Did you watch the debate on Monday night? Were you one of the more than 80 million Americans who tuned in? I was. I can’t resist a good political trainwreck.
What were your thoughts? Who won? Who lost? Did it impact your perspective of either candidate? Did it change your mind on who your voting for come November?
My thoughts? I thought both candidates struggled. Clinton looked as if she was “short-circuiting” while trying to deliver her canned responses, especially at the outset of the debate. Every time she brought up some personal anecdote, “Today is my granddaughter’s second birthday,” or that story about her father the “small businessman” who worked “really hard” printing “drapery fabrics” it came across as forced and inauthentic as if she was desperately trying to recall the script she was given by her handlers during debate prep.
I mean, you know leading up to Monday night her people told her that she needed to work on “connecting with voters” and “humanizing her image.” See, the Clinton camp was hoping that by highlighting the fact that she is a grandmother and the daughter of a blue-collar tradesman we’ll forget that she is now a privileged, wall-street connected, political elitist. That’s a tough image to shatter. And, ironically, every time she tries to break that image and “connect” with the American voter — whether it’s with her cackle of a laugh, her awkward sneering, or a rehearsed aside about her upbringing — it only affirms what we already know, she’s a complete phony. She doesn’t give a rats a** about the working man!
If Clinton was over-prepared and over-rehearsed, Trump was the opposite. Under-prepared and too fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants. And it showed. Trump relied too much on rhetoric from his stump speeches. You know, the whole bit about how “we don’t win anymore,” how “we’re losing to China and Mexico” and, how things are “very, very bad,” and how we make “horrible deals,” etc. In doing so, he missed out on some real opportunities to counter punch Clinton and really bring the fight to the former Secretary of State.
A perfect example is the issue of cybersecurity. That question was teed up perfectly for Trump. Instead of repeatedly crushing Hillary on her decision to imperil national security by using a private email server that was reportedly easier to hack into than Yahoo, Trump briefly mentioned the DNC hack and subsequent scandal maligning Bernie Sanders before prattling himself into this gem of a non-sequitur.
See Also: Infamous No-Fly No-Buy Gun Bill, HR 2578: ‘Blatant Rape of the Constitution’
“So we had to get very very tough on cyber and cyber warfare. It is a huge problem,” said Trump. “I have a son — he’s ten years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers. It’s unbelievable.”
What the heck? If Trump wants to win this election, he has to be better than that. He has to go on offense and really exploit Hillary’s vulnerabilities. She opened her response to this question by saying, “Well, I think cyber security, cyber warfare, will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next president because…”
Trump should’ve pounced on that comment, saying something along the lines of “When it comes to cybersecurity, Secretary Clinton went rogue while serving in the Obama administration. She used a private email server that was hacked. Her actions were not only unlawful, but they imperiled national security and endangered the lives of millions of Americans. Given her horrible track record on this issue, how can anyone expect Secretary Clinton to do right by the American people?”
That would’ve put Clinton on the defensive. In any event, while Trump’s lackluster performance bothered me, what irked me, even more, was his endorsement of No-Fly, No-Buy legislation during a brief exchange on gun control.
After arguing for universal background checks, bans on “military-style” weapons, Clinton said that we “need to pass a prohibition on anyone who is on the terrorist watch list from being able to buy a gun in our country. If you are too dangerous to fly, you are too dangerous to buy a gun.”
In a perplexing response, Trump neither pushed back on Clinton’s call for universal background checks nor a black rifle ban, but instead agreed with her that No-Fly, No-Buy legislation is the way to go.
“First of all, I agree and a lot of people even within my own party want to give certain rights to people on watch lists and no-fly lists,” said Trump. “I agree with you when a person is on a watch list or a no-fly list, and I have the endorsement of the NRA which I’m very proud of…”
For the record, both Democrats and Republicans proposed No-Fly, No-Buy legislation this year. But neither bill cleared Congress. Similar in scope, both bills sought to do the same thing, keep those on government watchlists from purchasing firearms. In the past, I’ve gone into great detail explaining why No-Fly, No Buy legislation is a bad idea. In a nutshell, it’s unconstitutional.
See Also: Top Five Reasons to Oppose No-Fly, No-Buy Legislation
Beyond that, government watchlists make no logical sense. In other words, they’re unnecessary. If one is a terrorist, arrest him! Put him in jail. Problem solved! If there are evidentiary reasons to suspect one is a terrorist and yet not enough hard evidence to prosecute him in court, well, get a warrant and continue to surveil him until there is enough to put him behind bars. That’s the way our legal system has always worked, whether it pertained to mobsters or terrorists, the government has its hands tied until it can prove in a court of law that an individual is, indeed, a law-breaker.
Only recently have we given the government, which has ballooned in size (DHS, NSA, FBI, CIA, etc.) in the past decade, the power to start creating these secret lists that deprive individuals of certain privileges (flying) without due process and without their knowledge. That’s right, there’s no way to know whether you’re on the list until you attempt to fly. Moreover, getting off the list is an involved process that can take months! But now the government wants to start taking away fundamental rights without giving one his or her day in court. This is wrong. This is unAmerican. This is priming the pumps for an Orwellian future. Yet, sadly, both candidates for president emphatically support enacting such nonsense. So, yes, while both Trump and Hillary struggled on Monday night, the Second Amendment was the big loser.
