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Politics

Where Are The Reporters?

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A couple of moments that marked my former life as a broadcast journalist include a member of O.J. Simpson’s “dream team” telling me, “I love you guys individually, but I hate you collectively.”    Another happened when a former member of the Los Angeles City Council left the microphones clustered atop a lectern, walked over and proceeded to cuss me out for demanding an answer to a question he didn’t care for.  I didn’t care for being cussed out and continued to demand an answer to my question.

I recall these incidents and others with pride as badges of merit for doing my job, trying to get legitimate answers, a little honest information for the people I worked for,  the people in our viewing audience who depended upon me and others like me to find out what the hell was actually going on.

All of this would be pure braggadocio, were it not for the fact that I was far from being the only reporter who would, at times, bite down and hang on like a pit bull if I felt someone was dodging a question that deserved a real answer, rather than the circular verbal shuffle now being employed by the likes of Donald Trump.  Repeatedly.  And every time it happens I wonder what happened to American journalism?   When did hair and makeup become more important than holding public officials accountable, more important than getting it right?  When did we backslide into becoming the country of the big lie?

An incident that bears mentioning happened at the Century Plaza Hotel in the early 80’s.   It was long ago and I don’t recall who the member of Congress was that showed up at a news conference, only that he was from a state that is largely rural.   I do recall that he began delivering a “good ole boy” spiel that was full of bunk.   We listened, shaking our heads and looking at one another in disbelief until a reporter from the Los AngelesTimes could take it no longer and interrupted with anger, saying (paraphrased), “You don’t really expect us to believe any of this nonsense, do you?   Where do you think you are?   Who do you think you’re talking to?   

Reporters are accepting answers from Donald Trump that Trump himself would never accept from contestants on The Apprentice.   They sometimes talk about things without having even a basic understanding of their subject, like knowing the difference between an email account sitting on some company’s server with that same company providing securty and a private server in one’s own home, with any number of possible functions and security provided by who?   Some friend of a friend who took a computing class at the local community college?   Apparently Mrs. Clinton, has no idea.   Reporters should, if they intend to continue reporting on it.   Was Mrs. Clinton’s problem that she had a private email account or was it the fact that she had gone completely off the range with a personal  server set up in her home doing God knows what while circumventing federal oversight and securty?

Why don’t reporters follow-up anymore, demanding an answer to something Trump has dodged by issuing a non-answer, which he  does again and again – which is why the American people have literally no idea of how he actually feels about anything?   It’s frightening.   This guy actually has a shot at becoming President of the United States, and his positions on critical issues change from one day to the next.   He’s done it on assault weapons, abortion and Muslims entering the United States.   And now he will be forced to do it again on his idiotic claim that there is no drought in California, as the reservoirs are drying up and avacado orchards are being cut down to stumps.

It is, it seems, impossible to pin Trump down on any given issue, or so we’re told,  which leads one to believe he has no firm conviction about anything.  He’s cutting a deal, the biggest deal of his life, to be the most  powerful person in the world and there is far too little accountability from the press with pundits complaining that it’s so hard to nail Trump down on an issue because he’s so skilled at doing his verbal shufffle.

Come on now people, its time to do your jobs.   Mexico, will never build a wall on the border.   The United States cannot simply carpet bomb our troubles away in the Middle East or deport eleven-million undocumented people whose families are now interwoven into our national fabric.    We are not the Saudis, we do not punish women for having abortions and anyone to tells you these things is treating you like a pack of dummies.   You should be outraged.

Do some fact checking.   Do a little  journalism.  Please.  There’s so much at stake.

A passage from the movie-version of “All the President’s Men” comes to mind. Washington Post Executive Editor, Ben Bradlee, is rousted out of of bed by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who tell him there may be electronic surveillance of their work on the Watergate story,  that lives may be in danger, and that they made a mistake in their coverage of grand jury testimony,  giving ammunition to those who want to attack the paper.   Bradlee, listens to the reporters and says-

“You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up… 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We’re under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing’s riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I’m going to get mad. Goodnight.”

