Political polarization exhausts me

In deciding to vote for Hillary Clinton, I find myself defending myself from not only the Trump supporters, but the Jill Stein folks.

thug_protester

Arthur, optimistic being that he is, has set out to fix America’s broken politics. And his first recommendation is: “Stop using social media to get political information!”

But I think it’s worse than that. In reading I’m with stupid: The entire 2016 election has been an insult to our intelligence, I realized yet again that we can’t have a real conversation, real consensus about much of anything because we cannot agree on the facts.

Or as the New York Times puts it, Your facts or mine? The political polarization is more acute than ever. And, of course, there are the fake news sites and their ‘B.S. stories’ that are as reliable as a Ouiji board.

Here’s Today’s Electoral Map.

Is Benghazi as noteworthy as portrayed, given that other Presidents have lost diplomats, or was it a smear to derail Hillary’s campaign?

Is it voter fraud or voter suppression we need to worry about? Or both?

The Washington Times says Hillary Clinton laughs as woman removes ‘under God’ from Pledge of Allegiance, yet Snopes explains the actual context of the situation.

The 1975 rape case Hillary was assigned to, which Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway alluded to AGAIN on ABC This Week, has generated many non-truths about Hillary.

Is Hillary in trouble over the last email “scandal,” or is FBI Director Comey trying to sabotage her campaign? Or did he find it necessary to report to Congress based on a previous agreement? And what do they have on Trump? (This Is Not the First Time the FBI Has Interfered with a Presidential Election.)

Were Oregon militia members found not guilty as a result of racial bias or did the government fail to make its case?

Given time, I could come up with dozens more: climate change as a hoax for scientists to get government money, or videos of all the Muslims cheering on 9/11 in New Jersey.

Yet, another optimist, Doug Muder of the Weekly Sift, wonders Why so frustrated, America? He believes that there is common ground among us:
No one wants millions of people to keep living in the United States without legal status
No one wants to keep anticipating the next government shutdown (well, maybe Ted Cruz does…)

I realize why I’m so tired and grumpy this political season. Four years ago, I hardly mentioned Mitt Romney at all, except for how he was doing in the polls. The worst thing I wrote was that he was wishy-washy; in the same post, I named Donald Trump as the person who most needs to give away all his money.

The last time I posted a bunch of links about Trump, someone told me they disagreed with most of them, even the factual ones, such as Trump’s companies destroying or hiding documents in defiance of court orders. That’s fine, since I find virtually all his pro-Trump and anti-Clinton posts spurious, especially when Trump accuses Hillary of the very things he does himself.

I’m afraid I’ve pretty much given up trying to understand Trump supporters. I am in agreement with the New South Wales, Australia upper house, which officially condemned Donald J. Trump as “a revolting slug unfit for office.”

This Quora question intrigued me: “The more left-wingers double down on ‘Trump is dangerous’ and other arguments, the less I believe them. Am I desensitized or just skeptical?” There were about 30 answers, a few of whom identified themselves as conservatives and/or Republicans, and they laid out the case – a case I thought was self-evident, but apparently not – why DJT is singularly unprepared for the office he is seeking. I have about 30 more articles explaining that, but I know that, at this point, they won’t convince anyone.

At the same time, in deciding to vote for Hillary Clinton, I find myself defending myself from not only the Trump supporters, but the Jill Stein folks. A couple of months ago, Mother Jones made the progressive case for Hillary, and I think it’s mostly right.

I do admit there’s a part of me who is voting for her because of a lot of the BS that’s been lodged against her. A friend’s rant addresses this. Also, the fact that she’s a woman plays into the calculation. (Then why not vote for Stein? Because she hasn’t had to deal with anywhere near the level of crap Hillary has.)

When I read women are not to have authority over men, that’ll tweak me in HRC’s favor. She is now a 69-year-old woman, and there’s inherent sexism/ageism from people dealing with her over that fact, even though her primary opponent is older.

There appears to be a phenomenon called Hillary Hatred Derangement Syndrome, and oddly, it makes me MORE inclined to support her. If, for instance, she curses in private, but not in public, that’s not proving she’s not “genuine”, merely publicly polite. But if Trump says the words of a disgusting thug in public, well, he’s more “real,” rather than the vulgarian I find him to be.

I believe that Bernie Sanders, who I voted for in the primary, has pushed the Democratic party platform to the left of what it would have been otherwise, on issues from college tuition to the TPP. A Hillary presidency would be easier to push for a progressive agenda, at least domestically, than a scattershot Trump administration.

