Damn Fools!

The majority has once more inflicted on us the government they so richly deserve. It seems to me that everything has the seeds of its own destruction built into its fiber, into its DNA if it is organic. Thomas Jefferson was correct when he said that the success of every democracy depends on an informed electorate making wise decisions. Most of the the democracies that are no longer with us died from a malignant ignorance that caused the voters to make emotional and ill-advised decisions. The election of Donald Trump is a powerful warning if not a harbinger of our doom. The great danger is that when Trump fails, and his failure is the most likely scenario, the angry ignoramuses that elected him will turn to another demagogue who is even more reckless and ruthless.

Whether or not anyone can break through this great wall of voter stupidity to save the great republic I do not know. For the moment at least I am too frustrated and disgusted to try. So like someone who is suffering from stage four cancer I am trying to accept what I must accept and to enjoy what I can still enjoy!

I hereby thank and commiserate with those of you who have so valiantly tried to educate the willfully ignorant voters. I certainly do not wish to discourage you from trying to work the sort of miracle it will take to cure the potentially fatal malignancy I have been discussing, but the fools we have suffered over the least twenty years have left me too exhausted to help you in your mission! Good luck and bless you. Lady liberty is still the the love of my life; please save her if you can!

Threatening Ms. Allred With A Good Time

Whenever I hear Donald Trump threaten to sue the women accusing him of sexual abuse or sexual harassment or I hear someone like Melania Trump saying he should sue those women I giggle. I cannot help my self. Any attorney who would advise Trump to file those suites would be guilty of inadvertent comedy if not malpractice. While I realize it is conjecture on my part I think the mere anticipation of the discovery process of civil suits against those women would give Gloria Allred wet dreams.

Proudly Deplorable

The great wall of stupidity protecting right wing Republicans from reality has been breached by Trumpian scandals. Even the Chairman of the Republican Nation Committee, Reince Priebus, is telling other Republicans to “save yourself.” He is saying it is all right to leave behind the fascist demagogue who built such a shoddy wall in the first place. The problem is that Trump is the culmination of the Republican Party's decades long  pandering to the fear and loathing of the McCarthy/Bircher wing of the party. Although the Alt-right, et. al. would not identify themselves with those discredited (McCarthy/Bircher) labels, there is no denying that they inherited the debilitating paranoia of the McCartyites and the Birchers and that the Republican Party has greatly encouraged the expression of their xenophobia, fear, and anger! As a result of this what we now have is no longer politics it is all out war! And while all out war may be too destructive for the purposes of the Greedy Old Plutocrats and the Wall Street Journal it fits perfectly the neo-fascist mentality and purposes of Donald Trump and Breitbart News.

With Paul Ryan and other Republicans cautiously backing away from Trump because of the recording of him boasting about groping women Trump has now declared himself unshackled. In other words he is now separate and apart from the Republican Party or at least from the Republican establishment. Which means he is no longer constrained by any semblance political propriety, tradition or decency. His attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton for scandals litigated twenty years ago combined with Trump's own transgressions are perfect examples of his intellectual dishonesty and moral degeneration.

We can also see how this moral and intellectual bankruptcy rolls down hill by the protest that took place outside of the Republican Nation Committee headquarters in Virginia. Although Trump's Virginia Campaign Chairman, Corey Stewart, was fired after the protest, the protest still tells us a lot about Trump's followers. Hillary Clinton clearly said that half of Trump's supporters were deplorable. Rather than identifying themselves with the other half, the Trump supporters at this demonstration and elsewhere proudly proclaimed themselves the people Hillary called deplorable. Remarkably, some of their actions that day fully justified the description of deplorable. I mean here you had among a large group of those women a young man boldly displaying a hand made sign reading “Better to grope a p...y than to be one” and not a single women there was berating him for it! Can you imagine what would happen if a man carried such a sign at a Democratic rally?

Needless to say that the polls indicate an almost certain victory by Hillary Clinton. The pundits are understandably trying to say this while waffling or giving themselves some weasel room; no one wants to be the guy who writes “Dewey Wins!” But if Hillary wins so big that the Democrats take over the Senate as well as the House you can bet there will be some massive bed wetting and hand wringing about the whether the two party system will survive. Let no dramatic event go unenhanced by speculation! Hot damn they're good soap salesmen! They are already asking how the rift can be mended when there are Trump chumps actually talking about revolution if Hillary wins. All I can say is that this shows just how dangerous the Trump chumps are! The fear and loathing style in American politics has to be put back in the bottle again! Whether this is accomplished by a third party or by responsible Republicans regaining control their party does not matter! It is not like we have not been here before.

Be Grateful

Although Hurricane Mathew is tearing up a large swath of the east coast and a political storm is tearing up one of our major political parties there are still reasons to give thanks; there are still things for which we should be grateful. Here is a short list:

1. Be grateful that you do not have to wash the undies so many Republicans soiled when they heard the audio recordings of Trump's lewd and misogynistic comments to Billy Bush.
2. Be grateful that you do not have to tell Vladimir Putin his efforts to influence our Presidential election by airing out some of Hillary Clinton's dirty laundry fell flat because of the overwhelming stench of Donald Trump's dirty laundry.
3. Most of all be grateful that Donald J. Trump (who feels so entitled by his wealth and power that he thinks he can exploit and demean other people with impunity) will never become the President of the United States. Donald Trump will never become President because he has defined himself in his own inimitable style, as only he can do. Congratulations Mr. Trump! For everyone but the most die hard of the Trump's Chumps you have made yourself the personification of deplorable.

Political Limbo Bar

We no longer have a bar the candidates must clear. What we now have is a limbo bar that is constantly being adjusted downward as at least one of the candidates tries to sink to the lowest denominator without burrowing beneath what the common person is willing to accept as a vision. MSNBC's Chris Mathews is one of the pundits helping to lower the bar to new depths by declaring Mike Pence the winner of the Vice Presidential debate. He wasn't as rude, Mathews said; he didn't interrupt as much, and he kept a calm Presidential demeanor. So I guess that means that if you can keep a straight face and calm demeanor while lying about almost everything and deflecting all questions about whether you agree with the policies of your running mate and the controversial comments made by your running mate you are acting Presidential. The sad thing is that Chris Mathews is not alone in his assessment. Indeed the most frequent criticism of Trump by the pundits is not that Trump is an ignorant dufus but that Trump seems to lack the ability to deflect questions that reveal he is an ignorant dufus when he tries to answer those questions.

It's the optics, the pundits tell us. In politics perception is everything. Maybe, but as perceptually challenged as the common man may be about all things political he can still see when someone is dodging the question and/or deflecting. Politicians are not bothered by the fact that they are not fooling anyone in this regard because their base supporters do not care, and their opponent is going to do the same thing. The calculation invariably comes down to whether the answer would be more harmful than the obvious deception. The problem in this instance, this debate is that Pence lied about statements he and his running mate made even though clips of him and his running mate making those statements are being shown so often that it is difficult to avoid them! This is an insult to anyone bright enough to be insulted. And in this regard I think most of the none Trump chumps will deem Mr. Kaine the winner. The odd thing is that it does not matter much. Vice Presidential debates rarely have an impact on the general election. If this debate poses any danger to Trump the danger stems from the fact that Pence's unwillingness to support Trump's policies and comments provide rich fodder for Hillary Clinton's anti-Trump ads.

Frankly, I think we should demand better from our politicians and our news casters.  I am sick of the brain pap.  I am sick of the obvious deceptions and I bet your are too.  We deserve and want the relevant facts!  The broadcasters can still sell soap and beer while performing the service of keeping us informed.

