14 October 2016

Trump's Women and Where to go from Here

...And here we go.

Women have started coming out of the woodwork accusing Trump of assaulting them. It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. Are these women being truthful? Are they there simply to destroy Trump as per a Democratic playbook? The answer is that it does not matter. After the audio going public of Donald Trump bragging about what he can do to women (and denying that he actually did it), it really doesn't matter if these women are for real or not. All that matters now is that it is plausible that they were assaulted. Plausibility matters.

The question is what Vice President Mike Pence is going to do now. He seems like a decent guy. What does he want to do? If he drops out, what happens? Does that take down the whole ticket? I really don't know. What would be good would be for Trump to step aside (Hillary should too) and for Pence to replace him at the top of the ticket and make a woman his vice presidential pick. I would like to see Joni Ernst, senator from Iowa after having served in the military for 23 years. I would also be happy to see Susana Martinez, very successful governor of New Mexico in the VP slot.

We have about a month to go. Trump looks like he plans on spending these last few days defending himself from these charges - which means he will lose. Trump may lose anyway even if he doesn't spend the time defending himself. The GOP may still have a chance to turn this whole election on its head - if - they can get rid of Trump and get themselves a respectable ticket. Hillary Clinton is a terrible candidate, and anyone other than Trump would have an easy time beating her. It may be time to consider other options.

11 October 2016

Good-bye Political Facebook

I posted this rant on Facebook tonight. I will (try to) limit my political postings to my blog here. Facebook has become as insane as this election is - the abusiveness and the lack of civility has grown exponentially.
I've had it. Vote for who you wish. I have never attacked anyone for their choice, even if I disagree with it. It's a free country. You may have noticed that I'm voting Trump. I don't like his character, and would be plenty happy if he were replaced. I do not defend him. I also don't appreciate having my motivations questioned or being called names. I also don't like Hillary Clinton, and there is no chance of voting for her. She is a liar, has 'private and public positions', I believe her to be corrupt, unethical, with no care for anyone but herself. She is an enabler to her husband who has a long history of assaulting women. I do not have to defend Trump any more than anyone has to defend Clinton. They are both pigs. We can thank Bill Clinton who in 1998, claimed his power imbalanced "relationship" with Lewinsky was a private affair and no ones business but his own. "Even presidents have private lives. It is time to stop the pursuit of personal destruction and the prying into private lives and get on with our national life." If we are keeping to Bill Clinton's standard, then Trump gets a pass, just like Clinton got a pass. He's still the godfather of the Democratic Party. Self-identified feminists didn't seem to care about his abusive womanizing record even before he sullied the Oval Office. But Donald Trump, the pig he is, saying horrible things, can't be measured by the same yardstick that Bill Clinton brought to the Presidency because he has a "R" next to his name instead of a "D". All is forgiven for the all powerful "D". Realize Democrats that your candidate is as flawed as the Republicans. The GOP tried to get rid of Trump and continues to try to find ways to replace him. He was never their first choice or even their 17th. The Democratic Party pushed Hillary Clinton on the American liberal, paving her way to the nomination, steamrolling Bernie Sanders, because it was "her turn". The Democratic Party thinks so little of the American People that Hillary was the only choice for them. Pathetic. I will be trying to avoid posting political stuff as best I can from here on. My rant is over. I wish everyone a Shana Tova, a happy sweet new year with only good things for everyone.

05 October 2016

VP Debate 2016

Watching the debate last night, the thought that kept running through my mind was... why aren't we running Mike Pence at the top of the ticket? Seriously - calm, cool, collected... smart, knows how to communicate, knows when to attack, when to defend...

Truthfully, I think the debate was a draw. Tim Kaine didn't do himself any favors. For someone who we know nothing about, his debut was a disaster.  He interrupted Pence 70+ times, which I found incredibly annoying and not professional.

Pence was articulate in explaining and defending the conservative vision for the United States. I wish the Republican Party would do this regularly, not allowing the media and the liberals/Democrats to take that vision and skew it for the public. I've said for a long time, that the GOP needs to buy commercial television time and explain what they stand for - otherwise, they let the Democrats define them.

The moderator seemed overwhelmed. Tim Kaine wouldn't shut up. She needed to shut him down and let them each have their two minutes then let them go at it without interruption. It's a tough job she had, but I don't think she was prepared for the sparring and arguments.

Pence was brave to bring up the abortion issue. I think though that the GOP needs to sort out their abortion position. Kaine made a good point about - don't you trust women to make their own medical decisions? Except that wasn't the point that Pence was making. Pence was talking about partial-birth abortions, basically infanticide.

A majority of Americans are pro-choice about abortion for the first trimester. After that, second and third term abortions don't have that support. The GOP needs to understand and focus on consolidating support against 2nd and 3rd trimester abortions, rather that attacking all abortions. Adoption needs to be a viable alternative as well as support for women who would like to keep their babies but are unable to for financial reasons.

It's all nice and good that Democrats frame the abortion issue as a "feminist" issue. Really, this is the only real "feminist" issue out there that Democrats really care about. My body, my choice. That's garbage. It may be your body, but you made a choice and got pregnant. It then becomes an issue of rights. The woman's right and the baby's right. At some point, that pregnancy becomes a real person. At only 5 weeks, there is a heartbeat. That's not life?

A Canadian journalist Barbara Kay, made an excellent point a few months ago in an article I came across. She said that since doctors are able to save babies earlier and earlier in a pregnancy, (the earliest I've found was a baby born at 21 wks. 5 days), Kay asks, when medically they are able to save babies earlier in a pregnancy - and you're still allowed to legally abort them - when are we going to realize that there's a problem? It's obviously not just a bunch of cells that don't matter anymore - it never was... but science and medicine have come a long way since Roe v. Wade in 1973. It's foolish of us to hang onto science that has long been disproven just because it fits a "feminist" ideology that is tied to it. Liberals poke fun at conservatives for not believing in science - I think it would be quite fair to call the kettle black and make the point that science no longer supports Roe v. Wade.

Putting abortion aside, it's too bad Pence didn't bring up Kaine's Islamists connections.

I guess we will see what Round 2 of Trump v. Clinton brings us Sunday night.

**To be clear, there will always be extenuating circumstances regarding abortion. I would never say that a woman could never have an abortion. Life of the mother is paramount and I'm sure we could find other circumstances to have agreement on as well.