Tonight is the second-to-last (good God, who's last?) round of Primaries for the major parties, and while the Republican campaign was already called about five six weeks ago the Democratic campaign has pretty much gone to the wire.
But tonight is a big one: Two large population states including AT LAST CALIFORNIA (also New Jersey) from which Hillary Clinton can secure enough "hard pledge" delegates among the "soft" delegates to pretty much clinch the nomination.
Although the AP Newswire claimed last night that enough Superdelegates came out in favor of Hillary to cross the threshold, it matters more that the threshold be claimed tonight by the ballot counts, so yeah, New Jersey is going to be the wafer thin mint that tips the scales. Hillary's got 62 percent of the vote with 88 percent of the precincts reporting: at this rate she's got Joisey in the bag, man.
And with that, Hillary's got 2469 soft delegates (with a 1825 hard count, 400 ahead of Bernie) where the cutoff to win is 2383. She's there.
Hillary won the delegates, Hillary will earn the party's nomination in Philadelphia next month. It's done. Anybody arguing for shifting the Superdelegates around, or talking the normal delegates into bolting from any pledge to vote Hillary on the first ballot, is just in painful denial right now.
Still and all: it'd be nice to see if Hillary can dominate this night with winning the rest of the roster. Getting a majority of states looks good heading into the convention as well as the delegate count.
Hillary's leading Bernie in South Dakota at the moment: it's too close to officially call, but barring a massive outburst for Sanders in the bigger precincts it's gotta be going for Clinton.
Lets see about New Mexico: Hmm, Hillary's up 53 to 47 percent over Bernie, it's still too early to call but it's getting there.
North Dakota: Bernie's winning that with a wide margin of 62 percent to Hillary's 26 percent... which is odd except for this being another crazy Caucus where the rules are whack. 10 percent haven't committed, which means the final results might not be known until 2018. And what the hell, Dakota: 253 people TOTAL for Bernie, with 101 for Hillary? We're talking hundreds, not thousands, and I'm pretty sure you Dakota states have more people than that. Where the hell are they? Seriously folks, Caucuses have to go.
It's too early to call Montana even with Hillary in a decent-sized lead there, but then again it's Montana, I never been there so who cares? :) UPDATE 6/8: Bernie wins Montana. Congratulations. I'm sure it can fit somewhere on the trophy case...
All that's left is California, and there's no results in yet for that (West Coast votes are SOOOOOO late in the evening). UPDATE 6/8: Morning has revealed that Hillary dominated Cali 56 to 43 percent over Bernie. That is a double-digit win in the largest state of the nation.
What does all this mean?
It means Bernie needs to bow out gracefully and let Hillary (and Obama, who's itching to get out campaigning for his successor) run the national campaign to the general election now.
No more back-biting... no more questionable accusations about "stolen" elections... no more dissing southern states for "not counting"... no more sore loser stuff.
Let it go, Senator Sanders.
Work on this: You've got access towards setting the Democratic Party's platform, which you can use to set key agenda points on economic policy and Congressional reforms. No, you'll probably not get your universal healthcare idea approved, but there's a lot of other things Hillary and the Centrist factions of the party will back.
This doesn't have to be a divided Party, Senator.
I understand - I sympathize a little - that your Progressive idealism makes it hard for you and your followers to support a "moderate" Center-Left candidate like Hillary. That you don't trust her enough to even placate you on issues. I understand you hate her for being too cozy with Wall Street and the Banks, and granted that is a troubling relationship considering how much more work our nation needs to prevent those same banks and investors from causing another crippling economic collapse.
But here's the deal:
TRUMP IS A GODDAMN MANIAC ONE STEP AWAY FROM DESTROYING ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING.
I am not exaggerating.
The Democrats as a whole need to unite as one party now... The Democrats need to appeal to the Independent voters with coherent policy points and common sense and confidence... The nation, the entire world needs the Democrats to present a solid, worthwhile choice for a majority of voters to ensure the likes of Trump does not win in November (or EVER again).
You can disagree with Hillary. You can argue for the need to keep her honest especially if she wins the White House, you can push for enough Left-leaning Liberals and Progressive allies into key Cabinet positions to make sure Hillary stays honest enough to your measures.
But you gotta let go of that hate, BernieBros. You gotta recognize that we've got a lot of elections to win, not just the Presidency but the US Senate and the US House and a ton of state-level elections as well. The whole ticket needs your vote, needs your support, needs you period.
Let go of that hate, and look to hope. Hope that you can get enough Moderate and Independent voters to side with you against Trump and his tainted, dying Republican Party.
Hope that this nation can unite behind the first serious woman candidate from a major political party to officially run for President. Under this banner, the Democrats can rally to wins in the Senate and break that logjam... and if the Republicans implode as predicted there's a good chance of turning the power of the US House back to Democrats too.
This is a major election. All hands on deck, get the vote out, and do what we can to Stop Trump and Save America.
That means voting for Democrats all across the board. That means voting for Hillary.
Update: so of course Bernie is saying he's gonna fight this all the way to Philly. /headdesk
Tuesday, June 07, 2016
A Madman In the Driver's Seat of the GOP Clown Car, June 2016 Edition
This video I'm about to show you was recorded during a top secret meeting of librul bloggers following up on reports that Trump tried to bully his Republican Party handlers into backing his obscene plan to harass/defame the judge overseeing his Trump University fraud trial(s):
Dear YouTube: you didn't have a clip for me to embed directly. Shame on you.
The news about this is deadly serious, however.
