By Florida Bill
Hey Trump fans, don't worry; it isn't over 'til its over. Some pollsters are announcing that Hillary Clinton was the clear-cut winner in the first round of debates, though Trump, of course, is full of bluster about winning a bunch of other polls. But I do not believe that Donald Trump lost. He simply was unable to land a haymaker. He was poised and ready to drop the hammer, but Mrs.Clintron sparred and danced about and managed to push those buttons that antagonize Trump so much, thereby managing to neutralize him.
Donald Trump was breathing heavily, but landed only some minor jabs on the candidate who wants to make history by becoming America's first woman president. She even got an assist from the screaming former DNC chairman and six term Vermont governor, Howard Dean, who attributed Trump's sniffing and snorting to his apparent use of some drug like cocaine.
In the early part of the 90-minute debate, they argued about who would create the most jobs and Trump repeated his charge that Hillary and President Obama were the worst ever and that Hillary did things which were "just not nice," a rather lame put-down. Trump kept saying that Hillary has been around government and public service for 30 years or more and has done nothing, but now claims she will do all of these great thing to create jobs. "Why now--why didn't she and Obama do something for Americans when they controlled both houses of Congress," he asked. Score one here for "The Donald."
However, Clinton came back with charges of her own: Trump's refusal to release his tax returns, and his many years of denigrating president Obama as a Kenya-born native masquerading as a natural-born American. No knock-out punches, of course, but a couple of right crosses from smug Hillary which slowed down her blustering Republican opponent and seemed to knock him off balance. In the exchange, Trump offered to release his returns (contrary to his lawyer's advice, he emphasized) if Secretary Clinton would provide the 33,000 emails which she has deleted, and which Trump believes she has stuffed away someplace in her own archives. While the sudden applause of the crowd at that sally--forbidden under the rules of the debate--may have given him a psychological boost, it didn't really put him on top for long.
"Just what is he hiding in those tax returns," wondered Clinton. Perhaps he is concerned that the tax return will demonstrate his lack of charitable donations or that he has less income than he has bragged about; and that he has paid zero tax dollars. Trump then raised the question of the contents of her missing emails, but the criticism didn't seem to hit home. Hillary returned to her corner after that exchange, winner of the round.
In another spat, Trump charged that "Secretary Clinton lacks the stamina to serve as President," adding that the job is just too big for her. The charge did not seem to rattle Hillary, who was dressed in an expensive bright red pantsuit which screamed "power" to her followers. She pointed out that as Secretary of State she traveled to more than 100 countries and handled 11 hours of questions by a congressional committee without any problems. With that, she seemed to close the door on the "stamina" accusation, although Trump surprisingly refrained from venturing into her physical condition and her recent collapse in public and the need for her to produce her medical records.
Lester Holt, of NBC Nightly News and a former Chicago anchor, was the lone moderator and I thought he did okay, considering that everyone was looking over his shoulder and waiting for a sign of favoritism or a failure to check a fact. He let Trump interrupt too much and talk past his two minute limit, complained some critics. Others say he interrupted Trump 41 times, but cut into Hillary only six times. Those disenchanted with Trump are applauding him for letting the world see that the more Trump rambled on, the less he apparently had to say. But from the Trump crowd, how come Holt asked Hillary nothing about her "deplorable" comment or about specific lies which she has told, or about her recent collapse. Did Holt simply forget to ask Clinton about the Clinton Foundation which allegedly makes use of "pay for play" rules
The attacks against Holt on social media the next day were too politicized in my opinion. Prior to the debate, Trump had accused the 57- year-old Holt of being a Democrat, only to learn later that Holt was a registered Republican and had been so for some time. But Holt was cautious in his moderating, knowing that he was being watched and judged. Some weeks ago, Matt Lauer had moderated a commander-in-chief forum with Clinton and Trump being questioned separately. He was castigated as incompetent and biased and for making all sorts of mistakes and for mishandling the entire event. Frankly, I thought that Lauer did an okay job, and that the post game quarterbacking was out of line, and way over the top.
The debate was the first of three which will precede the election on Nov. 8 to choose the 45th President and the successor to President Barack Obama. Anderson Cooper of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC News will co-moderate the second debate, which will be a town-hall style event at Washington University in St. Louis, Oct. 9. Chris Wallace of Fox News will moderate the third and final presidential debate at University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Oct. 19.
