Vote Harvesting

                                                                       

I was out running errands this afternoon, tuned into National Public Radio and was listening to a short report about voting concerns.  Of course, being NPR, the entire focus was on liberal concerns; that old Putin over there in Russia will put his computer hackers to work and electronically send a million or so Hillary votes over to The Donald.  

Second on the liberal wonk's concern list was again Putin; that he might release some really serious dirt on Hillary...mined from 33,000 "lost" emails.

While I was listening to these tales of woe a rather more viable point got my attention.  It seems the U.S. National Election Commission has found that nearly 20% of the voter rolls are wrong....either folks had changed addresses and not updated their voter info, or, in other instances the commission found folks who had voted in multiple states, or in states where they were not registered to vote, had been declared dead by the Social Security Commission, but had somehow managed to cast a vote years after their demise, and perhaps most frightening, voters whose principle address turned out to be in Mexico.

Those ill tidings reminded me of a state court decision last week right here in Arizona.   A couple of years ago the Arizona Statehouse passed a law precluding the practice of "vote harvesting".  It seems Democrats, many of them transplants from California, had made a highly organized effort to collect votes from folks either too stupid, too uncaring or too lazy to mail in those yellow early ballots that came in their mail box."What a shame", said the Dems...we need to do something about this".  So they got some Soros money, and some labor union money, and they went out and bought bottles of wine and thousands of whole chocolate cakes, then showed up at the door of likely non-voters.  If they found the resident inclined to vote Republican they thanked him for his time and moved on, with their cake and their wine.  But, when they came to a house that was sympathetic to liberal causes, out came the cake and vino, a black ball point pen to help them fill out the ballot, then carried those ballots to the mail box.  That's how "vote harvesting" went down in Arizona.   And, lest you think those Dems helped the Republican stay-at-homes fill out their Republican choices, well, you might think it a bit fishy that someone found thousands of those mail in ballots meant to elect a Republican....wait for it!...in a dumpster out near Tempe!  (Democrat votes only please!)  I understand that in Nevada and Colorado and other potential swing states vote harvesting can be even more elaborate...and rewarding for any liberal sitting on the electoral fence!    Just this week I read that Colorado libs might harvest votes with the promise of free pot!  (and I don't mean kitchenware).

Well, last week a state appeals judge denied a Democratic Party challenge to the law, and upheld the state law against vote harvesting.  The judge thought those going out and soliciting ballots for goodies was just a bit too much.  

Don't you all find it ironic that liberals can't seem to avoid cheating, even as they offer just loads of government bennies to win those votes?  Isn't there something wrong with their basic political philosophies if they can't win on the issues?  Yes, voter fraud is alive and well.  Government "vote buying" already thrives amid the "47% folks", coming straight from that long government gravy train throwing food stamp cards and green checks from the balcony on the back caboose!    In Ohio they win votes with free Obamaphones, in the Southwest they win them by allowing illegal Mexicans to vote, in the ghetto they win them over by promising four more years of serious ass-kissing.  Why are all those ruses not enough?  

Could it possibly be that liberals can't win if they don't cheat?  That's a rhetorical question, folks.

Sad.  Damned Sad.

On Tonight's Debate

                                                                           

It has often been written that the key to our democracy has been our inherent low regard for politicians. Until politicians achieved the ability to buy your vote through the dispensation of your own tax dollars, we citizens looked on politicians with a wary eye. 

Every two years, or every four years we citizenry made our politicians jump through hoops, an electoral carnival where we took nothing they said very seriously, expecting nothing from government except to stay out of our lives as much as possible.

That all changed with Franklin Roosevelt. Using the power surrendered to him during the depression, Roosevelt created a citizenry more dependent on government. 

And it didn't matter that most of Roosevelt's many, many federal plans failed because, by then the east coast intellectuals were selling FDR as a massive success...to serve as a role model for every future liberal since.

