Comments on Trump’s Victory

Comments on Trump’s Victory

 There are several universities that are offering grief counseling to millennial students to help them with the trauma of the loss of the election by Hillary Clinton and the resultant win of the presidency by Donald Trump. This is one of the results of our increasingly liberal/progressive thinking and education.  You can’t blame the kids,  They don’t know any better than to identify a life disappointment as something to be treated as a major upheaval to be addressed by counseling, rather than as something that life offers up to be lived through.

Today is Veteran’s Day, and I just put out my flag.  I can’t help thinking that millennials in my parents’ generation (and in mine) were also offered some form of counseling. It was for trauma from war, which was called “shell shock”, for those of you who remember. (Called PTSD later).  In the mid-20th Century, those 17, 18 and 19 year old kids were fighting real life bloodletting battles against dire physical enemies – Nazism, Fascism, later Communism, and not imagined political bogeymen.  Their psychological impact was real, from seeing their compatriots killed and maimed in front of them, rather than reaction to a political disappointment.  How perceptions change, or are educationally catered to change over a few generations.

 We love our kids, and they should not have to endure the wartime hardships their parents did, but we should be raising educated and adjusted human beings, not a bunch of maladjusted crybabies.  I don’t think that those that fought and died for our freedoms envisaged our kids going to universities that would indoctrinate our millennials with the shopworn and time disproven doctrines of Marx, Lenin and Stalin.  Yet our whole university system is decidedly socialistic. Our universities churn out liberal/progressive clones that seem incapable of balanced thought and reasoning. We defeated communism in some places, and were defeated by a determined communist population in Viet Nam.  Communism died of its own weight in the old USSR, and it changed to be barely recognizable in China.  At any rate, communism and its socialist offshoots are defunct, discredited ideologies.  

 You wouldn’t think so though, after seeing how our left liberal educated millennials flocked to that acknowledged old Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders.  Bernie promised them the old communist/socialist saws – something for nothing, and pay for the something by stealing from the true producers in the society.  Free college tuition, freedom from college debt, and “the rich” will pay for it – sweet music to naïve young ears.  What Bernie and later Hillary did not tell them that when the piper has to be ultimately paid for all this “free” stuff, the result is a stifling, choking mediocracy of society.  One only has to look at many European countries, where the same back lash is occurring that brought Trump to victory in this country.

 A true wonder is how a candidate like Donald Trump could win the presidency.  Not that he is the demonized “prince of darkness” or devil incarnate defined by the same media that lied about all other aspects of the election, but because how heavily stacked against his candidacy were so many aspects of American society.  The president and his minions, and virtually the whole Washington political establishment were against him. Virtually all major newspapers were against him (including my own Dallas Morning News, which I barely forgave).  All major media other than Fox were against him.  Virtually all so called intelligentsia were against him.  Pretty much 100% of university thinking was against him.  All the special interest minority and lifestyle groups were against him.  The above societal elements, (which I will collapse semantically as the “liberal/progressive elite”), radicalized women, blacks and Latinos against him (or tried to, as it turned out).  He did not help his own cause by his own outrageous pronouncements and tweets about women, minorities, trade agreements and other topics normally not broached in a presidential campaign.

 So how did he win?  He won by sensing early the undercurrent of dissatisfaction within the people of America and appealing directly to the people.  He created a movement and this spoiled, wealthy celebrity playboy somehow managed to identify with so many real life working people.  He stressed that he was an outsider and flew in the face of the elitists massed against him.  His outrageousness kept him and his candidacy a top news item for much of the campaign.  He spent a fraction on paid media coverage of what the Clinton group did.  He didn’t have to – he was at the top of the news every day.  His speeches and tweets were directly to the people, and not just sound bites for the media and press.

 Obviously the people heard.  Not the few dazzled by Clinton’s pop stars. Not the inveterate conventional Democrat voters (who almost eviscerated themselves by attacking Bernie).  Not the “presstitutes” and liberal academics.  The people heard - the ones who do the work, whether in factories or in offices or in hospitals or in schools, or in so many other productive capacities.  And Trump drilled it home, directly to the people, in the face of the liberal elites and the Washington establishment.

