AP Jumps The Shark: Calling The Democratic Nomination

I was in disbelief… Really, was it  the AP?  It was almost an “Et tu, Brute” moment….

Of course, by now everyone knows the American media is bought out… Of course, duh… Afterall, who is it all run by? Billionaires? Duh… We know that.. Amazon owns the Washington Post, for heavens sakes… Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal and the National Geographic, for heaven’s sakes… Anyone with a brain noticed changes immediately occurring after each change in ownership….

But until now the AP has always stood on its credibility.  It allegedly is owned by the sources it reports to and gathers information from. They never say anything speculative. They never say anything purposefully untrue. They never say anything to influence results… When they call a race on election day, they are the ones the rest of us use to confirm the same suspicions we gathered from viewing all the same evidence.

If fact, with the modern age, and the ability to see results turned in precinct by precinct, one can now see how they actually call races and are able to predict that exact moment when a candidate crosses the line which precludes no other possible outcome.

Today, June 7th, our most populous state (among others) goes to vote. To announce the overall winner the night before invites speculation of foul play… Upon hearing this newsbit from someone more glued to their phone than I, the immediate question that popped in my mind over all others, was… hmmm why couldn’t they wait one more day?

I wondered in this progression…..

A) Are they trying to persuade people NOT TO VOTE…

B) Are they trying to make sure no one else calls it before them , thereby getting to be considered the “new” expert and steal their place in all future contests as the final arbiter?

C) Are they showing off how they don’t have any morals? (“We’re bad; we’re bad”) Hounding superdelegates months on end reminds one of the ambulance chasing lawyers of the late 70’s?

D) Or are they jumping on the current news mantra of trying to create news, instead of report on it?… And therefore by pre-calling for Hillary to be the winner, minimize any Sander’s future claim on the superdelegates?

If you look at numbers, it seems funny for what you don’t hear….. Minus the superdelegates, here is where all stand.

2383 Delegates are required to win.

• So far Hillary has won 1812.
• So far Sanders has won 1521.

Ok, granted, so looks like Hillary’s ahead…

OH, but WAIT…..

694 Delegates are being decided today…. And most are in areas where Sander’s does really well…

As a baseline let us see what do we get if there is a 50-50 split of these potential delegates?

• Hillary will have 2159
• Sanders will have 1868

In this case, Hillary will be the winner.

So continuing the speculation, what if it goes 60-40 towards Sanders?

• Hillary drops to 2089
• Bernie rises to 1937

Hillary is still the winner.

But what if it squeaks to 63-37 split towards Sanders?

• Hillary has 2068
• Bernie has 1958

Same result.

Ah, ha. So what if it becomes 65-35 towards Sanders?

• Hillary has 2054
• Bernie has 1972

Again, same winner.  This race for pledged delegates was lost in PA, DE, and MD on April 26.

After fiddling around for a magic number where the delegates gain parity, we find the breaking point at….71-29 in Sanders’s favor….

• Hillary at 2013 pledged delegates
• Bernie at 2013 pledged delegates

 

Obviously neither candidate will have enough “pledged” delegates to clinch the nomination by the end of today.. So regardless of today’s outcome, the ultimate nominee will depend on their split of Super Delegate votes entirely to settle the outcome.  This is a solid nod to the effectiveness of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party for being able to mount a significant challenge against whom all assumed would be the ultimate nominee as far back as 2008….

Therefore regardless of delegate outcome, it will be a contested convention in which deals get made to secure support and whoever makes the best deals to the most superdelegates, wins the race.  This is not necessarily bad for America.  Many of our finest presidents were elected in conventions by using this method… Of the many, both Roosevelts immediately come to mind.

So for the AP to already announce the winner based on super delegates alone is preemptive… It is like calling a playoff game over, before all time is gone.. Many of us not in a official capacity, have done that…saying:

This game sucks, season’s over; we know the winner, let’s get out of the stadium and beat the 3 hours of traffic that first three miles…

But at no time in my recollection have I ever seen a televised playoff game “officially called” before the final ticker to show another close game deemed more exciting in a different venue… But that basically is what the AP just did…

This playoff game is over.  We will move on to the next one.

Although there may be a 90% chance that their prediction is correct, things are never over until they are over….

