The first presidential debate: messy at best?

      So last night was the first presidential debate and NPR and Hillary Clinton ran their fact checkers. Today, we're looking at the biggest blunders, fallacies and worst interruptions of moderator Lester Holt. 

First awesome blunder of the night was when Trump said "You look at what China is doing for country in terms of making our product, they're devaluing their currency and there's nobody in our government to fight then."

Well that's FUNNY. Because Beijing has, over the past few years, been selling off 4 trillion dollars worth of foreign exchange reserves so that their currency will resuscitate itself. This has helped lower the trade deficit with China. We didn't even need anyone in our government for it.

In addition, Trump claimed that he didn't think climate change was a hoax. HOWEVER, at a rally in Hilton Head, Trump called climate change a hoax (not once, but three times!)

"Obama's talking about all of this with global warming and... a lot of it is a hoax. It's a hoax. I mean, it's a moneymaking industry, OK? It's a hoax, a lot of it."

Hillary Clinton claimed that in the 1990's, crime was 40% higher. HOWEVER, violent crime has actually increased 4% between 2014 and 2015. 2015 has marked a generally low crime rate for America but it's not perfect. 

Despite the fact that Trump told America to check out his Fact Checker on his website that does not exist, there were not as many things that were blatantly wrong as I thought there would be.

 

Hillary has taken the lead on the debates but there are still battles to be won.

http://www.npr.org/2016/09/26/495115346/fact-check-first-presidential-debate

Serious bombings rain on Aleppo.

     Over the past couple days, Aleppo has had serious bombings rain down on the city. The city is a madhouse. This has been one of the first attacks after the short US-Russia ceasefire. Mainly because Russia couldn't keep its Syrian attack dogs down. 

Okay okay, not really. Last weekend, the US struck a Syrian outpost and the US apologized because they meant to attack ISIS. The US promptly replied "my bad" to Russia, to tell Syria. So, we're truly occupying the moral high ground. 

Around 100 have been killed and 300 injured. Many more are dying because there are so few doctors in Aleppo right now. A wave of depression has fallen over Aleppo. It will be important to see who comes out on top once all is said and done. 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/26/middleeast/aleppo-syria-bombing-aid/index.html

Yahoo! is essentially a Senior in highschool.

     Yep. Yahoo has lost all care. Nearly 500 million Yahoo accounts have been hacked and Yahoo has been freakishly sluggish in getting to the bottom of this. The hack occurred back in 2014 but was confirmed this past August after about 200 million usernames, dates of birth, and jumbled passwords were sold by a hacker of the name "Peace". Even after the report was confirmed, it was this past Thursday that Yahoo made any sort of comment about changing passwords for any safety whatsoever. Was someone just on vacation or something? In 48 states, if there is a breach of someone's account, the company has to inform their users pretty quick so they can change their passwords, but these laws have been bipassed because Yahoo has only described the hack to have happened "late 2014". This sort of ambiguity is how teenagers lie to their parents. (i.e, "I got home 'around curfew'.") 

Can you hear me now? This is what Yahoo is hearing from Verizon. Yahoo was recently beginning the process of being bought by Verizon which would totally explain the sluggishness. While there is no official reason, the longer the delay, the more paychecks everyone gets. This predicament with the hacker shall postpone this sale so that the Yahoo executives may use up the last of their paid vacation and finish up the 18th round of golf. 

Yahoo confirms massive hack of 500 million accounts - CBS News https://apple.news/Ae35zlE8lTNKtvNzN3-CJww
 

The Crux of the Crutcher Case; correspondents can't collaborate.

     Okay, so 5 days ago, Terrence Crutcher was shot after his car was found abandoned in the middle of the road. And yes, he was black. But did he have a gun? No, turns out, he did not. 

Whatever the case-- There are 5 points of dissension in this case.

1) The videos show Crutcher being subsersivient and had his hands up prior to his death. But was he actually following all commands? People are skeptical he followed all orders given.

2) PCP was found in his car so the question of whether or not he was high is definantly on the table.

3) Was Crutchers car window open or closed? Fungshui aside, Crutcher was shot because he was said to have been reaching in his car for something.

4) Armed or unarmed? Crutcher was thought to have had a weapon by the police officer because of his reaching into his car. However, no weapon was found. Was it too late to aggressively reach for his license and registration? 

5) Crutcher was described as a "bad dude" and did this affect the police officers decision to fire? Honestly, if this seriously affected the officers decision, then we should be talking to our policemen and women about the dangers of peer pressure because we didn't have enough of it in high school.

