Dems Need To Shift Towards Bernie

Donald Trump's early victory could prove fortuitous for Bernie Sanders' campaign.

Ultimately, Sanders will see a boost in the number of his supporters once the Democratic populous gets a good look at how Donald Trump tears into the heavily-favored Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Clinton simply provides too much fodder for the sharp-tongued billionaire real estate mogul.

In the same way no one saw Donald Trump coming, it's pretty safe to say that no one saw Trump ending up the presumptive Republican presidential nominee barely so early, barely into the month of May.

As Trump won an overwhelmingly in Indiana, prompting his two lagging competitors Ted Cruz and John Kasich to drop from the race,  things get really interesting -- and scary.

So, Trump's  attacks on Hillary Clinton will begin, and vice versa, the Democratic Party leaders and members will get a good sneak preview of what lies ahead for their party darling.

It won't be pretty.

Mystifyingly, all of the sudden, as if they hadn't thought of it before, Democrats appear antsy about a showdown between Trump and Clinton. And they should be.

The truth is that Trump will have the time of his life ripping into Clinton, who simply carries too much baggage. The email scandal, Benghazi, wall street connections, Walmart links and her husband's past infidelities -- regardless of whether they are worthy of attack or not -- are all game in Trump's world.

The real question is where has Democratic Chairman Debbie Wasserman Shultz's head been all this time? 

The writing was on the wall, while Shultz was clearly favoring, protecting her sister in arms by scheduling debates at odd times on the weekends, so as few Americans as possible would witness the the seasoned Sanders match Clinton point for point.

The polls have consistently shown Bernie Sanders beating Trump Soundly. In a Trump -- Hillary matchup, it's not so sound. In fact, there's good chance Trump could end up the next president of the United States if he takes on Clinton.

Conversely, Sanders has nothing to hide. He won't take any of Trumps' phony crap, and will hold him to account as best anyone can on the truth.

As far as the Truth goes, Clinton stands on shaky ground, period. We never needed another Clinton, just like we didn't need another Bush.

Now, Sanders has got momentum again with his own big win in Indian last night, but he's got an uphill battle.

He's right in pointing out that all Democratic primaries should be open. Primaries that are closed like New York's, only disenfranchise millions of independent voters -- a growing segment of the voting population -- who are prevented from voting and who happen to predominantly favor Sanders. 

But there is hope. In any open primaries of course, now faced with the bizarre and frightening prospect of Trump as president, registered independents and even Republicans need to pour on the votes for Sanders.

In addition, as Sanders points out, the Super delegates that have sided with Clinton so far are permitted to change their minds and go with Sanders. And that is big.

Now, it's up to the people to come to the aid of the Sanders' campaign in the same way he came to our aid by initiating his presidential run in the first place.

We the people need to make such an obvious case that we want Bernie as our man, that even the crooked Shultz will wake up in the same way the Republican Party chair Reince Preibus threw up his hands in the wake of an overwhelming tide of support for Trump last night.

And the super delegates should follow. This is such a pivotal point in our

We Don't Have To Settle For Same Old

We aren't settlers.

When it comes to choosing the next president of these un-United States, we don't have take our cue from that Direct TV commercial of the drably-dressed old west family, churning their own butter and making their own clothes.

This is 21st Century America.

We don't have to choose the same old long, hard road that always dead ends, leaving us nearly bereft of hope.

We don't have to settle for the same old establishment politicians who do the bidding of the modern day robber barons, while offering barely more than lip service to the diminishing American middle class and the increasingly desperate poor.

And we surely don't have to settle for a demagogue snake oil salesman promising "great" and "special" things, with no substance, for our next commander in chief.

In fact, the choice is so crystal clear. The path to authentic hope, to the people reclaiming their broken country from the crooked plutocrats, rests in electing as our next president long-time American working class advocate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

America, this may be our last chance at redemption. It's time to "Feel The Bern," and "Think Big" -- and settle for nothing less by embracing the Sander's movement whether it ultimately wins or loses the race for the White House.

This is Democratic candidate Sanders' time. He's been preparing for it seemingly his entire adult life. Clearly the past 35 years as an elected representative of the people, Sanders has fought the good fight for social equality, for this opportunity to lead a people's movement for long overdue economic justice.

And this is our time. As Sanders' states emphatically, he's just the spearhead of a social revolution for desperately needed change in Washington D.C. that only begins, not ends, at the ballot box. 

Americans finally seem to be waking up to the realities of abuse among our elected representatives -- something third President of the United States, principle author of the Declaration of Independence, warned of more than 230 years ago.

"Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone," Jefferson said in 1782. "The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories."

