This is a running commentary on contemporary social, political and religious issues. From the Introduction of James Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty -- Truth, Lies and Leadership" "Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary" Reinhold Niebuhr
An Arlington woman who wrote a letter to the Boston Globe denouncing Donald J. Trump’s initial reluctance to disavow a former Ku Klux Klan leader said she received a copy of the KKK’s symbol in the mail.
Louise Mayerson, 84, who left her native Austria as a child when her family fled the Nazis, said she received an anonymous envelope in the mail shortly after her letter to the editor was published in the Globe in March
In her letter, Mayerson described herself as “an Austrian refugee from the time of Hitler” and said the Republican presidential frontrunner’s “failure to immediately repudiate [former Klan leader David] Duke chilled my blood.”
Days later, Mayerson said, she received an envelop containing a copy of the KKK symbol that featured a square white cross set against a red backdrop. The envelope was postmarked from Boston, she said.
“I believe somebody just read that letter, it touched a nerve, and that’s the way they reacted,” Mayerson said.
Mayerson contacted Arlington police, who are investigating the incident, Chief Frederick Ryan said. He declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.Arlington police have increased patrols on streets in Mayerson’s neighborhood. The department also reported the incident to the town’s Human Rights Commission, which assists hate-crime victims, Ryan said. Mayerson praised police for their response. She lamented the “poisonous atmosphere that has been created” in public discourse that “can lead to some pretty unpleasant things for all of us.”Robert O. Trestan, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, echoed her sentiment.
“The more that hateful and denigrating speech becomes commonplace in the public realm from leaders, the greater the likelihood that people will start acting up, whether it’s harassment via the mail or violence,” he said.
Asked for comment, a Trump spokeswoman did not comment directly on the Arlington incident, but said the candidate has disavowed Duke.
“Mr. Trump has disavowed David Duke, the KKK and all other groups that espouse similar views. He will continue to do so,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks wrote in an e-mail to the Globe.
Mayerson wrote the letter in response to an interview Trump gave to CNN last month when he was asked about Duke, a former Louisiana legislator and vocal supporter of the businessman’s campaign.
“Well, just so you understand, I don’t know anything about David Duke,” Trump told the network. “I don’t know anything about what you’re even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists.”
Trump later said on Twitter, “I disavow.”
THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY A DEMOCRAT CAN WIN THE PRESIDENCY AND OVERTURN CONGRESS AND THAT IS TO GET OUT THE VOTE EN MASSE--GET OUT THE AFRICAN AMERICAN VOTE, GET OUT THE HISPANIC VOTE, GET OUT THE ASIAN VOTE AND GET OUT ALL PROGRESSIVES, MODERATES AND LIBERAL VOTE. TRUMP IN FACT COULD WIN. THAT IN AND OF ITSELF SHOULD PROD EVERYONE TO GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE!!!
Sanders's strategy is to win the western states which he thinks are more progressive than the ones Hillary won last Super Tuesday. The big kahuna, California, of course, is in the mix. Moreover, he says that matching up Donald Trump and him in the general his stats are much better than Hillary's to defeat Trump. I must think about that. I am not sure he is right in that she swept all five contentious states Tuesday including the big one, Ohio.
In truth, I like Bernie Sanders but I cannot manage to whip up enthusiasm for him. My heart is with Hillary who has experience times ten that makes her the most qualified for the presidency. There is no movement in the Democratic Party that is viciously against one candidate or the other ... yet. The wonderful thing about those who are in the Democratic Party is that however it shakes out, and I do think it will happen for Hillary, we can be sure we will have no problem voting for either of the two candidates who may prevail. That is a pretty good place to be.
Having said that I just purchased a Hillary 3/4 length sleeve T shirt and two bumper stickers. My political radar says those purchases will not be in vain.
My opinion at this moment in time is that Trump cannot be defeated as the Republican Party's nominee even at the convention. If the convention is brokered denying him the nomination after he has gained so much support I close my eyes and shudder as the power in the Republican Party, weak and ineffective, folds like a paper tiger fearful of the violence that is behind Trump.
The rise (and hopefully ultimate fall) of Trump is reminiscent to me of the rise to power of the Nazi state. One by one responsible power brokers in Germany at that fateful time caved and through the Enabling Act in response to the Reichstag fire (lit surreptitiously by Nazis themselves but blamed on Communists and, of course, Jews,) gave the elected Chancellor Hitler all the power that he needed to assume totalitarian control. The Nazi rallies at Nuremberg foretold the portents of doom.
Trump's rallies show us in living color the violent nature of their supporters' essence and the encouraging remarks by Trump himself who easily admits if he is challenged "rioting will break out" show his tolerance of it.
It is up to ALL of us to stand with those in the Republican Party who have the power to challenge the delegate count which ultimately selects the nominee. In this case, unknowing by most, the Party has enormous power to choose the nominee. Whether they have the will use it is surely up for conjecture. I personally doubt that they will.
Renée Graham's excellent Globe editorial "Anti-Trump protesters are Patriots" see link here or below is one to which I wholeheartedly agree. Not only is it not treasonous to oppose the likes of the egomaniac racist Trump it is OBLIGATORY and patriotic to vociferously oppose him.
I am reminded of the great Spencer Tracy in his brilliant performance of an Allied tribunal judge, Dan Haywood, in "Judgment at Nuremberg" which centered on the trial of Nazi judges guilty of war crimes. Burt Lancaster plays Ernst Janning, a former German judge of some intellectual heft and moral compass before the rise of Nazism. He realizes his egregious crimes during the Nazi period sentencing the innocent to imprisonment and even death. He is seemingly the only former Nazi of conscience. He asks to see Spencer Tracy at the end of the film and says:
"The reason I asked you to come. Those people, those millions of people... I never knew it would come to that. YOU must believe it, YOU MUST believe it." Judge Haywood says "It came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death you knew to be innocent."
The film speaks of conscience and of personal guilt. It speaks of one man's obligation to protest and refuse to commit inhumane acts of bigotry and monstrous acts of inhumanity. Nuremberg is not just applicable for that era but for all eras and man's duty not to commit unconscionable acts against the powerless in the name of the state.
The protesters at Trump rallies are doing just that and my heart is with them as they do a moral good and make judgment at Nuremberg and its lessons a lesson for all time for all men.
I am forwarding the links below. Hillary did better it the Super Tuesday Democratic primary than I ever could have hoped. I understand all may not feel as I do about taking the presidency by a Democrat who can win but in case you do I send what I was sent below from Secretary Hillary Clinton's campaign. If you want to contribute to a Democrat who can win go to HillaryClinton.com to do so or you have the option of going to the links below.
Donald Trump must NEVER come even NEAR the oval office. The consequences of a Trump presidency would be national suicide. A nation is not a business. It is composed of all of us who must work together with those nations around the globe without Trumpian bluster and shoot-from-the-hip rude madness. Nation states who are our allies will be alienated and those who are our adversaries will not submit to his authoritarian dictates. Our nuclear world demands prudence and careful analysis for which Trump has NO ability nor the temperament.
I urge you to be smart and to be pragmatic for you, your children, your children's children, and for all of us. The stakes are enormous. I share what the Clinton campaign sent to me. Scroll below.
Thanks for sharing why you’re a Democrat.
It’s important that we spread the word about how Democrats are moving
our country forward, and sharing your story is a huge part of that. Another way to help get the word out is through social media. When you
share official Democratic Party news, you’re helping our candidates
reach the widest audience possible. Follow the Democratic Party on Facebook Follow @TheDemocrats on Twitter Follow The Democrats on Pinterest Thanks for helping spread the word.
