The Revealing Emails That Were Supposed To Render The Clinton Campaign Inert…..

This is funny.  I too ( I didn’t try to go back and clicked my link) as a huge fan of Bernie, joined in with his call for Hillary to release her transcripts of her talks with Goldman Sacs.

Surely this would show her I said, to be the devil of the corporations, the demoness of globalization, and the protector of the top one percent…

Well, they are out now and with deep interest, I went through all I could…

After reading them, I am shocked, shocked!  I really couldn’t have been more proud of her. Why didn’t she just release them and let all see?

Probably because of proprietary constraints is my guess. Goldman Sacs couldn’t want JP Morgan, as one example, knowing what they knew for example, so they may have put a non-disclosure tag in her contract or fee…. So in order to be released, they had to be hacked. Thanks to Putin’s Russians, we now have copies.

My first takeaway is that I would almost be able to cite plagiarism because it was as if many of her lines had been lifted from my blog…

As to all the damning hints from Assange, “we will release documents that will totally destroy the Clinton candidacy”,  I’m underwhelmed either by the stupidity of those doing the leaking, or their naivety…. I know from across my experience that until you have to work with other people who may or may not like you in order to get things done, you really aren’t grown up yet.  If you are fortunate to make a living where you can say:  do this, and it gets down, you really don’t understand how sometimes it is necessary to bring two diverse groups inward to a center position, to get them to work on the same page.

These documents sort of show that Clinton is a master at doing such.  The headlines you get over at Breitbart intending to make those ignorant readers think she’s horrible, when clicked to reveal the articles and leaks themselves, which show a person with a huge grasp of a large machine with moving parts and how they all work together…

Let’s jump to examples:

Headline:  Clinton says Dodd Frank was needed for political reasons!

I guess that might cause alarms to go off if you hate everything political… But if that were so, why then would you be still sticking with Trump after the tapes, unless it was “political”?

And we know, Dodd-Frank to the “red meat” means government and business collusion to make their lives poorer.  Don’t ask me where they get that from.  Koch’s probably.

But here in depth is the actual killer sentence:

“And with political people, again, I would say the same thing, you know, there was a lot of complaining about Dodd-Frank, but there was also a need to do something because for political reasons, if you were an elected member of Congress and people in your constituency were losing jobs and shutting businesses and everybody in the press is saying it’s all the fault of Wall Street, you can’t sit idly by and do nothing, but what you do is really important.”

She is talking about Republicans here, not herself. LOL.. She is explaining how Republicans had to listen to the rank in file in their districts and how they had to do something (Dodd-Frank) to show Main Street back home that they were doing something constructive for their regular Joes.  Which meant they (Republicans) had to go against their lobbyists (the elite) who were telling them: “you know we can give you lots of money if you just vote against Dodd-Frank”….

Headline: Wall Street Says They Really Do Appreciate Clinton

I guess that is intended to set alarms in Bernie’s people; Wall Street and the Republicans, especially the Tea Party, have all been cozy for some time…

But we all know that Wall Street is in New York and that Hillary was the Senator for New York for 8 year right? And that Senators are supposed to listen to ALL of their constituents, right?

Again, here in depth is the killer sentence…

“MR. O’NEILL: By the way, we really did appreciate when you were the senator from New York and your continued involvement in the issues (inaudible) to be courageous in some respects to associated with Wall Street and this environment. Thank you very much.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I don’t feel particularly courageous. I mean, if we’re going to be an effective, efficient economy, we need to have all part of that engine running well, and that includes Wall Street and Main Street. And there’s a big disconnect and a lot of confusion right now. So I’m not interested in, you know, turning the clock back or pointing fingers, but I am interested in trying to figure out how we come together to chart a better way forward and one that will restore confidence in, you know, small and medium-size businesses and consumers and begin to chip away at the unemployment rate. So it’s something that I, you know, if you’re a realist, you know that people have different roles to play in politics, economics, and this is an important role, but I do think that there has to be an understanding of how what happens here on Wall Street has such broad consequences not just for the domestic but the global economy, so more thought has to be given to the process and transactions and regulations so that we don’t kill or maim what works, but we concentrate on the most effective way of moving forward with the brainpower and the financial power that exists here.” [GS2, 10/24/13]

He is thanking her for being open minded during the timing of a very anti-Wall Street environment.  He called it courageous and if you have any inkling over what political courage is, you would probably agree.  Her response comes across simply that, she wouldn’t call being “open minded” courageous, that is just how she is.”. In her continuation she does not prostrate herself before Wall Street as we probably all assumed, but mentions that Main Street and Wall Street both have to do well if our economy is to approve.  Neither will improve if the other is hurting..

Duh.

Headline:  Clinton Says Financial Industry Knows What To Do Best.

I guess that is intended to portray collusion between Clinton and Goldman Sacs?  Ironically that has been the Republican position since Bush took over in 2000.  Here, said Cheney, you regulate yourselves… We’ll eliminate all our agencies watching you”  But that is not what Hillary says.

Here in depth, is the killer sentence:

“There’s nothing magic about regulations, too much is bad, too little is bad. How do you get to the golden key, how do we figure out what works? And the people that know the industry better than anybody are the people who work in the industry.”

