Ken's Comments

Were I given an opportunity to ask a question of the Republican and Democrat nominees for President, this is the one I'd ask about Benghazi: In your Administration, if American men and women are under siege as they were at Benghazi will there be American airplanes overhead and American soldiers on their way immediately to provide support or will you keep them on the sidelines doing nothing as the Obama Administration did? If any candidate says anything other than a resounding yes that help will be on the way then they are a disgrace.  I don't want "well I wouldn't have people in that kind of trouble" or "that's a hypothetical and before you commit troops you need information" or any other kind of blah, blah. Just came back from the movie "13 Hours" and yes it is a movie so 75 to 90% is not accurate.  But the basic truths dramatized in that movie are that Americans were in trouble and they got no support, zero, zip, nada, none from the

One of my complaints about Donald Trump is how he states his ideas.  First it was banning all Muslims from entering the country.  Now it's giving power to Christians.  The fundamental idea he is advancing is right, the way he says it is wrong. Flipping channels I happened on a re-broadcast of the Republican Debate hosted by Fox Business News.  The moderator asked Donald Trump about his position on Muslim immigration.  Then every other candidate was asked their position.  Other than not singling out Muslims, every other Republican candidate agreed that the current process is broken and immigration needs to be throttled or stopped while the current immigration process is fixed. His most  recent comment about Christians is similar.  I think most Republican candidates would decry liberals' war against religion but to say Christians would have the power is a statement designed to create a sensation.  But both of these comments redirect all of the commentary and discussion to D

Hillary Clinton's criticism of Bernie Sanders is that his ideas are pie in the sky while she knows how to get things done.  Let's consider their records on the subject of health insurance. Bernie Sanders advocates a single payer system.  That's a real bad idea but we'll save that for another time.  Hillary Clinton derides this saying it is a proposal that sounds good but won't every get passed. What's Hillary's record on health insurance reform?  Oh yeah, in the early 1990's she gathered together a group of really smart people, held meetings behind closed doors, would not share details with anyone and what did she come up with?  A proposal that started out with bi-partisan support but when people were able to understand how it would work, they realized Hillary's proposal was a really bad idea and it got shot down in Congress. Therefore the choice seems to be Bernie Sanders who Hillary says has a nice idea that can't pass or Hillary Clinton

A friend of mine shared this article by Larry Elder.  The topic is two fold - first why Trump scares the Republican establishment and what the Party should do to make Donald Trump a successful candidate if he gets the nomination.  I found the observations and recommendations spot on. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/elder011416.php3 On the recommendation side, Mr. Elder recommends that Mr. Trump be advised to pick the best people to support him once in office.  If you really take a look at The Donald's campaign you'll see he is doing that already.  Trump engaged a campaign coordinator for Iowa who has long experience being successful with helping candidates with the Party Caucuses.  Also, for all Trump's bombast about illegal immigrants from Mexico, the plan he actually published drew upon recommendations from Senators and Representatives who have put forward reasonable ideas in Congress.  One thing about Donald Trump that is an advantage for him over someone lik

Excluding Muslims - no, I don't agree with that concept.  First, it is wrong to single out people based on religion and, as a practical matter, how are you going to do it. Where The Donald is right is that the current method for screening immigrants is broken.  What Trump should have said was that all immigration should be halted while the process is fixed and not singled out just Muslims. But if you have any question about whether the process is broken, just watch this video of a Dept. of Homeland Security high official testifying in Congress.  You cannot, after watching this, tell me you have any confidence in the Federal Government's ability to prevent terrorists from entering the country right now. https://www.facebook.com/RepDeSantis/videos/1001434629914597/?theater

Want to get an understanding of what happened with the housing market and the financial meltdown of 2007 and 2008?  Go see the movie "The Big Short" or read the book of the same name on which the movie was based.  It's a brutal expose' of the games that were played in the financial markets to create the housing boom that led to the housing crash. We're far enough removed from the tragedy that the movie was entertaining and had a number of funny moments. At the same time the events of that time were tragic and it was criminal what people throughout major companies and the agencies - both public and private - created to monitor did. Some thoughts. 1. Why did it happen? The financial markets encourage greed.  The goal is quick money not steady, stable results.  Maximize profits, make money each quarter.  Money is lent based on numbers - what is your credit score.  Money is no longer lent based on evaluation of risk.  Did you know that if you don't bor

