Category: News

  • When It’s All Said and Done

    The second night of the debates are over, and now we all know that people will start to drop out soon.

    I would hope that we get down to 10 Democratic candidates by October, but I still think that might be too optimistic.

    And what does all of this mean?

    I admit that I am an “Anyone Who Can Beat Trump” voter. I would even take another Republican.

    I will also admit that I think Democrats have apologized for far too long that they are liberal and have grand ideas. Those days must come to an end.

    In my lifetime, it has felt like my choices have been either the party that sticks up for the rich guy, or the party that is sorry if sticking up for the poor guy offends you.

    On another note, there seemed to be some hub-bub from pundits about the candidates attacking each other, and how that will be detrimental later in the campaign against Trump. Two things on that. First, since when did Trump need facts or help attacking rival politicians? Like Trump is taking notes or thinking through his attacks for maximum impact. Second, I think most pundits are thinking about the 2020 election as if they were fighting in 2012. They are bringing the wrong tools to the gun fight, and most them are walking into it with wet spaghetti. Reagan’s 11th Commandment doesn’t exist anymore, and voters who pay attention to these debates have come to expect politicians to attack.

    When this is all said and done, the majority of voters are really looking for a candidate who will validate their feels. Then they will worry about details.

  • What I Noticed at the Debate

    I watched the debates as I am a political junkie, and I also think being a pundit is the easiest and at the same time, dumbest job around. (“I want to make predictions not based on fact, but sound like they are based on facts, but in reality, it’s just my opinion, though I will try to make you think it’s a fact.” Pundit!)

    Here is my punditry!

    Mayor Pete was the only person who said anything last night that resonated with me. He said, “It’s time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. Look, if it’s true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to say that we’re a bunch of crazy socialists.”

    It also reminds me of a General Grant saying. Now, I am paraphrasing, but the context was that when he arrived out east to fight General Lee and was making his battle plans, Grant’s staff keep warning what Lee’s response might be. Grant grew frustrated and said to, stop worrying about what Lee will do to you, and start planning on what you will do to Lee.

    This is what I think the difference between the moderates and progressives in the Democratic Party comes down to; reaction and action. One group is more worried about the reaction, and the other is planning the action. I don’t think the progressives are right on most issues, but they are way more inspiring than the worriers.

  • Day Off, Yesterday

    We moved again, to a bigger apartment this time. The extra space we have gained has come in the form of guest bedroom, that will also be used as an office. I had the day off from work yesterday, and I choose to take the day to set it up. I put all of my journals out, and pulled some books from one of the many box of books we have. In the roughest sense, I am ready to go. To go and start creating. I was ready…

    And then I took a lunch break, and never really got back to it.

    Part of what got me wrapped up was all the Trump/Squad racist garbage that couldn’t seem to ignore or get away from. It was all over the TV, and the internet, and all of my friends were up in arms on social media about the vile racist Trump is. And we all should be upset by the crap that man says as he is trying to be reelected by dividing and hating.

    And through all of this, I have this awful feeling that Trump will be reelected. Then I saw this in the Times this morning, and it didn’t make me feel better.

    That is the awfulness of Trump, and how effective he is at getting under everyone’s skin, and sucking the air out of every room. I had my own work to do yesterday, and I just got side tracked into thinking about how deeply racist this country is. Clearly, we as American’s need to keep working at the state of race relations, and inequality in this country. But, it won’t get better if Trump wins another term.

    And yet here we are…

  • Debate

    That happened last night. I watched 10 Democratic candidates, not really debate, just gave well-rehearsed sound bites a try for two hours.

    Yes, I am being very cynical about it.

    There is still a part of me that feels like this is too early for us to be talking about who the next President will be. The 2020 election should start in 2020. Having this being in 2019 just perpetuates the issue of the industrial complex of unending campaigning.

    But being cynical, I know that this system will not change. Money and politics have been locked together from the beginning.

    Yet, as I watched the 10 talk last night, it didn’t make me feel optimistic. Even if one of the 20 does defeat Trump, my fear is the actions of the next Republican who wins. The way I see it, it has been a slow descent for conservatives from Nixon to Trump. Each conservative has been a little worse. From Reagan’s welfare queen, to Trump’s everything awful that comes out of his mouth, and all the crap in between.  The next Republican will just try to dismantle whatever the Democrat did.

    This is the cycle we are in.

    I think the real problem, honestly, is that modern Conservatism, that came out of the 50’s and early 60’s is nothing but a reaction to liberal policies. Where are the conservative policies that move the county forward, other than cut taxes and regulations?

    The real debate is, Democratic ideas vs Stopping Democratic Ideas.

  • Another Billionaire Problem Solver?

    I have nothing personal against Howard Schultz. As far as I know, and I will give him the benefit of the doubt, is that he is a good husband and father and friend to all.

    But he is a businessman billionaire. And going into 2020, that is a huge albatross around his neck. Is he going to try and convince me that a billionaire businessman isn’t qualified to be president, so we should elect another billionaire businessman?

    That’s going to be a tough sell.

    He isn’t making his case any easier by going after Medicare for all. (The only point I will give him is that no one is addressing how to pay for it, and he is right to point that out.) But it is completely a false equivalency to compare national health care to the boarder wall.

    There is national healthcare in the world, it does work. And if he is really worried about the insurance industry going out of business, then he should look at Germany’s system of national and private healthcare.

    The boarder wall plays on some people’s hate and racism. That doesn’t work.

    But here is where he has already fumbled the ball; he is trying to defend health insurance companies over patients, because effectively, that is what he is saying. He isn’t even politically savvy enough to at least say that putting insurance companies out of business would unemployed so many people, and that isn’t fair. (That’s a good old solid Republican line…) If he is trying to run as a centrist, and trying to get middle America to vote for him, then he needs to understand that this part of the electorate is living paycheck to paycheck (government shut down just hammered that home) and their experiences with insurance companies is adversarial. People have an emotional response to insurance companies, and his first steps out of the gate shows that he doesn’t understand that.

    Don’t show up to the emotion fight with logic, because you will lose every time. You fight emotion with emotion, and logic with logic, and the best politicians know when each is called for in the argument.