Delimmina Of the Democrats: Tale of the Dynamic Duo

This is going to be a very interesting election year for the Democrats.  While they argue over who is the best candidate and who can bet Trump, I feel they are missing the big picture.  The Democrats have 2 basic goals this election cycle and it has nothing to do with whom is the best candidate.

The first goal is actually the least important and that is who can bet Trump.  This is unimportant because if they rally behind one candidate the winner of the Primary will bet Trump.  What The 2016 Election showed was that Democratic Leaning people in the USA outnumbered Republican Leaning people by just of 3 million as indicated by the Popular Vote.  But actually that's an election that the Republicans shouldn't have won.  When it was crunch time the Democrats didn't rally behind Hillary and therefore giving Trump a win. 

The Bernie Sanders supporters gave Trump the election, it will be interesting if this cycle goes the same way.

But like I said betting Trump is the least of the Democrats worries.  What they need to do even if they cannot bet Trump is to gain a majority in the Senate and get rid of Mitch McConnell.  No matter who wins as a democrat they will not be able to get any policies passed with Mitch as the Senate leader.  So in essence they may remove Trump, but all the talk about policies would go nowhere.  They will be able to accomplish some things via Executive Action, but none of the policies they were elected for, and this will only serve to upset the Democrats that didn't vote for the candidate in the primary.

So it has to be a 2 prong attack, but no one is talking about that.

Another thing to consider is the candidates age.  Lets say they defeat Trump, but leaves Mitch in office, Mitch would not be due for reelection for another 6 years.  So that would be first term and if the Democrats can manage to win the 2024 Election they focus on getting Mitch out of office then.  So Bernie and Bloomberg are 78, in 2024 they will be 82.  Which is exactly what you do not want for a President.

So this election cannot be about the candidate and their policies it's either about betting Trump and hoping they can keep the office longed enough to gain a majority in the Senate or what it should be about is getting both Trump and McConnell out of office.

Death and Taxes

“Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”  Benjamin Franklin (1789)

"'Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes,” from Christopher Bullock, The Cobler of Preston (1716). 

Is a message we are all familiar with, taxes are going to be paid, but the question is by whom?

So lets look at what our taxes pay for. The short list would be Defense, Healthcare, National Debt and Federal Employee Salaries.  Drilling down into this list we get the following small sample:

• Interest on out National Debt
• Salaries for Congress, President, Military Personnel and other Federal Employees
• Medicare
• Social Security
• Medicaid
• Federal departmental expenses
• Infrastructure

So there are things that are definitely going to get paid no matter what, employees may be forced to take furlough days without pay and something may be deferred. 

There are 2 basic groups taxes, Corporate and Personal taxes, but corporations are considered people: I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.  Now Corporations are interesting since they also tax us, so in essence we are being double taxed or one might say corporation are paying less taxes.  Who can say they haven't seen the taxes on their cable or cell phone bill.

Communism is defined as a political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control.  Basically for the good of the Country.

Capitalism, also called free market economy or free enterprise economy, economic system, dominant in the Western world since the breakup of feudalism, in which most of the means of production are privately owned and production is guided and income distributed largely through the operation of markets.  Basically for the good for the Company.

Under Capitalism when you pour a lot of money into a company that should be entitled to shares of that company which equates to ownership.  So the Banking Bailout of 2008 should have entitled Tax Payers to shares of those companies, but it didn't.  They considered it a loan so ownership was not an option and yes it was paid back.  There was no consideration given to the tax payers for this gift.  Sounds a lot like Communism without the benefits instead of a Free Market.

They said they were "Too big to fail", this concept should exist in a Free Market.  There would have been some impact to the American Economy, but what would have happened is that smaller companies would have stepped up and filled the void.  This bailout was only necessary to protect the wealthy, shareholders and the Stock Market.  People would have lost jobs, but once the smaller companies expanded those jobs would have came back.  The most import thing is it prevent these companies from becoming insolvent, which is good for the the Stockholder and Investors not the people.

Forbes recently posted an article stating that, "The 3 Richest Americans Hold More Wealth Than Bottom 50% Of The Country." Oddly enough these 3 people are for higher taxes on the wealthy.

