December 18, 2015

All Sanders has to do is prove the compromised data has been deleted

So, what's the big deal.


It was Senator Sanders that decided to run as a Democrat. He could have kept this on the down-low and worked with the DNC to resolve the "issue", but decided instead to make it bigger than it needed to be.

The only good thing, if you could call it that, is that Senator Sanders is finally paying attention to the Democratic Party he joined.

December 3, 2015

Donald Trump Campaign is broke

I heard that tired old "trump doesn't need money, he's rich" bullshit argument last week. Gawd I hate Thanksgiving.

Check the information in these FEC links. Trump has loaned his campaign roughly 1/3 of his total receipts. The other 2/3 has come from individual donations. And, as of the most recent filing he only has roughly $255,000 in cash on hand. That may sound like a chunk of money, but when running for President...... it's pocket change.

Print out copies of these and hand them to the next asshole who tells you how trump doesn't need any money, he's a Billionaire.

http://www.fec.gov/press/summaries/2016/tables/presidential/presreceipts_2015_q3.pdf

http://www.fec.gov/fecviewer/CandidateCommitteeDetail.do?candidateCommitteeId=P80001571&tabIndex=1


Someone please make this asshole go away.

Edit: Clarification. His campaign is broke.

November 16, 2015

Men Dominate in Political Giving; Hillary Clinton’s Donors Are an Exception

More women vote than men, and it has been true for decades. But women lag way behind men in another measure of political participation. Only about 30 percent of big donors to campaigns are women, which, in an election that’s forecast to feed on billions of dollars of donations, is a gender gap in political influence.
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The estimated gap in overall fund-raising is even larger, because the average contribution from a man is much larger than the average for a woman. For every dollar flowing from big donors into the campaigns of sitting members of Congress, about 76 cents has come from a man and 24 cents from a woman.

These findings are based on an Upshot analysis of data from Crowdpac, a Silicon Valley start-up that tracks donations and rates candidates on an ideological scale. The donors’ gender was determined by their first names. (Less than two percent of donors can’t be reliably mapped to gender.) The data includes only contributions of more than $200, because the names of smaller contributors aren’t disclosed under campaign finance law.


Presidential Candidates

Hillary Clinton 52.6%
Bernie Sanders 37.6%
Carly Fiorina 33.3%

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/upshot/the-gender-gap-in-political-giving.html?_r=0

There are some statistics and such here and a bunch of philosophical analysis. What I got from this is that even the pundits aren't 100% in agreement as to Why. I think the answer is quite clear; Hillary Clinton is running a fantastic campaign.

November 11, 2015

McCaskill: Sanders has made Clinton a better candidate

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Monday that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is molding front-runner Hillary Clinton into the best possible Democratic presidential candidate.

“Bernie’s challenge has made Hillary a better candidate,” she told host Chris Cuomo on CNN’s “New Day.”

“It has made her stronger and more aggressive,” McCaskill added. "I have said an awful lot of good things about Bernie Sanders and the good work he is doing for America.”

McCaskill said she is endorsing Clinton rather than Sanders because the Vermont lawmaker "has not identified as a Democrat."

"He identifies as a socialist," she added. "The problem is in a state like mine it is very hard for voters to get past that."

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/259513-mccaskill-sanders-molds-clinton-to-be-better

I know the speech Bernie Sanders was going to give on Democratic Socialism has been pushed back. Now he "may" give it in Iowa after the next debate. His Strategist wants him to give the speech but what I've read is that Senator Sanders isn't too keen on it now, citing his busy schedule and not having the time to finish the speech.

November 6, 2015

Pre-Sanders

Sanders supporters like to say how Hillary is just following Sanders' lead. Really??

According to a transcript made available to reporters by a campaign aide, Clinton struck a pretty populist tone during her remarks at Kirkwood Community College, emphasizing her concern that the “deck is still stacked in favor of those already at the top.”

She added, “There’s something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker. There’s something wrong when American workers keep getting more productive, as they have, and as I just saw a few minutes ago is very possible because of education and skills training, but that productivity is not matched in their paychecks. And there’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/clintons-platform-comes-focus-including-some-surprises

Just a FYI.

October 31, 2015

Can the Sanders Campaign raise $1 Billion dollars?

No need to answer. It’s called a Rhetorical Question.

That is the low estimate of the amount of money that will be needed to mount an effective Presidential Election campaign in 2016. Some are estimating that it may be as high as $ 2 Billion.

Yes, that’s an obscene amount of money. Yes, we need Campaign Finance Reform. Yes, I know that Senator Sanders wants to abolish Super Pacs and such, taking the big money element out of Politics. HRC has also made statements in this regards. But at this point that's all it is, words floating around in the clouds. The Supreme Court really fucked this country over and that's going to be a major hurdle to overcome.

A little perspective:

In 2012 President Obama spent $683 Million, with the Democratic Party and outside groups pushing the total to $1.1 Billion. In 2008 Obama spent $730 Million.

Before you start slamming that keyboard telling me that this is what’s wrong with our Political System, please consider that this is how the game is played. And you can’t effect change if you aren’t part of the system . If Senator Sanders really wanted to cause change in Campaign Finance Run-Amok it would have been as Senator, and this is how he now could work toward this change.

A simple analogy I use in the 3-Dimensional World; Senator Sanders took the Democratic Party to the Dance but when he got there he dumped Her, saying “I don’t like you…… you need to change….. I don’t like the people you hang out with.”

