The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Donald Trump cannot be President again. The guy was a complete disaster in his first term, and rest assured, a second term would be 45 times worse. Here's Trump's track-record since becoming president: - 38 times he said COVID would vanish - 1 time he suggested injecting disinfectant could rid one of COVID - 2.72M jobs lost - Just 6.409M jobs gained in his first 3 years, prior to COVID - 192k manufacturing jobs lost - +/-0.0% inflation - +14.8% wages (compared to +16.9% under Biden) - +2.6% GDP (compared to +2.9% under Biden) - +430.5% budget deficit - +37.7% national debt - +25.5% homicide rate - +17.0% firearm deaths - 30,573 lies told - Just 28% approval abroad - 2 impeachments (3 counts) - 34 felony convictions - 54 felony charges pending - Once found liable for fraud - Twice found liable for defamation - Once found liable for rape - Etc. The guy was, is, and always will be a disgrace to the office. What has he said he'd do if he served a second term?  Be a dictator on ...

That time I wish I couldn't accurately say, "I told you so." For a while, I've said, "If Donald Trump gets re-elected, we will no longer be home to a democratic republic." The typical response I received? "You worry too much." No, apparently I wasn't "extremist" enough in my concerns, as even though Trump lost in the 2020 presidential election, his supporters are actively holding the U.S. Capitol hostage, in an attempt to prevent Congress from tallying the electoral votes from the November election.  I wish I could say I was surprised, but I'd be lying. This has been building for years, even before Trump, and here we are. The fact of the matter is certain segments of the population never accepted the South losing the Civil War and this has carried on for generations. It's why they proudly hold up the Confederate flag. It's why they don't view minorities as "real" Americans. It's why the three words "...

I’ve long been an opponent of the two-party system in this country. The U.S. population is roughly 330 million people, and every 4 years, we’re given two options on who we want to lead our nation. Sure, there are third party possibilities, such as an Independent candidate, a Libertarian, a Green Party nominee, and someone who goes by the name Deez Nutz, but if we’re being honest, there are only two plausible winners: the Republican and the Democrat. A presidential election in this country is actually an example of the false dilemma fallacy, for we’re presented with just two options, when in fact there are more. It’s almost like, every 4 years, we’re forced to choose between cover bands of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, when in fact there are millions of people who don’t even like the genre of rock music, let alone those two specific bands – yet they’re told to vote for one of them as a civic duty.   In addition to this, we often like to brand ourselves as a democracy. For th...

It's really quite the sad sight, to take a step back with a clear mind and see what we've become as a nation. Sure, I could sit here and say I'm surprised at our current state and how we arrived here, but I'd be lying. I've seen this coming for a long time and here we are. Of all the times I wished I was wrong but wasn't, this one tops the list. In many other industrialized countries, the people took control early, didn't let up, and the government ended up fearing them. Every election year, the attack-ad season was short, and with a handful or more of legitimate parties from which to choose, only a small percentage of people felt left out, like there wasn't a candidate whom represented them and their beliefs. This led to higher voter turnout. False ads were either rare or completely barred. With so many parties involved, this forced them to compromise in order to get things done and move forward. Otherwise, they'd pay the price on election day. P...

The Pew Research Center just released the results to a poll they conducted with regard to voting. I found the results to be interesting for the simple fact all demographics agreed with each other, except for one. Pew asked participants whether they felt that citizens should register ahead of time in order to vote or if everything possible should be done to make it easy for citizens to vote. All of the following demographics agreed with the latter approach, and I'll list the numbers accordingly: Democrat: 84/15 (+69) Black: 79/19 (+60) 18-29: 71/27 (+44) Hispanic: 64/35 (+29) Coll grad+: 62/36 (+26) Women: 62/37 (+25) HS or less: 61/37 (+24) Total: 59/39 (+20) 30-49: 59/40 (+19) Independent: 57/41 (+16) Men: 56/41 (+15) 50-64: 54/43 (+11) 65+: 54/43 (+11) White: 54/44 (+10) Some coll: 53/44 (+9) Look at those numbers again. Here are 14 demographics, as well as the total, who all agree that we should do everything in our power to make voting easy for citizens on ele...

It's time we finally admit it - the United States of America is not a democracy. Sure, we may often like to brag about how we're the freest country in the world, that it's our duty to help spread our democratic principles to other parts of the globe, and even that we're the greatest country in recorded history. Unfortunately, our actions don't validate these words. A democracy is a "government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system." Yet we continue to make it more difficult for certain demographics to vote on election day, we refuse to acknowledge the day as a national holiday (or at least hold it during the weekend), and at the end of the day, it's not a guarantee that the candidate with the most votes will be rewarded the presidency. Let's take this past election as a prime example. In this country, there ...