Some of you former Viking fans may be old enough to remember one playoff game when with less than thirty nine seconds left, it seemed assured to fans on both sides that the Vikings would go on to their 3 straight Super Bowl appearance, their fourth overall that decade, and for the first time, win it against a Steelers team who at best was mediocre ….After all with less then 40 seconds on the clock, it was fourth down and 16….there were still 75 yards between the ball and goal line. This was the year; it WAS going to happen. This Minnesota win was assured…..

Only it wasn’t. It was the Cowboys who lost to the Steelers in the Superbowl X that year 21-17. The Vikings never made it past that playoff game against the Cowboys, having lost to them on a score of 17-14 due to one “Hail Mary” pass..

The point is this distinction.

When one has specific times that delineate the beginning and ending of competition, to officially announce the winner before it is over, is always the wrong thing to do… One is confusing probability with inevitability.  Reporting should not be in the business to be an odds maker; instead one reports on final results, and the results reported though absolutely probable, are not yet final because while time is still on the clock, there is still potential that things could change.

And that is what is different in this call.  It was made WHILE there is still potential for alternative outcomes, instead of being determined after the line had been crossed where no other outcome is possible.

Hopefully the AP’s mistake in judgment should give every potential Bernie voter that little extra kick to  get out to prove the naysayers  wrong…  As for all Hillary voters out there, since the AP says she won anyway, seriously, for you, duh, what’s the point of voting? Why put yourself through it?  Stand in lines in the hot sun? Oh please…Plastered in sweat? Really? You all might as well stay home. Your vote doesn’t matter anyway. She’s already won.

 

 

 

Republicans Just Cost Me $1000 A Year!

They cost you too…

The drop in payroll tax from 6.2% to 4.2% results in a savings of about $1000 a year to every wage earner.

(If truth were widely known, that tax cut is actually a bad idea. It hemorrhages a dying social security fund, requiring the eventual death of the program or an expensive emergency last ditch surgery in the future.)

But it is hard not to give a $1000 present to every voter. Even if it only comes out as $19 dollars and change each week… But, still again, if your electric bill is $198 and you only have $189 in your account, that additional amount is, well, a lifesaver…..

But, Republicans in the House, even after Republicans in the Senate voted passage, overwhelmingly voted….. not to vote on the measure…

They didn’t vote against it… THEY VOTED NOT TO VOTE ON IT……
(speculation is that they lacked the votes to keep it from passing)..

So, how does that relate to you?

House Republicans (read Tea Party) just voted NOT TO VOTE on whether or not you will be losing an extra $20 a month out of your next paycheck.

Imagine what this is doing to payroll clerks around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to family budgets around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to businesses who rely on consumer spending around the country?
Imagine what this is doing to businesses heavily involved in the financial sector, around this country?

So what would normally happen?

Normally a group that can’t find agreement, acknowledges the sad fact, and long before the deadline, announces that they failed to reach agreement and that things would continue as they were on a temporary basis, to unfortunately allow for more time to solve differences.

But NOOOOOOOOOOOO, …. WE ARE STUCK WITH A TEA PARTY THAT FUCKS THINGS UP.

Instead, we have a vote not-to-vote, then get all sorts of very lame excuses from those who are delaying, none of which apply to the real problem that Social Security is doomed unless drastic action gets taken (higher rates, not lower), and we get nothing….

The tax cut will expire…

It is like sequestering a jury in a room, where everyone after much fact-covering argument has agreed to a judgment, except for one person who’s been bought off. And nothing, nothing, logic, emotional appeal, bullying, snuggling up to, befriending, produces any change. And you go years, every working day, to the same court house, the same jury room, they same chair at the same table, hear the same arguments, hoping against all odds, that today, he will see the light and switch. You go the next day.

That is today’s Congress. Held hostage by Tea Party Republicans who live in a dream world untouched by the reality of living under $185,000 a year. Like that bought-out juror, every day, they hold up progress with the unjustified belief that, if they wait long enough, the other 11 jurors will give up and sway over to the sole juror’s way….

Two things can happen… 1) return to the public and announce a hung jury, and do a complete retrial.. or 2) sneak up to that one juror, put a gun to his head, say nothing, pull the trigger, clean up the mess, dispose of the body, then go out to the public and announce what the 11 of you have decided…..

One is the nice way, sanctioned to due process of law. The other is the American Way.

