The second Democratic debate happened last Saturday night. The night before, Paris experienced a horrible terrorist attack which had killed 129 people and wounded many more. My thoughts go out to them.
Bernie Sanders was asked specifically if he thought climate change was still our biggest threat and he said YES.
Bernie’s answer is absolutely right. Climate change is still our biggest threat. Obama even got blasted for saying that climate change impacts more people than terrorism. And there’s data to prove it.
Bernie’s plan to combat ISIS is to create a global coalition and let the other countries in the region take care of it; like Iran. Iran is ISIS’ enemy. We have allies in the area that have millions of troops.
The other candidates (including Hillary) have no real plan. In fact Huckabee’s plan is to tear up the Iran nuclear deal. Is he stupid? Iran and ISIS are enemies.
It is very sad what has happened in Paris. And my thoughts do go out to them. But when you tally up deaths from guns in this country (which 129+ people die in four days due to guns in this country) and deaths due to climate change; it’s clear what OUR biggest threats are and they’re not terrorism.
Oh and by the way, if you’re not informed on what is happening in Syria, here’s a cartoon that can explain things to you.
Thought I’d blog about Hillary Clinton’s not-so-great moments in the first Democratic debate of the 2016 presidential election. The debate took place on October 13, 2015.
- When discussing banks that are too big to fail, Bernie Sanders said his plan was to break up the big banks. Anderson Cooper then asked Hillary Clinton how her plan was better. She said:
…The plan that I have put forward would actually empower regulators to break up big banks if we thought they posed a risk.
If they posed a risk? How about now? The largest five banks control 45% of the industry’s total assets!
- After Bernie Sanders brought up the deregulation that happened under the Clinton administration and how we need to break the big banks up, Anderson Cooper asked Hillary Clinton to respond. She responded by saying:
I represented Wall Street, as a senator from New York, and I went to Wall Street in December of 2007 — before the big crash that we had — and I basically said, “cut it out! Quit foreclosing on homes! Quit engaging in these kinds of speculative behaviors.”
Clearly that worked.
- When Anderson Cooper asked how would a Hillary Clinton administration not be a third term from President Obama, Hillary Clinton responded by saying:
Well, I think that’s pretty obvious. I think being the first woman president would be quite a change from the presidents we’ve had up until this point, including President Obama.
Wow, that is new!
- Anderson Cooper asked if Hillary Clinton regretted her vote on the Patriot Act of 2001 (you know, the one that took away liberties such as habeas corpus, Hillary Clinton said this:
No, I don’t. I think it was necessary to make sure that we were able after 9/11 to put in place the security that we needed.
Aww, come on, really?
- When talking about the DREAM act and instate tuition for undocumented immigrants, Anderson Cooper asked where Hillary Clinton stood on providing it since both Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley are in for it. She said this:
My plan would support any state that takes that position, and would work with those states and encourage more states to do the same thing.
Anderson Cooper then interjected and asked if she believed undocument immigrants should get instate college tuition, she replied:
…If their states agree, then we want more states to do the same thing.
So she’s for STATES RIGHTS? WTF?
- Anderson Cooper said Hillary Clinton plead guilty to being kind of moderate and center and asked her if she changed her identity depending on who she was talking to. She replied:
No. I think that, like most people that I know, I have a range of views, but they are rooted in my values and my experience.
A “range of views?” Clearly, yes, her views are whatever is politically popular at the time. She helped negotiate the TPP and is now against it. She also switched her position on the Keystone XL Pipeline, free college tuition, gay marriage… the list goes on.
- When Martin O’Malley said Hillary Clinton was against Glass-Steagall, Hillary Clinton responded with this:
Well, you know, everybody on this stage has changed a position or two.
How original. And that came from a real presidential candidate!
The full transcript can be found at the Washington Post’s website. Please note that it is subject to change since big media has been changing things all over the internet since the debate. Their online polling said Bernie Sanders won, focus groups said Bernie Sanders won, he got the most google searches, the most followers on social media; yet all the news outlets claim Hillary Clinton won.
Special United States! Look at how tiny the scroll bar is on the School Shootings in the US page! And that page is just tables! It’s not even any descriptions! We’re so special we get our own page when it comes to school shootings.
Anyway, so I’m on twitter today looking at some of the #UCCShooting tweets since yet ANOTHER school shooting happened. Here are some good tweets:
And two of my favorites from twitter (that have been said in may different ways):
- How come baking a cake is participating in gay marriage but selling a gun to someone ISN’T participating in murder?
