Tag: Politics

COVID and the Constitution: The NYT, Washington Post, and NBC Think! Rejected This But It’s Valid Anyhow

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The last several weeks have seen over a million Americans contract the novel Coronavirus and over 60,000 (so far) succumb to the disease and its complications. Refrigerated trucks are being used as morgues, city parks are doubling as graveyards, and funeral homes across the country are on a backlog. Relatives of the many dearly departed, due to social distancing guidelines, are unable to attend the memorial services of the ones they loved and were able to sit in a room with a mere six months ago.

The soul of this nation is already beleaguered with fear and uncertainty. This has been made worse by statements made by President Trump in his daily COVID-19 briefings. Those of us who watch the briefings have witnessed he and the press go at it over everything from his presumed inability to act in a timely manner once he knew about the virus, verifiable statements that he made that he wishes now to deny and “cures” based on unfounded science or completely unsafe ideas akin to a stunt on MTV’s Jackass.

The bright side of this pandemic is that it has caused Americans to seriously take a second and third look at things like Universal Basic Income and Medicare-For-All; also known as socialism. While a dirty word among Conservatives and a dirty idea among moderate Democrats for some time, the sudden economic havoc that Coronavirus has visited on our society has given detractors no choice but to reconsider the capitalist bastion that we had heretofore become accustomed.

Those things are great, but I posit this crisis should also demonstrate the need for us to revisit the Constitution. Many citizens laud the Constitution as the basis upon which the country they deem the greatest on the planet was built, however, it’s the same Constitution that allowed us to be in the midst of a global health crisis under the direction of a president Trump.

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Since the days of Washington, the only requirements for one to be president have been age (at least 35), citizenship, and residency (at least 14 years). There’s no prior political experience required. Prospective candidates don’t need to have shown a certain number of years working in public service. They don’t need proof of so much as a freshman Poli-Sci class. The bare minimum is all it takes to throw one’s hat in the proverbial ring. In President Trump, that’s exactly what we have.

Voters on the left wonder how we ended up with a president who was a reality tv star. For me, Trump having been a reality television star doesn’t actually matter. Him having built questionable businesses, declared (business) bankruptcy, skipped out on checks and the other myriad things he has been accused of don’t rate on my outrage meter either. Not even his lies.

It’s what he didn’t do, and didn’t even have to do, to become the leader of the free world that concerns me. Most of us had to do more to land mediocre jobs right out of college than any president has had to do to be eligible to be considered a valid presidential contender.

When my fellow citizens walk around in a rage about Trump’s presidency, it’s as if they’ve forgotten that this country is unguarded against it by virtue of our failure to revisit and refine the Constitution to meet our current reality. In fact, the gradual leaning towards the bare minimum has come to kick us in the butt in myriad ways of life; education, customer service, even dating.

As long as we are a populace that is content to let charisma do the talking (no matter red, blue, or in between), we’ll always be at risk of having leaders who are not only inept but may not possess the regard for our citizens that is needed to drive the country in the best direction possible.

Not only will enhancing requirements of presidential candidates be more likely to prevent your average camera ham with no public policy experience but his 20-minute speeches on how things ought to be at Thanksgiving every year from being able to try his or her hand at the presidency, it just may bring a sense of honor and pride back to the office.

We’ve made amendments to address the abolition of slavery, presidential succession, and even legal voting age. Surely we can seriously work on amending our standards for the person we call the Commander-in-Chief. It may take some time. In fact, it may never happen. But, we can’t continue a vague process to run for president and automatically expect that the one who is victorious will treat the presidency as a solemn and duty-bound office. Trump’s 2016 campaign, supporters, and administration has proven that.

After all, when you expect little, you can end up getting so much less.

Biden Is The Nominee, Geico Sucks & I Didn’t Get A Stimulus Check

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First, let me apologize for the completely uncreative title. I know I’m usually better than that where titles are concerned but in the last two weeks, everything and everyone has been rather disappointing so I figured I’d throw myself onto that heap.

With that said, Biden is the “presumptive” Democratic nominee (unless one of the Avengers comes out of nowhere the night of the convention, shoots him with a laser that makes him forget he was running, and Bernie takes center stage). I was never a hardcore Bernie-ite. I didn’t engage in any e-fights with anyone about the merits of Bernie’s candidacy or the validity of his plans once in office. However, if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it’s that Bernie was prolly right about that Medicare For All thing.