What Trump is attempting - according to the Bloomberg article I've linked to - is to subvert the independence of the entire judicial system (nevermind the war he's already declared against the media):
How is this dangerous? Let me defer to Garrett Epps at The Atlantic:
It's only a conflict of interest because TRUMP is making it a conflict of interest. And at no time has Trump pointed to any statements Curiel has made about Trump's political campaigning to prove bias. If you're pointing to Curiel releasing documents related to the Trump U fraud case, that's because the judge is answering a Freedom of Information Act request that's been perfectly legal in similar cases throughout the decades we've had FOIA rules. Trump's only calling that "unfair" because obviously those documents are going to reveal some pretty nasty things about Trump's business practices.
Painful in all this is the implication - shoved out there by an entitled "rich" white guy - that ethnics, women, any minority class are unable to perform their duties as a Justice when white people are being judged. Back to Epps:
This is Trump's World-View all over again: the one where it is all about getting "treated fairly," which in Trump's case is "give ME all the candy and toys I want and maybe I'll stop kicking you." Trump wants this judge to throw the whole case out, protect Trump from the embarrassment of exposing an allegedly massive fraud that was his online college. He's trying to bully Curiel off the bench and force the courts to give him what he wants. As though he's not the first defendant who's tried this...
But the problem I opened with remains: there is more to this than just Trump's attempt to corrupt our judicial system to his whims. Go back to what Trump is trying to do during that conference call with his intra-party allies.
Trump is calling on them to follow his marching orders on this, to get every Republican out there to attack this one judge on an openly racist and unproven accusation.
He's not taking advice from people who know how campaigning works... he's not recognizing the possibility he's crossing a line that nobody should cross. He's ordering people to do it his way or else, and he wants them all to attack attack attack. Especially if those attacks paint the entire Republican Party as fearmongering, self-serving racists.
This is who's leading your party now, Republicans. A proven narcissist sticking to a gameplan that's bound to alienate not only non-White voters across the board ("how dare YOU judge Trump?") but also White voters who take the impartiality of the judicial system seriously (not only Democrats and Independents but also Republicans who DO respect the system) and aren't going to support someone throwing a hissy fit like this.
This is where it gets worse, America: The Republican Party - whose collective soul had died years ago - has fallen to the whims of an Honest-to-God madman.
We will be lucky to get out of this alive...
The news about this is deadly serious, however.
What Trump is attempting - according to the Bloomberg article I've linked to - is to subvert the independence of the entire judicial system (nevermind the war he's already declared against the media):
Trump ignited the controversy when he defended his real-estate program by saying Curiel has an inherent conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage, because the candidate has proposed building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to curb illegal immigration. Curiel was born in Indiana, and Trump's complaint has been criticized by Republican leaders, legal experts, and other commentators. Trump on Sunday broadened his argument by saying on CBS that it’s possible a Muslim judge could treat him unfairly too, because of his proposed ban on Muslim immigration.
How is this dangerous? Let me defer to Garrett Epps at The Atlantic:
“...Courts have repeatedly held that matters such as race or ethnicity are improper bases for challenging a judge's impartiality,” wrote the chief judge, Ralph Winter, a Reagan appointee. “Nor should one charge that a judge is not impartial solely because an attorney is embroiled in a controversy with the administration that appointed the judge. … Finally, appointment by a particular administration and membership in a particular racial or ethnic group are in combination not grounds for questioning a judge's impartiality. Zero plus zero is zero.”
That equation is a good way to think legally about Donald Trump’s attack on Curiel, who is hearing a case against him as ordinary as Macdraw—a civil class action alleging Trump’s “university” was a scam aimed at defrauding its students by selling them worthless instruction.
Trump has now made an issue out of Curiel’s ethnicity and his appointment to the bench by the Obama administration. His ire was raised because the judge allowed the release of some documents from Trump University—documents that seem extremely damaging to Trump’s case. “The judge was appointed by Barack Obama,” Trump told a rally last week. “The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think that’s fine.” In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump went on to say that Curiel’s “Mexican heritage”—he was born in Indiana—should disqualify him because “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”
It's only a conflict of interest because TRUMP is making it a conflict of interest. And at no time has Trump pointed to any statements Curiel has made about Trump's political campaigning to prove bias. If you're pointing to Curiel releasing documents related to the Trump U fraud case, that's because the judge is answering a Freedom of Information Act request that's been perfectly legal in similar cases throughout the decades we've had FOIA rules. Trump's only calling that "unfair" because obviously those documents are going to reveal some pretty nasty things about Trump's business practices.
Painful in all this is the implication - shoved out there by an entitled "rich" white guy - that ethnics, women, any minority class are unable to perform their duties as a Justice when white people are being judged. Back to Epps:
A related misconception is that the impartiality of minority judges is inherently suspect. As David Graham noted, in the 1970s, this Trump-style claim of “inherent” bias was thrown at the great Leon Higginbotham, who rose to be chief judge of the Third Circuit. Higginbotham, an expert of the history of race and American law, crisply denied the motion:
By that standard, white judges will be permitted to keep the latitude they have enjoyed for centuries in discussing matters of intellectual substance, even issues of human rights and, because they are white, still be permitted to later decide specific factual situations involving the principles of human rights which they have discussed previously in a generalized fashion. But for black judges, defendants insist on a far more rigid standard, which would preclude black judges from ever discussing race relations even in the generalized fashion that other justices and judges have discussed issues of human rights.
Constance Baker Motley, the first female African American judge, faced a similar challenge in a 1975 sex-discrimination case. “[I]f background or sex or race of each judge were, by definition, sufficient grounds for removal,” she responded, “no judge on this court could hear this case.” Catholic and Mormon judges have also been challenged; Judge Michael Mukasey, an Orthodox Jew, was asked to step aside from a case against a Muslim defendant in 1994. Citing Higginbotham’s landmark opinion, he said that motion was “the same rancid wine in a different bottle.”
Trump wine has always been a little off, and this vintage fairly reeks. At its rawest, the claim amounts to, “Who are you—African American, woman, Jews, ‘Mexican’—to judge a real citizen, a white man?” It’s no different, in essence, from the assertion of one Texas Ku Klux Klansman, being sued for harassing Asian American fishermen, that a female black judge should withdraw because “of the prejudice of ‘your people against the Klansmen.’”
