Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Irises Abounding


21 comments:

  1. Awesome Firsties, Alan! Longest Firsty we've had in awhile! I remember when no one would have dared write such a long post as a Firsty, because the blog moved so fast that there would have been 30 posts up by then. Ha!

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    1. Given that it is mostly responses to entries on previous threads, it is more in the nature of a lastly than a firsty. But yes, I remember when the DFA blog would have more than seven hundred entries per day.

      It just occurred to me that the Bernie campaign does not seem to have asked me for a donation for a while--scrolling back, it seems the most recent one was June 11th. Taken together with your report that the voice mail inbox at HQ is full sounds like the campaign is being dialed way back. Almost to zero. Maybe that is a sign that it is time for my "pivot" to Jill Stein, earlier than I anticipated. Will have to think about it. Will still have to investigate the status of other candidates Bernie has endorsed. But not this morning; time to get moving and make my way to Salt Mine No. 1.

      TTFN


      Alan

      P.S.: Fine new photo noted.

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  2. PS: Note new photo. Yes, that's still me. :-D

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  3. I'm getting worried because I haven't gotten a request for a donation from Bernie's campaign for a long stretch of time. Wouldn't he still need money no matter what he's doing?

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  4. Susan ~~ He needs *some* money, but he has some money. And money still coming in from those of us who have scheduled monthly donations. By far the biggest campaign expenses are TV ads, and those are now things of the past. He also doesn't need a big staff for GOTV efforts.

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  5. I hadn't realized that when Trump started accepting donations he said he would no longer self-fund. If he sticks to that, he's in trouble. But I don't think there is any sort of legal block to him throwing another hundred million or so into his campaign, and that may be part of the reason ordinary folds aren't stepping up for him.

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  6. Alan ~~ The ADA was pretty active in advocating for progressive causes 30 or 40 years ago. But it had somewhat faded with time and my contributions had become somewhat spotty. This looks like a strong revival.

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  7. A couple of notes garnered while on coffee break.—Alan
    “It would be nice to have full support from people that are in office, I mean full verbal support. Now with all that being said I may go a different route if those things don’t happen.”
    — Donald Trump, quoted by TPM.
    If that isn’t laying the groundwork for dumping the nomination, I don’t know what would be.
    ========================================
    From CNN:
    “With her long Democratic primary fight now over, Clinton has privately signaled she is less concerned about choosing someone [for VP] who fills a specific liberal or progressive void, rather than selecting a partner who is fully prepared for the job and has a strong camaraderie with her.”

    Huma Abedin, perhaps?

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    1. Oh...my...God! Clinton & Clinton! Lord save us!

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    2. The only way I'm ticking off the Clinton box is if it says Sanders somewhere. But I wouldn't wish that on Bernie. He has better things to do. So I don't really care who she chooses, because they aren't getting my vote….especially if they're from her inner circle.

      Deep breath, Cat. Bill Clinton is not eligible as he has served the maximum amount of time as President, so cannot sit as VP, being too close to the throne.

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    3. Speaking of throne. If Clinton is the nominee, and especially if she gets elected, I don't know if I could resist calling her "Queen Hillary" given that it's a coronation and not a real election. It's a Selection.

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    4. Quillary or Quinton also sound about right. LOL!

      (Hey, at least I'm using humor again, and not simply growling.)
      Someone posted on a Facebook thread saying that it's costing $38,000 per day for Bernie's SS detail, and that he should be ashamed for not stepping down already. Me? I think he's worth every penny They are welcome to use all of my tax money to protect Bernie.

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    5. Yeah, but Bill Clinton can still chase interns around the White House and I wouldn't put it past him for a minute.

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  8. Listener, lovely photo and lovely title.

    Not sure if my recurring donation to Bernie is still in force; think it is,though he won't be getting rich on it.

    Shocking about the young man, boy really, who thought he was going to assassinate Trump. Apparently he is mildly autistic and has many other health problems. Can't understand why he was in this country by himself. I hope the authorities aren't too hard on him. Sounds like he needs help, not punishment.

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  9. Mulling political things over while working, and indulging in a bit of catastophizing, I now (while lunching) suggest the following scenario not as likely, but as conceivable. When faced with an existential crisis, people can do amazing things--and the GOP is peering into the maw of an existential crisis.

    Let us suppose that

    (1) Trump dumps the GOP nomination before (or even at!) the nominating convention. The GOP godfathers go rooting around in the closets, find someone who is simply UNOBJECTIONABLE. No more than that--someone for whom the rank and file will at least come out and vote for, someone who will not draw huge numbers of Democratic sympathizers out of the woodwork to vote against him. ("What's wrong with my boy, Coolidge?") It's not very likely in today's GOP, but don't we all have things we don't use tucked away in a closet somewhere?

    2) Then all the experienced GOP operatives bury their hatchets, work together and build a national campaign infrastructure in jig time, powered by panic and the deep pockets who have not been willing to donate for Trump. Not likely, but possible--no one in their right mind would have thought the US Navy could take such a mauling at Pearl Harbor, then at Midway, and fight the Battle of the Coral Sea so soon after, but it was an existential crisis. But they did it--and laid the groundwork for victory in the Pacific.

    3) On the Democratic side, imagine that HRC makes a disastrous choice of running mate--someone from deep within her personal bubble, isolated from reality--a choice that will repel large numbers of potential voters and attract few if any. This when confronted by an unforeseen and unobjectionable GOP nominee. And with HRC only leading even Trump by a small margin in the preference polls.

    I should still expect HRC to win, but it could be an incredibly close-run contest, and she could assume office with a far thinner margin and less support in Congress than is currently anticipated.

    Well, time will tell.

    Alan

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    1. All quite possible. And I think your suppositions concerning HRC are all too likely. It would be interesting to watch...if it weren't our country.

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    2. I'm quite sure the GOP operatives do not want Trump. The problem is that he has whipped his low-information racists into such a frenzy I would imagine they will raise a giant stink, possibly violently.

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    3. Could well be. Have I mentioned they scare the living bejeezus out of me?

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  10. Have to almost laugh about the ADA, since my first (and only) rebel write in was against one of the founders (Hubert Humphrey) who sorta held the Hillary place on the ballot that year. (How DARE the Democratic party push this nominee down our throats????!!!!!) The write in was Eugene McCarthy, lol!

    Read later, somewhere, that it takes about fifty years to reverse/counter act a sitting supreme court.

    Alan, yes: the higher up the chain, the faster Achalasia will be diagnosed, lol! Glad it worked. And this is one operation where you really WANT someone who's done a hella lot of 'em!

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  11. Bernie is probably not asking for donations right now because he doesn't want to take money he may not use; and as you say, Alan, there are still regular donations coming in (though check to see the last time it happened. Has that been stopped by the campaign or no?). But if he were to need donations again, he would get an avalanche of funds overnight.

    The Bernie energy seems to be shifting now to the Congressional contests. Perhaps the donations need to shift too, Of course, the official word on any of this won't come before the Dem Convention.

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  12. The ADA looks promising. It reminded me of True Majority (now and for some years past called US Action). On the whole though I think I'll concentrate on CodePink Women for Peace (codepink.org). They're not political as such. Rather they concentrate on nonviolent civil actions protesting acts of war and violence. For instance, the video on their FB page today was of their protest outside NRA headquarters. Arrests were made. They are always getting arrested. They are incredibly brave. Check out their web site and/or FB page. I gave them a modest recurring donation and bought some stuff.

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