Day: March 15, 2016

Trump: A Guilty Pleasure

I will be brutally honest….I cannot look away from Donald Trump and the situation with the GOP and its self-destruction…..you know like those people that find guilty pleasure in such crappy Reality TV as Duck Dynasty or Real Housewives or other such garbage……

40 years ago when I was a hard-core radical we were telling the American people what would happen if all this greed and egotistical politicians were allowed to continue unchecked…….and slowly but slowly most of it is coming true…..with a rapid deterioration of democracy from 2008……

It is truly satisfying to know that we were spot on back in the day….and now I just cannot tear myself away from the clown show…..no matter how strong I try…..

I bring all this up because 2016 is the culmination of 40 years of disdain for the American voter….. and it is fascinating as it transpire…..

Today is the big day for the GOP candidates….more so than for the Dems…..the big question is….will Trump finally find a stopping point?

Republican leaders trying to stop Donald Trump from winning the nomination might run out of time on Tuesday, when voters in five states—including winner-take-all states Ohio and Florida—could put the tycoon on an almost unblockable path to the nomination. With a total of 367 delegates at stake, delegates will be awarded proportionately in North Carolina, while Missouri awards delegates by district and Illinois uses a similar system. A roundup of coverage:

  • The New York Times looks at the role of Ohio, which is likely to be crucial to both the Republican and Democratic contests. The state GOP is firmly behind Gov. John Kasich, who is in a tight race with Trump and has said he will end his campaign if he doesn’t carry the state.
  • CNN reports that anti-Trump groups, including a PAC led by Jeb Bush staffers, are hitting him hard with attack ads. One cable ad features women reading Trump insults like “bimbo” and “fat pig.”
  • FiveThirtyEight crunches the numbers and finds that Kasich is the favorite to win Ohio, while Trump is the favorite in other states, including Florida, where Marco Rubio is given just a 4% chance of winning his home state—and of having a reason to continue his campaign.
  • The Wall Street Journal was present for some last-minute campaigning in which Trump spoke of knockout wins. “If we win Ohio and if we win Florida, then everybody agrees, every one of these guys, that it’s pretty much over,” he told supporters at a rally in Tampa at which he was joined by Sarah Palin, who denounced the “petty, punk-ass little thuggery” of Trump protesters.
  • Ted Cruz, meanwhile, was reaching out to Kasich and Rubio supporters in the belief that it will be a two-man race between him and Trump by Wednesday. Politico looks at the senator’s state-by-state plan.
  • The Washington Post looks at whether the “political free-for-all of an old-school contested convention” is a real possibility this year.
  • Ben Carson, who has endorsed Trump, warned against a contested convention Monday night, saying a fractured GOP would be sure to lose both the presidency and the Senate if that happens, the Hill reports. He said that even if Trump turned out to be a terrible president, “we’re only looking at four years.”

If there is voting in your area then go out and make a difference……VOTE!

American Authoritarianism

Even thought important voting will be done today the big story in the media has been the violence around the Trump campaign…..

Of course everyone is trying to get a handle on what is really happening….we have those that blame ISIS or the Left or the Radical Right for all the incidents….the problem is it is around only ONE campaign (so far)….but the media does not have a good handle on the situation (in my opinion)….

If you would like an explanation to the phenom then maybe political science can help out and give you the answer you seek……

Source: American authoritarianism: the political science theory that explains Trump rally violence – Vox

Trump militia forms

After writing the previous post and posting it I came across another article that plays along the lines of the post…..

I have been watching this drama play out…..the hate on both sides of the Trump thing is getting out of hand….and now that the violence has seem to pick up to a feverish pitch……..how to control the violence?  Is there a solution?

But then I read the article below and became more disturbed…….why?

Sounds a lot like the formation of the Brown Shirts in 1920’s Germany…..they were a “militia” that was used to “protect” the leadership…..and to incite violence at other party functions….

This is NOT a good thing to occur.

Source: Trump militia forms to ‘forcefully protect’ rally goers against ‘far-left agitators’

Is Trump a Fascist?