Each candidate was allowed to select attendees to sit in the front row of the auditorium and Hillary picked the big-mouthed multi-millionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. He has been a noisy critic of Trump, labeling him a blustering airhead, unfit to be president. Instead of demonstrating a presidential demeanor and ignoring the fact that Cuban would be in attendance, Trump engaged Gennifer Flowers, allegedly a former mistress of Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, to occupy a seat in the first row on the Trump side. Trump commissioned her to stare at Hillary and embarrass her. (You have to wonder how much he had to draw out of his campaign chest to finance that silly ploy.) They were both there, but nothing notable happened; only the titillating publicity that they would be in attendance.
Trump tried for some zingers, but they just fell flat. He kept accusing Clinton of creating the vacuum in Iraq which allowed the radical ISIS to form and subsequently expand and commit carnage throughout the world. Hillary let it roll off her back and needled Trump about endorsing the invasion of Iraq. The Iraq charge is being made repeatedly by Clinton forces and it seems to especially annoy Trump. He kept interrupting Clinton saying "not true," but it appeared Clinton touched just the right button. The debate never got close to the immigration controversies and it seems that the conversation concerning the undocumented citizens and the admission of refugees into this country are being reserved for future debates. It is the immigration controversies, and the promised wall along the southern border and the deportation of illegal aliens which have given Trump the attention and popularity that he has.
Millions of Americans watched the debate, more viewers than for any past debate, or maybe even any other high profile event on television. Watch for some real fireworks at the next debate, on Oct. 9.
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By Florida Bill
Colin Rand Kaepernick is a man with a bulging wallet and large football helmet to cover a big empty head.
Kaepernick has arrived. Millions who never heard the name--and of those who did, most had no idea how to spell it--now are buzzing about the Forty Niners' million-dollar quarterback who sees America and Old Glory as a sign of gross oppression of blacks. He doesn't want to be a part of it, and he is notifying the world of the oppression and is laying the groundwork for a legacy he will likely one day regret.
Unfortunately for him, on the road he is choosing, he will be remembered as an unpatriotic, heavily tattooed athlete who has more money than most people can earn in a couple of lifetimes. Step aside, America, as this 29-year-old football player demonstrates his enmity and ill will for the United States.
You might expect more from Kaepernick. He was born of a 19-year old white mother and a black father who disappeared following conception. When three weeks old, he was adopted by Teresa and Rick Kaepernick, a white couple with two of their own children. He became part of the family and was reared with warmth and love in a modest home in northern Wisconsin and in California. He excelled as a high school and college athlete and became an NFL quarterback with the San Francisco Forty Niners in 2011. He led the club to Super Bowl XLV11 two years later, and has been rewarded with many millions of dollars in pay. His parents and siblings are proud of him, and he has enjoyed the adulation of friends and associates.
This year, surprising his coaches, teammates and fans, he demonstrated his discontent with his country by refusing to stand to honor the American flag and the national anthem during traditional patriotic ceremonies before a preseason game. Following the game, he explained his behavior to reporters:
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. This is a bigger issue than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting away with murder."
Has Kaepernick got a point? His concern for others is noble, but did he pick the proper forum? He has continued his refusal to stand, and the action has picked up other followers among the ranks of pampered, over-paid athletes, who have now switched instead to a kneeling posture. Even games played on Sept. 11, a solemn day in the minds of most Americans, were not immune to players' signs of disrespect for the flag and what it stands for.
His birth mother, hearing of her son's turning his back on America's flag, has been critical of her son. "There's ways to make change without disrespecting and bringing shame to the very country and family who afforded you so many blessings," she has said.
It's his constitutional right to denounce his country and its flag, President Obama has observed. However, Kaepernick is really not doing anything that actually helps his downtrodden or oppressed brothers. What he is mainly doing is hurting his own legacy. Instead of being remembered as an outstanding athlete, he will be remembered as the millionaire political activist who started this unfortunate trend. He will be like Jane Fonda and the Dixie Chicks who destroyed themselves by laying dirt on their country and its flag. Fonda, with her behavior in North Viet Nam, should have been prosecuted as a traitor, but eluded that fate. Her apology some years ago has failed to remove her stigma as a traitor which she must forever carry.
