Tag: Democrats

A Few Words about Aaron Ford

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

I first met Aaron Ford in what must have been 2012. He literally knocked on my door to ask for my vote! I told him as long as he had a D behind his name, don’t worry I was voting for him. I had the door halfway closed when he said “WAIT! It’s a primary!” Then we talked for a bit.

Since then, he has risen through Nevada politics like a warm ice cream scoop. Now he’s our state Attorney General. Meanwhile, I moved out of the old neighborhood by the Greek Orthodox Church, but work down the street.

This week, he announced that he’s running for Governor. Just as in 2012, he has a primary fight ahead of him. To be sure, he has had his share of controversy. It looks like the state Republicans are going to fall back on calling him a radical, for doing such outlandish things as looking out for the people of Nevada. People and organizations I respect support him, and I think there’s an extremely chance I will do exactly what I did in 2012: vote for him in the primary. His views and political positions are much closer to my own than any Republican candidate.

But a warning both to Mr Ford and the Democratic Party: We The People are tired of business as usual, of being told that policies that would benefit us are “too radical” and “will never pass.” We The People are tired of being told to “Be reasonable.” That’s why the Democratic Party has been losing. Hillary told us to be reasonable and lost. Sisolak told us to be reasonable and lost. We The People are tired of the Pelosis and Schumers of the world telling us we mustn’t make the other side mad, we must negotiate with people whose idea of negotiation is “do what we want or else.” We The People want bold change that clearly benefits us now and for the future. Democrats win when they do what the voters want, not when they do what the elite donors want. Don’t be afraid to Dare Greatly and Boldly Go.

In closing: It is of great concern that today’s labor statistics report was awful, with previous months being revised sharply downward. And there are logical reasons for the decline; it’s not an aberration or “rigged” numbers. It is of even greater concern that Mr. Trump’s reaction was to fire the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This act calls into question future government statistics: are they true, or doctored to appease the President? I predict that private data — such as payroll data from ADP and Paychex — will become much more important to economists. The President does not control their analysts’ jobs.

Son of Evil

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia.

A number of years ago I wrote about Evil:

“It was enough to know that The Joker™ was trying to bury Gotham City under six feet of strawberry jam because he was Evil…. We grew up, and found that the Joker was also criminally insane….

When your world-view is that somebody or some group is simply evil, there is no room for negotiations.”

Unfortunately we’ve reached the point where we are talking about even larger groups of people being “Evil.” It’s not just terrorists. Or criminals. Or immigrants. It’s an entire political party. This is a deterioration from merely thinking members of the other party are stupid. Even more dangerously, people in power are implying that if you don’t espouse certain political viewpoints, there’s something wrong with you. And when someone in power thinks there’s something wrong with you, there is the potential for “doing something about it.”

Let me be clear. A person using language that implies that the other party is evil, demons, or similar, can’t be reasoned with. And that is dangerous for all of us.

The Founding Fathers thought certain things were so important they put them in the First Amendment before anything else: We The People have freedom of speech, religion, of the press, to peaceably assemble, and even to access the courts. If you want to believe that the Flying Spaghetti Monster freed us from the menace of piracy on the high seas, so be it. But when religion clashes with our other freedoms, things get messy. You don’t have the right to tell others what to worship, revile, or read. And you certainly don’t have the right to endanger others because of your beliefs.

Do not use good and evil in political rhetoric. It leads to people being imprisoned or executed.

Extraordinary Claims

That’s Carl Sagan. The guy from whom most of Generation X learned about space. A precursor to Neil deGrasse Tyson if you like. One of Mr. Sagan’s famous quotes is “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Let’s just say that there’s an election coming up. Party A is running Candidate A. Party B is running Candidate B.

Imagine if you will, that Candidate A claims that Candidate B will, oh, I don’t know, institute a death penalty for jaywalking (notwithstanding that jaywalking in some places can be deadly without judicial action). Wow, that’s pretty extreme. Now you might be having one of several reactions: maybe “wow that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”; maybe “well it doesn’t surprise me that Party B would run someone with that kind of plan” or “well I always knew something was off about Candidate B”; and just maybe, you think “that’s kind of weird, maybe I should look into that a little further.”

If you thought the last thing, congratulations! You noticed an extraordinary claim and are at least looking for evidence, preferably the extraordinary kind.

