Hindsight 2020 - May 2019 Edition

Can we agree, you and I, that whomever gets the Democratic nomination, will have our support? We will not support a third party candidate whether they are a Green, Libertarian or Independent. The goal is to not have Trump as the president. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination will not be perfect. They will have something in their past that we don't like. They will have a stance that we disagree with.  We know this. The key thing we have to keep reminding ourselves is that on their worst day, they are still better than Trump on his best day. In the 2000 election in Florida, George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by 537 votes. Nader received 97,421 votes in Florida (and Pat Buchanan and Harry Browne received 17,484 and 16,415 respectively), which led to claims that Nader was responsible for Gore's defeat. Same thing happened in 2016 in state like Michigan, Ohio and Penn. If you are in a solidly blue state like California or Vermont, vote third party all you want. But if you are in a red or purple state (a swing state), you better go with the Democrat. If you don't, then you are voting for Trump by not voting for his only viable opponent ... plain and simple.

The books are closed on fundraising in the first quarter of the year. Trump leads the pack with over $30 million in his coffers.  Sanders, Warren and Harris have $20.7 million, $16.5 milli0n and $13.2 million, respectively. Don't dismay. This makes sense. The Democrats have a very competitive primary while Trump is an incumbent. Once the Dems are down to one candidate, there are many people like me, who will then donate. We have 22 candidates fighting for the same pool of money right now.

All but five candidates have qualified for the first Democratic debate Mike Gravel, Wayne Messam, Seth Moulton, Michael Bennet and Marianne Williamson. The first set will be on June 26th and 27th in Miami. A candidate will need to either have at least 1 percent support in three qualifying polls, or provide evidence of at least 65,000 individual donations from a minimum of 200 different donors in at least 20 states.

It is too bad we couldn't have all of these candidates as president and have them concentrate on their expertise. Inslee would be the environmental president, Booker would be the gun violence candidate, etc. We are very lucky to have such a great field of candidates. They are the most diverse group of candidates ever assembled. Why shouldn't they be?  We are America. We are a nation of immigrants and the candidates should reflect that. Not only in race and gender but in sexual orientation, religion, experience and age.  I love it. This is truly a big tent and a political junkie's dream. 

Announcing:

Ex-VP Joe Biden: He enters the race as a behemoth and on the top of the polls, but this is only because of his name recognition. Once the general public get to the know the other candidates, he will plateau. Once Joe starts opening his mouth and making those gaffs that we know him for, his numbers will drop. We've seen this before, Biden running for President, it is not a pleasant sight. Biden is from Delaware (born in Scranton, PA), was a US Senator for 36 years and Vice President under a very popular president Obama. In 1972, shortly after first being elected Senator, both his wife Neilla and daughter Naomi died in a car crash while Christmas shopping, Biden has a lot of baggage, particularly for liberal voters. The two big ones (1) his treatment of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings and (2) his support for mass incarceration. He might have peaked already. I don't think we'll have a Joe Biden presidency.

US Rep. from California, Eric Swalwell: He was born in Iowa where his father was Chief of Police in a smallish town, Algona. His family moved to California when Eric was young. He's been in Congress since 2013. He has probably been the most outspoken anti-Trump voice in Congress. That is the only reason I have heard of him. Five Thirty Eight published a story of how he could win. He pledged to ask a woman to be VP on his ticket. He recently wrote an Op Ed for US Today about gun control and the NRA.

US Rep. from Massachusetts, Seth Moulton: He was born in Salem, MA to a secretary and real-estate attorney. He went to Harvard for undergrad (physics) and grad school (business and public policy). He is an ex-marine officer and lead one of the first platoons that entered Baghdad in 2003. Here is where he stands on five issues. Does it surprise you that the ex-marine wants to increase funding to the State Department?  If Gabbard is the dove candidate, then Moulton is the hawk.

Colorado Senator Michael Bennet: He was born in New Delhi, India while his father (who is from NJ) was working at the Indian embassy. His mother is a Polish Jew who survived the Warsaw Ghetto and is a school librarian. His family has political roots. His father worked for VP Hubert Humphrey and his grandfather for FDR. He's been a Senator since 2009. Before that he was the Denver Superintendent of Schools and the Chief of Staff to Denver Mayor Hickenlooper (who is also running for President). He is also the brother of NY Times editorial page editor James Bennet, who has recuse himself from editorializing on the campaign.

Drop-outs and not-running:
Ex-governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, is not running for President. He is going to focus on helping Virginia Democrats.

Our Field:
We have a field of 22 now.

Booker has raised over $5 million in the first quarter of 2019 and 80% of the contributions are from first time contributors. That usually means he is attracting the young and/or tapping into something that everyone else is missing. He also introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act that would require a bond hearing for all detained immigrants.

