Category: Government & Politics

This presidential primary has witnessed droves of voters from both parties flocking to voting booths or caucuses to express their anger with the direction of this country. Many have called this a movement while others have seen this as the result of decades of neglect of the true interests of this country by entrenched Washington politicians bloated with payment from special interests.
In keeping with the law of unintended consequences, much more has been revealed to the average American this election cycle. Americans have seen the ridiculous dress and behavior of delegates at recent Presidential conventions. They erroneously thought the delegates were casting votes that reflected the will of the populace.
The publics’ desire for outside candidates, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, has forced the “establishment” of both parties to reach into their bag of heretofore more hidden dirty tricks to assure the will of the people would be denied in favor of the desire of the “establishment.” More shockingly, the establishment of both parties extends well beyond Washington into cities, counties and Congressional districts of each and every state.
Few establishment officials have ever earned a single vote for public office but hold the absolute power to select the delegates to “represent” the people at conventions. To insure the peoples’ choice will not prevail, each party has created a block of delegates called super delegates by the Democrats or at-large delegates by the Republicans. There are more of these delegates than represent actual voters.  One of the at-large delegates, Howard County Republican Chairman Craig Dunn, appeared on C-Span on Monday.
One might remember Dunn from his infamous declaration to Politico: “If the race came down to Satan and Donald Trump, and I was the last vote, I might consider voting for Donald Trump.” One saw no such bravado in his C-Span appearance. While telling more untruths than “lyin’ Ted Cruz,” he tried to appear knowledgeable and fair.
He now says his is for Kasich whom he described as reasonable, fair and adult; and expressed a hope he could get to cast his vote for him. For all the virtues he believes Kasich has, Dunn failed to mention Kasich has fallen far short of votes already cast for other candidates who have subsequently honored the vote of the people and dropped out. Dunn also failed to mention Kasich left Congress after the Clinton impeachment debacle and went straight to work in a special office created for him by the infamous Lehman brothers. Lehman started the financial disaster that nearly took this country down in a single weekend.
According to Kasich’s tax records for that year, he took home a cool 1.4 million dollars while the rest of us lost our life savings. Oh, well, it was on to bigger and better things for him. He decided to join the Tea Party and become governor of Ohio. Ohio flourished under Kasich from the now questionable use of fracking. Oil prices have since collapsed and with it so has the Ohio economy.
Dunn shows the same poor judgment in being a Kasich supporter as his flippant comment to Politico reflected. For all of his half-truths and slippery answers, one thing was glaringly absent in Dunn’s presentation and defense of his vote as a Delegate At Large—the will of the many residents of Indiana who cast those pesky little things called votes.
[written by Marcia and Kent Blacklidge]

The collusion between Ted Cruz and John Kasich to deny the will of the voters in Indiana is the final straw.  For the life of me, I do not understand why anyone would support Cruz for President. Senator Ted Cruz is seriously character flawed. He is dishonest. Cruz supporters have gone blind to the facts. Let’s review them.
To begin, Ted Cruz duped Texas voters when he ran for the Senate. Right out of the gate he did not tell anyone he held dual citizenship in Canada and the United States. Then a requirement to make that run was to disclose certain financial facts. He did not. He wanted voters to think he was against Wall Street, so he did not disclose a nearly million dollar loan from Goldman Sachs, one of the worst of the Wall Street offenders. How was that loan possible? Seems that Heidi Cruz, Ted’s wife, is a long time investment banker with guess who: Goldman Sachs. Additionally, Cruz secured a line of credit from Citibank, another Wall Street giant. But he told none of this to the voters. He claimed he and Heidi had liquidated their personal savings to fund his campaign. He did not. He lied.
Cruz calls himself a lifetime evangelical Christian. This paints a picture of a person generous with donations to a church and charity. Not true. For a many year period, Cruz and wife donated less than one percent to charity and NONE to churches. Looks phony to me.
Cruz calls himself honest. Then came the dirty tricks pulled on Dr. Ben Carson and Marco Rubio. Politics as usual.
Cruz paints himself as an outsider when the question of Washington insiders is raised. More false stories are told. Cruz was educated at Princeton and Harvard, two of the most “insider” schools in the country. He clerked at the Supreme Court and  practiced law — all East Coast. He worked for President George W. Bush as a domestic policy adviser and in the Department of Justice. He has never created one job nor managed a darned thing — including a hot dog stand. He is about as Washington an insider as they come; but he does not want you to know that.  To win this election, with his self-professed “golden tongue”, he wants to fool you into believing he is an “outsider”.
Cruz is very similar to our current President when he, Obama, ran for President. Cruz has less than one term as a United States Senator, yet he declares he is the ideal, experienced candidate for the Presidency. And by the way, his colleagues in the US Senate do not like him at all. They know him well.
So, be duped if you are among the gullible. Ted Cruz refuses to bow to the will of the people. Millions of voters have already spoken, but like all other insider politicians, their voices fall on deaf ears. The most recent dishonest act: collusion. He reminds me of the Joker in the movie, Batman.   A “man of God and country” Cruz is not.

