Well, Bernie, that doesn't look much like "taking it all the way to the Convention" to me. And what about your delegates that we've donated to in order to help them get to Philly? What's the point? And your endorsement of Hillary is not going to sway me to her side. I didn't want another Clinton or Bush before this election season even started and I still don't. I'm voting for Jill Stein. If Hillary is such a sucky candidate that she can't even beat a blowhard idiot like Trump she deserves to lose.
After Bernie's big speech I half expected HRC to say he's to be her VP. But, no. Why would she bother to do that, now that she has his endorsement? Why should she do anything if she thinks she has our votes?
So here's my take on the endorsement: The campaign was never exclusively about the presidency. The presidential campaign was a means to an end -- changing the framework of political discourse in the United States. If Bernie had won the nomination, and then the presidency, that would have been a great victory. When it didn't happen, Bernie pivoted to accomplishing what he could. That meant using the power of his endorsement to extract concessions. We didn't get everything we wanted in the platform, but we got some of it. And that was because the delegates knew they had to give us something to get Bernie's support. And just before the endorsement, HRC came out in support of things resembling other items on Bernie's agenda. That's no coincidence, IMHO. Yes, we wonder whether she will follow through as president. But just the fact that she is on record as supporting them has changed the nature of the political dialog.
I was out of town and not following the news when HRC announced that Medicare would be an Obamacare option for those over 55, so I missed the details. My main question is what sort of government subsidy there is going to be. Will it be the same as for regular Medicare? Or will those who sign up be paying the full cost less whatever they are entitled to under Obamacare?
Election 2016: 1. Which Candidate is the bigger/better liar? 2. Which Candidate is the bigger/better crook? 3. Which Party is better at hacking the machines?
I no longer post more than one political post per week on Facebook. I posted this today:
Well, there it is. The deed has been done. Bernie has just endorsed Hillary.
So, this is the end. I was present at the Sheraton in Burlington when Howard Dean announced he was dropping out of the race. I don't think I could have been present today. I don't know how to believe we will ever have the right person in office. Bernie is totally the right person. He is even turning the other cheek today. I love this man. He cares so much about us and the health of this nation. How can we not be electing him? I feel I will never see my fellow Americans do the right thing in my lifetime. So I'm feeling downhearted, even though I much admire Bernie for plodding on and doing what CAN be done, despite the corruption in government. He has such clear vision. But I have seen too much to be able to trust Sec. Clinton to keep these promises, made to get votes, not because of real convictions in many cases. Don't get me wrong, I will never vote for that other guy. And I don't need lectures from well meaning friends about what I ought to think and how I ought to feel or who deserves my vote. It's my vote. It's MY voice. And I'm perfectly capable of figuring out what to do. But I wanted to post this for the sake of friends who are sad at this turning. <3
Well said, listener! But I do have hopes that Americans will do the right thing in my lifetime. If not when I'm 88, then when I'm 92 or 96. And yes, I intend to live that long.
And it's not all about the presidency, although the media would like us to think so. William Jennings Bryan was never president, but he made a huge difference in American life.
The Hillary supporters are still waging hate against Bernie supporters. Telling us we MUST vote for Hillary because, after all, Bernie ENDORSED her! And if we don't vote for Hillary we're just stupid, or children or we never really supported Bernie anyway. They still think we're some sort a a cult with a hive-mind and no independent thought of our own. I guess they'll learn the hard way that we are not remote-controlled drones to fly where we are directed. One commenter said we MUST vote for Hillary because the polls are "eerily close" (his words). They never figure out that the polls are close because both Trump and Hillary are despised. They just can't grasp the fact that they've backed the wrong and the weaker candidate. It's very likely that Trump could win and that's not on anyone but Hillary.
You know that scene in the movie Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon's character is interviewing for a job and the interviewer says "Why shouldn't you work for the NSA?" He responds, "Well, that's a tough one, but I'll take a crack at it…" He goes on to jumble together a heap of good reasons not to work for them,
Wait, here it is (apologies for the rough language, but it was necessary to the movie, and sadly matches my mood today)…
"Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area" cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, cause they were all pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass.
"And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon.
"And they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin', cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State.
"So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president."
