Larkspur
Larkspur's JournalWords of wisdom from President Harry Truman about being President and what is a Republican...
Some words of wisdom from a previous President about what it is like being a President, at least one who took his job seriously...
And of course one of Harry's famous quotes about Republicans. Some things never change with time...
-- Harry S. Truman
Unfortunately, the Republicans seem to have taken Harry's words above to heart. Our Democratic leaders need to do the same.
Right Wing Network started Multi-Million Dollar Campaign to Target Vulnerable Democrat Senators
Look for a lot of these turd blossoms to spring up to attack Democratic senators for resisting Der Prez Trump.
I just heard an ad from them on Worcester radio station 96.1FM. And they are attacking Sen. Warren for obstructing Trump's supreme court nominee. I bet they are making a lot of these cookie cutter ads for other senators as well.
Judicial Crisis Network Whats New
Multi-Million Dollar Campaign Targets Vulnerable Democrat Senators
For Immediate Release: Monday, Jan. 9
Contact: Peter Robbio
PRobbio@crcpublicrelations.com
Katie Hughes
KHughes@crcpublicrelations.com
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Judicial Crisis Network (JCN) today announced plans for a national campaign to confirm President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court. Coming off of its historic “Let the People Decide” victory in the Garland nomination battle, JCN will engage a comprehensive campaign of paid advertising, earned media, research, grassroots activity, and a coalition enterprise, all adding up to the most robust operation in the history of confirmation battles. JCN and its allies will focus on states where Senate Democrats are vulnerable in 2018, particularly those where Trump won by large margins. JCN spent more than $7 million in its Let the People Decide effort, and it expects to spend at least $10 million to confirm the next justice.
“We are preparing to launch the most robust campaign for a Supreme Court nominee in history and we will force vulnerable Senators up for re-election in 2018 like Joe Donnelly and Claire McCaskill to decide between keeping their Senate seats or following Chuck Schumer’s liberal, obstructionist agenda,” said Carrie Severino, Chief Counsel and Policy Director of the Judicial Crisis Network.
“Any vulnerable Senator who signs up for Schumer’s obstructionist strategy will pay a heavy price in 2018. Exit polls showed that over one fifth of voters said the Supreme Court was a primary reason for their vote and of that large percentage of Americans, Trump won those voters by a resounding 57-40 margin. And he won some of those states by overwhelming margins. The President-elect clearly has a mandate when it comes to the Supreme Court and this effort will ensure that the will of the people prevails,” Severino continued.
Did Sen. Cory Booker blow his chance to win the 2020 Prez nomination?
Atrios thinks he could have if we pay attention to his Joe Lieberman type votes...
The Good Old Days Are Back
...We spent the aughts trying to get horrible Democrats to not be quite as horrible, and the media covering the whole thing to not be so horrible. If we couldn't stop the horrible things we could maybe at least stop the Democrats from owning all of them. Saving them (and us) from themselves was a big part of it. I didn't know if we could stop Republicans from privatizing Social Security (we did! yay us!) but we had to do our best to make sure it wasn't all bipartisany. It's the usual "if everyone is to blame, then no one is" combined with the Democrats' love of running on the slogan, "Not quite as evil as the other guys!"
... basically last night 13 Democrats in the Senate voted against allowing cheaper drug imports from The People's Republic of Canadia. Some hope you don't notice, and some don't care if you notice. Some do care. I bet Cory Booker, who took some time off rescuing pets in front of TV cameras and posting inspirational quotes on the website twitter dot com to show how woke he is to help to make sure you have to pay more for lifesaving drugs, cares quite a bit if you notice. Someone's gotta be the Dem candidate for president in 2020, after all.
His DC office number is:
(202) 224-3224
His Newark office number is:
(973) 639-8700
They care a lot more if they get calls from people they represent generally. People who have worked in Congressional offices always say this and mostly they're right. But when the phone lines are jammed because so many people are calling they don't have time to care about who is calling, they just want it to stop.