But I do think Donald Trump WAS correct about Hillary Clinton, once upon a time.

I’m voting for her because I’d like to see Trump buried in a landslide. I don’t see it happening anymore. But, for this old poli sci major, I’ve nothing more to say before election day, except that one should vote, and not just for President.

Oh, here’s an offer for FREE Progressive Christian Voter’s Guide.

 

October rambling #2: monotasking

Bob Dylan isn’t the first lyricist to win the Nobel

anyjackass

Christ’s Burial Place Exposed for First Time in Centuries

John Green explains the tax plans of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and the differences between Donald Trump’s plans for healthcare in the United States and Hillary Clinton’s proposals

Political ads: Jason Kander for US Senate from Missouri and Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty

SNL: ‘Black Jeopardy’ with Tom Hanks

‘What Kind of Mother Is 8 Months Pregnant and Wants an Abortion?’

‘Marquis,’ YouthFX film about Marquis Dixon; a state appeals court has rejected the original nine-year sentence for Marquis Dixon, the Albany youth convicted as an adult for a sneaker robbery

H.I.V. Arrived in the U.S. Long Before ‘Patient Zero’ and Mythology of ‘Patient Zero’ and how AIDS virus traveled to the United States is all wrong

We are intersex people, and we don’t need to be ‘fixed’ by surgeries

Surviving the intersection of fear and recklessness

Read This Story Without Distraction (Can You?) – I did not know monotasking was a word

Tom Hayden, protester-turned-politician, dies at 76

NFL Ratings Just Fell Off a Cliff: Why?

Taryn Huber Named RMAC Volleyball Academic Player of the Year; daughter of one of my oldest, dearest friends

Maine’s Penobscots tell Cleveland: Win the Series, great, but lose the logo

Remember When The Chicago White Sox Won The World Series?

5 Things Millennials Are Trying To Render Extinct

Winnie the Pooh is still the best bear in the world

Now I Know: Silence Lights and Hannibal, Lector and Dire Straights and The Groom of the Stool and Marching Forward and Tumbling Down and When It Rains, It Poems

Movie: SANCTUARY (1961), starring Lee Remick, Yves Montand, Bradford Dillman, and Odetta; screenplay by Ruth Ford and James Poe, based on works by William Faulkner; directed by Tony Richardson. In 1928 Mississippi, the black maid of a white woman helps her employer out of a predicament

A Hamilton Skeptic on Why the Show Isn’t As Revolutionary As It Seems

John Ostrander: Making a Better Superman
snopes

The Post-Racial America section

Racial Terror Lynching in America, Animated

‘What did you just call me?’ Black broadcaster confronts hate in Charleston

An Open Letter To Those Who Don’t See Their Own Racism

‘Only White People,’ Said the Little Girl

‘She’s So Pretty. Where Did You Get Her?’

Music

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and the Gregory Brothers, featuring Weird Al, Debbie Harry and others

Springsteen covered by women: The best of the best, part 3

boudwin. – Asking is Leaving

The 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Are a Disgrace to Music; worth it for the music links alone, but no Yes?

Queen’s Fast Version of ‘We Will Rock You’ From 1977 BBC Session

Coverville 1145: Moody Blues Cover Story for Justin Hayward’s 70th

Mama told me not to come – Three Dog Night

Jolene – Dolly Parton & Pentatonix

Listen to Odetta cover Dylan

No, Bob Dylan isn’t the first lyricist to win the Nobel

Brian Wilson Talks Mental Illness, Drugs and Life After Beach Boys

Bobby Vee died at age 73, here’s a 2014 video in support of Bobby’s last album

Chartered Waters: Music Chart Stories

Links galore: Barack, Hillary, and Donald

I’ve decided to offload the overtly political links here, not because they’re more important, but because they are more volatile.

obama-clinton-trumpDo you know what I hate? The political rhetoric that doesn’t inform, but merely belittles the other. Recent examples:
*Hey look, the GOP is drowning. Throw them an anvil, STAT!
*Trump Is ‘Urinating On You And Telling You To Dance In The Rain’
Really?

Oh, there are more, but I’m too tired to look. And there are equally vile, or worse, comments aimed at Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the Democrats.

One of the things I pride myself on is reading a wide variety of opinions, even those I disagree with vehemently. I have a particularly curious relationship with the husband of a friend of mine. He’s made some decent points on his Facebook page, particularly about Hillary Clinton.

