Ken's Comments

 In the previous post, I talked about how I think the Republicans are in trouble going into the 2026 elections.  Now let's talk about what I think they should do about it. Start by recognizing there is a problem.  I've heard Republican officials and some pundits say "well these were Blue states so its not surprising Democrats won."  I'm sorry - a Democrat AG candidate won after it was revealed he wished death on a legislator and the legislator's two kids.  I don't care what color is assigned to the State of Virginia - Republican Red or Democrat Blue - that shouldn't happen unless Republicans have a problem. After we admit we have a problem, look at why Democrats won.  In the New York Mayor's race, and the Governor races in New Jersey and Virginia, the winning candidates promised to fight President Trump.  We need to give people a reason to ask - why would you oppose what Trump is doing?  In NY and NJ, candidates promised to fix higher costs facing...

The late Gov. George Wallace said "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrat and Republican parties."  That may have been true in the 1960s but it's not true today.  Let's look at some of the differences. On stimulating the economy - Democrats believe they know best how to spend my money.  Example: the $900 billion stimulus package enacted by Democrats in 2009 and the proposed $3 trillion stimulus offered by President Joe Biden now. Republicans believe I know best how to spend my money.  Example: tax cuts by President Reagan, President George W. Bush, President Donald Trump, all resulting in booming economies rebounding us out of recessionary periods. On racism - When Republicans heard the racist comments by US Representative Steve King (R-Iowa), they urged him to resign and stripped him of his committee assignments.**   Democrats?  Recently a Texas party leader made a racist comment about Sen. Tim Scott.  He offered to resign,...

I think Amazon going to NY is a good thing for a couple of reasons.  It should be good for NY and it should be good for America if elected officials recognize just what happened here.  Ironically, Jeff Bezos may end up the loser here. Amazon going to NY city is good for the city because it creates jobs.  Before there are the jobs with Amazon, there will be construction jobs building the Amazon location.  Then you can bet there will be other growth around that area creating more construction work.  There will be jobs for people to clean and maintain Amazon's building and any new surrounding buildings.  There will need to be jobs for people filling the vending machines in the Amazon building.  When the Amazon employees get tired of eating out of the machines, they will need restaurants and delis and pizza places.  The jobs story doesn't stop there.  Amazon ships stuff - a lot of stuff.  That means trucks and cars and planes and train...

I don't know what happened 30 years ago when Professor Blasey Ford was assaulted by someone but I know she was violated in 2018.  She had her experience of 30 years ago dragged into the public.  She was made to go before a circus event in the Committee hearing, and she received all kinds of threats and hate mail that she didn't deserve.  And I know who the culprits were that caused this - the Democrats.  Here's who I blame: 1. I place the blame first with Senator Diane Feinstein.  Professor Ford sent a letter in confidence to Senator Feinstein.  Professor Ford did not want to come public, she did not want to endure what she endured.  Now the Senator from California denies being the leaker but she was the one to whom Professor Ford sent the letter and in whom Professor Ford placed her trust.  Senator Feinstein breached that trust by not ensuring the confidentiality of that letter. 2. Blame falls next on whomever released the letter and there is...

How are conservatives able to call Ted Cruz the real conservative candidate when he calls for police targeting and patrolling Muslim neighborhoods?  That's less government?  That conforms to the spirit of the Bill of Rights?  That's different than Donald Trump? Other candidates and Republican Party officials pushed Donald Trump to sign the pledge to support whomever is the nominee.  Now that Donald Trump is the nominee, where is their support?  What about their Pledge? Is that what the Republican Party stands for?  We lie to people we don't like to get them to play by our rules and then if the voters who make up the party pick someone we don't like we'll stab them in the back. Montana is like the last primary before the Party Convention and it looks like the Primary will actually mean something.  I don't know who I will vote for, I've never been a fan of Trump, but I'm pretty disgusted with the Party leaders and leading Republican...

In 2015, as Donald Trump entered the race for President and began getting attention, the other candidates and the Republican Party officials made a big deal of calling on Donald Trump to sign the pledge to support whoever is the Republican nominee. Now that Donald Trump is ahead in the race, it's a very different story.  Republicans are saying they will never support Donald Trump. Party officials are trying to find ways to deny him the nomination.  Long time Republicans are talking about running a candidate as a 3rd Party nominee. Is that what being a real Republican means?  Lying, backstabbing, going back on your Pledge, and only supporting Republicans you like?  This may not be the Party for me if that is the case.