Fortune recently posted an article stating that, "George Soros and Hundreds of Other Millionaires Are Asking Congress to Raise Their Taxes"

Currently we are in the middle of Tax Reform and the main part of the reform are tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.  They call it "Trickle Down Economics", which has been proven ineffective.  Companies get to keep more of their money and supposedly they create more jobs, well companies have been keeping more of their money for the past few decades and jobs and wage growth has not increased.  What has been shown to work are tax cuts for the poor and middle class.  When they have more money in their pocket they spend it on goods and services and that stimulates the economy.

Do you really want our children paying for tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations when the wealthy are asking...begging for their taxes to be increased?

Grindhouse: Apocalypse Now!!! - Or How I'm Living in a Real Life B Flick

Poker is an interesting game.  I'm no good at it, but I do like to play occasionally.  This game depends on Luck, Skill and the ability to tell a believable lie.  Luck is a topic we don't need to discuss and the ability to lie we will return to later.

So the main aspect of Poker is skill, so what kind of skills are necessary for this game?  I'm sure if you ask different people you will get different answers, but in my perspective the necessary skills are the ability to read people, know the odds, read the cards and play the hand effectively.  

Like I said I like to play, but I stink at it.  I consider myself a good player, but not a winning player when I play I play to have fun.  To me that the main trait of a good player.  Some people think they can read others, maybe they can maybe they can't, but you always hear the term "Tell" when they talk.  Whether someone has a nervous tick when they lie is not a reason to base a winning strategy on and it definitely does not make one a good player.

A good player will evaluate the chances of winning based on the cards they hold.  So if my first 2 cards are aces then I start off with something like a 99% chance of winning, even if there are only 2 players.  So I can bet high, now the others may fold, call or raise depending on the strength of their hand.  Knowing I have the best hand at the moment I do have to consider what the other may or may not have, but I don't know.  I can assume someone has another pair, someone is waiting for the next card and someone is just flat out lying.  With each card I have to reevaluate my hand and if it doesn't improve the odds of winning decreases so I have to decide whether it's worth buying the hand early or not.  

I've heard one way to win is to make someone decide whether they are willing to bet half of their chips at the beginning of the hand or not.  This can be risky especially considering you don't know what the others are holding.  It's even riskier if you are trying to do that and don't have a good hand yourself or just lying (bluffing).  I'm always reminded of the Kenny Rogers song, "Know When to Hold Em". Enough of my poker banter, besides I've given almost my entire knowledge of the game, anyone want to play?   lol

Right now we are in the middle of a poker game, someone made a bet and the other didn't like the bet that was made, the bad part is neither realizes the impact.  So Kimmy and Donny are at the table playing now, before that it was Baracko and Kimmy and even earlier it was Georgy and Kimmy.

The game started and Georgy opened with "No WMD's", Kimmy raised by testing a missile.  Georgy ignored his raise because he was focused on beating Sammy H.  Kimmy was still in the game playing, but waiting for the next player to sit down.  Enters Baracko, he sits down and makes a bid not too high not too low, he had other things on his mind.  Kimmy raised again, Baracko ignored him, but kept and eye on his cards.  Kimmy continued to raise, but Baracko knew he was only bluffing at the time.  Only making small gains Kimmy decides to up the ante while waiting for the next player to sit down.

In comes Donny, as Baracko leaves he tells Donny to keep an eye on Kimmy.  Kimmy opens high and Donny raises, Kimmy reraises, Donny reraises.  Neither one has a winning hand, the winning hand belongs to Peeps, but the bets are so high they can't afford to play.

Fortunately the games has rules, unfortunately the rules only apply to one side.

Mad Max, Equilibrium, Water World, Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes or the Book of Eli, pick your favorite post-apocalyptic theme.  At some point the world turns for the worst regardless of the situation it gets really really bad.

The all have in common a kind of ruling class dictator deciding the fate of us all, not too dissimilar from today.  We struggle for everything including the right to breathe.  We fight against one another for food, water or whatever is felt to be the importance of the day.  We live in shacks if we can afford them. mostly sleep wherever we can, while our leaders are always living high on the hog in some random building that managed to remain standing after the devastation occurred.

As we prepare for our impending doom, I think it's cool.  I've always said the Earth is a self healing organism and nothing we can do can harm it.  As arrogant as we maybe, we are incredibly stupid.  No matter the devastation, the Earth is the only constant in the equation and it's doing fine....Well there was the movie, "The Core" where we stopped the molten core of the Earth from moving hence eliminating the magnetic field around the world causing havoc around the world.  But again it may have healed from that, not in enough time for us to survive.  So while we say we want to make the World a better place for our children, we sure do everything we can to make sure there is no future for us.  

