How will that "don't vote for any of them" plan work out actually?
I had a rather heated response to this question that I posed when I posed it in a FB post, but I think it deserves to be asked again, and in a more thoughtful way.
In order to frame this question, it's important that I ignore the defense of Hillary because I'm doing my darndest to be more sensitive to those of you who've decided that nobody is worth your vote this time around.
I'm going to disregard that Bush (the son) had 13 embassy attacks resulting in 66 deaths including 3 American diplomats and 22 embassy workers. I'll do the same ignoring of the 10 attacks under Ronald Reagan resulting in 318 deaths including 1 US Ambassador, 18 CIA officers and 254 Marines. I can even forget the fact that Bush never had an investigation as a result of the deaths, and Reagan only had one.
None of that matters when the people telling you that Hillary is a murderer are convinced that she is the reason they are dead. The 13 investigations have taken these Hillary haters off of her email trail for the purpose of finding blame over Benghazi, but they still need a Wikileaks to prove some form of pay to play with their very charitable organization, CGI (Clinton Global Initiative).
Keep in mind that the email Hillary's opponents are seeking for pay to play proof is a connection only made possible because THE CLINTON'S HAVE RELEASED THEIR TAXES AND THE BOOKS TO THE CHARITY.
Let me say this again in another way.
In order for me to believe what you are saying about that evil Hillary and her horny husband Bill, I have to connect some yet to be found email, or yet to be authenticated Wikileaks, to the open books that they've provided for everyone to see, just like most presidential candidates do.
I am suspending belief in all that I've just mentioned about Hillary's open documents, and I will equate this yet to be found open book crime with whatever Donald has told us about his closed books. For the sake of argument, I am trusting what a Russian dictator has shared from people's private files (will it be okay if they release any nude photo's since some of you are okay with the rest of this stuff?) and I am scouring through all of it like the gospel truth, trying to connect it all back to THE OPEN DOCUMENTS THAT THE CLINTON'S PROVIDED TO EVERYONE.
For the purpose of this article, and this question, I am ignoring the obvious differences between these two candidates and taking them to be the exact same Bozo's that some dear friends and family have called them.
Now that I've separated myself from my own distorted reality in exchange for your more realistic one, I am now truly, really and sincerely ready to consider the idea of doing the exact same thing as some of you and not vote for anyone as well.
My question is- before I make protest posters or write up blogs to sell the rest of America on the value and virtue of this approach- what is the value and virtue of this approach?
What would be gained if only me and about 600 more people that I can convince join in the "No Vote" ideology? What happens if every American finally see's the light and bows out of the presidential vote too? Other than the Congress being forced to choose for US, doesn't the process of bowing out allow the remaining voters- whoever they may be- to decide which president the rest of US lives with?
That's not really a question because the answer is obvious. Of course, the people that vote are the people that choose for all of us. That is not really a debatable topic even though it sounds like extortion if you are as firm about the right to "Not Vote" as Colin Kaepernick is about taking a knee.
I am not debating the right to take a knee on an anthem or an election. I am asking the value of it so that I can decide if I will join in myself. As it stands, I am willing and ready to sell the benefits of not voting just as I've sold the value of taking a knee and every other protest that came before it.
I'm not personally interested in taking a knee against the flag as my way to improve it, but I appreciate the knee people for the conversations and the situational awareness that must happen every time someone gets into another heated debate over the virtue of saluting the flag versus protesting the ways in which the flag has failed.
Protest is important, and comes in many forms and fashions. I just don't understand this "Not Voting" protest, very much.
I can advocate for this not voting thing in the same vein of free expression if I could just put into words what this decision expresses. With barely 50% of Americans voting these days, how does reducing those numbers to less than 50% and allowing less than a majority decide for all of the rest make sense? What is the magical percent of lack of involvement that will finally make bureaucrats listen and respond to our frustration?
Like it or not, we are all stuck with the president that the majority (or plurality) selects. voters who sit out might hope for more obstructionist government, but even that doesn't change the impact and direction of the Executive Orders that will ensue or the Supreme Court selections that are still the privilege of whoever wins the presidency.
Should Bashir Al-Assad be removed and what happens with Russia if we do it. Our next president must soon decide if America will honor the Syrian no-fly zone that Russia claimed to establish against ISIS.......who has no aircraft.
