Why Hillary Lost and Protests

Hillary could have won. The Democrats could have won the senate and house. Part of the reason they failed was because they ignored and insulted the future of the party, people who wanted change. Hillary promised no change.

Do you remember the Occupy movement? Do you remember their issues. They wanted an end to trade agreements that leave them without jobs and they wanted the banks to be regulated more. She promised neither of those things and in fact, the exact opposite. They assumed Sanders people would support her no matter what she did and that did not work out.

As for the protests. They are meaningless and silly. You do not see protests by blacks in Detroit because they don't want to see more auto jobs being outsourced. We saw protests in Philadelphia (the City of brotherly love?); but, not in Pittsburg because they want manufacturing jobs back. We did see protests in Berkley and Los Angeles because those places are not manufacturing centers and are doing pretty well. The protests are happening where the few are doing well, not where the many are doing poorly. That is the group that voted for Trump, the people who have had to bear the consequences of the disappearing jobs, high unemployment and lack of opportunity.

The Midwest is in shambles. Not because of sexism, xenophobia, racism or any other ism. The Midwest is in trouble because all the good jobs left the vast middle of this country that sits between New York and Los Angeles. Those are the people who voted for Trump and would have voted for Sanders if they had been given the chance.

People Who Supported Trump and Obama

There are people who voted for Obama twice and who just voted for Trump. That my friends is a statistical certainty. Who were they and why did they do that? Did they suddenly decide to be racist? Who are these swing voters? What were the issues that convinced swing voters to vote for Obama in the past and now vote for Trump?

Why did a higher percentage of blacks vote for Trump than voted for Romney? I don't know the answer; but, it would be interesting to know the reasons. What causes someone to vote for the  Democrat one year and the Republican the next year? This question is easier than you think. It is people who don't vote for just one party; but, instead vote for the person or policies they are pushing.

So what changed the mind of swing voters? What do Obama and Trump have in common in regards to their message? Obama's motto was "Change" and in many ways so was Trump's. People are not happy and want real change. They do not like the establishment, the politicians or the media. It doesn't matter which party you vote for, nothing changes. That is what people see. Guess what, if Trump doesn't try to make changes, the voters will try something even newer to shake things up.

President Elect Trump and People's Reaction.

I stand by what I wrote two days ago. Be calm, it's over and the world will not end. I would say that even if Hillary had won. People need to understand why Trump was elected, why people voted for him and Sanders. They are fed up with politicians ignoring them and only listening to the wealthy. They are fed up with a corporate media that lies to them and most of all they are fed up with American companies sending jobs overseas. This race was not about social issues as much as the Democrats tried to make it about that. This race was about the economy.

I am watching videos of people in shock and crying because Clinton lost. Get a grip people. Celebrities didn't lose their jobs to China, working people did. Have some sympathy for them making a stand even if you dislike the stand they took. In a few months you will forget how upset you are today. The media did the public a disservice by telling them that Hillary could not lose.

Be Nice to One Another After the Election

Well it has been a crazy year and a half. We started with 17 Republican and 3 Democrats running for president. Now it is down to 2. One of them will win tomorrow. I am not making any bets and do have a preference; but, tomorrow it will all be over. The guy who votes for Hillary may be married to a Trump supporter. You can disagree on what this country needs to do and still live with the same consequences. We do. We as a nation will live with whatever the outcome of this election is. WHEN it is over, it will be over. If it goes to the electoral college it could end up in the Congress and take a few days more to finalize; but, we will all live with the consequences together and we can still enjoy each others company.

I went from supporting Sanders to supporting Trump. It has not changed my relationship with my friends and family. Most would see Sanders and Trump as being on opposite sides of things; but, they agree on one thing that I agree with, "If things don't change nothing is going to get better". The path we are on is failing and quickly.

With the things I know and the things I don't know, I don't know how tomorrow will turn out. I do know that we will need to continue to look for new ideas and in order to do that, we should work together. And, if you are going to work with people, you should try and get along with them. Be well and smile.

