PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalIt makes me sad. I just learned this morning that
Sharon Osborne has left Ozzy.
Yeah, I know there's lots of other stuff going on that could (should) be considered more important. I know that. But when I heard this, I had more than a twinge of sadness for Ozzy because he's gonna be a hot mess. Sharon took care of Ozzy for a very long time.
Fox News Asks For Respect and Acceptance as they Transition from Racist to Sexist News Organization
Well, we've all been waiting for this!
http://www.probablylegit.com/blog/2016/5/4/fox-news-asks-for-and-respect-and-acceptance-as-they-transition-from-racist-to-sexist-news-organization
Young earth creationist Ken Ham explains on Twitter why it was 'cool' for God
to kill everyone but eight people in the Deluge. It's a fairly good article. Here's the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ken-ham-noah-flood_us_57203fe8e4b01a5ebde3fa04
As to my own feelings, a God that gets all pissed off because the things he's created aren't doing what he wants and then kills everyone in a giant flood, or sends plagues or kills the firstborn children of an entire people doesn't seem very mature.
I watched the movie 'Exodus, Gods and Kings,' and was struck by how God was depicted as a petulant child.
Seems to me that fundamentalists like Ken Ham are pretty dangerous, because if they get in power they probably won't hesitate to kill everyone who disagrees with them, taking Jehovah the tribal god as an example.
What can Perry Mason tell us about modern times?
My wife and I are both crazy about Perry Mason, so we took the step of buying the entire 9 seasons on disk, and we've been watching them appreciatively.
So...you ask...quite justifiably, why I'm even telling you this.
I have been thinking about it this morning. Now, we are both white, in our late fifties, and were raised in suburbia during the 1960s and 70s by relatively decent WWII generation parents (both dads born 1916, both moms 1920).
Now, in those days if parents, especially WWII generation parents, were decent, they genuinely believed that there was a right and a wrong, and that they could teach it to their children. Part of this teaching was to instill the belief that if we always tell the truth, then things will always work out OK for us.
The old Perry Mason episodes are the epitome of that. Perry, Della, Paul Drake, Hamilton Burger and Lieutenant Tragg are all honest and interested in justice. They are incorruptible and the unfortunate people accused falsely of murder could count on Mason to find the truth and free them. The whole group is sort of like a 'feel good' family - at least those are the feelings they evoke in me. Yep, I think, good will prevail.
It doesn't now, though. Does it? Good doesn't always prevail, and the institutions we used to trust, like (if you were white) the cops, firefighters, banks, schools, businesses, the military, the government, don't always give people, especially the old, poor, sick or different, a fair shake. And, if you were a little yankee doodle dandy like I was, the first realization that sometimes evil wins is very painful.
Because evil has been winning for decades now, and we've all been getting fucked.
I suppose Perry Mason allows me to escape from the corruption for an hour at a time and imagine a better, more just world.
The Clinton noise machine at Colorado fundraiser.
Here's an email I just got from the Sanders campaign. I think you'll find it interesting. No surprises, but interesting.
"Patrick -
Last night Hillary Clinton hosted an outdoor fundraiser in Colorado (a state that already caucused) where "Event Chairs" could bundle $27,000 and "Champions" contributed $2,700.
But a crazy thing happened when she got ready to speak. Her campaign actually "turned on a static noise machine" pointed at the press so they couldn’t hear what she was saying to the financial elite in attendance.
Look, this campaign is funded by emails like this one. So this is technically a Bernie Sanders fundraiser. No noise machine here – we’ll say it directly to you and any members of the press who are on this email list: If Bernie Sanders is elected, he is going to take on a rigged economy held in place by a corrupt campaign finance system. He’s going to fight for universal health care, keep fossil fuels in the ground, ensure no bank is too big to fail and no banker too powerful to jail.
But this is the most important three weeks of the campaign – there are a lot of big primaries right around the corner. And Bernie will only get that chance if we all stand together."
So there it is - I guess the corporate-owned press can't even be privy to what Clinton says to the elites, and certainly we peons seem beneath consideration.
"We insist that there is a class struggle;
that the working class must recognize it; that they must organize economically and politically upon the basis of that struggle; and that when they do so organize then they will have to power to free themselves and put an end to that struggle forever."
One of the great American heroes, Eugene V. Debs, c. 1901
THAT is why I'm for Bernie. He wants us all to stand up and demand change. Will it work? Probably not at first. Power has to be forced, line by line, bit by bit to concede ANYTHING. But just because it will be difficult does not give us any excuse to refrain from trying.
Why try? Because we know, and when you know, you can never go back.
