by Michael Gulett –
This post has nothing to do with classic cars, which is not normal for me.
But we live in abnormal times now.
After the events of today here in the USA I thought of these three songs, among other thoughts.
Listen to them, or not.
“The Times They Are A-Changin” by Bob Dylan
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
“For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield (Stephen Stills)
There’s something happening here
But what it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to bewareI think it’s time we stop
Children, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking’ their minds
Getting so much resistance from behindIt’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look – what’s going down?
“After The Goldrush” by Neil Young
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature’s
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature’s
Silver seed to a new home.
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
Buddha
This is the time of the “Porsche” and not the “Tiger !’. We need peace on the Eastern Front because there are not enough Tigers to bail out NATO. I think things will settle down when we realize that terrain is as flat as a pool table. There is no racing legacy on the Eastern Front. The answer, is of course:”blowing in the wind but “It ain’t me babe”.
All great songs and among my favorites, Mike, but I can’t bring myself to listen to them today. All of my European friends have been in touch to ask what the hell we are thinking in this country.
Australians are asking the same question . How can a person who gets the least total votes in an election be the winner and become President .? This many times bankrupt , non taxpayer suddenly becomes the most powerful political figure in the World . God help the rest of the world and God save America . Billions were wiped from our small stockmarket after the news broke here .
All good thoughts. I feel like I woke up in somone else’s dream, and not a good one. One thing for sure is that the bar has been lowered to the bottom peg.
And we chided our Brit friends over Brexit. That’ll teach us!
For a Country that has produced so many great Men and Women in the past, how can it
possibly choose a Buffoon like this to lead it into the future…? I guess I didn’t really understand
America like I thought I did.
Tom.
Victoria, Australia.
I think we made a good choice. I can’t believe Hillary could make a good president. How do you think her and Bill got so wealthy in such a short time. They claimed they were broke went they left the White House. But now they are filthy rich.
She took silver and some furniture from the white house but had to return it.
The pendulum swings, America is not about the government, it’s not about political dynasties it’s about the people and they have spoke. It will be OK. Take a drive and enjoy life.
Thanks, Mike Clarke… Yours are the wisest words in this post. See you on Route 66!
+1 Mike.
https://youtu.be/q0POXW4V1_k
I don’t think so.
50 % of this country found Trump acceptable enough to elect as President. The irony of Trump, and there’s enough to fill one of his towers, is that the Tea Party of 2010 portrayed Obama as Hitler…and now they’ve elected one.
And after years of falsely accusing Obama of not being a US citizen, DT is rewarded with the Presidency, the highest office in the world. The universe loves to play tricks.
What goes up, must come down.
The bigger the front, the bigger the back.
The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all.
Thank you Mike for this forum.
The President has always been a figurehead. It is those behind him that truly make decisions. Donald will simply ruffle more feathers than most. Congress and Senate control the fate of our country. Some were afraid a woman in office would instigate ISIS and the middle east. Others feared a man who often speaks before he thinks would say the wrong thing at the wrong time, setting off foreign (or even domestic) rage. It was a tough election for everyone, with criminal implications on both sides. It seems to me that political parties are a thing of the past, because Americans can no longer be pocketed and labeled. We have evolved beyond that.
Each of us has our own set of priorities we feel the president must address, and no one person will ever please everyone. We can only pray that somehow in this case, change is good.
Everyone wanted Obama out of office. That time is fast approaching. I’ve heard many say that now they don’t think as negatively of him after witnessing the ugly Presidential campaign. All I know is that anyone crazy enough to want to be President in the first place scares me.
Where do I begin? For the Europeans and the Aussies, if your news is strictly from CNN and like national media entities, remember the vast majority of the media in the USA want liberals elected and they wanted (in their minds) to create another historic event……………the first woman president. If you’ve paid any attention to the content of the WikiLeaks email dumps you’ll see just how intertwined the US media are with the Clinton campaign. Many instances of the networks clearing how they’ll present a story with the Clinton campaign before releasing it and a number of instances where a CNN anchor passed debate questions to Hillary’s campaign in advance of the debates. They are no longer reporters. They’ve become commentators and advocates.
The previous historic event (Obama) brought us vastly more instability in the world, especially the Middle East (a lawless Libya after Hillary’s decision to overthrow Khadaffi and her subsequent failure to provide security for the consulate in Benghazi which was serving as the transshipment center for arms being sent to the rebels in Syria), an Egypt in turmoil for several years after the overthrow of Mubarak (also engineered by Hillary) and the initial takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood (do some research on Huma Abedin’s mother and father and their high level positions in the Brotherhood and Sisterhood). Then, there’s the nuclear deal with Iran that allows them to keep spinning centrifuges until ten years from now when they can build all the bombs they want, a Russian reset that has lead to the takeover of the Crimea and a large area of Eastern Ukraine in spite of the treaty we signed guaranteeing we would protect Ukraine’s sovereignty in return for turning in their nuclear weapons after the breakup of the Soviet Union. That’s for starters and that’s what you get when you elect a smooth talking, teleprompter reading, man with no experience managing anything. If you’ve heard any of his speeches lately you’ve seen how incredibly narcissistic he is as all he talks about is “preserving his legacy”. What legacy?