How did this happen?

Simple thinking we are the center of the World and that everything revolves around us, well we aren't.  There is a center of the World and it's called the 'Inner Core"...for anyone unfortunate enough to have parents with a last name of Core and a sense of humor, I'm not talking about you.  I often wonder in those post apocalyptic films does anyone ever stop and think, "Man I sure glad we saved the Earth from Global Warming!"

I think when we get to the point of Nuclear Devastation I'm flying to NORAD.  Any attack worth it will first take out our defensive capabilities and I want to be front row.  I'll open a lawn chair put on my shades, a little sun block...UV 5 Hundred Million of course and enjoy a beer or a few shots.  I can imagine watching this humongous ICBM flying directly towards me and a brilliant explosion beyond rival, with my luck it would be a dud and never explode.

So lets enjoy the ride.  If there is one thing I'm 100% sure of and that is our days on this planet are numbered and the ultimate cause will be our own hands.  Maybe we'll have space travel perfected to the point where we can leave and after eons of space life decide to come back to our beautiful plush green planet we took for granted so many millennium ago with a lesson learned.

A Strange Thing Happened on the Way to 2017

Ok, so the basic problem is people don't vote their interest and then wonder why they are unhappy with the outcome.  If your political choice is about who you are or who you want to be fine, just be informed about your decision.  While this election or President may never make history books, it's significant in so many other ways.

The Candidates themselves are unimportant, but the decisions they make are.  On one hand you have someone that people don't trust.  On the other you have someone you can't trust.  The Libertarian and Green party aren't real options.  And no matter how you feel about one party or the other we need both parties in place for checks and balances.  It's the only way to have a healthy democracy.

Do I trust Hillary, no.  I don't believe she will do anything that she says she will do, but I'm use to politician lying about their agendas.

Do I trust Trump, HELL NO.

I was proud to be a republican until Bush 43 (George W.), and while I will always believe in what my party stands for I can't say my party believes in me anymore.  Outside of the thought of Palin being that close to running the country I have had very little problems voting for my party or for whom I thought would be the best candidate.  However, this election is different, there is so much at stake things that will follow us for the next 20 - 30 years.  I truly believe that system have to change to remain relevant to the people, but the change also has to be viable.

I'm definitely not Pro-Hillary and I will not vote for Trump, a third party candidate or write in.

Democracy is a funny thing, we long and wish for freedoms in the USA, but we constantly allow our politicians to relieve us of them.  We want to say this country is "Great", but protest everything that makes this country Great.  We are a country with a wide range of religions, races, cultures, ideologies and too many isms to express, yet we are still only one country.

So while the world is ever changing around us I too have changed, I consider myself more of an Independent nowadays.  So like many of the Trump Supporters I too believe this country is hurting and in need of non-establishment ideas and a fresh look on things.  And like many Clinton supporters I believe Trump cannot be President.

This will be the first election in my lifetime so far where a 3rd Party candidate actually has a real chance of winning, but we are talking about something bigger than political party.

Personally I really like Jill Stein.  She not an established politician, yes she has ran for several offices and may have even held a small position for a short time.  She is for a lot of the things I believe in, as a Medical Doctor she has been an advocate for all kinds of health and environmental issue.  I really like the platform and she's from Chicago now living in Massachusetts.  So here's the kicker, I do not believe she would be able to sway Congress one way or the other, that will be an issue for any 3rd party candidate.  So while I like her platform and views I do not believe she would be an effective President.

Being President of the USA is about more than what you stand for and believe in, it about what you can and cannot accomplish during your term in office.  No 3rd Party candidate will ever have support of the Congress.

Then there's Gary Johnson, the best thing for him to do is to stay out of the media.  Every time he has appeared on anyone's show to me he just looks and feels incompetent.  He kind of a slightly more informed Sara Palin.

Hillary Clinton, while there are trust issues regarding her she is definitely the most capable one for the job.  Her years in Public Service makes her the ideal candidate, but there very little new and fresh ideas from her.  Being one of the major party candidates she will at least have support from her party and has the ability to bring support from across the aisle.  My concern is I don't really know what she stands for.  Most of her platform is a remnant of Bernie Sanders and she was almost forced into just to consolidate the Democratic base.  I can say as a FLOTUS I was very impressed by her agenda and things she moved on, but now as a main stream politician I have my doubts.

