A message to Mitt Romney....

Gov. Romney,

I don't know if this reply will reach you since its a solicitation, but
if it does I want to convey a message millions of American share.

It is less than forty days to Election Day and only now you reach

out to Republicans, but not to support the one person who will try

to change this dysfunctional governance, Donald Trump.

Your email suggests keeping Paul Ryan as the Speaker is paramount

which tells anyone who received this email how out of touch you are!

If you really want to ensure the GOP maintains the majority in both
chambers...you will IMMEDIATELY endorse Donald Trump. Like

him or not, no candidate since FDR has worked as hard to get his
message out to the American people.

Every day Trump visits a different city with a resonating message to
save our country from the charlatans who sold out the American
worker at the same time Wall St. has record profits.

You can continue to stay on the sidelines and send blast emails

seeking funds, but it has been Donald Trump filling the GOP

coffers, increasing Republican registration and built up a double
digit lead among independents. Trump is the only Republican

in memory to directly address the problems in Black communities

and offers them hope that only the Republican Party can deliver!

He is taking on the criminally tainted Clinton machine, a corrupt
Justice Dept, President Obama who refuses to follow past presidents
by getting actively involved, the duplicity of the media which is out
 to destroy him and even many self righteous Republicans who prefer
a failed corruptable, unprincipled person than a man who is committed
to save country from globalists who do not care about our children or
our children's children.

The Mitt Romney I remember from the 2012 campaign is better than
that, or at least he was four years ago.
Regards,

Anthony Bruno

Cary, NC

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The United Nations has already "voted"!

The concern Donald Trump will be our next president
is not limited to many in the American electorate,
the same 'concern' is shared by the United Nations
as its official news service recently sent out a tweet
urging the 8 million Americans abroad to "Stop Trump."

A tweet so blatantly embarrassing it was quickly deleted.

This should not be surprising, the UN wanting to involve
itself American elections is no different than any other
influential 'lobbyist'.

In 2012 the UN dispatched "international election monitors”
to supervise and monitor our elections, approved by the
Obama administration! This time the number of monitors is
ten times larger which makes the UN's news release to urge
overseas American to vote against Trump more suspicious.

Story: http://bit.ly/2dPM1we

This is where we are, when an international organization
that receives 22-25% of its funding from our country could
undermine our election results with its 'monitors' reporting
failures in the presidential election!

What should we expect? By the UN's own admission they
do not want Trump to be our next president, so can we
ever hope their "monitors" would be unbiased?

This is the latest example of our politicians stripping a piece
of our sovereignty and shameful. Its outrageous its happening
in the longest representative democracy in the world, yet few
seem to care!

The United States has addressed problems in our system
without external oversight for over two hundred years, there
is no need for this to occur now.

In fact, given the fact the UN wants Donald Trump to lose the
Obama Administration should immediately refuse to allow any
of its monitors overseeing our election! And if President Obama
does not do it, the Congress should take immediate action!

If the federal government does nothing than every county election
board, especially those in Republican led states, should refuse to
cooperate!



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What is "Debt Free College"

When he was running Bernie Sanders promised "free" college tuition.
Considering the state of public education most of the supporters of
this septuagenarian  believe it could be done.

Seeing that Bernie was on her heals Hillary Clinton also promised
"free" college tuition!  (Do they know something no one else does?)

At the first debate Hillary tweaked her promise about tuition, now
calling in "debt free tuition". I checked and learned she had said
this over a year ago, but I was curious, what is the difference between
these two buckets of taxpayers money?

It appears nothing.  But, the sad joke is that this another response to
a problem politicians refuse to address, the spiraling cost of college,
now totaling over $1.2 trillion in student debt.

But, this won't reign in what would be considered "gouging" in every
other industry, but appears to be totally acceptable in higher education.

On the surface it looks good, but most thing look good on the surface.

"Dept free tuition" would eliminate burden of families, but also include
unmentioned strings so they remember the price "free" costs.

always does.  But the debt families would
not have individually all taxpayers will pay whether they have children or
not!

We are told the cost will be nearly $400 billion over ten years, but since
when are estimates offered ever remembered three, four, five year later.

If history of government estimating are to be believed cost are low balled
until implemented than rise dramatically. It could exceed $500 billion in
about five years!.

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Twenty-four years of unfair "globalism" is long enough!

There is an interesting battle going on this presidential year.
Its more than who will be our next president, its what kind of
country America will be.

Trump has been accused of being a 'nationalist' due to his
"Put America First" campaign, as though this is a bad idea.

Clinton is a 'globalist', who believes as most in government,
global partnerships are best to benefit American workers.

It up to the American people to decide which direction is best
for them, their jobs and their security.

Clinton warns 'nationalism' will isolate our country while Trump
sees 'globalism' a failure based on measurable factors. He does
not want to isolate us, but does want to make certain American
workers are not losers as Wall St. remains the winner.

We have had twenty-four years of "economic globalism', multiple
trade agreements, across administrations of three presidents,
Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, all who believe
in global partnerships.

When we tally up the 'score' of more than two decades the numbers
are troubling.

The United States now has $22 trillion in debt, five times higher
than it was when Bill Clinton took office, an average of almost
$1 trillion for each year!

We pay more than $300 billion a year in interest as we continue
to believe we can borrow our way into prosperity. This amount is
enough to fund several federal agencies including the departments
of Health and Human Service ($78B), Education ($71B), Veterans
Affairs ($63B), Housing ($33B), State ($48B) and Energy ($28B).

We have an annual trade imbalance exceeding $800 billion, with
China having a $500 billion advantage.

Are these disturbing numbers due to government malfeasance,
being on the losing end of global agreements, or both? 

Now, consider what Hillary Clinton proposes if she is elected.

Clinton says, "we have to build an economy that works for everyone,
we need new jobs, good jobs, with rising incomes." She adds "the
national minimum wage needs to be raised".

This is also troubling, because what Clinton is proposing now was
the promise made twenty-four years ago. It was 'globalism' that
would create more jobs, lift the wages of working Americans and
not necessitate an increase in the minimum wage.

I see this evidence 'globalism' failed due to trade agreements
that cost American jobs and created trade imbalances with many
countries, including Mexico whose people have been coming here
since NAFTA was agreed to soon after Bill Clinton was elected
and now compete with Americans for scare poorly paying jobs!

Again, why is globalism not increasing the demand for labor and
raising wages for American workers?

We can no longer sustain an economy which is closer to anemic
than prosperous.

Trump's "Put America First" campaign is really not 'nationalism'
as his critics claim. Its about trade agreements which at the
end of the day benefits all countries.

This is his objective; end unfair tariffs that penalized our

automakers exporting to Asian markets and foreign incentives
to American companies so they build offshore as American workers
lose their jobs here!

Is that so bad? Maybe Trump's should change the slogan to:

"Put American workers first"  



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 "Point of View" blog http://ajbruno14.blogspot.com/

Where is Rosa Parks when we need her?

If you do not know who Rosa Parks is, invest the time
to learn about her impact on civil rights in America.

On December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks refused to obey
a bus driver's order to give up her seat in the colored
section to a white passenger as the white section of
the bus was filled.

Parks was not the first person to resist this segregation
but she is the most notable.

I thought of  Mrs. Parks bravery against the greatest of
odds, legal discriminatory laws against Black citizens.

We can see this exclusionary behavior within the Democrat
Party towards its most loyal constituency who have been
told to sit quietly and only do as instructed.