"Above all, what is the duty of the American workers whose liberties
have been placed in peril? There is nothing in our government that the ballot cannot remove or amend. It can make and unmake presidents and congresses and courts. It can sweep over trusts, syndicates, corporations, monopolies and every other abnormal development of the money power designed to abridge the liberties of workers and enslave them by the degradation incident to poverty and enforced idleness as cyclones scatter the leaves of our forests. The ballot can do all this and more. It can give our civilization its crowning glory - the cooperative commonwealth!" Eugene Debs, c. 1894
So....VOTE.
Trump supporters being encouraged to hit the streets in 'days of rage' at GOP
convention if it looks like the establishment is challenging him.
Please come to Cleveland! says Stone...
"Roger Stone, the longtime Republican political operative and current ally of Donald Trump, says he’s trying to organize protests at the Republican convention in Cleveland this summer to disrupt any effort by the party to “steal” the nomination from the frontrunner.
Stone tweeted several times on Friday evening about his plans, announcing a “Stop the Steal March on Cleveland” and calling on supporters to get to Cleveland for the convention in July."
"Stone told BuzzFeed News over email that he is planning “#DaysofRage,” a seeming reference to the Weatherman-organized Days of Rage protests that took place in Chicago in 1969. Asked to elaborate, Stone said he was talking about “rally-protests -at delegate hotels street theater.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/trump-ally-roger-stone-says-hes-planning-days-of-rage-at-the#.juvVZjX5J
Harvard Research Study Declares a Kasich Presidency Only 13% Likely to Usher in the Apocalypse
"Campaign manager Beth Hanson was delighted with the release of the Harvard study on Monday that predicted John Kasich was far less likely than his GOP rivals to usher in the apocalypse. Almost giddy, Mrs. Hanson exclaimed, "John is 84 percentage points less likely to cause the apocalypse than Ted is, and is a full 87 points less likely than Donald. We've got to run with this!"
The campaign manager encouraged the presidential hopeful to bring up the study during the CNN Town Hall on Tuesday, and directed fliers and advertisements with the message to be drafted immediately. "Only 13%. That's really not so bad."
"He's really not so bad" has been the campaign's most prominent message since the beginning of the Ohio Governor's candidacy. And the efforts so far have seemed to pay off. In a recent Gallup survey, when asked to describe their feelings towards a John Kasich presidency, 73% of American's checked the box marked, 'Tolerable. Would only hate this President a little bit.'"
http://www.probablylegit.com/blog/2016/3/31/harvard-research-study-declares-a-kasich-presidency-only-13-likely-to-usher-in-the-apocalypse
I'M NEW TO THE DELEGATE MATH, SO HELP ME OUT HERE. IT SEEMS TO ME:
Clinton's delegate lead (268) just isn't that large. It is substantial, but not insurmountable. According to Google's count, https://www.google.com/#q=democratic+primary+election+results&eob=m.09c7w0/D/3/short/m.09c7w0/, the pledged delegate count is Clinton = 1,243 and Sanders = 975.
So as mentioned above, Clinton has a lead of 268 delegates. And, since a candidate needs 2,383 delegates to win the nomination, excluding super delegates, Clinton has about 52% of the delegates she needs, while Sanders has 41%.
(Since the 714 'super delegates' will likely vote the way the wind is blowing as they did in 08 when Clinton's commanding super delegate lead evaporated because it had become clear the majority of Dems wanted Obama, I'm am excluding them for now in this analysis.)
OK...so now, out of 4,051 total pledged delegates, 2,218 are taken (1,243 + 975 = 2,218). This means there are still 1,833 unclaimed pledged delegates left.
So...to win with 2,383 delegates, if he can't turn around ANY of the super delegates, Sanders needs to win about 76.8% (1,408) of those pledged delegates in order to win, again WITHOUT the super delegates. However, if he keeps winning states and winning big in some, Clinton's commanding super delegate lead may shrink by say, half?
Since there are 714 super delegates, if we take 350 of those off the table for her, and give them to Bernie, then he hypothetically only needs to win 57% of the remaining pledged delegates, a much more 'do-able' prospect, and one which the Clinton campaign is no doubt aware of, and concerned about.
Because I'll tell you what...if it looks that close, I'm gonna be sure as heck calling up the super delegates in my state and pressuring them on behalf of Bernie.
My conclusion: Bernie can still win the nomination if we all work hard for him.
OK, SO THOSE OF YOU MORE EXPERIENCED AT COUNTING THESE DELEGATES, HOW DID I DO? AM I RIGHT?
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