12.29.16
It’s been almost 2 months since the election and Donald Trump was elected president. As time has allowed I have been analyzing the election numbers, the demographics and the percentages to try to figure out what happened. I am surprised that Trump won the election, not only because almost every poll on TV and in the news had Hillary Clinton winning but also because Trump came across as such an objectionable, bigoted human being. Back on October 27th I made the statement –
“The presidential election has been over since the Billy Bush tapes became public on October 7th. They showed a side of Donald Trump that makes it clear what a egotistical dipsh-t he really is.”
Other than the part about Trump being an egotistical dipsh-t I was dead wrong….
2016 ELECTION ANALYSIS – READ MORE
12.24.16
Donald Trump continues to tweet outrageous remarks without forethought or explanation. His latest tweet –
“The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes”
This is about a ill-defined as a remark can get, and it sounds vaguely threatening, sort of like Don Corleone telling you to “spend time with your family”. The NY Times does a pretty good job of examining what this statement could mean, and it can be construed any number of ways. The talking heads on tv have been dissecting this remark all day. Overall it just seems like Trump should cancel his Twitter account and get a second opinion on how a statement should be worded before he says anything in public. I guess I have to approve of the fact that this statement definitely makes it clear that we Americans will be ready and able to defend ourselves, but it could be worded in a less aggressive fashion as to avoid criticism from the world community. Then again Trump doesn’t much seem to care who he offends, scares or aggravates, but it just seems like everything he says requires some kind of explanation or clarification or apology. It is very scary that the soon-to-be leader of our country has an ongoing propensity to say stupid things that give propaganda ammunition to our enemies. Like the rest of America, I have no idea what will come of this but it doesn’t seem like the overall affect of Trump’s spontaneous tweets will be positive.
12.22.16
The death toll in Syria continues to mount. Depending on who you believe somewhere between 300,000 and almost 500,000 people have died in the Syrian war since 2011. To make it worse the carnage will probably continue for some time to come….
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12.20.16
Today the electoral college again showed the American people why it should not exist. Here’s the results of the electoral college vote, from the New York Times –
“In Washington, a state where Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont had strong support in the Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton, three of the state’s 12 electoral votes went to Colin L. Powell, the Republican former secretary of state. One more elector voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American leader. Another Democratic elector in Hawaii voted for Mr. Sanders.
Two Texas electors voted for different Republican politicians: Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and former Texas congressman Ron Paul.
In addition, three Democratic electors, in Colorado, Maine and Minnesota, initially declined to vote for Mrs. Clinton. Two were replaced by an alternate, and one ended up changing his vote.”
So Trump got 304 votes, Clinton got 227, Colon Powell got 3, Ron Paul, Kasich and Sanders each got 1 vote. Also, Faith Spotted Eagle got 1 electoral vote. I can understand the votes for Paul, Sanders and Kasich as they were actual candidates. I can even grasp the reasoning for the 3 votes for Colin Powell, who I think would be an excellent choice, unfortunately didn’t even run. Actually, I believe that any of the above would have been a better choice for president than either Trump or Clinton. But Faith Spotted Eagle? …Really? I thought part of the job of the electoral college was to vote for a qualified candidate. It is a bit worrisome that someone in that position would vote for Faith Spotted Eagle. It just brings to light the uselessness and dysfunction of the electoral college. Yes, I realize that our founding fathers were big on states rights, and I generally agree with them, and I realize that part of the purpose of the Electoral College is to make the election an election of 50 states instead of a single national election. Yet the electoral college appears to have outlived its usefulness. The vote for Spotted Eagle just reminds us that 270 unelected people, appointed by political parties, have the power to elect anyone born in this country as president. 270 politically partisan appointees have the power to override the will of tens of millions of voting Americans. How about President David Duke, or President Louis Farrakhen, or President Pee Wee Herman. Obviously the fact that this much power rests in the hands of so few people is contrary and dangerous to a government designed for “We the People”.
To keep things in proper perspective, 99% of Republican electorates and 98% of Democrat electorates did vote of the candidate the majority of voters in their respective states voted for. I also want to state that I admire the courage of the Republican Electors who voted according to their obligations and state laws, respecting the will of the voters of their state in spite of the fact that many of them were receiving death threats if they didn’t change their vote. I do not like the Electoral College as an institution, but I have to respect the individual electors that are subjected to that kind of crap.
Do I believe that we are on the cusp of having the electoral college elect some nutcase extremist president? Actually no, I do not, but just the fact that even the most remote possibility of that exists within our election process is absurd.
