Tiempo de Formar el Ejercito Venezolano en el Exilio

Tiempo de Formar el Ejercito Venezolano en el Exilio

Por Carlos L. Arce

--- “El poder concede nada sin una demanda.  Nunca lo hizo y nunca lo hará.”

                                                                   Frederick Douglas, 1857

Es hora de desistir en hacer lo mismo, para obtener un resultado diferente en Venezuela. 
Si el objetivo es un cambio de régimen y el retorno a una forma de democracia capitalista, probablemente no se logrará solo a través de demostraciones públicas masivas.  El régimen comunista de Nicolás Maduro opera en dos realidades, una, tiene la lealtad de un ejército mercenario respaldado por China y Rusia, que puede y ha suprimido todo tipo de levantamiento público.  Dos, el reino de terror predicado por el derrocamiento del “Líder Hermano” Muammar Gaddafi en Libia en el 2011 y su subsecuente matanza a golpes por una turba revoltosa, hace una abdicación negociada inconcebible para tiranos de hoy en día.  Una abdicación voluntaria del régimen requeriría una sólida garantía de un destierro seguro y opulento para los lideres y su cadre militar de alto rango; esto parece ser cada vez más improbable.

¿Entonces, hacia dónde vamos?  La respuesta, como siempre, es acción militar; el poder y las armas han demostrado ser históricamente inseparables.  Las preguntas esenciales son quién y cómo.  La solución tradicional de una invasión militar americana que no parece estar disponible durante la tenencia administrativa actual del gobierno de Estados Unidos, el cual correctamente evalúa este tipo de acción como otra guerra extranjera interminable con probables resultados contraproducentes.  Por ende, el quien es la comunidad venezolana en el exilio.  La población esclavizada en su patria necesita un ejército de liberación; ¿dónde está la juventud venezolana?  Venezolanos educados y ricos, que hoy disfrutan del sueño americano en Florida, tienen que dirigir y respaldar un ejercito en el exilio y prepararse para la guerra.

¿Cómo se puede hacer esto?  Con el soporte logístico militar de Estados Unidos indudablemente, pero evitando los errores de cálculo de la fracasada invasión del ejército exiliado cubano a Cuba en la Bahía de Cochinos en el 1962.  Con solo ganar una cabeza de playa y luego confiar en un resultante levantamiento popular no se logró entonces y no se lograría hoy.  En la época de ametralladoras eléctricas un asalto a la ‘Bastilla’ sería autoengaño.  Los exiliados cubanos deberían haber invadido la pequeña Isla de Pinos en la costa de Cuba y haber establecido en ella la Cuba Libre.  Estados Unidos y sus aliados hubieran reconocido el nuevo y legítimo gobierno de Cuba y la isla se hubiera convertido en un próspero e impregnable bastión; desde allí se hubiera forzado el colapso eventual del régimen Castrista.

¿Cómo lo pueden lograr los venezolanos?  Pidiendo a los Estados Unidos que adiestre y equipe su ejército exiliado, quizás en la base militar americana en Guantánamo, Cuba.  No debe ser un secreto, porque sería imposible mantenerlo así.  Planificar y ejecutar una factible invasión de una porción del territorio venezolano para establecer un nuevo gobierno dentro del país y un verdadero frente de batalla.  Existen dos opciones prácticas, una es la invasión de una de las islas territoriales en el Mar Caribe, ejemplo, Isla La Tortuga. Dos, sería usar el territorio de la nación de Guyana al este de Venezuela, para invadir el territorio Essequibo, cuya soberanía se disputan ambas naciones.  Sería necesario prometer una resolución de la disputa favorable a Guyana en el futuro, como además una garantía de protección americana contra una invasión de Guyana por fuerzas militares de Maduro.  Se proveería inmediatamente tierra para el establecimiento del gobierno libre de Venezuela y marcaría el comienzo de la guerra de liberación, con soldados venezolanos y armas americanas.

Desde ese punto la ruta a la victoria sería a través de las mentes y los corazones de la población venezolana, lo que requerirá no solo una oferta de reemplazar el régimen comunista con una vaga promesa de “algo mejor.”  Debería delinear los pasos a seguir para asegurar la futura protección del orden constitucional y derechos humanos básicos, un firme compromiso de límite de términos presidenciales y la configuración de un sistema económico en base a capitalismo limitado en un marco de bienestar público que recuerda a los pobres.

