Tag: Voters

Tulsi And The Peace Train

Peace Train? Is that Cat Stevens I hear? Oh sorry I mean is that Yusef Islam I hear?

I have been a peace-nik, antiwar activist, for 40 years and in that time I have had few major party candidates that I could support…..candidates like McCarthy, McGovern and a very few others….

I am pleased to say that I have found a candidate that I can support, at least for now….Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii……

The most interesting candidate is undoubtedly Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who is a fourth term Congresswoman from Hawaii, where she was born and raised. She is also the real deal on national security, having been-there and done-it through service as an officer with the Hawaiian National Guard on a combat deployment in Iraq. Though in Congress full time, she still performs her Guard duty.

Tulsi’s own military experience notwithstanding, she gives every indication of being honestly anti-war. In the speech announcing her candidacy she pledged “focus on the issue of war and peace” to “end the regime-change wars that have taken far too many lives and undermined our security by strengthening terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.” She referred to the danger posed by blundering into a possible nuclear war and indicated her dismay over what appears to be a re-emergence of the Cold War

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/is-tulsi-gabbard-for-real/

The media is running scared of Tulsi and her antiwar stands……so the MSM does what it always dos…sets about smear the candidate…….

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii. (Lori Shaull / Flickr)

So why might New Knowledge identify Tulsi Gabbard as a possible Kremlin favorite? And more significantly, why is a major news network willing to carry water for such a scandal-plagued organization? Perhaps only Morgan and NBC News executive editor Catherine Kim can answer those questions definitively, but the answer is almost certainly Gabbard’s politics and platform, both of which fall to the left of the Democratic establishment.

Since announcing her run for president in January, the Hawaiian congresswoman has pledged to take on entrenched wealth and a runaway military-industrial complex. “We’re being torn apart by powerful, self-serving politicians and greedy corporations,” she said during her campaign kickoff speech in Oahu. “People fomenting hatred, bigotry and fear; inciting conflict between us because of the color of our skin, the way that we worship, or the political party that we might belong to.”

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-mainstream-medias-smearing-of-tulsi-gabbard/

 https://themindunleashed.com/2019/02/tulsi-gabbard-mainstream-media-crazy.html

I admit that there are some reservations by the Left to embrace her candidacy…….I read an interview that covered some of these thoughts……

Tulsi Gabbard’s candidacy for president has raised more problematic questions than answers for people on the Left. Many anti-war leftists call her a breath of fresh air in resisting the military industrial complex and the dangerous war duopoly. After she supported a diplomatic solution to Syria and supported Bernie Sanders for president in 2016, she made a name for herself in the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Since she has announced her candidacy however, a number of serious, complicated and important questions have been raised: What is her position on Syrian human rights? What does it mean that right wingers such as Steve Bannon and David Duke sing her praises? Is she actually a peace candidate or a hawk, especially when it comes to foreign policy matters that impact Muslims? What are her positions on key social issues? Is she Islamophobic and homophobic? And what is her affiliation with Narenda Modi all about?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/19/troublesome-possibilities-the-left-and-tulsi-gabbard/

As I say she has my support as long as her views on war and our troops does not change.

And now for your musical enjoyment……

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Feel The Bern (Again)

2020 is quickly approaching and the energy in the MSM is at fever pitch already…..they have 2 new guy candidates that they, MSM, can fixate on…..they have a bundle of women running they can lavish praise upon….and they have “Uncle Joe” Biden that they can always dredge up when the news of the day is slow…..finally they have an old white Jew that they can use as a punching bag by keeping the age old BS of socialism front and center instead of his policies that are truly popular with the voter.

2016 saw the rise of Bernie to everyone’s surprise…so much so that he challenged the Clinton machine and damn near beat her pants off (no insult or pun intended) so much so that the DNC had to resort to trickery to keep him from winning the nomination….but like I say that was 2016 and we are entering into a new election cycle.

In 2016 his appeal to younger voters was something that did not get the attention it deserved and so far looks like 2020 will be no different…

A new national poll of young Democratic voters released Monday shows Sen. Bernie Sanders leading the crowded 2020 field with a double-digit lead over the second most popular candidate, Joe Biden.

According to the survey by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the Harvard Kennedy School, the U.S. senator from Vermont is preferred by 31 percent of likely Democratic primary voters between the ages of 18 and 29 years old.