As consistent readers of mine should know by now, I hope to see Donald Trump become president like I would hope to wake up next to a drunken Lorena Bobbitt holding a machete in one hand and an angry skunk in the other. For as much as I tend to disagree with the GOP front-runner, however, I do have to say he's right about one thing - the election process not being very democratic. Let's think about this for a moment here. The Republican and Democratic Parties nominate their presidential representatives, not according to votes, but according to delegates. There have been occasions, including during this election cycle, where a candidate with more votes gets fewer delegates than his or her opponent. If no candidate reaches a particular number of delegates by time of their party's convention, it's possible the delegate leader will not win the nomination, and not only that, it's possible a politician whom didn't even run for the Oval Office throughout the primaries...

As ardent readers of mine should know by now, I like Donald Trump about as much as I like the thought of being sprayed in the face by a skunk after being forced to listen to George W. Bush talk for an hour. In saying that, however, I do think the man should receive the Republican nomination if he winds up with the most delegates, regardless if he reaches the magical 1,237 or not. When standing back and looking at the bigger picture, one has to admit this country is funny. While we like to hail ourselves as a democracy, even bombing other countries and stripping them of their leaders in order to help spread this way of life, we're actually a republic like our pledge of allegiance states, and have been slowly on the verge of becoming an oligarchy. In the general election, it's hypothetically possible for the winner to lose the popular vote. Don't believe me? Just ask Al Gore. Now, with Donald Trump atop the Republican field in delegates, the GOP establishment is trying to ...

After seeing a Facebook friend post a meme saying, "If you think every person should need an ID to vote, like this," I decided to respond with the following: I don't usually chime in when it comes to politically-oriented posts, but as I feel the voter ID law debate is, for the most part, being inaccurately painted in a black-or-white manner, I thought I'd add a few shades of grey to the mix. Here's a more thorough overview of the controversy surrounding the implementation of stricter voter ID laws - http://theweek.com/articles/442819/everything-need-know-about-voter-controversy The stricter voter ID laws have affected the following demographics more than any other: Women, elders, minorities, students, and veterans. I'll now post quotes and links to articles pertaining to each and every one of those demographics and how they're directly impacted by the stricter voter ID laws: Women - "Here's where women get stuck. American women change th...

With each and every election cycle, I begin to increasingly wonder if the Republican Party will change its name to the Oligarch Party. For as pro-freedom and liberty as their rhetoric typically is, it amazes me how anti-democratic the Republican Party has become. Allow me to compare the two parties on this front: Democratic Party - Wants to overturn Citizen's United so that corporations are limited in their campaign donations - Doesn't believe corporations are people - Wants to expand voting efforts to maximize voting on election day - Believes a strong economy is build from the base up - Doesn't believe in repressing certain demographics of voters Republican Party - Wants to maintain the Citizen's United ruling so corporations aren't limited in their campaign donations like people are - Believes corporations are people - Wants to restrict voting on election day - Believes in trickle-down economics - Believes in repressing certain demographic...

Sometimes I wonder if newspapers simply draw letters-to-the-editor out of a hat to decide which ones to publish. With this next one I'm about to share, I firmly believe either that's the case or the person in charge of publishing such letters received a dare he or she couldn't refuse. This letter was published in today's Columbus Dispatch  and was written by one Ellie Howes of Delaware, Ohio. The letter is titled, "Does Obama want to tear down U.S.?" It only gets better (worse) from there... In this letter, Ms. Howe writes the following: "I thought President Barack Obama was there to lead and work with our representatives. He should be working for a compromise. Maybe he hopes we'll fall apart. He said he wanted to fundamentally transform the United States. We thought he meant for the better. Apparently, he meant it's no longer 'we the people.' Now it's 'the government knows best.' This is not consistent with our Found...

With the government shutdown looming, Twitter has exploded with lovely back-and-forths between Tea Partiers in support of the shutdown to delay Obamacare for a year and moderates and liberals whom don't want a government shutdown, regardless of what they think of the healthcare bill. Tea Partiers have gone after a couple of my comments, which I'll briefly write about in a couple of separate blogs. This may be my favorite of the two responses. My tweet was, "Here's an idea - shut down the Tea Party so the government can actually function." It has been my belief that the Tea Party, so long as President Obama is running the show, doesn't want the government to function. They've attempted to place the government on shutdown since the Republican Party took control of the House in 2011. Their sole focus it seems has been on getting rid of Obamacare. Even though Democrats control the Senate and Oval Office, House Republicans have attempted to repeal the bil...

Setting: Monday, May 27th at Mr. John LaPierre's 11th grade math class in Washington, D.C. Mr. LaPierre: "Okay, class. It's getting toward that time of year again - finals week. I think I'm going to go about things a little differently this year, though. What I'm going to do is take a vote. We can either have the final next Monday, June 3rd, and take the rest of this week to get ready for it, or we can have it tomorrow, May 28th, and spend the next few days just watching movies. Just write down your vote on a piece of paper and pass it up to the front - write down either tomorrow or next week. I'll then ask one person from each side of the debate to get up here and make a few points on why we should hold the final on their preferred day, and then I'll have the final say on when we do wind up having the test. Does everyone understand?" ::the class nods in unison, before writing down their votes on a piece of paper, and passing them up to the front o...