[Post written by Marcia Blacklidge]
Primary candidates have dominated news cycles since last June. Voters are fired up and turning out in record numbers. On May 3rd Hoosiers will finally get their chance to vote. There’s only one problem. Both parties would prefer to act untethered by those pesky things called votes.
Mainstream media have cashed in on voter involvement and eagerly promote the myth that votes count. Despite voting irregularities, dirty tricks, Super PACS, and those pesky things called votes; each party will nominate the candidate of its choice this summer.
Both party establishments still face a few hurdles. The Democrats have to quench the unexpected fire created by party regulars “feeling the burn.”
The Republican establishment is determined to “stop Trump.” Many want to do this even if it costs them the election or destroys the party. None of them like to discuss those pesky things that keep piling up for Trump called votes.
The “burn” and Hillary’s “security review” have disturbed many Democrats but Trump has driven establishment Republicans into hysteria. Rove and others are boldly calling for a “fresh face.” Ryan protests too much of his disinterest in the nomination while Romney’s just plain desperate to get it. To heck with those pesky things called votes!
Indiana’s Republican primary has grabbed the attention of the National Media, but for all the wrong reasons.
Indiana has 54 delegates. Becoming a Republican delegate is a steep climb. One must have filled out an application by March 15th and pledged to provide $2000 to participate. All Republican delegates will be selected before a single primary vote is cast.
Politico interviewed numerous party leaders and officials involved in the delegate selection process. Those interviewed displayed openly hostile anti-Trump attitudes.
“One of my criteria for filtering out candidates was whether or not they supported Trump,” said one district GOP leader.
“If Satan had the lead on him and was one delegate away from being nominated as our candidate, and Donald Trump was the alternative, I might vote for Donald Trump,” said Craig Dunn, a Kokomo resident and GOP leader hoping to represent Indiana’s 4th district. “I’ve always wanted to own a casino, but he couldn’t give me a casino and have me vote for him.”
Thank God for delegates who can’t be bribed.
“Donald Trump doesn’t represent what I want my party to represent,” said Tom John, chairman of Indiana’s 7th Congressional District. John is running for one of the 27 at large delegate slots. He declared the three delegates selected to represent the 7th Congressional District were unlikely to be Trump supporters.
John further reported that a grass roots effort had been launched to get Trump supporters to become 7th District delegates. Their effort produced a handful of applicants, but all were rejected.
The Indiana Republican Party claims to be the party working for Indiana. However, the fervor displayed against Trump by each of the party officials interviewed was shocking. Not a single official mentioned concern for those pesky things that will be tallied on May 3rd.
Clearly, the Indiana Republican Delegation is determined to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention.
The citizens of Indiana shouldn’t have to pay for a primary negated by such blatant self-absorption. Let the delegates pick up the cost of collecting those pesky things called votes.