The re-introduction of this crude, explicit racism into politics is repellent...
This is Trump's World-View all over again: the one where it is all about getting "treated fairly," which in Trump's case is "give ME all the candy and toys I want and maybe I'll stop kicking you." Trump wants this judge to throw the whole case out, protect Trump from the embarrassment of exposing an allegedly massive fraud that was his online college. He's trying to bully Curiel off the bench and force the courts to give him what he wants. As though he's not the first defendant who's tried this...
But the problem I opened with remains: there is more to this than just Trump's attempt to corrupt our judicial system to his whims. Go back to what Trump is trying to do during that conference call with his intra-party allies.
Trump is calling on them to follow his marching orders on this, to get every Republican out there to attack this one judge on an openly racist and unproven accusation.
An embattled Donald Trump urgently rallied his most visible supporters to defend his attacks on a federal judge's Mexican ancestry during a conference call on Monday in which he ordered them to question the judge's credibility and impugn reporters as racists.
“We will overcome,” Trump said, according to two supporters who were on the call and requested anonymity to share their notes with Bloomberg Politics. “And I’ve always won and I’m going to continue to win. And that’s the way it is...”
...When former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer interrupted the discussion to inform Trump that his own campaign had asked surrogates to stop talking about the lawsuit in an e-mail on Sunday, Trump repeatedly demanded to know who sent the memo, and immediately overruled his staff.
“Take that order and throw it the hell out,” Trump said.
He's not taking advice from people who know how campaigning works... he's not recognizing the possibility he's crossing a line that nobody should cross. He's ordering people to do it his way or else, and he wants them all to attack attack attack. Especially if those attacks paint the entire Republican Party as fearmongering, self-serving racists.
This is who's leading your party now, Republicans. A proven narcissist sticking to a gameplan that's bound to alienate not only non-White voters across the board ("how dare YOU judge Trump?") but also White voters who take the impartiality of the judicial system seriously (not only Democrats and Independents but also Republicans who DO respect the system) and aren't going to support someone throwing a hissy fit like this.
This is where it gets worse, America: The Republican Party - whose collective soul had died years ago - has fallen to the whims of an Honest-to-God madman.
We will be lucky to get out of this alive...
Monday, June 06, 2016
Anniversary: Normandy
There really needs to be more YouTube clips about D-Day I can steal borrow for these annual posts:
One of the joys of watching The Longest Day movie is seeing how even the Germans couldn't comprehend Eisenhower taking the gamble on bad weather to send the Normandy invasion. But it was never really that big a gamble: Eisenhower was getting pressure from above to get a Western front of the war going to pincer the Nazis between us and the Soviets, and Eisenhower knew it had to happen before summer turned to winter, which in Europe happens too damn fast.
That little bit at the end when General Marcks can only look at the war games he planned out, predicting near exactly how the invasion would happen - and how his own army was caught so off-guard - he can only laugh.
One of the joys of watching The Longest Day movie is seeing how even the Germans couldn't comprehend Eisenhower taking the gamble on bad weather to send the Normandy invasion. But it was never really that big a gamble: Eisenhower was getting pressure from above to get a Western front of the war going to pincer the Nazis between us and the Soviets, and Eisenhower knew it had to happen before summer turned to winter, which in Europe happens too damn fast.
That little bit at the end when General Marcks can only look at the war games he planned out, predicting near exactly how the invasion would happen - and how his own army was caught so off-guard - he can only laugh.
Sunday, June 05, 2016
Anniversary: June 5. As Always... I Ask After The Bravest Man I Ever Seen
It is the anniversary of Tank Man standing in Tiananmen Square.
It's been decades now.
I want to make sure he's still alive. I want to be able to ask him the question, what it was like to stand there. To stand there in front of his own government's oppression. I want to ask him if he felt scared, and if he felt free.
I hope he's still alive. I hope he had a chance at a family, that he's living a steady, normal life now.
I'm a bit disappointed that the Badass of the Week website doesn't show a page entry for him. Just because he's not wielding a +5 Sword of Awesomeness doesn't mean Tank Man isn't a badass: Sometimes just standing there, telling the world "No, YOU MOVE" is the most badass play you can make.
It's been decades now.
I want to make sure he's still alive. I want to be able to ask him the question, what it was like to stand there. To stand there in front of his own government's oppression. I want to ask him if he felt scared, and if he felt free.
I hope he's still alive. I hope he had a chance at a family, that he's living a steady, normal life now.
I'm a bit disappointed that the Badass of the Week website doesn't show a page entry for him. Just because he's not wielding a +5 Sword of Awesomeness doesn't mean Tank Man isn't a badass: Sometimes just standing there, telling the world "No, YOU MOVE" is the most badass play you can make.
Thursday, June 02, 2016
The Thing I Don't Get About The Bernie Supporters Who Say They'll Never Vote Hillary
(Update: Hello again, Crooks & Liars readers visiting via Mike's Blog Round-Up! Thank you, Batocchio for all your support! Oh, and Infidel753 added a link to here as well. Danke!)
Actually, there's several things I don't get.
There's a very noticeable online faction of Bernie voters - yes, the BernieBros - who'll say they'll vote Trump instead of Hillary when the time comes this November.
To which I say ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MINDS.
Part of their argument is that they can never support Hillary as she is untrustworthy, a liar, too far Right in her politics for their tastes, a War Hawk who'll bomb other nations.
And Trump isn't any of that already?! Every argument these anti-Hillary voters have applies just as well - no, worse - to what Trump will do in the White House.
Trump will clearly - he's openly promised to these things - bomb "enemy" nations, push for a return of an illegal torture regime, start trade wars with China, disrupt our foreign allies to the point of chaos. Trump foreign policy would be a disaster beyond the pale of what happened under Bush the Lesser.