I see Biden as a relic. I think Biden’s time was after Obama left office and he missed his shot. Biden reminds me of every Boomer who has talked down to Millennials about the student loan crisis, bleak employment prospects, and stagnant wages. The biggest issue is that he can’t beat Trump.

Honestly, I feel like we can go ahead and vote tomorrow. I doubt the outcome will be any different in November.

Geico, who I’ve been with for years, decided that once you renew, they’ll give you 15% off. That’s after their COMPETITORS announced that they were giving money back to their policyholders since people aren’t really driving. So basically, if you’re in the middle of your 6 month term or have already paid in full, you may have to wait several months for this “gift.”

I’m giving them until Wednesday to reverse course before I switch insurance companies. I have not the time to wait on people to act like they have some home-training.

Lastly, I didn’t get a stimulus check. I’m not surprised. I still haven’t filed my 2019 taxes and I actually had to pay those mofos in 2018. But, I hear I’m not alone. I’m not really sure how an entity that doesn’t answer its phones on a normal day didn’t have time to streamline and make the process of issuing payments more efficient during the time of COVID-19 when most people are twirling their thumbs anyway, but, as my theatre teacher used to say, such is life.

Add them to the other two entities who owe me money but have not paid.

Oh yeah! Here’s the obligatory gif:

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Coronavirus Briefings: The Most Entertaining Hour of Television

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I’ve been watching the Coronavirus briefings every day. I do this partly to stay informed but mostly because they’re so damned entertaining.

If it’s not Trump grandstanding about how successful a president he had been before COVID-19, it’s him throwing a tantrum when reporters do things like quote his own words and ask questions that remind us that this is a serious health crisis.

But today, though a short episode, will probably go down in my memory as the best episode of all. One of Trump’s friends, Mike Lindell, CEO of My Pillow, took to the podium to talk about how his company was helping in the fight against COVID-19. They are making….something. I can’t even remember.

Anywho, at the end of his speech about what was relevant, he turned to Trump and asked if he could read a supplement to his speech; something he just scribbled down last minute.

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He then goes into a…2 years of speech and debate and IDEK what to call it…about how on November 8, 2016, God showed us grace (by allowing Trump to win, I guess) and that soon evolved into how “we” need to put God and the Bible back in our schools and our lives.

“God gave us grace on November 8th, 2016, to change the course we were on. God had been taken out of our schools and lives; a nation had turned its back on God. And I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the word, read our Bibles, and spend time with our families.”

We’ll call it a geshrai.

That inspirational tidbit was eventually followed by Greg Hayes of United Technologies that is teaming with Raytheon getting up there and throwing low-key shade about how they didn’t need to wait for the POTUS to invoke the Defense Production Act in order for them to help. The subtext and shade of that was that Trump invoked it after talks with GM fell through for the manufacturing of ventilators.

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As a grand finale, after Yamiche Alcindor, the PBS reporter who got under Trump’s skin severely yesterday by quoting him, asked her question today, and Trump called her question “snarky.” After that he cut and run like a wildebeest that just spotted a lion coming in his direction.

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Never did I think that this would become my favorite time of day. Then again, I didn’t think that I’d be forced inside by a virus that came from Asia and has been killing people all over the world so….

The Hillary Documentary: It’s Clear Why She Lost

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I just finished watching the Hulu documentary “Hillary.” It’s broken down into 4 episodes and pretty much chronicles her life from her childhood through where she is today.

There were a couple of things that I just couldn’t help but forget, partly because she stated them more than once, that made it obvious why she was defeated by Donald Trump.

First was her assertion that she simply could not understand why people didn’t find her trustworthy. She’s annoyed by it. You have a white woman who grew up in a Republican household, was a Goldwater Girl, was voted president of the Republican group at her college, and even, as a child throwing a temper tantrum told her dad she was going to get revenge by marrying a Democrat. It may sound minor but the thing is…people, especially Black people, aren’t so quick to overlook one’s past and readily accept their claim of a new way of thinking. This goes double for a group of people who were harmed by the person or group you “used to” support. That crime bill her husband signed as president didn’t help matters much either.

Secondly, white women. By now we know that 53% of white women turned on Hillary in the election and voted for Trump. On one of the episodes, they play a clip of Hillary being interviewed about her husband, then governor Bill Clinton, using the law firm she was employed by for litigation involving government matters. The concern was that she was in a position to sort of double dip since her firm handled State of Arkansas business.