The family oriented, loyal Black Democrats are told not to
question the party's position on issues such as abortion,
immigration, gay marriage or school choice, no matter
how repugnant the party's positions are to them. 

But, it goes deeper than the Democrat Party leadership, it
goes to the heart of constituent representation.

Not even Black members of Congress, including the entire
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)will meet and discuss
concerns on these issues.

I spoke to several Black ministers and learned there is little
interest in moral issues and the CBC said they should be
pleased with all the party has done for them. 

Its obvious the Democrat Party has sold its political soul to
the highest bidders, teachers' unions, gay community donors,
Planned Parenthood and the growing Hispanic lobby!

When you consider the core of Black communities are its
churches, with a rich history of conservative values as
deep and lengthy as our nation itself, its despicable the
Democrat Party does not care or even respect opposing views.

The only voices allowed must be echoes of an ideology, not an
independent viewpoint. If voices differ they will be shouted
down or ignored entirely.

The time has not yet arrived, but perhaps it will shortly as
more Black Democrats see that its the teachers, Hispanic lobby,
Planned Parenthood that control the party, they are merely a
vote, counted on once a year.

If only Rosa Parks were still with us.



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The circus comes to Charlotte

The traveling circus arrived in a most unusual city last week, Charlotte, NC!
Unusual as this city was probably not on the 'tour' schedule, as it does not
fit the presumed narrative.

Charlotte is as integrated as any city below the Mason-Dixon line, a tribute
to Democrats and Republicans working together to achieve racial harmony.
I venture to say it may be more integrated than most northeastern cities!

But, that all changed when last week police killed a Black man, which was
all that was required to bring the circus to the "Queen City".

It arrived almost immediately, parading through the center of town behind
the banner of Black Lives Matter.

A "protest" was called for, and a protest occurred which included destroying
property, breaking windows, setting fires to cars, even beating up White
people, all part of the protest playbook.

And for good measure, stopping off at Walmart for TVs and over to CVS for a
resupply of drugs! This is 21st century protesting, as creative as ones in
Newark in the 60s! Not much changed except TVs are lot lighter to carry.

Unfortunately, this is not the 1960s and today's protesters have no idea the
lives their grandparents lived, which deserved to be protested 50 years ago.

This is not to minimize cops shootings, and not just Black victims, who are
25% or all shootings, Whites too, who are more than 50% of those killed.

One point which needs to be made, "Cops do not want to kill anyone!"

I would say the 50% of Whites and 25% of Blacks have more in common than
the difference their races instruct us. Of the 500 Blacks and Whites killed
how many were upright citizens,  and how many  were imprisoned, on drugs,
had illegal firearms, etc, etc.?  There is where you find the commonality!

While more than 700 people have been killed by law enforcement this year,
over 3000 others have been killed, highest percentage, Blacks killing Blacks.

Our deepest concern should be what can be done to help Charlotte heal.

The Democrat Party has given Black Lives Matter undeserved legitimacy in
every city it brings its brand of political anarchy. The party has cowered
to this group wherever it invites itself. Even its nominee, Hillary Clinton
is lecturing "White people", telling them to listen up! No such advise for
the dispirited communities in need of so much yet receiving so little.

Black Lives Matter is a manufactured group, quietly funded by George Soros
whose desires are to bring anarchy to communities on the edge. They are
easy prey, vulnerable. And law enforcement is the most visible target!

Even the protesters are "manufactured", as the arrest records bare out,
70% came from other cities.

On the flip side is Donald Trump who has supported law enforcement before
Hillary even arrived in Arkansas! He called Black Lives Matter for what
it is. He did not try to appease a group bent of weakening communities,
not healing them.

Trump never wavered, he knows cops are essential to everyone's protection,
yet at same time understands conditions in Black communities directly
leading to such situations need to be improved.

Black Lives Matter is a fraud, a concurred up "movement" created to bring
internal anarchy. If it wanted to advance a discussion it would take its
circus performers to every city hall that have not improved conditions
that led to Black communities deteriorating. THIS is where the problems
can be fixed, not targeting the one group of people who care enough to
put their lives on the line.

As the wife of one police officer said, "all I pray for is seeing my husband
walk through the door each day", no different than any other wife wants.

I am sure the good folks of Charlotte cannot wait for the circus to leave
town, but we know there is another city on the horizon, and each of us
hope its not ours!






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The real purpose of a political debate.....

When we look back on past political debates we never are reminded
of substance, key points the winning candidate successfully used after
becoming president.

We do hear memorable, even the meaningless, quips the media says
allowed one candidate to rise and the other to falter.  Really? Based
on what?

And, after listening to the media tell us what the candidates should do
don't expect the post election assessments be any different. We will
learn nothing, because "learning" isn't purpose of a debate!

"Learn" is a word rarely used in political discussions. He hear all the
attention towards 'temperament' and 'behavior' , neither which speaks
of  what to expect  when our new president takes office, only the
conjecture of a media that has little interest in what the viewers want.

Positions on issues are the farthest from their minds unless they see
an issue a chance to place a candidate on the defensive.  Again,
the media cares little about what the electorate needs to learn to
be better informed when voting.

Details on issues get lost in the discussion, and even the few who
visit the candidates websites may only find  vague references, not
details of how problems will be fixed.

These debates can be different, if the moderators remember the
purpose, be the vehicle so the public can "learn" about candidates
and what to expect.  Its that simple!


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Can small town America be saved?

Part One:

Its easy to find 'small town n America', take any road, in any direction,
drive thirty to fifty miles from a thriving city and you've arrived!

What will we see? A slower pace, with people strolling along with
smiling faces that you can see, as most will not be texting! You will
see smaller stores, not mega malls (not enough profit margin for them
to succeed), fewer traffic lights, older and smaller schools in need or
repair, often no cable service.

M

​any​

Americans would give pause when they arrived in 'small town
America'. They would be surprised to see such places, rarely in the
news unless they are the center of a calamity reported by the media!

The only people who usually travel there are visiting family members,
traveling salesmen, local politicians, and this year presidential candidates
campaigning for votes.

There is no need to report on 'small town America', what can possibly
be learned from "yesterday's news" hardly comparable to what we can
learned on nightly broadcasts from the capitals of politics and entertainment.

'Small town America' may not have died, but it certainly has not thrived.
It has been forgotten, as

​ha​

s Norman Rockwell who saw and appreciated
the grit of the people who lived there. However, we must remember, if
not for 'small town America', it is likely there would be no America today.

There is no doubt, it is 'big city America' where headlines are made and
the media ensures we get a daily dose with nightly broadcasts from the
capitals of  politics and entertainment.

Every night we learn how the country is doing, its failings and successes,
all measured without the pulse of 'small town America' being taken.

​ ​

We learn how our economy is doing, either good or bad, confirmed with

​​statistics to make either point, such as people hired, people fired,
business booms or busts, and more.

But, these reports do not come with 'small town America' as the backdrop.
Even thought it is within fifty miles, it may as well be a thousand miles away!

Even the economic health of a state is reported as either best performing
or worst, without factoring how sparsely populated counties and towns of
'small town America' are doing. To the media, they do not even register!

Look at New York; perceived as an economic powerhouse thanks to the
backdrop of multi-million dollar condos in the Manhattan skyline, casting
a the shadow on Wall St. But, travel to Schenectady, Rochester or the Mid
Hudson Valley, once economic powers when GE, Kodak and IBM thrived
in their respective industries and you will see a totally different picture, no
backdrop required! All three areas are ghosts of what they were, yet rarely
is reported.