 

Que gran oportunidad Venezuela presenta para la creación de un modelo de gobierno para la América Latina; podría ser el génesis de una confederación de naciones latinoamericanas.  El espíritu de Simón saborea este momento.

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Is Time for a Venezuelan Exile Army

Is Time for a Venezuelan Exile Army

By: Carlos L. Arce

“Power concedes nothing without a demand.  It never did and it never will.”  Frederick Douglass, 1857

It is time to stop doing the same thing, so that we can obtain a different result in Venezuela.  If the objective is regime change and a return to a form of capitalist democracy, it will probably not be achieved by massive public anti-government demonstrations alone.  The communist regime of Nicolás Maduro is operating under two realities; one, it has the loyalty of a China and Russia-supported mercenary army, which can and has resisted any and all signs of public uprising.  Two, the reign of terror, which followed the overthrow of “Brother Leader” Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 and his subsequent public beating to death by an unruly mob, makes a negotiated capitulation unthinkable for modern-day tyrants.  Any voluntary abdication of the regime would require a solid guarantee of safe exit to an opulent exile for the leaders and their top military cadre; that appears increasingly unlikely. 

So, where do we go from here?  The answer, as always, is military action; power and guns in human affairs have historically proven to be inseparable.  The paramount questions are: who and how?  The traditional solution of an American military invasion is not on the table while the present U.S. government administration is in place.  It is correctly viewed as another endless foreign war with probable counter-productive results.  Hence, the who is the exiled Venezuelan community.  Their enslaved population back home needs a liberation army; where is the Venezuelan youth?  Wealthy and educated Venezuelans, now enjoying the American dream in Florida, must lead and support an exiled army and prepare for war. 

How can this be done?  With the logistical support of the U.S. military, to be sure, but avoiding the miscalculations of the failed invasion of Cuba by its exiled army at the Bay of Pigs in 1962.  Just gaining a beachhead and then relying on a predicated popular uprising did not work then and would work now.  In the age of electric machine guns, storming the Bastille is self-delusion.  The exiles should have invaded the Cuban Island of Pinos offshore from the main island and established a free Cuba there.  It would have been recognized as the rightful government of Cuba by the U.S. and its allies, and it would have become a prosperous and impregnable fortress; it would have eventually forced the collapse of the Castro regime.

How can the Venezuelans do it?  Ask the U.S. to train and equip their exile army, perhaps in the American Base of Guantanamo, Cuba.  It should not be a secret because it would be impossible to make it one.  Plan and execute the feasible invasion of a portion of Venezuelan territory to establish a new government within the country and the real battlefront.  There are two practical options, one is the invasion of one of the Venezuelan territorial islands on the Caribbean Sea, e.g. Isla La Tortuga.  The second option would be to use the territory of the nation of Guyana, east of Venezuela, to invade the contested territory of Essequibo between the two nations.  This would require a promise of a future settlement of the dispute favorable to Guyana, as well as a guarantee of American protection against a Venezuelan invasion of Guyana by the Maduro military.  It would immediately provide the land for the establishment of the free Venezuelan government, and it would mark the beginning of the war for liberation with Venezuelan soldiers and American guns.

The route to victory from there will be through the hearts and minds of the Venezuelan population, which means that it cannot be an offer to replace the communist regime with a vague offer of “something better.”  It should outline the steps to ensure the future protection of constitutional order and basic human rights, a firm commitment to presidential term limits, and the configuration of an economic system based on limited capitalism within a welfare state that remembers the poor.   What a great opportunity Venezuela presents for the creation of a model government for Latin America; it can perhaps be the genesis of a confederation of Latin nations.  The spirit of Simón is savoring this moment.

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From the Politics of Personal Destruction to Reasonable Compromise: #1 Undocumented Immigration

From the Politics of Personal Destruction to Reasonable Compromise:

#1 Undocumented Immigration

Update to Article Published here on July 29, 2016

It is unfortunate that candidates for president concentrate their statements on character attacks of their opponents and polarized and intransigent policy positions.  I believe that candidates themselves would better serve the public by presenting proposals for viable compromises on the issues that have lingered in the limbo of inaction and gridlock.  Surrogates and the media will take care of the personal destruction part.  May I humbly propose here in my blog, and probably simply repackage the thinking of many others, a series of what I consider reasonable compromises.