America has come a long way since the dark days of black oppression, but still more must be done to erase all vestiges of racism. Is Kaepernick aware that the USA has elected an African American President and a great number of black congressmen, governors, and mayors? A black man and a black woman have served as the Secretary of State for America in eight of the past 16 years. Professional coaches are black as are CEOs and university presidents. The NFL and NBA are dominated by African American players, all of whom earn millions of dollars for their athletic prowess. Special sports figues like Tiger Woods and Lebron James are billionaires. Doesn't Kaepernick recognize that America is an exceptional nation for freedom and human rights. Does he know of another country as good and compassionate as the United States? Is he as obtuse as his behavior indicates?
Kaepernick might take the time to read the short story, "The Man Without a Country" which was written 156 years ago by Edward Everett Hale. The story recounts the travails of army Lt. Phillip Nolan, a young union officer, who denounced his country, the USA, and said his greatest wish would be to never again hear the name of the United States or anything about it. During a trial, accused of treason, a judge granted his wish, and directed that Nolan was to never again set foot upon American soil, and he ordered further that no one should ever speak of the country in his presence.
The remaining years of Nolan's life were spent aboard naval warships sailing the high seas. As the decades of his life passed, Nolan grew old and longed for word of his country but there was none ever. Deprived of a homeland, he slowly and painfully learns of the true worth of his country. Nolan begged for forgiveness and for permission to again walk upon American land and hear of the activities inside the United States, but there was no mercy for him. When a young member of the crew of the ship railed in his presence about his own disenchantment with military life, Nolan, who was then a very old man, told him:
"Remember, boy, that behind officers and government, there is the country itself--your country, and you belong to her as you belong to your own mother. Stand by her boy, as you would stand by your mother." Nolan died at sea, a sad and heartbroken old man. He was indeed the "Man without a Country."
Is there a message in this famous story? Is there a lesson to be learned? Colin Kaepernick believes he can thumb his nose at and denigrate the American flag which has meant so much to so many, white man and black men, and for which so many have given their lives.
Americans who publicly dishonor their country and their flag will be remembered for that and anything else they did will be meaningless.
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By Florida Bill
The unmentionable belief and theory that President Obama was not born in America is being mentioned again by a whole bunch of news anchors and reporters. Did you think that the controversy was over and done with?
Donald Trump, perhaps the most forceful voice of anyone behind the theory that the President was born in Kenya, has rolled it back and has declared in a news conference very tersely:
" Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the 'birther' controversy. I finished it. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period."
The Democratic troops have come out screaming with claims that Trump is lying as usual, but hey, there is evidence that he is on target. No Dem wants to admit it though. In 2008, Mrs. Clinton was brawling with Obama in a quest for the Democratic nomination which Obama ultimately got, but the battle was fierce and political blood was shed.
Followers of Mrs. Clinton, the record indicates, favored floating out the idea that Obama was a Muslim and had been born in Kenya where he had attended a Madrassa in his early years; and the Clinton team was even considering releasing a photograph of then Sen. Obama decked out in a turban and other middle eastern garb. Clinton's close buddy, Sidney Blumenthal, reportedly was agitating for her to slam Obama for his Kenya birth.
Very likely, the whispering by Clinton campaigners about Obama and his birthplace in Kenya, rather than in Hawaii, leaked out, though it is not clear that Mrs. Clinton endorsed that tactic. It appears that she opposed the dissemination of the "birther" information and the picture of Obama in the turban. But it is pretty clear from the written record that the Clinton campaign team of workers and volunteers were toying with disseminating the explosive material.
The so called "birther" talk was also linked with the accusations flowing from political corners, fanned by Republicans, that Obama, then a United States senator from Illinois, was a "closet" Muslim, although Obama had declared publicly that he was a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ. When Clinton was asked on 60 Minutes if Obama was a Muslim, she responded by saying "not as far as I know," and that answer further fueled the belief that Obama was indeed a Muslim.
So it seems the "birther" talk was already permeating political discussions when Trump took an active role in publicly pursuing the case that Obama was not born in America--and therefore was holding the office of the president illegally. He took the lead in calling for the president to provide his birth certificate to prove he was born in Hawaii. In 2011, after continued sniping at the president and following a long and unexplained delay, Obama produced his Hawaiian birth certificate. But the issue did not go away and Obama detractors, with Trump in the forefront, continued the discussion by questioning the authenticity of the certificate.
Through the years, scores of lawsuits have been filed in various states challenging the legitimacy of the Obama Presidency and charging that he holds an office for which he is not qualified as set forth in the in the U.S. constitution. For the most part the suits have been dismissed for various reasons. In some cases, it was determined that plaintiffs lacked standing to sue and in other suits the courts have refused to take the case. Despite the many suits and demands for discovery process, President Obama has not been directed to provide answers to interrogatories or to testify under oath at a deposition.