But, a snapshot of New York is not unique, it is seen in most states. My own
state North Carolina recently was listed as having the second best economy,
right behind Utah and just ahead of North Dakota. On the surface this may
sound great, but travel across the state, visit some of  our one hundred
counties and judge for yourselves. You would never believe NC is the
"second best economy" as you travel the four hundred miles from ocean
to the Tennessee border.

Why is this? Why within the same borders, governed by the same laws,
where people with similar upbringing and beliefs do we find this disparity?
 
The reason is the same today as it always was, "areas of gold" can always
be found and exploited without the realization the burden for their success
is the heaviest on 'small town America', forgotten aside from needing vital
govt. assistance.

Great as the wealth of states with the best economies is, they still have the
burden of providing aid to their own struggling towns, aid that rarely leads
to them being able to self-sustain, only remain on government assistance!

What has yet to be discovered is how prosperity and economic growth
occur beyond the fifty miles from 'areas of gold'.

Going back to sparsely populated states that have been successful, Utah
and North Dakota, the success has been attributed to 'areas of gold',
natural resources that was allowed to be mined using fracking.

This is rare and most states have no such good fortune. But, all across our
country we do have talented people, with untapped potential, who can see
what most others do not. They are the salvation of  'small town America'!
All they need is a stimulus from government.

Essential services must be committed, equal opportunities and access to
the same services as we find in the "areas of gold", Not charity, only
eliminating unneeded hurdles.

Across our country are thousands of 'small town America' cities that are
one, two or five years removed from being ghost towns, joining the ones
already here.

Forward thinking states need to address the problem, the cost is worth the
reward. It can begin with a state agency created,  a "Rural Development
Dept." which would convene with 'small town America' local officials and
businesses. Learn what they need, infrastructure, services, education to
become "acres of gold" of their own.

Its time 'small town America' which made our country a twentieth century
power be saved from becoming the twenty-first century ghost towns.

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Using our money where it will do the most good!

One of the best lines I heard at the Republican presidential debates came
from Sen. Rand Paul. When he was challenged that his tax plan would
provide less money (I refuse to say "give") for the US Treasury Paul
quickly responded the govt. receives too much money now!

In recent months there has been similar criticism of Donald Trump's plan
that reduces the number of tax brackets from seven to three, all with lower
rates. Critics said it would not provide enough money for the Treasury.

The Tax Foundation warned "the cost of Trump's cuts could easily total
more than $7 trillion over the next decade".  I always enjoy reading how
our money "costs" the government.

The Tax Foundation could have stated, "the savings to taxpayers could
easily be more than $7 trillion over the next decade". But, in
Washington such thinking is unimaginable!

Consider what this shift of $7 trillion from Washington to Main St and
Wall St. would mean which I am sure politicians, bureaucrats and the
Tax Foundation would never consider.

It may surprise you to know individuals and businesses are not much
different than government. We all spend in the same two ways, either 
mandatory or discretionary.  

In our case, mandatory would be housing, food and essential services 
while discretionary would be health care, education, savings, vacations
and entertainment.

For businesses mandatory is operation, facilities, parts and payroll, 
while new products and expansion would be discretionary.

All this spending is done outside of Washington, not by Washington.
The trillions spent by customers goes to businesses and with each 
transaction tax revenue is generated for the cities, states and yes
Washington too, making the "lose" of $7 trillion a hollow claim.

$7 trillion creates not only more revenue for all levels of government, but 
more jobs that comes with prospering businesses, meaning more tax
revenue which has to be factored in as well.

The American people and businesses are the engine of a successful 
economy, and $7 trillion is the fuel that will make the engine run.  

There is no need to send more to Washington when the greatest benefit 
is when it is closer to the people!

Something to think about when a politician says government needs 
more money!







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The state of political discourse

If you follow politics and sincerely interested in the future of American governance you might appreciate this commentary from Victor Davis Hanson, historian at Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Hanson offers his views on the 2016 presidential campaign and the impact Donald Trump challenge for the White House.

Never NeverTrump

The Republican dilemma

By Victor Davis Hanson — September 20, 2016

Any Republican has a difficult pathway to the presidency. On the electoral map, expanding blue blobs in coastal and big-city America swamp the conservative geographical sea of red. Big-electoral-vote states such as California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey are utterly lost before the campaign even begins. The media have devolved into a weird Ministry of Truth. News seems defined now as what information is necessary to release to arrive at correct views.
  

In recent elections, centrists, like John McCain and Mitt Romney – once found useful by the media when running against more-conservative Republicans — were reinvented as caricatures of Potterville scoundrels right out of a Frank Capra movie.

When the media got through with a good man like McCain, he was left an adulterous, confused septuagenarian, unsure of how many mansions he owned, and a likely closeted bigot. Another gentleman like Romney was reduced to a comic-book Ri¢hie Ri¢h, who owned an elevator, never talked to his garbage man, hazed innocents in prep school, and tortured his dog on the roof of his car. If it were a choice between shouting down debate moderator Candy Crowley and shaming her unprofessionalism, or allowing her to hijack the debate, Romney in Ajaxian style (“nobly live, or nobly die”) chose the decorous path of dignified abdication.

In contrast, we were to believe Obama’s adolescent faux Greek columns, hokey “lowering the seas and cooling the planet,” vero possumus seal on his podium as president-elect, and 57 states were Lincolnesque.

Why would 2016 not end up again in losing nobly? Would once again campaigning under the Marquess of Queensberry rules win Republicans a Munich reprieve?

The Orangeman Cometh
In such a hysterical landscape, it was possible that no traditional Republican in 2016 was likely to win, even against a flawed candidate like Hillary Clinton, who emerged wounded from a bruising primary win over aged socialist Bernie Sanders.

Then came along the Trump, the seducer of the Right when the Republican establishment was busy early on coronating Jeb Bush. After the cuckolded front-runners imploded, we all assumed that Trump’s successful primary victories — oddly predicated on avoidance of a ground game, internal polling, ad campaigns, sophisticated fundraising, and a sea of consultants and handlers — were hardly applicable to Clinton, Inc. She surely would bury him under a sea of cash, consultants, and sheer manpower.

That Trump was an amateur, a cad, his own worst enemy, cynically leveraging a new business or brand, and at any time could say anything was supposedly confirmation of Hillary’s inevitable victory. Her winning paradigm was seen as simply anti-Trump rather than pro-Hillary: light campaigning to conserve her disguised fragile health, while giving full media attention to allow Trump to elucidate his fully obnoxious self. Her campaign was to be a series of self-important selfies, each more flattering to the beholder but otherwise of no interest to her reluctant supporters.

For insurance, Clinton would enlist the bipartisan highbrow Washington establishment to close ranks, with their habitual tsk-tsking of Trump in a nuanced historical context — “Hitler,” “Stalin,” “Mussolini,” “brown shirt,” etc.

Hillary would rely on the old Obama team of progressive hit men in the public-employee unions, the news ministries, the pajama-boy bloggers, the race industry, and the open-borders lobbies to brand Trump supporters as racist, sexist, misogynist, Islamophobic, nativist, homophobic. The shades of Obama’s old white reprehensible “Clingers” would spring back to life as “The Deplorables.”

Yet for all Hillary’s hundreds of millions of corporate dollars and legions of Clinton Foundation strategists, she could never quite shake Trump, who at 70 seemed more like a frenzied 55. Trump at his worst was never put away by Hillary at her best, and he has stayed within six to eight points for most of his awful August and is now nipping her heels as October nears.