Catching Up On Some Old News Articles

Fox - Pension crisis: Fully funded ones a rarity.  The article says that a mistake was made in the 1990s that gave people bigger payouts if they had a government funded pension. This is not quite how things went down. Most public pensions were OVERfunded in the 1990s because of how the stock market had been doing. In fact, some places like Orange County were talking about getting rid of their assets so they could bet on the stock market. Because the funds were over funded the cities and counties were required to return any amounts in excess of what was needed to the employees (because it was there money). Instead some smart politicians offered to increase benefits in exchange for delaying the required payments into the pension funds. That is what happened and when the market crashed those same municipalities and states did not want to return to making their mandatory payments or even paying the ones they had "delayed". When the stock market was rolling, municipalities stopped making payments to the pension funds or vastly decreased them.

USA Today - Bloomberg - Bloomberg helps mayors prepare for self-driving future.  Here is the short on this and I have discussed this before. Your taxes are paying to change the way streets are made to benefit self driving vehicles that will take away millions of jobs. Your taxes paid to put in bike lanes and English style crosswalks because they help self driving vehicles and you have not had anyone explain this to you.

Yahoo - CNBC - Bernie Sanders is trying to single handedly kill AT&T’s $85 billion purchase of Time Warner.  Lets see, 6 companies own or control 90% of the media in America and only Bernie Sanders is trying to stop further consolidation. Ask yourself why the media is allowed to become a monopoly and then after the election go back and see how they were able to collude in the open. The politicians will not break up the media and are afraid of it.

Yahoo - Electoral College tie still looms as a possibility.  If this election goes to the electoral college and the electors do not vote as their state did there will be trouble in the streets.

Daily Caller - Bill Clinton Told Donors The Border Won’t Be Secure ‘For A Very Long Time’.  Does that further explain why Hillary wrote how she favored open borders. Remember, the European Union has open borders basically and that is the direction that multinational corporations and globalists want to go. It does not matter how that makes you feel. The idea is to understand what is going on before having an opinion.

Yahoo - Good Morning America - Nate Silver Predicts a Close 2016 Presidential Race.  We shall see. I don't have a prediction.

MSN - CBS - Could some in electoral college not vote for Clinton? If games occur in the Electoral College there will be major problems and if there is improper voting in the electoral college, it will be to benefit Hillary.

Elitist Philosophy

Foreign Policy - It’s Time for the Elites to Rise Up Against the Ignorant Masses. 

Foreign Policy is a magazine for the establishment and "experts". In other words it is the garbage that the people who believe they are entitled to run your life read. The title pretty much says it all. The subtitle is, "The Brexit has laid bare the political schism of our time. It’s not about the left vs. the right; it’s about the sane vs. the mindlessly angry."  The battle is not the left versus the right, it is the haves against the have not's and the truth is that fewer and fewer in this country are amongst the haves and the number of have not's is increasing as we send jobs overseas.

The bottom line is that the establishment does not care what you think and does not like the fact that we have the right to vote against their wishes. That is the battle and the media is complicit in working against the average persons best interests. That will be the great take away from this election once it is over.

What Prop 61 Actually Does

The airwaves and internet are being flooded by commercials claiming that Prop 61, "STATE PRESCRIPTION DRUG PURCHASES. PRICING STANDARDS. INITIATIVE STATUTE" is going to be the end of the world and kill everything good and decent about big pharma. Well, this is the actual proposition.

Official California Voters Guide - Prop 61.

What it actually calls for is that the state would be required to contract for drugs at the same price as is given to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This is a common practice in contracting already. Rather than negotiating prices you require contractors to give you the best price they provide to anyone else. I used to put this in contracts myself.

Now you might wonder why the state buys drugs. The answer is pretty simple they have to buy drugs for people that are in prison and for the National Guard. It does not end there. The state usually requires that it's contracts can be used by cities and counties and they provide drugs to people in jails. So the end result would be that the state and local governments would pay less for the prescription medicines that they are required by law to purchase. It is that simple.