There is likely no subject more touchy or contentious today than abortion. Those who oppose abortion under any circumstance are passionate and zealous in their religious beliefs. Those who believe it a woman’s right to end a pregnancy even to the point of partial birth abortion near or at the end of nine months are just as passionate about preserving a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body, regardless.
The truth: no one likes abortion. One would have to be a little crazy to do so. What the issue comes down to is who is in charge. Is the state or a religion in charge or is a woman in charge. Can she decide what she will do with her body or is that choice to be one made by a law or religious beliefs of others.
Then we have complicating circumstances. What should be the case if a young girl is raped and becomes pregnant? I have read cases of girls as young as 12 being raped and becoming pregnant. Should she be forced to carry a pregnancy to term if that is not what she wants to do? Should she be forced to be an unwilling incubator? Oh, I know, many will not like that language, but that is the medical fact. And what about a 13, 14, or 15 year old or failed contraception or a time of temporary bad judgment?
Then we have the case of fertility clinics where hundreds of thousands of fertilized eggs, now embryos, are held in suspended animation in liquid nitrogen containers. They are frozen solid awaiting only implantation into the womb of a willing woman. What about these embryos that are each the size of a grain of sand? Conception has taken place, so how are these to be regarded? Does incinerating or otherwise disposing of these embryos when a couple does not want them constitute abortion? Seems it would if “life begins at conception”, as many contend.
And what about the 2/3rds to 3/4ths of all conceptions that are spontaneously aborted due to some genetic mishap? Who is responsible for these: God? What about the case of a major genetic mistake that does continue in the womb? What to do about that? These are circumstances people do not want to think about, but should.
There are no absolutes. The current law of the land says women have the right to make the decisions. Some of the most vocal of those who oppose this and say women do not have this right are, ironically, men. I wonder about that. They have absolutely no risk. I would be more inclined to listen to men if they, at the same time, would sign up to be responsible for the care of an unwanted baby from birth to adulthood. I don’t see that happening. It is all mouth.
I believe the anti-abortion and pro-choice sides could find common ground if they would. I believe agreement could be reached on legally allowing an abortion choice up to a limited time from conception; say a matter of days or weeks, not months, unless the life of the woman is at risk. This would be a position not liked by either side but one that moves from the absolutes than now exist and one I believe many would accept. Think about it.
Failing ACA
We hear the whaling and gnashing of teeth over what the Republicans are doing about health care insurance. The Democrats, liberal pundits, and liberal media are having a field day. What you do not hear is that Obamacare, Affordable Care Act (ACA) , was on a death spiral from the moment it was passed only by Congressional Democrats some seven years ago. We were told by the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Polosi, the bill had to pass before we could “see what was in it!”. What soon became crystal clear was the ACA was on a suicide mission.
From the very beginning, funding for the ACA was “funny money”. The insurance companies were assured not to lose money by the infusion of federal dollars through the back door. Premiums in the front door were not enough. Never were.
The solution: steal money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage backers in the United States. Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) had ongoing profits after recovery from the housing crisis around 2006-2008. The federal government had bailed Fannie and Freddie out from collapse with temporary loans of $187.5B in 2008 in the form of senior preferred stock with a 10% dividend designed to repay the US Treasury over a long period of time using that dividend. The “loans” to Fannie and Freddie had nothing to do with funding the ACA.
Both Fannie and Freddie are “Government Sponsored Entities” BUT are private corporations, not government corporations. Stock and bonds issued by both are sold into the private financial markets. Investors purchase these for private portfolios. Stock and bond values depend upon profits. The US Treasury became a temporary prop up much as was done in earlier years for the automobile industry.
