Tag Archives: Voter ID

I WANT THE MUELLER INVESTIGATION TO CONTINUE!

Do you ever have those moments when you just don’t want a good thing to end? A birthday party? A graduation? A marriage? Well, I feel the same way about the Mueller investigation. After all, if it ended today, what would we do with all those unemployed liberal lawyers on the Mueller investigation team? They would just go out and, like teenagers without anything to do, just get into trouble elsewhere. And, let’s face it. They are effective. What other band of merry men could send 26 agents with 17 vehicles and with guns drawn, to arrest Roger Stone in a pre-dawn raid? Luckily, a CNN camera crew happened to be cruising Stone’s neighborhood at just that same time and captured the elderly, apparently dangerous Roger Stone arrested on camera. What a stroke of luck! Now that is what I call efficiency!

Now I must make an assumption. I will assume that in the near future, the Mueller investigation team will be wrapping up its investigation into how the Russians influenced our 2016 presidential election. Surely, as efficient as they are, they must have found some stuffed ballot boxes with borscht stained ballots. Of course, these ballots would all be for Trump. Thereby, we must investigate anything and anyone that has ever been in contact with Donald Trump. Trump attorneys, Trump accountants, Trump bathroom attendants, and now it appears Donald Trump, Junior, will now all be subpoenaed by the Mueller investigation team. Now that is what I call progress! And…it has only cost the American taxpayer about $40 million for this team to accomplish all it has done in the last 19 months.

But alas. All of this will soon come to an end, and then what will we be able to watch on the 24/7 news channels? Maybe another supreme court justice nominee roast? Possibly another Corey Booker ‘Spartacus moment?’ Do we have a new Attorney General? Boo hoo. What will we do?

Never fear dear readers, for I, Grandpa T, have a proposal for two new items that the Mueller investigation team can investigate. I am confident that they will investigate these items with the efficiency and alacrity for which they have shown the Russian collusion investigation. And…to make it more interesting, these two items also relate to the 2016 presidential election. Robert and the boys will need a new copier to print up all the subpoenas they will need for my two proposals. (I am on a personal mission to assure that the 24/7 news channels do not run out of material. Or, like Mueller’s liberal attorneys, those reporters will be out raising hell elsewhere!)

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I attended a midwestern university and was a member of ROTC. There were about 320 cadets in the four ROTC classes. The school graduated about 80 future Army officers each year. I graduated in 1971. That year was the year that the Vietnam Conflict began winding down. But in my old age, my thoughts always return to the Army ROTC graduating class of 1968 at our university. I knew many of these guys well. They were young. They were patriotic. They all volunteered to do what they thought was right for America. They persevered to graduate from college and become Army officers. And, because of the luck of drawing a short straw, they were all commissioned at the time of the most intense fighting in Vietnam. About one-fourth of that graduating class was killed in Vietnam. Some of the best people I have ever known were struck down before experiencing marriage, children, grandchildren….all of those things that make life worth living. Gone. These guys were brave. These guys were patriotic. These guys sacrificed their lives for what they believed was right for America.

So here is my challenge to Robert Mueller and his investigators. In light of what I have just related, I need to add that at the most, these fine soldiers got to determine their fates by being able to vote only once; in the 1968 presidential election, before being killed in the defense of America. And, in light of the fact that the Robert Mueller investigation is purportedly about Russian collusion, I want the Robert Mueller investigation team to investigate the number of non-American citizens that voted in the 2016 presidential election. I want to know how many. I want to know how they were allowed to vote. I want to see subpoenas and punishment for those officials that allowed non-citizens to influence and participate in our election. Because, in my eyes, anyone that allows a non-American to vote in our elections has ‘stolen the valor’ from those who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend this country. This valor has been stolen not only for my Vietnam compatriots, but also from those that have served in all of our wars and conflicts. In effect, American citizenship has been cheapened and sold wholesale. I am positive that there will be millions of votes found that are fraudulent and in numbers that the Russians could ever imagine to influence. Go get’um Robert!

Here is my second proposal for the Robert Mueller investigation team. In my last blog, I presented statistics indicating that there are ten states with legalized recreational marijuana in the United States. Of those ten states, seven of them consider themselves ‘sanctuary states, sanctuary counties or sanctuary cities.’ The sanctuary counties and cities are the largest in each state, if the state, as a whole is not considered a sanctuary. Coincidentally, these sanctuary areas are controlled by liberal politicians. So let me be clearer: we have seven sanctuary areas, controlled by liberal politicians, that have legalized marijuana. Coupled with the fact that these liberal politicians are diligently fighting against a southern border wall with Mexico, I want to know the following: How much illegal drug money and marijuana money is being poured into our elections and who is getting it?