You’ve got another week until Election Day. Go ahead and use that extraordinary brain of yours! Find out if Jewish Space Lasers or government hurricane control satellites are real. Learn what political parties and their candidates really think about guns instead of what their opponents claim they think. Take a read through Project 2025. Peek at the actual voting record and positions of your elected officials. Read about the Federal Reserve (from an actual reputable site, please). Learn how many houses sell in your area in a typical month and how many are available right now; come to your own conclusions about why housing costs what it does. Learn what an ectopic pregnancy, and read for just a few minutes about fatal birth defects (ah, you won’t want to spend a lot of time on that because it’s extremely sad and can be upsetting).

You’ll notice I’m not feeding you links. And you know I love links! I hope you’ll spend time on some relatively neutral sites like Wikipedia. When you go to the websites of the political parties, pay attention to what they want and ignore what they claim the other guys want. Don’t pay any attention to celebrities; they’re not running for anything. That includes the people on certain TV channels that claim to present news. If a candidate has a giant gap between what they say and what they do, pay attention to what they do.

When you are done, maybe you’ll be firmly convinced your initial opinion was correct. Maybe you’ll be looking for more information still. And just maybe you’ll have changed your mind about a thing or two. Whatever you decide, remember that what you do on your ballot is your business alone. It doesn’t have to align with your family or the sign in the yard, just with your heart. Whatever you learn, do the right thing.

Oopsies

Not entirely sure how this happened. Found on my morning walk. Pretty good test of the night mode on my phone’s camera, no?

In Closing: “Centrist” Democrat decoder ring; ultra-processed foods; and yet more reasons why I really hope the Democratic party comes to their senses and doesn’t try to ram Good Old, Sensible, Pragmatic, Bidness As Usual, Joe Biden down our throats.

The Shorties Cure

Hey folks, sorry for light posting. Life got in the way of writing. Hope to return to a more regular schedule Shortly.

Poor Chuck: Don’t get me wrong, I consider Chuck to be one of the problems with the modern Democratic Party — although it’s possible he’s just a symptom. Anyway, he sure is taking heat for this government shutdown ending. Like lots of source links? Enjoy.

More on kids: it ain’t easy being a poor kid in America.

An actual expert: An Obstetrician on the topic of late term abortion.

Rent: Unfortunately, the big institutions that brought us the housing crisis aren’t particularly interested in being nice landlords either. Hmm, maybe that’s why rental law is governed on the state level.

Go Vegas!: First, here’s some fun and free/cheap things to do in town. Oh yeah, and Go Golden Knights!

And finally,

Whiskey: turns out it kills germs.

I’ve had both right and left leaning links today. Turns out that when you return to the true center, you find both truth and untruth on virtually every point of the political spectrum.

Democratic Folly

The Democratic Party has decided to double down on Superdelegates. In short, that means that the Party will decide who you will vote for without any pesky interference from voters, thank you very much. They do not see how anointing a candidate could possibly have contributed to What Happened. They do not see how tired many people are of holding their nose and voting for The Chosen One because hey, who else are you gonna vote for?

Many years before I was born, a science-fiction author named Robert Heinlein wrote a book called Take Back Your Government. One of the things he advocated was to get involved in your local party politics. And further, he reminded us that if what you thought was “your” party turned out not to be anymore? Join the other one and work for what you believe in there.

I have heard from reliable sources that the local Democratic Party isn’t any more open to opposing viewpoints than the national organization. I mean heck, they turned their back on Nevada’s gubernatorial candidate because… well because “none of the above” actually won the primary (not complaining; Sandoval has been a decent Governor). But they aren’t above supporting people awaiting indictment.

In Closing: net neutrality; it will be interesting to see how the “gun control” argument changes post Vegas; confiscating assets is big money; cannabis and opioids; potentially, the end of an era in Japan.

The Blame Game

I know this is not a popular opinion on “the Left”, but here it is. The DNC and Clinton supporters need to stop blaming Comey and the Russians. Why?

Because the only reason Comey and the Russians mattered is that they themselves were doing stupid stuff. The DNC rigged the election to ensure Hillary’s coronation nomination — and now they want to argue that they had the right to do so. The DNC and HRC (both as Secretary of State and as a candidate) put stupid stuff in emails. Clinton’s people are the ones who used ridiculously bad internet security — and at one point turned it completely off in a virtual welcome sign to hackers. Don’t do stupid stuff and you don’t have to worry about getting caught doing stupid stuff. Funny how that works.

Blaming Comey and the Russians? Bobby Brady broke the vase by throwing his football in the house, but you want to blame Cindy Brady for tattling!