Bruce Haynes had it right in his analysis of the Trump “Movement” on RealClearPolitics.com. He said a populist rebellion has been brewing in the United States for the past 25 years as a “tsunami of economic and cultural globalism” swamped the white working class and took away their jobs and with it, their dignity.
He said, since 1979, the US has lost 7 million manufacturing jobs, many of them outsourced to China and Mexico thanks to trade agreements negotiated by elites in both parties.  In 2008, Americans who lost homes, savings, and jobs to the Great Recession then had to watch as the Washington elites bailed out the same Wall Street banks that caused the meltdown. Believing that they have been “sold down the river”, middle-class voters in both parties have turned to populist outsiders, namely Trump and Sanders, to “drop an anvil on the system’s head the way one was dropped on theirs.”
And all the while the adverse, damaging trade deals were being made and companies were leaving the United States for lower wages, more lax [if any] environmental regulations, more favorable taxing, and more lax [if any] worker safety regulations; the southern US border has remained out of control which has allowed millions of illegal aliens into the country. It is no wonder there are now over 90 million US citizens now out of work or seriously under employed. It cannot continue if the country is to survive economically and socially.
It is time for the apple cart to be overturned. It is time for the Washington elites to be turned out. They have betrayed the people they are supposed to represent. There is a quiet revolution under foot.

[I could not help passing this along to you……]
This letter was sent to 100% FED Up! by an anonymous author:
It doesn’t matter who you support for President in 2016. This letter will make you want to stand up and cheer for the 80 year old American who expresses what most of us are feeling right now. Enjoy…
Dear Representative,
From the time I was able to vote I voted Republican. I am 80 years old, and have a great deal of respect and influence with hundreds of senior ball players who also network with thousands of others around the country.
I received your questionnaire and request for money and strongly agree with every question, as I have since Obama was elected. Unfortunately the one question that was missing is “What have the Republicans done for the American people?” We gave you a majority in the House and Senate, yet you never listened to us. Now you want our money.
You should be more concerned about our votes, not our money. You are the establishment, which means all you want is to save your jobs and line your pockets… Well guess what? “It’s not going to happen” You shake in your boots when I tell you we’re giving our support to TRUMP and he hasn’t asked for a dime.
You might think we are fools because you feel Trump is on a self destruction course, but you need to look beyond Washington and listen to the masses. Nobody has achieved what he has, especially in the liberal state of New York.
You clearly don’t understand why the Trump movement is so strong, so I’d like to share with you an analogy to help explain the Trump phenomenon. By the way, it’s not just the Republicans who feel ignored and disrespected; there are plenty of Democrats and Independents who also feel let down by the Washington elite. You seem to have forgotten about “We The People” and who hired you to represent us.
So here it is, the best analogy I could come up with. Here is the reason so many Americans have boarded the Trump Train, and why your pleas to come back to the party who deserted us, is falling on deaf ears:
You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately…You call the city and four different exterminators, but nobody could handle the job. There is this one guy however, who guarantees you he will get rid of them, so you hire him. You don’t care if the guy smells, you don’t care if the guy swears, you don’t care how many times he’s been married, you don’t care if he was friends with liberals, you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack…you simply want those raccoons gone! You want your problem fixed! He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period.
Here’s why we want Trump: Yes he’s a bit of an ass, yes he’s an egomaniac, but we don’t care. The country is a mess because politicians have become too self-serving. The Republican Party is two-faced & gutless. Illegal aliens have been allowed to invade our nation. We want it all fixed! We don’t care that Trump is crude, we don’t care that he insults people, we don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, we don’t care that he has changed positions, we don’t care that he’s been married three times, we don’t care that he fights with Megan Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, we don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslim terrorist.
This country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegal aliens and bringing tens of thousands of Muslim refugees to America, while leaving Christians behind to be persecuted. We are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo and Hasid is part of a special group with special rights to the point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in; “AND WE JUST WANT IT FIXED” and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want.
We’re sick of politicians. We’re sick of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. We just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but he isn’t beholden to lobbyist money and he doesn’t have political correctness restraining him. All we know is that he has been very successful, he’s an excellent negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he’s also not a politician. He’s definitely not a cowardly politician. When he says he’ll fix it, we believe him because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong or looked at and called a liar.
Oh yeah…I forgot…we don’t care if the guy has bad hair either.
We just want those raccoons gone.
Out of your house.
NOW!

