ONE FOR THE BOOKS FOR SURE

One for the books.

This is what gave us freedom....  

---

Without these pictures    NO ONE  would have believed their story     read,    cry   and believe they had someone else riding with them

A real miracle - from WWII 

 

 

B-17 "All American" (414th Squadron, 97BG) Crew

Pilot- Ken Bragg Jr.

Co-pilot- G. Boyd Jr.

Navigator- Harry C. Nuessle

Bombardier- Ralph Burbridge

Engineer- Joe C. James

Radio Operator- Paul A. Galloway

Ball Turret Gunner- Elton Conda

Waist Gunner- Michael Zuk

Tail Gunner- Sam T. Sarpolus

Ground Crew Chief- Hank Hyland

 

In 1943 a mid-air collision on February 1, 1943, Between a B-17 and a German fighter over the Tunis dock area, Became the subject of one of the most famous photographs of WW II. An enemy fighter attacking a 97th Bomb Group formation went out of control,

Probably with a wounded pilot, then continued its crashing descent Into the rear of the fuselage of a Flying Fortress named "All American", Piloted by Lt. Kendrick R. Bragg, of the 414th Bomb Squadron.

 

When it struck, the fighter broke apart, but left some pieces in the B-17. The left horizontal stabilizer of the Fortress and left elevator were completely torn away. The two right engines were out and one on the left had a serious oil pump leak. The vertical fin and the rudder had been damaged, The fuselage had been cut almost completely through Connected only at two small parts of the frame,

And the radios, electrical and oxygen systems were damaged. There was also a hole in the top that was over 16-feet long and 4 feet wide at its widest; The split in the fuselage went all the way to the top gunner's turret.

 

 

Although the tail actually bounced and swayed in the wind And twisted when the plane turned and all the control cables were severed, Except one single elevator cable still worked, and the aircraft miraculously still flew!

 

The tail gunner was trapped because there was no floor connecting the tail to the rest of the plane. The waist and tail gunners used parts of the German fighter and their own parachute harnesses In an attempt to keep the tail from ripping off and the two sides of the fuselage from splitting apart.

 

While the crew was trying to keep the bomber from coming apart, The pilot continued on his bomb run and released his bombs over the target.

 

 

When the bomb bay doors were opened, The wind turbulence was so great that it blew one of the waist gunners into the broken tail section. It took several minutes and four crew members to pass him ropes from parachutes And haul him back into the forward part of the plane. When they tried to do the same for the tail gunner, The tail began flapping so hard that it began to break off. The weight of the gunner was adding some stability to the tail section, so he went back to his position. The turn back toward England had to be very slow to keep the tail from twisting off. They actually covered almost 70 miles to make the turn home. The bomber was so badly damaged that it was losing altitude and speed and was soon alone in the sky.

 

For a brief time, two more Me-109 German fighters attacked the All American. Despite the extensive damage, all of the machine gunners Were able to respond to these attacks and soon drove off the fighters. The two waist gunners stood up with their heads sticking out through the hole in the top of the fuselage To aim and fire their machine guns. The tail gunner had to shoot in short bursts because the recoil was actually causing the plane to turn.

 

 

Allied P-51 fighters intercepted the All American as it crossed over the Channel And took one of the pictures shown. They also radioed to the base describing that the appendage was waving like a fish tail And that the plane would not make it and to send out boats to rescue the crew when they bailed out.

 

The fighters stayed with the Fortress, taking hand signals from Lt. Bragg and relaying them to the base. Lt. Bragg signaled that 5 parachutes and the spare had been "used" So five of the crew could not bail out. He made the decision that if they could not bail out safely, then he would stay with the plane to land it.

 

 

Two and a half hours after being hit, the aircraft made its final turn To line up with the runway while it was still over 40 miles away.

It descended into an emergency landing and a normal roll-out on its landing gear.

 

 

When the ambulance pulled alongside, it was waved off because not a single member of the crew had Been injured. No one could believe that the aircraft could still fly in such a condition. The Fortress sat placidly until the crew all exited through the door in the fuselage and the tail gunner had climbed down a ladder, at which time the entire rear section of the aircraft collapsed.

 

 

This old bird had done its job and brought the entire crew home uninjured.

 

 

 

 

=========================================================================
And now for something completely different...


 Some stats on "gimmes" vs producers.  Another indicator of problems in the US like the current abysmal labor participation rate.  All signs of Obama's fundamental change.

                                        Subject: Almost Unbelievable

                                        Latest U.S. Statistical Map:

                                        Make sure you read to the bottom...  Quite an eye opener!  (Or should be!)

                                        California

                                        New Mexico

                                        Mississippi

                                        Alabama

                                        Illinois

                                        Kentucky

                                        Ohio

                                        New York

                                        Maine

                                        South Carolina



                                        These 11 States now have More People on Welfare than they do Employed!!!

                                        Last month, the Senate Budget Committee reports that in fiscal year 2012, between food stamps, housing support, child care, Medicaid and other benefits, the average U.S.                                               Household below the poverty line received $168.00 a day in government support.  What's the problem with that much support?  Well, the median household income in America                                        is just over $50,000, which averages out to $137.13 a day.