Modern-day undocumented immigration has been a divisive issue for as long as I can remember; I have been around for a while.  In the 50s and 60s, the exploitation and mistreatment of "braceros," cheap manual laborers imported across the Mexican border by American farmers, became a national scandal.  Cesar Chavez, a Mexican American labor leader, founded the United Farm Workers Union in 1962.  His struggle gained national attention and the active support of political figures the likes of Robert F. Kennedy.  Over the years, the illegal employment of undocumented aliens by American industry, as well as households, has created a magnet for border crossers in search of a better life.  As the population of illegal immigrants grew, Congress granted a series of seven amnesties as follows:

     1.       Immigration and Reform Control Act (IRCA), 1986

1         2.       Section 245(i) Amnesty, 1994

           3.        Section 245(i) Extension Amnesty, 1997

           4.        Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) Amnesty, 1997

           5.        Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act Amnesty (HRIFA), 1998

           6.        Late Amnesty, 2000

           7.        LIFE Act Amnesty, 2000

In total, these amnesties were accompanied by promises from congressional progressives of future border enforcement; after each amnesty, the commitment to border enforcement never materialized.  These amnesties provided legal status to more than six million illegal aliens.  In the past 20 years, the undocumented population has accumulated again, but this time estimated at more than 20 million people.  Calls for amnesty number eight have divided the nation.  Democrats want Hispanic immigrants to come and vote but not to take jobs from their union supporters, while Republicans want them to come and work cheaply but not to increase the democratic voting bloc.  The hypocrisy goes on at the expense of those who are forced to live in the shadows.

Today, an argument on the "left" is that the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the U.S.  have contributed to our economy and deserve some form of legalization and not the cruel separation of individuals from their families, ergo amnesty number eight.  The idea of a global society without borders, as John Lennon sang, is something that we can indeed “Imagine.”

An argument on the "right" is that immigrants from the same language and cultural similarity are arriving in indigestible numbers and are overwhelming our natural "social assimilation machine."  That wave of Spanish-speaking border crossers has led to national Spanish-language television networks and a demand for a bi-lingual society.  It is further argued that what our country needs is a more language and culturally diversified immigrant population, as well as more educated immigrants that are in short supply for our economy, not more unskilled laborers to compete with the ones we already have.

Without taking sides let's consider a simple compromise as follows:

 For the "Right."
 

•         Provide the Border Patrol and the Immigration Control and Enforcement Agency (ICE) with whatever resources are needed to secure the Mexican-American border verifiably.
•      Provide ICE with whatever resources are needed to pursue and deport all those who overstay their "visa period."
•      Create a mandatory national electronic verification for employment system and provide ICE with whatever resources are needed to detect and substantially fine employers of                        undocumented immigrants
•      Prioritize future immigration to favor those with the skills needed by our economy and who can support themselves after they arrive.

  For the "Left."

•      Suspend deportation of undocumented immigrants without a criminal record.
•      Provide a grace period for undocumented immigrants in the country to register with the government for legal status and provide resources for a community-based registration system.
•      Reform the process that keeps applicants for legal entry waiting for many months and even years so that it can be a quick and efficient experience for future Americans.
•      Create government incentives for American businesses to shift their supply chain production from China to Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean nations.  Thereby            reducing unemployment in our regional neighborhood and the need for those populations to      emigrate

The trick to the compromise is that it all needs to be approved and funded simultaneously, without new empty promises of future compliance.  This compromise is simple and obvious; if both sides act in good faith, it leads to gridlock when one side or the other tries to cheat.  The big losers are always the undocumented immigrants now in the country and the country itself.

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What to Expect from President Trump on Defense

What to Expect from President Trump on Defense

- “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

                                                                                    President John F. Kennedy

 Peace through strength is more than a slogan; it has been a time-tested American policy in the wake of World War II that kept the old Soviet Union from overrunning Western Europe and Communist China from enslaving Asia.  The international balance of military power, the essence of diplomacy, is a reality of human existence that regulates the behavior of nations on the world stage.  This Pax Americana has undeniably benefitted the United States economically, but more importantly, it has assured the survival of individual freedom that we and most of our allies enjoy.  Much of the world’s population still lives under oppression and can only envy our lifestyle from afar. 

It has been an exercise in irrationality for us to have allowed our military forces to fall into disrepair; ominous warnings from our military leaders are unmistakable.  Any American geo-political power vacuum in the world, created by default or by feebleness, is instantly filled by our adversaries.  Hence, we see Russia pursuing aggressive expansionism in Eastern Europe, China claiming ownership of part of the sea, North Korea presuming to threaten us with nuclear weapons, and Iran inflicting havoc in the Middle East and Africa.  Our new government administration is committed to the comprehensive reconstruction of American military forces and it will likely lead to a more peaceful world.

