GOP in Circular Firing Squad

The GOP has lost sight of their opponent. Or perhaps they never had a vision of their opponent. From the moment that Donald Trump entered the race, the other candidates have spent more time dealing with Trump than they have with the good of the country.

When Trump entered the race, he started off by talking about how illegal aliens were coming here and the worst were being sent by Mexico. Did we all forget the trains from the summer of 2014 when people were riding atop the trains from South America, through Mexico into the United States? Women and children were being raped and murdered on their way to our country. Drug cartels were smuggling people across the border for their own purposes. President Obama was encouraging people to come here and not enforcing our border laws.

What did Trump say? He said that murderers and rapists were coming here and some were good people, he assumed. From that moment on the Democrats and media have said that Trump was bashing immigrants. They didn’t say he was bashing illegal immigrants. They said he was bashing all immigrants.

Did the other GOP candidates stand up for what Trump said? No. They all paid it lip service until he came on the scene with his comments, but once he said it, the other candidates sounded like Democrats complaining about the way Trump said something.

Dr. Ben Carson has been moving up in the polls and in one he is actually ahead of Trump. At first, Carson was a great surgeon. Now that he’s moving up, they are finding some disgruntled patients from his past. Six of them out of thousands he’s treated. Now they are talking about his book tour and whether he’s violating campaign finance law.

Carly Fiorina has been in two debates. The first, she was at the so-called kiddie table. That was the early debate for the lowest polling candidates. By all accounts, she not only won that debate, but she was more talked about than the evening debate with the top ten in the polls.

In the second debate, it was widely considered that she was the winner of that debate where she was in the top ten or at the so-called adult table. She shot up in the polls to number two and then three. The top three candidates were all outsiders and between the three of them they had over 50% of the votes in the polls.

Rand Paul went after Trump and he fell to the bottom of the heap. Rick Perry went after Trump and dropped out of the race. Scott Walker, who many considered the top of the list, fell after going after Trump and he’s now out of the race. Bobby Jindahl went after Trump and while he’s still in the race, he has no numbers. Jeb Bush, who was the front runner until Trump got in has lately been goaded into defending his brother, President Bush, which is something he wanted to stay away from.

Many of these candidates have said that Trump doesn’t qualify to be President. Yet, Trump, Carson and Fiorina all have led the race. The candidates are spending their time and money fighting Trump and they keep falling. Maybe they should start looking at something that is becoming almost a theme. They are all professional politicians. Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Lindsay Graham, all Senators, all down in the polls. Two of them in their first term. Bush, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, George Pataki, Jim Gilmore, all former or sitting governors, all down in the polls. The leaders are the non politicians. It’s very clear that the people have had it with politicians are looking at our government as being a citizen government. The supposed “experts” are not trusted. Eric Cantor was one of the first signs of this when he was defeated last year in the primary in Virginia. He’s now out and his Primary opponent is the new sitting Representative.

The opponent is Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. They ought to be focusing on her and the Democrats. She has scandals running throughout her history and even currently with the Benghazi and E-mail problem. If they were all hammering at her, the mainstream press would not be able to ignore them. As it is, CNN, the liberal bastion for the media, puts on a debate and tries to instigate arguments between the Republican candidates rather than dealing with real issues. While the CNN debate for Democrats was a love fest between them and the them was Hillary Clinton and the self described socialist, Bernie Sanders. The other three were virtually ignored during that debate.

People will vote for something. They will vote for a candidate. They don’t vote against things. The constant chasing every nuance of Trump has the GOP shooting at themselves while Hillary and possibly Biden are playing nice with each other making the press report how much in disarray the Republicans are. This is a serious mistake on the part of the GOP. When the Democrats best hope is Hillary, who is possibly looking at being indicted, and they are hoping that Joe Biden jumps in the race to give them someone, it’s the Democrats that are in disarray. Doesn’t anyone remember Biden’s previous runs for President? He’s a walking disaster.

