Showing posts with label #Convention. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Convention. Show all posts

Sunday, June 26, 2016

British exit CIA’s EU Criminal Enterprise for Independence Americans Remain in Bondage




The people in the United Kingdom have spoken and they have opted for their freedom from the bondage of the CIA creation called the European Union.  America is not so lucky we remain in bondage.  The European Union was a CIA creation devised after President Truman formed the CIA with the purpose of destroying national sovereignty.  From David Stockman:


               Excerpt:


The “European Movement,” which was and still is the “grassroots” organization that relentlessly pushed for the creation of a European super-state, was financed to the tune of $1 million a year by the “American Committee for a United Europe” (ACUE), which was founded by Allen Dulles …. who would become a CIA’s director…


Covert US financial support to the European federalist movement never amounted to “less than half” of the various groups’ budgets. The money was funneled through the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other private conduits…


The ACUE agitated for the Marshall Plan – a giant serving of globaloney that funneled billions of American taxpayer dollars to postwar Europe –   sponsoring speaking tours by pro-unity European politicians and cultural figures, and putting direct pressure on Congress to release the funds. Radio programs, print media, and all forms of mass communication were utilized – at taxpayers’ expense – to push the “European idea.”


Indeed, the American sponsors of this “European” project directed every aspect of the pro-unity Astro-turf “movement…”  “Papers show that it treated some of the EU’s ‘founding fathers’ as hired hands, and actively prevented them finding alternative funding that would have broken reliance on Washington.”


All of this ancient history should give us a new perspective on current events. When thousands of demonstrators showed up in the streets of Kiev waving EU flags, and demanding the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, there was nothing spontaneous about it. The “deep state” covert agencies of the Western powers were in it up to their necks, of that we can be sure…


The fact of the matter is that it is far easier for Washington to control Europe with one central authority at the reins than it is dealing with dozens of separate sovereignties. Indeed, the very idea of national sovereignty as the foundation of international relations is something the empire-builders of the Beltway, and their bag-men in the capitals of Europe, would like to do away with…


The globalist idea is a central canon of the War Party. For if national borders are to be erased – and the very concept of national sovereignty relegated to the dust heap of history – then the job of justifying Washington’s wars is made much easier.


That is the crux of the matter, without borders and national identity wars are made easier.  The European Union is a pawn to subjugate the member states’ citizens to hideous austerity and allow the pillaging of their wealth and natural resources.  That is what makes the Brexit so earth shattering and Donald Trump understands this.  From Express U.K.




Excerpt:


The UK has taken back their country: Trump congratulates Britain over 'great' Brexit vote


US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has congratulated the people of Britain for taking back its country after the momentous Leave vote but says he does not see Scotland voting for independence.  The billionaire said "it is a great thing" because UK have "taken back their country" as he touched down at his Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland following Britain's decision to leave the European Union.


He arrived in his "Trump" emblazoned helicopter at the Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire to officially open the revamped resort he bought in 2014, just an hour after Prime Minister David Cameron sensationally announced his decision to stand down in October…


He said Obama had been "bold" by endorsing the EU - a mistake which led to this morning's result…  "I think a lot of people don't like him and I think if he had not said it I think you're result might have been different."  He added: "He got involved, I don't know if that was through a friendship with David Cameron.  "It could have been. I understand friendship and I can understand why he did it, but I think it is something that he shouldn't have done.  "It's not his country, it's not his part of the world…


"People are angry all over the world. They're angry over borders, they're angry over people coming into the country and taking over and nobody even knows who they are.  "They're angry about many, many things in the UK, the US and many other places.”  "This will not be the last."


He said UK divisions "will heal" as "it is a great place" adding: "I said this was going to happen and I think it is a great thing.  "Basically, they took back their country. That's a great thing.  "I think we're doing very well in the United States also, and it is essentially the same thing that is happening in the United States.


Trump is right of course, the people of the world are very angry and don’t trust the oligarchs who have seized control of their governments.  That is what the Brexit vote was about, not xenophobia that the corporate media monopoly is pushing.  That is how they divide people call them racists if they “vote the wrong way”, i.e. against the status quo.  The world is sick of Washington’s wars.  From Sputnik News:


Excerpt:


Information continues to come in about the Brexit vote. A member of the British Army said that 90% of the lads in his unit voted to leave.


