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How to lose a nation

The United States is not a nation based on a common ethnicity. With citizens from across the globe, its people are united not by race by a devotion to values and laws deriving from a history of a struggle for freedom and the fulfillment of the principles of the Constitution.  But what if knowledge of that history was lost or distorted? What if the citizens lacked accurate knowledge of their Constitution?

That may well be occurring. According to the Nations Report Card.Gov Proficiency in US history among America’s eighth graders is a dismal 18%. Civics knowledge is a horrendous 23%.  Geography is not far behind at 27%.

It’s not just ignorance of the facts as a whole.  There is disturbing evidence that outright lies defaming America are being taught in our schools.

In a Wall Street Journal article,  Lynn Cheney describes a New Advanced Placement History Exam that describes President Reagan’s “tear Down that wall” speech, in which he urged the Soviet Union to remove the Berlin Wall, as evidence of “increased assertiveness and bellicosity” on the part of the US.

Eagle Forum reports that:  “The most widely used history textbook in U.S. public schools is A People’s History of the United States by the late Howard Zinn. It has sold a million and a half copies since it was published in 1980. It is required reading in many high schools and colleges…

“This history textbook by Howard Zinn is a very leftwing version of U.S. history, full of … propaganda. It is based on the thesis that America is not a republic but an empire controlled by a few white men. Its heroes are anti-establishment protestors…

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Deeply biased views against the American experience are widespread in U.S. schools. The Blaze reports that “In many Texas public schools, the Boston Tea Party is now being taught as an example of an act of terrorism.

“Here’s an excerpt from a Texas school system’s World History / Social Studies lesson plan. It purports to be helping teachers become more efficient, but many people are upset with the content of the lesson and the lack of parental review. In this specific instance, teachers are instructed to read the story to their classes as if it were a news report that had just happened within the past hour:

“News report: New Act of Terrorism: A local militia, believed to be a terrorist organization, attacked the property of private citizens today at our nation’s busiest port. Although no one was injured in the attack, a large quantity of merchandise, considered to be valuable to its owners and loathsome to the perpetrators, was destroyed. The terrorists, dressed in disguise and apparently intoxicated, were able to escape into the night with the help of local citizens who harbor these fugitives and conceal their identities from the authorities. It is believed that the terrorist attack was a response to the policies enacted by the occupying country’s government. Even stronger policies are anticipated by the local citizens.”

There is some push back against this disturbing trend. In one Midwestern state, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice  Sandra Day O’Connor and former Senator John Glenn are working together to launch iCivics Ohio  to provide an accurate understanding of the American experience.

But institutional efforts will be insufficient.  This is a task that should, indeed, must be undertaken by every parent concerned for the future of the nation. Reviewing the textbooks, lessons and other material provided to their children to uncover anti-American bias, politically motivated lies about U.S. history, and blatant propaganda is an essential endeavor.

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Progressive Mayors, Decaying Cities

New York City Mayor Michael de Blasio travels from the confines of the Big Apple and his duties as chief executive of America’s largest city to advocate for a nationwide progressive agenda.

As outlined in the Huffington Post, his priorities are:

  1. Raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
  2. Reform the National Labor Relations Act to enhance workers’ rights.
  3. Pass comprehensive immigration reform.
  4. Oppose trade deals that “move power to corporations at the expense of American jobs, workers’ rights, and the environment.”
  5. Pass national paid sick leave
  6. Pass national paid family leave.
  7. Make pre-K, after-school programs and child care universal
  8. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit.
  9. Allow students to refinance student loan debt.
  10. Close the carried interest loophole.She has said she wants to close it.
  11. End tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas
  12. Implement the “Buffett Rule” so millionaires pay their fair share.
  13. Closing the CEO tax loophole that allows corporations to take advantage of “performance pay” write-offs.

Noticeably absent in that list are key topics that should be the concern of a big city mayor, such as combating local crime, reducing unemployment, and easing traffic, all significant problems that should command his attention.

Murders in New York City are up 20% in 2015, according to the New York City Police Department.  

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Two-thirds of student test-takers in grades 3–8 didn’t meet state standards on the English language arts (ELA) and math tests,

New York ranks among the worst U.S. cities in traffic congestion .