  From a military side, our nuclear balance of terror with Russia and China continues to be based on the policy of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), and our triad of nuclear arsenals on land, air, and sea are in serious need of upgrading some computer systems controlling these weapons are still operating with floppy disks.  In our dealings with Iran and North Korea, the best deterrent is our capacity to inflict a quick knockout blow with stealth bombers and cruise missiles.  It should be clear that their roads, bridges, and power plants…are push buttons away from destruction and that a thousand points of pain shall be the instant consequence of any overt aggression.

21st-century technology will require us to increase our missile defense, our cyber security, and our satellite protection systems, as well as to develop offensive anti-satellite capabilities.  Our greatest weapon, however, is our economic power, which the new administration will strengthen.  Russia, with an economy the size of Italy, is vulnerable to economic pressure and will serve to counter-balance China’s growing military might and territorial overreach in Asia. 

Our cost of defense will inevitably increase, but some savings will be found in controlling waste.  Our new president shows little tolerance for the runaway cost of weapons and for superfluous military bases and equipment.  He will also get our allies to begin paying their fair share of our common defense.  Finally, our returning warriors, our veterans, will be receiving much better and long-delayed treatment from our government.  Whether the Veterans Administration Health System is fully or partly privatized is yet to be determined, but the age of mediocre care for veterans is coming to an end.

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What to Expect from President Trump on Space Exploration

What to Expect from President Trump on Space Exploration

- Our space program has been a driving force in our technological development, a source of national pride at home and prestige among nations.  American youth have been inspired to pursue science, and it has made us all dream.  It is in space that we can best research our planetary environment, improve our communications, and study the magnificent creation of the universe.  One day, not far into the future, we will need to find extraterrestrial natural resources and living space for our growing human population, which is already nearing seven billion.  Space has always been our final frontier.

America’s national fervor for space exploration has steadily dwindled since the climax of the moon landing of 1969.  A recent surge of interest followed the Vision for Space Exploration Program announced by President George W. Bush in 2004.  The new space policy called for a replacement for the Space Shuttle before its retirement, a return to the moon, and extending our human presence in deep space.  However, the passion for space exploration dwindled again during the administration of President Barack Obama, which began in 2009.  In 2010, the Constellation Program designed to replace the shuttle was canceled, and a proposal to extend the service of the Space Shuttle fleet was denied.  The Space Shuttle was prematurely retired without a replacement in 2011.  American astronauts have been forced since then to depend on travel in Russian Soyuz Rockets, something which many Americans have found humiliating.  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been instructed to limit future deep space exploration programs and to mostly limit its operations to near-earth orbit.  Further budget cuts for NASA were included in the last budget approved in 2016.  We seem to have been voluntarily yielding our lead and have decided to wait for other countries to catch up with us; China has not wasted the opportunity.

 There is a new race to the moon with China.  What nation will be the first to establish a human habitat on the surface of our celestial companion?  China’s ambitious Chang’e Lunar Exploration Program has already placed satellites circling the moon in 2007 and 2010.  In 2013, it soft-landed a lunar rover, and this year, it will send a new craft to land on the moon and return samples to Earth.  Our last soft landing on the moon dates back to 1976.  There is an abundance of valuable resources on the moon, including Helium III, which will fuel the nuclear-fusion energy revolution of the future.  The investment will be richly rewarded for all who take the challenge.

We now have a new president who promised that America will start winning again and space is a good place to prove that point.  Funding will greatly increase soon and it will fall in line with the new job creation agenda.  Once again, we will enthusiastically reach for the stars and be the first to establish a human base on the moon.  NASA will continue to lead our space program, but new government initiatives and incentives will open the door widely for American free enterprise to participate.  We already have commercial competition heating up among companies like Space X, Orbital Sciences, Blue Origin, Bigelow Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, and others.  America is ready to compete and to win again in the space race.

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What to Expect from President Trump on Energy

What to Expect from President Trump on Energy -

Energy is at the center of our lives and is pivotal in the economy of our nation.  The dilemma is that most of our energy still comes from fossil fuels, which threaten global warming.  Well-intended progressives have forced our country to limit the domestic production of our abundant reservoirs while we continue expensive imports from abroad.  They have also compelled our businesses to follow very strict environmental restrictions, while China, India, and other commercial competitors do not.  These nonsensical policies have, in great part, contributed to America’s loss of its manufacturing base, its jobs, and its wealth.  The basic reality is that American energy sacrifices are futile, while China, India and other expanding economies proceed with business as usual.  The solution requires international common action, not an American economic disarmament.