It’s time to initiate the kavipsian policy of expression or what is otherwise known as “Show Us How You Really Feel”… Who knows? It could become the next great movement? The next time someone you know (or don’t), says anything about how millionaires should keep their tax cuts and the poor should pay, nod your head in agreement, smile a little bit, then hit them as hard as you can in their mouth, I mean as hard as you can! Put them flat on the ground holding their jaw… Then loudly say, “Don’t every talk that stupid way to me again!” Who knows, if 99% or all 303,930,000 would respond that way to our fellow congressional delegates, and the other 3.9 million of their like who advocate such madness, we might actually get the very progress we need, not because of intimidation, but because such policy is right….

For those who argue expression of violence is un-American, I’ll remind them that tonight, is John Wayne Night on AMC: view it!… I argue that such action is VERY American and perhaps it has been the lack of such spontaneous expressions of frustration from working American people, that has caused the logjam where nothing gets done because of one holdout, who thinks he can sway the world to his opinion and face no consequences… ….

Practice now, by punching brick walls.

Why Nothing Ever Gets Done In Congress….

It is a simple vote…

Should we or should we not put this man in an administrative function.

Please vote yes…. or no…..

(It should be open cut because a majority have already said they would support Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Agency.) Just get it done…

But, it never goes to vote. In a motion to stop debate requiring 60 votes, 53 are found….

There is nothing more to debate. Vote yes or no… The argument has been on the table for months… But no… it cannot go forward because the Republican Party (all of it) had 45 members who voted against it…

The agency still has no one at the top to get it rolling. There is no one regulating Wall Street as we speak, simply because the entire block of Republicans, who voters put into minority receivership based on their previous track record, voted NOT to stop debate.

There will be no government until there are no Republicans.
There will be no Congress, until there are no Republicans.
There will be no Democracy. until there are no Republicans.
There will be no United States of America, until there are no Republicans.

(Sad thing this is not hyperbole. This is not campaign rhetoric. This is not hateful bantering. This is what is really happening. Makes a veteran want to cry)

Gingrich’s Irony…..

Why you have to do a reality check everytime Gingrich speaks……

Gingrich quotes describing President Obama as the:

“finest food stamp president in American history” because more people will end up getting government aid than new jobs.

Fact: George W Bush followed Newt Gingritch’s plan while in the White House.

Fact: The best remedy for less public assistance, is more jobs.

Fact: During the 8 years of George W. Bush, there was 0 net job growth…. Zero.

Fact: Under Obama’s tenure, 2.9 million new jobs have been created, (get this) in the private sector.

Truth. Gingrich’s taunt works better against his own policies. They certainly don’t apply to those of President Obama.

Bottom line; If you want more welfare and public assistance, vote Republican.. If you want jobs, vote Democratic.

History is all the proof you need.

What I Want….

The recession has popped a lot of dreams… It has forced a re-evaluation of priorities. It has put reality in the forefront.

So wiping off the table of everything, everything, and sitting down to a blank space, and asking myself, … what do I want, by the time I die.

It is:

A country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement,”

After watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” you can be sure it can’t happen on a Republican’s watch….. For that dream to happen, we need protection from corporations and Big Money; not giving them more and more of what we make.

We need more money funneled away from big business, to be reinvested into the Middle Class… Since they haven’t done it voluntarily, we’ll have to force it.

Republicans can’t force anyone to do anything. They are putz’s. It will take a government of all Democrats to make Americans who die, at least die happy that they were able to secure:

“A country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement”.

Taxes and The Wealthy

Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..

So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….

I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……

In A Perfect World….

Call it temporary insanity but let’s pretend, let’s just say, …that at one moment in time, if I chose to donate my youth out for my country, to be compensated back in the form of low pay; to completely and unjudgingly offer my fate up to the will of bureaucrats, all for the loss of my own self esteem, all for unending stretches of boredom, sparsed with interludes of a few intense seconds, that fortunately thorough my reactions and training, enabled me to continue living as I do today………….

I could reasonably be expected to be honored for that service to my nation, right?

In a perfect world, that is….

One would think, that in a perfect world, as needs were being debated across the universe of public funding, that a hierarchy resembling this, would sort of be the guideline, if not the rule?

National Heroes…..

over

We, The People…..

over

LLC corporations….

After all, if it weren’t for us, there’s a good chance those LLC. corporations wouldn’t be able to do business in a free and prosperous society, you would think?….

