Dustin Moskovitz, Compelled to Support Hillary Clinton, Makes Huge Donations

Bravo to Dustin Moskovitz, one of the co-founders of Facebook, for sticking his head above the parapet, donating $35 million to help Democrats in the 2016 general election, and showing the way for others in Silicon Valley. Those who follow his lead will prove how much they really care about American democracy. Moskovitz published Compelled To Act, on Medium, explaining his reasons. 

I understand why he had to think twice before doing this. Organizations like the NRA and people like the Koch brothers have used and still do use their power and wealth to lobby for the creation and cementing of policies that benefit the donor and hurt everybody else by keeping the inequality status quo in place and also damaging the environment. The Republican Party has enabled them. The result is that the core of the GOP has eroded away over time, leaving an empty space where true conviction once lay.

Inexorably that has left an environment where somebody like Donald Trump can flourish. So it's easy to say that money in politics is evil.  

But it's a false equivalence. The money isn't the problem; what people do with it, is. And not everybody who donates does so out of self-interest. And in any case, that's only half of the equation. The other half is what's done with the money.

Not every politician who accepts donations feels themselves obliged to accept a chain around their neck that can be yanked by the donor. The accusations that have been thrown at Hillary Clinton for belonging to Wall Street, primarily because she accepted sums of money she deserved for her bank speeches, are utterly unsubstantiated. Notably absent have been specific examples of how she has done their bidding—talking dates, people, policies. The same goes for the accusations against the Clinton Foundation for accepting money from regimes that are sustained on inequality and citizen abuse. Again, money is not the problem.

Republican donors' motives for plowing money into the political system have been about self interest and the corresponding behavior of GOP politicians has been to let themselves be yanked on a chain.

But there is a world of difference between that and Moskovitz's donation—and what will be done with the money. It will be used to further equality and protect the environment. 

And nobody can rationally accuse Moskovitz of self interest, because he is assisting, amongst others, the presidential candidate who wants to raise taxes for the wealthy. 

In his article, Moskovitz's assessment of Donald Trump as a con artist whose only interest in the presidency is to promote his brand is correct. Trump has always been a con-artist above all else, and that brand of humanity is very good at what they do. He's a self-congratulatory, over-enabled, out-of-control, narcissistic ego/megalo-maniac. The comparisons between him and Hitler aren't shallow. The consequences of him winning the election won't be either, not just for America but for the whole world. I think that in this time, sitting on the fence is an abdication of social responsibility. Not getting involved is a definitive choice tantamount to supporting Donald Trump.

Moskovitz has refused to give press interviews to date or reveal his future plans, but he's committed to Hillary Clinton winning. Have a look at his Twitter page.  

Connect with Hillary Clinton on Twitter @HillaryClinton  

Connect with me on Twitter @JenniferJS_

Bring It On! 3rd Debate and Already #SheWon

With the last 2016 presidential debate happening tonight, a recap on how the 2nd one went might give a clue to how this one is going to pan out.

First of all, Muslims took to Twitter in droves to mock the GOP Candidate's request in response to a question about how he'd address Islamophobia in the US. He said "We have to be sure that Muslims come in and report when they see something going on. When they see hatred going on, they have to report it." So they did.

Amen to that. Then there was the outrage against the GOP candidate's gloating over his sexual abuse and denying it in ways that only confirmed it. Robert de Niro blasted him.

Ismat Sarah Mangla led me to a friend of hers with this tweet:  

Below is an extract from Derek Steele's Facebook post: 

"Men at times talk like that." - Rudy Giuliani
Caleb and Ethan:

…Men do not, at times, talk like that. Sure some individuals with an X and Y chromosome like you may say something like that, but we do not call them Men. We call them perverts, abusers, or rapists - not Men. Real Men don't do that and wouldn't even think to say that.

You will hear a lot of people tell you what Men do or what it takes to 'be a Man'. The vast majority of it will be total garbage. If you want to be a Man, forget about machoism or sexual conquest. Being a Man is not about that. It's about protecting those around you who are weak or innocent - maybe a child being bullied or your own children. It's being awake at all hours of the night to warm a bottle, change a diaper, change the sheets on a wet bed or even worse. Men get puked on, pooped on, bled on and cried on. It's about being open with someone, vulnerable and accountable. It's admitting your mistakes and failures - in all its ugliness - and seeking forgiveness, over and over and over again. Real Men cry, even weep, when the situation calls for it. They respect, honor and cherish women…

It's tough being a Man. Hardest work you'll ever do. So when someone tries to justify abhorrent words and behavior by sullying your good reputation as a Man - be angry and speak up. Don't let them define you down by their conduct. In short - be a Man.
Sincerely,
Your Dad"

The outrage against Trump was embodied in First Lady Michelle Obama's horrified, impassioned condemnation at a rally for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.

