Ken's Comments

Almost anyone will tell you there are stark differences between Democrats and President Donald Trump.  I thought I'd call out some differences in a way that I have not seen anyone else do.  Two comparisons, one looking "back" to compare what the Democrats did to stimulate the economy under President Obama versus what President Trump did.  The other comparison looks forward - what is President Trump promising to do on the subject of jobs versus what the Democrat candidates for President are promising to do if they are elected.  But let's start with the look back. In 2009, President Barack Obama was sworn into office and joining him was a huge Democrat majority in the U.S. House and a "filibuster-proof" majority in the U.S. Senate.  Upon taking office, President Obama and the Democrats were faced with an economy in shambles.  They made it a top priority to develop and pass legislation in 2009 to stimulate the economy. In 2016, President Trump was sworn in...

The low bar being set by the Democrats with the Articles of Impeachment are a danger to our Republic.  The first Article is that the President "abused" his power.  The second charges the President with Obstructing Congress.[1]  But the reasoning and justification for these charges is so weak they threaten to set a low bar, opening the door for either party who lost an election to bring charges to undo the will of the people by removing a President. Article 1 is titled "Abuse of Power."  The Article states "Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election."[1]  Put aside the question of whether the facts support this charge, which is debatable, let's see another example of how this low standard could be applied.  Consider that in 2012, President Obama personally asked the Russian President to "give him 'space' until after the...

Watching a clip of Chris Hayes, of MSNBC, on his show "All in."  The title of the clip - as seen in the link below is "Trump surrounds himself with criminals."  He then lists 7 people who were convicted or, in one case, are being tried.   I'm curious Mr. Hayes - whose administration prosecuted those individuals?  Oh yeah, it was the Trump Administration that demonstrated no favoritism toward people aligned with the President. And during the Obama Administration, was anyone convicted for using the IRS against conservatives?  No.  Was anyone convicted or even punished for the Fast and Furious incident resulting in the deaths of American lawmen?  No.  Was anyone in the responsible agencies for deep water drilling punished for the massive screwup involving the Deepwater Horizon oil rig polluting the Gulf of Mexico?  No.  Was Hunter Biden investigated for the lucrative contracts he obtained using his father's name?  No. ...

The text below is from an email I sent to Politifact pointing out an incorrect fact check of a statement by President Trump and calling on them to retract and correct it.  I'm not holding my breath. Ken Fody   < kenfody@gmail.com > to  TruthOMeter , https://twitter.com/ PolitiFact/status/ 1171215126302732288   Above is a link to your tweet about President Trump's comment.  I'm appalled but not surprised that you ignored what the President really said and fact checked something completely different.  Your action showed laziness and sloppiness at best, and complete bias at worst.  You should issue a retraction and correction. Your article of February 20th has a headline as follows: "Trump falsely claims Northam said he'd let doctors execute newborns."  You rated the President's comment as false because "Northam, a physician, never said he would sanction the execution of newborns."   ...

It's time to call BS on all the people applying 2020 principles and beliefs to the people of the American colonies in 1776.  Our Founding Fathers were a product of their time and slavery was reality at that time.  They were faced with a need to get something done and the only way to do that was to compromise.  What they ended up with - the Constitution - was an extraordinary document and created a country and principles that have not been surpassed in the last 250 years.  Think about it - did slavery start when the American Revolution ended or when the Constitution was signed?  No.  It was brought to the Colonies by the Europeans and, don't forget, Africans contributed to the slave trade.  The opening of the book Roots by Alex Haley shows his earliest forefather being sold by African blacks to European whites. In the 1700s, slavery existed everywhere and was accepted by people of every color.  And, guess what, it still exists today across the ...

It seems that any time a person opposes something they are labeled - at least that happens to Conservatives.  Racist, misogynist, Islamophobic, Homophobic are terms tossed out when a Conservative stakes out a position in opposition to something the Democrats propose.  I'd like to offer some words that can be applied the other direction. Ameriphobia - I'm adapting the definition of the word Homophobia* here to define Ameriphobia as: dislike of or prejudice against the United States of America irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against the United States of America and it's government fear, hatred, or mistrust of the United States and anything it does as an official action. I debating whether to use LEOcism or LEOphobia for my second term - The LEO part of the word stands for Law Enforcement Officer and refers to any governmental official with a duty to uphold and enforce the law, whether those be federal, state or local.  The definition would be si...

The biggest contributors to the causes of climate change today are second and third world countries.  The Paris plan for addressing climate change gave those countries a grace period while placing a greater burden on developed countries like the United States. Americans have argued against that accord asking why those who are doing the most polluting make the least contributions to fixing the problem.  The argument made by the second and third world countries is that they are johnny come latelies to polluting the world.  It was the Western countries who created the situation first, with excessive pollution from the mid-1800s through the late 1900s.  They should not suffer the biggest burden of cleaning up while the original contributors go scot free. If I were running the US, what I'd propose is a multi-billion dollar aid package to second and third world countries.  We'll pay a significant percentage of the cost of buying what you need to clean up your coun...

Here is an idea to energize individuals and local groups to make significant contributions to cleaning up the environment and/or making a dent in climate change. 1. Pick an existing foundation or two to sponsor this annual contest. 2. Line up celebrities to lend a bit of their time.  Ask them to commit to attend at least 5 events of 2 hours in duration.  They don't have to perform just attend and meet the people who did a good thing. Let's see how many are willing to rub elbows with the little people who actually do something real to address climate change. 3. Offer the following contest to America: Submit an idea of what you will do to clean up the environment/help stop climate change.  If your idea is chosen you can choose one of the celebrities on this list to come to your community for a 2 hour event. Ideas/submissions will be evaluated based on the impact they have and whether and how that impact is measurable. Cleaning up the garbage in your yard won't...

