Globalism poses a silent threat to all America is and has been

A word that is used rather frequently these days is “nationalist,” frequently when people refer to President Donald Trump. That term is generally used as a pejorative to accuse Trump of viewing America as the nation superior to all others, but more than that as the country that should dominate all others in every way imaginable.

This point of view is the result either of people who don’t understand Trump, or those who deliberately attempt to gin up resentment and negative feelings toward the president. There are more than enough of both types of these folks to go around.

Trump has even adopted the term for himself, but his use of it is that of “patriotism,” or having strong positive feelings about America, as well as a devotion to it. That is a position that every president needs and must have. 

Many of these folks who call Trump a nationalist are the polar opposite of that mistaken image of Trump; they are globalists. They are One World Government types, who believe and work toward a massive control mechanism everyone on Earth must obey. It would be like the United Nations on steroids. 

If your initial reaction to that idea is, “That’s not going to work. There are too many nations with different ideas of how things should be,” you have a point. 

Sure, some nations will willingly go along, like Germany and some of the others in the European Union, and some others elsewhere on the globe. The United States, however, has for its entire history done things its own way and been very successful doing that. To most clear thinking Americans, globalism is not on their bucket list, though it may be at the bottom of a trash bucket.

The only way the US will be a part of a world government is if we are forcibly made to conform or, more likely, subverted into subservience. Through such a process, strong social elements gradually are taken over and used to feed propaganda to the public. We see the news media and education systems now being transformed from their fundamental beneficial purposes to these socialist tools. 

The global warming/climate change mania is another area that is used to gently induce Americans to accept the concepts of global government through scare tactics of impending global doom. People believe this despite the highly blemished record of the climate change faction that includes outright fraud. Recently, another fallacy in this leftist demagoguery was discovered.

A scientific paper published last month in the world’s premier scientific journal “Nature” suggested ocean temperatures have risen roughly 60 percent higher than estimated. That’s scary, and numerous mainstream-media outlets widely and uncritically reported this finding.

However, mathematician Nic Lewis easily caught an error in this study: Despite the paper being automatically trusted and published in the journal, “a quick review of the first page of the paper was sufficient to raise doubts as to the accuracy of its results,” Lewis said. The authors have, acknowledged their “error.” Have you heard about this in the mainstream media?

Americans were once a group of strong, independent, self-determining men and women. We find many now who are well down the pothole-infested road to surrendering to the socialist pap that grows so quickly, being well fertilized by feel-good leftist propaganda.

Their susceptibility to such venom is in large part the result of failing critical social systems: the family, education, and the information media.

The strong, nurturing nuclear family is in shambles, and our natural defenses, our protection against dopey ideas have been weakened through professional malfeasance in the other areas.

The agenda media, that part of the news media with a clear political purpose in all it says and does, misinforms, and by careful cherry picking of news items, denies important information to the public. Such actions clearly justify President Trump’s declaring this group “the enemy of the people.”

Many teachers, especially in elite colleges and universities, apparently failed or skipped their Integrity 101 class, and now rather than helping students learn basic subject matter, believe it’s more important that they help them learn how to think “correctly” about things. 

Public education at the K-12 level helps in this effort. For some unexplained reason, there is less, or little, emphasis in teaching actual American history and classes in civics where students learn about their government, how it works and why it was established as it was.

Consequently one or more generations of Americans are un-educated or mis-educated about the fundamental principles and mechanisms of their country, which are essential to understanding America, and appreciating it for all that it is. 

Is it any wonder that so many are able to be deceived and accept notions that are contrary to the country’s principles and best interest? These folks are prime targets for the platitudes of the leftist globalist puffery.

Much of this degeneration began back in the 60s and got a boost during the catastrophic Obama administration, where America was routinely dishonored and criticized by the now former president.

Re-educating the mis-educated generations is s daunting challenge, but it can’t be ignored.

