Tag: Political Theater

McCarthyism–Then And Now

A look at historical similarities…..we have had two McCarthys that have turned the Congress into a clown show….one in the 50s and one today….

Can there be any question that we’re in a mad — and loud — new age of McCarthyism? Thank you, Kevin! And don’t forget the wildly over-the-top members of the so-called Freedom Caucus and their Republican associates, including that charmer, lyin’ George Santos, Jewish-space-laser-and-white-balloon-carrying Marjorie Taylor Greene, and — once again running for president — the man who never lost, Donald Trump-em-all.

I’d like to say it couldn’t get crazier. Still, despite watching Greene shout “Liar!” and other Republicans yell “Bullshit!” during President Biden’s State of the Union Address, I suspect it could get much worse (and more dangerous) in Washington in the months to come. And believe me, that’s leaving Hunter Biden’s penis aside. When it comes to this era’s McCarthyism, don’t for a moment think that the debt ceiling is the only ceiling that could end up in the dust of history.

If you’re of a certain age like me, you undoubtedly have an earlier vision of just how ominously mad Washington’s politics can get. And I wasn’t even thinking of the time in 1968, when Richard Nixon slipped by the Joe Biden of that moment, Hubert Humphrey, winning the presidency with less than 50% of the vote, thanks to his “Southern strategy” and a third-party run by segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace. Nor did I have in mind the Watergate Hearings five years later that revealed Nixon’s bugging of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters, among many other crimes.

It was April 1954 when what came to be known as the Army-McCarthy hearings hit television screens nationwide. At that time, long before anyone had even dreamed of social media, TVs — black and white ones, of course — were changing lives and habits across the country. The star, if you want to think of him that way, and the most distinctly Trumpian figure of his moment and perhaps any other moment before The Donald, was Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. He shot to fame in 1950 by claiming he had inside information that 205 members of the State Department — yes, 205! — were card-carrying members of the Communist Party.

Before that spring of 1954, McCarthy had the Trumpian time of his life holding endless Senate hearings to denounce public figures of every sort as communists. He made life a living hell for a stunning range of Americans. And then, with the all-too-hot Korean war at an end and the Cold War becoming ever more frigid, McCarthy, who had had a field day, went one step too far. In 1953, with the help of his chief counsel Roy Cohn (who, I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn, would later become a guiding light for one Donald J. Trump), began holding hearings investigating supposed communist influence in the Army and, in response, the military, you might say, did him in.

McCarthyism, Then and Now

A lot of similarities…..this time around McCarty has lots of help with the lies and misinformation that are being spread.

I think this time the McCartyism will have a more lasting effect than the idiocy from the 1950s

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those J6 Hearings

After the assault on our democracy on 06 January I am all for prosecuting the offenders to the full extent of the law.

Now we have the J6 hearings that is attempting to find out who knew what and said what and did what…..if this was another time I would be in full agreement with the hearings….but as it is today they are nothing more than political theater for both parties.

Just watch part of a hearing and tell me it is not theater of the absurd.

I agree with former Senator Al Franken that these hearing will accomplish little…..

Monday’s edition of The Al Franken Podcast, the former senator praised the hearings, but ultimately believes they will make little to no difference.

“I have been watching the hearings and they have completely surpassed my expectations or at least surpassed what I had feared,” Franken said.

“I think that they have been devastating. Am I shocked by anything? No. No revelation has shocked me because this is (Donald) Trump. And how can you possibly be shocked by anything about Donald Trump? Nothing anyone could say at these hearings about Donald Trump could possibly shock me, you know, and there are at least four more hearings!”

The former senator went on to list examples of the kind of ridiculous information that could come out which would still fail to move the needle.

Franken imitated a committee member asking the question, “‘Just curiously during the three hours of the riot, did the president ever dance a jig? … Can you tell us about it?’”

“‘Yes,’” he continued impersonating a witness, “‘There was a misreport that the crowd had found the vice president and was tearing him to pieces and that’s when President Trump danced a jig. Well, I’m not exactly sure the legal definition of a jig, but it was clearly a celebratory dance of some sort.’ I mean, would you be shocked if we heard that in the next hearing and then commentators would be asking, ‘Do we really think it would be wise to indict a former president?’”