They voted exit because they do not believe they should be involved in Washington’s wars. He said that his unit agreed that the wars are dictated by Washington, via Brussels, and not by the British people.  He also said that that the soldiers were “taking their own pen” to the ballot box, because “they only use pencils at the polls and they could be rubbed out and changed.”


Those British lads were wise to take their own pens to the ballot box, their elections have been rigged just like the American elections are rigged.  But this time they used paper ballots so Washington’s puppet Cameron couldn’t steal the election.  From OpEd News:


Excerpt:


What's the Big Lesson of the UK 'Brexit' Vote for us in the US? It Was Accomplished with Paper Ballots


The decision by a majority of UK voters to reject membership in the European Union in Wednesday's hotly-contested referendum has been a devastating defeat for the corporatist domination of the European political and economic scene. It throws the corporate duopoly in the UK into turmoil, and also has the EU bureaucrats and the banking elite in Brussels and the financial capitals of Europe in a panic, lest other countries' voters, as in Spain and Italy, or even France and the Netherlands, decide to follow suit.


And the reason the opponents of UK membership in the EU were able to win against all that powerful opposition, has, in no small part, to do with the fact that all the voting was done on paper ballots.  Compare that to the US, where voting, for the vast majority of people, is done on machines, in many cases electronic machines that leave no paper trail of individual votes, or even of vote totals per machine…


The lesson of Britain's 'Brexit' referendum, like the hotly contested presidential election I witnessed and covered in Taiwan in 2004, both of which contests were conducted using paper ballots, and the latter which was subjected to a recount that returned an almost identical result after tons of paper and millions of ballots were painstakingly inspected and hand-counted all over again, is that democracy can only work if voting is scrupulously honest and absolutely verifiable.


Americans cannot break out of the Wall Street bondage unless they return to paper ballots.  After the American government was overthrown in 2000 congress passed the Help America Vote (the right way) Act that codified into law the electronic vote tallying machines that are privately owned.  But the corruption in our voting process doesn’t stop there.  From Fortune:



Excerpt:


Wall Street Won't Let Elizabeth Warren Be Hillary Clinton's Vice President


Democratic Wall Street donors are reportedly warning Hillary Clinton not to choose Elizabeth Warren as her running mate.  The Massachusetts senator has been one of the most outspoken figures against the banking industry since the 2008 financial crisis, and donors tell Politico that if Warren is the pick for vice president, it could really hurt Clinton’s donations.


One Democratic donor said putting Warren on the ticket could drive Clinton’s entire Wall Street base away. Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, says that could be a huge problem for her. “Things are so volatile now with all of the outside groups that all it can take is pissing off one billionaire on Wall Street to make it difficult….”


Screw them, Hillary this campaign is not about how much money you can raise, all that money is a negative.  Get the money out of our elections, look at Donald Trump he beat 16 candidates heavily financed by billionaires.  Hillary 2016 is braindead, get rid of your high paid advisors, you are running the worst campaign I have ever seen.  From CNN:


Excerpt:


Trump's campaign dwarfed by Clinton's


Through the end of last month, the period covered by the most recent FEC filings, Trump’s campaign spending was less than a third of Clinton’s ($57 million to $182 million) and Trump had assembled a staff about one-tenth the size of hers (70 employees to 732), and spent less on offices (Trump last month paid $101,000 in rent vs. $328,000 for Clinton), the analysis found…


He did little to assemble the trappings of a traditional campaign during a chaotic primary in which he dispatched 16 rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, many of whom ran more traditional, and expensive, campaigns.


The $57 million Trump had spent through the end of April is only slightly more than the $54 million spent by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who dropped out of the race more than two months ago, and it’s far less than the $81 million spent by Ted Cruz. The Texas senator assembled a sophisticated microtargeting machine that helped keep him in the race until he dropped out this month, after being trounced by Trump in the Indiana primary.


Last month, as Trump was struggling to put away Cruz, Trump’s campaign spent $2.7 million on advertising, while Clinton spent $12 million on digital and broadcast media buys as she sought to put away her rival for the Democratic nomination Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.