Trump's economic policies would favor the elites far worse than anything a pro-business Hillary will offer up to Wall Street and the banks. And Trump will clearly create an economic crisis - just on his trade protectionism alone - that would rival the Great Depression.
Trump's domestic and civil rights policies will be complete disasters for everyone - yes, white folk included - as his anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policies will be on scales far worse than our shameful internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II, than our mistreatment of Native tribes since the 1800s, than our decades of Jim Crow segregation.
Do you really think Hillary will commit even a tenth of the sins a Trump Presidency will inflict on our nation, on the world? Do you think Hillary is a worse candidate, a bigger liar than Trump?
You'd be wrong.
Hint: Hillary is nowhere near the liar Trump is. So take that excuse for voting Trump and shove it up your collective ass, BernieBros.
Hint Number Two: If it gets to be Hillary vs. Trump, Hillary is the candidate most likely to NOT commit massive civil rights abuses here at home, and is the most likely to NOT leave nuclear craters in places like Gaza, Iran, and Atlantic City (I am not joking). Will Hillary be a War Hawk? Compared to Obama, probably. Compared to Trump, she'll be a f-cking Pacifist qualifying for the Nobel Peace Prize For Not Being a Republican Neocon.
For all the claims on Hillary being a weak candidate who can lose to Trump, she's been consistently hitting Trump on his failed business practices, his terrible rhetoric, his sexism and racism. She will not flinch against him the way the Republican field of nobodies who quit this primary season. I can't see why this is an argument.
For all the claims that Bernie can do better, that's barely a point made from the current polls. Both Hillary and Trump can beat him, and the polling is better for Bernie (now) only because the polling for Hillary is artificially skewed by fake scandals the Far Right is STILL shilling 25 years on. Hillary's Unfavorables are high now only because there's a sizable faction against her among Dem ranks. Once she gains the nomination - much like for Republicans lining up (painfully) behind Trump - it's a good bet the polling for her will improve (Trump's Unfavorables remain high even after securing the GOP nomination... because Trump IS THAT BAD).
There's one more thing for the anti-Hillary voters among the Far Left to remember: there is more at stake here than just the White House.
Whoever wins the Presidency this November is going to be the one who gets to fill the Supreme Court vacancies (among all the judicial seats still vacant because of Republican obstruction).
Right now, the damned GOP Senate is refusing to seat Obama's pick Garland for the current vacancy. The Republican argument is that they'll hold off for whomever wins this November so that "the voters" can have a say in who takes that seat (the real reason is to hope for Republican election wins and stop the Court from shifting Center-Left).
Do you WANT to give Trump the power to fill that SCOTUS vacancy (if he wins, it will likely mean the Republicans keep control of that Senate)? You do that, say goodbye to Roe, say goodbye to Obamacare, say goodbye to civil rights, say goodbye to gay marriage or gay rights of any kind, say goodbye to voting rights, say goodbye to prison reforms, say goodbye to public education and clean air/water and unions and safety regs and fair wages and birth control and food stamps and Medicare and Social Security and everything else our nation's achieved since the New Deal era.
Your vote for Trump will likely give the Republicans a chance to fill more than just one SCOTUS seat: Ginsburg and Breyer for example are in the same risk as Scalia was dying in office. Even Kennedy (also same age risk) dying would take away the "moderate" Justice with a likely Far Right judge who will make Scalia look like Holmes. We'll be at the mercy of a Far Right - not even a Center-Right - Supreme Court for two decades or more.
Just on this alone, I'm voting Hillary over Trump. I'd vote Bernie over Trump.
And that's just it: there's more than the SCOTUS - our entire Constitutional system - at stake when it comes to Trump. Trump will be the massive wrecking ball to our nation that WE DO NOT NEED NOR DESERVE.
If the progressive Far Left among you who feel that our nation needs a revolution to break the system, this is not how you fix things. Trump is how you break things. And once broken it is very hard to put it all back together or even improve upon the remnants.
Do you think ANYTHING Trump has left in his wake has survived his meddling? He's wrecked a football league, he's wrecked airlines, he's wrecked casinos and left Atlantic City in the dumps, he's wrecked food services, he's wrecked planned condo towers, he's wrecked people's lives with a fraudulent academic scam, he's wrecked business deal after business deal and nothing has survived him except himself and his precious trademarked name.
We cannot afford as a nation to waste any vote - yes, waste - on this con artist.
Is Hillary the best possible candidate? I'll be honest, I'd have hoped for better (like oh a third Obama term. DAMN YOU 22nd AMENDMENT). I'm not there for Bernie because I disagree with the Far Left agenda - I can't see the nation accepting single-payer just as they're getting used to Obamacare working, and the expense of his plan is scaring even progressive economists - he's offering.
Compared to Trump, however, every minor - and yes, they are minor - sin of Hillary's soul still makes her the better choice. Compared to Trump, Hillary is at worst another LBJ... and that's at worst, considering all of Johnson's work with civil and voting rights, that's not too bad. At best, Hillary can be another Truman.
Trump can be the next Strom Thurmond, the next James Buchanan, the next John C. Calhoun. Just no. No. A million times No.
If it's Hillary winning the Democratic nomination, please for the love of God find the sanity and logic of backing her over the disaster Trump will be. If it's Bernie, fine so be it, Bernie is a better choice over Trump. But so's Hillary. Try to see that, people. Please.
P.S. And it will really help if you all turned out in spite of the Republican suppression efforts and vote for Democrats in ALL available races, okay? Everything is at stake here: The Senate, even the House is up for grabs despite the gerrymandering, even some state elections and governors' races are vital. Elections matter, people. Get the damn vote out.
Actually, there's several things I don't get.