The use of renewable sources of energy like solar, wind, and others cannot be forced upon our population. At the same time, they remain uneconomical and make our products non-competitive in the domestic and international markets.  Our nation presently produces only 15% of the pollution, while China alone has doubled that amount and continues to grow.  The Chinese are building and planning to build over 1,200 new coal-fired plants as we speak.  Coal is the most polluting of the fossil fuels, followed by oil, and the best immediate strategy for us is to unshackle the production of domestic natural gas as a bridge energy source.  American natural gas, which emits half as much CO² as coal, could gradually replace coal in electricity generation at home and even abroad.  Natural gas could also run our vehicles, especially trucks and buses, which alone would eliminate all our need for energy imports.  American energy exports would also be a balance of trade equalizer.

The new republican administration is in the process of liberating our energy sector so that it can rush to make our nation not only energy independent but the primary world supplier of natural gas.  It will bring wealth and jobs back home while greatly reducing environmental pollution.  There will be no central master plan, that would doom the effort, it will instead allow the genius of the American free market to work within a reasonable framework of regulatory oversight.  There will be much resistance and organized protests, but ultimately, the rejuvenation of the American economy will be unstoppable.

In the near future, technology will bring us cheap electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells and economical solar, wind, biomass, thermal, and other renewable sources.  Furthermore, our scientific community envisions space-based energy generation and fusion reactors at home supplied with Helium III from the moon.  Many physicists even suggest that future understanding of the quantum entanglement of particles may lead to energy teleportation.  Let’s not succumb to fear, God will always guide us to save harbor; the future is bright.

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The Rebirth of Compassionate Conservatism

The Rebirth of Compassionate Conservatism

--- "It is compassionate to actively help our citizens in need. It is conservative to insist on accountability and results."

— President George W. Bush

Reaching out to the poor is both morally correct and politically astute for the republican party as it prepares to take its turn at the helm.  American black voters have already shown their willingness to listen by not coming out in force to help elect Hillary Clinton; this window may not be open for long.  It is time for the rebirth of compassionate conservatism.  Prior misdirected attempts failed to repair the broken base on which they tried to build.  A new anti-poverty agenda should focus on economic development, social cohesiveness, and educational effectiveness.

Following the old axiom that a good job is the best anti-poverty program, we must channel some of the new revenue from the anticipated trillions of repatriated corporate dollars into the inner cities as part of an expanded use of “enterprise zones.”  These urban development programs would be most effective when allowing government employment training programs to be administered by corporations.  Law and order efforts, although they must increase police diversity and even the use of community-based auxiliary forces, must provide safe and functional neighborhoods and schools; street gangs must be confronted and expelled.  On the other hand, incarceration patterns and welfare program structures must be revamped to encourage greater paternal participation in family formation.  As conditions improve, so will the success of the educational system, especially when competition and parental choice are introduced.  Education, combined with individual responsibility, is the ultimate anti-poverty remedy.

So, when our new president asks the poor, “What do you have to lose?” The answer would be another loss of faith in the American system if the new Republican administration proves to be, for them, more of the same.

---

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The “Repeal & Replace” of Obamacare is Neither Quick, nor Centrally Planned

The “Repeal & Replace” of Obamacare is Neither Quick, nor Centrally Planned -

The incoming administration is being challenged to produce a comprehensive replacement for the Affordable Care Act before the existing law is completely repealed. Neither is going to happen quickly. Repealing the ACA will come in steps designed to preclude leaving large numbers of people without their newly acquired medical coverage before a substitute system is in place. The surgical dismantling will also seek to preserve the popular features of the ACA, like the protection of people with pre-existing conditions.

The question of what comprehensive master plan will replace ACA fails to grasp the fundamental dichotomy of political philosophy.  The new president will rely on the greatest American asset to produce a replacement system, the American free market.  There is no master plan hidden in someone’s desk drawer, but rather, bits and pieces have been taking shape in the minds of American business leaders, and a process of trial and error will soon follow.  Ultimately, a competitive set of options will be available to all Americans, and the poor will have to be subsidized in purchasing their own private medical insurance.

President Obama’s greatest legacy is not the mechanics of this deficient law but the new acceptance by all Americans that universal medical care is right and long overdue.