                                        To put it another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30.00 an hour for 40 hour week, while the average job pays $20.00 an hour.

                                        Furthermore:
                                        There are actually two messages here.  The first is very interesting, but the second is absolutely astounding - and explains a lot.  A recent "Investor's Business Daily" article                                               provided very interesting statistics from a survey by the United Nations International Health Organization.



                                        Percentage (%) of men and women who survived a cancer five years after diagnosis:

                                        U.S.                65%
                                        England        46%
                                        Canada          42%

                                        % of patients diagnosed with diabetes -received treatment within 6 months:

                                        U.S.                93%
                                        England        15%
                                        Canada          43%

                                        % of seniors needing hip replacement who received it within six months:

                                        U.S.                90%
                                        England        15%
                                        Canada          43%

                                        %  referred to a medical specialist who see one within one month:

                                        U.S.                77%
                                        England        40%
                                        Canada          43%

                                        Number of MRI scanners (a prime diagnostic tool) per million people:

                                        U.S.                71
                                        England        14
                                        Canada          18

                                        % of seniors (65+), with low income, who are in "excellent health":

                                        U.S.                12%
                                        England          2%
                                        Canada            6%



                                        And now...for the last statistic:
                                        National Health Insurance?

                                        U.S.                NO
                                        England        YES
                                        Canada          YES


                                        Check the last set of statistics!!

                                        The percentage of each past president's cabinet... Who had worked in the private business sector...prior to their appointment to the cabinet.  You know what the private                                                business sector is;

                                        a real-life business...not a government job.

                                        Here are the percentages.

                                        38%    T. Roosevelt

                                        40%    Taft
                                        52%    Wilson
                                        49%    Harding
                                        48%    Coolidge
                                        42%    Hoover
                                        50%    F. D. Roosevelt
                                        50%    Truman
                                        57%    Eisenhower
                                        30%    Kennedy
                                        47%    Johnson
                                        53%    Nixon
                                        42%    Ford
                                        32%    Carter
                                        56%    Reagan
                                        51%    GH Bush
                                        39%    Clinton
                                        55%    GW Bush
                                          8%  Obama

                                        This helps explain the incompetence of this administration:  ONLY 8% of them...have ever worked in private business!  That's right!  Only eight percent---the least, by far, of the                                     last 19 presidents!

                                        And these people are trying to tell our big corporations how to run their business? How can the president of a major nation and society, the one with the most successful                                               economic system in world history, stand and talk about business when he's never worked for one?  Or about jobs when he has never really had one? And, when it's the same                                        for 92% of his senior staff and closest advisers?



                                        They've spent most of their time in academia, government, and/or non-profit jobs. Or...  As "community organizers."



                                        Pass this on, because we will NEVER see these facts in the main stream media!!!



                                        "SOCIALISM"  is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.  Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery" -Winston Churchill


========================================================================
NOW WE KNOW...

Sanders is another Obama, only white. 

Liberals usually can't make it in the real world. They go to college screaming how the system is unfair.
Borrow money up the hilt and never seem to graduate. They can't find a job so they run for public office 

where they demand someone ELSE pay for all of their mistakes..

Bernie arrested in Chicago in 1963 during C.O.R.E. demonstrations. He was a douche then, he is a douche now.

We just found out what Bernie’s first job was. It ALL makes sense now…

Written by The Analytical Economist on February 17, 2016

Among the Republican presidential candidates are a billionaire businessman, neurosurgeon, and a constitutional lawyer. When has the Democrat opposition had anything even remotely close?

This election cycle the Democrats feature a woman with more scandals than achievements, and a man who thinks spending tens of trillions of dollars makes things “free.”

Investors Business Daily recently profiled the life of Bernie Sanders, and to nobody’s surprise, it almost reads like a profile done by The Onion:

Sanders spent most of his life as an angry radical and agitator who never accomplished much of anything. And yet now he thinks he deserves the power to run your life and your finances — “We will raise taxes;” he confirmed Monday, “yes, we will.”

One of his first jobs was registering people for food stamps, and it was all downhill from there.

Sanders took his first bride to live in a maple sugar shack with a dirt floor, and she soon left him. Penniless, he went on unemployment. Then he had a child out of wedlock. Desperate, he tried carpentry but could barely sink a nail. “He was a shi**y carpenter,” a friend told Politico Magazine. “His carpentry was not going to support him, and didn’t.”

Then he tried his hand freelancing for leftist rags, writing about “masturbation and rape” and other crudities for $50 a story. He drove around in a rusted-out, Bondo-covered VW bug with no working windshield wipers. Friends said he was “always poor” and his “electricity was turned off a lot.” They described him as a slob who kept a messy apartment — and this is what his friends had to say about him.

The only thing he was good at was talking … non-stop … about socialism and how the rich were ripping everybody off. “The whole quality of life in America is based on greed,” the bitter layabout said. “I believe in the redistribution of wealth in this nation.”

