Current Trends by Natasha Sapp

The debate topic was supposed to be finances as in the nation’s finances, the nation’s economy and what candidates were going to do to improve both; before the end it looked exactly like what we’ve come to expect from the republican party, a free-for-all where no one could control anything in a sane order, not even their own mouths. I believe one writer compared it to a 4-year-old’s birthday party; still the big winners of the night that emerged were surprising, starting even before the debate when Ben Carson achieved the, until now, thought impossible feat of throwing Trump from the top of polling numbers. Following him, senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz pulled off major comebacks; Rubio turning the tables on Jeb Bush when he admonished the young senator ought to show up for work, saying he didn’t know or care how many votes John McCain missed during his Whitehouse bid, who Bush said he was modeling his campaign after, and the only reason he was attacking him now is because someone told him it would help him. Cruz won points with the duel audience when he challenged the questions being put to him and his fellow debating candidates saying the debate wasn’t a cage match and they shouldn’t be about getting them to tear into each other; at one point referencing the democratic debate, he said it separated the Bolsheviks from the men-sheviks which probably had everyone wondering what a men-shevik was. Unless it was, as you quickly began to suspect, a clever play on words to get past prime time TV censorship and it meant the debate separated the bullshit-viks from the men-sheviks, in other words the bullshiters from the men. This, this is the guy making comments, complaints about the seriousness, the depth of the questions? Carly Fiorina questioned about her time at Hewlett Packard explaining away her firing as politics, that we know also exists in the boardroom, repeating a recurring mantra that big government favors the wealthy, the powerful and the well-connected leaving ordinary people powerless; big losers of the night, Jeb Bush outshined by Rubio, Rand Paul who hardly spoke and when he did said things decidedly unpopular among even today’s republican voters, raising the retirement age for social security and Medicare. Chris Christie getting his highest applause for the night when a question about Fantasy Football’s alleged insider trading and a possible need for government regulation came up; his response was to remind viewers we are 19 trillion dollars in debt, millions out of work, terrorists after us and we are talking about fantasy football? Previously sparing with Mike Huckabee on the feasibility of saving social security, Huckabee pointing out it’s neither entitlement nor welfare but something people paid into; Christie challenging him it isn’t their [the people who’ve paid into its’ money] anymore it has been stolen by Washington and America’s seniors deserve to be treated like adults, to be told the truth, there is no saving it. Huckabee quick to remind viewers all what means testing both it and Medicare means, taking benefits away from little old men and women in walkers, wheelchairs, making it a moral argument about breaking a promise to deserving Americans. John Kasich the only adult in the room, apart from slightly dented moderators, having an uncharacteristic outburst almost shouting about Trump and Carson’s tax plans— the unrealistic 10%  tithe to fund the government, we’ll fix everything eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, ‘we’re just gunna be great,’ deporting 10 million people out of the country; when asked later why he was so confrontational he said he reached a tipping point remarking the fantasy plans proposed would only put more debt on our kids, were wild, largely empty promises ‘like a chicken in every pot.’ Christie’s former comments congruent with the night’s overall mood when moderators were booed periodically, like when Ben Carson was asked about his 10 year relationship with a supplement company who later had to settle a false advertising claim as it related to his judgment; his answer, he did a hand full of single speeches for them, and when confronted with his picture on their website, he said they must have used it without his permission. Marco Rubio announcing Hillary Clinton, also a frequent target, and democrats had the ultimate Super Pac— mainstream media; post-debate public comment on various social media, debate videos and debate clips too slammed the media, CNBC for bias, for rude interruptions, calming moderators didn’t understand the nature of debate asserting participants should be treated instead as guests. Whining during and after the debate consisted of Rand Paul asking towards the end what the rules were for who gets to follow up, mirroring Marco Rubio when he asked if he got to follow up after his name was mentioned in connection with an issue, told yes, half jokingly saying he’d finally learned the rules. Donald Trump when asked what it was like not to be the focus, AKA the center of attention, uttered a familiar refrain calling it unfair; Ben Carson unhappy as well mentioning the softer questions leveled at democrats hammering his chief campaign piece media bias related to political correctness. Republicans already vowing to come together to change debate rules.

