DEMOCRATS' WORST NIGHTMARE

[Published in Newsmax] 

Prior to President Joe Biden ending his 2024 re-election campaign, the Democrats worst nightmare was reliving their chaotic 1968 Chicago Convention.  Removing their perceived impediment for a November victory may force them to relive their chaotic 1924 New York Convention.

Biden’s departure unleashes countless questions.  Did he get bought off?  If so, by who and for how much?  Will there be a reckoning for all those in government and the media who lied about Biden’s condition?  If Biden is losing as a candidate, how cynical and anti-democratic is it to ignore the will of 14.4 million primary voters? If Biden is losing his mind, should he remain the President?

When the Democrats convene in New York on August 19, their 1968 Convention riots and chaos hangs over them. President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) dropped out of his re-election campaign after narrowly winning the New Hampshire primary against Minnesota Senate Eugene McCarthy (49%-42%).  Senator Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) announced his candidacy on March 16.  LBJ was being hammered by CBS News Anchor, Walter Cronkite, for mishandling the Vietnam War.  President Johnson understood the walls were closing in and only his departure would allow his wing of the Party to prevail.

On March 31, 1968, Johnson withdrew his candidacy.  Less than a month later, on April 27, his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey announced he was running.  After RFK’s assassination, the schism among the Democrats was irreconcilable. Tumult on the Convention floor was echoed in riots on the streets. Southern Democrats broke off to support Alabama Governor George Wallace’s Third-Party candidacy.  The internal strife among Democrats opened the door for Republican Richard Nixon to gain the Presidency.

The 1924 Democratic Convention was far worse than 1968.

When Democrats convened on June 24,1924 at Madison Square Garden in New York City they were in total disarray.

New York Governor, Al Smith, led among mainstream Democrats.  Some delegates were still loyal to failed 1920 candidate James Cox.  Unfortunately, the “progressive” and southern delegates were vehemently anti-Catholic and would do anything to stop Catholic Smith.  They rallied around former Wilson Treasury Secretary William McAdoo.  McAdoo was a true southerner, born in Georgia during the Civil War.  Rumors that McAdoo was a member of the Ku Klux Klan were bolstered by a huge Klan presence in New York.

Sensing opportunity in the three-way race, 28 other candidates entered the convention with pledged delegates.  The first ballot had McAdoo with a strong lead: 431.5 delegates to Smith’s 241.  Cox was a distant third with 59 delegates.  The other candidates were in single digits.

The Convention deadlocked.  Tempers flared.  The tumult on the Convention floor was echoed in the KKK’s mass demonstrations on behalf of McAdoo on the streets around the hall with what has become known as the “Klanbake”. 

More ballots followed with little movement.  It would take 103 ballots through July 9 before the exhausted delegates chose former West Virginia Congressman John W. Davis as their nominee.  It was the longest convention in American history. 

The Democrats couldn’t recover in time for the general election.  President Calvin Coolidge was elected with 382 electoral votes from 35 states.  Davis carried 12 states with 136 electoral votes.  Progressive Third-Party candidate, Senator Robert La Follette, carried his home state of Wisconsin with 13 electoral votes.

Democrats may be facing a similar fate if they cannot rally around Vice President Kamala Harris.

Democrats’ 2024 factions are as irreconcilable as those of 1968 and 1924.  They are only held together by their hatred of Trump. Radical leftists, under their “Progressive” banner, are already falling in line behind Harris.  Others within the Party point to horrendous polling on their policies and the terrible Biden-Harris record.  They also remember that Harris dropped out of the 2020 race in December 2019 because she polled less than one percent among Democrats.  Harris’s unprofessional image, word salads, and droves of staffers leaving her dysfunctional operation weigh against her viability.

Election variables are shifting every day, and even every hour.  What is certain is that Democrats are heading for a tumultuous time in New York City, unless they opt for anointing Harris. Democrats may pay the ultimate price in November in the way they stave-off chaos in August.

HIDING PRESIDENTIAL HEALTH

 

[Published in Newsmax]

It is a heinous act to conceal presidential infirmity.

The recent Wall Street Journal article unmasked what most already knew. President Biden is no longer capable of leading.