Yet Clinton’s campaign appeared to be preparing for the general election, spending far less than Sanders, whose $207 million in total spending marks him as the cycle’s biggest spender. He continued spending briskly in April, dropping $38.6 million, compared to $23.9 million by Clinton. Sanders spent almost twice as much as Clinton on media and payroll (despite a slightly smaller staff), as well as more on online advertising and direct mail.


And speaking of braindead, Paul Ryan the puppet of billionaire oligarch’s is again pimping the oligarch’s plan to privatize social security and raise the age for Medicare in his “Better Way” plan.  When he speaks he speaks to his constituents, “the haves and the have mores.”  From The Atlantic:


Excerpt:


Paul Ryan Has a Plan, But No One Is Listening


Donald Trump’s oafish hegemony over the news cycle leaves little room for the House speaker’s earnest pleas to talk about congressional policy.


How do you put a crowd of congressional interns to sleep? Gather them in the cool, quiet serenity of the Capitol’s Statuary Hall and have them sit for an hour while a parade of House members delivers more or less the same speech over and over and over again… at Thursday’s rollout of the fourth piece of Speaker Paul Ryan’s “A Better Way” agenda—this one on how Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority—did not actually doze off.


But as the event ground on, many visibly zoned out or turned their attentions to texting or perusing Snapchat. At one point, the young woman next to me (one of a trio of interns from Representative Joe Wilson’s office) stopped bothering to glance up from her phone when it came time to applaud; she’d simply clap in the general direction of the podium, eyes glued to the screen balanced on her lap…


Thursday, with way too many lawmakers on hand to sing the same basic notes: The Constitution rocks, unelected bureaucrats are bad, and executive overreach is ruining America. Only the examples of regulatory outrage varied, based on each speaker’s home district: Keith Rothfus of Pennsylvania’s 12th denounced the burdens on coal plants; Doug Collins of Georgia’s 9th talked about poultry-farming regulations; Bradley Byrne of Alabama’s 1st bemoaned the tightening of red-snapper season; French Hill of Arkansas’s 2nd shredded the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Rule; and so on… 


As the logic goes in Congress: Why have just three or four lawmakers explain a proposal when a dozen or more will happily hold forth for the cameras?  Which guarantees redundancy and tedium, but makes perfect sense when you consider that Ryan’s entire “A Better Way” project is a grand exercise in messaging that, in addition to positioning his conference as the party of ideas, is also meant to give individual members a chance to impress the voters back home with all the deep policy thinking they’ve done.


Unbelievably braindead but that is what you get when big money is allowed to buy our politicians.  Dumb asses.  Donald Trump gets it, he is a political genius planning his trip to Scotland to coincide with the Brexit vote.  Absolutely brilliant, landing his “Trump helicopter” as the Brexit vote was announced.  But in America this is how the billionaire-owned corporate press is reporting on Trump. From the Washington Whore Post:


Excerpt:


In new poll, support for Trump has plunged, giving Clinton a double-digit lead


Support for Donald Trump has plunged as he has alienated fellow Republicans and large majorities of voters overall in the course of a month of self-inflicted controversies, propelling Democrat Hillary Clinton to a double-digit lead nationally in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.


The survey finds sweeping unease with the presumptive Republican nominee’s candidacy — from his incendiary rhetoric and values to his handling of both terrorism and his own business — foreshadowing that the November election could be a referendum on Trump more than anything else.


Roughly two in three Americans say they think Trump is unqualified to lead the nation; are anxious about the idea of him as president; believe his comments about women, minorities and Muslims show an unfair bias; and see his attacks on a federal judge because of his Mexican American heritage as racist.


Nearly one-third of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say Trump is unqualified for office, and 18 percent say he does not represent their beliefs, exposing deep fissures in the GOP base as Trump struggles to unite conservatives going into next month’s national convention in Cleveland.


The lobotomized Washington Post is one of the worst, most biased, anti-Trump rags on the market.  Owned by right-wing billionaire Jeff Bezos, they have advocated for non-natural born American citizens being eligible for the American Presidency and backed Canadian TedCruz so that tripe is not surprising.  So let’s see what Larry Johnson has to say at his blog “No Quarter.”



Excerpt:


BREXIT–A Harbinger of a Trump Victory?


