Get Off the Freaking Floor and Quit Whining

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Saturday November 12, 2016 · 10:30 AM PST

2016/11/12 · 10:30

That's right, I said it. I dragged my gobsmacked walloped backside up off the floor and now it's your turn. We lost. We are angry. We are hurt. We can't seem to get enough air. But if we begin to act like Republicans, we are no better than them. We have listened to them whine for 18 months and now we are doing it ourselves. We have tons of work to do to stop these lunatics and save our country from their radicalism and we can't do that if we are wallowing in self-pity. Our energy will be desperately needed for things that make a real difference very soon and we need to get ready for what is coming, not what has passed.

Valient Dragon

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Thursday November 10, 2016 · 5:26 PM PST

2016/11/10 · 17:26

This is long. Sorry, but you can print it and post it and use it as a check list. Enjoy

Ok Progressives. Ok Liberals. Ok Democrats. Ok Blue People everywhere. We got our butts kicked. Not by the people of America, but by the Electoral College. And, that is how our founders wanted it. Yes, HRC won the popular vote. But 7 MILLION fewer of us showed up to vote for her so we lost in EVERY battleground state. Did we know what was a stake? Yep and we stayed home believing crazy racist terrified old white people would not crawl out of their holes. Oops.

FIRST THE RANT In Flint, the population stayed home because …. well they thought Republicans would do more to help them than she would?

North Carolinians stayed home. All those souls to the polls people showed their disapproval of the godly woman who stood by her husband through 41 years of marriage to make it work just “like the Bible tells us so” and silently voiced their disapproval of Bill.

People in Detroit stayed home to show solidarity with the Trumpster. Factory workers in Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania turned out in droves for the guy who does not make a single thing in American factories, who uses undocumented immigrants to build his stuff and works with a union busting coalition of Republicans and Kochs. Coal miners in West Virginia came out because Trump promised he would bring back coal as a primary energy source. Ummm this is just stupid but it happened.

Millenials in Florida wanted “Bernie or Bust” and now they are busted. No education reform. No student loan help. No affordable college. Or better yet, they posted a protest vote to show disapproval of “both” candidates based upon what?

America voted for a TV reality star with no experience and no clue. It is not surprising uneducated white guys and educated white guys and uneducated white women voted for him. Nothing to see here. What was shocking was the educated white women that covered their daughter’s eyes while pulling the lever for the man who brags about sexual groping. What is shocking is the elderly that voted for the party that has been systematically trying to dismantle Social Security for 70 years and Medicare for 50. And you guys gave them full control over ALL branches of government just to make sure once it is repealed, you can never get it back. What was shocking was the military personnel that voted for the “merica” where Republicans have cut the VA, the GI Bill, veterans services and made soldiers pay their combat pay back, headed by a draft-dodging Putin loving uninformed torture promoting ignoramus that wants to kill the family and children of people they disagree with and give Iraq nukes. WTF!?

To the mother with a child with asthma…no more doctors for you. In the first 100 days that medical care you are griping about will no longer be a problem. To those suffering from cancer…well, everyone dies sooner or later. I know…that is what they told me until my Obama Care kicked in, and, as I have been informed repeatedly since the election, I should feel blessed now.

There. I have said it. But that is just beating dead horses. That is just shouting to the deaf.

So what now?

Trump and the Republicans have promised us several things from the wish lists we have fought against for decades. Here is a 12 point plan to implement immediately. It won’t stop them completely but, it will slow them down until we can fix it.

The Wall. We need to start arranging protests everywhere we see the bulldozers and builders show up. We don’t need to let anyone in across the border, we just need to make sure we don’t end up with East Berlin. Put together a coalition of friends, family and like-minded individuals to show up and peacefully protest EVERY time. If a small group of Sioux Indians can stand up and protect our water from 2 countries, a militarized police force, and an army of private security bullies, we can keep a few concrete blocks from showing up on our borders. Oh… and the wall going up in Canada? They are trying to keep US out. Yep…we are now the Zombie Apocalypse trying to cross into the promised land.
We need to protect our neighbors and especially their children from “deportation teams” and “vetting squads”. We need to form neighborhood groups and stay in contact with our immigrant friends. They need to know that America is not the horror they are about to witness…only the stage upon which some bad actors will have couple of years to harass them.
We need to find out about sponsoring immigrants. This way we can protect our friends by offering them the necessary “support” needed to remain here while we fight for them in court.
We need to be vigilant in protecting the LGBTQ in our communities. Get to know them, make sure they know you will act a a safe place for them. Don’t stand by and watch if they are harassed or threatened. If you can’t protect them, call someone, anyone. Use your camera to record and make sure they know they are not alone.
Stomp out bullying for LGBTQ, and religion, and immigrant status and color. Elections for school boards across this country will begin soon. Get on a board and establish anti-bullying platforms — not against kids but against hate. Every kid has a bad day, but no kid should have a bad life, or be permitted to make it bad for another because the parents didn’t teach them basic manners and compassion.
We need to talk to our girls about birth control Calmly, quietly and truthfully. If they are approaching, or already in, child-bearing phase (first period makes that happen no matter how tiny they are) and make sure they are protected from pregnancy, STD and unwanted sexual advances. We need to teach them “NO” and give them pepper spray or martial arts training or bring big stick and teach them how to use it. Trump goes on trial for RAPE in December. This is not a joke. Teach them that knees are not just meant for squats.
We need WAY more female and minority judges to protect our youth our women and our communities. “Tough on crime” means keeping “those” people where the white guy thinks they should be. Start running for the judiciary. Even traffic court but get out there. All of you run for President or officer of your local Bar Association and sit on Committees so our voices are not drowned out in the Interregnum to come. They will use the courts and agencies and we need to get there first or keep them from getting a strong foothold.
Religion. Places like the Bible Belt and Florida are about to become battle grounds for Muslims. We need to embrace our Muslim communities. Work with them and make sure they know that the hate they are about to feel is not form our Country but from our Neanderthals. Remember we did progress beyond Neanderthal but it took standing up to make it happen. We need to AGGRESSIVELY reach out and open lines of communication, safe zones, telephone banks and trees and if you see something, say something. It is a very real danger that Trump and the Republicans ignorant and hate-filled policies will lead to radicalization of people that would otherwise never think to participate in something stupid, will do so. Especially the young who are terrified or who feel powerless to protect themselves and their families. Make sure they know YOU are not one of those hateful people and stand with them. Engage with them. Open your home and your heart and make sure our true America is what all the world sees.
We need to make sure that the Evangelical Illuminati are not permitted to grow. They are already infecting government and schools and hospitals and universities and neighborhoods. That is fine. They have a right to be here. But the clear thing is that they don’t believe we have the same right. I am a Christian, but I stand against Evangelical dogmas and abuses every day. You must protect your neighbors, your LGBTQ friends, your immigrant friends, your Muslim friends, our minorities, and all of our daughters from these groups. I think, in their heart, they feel justified, but righteousness empowers one to feel self-righteous and that is always dangerous for the human race.
Spend the next day or week or month healing from the shocks and the OMG messages you will be seeing and hearing. It is ok to grieve but it is not ok to become powerless. The first thing we need to do is start signing up blue people in every state. Get them ready for the 2018 Congressional/Senate/State/Governor/local elections. Find people willing to run. Young and old, flawed and pretty cool and STOP EATING OUR CANDIDATES FOR NOT BEING PERFECT. You have to hand it to the Republicans on this one, they will take anyone and get them elected. All you have to do is look at Bush or Trump or Rick Scott to know they don’t care about qualifications, intelligence, honesty, integrity or country. Blue People turn on each other for having a bad hair day. STOP THAT. We are electing people, not saviors. Bankruptcy? Ok Illegitimate children? Several marriages? A cheating husband? A DUI when you were 23? Smoking pot? Ge the F&&k over it. Can they do the job? Yes or No. That’s it. Gossip in your own home but not at the ballot box.
Turn off the television and eliminate talk radio. PBS and NPR are now owned by the Koch Brothers..those bastions of honesty and American values… and all they want is power. Think of television and radio as having little beams that get into your brain and start eating your gray matter. If you see Trump…turn him off. If you see his people…turn them off. If a pundit wants to talk about them…turn them off. The one thing Trump and ANY of his followers cannot stand is being ignored. Want to keep them off their game? Make sure they have to keep jumping up and down just to get you to notice them and then ignore them. The only time to ignore this advice is if they are doing any of the things above. Then put your plans into place to help the innocent as much as you can. Remember heroes don’t do big things, they do small things every day that end up making all the difference in the end. And heroes don’t promote or listen to lies just because it agrees with them.
Stand up for what you know is right. The Thanksgiving table may be a little quieter this year for fewer guests. But you would not tolerate a stranger harming a member of your family or a friend or someone you work with. Don’t allow your family to do it either. Don’t worry, this is sort of like a 3 year flu. They will begin feeling better as soon as the snake oil wears off and you can help them heal over time. But do not empower them to abuse you or anyone else you know or they will never heal and the snake oil will tarnish their very souls. If you want to save them it is up to you to just say NO.