In 1968 I thought a candidate like the segregationist
George Wallace was frightening but I knew he would never be president and he
wasn't. He was, though actually paralyzed by an attempted assassin's bullet
that relegated him to a wheelchair all of his life.The violence of the sentiment George Wallace
engendered was epic.The fact he
did not win reflected that as much as race played a part in American politics
it was not the only part and as Anne
Frank said of her time I said in mine:-- in my heart I believed Americans were basically good.
It is sometimes said that those who do not remember
history are condemned to repeat it. When a nation belches forth a candidate,
like Trump who, despite his denying the essential violence of his campaign,
serves to divide and not to unite then the dark history of another era shows its
possibility again.Trump pits race
against race, men against women, religion against religion, and nativist
nationalism against the policies of inclusion.He is playing with dynamite and the explosive fuse is ready to be lit as
minorities will not sit quietly by while they are attacked.Trump pits African Americans, Hispanics and
other peoples of color, and religion as well as sexual orientated minorities
against its majorities of white Christian men.Soon the Republican Party will become the Party of Christian whites no
others need apply.The danger is
obvious.
The forces of the right share a proclivity for
violence because their message is one of hate and hate knows no promotional
restraint. The right wing extremist can do anything he wants, including
violence to secure often poorly thought out crackpot policies with a plethora
of lies supporting their advocacy.The
extremist right will gladly commit violent acts even murder to get what it
wants. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was an example extraordinaire
of that and there are many more.McVeigh
brought down the federal building of that city while it housed a nursery school
and killed 168 innocent human beings including children. The extremists of the
right even the populist right like those who support Trump are incredibly
violent and will stop at nothing to advance the cause of an anti-federal
government and a white power nativitist agenda.It is why Trump could not vociferously and immediately deny the support
of David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan. He gets their votes.
The left, especially decades ago, has shown its
violence too BUT the philosophic underpinning of the left is one of racial
inclusion and not exclusion. The two sides are mortal adversaries.I stand with those who are for inclusion and
not exclusion of the “other” because I know what it is like for one to feel
excluded and not a part of the society in which one lives. I stand for justice and fairness for the
minority and the oppressed. It is why I could never be a member of a Party that
wants to reject human beings and not accept them, often because of the color of
their skin, their religion or the person whom they choose to love and with whom
they want to share a life. The right wing is simplistic and authoritarian in
its understanding of issues that require not simplicity but the complexity of
questioning and thoughtful analysis.
I say walk in another oppressed man's shoes and maybe
history, with the repulsive Donald Trump heading for bone chilling victories,
will not repeat itself and doom us all to eternal domestic conflict, war and
international violence.The only one who
can stop him is you.I believe we are a
better nation than those who support Trump and one which shows, as Lincoln
said, “the better angels of our nature.”I believe in my heart Americans are still basically good.Truly, the fate of nothing less than western
civilization depends that we are.
Mr. Folan: At a basketball game these know nothings from Catholic Memorial again chant a centuries old accusation against Jews? This is UNACCEPTABLE behavior which in other times culminated in the Holocaust and the killing of the six million. It deserves more than a mere apology. Those who stated "The Jews Killed Jesus" should be found out and made to extend a PUBLIC apology themselves and not through just you. Moreover, some who instigated it should be threatened with suspension.
Further, a lecture should be given as to the religious and historical etiology of those hurtful words and in emphasis they should be told of the Vatican's removal of that malevolent thought from Catholic teaching. High school students need to be taught!
SHAME ON those who uttered those dastardly words and shame on the hierarchy of Catholic Memorial for its tepid response. Antisemitism is alive and well after all these years and should be vociferously and adamantly criticized with penalties paid when it is!
After the violence I see at Trump rallies and Trump lying about all he sees and all he says to encourage it, I am taking time off from this political sewer of insanity. I simply cannot watch the nation being surreptitiously taken down a path to hell.
Our nation, once the beacon for the poor, the homeless and the huddled masses yearning to breathe free has become the mirror image of the "Gangs of New York" Scorsese film about vicious and murderous nativisim in the 19th century of our nation and beyond. Trump has roots. The violence then created Tammany Hall of NYC political patronage corruption. The nativism and racist hate spewing from a Republican Party in our time has gone wild and its leader denies it all and will not tell his minions to stop.
The Republican beast is of their own Republican making. Republican power usually controlled the extreme but is powerless in the face of it now. It is bone chilling awful to watch its violence. I must pull back from it all, at least for a time, or it will be to my detriment because I am not a denier of truth but I am one who faces it and this truth pierces my soul.
John 13:34-35 says: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” How wonderful it would be if the fundamentalist extreme of our nation chose that edict from their New Testament diatribes instead of hate!
Trump thinks that Muslims hate us and goes on saying pretty much the same thing throughout the interview by Anderson Cooper. Anderson comes back at Trump with not much.
I believe the media fails at its investigative task of speaking truth to power and I wish, at times, I were in the interviewer's seat to have targeted questions posed in response to, in this case, Trump's simpleton beliefs.
How about Anderson suggesting, perhaps, the Muslim world, most especially the oil producing nations, are, in fact, angry with the west and maybe they are angry at western political policy post World War I carving out and forming their nation states, extending into the removal by the CIA of Mosadeq -- a democratically selected and beloved Iranian leader -- and placing the murderous Shah as head of state in Iran.
Finally, Anderson could have asked him if he would not be upset if a powerful nation state with the excuse of "preemptive war" dropped carloads of bombs on his house killing his family, friends and children too just because that nation could while having NO justification for an Iraq war that placed boots on Muslim ground killing thousands, creating millions of refugees and dismembering the Middle East tinderbox all based on a lie. And for what?
Anderson could have suggested it was for oil -- maybe?
VERY interesting article which I have not finished but want to share. It is chilling for so many of us who are diametrically opposed to a Trumpian value system (if you want to call it values) and have much to lose.
Robert Reisch Labor Secretary in the Clinton administration, Professor at Berkley and brilliant commentator has this to say:
Here or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l96F1JVEm4&ebc=ANyPxKp0GQSFUz6r1eUwrW56pL58U1OV9i6wRCzfWjhIni764nZjfyCRVTxADSbEzsW1IonemnJb1T12uVQsgynhJSaK8gJfOw
My cousin wrote to me this below. I think he hit the bulls-eye:
"Trump's attraction is largely attributable to how both parties have repeatedly attacked the poor and the middle class, emasculating us incrementally; all the while enriching and enshrining into law the continued protections for extreme wealth. SCOTUS and an incompetent Congress (regardless of majority party, it must be noted!) have insured that the top 1/10th of 1% can write their own bills that will be made law, and business can wantonly kill (alà GM) and continually rob and cheat, facing at most a mild slap on the wrist. Companies can run the numbers and decide it is OK to murder because the settlements will be cheaper than fixing the problem. Banks can sell toxic assets to pension plans and the elderly because they can get Moody's to give CDSs sterling ratings. When they get caught, so what! They pay a tiny (by comparison) fine, but at least they got rid of their losses!! Meanwhile, the damage to those who bought those sick investments goes on, and they will never be made whole. But the banks get billions in loans, assured by the government.....that is, BOTH PARTIES,.....that they have no worries because the taxpayer will take care of them always!
I really felt this phrase of Chomsky's was resonate: "...... is that the hopefulness of the ‘30s and the social struggles and achievements that inspired it have been largely supplanted by fear, despair, and isolation, opening the way to the Trump phenomenon, which should be cause for deep concern."
