Friday, June 17, 2016

Obamaville June 16 - America burns as Obama Fiddles - Terrorist Attacks and Economic weakness demonstrate Obama loss of focus and perspective on America

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Did Obama fall into the Trump Trap in Presidential Campaign?

This has been the strangest campaign in history and things get more bizarre by the day.  You can thank the unconventional disrupter Donald Trump for throwing out the rules and shattering all tradition.  Of course what do you really expect from the Populist Disrupter, Trump.


So far, he has opened eyes and shattered many preconceived notions about how to run presidential campaigns.  For example, both Trump and Clinton won their respective nominations in the primaries but it cost Trump about $50 million and Hillary four times as much, about $200 million.

When you consider that Trump was one of 17 candidates, meaning he had to defeat 16 other opponents, and Hillary was one of just 3, her spending seems much more unreasonable.  At the last check, Hillary had about 800 campaign staff while Trump had about 60.


Then there is the near total absence of prepared speeches by Trump, his habit of telling it like he sees it regardless of the truth, and his total disregard for the news media, and one wonders how he could possibly survive.

He may or may not be a Republican, he contributed money to Democrats in the past, and he thinks his private jet is better than Air Force One, and he may just be right.  People love him or hate him, and that includes fellow Republicans.


His unfavorable rating is the highest ever recorded in a presidential campaign, at 69%, yet Hillary has the second highest unfavorable rating in history at 56%.  The last two weeks were the best two weeks of her campaign as Hillary won the nomination, got the endorsement of Obama and many others, and teamed up with Elizabeth Warren to dice and slice poor Donald, yet her unfavorable continued to rise.

On the positive side for Mr. Trump, Hillary is still waiting for the FBI to act on her email scandal.  President Putin of Russia just might help Trump by disclosing classified Hillary emails hacked by the Russians, proving she jeopardized national security with her private server.


Trump has still not started on her about the Clinton Foundation, her conflicts of interest as Secretary of State, and her husband's dismal record when president in terms of jailing African Americans, destroying the manufacturing base in America, and providing the rule changes that directly led to the economic collapse of 2008-2009.

So in spite of everything I have just outlined, at best we can say we do not even know if either presidential candidate selected by the popular vote of the people will actually make it to election day without getting thrown off the party ticket, thrown in jail, charged with felony actions, or discovers some other form of self-destruction.


As for Obama taking over the Clinton campaign, here was the headline on CNBC this past week regarding the Obama economy.

US created 38,000 jobs in May vs. 162,000 expected
(Editor's note, just 23% of what was expected)


How Trump Trumped Obama!

We know Hillary decided to run on the coattails of President Obama, promising to protect his legacy if elected president.  In fact, she has been pandering to him the entire campaign, even though the whole world knows the Clinton and Obama clans do not like each other, maybe even despise the other.

It is an unhealthy alliance for the moment in order to keep Trump from winning the presidency and exposing all the bad things Obama might have done.  Tenuous at best, it could implode at any moment.


Trump seems to have come up with a strategy with his favorite advisor, himself, to change the campaign from a contest with Hillary to a referendum on the Obama presidency but like most lame duck presidents Obama pretty much kept out of the campaign.  Here in America tradition has it that a sitting president stays above politics by staying out of politics at the end of his term.

Obama followed such a course until this week when the constant baiting by Trump with little jabs at the departing president finally made Obama come unglued and viciously attack Donald.  It was quite the spectacle when the president lowered himself to the Trump standard and then distortions and exaggerations started flowing from his lips.


Suddenly Obama was morphing into the very person he hated the most, Donald Trump.

So here we are, just four months until the general election.  Trump is standing alone taking on the last two Democratic Presidents (Obama and Clinton), the good old boy VP Joe Biden, the former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the entire elitist political establishments from both parties, and the purveyor of the truth, the liberal news media.