In this particular interview, she says something like, “I could haven stayed home and baked cookies but I decided to fulfill my career in the law.”

Welp. You can guess how that turned out. In the next few scenes, white women who were homemakers express how pissed they were at her for those comments. They basically found them degrading, condescending, and every other word you could use to describe stay-at-home moms feeling insulted.

IDK if Hillary knows this, but many of those women were still alive during the 2016 election and they didn’t forget.

Additionally, one of the women on her team who would hold focus groups confirmed what I’ve been saying since…forever (call me Swami K). Many of the women did not like that she stayed married to Bill after the Monica Lewinsky situation. These women admitted that their husbands had cheated on them too and they decided to stay, but when it came to Hillary trying to lead the country with that same history, they weren’t into it.

Basically, they saw Hillary staying with Bill as a sign that she was more about the benefits of being married to him; too ambitious. And if you think about it, back to the trustworthiness issue, it’s hard to play the uber feminist role she played while staying with a husband who cheated on you more than once.

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Besides these two things, there are times when she comes off as…smug and very flippant. At one point, she talked about the “super predator” comment and the interviewer asked if she had to apologize for it. Hillary says, “I don’t know. I was talking about a lot of stuff people didn’t care about,” and shrugged.

This is also the documentary where Hillary proclaims that nobody wants to work with Bernie Sanders, although she and her team seemed mighty worried that he might beat her at one point.

I don’t know if the intent of this documentary was to humanize her or if someone just found her interesting enough to do a documentary on her but IDK if they accomplished that at all.

You can catch it on Hulu. It’s called, “Hillary.”

Pete and Amy Are Going Home…Where They Should Have Stayed In The First Place

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Note: I legit thought about my title speaking for itself and not writing anything else. No lie.

Last night, white people’s favorite mayor and the person white Liberals claimed would lead us in a new direction, Pete Buttigieg finally ended his bid for the Democratic nomination.

About an hour ago, Amy Klobuchar ended her bid as well and according to The New York Times, plans to endorse Biden (of course).

All I can say is…thank goodness!

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First of all, don’t get it twisted. I am well aware of the fact that this is the same old DNC bullshit that went on in 2016. The same bullshit that has people like me not feeling any of this shit right now. I am so unenthused that I forgot that tomorrow is Super Tuesday and I never forget election dates.

But, I am glad that Buttigieg and Klobuchar are finally going home. I wish they’d never have shown up in the first place, to be quite honest. You can read more on why here and here and here.

I used to be a Democrat. I used to be a voter who would just choose the Democratic candidate in all races. I felt like the Republicans were largely unabashed racists and sexists and needed to be stopped at all costs.

That has changed.

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Part of what changed it was randos like Buttigieg and Klobuchar coming out of nowhere and having the audacity to pretend like they were presidential material. Pete Buttigieg, to me, was every smug white boy who whited his way into everything good that has ever happened to him. Amy Klobuchar was every white woman who makes excuses for her husband using “the n-word” and claims she wants to help women but all the women she helps are white (but she’s not racist because her kid’s one Black friend with matted locs spends the night aaaaall the time).

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And there’s a part of me that is pissed because Kamala Harris, who I felt had way more business being in the field, dropped out of the race while Amy sat there using other people’s oxygen knowing good and gatdamned well she had neither the capability nor the intention of seeing this all the way through; let alone winning.

While I do feel that anyone who meets the criteria to be president should be able to run, the Democrats made a mess of things this time around and I think they truly hurt their credibility. If the DNC can engage in the kind of fuckery that they did in 2016 and now (I mean…it’s obvious), then the DNC can throw its weight around and not allow this catch-all primary thing to happen again.

On that note, bye Pete and Amy! Hope to never hear from you again!!!

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Go Home, Roger! I Need Hillary Clinton To Stop Now

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Last week was politically eventful. The House Managers and the POTUS’ counsel wrapped up their closing arguments. The Senate voted on whether or not to allow documents and witnesses. The senators gave speeches detailing their final votes on impeachment. To nobody’s shock, Donald Trump was found not guilty and behaved as I predicted here. The day before, he delivered his State of the Union address where he bestowed the Medal of Honor upon one of the most ardent racists to have a microphone in their face, Rush Limbaugh, after announcing that he (Rush) has advanced lung cancer. In between that, in order to pander to the Black vote, he awarded a beautiful little Black girl a scholarship to escape her failing school and invited a 100-year-old Tuskegee Airman to attend.

