Promises, Promises

In our age of propaganda, promises don’t mean much. Especially when made by a politician. Especially true when made by any republican it seems.

The white house occupant claims Democrats are playing politics with their intelligence committee minority report to counteract the false claims and misstatements of the Nunes report. I don’t know if his claims are true, but the Nunes report is clearly political and needs expert review to determine what is true and what is not in its contents. To do that, Democrats have written their own report. Expert analysis of it should be applied as well to determine what is misstatement and what is political. Both are suspect in this age of propaganda.

Besides, the WH occupant started all of this foolishness with his own political hyperbole and propaganda. If he’d just let the professionals do their job, his job might be easier and more productive.

Another instance of propaganda is occupant’s floating an idea about immigration reform, an idea that will be supported by both parties in congress. Where has he been? The immigration issue predated his administration; it has been around for many decades. Congress has refused to make changes over the years and keeps kicking the can down the alley. I think this is intentional. The political value afforded them by the issue is too rich to let pass. They don’t want to solve the problem. Actually, no one can actually define the problem. It is not about border security; that issue is its own problem area easily solved by the host of programs already provided with Border Security Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the FBI, countless other intelligence agencies, Drug Enforcement Agency, ATF and the military. Let’s not forget the National Guard in border states and coast line defenses. And the Coast Guard. And the police agencies in all the states, counties and municipalities involved with border security.

Yes; that’s right; there is no immigration problem. Too many immigrants in any one year? We have policy for that, and procedures to manage it.  Why is it a problem now? Want to streamline the system so it is faster, fairer and responsive? Well then, form a task force to do that work and write the legislation for later adoption.

The truth of the matter is we are an immigrant nation. We should not manage immigration to restrict immigration; rather we should encourage it. Immigrants refresh our society. They bring skills, talents, artistic passions and political points of view that enrich our culture. They do not damage our society.

Terrorists damage countless societies throughout the global community. If that is your concern, define it and focus management expertise on that. Don’t sweep immigrants into that issue just because it is politically attractive. Attractive to manipulators and propagandists; but not truthful to the rest of us. And harmful as well. Shame on all those who conflate these issues as one. They are separate.

We were promised the best and brightest people to work in the occupant’s administration. So far we have more than 40 people working in close proximity to national power centers and they have not passed security clearances. Say what? You heard me. We surely don’t want violent, abusive people working in our government; but we also need people who can and do pass security clearance analysis. Really? We can and should do better.

Deficit spending will be contained and managed. Where have we heard that before? When it was politically persuasive; evidently, it isn’t any more. So spend, spend, spend our little conservatives. As long as you get what you want I guess it doesn’t matter what everyone else needs. Wants and needs. Ever the skirmish to fight over. Childish.

Is America great again? When did it lose its greatness? How about the last year? Yep! That’s about right. Promises, promises.

February 13, 2018