So, since I last wrote a blog, some things have happened.

The Indians and Cubs are in the world series.

Lady Gaga’s album was released. [It’s amazing by the way]

Early voting is now underway. Yes, I have already voted.

Oh, and Hillary Clinton’s e-mails are being investigated again by the FBI.



This brings up a few issues that I would like to discuss.

The first of them is this whole issue of the voting machines are rigged.

According to an article from NPR, “So what’s going on? Are the machines rigged? No, says just about every voting technology expert.“If you were actually trying to rig an election, it would be a very stupid thing to do, to let the voter know that you were doing it,” says Larry Norden, with the Brennan Center for Justice in New York.”

Personally, I think that they hit the nail on the head. In the article, they give two very likely explanations: age of the machines and human error.

Although, I wouldn’t put it past Mrs. Clinton to do something to the sway votes, to go as far as to rig all of these machines, to me seems a bit far fetched. People would catch on. Say she did “rig” the system. She would have it done, kill the people that she hired to do it and then lie about it.



A professor that I had while getting my Bachelor’s degree, that I highly respect has taken the opposite stance than I have this time around, politically.

In a post dated Friday, October 28, she said this in a post on social media:

We will survive either president, and “survive” is probably the best we can hope for. But we may not survive a loss of faith in our system of government and the peaceful transfer of power.

This brings me to my next point though.

Democracy was not created to endure forever. Something’s gotta give; I think it has and we’re being lied to about it. Or maybe we’re lying to ourselves.

We know the system is broken. I think we just don’t want to admit it.

In a 2014 study from Cambridge, they found that the United States of America is in fact, not a democracy. This fact does not shock me.

Despite the seemingly strong empirical support in previous studies for theories of majoritarian democracy, our analyses suggest that majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association, and a widespread (if still contested) franchise. But we believe that if policy making is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.



Think about that.

We have “little influence over the policies our government adopts.”

Yes, we can do our civic duty and vote for the officials we see fit for the office they are seeking, but other than that, we really have no power.



What do our findings say about democracy in America? They certainly constitute troubling news for advocates of “populistic” democracy, who want governments to respond primarily or exclusively to the policy preferences of their citizens. In the United States, our findings indicate, the majority does not rule—at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy outcomes. When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it.

Just let that simmer around in your head for a little while longer.

We knew we didn’t really have any power over what the government did/does.

Does it have to stay that way though? Can/will this change? This twenty-something sure hopes so. First things first though, we have to admit there is a problem. The real question is will we.

There’s really no segue here to my next topic other than to say, why isn’t Hillary in prison yet?







In a memo from the DOJ on Friday, we discovered that the FBI learned of the “existence of e-mails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation.” In other words, they are looking into her e-mails again to see if there was any more classified information that she just “accidentally” forgot to keep off of her private server.

The presidential campaign was rocked on Friday after federal law enforcement officials said that emails pertinent to the closed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server were discovered on a computer belonging to Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide. In a letter to Congress, the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said the emails had surfaced in an unrelated case, which law enforcement officials said was an F.B.I. investigation into illicit text messages from Mr. Weiner to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Mr. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman from New York, is married to Huma Abedin, the top aide.

…

The new development in the saga over Mrs. Clinton’s handling of classified information came months after the F.B.I. closed the investigation without charging Mrs. Clinton. The announcement, less than two weeks before the election, left Mrs. Clinton’s team furious and scrambling for explanations while bolstering the spirits of Donald J. Trump after a wave of controversies and Republican defections had led many to write him off.

- Emails in Anthony Weiner Inquiry Jolt Hillary Clinton’s Campaign



Is this who we really want as our Commander In Chief? Albeit, this is not the only discrepancy that has been uncovered. Thanks to the internet and Wikileaks, we have SO much more we can dig out that I don’t have the time to go into detail here, but will at a later date. For the time being though, if you haven’t already, go read my last blog on this subject, here.



Unprecedented. That just about sums up this election.

We have a multi-billionaire, real estate mogul, reality TV star who has never even dipped his foot into politics up against the first woman to ever be given the nomination for a major party who was, from 1993 to 2001, the First Lady of the United States.

In less than two weeks we will find out the outcome of this whole ordeal.

That’s what scares me though.

The survey was in the field from Oct. 14 to Oct. 23; early voting in Texas began Oct. 24.Trump was ahead with men, 46 percent to 39 percent, while the two candidates each had 45 percent of women’s support. While 93 percent of Democrats support Clinton, 83 percent of Republicans and 46 percent of independents support Trump. Only 19 percent of independents said they support Clinton. And there is a big divide on racial and ethnic lines: Trump led Clinton 57 percent to 28 percent among white voters, but Clinton led 95 percent to 4 percent among black voters and 56 percent to 33 percent among Hispanic voters.Trump’s voters are split when asked for the reason behind their vote: While 47 percent said they want Trump to be president, 53 percent said their position would better be explained as not wanting Clinton to become president.Clinton’s voters were more positive about their own choice, with 66 percent saying they want her to be president. Still, 34 percent of those voting for Clinton said they were with her because they don’t want Trump to be elected. - In Texas, Trump holding narrow lead over Clinton

That professor that I mentioned earlier, she falls into that category of people that are voting for Hillary Clinton that just don’t want Trump. She laid out her reasoning for me.

I’ve made it pretty clear in my posts that I’m not “with Her.” But I adamantly opposed Trump for these reasons: 1. His temperament and numerous statements that indicate a complete lack of understanding about international relations are frightening. And then there’s the whole Russian thing. Hacking aside, he has been interviewed on tape saying he knows Putin and that he doesn’t know Putin. He has praised Putin as a great leader of his country. All of this puts our security and the security of our allies in jeopardy. 2. His demeaning statements about women, minorities and the disabled are disturbing. These are people who are citizens that he will govern. They deserve his respect and assurance that the president is to protect and honor – all of them. His general attitude regarding women also causes me to question the veracity of his stance on abortion. It’s not been his stance for very long, and it’s hard to imagine that he has cared whether any of the women he’s had sex with (and bragged about) became pregnant and had abortions. 3. Regarding abortion. I’m pro-life. I do not support Hillary’s statements on abortion. But I do not believe Roe v. Wade will ever be overturned. We have lost this battle. It’s time to get busy reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, caring for women who become pregnant and for their children. 4. The wall. Laughable. Immigration reform yes, but the last wall of that sort divided Berlin, was erected by the Soviets and epitomized the disintegration of the allies after WWII. Immigration reform, yes. But it’s an incredibly complicated issue that cannot be solved with simplistic (and impossible) promises. 5. Finally, the First Amendment. Every candidate since Jefferson has had complaints about the media, but none has ever suggested ‘opening up this libel thing’ and thus shutting down the First Amendment. Similarly, his advocacy for shutting down mosques, if allowed, would establish a precedent for shutting down churches or synagogues. I’m pretty much of a purist when it comes to the First Amendment. I’ll accept the ugly and disgusting in order to make sure we protect the noble and worthy.



Her reasons have merit. I will not say that they don’t. If it were anyone else but Clinton, my loyalties may have lay elsewhere. But that’s simply just not the case we have here.

As I said, in less than two weeks, this will all be over, but really it’s just the beginning.

For at least the next four years, one of these two people will be our President. They both obviously qualify for the job as far as the Constitution goes.

As a twenty-something, I cannot wait to see how all of this plays out. This election, either way it goes, will affect me and my children and my children’s children.

#unprecedented