Klobuchar has raised over $5 million as well with 85% of it coming from donors giving $100 or less. She reintroduced the Americans Giving Care to Elders Act (AGE) to give relief to people supporting elderly members of the families.

Mayor Pete got some bad press when Buzz Feed published a story about gentrification in South Bend. He appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers. He does seem to be tapping into the hope and change phenomenon that none of these other folks are.

Bernie released Medicare For All bill. According to 538, he is doing better this time around in regards to media coverage, polling, fund raising and endorsements. Not having the spectre of Hillary in the race might explain that. He is calling for the reduction in defense spending to help pay for his programs which I love to hear. 

Warren raised $6 million in the first quarter with the average donation being $28.  Impressive! She also has the largest campaign staff among the 22 candidates.She released a Corporate Tax Plan and a plan to eliminate student debt.

Delaney announced a National Service and Climate Corp Plan for young people that has four tracts: 1) military service, 2) community service, 3) infrastructure and 4) climate corp.Also, he wants to create a Department for Cybersecurity lead by a cabinet level Secretary. He recently revealed his platform on mental health.

Harris is concentrating on California and the South rather than the traditional NH and IA.She reintroduced the Rent Relief Act to help renters recoup some of their expenses, if their rent is over 30% of our income.

Messam appeared on NPR's On Point and on an independent podcast called The Trail.

O'Rourke: Two of his top advisers left his campaign once he hired Jen O'Malley Dillon, Obama's old campaign chair, to run his campaign. He seems to be fizzling. Other than standing on tables and counter tops, he hasn't really done a lot.

Inslee appeared on Pod Save America for an interview (see below). He seems like a great candidate, but I am not sure how his "climate change is the #1 issue" goes over in middle America. I agree with him but I don't think he can beat Trump with this message. He also participated in the March for Science.




Castro says that he will create a department within the Department of Justice, just to investigate racial discrimination by police. He probably won't win the endorsement of the policemen's union.

Hickenlooper wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, apparently stating that he opposes both massive regulation and socialism. He said, “I’m running to save capitalism.” If he is looking for more exposure, perhaps he should write for publications that aren't entirely behind a pay wall. He did appear on Pod Save America. He kinda looks like a used car salesman.

Ryan introduced a bill that would require the Department of Justice to train law enforcement  in de-escalation.

Gabbard was recently called the best Democratic candidate by former Rep Ron Paul. He said she was "the best chance to bring about peace." His endorsement may be a good enough reason to move her down in my rankings.

Yang: To demonstrate Universal Basic Income (UBI), he is going to give two families in NH and IA $1,000 a month to show how it works.  I volunteer my family if he expands this to Vermont. 

Gravel doesn't really want to be President. He wants to qualify for the debates and push the debate to the left. Check out this Vice report. He's kind of a nut. He's a 9/11 truther. He should probably be ignored.

Power Rankings:
We have 22 candidates, soon to be 23 with Mayor de Blasio soon to declare that he is running. If I had to rank the Democrats in order of my personal preference, I would do so in the following manner:
Warren
Harris
Booker
Buttigieg
Sanders
Biden
Inslee
O'Rourke
Hickenlooper
Klobuchar
Delaney
Swalwell
Castro
Gabbard
Moulton
Messam
Ryan
Bennet
Yang
(I probably won't vote if the people below get the nomination)
Gravel
Gillibrand
Williamson

This is expected to change. 

Hindsight 2020 - April Edition

With the Mueller Reporting coming out this week and it being a big disappointment, it is time to reflect on the 2016 election. We must go forward with the assumption that the only way to get rid of our corrupt and disgusting President, is by voting against him. We have a lot of things going for us: (1) he is perhaps the worst president ever, except for the army of morons that approve of him regardless of what he does, there are a lot of votes that are up for grabs, (2) we have a great field of candidates and (3) we have a lot of time with another 19 months until the election. In 2016, the Democrats had a problematic candidate who was so intensely disliked by so many people that they would vote for a reality TV star/corruption businessman/man-child over someone with 30 years of public service. It does boggle the mind that there are so many Americans out there that thought Trump would be a good president. Now, it is downright scary that some of them still support him, even though he has done nothing but screw them over since he's been in office.This is our challenge.We have an imperfect political system, we have a fascistic President with the backing of state television (aka Fox News) and we have an electorate that is perfectly satisfied with voting against their self interests. We also have a recovering economy, not because of Trump, but despite him. We are up for the challenge.