"... I have to tell you that I listen to all of this and I feel it so personally, and I’m sure that many of you do too, particularly the women. The shameful comments about our bodies. The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect. The belief that you can do anything you want to a woman. It is cruel. It’s frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts... "

Women who were abused by Trump long ago started speaking out and evidence against him piled up, reported throughout the US and internationally. From there the already out of control fire in the Trump campaign turned into a humungous conflagration around sexual abuse of women that neither his campaign, his mouthpieces, nor the conflicted, ravaged GOP can control. Politicians scrabbling about frantically to save Congress—forget about the presidency—caught inexorably between a rock and a hard place all of their own making. Now they pull away from the monster that arose out of the environment they nurtured so recklessly? Because they care about women?

I'm with Barack Obama when he called them on the bullshit, speaking at Columbus, Ohio, also for the Hillary Clinton campaign. GOP politicians didn't care about Trump's racism or sexism until enough women rose up en masse, provoked beyond endurance. Women count for a lot of votes. Click here for an edited version (courtesy Egberto Willies).

 

“You claim the mantle of the party of family values, and this is the guy you nominate?” Mr. Obama asked. “And stand by and endorse and campaign with? Until finally at the 11th hour, you withdraw your nomination? You don’t get credit for that.”

The bigot, who could kind of, sort of, be controlled—and it's hard not believe that amphetamines or downers or cocaine or all three played a significant role—became the Unshackled. The truth is that once the pus starts oozing, you can't stop it. He's gone berserk with dark conspiracy theories, turning on the GOP, ranting about rigged elections, a corrupt media, corrupt everybody except himself. Appealing to his base, who don't care that he lies, cons, abuses, who have no mental capacity for discernment and no inner desire to seek it. It's all very satisfying to the candidate, but repulsive to undecided voters, so he's eliminated any possibility of ever winning the election. The more this disgusting creature indulges himself, the greater the possibility, not just of a loss, but of a landslide and Congress actually changing hands.

As Fareed Zakaria said, on GPS, "This week we watched the beginning of the end of one of America's great, illustrious parties. The Republican Party as we know it is dying. Last Sunday's debate may have been the watershed moment."  

So bring on the 3rd debate. Things can only get better for Hillary Clinton and Democrats. I look forward to the day that bigoted GOP politicians spouting trickledown economics to protect vested interests have been relegated to dusty rooms and Evangelicals and bigots in power have faded into obscurity, having gotten drunk on their power and lust to persecute and oppress; overstepped and provoked the majority of women, all the decent men, the LGBT community, minorities and even the international community beyond endurance.

That's where it's going. Slowly, torturously, sure. But inexorably. When Barack Obama was elected, I wrote that it was the start of the Second American Revolution. I wasn't wrong. Revolutions don't all happen overnight. Obama's presidency exposed the racism. Hillary Clinton's campaign has exposed the sexism.

That worst and darkest element of humanity lies under the surface everywhere, but the US's particular brand of democracy has routed it out and has the infrastructure to defeat it. God Bless America. Seriously.

Hillary Wins New York!

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I'm glad that Hillary Clinton won New York and by such a big margin. And I sure hope that Bernie Sanders throws his weight behind her sometime soon.

Has he done damage to the Democratic Party he has never belonged to and which he used solely to run his campaign? Maybe. But maybe not. Hillary Clinton ran hard against Barack Obama in 2008 right up until the end and his still won. But he hadn't had to deal with an unceasing GOP hate and misinformation campaign. And she hadn't climbed on board that campaign to try and take him down.

Bernie said he didn't want to play dirty but he let his supporters do it. Overtly or covertly he fed the beast of hatred and now many have believed their own misinformation and convinced themselves and others that Clinton is the devil incarnate.

I don't know if Sanders can turn back the clock on that. It’s going to affect the outcome between Clinton and Trump. And it could mean that Congress stays in the hands of the GOP. I think Americans will feel the effects of that for a long, long time. 

If Sanders supporters hadn’t, to all intents and purposes, enlisted in the GOP campaign against Clinton, the GOP candidate and Party would have been thrashed in November. Congress could have changed hands. All the good work done by Barack Obama would have been built on and enabled further. 

Now? It could be another four years of stalemates and obstacles to forward movement. It will be ironically tragic if this is Bernie Sanders' biggest contribution to the 2016 Presidential election.

The Republican Party Presidential Candidate Circus

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It's been interesting (kind of) to watch popularity polls for the Republican Presidential candidates. First Donald Trump the rude, crude, unavowed materialist rose into the limelight. He lied about his wealth. Then he took a bit of a dive as Ben Carson the spiritual guy rose up into the light. He lied about his story. He's fallen away now. Or fallen asleep. Who knows.

