Do not be fooled by all that glitter

I have often in a moment of anger said to a politician, "we put you in office and we can take you out." But that is only partly true.  While we may vote for them, it is the money behind them that put them in office.  It is the money from the Super Pacs and Lobbyists and Big Banks, Pharma companies and all the other entities that pay for the campaigns.  The Super Pacs raise money and place ads bashing he opponents and set up the town halls to feature their candidate.  It is kinda like the Super Bowl, the best ad campaign wins.  And it is a winner take all prize.  In the Presidential race, those who do not win do have a chance at being VP or on the Cabinet, but for the most part it is winner take all.

We like to think that we the people do have power, but in truth we vote for the person whose Donors have managed to paint with the best colors.  We vote for someone because of the promises they make and the things they say or their voter record.  But, to be honest most people do not fact check these things themselves and trust the ads and the comments as being true.  

Something everyone needs to consider is this: there is ONE Candidate who is self funding. One, only One.  He is in full disclosure receiving small individual donations, but has turned down money and even refunded money donated to his campaign.  He is the one who has shed light on the Money for favors aspect of campaigns more than anyone else.  Look behind the wizard to see who is behind the curtain running the show.  The wizard is a distraction from the truth.   The truth is that the donors have the right to say to the Candidate, we put you in office and we can take you out.  You owe us your position.  He/she has no choice but to put forth whatever legislation is desired and then turn around and try to sell it to their constituents as good for them.  

This has been going on long enough.  Do you realize that if you vote for Donald J. Trump, you are responsible for putting him into office and he will be beholding to no one but We the People.  This is a chance for us to wrangle power away from the donor class, away from the lobbyists and special interests and give the power back to the people.  

This is our last best chance.  If we fail this time we will not get back up.  Many people have said they do not like Donald for one reason or another - but let me say this loud and clear, hear me on this.  I know most of you and he is for all the things you are for, you are allowing the attackers to tell you otherwise.  Let me be perfectly clear, when I say this:

If America elects one more person tied to gold, America will fall into the money Pit.  For all his $ he is NOT tied to Gold, no one has him in their back pocket, NO ONE.  He can not be bought,he can not be bribed.  You may not like the way he says it, you may not like his hair you may not like his opulence, btw his favorite restaurant? McDonald's, that's right, he loves fast food.  You may not like anything about him, I do not care what you do not like.  He is the only one who has the chops, the guts and the leadership ability to get us out of this mess.  It will NOT happen with Pharma companies, it will not happen with Goldman Sachs, it will not happen with Super Pacs.  If we do not break the puppet strings we will not be free again.

He can call for Campaign finance reform, he can change things in DC,  but if we elect one more politician telling you what you want to hear and doing what his donors want him to do, we will be sunk.  For my conservative friends: Yes, he is Pro Life, Pro Israel, Pro Guns, Pro smaller Gov't, No he is NOT for single payer, yes he wants to keep Social Security and Medicare.  No he will NOT take a salary and Yes he will put his money into a Blind Trust.  No he will NOT take a Salary or President's pension.  No he will not re-decorate the WH except to build a badly needed ballroom which he offered to do on his dime and Obama turned him down.  

Still Report #644 - Metamorphosis - Tycoon to President

Why I am for Trump

I would rather have someone in office who says what he thinks regardless of consequences, someone who can not be bought is not beholding to any group of people someone who has been successful but not without failing, who loves this country and sincerely wants to see America rise again. I would rather have this man in office than someone who will say and/or do anything to win an election only to do the bidding of those who paid his/her way and leave we the people to fend for ourselves.

Time and time again we have elected  career politicians.  I say we, but in truth the special interests, lobbyists and the media.  We fall for whatever rhetoric they spout and look to their voting records for guidance.  We have allowed ourselves to be swayed by all the right words.  

What we do not see is the man behind the curtain, the back room deals and all the money that exchanges hands.  Donald Trump has done more to expose this than anyone in politics.  He has admitted to making donations in the past in the hopes of garnering favors in the future.  He can not be faulted for taking advantage of the system. 

We have elected people to office over and over and over again who have turned their backs on us, and offer up one excuse after another as to why they could not vote one way or the other.  They put the Kate Steinle bill together with another bill, knowing full well it had no chance of passing.  If they do not vote against a promise they make sure the bill they promised does not pass.  

When you look at the funding sources of the candidates you can see why.  They need money to run a campaign and stay in office.  Running a campaign is a big business in itself, always remember the borrower is servant to the lender and while campaign donations may not be literal loans, the debt that is owed is legislation.  Do not be fooled, a candidate may say something that the donor does not like, but the donor knows they are saying what they need to say to get elected.  Once elected they will do the bidding of donor.

