Thursday, November 10, 2016

The National Tantrum: Today's news for November 10th

Half of America had a nervous breakdown yesterday over Hillary Clinton's loss/Donald Trump's win. The number of drama queens in this country is actually startling. 

For example:

Reuters:
Demonstrators marched in cities across the United States on Wednesday to protest against Republican Donald Trump's surprise presidential election win, blasting his campaign rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims and other groups.

In New York, thousands filled streets in midtown Manhattan as they made their way to Trump Tower, Trump's gilded home on Fifth Avenue. Hundreds of others gathered at a Manhattan park and shouted "Not my president."

In Los Angeles, protesters sat on the 110 and 101 highway interchange, blocking traffic on one of the city's main arteries as police in riot gear tried to clear them. Some 13 protesters were arrested, a local CBS affiliate reported.

An earlier rally and march in Los Angeles drew more than 5,000 people, many of them high school and college students, local media reported.

A demonstration of more than 6,000 people blocked traffic in Oakland, California, police said. Protesters threw objects at police in riot gear, burned trash in the middle of an intersection, set off fireworks and smashed store front windows.

Police responded by throwing chemical irritants at the protesters, according to a Reuters witness.

Two officers were injured in Oakland and two police squad cars were damaged, Johnna Watson, spokeswoman for the Oakland Police Department told CNN.
An appropriate response to what was effectively a temper tantrum. Spoiled children respond similarly when you tell them "no", which is what the election did.

The list of protests continued in the article: Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and University of California-Berkeley (no protest movement would be complete without them!).

Now that they have gotten it out of their systems, it is time to get back to work and school.

Speaking of Hillary...

New York Post:
The White House isn’t ruling out the possibility of Hillary Clinton receiving a last-minute pardon from President Obama — even though she hasn’t been charged with a crime.

Asked at Wednesday’s press briefing whether Obama had considered utilizing his unique executive power, press secretary Josh Earnest was cryptic.

“The president has offered clemency to a substantial number of Americans who were previously serving time in federal prisons,” Earnest said.

“And we didn’t talk in advance about the president’s plans to offer clemency to any of those individuals and that’s because we don’t talk about the president’s thinking, particularly with respect to any specific cases that may apply to pardons or commutations,” he added. 
When President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon, there was much public outcry over it. However, Ford did the right thing. It was time to put Watergate behind us as a country.

In this case, the same measure is logical here. I would hope that if Obama doesn't pardon Clinton, then Trump should just let the issue of Clinton's illegal behavior drop, or even pardon her. A president should be above the behavior of a mob's bloodlust, and there are times when a country needs to move beyond certain events. While Clinton's behavior was wrong and illegal, to obsess on it beyond the election would be unhealthy for our public discourse.

Speaking of Obama...

International Business Times: 
As millions of Americans are left reeling from Donald Trump's victory in the race for the White House, many already have one eye on the 2020 US presidential election – and a particular candidate in mind. The current First Lady, Michelle Obama, is the name on many people's lips to challenge the Republican in four years' time.

Having not even left the White House yet, the calls on social media for Obama to run for commander in chief underline her huge popularity. Thousands have tweeted using the hashtag #Michelle2020 and while many are light-hearted, others seem to be quite serious about the prospect.

"So......we may have to start gearing up for Michelle Obama to run in 2020, can we get that campaign started now," wrote American TV personality, Tami Roman.

Another commentator said: "The only potential future candidate qualified to resolve the US economy is Michelle Obama."
Yes, because she has so much experience in economics, being a trained lawyer. Where is my bear...


Michelle Obama has absolutely zero qualifications for the White House. She has no political experience, or experience in anything even remotely political (at least Trump has run a business, even if he did it poorly). If her politics are anything like her husband's, then why would we want a round with the wife of one of the worst presidents of modern times?

If Michelle wants to run for the presidency, let her follow the Hillary Clinton path: Run for senate or governor first. After a term or two of that, then we can talk about a White House run.

And in one last bit of leftover election news...

Fox News:
Sugary soda is about to get more expensive in several cities.

On Tuesday, San Francisco, Oakland, Albany, Calif. and Boulder, Colo. voters passed measures to tax sodas in landslide victories.

...In California, sodas will be one-cent-per ounce more expensive while people in Colorado will have to pay two-cents more for every ounce of sugary soda purchased. The tax applies to energy drinks, sweetened tea and sports drinks-- but not to diet sodas.
Admittedly, those taxes are insignificant, but they are still regressive. Who drinks sugary sodas most? Poor and low income people. Even if everyone drank sugary sodas equally among all income levels, the tax would hit the poor harder.

On top of this, what is the tax revenue going towards? Just more money to support local governments.

In summary, we have a tax that will hit the poor and low income hardest, in order to support local politicians. As the old Mel Brooks joke goes:

(hat tip to PandaWhale for the gif) 

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