1. She supports fracking, 2. She supports the TPP, 3. She thinks $15/hr. is "too much"., 4. She says we'll NEVER have Single Payer healthcare, 5. She says Kissinger is her mentor., 5. She sides with Israel on the slaughter of Palestinians, 6. She is a war hawk who is on film saying "We need a more muscular military"., 7. We know she lies, both about large and small things., 8. Bill Clinton back in the White House? Nightmare!, 9. She is dismissive of black people, except when they provide her with a photo op., 10. She went to Flint, MI to get her picture taken and since then we've not heard one word about the poison water residents are STILL forced to pay for, 11. She has said she is "open" to making changes in Social Security, 12. Bill C. was caught ON VIDEO reassuring Paul Ryan that they would cut Medicare., 13. She openly resents the fact that the Presidency must be WON, and she wants it to just be gifted to her without effort on her part., 14. She openly displays her poor judgement by paying THOUSANDS of dollars for those ugly-ass pantsuits she wears, 15. She panders to the young and does it badly, 16. She's on record telling the banks that it's a good thing they have control of the economy or we stupid consumers would wreck it., 17. She loves her Blackberry and refused to quit using it even though she was told it could not be secured. 18. Haitians hate her because her state department was instrumental in getting their minimum wage that had been raised to 60+ cents an hour lowered back to 30+ cents an hour. 19. As SOS she destabilized Libya. 20. She sold weapons to Saudi Arabia which were then used against Yeman.,21. More than once large donations to the Clinton Foundation were followed by approval of weapons sales to other countries. 22. She has "evolved", but I think she means "revolved", kind of like a revolving door. How do you trust someone when you know today's position may vary dramatically from tomorrow's position?
Oh, I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Even the thought of Trump as President doesn't scare me enough to make me vote for her. He is such a loud, bumbling baboon that all of his wrongness will be in public. Hillary will have quiet secret meeting behind closed doors and we'll be finished before we even know what hit us.
I want to find a creative way to frame all that, the way the writers did in Good Will Hunting. People can hear something offered in an art form, that they wouldn't listen to in prose. I'll dwell on it. Idears welcomed.
I will chime in later, but by way of answer to your question on the previous thread:
"Alan, egads! Was it ever explained why the SWAT team did that? Mistaken identity?"
As I recall, they got the address wrong and couldn't figure out that things didn't fit...I suppose testosterone poisoning was a significant factor, but the newspapers didn't get into that.
Wrong address?!!! For the sake of all that is Holy!!! I can't even imagine the compensation that family deserved. Trauma counseling for the rest of their lives! I would move out of the country. Makes me want to now.
I hope everyone saw the earlier email from Bernie highlighting all that we accomplished. Yes, THAT WE ACCOMPLISHED. Presidency or no, the revolution has already made a huge difference. And in the coming weeks Bernie will be establishing a successor organization. I signed my name.
“So far Clinton’s approach has been to try to demonstrate to the element of the party that finds Sanders so appealing that she is really one of them. This seems like an extremely flawed strategy that plays directly to Sanders’s strengths. If the contest is going to come down to who can be the most pure liberal, the best bet is on the guy who actually is a socialist. Particularly when running against someone with Hillary Clinton’s long record of being everything that the current left of her party hates.
The truth is, Hillary Clinton has supported every U.S. war since Vietnam. She supported not only DOMA, which her husband signed, but a travel ban on those who were HIV positive. She supported welfare cuts (remember her husband’s efforts toward “ending welfare as we know it”?). She supports the death penalty and campaigned in her husband’s place during the 1992 New Hampshire primary when he left to oversee the execution of an African-American man whose suicide attempt left him brain damaged.
And if “mass incarceration” is a problem today, keep in mind she has long advocated for the criminal justice policies that called for locking up more people for longer periods. She supports—and, as Secretary of State, participated in—the U.S. policy of targeted assassinations, including when the targets were American citizens.
In a political environment in which income inequality is a rallying cry, she makes $300K plus expenses an hour. In fact, she would be the wealthiest person elected president in the modern era.”
Copying from a Facebook commenter: Bernie has been pressured by the DNC to bring his voters over to back Clinton... despite the fact that we know we won't fall in line behind her... Bernie is trying to prove to the DNC that nothing he says or does will convince us to vote for that crooked woman... so two weeks before the Convention he tells them...okay I will endorse her and you will see first hand that not even after I endorse her will my supporters support her... so when we get to the convention and the superdelegates and the DNC themselves watch her numbers continue to flop downward will finally see that no matter what WE STAND WITH BERNIE AND IF THEY WANT TO BEAT TRUMP THEN BERNIE IS THE ONLY WAY...