Just like the people who know the restaurant industry best, work in restaurants. People who know the hotel industry best, work in hotels. People who know bridge-building best, build bridges…

C’mon. Is this the BEST you can do? This is how you are “really going to shake up the election?”  Your innocence in running anything makes me want to question “your solution”?  Put people who work in restaurants in charge of regulating bridge-building, and bridge builders in charge of food safety?

Headline:  Clinton Tells Wall Street She Represented Them For 8 Years”

I guess this is the smoking gun which prove Hillary is nothing more than a shill for Wall Street.  When they pull her strings, she moves their way. If they don’t pull, she remains still.

Here is the killer sentence. 

“I represented all of you for eight years. I had great relations and worked so close together after 9/11 to rebuild downtown, and a lot of respect for the work you do and the people who do it, but I do — I think that when we talk about the regulators and the politicians, the economic consequences of bad decisions back in ’08, you know, were devastating, and they had repercussions throughout the world.” [GS2, 10/24/13]

Ummm. she was their Senator for 8 years. She represented them as do all senators represent all their constituents.  In her case they were on the same sides both during and rebuilding after a terror attack. But even despite that she does think that what took place during those Bush-Cheney years while she was their senator, were devastating and had repercussions throughout the world.

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I must confess. I’m deeply disappointed in WikiLeaks. I have always respected that information is necessary for people to make good decisions.  When it is made unavailable for public consumption, then this option of leaking information is one that can balance the playing field. In this case, their information unanimously endorsed my belief that Hillary Clinton is who we need. I am disappointed however in the lead-up of hype, only to see there was nothing here but twisted headline material. For me, WikiLeaks came thorough this episode with a loss of credibility. What once was deemed an enterprise worthy of an occasional contribution or two, has regressed into looking like a slanderous political arm of an untrustworthy hypocrite.  I hope they return to illuminating evil, and stop attacking good.

My takeaway from this in-depth study is that Hillary Clinton is truly one of the most amazing people I have seen.  She may not have always been the most qualified person to be president and represent ALL citizens both conservative and progressive, but she is indeed now.

She is better than ANY Republican out there now.  She is better than any man out there who could right now, step up to run the country.  I’m overjoyed these hacks were released because after supporting Bernie through his entire run, if there were any lingering doubts cast then by him on her ability to lead, with these releases, they are now gone for good.

And you know what?  I’m tired of talking about her mistakes.  Seeing her in secret and up close, it is very obvious that this is an amazing human being and for that alone, I would encourage all other decent human beings to get behind her and spread that message…

I’ll say it here, but maybe with luck, Wikileaks will hack me and re-capture it to spread it across the world so its message is amplified louder than I could ever shout it myself.

If there is hope for a better American future, right now, it lies deep within the brain of one Hillary Clinton. 

Why Do Politicians Lie? Hint: It’s Your Fault

Stumbled across this and thought it deserves being passed on because ultimately YOU are the solution (and not each candidate in who it appears must lie because that is the only way they can possibly be taken seriously enough to win… )

Knowledge is power and when you know how YOU think, you can sometimes second guess yourself out of making those wrong decisions which your first instinct is to jump into with both feet…

So why do they lie?  Those of us who have made the Internet their home must wonder over the audacity or ignorance of these upstarts who think their lies simply will go unchecked forever… So why then would they lie and why would anyone follow someone who lies so much?

According to one human scientist, Jim Taylor (Phd), there are many reasons and here briefly are the top six.

Many politicians are narcissists. … Most would agree. “Narcissists are arrogant, self-important, see themselves as special, require excessive admiration, have a sense of entitlement, and are exploitative, ” which, like it or not, causes them to believe that they are right and, even if they are not, they think they’re too smart to be ensnared inside any consequences.

Politicians know their followers will believe them, even in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. Here, Facebook, blogs, and journalistic comment sections have certainly confirmed this to be true.  One reading through their comment streams can readily see how supporters flat out refuse to look at any evidence remotely throwing shade upon their candidate.

People don’t want to hear the truth…  “no one wants to hear things that threaten their existence, their beliefs, or that will make them uncomfortable. It is decidedly better for politicians to tell people what makes them feel comfortable. Why should politicians be the purveyors of bad news (and decrease the likelihood of getting people’s votes) when they can tell fairy tales with happy endings (which, of course, everyone wants) and come out the victor.”  When ones entire livelihood depends solely on people liking you more than they do someone else, deliberately putting salt in someone’s wound is not a good technique for self survival..

The Internet never forgets.  We tell this to our children to keep them from posting images they later regret.  But that adage cuts both ways… Whereas the truth is always out there when you do wrong, so are those lies always following you close each time you do right.  Unlike human reasoning, nothing ever gets settled on the Internet…Someone can stumble across and false flag without seeing all the evidence pointing it out as such, and BAM! That controversy starts all over again; it’s become the 21st Century equivalent of a “sucker being born every minute…”

Cognitive biases. “The human mind engages in many cognitive tricks to help people be more efficient, reduce confusion and anxiety, and keep life simple and coherent”. Across our evolutionary survival we developed the overall tendency to reinforce what we perceived as having always worked for us, instead of rushing down every new alternative path opening up our way.  The very valid fact that we are still here as a species, is pretty damning evidence to its effectiveness…

If a lie is told enough times, people will assume it is true.  “People expect that lies will be disproved and fade away. So if the lies continue to be heard (over and over and over) people assume they must be true.”  “If there is smoke, there must be fire”  Prior to the technical age, there were physical limits on a lie’s speed and reach. One could only talk to a limited number of impressionable people per day… and often many would retort back with contrary evidence dispelling the lie immediately upon its hearing. Now, lies reach millions in a second, drowning out those individual replies dispelling them. Checking out each statement’s validity has become tediously time consuming, during which multiple repetitions of the same lie continue, making its effectiveness all the more believable…
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With knowledge now stored as 1’s and 0’s we enter a new age in which our age old defenses against mis-information are no longer valid. Hence charts like that at the top of this post become very important… All it means is that “someone” out there checked and rated each of these candidates on issues ranging from “truth” to “pants on fire”…. and made this determination… something we are no longer capable of doing ourselves.

