I only post around election time... apparently

Apparently, I'm passionate.  Maybe not always about the right things but we're all works in progress, right? 

Each evening my wife and I watch the Nightly News.  It's easily my favorite time of day.  Work is over, my wife is home, the dog is happy (because the wife is home) and we have the rest of the evening to ourselves.  No other time in the work week is a more promising time than when I go into our DVR and select the news to watch commercial-free but debate-filled.

For many months now, this current election cycle has dominated the news (along with terrorism in general which has dominated the news for going on 15 years now).  I was surprised when I logged into my blog and found that I only post around election time.  Apparently I'm so passionate about politics that this is the only time of the year I actually seek out a venue to type out my thoughts regardless of having only 2 followers - thanks Claire & Jenny!  My last post was written and shared on election day 2012 before we knew that Barack Obama would win a second term.  It was titled why this election doesn't matter.  I mostly just aired my grievances with both parties and never really came full circle but what I meant to tell you is that the election didn't matter because the two issues that were plaguing our country at the time and continue to - lobbying and term limits - weren't up for debate or on the ballot.  These are two issues I'm extremely passionate about and believe must be addressed before our country can meaningfully work together to address domestic issues - both economic and social.  

Our current system is making us more polarized than we've ever been and spreading lies and misinformation at an alarming rate.  When a presidential candidate has an audience at a FOX debate with over 13 million people and can say that welders make more money than philosophers (which isn't true by the way) and get roaring applause (from people who watch only FOX) and then FOX doesn't ever provide the truth to those same FOX viewers afterwards - you're left with a large group of people who are fired up about lies and are now quoting them the next day at work as if they're the gospel (which I think also has a fair number of untrue items in it, but we'll save that for another time).  This is an extremely small example about something trivial but indicative of the much larger issue.  I said this in my last post and I'll say it again - IF YOU'RE GOING TO WATCH A PARTISAN "NEWS" PROGRAM SUCH AS MSNBC OR FOX NEWS, THEN IT'S YOUR DUTY TO WATCH THEM EQUALLY OR AT LEAST UNDERSTAND YOU'RE NOT GETTING THE FULL PICTURE BY ONLY WATCHING ONE OF THEM.  Neither of them will give you a total view of reality and each them have an agenda and that agenda is NOT to be unbiased in giving you facts or educate you - it's to convince you of a viewpoint.  This world is a complicated place and anyone who paints with a broad brush or speaks in sweeping generalities should be carefully questioned (ya hear me Trump?).  Just this morning on FOX News I heard the argument that we shouldn't have universal background checks for guns (which over 85% of Americans think we should) because it wouldn't have prevented the shootings in San Bernardino.  The line of thinking that if a piece of legislation won't fix every problem we face, then we should scrap it all together and do nothing, is extremely dangerous among other things.

Speaking of sweeping generalities - Donald J. Trump will not become president, let alone the Republican nominee.  This isn't some amazing prediction, this is history.  At this time in 2004, Howard Dean was the Democratic front-runner up by 8 points.  In 2008, Hillary Clinton was leading by 16.3 points with Rudolph Giuliana up 5.2 points.  On this day in the last cycle, Newt Gingrich was leading the pack up 12.5 points.  Follow @pastfrontrunner on twitter to set you straight.  Just because you're leading now in the polls, doesn't mean people will actually show up and vote for you when it counts.  People are finicky creatures that occasionally absorb new information, change their minds, say one thing and do another.  If Trump (the person) were a stock, I'd sell it short right now with every penny in the bank and then buy a penthouse in one of his properties this time next year.  I don't know if it'll happen this week, next month, before or after the Iowa caucus - but it will happen.  