An assessment of Hillary’s qualifications to be president of the United States would be DISMAL !!!! Think about the qualifications of her supporters described below !!!! Think about her very poor judgement and lies in the mishandling of the State Department CLASSIFIED EMAILS. Think about her very poor judgement and total lack of effort to help the American ambassador and three assistants who were killed in Benghzi, Libya. (Remember Secretary of State Hillary saying “ARE WE GOING BACK TO THAT?” which was a huge humiliation for her and terrible reflection on her judgement when questioned by a Congressional Committee. This also applies to Secretary of State Hillary’s poor judgement and lack of support for Americans in life threatening situations when employed by the State Department she controlled. “BENGHAZI – WE HAD THE TIME, PLANES AND SHIPS. WE DID NOT HAVE THE LEADERSHIP !!!!” Hillary as president would be very devisive and an extreme risk and would seem to be an “endless misery” to American citizens. She has already stated that her little deranged mind feels that the U.S. Supreme Court made the “wrong decision” when the Court said the Second Amendment applies to American citizens rather than militias. She declares that she and her rotten supporters will make a maximum effort to change that Supreme Court decision !! She would be a very poor person to appoint nominees for Supreme Court vacancies !! IT WOULD BE IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES TO ELECT TRUMP AND REPUBLICANS !!!!
If a deranged Hillary and her rotten supporters try to usurp the Constitution and Second Amendment and there is no attempt by government or courts to stop Hillary and supporters, Americans who support the Constitution may have no choice other than forcefully resisting to save the United States.
I am sure there are many countries who support Communists and terrorists that are happy to see a clique of people in the United States who are so radical that they want to mis-interpret the Second Amendment in order to disarm the American people and
make them as defenseless as the people of Russia, Iran, North Korea, etc. so Americans would not be armed and able to defend themselves against a tyrannical government and terrorists.
Several of these radicals, including the network “news”, who are mostly Democrats, are listed below:
The biased network “news” media fully supports Hillary and radical Democrats. The network “news” media and Hillary, Billy, and Chelsea supporters, such as Obama, Tim Kaine is Hillary’s selection for Vice President, Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer are rotten gun grabber politicians from California, Gov. Brown of California, Gov. Brown of Oregon, Gov. Inslee of Washington are Democrat gun grabbers from three states, Bloomberg is a major gun grabber radical and financier who contrives with “news anchor” Katy Couric to make the pro gun people seem to be confused and stupid on network “news”, Soros is a major gun grabber idiot who is a friend of Hillary and owns Progressive insurance, Sen. Schumer of New York wants to stack the U.S. Supreme Court with gun grabber Democrat justices that will comply with deranged Hillary, Katie Couric who contrived with Bloomberg to make the network “news” represent pro gun people as confused and stupid, Attorney General of Massachusetts Maura Healey who dictated that certain common guns are illegal, Sen. Harry Reid of Arizona who, as Democrat Majority Leader of the Senate, refused to hear Republican legislation, Dan Gross who is leader of the gun grabber Brady Bunch, Rupert Murdoch who is a biased gun grabber Democrat of FOX NEWS, pseudo-Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine says she will NOT vote for Trump, and so does pseudo-Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham and pseudo-Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, and all have something in common and it is the fact that all are ROTTEN TO THE CORE AND DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR THE UNITED STATES !!!!
Hillary is gaining ground on the race to the White House, Trump on the other hand is gaining ground in a bunch of clowns running around a three ring circus driving a peddle locomotive heading for a wreck on a wreck. 2A will be doomed for the first time since it was written many years ago if Trump can get his act together and his knowledge on foreign policy right and his knowledge of what America is about to lose in protecting home soil and supporting the troops overseas and halting invaders crossing the USA borders and entering the USA illegally and trying to resolve the drug invasion and getting all Americans in work. If Trump can get his ego under control and do something about these issues that I have listed then he had better get some makeup on to become a clown because Hillary is about to take the Presidents chair from between his legs and to tell him to close the doors as he leaves the White House that’s if he can get a foot in the door in the first place.
Anyone who thinks Trump will protect 2A rights hasn’t been listening very carefully to what he says when he starts to ramble away from the conservative talking points he just adopted.
Make sure your 2A Rights are discussed in the next debate. We can have a say, by voting to have the question asked: “How will you ensure the 2nd amendment is protected?”
Vote here: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20160930/help-us-get-the-second-amendment-in-the-presidential-debate
I don’t agree with a prescribed platform from any party but I will vote libertarian this time because of there 2A stance and they want government lists abolished. My friends as a 50+ male, I fear for my children and grandchildren as I see more and more freedom taken away and more individuals relying on the government to the point where they will do whatever the government puts in place. We got to stop it!!!
I understand and empathize with your position, but respectfully disagree. The practical implications of your voting 3rd party is that you, at the very least, garner less time for your children and grandchildren to grow and influence the political process with the wisdom that you will impart to them. We are in an existential battle at this point, which doesn’t favor an approach based on moral high ground, but rather, practical outcomes. The current options for President of the United States (and I’m less and less inclined to capitalize that) are between two people. A protest vote only counts when enough momentum exists for it to influence results. We are not at that point. Unfortunately, we are in a delaying action. Both parties are pissing on every corner of America’s foundation and calling it progress, but we are not going to work our way out of this by speeding up the demise of our country by casting votes for our dogs, or any other creature that fits our idea of a noble ally. To vote for a candidate who has absolutely no chance of becoming President, at this time, does nothing more than further the objectives of the miserable “progressives”, who don’t care one bit about morality, on any level, freedom, or any other trait that means what it does to the rest of us. Like I said, I completely get where you’re coming from, but I disagree with your proposed course of action, because the consequences of that action are contrary to your intentions.
Anthony, I’m a Constitutional Libertarian egalitarian humanist. Which means I’m about as ANTI-Totalitarianism and its evil spawn Leftist Marxist ‘Obamism’ as you can get.
At this point in our nation’s history I don’t think there are any true Egalitarian Pro-Freedom candidates of any substance who can’t be ‘immunized’ against the Constitution for their own personal greed agendas. At least not any who can WIN!
So if we want to stop the Totalitarian Constituion destroying current regime from digging in against our liberties even further with a continuing Hellwench regime, then we are forced, at this point, to ignore the essence of the candidate’s qualifications and personality. I’m not even going to reference it in the lesser of the two evils approach.