As always, your best bet is to go with those who won’t steer you wrong… That is lesson true in life, as it is in politics….

 

The Amazing Campaign of 2016

 

Pay Attention, New Jersey…..

Perhaps due to the abrasive nature of politics in New Jersey, its citizens will not be as beholden to having “royalty” tapping their ruby slippers with their wand, as were the squeamish citizens of their sister state across the bay, who tend to blindly follow whatever direction those with more money in their pockets, tell them ….

New Jersey has always been a knock-down, drag-out, state when it comes to political fighting… Which means, I hope its citizens who are immune to fighting entirely, don’t get sucked up in it, and do stay clear to vote their self interests….

It’s like if you never see your parents argue, then see a heated discussion involving anger as the prime force of reason, it scares you… But if you see the same stuff every other day, you think: “crap, I’d better see if I can get a seat at Beth’s family’s table today….”

Because, ever since Wisconsin, the media redundant focus on the Democratic race has been on Hilary’s fights with Bernie… who said what, and how did Twitter respond, and how much time can our news milk this topic so we don’t have to tell voters about what really matters…. Which like parents arguing… affects us squat…

So what is important?  Our money.  Everything, and I mean, everything else is a distraction…. 

Oh no.  I don’t mean to imply we should forget about everything else… We are under a lot of problems now… Global warming for one; it needed to be addressed 16 years ago instead of shuffling arguments with hired skeptics defending its denial.  Racial injustice… Certainly important.. Having a good economy for only one color of skin is a scenario we do not want to have return. Public Education being corporatized?  Heavens! That’s our nation’s future we’re talking about. Certainly it is important… Police responsible to “We, The People”, and not themselves? Absolutely, that is important…..

So what am I talking about when I say other than our money, everything else is a distraction?

What I’m talking about:  is how money and power go together…. What I’m talking about is how even you, in whatever capacity you find yourself, when you have to choose between opposing views of people who a) can really fvck your life up, or b) people whose only hold on you is their moral persuasion, in order for yourself not to get royally fvcked up, you side with those who could do you the most damage…

What we are talking about:  is whether you matter any more!….

Let’s waltz through all those distractions we get tossed, ok?  One by one?

Global warming may happen or it may not, but unless you have power to make change, it is out of your hands. If you are a 2nd class citizen who can’t or won’t vote because it truly makes no difference, then that resolution will be decided by those who do… Just for the record, how many lobbyists can you hire to lubricate passage of laws limiting carbon’s use through your state and national legislatures?  If you yourself have no assets to speak of, no stocks, no clout, if you still rent, and don’t own, if you make so little you can’t support your own necessary expenses, much less financially fund some progressive cause,  why would someone listen to you over someone who has demonstrated the capacity to promise them a $500,000 a year job after their term expires?…

You need to elect someone right now to whom you will matter.

Racial Injustice?  How does having equality on paper, translate into having fewer of your color in prison? Fewer of your color in jobs? Fewer of your gender in executive positions? How does yourself being poorer year, after year, after year; of having less money to spend on yourself, help others of your color, of your gender, of your sexual persuasion?  How does you getting poorer and poorer and poorer and poorer help anyone really, if you can’t even help yourself?  And if you can’t even help yourself, why would anyone sane ever listen to you again, once you’ve received their vote?  Are the vows of commitment you make before you have sex, ever the same strength long after you’ve gotten it?  Or are you ready to make new vows of the same ardency, to the next target who crosses your sights?

You need to elect someone right now to whom you will matter.

Public Education being corporatized?  How does having corporations tear apart your public schools affect you, when all the choices given you are bad?  Like slaves on a plantation you really have no choice because you really have no income with which to make a choice; you simply have to put your child on the bus hoping the interest of others keeps him from being thrown under the bus,  and have him taken to “where-ever” school someone wants him in  You have no say, because you have no money with which to get your “say” noticed. Why should anyone even care that you object to businessmen raking in millions of your tax dollars and giving nothing beneficial in return?  Uhh, who are you, minimum wage person, with a credit rating of under 325, living week to week off your crappy job?… Who are you professional teacher, behind on your bills, fired for your low rating, who has “loser” in the shape of an albatross around your neck? Really who even cares what you say, where you say it, what you wish for you child when you can’t even put up two pennies for a candidate who would otherwise take you side of things?  You expect people to ignore millions of dollars offered them, simply on moral grounds?  What do you smoke btw?

You need to elect someone right now to whom you will matter.

