Trump may build wall to keep us in!

Walls can isolate nations, keeping undesirables out while retaining citizens so they can’t leave.

Before Japan opened its doors to outsiders, their leaders implemented Sakoku, a closed country period of national isolation. Under penalties of death, nationals were restricted from leaving. This policy was implemented between 1633 and 1639 and officially raised after Commodore Matthew Perry opened trade with Japan in 1866.

During the U.S. Civil War, one of the duties of Confederate troops was to push back slaves from the coastline into the center of the country so they could not escape by water.

Could Trump want to build a wall to keep us in instead of keeping others out? Could his wall serve a double purpose? Before he was elected President, many folks I talked to said they were thinking about leaving the country for either Canada, Europe, or Africa.

Will we be able to get out of here, and where should we go?

US presidential candidates should discuss international issues raised by CIA

While mainstream media and presidential candidates are focusing on emails, sexual assault, immigration, and ISIS, they are ignoring major concerns the United States of America faces internationally dealing with Canada, Columbia, Mexico, Russia, The Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, and The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

According to the Central Intelligence Agency, "the U.S. has intensified domestic security measures and is collaborating closely with its neighbors, Canada and Mexico, to monitor and control legal and illegal personnel, transport, and commodities across the international borders; abundant rainfall in recent years along much of the Mexico-US border region has ameliorated periodically strained water-sharing arrangements.

"Canada and the United States dispute how to divide the Beaufort Sea and the status of the Northwest Passage but continue to work cooperatively to survey the Arctic continental shelf."

Columbia still supplies the most illicit drugs to the US, including heroin and cocaine. The US is "the world's largest consumer of cocaine (shipped from Colombia through Mexico and the Caribbean), Colombian heroin, and Mexican heroin and marijuana; major consumer of ecstasy and Mexican methamphetamine; minor consumer of high-quality Southeast Asian heroin; illicit producer of cannabis, marijuana, depressants, stimulants, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine; money-laundering center.

"The US admitted 84,995 refugees during FY2016 including 16,370 (Democratic Republic of the Congo); 12,587 (Syria); 12,347 (Burma); 9,880 (Iraq); 9,020 (Somalia); 5,817 (Bhutan); and 3,750 (Iran).

"The Bahamas and US have not been able to agree on a maritime boundary; US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay is leased from Cuba and only mutual agreement or US abandonment of the area can terminate the lease; Haiti claims US-administered Navassa Island; US has made no territorial claim in Antarctica (but has reserved the right to do so) and does not recognize the claims of any other states; Marshall Islands claims Wake Island; Tokelau included American Samoa's Swains Island among the islands listed in its 2006 draft constitution.

"1990 Maritime Boundary Agreement in the Bering Sea still awaits Russian Duma ratification."

For more information on the CIA's reporting on the United States, go to: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

Do we deserve a female president?

Let's face it, we've still got a problem with women leaders. Even though we may pray to Mary, the Mother of God (Jesus) to intercede for us, we have a problem with women becoming priests.

Go figure...

It has been eight long years since we almost elected a lipstick-wearing soccer mom vice-president, and now given the chance to elect Hillary Clinton, we're trying to decided if she may be the lesser of two evils when up against a reality TV show host with no government experience put in the position of running the most powerful government on Planet Earth.

Go figure...

If my daughter was old enough, I would write her name in on the ballot. If I had a granddaughter, I could write her name in another 35 years. All I want is for somebody I can trust to get in the White House, but that's asking for too much.

Whatever the case, I'm not looking forward to the next four years.

Too bad my passage on that ship to Mars won't be available.

We're screwed!