Stare Decisis
Stare Decisis's JournalWe Must Be Realistic About Warren's Likability
The press has a playbook on everybody courtesy of the GOP.
"The hair on this Christ guy is a distraction."
"I don't think Ghandi has perspective. How can anyone willing to go hungry relate to farmers?"
"Other than curing polio, what exactly do we know about Salk's character ?"
"Kennedy might have saved one person but true Americans would have put the ship on their backs."
"One would expect this harpie Anthony to get the woman's vote. Feminazi."
"This Sully fellow likes to flout procedure doesn't he?"
"You know this Teddy piece of work was such an insomniac he would walk around the city with a stick?
"What is so special about being a community organizer anyway?"
"So what if this woman turned down high paying work to defend single moms and abused children. So what if she singularly drove the creation of CHIP and kids have health care? So what if she helped destroy Bin Laden, quell the rebellion in the middle east, comported herself with dignity, inspired millions of young women, got the ball rolling towards Obamacare? She used a private email to order wedding cake. Plus this Trump guy knows business!"
You see? We must defend ours. In the battle of snake vs. human this is a human problem. This is an us problem. We know what they will do. Elizabeth is an American story; a waitress from Oklahoma with verve and drive and brilliance who worked her way up with a dedication to public service.
This labeling must stop. And WE must stop it by standing by our people and controlling who defines who.
My Hope For 2019
A great nation recognizes its faults. We have plenty. But our country was built to allow itself to learn, to evolve, and to further its commitment to humanity. We will make mistakes. We will be overzealous. We will be foolish. But it is the heart that matters. It is the idea that progress always wins. America does not regress. Yet as I write this a gay person can be fired from any job without legal recourse.
African Americans all over this country hold their breath their children come home safely from buying a soda. A traffic stop is considered to be some of the most dangerous five minutes of a person of color's life. We have an administration pleased that "only" two immigrant children have died in custody. My Grandma died penniless because it was required of her to be accepted into a nursing home, yet my Mother's inheritance may be imperiled by Medicaid backpay requirements. Yet as we scrape the bottom of Federal coffers a morally bankrupt "President" saw fit to return trillions more of our wealth to the wealthiest.
But my operative word is not bitter. It is better. We will do better. I will take the torch from my ancestors and do my part to advance our people.
Yes it is true the ignorant among us blame welfare for their plight, not realizing their sum total burden is about a pizza a year. Repulsive media constantly wails about what used to be, how millennials are lazy (an ugly inaccurate stereotype) and how if they could just physically abuse children again, perhaps order would be restored.
But all of these paradigms will fail. This is not an if. This is a guarantee. America is unique. You see the right wing knows the one thing that will destroy it is the fact that America is more than a place; it is an ideal. This ideal spans the world, so that we draw from the best and brightest from everywhere. A political ideology bereft of empathy and morality is destined to be rejected like so much bacteria by a nation that is by its very design acts as an antibiotic to tyranny.
My hope, my faith really, is that the world realizes in total that we as a nation are not stricken with an infectious virus-just a cold. A bad cold, one of those chicken soup eating, orange juice drinking, nasty bronchial colds, but still a cold. I hope that our partners in peace and brotherhood will not be afraid to go around us, to shake our hands, to break bread, to hug us. We need their support. America is now in need of a kind of friendship we have so often extended.
These bastards will not destroy my relationships in Mexico, in Nigeria, in Europe, in Canada-no. Lesser than thee can not topple thee.
In 2019 you will see Mueller pull the curtain on the small little man with the megaphone. And Americans and the world will once again see that there is no place like America when it comes to being the home of the brave.
Let us now celebrate the arrival of another year with fervent commitment to our ideals. Let us show our bravery in all of its forms, our allegiance to justice, and our willingness to put others first.
Let's shake this nasty cold. Let's catch up to Denmark in quality of life, let's put to bed our inequalities, let's stop making excuses and start to once again make friends.
Let's Make America-
America again.
Now please pass me some Robitussin. Or should I say-
Muellertussin.
Happy New Year!
Why I Am Hopeful
It comes down to this: "Pelosi: Making Asses Fear Her Feet Since 1940."
