HILLARY AND BILL: LIBIDINOUS, LIBELOUS INGLORIOUS PAST

THE CLINTON PRESIDENCY SET THE STAGE FOR THE GREAT RECESSION, THE RISE OF THE NEOCONS, THE IRAQ WAR, AND THE CURRENT DEVASTATION OF THE MIDDLE EAST.

DO WE WANT TO REPEAT ANY OF THAT WITH ANOTHER CLINTON?

Many of Bill Clinton's key foreign policy and economic decisions and signed legislation were too often based on faulty reasoning or political weakness. They set the stage and paved the way for the disaster of the Great Recession of 2007-2008, the neocon takeover of the GOP, and ultimately the Iraq War, the chaos in the Middle East--- and the rise of ISIS.

I recently came across Thomas Frank's new book, "Listen Liberal", on display in our Manchester VT, bookstore. Waiting for the grandkids, I leafed through a few chapters. It is recommended, as are the earlier Frank works. What stirred my interest was the clear-eyed retelling of the history of the Clinton years. Too many of us have fuzzy memories and a mistaken positive view of that era. Author Frank reexamines those years critically. With Bill's so-called "co-president" running for a seat in the Oval Office now...it seems wise to examine that era with more circumspection--with an eye to avoiding a reprise of many bad decisions and lingering ill-effects from those days. And yes, since the Clintons introduced the term "co-president", it is fair to saddle Hillary, today with their joint mistakes.

Thomas Frank conveniently excerpted a good deal of his book in a fine piece in Salon (March 13, 2016). In that piece, Frank reminds us that it was Bill Clinton that deregulated the derivative market. At the behest of his Republican detractors, he also deregulated telecom and signed off on a bill to kill the Glass Steagall Act too. That post-Great Depression law wisely kept banks as savings institutions distinct from the Wall Street "gambling casinos" and preventing these two types of institutions form intermingling depositors funds at great risk to depositors. The loss of Glass-Steqgall also set the stage for the costly bank bail-out tqxpayers are still paying for.

Bill also rammed through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which when implemented caused that loud sucking sound heard across our great land as good high-paying American jobs and industries headed south (and north) to relocate over the border. Bill Clinton's NAFTA deal eliminated millions of well paying jobs and contributed to the decline of middle America and hollowing-out of our middle classes. Clinton also initiated the policy of mass incarceration, and the harsh restructuring of the welfare system, both of which we realize today hace had such a negative impact on our social structure.

Bill's uncontrolled libidinous activities in the Oval Office (and under his desk) led to the ugly Monica Lewinsky affair. When discovered and faced with a disgrace and lying under oath, he and Hillary hung on. Instead of honorably resigning his Presidency, as had Nixon under similar circumstances, and leaving the affairs of state to his more than competent Vice President, Al Gore, Clinton selfishly dragged the nation through his seamy personal sexual peccadilloes. He limped on in office, a weakened political,force, and then an impeached President. During this time of political vulnerability, he acquiesced to pressures from Congress that he might have repulsed and avoided prior to his embarrassment. It was during this period of weakness and of preoccupation with the Lewinsky charges that Clinton signed on to the neocon-sponsored Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 which gave legal status to the overthrow of the Iraqi government...the first such law in American history. It radically altered our foreign policy in the Middle East and was frequently cited by George Bush in the run up to the Iraq War as evidence that Clinton supported the Iraq invasion and overthrow of a legally constituted government.

Many of Bill Clinton's key economic and foreign policy decisions set the stage for disaster. His triangulated economic policies of deregulation and freeing the markets paved the way for the most profound economic downturn since 1929,---the Great Recession of 2007-2008. We are still in the throes of that recession, living with an economy characterized by weak growth, weak demand, and low inflation. We have millions underemployed or unemployed. Massive wealth and income inequality plague the nation and continue to stymie a full recovery. In foreign affairs, the Iraq Liberation Act signed by Bill Clinton, altered our foreign relations and precipitated the neocon takeover of the GOP foreign policy portfolio. That law ultimately gave credence to a disastrous interventionist policy initiated by Clinton, and then unwisely implemented by his successor, George W. Bush. Bush led us ultimately into the fifteen year long "three trillion dollar" Iraq War. With the the acquiescence and inaction of President Obama, that conflict morphed into the utter devastation and chaos which presently characterize the Middle East today, and most recently, contributed to the rise of ISIS.

Do we want to send the Clintons back into the White House? Never!

HILLARY'S LIES AND VERBAL UNCERTAINTY FACTOR.