It's been more than 50 years since President Dwight D. Eisenhower, echoing Jefferson, called for "an alert and knowledgeable citizenry" to guard against the "unwarranted influence" of the military industrial complex. The 1960's saw some of that necessary citizen vigilance through the civil rights movement and Vietnam War protests.

But, since President Richard Nixon's power grab and the Watergate scandal of 1972, we the people for the most part have failed to heed our presidential predecessors' warnings. Until now.

It's time to reclaim our broken country from the crooked plutocrats who facilitate the rich getting richer and the poor, poorer.

As Bernie Sanders has been shouting from the rooftops for so long, the rules have long been rigged against the people -- most obviously since Reagonomics trickled down and trickled out, leaving the people dry.

The one positive aspect of Donald Trump's sideshow run for president is that it has helped expose Republican Party leaders as frauds, as master manipulators beholden to big money -- Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, fossil fuels and corporate behemoths in general. (Democrats aren't immune to such corruption, but it predominates among Conservatives.)

We can't afford to lose any more factory jobs; we've lost millions since 2000 thanks to free trade that encourages corporations to pick up stakes from American soil and exploit what often amounts to slave labor in foreign countries.

We need a living wage for a change -- so single parents aren't forced to work two or three jobs just to survive. Something's drastically wrong when some 16 million American children are living in poverty.

And why can't the most advanced, powerful "Democratic" country in the world provide universal healthcare for its citizens without catering to the profit motives of the increasingly crooked pharmaceutical industry?

Why shouldn't college be affordable for those who make the grade? It used to be.

Will enough Americans recognize the genuine compassion, intelligence and integrity of Bernie Sanders in time to ensure a defeat of whoever the right ends up nominating or inserting as their best chance to win the White House?

The odds may be against it. But Bernie Sanders has been beating the odds all along -- and still is. He's won the last seven of eight Democratic primaries heading into next week's New York primaries against hometown favorite and former senator of that state, Hillary Clinton.

When all the platitudes are stripped away Clinton is not much different from the typical Republican candidate accepting campaign funding from Wall Street. Granted, Billionaire Trump's ego trip run for the White House is largely self funded (though he's received at least million in small contributions).

But what's incredibly impressive is Sanders raising $44 million in campaign contributions from the American people donating an average of $27. That's a true testimony to how the Vermont senator's campaign message is striking a chord with the people.

But we don't hear much about that. Much of the adversity that Bernie Sanders is facing comes from the corporate conglomerate-owned media itself. Americans need to be mindful of this. Ever since President Ronald Reagan allowed the abolishment of the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987, balanced news coverage has been under attack.

Hence, the United States went from 50 different media owners, including TV, radio and newspapers, in 1983 to just six conglomerates owning, and controlling 90 percent of what you hear, see and read as "news" today.

So, a sensational sideshow barker like Donald Trump gets 23 times as much coverage as a man of the people like Sanders, because Trump is sensational. He sells. It's all about ratings anymore.

The simple fact that the orange hairdo's mug is on the cable news and major networks virtually 24/7 -- as bizarre as it all is -- speaks volumes about the news media priorities. By giving Trump such lopsided favorable coverage, they are  only legitimizing a completely illegitimate campaign.

Forget the knee-jerk alarmist cries of "socialism" and "pie in the sky" regurgitated   at conservative circle lunch counters and dinner tables. 

He's not interested in pooling everyone's earnings in one big pot. He just wants to embrace America's Democratic foundation by reeling in the unregulated, reckless Wall Street wheeling and dealing and corporate welfare (tax cuts and loopholes) -- major contributors to the 2008 Great Recession that so devastated and impacts the people today.

Disingenuous conservatives sound the big government alarm bell. Yet they are the most egregious offenders of government mismanagement and abuse. They target the people's social security for privatization to feed the coffers of corporate America, ultimately rigging the system to further enrich the wealthiest.

Government -- "for and by the people" -- exists to play an integral role in protecting and advancing the rights of its citizens. We already have forms of social programs at the federal, state and county level in our (government-funded) police, fire, parks and libraries.

Sanders just wants to carry it a little further.

How does he plan to pay for making college affordable? By taxing Wall Street financial transactions for starters. Isn't it about time? We may pay a little more in taxes, but we would recoup a savings through public-funded free health coverage.

Sanders' plan to address the abuses on Wall Street has merit; More 150 economists have signed a letter endorsing Sanders' proposal to address big money's abuses and return the power to the people.   

This is America. The land of hope and dreams founded on Godly principles. But our settler days are in the past. At this precarious point in our history, We can't afford to settle for anything less than what Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is offering.

Trump's Diviseness Dangerous

"The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."

 That’s something you might expect to hear from a white supremacist speaking of a black man during the 1950's in the backwoods of Alabama or Mississippi.

 Na. Just another racially-charged Donald Trump rally two weeks ago.

