October 8, 2018
Donald Trump versus the Cookie Monster:
Why the Rent is Too Darn High, and How Senator Collins Missed the Mark
It is clear to me now that we are living in two Americas. Based on the testimony I saw, it was clear to me that Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has no evidence to corroborate her story. I expected the Democrats on the panel to support Dr. Ford, but still it was disheartening to see them practically applauded Dr. Ford for not remembering the incident. The justifications were bordering on absurd. Democratic senators actually suggested that Dr. Ford was more believable because her memory was faulty. The new American Democratic Party seem to be saying, “Yes, we are free to, and should, assassinate a man’s character because we have found a willing accuser, and we make our assassination attempt more lethal because we are fortunate enough to confirm that our accuser remembers nothing and will not be able to support the accusations.” What?
Sadly, but predictably, the media is supporting and fomenting this charade. Wow, has history taught us nothing? Haven’t we seen this before? And now these actions are being led by Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein? Never again Chuck and Dianne…never again! Let’s be honest, we were hoping that Dianne Feinstein would not be compromised once it was revealed she had a Chinese spy in her employ for decades. It is astonishing how many things just take her by surprise lately. It is also amazing what is being revealed under Donald Trump’s presidency, it is no wonder why his opposition, in both parties, want to destroy him. The more I look at what is going on the more I realize that the American people did not vote for Donald Trump, they voted to save themselves; it was just a bonus that his policies seem to be working well.
I am not saying that Diane Feinstein is actively working to undermine the U.S. government or the Constitution, but eventually we do have to consider her actions. Again, it is amazing what is being revealed during the Trump presidency, and I believe sometimes even without him realizing it. For example, Trump was roundly criticized on the campaign trail for suggesting that millions voted illegally, yet despite that criticism he still decided to create a Voter Fraud Commission. That Commission was obviously—and I will be charitable here—ill-conceived. There was no way State and local election boards were going to cooperate without endless litigation, and they have control of the source documents to prove, or disprove, the allegations. Therefore, we are still left with one side claiming, “There is no evidence of voter fraud”, while the other side claims, “We need to documents to present the evidence that others are saying is not there.”
I for one find it hard to believe there is widespread voter fraud, but just when you think you’re certain about some things the Democrats proceed to do something that calls your beliefs into question. After harping for more than two years on this notion that Russians, and other foreign nationals, should not interfere in our elections Democrats in certain locales proceeded to create ordinances to allow foreigners to vote. It’s enough to make one wonder, “Why would anyone do this?” It seems insane to allow foreigners to dictate results of our elections. However, if for some reason I was trying to conceal illegal voters, and I was fearful that Trump could somehow get hold of local voting rolls; obviously the best defense would be to create a scenario where examiners could say the inclusion of noncitizens is suddenly no surprise. I now wonder if Trump was right all along.
With all the screaming, and all the protests, and all the threats, and all the violence, it seems that those on the left have lost their collective minds, and that Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. Unfortunately, believe it or not, I am not surprised by the outbursts and level of outcry; my mom predicted this a long time ago. She told me this would happen without even saying a word. Like Trump versus the cookie monster, it reminds me of an episode from my youth.
When I was a young boy, I had a fondness for cookies, and when I accompanied my mother to the grocery store I would always lobby for my favorite brand. As we approached the checkout counter, one particular day sticks out in my mind. I noticed a young child screaming uncontrollably in their mother’s arms, and I noticed the child reaching for a bag of cookies. The child was demanding the cookies, and was determined to keep screaming until they were satisfied. Finally, the mother opened the cookie bag to satisfy and calm the child. She did this before going through the checkout line and paying for the cookies. I had never seen that before. I had no idea it was that easy, so naturally I tried it out on my mom. After all, there was a sweet bag in our own shopping cart just waiting to be enjoyed. In case you haven’t guessed, my attempt to enjoy cookies before checkout ended abruptly, and without success. My mom didn’t say anything in reply to my requests, and her body language revealed no hint of disapproval for the mother and child in line ahead of us; she just looked down at me with that sweet look only my mother could give. “No, son”, she said with only her eyes, “We don’t do that. We will pay before it becomes ours.” Needless to say, it was a while longer before that bag was opened. That was long before I went to school and learned of parenting techniques that extolled the benefits of delayed gratification. My parents never needed those courses, but they were masters.
I am not casting any aspersions on the mother and child I witnessed in the grocery store that day. Each case is different, and no one knows what a mother is going through. Nevertheless, even as a child I could not help but notice that things were changing. I noticed that similar episodes were happening with more and more frequency, and as I got older I noticed children being protected from things that I once thought were quite normal. Things like losing a race were being rewarded. Schools were beginning to hand out more certificates of attendance than certificates of achievement. No, I have not studied the science behind all these changes and why they may be beneficial, but I contend that if a generation of children is raised by parents to expect no distress we should not be surprised if they react in a way that displays they are unable to cope with disappointment, even after they have all grown up and obtained high-powered jobs in politics, the media, and academia.
