by Jack
Trump has come up with a number of great ideas for reforming Washington. He’s says he will make it mandatory for elected officials to wait 5 years before they can become lobbyist after they are out of office. Or how about this one, cutting off federal funding for sanctuary cities? I love that one. These liberal city mayors need to face the consequences of their illegal activity.
Here’s another low cost, easy to do reform: How about ending the 1st Lady Ceremonial Position? That made-up job now has a staff costing taxpayers 1.6 million a year, not counting travel expenses, that adds up to many millions more.
Michelle Obama used this position to spend tens of millions and to what end? Is the nation in any way better off? No. Mrs. O did some fund raisers for charity, but in truth most of her time was self promotion and self indulgence.
So, I ask you, why does she require a highly paid staff of 24 people? Who elected her to be the queen-bee? By the way, Jackie Kennedy had a staff of one!
We don’t need a first lady position to entertain Melania. She’s perfectly okay hanging out at the Trump Towers in New York and taking her own trips and doing her own charity work without the need all kinds of servants paid for by the taxpayers.
Off topic:
Trump has the authority to withhold funds to sanctuary cities and the whole state of Calif. on day one in office.
Sanctuary Cities Risk Losing DOJ Funds in 2017, Texas Congressman Says:
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/11/21/sanctuary-cities-risk-losing-doj-funds-2017-texas-congressman-says/
http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2016/11/21/sanctuary-cities-risk-losing-doj-funds-2017-texas-congressman-says/
Peggy, I hope Donald puts an end to the stupidity of a sanctuary city. Those liberals are sending the wrong message, that is, if you don’t like the law you dont have to obey the law. Isn’t that great? It’s not up to mayor to decide what laws they will enforce, thats our job and this is our immigration law and they better wise up or lose a lot of federal dollars!
Not being widely reported is the fact the whole state of Calif. is a sanctuary for illegals. In 2013 the democrat controlled state legislators approved the TRUST Act, which was signed by Gov. Brown and became active on Jan. 1, 2014. The law mandated every county and city to develop a policy of compliance.
So, when Trump says he’s going to cut off federal funds he’s really talking about every city and county in Calif. not just the few being identified on news reports.
The sheriff in SF, who no longer has his job, tried to explain he was in a damned if he did or didn’t situation. To comply with the federal law he would break the state’s, city’s and county’s law. (SF city and county are one and the same.) This would also apply to every sheriff and law enforcer in the state, of course.
Obama sued AZ for not complying with federal law concerning immigration, if my memory is right. Jan Brewer was really hot about it and gave him a talking to with her finger stuck under his nose when he stepped off of Air Force One.
I’m thinking the state better get it’s act together fast and reverse that law before billions of federal dollars stop coming into every city and county in the state.
Here is the TRUST Act. At the top is a link for City/County Policies, where you can see what the local officials submitted for approval. Yes, Butte county is listed.
http://www.catrustact.org/
Excellent idea! Start a new tradition.
Doing your own charity work, indeed.
____________________________
A Little Christmas Story
A couple of months ago, when I told General Krulak, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, now the chair of the Naval Academy Board of Visitors, that we were having General Mattis speak this evening, he said, “Let me tell you a Jim Mattis story.” General Krulak said, when he was Commandant of the Marine Corps, every year, starting about a week before Christmas, he and his wife would bake hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Christmas cookies. They would package them in small bundles.
Then on Christmas day, he would load his vehicle. At about 4 a.m., General Krulak would drive himself to every Marine guard post in the Washington-Annapolis-Baltimore area and deliver a small package of Christmas cookies to whatever Marines were pulling guard duty that day. He said that one year, he had gone down to Quantico as one of his stops to deliver Christmas cookies to the Marines on guard duty. He went to the command center and gave a package to the lance corporal who was on duty.
He asked, “Who’s the officer of the day?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it’s Brigadier General Mattis.” And General Krulak said, “No, no, no. I know who General Mattis is. I mean, who’s the officer of the day today, Christmas day?” The lance corporal, feeling a little anxious, said, “Sir, it is Brigadier General Mattis.”
General Krulak said that, about that time, he spotted in the back room a cot, or a daybed. He said, “No, Lance Corporal. Who slept in that bed last night?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it was Brigadier General Mattis.”
