Thank you to all of you who disagreed with who I voted for on the sixth of November. Mother and Dad did not always agree on who to vote for so they said they would cancel out each other’s vote for some offices. So if you disagreed with me and didn’t vote, my vote mattered.

If you didn’t vote then you have no right to complain about who won and how you think I may have voted. My friends and I have often debated whether someone should vote if they don’t take the time and effort to learn about the issues and people running to represent you.

Finding the truth is not always easy in today’s world. The social media and websites are designed to influence those people who believe the misinformation and total lies. Often we have nothing more to go on than what the candidate actually says. In the Governor’s race, Rauner had a record and Pritzker had only his words for making a decision. I have been told the websites and social media was full of lies on both sides by their proponents.

Two years ago Trump’s words and financial history should have prophesied his words at the 2018 CPAC meeting when he said, “You knew I was a snake when you elected me!” His opponent had been smeared for over three decades with little of it being factual but the lies had stuck in many people’s minds. Russian involvement influenced some of the people I know to vote as Putin wanted.

After researching the issues and deciding who to vote for, and not what party, a person should consider themselves fit to vote. So start doing your research on upcoming local, state, and national elections.

I was talking with an individual who is known to the area’s readers when the topic of voting entered the conversation. He said he had voted in the past for people who he disliked the least. It seems he doesn’t care for politicians. Reading between the lines, he doesn’t vote in primaries because he doesn’t like either party, he thinks both parties and the people running for office are self-serving and makes dupes of the voters.

After the conversation was over, it occurred to me he was voicing the attitude of many people I know. I doubt he voted for Trump because he is against everything Trump says. I think he is smart enough to know how the Republican Party has smeared Hillary Clinton for almost four decades, but did he vote for her? I don’t know. I also don’t know who his pick for Governor was, but my gut says it wasn’t Rauner because he knows of him.

How many other people do the same thing when they vote? How many wives vote the way their husbands tell them and children as their parents’ advise?

I really wonder if it is better for people to not vote or to vote based on misinformation and lies. The President has lied over 6,000 times since taking office and many voted based on what he said. Exit polls showed over 60% of those who voted this November did so because of him, not his policies. The question is still the same. Should a voter go to the polls if their knowledge is based on lies? I hope readers will give their opinions.

I pride myself on trying to learn as much as I can about everything and how history repeats over and over. Some things are obvious on the surface but a little digging shows something else.

When I hear what an FBI check on a person looking at being appointed to a federal job is actually, I was astonished. It seems to me to be no more than a job application many of us may have done before. They do a simple criminal check. Not all states participate in the national register. To see if the person has committed a crime, who do they contact for background and character? They talk with the people the person uses as references. If the FBI is only able to talk with the people given to the FBI, then every report is suspect. Yes, they do thousands of these every year. But why do the checks if they are half-assed?

Judge Kavanaugh went through six of these checks. If they are of this caliber then a seventh was warranted. However, when the President limited the research in scope and time, the report was worthless. No wonder so many of Trump’s people are gone and many arrested. Does the CIA, FBI, etc. do such a rudimentary investigation on their people?

When I was in college a friend asked if he could use me as a reference. I said yes and lived in fear of an FBI agent knocking on the door–they never did.

I now feel no better about Kavanaugh than I did before and am concerned about the checks on Trump’s advisors, cabinet, and other appointees. Being a news junkie can keep a person awake at night. There’s too much ignorance, stupidity, and greed at all costs running local, state, and federal governments. I wonder if someone who is elected gets any more than an FBI cursory check. Did the President? More sleepless nights….