Journalism matters.

Bernie Sanders, Politics, Sanders Presidential Bid

Monster Fire Burns Over 35-Million Acres

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A piece in the Guardian this morning puts the Canadian wildfire storming across northern Alberta at 355,000 hectares. Say what? I had no idea what a hectare is, so I looked it up. A hectare is equal to 100 acres.

The fire, which continues to burn out of control is now so big that fire officials apparently aren’t even bothering with acres. If they were, they’d be reporting that the fire has now eaten up 35-million 500-thousand acres of land, which is flat out incredible. Have we ever even had a fire this big in North America since humanoids took an upright form?   Can this possibly be correct?

Considering the size of this fire, if this information is correct and my calculator is working, why aren’t we seeing and hearing more about it on the news?

First the networks and our honorable pundits report that Bernie Sander’s supporters went nuts for no good reason at the Democratic convention in Nevada, neglecting to mention that the state’s Demo leaders changed the delegate allocation rules just prior to the convention tilting the rules in Hillary’s favor.  Et tu, Rachel?   Say it isn’t so!   And now they’re giving short shrift to the biggest wildifre in memory.

It’s a difficult choice deciding which is worse, the scope of the fire or the negligence being exhibited by some American news outlets that have all but abdicated their responsibility to educate and enlighten the American people.

I know Donald Trump is a ratings getter, but come on guys. This is one monster fire. There are bound to be consequences for all of us, including Mr. Trump,  even if much of the land it’s burning isn’t populated.  There’s no carbon tax on Mother Nature and really no good excuse for slanting your coverage in favor of one candidate over another.   Unless corporate has dictated that profits trump the need to know.

Bernie Sanders, Politics, Sanders Presidential Bid

Matlin Quits The Republicans

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Prominent Republican strategist Mary Matlin, is quitting the Republican Party.   She’s jumping ship and declaring herself to be a Libertarian.   What’s next?   Dogs and cats sleeping together?   Frogs falling from the sky?

Another goodie is the new poll that shows people aren’t voting for Hilary or Trump because they like Hillary or Trump.   No, they are voting for Hillary because they hate Trump and for Trump because they can’t stand Hillary.    A majority likes Bernie Sanders, but he can’t get nominated because so many Americans can’t vote in states with closed primaries and the Democratic Party has rigged their primary system with phony balloney “superdelegates”  who can defy the will of the majority.

They’ve taken what we’re used to, voting for the lesser of two evils, and kicked it up onto a whole new level of insanity.   The owner of an auto repair shop here in Bel Air expressed his frustration by posting the following on a sign outside his shop, “This is the craziest election ever, Rep or Dem.” 

Whatever happens, it’s important to maintain your sense of humor.   Don’t let the crazies suck you in.

Which leads us to the question of why Democrats should even bother going to the polls?   It’s a valid question, answerable with the academic response that not going to the polls will be like voting for Donald Trump, even if you can’t stand Hillary Clinton.

So go.  To thine own self be untrue and vote for Queen Hillary, the next American royal family member in line to the throne of the Goddess Columbia.

Take away the superdelegates and open all the primaries and Bernie would probably be in the lead.  But he’s not, giving us the very real possibility that Donald Trump has a shot at being President of the United States.  Oh no?   Look out your window.   Those are real frogs falling from the sky.

 

Blog, Politics

Bad Craziness In The Land Of The Weird

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There’s a wonderful line delivered by Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson in the film “Where the Buffalo Roam” when the good doctor proclaims “What do you want?   You already live in the land of the weird.”

Yes we do.   Our political process is about to nominate two of the most untrustworthy candidates out there.  According to a Quinnipiac Poll from July of last year, 57% of America doesn’t think Hillary Clinton is “honest and trustworthy.”    The number for Donald Trump is nearly the same, at 58%.    And this is the best we can do?   A crown prince booted out of a Republican clown car and a recycled Clinton?