But something happened in 2012. The Obama administration concocted a way to confiscate all profits from Fannie and Freddie indefinitely. The plan was to divert billions of dollars to pay essential Obamacare insurance subsidies that Congress had refused to permanently fund. The ACA has two pertinent sections: Sections 1401 and 1402. Section 1401 provided tax credits to make insurance premiums more affordable. This section was as added to a preexisting list of permanently-appropriated tax credits and refunds. Section 1402 reduced deductibles, co-pays, and other means of “cost sharing” by insurers. This section was not permanently appropriated and was to be funded annually by Congress. Remember, Congress is the only government entity that can authorize appropriations and that through the House of Representatives. They never funded Section 1402 (known as the “unfunded mandate”). Congress refused.
President Obama, through the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services, funded the ACA anyway by confiscating profits from Freddie and FNMA who earlier had been placed into a conservatorship in 2008 under the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This allowed taxpayer support for the bail out of Fannie and Freddie.
The problem: what Obama had initiated was un-Constitutional. Obama confiscated Fannie and Freddie profits without Constitutional authority. This was the finding of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Civil Action No 14-1967 (RMC). Without the hidden Fannie and Freddie profits in the back door, the ACA would collapse. Obama tried to skirt the Constitution.
He was caught.
Crass Colbert
President Harry S. Truman said, “When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.” CBS and Stephen Colbert have forgotten. What makes Colbert’s egregious and vulgar remarks directed toward our President even more revolting is that we are told his remarks were sanctioned by CBS management. In short, CBS unleashed its despicable henchman to do a hatch job on the office of the Presidency and Donald Trump, the holder of that office. They wanted to punish and threaten the President. In doing so, they went way beyond being purveyors of only fake news.
Many conservative television show hosts have defended Colbert’s right of free speech to say what he wants however disrespectful or even seditious his words may be. I would agree if Colbert was standing on a soapbox in some city park somewhere. I do not agree when he has the power of air time on a national television network, particularly when that network and Colbert say their words and actions were in retaliation for an abruptly terminated interview with President Trump when the CBS reporter, a friend of Colbert’s, became insulting and badgering. The President had had enough.
The Federal Communications Commission has authority over the airwaves in case you did not realize this. The FCC dictates all sorts of prohibitions and requirements over broadcasters in radio and television. There are certain words and images that are banned. They won’t, but the FCC should come down hard on CBS and Colbert. The line was more than crossed. Colbert should be removed and sent packing. He is not funny. He is disgusting.
Think what the case would have been if Colbert or someone like him would have concocted similar remarks about Barack Hussein Obama in his first couple of months in office as President; or even in his last months. The country would have been aflame. The streets would have been flooded with angry protesters. Colbert would have kept his job about 5 seconds.
But, I guess this only happens now when a politically conservative voice is scheduled to be heard. That is when the protesters/anarchist come out swinging to set fires, break windows, turn over cars, and hurt people. Colbert fits right in with this crowd. He cowardly fans the flames in the guise of comedy. His words over a national network are no less violent than those of protesters in the streets.
Shame on Colbert. Shame on CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and all who continue the barrage of slander against our President Donald Trump and the office of the Presidency. Donald Trump won the hearts and minds of the people in this country who really matter; the good hearted, kind, and honest folks who want the best for the United States of America and all of its citizens. He won the election for the Presidency.
Stephen Colbert and his ilk at CBS need to pack it up and move on. And those viewers who thought Colbert funny need to check their own values and thinking. It is time to change channels, permanently. Colbert says he has few, if any, regrets. If his attitude and behavior is accepted; the mantle of the Presidency, regardless of who may occupy the highest office in the United States of America, will be irreparably harmed. We all need to listen to President Harry S. Truman.
Bush's Tricks
[I just ran across a letter to the editor of the Kokomo Tribune I wrote years ago. I don’t know exactly when it was published. This one was about tricks pulled by the George W. Bush administration. The beat sure went on for years and through the 8 of Barack Obama. Thought I would reprint the letter here to show I am just as critical of Republican as Democrats. It is only with God’s Grace that we made it through to this point. Thank God for Trump! Now it is time for the Republican Congress to get off their dead asses and get this country moving again.]