What the voters did to the establishment and the elite narrative in the U.K. is comparable to what voters in the United States are likely to do to the establishment here when they vote for Trump. The voters in the U.K were angry at the European Union passing and trying to enforce laws on the average person in the U.K. that, from the standpoint of those average souls, was unjust interference in their liberty. There also was anger at stagnating economic conditions and the favoritism being shown towards immigrants at the expense of British nationals.


The vote to leave the E.U. was seen as an act of defiance against the internationalists and the status quo. We are seeing this same phenomena in the United States and, just like the elite in the U.K., our own power brokers are ignoring the looming Tsunami of voter anger.


If you watched the coverage of the aftermath of this voting massacre of the status quo you would have felt you were on the threshold of Dante’s Inferno because the pundits were screaming, “Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” While there is likely to be short term economic turmoil with currencies fluctuating up and down, this probably will not be the financial disaster that the elite are predicting, at least in the U.K.


The short term effect in the United States is that U.S. dollar will be further strengthened. That means we will pay less for foreign oil but the effective price of things made in the United States will increase. That means fewer exports and a damper on manufacturing here. On the other hand, our financial institutions will have ample supplies of dollars and, in theory, should be able to make a lot of loans which could in turn have a stimulative effect on the economy.


The real effect is the political fallout. This marks the beginning of the end of the European Union. Time to short that bad boy. France and Spain will likely be the next to exit and, once different countries start heading for the political exit, the E.U. will fall apart.


Thursday also was a horrible day for Barack Obama. Mr. Nobel Prize’s exhortations for U.K. voters to stick with the E.U. were rebuffed. Although the media sought to portray the vote outcome as “razor thin,” at 52% win normally, in the U.S., is described as a significant, major victory. In 2012 Obama won 51.1% of the vote compared to Romney’s 47.2% and I do not remember anyone on the Democrat side insisting that Obama eked out a narrow win…


The rejection of the status quo in the U.K. is comparable to the rejection of the status quo here in the United States. And Hillary Clinton is the status quo candidate, which is why she will not win in November barring a complete collapse of Trump.


The political left loves “Globalization” and the myth that everyone is the same. In truth the Globalization push favors the large corporate and financial interests at the expense of the poor and the middle class. That inequity has sparked this 21st Century revolt and is a major force driving the success of the Trump.


Thank you Britain, you have shaken off your chains and sternly rebuked the CIA’s European Union criminal enterprise and have shown Americans the way to freedom.  The only question now is, will America demand that their votes be counted in November or will they remain in bondage?



By Patricia Baeten

Monday, June 20, 2016

Donald Trump returns the Republican Party to Teddy Roosevelt as Conservatives Self Destruct



Get the vapors, the GOP is headed for the fainting couches.  Donald Trump is guilty of being Donald Trump, the antithesis of the modern day Republican Party.  The conservative takeover of the Republican Party began after the election of Taft who overturned the gains made by Presidents McKinley and President Theodore Roosevelt.  Today’s Republicans represent massive deregulation of corporations and banks, open boarders, despoiling the environment for profit, privatizing federal lands, endless wars of imperialistic aggression, destruction of workers’ rights, media monopolies, repression of human rights and destruction of society as we know it. 



Donald Trump, espousing the policies of President Theodore Roosevelt has overwhelmingly won the vote of the American people in the Republican primary.  Teddy Roosevelt laid out his domestic plan to combat poverty in 1910 called “The Square Deal.” 


Excerpt:


The Square Deal was President Theodore Roosevelt's domestic program. He explained in 1910:


When I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good service.


His policies reflected three basic ideas: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection. These three demands are often referred to as the "three C's" of Roosevelt's Square Deal. Thus, it aimed at helping middle class citizens and involved attacking plutocracy and bad trusts while at the same time protecting business from the most extreme demands of organized labor. 


A progressive Republican, Roosevelt believed in government action to mitigate social evils, and as president he in 1908 denounced "the representatives of predatory wealth” as guilty of “all forms of iniquity from the oppression of wage workers to unfair and unwholesome methods of crushing competition, and to defrauding the public by stock-jobbing and the manipulation of securities…."


Roosevelt gave high priority to environmental conservation, and safeguarded millions of acres of wilderness from commercial exploitation…  Roosevelt believed that nature existed to benefit humanity….  In the area of labor legislation, Roosevelt called for limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes (injunctions were a powerful weapon that mostly helped business).


