W.J. Astore
I watched yet another Democratic debate last night, this one moderated by MSNBC in a more traditional format instead of the previous version’s “town hall.” Much was repeated: Bernie Sanders wants a “revolution” to overthrow a rigged economy and to enact campaign finance reform, Hillary Clinton says she’s a progressive who can get things done and who will build on the legacy of President Obama.
For me, the big moment came when Hillary tried to change the narrative on her taking millions of dollars from banks, investment houses, and Wall Street in the form of speaking fees and money from Super PACs. She accused Bernie of a “smear” campaign when he “insinuated” she might be influenced by all this money. She said other progressives (she cited Obama, for example) took money from Wall Street yet still allegedly held the big money boys to account.
Another moment, not as big but also telling, was when Bernie painted Hillary as an “establishment” candidate. Talk about stating the obvious! But Hillary rejected this by playing the gender card. How can I be an establishment candidate for president, Hillary asked, when if elected I’d be the first woman president? This is total nonsense, of course. She is an establishment candidate who just happens to be a woman. But I suppose she and her team had no other response to the truth Bernie was bringing.
Speaking of the establishment, after claiming she wasn’t part of it, Hillary cited Henry Kissinger’s praise of her, saying Kissinger had applauded her for running a tight ship at the State Department. Praise from Caesar …
But back to the “smear” campaign. Obviously, Hillary and her team are hoping the media will focus on the smoke and mirrors generated by that loaded term, while neglecting the reality of Bernie’s truth-telling. Given the craven nature of the mainstream media, her cynical gambit may even work.
When the big money boys give millions to candidates, any candidate, they’re not usually so blatant (or stupid) as to be buying votes. They’re not going to get caught telling a candidate, vote yes on this, no on that. What they’re buying is access. They’re gaining the candidate’s ear. They want to be the last “person” to whisper in the candidate’s ear before she or he makes a decision.
I’m sure Hillary believes she’s her own woman. But she knows how the system works, and so does Bernie. If you accept big money, you know it always comes with strings attached. The more big money you accept, the more strings, until no matter how much you resist, you end up dancing like a puppet on those strings. That’s basically Bernie’s point, and it’s not a smear. It’s the truth.
An interesting question came up about whether Hillary would be willing to share transcripts of all her speeches before the big money boys. She said she’d look into it. If she’s the “progressive” she claims to be, she should be willing to share those transcripts immediately as a matter of public record. Something tells me we either won’t see these transcripts, or they’ll be released months from now, after the primary race is decided.
Bracing Views 
Ah yes, Obama the “progressive,” tough on the Big Money Boy$!!! Heck, he wouldn’t even consider pursuing war crimes charges against his predecessors (something I predicted in 2009–the absence, that is, of such pursuit), so the banksters had nothing to fear from him. How many of them, exactly, are doing time??
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Amen, Greg! Had to laugh grimly at this. Yes, I wonder why no major Wall Street executive has been called to account? I guess they’re either all innocent or “too big to jail.”
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The establishment doesn’t have gender, it has tentacles – and they entwine us all.
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Walter’s statement is accurate, as far as it goes. But of course The Establishment as we understand it has been overwhelmingly, stiflingly, crushingly, oppressively male-dominated from Day One. But I am one voter who definitely will NOT vote for Hillary just because she’s a woman. She is absolutely of and for The Establishment.
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Ah, yes, You-Know-Her seeks once again to rewrite her own duplicitous, bungling biography. But, then, she has done that so many times that not even she, herself, remembers the many dubious fantasies she has sought to sell — for multi-million-dollar cash advances, no less — over the years. Still, after all that she has said and continues to say about what she wishes people would think about her empty, unaccomplished “experience,” she only ends up staring into a mirror and beholding there a vapid, venal, vulture “valiantly” hoping that something will die out on the road sometime soon. Hence, the Truth finds her, today as always, a …
Living Mystery
(From The Triumph of Strife: an homage to Dante Alighieri and Percy Shelley)
Unfazed by all this “living history”
Which taught her nothing real about the road
She sought to craft her own biography
By passing on the right a Mr. Toad
Whose scraping of the guardrail near the cliff
Caused sparks to fly and fuel lines to explode
Which left some passengers both dead and stiff
From rides this wild few come back home alive
Yet still she saw her chance to pose and sniff
Professing that she, too, knows Jesus jive
And can upon her rug pray just as hard
As any who spin lies from nine to five
A pasty, tasteless tub of greasy lard
Consigned to languish somewhere in the yard
So how to claim the “middle” from the edge?