This is not the first time a president’s medical condition was hidden from the public. Democrats have done it four other times.

Grover Cleveland

On June 19, 1893, the president’s personal physician diagnosed a cancerous lesion in Cleveland’s mouth. This triggered an elaborate series of subterfuges to hide the president’s condition and the required surgery.

Delaying a special session of Congress until August 7, 1893, opened a window of time for the president to be treated. Cleveland boarded a private yacht in New York on July 1. His medical team rendezvoused under cover of darkness.

The surgery was performed on the yacht. A second surgery was performed at the president’s summer retreat at Gray Gables. A special prosthetic was installed in the roof of Cleveland’s mouth to fill the surgical hole and mitigate any speech difficulties.

Reporters questioned the president’s movements. White House aides spun cover stories that kept things covered-up until August 29, when a story ran in the Philadelphia Press newspaper.

The story was attacked as anti-Cleveland propaganda and faded from public interest. It was not until Francis Cleveland, the president’s widow, authorized the truth to be told in 1917.

Woodrow Wilson

On October 2, 1919, President Wilson suffered a serious ischemic stroke. He started experiencing neurological problems on September 25, 1919.

The president’s personal physician, Admiral Cary Grayson, kept the severity of the stroke hidden. He refused to officially diagnose any disability.

Dr. Grayson and the president’s wife, Edith Wilson, began a series of subterfuges to conceal the president’s incapacitation. They hid behind patient-physician confidentiality, asserting it superseded national security.

With the assistance of Dr. Grayson, Edith began her “stewardship.” She delegated Executive Branch operations and most decisions to Cabinet secretaries. She selected what and when key matters should involve the president’s limited decision-making capabilities.

The full details of Edith Wilson’s role as “regent” were not known until her memoir in 1939.

Franklin Roosevelt

On August 21, 1921, Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) was diagnosed with polio at age 39.

While his underlying condition was well known, the full extent of his chronic physical limitations was concealed and replaced with the story of a heroic recovery.

FDR’s public appearances were choreographed to limit media coverage. No photos were allowed showing his transfers to and from vehicles and railroad cars.

He always had a physically strong aide to help him stand and walk. The Secret Service actively blocked photographers and destroyed any photographs that showed his disability.

In November 1943, after a marathon of meetings related to the Tehran Summit, FDR was diagnosed with hypertension and congestive heart failure. The official physician continued to pronounce the president’s health “excellent in all respects.”

However, in June 1944, a consulting physician privately stated, “I do not believe that, if Mr. Roosvelt were elected president again, he has the physical capacity to complete a fourth term.”

This dire prognosis was kept from the public.

FDR, clearly weakened and in his final months of life, attended the Yalta Summit February 4-11, 1945. It was at this Summit that Eastern Europe was handed over to Soviet domination. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945.

John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy (JFK) endured back pain from injuries sustained in the sinking of PT109. What was less known was his degenerative autoimmune polyglandular syndrome, known as Addison’s Disease.

This genetic disease affected his adrenal and later his thyroid gland.

JFK needed drugs and surgery to treat Addison attacks during the 1950s. A surgery performed in 1954 triggered severe infection. It was life-threatening, and he received Last Rights.

Repeated infections impaired JFK throughout 1961, including during the Bay of Pigs and Berlin Wall crises.

During the 1960 presidential campaign, media inquiries about JFK’s Addison’s Disease met with denials. Spokespeople begrudgingly admitted to a “mild adrenal insufficiency.”

JFK was secretly treated by Dr. Max Jacobson, known as “Dr. Feelgood” in celebrity circles. During 34 White House visits, Dr. Jacobson treated Kennedy for his World War II back pain with multiple injections of strong pain killers including amphetamine and methamphetamine.

Their documented side-effects included impaired judgment, nervousness and wild mood swings. Kennedy intimates observed improvements in the president’s mental acuity when the treatments ended in mid-1962.

Concealing a president’s serious illness undermines the trust we must have. It raises disturbing questions about who is really running things. It creates uncertainty and instability. It emboldens enemies.

It eviscerates the very core of public accountability and defies the Constitutional protections outlined in the 25th Amendment on having a viable President.