He wanted an employee liability law for industrial injuries (pre-empting state laws). He called for an eight-hour law for federal employees. In other areas he also sought a postal savings system (to provide competition for local banks), and, finally, campaign reform laws.


During his second term, Roosevelt tried to extend his Square Deal further, but was blocked by conservative Republicans in Congress.



Paul Ryan on behalf of his corporate conservative overlords has demanded that Donald Trump discard those policies and get in lockstep with the conservative agenda that was written by the oligarchs who control the conservative GOP called “The Better Way”.  From Think Progress: 


Excerpt:


Paul Ryan Is Pretty Sure Welfare Recipients Are Not Working Hard Enough


Three months after apologizing for calling poor people “takers,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled his plan to make life harder for them.


Ryan delivered remarks about the plan, entitled A Better Way, at a drug rehab center in Anacostia, an impoverished and heavily black neighborhood of Washington, D.C., as part of a broader rollout of House Republican priorities this week.  Ryan has become the leading voice in Republican lawmakers’ crusade against welfare programs. In the past, he’s blamed poverty on a “culture problem” in “inner cities,” where he says black men are “not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.”


He has also argued that marriage is the cure for poverty, not government programs, and refused to allow any actual poor people testify at his hearings on poverty…  Ryan’s previous poverty plans have targeted the federal safety net …  The proposal asserts that “for low-income families, it may not always pay to work,” echoing a longtime conservative theory that poor people choose not to get jobs because it’s more lucrative to rely on government benefits. 


Consistent with that philosophy, the plan includes a bevy of policies designed to make it much harder for people in need to access federal programs: tougher work requirements for food stamps, housing aid, or cash welfare… cutting Social Security; eliminating funding for early childhood education lifeline Head Start; sealing off tax credits from some low-income families; and further allowing states to cut certain programs as they see fit…  The end game, judging by Ryan's stated agenda over the years, is to cut trillions of dollars from a safety net that's already borne heavy blows in the face of increased need in the post-financial crisis era… 


Donald Trump’s stand on immigration is aligned with the Teddy Roosevelt.  According to Donald J. Trump’s campaign website:


Excerpt:


IMMIGRATION REFORM THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN


The three core principles of Donald J. Trump's immigration plan


When politicians talk about “immigration reform” they mean: amnesty, cheap labor and open borders. The Schumer-Rubio immigration bill was nothing more than a giveaway to the corporate patrons who run both parties.


Real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first – not wealthy globetrotting donors. We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the needs of other nations ahead of our own. That must change. Here are the three core principles of real immigration reform:


1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.


2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.


3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.


Teddy Roosevelt’s immigration policy according to Snopes:


Excerpt:


Sole Loyalty


Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.


"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...


There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."


Theodore Roosevelt 1907


The Conservative Republican claims that Canadian Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen and eligible to run for President are laughable.  Here is the Conservative stand on immigration.  From Breitbart:


Excerpt:


Paul Ryan Portrays Mass Immigration As GOP Principle


House Speaker Paul Ryan apparently wants the GOP to keep importing foreign workers — even though the party’s actual voters are instead backing Donald Trump and his promise of immigration restrictions.  The little-noticed reveal came in a Thursday interview on CNN, when Ryan declared that “this is the party of [President Abraham] Lincoln and [President Ronald] Reagan and Jack Kemp.”


O.K. everyone knows Lincoln and Reagan — but who is Kemp? He’s a former football star, House Representative, cabinet secretary, and failed vice-presidential candidate in 1996.  The key point is that Ryan worked for Kemp in the 1990s… He seems to have persuaded Ryan that the U.S. economy could provide middle-class jobs to endless waves of striving unskilled immigrants, who would then back GOP candidates as they campaigned for smaller government, spending cuts and capital gains rollbacks…


“Americans and immigrants share the same values of work, family and opportunity,” Kemp wrote in 2006.”There is no reason to fear the newcomers arriving on our shores today. If anything, they will energize what is best about our country,” he wrote, while insisting the Americans need a “robust annual flow required to keep our economy growing.”


