What would you say you do? Apparently the women in red is Ayn Rand.
In case you don't know the movie scene this references, it's here.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Election Thoughts
It's been kind of fun over the last few months fantasizing about Bernie actually winning the Democratic nomination. Really it's like thinking about winning the lottery. Not gonna happen, but indulging the fantasy is enjoyable sometimes. But Jill Stein I think captured it well back in December. There's just no way the Democratic establishment and the DNC are going to let that happen.
The DNC has certainly been in Hillary's corner, but I'm not sure it would have changed anything if they had been neutral. Hillary gets plenty of corporate media support and that probably would have been enough. Paul Krugman, Rachel Maddow, and other supposed liberal commentators I think would have gotten it done. For Ellen Degeneres Hillary is the ONLY candidate running that has stood for equal rights for everyone (even though Hillary was against gay marriage and said so on Ellen's show in 2007 which could be contrasted with Bernie's record). Here's Joy Behar on The View. Bernie, why are you still harping on this Iraq war thing? What's the big deal? That reminded me of a question put to Lincoln Chafee about Hillary's Iraq war vote. She said she was sorry. Why isn't that good enough? This is the way the corporate media frames these debates.
So it's Hillary for the D's even though every poll I've seen shows Bernie has a better chance of beating Trump. And of course it could get even worse for Hillary as a recommendation to indict from the FBI could come at any moment. That's how strong the oligarchy is. The D's will put up a very weak candidate against Trump, and he is an extremely dangerous character. We really could end up with a Trump presidency, which I think most establishment people understand is extremely risky. But Bernie has this hostility to bankers and a desire to bring medical care to ordinary people at the expense of corporate profit. This is unacceptable. Profit is more important than keeping Trump away from the nuclear codes.
Hillary's email shenanigans would certainly be a serious problem for an ordinary person, but she's powerful so rules tend to not apply. I don't see that her recklessness in securing secret and top secret information will be a problem for her. What could be a problem though is other information that is revealed in the emails FBI investigators are reviewing. It seems Hillary thought in establishing a private server she was going to prevent the world from seeing what she was up to. Who knows what crimes she might discuss when she assumes nobody will see. My feeling is there is something major there and the FBI is going to recommend an indictment.
It's not unlike the Whitewater investigation. The accusations are the kind of thing that would be a big deal for an ordinary person, but not necessarily a powerful person. While Whitewater itself didn't damage the Clintons the information revealed as a result of the Whitewater investigation did. The same could happen here.
Whether the justice department actually follows through of course depends on the severity of the crime, the strength of the evidence, and the power of the Clinton's within the Democratic establishment. But what I see from the D's is regardless of what happens they are going to go forward with a very unlikeable Hillary Clinton who is further wounded by this whole email problem.
The outcome seems bad no matter which way you slice it. Trump could win. Or alternatively Hillary could win despite everything. People either decide her crimes don't matter or Trump is too dangerous. Imagine what the midterms will look like for the Democrats with Hillary as president. Liberals have a hard enough time getting out the vote under the relatively likeable Obama. 2018 could be a crazy Republican sweep. We get another decade of gerrymandered districts as before among other problems.
The DNC has certainly been in Hillary's corner, but I'm not sure it would have changed anything if they had been neutral. Hillary gets plenty of corporate media support and that probably would have been enough. Paul Krugman, Rachel Maddow, and other supposed liberal commentators I think would have gotten it done. For Ellen Degeneres Hillary is the ONLY candidate running that has stood for equal rights for everyone (even though Hillary was against gay marriage and said so on Ellen's show in 2007 which could be contrasted with Bernie's record). Here's Joy Behar on The View. Bernie, why are you still harping on this Iraq war thing? What's the big deal? That reminded me of a question put to Lincoln Chafee about Hillary's Iraq war vote. She said she was sorry. Why isn't that good enough? This is the way the corporate media frames these debates.
So it's Hillary for the D's even though every poll I've seen shows Bernie has a better chance of beating Trump. And of course it could get even worse for Hillary as a recommendation to indict from the FBI could come at any moment. That's how strong the oligarchy is. The D's will put up a very weak candidate against Trump, and he is an extremely dangerous character. We really could end up with a Trump presidency, which I think most establishment people understand is extremely risky. But Bernie has this hostility to bankers and a desire to bring medical care to ordinary people at the expense of corporate profit. This is unacceptable. Profit is more important than keeping Trump away from the nuclear codes.
Hillary's email shenanigans would certainly be a serious problem for an ordinary person, but she's powerful so rules tend to not apply. I don't see that her recklessness in securing secret and top secret information will be a problem for her. What could be a problem though is other information that is revealed in the emails FBI investigators are reviewing. It seems Hillary thought in establishing a private server she was going to prevent the world from seeing what she was up to. Who knows what crimes she might discuss when she assumes nobody will see. My feeling is there is something major there and the FBI is going to recommend an indictment.
It's not unlike the Whitewater investigation. The accusations are the kind of thing that would be a big deal for an ordinary person, but not necessarily a powerful person. While Whitewater itself didn't damage the Clintons the information revealed as a result of the Whitewater investigation did. The same could happen here.
Whether the justice department actually follows through of course depends on the severity of the crime, the strength of the evidence, and the power of the Clinton's within the Democratic establishment. But what I see from the D's is regardless of what happens they are going to go forward with a very unlikeable Hillary Clinton who is further wounded by this whole email problem.
The outcome seems bad no matter which way you slice it. Trump could win. Or alternatively Hillary could win despite everything. People either decide her crimes don't matter or Trump is too dangerous. Imagine what the midterms will look like for the Democrats with Hillary as president. Liberals have a hard enough time getting out the vote under the relatively likeable Obama. 2018 could be a crazy Republican sweep. We get another decade of gerrymandered districts as before among other problems.
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