Republicans call for the next President to appoint the replacement for Justice Scalia.  Know why they want to do that?  Politics?  Nope.  They want a Conservative on the Court?  Nope. They said that because they are racists.  Yep.  That's the case being made now. Oppose President Obama on anything and the only reason you are doing so is because you are a racist. People wonder why President Obama could not find common ground with the Republicans.  Perhaps it is because there is no respect for the opinions expressed by Republicans.  If you believe every opposition is racist and not because there are valid reasons for disagreement then it is hard to find common ground. http://www.gopusa.com/?p=5848?omhide=true http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/02/hillary-clinton-implies-racism-to-blame-for-republicans-effort-to-block-obama-supreme-court-pick.html/

Well I was sort of right about the Republican Primary. Two of the Governors did well enough to move on, as I thought.  I was wrong about which one would come in last - thinking it would be Bush not Christie.  That's one I should have seen coming - Christie was a tough guy in the debates but really did not have a solid message.  I was not surprised by Gov. Kasich doing so well.  His name came up a lot when voters when media types were talking to voters. Cruz did drop - but not as far as I thought.  Rubio, on the other hand, did drop like a stone as I predicted. Sorry to see Carly Fiorina drop out of the primary.  I was hoping she'd stay a bit longer and see if getting a space on the main stage of the debate would help boost her numbers.  It was a crime that she was not allowed to the New Hampshire Republican Debate.  Glad to see Dr. Ben Carson is staying in and I hope he does well in South Carolina.  Apparently he's been working that Sta...

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...

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...

Recently, a question was asked on Yahoo Answers about whether the Republicans are ignoring the fact that there are significantly more African Americans registered as voters than ever before. Here is my answer: The mere fact that someone raises the question indicates that whatever the Republicans are doing, it's not effective. The fact is, the Republicans are not ignoring the fact that there are more black voters than before. However, as the question indicates, the efforts being made by the Republicans to address this are not working. Furthermore, the Republicans are somewhat hindered in those efforts by the vitriolic conservative talk show hosts. The result is that unless something dramatic happens we will probably see minorities like the Hispanics community and the African American community continuing to support President Obama in large numbers in the next election. Fact - the Republican Party has tried to address the issue of race with the voters. After the last election, th...

Conservative talk show hosts usually raise good points but occasionally they raise issues that just make me say "So What." This includes Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and others. The issues to which I refer are things that make them sound like whiners or like goofy people. They really need to get a grip on reality and not try to criticize everything President Obama does. Example #1 - Lou Dobbs raising the issue of whether President Obama is an American citizen. Lou said he has no doubt the President is but asked why doesn't the President just release his Birth Certificate and put all this to rest. This is an issue raised by some people who are just looney so why give it any credence. Example #2 - The President goes to Denmark to try to help Chicago win the Olympic games and some conservative commentators go bonkers. My answer - so what! Chicago is an American city - it is also the President's home town. Winning the Olympics would have been a big deal ...

I saw a question on Yahoo Answers about Insurance companies benefitting from being exempt from anti-trust laws. Until I saw that question and some of the subsequent discussion, I was not aware that this was an issue in the health care debate. Actually, the anti-trust exemption has little or no impact on health care, so I did some research and provided an answer. I am reprinting that below. I also debunked comments suggesting Republicans are against capitalism - presumably because Republicans are in favor of the anti-trust exemption. Here is a shortened version of my answer: A summary of my answer is 1) insurance companies are exempt from anti-trust for valid reasons; 2) the exemption is not relevant to health insurance because coverage is not always been written by insurance companies; 3) historical facts say Republicans were the "good guys" and the Democrats were the "bad guys." 1. History of the Exemption In 1869, the US Supreme Court ruled that insurance was...

The common result of a government spending more money than it earns is devaluation of its currency. The US government's deficit increased during the Bush Administration. The Democrats and the Obama Admiminstration lifted that deficit to an enormous new level. A common effect of currency devaluation is inflation. In a bad economy, that is going to be a real problem - just ask people who lived through the Jimmy Carter Administration. First of all, let's spread this blame in a non-partisan fashion. Republicans during the Bush Adminstration years controlled Congress and the White House and they showed no fiscal discipline. The Bush Administration capped this by spending a ton of money in 2008 to try to prevent or curtail the recession - first having a stimulus tax cut at the beginning of the year and then approving the TARP bailout funds - easily a trillion dollars spent last year to prevent the recession. Now, we have the Obama Administration spending another trillion dollars for ...