Kemp’s immigration principles may have been great for Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce — but a disaster for blue-collar Americans…  So now Trump is heading towards the 2016 nomination largely because voters picked Trump’s promise of a strong border wall to stop illegals, plus a pause in legal immigration, plus cutbacks in guest-workers, plus a ban against further immigration of Islamic adherents, with their murderous doctrine of jihad and their Islamic scriptures that repeatedly urge hatred towards Christians and Jews, women and gays, secularists, apostates and modernizers….


Unsurprisingly, foreign-borne workers now comprise one-sixth of America’s workforce, leaving many millions of Americans unemployed or underemployed.  Ryan’s own actions also show he’s still entranced by Kemp’s pro-immigration vision.  In 2014, for example, his secretly drafted legislation to bring in more cheap foreign workers was derailed as the last moment when GOP voters defeated GOP majority Leader Eric Cantor in his primary.


In December 2015, he backed a House plan that now allow companies to bring in an extra 200,000 cheap foreign workers to take Americans’ jobs in kitchens and hotels, golf courses and resorts. His plan bumped up the annual inflow of guest-workers to roughly 900,000. 



President Teddy Roosevelt believed in conservation, that the American land belonged to all Americans.  The conservation legacy of Theodore Roosevelt is found in the 230 million acres of public lands he helped establish during his presidency. Much of that land - 150 million acres - was set aside as national forests.


Excerpt:


Theodore Roosevelt's Philosophy of Conservation


"Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use... Moreover, I believe that the natural resources must be used for the benefit of all our people, and not monopolized for the benefit of the few...


Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us, and training them into a better race to inhabit the land and pass it on. Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of insuring the safety and continuance of the nation."


NATIONAL PARKS


"All the great natural resources which are vital to the welfare of the whole people should be kept either in the hands or under the control of the whole people."


NATIONAL MONUMENTS


"In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. Keep this great wonder of nature as it is. You cannot improve it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."


NATIONAL GAME PRESERVES


"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."


             BIRDS


"Birds should be saved for utilitarian reasons; and, moreover, they should be saved because of reasons unconnected with dollars and cents. A grove of giant redwoods or sequoias should be kept just as we keep a great and beautiful cathedral. The extermination of the passenger-pigeon meant that mankind was just so much poorer....


And to lose the chance to see frigate-birds soaring in circles above the storm, or a file of pelicans winging their way homeward across the crimson afterglow of the sunset, or a myriad of terns flashing in the bright light of midday as they hover in a shifting maze above the beach-why, the loss is like the loss of a gallery of the masterpieces of the artists of old time."


This is the Conservative agenda on National Parks and public land from Politicus:


Excerpt:


Koch Brothers Are Ramping Up To Eliminate National Parks And Seize Federal Lands


A favorite target of Koch-Republicans is the National Park system that Republicans have so drastically underfunded that a Koch and ExxonMobil-funded organization is calling for an end to national parks and privatization of all federally-owned land. The argument being put forward by the executive director of Koch fossil fuel organization, Reed Watson, is that since the National Park system is hurting for funding, the only option is to first stop creating national parks and then cheaply sell off those already in existence. Why?


Because according to the Koch brothers’ organization calling to sell off all public land and national parks, “True conservation is taking care of the land and water you already have; we can protect it properly…”  Republicans across the nation contend that no state, federal, or local government has any right to own any land within America’s borders…


The Kochs and ExxonMobil have already committed PERC to publicly call for an end to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) because it is one of America’s most successful parks programs.  LWCF is not in financial jeopardy yet because Republicans have failed to end its budget-neutral status.  LWCF is budget-neutral as a result of using funds from offshore oil and gas development fees to fund projects across the country at the federal, state and local levels.


The LWCF program supports some of nation’s “most iconic” national parks such as Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. It has also created tens-of-thousands of outdoor projects the general public uses regularly such as local parks and baseball diamonds in all 50 states.



Donald Trump has said that America is broken and our politicians no longer represent the people.  When he looked at what the politicians have done to our country, he felt he had to run.  President Teddy Roosevelt felt much the same way when he saw what the conservatives under his successor President Taft had done to America.  From APStudy.org:


Excerpt:


In 1908, President Teddy Roosevelt could have easily carried his burgeoning popularity to a sweeping victory in the presidential election, but in 1904 he made an impulsive promise not to seek a second elected term. However, he did not intend to completely relinquish control, so he handpicked a successor. Howard Taft, the 350-pound Secretary of War, was chosen as the Republican candidate for 1908…


The first major blow to the Progressives during Taft’s administration was the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909... the House of Representatives passed a bill that moderately restricted tariffs, but their legislation was severely modified when it reached the Senate. 


