Thorner: Soul searching by a Conservative and Patriot in Uncertain Political Times

By Nancy Thorner – 

In looking back to the election of Richard M. Nixon and his subsequent resignation as president of the United States, Nixon’s resignation is viewed by me and others knowledgeable about the events leading up to Nixon’s resignation, that from day one of Nixon’s presidency, the Left was determined to destroy him. Now President Trump faces the same destructive entities.

In his book, Conversations with William F. Buckley Jr, Buckley called is an “act of charity and prudence” that Ford pardoned Nixon. As Buckley stated: “There were a considerable number of Americans, possible 25 to 30%, who felt that Nixon had been railroaded out of office.  He was guilty of certain infractions of the law, but those infractions were in no sense no different from those of what is predecessors were regularly guilty of.”

That was then, this is now!

March is the greyest, longest, most boring month of the year by a long stretch for many here is Illinois.  March even makes people look grey, along with everything else one can look at.  Then there’s the news.  The latest upheaval in D.C. is the worst one yet.  Worst, because it’s so deeply criminal.  And worst, because the very large left contingent in our Country will make hay with it, at least among themselves and the media.

In what appears to be the biggest abuse of power and corruption ever seen by the current generations of American people still living, is the undeniable evidence of a coordinated conspiracy to abuse power by elite leaders at the top of the Justice Department and FBI (this is not the whole of the FBI) who consider themselves smarter and wiser than the populous, and above the law, by using the tools of the FBI against the Trump campaign.  This runs counter to the Constitution and against our Fourth Amendment rights which forbid “unreasonable searches and seizures” of individuals and property.

I’m sure there are millions like me who never imagined a time when high-ranking officials in out own government were so determined to take down a duly-elected president.  What confounds me and is extremely upsetting is that any collusion with Russia was on the other side, but It’s as if evidence of collusion never happened in the Obama administration, as the FBI and the Department of Justice continue their fishing expedition, determined as they are, to find an indictable Trump offense.

For over a year the American people have been lied to, they have been misled, and the evidence is mounting that the entire Russia investigation and charges of collusion leveled against President Trump and his administration was bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton and her campaign.

Words for Conservatives

That leaves the conservatives – US – with little media support, in that the mainstream media is a bunch of patsies willing to write whatever they are told to write, functioning as an arm of the Democrat Party in their hatred of Trump, so Trump’s presidency looks like its riding a merry-go-round instead of a sleek vehicle.

There is NO vehicle of any clout on our side, except ourselves. The churches, largely with us, won’t put a toe into the water of trying to support us.  Big business is gaining by leaps and bounds but fails to at least toot a horn or two about how that has happened to them.  We have no media (except FOX and EWTN), but we really wouldn’t want most of them anyway. And yet, there’s a strange phenomenon.  Most of us have the pleasure of living near people who are rather conservative.  Even those who vote for the other side are often pleasant and otherwise decent neighbors.

The Justifiable Firing of Andrew McCabe

Might there be a truth we’ve not yet uncovered?  Perhaps the latest firing of an FBI top gun, Andrew McCabe, will tip the scales in the other direction, but it will take a while to do so, IF it’s even possible to change direction. It SHOULD be possible, but can elite top guns block it?  I fear so unless things change soon.

Presently McCabe is pretending he is the victim after his firing, placing the blame on President Trump, when it was the Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, who found evidence that McCabe was leaking information to the press and lied about it UNDER OATH. The Department of Justice Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, is certainly not a Trumpian stooge, having been appointed by the Obama administration.  McCabe’s firing was recommended by career FBI officials. Liberals, as to be expected, were outraged after McCabe was fired.  Veiled threats and temper tantrums followed.

Rather than worrying about his pension, might the possibility of going to prison be of greater concern for McCabe?

Truth Emerges

The truth came out very late on Friday night, March 16, when FOX gathered a variety of people on our side who were willing to toss their pajamas on the other side of the bed, comb their hair, put on some decent clothes and hurry to their studios.  THEY, to a man and a woman, were livid and positive that the left has not only organized the strength of the other side, they have written it from total imagination to achieve their anti-American goals.  They used the IRS fiasco as an example.  The IRA did admit tea party and other conservative groups were targets during Obama era.

