The Trump Hillary Faceoff: What Did We Do To Deserve This?

C'mon. This really isn't a surprise, is it? Oh, it is? Really? So, how do you think we got here, stuck with the incomprehensible choice of two of the most unpopular people in the country? It sucks, right? Do we deserve this? Maybe.

How on earth did we get a Trump? Here's how. Forget his orange face and teeny, pudgy fingers, his ill-fitting suits (What's up with that? He can certainly afford better), his cotton candy hair. That's window dressing. Have you ever heard of 'perfect timing'? Somehow Trump emerged and tapped in to the somnolent, apathetic, undercard of the American populace. They've been simmering - seething in fact - with discontent as their world was crumbling. They're pissed, just like we are(!), at government bloat and dysfunction, corruption and laziness, the inability of Congress to get anything done aside from keeping their cushy jobs. And maybe because there was a black man in the White House who was really the one responsible for every conceivable shitty thing that was going on in their lives. Trump came along and woke them with his gutter mentality and spoke their language. Suddenly, they had a voice and became political activists, going to rallies, trolling on the internet, listening with a deaf ear to Trump's hate speech. Alarmingly, we watch them, dissidents of the establishment, morph from passive to aggressive with their ugly newfound voice.

And people have fallen asleep at the wheel. Well-meaning people think that cleverly complaining about politics and reposting opinion articles (I do that) on Facebook is being an activist. No it's not.Yeah, everyone's busy. So busy, in fact, they forgot to vote. Tell the truth, you know you don't vote in down-ticket or mid-term elections. It makes you want to cry. By being too busy to vote for your school board candidates, your council people, your Supervisor, your State Senator, your judges, you relinquish your voice and your power to effect who is elected to represent you. Every one of those people make up the foundation of our governing system. We build from the bottom up and whoever wends their way through that system to emerge at the top becomes our top tier candidates. They started somewhere and someone had to vote for them to get to the next level. Except for Donald J. Trump who busted into our lives through reality tv and the tabloids. An aberration because he's not a politician who went through the electoral process. He is just a total aberration.

But, it's Presidential season and because, for years, we didn't exercise our vote up and down the ticket, this is what we got. Often the weakest candidates win in mid-term elections simply because of low voter turnout and those are the people who become incumbents who then are hard to get rid of and who often rise to the top (The Peter Principle) to become weak Presidential candidates. So, we do get what we deserve. That is unless, miracle of miracles, one honest, authentic, progressive (no flip flopper here!) politician manages to rise like a phoenix and upset this entire election miasma to save us all. No, the rest of this is not a paean to Bernie. You can safely read on.

The Trumpians are really pissed at the government because they feel they haven't been heard. You know who they should be mad as hell at? They should be mad as hell at their ineffective Tea Party! They have been led them down a fantastical path where the promise to live in a deranged Utopia of hate and guns and hegemony was dangled before their myopic eyes and what have they got to show for it? Somehow all the anti-abortion legislation and the NRA making sure no one got their hands on their precious guns - well, aside from little Johnnie who shot his father - all that hasn't done shit for their bottom line. Incomes are down 6.5% since the start of the recession. The fear that drove them to embrace the Tea Party and their fundamentalist, neo-libertarian promises hasn't worked out too well. Right-wingers have not seen much accomplished even in their Fascistic universe. Yes, we (the good guys!) are beyond frustrated by those obstructionist right-wing politicians because they have been at the forefront of an astonishing do-nothing Congress. But they haven't done anything for their supporters either. Tea Partiers probably don't realize why they're pissed but the people they've elected have done zippo for them and they are sick of it - sick of government and sick of their pathetic representatives...although they would never say that. And now the asylum inmates think they have finally found their Messiah. Donald J. Trump. Well, at least now, they're involved in the political process.

The Democratic Party should use their millions to support a PR campaign to educate people about what voting means leading them through the process from the bottom to the top, how it affects electoral outcomes and how precious each vote is. And let's throw in a national day off to vote. Please vote every election...

Mr. Obama, Have You No Sense Of Decency, Sir?

My blood is boiling. And yours should be, too. This New York Times article just reported that Obama, at a $33,400 ticket fundraiser in Texas for the DNC, told donors that it was time to back Hillary.  President Obama may just have lost the election for Hillary by putting Bernie on the back burner and dissing the whole democratic process. Bernie's legions will not take kindly to this.

"But while he stressed that he was not endorsing either candidate, and that both would make good presidents, Mr. Obama went on to lavish praise on Mrs. Clinton, describing her as smart, tough and experienced, and said that she would continue the work of his administration." 

Guess what? I don't want the next President to continue the work of his administration. I'm not going to list why - I've written plenty about 'why' - but we need fresh thinking and someone with the courage to take on the 'Establishment'. Enough with the status quo.

But the worst part of this is Obama's behind-closed-doors, sneaky 'endorsement' of Hillary. Remember when Mitt Romney was caught on video talking about the 47%? Well, this leak could be Obama's Waterloo. Once again, he's snubbed his nose at progressives. He did it when they put him the White House - make no mistake, progressives early and enthusiastic support was a good part of what propelled him - and now, again, he's kicking them in the balls by not even acknowledging all the progressive supporters' hard work and money and renewed excitement for the political process. Could Mr. Obama be any more disrespectful for the democratic process? He so much as said 'they don't matter'. Imagine if someone told Obama to back out and 'come together' for Hillary at this point in his '08 campaign.

"Mr. Obama has been careful in public to avoid disparaging Mr. Sanders, given his deeper history and relationship with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama also does not want to alienate the liberal voters who have flocked to Mr. Sanders."

