2016 Presidential Rollercoaster Race

Wednesday night I watched the Ted Cruz speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland where he was booed as he was finishing his speech. I've heard it described as 'booed off the stage" well that implies he finished early and HAD to leave the stage because of a rowdy audience. Well rowdy they were, but he slowly carried on urging everyone to vote and vote your conscience. This kicked off a treatment of the GOP runner up that had me embarrassed as a Republican supporter. So Trump supporters were upset because voting their conscience must have meant that there guy did not live up to their conscience. Oh I know, it was simply because he did not mention Donald J Trump by name in the same sentence with the word endorse. Oh the humanity!!! So Wednesday I was feeling good about my respect for Ted Cruz and his decision. Leaning towards writing in Cruz like I have for a few months.

Thursday rolled around and this was the big day. The acceptance speech of Donald J Trump preceded by his daughter Ivanka. I thought her speech was incredibly good. She obviously respects and honors him as it seems most of his family does as well. Something we don't have in the White House currently. The current President has a brother living in a shack in Africa and an Aunt that was almost deported because she had over extended her Visa as a non resident alien. So much for being your brothers keeper and helping your family live a respectable life while you live in luxury.

Her speech showed me a side of Donald J Trump that I had not seen and I was impressed. She introduced her father and he came out and gave a nice speech. He actually showed s some humility in talking about the support he has received from Christian groups. Trump said a lot of things that I agreed with.  After watching him for well over an hour, I was pretty much all in ready to vote for him because having Hillary as President would be horrible and dangerous to this country. So Thursday I was on the Trump train.... but then because of Donald himself, it was a short trip.

Those of you that know me, know that I am a Glenn Beck fan. I usually agree with Beck and admire his respect for history and the Constitution. The Constitution, a word which was used one time in the Trump speech referencing the Supreme Court nomination. ONE TIME.

Friday, the morning after the speech Beck reviewed some of the the statements made during the speech. Some of these I thought may have been an over reaction from Beck but got me to rethink and dig a little deeper. So much of his speech I wanted to like some things that didn't sit well. Statements like "I alone can fix it". Uh no President has that much power..... yet.

Then this one...

“I am not going to let companies move to other countries, firing their employees along the way without consequences.”  I can see saying that I will make it so companies won't WANT to move oversees but NOT ALLOWING them to do so? What is he going to do.. arrest them ? Post security guards to keep them on THIS side of the wall? Revoke their passport?

Still leaning towards the idea that Beck MAY be over reacting but while his radio show was going on, news came out that Trump was trashing Ted Cruz hard this morning. Going after his wife and the National Enquirer piece about Refael Cruz and Kennedy. Seriously the supermarket tabloid? After the big speech in which  Trump did not bash Cruz or even mention him, I thought he might be past it, but nope he wen't after him with a full load of shi*. This is a man that wants to lead the country yet keeps throwing trash at his enemies. How will he handle real challenges like Putin and the Middle East?

I just can't do it. Believe me I have spun the whloe "a vote for anyone but Trump is a vote for Hillary" thing in my head for months. After the FBI recommended no charges for Clinton in the server/email mess I was settled on voting for Trump because of the obvious. So in 3 days this week I went from Trump to Cruz, back to Trump and then finally away from Trump. But now where?? I do not know the answer.

The wildcard STILL to me is the Supreme Court. With possibly 2 or 3 replacements due, the next president will have a major impact on freedom and upholding the Constitution in America. Sure the Senate has to approve any Clinton nominee, but the Senate and the House of Representatives have shown little spine in standing up to Obama and his administration why would we expect any different in the future under a Clinton administration.

What am I going to do? Who will be the next president? Those and many more questions will be answered in the next few months. Let's all pray that something horrible does not happen and turn this country in to even more of a mess than it is now.

Many will argue with me, many will think I am a dumb Kansan or a wacko Conservative. Some members of my own family will openly disagree with me but I am just speaking my mind and my heart. I hope you all recognize that I ALWAYS allow you to speak yours.

To everyone but especially to those that disagree with AND read this piece to get to this point..... I LOVE YOU and Thank You. Together we will make things better but not by insults and anger.

I Am A Republican And I ...

I have been thinking about this post for over a month and this weekend gave me the incentive to actually right it. Today's Liberal politicians and media pundents like to throw out claims like Republicans want to kill grandma and move women back in to the stone age. I am sure there are things I hear about Liberals that I tend to believe after hearing them many times regardless of the truth. I hope you read all of these and post your comments below!

I am a Republican and can admit that I am wrong some of the time. So this post is to counter common myths about Republicans and Conservatives. I hope you enjoy this sometimes light hearted and sometimes serious explanation of my Conservative beliefs that may surprise some. Most of these differ from common misconceptions and some conflict with the Republican party stance, but I am just being honest with you. Some of my conservative friends may see these differently, but that's okay. We are all Americans, let's act like it more often then.

