Loyalty and Interchangeable Parts

When the chips are down and someone has my back, there is no better feeling in the world. It is HUGE to know that you don't have to look for the axe while dodging the bullet and when someone I work for treats me as he expects to be treated, that is a blessing that cannot be described. It shows character of the best sort.

When Corey Lewandowski was charged with simple battery stemming from that March 8th mess with the Breitbart female, Trump didn't throw him in front of the train. No. He did and he has stuck by him - even though it might end up costing him in the press and at the ballot box in some small way. No - he showed the kind of loyalty that's impossible to find in most boss-employee relationships these days.

He also didn't call out the Secret Service - which should have been called out. After all, if the Secret Service had been doing their job, she would never have gotten through that line. If the Secret Service had been doing what they were supposed to be doing, one of them would have pulled her away.

She should never have been able to get as close to Trump as she did. She was holding a pen in her hand - what if that hadn't been a pen? What if it had been a knife or something else? Where was the Secret Service at that moment? They weren't there so Corey Lewandowski did what the Secret Service should have done.

I have seen the tape of that so called 'battery' and there's nothing there. Yes, Corey Lewandowski reached out and pulled that Breitbart female back (sorry, I don't care enough about her to find or pay attention to her name, she isn't worth it). However, what that tape clearly shows is that she put her hand on Donald Trump before anyone laid a finger on her.

In that case, because he didn't want to be touched - you can see it in the video when he pulls away from her - he could have filed battery charges against her. But he's rational. He's sane. He is not some vapid little girl who is willing to play the VICTIM card because she was touched in a scrum of other people and pulled away from that man's boss.

Let's say that kind of thing happened during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or at a sporting event or any other crowded place. Do you suppose she would be screaming 'foul' and levying charges? Hell no!

No. I'm afraid her biggest issues are that she's an insecure little twit with the brains of roadkill and she hates Donald Trump.

Out of all of this, the take-away is top-down loyalty. The hallmark of a great character. I value loyalty and I do not like people who are not loyal. They can't be trusted.

On the other side, in interviews yesterday both John Kasich and Ted Cruz said they would fire Lewandowski if he worked for them. Okay, Kasich first said he would suspend him, but then he did say he would fire him. In other words, they will sacrifice anyone and anything if they think it might impact the public's impression of them. Now there's a hallmark of character.


As for the rest of it that's swirling around, it seems the Washington Insiders and their minions in the guise of Fox News (aka Pravda-USA) and CNN really do want just another interchangeable part in the Washington machine sitting in the White House.

After all - who is it that the Elites and their slavering minions are pushing (foisting) on us? Why it's Ted Cruz! He of the scandal-ridden campaign.

Heck - it's only March - this election cycle only got started at the end of January with the Iowa caucuses - and he's racked up claims of three different scandals: Fraud, Corruption and Sex. By God he's hitting on all cylinders!

On the fraud front, this is true and legitimate: Paul Pate, the Iowa Secretary of State was something less than happy with the Cruz campaign for that little matter of the "voter violation" forms. Those were those official looking mailers sent out by the Cruz campaign prior to the caucuses. Pate went so far as to call it 'a false representation of an official act' which is, according to Iowa law, a criminal act.

By all rights, since that was a criminal act under Iowa law, the Cruz campaign should have received a bit more than a finger-wag and a 'tut-tut'. They didn't, though, because I'm sure the RNC / GOP weighed in and said 'shut up' or words to that effect.

Potential voters weren't all that happy, either. The following is excerpted from a January 31, 2016 article in the New Yorker:

The Cruz mailers have been widely condemned by Iowans. “I just wonder how many of these went out to people who might seriously believe they committed a violation or were embarrassed that their neighbors might know about their alleged voting record,” Braddock Massey, a Rubio supporter who lives in West Des Moines and received one of the mailers, said.

Donna Holstein, who was listed on one of them, was upset to learn that she had been given a failing grade and that her neighbors might be told whether she participates in the caucus. She told me that she has voted consistently but that she can’t this time because of a disability.

“I’m crippled, so I can’t go to the caucus,” Holstein said. She was not happy about being shamed in front of her neighbors. “That’s what you call a bully,” she said about Cruz’s tactics. “I wish he would quit.”

