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I didn’t go to a big party around a campfire or attend  a major demonstration, although there was probably such going on.  In fact, I almost forgot to celebrate.

First off, woke  up to the horrible  news that the  forces of total corporate  control had stolen the New  York primary just like they did in Arizona.  It appears as though Bernie will  continue to slug it out,state by state, delegate by delegate, remaining focused on the issues, which scares me because I think that’s a losing strategy.  We need to start  taking this shit to court.

Argued with  some Hillary people, and answered one of these, ‘you must vote for her, you must vote for her’ posts with something along  the lines of ‘fuck off, no I don’t’ and got  defriended, with extreme prejudice.  Felt  good, and my page is a bit cleaner.

Went to the Post Office, that went quickly, and  so  had lots of  time to get to the lessons at the German pre-school.  Time enough to sit in  the  park and read for  awhile.  It  was a lovely Spring Day, even if the world is doomed to corporatist hell for thousands of years.  Well, the director is on vacation, that was one lesson down, unfortunately the one  I get paid cash for, but they said  I could have the lesson with the kids early, which was nice, but that  meant I was way early to pick up Isabel.

So, went to McDonald’s, had a cheeseburger and coffee and continued to read, a schlock science fiction  thing, very light on  the real science and heavy  on the warp travel and laser blasters  and  shit but with a couple of interesting characters, the  mad scientist who owns a planet and is totally abusive to everybody, including his android.

Went to pick up Isabel, waited there about 45 minutes before somebody told me she’d  gone home on her own so I was a little bit ticked off.

Got home and, despite the  fact that I’ve more or less limited my smoking to weekends for the last 6 months or so, figured I could  use one today.  So I smoked one and then, later on in the evening, the date came up for  some reason  and I  realized it actually is 420 today, so it would have been  wrong not to smoke.

Feels good.

It’s 11:30 p.m. and just got home  from Gone in 60 Seconds, an  evening of  open mike comedy at A Maze in Tchaiovna, near Hradčanská.  It was a pretty good  show.  There was a good crowd, big enough that there were plenty of people willing to take the stage. I only got up once which was just  as well, I had nothing prepared.   There was some comedy, some songs, some comic songs, a poem about cannibalism, a kid with  a funny rhyme, and apparently I missed quite a bit  by coming late.

But, I  want to say a few words about the New York primary.  I hope I wake up tomorrow to the news of a Bernie win, and I am certain if the election were being conducted fairly, I would.  But, it’s not.  There are apparently more than 100,000 voters in Brooklyn alone who’ve been dropped from the voter rolls.  They showed up to vote, as they’ve always done, and “Oopsie, we lost your name.”  There are reports of polling places opening late and voting machines changing Sanders votes to Hillary votes.  That last one is very disconcerting.  I’m sure that’s what happened in Ohio in  2004, which cost Kerry the election.  They even worked it into the plot of ‘Scandal.’  I always suspected that show was based on real life.  There were also the confusing ballots.

It’s a variety of things, like in Arizona.  Hillary will have some kind of plausible deniability for each one, but it looks bad.  It looks real bad.

Now, I admit that this graph is from The Federalist (.com), and they are a right wing site, but it is not attacking Hillary over Ben Ghazi, or her e-mails, or Vince Foster, or Travelgate, or any other of the classic right wing wehateHillary memes, which are largely without substance.  But, even though I am a left winger, I happen to agree that the Clinton foundation deserves a bit of scrutiny.

Also, The Federalist (.com) claims they got the info from the Clinton Foundation’s own tax documents.  So, there’s that.

3rd, and final disclaimer.  It’s from 2013.  That’s O.K.  I doubt things have changed much.  Here it is:

 

As worrying as the 33% for employees salaries and benefits is, I find the 34% for ‘other expenses’ more worrying.  Cocaine for the volunteers?  Weekend junkets to Vegas? Bribes?  I’m joking there except for the 3rd one.  Basically, since ‘other expenses’ says nothing at all, it’s a giant red flag.  What it’s saying  is that ‘we can’t actually say what this is for or we might go to jail.

Another option is just that it went for big employee bonuses.  So, maybe another way of reading that chart is ‘salaries, benefits and other expenses, 67%.’  Either way, not good.