Another more recent poll, done in April of this year, shows that only 20% of Americans think that Hillary Clinton represents “very well” their views on “issues they care about,” while only 15% think the Donald represents their views on important issues.   Clearly, most Americans are not crazy about either of  these people.

Could this be because Secretary Clinton was in favor of pushing us into three wrong-headed regime change wars in Iraq,  Libya and Syria and now wants to increase our fight with ISIS by sending in more American ground troops while the Saudis stand idly by?   Well, they aren’t exactly idle, they’re sending out millions of dollars to Wahhabi schools (madrassas) that preach the kind of distored view of Islam that supports terrorism.  It should be pointed out that apparently the funding is coming from wealthy private individuals and families, and not the royal family that runs the government.   For some, I guess, that’s supposed to make it okay, letting the Saudi government off the hook.

According to PBS, “Wahhabism’s explosive growth began in the 1970s when Saudi charities started funding Wahhabi schools (madrassas) and mosques from Islamabad to Culver City, California.”   Sounds like the Saudi Government should be very much on the hook, doesn’t it?

So there’s that to chew on.  And so much more.

The so-called pottery store rule of “you break it, you own it” keeps coming back, doesn’t it?   Well, it should.   This whole stuck in the muck in the Middle East mess got started in 1990 with Operation Desert Storm, when, guess who?   Yes, you guessed it, the Saudis asked us to send over our military to defend them against a possible attack by Saddam Hussein.   Some believe the attacks of 9-11 were in response to the U.S. putting its troops on “holy” Saudi soil.

The Saudis, who are now the third largest military spender in the world,  don’t want to clean up the extremist mess in their own back yard, so they let us do their fighting and dying for them – letting us break it so they won’t own it – while they continue living their 16th century lives awash in the grandeur of their royalty, treating women like chattel, starting off the new year by beheading 47 people in one day including pro-democracy Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.   The Shia are in the minority in Saudi Arabia.  Too bad for al-Nimr.

And HRC wants this to continue by getting us in even deeper with more money spent and more Americans killed?

There’s also the issue of her six years as a member of the Board of Directors for Walmart and the money she’s taken from Wall Street, and corporations she helped establish in Ireland and elsewhere offshore while she was Secretary of State which later were friendly to the Clinton Foundation, or the Clinton Global Initiative putting together a deal to help the people in Flint Michigan fix their poison water problem just before the Michigan primary,  but that horse has been beaten so repeatedly and with such gusto that it’s carcass is no longer identifiable.    It’s probably too complicated for most folks to understand anyway, which you can be sure,  is what the Clinton machine is counting on.  The Clintons didn’t accumulate millions by being stupid.

But don’t despair, if Billaries questionable background troubles you there’s still the Donald, with his four bankruptcies, bloviant narcissim and overt mysogeny.   What do you want from a poor kid who started out with nothing more than the gift of a mere million dollars and a snakeoil salesman’s grin that got him a tv reality show?   Anyway, he’s gonna fix everything, right?  With his big wall on the Mexican border and deals he’ll cut with Putin and China, carpet bombing the opposition into submission and everything will be wonderful because he loves us all so much and there’ll be jobs galore and God, it’ll be just great cause he knows how to cut a deal.   What a pantload, and millions are buying into it.

But that’s the way it is here in the land of the weird.   Oh, how I miss Hunter Thompson.   He’d be shredding these people into tiny bits and feeding them to  a flock of bats somewhere out  in the Mojave, in an overheated car on a lonely road from L.A. to Vegas, which perhaps, is where we all belong.   We’d be better for it, so long as the drugs didn’t wear off.

You can trust me, I’m a doctor.

Bernie Sanders, Politics, Sanders Presidential Bid

Why I Dumped Bernie And Turned To Trump

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(To be read while the tune “Trump, Trump, Trump the boys are marching!” plays in the background. – Got it in your head?   Okay, then go ahead and read the piece.)