 The people that responded to Trump’s message were the working professional and blue collar families who worked their 40-50 hours per week, many times with two wage earners, who could not seem to get ahead, no matter what.  If they still had decent jobs, they had not seen real wage/salary increases in years.  It was their jobs that relocated to Mexico or China, leaving them with second tier, low paying jobs.  They continued to work the long hours.  They saw the abuses in our society, the breeding “welfare moms”, the lawless movements that killed cops and demanded special privileges from society, the increasing toleration of drugs and other moral aberrations in our society.  They saw their values, religion, morals and ethics ridiculed by the liberal elite cabal.  They saw our country, the one our forefathers fought and died for, being made a laughing stock by an apologetic and do nothing government in Washington.

 Enough was enough.  Hillary represented a continuation of this unacceptable status quo, and in fact was coupled with the exact abuses of power that was causing our national and international morass.  Trump may not have been the most ethical and moral individual himself, but he was a plain talker and was aware of and addressed the main concerns.  Even more importantly, he was an outsider, a businessman, not part in any way of the existing system.  The Republicans need to thank him for running as a Republican.  He most likely could have won on his own, and the Republicans could have lost both houses of Congress.  One can also speculate how far Bernie Sanders could have brought his Democratic Socialist movement, which appealed to many of the same disaffected Americans and nearly all of the millennials, if the DNC and Hillary’s minions didn’t sabotage his campaign.

 Leveled against Trump by the Dems and the “liberal/progressive elites” were labels like “sexist”, “racist”, “misogynist”, “homophobe”, “fascist”, “megalomaniac”.  While possessing some elements of truth culled from Trump’s long background in New York real estate and in the celebrity limelight, these epithets were embellished and levelled by the same entities that were so wrong about all the other aspects of this election.  His response throughout the campaign was that he would work for ALL AMERICANS who loved this country, were here legally and were law abiding citizens.  He eschewed illegals, terrorists and potential terrorists and other criminal elements in our society.  His “locker room talk” in a Hollywood style venue was broadcast by the Dems/Libs to the world.  Suddenly, the Dems/Libs produced many women who claimed that he sexually abused them in the past.  Trump continued campaigning and none of these attempts to discredit him made any difference, perhaps because of the amateurish nature of how they were presented, perhaps because the electorate was inured by a constant barrage from WikiLeaks, of Hillary’s email based real crimes and indiscretions. 

 How could the media, and particularly the vaunted polls, have been so wrong?  I wrote blog months ago about drinking the biased media Kool-Aid.  It still pertains.  The discussion above of how skewed nearly all aspects of society were against Trump gives some insight.  After a while, they believed their own biased lies, and those fed by the liberal/progressive elite establishment. Attempts to find some balance during the election cycle inevitably led one to Fox or Newsmax or Breitbart, but accessing these gave one the feeling of being badly skewed the other way.  One poll, the USC Dornsife / LA Times Presidential Election "Daybreak" Poll consistently showed actual trends in the population rather than the biased trends fostered by the liberal/progressive elites.  Trump and Kellyanne Conway and company followed their own data, which told them that Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the middle of the country were in play. The liberal/progressive elite establishment called them crazy when Trump went to Wisconsin the Sunday before the election.  What is amazing is that how many so called reputable polls could be so blatantly wrong.  Their trends seemed correct.  They just had to be shifted about 5% toward Trump.

 Another aspect of Trump’s campaign was the enthusiastic crowds at his rallies across the country.  He would pack in 20,000 or 30,000 people with SRO and people waiting outside.  The conventional media pooh-poohed these crowds and said they meant nothing.  “Only the polls count” (sic)

  In another vein, it is not to say that all of Trump’s pronouncements should be taken at face value. The wall and having Mexico pay for it seems a bit of a rhetorical embellishment.  So does deporting 12 million illegals. So does excluding legal immigration based on religion.  These sound good when emphasizing abuses, but need to be examined in the cold clear light of day.  It is obvious that we need to secure our borders.  If a wall is the answer, so be it.  It is also clear that we need to do something about the 12 million illegals in our country.  This means provide a legal path to absorb them, or expel some of them.  More closely scrutinizing potential immigrants? – That goes without saying in our terrorist prone world.  A review of trade agreements?  - Absolutely if we are getting screwed by existing ones – may hurt some of us in Border States, but that’s the price to pay.  Beef up our military? - Absolutely after the debilitating cuts of the last eight years.