It is this anger and relentless frustration which draws people foolishly to the Donald. We, who for so long have been told how we live in the greatest country with the greatest democracy, are absolutely sick of the lies and rapaciousness of our politicians! They, who sit on the hill with a guaranteed and very comfortable paycheck, plus excellent healthcare and the best pensions extant, continue to tell us how they will fix things, just like they have been doing for more than a century. We have been alternatively hammered and lulled: the first is by our increasing tax bill and decreasing services, while the second is the occasional bone of hope we get, such as the affordable care act. The latter are increasingly rare because the wealthy feel these are too costly, therefore our political system must go through these four year gyrations to convince the bulk of the populace that we have the power (HA!) and hope still exists if we just vote the right way!"
When
I am politically incredulous about the events of our time I turn to
intellectual scholars who know much more than I. This time I asked MIT
Professor Noam Chomsky to provide an explanation to me of the Trumpian
phenomena of our time. He does so.
Yes, it is long but the events surrounding you, me and millions of
others in our nation and its impact on the world should spur you to at
least read it and stop being put off by intellectual arguments that take
a little more time and effort to ingest. In other words my suggestion:
READ IT and learn! Scroll down if your interest is peaked.
Professor
Chomsky, I have been a life long progressive. What is happening now in
this country could not be predicted by many. Trump does have some
populism attached to his core message but the
bigotry and the nativist slant reminds me of "Gangs of New York" in its
fever pitch. Can you explain so I can rationally explain this
phenomenon. The rudeness and lewdness of his message is staggering.
I am ashamed for the world to see this not to mention the danger of it.
He makes ISIS job easy and is exactly what they think the US is all
about. The nation has made mistakes that is for sure but a Trump
mistake of this magnitude is unthinkable.
Your views?
Below
is something posted in a discussion on Quora that tries to respond to
your question. You’re right about the danger. IN fact, the world is
looking on with
astonishment and trepidation.
Though we do not have detailed data, it
appears that Trump is appealing primarily to less educated white sectors
of the population, lower middle class and working class, people who are
angry, frustrated, frightened, bitter about the
fact – and it is a fact – that they have been in many ways cast by the
wayside. The neoliberal programs of the past generation have been
harmful to affected populations almost everywhere, sometimes severely
so. Rising global inequality, which has reached
extraordinary proportions, is one (and only one) of the many
indications. Oxfam produces annual reports of poverty and inequality.
In 2014, they found that about 90 individuals held half of total world
wealth. In 2015, the number was reduced to 62. Meanwhile
perhaps 5 million children are dying of starvation every year – more
than 500 an hour, a tragedy that could easily be remedied by available
resources. Among the developed (OECD) societies, inequality is
particularly prominent in the Anglophone countries, with
the US well in the lead. Despite its unique advantages, by most
measures of poverty and social justice the US ranks with the poorest
OECD countries, alongside of Greece, Mexico, Turkey, facts heightened by
lavish displays of concentrated wealth. The disparities
have increased since the latest crash, with some 90% of growth going to
1% of the population. As widely reported, the global rich now live in a
different world from the general population.
In the US, the neoliberal programs have led to
stagnation or decline for much of the population, undermining of
functioning democracy, reduction of benefits and social welfare. People
do not have to read academic studies to know that
real wages for male workers are about what they were in the 1960s while
wealth has concentrated in very few hands; that corporate strategies
have shifted manufacturing abroad; that a considerable majority of the
population is virtually disenfranchised in that
their representatives disregard their attitudes; and much more. Years
ago, academic studies showed that the socioeconomic profile of
abstention in the US matches those sectors in similar countries who vote
for laborite or social democratic parties, lacking
in our political system, which in some ways still reflects the Civil
War. We also cannot overlook the deeply rooted historical background of
white supremacy and racism that has never been overcome, and the
increasing atomization of the society that leaves
people alone and isolated, feeling helpless against forces that are
crushing them. Under these circumstances it is not hard for demagogues
to stir up anger against those who are even more victimized –
immigrants, minorities, “welfare cheats” (demonized by
Reaganite racist slurs) – and to stimulate highly exaggerated fears of
threats ranging from the federal government to Islamic terrorists.
We should also remember that what we are
witnessing is not entirely new. A decade ago, the distinguished scholar
of German history Fritz Stern, writing in the establishment journal
Foreign Affairs, opened a review of “the descent in Germany from decency to Nazi barbarism” in the establishment journal
Foreign Affairs by writing that “Today, I worry about the
immediate future of the United States, the country that gave haven to
German-speaking refugees in the 1930s,” himself included. With
implications for here and now that no reader can fail to discern,
Stern reviewed Hitler’s demonic appeal to his “divine mission” as
“Germany’s savior” in a “pseudoreligious transfiguration of politics”
adapted to “traditional Christian forms,” ruling a government dedicated
to “the basic principles” of the nation, with “Christianity
as the foundation of our national morality and the family as the basis
of national life.” Hitler’s hostility toward the “liberal secular
state,” shared by much of the Protestant clergy, drove forward “a
historic process in which resentment against a disenchanted
secular world found deliverance in the ecstatic escape of unreason.”
That was ten years ago. The words resonate more ominously today.
It is also useful to compare the current
malaise with the Great Depression in the 1930s, which I’m old enough to
remember. Objectively, conditions were far worse than today.
Subjectively, they were quite different, as I could see even
from my own extended family, many of them unemployed working class with
limited education. Despite the grim conditions, there was a sense of
hopefulness, a belief that we’ll get out of this together. The labor
movement had been virtually crushed by the 1920s,
largely by force, but reconstituted in the ‘30s with organization of
the CIO and militant labor actions that helped induce a fairly
sympathetic administration to institute significant social reforms. The
unions also provided crucial forms of association and
interaction, including educational and cultural opportunities. There
were also lively political organizations – Communist, Socialist, others
-- participating actively in labor and civil rights actions and general
intellectual life in which much of the working
class participated. Business publications warned of “the hazard facing
industrialists” in “the rising political power of the masses,” but were
powerless to stem the tide, though reaction was building up by the late
‘30s and picked up forcefully when the war
ended. This is not the place to review what has happened since, but
one consequence is that the hopefulness of the ‘30s and the social
struggles and achievements that inspired it have been largely supplanted
by fear, despair, and isolation, opening the way
to the Trump phenomenon, which should be cause for deep concern.
Perhaps the most favorable observation that can be made about his
candidacy is that Cruz is even more dangerous, and the other likely
Republican prospect, Rubio, is hardly less of a threat to
the country and the world, at least if he means a word he says.
Professor
Chomsky, I have been a life long progressive. What is happening now in
this country could not be predicted by many. Trump does have some
populism attached to his core message but the
bigotry and the nativist slant reminds me of "Gangs of New York" in its
fever pitch. Can you explain so I can rationally explain this
phenomenon. The rudeness and lewdness of his message is staggering.
I am ashamed for the world to see this not to mention the danger of it.
He makes ISIS job easy and is exactly what they think the US is all
about. The nation has made mistakes that is for sure but a Trump
mistake of this magnitude is unthinkable.
Senator Sanders’s policies concerning at least two major
issues are wrong and Secretary Clinton is right.
Guns: Senator Sanders voted against the ability to sue gun
manufacturers and said the consumer's ability to sue would effectively put the
gun manufacturers out of business. Funny, filing a lawsuit for damages against a
product a company makes and puts into the stream of commerce to sell does not
put other corporations, for example, tobacco companies, out of business.The tobacco industry has been drowning in
lawsuits for a very long time paying out significant damages even in present
time and still manages to reap immense profits.
