Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

27,000 in Portland, 20,000 in L.A., damned near everybody on my facebook page but, obviously, there’s a bit of sampling bias there.  Nonetheless, it’s clear Sanders has momentum and the Black Lives Matter disruption hasn’t hurt him a bit.

Donald Trump says incredibly disgusting and racist things and he’s still the Republican front runner.

It’s always a bit of a mystery how some candidates can get hit with everything and still remain popular, and others get destroyed over the slightest things.

Whatever.  It is time for American journalists to start considering the possibility that this may be a Trump-Sanders race.  It will be interesting, and all the people who’ve been saying “Can’t we do any better than a Clinton-Bush rematch?” will have to stop whining and make a real choice.  All the people who say “There’s no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats” will be left sounding silly, because the choice between Sanders and Trump couldn’t be clearer.  It will mean the election will not be won by a Koch backed candidate, because the Kochs hate both these guys.

The choice between Trump and Sanders is more than just a choice between conservative and liberal, although it is at least that.  It is also a choice between a clearly intelligent man and one who is kind of a moron.  It is a choice between somebody who’s get coherent, well thought out positions on all of America’s problems, and somebody who likes to talk a lot about how wonderful he is.  It’s a choice between two guys with crazy hair, but Bernie’s at an age where he’s lucky to have any hair at all, so crazy hair is O.K.  It’s a choice between somebody who’s been a successful mayor and has many years of experience as a congressman and Senator, and a guy who’s declared bankruptcy 4 times, and been married 3.

I don’t know who will be the next president.  But I think it’s between Sanders and Trump.

The first post debate polls are  in and it’s official.  Trump is still on top.   This is even after he said “Megyn  Kelly had blood coming out of her eyes, she had blood coming out of her…wherever.”

That is stunning.  First of all, as Carly Fiorina pointed out, everybody knows what he meant.  He did not mean  she had a nosebleed.  First of all, he could see she  did not have a nosebleed, and a nosebleed is not a metaphor for rage and  hysteria.  He very clearly was making a crazy woman at that time of the month joke.

And, apparently, a very large percentage of Republicans are totally O.K. with that.  They don’t mind that he says all Mexicans are rapists.  They don’t mind that he’s a sexist pig.  They don’t mind that he’s never held a political office.  They don’t mind that he has no real policy.  LIke Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and too many other to name, he expresses hate and people love him for it.

Also, unlike the other Republican candidates (with the possible exception of Fiorina), he is not worried about backing from the Koch Brothers or other very wealthy donors.  That’s why the Republican establishment is in a panic.

It’s not that he is ‘making them look bad.’  They already looked bad.  It’s that they don’t control him.  At this point, I don’t see who’s going to stop him from getting the nomination.  But, it’s early days yet.  We will see.

Black Lives Matter have been sending people to mess up Bernie Sanders’ rallies.  They’ve disrupted two of them so far, as opposed to none of Clinton’s, Webb’s, O’Malley’s or Chafee’s.  Not to mention the Republicans.  Somehow, they’ve zeroed in on Sanders, the guy who got his political start marching for desegregation back in the 60s.  The guy who’s got a perfect rating from the  NAACP.  The guy they should, logically, be supporting.

People Came to Hear Bernie Speak, but This is What They Got

I’m going to take the protesters at their word, that they just want to see their issue addressed.  It is an important  issue.  That is, I’m not going to believe the conspiracy theory, that the Clinton campaign put them up to it.  It wouldn’t surprise me too much, but there’s no evidence of it, and it would be a hell of a risk to take this early on.

So, what can Sanders do about it?  His response so far, while it hasn’t been disastrous, is unsatisfactory.  He’s just said ‘Well, sorry, if I can’t speak, we’ll just have to cancel the rally.’

It’s better than pulling a Michael Richards, and shouting insults at the hecklers.  It is better than having people physically thrown out.  And it is a rare politician who has Obama’s skill at engaging with hecklers and turning the interruption into an element of his performance.  Very few comedians are even as good as Obama.

I suppose he could improve security in front of the stage so they can’t actually get up there, and that would be a good start.  But hecklers can still disrupt a speech from the audience.

What I think he needs to do is line up some big name black support – either civil rights leaders or entertainment people – and have them by his side.  Also, I suppose he needs to engage the issue, but so does every other candidate.

It is still  insanely hot in Prague, but I’m not complaining.  Summer is short and when it is gone it is gone until the next summer, so it would be silly to bitch about it while it’s here, just because it’s a little bit more than we bargained for.  I  can take two showers a day, stand in front of a fan, eat more ice cream.  I’ts O.K.  Glad I’m not in Iran, though.  Hottest temperatures on Earth, withing historical memory, is just way too danged hot.

At work today, my nice easy job of being the House Tarot Reader at an art gallery, business was slow, possibly because it was so hot.  The problem was the fan kept blowing the cards off the table.  So, I had to stop the  rotation whenever there was a customer.  Awkward.

I’ve started reading the first Game of Thrones book, on the theory that since  everybody’s talking about it, it must  be great.  I’m only up to 6% (Kindle, they don’t use page numbers), i.e. the first meeting of young Jon Snow with the dwarf, Tyrian Lannister.  It’s interesting.  I’m sure I’ll finish it.  But it’s no Harry Potter.  It’s no Lord of the Rings.

Unless it gets better.  Which it might.

r.e. Donald Trump’s “she had blood coming out of her whatever” comment.  Some people are thinking Trump went too far, that this will destroy him, even with Republicans.  That was my initial reaction, too.  But, I thought Trump was surely finished after his “Mexican Rapists” comment, and he wasn’t.  Some Republicans might think the comment was O.K.  After all, it was not politically correct.

Think about it.  If you are opposed to political correctness, that means you are actually in favor of rude and abusive language.  But, for a group of people who are pro-war and anti-environment, that might not be such a stretch.

I am waiting to see the next set of polls.

Didn’t watch the ‘debates’, of course, had no intention of staying up till 5 in the morning to do so, so I’m just trying to figure it out from various news articles and comments on my facebook page, where I have, apparently, a few right wingers.

Republican Female Carly Fiorina

That is partially a function of my “Poems About Paintings” page.  If I use somebody’s artwork, I add them as a friend, and there is no direct connection I between artistic talent and political inclination.

In a way, it’s a good thing.  If I had only people who agreed with me on the page, then it would be too easy to forget about the huge number of people who actually think Trump is a stand-up guy, and I would be blindsided more often when stupid people get elected.

The big winners, looking at it through the narrow lens of who was actually there, were Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina.  Megyn Kelly’s question about Trump’s rude comments about women was hailed by liberals (conveniently forgetting who Megyn Kelly works for), but Trump hit it out of the park, making it a joke about Rosie O’Donnell and a slam on political correctness.  Political correctness is the Nickelback of political terms.  People like to hate it, without even really knowing what it is.

Carly Fiorina (the Demon Sheep lady) apparently owned the lower tier, by hating on Hillary Clinton the most.  She probably also benefited by being the only woman in the whole bunch.  If she gains enough in the polls to reach the top ten, who will go out.  Carson? Kasich?

Looked at through the broader lens, the winner of last night’s debate was the Democratic party.  Republicans are quite clear that they don’t want anybody with political experience, a coherent program, or a clue what’s going on.  And that’s what they will get.