Then Marco Rubio had a few minutes in the spotlight. He doesn’t know how to manage his personal finances. He’s not so high on the charts any more. DT started climbing again.

Now Ted Cruz is rising in popularity. One story that he tells is how he proposed to his loving wife Heidi that they liquidate everything to fund his Senate campaign. He says she said yes in 60 seconds [because she believed in him so much—how romantic]. She says she said let’s be sensible about this [perhaps she didn’t believe in him quite so much]. The picture he paints of her as the adoring, totally supportive wife who will risk everything for him is a little off. Her suggestion won the day. 

And he who says he’ll rid America of the scourge of big banks actually got loans from big banks that allowed him to liquidate without risk. One of the loans—low interest—came from Goldman Sachs who Cruz publicly criticized for getting special treatment from the government. I wonder what Goldman Sachs thinks of all this.

The penury picture Cruz paints is a little off too; the couple had interest-bearing assets worth millions that earned them around $400,000 that year. Ah well, what’s another tall story from another GOP candidate. 

While the spotlight shifts about on the stage, lighting up one after another of these wannabes  the Republican party scrabbles about for a real candidate to support. Because Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio (let’s face it, the others don’t have a shot in hell) aren’t real Presidential material, they’re 3rd rate actors starring in 3rd rate soap opera dramas they’ve written for themselves that they’re all convinced are documentaries. 

The GOP doesn’t want the Trumpeter who is uncontrollable; or Ben Carson who’s in a perpetual fall asleep state and knows nothing about politics and who the hell wants another black guy in the White House; or Ted Cruz who hates government; or Marco Rubio who can’t control his finances. 

What about Jeb! Poor old Jeb! They wanted him. They gave him money. But he just can’t get a foothold anywhere. And he does rather drag around a ball and chain. He should have changed his name. Oh, but then they wouldn’t have given him money.

Humor aside, the chickens have come home to roost for the GOP. When Obama won in 2008 there were a few sane voices in the Party saying that it needed to change because its voter base (very conservative, wealthier older whites) was a dying breed and the Party needed the support of minorities and women, and the middle class in general to survive.

To go more conservative was to go in the same self-destructive direction, right? Wrong. The voice of reason did not have its day then or even in 2012.

Instead the Republican party got the Tea Party crazies with Ted Cruz at the helm. They didn’t muzzle him, they enabled him. Remember John Boehner, the man with the orange face who never went near a tanning studio no? He couldn’t stand up to the crazies. You’d see him on talk shows saying how difficult his job was, and that the House was an unruly bunch. But when they pushed to shut the government down he let them. When Obama drew his line in the sand Boehner said “we fought the good fight”.

Personally I didn’t think he looked particularly proud of himself as he said it. He looked cornered. Blackmailed. Do what we say or we’ll get rid of you. Eventually they broke him anyway. And took the Republican party so far right that it fell off the planet.

In that process though, the voters did something strange. They knew they were dissatisfied with the Republican party. They wanted something new.

They settled for GOP candidates who are so much further to the right that they don’t even seem connected to the old Republican Party. Why have voters who had the good sense to be unhappy with the Republican Party been seduced by blusterers, liars, cheats and egomaniacs? That’s pretty much the definition of snake oil salesmen, not potential Presidents.

Everybody has their theory and this is mine: Snake oil salesmen will always have some kind of audience, not because people are generally stupid but because they’re generally vulnerable and it’s hard to penetrate the con. It’s impossible to do it if you live off misinformation and you’re prey to the kinds of fears that give rise to prejudices that make you inflexible and shut down your capacity to reason—and if your world is in disarray.

The Republican party turned its back on the middle class and left the lives of the majority of Americans in disarray. That created a fertile breeding ground for snake oil salesmen.

It’s an old dynamic. When people are in need, swoop in and give them a message that relieves them of the burden of thinking too much and of taking responsibility in their own lives. And give them a hero to project onto. Christian missionaries use it, fundamentalists use it. The needy are miraculously transformed into inflexible worshippers. It’s a mistake to think that everybody understands the complexities of why our lives end up in discomfort, as individuals, communities and society as a whole. A lot of people just want a quick fix. And they want to be entertained by whoever’s offering it.

In an era where “reality” shows predominate, where special effects that pound the senses are off the charts, where everything is big and distracting, where truth is a small word and barely has a voice, and where people are truly suffering, it’s easy for snake oil salesmen to get an audience.

Now the original Republican Party, which is almost looking sane in comparison to this crop of candidates who are utterly dissociated from reality, is lost. Where can it turn? Who can it support?

We tend to ignore hairline cracks in a wall or small frustrations in a relationship. We very rarely look at them and say “If I don’t fix the crack it will widen, if I don’t address my frustrations they’ll get worse until we fall apart.” Years later our house has fallen down and we’re locked in acrimonious or not but still very painful divorce. And we look back and say “why didn’t I do something when I could?”