Furthermore, the Democrats refused to address the issues important to most Americans — hint, it’s still the economy, stupid — instead focusing on fluffy social issues to the point where many white men I knew were saying that clearly there was no “inclusion” meant for them. The bottom line is that if the Democrats choose to double down on politics as usual and to hell with actual progressive ideas, they will lose more elections. Oh, and let’s not forget Huma and Weiner. The popular vote? Oh please, not knowing that you need electoral votes to win a presidential election is just plain political incompetence.

And finally, can we please stop pretending that Obama was any kind of progressive or liberal? For pity sake, he’s more conservative than Nixon.

In Closing: Believe; poverty; I should never have looked at this recipe; PayPal.

A Prediction

First of all, I’d like to start by saying that the name of the proposed legislation to “repeal and replace Obamacare” is called “World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.” That’s a seriously great title, folks.

So my prediction is as follows: there will be enough voices on the Left saying it does not go far enough and enough voices on the Right saying it doesn’t go nearly far enough that no bill will be passed. Afterwards, each side will congratulate themselves on thwarting the other.

The fact remains that any plan that depends at all on employer coverage will never cover all children. That’s because children don’t have employers. And — I will say this every time it’s brought up — don’t tell me we can’t have true universal single payer coverage for children, because Howard Dean did it in his state.

In Closing: vouchers; I guess most-mortems are easier than admitting that Hillary could possibly have lost without outside help; yoga; right; Alcoholics Anonymous; and I don’t even know where to begin about the stupidity of a “day without women.”

Reality Break

Dear Democrats on the Internet:

Have you lost your everlovin mind?

We just finished an election where the American voters rejected not just one, but two political dynasties. Furthermore, just about everybody except Maddie Albright rejected the notion of “vote for the girl ’cause she’s a girl.” And finally, voters rejected the notion of a “everything is fine nothing is broken” politics-as-usual candidate.

Michelle Obama would be a terrible choice for Democratic nominee in 2020. Not because she’s a woman. Not because she’s black. Not even because certain Republicans have spent the last 8 years criticizing literally everything about her.

Because we don’t pass down the Presidency like it’s some kind of crown.

And furthermore, she’s not interested.

Some Thoughts on the Democrats

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Why a picture of Joe Biden? Why not? It’s a pretty cool picture of him!

The Democratic National Convention was this week, so I’d like to share some miscellaneous musings.

On the Email Hack: So some are accusing the Russians of orchestrating this hack to manipulate our elections. None of these people are saying that the emails in question are fake, forged, false, or anything of the sort. So it sounds very suspiciously like they are mad they got caught. The FBI is investigating, but remember this: they are investigating the hack, not the fact that these emails seem to indicate that the Democratic primaries were rigged. And no, Trump did not invite the Russians to hack more. He made a joke about how maybe they have the missing emails. So shut up already about this “threat” to “security.” Remember which candidate had security features turned off on the private email server. This is the online equivalent of closing the store for the night and leaving the door unlocked.

And one more reminder: Read the last few lines. Now repeat after me: Never put anything on the internet that you wouldn’t proudly show to your mother, your boss, and a judge.

On Kaine: People keep saying he’s a Progressive. Ok, Hillary keeps saying he’s a progressive. I don’t see anything to justify that statement. He’s not just in favor of the TPP — at least he was until days ago — he voted to fast-track it. He’s pro-“life”. He’s “tough on crime.” Whoop-dee-doo he speaks Spanish. And did you know he used to be the DNC chair?

On Little Debbie: You know I don’t give political nicknames lightly. Little Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has achieved this dubious honor. She deserves the lawsuit she’s received from rigging the primaries, and more. Matt Taibi graciously calls it a “slanted campaign.” I am frustrated with Democrats who are willing to ignore this and say fuggedaboutit just because they find the opposing candidate scary.

On Bernie: Some people called him a sell-out, but what the hell else was he going to do? Change parties? The man played his role of The Grown Up In The Room and he did it with grace.

On Bernie Supporters: There is mounting evidence that they are getting a raw deal to follow up the non-binding pat on the head of “the most progressive Democratic party platform evar!” Interesting how many times it mentions Mr. Trump. I do not quite think that the Democratic party understands that they do in fact need those voters not just for Hillary, but for all the down-ticket races as well.

Yeah yeah yeah woman President: Michelle Obama said “And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.” No, your daughters can be President, probably Chelsea and Dubya’s girls too. The rest of us, not so much. And no, it isn’t that America isn’t ready for a woman President. For pity sake, India, a nation with a less-than-stellar record on women’s rights, has had a female head of state. Whether any given American kid can become President boils down to money, and what college you went to, and who you know, and a bunch of things that boil down to the fact that most of us will get no closer to the White House than a tour.

And One Last Thing: Fact Checking Hillary and Donald respectively.