I didn’t number this one because every Blue Person knows this. We must stand up for our youth of color. Black lives do matter. And notice there is no “only” there. All lives matter but all lives are not gunned down for skittles or playing with a toy gun at Walmart or sitting on their stoop at home. We must unprivitize prisons and take the profit out of locking people up. We don’t need a federal government for that. All of those things occur on the state level. We need blue governors and blue legislators for that. We need citizen committees to investigate police shootings, not cop squads checking their own. We need better training, a return to negotiation and de-escalation training and immediate firing of unqualified people. If we do our job right by the time Trump leaves office in 4 years, every prison system in America will be unprivitized and not for profit.

There is so much more we could do but make sure that all that voter registration activity continues We can fix this. We can fill the void with good works. We can stop them from implementing their entire radical agenda. We may not succeed at all of it, but for every small victory, we are one step closer to making our country and our party as clear and blue as the earth itself.

Don’t be discouraged. Be empowered. Now begins OUR time. This truly is the greatest opportunity Progressives and Liberals and Democrats have ever had. Don’t waste it on self-pity. HRC and Bernie and Obama got up and dusted themselves off and showed us how to do this. Let us provide for our children and the future by honoring those who brought us this far and grabbing our own power to actually be the change we want in the world. We Can Do This.

A similar article was posted in Liberal Nation Rising, a subsidiary of Politicus USA

Mob Rule is NOT the Rule of Law No Matter What FOX Says

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday November 05, 2016 · 10:26 AM PDT

2016/11/05 · 10:26

LOCK HER UP! THROW HER IN JAIL! IMPEACH HER! Sometimes even calling for her death.

For months I have watched the Republicans become more and more and more unhinged. Conspiracy theories are everywhere. Kelly Ann Conway and her little blonde and assorted white people go on CNN and Chris Matthews to spout what they know is absolutely false information. Brian Williams confronted Ms. Conway the other day on MSNBC stating that putting out false information about indictments against a candidate is misleading to voters and she said “Fine” then argued that the damage was done and the polls tightened and even though they knew it was false it helped Trump so that was ok.

In other words, lying about a lie you know is a lie, in order to get people to believe the lie you are telling is true, is okay as long at the lie you know you are telling gets people to act in a way they probably would not if they knew it was a lie because lying helps your candidate so the lie is justified because “we just tell it like it is” when we are lying.

I come from a family of right-wingers so I get blasted daily with all the conspiracy BS. Today, I read something on George Takei’s FB page and thought “this is so eloquently put it needs to get out there.”

I believe, sir, in the rule of law. Hillary was accused of wrongdoing in many instances, but no charges were brought. No evidence has ever withstood scrutiny. All of the power of Congress and all of the money and ambition of the GOP failed to produce a single instance of any illegal act. I will only call a person a criminal if the law has through due process been applied and the person adjudicated guilty. To do otherwise is to dishonor the values of our founders and to make a mockery of our system. The accusations you hurl are just that — accusations. No doubt they were cooked up in a partisan wet dream of epic proportions by the alt-right and gleefully shared by the reactionary twitterati until some ambitious Congressional aide decided it would make for great fodder for Fox News talking points for the Tea Party’s reelection chances. But they are not the truth, they never were the truth, no one could ever prove them true, and therefore I will give them the short shrift they undeniably deserve.

I have been saying it for years but RW people CANNOT hear. We are governed by laws, not opinions. If the evidence is not there after investigation, a person is not charged. If a person is not charged, they are not tried. If they are not tried, they cannot be found guilty. No matter what FOX says. If the evidence does not exist it is because it does not exist.

Millions of dollars of our money has been spent on RW conspiracies, dozens of congressional investigations, multiple FBI, Justice Department, NSA and private investigators, special prosecutors, hundreds of hours of testimony, millions of documents reviewed and there is no evidence no matter how many rocks they try to claim exist. That is not “above the law” that IS the law. Yes Mssrs. Gowdy and Chafetz those are called “laws” and we know you prefer “inquisitions” but you were born a few centuries too late.

The 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th an 14th Amendments protect us from the public’s “opinions” and force our culture to rely upon actual facts, evidence, testimony and documentation and lawful procedures. Not conspiracy theories or public opinion. Not pundit soundbites blasted 24/7/365 into our living rooms. Not righteous indignation fueled by misinformation and fear mongering and irrational hatred masquerading as “news”.

We are entitled to “think” whatever we want, no matter how misinformed, but we cannot “convict” or “lock up” anyone just because we don’t like them – or because people paid to lie continue to lie about lying and get our dander up. Clinton is not above the law…the people screaming to ‘lock her up” in defiance of the law are the only ones seeking that position.

Defiance of the law...no matter how right you think you are…is breaking the law. Testifying, turning over documents, participating in multiple investigations, giving hundreds of thousands of documents to dozens of law enforcement agencies, testifying multiple times without immunity and waiving your RIGHT to keep silent in order to comply with investigations is called DUE PROCESS.

Demanding that a person be convicted based upon your opinion despite the evidence is called mob rule.

Telling lies to convince people that the lies are true often enough that you begin to believe your own lies is pathological.

Lying about lying to justify lying is sociopathic.

A similar article was posted in Liberal Nation Rising, a subsidiary of PoliticusUS.

Trump IS the Republican Party-NONE of Them Will Honor the Election

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday October 20, 2016 · 9:43 AM PDT

2016/10/20 · 09:43

McCain, McConnell an Trump agree to subvert the election — McCain and McConnell plot to block any SCOTUS appointments by Clinton if she is elected.

OMG says the punditry on every cable station. OMG says the radio talk shows en masse. OMG scream headlines across the nation. OMG is heard from the table next to you at lunch. OMG screams FB and Twitter.

“Donald Trump is has refused to agree to accept the outcome of the election.” “Donald Trump is undermining our democracy by failing to stand by the most fundamental principles this country represents when it elects a President.” “Donald Trump is anathema to everything we as a people, as a nation, as a country have stood for for the last 240 years.” O-M-G!!

Yeah, well he is neither the first, nor the last, Republican to do so. As a matter of fact, that is the hallmark of the GOP since Obama was elected in 2008? Where have you been for the last 8 years?

Where were you when Mitch McConnell called a secret meeting the day after the 2008 election vowing to make sure that Obama did not get a single thing through Congress and every Republican joined him?

Where were you when Mitch McConnell and the ENTIRE GOP decided that the most important goal in dealing with the economic crash, bank crisis, housing collapse, destruction of millions of pensions, and rampant unemployment, was to make sure that Obama was a one term President despite an overwhelming turnout by the American people to elect him?

Where have you been while Republicans refuse to work; refuse to debate; refuse to do their jobs until the man chosen as President TWICE by the American people, leaves office?

Where were you when Republicans overwhelmingly agreed that the black guy in the White House was illegitimate…..year after year after year? They only stopped saying it and promoting it when they could use Trump as their poster child to say it for them.

Where were you when 37 Republican governors and state legislatures rolled back health care for women and families, and refused to abide by the laws of this country because they personally don’t like those laws?

Where were you the 34 times Republicans wasted our tax money trying to repeal Obama Care when we overwhelmingly voted to keep it in 2012?

Where were you when the Senate refused to even meet with a Supreme Court candidate because Obama chose him and they have left our Federal Courts overwhelmed and understaffed for 8 straight years?

Where were you when Paul Ryan refused to allow discussion on the floor of the House when 91% of the American people wanted to close the “no fly no buy loophole” after more than 100 Americans were slaughtered in a night club?

Where were you when the Senate filibustered every bill, even bills presented to give medals and commendations to our veterans, just to make sure there was no possibility that a duly elected President might succeed in the job “we the people” elected him to do?

John McCain vowing to join Mitch McConnell in defying the election results if Clinton wins

Where were you just last week when Mitch McConnell and John McCain agreed to block every single appointment and SCOTUS choice if Hillary Clinton is elected? How is that for not honoring the outcome of an election? For Obama they had the decency to wait until the day “after” the election.

Trump got his statement to defy the people directly from the GOP.

Donald Trump said EXACTLY what the ENTIRE Republican Party has been saying for the last 25 years.We have power and we don’t care what America wants. We don’t care what people vote for? We don’t care how many petitions or phone calls, or letters to your Congressmen.

We, the Republican Party, will decide. We, the Republican Party will obstruct, oppose, defy, and deflect anything and everything unless it suits our donors and our base? We the GOP don’t care that a majority of Americans have voted...we, the bloated elephant in the room….will decide what is best for America.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution...”

Yeah, well, Republicans don’t buy into that “stupid” Constitutional thing. They no longer honor their oath of office to “preserve, protect, and defend it,” They signed an oath to Grover Norquist instead.

