As We Move Past the Fifteenth Anniversary of 9/11, We Look to Donald Trump and Mike Pence to Carry on the Fight to Keep America and the World Safe

It is late on 9/11 as I try to write about any topic that is not 9/11. Not that I want to forget that seminal day, but because it is so painful that writing about it is difficult. I am trying to get past 9/11, 2016 -- 'get past' because 'getting over' 9/11 is impossible. It rests in the pit of the stomach of every American, lying in wait to turn our insides into knots at unexpected innocent images -- an FDNY or NYPD officer, a skyscraper in some distant land looking out at us from a TV screen, Aleppo civilians covered in ash after the latest al-Assad bombing, "Amazing Grace" playing anywhere anytime. That weight resting in my stomach is the reason why, when I write "9/11...Lest We Forget," I know that we never will forget, because 9/11 has taken its place beside "Remember the Alamo" and "Remember Pearl Harbor" as calls to Americans to honor and defend its Constitution and flag. The Flag. The emblem as old as America that stands for freedom and love of country. Whatever these foolish young NFL team members wanted to do on Sunday, 9/11, 2106, to dishonor the Flag is reprehensible, but not mortal in any sense. America has watched while the Flag survived a British bombing and Francis Scott Keys wrote the Star Spangled Banner. The Flag survived when anti-Vietnam protesters were told by the Supreme Court that they could continue to burn it. We were horrified, but it was explained as a First Amendment right of free speech that was not honorable but permissible. Their right and the right of the newest crop of protesters is sadly similar. Neither group grasps the meaning of the Flag. They will understand with time, or they will fade into history, relics of a protest that was senseless because it attacked the symbol, and the soldiers black and white, who defend their own rights. ~~~~~~ And, while Hillary Clinton does everything safely -- the "right" way -- spontaneous Trump gets all of the media attention -- mostly negative because the media detests Trump's call to reject Progressive elite-led government -- even the Democrat Governor of Louisiana said that Donald Trump's trip to his state was "helpful" in getting the country's attention on the devastating flooding around Baton Rouge. Then, Trump went to Mexico while Hillary decided to wait for a more"appropriate" time. But, even though Hillary does not agree with Trump's Wall and refusal to grant amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants flooding into the US, she has to admit that it is a problem and 90% of it comes to America across the Rio Grande -- so why would she seek a more appropriate time to begin trying to solve the problem? Trump wants to spend enough money to turn the VA mess around and get real help to veterans and to rebuild the military hit with a 'scorched earth' policy by Obama for those who disagreed with his Middle East 'policy' -- but all Hillary does is attack Trump for raising the issues, even saying the VA is in good shape, while offering no policy of her own. Trump says Obamacare has failed and needs to be replaced. Health insurance premiums are rising unacceptably and the choice of both doctors nad hospitals is decreasing at a rapid pace. But Hillary says she will continue with Obamacare and provide a one-payer government-run alternative -- it is called socialized healthcare. ~~~~~~ The polls are beginning to show that Trump's spontaneity is overtaking Hillary's plodding efforts to walk in Obama's hugely unpopular footsteps. That is the mark of ideology at work. Hillary will continue those policies that have chopped Americans into little patches of malleable voting blocs. She will continue down the path to European socialism paid for by unwilling US taxpayers. For me, the best example of just how partisan and non-factual the 2106 presidential campaign has become is the August 11 edition of Sabato's Crystal Ball, written by Alan I. Abramowitz, Senior Columnist at Larry Sabato's Center for Politics at University of Virginia. it is titled, "Forecasting the 2016 Presidential Election: Will Time for Change Mean Time for Trump?" You can read the polling details by googling the article. However, the key is that when Sabato analyzes Abramowitz's 'Time for Change' model that shows Donald Trump as a small favorite in the presidential election, Sabato says Abramowitz "throws some cold water on his own model" by noting Trump’s challenges, but concedes that Abramowitz’s model is one more indication that a generic Republican very well could have been the favorite in 2016 -- and that if Trump comes back to win the election, it might be because certain “fundamentals” (like the state of the economy and the President’s approval rating, which Abramowitz’s model stresses) indicated that the country was ready for a change." KEEP IN MIND that the Time for Change forecasting model has correctly predicted the winner of the national popular vote in every presidential election since 1988. The model uses three predictors -- the incumbent President’s approval rating at midyear (late June or early July) in the Gallup Poll, the growth rate of real GDP in the second quarter of the election year, and whether the incumbent President’s party has held the White House for one term or more than one term. Using these three predictors, the model has forecast the incumbent party’s share of the major party vote with a high degree of accuracy around three months before Election Day. The Time for Change model predicts a narrow victory for Donald Trump -- 51.4% to 48.6%. But, Sabato, who has shown an obvious bias toward Hillary, then says : "Despite the excellent track record of the Time for Change model, there are good reasons to be skeptical about the 2016 forecast : "For one thing, the overwhelming majority of national polls during the spring and summer of 2016 have shown Clinton leading Trump [no longer true]. National polls