It is time to elect someone who will break the old boy network, crony capitalism or whatever you want to call it.  If Donald Trump is elected they will not be able to control him and that is what they fear the most, someone coming in and ruining their game.  He  knows the game well and he will be the spoiler.  His win in NH is proof in the pudding that they have been fearing.  

Election 2016

I was wondering why Donald kept talking about having Ambassadors who know how to make good deals, I had never paid much attention to Ambassadors so I did some reading - and found this: Policy
"Consulting with the president and the U.S. State Department, ambassadors relay policy stances and decisions to the foreign governments they're associated with. In some cases, they may negotiate trade or security agreements" wikipedia , so, it started me thinking.

And so, Trump has me thinking - he has the right idea - he makes a lot of sense and has hit a nerve in so many of us who are frustrated with this whole political thing, we elect people who we think hold our values etc. We elect people based on their voting records and reputations but lets be honest, we are getting good politicians people who are good at getting elected - not necessarily good at running things, many of them have no real track record in what we call the "real world." and sometimes we elect a "man or woman of God " thinking they will be better - now of course I am not saying they are all bad - please don't give me names of this person or that one - I think we can all agree that we are tired of this political game, of the money that runs the politicians instead of the politicians running the money. My son's advice in tennis is don't let the ball play you; you need to play the ball. So this whole idea of hiring politicians who are career politicians is like nuts - we are hiring people whose expertise is getting elected and yes I said hiring - cause we need to look at it that way - instead of electing people whose whole thing is knowing how to get and stay elected - we need to look to the Trumps) of this world or the Dr. Carson's who have skill sets that go beyond political - if Trump just say is elected President, who will be his cabinet? Who will be the ambassadors, why not have the ambassadors of these countries be people who are good negotiators, good organizers (not community) good at running businesses instead of people who are looking for a leg up into the political world - people who don't give a darn, do not need money like Trump - People who are great in their field of expertise - have term limits for Congress take away the whole donor class entirely - Why can't we get some of these wheelers and dealers to work for nothing or very little for a year or two or so and put their skills into getting this country back into shape -

To continue my rambling thoughts, what have we done, how far have we strayed from where we should be? How much farther will we go before we fall off the cliff? Look what is happening to Mark Meadows for standing up to the leadership in the GOP and what is happening to Schumer for daring to vote against something Obama wants. They are called Representatives for a reason, they are to rep us, you and me - Ted Cruz calls it the Washington cartel, Carly Fiorina refers to crony capitalism no matter what you call it it is wrong. We are supposed to be of, for and by We the people - but we have abdicated our authority - and yet how do we take it back? We keep voting for people we think will do the right thing and some do, but most give into the pressure - maybe it is not DC that needs to be shaken up maybe it is not Congress that needs to Wake up, maybe it is us. Maybe we need to get more involved, make more demands - I dunno VOTE perhaps - and maybe just maybe we need to send some very different kind of people to DC - people get knocked out of a race for seemingly small things - in one way we have become so focused on the little petty things that we have forgotten that this is war, war for the very soul of America -. I know one thing, things MUST change.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF HEARING GOD'S VOICE with Beth Still

The Longing of the Father’s heart for His children

Do you know that the Father in heaven longs for you? Do you know that He wants to fellowship with you, to abide in you to have an intimate relationship with you?  Do you not know that God the Father sent His son down to earth to show you Himself, to share with you His heart, to provide a way of salvation for you?  Do you know that He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother?  Do you understand the cry of the Father’s heart is for you to find him?

 His love is everlasting, not just for a day, a week, a month, but for all eternity.  His hand is not so short that it can not reach you; there is no place in which you can hide from Him.  For His eyes look to and fro seeking a heart in which He can abide, He seeks a resting place.  Will you give the Father a place to rest in you, will you say Yes Lord, come, let me be in your presence; Yes, let me rest in you.  For as I rest in you, you rest in me and both are content just to be in each other's presence.  Has it ever occurred to you that the Father created us to fellowship with Him?   Have you ever sought His presence just to be with Him, just to Be still and Know that I am God?  Oh, my when you find that place, that secret place within yourself in which it is just you and Him, and you let go and just be, you need for nothing more than to just soak up His presence. And you run, run as a child runs to greet their earthly father, you run to be with Him, to sit at His feet, to hear his heart beat and you know all is well, for I am safe in His keeping.

Lovingly, longingly He waits for you patiently.  If you but knew, if the curtain could be rolled back so that you would have eyes to see and ears to hear, you would not be able to contain the fullness of it all, the wonder of who He is, for He is a God of Mercy and He extends Grace to you and He longs to abide with you and in you.  Yes, Jesus your Lord, God the Father long to be with you, little ol’ you, raggedly ol’ you, silly ol’ you, you with all your imperfection, with all your shortcomings, with all your quirky ways, He longs for you. 