Hiding a president’s illness is wrong and dangerous, for America and the world.

BIDEN'S HAITIAN DISASTER

 

[Published in Newsmax]

Once again, the Biden administration is proving incapable of protecting Americans.

As Haiti descends into violent anarchy, Biden’s State Department is telling Americans they are on their own. State Department spokespersons keep saying they are "exploring options" for bringing Americans to safety.

This is a replay of Afghanistan, where the U.S. abandoned Central Asia’s largest and most fortified military base while the embassy shuttered, leaving thousands to fight their way through mobs to the civilian airport. Thousands more were left behind or unaccounted.

This is a potentially tragic abdication of a fundamental responsibility.

The State Department’s website is filled with extensive guidance on how Americans will be evacuated during emergencies as "conditions in a country degrade."

This is a well-established moral and legal mandate.

Diplomatic and military personnel have extensive experience evacuating Americans, including just a year ago from Haiti (in July of 2023).

One of the largest evacuations, 15,000 U.S. citizens, took place in Lebanon during July 2006. A year later, the General Accountability Office (GAO) provided a detailed narrative and assessment of how things are supposed to work.

A key element in saving American lives was the requirement of the U.S. Embassy to develop and maintain an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for evacuating U.S. citizens.

The EAP is required of every U.S. Embassy in the world.

I participated in the development and management of the EAP during my tenure as Director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Malawi, Africa during the mid-1980s.

The EAP was designed to evacuate all identified U.S. citizens within 48 hours of a crisis in the host country. In my case, this included the 75 Peace Corps Volunteers who were posted throughout Malawi.

I was required to maintain an up-to-date accounting of volunteer locations to the Embassy monthly. Contingency planning for communicating an impending crisis, notifying every volunteer of initiating the EAP, and accounting for all volunteers being safely evacuated was a critical part of my responsibility as Peace Corps Director.

Overlaying my program was the American Embassy’s EAP process.

Every month, the Embassy Team, which included top staff reporting to the Ambassador and heads of each U.S. Agency in the country (such as the Agency for International Development – USAID), were required to update the list of evacuees.

Quarterly, the Embassy Team met in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) to validate the EAP.

At these meetings, we also assessed the current situation relating to Malawi and the region.

This was important because southern Malawi was surrounded by Mozambique, which was in a civil war.

The warring factions would regularly traverse southern Malawi as a short cut and forage for food. Volunteers in the south encountered combatants, and in one case had mortar rounds explode near them.

Meetings with Mozambique and South African officials helped prevent similar incidents.

The Embassy maintained a master list of U.S. citizens working for Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs), including missionaries.

The Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) and Chief Counselor Officer were responsible for managing an accurate list and conducting EAP outreach.

To further enhance in-country tracking, every U.S. Embassy began maintaining lists of all American registered under the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), established in 2011.

Americans travelling to a foreign country may register to receive alerts (including EAP initiation) and be part of the accounting of evacuees should the need arise. 

During the 1980s, every Wednesday morning, the Malawi Embassy Team tested emergency communications with a wake-up call from the Embassy’s Defense Communications Office to each home. Peace Corps Volunteers were informed about the EAP and crisis communications through ongoing site visits to their project sites.

As Chair of the Malawi Volunteer Council, I conducted quarterly meetings with leaders from the counterpart programs of Canada, Japan, Sweden, and the UK to share “best practices” on volunteer operations, including respective EAPs and emergency communications.

Thankfully, the Malawi EAP was never activated. Had such a situation arose, the thoroughness of all involved and their dedication to citizen safety would have prevailed.

The failure in evacuating Afghanistan, and now the callous disregard in Haiti, sadly displays a deterioration of the professionalism that once was the pride of America’s diplomatic operations.

CANCEL BIDEN's ADDRESS

 

[Published on Newsmax 

SOTU Would Only Let Biden Trumpet His Hollow 'Accomplishments' | Newsmax.com]

Republicans should uninvite President Biden giving his State of the Union Address in the House Chamber.

Republicans can use this historic opportunity to draw attention to everything President Biden is doing to America. They know they will not convict Biden, or any of his Cabinet, using Impeachment.

Instead, Republicans can, in one master stroke, sanction Biden and realign the balance between the Legislative and Executive Branches.

