Encore of Revival: America, October 28, 2019

People must rise up for freedom on their own. Protestors in Hong Kong have stood up for their own freedom; the same should be expected of the Kurds in Syria. If they face persecution, offer asylum or refugee status. There could be a political solution or a referendum that must be honored, like the referendum in Crimea. But, don’t fight someone else’s freedom war for them. Freedom cannot be bestowed, only fought for and defended by the freed folk themselves.

Democrats seeking impeachment without a vote first sets a precedent for Republicans to more easily oust a Democratic president in the future. Many Democrat-driven laws initially meant to curb Republicans came back to bite Democrats when it was their turn to follow their own new laws. A no-vote impeachment proceeding could also impede Congressional ability to enforce subpoenas against another branch of government or to continue to hold hearings in the basement SCIF.

America faces a Constitutional crisis on two fronts: first, impeachment, subpoenas, no official impeachment vote, and whether a Supreme Justice who offered political comments about the President can preside over a trial in the Senate; second, California’s legal authority to enter into an international treaty apart from the Federal Government. By joining the “carbon credits” cult with Canada, California engaged in the kind of international negotiations that the Constitution explicitly prohibits in Article II Section 2 Clause 2, which made the Constitution different from its predecessor, the Articles of Confederation. While California focused on the environment more than the Constitution, it left kindling unattended throughout forests now on fire. Trump warned about the uncollected kindling wood and leaves in the forests of California over one year ago and is suing California for its carbon credit agreement with Canada.

We are in conflict. The nation is in conflict. There are two Americas today, just as there were two types of Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower. The battle in our divided nation rages hotter than California’s fires. Stewardship of the economy, national security, and the environment can all play well with rule of law. Whoever understands that the best will come out ahead in this great American conflict.

Read More

Cadence of Conflict: Asia, February 18, 2019

Google’s negligence with Taiwanese military secrets certainly put Taiwan on the map—and it may list Google among the utilities. Being made into a public utility by force is a mild settlement for de facto espionage.

Taiwanese military tech is also growing. At an expo in Abu Dhabi, Taiwan hopes to sell its own tech to the Middle East; including its own supersonic anti-ship missiles. If China’s tech were so supreme, China would be courting the patronage of Middle Eastern states. Credibility is often in the money.

While trade talks drag on and on—and on and on—even the Leftist press supports President Trump in standing against China. Ah, yes—the one thing China hates about the West most of all: elections. Nothing could guarantee a sitting president’s re-election like a war against the self-polluted giant who ate America’s jobs. America’s ping-pong game of “talk and smack” with China continues. Wait until the US cozies up to Taiwan even more—with the Google spill being a perfect excuse—after the Huawei CFO suspect gets extradited to the US.

Read More

Encore of Revival: America, February 18, 2019

The brewing fight between the president and Congress will only strengthen the executive office. Even if a toned-down compromise is reached after a Supreme Court review, whatever the president would get out of it would be more power than he had clarified to him without the lawsuit. In the future, if Anti-Trumpists were to riot again as they have elsewhere, Trump may be able to take executive action against the riots—but having cried, “Wolf!” one too many times, the Left might have no powers left to stop him.

Building the national emergency declaration from components used by Obama serves two purposes. Firstly, and more obviously, are the optics. By opposing Trump’s declaration, opponents would be opposing Obama. But, that is mere optics, no matter how much hypocrisy it may demonstrate. Secondly, and far more importantly, court orders that restrict Trump’s declaration would need to tread carefully in dissent because any dissent against Trump could be used as a precedent to reverse or even take settlement-seeking action against Obama’s executive work in the past. Suing Trump for this order could unwittingly become an attack against Obama from his own supporters.

Russianewsgategate is imploding quietly, as was entirely foreseeable—and social media giants along with it. With Google having shown Taiwanese military secrets to the world, heavy regulation could come faster than thought, but that’s where matters in Asia and America meet in these Pacific times.

Read More

Encore of Revival: America, January 21, 2019

Trump has transformed America’s view of a “government shutdown” to a point where it could very well become a campaign promise in future elections. Not only did the shutdown become a “non-event”, it’s actually kind of nice to not have government messing with everything. If Congressional Democrats allow the shutdown to please Reagan Republican Americans much longer, political debates may even include strategy for how to keep the government closed for longer amounts of time.

