Memo to President Trump – don't lose focus; after 100 days you are making a difference

Not that you would read it in the "attack Trump media" but the president is making good on some of his campaign promises, and it appears some of his early efforts are paying off.  But with forces against traditional America, and the Trump agenda, and the omnipresent attacks designed to derail his policies, this is a dangerous time for POTUS, and for America.

From an objective perspective, President Trump has done some pretty strong actions to protect the United States, and in the process has sent a very clear message to friends and foes alike. Of course the message came with a sonic boom, at least 50 of them in response to Syrian chemical weapons use. And I would bet some of the bad guys in Afghanistan who survived the MOAB still have a Mecca sized case of tinnitus.

As for China, the Donald's subtle announcement between dinner and dessert that he's just launched a bunch of missiles into Syria without having to get global consensus or provide the silly preamble of Obama and his useless lines in the sand. China immediately took notice, and the diplomat took an antacid. In case the cruise missiles and threatening NATO to step up or we step out weren't enough, MOAB (big bomb go boom) should have sent the message that the US is no longer being run by a globalist, a weakling, or an apologist. For those activities alone, Trump should get at least an A- for his first 100 days. And God forbid we ever get another ‘weaken the US, globalist POTUS.'  A new sheriff is in town. Will that make us safer? Well at least the bad guys know there is more than 1 bullet in Trumps gun!

NATO

Speaking of NATO apparently some of our Euro allies may let the moths out of their wallets as well as start looking under the sofa cushions to start paying more towards their fair share of NATO.  Germany has lagged well behind several nations, and yet is financially capable of ponying up the cash.  The media will say those plans were in the works for years; referencing Obama years no doubt. If that's the case, Obama didn't have much to show for it! Call that a small potential win for Trump.  

Migration

Shortly after President Trump took the oath of office, there has been a demonstrable slowing in the flood of illegal aliens across our Southern border; it has been significant, important, and shock of shocks, underreported or misreported in the media. From a variety of sources the tide of folks crossing our borders has slowed exponentially from the days of Tammany Hall Obama, where every illegal was merely an undocumented Democrat. Let's be clear - we are an immigrant nation. But illegal aliens by definition are not immigrants, and the hijacking of language from authentic to obfuscating is what makes difficult a legitimate discussion of immigration policy.

No one wants to harm kids or separate families. But no one should be so naïve as to think the massive influx of mostly illiterate aliens is beneficial to the communities they enter (overcrowding of schools, with strains on police, public services, housing, emergency departments), unless you think the US is one big global ATM for any and all takers. Do some illegals contribute to society? Yes, of course. But communities have a culture, and a right to foster the social consciousness that multigenerational efforts have created. That's why we have managed immigration. No one can argue against the fact that many immigrants, from the Italians, Irish, Jews, Germans, Chinese, Polish, Armenians (and the list goes on) have made the US a better nation. And, they came in the front door, got jobs, learned the language, put their kids through school, and in a short time had contributed greatly to the national landscape.

That is the right way for immigration. Not a leave the back door open policy where everyone from the illiterate to the criminal - almost all of whom will go on welfare - come in, and become a massive dependency class, and place where drugs, crime and human trafficking are more likely to occur. Should we help people? Yes. Should we implement societal suicidal? No! Trump is correct - come in the front door where there is a big welcome mat with a generous nation awaiting you.

Gangs

From the perspective of a security professional, the targeting and arresting of members of MS13 is a strong first move! Many of my colleagues and I have argued for years that gangs such as MS 13 should be categorized as terrorist organizations, and treated accordingly, using the full weight of federal laws against them, and against all who support their activities, including politicians. We'll talk more on that in another article.

Gang activities are also enhanced by illegal alien migration, and often involve crossing state and international lines.

Having chaired a transnational crime council it is evident that large gangs in the United States are in fact terrorist support groups (criminals of the world uniting) as well as transnational corporations with ties to terrorism, non-state enterprises, and in some cases work with and for sovereign states, including our own politicians in the US. Gangs such as MS13 are merchants of death, dealing in human misery. Gangs earn their living, and it is often in the millions of dollars per week, from human trafficking, weapons, drugs, transportation of illegal goods, and running various forms of protection shakedowns to innocent businesspeople.

Trump is correct - gangs have to be weakened. Local police can't fully handle the load often because political cover is provided to gangs, or because the "R" (racist) card gets levied at them, in spite of the fact most residents in poor urban regions would be better off without gangs. Doubt me? Check out Chicago. Gangs and gang violence wouldn't exist if the local politicians weren't providing some political cover, and getting something in return.  And residents in those communities die because of it. Yet they still support the politicians. It boggles the mind! A federal response is needed. Go get them Trump!

Too early for a report card?

From a foreign policy and domestic security perspective, Trump is making progress. He must avoid losing focus because of the media, the attacks on his campaign, and the concerted efforts of democrats (and some republicans), professional protestor groups and others aligned to derail his America First promise to those who elected him.

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Is America becoming a nation of parasites -- people who want everything at the expense of others?