Let me give the Mueller investigation team some guidelines. What we need to know is how are the drug cartels benefiting from our current situation. Do they benefit with no wall? Yes. Are they able to move money, drugs, and their compatriots across our border easier without the wall? Yes. Do they use civilians illegally crossing the border as their ‘drug mules?’ Yes. Are some of the people illegally crossing the border going to become customers for the drug cartel? Probably.

But I save the biggie for last. Are drug money profits being used to influence our politicians? Before answering this, I need to point out that recently, one of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s lieutenants said that the former president of Mexico, received a $100 million bribe to allow El Chapo to run his drug business unmolested in Mexico. Supposedly, this was the amount settled on after the former president requested $250 million! That revelation came and went from the media faster than a speeding bullet. Why? Because if true, it would indicate that politicians could be influenced by drug money. Who knew? But if you think that bribe is fictitious, then we need to discuss the non-fictitious Clinton Foundation.

The Clinton Foundation was never sanctioned as a charitable organization, as less than 3% of their ‘contributions’ were used for charitable purposes. With the Foundation being located in Canada to protect its ‘contributor’ identities, the entire foundation was a money machine for Clinton wealth attainment and for financing Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign. One contribution of $147 million was made after the completion of the Uranium One deal while Hillary was Secretary of State. How convenient. More amazingly, that contribution came from Russia!

So with the Clinton Foundation and the purported pay-off to the former president of Mexico, now do you think it possible for illegal drug money to be influencing our elections? I certainly do. I believe our politicians may be accepting illegal drug money contributions either knowingly or unknowingly. After all, the drug cartels are not stupid. They would be making contributions through nobly named organizations, such as, ‘Progressive Hispanic Voters of America,’ or some such names.

Does this whole thing make more ‘common sense’ when you wrap up illegal drug monies, with sanctuary areas, with liberal politicians fighting border security with marijuana legalization? Then to complicate this, throw in the votes cast by non-citizens in the last presidential election from these same ‘sanctuary’ areas. Does any of this make for a better America?

So here you go, Mr. Mueller. Rather than you and your investigating team blowing smoke out your asses about Russian collusion in our last election, you need to get busy investigating real voter fraud and nefarious campaign contributions prevalent in our last election. I guarantee you will get better results and much more interesting findings than your current investigation. (If you find that boring, you could always investigate the Clinton Foundation!)

Go! Robert! Go!

To Investigate or to Legislate. What Will Congress Do?

Grandma P and I just got home ten days ago from a 60 day cruise that went around the Pacific Rim.  It was a marvelous, bucket-list cruise that included Alaska, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea (North Korea was not conducting excursions that day, or any day!), Viet Nam, the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii.  Whew!  There were to be 22 ports of call, but two were cancelled as we were dodging a typhoon on our way from Alaska to Japan.  There are nothing like 40 foot waves to get your attention on a ship!

Meanwhile, back in the good ole’ US of A, all kinds a ‘goings on’ were occurring.  There were deadly fires taking place in California.  Hurricane Michael, a very late in season hurricane, came ashore just east of Panama City, Florida.  Were we concerned?  Being the eye of that category 5 hurricane came ashore just 59 miles from our house, you could surmise that we were very concerned.  We would have been more concerned if we were not dodging a typhoon at the same time creating the 40′ waves.

The ship did not really have to be concerned about entertaining us for 60 days.  Why?  Because we had the Brett Kavanaugh hearings on three different news channels.  We could watch it on MSNBC, Fox, or the BBC.  As you are aware, the coverage was relentless; almost as relentless as the accusations against Kavanaugh were ridiculous and repulsive.  I am sure that in her mind, Christine Blasey Ford believed something did happen to her.  Without the corroboration of any of her ‘best friends’, the accusations were weak at best.  The whole affair turned beyond ridiculous when the accusation was made that he was the ‘leader of a gang of rapists!’   After 6 FBI background investigations without a blemish?  I don’t think so.   Trust me when I say that I do not enjoy writing about those senatorial proceedings any more than I, and many others, enjoyed watching them.  But the one takeaway from those proceedings that sends a shiver down my spine is the thought that those proceedings, with senators mugging for TV time, with senators posturing to be a presidential nominee, with senators acting as if they are the clowns in a whole new circus firing off ridiculous accusations, that all of this becomes …….the new ‘political reality TV.’  

