politics – What Common Sense?

Crazy world in action

I knew before this election that the Donald was going to be a problem. I think he’s typical of just about anyone who looks at things they don’t like in the highest office and believes that if he had the power he could just change it. He doesn’t have a firm understanding of what it takes to get something done or how many political hoops you have to jump through to get there. I’m a great armchair quarterback too. I have those moments of believing I could change the world given time, money, power, and a large lever.

The reality for people who are in that position is that it doesn’t take into account what you don’t know. We know only what the media gives us and what we hear and observe. We may think we know the solution, but it doesn’t take into account all those unknowns that we can only be privy to if we get the big job. Bullying that may work in business, doesn’t work in all situations. It might work in business when you have leverage, but there are so many more factors to consider when you are on the largest stage in the land. and every move is supposed to be transparent and is examined under a microscope.

The last couple of weeks has been a crazy roller coaster of deception and lies that come out of the White House. It’s a serious problem with you have competing stories that are released. It’s hard to tell the real from the fake news.

FBI director Comey was fired. That is under a lot of scrutiny, especially since there was a lot happening concerning ties to Russia during the Trump campaign, and Michael Flynn. The original story was that Comey was being too tough on Hillary Clinton during the campaign and after. Nobody with a brain bought that reasoning. Trump himself called for Hillary’s head during the campaign. Wanted crooked Hillary jailed. He also praised Comey for what he did with the emails and without a doubt Comey helped discredit Hillary and make it easier for Trump to be elected. There was a lot more behind what happened here, but while Comey was ramping up the Russia investigations, he get’s fired by Trump who apparently didn’t want Flynn further investigated. At a minimum, it was extremely bad timing to fire him while this investigation was underway. It looked bad and like Trump had something to hide.

Along comes leaking secrets regarding ISIS to Russia right on the heals of the firing. The White House issues a statement that there were no classified information passed, then Trump basically doesn’t deny it, but defends his right to do so as president. The president can declassify information by law and share it, but it doesn’t make it a good or right thing to do. I’m pretty sure that you can legally do that sort of declassifying on the fly, but still be guilty of treason.

It’s been an insane week and there has been a LOT of activity for both republicans and democrats alike. The word impeachment has been spoken louder and even republicans are calling for more information so they can decide their course of action. It should be far more interesting going forward. I’ll update later.

Are we powerless?

I think that many people feel that we are on the crazy train with no way to get off of it. We are at the mercy of the president and the very partisan people that work in Washington who supposedly work for us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see how they represent our wants/needs.
Back in the good old days state representatives were elected to go to Washington and make their constituents proud by working for their State and properly representing their people. Some would argue that it’s still that way. You get elected by the majority in your state and you’re in! However, what follows after isn’t necessarily what was originally intended by a Senate and House representation in the early days.
What I see today is severe partisanship. Voting for or against something because my party says it’s what we should do, not because it’s the right thing to do. We have a couple of main breeds and they don’t mix. What happened to doing or creating things that’s best for all of us?
I see example after example of this. The most recent was the Affordable Care Act replacement vote. The way I saw it, the republicans threw together a replacement in a fairly large hurry without the input of the democrats. I personally think that the replacement wasn’t ready and democrats agreed and didn’t like who was going to get hurt in the process. It was a good thing that a few republicans saw that this might not be a good thing and were balking at supporting the bill. My favorite part of it was that President Trump made threats about the vote. The rough quote was ” If you don’t vote this in, you’ll be stuck with ObamaCare, we won’t revisit it” He made it sound like it was now or never, a bullying move that frankly didn’t work. So before the vote, he pulled the bill. Looking at it, he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to save face. He didn’t want to have to back up that childish threat of sticking us with health care that isn’t right. My hope and dream is that we can somehow get past the partisan ideals and truly work on things as they should be done, as they were meant to be done. Unfortunately we pretty much are left on the sidelines watching it all play out without any control.

The Results!

Guess what? Ok so you already know. Donald Trump was elected to the office of President. What a surprise that was that he was able to surpass Hillary for that position. This completely stunned and stymied political experts and news casters who struggled to explain the differences in the polls and the actual results.. My favorite quote of the day was “It feels like we are trying to avoid the apocalypse and yet half of us are voting for the asteroid!” I thought that was pretty funny and applicable to whatever candidate you were choosing, although many like attributing it to Trump.

trump

It’s confounded me on the reasons why people would vote for Trump. (actually for Hillary too). So I asked people and watched interviews and the follow reasons came to light. The most popular was that we’ve been down the same road for a while and we’ve had a democrat in office for the last 8 years and it’s time for a change. Many don’t like this particular road we’re on and they believe that Hillary would be just more of the current status quo. They think our country is a bit out of control and we need a new sheriff in town to clean it up. Another thinks that Trump will be an ass kicker. He’ll clean up our immigration problem and clean some house with our current politicians and put us on a better path. I’ll be personally interested to see if Hillary goes to jail, if we build a wall between us and Mexico, if we throw out all the illegal aliens, or if we nuke Texas for being insubordinate. Ok I made that Texas thing up, but you never know!