One good aspect of the proposed Obama budget is that Amtrak will get a significant increase in funding. If we truly want to reduce use the of gasoline, we need to make a significant commitment to rail travel. Amtrak can be a significant alternative to driving and air travel if it received proper support. The underfunding of Amtrak by the Bush Administration, and other administrations before it going back to the Reagan Administration, has been a sin. To get people to drive less and still travel, we need to give them an alternative. Trains can be that alternative. We should be promoting Faster trains between major cities - Chicago to St. Louis or Seattle, LA to Las Vegas, are just some routes that come to mind. If people felt the train could be reasonably close in travel time to flying, the comfort, easier security, and fact that trains deliver them downtown, would win over converts. More "car train" routes - trains would be significantly more attractive if the riders kno...

I find the controversy with Rush Limbaugh and President Obama to be ridiculous. All sides are wrong on this. First, President Obama is wrong to allow his staff to focus the public's attention on this. Rush is wrong because his statements opposing the President's policies are too broad. Republicans are wrong for not speaking their minds on the issues when Rush calls them out. None of this is really helping the current situation. Commentators are starting to point out that President Obama's staff are wrong for focusing the public's attention on the controversy with Rush Limbaugh when there are more important issues - like the economy and health care. Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary under President Bush, also challenged President Obama on the fact that he has repeatedly said - during the campaign and during his inaugural address - that his Administration would put politics aside. Yet his staff's focusing attention on Rush Limbaugh and the Republicans is completel...

As the Bush Administration's term in office winds down we get to see who is interested in doing what is right for the Country versus who is interested in doing what is right for their party on display. President Bush, by all accounts, has been extremely gracious and helpful to the incoming Obama administration. On the other hand, we see actions that indicate Speaker Pelosi will consolidate her control of the House of Representative so that all dissenting opinions will be pushed down. The Country has not benefitted from the extreme partisanship of the Democrats during the last two years of the Bush Administration and the country will not benefit if the Democrats continue this behavior during the Obama Administration. During the post-election period, President Bush has allowed President-elect Obama to move to center stage on economic issues. A political commentator described it as the U.S. having two Presidents -- one on domestic policy (Obama) and one on foreign policy (Bush). Presi...

The word conservative is used by many people, but few seem to have any real idea of what it means. The media uses the term very inconsistently. A frequent misperception is that conservative is synonymous with Republican -- not true at all. Despite the misuse of the word conservative, laying out a political spectrum that shows conservatives and liberals, which represents all political philosophies, and can be applied to any domestic issue and show consistent results is not hard. However, when you actually applied this to issues of the day some interesting results occur. Not the kind of results you'd get if you read the paper. If you read or listen to the media, you'd have a hard time coming up with a definition of conservative that can be consistently applied. Perhaps the media subscribes to a political spectrum that has Communists and Socialists on the "Far Left" (a term never seen in the press any more) and Nazis and Fascists on the "Far Right." If t...

2008 Election Review The Election is over and the worst has happened. The Republicans got what they deserved. John McCain’s campaign was run by boobs. The Obama campaign was very good and they benefitted from every media outlet not named Fox News having a collective thrill run up their legs at the idea of Sen. Obama being elected. And all of this coalesced at just the wrong moment in time leading to a tidal wave of voters dissatisfied with the way things turning to the Democrats. So it’s time for an election recap and then I’ll move on to using this space for discussing ideas for the future. The McCain campaign -- what a bunch of boobs. I’m not talking about Senator McCain here – he was magnificent. He provided leadership, he overcame disaster in 2007 – when his campaign was nearly bankrupt and he fired key campaign leaders -- to defy all the odds and win the Republican nomination. Then he overcame the odds again in the summer of 2008 to go from way behind Senator Obama to actua...

2008 Election Review The Election is over and the worst has happened. The Republicans got what they deserved. John McCain’s campaign was run by boobs. The Obama campaign was very good and they benefitted from every media outlet not named Fox News having a collective thrill run up their legs at the idea of Sen. Obama being elected. And all of this coalesced at just the wrong moment in time leading to a tidal wave of voters dissatisfied with the way things turning to the Democrats. So it’s time for an election recap and then I’ll move on to using this space for discussing ideas for the future. Unfortunately as I started writing this article it ran on and on and on… So I will break this up and post it in three or four installments. Looking back at the 2008 elections it is obvious that the Republicans got what they deserved. During the 80’s and 90’s the Republicans were the party of ideas and the Democrats were intellectually bankrupt and rudderless. That culminated in the House Repu...