Opinion by Richard E Walrath and Patricia L Johnson

Elections are where we are most vulnerable.  The Republicans are following President Trump’s lead and clouding the issue as much as they possibly can by talking about voter fraud.  The fact is voter fraud in the United States is minimal, and at least one Federal Election Commission member is still waiting for proof of fraud to be turned over to support the President’s erroneous allegations. 

In the meanwhile, study after study makes it clear voter fraud, in this country, is virtually non-existent, unless you consider four prosecutions out of 135 million voters major fraud.

Russia had their trolls and bots in place on Facebook and Twitter during our 2016 election spreading lies about the opposing candidate and working to influence voters in the United States to vote for Donald Trump.  It worked very well, Donald Trump gained enough electoral votes to become POTUS, even though his opponent won the popular vote by 2.9 million votes [2,868,686].

It has recently been determined that our election was not the only one influenced by Russians.

Russia wasn’t satisfied putting their choice in the White House, Russia’s interference in the Brexit vote has now been proven and investigations are being undertaken both in the UK and US to determine the involvement of the Russians, Donald Trump, and Aaron Banks, the financial backer of Brexit opposition. 

That Brexit deal always smelled funny, it was a reminder of how Trump won the title of Twitter in Chief.  Only time will determine how far and wide in our shrinking world the smell is able to permeate.

This balance of trade story is garbage, every item has been paid for.  American consumers are deep in debt; that’s how all the stuff was paid for.  Yes, as a producer, the U.S. would like to sell more to China and every other country, but making their products more expensive to American consumers is not going to help the U.S. sell more.

Brexit has already cost Great Britain billions.  Now they are trying to figure out how to have another vote on it, it’s a shame we’re not able to have a second vote on the 2016 election, any guesses on the outcome?

(c) 2018 Walrath and Johnson