“Here’s my take, the only thing worse than prosecuting Donald Trump is not prosecuting Donald Trump,” he added. “Judge Luttig was right. Donald Trump and his allies continue to pose a clear and present danger to our democracy. And by the way, I was just on CNN, I said that all these Trump / (Mike) Pence people who testify are not heroes. If they had spoken out before January 6th, there would be a number of people alive who are now gone. But even if they hadn’t come out before January 6th, why didn’t they speak up during the impeachment?”

Al Franken Doesn’t Think Jan. 6 Hearings Will Make A Difference: ‘How Can You Possibly Be Shocked by Anything’ About Trump?’

These hearings will accomplish nothing….any ‘bad guys’ will have the pee-pee whacked and then go on to continue to spread crap and dissension.

Again they are little more than political theater that sole purpose is to generate 30 second news bytes….little will change.

If you have been watching this theatrical performance play out….what are your thoughts?

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

CPAC 2021–Final Day

The big night for CPAC…..the Donald emerges from the fog of the 2020 election…..

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But before they start all must bow to the golden idol…..to the god of the GOP…..

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Waiting for those damn evangelicals to offer up a biblical verse…..(sound of crickets)……

I skipped Day two of the CPAC because it can be summed up as Different Day, Same Sh*t….all kiss the kings ass speech after speech.

The final day (mercifully)….and the speakers are the biggest airbags on the planet….

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee

Former National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow

Former US president Trump

Let’s begin with the speech from ex-Pres. Trump…….

Taking the stage for the first time since leaving office, former President Trump on Sunday called for Republican Party unity in a speech at a conservative political conference, even as he exacerbated its divisions and made clear he intended to remain a dominant force in the party. Trump used his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he has been hailed as a returning hero, to blast his successor, President Joe Biden, and try to cement his status as the party’s undisputed leader despite his loss in November, the AP reports. “Do you miss me yet?” Trump said after taking the stage, where his old rally soundtrack had been playing. “I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we begun together … is far from being over.” Though Trump has flirted with the idea of creating a third party, he pledged to remain part of what he called “our beloved party,” saying, “I’m going to continue to fight right by your side. We’re not starting new parties. We have the Republican Party. It’s going to be strong and united like never before.”

The conference, held this year in Orlando instead of the Washington suburbs because of COVID-19 restrictions, has been a tribute to Trump and Trumpism, complete with a golden statue in his likeness. Speakers, including many potential 2024 hopefuls, have argued the party must embrace the former president and his followers, even after the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on Jan. 6. And they have repeated his unfounded claims that he lost his bid for reelection only because the election was “rigged.” The conference’s annual unscientific straw poll of just over 1,000 attendees found that 97% approve of the job Trump did as president. But they were much more ambiguous about whether he should run again, with 68% saying he should. Speaking of the current US president, who defeated him in November, Trump said: “Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.”

Nothing new in that speech….the same rhetoric as always…..and the same lame language he has become known for……

Then there was the straw poll….and Trump won 55%…..I would have thought it would be larger with all the Trump sycophants in attendance…..

Who does CPAC want to win the presidential election in 2024? The same person who won it in 2016. Former President Donald Trump on Sunday won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, with 55% of respondents saying that if the election were held today, they’d vote for him. Coming in second, per the Hill, was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 21%, followed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem with 4%. Per the New York Times, just 68% of respondents said they wanted Trump to run again, while a whopping 95% said they wanted the GOP to continue to advance his policies and agenda. The poll results were announced just before Trump’s big speech.

The secret ballots were submitted by a group of current and former elected officials, activists, writers, and others—generally representative of the Republican Party’s far-right wing, the Times notes, meaning attendees were likely to be disproportionately Trump fans. Indeed, his approval rating among CPAC attendees was 97%, and a massive 87% of respondents said they strongly approve of him. CPAC straw polls don’t have a great record in terms of actually predicting future nominees; Sen. Rand Paul won three consecutive years before Election 2016, and his presidential campaign that time around only made it through the Iowa caucuses.