Donald Trump made it clear last night that he is not willing, nor is he capable of, honoring one of the most fundamental precepts in our country. But he didn’t come up with that idea. He got the idea from the GOP playbook. He got it from McCain and McConnell and Ryan. Donald Trump is their creation. He is their mouthpiece. He is the very persona of their policies and views, and vision for this country.

The Republican Party has defied the people and they have promised to continue to do so no matter what the people decide. They despoiled their oath, and disregarded the people of this great nation for the last 8 years with absolute impunity. They have made new pacts with each other to before the election even happens, to continue their agenda regardless of what a bunch of pesky American voters tell them.

Screw America, they have a party platform and they will shove it down our throats whether we like or not. The GOP are, after all, patriots to their party. The country no longer matters.

There is a way to show them that the people of America will not tolerate Trump’s defiance of our most fundamental principles. That we will not stand for GOP disrespect of us as a people, nor their derision of our nation. Vote. Vote them out of office. Vote them back to the streets they look down upon. Start with John McCain and Paul Ryan and send them into historical oblivion.

You Thought You Shamed Her...You Shamed Yourself

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 10, 2016 · 2:20 PM PDT

2016/10/10 · 14:20

Today the headlines are filled with outrage that Donald Trump threatened to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and then jail Secretary Clinton if he is elected. That is an abomination. But it was not the most reprehensible and disgusting thing he did last night.

It is getting harder to describe reprehensible and disgusting. They have become so overused that they are losing their abhorrent meaning. Donald Trump has accomplished so many truly loathsome acts that my thesaurus is running out of words.

Watching him hulk over her like a menace, following her around the stage, invading her personal space in what women know is an attempt at dominance, scowling at her like an angry troll. Taking pot shots filled with lies and bluster. Pacing like a caged animal trying to stalk its prey. Glowering and pouting and sniffing and snorting and whining “she got 23 seconds more than me” while he talked over her like a ill-mannered 4th grader was all revolting. They are; however, what we have all learned is just “normal” “Donald being Donald.”

See the press is filled with men. The press is filled with women directed by men. The media is fixated on what they think they can get the most mileage out of. They are certainly not listening to women unless their body parts are described with vulgarity. They are certainly not concerned with sexism and victim shaming unless it involves a beauty queen or an E-Entertainment star or a soap opera rep escorting “locker room” boys from a big bus.

Last night, Donald Trump brought some women to that debate. Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick and Kathy Shelton. He held a press conference before the debate so they could say bad things about Bill Clinton...oh and claim Hillary was not “nice” to them… and then seated them on the front row in front of Hillary Clinton. I know, we all saw that. But how many of you SAW that.

So who were these women? Paula Jones was discredited and her lawsuit dismissed. Wait, she got money you say. What she got was a settlement to end an appeal. Her case never went to trial. After 8 years of claims, it was dismissed...on summary judgment.

Now for those of you who are not lawyers, summary judgment is a huge tool of lawyers. It says...look, we have reviewed the evidence, held depositions, filed motions, gone to pre-trial conferences and done a lot of lawyer things to develop our case. If there are ‘no triable issues of fact’ or no remedy available, then you ask the judge to put an end to the litigation and stop the case. A judge then reviews everything that each lawyer submits to prove their case and decides to either let the case go to trial or dismiss it because there is nothing there. The court dismissed the case. Jones filed an appeal. That is a very expensive, long, drawn out process where the best possible outcome for Jones would be to send the whole thing to go back to the court in order to continue the process that might eventually lead to a trial. Rather than do all that, Clinton settled and moved on. Jones got rhynoplasty, semi-nude photos taken of her in 1987 were published in a Penthouse spread and she later did an article in Penthouse complaining about the taxes.

Kathy Shelton came out recently to Trump’s buddy Steve Bannon and told a horrible story of being raped as as 12 year old girl. Hillary Clinton was the court-appointed public defender for the rapist. (That means she was ordered by a judge to represent the rapist). Shelton has garnered sympathy for that awful tragedy claiming Clinton helped her rapist “get away with it.” That is false. It is true that Thomas Alfred Taylor was not tried for the rape. However, he was sent to prison for it. Clinton negotiated a plea bargain in which he received a reduced sentence for his guilty plea. I know it is shocking that an attorney has to represent their client to the best of their ability, no matter how repugnant. Just ask Trump’s lawyers.

Kathleen Willey accused Bill Clinton of sexually groping her in 1993. After investigation, the US Office of Independent Counsel found that she had given false information to the FBI during the investigation, then lied about it when confronted, and changed her story regarding “material aspects of the case” when statements in her deposition testimony differed from her Grand Jury testimony. The US Office of Independent Counsel agreed not to prosecute her if she agreed to tell the truth. A friend of hers reportedly filed an affidavit claiming Willey tried to get her to lie to investigators in order to implicate Clinton. But Hillary wasn’t “nice” to her.

The last was Juanita Broaddrick. She claimed Bill Clinton raped her in 1978 while she was having an extramarital affair with her future 2nd husband. She did not report any claims for rape until just before Clinton announced his run for the Presidency in 1992. She later filed an affidavit stating it never happened. Then she changed her mind during the impeachment. Then she changed her mind after the impeachment. Then she said nothing until Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy in 2008 but she refused to talk to the media. Then she said nothing until Hillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee for President. This was after Broaddrick came out as a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.

Her case is far more complicated because it allegedly happened nearly 40 years ago. As a victim of rape, during the 1970’s I know that times have changed. However, I also never changed my story. I never signed a legal affidavit swearing that it didn’t happen. Claiming that Hillary Clinton’s husband raped her, if true, would be a bad thing for Bill Clinton. But she wasn’t’ there for Bill. She was there to humiliate Hillary. She was there to support her chosen candidate, Trump. She was there for headlines.

The true story here is not that these women have all been in the media asserting claims that Bill Clinton did or did not do things decades ago. But these women did not travel hundred of miles to confront Bill. These women were there to shame another woman. These women were brought to a Presidential debate. A PRESIDENTIAL TOWN HALL meeting, where our children are given homework assignments to watch and report on in class the next day.

These women were brought and placed in a seat of honor. A seat higher than Donald Trump held his own children and his wife. Donald Trump’s children and his wife were placed behind these women. They were placed second. These women were placed on the same row as Chelsea Clinton so that they could humiliate a former President and his child in front of that child’s mother. They were placed so that every time the camera panned onto Melania Trump, her stricken face was burned into our collective conscience.

They were showcased so that every time Hillary Clinton looked up in that small room they were the faces she would see. They were put there to shame Bill’s wife. They were put there to shame a Presidential candidate for unproven, unsupported, largely disproved allegations from more than 20 years ago. They were put there to victimize a victim by a man incapable of apologizing for his many transgressions. They were put there because Donald Trump thought that the correct response to referring to a woman’s genitals and bragging about his ritual sexual assault on women was to shame another man’s wife in the presence of his own. They were brought there by a leader of the Republican party that has attempted to shame Hillary Clinton for decades.

As I said in my article yesterday, Donald Trump is EXACTLY the face of the Republican Party. Mike Pence was proud of him. Mike Pence, that Christian-first man that preaches that a marriage between a man and a woman means for better or worse, was proud of his running mate for shaming a woman who stood by her vows, stood by her marriage, stood by her husband for more than 25 years of Republican’s visceral and dripping hatred of all things Clinton. He was proud of Donald Trump for degrading and embarrassing and victimizing the spouse.

Hillary is a far better woman that i am. She said “when they go low, we go high.” The problem is, there is never a bottom to their low.

The story in the media is that Trump threatened to put Clinton in jail. It should be that Trump is so low, so debauched, so craven, that he dragged our country into a filthy gutter that he dug and filled with 20 year old smut just so he could try to take focus away from lecherous descriptions of what he can do to women because he is a ‘star’.

He did that to someone’s mother. To someone’s grandmother. To someone’s daughter. He did that to a former President and a future President in front of God and a nation. Republicans stopped jumping ship to stand with Trump since “he did such a good job” at the debate. And Mike Pence was proud to stand with him….

Congrats to my running mate @realDonaldTrump on a big debate win! Proud to stand with you as we #MAGA.
Ã¢ÂÂ Mike Pence (@mike_pence) October 10, 2016

CORRECTION: A reader commented the following. ”One correction, before the debate started, Debate officials made trump’s people move them up into the audience. The plan was to also have those women walk out at the same time as Bill Clinton, and confront him. Thankfully officials got word of what was going on in time.”

Thank you for the correction. In other words, Trump/Guilliani were eve sleazier than I thought,

Donald Trump is EXACTLY the Face of the Republican Party.

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday October 09, 2016 · 10:16 AM PDT

2016/10/09 · 10:16

Karate Kid, fight scene.. Karate Kid (1984) — Karate Kid (1984) Fight scene "sweep the leg"

“Yeah! Sweep the Leg”“ yelled the rabid bully. His team cheered. “ It was offensive.

“I could stand in the center of Manhattan and shoot someone and I would not lose a vote.” That was offensive. But Republicans loved it.

