MATT LAUER AND THE TOWN HALL WITH MR. TRUMP AND MS. CLINTON

MATT LAUER AND THE TOWN HALL WITH MR. TRUMP AND MS. CLINTON

So it looks like the presidential campaign has entered the last weeks and both candidates have their ways of facing the future. 

Ms. Clinton is more afraid of being indicted than of losing the election, or she would not have used a faulty memory as an excuse to avoid prosecution for security lapses.  A concussion and subsequent health problems would not have been mentioned in front of the voters, except out of desperation.

I did watch Matt Lauer’s Town Hall featuring Mr. Trump and Ms. Clinton.  I am not familiar with Mr. Lauer’s work, but this Town Hall was good, respectable work.  He does have a reputation to hold up and I think he did well towards that end during this program.  He did put Ms. Clinton on the hotseat when he asked he about all the pay for play scandals.  He also asked Mr. Trump if he really knew more than the generals, like he had said earlier.  Mr. Trump adroitly dodged the direct question but did deal with the dicey situation with the generals.  Maybe Mr. Trump does know more about Isis’ finances than the generals.

Ms. Clinton complained about lack of time to talk, but she attacked Mr. Trump six times after giving her word at the beginning that she would discuss the issues rather than her opponent.  I mean this woman made a promise on worldwide media and then broke it six times in the next thirty minutes.  Mr. Lauer had anticipated the attack dog problem and attempted to handle it by asking for a commitment from Ms. Clinton to discuss only her views on the issues at the outset.  She happily agreed then broke the agreement six times.  She can be counted on to be agreeable to whatever, then doing what she impulsively chooses to do. 

I thank Mr. Lauer for bringing this out. 

The media has been under fire lately.  I’ve seen stories of rampant bias ordered by the huge honcho owner and I’ve seen stories of reporters influencing the news with their own inclinations, whether real or paid for by special interests.  How about the one that the liberals had infiltrated the media with friends, associates and family members, exemplified by Chelsea’s $600,000 starting salary?  Ms. Kelly viciously attacks a Republican presidential candidate on the basis of what he used to do in show business and this is condoned in the media and she is temporarily elevated but like Humpty Dumpty is she destined to be.   Editorializing should always be identified instead of being embedded as fact.   

A $20,000,000 lawsuit settlement over sexual harassment and stories of the old casting couch still in use in the show business the news media has become.  Sleeping your way to the top was always an option, apparently.  No wonder the mission became flaunting legs and influence peddling, rather than reporting the news.

Whatever happened to the morality of the media?  Whatever happened to the old ideal that journalists were committed to the telling of the truth and the achievement of justice?  What happened to commitment to truth and justice by the media?  If the media cannot be trusted, then their influence is waning because people have other sources of news.  Remember that bias is a form of lying if you are being paid to spout it.  And due to the tremendous literacy rate in the USA, WE WILL SEE THE LIARS.

SO WHO IN THE MEDIA IS GOING TO SURVIVE THE COMING PURGE OF LIARS AND FOR SALE JOURNALISTS?  The journalists chosen to moderate the debates are going to be scrutinized very carefully by a very literate and alert population.  If the candidates are not treated fairly, we will see it and your careers will suffer as a result.  I hope they realize that their own careers are in jeopardy and that they are not in charge of the results of the debates, even if their purpose is to slant the coverage in favor of one candidate or the other.  Impartiality is the key if they want to keep their credibility.  I’m tired of left right games and I feel we deserve some impartiality from the news media around here.    

DONALD TRUMP AND THE WILL TO WIN!

Donald Trump and the Will to Win

So now after all the media and sore loser hooraw against the idea, Mr. Donald Trump is the elected presidential nominee for the Republican Party, duly chosen by the people with a majority of delegates far exceeding the required number for a win.

No way around it unless you are that cold eyed guy who used to be in the Sen. Ted Cruz campaign before Sen. Cruz fired him.  MSNBC quickly picked him up as an erstwhile commentator and now he was on the air advocating changing the Republican Convention rules to allow an ‘open’ vote on the first vote.  This way the nomination could be jerked away from Mr. Trump and gifted to someone more malleable towards the existing power structure.  And to hell with the Republican electorate who elected Mr. Trump. 

With so many delegates obligated to him by the massive vote for him, Donald Trump will officially become the nominee and the opportunity for new people to be heard is immense, as ‘party insiders’ lose their powerbase and are forced to more on to other endeavors. 