Could we be witnessing of the Grand Old Party death throes?

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

Hunter Is A Biden

There has been lots of accusations about Hunter Biden’s business dealings…all of the theatrics and drama is just retaliation for the shots fired at Trump by Dems…..especially the impeachment BS…..all this is just silly and meant to divert attention of the low IQ voters.

The Senate, in GOP hands for now, will try to start the investigation process of Hunter Biden..

A search of Justice Department databases reveals that Hunter Biden failed to register as a foreign agent while promoting the interests of foreign business partners in Washington, including brokering meetings with his father and other government officials, and RealClear Investigations has learned that at least one Senate committee is investigating whether Joe Biden’s son violated federal laws requiring disclosure of such foreign contacts.

The Obama administration did not prosecute Hunter Biden for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, despite its much more aggressive pursuit of FARA cases relative to other administrations — including its opening of criminal investigations on no fewer than six Trump campaign advisers in 2016.

One of them, Paul Manafort, ended up in prison on charges that included failing to publicly disclose his lobbying on behalf of Ukrainian clients and partners. Newly discovered April 2015 emails show Hunter Biden appeared to be helping a Ukrainian energy executive meet with and lobby his father, who was vice president at the time. Hunter, who held a lucrative seat on the board of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma at the time, also sought meetings with State Department officials.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/10/27/senate_probes_hunter_bidens_failure_to_register_as_foreign_agent_125798.html

Trumpian sycophants are doing the heavy lifting for Trump while he tries to con the voters….

Former Trump adviser and former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell on Tuesday suggested that soon-to-be-released audio tapes will “prove” that Joe Biden was aware of his son Hunter’s business suspicious business dealings with foreign agents in contradiction of Biden’s earlier denials to that effect.

Grenell made that revelation while speaking with Just the News host David Brody on “The Water Cooler” on Tuesday afternoon.

“I understand that there’s some recordings that are going to come out of attorneys from Joe Biden and Hunter Biden … that prove they knew about this scheme,” he told Brody.

https://justthenews.com/trump-adviser-says-soon-be-released-hunter-biden-tapes-are-next-shoe-fall

The Trumpian news sources are trying to define the Biden story before the election…..

The Wall Street Journal and Fox News have both reported finding no evidence that former Vice President Joe Biden benefited from the Hunter Biden business dealings that have drawn scrutiny. More explicitly pro-Trump media outlets — OAN, Breitbart, Newsmax — have mostly shied away from publishing fresher, more salacious allegations. And conservative talking heads — pundits, politicians and loud MAGA Twitter personalities alike — have been more focused on the meta narrative around the laptop, arguing that mainstream media, social media companies and the deep state are conspiring to prevent President Donald Trump’s reelection by suppressing the story.

When Breitbart did touch on new revelations, it preemptively distanced itself, carefully framing a fresh trove of emails as an independent investigation by Peter Schweizer, author of “Clinton Cash,” the 2015 look into the Clinton family’s extensive foreign financial ties that made several overstated or inaccurate claims.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/28/trump-conspiracy-theoryhunter-biden-433131

All this silliness and ignorant BS got me want to comment….but I found someone that had the perfect response to this bullshit…..https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

The response begins….

Note to Republicans: No One Gives a Shit About Hunter Biden’s Business Deals

 
Yeah, Republicans and their right-wing media co-conspirators have tried to desperately rub the limp stories of the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, into a full-on scandal erection, but that dick won’t fuck this time. And it’s frankly shocking considering the record that the GOP has in fluffing flaccid fairy tales into career-killing crisis cum. Just in recent years, you’ve had the Swift Boat Vets lies about John Kerry. And you had the decades of utter nonsense about Hillary Clinton, Travelgate to Benghazi to But Her Emails. 
 
Encouragingly, no one is falling for it this time. And that’s a tribute to a few things.
 
Perfect response to the theatrics and the retaliation…..games played by immature garden slugs that pretend to be politicians.
 
I Read, I Write, You Know
 
“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–17Jul20

We hear almost daily on just how smart our president thinks he is…..mostly told by him….he recently patted himself on the back for what he called “an unbelievable thing” with the results of a cognitive test that Trump was given…..