- One Mexican kills someone = DEPORT THEM ALL; Twenty angry white dudes commit mass shootings = LET’S NOT RUSH TO JUDGEMENT.
I have these pages bookmarked on my phone just in case I get into a debate with a right wing nut job over guns:
I have to wonder what a poor guy in a rural area (let’s call him Bob) and a rich business man have in common… they both vote Republican. But why? Why does the poor guy seem to think that voting the same as the business man will benefit him or be in his best self interest?
I think people need to think about which political party really aligns with their beliefs. I can’t see many people like Bob actually having the same interests as the Koch brothers. Think about some of the things the Koch brothers stand for:
- No taxes on the rich
- No government regulations
- No protections for the “commons” like the environment
- No protections for workers
- Unlimited money in our elections
- No free education
- No social safety net
- No guaranteed health care coverage
- Free market that isn’t regulated
- No tariffs
How can any of these views match what a working person like Bob believes?
Sure I guess in some distant universe far, far away Bob could lift himself up by his bootstraps and become rich and have the same ideals. It does happen but probably not to Bob or the millions of low-wage workers…
So why want no taxes on the rich? Why wouldn’t Bob want government to regulate what companies can and cannot do? It’s his planet, too. Doesn’t Bob want to be protected from his boss demanding him to work 70 hours a week with little pay, no benefits; or else get fired? Bob doesn’t have millions of dollars to spend on our political process so why would he want the Koch brothers to be able to do it? Maybe Bob wants to better himself or send his kids to college so why wouldn’t Bob want affordable or free education? If Bob gets sick or if he has to stay home with his sick wife, wouldn’t Bob want some safety net since he most likely doesn’t have savings since his wage is so low anyway? Wouldn’t he want to be sure he has health coverage no matter what? Wouldn’t Bob want regulations on Wall Street so they don’t fuck all of us over again like in 2008? Doesn’t Bob want to make sure his job stays in the United States and not go over seas where someone can do the same thing for pennies on the dollar to what Bob makes?
The only thing I can honestly see Bob and the likes of the Koch brothers having in common is guns. But this issue is negligible since the Democrats haven’t done anything on gun control. They’re too afraid of the NRA to do something as simple as expanded background checks (which could have prevented mass shootings).
I don’t understand how people like Bob would want to vote for the same interests as the Koch brothers. They’re clearly on two sides of the political spectrum.
I am really getting sick of people attacking Planned Parenthood. People seem to think all Planned Parenthood is out to do is destroy fetus’. They’re for family planning. They’re for helping people. Like 3% of what they do is abortions and yet that’s all they get flack for. They never get any good press. Get the facts.
If they do ANYTHING wrong, it’s like open season. They get flack from Congress, the Republicans, and basically anyone who is pro-life.
Planned Parenthood is one of the only places where women can go and get help and not be judged. (Besides by those idiot protesters who stand out front of the Planned Parenthood offices holding up stupid signs of dead babies; cause that’s effective.)
Women who are poor, women who are in college, any woman can go to Planned Parenthood and get their yearly examinations and mammograms for free; without insurance. It’s one of the only places that does this. They can even get birth control for free.
I know; I did it for years. I didn’t have health insurance for ten years of my life (through high school and college). Planned Parenthood was there for me.
I take offense to anyone who wants to smear them and tear them down. They’re doing good things. Why can’t people and the press see that? They’re helping people.
When I was in college my husband (then boyfriend) and I worked this minimum wage job up in western Maryland just so we could be together. We worked 30-40 hours a week so pretty much full time. We earned the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour.
I remember getting my paycheck and it instantly going to food and rent and that was it. I didn’t have any left over. In fact I may have owed money.
Maryland is awesome and liberal so since then the minimum wage in our state has risen to $8.00 an hour (soon to be $8.25 July 1st 2015, $8.75 July 1st 2016, $9.25 July 1st 2017, and $10.10 July 1st 2018). I wrote my congressmen a lot of letters regarding the minimum wage in our state.
Using an inflation calculator, if I were a college student working minimum wage now, I’d be earning around $7 an hour in circa 2005 dollars. That could have afforded me a lot better life. I might have actually gotten by without borrowing money that summer.
Well that’s this blog post’s story. Vote Bernie Sanders and vote for a higher minimum wage!