The Investigators: Coming to the House of Representatives in January

According to historical precedent, the political party that does not hold the presidency makes gains in the mid-term election. That was confirmed earlier this month as the Democrats will take the majority in the House of Representatives when the new Congress convenes in January. 

According to NBC News, “In every midterm election since the Civil War, the president's party has lost, on average, 32 seats in the House and two in the Senate.” While they did not get the benefit of the Blue Wave they had predicted and hoped for, they did post decent gains in the House, with 34 seats won, and five others still undecided as this is written. They did not, however, meet the average gains in the Senate, as Republicans gained one seat and another will be decided with a run-off Nov. 27th.

As Election Day neared, Democrats were expecting to be voted into committee chair positions and expressed their ideas on just what their committees would do should they gain the majority. Investigations headed the list.

The Huffington Post published a list of 52 investigations the Democrats may pursue: Democratic members had asked the Republican majority “to issue subpoenas related to the administration’s conduct 52 times during the first 20 months of Donald Trump’s presidency. Republicans turned down each of those 52 requests. If Democrats held the committee gavel, the subpoenas would be approved.”

The Democrat A-Team is lined up and ready to start investigating. “The Investigators” include: Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) the House Intelligence Committee; Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the House Oversight Committee: Rep. Maxine Waters, (D-CA) the Financial Services Committee; all to be led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) if she indeed is elected Speaker of the House, as she expects.

Following is a list of nine topics that the Post believes will be the focus of investigations: Trump’s corruption; private email correspondence; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; Michael Flynn; the 2016 campaign; government reorganization; security clearances and classification; failure to produce documents; census 2020.

One could not be faulted for believing from the public comments of prominent Democrats that the sole purpose of the Democrat-controlled House will be to investigate Trump into total paralysis. How smart.

Instead of working to secure the border and get control over illegal immigration, we can expect Democrats to work for the status quo, and champion legal status for “Dreamers.”

Unable to understand that the root of “gun violence” is violence and not guns, expect more efforts to weaken Second Amendment protections for law-abiding citizens through ominous gun control measures.

Various Democrats have shown much disdain for the tax cuts enacted last year, and Pelosi has referred to them as “crumbs.” Repealing the tax cuts, or working to undo much of the good they have produced will be high on their list.

The Democrat plan is to increase the top marginal tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent, nearly 3 percentage points, or a 7 percent increase. While they think this will properly punish the “filthy rich,” this is a direct tax increase on small and mid-sized businesses, the group that hires the most Americans.

These things are directly against the best interest of nearly every American.

The Club for Growth, which is no Trump fan club, said this about what has occurred in the first year of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. “So, what have we seen in the year since passage of the largest tax cut package ever? Great things!”

Some examples:

* Despite the “new normal” of 2.0 percent GDP, according to the naysayers in 2016, GDP has grown by 3 percent over the past four quarters, and hit 4.2 percent in Q2 2018.

* The unemployment rate has dropped to 3.7 percent, its lowest point since 1969.

* The ratio of unemployed workers to open jobs hovered at a record low in September.

* Tax collections have embarrassed the Congressional Budget Office’s estimators by being significantly higher than estimates.

What a wonderful thing it would be for the country if the new House majority would take the good things that are going on and work to increase the good things, rather than try to undo them and return to the economic doldrums of the Obama years, one of the slowest recession recoveries on record.

Instead of protecting illegal entrants and punishing law abiding citizens with onerous gun control laws, why not work to reduce the size, negative impact and cost of government, bringing the enormous national debt, that their last president doubled, down at the same time?

True, they must forego the satisfaction they would achieve by hounding the duly elected President of the United States, but perhaps they could soothe their hurt feelings with the knowledge that they are doing the right thing for their constituents. 

Now there’s a novel idea.

But it’s a fool’s errand to expect the Democrats to suddenly get over their hurt feelings of losing an election they thought they were going to win, and then add insult to injury at having their biggest enemy have so many successes.

News journalism badly needs self-correction

As we consider the state of things in America today, we see important areas of American life that have weakened as the years have passed. Among them are the nuclear family, public education, higher education, and the general sense of what America is all about.

