Religion, Discrimination, and Indiana.

I originally posted this when Indiana was stupidly thinking about doing this. Well, now North Carolina, Mississippi, and Tennessee have decided that they had to go through with this. And they will pay economically for it. So, I’m re-posting this. Read and think.

A Political Rant. You have been warned!

Religion, Discrimination, and Indiana.

Religion is a powerful thing in people’s lives. It shapes and molds their identities and morals. It gives comfort to those who need it when times are tough or when illness and death stalk a family or friend. When the changes in the modern world becomes too much, many look to spiritual guidance to help deal with the stresses. It can also show us the greatest acts of kindness and humanity.

Yet like most things, Religion has a dark side. Many read into it the need to convert others to their way of thinking. (If you are not with us, you are against us.) If they cannot be converted then they must be the “other.” Fit to be scorned, hated, and in some cases killed. All in the name of their version of God.

This “other” is what is currently behind the so-called “Religious Freedom” law in Indiana. The right to tell that other that they can be discriminated against, all in the name of God.

Think about that for a moment. The state of Indiana has just made a law that says, if someone claims a deeply held belief they can refuse to do business with you. No penalty, no fine, just sanctioned discrimination.

You will hear (like on the Sunday’s news shows) some claim that this not what the law is about. That it is designed to protect the rights and freedoms of those practicing their faith. Bullshit! We have this little thing called the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and over two hundred years of the Supreme Court rulings.

Some have stated that there are 19 other states with similar laws on the books along with one from the Federal government. Well, they are more tightly defined concerning the details. But don’t worry, we will get to them soon enough.

Now take moment. The current focus is on the rights of the LBGT community. And just as it should be. For they are the true target here and it is a direct strike at them because of the changing view on Gay Marriage. (A majority of Americans are now in favor of it.) Got some news for you, the demographics of the country are changing and so are the views. A majority of the population does not attend any sort of religious service.

Now, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. In the 1840s and 1850s, slavery was justified as being God’s will. The Jews have suffered for thousands of years based on someone else hatred and misinterpretation of religious writings. Muslims are the current boogey-man to some. And in 1692, we burned people at the stake because it was thought they were witches.

This is the bigger picture that laws like this will head us toward. Some here will accuse me of over-dramatizing it. But ask yourself, how much of a step is it from denying service to someone who is gay to deny it because of their religion (No hotel service for the Jews and Muslims can’t build their mosques) or skin color (Colored bathrooms, Chinese not allowed to bring their wives, and Irish and Italians denied housing and jobs.). It has happened before. Just ask the Japanese Americans.

Is this the American you want to live in? Is this the legacy we want for our children and grandchildren? We must do better. We must stand for our follow countrymen and women. “We the People” must mean everyone and their ideas or they are just words on paper.

Trump, Immigration, and bad ideas.

Trump, Immigration, and bad ideas.

A political Rant… You have been warned!

So, the Donald wants to be President of the United States. Fair enough. He meets the minimal requirements set forth in the Constitution. (Natural both citizen and 35 years old or older.) Why I think he is bad for this country will be in another rant. For now, let’s only look at the one policy that he has gone into detail. Immigration.

Trump has purposed three major points on this. First, to build a wall on the southern border. Secondly, to depot all illegal immigrates in the U.S. And finally to remove birth right citizenship for so-call “Anchor babies.”

First, the Wall. The idea for a wall can go back to the Great Wall of China. A modern belief is that the wall was built to keep the enemies at bay. And in certain sections that is indeed correct. However, it was mainly built to keep a sitting and bored army busy and not wanting to take over the country. The modern version of a border wall can be seen in the Berlin Wall (93.6 mile) or even the fence with Israel and the West bank (308.8 miles). These were designed to keep some people out and others in.

The problem here is the magnitude of cost and scale. The border with Mexico is slightly over 1900 miles long. Part of that border is a major river (the Rio Grande), harsh desert area, and private lands. The private lands would have be either bought or seized as emanate domain. Native American lands would be divided, animal habitat would be destroyed, and water rights would become an issue. (Ask the Israelis how much fun that is) That idea will go over well with small government southern conservatives. (Sarcasm intended) The cost to build such a wall is estimated at around 49 billion dollars. Naturally, there will be cost over runs. (Examples: the Big Dig in Boston and any of the Trump towers.) By the time it is completed, it could easily skyrocket to over $100 billion.