The ability to sue is important in a free society and is
especially so for gun manufacturers because the product they sell carries
the ability to kill with it.Suing a company for
monetary compensation when an injury occurs to those who use that product and
for whom the product was designed should be universally accepted.The gun manufacturers should not be allowed
to avoid litigation against them nor enjoy exception from it so that their product’s
safety can be assured for those who use it.
The Bank bailouts: Senator Sanders voted against the bank bailouts
but I think Secretary Clinton voting for it was prescient. In my opinion, the big banks had to be bailed out.If the big banks failed it would have had a
cascading domino effect creating an economic tsunami both here and around the
globe.A catastrophic Everest-size
economic volcanic eruption was at risk and Secretary Clinton knew it.She was 100% right to vote for the bailout.
What, however, SHOULD have occurred and Secretary Clinton, I
believe, agrees, is that those at the top of the corporate banking structure
needed to be held criminally accountable for those fraudulent acts that
cost the middle class so much and gave our nation and the world the Great Recession.They
should have been and should now be criminally prosecuted and, if found guilty,
ultimately jailed.They should NOT have
been allowed to accept bonuses and pay raises for their clearly egregious, fraudulent and illegal acts.
The bailouts saved this nation a much worse economic fate
had the bailouts never occurred.In my
opinion, the biggest banks are, indeed, too big to fail because not saving
them would have perpetrated devastating harm upon this nation stretching
across the globe accompanied by even more significant jobs losses here and
beyond that could have brought this nation and the world to its knees.
However, criminal prosecution and jail if
convicted for
those who perpetrated the immense fraud should have occurred sending a
clear message to the powerful hierarchy of Wall Street that they face
prosecution and jail time if they do not play by the rules.I suspect Hillary Clinton agrees.
In the end the banks and the Detroit automobile industry
were saved by bailouts.Moreover, the
nation was paid back its loans and everyone lived happily ever after -- well not exactly -- BUT
the Great Recession surely could have and most probably would have been
significantly worse.I think Secretary
Clinton would agree to that as well!
I am still standing strong with Hillary though I did not catch the debate as I was nursing a migraine probably from the hateful Republicon Party and the thought of it going near the oval office which makes me literally sick.
I did read that Bernie was rather rude. I am NOT surprised. He is as I have read difficult with whom to work and read him described as a scold. He has, it is said a nasty temperament and for the highest office in the land and maybe most powerful in the world that is a deficit.
Of course, next to the disgusting, profane, rude name calling, low blow Republicans and their devastating policy, Republicans should collectively NEVER get near the oval office. The Democratic debates are a genteel tea party (pardon the pun) by comparison.
Bernie, too, is on one speed -- the Wall Street menace. I believe Hillary gets that as well and she gets so much more that is so important for the presidency. Bernie voted against the ability to sue gun manufacturers and said it would effectively put them out of business. Funny, it does not do that to any other corporations simply ask the tobacco companies. They have been significantly sued and still reap a profit. The ability to sue is important as it is an impetus for something so lethal as a gun to be held monetarily accountable for its safety. Moreover, she is especially expert in foreign policy and more. She has the leadership capabilities necessary for the presidency. Sanders lacks that in triplicate.
I'll stick with Hillary Clinton and hope for no more migraine headaches!
GOTV for Hillary who can win and Democrats everywhere.
Yet again, Chuck Todd makes me want to gag as he says Nancy Reagan was "the greatest first lady in American history." Please, he seemed to leave out Eleanor Roosevelt!!!! It was said of Eleanor she was her husband's legs. Chuck Todd makes me ill with his incorrect analysis of things political and stupid adulation of those oftentimes who do not deserve it. Did Nancy Reagan live up to the hype that is enshrining her effusive in death? Sometimes, perhaps, but there were many critical of her power over her husband. Unlike so many who lop a carload of praise on both of them there is MUCH to criticize from the inaction of the Reagan White House on the AIDS crisis to the illegalities of Iran/Contra which could, and perhaps, should have gotten him impeached. Simply ask Ron Reagan, Jr. whose politics is 180 degrees different from his parents. It's called being an adult and Ron Reagan, Jr. surely is! Chuck Todd, give Eleanor Roosevelt equal time. Shame on you!
The weekend primaries yesterday dictate that Rubio should get out of the Republicon race. Trump and Cruz will be left. I believe Trump will get the delegates he needs from Michigan, Ohio, Florida and others. The problem is the two that will be left, Cruz and Trump, are a choice between the Ebola virus or the Bubonic Plague. They are both horrendous.
Hillary has a shot IF she can get the email albatross off her neck. She received NO classified information nor sent out any. It was labeled classified AFTER the fact and she did not get hacked but the State Department did over other administrations too.
Officials from the Bush administration had private servers also but will the Republicans note that? You know the answer. When 1/2 of the country is an uninformed electorate this is what you get -- a Trump or a Cruz -- two awful choices and the Supreme Court is at risk! Progressives, if a Republicon is elected to the presidency, stand to lose everything we've gained over decades especially if there is a Republican Congress.
No need to say persons of color
MUST be mobilized to vote. Those who are liberal, progressives and
hopefully independents do as well. It's simple: get out the Democratic
vote everywhere!
his is pick for the Supreme Court is a Cretan named Napolitano who (a) does not believe voting is a right and (b) compares abortion to the Holocaust. What does he think about persons of color being shot and killed wily nilly? Fairness? Not so much it appears where full term human beings are concerned.
Work your posterior off all across the nation for Democrats and AGAINST Trump!
YEEEHA.
This may mean Texas restrictions against the right of a woman to choose
her own reproductive life may go down the toilet too. I HOPE so. It
is why we MUST MUST MUST keep the presidency in Democratic hands, take
the Senate and yes, even overturn the House. This actually could really
be a great country again!!!!
WORK YOUR POSTERIORS OFF FOR DEMOCRATS TO KEEP THE
PRESIDENCY, TAKE THE SENATE AND OVERTURN THE HOUSE. THIS IS A SHOT IN
THE ARM FOR US...NOT A WIN BUT BETTER THAN LETTING THOSE RIDICULOUS
RESTRICTIONS AGAINST CLINICS STAND. THEY CARED NOTHING ABOUT PROTECTING
THE MOTHER AND ONLY ABOUT THEIR RELIGIOUS CRACKPOT BELIEFS THAT WOULD
RELEGATE WOMEN AGAIN TO QUACK ABORTIONISTS AND OFTEN DEATH. THIS IS A
SEPARATION OF CHURCH STATE NATION OUR FOUNDERS MEANT IT TO BE. RIGHT
WINGNUTS GET A SET BACK AND NONE TOO SOON FOR ME. IT IS WHY WE MUST
KEEP THE PRESIDENCY IN DEMOCRATIC HANDS AND TAKE THE SENATE AS THERE MAY
BE THREE JUSTICES WHO WILL LEAVE AND THREE VACANCIES TO FILL WITH
LIBERAL OR LEFT OF CENTER QUALIFIED JUDGES!
BRILLIANT article. It reminded me of my feelings when I read J. William Fullbright's book "Arrogance of Power" in the late 1960's. I wanted to distribute copies of it to everyone on the street.
This nation, at least 1/2 of it, is in full fledged psychological denial. Torture? Who us? No way! I carried the flag on Flag Day at my school in 1957. Will the empire fold in my lifetime and bring in a state of humanitarian renewal? It's my hope no matter how far fetched it may be.
No hacking has been found on Hillary's email server. It seems to be much ado about nothing. As a matter of fact the State Department got hacked but Hillary did not. In the final analysis she was probably smart to get her own personal server!!