So call, call ,call.
Proposing “No Honeymoon for Hillary” plan
Assuming that HRC wins the Democratic nomination for President, I'll hold my nose and vote for her in the GE, but I will never trust her. She is nothing but a lesser of 2 evils choice for me.
I think the next phase Progressives need to take is that the nanosecond after HRC wins the GE, is to implement a “No Honeymoon for Hillary” plan. That plan is to scrutinize every appointment she makes to staff agencies and cabinet positions as well has be a hawk on her policy positions right after she wins the GE. Since she is campaigning on being able to hit the floor running as President, HRC has no need for a honeymoon period.
And of course, the rest of the Democrats in Congress, especially HRC’s super delegates, need to be scrutinized and pressured as well by Progressives.
After all, that is how American Democracy works. The end of the election is not the end of democracy.
And we'll know we are doing our job when the Ed Rendell's, Rahm Emmanuels, et all screech their complaints to the media about us.
Our response to the Turd Way (old DLC) whiners needs to be the famous saying of Frederick Douglas, "Power gives up nothing without a fight, never has, never will." If they don't like American Democracy, then they can move to China.
Huff Post op ed: The "Meta-Issues" Behind the Sanders-Clinton Contest
Thought this was a very good analysis of the differing views between Hillary and Bernie.
And why Hillary’s “Bernie is a single issue candidate” line of attack most likely will not work.
The "Meta-Issues" Behind the Sanders-Clinton Contest
SNIP
Sanders' stump speech … drives home a single theme -- the fact that the American economy and politics are dominated by a handful of billionaires who have "rigged" the system to support their interests at the expense of the majority. With this foundation laid, Sanders calls for a political "revolution" that will mobilize voters to demand a leveling of the playing field, offering such expansive programs as universal health care and free college education. He proposes paying for these by imposing taxes on the very wealthy and on excessive Wall Street behavior. And he emphasizes a more restrained foreign policy that avoids irresponsible, costly, unwinnable wars.
Sanders' edge is that he offers "bumper sticker" clarity. Because his programs and proposals all flow from a coherent economic and political philosophy, his message more easily resonates with many voters. This clarity is something that Republicans have long owned and Democrats have missed. While Republicans could speak of "small government and individual freedom," Democrats could only respond with a bewildering array of causes and programs that lacked a central over-arching theme. With Sanders, Democrats can respond with theme like "a government that cares" and "we all matter."
SNIP
So Hillary’s critique is off the mark. Bernie is a multiple issue candidate who has a single theme and coherent economic and political philosophy. I suspect her “single issue candidate” critique of Bernie has to do with her very close ties to Wall Street and other Big Money interests, whom Bernie is hammering. They do have easily bruised egos on Wall Street. I wonder what she said in those speeches to Wall Street?
My published LTE in the Killingly (CT) Villager--Doubts about Clinton’s ability to lead
(Hillary Clinton) is not interested in ideas that will "never make it in the real world," reports the AP (“Clinton Steps Up Attacks On Sanders Days Before Iowa”, AP via Huffinton Post, January 21, 2016)
Luckily for us, she was not an advisor to our nation’s Founding Fathers and Mothers. If she was, she would have either derailed the American Revolution, labeling Thomas Paine, John Hancock, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, etc as extremists, or would have been tarred and feathered by our Founding Fathers and Mothers as a British Loyalist.
When our Founding Fathers and Mothers ignited the American Revolution, they knew that no colony up to that time had ever successfully seceded from its mother country, but that historical fact did not deter them. Willing to fight the odds against tyranny and despair, no matter how great, is how this nation was born and it’s ingrained in the core of our nation’s DNA. It’s what also inspired the succeeding generations of American revolutionists -- the abolitionists, suffragettes, civil and labor rights activists, environmentalists, etc -- to defy the odds again and help make this nation a more perfect union and truer to its founding ideals.