So he tried politics, starting his own socialist party. Four times he ran for Vermont public office, and four times he lost — badly. He never attracted more than single-digit support — even in the People’s Republic of Vermont. In his 1971 bid for U.S. Senate, the local press said the 30-year-old “Sanders describes himself as a carpenter who has worked with ‘disturbed children.’ ” In other words, a real winner.

He finally wormed his way into the Senate in 2006, where he still ranks as one of the poorest members of Congress. Save for a municipal pension, Sanders lists no assets in his name. All the assets provided in his financial disclosure form are his second wife’s. He does, however, have as much as $65,000 in credit-card debt.

No wonder millennials connect so well with the guy.

[Note: This post was authored by The Analytical Economist]

BRAIN FARTS

February 10, 2016

The Lessons of Engineering for Social Engineers

By Chet Richards

Have you ever wondered why seasoned engineers are almost invariably politically conservative? 

With a fresh-minted bachelor’s degree, enthusiastic on my first professional job, I was a committed liberal.  This was the Kennedy era and my attitudes were conventional among my contemporaries.  My older engineering colleagues just shook their heads and tolerantly suggested that my opinions would change.  Of course they did.

 My story as an increasingly conservative engineer is one played out a multitude of times in a multitude of places within the engineering profession.   

Why are most engineers politically conservative?  The answer is that engineers fail most of the time. In engineering there is a cycle of design, test, test failure, diagnosis, and redesign, until a product is perfected.  Failure is the natural state of engineering new devices.  Through their repeated failures, competent engineers are forced to become rigorously honest and functionally conservative. 

This honesty is notably lacking in the ungrounded wishful thinking of the political left.  The great failure of liberals is that they never fail (according to them).

Learning to deal with failure changes one’s attitude from youthful idealism into a kind of skeptical realism about top-down liberal social engineering projects -- projects that, ostensibly, never fail.

There are three classes of top-down social engineering.  Government programs to restructure society is one class.  Government laws, regulatory mandates, and court orders to change behavior is a second.  The third is liberal social pressure, often with government complicity, to control thought.  We call this third method “political correctness.” 

Engineers have an expression:  KISS -- Keep It Simple, Stupid.  The simplest design solution is almost always the best.

Now, consider American society.  America has hundreds of millions of people.  Each individual is infinitely complex and unique.  Each has desires, intentions and needs that normally are incompatible with any master scheme.  And yet, the left has the arrogance to assume that a master planner can engineer a social system that best for all the people -- a “one size fits all” program.  There is no way, other than forcing everybody to be identical robots, that centralized social engineering can KISS.  This “my way or the highway” hubris is the signal hallmark of today’s progressive busybody bullies.

What about modern liberals?  Many of them optimistically go along with progressive ideas.  Their critical distinction from change-everything progressives is that most liberals really do appreciate the gifts our forbearers have given us.  Unfortunately, most political Democrats, and many establishment Republicans as well, have been seduced by a lifetime of pro-government experience into believing that top-down, big-government programs are the answer to all ills.  It is vanity to think that they are specially chosen to steer everyone’s life.

Of the seven deadly sins, theologians say the most deadly of all was Vanity.  The Greeks called it Hubris.  We call it Arrogance.  All the other deadly sins derived from Vanity.  This sin is really at the heart of progressive, or liberal, social engineering programs.  One can do no wrong if one’s heart is in the right place -- so liberals believe.

Our Founding Fathers thought otherwise.  They realized that no person, or selected group, could anticipate all circumstances.  They therefore created a Constitution that allowed for local adaptation within a protective framework -- a framework that inhibits vanity by enlisting contending interests in making the most important decisions.

The American Constitution was designed for a society whereby people manage their own affairs and solve their own problems. Beyond promoting trade among the states, protecting against foreign invasion, and ensuring the rights of property, the Federal Government really has no legitimate role in structuring society.  Society was intended to evolve social arrangements on its own within the protective framework of the Constitution.  Thus, this progressive idea that government has the right to impose social change is contrary both to the spirit and to the words of the Constitution.

Within America there exist highly complex and very successful social structures – the community, charitable, and economic structures that comprise civil society.  And they have come about independent of government direction.  How is this possible?  The answer is that successful complex structures grow organically:  Start small, and simple.  Find out what works.  Try adding features.  Edit out those elements that don’t work and build on those that do work.  But, for the changes made at each stage of increasing complexity, keep it simple!  Life evolved its many forms in just such a way.  Technology also evolves in this way.  Consider computers.  Computers today are far different, and vastly more complex, than they were at their beginning.  All successful innovations start simple and evolve complexity as discoveries are made about what works and what doesn’t.

On the other hand, we are supposed to believe that complex top-down liberal programs never fail.  They reach their goals and then either continue to provide popular benefits or are voluntarily terminated having done their job.  Actually not: I’m being sarcastic here.  Let’s test that assertion by recalling massive liberal social engineering programs which have been great successes: [crickets].  The usual excuses for these programmatic disappointments, and for the need for them to continue in perpetuity, are:  “not enough money has been spent,” or, “it’s someone else’s fault,” or “conservatives are sabotaging the program.” 

