Thoughts On The RNC And The DNC 2016...

Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


We will start today's post with an early fact check of HRC's acceptance speech, just as we did with DJT's acceptance speech last week. It comes as no surprise to those following the campaign statements of the two nominees that HRC's acceptance speech (the issues checked) was more honest than DJT's. HRC, as well as DJT, cherry picked some data to highlight a point. Something all politicians do, and have done since the beginning of our republic.

Fact Check Summary:

A) Stated Donald Trump said at the Republican convention “I alone can fix it.” -- Mostly True

B) Said Donald Trump "claimed our armed forces are 'a disaster.'" - Mostly True

C) Clinton also attacked Trump’s campaign slogan "Make America Great Again," by claiming his merchandise was primarily made overseas. -- Mostly True

D) Said the Iran nuclear deal effectively closed the door on Iran getting a nuclear weapon. -- Mostly true

E) Said that the economy has improved significantly under President Barack Obama’s leadership, and said she would continue to build on his progress. -- Half True

F) Clinton claimed that the auto industry had its best year ever. -- Mostly True

G) Clinton said "More than 90 percent of the gains have gone to the top 1 percent." -- Half True

H) Said after the shootings of Dallas policemen, "nearly 500 people applied in just 12 days." -- True


Read full article BELOW THE FOLD.

More important than the fact checking of a limited number of specific statements by the candidates is the vision each candidate has for America, where they want to lead the nation, and what they want the nation to achieve as it moves forward. A belief in, and a proper understanding of America's founding principles and values, as well as a belief that the American people, regardless of color, ethnicity, or religious belief can, and will, accomplish remarkable things if given the opportunity and a level playing field.

The contrast between the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention was stark. It gave the nation the opportunity to compare the vision each party and its presidential candidate have for America, as well as the type of country our nation might become under their leadership. As stated previously the contrast is stark. Dark and ominous versus light and uplifting. Divisiveness versus unity. Walls versus bridges. Economic prosperity for the few versus the many. Global conflict versus global cooperation. Social regression versus social progress. The list goes on.

Which party and candidate you think represents which vision for America will decide America's direction for the next 4-8 years and possibly beyond. Be deliberate and thoughtful in your considerations, the health of the nation depends on it. We here at Rational Nation USA know which choice we will be making on November 8th. We hope you will make the right one too.

Comments

  1. I bet few people watched both conventions.

    I watched a few parts of both, and found myself listening for the stupid and ridiculous things republicans said, and listening for the inspirational things the democrats said. I was not disappointed in either case. I admit, I am a bit bias in my evaluation of both sides.

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  2. I am pretty sure you are right Jerry. A large % of folks probably just watch parts of the conversation they are biased towards. In fact that was me for many years. Until I realized that no one party has all the ideas or answers.

    Even given my total dissatisfaction with the present day GOP and despising Trump as I do I still watched. I watched hoping reason would prevail and the GOP candidate would offer act like an adult, offer something of value, paint a positive vision, be completely factual. The fact he failed on all counts did not surprise me.

    Right now the democratic ticket is the only game in town for folks who want our representative democracy to remain strong. Trump is a vile worm eating away at our RD and the Tes Party/GOP is responsible for him.

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  3. FYI:
    BREAKING: After first day of intelligence briefings, Trump leaks classified secret.

    “Trump accidentally revealed sensitive and classified information about the locations of secret military bases. Trump arrogantly spoke to an audience at a Colorado Springs rally today, when he said that the U.S. should not have to pay rent for its military base in Saudi Arabia. There’s just one problem with this. There isn’t supposed to be an American military base in Saudi Arabia … the location of that base was classified for a reason, and now that protection has been compromised” (BipartisanReport.com).

    For years, the Russians have used cyber espionage and disinformation to shape public opinion in the West. To undermine the EU. To destabilize Europe. To alter the outcome of an American election.

    Last weekend, I asked a long-time friend who has been a former CIA agent assigned to Russia, recently retired. Here is his opinion (shared with permission):

    "Exactly what you alluded to is terrifying to me... cause it appears to be working. The Russians have disinformation honed to a science at all levels, troll-farms to work on joe six-pack as he reads FB and the very very sophisticated FSB/GRU types working things like leaking timely emails. Russia is not a country... it's a slavic-mafia disguised as a country. If Trump wins we're f…" [expletive deleted].

    Postscript: I'll be working on this story and may be scarce from the Internet for awhile.

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  4. Yes, Trump is nuclear train wreck waiting to happen. Yet the "patriotic tea party GOP" will no doubt make excuses for the worm and continue to overlook the grave danger he is to the USA as well as the entire civilized world. I now believe he is one rung beneath a monkey.

