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
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.