World Harmony! Good Triumphs over Evil with the Paris Climate Accord

It's incredible when mainstream news is actually something good. This morning when I read about the Paris Climate Accord something mind-boggling happened to me; I was proud of all the world leaders. Great Gods! I’ve never felt that before. 

I feel positively light headed from it and my world view has brightened up considerably.

I've always admired President Obama but I'm especially proud of him now for pushing so hard against Republicans on this issue and I’m thrilled that his good sense has prevailed. 

He so deserves that experience and the accolades he's getting now. We also deserve the experience of good sense running the show. It's enough now, of bloody-minded, short-sighted, dimwit GOP politicians getting in the way of cleaning up the world and messing things up for all of us. Given how much they affect those of us who aren't American citizens, we should all be able to vote in mid-terms and Presidential elections. 

Republican candidates who vow to roll back everything Obama has achieved regarding clean energy and preserving the planet (even for them, not that they deserve it), they'll now have the whole world condemning them.

I've been surprised to see how many people have griped and groused that it's not enough and not even celebrated what's happened here. It's their loss. 

It's easy to promote gloom and doom and spread negative sentiment around but you can't build anything that has any value on it. You have to take the best available and build on that. Sometimes it takes strength of mind to see the good but in this case it’s not hard. As a race we’ve achieved harmony in something monumentally important for the first time ever. Ever. It’s a kind of World Peace.

I understand that this is just a start and that so much more needs to be done but given how recalcitrant leaders previously were to concede that the earth was in grave danger and that they and their countries had any responsibility in that, to have reached accord with 100% accountability is a phenomenal achievement. 

And there’s momentum here, which is what counts. Dirty energy production is still entrenched, sure, but it will never be able to gain back the ground it’s lost, it will never be able to be king of pile again in the way that it has been for so long.

We’ve been heading in this direction for a while, gaining ground. Remember when solar panels were just something out of science fiction? It still is in a lot of places, I know—there’s a town in theUS that is terrified it will suck up all the sun’s heat—but it and all forms of clean energy are more and more mainstream now.

And now we’re closer than ever to the tipping point where big money invested in that dirty energy will see that there’s more opportunity to make fortunes in clean energy. 

Won’t that be a strange sight, to see big industrialists climbing all over each other to clean up the world?  Those like the Koch brothers who have tentacles of power spread far and wide and have brainwashed so many to believe that dirty energy is good will have the hardest time adapting. I feel for them. Not. In this business of ‘good’ versus ‘evil’ it’s a triumphant moment for good.

In the Battle of Good vs Evil: the Two Faces of America

These days it seems that America is in the grip of a battle between good and evil of mythical proportions. We see more ‘evil’ so it’s easy to believe it outweighs the good, that this is about David and Goliath and Goliath is on a winning streak. Far right conservatives and Christian fundamentalists, the NRA, the military industrial complex have a lot of power and a massive, well-funded, very vocal, very visible right wing media to disseminate the ideas they uphold.

Massacres happen with increasing regularity. Instead of diminishing the power of the far right conservative ideal they feed that angry, fearful, voracious, rapacious beast. When the horrific shooting at Colorado Springs happened, my first thought was, killing three and wounding nine others is justifiable but an abortion isn’t?

Far right conservatives (rightly) condemn jihadists for slaughtering innocent people and have graduated from that to condemning all Muslims and to treating as a hero Republican GOP candidates who manically espouse and promote bigotry of the worse kind to such an extent that people around the entire world are outraged. Yet these same conservatives don’t even ask the religion of American citizens who massacre fellow citizens with assault weapons, let alone call for them to be persecuted and/or thrown out the country.

Christian fundamentalist Kevin Swanson rabidly calls for gays to be executed at a National Religious Liberties Conference which three GOP Presidential candidates—Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal—attend. How is that different to jihadists and their supporters?

Massive CIA, FBI and police resources are sunk into identifying jihadists and I’m very grateful for that. But nothing is done to follow the movements of Americans obsessed with accumulating assault weapons even though they kill far more Americans than jihadists. And fundamentalist Christians such as Swanson and his followers and those three GOP candidates aren’t even brought in for questioning.

Fundamentalist Muslims who call for and/or commit atrocities under the name of Allah are (rightly) recognized for being a scourge on the planet but fundamentalist Christians who call for and/or commit atrocities under the name of Jesus are elevated by many. Some Muslims are fundamentalists therefore all Muslims are condemned as evil. But the same logic doesn’t apply to fundamentalist Christians. Or to American citizens, Catholics, Protestants, Atheists, all of whom have committed terrible crimes. So the real source of the problem isn’t dealt with.

Presidential candidates are worshipped for their maniacal xenophobia in a country that was built by immigrants.