Trump Chump Absurdities

This morning MSNC had Trump Chump Steve Cortes babbling talking points obviously comprised by someone living in a very bizarre alternate universe. Apparently Trump's intellectually dishonest minions are trying to deflect the criticism of Trump for his misogynistic statements and actions by claiming without a scintilla of evidence that Hillary Clinton viciously tried to destroy women who accused Bill Clinton of improper sexual conduct.

Here is my question for the Trump chumps: How can you justify impeaching Bill Clinton for his sexual conduct while excusing Trump's misogyny with the illogical charge that Hillary Clinton did worse things than Trump did or is presently doing? In the party of stupid “I know you are but what am I?” may be considered a valid argument, but there are actually adults outside of that party and most of them have discarded that illogical ploy a long time ago!

Grate America Again?

Make America Great Again infers a return to something. Judging by a talking points memo addressed to Trump Surrogates Mr. Trump wants to revisit a time when Kenneth Starr greatly exceeded his commission as Special Prosecutor appointed to investigate the alleged Whitewater scandal.  Far from being a time of greatness this is a time that marks a low point in America's political history.

Unable to find any wrongdoing on Bill Clinton's part regarding Whitewater, Mr. Starr deliberately set out to find something, anything for which Bill Clinton could be prosecuted. What Mr. Starr found, of course, was Mr. Clinton's sexual dalliances and the scandals and civil suit resulting therefrom. The insanely partisan Republicans led by Newt Gingrich then used Bill Clinton's alleged perjury in Paula Jones' civil case as grounds for impeachment. Needless to say that the impeachment itself became the biggest scandal, as well it should have. Instead of the issue being one of perjury the pubic accurately concluded that it all came down to sex. The hypocrisy and insufferable sanctimony of the Republicans was too much to bear, and Larry Flynt, the self described smut peddler, offered a million dollar reward to anyone who could prove she had an affair with a member of Congress. Newt Gingrich resigned in disgrace before Mr. Flynt could reveal the information he said he had on Gingrich, and Gingrich's heir apparent as Speaker of the House, Bob Livingston, resigned from the house as a result of an affair exposed by Larry Flynt. "Many other prominent Republican members of Congress [who voted for impeachment] (including Dan Burton[15] of Indiana; Helen Chenoweth[15] of Idaho; and Henry Hyde[15] of Illinois, the chief House manager of Clinton's trial in the Senate) had infidelities exposed around this time ..."

.

Oddly enough during the height of the Monica Lewinsky/Paula Jones scandal Bill Clinton's job approval rating was sixty percent. What went down was his reputation for being honest and trustworthy. Not being content with attacking Bill Clinton the Republicans also used Hillary Clinton's understandable defense of her husband to besmirch her character and veracity. This is where Trump comes in because, as the talking points to his surrogates makes perfectly clear, he is now trying to defend his misogyny by tarring Hillary Clinton with the same brush used back then. It does little good to tell Trump that this tactic used against Bill and Hillary Clinton did not work out well for Republicans, or that women object to someone using the husband's infidelities against the wife as much as they object to men using a woman's weight to belittle her!  Nor can you convince Trump that instead of making America Great again this return to a past fraught with sanctimonious hypocrisy will grate on America and anger better than half of its population.  Nothing penetrates Trump's self absorption unless it confirms an image he already accepts.

I was much amused by an intellectually dishonest Trump Surrogate (is there any other kind?) that appeared on MSNBC this morning. Her argument was to deny that Trump does anything that is boorish and/or misogynistic, but that he should stop doing it!

Politics of Change

Donald Trump has been trying to portray himself as the candidate of change, but not all change as good change. Simply saying he will smash or change what we now have is not good enough for anyone who is bright enough to pay attention. Does Trump know what is needed? Does he have what it takes to do what needs to be done? He is trying to convince us that his experience as a businessman answers both of those questions in the affirmative. The remarkable thing is that he does this while defending his checkered past by extolling as sound business practices his shameless exploitation of workers, contractors, and others, as well as extolling his use of our bankruptcy laws to stiff his creditors. He does this without apology or conscience. It is almost enough to make Ayn Rand blush, and she is dead.

Saying Donald Trump's campaign is unconventional is being far too polite. His campaign is a Saint Vitus dance best performed in a dim light that softens the appearance of his herky jerky motions. When the light is turned up, as it was in the last debate, everyone can see that in spite of Trump's grotesque contortions he is in serious danger of sliding away on the offensive and boorish words and deeds that litter his playground like banana peels in a monkey cage. At long last even the broadcast news media has finally decided to turn on some light and do some fact checking! This is not good news for Trump, who lies at least 80% of the time.

There is little doubt in my mind that Kellyanne Conwoman, Chris (just ignore the “facts”; the fact checkers have an agenda) Christie, and other Trump apologists had to gird their loins with leak proof underwear before dutifully trying to spin Trump's unspinnable debate performance to news people who were much amused by Trump's alternate reality whirlers trying to convince us that what we saw and heard is not what we saw and heard. The only solace for Trump's spokespeople, if there is any solace for them, stems from the fact that Hillary haters will excuse anything in order to justify voting against her and that the hard core Trump chumps have there heads in such a dark, fact proof place that they actually believe “Trump done good!” So here we have Paul Ryan, forever the Ayan Rand pseudo intellectual, saying he thought Trump “passed a number of thresholds” and showed “he could go toe-to-toe with Hillary Clinton."

But what gives comfort to the gullible does not win over anyone who thinks that facts matter. Other Republican pundits are at least realistic enough to recognize a pratfall when they see one, and they are lamenting the fact that Trump was tripped up by his own racial comments, his absurd birther allegations, and his bogus business dealings. He needs to stay on message, they say. He needs to keep hitting on bad trade deals and tout his ability to be the vessel of change! Everyone wants change!  They may not know what it is, but they want it.

If I were advising Hillary Clinton and Trump continues to portray himself as the vessel of change, I would follow Harry Truman's example. Who is it that has been preventing meaningful change? It is not Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who have spent all their time trying to deny millions of people health coverage by trying to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act over fifty times. It is not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton who have twice shut down the government and twice threatened the full and credit of the United States. It is not Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama who refuse to fund infrastructure projects, or who refuse to raise the minimum wage, or who refuse to pass any meaningful legislation at all. It is a Do Nothing More Constructive Than Going On Vacation Republican Congress that has slowed down the recovery and made the status quo quick sand. And, like it or not, that is Trump's party. That is the party he must please.  He can do nothing without them and what they do best is nothing!

One of the reason the Republicans give for not voting for Hillary Clinton is the Supreme Court, which still has a vacancy because of the Republican Party's intransigent hyper-partisanship. It is difficult to imagine that Hillary Clinton could possibly give us a Supreme Court that is worse than the one the Republicans inflicted on us. It was this horrible Republican Supreme Court that gave us Citizens United, gutted the voting rights act, placed a woman's right to choose in peril, and rendered so many despicable decisions giving corporations an unfair advantage over individual citizens. And if you think the Republicans will make the Supreme Court better you better think again; the unconscionable Republican Party is defying all tradition by not even considering a nominee to replace injustice Scalia. The Greedy Old Plutocrats actually want another justice like Scalia because injustice Scalia voted with the right wing majority on most of the Court's worst and most controversial decisions. Furthermore, Donald Trump has said his favorite Justice is Clarence Thomas who is widely regarded to be the most unethical Supreme Court Justice in modern times.

One can only hope that Trump continues to demonstrate how unfit he is to be President!

Portrait Of Deplorable

When Hillary Clinton said  "You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables," the news media and Trump jumped all over it. As most politicians know stating percentages as a figure of speech rather than an accurate quantification is usually going to leave you open to charges of mis-characterizing the evidence, and the reaction to Hillary Clinton's statement was predictably critical: “how dare she disparage millions of voters!”