Voting for Trump at this point is the only way to temporarily hold off the Obamist Fascist Juggernaut until we can slap ourselves awake and turn this country back around to where it belongs. Trump’s only in for four years, anyway. So it gives us a little more time, when there won’t be ANY chance of recovering our liberties and keeping our Freedom if Hillary gets in for a third extention of Totalitarian OBAMISM.
So voting for an independent candidate, even though it seems to be a righteous statement, is tantamount to losing the war. Because no Liberal or third party candidate can win.
And it only takes votes away from the only chance we have of gaining some ground. So anybody who votes Libertarian or 3rd party independent instead of Trump, is actually helping Hillary, and contributing to her regime’s confiscation agenda. Which will be in full implementation within a year of her election.
“What we all must sometimes do what we don’t want to do to save ourselves…” P.J.Klipangle.
Anthony,
I understand and share your frustration with the options available to us this election cycle. However, it is important to note that this election is not about who would be the BEST president but about who WILL BE president. Either Trump or Clinton will be president. Sad though they may be, those are really the only choices. A vote for anyone else means you have no say in who will be president. Every vote is a compromise. We never get the perfect candidate. We have to choose the “best” of the options available.
Do what is absolutely best for the United States and VOTE FOR DONALD TRUMP !! Many idiot Democrats, such as Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Gov. Brown of California, Gov. Brown of Oregon, Gov. Inslee of Washington, Tim Kaine, Maura Healey, Chucky Schumer, Susan Collins, etc. should be voted out at the earliest opportunity, and their supporters, Bloomberg who is a billionaire who contributed $300,000,000 for his gun control plan and convinced Katie Couric to do the gun control part of the network news in a way that would make pro Second Amendment people seem to look confused and stupid, Soros who is a gun control fanatic and a good friend of Hillary owns Progressive insurance, Katie Couric who tried to contrive the network news to help the Bloomberg gun control effort, Warren Buffet, Holder, Obama, Harry Reid, Lynch, etc., should be recognized as radical gun control idiots who do not support the Second Amendment. These people want to control the U.S. and change it to be as they desire.
Give it serious thought and don’t forget, THE LIAR AND CORRUPT HILLARY IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE AND WILL DO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, WITH THE HELP OF HER ROTTEN SUPPORTERS, TO TAKE AWAY THE RIGHTS OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT AND THAT IS THE RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS FOR PERSONAL PROTECTION AND THAT RIGHT SHOULD NOT BE INFRINGED BY DERANGED HILLARY !!!
I watched the debate, and I have come to the conclusion that I would vote for a Dog in a Hat, before voting for Hillary.. Trump isn’t the perfect candidate, but as a legal gun owning citizen he is our only choice. Hillary is too untrustworthy. She hasn’t taken care of our interest in the past 23 years.. Why start now?
Trump said he would surround himself with the best people to help him run the Country. Why then did Wally (Trump) choose Eddie Haskell and ‘Lumpy’ Rutherford (Giuliani & Christie) to help him prepare for the debates?
I’m sure that if Donald put a phone call into the NRA, they would send over the finest experts from the NRA-ILA to guide him on all issue domestic and foreign, and help him to expose the Clintons for the One World Order power brokers that they are. Make the phone call Donald. They made you look good in your interview for American Rifleman. The last thing you need is another, ‘yes man.’
Why isn’t Rahm Emanuel’s father not on the no fly list?
One of the many current threats to US security is China. China was made an economic, military and technological super power by the Clintons. MFN status was granted without one environmental or human rights concessions.
Trump is a scary guy and yet he is still the best candidate.
I only watched 20 minutes of the “debate.” Trump was Trump: unprepared, unprofessional and kind of threatening looking at times. Guess what? I’m definitely voting for Trump. I was, and am, a big Ted Cruz supporter. When he lost out to Trump I immediately got on board. Unfortunately for us who are 2nd Amendment believers in the God given right to self defense with guns or anything else, Trump’s lack of work ethic is killing us. Hillary Clinton was her standard, canned, self. She knows she is terrible at extemporaneous discourse. BUT. Unfortunately, her memorized lines came off as so much more knowledgeable and prepared than Trump it wasn’t funny. I’m getting very pessimistic about the impending Federal anti-2A landslide heading our way.
Article V Convention of States.
TRUMP IS YOUR ONLY HOPE FOR KEEPING YOUR SECOND AMENDMENT AND YOUR GUNS AND YOUR A FOOL TO THINK ANY LESS…:+)
I Ratter Lose my Right To Own and Carry My Guns.!!! Than Vote For Trump.!!!!! May Said The Same Things About Trump….
( Trump is a scary guy.!!! Trump: unprepared, unprofessional and kind of threatening looking at times.)
But do you Trust Trump With The Responsibility With Our NUKE WEPION.????
You will loose your gun rights.. Guaranteed..
Old no name above is too damn dumb to be a gun owner, Tony. He’s obviously a Hillary, the Evil, troll.
theres no way we will ever “lose our guns”. just like we’ll never deport all illegal immigrants it’ll cost billions of funds we dont have and years of government employee salary. its just too expensive for the bean counters to let anybody whos in the whitehouse pull it off. that said i cant believe the article wants us to gloss over how large of a silver spoon trump had in his mouth.
Our Country can survive 4 years of Donald Trump. It will not survive a Hillary Clinton appointed Supreme Court. Wake up call.
Mathew, without risking my clearance on details I’ll simply ‘guess’ but guarantee that the plan is that the first priority of the Obamist regime’s third Reich after Hillary gets in will be to target most of the potential militia style dissenters/anti-Tyranny American Patriots who might participate in an ‘armed’ resistance to further Tyranny (like the Malheur refuge Patriots tried) and categorically pass new laws already in play criminalizing these Patriots and/or administratively enacting Fiat mandates placing them on ‘Domestic Terrorist’ watch lists like the unconstitutional No-Fly list to allow the illegal (cruel and unusual punishment) laws of permanent gun restriction to effectively disarm the American Citizenry and virtually eliminate any threat of ‘revolution’.