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  5. At least Trump is staying in character. Note, he says he does not want to pay for the military base, not that he wants to close the military base. He is just trying to stiff someone once again.

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  6. The 2016 Democratic Convention in Philadelphia was a multi-layered, raucous display of political theater. A host of delegates loyal to Senator Bernie Sanders were inside in large numbers exclaiming “No more war” during former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s speech and raising all kinds of progressive, rebellious signs and banners against the Hillary crowd. Although Hillary addressed them directly in her acceptance speech, “Your cause is my cause,” those dissatisfied delegates in the hall saw her rhetoric for what it was: insincere and opportunistic.
    She said she’d tax the wealthy for public necessities, but declined to mention a sales tax on Wall Street speculation that could bring in as much as $300 billion a year to support such initiatives. She opposed “unfair trade agreements,” but remarkably omitted saying she was against the TPP (the notorious pending Trans Pacific Trade Agreement backed by Obama that is receiving wide left/right opposition).
    She paid lip service to a “living wage” but avoided endorsing a $15 an hour minimum wage, which would help single moms and their children – people she wants us to believe have been her enduring cause. Few people know that it took until the spring of 2014 before candidate Clinton would come out for even a $10.10 minimum wage. News reports noted that Clinton, a former member of Walmart’s board of directors and Arkansas corporate lawyer, was wrestling with how to support $10.10 per hour without alienating her Wall Street friends.
    “Caring for kids” doesn’t extend to encircled Gaza’s defenseless children, hundreds of whom were killed by American-made weapons wielded by the all powerful Israeli military. Gaza is the the world’s largest open air prison and under illegal blockade. Remember, as Secretary of State, Hillary fully backed war crimes, condemned by almost all countries in the world. On the stage in Philadelphia, she spoke of backing Israel’s security without any mention of Palestinian rights or the need to end Israel’s illegal occupation of the territories.
    It is true, as numerous speakers repeated, Clinton is “most qualified and experienced,” but her record shows those qualities have led to belligerent, unlawful military actions that are now boomeranging against U.S. interests. The intervention she insistently called for in Libya, with Obama’s foolish consent, over-rode the wiser counsel of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (and his generals), who warned of the chaos that would follow. He was proven right, with chaotic violence now all over Libya spilling into other African countries. This is but one example of what Bernie Sanders meant during the debates when he referenced her “poor judgement.”
    The media coverage of political conventions tends to sink to the level of the circus. The PBS/NPR coverage with some half dozen reporters and two commentators proved to be thin, light, soft and superficial. Otherwise smart media communicators were reduced to very heavy focus on exactly what the Party’s manipulators wanted. “What is Hillary really like?” Of course the stage was filled with frothy admiration, awe and acclamation. But why didn’t the media point out some of the factual omissions, the contradictions to the endless sugarcoating of the nominee?
    To her credit, NPR/PBS reporter, Susan Davis, did blurt out that the Convention program was mostly about personality and character with little policy. Reporters did, however, point out that unlike all other candidates, Hillary Clinton has not had a news conference since last December to showcase her supposed experience, qualifications and knowledge!

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  7. continued

    Why wouldn’t Hillary Clinton, in her attack on Donald Trump, demand the release of his tax returns? Hillary and Bill have regularly released their tax returns. Maybe because Trump would demand Hillary release her secret Wall Street transcripts of her $5,000-a-minute paid speeches to big bankers and other businesses.
    To her verbal credit, Hillary Clinton raised the “unpatriotic” charge against too many U.S. corporations (not all she added) when it comes to our country. Born in the U.S.A, grown to profit on the backs of American workers, bailed out by American taxpayers and occasionally by the U.S. Marines overseas, these giant companies have no allegiance to country or community. They are, with trade agreements and other inducements, abandoning America’s workers and escaping America’s laws and taxes.
    Hearing the word “unpatriotic” applied to those companies I could imagine these firms’ executives and P.R. flacks shuddering for the only time during her 55-minute address. The stigma of being “unpatriotic” to their enabling native country can have consequential legs for turning public opinion even more deeply against these monetized corporate Goliaths.
    Stung by the consistently high “untrustworthy” ratings since polling started asking that question (only Trump exceeds her in most polls), she declared again that no one achieves greatness alone, that it takes us working together, that it “Takes a Village,” alluding to her earlier book. If that is true, then Together must have more power than the Few. “Together” should include workers, consumers, small taxpayers, voters and communities who are excluded from power, from the tools of democracy – electoral reforms and clean elections, more unions and cooperatives, access to justice for wrongful injuries and against crony capitalism and corporate crime and greater citizen empowerment. Does she have an agenda for a devolution of power from the few to the many so that we can be “stronger together,” (her slogan for 2016)? No way. Mum’s the word!
    This immense gap has been the Clinton duo’s con job on America for many years. Sugarcoating phrases, populist flattery, getting the election over with and jumping back into the fold of the plutocracy is their customary M.O.
    An anti-Hillary campaign button sums it up. Imagine a nice picture of Hillary with the words “More Wall Street” above her head and the words “More War” below her head.
    Alert voters could see it coming at the Convention: the militarism for Hillary the Hawk on day four in Philadelphia and the arrival of the corporate fat cats. Or, as the New York Times headlined: “Top Donors Leave Sidelines, Checkbooks in Hand.”
    The best thing Hillary Clinton has going for her is the self-destructive, unstable, unorganized, fact and truth-starved, egomaniacal, cheating, plutocratic, Donald Trump (See my column “Cheating Donald”).
    That’s where our nation’s two-party political leadership is today. When will the vast left/right majority rise to take over and reverse the eviscerating policies and practices of this political duopoly?