No, you do not have to exercise your privilege to vote because freedom provides you that privilege. You will, however, have to accept Roe v Wade if the wrong side wins but you want abortion to become a crime. Conversely, your gay friends who recently got married may have their nuptials annulled by the results of this election, depending on who wins.
You don't have to choose from the best of the bunch or write in your own choice if that seems like too much of a long shot. You don't even need to show up if none of this seems like it's worth your time, but you will live with whoever WE choose for you, so please don't curse and whine at friends and family that choose your next president for you. WE invited you to come to the store with US and pick out the best watermelon available. Sorry if we choose the sour one over the seedy one.
We'll be heading back to the store in four years, just so you know.
"She really thought I didn't mind that crying baby"
What isn't hard to understand is the love and understanding that we all have for that crazy uncle in our family. You know who I am talking about because every family seems to have THAT uncle.
Call him Uncle Donald if you will.
He's that uncle who always seems to say something to infuriate somebody, if not everybody at the same time, though some in the family know how to let him have his way and not poke the bear by trying to censor him.
Usually, our crazy Uncle Donald is aided by a fair amount of liquor to increase the audacity of his offensiveness, but he is perfectly capable of pissing off many, with or without liquor. The liquor is usually just an easy excuse for the kind of stuff they do all of the time anyway, but it also gives us something to excuse him for, until the next time.
After all, crazy Uncle Donald is family, and there really is no way to totally disassociate yourself from family....is there?
It was way back in 1989, with Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. campaigning mightily to stop the impending State legislature pursuit in Louisiana of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. That was the only other time in which a party attempted to oust one of it's own nominee's. It didn't work and Duke won that seat.
(http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/white-supremacists-feel-inspired-trumps-2016-campaign) THE LESSON?
Sometimes when you DON'T stand up against your unruly family members, they'll only get more unruly and eventually take over the whole party.
Two years later, however, republicans learned their lesson when Duke attempted to win the Governors seat in Louisiana, but was unsuccessful due to a strong stand of resistance from members of his own party.
David Duke is nothing like crazy Uncle Donald. He is our slick Uncle Duke who is rhetorically capable of convincing you of just about anything with his gift of gab and immense intellectual capacity. As a black political editorial writer who researches constantly, I have to watch carefully to the amount of time I spend listening to David Duke because he can totally focus on elements that you'll agree with him about, and never reveal the other elements of his intolerant self that resides at the core of his being.
Those who keep up with such things know that our racist Uncle Duke rarely talks about blacks anymore, but is an intense skeptic about the pervasive influence of Jewish money in American life in addition to the 8 billion dollar welfare payment we send to Israel even while Netanyahu spits in the face of our president. Uncle Duke and I do not disagree on this bone of contention, yet he loses me on the race purity mission that elevated him to Grand Wizard. Though he has abandoned the sheet and the hood, what became of all of that hatred?
Whether he continues to espouse such hatred and extremes or not, is a risk that Louisiana voters refused to trust again, as Duke has run for many political offices in Louisiana and beyond, but never won another seat after winning the state legislature seat in 1989.
Louisiana voters, and its republican party, have rejected his form of hatred and turned him into a fringe lunatic lost in the extremes of politics and academia until revived by his recent endorsement of our crazy Uncle Donald.
Although much more lucid a thinker and talented as a orator, Uncle Duke was denounced for turning back the clock on race relations in America. In a crazy bit of political irony, Uncle Donald, far from full fledged denunciation, is FINALLY being seen as the sincere threat to the future of the GOP that he has always been from the moment he claimed the label, and a sincere threat to the reputation of those who continue to love and support him too, much like our crazy Uncle who no one knows how to functionally separate themselves from.
The fact that the GOP is talking about some form of nominee switching intervention is good but sad when you think about the damage they have accepted by waiting so long. At this point in the conversation, it's hard to know if they will be more damaged with a Trump victory and a path or plan that could be so progressive even Obama will wish he voted for him, or if he and Republicans lose once again and fight with presidential defeat depression while searching for the motivation to redefine their identity by capturing some of these millions of now bewildered voters.