The South Carolina debate was a real circus that had one “Ringmaster“: Donald J. Trump!
Trump has the establishment GOP going nuts. In New Hampshire, he drew support from every demographic one can imagine. People are both angry and afraid. And the establishment GOP candidates are just not convincing they would or could shake up the system that has put the United States at real risk.
The latest that really upset people is the announcement by Carrier Air Conditioning (United Technologies) that it is moving a manufacturing plant to Mexico. Just the kind of corporate thing Trump has spoken about for months.  Some 1,400 people in an Indianapolis plant will be losing their jobs.
The United States has been shipping manufacturing and other well paying jobs out of the country by the millions. The Obama administration via the Department of Labor statistics touts a 5.6% unemployment rate, but here are things you need to know.
If you are so hopelessly out of work that you have stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor does not count you as unemployed. If, for example, you are an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you are not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because that is all you can find, the government does not count you in the 5.6%. Right now there are as many as 30 million Americans either out of work or severely underemployed. So, we have been fed the BIG LIE.
Trump may not be an angel, but he may be our only hope. We must stop the horrible trade agreements, stop the incentives that send jobs to other countries, stop the inflow of immigrants [legal and illegal] that in part take what jobs there are, and stop the ability of corporations to escape their financial responsibilities by locating “headquarters” in other countries while raping the people of the USA. Trump has talked about all of this.
It is going to be interesting to see what the people of South Carolina think.

The Kokomo Tribune’s editorial about the dirty tricks perpetrated by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa caucus was on target. Cruz needed to be called to task for the mailer misrepresenting Iowa election law according to the Iowa Secretary of State and for exploiting the erroneous but quickly corrected tweet by CNN that Dr. Ben Carson was suspending his campaign; so vote for Cruz. These actions by Cruz were typical of dirty politicians. There is more.
Cruz bills himself as the true evangelical Christian and Tea Party darling in the race for President. The intended message to this constituency: vote for me. There is an elephant in the room. According to the Associated Press, between 2006 and 2010, Cruz and wife donated less than 1% of income to charity; and NONE to churches. Let me repeat… NONE to churches! Is this the way of a true Christian? I think not. It is politics as usual. All talk; no action. There is more.
Cruz has less than one term in the US Senate. To win his Senate bid, he obtained, but did not report, a several hundred thousand dollar loan from Goldman Sachs, the financial giant on Wall Street at the center of controversy about East Coast and Wall Street power. How was this loan possible? Cruz’s wife, Heidi, is a long time investment banker with Goldman Sachs. He also secured a line of credit from Citibank, another of the Wall Street financial giants. Cruz claimed he and his wife had liquidated their personal

savings to fund his campaign. This wasn’t exactly true. They used their assets as loan collateral. However, he didn’t want the voters in Texas to know the truth. He was running his campaign as a critic of bank bailouts and corporate cronyism. A New York Times article exposed his loans and reporting failures. When confronted with this during a debate, he dismissed his dishonesty as a “paper error” and attacked the New York Times. He next attempted to fog over his failings by attacking New York values. The buzz saw called Donald Trump made quick work of that tactic. There is more.
Cruz bills himself as a Washington outsider but in truth he is a consummate East Coast Washingtonian. He graduated from Princeton and Harvard. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, and then practiced corporate law. He served George W. Bush as a domestic policy advisor. He was an associate deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice and has argued cases before the Supreme Court.  He never managed anything—not even a hot dog stand. Cruz knows little about business or economics.
Cruz is a politician with a golden tongue and scant business experience. Similar to our current President, he has served less than one term as a United States Senator. Yet, he boldly declares he is the ideal Republican Presidential candidate. I strongly disagree. Seek elsewhere.