This devolution has also affected news journalism. Today, quite a few of those practitioners are persons who, rather than being committed to professional ethics, are instead folks who pay allegiance to their personal inclinations. And generally they seem to be in some of the most visible and influential news outlets in the country.

Following the dramatic dustup in the White House’s James S. Brady Press Briefing Room last week that got all the news folk talking, Al Jazeera’s Jeffrey Ballou said President Donald Trump's remarks to CNN’s Jim Acosta and others "may be free speech, but beyond the pale of respecting the constitutionally enshrined role of journalists."

That statement brought this from a long-time news journalist, Wesley Pruden, editor emeritus of The Washington Times, and a man who worked his way up from beat reporter to editor: “That was a new one to me, though I have been in this business, man and boy, for a lot of years. I never knew I was someone so grand as to be "constitutionally enshrined."

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees a free press, and that might be seen as enshrinement of journalism’s role, but the Amendment does not enshrine any person or set of individuals, not even reporters.

Watching the behavior of some of the media personalities in the Brady Briefing Room of late clearly demonstrates that some reporters believe they are personally enshrined. And this fit of egomania explains how someone can cast off the restraints of professional ethics in favor of one’s own political agenda when doing the hard and important work of reporting what is really happening in the country and its government.

News journalists defend an important element in America: They are to provide true, accurate, timely and important information to the people, so that they are properly informed and able to make intelligent decisions.

“The Journalists Creed” is a statement of “the principles, values and standards of journalists throughout the world,” as described by Fourth Estate, and is displayed in the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The Creed is the product of Walter Williams, the first dean of the Missouri School of Journalism in 1914.

It reads, in part: “I believe that the public journal is a public trust; that all connected with it are, to the full measure of their responsibility, trustees for the public; that acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is betrayal of this trust.”

The failures of news journalism have been termed “fake news” by the president. That includes which topics are presented or not, taking things out of context, exaggeration, and outright falsities.

The existence of “fake news” and the episode in the Brady Press Room last week are evidence of the waning of professionalism and the advancement of ego among the big names in news.

With television and now the Internet, the face of news journalism has changed. Network news personalities are sometimes viewed as stars, and some have egos to match their celebrity status.

Pruden weighs in on this aspect: “The real reporter is happy to answer to ‘reporter,’" he wrote, and “knows better than to try to make himself more important than he is by becoming part of the story.”

“Newspapermen never aspire to celebrity, even the cheesy celebrity accorded by television,” Pruden commented, “and are willing to abide rebuke and worse, even by a president, if that's what it takes to get the story.”

Tough questions are fair and expected from reporters in all areas of news media. What is not expected or acceptable is what happened that day.

CNN White House reporter Jim Acosta became not just part of the story, but its star, with his statement challenging Trump’s characterization of the alien caravan as an invasion. Making matters worse, he refused to cease and desist his flurry of questions as instructed by the president, who was trying to move on to other reporters.

As he kept shouting follow-ups after being dismissed by Trump, a White House intern, whose job is to get the microphone from one reporter and deliver it to the another reporter, found Acosta refusing to let her have it.

He, and others, as well, either forgot or have not learned that the White House person that is providing the information and answers to questions is in charge of the event, not the reporters. They are not above the rules of good conduct, even as they press for answers.

Freedom of the press is a critical element in our country and must not be infringed. That does not mean, however, that reporters and other news people can do anything they please without being called out for it and/or disciplined.

Continued breaches of the important duty of reporting news will bring about responses that journalists will not like. Therefore, some serious self-correction is advised, and the sooner, the better.

The economy’s strong performance has Trump enemies all flummoxed

Citing President Donald Trump’s “nativist fear” in the opening paragraph of an article in The New York Times titled “Republicans Have a Humming Economy to Tout, but Trump Rhetoric Muddies the Message,” writers Astead W. Herndon and Sydney Ember proceeded to analyze the economy of Trump’s second year.