I like the populism and the surging knowledge levels among the people as the communication revolution sweeps the nation.  The population is less dominated by TV and alternative ideas flood the Internet.  The negative political media coverage of Mr. Trump was counteracted by the fact that Mr. Trump was already known in entertainment media and his reputation as a fair guy was established, and slanted negative stories did nothing to change the opinion of the electorate.   The political media attacks actually made them look bad because they were so obviously biased for other candidates.  Nobody likes unfairness, especially those who have so little defense against it.  And they vote too.

Get out the vote!  How often have I been told that in political meetings!  Now the Republican Vote is burgeoning due to Donald Trump and the Republicans should become in action what they are in fact.  Defeating Hillary Clinton is possible with party unity plus some Independents, some Bernie supporters, and anybody else who feels the present trend is not helping the nation meet the challenges of the future.  So many of us worked to get out the vote but Donald Trump is actually doing it and we can win in November.   

Donald Trump and The New Literacy

What a political week this has been!  This has been a rough primary season after seventeen candidates ran and the last candidate is now standing.  Not based on money or influence in the current hierarchy, not based on prior ‘political’ experience, and not based on what the media wants, or who the media employs, or who owns the media.  The handpicked candidates were knocked off early, leaving three renegades.

All I want to say about Senator Ted Cruz is that if he had campaigned like he quit the primary run by speaking to the hearts and minds of the people, he might still be in the race.  Governor Kasich’s  withdrawal speech brought tears to my eyes.   I have great respect for both for a valiant run and their courage.

This election was pure populism in action and the thrilling spectacle of the voters actually making up their own minds unfettered by the traditional methods of control used by the media and the DNC and the RNC, which is to limit the actual information available to the voters.  And of course, whomever poured the most money into the traditional advertising and the hiring of party ‘consultants’, and the hosting of ‘high level’ events for party honchos, and all the other hangers on who profit from campaigns feared a change of emphasis due to Donald Trump’s success without their assistance. 

I am a lifelong educator and I know that people are being taught to read and the new impetus to learn to read is no longer books and newspapers:  the new impetus to learn to read, follow directions and discern patterns is coming from electronics and computers and in many cases is already surpassing that of their elders as they gleefully experiment with the games and devices.  This wave of new literacy is surfed by those of us in the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs generation who have remained intensely interested in any new technology.  The Techie Trekkie Generation, maybe. 

This newly educated population is not necessarily academically credentialed, but are self-educated through electronic media, plus whatever they learned in school and on the street and from their family and peer group.  These people watch TV and they watch such as Game of Thrones and Justified and other happier shows as well, but these are not naïve rubes tuning in for the first time when they hear about stacked elections or they find out that the delegates elected in their state don’t match the will of the people as expressed in an election, and that ethics are secondary to ambition.  We knows it when we sees it. 

As Mr. Trump pointed out, the policies of the last sixteen years have resulted in relentless wars and it’s time for a real change, not a mere changing of the guard on old policies that have resulted in failure, no matter who is collecting the profit from it.  It is time for a new foreign policy focus, one that ensures the interests of the United States of America. 

Donald Trump Rally Tucson March 2016

The Donald Trump Rally in Tucson Saturday 19 March 2016

Mikki and I heard about the rally on Facebook and so decided to go down to the Tucson Convention Center to check it out.  We arrived at the parking lot about 12:30, saw a line going in so we paid our $10 to park and located parking places towards the back of the lot.  Mikki was pulling into a parking place in an area where there were several more, when we were startled by a woman screaming at us.  Mikki opened the window to hear her and evidently we were using ‘her’ parking place she had staked out.  I pointed to a space just opposite for her to use and Mikki pulled on into the space.  This woman screamed with her face all contorted that we would have smashed windows when we returned.  This was a white woman in her fifties in a beige PT Cruiser with a black convertible top.  Unbelievable!  We reported the incident when we walked by the ticket shack.  We wondered if we looked like Trump supporters and if that engendered the hostility.  We had no banners or signs or bumperstickers but I tend to get a little wary. 

