Donald J. Trump Inuguration Adress January 20, 2017

 Donald J. Trump Inuguration Adress January 20, 2017

Donald J. Trump

Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world: thank you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.

Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come.
We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done. Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent.

Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.

For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.
Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes – starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you! It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. This is your day. This is your celebration. And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.
The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before. At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction: that a nation exists to serve its citizens.

Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves.
These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public. But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

This American carnage stops RIGHT HERE and stops RIGHT NOW. We are one nation – and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry;
Subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military; We've defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own;
And spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon.
One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind.

The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.
But that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future.

We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power.
From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this moment on, it’s going to be America First. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

I will fight for you with every breath in my body – and I will never, ever let you down.
America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.

We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.
We will get our people off of welfare and back to work – rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.
We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world – but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.
When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.

The Bible tells us, “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”
We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear – we are protected, and we will always be protected.

We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement and, most importantly, we are protected by God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.
We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action – constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.

The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.

Do not let anyone tell you it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America.

We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again. We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.

A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions. It is time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag. And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty Creator.

So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, and from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together, We Will Make America Strong Again. We Will Make America Wealthy Again.
We Will Make America Proud Again.
We Will Make America Safe Again....

and Yes, Together, We Will Make America Great Again. Thank you, God Bless You, And God Bless America.

Donald J. Trump
45th President of the United States

America Divided

America Divided

One has to wonder how the America we love got to be so politically divided.  Is this a passing phase, or is this disunity to be perpetuated by the blistering rhetoric and memes in the media, on line and in our other discourse?  The losing side in this election does not seem to able to phantom that they lost.  The country voted and rejected the ideologues in Washington.  The populist based winners are hell-bent to implement all that they promised during a bruising campaign, no matter how overtly ridiculous.  Neither side seems to give an inch, and uses all the modern technology they can to disparage the other side.  One side says “we won the popular vote”.  The other side says “we won the popular vote in 49 states, all but California”.  And the dialogue goes on.

A discouraging feature of this divide is the egregious disregard of the facts around the election and the transition to power.  The left, in all its forms, continues to pontificate anecdotally against the personality and peccadillos of the new president, rather than address substantive issues.  At this writing, this president has been in office all of two days, and all one sees in our vaunted media is rants against his personality and what he may do.  The right, on the other hand, present false information on trivial issues like crowd size, TV ratings, voter fraud and the like, also obfuscating real issues.  And we, consumers and purveyors of the news through our smartphones and social media, regularly post and spread false information about both sides by seeking out information, no matter how fake, to support our views.  We don’t help.  We contribute to the divisions.

Will it ever end?  Of course it will.  Trump will either be a popular hero by reviving the economy and bringing common business sense to government, or he will fail and be voted out.  That’s how our system works.

Is this the worse it’s ever been?  Not by a long shot.  It may be exacerbated by our technology and our smartphone and online activity, but the current disunity is nowhere near where we have been before.  We’ve had presidents shot down in our streets.  We’ve lost three quarters of a million men in our civil war.  We have had myriad upheavals threatening to destroy our republic.  Yet we have prevailed. 

Andrew Jackson, founder of the modern day Democrat party in the 1820’s was a crude, backwoods megalomaniac who ran roughshod over the Washington establishment and literally ran over our checks and balances.  He carried a bullet close to his heart from a prior duel, and was known to shoot opponents, rather than just debate them.   We got over Andrew Jackson.  (And put him on our twenty dollar bill.)

We had several serious populist movements that were quite rancorous in the 19^th century.  And of course we had the granddaddy of all disagreements, our civil war.  Recent estimates now place total deaths during the civil war at 750,000, a grim reminder where political division can lead.  Even the effects of our civil war continue to mitigate with time.

More recently, in the mid twentieth century, we had a massive social upheaval fueled by the civil rights and anti-Viet Nam war movements. As a personal anecdote, I returned to New York City from the Middle East in mid-1967.  Harlem, two miles north of where I was staying, was burning.  Newark was burning.  Detroit was burning.  Parts of Los Angeles were burning.  I thought the country had gone mad.  But eventually we came out of it.

And we will come out of this one.  This is simply an election result and a particularly controversial and idiosyncratic president.  You don’t think America will prevail and emerge stronger?  I do.  Just take a look at our turbulent history.

Ray Gruszecki

January 25, 2017

The Real Cause of our Country’s Polarization

The Real Cause of our Country’s Polarization

The main reason for our country’s divisions may not even be Trump’s controversial personality.  The underlying issue is the mindset of Trump’s opposition.  This hit me as I was talking to a very intelligent, educated and inveterate liberal friend.  Her reaction to any mention of Trump’s inauguration immediately elicited undisguised hatred.  This is the same reaction from other well educated and intelligent friends opposing Trump, male and female.  Hatred!  Sometimes hidden in cerebral verbiage, but unmistakably hatred.  What hit me is why this visceral negative reaction to an election loss?  And not only this one.  Anyone remember the liberals’ antics after the Bush elections?

