The "Establishment" Versus Trump

I am not a Republican, let me make that very clear. I am also not a Democrat, those are parties and not beliefs. Like Groucho Marx, I would never join any organization that would have someone like me as a member. I am a fiscal conservative with a socially liberal perspective. I don't respect people who vote their pocketbook at the expense of what they believe is right. My motto in business was, "Do the right thing for the right reason".

In the past the well to do believed that some of us were just genetically inferior, that was called Social Darwinism. The new rich believe they "single handedly" earned everything they have with no help from the rest of society and believe those who are not rich are just lazy. The new rich don't care about our country, they don't care about anyone who is not successful in their mind if you are unsuccessful, you don't deserve to be. The new rich believe in Ayn Rand and that the 99% are anchors holding the world back.

What Trump and Sanders have in common is that they believe we are in this game as a country and that everyone who is a member of this country deserves a chance. Now, Trump believes that being born here is not enough to make one a citizen and I disagree with this and where it could lead immensely. I do not believe Trump would make a great president; but, I believe the others will all be more of the same lies. Trump and Sanders are showing us one thing more than anything else, they are proving how the game is rigged in politics.

Yahoo - The Fiscal Times - 9 Trump Positions that Make Liberals Want to Move to Canada.

I love this article, it is a conservative, Republican leaning, paper telling Democrats why they should be against Donald Trump. I guess that Democrats should just ignore the, just as many, reasons they should be against Jeb Bush and the other Republicans, including Rand. The Democrats are just as irrationally afraid of Sanders. The media is afraid of them both because they haven't sold out to the corporate interests, remember 5 organizations own over 90% of all the media.

I don't think we will see this; but, the best situation we could hope for is a Presidential election between Trump and Sanders, it would be a total rejection of the status quo, the establishment and how they are selling this country out. Whoever won would tell us if  the country was moving true left or true right.

Ronald Reagan asked a simple question once, he asked people if they were better off than they were before Carter got elected and the answer was no. I will ask an equally simple question, do you think the country will be better off or even changed if we vote for anyone other than Trump or Sanders. Do you think Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton will return this this country to where it could be?

Two News Articles, Maybe Three

I was reading the newspapers recently and came across an article in the Los Angeles Times about how the city had settled an agreement with the largest union of city workers. It stated that they had agreed to not have any pay raises for the next three years. Now I know a lot of people are not getting raises, that in and of itself raises issues; but, what made this interesting was the fact that the City of Los Angeles has just voted to enforce a $15 minimum wage for people who don't work for the city. Doesn't it all seem a little hypocritical? Maybe there is a reason this is going on because we are seeing in in other places.

Right now we are seeing cities begin to raise minimum wages and many news articles are claiming that the other people working for the companies are upset because even though they have worked there longer, new employees are being given raises to the same amount as them and they are not getting increases. I ask my readers to not have an emotional response to this based on how it effect them personally; but, to look at the effect of these things. Pitting the lowest paid against underpaid people that have been working at their jobs longer. Now, Los Angeles has also implemented a system whereby people get raises based on years of service for a total of 15 annual raises; but, the raises are less than the cost of living increases that they would otherwise be entitled to. Do you see what is really going on? Oh, and don't think the City won't have to pay more in contracting out or be effected by the raise in the minimum wage. They will pay more to contract out and less to keep work for government employees.

The real fight is not between government employees and private industry or even between senior employees in private industries low paying jobs and new employees getting paid the same. The big picture is just that, bigger. Estimates say that we could expect to see over 40% of our jobs over the next five to ten years because of automation; but, you watch it will be blamed on raising the minimum wage. The real intent is to have everyone work for minimum wage.

Now in another article I read how the City of Los Angeles has just committed to decrease the number of traffic lanes used by cars while dedicating lanes to busses and bikes. Los Angeles is not alone in this, we are seeing this across the nation. Cars have been sharing the road with busses for about 100 years, why would you need to dedicate lanes just for busses on city streets?

More on Trump and Sanders and Representative Democracy.

Apparently some columnist wrote that Trump and Sanders were this years Ron Paul and that their ideas were things that the "majority" of Americans did not support. Hmmm. Do you really believe that the majority of Americans are against controlling the borders and keeping out illegal immigrants or regulating banks better? I then read another article that said that Trump had not stated his policies. These two things seem to contradict one another. Either he has policies that would not be popular with the majority of people or he has no policies, you cannot accuse him of both.