And then there is the issue of taxes.  In addition to New York State’s already high taxes, the city itself imposes a personal income tax. As noted in Forbes,  “Very few other U.S. cities assess individual income taxes and/or business income taxes. (Pennsylvania and Ohio have local school taxes on earned income but the rates are fairly low, except in Philadelphia.) Many investment advisers and professionals moved their residences and businesses to Connecticut where the top tax rate is 6.5%, saving 10% of their highest-marginal income.” If you own an unincorporated business, there is a special tax on that, too.

Some of the Mayor’s national ideas are harmful to his constituents. Allowing more illegal immigrants into the nation at time of high unemployment places downward pressure on wages. Increasing the minimum wage encourages companies to move their operations overseas.

Emphasizing spending on “progressive” issues at the expense of basic services such as having a sufficient number of police on patrol threatens to make municipalities unsafe. The residents of cities run by “progressive” mayors are noticing.

Joel Gilbert, who researched cities run by progressives, described what he found in a WND interview: “In my journey through America …I met a lot of people living in horrible conditions, particularly African Americans, who I was surprised to learn were now staunch conservatives as a result of living in progressive-controlled cities like Detroit, Chicago and Newark,” Gilbert said…After 60 years of progressive politics in their cities, they understood very clearly that they had not been progressing but rather regressing all this time, and they were mad.”

Indeed, a recent Quinnipiac poll notes that de Blasio’s overall approval ratings have dropped to 44%, a particularly low number considering his landslide victory in the last election.

Here is a breakdown of the ten cities with populations above 250,000 that have borne the brunt of long-term rule by progressives, as outlined by Frontpage:

St. Louis’s poverty rate is 26 percent overall; Newark, New Jersey’s poverty rate is 26.1; The residents of Cincinnati, OH are afflicted by a poverty rate of 27.4 percent overall; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 percent of city residents overall live in poverty; Milwaukee, Wisconsin sports a poverty rate of 29.9 percent overall; In Buffalo, New York, 29.9 percent of residents overall are living below the poverty level; El Paso, Texas, one-in-four live in poverty;  In Cleveland, Ohio, 36 percent of its residents live in poverty; And then, there is Detroit, Michigan, in a class by itself, with 36.2 percent of residents living in poverty; Camden, New Jersey rounds out the top ten, with a poverty rate of 42.5 percent.

The National Review notes that American cities “are by and large …monopolies generally dominated by the so-called progressive wing of the [Democrat] party. The results have been catastrophic, and not only in poor black cities such as Baltimore and Detroit. Money can paper over some of the defects of progressivism in rich, white cities such as Portland and San Francisco, but those are pretty awful places to be non-white and non-rich, too: Blacks make up barely 9 percent of the population in San Francisco, but they represent 40 percent of those arrested for murder, and they are arrested for drug offenses at ten times their share of the population.”

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Kerry fails in Russian visit

Secretary Kerry met with President Putin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, and other Russian officials in Sochi on May 12. The tenor of his statements about the meeting tells much about what is wrong in the way the White House views relations with Moscow.

Regarding Iran, Secretary Kerry said, “Russia and the United States and our other P5+1 partners are working very hard through the nuclear negotiations with Iran. We are now coming into the last six weeks of those negotiations. And we all understand that unity has been key to bringing us where we are today. It is also going to be the key to completing a good deal and to our being confident that that deal will be able to be well-implemented. The United States and Russia remain closely aligned in this effort, as do the rest of our P5+1 allies and friends, EU partners.”

The reality is, Russia has been a major problem, not a partner for peace, in this effort, and for Secretary Kerry to say otherwise is ludicrous. Moscow has provided Tehran with nuclear technology. It is in discussions to provide anti-aircraft weaponry to Iran to prevent any military move to eliminate nuclear weaponry when Iran, almost inevitably, gains atomic weaponry.

The leaders also discussed regional issues including the situation in Ukraine, where Secretary Kerry reiterated the United States’ view that the Minsk agreements are “absolutely, in our judgment, by far the best path, the principal path, to peace, and those agreements must be fully implemented, the sooner the better.” Secretary Kerry underscored, “If and when Minsk is fully implemented, it is clear the U.S. and EU sanctions can begin to be rolled back.”
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The Minsk agreements essentially formalizes the Russian invasion of Ukraine and does nothing to restore Ukraine’s lost territory.  This failure only encourages future invasions of other nations by Moscow.  Russia’s intentions to do are evidenced by their increased air and submarine incursions onto European territory. Many have compared the Minsk accords with the Munich agreement which gave Hitler the confidence to commence the Second World War.

