And Then There Were Five

Jeb Bush finally dropped out of the race for the presidency. It was no loss for the Republicans or the nation. I always thought he looked awkward at the rallies he held. He offered no new ideas that anyone cared about. He was the establishment candidate that was backed by what was reported to be a $100 million super-pac. The very thing that most Americans despise – a group of wealthy contributors who would expect something in return if he was elected.

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have one thing in common. They abhor super-pacs. Both of them a drawing the largest crowds at their campaign events. Both of them are scary alternatives to the establishment candidates. Still the pubic seems to love them for their extreme views.

Still I do not believe the GOP race is not over. Marco Rubio is likely to be the new establishment candidate and when John Kasich and Ben Carson drop out his position might easily bring him to at least 50% in the polls.

Sadly if Rubio wins the nomination I will have to support the Democratic candidate. Rubio clearly stated in one of the debates that under no circumstance would he support an abortion even if the mother’s life was at stake. That horrible situation might leave a family with no mother and the loss of someone’s dearly loved wife.

I view Hillary Clinton as someone in the same category as Jeb Bush. A super-pac backed traditionalist who does not care about anyone but herself. She happens to favor abortions to preserve the life of the mother. Donald Trump’s abortion views are unknown to me and apparently everyone else as he has avoided offering his view on debate stages, town hall forums and other venues.

Is the United States Becoming a Nazi Replica?

-Doctor Ben Carson: ‘We should have a database on everybody’

-Donald Trump told NBC News there should be a database of all Muslims.

-Senator Ted Cruz agrees with Donald Trump. He would winnow the field of acceptable refugees down to only Christian Syrians, similar to what Jeb Bush proposes.

-Kasich on Syrian Refugees: ‘We Don’t Know Who They Are, Where They Come From’

-There’s nothing outrageous about barring Syrian refugees from entering the U.S. unless they pass background checks, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said on “The Kelly File.”

As reported on CNN
Shockingly, Trump told Yahoo News that he would consider requiring Muslim-Americans to register with a government database, or worse, mandating that they carry special identification cards that note their faith.

The reaction to this idea, fairly or unfairly, by many on social media, was to accuse Trump of wanting to mimic laws that Nazis had imposed on Jews, including requiring them to wear a gold Star of David on their clothes.

After Trump confirmed that he would set up a database for Muslim-Americans, an NBC reporter asked him point blank: “Is there a difference between requiring Muslims to register and Jews in Nazi Germany?” A clearly annoyed Trump at first refused to respond, but then told the reporter, “You tell me,” and walked away.

The likelihood is that a Republican will be the next president of the United States.

Trump is now reported to have “backed away” from tracking people. Still, the fear factor has taken over this nation.

With the rise of radical Islam and the non-stop reports on television we are all observing a frightening rise in those wanting the government to monitor every person’s movement. It is a form of fascism.

I wonder if any of these politicians have read George Orwell’s 1984. In that story the government spies on everyone’s personal life. Televisions are everywhere an each has a camera that watches what you are doing.

The data base idea is the most worrisome idea I have heard. Perhaps we could have the Muslims wear arm bands so they can be easily identified. Does this idea remind you of a past event? Yes! It reminds me of Hitler and the arm bands worn by Jews in Germany and all the places invaded by the Nazis.

The reaction of governors and the Speaker of the House to the situation in Europe is reminiscent of American reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

My reaction is what about other minorities in the United States? Will all of us be subject to data bases?

The only official definition of Fascism comes from Benito Mussolini, the founder of fascism, in which he outlines three principles of a fascist philosophy. 1.”Everything in the state”. The Government is supreme and the country is all-encompasing, and all within it must conform to the ruling body, often a dictator. 2.”Nothing outside the state”. The country must grow and the implied goal of any fascist nation is to rule the world, and have every human submit to the government. 3.”Nothing against the state”. Any type of questioning the government is not to be tolerated. If you do not see things our way, you are wrong. If you do not agree with the government, you cannot be allowed to live and taint the minds of the rest of the good citizens.

The use of militarism was implied only as a means to accomplish one of the three above principles, mainly to keep the people and rest of the world in line. Fascist countries are known for their harmony and lack of internal strife. There are no conflicting parties or elections in fascist countries.

Nazi Germany was extreme Fascism, better examples of fascist countries were Mussolini’s Italy, Iraq, Iran, and many middle eastern countries.

GOP Debate #3 – No Clear Winner

A GOP effort to avoid offering solutions to issues.

The debates are becoming somewhat boring. We have all heard the positions of the candidates. For the most part we know who wants to create a flat tax and who wants to protect Social Security. That made the moderator’s job more difficult.

The candidates were asked some questions that were obviously meant to start arguments among them. For the most part that strategy failed. Jeb Bush’s attacks on Marco Rubio were induced by the moderator. The attacks were fended off fairly well by Rubio.

The one significant continuing problem for me was the lack of answers to reasonable questions. The candidates all spoke about the lagging income of the middle class but not one offered even an outline of a solution. There were some who acknowledged the growing college student debt but not one had any solution.