Hillary has a delicate line to walk on as she seeks to secure enough bewildered voters herself to win the electoral map and the presidency. No race against an opponent so immensely flawed should ever be this darn close, but it is because no one really likes Hillary that much either. At this point in the process, she'll never extend her favorabilities to even that of Mitt Romney, who must be chomping at the bit to defy his families wishes and save the country from Trump by being the secondary option of this GOP intervention plan.
The voters that Clinton must pursue are those particular family members who hate Uncle Donald's crap and might choose to spend more time at the reunion with lying Aunt Hillary- who is only hard to believe, versus crazy Uncle Donald who lies and attacks everybody in sight- but only if you make them choose between the two.
In this election, making people choose between these two is exactly what WE must do. I say WE because Hillary will insult the voter's she needs while blaming our crazy Uncle on their support of him. She must continue to treat him in the only way that he understands- with ridicule. Rational debate has little value with crazy Donald. With that insecure Uncle of ours, there is actually nothing better than a little name calling to piss him off and take him off his game. Trump can't focus on the issues while defending himself from name calling or angry Gold Star families. Clarifying his existence in this race by calling him crazy Uncle Donald would achieve a very intentional, two-fold purpose.
While Hillary points out how insidious it is to give our crazy Uncle the most powerful job in the world, WE must keep informing our friends and family that THEY are the reason that he is still sticking around. Donald is showing as many signs of wanting out as that tomato can boxer who needs to last four rounds to insure he gets paid. Trump is well past that four round threshold and more likely to lose money and power if this keeps up much longer. If he had hired a trusted corner man, he would have fired him already for not throwing in the towel on this thing.
The only person more shocked that you crazy voters still love the crazy uncle is Trump, because he probably never got involved to actually become president. The reason why he's running will be a secret to history or one hell of a book if he has the courage to reveal the art of this deal he made with the devil, Hillary, or someone really mad at the GOP.
It's not out of the realm of understanding for our crazy Uncle to be up on a soap box trying to convince us that he is the most talented and brilliant of us all. That is what he does at every party.
The reasons why he still has people supporting him is the reason why I am writing today.
Hitler's rise came absent the balanced informational obstruction of the Internet. Trump is not so lucky. If you need to know more about what he is all about, the evidence reads like a clear and present danger. He is a self serving business man with no evidence of being benevolent or particularly good in business because he refuses to release the only proof of such things, his tax return, calling them all "under audit". In the absence of the only resume that a business man can offer for US to review, let US review the details that are available to us.
Every time I take the time out to complain about the pain in the arse we call Trump, I find myself unable to do so without some element of praise that he deserves too.
He deserves the credit for demonstrating political dominance without financially dominating the process too. He deserves credit for exposing a delegate system that we had little functional knowledge about. If the electors in half of the United States go rogue, as the Constitution allows, he might soon give an up close and personal look at the electoral college aspect of the two-party hustle, used to maintain the two-party grip on power. He deserves credit for forcing the conversation to happen on several hot button topics that political correctness had previously silenced, and he deserves a lot of real credit for exposing the cracks and flaws in our system of governance including our immense racial and cultural divides that function as wedges to help maintain and expand those exposed cracks in the foundation.
Stated more clearly, he has helped us to see how terribly racist and divided WE actually are.
If his candidacy is reflective of this nation, it is showing that WE are mean, somewhat vile, vain, full of hatred and polarized beyond our ability to even recognize friends and loved ones when examining them through a political lens. This political season has found millions of our friends and family members getting dropped off our social media friends list- assuming they haven't dropped you first.
For a while, both sides had serious reason, other than favorability ratings, to call the two of these candidates equally bad. Trump's former attack of John McCain and so many others after that, wasn't enough to exclude him from presidential consideration, but his recent attacks on babies and Muslim parents of slain war vets while lying about his relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, has at least clarified that he is uniquely horrible.
Trump is that crazy Uncle we all have, the one we would never imagine helping to become president. If you don't know how to bail out for pride or embarrassment, you are like those folks on the Titanic who realized the carrier didn't have enough life rafts for everybody, so you stand resolute in the no way out scenario you've found yourself in. What you are doing by standing steadfast in the corner of Trump is surely a grand display of courage and determination as you sink down to your slow, icy death.
