Donald Trump Wins the Republican Party Nomination

This has been the most fascinating election in my lifetime. I am clearly a news junkie and follow this stuff intensely. While I personally am a social Democrat, I cannot help but look at the media manipulation and spin that they put out to lead us to vote as they would want. Lets start with how this race began, it began with the media saying that nobody would vote for Trump and that he was a joke candidate. The Huffington Post actually put reporting on Trump in the Entertainment section.

In Indiana 92% of the people said the issue was jobs and the economy. Trump has won more votes than any other Republican in the history of the primaries. Trumps number one issue is American jobs and how illegal immigration and outsourcing to China effects those jobs. Here is what you need to understand, the people do not wish to be told how to vote by the media. They do not trust the media. This is a fact and their shrill attacks on Trump and even more importantly against people who voted for him has made the media even less trusted.

The Trump and Sanders candidacies are a slap in the face of the "business as usual" establishment. Neither Trump nor Sanders wants to see American jobs continue being sent overseas. Why didn't anyone else address this issue. Most of the Republicans said the way to create jobs was to give tax breaks to the wealthy; but, ignored that those jobs would be in China and not here. When Carrier decided to move their business it helped Trump win and that was the news story. That was the story because the media knows that the real issue is American jobs and the economy. The problem is that the media supports outsourcing because their owners support it. The 6 companies that own 90% of all the media are globalist companies.

When this election is over, there will be a lot that the media and the establishment will have to pay for. The media spin will no longer work and they will be trying to figure out what their future approach will be.

The media has constantly said that Cruz, Kasich and everyone other than Trump has a better chance of beating Hilly. Who could possibly believe such nonsense. Kasich got less than 10% of the vote in Indiana. Trump has locked up the nomination faster than any recent Republican candidates, has brought in millions of Democrats and Independents and has a greater turnout than anyone else. Trump has secured the nomination quicker than Clinton who lost tonight in Indiana. Combined Sanders and Clinton got just about the same amount of votes as Trump by himself. Trump had more votes in Indiana than ANYONE else. We had been told that Trump is hated by 2/3rds of the Republican likely voters; but, he has won more than half the delegates to date. Those numbers don't jive with what we are being told.

Trump has had over 10,000,000 votes cast for him. He has had more people vote for him than have voted for Clinton. People who voted for Cruz would NEVER vote for Clinton. People who voted for Sanders will vote for Trump. 92% of the voters identified jobs and the economy as the most important issue. The Republican party has seen the most votes in their history and those votes have been for Trump. These are just facts, personal feelings only deny us the ability to objectively view the facts. Hey, I would have preferred Sanders; but, I don't think he has a chance because of the Super Delegates and that annoys a lot of Democrats, like me. I am registered as a Democrat. In the primary, I will vote for Sanders because I cannot vote for Trump. It is not allowed in my state. If Sanders dropped out, I would not vote at all. I would not and have never voted for a Clinton. I have consistently said that I dislike the Clintons and Bushes. I do not trust them.

I have traditionally voted Republican, with a few Democrats in between. I voted as soon as I turned 18, knew the candidates and knew the issues. I stopped voting with Clinton and Bush. I mean I stopped voting. I stopped voting for Republicans because of the Bushes and Schwarzenegger and for Democrats because of the Clintons. I haven't seen anyone worth voting for in years. I didn't even see a viable protest vote to make, so I stopped. I lost hope that people would wake up and actually vote for someone who cared about this nation and the middle and working classes. Sanders and Trump, I believe, actually care about the people of this country and not just the wealthy.

I don't care if someone is Liberal or Conservative, as they used to say in the 60s, "Some of my best friends are conservatives (they used to say black)". Truth is, most of my friends are conservatives, not all, most. Hardworking, working and middle class, backbone of this country, self-reliant people. Everyone of them is voting for Trump. Everyone of my friends gives to charity, everyone of my friends would give someone in need the shirt off their back. I personally have taken in the homeless to live with me. My conservative friends know about that, they knew it when I was doing it. Most of my friends are Christians who I did not meet in church, I don't have any close friends from churches that I attended. While the people who I preached to may have liked me a lot, they were poor gay Hispanics most of which did not speak English. We didn't have a lot in common and I don't speak Spanish so we didn't talk about politics.

