May 28, 2015

Yes, Bernie can win.

I have heard many people say that Bernie Sanders does not have a chance, I am here to say that those people are wrong. I won't deny that Hillary is starting the race with huge advantages in money, name recognition, and polling numbers. If the election were to be held today she would easily win, I certainly can not deny that reality. While reality does tell us that Bernie would not stand a chance against Hillary if the election were held today, reality also tells us that the election is not being held today and a lot can happen between now and election day.

Here is what needs to happen for Bernie to pull off one of the greatest upsets in American political history.

First Bernie has to start closing the gap in polling numbers between himself and Hillary, a gap that is admittedly massive. The good news for Bernie however is that this gap is almost certain to shrink, Hillary's support has most likely already peaked. When you start out polling as highly as she did the pool of additional voters that she could win over is very small. Many of her current supporters are people who voted against her in 2008, if they voted against her before it is not at all unreasonable to think another candidate could win them over in this election.

It appears inevitable to me that Hillary's polling numbers will drop, of course they have to drop a huge amount for her to fall behind so there is no doubt that closing the gap will be very difficult but Bernie does have a couple of things going for him.

First Bernie's supporters are very passionate and he has a huge presence on social media. This is going to be extremely important because no matter how many small donors Bernie is able to receive assistance from he will never have the funds that Clinton has. With a committed group of volunteers and a big social media presence however it is possible to reach a lot of people without spending a lot of money, if Sanders and his supporters can really tap into social media they can overcome big money as you get far more bang for the buck when you can get volunteers to spread your message for you than you get from relying on ad agencies.

Bernie's history as an independent Senator who is widely respected by Democrats and even some Republicans puts him in a very good position to reach out to a wide range of voters. As much as the media tries to dismiss him as a fringe candidate the fact is he won his last election with 71% of the vote, I realize that it is Vermont but even in Vermont you don't reach 71% of the vote without winning over a broad range of people. Most Vermonters do not consider themselves socialist, yet 71% of them have shown that the word socialist does not scare them. The cold war is over and the word socialist does not carry the sting it once did, Bernie has already shown that by getting elected by huge margins while proudly calling himself a Democratic Socialist.

The fact is that most Americans are not super partisan, huge numbers of Americans consider themselves independents and Bernie's own history as an independent will be valuable in reaching out to these potential voters.

Speaking of reaching out to potential voters, let's face it Bernie has been doing far more to reach out to voters than Hillary has in this campaign. Hillary has not even been talking to the media, and while they try to claim she is bringing her message to voters directly that claim is really just a talking point with little basis in reality. My guess is that most people reading this are voters, I am also quite certain that most of you won't see Hillary reaching out to you directly. Sorry, but speaking to a small group of people in Iowa will not get your message out to the majority of voters.

While most of us have serious problems with the press, the fact is that the press does still play a major role in informing people about the election. Voters generally don't like to see candidates refuse to submit themselves to questions by the press and if Hillary continues to give the impression that she is running away from the press it will backfire on her.

Bernie on the other hand has handled the press beautifully, he has given numerous media interviews over the course of the last month and in all of those interviews he has answered all of the questions without letting the media bait him into focusing on gossip. He has clearly articulated his positions, and while he has managed to use the media to get his message out he has also taken the opportunity to call out that same media for their obsession with gossip over policy.

While I don't deny that Bernie Sanders has a huge mountain to climb, I also think that he is doing a far better job at presenting his message than Hillary is. I may be being optimistic, but I really believe that as long as Bernie can maintain a passionate and commited group of supporters who will help him get his message out he can win. If you want to see that victory then don't let anyone tell you that it can't happen, it may be a tough battle ahead but we can't bring about real change if we don't fight those tough battles.

May 17, 2015

What is silly is your attempt to ignore his actual vote

You seem to want us to believe that what Rand Paul says is more important than what he actually does.

Rand Paul may have given lip service to my side, but it was your side that he stood with when it came time to vote.