The torturous Republican debate fiasco yesterday was the worst of all the Republican debates aired. I do not know how, on planet earth, anyone with even 1/4 of a functioning brain could feel proud of our nation or proud of themselves for even considering to be a part of a Republican Party that is such an EMBARRASSMENT.
The entire world is laughing at us that those who support this insanity would vote for such low life in their run for the highest office in the land. It is beyond my comprehension. This depravity is not relegated to Trump alone although he surely is the impetus for it. The profanity and shouting blather between the "candidates" was sometimes about, if one can believe it, Trump's genitalia size and how proudly exceptional to him it is.
The other Republican candidates with the exception of Kasich were nearly as verbally filthy as Trump. Is this the nation that has the most powerful military in the world, whose leader can, in one second, decide to blow it all up and make decisions that will haunt us for decades if not centuries? Someone MUST stop this insipid vulgarity before all of us, your children and their children are destroyed along with our beloved nation.
No other nation will capitulate to Trump's bombastic bullying. They will fight back, including Mexico, our ally, who will refuse to capitulate to Trump's wall fantasy and to making Mexico pay for it. Those who are really enjoying this are ISIS and its cohorts. It would give them every excuse they need to drastically hurt us. Then what would Trump do -- send in the Marines to fight and die in eternal war? Funny that blowhard never served one second in the military or put his life on the line.
It is a matter of time before someone gets killed when Trump speaks. In Detroit, yesterday, outside of the Fox theater where the debate was being held there was a huge rally of persons of color and others who support them. I wish I could have joined them in their outrage. Did the Fox network show that to us? NO of course not. None of the millions Trump wants to round up will go down peacefully like lambs to a fascistic slaughter. They WILL fight back. AMERICA WAKE UP. YOU ARE BEING HAD!
CONTINUE TO WORK HARD FOR DEMOCRATS EVERYWHERE AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED UPON IT BECAUSE IT DOES!
I heard the entire speech. Unique is an understatement. I have never, even in the days of Barry Goldwater, heard another establishment Republican go after a fellow Republican and leader in the polls to capture the nomination that Romney gave.
I too wonder, and he was asked by reporters, if he would be the nominee if a brokered convention takes place. He did not answer. Yes, he will look like the guy on the white horse BUT Trump's allegiance of the extremist fanatical white power base will split a gasket and they may be doing that already. Christie the jerk will be making a speech at 1:00 and Trump at 1:30. It maybe too little too late for Romney's perspective to prevail.
What I did not like, of course, was Romney's swat at Hillary and what I do not like is that she has to contend with those gd emails. I called her headquarters in NY this a.m. and said while I like her, support her, contribute to her campaign and write endlessly in favor of her I worry of course I do about those emails and the FBI's now criminal investigation of the guy (a lower echelon guy) who was involved in its tech set up. She MUST have known NOT to do anything that would compromise her position and future. I said I wanted her to confront this head on. I think she put out a statement.
ROMNEY criticizes Hillary as the very emblem of the establishment. Well, truly, Mr. Romney is as well and he accepted graciously an endorsement in 2012 of Donald Trump and it took a crane for Romney to put out his own taxes. He did not put out all of them.
Interesting times? Oh, yes, these are interesting times. Frankly, my nerves could do without them.
KEEP GOTV FOR HILLARY STILL THE BEST BET FOR A WIN IN 2016.
Republican power is desperate to stop the fraudster Trump and are working furiously to do that. ROMNEY IS SPEAKING AT 11:30 A.M. CONCERNING THIS DESPERATE ATTEMPT. AS I SAID YESTERDAY GOOGLE LARRY O'DONNELL "THE LAST WORD" WHICH GIVES A COMPLETE PICTURE AS TO WHAT TRUMP IS ALL ABOUT. IT IS CHILLING!
GOTV FOR HILLARY. IF YOU VIEW THIS YOU WILL SEE ANOTHER REASON(S) WHY!
If one wants a Trump presidency then sure Sanders's supporters should be enthusiastic about their four wins yesterday BUT he is not going to win the general! Hillary can and, I hope, will. Once Sanders's supporters figure that out they should NOT take their ball, go home and sit out the election. Think what that would mean.
One can complain all one wants about the rancid policy decisions of this nation but Trump, if he wins, will build that wall probably in the process of having a war with our border ally Mexico, round up undocumented workers who knows in what numbers and in what cruel and unusual ways while splitting up families, expand Guantanamo, make war at the drop of a hat even a nuclear hat, bar Muslims from entering the US after they are seeking refuge from an illegal massive Iraq war the US should not have begun in the first place and insult, sometimes violently, just about every other minority, even the disabled, if they disagree with him.
Trump and his supporters are not the only ones who love this nation, progressives, independents and others do too and we should make sure to show that by solidly accepting reality, uniting the Democratic Party and winning in November. Nothing else matters!
This is the most important election of our life heading toward the presidential election in November. It ranks with the election of Lincoln in 1860 and the elections of FDR after the Great Depression because right wing extremist forces then sitting on the right could have prevailed. Now right wing extremism sits comfortably within a major American Party, the Republican Party. You do NOT want them to be victorious in November.
My vote is based on pragmatism as to who can best win and lead. As to policy I like both Hillary and Bernie BUT we MUST elect someone who can beat Trump or really beat any other Republican who is similar in policy TO Trump.
Massachusetts is a pivotal state but EVERY state is important. I have bet my political savvy honed through decades of experience to choose the one Democrat who is experienced and who, I think, can win. I personally place that bet on Hillary.
First, I HOPE and yes even pray you, your family and your friends VOTE. Second, I hope and, yes, even pray you, your family and your friends vote for Hillary. I think I am correct when I say she is our hope. I do not think I am infallible but on this I believe my political thoughts ring true.
I wish us luck, I wish us strength and I wish us MOST importantly especially in November victory. As Benjamin Franklin said at the founding of the nation: "We have a Republic IF you can keep it." Right wing extremism will kill it or at the very least turn it regressively back to another era. All the president has fought so hard for will be negated.
I do not think it is over emotional to say whether our nation lives or dies, I believe, is dependent on our Democratic vote.
Chuck Todd interviewed Republican Senator Sasse of Nebraska who kept saying the Republican Party is the Party of Lincoln not the Party of Trump. That is ridiculous and false. The 1860 Party of Lincoln has not been the Republican Party of our era for a very long time, perhaps, since the 1968 election of Richard Nixon. The Republican Party’s "southern strategy" then was to take numbers of Democratic white so called Dixicrats of the south left over from the Civil War anti-Lincoln era, and bring them over to the conservative Republican Party -- hardly the Party of Lincoln. The Party of Lincoln then, is now the Democratic Party composed of persons of color and progressives morphed from Democratic FDR’s New Deal. The Republican Party of our time is composed mainly of white anti-New Deal conservatives with an ideological belief of so called "limited government." The idea Sasse iterated was inane. Why Chuck Todd or other interviewers do not disabuse them of that notion and argue it is beyond my analysis. Chuck Todd did not. Why am I not surprised? The media falls down on the job ALL the time.
The Republican Party changed. It is now a white, often racist and sometimes even a Party stuck in a Civil War modality of Confederate sympathizers of the south. Chuck Todd let him get away with the inaccurate analysis. One cannot compare the Party of Lincoln to the Republican Party of our time. Lincoln was not in a Party of "limited government" if one can even characterize it as such. Lincoln was in an anti-secessionist ultimately antislavery Party and placed the federal government, through war, preeminent over the southern mantra of states’ rights freeing persons of color from centuries of slavery. Sasse's argument that the Republican Party of our time is the Party of Lincoln is RIDICULOUS at best and STUPID at worst. Why am I not surprised?!
