Keeping Out Of Politics

 

Not too many people that I know even talk about politics, let alone are involved in the political process. Only about 60% actually vote in national elections.  This election cycle, however, seems to be different if only because of the media reporting.

Politicians, themselves, have been extremely vocal lately.  However, little of what they say makes any sense.  There has been a hue and cry about “the end of democracy as we know it” but at the same time they hold secret impeachment hearings and, as we come to find out, spy on U S citizens.  What to make of it other than politicians, of all stripes, cannot be trusted.  They just want your vote.

Speaking of voting, some politicians on the left have come out strongly for the abolition of the Electoral College.  They feel that the candidate with the most votes should always win.  The problem is that the Democratic Party voting system to nominate a presidential candidate resembles the very Electoral College process that they want to get rid of.  Just look at the recent Iowa caucuses where Bernie Sanders won the popular vote but Pete Buttigieg won the most delegates.  But wait, it gets worse…much worse.

When the Democrats get to their convention, the superdelegates await.  If you don’t know what a superdelegate is you might want to inform yourself.  The superdelegates, who are not nominated by the public, are the ones who control the convention and the nominating process.  It’s a dirty little secret that you’re not supposed to know about… but, of course, now you know.  Anton Gunn, a former advisor to then President Obama, recently spilled the beans on MSNBC saying that, “The Democratic Party has a party. The party decides its nominee.  The public doesn’t really decide the nominee…But people who are active in the party, they decide the nominee.”  Gunn was speaking about superdelegates as the ones who actually nominate the candidate, not the people who voted in the primaries.

Bernie Sanders knows all about superdelegates and how they handed the nomination to Hillary Clinton in 2016. This time around the Bernie Bros have openly come out against the “system” and the elites who control it.  A recent headline in Common Dreams reads, “You’ll See Rebellion: Sanders’ Supporters Denounce Open Threats By Superdelegates To Steal Nomination.” So much for saving democracy, I guess.

“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”  – George Orwell

Is Chris Matthews Warming Up To Trump?

So, Bernie Sanders easily won the Democratic Nevada caucuses and as a result the elites are flipping out.  Chris Matthews on MSNBC compared the Sanders win to the Third Reich’s invasion of France during World War II when the Nazis penetrated the Maginot Line. Why all the fuss? 

There are several reasons. For starters, the establishment in the Democratic Party is primarily funded by wealthy donors like Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood.  They are fat-cat capitalists and they fear Sanders and his anti-billionaire rhetoric. Then there is the matter of power, both in the White House and the halls of Congress.  That is, the people in power want to stay in positions of power and feed off the trough of government spending. This leads directly to the final matter. Many political strategists believe that a Sanders nomination will tip the balance of power to the Republicans in Congress as a result of a negative coattails effect in the 2020 presidential election.

Well-known Democratic establishment political strategist James Carville has gone so far as to call Bernie Sanders a communist and Chis Matthews has piled on by comparing Sanders to Fidel Castro saying that if Castro had managed to bring communism to America there would have been executions in Central Park.  Further, Sanders is getting the Trump Treatment of being called a stooge of Putin. 

Fear does strange things to people.  Apparently, many of the Democratic elites fear Bernie Sanders more than Donald Trump.  At least, that’s what Chris Matthews, who is a mouthpiece of the Establishment, says.  If true, a Sanders presidency is opposed by almost everyone in the country except left-wing socialists and radicals. 

They say that politics make strange bedfellows. However, could you even imagine Democrats voting for the Orange Man?  The bottom line, though, is that Democrats would rather lose with Bloomberg/Hillary than win with Sanders. Go figure.

From Michael Bloomberg to George Orwell

I love political satire and here’s excerpts from one of the best that I’ve seen recently which comes courtesy of renown political satirist CJ Hopkins @unz.com.  Hopkins’ article is just one of the many reactions to the recent entrance of Michael Bloomberg into the 2020 presidential race:

“…Michael Bloomberg, multi-billionaire Republicrat oligarch, has mobilized a guerilla army of overpaid PR professionals, Wall Street sociopaths, liberal racists, and anti-outdoor-smoking fanatics, and is steamrolling toward the Democratic convention to buy a brokered nomination and save America from ‘Putinism.’”