There's a very noticeable online faction of Bernie voters - yes, the BernieBros - who'll say they'll vote Trump instead of Hillary when the time comes this November.
To which I say ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MINDS.
Part of their argument is that they can never support Hillary as she is untrustworthy, a liar, too far Right in her politics for their tastes, a War Hawk who'll bomb other nations.
And Trump isn't any of that already?! Every argument these anti-Hillary voters have applies just as well - no, worse - to what Trump will do in the White House.
Trump will clearly - he's openly promised to these things - bomb "enemy" nations, push for a return of an illegal torture regime, start trade wars with China, disrupt our foreign allies to the point of chaos. Trump foreign policy would be a disaster beyond the pale of what happened under Bush the Lesser.
Trump's economic policies would favor the elites far worse than anything a pro-business Hillary will offer up to Wall Street and the banks. And Trump will clearly create an economic crisis - just on his trade protectionism alone - that would rival the Great Depression.
Trump's domestic and civil rights policies will be complete disasters for everyone - yes, white folk included - as his anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant policies will be on scales far worse than our shameful internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II, than our mistreatment of Native tribes since the 1800s, than our decades of Jim Crow segregation.
Do you really think Hillary will commit even a tenth of the sins a Trump Presidency will inflict on our nation, on the world? Do you think Hillary is a worse candidate, a bigger liar than Trump?
You'd be wrong.
Hint: Hillary is nowhere near the liar Trump is. So take that excuse for voting Trump and shove it up your collective ass, BernieBros.
Hint Number Two: If it gets to be Hillary vs. Trump, Hillary is the candidate most likely to NOT commit massive civil rights abuses here at home, and is the most likely to NOT leave nuclear craters in places like Gaza, Iran, and Atlantic City (I am not joking). Will Hillary be a War Hawk? Compared to Obama, probably. Compared to Trump, she'll be a f-cking Pacifist qualifying for the Nobel Peace Prize For Not Being a Republican Neocon.
For all the claims on Hillary being a weak candidate who can lose to Trump, she's been consistently hitting Trump on his failed business practices, his terrible rhetoric, his sexism and racism. She will not flinch against him the way the Republican field of nobodies who quit this primary season. I can't see why this is an argument.
For all the claims that Bernie can do better, that's barely a point made from the current polls. Both Hillary and Trump can beat him, and the polling is better for Bernie (now) only because the polling for Hillary is artificially skewed by fake scandals the Far Right is STILL shilling 25 years on. Hillary's Unfavorables are high now only because there's a sizable faction against her among Dem ranks. Once she gains the nomination - much like for Republicans lining up (painfully) behind Trump - it's a good bet the polling for her will improve (Trump's Unfavorables remain high even after securing the GOP nomination... because Trump IS THAT BAD).
There's one more thing for the anti-Hillary voters among the Far Left to remember: there is more at stake here than just the White House.
Whoever wins the Presidency this November is going to be the one who gets to fill the Supreme Court vacancies (among all the judicial seats still vacant because of Republican obstruction).
Right now, the damned GOP Senate is refusing to seat Obama's pick Garland for the current vacancy. The Republican argument is that they'll hold off for whomever wins this November so that "the voters" can have a say in who takes that seat (the real reason is to hope for Republican election wins and stop the Court from shifting Center-Left).
Do you WANT to give Trump the power to fill that SCOTUS vacancy (if he wins, it will likely mean the Republicans keep control of that Senate)? You do that, say goodbye to Roe, say goodbye to Obamacare, say goodbye to civil rights, say goodbye to gay marriage or gay rights of any kind, say goodbye to voting rights, say goodbye to prison reforms, say goodbye to public education and clean air/water and unions and safety regs and fair wages and birth control and food stamps and Medicare and Social Security and everything else our nation's achieved since the New Deal era.
Your vote for Trump will likely give the Republicans a chance to fill more than just one SCOTUS seat: Ginsburg and Breyer for example are in the same risk as Scalia was dying in office. Even Kennedy (also same age risk) dying would take away the "moderate" Justice with a likely Far Right judge who will make Scalia look like Holmes. We'll be at the mercy of a Far Right - not even a Center-Right - Supreme Court for two decades or more.
Just on this alone, I'm voting Hillary over Trump. I'd vote Bernie over Trump.
And that's just it: there's more than the SCOTUS - our entire Constitutional system - at stake when it comes to Trump. Trump will be the massive wrecking ball to our nation that WE DO NOT NEED NOR DESERVE.
If the progressive Far Left among you who feel that our nation needs a revolution to break the system, this is not how you fix things. Trump is how you break things. And once broken it is very hard to put it all back together or even improve upon the remnants.
Do you think ANYTHING Trump has left in his wake has survived his meddling? He's wrecked a football league, he's wrecked airlines, he's wrecked casinos and left Atlantic City in the dumps, he's wrecked food services, he's wrecked planned condo towers, he's wrecked people's lives with a fraudulent academic scam, he's wrecked business deal after business deal and nothing has survived him except himself and his precious trademarked name.
We cannot afford as a nation to waste any vote - yes, waste - on this con artist.
Is Hillary the best possible candidate? I'll be honest, I'd have hoped for better (like oh a third Obama term. DAMN YOU 22nd AMENDMENT). I'm not there for Bernie because I disagree with the Far Left agenda - I can't see the nation accepting single-payer just as they're getting used to Obamacare working, and the expense of his plan is scaring even progressive economists - he's offering.
Compared to Trump, however, every minor - and yes, they are minor - sin of Hillary's soul still makes her the better choice. Compared to Trump, Hillary is at worst another LBJ... and that's at worst, considering all of Johnson's work with civil and voting rights, that's not too bad. At best, Hillary can be another Truman.
Trump can be the next Strom Thurmond, the next James Buchanan, the next John C. Calhoun. Just no. No. A million times No.