Oh.  There was one more event that took place during our cruise.  We had the midterm elections.  Was there any drama surrounding that event?  We were not sure who the governor or US senator from Florida would be until almost two weeks after election night.  We got off the ship on November 18, and I believe Ron Desantis and Rick Scott were declared the winners the day before.  (If those damn Russians would quit meddling in our elections, we would have had the results sooner!)  Anyway, after a run-off in Mississippi for senator, and a bucket load of close elections around the country, the end result is that the Republicans picked up two seats in the Senate, and lost about 30 seats in the House of Representatives, giving the Democrats the majority.

So now, dear readers, I have finally gotten to the meat of this blog.  Will our new Congress legislate, or investigate?

I have some suggestions for our Congress if they feel like performing their jobs and decide to  legislate.  Firstly, that caravan of immigrants, that caravan that the media tried to convince us was imaginary, has now appeared at our borders.  Recently, things turned ugly when bottles and rocks were thrown at our border security people.  Not only that, it is confirmed that there are more caravans on the way.  We have all heard different stories as to the composition of these caravans.  The most reliable information for me comes from the Mexican government.  I am skeptical of our media coverage, so the Mexican government has no reason to sugarcoat the caravan composition.  They are reporting that 75% are working age males.  The remaining 25% is divided between women and children.  Less than 5% of these people have a tinge of a case for political asylum.   The Mexican government has offered jobs.  But yet, they decline and keep coming.  The Mexican government has offered ‘political asylum.’  But yet, they decline and keep coming.  The Mexican government in conjunction with our border security people cite that a full 10% of these people have criminal records.  Do you want these people as your neighbors?  If these people are really trying to escape bad countries in the hope of entering our country, why are they carrying the flags of the country they left and not the flag of our country.  To me, this indicates they do not really want to assimilate and contribute to our society as Americans, but abuse our benevolence as immigrants.

So Congress, if you want to listen to the electorate and legislate:  build the wall, establish border security and pass legislation for allowing people to apply for and establish rules for becoming US citizens.  This should apply to new immigrants, and to the ‘dreamers.’

If that sounds like a boring prospect, how about addressing the problem of Russian aggression in the Ukraine and the military build-ups by both Russia and China.  Still boring?  Well, then throw in North Korea and Iran to boot.  That should keep Congress busy for a while.  Our past politicians have failed to address these issues for years and now this has festered into a bigger, global problem.

Here is a thought.  How about establishing voting requirements for elections.  You know.  Simple stuff like being a US citizen to vote in our election.  How about a photo ID to vote?  I know this would inconvenience the average US citizen about 10 minutes to prove they are actually a US citizen, but I believe that the inconvenience is well worth it.  It gores my bull when I think that my vote could be cancelled by someone not remotely eligible to vote in this country.  And with that in mind, Robert Mueller is still, after two years, trying to determine how the Russians influenced the 2016 election.  Let me help you with that Robert.  They didn’t.  After $40 million, you still cannot pinpoint Russian influence on that election.  Yet, I am sure that many non-citizens voted in our election.  The Russians could only dream of affecting our elections as much as states allowing illegals to vote.

Have you heard one item that the Democrats plan for legislation after they control the House of Representatives?  One item?  Anyone?  Naw….me neither.  What I have heard is that they plan to ‘investigate.’  What do they plan to investigate?  Well, they are foaming at the mouth about being able to investigate Donald Trump’s tax returns for the period when his father passed the corporation from himself to Donald.  Considering Fred Trump died in 1999 at the age of 93, and retired from business in the 70’s, that would be one helluva IRS investigation.  How many corporations or individuals keep records for almost 50 years!  But wait!  This investigation would make great ‘political reality TV,’ and maybe, just maybe we could create enough skepticism to get Trump impeached!

Believe it or not, I am OK with the IRS doing an audit on Donald Trump.  Because America is the land of opportunity and fairness, I would want an IRS audit done on each and every member of Congress!  I would want to know how a person gets elected to Congress as a pauper and walks away as a ‘gabillionaire.’  Wouldn’t you want to know?  How is it that Barack Obama is elected POTUS with a net worth less than mine and now has a net worth of $135 million. (Yes. That net worth is more than mine.  But I wrote this blog and what did he do?)  Don’t you want to know?

And, to make this really fair and equitable, as long as the Trump Organization is being audited, I would want the Clinton Foundation audited.  I would want the Uranium One deal investigated.  (I would actually like to see ‘all things Clinton’ investigated!)

I have this nagging feeling that far too many people in this country like and enjoy ‘political realty TV.’  I think that because of some of the candidates that won in the last midterm election.  For example, New York elected a socialist.  Furthermore, a senator from Arizona says it is OK to fight for the enemies of the US such as ISIS.  Are these people really qualified candidates?  Were they the best candidates available?  Or, were they elected to create more dissension and confusion within Congress, thereby creating more opportunities for more ‘political reality TV?’

