not their source of the information.

There is no crime here so far, at least not among Trump parties. Listening once is always good. Yet, opposition claims that Trump received “contributions” AKA “money”, that Trump initiated in reaching out to the Russians, that Trump covered-up this meeting, and that “listening once” surmounts to “collusion”.

Many people in America do seem to think that hearing someone out is “collusion”, which is part of why so few Americans listen to each other.

Many political candidates do receive money illegally, questions come up in surplus regarding the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign contributions.

Many politicians have tried to cover up their meetings, memos, and communiqués in the past, even deleting them when those communiqués and memos are under a subpoena.

It’s all normal behavior—for some people’s value system, but not everyone’s.

Many questions arise about how the New York Times obtained information that hadn’t been released concerning a family under FBI surveillance. Perhaps, since the FBI was watching, they might know who told the New York Times, but maybe not if they can’t get their iPhones to work.

More questions come up about the Russian lawyer and why she was allowed in by the DOJ during Obama years after she was flatly turned-down for a visa. Involvement in the bickering between Obama and Putin come up, her lobbying for Russian objectives in Congress. It smells of Obama-style “organizing”—creating chaos that interrupts his goals while he asks for more power to achieve those goals he interrupts, which failed in the end for Obamacare—or did it? Regardless, at the end of the Russianewsgategate scandal remains the question of ties to Russia, but not Trump’s as much as Obama’s.

According to legal opinions, the specific accusations against Trump about the meeting with Russians so far look false. The concerned activities are not illegal. And, both the concerned activities and the thus-far-false accusations have happened with other political figures who were not pursued as Trump is.

Why is there such imbalance of attention?

While the very suffix “-gate” and many other statements have compared this scandal to Nixon’s Watergate cover-up, one fundamental difference remains: Nixon’s wrongdoing happened under his great power as sitting president as he sought dirt to fight political opponents during an election. Though this happened during an election, and it concerned attempts to uncover dirt between political opponents, Trump wasn’t the sitting president with the greater power, someone else was and that someone else’s use of that greater power is also being called into question. Another difference from Nixon’s Watergate is that it is too late for that someone else to resign and thereby receive a full pardon from his successor.

Perhaps that is why such unbalanced attention focuses on Trump instead of the more fitting Nixonian counterpart. But, we don’t know why this is happening. Wagons are circling. And, whenever the wagons circle, it’s not a good sign of the times.

There is no point in pursuing a dead end. The Trump dissent from the far Left, therefore, does not think it’s a dead end. They seem to hold that some sort of information exchanged happened between Trump and the Russians that was not disclosed. That’s the most sense to make of it all. But, that further illustrates how the Right and Left of America think differently. The Left doesn’t understand the Right’s value system: Listen to everyone once, be fair to enemies, don’t do anything dishonest in the process. In the mind of the far Left, dishonesty and power go together by definition and listening before having an opinion isn’t even a consideration. The far Right doesn’t understand how the far Left doesn’t understand that. Each side of America looks down and shakes its head over the actions the other.

There may be no conspiracy against Trump. This may be happening because a few powerful people in mass media and politics normally drop a few words, hit at a few ideas, and a candidate fails as if on cue. Those methods failed on Trump and those powerful few don’t know how to handle their first-time failure. Young Democratic voters latch on to these fruitless efforts because they also don’t know how to deal with their first-time election defeat.

This situation is dangerous for the nation, not because Trump has done anything wrong, but because shining the spotlight on fruitless pursuits is distracting the nation from the long-lasting laws Trump already has progress with.

Obama had the House and Senate, but lost them. His signature health care law was as such that he himself suspended enforcing it, the opposing party won six elections on a campaign to “repeal and replace”, and that “repeal and replace” is under way. He issued many executive orders which were thrown to the wind the day he left office. And, most importantly, he failed on the primary pro-government argument of the American Left: building roads and bridges. Obama didn’t build and maintain the roads and bridges; Trump is building and maintaining them instead. In fact, Trump is doing everything Obama didn’t.

But, the nation isn’t watching what Trump does. Trump has zero accountability from the press or the public on his work as president. Instead, all of Trump’s opposition are chasing imaginary ghosts in the closet, monsters under the bed, and using convincing fake rhetoric to talk about it. God forbid Trump, as president, actually do anything that’s genuinely wrong—no one would notice.

Democratic Senators Feinstein, Franken, and others plan to vote for Trump’s nominee for FBI Director. Their reasons included that he will follow the Constitution, not serve the will of the President, and follow due process. Feinstein did not mention when she changed her position since the last time she voted on nominees. But, that change is finally coming.

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