Yet redundancy on top of redundancy the questions were tailored to the candidates, their own statements, recorded stances and what the public, the American people, their current, future constituents, analysts, field experts on economic subjects want to know about them; democrats in contrast received such “softball,” nice, non-nasty questions because they don’t have wonky tax plans based on biblical scripture, they aren’t promising to lower taxes by 10 trillion dollars equally calming fears to the next question, sure it won’t raise the national debt, increase the deficit; things the most simple understanding of statistics, ratios, numbers period and commonsense tells us will happen making that big a cut. Bernie Sanders volunteered the term democratic socialism and gave a definition of it; you like it or you don’t, vote for him or you don’t. Causing millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share, the same 30% the average person pays, by closing loopholes, eliminating deductions specifically for them they don’t need isn’t bizarre, is practically doable on a graduated level and is only right. Suggesting Wall Street, who caused the big bank failure and the housing boom and bust, not the federal reserve a theory floated by Rand Paul, bail them out as opposed to the taxpayer carries the moral rightness, high ground republicans always say they are reaching for; too bad that idea is also Bernie Sanders.’ Either breaking up the big banks, removing the too big to fail threat, or  restoring early post-depression banking rules, scaled back by the Bush administration, along with increased scrutiny for hedge funds, investment banks exc. seems like reasonable steps to prevent another  great recession. You don’t have to ask the democratic candidates if their campaigns are serious ones, other republicans either for that matter; because, Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb, while they may have gotten a D- in debate, may not have been viable candidates, in that they had next to no chance of winning, they were serious in their campaign, wish to run for, hold the highest office, treated it with the reverence and respect required, as did the remaining republican contenders. They didn’t treat it like one more reality TV show with which they are accustomed forcing someone to ask them ‘are you a comic book villain,’ to quote Ted Cruz. Further asking, are you serious about your campaign is not the same as asking if your campaign has a snowball’s chance in hell; moderators asked the first question in response to Trump’s ever commented upon behavior. Continuing for the record it wasn’t ‘Ben Carson can you do math, summary again by Ted Cruz;’ it was Ben Carson I have tried to do the math, tried to make the numbers work, looked at other’s projected numbers, can you explain to me how the math works on your tax plan? Then he tries to say it’s not just 10%, what tithing is, it’s closer to 15 when adding in capital gains, never mentioned before, removing deductions and loopholes; another theme of the night, besides don’t like the question blame bias, the media was, when quoted, confronted with prior statements deny moderators have the correct facts, strategy employed by both Christie Rubio and Trump. Tacking moderator questions, accusations they were too long according to focus group participants, being a voter, the background given accompanied by the source of the question in many cases enhanced my understanding, made the question seem more credible, less biased and out of left field. Similarly having moderators interrupt, call flag on utter B.S. statements refuted by others with expertise in that area of finance, federal budgeting, national taxation, whatever issue, was refreshing, provided wider, more whole information than just letting them comment, say whatever came out their ass and move on. Ted Cruz, who shouted at one point, so you’re not interested in an answer, was stopped by the moderator because when asked a question about the debt ceiling he used his 30 seconds to talk about everything but, challenged the moderator into giving him more time and still didn’t answer the question. To Chris Christie’s ‘even in New Jersey what your doing is called rude’ comment, moderator John Harwood interrupted to clarify the what the candidate was taking his sweet time getting around to concurrently focusing and reminding the candidate he only had 30 seconds; quite frankly, Christie has been far ruder, with much less cause, as governor, leader of a state throwing around words like dumbass and numb nuts answering questions where cameras, microphones were present, forget insulting the people to whom his answers were aimed.  And at a meeting to discuss changing debate rules, besides those who opted out, Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina, they failed to do anything other than divide themselves once again on whether new rules indeed should be implemented and which ones; earning them a justified jab from president Obama that if they can’t handle a panel of CNBC moderators China and Russia aren’t going to be too worried about you. Logically we can add in ISIS, ISIL, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, to the list, and more importantly in all the kvetching about what’s not fair, do you think these guys will be fair; you’re playing with the grown up’s now in the big leagues, things won’t always be fair. Rand Paul got so much less the talk time because people nationally aren’t talking about him, we’re beyond his vow to blow up the tax code if elected to office, he’s polling at 1% or below and doesn’t say anything rousing, positive or negative when given the floor. Frequent GOP pattern at work, can’t win outright, can’t win on equal footing change the rules, predictably to favor yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFWOmD4xE48

