The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

The Mueller report has become like the Bible, where most people seem to cherry-pick scriptures which support their agenda, and fail to stand back and see the larger picture. This has especially been the case with the most ardent of Trump supporters. Robert Mueller was appointed as Special Counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. His 2-year investigation resulted in 34 indictments, which included several Russian nationals and Trump aides/advisors. This has led to multiple guilty pleas and verdicts, and with that, prison time. The most striking conclusion in the Mueller report is that Russia did heavily interfere in our election and it will likely happen again unless we do something about it. Did Russia's interference ultimately determine the election's outcome? That's impossible to conclude with any degree of certainty at the moment. What's not difficult to conclude, however, is that Russian interference did impact the 2016 electio...

In a recent Washington Post article, professor and activist Michael Eric Dyson asked the question, "Is Obama to blame for Trump - and the revival of white supremacist hate?" While I tend to respect Dyson and his viewpoints, I can't disagree more with this one. Here is the jist of what he wrote, to which I'll rebut: "Yet Obama’s initial reluctance to address race, the outlines of which Baker briefly traces, left an interpretive void that was grievously, and gleefully, filled by his successor, who is all too eager to ply his poisonous perspective. Baker argues that Obama picked up the pace of race talk in his second term, but it may have been far too little, far too late. When it came to race, Obama, as he did in his foreign policy, led from behind. But Obama’s time in office evoked a unique hatred that undoubtedly rested in race, if not alone, then at least primarily. No amount of ideological dispute or partisan disagreement could account for the relentless as...

Earlier today, some Trump supporters took to Twitter to try and mock anti-Trumpers' #NotMyPresident hashtag with their own, #NotMySuperBowl. They obviously thought this was clever, but as so often seems to be the case of Trumpsters, their attempt at being witty here failed, and failed quite epically at that. To try and compare #NotMyPresident with #NotMySuperBowl is a prime example of false equivalence. The #NotMyPresident hashtag was in response to the result of the presidential election, the final contest in the race to become our next president. The #NotMySuperBowl hashtag, however, was in response to two semifinal games, which of course means there's one remaining. If Trumpsters wanted to properly compare the two, they could have gone with a #NotMyElection hashtag, but then would run the risk of being mistaken as both "Never Hillary" and "Never Trump," when that likely wouldn't be the case, especially of the latter. If these Trump supporters had aw...

In response to the numerous protests at the expense of Donald Trump winning the presidential election on Tuesday night, I've heard Trump supporters continually utter the following remarks: - "He won. Get over it." - "What are you protesting? Democracy?" - "You don't see Obama or Clinton protesting now, do you?" So why is it that many Americans are having such trouble coming to grips that Donald Trump won our country's presidential election and are protesting as a result? A great number of Trump supporters have hailed their candidate's victory as the ultimate slap in the face to the political system and establishment politics, but fail to realize it's the ultimate slap in the face to so many others. Donald Trump's victory is a slap in the face to our men and women in uniform, including POWs. Donald Trump's victory is a slap in the face to our mothers, daughters, women all over. Donald Trump's victory is a slap i...

So long as there aren't any major shifts in the states which have yet to be officially projected, it appears as though Republican nominee Donald Trump will end up with 306 electoral votes, compared to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's 232. Clinton leads in the popular vote, however, as she currently has 60,981,l18 votes, compared to 60,350,241 for Trump - over a 600,000 vote difference. With most of the remaining uncounted votes being in the blue states of New York, Washington, and California, it's predicted that Clinton will wind up with at least 2 million more votes than her opponent. If we made the Electoral College proportional, the results would currently be as follows: AK (3): Trump - 52.9%, Clinton - 37.7% (DT - 1.59 , HRC - 1.13) ID (4): Trump - 59.2%, Clinton - 27.6% (DT - 2.37, HRC - 1.10) MT (3): Trump - 56.5%, Clinton - 36.0% (DT - 1.70, HRC - 1.08) ND (3): Trump - 64.1%, Clinton - 27.8% (DT - 1.92, HRC - 0.83) WI (10): Trump - 47.9%, Clinton - 46.9...