But then he has to spoil it all, by saying something wacky, such as citing former FEMA head Michael Brown as proof that Obama’s response to the Louisiana flooding was inadequate. It’d be like Oliver North complaining about money for hostages or citing Dinesh D’Souza about much of anything.

I never look for these links, BTW; they come to me by various email subscriptions or I see them on Facebook or someone emailed to me directly. I don’t do a Google search. And as of August 24, I had some mondo list of various links, with another week to go before the usual linkage.

I’ve decided to offload the overtly political ones here, not because they’re more important, but because they are more volatile. I had some article about Trump canceling some rallies, but he’s so mercurial, they might be back on.

But first, 3 Reasons the Standing Rock Sioux Can Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. I hope they succeed.

Barack Obama

Obama Shows How A Real President Acts During Tour Of Louisiana Flood Damage

‘Heckuva Job Brownie’ Slams Obama’s ‘Botched’ Response to Louisiana Floods

Why “Obama’s Katrina” Never Sticks But Won’t Die; A conservative meme resurfaces after the deadly flooding in Baton Rouge

5 myths about Presidential vacations, which was from a couple of years ago, but still valid

Hillary Clinton

Her speech on the alt-right A primer on alt-right

How Hillary Clinton Became A Hated Yankees Fan

The AP’s big exposé on Hillary meeting with Clinton Foundation donors is a mess

What does the Clinton Foundation do, other than get attacked by Republicans?

Donald Trump

A Full List of Donald Trump’s Rapidly Changing Policy Positions

The 258 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter: A Complete List

Democracy Will Survive This, With Damage

Trump’s damage has already been done: He has nurtured a generation of racist bullies; Win or lose, Trump has inspired a new wave of racial hostility in America, and capitalized on it

How Evangelicals are Losing an Entire Generation

Those who view him favorably are disproportionately living in racially and culturally isolated zip codes

Eugene Robinson On Trump’s New ‘Outreach’: ‘He Wasn’t Speaking To African Americans’ and Minorities Not Buying Trump’s Bogus Outreach

It’s time to accept that he is never going to learn basic stuff about the world

He Used Campaign Donations to Buy $55,000 of His Own Book

Trump App Collects Data From Phone’s Contacts, Draws Ire of Privacy Experts

I SPENT 5 YEARS WITH SOME OF TRUMP’S BIGGEST FANS. HERE’S WHAT THEY WON’T TELL YOU; How Donald Trump took a narrative of unfairness and twisted it to his advantage

Understanding Trump

‘The Daily Show’ Takes On Trump’s Relations With Workers

Guess How Much Time He Spent ‘Helping Out’ Louisiana Flood Victims. Plus PHOTO OPS, BAD OPTICS, AND PLAY-DOH

Trump, allies push conspiracy theory about Clinton’s health

Angry

Barbra Streisand:Singer Performs Duet With Jimmy Fallon on ‘The Tonight Show’

Trump blames bad poll numbers on the existence of the numerical system

Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon is a registered voter at a vacant Florida home

The Appalling Last Act of Rudy Guiliani

I think this article is mistitled – Another Frank Luntz GOP focus group spells disaster for Donald Trump. At least half of them said Trump could still get their vote if he stays on message. They seemed to be impressed by his “apology.” That’s why I think DT is going to be elected unless he takes John Oliver’s advice to drop out of the race.

Different take on the news

I need to get a different take on the news for a while.

You start writing a blog post, and sometimes, at some point, it just loses its joy.

Yeah, I was going to write about the lying Ryan Lochte and the other Olympic swimmers, and how he particularly was the Ugly American abroad. And Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada downplaying their actions may be a case of white male privilege– OK, probably is, while the black girls’ hair is analyzed.

And I was going to write about the Louisiana flooding and whether there was enough media coverage – the New York Times acknowledged it was slow on the story, but I saw it daily on TV – and which politician should visit when, and whether Obama was responsible for Katrina.

And there’s this story about Donald Trump’s health report that was released in December of 2015, when most people thought it was bogus. So why is it a big news story only NOW? Because there are folks with a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton’s health, which Trump has helped spread, which the Democrats are contradicting.

Plus stuff about Paul Manifort and the Russians, and California fires, and explaining that this story about Obama banning the Pledge of Allegiance is bogus. I had thoughts on all of it. But then I realized something, that was just for a while, a little more important to me.
llws
That is: a team from Maine-Endwell, NY is in the Little League World Series, after going 19-0. The hamlet of Endwell is in Broome County, where Binghamton, my hometown, is the county seat. “It’s the first time in over 35 years that a team from anywhere other than New York City has represented the Mid-Atlantic region in Williamsport.”

M-E won its first LLWS game on Thursday, 7-2, over a team from New England, Warwick North (Rhode Island). The team will play today in the double-elimination tournament, which means that, if they should lose today, they’re not yet eliminated.

I need to get a different take on the news for a while and may take a hiatus from the cares of the world, especially on Facebook. Instead, I will concern myself with fastballs and turning the double play, for a little while. Well, except for the stuff I’ve already written, and if something REALLY big happens…

Bill Clinton is 70

bill_clintonBill Clinton has long confounded me. In 1992, I was somewhat suspicious of the guy some of the nastier pundits dubbed Slick Willie. I certainly did not vote for him in the primary, choosing either former Senator Paul Tsongas (MA) or now-governor Jerry Brown (CA).

I watched Clinton pretty much every time he was on TV, from that surreal saxophone playing on The Arsenio Hall Show to that less-than-comfortable interview, along with Hillary, on 60 Minutes.

Ultimately, I picked him for the general election, making Bill Clinton the first person in my 20+ years of voting for President who actually WON. It may have been because I had tired of Reagan’s third term of George H.W. Bush, with a President so isolated that he didn’t understand a pricing scanner.

Like so many before them, Bill and Hillary failed to enact a health care plan. I didn’t fault them, but it was a lot of political capital spent. Meanwhile, in other areas, I was disillusioned.

After promising to end the ban on gays in the military, the compromise was “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” which was quite unsatisfactory to me, in some fundamental way, worse than the ban. And he attacked the safety net that was welfare as though he were a Republican. His emphasis on more incarceration, which he has since repudiated, did not win me over.

And I had serious doubts about the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which was supposed to create greater competition among providers, so that, theoretically, someone would compete with Time Warner Cable in this market; I had my doubts, and they seem to have been justified.

I did not vote for Bill Clinton in 1996, choosing Green Party candidate Ralph Nader instead. But when he was ultimately impeached for cheating on his wife – OK, lying to Congress about cheating on his wife – it seemed like an inappropriate use of Congressional power. In retrospect, it was especially galling when the Republican leadership had engaged in arguably more reprehensible activities.

In mid-September 1998, I happened to have been staying at Boston Park Plaza Hotel when Vice-President Gore, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), and other dignitaries were going to be at the hotel for a fancy (read: high-priced) fund-raising dinner.

I looked from my upper story room saw several hundred protesters. They were split about 50/50 between those who were upset with the President and the effect his behavior had on the country, and those outraged by Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor, who put all of the lurid details about Bill and Monica Lewinsky on the Internet at a level with may not be noteworthy now, but assuredly was then.

(Ironically, Ken Starr got booted from his position at Baylor University, for his poor handling of a sex scandal. Monica Lewinsky gave a famous TED talk about the effect of the scandal on her, and cyberbullying generally.)

I’m not sure what to make of the Clinton Foundation. The goals appear noble, but at least the appearance of scandal troubles me.

Bill Clinton is generally seen as a great asset in his wife’s Presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2016, but I remain unconvinced. His astonishingly bad judgment in meeting with Loretta Lynch while Hillary was being investigated over her emails boggles. He ended up besmirching the reputation of Lynch and FBI Director Comey while making the eventual non-indictment look like the fix was in.

But at the Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton stopped embarrassing Hillary with an emotional speech, telling “an intimate story of how they fell in love and built a remarkable political partnership.

“The…former president chronicled his wife’s accomplishments from working to end housing discrimination to launching a children’s advocacy group in Arkansas to negotiating peace deals as secretary of state.”

A Daily Kos writer proclaimed that the speech was a success because even his dad liked it, and he was no Bill Clinton fan.

I continue to be fascinated by the 42nd President. He is the big kid mesmerized by the balloons at the DNC, and a master manipulator, Rhodes scholar smart, yet perplexingly inept. The term used a lot back c 1998 about him was compartmentalization. If it were true then, I think it’s more accurate now.

I think Hillary, as a woman, takes more heat for the sins of “the Clintons” than he does. He’s more personable, has that flirtatious twinkle in his eye.

What YOUR take on Bill Clinton?

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