Okay, that’s it.   I’ve had enough.  Otherwise intelligent people who are supporting Donald Trump, have forced me to take a second look at what he has to offer and I’m in.  Donald’s got me.   What a guy.   He’s the bestest, smartest, handsomest man in the whole wide wonderful world.   Just like he says he is.   And he can fix everything.   Just like he says he will.

I give in to all that his supporters are looking forward to, including, but not limited to (because the Donald is liable to change things at any time, which is part of the excitement), a “big beautiful wall” paid for by the Mexican Government.   I don’t know how he’ll get it done, but we need to have a little faith.  Not too much though, or he’ll keep you and everyone you know out of the country under suspicion of being religious nutjobs.

He’s the world’s greatest dealmaker and somehow, he’ll do it.  That, and so much more.  He’s gonna “make America great again.”  Remember when we used to  be great?   Back iin the 50’s and 60’s, when corporate taxes were sky-high and the slave states were still segregated and Russia was threatening to pull the trigger on armageddon while we all did our “duck and cover” drills under our desks in school?  Remember how great that was?   Fantastic!

Donald,  the bestest, smartest man that ever was, says he wants to take us back there once again.   Presuming that’s the “then” he keeps talking about.  He’s never been all that specific.

But more of the dream!

The more than 11-million undocumented persons in America will be rounded up and sent packing.   Those who were born here can stay, but their parents will have to leave.  There will be orphans all over the place and nobody left to pick the  produce and service the hospitality industry but somehow the Donald will make it work.   Because he’s our magic man.

Never mind that studies show Mexicans “leaving the U.S. in droves,” searching out  a better life south of the border.   I recall my amazment when the Los Angeles Times reported that net migration was “close to zero,” while Jan Brewer and her xenophobic, fear-mongering gang  continued complaining about the wave of illegals arriving daily, many of them kids who would be killed if they stayed in Central America.  The kind of refugees the world has always admired us for taking in.

No way!

The Donald says wild-eyed rapists are pouring across the border!  Whole gangs of them!   Rapists!   Not kids.  Mexico, is sending rapists after our mothers, wives and daughters!  Oh, my God!   Baby rapers are coming over the border!

Facts?   We don’t need no stinkin’ facts.  If anybody tries to throw facts in your face, just take care of business and have somebody  carry them out of the building on a stretcher.   The Donald says he’ll pick up your legal fees.  Really.  That’s what he said.

Imagine what a wonderful world it will be when Donald insitutes a new torture mandate for our military and CIA, which will then come up with tons of new intelligence on the Middle East, giving Donald the green light to fill his promise of carpet-bombing the hell out of the area.   And that will be the end of ISIS.   And anybody else who screws around with us.  The Donald will make it happen.   Anybody messes with us, we’ll just kill everyone in sight.   Like we  did in Vietnam.  And Iraq.  Just bomb the hell out of everybody.  Remember how well that worked?

Just think of all the new money that will be around, once our new fearless leader kills or cuts Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which the Trumpster has called “wasteful entitlement programs.”  The elderly might have a problem or two, but they can always eat catfood.   Old people don’t need much anyway and all that new money can then be tansferred over to build up our puny military, which is already larger than the next nine developed nations of the world combined.

And thank God,  he’ll end “Obamacare!”   You can be sure that’ll work like a dream.   The insurance industry, finally free from all it’s entanglements and unreasonable restraint, will be able to handle it all, setting the  rates and deciding what’s best for us.   They’re all fair and wonderful people.   They’ll look out for us and do what’s right.   Anyway, it’s better than Communisim, isn’t it?

Damn Commies!   Don’t let any of those pseudo-intellectuals fool you!    A Socialist is a Communist is a Socialist is a Communist is a Socialist!   Get it?   Living on a commune with nothing but potatoes, vodka, a rare can of beans and a cot while you shiver in the cold.  Have you ever been to Vermont?   That’s exactly what it’s like.   No need to worry about the cost of education there.   Your kids will be home-schooled by your hippie neighbors who will also dispense homeopathic cures.  Commies all over the place.

