Election and World Series

Well folks, 2 pieces of interesting news. Last night, the San Francisco Giants made it to the World Series (2nd time in 3 years, not bad), and are about to face the Detroit Tigers (who hopefully will be more of a challenge than against the Texas Rangers in 2010 - who choked badly, for the record). Now I'm not going to tell you that the Giants are a bad team, because well, they're not! They have the best pitching rotation in the entirety of Major League Baseball. Try having 5 of the league's best starting pitchers, and since I think he's returned, the league's best closer. If I remmber correctly, good pitching always generally outperforms great hitting. So we'll see what happens tomorrow night.

As for the other piece of news, Pres. Obama and Gov. Romney just concluded the last of the general election debates, and we'll see what kind of impact they had. I seriously think that Obama just seriously knocked Romney's scarns back to kingdom come, as there's little to no chance that he'll be able come back and pull some other Houdini to grab the presidency (unless of course there's by some odd reason that the Barack Obama/Joe Biden ticket gets racked by a serious scandal, or the Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan ticket and their Republican hacks find some interesting means of stealing the election | i.e., tampering with the voting machines, etc.) I just know that the Republicans will do anything to win, even to the extent of committing massive voter fraud. Still I give them credit in one sense, they have identified a problem in our electoral system, just only it's them and their corporate cronies who are the involved parties.

Election is fast approaching

My family and friends, I must advise you that we are about to commence with the same ritual we completed 4 years ago, and will in every 4-year interval for the presidency. President Obama, as unshockingly obvious as this sounds, is running for re-election. I know that many of you wish to sit out this election by not casting your vote at all, thinking that you have no voice in the process. In all seriousness, don't! This is exactly what people like the Koch brothers want you to do. They want to silence your voices and make theirs heard, so that they can continue their scam of taking away our rights and our money.

I want everyone to know that we have a stark choice this year between the visions of Pres. Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney in their fight for the presidency. I won't make the specious claim that a presidency under Romney would mean the end of the Earth, or that the sky will crash upon us, as those likelihoods are very minimal (try the odds of 1 in 100,000,000). Anyhow, what may happen is that life will become much harder for the middle class as the Republican mantra for the time being is for the middle class to sacrifice various needed programs and deductions (for taxes) so that they can give the top 5% of income-earners another $1,000,000,000.00 in new tax cuts which they believe will stimulate the economy, and that we should not tax this class as they are the job creators. I don't know about you, but to me, this is complete nonsense. First off, it's a hollow argument in the sense that spending $1.00 on a tax cut (or tax break) for the wealthy only brings in like $.60 of revenue. Compare that to at least $1.60 in revenue for every dollar spent on unemployment insurance to the middle class. Secondly, we've tried this method when George W. Bush was president from 2001-9. Believe me, it failed miserably as incomes declined severely and prices shot up much higher than the rate of inflation. Another factor to look into is taking out various regulations desparately needed to protect consumers from fraud, or to give them a legal recourse to settle a dispute with a large corporation. Think about the recent financial crisis as a clear example of what I'm talking about. This came upon us by maintaining very weak regulatory oversight of various portions of the financial markets, including in the commodities and speculations markets.

Gov. Romney has made it clear that this is the only solution for getting us out of the mess we're in. That Pres. Obama's method of propping up working families has done nothing, but take a pretty penny out of your portfolios and been a large waste of your tax dollars. He thinks that your tax dollars would be spent better subsidizing big business, and paying it to handle your money and benefits, from Social Security to Medicare to Education. Speaking of education, I've been in the private education system, and can tell you from experience, it's even less efficient than the public system. In highschool, I had a math teacher who was trained to be a test proctor, and as such was insufficient in teaching us both trigonometry and advanced mathematics. In fact I remember in senior year, where every American student got D's and F's on their midterm exams, while the International students got A's and B's. If you're going to argue that the school I went to was unionized, you'd be dead wrong. There was no union, the principal was adamant about not firing the teacher in question, retaining full confidence in them (this was after both students and parents complained). Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked, but that should highlight my point that private does not generally equal efficient. In the case of these areas, public is generally better, as it helps to give a more expanded range of options for teaching our children. Do there need to be some structural reforms done? Of course, and how to do it is a debate I would gladly welcome. I'd love to hear either educational or psychological experts duke it out over policy changes, or structural changes/consolidations. However, what we don't need is money going out to parochial (faith-based) schools from the federal government as it clearly violates the 1st Amendment (Congress [or for that matter the states per 14th Amendment] does not have the right or authority to promote religion nor to trample on someone's right to religious freedom). Separation of church and state has long been a traditional American principle, going back to the Founding Fathers.

