Pundit-cation Without Representation

I listen to quite a few podcasts. 131 shows to be exact. That’s a lot of podcasts. Some are more active than others. About 26 of them are music. The rest are made up of current events, stories (i.e. “The Moth”), and lots and lots of geek. There are about seven that focus primarily on technology and its impact.

I’m sure most of you have heard of “Silicon Valley”. It’s not a real place, as far as the postal service is concerned. It is, however a real place for the rest of us. It is located in the southern San Francisco Bay area of California and is where many technology companies hang their hats.

Most of the technology-related podcasts I listen to are based in the southern California area. That’s not surprising, since San Francisco is the hub of technology. The unfortunate side-effect to this is that the folks who do the podcasts report the impact of technology based on what is seen in California.

California, if you haven’t noticed, is NOT the entirety of the world - or just the United States for that matter.

Much of what I hear has little-to-no impact by the time it reaches my part of the country (Ohio). You think I’m kidding? I’ve yet to see anyone riding a Segway down the streets of Seven Hills…

This localized focus is not limited to just technology. If you ever watch cable news, or read “major” publications, you’d think that the entire country resides in either California or New York. The rest of the country, and the opinions expressed, are basically ignored - or worse, taken as the ramblings of the “uninformed masses”.

If you look up a map of election results from the 2016 Presidential election based on votes, you’ll see that the far ends of the country are blue (Democrat) and the middle is red (Republican). The majority of states are red - again, in the middle of the country - you know, NOT California or New York.

The majority of cable news networks and “major” publications are based in California and New York. This is why you hear so much vitriol over the current administration from them. If you don’t pay attention, you’d think that is the way the majority of the country thinks.

So, what can you do? Well, you could turn off your TVs, but that won’t help. You see, those folks think that their opinions are the only ones that matter and you need to think like they do. Just turning off your set won’t let them know that you disagree. You could write them and tell them. You could write their advertisers and tell them. But honestly, it won’t matter. As I said, for some reason, the folks in California and New York think that those of us in the middle are truly in the “flyover states” and can simply be ignored.

And that is what we need to do to them: ignore them.

According to an article in Wikipedia, Donald Trump received 62,984,828 votes. Hillary Clinton received 65,853,514 votes. That’s a difference of 2,868,686 votes. Hillary Clinton received almost six million more votes than Donald Trump in California and New York alone. So, you can see why the pundits in those states were ACTUALLY shedding tears after the election.

In 2016 there were about 200 million registered voters (I’m not even going to refer to the fact that there are over 300 million people in the United States). This means that 71,161,658 registered voters did NOT vote for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

So, the next time someone whines that we should get rid of the Electoral College, tell them that by popular vote, that big chair in Washington, DC should be vacant right now…

© Emittravel 2018

The Majority Rules - Except When it Doesn’t

Every once in a while, someone brings up the whole “let’s get rid of the Electoral College” shtick. Because, as you know, the popular vote is the desired method for those living in California and New York; states that feel they alone should determine the outcome of every Presidential election. And of course, that outcome should always be a Democrat.

Before I get into this too far, let me be clear: I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat. I belong to the largest voting block: Independents. In other words, I don’t belong to a minority party. Also, I voted for the person I felt best fit the job requirements for President. I didn’t vote based on gender, or whether or not the person was racist, sexist, or any other -ist. And I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

Now that that is out of the way…

The complaints concerning the Electoral College are from Democrats. The reason is that in most elections, they win the popular vote. Seldom does a Republican win the popular vote. Again, refer to the comment about California and New York in the first paragraph (both HEAVILY Democrat-voting states). If you remove both of those states, Republicans would normally win the popular vote.

The major difference between the two is that with the Electoral College, votes are not strictly based on population. This keeps the playing field level. Or, in a word that the Democrats prefer (in all areas EXCEPT voting), "fair". With the popular vote, the majority voice wins. And why the Democrats prefer it confuses me.

You see, Democrats believe that the minority voice should supersede the majority voice. The number of individuals that consider themselves LGBTQLMNOP, for example, are an EXTREMELY small percentage of the population, but their “feelings” should supersede the “feelings” of the rest of the country who, ironically, fall into Darwin’s preference for evolutionary success.

(Oops, sorry. I made the cardinal sin of dropping a little science here - and the only science that counts is what the liberal establishment considers valid - you know, like man-made climate change for example.)

So, to wrap this up, I feel that Democrats should be grateful that the Electoral College exists, and should quit whining over the popular vote. Because, in their mindset, the majority voted for Hillary Clinton, so they should be happy that Donald Trump won.

Or, to be even more accurate, Gary Johnson or Jill Stein should have become President.

But that would probably be taking things a bit too far…

© Emittravel 2018

You Really Don’t Want a Democracy

After the 2016 Presidential Election, many were upset that even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, Donald Trump took the presidency by winning the Electoral College vote. Cries of “unfair”, and “he’s not my President” rang out; along with a push to eliminate the Electoral College because, after all, we are a Democracy.

