Plot Twists

This is what happens when I don’t set a deadline and still don’t finish in time …

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Let’s just congratulate Donald J. Trump and the MAGA Cult, also known as the GOP, on their big win coming on November 5, 2024. Members of Joe Biden’s own party were sabotaging Biden’s campaign for re-election. Let’s make sure the Democratic Party loses big in November and keep stepping on our [private parts] as we get closer to the election.

There is a part of the scene that opens the HBO TV show The Newsroom in which the main character, Will McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels turns to the liberal on the panel and says, “You know why people don’t like liberals? Cause they lose. If liberals are so fucking smart, how come they lose so god damn always?”

That wasn’t Aaron Sorkin just writing off the top of his head. People of a certain age remember elections in the  past that Democrats should have won, but they sabotaged themselves.

When presidential elections come around, Republicans fall in line and support their candidate. The Democrats, they form a circular firing squad. They don’t even circle the wagons, they just want to prove to anyone who might give a damn the Dems are the better party because they have a Big Tent that allows for all opinions to be expressed, right up until election day. Even the ridiculous opinions.

Well, except for the minority of Democrats who like to piss on and in that big tent, nobody gives a damn. Democrats tend to lose so goddam always.

If Not Biden, Who?

Some Democrats are suggesting former Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear be their candidate because … George Clooney mentioned his name. Some anti-Biden Democrats and liberals think this this is a great idea. They seem to believe the millions of Democrat voters and independents like Andy Beshear because he was a democrat governor in a Republican state.

As it so happens, I like Andy Beshear. In fact most, if not all, liberal/progressive/Democrats news and politics junkies like Andy Beshear. Great guy, looks like he could be a winning candidate — except for this: ask the millions of Democrat voters if they would like to see Andy Beshear become the Democratic nominee instead of President Biden, the reply is likely to be, “Andy who?”

Now, if Beshear had been introduced to the voting public in 2023 and gone through the 2024 primary process in which Democratic voters and independents could get to know the guy, yeah, sign him up — sign me up! But that’s not what is happening.

The idea is to have Beshear nominated in another brokered convention — which doesn’t take place until August 19 (through the 22^nd). So, we cede a month of messaging about the Democratic candidate to the MAGA controlled GOP who are busy shaping the narrative of this candidate as well as the Democratic Party and its civil war over their candidate … the anti-Biden Democrats introduce this former governor that few people have heard of a month after the MAGA Cult kicks off their campaign.

Good luck with that …

In a perfect world a younger person would be the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. I like Vice President Kamala Harris very much, as well as Washington Governor Jay Inslee who has a strong stance on the climate crisis. He didn’t get far in the 2020 primaries, but he caught my attention.

Another one that caught my attention: Senator Michael Bennett of Colorado. He’s more of a centrist than I usually like, but in the 2020 primaries he showed himself to be a fighter — on the U.S. Senate floor in 2019 when he skewered the junior Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, for supporting and pushing a government shutdown.

Some women who could be presidential candidates start with Kamala Harris of course, then there is former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm who now serves in the Biden cabinet as the Secretary of Energy. She is 65 years old and therefore is younger than President Biden. Also from Michigan: current Governor Gretchen Witmer. She’s tough, stood up to the MAGA extremists who wanted to kidnap and kill her.

Also, I would consider Michelle Lujan Grisham, governor of New Mexico. She has a lot of experience in state government and was in the U.S House of Representatives. Plus. Grisham is the governor of a state that borders Mexico, so she knows a thing or two about immigration first hand. The only questionable trait: Grisham is Latina so that would be a hard sell to many voters. And that’s too bad. Listen to her speak.

The Democratic Party has a deep bench, indeed, but the absolute truth is  change would have to be made very soon in less than four weeks. On August 7 Ohio begins to set its ballots so all parties and candidates must have their slates ready on that day. Democrats cannot wait until the convention — which begs the question: Who decided the Democratic National Convention should be held  between August 19-22, a month after the GOP holds their convention?

A month ceded to the GOP and their unified message … well, they have had a unified message for months.

There’s no time for Democrats to go shopping around for a new candidate. The anti-Biden Democrats propose doing a half-ass job: dumping the candidate chosen by a majority of the Democratic voters for some, as of yet, unnamed person. And for some reason they think that is a winning idea. An idea that has never been successful in the past — ever.

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Now, to add a strange and mind blowing twist to this election, some 20-year-old registered Republican took a few shots at Donald J. Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania just days before the Republican National Convention. Trump was grazed on his ear, but one man was killed and another two people were severely wounded.

Did anyone else think it was weird the way Trump jumped up and pumped his fist in the air so quickly after the shots were fired? That wasn’t a normal response …

Our first response is to extend our condolences to the family of the man killed by the gunman and best wishes to the two others who were wounded.

Violence has no place in American politics — and yet it does and always has from the beginning. That’s why there is a Secret Service to protect presidents and their families, and other individuals.