The other cost that is not being talked about is more long term. What is the cost to maintain and monitor this wall? It currently cost $6.5 billion for the 600 miles of fence that already exist. Simply math puts the minimum cost for the entire border at around $20 billion annually. And what about patrolling/monitoring? Finding solid figures for this is next to impossible. There is much talk about using tech and contractors for some of this. And currently there is a bill in Congress that would add just short of an additional 10,000 border agents at a cost of $600 million annually.

So, the cost of the Wall on the southern border is much higher than people want to talk about. Where will the monies to pay for this come from? The Donald like to say that he will get the Mexican government pay for it. Think again. They don’t care if the United States want to waste their monies. Hell, I’m betting they will find a way to make some money off of the whole thing. He talks about charging large fees to Mexican businessmen who want to come and make deals. Forget it. They will just go to one of the Caribbean islands and do their deals there. Heck, the Cayman Islands have a number of corporations claiming that is where they are based and it is all in one building.

The next part that Mr. Trump wants to do is deport all the illegal immigrants in the country. That is an estimated 11.4 million people, approximately 3.5 percent of the entire United States population. Why they are here is a topic for another conversation. But think about this. Some are here due to violence (criminal and political), economical, and still other came here as children with their families.

When asked how he planned on rounding up these people he stated that was going to keep families together and that it would be easy to find them. (He also stated that it would be done humanly. More on that later.) This shows a total lack of understanding of how illegals live in this country. They hide, they do nothing to get noticed and they do everything to look like normal citizens. (Including paying taxes, social security, and local government fees)

Think about this. Currently Congress has only budgeted (for deporting) somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000 people. (This number could be wrong. If it is please provide correct information) Recent estimates for deporting 11.4 million people is somewhere around $285 Billion. This costs includes housing (room and board), processing, legal challenges, and transportation to home countries.

Here are some more numbers to chew on. The Migration Policy Institute gives the following demographics for illegal immigrates: about 8.1 million (71 percent of the total unauthorized population) were born in Mexico and other Central America countries. About 1.5 million (13 percent) were from Asia; 817,000 (7 percent) from South America; 455,000 (4 percent) from Europe, Canada, or Oceania; 317,000 (3 percent) from Africa; and 225,000 (2 percent) from the Caribbean. So, will Mr. Trump go after those from other countries or is he only interested in Mexico and Central America?

There is more to think about in this section, but ask yourself this: How they going to round them up? What will happen to all those nicely connected businesses that have hired them? What happens when Neighbors start report innocent people because some dispute? Where are they going to house all of them? And finally, what if a country does not want them back?

The final point is the end of Birth Right Citizenship. So let’s get it right out in the open. Here is what is says in Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment: “Section 1 - All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

So, there it is. A war was fought to bring this into being. Time and time again, the Supreme Court has ruled that being born here means you are a citizen!

The idea of natural born citizenship goes even further back than that. In Clause 5 of Article 2, it states that Qualification of a person to be President. (“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”) So Birth Right citizenship was thought of long before the Fourteenth Amendment.

For Mr. Trump (or others in the GOP) to get the Constitution changed, they will need 290 members of the House, 67 Senators, and 38 States to want to make that change. Do you honestly expect this to happen? They can’t even agree on a budget to care for our returning Vets or repairs for the roads and Bridges!

But OK, we get rid of the Birth right Citizenship. Here is the hard question that nobody has asked but you need to start thinking about: What will be the new definition of citizenship? What do you have to do to be a citizen? In some countries, you have to trace to family back several generations. Think that will work well here in America? Birth Right Citizenship has been a staple of this country since its founding. The Fourteenth Amendment just codified it.

So, there it is. Things to think and talk about. Mr. Trump wants to spend $620 Billion annually for these policies and this doesn’t even deal with the starting of cost or time. There are other ways then the draconian ideas that the Donald has come up with. But again, that is for another rant and another day.

Primaries

OK, there appears to be some confusion about the primaries. So let me educate you about them. First, this is not an election. Nowhere in the Constitution does it talk about primary elections for political parties. This is just a complex survey. The parties are asking your opinion.

Next. The parties have rules in place for a number of reasons. Some of them have to deal with having people who are not members, coming in and taking the nomination. This was done in 1972 by George McGovern. He took the nomination and lost in one of the biggest landslides in history. He was the Bernie Sanders of his time. His lost made a large number of people walk away from politics for decades.

The other reason is to prevent something called an open or contested party. This is when no candidate has enough delegates to take the nomination out right. This gets nasty. (All the delegates are required to vote for the candidate they were elected for.) After that they can vote for who they want. And the backroom deals get even nastier.

