Kathy Barnette for U.S. Senate!

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Mike Shortall

Allow me the extravagance of offering you suggestions for the upcoming Pennsylvania Republican Primary. The most important choices to be made this year are for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Pat Toomey and endorsements for the PA Governors race. Personally, I feel much stronger about our choice for the Senate race, so I’ll address that here.

First off, I have a real problem with carpetbagging politicians. “Carpetbagging” in the sense of those who relocate purely for the political opportunities they see versus an actual desire to live in – and fight for – a particular constituency. For this reason, I will never support Mehmet Oz or Dave McCormick.

Oz lived in Northern New Jersey; McCormick in Connecticut UNTIL Pat Toomey announced his desire to leave the U.S. Senate! Both moves were obviously made in attempts to maximize personal political power, where both men KNEW they could not win such exalted positions with the slate of current Senators in New Jersey and Connecticut!

Carpetbaggers, crooks of Reconstruction in the South

Kathy Barnette, on the other hand, is not only a political neophyte but also a military veteran. She has corporate financial experience and served for years on the Board for a pregnancy crises center. She is an author, writing “Nothing to Lose; Everything to Lose: Being Black and Conservative in America”.

She’s a huge fan of Conservative mainstay, Newt Gingrich, and a frequent guest on Fox News, even demonstrating self-defense techniques for women and children, another issue of which she is passionate.

Kathy’s Day One focus includes objectives I personally feel strongly about … Protecting individual freedoms, Peace through Strength, Energy Independence, Healthcare autonomy, and – if you consider the shaky status of world food supplies – American Agriculture.

From a purely political perspective, I cannot ignore or over-estimate the prospects of a younger, dynamic, black American woman’s ability to draw members of her social demographic away from the crazed, whacked out direction the Democrat Party has taken in recent years!

Fortunately, that is the very least of Kathy Barnette’s qualifications and capabilities for representing the People of Pennsylvania in the United States Senate!

Schiff: Intel Committee to probe Hatboro bakers.

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Mike Shortall

BREAKING NEWS: House Intel Committee Chair, Adam Schiff, announced an investigation into possible Russian agents, allegedly posing as confectioneers at Lechol’s Bakery in HATBORO, PA, for attempting to influence the American Election. The plot, uncovered by the American Bakers Association, allegedly involved the baking of 2020 Presidential Election cookies under the names BIDEN and TRUMP.

Schiff claimed that “anonymous baker people” told him that Eric Trump attempted to meet secretly with the Russian bakers this week. When Trump’s visit to Lechol’s Bakery was uncovered, witnesses allege Eric Trump acted as though he had simply stumbled upon the bakery and then threw rock-hard cookies at passers-by to distract attention.

Four people were injured in Eric Trump’s attack. Three had their feelings hurt, and one was struck in the eye by a ricocheting jimmie. Others on the scene accused Trump of abusing the working class by providing incredibly delicious cookies without a proper milky beverage.

First responders claimed it was the worst bakery attack they ever saw.

Schiff also claimed to have called Lechol’s Bakery during the baking process and heard Al Stewart’s “Road to Moscow” playing in the background. AOC called cooking baking “a selfish act of privilege contributing to the death of the planet”.

Nancy Pelosi called for impeachment proceedings to be authorized.

The electoral cookie count was allegedly manipulated by adding beet juice, borscht, and pumpkin spice to the Biden cookie mix. An attempt by this reporter to confront the Russian co-conspirators was ended by a well-aimed vatrushka.

No explanation was provided as to why anyone would have wanted a Biden cookie in the first place.

Eric Trump seconds before his heinous cookie attack.

Understanding Democrats on Taxes in an Election Year

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Mike Shortall

Tax issues and positions are always used as rallying calls by both Liberals and Conservatives in the propaganda wars leading up to important elections. Taxes, the programs they would support, and who will make tax policy are usually central themes of both Democrat and Republican voter outreach.

I am no tax expert, not a financial analyst or consultant. But I know how much in taxes I pay … to Uncle Sam, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Horsham Township, and the City of Philadelphia (for the “pleasure” of using roughly a mile-and-a-half of city roads twice-a-day in The Good Old Days, when we could actually go into work).

