Tag Archives: Hillary Clinton

In A World Of Contrast, Rome Feels The Bern

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Awoke this morning to news that Bernie Sanders had been granted a meeting with Pope Francis. It was only five minutes in the foyer of the hotel on the Vatican grounds, but it was nontheless, a meeting with the Pope.

Sanders left for the Vatican conference on social justice just prior to the primary vote in New York, even though it’s unlcear whether his meeting with Pope Francis will have any impact on his campaign for the presidency.

Brooklyn born Bernie Sanders, is the first Jewish American to win a presidential primary.   New York City, has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel.   Polls indicate that New York’s Jewish population is supporting Hillary Clinton and not Sanders.

While Sanders was in Rome, speaking at an international conference on human rights and economic justice, Hillary Clinton was in San Francisco, hangin’ with movie stars.   Tickets were going for $353,400 to sit at the head table with George and Amal Clooney.  Sander’s supporters protested outside.

After his meeting with Sanders, the Pope flew to the Greek island of Lesbos, to meet with Syrian refugees.   He returned to the Vatican with three refugee families in his plane,  6 adults and 6 children who were bombed out of their homes.

Just What Exactly Did Bernie Sanders Win?

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Awoke this morning to the news that Bernie Sanders had swept Washington State, Hawaii and Alaska, giving him the “momentum” to carry forth into Wisconsin, California and New York.  “Momentum” seems to be the big word now, among those who continue to fight the other big word, which of course is the “inevitability” of a Clinton win in the Democratic primaries and caucases.   Which, as I chimed in on yesterday, are an unholy mess for anyone who tries to actually understand the process, be it “open” or “closed.”

Don’t think so?  Try and find a list of the states that have proportional primaries or caucases compared to those which feature winner take all contests.  I did.   After three or  four searches I gave up.   I think the three states Bernie won yesterday are all proportional, but I’m not sure, because none of the news outlets seems to know.   If they do know, they aren’t reporting it, which is strange, since this should be a key part of their political reportage.

Could it be that some of the political insiders on tv assume their viewers don’t need to be educated and enlightened?   Isn’t that a dangerous assumption?   Aren’t assumptions generally dangerous?

It shouldn’t be this  difficult to figure out how one party or the other chooses its candidate for President of the United States.  But it is.  It’s a mess, and maybe the party leaders want to leave it as clouded and messy as possible because all the confusion makes it easier to rig the system.  You know, changing the rules at the last minute, as the Republicans are threatening to do in their effort to stop Donald Trump.

If you didn’t major in political science and think you understand our primaries and caucases, then good for you.   You are undoubtedly one of the few who does.  And maybe a little delusional.  Oh no?   Ask the next five people you bump into whether the state they reside in has a proportional or winnner take all contest.   I suspect you’ll be lucky to find anybody who has even a clue as to what you’re talking about.

One of the reasons Americans don’t vote in the primaries could be because the system is so fouled up that almost no one can understand it.   It’s a condition of American politics that screams out for stronger federal intervention, with one easy to understand system of primaries for all the states, giving the power to the people and not a relative handful of party apparatchiks who gather behind closed doors laying plans to game the system in favor of one candidate or another.

A system that’s next to impossible for average folks to understand sort of undercuts the sincerity of the candidates and their party leaders, doesn’t it?

Gonna watch the Sunday morning shows now.   Maybe somebody will straighten this all out for me, but I doubt it.   Once they get in front of that interactive map and start comparing Clinton to Carter and Trump to daddy Bush and Calvin Coolidge to Richard Nixon,  with red states and blue states and sqiggly lines and numbers everywhere, my mind starts to wander.  The process of getting someone elected to a national office in the U.S. shouldn’t be this difficult to understand.

Hillary Clinton’s new slogan is “Fighting For Us.”   If she really wants to make a difference, she should fight to change the system into something we can all understand.   But first she’ll have to get the money out of politics.  Which is Bernie’s whole bag.