Crazy Uncle Donald is not only sinking the boat on his own political race, he is destroying the political reputations and careers of everyone that hitches their wagons to him. Most of those people I politically oppose, so Uncle Donald has done something great for me. As for the voters, voters don't have to reveal their voting booth selections even though FaceBook seems to make us think we have to declare a pledge of allegiance to someone so that someone else isn't presumably winning by default.
In the words of Vice President Joe Biden, that is a bunch of malarkey. We'll never rid ourselves of two-party rule if we remain convinced that any vote outside of one party is an instant vote for the other. If there is no reason for me to know who you vote for, there is no reason for me to ask or care who you vote for either. WE use a secret ballot for a reason. If any of US are truly interested in Making America Great, finally, insuring over 90% voter participation gets us closer to a majority selection and not just a campaign season survivor. As long as voter participation remains stuck at numbers barely over 50% of the population, financial influence can, and does, win an election every time.
Hillary can do herself a ton of supporters and loads of Super PAC money a lot of good by championing the reforms (campaign finance, immigration) that Trump has brought to light. But don't get it twisted. Our distrust of Hillary is real, and nothing will instantly convince US that she will fulfill her campaign promises or fulfill that progressive platform after getting elected. So, instead of blowing a bunch of presumed hot air full of political promises that no one really believes, Hillary must keep dishing the ice on the hot rhetoric of crazy Uncle Donald to help expose him as the crazy Uncle that we all know him as.
If you are still in his corner, you are doing a loyal and honorable thing as a member of America's family, but a horrendous thing for the future of this nation. Nobody is telling you not to love him and keep inviting him to the party. Just don't make him our president.
I was a little afraid for poor Hillary because she messed up and engineered the best group of political speeches we've ever seen as an affirmation to her credibility and an introduction to her as the official nominee of the Democrat party.
The Reverend Dr. William Barber II turned a more mundane list of final night speakers into a night of speaking just as strong as any of the other nights. But that is only because Hillary did the damn thing too.
I could have chosen much more dignified words to meet the gravitas of the moment and the person who owned it, but it was beyond presidential. It was real talk like we've never quite seen from Hillary or any presidential candidate.
It had so much detailed specificity that the most common republican critique after the speech was not to the detail and planning, but to the fact that she didn't precede it all by saying "I'm going to ask congress for these things", realizing that the only encumbrance to her thorough dissertation would be those do-nothings.
Donald Trump, conversely, not only insures you that he- and only he- can do the things that he promises, he does so with as little detail as he can get away with. Thus far, that is quite a bit.
On stage last night, Hillary followed up a man that started out his spiritual lambasting of conservatives- of which all of us who are Christian naturally find allegiance to- with a not so veiled refrain that went as follows.
"I am so concerned about those who say so much about what God says so little, while saying so little about what God says so much"
If the point wasn't quite made clear enough, Dr. Barber later added "When religion is used to camouflage meanness, we know we have a heart problem in America"
I am the person who originally wondered why in the world Hillary Clinton would know as much as she knows about the difficulty of the presidency and still seek the post. I am that guy who never felt that breaking the glass ceiling was a reasonable enough reason for Hillary to seek to lead the free world while doing it.
I am fully concerned, and hardly convinced that this is the perfect person for the job. Given the nature of our world, I'm concerned that men hate women worldwide even more than Trump does here in America. To be effective in her role will be a challenge greater than her skill for negotiation and compromise. Much like Barack Obama did, her uniqueness will threaten existing power structures into a greater sense of fear and loathing, and a stronger stand of opposition against her than the one they made against Obama.
I totally get the stand against Hillary for president.
What I don't understand is why there is not a legitimate substantive debate against her instead of this incessant "Evil Hillary" nonsense that is founded in nothing legitimate.
Actually, I am not confused about it all. In the absence of substantive policy conversations, it becomes necessary, almost vital to play like The Donald and drop insults with no substance.
This is one of the nice Obama devil pics
Insults like those that Photoshop created for the past 8 years of the Obama presidency. When it became clear that most of Obama's policy decisions had a decidedly right wing lean to them (domestic oil production, RomneyCare 2.0, TPP), the problem with him had to be made more personality driven.
If you trust modern social media, Obama needs to complete his term as president so that he can resume his rule over the Illuminati. Republicans might have cornered themselves into oblivion with all of the fear bating, but the downside of obsolescence is that you no longer have anything to lose.