He longs to be with you as lover longs to be with the one they love, as a Mother longs to be with her child, as you have pined for someone who has rejected you, and all you want is for them to love you and want to be with you, so the Father longs for you.

So many times we see God as Creator, Almighty, All Powerful, and we fail to see Him as one who desires fellowship with us.  Who is man that you are mindful of him?  And yet He is.  He is ever mindful of you; He knows the hairs on your head and has numbered them! He knows the secrets of your heart, your secret thoughts and desires.  He longs for you to share with Him.  He sees the mess of your life, the things that are wrong, the financial mess, the relationship mess the job mess He has a solution planned out for you, He knows exactly how to fix everything, He knows and He can because He is God, but also because He loves you.  Come to Him, you who are heavy laden, lay your burdens down at His feet, turn them over to Him and then sit there at His feet, beside Him in His presence and just be.  Surrender all and peace will be yours.  Trust and worries will go away, sit with Him and the loneliness of your heart will vanish.

The Candidate Run Down as I See It.

We have a decision to make as to who will be our next President.  I am convinced that the Republicans will take back the White House, so which one? 

  

Ted Cruz gave a great performance in the debate last night.  He waxed eloquently about immigration. He said what Trump has been trying to convey all this time and yet Cruz put it into the right context and syntax.  And Ted Cruz is the one people say is the most conservative.  This is what I have against Cruz.  One of his biggest donors is Goldman Sachs, and do not think for a minute they will not come knocking on his door wanting their pound of flesh.  Money makes puppets out of politicians.  The other problem I have with him is his desire to return to a gold standard.  He is wrong on this issue. We were on a gold standard during the 20s etc., yeah, and we went into the great depression after the crash of 1929, so how exactly did the gold standard help us then?  The other problem with that is that there is not enough gold to back enough money.  Fort Knox has been depleted, so where is he going to get the gold to back the money?

Rubio is just too inexperienced.  What has he done, really?  He was in the state legislature and has been a Senator for 3 years.  Except for being part of the Gang of 8, what has he done?  How has he led anything? He is a smart guy and seems to have a handle on the issues, but is he ready to be President? There is also the matter of his drug running brother in law and whether Rubio used his influence to get him out of jail.  We do not know, but there is enough of a cloud over this issue to make him risky. 

Jeb Bush's time has come and gone.  He is just not electable - tepid at best.  He is tainted by his time at Lehman Brothers, and his dealings with the Florida pension funds were shaky at best. I do not know why no one is talking about this issue with him.  Two Bushes are enough for us; we do not need another Bush in the White House. Plus, Jeb is answering to his donors, his advisors and the GOP establishment.  His presidency will be not unlike John Boehner's leadership. He will compromise too much to too many.  His heart is not in it.  He said himself there are a lot of cooler things he could be doing, so, like his dad, he needs to go skydiving and enjoy those "cooler" things.

John Kasich needs to go home and take care of his state.  He may have been effective in his days in Washington DC, but he is another person whose time has come and gone.  He seems to me to be out of touch.  I am not going to go back and look at the numbers, but every time he touts his accomplishments in Ohio someone always says well, actually he is wrong.  He is too old school for me.  I think he would try to bring us back to the past, and we cannot do things the way we did them then.  I have no idea really where he stands on anything because he spends so much time telling us that the other people's ideas will not work and that he did it all already. Just when was that John, in the 80’s & 90's? 

Carly Florina: The jury is out as to whether she was a good or bad CEO at HP.  You can look up her record and decide.  Carly loves to throw facts and figures around that sound impressive, but many of them are false.  The fact checkers keep correcting her and still she keeps saying the same things.  She talks a good game, but there is no there, there.  When she said she had a private meeting with Putin, I could not help but wonder was this to discuss some of the illegal deals that happened on her watch with HP?  And how private could it have been with an interpreter in the room.  She loves to throw around names like my good friend Bibi. Has anyone asked Bibi about this near-and-dear friend of his? 

There are people who worked at HP when she was CEO who loathe her.  Now, I know that the employees quite often have disdain for their bosses, but still the fact is, you don’t exactly hear a chorus of HP folk in support. I do not see leadership in her.  Why she felt the need to go onto The View and defend her smile is beyond me.  Exactly what did she prove by that, or was she doing it to gain more name recognition and free press? She loves to talk about crony capitalism as if she was not part of that.  Even stranger, why does she not tout her good friend Jesse Jackson, I wonder?