About that time, General Krulak said that General Mattis came in, in a duty uniform with a sword, and General Krulak said, “Jim, what are you doing here on Christmas day? Why do you have duty?” General Mattis told him that the young officer who was scheduled to have duty on Christmas day had a family, and General Mattis decided it was better for the young officer to spend Christmas Day with his family, and so he chose to have duty on Christmas Day.
General Krulak said, “That’s the kind of officer that Jim Mattis is.”
The story above was told by Dr. Albert C. Pierce, the Director of the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics at The United States Naval Academy. He was introducing General James Mattis who gave a lecture on Ethical Challenges in Contemporary Conflict in the spring of 2006. This was taken from the transcript of that lecture.
Link—
http://gorges-smythe.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-little-christmas-story.html
Also–
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuDCkjuHGLc
SHOCKING!
Foreign Donors Begin Pulling Out From Clinton Foundation
Another way to cut $pending: Obumble sorely abused the taxpayer with his Air Force One trips for a 10-minute “goofernment business” stop and then went on to various fundraisers.
Let’s prohibit Air Force One from any/all campaign fundraising events and let the affected political party pay for ALL expenses for that kind of travel.
Now this is interesting …
Male Cornell student’s accusation of sexual assault, discrimination ignored
And he isn’t even inaugurated yet …
http://www.salon.com/2016/11/23/shepard-smith-slams-donald-trump-for-flip-flopping-on-the-issues-all-of-those-positions-are-now-available/
Suckers! And again, I say: Suckers! (I never claimed to be a particularly evolved human being.)
And I loved the video communique. Emperor Donald, interact with the fourth estate? Don’t be absurd! So the fourth estate is going to spend the next four years sauteing his balls for breakfast. Fun, fun, fun!
So now the Donald is a jerk for being gracious and making nice?
You people are never happy.
Trump didn’t interact with the press he let them have it, and rightly so! They should be required to register as a promotional organization of the left.
Ultimately what Trump does will be much more interesting than what the liberal press reports. His cabinet and department head choices so far have been excellent!
And if anyone was suckered it was the people who voted twice for the hope and change community organizer who delivered 1.5% growth, low wages, part time job creation, bigoted divisive policies, senseless war mongering with no plan to win, and an added 10 trillion in debt. Eight years of sagging hope and destructive change…whoopee! Worst president evah! Thank God it will soon be over.
She’s been reading Salon again . . . . . .
“How about ending the 1st Lady Ceremonial Position?”
How can Eleanor be frying your hiney? I don’t think you were even alive yet? Jackie was a party girl; Eleanor was not; and we certainly know which you prefer. A serious woman intimidates you? … is that what it is?
Well, tough noogies. She who want’s to live in her kitchen will, and she who does not, will not … and you are just going to have to suck it up, Mister.
You are seriously deranged.
Laura Bush quietly and efficiently made quite a differenceas First Lady:
More here
The liberal press would never champion a republican woman who actually achieved something without tooting her own horn but that doesn’t mean the accomplishments didn’t happen.
Meanwhile you lefties will continue with symbolic gestures and patting your own backs…the proof is in the pudding.
I’m sure Melania will find her own way and be a gracious hostess as needed. One things for sure the vicious left will be incredibly unkind to her and her children…it’s already begun. They are only sensitive to the feelings of their own. Such phonies. Hypocrites! Nasty nasty people!
And by the way…the Trumps, unlike the Obama’s, and like the Reagan’s, will pay their own way whenever possible.
Why would you believe Trump would “pay his own way” when he has stolen from his own charity several times?
So, let’s start making a count:
1) Hils will not be indicted. (Why would he want to hurt the Clintons; they’ve been friends for years.)
2) Climate change is not a Chinese plot, and is caused by human activity.
3) After speaking to an honest-to-god general, whom he is thinking of for Secretary of Defense, we will not return to waterboarding.
4) And my favorite, The Donald just has no idea how Richard Spencer and his ilk could have gotten the ideas they seem to have about where the country’s heading.
One more time … Suckers.
