Ben Carson has no idea what he's doing

Ben Carson is a quiet neurosurgeon from Detroit Michigan who has had one of the most uniquely American stories in recent history. His mother and him lived in the ghetto of Detroit and against all odds, he became the chief pediatric neurosurgeon at John Hopkins. Despite his success and skills in the medical field, Ben Carson is one of the craziest presidential candidate in recent history.

Ben Carson shows a lack of ability to grasp foreign affairs. This report comes from one of his top advisors who was hired to give Carson weekly briefs on foreign policy in order to "make him smart". Carson is also a hardcore Christian who takes the bible literally. He came out the other week to stand by his 1998 comments that pyramids were made so Joseph could store grain and not as tombs. Being a Christian is a great commitment, one that I personally admire. However, Mr. Carson's faith effects his politics to a degree unprecedented around modernized countries.

Carson would like to use tithing instead of a income tax, using the bible as a point. However, there's a problem with taxing everyone only 10 percent. That leaves a 1.1 trillion dollar deficit. To gain perspective of this, our current deficit is near 500 billion dollars a year. If Ben Carson was able to put forth his tax plan he would raise the deficit 200%. This is coming from the current runner-up in a party whose values used to be fiscal responsibility. When the moderators called out this at the CNBC debate the right complained of media bias and a misunderstanding of the actual plan. I truly believe that not only did the moderators not understand Carson's plan; Carson himself doesn't understand his plan.

Fox Business Debate

I've done it. I've made it through this many Republican debates without losing any hair, but I see trouble going forward. At this point it's no longer fun, it's like watching a Browns game-I'm willing to accept how horrible and what a waste of time it will be, but I still watch hoping for something great to happen (maybe Carson will stab someone again). Something wonderful did happen, Donald Trump expressed his approval and made case for a US operation from the 50's called Operation: Wetback. During this Operation near 200,000 (although Trump said 1.5 million) illegal immigrants were moved south of the border. Trump stated that Eisenhower carried this out humanely and said that Operation Wetback was what we need today.

However, Operation Wetback was a very, very inhumane program and not just because its obvious racism. It caused chaos for Mexico, as 200,000 people were thrown into their economy, housing and country as a whole. Also, 88 people died from heat stroke as the American government dumped them off into a desert, 25 percent of the people transported by boat from Port Isabel were also in something resembling a "penal hell ship".

Trump was't the only controversy of the night. Senator Ted Cruz became the second statesman from Texas to forget the branches of government he wanted to modify (shoutout to Rick Perry, my favorite presidential candidate of all time). Trump yelled at former CEO Carly Fiorina for interrupting Rand Paul, someone who Trump has also bullied. Fiorina has now become known as the candidate who told the fake abortion video story. The current field of candidates is turning into a joke, this doesn't really mirror a debate at all. A debate involving ten people is impossible. Hopefully some of the current candidates drop out in favor of a more democratic debate process.

Are you ready for Hillary?

Hillary Clinton is an accomplished senator, Secretary of State, and businesswoman. Despite all her expertise she has trouble in one area:getting the American people to trust her. A Quinnipiac University poll suggests that Clinton's polls in both favorability and trustworthiness are falling. She has a hard time conveying to the American people that she genuinely cares for their problems and will fight for them. She's changed her opinion on a variety of issues probably because of the left-leaning candidate taking away from her poll numbers. If you can believe it, people rank Donald Trump as more trustworthy.

Many Liberals, myself included, don't get fired up to Clinton's speeches the same way we did to Obama's notoriously famous keynote speech at the 2004 DNC. I have yet to see a single speech of Hillary's that has gotten me fired up, even to the amount of Obama's worst speeches. I saw myself in Barack Obama, we were both raised by our mom and grandparents and worked hard to overcome obstacles despite lack of paternal leadership. In 2012 I went out with my grandfather and canvassed for Obama-informing people voting dates and taking policy questions. After he won the election my grandparents sent me a video of Obama addressing young participants. In the video when Barack speaks about how he realizes the impact he's made on getting kids to get involved he starts to cry.

The way that President Obama spoke and the way I got chills and tears (manly tears of course) from that video has never been reproduced by any Hillary speech I watched. While I think she has some great policy ideas, mostly because of the time she's had to prep for the 2016 election, I don't see her lighting a fire under people to get out and be active. Many people don't see her as a genuine person, she came out against the Keystone pipeline when she used to be for it and she came out against Obama's trade program that she was really the writer of. Many people feel ready for Hillary but are like me- will vote for her, but aren't willing to do the work they did for Barack to elect her. She's a calculating politician which will be a trouble spot for her in the future.