If it's Hillary winning the Democratic nomination, please for the love of God find the sanity and logic of backing her over the disaster Trump will be. If it's Bernie, fine so be it, Bernie is a better choice over Trump. But so's Hillary. Try to see that, people. Please.
P.S. And it will really help if you all turned out in spite of the Republican suppression efforts and vote for Democrats in ALL available races, okay? Everything is at stake here: The Senate, even the House is up for grabs despite the gerrymandering, even some state elections and governors' races are vital. Elections matter, people. Get the damn vote out.
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Is Trump Even Really a Billionaire?
This is a legitimate question, which is becoming increasingly necessary to ask as more details about Trump's failed online university business scheme come out. Via Matt Ford at The Atlantic:
“Based upon my personal experience and employment, I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme, and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money,” said Ronald Schnackenberg, a sales manager at Trump University in 2006 and 2007.
Those declarations and other internal Trump University documents depict an aggressive, ethically dubious business model that targeted potential customers’ financial fears and socioeconomic anxieties and offered Trump’s personal brand as the solution—a strategy later echoed in his presidential campaign...
Via the Rude Pundit, who quotes from a 2006 (!) article from a Canadian reporter Kelly Roesler, the whole "Trump University" plan reads like a Ponzi scheme - relying on "Other People's Money" - than on genuine training over how to use real estate to earn success:
Roesler was subjected to everything that you've read: the hard sell, the "OPM" idea of using your credit cards to finance the expensive bullshit Trump U was flinging, the unrealistic promises of wealth. Roesler isn't part of the class action lawsuit because she saw through the screen of lies. Check it out and spread this around. It's contemporaneous evidence of what an unethical buffoon the Republican nominee is...
What strikes me is the sense of urgency, the push within the Trump University organization to bring in as many victims "students" as possible and have them all pay huge expenses towards anything and everything that organization could throw at them.
It's not so much that Trump is greedy - we know that, he brags about it - it's that Trump seems even back in 2006 so desperate for "Other People's Money" that there's more of a NEED for that money instead of a WANT.
The Balloon Juice people linked to an article from a site called HeatStreet, so let us check in with article writer Rick Wilson about what he knows:
By August of last year, I was working to convince major donors that Trump would be a destructive force and likely throw the race to Hillary Clinton. One moment from that period sticks with me as a turning point in my thinking about Trump’s money; a major Wall Street donor laughed when I told him we’d need to mount a serious and fully-funded effort to take on Trump if he chose to self fund.
My friend scoffed at the very idea that Trump was worth even a quarter of the mythical $10 billion, much less that he was liquid to the tune of more than $200 million. “He’s not a billionaire. I’m a billionaire. He’s a clown living on credit.”
While Wilson or his Wall Street friend didn't provide specific evidence, they are pointing at some very obvious clues: Trump's primary source of income is supposedly in real estate, a market known for its over-reliance on loans and credit based on the "value" of the property itself.
If anything, we're finding out that Trump owes money to a good number of banks. Wall Street Journal has him owing $250 million across the board, while he's in debt to $100 million to an overseas bank that can prove to be a serious Conflict Of Interest should Trump become President.
Okay, I'm asking here: if you were truly worth $10 billion, wouldn't you use some of that money cashed out - in hand - to pay off said debts? I mean, $100 million is less than a percent of $10 billion: you could pay off that debt and still have $9.99 billion to your name. Done and done. One less thing to worry about.
One of Trump's selling points during the Primary campaign was that nobody could "own" him because he was so independently wealthy. But if he's in this much debt to banks - debt he hasn't paid off with a portion of billionaire wealth he's supposed to have - how can he claim that? Those banks surely own him: what would happen if they started calling in that credit he owes?
And even Trump is admitting his so-called self-funded campaign is broke. What sustained his primary drive to victory was getting nearly free advertising from a fawning/terrified mass media industry that couldn't turn away from the clown show Trump was giving them. But now he's at a point where the Presidential nominee has to start footing the bill for all the fund-raisers and down-ballot candidates... and he's claiming now he doesn't have the cash he claimed he had.
Something stinks here, and we're nowhere near Denmark.
This needs to be an ongoing question at every press gathering, at every time Trump is at the podium: Is Donald Trump even really a billionaire?
Because all the evidence is pointing to him being a con artist instead.
Monday, May 30, 2016
For the Record: Trump Lies Like a Rug
Submitted with one comment, from the Politifact website tracking Donald Trump's public statements as he campaigns:
When you put Trump's Mostly False, False, and Pants on Fire numbers together, it adds up to 76 percent of his statements being lies. That's the comment I wanna point out: three-fourths of nearly every statement out of Trump's mouth cannot be trusted, cannot be accepted as factual or honest or reliable or good.
And the Politifact people give themselves a ton of wiggle room for politicians and public figures in terms of giving them some benefit of doubt. Trump is so brazen and consistent a liar that for their 2015 Lie of the Year award, they pretty much gave it to Trump for pretty much EVERYthing he said.
I know there's the perception that ALL politicians are liars. But perception doesn't always match the facts. By the same metrics I put Trump: Hillary Clinton lies 28 percent of the time (a little over a quarter), Mitt Romney tracked at 42 percent of the time, Obama at 26 percent of the time, and Bernie Sanders at 30 percent of the time (and the only one avoiding a Pants of Fire).
Trump is by far the biggest, most consistent liar on the political stage.
And yet he keeps getting his fanbase to buy his bullshit. He keeps getting the mainstream media to buy his bullshit: Even with most of them well aware he's a bullshitter.
What the hell does that say about this nation, that we don't hold liars like Trump accountable for the fraud they commit upon the voters? There may be First Amendment restrictions on our government from enforcing such fraud in public statements, but our journalism industry ought to set itself to higher standards and ethics.
