Thursday, October 20, 2016

I'm voting alright. But not for who you think.

Aren't you glad this crap is about over? I sure am. That's sad to feel that way about a presidential election, but that's the way I feel. It's not only sad, it's foreboding. I don't see anything good for us or the country coming out of this election, and it matters not who wins. If you've been reading my past posts on my blog, you'll have noticed that I have not made any statements or implications that I favored one candidate over the other. I think of myself as a conservative, not a Republican, I don't associate with any party ideals. I have conservative values and that's it. Admittedly, it's the Republican candidate in past elections that most closely align with conservative values so that's who I've voted for.
But this election is different. My conservative values have had to take a back seat. There are much more important things to consider. Like some of the bad shit that will happen if either of these shitheads take office. But first, let me make one important point. Not that anything that concerns me is all that important, but humor me for just a minute. Right now, at this moment in time, I am not planning to cast a ballot for either Trump or Clinton. And yes, I am going to vote. Why, you ask? I thought you'd never ask...
Let's start with Trump. One of the topics in the debate last night was fitness for the presidency. Based on the responses, and everything I've heard either of them say or do, ever, in my opinion, no. When asked what made him fit to be president Trump answered "I started a phenomenal company, a great company that has made billions of dollars", blah, blah, blah... But being president is being the nation's top diplomat. We have to get along with the rest of the world and at times settle disputes when other countries have differences. When WE have differences with other countries and hopefully do it peacefully. It should be obvious to even the most casual observer that that would require someone with patience, tolerance and compassion. Someone with a sound mien and respected character. Someone who is respectful of others. Someone with a solid, unmovable vision of the right thing to do. Does that sound like Donald Trump? Stop laughing, I'm not done yet. By all appearances Donald Trump is a solipsistic prick. He likes things his way and when they don't go his way he becomes bullish. Can you imagine being a businessman and doing business with him? I can't.
Now let's take a look at Hillary Clinton. Do the qualities I listed above sound like Hillary's qualities? Ask the 46 people who have had some sort of conflict of interest or may have gotten in the way of the Clinton's interests who are now dead. Dead under dubious circumstances. Don't take my word for this, Google it and read for yourself. No, I'm sorry, 46 is not a long string of coincidences. That even goes way beyond Murphy's Law. Ask the parents and loved ones of the four who were killed by terrorists at the embassy compound in Benghazi. And lied to about it. Ask Mary Mahoney's family about it. She was a lesbian intern when Bill was president who the other interns often turned to regarding Bill's disproportionate interest in interns. She was murdered at a local Starbucks where she worked as a night manager. Her and  two other employees were shot in the head, one's body was riddled with bullets. Guess which one. The restaurant was not robbed. This happened just a couple of days after the Lewinsky scandal broke and news of other Clinton dalliances. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not... She would have been a star witness in the impeachment trials.
If you really want to know what kind of person she is ask  the Secret Service and White House staff assigned to the Clintons. It's public information, it's been published.
My biggest hang up with Clinton? She's disingenuous to the point of being a pathological liar. Lying does not bother this woman in the least. About anything... How can we in good conscience, elect someone who cannot, will not tell the truth when it serves her interest not to.
No, I will not vote  for either on November 8th. Not  gonna happen. For the next  four years when everything is going to hell in a handbasket, I'll be able to at least say I didn't vote for either idiot.
So I know you're thinking, if he doesn't vote for Trump or Clinton that only leaves two other candidates.  No name candidates that we know little to nothing about. One of them might make a good president, who knows. If you consider yourself an informed voter you don't vote for someone and hope for the best. At the least, you need a good reason to believe that they will be a good, competent president.
Competent president. How long has it been since we had one of  those? Like most of my friends I consider myself an informed voter and a reasonably intelligent person. Someone who can sift through the muddy river of information that is the internet and figure out what's crap and what's not. This time, in this election, what we learn about the candidates is not good. It's discouraging and disheartening. But it's what we've got.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

So what's really going on...