The people running the DNC (Democratic National Committee) seem to have learned their lesson from 2016; for the most part, they are not picking favorites in the 2020 race. They announced in March that they were rejecting Fox News for the debates. I understand why they did this but I can't say I agree with their decision.While, yes, Fox News seems to become a state TV network for Trump, much like RT (Russia Today) is for Putin. It is more of a propaganda network than it is a news network, but it is still the most popular "news" network in the country. Some people who watch that network may still be reachable. Having one debate in hostile territory may be a good idea. It might even be the only debate worth watching since the rest of them are so useless, unwatchable and not even debates. They are political pageantry without intrigue and seem scripted. Regardless of how bad they are, I will not only drop everything to watch them but I will be twittering away the evening with pithy comments ... how proud I am with my own wit.

Before I talk about the Democrats, lets spend some time talking about Bill Weld. He is running in the Republican primaries against Donald Trump. Since the goal is to remove Trump from office, a Weld candidacy is a good thing. He is a moderate Republican which is a rare breed these days. He also ran for VP on the Libertarian ticket in 2016. I lived in Massachusetts when he was governor. I liked him for some things and really hated him for others. He is a fiscal hawk and he was pro-gay marriage long before most people even knew it was a thing. He is smart politician who recognized how conservative the gay population of Boston was and capitalized on it. One of my worst memories of his Governorship was seeing him talking about how he reduced tuition to state colleges. Which he had done, but only by shifting the cost of education from tuition to fees. State colleges still costed the same. Under Weld tuition went down but fees went up. This sucked for someone like me that was getting tuition reimbursement from my employer. My employer didn't cover fees, only tuition. This is where Weld's policies fell into the category of your typical Republican bullshit. But lets face it, he is still much better than Trump by about a million degrees. Vermont has an open primary so I might just vote in the Republican primary. Ousting Trump before the general election would be a great thing, but I wouldn't count on it. Maybe, just maybe, Weld can damage Trump enough to hurt him in the general election ... like Kennedy did to Carter.

Joe Biden is hugging inappropriately. The media is talking about this is like it is important while our president grabs women "by the pussy," admits to it and justifies it by saying that he can get away with it because he is rich. Yet, somehow, Biden, who isn't even running for anything officially, is being talked about like he is a sexual predator. This is the era we live in. Please be smart enough to realize that this is a distraction.

Entering the race this month:
Ex-Congressman Beto O'Rourke: Those of you who are unfamiliar with Beto, check out his speeches during his recent run for Senate. He is magnetic! He reminds me a lot of Obama when he was an unknown. Beto recently ran against Ted Cruz for Senate in Texas and lost. Some may ask why we should support a loser, but he came very close in a state that is heavily Republican. Closest is recent years. His popularity outside of Texas has been is a lot higher than inside, hence the presidential run. He is an exciting candidate. His real first name is Robert. He was given the nickname Beto when he was very young to distinguish him from his grandfather who was also Robert. He is from El Paso, a border town. His mother owned a furniture store while his father was a local politician. Beto is fluent is Spanish.

Colorado Governor, John Hickenlooper: He is from Pennsylvania and was brought up by a single mom after his father passed away at an early age. He moved to Colorado to work as a geologist for an oil company. When he was laid off, he stayed in Colorado and opened a brewpub which is still in business. His records as Denver's Mayor and Governor of CO are both quite impressive.

Mayor of Miramar, Florida, Wayne Messam: I write this sentence on March 29th. Wayne announced his candidacy yesterday on the 28th. He is one of the few people running that I have never heard of before he announced. I've never even heard of the city of which he is the mayor. It is in South Florida on the Atlantic side and has a population of 122,000 which is still bigger than South Bend, Indiana. He is a first generation American with both his parents being from Jamaica.I am looking forward to learning more about him.

Congressman from Ohio, Tim Ryan: Ryan is most famous for challenging Nancy Pelosi, unsuccessfully, to be the new leader of the Democratic Party in 2016. I don't know a lot about him yet. He announced this week, the first week of April and today, the 6th, as I write this, he is having his first Presidential rally. He may do well in NH because he got his Doctorate from Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord and may know the state better than outsiders.

Alaskan Senator, Mike Gravel: Mike is from Springfield, MA and he is from French Canadian background (hey, like me). He is my people!  He moved to pre-state Alaska in 1956. He is a Unitarian and has Libertarian leanings. He ran for president as a Libertarian in 2008.

Not running:
Michael Bloomberg
Sharrod Brown

With Bloomberg out, the moderate lane is widening making it even more likely that Biden will enter the race.It would work just fine for me if the old guard of Biden and Sanders, just stepped out of this race. It is time for new younger blood. Sure, Biden might wipe the floor with Trump but I am willing to bet that Booker Warren and Harris and most of these other candidates would as well.

