Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

There are now 22 Democratic candidates for governor.  This is generally viewed, in Bernie circles, as a strategy on the part of the DNC to make sure Bernie does not get 51% of the delegates on the first ballot, which will mean that the superdelegates kick in and the DNC can then nominate any piece of shit corporate tool they want, probably Biden or Harris.  Maybe Warren.
I suspect that’s at least partly true.  Also, though, each of these 22 candidates has their own agenda and even the most pragmatic among may secretly harbor a fantasy that they’re actually going to be the next president of the United States.  Even Marianne Williamson.  It’s possible that, with no pre-ordained candidate like Hillary Clinton, everybody is rushing in, like planets being sucked into a black hole.
But, for the purpose of tonight’s blog, I’m going with theory #1.  They’re trying to keep Bernie below 51%  I don’t think it will work.  First, there will be the debates.  Sure, 22 candidates will mean each one gets less time to speak, but Bernie’s message is already out there.  Then, there are the questions.  Whether they ask about an increase in the minimum wage, or the Green New Deal, or free college, or ending private prisons, or taxing the rich, or legalizing marijuana, every candidate is going to be evaluated on how close they are to Bernie’s positions, and if they’re not close enough, they’re going to lose votes.  So, the debates are going to be an endorsement of Bernie.  The policies he’s been talking about forever are now what America is talking about.
I’m just guessing, but my prediction is that after the debates, the number of candidates will be significantly fewer.  If candidate like Steve Bullock, John Delaney and Julian Castro haven’t gained any traction by that point, they’re probably going to drop out.
Unfortunately, much as I love her, I imagine Tulsi Gabbard will be out by that time, too.  She is essentially a younger version of Sanders, with an even more progressive foreign policy platform, but her campaign has been drowned by the Sanders wave.
I imagine there will still be about a dozen by the time of the Iowa precinct caucuses.  That’s a crucial test, and anybody who comes out of Iowa with only 1 or 2 per cent of the delegates is likely to drop out.  So, we’ll be down to 5 or 6 and the race will be on.
I do think Sanders will go into the convention with over 51% of the delegates.  That’s my prediction.

This is my latest binge program on Netflix, and I kind of hate myself for it because it’s such propaganda, but it’s exciting, fast paced, well written and well acted.  So, a couple of comments.
The setup is that a terrorist attack destroys the Capitol building during the State of the Union address, killing the president and almost all of congress and the cabinet.  So, Kiefer Sutherland, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who had been named the ‘Designated Survivor’ and was holed up in a hotel room, suddenly becomes the president.
The thing about all movies with American presidents, they are all totally dedicated people who try to do the right thing.  It’s Mr. Smith goes to Washington, every damn one.  What strikes with this program is that the idea of an honest person becoming president has become so unrealistic, so unbelievable, that it’s only by a magical hypothetical that it could happen.  That’s a bit sad, but not entirely untrue.
On the casting.  Kal Penn as Press Secretary is kind of brilliant, because he did work in the Obama White House, so it lends a bit of authority to the whole production.  I always wondered why he got sacked, though (because who would leave a gig like that voluntarily) and also why they wrote him out of House so thoroughly and vindictively.  Seriously, that was a low point for House.  House never did get to the bottom of it.  Totally out of character.
One that really surprised me was Rob Morrow turning up as an old, alcoholic journalist.  The thing is, after a brilliant run as Fleischer in Northern Exposure, I lost track of him for a while and then he was working on that totally pukeworthy series Numb3rs, where he was a hot shot detective whose brother was a math genius and they solved lots of crimes using statistical analysis and various other math tricks.  Hated that show, and pretty much everybody in it, Morrow especially.  Just sort of an arrogant vibe.
So, seeing him a few years older, with a bit of extra weight, and playing somebody a bit more rumpled and a bit more ethically compromised, is interesting.
I give it 3 and a half stars, 4 if you like that kind of thing.