The temper tantrums will not stop; because a large segment of our society has learned that temper tantrums work. Hopefully, there is a residual of well-balanced adults willing to stand up and say, “No”. It suddenly doesn’t seem so crazy when I thing of the Trump supporter before the election who confided that they voted for Trump because he wasn’t a politician, and because he has been involved in very public legal disputes. It seemed like an unusual standard, but when you think about what has happened during the past two years it may have been invaluable experience for Trump. After all, many media pundits and politicians are lawyers, and lawyers are paid good money to give their opinions and make their opponents look bad when they are arguing for the opposing side. Can you imagine how easy it is for any lawyer worth his salt to make anyone look bad when they have an unlimited budget? Now consider that Trump’s opponents are all the best lawyers, not only in politics, but in academia, and he also has the most powerful media complex devised by men going after him too, yet he continues to shrug it off—not silently though—and move forward, remarkable. There is no way these professional tantrum throwers will let up, not with Donald Trump. They know no other way. I suppose that is why President Trump chose that particular theme song he so deftly uses.
Yes, I know that the rioters—adults and children—being shown in the media are not representative of everyone, because the media likes to focus its lens towards the heat. Fortunately for America, I believe there are lots of moms out there like mine. No muss, no fuss. When their children return home from a crazy world of raucous concerts, festivals, or protests they do not love them any less. Their children will be loved, clothed, and fed, just as before, but before they sit down at the table to eat mom will remind them it’s time to first complete their chores. And when all is said and done, mom and dad will get up and walk to the polls—and vote: quietly.
I have heard some call the Trump era the boomerang presidency when Trump’s opponents are actually caught doing the nefarious activities that Trump is often blamed for. There are few things more grossly underhanded than spying on someone’s private conversations, yet the duly elected President of the United States was welcomed with the news that he would not be allowed to represent us with candid and private conversations between himself and foreign leaders, and the American media seemed to rejoice that this treatment was a good thing. It is fitting that this welcoming, spying episode involved the Prime Minister of Australia, the home of the boomerang.
Even when it comes to foreign policy eyes are opening when we notice politicians, on both sides, and our media decry Chinese tariffs and the theft of our intellectual property for decades, yet now that we have a president who has the will to do something about China, and other countries, taking advantage of us, all of a sudden it is President Trump who the media and politicians want to blame for starting a trade war.
The rent is too damn high! Because of Trump’s willingness to be open about how America is being taxed and taken advantage of by other countries the American people are starting to conclude that we were being sold out for decades. The American people see how certain segments of our society openly praise and voice their preference for societies in Europe and South of the boarder, but it is easy to have cheaper benefits when your leading social service provider is an organization with the initials USA. The American people know what is going on, but they have rarely seen our leaders speak honestly about the cost of this rent. That cost has been not only American treasure, but also American casualties and lives.
I am sure everyone loves free health care and free rent and extended vacations, but thanks to President Trump we now know that the American people are actually paying for most of the world’s fringe benefits. Not only does the Democratic Party, and some Republicans, complain that we shouldn’t allow Trump to fight back against unfair tariffs, they also complain when Trump insists that UN members pay what they themselves agreed to pay.
The American people are tired of being lectured about how beautiful and efficient the systems in other countries are when it is the American people that have been sold out and forced to pay for those societies, until Trump. They mock Americans and our military while they train with broomsticks and expect us to always come to their rescue. Why don’t they pay 5 to 6 percent of their own GDP for their own defense and let America step back for a change, and then tell us how wonderful their egalitarian fringe benefits are. Can you imagine the American infrastructure projects and benefits we could see if the world paid our bills? Instead we have politicians and lobbyists pushing to convince us that we had no choice but to get used to anemic economies so that they could sell us out and line their own pockets.
I am thankful that we now have a Commander in Chief who seems to take his obligations to defend us seriously. Something as common sense as rebuilding our steel industry, can you imagine the arsenal of freedom being dependent on a Chinese supply chain? Is Trump the only one who realizes that certain industries have strategic importance? Rosie the Riveter is no longer turning over in her grave.
Incredibly, with all the talk about his political inexperience, President Trump has shown to be savvier in the use of our entire arsenal, military and otherwise, than any politician in recent memory. He is not afraid to use our economic strengths, yet his opponents continually mock him and suggest he is trying to start a trade war. They report that Trump’s strategy will hurt his supporters because China will target regions that supported Trump with retaliatory tariffs.
