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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 23, 2017

Author SymphonyPosted on

While everyone runs out to support or protest America’s new president, the best-kept secret of Washington remains the best-kept secret: No politician can be rightly judged on only campaign promises and threats, nor cheers and jeers from the masses. Until Trump has results to judge, any support and protest is a mere theater rating.

If background has any bearing on the future, the 19 months of Trump’s career have shown something unusual for a politician: a consistent message. That consistency has been tested more than any politician before him with constant objection at every turn, and he still has not changed his message, not even at his inauguration. And, the first executive orders he signed also stayed on message. So far, Trump has been consistent.

Trump protesters and supporters have a single, telling difference: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Trump supporters believe the bottom level of needs is in crisis (food, shelter, basic economics, physical safety); Trump protesters believe the middle levels are in crisis (social relations both foreign and domestic, emotional needs, individual identity); both believe it is a crisis that threatens America’s existence.

Before running for office, Trump fired people for not working hard or not correctly experienced for the specific job. His message and methods haven’t changed. Looking at the consistency in Trump, his supporters, and his protesters, the future will not go to arguers or defenders, but to the hard-working, no matter what their politics.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 16, 2017

Author The EditorPosted on

President-Elect Trump criticized the intelligence community for having fake reports and allowing those reports to leak. He conducted his own “leak” fishing expedition and plugged the leak—or “caught, fired, and fried” the leak. If he can find his leaks with no power of the pen, why can’t the “intelligence” people find their leaks? That must be Trump’s question, anyway. Of course he Tweeted against the agencies.

Is it wrong for a president-elect to criticize people he can soon fire? There is no way that this president-elect has criticized his soon-to-be subordinates as much as the soon-to-be ex-president will continue to criticize without end. Obama plans to stay in Washington, and it isn’t because he likes gazing at the Eisenhower Building.

When Brennan lectures, “It’s more than about Mr. Trump; it’s about the United States of America,” he’s talking about his future boss. That’s not right or wrong; that’s just not smart. Even Comey was smart enough not to go up against Obama. Maybe Brennan expects to be fired anyway.

A lot of people aren’t thinking about what will happen when the man they continue to criticize becomes president. They weren’t thinking about all the deals they made that weren’t going to last. Whether the trade deals were good or bad, Americans were never going to tolerate China and Mexico taking American jobs forever. Clinton’s and Bush’s and Obama’s trade deals weren’t going to last. But, people didn’t see that either. They didn’t see a lot of stuff that was coming. That’s somewhat of a unifying quality among the anti-Trumpists. It still is, apparently.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 9, 2017

Author SymphonyPosted on

Ford’s move to do exactly what Trump anticipated—while claiming they made the move independently of Trump—raises deeper questions. “Only” investing $700M in Michigan rather than $1.6B in Mexico should have made sense all along—unless the real reason Ford planned to move to Mexico was about confidence in the future American economy.

American confidence seems to be up. Construction companies think so, at least.

Not much else has dominated US political-economic news, except a Texan visit from Taiwan’s president. With all the good things happening, there just isn’t much news to report.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, January 2, 2017

Author SymphonyPosted on

Carrie Fisher died over the Holidays, may she rest in peace. She was best known for Leia in “Star Wars” and second-best known for her wit. Having finished filming for Episode VIII due in 2017, Episode IX for 2019 is still in on the drafting board, though she was intended to play a substantial role. There has been no official comment on what Leia’s role will be.

When anyone dies, our natural response is to discuss their work. It seems cold, but is its own form of respect. People want to know how her life’s work will end up, a question about justice to her and her work. People ask what will become of her unfinished work because they love her. They’ll make it good. They always do.

But, deeper meaning surfaces for all of us. Han Solo’s death, his speculated return, the runaway son, and the complexity of Leia and Han’s family opened one of the deep problems in America: broken families. Any runaway child should come home quickly because parents don’t live forever. Carrie’s mother passed away the next day.

Carrie Fisher left us with many messages, both in life and in death, both good and bad, both filial and professional, both pithy and elaborate, and always poetic.