I am much more liberal than most of my friends of my age and they are almost exclusively Republicans with many being ex-military and not one of them has been upset by Trump. They don't feel they are being listened to by their party and why should they when they are ridiculed along with Trump for believing that they are not being well represented?

I am not an Obama supporter and disliked Clinton and the Bushes as well. Having said that, I will ask a question that Ronald Regan asked when running for President. Were you better off after Bush was elected? Remember the stock and housing crashes occurred while Bush was in office. The answer is slightly different for Obama as when Bush left we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month and under Obama we have seen "some" job growth; but, my question about him is different. Did he do the things he promised he would. I can only thing of one and that was the healthcare change, you may not like it but he at least kept one promise. Neither put the countries interest ahead of business and big money.

The battle ground today is a very simple question. Who do you think will attempt to keep their election promises? Let us say for the moment that 60% of Americans were in favor of becoming a "social democrat" nation where there was universal healthcare, government control over the printing of money rather than the Federal Reserve (a private bank) controlling the money supply and getting the interest from the government and a guaranteed minimum standard of living. Now as an ardent anti-socialist and Republican against all these things, if 60% of the people voted for it and their candidate was elected, would you support him doing the exact opposite of these things? Would you support him not representing the people who elected him? I am sure you can flip this question on Democrats fairly easily, my answer would not change. I believe in Democracy and think that if we vote for someone, they should do what they were elected to do.

While I personally would vote for Sanders over Trump, I think Trump has a better chance of being effective than Sanders at getting his policies through. The real issue in this election is not whether or not we lean left or right; but, whether or not we force our elected officials to represent us or accept the way things are. Does it matter who you vote for if they don't try and do what they were voted to do?

The Confusion Over Donald Trump

I am immensely amused by the media's inability to understand the attraction of Donald Trump to voters. If I were to vote Republican, I would chose him above the others myself. If I were to vote Democrat, I would vote for Sanders. I would not vote for Bush or Clinton as they are already owned and (Ayn) Rand Paul is no better. Trump and Sanders are not just a new approach they are the outgrowth of the Tea Party and the Occupy Movement, they are the building frustration of those who know we are all being screwed by the system which has been purchased by the financial system. That is the one thing the media will not discuss about them.

How can we call ourselves a democracy when only 11% of the people approve of congress? The truth is that we don't trust the politicians and we don't trust the financial leaders, they have all sold out the United States. Here is the essence of the problem, who do you believe our politicians will work for, big business and the financial industry or Americans when their interests differ? We would like to think that they would put the interests of Americans first; but, we all know that they do not. That is why companies that outsource jobs to foreign nations still get tax breaks. Think about it.

Odd Videos About Strange Things

YouTube - World's 10 Most Incredible Discoveries.

YouTube - Earth's 10 Most Mysterious Lost Worlds.

YouTube - Top 10 MYSTERIOUS Events on Earth.

I am still trying to figure out where, if anywhere, this blog will go in the future. Hope you enjoy these in the meantime.

Coming Attractions

Business Insider - Why America should start making drivers pay per mile.

Huffington Post - Yes, a Computer Will Take Your Job. Can We Handle the Transition to a Jobless Future?

Wired - Self Driving Cars May End The Fines That Fill City Coffers.

Bloomberg Business - Robot Cars Get 32-Acre Michigan City to Hone Driving Skills.

Yahoo - Oil Price - Oil Sands: Is Utah The New Alberta?

Musica, musica de los Pink Floyd

Music; but, not Pink Floyd the title is actually a line from a tv show called "Fridays". Some songs while I continue to think about what this blog will be next.

YouTube - Howard Jones - No One Is To Blame.

YouTube - jefferson starship - take your time (1978).

YouTube - Carly Simon - Anticipation.

YouTube - Blondie - Rip Her To Shreds (lyrics).

YouTube - Whenever I Call You Friend.

YouTube - Draggin the Line - Tommy James.

YouTube - Manfred Mann - Mighty Quinn.

YouTube - Heart - Down On Me.