To help those who may have difficulty grasping the reality of election year tax claims of Democrats, this post will discuss my personal viewpoints on …

Raising taxes “only on the Wealthy“.
President Trump‘s tax record

Raising Taxes “only on the Wealthy”

Democrats, led by presidential candidate Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, love to tell us how The Rich are not paying their fair share in taxes. They have no qualms claiming that taxing The Rich – and The Rich ONLY – will pay for their heavily-loaded Santa’s sleigh of social and environmental programs.

Here are the most expensive programs Democrats will tell you “taxing The Rich” would pay for:

Medicare For All
Free college education and the absolution of current college debt
Green New Deal

Now let’s look at the estimated costs for just those programs:

Medicare For All – $3.2 trillion per year (High estimate taken from the Bernie Sanders model)
Free college education – $75 billion per year add in one-time bill for $1.5 billion student-debt forgiveness
Green New Deal – $500 billion per year (A very conservative estimate, on which I place a very low level of confidence, used here just for argument simplicity.)

For those not keeping score, that’s a whopping $3.8 TRILLION dollars a year! Don’t forget that $1.5 billion in student loan forgiveness!

That’s a hefty tax bill. But The Rich will pay for it all, right?

Let’s see …

The Biden Plan calls for taxing The Rich only (i.e. those individuals and Corporations with revenues over $400,000 per year). The estimated additional revenue for such a change would be $3.67 billion per year.

That’s Billion with a B, not Trillion with a T! And I will add, the linked article supports the Biden-Harris claim that no one under the $400,000 annual salary/revenue will see increased taxes!

How is such a thing possible?

It’s not … quite obviously. Well, maybe if they are using Common Core mathematics.

Even if Democrats were to drastically cut the Department of Defense budget ($800 billion a year) and abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE … $7.6 billion per year), potential financing via US Budget cuts would NEVER get close to the annual $3.8 trillion Liberal Wish List Price Tag!

It doesn’t take a member of MENSA to figure out where the responsibility of the rest of the price tag falls. That is, YOU and ME!

The kicker? The inevitable increase in Taxes is only part of the nightmare!

Consider these points:

Corporations are responsible to Share Holders, and Share Holders like Profits! Where do you think Corporations are going to look to pay for their dramatically increasing tax burdens? Answer: Higher prices to Consumers (That is, YOU and ME!)
Remember that Democrats are huge proponents of raising the Minimum Wage across the Nation! Who gets to pay the costs of those increases to wages? Answer: Higher prices to Consumers (That is … Well, hopefully you get the message by now)
Democrats have also been strongly opposed to the Trump Tax Cuts, which widely fueled the pre-COVID economic resurgence. Certainly, add the loss of those tax cuts to your family’s budget.
Don’t think your State and Local taxes will be affected? If goods and services become more expensive to Mr. & Mrs. Consumer, they were certainly be more costly to our Governments! Who pays that? You know the answer!

Now my arguments may not be perfect. I may have missed a few items that might close the Cost-Revenue gap a bit; and I welcome any viewpoints that might provide a more accurate picture. I would be shocked if anyone can convince me that Democrats can sufficiently close that gap to the point where they can prove that the majority of The Non-Rich will not pay a lot in higher taxes if Democrats control all the levels of Government!

Prove me wrong!

President Trump does not pay his Taxes

No one likes paying more in taxes. Liberals will say they have no problem with paying higher taxes, but I would call bull shyte on such a claim. It goes against Human Nature!

Taxes are a part of Life. They pay for a lot of necessary and critical services. We all get that. But there is a fine line between reasonable tax burdens and economy-strangling tax debt. Just look at how the Trump Tax Reductions lit a fire under the pre-COVID U.S. Economy!

I doubt anyone looks at their annual tax returns and wonders, “Gee, how could I pay MORE to help the (federal, state, local) Government?” Yes, it goes against Human Nature!

I always look to lower my tax burden any way I can within The Rules provided.

In fact, I plan to submit a hefty Tax Rebate request to the good City of Philadelphia to reclaim the wage taxes I paid there while not actually working within the City (COVID-19 wise). The City in past years allowed such claims when Wage Tax Payers spend working hours outside the city (i.e. when traveling for work, normal pre-COVID work-from-home, conferences/training outside Philly, etc.