After watching the Kavanaugh hearings (And the new Murphy Brown show!  But, more on that later.), I hope that ‘political reality TV’ is not the new norm.  If it is, heaven needs to help us through the next two years.

A lesson learned from all of this?  Grandma P and I cannot leave the country for extended periods of time.  It goes to hell in our absence and political programming like Murphy Brown appears on TV, attempting to pass itself off as a comedy.  You failed, and you have been canceled.  Thankfully, good judgement prevailed in that decision.

I am beginning to think that I, too, may be a ‘dreamer.’  I dream that maybe one day, our Congress will legislate, and eventually do what is right for America.  Legislate, not investigate.  GET TO WORK!

‘Obstruction and Negativity’—-The Liberal Party Plank!

How long can you tolerate watching national and world news?  In the good old days of my youth with vigor and vitality, I could tolerate up to 30 minutes.  Now that I am older and wiser, I can tolerate watching national and world news for 20 minutes.  If I am having a really, really good day, I’ll watch it for 10 minutes!

Why the decrease in time, you ask?  It is quite easy to understand.  The vast majority of the news being reported (or made up!) has a negative connotation for either our country or for the POTUS.  Between the liberal media and the Democratic party, they will go to ungodly and disrespectful lengths to assure that anything this POTUS has accomplished be minimized.  The negatives get accentuated and the positives fade into obscurity.

The greatest example of obstruction took place about 4 months ago.  Do you remember when the Democratic party was vehement about the fact that something had to be done to address the problem of the ‘dreamers.’  The ‘dreamers’ are those people that were brought into this country by their parents who were illegal immigrants.  The Liberal ‘warm and fuzzy’ feeling regarding this issue was that as children, these ‘dreamers’ did not have any choice.  Consequently, they should be granted US citizenship.  The extension to this was that their parents should also be given US citizenship, because, gosh darn it, look at how long they have been here.  The liberals stated that there were 900,000 dreamers in the US, and gosh darn it, every one of them was a smart and productive American citizen candidate.  (My first thought about hearing this liberal approach was that if these ‘dreamers’ were so smart, why didn’t they go through the naturalization procedure long before.  I digress.)  Do you remember Trump’s response?  Trump said that a 10 year procedure would be put in place for 1.8 million dreamers.  This would allow twice the number of dreamers to become naturalized American citizens as being vetted by the Liberals.  The one big caveat that required 10 years to become a citizen?  A clean criminal record history.  In other words, if you have a criminal record, you could not become an American citizen, and could be deported.  The Liberal response?  Have you heard one word about the ‘dreamer’ issue in the last 4 months? The ‘dreamer’ issue was an issue thrown up against the Washington crap wall to see if it would stick in making Trump look like he was a racist and opposed to any path for the ‘dreamers’ to become US citizens.  It backfired on the Liberals and the liberal media instantaneously obliged by eliminating any more coverage of the ‘dreamer’ issue.  In the meantime, a very good and fair proposal got tossed onto the Washington crap pile.

What is the continued purpose of the Mueller investigation?  When I was young and living on the farm, one of our dogs strayed.  After a couple of weeks, we were pretty gosh darn sure that Chuck, my samoyed was not coming home.  After almost a year and a half of investigating, Mueller and his team of seventeen lawyers, a  prosecutorial dream team have not come up with anything.  Remember, this investigation was put together for two purposes, even though they are more inclined to focus on one of the purposes.  The first purpose was to investigate the possibility of Russian influence in our last election.  The second purpose was to investigate possible collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign.  So Robert, let me help you and your very expensive staff of attorneys.  Russian influence in our last election?  Yup. No doubt about it.  Collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians?  Probably not.  But…what if that answer was just ‘probably.’  Then what?  I would think you and your staff of legal geniuses would know that even if the collusion existed, it is not illegal!  So, Robert, what is the real purpose of your investigation?  Is this another attempt at throwing more defecation at the Washington crap wall?  Another arrow in the quiver of impeaching Trump because Hillary lost the election?