It's never made a great deal of sense to me why so many self-described Christian conservatives have ardently fought to defund Planned Parenthood. Granted, the family planning facility does provide abortion services, however, only 3% of their spending goes to these procedures, while 97% of it goes to improving women's health and preventing the need for abortions. The Texas Policy Evaluation Project furthered my perplexion regarding the matter, as they recently released a study proving my point. After the Lone Star State stripped Planned Parenthood of its funding in 2013, here's what happened: - 35% decline in IUD and implant claims - 27% spike in births One of the authors of the study, Amanda Jean Stevenson, said this about their findings: "The U.S. continues to have higher rates of unintended pregnancies than most rich nations, and we know that U.S. and Texas women face barriers as they try to access preventative services. It's a public health issue that ...

Public Policy Polling (PPP) released an interesting finding today. It's funny; just yesterday I wrote about how sick and tired I was with the right's paranoid let's-bomb-them-all-before-they-bomb-us mentality. Well, according to PPP's latest finding, it does appear a decent percentage of Republicans would be in favor of bombing just about anything. According to this poll, it found that 30% of Republicans would be in favor of bombing Agrabah - a fictional city in Disney's Aladdin . Here's how the complete poll numbers to that question break down by party: Q: "Would you be in favor of bombing Agrabah?" Republicans: 30% approve/13% disapprove (net +17%) Democrats: 19% approve/36% disapprove (net -17%) No, I'm not making up those numbers... Due to the results of this poll, expect to see the following poll results at some point in the future: - 78% of Republicans don't feel the Hunchback of Notre Dame's healthcare plan should include...

Living in the state of Ohio and supporting marijuana legalization, especially for medical purposes (but also recreational), I voted no on 2 and yes on 3 yesterday to accomplish this. While I wasn't too terribly surprised issue 3 (to legalize marijuana) didn't pass, I was slightly disappointed. I think I was mainly disappointed because I know many fellow progressives voted against the measure due to not wanting marijuana monopolized in the state, and if they had all voted like I did, I think the measure would have had a shot at passing. I can understand perfectly well why so many progressives voted against issue 3. For the very same reason, I struggled with making my final decision on the matter. However, when thinking things through, while I wasn't thrilled with the writing of the law and the monopoly, I felt there were many more potential benefits than hindrances contained within it, and no matter how small it might have been, it was a step in the right direction (also, ...

Following the first Democratic debate on Tuesday night, I can't tell you how many times I've heard conservative commentators utter this line: "I thought Democrats were the party of diversity! Republicans are the ones with diversity! If anyone is lacking in diversity, it's the Democrats!" Of course, this is with regard to just the presidential candidates, which supposedly reflect the parties at large. Suffice it to say, this couldn't be further from the truth. Granted, the Democratic candidates are comprised of four white men and one white woman, while the Republican candidates include: two Latino-American men, one white woman, one African-American man, one Indian-American man, and seemingly countless white men. So, if we simply want to grade the two parties' diversity on the presidential candidates, surely the Republican Party would be the more diverse of the two. However, that's missing the forest for the trees. In the House of Representatives, De...

Unsurprisingly, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, Americans seem to hate politicians. Somewhat surprisingly, though, is just how much Americans appear to hate politicians, especially Republicans. Here are the disapproval numbers according to the poll: President Barack Obama: 54% (Not great, but I've seen worse...) Congressional Democrats: 61% (A bit worse...) Congressional Republicans: 72% (Wowsers...) You know things are bad in Congress when Democrats can say, "Well, I guess only 39% of the public either approves of us or can't decide, but that's still 11% better than Republicans. America may hate us, but they hate us far less than the GOP, so we've got that going for us, which is nice, I guess..." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/14/republicans-approval-rating-congress-gop_n_5820130.html