Now we’ve got the House Republicans jumping in criticizing the Benghazi committee and the games being played for the speakership of the House.

The GOP had better get away from the circular firing squad and start remembering Reagans eleventh commandment (Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.), or the only ones left standing are the two worst possibilities for President. Hillary and/or Biden. Oh, and it might be a good idea for these GOP candidates to put their egos on hold and try to understand that the people that vote are tired of professional politicians. Either find a way to do as the people want, or get out of the race.

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett

Gun Control. Again and again and again...

President Obama said that he wanted to politicize the shootings following the shooting in Oregon last week. He stopped off there to speak to the victims that were willing to see him before moving on to a fundraiser for Senator Patty Murray.

He has claimed that Congress needs to address gun control following several of the more recent shootings. Now he’s talking about using executive orders to get what he wants regardless of what the American citizens want. Yet none of his proposals would have prevented even one of these shootings.

So let’s take a look at the shootings and some of the similarities in each of them.

Chattanooga, Tennessee:

One shooter, first fired 30 rounds into a recruiting center, then went to the Naval Reserve and shot more.

Five dead, one wounded. The shooter was the only one with a gun.

Charleston, South Carolina:

One shooter. 9 dead. The shooter was the only one with a gun.

Sandy Hook, Newtown, Connecticut

One shooter. 27 dead 1 injured. The shooter was the only one with a gun.

Aurora, Colorado

One shooter. 12 dead. 70 wounded. The shooter was the only one with a gun.

Tucson, Arizona Supermarket

One shooter. 6 dead 12 wounded. Two people had a gun. The shooter had a gun, but he had finished with the shooting when the second person with a gun showed up to help subdue the shooter. So he never drew his weapon.

Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Oregon

One shooter. 9 dead, 9 wounded.

Above are six shootings. There were six shooters and seven that had a weapon. The results of those six shootings are 59 dead. 93 wounded.

In each of the shootings, the motive was not about robbery. They weren’t robbing any stores, places of business or even individuals of their cash on hand. In fact, in one case, the Aurora Colorado shooting, the gunman had to pay five or six dollars for a ticket to the movie theater. In each of these shootings, it appears as though the sole purpose was to kill many people. Where is the best place to accomplish your purpose? Where there are people and where they are unlikely to have armed confrontation as they begin their shootings. Notice they aren’t choosing police stations or even gun shows.

Shooters go after the vulnerable. Who is more vulnerable than children? What gets the most attention if you’re intending to harm a large group of people? Children.

Obama’s answer seems to be to stop people from having guns and creating gun free zones where you aren’t allowed to have guns. However, Umqua Community College was a gun free zone. Even their security guard didn’t carry a weapon. Apparently, the president doesn’t realize that labeling an area a gun free zone doesn’t stop people that want to inflict the most harm on people from going to those places that are gun free zones.

At Sandy Hook school, the shooter found the children and a teacher huddled in a class room and just began shooting them. They had no weapons to shoot back with and there was nobody around that carried a gun that could stop him from killing all of those kids. At Umqua, nobody was armed. Gun free zone! So the shooter walked into a class room, told individuals to stand up one by one and asked if they were Christian. If they said yes, he shot them in the head.

There is one place that gun control actually worked, but I doubt that the president will even consider that one as reasonable. In Tucson, where Representative Gabby Giffords was shot, the shooter killed 6 and wounded 12. When he dropped his clip as he was reloading some quick thinking citizens jumped him. One person that helped subdue him actually showed up as the shooter was being subdued. Joseph Zumudio had a gun on him but he exerted gun control by not drawing his weapon when the shooter was actually losing his battle at getting free to do more shooting, and instead Zumudio  helped subdue him rather than just pulling his gun and shooting the shooter. That was the only form of gun control that worked!

You are not going to stop shootings by banning guns. Not by law and not by policy. Trying to appeal to their sense of right and wrong or even to appeal to their consideration of children or respect for human life is not going to work. They are selfish most of the time, and are only looking to make a name for themselves or only thinking of lashing out and hurting someone or a large group because they are upset about something in their own lives, and they have no respect for others or their lives.