And if everything goes as planned, We’ll wind up a steroided version of Australia and the EU well before the end of her term. With the new Police State Law Enforcement procedures, the Well Armed ‘ringleaders’ will be taken down first in swift and silent raids.
By the way, for those of you not ‘in the critical awareness loop’, all the infrastructure for the tactical implementation for all this quick disarmament has been worked up in the last two Obamist terms. Silently, but surely. Beginning with the national location assuring identifcation gps enhanced individual contact targeting methodology. Started by the 2005 ‘Real I.D. Act.’ Which is nothing less than a Nazi Style National I’D. card complete with soon to be almost limitlessly Advanced target acquisition tech, with the latest facial recognition technology.
So, it will be pretty easy to scoop up the recalcitrant Molan Labe-ers before they even can scream” Who the fuck threw the flashbang through my bedroom Window! ”
I mean you don’t really think a die-hard Totalitarian dictatorship was not spending and still are going to spend lots of those tax dollars we still have rolling in even though we don’t pay down the national ‘debt’ or re-direct black bank account money on swift reaction hyper-tactical counter measures for the elimination of the millions of potential resistance firearms out there? Do you?
Even if masses of people came together and resisted and refused to give up their guns like what is somewhat going on in New York, there’s some interesting analysis that this is exactly what the ‘Terrible Swift Sword’ of a Totalitarian dictatorship would want?
Because then Then it could be all over faster with even more authoritarian control over the populate when their Puppet Potus would declare a National Emergency and invoke her executive domestic powers act authority and while sure, some of us, who have some empirical knowledge in fighting ‘De Opresso Libre’ type combat, could organize a decently formidable show of force with a lot of good people with more guts than effective combat fighting skills against all the super organized and trained Police State forces, The show of resistance would only last as long as it took for the drones, also ‘legally’ now authorized for use on American soil in a state of emergency, and the Tanks… to start rolling in. After, of course, a non-stop bombardment of airbursting 4.2″ mortar fire of CS gas cannisters is commenced that will ‘soften’ up the resistance area before that.
Wounded survivors, if any, will be determined ‘treatable’ depending upon vacancies in the Fema camps. The rest will be given a ‘pain-killer’ injection and left, mercifully, to die in place, at their last stand.
The now heavily government controlled and proprietarily censored MSM headlines will be:
“Heavily Armed Domestic Terrorists Successfully Defeated by American Homeland Security First Responders!”
citizens are urged to report to authorities any armed civilian persons or suspcious behavior for their own safety…”
So don’t give me that bullshit, MATHEW, that they’ll NEVAH! as the billies say in the hills, Take our Guns because it costs too much? It doesn’t cost ANYthing to take your guns, you dumb ass! It’s already part of the Police State’s and the National Guard’s program! All factored in and paid for. And all the Combat experienced Military that’s now doing ‘busy work’ at the bases to ‘kill time’ instead of ‘domestic terrorists’ will be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
So What fucking part of ‘The Obamist regime has been planning and setting up for armed population resistance for YEARS!’ Do you STILL NOT get? What do you think this whole fabricated false flag bullshit with lone wolf terrorism was about?
Well, people like you prove my point. Between the clueless ‘un-realists’ like you and the anti-2nd/A Totalitarian
part of American that amounts to literally half the country, This regime has already ‘divided and conquered’ us!
There’s only one viable solution left.
If we keep letting ‘Them’ get away with shit, and if Trump doesn’t win this time, and the Hellwench does…
Have a good fucking answer ready when your grand children might someday ask–if they’re brains are not totally part of their smart phone’s indoctrinated AI curcuitry yet, “… But grampa? If the people wanted their freedom to keep their guns…why didn’t most of the people just Vote Trump in and the Obamist regime OUT…when they still had the chance?”
The nuke question is the stupidest argument yet.
Takes more than one idiot to launch a nuke. It takes a bunch of idiots to do that.
So you would rather trust the codes to Clinton, who has received more donations from Arab/muslim nations to win the presidency than even Bernie sanders blew for his failed attempt…who sat on her ass and did nothing to safeguard our people in benghazi probably for fear of ruining her little secret gold mine over there and selling uranium to Putin? God how naieve are you…I’d be. More afraid she would sell them to Isis than trump pushing the button.
USA….concieved by geniuses, ruined by fools !
We have a contest between two lying incompetents, neither of whom is remotely qualified to be president. You can’t expect any more of Trump than what you see — he has no knowledge of, or respect for, the Constitution, or much of anything else. I’ll vote for him as the lesser of two evils, assuming that he will do less damage to the country and the Constitution than Hillary certainly would do — but I won’t be proud of it. We are in a position where the only choice left is between bad and disastrous.
Well put.
Okay, to succinctly balance my previous rant for those deficient in cognitive perseverance, Let’s break it down this way. The difference between Trump ‘bad’ and Hillary ‘disasterous’ is simply that if Trump wins, then we, the rationale Freedom loving Patriots, still have a chance to fix this country.
If the Hillary wins and the third Reich of Totalitarianism continues their agenda…
Your guns, Liberties, and everything else, will be ‘gone girl’.
I would have written the same thing except you beat me to it, Bisley. While Trump is still an unknown on some of this, Hillary, the Evil, has been around for decades shooting off her mouth & doing everything in her power to bring about the demise of the country. Everyone please vote Trump & at least give us a chance to right the ship instead of allowing Hillary, the Evil, to sink it.
What we have here is basically Sophie’s Choice. Don’t even bring up Gary Johnson! What a freaking moron!
Lets-be-honest-about-this-most-Americans-do-not-know-what-is-in-the-actual-Constitution.
The-Actual-Constitution-is-an-organizational-table-that-oraganize’s-the-federal-governments-structure-and-how-these-tree-equal-branches-are-to-operate-I-refer-to-the-Actual-Constitution-as-a-Driver’s-manual.
Without-Question-all-three-branches-of-Government-have-violated-the-rules-of-the-Constitution.