“Another Obama is not going to cut it … people aren’t buying that con anymore. No, if the empire is going to reestablish control, it is going to need to take its liberal mask off, and shove a blatant corporatist oligarch like Bloomberg down the public’s throat in order to remind everyone who’s boss. It may not be Michael Bloomberg this time, but it is going to be someone like Bloomberg eventually. Someone powerful, and extremely unpleasant, who will be sold to us as the only one who can save the world from the ‘Nazis’ and the ‘Russians’ … which will necessitate taking some very extreme measures, like the ones we took during the War on Terror.”

Hopkins’ article brings back memories of some of the great political humor that used to be the staple of SNL until they degenerated into the abyss of propaganda that passes as humor these days. The one thing that that he didn’t mention, however, is that Bloomberg knows that he has no chance of winning. The brokered convention he refers to, as well as Michael Bloomberg’s delegates, is in reality for Hillary. 

The interesting thing about American politics these days is that everyone seems to know what’s going on except the American public.  The foreign press knows, those inside The Beltway know, the 2020 candidates for president know, and yet as James Howard Kuntsler so succinctly put it, “…Americans have done a crackerjack job of mind-fucking themselves with disinformation the past several years, coincidentally via this very The New York Times….” Welcome to the world of Machiavellian politics. George Orwell would have been proud.

Epilogue

Speaking about George Orwell, he once explained how the elites maintain control over the masses. He said that they “…learnt how to keep their position permanently – by cultivating ignorance among the other classes and by constantly surveying them through the Thought Police. Part of this strategy included the maintenance of a state of continual warfare…to keep a state of emergency always present as the surest guarantee of authoritarianism.” Yes, a state of perpetual warfare, and now you know why they hate Tulsi Gabbard.

To Fix The Primaries, Let The Elites Decide

In response to the Democratic Party’s broken primary system, a recent Washington Post headline read: “To Fix The Primaries, Let The Elites Decide.” This type of thinking is bad for the country on so many levels.

Let’s start with the Washington Post article. Just who is the Washington Post, anyway? Answer: The Washington Post is Jeff Bezos and, of course, Jeff Bezos is an elite. So, you shouldn’t be surprised, then, that he is suggesting that he, and his ilk, should be allowed to run the country.  In other countries, this is called an oligarchy.  It certainly wouldn’t be a democracy.

However, America isn’t even a democracy. It’s actuality a Republic and this is what the fuss is really all about.  That is, the Republic of the United States of America gives its citizens inalienable rights (e.g. see the Bill of Rights). It’s the citizens’ inalienable rights that are the real target of the political maneuvering.  The elites want citizens’ rights to come from the State, instead… in other words, from them and them alone.  

Of course, this call to let the elites decide is no more than smoke and mirrors, as to a great extent the elites already decide.  In the Democratic Party nomination system, it’s linked to the existence of Superdelegates which are not chosen based on the voting in the primaries.  That’s how Hillary Clinton stole the 2016 election from Bernie Sanders and, in the end, 2020 will be no different.  

The country does not operate by mob rule.  That is, the majority does not determine the basis for governing our country. Thank goodness for that because otherwise who would protect minority rights? So, polls are for the most part irrelevant. Besides, polls aren’y taken to gauge public sentiment, they exist simply to shape public sentiment.

Presidents will come and go but the Republic endures. The Constitution always remains as the governing rule of law. And all this time, you probably thought we were a democracy.

 

Epilogue

“With respect to American presidents, almost every president can claim a royal British/European heritage.  As shocking as this may sound, these American presidents (even Barack Obama) are related to each other and are part of the same bloodline, a bloodline that stretches back through the Roman emperors to the Babylonian kings and the Egyptian pharaohs.  So tell me then, exactly who is it that has been ruling America for the last 200+ years?” – TheEthicalWarrior, “A Dirty Little Secret”

Who Said It?