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ted-cruzs-iowa-mailers-are-more-fraudulent-than-everyone-thinks

Isn't that nice. Ted Cruz is 'bullying' cripples and 'shaming' the elderly into going to the polls.

The corruption is something I haven't been able to verify, but it's being claimed across the blog-o-sphere. According to more than one internet 'source', the Cruz campaign gave a cool half-a-million dollars to Carly Fiorina's campaign. Let's hit that again: Per rumor one presidential campaign gave $500,000 to a competing campaign. These other bloggers are claiming that it was 'hush' money relating to Accusation Number 3.

Now I don't like smearing people - it's not comfortable for me, so I did try to track down the source of this information.

I spent the better part of an hour on the FEC website where I did find one contribution of a bit more than $499,300 given to the Carly for America super PAC in February, but I haven't been able to nail it to the Cruz PAC. I'll keep trying, or you can if you'd like. It would make an interesting coda to this disgusting campaign.

Then we have the sex scandal. This is a 'burn my eyeballs out' kind of thing. I really don't want to even imagine that. Still, if this man is proclaiming his high and mighty morality on the one hand and doin' the deed with women not his wife on the other, that's a problem. A big one because if you are going to talk the talk then you had damned well better be walkin' the walk.

This is being looked into by any number of moles, so I won't except to say it's out there. If it does have legs, I'm sure the National Enquirer will produce the next installment in their next issue.

What is annoying is that he's lying again.

He's doubled-down on the accusation that Trump floated it when, in fact, it's well documented that it was the Rubio campaign that came up with this. It's obvious why he's doing this, but it's more than a tad disingenuous to keep pounding it when even the cable news services have been told it was Rubio.

Whatever. In the end, once the millipede stops walking and the shoes stop dropping we'll figure it out. Those people who dislike Ted Cruz aren't going to be swayed by the 'poor me' dishrag with which he's wiping his tears. I'm just disgusted by the man's conscious duplicity.

It is interesting that the National Enquirer has put itself on the line in a big way. I don't know what the statute of limitations is for defamation but if Cruz were to lose the election he could easily sue - claiming damages including his failed bid for the White House.

Roger Stone has also thrown the gauntlet, declaring on television, "If it's not true, sue me!"

Real or not, Ted Cruz is at least keeping pace with the Hilliary scandal wagon - one a month. Can he keep it up? With April just around the corner, we'll find out.

What is more interesting than the sleaze factor are two points.

First, Cruz is being swamped with scandal allegations but none of them are sticking and no one in the news is paying attention. Why aren't these allegations being spoken of? You know that if it was Trump they would be talking about nothing else in the most salacious terms possible.

Second, if these allegations are false, why isn't he actively denying them?

I dunno. Maybe because he'll look too Bill Clinton-ish, 'I did not have sex with that woman... Ms. Candy Wrapper.'

In the meantime, the Cruz campaign is still doing what it does. They're playing both sides against the middle, trying not to offend anyone. Just last night, for instance, when asked on CNN if he would back the GOP nominee regardless of who it is, he fudged. He spent a good thirty seconds hemming and hawing and then took a strong dodge to the side.

Trump, on the other hand, was clear. No, he will not honor that pledge because he made it in good faith and that good faith has been violated again and again by the other parties.

With all that's happened, with all that is happening it's hardly surprising. After all, Trump isn't behind closed doors with the Elites and GOP trying to figure out how to steal this election without pissing off and losing the front-runner's constituency. That pledge is worthless.

Now, if the GOP and the money-men were honest dealers, if they weren't conspiring against the leader of the pack, it would be dishonorable for that leader to blow off a promise. But when that promise was made by him in good faith and the other parties leave the deal... well, all bets are off.

As for why the Elites are backing a flawed, scandal-ridden candidate, it's easy.

Those scandals, and any others they uncover, put Cruz in a really bad place. They can bribe him - threaten him with disclosure and humiliation, and thereby keep him in line.

If they could find anything on Trump, anything at all, don't you think they would? Don't you think, given the hatred for Trump, that they would blow it up and make hay with it all day long? Instead, the best they're able to do is to accuse Trump of being loyal to his campaign manager.