Everybody thinks the US is a first world country. However some things in this country make it less than great. I think that America isn’t really a first world, but somewhere between second and first. We show a lot of the same behavior or characteristics of a country that isn’t first class. Here are some examples:
Healthcare
We’re way behind a lot of other countries who are not first world; like Cuba. The Affordable Care Act did great things but we’re not there yet. Every citizen isn’t guaranteed healthcare yet. Our life expectancy (#51) and infant mortality rates (#50) are still higher than a lot of other countries. Even some which we consider worse.
Women In Power
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the US is 80th in the world in women in parliaments. There are only 20 senators who are women and 79 (or 18%) are in the house of representatives. We still haven’t had a female vice president or president. Even the Philippines has had a women president.
Incarceration Rate
We’re number one in prisoners per capita at 716 per 100,000 population; behind Russia at 490 per 100,000 population. We blow Mexico out of the water. They only have 209 per 100,000 population. We’re less than 5% of the population yet we have almost 25% of the prison population of the world. First world countries start around 100 on the list, but we’re number one in incarceration rate.
Birth Rate
We still have a lot of kids in this country which isn’t like a first world country. And it’s really funny too. Other countries have a lot of incentives for their citizens to have kids, but not in the US. We don’t even get paid maternity leave. The only thing guaranteed for us is under Clinton’s FMLA; and that’s unpaid.
Guns
We have the highest number of guns per capita (and the highest gun deaths). We have 88 guns per 100 people and 10 gun deaths per 100,000 population. Switzerland is behind us with less than half our number (45.7 per 100 people).
Income Inequality
We’re not doing well here either. We’re worse than countries like Egypt, Niger, Iraq, Iran. Even India and Ethiopia have better income equality than we do. Our gini coefficient is at 40.8.
Military
The United States is always high when it comes to military expenditures. We’re number one in defense spending. In fact, according to the World Bank, we spend 4.2% of GDP on military. We’re in the company of all third world and below nations. The UK, only 2.4%.
As we prepare to enter or affect yet another region in the middle east, it’s nice to know that after 150+ people died at the hands of an evil dictator the US will be there… Never mind that when thousands upon thousands were being killed by genocide in Darfur we didn’t go in or try to help them but whatever.
I guess we never crossed some “red line” with the number of deaths via gun violence in this country to warrant something to actually be done.
The right likes to use that argument for gun violence “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. How about for chemical weapons… “chemical weapons don’t kill people, people kill people”?
Maybe is it that chemical weapons don’t give us more freedom but guns do?
Or how about “the only way to stop a bad guy with a chemical weapon is with a good guy with a chemical weapon”?
I’m confounded.
Before I start this post which I’m sure a lot of people would say I’m wrong on… I would like to say how pathetic it is that our Senate couldn’t pass one of the poorest, weakest gun control bills ever. And, no offense, how stupid some people are who believe the lies from the NRA. It’s daft that a bill that could have saved some lives couldn’t get passed in our country.
Anyway, to start my thoughts about what happened in Boston… I understand this was a terrorist attack but I’m shocked that the explosion that happened in Texas didn’t get covered. In Texas, one of their fertilizer plants exploded and killed 14 people and injured 200. Five times the amount of people were killed in Texas than were killed in Boston. And twice as many were injured in Texas than in Boston… Yet the media, all they covered was Boston.
It’s very sad to hear in our country of business’ not being regulated enough that something happens which costs people their lives. The last time the fertilizer plant in Texas was inspected by Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was in 1985. Almost thirty years ago.
Due to them not being inspected regularly, the plant could get away with having crappy safety standards, or no safety standards at all. This happens a lot in coal mining and oil. They either pay the fine or don’t do anything at all. The fines are less expensive than to actually implement safety standards for their employees. We saw another example of this recently with the pipeline explosion in Arkansas.
I can’t understand anyone being against this kind of regulation. I can’t understand how anyone can argue on the side of the business. We all want clean water, we all want safe cars, police, etc. We all don’t want to see people or animals hurt or killed. It’s just sad.
It makes me angry that these kinds of things can be prevented. It also makes me sad that more people died from a lack of government regulation than from a terrorist attack; however we’ll always remember Boston. Will anyone remember Texas?
My husband, a loving Liberal, does not believe in the glass ceiling for women.
Reflecting on National Women’s Day, I think about how women have changed the work force. Although we have in major ways, I feel like it hasn’t been enough. The statistics simply do not show that women are making that much of an impact in breaking through the glass ceiling.