Politics is pretty had to figure out some days. Actually, any day. Politicians sure do say the strangest things. For example:

Who said that the Left of today has become part of the elite who has lost contact with the working class it was supposed to represent… they have abandoned working class people in favor of becoming obsessed with mass migration, Greta Thunberg and LGBT issues?

It was actually said by a former member of the Swedish Communist Party, but it applies equally as well to the U.S.

 

Who said that ” I have my own views of the word socialist… I remember the Cold War. I have an attitude towards Castro, and I believe if Castro and the Reds had won the Cold War, there would have been executions in Central Park and I might’ve been one of the ones executed and certain other people would be there cheering.”

Believe it or not it was Chris Matthews of MSNBC.

 

Who said, “In the future, we ought to pick our presidents in a way that makes sure that the one who got the most votes actually gets to be president… I think it’s the right thing to do.”

It was Pete Buttigieg, who just won the Iowa caucus without winning the popular vote in Iowa.

 

Who said, “Maybe I’m f***ing deluding myself.” 

 It was John Kerry, commenting as to whether he should enter the 2020 presidential race. Then, again, aren’t all politicians deluding themselves?

Who first said, “He’s a legend in his own mind.”

I have no idea, but they must have been talking about a politician, right?

“I have nothing against the most famous people in the world using their privileged, global platform to tell the world what they believe. I even agree with most of it. I just tried to warn them that when they lecture everyday, hard working people, it has the opposite effect.” – Ricky Gervais

America, The Land of Revolution

America was created out of a revolution, circa 1776.  Nearly 250 years later, there are two revolutions ongoing in the country. There is the civil war between the Democrats and the Republicans and there is also the ongoing battle for control of the Democratic Party, itself.  The politicians used to pretend that the fighting wasn’t really taking place.  Instead, both sides considered themselves patriots and cloaked themselves in the Constitution and talked about the founding fathers, as if they agreed with either. 

The latest developments show that the fight has moved to what I would call Stage 2.  That is, the battle has spilled out into the public rhetoric.  Case-in-point:

Chris Matthews of MSNBC commented on the Bernie Sanders campaign saying, “I’m seeing what socialism’s like. It’s not only not free. It doesn’t freakin’ work!” An article in ZeroHedge referred to Matthews comments as a warning of a socialist Sanders dictatorship.  This on the heels of a Sanders’ campaign staffer saying that “Trump supporters will need to be reeducated in literal gulags, similar to what Germany did to ‘Nazified’ Germans after World War II.”  So, the war between the Democratic Establishment and the breakaway socialist movement within the party is very real.

I was watching Bill Maher’s last show, as I regularly do.  He had Republican advisor Steve Bannon on for a little tete-de-tete. They both agreed that Bernie is being shafted by the Democratic Establishment. Bannon said that he likes Bernie somewhat because he’s a populist while Maher hates Sanders.  It’s incongruous that a conservative would have nicer things to say about Sanders than a Democrat, but, then, that’s the current state of affairs in Beltway politics.

“What we need is power! Do you understand? …But look, if no one’s persuadable, then let’s just have the revolution.” – James Carville, Democratic strategist

Stealth Election By App

An article in ZeroHedge today makes the following statement about the Iowa caucus: “Iowa showed American democracy may now just be another developing world dictatorship.” As the author, Chris Andrew at Clarmond Wealth, observed, “There are two possible explanations: it is a conspiracy of the Washington Consensus cabal denying Bernie a clean win and essentially muddying the waters…or it is total and utter incompetence of bringing an untested, non-transparent technology into the democratic process.” Your choice.

Given that the companies involved in the “mishap” are closely associated with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Pete Buttigieg, it looks more like the former rather than the latter.  As reported on ZeroHedge, the Bernie Sanders campaign had workers at the different caucus sites and their counts don’t match the official tabulated results. 