Black History Month is getting off to an interesting start.

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In the mix of all that, the Iowa Caucus was held and in true DNC fashion, the fuckery ensued. I’m not up on all the details but this year, they used an app (allegedly programmed by a friend of the Clintons), that failed spectacularly when it really mattered. The next day, we still didn’t know who walked away delegate-rich. Later that day, we were told 62% of the precincts were reporting and showed Buttigieg narrowly besting Sanders. The next day, Sanders claimed that he knew that he had 6,000 more votes than Buttigieg. From my understanding, as the candidates have already moved on to New Hampshire, we still don’t have a definite answer on Iowa and now, the head of the DNC, Tom Perez is asking for a recount…BEFORE a final tally.

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So…yeah. Anybody who was around for the 2016 election knows where this bullshit is headed but what makes it even more obvious is that two-time non-victor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, for the past few weeks, has been determined to sully Bernie Sanders’ name in the press. First, it was her telling us that nobody likes Bernie and they don’t want to work with him. Yesterday, it was her going even further to try to discredit Sanders as a viable candidate.

The Hillary Clinton fans (who still, apparently, have not gotten over her INEVITABLE loss in 2016), say that it is payback for Bernie Sanders either not endorsing her in 2016 or endorsing her too late (depends on which one you ask).

Really?

At this point, y’all sound like the people who blame their spouse or their best friend for not forcing the Cheetos out of their hands when they failed to use the year they had to lose 20lbs.

It’s time for Hillary to stop. First of all, she got beat by a very little-known senator by the name of Barack Obama in 2008. That should have been the writing on the wall for her. When a WW who was the former first lady to a president that Black people luuuuuurved couldn’t win against a Black man most of only knew from that one speech at the DNC 4 years beforehand, the message is clear.

Second of all, Hillary is behaving like an entitled petulant child (ironically, what “moderate Dems” probably think about progressive Dems). Hillary, you lost. I know you want to blame it on Bernie but it wasn’t Bernie. You must not have seen and read what I did during that time but your loss was predicted far before the DNC chose you as the nominee (read that last part again cause I meant it). The 53% of white women who voted for your opponent and that you explained as women doing what their husbands told them to do (the same excuse given when it’s time to address the complicity of white women during slavery, btw), didn’t do you any favors either.

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Thirdly, some of us haven’t forgotten the DNC’s fuckery in 2016.

Somehow, Hillary and her supporters still want to blame “Bernie Bros” for the loss. This is odd to me when they brag about winning the popular vote though. Sooooo…..since you actually won the popular vote, is it really the fault of Bernie and his supporters or should you REALLY be mad at the Electoral College? You won the popular vote by 3M votes. What else was Bernie supposed to do. Go in and change people’s ballots for you?

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What’s funniest to me about this situation is that if this were Trump and his bowl of sour grapes talking about why something didn’t politically go his way, people would be making fun of him and telling him to stop being a crybaby and work harder next time. You all know that I’m not one to defend Trump, but I think that advice is appropriate for Hillary this time around. This Democratic race is already a shitshow. Why add to it?

Same message goes to Hillary fans. Stop that bullshit. All you’re doing is making yourself look bad while Hillary reminds the people who didn’t vote for her exactly why they didn’t.

Land of the Free & Home of the Cowards: The Impeachment Trial

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I just finished watching day 2 of the question and answer portion of the impeachment trial. I don’t even know what to say. I haven’t even titled this post yet because the things I heard in the trial are still whirling in my head and I’m lowkey speechless.

I could talk about a lot of different things but I think I’ll talk about what an international embarrassment this whole situation is. Imagine: a country elects a new president who has a firm anti-corruption stance and proves it shortly after beginning his job by getting rid of corrupt government officials and the leader of The United States of America is now on trial for his own corruption.

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Not only that, the attorneys that are supposed to be defending the POTUS have jumped from one defense to another almost by the minute. A group of between 5-6 attorneys can’t even come up with a steady, consistent, and logical defense of what their client did.