The two men expected to face each other in the general election have a combined age of 151, which is one reason why both keep taking digs at each other about mental fitness. In an interview with Sean Hannity Thursday night, President Trump suggested he did not think that Joe Biden could do as well on a cognitive test as he did, and he proceeded to boast about it. “I actually took one very recently when I was—when the radical left was saying, ‘Is he all there, is he all there?'” Trump said, per Mediaite. “I proved I was all there because I aced it. I aced the test and he should take the same exact test, a very standard test.” Trump added that he impressed the doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center. “They were very surprised,” he said. “They said, ‘That’s an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did.'”

As the Washington Post notes, the last disclosed cognitive test for the president was in January 2018, and that was a fairly basic 10-minute exam in which people are asked to identify animals in pictures and such. It’s unclear if Trump took a more recent exam. Biden, for his part, said Thursday that he can’t wait to debate Trump, referencing Trump’s description of himself as a “stable genius,” per NBC News. At 77, Biden is three years older than Trump, and he said in response to a reporter’s question last month that he is “constantly” tested for cognitive decline, prompting Hannity and other Trump allies to wonder why Biden felt it was necessary to be tested so much, per Fox News. “Look, all you gotta do is watch me, and I can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man I’m running against,” Biden said at the time.

A cognitive test?

You mean the one they give toddlers to see how their cognitive abilities go?

Plus I do not trust the truth to ever come from the White House……so take this with a grain of salt…..

One more plus…..never trust a person that tells you how smart they are….it is usually a smoke screen for their inadequacies or just a plain LIE.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Warnings Of Trump

Since the start of his fake presidency in 2017 Trump has issued warning on just about everything he touches…..remember the rain fire down on North Korea or maybe you will recall nothing at all…..

Most recently Donald the Orange has issued some of his most dire warnings……

First, his rally in Tulsa….and the consequences of protesting him……

“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” he wrote. “It will be a much different scene!” The rally is being held despite an uptick in COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma, but that is just one element of controversy, per the Guardian.

He then warns his fellow GOPers to support him or else……

President Donald Trump is warning moderate Republicans not to cross him.

In an interview with Politico, the president gleefully rattled off a list of now-former senators who turned their back on him and are now out of office — in an apparent effort to intimidate the likes of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and other Republican senators trying to distance themselves from the president.

Among those who Trump invoked were Bob Corker — a Tennessee Republican who did not seek reelection in 2018.

Trump Warns GOP Moderates to Fall in Line, Gleefully Recalls Those Who Crossed Him and Lost: Some Senators ‘Want to Be Cute’

Junior not to be outdone by daddy……has issued a warning for the election in November…..

President Trump painted a dire picture of an America under President Joe Biden as he sat down with his son Donald Trump Jr. for a Father’s Day-themed interview. 

‘The whole country will be Minneapolis,’ Trump warned. ‘I feel like if the Democrats get in, we are literally going to end up in a recession/depression the likes of which you’ve never seen,’ the president also said. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8440015/rump-warns-loses-election-country-Minneapolis.html

Junior is just a full of manure as daddy…..

That was just a few of the more recent warning coming from the mind of a Trump….I am sure there are many more to come before November.

One last thought on Trump…..

President Trump‘s tariffs on imports — meant to boost the economy — ultimately led to job losses and higher prices, a new study from the Federal Reserve has found.

“We find that tariff increases enacted in 2018 are associated with relative reductions in manufacturing employment and relative increases in producer prices,” the report by Fed economists Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce reads.

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/476100-fed-study-trump-tariffs-backfired-caused-job-losses-and-higher-prices

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Rally To Die For

Yesterday Donald the Orange had his long awaited rally…..and is it truly a rally to die for?

News ahead of the rally was not promising…..

President Trump’s campaign says six staff members helping set up for his Saturday night rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have tested positive for coronavirus, the AP reports. The campaign’s communications director, Tim Murtaugh, said in a statement that “quarantine procedures” were immediately initiated and no staff member who tested positive would attend the event. He said no one who had immediate contact with those staffers would attend, either. Murtaugh said campaign staff members are tested for COVID-19 as part of the campaign’s safety protocols. Campaign officials say everyone who is attending the rally will be given temperature checks before they pass through security. They will also be given masks to wear, if they want, and hand sanitizer at the 19,000-seat BOK Center.