Secretary Kerry concluded, “This was an important visit at an important time, and we didn’t come here with an expectation that we were going to define a specific path forward with respect to one crisis or another, or have a major breakthrough. We came here purposefully to have a very full and open dialogue with Russia’s leaders, the kind of dialogue that is absolutely essential in making progress on the many challenges that we face today.”

Not mentioned by Secretary Kerry were the growing patrols of nuclear bombers into Alaskan airspace, the patrols by Russian submarines along the U.S. Gulf Coast, or President Putin’s massive arms buildup. Moscow’s reopening of cold war bases in Cuba, along with its growing military ties with Venezuela and Nicaragua was also apparently ignored.

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Unprecedented Reductions to National Security

Although Republicans have added dollars to the President’s defense budget proposal,it still represents a 2016 defense  budget that has been slashed by over $100 billion under his administration.

It comes at a time when Russia has dramatically ramped up its military spending, for both conventional and nuclear weapons.  Indeed, Moscow, for the first time in history, now leads America in strategic nuclear weapons, and maintains a ten to one advantage in tactical nuclear weapons. It has returned to cold war bases, including those in the Western Hemisphere.

Additionally, China has become a military superpower, equalling American technology on land, sea, and space, and with growing numbers.

Asymmetric challenges from terrorists and the growing military power of Iran and North Korea add to the threat level.

Contrary to popular belief, only about one-sixth of  federal spending is military related. As noted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities  “18 percent of the budget, or $615 billion, paid for defense and security-related international activities. The bulk of the spending in this category reflects the underlying costs of the Defense Department. The total also includes the cost of supporting operations in Afghanistan and other related activities, described as Overseas Contingency Operations in the budget, funding for which totaled $92 billion in 2014.”

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Those seeking to reduce the defense budget, despite the threats, maintain that the U.S. spends more than its adversaries.   However, the comparison is inaccurate. As a democracy with an open press, American defense spending is widely and fairly accurately reported.  In nations such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, the publicly stated military budgets substantially understate actual spending. In China, for example, the People’s Liberation Army receives vast sums from profits from interests it holds in allegedly private companies.

Comparative cost factors also come into play. The Council on Foreign Relations  notes that “If military budgets were compared in a way that reflected varying personnel costs, U.S. military preeminence would appear smaller than it does using straightforward comparisons based on market exchange rates.”

As the nuclear threat to the American homeland has increased dramatically, programs to protect from an atomic assault have been cut or eliminated.  According to the Heritage Foundation, “President Obama has cancelled some of the most promising missile defense programs, including the Multiple Kill Airborne Laser, and Kinetic Energy Interceptor…the Administration cancelled  the SM-3 Block IIB interceptor that was supposed to protect the U.S. from a long range ballistic missile threat…”

Defense spending should be grounded on real need based on the actual threat level, not on competing political considerations or ideology. Unfortunately, that is not how the current White House has proceeded.

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Left, Right unite to oppose TPP

An unusual alliance of progressives and conservatives, consumer advocates, unions and small businesses successfully sounded an alarm about the Trans Pacific Partnership legislation [TPP] so vigorously advocated by the White House. Members of the President’s own party were instrumental in at least temporarily stopping passage of the measure.

A particular sore point has been the secretiveness surrounding the proposed law, with the precise language of the legislation kept from the public and even staff members of the elected officials who are asked to vote on it.

The White House maintains that:

“TPP will be the greenest trade agreement in history — protecting oceans and combating wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing, and illegal logging across a vast swath of the globe. The countries in the agreement produce $2 out of every $5 of global economic output. And big economies have big impacts on the environment, so this standard really matters.

“TPP will also raise labor standards across our trading partners and help raise wages here at home. That’s because enforceable requirements on minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational safety and health are at the center of the agreement. And that’s because trade jobs are good jobs, paying up to 18 percent more on average than non-trade jobs.

“TPP will be good for our national security, too — increasing America’s presence in the fastest-growing region of the world and bolstering the economic vitality at home that underpins our military strength. Failure to get TPP over the finish line could relegate us to a future where we sit on the sidelines, letting China write rules with lower standards that diminish our relevance in Asia.”