Now that is a crazy messed up world.

Anyway. Just another day in paradise, right?

Hope it's lovely!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Oh, Thank GAWD!

Okay, okay, okay - I started this the other day and set it aside and got busy and... here it is, old news (by today's standards). But that's okay because I am STILL delighted with the way things worked out last Sunday.

What has me so happy you ask? Of course you do. After all this is my blog and in this little interweb page, my happiness is everything. (Insert Grinning Emoticon Here). Now, here's what I started and set aside:

YAY! The New England Patriots lost to the Denver Broncos in their NFL playoff game. I'm sure that not everyone who's reading this cares, except football fans like me who detest the New England Patriots.

I despise Bill Belichick, the Patriot's head coach. I think he's an arrogant ass, although he has got to be a pretty strict disciplinarian. You never hear news of any of his players getting into trouble with the law. With the League, yes. But not with the law.

What I dislike the most is that cheating runs like life-blood through the organization although they've only been caught and publicly outed twice. That indicates cunning and it's top-down culture.

Sports Illustrated wrote another article about Patriot team cheating, and it's pretty damning.

http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/09/08/patriots-cheating-suspicions-bill-belichick-tom-brady

If a team plays great ball and wins because of superior talent, that's admirable. If a team stoops to cheating to win, that's disgusting.

Sean Peyton, the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, is another unscrupulous asshole who's desire to win supersedes basic sportsmanship and player safety.

In his case, he was suspended from the League for an entire year because he told, not just encouraged but told his players to target players on the other team - and the hell with the penalties. The fact that that targeting could have crippled or otherwise ended that other player's career made zero difference to that piece of dung.

Football is an ugly dirty sport and not all coaches and players are decent human beings. However, Peyton Manning, the quarterback of Denver, is a class act, and so is Gary Kubiak, the head coach. John Elway, the General Manager of the team is another class act. The entire team has an ethic that other teams should admire because you don't hear about players getting stupid and getting into trouble, and you don't hear about scandals and cheating.

Which makes the Bronco's win over a dirty cheating team even better.

On the other side, the Panthers wiped the floor with the Cardinals - it was a hard day for Arizona's QB Carson Palmer.

Either of these teams would be a worthy opponent for Denver, although I would rather see Carolina than Arizona (since they're in the Eastern Conference while Arizona and Denver are both in the Western Conference). I'm just delighted it is one of these teams and Denver. Now I won't have to find something else to do on Superbowl Sunday. Like weed the yard or something.

Beyond being able to watch the game, and I don't know which team I'll be rooting for, I won't have to suffer through seeing Belichick with his usual dyspeptic grimace on the sideline. I swear, the man always looks like he's got a case of really bad indigestion (or he's trying hard not to fart).

So I am thrilled we won't have to look at him on the sideline again until next season.

And I'll spend the next week and a few days in the lead-up to the Superbowl trying to decided whether I want Peyton Manning and the Broncos to win, or whether I want Cam Newton and the Panthers to do it. Both are class acts so it's hard to decide.

Have fun and I hope your team wins - in whatever sport they play!

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories

Credit Where It's Due

I take my (virtual) hat off to the member who set me off on my tirade of Friday.

She saw the message I left, and felt compelled to leave me a message of apology, which I gratefully accepted.

That took courage and it is a class act. It is never easy to admit when we're wrong. Particularly after an angry confrontation such as the post I left on Friday.

My Respect-o-meter for her took a big leap upward. It might take some time for her to see that, but I will make the effort to show it.
Now, I hope that this closes that unfortunate episode.

I also hope that the other members who peeked in on that mess will each take a deep breath and dive right in. Otherwise, the upset will be for nothing - and that would negate the efforts of this other member and that, in my opinion, would be a shame.

In an effort to get things going there, I'll go back and add another. I do hope other members will follow and we can start an entertainment that will last, as the previous version did, six months or so. Maybe it will be better (after all, a thread with a pair of moose disguised as antlered Chihuahuas running around a Gentlemen's Club can't be all bad!) and will run longer.

What Makes a Person "Bulletproof"?