 For many of us old types who remember the transition from Carter, and 52 American Embassy prisoners held by Iran for 444 days, to Reagan and their immediate release, this is a bit of déjà vu.  America’s name was dragged through the mud by fumbling, if well intentioned Democrats in the 1970’s.  It was restored and reburnished by Ronald Reagan, originally an actor.  He was a, president that knew how to hire the right people, listen to them, and make us all proud to be Americans again.  Let’s hope Donald Trump can do the same and truly give our country the reset in so badly needs.

Ray Gruszecki

November 11, 2016

Trump’s Election Victory

Trump’s Election Victory

My well-meaning, if mis-guided liberal/progressive friends & family have my sympathy at what I’m sure they feel is a loss that impinges on their very cultural being. Trump must seem like the antithesis of many closely and dearly held, liberal beliefs and tenets.  Somewhat like conservatives felt with the election of Barrack Obama, but worse, because Trump attacked the very core of the political establishment, singlehandedly, and won using his own intelligence and personality, and inimitable ways, and not using, to any extent, a political party machine.  He is not Liberal or Conservative. He is Pro-America, and anti-establishment.  Liberals hate him.  Conservatives hate him.  Americans love him.  God bless America!

I predicted when I saw him walking down that escalator in mid 2015, that he would win the Republican nomination, and then go on to win the presidency.  Not because I particularly like the man, but because I knew that he did not undertake anything in life without a strong chance of winning, After 30 years of “neon Trump” during my main career in NYC, I liked his business acumen and daring, but disliked his braggadocio and elaborate life style.

It was also evident to me that there existed a strong anti-establishment sentiment in the western world that was railing against the elitism, socialism, secularism and erosion of morals and ethics that had become inherent in Europe and the U.S.. Trump obviously saw the same in our country exemplified by the Obama and potential Hillary Clinton administrations. He attacked these with a fervor, using techniques never before seen in our politics. Who can forget the name calling, ridicule and other antics of the nomination campaign? It kept him in the news, though, and on everyone’s mind. That was the reason for his antics.

Brexit in June of 2016 should have been a wake up call to the political establishment of this country.  England’s population is smaller than ours, but there are similarities and analogues there.  Brexit symbolized this opposition of a the majority of a nation against these same establishment elitists represented by the EU and the “united Europe” movement,  The blokes in Liverpool and Birmingham and Manchester said “up yours!”, London.  Some took it as an example of what Trump was talking about in this country.  Many more should have.

Many people felt that this country needed a reset from the doctrines of Obama, the Clintons and the ruling liberals of the last eight years.  We sure got that reset with Trump’s victory November 8^th.  Too bad Ol’ Blue Eyes is gone. If anyone ever deserved the songs “I Did It My Way”, or “New York, New York”, Donald Trump certainly does.  He won his own way, against all opposition, against all odds, against all efforts to cast him as a bigot and a misogynist, and in spite of continued “mal mots” that flowed from him during the whole campaign, or better said, during the movement. 

How could this New York billionaire and TV personality win in the rust belt with poor and disenfranchised blue collar workers?  Or with educated white collar career types?  Or among blacks and latinos and women in sufficient numbers to make a difference?   Because he resonated with the regular, honest Americans in this country, across the board, that the establishment in Washington and in the media are liars, and care more for themselves than in the people they profess to hold in such high regard. This is what Trump capitalized on, and what the people voted on – the blatant dishonesty and hypocrisy of the so called elite. The vote was not anti-Democrat or anti-Republican.  It was anti-corruption and anti-duplicity and anti-cynicism coached in glowing progressive rhetoric. To be Trump-like, the vote was anti-bullshit.