They don’t care that they are about to shoot children. They only care that they have the power because they know that the children will not shoot back. They choose a school that is designated a gun free zone because they know that they will be the only one with a gun until the police show up and they intend to die anyway.

During the 1990’s anytime the liberals wanted to get some law passed they claimed it was the right thing to do “for the children”. Or just do it “for the children”.  Even out in California they are forcing parents to get vaccinations for their kids and there will be no more tolerance for those with religious or personal convictions about immunizations. So why can’t these schools protect the children from those that would do them harm? They could easily protect them by allowing their security staff to be armed. Or having weapons on hand for self defense for the adults in the school such as teachers or administrative staff to use to protect the children.

Perhaps if a shooter shows up at a school where there are arms for protection, some will die, but less would die if the people that work and attend the school at least have something to defend themselves. Perhaps a classroom full of first graders wouldn’t be massacred if someone was able to shoot back at someone that came in shooting.

Even when I was in school back in the 60’s, we had preparations for a nuclear bomb (although hiding under the desks wasn’t going to give much protection), but we also had fire drills, and tornado drills. Even in office buildings, there are signs showing you the exits in case of a fire and a sign at the elevator telling you not to use the elevator in case of a fire.

What do we do for children in a school in case of a shooting? In Sandy Hook, they hid in a closet where they were all bunched together making them easy targets for a shooter.

Dr. Ben Carson has been raked over the coals by the press lately because he suggested that if a shooter came in where he was with a group, he thought he and others would just rush the shooter. One or two may get shot, but not the entire room. That at least is a plan of action in case something happens. Lives may be lost, but more would be saved.

But the president and the rest of the liberals jump up before the bodies have even been moved and before the wounded even get to the hospital and says we need gun safety laws, which is nothing more than code words for gun control.

It only makes sense, I guess , that the president would think that gun control would work. After all, he apparently believes that the Iranians will keep their word.

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett

Mr. President: Please Sit and Be Quiet

Today, there was another mass shooting. This time in Oregon at a community college. Very little is publicly known yet. There was a shooter who is now dead, and many dead at the hand of the shooter as well as many wounded. That is just about the extent of our knowledge at this time.

Within four hours of the shooting President Obama held a press conference scolding Congress for not passing a gun “safety” law. I put the “safety” part in quotes because it seems that this is the new name for gun control.

Global warming is now “climate change”. Teachers are now “educators”. Gun control is now “gun safety”.

Mr. President, please sit down and stop talking. Just go sit in the corner for the next 15 months and play tetris on your Obama phone. We’re sick of your incompetence and your games.

You have blamed the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan on President Bush.  You and your minions always go to the line “we never should have been in Iraq to begin with” as though that’s some sort of an answer to the mess you’ve made in the middle east. Let’s try some truth for a change.

When George Bush took over the Presidency in January 2001, it was widely known and reported that the United States Intelligence had been starkly diminished during the eight years of the Clintons. Seven months into Bush’s presidency, this nation was attacked. Nearly 3,000 dead from four planes. Two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one that crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. That one didn’t harm anyone in Washington DC because the American citizens on that plane saved the lives of either Congress or the lives of those at the White House by trying to take the plane back. They weren’t “ordinary” Americans, they were heroes! 

That attack took place on September 11, 2001. 7 months into his presidency, and remember, his presidency started off slow because the election was contested for over 35 days and then delayed a bit by the childishness of the Democrats leaving the White House taking the W’s off of the computer keyboards as they left. But those petty occurances didn’t deter Bush. He began bombing in Afghanistan on October 7. Less than 30 days after the attack! That sir, is Presidential. Acting with decisiveness and not making excuses. Having a clear plan and strategy and not running away and hiding from the problem. 

