Tag Archives: Elizabeth Warren

Remembering The Good

Governor Ann Richards

With political madness swirling about us like a daily sharknado from hell, it may be good to remember that we have had better times with far better people. Like former Texas Governor Ann Richards.

For me, one of the finest moments in American political history was when Richards took center stage at the DNC to proclaim, “Poor George, he can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth!” I also loved it when she leaned forward at the lectern and said, “Friends, let’s talk about how the cow ate the cabbage.” Rather, must have loved that one. It was pure down-home Texas. And pure Ann Richards.

I did finally get to meet Governor Richards. It was at the DNC 2000 in Los Angeles, and I told her how much I had enjoyed that moment when she talked about the cow eating the cabbage. She was every bit as charming and gracious as she appeared to be on television. She was good for Texas, and for the country. And we need more like her. All that we can get.

Ann Richards, has been described as “salty” and “irreverent.” A mother of four, she wore white leathers to match her hair and she rode a Harley. And she was filled with optimism. Could be that’s why I am so fond of the optimism, intelligence and strength of Elizabeth Warren – because she reminds me of Governor Ann Richards, a larger than life woman who lived up to the larger than life American promise of giving everybody an equal shot at success. Even those who weren’t born with a silver foot in their mouth.

Waiting For Trumpty Dumpty To Fall

Trumpty Dumpty is speaking to a gathering of sheriffs from across the country.  I’ve got the sound muted.   Can’t take much more of his blather, wondering whether he understands what he’s saying or is delusional.

Let’s risk turning on the sound for just a bit to see  what Prez Dumpty is saying right now…..

Ready?  Okay, here we go.   Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States-

“….and you know it and I know it, and you have been unhappy for a very long time, and I can read polls, probably better than anybody….”

Fine.  Enough of that.  I think he might be channeling an old Dave Mason song.  Anyway, how many times does this guy think he has to tell us that he’s better than everybody else?   At almost everything.

It’s been suggested by psychotherapist John D. Gartner,  that President Dumpty suffers from “malignant narcissism.”   I dunno.  Maybe.  All I do know is that you hit a point where it no longer matters whether he is deluded or intentionally lying.   You just don’t want to listen to what’s coming out of his mouth anymore.   It’s too exhausting.

The most recent legitimate fear about the Dumpster, is that he is creating an atmosphere of chaos when there is no reason for it.  How will he act and what will he do if the country is attacked again?  How will he react to a macho, nose-to-nose standoff with King Vladimir of Putin?   Will he drag us down into nuclear brinksmanship with the naked Russian bear?

We should all be very afraid.   Instead, Mitch McConnell, emotionless political worm of the right, is hard at it in the Senate, forcing Elizabeth Warren to stop talking during a confirmation hearing and take her seat.  In short, she was told to  shut up and sit down.  The argument McConnell makes, is outlined in a Senate rule stating that one sitting Senator may not impugn another sitting Senator.  Oh really?  So you can say only good things about other senators, even during confirmation hearings?  Kind of makes the process irrelevant, doesn’t it?

Interesting that this same rule was not invoked when Ted Cruz called Mitch McConnell “a liar” in the Senate in July of 2015.

Beyond that, McConnell, treating Warren like a woman who needed to be shushed, should infuriate thinking Americans, as McConnell and his Republican cronies just stripped away Senator Warren’s First Amendment rights and they did it on the floor of the United States Senate.   Then again, perhaps Mitch McConnell is less hesitant to get tough with a woman as opposed to another man?

And on MSNBC, the Dumpster continues.  Let’s listen in for just a moment.   Maybe he has something good to say?   Something that will help Americans pull together, their shoulders at the wheel of democracy?  Here again, the President of the United States-

“So  many of the problems are caused by gang members, many of whom are not legally in our country…..Terrorism a tremendous threat….far greater than people in our country understand….but we’re gonna take care of it….we’re gonna take care of it folks.”  