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  8. For a troll who runs around the internet accusing people of plagiarizing his work, it is hilarious to read "Luke's" two comments which were taken word-for-word from Ralph Nader's site. At the end of his post on the DNC convention and Hillary, it does say "share and enjoy." But "Luke," who accuses people of stealing his work (false, BTW), should have either linked to the original text or at the very least, put Nader's name to it.

    So it goes.

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  9. Once again Luke ha been exposed for what he (?) Really is. Thanks for taking the time to expose HIS plagiarism.

    I'll never understand what it is that gives Luke, and people like Luke, pleasure in their dishonesty.

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    Replies
    1. RN, perhaps, like Trump, people like "Luke" and other professional trolls truly believe in their own lies and fantasies. Trump repeats lies so often that I have no doubt that he truly believes them to be facts.

      Trolls like "Luke," and many others, OTOH, are nothing more than agitators and mendacity peddlers, going around conservative and liberals blogs with disruption, discord, and dishonesty as their prime contributions. They add nothing to discourse and take away from every attempt at rational discussion.

      End of rant. Thanks for listening.

      Delete
  10. I knew as soon as I began to read it that he did not writer it.

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  11. Regretfully, I've come to the conclusion that there IS such a thing as rich white trash...

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  12. Akin to psychological warfare, there are Internet troll interns everywhere. Some work for the Koch brothers' charities, some for rightwing stink tanks, some are self-motivated hacks, and some work for ... ahem ... Russian intelligence services.

    Caveat emptor! You never know what you are dealing with these days.

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  13. Hmm, Luke submitted the same two comments to my blog. Although I did not publish them. Given that they were way off topic, which was the film "The Secret Life of Pets". Submitted under the pretense of being helpful (so I wouldn't have to steal them).

    As for the conventions, I watched very little of either. I would have watched the Morgan Freeman narrated Hillary doc if I would have known ahead of time when to tune in.

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  14. I've thought of commenting on that very post. But rest assured, it would fall within guidelines.

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  15. Shaw Kenawe left a comment on this weblog yesterday noting a significant increase in page views (hits) from Russia during the DNC. She also asked if anyone else had noticed a similar increase from Russia during this time. I believe Shaw referenced July 27th specifically but I'm not positive of this. Perhaps Shaw will clarify if my recollection is in error.

    At any rate I checked this weblogs stats with respect to audience and sure enough this weblog experienced the same. Following are stats of this weblog from 7/25/16 to 8/1/16 with respect to page views from the USA and Russia during as a percentage of the total (total of USA and Russia only.)

    All Time (June 2009 – Aug. 2016)
    Russia – 0.09%
    USA - 9I.01 %

    7/25/16 – 8/1/16
    Russia – 70.00%
    USA - 30.00%



    Does this mean anything, or is it simply coincidental? Who knows? Our guess here at RN USA is it means very little to nothing. But then again...
    Anyone who has a blog curious about their own stats and would like to check them and comment here please feel free to do so. It should be interesting and a lot of fun to compare!

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  16. While communicating with a very close friend I mentioned this data. The individual has spent many years in IT specifically in the security side of IT. Following is my friends response response to this.

    If geographical location is based on IP addresses, those can b spoofed, so it’s not certain that the hits actually originate from Russia. How’s that for a conspiracy theory? :-). Back when I was the IT director at OASIS we saw a lot of hits supposedly originating from China, though I can’t imagine there was anything of specific interest on OASIS web sites. Mostly it was from badly behaved search engine bots indexing our web sites.


    I used to do a lot of scripting to organize raw Apache server log data. I don’t what tools your ISP uses to do this, but if they are any good, they should tell you things such as the top hits by point of origin, etc. Fun stuff, only of you enjoy it, and I doubt there is anything especially nefarious going on. I’m sure the NSA knows, but they aren’t going to tell us.

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