Fracking Populist Fury
Trump’s hare-and-tortoise strategy, his mishmash politics, reinventions, mastery of free publicity, and El Jefe celebrity had always offered him an outside chance of winning. But he is most aided by the daily news cycle that cannot be quite contorted to favor Hillary Clinton. Last weekend, in a 48-hour cycle, there were “Allahu akbar” attacks in Minneapolis and New York, pipe-bombings in Manhattan and New Jersey, and shootings of police in Philadelphia — the sort of violence that the public feels is not addressed by “workplace violence” and “hands up, don’t shoot” pandering.

Almost daily we read of these disasters that channel Trump’s Jacksonian populism, from closed Ford Motor plants moving to Mexico to yet another innocent killed by an illegal alien to more crowds flowing unimpeded across the border. Having Vicente Fox and Jorge Ramos spew televised animus at you is about as much a downside as Cher’s threats to leave the U.S. in 2016 or the plagiarist Fareed Zakaria’s frowns. When Barack Obama is reduced to begging African-American audiences, on the basis of racial solidarity, to vote for Hillary to preserve his ego and legacy, something is up.

All that news buzz is sandwiched by almost hourly reports of hacked e-mails, Clinton Foundation scandals, and violations of federal protocols — drip, drip, drip disclosures with more promised on the horizon. Some wondered, Why did not Hillary come clean and end the psychodramas? But that is like asking blue jays to become songbirds.​

Hubris does finally earn nemesis — and at the most disastrous Oedipal moment. This time around, even the media is no defense against an entirely new 21st-century hydra. Cyber serpents have no ideologies other than anarchist ruin. Hackers give Hillary no more exemption, due to her professed progressivism, than they would any other sucker foolish enough to be famous, sloppy in electronic communications, and self-righteous, sanctimonious, and slippery. Ask the ambidextrous and once iconic Colin Powell.

Trump’s electoral calculus was easy to fathom. He needed to win as many independents as Romney, enthuse some new Reagan Democrats to return to politics, keep steady the Republican establishment, and win at least as much of the Latino and black vote as had the under-performing McCain and Romney — all to win seven or eight swing states. He planned to do that, in addition to not stepping on IEDs, through the simple enough strategy of an outraged outsider not nibbling, but blasting away, at political correctness, reminding audiences that he was not a traditional conservative, but certainly more conservative than Hillary, and a roguish celebrity billionaire with a propensity to talk with, not down to, the lower middle classes.

That the establishment was repulsed by his carroty look, his past scheming, his Queens-accented bombast, and his nationalist policies only made him seem more authentic to his supporters, old and possibly new as well. The more Trump grew unnaturally calmer, he became somewhat presentable, and the more he did, the more a flummoxed Hillary returned to her natural shrillness — and likewise became less viable.

By late September, Trump had slowly mastered the electoral formula, in part due to his new campaign staff — ridiculed as amateurs by the handler establishment but who were versed in pop culture that may have made establishment politics this year obsolete. In good Obama (the erstwhile opponent of gay marriage and big deficits) and Clinton (the former free trader and closed-borders advocate) style, Trump became a version of the comic-book character The Flash: He left his critics far behind to shoot at empty silhouettes while he zoomed miles away to pause in his new incarnation.

Never in My Name?
The only missing tessera in Trump’s mosaic is the Republican establishment, or rather the 10 percent or so of them whose opposition might resonate enough to cost Trump 1–2 percent in one or two key states and spell his defeat. Some NeverTrump critics would prefer a Trump electoral disaster that still could redeem their warnings that he would destroy the Republican party; barring that, increasingly many would at least settle to be disliked, but controversial, spoilers in a 1–2 percent loss to Hillary rather than irrelevant in a Trump win.

To be fair, NeverTrump’s logic is that Trump’s past indiscretions and lack of ethics, his present opportunistic populist rather than conservative message, and the Sarah Palin nature of some of his supporters (whom I think Hillary clumsily referenced as the “deplorables” and whom Colin Powell huffed off as “poor white folks”) make him either too reckless to be commander-in-chief or too liberal to be endorsed by conservatives — or too gauche to admit supporting in reasoned circles. Perhaps.

But the proper question is a reductionist “compared to what?” NeverTrumpers assume that the latest insincerely packaged Trump is less conservative than the latest incarnation of an insincere Clinton on matters of border enforcement, military spending, tax and regulation reform, abortion, school choice, and cabinet and Supreme Court appointments. That is simply not a sustainable proposition.

Is Trump uncooked all that much more odious than the sautéed orneriness of the present incumbent, who has variously insulted the Special Olympics, racially stereotyped at will, resorted to braggadocio laced with violent rhetoric, racially hyped ongoing criminal trials, serially lied about Obamacare and Benghazi, ridiculed his grandmother who scrimped to send him to a private prep school, oversaw government corruption from the IRS to the VA to the GSA, and has grown the national debt in a fashion never before envisioned? Trump on occasion did not recognize the “nuclear triad,” but then he probably does not say “corpse men” either or believe we added 57 states.

Did the scandals and divisiveness of the last eight years ever prompt in 2012 a Democratic #NeverObama walkout or a 2016 progressive “not in my name” disowning of Obama? Are there 50 former Democratic foreign-policy veterans who cannot stomach Hillary’s prevarications and what she has done to national security, and therefore will sign a letter of principled non-support?

Did socialist idealist and self-appointed ethicist Bernie Sanders play a Ted Cruz, John Kasich, or Jeb Bush, and plead that Hillary’s Wall Street and pay-for-play grifting was so antithetical to his share-the-wealth fantasies that he would stay home?

Replying in kind to a Gold Star Muslim family or attacking a Mexican-American judge who is a member of a La Raza legal group is, of course, stupid and crass, but perhaps not as stupid as Hillary, before a Manhattan crowd of millionaires, writing off a quarter of America as deplorable, not American, and reprobate racists and bigots.

As for Trump’s bombast, I wish there was an accepted and consistent standard of political discourse by which to censure his past in-sensitiveness and worse, but there has not been one for some time.

Examine, for example, the level of racial invective used in the past by Hillary Clinton (“working, hard-working Americans, white Americans”), Harry Reid (“light-skinned African American with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one”), Joe Biden (“first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”), or Barack Obama (his own grandmother became a “typical white person”), and it’s hard to make the argument that Trump’s vocabulary marks a new low, especially given that few if any liberals bothered much about the racist tripe of their own. Trump so far has not appeared in linguistic blackface to patronize and mock the intelligence of an African-American audience with a 30-second, manufactured, and bad Southern accent in the manner of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

Similarly, in the old days, any candidates who met with the press, held news conferences, were easily cross-examined, gave out their blood tests and EKG results (did Obama or Hillary?), had small staffs, few TV ads, raised little outside money, spoke extemporaneously, and were not prepped by legions of handlers were considered “different” in the sense that they were welcomed mavericks to an otherwise scripted campaign season.

In a bankrupt Washington world in which “wise man” Colin Powell writes to a multimillionaire donor and lobbyist partner and other insiders about Bill Clinton “d***ing bimbos,” flashes the elite race card, namedrops the Hamptons and the Bohemian Grove, whines that Hillary’s greed drove down his own excessive speaking fees, unkindly attacks his own former promoters, and exchanges e-mail inane intimacies with a former foreign diplomatic official, the supposedly misogynist Trump is the first Republican nominee to entrust his party’s fate to a female campaign manager and a female African-American national spokesperson.