Remarks about the Federal Reserve by Ted Cruze and Rand Paul might have rung a bell with the No-Nothings but seemed obtuse and irrelevant. Inserting politics into the management of our monetary system would likely result in endless Benghazi like hearings conducted by people who have an agenda beyond the management of the nation’s banking system. Somewhat bizarrely, Cruz also appeared to call for a return to the gold standard.

Ted Cruze was a master at avoiding answering the questions put to him. He attacked the moderators and pointedly guessed that none would be voting in the Republican primaries. When asked his view on the fact that women on average earn 77% of the pay of men for the same job he went on a spiel about helping the middle class.

I could not identify a winner of this event. Neither Donald Trump nor Ben Carson offered any impressive position or statement that would keep them in the lead in the polling. Jeb Bush, considered the early favorite of the establishment made no statement that pushed him ahead. Carly Fiorina’s idea of a three page tax code was a good sound bite, remember Herman Caine’s 2012 9-9-9 plan, but is obviously an unlikely outcome. The Herman Caine plan was 9 percent “individual flat tax,” a 9 percent “business flat tax,” and a 9 percent sales tax.

I do not anticipate anyone dropping out of the race as a consequence of this debate.

Jeb Bush and Multiculturalism

Most nations in the world reject multiculturalism. Even in Canada they have decided to define Quebec as the French speaking, French oriented province while the rest of the country speaks English and is oriented towards the UK.

CNN reported that Jeb Bush argued today that the United States is “creeping toward multiculturalism” and described it as “the wrong approach.”

But Bush, who’s fluent in Spanish and lives in Miami, has made cultural diversity a key staple in his campaign. He routinely talks about his wife, who’s from Mexico, and the “bicultural” children that they’ve raised together. On Monday, while addressing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Houston, Bush lauded the country’s mixture of cultural backgrounds, saying the immigrant experience adds a “vitality that is different and unique and extraordinary for our country.”

So what is Jeb Bush’s real opinion? At this point in the race to win the GOP nomination I am guessing that his words today, Tuesday, are meant to win the Conservative vote in Iowa.

His real problem is that his desire to win the nomination has made him turn and twist as Mitt Romney did in 2012. We all know how that worked out. No one believed him in the race against Obama and the loss that year was overwhelming.

No matter who the Democratic nominee is; Jeb as the GOP candidate, will face the argument that he does not have a clear reliable opinion and cannot be trusted on any issue. The Democrats are collecting the words of every GOP candidate and will be using them after the conventions in 2016. Hillary couldn’t be happier.

The Need for Common Core Educational Standards

The U.S.A. ranks 36^th from the top in math in the world.

Common Core is the academic standards now being implemented in 43 states and Washington, D.C. Common Core was created by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. It was not created by the Federal government.

Jeb Bush was in support of Common Core until he realized that many Republicans oppose it. Now, based upon his comment at last Thursday’s debate, he only supports higher standards but not federally created ones.

The question is how does the United States compare with other nations? You can find the information you want to support your preconceived answer to this question.

I believe this organization is about as good as it gets to finding the answer to the above question. https://www.studentsfirst.org/pages/the-stats

Compared to other countries, we fail in math and science.

In the growing global marketplace, students will need to excel in both math and science to compete internationally as engineers, scientists, physicians, and creative entrepreneurs. Yet, in a 2012 analysis of student performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the U.S. placed 27th out of 34 countries in math performance and 20th in science performance.⁴

Of course you can deny studentsfirst claims. They might have an agenda that really is not intended to help students excel. I just can’t find it.

The 36^th ranking was developed by The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, results from PISA 2012. This is not news. It was discussed by Fareed Zakaria on his CNN GPS progam. The discrepancy between 27^th and 36^th probably lies in the evaluation of separate parts of China.

The leading nations or cities were:

Shanghai-China
Singapore
Hong Kong-China
Chinese Taipei
Korea
Macao-China
Japan

13. Canada

16. Germany

17. Viet Nam

25. France

26. United Kingdom

34. Russian Federation

36. United States

Those fighters against common core seem to want to defend their preference for mediocrity.

Democrat and Republican Race to the Bottom

It continues to astonish me that the leading candidates for president, according to recent polls, are a group of people who were rejected for the job either four or eight years ago. Finally one commentator has had the courage to state the obvious. Eugene Robinson wrote in the Washington Post that the race is devolving into a contest of re-treads. “In a nation of more than 310 million souls, we can do better.”

Robinson is so right. Mitt Romney is pitching for donors as Hillary Clinton seems to have the Democratic Party nomination secured without one primary election.

It is a contest of shopworn seniors who have more to say about what they have done than what they are likely to do. Of course they will try to tell us that they still have lots of new ideas. Romney will now be concerned about the 47% and Clinton will have fresh ideas to counter terrorism and enabling middle eastern country partners and their people. Are we to believe that Hillary Clinton, one of the leading advocates for toppling Muammar Gaddafi, has a new understanding of Middle East issues and really has any new ideas?

The problem is the political parties. The power structure in both parties defines the likely nominees. It seems our choices will be either Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney for the Republicans and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats. We will hold our noses as we go to the polls; knowing we could do better.