It amazes me how so many Facebook friends of mine have IQs of 140 or above. Have you ever seen these tests? Many of them consist of between 5 and 10 rather simple questions, and based on this very small sample, it can accurately determine a person's IQ. I know - it's really the darnedest of things. It reminds me of the time I had a College Algebra final to take, answered all five questions correctly, and my teacher then proudly shook my hand and said, "It's official - you're a genius, Craig!" Thank you. Thank you very much. So, here is my rendition of an online IQ test. Feel free to take the test at home and just remember, if you answer every question correctly, it's safe to say your IQ is at a genius' level. Here we go... 1) What is your name? (Note: So long as you write something down, anything, you will be correct.) 2) What is the capital city of any state in the United States? (Note: You can pick any of the fifty states. You may even use Okl...

When talking about cardio workouts, a good friend of mine suggested I check out the "insanity" workout. She was even kind enough to send me a demo so I could decide whether or not to purchase the whole thing. Upon trying it out, I can say without hesitation that the title of the workout is most definitely not a case of false advertising. In fact, "insanity" may not even do the workout proper justice. I'm officially through day 15 of the 60-day workout and can honestly say my body has never felt sorer, my legs have never felt stronger, and I'm quite excited to think about how I'll look and feel when I've completed the 60-day challenge. For anyone who's interested, feel free to visit the link below and that will show you what all you need to do in order to take the 60-day challenge as well. There are also some clips of insanity workouts on YouTube if you think you may be interested, but aren't fully convinced you want to fork over any money f...

Just yesterday, Gallup released some rather significant findings with regard to the Medicaid expansion offered via the Affordable Care Act. According to the report, the 21 states which expanded Medicaid and established a state-based marketplace exchange or state-federal partnership have seen their uninsured rates drop to a much greater degree than the 29 states which didn't take advantage of those options afforded to them by the new healthcare law. Based on these latest numbers, the 21 states which expanded Medicaid and established a state-based marketplace exchange or state-federal partnership have seen their uninsured rates drop by an average of 3.97%. These very states hold the top 13 rankings when it comes to a decrease in the uninsured between 2013 and 2014. The 29 states which didn't expand Medicaid and the like have seen their uninsured rates drop an average of 1.95% - less than half that of the 21 other states. These 29 states hold 20 of the bottom 27 rankings when ...

Remember how much money conservative groups spent on "Obamacare" attack ads? How much time Republican candidates spent telling potential voters they were going to repeal the healthcare law? How many times far-right Congressional Republicans claimed that the Affordable Care Act was going to destroy the fabric of this country? Well, strangely enough, the world didn't end, and according to a new Commonwealth Fund poll, the attack ads and hyperbolic rhetoric were only effective for a limited period of time. According to this new poll, 73% of people whom bought health plans were either somewhat or very satisfied with their new insurance. This includes 87% whom signed up for Medicaid and were at least somewhat satisfied. Not only that, but 74% of newly insured Republicans liked their plans. With numbers like these, it makes the Tea Party/Ted Cruz-led government shutdown look even more ridiculous. Cruz: "I'm going to stand up for the people, the Constitution, and ...

It amazes me that approximately 95% of the people seem to believe that their beliefs coincide with a higher power's. Since no two people's opinions are exactly the same, this creates a bit of a dilemma. It also amazes me that while many people may see Jesus as being omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent, they appear to believe he's an uber-capitalist whom would be anything but benevolent if he were growing up in the United States today. The non-partisan organization YouGov  just released poll results with regard to how Americans feel about certain contemporary political issues and where they feel Jesus would line up on those same issues. Here were the results: Legal abortion: 48% support it/36% oppose (net +12%), 20% believe Jesus would support it/52% oppose (net -32%) Gay marriage: 48% support it/40% oppose (net +8%), 32% believe Jesus would support it/45% oppose (net -13%) Death penalty: 58% support it/23% oppose (net +35%), 34% believe Jesus would support it/41%...