completed shortly before and after the national party conventions gave Clinton an average lead of about five percentage points, and Clinton is up by about eight points now [no longer true]. Beyond the poll results, the Time for Change forecasting model is based on two crucial assumptions -- first, that both major parties will nominate mainstream candidates capable of unifying their parties and, second, that the candidates will conduct equally effective campaigns so that the overall outcome will closely reflect the “fundamentals” incorporated in the model....The nomination of Trump by the Republican Party in 2016 appears to violate both of the Time for Change model’s key assumptions. Trump is clearly not a mainstream Republican and he does not appear to be running a competent campaign -- he has lagged far behind Clinton in both fundraising and grassroots organizing in the swing states, and his rhetoric on the campaign trail has frequently brought sharp criticism from prominent Republicans as well as Democrats. In fact, there has never been a major party nominee like Trump -- a reality TV star and wealthy businessman with no longstanding ties to the Republican Party, no political experience, and a penchant for insulting major voting groups. As a result, many prominent Republican leaders, including the last two Republican Presidents, and the party’s 2012 nominee have refused to endorse Trump....Therefore, despite the prediction of the Time for Change model, Clinton should probably be considered a strong favorite to win the 2016 presidential election as suggested by the results of recent national and state polls." IS THERE any better proof that polls, and the elite in general, are steadfast in their support of Hillary Clinton, despite her many glaringly illegal acts and unpopular positions?? ~~~~~~ Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, an expert in political poll analysis, explains how Trump, although behind in recent polling, will pull off a victory because of a phenomenon that describes the willingness of some voters to tell pollsters they prefer a more socially acceptable candidate while planning to vote entirely different on election day : "Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the elections...it's become socially desirable, especially if you're a college educated person in the US, to say that you're against Donald Trump. The hidden Trump vote in this country is a very significant proposition....People who are supporting Donald Trump, who have not voted Republican in the past, who have not voted in quite a while, are so tired of arguing with family and friends and colleagues about their support of Donald Trump that they just decided not to discuss it. We give people a comfortable way to express that maybe they don't want to vote this year and why that is." The Guardian noted that the political phenomenon is known as "the Bradley effect," named after former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, who was favored in polls in California's 1982 gubernatorial election over his Republican opponent, George Deukmejian, before suffering a narrow shock loss on election day. ~~~~~~ Some reasons for the Bradley Effect operating in 2106 could be related to the state of the job market in the US. Ron Paul says the government manipulated the July jobs report : "In reality there are a million fewer people with jobs this month than last month, but the magic of seasonal adjustment turns that into a gain of 255,000..." mostly government and health care jobs that do little to grow the US economy and create more jobs. And, Grover Norquist of No New Taxes fame, says Donald Trump will win the presidency if he can get the focus back on the economy instead of on the GOP presidential nominee's recent gaffes on the trail. Citing a slow growing economy under President Obama, Norquist told The Hill that "a lot of damage has been done -- and any focus on that between now and the election: Hillary can’t win." ~~~~~~ In a preview of the forthcoming “presidential debate,” Hillary and Trump participated in a Forum last Wednesday moderated by Matt Lauer. From the attacks on Lauer by his news media colleagues, one would conclude that despite the fact that he interrupted Trump far more often than he did Hillary, he was trying to help him. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hillary performed poorly, and the reactions by her media enablers indicate they know that and are trying to muzzle the debate moderators. James Taranto at the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web had a warning for Hillary & Hacks : "They should be careful what they wish for. If the moderators and Mrs. Clinton tag-team Trump, fair-minded viewers will see that it’s an unfair fight. And Trump is ferocious enough that he could still win.” One tweet said : “The intensity of media hate toward Matt Lauer can only mean that Hillary embarrassed herself and Trump didn't.” Conservative Hollywood actor James Woods, who notified to no avail the FBI of the 9/11 hijackers practice run, observed a pearl-shaped device in her ear, which he suggests, as a means to transmit answers to her. He noted a Clinton email released by Wikileaks from Huma Abedin: “Did u take your earpiece or do I need to get it?” Ironically, the revelation that Clinton was wearing an earpiece might have only been recognized because of astute NYPD officers attached to her security detail who are accustomed to seeing the stealth apparatus at stage shows, conventions and security personnel of VIPs and international dignitaries at the UN and elsewhere in New York City. American Thinker's Thomas Lipscomb urged Trump to sweep the debate room to find out where the transmitter is located and the frequency : “Then powerup a tone generator and bomb her frequency with high frequency warble tones so painful she has to pull it out in public. Should be hilarious. She may even start another coughing fit.” As for her coughing fits, Our Girl Hillary has warned reporters