So, when Donald Trump looks to reduce his immense tax burdens, which he – and his corporations – will have already paid on levels and in amounts Working People could hardly imagine, is he really doing anything wrong?

Note that not a single report suggests The President broke any tax laws, which certainly would have been revealed well before he ran for president the first time. (BTW … This massive IRS breach of private, personal information will be found illegal, and should rightfully concern every U.S. Tax Payer!) Even the lengthy, pre-informed, pre-planned New York Times article specifically states no tax laws were broken.

So what’s all the hubbub about, bud?

OMG! A billionaire looked to avoid paying taxes?!? What is the World coming to?!? Get out the rail, tar, and feathers!!

Please …

This is all about the attempt by Democrats to force a wedge between a very smart business man/President and Working Families, who also do everything they can – year-after-year – to reduce their Tax bite …

Don’t be fooled.

Consider the following:

In 2005 alone Donald Trump paid $38 million in taxes. That’s just one year in the life of a man largely responsible for hundreds of millions in real estate and casino developments, as well as his activity in television!
In 1995, Trump declared a loss of almost $916 million, largely the result of disastrous business losses in the early ’90s.

Some will look at that report and claim it proves Trump was no business genius. But there is always immense risk involved when conducting businesses all over the world in the financial stratosphere in which DJT operated. Huge losses and bankruptcies are part of the landscape where not all factors are under the control of any business.

So where does this leave us? If you have a problem with Citizen Trump paying only $750 in income taxes, blame the Tax Code, created with the help of many a rich Democrat.

To what extent should any U.S Tax Payer willfully pay more in Taxes than legally required? Trick question, I hope!

When Democrats tell you “only the Wealthy will pay more in taxes”, are they being honest? When “the rich and corporations” pass along the costs of additional tax burdens to their customers, are you OK with paying what is essentially an indirect tax?

The math doesn’t lie when it comes The Cost of Liberal Wishes and Dreams. So who is really trying to fool whom?

The Night They Killed the Donut

Posted on June 8, 2018 by Mike Shortall

I don’t want to talk about it. I am traumatized.

At the Phillies game watching them get eviscerated by the Milwaukee Brewers …

Went to Federal Donuts and find out the only chicken they serve now is on a roll!!!!

WTF!!!

Used to be … Federal Donuts would give you a halved breast (2 pieces) and a drumstick accompanied by their delicious donut. EVERYTHING was delicious! Now it’s a chicken sandwich, take it or leave it. So I left it.

Got two donuts and stomped off in crushing disappointment. Procured an Italian sausage sandwich to ease my pain. Never a disappointment … #wheresthechikin

A most unlikely Senator

Posted on April 20, 2016 by Mike Shortall

The 2016 election cycle will bring enough fireworks at the National level for many people to forego down-ticket races that do not directly involve their vote. In a political season where being The Outsider threatening to turn over the Party Table and chase the money-changers from the Temple, it’s the long shot, disruptive dark horse that is drawing attention and excitement … with varying degrees of success.

635900215051104314-160202-djs-Fetterman-tours-Ace-04

John Fetterman … an unmistakable physical presence

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders draw the bulk of attention at the Presidential level. For those not living in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it might also be interesting to watch the race for U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania … especially if John Fetterman wins the Pennsylvania Democrat primary for the Senate nomination!

How does a U.S. Senator live something like this down?

Fetterman is nothing, if not the most atypical candidate for Senate since Al Franken attempted – unsuccessfully IMHO – to shed his Saturday Night Live persona when he went on to win a Senate seat in Minnesota. The difference between the two is that John Fetterman has been a serious man … always serious. And he has a successful background as a man who has gotten things done politically and socially.

Fetterman was born to teenage parents who struggled financially until John’s father started his own insurance business. He attended his father’s alma mater – Albright College – and successfully completed his Masters in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In between, he did volunteer stints with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America and AmeriCorps.

His AmeriCorps gig landed him in Braddock, Pennsylvania, a bedroom community to the long-gone steel mills of Andrew Carnegie in and around Pittsburgh. The town lost most of its jobs with the disappearance of the American steel industry.

In 2005 Fetterman challenged the incumbent mayor and won election by a single vote! The job paid $110/month, barely adding much financially to his $30,ooo/year job directing the Out-of-School-Youth Program. He won re-election in 2009 by an almost 3-1 margin.