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Let’s Put an End to the Election of 2016

Let’s Put an End to the Election of 2016

The Electoral College voted that Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated President of the United States, and the Republican Party, in control of both houses of Congress, will begin to implement the new Republican Platform. The Democrat Party, still in shock over the election results, continues to search for reasons to explain the defeat and ways to delegitimize the Republican victory.

Many things had some effect on the election results; there were ongoing FBI investigations, and emails from the Democratic National Committee and from the Clinton campaign were hacked and made public, but these issues were not fake.  The FBI investigations were not invented, they were real then and they continue today.  The hacking of the email was illegal and should be investigated, but the content of the email is what had a negative effect.  In the final analysis, these harmful realities hurt the Clinton candidacy to some degree, but not enough to decide the election.  Republicans won 33 of the 50 states, 80% of the counties in the country, most governorships and state houses, a sizeable majority of the popular vote if we exclude ultra-liberal California, and both houses of Congress; it was a conclusive triumph of conservative principles over the agenda of the left.

So, let’s end the 2016 election and try to return to a normal state, where we have an elected government running the country and a loyal opposition fighting to prevent the party in power from indulging in excess in the pursuit of its ideals.

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Aleppo, Syrian Refugees and the U.S. Military

Aleppo, Syrian Refugees and the U.S. Military

It is naïve to think that the Syrian Government and its patron, Russia, are going to stop pursuing total victory against the Syrian rebel forces, regardless of the humanitarian crisis being created in Syria.  It is also naïve to propose that the American military is not needed to confront aggression from time to time around the world.

We were wrong to pursue “nation building” under the Bush administration, but we have been terribly wrong in becoming militarily feckless under the Obama administration.  By doing nothing about the Syrian refugee crisis, we have allowed a humanitarian disaster with millions of these destitute civilians descending on Europe and neighboring Arab countries.

The refugees want to stay home in Syria, but only the United States can create “safe zones” there with its military power.  This can be done without getting involved in another endless land war and getting the rich Arab nations in the area to foot the bill.  This is the stated policy of the new Trump administration.  The bottom line is that America will have to get directly involved in both the creation of safe zones for refugees and in the elimination of  ISIS, simply because we are a decent nation with the strongest military in a restless world.

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Misguided Challenge to President Trump's Election

Misguided Challenge to President Trump's Election

Presidential elections are won or lost in the Electoral College not in the total of the general population vote.  Let's not forget that the Electoral College is largely responsible for convincing all the semi-autonomous states to join our federated republic.  Each state, however small, gets two senators and the right to influence the presidential election.  We have been wise to avoid a pure direct democracy and the possible tyranny of the majority it can create.

President-elect Trump obtained 1.2+ million votes less than candidate Clinton in the general vote, yet California, along with its concentration of liberal voters, gave Clinton three million more votes.  New York City gave Clinton two million more votes than Trump.  Excluding California, Trump got two million more votes in the general population, and he won at least 85% of the 3,141 counties in the nation.

It is also ludicrous to suggest that the Russian government sabotaged the Clinton campaign.  The hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign could have been done by a number of bad actors, but the main issue is the content of the emails and the intent of the senders.

The bottom line is that the election is over, the Republican Party won, and Donald J. Trump will be the next President of the United States in the traditional American, peaceful transfer of power.  The time is for unity and national loyalty.

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Education: The Tunnel Back

Education: The Tunnel Back

Education, defined as the imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning, has been one of the foundations of American social and economic success. Historically, the introduction of universal public education in this country has been a cornerstone of our democracy. It is the poor's most reliable social path for upward mobility. It is thus tragic to witness that promise to America's poor disintegrate into a failing public education system. Gangs, drugs, and violence are too often found in poor neighborhood schools, with discipline becoming the first casualty. Academic achievement becomes non-competitive in an increasingly competitive world. Middle-class neighborhoods suffer less from the existence of gangs and violence, but many also have unacceptable levels of drug abuse. Here again, discipline and order are often less than desirable; academic achievement as well is too frequently disappointing.

Globalization and transnational competition, fueled by the mushrooming internet technology, no longer afford us the safety of the domestic employment of yesteryear. The playing field has been leveled, and our children will compete for internet-based jobs with the children of the world. The only remaining question is who will enjoy a better education. As more and more jobs go overseas, our economic power will be comparatively reduced; so will, inherently, our military supremacy. For America to remain the preeminent global superpower, American children must be the best educated.