Senator Jeff Sessions  (R-Alabama) states that “The White House still refuses to answer even the most basic questions about [the TPP].

“These are the questions the White House will not answer:

  • Will it increase or reduce the trade deficit, and by how much?
  • Will it increase or reduce employment and wages, and by how much?
  • Will you make the “living agreement” section public and explain fully its implications?
  • Will China be added to the TPP?
  • Will you pledge not to issue any executive actions, or enter into any future agreements, impacting the flow of foreign workers into the United States?

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“Proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership want us to fast-track it before we know what’s in it. They want us to trust that enforcement will occur, even though it has not in the past. They want us to trust that the President won’t utilize this broad new avenue to expand foreign worker programs, even though his record demonstrates that he will. They want us to trust that this time is different.

“One of the most important areas TPP proponents ignore is the issue of non-tariff barriers. The barriers to U.S. exports in this century are increasingly not conventional tariffs, but non-tariff barriers like currency manipulation, backdoor taxes, and a variety of state-sanctioned obstacles to market entry. Under the TPP, the U.S. will lower its tariffs but competitor industries will retain their substantial non-tariff barriers. This is what Nucor Steel’s Chairman Emeritus, Daniel DiMicco, means when he talks about “unilateral American trade disarmament” and the “enablement of foreign mercantilism.” In other words, poorly-negotiated trade deals, instead of opening new markets for our industries, tilt the playing field even further in their competitors’ direction. The result is not freer global trade, but more mercantilist market domination.

“Millions of Americans, and their communities, have lost good-paying jobs because of our government’s chronic failure to confront currency manipulation and a variety of other illicit trading practices. Perhaps that is why Americans, by a 70-30 margin, say the last two decades of trade deals have benefitted other countries rather than our own. What message should that send Washington?…

“The recent trade deal with our strong ally South Korea, we were told, would boost our exports to them by more than $10 billion, but in reality increased them by less than $1 billion—while South Korea’s imports to us soared more than $12 billion, widening our trade gap with them considerably.

“While fast-track provides negotiating objectives, they are not enforceable in any meaningful way: if the Trans-Pacific Partnership or any future trade deal ignores those objectives, it is unlikely Congress will do anything about it. Practically speaking, the negotiating objectives operate as mere suggestions. And, as the Congressional Research Service explains, the fast-tracked deal “would supersede existing U.S. law” and result in the U.S. being “bound by international law,” arbitrated by a global tribunal.

The rare agreement between groups supporting nearly polar opposite perspectives highlights the numerous concerns and unanswered questions about Mr. Obama’s trade goals.  Extensive inquiries have been raised by many about the reality behind the President’s descriptions.

Salon points out:

“Saying, as the White House has, that the deal would support ‘an additional 650,000 jobs’ is not true. This figure came from a hypothetical calculation of a report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which the Institute itself said was an incorrect way to use their data. ‘We don’t believe that trade agreements change the labor force in the long run,’ said Peter Petri, author of the report, in a fact check of the claim…

“Recent trade deals have in fact increased the trade deficit…

“On the controversial topic of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), where corporations can sue sovereign governments for monetary damages for violating trade agreements that hurt the company’s “expected future profits,” the White House has engaged in a shell game. They say, “No trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws.” But the point of a corporation suing the United States or any trade partner is to put enough financial pressure on a government to force them to alter the law themselves. So ISDS doesn’t “cause” a change in law only in the narrowest sense. Even third-party countries have curtailed regulations in reaction to ISDS rulings, as New Zealand did with their cigarette packaging law, awaiting the outcome of a dispute between the tobacco industry and Australia (a suit that continues despite an initial victory for Australia)…

“The White House assumes that the only thing America cares about with ISDS is the upsetting of our own laws. So they’ve stressed that the U.S. has never lost an ISDS case. This is irrelevant. What ISDS does is offer bailout insurance policy to multinational corporations. If they run into discrimination or regulatory squeezing by a foreign government, they can use an extra-judicial process to recoup their investment. Workers screwed over by trade agreements have no ability to sue governments; only corporations get this privilege…

“Weak ‘rule of origin’ guidelines could allow China to import goods into TPP member countries without any tariffs, while freed from following any TPP regulations…”

Public Citizen believes the measure would encourage an exodus of American jobs, undermine food safety by requiring the import of products that don’t meet U.S. safety standards and impose limits on food labeling, undermine efforts to contain medicine costs, undermine Wall Street regulation, curtail internet freedom, and provide more power to international corporations.