And boy, oh boy, is Trump gonna get China!  And Japan!   And India!  No more of their exporting all their slave-wage, state subsidized stuff to us.   No way, not with the great negotiator at the helm.   He’s gonna give the middle finger to all the world, putting up trade barriers, stopping them from exporting all their crap into the U.S., which will be a profit-killer for the multi-national corporations that currently control the Congress….which will….oh, never mind.   Don’t try and think it through too much, you’ll just get a headache.   The Trumpster will take care of it all.   Have a little faith in the art of the deal.  He’s the smartest man and the best deal maker that ever was, haven’t you heard?  The bestest and the smartest and the handsomest too.  What a guy.

He’s endowed with super-hearing, you know.   It’s a given as he’s the only man in America who heard groups of Arabs cheering when the twin towers came down.

And you can be sure, because  he’s the Donald, that the House and Senate will worship at his golden-toed feet, giving automatic approval to everything and anything he wants.

Take another pill and don’t worry about it, America!   Listen to the siren call of Trump and his Trumpettes, as they carry you away into the land of under-regulated free trade and Wall Street greed….sleep…..sleep.

And so I do hereby surrender to the fantastic, wonderful and magical world of Donald Trump and his followers.    I’m ready to make Amerika great again!    Er,  America, I mean.  To move forward with Mr. Trump’s bold and beautiful vision, whatever that may eventually be.

Oh wait.   Trump has just said that he’s changed his mind.  That he’ll leave Social Scurity and Medicare alone.   See, isn’t this exciting?  So much better than the utter boredom of reality-based politics.

Blog, Politics

To Be Honest About It…

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To be honest, I wish politicians and pundits alike would stop using the phrase “to be honest.”    Honest to God, I wish they would.  Honestly.   When I hear that phrase my first thought is that the person using it is not going to be honest at all.   That it’s probably coming from someone who might be a pathological liar and is trying to cloak his or her falsehood with a statement of their commitiment to sincerity.

And that’s my honest opinion.   Honestly, It really is.

At this point I should probably say something about the Trump rally and punches thrown, comparing it to Chicago in 68 and whatnot.   It’s a comparison I have a hard time making, as the motivational factors then and now require a high degree of pretzel logic to tie together.    Lennon and McCartney may have summed it up best, providing a rare moment of clarity with the words, “I am the egg man, they are the egg men. I am the walrus, coo coo cachoo.”

Makes perfect sense to me.  To  be honest though, and I try to be as honest as possible,  the whole Trump “phenomenon” is getting to be more than a bit of a bore.  He has only a slice of the elecorate, including but not liited to, swamp dwelling duck hunters in the deep south, survivalists, various white supremacists, truck drivin’, hard drinkin’ urban cowboys and such.

Before long we’ll be at that critical nexis where the many will tell the few who are screaming at one  another and throwing punches to go home and start behaving themselves.   That would be the  general election.   Until then we’ll all have to soldier on together, embarrassed at revealing our  underdeveloped nature to a world community that frequently looks to us to set an example – which Donald Trump has done by turning our political process into his own brand of zany ratings-getter, combining all the best  features of professional wrestling with phony reality show antics.

What the hell?   It’s only entertainment, right?

We should be  so much better than this.  Most of us, I think, are.  Honestly.   Anyway, it’s nothing new.   As Alexander Hamilton said to Thomas Jefferson, “Your people, sir, is nothing but a great beast!”  

I have seen the beast, and he is us.   At least some of us.  A gang of screamers, who delight in an authoritarian mindset leading them down a path  where history teaches no one should go.  The wild-eyed mob, throwing punches and spewing foam before going back to their corners and waiting for the next Donald Trump to come along, whipping them into another frightening thoughtless frenzy before grace arrives, once again pulling us back from the brink.

Honestly.

