The Vote

    First off, a tip of the cap to the County Board of  Elections and the polling workers there. Great set up and very friendly folks. I highly recommend it. Plus it's a great place to see what 50,000 political signs look like on 1,000 sq. ft. of grassy space. Mind blowing.
   I try my best to look at policy when voting and this year was tough, so little of it is getting through the noise. So the first thing was to throw out all the noise, starting with the womanizing and misogyny crap. First off if you were shocked by Donald Trumps leaked tape, welcome back from that rock you've been living under. I used to be a big Howard Stern fan and Donald was a frequent guest on the show. Back then I was a little shocked at some of the things he said, with my usual reaction being, "what a dick". I'm not surprised at the women coming forward because it's exactly what he talked about doing on Stern. But seriously, can we just move on.
    Trumps' counter attack on Bill was just as lame. The way I see it, the Republican party feasted at that buffet 20 years ago and are now wanting seconds. They got the impeachment they wanted, driven by a man who we now know was banging his own secretary at the time (Gringrich) and another man who's now sitting in prison as a convicted child molester. (Hastert)  Besides, Bill has been a pretty good ambassador for the US since he left office, unlike his successors who are prisoners to their own country. Since leaving office the only time Bush has left North America is when Bill tried to help his image by taking him to Haiti after the earthquake. Cheney hasn't left it either, although both have ventured into Canada once, both trips were met with protest.
    Benghazi and the subsequent e-mail controversy were non players also. They would never admit it but to many in the Republican party, Benghazi was a godsend, and they took complete advantage of it. They knew who they would be coming up against in this election. Seven congressional investigations and millions of dollars later we learned that mistakes were made, chiefly the mistake of, in the hopes of maintaining an illusion of neutrality, we let the British contract out security details that proved to be inadequate. No stand down orders, no intelligence lapses and certainly no overt wrongdoing. Just keep in mind that the cost in overthrowing Gaddafi was the loss of four lives. The cost of overthrowing Saddam was 4,497 dead US soldiers, 32,021 wounded, 343 US contractors died, 130,000 dead civilians and somewhere in the range of $2 trillion dollars.
    As for the e-mails, I'm kind of surprised they even went there. "Let's remind Americans that the entire Bush White House used a third party server at the RNC." It's too bad that at the end of that investigation, which the administration admitted to "losing" 5 million emails and accused of deleting another 20 million, they would have banned the use of private servers as well as third party servers. The Republicans would have had their pound of flesh in Hillarys use of a private server, but the Dems would have ended up with a better candidate while the Reps. would still be dealing with Trump.
 The wikileaks coming from Russia are also a non factor. Some of the stuff is a little embarrassing but hardly bombshell material. I won't let stolen material coming from a foreign entity who's trying to influence our election sway me. And in case you're wondering, if the shoe was on the other foot and it was the Reps. e-mails getting hacked, which will more than likely happen at some point, I'd pay them no mind.also. A lot of lives and money have been spent fighting communism in my lifetime and to now be welcoming their influence in our election seems disgraceful.
    So that leaves the issues. I'll start with the ones that have gotten the most applause and put Trump in the position he is. It's important to remember that these are only things he proposes. It's certainly conceivable that somewhat saner minds would step in and squash his plans due to fiscal or constitutional reasons.
    The wall. All we know from Trump is that it will be a beautiful wall and cost between $2 and $16 billion dollars (his estimates, better estimates put it in the $30B range). What history has shown us is that in 2006 we spent $2.1 billion to build 600 miles of fencing. Only half of it was built before it ran out of money. Once the fence construction moved from urban areas and into harder to reach places it was costing way more money than they thought. They  stopped construction and decided to go with a virtual wall that proved to be very inefficient. To build a wall with concrete takes more equipment , better roads and then there is still the compensation to land owners, many of which will fight for their land in courts.
   Whenever you hear Trump say illegals are "are pouring or streaming across the border", point and laugh. There are over a million fewer undocumented people in this country than there were 10 years ago and besides, why would they be fleeing from all the jobs he complains we're losing to them  
    His dream of Mexico paying for the wall was just that, a dream, so he said he'll procure the money through higher fees on money transfers from the undocumenteds to their families in Mexico, which brings us to his second most applause worthy proposal. Deportation
    While the Patriot Act has greatly diminished our constitutional right of "probable cause", "just cause" is still alive and well. Every action America takes against a person, citizen or non, they must show just cause. That means courts, judges, attorneys, and jails to hold those accused, and we don't have nearly enough of those things to prosecute 11 million people. If you think the wall was going to be expensive wait until we have to start paying for those things. And by the way, an undocumented sitting in jail is not going to be sending any money to Mexico, so there goes the money for the wall.
    When it comes to taxes, under Clintons plan I'd be paying a little more and the rich would be paying a lot more. Under Trump I'd be paying a little less and the rich would be paying a lot, a whole lot, less. So much so that the country would be losing trillions over 10 years. Whenever you hear a politician say, "I'm going to cut taxes and build infrastructure" it would be similar to me saying, "I'm going to take a job that pays me less money so I can build an addition on my house." It's nonsense. For the people who live here in Columbus you've seen what a little tax increase can bring.
    Every plan he has spoke of makes the head spin. Banning Muslims, totally unconstitutional. Nuclear proliferation, he's all for it when every President in my lifetime has tried to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world. Ending our participation in NATO. Isolationism does nothing for a nation, just ask North Korea.
    Lastly I want to touch on the plight of the Appalachian coal miners. I feel bad for those families. My lineage along with some friends have included coal miners and Trump has simply stated he's going to bring those jobs back. As a businessman though, he, above all else, should understand supply and demand and the coal there has become unprofitable, plain and simple. The veins are thinner and it's harder to get to. Adding the fact that Wyoming has more coal than Pa., WV, and Kentucky combined and it has hurt them more than anything else. Wyoming coal is easier to transport and less expensive to get to also. Clinton has proposed investing in them and getting them into other occupations such as solar production and I think we deserve to at least let her try instead of giving them pipe dreams.