Phyllis Schlafly, writing in WND  worries that “TPP will betray us….The text of TPP emphasizes that it is a “living agreement.” Translated out of bureaucratese code language, that means the text of TPP can be changed in major and minor ways by executive action after Congress OKs the document. …TPP will facilitate the expanded movement of foreign workers into the United States. TPP opens the door to more waves of illegal immigrants and allows Obama to make future changes without any congressional oversight or expiration date. Kevin L. Kearns of the U.S. Business and Industry Council calls this “another power grab” that will let Obama and his employees rule by executive action. By not calling TPP a treaty (even though it involves 12 countries on three continents), the globalists induce the Senate to abandon the 67-vote threshold for treaty ratification …

“Fast track turns over some of our authority as a sovereign nation to international authorities, which is a major longtime goal of the internationalists, the so-called kingmakers, and big business lobbyists. The code language that hides this in TPP is the statement that calls it a “living agreement.” This means Obama and his executive-branch pals can take all kinds of actions Article I of the U.S. Constitution reserves to the legislative branch, such as ratifying or changing a treaty and controlling immigration…”

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Coal question reviewed

The NY Analysis of Policy & Government reviews the questions surrounding This viagra sale canada curative agent is not an aphrodisiac. In my career span of 25 years as NLP trainer, I have observed several mistakes being made by NLP students which have given viagra no doctor them repeated failures and not gaining their full potential. Often an autistic child has problems in learning in normal ways viagra ordering and has problems in articulation. Obesity Affects the Uterine cialis tadalafil canada Lining: An obese woman is at a greater risk of developing abnormal thickening of the uterus lining. the future use of coal.  Read the report, below.

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NY Analysis reviews China’s growing military power

The NY Analysis of Policy & Government overview of China’s Erectile purchasing viagra dysfunction counseling often requires sufficient knowledge on the medical field so make sure to seek for help regarding this issue. All the ingredients naturally found in Karlovy Vary healing mineral water can aid cheap cialis those with chronic pancreatitis. Sites like tinder or matchmaking are in demand and supply process of the medication. overnight shipping cialis Its functions as a tool make it an buy generic viagra Click This Link important note to yourself that if faced any issue then it must be treated. growing military muscle has been published today.  Read it below.

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Lower gas prices vital for families, U.S. trade

Even though gas prices are increasing for the summer driving season, some politicians and big government advocates continue to allege that lower gas prices are a bad thing. Many elected officials are trying to capitalize on the reduced prices by raising fuel taxes.

The voters disagree. One example was Michigan’s Proposition 1, which was soundly defeated on May 5. Lawmakers supporting the measure claimed it was essential to repair transportation infrastructure; opponents pointed to the harm it would do to the economy.

Those supporting the concept that high prices encourage investment say decreased prices at the pump will hurt the stock market, but opponents point to the harm it does to middle class Americans.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal noted that “American families are enjoying a level of economic relief they haven’t experienced in six years—and it is largely attributable to the recent slide in gasoline prices… Families are saving … at the pump and are paying less for groceries and everyday goods thanks to lower transportation costs. Considering that median family incomes are 3% lower than they were six years ago, this is a welcome reprieve for the middle class. Politicians, on the other hand, see an opportunity to ask Americans for more of their paychecks. On Feb. 4 Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.), introduced a bill that would raise the federal gas tax by 15 cents—nearly doubling the current 18.4-cent-per-gallon tax. Meanwhile, legislators and governors in more than 15 states are pursuing gas-tax hikes of their own…While the various proposals differ, one thing is the same: None should be passed into law.”
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The CATO Institute reports that “we cannot say that the drop in oil prices is bad for the economy. We could unambiguously say that it is good if we knew that all individuals are participating in the gains—or, at least, that no individual experiences a loss. An alternative way to say that the price drop cannot be bad is to say that it is potentially good. If there is more of all goods, everyone can potentially benefit.”

Increasing energy production, which would support lower prices, is not only advantageous for American families, but vital for the suffering U.S. trade imbalance.