Remember, Robert, your whole investigation was triggered by a fictitious piece of propaganda by Fusion GPS that was funded by the Democratic National Committee; and yet you treat it with more relevance than Moses receiving the ten commandments on Mount Sinai.  At least Moses received the commandments on stone tablets.  Your Fusion GPS propaganda was written on used toilet paper. Yet you have kept this expensive charade up for well over a year.  My suggestion?  End this politically motivated (yup, I do believe there is a definite liberal agenda) witch hunt now, and send your bill to the Democratic National Committee instead of the taxpayers of America.  And Robert, if you really need something to investigate concerning the Russians?  Please start with the Uranium One deal between the Obama administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Russians where we sold them our uranium reserves.  Remarkably, the Clinton Foundation received a $147 million donation after the sale.  That whole incident smacks of treason.  Where did that uranium go?  To Iran?  To North Korea? To Syria?  What if that uranium is used against us or our allies in the future.  Could you possibly find it in your black heart to investigate that?  Or, rather than worrying about the Russians stuffing the ballot boxes, why not investigate voting requirements in each state.  I am sure that there were many more votes cast by non-US citizens than the Russians could dream of.

I know exactly why Donald Trump has become a moving target to the Liberals and their media.  Firstly, the Liberals are deathly afraid that Trump may actually accomplish something that may benefit America and make them look bad.  Thus their ‘obstructionism’ policy.  Don’t vote for any of his programs.  Don’t vote for his cabinet/department/supreme court nominees.  Besmirch the reputation of any nominee and get the media to sensationalize it.  Attack the mental state of the POTUS. Does any of this sound familiar?  Secondly, it has shaken the Washington cesspool to the core that a none-politician could be elected, and succeed as POTUS.  Every other President during my lifetime has had a political background.  What these liberal geniuses have not figured out is that Trump got elected because he did not have the political background.   Hillary Clinton was swimming in the Washington cesspool up to her neck.  Trump was not.  Thirdly, Trump fights back!  When some liberal politician of liberal media outlet makes an outlandish claim (and there are many of them!) about Trump, he responds.  Like most people, I wish he would tweet less, but I understand why he does.  Trump is being Trump.  Fourthly, Donald Trump did not have to rely on selling his soul to any lobbyist for political funding to get elected.  He spent half the money on his campaign as Hillary Clinton.  And, lets face it, anyone that can’t be bought or controlled scares the hell out of all those career politicians in Washington.

So, to demonstrate the negativism that exists in the media, let me recap some of the Donald Trump accomplishments in his 16 months as POTUS: 1.  Reduced corporate and individual income taxes.  2.  Stimulated the economy and stock market.  3.  Lowered the unemployment rate to the lowest point in decades.  4. Smacked the crap out of ISIS, something the previous POTUS said was impossible.  5.  Faced down a North Korean deviate which may lead to the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. 6.  Forced a better trade deal with China.  According to Newsweek Magazine on the one year anniversary of the Trump presidency, he has achieved 82 significant accomplishments.  Holy Cow!  How many of those accomplishments have you seen denoted in the media?  I read the list in that Newsweek and if you would read it, you would be amazed at what he has done!  (OK.  Name three Obama accomplishments.  When you get them, text me.)

During Ronald Reagan’s administration, he was referred to as “The Teflon President.”  That is because regardless of what Reagan did, nothing seemed to stick to him.  Politicians and the media treated Reagan respectfully.  During George ‘Dubya’ Bush’s years, he was referred to as “The Velcro President”.  This was because everything he did, but mostly the perceived bad decisions, stuck to him like Velcro.  He was the POTUS during the second Iraqi War and received much flack about it.  Now we get to Trump.  What should we call him?  Many may want to call him the ‘hamburger’ President, because everyone wants to take a bite out of him.  I would rather call him the ‘Oreo’ President, because when it comes to being between the Liberals and the liberal press, Trump is definitely the white filling of an Oreo cookie.

PS.  This is blog 101.  I was going to stop at 100.  Two of my faithful readers have convinced me not to quit blogging.  Grandma P also wants me out of her hair.  I’m back.  Enjoy.

How Far Will You Go to Protect a Legacy? (Even a Bad One?)

In eleven days, Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, thus ending the eight year tenure of Barack Hussein Obama.  It has become apparent that all thoughts and efforts, as of the November election, have turned to preserving the legacy of the outgoing 44th President.  Secondarily, it has become apparent that the Democratic party is also trying to preserve some kind of legacy.

What exactly is Barack Obama’s legacy going to be?

Obama Care?  (The Affordable Care Act that was not so affordable?)

Quadrupling the national debt to a staggering $20 trillion, plus or minus a few hundred billion?

Overseeing the military response to Benghazi?

The picture of American sailors on their knees after being captured by the Iranian navy?

The picture of him kissing the ring of the King of Saudi Arabia?

“If I had a son, he would be just like Trayvon Martin.”

Placing the most people in US history on welfare and food stamps?

Overseeing 19 million people leaving the US work force?