to lay off her health issues : “The Clinton campaign warns media to lay off covering her health issues, such as her four-minute coughing attack at a public appearance, and her concussion, which incapacitated her for weeks, and which she told the FBI had caused her to forget the answers to many of their questions." Another arrogant Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, told Paul Ryan to forbid the GOP from using any of the hacked DNC information against Democrat candidates in the campaign. Moderator for the first presidential debate, NBC's Lester Holt, is probably not someone Clinton has to worry about. He attacked Trump for suggesting her emails on her private server had been hacked. [They were hacked by “hostile foreign actors.”] Here is the Holt-Trump exchange : " HOLT: You also made the claim that her e-mail, personal e-mail server had been hacked. TRUMP: Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments. HOLT: Suggesting that as President -- TRUMP: You don't know that it hasn't been -- HOLT: Wait a minute. Suggesting that she would be compromised as President. What evidence do you have? TRUMP: First of all, she shouldn't have had a personal server, okay? She shouldn't have had it, it's illegal. What she did is illegal. Now she might not be judged that way because we have a rigged system, but what she did is illegal. She shouldn't have had a personal server." The other moderators are equally biased in favor of Hillary, but perhaps that will be so obvious that Trump will win partly because of how he is treated. For Democrats hoping Clinton will blow Trump away in the upcoming presidential debate, Wednesday night's forum was, as I wrote last week, a cautionary tale. It showed Trump's serious strengths in the TV medium where he excels and where Clinton's experience may not be the advantage her supporters hope for. And, for any 'NeverTrump' fool who thought the Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson might be an acceptable alternative, when he admitted this week that he didn’t know what “Aleppo” was -- and Green candidate Jill Stein was charged with criminal vandalism -- forget them. NeverTrump types have been caught out with no candidate to offer. Even NeverTrump pundits Mark Levin and Norman Podhoretz have seen the light and are supporting Trump. Podhoretz’s explanation is weighty : "I think the Iran deal is one of the most catastrophic actions that any American President has ever taken. That’s how seriously I regard it. It paves the way for Iran to get a nuclear weapon. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, I think that we would be in great danger of seeing an outbreak of a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel. So that alone would be enough to turn me against the Obama administration and virtually everyone who took part in it, and certainly Hillary Clinton. It overshadows everything from my point of view." And the outrageously labeled "leverage" of illegal transfer of billions of untraceable dollars to Iran is being documented along with the fact that another $100 billion will go to Iran once sanctions are lifted. If that’s not enough, the scandals of the Clinton Foundation -- that Hillary and Bill refuse to say will not keep operating with Chelsea at the head if hillary becomes Presidnet -- will sooner or later be so evident than even her media lap dogs will not be able to hide it. ~~~~~~ But, dear readers, Hillary Clinton's calling half of Donald Trump's supporters "the basket of deplorables," and then saying, by way of apology, that she got the percentage of "deplorables" wrong, while refusing to step back from labeling people who support Trump as : "The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic -- you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. It's deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It's deplorable that he's attacked a federal judge for his 'Mexican heritage,' bullied a Gold Star family because of their Moslem faith, and promoted the lie that our first black President is not a true American. So I won't stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I'm determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top." Hillary might begin by accepting the fact that reasonable Americans -- a lot of them -- disagree with her and her Progressive claptrap. As rock-solid VP candidate Mike Pence said : "They are Americans and they deserve respect." And, if anyone is still wondering where Hillary & Hacks want to take America, consider this. A federal appeals court has blocked Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from requiring residents to prove they are US citizens when registering to vote using a national form.The 2-1 ruling late last Friday is a victory for voting rights groups who sued a US election official after he changed proof-of-citizenship requirements on the federal registration form at the request of the three states. Other states only require people registering to vote to swear they are citizens, not show documentary proof. A federal judge in July refused to block the requirement while the case was being decided. The League of Women Voters and civil rights groups argued that the requirements could lead to the "mass disenfranchisement" of thousands of potential voters -- many of them poor, African American and living in rural areas -- and we might add, 90% of them are Democrat voters. Is there no decency left in the Democrat Party? None. And Hillary is its standard-bearer. Hillary -- who, we learn belatedly has pneumonia, the reason she became so ill at the 9/11 ceremony today that she lost control of her legs and had to be lifted into her van. So, "get past" 9/11 but never "get over" it...it is the new symbol, sitting right beside the Flag, that reminds Americans every day that those who seek to destroy us are not only foreign jihadist islamic terrorists. Some sit at the highest echelons of our federal Government. Vote the Trump and Pence ticket. Nothing else matters.