Watching Trump go up against Nancy will be like watching John Kruk against Randy Johnson in the 1993 All-Star game.
You Play Like a Girl
I remember back in high school playing basketball the other coach yelling that his point guard was playing like a girl. I had played with a distinct hitch in my shot for years before someone worked with me and straightened it out. That game we were licking our fingers of rib sauce-just dominating them. I walked over to the coach and said, "I am eating your team's lunch and it was a girl who taught me to shoot better. He just stared cluelessly.
Candria was her name. A very good player. Not "for a girl" just a very good player. She noticed I had good lift but misaligned elbows. She taught me the shoulder tuck to keep straight on my release. It made me a 40 percent shooter from behind the arc. I am reminded of it because at the gym recently some dad was saying the same garbage to his boy, emasculating him, and I stepped in and said that if he were playing like girls I know, he might actually be making his shots.
Even as a kid that term just hit wrong. My own dad was out of the picture, so whenever I heard "playing like a girl" what I really heard was "girls get to be secretaries, boys get to be CEO's." I was am still am resentful of how much harder it was for my Mom to advance in the workplace, and my wife, with a triple masters degree being treated as if she were common, while watching unqualified men run companies and nations into the ground.
Why am I writing this? In my heart of hearts, there are so many Democrats I love. Joe, Liz, Beto, Amy, the list goes on. But it is time America. It is time to send a woman to the White House. It is time to finish the destruction of the glass ceiling. I am proud to have "played like a girl" with the help of a young woman, and would be proud to vote for a woman so that this country can wrest free of the shackles of misogyny and ignorance.
If the primary proves the best person is a male, fine. But my preference for many reasons is a powerful woman. I think I am also tired of Beltway wisdom pushing the "Midwestern white male" theme. Look Senator Klobuchar is Midwestern. Educated. Completely qualified and capable. And there is no but, there is no "not bad for a girl," no equivocation. I think she would be a fantastic President and I have my eyes seriously focused on her potential candidacy.
I can still shoot. I was smart enough to listen to someone talented and self-improve. I use that same trait to vote.
And boy oh boy do we need to self improve. For the first time in years I want to hear the success of this nation personified by one sound:
Swish. And I think it will take a woman to straighten out our jumpshot.
How In The Blankety Blank Is This Possible?
Before a movie, (Holmes and Watson for the love of the good Lord or the spiritual guide of your choosing please, no) my Wife said an Ipsos poll showed that 47 percent of Americans blamed Trump for the shutdown, 33 percent Democrats, and 7 percent congressional Republicans. Overall the numbers continue to suggest a 55 Democratic percent majority in 2020, but how in the world, when Trump explicitly takes responsibility for it, on national TV, does less than 50 percent blame him for it? WHEN HE TOLD THEM TO BLAME HIM FOR IT?
How can a people this obtuse continue functioning as productive citizens? How do they tie their shoe laces?
BTW, H&W has me wondering if people who make wretched cinema should face some kind of suspension for offenses against mankind. This movie was beyond bad. It was something more transcendent than that. It was the kind of things that upon seeing, might make aliens get back on the ship and leave.
Anyways, (close rant.)
Who is Better Than Hill?
We have discussed Amy Klobuchar, who has more of a VP vibe to me in terms of charisma but could be a great administrator.
We have discussed Joe.
We have discussed Beto, Kamala, Hick, etc. .
We have discussed ad nauseum, Gillibrand and the anger towards her for Al. She does play better than most realize on TV. Although Al could run himself. Maybe he should. Why not? Why are we always apologizing over spilt milk when the other side lets a dairy spoil?
But the best person for this job is still a woman and her name is Hillary. I am not talking about electoral viability, or popularity. I am talking about down to business mess cleaning. The only other person close is Joe, but I am concerned about his role in the Bankruptcy reforms of the past.
I am not saying she is the most progressive, although she far exceeded even Barack in that vote category. I am not saying she is the best person to drink beer with. I am saying she can go in and fix a mess. A huge, ugly, embarrassing mess. We as Democrats have every right to pick and choose deliberately and intelligently, but she has every right to make her case. And if the biggest problem with re-nominating her is "selling her" to the electorate, that is an us problem, not a her problem. We run from anyone attacked by Faux News. (SEE AOC, for example.) Something to think about as we approach an election requiring a President who can do the job, not just look good while being in the job. I am not decided. I don't have to be. Let the process play out. I am just asking why Hillary shouldn't be able to play too?