Last is Donald Trump, regardless to how much of a public idiot he appears to be or how divisive he is I have bigger issues with him.  Trump has never done anything that did not benefit Trump and while I thought his candidacy was one huge joke, I honestly believed he would never actually run, but he did and we are here.

So what about Trump, well he says he's a job creator, but he has undercut small business at every turn.  He talks about how wealthy he is, yet the only partial tax return that was released shows he one of the biggest losers.  He want's to make America Great Again, America is Great, so whom is he trying to make America great for.  I do not consider having business interest abroad qualifies one on Foreign Policy.  Since we have already established that about 55% of American household wages are at or below about 60K a year I cannot imagine him running any social programs.  He wants less regulations and we know who benefits from that and it's not the people.  I cannot think of anyone that has benefited from lead in the water, derivative trading or mines collapsing.  That is what you get from less regulations.  We have already established that tax cuts for the wealthy doesn't stimulate the economy and under a Trump Presidency it would have an even direr effect.

So that's where I stand and what I believe not voting in especially this election is the worst decision anyone can make.  So let me be perfectly clear what a non-vote is.  Voting for a 3rd Party Candidate, not voting or writing in the name of someone not on the ballot.  There are only 2 real choices out there in my mind, but I urge people to vote their conscience.

Vote definitely vote, but be prepared for consequences your vote carry.

From the Ashes Comes Clarity.

Where to start, where to start?!

I have 2 blog site "Eric's Mad" and "Eric's Rants" about social issues and politics respectively.  I don't consider myself knowledgeable about politics, but I do have an opinion.  So it would seem odd that I have more content on my Political Blog by far, but I am truly interested how laws enacted impact me. I really care about my race (Human) and believe we are capable of incredible things, but sometimes we just need to get out of our way.

I've been following the Zeitgeist Movement for some time now, and they have an ideology I can really get behind.  But that is something I won't get into or discuss at this time, I'm more concerned in the immediate and present.  However if you are interested in where my head is google it.

So I'm going to hit a lot of topics and my view of the interpretation of the facts in a Rant that only I can bring/make.

Immigration:
Immigrants aren't the problem and they never were, they are actually the solution.  Immigrants aren't just from Mexico and other Hispanic Nations nor are they just from the Middle East.  This country has been driven by immigration since the start.  People come here from all over the world and contribute to its development everyday.  Immigration was a real problem only once in America, I won't give a history lesson, but I will say ask any Native American.

Without immigration this country would be no more then a third world country fighting to survive.  In the early days the immigrant were the ones bring industry to this country.  Immigration brought scientific advances, new ideas and a labor force that built this country.

BrExit or Corporate Globalization:
BrExit was about Corporate Globalization and not immigration policies.  Over the years we have been mislead to think that our jobs were being taken away by immigration, will that just is not true. Over the years through FTA (Free Trade Agreements), corporations have found it more compelling to move jobs to countries where they can get a better price for services and labor.  They move jobs to other countries to pay less and in turn charge us more.

America was once the hub of industry with goods and services sold all over the world.  Well we still sell all over the world, we just don't manufacture here anymore as "Made in China" has become common place in our households.

Bernie Sanders:
Bernie said a lot to appeal to the people and had a lot of policy ideas anyone can get behind, but they were unrealistic.  After 8 years of Congress doing nothing to help the people there is no way in the world they would agree to Bernie's agenda.  The Congress is not interested in free healthcare, free education, a livable wage, equal rights or anything else that does not benefit Corporate America. Our Congress has been bought and sold by Lobbyist along time ago and that's not changing anytime soon.

Bernie's solution was to put things to the people, well isn't that way we elect public officials in the first place so we don't have to spend the rest of our lives reading prepositions and marching for the things we have a Government to do.  If we have to put that much effort why are we electing people in the first place.

The election is rigged and SuperDelegates are unfair.  Well Bernie there was no change in the Democrats election process just because you decided to run.  As far as I know SuperDelegates have been around since the 80's and have worked pretty much the same way.  I still to this day remember a swimming event I had against a white school in Chicago.  One event I had won by only a few seconds so it was pretty close, but they gave the win to the other guy.  I mention this to my coach and she said, "No you didn't win!"  I ask why.  She said, "You weren't out of the water by the time he touched the wall.  Things are always going to be weighed against you, so if you want to declare victory you better damn well make sure no one can contest it."  Bernie you should have known the process before you decided to run, so don't blame other for you lack of commitment.