This is how it works. Want to change the rules? Then join the parties, become a leader, and change the rules. You cannot change them in the middle of the game. For those of you upset that Sanders did not get all the delegates from New Hampshire, here are your facts.

First. Bernie knew the rules going in. He watched it being played out for years. And finally, most states are proportional, not a winner take all.

These are the rules. Either play by them or get out of the game.

Muslim Camps

To Mr. Trump,

There are no Muslim training camps here in the United States. POTUS is an American citizen and is not a Muslim! And it does not matter if he was a Muslim. (Read the third paragraph of Article Six of the U.S. Constitution)

Ebola

OK, I can’t sit here anymore and not say something. First, let’s get the basics out the way. I am not a medical person. (My wife is a nurse, my mother is a nurse, my neighbor is a nurse, and one of my best friend’s wife is a nurse.)I am a layman surrounded by medical people.

I have watched in horror, much about this Ebola panic. And yes, it is a panic. So, let’s get the facts straight about this disease. There have been a total of two confirm cases of people catching Ebola in this country. Yes, a total of four known people have enter the U.S. with the disease. Do the math.

So, how do we catch it? By coming in contact with bodily fluids of someone who is showing symptoms. WARNING: I am going to describe bodily fluids. Go to the next paragraph if you have a problem here. Bodily fluids are blood, sweat, urine, vomit, spit, semen, vaginal fluids, and fecal matter. Ebola is NOT an airborne disease. Now this is important, being in the same room and them not showing symptoms means you have such a low chance of getting it that does not even matter. The early symptoms are similar to that of someone catching the flu. Remember that for later.

The media is currently obsessed with this. The hysteria is out of control. Let’s dispel some of the stupid rumors going around, shall we? This is not a government bio weapon. Ebola has been around (meaning known) since about 1976. Every few years it flares up in Africa. This year it got worse for a variety of reasons. Most having to do with corruption, uninform population, and a poor health care system.

People are not crossing the borders to give it to Americans as some grand plan of ISIS. This is not going to be the next Black Death. This is not some crazy plan to take your guns and put people in FEMA camps. You can stop saying this and other things right now, you are only showing your ignorance.

Now why did the people in Dallas catch this disease? We have the best healthcare in the world, surly we can stop this in its tracks? Well, the sad fact is that the American Healthcare system is not really set up to deal with a lot of people with highly contagious diseases. We are good at long term care, cancers, and heart problems, but not the infectious diseases. We don’t have the training in every hospital and clinic for this sort of thing. The training and equipment cost lots of money and time. The equipment even has a shelf life. Most hospitals don’t see the need or profit to do this.

Finally, let’s look at the current efforts to keep the disease out of the country. Scanning people for a fever does not and will not work. Ebola has a 21 day incubation period. That means that you could be exposed and caught it and not show symptoms for the next 21 days. Remember I told you to remember the early symptoms and the similarity to the flu? Are you going to quarantine those with the flu? The flu is airborne and much more contagious.

Finally, the idea of stop all flights from the infected area. This also will not work. Since Ebola has a 21 day period, I could from the infected area to a third country and then come here. Easily getting around a flight quarantine. Ask this, are we going to stop people from going there to help and not let them come home? What about those who have samples that need to go to the CDC for study to find a cure? Going to stop them too? Trade with those countries is a big part of daily life. Remember that only a small part of the three countries are infected.

Last thought here. Everybody calm down. Take a few deep breaths. AND GET A GRIP! You have a better chance of catching the flu then Ebola. And the flu kills more people in the United States then Ebola has worldwide. (est. 36,000 vs. 3) You do the math and get some prospective.

Gun Rant

A gun issue rant:

First let’s get the preliminaries out of the way. I am a center left person. Deal with it. Yet, I can see both sides of the issue. Both have some good points and both have some stupid points.

First to those on the left. You are not going to get all the guns banned or confiscated. There is this little thing call the “Second Amendment.” It is a time honored tradition here in the United States that goes back 200 years. The Supreme Court has up held various versions of it since the beginning of the country. So, the guns are here to stay.

To the rabid gun owner, knock off the dumb rhetoric. The government is not coming for your guns. It’s not that you are a great threat to them, you not, it is the fact that 100 million guns is just too much of an effort for them. They have bigger fish to fry than you. So, quit thinking that you are going to help in some great uprising.

So, what can be done to prevent these mass shootings and killings that seem to be on the rise? Well, several things. But this means that both sides have to give a little. And admit that the other side has some good points too.