It’s difficult for Americans to sympathize with the purported “horror” of a government shutdown when the lives of hard-working Americans—who work in the private sector—continue their daily lives with little to no interruption. IRS agents being out of work won’t be seen by Americans as a bad thing. If America’s “tax collectors” hoped to get back to work sooner, they probably should have followed Biblical advice—to keep out of trouble by keeping their mouths shut. You’d think “IRS agents not working” should have been kept a State secret.

While those who depend on taxpayer dollars to fund their livelihood will be angry that the milk has run dry, the shutdown won’t come close to affecting enough Americans to make a shutdown less popular in the future. In fact, the shutdown should prove to make America stronger on three levels: as a warning to government employees that the private sector is less likely to be destabilized by politics, that government and socialist -created “jobs” will eventually have the same problems in America as in North Korea, and that Americans will have to learn how to make due when government isn’t operating in its greatest glory.

Look on the bright side. If America knows how to function without as much government, we will all get through tougher times with more colors flying.

Read More

Encore of Revival: America, February 12, 2018

The budget deal in Congress declares two myths, one from time travel budgeting, the other from silence. When the “experts” project a deficit based on the current spending plan, 1. none of the money has been spent yet and 2. none of the spending tax money has come in yet. They aren’t only counting chickens before they hatch, they already have them buttered on the Christmas dinner table.

The spending projection assumes the previous year’s tax income. If tax rates drop, so does the projected income drop, proportionately. There is some “trickle down” account for the assumption that consumers may spend more and employers hire more since they have the funds not taxed, but they don’t consider synergy. They don’t use AI simulations to project the slew of companies who haven’t announced—but will anyway do—investment within the market. New companies will be capable of coming into being which weren’t able to without the new financial ecosystem. Those aren’t accounted for because they can’t be predicted. The forecast we have is based not on synergistic outcomes—AKA reality—but on comparing last years results against this year’s new methods—AKA time travel.

The second myth comes from silence, namely renegotiating trade agreements. Adjustments making the US market part of a two-way street will also bring new revenue sources—rather than a one-way street that screws the US economy into the ground. These are part of separate agreements already promised, already underway, but largely unfinished and unreported. Budget forecast about those factors are simply silent.

The budget forecast isn’t any accurate prediction of the future, but a kind of comparison for number geeks in black-tie offices. What actually happens is never known until it happens.

Read More

Encore of Revival: America, January 15, 2018

This was the week of rouses and houses. Trump called a bipartisan meeting from Congress at the White House and, to the surprise of many, much of the meeting showed on video. Everyone seemed to get along. Viewers could see real, actual video of leaders in real, normal conversation. It was somewhat unusual and not the least bit jarring.

Then began the rouse and purported fake news. The Wall Street Journal is accused of reporting that Trump claims a good relationship with Kim Jong Un rather than that he would have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un. This was one of the more obvious misreports. Another included Trump speaking vulgarly about unfortunate nations in his bipartisan meeting at the White House.

While there is no recording of his comments to members of Congress, there is a recording of what Trump said to the Wall Street Journal, which so far has refused to change the disputed quote.

Whether Trump actually spoke the dirty word as reported is left up to a whosaidhesaidit argument on Capital Hill. The big change: Republicans actually spoke in Trump’s defense, that he didn’t use such words. That should be notoriety enough, when someone receives support from his own enemies.

Then, there was the rouse in Hawaii with a false invasion alarm. Don’t worry, Hawaii will think through what any Product Manager worth half of his salt would have drawn-up for a product roadmap well in advance. They will make it harder to press the “panic” button and equip their system with a “cancel” button to turn off the panic. Of course, it was all an accident and a big misunderstanding, nothing anyone needs to lose a job over.

In fact, the slew of rouses that trailed after the video of the president getting along with leaders in Washington was all a complete and coincidental “aligning of the planets”, such a celestial event that does happen in nature, such as blue moons and Halley’s Comet, except that the unusual string of rouses itself doesn’t seem to be worth covering in the press—at least not elsewhere.

Read More