Pres. Obama, however, has tried, and largely unsuccessfully in some cases, to make the case that we can still make structural changes to the economy and grow it up. We need jobs, which he's been on target about for the past 3-4 years to help the economy recover much faster. However, he's been dealing with the recalcitrant and obstructionist Republican-dominated 112th Congress (Republicans control the House of Representatives and have larger blocking ability in the Senate), which has for the most part refused to budge on any kind of job-producing bill, save for a transportation bill that passed. Pres. Obama has pressed for more action to alliviate the high unemployment rate (currently about 8%), but the Congress has refused to budge, with the Republicans' goal being that they should make him a 1-term president like Pres. Jimmy Carter (1977-81). In some cases, I think Pres. Obama deserves a lot of credit, especially in saving the auto industry and passing healthcare reform. I'll admit that it's a start, and that more people using it will realize that their costs will come down. However, I think that it needs some more tweaking. I mean this in the sense that we need to take out the insurance industry's special exemption from Federal Anti-Trust Laws. It's a mistake to keep it, and that was 1 component to how costs grew faster than the rate of inflation. Let's for argument's sake say that medical care costs $1.00, but your insurer charges you $3.00. I know from working in the industry (I'm an admin assistant in a small insurance sales office), that $.60 of every dollar goes to claims (torts). However, that formula was never the case, especially considering the fact that 1 in every 3 dollars for insurance costs went aside to claims, meaning that the other $2.00 went to non-medical purposes. That's right, $1.00 went to political contributions (to bribe various politicians to look the other way) or to denying care to people, while another would go to the CEO's bonus. Think about it, that made up about 90% of the cost. Anyway, watch this race carefully, is what I can tell everyone.

New Beginning

After graduating from college, it's enough of a stress factor of being thrown into the world where you don't know what comes next. I know the old wisdom that says: “GET A JOB,” but that's easier said than done.

Seriously, let's give recent college grads a break. It's not their fault that the economy is not producing any real decent jobs at a fast enough pace (that's an easy place to put the blame).

Let the millenials chart their own path.

Recall in Wisconsin

Well this I certainly know off-hand, the recall election for the Governor's seat in Wisconsin is soon approaching. It'll be interesting to see if Scott Walker will keep his job as governor or will meet his end. Let's seee what happens.

Israel's New Low in Misbehavior

Where do I even begin with this? How is it that whenever the international community tells Israel to quit building settlements for the sake of peace (this includes Israel's only real ally, America), that it just builds more? Well, that is nothing new, by any stretch of the imagination. The real issue is that it now won't let any UN Human Rights Inspectors come to investigate claims about the settlements underming the Palestinians' right to national self-determination, as well as the right to stay in their homes and live in peace. They see the settlements correctly for what they are. It's a land grab, and soon will lead to the development of a new Apartheid system. I know Israel will continually deny this analogy to the American South's Jim Crow and South African Apartheid, but it is going in the same direction. Saying that they won't let anyone verify their claims, or those of the Palestinians, is only allowing injustice to flourish. If Israel wants to be an equal member of the international community, it must heed the community's will for peace.