Trump and the Trumpians are using any means necessary to win
The GOP has relegated themselves into a segmented party without a true identity. If they have one, it now belongs to the Trumpians, supporters of Donald Trump who helped to wipe out a huge field of political competitors, by any means necessary, excluding of course by means of sharing policy, plans and details that is.
By any means necessary politics has been known to call Ted Cruz "Lying Ted" and Marco Rubio "Little Marco" for reasons we really don't need to bring up again.
By any means necessary is exactly the approach that is now being deployed against Hillary, and it' feels just like the Obama is a devil claims. So...are women truly evil?
There really is no major effort needed to sell the notion that women are somewhat crazy and maybe even downright evil. To levy the charge of "that evil Bitch Hillary"- which is essentially what you folks are saying about her- as a means of running off people who are already leery of women in leadership to begin with, is low-brow, by any means necessary politics.
Why do these evil charges have no merit?
If you look at the only topics that seem to lead this claim of evil, they were all done under the guidance and leadership of men who WE've conveniently forgotten or disregarded. The beef with the mass incarcerations from the Clinton years and the reverberating memories of the word "Super predator" places the blame on the president's wife...not the president himself or even Bernie Sanders who was in congress at the time and voted in favor of the crime bill too, as did many liberals.
The issue with Benghazi or even Libya disregards the fact that every decision made in both scenarios, was at the accountability of the president, not the Secretary of State who has no authority to act without presidential consent.
If Muslim minister, Louis Farrakhan, has a sincere problem with our killing of his Libyan friend Mohamar Qaddafi, he should take it up with Obama, not Hillary. But he's not. Instead, he'd rather post videos convincing us all that Hillary must be evil because.....because.
Actually, this evil claim has no foundation for existence and needs to stop. It is low-bar sexism at its worse, and it's an instant reflection of our unfounded fears of a women and worthy competitors. No, many of us do not feel comfortable with women in leadership, reflected in our corporate boards and our wage disparity. For whatever reason, WE just don't think women are worthy.
WE didn't really think that black men were worthy of being president either, but two elections with an apparent rejection of white male alternatives has made it clear that the WE who decides elections is never fully reflective of US all. Dylann Roof, Obama bashing, Black Lives Matter, Trump and now evil Hillary claims have all revealed to US all that WE have quite a way to go on issues of gender, race and equality.
WE've never fully overcome like the song promised we would during those long arduous marches for freedom. In reality, WE've thrown dirt over the exact issues that now make the Unites States of America the most socially divided accumulation of human beings on the planet, with money, power and influence overtaking gender and race as our key dividers.
I'm not discounting the natural demonic depiction that becomes every president eventually, or the power and inspiration of Photoshop alterations to prove our modern claims of evil. What I am discounting is this decision to demonize Hillary simply to disqualify her in advance. Even Obama avoided the label until after he won and suddenly posed a real threat to those who doubted that he really could win in the first place.
Obama Did It!!
Blame Obama for this one too if you must. Two terms of a black man have made it abundantly clear that we will not simply go back to white men for fear of everything else. WE are willing, ready and prepared to be lead by a women president, and Hillary is as thoroughly qualified for the job as ANY candidate that has run, maybe ever. Much like racism against blacks, she has had no choice but to be twice as good just to make it half as far.
What can not be ignored is that she has a history of legal issues, alongside her husband, that leave her with question marks on trustworthiness and integrity. But she also has a consistent history of working hard for children and families of America that just doesn't disappear because her opponents yell Benghazi or evil Hillary so much.
She is a woman of principle and motives, and she appears to be the best of what WE have left to choose from. If Trump is actually able to behave so incredibly devilish throughout this campaign, and Bernie Sanders is an admitted Socialist, something so many have long since considered evil, how exactly is it that Hillary keeps coming out on the internet as the only evil candidate remaining?
It's because she is winning, likely to win, and because she is a woman. Just as the black man in me did not idly sit by while folks called my president a devil without cause, the father of 5 women in me does not appreciate this cheap attempt to disqualify a woman on the age old claim of being an evil witch.....or worse.
Because Hillary never ordered a hit on ambassador Stephens, or got caught cheating on Bill, this belief of her being genuinely evil comes exclusively from her gender. I thought WE were better than this.