Something smells fishy. In 2000, we had a presidential election decided by the Supreme Court. Seven of the nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents. That kind of smelled.
Now we learn from Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security chief, that the repeated raising of the color-coded terror alert during 2002 and 2003 was not his idea. In fact, Ridge said on May 10th that the directives to raise the level of alert came from the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council. You know, that is the group of folks that got the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq so correct. The master minds were Ashcroft, Mueller, Tenet and Rumsfeld. And, of course, the raising of the level of alert could only be done with the blessing of Mr. Bush.
Something smells here, too. In retrospect, I think it is a wonderful lesson about how to elect a president. How better than to keep the people off balance and afraid. One could not play on any more base concerns of people than the sense of security for self and family. This is yet one more feather in the cap of Mr. Bush and crew.
No Truth Told
The citizens of this country have been lied to or misled by Presidents and Congress for at least the past 24 years. These years include the presidencies of William Jefferson Clinton, George Walker Bush, and Barack Hussein Obama. It includes times when Democrats had total control of Congress and when Republicans did. It includes times when Congressional control was split between political parties. All are to blame. All lied or mislead to one degree or another.
The USA is in a mess. Now we have an “outsider” President who is trying to deal with the mess left from 24 years of lousy and many times completely incompetent or self serving governing. Too many in the “swamp” of Washington, DC, have been there to feather their own nests and those of their corporate or donor friends. We have a country that is nearly 20 trillion dollars in debt and growing by millions every minute. We have a country inundated with over 11 million illegal aliens with over 90 million of our own citizens out of the work force because they can not find jobs. We have millions that are underemployed.
We have a military expected to protect us from foreign threats using equipment and planes from as old as the 1960’s. At Grissom Air Force Base there is a shop where parts for air force tankers are hand fabricated because conventional repair parts are no longer available. We have 3 out of 58 brigades of warriors in combat readiness at a time when worldly threats abound. We have air planes that will not fly until parts are scavenged from air “grave yards” and museums.
Wages for the middle class have been stagnant for nearly two decades for those that can even find work. The “Elite” have taken care of themselves. Company workers at all levels that are older, experienced, and experts at what they do have been forced out, laid off or dumped in favor of younger, lower wage/salaried workers; many from such as the H1-B Visa immigrant crowd; not even US citizens.
We have lost 60,000 or more factories to foreign countries.
We have a health care system that is failing and will implode in the near future if not fixed or replaced.
We have been telling everyone they need to be college educated, then saddle graduates with unmanageable debt for those who can even find jobs in chosen fields.
We allow illegal aliens to drive on our highways; most without insurance. Some states like California grant drivers licenses. We allow illegal aliens to utilize tax supported social services such as food stamps and Medicaid and subsidized housing. We allow illegal aliens to drain food bank resources when we have US citizens who are hungry every day. We allow illegal aliens to hold jobs at low wages and take jobs away from citizens. We even allow illegal aliens to vote in some states. And, we flood the skilled job market with H1-B visa immigrants and require job displaced US citizens train their immigrant replacements whether those immigrants are to be residents or return to foreign countries taking the jobs with them. We ship jobs overseas to such as India, Pakistan, South Korea, and even China to find “cheaper” labor. For the same reasons, we build factories and ship jobs to Mexico.
We have been the ultimate suckers that build foreign nations at our own expense. It has been like a blood letting. Guess what; the patient is dying. The USA is on an unsustainable path. We have been the most giving, most welcoming, and generous people on the planet. We have allowed politicians and the main stream media to turn these virtues into self destruction. And anyone who dares to speak out that we are headed in the wrong, self destructive direction is labeled xenophobic, deplorable, racist, or worse.
What in the hell is wrong with us. The only way out of the MESS is for Americans to roll up our sleeves, come together, and get to work to create solutions that promote and protect OUR country, the United States of America. We must drop “Democrat” and “Republican” and “Liberal” and “Conservative”. We are all in the same boat. If we do not row together, we will sink together.