The pièce de résistance on this mountain of disgrace is that we have a body, the Senate, full of lawyers, who have largely decided that this TRIAL doesn’t need documents or witnesses. Further, 8 minutes ago, a senator who is retiring (meaning there’s no need for political gameplay from him), and who at one point basically said he had no doubt that the POTUS did what he’s being accused of, just announced that he would vote against the entry of documents and witnesses. He just said that the House Managers proved their case and that what the POTUS did was inappropriate. By the way, that senator’s name is Lamar Alexander.

As an African-American, I was long disabused of the “greatest country” bullshit that Americans like to run around proclaiming. So, please don’t interpret my tone as one of disappointment. What I’m feeling is more like fatigue. The electoral college put a reality TV star into the White House. He majorly fucks up like anybody with sense knew he would. And because he apparently has some dirt on a few of his fellow Republicans, people who could not stand him back in 2016 (like Lindsay Graham), are suddenly beholden to him and too afraid to do the right thing.

If the senate doesn’t at least censure him, the United States would have lost whatever credibility it had left.

 

Flea Market Pt. 3: Which Democrat Will Make It?

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This morning, I awoke to the news that Corey Booker has decided to end his (ill-fated) campaign for the 2020 Democratic nomination. I honestly wasn’t surprised because if any of you have been keeping up, his numbers were dismal. His hopefulness was…encouraging though. Back in December, when asked on either CNN or MSNBC (can’t remember which), why he was staying in when his numbers were so low, he reminded me of a teenager resolutely expressing her plans to marry her boyfriend who had been in and out of juvie 6 times and was prone to disappear for 72-hour chunks of time.

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Anywho, Booker must have had his electoral Demascus Road experience sometime over the weekend and decided that his campaign was indeed a no-go.

So where do we stand? If you read my Flea Market Pt. 1 and Flea Market Pt. 2 posts, you’ll know we started with a mess that became a bigger mess and slowly, but surely, the mess is being cleaned up (if it could ever be).

Big hitters Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders are still in the race (duh). Notorious white man who doesn’t get it but thinks being gay means otherwise Pete Buttigieg is still in it. Then, you have Amy Klobuchar holding on like a woman at a 48-hour Pentacostal revival on her knees with a prayer cloth waiting for Jesus to zap the diabetes out of her. Tulsi Gabbard is somewhere still in there even though Dems were quite nonplussed by her “Present” declaration at the impeachment vote. Andrew Yang is surprisingly doing well and still in the race. Latecoming billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are also running to the extent that I can’t watch Hulu or my trash TV on TLC without seeing a commercial for one or both of them.

I haven’t decided who I’m voting for (or if I’m voting but we’ll talk about that later). But, here’s my take on each of the remaining candidates:

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Joe Biden: Frankly, I think Biden missed his shot. I think there are certain grand things in life where timing is everything. I think Biden would have easily slid into the POTUS chair had he run in 2016. He didn’t use that opportunity though and I think that door has closed. Boomers and Blacks love him but with a new crop of younger voters coming in and ideas such as Medicare for all, reparations, and student loan forgiveness seriously on the table, unless Biden does an abrupt about face, I don’t see it for him. Plus, his history in politics will ALWAYS follow him. Here’s his platform.

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Elizabeth Warren: I’m willing to forgive her for pretending to be Native American. I mean…she wouldn’t be white if she didn’t. A lot of people like her Medicare for all idea. I think it’s a good idea, too. I mean, dying or having to go bankrupt because you need a surgery or expensive medication is ridiculous in a developed country. I also like that she wants to address the maternal mortality rate for Black women that is largely driven by racism in the medical industry. What I think is an issue is that her student loan forgiveness plan doesn’t go far enough. $50k is a pretty penny but from what I’ve gathered is on the low end of what A WHOLE LOT of borrowers owe. However, visit her campaign “Plans” page here to get a peek of everything she wants to do.

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Bernie Sanders: If I had to vote today, he’d likely be my choice. I was reading his platform page and in addition to the forgiveness of all student loan debt, he also wants to forgive medical debt and replace for-profit credit bureaus. I’m still mad at Equifax for promising us $125 for their fuckup and then figuring out they couldn’t pay their bill and deciding to not pay us (oh the irony) so putting them out of business sounds great to me. Several Black people have expressed concerns about certain comments that Sanders have made that sound less than progressive. I, however, never expect to get anything racially progressive from white people; especially not a white man his age. I still think that he’s the best choice of the field at this point. Let’s just hope the DNC doesn’t….nevermind. Here’s his platform page.

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Pete Buttigieg: No.