“Mexicans are rapists and criminals.” That was offensive. But Republicans nodded. “Muslims should be banned.” “Qualifying tests should be required to be allowed into the country.” A wall between the US and Mexico. That is all offensive but Republicans embraced it.

Punishing women. Calling women fat, ugly, flat chested, “bleeding from their wherever” was offensive but Republicans rallied around him.

“Our military is a disaster.” “I know more than the generals do.” “John McCain is a loser” Republicans cheered for him. It was not offensive to them. “Nothing to see here” they said.

Harassing a Gold Star family, criticizing first responders, telling African Americans that they “live in hell” while speaking to mostly white and white supremacist crowds. That offended everyone BUT Republicans.

There is not one policy that Trump has stated that EVERY Republican in office does not support. He is just more vulgar and more bombastic. Show me one thing that Trump stands for that has not been repeated by Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly for decades. These men have been feeding upon and nurturing the bigotry and racism and misogyny that has been rampant in the Republican party for a very long time. Trump just wears a red tie, and brags about it. Not offensive...just party line.

Trump truly IS the face of the Republican party.

Dear Republicans:

You preferred your party over your country. Your petty prejudices against people that weren't like you. Your small mindedness that looked at "others" as less than you. You chose, supported, promoted and foisted a bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobe with delusions of grandeur upon our country and the world in YOUR name. Your surrogates and media puppets have pounded us over the head with it for 16 months proudly claiming him as your leader.

Donald Trump thinks groping women and grabbing them by their private parts and discussing how “f*&^able” they are as his right as a “star” is suddenly offensive to you.

But you don’t get to say "it was disgusting". This is who he is — and you knew. This is who he has been — and you knew. This is what you wanted — and you got it. This is what you created — and he is all yours.

No. You don’t get a pass.

Any Republican that stood with Trump before Friday was a hypocrite to all American values. All this latest debacle by Trump did was expose his followers for what they are. Trump has always been exactly what that tape exposed. Did you just hear him for the first time?

The ghost of Reagan that you try to cling to with platitudes, was slaughtered on the alter of bigotry and hatred and misogyny that has become the bulwark of the entire Republican agenda. This is who Republicans are. It is who you have worked so very hard, and so very carefully, and so very deliberately to be, for a generation.

Shame on all of you. You don't get to claim you didn't know. You knew. You agreed. You celebrated. You turned out in droves. You voted. You intimidated people that didn’t look like you, or agree with you. You fed the hate and fear. You thrived on it. You created media empires and an oligarchy built upon it while stealing our votes and our voice in massive sweeps across the nation.

You stood by and supported Trump while he slammed our veterans, our women, our elderly, our LGBTQ, our immigrants, all minorities, Muslims, the disabled, the overweight, Mexicans, dead soldiers and their families. You raised him up after he ridiculed our POW’s, racially profiled our inner cities, belittled victims of violent crimes, and tried to capitalize on terrorism by criticizing our first responders and law enforcement.

He has lied with pathological sociopathically driven ferocity so many times that fact-checking agencies cannot keep up with him while your surrogates and apologists bombard us with excuses, and insult us for being offended. He has been accused thousand of times of ripping off, cheating, and defrauding millions of Americans, and you call that “success.”You “punched people in the face” and bragged how that freed you from political correctness.

You spent 8 years trying to make the first African-American President irrelevant, illegal, invisible and anti-American. You participated and drove a movement of hate and intolerance and ignorance led by the very same man you have chosen to represent your party. The man who brags “more Republican voters turned out to vote for me than in any other Republican primary in history.” Yes, that was you.

Now that something finally offended enough white people, Republican rats are abandoning the Trump ship they launched upon the world. Kelly Ayotte, Pat Toomey, John McCain, Jason Chafetz, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Todd Young, and Ron Johnson, who “suddenly” discovered that Trump is an abomination, are running for the exits screaming “vote for me, I ‘no longer’ support Trump.”

With only 30 days left, they are jumping ship to save themselves, not to change their platform. Those “Republicans of character” hurling themselves overboard in search of a life boat want to keep their fall back guy Mike Pence. A bastion of anti-women, anti-Planned Parenthood anti-choice, anti LGBTQ, pro-WConversion Therapy, 1st Amendment bashing, anti-equal protection, anti-14th amendment, anti-immigrant, voter suppressing even whiter version of the Republican agenda. You know the non-offensive guy.

Donald Trump’s recent comments were not just vulgar. They were admissions of crimes. They were admissions of assault. They were admissions of entitlement that says he believes he can grope women wherever and however he wants. They were admissions of adultery while his brand new wife was at home pregnant with his child. If you can find an excuse for any of that within yourself, you have no moral high ground upon which to perch your hypocrisy.

Your true souls cannot hide anywhere in the universe. Look far and wide, to every star and every galaxy and every nebula and know that every subatomic force of life knows who, and what, you are. You can’t even blame Trump any more. You can only blame yourselves. You are the face of Trump. The Republican Party. Yellow, white and orange to the core.

Cowards Have No Shame

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday June 23, 2016 · 11:12 PM PDT

2016/06/23 · 23:12

Yesterday, I posted an article that Paul Ryan was the one man that stood between the citizenry and the NRA. Since then, much has happened and much more will happen in the coming days. But one thing is certain, Paul Ryan and the entire Republican party are cowards. No, that is not a political statement, or a partisan statement. It is a factual statement. Like all cowards, they will deny their obscene cowardice. Regardless of how Republicans try to portray themselves, the issue deserves to be addressed because lives are at stake and the fate of a nation rests upon the actions of cowards.

Punditry will tell you that Paul Ryan is a nice guy. A stand up guy. A real patriot. Bull puckey.

I am a nice person, but my Republican friends think I am a nut case. I am a kind person, but my Tea Party friends think I am am a threat to our democracy. I love everyone, even people I don't like, but the Right and Christians and Donald Trump supporters find me to be hateful, spiteful and anti-American. I am none of those things, but the point is perspective.

From my perspective, there is no valid reason to avoid a vote on universal background checks and "no fly, no buy" legislation. Nor is there a valid reason to avoid these policies supported when they are supported by 94% of America including NRA members, gun owners (of which I am one), or Constitutionalists (of which I am one) or of Civil Rights advocates (of which I am one).

All that being said, Paul Ryan blew it last night, and then he doubled down nuked it today. Just like in 2000 when Al Gore lost the election. The day Gore tried to show up GWB on the debate stage, GWB turned and derisively looked at Gore and showed him to be a white color dweeb that any red-blooded cowboy could beat with a mere look and saunter across the stage. It was a decisive moment in that campaign and Gore lost the election that day. That moment happened for Paul Ryan yesterday, and today he took his toys and gathered his gang and went home 2 days early instead of being a big boy and actually doing something...I don't know.....leader-like.

Paul Ryan had one moment. One single moment to flex his "all powerful" Speaker of the House, third in line to the White House moment. What did he do? He swept into the House, gaveled it into session and brought forth a single vote. What was that all important vote after 10pm on a Wednesday night? It was a vote to overturn a veto in which President Obama protected the elderly and the common citizen from predatory investment advisers. Paul Ryan took the position that advisers should be able to rip off the elderly and the consumers and limit the fiduciary responsibility of advisers. Republicans overwhelmingly supported ripping off Americans.

Shame on you Paul Ryan. Shame on you Republicans that voted for it. Shame on Congress. Shame on all of you. Wait, the Democrats voted to support those protections for consumers and the elderly and, as usual, the Republican majority carried the day. Damn them. Again, the Democrats got it right but no one noticed.

The scary part of this is that what should defeat a coward has become media talking points that saves the coward. OK He is a great dad. He is a great husband. He is a "true patriot" and he "really feels" the weight of his office. Good. Even so, he works for, represents, and promotes the NRA. Period. And if one has a checkbook big enough...well, who knows.

Paul Ryan forgot that "Speaker of the House" means the whole House, not just the NRA donors that dominate it. He forgot that being third in line to running the country means he has to represent the country, not just his tiny slice of Wisconsin or his slightly larger slice of Republicans. It means he cannot be the "lap dog of the NRA."

Pretty sad for a guy that refuses to acknowledge that he should represent the 94% of Americans that support common sense gun legislation, but pretty awesome for a guy who gets massive contributions from the NRA and who has Wayne LaPierre on speed dial to find out what he is allowed to think, and pick up his talking points memo on gun legislation.

Make no mistake. House Democrats stand no chance of beating the NRA because every single Republican, and Paul Ryan belong, heart and soul, to the NRA. They do not think on their own. They do not act on their own. They do not give a hoot about their constituents unless they are ordered to do so by the the NRA. The number of bodies that pile up can be relegated to "terrorists" or "fringe" or "mentally ill" people that just "accidentally" got access to guns. The NRA will "protect them." Every single Republican probably calls the NRA to ask what they are allowed to have for breakfast. The Kochs decide lunch, and apparently Wall Street has the evening hours.