Think about it.. Bernie knows how die hard we are... he is so smart and he is currently proving we won't heel to her... rememeber Bernie didn't concede today and he still is going to the convention... there is reason for this... stand tall Berners... don't back down... now more then ever it's imperative to never vote for her and be #Bernieorbust #ALWAYSSANDERS #STILLSANDERS #ONLYSANDERS
He is STILL IN IT TO WIN IT!!! He has a PLAN, trust him and follow his footsteps!!! If you DONT WANT to Vote $hill, that is Amazing!!! Keep it up... But Please do not Abandon Bernie who tries his best, and has FOUGHT for US for last 30 years++. Remember what he is UP AGAINST, Oligarchy corporations, Corrupt DNC, Wall Street, Etc. #NeverHillary #StillSanders #BernieWins #BernieForPOTUS #BernieForPresident #SeeYouInPhilly
Just to add that today's polls show Trump BEATING Hillary in two states and tied with her in Ohio. And as an Ohio resident I have to say I think he'll take Ohio because this is the state where black males holding toy guns are murdered and the police are not punished. Lot's of right-wingers here.
It's still Bernie (NOT Hillary).
ReplyDeleteThinking of our dear blogger ♥ tc ♥ today, on her birthday.
ReplyDeleteMissing her wit, wisdom, caring and vision today.
Bernie is about to speak in Portsmouth. Should be available to watch here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Clinton-Sanders-to-Campaign-Together-in-NH-386437751.html
Well, Bernie, that doesn't look much like "taking it all the way to the Convention" to me. And what about your delegates that we've donated to in order to help them get to Philly? What's the point? And your endorsement of Hillary is not going to sway me to her side. I didn't want another Clinton or Bush before this election season even started and I still don't. I'm voting for Jill Stein. If Hillary is such a sucky candidate that she can't even beat a blowhard idiot like Trump she deserves to lose.
ReplyDeleteAfter Bernie's big speech I half expected HRC to say he's to be her VP. But, no. Why would she bother to do that, now that she has his endorsement? Why should she do anything if she thinks she has our votes?
DeleteI'm so frustrated today.
So here's my take on the endorsement: The campaign was never exclusively about the presidency. The presidential campaign was a means to an end -- changing the framework of political discourse in the United States. If Bernie had won the nomination, and then the presidency, that would have been a great victory. When it didn't happen, Bernie pivoted to accomplishing what he could. That meant using the power of his endorsement to extract concessions. We didn't get everything we wanted in the platform, but we got some of it. And that was because the delegates knew they had to give us something to get Bernie's support. And just before the endorsement, HRC came out in support of things resembling other items on Bernie's agenda. That's no coincidence, IMHO. Yes, we wonder whether she will follow through as president. But just the fact that she is on record as supporting them has changed the nature of the political dialog.
ReplyDeleteI was out of town and not following the news when HRC announced that Medicare would be an Obamacare option for those over 55, so I missed the details. My main question is what sort of government subsidy there is going to be. Will it be the same as for regular Medicare? Or will those who sign up be paying the full cost less whatever they are entitled to under Obamacare?
ReplyDeleteSubway posted:
ReplyDeleteElection 2016:
1. Which Candidate is the bigger/better liar?
2. Which Candidate is the bigger/better crook?
3. Which Party is better at hacking the machines?
It's gonna be a long 5 months…
Yup.
I no longer post more than one political post per week on Facebook. I posted this today:
ReplyDeleteWell, there it is. The deed has been done. Bernie has just endorsed Hillary.
So, this is the end. I was present at the Sheraton in Burlington when Howard Dean announced he was dropping out of the race. I don't think I could have been present today. I don't know how to believe we will ever have the right person in office. Bernie is totally the right person. He is even turning the other cheek today. I love this man. He cares so much about us and the health of this nation. How can we not be electing him? I feel I will never see my fellow Americans do the right thing in my lifetime. So I'm feeling downhearted, even though I much admire Bernie for plodding on and doing what CAN be done, despite the corruption in government. He has such clear vision. But I have seen too much to be able to trust Sec. Clinton to keep these promises, made to get votes, not because of real convictions in many cases. Don't get me wrong, I will never vote for that other guy. And I don't need lectures from well meaning friends about what I ought to think and how I ought to feel or who deserves my vote. It's my vote. It's MY voice. And I'm perfectly capable of figuring out what to do. But I wanted to post this for the sake of friends who are sad at this turning. <3
Well said, listener! But I do have hopes that Americans will do the right thing in my lifetime. If not when I'm 88, then when I'm 92 or 96. And yes, I intend to live that long.
