The Two Holdouts Left Need to Go

Carson and Kasich have vowed to keep going. To what end? You two are not going to win, even with your combined numbers you don't make one good contender. Kasich and Carson need to go. It's time guys. All you're doing now is keeping the water muddy for the others. Let Trump, Cruz, and Rubio have at it. You know, the big boys. Somebody in their camps should be telling these two holdouts this. They are wasting money, time, and sucking up votes that should be elsewhere. Without them we could start to see a little clearer picture of what's going on. Them leaving could actually tighten up the race between the other three if their votes went to Cruz and/or Rubio, as I suspect they would, but we wont know that until they get a dose of reality in them and get to stepping. Time to close shop and go home to lick your wounds. Then the rest of them can get down to business. Just saying.

2008 was a Bi-Partisan Debacle

This morning I was scanning through the Twitterverse in order to see what was trending. A top trend for awhile was "Marco Rubio is Unmistakable". In that subject I saw a tweet that said something to the effect that he was Unmistakable about Obama knowing what he was doing when he fixed the Republican caused recession. This is getting to be an old tired mantra that is only half true. It's only half true because the Democrats had their hand in bringing about that crisis. In 1999 Bill Clinton signed into law the repealing of the 1939 Glass/Steagal act. A law that had been enacted in an effort to avoid another depression by keeping the investment banks and the mortgage banks separate. In 1999 between House and Senate 260 Republicans and 156 Democrats voted to accept the repeal. Many economists as well as Politicians from both parties, including Bernie Sanders, feel that the repealing of Glass/Steagal was a major contributing factor to the debacle of 2008. On Sander's website he has a page on the 5 reasons Glass/Steagal Matters. So how can it be solely the fault of the Republicans if that many Democrats and a President who was a Democrat backed this action? Can anyone tell me how? President Obama claims he had to fix an economy the Republicans ruined. Oh really? Bill Clinton said when he was defending what President Obama was doing to fix the economy that it was all the Republicans fault. Oh really? Hypocrite! Does he have a bad memory because he doesn't want to accept his and his parties part of the responsibility or he just getting old? Or maybe like Hillary on the Bosnia sniper fire incident, he misspeaks.

The blame for 2008 lies squarely on both parties shoulders and until we can get both sides to admit that together, how can we fix things together? What is worrisome to me is, there hasn't been enough done to prevent another collapse, just mostly a bunch of money thrown at a crisis. Does Washington want another crisis so they can spend more fixing something that could possibly be avoided? This also sits squarely on both parties. Only now during this primary season do we see people talking about doing something like Glass/Steagal to shore things up. Eight years later, eight years. Seven years ago we should have done something to help prevent 2008 from repeating. We've been vulnerable and will continue to be so until they do something. You can thank both parties for this neglect. Both.

Trump Yapping Again

Whether it's because he wasn't trending for a couple days and wants us talking about him, or that he really believes it, Trump has inserted foot into mouth again. He re-tweeted a tweet challenging Cruz and Rubio's eligibility to run for President. When asked about it by George Stephanopoulos Trump replied “I really – I’ve never looked at it, George. I honestly have never looked at it." Political speak for "I can change my tune later saying I have now looked into it." Rubio was born in Florida to Cuban immigrants, which makes him first generation born in America, which makes him American in my book. I'm first generation on my fathers side and if you came up to me in person and challenged me being American, we'd have an issue. The constitution says only a natural born citizen can become President. When reviewing Ted Cruz' eligibility The Harvard Law Review Forum last year wrote, While some constitutional issues are truly difficult, with framing-era sources either nonexistent or contradictory, here, the relevant materials clearly indicate that a “natural born Citizen” means a citizen from birth with no need to go through naturalization proceedings. I can only imagine this applies to Rubio as well, making him fully eligible to run.

Donald Trump is not stupid. He might have been left a bunch of money from Daddy, but if he was stupid he'd be stone broke and featured on a "Whatever happened to" show. So I think it's a ploy for attention but I think he needs to step back and swallow a dose of shut it on this subject. It's one thing to keep harping on a subject that has validity, but it's totally different if there is no merit behind the issue. You're gonna lose support Donald if you keep after the "birther" idea. It's basically down to three and Trumps lead may diminish some with Jeb gone and then when it comes down to two, if he's one of those two, anyone he alienates by spouting foolishness will end up backing the other guy. I don't know maybe Donald should give control of his twitter account temporarily to he campaign team. At least then he could blame stupid remarks on someone else.