I should point something out. The church I preached at was not just gay and Hispanic, most of them were illegal aliens at some point. Yep, they were Christians who came here to avoid being killed in their own countries because they were gay. Most were given asylum for that reason. I am going to make a guess about something. Trump has said that he is against illegal immigration; but, he has also said that we should take in more Christian immigrants from Arab nations because there are threats against their lives. I bet he would allow in more gay Christian Hispanics if they lived in countries where their lives were at risk too. I would love to ask him that question because I would. I would take in any Christian whose life was threatened and any gay. I am as straight and square as a Saltine cracker; but, what I have in common with my conservative friends is that I am Christian and love others. Those are the Trump supporters I know.

Look, my friends and my world is as diverse as is possible. I have friends that are multi-millionaires and friends that don't have a dime to their name and need my help sometimes. I have as many young friends as old friends. I have friends of every color, creed, sex and sexual preference. I have friends from private industry and government and interest group. All my friends know my position on issues. I have the best friends in the world and they know my heart and I know theirs. I do not have friends that do not care about others or this country. That is the only thing we all have in common. We disagree on so many things, the people I go out to dinner with the most often, they are as old school conservative, working class, Republican as they come. They are also some of the most loving people I have ever had the pleasure to be around.

I would have to say that my heart is for Sanders and the pragmatist in me is for Trump. I think Trump is more like my friends than any of the others. I believe I could sit down with Trump, ask him hard private questions and I think I know how he would answer. Trump said something really important to me, he said that if he were president no American would die on the street because he couldn't get healthcare. He said that to the Republican party. A party that voted in congress 100% against Obamacare (the Affordable Healthcare Act, it's real name).

Trump is not a conservative and he is not a liberal, he is a pragmatist, nationalist and capitalist, just not crony capitalism. Trump has a middle class attitude and his children are the best example of this, they are not just some trust fund children, they have to work and work hard. I would love to meet his kids, especially, Ivanka and Eric (sorry Donald Jr., you are also impressive; but, I would rather ask them questions - test them). I know the question I would ask all of his children. If your father is the Republican nominee and he could not own any corporation and had to sell Trump Industries to go into the general election, would you tell him too. Now remember, his kids all work for that company. I think his kids would all tell him to sell the company and continue the race. I asked my kids once if they thought I should have taken jobs in the private industry that paid a lot more and were offered to me, they all said no, we had enough. That is what my kids told me and that is what his kids would say. I believe that and your kids don't learn that if they are lazy, greedy people.

There is no way that anything I say on this blog will effect the election. I have a very limited readership. I will probably never meet any of the Trumps and I am a social democrat. Socialism just means taking care of your neighbors, that is all it means. If Trump is alive when the final Presidential election is held, I will vote for Trump rather than Clinton. That will mean that in the past 20 years or so, I will voted for one Democrat (Sanders) and one Republican (Trump). I think that makes me an Independent. Have a great day.

Smoking and Cancer - A Question

I am going to insert a video by John Oliver where he discusses smoking, it is funny and points out an interesting statistic. In 1965 43% of people smoked, that number is now 18%. That means that the number of people smoking is half of what it used to be. So, why are lung cancer rates. Now according to the American Lung Association, lung cancer is going up and has been for awhile. I will provide a link to this.

American Lung Association - Lung Cancer Fact Sheet.

Now I want to be clear, because this is not a post about smoking, smoking causes cancer in smokers. What is nonsense is second hand smoke causing cancer. If you ask an industrial hygienist (the people who scientifically measure smoke from just about everything you can imagine and all other workplace exposures to everything you will find that they say there is NO cancer caused by second hand smoke because the amounts received are way below any harmful levels. I know, when I was told to investigate the matter years ago, that is what they told me and then they gave me the studies to read. I read them and was disgusted by the lies we were being told..

The study that created the concept of second hand smoke was a study of children born to mothers who smoked while they were pregnant. Babies who had received first hand smoke, not second hand. It is like comparing a baby whose mother drank alcohol while pregnant to one who drank alcohol after she stopped nursing. They are not the same thing.

I want you to think about this, we are writing more and more laws against cigarette smoking while states are increasingly legalizing smoking marijuana. We are even outlining e-cigarettes which don't burn anything and merely vaporize a liquid. Lets face it, we love to outlaw things that other people do and we find offensive. This country actually outlawed alcohol for a decade, that failed miserably and we had to change the Constitution to make it legal again. But that is not the point either.

