Horrible Campaign for President of the United States

Bernie Sanders was not a candidate as much as he was a spokesman for a cause. That is the reason his followers booed him as he implored them to support Hillary Clinton in two different speeches yesterday (one at a Sanders campaign meeting and again when he spoke at the convention).That cause is the views of the more “liberal” wing of the Democratic Party.

Donald Trump faced the same hostility in the Republican Party. He does not represent the conservative views of most Republicans. No past presidents, many Republican leaders, and many of his primary opponents did not come to the RNC convention to offer their support for his candidacy. Ted Cruz, for reasons only he knows, felt compelled to speak at the convention only to be hustled out of the hall out of fear for his safety. Cruz’s primary comment telling everyone to vote their conscience says everything about where many Republicans are with Mr. Trump.

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump face the same issue. Without the support of a volunteer campaign staff, they will have a difficult time reaching the voters. Trump has run his campaign without a large staff and appears to believe his unorthodox style does not require thousands of volunteers. Hillary understands the need for a significant volunteer army. If Trump wins, future campaigns will not reflect the past.

Public concern should be the future of the United States under the leadership of either of these candidates as they are both seriously flawed.

The Republican National Convention Ends its Meeting on a note of Fear

Donald Trump painted a grim portrait of the U.S. and cast himself as its only savior in his GOP acceptance speech.

“I alone can fix it”

Donald Trump‘s basic campaign theme is

-Our country has been mismanaged for decades and that has cost the nation its industrial base. That has resulted in a major loss of jobs.

-Illegal aliens from Mexico are coming to the United States to rape and kill us.

-Crime is rampant. I am the law and order candidate.

-The rest of the world no longer respects us because we have not been tough enough on terrorists.

The reason that Mr. Trump has had a successful campaign is that no one has challenged any of his contentions.

Trump’s lack of details on how he will “Make America Great Again” will not sit well with many Americans. Many of those Americans are Republicans. Ted Cruz’s remarks about “voting your conscience” is a message to those disappointed Republicans who see Donald Trump as a phony conservative.

The best line in Trump’s speech was the comparison of Hillary Clinton’s “I’m with her” slogan to his “I’m with you.”

Now we await the Democratic National Convention.

lone

GOP Convention 2016

Donald Trump controlled the words of Mike Pence in the Trump/Pence interview on 60 Minutes as Mike Pence hesitated to answer questions until prompted by Trump.

Trump reminds me of a boss I had about 30 years ago. The job was decent but that boss was a “no it all” type who wanted control of everything. It was so bad that one occasion in his car he flipped up the sun visor on the passenger side after I had just put it down. He acted like he knew everything about every subject. Most definitely he wanted to control everything and that is the Trump behavior.

This first day of the GOP convention was perfect for Donald Trump. Every one of those speakers said the things that Trump could have said. Every reporter is examining every word of every speaker. We will all learn about the mistakes in the next few days. Even the highlight of the night, the Melania Trump speech is already being picked apart as similar to Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008 and maybe there was some plagiarism. I am certain that Trump will defend Melania’s speech as he should.

The question is will this convention win any new supporters for the Trump candidacy? The answer will come after we have heard the last words spoken on Thursday night. That translates to the polls that will follow. I did not listen to every speech but saw enough to recognize great choreography.

America’s Election System is Rigged to Protect Those in Power

Donald Trump is correct when he says the system is rigged. The United States system of government was created in a way that the wealthy and well positioned will continue to dominate the country in all ways. It was after a wealthy group of people who called the Continental Congress together. The most famous names were all at least well off if not very rich. Benjamin Franklin owned a successful printing business, John Adams was a well known and successful lawyer, Thomas Jefferson was the owner of a large plantation, George Washington was the owner of a large plantation, and John Hancock was the owner of a large shipping company. Not all of those signing the Declaration of Independence also signed the United States Constitution but none were poor.