An Overdue Reckoning
Trump’s ball-and-chain flail, such as it can be fathomed, is in large part overdue. The old Wall Street Journal adherence to open borders was not so conservative — at least not for those on the front lines of illegal immigration and without the means to navigate around the concrete ramifications of the open-borders ideologies of apartheid elites.

How conservative was a definition of free trade that energized European Union subsidies on agriculture, tariffs on American imports into Japan, Chinese cheating or peddling toxic products, or general dumping into the United States? For two decades, farmers and small businesses have been wiped out in rural America; that destruction may have been “creative,” but it certainly was not because the farmers and business owners were stupid, lazy, or un-competitive. By this late date, for millions, wild and often unpredictable populist venting became preferable to being sent to the library to be enlightened by Adam Smith or Edmund Burke.

Outsourcing and offshoring did not make the U.S more competitive, at least for most Americans outside of Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Boutique corporate multiculturalism was always driven by profits while undermining the rare American idea of e pluribus unum assimilation — as the canny multimillionaires like Colin Kaepernick and Beyoncé grasped. Long ago, an Ivy League brand ceased being synonymous with erudition or ethics — as Bill, Hillary, and Barack Obama showed.

Defeated or retired “conservative” Republican grandees were just as likely as their liberal counterparts to profit from their government service in Washington to rake in lobbyist cash. So hoi polloi were about ready for anything — or rather everything.

In sum, if Trump’s D-11 bulldozer blade did not exist, it would have to be invented. He is Obama’s nemesis, Hillary’s worst nightmare, and a vampire’s mirror of the Republican establishment. Before November’s election, his next outburst or reinvention will once again sorely embarrass his supporters, but perhaps not to the degree that Clinton’s erudite callousness should repel her own.

In farming, I learned there is no good harvest, only each year one that’s 51 percent preferable to the alternative, which in 2016 is a likely 16-year Obama-Clinton hailstorm.
It may be discomforting for some conservatives to vote for the Republican party’s duly nominated candidate, but as this Manichean two-person race ends, it is now becoming suicidal not to.

— Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The Savior Generals. You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com. © 2016 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

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Hillary Clinton's plan to defeat terrorism

If you need to be comforted Hillary Clinton is ready to combat terrorism, here is what

'learned' from her plan:

These are the key words Hillary used, but neglected to offer details of HOW!

Hillary relies on "intensifying", "stepping up", "pursuing", "stem", "working", "targeting", 
"working" (again), "do more",  "launch", "keep", "support".

Here is the entire plan from her website. Feel comforted now?

1. Take out ISIS’s stronghold in Iraq and Syria

We have to defeat ISIS on the battlefield by:

• Intensifying the coalition air campaign against ISIS fighters, leaders, and infrastructure;
• Stepping up support for local Arab and Kurdish forces on the ground and coalition effort to protect civilians; and
• Pursuing a diplomatic strategy aimed at resolving Syria’s civil war and Iraq’s sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shias—both of which have contributed to the rise of ISIS.

2. Work with our allies to dismantle global terror networks

We have to stem the flow of jihadists from Europe and America to and from Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan. To that end, we must work with our allies to dismantle the global terror network that supplies radical jihadists with money, weapons, and fighters. That means:

• Working hand in hand with European intelligence services to identify and go after enablers who help jihadists forge documents and travel undetected;
• Targeting efforts to deal with ISIS affiliates from Libya to Afghanistan; and
• Working with tech companies to fight jihadist propaganda online, intercept ISIS communications, and track and analyze social media posts to stop attacks—while protecting security and privacy.

3. Harden our defenses at home

We have to do more to identify and stop terrorists—including so-called “lone wolves”—from carrying out attacks in the United States, including:

• Supporting first responders, law enforcement, and intelligence officers with the right tools, resources, intelligence, and training to prevent attacks before they happen;
• Launching an intelligence surge to get security officials the tools they need to prevent attacks;
• Keeping assault weapons and other tools of terror out of terrorists’ hands by allowing the FBI to stop gun sales to suspected terrorists, enacting comprehensive background checks, and keeping military-style assault weapons off our streets; and
• Supporting law enforcement to build trustful and strong relationships with American Muslim communities. We need every American community invested in this fight, not fearful and sitting on the sidelines."

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The political comfort zone may soon become uncomfortable!

It should not be surprising there is unreported story concerning the
Democrat Party which needs to be told.

The Democrat Party may be unraveling, thanks to the weight of lies
and distortions, two anchors that hopefully will finally sink the party
that believes governing on a false narrative is responsible governance.

Thoughtful students of political discourse know the duplicity, even those
who would walk over hot coals to vote for the "first woman", after voting
for the "first Black man", after voting for the first man who openly wrote
he "loathed  the military" but loved the ladies.  That is the legacy of the
modern Democrat Party, a party of "first", no matter the cost!

After eight years of "hope and change" , little has changed. Today, "the
people" the Democrat Party trumpets it represents are worse off  than
they were as Wall St., even in this anemic economy, is setting records!

One look at "the people" shows what a great job Democrats have done! 

We can acknowledge political  "marketing" is used by both parties to win
favor of the electorate. Both massage statistics to place themselves in the
best light, even when the truth would be the equivalent of a ten watt bulb!

But, Democrats are so much better,  having mastered duplicity, spun with
fear and empathy, using the conditions in the hardest pressed communities
to promote their policies which have yet to succeed unless you consider
winning elections "success"!

The evidence can be seen in cities, even states with the worst economies,
all with higher percentage of poor and jobless, all governed by Democrats.

Republicans have not done themselves much of a favor, their political
calculation is not driven by pacifying groups, by race, gender, or issue
as it has been for Democrats.

Republican establishment, not rank and file, are driven by an 'ideology'
of global designs where the limited governance of the Constitution takes
a back seat to a world 'consensus'. One major difference, the party would
be quite comfortable losing elections as long as they remain "comfortable"!

Don't ever expect Democrats to compromise, they want it all!

But, it will be the Democrat Party which will suffer the greatest blow for
the simple reason, the damage they have done to the majority of their
constituents has been much greater then the desires of globalist Republicans!

There is a fear in Donald Trump's surprising ascendancy. Neither tens of
millions spent on  campaign adds, nor shameless media "doctoring" sound
bites have dissuaded the people who have had it with politics as usual.

Trump is doing something which seemed unfathomable, taking on the
Clinton machine!

Say what you want about Trump's primary opponents, not one could
challenge Hillary with the intensity or his unorthodox campaigning
approach. Like no other, Donald Trump has been relentless.

Even Democrat-leaning media cannot derail Trump. Simple attacks as those
used against McCain and Romney have failed over and over against Trump.

Recently, distorted reporting, with divisive editing by CNN  where the word
"racial", a word Trump did not mention in his comment about profiling, was
included in story.

If the American people are fortunate enough to have Donald Trump become
our next president the "excuses" of why we are trillions in debt, jobs sent
overseas, middle class earning less than decades earlier will be replaced
with "solutions", built on a platform of common sense rather than an insatiable
appetite for globalism which has made the American worker merely pawns
 in this world wide chess game.

The prospects are much greater for the Republican Party. Trump may not
be a baptized conservative but his approach to addressing problems IS
conservative even without the moniker, as it is solution driven! 

Neither party establishments want to see Trump as president, as neither
were anxious to see Ronald Reagan elected for the same reason; the fear
the comfort of status quo governance would be replaced with one less
"comforting"!