Dr Carson was a world-renowned pediatric surgeon.  He has had to put together the best of the best to perform some of the most difficult surgeries possible.  He led the team in separating conjoined twins which was a tedious and long process.  He runs a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to college-bound students.  Dr. Carson is smart and he is used to looking at an issue, studying it and making a decision as to the best plan of action.  He is not as articulate as the polished politicians, but he is highly intelligent which is combined with a lot of common sense.  That is a rare combination. 

Many times people who are book smart are not street wise, but he seems to be both.  I have no doubt that he would be good at gathering the best and brightest to serve on his cabinet and to advise him in areas in which he is not strong.  Remember the Senators have the advantage of receiving briefings and intelligence information that the rest of them do not.  Do not mistake their knowledge of the issues with ability. The other plus I see for Dr. Carson is that 72% of his funding comes from people giving less than $200.  That means that he has a large number of people contributing to his campaign as opposed to special interests and the big banks.  I will look into this further, but for now, I am confident that his donors will not rule him.

Donald Trump is self-funding which means that he is not taking donations with the exception of small donations from individuals who want to contribute to his campaign.  The reason this is important is because the donor class likes to buy candidates so they can influence the decisions that the candidate makes once elected.  He used to be on the other side of things and has contributed a lot of money himself for the purpose of excising his influence over issues.  He is a tough negotiator by all accounts and a good leader.  His companies have a comparatively low turnover rate which is indicative of good leadership, but his. 

Trump knows how to put a good team together.  According to Rudi Giuliani, he is a fast learner who avails himself of the necessary information for whatever he is doing.  He is a hands-on CEO, very much involved in all his projects, and most of those projects come in under budget and ahead of schedule.  He has done some deals that were a little questionable, but has managed to stay above the law albeit barely.  He does push the envelope.  He is brash, outspoken and tends to speak his mind without a filter.  However, you know where he stands and what he is thinking.  He does not have pollsters telling him what to say, nor does he have speechwriters. 

Trump’s down side to me is that he may have difficulty working with Congress to get things done as he is used to being the leader and the final word, and not in a position to compromise.  Plus he has angered a lot of people and they may not want to work with him I do believe that his negotiation skills and not being beholding to anyone, along with his obvious leadership skills will be the ticket to bring us back from the brink of economic collapse.  He understands contracts and negotiations better than anyone else in my opinion.  What he needs are good speechwriters who can help him articulate what he is trying to say.  He won’t make these mistakes in face-to-face situations with the world’s dignitaries.  

Who can be the best commander in chief? That is something that I am still pondering.  I think that we need a strong military and someone who respects the troops and will listen to the advice of the Generals - someone who understands that we need to lead from a place of strength, stand with Israel and take the oath seriously  “I will protect and defend the US from all her enemies foreign and domestic….” We need someone who will not tie are troops hands with ridiculous rules of engagement - someone who will not be afraid to send troops into harms way if needed, and has the ability to make the tough decisions.  We need someone who understands that we are not a country if we do not have borders and that we cannot allow anyone and everyone to take up residence in this country. 

We have a lot of issues that we are facing and we need someone who will face them head on.  We need to take all these things in consideration and make the best decision with the information at hand.  We cannot just vote for the person with the best sound byte, but the person with the best qualifications.  We cannot be blinded by looking for the person who is the most electable; if we chose the best person for the job they will be the most electable.  The media will steer us into the wrong direction and we cannot allow that again.  The fear mongers and the GOP establishment will try to steer us to the person they can most easily control and we cannot fall for that, either. 

Do not vote from a place of fear or uncertainty.  And for heaven’s sake do not stay home because you do not like the eventual nominee.  We have a choice to make from a sea of qualified candidates. Like Rubio said: “They can not even find one.”  People say do not underestimate the Clinton machine, do not overestimate it ether.    

We the people must take our government back from the donor class, and the special interests.  We must tell the media, you have lost your voice, and we can no longer trust you.  We must look into these issues for ourselves and make wise decisions and the number one thing we MUST do is pray and seek wisdom and guidance from God for He alone knows the hearts of every candidate and He will guide us if we ask, and then sincerely listen.  We also must repent and do as I Chronicles 7:14 says: “If we who are called by His name will do all those things, THEN He will hear from heaven and heal our land….” and our land needs healing. The most important job if you will of our government is to protect and defend us – we, the people.   Who do you want protecting you?

Just do not sit home on primary day saying I do not know for whom to vote or I do not like any of them, make a choice, and when the nominee of the party emerges, campaign for that person whether they were your choice or not.  Campaign, volunteer, and speak out. Your voice matters.  It mattered when 30 million Christians stayed home in 2012, and it matters now.