According to Trading Economics.com  “The United States recorded a trade deficit of 51367 USD Million in March of 2015. It is the biggest trade deficit since October 2008…The United States has been running consistent trade deficits since 1976 due to high imports of oil and consumer products…”

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The slippery slope of free speech restrictions

The baseball season is well under way, and there haven’t been that many fights in the stands, except for those fueled by too much beer.  Despite the passion fans have for their teams, a general agreement about the rules—three strikes and all that—helps keep order.

Unfortunately, throughout the nation, respect for the most important rules—the Constitution, the Bill of Rights—appears to be breaking down, and the result is that Americans seem more split apart than they have been since the Civil War.

The recent event in Texas, where a group exercised their free speech rights by holding an event in which cartoons that some found offensive were displayed, is a key case in point. Whatever the cultural or artistic merits of the illustrations, or lack thereof, the organizers had every right to express their opinions through the drawings. In the aftermath of an attempt by extremists, which ISIS claims to have been responsible for,  to shoot up the gathering, many in the media essentially said that the First Amendment should have been subordinated to the dictates of political correctness, blaming the citizens more than the terrorists.

There was a time when the First Amendment was considered the most sacred of all American rights, limited only in situations such as falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater. The list of exceptions has grown. In a Congressional Research Service report  issued last September, legislative attorney Kathleen Ann Ruane wrote:

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While some topics, such as that which may be harmful to children such as child pornography, are obvious common sense restrictions that even the framers of the First Amendment would approve of, the growing list of exceptions is worrisome.   An example of how far down this road some in government are willing to travel to limit free speech is troubling.  Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) tried to limit paid political speech through a bill in the U.S. Senate. Colleges seek to restrict students seeking to hand out copies of the Bill of Rights to just a few places on campus. Scientists who question the concept of man-made climate change are ostracized and silenced by their own colleagues.

For the first time, that great advance in free speech, the internet, is now under the control of a government bureaucracy.

Major challenges to freedom don’t necessarily come with great upheavals. They are more likely to occur bit by bit, bureaucratic rule after bureaucratic rule, until barely the memory of the rights that used to be cherished are left.

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An Odd Presidential Campaign Season

Three more candidates joined what is becoming a crowded presidential field, as Republicans Carly Fiorina, a former business executive, who served as chief of HP computers;  Dr. Ben Carson, a neuro surgeon,  and former governor and TV host Mike Huckabee all joined the race.

Perhaps the most salient question, however, is Hillary Clinton’s campaign status. Despite the complete devotion of her many followers, the reality is she had a disastrous tenure as Secretary of State, low-lighted by the Benghazi debacle in which she intentionally sought to mislead the public about the causes for the attack (she tried to convince America that it was a spontaneous event brought about by a previously unknown video) and the completely failed “reset” with Russia ( which saw Moscow gain an advantage in nuclear and conventional arms, a return to its cold war bases across the planet, and the invasion of Ukraine.)

And there are the scandals.  There is significant  evidence that the Clinton Foundation engaged in a pay to play effort, in which international donors provided extraordinary sums to her organization in return for preferable treatment by the US government.

According to the New York Times, which is generally favorable towards her, “examples include a free-trade agreement in Colombia that benefited a major foundation donor’s natural resource investments in the South American nation, development projects in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake in 2010,”  Even more serious, as reported by Fox News, the unfolding scandal in which a substantial share of America’s uranium, a crucial element in the development of nuclear weapons, was given to Russia occurred under her watch following the donation of two million shares of the company involved to the Foundation.
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As a police detective might say, all this fits the modus operandi of the Clintons.  During husband Bill’s tenure as President, his campaign unlawfully benefited from Chinese cash donations, followed by favorable treatment towards Beijing, including the sale of Cray super computers, which allowed the People’s Liberation Army to move rapidly ahead in technology. President Clinton also signed into law legislation allowing the Chinese to no longer be subjected to annual reviews for trade, which allowed that nation’s sales to the US to skyrocket and caused devastation in the U.S. manufacturing sector.

The Clinton Foundation itself, apart from the international scandals, has a questionable reputation.  Of the 144.3 billion it raised since it was founded in 2001, only 10% has been provided to actual charitable work. The Foundation has been placed on a “watch list” for questionable nonprofits.

Despite all the above, other potential Democrat candidates, such as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley,  and former Senator James Webb, have failed to gain much traction.