Actually, no. We are not a Democracy. We are a Republic. Thus the Electoral College.

I bring this up because we have a current movement that is trying to rewrite history and remove anything deemed offensive from the public eye. Included are statues, flags, and even baseball team mascots.

As a Cleveland Indians fan, I’ve been pummeled by the anti-Wahoo folks for years. Even a recent article I read lumped the mascot with statues of Robert E. Lee as being equally racist. Hogwash!

First off, the Supreme Court has determined that trademarks cannot be considered “hate speech”. So as far as the law is concerned, Chief Wahoo is not hate speech.

Nevertheless, those few are screaming the loudest in hopes to bully a decision in their favor. Even the MLB Commissioner is pressuring the Cleveland Indians owners to remove the mascot.

Dear MLB Commissioner: IF you bow down to the pressure of a few and remove Chief Wahoo from the Cleveland Indians, we the fans will NOT go quietly into the night. Third-party vendors will start making a killing selling Chief Wahoo merchandise - which means the MLB gets none of that sweet, sweet cash.

I for one am getting a bit tired of a few hypocrites calling the shots.

Hypocrites? Yep. Hypocrites.

Go back and reread the first paragraph of this post.

The same folks calling us a democracy don’t really WANT a democracy. Why? Because the majority of people don’t want the mascots removed, or history to be rewritten. And IF we WERE a democracy, you crybabies would have to go away.

It’s called the First Amendment. If you like the idea of freedom of speech, then you have to accept that you will be exposed to speech you disagree with. That gives you a choice: You can either move to a country that does not respect the freedom of speech - which would eliminate you hearing anything that might offend you, or you can go ahead and get thicker skin.

As far as whether or not to remove statues, flags, mascots, or whatever, I direct you to Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations: “Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason why it was put up.” (ascribed to Chesterton by John F. Kennedy).

Do you honestly believe that the people who erected a statue (that includes designing, creating, paying for, and authorizing it) did it BECAUSE they were racist?

"Let's put up a statue to show the world how racist we are. Good idea, huh? All in favor?"

"Aye!"

That’s hard to believe. Just because you are offended by CHANGING the original intention, does NOT give you the right to force the majority to accept your cries as truth.

So, before you “like” a tweet or Facebook post that encourages the removal of this or that, do a little research to find out WHY this or that was erected in the first place.

And if you don’t agree, go ahead, move to North Korea, and shout that statues of their dear leader are racist and hate speech. I’m sure they’ll praise your bravery.

(Idiots.)

© Emittravel 2017

Consolation Prize

The 2016 Presidential Election has produced many a discussion on whether or not we should be using the Electoral College (E.C.) to determine who becomes President. There are many reasons why we should do away with the E.C., including the fact that those voting have the ability to change their vote from the will of the states they represent (which defeats the purpose of having a “republican” form of government in the first place).

The big cry, of course, has been the issue of the Popular Vote, where Hillary Clinton, though losing in the E.C., had a larger number of votes than Donald Trump. One shed tear of the cry has been that if you removed the popular votes received in the State of California alone, Donald Trump would have won that as well.

Regardless, Donald Trump is now the President of the United States, and Hillary Clinton is sitting on the sidelines - probably giving a sigh of relief!

She is, as Donald Trump would say, “A big, fat LOSAH!”

And since politics is an obvious game show (Betsy DeVos became Secretary of Education by playing “The Price is Right” with the G.O.P.), Hillary Clinton should leave the stage, not empty handed, but with a consolation prize.

The Governor of California is Democrat Jerry Brown. Brown is currently serving his fourth life sentence . . . er . . . term as governor. I think it would be such a great gesture of Democrat Party unity for Jerry Brown to hand over his baton of power to Hillary Clinton. Since California proved how much they supported Hillary Clinton by providing enough votes to swing the election to her from Donald Trump (if the E.C. went away), it should be a no-brainer to give her the Governorship.

If you DO need a little brainer, let’s look at the numbers:

Jerry Brown won his last term with a total of 4,388,368 votes. Hillary Clinton received 7,362,490 votes. That’s a difference of 2,974,122 votes MORE for Clinton than Brown. Even the people of California have spoken!

Hillary Clinton, as a consolation prize, you are now the Governor of California.

And don’t worry Jerry Brown, you get a consolation prize as well: a year’s supply of Turtle Wax (™) - which, by the way, is one can.

Thank you, and good night!

(I miss Richard Dawson!)

© Emittravel 2017

I'm No Political Pundit, But . . .

The 2016 Presidential Election is “finally" over. I put “finally" in quotes, because according to my Twitter feed, it ain’t over yet.