PLEASE VOTE TOMORROW MARCH 1 AND MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT. VOTE FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN WIN. IT IS NO SECRET I AM A HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER. SHE HAS THE TREMENDOUS DEPTH OF EXPERIENCE AND HUMANE POLICY PRUDENCE OUR NATION NEEDS.
I wondered why when I tuned in to MHP on the weekends I was not seeing her. I chalked it up to time off or, perhaps, vacation. Since Keith Olbermann left and I had read uber conservative things I did not like about Mr. Griffin who was taking over the reins of MSNBC I knew something maybe was off.
Dr. Perry is such a phenomenally knowledgeable host and a necessary one whose perspective on race is much needed. In short, I loved listening to her and I loved the variety of guests she chose to sit at her table.
Yet again, I am as suspicious as I was when WGBH TV was taken over by Koch and his right wing sympathizers that I would never again get critical news analysis that this allegedly free culture so desperately needs to educate an uneducated public.
Is Phil Griffin simply the same old conservative usurper of what is increasingly skewed to the right news? I am suspecting this is the same ploy to inhale the progressive air and leave us with pollution we cannot breathe. Moreover, it is devastating to an allegedly democratic exceptional nation. No wonder we are the laughing stock of the world which in pertinent part looks at us as a dumbed down nation.
If Phil Griffin dares touch Rachel (the Edward R. Murrow of our time,) Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes or Larry O'Donnell I will organize a boycott of the station. I should anyway as I want MHP back on HER terms. It is, after all her show. MSNBC should be progressive, stay progressive and stop undermining yet another smart progressive voice!
FUNNIEST SEGMENT I HAVE EVER SEEN. WATCH IT AND ENJOY!!!
Donald Trump’s original family name — Drumpf — isn’t news. @RealDonalDrumpf has been tweeting since May 2013. But John Oliver made big hay of it Sunday.
John Oliver with DRUMPF sign on “Last Week Tonight.” Photo via TwitterOn his HBO show “Last Week Tonight,” the British comedian took Trump apart for 22 minutes.
“Oliver revived many popular criticisms of Trump. The candidate has
no clear policy positions and overstates his net worth, Oliver alleged;
he uses his wealth to promote himself as a credible candidate, though
wealth does not equal political greatness; his campaign is not
self-funded, despite his claims; he is racist. Yet, Oliver said, Trump
can no longer be dismissed.” “Oliver offered a novel strategy for those who wish to battle Trump:
refer to the candidate by ‘Drumpf,’ what one biographer said the Trump
family name was before it ‘evolved over the centuries.’ Indeed, Gwenda
Blair, the author of ‘The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an
Empire’ (2000), thought it was “fortunate” that ‘Drumpf’ had become
“Trump.” Said Oliver: “Drumpf is much less magical. It’s the sound produced
when a morbidly obese pigeon flies into the window of a foreclosed Old
Navy” store. “It’s the sound of a bottle of store-brand root beer
falling off the shelf of a mini-mart.”
Social media named Oliver their favorite political commentator.
Okay, with Hillary scoring a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE primary victory in South Carolina on Saturday 73.5 to Sanders's 26 maybe some are wondering where the hell I was? I'll tell you. I was in a place that had NO internet, NO MSNBC cable TV, NO NOTHING.
Am I having withdrawal? YES! Here is what I would have said about Hillary's MOMENTOUS STUPENDOUS primary victory better than anyone ever hoped for I say YEAH!!!!!!!!
Am I Happy? YES, of course, I am for one moment in time when I saw local news I was ECSTATIC and wished I could have been in South Carolina giving her a HUGE hug. I am THRILLED BUT it is not over yet obviously there is a HUGE, LONG, LONG, LONG road to travel. May I humbly suggest on Super Tuesday if you live in a state that is part of Super Tuesday as Massachusetts is PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get out and vote for someone whom we know now can WIN. Please vote for Hillary Clinton a woman with HUGE expertise, experience and ability. You will not be sorry that by doing so you are helping to STOP the poison of the Republican Party and its probable nominee, Trump!
Glenn Greenwald writes a wonderful piece (linked below) on the anger of those on the right at Georgetown Law School because criticism of Antonin Scalia and his infamous opinions were levied so soon after his death.
I for one do not care if Scalia died last week or 40 years ago, I loathed him and think he set back civilized politics decades; he set back civil rights centuries for minorities who have fought so hard and so long for a simple thing: the right to vote. He set back other minorities who simply want to be treated like everyone else.
Out out damn spot said Lady MacBeth at her part in coaxing the killing of King Duncan. Out out damn spot that was the cruel and reactionary Anton Scalia who cared nothing for the poor or the oppressed but cared much about those with extreme wealth. One can see that, too, by the conflict-of-interest company he kept in his Supreme Court off hours.
May he, if he has a soul, not rest in peace. He was a damnable person and a worse justice who should take his place in the house of horrors along side Justice Roger B. Taney and his 1857 Dred Scott decision ignominy.
IF YESTERDAY'S PRIMARY RESULTS AND DONALD TRUMP'S WIN AT THE HANDS OF THE REPUBLICAN DISLOYAL OPPOSITION DOES NOT CONVINCE YOU THEN I DO NOT KNOW WHAT WILL. GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE EVERYWHERE!
"Kasich Brags That Women ‘Came Out Of The Kitchen’ To Support Him" (See link below.)
Is this surprising? Few, if any, in the Republican Party of our time have progressive written on their reactionary brains. No, this is who they intrinsically are, for which their Party stands and there is no surprise in this. One will never get from Republicans views that are apropos for the modern era to progress, to change, to move ahead creating a more egalitarian agenda and more just nation.
Republicans are stuck or, in fact, want to consciously return to a "Mad Men" era of the 1950's where men were the kings on top and women were servants in the kitchen below. Republicans want to return to an era where Donna Reed prepared the kids' lunches and gave it to them in a little brown bag heading out the door on their way to school. Dad kissed her goodbye medical bag in hand and went to work at his career. How many women did dad encounter? Few if any unless they were in traditional subservient roles!
If one turned the TV channel (one of three or four) to "Leave it to Beaver" one might see the parents heading to a barbecue; June, the mother and wife, in a dress with gloves and, of course, the ever present bunion-producing high heels; dad was dressed in barbecue-appropriate comfortable clothes. And, oh yes, everyone and I do mean everyone was WHITE. Even Andy of Mayberry living in a southern town one never saw blacks there -- not one.
This was the face of America. Seems alien to us now but it is the America to which Republicans want to return. If one was black, disabled, a woman or gay, well, one was out of luck unless born into cash, America's most valuable commodity and American monopoly's get out of jail free card. What would Republicans say should be done with human beings that are different suffering discrimination's fate? I suspect they might say as they said during the health care debate if one was young and had no heath insurance: "Let em die!" Then women -- and most all others -- surely would come out of the kitchen -- feet up sooner than our time.
EVERY DAY IN EVERY WAY DESPERATION CALLS. THE ABSOLUTE MANDATORY EDICT TO KEEP THE PRESIDENCY IN DEMOCRATIC HANDS IS UPON US. WE NEED ONLY VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT TO DO JUST THAT. BRING DEMOCRATS DOWN TICKET AS WELL -- VOTE AND PROMOTE DEMOCRATS NATIONALLY AND IN STATES TO THE SEATS OF POWER. AT THE RISK OF REDUNDANCY, YOUR LIVES, YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES AND YOUR NATION'S LIFE DEPENDS UPON IT!