 Surely, you've seen the video of one tough talking, coward John McGraw suckering Rakeem Jones with an elbow to the face as sheriffs escorted Jones, a young black man, from the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, NC on Wednesday, March 9.

 Jones offense? He was a black man with the audacity to attend a "Trump for President" rally.
The fact that Jones --  the one assaulted -- was then thrown to the ground by sheriffs, threatened to be tasered and removed from the building, while the actual assaulter, cowboy hat-wearing McGraw, was allowed to sit down and finish eating his popcorn for the rest of the rally, is troubling enough.

 But McGraw's post assault comments should sound the alarm bells for Trump supporters, who so far have been beguiled by the bigoted, demagogue billionaire real estate mogul.

 Minutes after the cheap shot, cowboy McGraw told an interviewer he liked "knocking the hell out of that big mouth."

 "We don't know who he is, but we know he's not acting like an American," said McGraw. "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him."
Trump's response? Predictably, evasion.
When Trump was asked by CNN's Jake Tapper the following night during the Republican presidential debate whether he may be instigating an increasingly violent string of attacks at his rallies, the disingenuous Republican frontrunner feigned sincerity for about five seconds.

 "I hope not, I truly hope not," Trump told Tapper, as if he seriously didn't have a clue as to why such violent outbreaks are marring his race-baiting, fear-mongering rallies.

 Never mind at past rallies Trump himself has said he'd like to punch a protester in the face and encouraged that a protester "be ripped from their seat."

 In response to Tapper pressing him, "The Donald"  meandered, changed the subject and twisted the truth, as usual.

 "We have some protesters who are some bad dudes," Trump exaggerated. "They have done some bad things and they are really dangerous and get in there and start hitting people, and we had a couple big strong powerful guys doing damage to people..."
Where are these “bad dudes” Trump was talking about? Where's the video evidence? Surely, it would have been plastered all over The Donald's private public relations station, MSNBC.

 Later, Trump only fanned the flames of racial tension by saying he just may pay the legal fees for the attacker, McGraw, who was arrested the day after the assault -- only after video footage of the incident and sheriffs' subsequent inaction was widely aired.
After Fayetteville, brawls at a St. Louis rally and the cancelling of a Chicago Trump rally due to  threats of violence, the writing is on the wall -- in big, bold capital letters.

 Donald Trump is a dangerous divisive force at a time when Americans desperately need to join together in solidarity to take back their country from the plutocrats and robber barons.
Trump speaks in grand simplicities -- "Great," "Amazing," and "Special," to the disenfranchised. But it's all too easy to appeal to the people's deepest desires for deliverance while preying on their basest fears.

 If Trump's hate mongering continues, there's a real threat that a black man exercising is constitutional right at Trump rally, could pay with his life.

 Is this how Donald Trump intends to "make America great again?"

Forget Trump, Remember Morrow

As the alarm bells clang inside Donald Trump's head and resound across this land in the wake of last week's tragedy in San Bernardino, CA, we'd do well to recall the quelling contributions of TV journalist Edward R. Murrow amidst the Red Scare of more than half a century ago.

"We will not walk in fear, one of another," asserted Murrow in a 1954 CBS TV broadcast calling out Senator Joseph McCarthy's Communist Party witch hunt, which was stirring fear and promoting paranoia throughout Cold War America.

"We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men," Murrow continued. "Not from men who feared to write, to speak and to associate and to defend the causes that were for the moment, unpopular."

If we were to listen to the increasingly "popular" disingenuous, hateful, fear-monger extraordinaire Donald Trump who makes allusions to President Barrack Obama as a terrorist and incites fear of all Muslims at home and abroad, then of course, the real enemy, fear, wins. And unreason is free to run rampant.

The Republican presidential front runner's call on Monday to block all Muslims from entering the United States, recalls what become known as "McCarthyism" in the 1950's and only bangs the war drums louder between the United States and the so-called Islamic State.

We must be vigilant and take security measures against radicals the likes of the San Bernardino shooters from entering the country. The House bill passed Tuesday that bars travelers from Iraq, Syria, Iran and Sudan from entering the U.S. without visas, makes sense -- and should have already been in the works.

But we can't penalize an entire religion for the misdeeds of a few, as Trump proposes. Even one of humanity's greatest offenders, former vice president Dick Cheney has chimed in against Trump.

Trump's fear mongering makes life all the more fitful for the millions of law-abiding, peace-loving Muslims already living here. Not to mention, it plays into ISIL's hands.

What's next if Trump had his druthers? Will Trump, a most egregious offender of our better natures, want to gather up all the Muslims in this country and ship them off to a far away land?