Nobody has told us the truth.
Metastasized Health Care
The Affordable Care Act, “ObamaCare”, is like a metastasized cancer with tentacles everywhere. It is on the way to killing the patient. The cure, if any is possible, is not an easy one as the Republicans in the House of Representatives have just learned.
What most do not know is that ex-President Barack Hussein Obama violated the Constitution in his attempt to prop up this catastrophic monster of Democrat legislation. In short, Obama robbed private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the two quasi-government corporations that back the mortgage industry. His administration concocted in 2012 a scheme to divert billions — that is BILLIONS — of dollars from Fannie and Freddy to pay essential Obamacare insurance subsidies that Congress had refused to fund. This diversion of funds was known as the “Net Worth Sweep” of 2012.
In Civil Action No. 14-1967 (RMC) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia under then Judge Rosemary M Collyer, now on the FISA court, the United States House of Representatives as plaintiff filed against Sylvia M. Burwell, Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services et.al.. The claim by the Congress was that the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and of the Treasury violated Article I, Section 9, cl. 7 of the Constitution when they spent public monies on ObamaCare that were not appropriated by Congress. This was money from the “Sweep” of Fannie and Freddy.
In 2008, when the economy went into recession over the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, Congress passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, HERA, to save Fannie and Freddie by a federal bailout that placed the two Government Sponsored Entities, GSEs, into government conservatorship. The US Treasury recapitalized Fannie and Freddy by issuing to the GSEs $187.5 billion in senior preferred stock with a 10% dividend designed to repay the U.S. Treasury over time. Recovered funds from Fannie and Freddie were to go toward repaying the United States of America Treasury. They were not authorized to be used in ways to be determined by ex-President Barack Hussein Obama.
The court agreed. In a ruling dated May 12th, 2016, the court granted summary judgment to the House of Representatives and enjoined any further reimbursements until a valid appropriation is in place.
The dispute involved two sections of the Affordable Care Act, Obama Care: Sections 1401 and 1402. Section 1401 provides tax credits to make insurance premiums more affordable. This was funded by Congress. Section 1402 reduces deductibles, co-pays, and other means of “cost sharing” by insurers. This was not funded by Congress. This was Judge Collyer’s conclusion and the basis of her order. She concluded the statutory language was clear. No funds not properly appropriated by Congress were to fund reimbursements due to insurers. Obama had done so in violation of law.
Under the Constitution, Congress passes all federal laws in this country. The powers vested in Congress include sole authority to adopt laws that authorize the expenditure of public monies and laws that appropriate those monies. Apparently, the Constitutional lawyer that ex-President Barack Hussein Obama claimed to be cannot read.
The Sedition House
Place: The Sedition House. Primary Occupants: the threesome of ex-President Barack Hussein Obama, ex-First Lady Michelle Obama, and Valerie Jarrett. Goal: the take down of President Donald J. Trump and his administration. Means: wire-tapping, harassment, intimidation, disruption, agitation, placement of moles in intelligence agencies and Justice Department and other departments, innuendo, delay, lies, and paid “protesters”.
Ex-President Barack Hussein Obama has allies. They include Senate Minority Leader Chuckie Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi along with such as Representatives Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, John Lewis, Andre Carson, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Senators “Pocahontas” Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, Debbie Stabenow, and Cory Booker.
Webster Dictionary defines SEDITION as “incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority”. Sound familiar? Ex-President Barrack Hussein Obama, we now know, salted upper level/difficult to fire positions in many federal agencies with his loyalists only days before his term as President ended. Is there any wonder there is a continuous leaking sieve of sensitive and sometimes classified information to the left-wing media and never-Trumpers.
We know, too, that ex-President Barrack Obama from his Sedition House is directing the training of paid “protestors” numbering in the tens of thousands. These agitators/protestors are charged with disrupting any event that is in support of our United States of America President, Donald Trump. Recent events in Berkeley, California, are blatant evidence. People were hurt.