Money alone is not the answer; desperate calls to throw more money at the problem will not bring us victory. Let's remember that we spend more per capita than any other country, yet we are behind more than thirty other nations in critical areas. India and China today greatly outpace our production of scientists and engineers, and there is a significant deficit in other areas as well. Even in our own highest education schools, we are out-competed; as much as half the graduate engineering students in American schools are foreign. Not that we do not benefit from educating foreign students in our schools. Many schools would have to close without them, and a significant number of graduate foreign students have in the past remained in America after graduation, adding to our brain pool. The issue is that most of them return home and the balance continues to tilt and not in our favor.

The net results are not much better in our primary and secondary schools, where we are relegated to the celebration of minimal improvements in the comparatively dismal levels of math and reading scores. There are reports suggesting that one-third of our children drop out of high school. In poor neighborhoods, the figure is reported to be frequently higher than fifty percent. These statistics seem to affect all American groups except the Orientals. It may be accurate to say that Oriental children are not smarter than the rest of our children; perhaps their parents just have not yet stopped disciplining them. Teachers, often left at the mercy of intimidation from some unruly students and some equally unruly parents, have, in too many instances, thrown up their hands and surrendered to our American educational reality. Many concerned but exasperated parents, more often than not, follow suit. Politicians are, as usual, content with squeezing some credit out of rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.

Where could we start changing? Fundamental transformation is not necessary. At least this article is not an attempt to reinvent American Education. Neither curriculum selection nor pedagogical methodology is being addressed here. Structural organization, proportional funding, and rules of order are the areas of immediate interest. The greatest drawback to our public education organization may be its tendency toward universal inclusion in the student population mainstream. With some exemptions for serious emotional or behavioral dysfunction, the bulk of the student population is housed together in ever-larger school buildings. The academic performance of these schools is set at whatever level they can collectively achieve, not at the level that competing institutions in other neighborhoods and abroad are demonstrating as desirable, as if their children were not preparing to compete as adults in the real world. We have to consider the creation of a dual or multi-tier system where the greatest possible number of students can reach a pre-set competitive level of academic standard. The balance of the student population would be provided education at the highest attainable level. We need a structure where no child is left behind, but no child is held behind.

Most important the school system has to become transparent to parents. Video cameras, which are already used in many school hallways, may be a valuable addition to the classroom as well. The quality of teaching and student behavior would dramatically improve if classes were recorded. Evaluations of teacher competence and student behavior would become evidently clear. Access to recorded classes could be limited to viewing by school principals and review boards or, in its far-reaching application, available in real-time to parents via the Internet. Millions of Americans throughout society now work under the eye of video cameras.

The disproportional distribution of funding in the public school system is perhaps the direct result of a system of county and city-based property taxes. Affluent counties accumulate adequate funding for their schools, while poor neighborhoods await government handouts. Wealthy segments of society set aside school cash, which is deductible from their state and federal taxation, while state legislatures turn a blind eye to crumbling and malfunctioning schools in poor neighborhoods. This economics determined separate and unequal structure needs to be altered, not by busing the students, but by equalizing conditions. It would, by necessity, require higher spending in the poorer areas.

Discipline and order must be dramatically improved throughout the public school system. Many articles have been written documenting countless horror stories, ranging from refusal to do homework to murder. Schools in the upper-tier system must adopt a credible policy of expulsion. Administrators in all schools should have an unlimited supply of school guards, academic tutors, and family intervention counselors and investigators. The desperately needed infusion of trained manpower must become available.

We will never be able to address this problem with insufficient resources any more than we have been able to pacify Iraq. National service conscription of young Americans across the board may be necessary, with the use of a fair universal lottery system. The nation must finally transcend the paralyzing intimidation of the civil rights explosions and the anti-Viet Nam War youth revolution. We should stop expecting so little from our youth; it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and they are not the better for it. Most Americans would support a draft system that offers a free choice between military service and a host of civilian social services. Those draftees who freely choose the military option would be part of what would continue to be an all-volunteer military. The others, presumably the great majority, would provide many of our social institutions with desperately needed manpower at a plausibly affordable price. They would become a rotating, but endless supply of well-trained supplemental labor. This would be a labor supply, which could be decreased as easily as it could be increased to respond to changing needs; no high salaries, work contracts or pension plans would exist to hamper the progression. Those draftees, who refuse to serve, would in the process forfeit many of the perks of American citizenship, which they now unthinkingly take for granted as birth rights. Why don't we decisively tackle some of our major national problems without surrendering to them; why don't we let our young people make us and them selves proud by joining us in the effort?