I am sure that this post will chap the butts of some readers…..but please read before you go off on some mindless babbling……

Before I begin let me say…..CALM DOWN!

I know….since I am not a Trump supporter I must be trying to defame him in some way or another…..you are WRONG!

I got to thinking about this when I heard the all the diatribes about Bernie being a socialist and then the ones that call him a Marxist….first that shows me that these people have NO idea what a Marxist is or what they believe…..

Then I have heard the “F” word batted around when some write about Donald  Trump….

There have been many attempts to equate Trump with Fascism….his xenophobia, his speeches on religion or his world overview….while I admit that some of his rhetoric is somewhat nationalistic and, at least to me, a bit disturbing….I do not think he is a fascist……mainly because I do not think he understands the label to begin with……I am not writing about the insult but rather the political ideology…….

I will admit in my younger days as a radical and a protester I had used the term liberally to describe many within our government…but that was when I was young, dumb and full of hate…..these days I have a more laid back approach to analyzing the crap we call government……

Many of Trump’s opponents both Right and Left have tried to make the jump to calling him a fascist……I do not think they use the term for no other reason than a way to try and stop his rise to the nomination…..

I bring this up because I read a good piece in the LA Progressive recently and wanted to press it to see what types of comments I would get……

Source: Is Trump a Fascist? – LA Progressive

Again I AM NOT accusing Trump of being a fascist…..I pressed this article purely as an FYI of what is being said about the candidate….so please read it before you jump to moronic conclusions……

But for the sake of argument let us say that he is a Fascist…..could anything be worse?

God yes!  A Cruz presidency!

The Texas senator is a conniving, fanatical, power-hungry demagogue whose policies would serve America’s 1 percent

Source: Donald Trump may be an actual fascist. Ted Cruz is still more dangerous – Salon.com

Fascism is about the most powerful epithet one can use — but it fits with Donald Trump. A historian explains why

Source: Trump’s not Hitler, he’s Mussolini: How GOP anti-intellectualism created a modern fascist movement in America – Salon.com

Again!  I am NOT accusing anyone of anything….I am just passing on some thoughts others have had on this subject……but as an analyst I can see lots of similarities between 2016 and the 1930’s Europe…..especially the rhetoric….

If you would like to comment….then now would be the perfect time……

Yester-year Becomes Today

The year is 1964….I was 17 and not politically motivated……in those days I was more motivated by Regina “Gypsy” Falcone…..but in that year the presidential race came down to LBJ and Barry Goldwater…..I do not remember much about those political days except for the “Daisy” ad and the ad with the map of the US being sawed upon…..all were anti-Goldwater campaign ads…..

What brings this election to mind was that the GOP candidate was Goldwater and he got the call in a brokered convention…..something the media is dying to happen with this 2016 election……then they could run the election the way they want……

The other day I was watching TRMS on MSNBC and she showed a 4 minute anti-Goldwater campaign ad and watching it I could see a lot of similarities to what is happening in this election…..

But do not take my word for it……watch the video and see what you think…..

The ad was produced by incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign, who was looking to court moderate republicans who were put off by Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, who who was considered an extremist at the time.

In “Confessions of a Republican,” a bespectacled man voices his opposition to Goldwater, and argues that conservatives should throw their support behind Johnson, who would go on to win the 1964 election. Fifty years later, the ad is going viral because the man’s criticism of Goldwater sounds a lot like what both Democrats and Republicans are saying about Trump today.

https://www.rightthisminute.com/story/67345/video/embed

And that sports fans is how you do a historic perspective!

Hillary Clinton Has Long History of Collaboration with GOP on Foreign Policy

I am sure that my regulars know that I am extremely concerned about the future of the US with this election…..Neocons have turn the whole damn world against us in one form or another…..and the Dem front runner has a long history of collaboration with the Neocons….

On foreign policy the two parties are like-minded enough that when the candidate for one strays from party orthodoxy, the candidate for the other may be a more than adequate substitute.

Source: Hillary Clinton Has Long History of Collaboration with GOP on Foreign Policy

This election is too important for people to enter into it with NO knowledge of the candidates other than what they want to believe…..