As reported by David Corn of Mother Jones, Trump said “that [claiming] half of his supporters were racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and Islamophobic and belonged in a "basket of deplorables..." disqualifies Hillary Clinton because "you can't lead this nation if you have such a low opinion of its citizens."

Fortunately in this same article David Corn reveals Trump's hypocrisy by telling us that during a June 2015 interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News Trump disparaged millions of voters by railing against what he characterized as “so many people who don't want to work...” Trump went on to say that “we have a society that sits back and says we don't have to do anything. Eventually, the 50 percent cannot carry—and it's unfair to them—but cannot carry the other 50 percent.”

Trump, of course, is trying to make Hillary Clinton's “basket of deplorables” comment an issue by saying that it is comparable to Romney's 47% comment. I find that laughable. Is there really anyone who can look at Hillary's statement and the Donald's and not see how much closer Trump's statement is to what Mr. Romney said? Hillary thinks Trump is actually doing her a favor. She is so sure of this will not fly as an issue that she has walked back the quantification but not the characterization! The result is that the question of what and/or who is deplorable is rapidly becoming the issue, and that is much to Hillary Clinton's advantage.

As the Huffington Post reported in its article about Trumps racial comments: 

In addition to the endorsement and support of David Duke, Donald Trump's “...white supremacist fan club includes the Daily Stormer, a leading neo-Nazi news site; Richard Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute, which aims to promote the “heritage, identity, and future of European people”; Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a Virginia-based white nationalist magazine; Michael Hill, head of the League of the South, an Alabama-based white supremacist secessionist group; and Brad Griffin, a member of Hill’s League of the South and author of the popular white supremacist blog Hunter Wallace.”

Now that is certainly a something full of deplorables, but it gets much worse because of who Trump has brought into his inner circle, his campaign staff. In an article in Mother Jones entitled, “How Donald Trump's New Campaign Chief Created an Online Haven for White Nationalists” Sarah Posner wrote:

"We're the platform for the alt-right," Bannon told me proudly when I interviewed him at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in July. Though disavowed by every other major conservative news outlet, the alt-right has been Bannon's target audience ever since he took over Breitbart News from its late founder, Andrew Breitbart, four years ago. Under Bannon's leadership, the site has plunged into the fever swamps of conservatism, cheering white nationalist groups as an "eclectic mix of renegades," accusing President Barack Obama of importing "more hating Muslims," and waging an incessant war against the purveyors of "political correctness."

Not being content with the deplorable Mr. Bannon Trump added as his deputy campaign manager the deplorable David N. Bossie who, The Washington Post tells us, “...rose to prominence as a relentless Republican congressional staffer, hell-bent on tearing down the Clintons at all costs. After Bossie was caught engaging in unethical behavior, House GOP leader forced his ouster.”

It does not matter how much Kellyanne Conwoman tries to spin it, Trump's own well publicized statements about Muslims, Mexicans, women, etc. make it clear that his appointment of such a deplorable campaign staff is no accident, nor is it an accident that he has the support of white supremacists.

Apparently good things come in bunches as do deplorable things if you are Trump. At long last Donald Trump is drawing some very overdo scrutiny. Kurt Eichenwald in a News Week article entitled “How The Trump Organization's Foreign Business Ties Could Upend U.S National Security” writes in part that:

“...A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization, including confidential interviews with business executives and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his family continues to receive any benefit from the company, during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and ethical quagmires.”

And that makes the refusal of Trump to produce his tax returns deplorable! What else is he hiding? We might find out some of it because according to Reuters “New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Tuesday he had opened an inquiry into the Donald J. Trump Foundation to ensure the Republican presidential nominee's charity was complying with state laws governing nonprofits.”

Gee I wonder why. Could it be because of what appears to be a bribe the Trump foundation paid to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. As Media Matters Reports the broadcast news media has chosen to concentrate on the very flimsy accusations about the Clinton Foundation rather than the very real scandal of the Trump Foundation. According to Media Matters:

“In 2013, the Donald J. Trump Foundation donated $25,000 to a PAC supporting Bondi’s re-election. As The Washington Post explained, “At the time, Attorney General Pam Bondi was considering whether to investigate fraud allegations against Trump University. She decided not to pursue the case.”

In addition to the bribery scandal there is what The Washington Post described as purchases by the Trump Foundation of a football helmet and a six foot Portrait of Donald Trump, both of which were then given to Donald Trump. I might add here that unlike the stellar contributions made by the Clinton Foundation the contributions of the Trump foundation are paltry and largely Trump serving.

So add Donald Trump to your list of deplorables!

 Where are your tax returns Mr. Trump? And where is the IRS letter informing you of the audit you allege?

Insulted

I am really insulted by Trump and Trump's chumps. They all seem to think that I and a majority of other voters are idiots who will believe anything. They are acting as if we are dumb clucks on an egg farm who will actually buy the notion that being plucked, fried, and eaten by the plutocrats Trump represents will finally free us from George Orwell's infamous farmer!

News flash: The failure of trickle down economics was made abundantly clear by the crash of 2008, and the efforts of the GOP to obstruct the recovery after Obama's election demonstrate beyond all doubt just how intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt the Republican Party has become. The only clap-trap from the GOP establishment that base Republicans still accept is the absurd lie that the crash of 2008 was somehow the fault of Barack Obama even though he did not assume the office of President until 2009, or in the alternative, that the crash of 2008 has no baring on our present economic situation.  Unfortunately the other thing the base Republicans still accept is the nihilistic contention of the demagogues that all government is evil. The base Republicans embrace this disparagement of government because they know they are getting hosed and do not know who else to blame.  God knows you would not want to look at history, even recent history -- only a smart-ass intellectuals do that.

The bottom line is that far too many low information voters are feeling desperate enough to turn to a fascist strongman such as Donald Trump never realizing that Trump will not only double down on the failed policies of the establishment, but that he will do so with a vengeance.  As the expression goes, Trump "has the soul of an accountant," and those failed policies are good for his bottom line.  So he will treat us the same way he treats the contractors he stiffs, the laborers he exploits, and the students of Trump U. who are suing him for fraud.

And the Pig Slowly Walked Away

Here are a few lines from an old folk song about a pig and an inebriate who passed out in the street: 

“... No one was I disturbing, as I lay down by the curbing

And a pig came up and lay down by my side

As I lay there in the gutter, thinking thoughts I cannot utter

A lady passing by was heard to say

"You can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses"

And the pig got up and slowly walked away.”

The question posed by the upcoming election is whether the voters are as selective and/or discerning as the pig in the song. Although I am not a big fan of guilt by association, you can tell a lot about a person and what that person believes by the people with whom that person chooses associate. Unfortunately I do not think the voters are getting enough information about Trump's associations – about who advises Trump and who he has recently brought into his campaign. On her show last night Rachel Maddow did her best to remedy that ignorance, and what she said on her show is posted on her blog, which I urge everyone to read.  Below are a few excerpts:

“The Washington Post reported:

David N. Bossie, the veteran conservative operative who has investigated the Clintons for more than two decades, has been named Donald Trump’s deputy campaign manager. […]

… For those who were politically engaged in the 1990s, Bossie’s name may sound familiar: he rose to prominence as a relentless Republican congressional staffer, hell-bent on tearing down the Clintons at all costs. After Bossie was caught engaging in unethical behavior, House GOP leaders forced his ouster.

… The Republican operative eventually parlayed that notoriety into his own organization, called Citizens United Not Timid. The name may sound clumsy, but Bossie chose the wording based on its vulgar acronym.”

The vulgar acronym becomes even interesting when you consider what Trump has said about women and by the fact that one of Trump's closest advisors is Roger Ailes who is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal that got him ousted from Fox News. All of which should have women telling the male chauvinist pigs they know to walk away from the Trumpster!

But it is not just the gender issues that make Trump's associations so undesirable it is a whole range of issues. Just one look at the headlines on Breitbart News tells you that Trump should not have made Stephen Bannon the CEO Trump's Campaign. And that is even if you ignore the phony stories Breitbart ran about Acorn, Shirley Sherrod, etc. As for Roger Ailes he is everything that ails the dark and smelly world of the extreme right wing; he is also the one who turned Fox News into the reactionary disinformation factory!

So here, as if Trump's name calling, absurd accusations, and Xenophobia were not already sufficiently foreboding, we have him adding to his campaign organization right wing character assassins such as Messrs Bannon, Bossie, and Ailes! The pundits who say Trump's campaign is a campaign of malcontent are wrong; it is a campaign of malintent!   

Trumpian Delusions

Trump is intellectually dishonest and morally bankrupt. Insisting that he is doing well with African Americans and Hispanics is like George Armstrong Custer insisting that he is doing well with Native Americans as he leads his troops off to the Little Bighorn. Someone should tell the Donald that there is no where to run and hide from them. In spite of the best efforts of the GOP to suppress the vote of the wrong sort of people, African Americans and Hispanics will vote!

Conflicts of Interest. There is no way to tell what Donald Trump's conflicts of interests might be because he refuses to show his tax returns. But we know he is deeply in debt and has accepted loans from China! Unlike Trump the Clinton foundation was and is up front about who funds it. Furthermore, in spite of the disingenuous assertions by the Donald and other Republicans no one has established a conflict of interest in regard to Hillary Clinton and the Clinton foundation. The worst any honest person can say is that she should have avoided the appearance of a conflict of interest! I suspect that much of the criticism of Hillary Clinton and the Clinton foundation by Donald Trump is a result of the fact that he rarely donates anything to charity himself. His Tax returns could prove me wrong, but I suspect they would prove me right. You know Trump is hiding something!

Trumps' Tiny Problem

Donald Trump has now attacked Hillary Clinton aid, Huma Abadin by bringing up the over exposure scandal of Ms. Abadin's husband Anthony Weiner.  It seems all too obvious to me that Mr. Trump is jealous of the size of Mr. Weiner's exposure and that Marco Rubio was correct when he said Donald Trump has a “tiny” problem. But let me hasten to add that the last thing I want is for Trump to magnify his problem in an effort to show us otherwise. That would not be a pretty picture by anyone's standards.

What I really want to see are Trump's financial conflicts of interests. He keeps harping on what he says are Hillary Clinton's financial conflicts of interests, but he hides his own finances. Come on Donald, Leona Helmsley, Trump; Where Are Your Tax Returns?

Aboard the Trumptanic

Welcome aboard. Pity the poor crewman who told the Donald that the Trumptanic has sprung a leak.

“A leak you say? Nonsense, who says so?”

“The polls, sir.”

“Which Poles?”

“All of them.”

“No, it can't be all of them. That's like saying all Ukrainians love Manafort. Only some of them [presumably the ones who are ethnic Russians] say they love Manafort, and many of them lie about it. Believe me, I know Poles and they lie as much as the Ukrainians do!”

“No, sir. I'm not talking about the Poles I'm talking about the survey takers.”

“You mean surveyors! What the hell do they have to do with it? Believe me, I know surveyors. I've even stiffed a few of them, but I guess I shouldn't say that. Lets just say I got the best deal from them on my developments.”

“No sir. I mean the people who ask potential voters what they think of the candidates and who they intend to vote for.”

“Oh them. Can you trust them?”

“The last candidate who said you can't was Mit Romney.”

“He's an idiot! He doesn't even support me. I can negotiate much better deals than he can.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Donald had now turned red or at least ruddier than normal, and his protruding, pouting lips gave him a duck mouth. A decision now descended or ascended upon him, depending on your optical, theological, or ideological prospective. And he bellowed: “Damn it!” I'll do what got me here!”

“You mean on this iceberg?”

“I mean here!” The Donald shouted. “Full speed ahead! Push the damn iceberg out of the way!”

“We can't do that, sir.”

“The hell we can't. Get someone up here who will do it!”

And with that Paul Manafort was escorted off the bridge while Stephen Bannon was hoisted up to the bridge. It was a bit like replacing Yosemite Sam with the Tasmanian Devil.

But do not worry about Paul Manafort; if the worst happens there will be a place for him in a Trump administration, probably dealing with Putin and the Ukraine – he is so good at that, don't you know?

It's Rigged

The whole election is rigged, don't you know? Just ask the Trumpster and his chumps. The media is totally against him. How dare they accurately report the stupid, inflammatory things he says, and how dare the newscasters react in a critical or dismissive manner to clips showing Trump saying those absurd things. Good Gawd, even the intellectually challenged can figure out that Trump is being an idiot when newscasters react like that.  And don't tell Trump the media is only reporting the facts. The facts are not just facts they are partisan slices of reality because only Democrats, pointy headed intellectuals, and people who claim to have journalistic integrity care about the facts.

Donald is already hedging his bets and building an ego shield by telling us the fix is in. He claims that the only thing that can keep him from winning Pennsylvania is fraud.

"The only way we can lose, in my opinion, I really mean this, Pennsylvania, is if cheating goes on ... if in certain sections of the state they cheat," Trump said.

In Trump speak that means that the only way Hilary Clinton can win in Pennsylvania is if the wrong sort of people, the people not counted as likely voters by Republican pollsters, actually vote. If that happens you know the system is rigged against the Republican Party's efforts to suppress the vote! So the system is rigged! So rigged! Right?

Moldy Garbage!

With Donald Trump it is not garbage in garbage out; it is instead moldy garbage intentionally dug up, pulled out of trash cans, thrown with panache and plopped higher and deeper in mounds of festering deception. Everyone with eyes can see it, everyone with a nose can smell it, everyone with a functional brain can tell you it is garbage or worse; yet there are still millions of people who deny it, try to excuse it, or even embrace it. In this regard the tawdry huckster, Trump, is an uncivil cultural phenomenon in the vein of shock jocks and Howard Stern (who Trump admires). Trump is also a fascist style demagogue who taps into the paranoia and anger of unsettled people for whom the American dream has always been illusory and the American past has always been highly romanticized drivel.

The only people who benefit from what Trump is doing are the drama casters, and even the drama casters are embarrassed by the abundance of Trump's absurdly offensive statements, his incessant use of Trumped up accusations, and the outright lies he so shamelessly spews in volumes that leave no time for analysis or a detailed reporting of them. What Trump is displaying is a shameful disregard for the truth and a disdainful dismissal of the decency and decorum of political discourse. Insulting a grieving, gold star family and mocking a disabled reporter are only two examples of how low Trump is willing to slither.

Trying to teach Trump history is like trying to teach your dog calculus. He Cannot even remember his own history. Donald Trump was for W. Bush's war in Iraq until it became expedient to opposed it. But then this brings up that Bush thing. No Republican wants to bring up George W. Bush. It was Obama and Hillary Clinton who “Founded Isis", don't you know? And you silly asses thought Isis was an offshoot of Al-Qaeda which was not in Iraq until after we invaded that country and Bush replaced its government and military with a weak Shiite government that depended on Shiite militia's. It was also George W. Bush who crashed the economy, and it was a Republican Congress that obstructed the economic recovery.  So a big Bush who to you too!

One of the worst traits any President can have is the lack of an intellectual curiosity, and Trump lacks the curiosity to learn what he needs to know. We see this in the field of economics when he actually advocated making the world write off a large portion of our national debt. He apparently lacked the curiosity to find out what this would do to the currency markets and stock markets around the world. Ah, but do not worry. The other Republicans have him on track now. Like all Republicans he is happily perpetuating the longest running fraud in American history.  Reagan euphemistically called this fraud “supply side economics” but it is the same trickle down theory that enriched the rich at the expense of ninety percent of the people until it failed in 1929 was revived by Ronald Reagan and then failed again in 2008.

Voting for Trump means casting aside all logic and judgment. In Trump world it is fair to accuse Obama of being a Kenyon and Hillary Clinton of corruption. It is up to Obama to prove he is an American, and it is up to Hillary Clinton to prove that her missing emails do not show she is corrupt. I think we should apply that standard to Mr. Trump. Hey, Donald, Leona Helmsley, Trump what are you afraid of? We are not buying the being audited excuse. Richard Nixon produced his tax returns when he was being audited, and Warren Buffet has offered to produce his tax returns while being audited if you will produce yours. So what are you hiding? Will your tax returns reveal that only the little people pay taxes? Will your returns reveal that you cheated on your taxes? Will your returns reveal that your praise of Vladimir Putin is the result of your close and shady economic ties to Russia? I think it is all of those things plus the fact that you are not as wealthy as you claim. So following your own illogic, produce your returns and prove me wrong!

The Judgment Free Trump Zone

A Gold Star father, Khizr Khan delivered what is considered to be the most effective and moving speech at the Democratic convention. With his grieving wife standing silently but resolutely at his side this Muslim gentlemen, Mr. Khan described the sacrifice his patriotic son Captain Humayun Khan made for this country. Mr. Khizr Khan went on to say that if Donald Trump had his way the Khan family would not be in America and Captain Khan would not have been in Iraq to give up his life to save the lives of his men. Mr. Khan said that Mr. Trump should “read the Constitution” and should go to “Arlington National Cemetery” to see the racial, ethnic, and religious diversity of the brave people who have sacrificed everything for this country. You, Mr. Trump “have sacrificed nothing,” Mr. Khan said.

I bring this up because today on the Joy Reid show Trump surrogate Steve Cortes was stupid enough to say that Trump had every right to defend himself against the attack Mr. Khan launched at him. All I can say is that while Mr. Trump has the right to do it, he obviously lacks the good judgment, decency, and common (and/or political) sense not to do it.

Mr. Trump simply could not resist responding to Mr. Khan's criticisms and further disparaging the Muslim faith and Mrs. Khan while doing so. "If you look at his wife,” Trump said. “she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me." Mr. Trump's not so subtle implication being that the Muslim faith severely suppresses women and that Mrs. Ghuzala Khan is like a potted plant. Trump also insisted that he has made plenty of sacrifices for this country. When George Stephanopoulos asked Trump to name some of those sacrifices Trump said he “worked very, very hard,” created “tens of thousands of jobs,” and “built great structures.”

In the Trumposphere, sitting somewhere above the earth like the Van Allen belt, whatever Trump does is greater than what anyone else does or can do; so it is only natural for Trump to think that his hard work was a greater sacrifice than a soldier can make by giving up his life for his country, and certainly greater than the sacrifice made by parents who suffer from the heart wrenching loss of a son or daughter who died for this country. As for Steve Cortes, let me say that I do not think he can help himself because the Trumposphere in which Mr. Cortes has chosen to live is a judgment free, fact free zone, separate and apart from any human rationality or the real world.

Here is a precious right for Mr. Steve Cortes. You have the right to hale Trump and (regardless of what the sanctimonious Mike Pence will tell you) we have the right to give Trump the finger. Which one people choose to do will depend on whether they want a country ruled by “we the people” or “he the people.” My advice to we the people is to give Mr. Trump the finger figuratively in the voting booth by casting your ballet for Hillary Clinton!

A Blast From The Past And Madam President

Hey guys1 If you're feeling pinched it's probably because your dressing on the wrong side. Why not a female President? Your momma led you into the future didn't she?

The Democratic convention was a blast from the past and the promise of a better future. It was an old fashion political circus of blatant, some would even say corny displays of patriotism, of musical acts, and of soaring oratory accompanied by loud cheers and at least a bit of booing. The roll call vote hearkened back to a time when the nominee was selected at the convention rather than during the primary elections and local caucuses. Each state, all of which are the “great state” of           , told me why I am missing out by not living there. This roll call boasting was a display of provincialism on a national stage. But it was boosterism rather than a closed or suspicious provincialism. Which is to say it was an invitation to join the good people living in those states or pay them a visit on what they believe to be God's own piece of earth.

That is the Norman Rockwell view of the convention. The other part is Political. The political part is always emotional, often issue driven, and far too messy from an establishment prospective. The Bernie of bust crowd added the edgy dissension the Democratic Party is so famous for having. Since the great depression the Democratic Party has had the larger tent, and since the civil rights act it has been the party that takes on the more difficult issues. There is always a lot of shouting at Democratic conventions, usually some farting which each side blames on the other side, and occasionally threats to walk out with a pox on your house curse as a parting shot. Usually there are compromises which please no one but cause everyone to rally round in opposition to the common foe. This time the Bernie and Hillary people came together to create a party platform that is more progressive than anyone expected. Hillary also agreed to procedures Bernie wanted, including the delightful roll call vote. Furthermore, in her acceptance speech, Hillary Clinton stated her commitment to the progressive planks in the Democratic Party Platform! I believe her because it is unlikely that she committed to those planks out of weakness. It took way too much grit and determination for her to become the first women nominated to be President by a major political party; this woman is anything but weak.

I know the precedent of nominating Hillary will overshadow everything else, but this ground breaking convention was also a celebration of our great country and its better political traditions. From this convention arose the promise of a Democratic Party that has reclaimed its New Dealer soul and renewed the commitment Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt made to the working people of this great nation. Hillary Clinton's message and appeal are uplifting and resolute. As Franklin Roosevelt said during a much tougher time: “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” On behalf of the Democratic Party Hillary invites everyone to work with us to build a better future! I am sure she will agree with me when I say that together we are greater than ever!

The only thing I can say about those other guys, the Greedy Old Plutocrats, is that there is no comparison! What the Republicans displayed at their convention is not something anyone who loves this country would wish on it!

The DNC Emails

The drama casters, the pants wetters, and the delusional right wingers have it all wrong. The leaked DNC emails did not reveal anything the supporters of Bernie Sanders did not already know! Believe me, the Bernie delegates at the convention were looking forward to booing Debbie Wasserman Schultz long before the contents of the emails became public. In fact the disclosure of the DNC bias against Bernie simply made the Hillary people acknowledge that the bias existed, and in doing so it gave them the leverage they needed to convince Wasserman Schultz to stay away from the convention! The self deluding reactionaries are welcome to their wet dreams about an unbridgeable divide in the Democratic Party, but that is not the reality of this election. The polls show that 90% of the people supporting Bernie Sanders will vote for Hillary Clinton, and that is the reality.

There is, however, a strong caveat for Hillary Clinton. As Sarah Silverman said the “Bernie or Bust” people are being ridiculous, but the fears they express are not unfounded. It is far too likely that Hillary Clinton will use some minor cosmetic change of the TPP agreement as an excuse to support it! There is also a likelihood that her loyalty to the financial interests that have been supporting her for decades will prevent her from fighting for the reforms set forth in the party platform. If Hillary Clinton goes back on her word and supports bad trade agreements such as TPP or she does not fight to implement the reforms set forth in the party platform the first female President of this country will also become the most divisive and unpopular President since LBJ! The political revolution is for real folks! The Berners will vote to vanquish the greater of two evils, but they will not passively settle for the lesser of two evils. They will fight for a congress that will advance their agenda even in the face of Hillary Clinton's objections if she is foolish enough to object.

From my experiences on Daily Kos I can tell you that Hillary's supporters (regardless of gender) now have their panties in a bunch over what I just wrote. My advice to them is to get real! The fact that Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are so popular and Donald Trump is politically viable should tell Hillary and her supporters that the angry people in this county are rapidly becoming the majority. Being a moderate is not an option today. Moderation in the face of fanatical demagoguery is far too passive. The middle ground today is where our cities have been destroyed by bad trade agreements and trickle down economics. At the risk of being overly dramatic I should say that the middle ground has become the darkened earth where the dreams of the working class have been crushed under the jack boots of the oligarchy's thugs. A resurgent left comprised of old liberals and eager millennials has now emerged to defend the hopes and aspirations of people who still believe in the promise of this great country. What the left wants and this country desperately needs is another Franklin Roosevelt!

Hillary Clinton has the skill and the knowledge to be the leader we need. The question is whether she has the wisdom and the will to be that leader. We will vote for her warily but hopefully!

Just Asking

Under the heading of you asked for it is Ted Cruz' non endorsement, vote your conscience convention speech. This is just another example of the fact that Ted, the Canadian Texas Turd, Cruz does what turds do; he stinks and grows harmful bacteria. Even factually challenged Republicans know that. Hell, Trump even read the speech before Cruz was allowed to deliver it! So now comes the question all pundits and political pants wetters are asking:

“Why did Donald Trump and the RNC plop the Canadian Texas Turd on the stage last night knowing he would stink up what was supposed to be a coming out party for Mike Pence?”

Could it be because it was good theater?  I don't know, but thanks for the comic relief guys!  I just hope the voters realize that the greater joke will be on them if they vote for the clown prince Trump and/or his supporting cast of corporate lackeys. 

Day One: The Trumped-up Extraviganza

Cue the circus music, and gather the boys and girls. Trump's clown extravaganza promises chills and shills and eventually nostrums.

“So Start Da Music! Let the show begin!”

And so it began - almost. The first rule of planning is that nothing goes exactly according to plan. So the tent was raised and the audience had gathered, but there were a few procedural matters that had to be attended to before the show could begin. The procedural matters began with a scavenger hunt for the secretary of the convention or an appropriate surrogate who had the authority to accept on the secretary's behalf the petitions signed by the delegates of the nine states that were demanding a roll call vote on whether to adopt the proposed rules of the convention. As the hunt was being conducted what Ken Cuccinelli described as RNC brown shirts were browbeating, intimidating and otherwise coercing the signers of that petition into recanting their signatures.

Eventually the Chairman of the convention said that the petitions lacked the number of states required to compel a roll call vote. And with that the chairman held the voice vote. “The Ayes have it,” he ruled, “and without objection” the motion to adopt the rules is passed. He said this as hundreds of people were chanting “Roll Call Vote!” in protest and others were yelling into microphones that had been shut off so the chairman could ignore the “point of order” objections. Welcome to the new RNC world order of Trump. Just ignore what you saw and heard folks because the motion was passed and the rules were adopted without objection; the honorable chairman said so and so it was ruled!

And where was RNC Chairman Reince Priebus during this charade? He was off doing the political duck and cover he has developed into an art form since it became obvious that Trump was going to be the nominee. In the spirit of bipartisanship, however, he might teach his moves to Debbi Wasserman-Schultz if she asks him pretty please.

Anyhow, after the last vestiges of protest finally ended for the day, the substantive (aka Trumped up) part of the convention began. The program promised to show the boys and girls just how scary clowns can be, particularly fascist clowns who build their entire acts around stirring up the fear and loathing of their audiences. So the clowns set about blaming Hillary Clinton for all the evil in the world, except for the holocaust -- but only because even factually challenged Republicans have to admit that she is too young to have participated in the holocaust or the Russian Revolution. I know that is disappointing but the Republicans have an alternative. In spite of all the independent investigations and hearings that exonerate Hillary Clinton, the Republican fiction writers have developed a horror story about a real historical tragedy and they trotted out the mother of one of the victims of the attack at Benghazi to help ascribe blame for the tragedy to Hillary Clinton and infer what kind of evil Hillary is capable of committing.

Only an inference I say, but the Greedy Old Plutocrats beg to differ with me. It is evidence the Republicans say. And after exploiting the grief of this poor lady who lost her son at Benghazi, the Republicans put on more speakers who made the unsubstantiated charges against Hillary Clinton more explicit. Not the least disgruntled of those speakers was Rudy Giuliani who is still lashing out over the embarrassment he suffered in 2008 when he left his ass prints in Florida on the road to the white house. The rest of the speakers bearing false witness against Hillary Clinton are so dismal and insignificant that I did not watch them and will not write about them. Come on folks: Joni (cut off everything productive) Ernst and Tom (“Dear Ayatollah”) Cotton(mouth). It would take a microscope to find any brains in that brain trust!

The highlight and the only seemingly positive part of the program was the speech by Melonia Trump. This very attractive lady delivered it with poise and charm. Needless to say that the audience received her speech with the same enthusiasm that Democrats received it when Michelle Obama delivered it at their convention in 2008. Regardless of the fact that Melania told Lester Holt she had written the speech with very little help everyone seems willing to give her a pass on the plagiarism. Presidential candidates have professional speech writers and the speakers customarily take credit for the speeches those professionals write. Does that mean that Melonia is as much of a victim as the grieving lady who was used as a tool in the villainization of Hillary Clinton? I will leave it to you to answer that question, but stay tuned in.

Should Notorious RBG Apologize?

Donald Trump is demanding that Ruth Bader Ginsburg apologize to him and resign from the Supreme Court for making derogatory comments about him. I think she should apologize to Trump when former Supreme Court Injustice Antonin Scalia apologizes to President Obama. There is already a vacancy on the Supreme Court because the intransigent Republicans put the interests of their party ahead of the interests and traditions of this country. Could there be a better indication of what is at stake in this election? Now the fascist Trump wants to create two vacancies he can fill if the country is insane enough to elect him!

Picking The Bloody Nose

Please pardon the unappealing title, but it is indicative of the unappealing myopia (not optics) of the Republicans conducting the so called investigations and hearings in the House of Representatives. When the Republicans took over the House of Representatives Grand Inquisitor Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight And Government Reform Committee, promised myriad investigations of the Obama administration and promptly disgraced himself even to the point of admitting that his investigations were nothing more than political theater. His misconduct in regard to withholding exculpatory evidence and misrepresenting evidence was so apparent that the Republicans had to replace him as chairman of the Select Committee On Benghazi. His successor on that Select Committee, Mr. Gowdy then presided over an inept eleven hour grilling of Hillary Clinton regarding Benghazi and her private e-mail server. Hillary got much the better of that hearing and in doing so revealed that Congressman Gowdy, like Grand Inquisitor Issa, was engaged in a witch hunt.

The bloody nose the Republicans received from all the bogus investigations, including Benghazi, did not deter them. Their great hope shifted away from their own witch hunts to the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of her private email server. James Comey the Director of the FBI is a life long Republican with a sterling reputation for integrity and independence. This would seem to make Mr. Comey unassailable, but the Republicans tried to have it both ways by praising him while accusing the Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the Clintons, and President Obama of tainting the investigation. Those accusations became more shrill after a chance meeting between Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch on the tarmac of an airport. Ms. Lynch answered the Republican accusations about her tampering with the investigation by asserting the independent nature of the investigation and by saying that she would abide by whatever Mr. Comey recommends.

On July 6, FBI Director Comey took the unprecedented step of holding a press conference to reveal and explain his recommendations. In that conference Mr. Comey said Hillary Clinton was extremely careless in regard to handling confidential material, but that she did not intentionally violate of any laws. He added that without any criminal intent on her part no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against her. Mr. Comey's scathing criticism of Hillary Clinton's use of her private email server would have given the Republicans more than enough ammunition to use against her, but as usual they wanted much more than a good campaign issue. What the Republicans wanted and still want is a criminal indictment that will destroy Hillary Clinton politically! So on July 7, they hastily held a hearing in which to grill FBI Director Comey, who they were now castigating for not recommending that charges be brought against Hillary Clinton. When it comes to bad political theater one would have to go back to the eleven hour grilling of Hillary Clinton to find anything as bad as this grilling of Director Comey. It was as gross as picking the bloody nose.

Most of the Republicans seemed intent on arguing about what they think the law is or should be rather than what the law actually is, and they were so unprepared that they repeated ad nauseam questions already asked and answered. The Republicans that are attorneys turned their attention to the Espionage Act which does not require a willful or intentional violation in order to establish criminal negligence. The problem for those Republicans wanting to charge Hillary for gross negligence, however, is that there is no recent precedent for bringing that charge and there are some legitimate questions about the constitutionality of the negligence provisions of the act.

None of that mattered to Jason Chaffetz (R. Utah) who saw another way to get Hillary Clinton. Mr. Comey said that out of the 30,000 plus emails reviewed by the FBI around 100 of them contained classified material. So Congressman Chaffetz concluded that Hillary Clinton lied to the public and to congress when she said the emails did not contain classified material. Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha! Mr. Chaffetz could hardly contain his glee. Perjury charges are better than negligence charges, and they do not require the Republicans to explain why they were not upset when it was revealed that Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice also used their personal email accounts for official business. Mr Chaffetz cheerfully said he will request that the FBI investigate whether Hillary Clinton committed perjury when she testified at the Congressional hearing on Benghazi. But I am sure it did not occur to Mr. Chaffetz that perjury also requires intent, merely showing that testimony is inaccurate is not enough!

Proving that Hillary intentionally lied will not be an easy thing to do. As Representative Cummings pointed out: of the 30,000 plus emails only 100 or so contained any confidential material, and of those one hundred emails only 3 had any marking or designation that would indicate they contained classified material. Furthermore none of the documents had a conspicuous Classified header as required by the manual; instead those 3 emails had “[c]” to designate paragraphs that contained classified material, and it has been determined that even those classified designations were unwarranted. The question therefore will revolve around whether Hillary knowingly made references in her emails to documents she knew were classified or subjects she knew were classified.

At any rate this determination to prosecute Hillary Clinton for something, anything is a certain indication of an inquisition in the most pejorative sense of the term. It is the desperate gasp of a political party that gave us the crash of 2008 and has failed utterly to govern this country even when that party had control of both houses of congress. It is the fear mongering of a party that has to depend on fear and loathing because it is knowingly nominating a Presidential candidate who is even more flawed than Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush! In short, the allegations against Hillary Clinton carry with them the unmistakable odor of desperation and moral decay!

GOP Veep Takes

Here is my take on the names that supposedly appear on the Trumpster's list of prospective Vice Presidential candidates:

Chris Christie – may fawn his way to the nomination, but getting to the office will require him to cross one congested bridge too far. Seriously, Christie is a bastard file that only adds to Trump's abrasive image, and I don't think we can expect an attractive portrait of Christie to be drawn at the bridgegate trials set to begin in September!

Mike Pence – From his anti-choice views to guy rights, Mike Pence could not be more reactionary or wrong about every social issue, and his economic record is dismal. Religious fanatics will love him for what they think are his God given (inflicted) values, but everyone else will view him as Corporate crap or just another piece of dinosaur coprolite.

Newt Gingrich – Seriously? I think my brother, Randy Smiley said it best in 2012 when he wrote:

“Gingrich? Isn't this the guy that said; 'Anyone who quotes me or shows that clip of what I said is a liar.' I have to admit that sometime[s] Gingrich is as quotable as Dan Quail. But [do] you really want the DISGRACED RESIGNED SPEAKER as PRESIDENT?”

There is also something about the impeachment of Bill Clinton and shutting down the government that makes the baggage Newt Gingrich carries smell like a colostomy bag.

They'll Always Have Benghazi!

All right that fear mongering, neo-fascist named Trump may have successfully wooed the base Republicans, but all is not lost. In a dialogue far too prolix to be classified as anything other than annoying by innocent bystanders the traditional Republican witch hunters are telling the Republicans boarding the Trump plane that “we'll always have Benghazi!” Kind of chokes you up, doesn't it? It gags me. But forget the fact that it took the Republicans 11 hours of grilling Hillary Clinton to demonstrate that they really do not have the evidence needed to indict her. What they are now proudly presenting is a culmination of years hard work by Grand Inquisitors Issa and Goudy, who in the spirit of gainful partisanship gamely ignored the six independent investigations and all exculpatory evidence to create a prosecutorial brief disingenuously called the House Report On Benghazi. Surely in this massive 800 page pile of crap there must be some new information that is significant to the case the Grand inquisitors have been trying to make. Not really, “but we can still burn her at the stake” they say. Like Congressman Kevin McCarthy base Republicans are all for sham investigations designed to hurt Hillary Clinton's reputation! And there is nothing that tickles the G-spot of those base Republicans as much as the image of burning Hillary at the stake for being a witch!

You do not want to know what that image of burning Hillary does for the Donald. The only problem for him is that he wants much more. I can hear him now. "Bravo! Bravo! Well done, but what about Warren! I don't give a damn about Native Americans; destroy Pocahontas! Destroy her, I say! Never mind, I'll do it myself. And I'll do it so good! You won't believe how good I'll do it!"

So Proud To Be A Democrat

The averous and arrogance of the gun manufacturers has finally become too much to bear. Democratic politicians who once cowered in fear over the power of the gun lobby are now standing up. They are telling us in a dramatic fashion that moments of silence and prayers accomplish nothing, and they are issuing a call to action. In the Senate a filibuster by Democrats finally forced a vote on modest gun reform bills, including one that banned the sale of guns to anyone on the no-fly list. The Republican Party, which claims to be the best at protecting us from terrorists, voted almost unanimously to defeat all of those gun reform bills thereby permitting the gun manufacturers to continue arming the terrorists in this country! Arming your enemy, now isn't that a great idea?

In the House of Representatives there is no rule or procedure comparable to the filibuster, and the majority party is free to exert its will on the minority party without mercy. Needless to say that the Republican Party has been treating House Democrats as irrelevant since 2011. The frustration of being a part of the least productive and most destructive Congress since the Civil War combined with the Republican Party's amoral obedience to the gun lobby finally caused the Democrats to resort to desperate measures. Led by a civil rights hero, Congressman John Lewis, the Democrats held an unprecedented sit-in in the well of the House while demanding a vote on two gun reform bills. The first of those bills would ban the sale of guns to suspected terrorists on the no-fly list. The second bill would require universal background checks of gun purchasers. The Republicans adamantly oppose bringing those measures up for a vote before a national election because most Republicans have sold out to the gun lobby and they are afraid the latest massacres will make their constituents realize that the safety of our citizens and the deadly greed of the gun manufacturers are mutually exclusive!

