Thursday, September 17, 2015

Addendum to My Previous GOP Debate Commentary




HOLY CHRIST...

(*GUFFAW*)

I totally FAILED to mention CARSON!

(*SELF-DEPRECIATING LAUGHTER*)

I suppose in a sense this brain fart is a bit telling. Carson just doesn't "come on strong."

(*SHRUG*)

That said... he's pretty clearly (one of) the smartest guys in the room - in EVERY room he enters.

(*NOD*)

See, folks, even I get caught up in the "performance" aspect of these dog and pony shows!

(Which is why I actually prefer reading transcripts to watching/listening via TV or radio.)

Carson is brilliant... he's MATURE... he's clearly an ADULT in the "perception" sense...

(*SHRUG*)

He also CLEARLY comes across as honest... moral... sincere...

(*NOD*)

BUT HE NEEDS TO ME MORE ASSERTIVE!

He was smart in not rising to the bait as offered up by the moderator, interviewers, and other candidates. He played it cool... and, again... MATURE... as an ADULT.

From my perspective he's mostly right on the issues. Perhaps just as important (indeed, perhaps MORE important), he comes across as a guy who is confident and informed, yet, who KNOWS he doesn't have "all the answers." In other words, where I disagree with him on policy... or where I feel he needs "tutoring" on certain specific components concerning certain issues... Carson comes across as the kind of guy who WANTS to be educated; who SEEKS to have his assumptions challenged and new information and countering perspectives lobbed at him. In other words... he's not just a talker... he's a listener... and he's a "ponderer." (Read: Principled but open to being convinced to change his mind.)

Frankly... I'd LOVE to see Dr. Carson as the VP candidate. (Yep. Over Carly Fiorini.)

And for what it's worth... if somehow Carson were to get the TOP spot... I'd ENTHUSIASTICALLY support him.

Here's the Deal Concerning Last Night's Debates




Some heartfelt (yeah, really!) advice on how to process the debates:

First of all... if you watched the debates - one or both - GREAT! This is what you need to do! (And the same goes for the Democratic Party debates when they occur!)

If you didn't watch the debates... either find and view the debate videos (at least the "Main Event" online), or, locate and read the transcript(s). (Which brings me to my first piece of advice...)

DON'T let the media tell you "what you saw" or what to make of it. If you watched the debates then you should have your OWN opinions concerning who "won," who "lost," and which candidates impressed and/or disappointed... YOU!

The media sucks! They all have their own biases and agendas and few have the integrity to simply "report" rather than editorialize (and try to manipulate readers) via the "narrative" they choose to deliver.

As for the polls... don't let them sway you. Most of them are skewed in order to (attempt to) manipulate you!

(And even if they weren't, why focus on others' opinions and reactions rather than focusing upon your own? If you watched the debate... go with your gut... go with YOUR initial take!)

Second of all... some harsh (perhaps obnoxious) truth. (Ready?)

Media bias, partisanship, incompetence, and lack of honor aside... it's hard to judge the candidates' responses if one isn't intimately acquainted with the reality (or lack of!) of their premises and claims. This is just common sense; and it's a fact. If one doesn't know the objective truth... if one doesn't have a well thought out worldview of one's own... then one will tend to judge a candidate's performance on just that - the "performance."

(*SIGH*)

Folks... I didn't take notes... and I'm not gonna bother to review and outline examples via the transcripts... but believe me... by and large, most of the candidates were/are NOT giving us "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." While it's more common to avoid actually answering the ACTUAL QUESTIONS and instead embarking upon a distracting ramble, at times certain of the candidates simply... lied!

(*SHRUG*)

Jeb Bush was all over the map! He contradicted himself left and right!

Chris Christie? As regular readers know, I simply despise the guy. Two points though: 1) On style... or performance... Christie was one of last night's winners. He came across as "a grown-up." However... 2) He avoided actually answering certain questions and contradicted himself on others. Bottom line... Christie can be entertaining... he can get you cheering... but in the end... ya just can't trust the guy. (In fact, he may very well be indicted before next year's election... but that's a story for another day...)

