Does Trump Really Want to be President?

Well, you have to wonder just what Donald Trump’s strategy is for his campaign. During the primaries, he used personal attacks and insults to show he was not a typical politician. Great. Typical politicians seem to always be at the bottom of polls showing national confidence. Go for it Donald!

But now the primaries are over. It is time to begin looking Presidential. So, what does the man who would be the leader of the free world do? He shoots himself in the foot on national TV. He flip-flops on issues and swears he didn’t say things that were recorded when he said them. He insists on denigrating Mexicans and wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country.

I have to wonder just how he plans to garner enough votes to win this election. You don’t do that by alienating potential voters and huge segments of the populace. Trump’s feet have so many bullet holes in them I’m surprised he can even stand.

Uh, wait, this sounds like a pro-Hillary piece! No! Believe me, I don’t want another Clinton in the White House... ever! I especially don’t want to see Hillary Clinton as President. And although I am no Bernie Sanders fan, I believe he was shortchanged by the Democratic nomination process.

Well, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings. And that will be at each Party’s convention.

Is there any chance that the outcome of each convention will produce different nominees? Not likely. The Party rules specify the number of delegates each candidate must have to win outright and Trump and Clinton seem to have met that quota.

I am sure Bernie Sanders will protest the DNC rules that gave Hillary enough superdelegates to put her over the top. After all, it’s not very democratic to stuff the ballot with handpicked delegates.

Will Sanders bolt from the Democratic Party and make a third-Party run? I would. Bernie ran a full-on grassroots campaign and even though he promoted socialism he won a huge block of supporters, mostly young Millennials. As an Independent – he registered Independent most of his career – he could add spark to the election. With the Democrat and Republican candidates at an incredibly low confidence rating, he just might have a chance of winning.

As for Trump, and the Republican Party, they need to tie down this loose canon and put a filter on his mouth. The other day he read from the oft-maligned teleprompter… and sounded like a read candidate. Maybe that’s the answer.

But I think it is high time, the Republican leaders sit down with Trump and ask the crucial question: Do you really want to be President?

The Anti-Social Media

It’s déjà vu all over again (my apologies to the late Yogi Berra). Those of us in Southern California haven’t even heard the last of the December second terrorist attack in San Bernardino and here comes another attack in Orlando, Florida. The worst mass shooting in American history, we are told. Well, at least the worst in current memory.

Our President tells us it was “… an act of terror and an act of hate.” One of the two people who will be out next President is placing the blame on the legally obtained weapons the shooter used. The other wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country. It is obvious none of our current or future leaders have a clue about the cause of this or other “Lone Wolf” attacks.

First, let me say what it is not: It is not the easy access to firearms.

The San Bernardino shootings happened in California, a state with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation. The Tsarnaev brothers used common pressure cookers loaded with explosives and nails to wreak mayhem during the Boston Marathon. One of the bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told investigators that he learned the technique from an article in Inspire magazine. I will say more about Inspire later. The Fort Hood shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan, legally purchased an FN Five-seven semi-automatic pistol to kill 13 people and wound 30 more. In London, England, British Army Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was run down by a car and hacked to death by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale. This happened in a country where gun ownership is extremely regulated.

The list goes on, but can you see the common denominator in every instance? Let me give you a hint. It’s not the weapons. These were all killers bent on doing the most damage in any way and with any means possible.

Now, let me tell you what it is: Every one of these incidents was perpetrated by “Lone Wolf” killers in the name of Islamic jihad. How were these people compelled to wreak this carnage? The blame goes to that grand facilitator, social media.

Twitter and the Internet are giving radical Islamic organizations the biggest soapbox possible. Through this media, they can talk directly with many followers and possible new recruits. They spew out jihadist propaganda and hate on a 24-7 basis.

In 2010, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) published an English language on-line magazine titled Inspire. As its name suggests, it has inspired potential jihadist to travel to distant foreign lands to join in terrorist activities. It also inspires the “Lone Wolf” attacks in the jihadist’s homeland. Major Nidal Hasan was in direct email contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, a virulent mouthpiece for AQAP.

So how does a nice hometown American and devout Muslim become so radicalized that they would commit such heinous acts? Propaganda may be the most powerful weapon in any arsenal. Many aberrant governments have used propaganda to nefarious benefit. Cult leaders use propaganda to convert susceptive people into radical followers. Radical Islamic groups are using propaganda to entice Muslims to jihad.

And what better way to disseminate propaganda than through social media. The Internet provides any number of ways to get the message out to masses or individuals. And it is entirely unregulated!

The FCC in this country and governmental agencies in other countries regulate the content of television and radio, but there are absolutely no content restrictions on anything sent over the Internet. There has never been such an open and widespread forum in history. And it is free!

And here is the really, really bad news. Until we get a handle on social media content, we can look forward to even more and possibly larger “Lone Wolf” attacks. Even if through some sort of magic every gun in the country would immediately vanish, these “Lone Wolf” jihadists would find another weapon to wreak their planned havoc and mayhem. This will not stop, folks, until we cut off the dissemination of propaganda to susceptible people. Stop the anti-social media!