THE NEWS AND ONLY THE NEWS

THIS IS NOT A POST ABOUT THE NEWS, BUT WHAT HAS BEEN REPORTED ON THE NEWS.  For any one who reads this post and whether you know me or not, I watch the news. Almost daily. Night and morning.  Mostly I watch NBC news, but sometimes one of the other networks. This post is going to be political in nature, but it will deal only with what has been reported on the afore mentioned news casts. One disclaimer. Some of the things I will post were aired on another news cast, but the item was aired never the less.  There is much said on social media about a lot of things going on in politics now a days and while I read some of it, mostly I am disgusted by the crassness of those posting these items, regardless of which "side" of the fence they are on. I will post facts as reported on the news and then occasionally offer a personal opinion.  Hang on, but give it some thought, even if you happen to agree with me.  If you want to dispute my facts, please do so with facts. If you have a differing opinion, please feel free to offer it as an opinion. That having been said, hang on. Here goes.

There are two people running for governor for the State of New Mexico.  Both of them currently serve as representatives in Congress for the State. One Republican and one Democrat. The Republican, Steve Pearce, started the campaign season telling what he would do to run the State. Do things for the schools. Let teachers teach and put some responsibility on parents. Create scholarships for those that are not inclined to attend college. Train them to function in the real world and help them get a job and off of welfare.  He also supports the 1st and 2nd amendment to the constitution, which is a plus for me.  His opponent, Michelle Lujan Grisham, started her campaign by attacking Mr. Pearce and creating slanderous ads against him. When she finally got around to telling the people what she would do, she said she would use the State Permanent fund to create jobs, improve schools, fix the infra structure, and one other thing I forgot now what was.  Sounds good, I guess, but I went to the permanent fund to see just what it said. Guess what. She can't do that. The permanent fund is a school tax on attractive items, namely oil and gas and some mining. This is ear marked for the schools. Period. And the fund, which currently is flush with over a few Billion dollars, can be tapped, by State law, to the tune of only 4.7% a year, up to 7% a year for the schools.  This amounts to just under a billion dollars a year for schools. It is invested wisely by a firm that does that kind of thing and the money given to the school systems for their use.  
Now, both candidates are engaged in mud slinging and it is getting nasty, unfortunately. One last item of interest. During the primary election the Lieutenant Governor and the Governor are elected independently of each other, then they are elected together in the general election. Mrs. Grisham is against the 2nd amendment and wants to take our guns and votes for gun control legislation. Her Lieutenant Governor, Howie Morales, supports the 2nd amendment. If they get elected, wonder how this will play out in the State House.
The two people, both women, running to take the above mentioned representative seats are engaged in a mud slinging contest and we have no idea which one of them to dislike the most. Wish we had another choice.

TRUMP SUPPORTERS:  During the last Presidential election, Hillary called those who supported Trump as deplorables. Recently it was reported (on social media) that Joe Biden stated that Trump supporters were the dregs of society. Since I didn't see that news report, I looked it up. He didn't exactly say it that way. In the speech he made, he actually said that "Many of those who support Trump were the dregs of society". Way to go Joe. Glad you are so high and mighty that you can look down on a segment of society and name them according to your standard. On the flip side, Trump has engaged in similar name calling and that in no way improves his standing for many.
Again social medial reported that John Kerry, former secretary of state, was dealing with Iran behind the back of the United States. Again, I didn't see this on the news, so I looked it up.  Yep, he did and he is. He stated in a news interview that he "quote" went to Iran and told the president of Iran to just hang on until 2020 and then a Democrat would be elected President and then the U.S. would deal with him again.  Well, John, be that as it may, you are no longer secretary and have no standing to negotiate any thing for the U.S.  Just back off and let the current administration work and quit going behind the back of the current secretary and those who do these kind of things. 

And finally, during the 8 years Obama was president, the GNP never rose above 4 % and the unemployment never got under 4% and he stated that it never would.  In the less than two years since he has been out of office, both of those things have happened and U.S. companies are adding jobs every month. Obama said in a speech he made somewhere over seas that this improved economy was due to the policy's he put in place.  If that is true, why did it never happen while you were in office? And why did you say it never would. 
Let's see what can be done about all the environmental rules that have been forced into place and forced companies over seas and start opening the fabric and steel mills again and once again enjoy U.S. made. It is possible to protect the environment and open these businesses and put people to work.  It will be difficult as so many of them are welfare ingrained now for generations. Difficult, but not impossible.

I HAD MORE TO SAY, BUT THIS POST IS LONG ENOUGH ALREADY, SO WILL END IT HERE AND SEE IF I CHOSE TO CONTINUE IN THIS TREND. 

AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK 

SOME RECENT OBSERVATIONS AND THOUGHTS

DOLLAR STORES: Have you ever shopped at a dollar store. By whatever name it may go by. Dollar store; dollar general, Family dollar and whatever else they have out there. We thought to shop at one we have here in our area and see what we could save as compared to Wal- Mart. There is no comparison. Literally. The prices are comparable, kinda, but the packaging is different. Sizes are different, and it is difficult to determine if you are saving any thing at the dollar stores or not. I am thinking not, really.  Just my opinion. 

I read an article the other day that said Stormy Daniels was standing tough against Trump. OK.So lets look at that for a moment. A moment is all it is worth. Stormy Daniels is a porn star and a prostitute. That is her profession. If Trump had a fling with her, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, then she just sold her self to him as she did to others. For monetary gain. Years before he was even a candidate for President. While he is not a moral person, why is he so vilified for something he did with a professional woman and Bill Clinton is so protected for doing even worse while in office. The news report's of the time this story "broke" said Stormy was out of the business and married and training horses in Texas. That being so, why was she arrested a short time later in a night club for doing exactly what she professes to do. Being a porn star. She claims she was set up. No, if she was out of the business she wouldn't have been in the club doing what she was doing.  Nuff said.

I don't care what your opinion of John McCain is, whether you consider him a hero or just a politician, the hours and hours and hours of funeral coverage in Arizona and D.C. was a little overboard.
The same opinion for  Areatha Franklin.  I mean, really, TV networks, enough is enough.  And an 8 hour funeral, most of it covered by the net works when they were not showing John McCain was just over kill. Pun not intended.

One final rant.  Why do people, police officers included, feel that speed limit signs, red lights and stop signs and double yellow lines on the highway are just there for someone else.  Like us, I guess.  We are nearly run over or into almost every day when we leave the house in a car. At least on a walk we can get out of the way on a side walk.  So far, any way.

AND THAT'S THE VIEW FROM THE DITCH BANK