Women have to fight incredibly hard for their rights but conservative women support Presidential candidates and far right politicians who want to keep them down.

People fight for the right to carry and use as many assault weapons as they want and don’t recognize how they’re being manipulated by the military industrial complex, or how that undermines them.

Far right conservatives and Christian fundamentalists foster a culture of hatred, prejudice, entitlement to kill and destruction of human rights. Massacres like that in Colorado Springs are a direct result. Pus oozing from a rotten and festering wound created by an ‘ideal’ that is counter-intuitive to all that is good in humanity, the Bible and true Christianity.

This is a dark, depressing picture. But I still love America and I don’t think of the far right as representing the country in its entirety. Am I clinging to a fantasy? Am I the perfect example of how love is blind?

My first experience of the US was attending a Catholic school in Zimbabwe run by American nuns. Marymount College. Judging by Facebook, a good time was had by most. Not by me, though, which none of the nuns noticed. They registered that I failed and criticized me for being lazy. They didn’t think to look for a deeper reason or see how their judgment traumatized me further. I fell through the cracks and nobody reached out a hand to stop me falling.  

You’d think I’d have developed an antipathy towards Americans. Somehow I didn’t. I guess I separated ‘American’ from individuals’ lack of empathy towards emotionally wounded children namely me. That, and I blamed myself for my unhappiness.  

In my very naive early twenties I flew with my then husband to New York with our bicycles, planning to ride from there to Key West. I’d heard only romantic things about the Big Apple. We landed at Kennedy Airport in the early evening and headed for Manhattan on our bikes but got lost and took an unintentional detour through Harlem where we stopped to buy an ice-cream.

What did I know about Harlem? The guy who sold us the ice-cream said “What are you doing here? You crazy? You fixin’ to die tonight?”

He told us to get out of Harlem and fast. I had no frame of reference with which to believe him. But we took a subway smothered with angry graffiti that made me think maybe he knew what he was talking about. It was terrifying. Then we got thrown off the train. Man. We reached downtown Manhattan at midnight. I was tired and scared out of my wits. A guy approached me and asked me casually if I wanted to buy heroin. I sat on the pavement and burst into tears. I wanna go home.

Again, not a great experience of America. But then another guy noticed my distress and asked me if I was okay. I told him. He was full of concern and said we must stay with him. And I fell in love. Not with him, but with America.

That guy’s generosity is what has life in my heart. When I think about it, it fills me with a feeling of light, of life being generated, of grand possibilities. Of the other stuff—including my childhood experiences of Americans—some created wounds but they’re healing. The rest doesn’t have any power over me. The moral of the story is that one tiny bit of generosity of spirit outweighs a mass of meanness of spirit or absence of consciousness. 

Which is why, to use archaic imagery, good always wins over evil. Sometimes the dark stuff is really in your face. But that’s when it’s hardest and most important to remember the light and believe in it. 

Contemplating that took me to thinking about the Americans I know now, none of whom have a manically far right conservative atom in their body.

All of them are generous spirited. They’re all outraged by crimes against humanity committed in the name of Jesus and/or the GOP and intensely frustrated by the illogic, lack of intellectual independence and integrity of the far right.

That’s a lot of good. It doesn’t make as much noise as ‘evil’ does but it's life promoting and has longevity; not enough yet to prevent the horrible tragedies happening with such horrifying regularity or the suffering they engender. But I believe there’s more good than seems apparent and it is enough to ensure that ‘evil’ won’t ultimately win in America. Good can’t be destroyed. ‘Evil’ can be overcome.

The painting is by Luca Giodano (1634-1705) Massacre of the Children of Niobe 1685

Standing Ovation to Hillary Clinton at Benghazi Hearing Fiasco

So. Hillary Clinton and the interminable investigation into Benghazi. Anybody who could keep their cool through a day of intelligent intense grilling deserves a big round of applause.

This formidable woman did more than that. Hillary Clinton held herself intact in the face of weak-minded, spiteful, silly men and women spewing weak, spiteful vitriol and silly questions of the sewer variety. I think that would be just as provocative as intelligent questions. At least with the latter you can have some kind of intellectually satisfying debate.

I was gobsmacked at the stupidity and mean-spiritedness of what came at Hillary unrelentingly. I don't even want to call her questioners inquisitors; it would imply that they had some degree of power. Not one of them had a smidgeon of it.

They all sulked when they couldn't get her to take their bait or to lie about the truth, or to lose her temper. The childishness was hard to believe. Trey Gowdy was really something, with his oily skin and eyes that were pinpricks of rage. Almost foaming at the mouth. And what a way to honor those who died. Using their death as political currency, lying about the facts. Nauseating. 