12.16.16
Today I saw Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley on MSNBC calling the Russian hack of the DNC “…our political 911…” Really? …. 911? …. Really? A couple thousand people dying, buildings falling, planes crashing… really? All because the Russians succeeded in doing is what countries have been doing to each other since the dawn of civilization, spying on each other and using that information to whatever advantage they can get including embarrassing prominent Americans. Merkley is really a Bozo for coming up with this melodramatic BS. Comparing an email hack to 911 not only insults the intelligence of all Americans, it also insults the memory of the people that died on that day. If Russia did hack the DNC database and used this information to embarrass Clinton and the DNC then Podesta , DNC IT specialists Charles Delavan and the DNC hold a large portion of the blame. The Russians, Chinese, Iranians and who knows who else has hacked our national defense and other government databases so many times it’s pathetic, every major bank and retailer in this country has been hacked, Yahoo has been hacked for passwords and other information in over a billion accounts and the list goes on and on. When Delavan told Podesta’s aid to answer a phishing email and change his password he gave the keys to the DNC email archives to the Russians. If you believe that the email hacking cost Clinton the election then you must realize that Podesta is one of the major reasons she lost. His inept performance as Clinton’s campaign manager and the DNC’s inability to handle his email security probably makes him the one of the primary reasons that Hillary lost the election.
Or at least Russian hacking is what the CIA and FBI have decided happened. Last night Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was on tv denying that he got the DNC information from the Russians or any other government on this planet. When asked if it was from a disgruntled DNC employee he would neither confirm or deny. Do I believe Assange? Not really. I have to respect the fact that he must protect his sources, but when everything is a secret I don’t know what to believe. However, a disgruntled employee makes about as much sense as Russia trying to get Trump elected. I can’t help but notice that the leaders of the DNC now find themselves hip deep in hypocrisy after they were all so upset about the FBI’s public comments about Hillary’s emails. Now they want an investigation because of the work by the FBI and CIA.
Here’s the real lesson all politicians, from all parties, should learn from this event…
IF YOU DON’T WANT THE DISHONEST UNDERHANDED SNEAKY VILE CRAP YOU DO TO BECOME PUBLIC DON’T DO THE DISHONEST UNDERHANDED SNEAKY VILE CRAP IN THE FIRST PLACE !!!
Here is what we know really happened –
1.The DNC and Hillary Clinton screwed Bernie Sanders
2.Their dishonest vile acts backfired on them as they nominated probably the only person in the country that could loose an election to Donald Trump
3.Wikileaks got the information and made it public
4.People became aware of factual information that the DNC did not want the public to know
I still don’t know why having factual information about any political party is a bad thing. I was not sorry for Mitt Romney when his 47% speech was taped without his knowledge and made public. I am not happy that a foreign government can get any information from any database in this country. We have been trying to stop foreign governments and other hackers from hacking databases in this country for decades, but sometimes the bad guys win and get information we don’t want them to have.
I think I have a solution. All political parties should make all communications, records and documents generated or passed within their party between all candidates, employees, delegates, doners, activists, party faithful, volunteers, electoral college appointees or anyone else involved in the nomination or election process a matter of public record. Full transparency and disclosure from all political parties to all Americans. That will remedy the fear of either party getting hacked, and the American people will have a better idea where the parties get their information, who the candidates really are and how they really got nominated.
Wow, what an idea. We can take the first step to an honest, transparent election process. Nominations and decisions made in complete public view. Candidates selected without corruption and lies, without back room deals, without underhanded backstabbing, without bribes, without buying delegates, without intimidation, without special favors. Imagine no more cloaked dirty dealings, just honest party officials doing what is best for the American people instead of for themselves and the people that give them money.
I’m sure that as soon as our senators and congressmen hear this idea they will rush to write a bill, immediately vote it into law and the president will sign it instantly. Of course, all political parties will fully and openly cooperate with the full spirit and intent of such a law.
Yea… like that’ll really happen ……
12.11.16
This weekend every major news channel was completely absorbed with the with the story about Russia hacking the DNC and RNC databases. I am amazed that people find this so shocking. Every developed country on this planet has been hacking every other developed country on this planet for the past half-century. Is it really any surprise that the Russians hack the DNC and release information that caused some American politician or political appointee embarrassment and grief. What I’m more shocked about is what the e-mails actually said. It looks to me like Bernie Sanders got completely screwed by the DNC and that seems to be okay, but the fact that somebody found out about it is terrible because it could have “affected the election”. I don’t like the fact that the Russians, or anybody else has the ability to hack into any computer system in this country, but it seems to me that voters having information that is true and factual can only have a positive affect on any election.
The United States has been nation building, supporting various heads of state and affecting the outcomes of elections all over the planet since the end of WWII. Are we really surprised that this happened?
Naturally there have been a lot of accusations because, during the campaign, Donald Trump encouraged Russia to find the 30,000 emails that were missing from Clinton’s private mail server, as if that had something to do with the DNC emails. Of course Trump responded in the most ridiculous way possible and immediately stated that he doesn’t believe that Russia had anything to do with all of this. Really Donald …?
Wikileaks making the information public obviously had more impact than the actual taking of the information by the Russians. Perhaps there was a conspiracy between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Wikileaks to steal the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton because Putin liked Sanders for President. Or maybe because Putin didn’t like Hillary’s reset button gag. Since some of the emails became public on the eve of the DNC convention maybe the Russians thought the DNC super delegates would change their vote. Or maybe, just maybe, the Russians and Wikileaks were just doing what they do every day (hacking other countries computers and disseminating information) and the fact that Hillary, or at least her friends at the DNC, were rigging the nomination process against Bernie Sanders became public knowledge. Just for the record, I don’t believe for a minute that Hillary was unaware of what the DNC was doing to undermine Sanders campaign, and I still think Sanders would have been a better candidate than Clinton and probably would have beaten Trump.