It would be terribly easy to write about every moment that Donald Trump attempts to keep the limelight upon himself, but that would require an article per day- and two on Friday.
After the first Democrat debate, what we have clearly discovered is that #BlackLivesMatter and Donald Trump is actually worth the circus he creates simply because everybody loves a circus.
Entertainment was primarily low last night, except for those moments when that boisterous, white-haired college professor looking dude boisterously said something that many of us wish we could have said.
Like, enough with the email issue already.
Bernie may or may not already see this, but if this Hillary Clinton email matter has real legs, the press would let it walk on its own and stop giving Clinton the extra shine that she really doesn't need or want, although I am personally convinced that the email mess will eventually be the rough road she travels to prove she can handle the presidency.
In reality, Hillary is just as eager to clear her name before the Benghazi committee and the world as they are to try and ruin her name some more if they can. After last night,Trey Gowdy and the Benghazi committee should reconsider their political tactic against Clinton. I would not be looking forward to giving her a microphone and the chance to look presidential because we are all clearly recognizing that it won't be easy to make Hillary sweat even with a proceeding created solely for that purpose.
News Is That Collection Of BAD Things That Happened While We Slept.
Obama's hair isn't white for nothing. The first demand of the presidency begins with the pressure from the press to make you into the news they seek. News reporters quickly forget that they are moderators and can easily begin conducting an interview right in the middle of a presidential candidates answer (even before they've gone over their time limit Anderson Cooper).
Pundits must consider themselves somewhat smarter than the people they cover or they would not condescend when describing politicians and the ideas to which they subscribe. The press is clearly more informed simply as a function of the job description. But true smarts could come off as stupidity and still dominate the GOP primary race.
Trump (and no other GOP candidate) lofted the first grenade upon the #DemDebate last night by announcing his upcoming hosting of Saturday Night Live and his plan to live tweet side by side with the debating Dem's. Unless you didn't already know that Americans vote in dismal numbers and must vote in mass to complete that populist revolt, there really was no significant discoveries from this debate until Bernie Sanders asked US to stop bombarding the electorate with constant coverage of those "damn emails".
That sounded like a political calculation error from Sanders, but in fact, Sanders is the person who will most benefit from an opportunity to advance the campaign conversation down the road towards real solutions and not trapped underneath the umbrella of trickle downs promised prosperity; handcuffed by politicians who want to lead simply for the sake of winning, or those damn emails.
There are no winners with the kind of congressional gridlock that would rather conduct repeated political witch hunts instead of displaying the courage to fight a legislative battle in today's blood thirsty, polarized congress. Even our president can only nip at the edges of possibility with the use of executive orders that set federal directives but have little power over truly fixing these Divided States of America.
Aside from hearing Socialism's music played before the masses, the debate was somewhat dull for us Socialist' who already know the Democrat party line and expected this eventual espousal of Socialism evidenced by the predictable rise of the boisterous proletariat's that Sanders roused up in Las Vegas, Nevada last night. Las Vegas happens to be one of the last strongholds of labor unions, so a crowd that Bernie Sanders had eating from his palms came out in full force to infuse the audience with hoots and hollers for populism.
The struggle I have now is the same one I had at an early age of employment.
How Do You Find A Healthy Relationship Between Capitalism and Socialism when one is always seeking the death of the other?
Maybe I started working way too early as a kid. When you are a leader by nature, every job you do will call you into leadership. Such was the case for my early working years in which I was quickly drawn by the money and mindset of management versus the poverty and limited perspective of the general worker.
Even my paper route forced me to learn the entrepreneurial reality of supply and demand, managing expenses and yielding a profit that you fully keep for yourself or use to upgrade to a banana seat, Bronco orange, Schwinn 5 speed bicycle that allowed me to expedite delivery and grow the business.
The view from above showed me that a little brother who actually worked for junk food and snacks adds a particularly alluring means of making more money and minimizing paper cuts from folding too many papers too fast. It also showed me how difficult things get when Wednesday or Sunday circulars came out and I had more newspaper than I could carry on a Schwinn; or my little brother became too lazy to wake up during those ungodly hours of morning newspaper delivery; or it gets tough to make it to middle school on time when the news is running late; or you, the sole proprietor, are feeling just as lazy as that helper of yours who no longer appreciates junk food for payment.
