Either-Or? Or is it?

Well, it’s been three weeks and the Trumpster in Chief is still the Mad Tweeter in Chief. Are we living in a farce? I could talk about Democratic unity, but it hardly seems anyone cares anymore. Who will be the new DNC chair and will it make any difference? Can the Electors really choose the one who won the popular vote, that’d be Hillary, and change the course of history? No one seriously thinks that’s a possibility.

And what did the Russians really do and what kind of effect did it have on the outcome, if any?

All questions without answers, unless you are a conspiracy theorist and then you know it was all rigged and Bernie would have won if the DNC hadn’t stolen the primary. 

For daring to assert that no one knows if Bernie could have won the general if he had been the nominee, I get called a Hillary troll (I was a Bernie delegate, as my loyal readers know); if I suggest that the Trump team would have buried Bernie in a sea of lies, innuendo, historical revisionism and plain old nasty name calling (Can you just see the tweets? #BolshevikBernie; #PornGate; #DonothingCongress – that would be the kindest one), I get called a fake progressive; sort of like the Doubting Thomas of Biblical times. Tempers are that high. And those are my allies.

The Hillary side is just as bad. Now the great Democratic divide is over “identity politics” versus “progressive economics.” I tell them it’s not an either-or thing. We need to reach out to and offer something to those who are out of work, underemployed, undereducated, fearful and ignorant. Plus we need to stand firm for all minorities, and women, the largest “minority of all (I never have understood how we can be the majority and still the underclass at the same time.) But maybe it is and I don’t get it. 

 Anyone want to weigh in? Here's what the Daily Kos said a almost two years ago: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/6/4/1390747/-Identity-Politics-vs-Inequality-Politics-My-Two-Cents 

Local Election News

Turning away from the National Disaster that is the Trump election, I am pleased to let you know the victories that GreenDog Campaigns had this year. Heidi Hall, a strong up and coming Democratic leader, handily won her election against a Tea Party darling to become 1st District Supervisor in Nevada County. Happily, she won this victory outright in the June Primary, and will take office in December. A big congratulations and a lick of the GreenDog tongue to Heidi!

In the East Bay, GreenDog candidate Monica Wilson won her re-election to a second term on the   Antioch City Council. Although an anti-incumbent sentiment was in the air, her message of improving economic development prospects, public health and safety and protecting the environment, carried the day. She has been a strong voice for civic improvement and transparency on the Council and will continue to be so going forward. Great job Monica!

Locally, we had a mixed bag, losing a hard fought General Election for Superior Court judge, after a virtual dead heat in the June primary, but counting our modest help on Fairfax's Measure C (continuation of much needed sales tax for public safety and infrastructure) as part of a winning campaign. Congratulations to the great team in Fairfax (my hometown for the record)!

As we go forward into an uncertain future, comfort food is always in order:

Your pre-Thanksgiving mini sweet potato souffle:

 Ingredients

 For the Soufflés

• 3 sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• Large pinch of kosher salt
• 4 egg whites

For the Crumble Topping

• 1/4 c. finely chopped pecans
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place sweet potatoes on a large baking sheet and poke all over with a fork. Roast until tender, 50 minutes. Let cool completely.
2. Scoop out flesh and transfer to a food processor along with cinnamon, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add egg whites and continue to process until combined.
3. In a large bowl, mix crumble ingredients until well combined.
4. Butter two small ramekins. Divide batter evenly and smooth tops. Sprinkle each with crumble topping. Bake until puffy and completely set, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve imm

If Jesus Christ Himself had Run Against Trump

Preface: I was a Bernie Sanders delegate at the Philadelphia National Convention in July. While it was clear from the primaries Bernie wasn't going to be the nominee, while he himself had endorsed Hillary the week before and he was the one who made the nomination, still many of the "Berners" around me insisted he could still carry the day. They said, "we must talk to the Superdelegates, get them to change their mind." Too late. And it wasn't the Superdelegates, it was the voters. People pointed the finger of blame at the DNC (guilty), at the media (guilty) and at those of us who accepted reality and went on to support Hillary after the Convention. (I won't accept guilt for that, but all of us should have pushed Hillary to address the real issues, like loss of jobs and alienation in the so-called "Rust-belt" States).

So who do I blame? The Zeitgeist mostly. I do not think this could have been pulled out no matter how much more Hillary did, or Bernie did, or the few Stein or Bernie-write-in voters did, that this election could have been save.