Everyone decries the influence of Citizen's United and the Koch Brothers. These folks offer a pittance compared to the NRA when it comes to campaign influence. No one - I mean one one - not Democrat or Republican, wants to be out-primaried by the NRA. Ask Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Joe Manchion (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT) how easy it is to sell your soul. No high ground for Democrats there, but they are not up for re-election until 2018.

We cannot hold out for 2 1/2 weeks of sit-ins because the media that will get bored within 24 hours. With the Brexit vote that splits the UK with the EU, a few Democrats standing on principle and trying to protect Americans, will never be noticed. The sleeping bags and pink striped pillows in the well of the US House of Representatives will never make cable circuit. But it was a start.

Democrats stood up. They fought back against the cowardly bullies. For once, the Democrats found their chutzpah. There is a real and palpable difference between Demcrats and Republicans. There is a real and palpable difference in what we fight for, and how we fight for common sense. There is a real and palpable difference between who will stand up for average Americans, the middle class and the poor.

The letter "D" represents "hard work" and that is something Republicans believe is beneath them. Don't be fooled. There is only one party that represents the people these days. Maybe it wont' always be that way, and maybe it hasn't always been that way. But right now, this day, in this time, in this election, there is only one party that cares about the America run by citizens. They are called Democrats. The other party represents the NRA, corporations, and the wealthy that pay them to vote against Americans. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

*This article was originally posted in Liberal News Network, a liberal blog published by PoliticusUSA.com

Bernie Vindicated, but Not His Campaign Staff

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday April 30, 2016 · 3:07 PM PDT

2016/04/30 · 15:07

He said....They said...The media said....but...What?

Reports abound on Social Media and internet blogs:

JUST IN: Bernie Sanders Vindicated In DNC Firewall Allegations, Drops Lawsuit Against Them“ from BiPartisanReport.com

Bernie Sanders Vindicated In DNC Firewall Allegations, Drops Lawsuit: PostedToday.com

Headlines like these erupted into all sort of posts against Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, the DNC and even Hillary Clinton. So, is it true?

Depends on how you phrase it. Bernie Sanders was never indicated in any claim of “stealing” data from the DNC. However that does not mean his “campaign” was not found to have been involved in data mining and unauthorized access to private information. The DNC did stop Sanders’ campaign from accessing data for 24 hours or so while they investigated what happened. That is when allegations of “cheating” and “bias” began against everyone BUT Bernie.

Let’s be clear before #BernieorBust thinks I am attacking him or StormisComing starts posting that I am a Hillary drenched commie-neo-liberal hack. When the data breaches came to light Bernie immediately fired 4 staffers who were believed to have committed the hacking. (Yes, hacking, Claiming it was a ‘vulnerable firewall” means they went looking for it and breaching it once they found it is hacking). Bernie, to his credit, did not tolerate, even for a minute, the actions of the 4 individuals that allegedly improperly accessed confidential information belonging solely to Hillary Clinton. What Bernie got upset at was that the DNC cut off his access to the database for 24 hours while they investigated the breach.

Bernie filed a lawsuit against the DNC claiming his campaign was innocent of the allegations and claiming breach of contract by depriving him of access to the database while investigating the unauthorized access.

Let us start from there. Here is how a lawsuit works. (Simplified VERSION just to make the article interesting. However, it pretty well sums up all the important parts without getting into legal details, specifics, and arguing over the meaning of the word “if”. This is just a diary after all).

Scenario: Say someone (say BOB) accuses you of something that is false. Say you also have a contract with BOB for access to certain information, and BOB won't give you access to that information because of what BOB accused you of in the first place. What do you do?

In politics, the first thing you do is have your campaign manager accuse BOB of being dishonest. Then you tell the media your story and claim BOB is actually helping another candidate by cheating and BOB’s establishment is against you. After the political part is done, you file a lawsuit. You sue BOB because you claim your good name has been damaged and you want to prove your innocence. (This is not a criminal case where you are innocent until proven guilty, that is another diary for another day.) You tell the judge that you were damaged, and ask the judge to punish BOB (usually for money) You also tell the judge that BOB breached (didn’t follow) your contract because BOB wouldn’t give you information you were entitled to, and that damaged you too. You don’t tell the judge about the political part because that makes the judge unhappy.

Now BOB will come back and tells the judge that BOB did not lie about you, that everything BOB accused you of is true and BOB can prove it. BOB also tells the judge that if you, or someone that worked for you, did all those things, you breached (didn’t follow) the contract and it was BOB, not you, that was damaged.Then, in politics, BOB shows the media that you fired 4 people from your business for doing exactly what BOB said those people did at the time BOB said those people did it. BOB then goes on the late-night talk show tour to claim BOB was right and no one was cheating you. (Notice BOB went to the judge first and did politics second. Judges get very unhappy if you put politics in before them when he/she wants Answers. Trust me when I say the judge does not care about the politics even a little bit).

You and BOB agree to an investigation by someone everyone can agree about and you wait to find out what the investigator says. Now let’s replace BOB with the DNC and you with Bernie and cheating “other candidate” with Hillary (she hasn’t been falsely accused of anything in a while and we don’t want her to feel left out).

Fast Forward: The investigation is complete. It turns out DNC was right. It turns out 4 people, (probably the same 4 people Bernie fired) did use 4 unauthorized user accounts from Bernie’s 2016 campaign during a 1-hour period and those 4 people conducted 25 searches, saved those searches somewhere, and downloaded information that did not belong to Bernie. The information belonged to Hillary, and there is no evidence that anyone else did anything like that even though Bernie’s campaign (not Bernie) called them cheaters. Now what?

Politically, Bernie’s campaign puts out statements that Bernie and his people never did anything wrong but he is going to ‘voluntarily drop” his lawsuit, (because Bernie is a great guy who does not like all this ugliness) and “voluntarily withdraw” his breach of contract claim.

Here is an example of a press release to help you:

“In its statement on Friday announcing the withdrawal, Sanders’ campaign also strongly maintained that it never deliberately stole information. The Sanders campaign never ‘stole’ any voter file data; the Sanders campaign never ‘exported’ any unauthorized voter file data; and the Sanders campaign certainly never had access to the Clinton campaign’s ‘strategic road map..." (As reported in Politico on April 30, 2016 and by Eugene Scott, CNN Politics, Washington, April 29, 2016).

Sounds pretty impressive. But there are a few problems. Why, if Bernie was innocent, and the DNC falsely accused him and damaged his good name is he “voluntarily dropping” his lawsuit? Why, if no one accessed Hillary’s information, and no one downloaded or copied anything, is he “voluntarily dropping” his breach of contract action? Do the 4 people he fired now have a claim for wrongful termination? Can they sue Bernie for damaging their good name and reputation? What about real news sources and political blogs that don’t agree. Some of them are so pesky with details.

Pesky Source I:

"The independent investigation by CrowdStrike,” agreed upon by the Sanders campaign and the DNC, “identified evidence of unauthorized access via four user accounts from the Bernie 2016 campaign. All unauthorized access occurred during a one-hour period from 10:41 to 11:42 EST on December 16, 2015.”

“During that time, the four users conducted 25 searches using proprietary Hillary for America score data across 11 states. All of the results of these searches were saved within the VoteBuilder system, with the exception of one instance where a user exported a statistical summary of a search using HFA scoring in New Hampshire,” the DNC statement said. “CrowdStrike found no evidence of unauthorized access by the Hillary for America or O’Malley for President campaigns. (Quoted from Politico April 30, 2016).

Pesky Source II:

“The forensic analysis conducted by the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike confirmed that the DNC’s initial findings, which were the basis of the temporary shutdown in December, were accurate," said DNC communications director Luis Miranda in a statement.

"The audit confirmed that one campaign gained unauthorized access to the data of another, and the audit further confirmed that the results of those searches were saved within the system and that data was exported. Following the conclusion of the audit that confirmed the DNC's original findings, the Sanders campaign withdrew its lawsuit."

The DNC also provided a timeline that notes that the four Sanders staffers "conducted 25 searches using proprietary Hillary for America score data across 11 states." (The Hill , April 29, 2016 at 5:14 p.m.)

Pesky Source III:

The move came Friday as the DNC released its independent investigation of the breach , which confirmed much of what was already known about the event. During the breach, Sanders staffers accessed proprietary voter data owned by the campaign of front-runner Hillary Clinton. They conducted 25 searches over an hour. (Evan Halper: LA Times, Washington, April 30, 2016 at 3:05 p.m. )

CNN put it this way.

A DNC investigation, the results of which were also released Friday, concluded that the wrongdoing did not go beyond the four Sanders staffers who accessed the database and were fired soon after the incident came to light.

The Sanders team ran multiple searches in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and about 10 March states, including Florida and Colorado, after it noticed the error. One of the data sets it accessed was a Clinton spreadsheet that ranked voters' enthusiasm -- a potential opportunity for Sanders' campaign to target voters who were hesitant to support the former secretary of state. (Eugene Scott, CNN Politics, Washington, April 29, 2016).