One day you finally do the math and realize that you are working really hard for very little profit, and you start to wonder what the big boys at the top would do if you didn't deliver your 120 newspapers every morning? How would they make all of their millions without you and those of your kind?
Newspapers remain around mostly because of the generations that still enjoy them, not because delivering them is a good gig. I appreciate print publications and even dreamed of starting one of my own back when I was young and didn't see the coming of the Internet. Now, newspapers embody the stark separation of the generations. The very future of print media, even Playboy, seems tied to our parents and them- the precious few Americans that were raised to want to read and prefer not to scroll.
I love the music of my parents and them. Yet, it is not exactly the same as the music of my own childhood, and I can't help but notice that, unlike the music of our parents, the music of my youth continues to play on my children's playlist. The youth of today and their parents are the first generations in modern history that hear and enjoy the same kind of music. We never listened to our kids music and ask the question of "what is that", even though we scream at them to turn "that" down, mostly because we think our version of "that" is superior to this new stuff anyway. While that might seem like a simple coincidental observation, it actually might carry a deeper meaning when the protest music from 40 years ago has yet to stop talking.
Rap music started this revolution firstfor young black people. FOR ME! Though me and rap are not as young as we once remembered, our voices of revolt are still resounding.
Starting with the youth of the late 70's and early 80's, Black America's rap music has inundated the voice of all of the youth so completely that the message oozed outward and is now speaking through every mouthpiece imaginable.
Plenty of sensitive and caring whites and older Americans saw value and purpose in electing Barack Obama as our first black president, but they all would have failed if not for the power of the minority and youth turnout; the same group of voters that are forcing us to Feel The Bern as we speak. For the revolution that Sanders seeks to take soil, these voters must place boots to the ground and achieve an Obama like turnout and beyond.
Some of that young crowd includes the Black Lives Matter movement and those that they have PROVEN to inspire. #BlackLivesMatter crusaders are those same hip-hop loving kids of ours who grew up on our subliminal message of social liberty layered with a heavy bass beat or a beat boxer spitting into his hand when no better accompaniment could be found.
It was a message that nothing and no one could stop us from busting a rhyme making a social revolution happen, or silence the message once it began; a message of rising above the efforts that seemed systematically contrived against you. Even the efforts to denigrate black street music culture only further exposed it and expanded it. Much of that same dynamic can also be applied to the journey of populism.
It is a message that even has republicans talking wage equality. They might be trying to add more of that comfortable banjo background, trickle down tax cut measure talk, but they hear the music that is making everyone bob their heads up and down with that stink face you get from a funky rhythm- and in your face rhyming rhetoric to go with 'em. Like a hard hitting lyric from Public Enemy or KRS-One, even the old folks who hoped to conserve their traditional forms of music, had to stop and listen at least to discover what was objectionable.
If you tryna say you want a revolution? Mandate voting in the f- -kin' Constitution.
One way or another, the beat and the message kept playing, and it won't be stopped even if Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift collaborations have to keep the message and the music alive.
Before long, even country music lovers, inside the reddest of Red States, have had to endure rap's social invasion simply because the youth heard it and couldn't ignore the music or the movement.
Because America is far from the day that 80% participate in an election (54.9 percent turned out in 2012), Bernie Sanders can't get elected as America's next president. But he showed up, took a seat in a place without welcome, and turned up the sound of Socialism last night. Capitalism must now do its best to insure that most won't remember the hook from his song or the moves in his dance. But you can best believe that the beat will stay in their heads forever.
Karen Finney, the lead spokesperson on the Hillary Clinton Campaign, just reported (Thomas Roberts MSNBC) that the Gowdy committee leaked one of the classified Hillary emails to the New York Post after they had already determined that the email should have been classified. Just in case you are scratching your head I will repeat that. Gowdy and his committee, sworn to the cause of justice, are proving Hillary leaked emails that should have been marked classified by leaking the same classified email themselves. Some of this stuff you just can't make up.
Back when this interview first aired (Nov 2013), I became certain about a few things regarding Benghazi. Republicans who had hoped it could swing an election will not dismiss the deception that they think robbed Romney. I am also certain that the lead detective, Senator Kelly Ayotte; enough of a bloodhound to take the lead over John McCain and Lindsey Graham, would sniff her way to the very end of the Benghazi trail.