Candidates who are mostly happy with leaving the system as it is, aren’t really willing to fight for “us” at all.   Consider Hillary Clinton, raking in millions (by one account as much as $15 million to her superpac) in support from Wall Street, the fossil fuel industry and other big business concerns,  not to mention $675,000 in speaker’s fees from Goldman Sachs, while Bernie Sanders relies on small individual donors.  Imagine that.    Do you really think the billionaires and millionaires on Wall Street are pouring all that money into Clinton’s campaign beause they believe she will fight to level the economic playing field for middle America, that she will fight for “us?”

Add:  CNN just reported on the percentages Sanders won yesterday, meaning, all three contests were proportional.   As of this morning, the delegate count, according to the Guardian newspaper, is Clinton 1243 and Sanders with 975.   That’s with half the states yet to be counted and excluding Democratic Party “superdelegates.”  Which is another problem.

Excluding the supedelegates, counting only real delegates who are being sent to the convention by the will of the people rather than efforts by party leaders to rig the system, Bernie trails HRC by just 265 delegates.    In just four states, all of which have yet to be counted, Maryland, New York, California and Pennsylvania, 1006 delegates are still up for grabs.

And some pundits continue to say the race is all but over for Sanders?    MSNBC, is about to take that same tac this morning, interviewing Clinton on the topic of what she’s learned in her battle with Donald Trump.   As though the race has been decided and Bernie should pack up his posters and go home.  A better topic would be Bernie’s uphill battle against media bias.

The Clinton Foundation – Out To Buy The Primary?

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I’m still trying to get my head around this one.  It’s not easy.   It appears the Clinton machine is using the Clinton Global Initiative to buy votes in Michigan.   With other people’s money.

It was announced at the very end of last night’s Democratic debate on CNN.   So late in the process that it was almost an afterthought, with no time for discussion,  that a union pension fund had agreed to float a loan of $25 million to Flint, Michigan, to help rebuild that city’s devastated water delivery system.  On the surface it sounded really good, as though the unions were coming through for America after state and federal governments had failed, leaving Flint’s kids ingesting lead-laced water.  However, what they didn’t announce on tv is that the deal between the pension fund and the City of Flint, was, according to CNN, put together by the Clinton Global Initiative.

Just two days before Hillary Clinton faces off with Bernie Sanders in the Michigan Primary.   Imagine that.

What will the Clintons do next?   Turns out they’ve already done it.   Just weeks ago, in February, the Clinton Global Initiative engineered a program making it easier for the people of Detroit to get a home mortgage.

How can you criticize an organization like the Global Initiative for wanting to do something to help Americans who are hurting?  You can’t really,  unless it’s is being used to help Hillary win the prmary, coming in the back door, buying votes under the guise of goodwill.

Who’s to say the Global Initiative wouldn’t have done all these things for Flint and Detroit, even if Hillary Clinton weren’t running for president?   What do you think?

I think that if my union wrote a huge check from my pension fund to a city that was going bust, I’d be livid.   Particularly so, at a time when Republicans in the Congress are blocking an effort to get federal dollars out to the people of Flint.

The “Party of No” continues it’s dirty deeds, turning Flint into Katrina II, outdone only by the Clinton political machine which, it appears,  is using its foundation to try and buy a primary.

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.

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.

A Little Peck On The Cheek Says It All

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My intention was to watch the whole town  hall meeting on CNN last night.  The whole thing.   I did not.  After Bernie Sanders, I turned off the tv and went to bed, unable to stomach the thought of listening to Hillary Clinton one more time.   It gave me an acid stomach.   I had to get up and take a pill.

To me Queen Hillary stands for everything that’s wrong with our political process.   The elephant in the middle of the room.   The death of truth in the American broadcast media and the impact it’s having on our political process.

If Bernie loses (I’m not sure that he will if the younger folks come through in sufficient numbers), then the polls say Hillary will probably beat Trump in the general election, provided the Republicans actually let Trump run.   I’m not steeped  deeply enough in politics to pretend to  know the odds that they can pull off a “brokered” convention,  slamming the door on the Donald at the last minute, but apparently it is a possibility.   So let’s presume Hillary is our next president.   Our next  centrist-Republican dressed in a Democrat’s pants suit.    Another Obama type, who will continue the pro-forma policies and programs of the past, protecting the big money on Wall Street and the arms manufacturers,  doing little or nothing about the tax-dodging corporations who offshore their jobs and hide their wealth from taxation while middle America continues to be diminished.