Wait!

Are all of these sources saying the Sanders’ campaign did improperly access Hillary’s computer information? That the Sanders’ campaign did access 25 of Hillary’s files involving 11 states? That the Sanders’ campaign did download polling data about Hillary’s alleged “enthusiasm gap that they have been hawking since January?” Thank goodness it was only 4 “staffers” in the Sanders’ campaign that he immediately fired. Bernie did the right thing the moment he heard about it and he did it decisively when it happened. Thank goodness that data wasn’t “stolen”. I do wonder if “download” and “exported” means the same for LA TImes, CNN, Politico and The Hill as it does to the Sanders’ campaign. What now? Not to worry.

Solution:

Social Media. The place where truth is pliable, facts are for sissies and “we can circulate anything we want” holds high court with an informed electorate. (I am not being sarcastic, we are all informed by something). Surprisingly, neither FOX nor MSNBC touched this story with a 10-foot pole so far. They are with the judge on this one. They don’t have to decide so they are not getting into it unless they have no choice.

Bottom line: No one "vindicated" Bernie because "Bernie was never accused of anything. No one thought for a second that he would stoop so low as to steal from friends or play dirty with people he repeatedly claims he admires. Bernie’s campaign staff were accused and ......wait for it....the independent investigation agreed to by Bernie showed ....wait for it....the allegations were true.

No one ever came out from anywhere and said Bernie’s campaign “stole” information. The allegations have always been that Bernie’s campaign unlawfully and without permission accessed private information from the records of a competitor. When asked to attack Bernie on the issue during a debate right after it happened, Hilary Had “no comment” and stated “the party is handling it.” Even now, when it turns out that 25 of Hillary’s files and polling data from 11 states were accessed. Even now, when we learn data on one of Bernie’s favorite talking points was improperly accessed by Bernie staffers, Hillary, as of Friday, has “no comment” against Bernie. She has not gone negative about Bernie during this process. (To be fair, she did get a little testy about the Daily News article and Bernie calling her ‘unqualified” but that is another diary for another day).

Bernie and Hillary are not enemies. Hillary and Bernie will be friends even if their supporters are having difficulty with the friendship. Bernie wants to be part of the DNC so they don’t hate each other either. Bernie and the DNC will be friends even when Bernie’s people call the nice lady who runs the DNC nasty names.

The facts are simple. The situation is over and Bernie handled the 4 alleged perpetrators exactly as anyone would expect him to respond. Once he found out the allegations were true, he dropped his lawsuits and moved on. Nothing to see here. Move on.

So now, let the nastiness be over. Let us be accurate about how it ended. Most importantly let us all get back to the business of taking back the House, the Senate, and keeping the White House Blue.

Armageddon Cometh

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday March 20, 2016 · 9:48 PM PDT

2016/03/20 · 21:48

Armaggeddon Cometh

For those few who have read my little posts, this article may be a little lengthy and a little detailed, but it is my hope that you will read it, and be absolutely terrified by it. Once you get over that, make sure that whatever you do, wherever you are, VOTE. It quite literally may be the last time you ever get the chance.

Let’s start with the basics. Understand that the media’s job is not to inform you. It is to get ratings so they can charge for advertising. There are still a rare few that actually try to inform and report, (Rachel Maddow on Flint Michigan, Richard Engle on the Middle East, Christiane Amanpour on International News and Diane Sawyer as just a few) but most of the good ones have left us. The rest are paid to sensationalize, dramatize and conflagrate a story, any story, to maximize ratings. That is not a judgment on them, it is merely a reality since all television is driven by ratings, not facts. The internet reporters are not usually reporters and most have little, or no, journalistic training and the large majority are driven by political ideology, one way or the other. Don’t even get me started on radio.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am generally a Progressive, but I started as a Reagan Republican. I have supported both parties at some point in my adult life, and I try to stay informed but, like most of us, it is often difficult to keep up with all of it, all of the time. I do believe in moving forward, not looking back to “the good old days;” and I don’t believe our country is doomed or needs to be “taken back” ….yet. I have studied Constitutional Law as a student and for years as an adult. My passions are History in general an American History specifically. I have a profound love for my country and I believe in political discourse from all sides, even when I vehemently disagree with something. Ignorance is never your friend.

All that being said, what do you think would happen if one party hijacked the election? I am not talking about another Supreme Court anointing a President, or hanging chads, or unclear ballots, or recounts. I am talking about a straight up, right in front of us, hijacking of the White House. Not just for a particular candidate, but for the benefactors who have been trying to buy our government for years. I am talking about putting someone not even running for either party right now into the White House without getting a single vote in a single primary. Legally and simply and there is nothing we can do about it unless we vote before it happens.

Right now, you probably think I am nuts. So let’s look at this step by step.

Primaries and Caucuses:

Each party has a nominating process. There are similarities between them but each has a slightly different way of choosing their nominee. There are 2 basic ways each party has chosen to nominate a candidate. Caucuses, which are loosely organized voting precincts determined by either the state or the party. Voting can be done by raising one’s hand, writing a candidate on a piece of paper and counting the totals just like in the old days, voice vote etc. Candidates and supporters often campaign during the vote and try to get caucus member to switch within the precincts during the vote. That is not allowed in a primary.

A Primary is a closed ballot system in which each voter casts a secret ballot. The ballots are counted just like in a general election and the totals are reported to an authority like a Supervisor of Elections or Secretary of State or both. There are 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 US Territories; however not every state or every territory holds a Primary or a Caucus. For example, according to the GOP map, North Dakota does not hold either a primary or a caucus for the Republican nominee.

Who Can Vote?

There are 3 basic types of Primaries or Caucuses. First is “Dedicated” which means only voters from one party can vote in that election. Registered Republicans vote for Republicans, registered Democrats vote for Democrats and registered Independents and other parties don’t get to vote. “Open” means anyone can vote for anyone in either party. “Mixed” allows some hybrid mixture of both Open and Dedicated. These are rare and really confusing and this article is not designed to go into great detail, just give the basics.

Delegates

Each party awards “delegates” that go to the party convention and cast a vote for the candidate that won their state primary or caucus. This can get complicated so bear with me for just a minute.

Each state ‘awards’ delegates according to a formula chosen by each party before the Primary or Caucus. These can be “winner take all” like Florida or Ohio, or “proportional” like most states, or a “hybrid”. Each state gives a number of delegates for the popular vote and some give delegates for “districts” (sort of a bonus vote) and each party holds a set number of delegates that belong to the party.

For the Democrats, each Democratic Governor, House Member, Senate member and some high ranking state or party officials are given a vote called a “super delegate” vote. This was sensationalized predominantly by MSNBC to cause hysteria for Bernie supporters who were told “super delegates” were trying to “steal” the nomination. Roughly 15% of the total delegates are super delegates. These votes are not committed to any candidate until the convention in August but it sure does give the pundits plenty of grenades to hurl into the democratic primaries to rile up the left until then.

Republicans don’t use Super Delegates. Theirs is more complicated. They give out “at large” (popular vote) and a “bonus at large” based upon an unspecified formula of “past Republican electoral success” plus unspecified “congressional district” (3 per district) plus RNC member delegates (3 votes).

Okay that is it for the basics. Now, a little history.

Convention History

Four years ago, Republicans got a scary surprise when Ron Paul delegates nearly overturned the nominating process by “switching” votes at the convention. Actual violence broke out and it was an ugly fight to confirm Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee in the end. Ron Paul supporters left with a nasty taste in their mouths and the RNC added a rule to prevent something like that in the future. It is called Rule 40b. Basically to be nominated, a candidate must have won a dedicated majority of delegates from at least 8 states to be placed on the ballot. Only Cruz and Trump have done that so far, but Kasich could conceivably pull that off if he picks up 7 more states. A long shot, but if he sweeps the northeast it is possible.

In 1968, the Democrats got a shellacking when Hubert Humphrey was nominated without winning a single primary but was chosen as the party favorite. That did not end well, and the violence from the 1968 primaries is still alive in the minds of older voters. The Democrats are not big on voting against their constituents because it ended so badly with Humphrey and it took decades to repair the damage to credibility.

Summing up Conventions

What does all this mean? It means that just because you voted for your candidate in the primary or caucus, the party is not necessarily obliged to give that person the nomination. To win for the Democrats, the nominee must enter the convention with 2383 delegates. For the Republicans they must enter the convention with 1237 delegates. Otherwise, all bets are off. For the Democrats it goes to an open vote. For Republicans, it could get ugly.

How could Rule 40b affect the Republican nomination?

