Topping the blog lists!

You made Thinking Out Loud one of the top ten conservative blogs on "Top Political Blog" site (on April 28, 2012) with an international audience. On February 18, 2013, we hit in the top 50 of ALL political blogs. (This changes all the time, so keep reading.) Thank you.

Friday, January 29, 2016

Who To Blame Now?! Redux 2016!

COMMENTARY - There are some things to remember amidst all the new presidential campaign rhetoric being posted on social media sites, and throughout both mainstream and alternative media. Not everyone is honest. And social media is filled with accusations, claims and misrepresentations that people keep 'sharing' and touting as fact.

Take for instance Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT). He has been railing against the Republican party blaming them for everything wrong in America. An old video of him slamming Alan Greenspan has surfaced and is labeled as him vehemently attacking the Republican party for the destruction of our economy.

Here's some realities.

In 1977, then President Jimmy Carter created the CRA (Community Reinvestment Act). This was to get banks / lending institutions to be more helpful to members of the communities in which they operate. However, this particular approach was made null and void with all the massive banking convergences. There are no longer local community banking / lending institutions. They are all national (and in some cases, international) conglomerates who don't really “operate” locally in the sense they did when the CRA was enacted.

Then in 1995 then president Bill Clinton lowered the standards about who could get low cost, no-cost housing loans, which – by all accounts – directly led to too many unqualified people getting loans they were never going to be able to pay back.

The blame game began in earnest which led to the current economic crisis America finds itself in.

In April of 2001, the Bush Administration first red flagged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stating that "financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity."

(Note - Bush also pushed for an audit of the Fed and experienced push back by the Democrats. Here is an interesting timeline on the White House's own archives.)

In response to the Bush's regulatory overhaul proposal, Barney Frank, a ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee, defended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saying,

These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – are not facing any kind of financial crisis, the more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing . . . I think it is clear that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are sufficiently secure so they are in no great danger. . . I don't think we face a crisis; I don't think that we have an impending disaster. . . . Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do very good work, and they are not endangering the fiscal health of this country.”

Barney Frank railed against the Bush administration's attempts to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as a racist move. Maxine Waters declared vehemently that they were trying to fix something that “wasn't broken”. Gregory Meeks stated in a hearing (where he felt he had more important places to be other than there) that there was nothing wrong with “you know, Fannie Mae” and even attacked the competency of the oversight agency. Lacy Clay claimed the whole thing was actually about the “political lynching of Franklin Raines” (who was black, thus invoking old time racism prior to the Civil Rights movement).

Democrat after Democrat came to the defense of a broken system that led directly to the financial crisis we have been facing for far too many years. And now Bernie Sanders, Democrats and the media rant against Republicans laying the blame at their feet. When in fact it is the fault of both parties. Democrats for their failed judgment time and time again in the name of social programs, Republicans for a lack of bravery (or cajones) to stop them. BUT MOST OF ALL, it is the fault of the American people as well for being asleep at the wheel and letting these self absorbed and self serving people do ALL of these things.

This is yet another reason NOT to elect anyone from the established political parties. They are all complicit in the decline of America. And any rant to the contrary is simply political showmanship and proof of business as usual.

There are many places to find out this information but here is one source where you can find this information out (See more at: http://www.thehispanicconservative.com/General/the-fanny-mae-and-freddie-mac-debacle.html#sthash.eEnRbonG.dpuf). However, I have always stated that you should never simply take someone's word for it. Go to many sources and form your own opinion from facts you find. (I repeat, FACTS you find.) I don't even want you to simply take my word for it. I am just giving you factual food for thought with my own opinion thrown in. (Thus, why this article is labeled as “Commentary” and “Op/Ed”.)

So, agree or disagree, I only ask that you do so from your own base of knowledge. Don't disagree with me (or even agree with me) because someone else told you to. In order for America to right this listing ship of state, we ALL must learn to think for ourselves and stop being sheep!

But whatever you decide, this is just me, Thinking Out Loud!

Have a great day!


Charles

Thursday, January 21, 2016

I Told You All About Hillary Years Ago . . .

Hello. I told you all about Hillary Clinton years ago. I told you about her less than truthfulness. I gave you example after example. And this was before the deleted emails and Benghazi.

So I am going to give you an excerpt from my book I published in 2011 and it was from an Op/Ed I wrote in 2008.

Thinking Out Loud - Hillary Clinton
"All Truths Are Easy to Understand Once They Are Discovered; The Point is to Discover Them." - Galileo
(5/9/2008)
You know what amazes me about the American people? Not only are we strong, independent, rugged and innovative, but we also tend to have short term memories. Or maybe its just our collective use of selective amnesia. 
Here we are in 2008, in the midst of a Presidential campaign, finding ourselves in a brouhaha concerning whether or not Hillary Clinton is an honest person. There are polls galore asking if they find the candidates honest. In one such poll during the North Carolina / Indiana Democratic Primaries, 54% of people questioned Hillary's honesty. All because of a comment she made about a sniper incident in Bosnia in 1996. It was explained by her campaign and supporters as her simply "misremembering" the event. And if this wasn't enough, she reported on a young woman who died because she didn't have health insurance; which was later discovered to be erroneous. But she explained this away as well by saying someone had told her the story wrong. 
Now, for our part as Americans with selective memory. This isn't the first time this woman has been caught in a lie or exaggeration or a "misremembering." She has been doing it for well over a decade. 

TravelGate, the first scandal to hit the Bill Clinton administration. Hillary played a central role in the firings and then made false statements about her involvement. Independent counsel Robert Ray concluded that she had made factually false statements, but there wasn't enough to prosecute. 

Whitewater. Remember that little scandal back in the early days of the Clinton Presidency? Documents that were willed to the Library of Congress by Sam Dash (ethics counsel for Kenneth Starr), who passed away in 2004, show that Hillary had lied about her involvement as legal counsel for the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association; as well as the money she made doing so. Prosecutors also determined that she had lied, under oath, about her legal involvement in another real estate venture (Castle Grande). 

Health Care Program during the Clinton years. Hillary has always stated that she was pivotal in writing the health care reform bills during her husband's term. Not true, it was Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy. She claimed to have been in many meetings that the records show she never attended. 

Two words. Vince Foster. The only thing that you can say for certainty is that this long time friend and aide to the Clintons is dead, and that his body was found in a park. There are lots of conspiracy theories involving his death, from his committing suicide in a place embarrassing to the Clinton's but moved to the park, to his having an affair with Hillary that resulted in his death. Throughout the investigation and public scrutiny of his case, it is excruciatingly obvious that Hillary (and Bill) held information back and were less than truthful. 

It just seems to me that after over a decade of her honesty being called into question, even if you think she has been vilified by those who just don't like her and Bill, you have to think of the saying "where there's smoke, there's fire." 

(And is it just a coincidence that after I mention this on a national radio talk show, suddenly other radio hosts and the NY Times are talking about it? I think not.)
You can say I'm being mean. You can say there is some ring of truth to all this. You can even say "sticks and stones . . ." No matter. This is just me, thinking out loud.


So there you go. Thats Hillary Clinton in a nutshell. Still want to vote for her? Then you will get what you deserve - a President who will not even flinch if it comes to lying to the American public.

Yes, I know, you say they all lie to us. This is so cynical. Don't you want something different from what we have always had? Don't you want someone who will do what is right for the American people, who will have our backs, who will tells us the truth even if it means admitting they are human and make mistakes?

Whatever. Anyway, as I always say, Agree or disagree, thats up to you. This is just me, Thinking Out Loud.

Have a great day.

Charles