How claim the “center” from circumference?
How speak of “normal” standing on the ledge?
Without appearing as the schoolroom dunce
Who proudly perches in her pointed hat
Upon her corner stool revealed at once
As someone banished like a boorish brat
Whose haughty back she turns upon the class
A glittering gold-digging gnostic gnat
Who seeks to show her brains but shows her ass
So out of touch on her periphery
She seems to think that pandering will pass
While thinking that the other kids can’t see
Her sucking up to money’s vanity
She won’t engage us citizens as such
She sees us as consumers of a brand
She leans upon consultants like a crutch
Who fibrillate her fear of failure fanned
So that she masticates misleading mews:
Encapsulated campaign clichés canned
Each morning before breakfast she reviews
Her scripted spontaneity prepared
Her bravely uttered echoes and “me-too”s
Before the morning news has even aired
Rehearsed regurgitation has reduced
Whatever insight might have briefly flared
With only incapacity induced
We see what lily livers have produced
Some two-score years ago conscription clawed
At others of her cohort who complied
And went to serve but came back under-awed
With hard-earned skepticism amplified
Determined never more to swallow hype
Or propaganda from the petrified
Who did no thing but treasure their own type
While hawking urban myths about the Vet
The homeless “loser” with his dope and pipe
Deserving only of the epithet
And not the questions in which answers lay
Like “How can we avoid another Tet?”
That shocking revelation in a day
That in an instant swept the lies away
But no breeze ruffled up her feathered nest
Or altered a priority or plan
She lived among the brightest and the best
Who went to private schools for their élan
To make connection with the blessed brood
Who never stood a watch or cleaned the can
Deep in a jungle’s lethal neighborhood
Or in a desert convoy humping loads
Where grim attrition makes it understood
That death and maiming lie along the roads
Awaiting only accident or slip
Or luck run out when faulty planning goads:
The enemy she’s given so much lip
Can often pick the time to let it rip
She “questions” armies built on volunteers
Which means: “here comes the Draft” if she gets in
At those who work for peace she rudely jeers
Assuming a “tough” stance will help her win
She glares and clucks like chicken hawks all do
While asking nothing hard from her own kin
She does her best, the working class to screw
Supporting wars that drain them of their blood
Then agitates for yet more wars anew
Attending meetings where she chews the cud
This blowhard Senate back-bench amazon
Goes hunting Wabbits dwessed like Elmer Fudd
And finds herself outwitted by a fawn:
As Bambi Sheehan bravely soldiers on
Michael Murry, “The Misfortune Teller,” Copyright 2006-2010
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Don Henley late of the Eagles had it right “If dirt were dollars we’d all be in the black”… You can always Steal more with a briefcase than you ever can with a Gun…! If Hillary were a Man She’d need 2 Mirrors to Shave both Faces!.
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Yes. And it must take an unusual degree of manual dexterity for You-Know-Her to apply lipstick in the morning while lying out of both sides of her mouth.
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WJ, having served over 25 years in the Air Force myself, I never realized that someone like you who wore the uniform ever existed. A Socialist….that obviously has little grounding in American history or for that matter in world history. This nation, since you obviously have missed this point, has provided the highest standard of living to its citizens of any nation in the world. This nation has provided more long term employment and jobs to its citizens of any nation in the world. This nation is the only nation on earth that was founded on the principals of individual freedom and freedom of religion. This nation like no other has been a beacon to those seeking these freedoms and a better way of life. This very nation was paid for in their own blood by those who believed in the philosophies that made this country what it is today. Socialism destroys human incentive, it promises unfulfillable benefits, it takes from those who strive for a better life and gives it to those who believe in entitlement. I have no doubt that you would subscribe to this ideal….“From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need”……. Karl Marx, 1865, from his Manifesto.