Why hasn’t anyone ever done a darn thing about their anti-conservative organization’s stance?   We allow the other side to keep on getting away with the obvious flaunting of the law.  And what was the “on our side” Fox gathering concerned about on Friday, March 16th?  They were fearful that this latest firing will ultimately go in the same direction, with the former FBI head getting his money after all, which he will, in time, receive regardless of his firing.

The Big Question?

Why should any of this be at all possible, starting back with the IRS fiasco and no doubt, long before that?  What is the matter with us?

Arriving at the answer was through the process of elimination.  It’s the only logical one which can explain all this terror – both mental and physical – that has rained down on America for too many years, especially since the Millennium.

There HAS to be a mafia organization (not THE mafia organization, but a facsimile for evil purposes), a “Deep State,” in which the influence of billionaire Marxist George Soros runs deep (Read here about the involvement of Soros in the Deep State), and which is working 24-7 to sway the American people into believing that Trump is evil as a means to transform this nation into a socialist nation in ways that we cannot counter. It began LONG before the IRS caper, and it is as air tight an organization behind the curtain as has ever existed in the United States of America. This link, appearing in the New American, explains the Deep State in detail and how it follows the Rothschild, Soros, and Rockefeller money.

According to a new poll, a majority of Americans believes a faction of unelected officials is orchestrating policy in Washington, D.C. The poll notes that “more than 7 out of 10 Americans polled in each political group, Republican, Democrat and independent, believe in a deep state.”

Perhaps there are those who can’t conceive of unelected individuals working in the shadows.  How could they gain the power and the influence necessary to convince many Americans that Trump colluded with the Russians to win the presidency in November of 2016.  Do they not understand how the Deep State depends on a compliant mainstream media to spread their lies and fake news to brainwash the American people into believing that President was not duly elected and that his policies are detrimental to this nation, when the truth is just the opposite?

The Road Ahead

Our job now is to climb up to the top of the tower with our telescopes and start looking through the clouds to see the reality of what we’ve been too slow to realize.

Here on home soil, might this be our last chance here in Illinois depending of the results of the March 20 Illinois Primary Elections?  Rauner has played on their side and not ours.  Madigan has never disguised his intentions, and he’s brought along many a Rauner in his day.  And this is a microcosm compared to the hornet’s (no rats’) nest in DC, New York, all of California, and a few other places where the “getting’ got good” a long time ago.

Republicans join Trump’s Resistance Movement

Predictable resistance to Trump involves the Deep State, the progressive and socialist Democrat Party, and the news media which has lost any semblance of journalistic honesty and integrity, but renegade members in Trump’s own party are likewise blocking Trump from fulfilling his campaign policies that propelled him to victory.

Although I could name many RINOs who are thwarting Trump, it is unconscionable that Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has deemed proper the funding of Planned Parenthood and Sanctuary Cities, but not a border wall, in the upcoming budget bill. The big spenders of Congress got $200 billion more in spending for pork.  Trump shouldn’t compromise.

Even more upsetting it that both Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have praised Bob Muller’s Special Council investigation of Russian collusion and want it to continue.

Glimmers of Hope?

Andrew C. McCarthy on March 17 in his article, Mueller’s Investigation Flouts Justice Department Standard, wrote:

“Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s failure to set limits on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. To trigger the appointment of a special counsel, federal regulations require the Justice Department to identify the crimes that warrant investigation and prosecution — crimes that the Justice Department is too conflicted to investigate in the normal course; crimes that become the parameters of the special counsel’s jurisdiction.

Rosenstein, instead, put the cart before the horse: Mueller was invited to conduct a fishing expedition, a boundless quest to hunt for undiscovered crimes, rather than an investigation and prosecution of known crime.”

Four Republican senators are calling for the appointment of a second special counsel to investigate how the Department of Justice and FBI handled its probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election before special counsel Robert Mueller appointment, citing that a special prosecutor has more tools and prosecutorial power than an inspector general.  In that the Justice Department cannot credibly investigate itself, an enhanced measure of independence is needed to ensure that the public can have confidence in the outcome.