Now we have anti-Trump street demonstrations claiming that Hillary won the popular vote.  She did, by some 200,000 votes, but only because she had a plurality of 2,500,000 votes in late reporting California.  The math speaks for itself.  Trump easily won the popular vote if one sets aside the People’s Republic of California.  Hopefully the protests will be brief and peaceful.  We all certainly have the right to peaceable protests.

Hopefully also, the transition to a Trump administration in January, 2017 will be smooth and follow our democratic principles, as expressed by Trump in his acceptance speech, by Hillary’s graceful concession speech and by President Obama’s comments congratulating Trump.

Ray Gruszecki

November 8, 2016

Trump, Republicans, The Media

Recent accusations against Donald Trump concerning past sexual activities, and his vehement denials have resulted in lower and lower poll numbers in the 7 or 8 so called battleground states, those states he needs to win to get anywhere near the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the presidency.  The campaign has degenerated into concerted media attacks on Trump and his belligerent responses to the biased media.  The topics have become whether Trump kissed and groped various starlets in the past, rather than trade, terrorism, jobs, the economy and the Clintons’ past criminal proclivities

Trump was a businessman, and an entertainer, and yea, a playboy in the mold of what that meant in the 60’s and 70’s.  Off color speech, kissing and groping seem to be the worst of the worst that he has been accused of.  In this time of political correctness, no one condones such forward actions toward women and the braggadocio surrounding such activities.  However they do not make Trump the devil incarnate as espoused by the NYT and Michelle Obama and others of their political ilk.

We have heard Trump’s sophomoric comments about the easy access of women in the entertainment business on a You Tube clip released by NBC as an obviously pro-Clinton “October surprise”, and to detract from real content – the emails that Julian Assange released at the same time.  Several women from his past have also, suddenly this October, accused him of “kissing and groping”.  Not rape.  Nothing he has been legally accused of – “kissing and groping” are his unpardonable sins.

I cannot continue in good faith without referencing the hypocrisy around this topic vis-à-vis both Clintons.  It has been well established over 50 years that Bill Clinton has been a sexual predator that has assaulted and raped numerous women, not only “kissed and groped.  Hillary has indeed “stood by her man”, or by her accomplice, by threatening and persecuting these same victims.  What unmitigated cynicism and disregard of moral principles (and the law)!  This is only one example of moral, ethical and legal infractions.  There are many, and the allegations against Trump, even if they are true, being brought out by the Clinton campaign this late in the election, literally pale by comparison.

Not to say that Trump is some model citizen.  Not being a politician for most of his life, and forged in the crucible, first of privilege in New York City society, then of the rough world of New York real estate development and construction, and then of Hollywood and the reality shows, one can hardly expect him to be a model of behavior and decorum.  He is rough and tumble, brash and lewd – and he has seized upon these characteristics as part of his public persona.  His private life, as evidenced by his offspring seems to be another story.

His movement is comprised of working Americans; not just Larry the Cable Guy types, but also honest, straightforward and proud Americans who are fed up with the political correctness and ineptitude and inactivity which have made our country nearly laughable at home and abroad.  They are not upset, like some liberal elitists purport to be, when someone, in a locker room and Hollywood oriented environment says “pussy” and does not refer to their cat. (In fact sometimes the reference is to the president and his minions).  They have heard it all and seen it all in their normal work environments, whether in the business towers of Manhattan, or on our jobs, or in our schools, or in graphic TV programming that we Americans are assaulted with every night (and not only by CNN, the Clinton News Network), but by our TV programming in general.  What we experience in the work place or see on TV is certainly as bad, and sometimes much worse than anything that Trump has said or done, notwithstanding Michelle Obama’s attempts to demonize him, and to make him the poster boy for true evil in our society.

We don’t have to watch TV, and some of us don’t.  Personally, I do not watch reality shows, I do not need to live vicariously in a fictional world.  I do watch other TV, much of it from Europe.  I feel that I need to keep up with the times.  (Although I do not watch commercials, so I feel like I’m missing some small part of Americana).  The content of our U.S. TV programming is not much removed from Trump’s trailer comments or his “kissing and groping”, if any.