As for Trump, he wasn’t my first choice, but I believe he knows how to hire good people and put them in positions where they will successfully manage our government. He is a hardass businessman who does what it takes to be successful. People that know him call him a “blue collar” billionaire and say he cares deeply about this country. He doesn’t need to be President to become fabulously wealthy as the Clintons have and as the Obamas hope too. He already has his own private jet and beautiful residences and doesn’t need to trade influence and access as the Clintons did.The difference between him and politicians like Hillary and Obama is he more often than not gets the results he wanted and produces great results.
The Clintons, however, became wealthy by selling influence and access to government entities. Look at Laureate Universities. This for-profit international conglomeration of “universities” paid Bill over $16 million dollars to be Honorary Chancellor from 2010 to 2014. Coincidentally, Hillary was Secretary of State form 2009 to 2013 and guess what? During those overlapping years, the State Dept gave Laureate $54 million in grants and USAID, which is controlled by State, gave Laureate $20 million in grants. Nice return for Laureate on a $16 million investment in Bill for which he basically did nothing.
If you want the facts, read Clinton Cash, a book that’s been thoroughly vetted by the NY Times, Washington Post and many of the other major newspapers. They printed excerpts because they could find no credible inaccuracies. The book has a 25 to 30 page bibliography that documents the sources of all the facts in the book and if you read it your head will spin with the deceit and deception by the Clintons that is proven.
Some of the money flowed to the Clintons through their Canadian foundation to the US foundation and some flowed to the Clintons in the form of “speaking fees” that were markedly higher after she became Secretary of State. Bill’s fees had steadily declined over the eight years since they left office but took a large jump higher during the four years she was Secretary. And before anyone says it’s because he’d be able to provide more insights, he couldn’t legally because he had no need to know anything she was doing and therefore wasn’t privy to it.
Why the Canadian foundation you might ask? Well, very simple. Canadian law prevents the disclosure of donors whereas US law requires all donors to be listed. So, when a Canadian named Frank Giustra arranged through the Clintons to put together a uranium deal that would transfer 20% of US uranium assets to a Russian corporation, the deal was done and the deal included some $35 million in donations to the foundation from Giustra and others on his Board of Directors. All this is well documented but the national media here chose to ignore it because it didn’t fit the narrative.
Now that Trump has been elected, my hope is he will not succumb to those who will tell him to not investigate the Clinton Foundation or any other potentially illegal activities in the name of national unity. We, including me, voted for him to end the corruption and we want laws enforced and perpetrators brought up on charges no matter how politically connected they are. Empower a grand jury, let the facts be discovered and let them be tried and convicted if the facts prove unlawful conduct. If that happens we’ll have a sea change in government, as the “little guys” will be much less likely to break laws if they see the “untouchables” wearing orange jumpsuits.
In Hillary’s case we might save money because she probably already has a couple…………..
Hahaha, you’re quoting from the book by Brietbart, Trump’s top dog, Bannon. Talk about your conflict of interest.
Actually, alot of what was written was debunked:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/05/clinton-cash-bill-hillary-scandal-book
Meanwhile, Trump Univ. is being sued for fraud, but yeah, Hillary is the crook, and Cruz is the liar.
You really are a partisan. A few vague comments in your article don’t qualify as debunking. The New York Times is likely your bible so look up what they said about the book and then read the book.
No “smoking gun”? How could there be when she had her lawyers delete 33,000 emails from her server? It would be sweet irony if David Kendall, one of the “bimbo eruption” leaders in the effort to cover up Bill’s “indiscretions”, gets indicted since he had no security clearance nor a “need to know” as he and his staff reviewed the emails and decided which were work related and which weren’t.
But, there is a clear trail of donations that chronologically fit with actions by her and Bill to influence actions or decisions. Was it just a coincidence, for example, that Giustra and his board members donated about $145 million (my mention of $35 was his individual donation) to the foundation but nothing to the other eight decision makers on the Uranium deal? Was it just a coincidence that the Laureate University owner paid Bill $16.3 million to serve as “honorary chancellor” during the period Hillary was Sec of State and State gave $54 million in grants and USAID gave $20 million in grants to Laureate Universities? Never any grants before and none since….a real coincidence.
Hopefully Trump won’t get sucked into the “let’s all join hands and move forward” movement that he’ll likely be pressed to join and instead will appoint Giuliani as Attorney General and let him gather all the evidence. Then, we can all be happy that there was a thorough review and let the facts point in the direction in which we should proceed. Then, I’ll be happy knowing the truth and you should be too.
This was a very close vote – Clinton received 237,961 more votes than Trump but fewer Electoral College delegates (306 to 232) – as of today.
Popular vote: 59,705,047 – Trump
59,943,008 – Clinton
In 2012, Mitt Romney received almost 61,000,000 vs. Obama’s 66,000,000 votes.
Trump received about 1 millon fewer votes than Romney.
If Clinton had received just a few % more of those 5,000,000 votes that Obama received in 2012 over Clinton’s total, she would have easily beaten Trump in those late reporting states.