He purchased the First Presbyterian Church, slated for demolition, a nearby abandoned warehouse, and numerous house, which he redeveloped and offered with cheap or free rent. Fetterman used the promise of cheap rent and initiated a rebirth of Braddock as an artsy Renaissance town complete with a two-acre organic garden managed by the Braddock Youth Project.

Those accomplishments certainly qualify John Fetterman as a most interesting and active public servant. But it’s his non-conforming physical and vocal presence that really sets him apart from the usual dry, buttoned-down Senate types.

Fetterman is physically imposing at 6’8″ tall, weighing 320 pounds. He has numerous tattoos, an imposing bald head, huge unruly chin beard, and a manner of plain dress that will definitely shake up the sleepy U.S. Senate chamber, if he were to get that far.

So deep is his dedication to Braddock, he has its Zip Code tattooed inside one arm!

Unfortunately, Fetterman trails a lightweight front-runner in Katie McGinty, whose limited claims to fame were serving in various National and State environmental roles and as Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s campaign manager …

… And then there’s wacky Liberal re-tread Joe Sestak.

As a Republican sure to vote for incumbent Senator Pat Toomey, I tend to tune out the most liberal Democrats, as I was John Fetterman. That was until I saw the following Fetterman ad. Then I read his resumé …

If one concedes John Fetterman has a hopelessly uphill battle to bring his unorthodox – but productive – style of politics to the Senate, one cannot but hope he finds a way to continue his work in Pennsylvania. His sense of empathy and get-it-done attitude is something from which we all might benefit!

‘Tween the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Mike Shortall

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This is my ~~third~~ fourth attempt to write a blog post about Donald Trump. I scrapped previous versions because they sounded either defensive of his potential nomination, or were too critical of a phenomena many suggest has been long overdue in American politics.

Trump was not my first pick (Jeb Bush), second (John Kasich), third (Chris Christie), fourth (Scott Walker … I obviously have a thing for Governors for The Oval Office.) , or fifth pick (Marco Rubio). Yet here he sits, presumptive favorite to win the Crown as the GOP’s nomination for President.

As a Pennsylvanian, I haven’t yet been given the opportunity to express my views via the ballot box, which is one reason I tend to be stand-offish when it comes to getting emotionally invested in my presidential hopefuls. In 2012 my early favorite was Jon Huntsman, which kinda provides my audience with an additional measure of my American political astuteness.

Stop laughing!

Ronald Reagan was another. But this is definitely NOT a comparison of Reagan v. Trump!

360_reagan_lede_0204 I can remember shaking my head and wondering aloud – during one of Reagan’s primary debates – how we could possibly end up with a former actor as our President. Two or three years into Reagan’s first-term, I was a full-fledged Reagan devotee!

My lesson in all of this is when it comes to Presidential politics, my finger is not exactly on the Pulse of the American voter. Which brings me back to Donald Trump …

I can no longer avoid the very real prospect that Mr. Trump will be the GOP candidate. At this point, I do not believe the Party has a choice. For whatever reason – and there are many – Donald has tapped into a broad and deep vein of American political frustration. And if anecdotal information is accurate, Trump’s appeal goes beyond Republicans to include Independents – many of them recent former Republicans, who felt the GOP had pushed them away – and even moderate Democrats.

My gut feeling is that any Party move to deny Trump the nomination will cost the GOP dearly, affecting even those “down-ticket” Republican candidates for the Senate, House, and Governor races!

latest As for my feelings about The Don, I fancy myself an amateur student of Presidential history … more so the behavior and performance in office as opposed to the politicking beforehand. From everything I have read or studied, Donald Trump is simply the least presidential candidate I can remember.

Trump’s pronouncements on issues like immigration, terrorism, opposing candidates, party leaders, etc. set him apart from all known successful POTUS candidates from our recent past at least. The difference is that on some visceral level, Trump has become a conduit for every frustrating political development over the past two decades.

For the GOP at the National level, they only have themselves to blame. The failure to develop well-grounded, exciting candidates for President. The tendency to make “the tent” smaller, as opposed to broadening it. The inability to act prudently and unselfishly as an opposing party. Disappointment after disappointment has given rise to Donald Trump.

That and a healthy dose of eight years with President Barack Obama!