It is also conveniently forgotten or just not acknowledged by our terribly biased media, that historically, the Republican Party are the ones who freed the black Americans and then later enfranchised them.  The Republicans also enfranchised women early last century.  Don’t take my word, research the votes by Congress and the States on these topics.  See below. Yet Republicans are made by the liberal elitists to be the bad guys.  Ask anyone who truly freed and enfranchised the slaves, and enfranchised women.  I’ll bet the response you get are “the Democrats”.  Thank you, CNN, ABC, NBC, NYT, Time Mag and all you biased left wing media!

The ferocious and vituperative barrage against Trump and his movement by the media in this country is way beyond the pale.  I understand that it is meant to mask the Clinton disregard of the law over the years, and I understand that this is payback for Trump’s posture of not adhering to the “good old boy” backroom politician’s and media diktats, but it has to be obvious to any thinking voter that this constitutes a gross violation of media ethics.  Trump and his followers at rallies are lashing back at the media bias and dishonesty.

After reading Dinesh D’Souza’s “Hillary’s America”, my first reaction was that it blamed the Democrats for all of the ills perpetrated on the country for the last 250 years.  It was clearly biased!  But in retrospect, it was not any more biased than CNN or MSNBC or the New York Times when “reporting” on Trump. IMHO, we need a Dinesh D’Souza to shake up our political thinking, and we need a Donald Trump to reset our government.

Trump is not a model citizen, nor a model candidate.  If I am going to condemn him for anything, it is how he continues to drag the campaign and the party, to unforeseen depths.  Shut up Donald!!  He just has to fight every accusation, no matter how absurd and inconsequential, and bring the campaign to depths never before seen.  Concentrate on the current issues and on traditional Republican values, like support for women and support for blacks - supports that have been co-opted by the liberal elitists in spite of the historical record, - a strong economy,  pragmatic trade, immigration, law and order and anti-terrorist policies.

To the liberal or progressive elitist, and to the millennial, schooled in the same vein, Republicans are the bad guys when it comes to racial equality or women’s rights.  Not true in history.  This is only a sad fantasy in minds that have been turned by lies and untrue rhetoric.  Some links:

 Democrats. Republicans and women’s rights:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/09/15/carly-fiorinas-claim-that-the-gop-is-the-party-of-womens-suffrage/

http://spectator.org/35608_republicans-and-womens-rights-brief-reality-check/

Democrats, Republicans and slavery”

http://russp.us/racism.htm

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/08/democrats_slavery_and_the_american_record.html

Back to Trump.  I don’t like him, but I despise the other side more because of their crimes and their contempt for decency and the law.  Unfortunately the weight of the opposition stacked against him, particularly the media and, including some in his own party, does not bode well for Trump and the Republican Party at this point.  Pity our Republic under the corrupt and lawless Clinton machine, who have committed such egregious and cynical crimes, and more, in the past.

Ray Gruszecki

October 14, 2016

Trump's Audio Tape Issues

I’m inclined to write when I observe what I consider to be abuses or aberrations in thought and action on various topics.  I normally hang with professors and philosophers and scientists, and our arguments are of a more esoteric nature.  However, my origins are humble, and I have lived a long time, and in many venues.

The latest item that I feel has veered completely out of balance concerns the unbelievable uproar in the country over some private comments of an explicit nature that Donald Trump made over ten years ago in a sexually oriented Hollywood environment. We are ready to disenfranchise this abusive individual, revoke his candidacy and revile his very standing in our community.  He has been attacked by pundits, politicians, newspapers, actors and actresses and nearly all people that temper our opinions in the country. 

He has been made to be a truly evil man, and his evil far outweighs his opponents small peccadillos, - four dead Americans in Benghazi, 33,000 destroyed emails, Clinton cash, lucrative deals with Wall Street bankers, abetting sexual abuses by spouse and then attacking the victims, inveterate opportunism and cynicism, and on and on and on.  But the Donald’s transgressions by virtue of his audio comments of ten years ago are far more egregious.  So the elitist opinion makers have decreed.

Has anyone actually listened to what Trump said?  I sought the whole episode out on Youtube to hear for myself the horrors said to have been perpetrated on our daughters and wives and womankind in general.  What I heard were some sophomoric comments about the ease with which women in the entertainment business could be approached by someone who was wealthy and had sexual smarts.  The language was in the vernacular, but I did not hear solicitations to the devil or other dark powers.  I just heard some stupid locker room braggadocio that most of us males had heard in the past in one form or another.  (And I’m sure similar is heard in female locker rooms , as well).