If you were alive and poltiically conscious in the 60’s, then you must marvel at the direction our media has taken in its coverage of the political circus.

Through mergers, a handfull of giants now control the broadcast media – over-the-air, cable and satellite – which is where most Americans get their news.   That means most Americans are not getting all the information they need to make an informed decision at the polls.   They have no idea that Hillary Clinton represents a continuation of business as usual for the bankers on Wall Street.   That she, like Mr.  Obama, will carry forward the policies of unending war, satisfying the ongoing greed of the military-industral complex.   That she will sing one song until elected and then fall back into what has become a contemporary centrist-Republican position,  supporting a power structure of financial elites who  have been largely running the country for years after buying the political process.

The big bankers on Wall Street are supporting Mrs. Clinton.  They are her and her husband’s friends.   She has accepted tens-of-thousands in speaker’s fees and in the end, she “will dance with the one that brung her.”   That’s the way it works.  That’s why corporate bosses shower all that lovely money on our politicians, rigging the system in their favor.

It is not enough that Hillary Clinton would be our first woman president.   That is simply not enough.    Clinton, wants to protect the insurance industry and big pharma.  Sanders wants to join the rest of the civilized world in providing affordable single-payer healthcare to all our citizens.   That alone, should be enough.

Lacking anything else, Clinton’s current pitch is that she should be America’s choice instead of Sanders, because she has more experience, in the White House, the Senate and as Secretary of State.    What nonsense.   Sanders is the nation’s longest-serving independent in Congress.    He was in the House for 16 years and was elected to the Senate in 2006.

Shame on Mr. Obama, for implying that Hillary Clinton is more prepared for the Oval Office than Bernie Sanders.   What a cheap shot.

If anything, Clinton’s experience may be more of a negative than a positive, giving her an “insider” status that esures the continuation of business as usual if she’s elected, while Bernie Sanders is the consumate political outsider, who, through determination, smarts and skill, has managed to hang onto an insider’s job in the House and Senate.    He is Wall Street’s worst nightmare and middle-America’s biggest friend at a time when  main street America is sorely in need of  friendship.

Oh wait, CNN is running a recap of last night’s Town Hall.   Hillary just trotted out onto the stage with a big smile where she was greeted by moderator Chris Cuomo, who gave her a kiss on the cheek.   The moderator kissed Hillary Clinton, candidate for president.   On CNN.  Think about it,   If you’re not too intellectually exhausted from the unending string of partisan BS.

I can’t wait for the upcoming Andrea Mitchell, Donald Trump hug fest.     God, how I miss Sam Donaldson.

 

Broadcasters Show Bias In Political Coverage

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MSNBC is covering Bill Clinton as he promotes Hillary in New Hampshire.   According to Bill, his wife walks on water.   Of course that’s what he’s going to say.   Since he’s speaking at a “news event”  and he’s on cable,  the equal time rule does not apply.   Think they’ll give equal coverage to Bernie Sanders or those speaking out on behalf of the Sander’s campaign?   The way things have been going there’s not a chance, even while Sanders popularity continues to build as he picks up a record amounts of money from small donors.

The thing about “equal time,” is that it applies to radio and tv broadcasters and there are four exceptions.  If the coverage is within a documentary, if it’s a bona fide news interview, on a scheduled newscast or an on-the-spot news event, then equal time does not apply.  So basically, it’s pretty much a non-rule, rule, allowing for unequal coverage without accountability.

This is not to indict all tv news people for bias.  Some, undoubtedly are, either overtly or covertly.  Others, are simply caught up in the race for ratings, and are ordered to cover candidates that will pull the highest number, regardless of how outrageous or dangerous or lacking in common sense their positions might be.

So the fix is in, as the networks and cable outlets continue promoting Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump with their overtly uneven coverage. Their bias is obvious.   Trump draws eyeballs and increases their ratings.   As for Hillary, they’ve decided that she is going to be the Dem candidate no matter what happens over the next 11 months, and that’s that.

It’s a system that cries out for increased government regulation of over-the-air outlets and regulations that still need to be written with regard to cable and satellite.

