Being Presidential

Emailed to Aiken Standard for Publication  2330 16 Jan, 2018

Who Is Qualified To Define Presidential

Certainly not me nor you as well.

The sanity of anyone voluntarily running for the office of President of the US should be immediately questioned.

Acting presidential is just that acting.  There is no president who can claim to have a clue about what acting presidential actually meant for him. Would you forgive all that you hold against President Thomas Jefferson for being responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. A decision that resulted in the creation of 14 new states. Land from New Orleans to the Pacific. The Purchase was populated with 90,000 individuals half of whom were slaves. Jefferson could never be called anything but presidential.

Harry Truman, President by default and viewed as a country bumpkin, had the guts to drop two nuclear weapons on Japan to end WW II. Would you forgive the "awe shucks" attitude for the most difficult decision ever made by any US President. During his time as president, the public and press thought him far from presidential.

Being presidential, at its root, has nothing to do with outward appearances and oratory, although it helps.  What makes you presidential is what you do to improve the conditions of the American people.  If you are crude, rude and unattractive in public then your life will be more difficult.  However, if you fulfill your promises you made to the nation during your campaign then I, for one, am not at all curious if you appeared presidential while you were actually being presidential.  If your constant reversals and confusion caused by your Tweets puts you into holding the winning hand then, by all means.

Our President is completely unpredictable.  Never was there a more important personal characteristic for this job.  All want to second guess the President.  It's a cottage industry.    It is a reason why he is so universally hated by the diplomats, progressives and "allies".  They never know what he is going to do and that is to his liking for deal making. Like all successful men, the President expects the people who work for him to make his agenda happen and to be loyal.  Fail either of these test and you are history with the appropriate language.  Not fast enough in my judgment.

By the way, the language used when these "lawmakers" are not on hot mikes makes this shithole word look tame.  Did that word cause you personal angst? Were you embarrassed to read it.  Did you see a face of the racist Gus Fitch or was it a place for storage of offal.   Go to the movies much?  If you were to call me a racist for its use, I would profoundly think you a hypocrite.  Of course, I believe all those talking heads who spew the bile of racism are also guilty of the sin of hypocrisy.

The face of hypocrisy is politically correct in its diversity: "We will lead from the rear", "What difference does it make.", "I call them my five white men.", "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon".  But, best of all: https://www.snopes.com/oprah-winfrey-old-white-people-have-to-die/

The Rush To Crush the First Amendment

The Rush to Crush the First Amendment

Published in the Aiken Standard

August 21,2017

I have no tolerance for any organization or individual, regardless of their names, who preach the unconstitutional treatment of any persons residing in the US.  That should be enough to understand my position on any cult that fits the "unconstitutional treatment" group.

Evelyn Beatrice Hall said it best.  "I disapprove of what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it."  This is the essence of the right to free speech contained in the First Amendment.

Out of the violence of Charlottesville, VA not a word is heard about the rights of the white supremacist to assemble and speak in compliance with a permit that was originally approved by local authorities.  No matter how hateful their speech, absent the "Fire" in a crowded theatre scenario, they have a Constitutional right to express themselves.

But like dozens of riots across the nation over the past two years, counter demonstrators who attend from all over the US but seldom from the state in which the demonstration is held, arrive with masks covering their faces with clubs and other weapons to assault what would, otherwise, have been a peaceful demonstration.

These people are the source of the violence.  Yet no one is looking to arrest or indict these counter demonstrators.  No one in the justice department is looking to charge counter demonstrators with a variety of assault charges.  Fox news showed a board/club with exposed screws protruding from the end of the club.  Not once did I hear or view a source who would swear that this club was taken from the hands of one of the demonstrators and not from a counter demonstrator.

Press and political language has been over the top irresponsible.  I include the President in this group.  It is this rush to judgment, this use of language that can not be taken back, this weakness to face the uncontrolled mobs of the politicians and the entire fourth estate that make us vulnerable.

It is this crisis mode flamed by a repetitious press that causes us to forget our and their Constitutional rights.  Of such events are governments over thrown and replaced with tyrants.  Allow the law to give due process to the driver of the car and if found guilty of the charges, expose him to the maximum sentences available.  Keep in mind, the more the TV stations beat this subject to death, the more like minded domestic terrorist will be radicalized and their ranks swollen from all the attention.

Have faith in your Constitution.  If these wacko's from the most outlying fringes of our society had been allowed to speak, three Americans would be alive today and 20 injured would not have gone to hospital and the white supremacist dogma would not have been spread all over the world.  Recall, seldom does a fanatic give up his/her fanaticism based on some hyped-up news program or the blah, blah, blah of some vote scalping politician.