How'd Trump do? MY opinion? He was one of the losers. Not badly; certainly not disastrously so; but he certainly didn't kick ass! He knew the moderator and questioners were going to "go after" him. (And they did; the first policy question didn't come until the 35-minute mark!) He knew many of the other candidates were going to target him... and they did. This clearly rattled him in the sense that he overcompensated with regards to going right back after them personally. Oh... don't get me wrong; Trump WON some points; WON certain exchanges; but on the whole (especially during the opening half-hour of the debate) he came across as... "immature." (Hey! Just my two-cents worth!) (Note: Bush did MUCH worse overall!)

Who won the night? Rand Paul.

(*SHRUG*)

Of course... I based this not just on his performance - which was calm, controlled, almost professorial - but upon the "meat" - the substance - of his answers and positions. (But, hey... this is from MY perspective. We'll see how the rest of America felt.)

The other big winner (in my estimation): Ted Cruz. Senator Cruz has stage presence... brains... and sincerity. (And of course he's RIGHT on most of the issues!)

(*WINK*)

How'd Carly Fiorini do? Not as well as she needed to, in my (never) humble opinion. Her performance seemed uneven to me. Too rehearsed. She needed to hit a home run last night and she didn't. She did no better and no worse than Rubio or Huckabee. She PERHAPS did a bit better than Walker.

(*SHRUG*)

Kasich...??? Geezus... he melted down right before our eyes last night. I wouldn't be surprised if he's out of the race before the first primary! (We'll see!) At times... watching the guy... I was worried he'd stroke out right on stage!

Anyway... did I leave anyone out? Yes... in a sense I did. Jake Tapper! Yep... the moderator. He SUCKED!

Again... folks... these transparent morons representing the fourth estate (look that reference up if you must) can't help themselves! To reiterate: The first POLICY question didn't come till 35-minutes into the so-called "debate!"

It really is a disgrace what the media does. Partisanship... "gotchya" journalism... most questions prefaced with "so and so has accused you of blah-blah-blah"...

(*SIGH*)

Bread and circuses, folks; red meat to the mob; not even the pretense of caring more about substance than style.

(*ANOTHER SIGH*)

This country is in DEEP trouble, my friends. We deserve better. Some of us DEMAND better. Most of us don't, though.

And that's my "surface" analysis of last night's GOP debate.

P.S. -- As for the opening debate - the 6:00 p.m. "minor candidates" debate - Jindah did the "least worst" in my (never) humble opinion. Pataki...? A fake, phony, crooked, lying fraud. (*SHRUG*) Santorum? My question is... how's this guy support himself - let alone run for president every four years? Does he have a friggin' JOB to go along with his wife and seven children...??? (Oh... and wasn't there a fourth candidate? I believe there was... but, frankly... I can't recall who he is!)

(*GUFFAW*)


Friday, September 11, 2015

More Schizophrenia from the Pages of the Wall Street Journal




Peggy Noonan's latest column...

*  *  *  *  *

What a crisis Europe is in, with waves of migrants reaching its shores as the Arab world implodes. It is the biggest migration into Europe since the end of World War II and is shaping up to be its first great and sustained challenge of the 21st century. It may in fact shape that continent’s nature and history as surely as did World War I.

It is a humanitarian crisis.

* NOT AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED. TO ME... IT'S AN INVASION. (SEE: ROME, ANCIENT; FALL OF)

(*SMIRK*)

As Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations notes, it will not soon go away, for two reasons. First, the Mideast will not be peaceful anytime soon and may well become more turbulent. Second, “The more that Europe responds the more it will reinforce the supply of migrants. Europe is caught.” If it doesn’t respond with compassion and generosity it is wrong in humanitarian terms;

* SO SAYS RICHARD HAASS!

(*SNORT*)

* FOLKS... WHO YA GONNA BELIEVE - HIM OR ME?!

(*GRIN*)

...if it does, more will come and the problem grows. “This is now part of the architecture,” says Mr. Haass.

* SO HAASS TAKES HALF THE EQUATION OFF THE TABLE AND BASICALLY PROCLAIMS EUROPE'S ONLY CHOICE IS CULTURAL SUICIDE. UH-HUH...

Three hundred eighty-one thousand detected migrants have arrived so far this year, up from 216,000 in all of 2014.

* BECAUSE THE EUROPEANS ARE STUPID AND ACCEPT THE "REALITY" OF THE RICHARD HAASS' OF THE WORLD. (NOTE: TAKE AWAY THE INITIAL LAUGH... THE "HA" IN "HAASS"... AND WHAT DO YOU GET?)