But not to worry … with the Republicans firmly in charge of the government, the thoroughly Republican policy of sending impoverished people to prison, for being not much more than impoverished, will continue. Gotta keep that private prison industry fat and happy. Have you bought in yet, Jack?
Libby imagines she has the upper hand.
Watch what he does!
We will be here to report it since you get your information from the propagandists for tyranny and oppression.
Yes, when the media report stuff you don’t like, it’s always a “great conspiracy of tyranny and oppression.” (There are drugs for that.) I believe that you have posted from Salon yourself, Tina, once or twice.
I’m just having a little fun. It’s going to be an absolute circus … the whole four years, all glitter and glitz on the surface, and dark nastiness beneath. What are you going to do? … if he does not redeem this vision of civic life that you have projected onto him. He’s not likely to. Not to rub yer noses too ferociously, but I did tell you that you were probably being lied to. So, you’ve been lied to. Whatcha gonna do now?
Find somebody else to lie to you? Or, maybe, look around and try to figure out why you keep doing this. You’re plainly getting something wrong. What is it?
Did you hear that that bastion of unregulated capitalism and low taxes, Dallas, Texas, is bankrupt? Danged if that didn’t make my day.
Well it’s possible to post from Salon if you’re a person who seeks accuracy and truth…even Salon gets it right from time to time. Besides Salon is pretty much declared left media TownHall or Breitbart are declared right media.
Att least 95% of reporting from the alphabet old media, which claims to be neutral, is spin, if not downright lies. The left agenda drives the reporting rather than the story.
Please don’t project expectations for Trump on me that I do not have.
I have hopes that he can accomplish much of what he has planned. I KNOW that his economy will easily top 1.5% average growth. No president has had such abysmal growth. (I just read that 70,000 factories went out of business or left the US in the last eight years…abysmal…mine is, sadly, one of them as of the end of this year!) I have hopes that he will not promote division…there’s nothing he can do about divisive community organizers unless they break laws. I have hopes that we will see law and order re-established, particularly at the border. I have hopes that his policies will help to bring back dying cities and that education will be improved. And I have hopes that we will finally see radical terrorism defeated at least to the point of irrelevance (Like the KKK in America).
But hopes are not expectation…I have no expectations. You and your ilk will not give Trump the opportunity Obama was given…more than two years without much criticism. You bums have so much invested, both emotionally and monetarily, that you can’t afford to find out your ideology sucks after all and is at the root of your failure.
Nothing has changed Libby. For instance the media got Trumps remarks on Climate change wrong (probably because they don’t get it anyway):
You accuse me of getting “something wrong” and yet you cannot name it…how does that work?
Ha! And what do we find is at the bottom of the Dallas bankruptcy problem? The same thing killing many cities…bad pension agreements made years ago with unionized employees:
Probably back in the days of LBJ and Ma Richards.
The damage done because of feel good ideas that are completely void of common sense can be devastating and it’s not easy to clean up the mess. If you had even a drop of intellectual curiosity you’d see that the people you find so “dark and nasty” do know what they’re talking about after all! Unfortunately you seem to prefer making stuff up in your head.
“The city’s pension fund for its police officers and firefighters is near collapse and seeking an immense bailout.”
Only because Dallas will not collect the revenue required to sustain the expense.
Or … Dallas could do without police and firefighters … that is always an option.
Jack, … were you, yourself, thinking of turning your unreasonably lavish pension back to the state?
I did not think so.
Libby, Donald Trump’s every word was taken literally by the left, but they did not think of him as a serious candidate. The right side, however, took him as a very serious candidate, but never took him so literally. They knew bluster from reality. And that was your undoing… or rather our victory.
You were so focused on the literal word, trying to crucify Trump, you failed to see the ground swell of support he had. You greatly underestimated Trump as a serious candidate and thats why he cleaned your candidate’s clock.
I loved seeing the stunned faces on election day….what a treat. I am pleased, however, that you have recovered to your old self and will be taking the opposition of whatever Trump wants to do.
When the president speaks, nations listen. Today Trump said flag-burning should be illegal. Yesterday it was that he would have won the popular vote if 2 million people hadn’t voted illegally (which is a complete fabrication). Last week he was trying to silence critics by targeting the NYT and “Hamilton.”