Our field:
Elizabeth Warren: She has really been impressing me.She has proposed a wealth tax that would be used to fund universal childcare. She has proposed a plan to break up big tech firms like Google, Amazon and Facebook much like we did in the 80's with the Bell Systems. She has also presented a plan to eliminate the electoral college. She is definitely the policy candidate.

Bernie Sanders: The spark that Bernie ignited in 2016 is not so bright in 2020 with 17 other, mostly great, candidates.  Now that he is sharing a stage with some other lefties that are younger and have basically, a lot of the same ideas as him, his popularity isn't quite so high. He's not the Johnny-Come-Lately anymore, but old news. I love Bernie, I will vote for him if he is the candidate, but I just don't think he will be. He is too old and too damaged.

His volunteers need to stop bothering me:

Zephyr, Christina and Rafeena need to chill.

Cory Booker: Booker has always been a fighter for the less privileged. His most recent proposal is baby bonds. Basically, each newborn gets a $1,000.00 bond at birth. They can't touch it until they turn 18, after it has been accumulating interest. The hope would be that they could pay for college, or at least assist them in the transition to adulthood. Somehow, I think we are looking at a boom in keg parties starting in 2038.

Kamala Harris: She wrote an opp ed in the Washington Post about teacher's salary. If you are, know and/or love a teacher, this might really hit a vein with you. Teacher's require the same level of education that doctors and lawyers do, yet are compensated at a much lower rate mostly because we fund their salaries with our property taxes. Harris proposes that the federal government get more involved in raising the bar a bit. When a state increases a teacher's pay by one dollar, the federal government will contribute three. This might put some fire under some people. There are a lot of teachers in this country and all of them are underpaid. As long as this isn't another one of those Federal mandates that aren't funded, I am all for it.

Jay Inslee: He is hitting me hard with email mostly asking for money. I understand, but delete you I must Mr. Inslee. I don't have a lot of money, so until I can see he can beat Trump, he isn't getting any of my money. He is getting a chilly response from New Hampshire Democrats mostly because of his poor support of Molly Kelly when he was the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association.

Pete Buttigieg: He continues to impress me. Maybe we need a millennial as our next president. He's very smart and extremely likable. Check out this interview he did on Pod Save America. He's on message and engaging for the entire hour. The fact that he is gay, is open and quite comfortable about it, does make him a stand-out. Every interview I have heard with him is like this one. He'd be a great president.

Julian Castro: He has released an immigration policy proposal that would give 11 million illegal immigrates a path to citizenship. He's also on Real Time with Bill Maher this week which should give him some exposure.

John Delaney: He released a plan to revitalize rural American called the "Heartland Fair Deal" which concentrated on assisting local businesses completing with large companies and fighting climate change. The rural vote is something that the Democrat Party has really failed with the past few decades. It is nice to see someone giving them attention.

Amy Klobuchar: She is the first candidate that I have seen give infrastructure a priority. She has release a plan to revamp our transportation infrastructure. I bitch about the roads a lot, so here it is, a candidate that should go to the top of my list. She is also focusing on "heartland economics" and is reported a really difficult person to work with. If she is elected, expect high turn-over ... ahem ... but nothing close to what we have now with Agent Orange in the White House.

Andrew Yang: This guy is still very intriguing. He has no chance to win but hearing him talk about the Universal Basic Income (UBI) is fascinating. Jobs are being lost now to automation, not to illegals, foreigners or trade deals. Artificial Intelligence is getting so good now that even skilled labor is being replaced. With self driving cars becoming viable, we may not need truckers within the next five or ten years. So what do you do when jobs just don't exist. UBI is basically a stipend, of $1k a month, to every American whether you have a job or not. Wild idea. If you are interested, check out Yang's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast. I don't expect this to go anywhere, but it is certainly a great though experiment.

Tulsi Gabbard: She has visited NH, IA, CA and PA in March, but hasn't released any major policy proposals. One has to wonder if she is just running for VP.  If a man gets the nomination for President, you would think that she would be in the running for VP.

We have 18 candidates running for the Democratic nomination with two running for the  Republican. If I had to rank the Democrats in order of my personal preference, I would do so in the following manner:
Warren
Harris
Booker
Buttigieg
O'Rourke
Sanders
Hickenlooper
Inslee
Klobuchar
Delaney
Castro
Gabbard
Messam
Gravel
Ryan
Yang
Gillibrand
Williamson

But this will change. I am not ready to open my pocket book yet.

We have some great candidates here. I hope they continue to do what they are doing ... stick to the issues. The big issues are healthcare and the environment. Hopefully they do not over-commit. If they are elected and cannot deliver, we will be back to another worthless Republican president in four years. 