Actually there are a few government programs, mostly non-social in nature, which have withstood the test of time:  The National Parks program is a great success -- but it has always been an overwhelmingly popular initiative.  And, it started small.  The Interstate highway program was a centerpiece of the Eisenhower Administration and has produced major social benefits.  But that program was justified as for national defense, which is a legitimate function of the federal government. The resulting social benefits were developed through individual private initiatives.  Maybe that tells us something. 

I should add that many people, including many conservatives, believe that Social Security has been a success.  In fact, Social Security is a great, compulsory, Ponzi scheme.  But even it, too, started small: merely as insurance against personal catastrophe.  It has grown to be a monster that is devouring the national budget and jeopardizing national security.  There is no money in its so-called “Trust fund” and it is generally conceded that the program is on the verge of financial failure, the only dispute being when insolvency will occur.  What I receive in Social Security benefits is a small fraction of what I have actually contributed adjusted for compound interest growth and inflation.  Private pension funds, and 401k accounts, do much better than Social Security.

Contrast the few successful government programs with the many notorious failures.  ObamaCare is the contemporary classic.  But, what we have not yet seen is all the damage that ObamaCare has in store.  Examples of programs where we do see the wreckage are those “Great Society” antipoverty programs initiated by President Johnson.  Enough time has passed to validate the early warnings.  Senator Daniel Moynihan warned, all the way back in 1965, that liberal poverty policy was leading to disaster:  the breakup of families, crime, drug use, wasted lives and all the other horrid consequences that have followed.  The liberal community did not listen and, today, we are stuck with the predicted social disaster.

I am an antediluvian, troglodyte, knuckle dragging, Tea Party, politically conservative engineer.  Half a century of professional experience warns me to never believe in liberal social engineering causes.  I hear the promise that this time the program is sure to be wonderful.  No thanks, I’ll pass

WOULD HAVE MADE A GREAT SON

List of Chris Kyle's achievements in life and his funeral. Absolutely amazing.

For those who may not know, here are a list of Chris Kyle's awards.

•2 Silver Stars with Combat Valor
•5 Bronze Stars with Combat Valor
•Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat Valor...
•2 Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals with Combat Valor
•2 Combat Action Ribbons
•Navy Presidential Unit Citation
•Joint Meritorious Unit Award
•Navy Unit Commendation
•Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation
•Navy Good Conduct Medal with 2 Service Star
•National Defense Service Medal
•Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
• Iraq Campaign Medal with 4 Campaign Stars
•Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal
•Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
•Sea Service Deployment Ribbon with 3 Service Stars
•Rifle Marksmanship Medal
•Pistol Marksmanship Medal
• United States Navy SEALs Insignia

 

Here is a description of his funeral, definitely worth reading:

Chris Kyle: 
This is apparently from a wife of one of the Navy Seals in attendance... it makes interesting, disturbing, but hardly surprising reading. 

 

Chris Kyle became the US armed services number #1 sniper of all time. Not something he was happy about, other than the fact that in so doing, he saved a lot of lives.

Three years ago, his wife Taya asked him to leave the SEAL teams because he had a huge bounty on his head by Al Qaeda. He did and wrote the book "The American Sniper" and 100% of the proceeds from the book went to two of the SEAL families who had lost their sons in Iraq .

 

That was the kind of guy Chris was. He formed a company in Dallas to train military, police and I think firemen, how to protect themselves in difficult situations. He also formed a foundation to work with military people suffering from PTSD. Chris was a giver not a taker. He, along with a friend and neighbour, Chad Littlefield, were murdered trying to help a young man that had served six months in Iraq and claimed to have PTSD.

Now I need to tell you about all of the blessings.
Southwest Airlines flew in any SEAL and their family from any airport to the funeral...free of charge. The employees donated buddy passes and one lady worked for four days without much of a break to see that it happened. Volunteers were at both airports in Dallas to drive them to the hotel.

 

 The Marriott Hotel reduced their rates to $45 a night and cleared the hotel for only SEAL's and family.

 

 The Midlothian, TX Police Department paid the $45 a night for each room. I would guess there were about 200 people staying at the hotel, 100 of them were SEALs. 

 

 Two large buses were chartered (an unknown donor paid the bill) to transport people to the different events and they also had a few rental cars (donated).
The police and secret service were on duty 24 hours during the stay at our hotel. 

 

At the Kyle house, the Texas DPS parked a large motor home in front to block the view from reporters. It remained there the entire five days for the SEALs to meet in and so they could use the restroom there instead of the bathroom in the house.

Taya, their two small children and both sets of parents were staying in the home. Only a hand full of SEALS went into the home as they had different duties and meetings were held sometimes on an hourly basis. 