Let’s look at some of the violence. Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in 1804. Before he was president Andrew Jackson hot and killed Charles Dickenson. There are a lot of duels in American history, but the violence doesn’t end there. With the rise of unions bloody, deadly violence was part of the struggle, with the police always on the sides of the company owners and the politicians who were paid for by the companies.

One big episode of political violence was in May of 1932 when World War I veterans marched on Washington, D.C. to get paid a bonus. The large group was called the Bonus Expeditionary Forces.

President Herbert Hoover called on the U.S. Army, led by General Douglas McArthur, to break up the demonstrations and shut down the tent cities set up by the BEF. It didn’t end well for the veterans. The Washington Daily News said, “… the mightiest government in the world chasing unarmed men, women, and children with Army tanks. If the Army must be called out to make war on unarmed citizens, this is no longer America.”

Then there was the violence of the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s — four students killed at Kent State in Ohio, plus John F. Kennedy assassinated in November 1963, Medgar Evers killed in June 1963, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, killed in April 1968, Robert Kennedy killed in June 1968. This list could go on. The point is violence is a large part of our politics.

Trump and his acolytes have been spewing hateful and violent rhetoric since 2015 and it culminated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. That started with Trump telling the Proud Boys to, “Stand back and stand by.” We’ve seen the violence committed on Trump’s behalf and it will continue for as long as Trump, the convicted criminal, controls the GOP.

On Sunday some reporters actually had the temerity to claim this violent rhetoric comes from both sides. What bullshit. Calling Trump the biggest threat to American democracy is not calling on people to physically or verbally attack the ex-president and his family and allies. It was Trump who told us that if he loses in November there will be a “bloodbath.”

 It was Trump who told his volunteers to show up and fight on January 6, 2021. He’s the one who promises retribution on his political rivals, he promises to weaponize the Department of Justice, promises the biggest domestic deportation plan

We heard a lot of the MAGA Cult’s hateful and violent speechmaking during the 2024 Republican National Convention in my old hometown of Milwaukee, WI. Trump and the MAGA-controlled GOP spewed out lies about Trump and the nation and more. There are some who are making the claim Joe Biden and the DoJ were behind the attempted assassination of Trump

People are asking the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security how and why a person with an AR-15 could get on a roof so close to a presidential candidate, with a clear line of sight. That’s a good question.

The biggest news is that Ohio senator  — Ohio’s junior senator — J.D. Vance is the MAGA-controlled GOP’s vice presidential candidate. The man who, not too long ago, was a “never Trumper” who wondered if Trump was “America’s Hitler,” that Trump is a “moral disaster,” a “total fraud,” “reprehensible” and “cultural heroin.”

Then when he decided he was running for the senate seat vacated by Rob Portman he became a ball-sucking, full-throated Trump sycophant. Vance said if he had been the vice president on January 6, 2021, the president of the U.S. Senate, he would not have certified the 2020 election  J.D. Vance is just as traitorous as his lord and master, Donald J. Trump. He is one of the most anti-woman candidate to ever run for our second highest office. He is so anti-choice he wants states legally to demand a woman’s medical records from other states so those states can prosecute women for having out-of-state abortions.

J.D. Vance, the man who wrote a book that attacks his own people for being poor. The hypocrite who got all the financial backing needed to run for public office from tech company billionaires. Vance says YOU should pull yourself up by your won boot straps.

We can’t forget: The GOP, using the goals of their playbook, Project 2925, plan to gut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veteran benefits. If you collect any of those you should be voting for Democrats.

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THE SECOND PLOT TWIST

Now, Sunday July 21, Pr4esident Joe R. Biden had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race … I always thought smarter minds would prevail, but instead, the “messy moment” as AOC describes this time, is now messier.

AOC (Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez) and I were on the same page.in regards to keeping the Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, but now, I don’t know. I would like to have a positive attitude about this big change, Easily the best president we have had in my lifetime — and he has just been kicked to the curb because some people are convinced he is too old. Age-ism — just another form of bigotry.

Now what? Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris, but are the anti-Biden Democrats going to agree with him?  Let’s hope sanity returns to the Democratic Party quickly so the party can unite behind a Kamala Harris ticket.

One thing to be sure of: Kamala Harris will beat Trump and Vance mercilessly over the head with the issue of abortion. Harris and the Democrats can use that issue, plus Trump’s plan to put tariffs on all imported goods … electronics, automobiles, motorcycles, all sorts of household goods like brooms, mops, toilet seats, sheets, towels, food, i.e. produce.Then there is Project 2025. Don’t let Trump and his cult run away from it.

Big name Democrats have not given their public support to Kamala Harris. Wouldn’t it be nice if they did show some unity by endorsing the vice president?

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks says the Democrats ought to cede a month (or more) of the campaign time to the MAGA Republicans so there can be an open convention for Democrats to fight over a candidate. Why?

 

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It’s time for the Democrats to get their heads out of their asses and fall in line so we can whip Trump, Vance and the MAGA Cult in November. Harris and her running mate can beat an old white man who is a convicted felon and a vice presidential candidate who is the most anti-woman person to run for higher office, at least in my lifetime.

Now is the time to get started, not in late August, now.