It is The Donald's Game.

And he is playing it very well, quite frankly.

The latest in the race for the Republican nomination is seeing quite the strategic move from Donald Trump in regard to his attack on Ted Cruz.  Ted Cruz has been attacking trump about his many flip-flops and inconsistencies in his rhetoric.  Trump is hitting back that what Cruz is saying is lies (even though Cruz is using unedited clips of Trump doing exactly what Cruz is asserting).

This, in my humble opinion, is a very well calculated ploy by Trump to either get the nomination by eliminating Cruz, or completely discrediting the RNC (Republican National Committee) and will cite that due to the lack of loyalty they are showing he will run as an independent, and he will look like a hero in doing so.

Quite honestly this is just another reason we need to get rid of the two party system, and just have a general election without nominees by these parties.  The current system is antiquated and rigged to the point that we the voter really has no direct say as to who is elected to the white house.

Consider what happened with the Democratic primary in New Hampshire, which is very much akin to what happened on the Republican side during the last election between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.  Even the DNC chair admitted they use "Superdelegates" to prevent grass roots candidates from gaining too much of a foothold, which completely flies in the face of the purpose of this kind of election.

The establishments agenda will be pushed at all cost, and unless we see a significant change happen this will go on for years into the future.  No real representation of the people, and everything being decided by a select few.

The Price of Oil is Bigger than just Field Workers

Please take a moment and read this post by an oil field family.

Something else people don't realize is that the people who work in the oil fields are not the ones who set the price of oil, and ultimately the price of gasoline at the pumps. It is much much bigger than the people who work in the oil field. It has to do with the world economy and how it is affected by wars, greed, and ego. The reason we are seeing such a low price for oil right now is that foreign producers are flooding the market with their easily produced crude (most of their wells are free-flowing) trying to hurt American based companies who require a bit more capital to get the oil out of the ground.

Another thing people don't realize is that oil is not just used to make gasoline. It is also used to make engine and gear oil, it is also used to make plastic products. So it is highly likely that you are holding something made from oil in your hand right now.

So to fault someone who works in the oil fields because of how much are, or are not, paying at the pump is extremely ignorant and naive.

Do a little more research before criticizing someone you don't know.

Trump is Delusional

Last night was the most recent GOP debate, which was another opportunity for the currently remaining candidates to boost support for their campaigns heading into the Iowa Caucus on Monday.  Unless you have been living under a rock you know that Trump did not show up because he doesn't like to be confronted by women.  In this case Megyn Kelly from Fox News.

What is really telling about last nights debate is that without him the ratings were just as solid as they were when he was on the stage.  Which means it is not him and his ego that draws a crowd, but people wanting to apply their own personal vetting process on the candidates that are wanting to run this country.

Instead of attending the debate he decided to have an event for Veterans.  Which is all fine and good, if he was only doing it to raise awareness, and funds, for Veteran Affairs; but it is clear that this was just another publicity stunt to distract people from the debate.  It didn't work.

What this is really showing is that Trump has lost his sparkle.  Sure, it took longer than many figured it would, but people are starting to get tired of him, and looking to the real candidates for a better choice for President.

Sure the candidates took their pot shots at him during the debate, but really the fact that he didn't show up was relegated to being a foot note on the evening as a whole.  But the things that actually got more attention were the comments made about Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.  From only being qualified to run for President of Sweden, to looking down the barrel of an indictment, instead of a sure-fire nomination from the Democratic Convention.

Things are heating up with this election and after Monday's vote we will start seeing the lesser powerful candidates drop out.  Hopefully, we will eventually see Trump drop out as well, but that may not be until after the nomination.  Which may end up leading to him running as an independent.

We shall see.

But Everybody has these Pipes!

Not sure how many of my reader(s) are following the Flint, Michigan water crisis, but they recently released a statement that many other cities have the same kind of lead pipes that their water system uses to deliver water to their constituents.  Because that is a valid excuse for falling down on the job of maintaining the city's infrastructure.  In this case, the piping system that delivers water to residential homes and commercial locations.