At the time of this video, the concern of an intensely serious Ayotte, was uncovering people who witnessed this event but were being withheld from additional questioning.
I rested my confidence in the fact that Ayotte would track down all of the unknown facts and available witnesses. Ayotte choice of words told me that she would never outright lie just for political expediency. When Kelly Ayotte stops searching for facts, then there simply are no more to be found.
Today I saw Ayotte on the air again and she has now loosened the wrinkles in her forehead over Benghazi. She is still none too happy, but the tone of her concern has shifted a bit. I will paraphrase today's Ayotte on Benghazi.
According to Ayotte, we have to understand that, when the white house lied about this attack being coordinated by Al Qaeda, they knew it was a lie and did it just to help the president win the white house again.
Now if you are anything like me, you stop and scratch your head at this moment of the Benghazi shuffle to ask yourself, "why would the president and his team work to hurt their own campaign"? Somewhere since November and now, Ayotte has done this same scratching because she has uncovered a new reason to keep talking about Benghazi. Not only did the president's team sugar coat the truth, but the CIA changed the talking points report to remove the word terrorism as well.
Even if the president did change his tone that would be smart campaigning. If the CIA did the same, that is not very scrupulous, especially if someone in the white house is forcing our national security departments to distort reporting for the sake of an election.
Ayotte sat in a meeting in which the CIA tried to blame the FBI for changing the talking points memo on Benghazi. When she contacted the FBI, who flatly denied their involvement, the CIA recanted and admitted that they changed the wording.
By now, it was getting really juicy to my ears, so I moved closely to the television to hear the final bark from this Benghazi bloodhound. For the third time in the interview, Ayotte repeated that, "you have to understand that in the context of an election, it (the word terrorism) did not fit their (the Obama administration's) narrative", said Ayotte. As she proceeded, I leaned in closer. "That is why it was......well it doesn't pass the smell test"
I waited on pins and needles to hear her say that she believes a crime was committed or someone needs to be fired or reprimanded. The best she could declare on Benghazi is that in the context of an election, it doesn't pass the smell test? Ayotte is the last worthy mouthpiece that we need to hear on this topic because she is the lead dog of the republican bloodhound crew. If Ayotte says that this was about an election and about driving a positive narrative, we can assume she is right.
If she is not saying that it was a crime, it might be time to move on.
If you have a dog in the fight, there is an inherent danger in counting your political chickens before they come home to roost (or hatch). It is easy to anoint Hillary Clinton as our likely next president for more reason's than our love of Hillary Clinton. In fact, the reason's for Hillary may have nothing to do with Hillary at all.
First and foremost, Hillary Clinton is looking more an more like the beneficiary of republican division. The challenge that exists between internal factions of the conservative movement will need a quick and definitive resolution. Quick because 2014 and 2016 have already begun. Definitive because the war will not end until someone defines the conservative agenda. Ask Bill Clinton. It is easy to declare the end of the era of big government, but impossible to agree on what should go away first.
As republicans try to recapture a national government equal to the beginning of the industrial revolution, the realist are hoping to do a little less killing abroad and reduce our deficit over the next several years by simply stopping the bleeding. Meanwhile, Hillary will benefit from the "all president for all people" image that her husband Bill currently enjoys. History informs us of both the left leaning failed proposals of the Clinton years and the actual center shifted legislation's like NAFTA that make conservatives love Bill as much as liberals do.
If we did not have enough intangible reason's for a president Hillary Clinton, here is one more to try on for size. Sexism is harder to disguise than racism. If Hillary confronts the same unexplained obstructionism that Obama couldn't figure out, then the obstructionist' may no longer be able to hide behind a made up war against liberalism, fascism, communism and narcissism.
When bills that have the requisite number of votes are held up in congress in order to stonewall a man's legacy, then it might be time for a woman. Hillary can finish immigration for Obama like he did with healthcare for her.
Apparently the bad part is her husband.....the predator.
None of that matters when the people telling you that Hillary is a murderer are convinced that she is the reason they are dead. The 13 investigations have taken these Hillary haters off of her email trail for the purpose of finding blame over Benghazi, but they still need a Wikileaks to prove some form of pay to play with their very charitable organization, CGI (Clinton Global Initiative).
