Ken's Comments

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...