February 9, 2019

Warren 2020!

Come on. Tell me why I should not support the campaign of the daughter of a janitor who rose to become a US Senator. Tell me why a candidate who believes In equality and unions is “out of step” with the mainstream Democratic Party. Tell me why it is so important that billions of dollars be collected and spent in a giant Food Fight aka the Democratic Primary in which paid Russian trolls in smoke filled rooms will try to tell us that 1) white women are the sole reason Blacks can’t get a break and 2) Black men are the sole reason women can not get a break and 3) your daughter can not afford college because granny is living it up eating cat food thanks to her big fat Social Security check.

Do you want to be Divided and Conquered again? Not me. That is why I am supporting THE Solidaarity candidate. The one who reminds us all of that special teacher, the one who refused to leave any child behind. The one who made home visits. The one who had our backs and gently but firmly nudged us forward so that we could be all we were meant to be.

If the worst dirt they can throw at her is that she is not a molecular biologist ( i.e. DNA) then they have nothing. And if we work together we have a chance to regain the world.

In 2008, another candidate just said No to Super-PAC money. How did that work out? It can work again.

Warren/Anybody 2020

February 3, 2019

Divide and Conquer at the New York Times Today

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/opinion/sunday/women-voting-19th-amendment-white-supremacy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

I encourage DUers to read and comment on this piece. Did you know that Black folks in this country suffer under oppression because their disenfranchised white sisters did not liberate them? Did you know that women suffer under oppression, because their disenfranchised Black brothers did not liberate them? This is the subtle message of this piece, which serves the purpose of Capital by pitting workers against each other---in this case women versus racial minorities, but it could have been written one hundred years ago about Italians versus Irish. Many, many years ago, Engels commented that the American capitalist keeps worker's wages low and prevents unionization by workers by pitting one groups of immigrants against another. We still do--this is the real motive of Trump's War on Immigrants. But as the number of immigrants coming to this country has slowed, we have increasingly pitted young versus old, gay versus not-gay, Black versus white, men versus women, disabled versus not-disabled.

Wake up and smell the Divide and Conquer, working class America. How do you think the 1% manage to keep the rest of us under their thumb in a so called democracy? They do it by encouraging us to fight among ourselves. And they tell us that any attempt to talk about "capital" and "wages" and "unions" is somehow un-American. Marxist economic theory is only un-American if you think that the real American are the billionaires who get rich stealing the labor of others.

And remember, Dr. King became a real threat to the establishment when he began to focus on worker's rights. He was in Memphis to support a union when he was murdered. And Brother Malcolm became a threat (and was murdered) when he came back from mecca convinced that whites were not the enemy and that we should all work together.

Solidarity!

February 2, 2019

When J. Edgar Hoover Attempted to Drive Dr. King to Suicide With a Sex Tape

From the New York Times 2014

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html

Would it surprise you to learn that Dr. King was correct when he told friends that he believed the anonymous letter came from then FBI czar J. Edgar Hoover? Or that King believed that the letter was meant to encourage him to commit suicide? Shocking, but not at all unbelievable for anyone who knows the history of J. Edgar Hoover, the man who did dirty tricks better than anyone, even Pat Buchanan and Tricky Dick.

Let's go back to the early 1960s. King was affiliated with a Known Communist. In the early 1960s (US still in Cold War with Russia) that was the political equivalent of touching a young person "down there. During the FBI's investigation, Hoover discovered what many in the Civil Rights movement already knew--Dr. King was a human being who had a sex life.

Bingo, thought Hoover. Spread the word that the Civil Right's Movement's most influential leader is a mere human being, and the Civil Rights Movement will fall apart.

I am bringing this up now, because Democrats face a moral dilemma. One of our own has been very, very bad. He posted a photo of himself in black face in his medical school yearbook in 1984--after Dr. King and the Civil Right's Movement of the 1950s-60s, meaning there was no excuse. At that time, everyone knew better.

At the same time, we are being confronted with proof that one of Nixon's dirty tricksters, Roger Stone, currently under indictment for being a traitor to his country set up the whole faux Al Franken scandal. Meaning that a great number of Democrats were duped into casting out one of their shining stars, a man who made the Mueller investigation possible--and painted a big Kick Me sign on his back in the process. Now, Democrats worry that the same process is starting again, and that by the time 2020 gets here, we will have no viable candidates because we will have already eaten all of then.

There is no solution to this moral quandary. There is no correct answer. Both "sides" are absolutely correct. And, whether they know it or not, both sides are actually on the same side--the side of justice and autonomy and the right of every individual to stand up and say I am citizen of this country entitled to the same rights and consideration as every other citizen.

William Blake wrote:



By religion, Blake did not mean the free religion of this country. He meant the state enforced mockery that passed for religion in most of Europe during his day, the divine mandate that said that the word of the king was the word of god--you, know, our modern Religious Right.

What are we at DU to do? We must speak our conscience.

Those who have been oppressed must speak out about their oppression. They must demand that the rest of us acknowledge their personal and family pain. They must demand that our party make a strong, bold statement of human affirmation.