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What does Trump's economic plan mean to me

Each of us must evaluate his plan independently as not all of
us will be affected in the same way.



Donald Trump's speech before Economic Club of New York detailed
his economic plan to strengthen our economy and create jobs.

Trump's main objective is to restore our economic growth to
four percent, double what it current is, believing this will
be the catalyst that will return our country to the world's
economic power.

His plan is to create "real" stimulus by giving the American
people the responsibility not Washington bureaucrats who have
little to lose if it failed as we have seen since 2008.

As a businessman Trump knows the American people have "skin
in the game", if they don't produce it affects them directly.
Putting the onus on individuals and businesses means they
must be 'productive' something lost on most politicians.

Cycles of peace time productivity occurred after our two
world wars, beginning in 1918 and 1946, without government
creating stimulus!

Today, the American people cannot do it along, it needs
government, but on Trump's terms, simply removing hurdles
and then getting out of the way.

Government's "job" which Trump details is to eliminate
thousands of regulations which have hampered our economy
and drove up the cost of everything from food to housing
and everything in between.

Trump's team will seek advice from industry to determine
which regulations have caused more harm than good.

Did you know regulations add an avg. of $85,000 to new home.

The needed 'stimulus' is simply not taking as much from
taxpayers, leaving more money in the hands of the American
people where it can go to work immediately, not depend on
government's timetable.

This is why the most dramatic change in IRS codes in decades
is part of the plan, keeping a trillion in the pockets of
the American people, not sent to Washington.

Left in our hands means the money will circulate throughout
the country, and with each 'stop', help businesses and
extract taxes that will increase both state and federal
revenue.

Its not "trickle down" its better.

Revenue growth will come almost immediately as there will
be a demand for labor as businesses invest with the money
they will not have to send to Washington.


will be able to hire and by allowing us
to become wealthier, which in turn will send more money
to Washington even though tax rates would be lower.

Trump understands real economic growth can only come from
not one that has government deciding how to spend our tax money
but businesses and individuals.

Here are key points of the economic plan Trump proposed.

He began by stating 92 million Americans are on the sidelines,
outside the workforce, and not part of our economy, calling
it a silent nation of jobless Americans.

He mentioned Flint, MI as an example, that in the 1970s had
80,000 workers building cars in the city, today has 8,000.

Trump offered his plan to keep jobs in our country giving
business tax relief here rather than overseas. He promotes
it as a new policy of Americanism.

Returning to a theme of Ronald Reagan,Trump says lowering
taxes, removing destructive regulations, unleashing the
vast treasure of American energy, and negotiate trade deals
will energize the our economy.

Trump's economic team believe these steps will make the
US the world’s great magnet for innovation and job creation.
America will once again be the greatest place in the world
to invest,  hire, grow and to create new jobs, new technologies,
and entire new industries.

Trump states his plan will establish a national goal of reaching
4% economic growth rather than the 2% annual average which has
crippled the American families and businesses. He projects his
plan economic team estimates that will average 3.5% growth and
create a total of 25 million new jobs.

He also says it will be deficit neutral and at 4% growth, reduce
the deficit, accomplished through a complete overhaul of our tax,
regulatory, energy and trade policies, something which cannot be
done continuing policies that currently grew the economy only
1.1 % last quarter, translating to millions of lost jobs.

To compare the last 7 years, the economy grew only 2.1%, the
slowest period in seventy years. Had the economy grown under
Obama at same rate as Reagan, it would have meant 10 million
more jobs.

Trump's tax plan will simplify the code; reduce number of brackets
from 7 to 3, at 12%, 25% and 35% and streamline deductions. The
new code will concentrated on the low and middle income taxpayers
who will receive the biggest benefit.

Also, the business tax rate will be reduced to 15% from 35% rate,
a 40% reduction that will generate an explosion of new business
and new jobs will be created.

US based manufacturers will also be allowed to fully expense the
cost of new plants and equipment.

The "repatriation" of offshore business wealth will be achieved
with a 10% tax rate. With an estimated $2-5 trillion overseas this
would  bring in $200-500 billion in revenue and allow business
to use the $1.8 trillion for investment in the US.

Disastrous regulations unilaterally imposed by our out-of-control
bureaucracy will be eliminated. In 2015 alone, federal agencies
issued over 3,300 final rules and regulations, up from 2,400 the
prior year. Every year, over regulation costs our economy $2 trillion
dollars a year and reduces household wealth by almost $15,000 dollars.

There will be moratorium on new federal regulations not compelled by
Congress or public safety. This includes eliminating some of our most
intrusive regulations, like the Waters of The U.S. Rule.

It also means scrapping the EPA’s so-called Clean Power Plan which the
government itself estimates will cost $7.2 billion a year and has shut
down most, if not all, coal-powered electricity plans in America whose
energy restrictions will eliminate another half a million manufacturing
jobs, reduce economic output by $2.5 trillion dollars, and reduce incomes
by $7,000 dollars per person.

Lifting restrictions on all sources of American energy production will
annually increase GDP by more than $100 billion, add over 500,000 new
jobs and increase wages by more than $30 billion over the next 7 years.

This explosion will also increase federal, state, and local tax revenues
by almost $6 trillion over 4 decades and increase total economic activity
by more than $20 trillion over the next 40 years.

In addition, the permitting process for all energy infrastructure projects,
including the billions of dollars in projects currently held up will be
streamlined, creating countless more jobs in the process.


Finally, comes trade – the foundation for everything America’s annual trade
deficit with the world is now nearly $800 a billion a year – an enormous
drag on growth.

Our manufacturing base has crumbled, communities have been hollowed out,
wages have declined, and households are making less today than they were
in the year 2000.


This includes the following steps:

The Secretary of Commerce to identify every violation of trade agreements a foreign country is currently using to harm our workers. I will use every tool under American and international law to end these abuses.

We will renegotiate NAFTA into a deal that will either be good for us or will be terminated until a brand new and productive deal can be signed.

We are also going to keep America out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Treasury Secretary will label China a currency manipulator, and to apply tariffs to any country that devalues its currency to gain an unfair advantage over the United States.

The U.S. Trade Representative to bring trade cases against China whose unfair subsidy behavior is prohibited by the terms of its entrance to the WTO, and I intend to enforce those rules which will stop China's illegal activities, including its theft of American trade secrets and intellectual property.

Just the single action of enforcing intellectual property rules alone would add millions of new American jobs. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, improved protection of America’s intellectual property in China would add 2 million jobs a year to the United States every single year.

We are proposing a $4.4 trillion tax cut that will score as $2.6 trillion under a dynamic growth model, which is how taxes should be scored.

This growth-induced savings from trade, energy and regulation reform will shave  $1.8 trillion off of the remaining cost and leave around $800 billion dollars which will be shaved by cutting 1% of every non defense or entitlement federal dollar.

This money can all be saved through simple, common sense reforms. If we save just one penny of each federal dollar spent on non-defense, and non-entitlement programs, we can save almost $1 trillion over the next decade – again this is spending that does not touch defense, and that does not touch entitlements.

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Some dots are easier to connect than others

If anyone wonders when Hillary Clinton's presidential
campaign of 2016 suffered its first blow, go back to
2007, the year Hillary Clinton made critical decisions
that may destroy her campaign to win the presidency.

Several events, before the 2008 election and after
being named Secy. of State, could end her political
career. 

As the FBI, Congress and media were looking into
the use of her private server as Secy. of State to see
if classified information was compromised, the true
intent was only recently learned.