Help me out here!  I am trying to come up with something positive for POTUS 44 to hang his hat on, and I am coming up short.  He will be the first black President, but that is obvious and now I may be branded a racist for pointing out the obvious.  He may very well be the first Muslim President.  This has never been confirmed by the liberal-biased main stream media.  Of course, any media outlet that would have the cajoles to speculate about his religious preference would immediately be branded as ‘Islamophobic.’   Ah, but there is something that can be attributed to POTUS 44.  Political correctness!  We have now been inundated with people being black, gay, lesbian, illegal alien, transgender and a host of other things as not only being equal to the citizenry of the United States, but being special!  If you do not buy into that program, you are automatically branded as a racist, xenophobe, Islamophobic or any other of a myriad of phobias with negative connotations.  So, I, Grandpa T, hereby declare POTUS 44 as the President of Political Correctness.  Ta  da!  I knew I could come up with something positive.

But, with all the baloney aside, have you noticed the efforts on the part of Obama and the Democratic Party to save Obamacare?  Let me provide a little history for edification.  In 2009, immediately after being inaugurated, and with control of both the House of Representative and the Senate, the Affordable Care Act was rammed down the throats of the country.  It was not so much of an issue of being passed, but how it was passed.  It was passed without anyone knowing what was in it as it was almost 2000 pages long.  It was passed without any input by the Republican party, regardless if they had ideas that would have improved the bill or not.  It was passed by the Democratic Party without anyone  reading the bill.  Do you remember those infamous words of March 9, 2010 by the vaunted Nancy Pelosi?  “We will have to pass this bill to find out what is in it.”  Say what?  This is how government works?  Even at the time, I was shocked that so stupid a statement by Nancy Pelosi and so stupid an action by our Democratic controlled government took place.  Instead of ‘shoot first, and ask questions later,’ our Federal legislature decided to ‘enact first and work out details later.’  At the time of enactment, the Democratic Party basked in the glory of having taken total credit for the Affordable Care Act without interference or input from the opposing party.

Now comes the election of 2016 and with it comes the the victor, the future Non-Political Correctness POTUS 45, Donald J. Trump.  Donald, being a successful businessman by all measures, knows the Affordable Care Act is too costly for the users and it is just not working.  The promises made, such as lowering health care costs and being able to keep you present physician, turned out to be false.

So now we get to the legacy of what the current Democratic Party will have for now and in the future. That legacy will include being whiners, criers, divisive, counter-productive, poor losers and not being able to grasp reality.

Beginning with the Affordable Care Act, the Democrats are saying (even before Trump is inaugurated) that the Republicans do not have a plan. In reality, there are about 15 different plans floating around, and hopefully, there will be constructive discussion about what is the best and most affordable plan for America, utilizing the best from each plan including some parts of the original Affordable Care Act.  Of course, the Democrats do not want to replace the Affordable Care Act because they dubbed it Obamacare.  And, by totally repealing it as the Republicans have promised, would tarnish the largest part of the outgoing POTUS’s legacy.  I do not see the Republican controlled legislature replacing Obamacare without discussion and input from both sides….something the Democrats did not do in 2009.  But I would also like to point out that if the Democrats would have taken the time and effort to improve, read, and cooperate concerning the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, it would not have to be repealed today.  You screwed up…all to buy votes.

As poor losers, the Democratic party is going all out to purvey that Donald Trump’s presidency as not being legitimate.  They cannot believe, or get over the fact that their candidate is not being crowned ‘Queen Hillary the First’ in eleven days.  Never mind that she never campaigned in the formerly blue states because of over-confidence in winning them.  Never mind that her opponent made three times more speeches and campaign stops than she did.  Never mind that her campaign palaver was based on poor versus rich, common people versus large, evil corporations or that the common American could not survive without the interference and support of a bloated federal government.

But Hillary, here is where you lost the election.  95% of my and Grandma P’s friends and acquaintances are either college graduates or military veterans, or both.  90% of them supported Donald Trump.  And you, Hillary, from the view of your ivory tower, determined that you were omnipotent and were justified in calling us and our friends, deplorable and irredeemable, because we supported Trump. All of this from a woman whose husband was a draft dodger.  All of this from a woman that allowed four Americans to be murdered in Benghazi.  Who is deplorable now?