Planned Parenthood

Last week, I wrote my blog on a range of Women's issues so today as the topic starts to cool down, I thought it was fitting to write on Planned Parenthood. Carly Fiorina recently went on a rant at the CNN debate. She urged Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to watch the video of a fetus having its brain harvested while it's feet were still kicking after being aborted. This is a result of the recent attack on Planned Parenthood by conservatives. I'd agree with Mrs. Fiorina that what she described would be wrong and very immoral. The problem is, not a single word of it was true. There is no evidence that this abortion was performed in America, let alone at a PP clinic. Not only that, but doctors who have watched the video say the fetus was already dead. 

Many people disagree with fetal tissue research but this field of research provides many vaccines that we wouldn't be able to live without today. Rabies, rubella, and hepatitis vaccines were all derived from fetal cells. If conservatives don't like abortion I have no problem with that, but when you take advantage of a sting video from wherever and mislead the American public into thinking that the president is aborting babies for fun, that's when Americans should call BS. We should expect more from our politicians and we should demand more. This means that moderators at the debates should call BS on a candidate when the candidate says something not true. When Ben Carson talked about his fairy-tale tax plan, moderators called him out and conservatives everywhere were heard with cries of "the lame stream media". Moderators should've done the exact same thing to Fiorina when she lied about the fetus video.

Planned Parenthood spends zero percent of the money they get from the government on abortions. In fact, 97 percent of Planned Parenthood's procedures are not abortion related. These include prenatal screening for low-income women, and other type of consulting that low-income women can't afford. That sounds like an American idea to me. Using medicare and Medicaid to help lower income people get the quality care they deserve. The idea of helping others should be accepted-by both parties- as the American Dream.

Abortion/Women's Issues/Nostalgic Rants

I was raised in a home where my father was out of the picture. My mother was the one who raised me. I am eternally grateful to my mother for making me the man I am today and it's because of that I am so passionate on women's issues. It amazes me when candidates like Scott Walker can believe that abortion is immoral even in the case of health concerns to the mother. Republicans hate big government, except when it prevents women to get health services. You also don't hear them providing alternatives to abortion those who oppose abortion should be for contraceptives! People who oppose contraceptives are especially concerning as they want to stop abortions, just not in the modern techniques. Abstinence shouldn't and will not be considered a contraceptive.

I believe that all life is precious. I try to be consistent on most issues to protect human life at all cost.  I believe that healthcare is a right and droning populated areas in the Middle East is a wrong (which is grammatically incorrect but it flows well). That being said, many find my position on abortion baffling compared to my otherwise pro-life beliefs. I don't believe life starts at contraception, and I think that belief is becoming increasingly fallacious. When I (or anyone else) state my age I start counting at when I was born. I was born on April 3, 1998 so I am 17 years old. If life truly began at contraception I would have to add 9 months, give or take, to my age. What truly baffles me is how people can be so pro-life, even to the extent of danger to the mother, while being mostly anti-life on other issues.

You'd think the party of the pro-life agenda would be in favor of other pro-life policies. They should be for healthcare for all, against guns, against droning, anti-capital punishment and pro-environment. The funny thing about that is that most the time it's the exact opposite. President Obama's second largest margin of victory in the 2012 election came within the demographic of single women.

Out of all the issues that the Republican party is out of touch with, I believe women's issues are one of its more out of touch positions. Many of my conservative friends do not believe in the women's pay gap. I believe in equality and choosing the best person for the job but it doesn't seem to be a coincidence that only 22 of the fortune 500 CEOs are women. I have even heard classmates and congressmen argue that women already have equal rights.

Last election cycle you heard certain GOP representatives state that the female body has ways to prevent pregnancy following rape. Considering that one in five women are raped in college the GOP should not become involved with an issue as serious as how a women should handle being raped and what they should do afterwards. I know many women who have gone through a horrible situation and telling them how to handle a tragedy is similar to telling a veteran with PTSD to stop being self-centered and only thinking about themselves. The current Republican party handles women's issues worse than they handle three CNBC moderators.

Women's issues will be one of the most important topics of the 2016 election. Many people are becoming aware of the current pay gap and despite the right's hardest efforts, most people support Planned Parenthood. The Republican party is soon going to learn  about women what they've already learned from latinos:There are a lot of them and they have the ability to vote. The Republican party will never win another presidential election if they continue to disenfranchise such large and important demographics.