Another Short List of Things That I Hate

I really hate bumper stickers that don't respect my time. "Free Tibet."  Really? I barely have time to go to the bank on my lunch break. I'm supposed to free Tibet? I barely have time to grab a bagel. I don't even have enough time to Free Leonard Peltier. You want me to free an entire freakin' mountainous nation?!

I hate when people say "no pun intended," especially when there wasn't even a pun spoken. If you said a pun, you probably intended it. If you don't know what a pun is, shut the hell up. Puns are the lowest form of comedy.  Chances are if you use puns often, they have some unfulfilled need to be funny and yet you lack the ability to be funny.  Please stop trying. I am embarrassed for you.

I hate it when people say they are going to pray for me. I usually politely ask them not to. I hate the idea of someone wasting their time on my account. They might as well say to me, "I am going to stare at wall for you."  Same effect. Please don't.

I hate dream sequences. When I watch a television show and they spend ten minutes on a character's dreams, all I think it is that the writers are out of ideas. This just gives me time to piss without putting the show on pause.

I hate Yankee fans. Being spit on by complete strangers really turns me off.

I hate when people say "very unique."  Unique means one of a kind.  You can't be "very" one of a kind. You are either one of a kind or not, there are no degrees of being unique. I had a writing teacher that used to say "unless you are writing about a unicorn, you should avoid unique." So stop, all of you. All you are doing is lessening the uniqueness of something by adding "very" to it, the opposite effect that you intended.

I hate celery. It is just crunchy, stringy water.

I hate how people use the the word "literally" exactly the opposite how it should be used. Young people do this a lot.  I hear someone say "I am literally dying." I ask myself "Should I call 911?" She said she is "literally" dying. When I hear the word "literally," I immediately start processing the sentence like I am an android. Why? Because that's what literal means! I literally hate you, if you use "literally" when you mean "figuratively."

I hate commercials. I just hate being lied to. No, I don't believe that "Coke adds life" nor do I believe that "Love makes a Subaru, a Subaru." Just because something is "All Natural" doesn't mean it is good for you. If I filled a box with arsenic and poison ivy and wrote "All Natural" on it, I could probably convince someone to eat it or rub it all over their body. I am grateful for on demand television so that I don't have to watch commercials anymore.

I hate when someone thanks me for my patience, when I am clearly not being patient. This is usually someone on the phone. They obviously don't hear me sighing and groaning?! PERHAPS I SHOULD GROAN AND SIGH LOUDER!! My response is usually, "Does it sound I'm being patient?" which doesn't end well.

Thank you once again for letting me share my hatred with you.

A Short List of Things I Hate

I hate the fact that whenever I say when I enjoy Ryan Adams' music, there is always someone that thinks I am talking about the Canadian no-talent ass-clown Brian Adams. Sometimes they even start singing "Summer of '69" and I just want to die inside.

I hate that whenever I announce that I am atheists in a crowded room, there always seems to be someone that is shocked, even here in liberal Vermont. Some even ask me "don't you need religion as a moral guide."  What like all those rapist Catholic priests? As if I need the guidance of a book, written in the Bronze Age, full of superstition and hokum, to guide my perception of reality and morality. I've got Walt Whitman and Bob Dylan for that. Shouldn't it be more shocking, when an otherwise rational person believes in magical underpants, people coming back from dead and walking on water.

I hate the noise the fans make at Atlanta Braves home games. I hate it so bad, that even though I am a rabid baseball fan, I won't watch or listen to a game when it is at this stadium. The noise is racist and annoying. Considering how close the stadium is the Trail of Tears, I find this particularly distasteful. Because of this, I will always root against the Braves and in my quest to visit all Major League Baseball parks, this stadium will most likely be the last.

I hate that people are so wildly inconsistent. I have a friend that will only each organic vegetables because he doesn't "want cancer" while he smokes a few packs of cigarettes a day. I know a woman that seems to be obsessed in equality, and yet she still wants men to pay for her on a date and open the doors for her. I also hate that they don't seem to understand me when I point these inconsistencies out. To channel Whitman, I realize we are "large" and "contain multitudes." Inconsistencies is all apart of human nature, but they could at least acknowledge some of these inconsistencies as complete bat shit. One wonders how much self reflection is happening.

I hate Republicans. No explanation needed. I really wish they'd stop proving me right on how truly disgusting they are.

I hate that some people call themselves "bad spellers," as if this is a forgone conclusion and cannot be resolved like being tall or short. When someone announces they are a "bad speller," they are just telling me that they are lazy and/or they don't give a shit about what they are writing or trying to communicate. Everyone was once a bad speller. Those of us you aren't, have simply put the effort into not being. Put a dictionary by your keyboard or add dictionary.com to favorites on your browser.  Look up every word after you type it. You can verify that you have the correct word as well as the spelling. Do this for years until you are not a bad speller. I still find myself looking up words for every blog post I write. This is because I give a shit. Confusing "since" and "sense" or "their" and "there" is your problem, not your readers. If you don't give a shit about what you write, why should I, your reader, be?

