Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

It’s not so much what he says. “It seems your position on this issue is closer to my opponent’s than mine. Perhaps, if that is your sincere belief, he (or she) is the one you should be casting your ballot for” would actually be a cool thing for a politician to say. If he was being sincere and helpful.
I remember one of the schmaltzy old Christmas movies (Miracle on 34th St.?) where a department store Santa told a mother where she could find the toy cheaper and it resulted in a burst of good publicity and increased sales, the American dream.
But, it ain’t what you say, it’s the way that you say it, and it doesn’t sound like Joe Biden is not being sincere and helpful. It’s almost always in response to a question he’s having difficulty answering, and the response is usually accompanied, or closely followed by, Joe Biden turning and walking away.
Nonetheless, even if the advice is not given sincerely, even though Joe Biden’s “vote for someone else” means “go away, peasant, I don’t want to talk to you”, we should take it quite literally.
Vote for somebody else. Not Joe Biden.

O.K., now they’re just making shit up. They can’t fight Bernie on the environment, because he’s right and everybody with a bit of scientific knowledge can verify this quite quickly. They can’t fight him on gay rights, because he was advocating for gay rights since before Barney Frank was out of the closet. They can’t fight him on Medicare 4 All, because all of the arguments – humanitarian, economic, ideological – are all on his side. They can’t fight him on economics, no matter how loudly they scream “Socialist!” because most people are totally cool with rich people and corporations being forced to pay some taxes. They can’t fight him on electability because he’s obviously the most electable.
They can’t fight him on anything that’s real, because he always wins. So, they’re wandering into the realm of fantasy, and fighting with him there. Chris Matthews, a ‘pundit’ for MSNBC, said (I’m paraphrasing) “if Bernie Sanders saw you injured and bleeding by the side of the road, he’d just walk on by.” That’s not based on any actual incident. It’s not even based on a reasonable assessment of Bernie’s character. It is totally made up and doesn’t even ring true. Chris Matthews is an idiot for even saying such a thing. But, he said it, and he has an audience of millions.
Then, Ben Shapiro, well known right wing nutcase, said “if Bernie had been alive at the time, he would have sided with the Russians in WWII, like back before the Russians were on our side” which is an important distinction to make, of course, because Bernie was born in September of ’41, and the Russians were fighting against the Germans by that time.
It’s a bizarre thing to say, since the entire paternal line of Bernie’s family died in the concentration camps. His dad was the only one who made it out alive.
So, Shapiro’s comment is not only wrong, and a really long way around to say “You know he’s a socialist, right?”, but pretty darned offensive as well.
If they’re going this far, what’s next? “If Bernie was at Hogwarts, he’d be fighting for Voldemort?” “If Bernie was in Star Trek, he’d be trying to negotiate with the Borg?” “If Bernie had been in Shakespeare’s fictionalized version of the Roman Senate, he’d have refused to stab Caesar in the back, and then where would we be?”

Matthews and Shapiro deserve nothing but ridicule for their ridiculous comments, and they should not be taken seriously in the future.

They have no legitimate arguments against Sanders. They say he’ll raise taxes and we point out that that’s mostly on the rich, who are way undertaxed and can afford it anyway. They say his agenda will cost jobs in the health insurance and fracking industries, and we can point to all the jobs that will be created by a Green New Deal. They say he’s a socialist and we say “Democratic Socialist.” It’s a good thing. They say he’s old, we say he’s experienced. Then we show videos of him playing baseball, or shooting baskets. They say he’s too loud, and too angry, we say he’s impassioned. They say “how’s he going to pay for it all?” and we offer a link to http://www.berniesanders.com/issues where he clearly spells out how every single program will be paid for.
So, they say “I just don’t like his supporters.” Well, that hurts a little bit. I’ve never like it when people said to me “I don’t like you.” It’s a rather unpleasant start to the conversation. I want to be liked.
But, to be fair, if you’re going to vote for a candidate based on their supporters, you have to look at the supporters of ALL the candidates. I’m sure some of the people supporting Biden are nice people, but some are also greedy, parasitic billionaires. When you look at his crowds in Iowa, they seem like mostly nice folks. Nice folks who are about a million years old. Nice folks who have no chance at all of changing the world.
I’m sure most of the people supporting Warren are nice people, but most of them are women, and most of them are wealthy, and very few of them are interested in seriously changing the world.
I’m sure most of the people supporting Yang are cool people, and a lot of fun to be with at parties, if these are parties where everybody is earnestly discussing UBI.
Bottom line, some nice, decent people in all of their groups, and probably some assholes, too, because that’s the general breakdown of the human population.