I've been reading how the repeal of Obamacare will result in millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions being denied health insurance. Horse manure.  Obamacare* is not the very first law passed in the United States to address this problem.  Those other laws remain in effect when Obamacare is repealed and under those laws people with pre-existing conditions can get coverage and do not face higher rates.  Opinion writers, news stories, and the studies they cite, notwithstanding. For an example of what is being said - go to HuffingtonPost.com and search Obamacare and you'll see story after story about the possibility of a Federal Appeals Court overturning the law.  The big concern expressed - the possibility of millions of Americans being denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.  Here is one such quote: "More than 50 million Americans have something in their medical histories that could disqualify them from health insurance absent t...

Now that the media and the Democrats have hounded Alex Acosta out of office, I thought a few more points should be made. The media likes to cite the following: Mr. Trump, in 2002, told New York Magazine that Mr. Epstein was a “terrific guy.” “He’s a lot of fun to be with,” he said at the time. “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” That quote occurred 17 years ago.  At the press conference for Alex Acosta's resignation President Trump says he has "not spoken to Epstein in 15 years or so."  So that timeline fits.   Let's add a few other bullet points - things the media is not focusing on: 1. Who banned Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago when Epstein was accused of assaulting an underage girl?  Donald Trump 2. When attorney Bradley Edwards was issuing subpoenas on many people to gain information to sue Jeffrey Epstein, who called Mr. Edwards and said "Let's just talk, I'...

Jeffrey Epstein is arrested and charged for some of the really sleazy things he's done in the past and when I look at the top stories in Google's News section, they are all about either Donald Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein or calling for Alex Acosta to resign as Labor Secretary because of his prosecution of Mr. Epstein over 10 years ago.  Let's talk about some different topics. First, a different look at the Donald Trump/Jeffrey Epstein Relationship.  Many of the crimes allegedly committed by Jeffrey Epstein occurred in Florida.  Neither the Florida Attorney General, nor the local prosecutors charged Mr. Epstein with any crime whatsoever.  The Justice Department of President George W. Bush were the ones who reached the allegedly crappy deal with Jeffrey Epstein.  That occurred in 2008 - right before Barack Obama was elected President.  The Justice Department under President Obama did not, during the entire 8 years of his Administration, re-o...

Talk to me about the environment.  Climate change fanatics focus on how the oceans will rise a half inch 50 years from now and how the economy will collapse 100 years from now.  Some of the claims are hard to believe, particularly any economic projections that far in advance, and the messaging of this has been poorly done and divisive.  What people should be talking about, and what I would be interested in, is the environment that exists right now.  People can see those problems and we can personally do something about them right now and this can be explained in a way that unites rather than divides people.  It makes me wonder why the people concerned about climate change people didn't start or stay there. Perhaps that's a reason why I have so little interest in climate change.  The environment used to be important.  Then there was a hue and cry about the Ozone layer being depleted and how soon the Earth would die from that.  Then the crisis bec...

I don't understand the attraction of Medicare for All.  The benefits are not that great.  The service will suck.  No one has yet talked about the impact on doctors and hospitals.  And it is NOT free.  People are so used to having commercial health care coverage they may have forgotten how an old style traditional benefit plan like Medicare works.  It covers 80% of what their fee schedule allows.  The patient covers 20% of the cost until they reach the out of pocket maximum.  That can be thousands of dollars.  Did you ever wonder why AARP runs all those Medicare Supplement commercials and makes so much money off that insurance?  It's because the Medicare benefits don't cover the costs so people who can afford it buy a Medicare Supplement insurance policy and people who can't end up financially damaged if they have bills or on Medicaid if the costs get really high. The other thing about the benefits is that Medicare is a program design...

The Washington Post has adopted the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness."  That is intended to be a criticism of the statements of President Donald Trump, who has labeled some members of the media "the enemy of the public" and for the combative attitude the President and members of his Administration have shown toward the media.  But who is really turning out the light? If Democracy dies in darkness then presumably it flourishes in the light.  And I've always been led to believe that the truth is the light.  Let's use that premise and ask the question of who is turning out the lights? I'll grant the President helps to create some shade when his excessively large ego leads him to exaggerate and overstate.  I'll even concede that Michael Cohen was probably telling the truth or even understating it when he described ways President Trump may have worked to keep some stories out of the media.  The President is no choir boy. But the Washington Post is...

A big debate these days is Socialism versus Free Enterprise.  I say neither.  I say we need a new direction - Fair Enterprise. I'd say the failures of socialism are self evident.  You can look at the extremes like the experience of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the various "republics" of Eastern Europe that were satellites of the USSR, or Venezuela, where socialism was accompanied by brutal totalitarian regimes.  Or you can look at the European socialism of France, Italy, and Greece, where the people would sooner bankrupt the country, paralyze the government, or commit acts of violence than give up the giveaways to which they have become accustomed. With a history like that to point to how can anyone advocate socialism in front of an audience and not leave the stage covered with fresh vegetables thrown at them from the seats?  The answer is that unfortunately big businesses in the US have corrupted free enterprise.  Large companies...