Those who seek justice and a living wage and health care and decent education for all working class Americans can not allow their movement to be derailed. They must stand together. They must remain strong. But they must not deny a voice to anyone under the Democratic umbrella. It was this "Shut up and make the coffee" that lead the Women's Movement to split off from the mainstream anti-war, civil rights movement in 1970. And we do not need a bunch of little movements that can be divided and conquered, we need one strong movement.

To anyone who says "We can not do both at the same time," I encourage you to try. You would be amazed at what people can accomplish when they put their heads together.



Why the Edmund Pettis Bridge and not the March on Washington? Because the battle for human dignity is a hard fought one.


More on Hoover's attempts to create a schism between Dr. King and his followers here:

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/federal-bureau-investigation-fbi

January 26, 2019

Franken/Beto 2020!

So many posts about how this Democrat is supposed to have maligned that Democrat, and how this candidate's supporters think that those other candidate's supporters have cooties and dire predictions about elect-ability and like-ability and rockabilly----

Guess it must be time for the official DU kick off of the official 2020 presidential election primary.

So here, presented for your consideration, two Democrats that even the meanest among us can not dislike. Two (potential) candidates who have not announced their candidacy so we do not have to worry that we will kneecap the nominee in the primary. Two candidates who are volunteering themselves as lightening rods for all that negativity that seems to be brewing somewhere ( I wonder where).

I love Al Franken, the man who made the Mueller investigation possible.

I love Beto, the man with so much support in Texas that many people have kept up their Beto yard signs.

Let the Bull Moose in Heat races begin!



(Note: Hunter S. Thompson likened Democratic primary presidential candidates to a bull moose in heat)

January 26, 2019

Trump Just Had his NOLA Moment

Trump just had his NOLA moment.

An American president can get away with being dumb--most of us are not that brainy. He can get away with infidelity--almost all of us lust in our hearts. He can snort a little coke--most of us like to escape reality from time to time. Greed is not a problem in a country where money has taken the place of spirituality and the rich are revered. Exploit your political connections to build and then sell a Ballpark for a cool million dollar profit? Who would not be tempted if they had the chance? Even criminal activity is not necessarily a disqualification--if laws are being broken to protect others. This is the appeal of the so called Bandit King, a myth popular in rural America, a myth that Trump exploited in his run for president. (See Eric Hobsbawm's Bandits for more on the subject).

But when a president who ran on a platform of "I know your fears and I will fix them even if it means cracking some heads and breaking some laws" turns around and says, in effect, "I do not care about you, I only care about myself" he is political toast. When he obstructs and breaks the law for his own sake, he is no Bandit King. He is just a cheap thug.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans believe that Trump does not care about them. And, I suspect, a fair number of the remaining forty-one percent secretly agree, but they are too stubborn to admit it.

Images of New Orleans survivors clinging to their rooftops, begging for help, while an indifferent W. flew by overhead lead directly to the 2006 Democratic midterm landslide. Up until then. W. at least pretended to care. He was someone "you would want to have a beer with". NOLA revealed that W. lived in a tower made of callous indifference.

Trump is living in that same tower--a tower that will soon become like the tarot card, the Tower of Destruction. And when the smoke clears and he is standing in the rubble of what was once his presidency, he will have no one to blame but himself. Those who do not care about others should not try to lead others.

January 25, 2019

Connect the Dots: Watergate to Russian Collusion in One Dot! Roger Stone!

It has never been easier! Now that Roger Stone, a former Nixon dirty trickster (who did things like contribute money to an opposition candidate in 1972 and claim it was from the "Young Socialists" )has been indicted for his role in the Russian Collusion/cover up, you can now connect the dots between Watergate---the bastard child of Dick Nixon that was carried to term by Pat Buchanan ( OMG!, I just pictured Nixon and Buchanan "doing it". )--and the Russian Collusion. Plus, Stone gets bonus points for being the one credited with making Trump aware of how much money he could make by running for president after Citizens United--making Stone Mel Brooks from The Producers AND Angela Lansbury from the Manchurian Candidate. And if THAT imagine does not scare you, you have been watching American politics for way too long! Oh where is Hunter S. Thompson when we need him?








That last is Pat and Dick probably engaged in some "foreplay". Scary!

January 23, 2019

First Al Franken. Now Sheila Jackson Lee.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/23/us/politics/sheila-jackson-lee-cbc-chairwoman.html

This whole thing stinks last last years' gym socks. It has Russian compromat written all over it in big letters. And I predict that we will suddenly hear from a lot of "Democrats" who always knew that Lee was an an enabler of rapists. They could see it in her eyes. And they want her out of office now. Even if it means the Republican Texas governor gets to name her replacement until a special election can be held. Such a woman should never be able to sit in judgment of Trump. It would undermine the Democratic cause! It would make our party look bad!



"That's a nice Congress you have there," says Rudi "the Mob Lawyer" Guiliani. "We wouldn't want to see something happen to it."