More women are now going to college and graduating than men. However, women still make less than their male colleagues in the same fields. Only 4% of Fortune 500 Company CEO’s are women. This year women hold only 97 (or 18.1%) of the 535 congressional seats (PDF – 663 KB) according to Center for American Women and Politics.
I think these kinds of barriers can be broken through confidence. I think that if we were to give girls at a young age the strength and confidence they can grow up to be as good (if not better) than their male colleagues. I feel this in my own life, for example, when I was applying for jobs. I wouldn’t dare apply for a job that I did not meet 100% of requirements. However, my husband has applied for jobs of which he’s had little experience.
I feel in order to break through this glass ceiling, women need to be given confidence at a young age. It would also help if we started to elect more women to congress and get more women in top positions, therefore providing more examples that we can do it.
Also to note I did a paper and presentation (PDF – 16 KB) about women in my own field (computer science) in college. The statistics and data haven’t changed much since then.
I find it interesting that very few gun companies are publicly owned. In fact, out of the most popular gun manufacturers only a few are publicly owned and traded.
Most of the companies you’re hard pressed to find information about the actual person(s) who own them. They seem to want to keep their lives very private; especially after tragedies like the one that just happened in Connecticut. Come on, what can they say? Their product was used to kill 20 innocent kids.
I’ve said on my twitter that I’m sick of this gun debate. I’ve said what I had to, quoted statistics about guns, etc. At this point I think no guns for anyone except law enforcement… And even there that may be a stretch considering police used 90 rounds to take down a teenager in Los Angeles.
I hope Obama is true to his word in what he said last night. This debate has been over. The fat lady has sung and is well on her way back home now. The time for action is long overdue.
With this question about “are you better off than you were four years ago”, I thought I’d blog about how I am better off than I was four years ago.
Here’s a few examples of how my family is better off under Obama:
- Obama helped my Aunt Ruth by bailing out the automotive industry. Without that, my Aunt would have lost her health insurance.
- Obama extended unemployment benefits, which helped my mom.
- The Cash For Clunkers program helped Bri’s parents trade in their old van for a Honda Civic.
Note that this is just a list of what Obama has done that effects me personally. He’s also done a lot more that’s good for our country such as federal support for stem cell research, killing Osama bin Laden, overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, bills for veterans, signed START, overturning Bush’s deregulation for endangered species; the list goes on and on. Almost every area that you can think of, Obama has done something about.
I’ll probably blog again a little closer to the election with other stuff that matters.
Driving down the road last Sunday, I saw this…
If only the truck owner had someone to thank for having the ability to get parts to fix his truck. Chevy is still around producing trucks like his. You know, Romney was against the auto bailout… just sayin.
The story of Titanic has always fascinated me, as it has most of America, I think. After its tragedy we as a people quickly leaped into action demanding answers and requiring regulations from our government so catastrophes like this can’t happen again.
Here are some of the lessons we learned from Titanic and regulations we put in place:
- Have lifeboat drills
- Ensure that there are enough lifeboats for all aboard
- Always have a wireless operator on duty 24/7
- A special patrol was set up to look out for icebergs and report them
- Other safety regulations managed through SOLAS
- Man is fallible
I also think about the Triangle fire that happened a little over a hundred years ago and the lessons we learned from that.
I have to wonder about other incidents that occurred somewhat recently like Virginia Tech and the 2011 Tuscan shootings. What lessons did we learn from them? I’m sure we learned something but the problem is regulations were not put in place to prevent anything like that happening again.
That’s the great thing about what came from Titanic. All those lives were lost but because of their sacrifice, so many more have been saved.
Why can’t we always learn from our mistakes?
This is a new post from an earlier post which I delete to refresh. I sometimes misplace my notes. This updated blog post has even more information (evidence) of how Obama is like Reagan.
Sometimes it astounds me how much Republicans hate Obama. Have they any clue that the left in this country has actually moved to the right? The right have moved so far to the right that the middle (“common ground”, “bipartisanship”) is no longer the middle anymore.
I never considered Obama a progressive. He was always just a liberal to me. I even got into a debate one time about how “liberal” Obama really is. He’s not really, when you look at it. He’s more moderate. In fact, one could even argue that he’s what used to be called a moderate Republican.