I am a Republican and I own a rain barrel with plans to buy a few more! Water is precious and becoming expensive, plus the plants love rain water much more than tap water.




     
I am a Republican and I don't watch FoxNews! Have not watched it for about 7 months. I can do my own thinking and do my own research. Even when I did, it was not my main source of info. Oh and I don't even go to FoxNews.com, and while writing this, thought of how I have not even opened the FoxNews app on my phone in months, so I deleted it. After posting this photo, I realized that many of you liberals would get a chuckle out of what the iPhone said today...

I am a Republican and I compost. Because like many of these things, it's the right thing to do. Not because I am saving the planet but because it's free, good for the plants and easy to do. We even used old boards from the previous owner and built our own!

I am a Republican and I do NOT support the death penalty. I agree that we need deterrents to crime but I draw the line here. It really is pretty simple, in my heart, no matter how vile or evil the crime, the only entity that can decide to end a life is God and not the courts and not other imperfect humans.

I am a Republican and I believe that the planet may very well be warming. But do not believe that the cause is the human consumption of fossil fuels and other pollutants. I am pretty sure that the main controller of temperatures here on earth is our SUN. With solar flares being the main cause for spikes ( more like bumps ) in the earths "fever". The one question that never seems to get addressed by global warming enthusiasts is this... the earth has had 3 ice ages, pretty sure all of them happened before the invention of oil drill, the Ford Model A and coal burning. Yet what then ended the ice ages and warmed the planet if no SUV's and charcoal grills were around?

I am a Republican and I recycle, reduce and reuse. My town does not have curbside recycling but there is a recycle center that accepts most items and beginning this week (better late then never) we started our recycle bin. Cardboard, plastic, glass and any other material that we can send there instead of the landfill is sweet! Again because protecting the planet from unnecessary waste is the right thing to do, not because it will save the planet from pending doom, but it's nice to leave it as clean as you found it!

I am a Republican and through the G.W. Bush presidency, I never thought he was doing a great job. He did protect us after the horror of 9/11 and helped get the country through tough times but other than that he was pretty much horrible. Spent WAY too much money, grew the government too large and did nothing but harm the battle towards ILLEGAL immigration. I guess I could also say he was a man of his word and wore his faith on his sleeve. You can disagree with his words and beliefs but he stood by his heart.

I am a Republican and I support equal right for gay individuals and couples! How can conservatives complain about personal freedom limits with healthcare or government regulations, yet not offer everyone the same and equal freedoms to ALL Americans? Hypocrites? Perhaps this group says it the best. Log Cabin Republicans - "We are loyal Republicans. We believe in limited government, strong national defense, free markets,low taxes, personal responsibility, and individual liberty.... We also believe all Americans have the right to liberty and equality.... Opposing gay and lesbian equality is inconsistent with the GOP's core principles of smaller government and personal freedom." 

See my previous post regarding gay marriage for more thoughts, from this Kansan.

What is important ?

I have spent most of the last few months working on my Royals blog Ballparkthinking. Then lately I feel like I am drawn to pick this up again because if we can't get Americas economic and political feet back on solid ground then we are in serious trouble.

A lot of you may think I am totally a right wing hack but that's okay. I just write about what I feel is important, and make cases that I strongly believe in. If you think I am crazy then I guess that is just how it will have to be. But please don't stop reading. I have heard over and over lately that failure to stand for your beliefs is not an option. I've heard speak your mind without fear and that is what I intend to do. I am making my stance and I am doing so without fear because yes I believe that strongly.

The next 1-2 years could be some of the most critical years in my lifetime. Not just for the 2012 election but for the direction of this country which could play a big part in the election. If things don't get better ( and I am confident that they will not ) then what regular  citizens do and say will play a momentous part of the future America we leave for our children and grand-children. The country is broke. At  the time I write this, the United States National Debt stands at 14.3 TRILLION dollars. Check it here to see what it is when you read this. In 2004 it was 7.1 trillion... doubled in 7 years under Presidents Bush and Obama. Neither one of them have done you or I any favors at this point.

I don't want this to turn into a bash Obama site, there are plenty of those with plenty of reasons. What I would like this to turn into is a place for anyone to see what I am thinking, and a site to house a historical record from my point of view. Right or wrong, I may turn out to be either one but better to be wrong than to have been right and not spoken up.

There may be some personal stuff here, some local things and lots of national thoughts.  Sure baseball is a lot more fun, but a LOT less important. I feel I am being called to act in some way, called to stand in some way. I think this may mean stepping out of my comfort zone at times, but I think it's time. Perhaps writing this and expressing my thoughts here, will help me think it through and point me in the direction I need to point towards.

Please stay tuned... not asking you to agree with me. Please add your comments either to agree or to pick my arguments apart. Discussion is good, freedom of speech is good and the ability to agree to disagree is one of the founding principals of this country.