Radical Senators, led by Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, tacked on hundreds of revisions that effectively raised tariffs on almost all products. Taft eventually signed the bill and declared it “the best bill that the Republican Party ever passed.” This action dumbfounded Progressives and marked the beginning of an internal struggle for control of the Republican Party.


Another issue that caused dissension among Republicans was Taft’s handling of conservation issues…  Taft was a dedicated conservationist and he devoted extensive resources to the protection of the environment. However, most of his progress was undone by his handling of the Ballinger-Pinchot dispute. Pinchot, the leader of the Department of Forestry and a well-liked ally of Roosevelt, attacked Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger for how he handled public lands.


Ballinger opened up thousands of acres of public lands in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska for private use and this angered many Progressives. Pinchot was openly critical of Ballinger, and in 1910 Taft responded by firing Pinchot for insubordination. This infuriated much of the public as well as the legions of political players who were still fiercely loyal to Roosevelt…


In early 1912, Roosevelt triumphantly returned and announced himself as a challenger for the Republican presidential nomination. Roosevelt and his followers, embracing “New Nationalism,” began to furiously campaign for the nomination. However, as a result of their late start and Taft’s ability as incumbent to control the convention, they were unable to secure the delegates necessary to win the Republican candidacy. Not one to admit defeat, Roosevelt formed the “Bull Moose” Party and vowed to enter the race as a third-party candidate…


When Teddy Roosevelt was running for President on the Bull Moose Party ticket against Taft and Woodrow Wilson he was shot by a would be assassin.  From Wikipedia:


Excerpt:


John Flammang Schrank (March 5, 1876 – September 15, 1943) was a resident of New York, best known for his attempt to assassinate former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt on October 14, 1912 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


The 1912 Presidential election campaign was characterised by a serious split in the Republican Party between the conservative wing under President William Howard Taft and the liberal/reform wing under ex-President Theodore Roosevelt. After a bitter confrontation at the Republican Convention, Taft won renomination.


Roosevelt led a bolt of his followers, who held a convention and nominated him for President on the ticket of the Progressive Party, nicknamed the "Bull Moose Party." Taft and his supporters attacked Roosevelt for being power-hungry, and seeking to break the tradition that U.S. Presidents only serve up to two terms in office.


On October 14, 1912, while Theodore Roosevelt was campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Schrank attempted to assassinate him.    It is unclear when Schrank's interest in domestic politics grew to the point that he would attempt to kill Roosevelt. It is known that he was an opponent of a sitting President's ability to seek a third term in office


Both Taft and Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson suspended their own campaigning until Roosevelt recovered and resumed his. Roosevelt made only two more speeches in the campaign. Although Roosevelt won more votes and electoral votes than Taft, Wilson bested both of them and won the Presidency.


Wilson won the Presidency with only 41% of the vote.  Will history repeat itself?  From CNN:


Excerpt:


First on CNN: Priebus probes state GOP leaders over anti-Trump push


(CNN)Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has been quietly having conversations with state party leaders to discuss the latest push by convention delegates to nominate anyone other than Donald Trump.   Priebus has spoken with GOP party chairmen in multiple states in recent days in part to get a better sense of how large the anti-Trump faction is among their convention delegations…


One source said Priebus' ultimate goal is unclear. But some anti-Trump forces are hoping to garner enough support to press the convention's rules committee to alter the rules governing the convention and open a path for a different candidate.  The conversations between Priebus and state leaders come as frustration and mistrust continues to linger between the RNC and the Trump campaign…


The conservative wing of the Republican Party that seized power from the progressive wing of Teddy Roosevelt is trying to thwart the will of the American people.  The American people have soundly rejected the conservative agenda, they are sick of it and disgusted by it.  The Republican voters want to rid themselves of the “tainted love” offered by Paul Ryan and his conservative agenda.  Will history repeat itself?




By Patricia Baeten