Robert Reisch, the former Sec. of Labor under Clinton
talks about the death of the Republican Party and is, much to my
surprise, not so happy about it.
It has been asked "Who Can Stop Trump [in the Republican field]?"
Answer: No one Anyone who possibly can, in reality, courts the same
people with the same policies as he -- hateful, mean, anti-immigrant,
anti-gay rights, voter rights suppression of minorities, a bellicose
military, police and more without understanding the complexity of any of
it. Is this the face of America’s Lady Liberty who welcomes the huddled
masses yearning to breathe free to her shore? I think not.
I have
chosen, with passion, to be an ally of the poor, of the rejected, of
those minorities in our society who need help. Perhaps, I am too
passionate, I do not know, but along with helping myself reject a
Republican Party that would surely reject me and for all the other
reasons I stated, I will support a Democrat who can win in this case its
Hillary Clintonbecause if she wins I win, if she wins those who need a
helping hand win, and immigrants who made and will make our country a
beacon of freedom's light win. In the end, our nation wins. Hillary
Clinton is BRILLIANT, has experience as high as Everest, she has the
political savvy to do it. She will be ONE OF the most EFFECTIVE
PRESIDENTS WHO KNOWS the political landscape and will not take this
nation back nearly a century. She KNOWS the Congress and she KNOWS the presidency. Hillary you will have my vote. My only regret is that I have
but one to give you.
I believe the things I champion are
the forces of what is good and right about this nation to, indeed, make
this country great again!
It has been asked "Who Can Stop Trump [in the Republican field]?" (link below). Answer: No one Anyone who possibly can, in reality, courts the same people with the same policies as he -- hateful, mean, anti-immigrant, anti-gay rights, voter rights suppression of minorities, a bellicose military, police and more without understanding the complexity of any of it. Is this the face of America’s Lady Liberty who welcomes the huddled masses yearning to breathe free to her shore? I think not.
I have chosen, with passion, to be an ally of the poor, of the rejected, of those minorities in our society who need help. Perhaps, I am too passionate, I do not know, but along with helping myself reject a Republican Party that would surely reject me and for all the other reasons I stated, I will support any Democrat who can win because if they win I win, if they win those who need a helping hand win, and immigrants who made and will make our country a beacon of freedom's light win. In the end, our nation wins.
I believe the things I champion are the forces of what is good and right about this nation to, indeed, make this country great again!
DEMOCRATS ARE ON A ROLL. IF WE GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE -- PERSONS OF COLOR, HISPANICS, THE LGBT COMMUNITY, THE ELDERLY AND THE POOR BECAUSE THE DEMOGRAPHICS HAVE CHANGED AND ARE CHANGING STILL THE DEMOCRATS WILL WIN! MOREOVER, IF WE GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS RUNNING FOR CONGRESS A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT WILL HAVE A FRIENDLY CONGRESS TO FINALLY GET THINGS THIS NATION DESPERATELY NEEDS PASSED! SAVE THE NATION, SAVE YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES, AND YES, SAVE THE PLANET GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE!
Hillary is the most capable of all. Sanders is a humorless scold but Hillary I have read is easy to get along with and people who negotiate with her like her. I've been reading the opposite of Sanders. She is my choice and enthusiastically so. I don't care what she has done in the past i.e. speeches, etc. She lives a very expensive life and must make money and speeches is how they do it. Fine. Making money in this culture is NO sin. I think she will take the presidency and make a GREAT president and will care about her legacy. I'm behind her 100%.
If I'm wrong I'm wrong but I don't think I am. We have a long, long, long, way to go and it's really only for delegates. I'll bide my time as if she is nominated -- which I think she will be -- the electoral college is what counts. She I hope has all the far west and the far east with Michigan, VA, maybe NC and HOPEFULLY Ohio will fall her way, Nevada and some others will too. The Republicans are AWFUL, extremist and the US is NOT. So we'll see. I hope I am right and have sometimes decent instincts which I do not always trust but sometimes come out as I thought. Hopefully this will and I do not eat crow as I did in 2002 when I thought Bush was telling the truth about Iraq. It was a lie but who knew? Now I know.
Call me biased but while both candidates were infinitely better than the circus the Republicans have to offer, I thought Hillary Clinton was MASTERFUL. Her presentation was well thought out, spontaneous and very charismatic. Sanders is as some have called him a scold and humorless. I think that is correct .
Hillary Clinton has the incredible life-long experience in government sitting in the highest forums with the most powerful people in the world and in my opinion it surely does show! https://www.hillaryclinton.com/
NEVER think there is the reality of a "moderate conservative" anymore. There isn't. There is only an extremist right nearly fascistic conservative. The Republican Party is filled with religious fanatics who want to stuff their ridiculous belief system down our throats and deny all minorities and progressives what should be rightfully ours. Tell these Republicons it ain't gonna happen because we who are progressive with our African American, Latino, Asian, elderly, and disabled allies will not let it happen.
The ONLY way to defeat the sinewy evil in our midst is to GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE as we did for the president. We are the MAJORITY because the demographics have changed and are changing still. That is what terrifies the disloyal mostly white opposition and why they institute laws to suppress the African, American, Latino and Democratic vote. They are either for us or against us. There is NO middle ground anymore.
What the disloyal opposition has done to this president because of his skin color is an embarrassment and SHAMEFUL. I do not know how he endured it for 8 years but I surely am glad he did. He is a decent man who, despite obstructionism, did his damnedest for those who had little power and did his damnedest to keep us safe the best way he knew how after an idiot Republicon in office before him took this nation to war based on lies killing thousands of our best and strongest. He relegated others to life long expensive injury. I do not know how Bush lives with himself. He broke every law of war on the books which makes him a war criminal and should be tried as such. The powerful never have to pay the price of their criminal acts so the price that W. Bush and all Republicons should pay is that Democrats now entirely take over the reins of power in the House, in the Senate and the Presidency.
DEMOCRATS MUST STAY UNITED and, in my opinion, Hillary, has the experience to assume the presidency. While I like Bernie Sanders he is NOT presidential, I have read difficult with whom to negotiate, has little foreign policy experience and will NEVER mount an effective campaign against RepubliCONS who have the money, influence and know how to defeat him. WE MUST NEVER LET THAT HAPPEN!
HILLARY, SO THE MEDIA SAYS, IS DOWN IN MASSACHUSETTS BY 7. WE AS A PROGRESSIVE STATE SHOULD BE BOTH PRUDENT AND PRAGMATIC. BERNIE SANDERS CANNOT WIN BY ELECTORAL VOTE. RUBIO POSSIBLY WITH A NICKI HALEY TICKET COULD WITH DEFT WIN. BE WISE, MASSACHUSETTS. AN ORWELLIAN RULE: ANY DEMOCRAT IS BETTER THAN ALL REPUBLICANS!!
Do I agree with most positions of Bernie Sanders? Of course I do BUT I am worried and, in part, wish Sanders never entered the race. It is appearing Naderesque to me and just may get a Rubio/Haley ticket elected much as Nader did for George Bush in 2000.
Someone on my Facebook page posted this article about Sanders (link below) which I think those who support him should think about. It may surprise you to read much of what the author, Mikey Hirton, thinks about him. According to him Sanders is a humorless uncompromising scold.
I suggest you think twice for whom you vote and you may reject his candidacy which can lose a race Democrats SHOULD win. Read "The Trouble with Bernie" at the link below. And then vote HILLARY in November!