Americans and our society, by and large progressives of both parties and independents, have become a wilting, withering mass of weak, needy cry-babies, who have departed far and away from the strength of back, intellect and character of America's Founders, who created a system that none other has ever equaled. Rather than follow along the path that made America a strong, economically thriving and prosperous nation, many Americans, especially Millennials, pursue petty and paltry pleasures, as would a sloth and a glutton, and claim their slightest whim to be a "right".

Some things like food, shelter, clothing, water and healthcare are critical to our life, however, they are not "rights". Even if they were made rights, this would set in motion a confiscatory requirement to satisfy that right at the expense of others, much as America currently chafes against our current welfare system.

Just as many of us witnessed Tennessee's House Democrats release a collection of fifty bills called "The People's Bill of Rights" in February 2017, more and more, America hears a clamor from their progressive countrymen of all rank and file, for wants and desires to be provided through government funds, the taxpayers' dollars. Now, not only do many across the nation demand healthcare as a right, they also demand a $15 per hour minimum wage and free university educations among other items.

My good friend, retired U.S. Army Colonel Kurt Schlicter, editor for Townhall, tweeted back: "Guns are in the Bill of Rights, but they aren't one [according to Democrats]. The right to have one pay for your healthcare is not [in the Bill of Rights], but it's a right?"

In a study published by the Heritage Foundation, Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield found  in the ranks of America's contemporary poor, that eighty percent have air-conditioning, fifty percent own a personal computer and can access the internet and two-thirds have cable TV. A household receiving $50,000 in welfare benefits is still considered poor, if its pre-welfare income falls below the poverty line, even though they are living, in many respects, better than the middle class of 1964.

According to Rector and Sheffield, our government has spent $22 trillion of U.S. taxpayer dollars fighting poverty, since 1964 and President Johnson's Great Society. The study also documented and charted $1 trillion spent annually on 90 means-tested welfare programs.

Over one hundred years of Marxist propaganda, the kind found in President Woodrow Wilson's treatise entitled 'Constitutional Government in the United States' and President Franklin Roosevelt's 1944 'Second Bill of Rights', seems to have done its mischief well. Arguing for corrupting the Constitution, Wilson saw it as a vessel to further the progressives' agenda, while FDR viewed it as a means to assure equality, "economic security" and the pursuit of happiness. Wilson spoke of our rights as "privilege", and FDR framed them as "political rights".

Our rights are God-given and natural, and they exist simultaneously among all people. The rights of free speech, freedom of religion, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures -- to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- are inalienable rights;and, they are not privileges to be granted or rescinded, in the manner some past presidents, Obama included, would transform them. And in the pursuit of "true individual freedom" through "economic security", Roosevelt and Obama offered the antithesis of the right to one's own private property.

A true right does not impose any obligation on another. One's rights to free speech, religious liberty, self-defense and assembly. among others, impose no obligations on anyone else, except to allow each other to use these rights without interference.

Ayn Rand wrote in 1961 ['Man's Rights']; "If some men are entitled by right to the product of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor."

In the meantime, Americans rename privilege and benefits "their right", while ignoring their own misguided lifestyle and poor choices. Too many Americans spend more than they save, and too many prefer the government security blanket over the pride of one's own independence.

Some Americans bemoan the public corruption our country is suffering and the associated moral and constitutional crises. However, the country on the whole has failed to promote the values that would have prevented it. Corrupt leaders continue to advocate and implement measures that negatively impact businesses and families, that also limit individual liberty and true free-market capitalism, expanding government in the process.

Other Americans have become fanatics for their various causes. They are in the streets ironically, demanding their own demise, as they protest against their own self-determination and for ever more autocracy and authoritarianism. When they vote, they vote to enslave not only their fellow countrymen but themselves, however unwittingly. They accept the collectivization of rights, and soon they will accept the collectivization of property.

Sadly, this trend towards fascism, this malaise, has permeated the ranks of our country's future leaders, our children, and it has left them with false expectations. Outside family, churches and communities, the marketplace is the vanguard for moral truths in a free market society, and positively influencing the community through clear decent and moral principles, Judeo-Christian principles, improves businesses and betters people's lives. In asking the next generation to return to a true capitalist value-based society, America's conservatives ask for something that has not existed in their lifetime, but it is necessary to avoid self-induced destruction, and to ask is righteous.

Freedom and moral truths and the strength of men's will in a free society, unfettered by superfluous regulations, enabled America to succeed. They are the facilitators that fuel innovation, support free-thinkers and encourage people worldwide to become who they choose to be, not who the state demands they must be. When government guarantees equality and "economic security", it suppresses creativity, ingenuity and reward systems that enable people and nations to grow and prosper. Have Americans learned nothing from history?

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For more blog postings from me, see  TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH,  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, and Paralipomena (Occasionally updated),  a Coral reef compendium and an IQ compendium. (Both updated as news items come in).  GUN WATCH is now mainly put together by Dean Weingarten. I also put up occasional updates on my Personal blog and each day I gather together my most substantial current writings on THE PSYCHOLOGIST.

Email me  here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here (Academic) or  here (Pictorial) or  here  (Personal)

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