Republic Poetry - Independence Day (2019)

[Independence Day 2019] #July4th

Republic Poetry by Mark H. Pillsbury

You know what they say:

Death and taxes, you’re gonna pay,

Even if you submitted a delay

It comes due, one of these days.

How many times will you take a deduction?

The accountant makes it into a production.

Tax cut, if you follow the instructions

Your aggregate payment is under reduction.

If not April, then October

Calculate the return while you are sober.

Lower payments assist the voter

Causing some Dems even, to crossover.

Trump raises more money than all other candidates combined

His rallies are attended by patriots, although unrefined

They aren’t blue-blood Republicans, more the Libertarian kind

Finally, a nominee they can get behind.

Judges who follow the straight-and-narrow

Regulations cut down to the marrow.

Federal taxation focused on “las rebajas”

Immigration debate about renewing DACA.

e – pluribus – u – Num

out of many, One!

Based on a con-sti-tu-Shun

First, I’m an Ameri – Cun

We the people, shouldn’t fear gov’t. – this I know

Gov’t. should fear the people, for its powers they bestow.

First ten amendments are the Bill of Rights:

They are types of likes, retained and concise – liberty's light!

The Constitution limits government, in writing

At least there’s Kavanaugh & Gorsuch on the bench, fighting.

A sacred document protecting the people’s freedoms

Not a big fan of federal judges, unless you need ‘em.

Most of all we lead in oil & gas exports

Competition for this commodity is bloodsport.

Energy independence - for national security,

The middle east no longer dominates w/this disparity.

So as I contemplate using a 1040 form, either short or long,

I work and whistle this simple little song:

"You are beautiful from sea to shining sea,"

America, the city on a hill; God shed His grace on thee.

For 243-years we’ve tested the Republic,

The Declaration of Independence, glad it was published.

Wars, depressions, scandals, and elections

Be careful next year as you make your selections.

Choosing the leaders is the consent of the governed

With thoughtful discernment and prayer, it should be covered.

The President wants a return to former glory,

The other party is a conflicted story.

Liberals, greenies, socialists, borders, and abortion

So many candidates, their agenda is in torsion:

Make gov’t. a bigger part of your life;

And give Pres. Trump 2 more years of strife!

Bernie will cancel your college debt

Paying back your loan is something to forget.

Wall Street will pay (but they don’t know it yet?)

A new way of life; the socialist mindset.

Platforms, planks, positions, sidebars
Spanish-speaking is the newest debate-spar.
It takes their eyes off of who they really are,
Companions in shipwreck, not guiding stars.

We the people established the constitution
In order to form a more perfect union
I don't know Donald J. Trump's position
It's more important there's no collusion?

Are my truths here, self-evident?
The three branches must both collaborate and fight:
That's right. As consequential as the President.
None of this is taught in university,
They're too worried about diversity.

Why do immigrants come to our shore?

They are looking to provide even more

Those of us who vote, you know it from before,

In 2020, it comes down to this classic score:

Are you better off than before?

The Trump Train, pulling out from the station

Citizen-voters jump-on, all over the nation.

These verses were written after contemplation

“Keep America Great” is the exclamation!

2019©Mark H. Pillsbury 

The Most Important Venn Diagram in Politics

Venn Diagram in Presidential Politics: 2016

I wrote previously about arbitrage (02/22/2013):  http://rostranovum.blogspot.com/2013/02/beginning-with-letter-arbitrage.html

Arbitrage is the method of finding a trading advantage because of some sort of unknown inequality. I’m fascinated by finding the angle or the area of analysis no one else is looking for?

There’s always a hinge-issue, a decision-point, a key deciding group that swings elections, and finding that group keeps political scientists busy every four years between major elections.

With so much of this cycle focused on the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the top candidates, feeding the cult of personality the salacious purple Kool-Aid of the 24-hour news cycle has dominated the thinking of the professional political class.

But I don’t care about the pundits; I’m interested in a large chunk of US citizens otherwise forgotten in our society. These voters are disaffected, disengaged, and outcast.

In the 2012, 58% percent of registered voters turned out for the very close election between President Obama and Mitt Romney; however, 93 million registered voters did not vote.

