McCain still fighting!

John McCain will not go away quietly. In fact, as he faces his greatest challenge, he seems more determined to do the right thing as senator as opposed to doing the thing he would be ideologically be expected to do.

From the Hill: "Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is backing a bipartisan bill that would block President Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.

“When less than one percent of Americans are volunteering to join the military, we should welcome all those who are willing and able to serve our country,” McCain said in a statement.

“Any member of the military who meets the medical and readiness standards should be allowed to serve — including those who are transgender," he said."

Way to go, Sen. McCain!

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/350919-mccain-backs-bill-to-block-transgender-troops-ban

Some "Friend" the so-called President is turning out to be

Written July 26, 2017

The so-called President bans transgenders from the armed services. Of course he said during the campaign he would be the LGBTQ community's "best friend". LIAR!

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/politics/donald-trump-lgbt-community/index.html 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-lgbt_us_57918ba8e4b0fc06ec5c7fdd

John McCain calls the ban "inappropriate" and cites both the process (there was none) and the substance as the as the Department of Defense “has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving.”

https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=80124D36-EF8B-4CBD-A75A-9C6C697CA235

Supporters of the so-called President are probably now busy thinking of ways to rationalize these lies of the so-called President and inventing new lies about transgenders persons as we speak.

Was there any need to do this today? Was there any need to do this WITHOUT the input of the military? Answer: NO!!

This was done to please his base and punish his opponents. If he has to throw transgender persons under the bus, no problem. DISGUSTING!

John McCain IS a hero

Just for the record, John McCain IS a hero. You can read a bit about it here: http://www.newsweek.com/sorry-trump-story-john-mccain-war-hero-355617

And here is what our so-called President said about this brave American:

“He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

“I think John McCain’s done very little for the veterans. I’m very disappointed in John McCain.”

From Politico: Trump received four student deferments from military service between 1964 and 1968... he told reporters another medical deferment he received after graduating was for a bone spur in his foot. When asked which foot, Trump told reporters to look up the records.

It is UNBELIEVABLE that the Republican Party nominated and helped elect a person who defames one of their own greatest heroes. The Republican party and their voters do not deserve John McCain. The so-called President, in my opinion, should shut up and go away.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/jul/19/donald-trump-john-mccain-not-a-war-hero-video

Has the Republican Party Become the Anti-fact Party? The Birth of Lie-based Initiatives!

Like many others, I have taken my shot at explaining Donald Trump's appeal to Republican voters.  In this matter I have a great advantage over the mainstream media; I do not have to avoid explanations that paint a less than  flattering portrait of the voters who, in turn, are the customers of that same mainstream media.  How many people would stop patronizing a media outlet that came to the conclusion that Donald Trump's appeal to his party was based on the willful ignorance, bigotry or the irrational fear of many millions of Americans, the very people that a media outlet needs to appeal to in order to stay in business?

Yet the evidence is overwhelming; Trump's initial appeal was to birthers.  About 50% of the Republican Party was on board with the idea that Pres. Obama was not born in the U.S.  A small minority of Republicans believed that Ted Cruz was not born in the U.S. when, in fact, he was
NOT born in the U.S.  Neither fact is a secret, but this is what they believe anyway.

Start adding up the other things that a majority of Republican voters believe that are contrary to the facts as best as we can know them; many believe in Creationism, and Young Earth Creationism at that; most deny that Global Climate change is a result of human activity as if the effects of Greenhouse Gases is debatable.   But now you can add an impressive new list of willfully ignorant items or outright lies that Republican voters are willing to accept, overlook or even embrace.  What about the total lack of negative push-back by voters when Trump re-tweeted a

fictitious, false, inflammatory and racist chart (see above);  or when he implied that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the assassination of JFK; or when he accused Hillary Clinton of abusing women who had affairs with her husband; or when he suggests that former Clinton aide Vince Foster did not commit suicide but may have been murdered with Clinton involvement; or when he said that John McCain was not a war hero; or that he saw thousands of Muslims on rooftops on TV celebrating 9-11 in New Jersey; or when he calls Bernie Sanders a communist...  I am sure I've missed dozens of whopping big lies.  (Go to http://www.dailywire.com/news/4834/trumps-101-lies-hank-berrien .)

The one common thread in all this is that what Trump supporters like about Trump is precisely his dislike of fact; facts have become "politically correct" and possess what Colbert has described as a "liberal bias."  Of course facts really do not have such a bias but yes indeed many people now oppose "facts" because it is "politically incorrect" to oppose facts and being "politically incorrect" is a good thing!

That is why Trump can lie about other Republicans as well as Democrats, Conservatives as well as Liberals, because it is the opposition to fact that his supporters adore.  Do not get me wrong on this - I am not saying that left leaning ideologues do not do the same thing - they do, such as in those who believed that Bush and Cheney somehow were in on 9-11 and "allowed" it to happen.  It's just that those leftist ideologues have not quite taken over the Democrat Party.  The ideologues/believers and anti-fact yahoos have taken over the Republican Party and their main goal is to oppose all kinds of facts that contradict their beliefs.

This is the mess that Republican leaders have created with their years, if not decades of pandering to the willfully ignorant in their ranks.  By promoting the "faith-based" initiatives the party has embraced in the past, not surprisingly the party members have evolved into demanding "lie-based' initiatives.  Trump is delivering.

You read that here first.

Freedom of Speech or Cowardice?

By now, you probably have heard about the Trump supporter who asked the candidate a question at a campaign event, and in the process revealed some startling information.