I'm in awe of how Hillary kept her cool, her dignity and her presence of mind. She was courageous and smart and knew how to pick her battles. When she did she emerged a clear winner. But she didn't hide what she was going through emotionally and what she went through after the attack. She cut through the crap when said "I have spent many sleepless nights, more than any of you here, I suspect..." There was so much power in that. She put them all to shame.

This is a perfect illustration of ‘Live by the sword, die by the sword’, the sword in this instance being lies and absence of integrity. I shake my head in amazement and distaste—and often horror—at the current GOP. It truly has some of the dumbest and nastiest people in it. 

They’re pathetic strategists, pushing causes they can't win, creating a dust-storm of untruths, spending huge tax-payers’ money in the process.

Promoting an unpopular candidate for President, Govt. shut downs, blackmailing a President over budget, trying to get rid of the ACA, Hillary Clinton—with Bhengazi-gate and email-gate—and Planned Parenthood...

And, the way they do it utterly lacks logic.

1.  Nobody liked Mitt Romney, not even the guys promoting him.

2.  The party that cries ‘government overspending’ shuts down that government, costing the taxpayer millions, making itself unpopular with the people it needs to be able to stay in power—the voters, hallo.

3.  Blackmailing a President who has the power of veto and isn’t afraid to use it. That’s a really dumb one.

4.  Saying the ACA is hugely unpopular when we have this modern miracle process called stats, which prove that it’s popular. And being unable to find one real instance of the damage it causes, so using actors and having them tell lies that are easily provable as such.

5.  Finding no evidence to prove their case for Benghazi-gate or Email-gate and carrying on, then GOP politicians revealing it’s all really about getting rid of HRC. Oops. How's that working for you, guys?

6.  Creating and promoting gruesome Planned Parenthood videos that are easily provable to be 100% fake.

7.   An eleven hour grilling that elicited not one shred of evidence, because there is none, and succeeded only in making the grillers look utterly absurd, having handed their political opponent more popularity at the polls on a silver platter and ending up being the laughing stock of the political world. 

Then there’s how much money all the GOP Presidential candidates are having to raise and spend just to fight each other. Bush has had to fire staff and lower wages already.

Lousy strategists indeed. And the GOP love gambling. Apart from what this neurotic behavior which amounts to an addiction says about them, they’re absolutely useless at it. Usually the amount of damage they do with their own silliness tips the scales from funny to worrying. But the outcome of the Benghazi hearing is just downright hilarious.

If Hillary Clinton hadn't been able to keep her cool, if she wasn't so totally informed about all the intricate details, if she wasn't clear in her own mind about everything regarding the incident, if she wasn't smarter and more honest than all of her questioners put together, if she wasn’t innocent of what she’s being accused of, things would have turned out differently. But she did keep her cool. She did impress everybody who has even a modicum of active brain cells.

And she’s innocent. She has nothing to hide. Standing ovation, Hillary Clinton, standing ovation.

Bernie Sanders, Jon Stewart, Cornel West & Barack Obama

Jon Stewart. Yummy. Incisive intellect, fearlessness and creativity. Humble about himself and physically uninhibited. Fab to look at. And of course he's a liberal. Utterly delicious altogether. Totally irreplaceable. 

I like what he said about Bernie Sanders. “We’ve all become so accustomed to stage-managed, focus-group driven candidates that authenticity comes across as lunacy.” Ain’t that the truth. As always, Stewart illustrated his point beautifully in this clip.

Sanders says all the right things and seems completely uncalculating, but recently I’ve wondered. The jury’s out.

He has an incisive intellect. He’s also courageous, passionate, and is physically uninhibited. Appearances don’t count for him. What’s not to like and admire? 

If I was American he would have had my vote until I saw what he said on MSNBC, that he won’t repeat Obama’s biggest mistake, namely that after his brilliant campaign in 2008 he basically said to the voters ‘thanks for electing me; I’ll take it from here’.

I did a double take on that. Actually, this is [part of] what Obama said in his victory speech in 2008:

“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term… There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem…

This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.  It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice. So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers. In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.”

The ultimate truth-teller. He’s always said he can’t do it alone, that the road to change would be long and difficult but that together ‘we can’. He’s reiterated that message perpetually. It falls on deaf ears a lot of the time. I guess people don’t want to hear it.

Apparently Bernie Sanders doesn’t want to hear it either. He’s promising that when he’s president he’ll work with millions of Americans in a political revolution. He’s not acknowledging that Obama offered the same deal—which the people thought they wanted but actually they didn’t, perhaps because the reality isn’t as much fun as the idea of it.

What Obama inherited, together with a GOP Congress, are the root cause of what’s still wrong with America; it’s got nothing to do with Obama not being willing to work with the electorate. Who expected Obama to do it all in a day and blamed him when he couldn’t, then enabled a GOP Congress in 2012? The voters. Who allowed the country to fall into the hands of big corporates in the first place? Who allowed GW Bush to win? The voters. Nobody's stopping them from waking up except themselves.