Well, throughout the fifties we fought pretty hard against that notion. Back then we still possessed a pretty good work ethic, and still kept big government at arm's length.

Then, in the early sixties, a man who was plagued with self doubt that he was loved used the power of the federal purse to institute the great American giveaway, LBJ's Great Society.

And from that time on the "let's take what we can get for free" game was on. And with that came massive fraud, waste and abuse of our tax dollars. But far more lethal for American democracy was a growing belief that government bureaucrats could solve your problems...and in a flash half of America was enslaved by a political party.

And, with government as the new god, God was no longer important. The church was no longer important. Hell, even fathers were no longer important because "Daddy Government" was here to save the day, first through a heftier welfare check, then free medical, free housing, food stamps, free child care, and free school breakfasts, now expanded to free lunch...with some school districts now offering free supper to succor kids in after school programs.

All of the above is pure digression. As the debate hour nears I'm looking a the American citizenry far more than those up there on the stage. I'm looking at those "47 percenters" who are waiting with bated breath to see if The Donald can avoid the thousand land mines set for him by Hillary and the mainstream media. 

And the Trump supporters are divided; half of them wanting him to scream "crooked Hillary", the other half praying like hell that he'll avoid those mine fields...that he'll not talk about his incestuous lust for pretty daughter, or how big his hands and penis are, and that he can just keep a modicum of civil tongue in his head and try not to screw up when the moderator asks him about the Ukraine or Aleppo. 

Yes, we've still got the carnival, we've still got the clowns, but they now have their own personal cheering sections and we are more divided as a nation than we have ever been.

So, go ahead and watch the debate. The media says anywhere from 80 to 100 million will. But frankly, I'm going to be paying more attention to the "watchers" than I will the "watched". 

Tonight's debate is that 100 car pileup on a freeway, with a hundred million "gawkers" watching and praying for carnage. And sadly, none of the politicians can help us avoid the carnage and move on down the proverbial road of progress. That's up to us...and we are failing.

So, to each his own tonight. Break out the popcorn, pop a beer, and pull up a chair. Just know that neither of the two clowns have the answers we need.

A Few Debate Pointers For The Donald

                                                                   

As the first Presidential debate nears I'm sure Clinton and Trump are already trotting out "dummies" to assume the role of opponent in the many practice sessions prior to the debate.  Not that Trump ever listens to anyone (which is his achilles heel) but, if he did, here's a few debate pointers I'd offer:

Hillary:  "I ask you, America..what is Mr. Trump hiding in his taxes?  Why won't he release them?"

Trump:  "Folks, Hillary is your typical liberal, always wanting to get into your personal business.  I'm mean, really, has anyone forgotten Hillary's pal, IRS Chief Lois Lerner, and how she persecuted conservatives?"  "Folks, instead of my tax returns, you ought to be asking Hillary and Bill how they amassed $200 million dollars in personal wealth while never working in the private sector in their entire lives!".  "That's what you should be asking!"

On Foreign Policy

Hillary:  "The problem with Mr. Trump is that he scares the bejesus out of our allies!"  "He has absolutely no foreign policy experience!"

Trump:  "Well, I have to admit that Hillary has far more foreign policy experience.....she knows em all by name....cause she and Bill have collected checks with their names on them...hundreds of millions from those checks."  "And hasn't she been successful in foreign affairs.....like the Egyptian Arab Spring, the Russian Re-Set, Libya, Syria, the Iran Nuclear Deal.....I'll tell you right now, if that's foreign policy experience, please pass me by!"

Hillary:   "Oh, Mr. Trump, at least I don't go around publicly praising Vladimir Putin!"

Trump:  "No, Madam Secretary, you don't....you do it behind close doors...do you even want to get into those sales of uranium to the Russians, just as they were writing a big check for the Clinton foundation?

On Women Issues

Hillary:  "Donald Trump has shown time and time again how little respect he has for American women!  He has said outrageous things about them!"