When I was 19, I earned my private pilot’s license. The flight examiner told me that no pilot is ever perfect so the most important attributes, along with technical competence, a successful pilot must have are good judgment, a calm temperament, humility, and knowledge of your whereabouts and destination. Without these, a pilot, his/her plane and passengers are doomed no matter how fancy a plane you fly.
Hillary’s behavior when she sees the race tightening is to panic and viciously lash out at her main challenger and his/her supporters. She did this in 2008 against Presidential candidate Barack Obama and is doing it again against Sen. Bernie Sanders. We are seeing a repeat of Hillary’s “evil Queen of Hearts” persona rising before us. Remember in 2008, Obama’s campaign slogan was “Yes We Can!” Hillary’s attack slogan then and now can be summed up with “No, You Can’t, so shut up and vote for me, the Entitled One!”
I was never an Obama fanatic but what convinced me to vote for him in the 2008 primary was that he displayed a calm public demeanor, an even keel, even when his campaign faced “stormy seas,” addressed his mistakes quickly, countered his opponents’ attacks, and continued to offer us a positive vision of what we can strive towards.
This year, as in 2008, Hillary Clinton has failed to demonstrate to me the temperament that befits a President of the United States, especially one in this Nuclear Age. Freaking out and attacking Sen. Bernie Sanders, a rising populist star in the Democratic Party’s Presidential primary, for having the audacity to campaign on ideas that are as American as Thomas Paine’s and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s is un-American and leaves me with her vision, a dark vision of a world she rules but is bereft of hope and justice, one that this Democrat associates with Rightwing ideology, and with doubts about her ability to be a competent Commander-in-chief or our Armed Forces.
Nationbuilder.com is an alternate voter database and tops NGP VAN
so if DWS denies the Sanders campaign access to NGP VAN data, his campaign can switch to Nationbuilder and it would be a coup for both Nationbuilder, the #1 pollitical platform used by campaigns around the world, and the Sanders' campaign.
Ring of Fire Radio: #BlackLivesMatter Leadership Wants Progressives and Bernie Destroyed, Read This
Progressives--Don’t Waste Your Money on the Group #BlackLivesMatters. They Are Actually Hurting Minority Progress
SNIP
What is it about Bernie Sanders that threatens the leadership of BLM more than the other Democratic and Republican candidates? The answer is actually frightening.
The leaders of BLM like the status quo, unless the single focus of future equality is centered on black women; and even more so black, lesbian, women. They like racial tension over a quest for universal growth for all persons struggling, because it gives them power and a voice. This obviously is not what the vast majority of those supporting BLM believe, but it is what the leadership believes. It’s for this reason that the leadership is not standing up against members who claim to speak on their behalf and who prevent Bernie Sanders from speaking at rallies.
The present Democratic and Republican leadership will continue to promote racial divide by keeping all minorities impoverished and weak, and especially black women. Bernie wants to raise the plight of all minorities and those struggling, at the expense of the upper 1%. He is not solely focused on black women. He wants a society where people truly have opportunity; and where race, religion, sexual orientation, and other differences don’t matter. If Bernie were to succeed in this highly ambitious goal, then the leadership of BLM would not have their present power. They would lose their current identity in the movement, and the three founders are terrified of this. In fact, many times when others outside of black women have tried to help their cause and grow the message, they have become infuriated and attacked.
As the founders of BLM make clear, the movement (from their perspective) is all about black women. Anyone such as Bernie Sanders who wants to raise the plight of all struggling Americans offends them. They want the sole focus to be on them. They don’t want a peaceful movement that follows the lead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead, they want a militant movement that follows the lead of the Black Panther Party.