Police accountability?  Ha… Police run themselves… If they want to shoot a black.. they do it.. If they want a live target, they get one… NO ONE WHO HAS MONEY CARES!  “Oh, tsh, tsh! So sad Trayvon died… Whoa! The bid is only $300 for the gun that killed him? That’s my investment in the future… some billionaire collector will want it.”  “Oh look, my stock value in gun manufactures has soared double what I expected it to be before Trayvon was murdered… ‘Bout time we kill another black kid to shoot it up even higher.. ” So really you who have no money, no clout, no pull; how much money are you going to throw at legislatures to counter laws like that?  You who have no job?  You who live on less than $100 in cash a week? You, whose housing is paid for, whose food is paid for, whose phone is paid for by people who won’t hire you, won’t pay you a fair wage, who won’t give you the respect of a decent job, because your government is run by people to whom you don’t matter?  To whom those with only big money matter because you can give two extra pennies to help them fight your battle….. What warped world do you live in where people will hold police accountable to the law at their own peril, when they could do quite well by leaving the police alone to kill in cold blood, anyone they want?

How is anyone going to change that over to what whatever it is you do want, YOU WHO DO NOT MATTER?

Seriously;  social issues are distractions. They are panacea. They are offered to get you all excited so you forget how little money you now have; how much smaller money you will have in the future, and how little money your children will have to fight over among themselves if ever they have a future,…  because YOU… yes, YOU, totally dropped the ball when it came to YOU YOURSELF making more money, and YOU, yes YOU, simply let them take it from you because YOU YOURSELF was concerned too much about Global warming; because YOU YOURSELF was too much concerned about racial injustice; because YOU YOURSELF was concerned too much concerned about educational deformity; because YOU YOURSELF was too much concerned about the inconsequences of police brutality……

So while you were distracted…. you simply scrolled through financial La La land and let them take your money, money that was to have been yours….

It is your money they now use to buy your state and local representative, your governor, your US House Representative or US Senator,  so he/she must listen now to them, not you. It’s true.  You are made to believe you are being listened to, but in truth, do you really have a voice?  How’s your bank account?. People with money have awesome bank accounts, do you?  All they have to do is whine:  I’m not making money and it gets handed to them; when was the last time that ever worked for you?… They can act with impunity, take your property, your children, your pension, only because somewhere deep down in your soul, you were emotionally persuaded NOT to vote in someone who would dramatically change the rules so you could again begin to earn more and those with money might have to live with less….

These rules we are mentioning are not something new… They are the ones in existence across most of the rest of the world, and existed here up until 2002. They were the ones in play when the US had a roaring middle class, when every income level made more each year than they did the last, when it was unheard of to make less this year than you did last, when even when you lost your job, you still made more the next year because someone hired you paying you more money.  That life is not a dream.. That life is memory for anyone over 45.

But every year, across those lifetimes, we took one or two planks off the House that Roosevelt built, called the New Deal, which guaranteed financial opportunity for all people.. Rich or poor.  you would do alright in this life, as long as you lived in America; nothing bad would happen to you.

In that house with every new contract, your union would negotiate your wage based off a percentage of the success your work was providing your employers… Profits were split 50/50 between workers and investors, not 0/100… Then suddenly we “changed” the law to allow states to ban unions… pffft…. good bye profit sharing…  “Sorry, kiddo, if you want to live, as in eat, you’ll have to work for $7.25 and hour and no benefits…That’s all this state offers; no, we don’t do raises.. Take it or starve..”. 

Employer pension funds used to belong to the employees… Companies could not be bought and have their employee’s pensions dissolved sending the money straight to investors.  You worked, you retired, you would live very comfortably in your old age… Today, many grandparents are subsidizing their children and grandchildren through the largess of these pension plans they were luck to retire on before the law was changed…

Marginal tax laws were also higher… meaning there was strong incentive NOT to gouge or bleed a business for high profits.  With more than 50% of your top dollars handed over to the treasurer of the Federal Government, it made good sense to invest in your employees. and get a return on that investment instead of just handing the money over.  Today, that is the craziest thing any company exec can do…  (President of the Corporation):  “Our profits are lower this year because I gave good raises to my employees to keep them on board to continue our success, and also because I opened up a new department to research and develop new products instead of buying out competing companies and firing all their employees.  I will be sad to leave but do accept the stockholders’ decision..”  We passed low tax laws letting corporations keep all their profits, requiring none to be invested back into our economy… We could have easily used our tax laws to provide incentives to invest in America instead of China, but since Americans were so preoccupied with social issues, no one cared.  Prophets of doom were contemporarily ridiculed as pessimists, yet they predicted exactly the world we have today.

With more tax revenue available, the public sector was much more effective in controlling excessive corporate behavior, and large numbers of people had good jobs making good money monitoring Corporate America to make sure all existing laws were being followed. If a corporation was found to be violating American law, they were charged and punished… Now, only after a city’s whole water is poisoned, does anyone even begin to look for a culprit and usually blame falls on that person least able to defend themselves; not the real culprit who is allowed to continue their business.  The Freddie Macs and Fannie Maes get blamed; not the Wall Street firms who knowingly sold very bad investments, then bet correctly they would fail… getting richer while we lost everything we had.

The point?  The point is that we did this to ourselves… We did this by not paying attention to the rules by which our financial system was run, and by favoring rules that benefited corporations and those with lots of money, and by removing protections that served the middle class.

We put a gun to our head, spun the chamber, and lost.