HILLARY CLINTON'S "VERBAL UNCERTAINTY FACTOR" SHOULD ELIMINATE HER FROM CONTENTION AS PRESIDENT

William Safire (NY Times Opinion) Jan 8, 1996: " Our First Lady is a congenital liar."

This week Hillary Clinton attended the Nancy Reagan Memorial service. There was no obvious reason for Hillary to pad the truth at a wake and funeral. But Mrs. Clinton, did so anyway. Her relationship with the truth is so tenuous she can not help herself. She apparently believes she has rights concerning the factual world that the rest of us mortals do not have. Then too, she was at funeral service where she must have felt particularly free of any hesitation on invention, the deceased obviously could not respond to correct her falsehoods. So on that occasion, she felt absolutely free of interruption or rebuke to create her own self-serving-reality about Nancy Reagan and her role in the AIDS epidemic with a flat out lie.

"Nancy Reagan was the first to start a conversation about AIDS," she claimed. Perhaps those standing close to the coffin may have heard the muffled sounds of the frail corpse of Mrs. Reagan spinning around and around in her tomb.

Clinton's patently false statement immediately raised a lot of eyebrows. The LGBT community-internet network, well aware that the Reagans were mum on this epidemic and even shunned their old Hollywood friends who were dying of AIDS, glowed red hot with angry tweets and emails concerning this massive whopper. The Clinton clean-up and spin-campaign quickly posted a retraction stating that the candidate "misspoke". The turmoil continued today March13, 2016, when Hillary was forced to take time from her campaign schedule to pen a long dissertation entitled: "On the fight against AIDS and those who really started the conversation", Huffington Post, the Blog, March 13. Though, reported as an "apology"by the Post, no where does the candidate apologies or claim she she misspoke. Why did she do it? Out of a habit of deceit.

No one in the modern media had enough chutzpah to call the front-running Democrat candidate a "liar", as had the bold Mr. Safire of 1996, though that would have been fully appropriate. This nose- stretching Pinnochio-lie was only another deception, falsehood, and invention in a long list of prevarications extending back for this habitual perjurer to the days she served as "First Lady" of Arkansas. Her difficulty with the truth, should be a major factor in eliminating her from contention for our nation's highest office. With her history, the uncertainty factor in any and all of her formal pronouncements would be so high, who would believe her? How could she ever lead the nation?

A PARTIAL LIST OF HILLARY WHOPPERS

Sniper-fire in Bosnia in 1996 : "Chelsea and I came under sniper fire when we landed at Tuzla, Bosnia in 1996".

Travel gate: " I had no role in that decision."

Cattle Futures: (Re: $100,000.00 windfall on a $1000.00 investment). "All I did was read the Wall Street Journal."

Disappearance of Vince Foster Documents: " I don't know if my secretary Maggie removed any documents."

Castle Grande Real Estate Scandal: "I know nothing about Castle Grande."

Billing Records For Castle Grande: "My billing records for Castle Grande have vanished."

Monica Lewinsky: "The Lewinski story has been concocted by the right-wing conspiracy press"

Clinton Finances: "We left the White House dead broke."

Keystone Pipeline. " I never took a position on Keystone Pipeline."

Home Brew Email Server: "I used a private system for emails because it was more convenient".

Classified Emails: "I never received or sent emails marked 'classified'".

Benghazi: Email to Chelsea, "Benghazi was a planned terrorist attack." To grieving parents of Benghazi victims over their son's coffins: "Benghazi was the result of that awful YouTube video."

YES MOSLEMS DO HATE US--WITH REASON

TRUMP: "ISLAM HATES US"

Review our recent foreign policy, failed invasions, nation building in the Middle East and military adventurism in Moslem lands , and then ask yourself, how could they NOT hate us?

Is there any question? George Bush invaded Iraq, under false pretenses and unleashed a terrible religious war. During the long conflict, millions of Iraqis, (Moslems all ) were displaced to become refugees, and more than 500,000 Moslems were killed. Numerous examples of American brutality, torture and mistreatment of Iraqi--Moslems were widely and graphically reported in our press and overseas. President Obama extended and intensified "W's war" into what has become a modern Crusade, invading and killing in Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and other Moslem nations. The President kept a "kill list" of---- Moslems. His drones assassinated American-born Moslems ( US citizens ) and their innocent relatives abroad outside of any war zone. His drone war policy often killed innocent bystanders, and relatives of targets, and often mistook wedding gatherings for terrorists confabs where hundreds of innocents were blown to bits. Since 9-11-2001 we have been routinely killing Moslems on a daily basis. Just a few days ago, the USA reported a drone and manned aircraft attack against what was described by the Pentagon as a "training camp" in Somalia...where 150 Moslem "terrorists" we're summarily killed. One hundred fifty Moslems..killed in a only few minutes. The press and citizenry raised no questions about this slaughter. The slaughter was simply accepted as normal US behavior. Do these events have consequences? By all means. It generates hatred.