What-I-believe-you-are-referring-to-in-principal-is-Our-Bill-Of-Rights.
I-will-agree-with-you-the-Federal-Government-has-trampled-on-and-trashed-the-meaning-of-this-document-time-in-again.
But-as-I-said-most-Americans-do-not-even-know-what-is-in-this-document-and-that-is-a-shame-many-are-lazy-and-do-not-care.-I-have-always-felt-there-must-be-a-test-based-on-our-founding-documents-and-their-history-much-like-a-drivers-test,before-you-can-vote.
Last time I checked, the Bill of Rights was part of our U.S. Constitution. “Amendments,” just means, add-ons, or changes, but does not make it any less the law and structure of our U.S. Government. Attorneys practicing, “Constitutional Law,” the prosecutors, and the judges hearing these Constitutional cases are seldom battling over the original document (Constitutional Convention, May, 1787), but over the Bill of Rights (1789-1792). Therefore, “Constitution,” may be used in common vernacular when referring to the Bill of Rights.
That most Americans don’t understand, or give a flip flying *&%#, I will concede.
Aside from the not having the power of a CEO and having to inspire other branches of government, Trump is a business man with a business sense. Most very successful businessmen are eccentric. Don’t let his campaign fool you. Once he is behind the desk, you will be suprised at what he can do..
A simple one liner that could have CRUSHED HER phone B.S. Washington D.C. double talk would have been a fast and easy reply to
When are you going to show us your tax returns—-
Ans: I E-MAILD THEM TO YOU
Ah! That was great, Sandman!
The real problem with a no fly no buy list is it’s government controlled, which any one knows means a disatrous failure! I actually had a friend of mine at the Airport getting ready to board a plane for vacation with his family. They were flagged and didn’t make their flight because of the no fly list, guess who was on it, his 8 year old boy! They didn’t immediately see this as some kind of mistake but had to spend thousands of dollars in lawyers fees to get his son’s name off the list and it took almost 2 years to do because of the government red tape! It’s not a simple thing to prove your innocence anymore, there is never cut and dry with the government! When we see the big picture, that government only wants to control us serfs to pad and line their pockets with wealth, then we will understand how it functions!
Amen!
We protect are people by not inviting terrorist to come to are country! working with these so called allies is like working with a theft that will steal your wallet and help you look for it
Trumps comments on the, “No Fly List,” hit me like a punch in the gut, too. Trump said people put on the list could seek recourse after their rights are violated. I’m sure that’s what the Nazis said: “Yeah, you can seek retribution when the train arrives in Auschwitz.”
Both candidates seemed to show little regard for the Constitution. Trump wants to institute, “Stop and Frisk,” tactics to fight crime in the inner city. Hillary (the lawyer) seems to have taken the same Constitutional Law classes that Obama did, as she said the reason stop and frisk is unconstitutional is because it, “wasn’t effective” (go back and watch the debate for yourself). “Due Process? We don’t need no stinking due process!”
Suppose Mayor Emanuel of Chicago decided to use stop and frisk. You are going on Vacation with your family to Minnesota, and will be driving on Illinois’ wonderful tollway system through Chicago on your way. You check on the internet before you left home, and know Illinois has a reciprocal CCW agreement with your state. As you drive through Chicago, Johnny Jr. decides he has to go, bad. You pull into a tollway oasis (gas, food, restrooms on the tollway). As you’re walking out of the restroom you are thrown against the wall, frisked, and arrested for carrying a concealed handgun in Chicago. The mayor has decided to target white males, 30-60, wearing cargo pants. It becomes a big money maker for the city, and strips you of your 2nd Amendment rights after you are convicted of a felony. Think it can’t happen? A guy from Indiana posted on Guns America a week or two ago that this happened to him during a traffic stop.
Let’s keep all our Constitutional Rights!
Wow, that was a long video Gunsamerica was linking to but it was very interesting to see. Unfortunately to the end it became some kind of boring because Hillary Clinton was, in my point of view, promising things she surely will not be able to do. Just look what President Obama promised in 2008 and at this time I believed his “Yes we can” sayings. Unfortunately, Donald Trump, as the text already mentions (thanks Mr. Blannelberry!), talks too low about the problems of America. Instead of bringing up facts and numbers, like Hillary did sometimes, he just talked very general but without real facts in many cases, for example “We need law and order”, okay but how does he actually mean that and how will he do it? He didn’t say a thing about that. We have to make it all better, we have to stop this and start that…. but unfortunately no real facts on HOW Trump is planning to address the problems, while Hillary, well, she was also not trustable to me either. For example, about the race problem. How she wants to help these communities and what kind of plan has to be done? Sounds like the typical liberal talking only stuff. Plus, she said she wants to give criminals 2nd chance programs at 52:15. That scares me because criminals should not receive a 2nd chance at all. Too many countries are already doing this mistake and letting criminals go so that they can continue to steal, rape and murder and these guys are laughing at the law. This is a completely wrong move.
I even have to admit, being German myself, that I became a bit angry about Trump, when he said “we defend Germany”, at 1:25:49. What? When? I never saw America defending Germany directly against terrorist threats or whatever he meant. Instead, by going into Afghanistan together with the USA, Germany, as many other European countries, has become the target of terrorists and we cannot live safely here anymore, not knowing if there will a bomb being blown up every single day, not to mention that because of all the bombs that are dropped down there in those countries by the USA, Europe is being flooded with even more terrorists because of the refugee invasion that takes place here, because the USA attacks these countries, destroys everything and is leaving a huge gap of power where a group like ISIS can jump in. So, to me personally, US actions in the Middle East are just worsening the overall situation in the Middle East as well as the overall European situation, although of course the European politicians are also to blame with their stupidity of letting all these people in, without even asking for a passport. And neither I think that Hillary or Trump will be that good for the situation in the Middle East and in this way for the situation in Europe or even the world. I hope I did not stepped onto the foot of any of you guys that are reading this comment, but this is my personal point of view about this foreign politics matter.