And if you think it's because they didn't like "crooked" Hillary, or the emphasis on the emails, or the last minute James Comey kerfuffle, yeah, that was all part of it. But this was the year of the dumb white man. The gross white man. The angry white man, who says what he wants and isn't going to be pushed around any more, by liberal elites, by his nagging wife, by the Boss. He's mad and he's not going to take it anymore.

It could have been Jesus Christ himself, come back to save us all by running against Trump. And it wouldn't have made a bit of difference.

"Turn the other cheek?" Real men don't turn the other cheek, they sock the other guy in the jaw.

"Suffer the little children?" Bugger the little children.

"Get those money changers out of the temple?" Whoa, there, those are my money changers, my money, my pay day loans.

He could clean up his act, cut his hair, put on a suit and tie, or just roll up the sleeves on his blue dress shirt, and they would kick his butt back to the manger.

"Hippy!" "Communist!" "Faggot!" "Jew!" Maybe even, with a name like Jesus, "Mexican!" He wouldn't last through the Primary.

So when people say "Bernie Sanders would have won," I wonder. I thought that might have been true, but looking at the numbers, at the votes in the job-loss places,  I'm not so sure. I think they would have eviscerated him, a 74 year old Socialist Jew from the Northeast. It's easy saying it's just about jobs, but even if Hillary went to those places, what could she offer that the Orange One didn't? Or, let's look at what he offered that no other candidate ever has - permission, permission to blame the other, permission to let our your inner demons. I  think this election hinged on not out and out racism of the disaffected voters, but a xenophobia that neither the Democrats nor the mainstream Republicans had a panacea for.

So, in a match up between the billionaire buffoon urging hate, and the rebel Senator from Vermont urging restraint. No, they would torn him apart. they never would have believed he could get them their jobs back, but they were willing to believe Trump. Why? Even though he was crude and lewd; even though the had gone through fortunes like water, they identified with him. Why? Maybe they welcomed the chance to cut loose their own crude lewd, racist thoughts, the ones they'd been held back from by their perception of the stranglehold of "political correctness." Maybe they liked that he was a multiple bankrupt, like so many of them, mortgaged and impoverished. Only of course, we know he was never impoverished, no matter how many bankruptcies he had.

Maybe they thought they could BE him someday, and he would teach them the secret, or they would get it by osmosis once he was in power. Who knows, but here we are. There he is, and where we go from here is anybody's guess.

Nobody ever wanted to be Jesus, or Bernie sanders for that matter. They never got to have their own TV Show. It may be just simple celebrity. Whatever it is, we just ain't got it.

Vote! Why this Berner is voting for Hillary

That's right; this diehard Bernie Sanders supporter, and delegate, is casting her vote for President for Hillary Clinton. The stakes are too high. We cannot afford to have a Donald Trump presidency. We need to vote for Hillary, as Bernie Sanders has urged us to do, and then to keep up the fight.

It is disappointing to me that so many Bernie supporters and fellow delegates appear to have a shallow understanding of politics, to put their ideology above what's good for the country, and sell themselves short in thinking they cannot make a difference by participating in the system to make it work. They'd rather stand outside and complain.

Sorry, but that's how it looks from here. But then, I've been active in the Democratic Party for years. I've seen how changes are made. Slowly, yes, and not perfectly. But delegates; you got a candidate who actually got some delegates at the convention. Who got them on committees, who got changes in the Platform. Perfect No. A progressive paragon. Of course not. But more than ever before. Jesse Jackson, where did he get? Kucinich? I would have been a delegate for him, if we'd managed to get 15% of the votes in my Congressional District. But we didn't. So I stayed home and he became a footnote to history. Not completely of course. He left an amazing legacy in his Ohio Congressional District and a lot of committed progressives working for the Department of Peace and other great causes. 

This is me now. It can be you too.

And then enjoy a delicious Election Day libation. Here's the one that sounds good to me:

Nasty Woman

3 Thai basil leaves
1/2 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
2 ounces Square One basil vodka
Shake, double strain into a glass, and top with about 1.5 ounces Fever-Tree Bitter Lemon soda. Garnish with a spring of Thai basil.

  Now, go vote, then Enjoy!

 

If you Support Bernie, Vote Hillary

Let me preface this by saying I am a Bernie Sanders supporter. I was a Bernie Sanders Delegate to the Democratic National Convention. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you saw my posts, and photos from Philadelphia. I sat up in the almost nosebleed section way to the left of the stage with the other California Bernie delegates, who waved signs and chanted and some of whom walked out in protest after Hillary secured the nomination, the night that Bernie, in fact, nominated her.