A study was just released by the Violence Policy Center with regard to gun violence, and although it comes as no surprise to me, it showed that gun laws do matter. I know - shocker, right? The study's results came courtesy of newly released data with regard to gun death rates in 2011. Overall, the gun death rate was 10.38 per 100,000, and the number of Americans killed by gunfire rose slightly from 31,672 in 2010 to 32,351 in 2011. The numbers are downright embarrassing when compared to other Western industrialized countries, such as England and Australia, which had gun death rates of 0.23 and 0.86 per 100,000, respectively. When comparing the level of gun violence across states, the numbers showcased that higher levels of gun ownership and weaker gun laws in a state tended to equal higher gun death rates. The five states with the highest gun death rates had two things in common: 1) A high level of gun ownership, and 2) Lax gun laws. 1. Louisiana: 45.6% household gun ownershi...

For as consistently negative as the media was with regard to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) toward the tail-end of last year (and deservedly so), they've been just as consistently positive with regard to it in the past 2-3 weeks (with the exception being Fox News, of course...). Well, the good news continued to pour in yesterday with the release of the latest Gallup poll. This very poll released the following results: - "There has been a statistically significant and meaningfully large decline in the percentage of uninsured U.S. adults. The uninsured rate peaked at 18.0% in the third quarter of 2013, the highest rate measured since Gallup Healthways began tracking in 2008. The uninsured rate has been consistently trending downward since then, falling to 15.0% in March and further to 12.9% for April 1-14 polling. If the rate for the first half of April holds throughout the month, it will be the lowest monthly uninsured rate in 76 months of tracking." - "The...

While the Republican Party, on the whole, disapproves of same-sex marriage, if things continue as they've been trending, it will only be a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal across the country. This is because support for gay marriage is increasing on both sides of the political spectrum as age decreases. According to a recent Pew Research poll, while just 39% of Republicans approve of same-sex marriage, 61% of 18- to 29-year-old Republicans approve of it. That number decreases to 43% among 30- to 49-year-olds, 30% for those between the ages of 50 and 64, and just 22% of Republicans over the age of 65 approve of gay marriage. There's a similar trend with Democrats, although, the numbers are much higher among the older groups. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, 77% approve of same-sex marriage rights. This number decreases slightly to 71% support among 30- to 49-year-olds, 66% for those between the ages of 50 and 64, and 62% of Democrats over the age of 65 approve of g...

Former neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins and current Fox News commentator Ben Carson recently made a speech in support of Oregon GOP Senate candidate Monica Wehby in Wilsonville, Oregon, and as usual, made some comments which brought Jesus close to saying, "What the fu..?" At this January 31st fundraiser, Carson said the following: - "[One of the main goals of progressives is to] fundamentally change who we are. [Part of that entails] keeping a blanket of silence over the majority." - "There comes a time when people with values simply have to stand up. Think about Nazi Germany. Most of those people did not believe in what Hitler was doing. But did they speak up? Did they stand up for what they believe in? They did not, and you saw what happened. And if you believe that same thing can't happen again, you're very wrong. But we're not going to let it happen." Let me get this straight. It's progressives' goal to change "who we are...

Just recently, a Canadian entrepreneur proved it is very possible to simultaneously be a millionaire and an idiot. On The Lang & O'Leary Exchange , Canadian millionaire Kevin O'Leary said the following with regard to a recent report about the rise in income inequality: "It's fantastic! This is a great thing because it inspires everybody, gets them motivation to look up to the one percent and say, 'I want to become one of those people, I'm going to fight hard to get up to the top. this is fantastic news and of course I'm going to applaud it! What can be wrong with this?" Co-host Amanda Lang then stared at him with the classic I-can't-believe-what-you-just-said look, and said, "Really?" O'Leary responded with, "Yes, really. I celebrate capitalism." Lang then countered with this: "So somebody living on $1 a day in Africa is getting up in the morning and saying, 'I'm going to be Bill Gates'?" ...