If Democrat insiders - examples: Hillary Clinton, her campaign, Democrats who want her to win, President Obama and his supporters, and the Liberal media types who support them - really cared about the poor wouldn't they be talking about all the people out of work who have fallen off the Unemployment rolls?  Wouldn't they be saying the unemployment problem is much worse than the unemployment rate reported by the Government?  Wouldn't they be mentioning the fact that the employment levels in the US are lower than they have been in quite some time? If they really cared about the poor, wouldn't they be concerned about the number of people who are employed but who are holding lower paying jobs or who have to take a second job to make ends meet?  You might say arguing for a $15 minimum wage is an attempt to address that problem and that has a modicum of legitimacy.  My counter argument is two-fold.  First I'd rather they were proposing ideas to create better paying jobs

Whoever advised Hillary Clinton to call Donald Trump sexist is a moron.   Hillary called Donald Trump sexist and the Clinton Campaign must have expected the media to play the "War on Women" card and beat up Trump and that Trump, like so many others, would be forced on the defensive, unable or reluctant to fight back. Boy did they get that wrong.  What's that saying about how people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones? Donald Trump has responded with an ad pointing out that Hillary is married to a man that a NOW official in the 1990's suggested could be a sexual predator. Then the ad shows Hillary with Anthony Weiner, the man who repeatedly sexted pictures of his penis to women; and photos of Hillary with Bill Cosby, who is alleged to have drugged women to have sex with them. Like I said, whoever advised Hillary Clinton of all people to call Donald Trump a sexist is a stone cold moron. Interestingly, the media's reaction when Hillary calle

Was listening to Glenn Beck on the radio and heard him do the same thing the media does in defining the "conservative" position on an issue.  Where the media usually calls anything they disagree with a "conservative" position, Mr. Beck was defining a position on immigration as liberal because it is the position he does not agree with. In this case he was talking about a position Sen. Marco Rubio has staked out on what to do about the immigrants who illegally entered this country and have been here for years.  Sen. Rubio prefers an approach that allows these individuals to stay.  Mr. Beck referred to that as a liberal approach. So let's apply the what is a Conservative test to Sen. Rubio's position. 1. A Conservative is someone who favors less government 2. A position/vote/bill that results in less government involvement is a Conservative position/vote/bill 3. Taken to its logical extreme the most Conservative point of view of all is anarchy, no gover

Thought #1 - In my opinion the most effective form of gun control is a gun in the possession of someone who respects the weapon and knows how to use it, and who also respects life and living things. Here in Montana, I like to say there are 5 guns for every person in the State.  I have no basis for that statement but guns are popular and easily obtained.  You would think, after hearing President Obama's speech this would be a recipe for routine massacres, yet that doesn't happen out here. Why is that?  Probably because people who own guns are raised from an early age to respect guns as a tool not a toy and educated on the proper use.  They also respect life and other people. The result is that in the 18 months I have lived here I can recall 2 instances of death by gun. Thought #2 - Unlike the "Right to Privacy" or the "Right to an abortion" or other rights people claim to have (and do for the most part), the "Right to Bear Arms" is explicitl

With tears in his eyes, the President announced his new gun control executive orders.  But why all the fuss? On the one hand, the things President Obama is ordering would not have prevented any of the mass shootings that he's concerned about.  The possible exception is making the mental health lists available to be considered when background checks occur. On the other hand, those who claim the Executive Orders are illegal are not 100% correct.  Some things may be.  But adding people to do a task within the Administration, as the President is doing by assigning more people within the FBI to do background checks is within the power of the Executive Branch, so long as their is money available appropriated by Congress.  So those saying the Orders are illegal are overstating the case. By the way, one wonders where the extra people President Obama is going to assign within the FBI to do background checks are coming from.  What other duties is he pulling them off of in order to do t