Regardless of the changing facets in debate whining to the shame and embarrassment of America, despite some aspects showing signs of being on a dreaded repeat loop, there was much more substance to this debate than the last 2; more details on tax plans, fixing so called entitlements, economic growth strategies, providing little reassurance to on-looking voters trying to decide who is best for them to vote for in the coming primary, never mind the larger general election. Lesser lights of the night that perhaps should have gotten greater attention if it wasn’t for that whining, regular people applauding the sound bites, Rand Paul promising to filibuster the proposed debt ceiling deal ‘because it allows the president to borrow unlimited amounts of money’ urging those watching to call their congressmen and say no more debt. You mean giving him the authority, for the next 2 years anyway, to raise the debt limit as needed instead of headlines being made, written about political fights over it giving the international impression we can’t get our act together and pay our bills, what lowered our credit rating once already. Oh how like Ted Cruz you are spearheading an extremely unpopular, totally unnecessary government shutdown over Obama care; worried about bankrupting the American people, part of the voting public, I worry about when idiot politicians who spout things like that will bankrupt the whole country creating a situation 1,000 times worse. What is the viable, your viable alternative; you don’t have one. Beginning of an anti-red-letter night for Paul in which he said there was no fixing social security and Medicare unless we’re serious about raising the retirement, eligibility age which we’re not, disappearing for several minutes surfacing long enough to question the rules, lastly laying it on thick linking the federal reserve to the housing boom and bust, wage inequality wanting to form a committee to examine how the federal reserve contributed to these problems, what can be done to stop it ultimately leading to his old stop gap, abolishing the federal reserve. Tell us senator Paul will it be like the 8th Benghazi committee squandering 4.5 million dollars to find no new information and concoct a clever way to take down a rival; next question Mr. Paul, would we be able to save social security, stop borrowing a million dollars a minute if we put that money along with the 2 million congress spent on pastries and the thousands daily spent both printing and storing unwanted presidential coins into either piggy bank?  Of course Paul is the guy who mocked the idea politicians were sent to Washington to be adults, to govern, do their jobs; filibuster an unmitigated failure, deal signed 5 days later on Nov. 2. Carly Fiorina probably made a bigger splash with average voters when she mentioned the 73,000 page tax code and people needing to hire professionals to do their taxes, wanting to reduce our current tax code to 3 pages; because, ‘only then do you level the playing field,’ that’s about what a single person, a couple can understand, but better than Ted Cruz who after deflecting answering a question on the debt ceiling bashing the media, agreed with Paul in his wish to audit the fed, chiming in with Fiorina, going a step further wanting to simplify the tax code so much you can put it on a postcard. And even more interesting is why, to eliminate the IRS. Fiorina probably wrangled younger voters when asked about potential retirement accounts for workers participating in the increasingly freelance economy, Uber drivers exc. who don’t have access to, the option of employer provided 401k plans; and her response, there was no place in the constitution for the government to set up retirement accounts. Ms. Fiorina there was once no place in the constitution for social security, Medicare and Medicaid, but they are now fundamental parts of society even you are for saving, created because they were needed and you have not represented yourself as such a constitutional purist as to abolish them for the sake of the integrity of our most precious document. No, Mr. Rubio, Hillary Clinton’s biggest ‘Super Pac’ isn’t the big, bad, boogeyman labeled mainstream media; the reason her campaign called her Benghazi testimony ‘where she admitted she’s a liar’ the best moment of her campaign and why your comment was overshadowed in the debate hall, is due to the poise with which she handled something exposed previously as a witch hunt. 11 hours total testimony revealing no new information, where, when committee members began to bicker back and forth like children she just smiled, sat and watched, deftly answered tough questions about a fluid situation, long ago established the CIA controlled what was given to the media to catch the people who did it; and we, nor he have any way of knowing what the families were or weren’t told. We do know an anti-Hillary ad using pictures of the