The rally has gone into the history books and it was a disappointing turnout for Donald the Orange….I watched so you do not have to bother with this stuff…..

President Trump’s rally in Oklahoma Saturday night is believed to be the biggest indoor event in the US since coronavirus restrictions began—but it wasn’t quite as big as expected. There were thousands of empty seats at Tulsa’s 19,000-capacity BOK Center, though the campaign said it had received more than a million ticket requests, the Guardian reports. Trump, who spoke for almost two hours, described COVID-19 testing as a “double-edged sword.” “When you do testing to that extent … you’re going to find more cases,” he said. “So I said to my people, slow the testing down please.” A White House official later said the president, who was holding his first rally in three months, was “obviously kidding.” More:

Trump blamed protesters for turnout. Health officials warned that the rally would cause a surge in coronavirus infections—and six staff members who helped set the rally up tested positive earlier in the day—but Trump appeared to blame the turnout on protesters and the media. There were “very bad people outside, they’re doing bad things,” he said in his opening remarks. There were “some volatile scenes outside the venue but no serious trouble,” reports the BBC. Plans for Trump to address an outside “overflow area” were dropped. AP reporters said they did not see protesters block entry to the area where the rally was being held.

Familiar targets. Politico reports that Trump attacked plenty of “familiar targets” during his speech, including Joe Biden, the media, and the Washington, DC “swamp.” He referred to the coronavirus as the “China Virus” and the “Kung Flu.” He also slammed the “unhinged left wing mob” he said was “desecrating our monuments, our beautiful monuments.” “They want to demolish our heritage so they can impose their new oppressive regime in its place,” he said. Trump also called for the burning of the US flag to be made illegal

AOC: Trump was tricked by teens. Rep, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—another Trump target—poked fun at the Trump campaign over the disappointing turnout, Fox reports. “You just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok who flooded the Trump campaign w/ fake ticket reservations & tricked you into believing a million people wanted your white supremacist open mic enough to pack an arena during COVID,” she tweeted after campaign chief Brad Parscale said “radical protesters fueled by a week of apocalyptic coverage” stopped Trump supporters entering the venue.

He spoke about West Point for 14 minutes. The Washington Post reports that Trump spent more than 14 minutes—around an eighth of his speech—discussing his speech at West Point last weekend and complaining about how the media covered his slow walk down a ramp and his use of two hands to drink a glass of water. After he demonstrated that he could drink a glass of water with one hand, the crowd cheered and chanted “Four more years!”

Fact-checkers were busy. CNN fact-checks numerous statements from Trump’s speech, including his claim that Biden apologized for criticizing his China travel restrictions.

“Brief skirmishes.” Police say there were “brief skirmishes” and pepper balls were fired after Trump supporters leaving the rally clashed with protesters, but things remained largely peaceful, the Tulsa World reports

All I can say is that the rally was a Trump-centric piece of theater….a rambling collage of words and excuses….and as usual there were is adoring fans drooling on themselves…can you image that a group would be so impressed by a person drinking water with one had?

“lego ergo scribo”

Picking A Nominee

College of Political Knowledge

2020 and we are off to the races as they say in picking our next president….personally I think it is a silly operation from the start…..but we continue to do the same thing over and over (and you know what that means)……we, as voters, need to take stock in the nomination process and other political theatrics……..

There is always criticism but it seldom leads to any reform or change….2020 is no different….

Want evidence that our process for selecting presidential nominees is a joke? Look at the last Democratic debate: “Three candidates in their 70s—and no African-American or Latino,” writes David Leonhardt in the New York Times. “There are two people who have never won an election—and zero who have ever run a state.” Want more evidence? Look at the “reality-television star” who hijacked the GOP nomination process in 2016 and now sits in the White House, he adds. People say this is merely democracy in action, but it’s not, writes Leonhardt. “It’s one version of democracy,” and the US is pretty much the only nation that relies on this weird mix of polls, donor numbers, and “distorted” primaries. Other countries give political parties more say in picking nominees, and Leonhardt thinks a middle ground can be found here.