Reliving the 1960s

My God, I've been seeing the news about the teen Trayvon Martin's death. It's hella racially motivated and the dang cops near Orlando are not even bothering to investigate, saying either the witnesses misspoke on some of the facts, or that there was no one to refute the gunner's claim that he acted in self-defense. That's complete b******* if you ask me. By all means, are the cops attempting to let the guy get away with murder, since in their minds it's just another n***** kid about to cause trouble. It's not, and there's 3 reasons to say this. #1 and most obvious, Trayvon wasn't armed, he only went out to the local 7/11 to get some candy during the half-time break of an NCAA basketball game. #2, the gunman had been previously arrested for assaulting a police officer and had no business maintaining a gun license. #3, the final reason, Florida's "Stand Your Ground" (or as I'll put it; Shoot First, Ask Later) is hella racist and further more, the gunman acted as a self-appointed cop. I mean the cops can simply replay his 911 recording, and the recordings of the other witnesses. The fact is he failed to comply with an order to stay put and let the cops handle the situation if he felt threatened. Instead, he followed Trayvon and shot him in cold blood. That's what's called a hate crime. The reason that the gunman felt threatened by Trayvon, was as the man put it, "He's black." That's enough evidence to convict him on that.

I'm going to make this very clear, I feel like I'm reliving the 1960s. I don't see why we have to let this kind of nonsense happen. There's no reason that America, or any other nation, should be arming its citizens to the teeth. This is exactly why I think that gun control is so desparately needed. Anyone who wants a gun to either protect themselves, or to hunt, should have that right. After all, we have the 2nd Amendment for that reason. However, I don't think that people need assault, automatic or semi-automatic weaponry, nor do I think that people should be allowed to own guns in an unlicensed fashion. If you want to own a gun, simply take the necessary tests to receive a federally issued (not state-issued) license and have your gun registered in a federal database. I think that makes a lot of sense, and I also think that it will do the country some good. Let's make America safe and secure for the next generation, and not one that allows yahoos to get guns and kill innocent people for their own sadistic pleasure.

More Settlements

What is the Israeli government thinking? Don't the top ministers in Israel, as well as their subordinates, realize that by approving legal status for those outposts previously deemed illegal is a massive step backward? I can see this for what it is, a land grab. When will Netanyahu realize that he is alienating Israel from the rest of the world? These settlements are only successfully doing one thing, making any Mideast Peace Deal unattainable. We do not need another war, but that is what this will boil down to.

A new round of threats between Israel and Iran

I've been hearing too much about what the Israelis and Iranians have been saying back and forth past each other. Israel, after a successful campaign of assassinations, now has deal with attempted assassinations directed by Iran. I know why Iran did this, it's to show Israel that it can carry out a campaign of this nature as well. However, that's old news, as the assassinations failed miserably in both Bangkok and T'blisi.

What's going on now, especially from Iran's end, is that they will hit anyone it considers a threat pre-emptively. What the heck are they thinking? Don't they realize that by doing that they're dealing with a military power who has backing from the worlds most powerful military? I honestly don't see the logic.

As for Israel, attacking now would be a disaster waiting to happen. Both America, Israel's chief ally, and Russia have starkly warned against such a maneuver. For America, the reason is simple, give the sanctions time to work. For Russia, the reason is not to have a war flare up near its borders. Lastly, if such an attack happened, anyone that is anywhere will become a target of a death-bearing cult that has taken over Iran.

This is the worst way to start WW III.

If I became the President

Okay, first of all, I'm really not interested in running, just to be clear. However, in the scenario that I would end up becoming President, I would only say to people what I think is the way to go, but keep engaged with them as much as possible. At the same time, I also think that having meetings with the leadership in Congress is another way to keep in touch with everyone. It's something I would try to do on a regular basis. One thing I know that I cannot do is make too many high stakes promises, especially knowing the reality of politics, but I can tell people that will be as honest as I can and explain to them what choices come before us. In my opinion, it's better to be straightforward with the American people, especially once in power, and it's better to keep everyone in the loop about what's at stake.