But it is not yet over. Just as we voted rules to favor the elite class. we can also vote in new rules to favor the middle class…

But unless you start with electing and supporting someone who understands that being comfortably well off and having certain inalienable rights, is far better than being impoverished so you can’t even fight to maintain the rights you once had, it won’t change. Never. Never. Never… for how could it?  How is it even possible that in a nation where 1% of the people now own more wealth than the other 99%.. the poorer segment can ever get that power back in their grasp?

So New Jersey… They will do their best to confuse you… But anyone who sticks out their tongue to lick the frozen pole put out by Wall Street, loses skin off their tongue… When people distract you by saying that “other” candidate “only” talks about Wall Street and that they couldn’t give a damn about Wall Street, remember that without money in your pocket you have no power… And today without someone fighting for you, you will never have money in your pocket… Across the entire history of this world, Wealth has always stayed in the hands of those to take the power to keep it in their possession.

If you want more wealth, there is only one way to get it… Take it from those who have it and are fighting you hard to keep it in their possession….

There are three candidates remaining… Two of them are part of the 1%…. One of them isn’t and it it only that one who is fighting for you.  Don’t let the other two distract you.

BUBBLE WAR

Some people still don’t get Bernie Sanders… it is not they are stupid, but they have never been exposed to the true message… All they hear is an interpretation of him which of course has been processed and comes directly from the corporate mentality which now owns the entire media….

So they can’t be blamed for not knowing what they do not know….. (although many people try)….

Soda…. Have you ever had a soda with so many bubbles it tickles your upper nasal passages?  I did on Sunday at Burger King… What’s up with that?

You can get the same effect if you open a 2 liter bottle and inhale immediately afterwards. But if you at home pour a cup of soda and leave it… what happens? Perhaps if you come back to it in an hour, it is still drinkable.  But if you wait long enough, it goes flat…

This is essentially what happened to our economy. … and particularly it is being felt by the middle class who now, like the poor people of the South prior to the sixties, see no change of their predicament ever coming in the future…  This death of hope is almost unAmerican…

So using this analogy of spent soda, here are the options for America… Hillary and Trump are fighting over the allotment of the few bubbles left…. and who gets them… Both accept the stale soda at face value. Bernie is talking about re-infusing carbonation back into the old soda.

That is the difference… There is no real difference between Trump and Hillary unless you are a woman… or of Mexican descent…. or a Muslim…. Other than that, at the end of 4 years you on average will be poorer, with more and more money going to the top percent. If you are in the top percent, there also will be no difference in 4 years depending on whether either Trump or Hillary take power, (unless of course you are a woman, Mexican, or Muslim.)  So the race the media wants to happen will pit whites against minorities, rednecks against liberals, and dominant males against strong women…

And since that is a playbook the media knows so well, that is the one they are hellbent on pushing us towards….

But we don’t have to play it… At least not yet…

Because there is the third option:  which is to put more bubbles back into the soda so there is enough for all.. Yes, those from whose tanks the CO2 will come from will moan and bitch but they won’t die.
Now in case you are still not not able to see the analogy, let me be clear.  The CO2 stands for economic activity or money.  The soda is our economy. And you,… are the drinkers of either a glass of soda, or kool-aid….. depending on who gets elected.

 

Fighting Back Against Big Money

With the passing of the Sanders’ campaign’s high mark, it becomes clearer than ever that one can fight back against Big Money.  Instead of being disappointed in a setback, we should take joy that for once this message finally resonated in the American People.

No one really expects a first attack or probe to successfully take down a giant. That rarely happens.  The fact that it is so rare, is often what ramps up the hope and anticipation when possibilities align predicting it could happen.

And of course, hope and anticipation were ramped up as we saw success after success pile on to Bernie’s campaign.

So the take away from all of this is that Big Money is vulnerable.  They don’t always win.  Sure they have odds stacked in their favor because they can buy what they need.  But they are not invincible….

It is this knowledge that must now run rampant in the large sector of the population that is now being polled saying they want Sanders as our president.

Yes, those polls do include independents and it is fact that both major parties blocked independents from 4 of the last primary contests…

It was that rule that broke the revolution, not Big Money.

Rules can be changed and that rule does not apply in general elections. What this means is that if you are a progressively inclined person of either party, now is the time to run to put Big Money back into its box…

Bernie showed America that we can still be in charge of our country, but, we need to act now because we are losing control fast… But, we can…

It just takes involvement… Which means it will take you.  You can’t sit this one out like you have all those in the past…. You will need to “do” something…

Because we have just seen with our own eyes, that it can be done.

Primary: Vote for Bernie

It looks like Bernie’s strength is in Kent and Sussex Counties.  Hillary is very strong in Wilmington’s precincts. Newark is closer to 50-50… Claymont is 50-50.. Hockessin leans slightly in favor of Clinton.

it is funny that large numbers of people did not know Hillary was in state today.  I wonder if they were aware Bernie landed here Saturday?

This election will depend on turnout (as most elections do).  If you are a Hillary supporter, you really don’t have the push to get to the polls because if you fail, Hillary is going to win it anyway… But… If you believe in what Bernie says, about student loans, free college, stopping global warming, getting billionaires out of our government, Medicaid for all, this is the last ditch time to vote.  If he loses this round, it’s like the other team being two touchdowns up at the two minute warning…. We have seen miracles happen, but rare it is, when they do…

If you vote for Bernie, you give him life… If you don’t, there is no one left to carry your water for you… You lost your chance at ever getting a better life.