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Undocumented Immigration Fact

The undocumented immigration crisis will not be resolved without an effective mechanism to prevent future illegal immigration, both through border crossing and through Visa overstaying.  All opposition to the legalization of the 11+ million undocumented residents will eventually disappear after that.  The insistence by some on the granting of another amnesty, number eight since 1986, without preventing future illegal entry, is disingenuous and divisive; it also prolongs the suffering of the millions living in the shadows.

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What to Expect from President Trump on Education

The American public education system is not going to be destroyed by the President Trump administration as the left claims, it will instead be restructured to become competitive by world standards.  The federal Department of Education has become an overbearing, centralized bureaucracy imposing a one-size-fits-all educational recipe on every state.  This administration will begin by cutting this bureaucracy down to size and returning power and funding back to the states so they can continue to be the laboratories of democracy they were always intended to be.

A constructive restructuring of the public school system should start by eliminating the funding reliance on local property taxes that provide good schools for the wealthy and substandard schools for the poor.  Equal funding for all students should instead come from government general funds, and the allotted amount for each student should be portable in the form of school vouchers.  Parents should decide where their children attend school, not fixed zip code assignments and school vouchers should be permitted for use in private, even religious schools.

All public schools should gradually become privately administered as chartered schools without the stranglehold of the teachers' union.  Their individual survival should depend on their ability to attract students with government-funded vouchers.  These privately administered chartered schools, like other private schools, should be able to hire, reward, or fire teachers based on merit evaluation, without seniority or tenure rights.  They should also be able to expel disruptive or non-performing students thereby maintaining a disciplined environment conducive to proper learning.  Students with learning disabilities requiring special education should have their own school programs that do not interfere with the mainstream curriculum.

A second-tier public school system will, by necessity, emerge to collect disruptive or non-performing students expelled from other schools. These schools of last resort would need to have a heavy security presence and vigorous remediation support programs. Students who show desired behavior modification will always have the opportunity to return to chartered or private schools. Our philosophy should always be to try to leave no child behind while assuring that disruptors are not allowed to hold other students behind.

The present American public school system costs more than in other industrialized countries and has dismal comparative results; it has to change, and change is on the way.

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What to Expect from President Trump on Immigration

There is no plan for the universal deportation of illegal immigrants in the country, but left-wing controlled cities and campuses are openly declaring their sanctuary resistance plans against the fabricated monster; it creates media attention at the expense of the frightened undocumented immigrant population.  Many detractor groups undoubtedly have their camera-ready ambushes waiting to film the tearful breakup of families, as well as the potentially violent confrontations between anti-deportation demonstrators and federal law enforcement officers.  

The new, simple, and clear-cut government policy includes four steps: 1. Stop further illegal immigration, 2. Deport all illegal immigrants with criminal records; 3. Reform the immigration statutes, and 4. Provide conditional amnesty to non-criminal, undocumented immigrants already established in the country.

I anticipate a wise implementation of the new policy that would include the following:

•        Postpone all confrontations with organized resistance groups while concentrating on the rapid achievement of available options. It would begin with the construction of modern physical barriers on vulnerable segments of the border and an increase in the manpower of border guards and visa enforcement officers, using existing funds and new funding legislation.                                            
•     Simultaneously, proceed at the maximum possible speed with the deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal records.  Even after tripling the present number of annual deportations, it would take two to three years to deport the estimated two to three million illegal immigrants in this category.  A sudden and massive deportation regime would create shock at home and economic calamity in the receiving countries of Mexico and Central American nations.
•         Introduce statutory changes to our immigration laws that would lessen chain migration, Increase screening of import workers to protect American labor, and emphasize skills and education for new immigrants.
•          Create a registration program for undocumented immigrants over a fixed period of time, leading to a conditional amnesty and a normal path to citizenship.
•         Finally, a strict E-Verify system should be instituted, and sanctuary cities, counties, and institutions in the country should be challenged.

At the end of this process, most undocumented immigrants will be legal residents, and our nation can begin to heal from this hurtful dilemma.

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A Fair Deal for Our Youth

Before we rush to consider free college tuition and refinancing student debt for all, which we probably could not afford, why don't we offer these new entitlements only to qualified young people willing to give back to the country?

Our nation desperately needs a National Youth Service Program to remedy the personnel shortages in areas like school tutoring, border patrol, environmental improvement, and military service. Let's offer our youth a fair deal, not a free lunch.

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