While Biden came in second place with 20 percent and Beto O’Rourke of Texas nabbed the third spot with 10 percent, none of the other candidates garnered more than single digits in the poll. After O’Rourke, IOP noted the following support for the remaining candidates:

Sen. Kamala Harris (5%), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (4%), Sen. Cory Booker (3%), Andrew Yang (2%), Mayor Pete Buttigieg (1%), former Sec. Julian Castro (1%), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (1%), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (1%), Gov. Jay Inslee (1%) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (1%). Several other candidates polled at less than one percent at this early stage.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/01/bernie-holds-double-digit-lead-over-2020-rivals-among-young-democratic-voters-poll

The big news recently with the MSM was that candidate Buttigieg hauled in $7 million in the first quarter and they went on and on about how important this cash will be……and yet Bernie brought in more than double and his totals were not even a mention……

Bernie Sanders is the third Democratic candidate to release first-quarter fundraising figures, and he easily jumps to No. 1. Sanders says he pulled in $18.2 million in the first three months of the year, with 88% coming from donations of $200 or less, reports the New York Times. Earlier, Kamala Harris announced she raised $12 million and Pete Buttigieg $7 million. A big remaining question: How much will Beto O’Rourke get? Like Sanders, he had raised about $6 million on his campaign’s first day. Politico notes that Sanders surpassed his fundraising from the first quarter of his 2016 campaign, when he pulled in $15 million.

Bernie is still as popular as he was in the 2016 cycle…..but will he be as successful as he was last time and will the DNC play the same games it played in 2016?

The MSM will avoid Bernie as long as there are as many candidates that they can use as an excuse….this trend of popularity may not continue but for now the younger voters are…..Feeling The Bern!

 

DCCC Acting Like The Authoritarian Pricks

The Congressional Dems are trying to stop anyone from primary challenge to their members……in other words they are protecting the old fart cowards from being held accountable…..

Progressives made clear they have no intention of backing down to the party establishment after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Friday threatened to cut off funds to firms and strategists that support primary challengers against incumbents.

“The DCCC can do anything it wants to try to prevent the next generation of Democrats from taking power. They will not succeed,” Sean McElwee—co-founder of Data for Progress, which is recruiting progressives to oust conservative Democrats—said in a statement.

The new policy was included in the DCCC’s list of vendor hiring standards, which state that the organization “will not conduct business with, nor recommend to any of its targeted campaigns, any consultant that works with an opponent of a sitting member of the House Democratic Caucus.”

According to National Journal, which first reported the policy change, “Democrats involved in crafting the standards intend for them to bolster members across the ideological spectrum, from the fiscally conservative Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas to the progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota—both of whom could be subject to contested primaries.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/22/progressives-refuse-back-down-dccc-moves-kneecap-primary-challengers
 
In other words the DCCC will decide who can run in the primaries….they want to take the people out of this decision and put forth the corporate owned toadies that we have had for the last 50 years.
 
I have a problem with any attempt, no matter what side of the aisle, that tries to eliminate the voter from making their choice of candidates…..this is a disastrous  attempt that cannot end well for the party….but they care not as long as the old farts are protected from a primary challenge.
 
Sounds like something of a “vanguard party” (anybody know what I mean?) leadership

Closing Thought–25Mar19

Right now there is a rush to vet all the Dem candidates….plus the desire to “force” VP Biden into another run for the presidency by hammering his name daily and prodding him into a dash for the White House….if not the 2020 election then the legal claptrap as the MSM pushes for the release of the Special Council’s report (due out any hour, according to the MSM)….(it’s out now and MSM does not like the findings so far)…..

But what are they saying about our Beloved Supreme Leader’s chances if he decides to run for re-election?

Good question, right?

Politico has touched on the possibility of a win in 2020……

President Donald Trump has a low approval rating. He is engaging in bitter Twitter wars and facing metastasizing investigations.

But if the election were held today, he’d likely ride to a second term in a huge landslide, according to multiple economic models with strong track records of picking presidential winners and losses.

Credit a strong U.S. economy featuring low unemployment, rising wages and low gas prices — along with the historic advantage held by incumbent presidents.