And what about the Congress? From the outside, it appears Minority Leader Senator Chuckie Schumer has more power in the Senate than does the Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. Schumer and his ilk have successfully delayed beyond delay the approval of not only President Trump Cabinet Secretaries, but dozens of those under the Secretaries that must have Senate approval. McConnell appears to be either impotent or incompetent. He is letting the Democrats get away with about everything but murder. Harry Reid, as despicable as he was, ran the Senate with an iron hand. McConnell is some puff ball.
Over in the House of Representatives we have Majority Leader Paul Ryan. Need we say more. The Republican House of Representatives has had a decade to get ready to lead. They have clearly sat on their hands or just run their mouths in criticism of the ex-President Barrack Hussein Obama administration and not done much of a damn thing else. Why were they not ready to lead? Maybe they and their Democrat buddies were just there to pad their own pockets and be a part of the swamp. There sure is no convincing evidence otherwise.
President Donald Trump has a huge fight on his hands. The government and future of the United States of America is at stake. He is being asked to conduct this fight with one hand tied behind his back. It is time for Republican leaders in the Congress to get off their butts, get the confirmations of all needed done, and get on with passing the legislation required to get the country moving again….. And do what is required to isolate the Sedition House. Those of us in “fly-over” country are getting impatient.
Democrats Put USA in Danger
Democrats and their allies are putting the United States of America in serious danger. Their tactics of delay, demagoguery, and disruption of the function of the Executive Branch of our federal government put the American people on the front line as targets for harm and maybe even death. No one knows what the delay in closing immigration and travel from seven of the world’s worst hotbeds of Islamic radical terrorism to this country has done. One can only imagine the clerics of ISIS who preach jihad have smiles from ear to ear about how stupid Democrats are. As of now, the immigration flood gates are open. It is the height of naivete to believe that will not be fully exploited. Maybe it will take another domestic catastrophe to fully awaken the public and put a stop to the insanity. Homeland Security Secretary Kelly said we will not know anything is wrong until it “just goes BOOM”.
The law is crystal clear. The President of the United States has the power to stop immigration from anywhere and for any reason. The law is as follows: “Whenever the president finds that the entry of any aliens or any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, [the president] may by proclamation and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or non-immigrants or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate,” reads the relevant statute.
Yet we have a Washington state federal court judge who has decided he knows best. He has blocked the President’s executive order to stop immigration temporarily from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. Surely the President knows more about the risks of doing nothing over that of a single Federal judge, Judge James Robart.
Then we have the District Court of Appeals in California. That court has had more reversals than any in the country when decisions have been pushed up to the Supreme Court. And all of this plays out on the west coast of the country in states that voted for Hillary Clinton for President and have such as Congressional representation as Representative Maxine Waters (D) who thinks Russia is about to invade Korea and Representative Nancy Polosi (D) who thinks President Bush still holds office. Senile?
The antics of Democrats in the US Senate are not just political theater. They are acts of delay and subterfuge bordering on treasonous. The United States of America needs a full Presidential cabinet to properly function. Donald J. Trump as the Republican nominee won the office of the Presidency. The majority of both houses of Congress are held by Republicans as are the majority of governorships and legislative bodies of the 50 states. The voters have chosen. It is past time for Democrats to cease the delays… delays…. DELAYS. The acts of even not showing up for hearings or votes tell the tale of a Party that deserves to be ostracized and shunned. This goes for paid “protesters” and perpetrators of fake news: many of the main stream media.
There was a recent meeting of Democrat large donors and supporters in Florida sponsored by David Brock, the founder of Media Matters. They are determined to undermine the Trump administration with everything they have. This includes an army of paid agitators, legislative tactics, lawsuits to tie up courts, even impeachment of President Trump, and on and on. The people cannot let this happen. We must fight back by exposing all of this to the light of day. This exposure includes actions of many in the mass media who have become propagandists rather than journalists. The goal is to hurt President Trump in any way possible. It makes no difference if the American people are put in danger. The Democrat Party and its allies are willing to gamble with your life. The president is not.