On Senator Warren
1. She is an excellent an tireless asset to our party.
2. Not sure why it is so hard to believe a native Oklahoman has native American blood.
3. Not sure why it matters.
4. Do not like the trend of genetic testing. This whole Ancestry obsession dovetails troublingly with a larger rise in nativism.
5. I am a lot of things. Lost track in fact. Not sure why I should actually care beyond how to treat a disease or something.
6. If this keeps her from being able to run for President we suck as people.
7. If something this trivial causes someone to remove support, their never was support.
8. We need to defend each other against this garbage. I don't care what Republicans find themselves caught in, they defend each other. This benefits them. This is a strong woman being undermined by a stupid story and a complicit media. (Sound familiar)
9. If we want strong women we should do more than talk. We should act. We should go watch Ms. Claire Foy in her heroine film, we should applaud when Mila Kunis stands up to define herself and we need to stop a wingnut in their rhetorical tracks when one of our own are slandered.
10. Without exception.
11. I would be proud to have her as our President.
12. We should be so lucky.
Why I Turned On The Hate U Give
Spoilers-stop reading now if seeing this film is important. It wasn't the performances. It wasn't the rawness of subject. I am white, and what I saw was a sell out ending. I saw the bad guy in the neighborhood "get his" in the end because of "heroic" white cops.
So the cop gets off. That is real life. But wouldn't a much happier result be bad guy seeing some light? Or at least the viewer being given a shade of gray as to HIS desperation? A large point is that there IS NO economy to speak of in inner city black communities. This guy probably didn't want that kind of life-and the idea that the Father reformed is noble, but ultimately, trite. An all too black and white situation in a world filled with grays.
I think if you take that ending as anything other than seasoned for white taste buds you are deluding yourself, and that makes the conclusion a sell-out moment.
The fact is white people will walk out of the theatre thinking, "Bad black thug gets his, extraordinary black Dad prevails, order restored. This is garbage. The biggest problem in the black community is not any one criminal, it is so much more complicated than that, and my brain can't possibly speak cogently on it without at a minimum, years of continued study. Even still, a system designed to perpetuate and exploit poverty is to me, a bigger problem than a desperate kid turned kingpin for lack of better ideas.
My takeaway-"This white cop had his reasons." "He isn't a bad guy, anyways, he isn't like these good white cops who had the good sense to ONLY POINT a gun at a child." Writing this I am getting angrier. But I am in one of my moods. I am open to enlightenment as to what I am missing.
Where Are 10 Million Votes?
According to the U.S. Elections Project, http://www.electproject.org/2018g almost 117 million people voted in the midterm. The most up to date two-party total shows 105. Where are these votes?
Can someone update the most accurate two party totals?
On Congresswoman-Elect AOC
I do not know this woman, so I will not speak about her personally. The public image she is portraying in my view is one of large ego and self-importance, and my concern is that she will become the poster-child for the millennial stereotype, which like any stereotype is unfair and short-sighted.
My larger problem with her is that I believe she needs to at least see how this Congress handles business before she squawks about who needs to be primaried. Competition is fine, and many times, there is great benefit to a healthy exchange of viewpoints, but it seems she is the type to enjoy gratuitous confrontation and this worries me.
It is fine to take a breather and look around, learn, evolve, evaluate, and then opine. It is not a rejection of her willingness to lead. It is not a sexist thing, it is not a youth thing. It is a know the score before you call a play thing. It is a remain unified as much as possible thing. It is a family thing. Such strong pre-conceived notions make me worry she has antipathy towards Democrats and lacks perspective for me to trust her as one. It is a Tulsi thing. Which was a Bernie thing, which is a HE IS NOT a Democrat thing, and you get the picture..
The politics of ready, fire, aim at YOUR OWN party is not a platform, it is a political calamity in wait.
Leadership is not constantly talking.
It is constantly learning.
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Member since: Fri Sep 28, 2018, 05:01 AMNumber of posts: 229