DeleteAnd it's not all about the presidency, although the media would like us to think so. William Jennings Bryan was never president, but he made a huge difference in American life.
The Hillary supporters are still waging hate against Bernie supporters. Telling us we MUST vote for Hillary because, after all, Bernie ENDORSED her! And if we don't vote for Hillary we're just stupid, or children or we never really supported Bernie anyway. They still think we're some sort a a cult with a hive-mind and no independent thought of our own. I guess they'll learn the hard way that we are not remote-controlled drones to fly where we are directed. One commenter said we MUST vote for Hillary because the polls are "eerily close" (his words). They never figure out that the polls are close because both Trump and Hillary are despised. They just can't grasp the fact that they've backed the wrong and the weaker candidate. It's very likely that Trump could win and that's not on anyone but Hillary.
ReplyDeleteYou know that scene in the movie Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon's character is interviewing for a job and the interviewer says "Why shouldn't you work for the NSA?" He responds, "Well, that's a tough one, but I'll take a crack at it…" He goes on to jumble together a heap of good reasons not to work for them,
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw
Well, how about the lot of us come up with a similar response for when people attempt to badger us into voting for Clinton?
Wait, here it is (apologies for the rough language, but it was necessary to the movie, and sadly matches my mood today)…
Delete"Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll take a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. Maybe I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never met, never had no problem with, get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Oh, send in the Marines to secure the area" cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number got called, cause they were all pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some kid from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass.
"And he comes back to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile, he realizes the only reason he was over there in the first place was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And, of course, the oil companies used the skirmish over there to scare up domestic oil prices. A cute little ancillary benefit for them, but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon.
"And they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, of course, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and fuckin' play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So now my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the fuckin' job interviews, which sucks cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin', cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat, the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State.
"So what did I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. I figure fuck it, while I'm at it why not just shoot my buddy, take his job, give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president."
http://genius.com/Good-will-hunting-good-will-hunting-nsa-monologue-annotated
So, why shouldn't we vote for Hillary Clinton?
Delete1. She supports fracking, 2. She supports the TPP, 3. She thinks $15/hr. is "too much"., 4. She says we'll NEVER have Single Payer healthcare, 5. She says Kissinger is her mentor., 5. She sides with Israel on the slaughter of Palestinians, 6. She is a war hawk who is on film saying "We need a more muscular military"., 7. We know she lies, both about large and small things., 8. Bill Clinton back in the White House? Nightmare!, 9. She is dismissive of black people, except when they provide her with a photo op., 10. She went to Flint, MI to get her picture taken and since then we've not heard one word about the poison water residents are STILL forced to pay for, 11. She has said she is "open" to making changes in Social Security, 12. Bill C. was caught ON VIDEO reassuring Paul Ryan that they would cut Medicare., 13. She openly resents the fact that the Presidency must be WON, and she wants it to just be gifted to her without effort on her part., 14. She openly displays her poor judgement by paying THOUSANDS of dollars for those ugly-ass pantsuits she wears, 15. She panders to the young and does it badly, 16. She's on record telling the banks that it's a good thing they have control of the economy or we stupid consumers would wreck it., 17. She loves her Blackberry and refused to quit using it even though she was told it could not be secured. 18. Haitians hate her because her state department was instrumental in getting their minimum wage that had been raised to 60+ cents an hour lowered back to 30+ cents an hour. 19. As SOS she destabilized Libya. 20. She sold weapons to Saudi Arabia which were then used against Yeman.,21. More than once large donations to the Clinton Foundation were followed by approval of weapons sales to other countries. 22. She has "evolved", but I think she means "revolved", kind of like a revolving door. How do you trust someone when you know today's position may vary dramatically from tomorrow's position?
DeleteOh, I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Even the thought of Trump as President doesn't scare me enough to make me vote for her. He is such a loud, bumbling baboon that all of his wrongness will be in public. Hillary will have quiet secret meeting behind closed doors and we'll be finished before we even know what hit us.
Wow! Well done, Susan!!