But I also got angry against Hillary Clinton, talking at 1:24:55 and which even Donald Trump is acknowledging too making me angry as well. They both so far stated, that the number one threat the world is facing is the danger of terrorists getting their hands on guns, as well as the proliferation of nuclear weapons in general. Well, but what about all the nuclear weapons America has? I am always angry, when I see American politicians blaming countries that gear up their nuclear arsenal or even just use nuclear power peacefully, while at the same time America has an extreme amount of nuclear weapons, ready to fire all the time at all places in the world and I do suspect that just one of them would be dangerous for the entire world, if that thing would blow up somewhere in the world, no matter where exactly. Hillary also talks about sanctions against Iran. Let me tell you, I have friends in Iran via the internet and they tell me how many people suffer there because of the US sanctions, while they do not, as sanctions normally don’t anyway, hit the politicians in this country or any kind of nuclear production. It only hits the small people and makes their hard lives even harder.
You know, as a German, I was pro-Trump very much but mostly because I only knew his opinion about the 2nd amendment, as well as the opinion of Hillary Clinton about this case as well. But after I saw this debate, well, I personally won’t be sure if I could vote for at least one of these two, if I would be an American myself. Both want to be presidents failed into answering some certain questions, for example the race topic, talking mainly about President Obama’s birth certificate. I’ve expected much more from this meeting.
Christian, good observations about the American political situation. However, you seem confused about the aim of international sanctions. As you noted, sanctions do not impact on the leaders of a country, they harm the population of that country. The point of such force is to make living standards so miserable that the people will force a change to a leadership that would bend to the will of the people enforcing the sanctions.
Think of sanctions as a siege against a recalcitrant enemy, because that is exactly what it is. A total siege against a country that depends upon international trade for it’s very existence would be a war with no casualties among the nation/nations conducting the siege. As wars go, the application of effective sieges is the best way to go.
The unfortunate country experiencing this kind of warfare? Lack of food, medicines, support for their infrastructure, etc. would cause the aforementioned misery, a misery that would, sooner or later, be intolerable.
Consider the alternative, which is what we are now doing with Iran. They will get the nuclear weapons that they desire to wipe out Tel Aviv, and initiate the minor nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran. A very real danger would be a major nuclear exchange if the large countries believe that their interests are being threatened. Iran might even send a nuclear weapon to a large city in Russia or America to pull those countries into the chaos.
Call me crazy but I think that sanctions on Iran, enforced by U.S. war ships, would be less likely to start a nuclear conflict.
On the other hand we could do nothing and watch events unfold. I’m almost sure that the Muslim leaders in Iran mean what they say about attacking Israel as soon as they have a deliverable nuclear arsenal. Heck, with oil money they can buy anything that they need to bring this lethal dream about.
I don’t know as there’s much to be concerned about over there until “The Temple Mount” in Jerusalem is destroyed or no longer under muslim control. That complex, (the Dome of the Rock being most-mentioned in religious circles), is the third most holy place for muslims. No legitimate muslim country will chance destroying it. That said, somebody will. After that, all bets are off.
Hello Joe, nice to hear from you again!
Thank you very much for your helpful explanation! There is just one thing I would like to add, which is about if sanctions are a kind of warfare with no casualties. I at least know about one historical event, in which sanctions like these were not without casualties in the end, besides the casualties among civilians that, as you already wrote perfectly, suffer because for the lack of food, medicine and other daily needs because of these sanctions.
The historical sanctions, that did not went good for America? Well, it was the sanctions against Japan, which was, according to my book about the battles of World War 2, that has a chapter about Pearl Harbor, the reason why Japan saw no other option than to attack the USA. President Roosevelt decided that the export of ore, chemicals and metal junk (yes, metal junk, it is no writing mistake) to Japan shall be forbidden. He also created an oil embargo against Japan and put the Philippine army under American command, plus he frozen Japanese bank accounts in the US. Well, because Japan needed all these materials as well as the financial savings for its war machine in Asia, they decided that the only way to get rid of this problem is to attack the USA, as the Japanese leaders thought that a war against America under these conditions would become inevitable, same what Germany said about the Soviet Union around 1940, that a war against them would start latest in 1943.
So, sanctions do not always turn out well or without casualties. I personally do not believe, that any government in the world will ever start a nuclear war because they all know what would happen then. Even religious radical governments wouldn’t go this far, at least that is what I believe. The biggest danger, which I agree with Hillary and Trump, is that terrorists could get their hands on nuclear weapons (I wrote “guns” in my first comment which was obviously a writing mistake).
Thanks again Joe, for giving me the chance of having another great discussion with you!
Christian, thanks for the kind words. And I still wish that I could write and speak German half as well as you communicate in English. Alas, even if I made the effort to learn the German language, I would get very few chances to use it.
About sanctions and embargoes, the target country would suffer starvation, disease and deaths due to the lack of, …..well, almost everything. And that is the whole point of such actions, to force the people to change the behavior of their leadership.
A major nuclear exchange? A country like Iran would not hesitate to incinerate a large city in Russia or America, if that would bring about the results that Muslim leaders hope for. I marvel at the minds of the Western leaders when they dismiss such outrageous behavior as being impossible. The imams instruct their young male followers that to die in battle against the infidel is the best way to get to Paradise where 72 virgins await each one. Guess what? The Muslim terrorists believe it! What else would explain so many suicide bombers?
Islam is all about the fight to dominate the world’s populations. Terrorism is the action of choice because any direct attack on a super power, such as America, would result in a one-sided catastrophe for the Muslim cause.