There is no official reason for the speech.

There is not a requirement for it to be annual.

Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution only requires the President to “from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union”.

There is no requirement for Congress granting the President the use of their Chamber for this ritualized taxpayer-funded infomercial.

Republicans would prove that the Congress is a co-equal branch, not subservient to the President. They would not be seen as a pack of trained seals clapping at dozens of cheap applause lines. They would not be the stage for ritualizing Biden's trumpeting hollow accomplishments and demonizing Republican opposition.

They would also avoid being put in awkward political binds as the President introduces controversial people seated next to the First lady, daring the Republicans not to applaud. Speaker Johnson would not have to maintain his dignity as Biden promotes the destruction of everything he holds dear.

Not inviting the President also brings the State of the Union back to its traditional position in American government.

President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union speech in person before a Joint Session of Congress on January 8, 1790. Since then, there have been 232 opportunities for Presidents to deliver their report before Congress. Presidents have delivered their report as a speech before a Joint Session of Congress only 108 times (46%).

The other 125 times were through written communication.

George Washington and John Adams delivered their State of the Union reports as speeches, but Thomas Jefferson was more comfortable with the written word. For 113 years, no other President delivered a State of the Union speech before Congress until Democrat Woodrow Wilson on December 2, 1913. This was part of Wilson’s elevating himself to new regal heights.

President Warren Harding continued this new practice. President Calvin Coolidge delivered his first and only State of the Union address on December 6, 1923, then went silent.

For ten years, Congress did not have to arrange a Joint Session for the State of the Union Address. Then Democrat Franklin Roosevelt asked for the forum in 1934. In 1946, President Harry Truman opted out of a formal speech because, during the previous nine months, he had spoken to five Joint Sessions of Congress relating to the end of World War II. In 1956, President Eisenhower opted out of the speech because he was still recovering from his September 24,1955 heart attack.

No one really missed the Presidential vanity hour. Twenty-six Presidents, including two of America’s greatest Presidential orators, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, choose not to speak to the Congress. Congress still operated. Legislative business proceeded. America survived.

Presidents issue a detailed Budget Message a few weeks after the State of the Union Report. This is a more tangible and actionable communication of the Administration’s priorities. Far more budget initiatives become reality than the dozens of empty promises made during a typical State of the Union address.

Americans have grown tired of this annual narcissistic charade.  President Bill Clinton’s first State of the Union Speech (SOTUS) was watched by a record 70 million.  The television audience for Biden’s 2023 SOTUS was only 27.3 million.

Congressional Republicans can reprimand Biden while reinventing government in the 21st Century. 

Let the President speak from the Oval Office and send a written version to Congress - that would more than meet the Constitutional requirement.

2024 WAKE-UP CALL

 

[Published on Newsmax. 2024 Wakeup Call | Newsmax.com]

Republicans are euphoric about Biden’s slump in the polls.  They must realize that their path to victory on November 5, 2024, is not assured.

Biden’s latest poll numbers are terrible, but not historic. They pale in comparison with other Presidential low points: Nixon (23%), Carter (28%), Bush 41 (29%), Bush 43 (19%), Trump (29%). A large plurality of the electorate remains loyal even with everything falling apart.

The 2023 elections should be a wake-up call.

Once again, Republicans under performed.  They lost both houses of the Virginia Legislature.  The parental revolt went nowhere.  Conservative, pro-parent Schools Board candidates made little headway.  No change in Loudoun County, the epicenter of the parents’ revolt.  A pick-up of one in Prince William County. A complete shut-out in Fairfax County.

Loudoun County’s Leftist Commonwealth Attorney, Buta Biberaj, was defeated, but only by 300 votes. Amazing given everything that was exposed about her ideological reign.

Across America, voters ignored parent rights candidates.  This raises the question as to whether Youngkin’s 2021 narrow upset victory over Terry McAuliffe had more to do with the Democrat ignoring calls to step aside and letting two African-American women compete for the Governorship.

The lessons of 2020, 2022, and now 2023 need to be understood if Republicans have any chance of retaking the White House and Senate, while maintaining their razor-thin majority in the House.