I hate most poetry. The poetry I like, I love a lot, but most poetry is truly awful with tired metaphors, references to people's hearts and other cliches. I just start zoning out when people start reading their poetry to me. It is the same feeling I get when someone starts describing the dream they had last night or go into details about their fantasy football team. I politely nod and going into la-la land. Thanks for helping finalize my Costco shopping list because that is what I am thinking about while you opine about a fucking flower.

I hate the fact that whenever I mention logic while in any discussion, someone mentions Mr. Spock from Star Trek. This is a red flag. The only exposure to logic this person has is a TV show from the 60's. This is even worse if they actually say "Dr. Spock" who is an entirely different person. This can get even worse, if they pronounce the show "Star Track." You should be able to kill someone for this type of stuff. They are truly lost and should be stopped before they reproduce.

I hate it when I am playing a game with someone, either on-line or in person, and they quit in the middle of the game. This usually happens when I am winning. This is something I learned when I was a child, you start a game, you are in it until the end. The person who is winning the game, has earned the victory and you committed to it when you started the game. This happens to me a lot when I play chess on my phone(Chess with Friends, user name manofwow44).. I make a great move, get my opponent's queen and then they quit. When they quit, I don't get to work on my endgame. My endgame is bad, I really need practice. This is a just another red flag as where we are as a culture, not just Americans because the people I play are from around the world. Respect for one's opponent is a pillar of civilized society. Leaving a game because you are losing, is the ultimate disrespect.

Thank you for reading my list of hate.

Hindsight 2020 - March 2019 edition

Before I say anything the 2020 election, let us give thanks to the president. Thank you, Mr. Trump for setting a new precedent for presidential power. Traditionally, Congress has the power of the purse. Congress consistently told him "no" about funding the building of a wall on our southern border, but he is choosing to ignore it giving us a new tier of presidential power. We will surely remember this when a Democratic president takes over. We can declare emergencies also. If Congress refuses to fund the Green New Deal or the Medicare For All ... we say "Emergency" and pull out the funding reserved for disasters and invasion for our pet product.  Thank for having the foresight for giving us this power.

Trump's 2020 campaign has started collecting data on three Democrats, according to Politico: Booker, Warren and Harris. We look like we have some front runners at least in their minds.

Back to the issues: About those issue, David Leonhardt in the NY Times suggested that the issues don't matter much in the Democratic primary. Why? Because the candidates (12 now I believe), mostly agree with each other. So we should primarily be concentrating on one thing: Who can beat Trump?  He says that Sherrod Brown and Kamala Harris are the standouts.But they are all out there, still talking about the issues. You may or may not agree with them, but every single one of them is better than Trump. If you say that both parties are to blame for our awful political situation, then you are just announcing to the world that you haven't been paying attention for the last 30 years.

The Republican party is still the party of global warming denial, maintaining the status quo on health care and billionaire tax cuts. By the year 2050, there may be no maple syrup production in Vermont and no wine grapes growing in California, but yet, a border wall is the emergency. I think the existential and economic crisis of our environmental situation is the real emergency. How silly of me!

I would love another president, like Obama, that would make the right wing extremist freak out. This generally means we are going in the right direction as a society. So a Jewish, Hispanic or a Black Woman as a president would be a really good thing then we can watch every scumbag pundit on Fox "News" heads explode.

Announcing this month:
Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders: Bernie was the dark horse candidate in 2016. He enters this race as one of the front runners, if not the front runner. At this point, they could all be chasing him if he gets the momentum that he did last time. He is 77 years old which for many makes him too old. Is this ageism or simple practicality? The presidency is a very stressful job so his health is something to take into consideration, but health and age are not the same thing. His VP candidate should be chosen wisely because of this. He has two scandals behind him: (1) his wife's problems with Burlington College and (2) the sexism in his staff during the 2016 campaign. Hopefully, both of them don't weigh too heavily in the general voter's minds. If you think about him running against Trump, these "scandals" are minuscule compared to anything Trump has accumulated in only two years in office. As a Vermonter, I like Bernie and I have voted for his for both Rep. and Senator. I also voted for him in the primaries in 2016. I have met him twice. I disagree with him on a lot (particularly on economics), but I know him as an honorable and honest person. I vote for him because I trust him. He represents us well. He'd be a fine president. Jamelle Bouie in NY Times, says that Bernie is the only candidate so far that has a clear and comprehensive message on foreign policy, something he lacked during the 2016 campaign.