At what point should we start taking his tyrannical delusions “literally?”
This may have been fun for some people when Trump was a candidate. Now he has a responsibility to speak more carefully and responsibly. He has given no indication that he is capable of that. The electoral college should respect the will of the people and refuse to appoint Trump.
Ridiculous!
Piers Morgan on The Wrap:
Could be this man is pushing liberals’ buttons in his tweets.
The thing I like about him the most is that he refuses to dance to liberal tunes…another way of saying bend to your will.
I think the nation can withstand a few of what the left calls Trumps “tyrannical delusions” if in the end we can rid ourselves of the much uglier and more destructive PC constraints on expression and the respectful exchange of ideas.
Tyranny is demanding single mindedness and controlled speech. Look in the mirror!
Re Tina to Lippy:
“You people are never happy.”
“You are seriously deranged.”
“Libby imagines she has the upper hand.”
That pretty much sums it up.
Made me smile Pie. I didn’t think I had such brevity in me. Now I see it’s just a matter of severe editing 🙂
Whoa! Check it out!
The final count is not final. Two million mail-in ballots in California are still to be counted. Who do you suppose they’re for? One of them is probably mine, which might give you a hint.
Big deal. It’s not as if we expect a different outcome.
Libby speaking of Calif. mail in ballots, in the immortal words of Hillary Rodham Clinton, what difference does it make? CA is a winner take all state, so my vote was’nt even counted, nor were any votes counted that were for Trump. So don’t get so saucey Bernaise!
Maybe The Donald will go down for, among other things, claiming the Presidency with the fewest popular votes ever. That would be a big deal.
A Thanksgiving Day message from president elect Trump.
http://www.youngcons.com/trump-releases-video-day-before-thanksgiving-in-just-minutes-he-blows-up-the-internet/
The only reasonable answer to free speech that someone may find offensive is more free speech. I have seen literally thousands of examples of Political Correctness suppressing free speech in our schools and in the supposed hallowed halls of academia.
This could happen here if the PC left continue to get their way. It is not only the 2nd Amendment these people find offensive.
The final court statement of Freedom Party Geert Wilders:
Mr. President, Members of the Court,
When I decided to address you here today, by making a final statement in this trial against freedom of speech, many people reacted by telling me it is useless. That you, the court, have already written the sentencing verdict a while ago. That everything indicates that you have already convicted me. And perhaps that is true. Nevertheless, here I am. Because I never give up. And I have a message for you and the Netherlands.
For centuries, the Netherlands are a symbol of freedom.
When one says Netherlands, one says freedom. And that is also true, perhaps especially, for those who have a different opinion than the establishment, the opposition. And our most important freedom is freedom of speech.
We, Dutch, say whatever is close to our hearts. And that is precisely what makes our country great. Freedom of speech is our pride.
And that, precisely that, is at stake here, today.
I refuse to believe that we are simply giving this freedom up. Because we are Dutch. That is why we never mince our words. And I, too, will never do that. And I am proud of that. No-one will be able to silence me.
Moreover, members of the court, for me personally, freedom of speech is the only freedom I still have. Every day, I am reminded of that. This morning, for example. I woke up in a safe-house. I got into an armored car and was driven in a convoy to this high security courtroom at Schiphol. The bodyguards, the blue flashing lights, the sirens. Every day again. It is hell. But I am also intensely grateful for it.
Because they protect me, they literally keep me alive, they guarantee the last bit of freedom left to me: my freedom of speech. The freedom to go somewhere and speak about my ideals, my ideas to make the Netherlands — our country — stronger and safer. After twelve years without freedom, after having lived for safety reasons, together with my wife, in barracks, prisons and safe-houses, I know what lack of freedom means.
I sincerely hope that this will never happen to you, members of the court. That, unlike me, you will never have to be protected because Islamic terror organizations, such as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS, and who knows how many individual Muslims, want to murder you. That you will no longer be allowed to empty your own mailbox, need to carry a bulletproof vest at meetings, and that there are police officers guarding the door whenever you use the bathroom. I hope you will be spared this.