It was a huge coordination of many different events and security. Derek was assigned to be a Pall Bearer, to escort Chris' body when it was transferred from the Midlothian Funeral Home to the Arlington Funeral Home, and to be with Taya. A tough job. Taya seldom came out of her bedroom. The house was full with people from the church and other family members that would come each day to help. I spent one morning in a bedroom with Chris' mom and the next morning with Chad Littlefield's parents (the other man murdered with Chris). A tough job.

George W. Bush and his wife Laura, met and talked to everyone on the Seal Team one on one. They went behind closed doors with Taya for quite a while. They had prayer with us all. You can tell when people were sincere and caring. 

 

Nolan Ryan sent his cooking team, a huge grill and lots of steaks, chicken and hamburgers. They set up in the front yard and fed people all day long including the 200 SEALs and their families.

 

The next day a local BBQ restaurant set up a buffet in front of the house and fed all once again. Food was plentiful and all were taken care of. The family’s church kept those inside the house well fed. 

 

Jerry Jones, the man everyone loves to hate, was a rock star. His wife and he were just making sure everyone was taken care of....Class... He donated the use of Cowboy Stadium for the services because so many wanted to attend. The charter buses transported us to the stadium on Monday at 10:30 am. Every car, bus, motorcycle was searched with bomb dogs and police. I am not sure if kooks were making threats trying to make a name for themselves or if so many SEALs in one place was a security risk, I don't know. We willingly obliged. No purses went into the stadium!

We were taken to The Legends room high up and a large buffet was available. That was for about 300 people . We were growing. A Medal of Honor recipient was there, lots of secret service and police and Sarah Palin and her husband. She looked nice, this was a very formal military service.

 

The service started at 1:00 pm and when we were escorted onto the field I was shocked. We heard that about 10,000 people had come to attend also. They were seated in the stadium seats behind us.

 

It was a beautiful and emotional service. The Bagpipe and drum corps were wonderful and the Texas A&M men's choir stood through the entire service and sang right at the end. We were all in tears.

The next day was the 200-mile procession from Midlothian , TX to Austin for burial. It was a cold, drizzly, windy day, but the people were out.

 

We had dozens of police motorcycles riders, freedom riders, five chartered buses and lots of cars. You had to have a pass to be in the procession and still it was huge. 

 

Two helicopters circled the procession with snipers sitting out the side door for protection. 

 

It was the longest funeral procession ever in the state of Texas. People were everywhere. The entire route was shut down ahead of us, the people were lined up on the side of the road the entire way.
Firemen were down on one knee, police officers were holding their hats over their hearts, children waving flags, veterans saluting as we went by. 

 

Every bridge had fire trucks with large flags displayed from their tall ladders, people all along the entire 200 miles were standing in the cold weather. It was so heart warming. Taya rode in the hearse with Chris' body so Derek rode the route with us. I was so grateful to have that time with him. 

 

The service was at Texas National Cemetery. Very few are buried there and you have to apply to get in. It is like people from the Civil War, Medal of Honor winners, a few from the Alamo and all the historical people of Texas .

 

It was a nice service and the Freedom Riders surrounded the outside of the entire cemetery to keep the crazy church people from Kansas that protest at military funerals away from us.

 

Each SEAL put his Trident (metal SEAL badge) on the top of Chris' casket, one at a time. A lot hit it in with one blow. Derek was the only one to take four taps to put his in and it was almost like he was caressing it as he did it. 

Another tearful moment.

After the service Governor Rick Perry and his wife, Anita , invited us to the governor's mansion. She stood at the door, greeted each of us individually, and gave each of the SEALs a coin of Texas . She was a sincere, compassionate, and gracious hostess. We were able to tour the ground floor and then went into the garden for beverages and BBQ. 

 

So many of the Seal team guys said that after they get out they are moving to Texas .

 

They remarked that they had never felt so much love and hospitality. The charter buses then took the guys to the airport to catch their returning flights. Derek just now called and after a 20 hours flight he is back in his spot, in a dangerous land on the other side of the world, protecting America .

 

We just wanted to share with you, the events of a quite emotional, but blessed week."
 To this day, no one in the White House has ever acknowledged Chris Kyle; his service, his death, his duty, his generosity, his caring, his life. 
However, the President can call a sports person and congratulate him on his bravery for announcing to the world that he is gay. 
 He can say on national television that someone, a man who has committed a crime and was shot by police in the line of duty, would have made him a good son.The SEALS have asked that you please, keep this moving if you think Chris Kyle would have made a good son.
=================================

We could do a lot worse – and probably will!!!   It's your choice!

 

Harley Bradley - Timeline Photos | Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ Donald Trump—Who He REALLY Is by Chuck Yeager The criticisms of Trump are amazingly missing something. They are lacking in negative stories from those...

Donald Trump—Who He REALLY Is by Chuck Yeager

 

The criticisms of Trump are amazingly missing something. They are lacking in negative stories from those who work for him or have had business dealings with him. After all the employees he’s had and all the business deals he’s made there is a void of criticism. In fact, long term employees call him a strong and merciful leader and say he is far more righteous and of high integrity than people may think.