A political revolution is about people freeing themselves from leaders who won't allow them their rights. That's very different from people who don’t want the hard work of keeping politicians in line, don't want to be responsible for their own actions, unrealistic expectations, fears and prejudices.

Obama has worked assiduously, with superhuman willingness, integrity, depth of understanding and focus, in the face of ongoing and phenomenal obstacles, to bring America back from the black hole. 

He’s done everything he could to not work alone. 

The country is doing better than any other country in the world affected by the Recession and there is unprecedented social change on pretty much every front—because of his leadership. He doesn't rest on his laurels, though. He continually says “it’s not enough.” 

Why doesn’t every voter acknowledge it and face the truth—that they are responsible for the problems that still exist, not him?

It’s not new that the electorate doesn’t want to take responsibility for maintaining democracy. It’s a human thing. We want our lives to change but we don’t want to face whatever we’re doing that creates that life. Change is hard. Obama acknowledges that.

Sanders doesn’t. He’s telling Americans that together they’ll create a political revolution as if it's the easiest thing in the world and then he slips in “I’ll do what Obama couldn’t, wouldn’t or didn’t.” The unspoken message is “It’s not your fault, it’s his fault.” That’s heady stuff, pretty seductive, but it isn’t truthful. 

More disturbing though is Sanders’ acceptance of Dr. Cornel West’s endorsement. West is a professor at Union West Theological Seminary, well known for his vitriolic diatribes against Obama, who he called the first niggarized President after Obama said this about racism to Marc Maron: 

“The legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow, and that's still part of our DNA... 

Racism, we are not cured of it, clearly. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”

That seems pretty accurate. Not to West though, who has also called Obama ‘counterfeit’ and ‘the black face of the American empire’.  It’s not the truth about Obama; it’s West’s interpretation and he seems to have quite a chip on his shoulder—which is understandable, but dangerous in a leader of any sort.

So why is Sanders aligning himself with him? the obvious answer is that he needs the African American vote. By choosing West he can say he respects and admires Obama, but also garner the votes of people who hate/scapegoat the President. 

Is that deliberate? I don't know. I hope not. But roiling around in my brain are those uncomfortable words 'double standards'.

Sanders and Obama are both intelligent, passionate, courageous, authentic men. Sanders is genuine in what he says and believes and he deserves the admiration and respect he's gotten for it. In today's political climate he's a giant. But so is Obama and he's paid dearly in many ways for standing his ground. I wish Sanders could acknowledge that and veer away from seeking votes from people who can't see it and who scapegoat Obama. 

Fox News’ Roger Ailes Calls Trump ‘Disturbing’

Chris Christie and Donald Trump have a lot in common. They’re both intellectually challenged, over-entitled/-indulged/-enabled and heavily insecure. They’re both bullies with an unhealthy lust for absolute power, attention and permission to do what they want, say what they want, when they want. Both are a seething mass of neuroses that multiplies like a group of cancer cells in the pancreas and neither can conceive of the possibility that their adoring audience might tire of them or that they might meet somebody who can take them down.

Sociopaths of this sort always amass a lot of rope. An can’t resist hanging themselves. Their fathomless insecurity can never be sated; the more they get the more they crave and the less self-control they have. Pushing boundaries is the drug for them. The more attention they get the more they truly believe they’re infallible, and the more reckless they become.

Christie destroyed his political career when he was close to the top of his game. Now the Donald, although much more potent and sinister than Christie and with a huge fan base and a real political chance, is slipping on the banana skin of his own ego.

A few weeks ago at the first Republican debate, Fox News reporter Megyn Kelly asked him some straightforward questions about his attitude and treatment of women. Being confronted always hits a nerve with him and he blew a fuse, insulting Kelly then and afterwards for days on Twitter, causing an uproar. Kelly wasn’t intimidated by Trump and didn’t back down. She’s a star at Fox News with her own big fan base and influence. 

But Fox News Top Dog Roger Ailes made peace with Trump. Of course he did. Trump is the best thing since sliced bread for Fox. Kelly went on unexpected leave for eleven days and everything settled down.

So Trump got away with it, but not without damage under the surface , which is the dangerous kind. And if you touch the nerve of a egotist with the kinds of living, breathing neuroses that dominate Trump they can’t forget. He couldn’t leave it alone.

Kelly got back from vacation. Out of the blue Trump started tweeting rank insults about her again, calling her a bimbo and a lousy journalist. Roger Ailes didn’t try to make peace this time. His official response was; “Donald Trump’s surprise and open attack on Megyn Kelly during her show last night is as unacceptable as it is disturbing.” He went on to say that FOX News supports and values the work that Kelly does in asking candidates questions they find difficult to answer and that Trump should apologize.