All in all, this case is up in the air.

 

 5 discrepancies in Tulsa police shooting http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/21/us/terence-crutcher-police-shooting-point-counterpoint/index.html

NYC bombing: No clue yet

     29 injured and almost no clue about who is responsible. All that is known is that there were multiple bombs on different streets of New York and New Jersey. One of which, a pressure cooker bomb linked to a phone, did not detonate. Authorities believe the men who delivered these bombs had a connection, but do not know how. This is believed because both the NJ and the NYC have similar structure in the way they were assembled, with timers and phones. Luckily, none were injured with the NJ bomb because of the lack of people around. 

 

Blast near Marine Corps race in New Jersey probed as possible terror act http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/17/us/nj-explosive-trash-can/index.html

Family reunions must be awkward...

An Ohio grandma and partner in crime were arrested recently for:

 a) DUI

 b) endangering a child

 c) being genuinely dumb

 

      Okay, I adlibbed the last one, but truly, this is a rough story to tell. Essentially, Grandmother Rhonda Pasek was overdosing herself on heroin and her driver was taking her to the hospital while weaving through traffic. Naturally, as every good babysitter would know, the driver, James Acord, took the toddler with them. When the car was pulled over, Acord told the officer that he was taking Pasek to the hospital, to whICH HE PASSED OUT FROM OVERDOSING. Meanwhile, the boy in back, sat quietly, assessing his role models. Luckily for Pasek and Acord, the officers had Narcan, which is opiate reversing chemical. This saved the pairs lives. Pasek was given a $280 fine and 180 days in prison, while Acord was given 360 days in prison and a $475 fine. The boy will now live with his Aunt and uncle until grandma is out of jail or grandma gets her act straight. This boy has been playing musical chairs with family ever since his parents were deemed unable to raise him properly. While the guardian bar is set pretty low, let's hope the great aunt and uncle can excel with the boy. All of this could have been avoided, but it goes to show the perils of heroin. 

Grandmother in heroin photo gets 180 days in jail http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/15/health/heroin-photo-woman-court/index.html

Let's tackle each other safely

New research towards football and safety has occurred recently. The NFL has given $100 million dollars to research for curing concussion related injuries and preventing concussion related injuries. The NFL says that safety is a number one priority, but if their entire business is gladiator-like attacks and tackles, then their safety seems sort of iffy. However, this aside, Commissioner Roger Goodell says that, while they're not scientists, they still believe that better protecting helmets and better practices within the sport will drastically increase safety. Many law suits over long lasting effects of concussions have been brought upon the NFL and many settlements have been made. This new effort will intensely support an end to suffering and payouts from the NFL. 

 

NFL to launch new $100 million concussion initiatives to improve player safety - The Washington Post https://apple.news/AaY-PmqJfT-iM0X09O9YeLg

Kaepernick going down?

Colin Kaepernick for the past several games, in the NFL as a quarterback for the 49ers, has taken a knee during the star spangled banner to protest the oppression of African Americans. However, tons of outrage have come out of this as a sign of disrespect towards the anthem. Because if there's one thing more important to Americans than football, it's America. 

But, if I recall correctly, there was this whole first amendment that allowed free speech and acts of free speech. Like, this isn't even threatening. It's considered a threat to burn an American flag to some. But this quarterback literally kneeled in subservience rather than the "black lives matter" defiant fist in the air, just to be less threatening. If he was any less threatening, Disney would give him a show. 

So what's the beef? 

People are getting tired of caring for black people. Even little Wayne says "I thought this whole racism thing was over".

Of course, people aren't actually saying this (minus Mr. Wayne), they're just more offended.

The daily caller called him a coward and an "uneducated idiot". Redundancy aside, people are real upset. Maybe Kaepernick just decided to mock Hillary and fall too?

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2016/09/colin_kaepernick_s_protest_is_working.html?client=safari
 

Hillary Clinton has the second collapse this weekend (pun intended)

     How long does she have, Doctor? Maybe another couple decades. Definantly not able to take office.

This is the logic of the Trump administration. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton visited the 9/11 memorial sight and, due to heat and exhaustion, stumbled while going to her car. Doctors say she has been diagnosed with pneumonia. Which, as we all know, has a 100% rapid mortality rate (according to Trump). Over the course of the campaign, allegations of Hillary and her failing health has been the GOP back burner detail for why Trump should be president. This only fueled the flames to these claims. Clinton has been able to disprove these allegations by performing menial dumb tasks like breaking a pencil or stretching and extending her middle finger to show she's perfectly healthy. But now, the world is losing it.