The article does a passable job of showing the strength of the economy, and it fairly criticizes Trump’s penchant for careless or objectionable language and how it interferes with good news.

Here are some reminders of the economy’s strength:

* 250,000 jobs added in October: Hotels and restaurants added 42,000 jobs; health-care companies hired 36,000 workers; manufacturers filled 32,000 jobs; construction companies took on 32,000 workers

* Unemployment 3.7 percent

* Average Hourly Earnings have risen 3.1 percent over the last year

* Third quarter GDP +3.5 percent

However, Herndon’s and Ember’s comment, "President Trump’s blistering message of nativist fear has become the dominant theme of the campaign’s last days..." is an attention-getter.

“Nativist” clearly implies that Trump favors the interests of Americans, as if it is wrong for the leader of a country to favor that nation over others.

Adding the word “fear,” however, drives the article over the cliff. It charges Trump with being afraid of immigrants and for the country to allow people to immigrate here. That’s an interesting position for a man to hold who has an immigrant wife. It’s equally as foolish as the criticism that he is anti-Semitic, with a son-in-law who is Jewish and a daughter who married him who has adopted Judaism.

As Herndon and Ember are reporters, neither having psychology or psychiatry credentials, their analysis of the president is immediately thrown open to suspicion of reportorial bias, which, of course, is unheard of at The Times (cough, cough).

To any thinking person, the idea that we should at long last secure our borders and tighten up immigration policy to prevent gang members, murderers, drug dealers, child traffickers and other undesirables from getting into the country is a no-brainer.

Not content to go quietly into that good night like his predecessors have sensibly done, Barack Obama, the blessedly formerpresident, is making the rounds criticizing his successor.

Since Election Day 2016 when Trump was declared the winner, the economy has been doing great, and as time has passed that performance has only gotten better. But Obama claims to have started it all  “Where do you think that started?” he asked an audience.

Obama took office in January 2009, as the recession was winding down, officially ending in June. Called “The Great Recession,” the period of contraction lasted 18 months, less than half that of The Great Depression.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta called the recovery “atypical and very weak compared to other post World War II recoveries.” Obama’s policies were responsible for this.

After a recession the economy will eventually produce a weak recovery pretty much on its own, but needs help to prosper. Like a car out of gas at the top of a hill, it can roll toward the filling station on its own until it hits flat land. Then it needs help. Under Obama’s watch, he used the brake on the downhill roll, and didn’t push after that. And that is his basis for taking credit for today’s good economy.

What has transpired since Trump won the 2016 election had nothing to do with anything Obama did, because the results we see today came from doing the opposite. Remember Obama saying, “When somebody says  … that he’s going to bring all these jobs back. Well how exactly are you going to do that?” … “What magic wand do you have?”

Trump’s response: “Here, hold my coffee!”

Obama now defends the thousands of people traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. border, with the idea of busting through our border as they did in Guatemala and Mexico.

"Now the latest, they're trying to convince everybody to be afraid of a bunch of impoverished, malnourished refugees," Obama said, imitating a contestant in a stand-up comedy tryout.  “They’re telling you the existential threat to America is a bunch of poor refugees 1,000 miles away,” Obama said. “They’re even taking our brave troops away from their families for a political stunt at the border. And the men and women of our military deserve better than that.”

As poet Browning said (sort of), “How do I deceive thee? Let me count the ways.”

* Impoverished and mal-nourished? It’s no picnic, but people provide food along the way and often transportation, thanks to their financial backers.

* A serious threat? Yes. Existential? No. Obama grossly exaggerated.

* A bunch of poor refugees? Some of the 5,000–7,000 no doubt are; some, perhaps many, surely are not.

* Taking troops away from their family? Troops deploy; they are sent places, as Obama surely remembers from sending them to the border, and to Eastern Europe.

The Democrats’ desperation is palpable. They’ve resorted to threats, intimidation, exaggeration and untruths trying to save their party in today’s election, and to save the country from the good things that have occurred since that great Election Night in 2016.