He finished by talking about what “great people” the “cops of America” are.  Of course he did.   He’s going to need them in his corner for crowd control as the chaos he is creating will lead only to more demonstrations as he continues apparently imagining something to be true, not because it is grounded in fact, but because it’s coming from his mouth – while in his brain, thousands of Muslims stand shoulder to shoulder in New Jersey, cheering as the twin towers come crashing down and our political system is corrupted by millions of dead  voters while the “phony media” fails to  report on terrorist attacks and Mexican rapists pour over our southern border as President Dumpty recalls his inauguration and what he said were “the biggest crowds in the history of inaugural speeches”.

And in the Senate, Elizabeth Warren,  American patriot and Harvard scholar stands rebuked, demeaned and humiliated by a far lesser person and is not allowed to speak.   She has been banned from speaking further during the confirmation hearing of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions of Alabama.  Her terrible infraction was reading the contents of a letter written by the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King.

And out here in the  hinterlands, beyond the great political bubble, we continue watching, fearing for the future of the Republic in a world beset by alternative facts, waiting for the campaign to stop and the governing to begin.   Wondering when President Dumpty, will take his great fall.  And when he does, whether things might not be even more frightening with Mike Pence in the White House. Although at this point, that hardly seems possible.

Trump And Sanders Blowing The Beltway’s Political Circuits

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Interesting exchange on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this morning, a program I generally do not watch because so many of its participants are suffering from “Beltway Fever”  but am now watching occasionally as the presidential campaign moves forward.

I was encouraged and surprised by an admission from one among the group of inside-the-beltway pundits, that they have been wrong,  and that it is no longer an impossibility that Donald Trump could actually turn out to be the Republican nominee.   Still improbable?  Yes?  Impossible?  No.

Wow.  Always nice to see DC pundits admit that there’s a country out there beyond the Beltway, and that they may be out of touch with it.  But there’s another problem with their punditry.     Hahahaha.   Hohoho.  Guffaws, all around.

Within minutes of admitting their mistake about Donald Trump, they then turned on a  political penny and raised the question of whether Joe Biden’s trip to meet with Elizabeth Warren is an indicator that Biden is getting serious about getting in the race against Hillary Clinton.   Oh really?  So you were wrong about Trump and now you continue to ignore Bernie Sanders?

Hopefully, within a few weeks they’ll be scratching their heads about the growing support for Sanders among younger Americans, and admitting they were wrong about him as well.  This is what happens to pundits when their thread of common wisdom based upon politics as usual can no longer be depended upon.

Why is there absolutely no concern expressed about Trump’s tactic of using the politics of hate and fear to whip up his base?    How would he deport 11-million Latinos?   Would he follow Hitler’s example and load them onto boxcars, breaking up families in the process?   What about Latinos who are politically connected?   What about rioting in the streets?  How would he repeal the 14th Amendment?   By non-existent presidential decree?  It’s insane.

And you might at least try and understand the groundswell of support for Sanders among young people facing crushing student loan debt as they are forced to live with their parents because the corporatocracy which has purchased the federal government has shipped millions of jobs overseas gutting middle America.   Nothing much to discuss here, other than the abject failure of American Capitalism to support a majority of Americans.

If you want a younger audience for your programs, then try and speak to the issues that concern them, instead of ignoring the truth and carrying on with your ridiculous business as usual nonsense.

Are there still more than 400 days to the election?   Yes.   Will Trump probably not be the Republican nominee but nothing’s impossible?  Yes.  Should pundits and newscasters be allowing Bernie Sanders the same credibility they are now affording Trump?  Yes.  Will they,  until they are forced to because they are making themselves look stupid?  No.   And not because they don’t want to.   The problem is that they are beltway insiders, and Trump and Sanders are political outsiders challenging DC’s business as usual insider machine and the usual  gang of suspects on the network shows don’t know how to handle it.