As I’ve written before, the Establishment has it in for Bernie Sanders.  For example, a recent headline reads, “John Kerry Deletes F-Bomb Denial of Anti-Bernie Campaign Plans.” In any event, Pete Buttigieg has declared victory all the while that Bernie Sanders’ attorneys are meeting with the DNC over the voting discrepancies and irregularities. As a result, #MayorCheat (referring to Buttigieg) is trending on Twitter while Buttigieg supporters are claiming that Russian-controlled bots are to blame and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times blames it all on Trump.

However, it is possible that all the confusion is simply due to shear incompetence, in which case why would anyone want any of these people to run the government when they can’t even handle a simple caucus?

“It’s clear that the corporate media, the military-industrial complex, and the party establishment are threatened by [my] message, because it challenges their grip on power. They will do everything to silence us, while also rigging the primary process for billionaire candidates who think they can bypass the kind of grassroots campaigning that is the fuel of our movement.”  – Tulsi Gabbard

The Stealth 2020 Election

Since the Iowa Democratic caucus is now upon us, the political focus is back on the race for the Democratic nomination for President. Things could certainly change between now and November 3rd, but it looks increasingly likely that Trump will be reelected.  However, the Democratic Party nomination is still very important as can be seen by all the recent political infighting.

The backdrop

I’ve written previously about the Tulsi Gabbard Effect and the Bernie Sanders Effect.  That is, the fight between establishment and non-establishment candidates within the Democratic Party.  However, there is a stealth dynamic in play for the 2020 elections.  I’m talking about the effect that the Democratic nomination might have on the congressional races.  The stealth race is for control of the Senate and the House.  The Democrats are trying to retake the Senate and the Republicans are trying to retake the House, and both races are extremely important as we saw in the impeachment hearings.

The infighting

The latest headlines shows just how fluid things are in the Democratic Party, as follows:

• “Can Bernie and Tulsi Survive Hillary’s Urge To Save the DNC?” – Tom Luongo, the Strategic Culture Foundation

Luongo writes that the goal of the Democratic Party establishment is to get a brokered convention this summer. That way, the Establishment gets to name the nominee (as always). Their strategy includes changing the rules to favor their candidate – the headline reads:

• “DNC Rules Members Discuss Rules Changes To Stop Sanders at Convention” – Politico

Another article went into the topic in more depth – here’s the headline: 

• “The Supers Are Back: DNC Members Aim To Block Sanders…Again” – ZeroHedge

So, we have a potential repeat of 2016.

Yet another DNC rule change will allow Michael Bloomberg to appear in future debates – the headline reads:

• “Campaigns Slam New Debate Rules, as DNC Changes Make Way For Bloomberg To Be On Stage” – USA Today

Why it really matters

As I mentioned, the congressional races is where the real battleground is. From the Establishment’s perspective, the problem with Bernie Sanders (and Elizabeth Warren) is that they espouse socialism, which is unpopular with a large segment of likely voters, including many Democrats. If the Democratic Party runs a socialist, it will be difficult to get the grass-roots party machinery enthused about the national election and large numbers may stay away from the polls in November. This would adversely affect their congressional races.  So, the Establishment is going all-out to get a moderate candidate, anyone other than Joe Biden that is. My money is on Hillary Clinton although a recent headline raised the specter of a possible run by John Kerry…and then, of course, there is Michael Bloomberg although I doubt that too many people will be interested.  In any event, the Establishment will need to have a brokered convention so that they can pick the candidate. One thing is for certain, though. That is, they have no intention of leaving it up to the voters.

Epilogue

Just the other day Bill Maher, one of my favorite political pundits, said that democracy was dead in a post-impeachment world. Boy was he right! He just doesn’t realize why. Maybe, he should go ask Bernie Sanders.

 “Good news: the impeachment trial is almost over. The bad: so is Rule of Law in America.” – Bill Maher

P.S. The problem is, though, that Bill Maher never believed in the Rule of Law.