While Trump appears to be in a much stronger position than his approval rating and conventional Beltway wisdom might suggest, he also could wind up in trouble if the economy slows markedly between now and next fall, as many analysts predict it will.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/21/trump-economy-election-1230495

And his chances of re-election are looking good…..his approval tating is at 41% and the report from Mueller has handed Trump the perfect tool to run on in 2020….https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/25/politics/donald-trump-mueller-report-presidency/index.html

Dems need to proceed from this point on with caution…..their knee jerk BS could hand Trump the election.

What say you?

Will he be re-elected…that is if he stands for it?

If not, who will beat him?

Electoral College Must Go!

Seriously?

Most of us “pinkos” on the Left have been saying that for decades and no one was listening and now it is all the rage…..I have written many posts condemning the EC and calling for its abolishing…….

https://lobotero.com/2008/07/14/what-do-you-really-know-about-the-electoral-college/

https://lobotero.com/2016/11/28/what-do-you-know-about-the-electoral-college/

The reason that I re-visit my attempts to sway my readers is something that was published last week……

Earlier this week, former Attorney General Eric Holder called for the abolition of the electoral college because it is “undemocratic” and “forces candidates to ignore majority of the voters and campaign in a small number of states.” In a New York Times op-ed, columnist Jamelle Bouie echoes all of the above and hopes that Holder’s argument becomes a main topic among Democrats running for president. “The Electoral College routinely threatens or produces perverse outcomes, where the will of the voters is thwarted by an ill-considered 18th-century electoral device,” writes Bouie. “It has no place in a democracy that strives for a standard of ‘one person, one vote.'” It’s also the reason Donald Trump is president instead of Hillary Clinton, he writes, and the reason Trump might win again in 2020.

Bouie runs through the historical origins of the electoral college, along with the failed attempts to replace it over the years with a system based on popular vote. Opponents of the electoral college have nowhere near the support necessary to get an amendment ratified abolishing it, he notes. “The inertia behind the Electoral College is strong, which is why it needs vocal opponents making their case as loudly and often as possible.” However, he writes that the movement has, in fact, been gaining ground, with the governor of Colorado promising to join the National Popular Vote interstate compact, and Maine’s legislature considering the same move. Click to read the full column, in which Bouie argues that the current system is a “glaring flaw” in our democracy. (Read more electoral college stories.)

My question is…what took you people so long?

Maybe now someone will f*cking listen because some high paid pundit has written an op-ed stating what most of us on the Left have known for many decades……

As they say…..”better late than never”…….

And guess what? We may not have had a Trump as president if you a/holes had listened in the beginning.

Just Saying!

Those Empty Slogans

Since I started this blog I have been writing about just how much I hate a politician’s empty slogans and promises.

The GOP candidates have, in the past, been the worse at silly slogans….Make America Great Again is one such bizarre and silly slogan (America has always been a great country just not so much as a society).

But since the Dems won the House I have noticed that they are starting to sling a slogan or two…..(this quote is from the WaPo that will do what it can to sabotage any progressive agenda this op-ed is a prime example)…..

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post thinks Democrats are starting to look like the Republicans of 2016, and she doesn’t mean that as a compliment. They’re “emphasizing empty slogans instead of evidence-based policy, rejecting experts in favor of cranks, handwaving away questions about implementation, and promising that an expensive policy will magically ‘pay for itself’ through economic growth,” writes Rampell. And one of those she calls out is a fellow millennial, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, specifically over the Green New Deal championed by the new congresswoman. That policy promises to save the environment by achieving carbon-emission targets that far exceed anything on the table so far, but the plan skips over the details on how to get there, along with any sacrifices that Americans would have to make.

AOC dismisses this kind of criticism by saying the plan will pay for itself by creating jobs, but that’s not nearly good enough, writes Rampell. She finds the same kind of “lazy sloganeering” present in “Medicare-for-all,” and thinks it’s a mistake because it comes at the expense of “vibrant, nuanced debate” on health care, tax policy, and climate policy. As for the 2016 comparison, it’s true that President Trump won the White House with some “empty slogans” of his own, writes Rampell. But “right now, Democrats still retain a monopoly on expertise and evidence-based policy,” she writes. “They should not relinquish it easily.” Click for the full column, in which Rampell takes issue with the Modern Monetary Theory that’s been gaining in popularity

I agree with the main point….that with silly slogans the Dems are slowly becoming the GOP……(could it be that they also think the American people is easily swayed by moronic slogans as does the GOP?)