Bernie Sanders, Blog, Politics, Sanders Presidential Bid

The Stupification Of Chris Christie And Why Hillary Keeps Grinning From Ear To Ear

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A couple of thoughts on Stupor Tuesday.   Chris Christie, was clearly stupified, apparently having an out-of-body experience as he stood behind the Donald, staring blindly into space, deer in the headlights style,  possibly wondering what in the world he had done with his endorsement for Trump as the Republican Party continued to come apart at the seams and the Donald continued blathering on.

However, last night it seemed at least that Mr. Trump was making an attempt to appear less authoritarian and downright childish, and more presidential.  Somebody must have told him that he won’t be able to carry the general election with nothing more than bigots whose heads are stuck in the 1940’s.   Or maybe he can, in which case we have an even bigger problem than the possible election of Donald Trump.

Hillary, is getting to be downright scary.   She frightens me, wearing those suits that make her look like a palace guard for the wicked witch of the west in the Wizard of Oz.  All she needs is a big fur hat.  And good God, I wish she would stop  shouting.   Somebody needs to tell her about the advantages of microphones and electronic amplification.

There’s also the fact, for anyone who cares to look at it objectively, that HRC hijacked Bernie Sanders platform.   Positions Bernie has held for years, Hillary Clinton has just recently adopted as her own.   Clever move by the Clinton machine.   How can Bernie atttack an opponent who has adopted (stolen) his long-held policy positions?   Not that we should expect them to stick and be carried forward if Clinton wins the election.   It’s all about winning, don’t you know?

Then there are the ongoing analyses from people supposedly in the know who say that despite four wins and a near-tie in Mass on Stupor Tuesday, Bernie Sanders can’t possibly win the Democratic nomination because the so-called “superdelegates” are in Hillary’s corner, and it is numerically impossible for Sanders to pull this thing out with all those anointed and appointed superdelegates standing in his way.

Okay, if that’s true, and if the DNC has stacked the deck in Hillary’s favor (which it appears they have, although listening to the analysts is at times like watching the prosecution trying to explain the DNA evidence at the OJ trial) and there’s no way Bernie can win in spite of the delegates he picks up in the states, then the process is a lie.

The fix is in.  Just one more fix in a system that is increasingly fixed in favor of a few insiders and against the American people and Democracy.    And why Hillary Clinton keeps grinning ear to ear.   She has a lock on the primary thanks to her friends at the top of the DNC.

The Democratic Party is a lie and the Republican Party is fractionated, possibly beyond repair.   And the water in Flint, is still undrinkable.   And that’s the way it is here in the land of Oz.

Bernie Sanders, Blog, Politics, Sanders Presidential Bid

The Misguided African American Vote

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David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, has endorsed Donald Trump for president.   In a live, Sunday morning interview, Trump refused to disavow the endorsement, or the support of the KKK.   He said he doesn’t know enough about Duke to make a decision.   He refused to answer the question of whether he would accept the support of the KKK.   Rather than provide an answer, he talked around the question, a techinique he often uses.  What utter nonsense.

At the same time, older black Americans continue to support Hillary Clinton at the polls.   There are indications that Trump has a good chance of beating Clinton in the general election.   Some of those same polls indicate Bernie Sanders can easily beat Trump.   A poll just released by CNN shows “Trump and Clinton pulling away.”

It is perhaps one of the ultimate ironies, that in their support for Hillary Clinton, African Americans may be shoring up the presidency of Donald Trump, a man who has openly refused to deny the support of the Ku Klux Klan.

Bernie Sanders, Blog, Politics

Chris Matthews Raves On – MSNBC’s Ratings Dive – Support For Bernie Sanders Grows

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I admit to being an unabashed supporter of  Bernie Sanders.   I do not care that he’s a Democratic Socialist.  I believe the country needs a balance between Socialism and Capitalism, and the loss of that balance is why we currently face a historic gap in wealth between the fat cats at the top and everybody else in the middle and at the bottom.  I also admit to sometimes watching MSNBC and frankly, Chris Matthews is starting to bother me more than just a little.   I’m tired of his cheerleading for Hillary Clinton and his near absolute blindness to Bernie Sanders.