personnel who died in Benghazi including a picture of Ambassador Chris Stevens’ grave angered families immensely. Yes Mr. Kasich, let’s give everything back to the states Medicare, Medicaid, department of education ‘because we can run these programs better from where we live,’ because local municipalities have shown so much success with that in the past; Ferguson anyone, how about the textbook revision controversies still going on across the nation, students holding walkouts, protests and engaging in civil disobedience to see history and other subjects reflected accurately. Yes let’s increase local Medicare, Medicaid, food stamp fraud, increase cross state eligibility headaches for people relocating; in fact, why have a United States anymore, why not just make every state its own country— own laws, own money exc. Also, yes Mr. Kasich sending kids mixed messages about drugs is a disaster; sadly it’s a disaster we have been engaging in for decades with both drugs and alcohol. Telling kids there is no difference between a beer, a sip of beer and Smirnoff vodka, not only in terms of the law but in terms of level of intoxication, health effect on the body; telling kids all illicit drugs are all the same from one joint, moderate use of pot to heroine. When kids find out this isn’t true, all drugs are not created equal, they throw out what adults have told them about their dangers ending up extremely addicted to hard core substances. Only recently did we bother to include preventative teaching about prescription drug abuse from robo-tripping (using massive amounts of cough syrup to get high) to addiction to powerful pain killers, forcing users onto highly addictive illicit substances like heroine as a cheaper high.

Fact check reality Ben Carson did have prolonged, if not extensive, dealings with the supplement company brought up appearing in promotional videos, not just a few speeches; experts looking at his tax plan tell news outlets, not only will it not work, easily presumed taxing too little, taking in too little to fund something as large as the most basic, needed functions of a federal government for 300 million and counting persons in the US, but also because he is double counting an entire section of revenue. Perhaps the question should have actually been Ben Carson can you do math on the scale it takes to comprehend and manage the money numbers associated with the federal government? His past too matters since these people on the stage are auditioning, job interviewing for leader of the free world, commander-in-chief not entertainer, court jester-in-chief; do we really want another president with a turbulent, this time violent, past, had a religious conversion going on to office when we elected George W. Bush and what a disaster many think that was? It matters whether or not he was offered the West Point scholarship when he’s running, winning poll votes as the outsider candidate, the anti-politician never held an office before and is lying, lying, like old hat, veteran politicians people currently want nothing to do with. And please don’t tell news viewers they aren’t hearing enough of the substantive things he believes in, things he wants to do for America when we heard loud and clear him say a Muslim shouldn’t be president, earning quite a response from a 12 year old Muslim young man determined to prove him wrong; ironic considering he is a 7th Day Adventist, unofficial and untrusted variation on Christianity, some might remember from the young former  Two and a Half Men star Angus T. Jones, who appeared in a YouTube video alongside controversial pastor Christopher Hudson calling the show filth. Pastor Hudson known to spin outlandish theories telling congregants hurricane Sandy and long lines at gas stations would lead to cannibalism, ‘your baby might start looking like a chicken wing’ or tried to tie Supreme Court justice Sonya Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice to sit on the high court, to a satanic plot; if we elect more of that it will be an exaggerated version of reverend Jeremiah Wright all over again, no thanks. Carly Fiorina should have lost more points, not for pawning off her firing on boardroom politics, though admittedly for using one of her former bosses, Tom Perkins, as a reference, quoting ‘we [Hewlett Packard] were wrong, she was right,’ realizing Mr. Perkins has said, moderatos pointed out, many questionable things including if you make no money you shouldn’t get the right to vote, and if you make a million dollars you should get a million votes; kind-a goes against that whole big government only favors the powerful wealthy and well-connected mantra you were singing all night huh Ms. Fiorina? Or that she was too lazy to update her statistics cribbing off Mitt Romney’s notes  quoting  92% of jobs lost under Obama’s first term were held by women accurate circa 2012 while running, not now; turns out, all numbers complied from the time period, women gained jobs toward the end of 2012. Greater significant to Fiorina’s assertions, job losses by women had more to do with what employment sectors were hit hardest, those routinely held by women; recovery slowed by employer bias and misconceptions about who is in greater need of the job, deferring to men as breadwinners, circumstances having nothing to do with ‘Obama policies.’ Moving from hard and fast on paper, in print numbers, quoted statement facts to practical ones, it’s less Marco Rubio deflecting a question about missing key votes out campaigning, that he was technically correct about the percentage missed by other candidates running for president simultaneously holding lower political office, which newspaper finally endorsed those ‘vote missing louts,’ and more hey aren’t you the guy running in the party always talking about changing Washington; exactly how many times debate night did you say America couldn’t afford another 4 years of Obama and Hillary Clinton’s continuations of his policies? Moderator was right, is that the standard? Beyond that it was your previously flippant attitude virtually saying you had better things to do than putting your little finger in the air, your impression of voting on key legislation, doing what voters sent you there to do.  Donald Trump lie there’s a shock, hardly, where the moderator massively screwed up was backing down, apologizing instead of knowing where she saw his comments about H1b visas for foreign students, where he referred to Marco Rubio as Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator; firing back, it’s on your own website. Pundits loved Mike Huckabee saying his ‘greatest weakness’ was trying to play by the rules, play fair bringing up the whole Kim Davis fight and that he spent a portion of the last debate explaining why she should be granted a religious accommodation, don’t you mean exemption, not to do a huge section of her job nearly shouting we let the Fort Hood shooter, awaiting trial for multiple murders, grow a beard. Guess he forgot that guy growing a beard, religious reasons or not, harms no one, even prevents prison guards concerns about allowing him a razor to shave while Ms. Davis becomes the poster child for bigotry when, if she felt she couldn’t, in good conscience, do her job should have resigned, end of story; note movie theater shooter James Holmes grew a beard and no one cared.  And no, Governor Christie the question was not about fantasy football, whether or not people should be allowed to play fantasy football; the question was about insider trading in fantasy football, how closely fantasy football resembles gambling, that is regulated, day trading, another candidate calling it day trading without the regulation. So, considering those 3 things, and more besides, like propensity for addiction a-la gambling, scamming, lack of self-policing by FF organizers, should the government regulated it like similar enterprises to protect the consumer, wholly valid and appropriate question considering it was breaking news at debate airing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXLF1ssD3NY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0XTh1DGoQc

How is Ben Carson on top in the polls; how is it that Marco Rubio won the night? How is Ted Cruz where he is, how has Rand Paul moved up in the polls far enough to where only Christie and Huckabee are now booted from the next debate stage forced to participate in the undercard matchup beforehand?  The problem here isn’t media bias it’s public response; just before the debate Carson, called rational and a man with morals among the public, participated in a radio interview with Glenn Beck stating he wouldn’t disband the department of education, lining up with popular party rhetoric, instead they would become a policing element for liberal bias in schools. One can guess he means as opposed to the conservative bias fueling abstinence only education pushes from the religious right so paranoid about what kids learn about sex, or their own bodies, the human body in general they voted throughout various districts to scale back anatomy and physiology, biology taught in high school. On the pretext of promoting parasitism, [cough] sanitizing textbooks to call the slave trade transatlantic trade, imperialism expansionism, capitalism free enterprise, one book getting in major trouble publicly for referring to slaves traded during said time as workers. Can you say revival of Sara Palin’s support for the move promoting Abigail Adams and Phyllis Schlafly over Florence Nightingale and Susan B. Anthony; to hell with a little thing called freedom of speech. We all heard Mr. Violent’s take on guns and the Oregon community college shooting almost admonishing students, victims for not attacking the gunman; how is this guy called rational again? To the bias regarding the LGBT community coming from conservatives, it was you Ben Carson who said being gay was a choice, a common religious GOP stance, citing men who go into prison straight and come out gay, result of often forced sex, so it isn’t a giant leap for people to connect your statement: marriage equal one man one woman to that and believe you against LGBT rights, making your presence on boards of companies providing equal benefits a bit odd.  Marco Rubio won the night, how, by deflecting the fact he doesn’t show up for work pointing to other people who are just as bad or worse; question, why can’t the guy who’s always talking about 21st century jobs, preparing America’s young people for 21st century jobs, moving us into the future talk about modernizing congress the same way?  