According to American Law, at least in theory, no one is supposed to be above it. We're all supposed to be subject to the same blind Justice no matter who we are or what we do. Of course, that's sadly laughable. Just turn on the news and see the different strokes for different folks playing out on a daily basis.

What got me thinking about this is the fact that people don't seem to care anymore whether someone is honest, or whether they're a renowned liar. Honesty, integrity, ethics and values, the important points in a person's character just don't seem to matter.

Personally, I hate being lied to. It's a sign of either fear or utter disrespect. Since I'm not a particularly scary person and have no sway over anyone else, I have to believe that when someone lies to me, it's because they don't respect me. And that bothers me. Particularly if it's someone I've hired for a job.

Now, you might say, "Ah ha! You hired them, therefore you do have power over them!" And that would be true - if it were a regular job in which I am either their employer or their supervisor.

But when I vote to elect someone into public office, that's a form of hiring. They're going to work, supposedly representing me and my neighbors and, in exchange, they'll get paid. It's a job - just look at the Career Politicians we have.

So I don't really have power or control over them, not unless they really do badly, in which case the majority of that person's constituents have to get together and agree, then there's the messy business of a recall election. How often does that happen?

With all that's happening with Hillary Clinton again, I am astonished that she is doing so well in the polls. Is it because the majority of people who say they would vote to elect her like being lied to? Have they no self-respect, or are they truly the moronic ignorant hands-out sheeple that some people say they are? Mindless creatures who cannot, under any circumstance, think for themselves or discern right from wrong - is that who these people are?

I mean, let's face it, there has got to be some fire under all that smoke. That thick haze has been pretty constant for more than twenty years, now.

Remember the Rose Law Firm and the Whitewater investigation? Two years or something into it, the files just magically appeared in Hillary's White House office. Of course, they had been carefully purged of anything remotely damning but, golly gee whiz, there they were!

Remember Vince Foster and his "suicide"? That case was never solved, never definitively proved one way or the other, but whispers went around for months after the event. There was doubt that it was suicide. Some said that it was a murder because the scene made no sense and the Clintons or their associates were complicit.

Then there was Filegate. The FBI file scandal where one of the Clinton aides was accused of gathering files and information on people the Clintons didn't like.

And Travelgate and futures trading, investigations galore and accusations of perjury. and all the rest of them. Since Bill and Hillary first appeared on the national stage, it has been one scandal or another without relief.

While Hillary was Secretary of State, hubby Bill wanted to go to North Korea and the Congo and collect speaker's fees, for Heaven's sake!

More recently there was Benghazi and her 'what does it matter' comment. Now, that, taken out of context, is damning. In the time, it was spoken in frustration and without thought, but still...

A woman who wants to be President is sitting in a hearing room with the grieving families of the men killed that night, on television, and she basically says 'who cares'? Oh, yeah. That's who I want as a leader. Yep - with that attitude I'll follow 'em... nowhere.

Now there's the scandal over whether she was sending and receiving classified information across an open domain service. That's pretty scary. Our national secrets aren't precisely secret, anyway. Not with Snowden and the Chinese and Israelis snooping around, but it's a nice illusion to keep that at least some of our secrets will remain secret. But where is the sense of loyalty and responsibility?

When I worked for a government defense contractor a few years ago, they were very serious about security. I had no clearance at all but if I plugged anything into their network, IT knew about it. If I sent an e-mail, IT knew about it and had access to it. There was no privacy there - it was all for them, as it should be in a national defense setting.

Yet Hillary Clinton, the wannabe next President, doesn't seem to have one shred or iota of intelligence when it comes to our nation's intelligence. She certainly hasn't any commonsense, or any sense at all. If I was her mother I would give her a good hard shake and demand to know, "What were you thinking?"

Answer to that would no doubt be, "I wasn't" and that is not the kind of person I want sitting in the White House with the nuclear codes to hand.

Still, for many, she is bulletproof. She is above the law and must be excused from all culpability no matter what she does or how damaging it might be to our country. Her sycophants just wave their hands and say, 'oh, that doesn't matter.'

There's a word for that, but I'll let you guess what it is.

Have a lovely day.

Best~
Philippa

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories