Democratic Debate Debacle

If you tuned in Wednesday Night , the Democratic Debate began . Was it a Debacle as well? CNN's  (1)>>Anderson Cooper mocked the competition after a technical glitch hit the first Democratic debate Wednesday evening.The swipe came after Cooper named the 10 candidates who participated in the event that had just concluded."With us here tonight a team that is almost as large and certainly no less eminent. The best political team on television," Cooper said, introducing his post-debate panel. "Hopefully we won't have the sound problems, helping to break down what happened in Miami." The microphone was no the other problem , Several Democratic candidates really wanted to show off their Spanish-speaking skills to the Miami audience at the first presidential debate on Wednesday.Beto O’ Rourke and Cory Booker didn’t just sprinkle in a few words or phrases à la George W. Bush (remember “mi casa es su casa”?). No, they were determined to answer debate questions with long, somewhat tortured Spanish sentences.It was a cringeworthy to hear — and also a bit polarising . “We need to include every person in the success of this economy,” he said in Spanish, mixing up a few masculine and feminine words. (2)>>“But if we want to do this, we need to include everyone in our democracy. We need the representation of every voter, and we need to hear every voice.” BUT here is what the first night of debate looked like to me .↠ Elizabeth Warren shrank into the corner like grandma at the family reunion. She

wasn’t scintillating, yet Democrats loved her.Beto is the most overhyped underwhelming dude. 😝He’s Obama without the flair. He’s the Jeb! of Democrats.Cory Booker has very, very vibrant eyes. Vibrant ideas? Not so much.Julian Castro knew stuff but was annoying. No one knew who he was. Now, they do. Now, they don’t like him. Added to this diversity is  (2.1)>>Mayor Pete Buttigieg gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana Buttigieg made so little of his gay identity , but the inclusive party as, the youngest of the Presidential candidates—and very nearly the youngest possible Presidential candidate— (2.2)>>Tulsi Gabbard packed a big punch. She received little time, but stood out for being firm, clear, and sure of herself.Everyone else blended together.  (3)>>It seems rather odd that the Democrats have 20 contenders for the OVAL OFFICE in the first place , But even with this unprecedented capacity, the stage isn’t big enough to handle the dozen-plus candidates seeking the party’s nomination, so they must surmount a variety of hurdles involving polls and fundraising to make the cut.  Also when you talk about diversity that's just identity politics, isn't it? you're not talking about diversity of thought. if you have a lot of candidates who say the same thing of course nobody cares who wins. BUT harken , we have the second debate .  (4)>>This shows how politically divided the Democratic party really is.  The Democratic Party is divided between moderates and liberals.  AS we have observed , the party is like a cracked egg shell that glued together vary tenuously. The schism reflected in their politics does not really map onto the Democratic Party’s electorate as a whole.   The second round of the first Democratic debate featured some of the most dramatic

confrontations of the primary season we have seen so far, with  (5)>>Sen. Kamala Harris taking on the frontrunner, former vice president (6)>>Joe Biden, over his comments about segregationist lawmakers and civil rights.. Reeling from an attack by a much younger rival, Kamala Harris, the 76-year-old delivered an unfortunate soundbite at the Democratic debate that threatens to symbolize his biggest political liability of the Democratic Party . And it got worse for Biden from there. The Iraq answer was a big whiff. Rachel Maddow gave him a chance to say he’d learned. She all but begged him to say he’d learned. Here’s her question: “You voted for the Iraq War. you said you regret that vote. Why should voters trust your judgment when it comes to making a decision on taking the country to war the next time?”Democratic left could strain the coalition that carried the party to its sweeping gains in the 2018 election. Right now the part is really weak , the stance about  (7)>>giving  free healthcare to undocumented is not well with the majority of voting Americans who want to fix healthcare , want healthcare more affordable . Last of all the candidates is Marianne Williamson a New Ager running for President , It was Marianne Williamson, for the record. She is a self-help author and a spiritual advisor to Oprah, among other things. She may not have been the biggest name on the debate stage in Miami, but she was... the most eccentric  of them all. It’s not that Williamson didn’t make any substantive points as the two hours rolled on. She accused the Trump administration of child abuse for ripping migrant kids from their parents at the border and loading them into unsanitary detention facilities. Williamson if you compare her with Beto and Cory is part of the zaniness of the current Democratic hopefuls . The Question will be when the numbers get reduced for 20 to 8 in the next couple of months we will see who gets the nomination of that party . In the mean time saddle up for the debates ahead !!![ You might read my Obvious theory about Joe Biden here shorturl.at/kpDMW If I know the DNC ,it's mostly a rigged nomination , all the other 23 candidates who want the  Democratic nomination are not going to make it . ]

So I end this with Williamson's advice to Donald Trump .

“Mr. President, if you’re listening, I want you to hear me, please,” Williamson said in her closing remarks in the debate. “You have harnessed fear for political purposes, and only love can cast that out. So I, sir, I have a feeling you know what you’re doing. I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field. And, sir, love will win.”

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1)>>Anderson Cooper mocked the competition after a technical glitch .  Trump tweeted from Air Force One, which had stopped off Anchorage, Alaska, en route to Japan, where the president will be attending the G-20 Summit. He tweeted again to deride the network broadcasting the debate when a hot mic issue forced NBC’s moderators to take a commercial break at the start of the second round.“@NBCNews and @MSNBC should be ashamed of themselves for having such a horrible technical breakdown in the middle of the debate,” he tweeted. “Truly unprofessional and only worthy of a FAKE NEWS Organization, which they are!”   (2)>>“But if we want to do this, we need to include everyone in our democracy. We need the representation of every voter, and we need to hear every voice.” The Democratic field is enormous and unprecedentedly diverse. It features several women, multiple candidates of African and Asian descent, one Latino and a gay man, Buttigieg, who at age 37 is less than half as old as the front-runner, Biden. But majorities of Democrats say those characteristics make no difference to their level of enthusiasm about a presidential candidate. Four in 10 Democratic voters said they would be more excited about voting for a woman for president, and 36% said the same of a younger candidate. Only about a quarter were more excited at the idea of supporting a candidate who is black or Latino, while roughly 2 in 10 said they’d be more excited to support an Asian candidate or lesbian, gay or bisexual candidate. (2.1)>>Mayor Pete Buttigieg. This one has me thinking , if

Buttigieg wins in some twist of events , just how will the world see the United States? A Gay US President . No,  not a woman in the highest office as most feminist would envision . How identity politics works is by dividing the nation as in the Obama era as the first "Black President"    , but  could it set off a storm on our nations soil ? Will the nation rise above bigotry . Answer is NO . While  Buttigieg is driving home the hypocrisy of church-going conservative white Christians, evangelical and Catholic, who still support a president whose policies go against Christianity at almost every turn. Buttigieg’s pre-Easter God talk has startled and rattled white conservative Christians, who’ve long claimed to be the nation’s sole exemplars of “family values.”  (2.2)>>Tulsi Gabbard packed a big punch. She received little time.   Among some conservative pundits there was one clear winner of Wednesday night’s Democratic primary debate: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the long-shot, anti-war Hawaii member of Congress. her unorthodox candidacy has attracted praise from those farther to the right as well. Gabbard has been controversial; she has apologized for holding anti-gay views in the past, including onstage during the debate, and she has been heavily criticized for meeting with the brutal Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and for questioning whether his regime carried out chemical weapons attacks. But Wednesday night, she appeared to cement her status as the very online right’s favorite Democratic candidate. (3)>>It seems rather odd that the Democrats have 20 contenders for the OVAL OFFICE in the first place  . The Democrats are much more diverse than ever before.Feeling dissatisfied by having too many choices is natural and sometimes inevitable, but the effects are correctable. Here are some strategies, grounded in behavioral science, that Democratic presidential candidates could adopt to try to mitigate the effects of choice overload.  While there's a legitimate argument to be made for waiting for the 2020 primaries to bleed out candidates, some of those candidates are making headlines look like such a shitshow that we risk them looking like the 2016 Republican primaries. We all know how that turned out, and a squirelly Democratic Trump nominated on a plurality will fail in 2020 even if he's the easiest and most disorganized candidate to beat in terms of strategy.  Most of these candidates can't win..why are they running? It is a waste of the people money. what happen to all of that campaign money when thet lose. Does it go back to the donors?????  (4)>> This shows how politically divided the Democratic party really is. The big problem with the Democratic Party is basically that the Candidates running are using the label as being "Democrat" but  masking ideas not associated with the party . The ONLY REAL DEMOCRAT is Joe Biden who a old school Democrat, LONG time politician from the NIXON era. Just Look at Julian Castro [ not related to the Cuban Dictator?] , just who is he ? We don't know him , he is so far from where Tusli Gabbard stands -So we the Party of Harris , of Warren , of Beto & etc. (5)>>Sen. Kamala Harris . As predicted, Ms. Harris is campaigning on the color of her skin while avoiding the content of her character. She attempted to play the Dem 'special victim card', but the post-debate scrutiny reveals a girl born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and she certainly isn't the 'Rosa Parks of the West', as she would like to have us believe. California Sen. Kamala Harris got into a testy exchange with former Vice President Joe Biden at the first Democratic presidential debate on Thursday over racial issues.“You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bussed to school every day and that little girl was me,” Harris told Biden.She repeated the line later in her exchange after accusing Biden of being opposed to busing in America.“I was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California public schools almost two decades after Brown v. Board of Education,” she noted. But Harris’s story of integration is more complex than she made it out to be.While it’s true she was among the second class of students at Thousand Oaks

Elementary School to participate in a fully integrated busing program, she was far from the first black child to attend the school.Data from the Berkeley Unified School District shows the school had 15 black students in 1963 — a year before Harris was born. They represented 3% of the total elementary school student body, while other schools in the district had a black population as high as 97%. (6)>>Joe Biden. Joe Biden refused calls to apologize  for saying that the Senate “got things done” with “civility” even when the body included segregationists with whom he disagreed.   Biden opposed busing more than four decades ago as a battle raged across the country -- and in Congress -- over sending white students to majority-black schools and black students to majority-white schools often far away from their own neighborhoods. Biden forcefully opposed the government's role in trying to integrate schools, saying he favored desegregation, but believed busing did not achieve equal opportunity.  Biden who earlier this month fondly recalled collaborating with two segregationist senators during his Senate career. For most of the next four decades, Biden has become known as a champion of civil rights legislation like the expansion of the Voting Rights Act and changes to the Fair Housing Act. But he has rarely explained his views surrounding busing.The firestorm is quickly becoming one of the most intense disputes of the Democratic presidential primary, underscoring the hazards for Biden as he tries to turn his decades of Washington experience into an advantage. Instead, he’s infuriating Democrats who say he’s out of step with the diverse party of the 21st century and potentially undermining his argument that he’s the most electable candidate in the race.(7)>>giving  free healthcare to undocumented . A Washington Examiner editorial noted, “California wants to look after its people, so it keeps expanding its social safety net. It also wants to welcome all comers and so embraces illegal immigrants and protects them in sanctuary cities. To see how this is working out, visit Skid Row in L.A. or neighborhoods in San Francisco or elsewhere where homeless camps are spreading. … Just as California lacks enough homes to house its inhabitants, so it also lacks enough doctors to care for them. The additional budget bloat on health care will worsen that shortage.”California is on the verge of becoming the first state in the country to give free health care to adult illegal immigrants. Using the state Medi-Cal program, which offers free or low-cost health coverage for those with limited incomes, the state estimates this will provide free health care to what they believe is 100,000 illegal immigrants between the ages of 19 and 25 years old.And how will state officials pay for this? They will be instituting their own state-based individual mandate, slapping an extra tax or fine on Californians who do not have health insurance.

Evangelical's and Trump 2020.

  A leaked internal poll taken by the Trump campaign in March showed the president trailing Biden by double digits in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan, all of which he won in 2016. It also found him lagging the former vice president in North Carolina, Iowa and Georgia, states he won by comfortable margins in his first presidential bid. But to these Polls really mean anything .  (1)>>The Mainstream media jumped to this , their reaction is Aha! Look Trump is losing . Well that poll contradicts   one of the biggest secrets for a (1.1)>>Trump win in 2020 The  evangelicals.  (1.2)>>The president, who doesn’t regularly attend church services, has emerged as an unlikely ally of the evangelical right, building close relationships with influential conservative religious figures.   About 80% of evangelicals voted for Trump in 2016; according to a recent poll, almost 70% of white evangelicals approve of how he has handled the presidency – far more than any other religious group. Donald Trump has done more for the evangelicals , his hard line anti-abortion rhetoric , his pro Israel has given him a solid base that is so overlooked by the Democrats . I also made another overlooked discovery . (2)>>There is a pro -Trump movement which identifies by name called Patriots . The Patriot movement believes that Trump is sent by God  So when Trump visited McLean Bible Church, a D.C.-area mega-church, to show his support to the victims of the Virginia Beach mass shooting, which took place the night before roughly four hours away, it was to be expected that the pastor there, David Platt, would pray for the president. Trump showed up in the middle of the afternoon, after a round of golf, and made no remarks. The two men stood onstage together, eyes shut, Platt holding his Bible. “We stand right now on behalf of our president, and we pray for your grace and your mercy and your wisdom upon him,” Platt

The Philadelphia Church of God Magazine
The Philadelphia Trumpet 
article on Trump calling him 
a Modern Day Jeroboam 

said. “We pray that he would look to you. That he would trust in you, that he would lean on you. That he would govern and make decisions in ways that are good for justice, and good for righteousness, and good for equity, every good path.” So what does this MEAN??? I had an interesting conversation with an elderly woman, which I will not name,  but a friend of the family  & (2.1)>>she said the ultimate BIG TIME Trump delusion , she said : " Trump has been sent by the Lord ..." 😆 But for observers of American history and advocates for the separation of church and state, the assertions that Trump’s presidency is endorsed by God are vary alarming . (3)>> I think Donald Trump knows it , this could lead to a Messiah complex . I thought of his  so called fondness for the State of Israel in declaring that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel is straight out of Zionism , one of the goals of Zionism is to take back Jerusalem kicking out the Muslims , next  recognition of the Golam Heights as another example how Trump plays this game with anyone who is Jewish. To most Democrats, such support seems a case of blatant hypocrisy and political cynicism. Since  (4)>>Trump is delivering on matters such as abortion, the supreme court and moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, conservative Christians are evidently willing to overlook the president’s moral failings. In embracing such a one-dimensional explanation, however, liberals risk falling into the same trap as they did in 2016, when their scorn for evangelicals fed evangelicals’ anger and resentment, contributing to Trump’s huge margin among this group.No matter how much they try to deride religion in the news and popular culture, the vast majority of Americans are believers. Furthermore, when you consider everything that President Trump has done for people of faith since taking office, it's easy to see why so many of them agree with  (4.1)>>Sarah Sanders that (5)>>Donald Trump is doing God's work.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

Praying for  President Trump . Trump with Members of
Congress and Vice President Pence
attend a Church 

(1)>>The Mainstream media jumped to this , their reaction is Aha! Look Trump is losing . Strangely, the group most overlooked by the press is the people in the pews. It would be refreshing for more reporters to travel through the Bible belt and talk to ordinary churchgoers about their faith and values, hopes and struggles. Such reporting would no doubt show that the world of American Christianity is far more varied and complex than is generally thought. It would reveal, for instance, a subtle but important distinction between the Christian right and evangelicals in general, who tend to be less political (though still largely conservative).(1.1)>>Trump win in 2020 The  evangelicals. I am not trying to make any predictions here , but it should be of "concern" to the Democrats how much the evangelical vote could turn the tide as it did in 2016 . A Trump second term would seal the country to a point of no return . A Democratic win would create a different kind of aftermath of  chaos , unless the Democrats can unite under one leader . Trump has tremendous support from the religious minded people for example Falwell, the president of Liberty University, has long maintained that he and other evangelicals support Trump because they agree with his policies, often seeming to dismiss allegations of marital infidelity and mistreating women.Many of Trump’s evangelical leaders were optimistic of Trump’s success leading into Election Day. More than a handful drew on spiritual experiences, like prophecies and dreams, for strength. White early on had spiritual visions of God’s plan for Trump.(1.2)>>The president, who doesn’t regularly attend church services.  Forget the allegations of extramarital affairs, the nonstop Twitter insults and the efforts to close the southern border to migrants. Trump’s allies insist that his presidency is divinely inspired.“There has never been and probably never will be a movement like this again,” Brad Parscale, the president’s campaign manager, wrote  on Twitter. “Only God could deliver such a savior to our nation, and only God could allow me to help. God bless America!”Parscale’s tweet, the latest example of a Trump adviser casting the president as a savior, comes as the White House is preparing to host religious leaders on National Day of Prayer dinner at the White House. (2)>>There is a pro -Trump movement which identifies by name called Patriots .   The Patriot movement is a Far Right movement which follows an idiosyncratic reading of the U.S. Constitution; they claim it prohibits almost the entire structure of the current U.S. federal government. It is best known for its tactics of forming militias and other paramilitaries. .This may seem counter intuitive to many, since few observers believe that Trump is particularly religious himself. But Trump not only featured Christian nationalism in his campaign and during his presidency so far, but he has done so much in the manner of Christian Right leaders––casting perceived attacks on religious liberty as part of a broad attack on Christianity, and even faith itself. The Patriot's run a large pro-Trump propaganda on social media , which already has millions of followers.    (2.1)>>she said the ultimate BIG TIME Trump delusion , she said : " Trump has been sent by the Lord ..." I am not sure what percentage of religious , members of  different sects are Trump supporters , but looking at social media like twitter I counted over 65 million people following Trump , that's a large estimate .  As far as the "delusion" , many religious writers have tried to spin a biblical narrative about Trump .The following book makes vary ex ordinary claims about Trump. Example is the book by Jonathan Cahn, the author of The Harbinger and The Book of Mysteries now reveals the master blueprint of our times: THE PARADIGM.  The Paradigm… - Not only reveals the events of our day – but the people of our day – from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton – and even Donald Trump. - It gives the exact times that world leaders are allotted to be on the world stage - The Paradigm not only reveals the mystery behind Trump, but how ancient writings parallel many occurrences of today, including how the billionaire would beat Hillary Clinton, how he would light a fire under believers and Christians leaders and how his policies would help pull America from the very dismal place the country was headed—spiritually, economically and culturally. "Almost no analyst saw it coming," Cahn said. "President Trump's rise to power has mystified almost every observer. He has defied all explanations. But is the mystery behind Donald Trump revealed in an ancient blueprint? The answer is a definite 'yes.' A nearly 3,000-year-old Middle Eastern template reveals the phenomenon of Donald Trump in such detail, that it even speaks of his strategy, his actions, his personality and his race to the nation's highest position. The ancient blueprint also details his campaign against the nation's former first lady, and even pinpoints the year of his victory and ascent to power. Beyond the details, The Paradigm reveals the mystery behind the man and the reason for that ascent to power."    (3)>> I think Donald Trump knows it , this could lead to a Messiah complex . Much of Trump’s success stems from his unique ability to manipulate the very same tendencies that lead many people, most notably on the political right, to embrace faith-based religion. He instills fear in his listeners and then offers them salvation in a new, remade America, if only they’ll accept him as president. While Trump himself doesn’t appear to be a sincere Christian — for example, he once mispronounced “2 Corinthians” before an audience at Liberty University — a new religious system of sorts has grown around his “cult of personality,” which Trump developed as a real estate tycoon and loud-mouthed buffoon on his reality TV show. Call this new religion Drumpfism, after the Trump family’s original last name: Drumpf.  And it’s become clear that a large portion of the Christian right sees Trump as a new messiah. It’s truly mind-boggling to me that there are people out there who can believe such drivel, but the truth is that there are millions and millions of them. Their ability to think rationally is confined to the smallest and most inconsequential things in life. Even the Jews have taken a perspective on Trump , example  Rabbi Yejutiel Fish, author of the Hebrew Torah blog "Sod Ha'Chasmal" suggests that the moon eclipse is not a mere astronomical incident but a sign from God, at least for American Jews as the eclipse will not be visible in Israel.  On his blog, the rabbi suggests that Trump is the Messiah for the nation of Edom [Christians] whereas former president Barack Obama was a messiah to the nation of Ishmael [Muslims]. Interior Minister Arye Deri said in 2016 that  Donald Trump’s election could herald the coming of the Messiah, this paper reported at the time.  (4)>>Trump is delivering on matters such as abortion.  If Trump wins a second term . In 2020 , Roe V Wade is going in the dumpster . Set on proving that his “pro-choice” days were behind him, during the 2016 campaign Trump denounced Planned Parenthood as an “abortion factory” and selected hardline reproductive and LGBTQ rights opponent Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate. In his eagerness, Trump unknowingly violated the Christian Right’s strategic deployment of a “kinder, gentler” image when he announced that women who obtained an illegal abortion should face “punishment.” Although Trump backpedaled to mollify anti-abortion groups that claim to protect women, his original statement was characteristic of the anti-woman vitriol of his campaign.” (4.1)>>Sarah Sanders . Responding to Mr Brady's question about Mr Trump's position, Ms Sanders said: "I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that He wanted Donald Trump to become president." "That's why he's there and I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about."(5)>>Donald Trump is doing God's work.  Whether Trump has cut a deal with the devil is beyond my pay grade. He's famous for making all kinds of deals. The Dealer in Chief  has a lot of Democrats thinking otherwise , just ask Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer .  SEN. Kirsten Gillibrand has a different word for the family separation policy that the attorney general and White House press secretary call “biblical.” Her word is “evil.” In the biblical sense. She ducked calling Trump himself evil, or saying that the person she accuses of acting out the devil’s schemes is the devil himself. But she said what he’s doing certainly is.

Why WE need the Occupy Movement NOW!

Occupy Wall Street lost , the Tea Party
won in 2016 , when Donald J Trump
became the American President .