Here is a little bit a reality check for those city officials of Flint (who are all democrats, by the way); regardless of what the infrastructure of other cities are made of it is still your duty to maintain yours.  If you know the pipes in your city are aging, and they are made of a material that can be harmful to your residents, it is your responsibility to find a way to replace those pipes.  It is just common sense!

The only reason you should be looking at other cities that may have the same problem is to find out how they addressed and fixed the problem, not find their situation as some sort of excuse for yours.  Quite frankly if you had been on top of the problem you would not have had to declare a state of emergency.  It would have been a non-issue.

Stop sitting behind your taxpayer supplied desks whining about the state of your city and actually find a way to fix it!

Pickin's are Slim, Part 2

As stated in an earlier post, which was put up during the previous Presidential Election, the pickin's are rather slim.  Sure there are quite a few different people from which to choose, however, are they really that electable?

We have Donald Trump, the supposed front runner.  But is he really electable.  His idea for solving the immigration problem is to build a huge wall on the US/Mexico border.  I don't doubt he would be able to find a way of paying for it, though it could wind up being at the taxpayers expense.

While we are on the topic of big things they candidates want to pay for, Bernie Sanders wants to provide free college and other programs, but has stated he would raise taxes to do so.  Which means these programs will not be free.  His method of socialism will continue to drive a wedge between the richer and poorer sections of this country.

The lesser candidates are really not worth mentioning as they are obviously not saying anything that is earning them any kind of significant following.

Yes, this blog has endorsed Ron Paul in the previous election and is certainly backing his son, Rand Paul in this one.  When it comes to his campaign you cannot rely on polls put together by any of the mainstream media sources as they are vehemently biased against him.  You need only look at how Ron Paul's campaign was continually marginalized, or ignored, the last time around.  Rand's is getting the same treatment.  It would be very interesting to find out who is behind this blatant, albeit somewhat subtle, boycott against the Paul family when it comes to these elections.  Media sources on both sides of the political spectrum are guilty of this.

We do have Ted Cruz, but he is just another candidate who has come out saying he would go to war against other countries, yet has not given any clear indication as to any sort of resolution to the current conflicts that have caused such hatred toward the US from other countries.  Even many of our allies view us with trepidation.

Hillary Clinton is a criminal, plain and simple, and should not be running, but be behind bars for her atrocities committed while acting as Secretary of State.  She should seriously be relegated to being a footnote in the history of this country.

Honestly, this country should be taking a more isolationist approach to foreign policy, reduce government intrusion in the lives of civilians, and build up our national defense, so that we are better equipped should anyone attempt to this country harm.

There is truly only one candidate worth considering, and he isn't even really a Republican, much less a Democrat.  But that gets into a bigger issue to be discussed in another post.

We need a business man, not a megalomaniac

With the presidential race heating up it may be unclear as to who we should throw our support behind, but one thing is for sure, we need to be extremely careful who we pick in regard to foreign policy and economics.

There is a certain candidate running who, for lack of a better description, is anything but ideal when it comes to these topics.  Sure, he may be a savvy businessman, but do we really want someone who may launch a war because someone insulted him.  I do agree that we should not get involved in another countries military or economic problems without a clear benefit to our country, but to throw out diplomacy for the sake of "getting what's ours" is extremely dangerous and will only end up causing other countries to hate us even more.

Not something we should be promoting, but should be working toward doing away with.

Quite honestly with how poorly we have handled things globally in the past few decades we should really start taking a step back and take a long hard look at what we should be doing.  That being embark on a period of moderated isolationism.  Meaning, we should refrain from getting involved in the problems of other countries until we have fixed the bigger issues facing our own.

For some reason our government seems to think we should be involved in everyone else's business while at the same time causing our own country's economy to be put under undue stress.  We should be bringing jobs back to our shores, instead of indirectly causing companies to move their operation outside of our borders due to the inhospitable policies we have put in place.

Really, the only candidate I have seen who aligns themselves with this kind of thinking is Rand Paul.

The big problem many people have with him as a candidate is that he is too isolationist for their liking.  Though really if you take a close look at what he wants to do for this country you really have no better choice.

He is not anti-military, he just believes we need to get better at defense rather than running blindly into showing a good offense.  Which ultimately results in spending more money than we should.

To find more information on his view you only need to visit his official website.  It is rather enlightening.