Hillary pulls it off

In spite of the number of confidential emails raising to 1,752 that Hillary had on her private server, she took the Nevada caucus by around 7 percent and she goes into South Carolina with a lead of over 20 points. Her lead in Nevada had at one time been 25 which Bernie had cut into quite deeply indicating Bernie is making some waves. I just hope he begins making bigger ones. It's a bit disappointing to see that not more Democrats are looking to boot politics as usual in the ass. It's almost as if they are being as stubborn as they accuse the Republicans of being. Democrats were all about change last Presidential election but aren't committing to it this time as much yet, but it is still early yet. South Carolinas Dem primary date is the 27th of this month, a week away.

On the Republican side Trump won with 33 percent of the vote while Jeb dropped out of the race. Goodbye Mr. Regime builder. No dynastic administration for the GOP this time around. With only 3 days in between South Carolina and Nevada for the Republicans, Trump has a lead over Cruz of about 22 percent. That may decrease slightly with the loss of Jeb. Not that his being out is a big loss. On the Republican side it's outsiders 2 insiders 1 and on the Democrat side it's insiders 2 outsiders 1. Of course one of the insiders victory was due to a coin flip. Imagine that, in a caucus, the winner can be decided the same way the NFL decides who kicks off first. Gotta love it. I hope Dems start stepping it up and call for real change with their votes soon. Otherwise Hillary's barking speech could turn out to be prophetic as it could be a real dog fight for the nomination on the Democrat side.

Superdelegates: Corruption at its Finest

Superdelegate votes are the epitome of corruption in the election process. Superdelegates for those who aren't aware, are people who have a delegate they can cast for the candidate of their choice regardless of which way the people have voted. In the DNC there are 712 superdelegates and a candidate needs 2,382 total delegates needed to win the nomination. In essence, these super delegates can cast their vote against how the people of their state have voted. That's not to say that none of a state's delegates won't go to the winner, just not necessarily all that should go to them. What this really means is that the idea that "Everyone's vote counts the same" is pure and utter bullshit.

The votes of these chosen members of the insider of the party, and both parties have them, mean more than your's and mine, a lot more. This is a major WTF moment. It doesn't get any more crooked than this and we let it happen. We as citizens let this open corruption happen without so much as a whimper. We need to bitch and moan and groan about this. Why should their votes mean more than ours? This really means the whole process of voting for the nomination of the parties is a complete joke. The insiders can put their weight the way they want and business as usual continues.

I've read reports that Hillary already has enough promised superdelegates that Bernie Sanders would have to totally dominate all the rest of the voting delegates to win. I call foul in the loudest and angriest way I can. I'm not sure how or if this process can be changed but I know one thing right now. I'm going to contact the superdelegates in my state, N.H., and let them know they absolutely lose my vote for them in the future if they go against the grain of what the people have called for. We all need to do that or they are going to steamroll over us until we are bloody and sore. Please complain about this process, often and loudly.

Presidential Pardon Season

The time is here and once again we have a lame duck President. In the past, this time frame has been used by previous presidents to start pardoning people at a wholesale rate. Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton all gave the majority of their presidential pardons during their lame duck period, with Clinton outpacing the other three on that front in pardoning roughly 65% of his 459 pardons during that time. Eisenhower used this power on around 15% of his whopping 1,157 pardons. Ronald Reagan comes in at around 12% of his 406 in that period and Bush finishes his lame duck period with about 39% of his 200. It's noteworthy to mention, they were the only two term Presidents since the 22nd amendment imposing term limits for Presidents was made law until now President Obama. The list of crimes committed by the pardoned individual covers the whole legal spectrum. From Drug traffickers and security frauds to bank robbers and child porn, pardons were given. Relatives like Roger Clinton, business associates like those involved in Whitewater, a Pakistani drug trafficker and even George Steinbrenner were all given pardons.

A pardon is one of the last powers a President has to wield with Republican and Democrat Presidents alike wielding it. This seems to be an unchecked situation for abuse of power. I understand the sentiment behind the pardon is to right a wrong or to give a President the opportunity to say they feel the debt has been paid to society. However the sheer numbers of those that have been pardoned suggest that there is indeed abuse going on. You can't tell me that each of the Presidents has had intimate knowledge that all that they have pardoned were wronged. Did they attend the trials? Of course not. They pardon criminals people, criminals. Those who have been found guilty of breaking a law or laws and for whatever selfish reason they have, a lame duck President spits in the face of justice and pardons convicted criminals. There is way too many pardons to analyze each one in an attempt to tell what the motive behind the action was but seriously, since 1951 there have been over 5,900 pardons, commutations or rescinds by our Presidents. That's a big number of scum put back into our society. President Obama has one more opportunity to actually make a change before he leaves. On the issue of lame duck pardons, be like with drugs. Just say no.

A Look At Bernie Sanders' Civil Rights Activism: 1960s-Present

Just thought I'd post this to show how Bernie has been true to what he says today for a long time.