Bernie has the passion without details while Warren has details but is lacking in the passion. This makes me think that among the two further left candidates, Bernie is more likely to beat Trump, but far left is still going to be tough to win in the general election.

South Bend Mayor, Pete Buttigieg: In last month's Hindsight 2020, I didn't mention Pete Buttigieg (pronounced Buddha judge), who is the two term mayor of South Bend, Indiana. What's a mayor of a city of 100,000 people doing running for president? Good question. One thing to point out, he has more experience in government than Trump did when he became president. He is another Rhode Scholar, an Afghanistan war veteran and is openly gay. Just on that last sentence alone, he is a better candidate than Trump. I've heard him speak a view times in the past few weeks and I like him, a lot actually. But the key question here is: will the general public vote for a gay man? a married gay man? It is hard to believe he'd win the general election.

New York Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand: She is very pleasant and personable. If you have watched Colbert at any point in the past, you may have seen her on one of his shows. She was conservative in her past, but has claimed to be reformed. She appears to me to be an opportunist and a hypocrite.When she talks about important issues she comes off as being quite trite. When sexual assault accusations came out about Senator Al Franken, he asked for investigations into the allegations and she lead the charge to throw him under the bus. Now that much worse allegations have come out about Lt. Governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax, she is calling for an investigation. Not sure why Al Franken didn't get this respect. She is a lightweight and I wouldn't turn my back on her.

Governor of Washington Jay Inslee: He is the current governor of the state of Washington and used to be a member of the US House of Representatives. His campaign is the only one so far to have his campaign headquarters fully based on the West Coast. He is from humble stock with his mother being a clerk at Sears while his father was a high school counselor and football coach. His big issue is the environment which makes him appealing to me. Can a relatively unknown like this defeat a sitting president? Since that President is Trump, perhaps, yes.  Clinton did it to Bush and Bush (the first one) was a half decent President.

Marianne Williamson: She is a new age spiritualist author from Houston and is often called Oprah's "spiritual adviser." I don't take her very seriously and unless I see something that makes her qualified to run this country, I am not going to mention her again.

Those still not declared yet:
Former VP Joe Biden, former NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, Governor of Montana Steve Bullock, former Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper, former Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, Rep. from Massachusetts Seth Moulton, former Rep. from Texas Beto O'Rourke, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, California Rep. Eric Swalwell and Mark Warner, Senator from Virginia.

The rest of the field:
Cory Booker: I have notice that eight of my friends, on Facebook, are following Mr. Booker. One of them is a staunch Republican so I know this doesn't mean much, other than he probably has the most name recognition in the Democratic field right now, among those who have announced. He made a visit to Iowa in February and is hiring staff in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He is trying to draw a distinction between himself and his competition stating that they haven't run anything and while he has run a major city, Newark. He has released a plan to reduce housing costs.

Kamala Harris: California's primary has been moved up early this year. This gives a distinct advantage to Ms. Harris. She has visited Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada in February. She advocated for universal childcare and has proposed the LIFT act to assist struggling middle class families.

Amy Klobuchar: The Senator from Minnesota raised $1 million within 48 hours of announcing her candidacy which is pretty impressive. She is the only candidate that is positioning herself as a moderate. She may do well if Biden stays out of the race. If he does enter the race, his name recognition alone may overshadow her.

Elizabeth Warren: While Bernie talks about blowing the system up and rebuilding, she talks about restructuring the system from within. She has proposed a universal childcare program.and a family leave act. She is a policy candidate, which may have a lot of appeal to someone like me, but many voters choose based on personality and the "would I like to share a beer with this person?" question looms bad for her. If I were voting on domestic policies alone, she may have my vote.

Julian Castro: He plans on visiting all 50 states during his campaign. I'm looking forward to seeing him here in VT if he lasts that long. Maybe he should just come on over when he is pounding the pavement in New Hampshire. Since we're overwhelmingly for Sanders, I doubt if we'll see him.

Tulsi Gabbard: If you are looking for the peace candidate, she might be your candidate. She has come out strong against US involvement in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Here is an interesting fact about her. Her net worth is only $208,504.00. This is really amazing since she lives in a very expensive state, Hawaii.

John Delaney: Because he declared so early, he has already visited all 99 counties in Iowa. He is another moderate candidate who has gotten accolades from even conservatives like George Will who in a November 2018 opinion piece in the Washington Post, stated that Democrats should consider a moderate like Delaney to defeat Trump. While having a background in business might not appeal to the left in the Democratic party, it may be gold in the general election. He is pro-business but he still stands in all the right places on the issues that Democrats care about: health care, the environment and education etc.