One would think, that if one of these heroes needed medical care, with the tremendous amounts of money being thrown away by our government daily, in the forms of corporate tax breaks enabling corporations to make “record breaking profits”…. that they would be put at the top of the list.. don’t you think?

Sorry, CEO… your operation will have to wait… We have a veteran who is in dire need ahead of you….

In a perfect world….

One would think, that a voucher system would be in place, or a blank check, where any veteran could walk into any hospital, and get immediate, necessary medical attention, have his prescriptions filled as a privilege for his service, and that the bill would be willing be paid by those with monetary resources more than adequate for their own needs?

One would think, (right?)… that it would be CEO’s, those who give pink slips so they can break profit records, those who cut benefits so they can break profit records, those who don’t invest in America so they can break record profits, ….who should be the ones finding themselves regulated to CEO hospitals, where they would then have to settle in on a waiting list for the next opening to occur, where they had to endure budget cutbacks and go without life-saving medicine because there was no money left in the CEO fund, perhaps because it had all gone to Veterans to pay THEIR expenses?

In a perfect world…..

In a perfect world, veterans would need no freebies…. They would not need welfare, or a pension, or a humble stipend to eke an existence… They would be working, contributing to society, in any way they could… If they had no legs, they would be outfitted at corporate’s expense, so that would not be an issue… If they had no arms, they could be outfitted at corporate’s expense so that was not an issue. If they had psychological damage, (and who wouldn’t?) they could be treated at corporate’s expense… so that was not an issue.

If they were so badly damaged that they create an efficiency drain on society, they could be honored for their sacrifice, and a useful voluntary capacity could be created to honor that commitment once made so long ago… Perhaps speaking about serving one’s country in every class, in every school, in every county? Can you think of any better civic’s lesson?

There’s a lot that can be done…

The problem is that veterans are deemed as just another expense…. Because to corporate America, that is just what they are… An expense, an obligation to be met that gets in the way of their making more money…

Unfortunately, our Congress is owned by Corporate America….

What should and does need to happen, is this relationship needs to be exposed. We need to call them out on it…

Republicans and Democrats are both complicit in allowing corporate raiders this unprecedented power. But Republicans are the symbol of Corporate America. Republicans are the ones who championed the Corporate Takeover. Republicans are the ones who dismanteled the safeguards that had been put in place to prevent that takeover from happening. That is why they need to go. Disappear… Whoever is left, the remainder, most likely after seeing the elimination of a large majority of their peers, will think twice before following their Dark Lord, now a soul less wanderer eking existence.. ……

In a perfect world…

Unfortunately, today we need to contend with obscene amounts of money saying Corporate is Good; Government Fairness is Bad….

But we have our lives telling us the opposite… It will take courage and strong will, to override all the overload of sensory data being pipelined into our soul, but we still have hearts, and those hearts are attuned to what makes America special. great, and the best place to live on this earth….

WE can still dream….

And those dreams should include a perfect world… one we CAN make happen, at least for those without whom we would not have the freedom, the resources, the nation, we have today….

Here’s to a perfect world?

Free Speech and The Internet

Case A: She was a single mom, working days as a medical assistant, and picking up shifts at a local restaurant… One night, after coming home almost empty-handed, she ranted on her Facebook page. Someone copied and alerted her employer. She lost her job.

Case B: Another local company, issued employee warnings to it’s entire labor force; “Don’t let a few moments on social media, cost you your job.”

Case C: Melissa Kellerman, after getting knocked over in yesterday’s game, had her twitter account pulled after commenting on it.

Photo courtesy of Yahoo Sports

The Cowboys Organization, called her in, and ordered her to delete her account…. Here are the tweets she deleted….

Here are a list of comments that one sees in public media whenever this topic is broached….

Only a fool believes Facebook is private.

Don’t put anything on the internet you don’t want everyone to see.

Social Media is just that. Social. Don’t be shocked when your private life goes “social”….

And all those statements are true. When using the Internet, you need to be guarded lest your employer sees what you are saying…..

Now here’s an interesting question: WHY?

WHY DO EMPLOYERS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DICTATE INTERNET PROTOCOL?

The initial response is that they get to protect their image.
When someone says something on the Internet, it is publicly damaging if negative.

But why not people? Why can’t they be entitled to use their right to freedom of speech on the Internet?