 

And while it may surprise many, he’s actually humble when it comes to his generosity and kindness. A good example is a story that tells of his limo breaking down on a deserted highway outside of New York City. A middle-aged couple stopped to help him and as a thank you he paid off their mortgage, but he didn’t brag about that. Generous and good people rarely talk of charity they bestow on others. But as much as all this is interesting, the real thing that people want to know is what Donald Trump’s plan is for America. It’s funny how so many people say they don’t know what it is, or they act like Trump is hiding it. The information is readily available if people would just do a little homework. But, since most Americans won’t do their own research, here, in no particular order, is an overview of many of Trumps positions and plans:

 

1.) Trump believes that America should not intervene militarily in other country’s problems without being compensated for doing so. If America is going to risk the lives of our soldiers and incur the expense of going to war, then the nations we help must be willing to pay for our help. Using the Iraq War as an example, he cites the huge monetary expense to American taxpayers (over $1.5 trillion, and possibly much more depending on what sources are used to determine the cost) in addition to the cost in human life. He suggests that Iraq should have been required to give us enough of their oil to pay for the expenses we incurred. He includes in those expenses the medical costs for our military and $5 million for each family that lost a loved one in the war and $2 million for each family of soldiers who received severe injuries.

 

2.) Speaking of the military, Trump wants America to have a strong military again. He believes the single most important function of the federal government is national defense. He has said he wants to find the General Patton or General MacArthur that could lead our military buildup back to the strength it needs to be. While he hasn’t said it directly that I know of, Trump’s attitude about America and about winning tells me he’d most likely be quick to eliminate rules of engagement that handicap our military in battle. Clearly Trump is a “win at all costs” kind of guy, and I’m sure that would apply to our national defense and security, too.

 

3.) Trump wants a strong foreign policy and believes that it must include 8 core principles (which seem to support my comment in the last point):
American interests come first. Always. No apologies.
Maximum firepower and military preparedness.
Only go to war to win.
Stay loyal to your friends and suspicious of your enemies.
Keep the technological sword razor sharp.
See the unseen.
Prepare for threats before they materialize.
Respect and support our present and past warriors.

 

4.) Trump believes that terrorists who are captured should be treated as military combatants, not as criminals like the Obama administration treats them.

 

5.) Trump makes the point that China’s manipulation of their currency has given them unfair advantage in our trade dealings with them. He says we must tax their imports to offset their currency manipulation, which will cause American companies to be competitive again and drive manufacturing back to America and create jobs here. Although he sees China as the biggest offender, he believes that America should protect itself from all foreign efforts to take our jobs and manufacturing. For example, Ford is building a plant in Mexico and Trump suggests that every part or vehicle Ford makes in Mexico be taxed 35% if they want to bring it into the U. S., which would cause companies like Ford to no longer be competitive using their Mexican operations and move manufacturing back to the U. S., once again creating jobs here.

 

6.) Trump wants passage of NOPEC legislation (No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act – NOPEC – S.394), which would allow the government to sue OPEC for violating antitrust laws. According to Trump, that would break up the cartel. He also wants to unleash our energy companies to drill domestically (sound like Sarah Palin’s drill baby, drill?) thereby increasing domestic production creating jobs and driving domestic costs of oil and gas down while reducing dependence on foreign oil.

 

7.) Trump believes a secure border is critical for both security and prosperity in America. He wants to build a wall to stop illegals from entering put controls on immigration. (And he says he’ll get Mexico to pay for the wall, which many have scoffed at, but given his business successes I wouldn’t put it past him.) He also wants to enforce our immigration laws and provide no path to citizenship for illegals.

 

8.) Trump wants a radical change to the tax system to not only make it better for average Americans, but also to encourage businesses to stay here and foreign businesses to move here. The resulting influx of money to our nation would do wonders for our economy. He wants to make America the place to do business. He also wants to lower the death tax and the taxes on capital gains and dividends. This would put more than $1.6 trillion back into the economy and help rebuild the 1.5 million jobs we’ve lost to the current tax system. He also wants to charge companies who outsource jobs overseas a 20% tax, but for those willing to move jobs back to America they would not be taxed. And for citizens he has a tax plan that would allow Americans to keep more of what they earn and spark economic growth. He wants to change the personal income tax to: Up to $30,000 taxed at 1%From $30,000 to $100,000 taxed at 5%From $100,000 to $1,000,000 taxed at 10%$1,000,000 and above taxed at 15%

 

9.) Trump wants Obamacare repealed. He says it’s a “job-killing, health care-destroying monstrosity” that “can’t be reformed, salvaged, or fixed.” He believes in allowing real competition in the health insurance marketplace to allow competition to drive prices down. He also believes in tort reform to get rid of defensive medicine and lower costs.

 

10.) Trump wants spending reforms in Washington, acknowledging that America spends far more than it receives in revenue. He has said he believes that if we don’t stop increasing the national debt once it hits $24 trillion it will be impossible to save this country. Even though he says we need to cut spending, he does not want to harm those on Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security. He believes that the citizens have faithfully paid in to the system to have these services available and that the American government has an obligation to fulfill its end of the bargain and provide those benefits. Therefore, he wants to build the economy up so that we have the revenue to pay those costs without cutting the benefits to the recipients. He disagrees with Democrats who think raising taxes is the answer and says that when you do that you stifle the economy. On the other hand, when you lower taxes and create an environment to help businesses they will grow, hire more workers, and those new workers will be paying taxes that become more tax revenue for the government.