Sanders, is climbing in the polls in Iowa.   Recently, CBS reported that he was “neck and neck” with Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.  He has repeatedly had to switch to larger venues to accommodate larger crowds as he travels around the country on speaking engagements.   He’s pulling in the biggest crowds of any candidate on either side.   His people just booked the 16-thousand seat Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena for a rally on August 10th.    And yet, while watching MSNBC, and Matthews in particular, one feels that Sanders is irrelevant.    That the Republican primary is a done deal for Hillary Clinton, and that Bernie is just wasting our time.   Much like Barack Obama, in 2008.

How disappointing that MSNBC, which is flailing around trying to decide what to do about its ratings problems is blind to the fact that not everyone wants to watch an outlet that sometimes acts like a cheerleader for Hillary Clinton.    There are other candidates, and Bernie Sanders is among them.   He is speaking to issues that Clinton refuses to touch.   His message is obviously resonating with an increasing number of people.    But not Chris Matthews, who apparently has personally anointed Hillary Clinton as the Democratic  nominee, a fact which was all too obvious during last night’s roundtable discussion on MSNBC,  following the Republican debate.  How sad.  How boring.

Okay, so Hillary looks good in the national polls, but does that mean there aren’t two sides to the story?   Could Bernie Sanders possibly have a chance and if nothing else,  doesn’t that make this race far more interesting?

Flash!  Headline in the Huffington Post! “Almost Every Major Poll  Shows Bernie Sanders Challenging or Defeating Clinton and Republicans.”

What is it about Sanders that Matthews finds so objectionable?   Is it Bernie’s Socialism, or could it be his position on the corporatocracy, that uber-wealthy individuals and corporations have purchased our democracy and shut it down?   That Democracy is all but dead in America, and that Matthews, doesn’t want to talk about it, because once you get that real the political ballgame Matthews and so many other beltway insiders like to play becomes all but  irrelevant.    It’s the elephant in the middle of the room and in refusing to discuss it, they are making themselves and their shows irrelevant while Bernie Sanders, who has gotten beyond the same old political “newspeak” continues picking up support.   As does Donald Trump, and his traveling “Bullworth”  roadshow.   Do you suppose this could be at least part of the reason MSNBC’s ratings are in the toilet?

This won’t be over until the fat lady sings, and at this point, she isn’t even reaching for her throat spray.

Blog, Politics

The Clown Car Rolls On

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Can’t read a story about Jeb Bush without the ghost of Paul Henning popping into my head with those familiar lyrics from “The Beverly Hillbillies” –

“Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
And then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea. “ – The ballad of Jed Clampet

 

Okay, so it’s “Jed” and not “Jeb” up there in the clown car’s front seat. It’s almost the same.    Especially when you fold in the “Texas tea” thing.  It’s scary close.

One seat back there’s “THE Donald,” alienating the entire nation of Mexico and every Latino in the United States.   Really?    None of my Latino friends are rapists or criminals.   As a whole, in fact,  I find Latinos to be hard working, religious, decent people.   A really good bunch of folks.

Sitting in the back is the big bully boy from New Jersey,  demanding an apology from the press, lest he tackles them all during recess and steals their lunch money.

Jammed in the back seat next to Christie and desperately saying whatever he can to gain even  a little attention in the current cable news cycle is Ted Cruz.   He reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t think of who it was.   Then it came to me.   He looks like the Joker from the Batman comics, sans the makeup, which is apropos following his outrageous charge that gays are staging a “Jihad” against people of faith.   “Holy base-baiting buzzwords Batman!   A jihad?”

These people shouldn’t be taken seriously.   They’re political caricatures.  Ludicrous distortions of reality.   At this point the Republicans best hope is for their clown car to  blow a tire sparing them additional embarrassment and continued bad madness.