RNC:
The Republican National Convention just ended last week and I've never been prouder to announce I'm going Independent.  My party has been a huge disappointment to me over the past few DECADES.  I thought I understood and believed in what they stood for or use to stand for.  Well they have moved too far in the wrong direction for me.

Listening to the convention as I have in the past I was looking for hope, but what I found was me hoping for sanity.  I won't mention all the faux pas, I will just say it left with a less hope view of not only the party, but the country.  They painted a picture of this country being out of control, ravaged with violence and on the brink of collapse.  The level of negative speech towards Hillary Clinton was insane.  When it closed I knew this, the World was coming top and end and they didn't like Hillary.  I was no closer to finding out what "Make this Country Great Again" means or how they planned to do it.  In hindsight I'm trying to think of a time when this Country was Great for all.

Hillary Clinton:
She has 2 major issues, the email scandal and lack of trust by the people.

Yes she should have been convicted for the emails.  She is one of the top people in this countries chain of command and no matter how you dice it, that was lapse in judgement.  She got off on a technicality and that is the fact that no one have every been convicted for using their home computer for classified documents.  She still had classified documents on her home computer and it is a Federal Offense.

Her main complaint is that people don't trust her, will if you've watched the news since the invention of the Television you see nothing but reasons not to trust politicians.  The list of Politicians convicted of a crime is too large to fit here so we won't go into that.  Does that make it right, no!

DNC:
The Democratic National Convention is just starting and it already has it's setbacks.  The Wasserman Schultz email scandal....Seems like women in the Democratic party have a real problem with email, and Bernie Supporters protesting.  Can't wait to see what else it has to offer.

I don't really care much about the DWS email issue, so she preferred Hillary over Bernie.  Emails don't vote people do and no one is impartial about anything, everyone has a preference one way or the other.  Bernie lost get over it.

So at an event that should unify a party they are separated.  Bernie people want Bernie for President, I get that, but he lost.  They want Warren on the ticket, ok she wasn't picked.  Move on and either be a Democrat or leave.

Donald Trump:
He doesn't care about anything but Donald Trump.  He has no respect for women, minorities, the working class or anyone else whose name isn't Trump.  They say the appeal is that he's says and feel things we want to hear, so lets look at a few of these things:

1. Mexicans are criminals and rapist
2. Muslims are terrorist
3. Laziness is a trait in blacks
4. Who knows how much the Japs will pay for Manhattan property these days?
5. Build a wall at the border
6. Stop all Muslims from entering America
7. Doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass
8. He's supported by the KKK and does not think it's a problem
9. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured
10. If you can’t get rich dealing with politicians, there’s something wrong with you

He has no political experience and no idea about foreign policy.  He doesn't offer many details and when he does they are either frightening or just frightening wrong.  He lies about any and everything. And on the domestic side he has filed Chapter 11 at least 4 times.  Whom do you think these bankruptcies helped, the people working for him or Trump?

Trump did not build a empire from nothing nor did it happen from a small loan.  Trumps father was in the Real Estate business and was very wealthy.  Donald worked for his father and later started his own business with a lot of help from his father in terms of finance, connection and a name.  So imagine you work at your fathers company, you get to learn the business and make connections.  You go off and start your own business, in the industry your father works in with according to him a 1 million dollar loan.  You decide to build X for a company and the company agrees with your father that even if Donald can't build X we will get together and build X.  Sound like a no chance to lose situation to me.

I've known a few really wealthy people in my life and by that I mean had a personal relationship with them and would call them friend.  There was no chance of them ever being poor, but they did receive a yearly stipends from their trust funds and all they had to do was manage other income.  By no stretch of the imagination would they ever be hurting financially, the combined sum of their stipends was a lot more than I will see a year.

How do you define successful?  The fact that he did not blow all the money left to him or his yearly stipend as well as his allowance...not salary, his father gave?

I heard today from a friend in Africa that there are some people in Africa hoping that Trumps wins, so there are Trump supporters in Africa...not exactly.  They think we deserve to be punished.  What does it say when people in other countries think a candidate is punishment.