Next time I'll give a few thoughts on who I think might actually become the Republican nominee (hint: it's not Ted Cruz).

why this election doesn't matter

in the past 4 years, i would say i've become much more aware than i was in 2008 and although i haven't necessary changed my view on many things, i do feel i'm more educated in the decisions i make and each year lean more and more to the center.  for example, i don't believe corporations should be taxed but i also don't think corporations are people.  i think it's silly that marriage equality is even an issue that democrats try to defend and republicans try to criticize since our government shouldn't be telling us who can and can't get married in the first place.  i also think it's ridiculous that it gets dark at 4:30pm now but what do i know?

but let me tell you why my vote and ultimately this election doesn't really matter and if anyone wants REAL change, these two things MUST happen.  if you don't want to read the rest of this and you just want to know what two things i'm talking about then here they are - term limits and lobbying.

lobbying - i feel like most people who read this will agree (unless you're a lobbyist) that it's just bad for politics and ultimately for the people.  yes, i understand there are good lobbyists and bad lobbyists, but if we just remove them altogether and let the system work as it was designed (our founding fathers never intended for lobbying to play a part in our system), we'll get better results.  just read jack abramoff's book.  this guy went to jail for being the first "super lobbyist" and can argue this point better than me.  

term limits.  i believe the president should only have one term.  i believe the the house should only have one term and it should only be for 1 year.  i believe the senate should only have one term and it should be for 2 years.  i think a supreme court until they die or step down was fine in the 1700's when people took office when they were 40 and died when they were 45 but now it's just silly.  i believe that incumbents have retarded advantages and any time an elected official spends more time campaigning than governing, we all lose.  did you know that incumbents get this privilege known as "franking" where they are allowed to send as much free mail as they wish and often abuse this power by soliciting votes via taxpayer dollars?  the percentage of turnover in the house in the 1840's was 76% and in 1988 was just 7.6% and it's likely even lower now.  in 1791, 0 member of the house and senate served a consecutive term.  50 years later it was 6 for the house and 2 for the senate.  50 years later, 19 for the house, 20 for the senate.  50 years later, 86 for the house, 21 for the senate   and in 1991 198 for the house and 49 for the senate.  in just 200 years we went from absolutely 0 incumbency to 50%.  from george will's book titled "restoration" which my grandfather gifted me last christmas, george notes "the problem is a deadening permanence of implacable and entrenched interests that prospering off their mutually aggrandizing relationships with career legislators.  what these relationships give rise to is not instability but governmental gridlock.  that is the result of the strong interests defending and expanding their prerogatives."  i couldn't have said it better george.  and to think, he wrote that 20 years ago when government gridlock wasn't half as bad as it is now.  the articles of confederation provided a precedent but unfortunately it's not in the constitution because the founder's didn't want to bite off more than they could chew in the first few years of our young democracy.  but they fully intended for the future legislators to enact term limits as yet another way to protect the people.  the courts and presidency were designed to exist more in the periphery of political life however mass media and social media have put all 3 neck and neck.  everyone is so focused on who our next president will be, but why?  our president (by design) only has so much power and in order to get real work done, he needs to work with congress (both the house and senate - not just one or the other) as well as the judicial branch.  what we've seen in the past decade and i believe we'll continue to see is a lack of people working across the isle.  this is not one person or one political party's fault - this is the fault of every elected official.  apparently compromise is a bad word now and means you're weak and complete gridlock almost to the point of default is much better.  

i tend to vote more liberal but honestly consider myself more moderate.  i agree with the GOP on many economical issues and believe our government takes welfare to an extreme instead of getting smart about who needs it and who doesn't.  my high school math teacher always said "work smart, not hard" and i feel like many times the democratic party would rather give out too much money in order to appease the lower class (who tend to vote liberal) rather than figure out who really needs it.  my father works for a government agency and is slapped on the wrist when he doesn't "meet quota" which roughly translates to he hasn't found enough people who need government assistance to put them on his agency's housing program which also translates to our fucking tax dollars.  I can think of at least 100 better ways to spend my tax dollars.  it's also ridiculous that the more kids you have, the more government assistance you get.  the government didn't make the choice for you to have 5 or 6 kids you can't afford, that's not the government's problem and that's not my problem.  instead of rewarding people for birthing a farm, we should be treating them the same as someone with only 1 or 2 children.  somehow over the years social security has turned into "my retirement" instead of "a supplement to my retirement".  in these few ways i feel like the democrats have done a bang up job at creating a dependent welfare state.