“I’m not suggesting we return to the smoke-filled rooms of the past,” he writes. “But the current process puts a higher priority on the appearance of democracy than the reality of it.” Some suggestions: On the debates, it’s fine to give poll leaders guaranteed spots, but the party could also reserve spots for a governor and perhaps a swing-state senator. In the primaries themselves, more states should embrace ranked-choice voting, rather than the winner-takes-all approach. And the primary calendar should rotate every four years to end the ridiculous prominence given to Iowa, New Hampshire, etc. The first to vote would always include “a mix of states: big and small, young and old, urban and rural, coastal and heartland.” Change is long overdue, writes Leonhardt. Read his full column.

Primaries and such are nothing more than beauty contests and a gold mine for the media….beyond that they are worthless in picking the nominee.  Real issues are seldom on the agenda…..the voter gets one liners and slogans….and in the end NOTHING ever changes.

Can we please change this silliness?

Can we please get back to that lost art of democracy?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Primaries And Caucasus–Why?

This week will be a busy week…..the vote in Iowa, the impeachment trial and the State of the Union…..busy, busy, busy!

The 2020 election is on….let the sham begin!

This is #1 in a series that I will post on the process of picking a candidate and president….

It is finally here…..the 2020 campaign and primaries season….that political theater that does little but help the media make billions in ad dollars and the media has a way to drive the conversation and help pick the candidate.

Personally, I think the whole system needs to be put down the toilet where they belong.

This is no way to pick the nominee.

Let’s start at the top: Our system for choosing presidential nominees makes little sense. As Brookings Institution senior fellow Elaine Kamarck wrote recently, “There are many different ways to organize a presidential nominating system and almost all of them are more rational and orderly than the hodgepodge of systems that voters experience today.”

To start, Iowa and New Hampshire go first simply because they do, even though they are wildly unrepresentative of the nation as a whole. They’re smaller, way more white and way more rural, and, in the case of Iowa, more evangelical, with a side of bizarre special-interest politics in the form of the ethanol lobby. Yet they shake up the race, thinning the herd before most of the country has a chance to vote.

https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2016-02-19/americas-primary-elections-are-broken

Really!  These primaries are worthless and boring….only the media loves them….below was from 2004….

If you’re Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe — who has reportedly told all the contenders that if they’re not winning by March 10, they need to drop out of the race — this is good news. The sooner Democrats agree on a nominee, the sooner they can prepare for the general election. It’s also not troubling if you’re a voter in New Hampshire or Iowa, because you will have helped select the party’s candidate.

But if you’re a voter in California, New York or any of the 10 states that vote in the “Super Tuesday” primaries March 2, it’s a different story. You’re going to have a very limited choice — many candidates will already have dropped out of the race, and the front-runner will probably have so many delegates and so much momentum that no one can catch up.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-feb-15-oe-panagopoulos15-story.html

I have rattled on for long enough….how many know exactly what the primary system is all about (a show of hands please)……

A little history is a good thing……these things are not provided for in the Constitution……but yet here they are…..

The presidential primaries are one of the most important elements of the American constitutional order. Given that general elections give voters just two starkly opposed choices, it’s largely through the primaries that nuance enters the political process. Parties define themselves by whom they select to run for president, and the ideological alignments that result end up defining the contours of political conflict.

And yet, despite primaries’ central role, nothing about them is laid out in the Constitution.

In fact, the framers didn’t envision American politics taking the form of two-party competition, so they gave no thought to how parties would select their candidates.

This, in turn, is part of what makes the primaries so fascinating. While the Constitution itself is incredibly difficult to change, party nominating rules and state laws are much more flexible.

https://www.vox.com/a/presidential-primaries-2016-republican-democrat/presidential-primaries-explained

Now you have the history…..now what I would rather see….

I would like t see the primary system abolished…it is only a beauty contest and a way for the media to rape dollars out of the system.  But if we must have them then go to regional primaries or better yet a National Primary.