The longtime Washington attorney, Joseph diGenova, is expected to join the President’s legal team as part of Trump’s strategic communications team to introduce the scale and scope of corruption to almost half the country who have relied upon the false narrative delivered by fake news for the past two years? DiGenova will join the legal team, in part, to engage with the media and actively defend the President. The President’s plans to hire diGenova comes two months after diGenova appeared on Fox News to allege that FBI and Justice Department officials carried out “a brazen plot” to illegally exonerate Hillary Clinton and, if she didn’t win the election, to then frame Donald Trump with a falsely created crime.

Thorner: Heartland’s Patriot’s Toolbox Speakers Series Highlights Today’s Mediocrity in Education

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” was discussed at The Heartland Institute on Wednesday, March 14, 2018, at what was a continuation of The Patriot’s Toolbox Speakers series.  It can be viewed here.

Discussed was Chapter 3 in the Fourth Edition of The Patriot’s Toolbox, Elementary and Secondary Education, which was written by Joseph L. Bast and Vicki Alger (pictured right).  The first edition of The Patriot’s Toolbox was released in 2010.  The new and completely rewritten and thoroughly updated Fourth Edition Patriot’s Toolbox reflect the events of 2016 and part of 2017 up until its publication.  As stated in the preface of The Patriot’s Toolbox, the new edition offers an agenda for incumbent office holders, a platform for candidates for public office, and a report card for civic and business leaders and policies moves of the Trump administration, Congress, and state lawmakers.

Featured guest speaker, Vicki Alger, as co-author of The Patriot’s Toolbox with Joe Bast, spoke of her association with The Heartland Institute for 15 tears.  Ms. Alger is well qualified to write about education as a research fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, CA and author of the book Failure: The Federal Misedukation of America’s Children.  She also holds senior fellowships at the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia and the Independent Women’s Forum in Washington, D.C. Viki Alger lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she is president and CEO of Vicki Murray & Associates LLC.

About our Education Descent from Good to Ugly

Education has always been a high priority for Americans. The Founding Fathers knew a free society would be impossible without an educated population.  According to Thomas Jefferson, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”

During America’s first century, most schooling was done at home or in small schools run by civil institutions such as churches or private societies.  Early in the Progressive Era; however, state governments gradually took over responsibility for providing elementary and secondary schooling.

While private schools continue to operate today, about nine out of every 10 students in the United States attend schools that are owned, operated, and staffed by government employees.  About 70% of the teachers in those schools belong to unions, working under workplace rules that frustrate the best and brightest while protecting incompetent and even dangerous teachers.

Today, 15 years after the Hoover’s Koret Task Force on K-12 Education, evidence of inadequate public-school performance continues to emerge.  The eleven-member task force first met in 1999 and established as its mission to present pertinent facts about K–12 education, contribute to the debate with constructive commentary, and generate new ideas for education reform. The results:

Just 37% of public high school seniors nationwide scored proficient or better on the 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading assessment and only 25% in math.

Proportionally fewer American students perform as well as students in other economically advanced nation.  From 2009 to 2015, American students’ math and science performance rankings dropped to 40% to 25% respectively.

The national high school graduation rate now exceeds 80%, indicating that nearly one in five students drop out before graduating.

Conclusions Point to Mediocrity

• Having government own and operate schools is only one way to deliver K-12 schooling. Experience is teaching us that it may not be the best way.
• America’s government schools are simply not good enough.  They are poor compared to schools in the past, compared to schools in other developed countries, and compared to the schools we should want and expect.
• Government schools in America are well funded.  The problem is that the funding is going to support staff and bureaucracy, and schools are unable to attract and retain the best teachers.
• The biggest problems facing K-12 education in America today are institutional — perverse incentives caused by a system that rewards the wrong behavior and discourages excellence

From 1960 – 2015 enrollment increased 40%, but federal, state, and local spending increased over 400%.  We are spending more on education than we do on defense.  From 1990 – 2015 the average amount spent per child for $13,000.  Much of the money spent is going to support the bureaucracy and staff.  Ms. Alger believes more money should be going to great teachers.

School Choice Programs Benefit Students and Teachers

Competition and choice are appropriate and necessary in an educational system, just as the ensure the efficient delivery of virtually all the other goods and services we need.

Parents also have the legal right to direct the education of their children and should be allowed to choose the schools their children attend.

School choice is popular.  All total these programs are helping nearly 1.4 million students and families access the education option that works best for them.