Why  WE need the Occupy Movement NOW! The vary same people that took to the streets in 2011 demanding change during the Obama era , RIGHT now should be taking the streets and protesting. (1)>>Lo OCCUPIERS !!! WALL STREET & 1% won out with the 2016 election of Donald Trump .  (1.2)>>The RICH GUY , the BILLIONAIRE became the American President! & WHERE are these idiots ??? , that helped Obama win a second term in 2012 ,  (1.3)>>made Sen. Mitt Romney a butt of jokes? In just one generation, they’ve gone from Clinton to Bush to Obama to Trump, oscillating from one kind of candidate to its near opposite of middle class and poor Americans . BUT the super rich have dominated American politics for decades , with their power , wealth , they may have manipulated the votes of 2016 in favor of Donald J Trump .    Remember the  Tea Party movement came into being (2)>>to oppose Obama's policies , and since then has been an almost continuous thorn in the side of the Republican Party establishment. Remember again that the  (2.1)>>Tea Party created Donald Trump. Trump has been embolden by Tea Party rhetoric,White Nationalism . The warning signs where there , but the American voter saw Trump as the outsider fighting for

My Personal Copy of
some Occupy Book published
in 2011 .

Americans struggling to make a living .  (3)>> Occupy Wall Street burst onto the scene, using Zuccotti Park as a staging ground in New York City, spawning marches, demonstrations, and other protests in numerous cities in the months ahead. And despite their differences, the populist, anti-elite, and anti-establishment forces at work in both movements have manifested themselves in bold relief within the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Bernie Sanders. And now, both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have fallen on hard times. (4)>>Occupy Wall Street no longer exists, though it has surely helped to spawn offshoots, including Black Lives Matter. The Tea Party is still around, but has seemingly faded in visibility, though it’s still more than capable of discouraging Republicans from negotiating compromises with Democrats on anything that touches on the bedrock principles of the movement. Occupy had within it the seeds of its own failure. Its leaders refused to call themselves leaders and were too arrogant about politics to have anything to do with the political process.Not only did they refuse to court sympathetic politicians, they actively rebuffed them.The tea party is not strictly comparable because it started out as a well-backed top down movement, but it had the Republican Party eating out of its hand in no time. Would that Occupy had been so smart.   It should be still around now at full force .   The leaderless movement had no clear goals, but had attracted thousands of participants and plenty of media coverage.  But it went out in a whimper ,  Wall Street won big time , the  corporations  grew  and the rich man Billionare Donald J Trump is now President .

NOTES AND COMMENTS: 

(1)>>Lo OCCUPIERS !!! WALL STREET . Others praised Occupy for building a political consciousness that fueled Occupy Sandy, Black Lives Matter, Fight for 15, and the anti–Keystone Pipeline protests, among others. As Sean Illing wrote for Salon, “Occupy Wall Street didn’t so much fail as fracture into various groups and causes.” These offshoots, he argued, might directly challenge corporate power in a way the original movement never could. One of Occupy’s largely unrecognized victories is the momentum it built for a higher minimum wage. The Occupy protests motivated fast-food workers in New York City to walk off the job in November 2012, sparking a national worker-led movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In 2014, numerous cities and states including four Republican-dominated ones—Arkansas, Alaska, Nebraska, and South Dakota—voted for higher pay; 2016 will see more showdowns in New York City and Washington, D.C., and in states like Florida, Maine, and Oregon. From Seattle to Los Angeles to Chicago, some of the country’s largest cities are setting a new economic bar to help low-income workers.(1.2)>>The RICH GUY , the BILLIONAIRE became the American President!So why then are so many billionaires running for president in the 2020 cycle or shopping for the office? Faux billionaire Donald Trump is obviously in again. (He’s been running since he was elected the first time.) Michael Bloomberg and Starbucks mogul Howard Schultz have taxied their personal jets onto the runway. Fellow plutocrat Tom Steyer was flying in formation with them until early January when he bowed out after assessing his chances, although he’s still a player, having pledged $40 million just to impeach Trump. And don’t forget the coquettish billionaires who’ve visited Iowa or otherwise teased the press with the notice of a candidacy: Mark Cuban, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and Bob Iger. This is a bestiary of plutocrats so plentiful it would require Audubon to collect, paint and stuff them for inspection by a political taxonomist.   (1.3)>>made Sen. Mitt Romney a butt of jokes? Romney has alluded to the makers-versus-takers worldview before, notably with his attacks on Obama'schanges to welfare policy. In an interview with USA Today three weeks ago, he claimed that Obama was looking to "shore up his base" by expanding welfare. (He has also memorably said, "I'm not concerned about the very poor," because those living in dire poverty already have an adequate safety net and don't need more government help.) But as Conor Friedersdorf notes, the bluntness and behind-closed-doors aspects of the secret video give it force. As with then-candidate Obama's infamous "clinging to guns or religion" riff, also surreptitiously taped at a closed-press fundraiser, the Romney recording reinforces the well-founded suspicion that politicians aren't telling us what they really think. In other words, the fact that Romney was speaking confidentially to a group of wealthy donors makes him seem both callous and phony . (2)>>to oppose Obama's policies. The Republicans were pumped because they saw a path out of the political wilderness. They were convinced that even if Obama kept winning policy battles, they could win the broader messaging war simply by remaining unified and fighting him on everything. Their conference chairman, a then-obscure Indiana conservative named Mike Pence, underscored the point with a clip from Patton, showing the general rallying his troops for war against their Nazi enemy: “We’re going to kick the hell out of him all the time! We’re going to go through him like crap through a goose!” Remember this that the "Deep State" wants US to believe it was Russia that elected Trump , but as REALITY is soon  going to set in and to many Americans  as far as what really took place in 2016 . So the party’s anti-Obama strategy has ended up working almost exactly as planned, except that none of the Republican elites who devised it, not even Vice President-elect Pence, envisioned that their new leader would rise to power by attacking Republican elites as well as the Democratic president. President-elect Trump was really the ultimate anti-Obama, not only channeling but embodying their anti-Obama playbook so convincingly that he managed to seize the Republican Party from loyal Republicans. And in the process, he has empowered an angry slice of the GOP base that has even some GOP incumbents worried about the forces they helped unleash. (2.1)>>Tea Party created Donald Trump. This time they’re not trying to blow up the system or fight big government. They’re here to support President Trump, no matter that he’s the biggest big-government Republican of them all. And in 2018, they’re trying to get more Donald Trumps into office — from state-level races to the halls of Congress.   When Trump won the White House in 2016, many Tea Party activists were thrilled. Jenny Beth Martin, president of the Tea Party Patriots, wrote after the election in November, “Far from being dead, the tea party movement has much to celebrate and much to do. Our values prevailed in the 2016 general election.”  (3)>> Occupy Wall Street. The Occupy Movement did more in its short history to change the attitudes of working people than almost any other group before. Ten years ago, virtually no one in this country could easily explain the essential threat by the new economy to our democracy, but within a few months of the occupation Zuccotti Park, the majority of Americans knew they were the 99% and that their freedoms were being eroded by the 1%. The Occupy Movement should receive a Nobel Prize in Economics.On Thursday’s(Oct. 2011) Piers Morgan Tonight, Donald Trump revealed that representatives of Occupy Wall Street wanted to do an interview with him. Morgan, who won Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice in 2008, asked the real estate mogul what he thought of the movement. “I sort of think it’s cool,” Trump exclaimed. “There’s something I like about it.”Morgan mentioned his interview with Michael Moore and how the documentary filmmaker placed sole responsibility on Wall Street for the financial crisis.Trump disagreed with Moore’s assessment. “I sat next to Michael years ago — and I really liked him! I was with him, and he’s a whole different guy. But then I watched him on your show and asked, ‘Is that the same guy?'” Trump said. “A lot has to do with politics, a lot has to do with the president, a lot has to do with bad decisions that have been made. We’ll see what happens but it’s a mess. They’ve been there a long time, perhaps they shouldn’t be allowed to stay that long.”  (4)>>Occupy Wall Street no longer exists. In the overall scheme of things, the Occupiers were certainly on the right side. That said, the idea of the "99%" was and is flawed. There are plenty of people in the upper middle class, folks who, in income terms, are perhaps in the top 10 to 15 percent rather than the top 1 percent, who are every bit as opposed to the idea of democratic socialism and as callous in their views regarding poverty as folks in the proverbial 1% are.And, there are plenty of folks in the bottom half of the income scale whose views would become pretty conservative if they ever found themselves among the top 10 to 15 percent.At the end of the day, we are not going to free humanity of its collective limitations. What might be possible is the achievement of something akin to what one finds in Scandinavia, but even there democratic socialist norms have been under attack as populations in the developing world, previously consigned to a subsistence level existence, begin to claim their too small share of the fruits of industrialization. What we currently term "neo-liberalism" is the function not merely of entrenched power and capital, but also, crucially, of an inability and disinclination of people to embrace and act upon solidarity as an ideal.Still though, as a matter of basic principle, of basic social and economic morality, we are obligated to keep trying.

OIL TANKER BLUES

Oil Tanker Blues . Is this a NeoCon
attempt to start a war between Iran
and the USA ?