Money is one factor.  Republicans were out-raised and outspent.  While some candidates can overcome the money deficit with tireless door-to-door campaigning and imaginative social media, money remains a major determiner of success.

The biggest issue is abortion. 

Fear drives votes.  When fear goes away so does the fervor.  The Dobbs Decision turned fear for the unborn turned into fear for those seeking an abortion.  Republican turnout faded as Democrat turnout soared. 

Something similar happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Legions of “Cold War” conservatives and “Captive Nations” activists declared victory and retired.  They won the war, but few remained to win the peace.  The Balkan wars and rise of Putin are just some of the results of those leaving the battle.

The same thing is happening in the wake of the Dobbs decision.

Justice Samuel Alito’s brilliant ruling should have ushered in conservative ascendancy. Unfortunately, pro-life activists bungled their messaging.  Even with a two-month head start from the leaked opinion, Republicans and their pro-life allies ceded the initiative to pro-abortion forces.

Fear became the message.  Leftist media and candidates declared Republicans would make the fictional totalitarian story of the “Handmaid’s Tale” a reality.

In Virginia, Democrats poured nearly $17 million on abortion-focused ads, warning that if Governor Youngkin won legislative majorities he would “ban” abortion. Republicans spent less than $2 million in counter ads.

Republicans undermined their cause.  Alito built a constitutional firewall around his decision.  He countered the dissenters by explicitly asserting Dobbs only applied to abortion not other rights. He established the threshold for reviewing future state abortion laws, “abortion is not a fundamental right, the lowest standard of review must apply to abortion laws, under which the laws must be sustained if they rationally relate to a legitimate state interest”. 

Unfortunately, Alito’s firewall vanished before the decision was officially released.  In his concurrence, Justice Clarance Thomas opened the door for challenging other rights granted under “substantive due process”, including contraception, gay marriage, and private sexual acts. 

Republicans in Congress introduced national abortion bills, completely misreading Alito’s decision.  Republican Governors and legislators pushed for severe abortion restrictions and hinted at pursuing Thomas’ concept of eradicating other “rights”.

This messaging disaster was a windfall for Democrats.  They will build on their 2022 and 2023 success by amplifying the “Handmaid’s Tale” theme in 2024.

Democrats are shaping the Republican apocalypse: Trump is a crook, Trump is dangerous, January 6 must be avenged, Republicans are racists, Republicans are coming for all your rights.

Republicans must fight back.  They will not get a perp walk for the Biden family, they will not get a Senate conviction if they impeach Alejandro Mayorkas or Joe Biden. 

Republicans need something huge to breakthrough the Left’s media wall.  While Fox News programs beat the competition one-on-one, the Left drowns it out 8-1 for total television news audience.  The Left’s margin among major print media is worse.  Biden corruption, crime stories, and economic woes are not even covered by most media outlets. 

Republicans confronting hate may trump Democrats promoting fear.  A few Democrats broke ranks on Rashida Tlaib’s pro-terrorist remarks.  Donors to some colleges and universities pulled their funds to protest religion-based assaults. 

Reacting to the Democrat’s reality is a recipe for failure.

Republicans must shape a resonant reality to gain victory in 2024. 

LEADING IN THE NEW CONGRESS

 

[Published on Newmax]

The Republican Congress has a small window of opportunity to redefine the political landscape.

Will Republicans repeat history or make history?

Remember 2011?  Republicans won an historic number of seats in 2010 only to become disappointingly ineffective.  A thundering herd of elephants birthed mice.

Republicans will need to overcome several challenges. 

First, most media will declare the “end of days” and breathlessly report the coming “Republican apocalypse” in detail.  They will demonize every incoming Republican with cherry-picked “facts” and an endless array of fiction. 

Second, Republicans will not be unified.  They rarely are.  Conservatives should remember that just because Members of Congress are “R”s they are not necessarily “ours”.  There are moderate and liberal Republicans, along with swamp dwellers, timid souls, and special interest conflicted.

Republicans, even with a slim majority, can make a difference if they achieve four major goals: Expose; End; Equip; Endure.

EXPOSE

Congress has a fundamental duty to conduct oversight and hold those in power accountable. 