Unfortunately for China, they seem to understand Trump supporters even less than his domestic opponents, if you can believe that is possible. Trump supporters may be deplorable flag wavers, but they answer the call and send their sons and daughters off to war to defend freedom for all, and many times they return disfigured and lame, but they are not broken. These are people that see, every day, the sacrifice of their neighbors and children who have returned in wheelchairs, if they have returned at all. I find it hard to believe they can look their children and neighbors in the eyes and complain of sacrifice because China wants to raise prices with targeted tariffs in Trump territory. But never mind, we have a former Secretary of State from the Obama administration traveling around the world encouraging despots to wait out Trump and the American people.
It astounds me that Trump’s opponents on the Democratic left do not see the value in Trump’s tactics. They claim to be true believers in the concept of “climate change” due to manmade pollution, and they actually agree that China is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, polluters, yet they endorse agreements that supposedly hold every nation accountable to reduce pollution, except for China. Then they wonder why so many see this as a charade. If they truly believed something dire were impending like for example, “the world was coming to an end!” wouldn’t you think they would study Trump’s use of economic power and possibly work with him to couple verifiable reductions in pollutants and carbon emissions in any trade imbalance negotiations? The Chinese are not stupid. Of course they will be more than willing to sign all the “climate change” agreements anyone can write from now until forever, as long as they are not held accountable. Unbelievable….
Trump’s detractors do not have a clue about how insulting they are. The demagogues are getting desperate and losing credibility. Even in my own neighborhood now when we hear “Black Lives Matter” we are beginning to ask if all black lives are included. We have heard the many polemics against police officers, white men, and American history and society itself, but despite the pronouncements of Black Lives Matter and Joy Behar, we realize that America is not an evil place. Yes, we know America is not perfect, but America does not endorse slavery. There are more slaves in the world today than there were at any time during the American slave trade. As a black man I am not so self-absorbed that I believe my freedom in America today is more oppressive than the plight of slaves around the world “today”; I do not believe black people are that evil.
When it comes to Joy Behar and “Black Lives Matter” have you ever heard them voice one word of concern about real slavery in today’s world? Yet they are so concerned about the “brown skin” people. Tragic. People are being enslaved all around the world today, and those slaves are not just “brown skin people”, and they all are not being enslaved by white Anglo-Saxons. If the enslavement of blacks in America is the only tragedy worth magnifying that would make the black man the most demonic and evil creature in human history. We are constantly reminded of the evil white man enslaving blacks, so how can we even quantify the evil of our black ancestors who possessed and subjugated their own kind?
As a black man I do not believe we are more evil than anyone else. No, in fact I am in awe of our common humanity, not in any sense of admiration, but amazement. God is great, and no one can resist Him. He made mankind, and we are all one kind, whether we want to believe it or not. We are just as evil, and certainly just as noble as anyone. Neither life nor the human condition can be resisted. Just as the seedling will seek sunlight, so will the wheat as well as the chaff. Just as life will find a way to live, men in their human condition will seek to exploit that life. There is no economic system that men—men of all races—will not seek to exploit. Everyone participated in slavery at some point in history, black, white, red, yellow, brown, Christian, Jew, Muslin, atheist.... We are all human and subject to human failings. It is incredible to believe that a black man can walk into a 17th century American courtroom to win his argument that he should retain possession of his slaves, but it did happen. As we can see, even in the worst of times man’s fight to retain his humanity, even the perversion of it, has neither bounds, nor shame. It is strangely comforting to know that nothing, not even the oppression of the antebellum, could divorce our ancestors from a common humanity. They taught us a great lesson. There is comfort in knowing that humanity cannot be bowed. Unfortunately, we must realize that that comfort is more than rivaled by its distress. These are lessons we all must learn if we are to ever begin speaking honestly with each other.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Party seems incapable of letting go of the demagoguery. They are experts at taking innocuous phrases and turning them into racial “bullhorns”, so much so that policy prescriptions no longer seem necessary. I shout and feign moral outrage louder than you so that is enough. Just cash in that card and everyone falls in line.
Maybe that’s why Donald Trump was elected. The American people were looking for something more candid and straightforward. They were willing to dispense with the varnish to get down to the grain of things. Yes, I know the splinters are painful at times, but the veneer was wearing thin anyway. Someone needed to dare to strip away the pretence and cease the infantilization of entire swaths of the human race. Will the results be perfect? Of course not, remember, we are all human—all of us.
To be quite honest, I don’t know anyone who thought Donald Trump’s policies would work as well as they have. I know that Democratic activists are committed to saying President Trump’s policies are a disaster no matter what, but their own actions belie their true feelings about Trump’s success. I know that we are conditioned now to accept doublespeak, but when his opponents say Trump’s policies are so bad that they want to take credit for them we have entered a bizarre realm indeed. We know President Obama is not very fond of President Trump, and I am not saying Obama does not have a good reason for disliking Trump. However, the fact is, President Trump’s policies have worked so well that even Obama wants to take credit for Trump’s success, and the current positive economic conditions.
