n Donald Trump's first threat, first words during the first Republican presidential candidate debate on August 6, were that he might detach himself from the GOP and run as an Independent if he doesn't win in the primaries, Hillary smiled. Maybe that bright illusive dream of hers would finally come true, with Trump as her fairy godfather. Something has to be done about that classified email sent via her personal server, though. Who will rescue her from that? Donald Trump again?
Should all of us Progs vote for him in the primaries? But then the real winner of the August 6 debate will lose out, Bernie Sanders, unless Hillary drowns in her emails. Then one of the others would prevail, those that have not yet punctured the needs of the MSM.
So The D could open the door to Hillary if we vote for him in the primaries or Bernie if we vote for Bernie in the primaries. You know how I feel about Bernie, despite Hillary being a member of the purple class that comprised our big sisters when we came to Wellesley as freshwomen. She is our star graduate. I'd smile to see her go farther, but be far happier if Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Stiglitz, and Paul Krugman were able to help straighten out things at the federal level. Would a Clinton-Sanders ticket win? You know who I want as POTUS. How do you say vice president as an acronym? VeeP is so clownish. VPOTUS? VOTUS?
Or maybe The D was there to make all of the other clowns look good. In that area he mostly succeeded. Mike Huckabee even spoke in support of our entitlements. He'd also like to kill Planned Parenthood. Who needs it? Women? The better half of the human race?
The Donald Game seems to be creeping out from under the rug as the latest GOP genius-prank, only worse. One precedent was Alvin Greene's victory in the 2010 Democratic senatorial primaries in South Carolina against the state's favorite GOP guy, Jim DeMint. Greene was, by most standards of success, a loser in every sense, an unknown who had served in the army but not left in a blaze of glory, penniless, having run no campaign. The DeMint explanation was U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn's (D-SC). The GOP wanted DeMint to win. Some prominent progressives (Brad Friedman, Victoria Collier, and Ben Ptashnik) found that Greene's far more qualified opponent, former circuit court judge and four-term state legislator Vic Rawl, defeated by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin, had won wherever paper ballots were used. Where the unrecountable ES&S touchscreens were used, in the huge majority of districts, Greene prevailed.
Now we can put together these Progressive explanations. The instrument by which Greene won the primary was the ES&S system, manned through familiar dark tunnels by its cronies the GOP to put their man in office.
Now it's happened again in Mississippi, five years later, in another primary, this time gubernatorial. Am I correct that this resurrection of skullduggery didn't reappear until now, after 2010? Clowns versus crowns? The Magnolia State also uses touchscreen machinery, in the large majority of its districts, with printers attached that reproduce highly suspect ballot results--those spat upon them by the DREs. These miraculous devices also mustered an easy victory for an unknown Democratic primary candidate running against far more qualified opponents who had spent far more than Robert Gray did--nothing. At least he was employed, as a truckdriver, but the address he gave turned out "apparently" to be an abandoned house. He won by 51 percent. He was, of course, opposed by two women. And women's rights are not much of a priority among Republicans these days.
The Mississippi news was reported by the Guardian. I didn't find it anywhere but the Guardian, but AP, the National Journal, and Mississippi's more local Clarion Ledger are mentioned as also carrying this afterthought that means next to nothing to most of us. "What, there are Democrats in Mississippi?" joked one response in the Guardian.
Means next to nothing? Why, the majority of Americans favor voter ID, ridiculously. All they need is some education and outreach, as Minnesotan Progressive activists proved.
All that I'm proving, I guess, is that it takes all sorts of shenanigans not only to run clowns against reactionaries but also clowns successfully against good candidates. By supporting Donald Trump as a Republican in the primaries, we Progressives will at least be ensuring the survival of our entitlements, and not via Mike Huckabee. By supporting Bernie Sanders in the primaries, we will be voting our hearts and minds--a blessed event, but where will it lead? We're really painted into a corner. Remember John Kerry's surprise victory in Iowa in 2004 and what happened thereafter?
I still don't understand how members of Congress can want to put their parents out on the street by taking away our entitlements, because many of them come from very humble backgrounds. Well, given that 50 percent of them are millionaires, 50 percent of such parents will be taken care of, I'm sure, but the rest of us oldsters--what are we to do but storm Washington en masse? In wheelchairs, using walkers or canes or crutches?
Candidates who spend no money or effort on their campaigns have rights, too. It they don't, then neither do the rest of us. But why do some pols have to use underhanded ingenuity, exploiting them rather than serving them, if what others have to offer serves all of us, even The Donald (remember how Cheney thrived during Bill Clinton's administration)? Is it as American as apple pie? Rotten pie, if so.
I don't know, but there they went again and what else can we look forward to, hearts pounding in our throats, hands shaking? Stay tuned, as always, for more surprises. But don't look in the headlines. It sometimes takes ten years for the MSM to catch on. Go online and stay there.
In loving memory of Samuel Nussbaum, a Holocaust (Dachau) survivor, my grandfather, who died on this day in 1960, never having found out who won in November, Kennedy or Nixon. Did he care? He loved FDR.
(Article changed on August 9, 2015 at 15:02)
(Article changed on August 9, 2015 at 15:16)