This begins with Congress itself.  Republican leaders must immediately demand that January 6, 2021, videos from all 1,800 Capitol Hill cameras are preserved.  Any cameras “not working on that day”, and “lost" or “damaged” videos, must be fully explained and documented.

On January 6, 2023, Congress embraces transparency by releasing all January 6 videos from all cameras unedited or redacted.  Let Americans see for themselves what happened.

To follow-up, Congress then identifies law enforcement shown on Capitol security and news videos helping protesters by unlocking and opening doors, removing security barriers, waving them to the Capitol, or standing-by passively.  Each law enforcement officer should be individually brought behind closed doors and asked, under oath, “who told you to do that?” 

Those who “were following orders’ will be asked, “whose orders?”  Their superiors are brought forward and asked the same questions.  Congressional Q&A continues until top law enforcement officials either assert they initiated rules of engagement themselves or identify orders from specifically named elected officials.  These communications would then be released to the public.

There are countless Biden abominations that deserve investigation.  Republicans must heed the lessons from their ineffectual pursuit of Obama scandals.  Subpoenas will be ignored, documents will be withheld, slow walked, or become “missing”, witnesses will refuse to testify, lie, or obfuscate.

The gold standard remains the 1973 Watergate Committee.  They began with the lowest level people and worked their way up to the top.  Questions were asked and Members waited for answers instead of launching into finger waving monologues.  Public hearings are theatrical events. Republicans need to manage the plot, characters, and answers beforehand and build a narrative.  The truth is out there but is nearly impossible to uncover in a timely enough manner to matter.

Nonpartisan oversight should also occur, using hundreds of reports published by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the 72 Department and Agency Inspectors General.  Americans need to repeatedly hear about the mindboggling expanse of waste, fraud, and abuse that is endemic in the Federal Government.  This validates the next Republican President’s reform agenda.

END

Republicans will end new Biden initiatives and reduce his ability for mischief. They can defund programs, positions, and people.  They can turn campaign promises into reality by introducing legislation addressing voter priorities.

Justification through hearings and legislation will reveal and debunk the underlying dogma that is driving the Biden agendas for climate change and wokism.  Deindustrializing America is foundational to Biden’s assault on energy independence.  Showcasing silenced experts on these matters is vital.

Biden will veto everything Republicans do, and they will not have the votes to override. Republicans can counter by thinking well ahead of these predictable moves. Biden vetoes will become opportunities to contrast Republican voter-endorsed solutions with how Biden’s policies destroy America. This builds the case for change in 2024.

EQUIP

Republicans used the last two years of President Jimmy Carter to pave the way for the Reagan Revolution.  The next two years can equip the next Republican President with ideas and actions that will define the political landscape for 2024 and beyond. Through hearings, legislation, and floor speeches, they can build a mandate for the next Republican President to “hit the ground running”.   This change agenda will generate Leftist attacks, providing insights for Republican counter measures when they are reintroduced in 2025. 

ENDURE

The Washington, DC swamp is far deeper and extensive than anyone ever realized.  Republicans who cannot be bought-off or scared-off will be relentlessly savaged.  Democrats are known for locking arms and never breaking ranks.  Republicans shoot their wounded, even ones with minor injuries.  Time to think strategically and prepare for future battles 

To save America we must think past one election, one hearing, or one piece of legislation. 

It took years for the Left to gain the upper hand.  

It will take years to end their reign.

Scot Faulkner served as Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives and helped lead Speaker Newt Gingrich's Congressional Transition in 1994. He was Director of Personnel for the 1980 Reagan Campaign and served on the Presidential Transition team.  He currently advises corporations on implementing strategic change.

AFGHAN ABANDONMENT

 

[Published on Newsmax]

America’s catastrophic retreat from Afghanistan did not need to happen.

It was not just a failure of commonsense. It was multiple violations of State and Defense Department regulations.

There are very clear and detailed procedures for evacuating embassy personnel, American citizens, and host country nationals linked to the mission. The Defense Department has its own very clear and detailed procedures. 

These evacuation procedures are institutionalized in the U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, and Executive Orders.

In July 1998, there was a clear and detailed Memorandum of Understanding signed between the DOD and State on evacuation coordination “of U.S. Citizens and Nationals and Designated Other Persons from Threatened areas overseas.” 

