[TheRealThing]

Then I guess the can will be kicked back down the road again and this time both parties can share blame.

I would like to see some changes in the pension system to make it solvent as well as some new funding. That will take the governor-elect and the republican controlled legislature to work together. If Beshear can prove he is not involved with the vitriolity of nationwide politics something may get done.

Same thing happened in national election. Gary Johnson carried votes for two bad candidates.

I have to believe all these bad things we hear these days are because we have access to them. Constant news cycle and social media has given the American citizen the real dirty business of politics. Unfortunately, the sentiments have spilled into daily life.

Well now you have hit on the crux of the matter and, the central point of my argument. After decades of decline with Dems at the helm, I regard with irony how one could think Andy is different? Much less that he is even remotely qualified by virtue of experience or vision, to fix the problem. Especially considering his open support of the issues of social justice. Not the least of which being a full throated endorsement of sanctuary cities. Louisville and/or Lexington maybe?

I know how important one's retirement really is and I have nothing but compassion for this States' employees whose retirements are in jeopardy because politicians felt it okay to play fast and loose with their money. It's more than wrong. My wife read me a statement big Steve Beshear actually made on this matter via facebook yesterday. Laughing and saying "We took their money but they voted for my son anyway. lol" Not exactly the statement of a man beset with concern if you ask me. And I will say to Andy, his Dad or anybody else--- gambling money is dirty money paid for by broken hearts and destroyed lives. Do people of integrity really want to rely on the misery of others for their substance? As things stand the state is inundated with the concerns of caring for thousands of precious and innocent children taken for compassion's sake from abusive situations. Past the moral implications going strictly by the math, deriving funding from gambling is an idea which will fail in the best of scenarios.

I don't have a problem with Gary Johnson et-al running for office. My problem is with those who vote for them. If these folks think their votes are being memorialized somehow, despite the fact that third party candidates have zero chance of being elected, I would submit they're right. But not for the reason they may think. We have a country to run here and there is One, Whom does take notice of our votes. The Lord. Conservatives and Independents need not delude themselves with thinking they have in any way distinguished themselves by voting third party. These days are days for the awakened pragmatist. Shooting straight up in the air has the effect of bringing fire back down upon oneself. Their faux indignation is not only futile, but more importantly self destructive.

I agree with you 100% about the news cycle, we're awash. For my money though, I'd rather know the truth than to be blissfully ignorant. The blissful ignorance of the post war 50's and 60's on the part of the citizenry of this land sort of programmed folks not to worry too much about taking an active part of government. And things were okay during that time for the most part because most people were morally responsible. But such detachment provided the very umbrella under which our present state of corruption flourished. If you've read my posts you know that I haven't trusted the news media since the Reagan Era. I saw them morph from laying suggestion between the lines through inflection and tone, to overt propagandizing. Today they push a political agenda with pride. Conservatives do not dislike or hate liberals. But they are charged by the knowledge of the truth, to point to that truth. It's done from concern, not superiority, and certainly not bias.