The Vote - 2016

I am a veteran.  Like most veterans, I know that “freedom isn’t free.”  The vote is more than a civic duty.  It is a sacred right in a free country.

Better men and women than I am have sacrificed to preserve and defend the Constitution of the United States.  They have died and been wounded.  They have lost spouses and lovers.  They have missed the final illnesses and funerals of parents, grandparents, and other loved ones.  They have missed the birth of children and seeing their children grow up.  That is one reason why I have never missed voting in a presidential election, and I have only missed voting in one congressional election; because I was recovering from serious burns.

I urge every American who is able to vote to do so.  Like Sen. Ted Cruz, I urge every American to vote their conscience; even if I disagree with who you vote for.  Sen. Cruz damaged himself by not endorsing Donald Trump.  Some say that, as a professing Christian, he should have been more forgiving.  Maybe it would have been a better witness for Christ if he had, and maybe not.  However, he followed his conscience, and urged everyone else to do so, as well.  He deserves our respect for being willing to stand up for what he believes, no matter what the consequences.  I can do no less.

Living in Idaho has a lot of advantages.  No matter how I vote, Idaho’s four electoral votes will go to the Republican presidential candidate.  That frees me to follow my conscience and write in for anyone I want.  I plan to write in for Sen. Ted Cruz.  If I still lived in Colorado, where the outcome of the election is in doubt, I would feel obligated to vote for Donald Trump.  I agree with most of his proposed policies, but who he is as a man makes me very worried about his becoming the president.

Hillary Clinton, and the platform of the Democratic party, are totally unacceptable.  If it was necessary, I would vote against Hillary Clinton, rather than vote for Donald Trump.  Following your conscience is more than who you vote for; it is also who you vote against.

Appointments to the Supreme Court, and other federal courts, are at stake.  The emphasis and direction of the Justice Department is at stake.  Therefore, the direction of our society is at stake.  Vote for traditional American values, and against socialism and godless secular humanism.  When you vote, I urge you to vote in such a way that candidates who support traditional American values will be elected.  Please vote against Hillary Clinton and the other Democrats running for office.  Please preserve who we are as a people and our way of life.  Pray, and vote as if your freedom depended on it.  It does.

Thank you.

Four Hundred Million Dollars!

Once again, President Obama has demonstrated a total disregard for the law and the will of a substantial proportion the American people.  We are not the dummies he thinks we are.

He caused a cash payment of $400 million in euros and Swiss francs to be delivered in the middle of the night to the Iranians.  He has asked us to believe that the release of American hostages on that very same date was a coincidence.  He can’t believe that we don’t remember that the whole thing was “announced” last January.  Maybe it was buried in the fine print!

The President has blithely ignored his responsibility to avoid the appearance of wrongdoing.  He just doesn’t think it is necessary to maintain the faith of the people in their government.  He wants us to just trust in him to do what is best, not just for us but for the whole world.  After all, he knows what is good for us; better than we do.

Mr. President, this is why the people don’t believe you:

·      You have lied to us in the past, repeatedly.

·      You have ignored the constitution and laws of the land, repeatedly.  Why then should we think you would obey the law that prohibits the United States from paying ransom to terrorists?

 

·      Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, especially against Israel.  You have otherwise opposed Israel for almost eight years, so why should you stop now?

·      You paid cash with laundered money, which arrived in the middle of the night on foreign aircraft.

·      The money could have been paid any time since last January, if indeed we owed it.  Instead, it arrived on the very day hostages were released.

Most Americans are not that stupid.  Some of us can even divide 400 by 322.  Those that do so will see that $400 million would provide each and every man, woman, and child in America with approximately $1.24 million.

Now, to you Senators and Congressmen:

·      We could use the money!

·      Don’t try to tell us that you can’t do it because it would heat up the economy and lead to runaway inflation. It is chump change compared to what you waste every year.  We don’t even need to get the money in a direct payment.  Many people would blow it in a few years if you did that.

·      Instead, put it tax free in private individual bank accounts (so you can’t get your mitts on it.)  Let it work like a retirement account.  People could live off the interest when they reach the age of sixty. Their heirs could inherit the balance, and so on.  Each new natural born American citizen could get their own million-dollar account from the Social Security fund.

·      Everybody in the world would want to come here, but they do anyway.  We would have to do something different for naturalized citizens.  We could put $40,000 a year in their retirement accounts.  That way they would get their million in 25 years.  We would have to fix the immigration system, but you might be motivated to get it done if there was a cool million in it for you.  The people, the banks, wall street, and the housing industry would love you for it.

Come on man (or woman)!  You political elites are smart people.  You can figure it out. At least you can do your job and stop President Obama from breaking any more laws for the next six months.

For the record, it doesn’t matter if the Iranians said they were going to build schools and hospitals, or whatever with the money.  They feel no obligation to keep their word to infidels.  According to K.T. McFarland on the “Lou Dobbs Tonight” program (Fox Business 08/08/2016), the Iranians put it directly into their defense budget.  They will use it for nefarious purposes, and that’s one thing you can take that to the bank.