Voting for Trump - You Don't Get It Do you?

A friend of mine posted this meme on facebook:

A back and forth response started with one friend telling the person who posted this: "Lmao.You just don't get it"

He wouldn't say what he meant, but he was obviously a Trump supporter.

I post things from time to time about this and other elections. This year I have tried to usually post articles with facts about one side or the other. That is something that has been sorely missing in this election - but also blatantly ignored. I could say it's a mystery, but it's not really such a mystery to me.

People are caught up by their emotions. Their emotions are being fanned by an entertainer who has been taught by professionals how to act on camera. That's not all Trump on his TV shows. He's an actor being directed how to look, act, respond and get reactions on camera as every TV actor told is by their Director.

He is also stirring up what many folks have kept silently hidden from the public and themselves. I bit of bigotry, small or big, but there non the less.

I know what it was like to live in the 50"s. I know how many of our elders spoke and thought about people not like themselves. It was as blatant in my family as my mother not trusting an Italian who was not from Naples!!! That's like not trusting a person because they are from Montana and not the state they are from! It didn't have to make sense, it was how they were brought up. And guess what, many of us were exposed to that!

Now some of that history and memories are coming out. It's fueled by the fire of speeches filled with promises but not filled with plans on how to accomplish those promises. It's like saying "I'm going to cure cancer if you elect me!" He has no frigging idea how to do that but if he says it, on TV, it must be right. Our elders thought if you read it in the newspapers, it must be right. Some people read it on the internet and think the same thing.

Take the emotion out of the elections to date and look at the facts in front of you. That's what I did when I read the response, "You don't get it." Guess I got emotional and here was my response:

"No YOU don't get it. We don't have to make America Great Again. It's already pretty darn awesome. 
He wants to take us back 70 years where white men ruled, women were subservient, blacks were called the "N" word and ethnic jokes were just SO funny. 
Those are FACTS posted here, not lies made up to make his supporters feel good. 
I'm retired and have spent a lot of time watching all channels, reading articles and fact checking. Hillary may not be my 1st choice, but she is the most qualified candidate to continue to put us on a track of recovery.
Obama isn't to blame for all of the whining out there. He took over a stupendous mess that Bush got us into after taking over a country in great shape" Obama did his best "to continue to move forward. 
Is everything perfect like Obamacare, no, but it can be fixed. Remember both Dems and Reps spent a lot of time mucking it up. 
So if you want manufacturing jobs to come back to the USA and not keep them overseas where Trump makes all of his clothes, if you want to continue with the atmosphere of bigotry and hate that Trump has continued to poke like poking a bear with a stick, then God help us for your ignorance, bigotry and hatred of what is good and right".

Was I over the top with my response?  I don't think so. Was I a little overemotional? Probably. But then, why not? It seems that emotions may be what makes people vote during this election, not facts.

I just hope someone reads this or something else containing facts and finally "Gets it" and makes the right choice when they cast their vote.


Submitted by Linda Vola

Election Day Prognostications

As some you may have noticed, I occasionally make comments about politics, politicians and policies. This has been especially true during this election. As election day is nearly upon us, I would like to make some predictions. See if you agree. Comment with your own predictions so we can compare them on November 9th.

1. Hillary will win. She will end up with 345 electoral college votes, plus or minus 5%. Why so high compared to the current polls? There are a couple of things at play that are hard to measure. First is the ground game. Clinton has a high number of people going door to door, driving people to voting locations, and working the phones. Some experts feel this is worth 2-3% more than the polls show. Trump has virtually no ground game. 

Second are the results from early voting. In many cases it shows an almost equal number of Democrats and Republicans have voted early. So most people assume that all people are voting for the Presidential candidate of their party. Not true, in my opinion. In this election there are more Republicans voting for Hillary than there are Democrats voting for Trump. Even if only 2% more of the Republicans vote for Hillary than there are Democrats voting for Trump, that converts to a 4% shift in the early voting results (2% taken from Trump and given to Hillary deflates his vote by 2 and adds 2 to her to give a total shift of 4%). Note that this unmeasured effect is only true for early voters where we don't know how they voted. On election day we will know how they voted. Since about 30% of eligible voters in early voting states have voted, the net effect in those states is about 1.2% (30% of voters times the 4% shift).

If you combined these two factors, you end up with a net gain to Clinton of 3-4%. This puts all of the battleground states out of reach for Trump and may even move a couple of Trump-leaning states to her too.

2. After the election, the Senate will be 51/49 in favor of the Democrats. Some of the math from above will work for the Democrats. 

3. Trump will not concede the election Tuesday or Wednesday. He will claim voting irregularities. On election day we will see some voter intimidation at the polls but not as much as some predict. It will come mostly from the Trump side as he has encouraged people to monitor the polls but has not put any guidelines in place to control those who may be too enthusiastic about their duties. 

4. Trump's failure to get elected will launch Trump's career in the anti-establishment alt-right movement which will crash and burn. Trump's brand, which he values at $5 billion dollars will take a big hit. The brand has been attached to Trump the winner. Now he will be Trump the loser no matter who he blames the loss on.

Disagree with my predictions? Offer your thoughts about what will happen on and after election day. Any logic you can use will be appreciated. 

Charlie Sharp

Dallas Shootings - Outliers

I am so proud of how my husband, addressed the tragic event that we are all still struggling with today.

As the daughter of a police officer, the events stir memories of my Dad rushing in to help during the riots in July of 1970 and my fear for his life. I was there, bused into Asbury park by Nj Bell. I was a college student working as a telephone Operator for the summer. Somehow I didn't fear for my own life. But I knew my Dad was in the thick of things and anything could happen to him. 

He was lucky, he survived.

I mourn for the fallen and pray for their families and our country that we can get over the bigotry that has bubbled to the top and is boiling over, lit by loud angry shouts from podiums hidden by smirks and claims of support for those different from themselves.

"Outliers - We, all of us, have a tendency to label groups based on the attention grabbing outliers instead of the mainstream masses. In Dallas, the now deceased shooter said last night that he wanted to kill white police officers. This came on the heels of the deaths of two black men shot by white police officers. The Dallas snipers drew a straight line from those deaths to all white police officers. That logic is just as flawed as attributing the atrocities of any group of miscreants to an entire race, religion, nationality or ethnicity.

We, nor the outliers, can kill enough people to create peace. We can crush resistance for a short time but it will return bigger and bolder. The only answer is to stop treating the masses as the outliers. Treat everyone as an individual, not blind to obvious signs of danger nor prejudiced by outlier actions. This solution is less dramatic, creates less news content and may take years to achieve, but is the only way to a lasting peace.

This solution starts with you, the individual. You don’t need Congress to act nor for direction from your clergy. Just look at each person you see or meet as if they are part of the peaceful masses that share your hope for a better day tomorrow.

Please share this post with whatever comment you believe is appropriate."

Submitted by 

Linda Vola
Creative Muse  & 

Charlie Sharp Head Wrangler

Forever Young Farm