This election has too many variables to predict.  But by this time tomorrow we will know  if…

• it is still possible to get out of student loan debt.
• If it is still possible to go to state colleges tuition free
• If it is still possible to begin the squeeze on fossil fuels to save the planet.
• If it is still possible to get billionaires out from running our government for themselves.
• If it is still possible to have a single payer healthcare system.
• If love still outweighs hate…..

Vote.  it will never happen unless you vote for it to happen…..  Only one candidate is running for the people…

 

 

 

 

 

Why Bernie Is The Only Choice

Briefly, because that is the length of attentions spans until after Tuesday.

But despite Hillary touting Obama’s great job record, many people don’t see things working out very well today…

And that is because most people don’t rate their well-being by whether or not they have income incoming… but by how much the have left over for discretionary spending after all mandatory and necessary expenses have been met.

When over 50% of all income coming in is going to the top 1/10th of one percent, it is pretty obvious to everyone that only by increasing taxes on those stratospheric incomes, will money ever return to the middle class which is where it needs to be.

If any of you follow corporate financial reports, you are by now, aware and worried that domestic demand has dipped below critical levels. If any of you follow corporate financial reports, you too are skittish that we are on track for another very nasty correction this fall.

Only one candidate is addressing the problem. Only one candidate can make a difference to the middle class… All other four running are billionaire appeasers who like Chamberlain before Hitler, sell us out and offer us an empty plate of words, telling us we will have prosperity in our time.

It is past time I’m afraid, to stop believing their words and start believing our eyes…

Only when the billionaires are put back under control of We the People, will We, the People, ever get our fair share too….

The only hope for America, is to fix this huge problem of over 50% of our wealth sucked out of our economy,  and only one presidential candidate is uncompromised, … who can do it.

Why Bernie Sanders Is Closer To Bill Clinton Than Hillary Is

Wow, that’s a shocker, isn’t it?  Of course I don’t mean in bed; I mean in economic policy..

One of the reasons blacks have such fond memories of the Clintons is because as a group, they benefited during the policy changes of the Bill Clinton Presidency. There was a big difference from where they were before Clinton was elected, to where they were when he turned over the reins of power to his successor.

Today due to the influence of a misguided press, they seem to be mixing fiction with fact in their overwhelming support for Hillary over Bernie Sanders… ( In NY it was split 75/25).  Such is understandable. The explanation of the difference between fact and fiction, is that the Bill Clinton upon leaving office, did not have the same outlook as the one who entered.  Hillary has continued his same line of financial maturity, (most notably after the presidency, when they became wealthy). Whereas, Bernie as a poor Senator is very similar to the young Bill Clinton as a poor governor, both having far greater empathy for the middle and problems of the lower class, than they do or did to the top 1%.

Both the policies of Bill and Bernie were and are aimed at correcting the flaws embedded in the economics of a growing middle class, no matter how hard it hurt the rich.  By contrast, Hillary pays lip service to the middle class’s economic hardships, but her views appear to be compromised and tempered by her connections to the upper 1% who definitely seem to have her ear…..

So let’s compare Bill’s achievements piece by piece?

The economy added almost 23 million jobs under  Bill Clinton’s 8 years.  The GDP grew 35% over the same time. Unemployment hit a 30 year low.

Average hourly wages grew 6%.  Medium average household income grew 14%. The median income of African American families increased by a third and Hispanic families saw their median incomes rise by almost $7,000. Poverty rates dropped to near record lows. And of course the federal budget went from enormous deficits to enormous surpluses,

How was this done?  Basically,…. by getting rid of Reaganomics and establishing “sound” economic policy.

Fundamentally, the middle class is the engine of U.S. economic growth and prosperity.  When it grows; the national economy grows.  When it contracts; our economy contracts.

Bill strengthened the Middle Class by seriously hiking the minimum wage!!!!! 20%. Next, Bill pushed and got the Family Medical Leave Act, which meant that having a baby would no longer cost you your job. This is something we simply take for granted today; it is almost unbelievable to think that firing pregnant moms was the norm prior to that bill’s passage and signature.  Third, establishment of Child Tax Credits, a necessary plank for middle class families still to this day…

Bill Clinton made entering the Middle Class easier for those on the bottom by strengthening the Earned Income Credit, a credit whose amount grew as ones wages grew up to a certain point, offering strong incentive to work more.  Welfare reform up to $3 billion dollars yearly, continued to push people out of poverty and into the middle class.  This included housing vouchers for those working their way out of welfare , as well as business tax breaks for businesses hiring them.

To help young families, more money than every before was directed to Head Start and child care.  The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was founded to bridge the lower incomes after Medicaid incomes cuts kicked in.  WIC funding increased 45% over his tenure.  Food Snap funding initially got a $3 billion boost, then fell off rapidly as the economy boomed. As well as Federal Housing Assistance growing $9 billion per year enabling many lower middle class owners to realize home ownership for the first time.

Together, these dropped poverty level rates among Blacks from 33% at the time of Bill’s swearing in, to 22% at his swearing out….

As millions of more Americans entered the middle class and as real wages grew, President Clinton also met his goal of spending less on tax breaks for the wealthy and debt services—and giving the middle class more room to spend and grow the economy instead.