On the Republican side, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan seems to be the only party leader willing to try to help Trump become a viable candidate.  The two Republican Presidents from the Bush family are sitting on the sidelines along with the party establishment and the last GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney seemingly willing to let the party suffer a humiliating defeat rather than help Trump.

Most of the major Republican contributors whose money is essential for most candidates to win are also like Ladies in Waiting on the sidelines.  The vast majority of the news media, long ago wrote off Trump and are now working overtime to make certain it was a self-fulfilling prophecy and not just a pipedream to stop Trump.


So, it is David versus Goliath, Trump versus the world.

On the side of Goliath stands everyone in the universal establishment from the news media to financial contributors to Republicans and Democrats united in their hatred of Trump and their desire to protect the status quo.


As the camera pans to the opposition, the David or Trump side of the most one-sided battle in the history of politics, we see a lone soul in the wilderness like a John the Baptist shouting out that it does not have to be like this.

Behind the lone soul in the wilderness the forest of trees emerge from the fog and we begin to see not trees but the Little People, the forgotten Americans.  These are the disenfranchised voters, the disappointed public, the out of work minorities, the undocumented workers, union members abandoned by their protectors, unemployed manufacturing and coal workers who believed their politicians, the people upon whose backs and hard labor the Establishment has flourished.


Now we see millions of Little People begin to come into view armed only with a faith in our nation and believing things have got to be better than what we have.  This army of forgotten souls has been searching for a leader for decades as both political parties have made empty promise after empty promise.

Very special interests that dominate the two party system and control Wall Street and all wealth, those one percent few, demand the politicians and media they own take down this radical from the wilderness and his followers who threaten their gravy train, their control of power, and their obsession with wealth.


Even President Obama, the latest of the political beneficiaries of the super wealthy, who has played their game since becoming president and increased their wealth enormously, is now worried about the voice in the wilderness.  Trump is threatening his legacy so Obama decides to break all the rules himself and use the office of the president and power of the presidency to destroy this insignificant gnat.

Watch as Hillary fades into the background as Obama takes front and center on stage to crush this brash native of Queens.


Perhaps this is why Obama wants to crush Trump.  Trump is in the process of exposing the real Obama eight-year legacy including;


failed to heal the economy,
failed to secure payroll increases for Middle Class
failed to improve foreign policy,
failed on his campaign promises to heal the nation and end illegal immigration,
failed to end the fighting in the Middle East,
failed to help the African American community,
failed to provide immigration reform to Hispanics,
failed to save 400,000 Syrian citizens from death since his red line promise,
failed to save 182,650 Mexicans murdered in drug wars to supply USA



It will be interesting to see how the battle between David and Goliath evolves the next five months.
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Thursday, June 16, 2016

America - A Nation of Immigrants - The Real Story

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Part 1. - Who are we?

I feel comfortable writing about America a nation of immigrants because I have spent over 50 years trying to help the indigenous Native Americans like the Hopi nation, who are the only people in our country who are not immigrants.

With the presidential election preparing to go into high gear and with both sides demonstrating a propensity toward distorting the record rather than telling the truth, I figured I could be a sort of voice in the wilderness explaining what most Americans think about immigrants.


I wrote this article for the benefit of those outside of America forced to turn to the news media for truth about the election and the consequences.  Briefly, it really does not matter whether Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, or some other mysterious white knight wins the presidency.

Back when our Forefathers fought a war of independence against the most powerful empire in the world, the British, we were already debating the shape of things to come, in order to assure our freedom, and protect us from the threat of becoming an empire and exercising such control over a free people.


There are a few things I believe were of significant influence on the Founding Fathers, more than we like to acknowledge.  First, I accept that Divine Providence guided them in their deliberations and debate.  Second, the colonists of that time were far more educated than most people believe.  Third, they employed either oracles or psychics to see far into the future.

I believe the record since our Declaration of Independence 240 years ago is testament to the truth in what I say.  It would have taken the Hand of God to guide a bunch of farmers, aristocrats, religious fanatics, and outcasts from throughout the world with minimal money and certainly no army, to victory over the greatest empire in world history.