Mystifyingly, a large segment of fearful, brainwashed Americans are buying tickets to The Donald's freaky sideshow. And that's what's really scary.
Even at this late stage in the Republican Presidential runoff, Trump can say pretty much anything, as long as he says it in that outraged, snappy, trumped up Donald kind of way.

And the American living room masses will look at each other in amazement, nod their boggle heads in agreement.

Of course, all this enflamed rhetoric from Trump and his fellow Republican presidential candidates over the terrorism threat and President Obama's perceived international failures, obscures the urgency to address America's long-standing murder by gun epidemic.

Whether this administration is doing enough to fight terrorism can be debated. Whether or not America needs stricter gun control cannot.
An average of 36 people die daily and 30,000 yearly from gunfire in America. This year so far, there have been 353 mass shootings (three people or more shot), more than one for each day of the year.

Republicans' denial of urgently needed gun control measures -- like thorough universal background checks and assault weapon bans -- is arguably criminal.

You can't separate the two issues -- terrorism and the gun epidemic. One too easily serves the other. The San Bernardino shooting demonstrates this.
The two high-powered assault rifles used in the San Bernardino massacre were purchased legally in California nearly four years ago, despite that state's military assault weapon ban.

How? Faced with the prospect of no sales of the powerful AR-15 semi-automatic rifle after the 2000 state ban, firearms manufacturers simply added a "bullet button" on the weapon, which slows the magazine reloading process by a few seconds, thus somehow making it acceptable under the law.
Bottom line: gun laws need to be even tougher; loopholes like the "bullet button loophole" need to be eliminated. Universal background checks need to be required.

Republicans failure just last Thursday to expand background checks for gun purchases on line and also block those on the FBI's terrorist watch list from purchasing guns, demonstrates the degree to which Conservatives are owned by the NRA gun lobby.
By denying the problem exists, Trump, Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz and all the rest of the Republican presidential hopefuls continue to aid and abet gun-toting killers.

ENOUGH!

ENOUGH!

It's real simple. We need to make it harder for bad guys, with murder on their minds, to acquire high-powered, semi-automatic killing machines.

We need universal background checks and a military assault weapons ban. arly not in their right mind. Period.

No exceptions. How can we allow someone on a FBI terror watch list buy guns? The law currently allows for that.

Enough of the disingenuous rhetoric among shameless, lapdog Republican presidential candidates that attempts to deny the singular truth that our laws currently aid and abet mass killings like San Bernidino's slaughter of 14 people.

Repubs Have Selves to Blame

All this whining from the right about the Republican debate moderators being too tough is a joke.

If any alleged political representatives of the people are fair game for grilling, it's the corrupt right beholden to big money -- evidenced by their virtual unanimous debate declarations favoring tax breaks for giant monopolizing corporations.

And let's face it. It's the alarmist, disingenuous, mud-slinging, finger-pointing, scandal-provoking right -- ala, the Karl Roves, and the Rush Limbaugh's over the past decade or two -- that are at least indirectly, if not directly, responsible shaping the nasty attack dog mentality of the political arena today. Add to the mix, Donald Trump with his cheap shots and one-liners, and you have what you had the last Republican debate.

You saw it in the sharpened reflexes, and smart guy remarks among the Republican candidates themselves. Everybody seemed to have their hackles up. And the questions were probing and to the point.

But what sense is Ben Carson making? How is getting paid for speeches and doing free video ads not proof that the good doc is in bed with the said questionable company? Complainers like Carson or Chris Christy only have their own single-minded, conniving party liners and strategists to blame.

Donald and Bernie Alike?

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have one thing in common, anyway.

In their respective parties, both presidential candidates have impacted markedly the level of intelligent conversation and focus on the crucial issues of the day.

The Donald, of course, has lowered the bar for his fellow Republican presidential candidates. Bernie, for the Democrats, has raised it.

"The Donald," appropriately enough, has reduced the Republican debates to mere slapstick comedies complete with clownish cheap shots, one-line zingers designed to sting and illicit a good laugh from the audience.

In the meantime, Sanders, as evidenced from the get-go in the initial Democrat presidential debate last Tuesday, has inspired his fellow candidates to harp on the one issue that arguably is the most crucial to 99 percent of Americans: income inequality.

And he is doing it without outrageous claims or crude, insulting remarks.

The top Democrat candidates Tuesday night opened their speeches talking about income inequality, which sees this country's richest one percent owning nearly 50 percent of the wealth.

In case you missed it, Sanders has been shouting from the rooftops about this absurd injustice for years now, particularly since the Wall Street-orchestrated, right wing think tank-endorsed near collapse of our economy in 2007 under "W"'s watch.

Now, if only the American people would pay attention. If only they will tune out American Idol, and tune in to Eisenhower's decades old call for an "alert and knowledgeable citizenry." And then, act.