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Andrew Yang: His page has a plethora of things that he either wants to do or “explore.” For example, one of his big three issues is “human-centered capitalism” which aims to put people before money (ie. instead of the health of the economy being measured by the stock market, it would be measured by how well people are actually doing). But, perhaps, his biggest claim to fame is his desire to give each American (over 18) “universal basic income.” This entails each American getting $1,000/mo free and clear. In theory, this extra $1,000 would allow people to have a little more breathing room each month. Every single person I know who supports Yang cites this $1,000/mo as their reason. Do I think he’ll win? Neaux. But, he may be forcing the eventual winner to step up their game a little. You can find the rest of his platform here.

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Amy Klobuchar: I Googled her website to see her platform. My only option was to sign up as a supporter or visit her store. So…..moving on….

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Tulsi Gabbard: Let me just start out by saying that I don’t think she’s serious. It’s like when you do an internship in a field you’re not really passionate about just to be able to put it on your resume in case you need it one day.  I looked at her website and she  seems to care a lot about war and war-adjacent topics (makes sense since she’s a veteran). What got me was the following line under her healthcare section:

“I will also incentivize good health choices and lifestyles for a healthier, wealthier nation!”

Whew, girl! Have you met 2016, yet? That’s the perfect steak for the people ready to accuse someone of -shaming to latch onto but you know…

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Michael Bloomberg: Yes, I know MB is the source of “Stop and Frisk.” But, Judge Judy is endorsing him so he must be alright, no? I’m just kidding. I have looked at his page though and I’ll have to admit that a Jewish candidate addressing redlining and other past racial injustices is interesting. He’s also addressing Black maternal mortality rates as well. Many people have wondered why he entered so late and suspect him of trying to buy the election. I don’t think that’s the case. Frankly, I feel like the fun part of elections is people who likely won’t win to make issues big enough so that the people who might win are under pressure to take those issues seriously. Click here for more.

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Tom Steyer: All I know is the company that he founded and worked for only has like 3 non-white people on their site and I can’t imagine it was much better when he was there so….

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The cynical conspiracy theorist in me feels like Biden has already been chosen. I don’t know that for a fact but there’s a reason Trump presumed he’d be his political rival.

Anyway, I still think Trump is going to win in 2020.

 

 

Protesting Too Much: The GOP and the Impeachement Hearings

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So, many of us have been indulging in the national soap opera we call impeachment hearings. A couple of weeks ago, a cast of witnesses were brought in to testify to whether or not Trump demanded a quid pro quo from President Zelensky of Ukraine. You’ll remember that as Ambassaador Yovanovitch testified, Trump took the opportunity to talk shit about her on Twitter.

You’ll also remember Ambassador Sondland sitting with the petty bitch smirk as he rolled Trump under the bus like a bowling ball. One of the best parts was when Lieutenant Colonial Vindman had to get one of the lawmakers together about his title.

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During the impeachment inquiry, we learned that many adults in the United States of America don’t know the meaning of hearsay. We also learned that Trump is more vindictive than the proverbial woman scorned.

Then, this week, we heard from four law scholars on whether or not the framers would have considered Trump to have committed the high crimes and misdemeanors that are required for impeachment. Three said yes. One said no. The one who said he had not was clearly there for the GOP. Unfortunately for them (the GOP), he seemed like he didn’t own a television or smartphone.

What I noticed most in both sets of hearings was how the GOP lawmakers, instead of using their 5 minutes to ask questions (which is the point), decided to do soliloquies and mini-sermons instead for at least half the time.

Listen, we know y’all think this is a sham. We know y’all don’t want him impeached. The purpose of a hearing is to ask questions and get answers from witnesses that will assist you in making a final decision. We don’t need to hear from each of you how you think this is a witch hunt or being done because Schiff and Pelosi don’t like Trump.

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You would think that the GOP would remember the line about protesting too much. By using their 5 minutes to grandstand, yell, shout, and repeat the shit we read from randos on Twitter, all they’re doing is furthering the belief that there’s fuckery to hide. They sound like robots who were all programmed to say varying versions of the same thing.

If you’re really trying to find something concrete to disprove your opponent’s position, actually taking the time to formulate objective inquiry would go a long way. Instead, the GOP is content to put people like Jim Jordan on television to yell at people like a hobo on a street corner drunk off cheap bourbon in a Sears shirt with a comb over.