May 7, 2015

In this post-Citizens United world debates are essential to the survival of our democracy

In this post-Citizen's United world money can buy a lot of things. Money can flood the airwaves with 30 second ads, money can fill your mailbox with campaign literature, money can rent out stadiums to hold massive campaign rallies for a candidate, but there is one thing that money can not buy in elections.

Money can not buy a good debate performance.

In a political system that has been thoroughly corrupted by big money there are lots of inequalities in our elections, but when our candidates step on to the debate stage together we get to witness a moment in which our candidates are on a relatively level playing field. If a candidate is not able to show that they can grasp the issues that are facing America no amount of money is going to change that on the debate stage. Underfunded candidates can and often do win debates if they have good ideas, the debate stage is the one place in which an underfunded candidate can really compete against their big money opponents.

This is not just about Hillary, or Bernie, or O'Malley, this is about our democracy.

As money becomes further entrenched in our system debates are going to become more important than ever before and we need to be demanding more of those debates, not less.

I think that most of us should be able to agree that the election of our next President is more important than the election of our next American Idol, yet our American Idol contestants will get more time to compete against each other on stage than our Presidential candidates will. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

People are trying to tell me that six debates is enough despite the fact that we had more than three times that many in 2008. They tell me that we should be able to decide who the best candidate is within six debates.

I have to wonder what the public reaction would be if the NFL were to announce that they were cutting the season down to six games because we should be able to decide who the best team is within those six games. I predict that such an announcement would be met with howls of protest across the nation.

The Presidential race is far more important than the race for the Super Bowl, and yet the public reaction to the reduction in the number debates is far more muted than a reduction in the number of NFL games no doubt would be. Considering the election of the next President is so much more important than football, I don't think it is unreasonable to ask the candidates to spend more time on the debate stage than our football players spend on the field each year.

If we want our democracy to survive the onslaught of big money then we need to do everything we can to ensure that we give the underfunded candidates opportunities to compete on equal terms with the big money candidates and debates are one the very best ways to do that.

Debate is essential to our democracy and those who try to limit it need to be challenged vigorously.

May 5, 2015

No, a President Sanders could not work effectively with our corrupt Congress nor would I want him to

I have seen some people questioning whether or not Bernie Sanders could be effective at working with Congress if he were to become President.

I will be the first to admit that I know very well that our Congress is run by politicians who are pretty much completely sold out to the billionaires and they will have no interest in working with Bernie on much of anything.

I also know that Congress has approval ratings which make them roughly as popular as genital herpes. Nothing good is going to come from genital herpes, but maybe we can at least have a President that will not allow the herpes to infect more people.

I don't think I am alone when I say that I don't want a President who will play nice with a Congress that is as thoroughly corrupted as our own. I want a President who is going to fight for change, I don't expect that President to bring change immediately but I do expect them to fight against the status quo.

A President who embraces the status quo will have a much easier time getting their legislation through Congress. Bill Clinton got the Defense of Marriage Act, NAFTA, and welfare reform through quite easily by working with the Republicans in Congress. Hillary Clinton joined a coalition with Republicans in Congress to pass the Iraq War Resolution and the Patriot Act. The Clintons were on the winning side of all of these issues, Bernie Sanders joined the American people on the losing side.

You know what though? I am proud of Bernie for standing with the American people as we have suffered loss after loss. I know we will need him to stand with us through more losses in the future because I am well aware that the wealthy interests are not going to stop their assault on the people of our nation anytime soon.

I know that anytime a person like Bernie steps in to the establishment and tries to change the status quo the billionaire class is going to do everything they can to put roadblocks in his path, but I would rather have roadblocks in my path than to be steered on to a wrong path and end up driving off a cliff.

It is true that if Bernie Sanders were to be elected President the Congress would hand him many defeats, but he will also be able to hand them defeats using his veto pen. I am not worried about Bernie suffering defeats at the hands of an extremely unpopular Congress, I just want to see him get a victoy at the ballot box so I know we will have someone in the White House who will call that Congress out on their corruption.