Democratic Debate

After two republican debates that resembled a food fight, many were interested to see what the Democrats had to offer in their first debate on Wednesday. The first Democratic debate had a very different tone than the Republican debates. There were far less arguments and more of a discussion on issues concerning the American people. Not surprisingly, there were also about ten million less viewers than the Republican debate. Although it sounds horrible, people do not want to hear the news or issues going on around them. Ordinary citizens would much rather watch Donald Trump scream at Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish in his home (around his Spanish-speaking wife and son) than they would listen to candidates discuss fiscally-responsible ways to address the issue of mass pollution or how to fix Social Security without taking away benefits from retirees.

The night of the debate was full of fake smiles and phrases that candidate’s staffs have most likely tested with poll groups weeks before the debate. First off, watching the debate one wonders why candidates such as Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee are doing on stage, as they couldn’t even be president of a club at ALHS, let alone the country. The 2016 election cycle has changed around politics. Establishment politicians and experience are out, and being able to separate Siamese twins is now an ample qualification to be president (I’m looking at you Ben Carson).  Although there are general trends in the new age of politics, the Republican and Democratic debates couldn’t have been more different. The Democratic debate was much more issue-driven and soft-spoken than the Republican debate.

Hillary Clinton clearly won the debate, and not because she had the most energy, or the best lines of the night, but because she didn’t lose. In order to “win” the debate all Hillary had to do was not crumble under the pressure of her scandals and be able to relate herself to the public. Hillary’s hardest challenge going forward will be to get the American people to trust her and the easiest way she can do that is by being herself.

Although Bernie Sanders is incredibly idealistic, he has a foolproof way to campaign. He is genuine and doesn’t filter his words in a way that many politicians do. He received a standing ovation with the phrase “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” He isn’t afraid of identifying as a socialist and makes a good case for progressive policies to be incorporated into the system. Bernie seems to attract many young voters with his ideas. His biggest issue is focusing on income inequality and equal opportunity for Americans, whether you’re born as one as one of Donald Trump’s children or in the areas of the country that have been hit hardest by the recession. The idea of rising from the bottom of the economic latter to the top is something uniquely American. Bernie has been able to attract huge crowds for his events with the idea that we should all have an equal opportunity to succeed. Bernie is the left’s best shot at having a president who fights for it’s values in a similar manner that FDR did.

After years of Europeans critiquing our political system as dominated by rich boring old white men, we have made a change. After watching the first three debates I think everyone can agree that our rich old white men have stepped up in the entertainment category. We did it America! Our politicians may still be white, rich and usually male, but at least we’re not boring. Take that Europe.

Guns don't kill people.... Blogs do

I was planning on writing my blog this week on gun control. The day that I started this blog there was a mass shooting at a community college. The details are the ones we’ve heard over and over again. Young, white, intelligent, estranged, an outsider. For the majority of mass shootings, these are the adjectives we hear from the news describing the killer.

For the next few weeks, you’ll hear the same talking points. It’s too early to start talking about gun control, stronger background checks from the Dems. People like Gov. Bobby Jindal will tell you its mental health, yet they cut mental health funding.  However neither side will present legislation to fix the problem whether it is mental health or guns.

 Guns don’t kill people and automobile accidents are more frequent than guns. However, when we send off our soldiers to war to kill people, we send them with guns and bullets, not cars.

The thing is, this is the 15^th mass shooting that Barack Obama has had to talk about during his term. Mass shootings are thought to occur in the United States every day. However, only the ones with the most gruesome detail become big news stories.

I can only think that the next mass killer is out there, watching the amount of coverage this killer has received and planning out his day of fame. The shooter’s picture is on the news all day long. Media outlets cover the person as if they were a celebrity.

To fix the problems of mass shooting I believe we need a multi-step approach. First off, we must stop nurturing a culture in which people killing people is an option. The United States has the most violence in our video games, movies and TV shows.

Second, we must stop covering these people as if they were some sorts of demi-god. Killing a school full of children with a gun is nothing to be famous for. It’s a cowardly act, and should be treated as such. The gunman should only be referred to as what he is a killer.