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran on this Thursday for an attack on two tankers carrying “Japan-related cargo” in the Gulf of Oman, just hours after investigation into the incident began.  (1.1)>>Pompeo said Iran was directly responsible for the attack and it was not the fault of any of its proxies. He said this assessment was “based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a sophistication.”  In the latter case, four ships were allegedly hit in acts of “sabotage” near the emirate of Fujairah last month. The Pentagon blamed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the apparent attack, while US National Security Advisor John Bolton declared on Wednesday that Iran was “almost certainly” responsible. No evidence was offered to support either of these statement  It makes no sense that Iran would attack a Japanese oil tanker while the Japanese Prime Minister was visiting Iran Not too long ago , at least a decade ago . The incident happened as  (1.2)>>Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on a high-stakes visit in Tehran that sought to ease Iran-U.S. tensions, suggested the efforts had failed. Energy-poor Japan mostly relies on oil imports from the Middle East. Most of the shipments from the region pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and its safety is considered crucial for the country. Inevitably, similarities have been drawn between Thursday's attacks and events a month ago, when four ships were targeted near the Emirati port of Furajah. For that, officials in Washington and beyond pointed the finger at Iran. 

A Third Party Involvement ?

 The subject of a oil tanker exploding off Saudi Arabia or in the Persian Gulf was not new news. On October 6, 2002, the Limburg was carrying 397,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran to Malaysia, and was in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen to pick up another load of oil. It was registered under a French-flag and had been chartered by the Malaysian petrol firm, PETRONAS.While it was some distance offshore, an explosives-laden dinghy rammed the starboard side of the tanker and detonated. The vessel caught on fire and approximately 90,000 barrels of oil leaked into the Gulf of Aden. Although Yemeni officials initially claimed that the explosion was caused by an accident, later investigations found traces of TNT on the damaged ship. One crew member was killed, and 12 other crew members were injured. The damage to the tanker was around USD$45 million. EVERYONE in the news media seems to have forgotten this episode . Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack on the Jehad.net website, which has since been shut down. Osama bin Laden issued a statement, which read: “By exploding the oil tanker in Yemen, the holy warriors hit the umbilical cord and lifeline of the crusader community, reminding the enemy of the heavy cost of blood and the gravity of losses they will pay as a price for their continued aggression on our community and looting of our wealth.” So if you look at the whole Arabian peninsula, we have the same countries involved . In 2011 right after killing of Osama bin Laden , Al Qaeda views attacking the oil supply as a smart strategy for good reason: America’s reliance on oil for its transportation needs makes it a commodity that, if disrupted or made unaffordable, will cause the U.S. economy to collapse. The United States holds only 3 percent of conventional global oil reserves, yet uses 25 percent of the world’s daily production. It imports more than 66 percent of its oil, amounting to a daily purchase of 12 million barrels of imported oil. A significant rise in the price of oil due to a terrorist attack would deal al Qaeda’s main enemy a severe economic blow. Remember Oil was the reason that the United States entered the first two Gulf Wars , the invasion of Kuwait . This war continued right up to September 11th , 2001 . OIL makes me err with suspicion . YOU DON'T want to start a war in the Persian Gulf , such a war would cause oil prices to soar , it has economic ripples . Under any circumstances, these incidents would spark a crisis. But they occurred against a backdrop of escalating tensions and provocations between Washington and Tehran that began after the Trump administration withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran in 2018. The BOTTOM LINE TO THIS , we are better off with PEACEFUL relations with Iran , not bombing them , or they bombing us , regardless who gives a F **** about the the Oil . Why are we still kissing the arise of the Saudis ? When our nation should be less reliant on Saudi oil , or any oil from the Middle- East . If truly Iran wants Peace , they extend the arm . America should reach out . →It never hurts to talk . There so many things that can be done first before any provocations that lead to war . This is an example . If the politicians were willing, Iran could offer great opportunities to U.S. corporate participation. Let's avoid War .

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(1.1)>>Pompeo said Iran was directly responsible.  As the New York Times reported, it continues to be unclear who was behind last month's tanker attacks, despite Bolton's assertion at the time that Iran was "almost certainly" responsible.  Fearing that this was the first skirmish in a wider naval war, Iran began dispersing its mines, anti-ship cruise missiles and mobile ballistic missiles, lest they be struck by U.S. bombers. The Pentagon’s proposed response was a large-scale preemptive strike to neutralize the weapons before they posed a significant threat to U.S. forces, bases, allies and shipping. National security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also urged Trump to hit Iran’s nuclear program at the same time (something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during numerous calls to Trump, agitated for as well). Pompeo assured the president that he did not require additional congressional authorization beyond that provided after 9/11 to launch such an attack, given alleged links between Iran and al-Qaeda.   (1.2)>>Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo.  The alleged attacks, which set a Japanese-owned tanker ablaze, came as Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an attempt to reduce dangerous military tensions between the Iran and the U.S. As Common Dreams reported last month, the recent escalation between Iran and the U.S. was sparked by the Trump administration's belligerent threats and naval activity in the Persian Gulf.