I would like nothing better than to write in Bernie Sanders on my ballot, but I won't do it, not even in safe California.  Why? Because for Bernie to succeed in the Senate, for any of the hard-fought planks of the Democratic Platform so many of my fellow delegates helped craft, and to keep this Revolution going, we must elect Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States and we must do it overwhelmingly.

And for the record, I waved my No More Wars sign and chanted as loudly as the others did when Leon Panetta spoke in glowing terms of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden; and when Hillary herself reprised the same theme. And I waved my Ban Fracking and No TPP signs when Kaine and Jerry Brown spoke. I felt it was important to protest and to send a message. But I felt and feel it was and is just as important to support our candidates, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, as Democrats and as the bulwark against a Trump victory, and even more critically, a Trump movement of fear, racism, misogyny, climate change denial, and so much more that will only grow stronger and more hateful in the face of weak Hillary victory.

We can't afford to let that happen. 

The Clinton nomination wasn't a surprise to anyone who had been paying attention, but it didn't stop the loyalists from calling foul. There were, after all, leaked emails from some DNC staffers who seemed set on doing everything they could to make sure Bernie did not get the nomination. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair, was rightly forced to resign on the eve of the Convention because of it. 

But now, the only way for our progressive values and the Bernie Sanders campaign to be more than a footnote of history, and to defeat the venom of Trump is to hand Hillary a landslide victory. No, the Donald will never stop his poisonous rants and inciting violence and hatred among his followers, but if she gets a humongous popular vote on Election Day, it might dim the momentum of whatever evil deed he plans for after the election, claiming it was "rigged, so rigged" and that he's the rightful Commander in Chief and she is a pretender to the throne.

She needs to have a large popular vote to show she can govern without a split citizenry; she must win the trust of vast numbers of American voters to govern effectively. And she must win decisively to create a tidal wave of down ballot votes for Democratic candidates in Red States and Districts.

Writing in Bernie Sanders or voting Third Party not only diminishes her influence and her credibility in the White House, it hinders any progress on progressive issues. It casts a pall on the legitimacy of any strides attempted to be made by Democrats. It emboldens the Republican obstructionists in the House and Senate. We live in a divided nation. One thing the Donald's toxic campaign has shown us is just how far we are away from a truly just and equal society. Why then would we even further divide our nation, by splitting ourselves, supposed the rational, humane, environmentally and socially conscious ones, into splinter groups each wedded to our own form of purity and self-righteousness? Now is not the time for dissension in the ranks of the left. As Michael Moore says in his brilliant new movie Michael Moore in Trumpland, "Hate Hillary, but force yourself to vote for her anyway."

I have been called out by my fellow delegates. I've been labeled a "Troll" and a "Hill-bot" for listening to Bernie Sanders when he said we need Hillary Clinton in the White House. But, here's how I see it. The ones who have betrayed their progressive values, who have turned their back on their (our) candidate Bernie Sanders are the ones now urging a vote for Jill Stein or a write-in vote for Bernie they know is nothing but a protest vote. A protest of a system we all know is far from perfect. So I do understand their anger, their disappointment and their protest. But I also believe Bernie when he says "Now is not the time for a protest vote." By turning their backs on Bernie now, by abandoning the Democratic Party (yes I know many of them were never Democrats to begin with, just played one to get to the Convention), is to ignore the real strides made in this revolutionary, historical campaign that netted Bernie Sanders more than 1800 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. And yes, I am very proud to have been one of them.

I was and am proud of the platform Bernie helped fashion with the hard work done by many of these same delegates who now gloat over Hillary's emails, while virtually ignoring Trump's sex scandals, hatred and ugly greed. No, now is not the time for a protest vote. Now is the time to be united. Then keep the movement alive on November 9th and beyond. Do it for Bernie.

Let's not throw our precious vote away.

Too Many "October Surprises" to keep Track of

Update: All this to do has to do with serial sexter Anthony Wiener. See  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/29/us/politics/fbi-hillary-clinton-email.html  Remember him? And the server they were on, apparently was his. What this has to do with Hillary I don't know, except Wiener's wife, Huma Abedin, works for Hillary. Anthony looks like a small time perv compared to the Donald, the "Groper in Chief."