As of today, November 13, 2016, Donald Trump won the election with 290 electoral votes, to Hillary Clinton’s 228. Now, according to the U.S. Constitution, Donald Trump won. But, according to my liberal friends, Hillary Clinton won because she got the most popular votes. They think that the Electoral College should either go away, or that the Electoral College should ignore the states and vote for Hillary Clinton on December 19.

Now, I’m not going to go into a long dissertation on why we have the Electoral College. I may save that for a “It’s Broke . . . Time to Fix It" article. Or, you can just go ahead and read the U.S. Constitution. What I do want to do is hopefully give everyone something to grasp that is positive, and allow everyone to finally move on.

To start, let me remind you that I voted for Gary Johnson. You can go back through some of my recent posts to get an overall picture of why. Let’s just say if you think I voted to spite the parties, you are wrong. If you think I threw my vote away, you are also wrong. If you think that my vote gave your opposing candidate the win, you can stop thinking: you are also wrong.

The reason I voted for Gary Johnson was that, based on his policies and record, I believed he was the best person for the JOB we the people were hiring for. And that’s it in a nutshell.

I say that to make sure you understand that I am NOT a Trump supporter, and I am NOT a Clinton supporter. I’m a registered Independent, so I don’t have a party line to hoe.

I’d like to say this was the nastiest election ever, but from what I’ve read, our earlier Presidential candidates were barrel-scum flingers. And that’s far before our lifetimes. So, nasty elections are nothing new in our history. It’s unfortunate that this process cannot be handled with the same decorum as the Office of the President is supposed to present.

(Maybe that should be a criteria for winning?)

As far as Clinton winning the popular vote is concerned, let’s look at the numbers. More than 40% of registered voters did not participate in this election. You can scream voter intimidation if you want, but the truth is, many people that I talked to felt that neither “major" candidate was worth voting for. (Most people had no idea about any third-party candidates, since their 24/7 news channels gave them so little free advertising, compared to the Republicans and Democrats.) Many people - over 40% - decided not to vote. THAT is a major declaration by the people. Either run a candidate that they would hire for the JOB, or they aren’t voting. Not voting is as much a statement as voting.

As far as voter intimidation is concerned, I’ve never seen it. I’ve been voting in elections since 1984 and I’ve never seen it. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. I’m almost positive it does. If the elections of old were as nasty as this one was, I’m sure voter intimidation took place. I am saying that I’ve never seen it. Maybe that means I’ve lived in areas that are just too wholesome for the practice, or more likely, I’ve lived in areas where the electorate is considered of no value. But this election was filled with screams of Trump supporters intimidating voters. I remember cries over alleged Black Panthers intimidating voters in the previous two elections. So, it either is happening, or the concept gets a lot of press.

So, subtracting the over 40% of voters not participating, the remaining popular votes were almost evenly divided between Clinton and Trump. Clinton DID receive the mathematical majority of popular votes. But since NEITHER candidate was able to break the 48% mark, you need to accept that Clinton was .2% (that’s point two percent) LESS UNPOPULAR than Trump. That’s not a majority, that’s splitting hairs. And if you are making the popular vote your argument, maybe you should just stop.

As a side: If Clinton had won the Electoral College but lost the Popular vote by the same .2%, would liberals be shouting that Trump should have won? Maybe it’s time to stop whining.

As far as the people who did vote for Trump: The media has been harping most of this election that he is a bigot, womanizing, pig (amongst many other derogatory adjectives). Because of this, the same descriptors have been placed upon those who voted for him. This needs to stop, people. Do you honestly believe that the majority of people who voted FOR Trump are bigots? I’m sure you do see in the media (social and otherwise) instances showing this to be true, but like the “man on the street" portions of late night TV shows, those are selected instances for impact. NOT the norm.

I saw two maps of the country showing you what it would look like if certain groups had voted. One was hysterical. It represented what it would look like if 3-year olds had voted (completely covered in crayon scribbles). Look for that one. It was the best!

The other map showed the actual results of this election by counties. The majority of Clinton voters were in urban counties, whereas the majority of Trump voters were in rural counties. Now, the media likes to divide that between educated and uneducated. I like to look at it as if those in urban counties live in their own bubbles. Why? Because maybe, just maybe, those in rural counties cared more about the fact that many are either without jobs (never returned to the workforce since the last recession), or are under employed (making less money, or working in jobs that pay less than they had), than whether or not a trans-gendered person used a certain bathroom (if you look at the stories in the media over the last four years or so, the emphasis on such stories was abnormally high). And it’s not that rural folks are bigots against transgenders, it’s that when it comes to their lives, those folks are a minority of a minority of the population.

Maybe, just maybe, those in the rural communities were tired of being left out.

I say this to tell you that I’ve never talked to ANYONE who said they voted for Trump BECAUSE they were bigots. If you think that is the reason why people vote in elections, maybe you need to go and talk to someone . . . professionally.

So to close:

Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States. If you were electing a President, you have nothing to worry about. If you were electing a King, be afraid. Be very afraid.

©Emittravel 2016