However, if you would have experienced it — no matter how much you disagree with my views — you might perhaps understand that I cannot remain silent. That I should not remain silent. That I must speak. Not just for myself, but for the Netherlands, our country. That I need to use the only freedom that I still have to protect our country. Against Islam and against terrorism. Against immigration from Islamic countries. Against the huge problem with Moroccans in the Netherlands. I cannot remain silent about it; I have to speak out. That is my duty, I have to address it, I must warn for it, I have to propose solutions for it.
I had to give up my freedom to do this and I will continue. Always. People who want to stop me will have to murder me first.
And so, I stand here before you. Alone. But I am not alone. My voice is the voice of many. In 2012, nearly 1 million Dutch have voted for me. And there will be many more on March 15th.
According to the latest poll, soon, we are going to have two million voters. Members of the court, you know these people. You meet them every day. As many as one in five Dutch citizens would vote the Party for Freedom, today. Perhaps your own driver, your gardener, your doctor or your domestic aid, the girlfriend of a registrar, your physiotherapist, the nurse at the nursing home of your parents, or the baker in your neighborhood. They are ordinary people, ordinary Dutch. The people I am so proud of.
They have elected me to speak on their behalf. I am their spokesman. I am their representative. I say what they think. I speak on their behalf. And I do so determinedly and passionately. Every day again, including here, today.
So, do not forget that, when you judge me, you are not just passing judgment on a single man, but on millions of men and women in the Netherlands. You are judging millions of people. People who agree with me. People who will not understand a conviction. People who want their country back, who are sick and tired of not being listened to, who cherish freedom of expression.
Members of the court, you are passing judgment on the future of the Netherlands. And I tell you: if you convict me, you will convict half of the Netherlands. And many Dutch will lose their last bit of trust in the rule of law.
Unhappily, I don’t think your going find more than 60 million people in this country who agree that the expression of that, “closest to your heart” … i.e., flaming racism, is even decent, never mind politically correct. But you go ahead and express it. This is a more or less free country. However, the dirty looks … you will just have to accept, as a part of the deal.
You see, you’re not actually complaining about any suppression … you are complaining about the dirty looks. You are complaining because people will not accept the “virtue” of your position. Well … they won’t, ever, and you are just going to have to accept that.
Or, not … which is what the jail is for.
“Libby, Donald Trump’s every word was taken literally by the left, but they did not think of him as a serious candidate. The right side, however, took him as a very serious candidate, but never took him so literally. They knew bluster from reality. And that was your undoing… or rather our victory.”
This has to be the most irrational bit of rationalization I have ever read.
A serious candidate should not be taken literally?
Does that make any sense at all? No … it does not.
It would seem to me to be one hell of a convoluted and nonsensical attempt to absolve yerselves of responsibility for the fact that you have been suckered … again.
The good, The Bad, and the Ugly.
One has to support the good, rail against the bad, and recognize the ugly.
Always question a Presidential admin ran by the elite. To which we have another but it is the Koch faction instead of the Soros faction. In the end Fascism is ramping up slowly all around us.
Free Speech is ending. It started a few decades ago and is about to be ended.
Question: Do you folks think it is good a President plans on profiting on every aspect of his presidency?
It’s one thing to sell tacky foreign made ornaments, but to have Taxpayers pay premium rates for an already empty floor of Trump Tower in NY for Secret Service? Pay Premium rates to Trumps Plane companies to transport the SS?
That is just the beginning. He has traveled around the world using his new found power making business deals saying a President has no conflict of interest?
Your answer?
Would your answer change if the name Trump was Changed to Obama?
The scary part of Trump is he is Thin Skinned and acts out. He now has control of the worlds largest Surveillance state ever created. Both Bush’s and Obama are responsible for that. But trump just inherited it.
Support the good, rail the bad. Those who wear Rose Colored Trump Glasses need to get real. The Elite run this country still. Profit before human life. As Charlie Koch says he wants it all for himself.
How about Taxpayers not pay the 1M a day for the foreign wife of Trump to stay in NY? I am all for ending any first lady expenses. If she decides to stay in NY that that is at Trumps expense not ours.
Look I suspect her son is on the spectrum. He needs to stay at his school and be out of the media limelight. He deserves a quiet life, But We should not have to pay for it.