Those signers had at least one thing in common. They wanted a government that protected them from kings and dictators and also protected their way of life and their wealth.

To ensure that the population would not overturn their preferred form of government they created the electoral college. They gave the state legislatures the power to select their representatives in the United States Senate (later changed to a popular vote by the people). They gave the states the power to determine the boundaries of their congressional districts.

Take a look at your congressional district maps. Here is a link to the 10 most gerrymandered congressional districts.

North Carolina-12th disrict

The consequence of the presidential selection process has resulted in two elections where the winner did not receive a majority of the popular vote.

In 1824, John Quincy Adams was elected president despite not winning either the popular vote or the electoral vote. Andrew Jackson was the winner in both categories. Jackson received 38,000 more popular votes than Adams, and beat him in the electoral vote 99 to 84.

In 2000, George W. Bush was declared the winner of the general election and became the 43rd president, but he didn’t win the popular vote either. Al Gore holds that distinction, garnering about 540,000 more votes than Bush. However, Bush won the electoral vote, 271 to 266.

Most states give the total winner of their state 100% of their electors voting for president. The electors are not proportionately assigned. The consequence is that the states with the highest populations could determine the outcome of the election. In Real Clear Politics current surveys Hillary Clinton has a likely lead with 209 electors from 11 states versus Donald Trump with 164 electors from 11 states.

If Donald Trump loses the election in November he will say the system is rigged. He will be correct. The system protects us from the extremists.

Could We be about to Inaugurate the last President of the United States?

Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton should be the two leading candidates for president of the United States. I find it appalling that both the Democrats and Republicans would select these seriously flawed people to lead the world’s most powerful nation.

Donald Trump has never held any elected office anywhere. His knowledge of the operations of the federal government is based upon what he has read or seen on television. His ideas about getting along with the rest of the world are a series of contradictions. In one breath he says that NATO is obsolete and in the next breath he talks about NATO forces being used to fight ISIS. Somehow he believes that a 35% to 45% tariff would bring jobs back to America. He says he wants to lower the national debt but he also wants to spend whatever it takes to enlarge our military, improve our educational system, and rebuild our infrastructure. All of these things, he says, will be done while lowering our income tax.

Hillary Clinton wanted to over throw Gadhafi in Libya (and we did) and now that country lacks a functioning central government. Her explanation about Benghazi is shrouded in a mist that cannot make that issue go away. She talks about being proud of her part in the Iran nuclear agreement and her solution to the Ukraine invasion by Russia. And Finally there is her use of a private email server that caused FBI Director James Comey to come very close to calling for her to be charged with a crime. Comey said, “Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” In the end, Comey, a deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush, said Clinton’s careless conduct fell short of a crime because there was no evidence of “clearly intentional and willful mishandling” of classified information and no sign of “disloyalty” or an effort to “obstruct justice.”

Am I supposed to be reassured by either of these two candidates that they can carry out the duties of president without taking the nation into a financial collapse or a war?

I am not confident that either Trump or Clinton will be a capable leader. Rather I fear that the winner of the November election could mean we will be inaugurating the last president of the United States.

The United States is the Greatest Nation in the World Today

Donald Trump, What are you talking about?

The United States is the Greatest Nation in the World Today.

The proof is everywhere. People from every country are trying to find a way to migrate to the United States. They know that this is the land of opportunity. Immigrants in the United States and their U.S.-born children now number approximately 81 million people, or 26 percent of the overall U.S. population according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey (ACS).

The United States is the greatest innovator of any nation in history. Bloomberg.com recently examined more than 200 countries and sovereign regions to determine their innovation quotient. The final universe was narrowed down to 96. Innovation was measured by seven factors, including R&D intensity, productivity, high-tech density, researcher concentration, manufacturing capability, education levels and patent activity. The United States is Number 1.

2.South Korea

3.Germany

4.Finland

5.Sweden

6.Japan

10.France

14.Russia

17.Canada

18.United Kingdom

29.China

32.Israel

The names Amazon, General Electric, UPS, Fed Ex, Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Walmart and Google stand out as just a few of the American successes. What other country has so many world famous companies?