Obama flat out told us that Donald Trump was a crazy fool for believing his policies would improve our economy or return American jobs that were never coming back. In fact, President Trump’s policies were supposed to destroy our economy. Is this another case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, or are we supposed to believe that Obama had some sort of secret admiration for Trump and he knew that the only way to ensure that Trump would reverse the course that Obama was on was to mock Trump’s policies surmising that Trump would be even more committed to them. That would allow Obama to take credit because he knew no one besides Trump, not even Obama himself, had the guts to defy Obama and tell him he was wrong and headed in the wrong direction.
What kind of logic do Democrats and our media believe in? A man spends eight years telling us our economic malaise and anemic economy are the new normal; our jobs are not coming back, and anyone who tells us otherwise is crazy. This same man who ran on an empty “Yes We Can” slogan spent eight years telling us no we can’t and now we are supposed to believe all the current positive economic activity is his doing, Obama’s master plan? I believe we have a theme here—unbelievable.
That brings us back to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. I have to give great deference to the women in my life whom I love and respect. My mom, grandmothers, and other women in my life may not have PhD’s like Dr, Ford, but they have common sense and they know how to read people. I was taught to be suspicious of anyone who cries without tears. So, what does that say about Dr. Ford who cried on national television for the entire world to see for more than an hour, yet she produced not one tear? Her testimony was all in her head, and she literally confirmed that by replacing genuine heartfelt emotional responses with dissertations about what was going on where—you guessed it—in her head. Dr. Ford literally veered off into descriptions of brain chemistry, “epinephrine… neurotransmitter…. coded memories into the hippocampus…cortisol, and adrenaline”. It was all too disjointed for me. Instead of just telling your story you confirm that it doesn’t hold up on its own.
And it doesn’t help that someone who claims to have a fear of flying seems to only choose hobbies that require her to fly all around the world. Again, not required flying for work, but for fun. It also did not help that she and her legal team claimed that they did not know Republican senators were trying to reach her and would agree to have her interviewed on the West Coast. It became very annoying when her legal team raised objections to supposedly prevent the sharing of attorney client privileged information when apparently they were not equipped to share with their own client the offers made by Republican senators. Dr. Ford and her legal team are apparently some of the only affluent persons in the United States who do not own televisions. Everyone else in the world knew the Senate was trying to reach Dr. Ford, but apparently Dr. Ford and her legal team missed that.
Of course Dr. Ford’s tale was rife with inconsistencies and a lack of corroboration, but in my neighborhood it was not what was said that left the greatest impression. The lasting impression was made by what was not said, and Senator Susan Collins almost got there, but she did not quite hit the mark. Senator Collins, and Rachel Mitchell were right to ask why Dr. Ford’s lifelong friend, Leland Ingham Keyser, never asked in all these years whatever happened to Dr. Ford when she hurriedly left the gathering as she claims. That is a very good question of course. I am sure that lots of people were thinking it but did not want to voice in out loud, at least I was thinking it. In my high school and college years all the girls, especially close friends, suck together. I don’t even remember girls going to the bathroom alone at parties. Nevertheless, even though I am sure they did on occasion it would be almost unthinkable that a best friend, or even a close acquaintance, would not follow up and ask questions about a sudden disappearance.
Nevertheless, even if you believed Dr. Ford’s claims about Leland Ingham Keyser were true wouldn’t you have to ask yourself the one burning question that everyone in America and around the world wanted to know the answer to, “Dr. Ford, you testified that you suddenly left a party/gathering where you were sexually assaulted because you were almost killed and you were in fear of your life. In all these subsequent years—even recently—did you ever ask Leland, your best friend, whom you left behind with these dangerous alleged degenerates, if she was okay?” No, to the contrary, in Dr. Ford’s testimony she dismissed any concern for her best friend by brushing it off with a “nothing remarkable happened to [her because she] was downstairs”. How would Dr. Ford know that nothing remarkable happened to her friend after she left if she never asked? I am sorry, but I cannot elevate Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to the status of American heroine just based on her treatment of Leland, her best friend. Something is not adding up to me. Because of the love and respect I have for the women in my life, I must confess that I believe the woman, and that woman is Leland.
They say Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s time on the bench will be forever stained with an asterisk, but if his time on the bench mirrors what we saw in this process, with his willingness to stand up and fight for his good name, it seems to me that the closer and closer we look and examine that asterisk it comes more and more into focus, and it’s beginning to look like a star to me.
History will judge.
Mr. Kalc, South Bend, Indiana