The cable channels and newspapers and radio stations are under no obligation to cover Trump, or grant him such privileges as the near-constant - and FREE - coverage he gets for his daily bullshitting. To hell with ratings: where the hell is common sense that Trump is a liar and shouldn't be listened to?
They ought to start charging Trump $50,000 a minute whenever he tries to do a damn phone interview instead of showing up in-person. They ought to set up a bullshit billing system where he has to hand over $100,000 per falsehood to the channel's or paper's lawyers to cover any lawsuits for journalistic malpractice Trump will be costing them.
And why not? It's a business, after all. The channels and papers and radio stations have every right to raise revenues, especially to cover the costs of lies they're forced to shill.
And the Politifact people give themselves a ton of wiggle room for politicians and public figures in terms of giving them some benefit of doubt. Trump is so brazen and consistent a liar that for their 2015 Lie of the Year award, they pretty much gave it to Trump for pretty much EVERYthing he said.
I know there's the perception that ALL politicians are liars. But perception doesn't always match the facts. By the same metrics I put Trump: Hillary Clinton lies 28 percent of the time (a little over a quarter), Mitt Romney tracked at 42 percent of the time, Obama at 26 percent of the time, and Bernie Sanders at 30 percent of the time (and the only one avoiding a Pants of Fire).
Trump is by far the biggest, most consistent liar on the political stage.
And yet he keeps getting his fanbase to buy his bullshit. He keeps getting the mainstream media to buy his bullshit: Even with most of them well aware he's a bullshitter.
What the hell does that say about this nation, that we don't hold liars like Trump accountable for the fraud they commit upon the voters? There may be First Amendment restrictions on our government from enforcing such fraud in public statements, but our journalism industry ought to set itself to higher standards and ethics.
The cable channels and newspapers and radio stations are under no obligation to cover Trump, or grant him such privileges as the near-constant - and FREE - coverage he gets for his daily bullshitting. To hell with ratings: where the hell is common sense that Trump is a liar and shouldn't be listened to?
They ought to start charging Trump $50,000 a minute whenever he tries to do a damn phone interview instead of showing up in-person. They ought to set up a bullshit billing system where he has to hand over $100,000 per falsehood to the channel's or paper's lawyers to cover any lawsuits for journalistic malpractice Trump will be costing them.
And why not? It's a business, after all. The channels and papers and radio stations have every right to raise revenues, especially to cover the costs of lies they're forced to shill.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
I Survived MegaCon 2016: It Felt Like I Walked For Two Days
Oh, wait. I DID.
(Hold on, quick update here as of 5/29/2018: Whoa, getting a ton of traffic here but I think it's people looking for the 2018 MegaCon, which I did attend but I don't have those photos or videos uploaded yet. OKAY now I have it up. GO HERE FOR 2018 PICS and VIDS. Danke)
Previous MegaCon trips had been one-day affairs: drive in, walk about, sometimes in cosplay, other times shopping for fan art, then drive back home in bad traffic.
This time, with MegaCon falling on a long Memorial Day weekend - and having vacation time to use up at work - I took both Friday and Saturday to attend the comic-book scifi-fantasy gaming fanfic fanfilm extravaganza.
Still bad traffic both times though. Dear State of Florida: we could have had alternate rail transit DECADES ago and yet we're still dealing with congestion up the damn wazoo. I'd be calling I-4 between 8 am to 8 pm the world's worst parking lot, except I've been to Washington DC's beltway and have endured just as bad. At least DC has a Metro system to provide alternative means to... (Metro line catches fire for the ninth straight day) DAMMIT.
Anyway, documentation of the convention! As threatened, I documented the atrocities:
FREYA'S DAY
In order to get to the Convention center early enough to avoid the parking lot nightmare - not enough entry points, too many attendees - I have to leave before the break of dawn. The good thing is I get to watch the balloons lifting off in the mornings with the sun rising to greet the day... (you gotta zoom in to see: you're not supposed to snapshot and drive...)
VILLAIN-CON! The hotel where the Libertarian National Convention was convening this same weekend. I earlier fretted that we'd get bigger traffic jams and security issues and media attention because of it... but no, nada. Did any Libertarians actually show up? Because neither did the media crews...
Holy sh-t, people! It's Nat!
Back in the early 1990s some communities started up free Internet portal services called FreeNets. South Florida libraries started one called SEFLIN, and they created a local chat group called the SEFLIN Cafe that got quickly taken over bycrazies sane rational and well-composed individuals of wisdom and sagacity. For some reason, I was a member. Nat was in the group as well. The FreeNet itself is long dead - it was text-only in a time of Internet Browsers, when graphics and video play dominated the 'Net there was no place for it - and the SEFLIN Cafe krewe scattered to the four corners of the world, but we've kept in touch...
Nat does the smart thing: he came with the missus and friends.
This is us goofing off as I get the Wristband of Power to grant me access to most convention places. He got Premium, which upgraded to Nametag status and better access.
One of the disadvantages of getting to the 'Con early is that you get there and then stand around in lines waiting for the official opening. Seriously, MegaCon people, you should be able to set up a waiting area with some activity to keep people occupied as you set up for the day. Like, maybe, a large monitor playing movie previews or a movie short or three that would thrill the crowd.
"I say, old chap, any Death Star battle plans I might be able to smuggle for you this day?"
There is seriously a huge Steampunk fan base in the Orlando area, so I'm not too surprised the R2-D2 building community created a Victorian-esque droid.
Autograph lines.
From my experience with the Tampa Bay Comic Con, I know that every Con will have a plethora of Deadpools. It's one of the easier costumes to buy and then customize, because Deadpool is a character that can't be taken seriously and so... uh... you can make Deadpool into a housewife or a Steampunk or... uh...
You can make him into Donald Trump.
Oh no. GOD NO. Not Trump. #NEVERTRUMP
Artists Alley!
