Day 12

Happy February!!!

Whew! Neil Gorsuch everyone! The new dude on the supreme bench judge thing. Appointed but not approved, willing but not able...just yet. He has to get past the politics first, and there is a lot of poo flinging going on. 

For some background, Obama tried to appoint his third one of these persons during his last year in the Oval Office, but it got shut down by the GOP majority in the Senate. Now Demos are going to try to make this process as painful as they can. Well, that might be a bit unfair because they COULD just approve Neil and move on to other things. The question is SHOULD they just move on?

Who is Neil Gorsuch?

This is a great article that is nice and short for those with less time or attention span by the University of Colorado Boulder:

http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/profile.jsp?id=321

TLDR:

He's a Doctor of Law and has represented Big Companies all the way down to the One Man Show. He lives in Colorado so you know this guy is super chill.

He believes that Judges should strive:

"to apply the law as it is, focusing backward, not forward, and looking to text, structure, and history to decide what a reasonable reader at the time of the events in question would have understood the law to be—not to decide cases based on their own moral convictions or the policy consequences they believe might serve society best."

At first this kinda sounds off...DON'T use moral convictions and DON'T decide based on what you believe to be best moving forward. However, his context is really solid. Judges should not be politicians. They need to apply and interpret the Law based on what it was meant to do. Not put their own spin on it. The people we ELECT should be the ones changing laws so that the JUDGES can apply it the way we want. If we do not like a law then WE have to vote people into office that will change it so that we DO like it. 

As far as Judges go I like this guy. He appears to be of very sound thinking and fair where the application of the law is concerned. I do not think everyone will like all his decisions but I do feel those decisions are going to be fair according to the law. If we want that law changed we need to VOTE to make it happen. NOT rely on some old (not Neil, he's the youngest by far) folks on some cushy bench to spin it our way. I need the supreme court to apply the law as it is written and then I need US to decide what those laws are based on who we elect to change them. 

Let's do this AMERICA!

Day 11

GUYS IT IS ONLY DAY @#%@# 11!

Talking change and development! Only 11 days in and it is really cracking up to be an amazing ride. Whether you like rides or not I'll leave that interpretation to you, however, I personally feel it's more leaning to the positive. Why?

Let's go over what exactly is happening.

Trump has banned people who are citizens of several "watch-list" Countries from entering ours. Most notably, Syrian refugees who many would argue need the most help.

The negative:

They are on watch lists because of the noted high chance that they are a breeding ground for terrorists. Sadly, they are only the poorest of the nations in that area that harbor, train, promote, or otherwise enable terrorism. The other countries that do the same thing are left off the ban. Even though they are on the same watch-list!

The big phrase I may or may not use a great deal from now on is "Follow The Money!". On one hand we have poor countries that mean nothing to America economically, BANNED and on the other we have countries that mean a great deal to America economically, NOT BANNED. This my one big issues with the ban in general. It unfairly targets countries of low economic standing while leaving countries actually accused of much worse alone. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey are notable among these left off the list.

A lot of people will say it because it is because Trump has business dealings in these countries but that is not entirely true. He may in fact, however that is not why they are not on the list. AMERICA needs these terrorist countries in order to function smoothly. If we disrupted them we would feel it hard here at home. Oil and all.

The odd thing is that a terrorist is going to be able to get to the US regardless of bans. It is crazy to think that by banning the poorest countries you somehow can limit who comes into the US. The terrorist cells in Egypt and Saudi Arabia are completely unaffected by the ban and they have a lot more recourse at their disposal.

The Positive!

It is not all bad though! We have Muslims PRAYING in airports while people look on NOT in fear of the dastardly or the unknown, but with admiration and pride! We have white people hugging Muslims they don't even know in a USA airport! Imagine people being nice in an airport. Unheard of until Trump became president and started making decisions.

I see this as out weighing the bad in that this will promote more change for the good then change for that bad. I believe that this positive energy that is started with people protesting the ban with outlast the negative that is caused by the ban.

Go AMERICA!

Day 7:

The election of Big D. Trump has set in motion a great many things in our nation. Riots, Protests, Change, Anger, Love, Excitement, and Trepidation. How are we supposed to navigate all this in our little or not so little lives?

I give you...

Day 7:

I woke up feeling good about myself. I worked out the other day and am going to try to protect myself from the influence of the the gym by eating comfort food. I was at the station and there wasn't anything to eat there so I head home.

I sat down at my computer and clicked over to Drudge, as in DrudgeReport.com to catch up on some things and found that Trump was still unpresidentailly president of the United States of America.

The online world hums the joys and sorrows of this truth. On one hand, you have people who are excited to see what kind of change a newcomer to the front page political scene will make. On the other, you have folks that are in a great deal of fear for what that change will mean. One thing both sides agree on: Change is going to happen.

Now, I am a white guy that grew up in a rural mostly white community who married an immigrant from Latin America. Therefore, I feel I can speak to both sides with some lack of bias. Although, I'll not make the claim of unbiased outright because I am human and I have opinions.