Currently, the federal agency which tracks employment, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, said 94.6 million working adults were no longer participating in the workforce—they aren’t employed and they no longer are seeking employment.

A Venn diagram is a diagram that uses circles to illustrate the relationships among sets, and in this case the two sets are as follows: Set A is the large block of registered adults who did not exercise their voting rights in the last Presidential election. Set B is the large group of adults that are of working age and cannot find a job, to the point that they are a group no longer even looking to find a job.

In a Venn diagram, the region in both A and B, where the two sets overlap, is called the intersection of A and B, and it is the area of critical importance in my current thinking regarding Tuesday’s Presidential election. It is the area where the non-voters and the unemployed intersect, a powerful voting block of motivated citizens (hypothetically).

It is at this intersection, where sincere political analysis raises a number of questions:

• How big is the overlap of Set A (non-voters) and Set B (non-workers)?
• Are the the millions in the overlap region motivated enough to decide to vote this Presidential election, as opposed to not voting last time?
• If these people do actually vote, for whom will that voting block cast their ballot?
• Is this voting group big enough to swing the election either way?
• How do these folks think about the direction of our country, or the quality of the nominees?

Wouldn’t this be a great group to track over the next 48-hours…

©Mark H. Pillsbury

8 Weeks to Decide

Today's thoughts on eight (8) weeks to decision 2012:

©Bob Simpson/Chicago

With almost 20,000 homeless children in New York City, which is the highest number since the great depression, and 400,000 school kids cut loose in Chicago today b/c their teachers will not teach, I am deeply concerned about these examples of “at-risk” young people in America.

With per capita-GDP (per worker/gross domestic product) still 1.9% below 2007 levels enjoyed before the recession, and 8 million people out of work but not counted as unemployed, because they stopped looking for work, my concern for our country grows today. People are getting by with less or nothing.

With a new record national debt reaching $16 Trillion last Friday and over 30% of our IOUs held by the Social Security Trust Fund (literally borrowing against our future), it is no wonder the approval rating for our government is only at 30% favorable. Government spending has reached epic proportions, outstripping the revenues it collects and forcing higher deficits. This civic course is unsustainable.

photo by Luis Robayo ©AFP/GettyImages

With military deaths from suicide outweighing combat deaths by a two-to-one ratio this year, and two consecutive years of Pentagon budget cuts over $525 Billion, I am deeply concerned about the quality of life for our most dedicated public servants in uniform.

With the 2012 drought estimated to cost close to $80 Billion in related losses, second only to the 1988 drought, and next to Hurricane Katrina, and USDA rating 50% of the 2012 corn crop "poor" or "very poor;" there are thousands of food producers and farmers with dry ground and crumbling budgets this year. The long-term effects may rival the Dust Bowl era, and we consumers will be hit also.

I don’t know whether these separate problem-sets inter-lock, but there are large sectors of the population that are hurting today like no other time in American history, and as a patriotic citizen I hurt with them in a real way. I too am looking for a better opportunity.

Although I recognize that our history includes many dark chapters and times of uncertainty, today I find no comfort in the past. Today, I feel pain, and I am fearful that many forces of evil are intermeshed within these intractable problems. Sometimes I cannot sleep for worrying.

In my huge city, traffic snarls, crime surges, and the economic recovery is slower than expected. Due to economic pressures, too many families missed a vacation this summer, and there hasn’t been a pay raise in years. The question of “quality of life” weighs heavy on my heart this morning.

Our receptivity to change at this crossroads time in American history has to be significant, and the national election is just eight (8) weeks away. This is a decision-point. Nevertheless, the divide between candidates, worldviews, and political persuasions seems like a massive chasm. The election will swing on those who are currently “undecided,” independent, or never have voted before. These groups seem invisible at this point, but they will decide which direction the country turns.

New Hampshire by ©KALIM SALIBA

Each candidate will try to reach 270 electoral votes on Nov. 6 and the decision comes down to trust, confidence, and one’s outlook on the future. Doesn’t the voting decision relate to the value the administration has added or detracted over this past four (4) year term, the confidence that the leadership and plans exhibited are acceptable this time, and/or whether or not the voter feels like they are confident that they will be better off with one of the candidates as chief executive going forward?