Floor speeches and major congressional business is simulcast on C-span; why can’t senators, house members like him campaigning, attending to other business get this in a live feed or similar format casting their vote via secure mobile app, link, device at the appropriate time? Thus creating a mobile workplace commiserate with all applicable businesses, services today; incidentally cutting down on needed travel time, exorbitant salaries to maintain 2 residences yada, yada, yada, oh. Are we really telling any candidate he won by shrugging off his bad bookkeeping, comingling of personal and campaign funds, use of the GOP credit card for decidedly personal, possibly frivolous, things by saying he didn’t inherit anything. Excuse me Mr. Rubio, but surprise, surprise, moderator was right again, what you did or didn’t inherit and pivoting us to your proud American immigrant story doesn’t dismiss the fact you don’t seem to have the financial acumen to manage your own finances never mind the federal government’s even on the level of the president with other number crunchers and accountant type personnel. You did have a windfall most don’t have in the proceeds from the book you wrote, you did liquidate a retirement account at penalty costs and own, are buying, renting a second home barely keeping your head above water. To our greater shame, we wouldn’t know any of this if Donald Trump hadn’t brought it up; bottom line, what we now know proves maybe neither you nor the guy with 4 bankruptcies should be president. Ted Cruz adds positives to his numbers bashing the media instead of answering the questions asked; to assumed astute watchers who say he wasn’t asked a question about the debt ceiling rather the debt ceiling was used as a backdrop to ask him if he is the kind of problem solver the people needed in Washington. Either way it’s a valid question for a man who shut down the government, cost America untold tourism dollars, credibility on the international stage, prevented people employed by their government from getting their rightfully earned paychecks doing so to stall something that was certain to happen anyway. The guy who is a member of the tea party faction of Republican Party, the party vowing to change Washington with just such tactics making him an ideologue; ideologues decidedly dangerous to governmental function because they do not understand compromise on issues aside from values, do not understand give and take, feel they are on a mission from god, mission from the people impeding their agreement to anything but their own way. A problem solver question that should have equally been directed at Senator Paul as well seeing as he espouses the same approach, but because she said filibuster and committee to ascertain this, that and something else it sounds better?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUV2u_dvCnA

As a voter who plans to cast their ballot come 2016, John Kasich was 100% correct when he lashed out at the American voter rather than moderators or his fellow candidates seemingly mocking their tax plans, immigration ideas, slogans; we do need to wake up, we do need to recognize we are about to elect a person who can’t do the job, has no idea how to get things done. We elected divided government republicans controlling one house, democrats the other; it didn’t work. And when it didn’t work we blamed the man at the top, the president, who happens to be a democrat, swinging the pendulum to the other side in 2014 midterms. Here we are again about to make the same unforced error to use a tennis term; to call Ben Carson rational not only examining his personal beliefs but what he wants to do for the country would be funny if the situation weren’t so serious. Can’t even explain his tax plan thoroughly, apart from debate time limits, at event rallies, instead referring people young and old to his website, either he can’t adequately tell the truth or he has an abysmal memory, possible old age delusion regarding the west point story, the supplement company, being a doctor mixes up RU486 and emergency contraception, downplays the fact child birth is the most life-threatening thing to women even in the United States to support his anti- abortion position. Marco Rubio wants to lead America into the coming years of the 21st century but can’t talk about modernizing his workplace, can’t even show up for work and his solution is to modernize America’s education system is to reinstate vocational training, things people do with their hands; except most of the jobs today, related to the H1b visas discussed, vocational training needed aren’t things you do with your hands absent laying fiber-optic cable for whole home Wi-Fi. Sure we will always need new generation welders, plumbers, bricklayers, and job seekers can appreciate that before hiring outside the country for teach skills the job be listed 180 days, but business wise that isn’t feasible, doesn’t address the larger problem with businesses all—unwillingness to place job ads where they can be found by all interested workers, take people with the most skills available and train them for on the job specifics, work in concert with k-12 schools, community colleges and universities to ensure a steady stream of workers with the skills they need.  As an early millennial voter who has come up against the your overqualified for this job, under qualified in your field problem I know how important these steps, and reviving the internship, apprenticeship that consists of actual work, not getting the boss’ coffee, are.  