If you’d like to claim that the entry into Iraq was wrong, have at it. But with the intelligence we had at the time, Bush was right to go to Iraq. Perhaps you don’t remember that a substantial majority (including Senator Hillary Clinton) voted in agreement for that war.

If there was a problem with Iraq when you took over, that’s fine. But blaming it on President Bush is asinine. It’s now been 6+ years and you’re still complaining that we shouldn’t have been there? Had you been presidential, you’d have stopped your whining about how we got there, and blaming President Bush, and if you felt it was wrong, you’d have found a way to solve it and get out of that war without creating all of the problems we have now. Keeping the American spirit and preserving American dignity. 

You drew a red line in Syria, but you didn’t hold to your words. Your Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton brought out some cheesy button and called it a reset button for the Russians to push. Your concern was to get a deal with Iran. You got your deal, but America got screwed with more screwing to come. Just those three things, let’s look at what the results are. The Russians have now moved into Syria ostensibly to fight ISIS, but they are attacking the rebels (that we back) instead. Today, the Iranians moved into Syria for the ground war to clean up any surviving members of the rebels. The rebels are not ISIS. They want Assad out and are trying to do something about it. We want Assad out but all that's provided from this administration is hot air. 

Apparently, the red line you drew was in our friends blood. The reset button Hillary pushed with the Russians set in motion a new day where the Russians no longer care what the U. S. says because the President of the United States hasn’t the wherewithal to follow through on his own words. In other words Mr. President, the world says you’re weak!

Now you want to bring in refugees from Syria. Please tell us how long before we find out how many terrorists snuck in with those refugees.

You have opened the borders and by-passed Congress on the southern border of this country. We now have illegal aliens here that are unsavory at best. Murderers and rapists at worst. How many terrorists have slipped by into this country from the south since you stopped enforcing our laws on entry into this country?

Now you want gun control again because of another shooting on your watch? Well, I refuse to give up my guns. This country is not safe any longer because of your failures as President of this country. How do I defend my family, friends, neighbors and myself when one of the terrorists decides that they want to attack an area that I happen to be in on any particular day? We certainly can’t talk terrorists out of what they want to do. Need proof? Look at Iran. All of your talking got a deal…for the Iranians. Nothing for the United States of America! Even while negotiating, they were saying "death to America". 

It’s time that another approach was taken to these shootings. Perhaps arming  the potential victims instead. When we can shoot back, most of those that want to shoot up a school or movie theater, will think twice before trying. Please don’t suggest that this is ridiculous. I’ll just remind you again that it was American citizens on a hijacked plane that probably saved many Congressman and women from certain death by fighting back and taking the plane.

Taking our guns away will only embolden our enemies. I think you’ve spent nearly 7 years doing that and it’s made us the laughing stock of the world and put American lives in danger at home.

While I’m in a disgusted mood, I’ll add one more thing. You traded five terrorists for one of our soldiers that apparently deserted to join the other side. Yes, I’m talking about Bergdahl. You left four American hostages in Iran and didn’t even try to get them as part of this all important (to you) deal with Iran. Now, there is an outrageous event taking place. Sgt. Charles Martland, a Green Beret is being kicked out of the army for going after an Afghan police commander who had raped a 12 year old boy and beat his mother and did this on an American base. In addition to that, this police commander was trained by the US military and that training paid for by our tax dollars!

I suppose it makes sense that you’d want to disarm Americans and not allow us to protect ourselves from those that would do us harm domestically and abroad. In my opinion, that Green Beret is too good to be commanded by such an incompetent commander in chief.

You did as was predicted and cut and ran from Iraq and about to from Afghanistan. You’ve negotiated with terrorists (Iran) and gotten the deal you wanted despite 70% of the country not liking the deal. You wanted it to be your legacy along with Obama care. Obamacare failed and  your deal with Iran failed to obtain anything for our country.  So I beg you to just go sit in the corner and play whatever games are on your Obama phone. We American citizens will do better for ourselves without your interference.

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett