Praying, Indeed

Our politicians pray to God to cover their tracks. They pray to the NRA for bigger shoes. We must put an end to the whoring of America. The down ballot races are critical. Citizens United must be over turned for the soul of this nation, for our future.

Dog Days

If I were Clinton I would put Bill, the Big Dog as Chris Matthews calls him, in a kennel. He just can't resist doing the stupid thing; to wit, arguing with Millennial voters; showing up at polling places while votes are being cast; strolling onto the Attorney General's plane with the easy freedom of a man whose wife is NOT being investigated by factions of the Justice Department.

Let me say that I consider much of what the Right has propagated about HRC over the years to be claptrap. I certainly don't think that she has killed anyone. As I said to dear friend recently, I don't believe for one minute that she has the brains or the nerve to orchestrate a murderous criminal concern al a Capone or Luciano. As an Italian American I really must insist that these men be given the respect they are due within their chosen field. They were career criminals, and they were good at it; they were professional killers, not sloppy opportunists. They were not cheap politicians, they owned politicians. As a further disclaimer, let me also say that I have no use for Bill Clinton. I haven't since he turned the party of FDR into the party of Go-Along-To-Get-Along, wondering penis and magic zipper aside. But, let all this go.

The material point here is that if you want to elect this woman in November, put Fido on a chain out back. Bring him in for speeches. Watch him close. His antics are not amusing to a great many of us who are reminded of the arrogance and tone-deaf elitism that turned us off establishment politicians and their politics years ago.

A Box of Moon Rocks

I am a great fan of Glenn Greenwald. His most recent article in "Intercept" is both brilliant and insightful. For instance, he calls out his colleagues in the media for their self absorbed and myopic need to oversimplify Brexit and other angry populist reactions to the corruption of establishment politics, finance and media. One of the points that he makes is that not all anti-establishment sentiment is grounded in racism, nationalism and Right-wing hysteria.

"More importantly still — and directly contrary to what establishment liberals love to claim in order to demonize all who reject their authority — economic suffering and xenophobia/racism are not mutually exclusive. The opposite is true: The former fuels the latter, as sustained economic misery makes people more receptive to tribalistic scapegoating. That’s precisely why plutocratic policies that deprive huge portions of the population of basic opportunity and hope are so dangerous. Claiming that supporters of Brexit or Trump or Corbyn or Sanders or anti-establishment European parties on the left and right are motivated only by hatred but not genuine economic suffering and political oppression is a transparent tactic for exonerating status quo institutions and evading responsibility for doing anything about their core corruption."

The "core corruption" of the MSM is on full display these days as we slither toward the Democratic Convention. This has been particularly interesting to me as I have seen the establishment media indict and belittle Sanders daily for his refusal to sit down, shut up and worship at the feet of their newly crowned queen, Hillary Clinton. The assertion has been that anyone still running outside of the establishment - although no one claims being in the establishment, mind you - is somehow eroding the chances of the establishment/not establishment/sort-of-establishment candidate, Clinton. They are hauling out one lonely poll indicating that 80% of Sanders voters are softening toward Clinton, and that Elizabeth Warren is replacing Bernie as the voice of the Left. Yeah, and I have a box of rocks from the moon to sell ya.

No one has talked to us, of course. Nobody has called me; I am a registered Democrat for the time being. Nobody has called any Sanders supporter that I know, or any Sanders supporter that anybody I know knows, or any Sanders supporter that anybody I know knows who knows someone else who is a Sanders supporter. Well, you get the message. They seem to cobble this stuff out among themselves, reinforcing one another the way drunks do at a bar when confirming their right to stay drunk.

The material point is that Bernie Sanders is the foundation of the New Left. Warren is a pillar of the New Left. Clinton isn't on the Left at all - old new or in between. Warren is working to defeat Trump. Bernie has said he would do the same. He will endorse Clinton, if he endorses Clinton, in his own good time. The perpetual prating of 12 year-old reporters with better hair than minds won't make a goddamned bit of difference. After all he is a 74 year-old Democratic Socialist, running for president in a country that routinely confuses us with nerve gas, Joe Stalin and genital herpes. Now you can say a lot of things about our Senator Sanders, but a coward who is easily manipulated ain't one of them.