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But, what almost had me thinking I was about to slap somebody was when Rep. Gaetz shouted down Prof. Karlan as she attempted to answer him. Did you see that?

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When he shouted at Professor Karlan that she doesn’t “GET TO INTERRUPT” him during his time, half of which he spent doing a mini-sermon about how the Democrats are just mad at Trump and after having interrupted Prof. Karlan, I heard the African-American spiritual, “Who The Fuck You Talkin’ To,” play in my head.

I won’t even start on them boo-hooing about the reference to Barron Trump as if they didn’t sit by for 8 years and either engage in or excuse real insults against Sasha and Malia Obama.

Based on these most recent testimonies, Nancy Pelosi asked that articles of impeachment be officially drafted. I can’t wait until the trial. I sincerely hope Trump that testifies and doesn’t fold his arms like a big baby. And I’ll be live tweeting every second, especially if the GOP starts their martyr blues bullshit.

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I’ll say one thing: this shit should cause law school applications to skyrocket. If I could find a financier, I’d certainly enroll.

Any takers?

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Cabbage Soup Diet & Politics: I Agree With Obama

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This week, several publications reported on statements that former President Barack Obama made at a private dinner geared towards Liberals who were rich enough to attend (ok, I added that last part). Here’s what he said to the donors at the Democracy Alliance gathering:

“This is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement,” he said at the annual meeting of the Democracy Alliance. “The average American doesn’t think we have to completely tear down the system and remake it.”

Of course, liberals (particularly of the SJW type), jumped all over that comment and Obama in general. They viewed it as weak and proof (retroactive, of course) that Obama was and is every bit the “puppet” that they claim all politicians are. These people swear fo’ gawd that they indeed want to tear the system down, and some even assert that this is proof that Obama is really more of a less right-leaning Republican.

Well, this will probably get me #cancelled but I actually agree with Obama. Why? Let’s look at what he said. He said this is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement. I see no lie. If America were interested in revolution, it’d have already happened by now.

The dictionary defines “revolution” as the forcible overthrow of the government. By that definition, Black folks alone would have burned this place to the ground long before any of us were born and if not, they’d (we’d) have done it by now.

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Even in the midst of the severe income inequality that everyone claims to be pissed about, the most physical demonstration of that anger was Occupy Wall St. where a bunch of mostly white kids agreed to sit on the sidewalk in NY’s financial district holding signs, chanting, playing lutes, and not showering. And if I had to guess, because of white privilege, most of those kids are just fine now and their participation is now something they can tell their children and grandchildren they did to seem cool.

Some revolution!

Obama went further to advise current candidates to watch the policies they are pushing. He verbalized immigration as one of these policy hot buttons. For example, Julian Castro, once an Obama official, has proposed decriminalizing illegal entry (which I find funny because as much as progressives tout the more liberal policies of other countries, they forget that most countries view illegal entry as a crime and will send you back…but anywho…).

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But here’s the best part of what Obama said:

“Voters, including Democrats, are not driven by the same views that are reflected on certain left-leaning Twitter feeds, or the activist wing of our party,” he said. “And that’s not a criticism to the activist wing. Their job is to poke and prod and text and inspire and motivate. But the candidate’s job, whoever that ends up being, is to get elected.”

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I think that last line is the closer. My personal opinion is that to be successful in politics, you have to find the public sweet spot. Many of the people criticizing Obama forget that he won two presidential elections and in his other political positions, he only lost once. It’s obvious that his statements at this dinner, along with statements he made back in October about cancel culture, are really his advice against trying to run on unsustainable or sensational platforms. I’ve said before that a candidate who has never held a position can promise the moon and stars but when they get in the office and see what’s what, they may realize that what they promised is not feasible.

Voters like myself are not listening for buzzwords and looking for shiny objects and moving parts. We want to hear realistic and actionable platforms that make sense and don’t sound like something picked up from watching a Barney marathon while high on LSD.

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A lot of progressives want to see a cabbage soup diet platform but since the consensus seems to be just defeating Trump (or in his absence the GOP challenger), that strategy where you treat the constituents like 6 year-olds let loose in the Lego Store, is not going to work.

I do believe that people have high expectations for the 2020 campaign season and election, but the Dems (should have) learned in 2016 that the opposing candidate being an unqualified buffoon is not enough to win. So I think it’s worth paying attention to Obama’s advice.