First, remember Hillary was told, through an official
directive and an explicit statement from President
Obama not to use a non-government authorized and
protected server. Hillary did so anyway.

This is not the only thing Hillary refused to do. Obama
also instructed her not to hire her long time friend and
confidant Sidney Blumenthal, who president knew was
behind the slander Hillary used during the campaign against
him, and did not want him in his Administration.

Hillary did the next best thing, had the Clinton Foundation
hire him, at $10,000 per month!

As national security was the concern the FBI wanted to
see if access to classified information occurred. But,
this could not be done without extraordinary efforts
as Hillary's staff destroyed the physical server after
deleting all emails.

Such an unusual step, deleting tens of thousands of
emails en masse and physically destroying the server,
brought obvious suspicion.

Only recently, after the FBI, Congress and the media
chased their investigative "tails" for several years
the real reason for a private server has been learned.

The private server was not just for 'convenience' as
Hillary has been telling us for six years, it was a
back door into the Clinton Foundation, which Obama
also told her to distance herself from. Again, Hillary
ignored the president, unbeknownst to him!

By using a private server Hillary was able to juggle
two jobs, the difficult one of running State Dept. and
the more tedious one, serving as the foundation's
primary fund raiser as related emails prove.

Hillary's server was only to be used for government
business, yet she decided to use it for foundation
communications too.

There is no need to prove 'pay for play', we only need
to acknowledge non-govt. communications from donors
to Hillary were send to a govt. designated server, and
inappropriate.

Hillary did as she pleased about the server, Blumenthal,
the foundation, and Obama.

Her decisions may now be haunting her, whether or not it
keeps her from the White House is yet to be learned.

Now, Hillary and her surrogates in the Congressional Black
Caucus are bringing up Donald Trump as the source of the
"birther" question, President Obama's US citizenship.

She may have ventured into area she'll regret, the connection
between Blumenthal and "birther" dates back to her failed
2008 campaign.



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Two surprising perspectives from political consultants

I recently attended an event where two political consultants reviewed results
of monthly polling here in NC. It was surprising both consultants missed
lessons even I learned from Donald Trump's campaign.

I asked the Democrat consultant why most Blacks still stick with his party
even though their prospects have not improved. His answer came right out
of the 1960s playbook, "Blacks are concerned about voter suppression".

The guy is smart enough to know there is minimal chance of this happening,
laws now protect all voters they did not do before civil rights legislation. He
was spewing a party line, probably to sidestep the failure of urban Democrat
governance.

I doubt Trump even gave thought to  "voter  suppression", before he went
into Black communities to campaign. He knew it was a non-existent concocted
Democrat attempt to strike fear in Blacks and sever the spine of any Republican
who dared consider crossing the threshold of "their" electorate.

Trump did not listen to consultants who I am sure suggested he would be wasting
his time trying to woo Black voters. Win the Black vote or not, he reached out
and continues to do at every rally, no matter the audience or the region of the

country.

I also had a question for the Republican consultant. Why isn't our governor who
guided NC from the twentieth to second best economy in three years not rated
higher in polls. Again, the answer was not surprising, I hear it often,  "it takes
money to advertise!", the standard excuse.

I told him high level politicians can get as much air time as they want, without
spending money. This was once called the bully pulpit...now its 24/7 news cycle.

Remember, what started as a joke, Trump tweeting, now has gained him millions
of followers on social media!

Two professional consultants who I believe are wrong, one locked' in the past,
the other missing the future!

Message to the Democrat consultant, using fabricated fears may help a  party but
does nothing to benefit the electorate who are treated as pawns for political gains.

Message to the Republican consultant, solution oriented campaigning that resonates
is greater than packaged speeches which offer little in specifics.

Trump, like him or not, showed campaigning should embrace all constituencies
and politicians can be successful even if outspent, if they connect with electorate.

"We the People" no longer matter

There has been a battle over where the responsibility for public education belongs,
in Washington or within independent states. The battle continues as a tug-of-war,
using children as the "rope" stretched between both governing bodies.

Since its inception the Dept. of Education has played a major roll in public education,

taking away the authority of the states under threat of losing federal funding.

The results of federal interference; public education is worse today than it was 

before the Dept. of Education was created.

I bring this up as another top down dictate has come down from Washington, the

Federal government is forcing American communities to educate several million

foreign students.

Now, digest this, especially those who are troubled with the cost of education.  

Using Wake County, NC as an example, we are poised to vote on another school 

bond expected to be in the high priced "neighborhood" of more than $1 billion, 

a bit higher than the last "neighborhood" we visited, $800 million school bond

passed two years ago.

The reason for these school bonds is local communities approve new developments

bringing in more people, that places the burden on the county to build more schools.

While this is an 'internal influence' where county and town officials can work together,
the federal government is an 'external influence' that does not bother with addressing
this matter jointly, merely place burden on communities "selected".

The cost to Wake County and other communities across our country will have to be

wrestled with locally. There may be some increase in federal funding, but this is often
a one time disbursement, not long term which the counties will have to bare.

The story......

The political establishment insatiable appetite for immigration is
forcing hard-pressed American communities to divert funding from
their own children to educate roughly over 3.5 million foreign students,
many who do not speak English according to an analysis by an immigration
reform group.

“Public school districts across the United States are suffering under a massive unfunded mandate imposed by the federal government… to educate millions of illegal aliens, the school age children of illegal aliens, refugees and legal immigrant students,” says the report

released Tuesday by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

“It currently costs public schools $59.8 billion [per year] to serve this burgeoning population,” the report states.

The struggle to fund programs for students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), sometimes called English Language Learners (ELL), represents a major drain on school budgets. Yet due to political correctness, it is taboo to raise the issue even though resources are redirected away from American citizens to support programs like English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Second Language (ESL).”

Local school districts and taxpayers are being forced to fund foreigners’ education at the expense of their own children and communities. Illegal aliens, children of illegals, Third World refugees, legal immigrants, and the ongoing surge of “unaccompanied alien minors” from Central America impose severe costs on communities that struggle to accommodate them under the threat of lawsuits, particularly from the Obama administration.

Despite breaking many U.S. laws, illegal aliens are still entitled to U.S. taxpayer-funded educations for themselves and their children.

The surge of illegal aliens from Central America presents special problems for U.S. school districts required to turn every illegal immigrant dumped on their doorsteps into a star student.

As an NBC report noted, “Some have never been to school or haven’t attended for years. Some aren’t literate in English or Spanish, and only speak Mayan languages, mostly Q’anjob’al.” Local taxpayers are being forced to pay for teachers to try to bring them up to Americans standards.

The rising costs and foreign-born students’ abilities provide a grim outlook:

• Nearly one in ten students enrolled in public schools is designated as Limited English Proficiency (LEP).

• While the federal government provides eight percent of school funding, it provides only one percent of funding for LEP students; state and local taxes fund the mandated $59.2 billion program annually.

• According to FAIR’s estimate, there are approximately 3.62 million illegal alien students enrolled in public schools nationwide, costing taxpayers an average $12,128 each.

• Taxpayers are forced to shell out $1.7 billion annually to pay education costs for over 119,000 Central American illegal alien minors, whose record number of border crossings show no signs of slowing.
• 92% of 4th grade and 96% of 8th grade students perform at Basic or Below Basic levels, with 76%t performing at the Below Basic level.
• The number of LEP students from eighth to twelfth grade capable of performing Advanced work rounds to zero percent.
• The “abominable” LEP performance numbers have led to the creation of the Long Term English Language Learners (LTEL) category, which includes students “who have been enrolled in school for six or more years but are making scant progress learning English.” As many as half of all LEP students nationwide may fall into this category, the National Education Association estimates​.​

FAIR recommends several steps that once taken would ease the burden on school districts and communities.