May 1, 2015

Officer was shot and killed after filing whistleblower complaint alleging police corruption

I will probably be accused of spreading conspiracy theories for posting this, but I am not going to offer you any theories. What I am going to do is post some facts that were reported by major Minnesota news outlets and let you decide for yourself whether or not you think something smells rotten. I am not here to make any accusations, but I do think there are some serious questions that need to be asked about this case.

Last summer Officer Scott Patrick of the Mendota Heights Police Department was shot and killed in the line of duty. I live just outside of Mendota Heights and this shooting happened just a few blocks from my sister's house. Mendota Heights a quiet middle class suburban community just outside of Saint Paul. Police shootings are rare around here so Officer Patrick's murder got a lot of media attention but it was not until this week that some very interesting new details were revealed about Officer Patrick, a man who appears to have been a good cop in a very corrupt police department.

http://www.startribune.com/local/302031311.html

Officer Patrick's widow is continuing the fight her late husband started, she is working to expose the corruption in the department.



http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/28934517/officer-patricks-private-war-against-mendota-heights-pd

Earlier this year Brian Fitch was convicted of killing Scott Patrick, it must be noted however that no were no witnesses who saw Brian Fitch at the scene of the crime.



http://www.startribune.com/local/south/290548811.html

As I said in the beginning I am not here to make accusations, what I will say however is that something smells very rotten in Minnesota.

April 28, 2015

It is easy to condemn rioting, it takes much more effort to fix the conditions that lead to rioting

As a person who has participated in literally hundreds of non-violent protests I absolutely hating seeing riots. I know that nearly all protesters are non-violent yet we will all be blamed for the actions of a few who got violent.

It is easy to condemn the violence as I most certainly do, but as we condemn the violence let's not pretend that we can ignore the societal problems that led to this violence.

Baltimore is a city that has suffered a great deal from violence throughout their community. When people are exposed to violence they are more likely to become violent themselves. If we have a society in which the police use violence against the community then we should not be surprised when members of that community respond with violence of their own.

You can say that is no excuse and I would agree with you, it is not an excuse. We should not be looking for excuses however, instead we need to start addressing the root causes of violence so that we can create a society in which people don't feel the need to riot.

I will condemn the violent protesters, but I will support the non-violent protesters as well and I will be joining them in the street in the near future just as I have many times in the past.

I would recommend that everyone who says they support peaceful protest but oppose violent protest to get out there and peacefully protest. If you want to show the rioters a better way then get out there and show them a better way, there are already many peaceful protesters showing that better way and many of us are more than capable of joining them.

March 31, 2015

Why I am standing by Trevor Noah despite his offensive Tweets

Comedy is often filled with offensive material, I don't know that there is a big name comedian out there who is both funny and consistently inoffensive. People have every right to be offended by certain types of humor and I don't think that we should be telling the people that are offended that they need to learn to take a joke. I am not here to defend Trevor Noah's tweets, some people are clearly offended by them and they have every right to be offended. What I am here to do however is to ask people to consider that we should not judge a comedian on the basis of a few bad jokes that were dug up by the media, instead we should look at that comedian's body of work in context and try to get an understanding of who the person really is.

Like most Americans I am just getting to learn about Trevor Noah, prior to yesterday I had only seen one of his segments on the Daily Show. Once I heard he had been selected as the new host I watched a few YouTube videos from him as well as a one hour stand up show that is currently streaming on Netflix. I watched his stand up before I saw the tweets and I am glad I did so because his stage act is far funnier and more insightful than anything you are going to find on a Twitter feed.

I encourage everyone to watch this video as it gives us a much better understanding of who Noah actually is than those Tweets do. This a man who grew up as a mixed race child in apartheid South Africa. Interracial relationships were illegal there at the time so he could never be seen with both parents in public, this is a guy who truly understands what it is like to face oppression. While he is able to joke about the horrors he faced living under apartheid it is also clear that behind his laughter is a guy who realizes that bigotry is deadly serious. In many ways that makes him the perfect host for the Daily Show, this is a show that makes jokes out of the worst things that are taking place in our society without trivializing the wrong doing.