So what does it say when the people in your party cannot say anything good about you, but instead try to make a case for how horrible your opponent is.  That most of the leaders in your party only support you because you are their candidate, in other words they have no belief in you just you are all we got.  That your party's message is not how or what they are going to do, but how bad they believe your opponent to be.

I heard that Trump offered Kasich was offered the VP position and turned it down when he found out he would be in charge of Foreign and Domestic issues, and when he asked what would Trump be doing the reply was, "Making America Great Again!".  If the VP is handling all the Foreign and Domestic issues what's left?

I don't understand the attraction to Trump, I think it is a worse case scenario.  And I understand the Bernie Supporters that are switching to Trump even less.  Trump incites violence, preaches division and exclusion, makes wild statements that are not true and is only concerned about himself.  I can only think that people behind and backing such a devious candidate are in their own words appealing to their inner racist.

BREXIT: What I know about it.

Ok there has been a lot of talk about something no one understands.  If you listen to the media which has historically steered you in the wrong direction, you have an opinion.  Not a good one, but one based on interest that probably don't represent yours.

Let's start with Globalization and what it means.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary - The development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets

Cambridge English Dictionary

US:
The development of closer economic, cultural, and political relations among all the countries of the world as a result of travel and communication becoming easy

UK:
The increase of trade around the world, especially by large companies producing and trading goods in many different countries

Oxford English Dictionary - The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale

BREXIT was about Globalization and by definition corporations.  Just like America Corporations have found it increasingly easier to conduct business in other countries at an impact to the american economy so have the rest of the world.  So that we are clear what we are talking about here are some examples of not UK, but British companies:

HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's fourth largest bank by total assets, with total assets of US$2.67 trillion.

BP plc also referred to by its former name, British Petroleum, is one of the world's seven "supermajor" oil and gas companies.

Vodafone Group plc a British multinational telecommunications company, has its headquarters in London and with its registered office in Newbury, Berkshire. Among mobile operator groups globally, Vodafone ranked fifth by revenue and second (behind China Mobile) in the number of connections (435.9 million) as of 2014.

Prudential plc is a British multinational life insurance and financial services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.  It had a market capitalization of approximately £41,630 million as of 4 February 2015.

Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in London. It operates a network of more than 1,200 branches and outlets (including subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures) across more than 70 countries and employs around 87,000 people. It is a universal bank with operations in consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and treasury services.

This is who Globalization in the UK is good for just to name a few.  So basically Globalization means that companies can move services once housed in it's own country to other countries.  Services like Support, Customer Service, Manufacturing and much more, because labor or services are cheaper in other countries.

Now lets talk about jobs, this may be educational for some.  When companies compete on the Global Market, it reduces it's operating budget.  Jobs in most cases are moved to 3rd World Countries, so in theory yes, our jobs are being taken by foreigners, but only because those jobs are being moved by the "Global Corporation".  Which means fewer jobs in the companies home country.  So they are not taking our jobs, our jobs are being given away, big difference.

The European Union was initially started after WWII and created trade agreements with other European countries mostly prosperous countries until the fall of the USSR.  So FTA (Free Trade Agreements) are great if you are dealing with your peers, but once you add in 3rd World Countries you find that corporations benefit and not the people.

BREXIT happened to try to prevent that, but that's not what the media will let you believe.  They will show pictures of immigrants lined up to get in Slovakia and say this is why you don't have jobs. There is an increasing amount of immigrants coming into any country and for the most part they work hard to make it in a foreign land.  Most work in job or position that most natives to that country refuse to work in and the few that do get non-menial jobs worked hard to get there.  They fill in position which because they are better trained and better at the job.  No one's taking anyone's job, your job was either given away or you didn't work hard enough to do the job you want.

They say it's a sign that Trump could win the election.  Ha, a country fighting against Corporation is nothing like a positive mark for Trump.  But that is a completely different topic.

So of course no one wanted Britain to leave the European Union, it's all about Corporations and not people.  The UK stood up and basically said they were tires of the country not acting in their interest and they wanted a change.

Just like with all change there is an adjustment period.  Britain is a Global Market and that's not going to change.  They have companies that touch all other countries and that's not going to change.  what does change?  The ability for companies to move resources to other countries, but that's not entirely true.  Because of the size of some of the companies in Britain alone we have to continue to maintain a relationship with the UK, just not as easily was in the past.