Remember when there was at least the concept of an even playing field in American politics?   This process is too critically important to be left in the hands of network executives and their bookkeepers whose primary concern is with bottom-line economics and not the intellectual and moral health of the nation.

Republicans Responsible For Cuts To Embassy Security

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This cries out for attention.   Following Republican attempts to demonize Hillary Clinton for the attack in Benghazi, it turns out it is the Republicans themselves who have been cutting funding for security at embassies and consulates.

According to a piece in “The Hill,” dated September 18, 2012,  “Republicans have sought to cut hundreds of millions of dollars slated for security at U.S. embassies and consulates since gaining control of the House in 2011.”  The story by Alexander Bolton, goes on to highlight specific cuts, saying,  “The administration requested $1.801 billion for security, construction and maintenance for fiscal 2012; House Republicans countered with a proposal to cut spending to $1.425 billion. The House agreed to increase it to $1.537 billion after negotiations with the Senate. “

A piece in the Huff Post, written by Sarah Bufkin in October of 2012 points out that, “Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) acknowledged on Wednesday that House Republicans had consciously voted to reduce the funds allocated to the State Department for embassy security since winning the majority in 2010.”    Chaffetz, is further quoted as saying, “look we have to make priorities.” 

Dana Milbank, is quoted in a piece from MSNBC, saying –

“For fiscal 2013, the GOP-controlled House proposed spending $1.934 billion for the State Department’s Worldwide Security Protection program – well below the $2.15?billion requested by the Obama administration. House Republicans cut the administration’s request for embassy security funding by $128 million in fiscal 2011 and $331 million in fiscal 2012. (Negotiations with the Democrat-controlled Senate restored about $88 million of the administration’s request.) Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Republicans’ proposed cuts to her department would be “detrimental to America’s national security” – a charge Republicans rejected.”

“Ryan, Issa and other House Republicans voted for an amendment in 2009 to cut $1.2 billion from State operations, including funds for 300 more diplomatic security positions. Under Ryan’s budget, non-defense discretionary spending, which includes State Department funding, would be slashed nearly 20 percent in 2014, which would translate to more than $400 million in additional cuts to embassy security.”

Apparently the Republican strategy is to confuse the issue by transferring blame to others before the American people discover what’s really going on.    When will the mainstream media do a proper job of calling these guys out?

Here’s a video clip from Barbara Boxer in May of 2013.    The lip-sync is off, but you’ll get the idea.

 

America’s New Iron Lady

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Okay, it’s official.    After eleven hours of being verbally hammered  by a gang of Republicans one analyst correctly labeled as “Lilliputians,” Hillary Clinton is America’s new Iron Lady.    That’s not to imply she has any philosophical ties to Margaret Thatcher.   It means only that she’s just that tough.

Never thought I’d be writing this, as I abhor Ms. Clinton’s ties to Wall Street and worry about influence being purchased through the Clinton Foundation.  This is simply credit where credit is due.   After repeated implications that she is an outright liar that would cause most of us to come unglued, after senseless backbiting on subjects that have been addressed multiple times, questions that need no answers, Hillary Clinton didn’t appear to break a sweat and gave no ground whatsoever.   She came through it looking thoroughly presidential, even if her voice did give out at one point, garnering even more sympathy for the attempted beating the Republican right continued to deliver.

It was high political drama, but what else is to be expected from a committee consisting of five Democrats and seven Republicans, led by Tea Party aficionado,  Trey Gowdy?   I don’t think we’ve seen anything this prosecutorial and just plan downright mean and angry at a committee hearing since the Army-McCarthy hearings.   Had I been present, I would have been tempted to rise to my feet and yell, “Objection!  Leading the witness!”  A cheap courtroom trick the Republican inquisitors employed repeatedly, except that there would have been no one to object to as there was no judge present to referee this out of control gang of Hillary haters.   Which played to Hillary Clinton’s favor.   As it should.   God knows, she deserves to get something out of this.    And I think she will.

On balance,  the Republicans surely lost more than they gained, looking like a gang of bullies following in the footsteps of Joe McCarthy, demanding dates, times and names in their effort to associate guilt while Ms. Clinton sat calmly by herself, taking blow after blow without batting an eye and giving them nothing.