If you are Moslem, these sad facts must have their effects. It is only human nature. Kick over the bee hive and face a swarm of angry bees. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. How would a Christian, Jew, or Hindu respond if there were similar concerted efforts and attacks against those religious groups? Can one expect that they would not respond with anger and yes hatred--- as have the Moslems? History is rife with examples of Christian wars, violence and hatred that was an equal or even more violent to what we are experiencing today.

Do Moslems hate us? With our foreign policy and military history, how could they not?

Donald is right...yes 1. 6 billion world Moslems hate us.

We have sown the wind.....and are now reaping the whirlwind.

The irony of this attack against Mr. Trump is that, his opponents---the other candidates, especially Rubio, Cruz, Bush, and most egregiously Hillary Clinton were more in favor of the Iraq invasion and the expansion of the the "Bush Crusade" than is Mr. Trump who opposed that war and has espoused a more restricted view of foreign invasions---and Moslem Wars. K

WE ALL WIN WITH TRUMP

WE ALL WIN WHEN WE DEFEAT THE OLIGARCHS

On the eve of " Super Tuesday II" Mr. Trump is weathering a massive barrage of super pac-funded negative ads funded by the establishment. The media are all against him too, having taken their orders from higher ups to bash this candidate. The airways are thick with anti Trumpisms. But Donald is still holding his own in the nation's polls--north, south, east, and west. The voters all over the nation continue to support him. We will see who wins in Michigan and Florida, that will tell the tale of who has won the battle. Those results will reveal who has won..the 400 megadonors, or the millions of American voters. It will reveal to us all whether we are living in a democracy or an oligarchy.

Mr. Trump is not the ideal candidate. He speaks in hyperbole, and off the cuff. He is not your typical programmed politician. And he is not an ideologue. He is a successful businessman...there is no question. One has only to look at what he has actually built...the many structures which stand over our cities as monuments to his success. One hopes he might bring those talents to Washington, DC. Also, he is a loyal American who loves his country. He is an adequate candidate to sit in the Oval Office. There have been many lesser men there, to be sure.

Trump's great positives for the American nation, and its faltering democracy, are first and most importantly, that he is fracturing the decades long iron-grip of the wealthy few on the Republican Party. The Donald, who takes no money from the oligarchs, can be his own man. He has in plain spoken words parted company with the 400 single issue mega donors, the war mongers, GOP phony myth makers, the political elites, the neocons and "Israel first" lobbyists. All of these elements have had a negative effect on our Nation, in the way the GOP has addressed (or ignored) our foreign policy, our economic imperatives and the existential issues which are the desperate concern of the vast majority of Americans. These so-called "establishment types" have selfishly controlled and directed the Party for too long. The powerful few have used floods of money to elect and banish officials and through cash contributions control the party and its policies. They have contributed to the nation's decline and the depauperation of a vast swath of the Republican coalition....the average working American. All Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, will profit from a renewed democracy when we soundly defeat these groups at the polls and put them back into their respective place (as only a tiny minority group) in the political sphere.

Don't let the elite and monied few destroy what we have left of our democracy. We all win with a resounding slap in the face for those who wish to control our nation for their exclusive benefit at the cost to the many.

TRUMP PHENOMENON? GOP ABANDONS BASE, TRUMP SWEEPS THEM UP

TRUMP PHENOMENON? GOP AVANDONS BASE, TRUMP SWEEPS THEM UP

Over the last four decades the GOP has systematically abandoned the working classes, and middle America. These are the Republicans that Trump is now sweeping up like flies into his new "Trump Coalition". Over those years the GOP elites, under the control of the mega donor class, continued to feed the nation and middle class workers on whose votes they really depended the Reagan myth of "trickle down" and "voo do" economics. This is the weak gruel--which stated: "a rising tide floats all boats", and "just cut regulation on the fat cats to free up the economy and jobs will appear", or "cut taxes and the social expenditures (you folks really depend on)" so as to give more money to the investor class...so as to stimulate economic growth. The people fell for these fairy tales for a while. But as Lincoln said..."you can fool some of the people some of the time"....but after the Great Recession, the bank and Wall Street bailouts, and in the last years the massive redistribution of wealth to the top one percent----that time is over now.