Well, Mr. Obama, it's too late. You have pissed off and alienated millions of people. Those "liberal voters" you pretend to care so much about will not forget this no matter what kind of scare tactics you or the media proclaim. Many people are mightily motivated now to upset the whole apple cart and not vote for the coronated nominee because it would only be more of the same. Hillary might be singing the same tune as Bernie right now but she's a terrible singer and, as sure as night is day, I don't think one person believes she will keep her word.

The idea that Hillary as the front-runner and nominal nominee would give her an advantage because of the longer timeline...well, I have no idea what Obama and the DNC is smoking. The longer Hillary is out front, the longer she would be a target for Trump's assaults. He's already started and, as I've said before, he will chew her up and spit her out. He will harp on the FBI investigation, her emails, Benghazi til the cows come home. Any facts about the investigation will not matter a wit to Donald Trump and he will harp on it til his followers believe it as 'fact'. And, that is just the beginning. Bill Clinton will come in for a major drubbing and no stone or cigar will be left unturned.

"Those in attendance described an urgency in Mr. Obama’s tone as he suggested that Democrats needed to come together to prevent an opening for the Republicans, whose leading candidate is Donald J. Trump, to exploit."

What 'opening' is Mr. Obama talking about?

This is a shocking turn of tactics for Obama. To reiterate, he has just royally pissed off millions of potential Democratic voters who 'frankly, don't give a damn' anymore about politics as usual. Let's say Bernie loses and is not the nominee, it would take a few weeks of mourning for his supporters to accept it. If Obama had heaped praise and love on Bernie and Bernie's supporters now, instead of marginalizing them, if he made them feel welcome then they might not see fit to turn their backs on the Party come November. But it would take massive mediation and therapy to get Bernie's people in the Dems corner at this point. Let the chips fall where they may...and fall they will.

Queen of Illusion, Hillary Clinton, Pretender to the Presidency

Whirling dervish, Hillary Clinton, spins her 'convictions' faster than a monkey can climb a tree. Whatever's expedient that's what she'll say. Yes, people do evolve and change their minds but that's a whole lot of fast track evolving and it feels like just a big con. Her polling shows it: New Poll Shows 60% of Americans Think Hillary Clinton is Untrustworthy and Dishonest (11/6/15) Aren't 'untrustworthy' and 'dishonest' kind of euphemistic for 'liar'? So, you have the Democratic frontrunner for President of the United States who is considered a liar by a majority of voters. That is just sad. Especially if this comes down to the 'lesser of two evils' vote, yet again, instead of voting for a real desirable candidate.  

"Hillary Clinton has always been viewed as the Democrats' best general-election candidate. But new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls of Iowa and New Hampshire show that Bernie Sanders outperforms Clinton in those two general-election battleground states."

You know, it would be great to have a woman President but I think it would be the ultimate feminist decision to wait for the right one. Supporting someone because of their gender is as sexist as it gets.

Does Hillary Rodham Clinton have no shame? It's not like she's a magician with amazing sleight of hand. Her tricky record is right in front of us. Just google Hillary flipflops. Why, here's a good one: 6 flip flops from Hillary ‘Real Person’ Clinton An example: “We’ve got to do several things and I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants,” channeling Donald Trump, the Democratic frontrunner "adamantly" tells a talk radio host in 2003. And, she bragged about this just yesterday, November 9: “Well, look, I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier, to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in. And I do think you have to control your borders.” Read about it here. So, is she the 'neocon' Rand Paul said she was?

People say, "Oh, isn't it great. Bernie's moving her to the left." Honestly, she'd move to Mars if it that's what it took. But what is troubling about her 'move to the left' is that she can't be trusted that what she says today is what she would do IF she is in office. Watch this video of Elizabeth Warren talking about Hillary back in 2004. Buyer beware.

Martin O'Malley said it best: "Leadership is about being clear about your principles." But does she have any? The same lack of conviction was the reason I didn't vote for her husband, Bill Clinton. I felt there was no there, there; no center. They're well paired. Two smart people blowin' hot air in the wind.

Why hang your hat on a lesser comet when you can have a shining star? Bernie Sanders has been talking about his meaningful principles for the last thirty years. He has a center, he has a conscience, he doesn't hold his finger to the wind to decide what he should think. Take a minute to watch a mashup of Bernie's speeches over the the last thirty years. Watch this and know you are listening to someone who believes what he says, who has been fighting for the good fight for years, who has predicted what this country has become: "at 3:25 (1993) Bernie talks about how our country is evolving into an oligarchy." He said that nineteen years ago.
Bernie is our best hope to tackle the problems of the 99%. Fuck the establishment.

And, this is the most troubling. Don't think for a minute, if Hillary is the nominee, that the GOP won't eviscerate her. She can barely beat Ben Carson, for chrissake, by 1%. When they're finished with her...we will have a Republican President. Let's say for a minute, by some miracle she makes it. Well, if you think the GOP hated Obama and effectively obstructed anything he wanted to get done - imagine for a moment how they would work with Hillary. Racism for him, sexism with Clintonism thrown in for her. There is no match for Hillary in the  divisive public figure department. A do-nothing Congress would do less than zero with Hillary. They couldn't stand to see her accomplish a thing. Her supporters are in denial if they think 'she'll show them!' Yeah, just like she marched into her good friends at Goldman Sachs and "told them to cut it out". Boy, they must have trembled in their boots at such an admonition. (Those are her words. True.)

We should be so lucky to have Bernie as our President.
This is what winning looks like! Bernie 2016!