A team that works in web security dug into claims about the so-called (and now seemingly mislabeled) “Russian hack” and they made some reports. In sum, it likely wasn’t Russia in particular. The hack seemed to use out-of-date Ukrainian hacker tools, had multiple origins and targets, and, as usual with hacks, the main vulnerability was: compromised user accounts—something easily prevented by using Ubuntu rather than Windows for a desktop operating system and knowing a few basics about hyperlinks, apps, and websites.

If Russia did have anything to do with the [non-]Russian hack, it would have been to get Democrats to merely cast the recent and unnecessary doubt on the perfectly-in-tact election system itself.

Obama continues to work diligently—between golf trips—to smack someone on the wrist in his remaining less-than-three-weeks. Israel may be stalling too much to receive a good slap; instead, he went after the adversary who outsmarted him time and again, including this time: Putin.

In life, many of us know what we have lost, but few of us ever learn to know when we have lost.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, December 26, 2016

Author SymphonyPosted on
Encore of Revival: America, December 26, 2016

Yesterday was Christmas. Her Majesty and Defender of the Faith, the Queen, missed the Christmas service for the first time due to a severe cold. People are concerned for her health. The pope is concerned for the health of the world with Christmas being “taken hostage” by materialism.

Leading up to Christmas, the electoral college finalized Trump’s victory. The basic argument for the electoral college goes something like this: Without the Cities of Los Angeles and New York, Trump would have the popular vote by quite a margin; one State doesn’t get to decide against the other 49, let alone two cities; and, if the popular vote alone decided then Republicans in upstates California and New York wouldn’t have stayed home and Trump would still have the popular vote. The election system drew the usual criticism while the usual system was upheld to preserve the Republic and prevent metropolitan tyranny over the farmland.

As for Obama going golfing after learning about a truck attack and the Russian ambassador’s death, worse news demands more sympathy: America’s election system was still working at 4:00 p.m. last Monday. Attempts to “change” America had clearly failed. That was stressful enough. And, that was the real bad news Obama needed a break from. This golf trip wasn’t meant as any snub against an ambassador. There were other problems, you see. After all, it’s the holidays. We all need to just get away for a week and unwind.

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In Encore

Encore of Revival: America, December 19, 2016

Author SymphonyPosted on
Encore of Revival: America, December 19, 2016

Socialists worldwide claimed Trump would be bad for America and predicted his loss in the election; Russia probably would think the same and try to help him. If Russia aimed to help Trump, that would be yet one more mistake on behalf of the global club of socialists—both official and unofficial. There is no news here, though many report it as such.

The faithless elector movement has already found it’s scrutiny, already fulfilling Symphony’s prediction from just last week. Their point man is reported as a would-be fraud. And, the dwindling movement itself does not include most of the people who voted against Trump. These are only the few who don’t know how to accept loss.

The anti-Trump alarmism has an interesting history since his announcement to run. Trump makes public comments that reflect a private self-talk of “no excuse, no whining, and know which battles you’ll lose”; his opponents lost, don’t seem to know it, make progressively-more dramatic excuses of how it’s “someone else’s fault” (this time the Russians), and won’t stop whining. They seem to follow the Kübler-Ross five-stages of grief. This current suspicion of the Russians has a few contradictions…

In the “election hack” narrative, no one claims that votes were directly altered. Though, precincts in Wisconsin had more Republican votes than registered voters and Democratic precincts in Detroit had something similar. Both parties can thank Hillary for exposing those precincts in her generous reverence for honesty—but, we don’t hear much thanks.

The purported “bias” in the leaked-hacked info. implies that an unbiased leak would have been preferable. And, it ignores the reversed bias from the American media, not to mention its failure to recognize the use of “fear marketing” from the Trump opposition.

Moreover, the clearer influence of Russian propaganda has always been in sectors of education, where the Constitution is attacked, turning points in American history are left out, and Communism is touted as an ideal theory. Those who opposed Trump seem to agree with one or more of those talking points, but only seem concerned as if Russia wanted to pick and choose candidates rather than sowing doubt of the entire process itself; and they certainly show no concern for the Russian influence in their own ideology. The Russian-conspiracy theorists should suspect themselves most of all—and they will, sooner or later.

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