I really thought we had seen the last of Trump in 2012, when he bowed out fairly early in the process, citing television contractual requirements connected to his show The Apprentice.

Silly me …

A sizable portion of the Electorate is angry at all things political, particularly when it comes to Washington, D.C. They are very clearly ready for a candidate that might just burn it down. Which reminds me of Thomas Jefferson‘s quote …

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

MTE5NDg0MDU1MDEwMjQ4MjA3 If one recognizes “the blood of patriots and tyrants” as purely metaphor, representing the kind of political upheaval not seen since Chicago in 1968, you can better appreciate where Donald gets his trump. The People are ready to clean out the outhouse.

The political class should be very grateful that The People have not – as yet – dragged out the guillotine!

The Democrats do not get a free pass when it comes to this either. The best they could muster for 2016 is a has-been from the 1980s, who firmly believes it is “her turn” and an old hippie from the 1970s. When you have the younger Democrats flocking to the 1970s hippie, many vowing not to vote for another Clinton no matter what, you know you have a problem too!

If there’s anything worse than a bombastic blowhard for President, it’s the person who spent four years hiding what they were doing in a Cabinet-level job from Public scrutiny and official oversight … while their former-President husband racked up millions in fees speaking to a host of entities with interest conflicting with his spouse’s official duties … and while their “charitable organization” pulled in millions from similarly conflicted sources …

That would be Hillary Clinton, just in case my references are too obscure.

ap_hillary_clinton_tsu_02_jc_150604_16x9_992 So for me, the question comes down to the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. Who would be the Devil? Who the Sea?

The Devil I know wants to be President because she’s a woman. Hillary wants our vote because she served as First Lady, then as an unremarkable U.S. Senator and an openly duplicitous Secretary of State.

Donald Trump is my deep blue sea, full of dangers, mysteries, and the potential for political upheaval many of us might welcome in an age when Politics is an eight-letter, four-letter word.

If it comes down to the two of them, I hope the water isn’t Titanic-ly cold!

As for you, my reluctant reader … Feel free to define who be the Devil and who be the Sea. Just remember …

Here there may be Monsters!

Montgomery County Republican Party … “Lost in Space”!

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Mike Shortall

Maybe when past and present leaders of the Montgomery County Republican Party (MCRC: Montgomery County, PA) look back over the past few years, they can pinpoint the moment when – and reasons why – things went bad. Maybe they can dissect the personalities, grudges, and internal issues that caused the slide down the slippery slope. Maybe they will have an understanding of what went wrong and why. And maybe they have an idea of how to get it all back on track.

Maybe …

I’m not all that confident. The County Party looks like the hapless Family Robinson from “Lost in Space” (the original TV series 1965-1968, not the movie). Not sure exactly who is playing of Doctor Smith, but there are several candidates. Like castaways in an immense expanse of universe, there’s a feeling of hopelessness.

Admitting you have a problem – a REAL problem – is always the first step in Recovery. And Recovery is certainly what we need!

I do not consider myself a Committee insider. I do not pretend to know the reasons or – more importantly – The Answers. Maybe I should know. Maybe if more of us in grassroots positions were more deeply involved, we might know.

Maybe that would have made a difference. Maybe …

But I doubt it.

As a Committee Representative since 2006, I have attended some MCRC functions, though admittedly not enough of them. Fact is, as your typical run-of-the-mill foot soldier, you are like a pawn on the chessboard … eyes forward and taking the heat. You do the grunt work because it’s important to you and to your Community.

The politics of the politics? We let the politicians weed that garden. We allow them to make the sensitive political decisions in the belief they have The Big Picture.

Maybe there’s a good reason for that … party unity, less distraction from the goals of developing the best candidates and winning elections, the appearance of stability and reliability to present to fund-raisers and contributors …

But how’s that been working out for you on Election Day?

The problem with that mindset is that we – the Party’s ground game – lose sight of where the boat is being driven or worse the direction the boat is drifting. Somehow that has to stop.