Nor should immigrants’ ability to get into this country be based on whether you have a relative here or merit based on what you can bring with you; this is inherently unfair where aptitude would be the better test assessing how well they would do in school, training, work ethic. Remember people are coming here because they don’t have opportunities, education in their own countries. Ted Cruz follows his debate performance, caricatures of questions soundly disproven, with an appearance where he stated, on debate rules, if you have never voted in a republican primary you shouldn’t be allowed to moderate a republican debate; obvious question why, from a voters standpoint this provides contrast, makes the system seem less rigged, people going too easy on the candidates. In fact for the sake of integrity and information it should be opposites, democratic moderators doing republican debates and republicans doing democratic debates with questions from the public, analysts, experts on topics, like the one we just had. Whatever happened to freedom of speech, exchange of ideas and what would someone like Ted Cruz do to it?  Ms. Fiorina independent the question should the government provide retirement accounts to freelance economy workers, you have to admit our economy is changing in this direction and they need something since everyone is telling them not to count on social security; plus the question was should or will the government investigate providing retirement accounts to freelance economy workers considering their part in the economy, a question that deserved better than a flippant ‘answer’ about what is or isn’t constitutional. It is the less argued point about raising the minimum wage, if manufacturing, high paying ‘good’ jobs are gone and we have evolved to a duel technology and service economy, which we have; shouldn’t any fully employed person be able to make a living wage? Note she did not suggest an alternative such as an IRA; I would say ironic the government, the president did something similar with healthcare, expanding it to more and more people including freelance economy workers who couldn’t otherwise afford it, but this crowd hates Obama care and intends to repeal it if elected. Confronting her tax code idea head on, 3-4 pages is patently unrealistic as is reducing it to something you can place on a postcard; never suggested that should be, reducing pages by typeface a student recommended this for all government documents, going from Times New Roman, to Garamond keeping readability while saving ink and paper. Never suggested but already done by president Obama regarding mortgage documents, laws requiring said documents be in plain, understandable English, not industry jargon and legalese; how many pages, layers of confusion would disappear if that were applied to the tax code?  Lastly, the biggie, never suggested let alone implemented, going line by line through both business and individual tax codes alike removing redundancies to start, eliminating insane loopholes allowing businesses to buy foreign sewer parts exclusively for the tax write off, just one example. No Senator Paul we should under no circumstances raise the retirement age whether it’s the ‘obesity epidemic’ projected to shorten the lives of young people, or that curing ‘lifestyle diseases, heart disease, diabetes, means supporting healthier lunch programs for kids Mr. Huckabee you’ve come out against, or that we already have people working unto senility. The link below says it all as do the number of older drivers plowing into buildings; I for one am sick of seeing glassy eyed, gray haired workers at fast food counters, job placement, social services anywhere and everywhere who can’t do the job they’ve been doing for the past 40 years and haven’t moved to a lower octane job, can’t function at a lower level and are forced to work financially or because of previous increases to the retirement age, up to 67 currently depending on birthdate. These people deserve to retire, deserve their social security, can volunteer and stay active in their community making room for other workers, to say nothing of the ones with torn out joints at 55 from hard, manual labor, 18-wheel truck drivers with bad knees by then, those who never make it to 65 due to chronic health problems. Mr. Kasich, dugs are a problem in America but, marijuana, how his response came about, a question on legalization and the revenues it could generate for his state, on the other hand is a natural substance, relatively few side effects, has medicinal applications even in recreational formats from easing cancer drug side effects, phantom pains for amputees to helping calm bipolar symptoms better than on market meds. When we get better ‘legal’ ones that do the job along with a dozen so an old man can get an erection, then we can criticize their self-medicating; further legalizing recreational marijuana means we aren’t waging war on a drug causing the least problems setting up scenarios like the teen fatally shot after his date bought pot from a plain clothes cop, speeding off because he likely didn’t know it was the police, all of the above, why I won’t be voting republican.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/9th-circuit-addresses-senility-federal-judges-head-35043936

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOM3WKUguV4]

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