They parallel the American situation with that of the UK and it is, but it's not about immigration, it's about Corporations that are out of control.  I just heard that they are talking about trillions of dollars that were lost, funny when I looked at my bank account the balance looked the same to me.  Seems the only loss was the of corporations and not people.  It seems that the impact is that of corporations and not people.  Everything that has been said is about economics and not people.  Economics is about business.

The Media will have you believe that the separation is about immigration, but listen to the language they use and it all points to business and how business will respond to BREXIT.  Will there be an impact on the people of the UK?  Yeah, the privileged will no longer get to work in another country so easily.  The British Pound is down so their vacation is going to cast a little more.  The plus side is soon it will be prime time to visit Europe.

So what's next, possibly the fall of the UK, since the EU is good for Scotland and Ireland, which would break up the UK.  Since the larger global companies are in England it only makes sense.  This too shall pass.

So unless you are making an insane amount of money, own a company or a big stock player the impact to you is minimal.

This is an economic event and impacts business's.  Since England has some of the top business's in the world, the world will find a way to work with them.

Romney said Corporations are people too, but even then they still fall in the 1%.  Democracy is about the people or it's supposed to be at least.  How does the benefit and favor of 1% help the 99%?  Especially when the 1% only interest is the 1%.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly - Or What you Need to Know about Why? In 2016

This has been an incredible year for the Primary Election.  The outcome is something that no one would have ever thought was possible, and we wonder how and why we got here.

It's not rocket science the signs were on the walls for years now.  It started during the Bush years....actually his last term as POTUS (President of the United States), just in case some were wondering what they meant when referring to the current President as POTUS.

So if we look carefully at the Bush years we have 2 wars that were not financed, a shrinking job market, a Bank bailout and an economy that was rapidly spiraling downward.  Couple that with decades of lowered education expectation, an infrastructure crumbling literally beneath our feet, outsourcing of American Jobs and a growing contempt for our country it becomes a little clearer.

While we can unite after 9/11 the separation this country felt after electing it's first black president was shocking.  I remember the thing that were said at my work place at the time when he was elected, some of my dearest friends mentioned murder, kill and other words of contempt it chilled me to my core and this was before he spent his first day in Office.  People I thought I knew and that I trusted turned.  Well they didn't actually turn it was just a new presidency set for who could occupy the White House.  The country was split, fractured beyond belief with no hope and beyond repair.

As we slowly began to repair things, putting people back to work, making sure we had viable industry on American soil, increasing regulations and ensuring that Taxpayer dollars given to companies in a Free Market System were paid back we became even more divided.

How could so much good for the country be so bad?

Simple we have gotten to a point to where Corporate Interest ran the country and anything that was not good for them was bad for the country.  Why do we need more regulations?  Certainly not to make Oil companies responsible, to make working conditions safe, to make sure that Communism only applies when companies become "Too Big to Fail" or to provide the very necessary things that we pay taxes for like drinkable water.  No we do not need regulations for that, because it is not in the best interest of Corporate America.

But this is not about the Obama Presidency, it's about the lesson that we should have learned for his time in office.  First and most important is that the POTUS, Leader of the Free World or whatever title you want to endow on the position is basically pawn in a bigger game.  Of course this is by design, the POTUS can never become a dictator and is held accountable for his actions.  Our Government is designed so that no matter what the President wants to do he is accountable to Congress.  The idea is to make sure that the people have a voice in how this country is run. Democracy at it's best.

When elected officials no longer listen to the people they represent, you no longer have democracy, what you have is a bunch of elected Czar's acting on their own behalf and passing it off as the will of the people.  With unemployment at historical highs, American jobs being shifted to other countries, the decline of the middle class and a non-living minimum wage who can say the most important thing is something other than jobs.

While we are made to believe that Government is too big, we need less regulations, we need to be more involved in foreign activities, women are less then second class citizens, people do not have basic human rights and that somehow one's religious views should dictate how we live our lives as a collective we have forgotten a few things.

First and foremost, the Constitution, the document that all elected officials swore to uphold, but often cite guarantees separation of church and state.  That's the most important point anyone can make now days.  Basically no matter what you believe due to your religious morals and values have no place in Government.

Secondly, the Constitution states that all people in America, not just citizens are protected under the rights it provides.

Thirdly, the Constitution is designed to work for betterment of the people as a collective.

And finally, any elected official can be removed buy Articles of Impeachment.  That is also an important one that is never put in practice unless on a Federal Level and then only with one position in mind.