Worst Corruption in America

In all my life, I have never seen corruption quite this bad. For many Americans, this holds particularly true, and for those around the world. America does not need to be this way, but with all our new gadgets and other distractions, this situation is exactly as those on top want it to be. Corruption has marred Americans’ belief in both the political and judicial systems, as well as in the media, religion and other institutions. Where does this all come from? Well start thinking back to the decade before the Reagan debacle and the catastrophes of its horrid legacy. If there was one thing, we can be thankful to Pres. Ronald Reagan for; the massive deregulation that he put in place that allowed these powerful corrupt forces to become involved in our daily lives again. Everyone thought that generations of past years solved these issues a long time earlier, but apparently the Baby Boom generation, who helped to put Reagan into office, did not bother to read its horrible history about how deregulation, and some cases non-regulation, can lead to massive economic disasters. All it took in 2008 was a credit/financial crisis to pull the country to its knees and force the American people to tackle the corruption in front of them. So far, it looks like the corrupt will not only win, but will stay in place forever. I credit Pres. Obama and the Occupy and Tea Party movements for getting this conversation started, but I seriously think that they will not succeed in changing our current situation. The status quo will stay intact and Pres. Obama will not be in office come Nov. 2012 and Jan. 2013. The reason: the radicalized forces of the corrupt status quo are willing to rig the electoral and judicial systems to the point so that they can defend their economic dominance. Just watch, they did it under Bush (using the Republicans as their pawns), they will do it again. I just hope that this time, they will not be successful, but I know it is completely wishful thinking.

At what point will the American people say enough? Probably sooner, or probably not at all, depending on how far the right pushes them. Yes, I will admit, I am a hard-hitting, despicable, no-good, loony liberal, but the fact is that I really do not think that it is the government’s place to be taking resources away from people who need those the most to give to those who really are without any to begin with. Not to mention, there is no reason to be eradicating people’s rights in order to achieve some political agenda, nor is there any reason for discrimination, or in some cases segregation, to return. Lastly, whose stupid idea was it to make unregulated capitalism our law? I really do not understand the logic of the Republican Party or the Conservative movement in general to undo what Pres. Roosevelt put in place in the 1930s. They kept us from getting into a bunch of crises like our current one for nearly fifty years (1933-81). I really think that to allow corporations to monitor and enforce compliance upon them and privatizing the entire system, from election and government posts and benefits to justice is among the dumbest ideas ever. It sends the message that only those who can pay or who are of a specific race or background have the ability to get justice, while others have to suffer, as they must for being the worst infections to society. To me, this is exactly like living in Nazi Germany again, only this is 21^st Century America. We can be better, but we need to change our thinking.

**An update to al readers**

While many of these concerns of mine have so far not unfolded as of yet or at all. Pres. Obama is clearly still in office as of January 2009, having won another term in November 2012 (I know, old news). However, some things have come close to what I was scared of happening. For one thing, the Republicans are trying new gimmicks to rig the electoral college again, in addition to having a green light from the Supreme Court to engage in voter suppression across the states. In addition, they're trying to set the scene for taking away basic rights that we as Americans have, and are looking to expand their ability to wage further indefinite perpetual warfare, which we'll be paying for not only in dollars, but in blood. For what? Crusades to de-Islamify the Middle East (to Republicans in Congress all Muslims are Infidels, though not all voting Republicans think this way).

Even though segregation has not become law of the land as of yet, it's always a concern that it will be. I'm exceedingly opposed to any efforts, to quote the late Strom Thurmond, to prevent, "The amalgomation of the races", as it will only create a permanent underclass of second-class citizens. History proves time and again, that subjecting people who are different to permanent second-class citizenship is an invitation to open rebellion and/or possible revolution. Think of the Civil Rights Movement. Even though it was non-violent under the direction of Martin Luther King, it was an open revolution against the Jim Crow system. That didn't mean the activists and protesters didn't lose their lives, as they did. The resistance to the Civil Rights Movement was often violent and was joined frequently by local and sometimes State law enforcement.