It is easy to look at the tweets that have been dug out from Noah's Twitter account and think they represent his viewpoints, but I would caution against leaping to such a judgment without first becoming familiar with his particular brand of humor. Clearly the jokes in his tweets were unfunny and offensive, but every comedian has jokes that fail and those jokes often fail in ways that really get people upset. I know there were a few times in which I thought Jon Stewart really failed in his attempts at humor, but I can't judge him solely on the basis of the failed jokes he told.

I have heard many people say that these Tweets reinforce their opinion that Tina Fey should have gotten the job, and I will be the first to say that Tina Fey would have made a great host despite the fact that she is also facing accusations of bigotry right now. Yes, you read that right, Tina Fey is right now battling accusations of racism herself. There is a new show on Netflix called "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" which was written largely by Tina Fey and it is facing a lot of criticism for the racial stereotypes in the show. I just saw the first couple of episodes of the series and it is an incredibly funny show, but I can definitely see why some people might find it offensive. This is a comedy about a woman who kidnapped at age 13 and held prisoner for fifteen years by a cult leader who repeatedly raped her, when she escapes captivity she goes to live in New York with a flamboyant gay black man and then finds an Asian boyfriend named Dong. Just by reading that premise it should be clear that this show is going to spark some controversy. The show has received a great deal of critical acclaim and I am sure many people from the groups being stereotyped in the show will love it despite those offensive stereotypes, but there have been a number of people who have been very offended by Fey's writing. Those people are not wrong to be offended, but at the same time I am not going to pick out the offensive jokes that Tina Fey has made and pretend those jokes are representative of her work as a whole.

Al Franken has gone far beyond anything that either Trevor Noah or Tina Fey has said, while he was a writer for Saturday Night Live he made a joke about drugging and then raping Leslie Stahl. There was nothing funny about the joke at all, what he said was absolutely sick and disturbing. My mother and sister actually refused to vote for Franken in his first run for Senate because they were so offended by him. I tried to convince them that Franken should not be judged on the basis of a bad joke he told as a comedian, but they are still upset about that bad joke to this day. I believe that they did both vote for Franken the second time around as they are both quite liberal, but they still have not totally forgiven him for his bad joke and I can understand where they are coming from.

I can also understand where Noah's critics are coming from, but just like I felt Franken should not be judged on the basis of a bad joke I don't think Noah should either. All comedians who tackle controversial issues screw up some times and say things that they really should not say, but I think we do need to be somewhat forgiving and understand that we should not judge people on the worst things they have ever said. I know I have said some things that were pretty offensive in the past when I was trying to be funny and I would not want people to judge who I am as a person based on failed jokes that I have made, I think Trevor Noah deserves the opportunity to move on from his bad jokes as well.

January 17, 2015

Minnesota State Democratic Chair speaks in support of Black Lives Matter Mall of America protesters

Earlier this week ten Minnesotans including influential civil rights attorney Nekima Levy-Pounds and nine other organizers with the Black Lives Matter movement were informed that they facing criminal prosecution. Their "crime" was organizing a peaceful protest at the Mall of America, a building that was built with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and just accepted another $250 million in tax breaks to build a major expansion.

Despite the fact that the public paid for a big chunk of the mall a foreign corporation claims private ownership of it and has set very strict rules to ensure that free speech is not exercised there, they are fine with it when people gather in the rotunda to rally for their favorite sports team but speaking in support of black lives is strictly prohibited.

Bloomington Attorney Sandra Johnson says that the protesters created a "tinderbox" that could have erupted at any moment. Never mind the fact that the protest already happened and was peaceful by all accounts with no property damage or injuries, but Sandra Johnson apparently considers too many black people gathered in one spot to create a "tinderbox".

