Trump and Clinton roll on

Another week, another election. Trump cruised through South Carolina and Clinton slipped by Sanders in Nevada. As I understand it, the Democrats and Republicans trade states, and repeat the process on Tuesday.

Jeb Bush dropped out, leaving only one of the original eight governors running for President, John Kasich. I doubt if anyone ever spent more per vote received than Jeb. Will Rogers might have had him in mind when he wrote, “Politics has got so expensive nowadays it takes lots of money to even get beat with.”

Pope Francis seemed to comment on our presidential race saying he favored someone who builds bridges instead of walls. Of course he was speaking in Mexico and he knew his audience. See, Mexico favors more bridges across the Rio Grande so their workers can go north and then send their paychecks south without either one getting wet.

The State Department released another batch of classified emails from Secretary Clinton’s personal server. Scott Pelly, on CBS, asked her if she always told the truth. She said, “I always tried to tell the truth.” As she said it, and tried to explain further, I could swear I heard a dog barking. Really loud.

The funeral for Justice Scalia was Saturday. President Obama decided not to attend because he wanted to spend all weekend going through binders of potential replacements. I can imagine Mitt Romney wanting to ask him, “Do you have any women in those binders?”

With a bunch of primaries in the next month, I’m sharing more wisdom from Will Rogers. These political quotes may remind you of current conditions even if they don’t help you reach a decision. (If you want to read a whole slew of ‘em at one sitting, go to WillRogersToday.com, click on Quotes, then click on Politics.)

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Personally, I am in favor of money being spent on elections.  The more money the better.  If they can get contributions from rich men and distribute them around among the poor and needy I think it’s a good thing.  It puts money into circulation… Besides, the fellow may not get elected, and in that case the vote they sold did no harm and didn’t break the fellow that made the contributions.  So my slogan is: Bigger and higher?priced elections.”  Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to his President, May 20, 1926

“I would love to see Mr. (Henry) Ford in there, really. I don’t know who started the idea that a President must be a Politician instead of a Business man. A Politician can’t run any other kind of business. So there is no reason why he can run the U.S. That’s the biggest single business in the World.” WA #5, January 14, 1923

“A Republican moves slowly. They are what we call conservatives. A conservative is a man who has plenty of money and doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t always have plenty of money. A Democrat is a fellow who never had any, but doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t have some.” WA 535, March 26, 1933

“Coolidge made less speeches and got more votes than any man that ever run. (William Jennings) Bryan was listened to and cheered by more people than any single human in politics, and he lost [3 times]. So there is a doubt just whether talking does you good or harm.” DT #673, Sept. 21, 1928

Justice Scalia, the Constitution, Senator Sanders and Socialism

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died yesterday.  Discussion immediately turned to his replacement. Scalia believed in the Constitution the way it was written, refusing to consider rulings that would go against it. He figured the job of a Supreme Court Justice is to interpret the law, not rewrite it. If you want to change something in the Constitution, or add something new, then write an Amendment and get it passed.

Isn’t that what every Justice should believe?

Oil is around $30 a barrel, down from $100 a couple of years ago. Everybody who drives is saving money. However, the oil industry and states that depend on oil and gas production, including Oklahoma and North Dakota, are hurting. North Dakota has one-fourth the drilling rigs that it did two years ago. The governors of both states are struggling with a deficit of over a billion dollars.

When President Obama got the news that thousands of people have lost jobs, oil companies are going bankrupt, and several states are hurting, did he offer assistance? No, he wants to add a 33% tax on oil (actually $10 a barrel). Instead of offering the proceeds to the states that are hurting, he wants it to go to wind and solar companies. There’s nothing wrong with those two when the sun shines and the wind blows, but when it comes to fueling a Ford or Chevy, they can’t compete with oil, even when it’s $100 a barrel.

Is the Great Recession still with us? Is the economy starting to feel like 2008 all over again? The stock market is down, not as much as oil, but it has dropped more than 15 percent. The Chinese economy is stagnant. In Europe the Central Bank is charging banks (not paying interest) to hold money for them. Can you imagine asking someone for $10,000 and they tell you, “Great. In 12 months you’ve got to give me back $9800.” You know, if one of those big banks wants me to hang on to $10,000,000 for a year, I’m pretty sure I can give ‘em back $9,800,000.

The Presidential campaign has moved into South Carolina. Bernie Sanders, in order to get the African-American vote in the southern states, put out a TV ad showing him in 1963 at a civil rights protest, getting arrested by the Chicago police. Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton is arranging to have a video shot when she gets arrested by the FBI.

Secretary Clinton is frustrated that so many young people, especially young women, support a Socialist instead of her. I agree with her. Have they been taught nothing about Communist Russia, Cuba and Venezuela?

Will Rogers traveled across Russia (USSR). From Moscow he wrote, “You have heard of equality of the sexes in Russia. That’s not so. The women are doing all the work.” (DT #2516, Aug. 28, 1934)  Years earlier he wrote, “Communism is like Prohibition. It’s a good idea but it won’t work.”  (WA #254, Nov. 6, 1927)  He also wrote, “The idea was that the fellow managing the bank was to get no more than the man that swept it out. Well, that talked well to a crowd, but (Russia’s) got no more of that than we do.” (Saturday Evening Post, Nov. 6, 1926)