Those responsible for ignoring and blatantly violating these longstanding rules must be held fully accountable and punished.

The lives already lost, and the many more lives still in danger, are a terrible price to pay for their criminal incompetence and negligence.

The other outrage is how this widespread malpractice, possibly malicious, violated the norms of protecting Americans and their allies dating back to our nation’s founding.

James Monroe, as ambassador to France, embodied the noblest values of America’s Foreign Service. He established a lasting set of values for those representing America abroad.

When the horrors of the French Revolution swept over Marquis de Lafayette and his family, Monroe and his wife, risked their own lives to save them. This was dangerous.

Lafayette’s wife, Adrienne, had watched her grandmother, mother, and sister die on the guillotine. She languished in prison awaiting her own execution, while the Prussians imprisoned her husband.

Monroe’s wife, Elizabeth, braved mobs, and revolutionary guards, to enter the Hotel de La Force prison demanding to see Adrienne. Her display of resolve ended Adrienne’s two-year confinement.

Monroe’s Parisian apartment served as a sanctuary for American’s fleeing the Revolution, including Thomas Paine.

This timeless set of fundamental values was on full display during my tenure as U.S. Peace Corps Director in Malawi, East Africa.

As a member of the Embassy Executive Team, I was involved in evacuation simulations. We identified mustering points throughout Malawi for gathering evacuees and constantly refined ways to quickly move everyone from the official, and unofficial, American communities to safety.

We slept with walkie talkies by our beds, testing them every Wednesday morning.

Visits from NATO officials, and State Department physical security experts, guided us on improving site security and transportation options.

We all played a role in identifying and maintaining contact with Americans living and working throughout the country. These included Americans working with multi-national organizations, such as the World Bank, UNESCO, and WHO.

There was also an array of individuals and families tied to religious missions, NGOs and businesses.

My primary role was to keep the Peace Corps volunteers safe. In the mid-1980s landlines, radios and physical travel were the only means of communication.

This was supplemented by maintaining a seamless relationship with the American Embassy team and officials within the Malawi government at all levels. I visited all 28 districts, building relationships with district officials, mayors and tribal leaders.

This was intended to forge bonds so they would look out for my volunteers and other Americans scattered across the country.

There was also close coordination between the other volunteer networks from Japan, Sweden, Canada and the U.K. My tenure as chair of the Volunteer Council developed collaborative protocols for emergency communication and logistical support.

There were the volunteers themselves. A Peace Corps Volunteer Council served as an ongoing forum for improving the effectiveness and health of the volunteers. It also became an opportunity to coach its members on leadership, communication and problem-solving skills.

The most able became the informal regional leaders for supporting their colleagues in the field, and to serve as hubs for disseminating information, and possibly for mustering in an emergency.

Malawi was generally safe, but the lower third of the country was a peninsula surrounded by Mozambique. From 1977 until 1992 RENAMO, the Cuban and Soviet backed government, fought a vicious civil war with anti-Communist FRELIMO. On countless occasions, the competing forces would transit southern Malawi as a shortcut.

The obsession with safety and health permeated everything we did at the embassy and within the Peace Corps. This is what Americans should always expect from their overseas missions.

It is appalling and abhorrent that these time-honored, and legally binding responsibilities were so completely ignored in the rush to abandon Afghanistan.

THE GASLIGHT ELECTION

 

[Published on Newsmax]

2020 is the single most important election since 1860.

This is not hyperbole.  The future of America’s representative democracy is at stake.

The Left plans to change fundamental policies that will cripple earnings and economic vitality.  More ominous, the Left is planning to change the rules that have governed America since 1789.  Their sole purpose is to achieve permanent power.

More frightening is that these threats are being successfully hidden from the electorate.

America’s news media took a sharp left turn in the 1960s.  During the 21^st Century, what is considered the “Mainstream Media” (MSM) dropped all pretense of being professional journalism.  They are overtly the Left’s propaganda arm.  “News anchors” and talk show moderators are no longer selected from working reporters, but from career political operatives.  The result is an echo chamber of anti-Americanism, and now anti-Trump.

