When Ted Cruz Met Donald Trump

When Ted Cruz met Donald Trump
He asked, "How are you doing, Donald?"
"I've been better, " The Donald replied
When Cruz met Trump in Hell
The Donald said.

Why Stop At Bill Clinton!

Why stop at Bill Clinton, I'd like to also go ahead and blame Hillary Clinton for some of the things Boris Yeltsin might have done. I can't pit it down right now, but I am sure that guy did something or the other.

Jesus. Donald Trump will have you believe Hillary Clinton had lesbian sex with Monica Lewinsky. Kevin Spacey and his wife have sex with this dude aide, at the same time, but that was on Netflix. I guess we all have our sources of news and information, and enlightenment.

Trump's top weapon is Benghazi II. Facts-free sexism, completely unhinged from facts and logic. At least on Benghazi no one is accusing Hillary of having pulled the trigger. But give Trump some time. With Trump, many things are possible.

Note: it is the Department Of Defense (not State) that protects embassies. But I guess if you can name only one Obama cabinet member, you are going to be tempted to use your limited vocabulary.

Warren Would Be A Good Pick

Bernie Sanders floats Elizabeth Warren as possible VP

Warren would bring all the crazy millennials, lefties, revolutionaries, and socialists on board. It would be like Bernie minus the penis. Besides, that crowd is the future. It is destined to go from strength to strength.

With Warren on board, you will see a lot of Republican women ditch the party, what with a dick on the ticket!

The ticket just might manage to take back the House.

Dodd And Frank

There is a guy named Dodd and there is a guy named Frank, and that is as much as I know about Dodd and Frank. As for the banks, Dodd and Frank were supposed to ring in some discipline. The question naturally arises, did it happen? Is there discipline? Or is there indiscipline? What about indigestion? Hiccups?

Hillary Clinton: Nothing To Do With The Panama Papers

The Liberals of the Bernie brand have plenty of good things to talk about, plenty of legitimate points to make. Excuse me if English is not my first language, but is this the left wing pulling a right wing? Blaming Hillary for Panama, of all things? I am calling this facts-free sexism, completely unhinged from facts and logic.

Liberals and the New Democrats should compete, as they are, but they should do so cleanly, and with the ultimate goals of working together for the greater cause. Liberals should make an effort to remember why they used to lose elections all the time, and the New Dems should face the fact that the ground reality is not as desperate as it was in 1991, and bolder moves are now possible.

And, by the way, I am for free trade, I always have been. Blaming free trade for the loss of American jobs is like blaming China's strong economy for the fact that America is not doing better, when the fact is China saved America big time in 2008. Free trade can be better architected, but don't blame the poor in poor countries because you can't get organized better and get your government to invest more in your education and health.

The Sanders campaign should focus on getting deeper into the policies, and crunching the numbers, and better organizing the supporters. There are obscure, underpaid academics who have already written detailed policy papers of the journal article quality for everything Sanders has proposed, I am sure. The Sanders campaign just needs to go find them. Talk numbers but also talk slogans. Present the investments in education and health in the context of the larger budget. How you would tweak it, things like that.

Linking Hillary to Panama is a mirror image of the right wing blaming Hillary for Benghazi. It is like there is this small patch of land somewhere in Latin America where Islamist terrorists and American far right militia gather and train each other on warfare.

The Bernie campaign does not need that if it wants to actually make change happen. This path burns bridges.

I actually happen to think much of what Bernie wants can happen. But you do have to do the work. You do have the get into the nitty gritty, you do have to crunch the numbers, you do have to tweak the budget, you do have to build coalitions. Mostly you do have to better organize. Build a grasseroots structure to survive.

Hillary In The News
A Strong Critique Of Sanders From A Very Smart Liberal
The New Democrat Philosophy Vs The Liberal Philosophy
Hillary's Narrow Lead
A Close Race
This Might Not Go Well
Bernie: The Progressive Ronald Reagan?
Bernie II?
One Person, One Vote, One Voice Democracy And America And The Democratic Party
White House, Senate, House, 2016

She's Not With Us
She's not with us!!!!
Posted by Liberal Rhetoric Click on Friday, April 8, 2016

Hillary In The News

English: A screengrab from President Barack Obama's first White House news conference. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hillary Clinton blasts Obama's proposed $90M cut to anti-terror funds for New York in sitdown with Daily News

The stinging rebuke of her former boss comes just months after the White House released a 2017 budget that called for slashing funding for the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) — which pays for anti-terror ventures in large U.S. cities like New York — from $600 million to $330 million.

Hillary Clinton slams President Obama's bid to slash New York City's anti-terror funding by $90 MILLION

Related articles

• Giuliani Suggests Hillary 'Founding Member of ISIS'
• This former Republican presidential candidate just claimed Hillary Clinton created ISIS
• Ted Cruz Receives Kiss of Death Endorsement from Low Energy Jeb Bush
• Obama to Cruz: Singling Out Muslims 'Makes No Sense'
• Rudy Giuliani Unloads On Hillary & Her Role As "Founding Member" Of The Islamic State
• Rudy Giuliani Absolutely DESTROYS Obama For His Response To Brussels Attack: 'It's Outrageous...'