Our Constitution is a great document and it ensure prosecution from Religious, Racial, Gender and Social differences.

So how did we get here?

Currently, we are at a place where everything seems to be upside down.  at the beginning of the Primary the most likely person to win in my mind would have been Jeb Bush and the least likely person would be Donald Trump, but that's not the case.

Trump is all but assured to win the Republican nomination for President and many are asking how did this happen.  Even I thought he would never really run and was just doing it as some kind of stunt, but boy was I wrong.  When I look back at things I can clearly see how he got here and it makes perfect sense.

After the Bush years, the republicans ran a sensible candidate John McCain.  A war hero, a man with a solid background that was respected and someone that had a real a chance...until he pick a running mate.  How could he think that someone as idiotic as Palin could help his ticket.

The next election introduced the Clown Car to Politics.  They went from an electable candidate with running mate issues to a field of non-electable candidates.  We are not talking a bout bad candidates we are talking boarding insanity on all sides.  Boom, Obama's second term.

This year we have the Clown Car 2.0, with the most unlikely winner.  You want to know why Trump won?  The republicans are tired of their Personal Czar's and want real representation.  They describe insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result and Trump was something different.

So we have a divided country and someone to speak about the division.  Someone to appeal to everything that is perceived to be lost.  A political party telling you 30 years ago was great and that rhetoric only speaks to one group of people, as for the rest like I said he is something different. So Republicans are here today.

The Democrats have a legacy to follow behind and not an easy challenge to compete with.  So the choice there is to follow what the vision of his Presidency should have been or being a compromise candidate.

So let's take a look at what a Social Democrat means.  It basically means that while the democratic process should be upheld under our Free Market system there are certain things that should not be run for profit such as education and healthcare.  These items appeal to the younger generation since they are not coming from established wealth and realize that the current model works against them.

While Bernie is saying all the right things and has the right vision for the country it comes down to one simple fact.  Who can do what.

What the Obama Legacy should have taught us is that the President can't much without the consent of Congress and if Congress refuses to work with the POTUS it's a never ending battle.

When considering a candidate forget what is promised, but think about what can be delivered.  For example Bernie is for a single payer health system, while he may accomplish dismantling the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), he will never see his vision because Congress will never allow it.

On the bright side he will be able to repeal the Affordable Care Act.  Which some may think is a great thing until the Healthcare Industry start handing out crappy policies that cover little to nothing and raising your rates because they can now make you accountable for the uninsured at their price.  Or when your prescription drugs cost more than you make a month.

So on the Democratic side you have a choice of someone that can get some things done and someone who's ideology will be complete ignored by Congress.

So what should have been a simple election between Hillary and Jeb - Since he prefers not to be know as Bush, turned out to be a travesty.  And Why you say.

Simple the only one to blame are the voters.  We no longer vote in our interest or in the reality of what can be accomplished, we vote for issue which should never be on the political agenda. the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) have already said a woman has the right to do with her body as she pleases and it's the law of the land.  So why are we yielding to Christian Dogma about every sperm being secrete?  The Constitution guarantees civil rights for all so why are we have a biblical discussion of what constitutes a couple or marriage?  We give billions away in corporate welfare each year, but debate giving someone a living wage.

As an agnostic I do not believe these are issues of importance.  I think the only important issue to me is how I can better the quality of my life.

As a Republican I think government remain separate.  The Federal Government should handle nationwide issues and so on.

I often hear it's not the governments responsibility to create jobs, yes and no.  It is not the Governments responsibility to create sustainable jobs, but they do have the duty to create Works Programs to stimulate the economy.  Rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, bridges, roads and other public works programs that employ people for a few years.  Invest in our infrastructure with programs like high speed rail and more energy efficient  systems that not only create jobs during the construction phase, but creates long term jobs.  Every state has infrastructures issues which they have on the hill waiting to be passed....or at least we hope so.  Pass them and put America back to work.

This election is not about the issues, it's about who will do the least damage.  We have come to expect that, because we have been horrible at voting in the past and what we really need is a complete overhaul of our current Government Federal and State, some may say County and City as well.  The amazing thing is we have a process in place and no matter how unfair one thinks the process is, the process is the same for all candidates of a party.  Just because Trump didn't pay attention to the rules doesn't mean they were unfair, but that's a moot point now.