January 22, 2016

Key Clinton Ally (Brock): 'Black Lives Don't Matter' To Bernie Sanders

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/david-brock-sanders-black-lives-matter

[font face="times new roman"]David Brock, a longtime ally of the Clinton family, told the Associated Press on Thursday that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) latest TV ad showed a disregard for Democratic voters of color.
Brock told the AP that he thought Sanders' new "America" ad, which uses Simon and Garfunkel's song of the same name in lieu of spoken words, was focused on white voters. The ad shows Sanders greeting mostly white supporters on the campaign trail, with the crowds' sizes slowly increasing.
Brock characterized the ad as a "significant slight to the Democratic base."
"From this ad it seems black lives don't matter much to Bernie Sanders," Brock told the AP.[/font]

Ugh, yes, David Brock is still circulating. Clinton needs to unload this hack--connections to people like him is exactly the reason she's struggling, again, to gain her party's nomination despite spending 16 years trying to scare everyone else out of the race.

Don't get me wrong. I like Clinton and would enthusiastically support her in the fall. Politically I'm probably much closer to her than I am to Sanders. I'm not that happy that Sen. Sanders is the only real opposition she has for the nomination. I think Sanders goes for overly simplistic answers to pretty complicated problems in our economy. That said, I'm leaning Bernie's direction, because Clinton's organization is, once again, showing signs of desperation and lashing out with bogus rhetoric, as soon as the going gets rough. Sanders's relatively even keel in these tiffs tells me how he'd manage a crisis. Clinton's connections to people like David Brock only serves to remind me why the Founding Fathers believed in the rotation in office. Hillary Clinton, for all her talents and good sense, has been too close to the center of power for too long.

January 4, 2016

Q: What would George do (about the Bundy militia)? A: Get tough, dammit.

This is how it oughta be handled: ==> The Whisky Rebellion

Alexander Hamilton, on putting down the Whisky Rebellion, told George Washington:

'Tis far better to err on the other side {by having too many troops suppress the anti-tax uprising}. Whenever the government appears in arms, it ought to appear like an Hercules and inspire respect by display of strength.

And so Washington sent down a shitload of state militiamen (not the federal army, please note) to arrest the Whisky Rebels. They scattered like cockroaches.

I mean, it'd probably be best to pardon all but a couple of the ring leaders when it's all said and done. Slap 'em on the wrist and send them home (that's what Washington did with the Whisky Rebels the year following their arrest and scattering). It's not unlike how Clinton dealt with the idiots who tried to kidnap Elian Gonzalez in 2000. When mobs of people defy the rule of law, you have to show them that order will prevail. That doesn't mean don't temper it with mercy in the aftermath. The lawbreakers in Miami got off scot free too. But the defiance of the rule of law is intolerable.

These armed thugs (and they're thugs, not terrorists, even if those "YokelHaram" jokes are pretty funny right now... before anyone's gotten killed) have been enboldened by the Republicans and their reckless conspiracy mongering over the past 20 years. There's a very real risk they won't scatter like the Whisky Rebels did in 1794. (The Republican Party that encouraged rebellion against the Washington Administration was actually the grandfather of today's Democrats). Sending in armed state militia could turn into an actual shoot-out, if not managed properly. But doing nothing only breeds contempt for the government.

But then again, I believe we have new non-lethal technology for mob control. These ugly toys will fuck you up pretty bad, but they don't leave holes in their victims like bullets do. It's harsh treatment up front, but it's kinder in the long run than the current policy of letting anarchistic punks walk all over the dignity of the United States. And dropping a few non-lethal LRAD beams on these armed hooligans will pretty quickly expose the lie that the Second Amendment is any guard against tyranny.