I don’t write about stories like this too often, because they are so frequent now that we are almost numb to them.  Police murder black people routinely, and don’t face any consequences.  People are beaten up for protesting, or for no reason at all.  Armed soldiers kill children, and doctors, and reporters, and get away with it pretty much every time.
It happened the other day at Memphis airport.  A 19 year old girl, deaf and partially blind due to a brain tumor, was viciously beaten by the TSA people.  You know, the guys who make you take all the change out of your pockets, take off your belt, make you stand with your hands in the air while they run that little light saber toy with the annoying sound around your body.  The guys whose customer service skills couldn’t get them a job at KFC.  Those guys.
What do we do  about those guys.  Once upon a time, the logic was “Put them in the police force.  We need authoritarian types in the police force.  Or in the military.”  And, of course, our police and our military are filled with them.  The problem is, there are just way too many of this kind of people in our society.
People who think it’s all right for somebody with authority to beat somebody, to impose their authority.  Many of them are fathers.  Bad fathers, I’ve no doubt, as their fathers were bad fathers and their fathers were bad fathers, in a line that goes unbroken back to the dawn of mankind.
I don’t really have an answer, but society as a whole needs to change.  More peace and love and helping other people, fewer goons in uniforms intruding into every aspect of our lives.

Basically, Robert Fulghum was right, although not everybody learned that lesson in kindergarten.  Nobody should be hitting anybody.

Went to a poetry reading last night and it went on for an insane amount of time, and certainly much marijuana was smoked, so I’m writing this this morning.
It was about a quarter to 5 when the sky opened up and a deluge of rain started pouring down.  I was a bit late, but that was O.K., because these things absolutely never start on time, and, as it turns out, I’d sort of misunderstood the nature of the event.  There was a poetry reading, to be sure, but first there was yoga.
I am not really a yoga person but, as Vonnegut said, “Strange travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God” or something like that, so even though I don’t believe in God and these weren’t, literally, travel instructions, I sort of take the phrase to mean go with the flow, do whatever is suggested in the moment, and it was a relaxing and informative way to begin the evening and, as one girl pointed out to me after (lots and lots of seriously cute young women there) it was a way of getting everybody on the same page, a mingling technique, and as such it worked admirably.
The first part of the reading consisted of everybody reading their own poems from a literary magazine which had just been issued.  I didn’t have anything in it so I was called on to read someone else’s poem, which was exactly the opposite of the kind of thing I write.  Didn’t rhyme.  Didn’t follow a strict meter.  Was absolutely filled with gross, negative imagery – dead newt splattered on the sidewalk, someone run over by an ambulance, drowning in a puddle, yadda, yadda, yadda.  But, it got more applause than my own work, which didn’t get read until very late and there were probably only about 20 people left in the room.
Oh, yeah, the refreshments were great, got a full meal out of the deal.  The ginger tea  had way, way too much ginger in it, but there was good bread, good hummus, camembert and very thin salami, and nuts, including pecans and cashews.

I am very pleased that Chelsea Manning is free for now, although we can’t credit the great public outcry, which basically didn’t happen, and we can’t give any credit to the authorities, who kept her imprisoned as long as they could.  Apparently, there’s a time limit on these grand jury things, and she just waited them out.
So, all credit for Chelsea Manning’s release goes to … Chelsea Manning.
It is, of course, a victory for truth over secrecy, even if it’s only a temporary one.  If they manage to extradite Assange, they might attempt again to force Manning to testify, which she has said she will never do, so they may throw her in jail again.
This is kind of ridiculous, and should be thought of as double jeopardy, but the U.S. doesn’t operate according to the rules any more, so I’m not making any predictions.

Truth vs. Secrecy, that is the issue.  Some say that secrecy is necessary, a matter of national security.  I call bullshit.  The only reason a government can possibly have for secrecy is if they are doing something they don’t want people to know about, and if they don’t want people to know about it, it is certain that it is something they should not be doing.
Let all the truth, about everything, come out, and let the chips fall where they may.