After all she has given the country,  supporting her husband through a sometimes very rocky presidency, serving in the Senate and then working herself to the point of apparent exhaustion as Secretary of State, Ms. Clinton deserves more respect that she was given from a bunch of brow-beating attorneys,  obviously working in concert for one purpose and one purpose only.   To smear her in any way they could.

Once again, party politics trumps statesmanship in a national capital where speech is money, money is speech, and the revolving door loaded with lobbyists goes round and round.   This is not to suggest that anyone on the committee was bought off.   Not at all.   They were however, obviously basking in the glow of a national spotlight giving them a shot at taking down the leading Democratic  contender for president.   What an opportunity for a group of  relative unknowns to make names for themselves on the national political stage.

I continue to support Bernie Sanders for president, but after last night I like Hillary Clinton one whole hell of a lot more than before this latest Republican inquisition which served to show just how strong and smart this woman truly is.

The Benghazi Go-Around Goes Around Again

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As seized by ennui as I am at the very mention of the B-word, I feel compelled to write at least a little something about Hillary Clinton being forced to appear before yet another committee “investigating” Benghazi.   I thought this was the eighth such Republican-inspired investigation but the Los Angeles Times informs us that there have been at least NINE reports already issued on the subject and eight previous congressional “inquisitions,”  so this will be inquisition number nine and report number ten.

Why does “Whitewater” keep popping into my head?

I support Bernie Sanders for president, so I suppose I should feel some satisfaction that the Republican House is doing all it can to discredit Ms. Clinton.   That, however, is not the case.   Not when their actions waste the nation’s time and money and repeatedly replace responsible governance with political hackery.

One can only hope that eventually adults will regain control of the Congress.   If they keep this up there will be no time left to write bills designed to put an end the Affordable Care Act,  that have no chance of being written into law.

Oh Lord! Jeb Bush Is Excited!

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FLASH! “Jeb Bush ‘excited about the possibility’ of a presidential run!” Really? Could this be more predictable?

So it’ll be Hillary, going all liberal following two years of smiles and silence to pick up her base and Jeb going as far to the right as he can without sounding too much like a nutjob to pick up his base as they both head off into the primaries. Then, as the general approaches, they’ll tell us what they really think, but only if it’s deemed acceptable by various board room bullies who care more for their bottom lines than they do for America,  the oil barons of Texas and assorted other billionaires who have no more connection to Main Street Americans than George W. Bush has to worrying how to pay the rent and put food on the table.

Hillary, of course, could surprise everybody and turn her back on the bankers who have been paying her $200,000 a pop for speaking engagements, not to mention contributions to the Clinton Foundation, and the potential threat to Bill’s legacy should the big money stop rolling in.

What do you suppose the Wall Streeters were buying with those mammoth speaking fees?   Advice on how to invest their billions?  Why do you suppose Bill cozied up to the Bush clan once he left the White House?

Meantime, middle America is being devastated as the gap between the rich and the rest hits dimensions not seen prior to the Gilded Age as the nation’s youth struggle to pay back huge college loans for an education that should be free and our elderly can’t afford dental care.

The following passage on the Gilded Age (1870’s – 1900) bears consideration:  “Political corruption was rampant, as business leaders spent significant amounts of money ensuring that government did not regulate the activities of big business – and they more often than not got what they wanted. Such corruption was so commonplace that in 1868 the New York state legislature legalized such bribery.[51] Historian Howard Zinn argues that the U.S. government was acting exactly as Karl Marx described capitalist states: “pretending neutrality to maintain order, but serving the interests of the rich.”[52]” – Wikipedia

Sound familiar?   Pretend it isn’t so.  Pretend Hillary will do a 180 on the robber barons of the 21st Century and fight to fix it.   Or that anti-unionist,  Rand Paul,  who opposes abortion rights and gay marriage while favoring increased military spending and taking even more from the poor to give to the rich, is a viable alternative.    He’s all over the board, with a sound argument for restoring constitutional rights but voting against reforming the NSA.   His strategy, apparently, is to generate backing from confused moderates and some liberals who can’t see themselves backing Hillary because of her Wall Street (and other) baggage.   Generating confusion could be intentional.   Or perhaps, since this is all about winning, like a blind man in a tunnel he’s making things up as he feels his way along.  A convenient strategy for someone who doesn’t want to be nailed down to specific issues, which appears to be what Rand Paul is up to as he ducked one question by walking out on the interview and another by shushing a reporter, although it’s difficult to say.