As per CNN:  "We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims," an unidentified man who spoke at a question-and-answer town hall event in Rochester, New Hampshire asked the mogul at a rally Thursday night. "You know our current president is one. You know he's not even an American."

A seemingly bewildered Trump interrupted the man, chuckling, "We need this question. This is the first question."

"Anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us," the man, wearing a "Trump" T-shirt, continued. "That's my question: When can we get rid of them?"

"We're going to be looking at a lot of different things," Trump replied. "You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We're going to be looking at that and many other things."  (http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/17/politics/donald-trump-obama-muslim-new-hampshire/)

In my opinion, if someone asks you "how long have you been beating your wife?" you can properly object that it's a loaded question which assumes the conclusion (unless it's true, of course).  The man's question assumes that Obama is a Muslim, that he's not an American, and oh yes, that there are training camps, apparently well known to the man asking the question and therefore well known to the government as well, and that no one is doing anything about them.  And that our country's "problem" are "Muslims."  Not radical jihadist Muslims, no; not terrorist Muslims, nope.  Muslims, period, which, if words mean anything, means ALL Muslims since no distinctions of any kind are made.

Mr. Trump's response accepts all of this by being silent; it is my recollection that when Mr. Trump disagrees with something he hears, he is not bashful about mentioning it. He has been known to interrupt persons who say something he believes is untrue; in fact, it is a trait for him to interrupt others in this way.  Does he not object to anything the man said; wasn't at least some of it untrue as far as Trump knows?

So are we to understand that he really doesn't think Obama is a Muslim and that he does believe Obama is an American.  Or does my memory deceive me?  Wasn't Donald Trump the most vocal and well know "birther" in the world?  Are Muslims the "problem," Mr. Trump?

Trump's explanations in his own tweets later on are a wonder of misdirection and irrationality.  Here are a couple:

"If I would have challenged the man, the media would have accused me of interfering with that man's right of free speech. A no win situation!" ( http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/Donald-Trump-Twitter-Iowa-Obama/2015/09/19/id/692389/ )

This is a joke, right?  The Trump supporter had his say, and others have the absolute right to say that, in their opinion, he is wrong.  The First Amendment is NOT immunity to disagreement or criticism of what you've said.  In fact, it is the protection of the right to disagree and criticize to what anyone has said.  Does Donald Trump have any understanding of this?

Here is the other amazing tweet: "Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so!"  Actually the problem wasn't just that what was said was "bad" or "controversial" - it was that it was untrue and/or bigoted.

When a questioner called Obama an "Arab" at a John McCain campaign event in 2008, McCain DID correct the woman who said it.  He did it politely but clearly and he went as far to say that Obama was a good man and good American.  He was lauded in the press for this correction.  McCain earned much respect with his response.  What negative consequences did he suffer?

Well, apparently McCain DID suffer some consequences.  I suspect that with his reasonable response McCain LOST some of the enthusiasm and votes that Trump has garnered because McCain was not a coward, not a bigot and not a fraud.  Trump, on the other hand, has no problem accepting a statement that paints "Muslims"without any disqualifier as the "problem," that paints Obama as one of those problem Muslims and states that the President of the United States is not an American.  To hold one's tongue in the face of such a question is not free speech - it's cowardice.

Explaining Donald Trump and Why Most Media Outets Will Not Do This

Why is Donald Trump leading in the polls for the Republican race for the presidential nomination?  Is it his focus on brilliant solutions to our most pressing problems?  Is it his personal demeanor which gives his supporters the confidence that he has the temperament to be the leader of the free world?

Nahh!

It's because his supporters are mostly birthers who believe that President Obama is a secret Muslim.

In other words his supporters support Trump because they identify with his outspoken ignorance, his inability to admit mistakes and his trait of speaking in very angry ego-maniacal tones.  These supporters gravitate towards people who are certain even if they're certainly wrong.  For many, certainty is a virtue while doubt is a vice.

Now here is something that certainly will not bother Trump supporters although it may interest others; the evidence for the above conclusions.  A poll from the Public Policy Polling group on 9/3/15 asked some very good and timely questions.  Go to 

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2015/08/trump-supporters-think-obama-is-a-muslim-born-in-another-country.html .

66% of Trump supporters believe that Obama is a Muslim.  Only 12% believe he is a Christian.  Yup, Obama is one of them gay-loving liberal Muslim jihadists!  Only 21% of Trump supporters believe Obama was born in the United States while at the same time 40% of them actively believe that Sen. Ted Cruz WAS born in the U.N. (Cruz was born in Canada.)

Check that out - birthers were totally aghast that Obama became President since he was a Muslim foreigner while ignoring the undisputed fact that Ted Cruz was indeed born abroad and is only a natural born citizen by virtue of the fact that his mother was born in the U.S., which would also be true of Obama (if indeed he was born in Kenya) since no one argues that Obama's mother was born anywhere but in Kansas!

So why will the Media ignore the above?  Why do they almost never mention the fact that Trump, for a while, was birther #1?  The answer is simple; because to point this out would be to insult the intelligence and sanity of most of his supporters and perhaps a majority of Republicans, which is a large portion of the Media's audience/customers.  Please keep in mind that this does not mean ALL Republicans are willfully ignorant and of dubious sanity - John McCain certainly does not fall into this camp, for example.  Oh yeah, is it any coincidence that Trump turned on McCain much to the delight of Trump's supporters?  I guess that is the price John McCain has to pay for not being totally ignorant or insane.