Female Kylo Ren (yes, gender flips are allowed in Cosplay)! Okay, now can we get a smile out of you, Ren? Ren...?
Whoa. 3D printing is a thing now, and they can set up a camera system to scan human bodies to make your own figurine! It's costly though - out of the budget scale of this poor librarian - but if you want to, this company is Zero Point 3D and they got a Facebook page and email and you can find out which conventions they'll be at next.
There is a Vaunt 3D company providing a similar service.
This is how packed it got on Friday. Saturday is the busier day...
The NaNoWriMo discussion panel! That's Bill Hatfield in the middle, NaNo organizers Berti Walker and Elyse Reyes to the left... and the guys on the right I didn't get business cards from, okay so someone's gotta tell me their names.
They set up the discussion in a classroom setup this time, nice.
First rule of NaNo Club: YOU WRITE 50,000 Words! Second rule: No Fight Club jokes...!
Rey Cosplay! I will only take pictures of the ones who fulfill their destiny and take the lightsaber that calls to them...
Speaking of which, Ultra Sabers set up shop this year selling a whole bunch of the glowy ones! Very pricey, but they have customized handles! (I was told there was a second vendor over in the Anime area, but I couldn't find them)
Selfie as I wait in line for the Kevin Conroy Q&A (One clue on my shirt explaining who HE is)
"I... AM... BATMAN!" Kevin Conroy just will not sit down for a Q&A. He bounces around the stage...
Friday ended for me around 5 PM, I went to a Don Pablo's restaurant for dinner and then got stuck in I-4 Traffic hell to where I didn't get back home until 9 PM. /headdesk
SATURN'S DAY
I know this day is busier, and so I headed out super-early for this one as well. Still get there too early and I get stuck waiting in lines again, but at least this time I look geeky doing it...
As noted, Saturday gets to be a bigger Cosplay day.
Daft Punk! I know that's more music genre, but they are major figures in the anime and scifi communities so they are allowed!
I'm not the only Jedi who prefers BLUE as a robe color. All those other Jedi get so DRAB in browns and grays...
Watch out, lady! That's a Blogon!
Look, kids! It's a Mickey Mouse Sorcerer's Apprentice Deadpool! He'll stop the Dalek!
Unfortunately, the Mickey Mouse Sorcerer's Apprentice Deadpool got distracted by Francis, so he left the job to me...
From here, I went to the OTHER END of the convention hall (West concourse is a very long place) to wait for the Hayley Atwell Q&A.
While waiting in line, as noted, you get bored, and the occasional saber fight will break out...
Watch out kid, you'll poke somebody's eye out with that thing...
Hayley Atwell - Agent Carter, AKA the Next Doctor Who if the producers had any inkling how the fan base would thrill to it - is an absolute delight to listen to as she raps about her work.
Oh, right, the Jedi robe has a hoodie to it...
COSPLAY!
COSPLAY! With Deadpool photobomb! Damn you, my old nemesis...!
More R2 fun! This one is a Boba Fett inspired droid!
MORE COSPLAY!
MORE GLOWY LIGHTSABERS! We have the technology now...
MORE BOUNTY HUNTERS! I mean Cosplay!
MORE GAMERS! So this is where half the conventioneers go while everyone else walks and walks and walks some more... Oh, my feets...
I gots video clips as well, which I will upload in due time for sharing.
MegaCon is going on until Monday, I believe. But I'm done. Two days of intense walking is good enough for me... ow ow ow ow ow...
By the way, anyone hear who won the Libertarian convention...?
(Hold on, quick update here as of 5/29/2018: Whoa, getting a ton of traffic here but I think it's people looking for the 2018 MegaCon, which I did attend but I don't have those photos or videos uploaded yet. OKAY now I have it up. GO HERE FOR 2018 PICS and VIDS. Danke)
Previous MegaCon trips had been one-day affairs: drive in, walk about, sometimes in cosplay, other times shopping for fan art, then drive back home in bad traffic.
This time, with MegaCon falling on a long Memorial Day weekend - and having vacation time to use up at work - I took both Friday and Saturday to attend the comic-book scifi-fantasy gaming fanfic fanfilm extravaganza.
Still bad traffic both times though. Dear State of Florida: we could have had alternate rail transit DECADES ago and yet we're still dealing with congestion up the damn wazoo. I'd be calling I-4 between 8 am to 8 pm the world's worst parking lot, except I've been to Washington DC's beltway and have endured just as bad. At least DC has a Metro system to provide alternative means to... (Metro line catches fire for the ninth straight day) DAMMIT.
Anyway, documentation of the convention! As threatened, I documented the atrocities:
FREYA'S DAY
Back in the early 1990s some communities started up free Internet portal services called FreeNets. South Florida libraries started one called SEFLIN, and they created a local chat group called the SEFLIN Cafe that got quickly taken over by
Nat does the smart thing: he came with the missus and friends.
Cosplay! Ruby Rose!
Oh no. GOD NO. Not Trump. #NEVERTRUMP
Look kids! Gail Simone! (applause)
There is a Vaunt 3D company providing a similar service.
Friday ended for me around 5 PM, I went to a Don Pablo's restaurant for dinner and then got stuck in I-4 Traffic hell to where I didn't get back home until 9 PM. /headdesk
SATURN'S DAY
I know this day is busier, and so I headed out super-early for this one as well. Still get there too early and I get stuck waiting in lines again, but at least this time I look geeky doing it...
From here, I went to the OTHER END of the convention hall (West concourse is a very long place) to wait for the Hayley Atwell Q&A.
While waiting in line, as noted, you get bored, and the occasional saber fight will break out...
I gots video clips as well, which I will upload in due time for sharing.
MegaCon is going on until Monday, I believe. But I'm done. Two days of intense walking is good enough for me... ow ow ow ow ow...
By the way, anyone hear who won the Libertarian convention...?
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