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Well, Jim, I think I may safely assure you that Col. Astore is no “socialist”!! And please try to absorb the following: 1.) the Communist Manifesto was published in 1849, not 1865; 2.) the motto you peg as being something hideous is probably the most sublime ever penned in the name of socialism. Actually, I think it would be at home in a Christian community that was following the precepts supposedly laid down by Chairman Jesus. But of course this sounds terribly idealistic to the ill informed. It is the way society is supposed to function under “true communism,” the successor to socialism. I maintain that, since attempts to put socialism into effect have been ruthlessly crushed throughout modern history, there has never been a regime on Earth able to put actual communism into effect. All who rant and rave against communism are truly aiming their barbs at a specter (as referenced in the opening sentence of the Manifesto), a thing-yet-to-manifest. So, relax, Jim.
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Wow, sorry to say Jim, but you need a reality check. The US does NOT enjoy the highest standard of living. Norway and Sweden do. These countries have the highest level of socialism integrated into its society, the system you ridicule. Socialism is a form of governance that is designed to better the whole and not the one. I bet you are one of those who thinks social security and medicare are entitlements. Entitlements imply freebies. They are not, I have money taken from my paycheck that goes to these programs (and I happily do not mind this). Thus they are not entitlements except that I am entitled to get what I paid for. I do object to having money taken from my paycheck that goes to all these damn useless wars the US wages around the planet and military bases set up all over the place. That money can be better spent on a whole plethora of things here in the US including improving education, renewable energy source, making social security solvent more generations to come.
Here’s some stats for you to consider. The US ranks at or very close to the bottom in every measure that examines quality of life, be it life expectancy, access to affordable health care, infant mortality (highest of all western nations), access to affordable, good education to name but a few. Americans have to pay outrageous monies to attend college which young people in other nations do not. HALF of Americans live in or close to poverty. That’s 1 in 2. So, please tell me, exactly how is this the highest standard of living on the planet?
Long term employment? That may have been true 60 years ago, but not anymore. Jobs are few and scarce. When you can find a job, the pay is crap and not enough to pay all the outrageously high costs of living which includes food and housing.
You mentioned about freedom of religion. Really?? Try being an atheist or a Muslim in this country and you will quickly find out how false that contention is.
You are really poorly informed and are perhaps looking through rose colored glasses. And one final point (I could go on, but will stop here), the notion of hard work, striving for a better life as you put it is baloney. I busted my ass my entire life. I have an advanced degree. Where has it gotten me? I live in a tiny cabin without plumbing and have to use an outhouse. The only work I can find is as an adjunct instructor at the local university which pays shit with no benefits. Yes, I am one of those 1 in 2 Americans living in poverty, and at nearly 60 years of age, who the hell is going to hire me?
To be blunt, those who “do well” do so only because of legacy or who they know, not because of any inherent abilities. It is a myth that with hard work, you get ahead. The system is rigged. There are many poor people who are busting their asses and working hard, not sitting on their butts as you would imply looking for a handout. If anyone is looking for a handout, it is the very wealthy who don’t want to pay anything or the corporations who want it all at the expense of the rest of us. Socialism does even things out. So please, stop your drivel.
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Thanks for your honesty. The plight of adjuncts in this country is often a travesty. Colleges and universities actually conspire to cut teaching hours so as to deny health care (allowed under the provisions of Obamacare). Adjuncts might have to teach ten courses — at 3 or 4 institutions — to make $30K. And then $5-10K of that goes to health insurance. It’s all about supply and demand and competition and the bottom line, according to educational administrators and business types. They fail to see the individual — they feel to see suffering — they have no empathy. It’s all about money to them. It’s yet another symptom of the moral decay of our country.
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