Ken's Comments

President Trump has begun using tariffs as a tool to bring other countries to the negotiating table to remove barriers to trade erected by other countries and to encourage them to purchase more American products.  Trump did this in his typical dramatic fashion, giving rise to dramatic reactions.  Wall Street reacted with significant losses for a few days and remains unsettled, financial experts have questioned the approach, and Democrats have seized on this to criticize Trump for his actions. Before looking further at the whining and complaining, let's remember that President Trump paused the tariffs for all countries that offered to negotiate - basically everyone but China.  People are wailing about tariffs that may never go into effect if the negotiations with other countries are successful. As for the whiners and complainers, if I could play the violin, I'd pull one out and play a sad song and then you I have no sympathy.  You've profited while America has suffere...

 In 2008, as a candidate for the office of President, Senator Barack Obama became embroiled in a controversy.  The pastor at the church he and his family attended, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, offered a sermon with strong, negative views about the United States of America.  The sermon expressed points that align directly with what is called "Critical Race Theory" today.   Opponents of then Senator Obama, both his political opponents and opponents in the media, suggested that because Senator Obama and his family attended that Church for a long while the Senator must share the views expressed by Reverend Wright. Obama gave a speech in response.  In that speech he started out expressing hope for America.  That hope was based on his "unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people.  But it also comes from my own American story."  He then recounted that story - "son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas" raised...

I was reading the reaction of the Democrat candidates for President to the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and the events of the last few days dramatically brought out the differences between Democrats and President Trump. To set the stage for the comparison.  In recent days, an American working as a contractor was killed in attacks on American bases in Iraq.  The Americans retaliated.  Then the American Embassy in Baghdad was attacked by a group backed by Iranians.  Finally yesterday, a US drone strike attacked a convoy and killed General Soleimani and Iranian militia leaders. Let's compare the events in Iraq prior to the attack on General Soleimani versus what happened in Benghazi during the Obama/Biden/Clinton watch. In Benghazi, the American Embassy was overrun, the American Ambassador was killed.  A second American government office was attacked and only escaped being overrun because of the actions of contractors and government offici...

The low bar being set by the Democrats with the Articles of Impeachment are a danger to our Republic.  The first Article is that the President "abused" his power.  The second charges the President with Obstructing Congress.[1]  But the reasoning and justification for these charges is so weak they threaten to set a low bar, opening the door for either party who lost an election to bring charges to undo the will of the people by removing a President. Article 1 is titled "Abuse of Power."  The Article states "Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election."[1]  Put aside the question of whether the facts support this charge, which is debatable, let's see another example of how this low standard could be applied.  Consider that in 2012, President Obama personally asked the Russian President to "give him 'space' until after the...

A very well thought out statement by Mark Levin on the Media's criticism of President Trump: SEAN HANNITY: Joining us now, he is the host of CRTV's Levin TV. The host of Life, Liberty, and Levin. Wow. You had big ratings this weekend right here on the Fox News Channel. I call him the great one, Mark Levin. We missed you a couple of weeks and we're glad you are back, my friend. Let's talk the election. MARK LEVIN: Thank you. Well, you know, it's time for we the people to stand up for ourselves, for our families, for our faith, for our country, for our party, and for our president. You know, the media had interposed themselves in this election, Sean. We're actually fighting the media. We're fighting the Democrats, we're fighting academia, we're fighting Hollywood and all the rest. And 64 percent of the voters say the press has done more to divide the country. More people think the press has divided the country than ...

It really grits my buns when people are intellectually dishonest when arguing an issue.  Take for example the Opinion piece in the NY Times titled "Trump Takes Away Fundamental Health Care for Women" written by the Chief Medical Officer for Planned Parenthood, Raegan McDonald-Mosley.  Ms. McDonald-Mosley* starts her article with an insult, saying the "Trump Administration revealed its disdain for women," with the Administration's decision to modify the rules adopted to implement the Affordable Care Act's provision to cover birth control.  Really?  So that is the only possible reason for what the Trump Administration did?  The fact that the original rule was overturned by the Supreme Court and further Court cases are pending has nothing to do with it? Next we move to the real whopper - Ms. McDonald-Mosley claims "Birth control is not controversial."  Really?  Are you kidding me?  Contraceptives are highly controversial in many respects.  M...

Interesting article from Vox.com, a pro-Democrat online publication about how Betsy DeVos (Donald Trump's Secretary of Education) is erasing President Obama's education legacy. (Link at the bottom of this article)   They list a variety of things the Trump Administration is doing to undo policies adopted during the Obama era.  Their perspective is that these things are all negative.  Permit me to offer a contrary point of view.  Let's go point by point:      The Obama Administration issued a rule saying Title IX, a law passed decades ago, protects transgender kids.  The article starts with a horror story about how a transgender child was treated and then laments that the Trump Administration is rolling back the Obama rule.  Then we have a quote from a Transgender advocate saying the message of the Trump Administration is that discrimination against trans people is okay.   But wait, the article points out that the Obama r...

Recently a gentleman named Ken Dilanian wrote a piece that appeared on the NBC news website.  The title was "What is unmasking and did Susan Rice do anything wrong. http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/what-unmasking-did-susan-rice-do-anything-wrong-n742476 Here is the email I sent to Mr. Dilanian after reading the article. Mr. Dilanian: I heard a reference to unmasking and did a search to see what the news was and came across your article. I have to say I'm amazed by what you wrote. You either completely missed the big picture or you deliberately picked one event out of pile and seized on a small point related to that event and were using it to distract people from the bigger picture. The bigger picture clearly is that the revelation about Susan Rice unmasking data is the latest in a series of statements and revelations that suggests we have to investigate more deeply into President Trump's claim that President Obama's Administration was doing something w...

Part 1 of a multi-article post.  This is looking back.  The next will look at alternatives for the future. What went right 1. About 20 Million more people have coverage thanks to Obamacare 2. No more preexisting exclusions What is debatable or uncertain 3. More young people have coverage on their parents policy President Obama touted this during his re-election The counter-argument is that proponents of the law were counting on young people buying individual coverage to offset the cost of older or sicker people entering the market.  How do you reconcile that goal with giving young people coverage for free under their parents' policy?  Is it any surprise that people are complaining now that rates are going up because not enough healthy people bought coverage?  And who are the healthiest people you know?  Those aged 18 to 26 who can now stay on their parents' coverage. 4. Obamacare will make people healthier - on this point the NY Times s...

After posting the case against Hillary, folks challenged me to be positive and make the Case FOR Trump.  Challenge accepted. Let me start by saying I'm not a Trump Fan.  Of the 17 people who ran for the Republican nomination, Trump was about #13 on the list.  That said, we have four candidates for President and we have to vote for one.  So here goes, the case for Trump. 0. Repealing Obamacare - forgot this on the original list and it's way to important to put at the bottom and I'm too lazy to renumber.  Donald Trump will work to repeal Obamacare.  The program is starting to crater.  Premiums are growing at rates of almost 20%.  Less people are enrolling.  Unexpecting citizens are getting hit with surprise tax penalties even if they do have coverage. Hillary Clinton will not repeal Obamacare. Advantage Trump. 1. He'll get things done - Everyone complains that Washington is broken.  Nothing can get done. Who better to change th...