The point of this post is to say that you have to be very careful of people who claim the science is settled and shut up opposition. Industrial hygienists did not come out in force to say that there was no such thing as second hand smoke because the industry relied on medical doctors who immediately were ostracized for disagreeing with the official word.

UPDATE:

Fox - Stossel: Lung cancer and me.

Reporter John Stossel has lung cancer. People berated him for being a smoker and that he deserved what he got. There is only one problem with that analysis, he never smoked.

Trump Protestors and Policies

I am pretty sure that we will not get back jobs unless both the left and the right unite. That to me is the single greatest challenge facing young people. The second biggest challenge is what we do with people when there are not enough jobs to go around. These are not complicated issues; but, they are rarely discussed by politicians. The two people discussing them are Trump and Sanders with the others just giving mouth service. Kasich and Cruz would lower taxes on the wealthy to increase jobs, even though that hasn't worked in the last 30 years and actually led to more jobs being sent overseas, and Clinton would spend more on retraining workers; but, that does nothing if there are no jobs for them to take. In fact, it is harder than ever before for people with college degrees to get jobs that pay more than the minimum wage.

Now, I was a Sanders supporter and believe in his positions the most; but, I am sadly disappointed in his refusal to tell his supporters to not make disruptive protests at Trumps rallies. That is an instance of the left failing to unite with the right over what matters, jobs and the economy. I am also disappointed in the rights calling Sanders a communist, when he is not, and berating his beliefs. The difference is that Trump is not calling on his supporters to protest anyone's rallies.

So what are the protestors saying? Well, Trump gave a speech in California today and I watched a lot of news reports. Not one mentioned jobs, the wars, the economy, social security or welfare. Not one. They talked about racism. Now, I do not know what is in someone's heart and have no idea if Trump is racist; but, having been in the public eye for over 35 years they have not found one instance of Trump saying anything negative about blacks or Asians. His comments regarding illegal aliens is about immigration and borders, not about Latinos. For those who may remember I preached to Latinos from all over south and central America and Mexico. In fact, the last time someone tried to portray me as a racist they were laughed at by people of their own race. It was an attempt by someone in business to undercut me. Two things that never worked in business against me were trying to call me a racist or a liar. Both would get you laughed at even by my enemies. I don't even hate the English and they starved one fourth of my people, the Irish to death including my family members.

The Pimpernel has been writing this blog for about 7 years and there is not one thing that anyone can point to and say was racist. I got mad at black churches saying gays should die; but, I also get mad at white churches for saying the same thing. I wish ill on none; but, will call out others for wishing ill on others. If I ran for office they would probably use that to say that I was pro-gay, anti-family and racist because that is the way the establishment divides and conquers. The reason they would have to go after me without discussing what I have said is the real issue, jobs and the economy. They don't want those things to be solved to the benefit of the American people, they want profit at the expense of this nation.

Now lets talk about the women's "issue". On a personal level I will start with this. For most of my career I had a higher number of female employees than in the rest of the organization. There are a lot more women in administrative positions than in other construction jobs. I transferred jobs at one point and my old supervisor was immediately challenged by all of my former employees for being sexist and anti-minorities. I later found out that they had waited to formally challenge him until I had left because they didn't want me to be dragged into it. When I retired I thanked the people who worked for me because they always took care of things and gave me the time to work on long term projects that benefited the organization. My employees were great because I let them be great and expected success in all our endeavors, they never let me down. Mano of the women that worked for me would confide in me, they trusted me. Again, if you have read this blog then you have never seen me say anything derogatory about women as a gender. Yet, I have said that my wife was an adulterer. If I were running for office they would say that I was anti-women. Trump got in a fight with Rosie O'Donnell and the media has said that what he said about her was anti-women. It was just anti-Rosie. One can also see the things she said about him; but, nobody called her anti-men.

This is what we need to consider. If you ask black or Mexican Trump supporters why they support him they will say jobs and the economy. That doesn't get reported; but, it is important. Before we went into Iraq, Trump and Sanders were both saying that we should not. They are the only ones running for President who said that. You know the last time we have seen protests like the ones we are seeing now, it was protests against the war in Vietnam. We have not seen the young protest against the war in Iraq as much as we have seen them protest Trump. I find that disgusting. Trump has said that he doesn't want to constantly go to war and that he wants the United States to demand more from the NATO and other countries for us to protect them. Sanders hasn't even said that. In fact, George Wallace (1968 Presidential candidate who was an avowed racist) did not get as many protests as Trump and Wallace was for segregation and attempted to deny black children from entering a white public school.