The Trump presidency will be considered illegitimate because Hillary won the popular vote.  Hillary did win the popular vote. (Thank God for the electoral college!)  But if you subtract the votes from one state, California, Trump wins 49 states and Hillary will be the ‘Queen of California!’  We need to take a closer look at California.  California has a Hispanic population of 14,990,000.  It has a Caucasian population of 14,920,000, 5,736,098 Asians, 2,552,858 blacks, and 648,172 American Indians.  This gives California a total population of 39,487,345.  But here is where it gets interesting.  34% of the United States population receiving welfare, live in California even though California accounts for only 12% of the total US population!  To simplify, there are 23,113,200 welfare recipients living in California…over half its population!  So, if you subtract the votes received from both candidates that were cast in California, Trump wins!  Now I am going to speculate and put myself out on the ‘xenophobic’ limb; how many illegal aliens do you suppose voted in California?  If the United States required voter ID’s to vote, such as the picture ID’s with thumb print and hologram as required in Mexico to vote, how do you think the vote total would change?  Hmmm. (California needs to re-think the idea of ‘sanctuary cities.’  Without federal aid, it would be bankrupt in seconds!)

I forgot.  The Russians are responsible for skewing the election to Donald Trump.  Even though the US intelligence community has said numerous times that the Russkies did not directly affect the vote total, that is not what the Democrats want to purvey.  Never mind that John Podesta’s email account password was, well, ‘password’.  Those darn Russkies released all kinds of unsavory things that skewered the election.  Unsavory Clinton foundation illegal foreign contributions?  Paid demonstrators to disrupt Trump rallies?  What were those Russkies thinking?

Did you know that there are efforts in five states to keep Trump off the ballot in 2020?  Yup. Maryland, California (no surprise there!), Maine, Massachusetts and New York are all trying to take his name off the ballot if he does not release his tax statements.  I never knew one’s tax statements were a condition of running for office.  Talk about sore losers!

Of course, in true whiner, crier, divisive and counter-production form, the Democrats are already toting that they will fight against any supreme court justice nominee, and play devil’s advocate and fight most cabinet nominee appointments.  None of this was done by the Republican party in 2009 after Obama was inaugurated, but the Democrats, with their addled thinking, are justifying why they will do it now.

So what has the Democratic party become?  Do you remember any riots, protests, movie star bad-mouthing, politicians swearing non-cooperation when the incoming Obama was elected in 2008?  No?  That’s because there weren’t any!  Bad behavior, lack of respect, the use by celebrities to use their station in life to exacerbate lack of respect, the promise of non-cooperation by politicians now in the political minority are only traits of today’s Democratic party.  That is what the ‘ivory tower’ attitude, justified in their own minds, Democratic party has become.  With all of the Democratic machinations that have taken place since the election, Hillary really needs to reevaluate who the ‘deplorable and irredeemable’ really are.  It’s you.  And this will be the Barack Obama and Democratic party legacy.

COMMON SENSE – A Rare Commodity

For most of my life, I have been of the opinion that ‘common sense’ was just that – common.  As I get older and watch how the world is changing, I am now of the opinion that ‘common sense’ is a rather rare commodity.

Grandpa T’s Common Sense Rule # 2:  Never use your weed whip with your mouth open.  This is especially true if your neighbors walked their dogs on your lawn the night before.

To clarify my understanding of the term ‘common sense,’ I consulted my favorite online source of information, Wikipedia.  I am not exaggerating when I say there are 16 pages on Wikipedia about the definition and history of the term ‘common sense.’  Common sense tells me that one paragraph would have been sufficient.  For the sake of brevity, here is the first sentence of the 16 pages: ‘Common sense is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things which is shared by nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate.’

Here is my argument about ‘common sense’ becoming a rare commodity.  You have just read Grandpa T’s Rule #2.  How could anyone disagree?  How could anyone disagree if I were to relate that I, Grandpa T did not heed his own advice last summer.  The result was that some multi-legged bug ended up in my mouth!  Yuck!  All people now believing that Rule #2 is the epitome of ‘common sense,’ raise your hands.  That’s what I thought.  Unanimous!

Here is the chink in the ‘common sense’ armor.  The definition says that common sense is ‘a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things which  is shared by nearly all people.’  What if the majority of the people understand and judge incorrectly?

An example:  Suppose you are the retiring CEO of the largest bank in the world.  Your bank has multiple branches across the U.S.  You are tasked to hire your replacement.  One candidate that applies has 18 months experience as a bank manager at one of the many banks.  Prior to that, he was a teller in another of the smaller branches.  His experience before being a teller was that he organized Girl Scout cookie sales for a large metropolitan area.    He was average in his performance at every position.  Would you hire him?

Another candidate has years of experience as CEO of a large competitive bank.  He also had years of experience as a regional manager.  He was exceptional at every position he held.

Which candidate would you hire?