Students from around the world come to American universities. One of the most common items in the news is criticism that our universities are favoring foreign student admissions over admission of American students.

So I am not buying the “Make America Great Again” theme.

America is great today!

The Power of the of Barnum and Bailey

The naivety of the public is astounding. Look at how many “smart” people believed Bernie Madoff.

Have you ever been offered a free vacation at some highly popular place like Las Vegas or Cancun? There is a group of us that accept those offers even though we know that nothing is free. Those people accepting those free trips will find themselves in rooms with other people being pressured to buy something. Usually it’s a time share unit or other expensive luxury. The technique is used because it is very successful.

The people of the U.K. were told that money saved as the result of exiting the European Union would be $325 Million Pounds a month that would be directed to national health care. The individual who made that claim now denies that result would happen.

Immigration of eastern Europeans and Muslims would be dramatically reduced if the U.K. was no longer part of the EU. That ascertain is now denied too.

Here in the United States G.O.P. candidate Donald Trump has promised to build wall along the Mexican border from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. He has promised to bring millions of jobs that have left this country back. He said he would stop all Muslims entering the United States “until we find out what the hell is going on.”

Now, even before Donald Trump is the official candidate of the Republican Party he has changed some of his ideas. Muslims will only be banned from some countries he has yet to identify. He has not been repeating his intention to deport all illegal aliens.

Stay tuned for more of his changed ideas. Just remember the outrageous things he said before Paul Manafort became his campaign manager will be forgotten or reversed as he conducts his national campaign against Hillary Clinton.

Should we believe what he says now as he reads a teleprompter or the unscripted words he used in his fight to be the Republican Party nominee?

There is a growing list of highly respected Republicans who are saying they won’t support Donald Trump. Some have said they are supporting Hillary Clinton.

Actually Hillary Clinton has been part of the establishment since her husband became governor of Arkansas. The accusation that she has Wall Street ties has not been denied. She really is part of the “inside the beltway” crowd. She does represent the status quo and says so when she says she wants to continue the ideas of Barack Obama.

The two-party system so dominates the political spectrum that the Libertarian and Green Parties won’t be on the stage for the presidential debates. The rule is those minority parties must have 15% of recent polling data.

Donald Trump is the outsider with so many negatives that Americans favor Hillary Clinton in all of the national polls to date.

As it stand now we are likely to vote for Hillary Clinton as we hold our collective noses.

How Do I Move to Canada – Eh?

This move to Canada idea is starting to look like a real possibility with two of the most disliked candidates for president that I can remember. How did that happen?

Many Americans are threatening to move to Canada after the next election.

An article in the Los Angeles Times titled “Escaping to Canada?” brought to my attention something I have been saying for months to my family. “If Donald Trump is elected president we are moving to Canada. And it might be easy since I was born there.” After all, I have been saying “Eh” all of my life and few people have even noticed.

The Times article certainly did not make the move sound easy. As an expatriate of the United States but keeping your citizenship will require considerable paper work in the form of reports to the IRS. The rest of what was written in the article really isn’t a consequential issue. They have washrooms instead of restrooms. “Aboot” is not something to get excited about.

Just Google the title of this piece “How Do I Move to Canada?” and eleven links will appear. The first is a posting by Air Canada. They really only tell you the air fare and suggest you give it a try by spending a week or two there.

I have not been there in the winter and that is the real test. The temperature reached 10º below zero this past February in Toronto. That was in Fahrenheit.

The warmest part of the country is Vancouver and surrounding towns. The issue there is lots of rainy days.

Then there is the sales tax. A 13% value-added tax charged on most goods and services sold in Ontario province and 12% in British Columbia.

Vancouver skyline from Stanley Park. It looks just like another American city.

So how badly do you, will you, hate the next president of the United States?