Yet the brouhaha caused by this private citizen’s inappropriate comments ten years ago have the country in an uproar.  Why?  Could it be that the same biased media that has run rampant with other Trump mal mots and faux pas has set out to really put it to him this time?  Attempts to do so in the past have never worked for very long.

Trump will not play CNN’s or NYT’s or Hollywood’s or even Fox’ games, so polls and “who won the debate” numbers have less meaning than in a normal election.  And he certainly has provided a lot of ammunition himself for the liberal elites to attack him.  However, the Trump candidacy is a movement, and he has a following that cares not what is stacked against him by the opposition.  They have heard it all before, including crude boyish reference to body parts in this 10 year old audio tape.  They are still with him.

Having said all that, the constant and ferocious attacks by the politically correct liberal elitists of various stripes cannot fail to erode some of Trump’s support in even the few flyover swing states that Trump needs to get his 270.

I am not a big Trump supporter, but the alternative is anathema to me.  The country needs a reset.  Unfortunately it may be Trump, with his controversial personality.  Let’s hope he hires the right people, like Reagan did.

Ray Gruszecki

October 9, 2016

Trump Way Behind in the Polls (Or is He?)

Why does Trump continue to do it?  Why can’t he keep his mouth shut?  Does he not see that the latest polls show that Clinton is 10 points up on him?  Does he not hear the administration and the talking heads revile him and his pronouncements and pontificate that he is unfit to lead the country responsibly?  Why does he continue to generate such controversy nearly every day?  Is he that stupid to take on all comers, including his own party?

Like a fox, ladies and gentlemen, like a fox!  His constituency is not a political party – it is a populist movement.  His rallies continue to be SRO with attendance from all across the political spectrum, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, etc.  His diatribes are not aimed at conventional Acela or Chicago or Left Coast types (who primarily do the polls).  They are aimed at neglected, forgotten Middle Americans who are struggling economically, who are alarmed at the terrorist inspired violence in the world and who are sick and tired of a do-nothing government that values political correctness over any kind of positive action. 

Trump is a “media master”.  He knows exactly what he is doing.  He is keeping the media and the talking heads in a turmoil.  His face and his words are in front of all of us nearly as often as the Young Obama at his best in 2003-04.  His base constituency could care less about his outbreaks,  He is “their man” - the political outsider who is going to fix things.

This political movement comprising Trump backers has not drunk the Obama and Clinton Koolaid.  They see the Clintons for what they are – lying, lawbreaking corrupt, cynical Democratic machine politicians, who have lined their own pockets at the expense of the people they are supposed to represent.  These Trump supporters are not too enamored with politicians in general, and that’s why Trump, a non- politician outsider is like a breath of fresh air to them.

But what about the polls – can Trump possibly win, 10 points behind in the Fox poll, and way behind with women, blacks and Hispanics in myriad other polls?  Again, analysis along “normal” political lines seems not to be feasible in this type of populist environment.  Also, polling results can’t fail to be skewed along the biased lines of the media in the country, which inexorably leans to the left and presents polling results which are as distorted as their “news coverage” of the candidates.

The above notwithstanding, our electoral college system leaves only a few states which are truly in play during an election, so polling results which include unchangeable states like California, Illinois, and the Northeastern states really are not pertinent.  So what if 80 percent of some elective group in California shows against Trump in a poll.  California is locked in as Democrat, anyway, in so far as the electoral college is concerned.

A liberal university has smugly predicted that Clinton will “blow away” Trump in the general election by 343 electoral votes to 191.  Their map shows all of the states truly in play as going tor Clinton.  A quick spreadsheet analysis shows that a swing of just four of these “flyover” states would give an electoral college win to Trump.  Where is Trump’s main strength?  In the “flyover” states,  The polls and comments from the talking heads at this stage of the election process are next to meaningless, particularly in this populist driven election.

Ray Gruszecki,  August 6, 2016