POTPURRI OF THOUGHTS

This will be my 52^nd blog post in the past 30 months. I did write some articles during the Republican primaries and just one during the actual campaign. Frankly, it was too easy and I would have been way too partisan in my thoughts. Yet, today I am reading about the post mortem on the election by the loser. Now I am convinced that he is a loser –even his own party, which initially had very little enthusiasm for him , is now, once again, reinforcing their initial assessment – he is a loser and not a good one at that.

I voted for the other guy and I guess my “gift” got lost at the post office. He was the last one in the Clown Car (see Blog dated January 7, 2012) so he got to run. Now he still won’t take responsibility for running a poor campaign.  It was the other guys fault. He did dirty tricks – he gave stuff.  He gave people stuff they really needed, like lower taxes to have more money, better access to healthcare so they can enjoy their money, lower cost loans for college so they can make more money – all just stuff!!

If that is how he feels now, imagine how he would have treated people had he won! He would have kept all that stuff for himself and his buddies. By the time he got through we would have been a sicker, poorer and stupider country. Believe it or not, that was his goal – I over simplified it a little, but that was the goal. If you had money like his one or two percent group, you would be richer, healthier and smarter. The 47% that he so eloquently spoke about would have just taken the stuff and done nothing with it, according to him.

The press is having a field day mocking him – even the right leaning press.

I just took a look at where my blog is being read. There are more than 20 countries listed in my stats. Russia has my second largest readership. All my blogs are in English not Cyrillic. Then comes Germany and surprisingly, the Ukraine where my original family came from.  I know that there are no family members reading my blog – because we had a much different name back then. Also, what was left of the family was eradicated at Barbiyar.

Romania, Romani, Romania (from the song made famous by Joel Grey) is the next  largest readership.

Jolly old England is right behind Romania  - in readership that is. I am sure that the queen is one of most avid readers, if she isn’t she should be a reader - I write in English. The Maylasia is next. I know little about Maylasia  but they know more about us through reading my insightful articles.  There are Maylasians discussing the Red  Sox / Yankees rivalry right now, I’ll bet.

I am also read in Paris and other parts of France yet no one from France has invited me to speak regarding what I write about. I am waiting for that ticket to arrive so I can go there drink their wine, eat their bread, romance their ladies – what a wonderful dream! Only in France would they have a president named for another country. Hmmm. Not many readers in Holland!

Poland is just ahead of China. I am going to make my first trip to Poland in a few months where I will poll the Poles to see who is reading my articles. There are at least 34 people reading me.

Latvia, not Lithuania, which is the home of my mother’s ancestry, in near the bottom. The Lithuanians are still smarting from the name change to Kabot – as are the Cabots.  (see Cleveland Amory’s book, The Proper Bostonian). That is why neither of those families are reading my thoughts.

Rwanda and Thailand are at the bottom of the list. I will be in Thailand shortly and of course I expect to meet my one and only reader from that country. I know she is a dancer at the NaNa Palace. (Check the tour guides). I intend to survey all the dancers to find my one and only (reader) from Thailand.

So, since I started writing my thoughts and expecting to have everyone moved by my insightful words, I have had several nice comments, several “Don’t send me this stuff anymore,” and quite a few, “Really, Saul!?” But it is an outlet as since I started to write my life has changed in so many ways. Much of it hinted at in these blog posts. I like sharing it with you – all of you from around the word in the 30 or more countries where I am being read. These are my thoughts – and to the more than 3000 people who have read them , I say, thanks.

That is my take, you decide.

ELECTION FRAUD VS VOTER FRAUD

OK – now that the election is behind us and all of the ads have gone away and our guy got in, we can now talk about some of the rhetoric that plagued this campaign season. There is no doubt in my mind that much of what I heard regarding voter fraud was designed to keep people of color from voting as well as the elderly. Voter ID is a disgrace. How many 85 year olds still have their licenses? OK – too many! But so many others of that age let their licenses expire because they stopped driving. With no ID – no vote! In California that is not the case, the land of fruits and nuts, we have not gone nuts over voter ID. If you are registered you vote!

I have been voting for exactly 50 years. In that time I have never missed a vote. My philosophy is if you don’t vote you can’t complain. Over the years I complained a lot – about local politics, statewide elections and national elections. My guy didn’t always win. Even if he or she did win, I could still complain because I would do it better, whatever it was.

What I am complaining about now is the notion of voter fraud. I believe this became an issue to deflect form the real problem – election fraud. Creating dumb ideas like voter ID – that is a way to disenfranchise voters. Putting people at polling places that look like authority but have none and asking potential voters for information they don’t have and don’t need to have is election fraud – it is happening now. These pseudo figures of authority threaten the potential vote with arrest if they don’t comply. If the voter knew that if they did call the police the voter would be protected, they would ask this poll watcher to call them.

Early voting in some states make it easier for people to vote. However, biased governors in some states will not allow for extra hours to vote. They need the extra hours because of the demand. For many years I heard the cry of how we as Americans, do not exercise our right to vote – we stay home. Now that we want to vote we are often deprived of that obligation. There is an axiom that says poor people, people of color and old people are more in tune with the left than the right. So, by preventing these people I n those specific demographics from voting, the candidates on the right will create an advantage for themselves.

Poll watchers are a good thing. But they have no authority to approach any citizen. They can do what I did – call the registrar with a complaint. I got a call within an hour of my sending the e-mail regarding a poll worker that appeared to be unfamiliar with the alphabet and was causing a long line while voting booths were unoccupied. They told me that someone was on the way to correct the situation and reassign that poll worker. I am not a poll watcher – I am a citizen and I care.

We have seen the movie regarding the hanging chads in Florida. We have seen the butterfly ballot that had people voting for someone they would not go across the street for. That is election fraud – by design. Unfortunately, even the Supreme Court participated in election fraud.

The cry is that illegals or undocumented people could vote. Where and how? There are two lists at the polling place with the names of registered voters. The registrations are vetted at the registrar’s office before they get on the list and how many people are willing to go to jail for casting a phony ballot? It just doesn’t happen. The law in Florida states "A person who commits or attempts to commit any fraud in connection with voting, votes a fraudulent ballot, or votes more than once in an election can be convicted of a felony of the third degree and fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to 5 years."

Even if all of the so called 11 million illegals voted, and they all voted for the same candidate, spread over 50 states, could they swing an election? I guess if they were ALL in Montana they could swing that state – but they are not all in one state and they probably would not all have the same preference. Once again, voter fraud is the deflection away from the larger issue and real issue – election fraud.

Even John McCain’s campaign manager said: “I think that all of this stuff that has transpired over the last two years is in search of a solution to a problem, voting fraud, that doesn’t really exist when you look deeply at the question. It’s part of the mythology now in the Republican Party that there’s widespread voter fraud across the country.”

But election fraud is not a myth. Google Kenneth Blackwell and see his history with Diebold voting machines, rulings on provisional ballots and more.

The purpose of this blog is to inform about difference between voter frauds, which hardly exists, and election fraud which could be rampant.

That is my take, you decide.