Sometimes I am quick to criticize news media -- perhaps too quick. So I thought I will extend compliments when justified as well.
I loved Sarah French and I believe it was Christa Delcamp's coverage of the Kinky Boots engagement of two men. I must admit I did a double take because both Sarah and Christa were as charming and happy for the couple as they would be for a usual public engagement of a heterosexual couple.
We have indeed come a long way and saved many lives in the process. Many gay people have immersed themselves in alcohol or drugs or worse committed suicide once they understood the nature of their immutable orientation.
The efforts that we make to positively reinforce and normalize social reaction to those who were made different means we avoid years perhaps decades of mental anguish and suffering.
I give Channel 7 a round of applause for their broadcast.
YET ANOTHER REASON TO GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS WHO CAN WIN. A REPUBLICAN FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN MERGER OF CHURCH WITH STATE IN THE WHITE HOUSE IS AS UNACCEPTABLE AS IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
The president gave a FABULOUS press conference (linked below.) He is SO knowledgeable, so smart, so concise that I wish he were in for 8 more years. His historical legacy will be one of greatness in view of the disloyal, mean, sickening, racist boars that he has had to confront.
It is amazing he got through as much as he did. I LOVE you, Mr. President, and your successor (I am hoping Hillary) will carry on your legacy!
Academics say Justice Antonin Scalia was an “originalist.” What does it mean to be a Constitutional originalist? It means that one reverts back to the Founders of our 1789 Constitution, a mere 227 years ago to decide cases before the Court today. It means to craft Court Constitutional opinion in the 21st century in accordance with what we think our 18th century Founders thought and wrote. Some call an “originalist” a “strict constructionist” that is an interpreter of the Constitution as the Founders of our nation had written it assuming they were all of one mind on everything and assuming the interpreters now get it right. Our Founders were, as history shows, surely not of one mind on everything. Does anyone think the Founders would have thought the nation might change its social milieu over two centuries?
I have pondered long in my politically formative years about this and came to the conclusion that our Constitution has value because the Founders knew it had to be a flexible document that could change as the social milieu changes. What was appropriate in 1789 can hardly be looked at through the same 21st century lens. It is why, I believe, the Constitution must evolve as the social climate does. Our nation and its Constitution cannot remain static or the culture can never grow and change as science, technology and culture changes it.
In 1789 slavery was a reality, as was segregation. It took a bloody Civil War to end slavery and it took until 1865 to install the 13th Amendment to the Constitution ending its practice. Women were denied the vote until 1920. Black children were treated as inherently unequal until Brown v. Board of Education said they could not be treated as such. Persons of color were not guaranteed an equal vote until the 1965 Civil Rights Act said they must be accorded it. Until the 20th century and a Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia a person of color could not marry a white person even though to marry each other was their choice. These things became possible only because social change ensued and legal enforcement was enacted to guarantee it.
Again, "conservatives" are belching ecstasies as to Scalia's "greatness." Justice Antonin Scalia, I aver, was not great. He was devastating to the poor, devastating to persons of color, devastating to a group that was trying over centuries to claw its way out of segregated schools, lunch counters and into what should have been their right to begin with – the voting booth. He regressed cultural advancement, he regressed the rights of persons of color, the powerless, gays and those who had to live in a cultural jail cell of prohibitive edict but he aggrandized most especially the mega rich with the nearly universally abhorred Citizen's United decision. He would have, if he could have, denied millions health care, doomed them to perpetual illness and most probably death. He would have if he could have denied millions more their right to marry whom they choose because of the ascribed status of sexual orientation. Surely, the Founders, 18th century men, could not have understood the essence of sexual orientation. If Antonin Scalia had lived he would have relegated women to back alley abortionist butchers of long ago. Yes, there is a place for the Federal government to act when equal justice for the powerless is denied. It took the 1929 Great Depression for FDR to see that path and create the New Deal. Yes, we have come a long way since then.
I feel empathy for his family’s loss but I rate Antonin Scalia as one of the worst justices in American history and I am thankful his viewpoint is gone. I hope no one like he is nominated by a President, God forbid, Cruz, Trump, Rubio or Bush. It is why now with purpose those who care about human rights and those who have been crushed for generations by a cruel and extreme Scalia Court but liberated by an Obama presidency get out the Democratic vote! Now we MUST as progressives be vigilant and NOT surrender our passion but increase it. Scalia and the so called “conservatives” on this Court took this nation and relegated it to a swamp of malevolence. Am I angry? YES, of course, I am and so should everyone else be who calls themselves progressive and humane!
Did Antonin Scalia and those of his ideological bent ever think what it might be like to walk in a poor persons’ shoes and to walk out of the door of one’s home a person of color or a gay person? Answer: No. That is why I am adamant, that is why I am passionate and that is why I am desperate to keep the presidency in Democratic hands while fighting furiously to try to take back the Senate as well!
NOW MORE THAN EVER GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS. TRULY YOUR LIFE IS AT STAKE!
At first I thought, perhaps, I appeared too cavalier in my reaction to Scalia's death. Then I thought about how many minorities over whom he ran roughshod, I thought about their neutering the 1965 Civil Rights Act making voting difficult for minorities, then I thought about affirmative action being gutted as SCOTUS said we are living in a "post racial society" -- OH YEAH sure, then finally I remember Scalia, Thomas and Alito boycotting the president's State of the Union Address.
I thought these so called "conservative" SCOTUS did not care one whit about insulting the president not respecting him enough to attend, how much they hurt persons of color, how much they hurt the fabric of our nation that took centuries to change and now I say, perhaps, I was not passionately vociferous enough!
Now THAT'S going to help -- NOT! (link to the story below)
George W. Bush was the perpetrator of an illegal and immoral war on Iraq, a nation that did nothing to us. Through this war his order murdered hundreds of thousands (the number of Iraqis killed is still unknown,) wounded millions some sustaining life-long injury, created over a million refugees and still counting, was responsible for an explosive and fractured Middle East still exploding, and created the suffering of millions because of the ad infinitum religious civil wars Iraq engendered. There now is a permanent US military presence of eternal war there. Richard Engel, the expert journalist on the Middle East, in his new book "Then All Hell Broke Loose--Two Decades in the Middle East" reports much of the Middle East chaos was prompted by the US and other western power interference in Middle East affairs over decades of which there can be no historical doubt.
George W. Bush made illegal and immoral war, ordered torture and god knows how many other war crime atrocities. If the media does not highlight this inept man of low intellect who never should have been president and who committed war crimes galore than they are as complicit in the crimes as are the perpetrators.
Nuremberg, remember that? What was that all about anyway?
Rachel Maddow,
yet again did a great job with her show tonight. She had on a segment about Ted Cruz and
just who the loathsome Cretans are who support him. More has to be
exposed more frequently about his anti-Semitism, white supremacist and
the homophobic would-be murderers-of-gays who will vote for him and whose support he will not disavow.
Is it
possible that those who make up the Republican Party can be so Ku Klux
Klan-like extremist and gain credence? We must rely on a Democratic
Party that is infinitely more knowledgeable and humane by far than most who call
themselves Republican. The Republican Party as it exists in our time is an embarrassment to those who would call
themselves civilized! Those who compose it
are cruel, inhumane, often hateful white supremacists and nativists. I
post the link to Rachel's show that exposed the shame of our nation.
Ted Cruz draws support from America's darkest fringe
Rachel
Maddow reports on an assortment of bigots who have coalesced in their
support for Senator Ted Cruz for the Republican presidential nomination -
an association he does not discourage.