Lastly we must find a way to limit the access to deadly weapons. Whether that is background checks, giving the FBI full access to receipts, closing the gun show loophole there must be some way. Partisan politics should not matter in these situations. One person tries to blow up an airplane with his shoe and we must all take off our shoes during screening, multiple people use loopholes, and we don’t do anything to restrict gun access.

Further Reading:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/08/25/3694369/conservative-gun-free-zones/

Saying "No" to the party of "No"

Earlier this week, I watched the second Republican debate. After the debate finished I had many thoughts, but one clear observation. This party is no longer the party of president Ronald Reagan. Reagan passed and supported a sensible immigration bill. If Reagan was at last week’s debate and introduced that idea, he would be booed off the stage. Immigration reform (or any sensible reform that would make government more efficient) seems to no longer be the goal of the Republican Party. This is a new Republican Party; it has become the party of the people who are in social movements to take America “back”. The goal of the new Republican Party seems to be to destroy every government program, even if it’s working.

             The second GOP was filled with the candidates gloriously dog-piling Trump, and stances that would make Eisenhower-Republicans roll in their graves. After the first debate I looked at one candidate in particular. Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who seemed to be the only candidate using logic and reason to debate. He’s one of the only Republican candidates who don’t believe vaccines cause Autism and climate change was a hoax created by Al Gore to win the 2000 presidency (and I guess it worked, kinda).  It seems like the Republican Party has a patent on crazy and even the intelligent, well-educated Dr. Carson recently said he isn’t afraid to use military drones as a deterrent for illegal immigration on the border.  If you think this is the only time that Carson made a Joe Biden-esque gaff than you’re going to be happily surprised by the time he once referred to Obamacare as the worst thing to happen to America since slavery (11 million previously uninsured people with insurance is bad I guess?). He’s also used prison rape as an example that being gay is not a choice, and mentioned bestiality and pedophilia when arguing against gay marriage in an earlier interview.

            Thirty minutes into the debate and it seemed as if the candidates were trying to out-crazy Trump. The only one who kept some dignity was Rand Paul, who was rewarded for his politeness with Donald Trump calling him ugly.  When the Republican Party reaches the point of calling out candidates for their Spanish roots and not their policies, it’s time to admit, that this Party needs a change.   

Further Reading:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2013/10/11/ben-carson-obamacare-worst-thing-since-slavery/  

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/19/politics/ben-carson-drones-border/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/02/politics/donald-trump-jeb-bush-spanish/

The rise of the Retrumplican party

Over the summer, I went to Mexico. On my third day in Cancun, I talked to this kid named Hugo. Hugo was from Mexico City and was very politically engaged. After a while, I asked him about Donald Trump, I couldn’t prepare for what I was going to hear next. Donald Trump has referred to undocumented citizens, especially Mexicans, as rapists and killers. Hugo went on a rant and it was then that I realized that Donald Trump is the most internationally hated candidate in a very, very long time.

            The office of president of the United States of America is the most prestigious office in the world. The president should be symbolic of America to other countries. The president should act with the class, integrity and honor that America has. Donald Trump is many things; however, he is not classy and doesn’t possess integrity. He admits to have taken advantage of our bankruptcy laws in order to get ahead and progress his business. How are the American people supposed to trust him to fix things like the broken tax code? There’s no doubt that Trump is passionate about politics. However, being president is not like a reality TV show-you can’t just cut out the bad parts, and when a country is being hostile to him he isn’t allowed to “fire” them. Trump also has a problem admitting when he’s wrong, while Barack Obama has been called an “apologist” for America’s actions in the Middle East, it seems as though Trump would be the opposite.

            Trump’s foreign policy inexperience is only the tip of the iceberg. While Trump can certainly dish the insults, it seems as if he can’t take it. When someone has a different belief than Trump he reverts to calling him or her a “moron” or an “idiot”. Rosie O’Donnell voiced her displeasure with his sexist comments and Trump responded by calling her a pig, which could stand to lose a few pounds. Trump has commented on his daughter’s figure, saying he would date her if she weren’t his daughter (gross). To see how Trump handles criticism you only have to look at his twitter. He once quoted a tweet that said, “If Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, how can she satisfy America”.  Donald Trump has no plans for America besides Immigration reform, he said he’d repeal and replace Obamacare with something “great”. 

             Donald Trump almost makes me have pity, not for him, but for the Republican Party. Liberals have been saying for years that racists tend to vote Republican. I never believed them until I saw his 30% support among likely Republican voters. However, in this day in age of “pick your poison” politics, some may be forced to vote for him strictly based on his party.