• Vouchers — which allow public funds to be used to pay for tuition at private schools currently operate in 25 states and Washington, D.C.  Charts displayed documented that private schools achieve more for less money. 8th Grade NAEPO private school math proficiency from 1990- 2005 was 15 points higher.  Measuring the same 8th grade NAEPO reading proficiency from 1992-2015 private school students scored 20 points higher.
• Tax-credit scholarships — which offer tax breaks to donors to scholarship-granting entities — operate in 22 states.
• An additional eight states have tax credit or deduction laws that allow taxpayers to get back from their state governments some part of the amount they spend on private school tuition.
• Education savings accounts (ESAs) — which allow parents to withdraw their children from public schools and have their associated state funding deposited into dedicated-use savings accounts — exist in six states.  Arizona became the first state in 2011 to adopt education savings accounts into law.  It was called “Empowerment Scholarship Accounts,” and was offered first only to children with special needs who were previously enrolled in public schools. How it works is that parents use debit cards to pay expenses and send receipt to the Department of Education each quarter for approval. Vicki Ayers favors this program because parents make the choices with no government interference.

Although home schooling was not included on Alger’s list, it was highly recommended by her. Colleges do accept home-school applicants.  Some colleges have a separate department to deal with them.  Home schooled students do very well scholastically, but it does require an amount of dedication that most parents can’t commit to.

About Common Core

Vicki Alger favors getting rid of the Department of Education.  Common Core State Standards  give the federal government too much control over education, which should be controlled by parents, students, and teachers.  Despite the claim made that Common Core’s standards are rigorous and internationally bench marked, it is none of these.  Some states had more rigorous standards before they adopted Common Core standards.  Most concerning is that the curriculum of Common Core has been politicized, such as the basic historical facts and themes from American history are missing, and in science, that man is the cause of climate change which is then linked to CO2 emissions, when climate is cyclical in nature and is subject to many natural factors that man cannot control.

Thorner does differ with Alger about the four school choice programs cited as being better alternatives than public schools, for once  tax money is accepted they also get all of the regulations which results in the same mediocre education for all.

Welcoming Remarks

Introductory remarks were made by Lennie Jarratt, project manager for the Center for Transforming Education at The Heartland Institute, as to the nature of the Heartland Institute with its focus on education, environmental protection, health care, budgets and taxes, and constitutional reform, and the breadth of its outreach program   Heartland sends three monthly policy newspapers – Budget & Tax News, Environment & Climate News, and School Reform News – to every national and state elected officials in the United States and thousands of civic and business leaders.  Heartland also produces books, policy studies, booklets, podcasts, and videos.

There after Mr. Jarratt invited Lindsey Stroud, named Heartland’s State Government Relations manager in 2017, to  give an account of her activities.  Lindsey’s role includes interacting with elected officials and staff, legislation tracking, and research and writing on various issues.

Lindsey’s Government Relations Department has been busy this year. Currently there are 37 states in session.  Activities include providing testimony in 18 states, including Welfare Reform in Wisconsin, and a Medicaid waivers draft in Idaho.

All total the Government Relations Department visited 19 state Capitols during which legislative meetings and events were held.  Its policy team is in the process of doing research and providing commentary in 40 states on such topics as Medicaid waivers (work requirements); Direct primary care; Right to Try; Coal power plant projects in three states; Carbon taxes (defeated in Washington, Oregon); School choice options; Civil asset forfeiture; Certificate of need; Occupational licensing; Tobacco 21; and Article V/Constitutional Reform.

 

Monday, March 19, 2018 at 08:55 AM | Permalink

Thorner/Ingold: North Korea: Tough Row to Hoe for President Trump

By Nancy Thorner & Ed Ingold – 

As announced on Thursday, March 8th, 2008, President Trump has agreed to sit down with his North Korean nemesis Kim Jong Un sometime in the next two months to discuss stripping the hermit nation of its nuclear arsenal.

This historic meeting was brokered by the South Korean government and delivered to the White House, outside the West Wing, by South Korean national security director Chung Eui-yong, who related that Kim Jong Un had expressed his eagerness to meet with President Trump as soon as possible.  The place and time of the meeting is still to be determined.