We should be so much better than this.    There is some consolation in knowing any Democrat will be better than any Republican, as the GOP continues doing all it can to take us back to the Middle Ages with barons and earls sitting on hilltops overlooking millions of peasants below, begging for scraps to survive.   Some consolation, not much.   It’s admittedly marginal, but the margin is there.

There’s a whole family hanging out at my local market these days, mom, dad and two kids, all begging for scraps.   “Lost my job,” says the sign the head of the family holds.   And this is an upscale neighborhood.    Before the Neocon takeover pushing our political system so far to the right that it’s bumping up against fascism, NAFTA, the WTO, the Reagan tax cuts for the rich and and the off-shoring of millions of good jobs, there were no homeless on the streets in my part of Los Angeles.  Detroit, and other American cities were not in bankruptcy.  This is scary.  It’s also unnecessary.   And it all started with “Reagonomics” in the 80’s to be carried forth by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Representative democracy in America is barely existent.  It went to the highest bidder with the blessing of a shameful Supreme Court,  who declared money is speech and speech is money and corporations have the same legal standing as people, while the media, like a watchdog chained out in the barn,  prattles on, mostly acting like it’s business as usual.    It’s not.   The country has been hijacked.

We keep repeating the same mistakes.  And Jeb Bush, is “excited, ” while Ted Cruz goes on Obamacare and the ghost of Ayn Rand picks up her Social Security check.  Now there’s some real news.

 

Hillary’s Going To Announce? Wow! Zowie!

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Apparent president-to-be Hillary Clinton will be announcing she’s in the race on Sunday. Could anything be more anti-climactic? Oh ya…there’s the whole gang of Republican contenders feeling the need to be as far to the right wacky as possible without appearing completely nuts (Rand Paul just walked out on an interview with the Guardian), to satisfy their fractionated base in the primary.   Once that’s over, the schizophrenic winner will do a one-eighty, becoming incredibly centrist in an attempt to actually win the race from a much broader base of constituents, a la Mitt Romney.

Again, totally anti-climactic.

How boring  and sad this process has become even with Jeb Bush thrown into the mix, with two royal families dominating for so many years and the procedure locked down by Wall Street and other heavily monied interests as we the sheeple, follow en masse, mostly underinformed, misinformed and disinformed by a media that’s many faceted and in some cases, beyond belief.

Then there’s that study out of Princeton, claiming America is no longer a Democracy.   Of course we’re not.    With a few exceptions, most government officials are for sale in our former democratic republic, throwing their allegiance to the highest bidders as they try and raise sufficient millions to stay in the race and get reelected.

Perhaps saddest of all, are the Hillary supporters who support blindly, simply because she’s a woman.   As if that’s a valid reason to elect a person to the highest office in the land.   As Robert Reich so wisely points out,  being a woman is not a platform.

Americans should be outraged.   But they’re not.  They’re more like sheeple, following along en masse, too exhausted from working two or three jobs (or doing the work of four people while holding down one job) to catch their breath and complain.   It’s now necessary to go $60,000 or more in debt earning a bachelor’s degree just to nail down a job as a barista.  A couple of generations ago, these same people would have been earning minimum wage as soda jerks, with the jobs filled mostly by kids still in high school.

One wonders how much more of this nonsense the American people will take?   Until “Citizens United” is overturned and the amount of money going to politicians is contained, nothing will change.   And nothing short of a political uprising, threatening to throw all the bums out unless they change it, will get us there.

Well, there is Elizabeth Warren, but she can’t run.   Neoliberal Hillary, the Clinton’s Wall Street backers and the Democratic machine are all standing in her way.   They have to.   With Warren or Bernie Sanders in the White House, there might be a chance, a slim chance but a chance nonetheless, of taking the country back from the bankers, the board rooms and the billionaires.   God knows, we can’t have that.