Hillary is about half way there by the numbers I’ve been reading. She also has the backing of Priorities USA Action which raised and spent $65 Million for Obama in 2012. She has to. Unicorns in the Magic Forest will give you a warm and fuzzy feeling, but the Unicorn has no money. And spoiler alert; a Giant Orc eats the Unicorn.

Believe me when I say that Hillary Clinton would rather spend more time on the road than spending time dialing for dollars. So, please try to keep the 1% and Owned by the Banks/Wall Street noise to a minimum. The only politicians that absolutely love the money being spent are the Republicans. The GOP knows they could take any of the Kar Klowns and have a good shot at getting that Klown elected if they raise enough money. The Klowns love it because they don't have to do anything.

This started back during the Reagan days. The GOP figured out that if they raise enough money they could get anyone elected. It has now grown and ballooned into what we have today. This total Cluster Fuck.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled Snark and Gotcha’ already in progress………

October 26, 2015

Was doing some reading recently

.... and came across this quote by Timothy Ferriss:

Online I see people committing 'social media suicide' all the time by one of two ways. Firstly by responding to all criticism, meaning you're never going to find time to complete important milestones of your own, and by responding to things that don't warrant a response. This lends more credibility by driving traffic.

Timothy Ferriss reminded me why I get up every morning. I am definitely ‘all in’ (I always disliked that phrase but my brain isn’t at 100% this morning) with regards to Hillary Clinton and will do everything I can to make sure she wins. This country…… this world…… needs someone with her background and expertise in the White House. Who knows, maybe after a couple of years in the White House Hillary might start changing the way of thinking in this country; that having a Woman in the White House is actually a damn good idea.

I know it's difficult to ignore posts that push the stupid envelope, but BSrs love baiting Hillary supporters. I can't tell you what to do or not do, that's your decision. Just consider if it is worth your while to address something that will only lead to elevated blood pressure. The BSrs will then be forced to create 'ghost supporters of Hillary' so they'll have something to attack.

Hillary is already donating to the DNC. This is something that usually doesn't begin until a clear nominee is determined. The BSrs will see this as the DNC being "in bed" with Hillary. Nope, it's just a candidate that knows how the Political election process is handled and she realizes how important it is to support the party that will help her win the General Election. The BSrs want to completely dismantle the DNC and clean house. That's a little difficult when your candidate has virtually zero support from Democrats currently in office or those that were in office and when your supporters see the DNC as the "enemy".

October 26, 2015

When Adults get together in the 3-D World

Had dinner recently with a young couple we became friends with. We started helping them with a particular business venture since we have a few bazillion years of business experience and developed a friendship after that. They refer to us as their ‘second parents’. Their real parents are conservative Right Wingers so I think it’s been refreshing for them to deal with "older people" who are as liberal as they are.

Of course we discussed Politics and they mentioned that they changed their voter registration from Independent to Democrat so they can vote for Bernie in the Primaries.

Well, I explained that we live in a Caucus State and voting isn’t the same as States that have actual Primary Voting. Gave them a brief history of how the Caucus works and told them what they would need to do to participate in the Caucus process. And I explained what to expect when they go to their local Caucus.

They knew we supported Hillary but there was no Pro vs Con discussion about either candidate. I didn’t ask why they supported Bernie and I didn’t try to sell them on Hillary. The focus of most of our political discussion centered around the republicans in the clown car and the low intelligence level of those that supported republicans. We all agreed that the Republican Party was collapsing, and that was a good thing.

Of course I don’t agree with their decision to support Bernie but I could tell that they were excited about being involved in the Primary/Caucus process. It was all completely new to them. I felt good about that and I hope they remain engaged in Politics as the years travel on.

No snark. No bullshit. No gotcha’. Just some adults having a conversation in the Real World.

I now return you to the Snark and Gotcha' program currently in progress............

September 10, 2015

Hillary Clinton Opened Door to Key U.S. Shift Toward Iran Nuclear Deal (Normal People Group)

WASHINGTON—Hillary Clinton, in her last months as secretary of state, helped open the door to a dramatic shift in U.S. policy toward Iran: an acceptance that Tehran would maintain at least some capacity to produce nuclear fuel, according to current and former U.S. officials.

In July 2012, Mrs. Clinton’s closest foreign-policy aide, Jake Sullivan, met in secret with Iranian diplomats in Oman, but made no progress in ending the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program. In a string of high-level meetings here over the next six months, the secretary of state and White House concluded that they might have to let Iran continue to enrich uranium at small levels, if the diplomacy had any hope of succeeding.

“She recognized the difficulty of reaching a solution with zero enrichment,” said Mr. Sullivan, who now serves as Mrs. Clinton’s top campaign adviser on both domestic issues and foreign policy.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-backed-key-u-s-shift-toward-iran-nuclear-deal-1441753099

September 7, 2015

This is what Hillary Clinton will be up against (Hillary Group)

This uber-secret pro-Republican group has already spent as much as Bernie Sanders had spent on his total campaign (through July 2015). They have been airing 'feel good' ads about the Republican Party where everyone farts rainbows and Xanax is free to everyone.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/65a230e3ca2b45558f8be06de05992a8/pro-republican-ads-funded-group-untraceable-donors

Any candidate who ignores the money and power behind these uber-secret groups will fail miserably. You can ignore discussing money in politics, but as I've said before; this is how the game is being played. The Hillary Campaign understands this and is building a 'war chest' (along with the DNC and other related PACs) to take on these shadow groups.

Just a FYI.