By now, you smart readers realize that my analogy relates to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

At a critical time in our nation’s history, facing financial and budget problems galore, the majority of the American public voted to reelect for a second term the individual that caused most of the problems.  Where did common sense come into play with that decision?

Grandpa T’s Common Sense Rule #3: Never, ever believe a woman that says she does not want anything for her birthday, anniversary, or Christmas, because she has everything!  I bought into that logic just once in my life, and the divorce was greatly more expensive than the gift.

Do you know the difference between the national debt and the national deficit?

The national deficit is the difference between federal government revenues and federal government expenditures for a one year budget.  The national debt is the accumulation of these deficits.  As close as I can figure, the deficit for FY 2014 will be $744 billion.  This will result in a national debt of $18.2 trillion. (The projected national debt at the end of FY 2018 is currently projected to be $21.69 trillion!)

I bring this up for two reasons.

A few days ago, some noted financial analyst lauded the POTUS’s efforts to reduce the national deficit for the current fiscal year.  He pointed out, with the use of graphs, that our deficit is now a smaller percentage of our expenditures than with previous administrations. This noted person went on to say that, as a result, the government was not spending enough money to stimulate the economy and should consider spending more money! (The percentage is smaller, because the spending is so much higher!)  Common sense tells me that this analyst was weed whipping a marijuana field with his mouth open!

Does this pass the common sense test?  Have we not learned a thing by watching what is happening in Greece, Italy, Ireland and Spain? Ireland has pretty much resolved their financial issues.  They did it with spending cuts coupled with tax increases.  ( I agree with my friend, Banker Bob, that spending cuts and tax increases are what needs to be done here, but I want to see a viable budget first.)  Are we so contrite that we believe our government is ‘too big to fail?”  I am sure Rome had that same attitude two millennium ago.

Secondly, why do we continue to elect officials that are unwilling to face financial reality?  Could it be that the people with ‘common sense’ are being overtaken by people that have no vested interest in the U.S other than to bleed our country dry for unearned entitlements?

I find it interesting that many states in the U.S. do not require photo IDs to vote, but the country of Mexico does, in fact, require identification.  How ironic is that?  Indications are that there are one million illegal aliens in Los Angeles county alone.  What could possibly be the reason that photo ID’s are not required for voting in national elections?  Can we attribute the political life of Maxine Waters, Barbara Boxer, Harry Reed and Nancy Pelosi to illegal aliens that vote?

Grandpa T’s Common Sense Rule #1:  Politicians are more concerned with being re-elected  than with legislating for the public good.

(If I had started the blog with this at #1, you would not have read this piece!)

Need proof?  If you are in touch with the Washington happenings, you are aware that there was a budget passed just prior to Christmas.  I believe this was a first for this administration.  Have you seen any of the details about that budget?  Try as I may, I cannot find any of the details involving our landmark first Obama budget.

The reason for our first budget?  Simple.  2014 is a mid-term election year and nobody from either party wants to look like a villain before these elections.  There were more mandatory sequestration cuts that were to be implemented without a new budget.   Those cuts will now be substantially reduced even though they were not so great.  Common sense tells me that the American public got shortchanged and screwed yet again.  The can continually gets kicked further down the road.  All of this is being done for the sake of re-election.

It appears that our government has become anemic when it comes to leadership.  Rather than cutting back on welfare programs, reducing unnecessary expenditures or eliminating unnecessary bureaucracies, our elected officials would rather sink the ship – our country.  Heaven forbid a politician not give maximum attention to private interest groups and lobbyists that come with campaign contributions at the expense of doing what is right for America. (Why is it that we always appear to be running out of Social Security money, but never appear to be short of welfare money?)

There is not one person in America that does not know they should not spend more money than they earn.  Yet, we allow our government a pass.   That continual pass has now cost us trillions!

Unfortunately, many Americans do not understand the earning/spending relationship.  They have over-extended themselves with credit card debt.  They are facing foreclosure.  They clearly take their cues from our government.  Too many Americans have adopted this growing sense of entitlement, having learned it from our government.  The trickle-down effect has created a huge problem.  Outrageous spending at the expense of others!

The approval ratings for our Congress are lower than our general opinions of a slick used car salesman.  Common sense indicates that we need to elect qualified, educated, honest leaders with integrity to lead this country in the upcoming mid-term elections.

Has the American public become so apathetic concerning the shenanigans of our government that Honey Boo Boo and Kim Kardashian are deemed more important?

Americans know what is right, but Americans have also become dependent on government spending.  We have become much too willing to give up our individual freedoms in exchange for government intervention and control.

Will America wake up in time to save itself?

Common sense tells me that we will, but common sense has become a rare commodity.