The U.S. must secure its borders, cap immigration at 300,000 annually, and end “sanctuary city” jurisdictions that protect illegal aliens and encourage more to break into the U.S. Eligibility for taxpayer-funded incentives that entice illegal immigrants to stay, such as drivers’ licenses, free lunch programs, and more should be reviewed. Federal work authorization program E-Verify should be implemented to stop employers from hiring illegal alien workers and relying on the American taxpayer-funded safety net to socialize the costs of cheap labor.

The 2008 Wilberforce Trafficking Act has also been “hijacked as an avenue to resettle [unaccompanied alien minors] in the United States,” the report states: “This act must be reformed in a manner that allows the United States to process UAMs and reunite them with their families and homes outside the U.S. in an expedited manner while simultaneously protecting victims of human trafficking.”

Overturning Plyler v. Doe (1982) will give taxpayers and states more control over where their tax dollars are spent.

“Since federal money only covers approximately one percent of education costs for LEP students, this [court] decision created one of the largest unfunded mandates ever enacted by the U.S. government. Free education is attractive to illegal aliens. Families with an illegal head of household already average a tax deficit of more than $14,000, so the entire cost of this mandate is shouldered by United States taxpayers,” says the report. FAIR recommends states require school districts to collect immigration information in order to show exactly how much illegal aliens strain finances.

Over 59 million immigrants entered the U.S. in the past five decades alone, with the foreign-born population standing at 45 million.

Demographics shifted after lawmakers scrapped the European-origin quota system; in 1965, America was around 84 percent European, four percent Hispanic and one percent Asian, whereas in 2015 whites sank dramatically to only 62 percent of the total population while Hispanics made up 18 percent, and Asians six percent.

Over half of all migrants who came to the U.S. after 1965 were Hispanic and one quarter were Asian. Nine out of ten migrants who arrived in the U.S. before 1965 came from Europe; currently, nine out of ten migrants hail from the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, or Africa.

Immigration, not American births, will account for 88 percent (roughly 103 million people)

of the projected population increase over the next 50 years — if current policies are not changed. Unless current a historical, extreme levels of immigration are curbed, 78 million people of foreign origin will reside in the U.S., spelling out an uncertain future for American communities and U.S. education trends.

As I read the story I thought of a valued ally to fight this federal 
overreach from happening,the American Federation of Teachers, www.aft.org 
Such an alliance will not occur. The AFT is no longer solely an advocate 
for public education, it has become a political group aligned with the 
Democrat Party that is driving this "invasion" on public education.

Please add feedback in comments section below, or email ajbruno14@gmail.com "Point of View" blog http://ajbruno14.blogspot.com/

The general stands on feet of clay

It will be hard to find anyone who would criticize Colin Powell,
but there is much to criticize him about, if you looked.

Eyebrows were raised in 2008 when Powell endorsed Barack Obama
rather than the man who was instrumental in him becoming
National Security Advisor for President Reagan, John McCain.

But, that was OK, put aside any loyalty to a friend for over
thirty years to support a young and inexperienced fresh face
offering a different vision for the United States. Really?

Soon after Obama was elected the president decided to not
deploy missiles to Poland and withdrew our strong military
presence in Iraq, neither he campaigned he would do.

If this troubled Powell he never said so publicly.

Nor was the failure of the Obama Administration to keep the
Middle East stable was enough for Powell to speak out.

Apparently, Powell did not regret his 2008 endorsement as he
once again endorsed Obama in his reelection bid.

Didn't Powell, with a military career dating back to Vietnam,
not learn anything from Obama's mistakes, including the Iran
nuclear deal which puts our allies at greater risk? Does Powell
have a blind spot that led to a lack of objectivity when it came
to President Obama?

Or was it something more, did Powell feel obliged to continue
to support the first Black president, no matter his performance?

The latest revelation from Powell's emails offer an incite he
would prefer no one knows, his opinion of the Clintons who he
candidly admits he does not think highly.

Yet, without an endorsement of Hillary his brutal criticism
of Donald Trump telegraphs who he will support.

Why would a "Republican" publicly support Democrats in three
consecutive presidential elections?

The answer may be that Powell is political chameleon. You may
note while in the military Powell has against gays serving and
women in combat.  Now he favors both.

Colin Powell is nothing more than a politician, standing tall
on a moral high ground, on a feet of clay.


Please add feedback in comments section below, or
email ajbruno14@gmail.com

"Point of View" blog http://ajbruno14.blogspot.com/

Some "dragons" are much harder to slay.

In July, 2014 NC passed legislation to repeal and replace the
Common Core national education standard, an accomplishment
thanks to tens of thousands of parents and teachers who saw
first hand the problems caused.

That was more than two years ago and now, the hopes of those 
who  worked so hard may have been dashed, Common Core is still
with us. You see, some "dragons" are much harder to slay.

Common Core appears to be something more than just another
government driven initiative, it is the cornerstone of an education
"industry" that will require more than rallying citizens, creating 
thousands on "Stop Common Core" websites, calling representatives,
or protesting at the legislature to defeat.

The battle is not just against the NC Dept. of Education which has 
been dragging its bureaucratic heals, its against the people behind 
the scenes who I will call the "James Brothers", who drive education
in NC and how our children will be taught, former governor Jim Hunt
and SAS CEO, Jim Goodnight! Both have strongly supported Common
Core from the beginning, even without seeing results, thanks to
non-existent testing.

I suppose if Common Core was good enough for deep pocketed Bill
Gates, it was fine with them.

But, as anxious as they were to have our children learn under Common
Core, Jim Goodnight's own private school, Cary Academy, "is still
evaluating it".

Even Gov. McCrory who in the last two years has gotten himself bogged
down with divisive issues, does not seem equally interested in getting
rid of  the one issue the majority of citizens demand!

But, NC citizens are not alone in the battle to defeat this education
"dragon", the resistance can be found nationwide, noted in report on
academia.org website.

Note:
The unpopularity of the Common Core educational standards is not causing it’s proponents to rethink it but to rebrand it. “In 2010, every state but Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia adopted Common Core State Standards, a set of requirements for what elementary and secondary school children should know in each grade in math and English language arts,” Joy Pullmann writes in the second edition of Common Core: A Bad Choice for America, published by the Heartland Institute. “Five years later, three in five Americans said they don’t know if Common Core is in their local schools.”

“While 25 states have renamed Common Core to avoid a growing public backlash against these mandates, 43 states kept Common Core standards in some form and are now using them to teach students.” In other words, most states are still using them but more than half the country is trying to dupe parents into thinking they are not.

During the campaign season, this subterfuge enabled certain Republican candidates for president to deliver full-throated denunciations of Common Core even while scarcely lifting a finger to do anything about it. For example, three states that abandoned Common Core classic for new Common Core were Indiana, New Jersey and Louisiana.

The link to this website, http://bit.ly/2cK7mV3

Its hard to believe the General Assembly and Gov. McCrory are fully committed 
to NC public education when they allow this duplicity, leading on the public 
about repealing Common Core, yet allowing the Dept. of  Education do the 
bidding of the "James Brothers".

Pass along to others equally concerned with public education.