 

11.) Trump also wants reform of the welfare state saying that America needs “a safety net, not a hammock.” He believes in a welfare to work program that would help reduce the welfare roles and encourage people to get back to work. And he wants a crackdown on entitlement fraud.

 

12.) Trump believes climate change is a hoax.

 

13.) Trump opposes Common Core.

 

14.) Trump is pro-life, although he allows for an exception due to rape, incest, or the life of the mother.

 

15.) Trump is pro 2nd Amendment rights.

 

16.) Trump’s view on same-sex marriage is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but he also believes that this is a states’ rights issue, not a federal issue.

 

17.) Trump supports the death penalty.

 

Trump believes that there is a lack of common sense, innovative thinking in Washington (Hmmm. looks like he believes in horse sense!). He says it’s about seeing the unseen and that’s the kind of thinking we need to turn this country around. He tells a personal story to illustrate the point: “When I opened Trump National Golf Club at Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles, I was immediately told that I would need to build a new and costly ballroom. The current ballroom was gorgeous, but it only sat 200 people and we were losing business because people needed a larger space for their events. Building a new ballroom would take years to get approval and permits (since it’s on the Pacific Ocean), and cost about $5 million. I took one look at the ballroom and saw immediately what needed to be done. The problem wasn’t the size of the room, it was the size of the chairs. They were huge, heavy, and unwieldy. We didn’t need a bigger ballroom, we needed smaller chairs! So I had them replaced with high-end, smaller chairs. I then had our people sell the old chairs and got more money for them than the cost of the new chairs. In the end, the ballroom went from seating 200 people to seating 320 people. Our visitors got the space they desired, and I spared everyone the hassle of years of construction and $5 million of expense. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a little common sense.” On top of his saving years of construction and $5 million in expenses, he also was able to keep the ballroom open for business during the time it would have been under remodeling, which allowed him to continue to make money on the space instead of losing that revenue during construction time. Donald Trump’s entire life has been made up of success and winning. He’s been accused of bankruptcies, but that’s not true. He’s never filed personal bankruptcy. He’s bought companies and legally used bankruptcy laws to restructure their debt, just as businesses do all the time. But he’s never been bankrupt personally. He’s a fighter that clearly loves America and would fight for our nation.

 

Earlier I quoted Trump saying, “I love America. And when you love something, you protect it passionately – fiercely, even.” We never hear that from Democrats or even from most Republicans.

 

Donald Trump is saying things that desperately need to be said but no other candidate has shown the fortitude to stand up and say them. Before we criticize someone because of what the media is saying, maybe we should consider what they have to offer. What are they bringing to the table. Researching their background independently of what the news says. What’s their bio?? What's Obama’s bio? If you researched him prior to becoming President, would you have hired him to work for you or run your business?

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The victims of the Progressive Marxists are brainwashed morons who can not be saved. We can inform normal people about reality. We can begin to educate people properly. But, most of the people who went through public schools are not capable of long-term rational thinking and logical constructive behavior.  We see evidence of this everyday throughout our country.  

February 16, 2016

The United States at the Point of No Return

By Steve McCann

There is an unquestioned disconnect between the vast majority of the American people and the so-called elites or ruling class.  Whenever I am in the company of those that are members of this exclusive fraternity, and when the conversation inevitably turns to the subject of the irascible mood of the electorate, I offer what I consider to be a valid theory as to one of the primary reasons why.  That is: a plurality of the populace, myself included, firmly believe the United States is approaching the point of no return to its founding as a nation of individual freedom and opportunity, and that the 2016 election is the most significant in 150 years insofar as determining the long term fate of the country.

More often than not these acquaintances react as if Chicken Little had just escaped the asylum and was running amok claiming the sky is falling.   However, in an effort to be kind to the loon in their midst, I have been told, as a figurative pat on the head, because of my personal background as displaced war orphan from World War II that I am hypersensitive and what is going on in America really isn’t as bad as I claim.

Not as bad as I claim? 

Not since the presidential election of 1932 has the American electorate been so mired in discontent.  Despite the best efforts of the media to portray this discontentment as limited to the Republican base, a variety of polls have confirmed a vast majority of the populace shares this same sense of disgruntlement.  Innumerable polls taken over the past seven years are consistent in showing nearly 7 in 10 Americans believing the nation is headed in the wrong direction. 

Further, nearly 60% think that the next generation will be worse off than they are. And few have any faith that the economic outlook for the country will improve in the near or distant future.