Presently, according to researchers, one in five Americans, around 50 million persons, continue to believe that Obama was born in Kenya. These "birthers" rely heavily on a 1991 promotional biography for an anticipated book authored by Obama which states Obama was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. Also there have been public comments attributed to the President and also to his wife Michelle acknowledging his Kenyan roots. Dissenters continue to point to reports that an Obama step-grandmother has said that she was present in Kenya when Barack Obama was born.
Trump has now said that he accepts the fact that President Obama was born in Hawaii. Clinton has called him a racist and a bigot for endorsing the "birther" controversy over many years, and Trump says well, '' she started it anyway" and I am ending it.
You have to wonder if Trump, after nearly a decade of leading the "birthers," has changed his position because of the political necessity of doing so, and that deep down he continues to believe that President Obama is hiding his true history. On the other hand, perhaps Trump has come to see the authenticity of the Hawaiian certificate of birth. One thing is for sure, Trump will probably never change the mind of the nation's multitude of "birthers" who will vote for him but will never alter their judgments on Obama.
Frankly, I believe that Trump was sorry that he was backed into a corner by the demanding media which had been chasing him for his position on the Obama birth question since he announced his campaign. He probably hoped that the whole thing would just go away and that he could talk about illegal immigration and building a wall without interference from annoying newsmen. Obama is now leaving office and Trump may or may not become his successor. In any case, it looks like the controversy has been laid to rest, at least for the foreseeable future. .
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By Florida Bill
With Donald Trump, for better or for worse, we have a candidate who seems to care about Christians and their plight in a world in which "radical Islam" has its knife out. "Convert or die," is the Islamic motto of terrorists who want to transform the world into a global caliphate.
At long last, there is a contender for the Presidency in next November's election who promises that he will be a "voice for Christians and the best friend they will ever have."
I do not know how Trump intends to deliver on his promises, but he certainly stands out alongside other candidates for public office who generally avoid being so precise about defending Christians. In fact, Trump has said in a recent speech that pastors must be free to speak openly from the pulpit about political preferences without fear of being denied their church tax exemption. Currently, the law restricts preachers and pastors from doing that, and trump promises to work toward amending that law when he becomes President.
He will be a President, he asserts, who will destroy that terrorist organization known as ISIS which slaughters innocent persons, Christian and otherwise, and then brags about the evil acts on public television. A born again Christian, Trump says he will have the "back" of Christians when he occupies the Oval Office of the White House.
There has been little if any rhetoric in favor of Christian principles from the Democratic standard bearer Hillary Clinton. While dancing around charges of mishandling classified emails, she professes to be a Methodist, but has little if anything to say about her religion or of Christian principles. We know that she endorses same sex marriage, and abortions on demand. Her public sympathies seem to be directed to show her respect for Islam. Some years ago, when she was running for President in 2008, she had a TV commercial made of herself wearing a hi jab designed to project her tolerance and regard for the Islamic faith.
While the founders of this nation made their sentiments clear in the pledge of allegiance and in the preamble to the Constitution, President Obama has been lukewarm about his Christian beliefs. He has professed to be a believer in Jesus Christ, yet he has endorsed abortions including those in the final term. He has stated that he believed in marriage as a sacred union of one man with one woman, but then a few years later, after he was elected to his first term, said that he had "evolved" and asserted that same sex unions were now fine with him. The term "pro-life" has never been in his vocabulary.
While reticent in praising the traditions of American life and culture, Obama has repeatedly expressed his reverence and respect for Islam, and the holy month of Ramadan; and he declines to call out Islamic terrorists for their evil massacre and beheading of innocent men, women and children. He has characterized Major Hasan's slaughter of 13 fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood,Texas in the name of Allah, as "workplace violence" and nothing more. On one occasion, Obama spoke of the Christian violence of 1,000 years ago and he did this in attempting to downplay present day savagery of Muslim fanatics who have beheaded Christians and perverted their religion.
Trump has said that America "clearly has an administration which doesn't care how Christians are treated." Immigration policies are beholden to political correctness, and that will change under a Trump administration, he said.
No one knows exactly what the 70-year-old Trump will do in fulfilling his campaign promises. But just hearing a politician ignore political correctness and endorse Christians is refreshing.
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