This is why Bernie frightens the leadership of BLM so much, because he is creating a huge movement of destroying the present system, which racist system gives the leaders of BLM their voice. These same leaders rather keep the status quo. If we at Ring of Fire are wrong, then we ask them to stand up and take a very strong stance against what is occuring at these rallies, and to state what their true goals are, and how we can assist them to help struggling black Americans.
SNIP
In Case You Doubted #BlackLivesMatter Leadership Wants Progressives and Bernie Destroyed, Read This
SNIP
As we detailed in our story earlier today, the leadership of this organization wishes to resist the type of change that Bernie and Progressives are striving to bring about for all those struggling in America, including African Americans. They don’t appreciate others who are fighting for their cause and are following in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, Jr. to make change. They want change, if any, to occur solely through the following of the Black Panthers.
SNIP
Ask yourself why they are only showing up at Progressive events, and not at Hillary or GOP events? Who are the “other Black organizers and non-Black allies and accomplices” they refer to in their press release as helping them shut down Bernie’s event? Why would they be attacking Bernie when he was the one who joined the March on Washington, which featured the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, in 1963? He is one of only two sitting senators who can say that. Also, he is one of the only elected white officeholders who endorsed Jesse Jackson for President.
It’s pathetic that this organization, which is being supported in the grassroots by so many well intentioned people, is being hijacked by a few militant leaders who solely wish to protect their turf. Until such time as the silent majority of blacks and others stand up to these leaders, they are going to win and set peace and acceptance of minorities back decades. This is what they hope. This is what they demand. It’s the same as fanatic Muslims preventing the voice of the vast majority of true peaceful Muslims being heard. It’s the same as warmongers creating fear to make sure that peace, such as with Iran, will never occur. It’s the same as fanatic liberals supporting unworthy and hate filled people such as the leaders of #blacklivesmatters when they are not deserving of support.
We at ROF will not sit by silently and appease people we believe are wrong, even when they are part of a group that we so strongly support and want to rise up from their plight. We are going to speak the truth, and we are going to yell. Please remember we are angry at the imbalance of power and wealth in this country, and the fact that way too many are living in poverty, and without proper food, shelter and health care, when we are the richest country in the world. We are going to speak out against injustice, even when the injustice it being perpetrated by those we wish to defend.
We have been doing this since our inception, and we never are going to change.
Thank you Ring of Fire for this information.
Dear Melissa Harris-Perry...
Hi, it's me, Larkspur, a white liberal woman, who supports the the main argument of black lives matter -- police brutality is heavy handed and unnecessarily fatal on African Americans and it needs to be corrected.
How does BLM attacking those, both politicians, and regular white people like me, help their cause? You are a political science professor, so explain to me how attacking Bernie Sanders, who supports the core message of BLM, helps their cause, other than creating an atmosphere of anger and potential violence that seeks to hurt Sanders ability to draw large crowds. I see BLM as being coopted by one or more of Hillary's supporters, who are looking forward to lucrative jobs in a Clinton Admin. and see Sanders ability to draw large crowds to his events as a threat to their future fortunes. BLM is doing Hillary's dirty work. They don't seem to mind losing the support of white liberal women like me.
So MHP, where does one draw the line between black civil rights activists and just plain bullies? The BLM women in Seattle were literally using their bodies to threaten and intimidate Bernie Sanders and the event staff. How is that not a form of assault or threat of violence on the person of Bernie Sanders? In the 1960's, MLK and his followers chose the path of Gandhi's non-violence. I read that at the 50th anniversary of the March on Selma, BLM tried to disrupt President Obama but they were quickly and forcibly removed while the audience shouted back at them "Are you registered to vote?" Can us white people say the same thing to BLM bullies?
Oh, and can black people be racist too? Especially, when they call a white Jewish man/women and all white liberals white supremacists? As, I'm sure you are aware, Rev. Jesse Jackson was rebuked when he was caught calling Jews Hymies, so is antisemitism still rampant in the black community? Is that why BLM is really attacking Bernie Sanders?
Sincerely yours,
Larkspur
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