I did get to see the Hillary post election speech that happened this morning. It was a very good speech with a nice intro from Her VP pick Tim Kaine. I thought it was nicely done and showed class in defeat.

The End is Here….

So election day is finally here. It seems like a sad day, not because we will miss all the misinformation that’s being shoved at us for the last year, but because we have to pick our poison. Our potential leaders are both toxic personalities and the choice will have consequences. You could argue that all presidential elections are like this, but you have to agree that this one is not like any in history. I saw a post on Facebook where a woman is touched that she can finally vote for a woman for president. That’s is so short sighted. I’m fine with a woman for president, but not this one. You should vote for someone that is ready to be a unifier, a protector, a negotiator, a diplomat. Someone that exudes honesty and integrity. Do you see these things in our choices today? I sure don’t, not from any side.

I have no more happiness about our choices for congress or senate races. I saw nothing but negative ads. Ok. a few that weren’t, but pretty much just ads about how bad the other candidate was. How do you process that? Nobody takes the high road anymore and really tells you what they stand for and how they will represent you. I challenge anyone to tell me about any of the candidates and where they really stand on things. It’s certainly not clear to me. I just get to pick from Trade deal Tim Wahlberg and don’t trust your fiscal with Driskel. So we don’t pick the best, we try to pick the least bad, from the president on down. SAD see you at the polls, keep your head up.

The End is Near…..

I heard this said on the Today Show the other day in regards to the election almost being here, and I think the double meaning was on purpose. It really hit me funny because most people I talk to feel like this. There is no winner here and we’re helpless at this point to do anything about it. I had a discussion this morning about the value of a vote. What do you do if you don’t like either candidate? Do you vote for someone else? or don’t vote? My personal opinion is to vote. Either pick the least offensive candidate or vote for another party, but be counted or prepare to take whatever others choose for you.

sheeple

Trump vs. Clinton and You

This is a great topic and example of insanity. Anyone who knows me, is aware that I’ve never been a political sort of person. I generally avoid it like the plague. But this election unlike any other has gotten more interest and has more opinions than any I can remember in my lifetime.

My favorite meme so far regarding this is “picking a candidate is like trying to decide which STD is best for me. This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime (yeah i’m older than 15) that there is no clear choice, nobody I feel confident in to lead the country, nobody to keep me, friends and family safe, secure, and with a few dollars left after taxes. This is a conundrum that many I’ve talked to have as well. Unfortunately the table has been set and the menu cannot be changed, it’s almost sad and certainly scary. Buckle in. it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

So who to begin with.. Let’s talk about Trump. I can tell you I never liked him when he was on the Apprentice. He was inconsistent and just flat a jerk. I thought he was crazy then and my opinion hasn’t changed. He’s said a lot of things during the campaign that are just crazy. Then he either denies saying it, where he clearly did, or he does apologize for it and we’re off to the races again. I don’t like what he has in mind, and you should keep in mind that there are things he just can’t do. What people should note here, and it’s clear that many have is that Trump represents change, a departure from the classic politician that folks are frankly tired of. There are many that think we need some kind of refresh and a new perspective. I don’t necessarily disagree with this, but I don’t think that Trump will bring what they are expecting. Building that wall between the US and Mexico would be an interesting undertaking. I have one other theory about Trump. I think he could have won this easily if he had just been able to keep to the script and keep his mouth shot. But if you notice, every time he got close or was ahead in the polls, it was like a cue for him to say something stupid to widen the gap. It’s actually well known that Trump never thought he’d get this far. I think he ran on a lark just to shake things up. It took hold more than anyone expected, and nobody saw it coming, not even him.

Let’s go to Clinton. She is just as scary as Trump but in very different ways.

We begin..

I think you may have noticed that our world is a bit out of sorts. There is more and more stress out there. Look at the situation with the upcoming election, the relationship between whites and blacks, the relations with police, terrorist plots and actions, military actions overseas, nuclear threats, scary clowns! It’s crazy and explains a bit why people are wound so tight.

There is so much that I’m not sure where to begin with this, so let me start with where most of this starts and probably my biggest complaint. The Media. Yes, that which keeps us informed, also twists and manipulates us. They take full advantage of our habits, and they make sure they cover what they want us to see. This may play to their own political views or simply work to gain subscribers or viewership. They control what they show you, they understand that many people don’t read past headlines. What you may not know is that they can use this to sway your opinion, to make you happy, to outrage you. They will claim it’s simple reporting, I say it’s simple manipulation. I’ll be pointing out the role of media in several future posts, since they are involved in most everything. It won’t be just the formal media, but the explosion of social media that is taking fact twisting to new levels. You’ll see how that is changing America, and I don’t think for the better.