News just came out a couple of days ago that the Ecuadorian Embassy has cut off Julian Assange's internet access. The access that he has had since 2012. Now that's interesting, what could possibly be the motive behind that? Sure, he's a controversial fellow that has a tendency to piss off politicos (mostly American). And Sweden wants him extradited to face charges of sexual molestation of a couple of WikiLeaks supporters, but after four years, why now? There has to be some political  pressure coming from somewhere but so far, no news as to where it's coming from or why.
Trump is bleating crap about the election being rigged, which is possible I suppose, but not really likely. The DNC is carrying on about the Russians being involved in trying to influence the outcome of the election. Of course, Putin denies it all saying we're not doing anything to influence your stupid election, what the hell do we care. Keep in mind that Putin is sort of like a lawyer, if his lips are moving, he's lying.
Let's go back to Assange. Losing his internet access is major. Then again, if drug lords and thugs can run their operations from inside prison walls then Assange can certainly carry on the business of WikiLeaks from inside the Ecuadorian embassy without internet access. Here's why I say it's major. I believe that some time before the election, WikiLeaks is going to release something that sinks Hillary. Something huge that literally blows her out of the water. I have no idea what, but  I think it's coming. And with only about twenty-five days to go, it's coming  pretty soon. I don't think Assange has any particular affinity for Trump or on the other hand a vendetta for Clinton, this is just what he does. But the implications of something like that, well, that's pretty obvious.
Whether Clinton wins or Trump it's not going to be good. There's no need to go into any details there, you've been keeping up just like I have. They both suck. Really bad. Neither is fit to be president. Not even close. I  keep asking myself, just as you have probably, how the hell did this happen? We had a chance, lots of them to elect knowledgeable, competent, and not nearly as crooked candidates. And look who's standing on the stage. Bravo America. Bravo. Dare I say, we're going to regret this.
But these events that I have described above, there's an underpinning here. Don't know exactly what it is, but there's something going on. Something that is going to change history, and not necessarily for the better. There's some sly, cunning crap going on somewhere and I'm not talking about the sophomoric bullshit from Don and Hill. It's much bigger than that. But seriously, what is going on? I guess we'll find out soon...

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

OK, that's it. I mean really, that's it.

Last night we watched the second presidential debate. It is still hard for me to bring myself to believe that those two asshats are running for the office of the president of the United States of  America. Really hard. What's even harder to believe is that one of them is actually going to win and assume the  office. Which means making decisions that will affect our lives. At one point it got so ridiculous and absurd Kelly said this is like watching Saturday night Live. And it was. Sad. So very sad.
Politic analysis is not my thing, it's not even one of my aspirations. I have just become so concerned with this pathetic situation that I have started writing about  it, and well... I'm still plenty concerned about it, I don't want  to live my last years in a great country that is on it's way to being a socialist beta test.
So, enough is enough. I'm no Charles Krauthammer, if you want the best perspective on politics that a great mind can offer read his columns. Me, I'm sticking with other, more important life issues. Like writing great stories. I've got a novel to finish and that's where my mind needs to be. Not on the freak show these two clowns are putting on.
I hate that it is taking this long to write this book. It's terrible. My only excuse is life happened and I got distracted. But it's time to get back to business and get 'er done. I'll be heading up to Buffalo Valley next week. Actually being where most of the story is set should help matters. It'll help me clear out my head if nothing else. And getting back to what I do best. And stop being so distracted...

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Are you a liberal or a conservative? And how did you get that way?...

