Purely Political

by James Buckley Apparently, according to many acquaintances who side with the opposition, there was only one choice, and that was of course, Ms Clinton. I wondered then Jim Buckley is the founder and former owner of the Montecito Journal. He now spends most of his time and continue to wonder that if that were so, why have an election at all? The trying to learn French. Montecito Journal (and at the time that was me) was consistently berated for

A Look Back and Forth supporting Mr. Trump and for not going along with virtually every other print media in the nation. All I could reflect upon was how closely such “consensus” W ay back in the Dark Ages (say, the year 1970 or so), the “political season” began the day after Labor Day, in early September. That allowed for a nearly 10-week stretch of politicizing and polarizing to lead up to of opinion reminded me of other issues. As for President Trump, he pretty much fulfilled a great many of his promises, against serious odds, such as: the southern wall is finally going up. As of this writing there’s about 217 miles of new construction and the pace is nearly the first Tuesday in November, which was, putatively, Election Day. Over the a mile a day (although Mexico isn’t paying for it); corporate taxes have been years, that paradigm shifted to what we have now: a hodgepodge of various reduced from 35% to 21%, spurring the boom we experienced before COVIDelection days, with some states allowing for a month of voting, by mail mostly, 19 crashed upon our shores; Supreme Court nominees Neil Gorsuch and Brett not just politicking. Results can now take weeks, even months, to come up with Kavanaugh became confirmed justices; the one-time tax on repatriated profits a winner, depending upon how close the race was. was successful; red tape has been severely reduced. Other good points include

Today, of course, in addition to the one-month-plus time period for actual approval of oil pipelines, the U.S. becoming the largest energy producer in the voting, the political game has extended itself into a nearly year-round maraworld, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, pulling out of the Paris Climate thon, probably in order to fit into the 24/7 cycle of cable news, which demands Accord and the Trans Pacific Partnership, etcetera. daily fodder. Clearly, there’s a lot of politickin’ goin’ on out there. Luckily, at least as I see it, all that cable TV-time emptiness that needed to be filled with something was in fact filled by one particular presidential candidate during the 2016 election “cycle.” His name was (and is) Donald J. Trump, and his unique rallies – sometimes as many as five in one day – were consumed by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and even network channels. They were seen as welcome [Trump’s] one-time tax on repatriated profits was successful; red tape has been severely reduced. Other good points include approval of oil pipelines, the U.S. becoming the largest energy producer in the respites to the often dry and certainly boring sameness of the talking heads of the day. There was no real “news,” so TV chatter concerned itself mostly with the latest polls, all of which predicted a huge win for the other candidate, world, pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord and the Trans Pacific Partnership, etcetera. Hillary Rodham Clinton. The billion dollars of free publicity given Mr. Trump actually propelled him to becoming the 45 th President of the United States, and most of the media has been kicking itself in the rear ever since, believing its We knew we were taking a chance with Mr. Trump, and it has been anyherd programming laziness led to the Trump presidency. thing but smooth sailing. Democrats – in league with now-disgraced FBI, DOJ,

And, they’re probably right, although we (I’m using the royal “we” here; I and CIA operatives – hounded the new president for nearly three years with wrote the editorial) supported Donald Trump for president long before those unfounded charges of “collusion” with Russia, some going as far as calling rallies became a ratings hit. And, we were nearly alone among all print media President Trump’s activities “treasonous” (as did former Obama CIA Director in the entire nation (along with the Santa Barbara News-Press) to do so. It had John Brennan and a whole bunch of talking heads on CNN and MSNBC), nothing to do with the 24-hour news cycle and everything to do with the qualculminating in a hasty, unsubstantiated “impeachment” for a skewed congratifications – or lack thereof – of Mr. Trump’s opponent: Hillary Clinton. The ulatory phone call to the new president of Ukraine. It was all a made-up crock following is my editorial on the subject, printed on 16 October 2016: (starting with the Steele dossier) but sadly there were no voices on the left or Donald Trump for President somewhere near the middle who challenged those flimsy claims or were even vaguely curious about the genesis of the accusations.

“Look, we’ve only got two choices and it’ll be a cold day in Hades when President Trump has had a tough time of it and he has, in fact, begun to we’d pull the lever, mail in a ballot, or punch a card for Hillary Rodham resemble a defeated man, especially in his demeanor. His pace is slower; his Clinton. Let’s examine the two. Firstly, there is Ms Clinton, the ‘experienced’ tweets – which drive me and many of his supporters crazy – have yet to let up one. After all, she was the wife of an Arkansas attorney general, the wife of and they mostly hurt him at this point. He hasn’t lost his sense of humor, but an Arkansas governor, and the wife of a president. Riding on that marital his smiles are fewer and far between. He’s been beat up and betrayed by seatrain, she ran for the U.S. Senate in New York State and beat the luckless and soned bureaucrats and by many of those once close to him. As a businessman, lackluster Republican congressman Rick Lazio, who became the candidate his reputation was as a ruthless competitor, and he often doesn’t treat former by default after Rudy Giuliani was forced out of the race by, guess what? associates kindly. His uncalled-for insults and tirades directed at people who’ve Revelations about his personal life. Funny enough, that’s what happened in disappointed him have been costly. That he doesn’t see how he has treated Barack Obama’s one and only U.S. Senate race, as his opponent, Jack Ryan, some people badly and others horribly does him no credit. dropped out after... wait for it... revelations about his personal life, mainly Donald Trump is a seriously flawed human, yet, he’s been a good president the release of court divorce documents in which his wife makes some rather (evidenced by his 85% approval rating within his party) and he obviously loves salacious claims. his country. We who support his policies hope, pray, dream even, that he finds

“As for the importance of ‘experience,’ we’d like to point out that Prime the courage to confront the American public and admit some of his mistakes, Minister Neville Chamberlain had a heap of ‘experience’ before taking on some of his failures. It would be refreshing to find that he could graciously the highest office in his land. He served on the Birmingham City Council accept criticism from friend and foe. beginning in 1911, became Lord Mayor in 1915, was elected to the House of Despite his many shortcomings, I’m still pulling the lever for the re-election Commons in 1918, served as postmaster general, minister of health, sat in of President Trump. The alternative – a ghost of a lifelong politician, Joe Biden, on Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin’s cabinet, was appointed Chancellor of and whatever left-wing activist he chooses as his running mate – isn’t even worth the Exchequer, finally becoming Prime Minister in 1937. And, except for the considering, at least not by me. There are two people in this race, right? •MJ political positions he held, as far as we can tell, never did a day’s work in the private sector in his life. “Most of us remember what happened in Munich when the ‘experienced’ Mr. Chamberlain handed Czechoslovakia over to the excitable Mr. Hitler. If you WENDY GRAGG don’t, you’re probably a product of our 21st century educational establishment. “Here’s why we’ve chosen Mr. Trump: 1) His superior list of Supreme Court nominees; 2) His proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%, and 805. 453. 3371 a proposed one-time 10% tax on repatriated off-shore profits; 3) the simplificaLuxury Real Estate Specialist for Nearly 20 Years tion of the U.S. tax code; 4) strengthening U.S. borders, north, south, east, and west, and the immediate expulsion of convicted felons who are citizens of other countries; 5) [His promise] to reduce the red tape and regulatory state require2 – 9 July 2020 ments that are killing small businesses will be well received. “That’s enough for us.” • The Voice of the Village • MONTECITO JOURNAL 23 Luxury Real EstateSpecialist Lic #01304471

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