The American attempt to force Japan into less aggressive adventures in Asia? From the Japanese viewpoint, it was intolerable. Japan had to seek almost everything it needed for its growing population, from other countries. Worse, it had little to offer in trade to get those materials. The Japanese later explained to the victorious American leaders why it attacked a country with a much larger population, and a country with overwhelming industrial capacity. They counted on the weak nature of the decadent Americans to sue for peace after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. They were thwarted by two factors, the aircraft carriers were not in the harbor and the shocked American people went from isolationists to a war waging population in 24 hours. Japan was doomed from the start, but it had to gamble because it was between a rock and a hard place, as you pointed out.
Germany was partners with Japan, and Hitler must have known about the Japanese psychology. He was also contemptuous of the American will to fight a war, especially after the huge loses of men in WWI. Even when the Germans discovered that the inferior Sherman tanks could not stand up to the dreaded German Panzers and Tiger tanks, the American could field thousands of the fast moving Shermans. That combined with the thousands of ground attack airplanes doomed the German Army. The German Army’s ground troop kill ratio was lopsided. More Allied troops died than Germans. Same problem, the attacking forces seemed to be never-ending in numbers. And the German civilians? I can’t imagine what went on in the German cities while the allied bombers with their Mustang fighters destroyed city after city.
After the war, we were the only world power that suffered no homeland damage and we were in a position to dominate the world trade markets. Our war industries quickly converted back to peace time production and that was that.
America doesn’t fear foreign aggression, we fear the society destroying internal forces of socialism. We are bankrupt and would grind to a halt if we didn’t borrow money to operate on. When the music stops, there won’t be enough chairs to cushion our fall.
I’ll say it right now, if Hillary Clinton wins the election, we will increase the rate of our decline among the world economies. Capitalism will wither on the vine, and socialism will dominate our politics. The word doom again comes to mind.
Hello again, Joe!
At first, thank you again for your interesting writing! And let me tell you again, that my English would be surely worse, if I wouldn’t write all of my comments with MS Word first and check everything for spelling or grammar mistakes, at least as good as I can as MS Word has its quirks. And I am afraid that I’ve done some mistakes in my first comment of this blog entry.
Anyway, as you pointed out very well, those embargoes and sanctions turn to diseases, hunger and many other bad things for civilians. Is this a good move by a government to allow this to happen, only so that they get what they want in bringing the government of that country into trouble like this? I personally don’t think so. It would just create hate among the civilians against the USA, or against any other country that is doing these sanctions. And I am afraid that even the strategy behind it, that the people will put a high pressure on their sanctioned government, will not work, as they might be too weak to do something, if even daily things like food and medicine are missing. I remember that I saw an English interview with a politician from Syria on Phoenix, a Chinese TV channel from Hong Kong, last year. He said that because of all the international sanctions against Syria, the situation became that worse and that is why ISIS was able to gain power there. He said, that only five years ago, Syria was one of the most secure countries in the world and now, because of the sanctions, it has all been lost. Iran is one of the strongest countries in Arabia. If the sanctions would turn out as worse as they done with Syria and suddenly ISIS could take place there, guess what happens if they get their hands on the atomic weapons of Iran. No, I am not a friend of sanctions, it mostly hits only the people that are not involved into these political decisions and it will in fact even create more hate and political tensions between the countries. And with terrorists getting their hands on nuclear warheads, even highly increases the danger of a nuclear winter and the destruction of our entire planet and the human race. Sounds like science-fiction but we have absolutely no idea, how dangerous and powerful the modern nuclear weapons are and what kind of impact they could have on our world. We have to remember that the asteroid of Chicxulub was one of the main reasons the dinosaurs have been eradicated. We build our own Chicxulub and I believe that we can only get rid of this problem, if ALL the countries in the world with nuclear warheads are getting rid of these things, which is not going to happen, I believe.
I agree with you on terrorism and the suicide bombers. I have read the Quran first time in 2013 but I have to admit that I did not found any verse, or let’s say I cannot remember one, that talks exactly about 72 virgins in Paradise. I do remember that Quran is promising women with “big eyes” but I don’t remember the context anymore. Being a free believer into God myself, which means I am not bound to any religion, church or whatever in particular, I am interested into all the three religions that are said to come from the only God. And guess what, I met the Ahmadiyya Muslims at their Mosque in Berlin-Pankow last year and they are indeed very friendly and peaceful, as they see many verses of the Quran as time related. But guess what, they are outlaws in Islam because they believe that their founder is the Messiah. They are not even allowed to enter Mecca. In Pakistan they even get killed on sight and this is even a part of the constitution in Pakistan. So they can only live safely in countries that give them all the freedoms, therefore mostly highly developed western countries, like Germany, England, USA and others. Therefore, those countries that are right now under attack by extremists (mostly Salafists) as well. It is a dangerous situation for all of us.
Thank you Joe, for the good layout about the situation in the second world war. I only would like to add about the horror the Allied planes brought upon German cities. I am surprised that I finally meet one American that thinks this way. Especially the bombing raid on Dresden, at the end of the war, was without any cause. There were no military installations, the war was close to be over and it was only made to create more civilian casualties. To me it is a pure war crime but as the Allies were the victorious forces, this massacre has never declared as one, same with the Soviet raid on the Gustloff ship in January 1945. Well, the loser stays the loser, especially when he did crimes like this as well.
Yes, Joe, you are absolutely right. I was shocked by the numbers Trump mentioned in this debate. Trillions! How much is a trillion? Is this 1,000 billions? I never was good at math but those are numbers I cannot follow anymore. I was getting used to millions, later continued with billions, which I also was still able to follow, although this amount of money was and still is pure astronomical to me, but trillions! To whom America owes all this money and how shall they ever be able to pay it back? And who is the ultra-rich idiot that still gives your country such a loan, although it is already kind of bankrupt? If I would have a red number on my account of, let’s say, 1,000 Euro, which is not even a single cent compared to the numbers Trump mentioned, then no bank in the world would give me another loan. It’s crazy, totally crazy.
Again, Hillary won’t be an option to me either, but I am eager to see if Trump’s tax cut for the rich will really bring them back to your country and brings them to build up their companies. Right now, I am still in doubt about this.