DeleteI want to find a creative way to frame all that, the way the writers did in Good Will Hunting. People can hear something offered in an art form, that they wouldn't listen to in prose. I'll dwell on it. Idears welcomed.
I will chime in later, but by way of answer to your question on the previous thread:
ReplyDelete"Alan, egads! Was it ever explained why the SWAT team did that? Mistaken identity?"
As I recall, they got the address wrong and couldn't figure out that things didn't fit...I suppose testosterone poisoning was a significant factor, but the newspapers didn't get into that.
--Alan
Wrong address?!!! For the sake of all that is Holy!!! I can't even imagine the compensation that family deserved. Trauma counseling for the rest of their lives! I would move out of the country. Makes me want to now.
DeleteMy mistake; here is an article (there are others). It seems the plaintiff's experts made a credible case that the cops were lying.
DeleteDinuba SWAT Team $12.5 million award [Click]
Alan
I hope everyone saw the earlier email from Bernie highlighting all that we accomplished. Yes, THAT WE ACCOMPLISHED. Presidency or no, the revolution has already made a huge difference. And in the coming weeks Bernie will be establishing a successor organization. I signed my name.
ReplyDeleteTime six though I, Claudius. Pretty weird when such a tale of murder and power is a relief from the current election.
ReplyDeleteThis is How Hillary Loses the Primary [Click] This was written a year ago. Here’s a largish excerpt:
ReplyDelete“So far Clinton’s approach has been to try to demonstrate to the element of the party that finds Sanders so appealing that she is really one of them. This seems like an extremely flawed strategy that plays directly to Sanders’s strengths. If the contest is going to come down to who can be the most pure liberal, the best bet is on the guy who actually is a socialist. Particularly when running against someone with Hillary Clinton’s long record of being everything that the current left of her party hates.
The truth is, Hillary Clinton has supported every U.S. war since Vietnam. She supported not only DOMA, which her husband signed, but a travel ban on those who were HIV positive. She supported welfare cuts (remember her husband’s efforts toward “ending welfare as we know it”?). She supports the death penalty and campaigned in her husband’s place during the 1992 New Hampshire primary when he left to oversee the execution of an African-American man whose suicide attempt left him brain damaged.
And if “mass incarceration” is a problem today, keep in mind she has long advocated for the criminal justice policies that called for locking up more people for longer periods. She supports—and, as Secretary of State, participated in—the U.S. policy of targeted assassinations, including when the targets were American citizens.
In a political environment in which income inequality is a rallying cry, she makes $300K plus expenses an hour. In fact, she would be the wealthiest person elected president in the modern era.”
--Alan
Copying from a Facebook commenter: Bernie has been pressured by the DNC to bring his voters over to back Clinton... despite the fact that we know we won't fall in line behind her... Bernie is trying to prove to the DNC that nothing he says or does will convince us to vote for that crooked woman... so two weeks before the Convention he tells them...okay I will endorse her and you will see first hand that not even after I endorse her will my supporters support her... so when we get to the convention and the superdelegates and the DNC themselves watch her numbers continue to flop downward will finally see that no matter what WE STAND WITH BERNIE AND IF THEY WANT TO BEAT TRUMP THEN BERNIE IS THE ONLY WAY...
ReplyDeleteThink about it.. Bernie knows how die hard we are... he is so smart and he is currently proving we won't heel to her... rememeber Bernie didn't concede today and he still is going to the convention... there is reason for this... stand tall Berners... don't back down... now more then ever it's imperative to never vote for her and be #Bernieorbust #ALWAYSSANDERS #STILLSANDERS #ONLYSANDERS
He is STILL IN IT TO WIN IT!!! He has a PLAN, trust him and follow his footsteps!!! If you DONT WANT to Vote $hill, that is Amazing!!! Keep it up... But Please do not Abandon Bernie who tries his best, and has FOUGHT for US for last 30 years++. Remember what he is UP AGAINST, Oligarchy corporations, Corrupt DNC, Wall Street, Etc. #NeverHillary #StillSanders #BernieWins #BernieForPOTUS #BernieForPresident #SeeYouInPhilly
Just to add that today's polls show Trump BEATING Hillary in two states and tied with her in Ohio. And as an Ohio resident I have to say I think he'll take Ohio because this is the state where black males holding toy guns are murdered and the police are not punished. Lot's of right-wingers here.
ReplyDelete