The point I am trying to get you to ask is, why now? Why the protests now. I do not believe it is actually about Trump. We know that "Black Lives Matter" is the most organized protest group right now and we also know that members had protested at Trump rallies. We know that there are many conservatives that have gone after "Black Lives Matter"; but, Trump really hasn't been part of that discussion. We also know that "Black Lives Matter" had protested at some of Sanders rallies, even forcing him off the stage at one. Now, while I find the number of unarmed blacks being shot by cops appalling, I believe they are protesting Trump because he gets larger crowds. Their playbook calls for going to the largest events they can, Sanders was just the largest crowd for Democrats. Since Trumps rallies have dwarfed Bernies they go to Trump's rallies. I understand this from a strategic, get media attention; but, it sort of misses the point. Neither Trump nor Sanders is racist and both want to expand opportunities.

Finally, here is my point. WE have a problem and the problem is opportunity and power for the majority of people in the United States. If we do not create more jobs for Americans and take care of all Americans then we will become a third world nation. Climate change is not the threat to Americans, not being able to feed ourselves as automation takes over is the threat, not having jobs is the threat, not having enough to live on is the threat. I usually chastise the conservatives for not finding common ground with liberals; but, the liberals are making the exact same stupid divisive move. They have been divided and conquered by the establishment that will not address the real issues.

The Death of Trucking Being a Good Job.

L.A. Daily News - America’s trucking industry faces a shortage. Meet the immigrants helping fill the gap. The trucking industry complains that it doesn't have enough truckers because people don't want the job while not increasing wages even as gas was going up. The industry answer is to hire people from other countries and work on self driving 18 wheelers. I read articles where they said that immigrants made good truckers because they were willing to work longer. Wait, I know truckers and over the road truckers are limited in the number of hours they can work for the safety of others on the highway. In fact, they are required to keep log books showing how many hours they have been driving. So the fact that they are willing to work more hours than are legal is a good reason to hire them?

Media Talks More About Trump Than The President.

I was watching some news videos and some late night talk show clips of the week. I am retired, I have too much free time. Anyways, I noticed something, they were all about Donald Trump. None of them were positive; but, they were all against him. There was hardly anything about Obama visiting Saudi Arabia or Britain and those two trips had a lot that should be talked about.

Here is what we know, we know that just about all of the mass media is owned by six companies. So, it only takes six people (the leaders of those 6 companies) to make it so that every story about Trump is negative, or that stories about you or me are always negative. Wait, that also means that six people can make every media story about anyone be positive. Hmmmm.

I want you to think about the implication of what I just said, that 6 people control all the mass media and can determine how anyone is portrayed. If you were one of the 6, what would your concerns be and would you make sure that your employees promoted those wants? This is not about Trump, this is about the 6 people who decide how the world is explained to you.

It is Monday 4/25/16, Fun For You

YouTube - The Onion - Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized. The video below is a joke; but, it is funny.

YouTube - World's 10 Most Mysterious Monuments. The video below is just interesting and discusses monuments you may not know about.

Obama Did Exactly What I Said He Would - Globalist

If you read the time stamp on the last post you will see I wrote it and posted it prior to President Obama landed in Britain and he said exactly what I said he would, that he didn't think Britain should leave the European Union. Some of my friends knew that was what was going to happen even before they really understood what the EU was or what the Brexit was. This is not my way of saying "I told you so". It is about something bigger. The discussion in Britain is now over whether or not Obama should have said anything. In the same way that I knew what the British response would be, he did too. He has lots of political advisers and was working with their Prime Minister on what his message would be. One would have to be a complete idiot to think that I foresaw this and the whole Obama administration did not, I'm just not that good, merely trained. The expected response occurred and the conversation in England is following the expected path.

By the way, Obama threatened the UK. In his speech he said that the United States was working on a trade agreement with the EU and that if Britain left the EU it would be years before we would get around to having a trade agreement with Britain. Here is the speech:

YouTube - US Pres. Obama threatens British if they vote for Brexit (22Apr16).

What if the Prime Minister of Canada came over here and told us it was in our best interest to join the EU and allow half of all our laws to be legislated by the United Nations and that we had to have open borders. Would you feel that was overstepping?

And where did Obama go after leaving Britain, he went to Germany to discuss this EU - America trade treaty. MSN - Associated Press - Obama to use Germany visit to push trans-Atlantic trade deal .