Lying His Way to the White House
Disasters have traditionally caused Americans and their leaders to set aside partisan differences and pull together in the common cause of healing. But Donald Trump has now done away with that norm. On the campaign circuit, he is using the 
devastation of Hurricane Helene to advance only his own purposes, absent of any concern for the miseries that have befallen the people of hardest hit western North Carolina. He tells his audiences,
“This is the worst response to a storm or a catastrophe or a hurricane that we’ve ever seen ever…They’re not getting water, they’re not getting anything.”
The Biden administration has “left Americans to drown” in North Carolina and other states, per Trump.
All of this is a total fabrication. Trump has no knowledge or interest in what has actually happened on the ground.
“He really lacks empathy on a very basic level, to care about the suffering of other people”, was Kamala Harris’s reaction, when she appeared on ABC’s “The View”.
”It is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who would consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people to the point that those desperate people would not receive the aid to which they are entitled.”
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the falsehoods are dissuading survivors from seeking help and hurting morale among responders. Trump slanders the 10,000 brought in from other states who have been here for two weeks working non-stop (unlike Trump, your correspondent is in Hendersonville, just south of Asheville, where power was restored a few days ago by crews in from Missouri). About Trump's lies Criswell told reporters, “It is absolutely the worst I have ever seen”. The misinformation has hit a level “that I’ve never seen before.”
Trump immediately claimed that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was out of money.
“Kamala spent all her FEMA money – billions of dollars – on housing for illegal migrants…and now they have no money “
Untrue, but former Marine turned Trump sycophant, JD Vance, has no inhibitions about spreading the same lie, that FEMA has been "deployed repeatedly to deal with Kamala Harris’s wide-open border and the migrant invasion" and is short on funds.
”Focusing… Read More »
Republicans Making Afghanistan Major Campaign Issue
Needing a campaign issue, the Trump campaign is making Biden’s calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan a major issue by attempting to shift the blame to Vice President Kamala Harris. "Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world", Trump intoned. JD Vance made Harris the commander in chief of the military in 2021 when he told an Erie, Pa., audience that Harris can "go to hell" for falling "asleep at the wheel" and having "those 13 Americans lose their lives." Congress joined in. Having waited three years so his Benghazi-like show trial would be just before the election, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul has subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify about the Afghanistan pullout.
fiasco leading to tragedyWe have not a word of defense for Biden's catastrophic mishandling of the withdrawal; we’ve tacked on contemporaneous articles below as reminders of that – proof, if you like. They are filled with outrage and are in no need of revision.
Children hold Taliban flags as they celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan.
But Trump makes no acknowledgement of his own responsibility. As you will find in these articles and here, it was Trump who made the decision to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan – even bypassing and undercutting the Afghan government by dealing directly with the Taliban. The U.S. signed a peace agreement with them at the end of February, 2020, in Doha, Qatar, which provided for the removal of all U.S. and other NATO troops by May 1, 2021, in exchange for a pledge only that the Taliban would keep al-Qaeda out of areas under Taliban control.
As this page commented then, "There is a fundamental absurdity to a negotiated settlement that requires trusting the Taliban" yet Trump… Read More »
III. War with China: Could America Survive the Trauma?
The 3rd and final installment of our series on going to war against China. Part I (below on our front page) compared the assets the U.S. and China could bring to the fight. Part II (also there) explored how China would invade Taiwan and the likely results. In this segment we look at what happens to the U.S.
Naval and ground exercises, especially with allied forces, are essential for working out communication and coordinated movement, but they don't serve to predict what will happen when up against an actual enemy. For that, military strategists and planners turn to war games in which blue team U.S. and allied nations square off against red team foes.
Two years ago, the Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies conducted a weekslong series of 24 war games against 
China's sailors "manning the rail" as ship enters port.
China. Each began with a different opening scenario and ran for seven hours to represent the first three weeks of war in which China attempts an amphibious landing on Taiwan.
The scenarios led to different results but the difference in all cases was the degree of devastation which all sides suffered. “If war breaks out, everyone who participates is a loser—China, Taiwan, the U.S., Japan—because they will see massive attrition on both sides,” said retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, and a participant in the war games.
Except in a scenario where Taiwan is left to fend for itself, China is defeated in most games. They attack American bases in Japan and on Guam while landing troops on Taiwan to seize the island’s southern third (the capital Taipei is at the northern tip), but the U.S. breaks… Read More »
II. What Would War With China Look Like?
President Xi Jinping has made it clear that China's conquest of the island nation Taiwan is "unstoppable" and has instructed his military to be ready to invade three years from now. He intends the annexation of Taiwan to be his legacy.