There are several possible scenarios

Someone enters the convention with 1237 votes-game over. He gets the nomination. Right now the only possible candidate is Trump
No one has 1237 votes so only those candidates with a majority of dedicated delegates from at least 8 states will be put on a ballot. Right now that would be a choice between Cruz and Trump. In the words of Lindsay Graham R-S. Carolina “It’s all like being shot or poisoned, you get the same result….” All candidates with a majority of dedicated delegates from 8 or more states would be put on a ballot and then voted on. Whoever wins a majority of the ballot “could” become the nominee
If no one wins a majority, the delegates can put forth candidates. Even candidates that have never run before. (Begin uneasy feelings of impending dread).
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have both registered with the FEC to run for President and Vice President of the United States as of February 1, 2016. (Disclosure, Romney claims he does this every year and it means nothing).
Are you feeling a little dread yet? Just to be clear, they could nominate David and Charles Koch as President and Vice President from here.
The Republicans can change the Rule 40b requirement up to 1 hour before the ballots are cast and do whatever they want. Scary, huh?

Republicans have been very vocal in their clear intent to hijack the vote at the convention to keep Donald Trump or Ted Cruz from getting the nomination. The “establishment” Washington Republican party with its solidly entrenched big donors and lobbyists are willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power. They have even suggested running a third party candidate. And that, my friends is where you should feel a shiver of dread run down your spine.

A basic lesson in Constitutional Law

I hear it mostly from Bernie and Trump supporters. “The President should be chosen by popular vote.” Ask Andrew Jackson, Samuel Tilden, Grover Cleveland and Al Gore how that worked out for them. Since our children are no longer taught real American History, most people today are completely unaware that, under the US Constitution, the President and Vice President are not elected by popular vote. They are elected by the Electoral College. This is not the place to discuss the merits of the Electoral College, but our Founding Fathers did not want us to elect the President in a popularity contest. They wanted the President to be chosen by learned men, with experience at governance and with the interest of the states to select the President and Vice President to act and speak for the country.

The Actual Constitution

Article II, Section 1. “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.”

In English, that means, each state legislature gets to decide who gets to be an Elector. Today, each state usually, though not always, has a “slate” of electors for each party. Each state usually sends the winning slate to Washington DC to cast their vote before the President of the Senate (Joe Biden this election) according to the results of the popular vote in each state. A few states allow electors to abandon their pledge and vote differently but most states consider that a crime. There is plenty of talk in Republican controlled states to allow electors to switch sides if a Democrat wins, but no state has actually done that yet.

Summing Up the Constitutional Voting Thing

So now that you are over your shock that you, John/Jane Q. Citizen, do not actually get to vote for President and Vice President under the US Constitution, take heart. Most state Constitutions do give you that right. But understand that can change at any time according to the state legislature, the state constitution, the state Secretary of State, and the state courts. Or the US Supreme Court.

One more thing about the Constitution – The Armageddon Rule

The Electoral College thing also requires that a Presidential candidate win 50%+1 of the Electors to be President. In modern terms that means 270 Electoral votes. If that does not happen, then the United States House of Representatives gets to choose the next President and the US Senate gets to pick the Vice President. That’s right. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell get to lead the vote. Congress will be in a ‘lame duck” session and many of the members of the House and Senate could have been voted out of office, but they will get to choose both the President and Vice President before they leave. Not the American people. Unless we vote. Unless we vote like we have never voted since Bush v. Clinton in 1992 (61.3% turnout).

Let’s be clear about this.

Say Trump gets the nomination and Clinton gets the nomination. Bernie and Cruz supporters decide to stay home and pout because their candidate did not get the nomination and it’s a tie. Then the US House and Senate will choose a President and Vice President. With Republicans in charge and only 2 slates of candidates, can you guess who they will choose?

Say either Trump or Cruz gets the nomination and Clinton gets the nomination and the Republicans run a third-party. *(Mitt Romney filed paperwork with the FEC to run as President on February 1, 2016 just days after his public shaming of Trump. He claimed on Matt Lauer that he is not running. Paul Ryan claims he is not running but then again he also claimed he didn’t want to be Speaker of the House. The same paperwork was also filed in 2013 and 2014 but not 2015). No one gets a 270 majority. From the top 3, the Republican House would choose Romney for President. The Republican Senate would choose Ryan as Vice President

Say Clinton gets the nomination and Trump gets the nomination and Sanders supporters decide to ‘write Bernie in”. No one gets the magic 270 Electoral votes. The Republican House and Senate will choose for us no matter how many votes a candidate gets.

Say both Trump and Bernie win the nomination. The Republicans run a third party No one gets 270 majority. The House and Senate decide again.

Say both Cruz and Bernie win the nomination and the Republicans run a third party. Barring the fact that Cruz is not eligible under any circumstances to serve as President (another article). Bingo. The House and Senate get to decide again.

Neither Cruz nor Trump win the nomination and the delegates choose a third party. Hillary gets the nomination and Bernie supporters refuse to vote. Third party wins. No one even knows who that is yet. Could be anyone. Could be Chris Christy and Michelle Bachman. Could be Sheldon Adelson and Ted Nugent. Could be Kanye West and Pat Robertson. It could be Grover Norquist and Ann Coulter. It could be Shrek and Donkey. Don’t laugh, House and Senate Republicans have not been dealing with reality for years.

Armageddon

In case you don’t get it, the last time the Congress chose the President and Vice President was in 1824. Andrew Jackson won the popular vote, but Congress chose John Quincy Adams. The first time they chose was in 1800 and it took 36 ballots to elect Thomas Jefferson by 1 vote. That was back when the people running the government believed in our government. The people running it today have no such respect for it. They are there for power and control. If we allow them to take power and control over the election of our President and Vice President, even once, and we allow them to stay in office in November, and we do not replace them in the state houses and governorships, they will NEVER give power back to the people. Why should they? If we don’t show up to vote, and they have to do it for us, why not try “strict constructionism” . Worked for Scalia. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

What Can You Do?

This election is the single most important election you may ever vote in. Remember it, because if you fail to act, if you fail to vote, your children and grandchildren may never get the opportunity to do so.

The world is watching us. Our reputation around the world has protected us. Our ‘shining city on a hill” is still shining even if it has been battered and bruised in recent years. We still have allies around the world and we still have enemies waiting for us to fail. It is OUR job to vote. There is only 1 scenario in which Congress will not take that right from us this year. If WE vote. If WE choose. If WE stand up and say, NO. Not on our watch. Not in our time. Not in this day and age will you take our right to choose the most powerful office in the world as we know it. We will not allow you to turn OUR White House into the joke that Congress has become. We will protect our heritage, our legacy, or history, our future and WE will decide.

If your candidate loses the nomination, swallow your disappointment and get out there and vote anyway. Otherwise, you are asking the most dysfunctional Congress in the entire history of this country to choose your children’s future. I hope you are terrified enough to get out and VOTE! Only you can prevent Ryan and McConnell from destroying one of the greatest countries in the history of the world in favor of hand-picked millionaires and corporations selected and promoted by the United States Supreme Court.

One last scary thought

Oh, and speaking of the Supreme Court. McConnell has made it clear that neither he, nor any of his Republican friends in the Senate will allow President Obama to appoint a Supreme Court Justice no matter how qualified or uncontroversial. The mantra from the Republican aisle is “the people should have a voice in deciding” and we will “wait till after the election.” Call me nuts. Call me confused. But if I was Mitch McConnell I would be asking, “who will decide this election?”

Sources:

Tricks and Triangulation Not New to GOP Delegate Process: Rachel Maddow, March 18, 2016; http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/tricks-and-triangulation-not-new-to-gop-647895107737?cid=eml_mra_20160320

Trump Fails to Cover Back Door Rival Delegates: Rachel Maddow, March 18, 2016; Interview with Doug Wead, Senior Advisor to Ron Paul 2012 Campaign; http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/trump-vulnerable-to-rnc-delegate-skulduggery-647901763866

The Official Guide to 2016 Republican Nominating Process; https://www.gop.com/the-official-guide-to-the-2016-republican-nominating-process/

Caucus v. Primary; http://www.factcheck.org/2008/04/caucus-vs-primary/

National Republican Committee Rules Convening the Next National Convention;https://cdn.gop.com/docs/2012_RULES_Adopted.pdf

Presidential Election Facts; ; http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/presidential-election-facts

US Constitution, Article I, Section 1; constitutioncenter.org/...

The Hill: Politics; http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/266620-graham-picking-cruz-or-trump-like-getting-shot-or

National Constitution Center; 12^th Amendment; http://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xii

Romney/Ryan FEC Application; http://www.mediaite.com/election-2016/calm-down-romney-and-ryan-are-probably-not-running-for-president-in-2016/

CNN Politics: Mitt Romney “I won’t run for President”; David Wright, CNN; www.cnn.com/...