before you start to ask yourself "and this guy votes liberal after all that" - let's consider the other side.  i'm going to say a few names - todd akin, richard mourdock, michelle bachman... i understand that there are always a few bad apples (the aforementioned names are definitely bad apples even by most of the right's admission) but to think that these people are supposed to represent other people... beyond me.  if you don't know why i'm picking these people out then you likely don't watch the news or even care about politics in which case i doubt you're even reading this.  my point with this is simple - the GOP has become too extreme, too polarized and most of the elected ones.... too stupid.  to think that there is such thing as "legitimate rape" or that a woman "has ways to shut that sort of thing down" or that "god intended for children to be born out of rape" is indisputably wrong or a bat-shit crazy religious belief.  either way, no place in governing.  over the years they have taken this "you're on your own stance" which has left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths since their policies have typically favored the well-to-do and said "fuck you" to everyone else.  there is absolutely no evidence that if we cut the very wealthy's taxes they would go off and create all these jobs.  sure - if i were worth $100MM and you cut my taxes I might go buy another car or boat but the tax break I would get would be so disproportional to what I would in turn spend.  basically what i'm saying is that grover norquist is the spawn of the devil.

this is the first election where i personally have something financial at stake.  many people have tried to guess how exactly mittens is going to get to $5T in his plan since he hasn't said and one very real suggestion is that he'll have to close the mortgage interest deduction.  since my wife and i are first time home buyers as of 2 months ago, a majority of our loan is interest and will be for the next 15-20 years, if we make payments in line with the schedule.  what this translates to is that each year for the next 15 years or so we'll be paying roughly $12K in interest that since 1913 home owners have been able to right off on their taxes.  i'd personally like to keep some of that and not give it to the government, but that's just me.

to sum it up, i think the left needs to look at the GOP's playbook when it comes to some economic polcies (and no i don't blame obama for the crazy debt - see predecessor) and the GOP needs to look at the left's playbook on pretty much all things social and LOGICAL.  the right is great at attacking the liberal's saying they're socialists because obama wants to impose a single-payer system on all american's... "wait, what's that?  that's not what obamacare is.  you mean it's not socialist?  you mean it's pretty much an exact copy of what mitt romney did in his state as governor?"  i understand that obamacare is going to change our healthcare system and it's not going to be better for everyone - but legislature rarely is.  instead, what you must ask yourself is "is it going to be better for more people than it's going to get worse for" and if the answer is yes, then i believe that's a service to humanity.  i'm personally on the shitty end of obamacare - i already have great health insurance and all that obamacare does for me is make we wait a little longer at the doctor because more people now have health insurance.  and if me waiting a little longer means women aren't pre-existing conditions and millions of american's who didn't have health insurance, now have it - then i'm ok with that.  i know there's an argument out there about how it hurts small business, blah blah blah... if you're a business and you employ more than 50 people and you now have to help pay for your employees health insurance, you aren't small anymore and you can afford it for the betterment of our nation and humanity.  stop picturing mom and pop shops who employ 4 people having to shut down because of obamacare - it's just not happening regardless of what the romney ads say about "jeep shipping jobs to china".  

become educated and tuned in to wide variety of sources.  if you get all your news from msnbc or fox news - let me say this clearly - you're an idiot.  become informed - watch different news outlets, read different articles and perspectives FROM BOTH SIDES.  each side has valid arguments and each side also lies.  so read through the bullshit and make decisions that are well informed and your own.  there are no right or wrong decisions, just your opinion and what you believe our country should be.  

is it friday yet?

darn.

trump for pres?

i recently watched an interview that donald trump did on the christian broadcasting network (cbn).  he was touting one of the main reasons he'd be a great president is because he works "too" hard.  he mentioned that he's worked so hard in his life that it actually led to not one, but two failed marriages.  the donald claims to be christian and i'll take him on that - but one thing i would argue is that on this topic specifically, he's very out of touch with actual christian ideals.  and even if he understands these ideals, he's done a poor job at following them.

the bible states once you're married that your husband or wife becomes your #1 priority (along with god).  not your children, not your parents or friends and certainly not your job, but your significant other.

now i have a whole slew of issues with mr. trump, but this "contradiction" of sorts really irks me.  i want a president who has his priorities in line, not only with the people, but with god.  once you're president you can't just divorce the people because you have other things to do or they're taking up too much of your time.  and you especially can't do it twice.

i just watched how a monkey peels a banana with my cube-mates and it was...

...one of those moments where you know you're happy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJV56WUDng

here's to...

...spending the evening with stephen colbert... on my couch
...not cleaning up after my roommate
...wearing the same pair of jeans 3 days in a row
...regaining some of my callouses
...sleeping with the windows open tonight

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