On the CNN web site there was a video of Robert Baer, a Clinton supporter. He said if the Russian hacking affected the election then the election should be declared invalid and we should vote all over again. Really …? Because the American people had access to factual information we should hold the entire election over? That makes about as much sense as voting blindfolded. I think he has been taking absurdity lessons from Donald Trump.
Anyway, while our major news channels were babbling about Russian hackers there was a lot of other stuff that happened in the last few days –
<> A Kurdish militant group has claimed responsibility for twin bombings in Istanbul that killed at least 38 people, mostly police officers, and wounded 155 others.
<> A bomb blast at Cairo Christian cathedral kills at least 25
<> Death toll climbs as urban warfare slows battle for Mosul. Nearly 2,000 Iraqi troops were killed across Iraq in November as they battled to force ISIS extremists from the country, according to newly released UN figures.
<> More than 900 civilians were killed and another 930 wounded in November by terrorism, violence or armed conflict across Iraq, according to the UN
Most of that news was on tv, very briefly. I think it’s a shame that our news media thinks that DNC email is more important than hundreds of dead people.
11.25.16
About a week ago Donald Trump has publicly disavowed any support from the ‘alt-right’ hate group(s) that have attempted to associate themselves with his election, seeing it as some sort of victory for their hate. I certainly hope Trump is sincere, but there have been a lot of known instances that have racist connotations in Trump’s past. Trump needs to repeat this disavowing loud and long, and enforce civil rights laws to their maximum to put a stop to the increase in the disgusting racist crap that is on the upswing nation wide since his election.
11.10.16
Donald Trump was elected President 2 days ago. The person that turned the Republican primaries and the general election into a childish display of name calling and personal insults, the person who was recorded bragging about his sexual abuse of women, the person who has made racial comments that have offended just about every ethnicity on the planet … is now president of the United States. Well, we had an elections of 2 bad choices and guess what, we got a bad choice for president. Gee, how’d that happen …?
11.02.16
Read an article on Linkedin yesterday “The Biggest Crisis in Higher Ed Isn’t Student Debt, It’s Students Who Don’t Graduate”. Some brief exerpts from the article-
… more than half of those who start college fail to finish ….
… Tens of millions of people in the US are saddled with student debt and have no degree to help pay it off. …
… According to recent study (published on Thirdway.org), 85 percent of four-year public colleges failed to graduate more than two-thirds of first-time, full-time students within six years. …
I was pretty shocked when I read the articles linked above. While for-profit colleges have a reputation as diploma mills, it appears that our public colleges are failure factories. What a predicament to put a person in, leaving them with a huge debt with nothing to show for it and no way to pay it off. All while the University continues on to find it’s next student (aka:victim?). My initial thought is “Bernie Madoff would be proud of that scheme”. Yet much of this problem is the result of people attending college who do not have the preparation of abilities to complete a college education. It is obvious that this problem lies as much with the students as with as with the Universities. The articles do note (obviously) that the better prepared a student is entering college the better his chance of graduation. It appears this problem is a product of the failures in our overall education system.
11.01.16
I saw a tv commercial the other day that stated there were ninety plus elephants killed every day, and at that rate elephants would be extinct in 10 years. Wow !!! Check it out further I found even scarier numbers on the web. According to The Independent, a British publication –
”Around 50,000 elephants are thought to be killed each year as the illegal ivory trade spirals out of control in Africa…….. And with an estimated population of less than half a million, the ongoing African poaching problem is rapidly driving the animal towards extinction, according to some conservationists…….. The bad news comes only one year after 46 countries signed the London declaration on illegal wildlife trade.”
46 countries, that is about 25% of the worlds nations. Really? Does that mean that 75% of the countries on this planet still support or tolerate poaching and illegal wildlife trade? Unless this changes the elephants are doomed. Of course this doesn’t change much for wildlife in general when we look at the decline in the wildlife population on this planet over the last half-century. In an article from the weather channel web site a World Wildlife Fund study stated –
“ By 2020, 67 percent of vertebrates could be gone from 1970 population levels if the current pace continues, the report concluded.”
THIS IS INSANE !! Destroying life on this planet at that rate is absolutely insane. The primary killers of these animals…pollution and poaching. Unfortunately, there is not a lot that we hear and the United States can do to stop this slaughter. We can control our pollution of the environment to as much as possible, but we are only a small fraction of the world’s pollution that is killing that many animals. Just as frustrating, we have absolutely no control over the poaching of endangered species, because almost all poaching is happening in countries that do not have the resources or the will to stop this senseless slaughter. To us killing elephants seems like subhuman needless carnage, yet to people in the extreme poverty of many third world countries it is sometimes a matter of survival. This situation has to change or we all loose, but what will change it?