Political Talk August 18, 2015

Mel Brooks once said in a movie, “it’s good to be the king.” While this was just a comedy skit, you have to wonder how many of those in power feel that way. When there are certain laws in place in this country you would expect people in government, especially the president, not to do something in another country which he says he is against doing here. The law here does not require voters to have voter I.Ds. to vote. You may or may not agree with that, but this is not the question.  The question is why did we give over 53 million dollars to Kenya to issue voter I.Ds?  In 2012 Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary said this in response to a voter I.D. question. “And on the voter ID case, I can tell you that, as you know, this administration believes it should be easier for eligible citizens to vote – to register and vote. We should not be imposing unnecessary obstacles or barriers to voter participation.” Another question is why are we, a financially strapped country given millions of dollars to Kenya?

Many years ago it was said it was wrong for us not to get involved in the affairs of the world. Is this still true today? It some ways yes, but in others no. We have a history of supporting the wrong foreign governments and this has caused countries which have deposed them to hate us. Take Iran for example. They hate us about as much as any country could and this stems back to our support for the overthrow of their government when their Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was democratically elected was overthrown and we backed the Shah who was a cruel dictator. Mosaddegh had nationalized oil and as you can guess it didn’t go over very well with the big oil companies. CNN ran a story about the coup and said that a document from the CIA, which was recently declassified and released, has the CIA admitting to supporting the coup. It is said it was also backed by Great Britain. How does one win over a country after supporting a cruel dictatorship which deposed the legal government and caused many years of hardship and torture for its citizens?

I know there are plenty of people in this country which don’t want to see the United States enter into a treaty with Iran. They say it will allow Iran to build nuclear weapons in ten years at best or sneak and build them at worst. These people may be right, but it seems to me we have nothing to lose. People may be wondering how I can say something like this. I am a realist and at the rate nuclear weapons are being built by other countries it is only a matter of time before Iran acquires them even if they have to buy them. Does anyone think for one second North Korea is beyond selling nukes to Iran or that they are sure rogue forces in Pakistan may not acquire the bomb and sell it? The problem is the bomb has become more than just a bomb, it has become a status symbol and sure countries want it for a weapon, but they also want it because it makes them a member of the nuclear club with all the status that comes with this.

Republicans and Democrats are having a problem, the problem is people are sick of obstructionist politicians. Both parties have them. One has only to look at how congress is always deadlocked and how many times it is only because one party doesn’t want the other to get something it wants. The congress lets budget matters go on ad infinitum until they finally pass small extensions. They don’t seem to care if it affects people’s lives. Then there are the investigations where we find out all the records have been erased. We are told there was nothing there and no laws were broken. Hillary gave some records over for investigation, but erased everything else. I understand why she did it, it was because she knew the Republicans would look for things that may not have had anything to do with the investigation, but could be used against her in the presidential campaign, but there is no doubt it looks very bad. Hillary was the Secretary of State during the Benghazi attack. She should have known there was not enough security. It doesn’t matter if the ambassador said he was okay with what he had. She was in charge and should have made sure he was protected.

Is there more of a lost cause than Jeb Bush? The guy doesn’t seem to have one original thought. I would be afraid to have him run a Dairy Queen let alone a country. Having said this he may be just what some people want. Remember when the other Bush was president and the Vice-president was Cheney? Could Cheney have had the power he had if the president was not weak? If Jeb Bush gets in we may see a repeat of this scenario.

Since I am talking about politics how can I say anything without mentioning “The Donald” and Bernie Sanders?

Donald Trump is ahead of other Republicans right now because he is a master of Public Relations. He had his people check out the polls to see what the biggest gripes among the public were and he related to them. He is also not a politician in the strict sense of the word and people like that. Sure he is crude and often offends people, but sometimes the people he offends the public didn’t much care for anyway. Can you imagine if this guy was not so insulting what his rating might be, it could be double, on the other hand maybe that is why he is leading.

Bernie Sanders has been labeled a “Socialist”. I guess you can’t have too many programs favoring the public without getting this title. It is thrown at him the way “Communist” used to be thrown at others. What I like about Sanders is the fact he is promising to get involved with a lot of our domestic issues. He is claiming he wants to reverse the decline of the middle class, fix the health care system and accomplish many other things which would benefit us. So far his campaign has been far more successful than expected and he is also riding the anti-establishment wave even though he has been a senator for many years.