And for the first time in 30 years, incomes of the bottom 20 percent of the workforce rose nearly as much as the top 20 percent, and the number of people living in poverty actually declined.

Furthermore, for the first time, Afro Americans had opportunity equal to their white peers.  With equal access to education, and federal money being spent on poorer schools as well, many Afro Americans were equally poised alongside their white counterparts, to engage in middle class opportunities as technology opportunities suddenly blew up with the growth of internet technologies. Suddenly there WERE lots of blacks making lots of money.  Locally, Delaware call centers pretty well hired out all Wilmington to staff their offices.

In the quality of life category, violent crime which peaked just before Bill Clinton came into office, fell significantly over the course of his tenure, and has continued long afterwards.

But all these changes were instigated, and completely made into realization,… by the increase of the top marginal rate on top incomes…

Clinton’s 1993 budget, passed over the vociferous opposition of congressional Republicans, included revenue enhancements focused almost exclusively on those who benefited most from President Reagan’s tax reductions 12 years earlier—large corporations and America’s most affluent earners. These included:

• An increase in the top ordinary income tax rate from 31 percent to 39.6 percent
• Repealing the cap on earnings subject to the Medicare payroll tax
• Increasing the corporate income tax rate for profits above $10 million
• Reducing the deductibility of business meals and entertainment expenses

These “paid for” all the improvements Bill Clinton used to strengthen the Middle Class and then went on to paying down the federal debt, thereby decreasing cost of the portion of debt servicing ….  Had these policies not been overturned by the successor George W. Bush, the entire national debt was on scheduled to have been eliminated by  2009….

By turning the federal budget around, President Clinton accomplished three critical things. First, he reduced federal borrowing as the economy improved, allowing that capital to flow to more productive uses and giving the private sector a needed boost. Second, he allayed the fears of an impending debt crisis, taking that issue off the table. And third, the fiscal improvement allowed the government to focus on the other economic matters listed above—investing in the future, growing the middle class, mitigating poverty, and strengthening Afro-America’s communities.

Undoubtedly President Clinton’s policies are what spurred the economy out of the Reagan doldrums by focusing on the middle class and by making targeted public investments directly in the neighborhoods of Afro-Americans. I just wanted fellow white Americans to first understand WHY black Americans were and still are so loyal to the “Clinton” name…..

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Which brings us now to 2016.  Exactly twenty fours years after that election featuring Ross Perot making a “giant sucking sound”. (Can you believe it’s been that long)….

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If you are Afro American over 35 you probably already know of what I just told you; you lived it. So naturally everyone should see where there should be a lot of loyalty still deserved by the wife of the man who created so much good.

But!

Do you know that the policies now espoused by Hillary Clinton are very similar to those espoused by George W. Bush’s father, George Herbert Walker Bush when he ran against Bill Clinton?  (“Stay the course.”) Do you know that the policies now espoused by Bernie Sanders are much closer to what Bill Clinton ran on in 1992, than are those of his wife today?

The crux of Bill Clinton’s success was his quick passage of the higher taxes on the top one percent.  That allowed a return to the proper balance of wealth and investment to America.  Everyone knows no wealthy person is going to invest in a poverty area. Which is why to eradicate poverty areas, you first need federal investment directly into those people who live in those areas.  When they are no longer living in poverty, that area is no longer a poverty area.  This in a nutshell, is why allowing MORE investment credits to wealthy people with the sole purpose to entice them to invest, is a no-go…   No one willingly loses a million dollars to get a reward of $10,000 extra dollars for doing so.

Which is all that Republican ideas offer.   They merely let the rich keep all their money and do nothing to invest in poor neighborhoods.  But, if you tax the rich so much it tortures them (MAKE IT STOP)!), then say, … no taxes if you invest in South Bridge Wilmington, you actually do get people to invest in South Bridge Wilmington.   Like ShopRite.  🙂   But you have to first have very high taxes to make tax breaks the incentive they once were and again should be…

(If you’ve noticed, incoming corporations now no longer ask for tax breaks for an incentive to move into Delaware; they ask for cash up front.  Tax breaks are no incentive anymore because taxes are way, way, way too low. Lower tax breaks? Pffft. It’s no big deal).

Therefore, you NEED higher tax rates to

a) generate private investment back into the economy

b) fund public sector projects no private investor would sink money into.

c) raise wages.

None of which ever happen when tax rates are too, too, too low on the top 1%. You may wonder how this works?

Higher taxes tax profit… That is all.  They tax all the money that is left over after every other expense has been accounted for… If you have a business and put money back into it to grow your business, it is quite possible you have no profits left over.  If you have no profits, you cannot be taxed on them… Therefore higher marginal tax rates provide the best incentive currently known to mankind, (otherwise known as greed), to convince a business owner to either repair or expand his business.  This action done by all business owners everywhere at the same time, is what we all call “economic growth”…

Now taking the contrary course, that of cutting taxes to spur investment, does not give you more investment.. Instead it makes you buy up what is already there… It is way more profitable to “buy” a bank for example, than start one from the ground up.  You “buy” a bank, fire its president, vice presidents, and officers and replace them with those on your payroll, presto, you’ve already earned profit… which incidentally, will not generate much tax revenue because of  the lower rates which gave you so much money to buy the bank in the first place. Why would anyone invest in something which after 15 years, has a total payoff of 3%…. when they can selectively put that money in stocks and make 8% in 4 weeks?  This explains why we have great gains in our stock markets and very little physical investment in the infrastructure, when taxes are low; and the opposite when tax rates begin climbing…  Ironically the obvious way to spur more physical investment in our economy, is to make “making money” too expensive so you have to “hide” it before it gets taxed…. Higher marginal tax rates do that…