Business Insider: Politics; Colin Campbell, March 4, 2016; http://www.businessinsider.com/mitt-romney-donald-trump-contested-convention-2016-3

Constitution of the United States; http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

1968 Democratic Convention: The Bosses Strike Backhttp://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1968-democratic-convention-931079/?no-ist

The Super Delegate Circus Comes to Town

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 12, 2016 · 6:37 PM PST

2016/02/12 · 18:37

TITLE

It is everywhere. Robert Reich posted it on FB. Bernie supporters are all over the internet claiming dirty tricks, “typical Clinton tactics” and yelling “poor Bernie”. Pundits, starting for me with Chris Hayes of MSNBC, are all over it. It goes on and on and on. And it is typical and sad at the same time. The monster we keep hearing about? The dreaded “SUPER DELEGATE”. The creation, according to some, of Debbie Wasserman Shultz herself. The demonic spawn of the Clintons to foil poor Bernie and cheat him out of delegates. The latest caper of the DNC and “establishment” Democrats to stop the “real” people’s candidate. I have seen it, read it, been bombarded with it all day on FB, twitter, Pinterest, multiple blogs, local news stations. OMG there are Super Delegates. Positively un-American, anti-Democratic and personally developed by the “machine” to eat the other delegates. Ok, maybe not eat them. As I read these multiple internet outrages, I find it necessary to write this little piece to bring some peace to the discourse.

Before people go off insulting Debbie Wasserman Shultz for her "bias in favor or Hillary" or condemning Hillary for "rigging the system" they should actually read the Constitution and study the history of the primary processes. Since Civics classes were largely discontinued in the USA under the “No Child Left Behind Act” in 2001, very few millennials actually have studied the Constitution or the process of government. They got “social studies” instead and that was only enough to pass a standardized test. Unfortunately, when you start explaining Civics, Constitutional principles, US electoral history, people’s eyes glaze over and the words fall on the sleeping ears of the audience. So let’s use an analogy that makes sense to large swathes of the US electorate. I will use a TV talent show* to illustrate how this works.

What is happening now is called Primary Season. Most people I speak to confuse this with “Election Season”. There are even Supervisors of Election in Florida that have confused them and told people the deadline to register to vote for President is February 29, 2016. What is the difference between Primary Season and Election Season? Those of you who are familiar with talent shows would call Primary Season the audition shows. Anyone can come on, show us what they’ve got, and if they are lucky, one of the judges will take the performer onto his or her team to 1: win the competition and 2: represent the judge who also wins the competition. Since we have a 2 party system (Democrats and Republicans) with Independents sort of making an unorganized third-party bid without any specific platform, or agenda, or political apparatus to help them out, we basically have only 2 judges.

In America, any natural born citizen (which does not include Cruz under any definition but that is a separate article) over the age of 35 can run for President. They don’t have to choose a party, they can choose to run as an Independent, but, the Independent Party has no convention, no structure, no money, no ability to run against the two big parties. Bernie has been an Independent all of his life, has run as an Independent, and he prides himself on being the ‘longest serving Independent Senator in the US.”. We know for a fact that someone from outside the established parties can win the Presidency because Lincoln ran as the first Republican and won, so it can be done, but in the modern pundit era, it is unlikely that Lincoln would win today.

In a talent show, each judge decides which talent they believe they can shape and teach to be a better performer, represent the judge, and win the competition in the end. Just like in a talent audition show, no one gets to decide which performer the judge will choose. It is not up to a vote by the audience. The Republican field of candidates is a perfect example of how anyone can audition for a spot, even those who are not ready for the big stage.

So it is with the Primary Season at the beginning. The party (Democrat or Republican), not the people (the audience), get to vote for the representative OF THEIR PARTY to run for an elected office. This occurs in all elected offices, not just the presidency. Anyone can apply, fill out the paperwork and audition to the party and the audience to show their talent and show why they are the best candidate 1) to win the prize of being elected at the end of election season and 2) represent the Party who also wins the prize.

Once all the applications are in, and the candidates are all counted up, we begin the debates. In a talent show, this would be the knock out rounds where the competitors go head to head and the judges chooses one performer in each round to go forward in the competition…still no audience participation. In Primary Season, the “debates” go on, the candidates go head to head and the audience begins to pick favorite contenders, but they don’t get to vote yet. The Republican field started with 19 candidates. One by one, they fell off the stage or they got moved to the “kid’s table” where fewer and fewer candidates were on the stage. The Democrats have lost 3 contestants and the Republicans are down to 7 contenders at last count.

In the talent shows, each judge gets “steals” or “saves” to grab an eliminated player onto their team to represent that judge’s team and that the judge believes can win the competition. No audience voting by the people yet. These “Steals and “Saves” in the talent show are the equivalent of “Super Delegates”. They are the hedged bets of each Party to keep good talent they think might win the competition in the end and represent the Party. Super delegates are those delegates reserved BY THE PARTY so that the person representing THEM is the best choice for the PARTY, according to the Party. Republicans use the dreaded "brokered convention" to accomplish the same thing.

The Democratic Party has the absolute right to decide, and set the rules for deciding, which individual will represent THEM in the “Election Season” and it is a long, arduous, involved process in which all candidates are vetted and tested before being chosen. Hillary has been the party's presumptive candidate for 2 years now, so it is no surprise that the party is reserving delegates to see how the primary voting process works out. The exact same process resulted in Obama getting the nomination last time despite Hillary having Super Delegates reserved for her in 2008, because that is how it played out.

Back to the talent show allegory: Once the knock out rounds are done, and the performers perform each week and the public gets to vote on their performance to keep their favorites but the judges still have a say in who stays and who goes. This is where the candidates are able to debate and get their message out, and we start the official “Contest Season” with Caucasus and Primaries held in each state… some early, some late. Now the People get to vote on their favorites, but the Party still has a say in who stays and who goes. Ergo….Super Delegates. These delegates are not always promised to a particular candidate, as in the case of 2 New Hampshire super delegates, but their job is to serve the PARTY. Remember, the candidates are not running for President yet, they are running for the Democratic or Republican Nomination as the Party’s representative to run for President. That’s it. The ACTUAL Nominee will be chosen in August at the Conventions. Democrats will name their candidate in August and the Republicans will name their Nominee a week later. Then we begin the “Election Season” and that will bring a whole new set of issues which will probably be blown out of proportion. Don’t even get me started on “Electors for President and Vice President” because the punditry will go bonkers on that subject.

Bottom Line: Bernie CHOSE to run in the Democratic primaries rather than running as an Independent or choosing to run as a Republican, which he was free to do. Bernie chose THIS process and the rules of running in the Democratic party's primary were clear before he chose it. These are the rules, he agreed to them. This is how the selection for the PARTY REPRESENTATIVE is chosen and has been the system for many, many, years. No dirty tricks here, no shady deals, no rigging. Bernie knew this going in so people should not be complaining about HIS choice to work with this set of rules if he wants to be chosen as the Democratic Party representative.

The prize for getting the Party’s Nomination? The money, the endorsements, the ground game, the advertisement budget, the Party’s “get out the vote” machines, organization, volunteers and lots of support because THE PARTY wants to win just as much as the Nominee wants to win.

Don’t forget, whoever loses the nomination can still run as an independent, Bernie can probably still get in as a Republican because he is in reality, an Independent. Both can even be a write-in candidate without a party affiliation. But that is “Election Season” and we are not there yet.

There have been 2 state votes out of 55 (including territories) so far so NO ONE has any definitive standing for either party’s Nomination. Super Tuesday is usually when the top finalists are sort of decided but Obama and Clinton fought it out for months in 2008 before Clinton conceded. And she did so with grace. And she went on to become one of Obama’s most important allies, confidantes, and advisors.

Incidentally, this whole controversy was stirred up by the media punditry because there is nothing else for them to do unless they create dust storms of nonsense they can throw at an uninformed populace. Bernie supporters need to stop feeding at the dust storm windmill and let the man run his campaign. He is doing a great job without adding all this false negativity and claiming he is a victim. I don't want a victim as President. I want a man or woman with a message, a goal, a vision, a plan and hope for the future. It does not serve Democrats to start devolving into "poor Bernie" or"bad Hillary" and "evil Debbie Wasserman Shultz". Talk about issues, ideas, goals, and Progressive values and leave the negativity to the Republicans to feed their base.

*No talent show has endorsed the comparisons used in this article and no particular talent show is referred to other than in general terms to help readers understand the basic premise. Any similarity to a particular talent show is not intentional or meant to promote or disparage any show.

MSNBC's "Lean Right"

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday August 29, 2015 · 12:13 PM PDT

2015/08/29 · 12:13

MSNBC has been known as the place for Progressive politics for years. Not as well known is that Comcast bought them out a few years ago and they have now created a policy to "move away from Progressive politics." Many of you may have noticed the recent loss of Ed Shultz and that has been a catalyst for Progressives. It is not too late to save MSNBC if Progressives actually pay attention. If not, well, losing our voice on cable will be our own fault. Story below the fold.

Valient Dragon

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 21, 2015 · 2:55 PM PDT

2015/08/21 · 14:55

Republican contenders for US President have plenty to say about immigration so I thought I would look into their house of cards. They love to come up with "cute" names like "Anchor Baby" to describe children born in this country to "foreign parents" (code for "bad, job-stealing, lazy, anti-American interlopers hell-bent on stealing our country"). Lo and behold….

Full article below the fold

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