As for education, many Americans were self-taught while those with resources made extensive use of tutors.  Innovation, initiative, and creativity were necessary characteristics of those attempting to tame a wild land and create a civilization in a foreign world.

Now oracles, mediums, and psychics must have been available to help draft the framework of a Constitution that protected and preserved the United States through all the radical changes in world culture, religion, economy, war, and technology that would come in the not too distant future generations.


Beyond the foresight, the founding documents also had to correct the flaws in the system that existed at the time, such as slavery, in order to guarantee freedom and equality to everyone.  The goal of the Constitution was to provide a pathway to achieve the lofty promises contained in the document whether they existed at the time or not.

Three key items immediately come to mind in terms of lofty promises.  Of course, there was slavery, women's rights, and there was religious freedom.  At the time, slavery was legal, women had no rights, and religious freedom was non-existent though there were attempts to institute it in places like Maryland with little success.


The Constitution also had to make it clear that America would always be a nation of immigrants like no other nation in the world.  Just think of the incredible growth that took place in America.  In 1776, there were about 10 million people.  Only forty years later, in 1816, there were 41 million people, four times as many.  During the next millennial, by 1916, we grew to 102 million and one millennial later we have reached 325 million people, from 10 million to 325 million in just 240 years.

Today we have three million indigenous peoples, plus two million more indigenous of mixed race, so five million indigenous residents.  That means 98.5% of the population in America are immigrants or ancestors of immigrants.


The roots of Americans are vast.  Here is the diversity of Americans as of 2010 represented by the ancestral ethnic mix as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.


American Ethnic Mix 2010
1.      49,206,934 Germans 
2.      41,284,752 Black or African Americans
3.      35,523,082 Irish
4.      31,789,483 Mexican 
5.      26,923,091 English 
6.      19,911,467 Americans
7.      17,558,598 Italian
8.      9,739,653 Polish
9.      9,136,092 French (except Basque)
10.  5,706,263 Scottish
11.  5,102,858 Scotch-Irish
12.  4,920,336 American Indian or Alaska Native
13.  4,810,511 Dutch
14.  4,607,774 Puerto Rican
15.  4,557,539 Norwegian
16.  4,211,644 Swedish
17.  3,245,080 Chinese (except Taiwanese) 
18.  3,060,143 Russian
19.  2,781,904 Asian Indian
20.  2,625,306 West Indian (except Hispanic groups)
21.  2,549,545 Filipino
22.  2,087,970 French Canadian
23.  1,888,383 Welsh
24.  1,764,374 Cuban
25.  1,733,778 Salvadoran
26.  1,620,637 Arab
27.  1,576,032 Vietnamese
28.  1,573,608 Czech
29.  1,511,926 Hungarian
30.  1,423,139 Portuguese
31.  1,422,567 Korean
32.  1,420,962 Danish
33.  1,414,551 Dominican (Dominican Republic)
34.  1,319,188 Greek


This is the percentage distribution of the top fifteen.

German
49,206,934
17.1%
African American
45,284,752
14.6%
Irish
35,523,082
11.6%
Mexican
31,789,483
10.9%
English
26,923,091
9.0%
American
19,911,467
6.7%
Italian
17,558,598
5.9%
Polish
9,739,653
3.0%
French
9,136,092
2.9%
Scottish
5,706,263
1.9%
Scotch-Irish
5,102,858
1.7%
American Indian and Alaskan Native
4,920,336
1.6%
Dutch
4,810,511
1.6%
Puerto Rican
4,607,774
1.5%
Norwegian
4,557,539
1.5%

  
Here is the diversity of Americans represented by their religious denomination beliefs.