According to Chung, the North also agreed to suspend nuclear and missile tests during such future talks, which is a longstanding US demand. Trump’s goal is to achieve permanent denuclearization, not just a freeze.  Trump likewise expressed that the sanctions will remain in place until an agreement is reached.

The relationship between the two world leaders has been downright nasty at time, with Trump repeatedly calling Kim “Little Rocket Man” and Kim dubbing the president a “mentally deranged US dotard.”

A Difficult Row to Hoe

Trump is right about North Korea.  America and North Korea were on a collision course, but it never made sense to launch a military strike against the isolated country North Korea with its crazed leader without first having tried diplomacy.  As many times reiterated, such a strike would cause tens of thousands of casualties in both South and North Korea.

Trump will be talking with the leader of a nation that has a considerable nuclear arsenal and has made impressive missile tests.  Kim might negotiate, but behind the scenes he could continue working to perfect an intercontinental nuclear missile that can reach this nation.  Furthermore, is Kim even willing to trade his nuclear program for peace when he considers his nuclear force necessary to preserve his regime’s security?  Then too, would Kim keep his word if Trump could convince Kim to denuclearize?

Three successive U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, have dealt with the threat posed by North Korea’s weapons tests. Each acted in the same way, removing sanctions almost immediately, based on promises which were never kept. There is no evidence Korea’s nuclear development ever hesitated or slowed down. It was publicly restarted each time after real or imagined affronts to the regime.  Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush made agreements with Kim’s father which were violated, but the son, Kim Jong Un, like his father, seems determined to become a nuclear power.

Lessons Learned?

In Tennessee they say you don’t learn much the second time you get kicked by a mule.

Trump could make the same mistake if he acts based on promises. On the other hand, verification through unrestrained inspections would be effective. It might be difficult to re-impose sanctions if North Korea defaults, but there are military options the previous presidents never even considered or voiced, nor would that response necessarily come close to a nuclear option.  60 cruise missiles took out the Syrian Air Force. Last fall, the US Navy took delivery of nearly 800 cruise missiles in the Far East. One can only guess how many they had on hand, but munitions aren’t distributed on a KanBan basis (a Japanese innovation for inventory control – from delivery truck to the assembly line, just in time). In the interim, Trump has pledged to keep all the sanctions in place until a verified solution is in place. The most effective sanctions, banking and shipping intervention, are under unilateral US control.

Direct talks between leaders of the two nations is a new twist, one which lends gravitas to the status of North Korea’s dictator. Trump needs to think twice and speak once (for a change) and have trusted advisors on hand (and listen to them). Unlike Kerry in Iran, Trump must be prepared to walk out if the talks aren’t going anywhere. Fortunately, that’s not how a New Yorker bargains.  If the deal isn’t good, Trump will walk out. With his predecessors any deal was better than no deal. On the other hand, meeting directly with the US President adds gravitas to the status of Kim Jong Un. Good and bad. It is a boost to his ego, but changes nothing politically, and may make him more receptive to concessions.

Firing of Rex Tillerson a positive move

A good move by President Trump on Tuesday, March 13 was the firing of Rex Tillerson who wasn’t on the same wave length policy-wise as President Trump. They didn’t see eye to eye on some very important issues, including the dirty Iran nuclear deal, North Korea, and Russia. Tillerson was also an advocate for the Paris Accord and the carbon tax.  In addition to not sharing Trump’s views, Tillerson verbally expressed disrespect toward President Trump.

Contrary to what is being reported, The White House says Chief of Staff John Kelly spoke with the now-former Secretary of State Tillerson on Friday and Saturday (March 9 and 10) to say that the President wanted him to resign. When Tillerson refused, he was fired.

Michael Pompeo, who has served as  Director of the Central Intelligence Agency since January 23, 2017,  having been nominated by President Donald Trump to that position, was chosen to replace Tillerson as Secretary of State.  Mike Pompeo earned praise from members of both parties by strengthening intelligence gathering, modernizing our defensive and offensive capabilities, and building close ties with our friends and allies in the international intelligence community.  It was reported that President Trump decided to make the change in order to have a new team in place before a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the spring.  Accordingly, President Trump is expected to lean heavily of Mike Pompeo  as talks with North Korea soon take center stage on the diplomatic front.

Popcorn, anybody?