Trump:  "You mean like calling all of the women Bill had an affair with "bimbos?" "And your own senior advisor is married to a guy who gets off sending pics of his penis on the internet!"  Please don't talk to me about disrespecting women....I've hired more women and paid them better than you could even dream of!"

On Trust

Hillary:  "Come November the American people will have to make a decision about who they can best trust to lead this nation. ...I believe I'm the one.  I'm not a Wall Street mogul and I care about the little people."

Trump:  "No, that's true, Hillary, you're not a business person."  But we'd all like you to release those transcripts from those $200,000 dollars speeches you gave to every big bank in the nation....I'm sure you sucked up to them big time to pull in that kind of cash."

Concluding Statements:

Hillary:  "My fellow Americans, if you give me your vote in November, I promise to continue with President Obama's policies; in foreign affairs, with Obamacare, with blanket amnesty for "undocumented" migrants, and with his wonderful policies so transparent and above board during these last eight years."

Trump:  "I don't need to say another word....Hillary just gave you all the reasons why you should vote for me".

Note:  Nope, Trump won't take my advice here.  You are free to forward this to his campaign staff if you like....don't have much hope that he'd use it...but if he did he'd win that first debate.

Chalk One Up For Trump

                                                                         

Last week, right here in Phoenix, Donald Trump gave one of the most courageous speeches I've heard since Ronald Reagan roamed the White House.  And it took a lot of courage to give that speech on immigration.  For a couple of weeks Trump's handlers had encouraged him to back off his stance on illegal immigration.  And I thought sure he would, fresh off the plane from his meeting with the President of Mexico.  

I know Trump was tempted.  Hillary Clinton had just gone through another miserable week of even more email and Clinton Foundation scandals.  A better politician might have looked at his slight rise in the polls, and Hillary's steady decline, and decided to back off from his immigration stance.

To be objective, he did...just a little.  Throughout the whole speech, which was the best speech on immigration I've ever heard, Trumped pushed hard on the "criminal alien" element.  In fact, if you listened closely, or read the transcript of the speech, you might have noticed that Trump left a tiny window open for those here illegally but guilty of no other crimes than an illegal crossing.  He opened that little window when he said "only after we've built the wall, hired more border patrol, and deported the criminals, only then could we look at the less "criminally innocent".  In point of fact that is the same immigration policy espoused by both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio.

As the speech went on Trump appeared to close that window, as his words hardened and became more general in nature.

However, Trump deserves huge "cred"...for sticking to his views, even in the face of what must have been tremendous pressure to soften his stance.

And the speech itself was comprehensive...more detailed than any speech on immigration, given by any politician that I've heard for the last thirty years.  He rightly covered visa overstays, E-Verify and absolutely  nailed it on the the cost to taxpayers to feed, medicate, educate and incarcerate these millions of Mexican invaders.   Was the speech polished?  No. He repeated himself too much and talked far too long.  But Trump achieved his aims, even at the cost of losing some of his supporters who advocate for a very large blanket amnesty...or at least a grand ignoring of those who violated our immigration laws.  

Did Trump make hay with this speech?  I think so.  I believe there are far more people fed up with illegal immigration than the pollsters and liberal media would like us to think.  And, through fear of peer pressure, or for fear of being labelled "racist", there are millions of folks who will go into that voting booth, their "political correctness" checked at the curtain, and will pull the lever for Trump...the only one in this race who recognizes the larger moral and societal implications of not enforcing our immigration laws.

Am I campaigning for Trump?  Nope.  He'd have to quit spouting idiocies (which he has nicely done for the last two weeks) and just keep making that same immigration speech he gave here in Phoenix last week for me to consider him.

We'll see.  But I'm most appreciative that Trump stuck to his guns...and didn't fold to those who would like Trump to "screw America" again, as other politicians have done, and just say it's okay to violate our immigration laws.  Let's hope he continues with that same principled courage the rest of the way.