Ambedkar: Taller Than Gandhi And Nehru

Ambedkar is taller than Gandhi and Nehru because he is more relevant than either to India's current challenges.

BR Ambedkar: Slayer of All Gods

Dictators In Africa

There are a whole bunch of dictators in Africa who can’t understand how Barack Obama can get by on a salary of 200,000 dollars a year. To them it is peanuts. Granted the Secret Service is paid for and the housing is paid for and Air Force One is paid for, but what about miscellaneous expenses?

A Strong Critique Of Sanders From A Very Smart Liberal

Sanders Over the Edge by Bernie Sanders

he seemed to go for easy slogans over hard thinking. ...... Predatory lending was largely carried out by smaller, non-Wall Street institutions like Countrywide Financial; the crisis itself was centered not on big banks but on “shadow banks” like Lehman Brothers that weren’t necessarily that big. .......

Yet going on about big banks is pretty much all Mr. Sanders has done.

....... this absence of substance beyond the slogans seems to be true of his positions across the board. ..... a politician’s policy specifics are often a very important clue to his or her true character — I warned about George W. Bush’s mendacity back when most journalists were still portraying him as a bluff, honest fellow, because I actually looked at his tax proposals ...... Given her large lead in delegates — based largely on the support of African-American voters, who respond to her pragmatism because history tells them to distrust extravagant promises — Mrs. Clinton is the strong favorite for the Democratic nomination......

The Sanders campaign has brought out a lot of idealism and energy that the progressive movement needs.

I guess arithmetic is necessary. You do have to start and end with slogans. But there is that territory where you have to end up with concrete proposals, and see how you will make the budget work. I think many of Bernie's ideas actually are workable. But perhaps the policy work has not been done. It does not even have to be the campaign. I would be surprised if some obscure academic has not worked them out on his own.

I wish there were a way to fuse the idealism many of Bernie's young supporters feel and bring them about into governance. Part of that is a back and forth about becoming better educated about the political process. But the legroom is more than the New Democrat thinking of 1992 will have us believe.

I have not been following this election too closely. I definitely have not read up deeply on the various policy proposals.

FDR would send out the Labor leaders, go build the pressure on me. The idealists of today could perform a similar role. 

The New Democrat Philosophy Vs The Liberal Philosophy

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Official White House photo of President Bill Clinton, President of the United States. Русский: Президент США Билл Клинтон,официальное фото Белого Дома. Ελληνικά: Επίσημη φωτογραφία Λευκού Οίκου του Προέδρου Μπιλ Κλίντον, Προέδρου των ΗΠΑ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Clintons came to power in 1992 selling what was known as the New Democrat philosophy. It was about moving to the center. It was ditching some of what was called the liberal baggage, both socially and on economic matters. Dems were also going to be tough on crime, Dems were also going to cut taxes. The Democrats had been out of power for so long, so consistently that a desperate party went for it. And Bill Clinton won two elections. It is true the black community also was lifted as the rising tide seemed to be lifting all boats.

But now that necessity is not there. The Dems will win in November no matter who the Republican nominee is and no matter who the Dem nominee is. The New Democrat compulsion like in 1992 is not there.

Bernie Sanders was a Liberal before, during and after 1992. He stayed a Liberal all along. He is a conviction Liberal. He is so Liberal, he refused to be a Democrat that entire time.

Is this a fight to finish where one philosophy wins and another loses but lives to see perhaps another day? Or is there a fusion possible? Could the New Democrat philosophy and the Liberal philosophy melded into one? Will an attempt be made?

Bill Clinton's outburst at the Black Lives Matter protesters was partly a calculated move to try and grab the liberal white voters, especially in his age group. But it might primarily have been a New Democrat knowing no other way. And it was partly also Bill Clinton liking some attention.

But at some level Bill Clinton fundamentally missed the point. The BLM movement is pointing at a structural problem in the country's criminal justice system.

Related articles

• Bill Clinton couldn't get elected in 2016
• Unleashed: Bill Clinton Trashes President Obama In WA State Rally
• Bill Clinton Has Some Harsh Words About The Obama Administration

Hillary's Narrow Lead

Bernie has won many states in a row, and Hillary's already narrow lead among elected delegates has become narrower. But what if it gets narrower still at the end of the day, but Bernie does not surpass it? Then the superdelegates could stay with Hillary, and that gives her a huge lead, and she is the nominee. And that is the most likely scenario right now, unless Bernie wins California by a wide, wide margin. More likely, New York and California cancel each other out. Hillary carries New York by 10% and loses California by 10%.

Bernie, in that scenario, will have shaped the race, shaped the party, shaped the platform, energized the young voters mostly, but does that mean the two end up on the same ticket, kind of like Reagan and Bush in 1980? If the race stays close, that is a plausible scenario. Such a ticket would make the party strong in November.