I've intentionally steered away from writing since the election for a number of reasons. First, there is an ever-growing number of Senators, House members, journalists and pundits that have collectively lost their minds. Secondly, even reputable news sources, like Foreign Policy magazine and the Economist have clearly jumped the shark with anti-Trump headlines. Third, the Elites have clearly missed the message of this election. They are dug in like ticks and it is seemingly impossible to pull them out. Trump will not drain the swamp, if at all, alone.
While I am thankful that ordinary Americans do not seem to yet be infected, I feel compelled to make a plea for reason nonetheless.
Russia
Newsflash: Russia has been influencing elections in the United States since 1788. That's right, since the inception of our nation, foreign powers have made every effort to persuade our people to support one candidate or another through money, threats, fear and direct action. Just because it is done through "hacking" rather than newspaper plants in 2016 doesn't suddenly make it worse or more remarkable.
Another newsflash: The United States has been influencing "elections" in Russia since 1917. That's right, America has taken direct and indirect action to change events in Russia since the Communist Revolution. Most recently, the CIA, at Hillary Clinton's instruction, paid influence peddlers in Russia to arrange protests of Vladimir Putin's "reelection." As we say down south, he took that kinda personal like. And turnabout is fair play.
These are all well known facts. So, to sit self-righteously and peddle a false narrative like "Russia hacked the election" is naive and can only be designed to weaken Trump for political gain. It is unpatriotic and should stop immediately, lest we have a real war with Russia and need our Commander in Chief to be strong.
Finally, blaming Russia for hacking John Podesta's poorly secured emails is like leaving the keys in your unlocked Ferrari with a "steal me" sign on it and then blaming the thief. They spy on us. We spy on them. They hack us, and we hack them. That is unremarkable to me. What is remarkable to me is that the same administration that funneled money to a faux political group in Israel to oppose Netanyahu now whines that their not so super-secret, embarrassing emails were hacked and used against them in humiliating fashion during an election. Again, turnabout is fair play. Get over it.
And just in case there are some truly uninformed folks out there who still listen to MSNBC, Russia did not "hack the election." Not a single voting machine was tampered with by Russia. Not a single polling station reported Russian spies standing outside with money or guns. No votes were changed. We are all responsible for our own votes and, yes, Trump actually won the election fair and square.
Israel
The Obama administration seems intent on settling scores with foreign political rivals in the final days of its presidency. Obama and liberal Democrats want to start a war with Russia (a nuclear power) because they were politically embarrassed. John Kerry, Samantha Power and President Obama want to make sure Israel's bargaining position in the middle east is completely undermined because Netanyahu embarrassed Obama in the Congress over the Iran deal. The lesson here is, do whatever you want, but do not embarrass Democrats. Hell hath no fury...
Israel has been at war with all non-Jews in the middle east for more than 5,000 years. There is no American President or Secretary of State that will ever change that. When your culture is ancient, you tend to take a long view of things. Jews have taken the long view of the current conflict with the Palestinians, as well they should. It reminds me of the story of Beethoven visiting Prince Lichnowsky in the Austrian court. After a perceived insult, Beethoven famously said: "There have been and still will be thousands of princes, but there will be only one Beethoven."
Israel will stand until the end of time, regardless of what President Obama or John Kerry say. Unfortunately, the end of time can be hastened by Iranian nuclear missiles. All nuclear strategy and diplomacy is dependent on what has been known as the "rational man theory." That is, our strategists have traditionally based their analysis on the premise that a rational man has his finger on the big, red button in Russia, or wherever there are nuclear weapons. The idea goes something like this; a rational man would not press the button because he is virtually assured of reciprocal destruction. The theory can be reduced to "mutually assured destruction" or "MAD" for short.
MAD is fantastic, if you have a rational actor on the other side. But, what happens when you have a crazy Jihadi, dreaming of his 72 virgins, with his dirty little hand on the button?
Boom.
The German Connection
Germany, a member of NATO, is down to its last 408 tanks. Most of those are not considered main battle tanks, and not all of those are in service. Some sources put the number of operational main battle tanks in Germany at around 80.
You cannot be a serious military player with 80 tanks. Even with 408 tanks, comparable military powers include, Kazakhstan, Chile, and the Democratic Peoples Republic of Congo. (For comparison, Egypt has 4600 and Russia has 15,000). Nevertheless, Germany, through its bizarre immigration of Syrian refugees, has opened the gates of Europe to the gates of Hell. The nation least capable and least willing to fight Jihadism has sealed Europe's fate.
The number of known refugees from the middle east currently in Europe now exceeds one million. It is probably many more than that and, while it is true that the vast majority are peaceful, it takes only a small percentage to destabilize the continent. As I've said before, it would only take 3,000 Jihadis with guns to lay siege to a large city or overtake a small town. If you think holding 300 people hostage in a nightclub is bad, wait and see what holding an entire town hostage looks like.
And that's without a nuke.
I'm sorry to be so blunt, but the time for silliness is over. Hurt feelings over the election, safe spaces and crying rooms are no match for the very scary enemies we face. Yes, Russia is an adversary, but let's be adult about their misconduct. George W. Bush should have stopped Putin when he invaded Georgia. He didn't. Obama should have stopped Putin in Crimea. He didn't. He again could have intervened in Ukraine and didn't. I have no patience for intervention now just because he and his friends are embarrassed over a hacking scandal. Again, silliness.
The challenges we face are identical now to the challenges we faced before the election. America chose a new President and presumably a new direction for handling these challenges. The collective wisdom of the American people always impresses me. We are smarter, more resolute, tougher and wiser than the entire class of elite, self-proclaimed "experts" that have mucked up our world over the last 25 years. Let's have some faith in ourselves and our new leadership.
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