Joe, thank you again for this wonderful discussion!
Your going to really be pissed off if Hitlery gets elected…
Hello Rick,
I share the views of most people, that Trump would still be the better choice than Hillary. I also do hope, that Hillary will not become president of the USA in November. I think we are all kind of surprised, that he is pro those no fly no buy lists, although we believed that Trump would be the best choice, when it comes of securing the 2nd amendment. I am still curious about the other two presidential debates that are about to come. Maybe he will analyze his speech and is better prepared for the upcoming debates. It is never too late to change the mind, so I hope that he will oppose these lists in the future. Maybe he is just not a speaker type but more like someone that actually does things and is working hard. Or, if there are any independent presidential candidates, you can vote for one of these too, if you believe they are the better choice, although they obviously never have a chance.
One thing I believe we have to remember, is that, although we only see Trump and Hillary all the time, a president is not having ultimate power. The senate, congress and however you call it there, are existing as well and I say it like this: You might not like or trust Trump and right now I am also confused and don’t know any more what to think about him, but remember that you vote for the senators as well (as far as I understand the American voting system) and they are doing most of the work. A president is to me a president, someone who actually presents a country but who does not make all the decisions alone.
So, let me be clear: If I would be an American and would have the right to vote, I would either still vote the republicans or one of the independent. But trust me, never ever I would vote for Hillary or her democrats. I will never forget the lessons I’ve learned, when I saw President Obama shouting “Yes, we can” all the time in 2008 and at the same time looking at your country and the overall political situation in the world now, 8 years later. I always thought he might be a guy that changes things to good and I have to admit that he was (and somehow still is) charismatic to me as a private person. I never liked President Bush, so I thought Obama would finally be someone that will be actually good, not only to his country but also to the world, as America is still a giant when it comes to foreign politics. But unfortunately it was all a hoax and because of this experience and according to the fact that I have become older and therefore more mature, I became more careful when it comes to politicians and their words.
And yes, if Hillary will become your president, I will freak out in a negative way for sure.
While Mr Trump did agree with part of Hitlery’s no fly/no buy, he also said that the people on the list should be notified and given legal recourse.
Again, what’s the point of the list if you’re going to inform everyone on the list that they’re on the list?
That aside, imagine getting this phone call, “Hey, Chris, the DHS here, just wanted to let you know that you’re on our No-Fly list, which means that in addition to not being able to travel on a plane this holiday season, you can also no longer buy firearms until your name is cleared. Sure, we’ve attempted to streamline the process so it only takes 7 days to get off the list, but due to budgetary cutbacks and a backlog of other folks awaiting processing, it may take up to 2-3 months. Have a nice day.”
Now, I’m assuming you’re not a terrorist. But suppose you are. Now, if the government alerts you that you’re on the No-Fly list, are you going to change your behavior? Are you going to go to greater lengths to cover your tracks and fly under the radar (no pun intended) when it comes to your nefarious anti-American agenda? You bet your keister you will.
From what I understand, the point of the list was to keep it a secret so that those being monitored don’t realize they’re being monitored. If they discover they’re on the list while trying to fly, that’s one thing, but to disclose to them that they’re being monitored in many ways complicates the surveillance protocol because it incentivizes them to change their behavior.
Anyways, this whole secret list thing is stupid. The government’s big enough now. They have trillions of $ at their disposal, some of the brightest minds in the country working for them and all the advanced technological doodads you can imagine, I say we end this list nonsense and have them go about it the old fashion way. Get a warrant, and catch em in the act. Don’t start taking away people’s rights and privileges without due process.
Well, S,H., your last sentence revealed the true well thought out reason for the No Fly list. Consider that the concept of Due Process was a protection for the corruption of the other 4th and 5th Amendment protections. Synergistically they all work to safeguard each other. By suspension of due process with Bureaucratic De facto mandates. which exactly is what the free movement restricting ‘No Fly’ rule does, they are simply grinding away at the Consitution like Termites on a a corner of a once strong Log Cabin. As soon as you grind one corner completely away, the whole Cabin will start to collapse rapidly.
But that’s exactly what they are doing with things like ‘no Fly lists’ and universal background checks, and then no fly NO BUY, since they already got away with No Fly??? And the slope stays well greased…
And, of course, they disguise this in the form of a ‘Public Safety’ rationale, like when they literally suspended the 4th/A rights of an ENTIRE Neighborhood in Boston when chasing the Tsarnov brothers after the bombing!
An LEO is only allowed to invade a private locked home if he is in direct hot pursuit of a person fleeing from the commission of forcible felony and has continuous visual contact of the subject being pursued and sees that suspect entering a private dwelling. Otherwise a Warrant is absolutely required.
/this criteria was NOT met and was suspended by Police State Fiat. when they Cordoned off an entire neighborhood and systematically did a Police State Nazi style house to house Warrantless searches often against many citizens refusal after assuring that no Terrorist entered their home!
And I don’t believe they even declared Martial Law in Boston at that point, which might have given them some emergency justification, if not procedural Constitutional legality?
Had your trusty personal protection dog attempted to bite the door busting paramilitary home invaders and was SHOT, and you then snapped and went after the Staci police, You would have been shot. And then the city would have to pay your family which would add to the multi-millions if not approaching a Billion in such settlements by unlawful police state actions. (chicago over a hundred mil already) Which is one of the reasons why You HAVE the 4th Amendment, in the first place?
The sad part was that the gullible sheeple public standing on the street actually cheered the ‘conquering troops’ after they got their man and wrapped it up and started leaving in convoy formations.
And you’re right, I guarantee that the old fashion flat foot way we used to do it at my old squad would have had a better record of capturing these so-called lone wolf shooters and bombers than the Eye’s way of putting them on some stupid ‘List’ where they STILL don’t catch them at the ‘conspiracy’ part, and save any lives? In fact, it seems like they’re letting more Muslims off the ‘lists’ and putting more children on?
Reminds me of Germany around 1938?