My personal MCRC experience can be summed up in the following vignettes:

Pride and excitement in the election of Bruce Castor and Jim Matthews to the County Board of Commissioners in 2007 even though Democrats grabbed five row-office positions.
Hair-pulling aggravation as the Castor-Matthews relationship imploded into a farcical mess that – hindsight will show – sent the Party spinning out of control.
PA State Rep Mike Vereb

Pride and excitement at the election of State Representative Mike Vereb as MCRC chairman after the unconscionable behavior of a person who shall remain nameless. I even wrote a glowing review of Mike’s fantastic acceptance speech a scant two years ago.
Confusion and frustration in witnessing – from afar – the infighting between The Committee and Joe Gale, the un-endorsed winner of a spot on the 2015 GOP ticket and the ONLY Republican – aside from Risa Vetri Fermin – to win their general election vote.
Disbelief that Republicans did not win a single row office in November 2015.

My own personal, foot-soldier/committee representative/Republican voter view is that the GOP in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania can’t seem get out of its own way. What was a troubling anomaly in the Castor-Matthews imbroglio became a trend in the MCRC-Gale falling out.

I do not pretend to know all the reasons, the personal issues, ill-will, prideful stances, or nasty accusations that led to a voter-endorsed candidate being ostracized from our own Election Day GOP Party recommendations. I just have the impressions that the episode was a case of cutting one’s nose off to spite their face; indicative that the MCRC had gotten even worse – not better – since Castor and Matthews had their schoolyard tiff; and instead of working towards Party unity, was trapped in a distrustful downward spiral.

Commissioner-elect Joe Gale

Not that we could possibly get much lower than the dazed, bloodied, and laying flat-out on the floor position we find ourselves in today.

So this Tuesday, we will vote for the next chapter in MCRC history. This time around we have a wealth of candidates looking to become County Party Leader. Some I know, some I don’t.

I’ll be looking for someone who gets what’s important. Not The How we got to the lowly place we find ourselves, what’s most important is how do we get back where we were … back where we deserve to be!

With that in mind, I will be sending a link to this blog post to all of the candidates with the opportunity to respond here with their views on getting the CLIMATE of the MontCo GOP right for a Future unclouded by internecine feuds. I do not want to hear about training committee representatives, improved communications, or changing the Party structure. In my humble opinion, our problems are BIGGER than that!

Keep an eye here, if you wish. Maybe we’ll get some answers …

Maybe …

I intend to go to Tuesday’s election meeting out of an obligation to contribute what little I can to making sure the Party is in the best position to recover from this not-so-special episode of “Lost in Space”.

Montgomery County and the Republican ideals we value deserve a much better effort!

Trump Is Wrong On Muslims … Kinda

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Mike Shortall

Donald Trump made a rather bold and infuriating statement the other day. He also told the Truth … at least in part. And what he said was what a lot of people wanted to hear. Of course a lot of people didn’t want to hear it too.

Both groups were right.

Trump told us that Americans do not want and that America should block all Muslims from immigrating to the United States from Syria.

He was right and he was wrong.

As a country, we have grown past religious tests. We are not perfect. We have had them. We have learned, sometimes the very, very hard way. We have – collectively – moved on.

JFK was too Catholic for some people, who feared the Pope would be running the country. Of course the earliest settlers came here to flee British religious oppression, only to set up their own style of religious repression here. And there were flirtations with Nazi extremism in the late 1930’s, and then that very uncomfortable World War II prelude in the voyage of the St. Louis, loaded with Jews to be denied entry to the US though they could view the lights of Miami from on-deck.

But we’ve grown past all that. Or so we thought.

No, Donald … We do not exclude people from our country just for religious reasons. It’s the lowest form of exclusion, right next to race.

But you can’t really blame the approach to a problem that – in the wake of Paris and San Bernardino – has a lot of people avoiding crowded spaces, high-value locations, and mass public events. The demographics drive you to the Conclusion … almost.

Personally, I don’t think you target all Muslims. You can whittle down the high-risk pool by narrowing the focus to the true demographic … the demographic prized and targeted by the extremist political factions we worry about most … young, unattached to family, disenfranchised Muslims.

Trump is partially right, but importantly wrong.

Then there’s the other lessons from our History, that give you a look at how Presidents in the past have over-reacted when you have the luxury of 20-20 hindsight.

Jimmy Carter cancelled the visas of Iranian nationals who might visit the US during the Iranian hostage crisis. But this was not a “national security measure” as much as it was a pressure point to force Iran to comply with demands to release the hostages.