(*SNICKER*)

Almost 3,000 died on the journey or are missing.

* SO...? THE WORLD IS A HARSH PLACE. HOW MANY AMERICANS DIE IN AUTO ACCIDENTS EACH YEAR?

(*SNORT*)

The symbol of their plight is the photo of the 3-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, who drowned along with his mother and 5-year-old brother when their boat capsized near a Turkish beach. Just as horrifying is what was found inside a Volvo refrigerated truck stranded on the shoulder of the A4 highway 30 miles from Vienna in late August. Inside were 71 bodies, including a 1½-year-old girl, all dead of suffocation. They’d been left there by human smugglers.

* LET ME GUESS; NON-IRISH, NON-ITALIAN, PROBABLY NON-EUROPEAN SMUGGLERS.

* FOLKS... EUROPE NEEDS TO PUT A STOP TO THIS BY CLOSING THEIR BORDERS! LET THESE PEOPLE FIGHT FOR THEIR OWN COUNTRIES' SURVIVAL AS CIVILIZED POLITICAL UNITS! THEY SHOULD BE FIGHTING FOR THEIR FREEDOM INSTEAD OF FLEEING!

It is a catastrophe unfolding before our eyes, and efforts to deal with it have at least one echo in America, which we’ll examine further down.

According to the U.N. refugee agency, 53% of the migrants are from Syria, 14% from Afghanistan, 7% from Eritrea, and 3% each from Pakistan, Nigeria, Iraq and Somalia. Seventy-two percent are men, only 13% women and 15% children. Not all are fleeing war. Some are fleeing poverty. Not all but the majority are Muslim.

The leaders of Europe have shown themselves unsure about what to do.

* AND THIS SURPRISES ANYONE...???

(*SNORT*)

It is a continent-wide crisis that began in 2011, as Tunisians fled to the Italian island of Lampedusa. The following year, sub-Saharan Africans who’d migrated to Libya made for Europe after Muammar Gadhafi’s fall.

* Er... NOTICE... PEGGY CONVENIENTLY FAILS TO NOTE THAT IT WAS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION - OBAMA AND THEN-SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON - WHO... AGAINST CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED CONGRESSIONAL OPPOSITION... ENSURED THAT GADHAFI WAS TOPPLED... WITH NO ONE TO TAKE HIS PLACE. (APPARENTLY WE LEARNED NOTHING FROM IRAQ... NOTHING...)

(*SIGH*)

Since then the European response has largely been ad hoc and stopgap. European Union President Jean-Claude Juncker has proposed a “permanent relocation mechanism” with EU members taking greater shares of the refugees, but it is unclear how exactly it would work.

In many EU nations there will be powerful push-back.

* YEP! AND I'M WITH THE "PUSHER BACKERS!"

Like the crisis itself the push-back will build.

* YA THINK...?!?! (I GUESS SUCH "BRILLIANT ANALYSIS" IS WHY PEGGY GETS PAID THE BIG BUCKS...)

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Europe is in economic drift. As this newspaper has noted, even Germany is growing at only 1.6% a year. Welfare systems will be strained. Youth unemployment is already high. In Britain the crisis could contribute to a vote to leave the EU outright.

* ONLY IF THE BRITISH PEOPLE ARE LUCKY!

(*HUGE FRIGGIN' GRIN*)

There are fears, which the elites take lightly, that floods of displaced people will “alter the cultural balance of the country forever,” as the columnist Melanie Phillips put it in the Times of London.

* Hmm... PERHAPS WE SHOULD BE READING MORE OF PHILLIPS AND LESS OF NOONAN.

(*SHRUG*)

The Gulf states have not offered a home to their Arab and Muslim cousins.

* I AM SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I TELL YOU! WHAT'S NEXT - GAMBLING IN CASABLANCA?!

Dutch right-wing leader Geert Wilders...

(*ROLLING MY EYES*)

* OR AS I'D PUT IT, "SANE DUTCH LEADER GEERT WILDERS..."

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

...this week called the wave of migrants an “Islamic invasion” in parliamentary debate, “an invasion that threatens our prosperity, our security, our culture and identity.”

* AS I WAS SAYING... "SANE."

A recent poll showed 54% of Dutch voters opposed to welcoming more than the roughly 2,000 refugees previously agreed to.