If someone is complaining to another about being harassed by their superior, and it get forwarded and she gets fired, is that right?

If someone is complaining to another about improper mine safety and the deliberate non compliance of safety issues being forced upon them by management, and it gets forwarded and she gets fired, is that right?

If someone is complaining about being treated unfairly by their management team, and it gets forwarded and she gets fired, is that right?

Probably not.

The Internet is not private. but there can be reasonable assurances that some things on the Internet are private. Discussing topics on the Internet should be as safe as walking through the park, discussing items there… Sure, there could be someone behind the tree, listening to everything you say, but the fact that they had to hide behind a tree to hear it, means they weren’t legally entitled to the knowledge. Likewise someone could steal letters out of a mailbox. Someone could tap a phone. Someone would listen to your cell phone with a scanner… All of which are illegal.

But, reading someones private inbox message because it is on the Internet, is not…

It needs to be.

The law needs to catch up to technology. People are allowed to say what ever they want. That is guaranteed.

It is time that same right is canonized into America’s legal code. So that if a corporation acts aggressively upon someone’s free speech, that company stands to lose a year’s profit in damages and legal fees. That is the level of penalty required to protect the privacy of every American, when it comes to their using the Internet.

Calling For the Capture of All Electronic Data In And Out of Standard & Poors Leading Up To and Through the Present Crises

It is an event of national security.

Did Standard and Poors deliberately downgrade the U. S Rating to profit from selling the market short?

We capture all electronic data. We have every phone call, every electronic signal that was ever sent to or from inside of Standard and Poors…

We just need to save it, and investigate

It is an issue of national security; if such a motive exists, it is criminal and treasonous…

Was this done in good faith by some really, really stupid people, or…. is their a sinister motive underlying this very shady outcome?

Or it might be a case where perhaps their “Beers” went to their head?

Have the NSC pull up the files and let’s find out for sure…. Everyone who didn’t hear the tip and sell short, should get a little piece of him, don’t you think?

Republicans Cost to the World Today….. $1.2 Trillion

The global markets lost 1% today… Actually that is pretty good. The losses stemmed over the fact that Republicans won’t allow new revenue to enhance our failing budget…….

Like George Washington, they want to apply more leeches (tax cuts) which eventually will bleed the father of our country dry, and kill him dead.

There are great ideas to get around the impasse……

One was so close last week in which Obama and Boehner had come almost to a 4$ Trillion Deal… It was so, so close. Boehner was about to become the Alexander Hamilton of the 21st Century: Historians would forever know him as the man who brought America back from economic ruin…….

But Boehner’s owner, jerked hard on his leash… cracking Boehner’s trachea. He then spun Boehner to the ground, and applied zip strips to his wrists and ankles. He then tazed Boehner repeatedly. For the first time in his life, Boehner did not cry. He was then strapped to a board, tilted backwards into a tank of water, and held for 45 seconds, over 111 times. He was then blindfolded and pummelled with cans of Pepsi, embedded in old cotton socks, leaving no evidence. He then poked with a tube, in his (you know where) and the other end was attached to a fire hydrant.

The next morning, Boehner said the deal was off; he refused to return Obama’s calls.

Leaks from those working for his owners, tell us the taxes on the wealthy 1% were the sole reason Boehner was given “the treatment”… It’s a damn shame; for a package of $3 trillion in cuts, (yes, includes modifications to SS and Medicare) and a Trillion in tax increases on the top 1%… would shake the dynamics of our economy.

It would spur investment here in America.
It would therefore create jobs.
It would stop the uncertainty where America was financially headed.
It would prevent the immediate loss to our economy of $4 billion a day.
It would reduce the deficit over time, and save money spent paying interest, which could then be used for services.
It would be the proper step at this time in the direction we need to go.

But, if the US defaults on its debt, nothing in the financial markets is sacred, and when nothing is sacred, that… causes panics…

And a panic in 1929… caused the Great Depression. A panic in 2008, caused the mess we’re in right now.

The world’s managed wealth is $122 trillion… A one percent drop.. is $1.2 trillion. That is the amount, that one half, of one third our government,… cost the world today.

They are kids, playing with a live junction box… Sticking a screwdriver in the wrong hole, burns down the entire house……

(At $50,000 a job, today’s loss is the financial equivalent of putting 24 million human beings out of work)