Since the Great Recession of 2007-2008 and the uneven recovery (with almost all the benefits going to the wealthy) the TRUTH has become all too clear to working men and women. It is now fully apparent to them how money has corrupted the system. It is clear that fat cats now control the Party by means of massive amounts of donor money. Big donors and powerful interests set the agenda of the GOP, consequently the Party supports only the interests of a small minority of the wealthy....some of whom are single issue donors with strong emotional ties to foreign nations. These latter donors distort foreign policy priorites. The GOP has abandoned their real base--American working citizens and American interests for a small minority of super wealthy donors.

Trump has tapped into this disaffected constituency, voters the Party desperately needs for electoral success. Trump's recent nomination election successes, his strong poll numbers, and the massive and wildly supportive crowds he attracts reveal his wide and deep appeal. His appeal is simple. He is going to bring back the old Republican Party. He states his main goals clearly. He is going to bring back the jobs from China and Mexico. The elites keep peddling their weak myth about cutting taxes, regulation and spending...vague promises and talking points that they take from their donors with the thick envelopes of cash. Donald's message, freed from the corrupting control of the mega donors---hits the mark and rings true. The corruption of money and the abandonment of a large swaths of the electorate are the underlying cause for Mr. Trump's appeal.

TRUMP WINS CNN DEBATE

TRUMP REVITALIZES GOP AS HE LEADS IT INTO NEW TERRITORY

Last night's GOP, CNN debate (February 25, 2016) revealed that Cruze and Rubio obediently served their donor-master's requests to act as attack dogs against the obvious leader of the GOP race: Donald Trump. In the melee, one observed what appeared to be two little snapping and snarling terriers take on the big junk-yard dog. It was good theater, but did not change the equation. The desperate combo roughed their leader up a bit, a torn ear and a grazed shoulder perhaps, but they did not dislodge the big dog from his commanding position.

The big question asked by the TV commenters this morning was, "why did Rubio not do this earlier?" That was a key question. The answer is revealing. He was directed to do it---by his donors and handlers. It is clear, Rubio takes orders---along with that donor money. That is the difference between a leader...Trump....and his opponents, who are (almost all) puppets of the shadowy men behind the scene, and as such part of the Republican's problem.

And it remains clear that Trump is And remains the leader. Trump has led the pack through this long campaign. He has set the agenda and radically changed the debate with his own initiatives as he carries a growing army of present and former Republican voter constituents along with him. In the first debates, he introduced the immigration fiasco. He proposed "the wall". He systematically burst many of the hollow myths the Republican Party has perpetuated. He took on its false heroes (arguing that a pilot who disobeyed orders on which targets to bomb, gets his plane shot down and then is imprisoned is not everyone's definition of a hero). He told the truth about the disaster of the Iraq War. He argued that George Bush did not keep us safe. He defended aspects of Obama Care, and even of defunding all of Planned Parenthood. He has set in motion a revitalization of the Party. It is becoming apparent that Trump is the leader of a new and powerful political movement. His movement is dragging a reluctant Republican Party away from the dark isolated corner it has inhabited for too long where it kept company with a tiny cave-dwelling minority of its fragmented constituency.

Last night, standing in the middle between his two attackers in front of an audience of mostly establishment types, Trump courageously defended his--yes-- more moderate positions. While far-right, arch-conservatives Rubio and Cruze attacked Trump's defense of aspects of the Affordable Care Act, Trump held his ground as he argued that "he would not let people die on the streets". The two "purist" conservatives snarling on his flanks seemed to argue loudly and incongruously for that sad outcome to come to pass! More revealingly, Trump the self-funded candidate defended himself on foreign policy regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, when he asserted he would act even-handedly between the Middle East's most virulent and intractable opponents. Rubio and Cruze (both supported by mega donor Koch brothers and single-issue-mega-donor Sheldon Adelson) sticking to the failed play-book of the Republican ultra-right, argued for the failed-GW Bush policy of siding openly with hard-line, blood soaked, and jack-booted Netanyahu.

The voters are speaking clearly. Trump is the new Republican leader. The establishment like any crusted over hard baked entity can not flex with the moving firmament. Cracks are forming and are widening as its fabric is torn. The old guard dig in their heels..trying to hold on as the fissures widen. But they will and must jump on to the moving ice flow or drown. Many will have to eat their own words..some will will lose their jobs.

Trump is leading a real revolution.

CITIZEN CRUZ-NOT "NATIVE BORN"

As I note in an earlier post. There is a different between a citizen and a native born or natural born citizen. The framers of the Constitution were clear on their intention. The unsettled law concerning this difference should be fully and fairly adjudicated before we vote for a President Cruz.