Category: Elections & Candidates

Reporting and Commentary on Past, Current and Future election cycles at all levels of government, including fact based analysis of candidates.

Covid-19 UPDATE: Corporate Bailouts and Food Pantries

Written By:  Arnie Olsen

Back on March 22nd, I published an article breaking down what a corporate bailout would mean for the 4 largest airlines in America.  Since that time, the CARES Act has gone from first being introduced in the Senate on March 19th, through very public negotiations and eventually to being signed into law by the President on March 27th.  Now, 19 days after I published my original article, I thought it would be useful to provide an update.

Continue reading “Covid-19 UPDATE: Corporate Bailouts and Food Pantries”

Memo to DNC: Electoral Math and Remember Your Job

Written By:  Arnie Olsen

“The Democratic National Committee is committed to taking back the White House in 2020 and electing Democrats at every level — from the school board to the Oval Office. But we can only do that together.”

The above is the stated purpose on the homepage of the DNC.  I point that out because something that seems to be lost on more people with each passing day is that their job is NOT to run preference elections and caucuses in every state and bend to the will of the people, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.  Their job is simply to win general elections for the Democrat Party, at all levels.  Now obviously, there is a LOT of grey area in that statement as winning elections requires the support of the people, so they cannot simply trounce all over the preferences expressed throughout the primary process, and there are rules in place within the DNC that take that into account.

The following article will make the case that the best outcome of the primaries and caucuses that we should all be hoping for is not that a specific candidate “wins” the nomination outright before the Convention, but rather that as many candidates stay in the race and split the Pledged Delegates the rest of the way, forcing a brokered convention per DNC rules, allowing the Super Delegates to come into play, and Pledged Delegates to be released from their obligation on a second ballot.  This is the only way to be sure that Democrats ultimately put forth the best candidate to win the Electoral College.

NOTE:  I am not advocating for or against any particular candidate, but rather for a process that will give Democrats the best opportunity to win in November. Continue reading “Memo to DNC: Electoral Math and Remember Your Job”

2020: The Healthcare Debate

Healthcare is going to be most likely the most important issue of the upcoming campaigns for President and every other federal office we are going to be asked to vote on.  In a recent Fox News Poll that was released on January 26, a couple of interesting results included:

  • How approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling healthcare?

38% – Approve               54% – Disapprove             7% – Don’t Know

  • Which of the following issues do you think is the MOST important issue facing the country today?
    1. Health care                                                  13%
    2. Partisanship and lack of unity                13%
    3. Climate change                                           12%
    4. The economy and jobs                              12%
    5. Political corruption                                    12%
    6. Immigration and border security           10%
    7. Terrorism                                                       7%
    8. Gun policy                                                      6%
    9. Foreign policy                                                3%
    10. International trade                                       1%

Continue reading “2020: The Healthcare Debate”

The 5 D’s of “Political Dodgeball”:  Dodge, Distract, Deflect, Duck, and umm, Dodge

Written By:  Arnie J Olsen  11/7/2019

People on both sides have been talking for nearly 3 years now about Russian influence on our 2016 election, it was a major focus of the Mueller Report, and every one of our intelligence agencies have both stated it was rampant in the lead up to 2016, and it is ongoing right now.  Usually, the comments made by my Trump supporting friends on the topic include some form of denial that they were influenced one bit when they chose to support him.  Everyone swears that they were not influenced by social media at all. Continue reading “The 5 D’s of “Political Dodgeball”:  Dodge, Distract, Deflect, Duck, and umm, Dodge”

Preventing Voter Fraud?

By:  Arnie Olsen  March 28, 2019

If the people in power were truly concerned about illegal voting, and believe photo ID is the solution, wouldn’t it be more convincing if they showed actual evidence that this is really a problem in the first place?

More importantly, even if they show this is a real problem, how does showing a photo ID prevent it? Continue reading “Preventing Voter Fraud?”

The Electoral College and All Its Flaws

Written By:  Arnie J Olsen

There has always been some opposition to the use of the Electoral College to select the President of the United States, but since 2016, an election in which Donald Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, yet won the Presidency via the Electoral College, the opposition has grown to a loud roar, albeit mainly from Democrats.  Now, the 2016 election was not the first time we have wound up with a President who actually lost the popular vote.  All of us remember the same outcome in 2000, with George Bush winning the election over Al Gore, though the popular vote margin was significantly smaller, but in reality, 2016 was the fifth time this has occurred in our history. Continue reading “The Electoral College and All Its Flaws”

The Immigrant “Invasion”

The politics of immigration and what you need to know before the midterms.

The mid-term election is 5 days away, and one of the hot button issues is immigration with nothing being more of a symbol of this than “the caravan” (or depending on your political leanings, you may know it as the “the invasion force”).

When you are thinking about who to vote for, I would just like for people to use the common sense they were born with, the values they were hopefully raised with, and cast their vote in whatever way serves their own best interests, and the best interests of America. To do this, it does require a little thinking, because voting based on emotions, internal reactions, fear, or what you heard in a few soundbites on your news program of choice, while much easier, rarely leads to a good result for you or any of us.

So, with that in mind, let’s go back to “the caravan” for a moment…

Continue reading “The Immigrant “Invasion””

Minimum Wage: Part 3, War Is Upon Us

If you consider yourself a decent human being, and someone worthy of calling themselves an American, please take note of the following article.  It is the transcript of a 36 Hour “debate” between me and a group of die hard Conservatives and Libertarians.
I think it will provide you with a genuine insight into the critical importance of voting and doing everything within your power to prevent this cancerous way of thinking from overtaking our country any more than it already has, whether it is from the wealthy left, the wealthy right, or the generally self absorbed and clueless members of our society.

Continue reading “Minimum Wage: Part 3, War Is Upon Us”