Denomination name
Members
(thousands)
  1. The Roman Catholic Church
68,202
  1. Southern Baptist Convention
16,136
  1. United Methodist Church, The
7,679
  1. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The
6,157
  1. Church of God in Christ, The
5,499
  1. National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc
5,197
  1. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
4,274
  1. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc
3,500
  1. Assemblies of God
3,030
  1. Presbyterian Church (USA)
2,675
  1. African Methodist Episcopal Church
2,500
  1. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America
2,500
  1. Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS),
2,278
  1. Episcopal Church
1,951
  1. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc Churches of Christ
1,800
  1. Churches of Christ
1,639
  1. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
1,500
  1. African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
1,400
  1. American Baptist Churches in the USA
1,308
  1. Jehovah's Witnesses Baptist Bible Fellowship International
1,184
  1. Church of God
1,074
  1. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ
1,071
  1. Seventh-day Adventist Church
1,060
  1. United Church of Christ
1,058
  1. The Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc
1,010

NOTE: Includes the self-reported membership of religious bodies with 650,000 or more as reported to the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. Groups may be excluded if they do not supply information. The data are not standardized so comparisons between groups are difficult. The definition of "church member" is determined by the religious body.
Source: 2012 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, National Council of Churches.


This is a more detailed breakdown of the same religious information.



Religions

Explore religious groups in the U.S. by tradition, family and denomination

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Finally, here is an article discussing the Pew research polling on the political preference of the various religious denominations in the last (2012) presidential election.


February 23, 2016

U.S. religious groups and their political leanings

By Michael Lipka
Mormons are the most heavily Republican-leaning religious group in the U.S., while a pair of major historically black Protestant denominations – the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and the National Baptist Convention – are two of the most reliably Democratic groups, according to data from Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study.

 Seven-in-ten U.S. Mormons identify with the Republican Party or say they lean toward the GOP, compared with 19% who identify as or lean Democratic – a difference of 51 percentage points. That’s the biggest gap in favor of the GOP out of 30 religious groups we analyzed, which include Protestant denominations, other religious groups and three categories of people who are religiously unaffiliated.


 At the other end of the spectrum, an overwhelming majority of members of the AME Church (92%) identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while just 4% say they favor the Republican Party (an 88-point gap). Similarly, 87% of members of the National Baptist Convention and 75% of members of the Church of God in Christ (another historically black denomination) identify as Democrats.

 These patterns largely reflect data from exit polls during the 2012 general election. In that year, 95% of black Protestants said they voted for Democrat Barack Obama, while 78% of Mormons said they voted for Republican Mitt Romney, who also is a Mormon.

White evangelical Protestants also voted heavily Republican in 2012 (79% for Romney), which mirrors the leanings of many of the largest evangelical denominations. Members of the Church of the Nazarene are overwhelmingly likely to favor the GOP (63% Republican vs. 24% Democrat), as are the Southern Baptist Convention (64% vs. 26%) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (59% vs. 27%), among other evangelical churches. (In our survey, members of these groups can be of any race or ethnicity, while exit polls report totals for white evangelicals in particular.)

 Catholics are divided politically in our survey, just as they were in the 2012 election. While 37% say they favor the GOP, 44% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (and 19% say they do not lean either way). In the 2012 election, 50% of Catholics said they voted for Obama, while 48% voted for Romney.

Members of mainline Protestant churches look similar to Catholics in this regard. For example, 44% of members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) identify as or lean Republican in the survey, compared with 47% who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning. United Methodists and Anglicans are slightly more likely than other mainline groups to say they are Republicans, while members of the United Church of Christ are more likely to be Democrats.
About seven-in-ten religiously unaffiliated voters (70%) and Jews (69%) voted for Obama in 2012. A similar share of Jews in our survey (64%) say they are Democrats, while all three subsets of religious “nones” (atheists, agnostics and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular”) lean in that direction as well.

Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are taught to remain politically neutral and abstain from voting, stand out for their overwhelming identification as independents who do not lean toward either party. Three-quarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses put themselves in that category.

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