So, treat yourself to the work of a real reporter, a true journalist who speaks truth to the powerful and powerless alike. Greenwald gets it! He usually does.

Brexit Is Only the Latest Proof of the Insularity and Failure of Western Establishment Institutions

We Must Vote in '16

Look, nobody can tell you who to vote for or how to vote. However, to not show up and vote in the down ballot races amounts to abandoning Bernie's revolution. He is selecting people that he supports in these races. No one can abstain. This young woman in the article to which I have linked has it right. If Bernie doesn't win the nomination, the fight must go on in support of the down ballot candidates he supports. VOTE.

How to “Bernie or Bust” Responsibly – The Ring of Fire

Deal With It

While I see increased pressure on Bernie to get out of the race so that the Secretary - whose turn has come and time it is - can focus on beating Trump, it is interesting to note that Clinton herself did not leave the 2008 nomination race until June of that year.  This pressure from party apparatchiks and mouthpieces is hardly new; since Independents, who support Senator Sanders in huge number across the country, have found themselves consistently pushed out of the process from the beginning.  Debbie Wassermann-Schultz, head cheerleader for the DNC, has indicated that if it were up to her no one but the party faithful would be allowed to participate in the nomination process.  Apparently, through the choosing of a candidate for November the election of a president is a practice she feels should be for Democrats and Republicans only.  Independents need not apply unless of course they are doing the “right” thing for the party.  Bloody interesting as more and more voters, sickened by party politics that seem to mandate the acquisition of money above all things, have given up affiliation with either party to become Independents.

To paraphrase Raymond Chandler, everybody is pushing the Independents out and everybody is pulling us back in, telling us who to vote for and when.  This is not the way to deal with us.  Most of us don’t give a damn if the Democratic Party disintegrates next Tuesday.  It is part of the problem as near as we can tell – cozying up to Citizen United and corporate money; promoting Liberalism to get elected then turning Right as soon as possible to sleep with the other side. We support Bernie because he isn’t endorsed by every establishment politician in the Democratic Party.  Spare us the bullshit that a woman or a person of color can’t be establishment.  If you have been in Washington long enough to be bought and paid for, you’re establishment.  We support Bernie because he isn’t on the take, not today, not last year and not ever.  We support Bernie and that’s an end to it.  Trying to force him out will only piss us off. 

Bernie has committed to keeping Trump out of the White House.  Speaking only for myself, I stand with him in that as in all things.  However, I won’t be bullied, shamed, intimidated or blackmailed by a political party that I have little more use for then I do for Trump.  It won’t be over until Bernie says it’s over.  At that time I will vote my conscience, as I always have, and keep my own counsel.  

Just How Bad Things Have Gotten

I have said before and will say again, Democrats wave choice and civil rights under their members noses. Republicans wave guns and God under their members noses.  Below the surface they are just alike - staggering up and down K Street in black sequence and fishnet hose, singing "Love for Sale" to every sleazy lobbyist in town.

The best thing to come out of this election, next to Bernie, is the idea that is swelling with rage everyday.  We must strip these two whoring parties of the power and return it to the people.  Until we do Washington D.C. will be nothing but the biggest red light district in history.

Take a look at the video that follows, a discussion between Mike Papantino and Tom Hartman of "Ring of Fire" that will scare hell out of you and indicate just how bad things have gotten.

Let’s Call Establishment Dems What They Are: REPUBLICANS

To the Garden

We all have days that feel like crucibles, like waking nightmares, where the ugliness of the world seems almost not to be borne. On such days we are shut off from the light in a impenetrable chiaroscuro like someone caught in a shabby, black and white Polaroid. We sense our mortality on these days more then others, taking some comfort in knowing that it is out there. Then come the flowers, light riding their gentle petals like sequins on a gown of many colors. Can anyone not take heart at the sight of a garden full of blossoms, opening their faces to look upon us with the eyes of the Goddess Herself? What matters the world of frauds and charlatans, of political buffoons and bloodless,vacillating followers when a sumptuous reality beckons in the perfect balance of the tulip, the lush stature of the peony and the endless promise of the rose. To hell with it all, I say. I am for the garden.