I don’t think the Clinton’s are alone in this scam.  I’ve heard plenty about how the Salvation Army, Goodwill, even the Red  Cross are tainted organizations.  It’s a shame.

Charity should not be necessary.  There is enough wealth in the world that everybody could be living a pretty good life if we had more intelligent and  fairer distribution of wealth, and land, and water.  Still, we have a long way to go before governments care enough about their people to implement such a utopia.

In the short term, this chart proves one thing: that Hillary Clinton is a sleazy  weasel and should never be President of the United States.

A fairly normal  day, arguing with  trolls,  Helena and  Isabel went to Mlada Boleslav for the day, for a circus, and Sam had a football game in the afternoon.

I’ve left writing the blog until late, and exhausted all my coherent thoughts in writing  zingers in the comments, which always fall flat because the people they are directed at just don’t feel zinged, I am reminded of playing Cowboys and Indians as a kid and the growing realization that people, or at least all of my  friends, just cheated like crazy all the time.  “Bang!  You’re dead.”  “No, I’m not, you missed.”
What social media needs is a referee.

Anyway, enough of all that.  Here’s a little  poem I wrote this morning, and I’m pretty  happy with it:

It’s a time of confusion

and verbal profusion

of words of tremendous disparity

How they are used

leaves us all quite confused

and we long for a bit of sweet clarity

We all want to know

what’s the right way to go,

so, we’re wondering what is the deal;

What is this yearning?

what is this Bern

that everyone thinks we should feel?

The Bern’s a sensation,

that’s sweeping the nation,

the world, with its rising hum

a sort of elation
a mass celebration

a feeling whose time has come

the people are coming

to dance to the drumming

the beat of the Bernie drum

the voice of the crowd

speaking clearly and loud

of the way that the world ought to be

with the grass growing green

on a world bright and clean

with shared prosperity

with justice for all

the great and the small

and education, too

When we stand united

a flame is ignited

there’s nothing that we cannot do

We can live ever more

in a world without war

a world where we’re sisters and brothers

Things will be great

in a world without hate

where people all love one another

It’s the hammer of justice

the bell of freedom

the song of love so grand

That’s in the air

and everywhere

you go throughout the land

it’s on everyone’s lips

and fingertips

everywhere you turn

Things will start

when you open your heart

You, too, will Feel the Bern!

One of the bullshit arguments Hillary supporters make is that Hillary Clinton is so amazingly experienced that she’ll know what to do on  day one, so amazingly competent that she knows how to get things done. although they have a bit harder time pointing to any cases where she actually got things done.

Bernie Sanders, on the other hand,  is getting things done just by  being in the race.  Take the  $15 minimum wage, for  instance.  When he first started talking  about  that, I thought, uh-oh, bad politics, but it makes sense, it is a very popular point, and Hillary rushed to take credit for it when it was voted in in New York (although with a clause that it’s going to be implemented slowly)

My point, however, is that it was voted in, in New York, California, and a couple of municipalities, notably Seattle.  And it happened because of Bernie Sanders.  Nobody was talking about it, he started talking about it, it happened.  As if by magic.

Then there’s the trip to the Vatican.  Of course, speaking to a conference on poverty is not ending poverty.  But, in addition  to a brief meeting with the pope, he also met with Bolivian President Evo Morales.  So, this meeting classifies as his first presidential diplomatic mission and there’s no region on Earth the U.S. needs to mend fences with, it’s South America.  Or maybe Central Asia.  Or Southeast Asia.  Or the Middle East.

But, in any event, Bernie is hitting the ground running.

Bernie talks a lot about rich people hiding their money in other countries and abracadabra and alakazaam, the Panama Papers appear.  I’m not saying Bernie actually had anything to do with it, could be just another coincidence.  But it had a powerful effect.  The leader of Iceland resigned.  David Cameron  of the U.K. is under pressure to resign.  And Putin is under suspicion.  Who knew that Putin had more than a billion dollars socked away for his retirement?  I hadn’t.

So, the next time some Clinton apologist says Bernie won’t be able to get anything done, tell them he’s already getting stuff done now, just by the sheer strength of his character and the very thought of him becoming president.  Imagine what might happen if he wins.

We may be living in a world of permanent peace and prosperity within a couple of years.  Of course, probably not, because he will be facing obstructionism, but he’ll get some of  it done.  And that’s a lot.