President Joe Biden has dropped our deliberately vague "strategic ambiguity" policy and has four times said the U.S. will "defend" — not just assist, as with supplying weapons — but defend Taiwan. He may soon be replaced, but we don't know what Donald Trump would do.
Dark clouds loom on the horizon, and yet, as in the title of Part I — "Focused on Ukraine and Israel, the U.S. Neglects the China Threat" — far too little attention is being paid to a cataclysmic storm approaching just three years out — or possibly less.
We'd better wake up.
I. Our Focus Elsewhere, the U.S. Neglects the China Threat
China's sailors and their ship on review.
has expanded more rapidly in the past 30 years than any armed force in history. “When I look at the military China is building, it is not a general-purpose military,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall III. “It is designed around the goal of being able to take Taiwan and keep the U.S. out.” Chinese leader Xi Jinping has set a deadline of 2027 for the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan,… Read More »
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the campaign
America in Trouble: Trump Showing Heightened Levels of Incoherence
The media pays little attention to what Trump is saying Sep 7 2024
For months leading up to President Biden's stepping aside as candidate for re-election, liberal commentators on the left voiced their anguish and anger over the disparate treatment of Trump's and Biden's misspeaks. Biden's made news, constantly cited as indicators of cognitive decline. Trump's miscues were just Trump being Trump.
In June, The Wall Street Journal ran a front page story leading to a full broadsheet page on Biden's failing mental acuity titled "Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping". They were not wrong; the infamous debate would bear them out. But the paper has taken no such notice of Trump's disoriented mind.
The New York Times ran a steady output of articles pointing on Biden's, witness these titles this year:
Feb. 14: The Biden Problem Democrats Can No Longer Ignore
Jul. 2: Biden's Lapses Have Increased, According to Some Insiders
Jul. 5: The Struggles of President Biden and the Truth About Aging
Jul. 22: Biden's Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common
When the search that brought up these articles was repeated with the only change being Trump's name substituted for Biden's, nothing came up.
With Biden out of the race, somewhat more attention has been paid to Trump's utterances. He had mixed up candidate rival Nikki Haley with former house Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seemed to think he was running against Barack Obama rather than Biden. At his rallies, he speaks of "The Late, Great Hannibal Lecter", a fictional serial killing who eats his victims; contemplates whether he would prefer to die from a shark or a boat battery's electricity; thinks it a good idea to have football coaches and race car drivers “at the table” during military meetings. “Let me use these guys to guide…
Read More »
For months leading up to President Biden's stepping aside as candidate for re-election, liberal commentators on the left voiced their anguish and anger over the disparate treatment of Trump's and Biden's misspeaks. Biden's made news, constantly cited as indicators of cognitive decline. Trump's miscues were just Trump being Trump.
In June, The Wall Street Journal ran a front page story leading to a full broadsheet page on Biden's failing mental acuity titled "Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping". They were not wrong; the infamous debate would bear them out. But the paper has taken no such notice of Trump's disoriented mind.
The New York Times ran a steady output of articles pointing on Biden's, witness these titles this year:
Feb. 14: The Biden Problem Democrats Can No Longer Ignore
Jul. 2: Biden's Lapses Have Increased, According to Some Insiders
Jul. 5: The Struggles of President Biden and the Truth About Aging
Jul. 22: Biden's Lapses Are Said to Be Increasingly Common
When the search that brought up these articles was repeated with the only change being Trump's name substituted for Biden's, nothing came up.
With Biden out of the race, somewhat more attention has been paid to Trump's utterances. He had mixed up candidate rival Nikki Haley with former house Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seemed to think he was running against Barack Obama rather than Biden. At his rallies, he speaks of "The Late, Great Hannibal Lecter", a fictional serial killing who eats his victims; contemplates whether he would prefer to die from a shark or a boat battery's electricity; thinks it a good idea to have football coaches and race car drivers “at the table” during military meetings. “Let me use these guys to guide… Read More »
corruption
Did Trump Accept a $10 Million Bribe from Egypt’s Dictator?
Aug 16 2024
A lengthy investigative report in the first week of August by The Washington Post digs deeply into a secret criminal investigation that began early in 2017 when the CIA informed the Justice Department that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi sought to send money to Trump to boost his prospects of winning the presidency.
The Post tracks what became of that investigation, saying that they reviewed thousands of pages of government records, sealed court records, and interviews with over two dozen people. We can as well wonder what became of their story in today’s news. Overwhelmed by the hoorah over Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, what should cause outrage — the possibility that Trump as a candidate for election accepted money from a foreign source in violation of federal law — has completely disappeared. Their report ran to 5,300 words; we’ve summarized in 1,600. It reads like a thriller.
bag men
Five days before Trump became president in January 2017, a bank in Cairo honored a request from an organization linked to the
Egyptian intelligence service to withdraw $10 million in U.S. $100 bills, The Post reports. The bills were to be loaded into two bags that in total weighed some 200 pounds. Four men then came to carry them off.