* SO 46% OF THE DUTCH ARE JUST PLAIN STUPID...??? (I GUESS SO...)

Hungary is building a fence.

(*ENTHUSIASTIC THUMBS UP*)

Reading the popular press of Europe you see the questions. Do we not have a right to control our borders? Isn’t the refugee wave a security threat? ISIS is nothing if not committed to its intentions. Why would they not be funneling jihadists onto those boats?

Many things could be done to ease the crisis. States such as Jordan and Lebanon work hard to help refugees in neighboring countries and need help. Humanitarian relief is needed for the internally displaced. Go after the human smugglers, patrol the waters, take in those who are truly fleeing war and truly desire to become a peaceful part of their new, adoptive homes.

* NOW, FOLKS... AS MANY OF YOU KNOW... EVERY YEAR RAND PAUL GOES OVERSEAS TO PROVIDE FREE MEDICAL CARE TO THOSE WHO CAN'T AFFORD IT IN PLACES WHERE THERE'S BARELY A HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE WORTHY OF THE NAME TO BEGIN WITH. DO YOU THINK 'OL PEGGY HERE VOLUNTEERS HER TIME...???

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND AGAIN*)

But here is a problem with Europe’s decision-makers, and it connects to decision-makers in America.

Damning “the elites” is often a mindless, phony and manipulative game.

* OH... SURE... SO SAYETH ONE OF AMERICA'S MEDIA ELITES...

(*GUFFAW*)

Malice and delusion combine to produce the refrains: “Those fancy people in their Georgetown cocktail parties,” “Those left-wing poseurs in their apartments in Brussels.”

* Er... PEOPLE LIKE PEGGY NOONAN...

(*STILL LAUGHING*)

This is social resentment parading as insight, envy posing as authenticity.

* HEY... PEGS... CHECK OUT MY VACATION PHOTOS; I DON'T DO TOO BAD!

(*LAUGHING*)

* YOU ENJOY YOUR COCKTAIL PARTIES; I'LL CRACK A BEER AND WATCH FOOTBALL! (YOU FRIGGIN' TOOL...!)

But in this crisis talk of “the elites” is pertinent. The gap between those who run governments and those who are governed has now grown huge and portends nothing good.

Rules on immigration and refugees are made by safe people.

* YEP... (SEE! WHEN SHE'S RIGHT I GIVE HER FULL CREDIT!)

These are the people who help run countries, who have nice homes in nice neighborhoods and are protected by their status.

(*NOD*)

Those who live with the effects of immigration and asylum law are those who are less safe, who see a less beautiful face in it because they are daily confronted with a less beautiful reality — normal human roughness, human tensions.

* MURDERS... RAPES... ROBBERIES...

(*SNORT*)

Decision-makers fear things like harsh words from the writers of editorials; normal human beings fear things like street crime. Decision-makers have the luxury of seeing life in the abstract. Normal people feel the implications of their decisions in the particular.

* CORRECT!

(*SINCERE APPLAUSE*)

The decision-makers feel disdain for the anxieties of normal people, and ascribe them to small-minded bigotries, often religious and racial, and ignorant antagonisms. But normal people prize order because they can’t buy their way out of disorder.

People in gated communities of the mind, who glide by in Ubers, have bought their way out and are safe. Not to mention those in government-maintained mansions who glide by in SUVs followed by security details. Rulers can afford to see national-security threats as an abstraction — yes, yes, we must better integrate our new populations. But the unprotected, the vulnerable, have a right and a reason to worry.

* DAMN STRAIGHT!

Here is the challenge for people in politics: The better you do, the higher you go, the more detached you become from real life. You use words like “perception” a lot. But perception is not as important as reality.

(*THUMBS UP*)

The great thing in politics, the needed thing, is for those who are raised high in terms of responsibility and authority to be yet still, in their heads and hearts, of the people, experiencing life as a common person on an average street.

* YES... WE... er... COMMONERS...

(*LAUGHING*)

The challenge is to carry the average street inside you. Only then, when the street is wrong, can you persuade it to see what is right.

The biggest thing leaders don’t do now is listen. They no longer hear the voices of common people. Or they imitate what they think it is and it sounds backward and embarrassing. In this age we will see political leaders, and institutions, rock, shatter and fall due to that deafness.

* TAKING THE REST OF US DOWN WITH THEM...
 
(*SIGH*)