This Leftist echo chamber now dominates over 95 percent of television, radio, print, and digital “news”. Except for a handful of conservative radio personalities, Fox Cable news shows, and blogs, the Left’s echo chamber shapes an alternate reality that may propel the Democrats into the White House and a Senate Majority.

The classic 1944 movie “Gaslight” is about a diabolical villain who creates an alternative reality to drive his victim insane to reap riches.  The term “Gaslighting” is based on this process of creating a fraudulent reality so the victim makes wrong decisions to their detriment.

That is what 2020 is about.  It is the Gaslight Election.

Since the Summer of 2016, the Left’s echo chamber has created a narrative, fueled by the bogus Steele Dossier, that Russian leaders are puppeteers controlling Trump and his inner circle.  Wild assertions went unchallenged.  A fake whistle blower, coached by Congressional Democrats and shaped by secretly backdated regulations, launched a reckless Impeachment. 

While the entire scheme of lashing Trump to Russia, and then Ukraine, was exposed as a fraud, the Left’s echo chamber barely reports it.  In fact, most of the echo chamber reprises Russia, unchallenged, whenever it can.  Tragically, Judicial Watch has had to sue Trump agencies to force the release of exculpatory information.  Career bureaucrats have successfully delayed these facts from entering the public domain.

At the same time, former Vice President Biden is on video bragging about doing exactly what was the basis of Trump’s Impeachment to laughter and applause by the Washington, DC elite.  Efforts to hold Biden accountable have been thwarted by FBI and intelligence officials for years.  The Lefts’ echo chamber remains silent.  It is just as important to not report something.

The Lefts’ echo chamber also set the ultimate trap for Trump’s re-election.  COVID-19 remains Trump’s Achilles Heel because scary and highly inaccurate models generated by the Imperial College on March 16, 2020 forced America’s economic suicide.  The Left’s echo chamber demanded that Trump shut down his booming economy to prevent millions of deaths.  The model turned out to be fundamentally flawed.  Now the Left’s echo chamber blames Trump for this year’s economic downturn. Leftist Governors use their independence under Federalism to enforce draconian lockdown measures not based on current science.  This slows the economic recovery through election day.

Biden, Harris, and their media allies, wear masks every time they are on camera.  They wear masks when they are outdoors and over thirty feet from others.  No science or health organization recommends this.  It serves as a symbol for COVID-19 remaining a dire threat and Trump is to blame.  The Lefts’ echo chamber makes no effort to question this shameless propaganda ploy.  Instead it promotes it.

The Left creates visual equivalency by providing only tight shots of Biden and Harris at their podiums, ignoring the fact that less than ten people are in the audience.  Trump’s 20,000+ rallies are either not covered at all or show only tight podium shots.  Biden’s countless lies about his attending Black churches and colleges, his groundless assertions, and his fiction about awarding medals, remain unchallenged.  His radical agenda for the Green New Deal, tax increases, and aggressive gun control goes unreported.  Alternatively, debunked accusations, like Trump hating the armed forces, dominate news cycles.

The Left over-samples registered Democrats, sometimes over 50% to only 38% or less for Republicans, to generate polls showing Biden trouncing Trump.

The Left’s Gaslight Election may succeed because over 50 million have early voted, just as facts about the Biden family’s foreign influence peddling is slowly seeping out.  Congressional Republicans’ glacial investigative pace enables the Left’s reality.

 A Democrat sweep in November will be tragic for everyone except the liberal elite. Trump’s tax cuts will be erased, and new taxes added.  Four years of regulatory relief will evaporate.  All of Trump’s government reform Executive Orders will be voided within hours of the Inauguration.  Gun control will rapidly expand. The 1619 anti-American indoctrination curriculum will be forced into every classroom. Illegal aliens will be granted wholesale amnesty and added to the voter rolls.  American energy independence will vanish, and Americans will suffer from the absurd policies that have made California the land of rolling blackouts.  Hollywood and Sports celebrities will roar back into prominence, virtue signaling Americans about race relations and carbon footprints.  

Worse, all investigations of Biden, Obama, Clinton, and the Deep State will end within hours of a Biden/Democrat victory, extinguishing any hope that truth will prevail.