The Democrats demanding a vote on those gun reform bills are defying the will of the majority party and are putting the Republicans in a very difficult political position. Furthermore, those Democrats have already broken several House rules by staging the sit-in, filming the sit-in, holding up signs and pictures of the victims of gun violence, and by shouting slogans even after Speaker Ryan called the house back into session after a recess. Those are classic civil disobedience tactics designed to create martyrs if the Republicans over-react and do something as stupid as trying to forcibly remove the protesters. So what is a rich gun lobby lackey to do? Speaker Ryan decided to try to defy the protesters by conducting some normal business.

So in an almost unbelievable display of political tone deafness the Republicans brought to the floor a measure that is the perfect example of Republican Congressmen representing money interests at the expense of their constituents. The Labor Department's Fiduciary Responsibility Rule protects investors from being deceived and cheated by investment firms and investment advisers. President Obama had vetoed a bill by the Republican controlled Congress that would have weakened the protection of pensioners, trusts, and other investors by removing the Fiduciary Responsibility rule, and Paul Ryan was now bringing up a bill to override that veto. Ryan might as well have held up a sign saying “we are morally and intellectually bankrupt but are doing quite well financially thanks to our rich friends.” Just look at what he and his party did all in one night. They demonstrated beyond doubt that they think the profits of the gun manufacturers are more important than lives and that they, the Republicans, think it should not be so difficult for investment firms and investment advisers to deceive and cheat unsuspecting investors!

I am really proud of the Democratic Senators standing up to the gun Lobby and the Democratic members of Congress holding the sit-in. I know the sit-in was not a rash decision. It sets a difficult precedent, but what is at stake here are lives. I hope this is part of the movement to rest control of our government from the grasp of the wealthy and return it to the people!

Senators For Arming Terrorists

Today the GOP, the NRA and the politicians shamelessly selling their souls to the arms manufacturers seem like something George Orwell might have cooked up in one of his darker moments. These despicable political harlots, these cowardly NRA lackeys are using a deliberate misinterpretation of the second amendment and a bogus appeal to the great Gawd of free enterprise to defend their votes permitting the sale of guns to people on the terrorist watch list and/or no fly list.  A very dark but accurate description of what they are trying sell us on is the idea that the profits of the gun manufacturers are more important than are our lives or our national security. What I find so amazing is that the Republicans who are permitting people on the terrorist watch list and /or no fly list to purchase military style assault weapons actually have the unmitigated gall to say that they are better at protecting this country from terrorist attacks than are the Democrats who have the courage to defy the NRA by voting for a ban on the sale of guns to people who are on the terrorist watch list and/or no fly list. I suppose those NRA Republicans also want us to believe that Benedict Arnold was the best person to defend West Point! Can we call what the NRA and its political mercenaries are doing treason for profit? Not that I would really do that; the question was just a twitch of pique, don't you know? Donald Trump has them all the time!

But seriously, is there really anyone out there who is actually stupid enough to believe that arming your enemy is a good idea? I am tempted to say Wayne Lapierre and the NRA are that stupid, but saying that would be misleading because they think it is profitable idea, ergo good for them; they don't give a damn about you or me. It is also profitable for the politicians who constantly sell out to the NRA. You know who those politicians are; they are the ones insulting your intelligence with absurd justifications for voting against any reasonable gun control measures. Twenty two of the Senators up for re-election this year accepted large contributions from the Nation Rifle Association and voted to permit people on the terrorist watch list or no fly list to buy guns, including military style assault weapons. It is not inaccurate or unfair to say that those Senators favor arming terrorists because that is what they are willfully permitting with their votes. The Senators up for re-election who favor arming the terrorists are as follows:

"Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Lisa Murkow (R-Alaska), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), John Thune (R-S.D.), and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)..."

To Dump Or Not To Dump Trump, that is the question

I am going to keep this very short. The dilemma Donald Trump poses for the Republican Party is worthy of a Shakespearian soliloquy. There is no good answer to the question of whether they should or should not dump Trump. The voters in the Republican primaries have spoken, farted, and given the Republican establishment the finger. Whether the base Republicans are smart enough to realize it or not nominating Donald Trump is suicidal. And as most of the pundits will tell you, attempted political suicide and/or defying the will of your voters are both capital offenses.

I am tempted to say that it is all over but the laughter. Unfortunately the trial does not begin until after the conventions, and any prosecutor who walks into a trial thinking he has the case won is making a huge mistake. There is a lot at risk in this trial, this election, and the least of those things is the fate of a party that has pandered so shamelessly to the fears and prejudices of its angry, gullible base. Besides, the fate of the Republican Party will be decided during the penalty phase, if the voters turn out and render a proper verdict!

Berning For All

They tried to ignore him, but Bernie Sanders kept going. They tried to dismiss him, but the crowds he drew and the states he won made that impossible. Now they are telling him to drop out of the race for the good of the party. But whose party is it? It is the party that has ignored its liberal base for far too long. It is the party that became too timid to stand up for so many of the things that made it great! It is no wonder that so many men who were or are blue collar workers feel betrayed by the system; their unions were busted, their real wages were greatly decreased, and many of the jobs they depended on were exported. Furthermore, many of them have lost their pensions! And the Democratic Party let this happen with barely a peep of protest coming only from liberals the establishment was ignoring. The success Bernie Sanders has achieved thus far, regardless of whether he is nominated, is changing that. 

I am sure future historians will call this the year or the election of discontent. On the rational side of the political spectrum Bernie Sanders has become the voice of the disaffected. I say the “rational side” of the political spectrum because Bernie advocates positive changes to deal with real problems. He is correct in saying that the alternatives to a liberal agenda are more of the same lame policies we have been following or Herr Trump, the neo-fascist fraudster who scapegoats racial and ethnic minorities and tells his followers that he will make America “great again” by kicking the crap out of the bad guys as only he can define “bad guys.”

The one thing Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have in common is that they have both demonstrated that the discontent of such a large segment of our society makes the status quo unsustainable. The people who are bright enough to connect the dots are reacting to the devastation caused by trickle down economics and Republican obstruction by demanding real and substantial changes. This is reflected in the Pew Research Center polls indicating that the number of Democrats describing themselves as liberals has increased and that this change in ideology is particularly pronounced in the millions of younger voters who represent the future. Indeed it is the enthusiastic, one might even say militant support of Bernie Sanders by these self described liberals that has delivered such a powerful kick to the right butt cheek of the Democratic Party that even the establishment has been forced to turn farther to the left than it wanted to turn.

With all the well deserved media coverage of Hillary Clinton's masterful smack down of Donald Trump it is all too easy to ignore news of one of the most important changes Bernie Sanders has inspired. President Obama had expressed his willingness to decrease the benefits of Social Security by changing the way cost of living adjustments are calculated.  Now he is backing away from that position, and he is actually advocating an expansion of Social Security benefits. Similarly, Hillary Clinton who was giving non-committal statements about Social Security has reacted to Bernie Sander's direct challenge on the subject by tweeting “As always, I'll defend it, & I'll expand it.” These are big, important changes, as is Hillary Clinton's recently found opposition to TPP.

I think it is safe to say that Bernie Sander's political revolution has begun, and that is a good news for the majority of us. But there is a phenomenon we must bear in mind and guard against. In the early stages of most revolutions progressive moderates invariably try to address fears that the changes proposed by the revolutionaries are too radical or big, and in doing so the moderates institute ineffective reforms that anger everyone and make the rebels even more radical. That is why I am not real eager to see Bernie Sanders drop out of the race. Hillary Clinton will be the nominee, but I want Bernie to push her and the Democratic Party as far to the left as he can before he endorses her. I also want him and his followers to become gadflies that bite politicians at all levels of government and thereby make meaningful changes inevitable. This country needs the party of Franklin Roosevelt to act like the party of Franklin Roosevelt again.