The answer has to be in the intransigent liberal mindset.  Liberals are so sure that their views are best for everyone in the world, that they just cannot conceive anyone resisting or negating these views.  The country voting against their deeply held opinions of how a populace should be regulated (based on their didactic, politically correct principles) is anathema and absolutely unacceptable to them.  Otherwise why would these very intelligent people in most other ways balk at any attempt at applying logic to a political loss.  This attitude pervades the liberal community, and not only my smart friends.  It can be seen in the opinion pages of the New York Times and in other left leaning publications.  It can be seen in academia. It is obvious in the main stream media.  It is the virus that has divided the country.

After the Trump win in November the liberals’ tenacity regarding their views is almost messianic.  There is no convincing a liberal that there is another point of view.  Their way is the only way, and how dare these backwoods, flyover Americans deign to upset the Acela and West Coast hegemony?

Admittedly Trump’s outlandish declarations in the past have fueled his opponents more than usual this time around, but a review of the historical record shows the same type of reaction to the liberal’s loss to George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.  Liberals simply cannot accept rejection of their world view, even by the democratic election process.  This year Trump is the focus and symbol for these dogmatic and unyielding views, and he has exacerbated the issue by being his own person.  He answers insult with insult in 140 characters and denigrates his opposition further. 

Trump’s new administration will not be in charge of a politically correct, apologetic and weak America.  Hopefully it will be strong, dynamic and robust, as he promised, and all Americans will benefit. 

Conservatives seem to be more pragmatic and sanguine about election results.  There was some opposition to Bill Clinton and Obama, and conservatives certainly did not like those administrations, but this opposition was muted and soon dissipated and the election results accepted.  Conservatives, for the most part, did not go into the inauguration carrying signs saying “Not my president” and try to disrupt the proceedings.  Conservatives lived with these presidents for sixteen years as loyal opposing citizens.

As I’ve said before, peaceful protests against political views are legal and are protected by the first amendment.  Rioting and violence, particularly fueled by operatives and agitators like Michael Moore or Al Sharpton and paid for by George Soros and other liberals with deep pockets are not.

As I’ve also said before, it’s time that the liberals rebuild their party and reconstitute their message to include all Americans, not just East and West Coast and DC elites.  The democrat party is fragmented, but they soon will have an ex-president who is still young, charismatic, eloquent and who embodies their world view.  Let’s hope he does not forget why his party lost this election and leads his party to embrace all Americans, not just the favored few.

Ray Gruszecki

January 19, 2017

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

                                                WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

Where is the outrage? Where are the media cries? The same left wing cabal that has been denouncing Trump from the outset now is attempting what appears to be a coup to keep him from taking office. Trump is not a big favorite of mine, but honesty and fairness is.

Ultra liberals like Jill Stein and Elizabeth Warren tried a recount in some battleground states. The result – some 160 additional votes for Trump in Wisconsin. Can you imagine the hue and cry if Clinton had won the Electoral College and Steve Bannon and Ted Cruz attempted the same sort of recount in some states? They literally would be pilloried, if not crucified.

Where is the media indignation and disapproval of attempts to intimidate state electors to not vote for Trump by threats of physical harm? Again in the reverse this would be met by liberal rioting in the streets by hired thugs similar to what happened just after the election. Rather than violence by Trump supporters against minorities (a few incidents did indeed happen), what we have is violence by bigoted liberal thugs against little old ladies who voted for Trump, and now against even against state electors. What a deplorable (sic) bunch!

And what about cries of Russian hacking and the implication that this somehow invalidated the election? All that was revealed by Wikileaks was more details about Hillary’s crimes and indiscretions. Let’s remember how Hillary blasted Trump and called it “horrifying” when he said that he would wait to review results before accepting them. Also, let’s have no doubts that our NSA, Russia, China, Germany, France and all nations these days engage in some form of cyber hacking and related espionage. Nearly gone are the humint spies like Mata Hari, Aldrich Ames and others. They have been replaced by mathematicians and banks of parallel computers culling information from data banks all over the world. Proving that Russians specifically hacked our elections any more than normal data mining activities may prove to be quite difficult.

And the left wing media barrage is relentless! Talk about false news! Reading just about any of our once vaunted periodicals results not in news about the transition of power but instead a biased, negative, critical view of Trump and his emerging team. Trumps cabinet choices? Same results from the media, negative, critical, insulting. Did they expect him to choose the same type of weak liberal wusses Obama appointed?

The country is divided and fears about the populism and nationalism of Trump & co. are real. Some liberals talk about the “F” word – Fascism, without knowing too much about it, other than loose associations with Hitler, Mussolini and Franco. If one wants to be super critical of Trump, he is more comparable to Berlusconi of Italy than to the socio-economic anti-Communist Fascists of the last century.

We have checks and balances embedded in our government, and whilst the executive’s powers have increased in recent years, they are nowhere near dictatorial, nor likely to become so. Let’s give this guy and his government a chance, and stop trying to pull him down before he even gets into office. Not that he really gives a damn about the biased media attacks. Just look at what he overcame to be elected.

Ray Gruszecki

December 17, 2016