If you take out the illegal vote Clinton would not be leading the popular vote IMO!
With a sitting president that was incouraging “undocumented workers” to vote, that is just shameful.
Like Obama said when he was elected, “elections have consequences”
Even though we are seeing a “peaceful transition” of power, I have become more and more agitated with each unfolding hour. The people I hear speaking on the news and radio about the “retaking of America” frighten me. And I generally don’t scare easily.
I worry as our sitting President extends his hand of decency to the same hand that is commanded by self-aggrandizement to violate another person’s body. I worry as our governance allows a man motivated by exclusion to defile the very constitution that affords him these privileges in the first place. I worry, but then I am reminded that as citizens we must be vigilant and always courageous when it comes to fighting for what we believe in. To stand strong, remain constant, and be the voices or reason above the din of ignorance.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln
It’s democracy at its best! The people have spoken they rejected a path to big government and socialism. Don’t cry for me Argentina we will be better than fine! We always are!
We had a dictator and chief for 8 years that crammed through many executive orders and the people are sick of this.
These orders can now be reversed with the stroke of a pen.
The country has pulled back from the precipice of becoming a socialist cesspool. The Supreme Court will not destroy the Constitution.
Tabula Rasa
Illegal vote? Prove that (without citing Brietfart).
I agree with Raffi
It really bothers me that the Democrats and the press don’t make a bigger stand on allowing the power to be transferred without riots. I believe in free speech but these rioters take it too far.
This sets a terrible example for the youth. By not saying anything the Democrats and Press condone these types of deplorable acts. It teaches the youth that it’s the right thing to do, rioting after your candidate looses. This is what is done in third world countries ???? Is that what we want to be?
Many people wonder why there are riots after sports teams win? I will add one to the list, why does the left get sooo upset when they loose elections or they don’t get there way?
Really sad
Mike
That’s rich…Trump said that he may not even accept the outcome of the election if he lost. Gee, i wonder how his supporters would have dealt with his assertion that it was rigged had he not won? Oh, I know, very politely, just like DT.
Well, at least the marijuana laws past, right Mike?
Phillip you have misunderstood what he meant. What he was saying is that he would wait until all the votes came in and IF there were states that were close he would make the decision on whether it deserved a recount. Just like Gore and Bush did in Florida.
I will leave you with this, maybe you can better understand him.
Liberals take Trump literally and not seriously…Coservatives take trump seriously but not literally
We seriously take him literally. And if you are not, the joke’s on you. Of course, there is nothing really funny about being conned by a sociopath.
You can shine your shoes and wear a suit
You can comb your hair and look quite cute
You can hide your face behind a smile
One thing you can’t hide
Is when you’re crippled inside
John Lennon
Donald Trump once called for “revolution” over the very thing that may have won him the presidency Tuesday night.
On the evening of the 2012 presidential election, Trump went on a Twitter rant when he mistakenly thought then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney had won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.
“This election is a total sham and travesty. we are not a democracy”.”
“We can’t let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is divided.”
Just 2 of his many tweets that night.
Trump later deleted the tweets when it became apparent that Barack Obama had in fact won the popular vote.
I did not feel good in 2008, and 2012 with Obama!
Get over it!!! Obama’s legacy of Executive Orders is about to disappear as the people had had enough.
Reny,
George W. Bush issued 291 executive orders and Barack Obama has issued 235 so far.
Bill Clinton – 364.
Ronald Regan – 381.
This topic has struck a nerve, which is not surprising considering that there was a near tie in the popular vote between Trump and Clinton.
I would like to move this conversation to a new blog I have started today called “Common Sense” (not related to classic cars).
I hope those of you who want to participate in this discussion, and other discussions, will join me there at this link – http://commonsenseplaintruth.com/
This is a brand new blog so I do not have everything set up yet like email subscriptions but it is running and I have made 3 posts and the Comment section seems to be working.
Let me know what you think.
Mike Gulett
No Liberals Hilary did not win the popular vote!
http://endingthefed.com/no-liberals-hillary-clinton-did-not-win-the-popular-vote-here-are-the-facts.html
Reny,
I am sorry to tell you that the site you refer to is likely a fake news site – created by people looking for clicks and advertising dollars which have been posted all over Facebook.
The legitimate news sites like Bloomberg say this “With absentee ballots still being counted, Democrat Hillary Clinton leads Trump by more than 600,000 in the popular vote.”
Read the real information here – http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-11-14/trump-says-same-sex-marriage-is-settled-law-abortion-isn-t-ivhazx17
Read about the fake news sites on Facebook here – http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/14/technology/facebook-is-said-to-question-its-influence-in-election.html?emc=edit_th_20161113&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=66753500&_r=0
Mike,
The American Thinker http://www.americanthinker.com/ is NOT a fake news site! I know that there are sites that are fake, and you might like to think this, but it is not.
Reny,
I don’t see the connection between the second web site you mention and the first. But the second one is no better than the first – all right wing propaganda loaded with click bait.
So, yes my opinion is it is also a fake news site aimed at selling advertising. I have not heard of either one and I spend a lot of time on the internet.