The NRA is right one major point. The government should be enforcing the current laws. Even the most gun friendly state has laws about gun ownership and those laws should be obeyed. So, what does this mean? Well, that means gun owners be careful for what you wish for. There was study done that showed that about 70,000 violations of application and background checks for gun ownership and only 7,000 were followed up.

What can the gun owner do to give a little? Three basic things. The first is Universal background checks. This means closing the gun show loophole. And no whining about how hard it would be to perform at the show. With the smart phones and iPads that are out there, the background check could be done in minutes. This would prevent people that have criminal records from getting these guns. Yes, I know that they will probably get them somewhere else illegally, but that does not mean you have to help them. This also means that states need to start reporting the info needed for the background check more consistently and accurately. Currently only 12 states actively report the correct info and 25 give it lip service.

The next two are hard for gun owners, but should be done. No more large ammo clips. Look, if you feel that you need a thirty round clip to hunt Bambi and Donald, than you are a piss poor hunter. And no that large clip is not going to help if you think that you are going over throw the government. Large clips like that just show that you are compensating for something.

The next is to stop the sale of all assault rifles. Notice that I did not say ban. Let’s stop putting more out there. You don’t need an AR-15, a Bushmaster, or a .50 cal for home defense. A hand gun or shot gun is better and easier to handle and cancel if necessary. Those of you on the left that are now screaming at me, here is a simply solution for you. Make the gun owner an offer to buy them. You would be surprised at how many of them will take you up on the offer if the price is right. Then you can do what you want with the guns.

To you on the left, you can take heart in a couple of things. Justice Antonin Scalia in his majority decision in D.C. vs. Heller stated that (And I’m paraphrasing) weapons, like the M-16, that would be used for true militias can be banned from the public. Yet he also stated that the Second Amendment does protect guns (Handgun, shotguns, and rifles) and that the Second Amendment rights are not unlimited.

Lawful guns owners do not have anything to worry about from people that want to stop the next Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, or Newtown. But throwing rhetoric around, about the Nazis and Communists taking guns as being the same as any sort of talk about gun control defeats your argument. And more guns, especially armed teachers in schools is not the answer. Kids will know which teacher is armed and the ones that have something to prove or have issues will take them out first.

So, there it is. You can call me names, insult me, or ignore me. But these are reasonable and honest feelings and ideas. It is a good compromise and everybody gets a little.

Follow up:

One of the points brought up about these mass shooting is the mental health of the shooter. Some have blamed the media (Video games and movies) for leading to these problems. Baloney!

In the 1950s, it was Comic Books that were leading kids to delinquency. In the 1960s, violent Westerns were the cause of campus up risings. In the 1970’s, Saturday morning cartoons were the cause. The 1980s saw how Crime Dramas and films were the cause of drug use. Finally, the 1990s and 2000s, it was Video games and Sci-FI/fantasy/cop films that lead to trouble with kids.

Kids today with real mental health issues don’t get the help that really need. Cut backs in Mental Health programs, the stigma of admitting that you have a problem, and people in just plain denial about a family member with an issue, have led to more people on the streets that are danger to themselves and society.

We need a real plan to get people mental health care. Not the stop gap measures that insurance companies think they can get away with. But real help that can sometimes take years to deal with.

So, what can be done in the mean time? Parent have to quit being in denial about the state of their kids health. Little Jane or Junior are not perfect. If they need help, don’t pretend that there is nothing wrong. Mental Health problems are harder to deal with then bumps, scraps, and bruises. Admit that there is problem and get the help.

Budget Cuts

OK folks, here a political rant. You don't want to read it, well you have been warned! As many of you know I lean left on some things and right on others. So let's talk areas that you are willing to see cuts happen. I will start.

First, let's get rid of the F-35 fighter program (AKA the joint defense fighter). Each plane will cost $612million per plane. The entire program is going to cost $1 Trillion. This plane is so over designed that a lot of the countries that were going to order it, have canceled their orders.

Next on my chopping block is Medicare-Plan-B. This program is planned to cost the public $727 Billion. By scrapping it and allowing Medicare to deal directly with the drug manufacturers, some estimates are that approximately 50% savings would happen. (That is $363.5 Billion)

Finally for this discussion, let’s all agree that we need to eliminate “New Child Left Behind.” Every teacher that I know say that the program does not work. It lowers expectations, does not allow for the smart kids to be smart, and sets standards to the lowest common dominator. This program cost a little over $75 Billion.

So, there are you have it, approximately $1.5 Trillion in cuts. So, what would you cut? (Tell us why and the amounts involved.) Usual rules apply, no personal attacks and keep it clean.