Federal investigators did not learn of the Cairo withdrawal until early 2019. Before that, there was only the CIA tip that Sisi was interested in a Trump buy-in with no knowledge of an actual transaction. The Justice Department passed on this intelligence to the Mueller investigators to see what might be found, thinking there might be some parallel with the Russian election interference that Mueller and company were charged with probing.
The Mueller team learned that in mid-September, with the 2016 election two months away, Trump had met with Sisi behind…
Read More »
A lengthy investigative report in the first week of August by The Washington Post digs deeply into a secret criminal investigation that began early in 2017 when the CIA informed the Justice Department that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi sought to send money to Trump to boost his prospects of winning the presidency.
The Post tracks what became of that investigation, saying that they reviewed thousands of pages of government records, sealed court records, and interviews with over two dozen people. We can as well wonder what became of their story in today’s news. Overwhelmed by the hoorah over Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, what should cause outrage — the possibility that Trump as a candidate for election accepted money from a foreign source in violation of federal law — has completely disappeared. Their report ran to 5,300 words; we’ve summarized in 1,600. It reads like a thriller.
bag menFive days before Trump became president in January 2017, a bank in Cairo honored a request from an organization linked to the Egyptian intelligence service to withdraw $10 million in U.S. $100 bills, The Post reports. The bills were to be loaded into two bags that in total weighed some 200 pounds. Four men then came to carry them off.
Federal investigators did not learn of the Cairo withdrawal until early 2019. Before that, there was only the CIA tip that Sisi was interested in a Trump buy-in with no knowledge of an actual transaction. The Justice Department passed on this intelligence to the Mueller investigators to see what might be found, thinking there might be some parallel with the Russian election interference that Mueller and company were charged with probing.
The Mueller team learned that in mid-September, with the 2016 election two months away, Trump had met with Sisi behind… Read More »
governing
Things You May Not Know About Project 2025
Jul 19 2024
Project 2025’s blueprint for what Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts has called the “second revolution” divides the 920-page document by section, and chapters within that cover the government departments. It's an exhausting slog to plow through.
What emerges, though, are certain themes that pervade throughout and show what the foundation and its other task force organizations are really after. Conservatives want the entire government to be purged of any trace of the left-wing ideologies they so thoroughly loathe.
an end to pamper culture
The left sees the populist right marching inexorably to autocracy and the end of democracy. The right sees the left as taking over the country with a noxious culture that has polluted the nation’s traditional values. They decry the frailty of microaggressions, trigger warnings, pronouns, and the soft coddling of safe spaces at colleges where the offended can be comforted with teddy bears. They are outraged that students are taught — or so 
they claim – critical race theory which says that our culture and laws are shot through with racism and instead want that a sanitized, uplifting version of American history be taught, as in their 1776 project ("Trump's Parting Advice? We Need a Patriotic Education"). These grievances all roll up into the catchall of three letters — D.E.I. – diversity, equity, inclusion. A theme that repeats across Project 2025, formally titled "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise", is that DEI must be expunged from the whole of government.
In the chapter on healthcare, Roger Severino, director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human…
Read More »
Project 2025’s blueprint for what Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts has called the “second revolution” divides the 920-page document by section, and chapters within that cover the government departments. It's an exhausting slog to plow through.
What emerges, though, are certain themes that pervade throughout and show what the foundation and its other task force organizations are really after. Conservatives want the entire government to be purged of any trace of the left-wing ideologies they so thoroughly loathe.
an end to pamper culture
The left sees the populist right marching inexorably to autocracy and the end of democracy. The right sees the left as taking over the country with a noxious culture that has polluted the nation’s traditional values. They decry the frailty of microaggressions, trigger warnings, pronouns, and the soft coddling of safe spaces at colleges where the offended can be comforted with teddy bears. They are outraged that students are taught — or so
they claim – critical race theory which says that our culture and laws are shot through with racism and instead want that a sanitized, uplifting version of American history be taught, as in their 1776 project ("Trump's Parting Advice? We Need a Patriotic Education"). These grievances all roll up into the catchall of three letters — D.E.I. – diversity, equity, inclusion. A theme that repeats across Project 2025, formally titled "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise", is that DEI must be expunged from the whole of government.
In the chapter on healthcare, Roger Severino, director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human… Read More »