And it wasn’t based on religion.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt – on the other hand – went a bridge-too-far in interning 120,000 Japanese nationals during World War II. He indeed did this for National Security, but on purely racial terms, which is horrendous even if you can dismiss the fact that few Germans or Italians were similarly interned.

Were his actions contrary to American ideals? Definitely. Were they productive? Hard to tell from the existence of a negative (the absence of wartime sabotage).

Were the actions reasonable, given the events of the time? Certainly, they provided a sense of greater security at a dangerous time in what was seen as vulnerable areas. Remember, Japanese forces invaded and created a tenuous foothold in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Looking back, were the measures excessive? Certainly … But you do have the Luxury of Hindsight!

Let’s look at the official release from the Trump campaign.

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on .”

Now I’m willing to bet dollars-to-doughnuts that not too many sources condemning the Trump issue provided those last 11 words. And if you really think about it, it’s not far off the same reasoning FDR used. Securing what was perceived as the riskiest elements of the country’s western population until they could figure out what was going on.

Frankly, given all we know the reaction makes perfect sense. After all, there are no Uruguayan basketball players heading to America with the intent of shooting up the infidels.

But it goes too far. It’s far to broad and is based purely on religious belief. It reeks of prejudice and violates American ideals.

So let’s take the most reasonable, sensible, and fair approach.

Ban all young, unattached, disenfranchised Muslims until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.

Debt of Honor (PBS, November 10, 9:00 PM EST)

Posted on November 10, 2015 by Mike Shortall

Usually at this time of year, I dedicate a blog post to U.S. veterans of foreign conflicts as an homage to their dedication, patriotism, and sacrifice. It’s a bit odd for me, not having served in the military myself. I think it’s simply a matter of trying to pay back what little I can within the realization that the sacrifice they made was to the benefit of all of us.

This year though, I will diverge a bit to recognize a very special class of veteran, the disabled veteran. Those who came home from conflicts with horrible wounds that left them significantly disabled for life.

Tonight (November 10) at 9:00 PM EST (2100 HRS EST) PBS will air the premiere of Debt of Honor, a documentary that looks into the history of America’s disabled vets.

Disabled veterans hold a unique place in the history of veterans in the United States, one that palpably illustrates the human cost of war, and speaks to the enormous sacrifices of military service. Debt of Honor examines the way in which the American government and society as a whole have regarded disabled veterans throughout history, beginning in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War through today’s continuing conflicts in the Middle East.

Many of us consider the issue of disabled veterans to be a recent phenomena, the result of political scandal over the management of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The problem came to the forefront of American politics largely due to the neglect of veterans recently disabled from present day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But instead of sitting here, trying to blame one President or another for the problems they rightfully have responsibility for, I’d like to take a different tack today.

The problems faced by veterans in all walks of like, from those suffering not at all to those able to function physically but unable to psychologically due to the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to those horribly disfigured and only permitted to function through the graces of modern medical science once they return from protecting us is no one’s fault but our own!

We own it, because so many of us simply do not care enough. If we care enough about it and make it a serious National issue, potential Presidents and all sorts of politicos would find import in the issue. We allow politicians to skirt the issue because we skirt the issue.

I make no bones about the aspect that many politicians might only care because we MAKE them care about it. Who really cares what selfish motivation we might instill in our politicians, if it gets the job done? Self-interest – particularly in politicians – can be an extremely lucrative motivator. So let’s put it to use!

Take the challenge … The next time you have a chance to speak to your Congressional Representative or a local politician with a potentially promising future in National Politics, don’t ask them first about Jobs, the Economy, Immigration, Gay Marriage, or their views on the Rights of gun owners, minority members of society, or the 1%. Ask them FIRST about what they would do to improve the lives of disabled veterans in their own districts, or how they would address disabled veteran care during their next term in Washington, D.C., or what they might do to fix the problems at the Veterans Administration.

If you can’t wait that long (and certainly there is no time to wait), write them a letter and demand an answer from them that matters. Do not take “no” or a lot of fluff as an answer. Press the issue and press it hard.

With 11 months until the Presidential election, much hay could also be made by constantly asking our POTUS candidates what they will do in their first days in office to address the problems faced by disable veterans across the country!

The only way we can make this problem go away is by making it The Constant Problem of every politician we elect, especially those we send to Washington, D.C.!