Bill Clinton raised taxes on the top 1% from 31% to 39.6%,  a jump of 8%. The economy took off like a rocket and over the rest of his term we had the best economy ever in America’s history.   Bernie wants to raise rates on our highest income earners from 39.6 to 52%  (12.4%); it would only hit those making more than $10 million a year, and then it is only on those amounts over that $10 million to which this rate will apply…  By contrast, Hillary is stating that she only wants to generate only 3% of what Bernie will….or show an increase of 0.3%…..

This is why Bernie is more like Bill than his wife Hillary.

 

Hillary said she wants minimum wage at $12 dollars by 2020.. Bernie is advocating $15 dollars.  Bill Clinton jumped minimum wage 20%… If one takes the $10 wage already voted on by Delaware’s legislature, her cap would stop it at $12 dollars, roughly a 20% level of increase. Yet Bernie’s takes it up to $15 dollars or a 50% increase over the current $10 dollar amount… something some localities and states have made it into future law already.

So in daring, Bernie is more like Bill than Hillary is.

When it comes to putting through more blacks through college, Bernie is more like Bill than is Hillary.  He advocates tuition-free college for all.

When it comes to health insurance, Bernie is more like Bill than is Hillary.

When it comes to infrastructure investment and jobs, Bernie is more like Bill than is Hillary.

When it comes to caring more for Black children, Bernie is more like Bill than Hillary.

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And it makes perfect sense.  When Bill ran for president he was an governor of a poor state comprised of many blacks, making $35,000 a year.  Except for his free governor’s mansion, he was very middle class.  From 2007 to 2014, the Clinton’s earned $141 million.  It is not hard to understand why they won’t be such strong supporters of the middle class if it comes at the rich’s expense.

Bernie Sanders has a net worth of $300,000.  If he weren’t a Senator, he’d be living on Social Security. That makes him the poorest of all presidential candidates. That makes him so much more like Bill Clinton, than Bill’s wife Hillary is today…

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There is no denying Black loyalty exists for Hillary Clinton. She was beside Bill when all this went down 20 years ago. But, her interests no longer rest as strongly with the black peoples of America, as they once did.  Now, out of necessity, and new friends, she has to balance what is best for poor blacks in our cities, with what is best for her new friends who are very well to do…

If any of you have a spouse that has ever had a mistress or homey on the side, you know exactly what I mean when we are talking about rationing down the amount of attention being given to you.

Bernie is running for a mission: to make all Americans better.  If you are black and American, you are still an American… Under Bernie, your life will get better. Bernie can benefit you faster and better and more like did Bill Clinton, than can his wife…..

Because, Bernie,… actually is a lot more like Bill, than is Hillary.

 

 

 

 

Bernie Versus Hillary

As New York arrives and passes this week, it is important to remember how far we have come and to continue the fight no matter what happens.  The issues are mainstream now. and for once, the mass media has been vanquished and to get ratings, they must carry Bernie or lose that audience member to another station that does.

Bernie is not what you’d expect as a top ranked presidential candidate.  He is the last person in the political arena anyone would think would have top bill status; a Democratic Socialist;  from a very small state (272,000 less than Delaware); refusing SUPERPACs; not taking BIG MONEY; arguing HIGHER TAXES; breaking up BIG BANKS; putting a CARBON TAX on oil, gas, and coal; and doing all that while defeating preordained (by the establishment) Hillary Clinton in the last 9 out of 10 contests.

Make no mincement out of it.  It is very unlikely that Bernie can win New York. For better or worse, Hillary was senator there and well respected, well liked, and has lots of influence on the ground…. It is like the New England Patriots in the Superbowl playing the New York Giants, a team who lost their first six games of the season… (The Giants won it that year btw).  But, what is driving this race to a frenzy in the media, is that the outcome is not completely decided. There is still a possibility that many factors could all come together and that Bernie could still win….  Polls, and especially in the pollsters own home state, know exactly who to call to get the numbers they want.  These polls other than those out of Washington DC, are probably the least reliable in the country.

But for better or worse, if you live in New York, this vote (for Bernie) is your one last chance to stick it to the man… that guy that has been putting you down for decades…. Your work’s not good enough, even though it is far better than any of your peers. That guy, is who you need to stick.  And nothing sticks him harder than if you vote Bernie Sanders and he wins….

These are amazing times.  No one could have predicted a year ago that we’d have a ghost of a chance to right the wrongs this current millennium has wrought.  But we do! We actually do have a chance to fix the things that are wrong, not just with America, but entire society….

WE actually have a chance to again be making some real money $ $$,$$$… But only if New York votes to make the change.  Bernie Sanders is that shot... The question is, will enough of you vote to overcome those who don’t want you to have that chance???

Consider it a war for your survival.  Will you make that last 3 pointer which is the buzzer beater?

It’s also a war for the planet’s survival.  Remember you are also representing the entire planet, who once represented by one little bird, sat in front of Bernie and said on behalf of it, “Thank you!”