Sandra Johnson does not just want to charge peaceful protesters as criminals for speaking out in support of black people in a place where doing so is strictly prohibited however, she also wants them to pay for the costs of the riot police that were sent to shut down the mall and intimidate the peaceful protesters.

Charging protesters for the cost of the riot police sent to intimidate them would set a very precedent of course and that is why people across the nation are standing in solidarity with the MOA 10 and demanding the charges against them be dropped.

Today we got a major new ally when Ken Martin chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party issued a surprisingly strong statement in support of the protesters who have been charged. Here are his words in full....

https://www.dfl.org/dfl-news/2015/01/chairman-ken-martin-black-lives-matter/

While I always vote Democratic I have often found myself frustrated by the silence of the party leaders when it comes to showing support for those who engage in peaceful protest. Today I am not feeling that frustration however, today I am proud of my state party chair for standing up for free speech and racial equality.

January 11, 2015

We need to start recognizing the rights of the victims of "self defense" shootings.

Most people believe that we have a right to self defense, but rarely do we talk about the rights of those who are killed by a person who claims self defense.

While it is true that a person who is dead is unable to exercise their rights, I believe that any just legal system would treat them as if they did have rights. If I were ever killed by a person who claimed self defense I know that I would like to be treated as innocent until proven guilty after my death, I certainly would not want the courts to just take the shooter at his or her word when they claim I was a threat.

Looking at the killings of people like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Eric Garner, and numerous other cases it is clear that all of these people were treated as if they have no rights what so ever. They were all treated as guilty until proven innocent and the right to "self defense" of their killers was placed above every last one of the victim's rights.

I think most of us can agree that there are certain cases in which self defense is justifiable, but I wish we could also agree that a person who was killed by someone who claims self defense should also have rights. Proof of their guilt should have to be provided, no one should be able to just gun a person down without being able to firmly establish that they posed a real threat. While people have the right to self defense that right should not outweigh every last one of the rights of the person they claim to have defended themself against.

We need laws in place which firmly establish rights for those who are killed by people who claim self defense, until we start respecting the rights of shooting victims we will keep seeing more Trayvon Martins and Michael Browns.

January 4, 2015

Those who defend the murder of black people do not deserve respect, they deserve to be shunned

I hear a lot of people say that we should respect all opinions, but I don't believe that all opinions are worthy of respect. There is nothing respectable about racist opinions, nor is there anything respectable about promoting policies that harm others.

Those who come to this site to defend the murder of unarmed black men are not in the least bit worthy of respect, they are promoting a violent and racist ideology and there is no reason we should have to pretend that this dangerous ideology is a mere "difference of opinion".

I am sick of hearing racists scream about the "right to self defense" of those who murder unarmed black men, yet express absolutely zero concern for the rights of the black men who were shot.

I am sick of hearing the racists scream about an admitted killer like George Zimmerman being innocent until proven guilty while at the same time treating Trayvon Martin as guilty until proven innocent.

I am sick of seeing people being lectured about "not understanding the law" because they oppose a racist criminal justice system that punishes blacks far worse than it punishes whites.

I am sick of being told that we should not talk about race while racism continues to harm millions upon millions of Americans.

I am sick of being told that we are being uncivil for calling a racist a racist while those who express racist beliefs are not called out on their incivility.

The idea that we should respect all opinions may be good advice when it comes to opinions on matters such as musical tastes or other areas in which nobody is being harmed by another person's opinion, but it is not good advice when it comes to discussions of racism. There is no reason that we should respect racist opinions, and there is no reason that we should pretend the obviously racist opinion of someone who tries to justify gunning unarmed black men down in the streets is not actually racist.

Those who advocate for people like George Zimmerman and Darren Wilson are no better than those who advocated for lynchings in generations past. They are promoting a violent and racist ideology and it should not be tolerated by anyone.

It is an absolute shame that it is tolerated by DU.