The word ‘disturbing’ is the one Trump should be careful of. The inference is that he’s not firing on all cylinders. Well hello. Of course this all could be a ploy by Ailes to keep the war alive because of its impact on ratings. But maybe it's not. If Fox withdraws its coverage of Trump can he survive?

Without the kind of glutinous media attention Fox provides, people will forget him. He’ll get more and more reckless and obnoxious to try and get their attention back. And the show’s over, folks.

That’s not all. A few days ago Trump held a press conference in Iowa. When Emmy Award-winning journalist Jorge Ramos asked an inconvenient question without being selected—because Trump refused to select him—Trump wouldn’t answer and said, “Excuse me, sit down, you weren’t called, sit down. Sit down. Sit down.” Ramos refused to sit or be silenced. He wasn’t shouting or screaming or being unreasonable, he was simple speaking, in a very even tone. Trump told him to go back to Univision, addressing him like a man who isn’t an animal-lover would command a dog.

The incident was captured on video, of course. Trump looked over to the side, nodded his head to somebody and said “Go ahead”. A huge security guard walked behind him and ‘escorted’ Ramos out the room. He went protesting, but again still not shouting or screaming. The man has dignity.

Something Trump doesn’t know the meaning of. On being asked why Ramos was removed  he said “I don’t know really much about him. I don’t believe I’ve ever met him—except he started screaming—I didn’t escort him out; you’ll have to talk to security, whoever security is…”

Jorge Ramos, who works for the Spanish language channel Univision, made the cover of Time Magazine’s World’s Most Influential People Issue. He came back in 15 minutes later and jousted with Trump, neither giving way.

Trump has already lost 75% of the Latino vote with his racist ranting about all Mexicans being rapists and thugs and wanting to deport everybody who’s undocumented regardless of how it shatters even children’s lives. And then there’s the Wall… Clearly he believes he can win without the Latino vote. But then, he believes he could strong-arm Iran into signing an agreement that makes them absolute slaves to America and that he could bomb the whole of ISIL out of existence.

The man's a lunatic. He’d be entertaining if he weren’t so ugly. If he hadn’t destroyed so many lives and done it with such pleasure and ease. Nothing entertaining about that.

But it is fascinating to watch sociopaths take themselves down. That it always happens gives me faith in being human. We’re not built to abuse others so when somebody does they can’t sustain the internal culture that drives their abuse. Along the path of their own destruction, though, they take an awful lot of people down with them. That’s the hard part. 

I must say, though, for Roger Ailes to call Trump 'disturbing' is more than a little ironic. What a circus.

GOP Senate Win – The Fools Controlling the Blind

Benjamin Franklin's scepticism when he said he'd given Americans a republic, if they could keep it, has again proved to be well founded. I guess he understood the general populace's addiction to illusion and dislike of thinking for themselves and taking serious responsibility for their choices.

The truth about President Obama, that he's a brilliant man who has turned the country around in ways that no other leader in the world has been able to do for their country, is available to everyone but too many have chosen to see an illusion created by fools whose only talent is in conning the multitudes, the kind of fools who distribute pamphlets telling people the election has been postponed or the polling stations have been moved. Who organize robocalls to election officials the night before voting telling them they're not qualified and mustn't show up on election day. That's who will govern the US for the next two years. 

It doesn't say a thing about President Obama or what he’s achieved in reality but it speaks volumes to a level of mental degradation in the majority of those who chose to vote. Dumbed-down doesn't even begin to describe it. Well, you can blind yourself to reality but your blindness doesn't save you and everybody else from the consequences of your choices.

Equality for women, rights for all minorities, LGBT equality, decent working wages for all, health care for all, affordable education, a soaring Dow Jones, a middle class and economy on the path to recovery, policies protecting the environment and promoting clean energy - kiss it all good-bye.  

And welcome back increased racism, paranoia, prejudice, poverty, promotion of environmental destruction, more guns, a country split even more disastrously into first world and third world with an ever widening gap between the two, increasingly disintegrated infrastructure, wasted spending, international wars and more power to the military industrial complex, banks doing what they want, an even more biased justice system… 

Welcome back to everything that set America plummeting down on a course towards economic destruction and social disintegration.

  

This brings to mind the words of a Faith Hill song I’ve Got My Baby; “Those were dark days, dark days indeed.” Further on, the words are “But everyone knows that that’s how it goes, it’s usually bound to get better.” It will, eventually, but not for the next two years and that’s a lot of time for the rot to set in again.  

What a wasted opportunity. My heart goes out to President Obama, the First Lady and their daughters. This must be unimaginably and inexpressibly painful for them. Being ahead of your time  brings grand respect after your job is done or you're dead but it doesn't bring much to you when you're alive.