First it was emails, then it was Trump's gloating about sexually assaulting women, then accusations of "voter fraud" now back to the emails. Deja vu all over again?

Such reputable outsets as Mother Jones and NPR are reporting James Comey's new investigation into whether or not  some emails found on another device held by another person might be relevant.
This is being done, said Comey " to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation."


What it is we don't know. No one does and Comey has not said. So why is it being reported as though it is some major new revelation. Trump of course is gloating; Fox News is salivating.

Comey Letter:

11 days until Election Day. I wonder how all this came about so conveniently at this time? As the Donald said about revelations of his own slimy behavior with women. "Lies, all lies," said the Donald, threatening to sue the women who accused him of sexual assault.





Why then is he so willing to assume the worst about the FBI simply doing their due diligence by looking at what these emails may contain?

Do we even have to ask?

What next, Flying Monkeys?

Going from Bernie to Trump, Really?

In the 60's we talked about "heightening the contradictions," that if things got so bad in America, that they would have to take a turn for the better, that people would wake up from their Cold War stuper and slap themselves upside the head, saying "I coulda had a revolution!"

Then we little radicals would run in and claim our rightful places in the new government, after the old one crumbled from it's own weight, and would be hailed as conquering heroes, while still being under thirty.

Remember "Never trust anyone over thirty"? Now we are all over thirty, way over and we can look back on that time with a little it of reality and historical perspective

As a Bernie Sanders delegate who proudly case my vote for the most progressive, the only true progressive in the running this year, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, I am living in a kind of deja vu. Shades of the 60's and Eugene McCarthy (although i was not "clean for Gene" back then, because I thought that was a rather condescending and demeaning phrase, assuming all young people were dirty and had to be cleaned up before they could go on the stump). We did not get the progressive candidate of our choice, but we did get a lot accomplished. Instead of taking credit for a job well done, instead of listening to Bernie Sanders when he urges us to vote for Hillary, when he even nominated her, some of his delegates are pushing Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, who doesn't have a chance. Or worse, openly rooting for a Trump victory, because that will pave the way for a truly progressive president to emerge and win, next time.

Now, before you jump all over me and say I sold out, then or now, look at the parallels. In 1968, we had a choice between Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey had been a civil rights leader in his day. But these days he was looking just liberal, maybe a warmonger, certainly the establishment. Tricky Dick was a liar and a thief and sleazeball paranoiac, but we decided in our youthful wisdom that they were just the same, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
 

We marched in rallies when Humphrey came to town and chanted "Dump the Hump!" We didn't vote. (To be fair to my young self, I couldn't vote, as the voting age was 21 and I had just turned 20 that year). We got Nixon and the rest, as they say, is History. Ok, it would have been history one way or the other. But my point is we thought let them vote for Nixon; things will surely change. I bet some people even said what some Bernie Sanders supporters now say, If Nixon (Trump) is elected, we'll be setting the stage for a really progressive president next time." Fast forward past Cambodia, Kent State, Watergate, impeachment, resignation. Gerald Ford. 1975. The Vietnam War finally ends.

Then we do get Jimmy Carter, the earnest peanut farmer, one of the best I think, but weak as a president and vulnerable to an October surprise, paving the way to Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush. Finally Clinton, not the most progressive, but a Democrat; then George W. Bush, warmonger extreme and village idiot. Which brings us to Obama. And now, you say Trump will lead to a truly progressive era. The best we've been able to do is fight like crazy to clean up the mess left behind.

Been there, tried that. Bernie Sanders himself, who was also there and so is a part of living history some of his own supporters who now spout off on Facebook, should pay attention to. Am i in love with Hillary Clinton? I am not. Is she the lesser of two evils? She may well be. But do you really want to take a chance with racism, mysogeny, anti-immigration policies, anti-labor, and all that goes with Trump's vision of "Making America great again," as a social experiment you hope will turn out ok in the end.

If you won't listen to Bernie, pick up a damn book. Go on the History Channel. Google the last nearly fifty years and tell yourself how great it is to live in this post-Nixon time, when all is peace and love. Because, wait for it, the contradictions were heightened.

Magical thinking my friends. Accept reality, accept the very real victories we have earned with more than 1800 Bernie Sanders delegates in Philadelphia, with the most progressive and forward -looking platform the democratic Party has had in years, if ever, with Hillary invoking Bernie's name and policies. Don't see it as co-optation; see it as a chance. Don't squander it. That is the way to a truly progressive future, maybe even in your lifetimes.

Vote!