But, I’m really glad to be a Sanders supporter, among other Sanders supporters. We tend to be an idealistic bunch, and a bit better informed than some others on the issues. Many are creative, and humorous. (we have by far the best memes) We come from all age groups, all races, all economic strata, all regions of the country. We’ve become friends, in an on-line sort of way, and some in real life. It’s a fun, interesting group of people. And welcoming. Come, join us.

My first experience with Joe Rogan was a program called Joe Rogan Questions Everything. He’d do shows on comtrail conspiracies and alien abductions and stuff like that. I liked it. He insisted on solid evidence, and explained a bit about logic and scientific method and what constitutes proof, but he wasn’t condescending and everybody got a fair hearing.
I knew nothing of his MMA background, and it doesn’t really bother me.
What, do we have some prejudice against martial arts now? Is that like the new NASCAR, where only conservatives are allowed to be fans?
This is such bullshit. First, somebody can like a sport that rednecks like without themselves being a redneck. Somebody can like country music without being conservative. Somebody can go to church without being a nutcase who’s praying for Armageddon and the end of times.
Besides, Jesse Ventura came out of wrestling, and I like Jesse Ventura. I think a Sanders/Ventura ticket could be kind of awesome.
Also, there is no indication I’ve ever seen that Joe Rogan is a conservative. He has interviewed Alex Jones, sure. He has also interviewed Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders. And people who have been abducted by aliens. He’s a damned good interviewer. If you’ve never checked him out, you should.
Third, even if a conservative person, a genuine redneck, were to endorse Bernie, we should probably accept the endorsement. I mean, not if they were like KKK, or something criminal, then no, but the average Maga Mike who’s had a change of heart, sure.
Fourth, it’s an endorsement. He’s saying he thinks Bernie’s great. That doesn’t mean that Bernie endorses everything Joe Rogan may have said or done, and it really doesn’t even give the press a good reason to speculate on that.
Fifth, all he said, the thing that’s got the trans community up in arms, was that trans women should not be eligible for women’s sports, because they’ve still got male size, and male strength.
I’m actually with him on that. If men are allowed to compete in women’s sports after a sports change, it’s only a matter of time until some do it for specifically that purpose.
I can picture the interview now: “Well, it’s not like I really wanted to be a woman, but my country wanted that gold medal real bad. Winning is everything.”

I’ve been looking for a new binge series for a while, on Netflix. I’ve been through all of the Star Treks except Discovery, which I’ve watched about 8 or 9 episodes of. Honestly, I’ve tried to like it. But, every franchise descends into boredom sooner or later.
I’ve caught a few episodes of The Witcher. It’s not bad, it’s watchable, but it’s not gripping me.
There are a couple I’ve watched in the last days I’m not sure about yet. A Brazilian thing called Nobody’s Looking, about angels on Earth, but one of them discovers that there is no God and the instructions are being pumped out regularly and so he can break the angel rules (appearing to humans, helping people who aren’t assigned to you, stuff like that) It’s got some funny moments, but it’s like supposed to be a comedy, or not, but it doesn’t have either the deep philosophy or the big laughs of The Good Place, so I might give it a couple more episodes, but maybe not.
Then there’s a Turkish thing called The Gift, which I watched like two or three episodes because I like the idea of people suddenly discovering they have powers, or seeing visions, but it’s basically a Turkish soap opera, where everybody’s rich and glamorous. So, that’s probably a miss.
Then there’s one I just watched the first episode of a few minutes ago, called October Faction. Average couple, except he’s white and she’s black, and his parents are like insanely rich and probably evil, and the couple work as super globe-trotting secret demon killers and like to smoke pot when their kids aren’t around, so there are long scenes of family introspection interspersed with almost comic book sensationalized violence.
I’m definitely going to watch some more of that.