In Indiana, we have one Democrat US Senator, Joe Donnelly, and one Republican, Todd Young . In the House of Representatives, Indiana has 9 representatives of which only 2 are Democrats, Andre Carson and Peter Visclosky. The Senate is the hold up in getting the administration staffed with a full Presidential cabinet. Donnelly voted against Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State, against Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General and against Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education.
Carson and Visclosky are not vulnerable, but Senator Joe Donnelly is. His Senatorial seat is up for election in November 2018. The State of Indiana voters went heavily for President Donald Trump, elected Senator Todd Young (R) over former Senator Evan Bayh (D) who the voters saw through completely, and elected 7 Republican Representatives verses 2 Democrats. The two Democrats represent a part of inner city Indianapolis and the district closest to Chicago in Northwest Indiana. No surprise.
It is time for Indiana’s one Democrat senator to remove himself completely from the “Hate Trump Train” and get on the “American Train”. It is time for Democrats to accept the results of an election and stop the objections and Kabuki theater. The president and the country deserve a full, functional cabinet. Donnelly needs to show up and vote “yes” for cabinet nominees. If he does not, the voters should remember come 2018.
In the meanwhile….we pray for the best.
Pantsuit Sorrows
Yesterday I happened to be at the Indiana University Kokomo campus for a short visit. I picked up a copy of the December 5th “Correspondent” newspaper to read. Interesting until I came to the piece by Caitlyn Laughner headlined, “Broken hearts of a pantsuit nation”.
I had a problem from sentence one. Clearly, Ms. Laughner does not understand the Constitution of the United States and the process by which a President is elected. It is called the Electoral College, not the popular vote. The framers of the Constitution established a system to protect the country from being dominated by population centers. A similar structure is reflected in the make up of the US Congress. Take a look at the election results on the electoral map. The system works and has for over 200 years.
Ms. Laughner’s statement she is a “Bernie babe” says a great deal. The Senator is a socialist by his own admission. Perhaps what attracts Ms. Laughner the most of all to Sanders were the freebies he proposed; in particular “free” college for all. The voters who pay taxes and therefore, the bill for the freebies did not go for this and other proposals and positions that were completely unrealistic. Sanders was defeated in the Democrat primary with the help of deception, deceit, and dirty tricks at the highest level of the Democrat Party and the Clinton campaign. “Crooked Hillary” is about the kindest thing that could have been said.
Then Laughner goes on with her diatribe against President Donald Trump blaming him for all sorts of woes she names. This was December 5th, well before Trump was sworn in, had any authority, and had taken any action. Maybe she should take a deep breath for a while. The world is not coming to an end. The voters spoke. The system worked. Now it is time to support the country, not whine and cry about the defeat of the pantsuit candidate.
Trump EPA Nominee
[Open letter to Senators Joe Donnelly and Todd Young]
Senator Joe Donnelly &
Senator Todd Young
I believe President-Elect Donald Trump has made many good choices for nominees for the Cabinet to come. However, I find I have at this point some concern over the choice of Mr. Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA appears to have become bloated and overreaching over the decades and probably needs to be trimmed back to conform to its role as defined by law. However, we must have clean air, clean water, and healthy soil; so, the EPA must be strong and independent as it carries out its responsibilities. Without a healthy and clean environment, nothing else will really matter in the long run.
So, it is my hope that you will carefully examine Scott Pruitt to see if he really is the best choice to lead the EPA into the future.
I hold the health of the environment in a special place. I believe concern and care for the environment should not and must not be political. Decisions need to be grounded in science and fact, not political nonsense and ignorance. We have a long way to go in this regard.
Thank you for your consideration.