The idea that candidates build name recognition in Iowa and New Hampshire and then slowly build momentum as the process moves on is a quaint one but largely mythological. Since Jimmy Carter in 1976, has any candidate emerged as a major party nominee who wasn’t an early front-runner and well-heeled? Certainly, the nominees in the past several cycles have all been early front runners.

A national primary in, say, March, with a run-off in, say, June, would be much preferable to the way we do it now. If a candidate got 50% of the vote, he’d be the nominee. If not, the top two candidates would run against one another for another six to eight weeks.

That would force everyone to engage in retail politics on the issues rather than hanging around Merrimack Restaurant with the locals. And it would virtually guarantee substantive campaigning would continue into the early summer since only shoo-ins such as sitting presidents would likely capture a majority in a multi-candidate race.

YouGov’s latest research shows that most Americans (54%) think that presidential campaigns are too long and drawn out. Only 23% of Americans say that they prefer a long campaign which gives them a better chance of getting to know the candidates.

Currently the primary and caucus season stretches out over months, with the first Iowa caucuses scheduled to take place in January 2016. This has been criticized for giving small states such as Iowa and New Hampshire undue influence as well as prolonging the already lengthy presidential election campaign. Most Americans (54%) want the primaries to all take place on the same day in May or early June. Only 22% of Americans want the current system to continue.

A single national primary day is particularly popular in the Northeast, where 64% of people want to consolidate all the days. The midwest has the highest proportion of people (25%) wanting to continue with the current system where primaries and caucuses are spread out over several months…….https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2015/03/05/primaries

I made my thoughts known….anyone else feel like they have a better thought or opinion…if so please jump in here…..

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Another Congressional “Sit-In”

Closing Thought–24Oct19

I have calling the Congress, both parties, a pack of spineless clowns that would rather perform for the camera than to do the hard work of governing.

I recall a couple of years ago when the Dems lead a sit-in in the House …..and I remember that the Repubs went batcrap crazy….calling this protest a stunt”, it was childish and did nothing to further the cause of liberty.

The year was 2016……(for those that have dementia or just plain ignorant)

Dozens of House Democrats staged a sit-in on the House floor Wednesday in protest of the GOP leadership’s refusal to allow a vote on a gun control measure following the Orlando massacre.

Led by Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the civil rights icon, and John Larson (D-Conn.), more than 40 Democrats walked into the chamber just before noon and pledged to “occupy” the House floor until GOP leadership allowed a vote. In one hour, their numbers more than tripled — even as Republicans recessed the House, turning off C-SPAN cameras and the video feed to the public.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/democrats-stage-sit-in-on-house-floor-to-force-gun-vote-224656

Well guess what?

It is the GOP’s turn to act up and perform for the cameras.

The Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility sits in the basement of the Capitol, and it’s been the site of more than a little drama on Wednesday. More than two dozen House Republicans who had been giving a news conference outside the room stormed into it as Laura Cooper—deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia—was due to give testimony in a closed-door hearing. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said some who entered were “literally … just screaming … saying that the process is wrong.” House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff reportedly exited the room with Cooper, essentially postponing the hearing.

Politico reports the “standoff” was unresolved “by mid-morning,” with Republicans who had barged in refusing to leave. The Hill reports GOP lawmakers are reportedly upset that only members of the three House panels overseeing the impeachment inquiry are permitted to attend the closed-door hearings and say the interview transcripts should be publicly available to the American people. Politico’s sources say some Republicans carried their cellphones with them into the room, a House rules violation that triggered a sweep of the room for security issues.

Like I keep stating…GAMES.

5 hours of taxpayers time wasted on this gimmick to get on the evening news……

Before we get the usual diatribes……

The GOP is represented in these hearings (45 members of the GOP)…there is NO trial in the House that takes place in the Senate and any evidence gained will be presented there.

The New York Times reports that a quarter of House Republicans, including some of those involved in the sit-in, are committee members allowed to attend the hearings. “They crashed a room where there were a bunch of Republicans getting ready to question a witness,” says Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin. “Their attempt to act like Freedom Riders is really an attack on the committee system in Congress.” The Times notes that the sit-in ended when lawmakers were summoned to the House for a vote.

This was a wasted stunt……

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”