Growing up in the 50's and 60's, there were Democrats and Republicans. I happened to grow up in a family of Democrats. The first election I can remember was that between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. To be honest I have no recall of any talk about liberals or conservatives back then. I'm sure there were some biases at work in choosing a candidate such as physical attractiveness and charisma, I mean come on, this was John Kennedy. Camelot himself. And Nixon? If here had been a grandpa character on Leave it to Beaver it would have been him. I have no doubt that there were plenty of Republicans that were drawn to Kennedy and had no qualms about it. He convinced voters that he would do a great job and we all know history has borne that fact.
I dare say though, that the ideals of the parties have changed over the decades since. Democrats have been the force behind some of the greatest federal programs this country has known. Roosevelt's' New Deal and the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps was the 'magic' the country needed to recover from the Great Depression. And this was no small feat. FDR's Social Security Act has been taking care of older Americans for almost 90 years. Johnson's Civil Rights Act did more to bring racial equality than any other act of American government. And none of those landmark programs exploited any subgroup of Americans in order for them to succeed. They succeeded because Americans saw the value in them and got behind them.
Such programs seem to be erstwhile memories of our better days as a nation. Legislation and programs today don't measure up to being good for all Americans. They target particular constituencies and it seems, invariably for the purpose of getting votes. As the national debt has grown through the years to fund literally a billion things, government has tried to get creative in ways to fund these partisan oriented programs. In doing so it seems an insipid problem came to light; in order to give someone something you have to take from someone else. As the awareness of this fact of life surfaced we were no longer Democrats and Republicans, we were now liberals and conservatives. The liberals supported the social programs such as welfare and were for increased regulations to keep big business under control. And of course to administer these programs and enforce the regulations government had to grow bigger and more powerful. More money was needed. There is one way for a government to obtain money, to tax. No one likes to pay more tax and the government has taken to targeting a specific sub groups of Americans to tax at higher rates. A mantra that has become so popular is "The rich need to pay their fair share". As if they have been rolling along all this time not paying their fair share. A couple of things need to be clarified (as if that were possible...) though. One is who exactly are "the rich"? The other is what exactly is "their fair share"? The bandwagon to make those freeloaders pay their fair share started filling up quickly, and it only made sense. The rich had too much money, they weren't paying their fair share (if they were they wouldn't have so much money) and if we took more from them we could fund these social programs. Then the poor and needy would benefit (and the sponsoring politicians would get the votes). The rich wouldn't be hurt, after all they have too much money anyway. Laisse fare is doing a terrible job of distributing the wealth so we'll do it for them. How do we know the rich have too much money? The government said so... Now, everyone is better off. Right?
Wrong. Higher taxes stifle economic growth. Handouts (entitlements) to the disadvantaged discourages them from working. The "rich" are the ones who start and operate businesses (that pay taxes) and hire people, i.e. they create jobs. Government cannot create jobs and expand the economy. Taxing the rich increasingly more means there will be fewer jobs. This is all basic economics. If you went to college and don't know that, then you simply weren't paying attention.
The liberals cry, "But these social programs are absolutely necessary. Our elderly and poor will die without them." Jesus himself was about helping the downtrodden. Taking care of our neighbor. It is our moral and Christian obligation to do this. Besides, even the Bible said, "Tis easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than get a rich man into heaven". Sounds pretty clear to me, rich people aren't nearly as important as poor people. They're not even worthy of heaven. We're actually doing them a favor, they're not about to go to heaven as long as they are rich, so...We can help them and the poor at the same time.
So where did conservatives come from and how did they acquire those peculiar characteristics?
From the time the first settlers came to America till the twentieth century in order to survive and provide for a family, they had to hunt, fish and farm the land. It required tremendous work. If one took from someone who happened to have more than themselves it was called stealing and the punishment was often getting shot or hung from a tree. It was universally understood that it was each for his own. No one else, including the government was going to provide anything for you. If you wanted to have more you simply worked harder and longer. American conservatism has it's roots in those times. Individualism was once respected and admired. These were proud people who took care of themselves and expected others to do the same.
During Roosevelt's and Kennedy's time there was a nice balance to Democrat's and Republican's ideals. And civility. Instead of a balance now we have tension and conflict between the parties.  Each has a platform of slandering and defiling the other. Trashing is probably a more appropriate word. You do whatever  you have to do to win and that includes humiliating, insulting, falsely accusing, associating them with bottom feeders, digging up dirt (no time limits on how far back you can go), nothing is off limits. The labels 'Democrats and 'Republicans' are words associated with the concept of a free and independent nation of people who value freedom. With a government of the people, by the people and for the people.  If we keep electing the kind of people that we did eight years ago and like those that are running for office now, we're going to regret it. Our country is going in the direction of becoming a socialistic government and we the people are allowing it to happen. This, in spite of the fact that we have all the tools to maintain the brilliant form of government that we have had for over two-hundred years. Three independent branches of government, checks and balances, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, free elections, leaders elected by the people, we  have it all. And in spite of that...
So, are you a liberal or a conservative? Are you part of the  problem, or part of the solution?...

When Does it end? For now, it doesn't...

An incident that happened some time back when a high school basketball player sucker punched a player from the opposing team causing serious...