Abstract: This is such a huge excuse to not elect Hillary. Donald is 70 and has a legitimate hair piece. 8 years ago we almost elected John McCain. 

What these candidates have in common is old age. Old age means that health will be a factor but as long as senility is off the table, I personally find it to be fine. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served 3 terms mind you, needed a wheelchair nearer the end of his presidency. However, he kept this a secret so that his countrymen wouldn't see him being weak. We've had a serious history with having sick and crippled presidents and that's okay. 

Even then, it's pneumonia. This is not the 1800's where everyone who has pneumonia dies because the doctor is a half a mile up the road and it's snowing.

 No. That's not a thing. 

Our elected officials are humans who get sick however, if they're able to perform their job, then by all means, lead away. 

Conclusion: This is dumb. 

This is an image of moments before the fall.

 http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/11/politics/hillary-clinton-health-2016-election/index.html

Can't delete that

Hillary Clinton finally said what we're all thinking but won't say because tumblr message boards has it covered- "over half of trump supporters are deplorables." 

Okay, Hill, yeah there's an argument to be made. 

But she didn't stop there saying that these "deplorables" include sexists, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, islamaphobes and the like. She prefaced it by saying that she was going to be "grossly generalistic" in calling out the bigotry in the trump campaign. But she continued to say that this half of trump supporters are "irredeemable" and "not America". I must reiterate, there's an argument to be made, just not be a presidential candidate. Trump took this insult in stride and ran to go tell mom and dad what Hillary did saying "Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing hard working people. I think it will cost her at the polls!" Meanwhile, Trump doesn't work about cost because he knows he has enough money to cover it. Trumps running mate Mike Pence said that these Americans deserve Hillarys' respect. Hillary tactfully retracted her statement and apologized for it.

But one final jab from the trump campaign stung right before the situation blew over with Trump encouraging Americans to fight back with a "contribution of 100$,65$,50$,25,15$ or even 5$ to elect Donald Trump to the White House."

It's wrong to generalize Americans and call them deplorables and say that a valid political opponent is just an avenue for bigotry. However, that's the most deplorable thing of all. Trump and trickle up system just to get more influence. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/09/politics/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-basket-of-deplorables/

 

Brock Turner

       What the hell? Brock Turner was released after 3 months in jail. Meanwhile, in New York you can get 3 months for loitering. Yeah. That makes sense. Brock Turner was realeased because of a technicality because of his age. He was brought up on charges of assault and sexual assault and was found guilty of all 3 of them. He was able to get out because judge Persky found that jail would be bad for a kid his age (he's 21). When the crime was committed, he was 20 and he was intoxicated. In addition, Turners father claimed that his son's sentence shouldn't be so bad for only "20 minutes of action." The victim found herself in a hospital with stitches and dried blood on her forehead. Her underwear was missing. She was found in an alley by two men while Turner was grinding on her. The two men drove Turner away.

Turner left the jail and drove away, a new-found registered sex offender. 

This was a tragic case and the victim has been void of justice. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/02/us/brock-turner-release-jail/index.html

It was a teenie weenie modest Burkini

      France has recently had some infighting over the Burkini. A Burkini is a modest outfit for Islamic women to swim in, however, 2/3 of the coastal mayors in France have ignored the court decision to not ban the Burkini. These mayors, in light of recent terror attacks, are standing up to this Burkini and holding their bans. Because pride for your country usually manifests itself in bans for sensible swim-wear for Islamic women. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/28/french-mayors-burkini-ban-court-ruling
 

Humpty Trumpty sat on a wall...

     New BFF's, Donald Trump and Peña Nieto (Mexican President), had a delightful chat today about their blossoming friendship and about the wall they're going to build. Trump wanted to reel in undecided voters while keeping true to his devout disciples- oh sorry! Voters. This resulted in a two-faced, racist speech directly after getting off the playground with Nieto. Donald claimed that this meeting resulted in "a big, fat, beautiful wall that Mexico will pay for". However, this is about as honest as Vladimir Putin's explanation for how his opponents mysteriously die. Nieto stated that Mexico had no intention of paying for the wall. This is not two friends arguing over the bill for lunch-- these are two unpopular political punks who are fighting to gain some ground amongst their people. 

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/09/how_trump_made_a_fool_out_of_mexico.html?client=safari