January 22, 2019

Do Not Give in to Trump Blackmail

Real Americans do not give in to blackmail. And this is blackmail. Trump has suspended the law--and now is offering to let the law become the law again, if Congress gives him 5 Billion for a federal land grab in Texas aka the Wall. The nation does not usually give in to blackmail demands, because doing so encourages more blackmail. Plus, Trump has a long history of not keeping his part of bargains. It is quite likely that he will immediately reverse the reversal and keep immigrant kids incarcerated and start deporting young immigrants as soon as he has his 5 billion. It is what his base will want him to do. And he does everything he can to please his base--as long as there is money in it for him.

January 12, 2019

Please World: Send Aid to Help Our Veterans, Elderly, Sick and Kids Who Suffer In the Shutdown

When Katrina hit NOLA and Karl Rove decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to conduct an ethnic purge of the Democratic bastion in hopes of turning Louisiana red, Cuba sent a cargo ship with humanitarian supplies to help the survivors. The federal government turned the ship away---no foreign country was going to get in the way of the Bush/Rove effort to use an act of God to kill Democrats and call it divine retribution against gays.

Now Trump is conducting his own purge--of veterans, the elderly, the chronically ill, children. The shut down is his crowning achievement, meaner than incarcerating children and leaving them to the not so tender mercies of pedophiles. More dastardly than undermining national security by leaking secrets to Russia. More calculatedly dickish than sending a respected journalist and legal US resident to his brutal death at the hands of the henchmen of a Saudi despot in exchange for cold, hard cash.

Trump is reveling in the shut down. Never has one nasty, impotent broke-ass bastard had so much power to do harm to so many innocents. For a man like Mr. Tiny Hands, the shut is better than a penis pump--it makes him feel like a real man. It makes him feel powerful, like the dictators he so admires. Why, it is almost as good as shooting a man in broad daylight and getting away with it!

And Trump's base of ass-hats love the shutdown. These are the people who will gladly watch their own kids starve to death if it means that they get to watch their neighbors starve, too. The ones who will steal the crusts of bread from their kids hands to feed their own faces. The ones who fight over wills before their parents are even dead. The ones who create fake porn with the image of their ex-lover and post it on the Internet. The ones who steal the packages off their neighbors' porch, because they can.

Trump loves the shutdown and the misery it causes. He tells his base that he is hurting Democrats--as if this is a football game, GOP versus Dems rather than a matter of life and death. He says that he is showing the House Dems who is in charge. He struts like a puffed up peacock, full of sound and fury that signifies nothing--except that he will never allow this misery to end, not if he can help it. Because...

...if the Shut Down stops being front page news then the House hearings in Trump's collusion become front page news
Trump would much rather have seniors freeze to death for lack of heating subsidies and see children starve to death for lack of food stamps. Trump will sicken thousands with disease tainted lettuce and beef and cheer as terrorists take down a commercial airplane full of children and nuns due to TSA shortages--and by cheer I mean cheer because this will be his chance to stage a 9/11 and don a orange jumpsuit and show the world that he is a man! Trump probably gets hard thinking about a terrorist attack on his watch. Look what it did for W.!

Trump is a sick, twisted, bitter excuse for a man. We can not wait for him to develop a conscience, because there is no money in growing a conscience. And so, we have to pull together to help our brothers and sisters who slave for the federal government, policing our borders, protecting our skies, delivering our mail without getting paid. Forget a Go Fund Me for the Wall. Can we get a Go Fund Me to save the children? The U.S. citizen children who probably would be better off if they were undocumented immigrants because at least then they would have somewhere (a blanket on a concrete floor) to sleep and something (gruel) to eat in the $100,000/year luxury prison/spas that Trump cronies operate at federal expense. Is Betsy DeVos getting her checks, I wonder. To quote the former governor of Alaska, You betcha!

And while we are at it, can we please appeal to the United Nations or maybe NATO or even just France to send aid for all the Americans who will not be getting their paycheck or their food or their electricity or their medication this winter? Please World. We need your help.

January 11, 2019

Why Dems MUST Have Televised Hearings

If our nation relies upon network news for its political discourse then Trump (and Russia) win. That is because network news has become the equivalent of a nude caged mud wrestling match in which the loudest, angriest, flashiest, emotion charged person wins. This is why so many Americans support a self proclaimed tax cheater who lies and gropes women. They find violence/anger/bravado entertaining. And politics has become a spectator sport in recent years much like the Roman gladiatorial battles which were designed to lull Roman citizens into a sense of complacency over the decline of their civilization.

How will House hearings be different? They will be conducted like court hearings. The “winner” will be the person who tells the truth, who presents the most logical testimony, the one who exercises caution, good judgment, reason. Lies—-particularly the blatant whoppers that Trump likes—-will be forbidden. Instead the much dreaded “I plead the 5th” will cue Americans that something criminal is going on. Emotional outbursts, temper tantrums—-these will not be “winning” moves. These will be perceived by the public that relies upon the court system to keep it safe as a sign that the administration is unsafe.

A big reason why the Watergate hearings were so successful derived from the nature of public hearings. There is a gravitas to these procedings that makes ordinary people put aside their childish need to be entertained and that forces them to face reality. And reality is one arena where Trump with his delusions and inflated ego can not win.