Additionally, both parties have full slates of leaders farther down the ballot up for election in both state and federal legislatures, an important component to governance. Which President would work best with those groups? It is momentous to think about, and there isn't much more time.

I realize there are dozens of issues not mentioned here that resonate with numerous different voting blocs, especially those in the “social” category, like healthcare, abortion, or gay-marriage, but I do not have the space or time to argue those. The point is that I am very concerned with the quality-of-life in our country, and one of the big turning points in our civic life which might affect these problems, is right over the next hill. This is a time of deep contemplation and prayer for the future of our beloved nation, and I hope you share this perspective in your own way and I would invite you to comment herein below.

©Mark H. Pillsbury

Dinesh D'Souza - CPAC 2012 speech - It launched a Movie: 2016

Dinesh D'Souza - CPAC 2012 speech - YouTube: "http://youtu.be/Z6QOscKvUjU"

'via Blog this'

This Speech has been made into a Movie, by Dinesh D'Souza (YouTube video above)

Why wouldn’t this country’s media dig deeply into a relatively unknown candidate? Why did the pleasure of overcoming an historical barrier override the typical journalistic effort applied to a major candidate?

Did they review carefully the life of Barack Obama as they did candidates like George W. Bush or John Kerry?

Who were the most influential people in the life of Barack Obama, considering he never knew his father? So many facts about Barack Obama are left unexplained.

How does Obama’s history of leftist, radical, socialist/anti-colonial politics match with the accommodating image of a moderate, post-partisan candidate portrayed in the 2008 campaign? What happens after Obama does not have to campaign anymore? The movie suggests what the country will look like in 2016.

Why did Bill Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, and so many of Obama's mentors get pushed aside during the campaign? If the American people knew who Obama was they would see he is not an ordinary Democrat. He's not just a Chicago-style influence peddler/community organizer, he has a global vision unlike any other president in our history.

Frank Marshall Davis

I came to these conclusions about the next term of an Obama presidency:

1. What can relieve some of the pressure on the government to bring in more revenue? More taxes. The CBO estimates the new tax burden will be 3% of GDP.
2. Has the power and prestige of US foreign policy increased or decreased during this presidency? It has been a twisted and confusing foreign policy and ultimately islamic power in the middle east has risen and our standing and the standing of Israel has decreased. (Iran, Libya, Syria, Egypt... do they seem consistent?)
3. The movie sets forth a dichotomy between two worldviews that anyone watching the movie has to decide between?  Oil drilling, NASA, radical Islam issues: Libya versus Syria, Iran versus Egypt, bigger government, healthcare, re-aligning American foreign policy away from Israel, there are so many parts of the Obama story that puzzle me.
4. Even if one supports Obama, but has not read his books, it is worth to see how the scholar and political writer Dinesh D'Souza peels back Obama's own words in the books that many of us did not actually read?! Even if you think you know a lot about the president, there is stuff in here which is surprising, and it comes right out of Obama's mouth.
5. Much of the movie is taken with drilling into the words of Obama's story as previously written, and interdicting the his story with more factual research. This is the kind of work that America's media aristocracy chose not to do. For some reason he just got a pass. Maybe that will not continue in a second Obama term.

I learned many things from this work and highly recommend that anyone interested in politics, history, presidential power, or current events, take time to go see this movie as it tries to interpret what Obama will do with a second term. It opens all over the country on July 27, 2012.

©Mark H. Pillsbury

Herman Cain steps up attacks on Occupy Wall Street protests - latimes.com

quoted from the article: Nancy Pelosi and I agree on something:

Herman Cain steps up attacks on Occupy Wall Street protests - latimes.com: (Nancy Pelosi)"“I support the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen,” she said “We cannot continue in a way that does not — that is not relevant to their lives. People are angry.”"

'via Blog this'

Hope and change must be relevant to the voter's life. 7 out of 10 Americans believe that the President has not handled the economy correctly and now Nancy Pelosi says that change "has to happen." I agree with her. The next general election is a great place to start.