The with this op-ed is that to have a rigorous debate you need a willing opponent and the Dems do have have such an opponent…all they have is the GOP and their silly slogan and lies.

I suggest the WaPo needs to call out one then call out all.

Feel The Bern!

Run Bernie Run!

All us people that supported Bernie in 2016 have been waiting for him to step up in the 2020 contest.

The wait is over!

Last time, he was the underdog, notes NPR. This time, he’ll be one of the favorites. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday told Vermont Public Radio that he is entering the 2020 race for president. The 77-year-old joins a crowded field, with big names including Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Amy Klobuchar already in the mix. “We began the political revolution in the 2016 campaign, and now it’s time to move that revolution forward,” said the independent senator. He will campaign on familiar issues, including universal health care and a $15 minimum wage.

As the Washington Post notes, a big challenge facing Sanders is that many of his 2020 rivals already embrace policy positions he’s pushing. In his announcement, Sanders didn’t mince words when talking about the man he hopes to replace as president. “I think the current occupant of the White House is an embarrassment to our country,” Sanders said. “I think he is a pathological liar. … I also think he is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, somebody who is gaining cheap political points by trying to pick on minorities, often undocumented immigrants.” (Sanders wants to raise taxes on the richest Americans.)

Now the MSM can make sure we all know he is a Democratic Socialist……sad that this nation has to use labels and not policies……the GOP is gearing up and some of the Dem candidates will join in…..candidates like Harris……

For now I like Bernie but I am leaning more to Tulsi at this stage of the process…..but I will be watching..

Is it possible that there is a path for Bernie to win?

Bernie Sanders is a famous, successful loser.

When he announced his run for the Democratic nomination in April 2015, Sanders trailed Hillary Clinton in the polls by nearly 57 percentage points. By spring of 2016, some polls showed him within single digits. Sanders was no longer an obscure senatorial frump from Vermont — he was a bona fide political phenomenon whose primary success embodied the Democratic Party’s leftward drift.

But 2020 is not 2016. Sanders kicked-off his 2020 run early on Tuesday, and as he navigates his second presidential primary, he’ll need to prove he can build on his past success, not coast on his 2016 coalition.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bernie-sanders-2020-democratic-nomination-kickoff/

A few takes on the Bernie candidacy…..

  • Wide appeal? A common knock against Sanders is that his democratic socialist views would make it hard for him to win in a general election. But Sanders’ campaign says his appeal among minorities, the white working class, and independent voters could help him win in unexpected places, including typically red states such as West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, and Indiana, reports Politico. The story talks to Sanders’ pollster.
  • Trump team: The president’s campaign is already out with a line of attack using the s-word. Sanders “has already won the debate in the Democrat primary, because every candidate is embracing his brand of socialism,” says the campaign, per the AP. Among other things, it cites Sanders’ support of a Medicare-for-all system.

  • The challenge: An analysis at Vox agrees that many of the issues championed by Sanders in 2016 have now been accepted by his Democratic rivals. In a way, that’s good for Sanders. “On the other hand, Sanders has to make the case that he’s still the progressive that voters should choose. He’s remained consistent; he’s fighting for the same things today that he was in 2016. The question is: Can he win at his own game?”
    Sign of trouble? David Weigel of the Washington Post writes that Hillary Clinton came off her 2008 loss in the primary by building on her support to become the 2016 frontrunner. Sanders has not done the same, he says. “In early polls of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he won 50 percent and 60 percent of the vote, support for the senator from Vermont has ranged from the low teens to 30 percent.”
    The basics: Axios has a primer on Sanders’ life and policies. One question surrounds his age of 77. More than half of Democratic county party leaders in Iowa said in a recent poll that they wanted a young candidate.

The fact that gives me a smile is that Bernie’s candidacy will have corporate Dems, like Kamala, will be running scared and their voice, MSM, will start the slander and the misinformation…..

With a launch of the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign on the near horizon, efforts to block his trajectory to the Democratic presidential nomination are intensifying. The lines of attack are already aggressive—and often contradictory.

One media meme says that Bernie has made so much headway in moving the Democratic Party leftward that he’s no longer anything special. We’re supposed to believe that candidates who’ve adjusted their sails to the latest political wind are just as good as the candidate who generated the wind in the first place.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/12/bernie-2020-campaign-has-corporate-democrats-running-scared/

FEEL THE BERN!