So we hiked around the side of the convention center to the front door of the arena, where the front lot was filled with cars and chanting demonstrators who began marching alongside the line forming to get into the Trump event.  Maybe 12 feet separated the two lines.  The demonstrators/protestors were a mixed bag of adults rather than families, shouting at the tops of their voices so that the sound reverberated off the brick wall filling the air with so much noise that nobody could talk.  They carried signs like ‘dump Trump’ and then many signs like ‘fuck Trump’ and other expletives.  There were maybe about 100 protestors and probably more who were less active.  I started flashing the old peace sign or the even older victory sign and a woman about my age stuck her middle finger right in my face.  Obviously an ageing hippie who lost her peaceful way.  The protestors were crowding the entrance but we could still get through.  I heard that the protestors blocked off the entrance after we got in, denying the people who wanted to see Trump their civil rights to assemble and listen to a man exercising free speech.  It’s the old liberal way of taking rights away from those they disagree with.

The people waiting to see Donald Trump included many family groups, college students, and other adults of all ages.  I saw Veterans and the elderly and babies.   We took a seat close to an exit high up on the east side of the arena, which gave a good view of the event and the audience, if a bit on the small side.  I wished for binoculars.   The audience was admonished to treat protestors with respect and no violence and just wait for them to be ushered out of this private event.  I think that is the key.  The protestors can go to the event and listen and would be allowed to do so but if they became the event instead of the guy who paid for it, then they would be ejected. 

The man who was hammered offended an airman, always notoriously short tempered around here even in the good old days.  I’m not sure what offended the airman, but the protestor carried a sign with a Confederate flag across Trump’s face and his cohort was wearing a Klan outfit, which was swiftly discarded when the fight broke out.  Some people don’t like Klan shit and I guess this airman didn’t like it.  Or maybe the protestor threw an elbow first.   The sign was actually an unfair, untrue smear of a man’s character.  Those protestors must have a habit of showing up at private parties, taking them over and using them for their own purposes, which was to prevent freedom of speech and assembly.  I heard the airman was charged with a misdemeanor and released, which is SOP around here for that sort of thing. 

I applaud the Tucson Police Department and their patience in handling the whole rally.  Nobody was hurt and order was kept.  I heard by word of mouth that the protestors rushed the front doors in a futile attempt to thwart security and get inside, but they were discouraged.  I heard only two people were arrested. 

After listening to a soft rock concert as the people filtered in, we prayed for peace and did the pledge and a beautiful young woman sang a heartfelt national anthem to start off the show.  Former governor Jan Brewer, Treasurer and Trump Arizona campaign manager Jeff Dewit and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio spoke before Donald Trump took the stage.    He’s like a showman and a politician combined.  I don‘t know who provided the sound system, but it was superb, filling every corner of the arena with clear sound.  The crowd cheered and chanted USA USA and Trump Trump, a polite respectful crowd of about 5,000-6,000.  I noted many who did not participate but who politely listened.

Mr. Trump spoke for about an hour, touching on immigration, interest rates for savings, veterans’ care, trade deals and other economic topics.  He told the sneaky snake story while security was removing protestors with ‘fuck Trump’ signs, who were attempting to shout down Mr. Trump, which was difficult due to the excellent sound system.  Crank it up!

I saw CNNs Dana Bash describing the Tucson Trump rally as ‘violent’, which is a huge exaggeration.  If the other Trump rallies described at violent were violent like this one was, then CNN ought to be more circumspect in reporting.  That Bash woman overuses the same words like Isis attacks and Republicans attack each other, like it’s one and the same.  ‘Violence’ at Trump rallies is the same ‘violence’ committed by Isis???  Give us a break from this slanted, vicious news coverage. 

We watched as the rally broke up while more music played as the crowd disbursed peacefully.  We headed for the southside of the building.  It was amazing that all of the protestors were gone!  Thank you TPD and our new police chief.  We hiked back to the parking lot and found our vehicle unharmed, so we went home for a few drinks and TV.    

I wanted to go hear Bill Clinton on Sunday speaking just a few blocks away but had planned a family dinner party and could not go in favor of Easter egg dying with the grandkids.  More important.  I heard Bill Clinton raised a crowd of about 1,200 while Bernie Sanders attracted 4,000 and Donald Trump 5,000 – 6,000. 

But at the dinner party, I talked to a retired military couple who were interested in the rally and politics in general.  They seemed freaked out about Mr. Trump because he is vague and they want to know who his advisors are and his other policy stances which they think are lacking.  So today Mr. Trump released the names of consults on foreign affairs.  I’m sure we will hear more about it but I hope the news coverage is fair. 

I hope that is not too much to hope for.                                                                                -DP Niemi, Tucson