Beginning in the late 1980’s, the cognoscenti declared that expansive government spending, globalization and free trade, combined with a comprehensive and overarching regulatory regime determined to root out so-called corruption and inequality as well as save the planet from the over blown evils of global warming, would be the course the nation should pursue.  The result of this foolhardy and myopic scheme:

1. In 1988 the national debt of the United States stood at $2.6 Trillion, today it is over $19.0 Trillion-- an increase of 635% (and projected to reach $29.0 Trillion by 2026).  On the other hand the debt of all the nations on earth has grown by only 135% since 1988.
2. Since November of 2008 the working age population has increased by over 18 million. However, the number of those employed has increased just 5.5 million.  Meanwhile those unemployed or no longer in the work force has ballooned by 12.4 million to a staggering total of 102 million or 40.4% of the working age population.
3. Another factor impacting on the economic health of the American people is immigration.  In 1988 there were 16 million immigrants (including less than a million illegal aliens) living in the United States.  Today that number has skyrocketed to 42.4 million (including an estimated 12 million illegal aliens).  This enormous increase (165%) in the immigrant population has not only put pressure on a stagnant job market but it has also been a major factor in the decline of median income in the country.
4. The upshot of all the above is that since 1988 the income of the top 5% has risen 39.3% (adjusted for inflation) and the income of the bottom 50% has fallen by 1.9%.
5. Since 2008 the Obama cabal has added over 18,000 pages to the Code of Federal Regulations. It is estimated that complying with federal regulations costs the economy nearly $2 Trillion per year and is, along with taxes and innumerable mandates, one of the principle reasons for the lack of new business start-ups and loss of jobs to other countries.

One of the primary hallmarks of the United States had been that of a classless society wherein economic factors allowed the citizenry to take advantage of the marketplace in order to move up or down based on their efforts and willingness to work.  However, this scenario is disappearing as the opportunities for upward mobility cease to exist.  In its place a class driven society, similar to all other quasi-socialist nations past and present, is now becoming inevitable as even the Bureau of Labor Statistics admits that the level of Americans working and in the labor force will continue to decrease over the next 8 years.

Another of the primary factors in the decline of the United States is that the nation’s elites, rather than view education as the means for the people to attain success in a competitive world, have recast it into a vehicle for their pet theories and political views.  Whether it is the promulgation of faux self-esteem, the obsession with the so-called evils of capitalism and the nation’s past, and the theoretical joys of socialism among other inane curricula, the education establishment has assured that the American people are rapidly becoming among the least well-educated populations in the world.

In 2013 American 15 year olds ranked 32nd among industrialized countries in math, 20th in reading and 24th in science.  In 1988 this same age group ranked among the top 5-10 nations in the world in these same categories. Further, recent polls have indicated that as a byproduct of the radicalized education establishment, nearly 7 out of 10 between the ages of 18 and 29 would vote for an avowed socialist. Thus it is clear that the future of the country is on very shaky ground.

As for the issue of freedom: in a recent analysis it was determined that the United States now ranks 12th among the nations of the world in economic freedom (6th in 2008) but a dismal 31st in personal freedom (17th in 2008).  The authors of the study commented:

The decline reflects the long-term drop in every category of economic freedom and its rule of law indicators. The US performance is worrisome and shows that the US can no longer claim to be the leading bastion of liberty in the world.  In addition to the expansion of the regulatory state and drop in economic freedom, the war on terror, the war on drugs and the erosion of property rights due to a greater use of eminent domain all likely contributed to the US decline.

Using the cudgel of the mainstream media, the entertainment complex and the education establishment, the Left and its surrogate, the Democratic Party, have successfully inculcated into a plurality of the American people a belief that there are no moral absolutes and that the state can grant any rights that it so chooses to whomever it chooses.  Further, the nation’s founding documents are arcane, racially insensitive, and unsuitable for today.  Thus religious liberty, property rights and freedom of speech are under aggressive assault.  The Judiciary is now almost under the complete control of these same statists, and with the death of Justice Scalia the last line of defense, the Supreme Court, is in peril.

The vast majority of the American people sense that the future of the nation and that of their progeny is in serious jeopardy.  However, one of the most troubling aspects of the current unease and angst among the general public is what this portends: when anger and frustration evolve into deep seated passion, reason is too often a casualty.  As Thomas Sowellrecently wrote:

Too many nations, in desperate times, especially after the authorities have discredited themselves and forfeited the trust of the people, have turned to some new and charismatic leader, who ended up turning a dire situation into an utter catastrophe,

This has been true throughout history whether in England in the 1650’s, France in the 1790’s, or Russia, Italy and Germany in the 20th century. 

In the current campaign for the next president, there are candidates attempting to tap into the ire of the citizenry by either promising that a purer form of socialism will magically solve the problems or by claiming that they, by sheer force of their will and personality, will part the seas and save the nation.  Unfortunately, due to the ill-education of the populace as well as their angst, far too many seeds of this demagoguery are falling on fertile ground.  The election of any of these candidates will only exacerbate and make permanent the nations woes.

So to my ruling class friends safely ensconced in Washington, New York and other enclaves among the like-minded and wealthy, this nation is at the point of no return to the country of freedom and opportunity that allowed you to be where you are.  The folks in fly-over country know it and so should you.