Obama and Reagan actually share a lot of the same things. Reflecting on a few we can see:
- Both wanted to disarm nuclear weapons
- Both lowered taxes
- Both increased military spending
- Both increased the national debt (by a lot)
- Both wanted a raise in capital gains tax
- Reagan appointed the first woman to the Supreme Court; Obama appointed two women
- Both tried to find a bipartisan consensus with Congress on simplifying the tax code
- Both ran on hope and optimism
- Both faced economic turmoil and high unemployment
- Both had midterm setbacks
I’ve blogged before on my Politics Notes how Reagan should be considered liberal by today’s standards. In fact, Reagan is further to the left than Obama on a few issues:
- Reagan raised taxes
- Reagan increased the size of government while Obama has decreased it
- Obama has been harder on immigration where as Reagan gave amnesty to millions of undocumented workers
- Reagan helped create Osama bin Laden where as under Obama he was destroyed
Contrary to republican belief, Obama has NOT raised taxes, expanded illegal immigration, nor has he increased the size of government. Their idol, Reagan, did all of these.
It’s just kind of shocking how much Obama is hated by the right, yet their hero and him shared a lot of the same ideology and we could argue, Reagan was to the left of Obama.
Not trying to quote Bill Maher so much but he had another good rant on Overtime this week. The panel was talking about Michelle Duggar and her campaigning with Rick Santorum and how overpopulation is a lie. Bill Maher said it pretty well.
You know what it is? I hear this from people all the time. They say have you ever flown over the country and when you look down, there’s a lot of nothing? That’s true but that’s not the issue. It’s about resources. It’s true we could actually fit on the planet a lot more people but there’s not enough food and water for them. Especially now that China and India are eating meat and getting cars. We just can’t do it. We would need to like triple the population, we’d need like five more earths. Again this comes from scientists, it’s not in the Bible, it’s probably bull s**t.
Is it so bad that I think that the Duggars are sick and selfish? When people have so many kids, it makes me not want to have kids even more to try to decrease the population and make up for them being so selfish and procreating in such abundance. The earth can only handle so much.
I’m not a fan of Rush Limbaugh. (Surprise, surprise.)
I think that Rush should NOT be booted off the air. It’s free speech even though what he said was slander. He could and should be sued for it.
In order for justice to be served in this, his advertisers should pull out and so should his listeners. Giving Rush any more attention from this indecent will only straighten him.
People love to hate and they’ll start listening to Rush and start following Rush on Twitter because they hate him. That only gives him strength.
Americans should stop listening to Rush. The media should stop covering Rush. Sooner or later he will fade away.
That’s the problem with the media. They pay so much attention to these “Sarah Palin’s”, “Rush Limbaugh’s”, “Lindsay Loehan’s”, they get away from the real topics and issues and only give these fake phonies more popularity and power. If they were to stop covering Rush and Sarah, their popularity would plummet and they would go away.
On another note: Sad, sad news that Dennis Kucinich lost his primary. America has lost one of its true progressives and representatives of the poor. Dennis Kucinich is a man of integrity and, I believe, one of the few members of Congress that people could actually trust. I hope he considers running for senator or something else later. We need people like Kucinich who can walk the walk, stand up for his beliefs and do what is right for this country.
I really hope this year is not another 2010.
Why the hell is the so called “liberal media” not talking about this? This bill gives the military the ability to detain and arrest US citizens indefinitely who are suspected of terrorism… on US SOIL and WITHOUT TRIAL.
Obama, veto this bill. This bill is sick. How many more liberties do we have to give away in the name of terrorism? Especially when we’ve killed bin Laden and seem to have the whole “terrorism” thing under control.
If we keep taking away the rights of our citizens, there will be no country to protect. And let us not forget the wise words of Benjamin Franklin: “Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither.”
I’m surprised this story hasn’t gotten more traction in the “liberal media”. A report from Galveston Bay, Texas shows that climate change is the reason why the sea level in the area is changing. However, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and good ol’ Rick Perry didn’t believe the report and said that couldn’t be right, so they edited it.
There is good news, though. More and more scientists who are skeptics are starting to “believe” in climate change. Even ones that were bought off by big oil. It seems they get the same numbers as other scientists that our Earth is warming.
So the left is right. Makes you wonder what else they’re right on? Maybe that tax cuts don’t stimulate the economy nor do they pay for themselves?
Interesting articles this morning. Three years ago, 16% of Chinese said there in the past year that they couldn’t provide food for themselves or their family, compared with Americans at 9%.
Now it’s the complete opposite. 6% of Chinese say they couldn’t feed their family in the past year, where as 19% of Americans said it.
Also the news has it that GAP is closing stores in the US in order to expand to China.
What the hell is going on? Is the United States not a first world country anymore?