Andrew Yang: He is another candidate I am not taking too seriously because he has no government experience, but it seem like others are. Rolling Stone Magazine puts him at #17 among 27 candidates (published in mid February 2019) which is not great but is higher than Delaney or Gabbard. So I will keep him on my radar.

Talk to you next month.

Song Interpretation: Sweet Heart Like You

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a huge fan of Bob Dylan. I get very annoyed when people don't know who he is or complain about his voice. Ignorant people are maddening to anyone rapt in fandom. To me, he is the greatest living chronicler of  the American and human experience. He is the 20th century Walt Whitman and Mark Twain rapped up into one person. He plays a mean guitar as well.

My first exposure to Dylan was the song "Sweetheart Like You." I heard it on the radio and for quite while, I thought it was by the band, Dire Straits. Dylan's voice sounds an awful lot like Mark Knopfler's on this track, but then I learned that Mark Knopfler (front man of Dire Straits) produced the song and played guitar on the album. Even at age 18, I could recognize a guitar player by listening to a riff. I learned the song was by Dylan, believe it or not, when I saw the video on MTV.  Then I ran out to buy the album on cassette. That's when this ride began.

Infidels was released in late 1983 and is his first non-religious album after the trinity of Slow Train Comin', Saved, and Shot of Love were released. It was originally titled Serving a Ruthless World, but apparently he didn't like the idea of having four albums in a row that started with the letter "S". Infidels' name calls attention to the end of the religious albums. He lost a lot of fans in the years those albums came out. They were very preachy, condescending and deeply religious. Infidels was a relief to these fans, but still, it is not a great album. It would be some time before he released another great album, but it was a decent album with some great tracks. It is uneven at best. It came out in an era, in America what is considered the bad part of the 1980's, when most of us realized that Reaganonics was a lie. Some people still haven't figured this out. The town I grew up in was hit hard with factories closing all over town. My thriving working class neighborhood now had crack houses and prostitutes walked the streets at night. I'm still waiting for the trickle down to hit that town. Songs like "Jokerman," "Neighborhood Bully" and "License to Kill" were indictments on the greed and excesses of the Reagan years. You can see why I got hooked. Even an average Dylan album is great compared to most of the crap coming out in the 80's.

"Sweetheart Like You" (see lyrics below) is like a lot of other songs in that its narrator is a man singing to a woman, yet it is not exactly a love song, at least not a traditional love song. By the first stanza, we know that her boss has gone North for vanity reasons. Who is her boss? We are not sure. It could be the obvious that he is her boss at her job or he could be a possessive lover. Since this album is still full of religious imaginary, the boss could be God. It may not matter, but she is no longer under his yoke. So the narrator compliments her. Did he have to wait until her boss was gone to do so? He compliments her hat, her smile and tells her that she is too good for this "dump." What is this dump? Is it a bar, like the video shows, another place of employment or is it life in general? Is it the America? The power of the lyrics is that it could be all of them. This gives it depth and makes it thought provoking.

The next stanza he compares her to another woman who used to call him "sweet daddy" when he was "only a child." She reminds him of her when she laughs. There is so much here, almost too much, to grab onto. Who is this other woman? Is it his mother or an aunt because it is someone that he knew as a child? But her nickname for him is paternal. This is a paradox about the cycle of life that we are our parents and they are theirs and they make the adults that we are. It reminds me of the Wordsworth poem My Heart Leaps Up where we find the quote "The child is father of the man." We are not adults until our child beats it into us making us whole until we are no longer children ourselves. In our reality, past is experience, present is experiment and tomorrow is expectation. Dylan's narrator sees it as a cruel game, you make the "queen disappear" with a "flick of the wrist," yet how could there be someone as beautiful as her in this cruel world? How could someone so beautiful be letting a wretch like him into her life? How do you make "the queen" disappear? ":With a flick of the wrist." Our narrator reveals to us that he is a part of the problem with this world.

He tells her that she "should  be at home," presumably a safe place, where she could not be hurt. Our narrator, shows us some misogyny,"that's where you belong." He quotes the New Testament, John 4:2 almost directly "in your father's house, there's many a mansions."  I am no expert, in this quote, I believe, Jesus was talking to his disciples about the vastness of heaven. Is he telling her that there is no salvation until the afterlife? All you got here is misery and abuse: "Just how much abuse will you be able to take?"

The last stanza is the most difficult to interpret because the narrator no longer praising the woman any more. He is less conciliatory and downright preachy. He paraphrases Eugene O'Neill's "Emperor Jones": "steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king." He paraphrases Herman Melville's Billy Budd: "They say that patriotism is the last refuge/To which a scoundrel clings." Perhaps Serving a Ruthless World was a better title for this album, because there is clearly no hope in this world and the next world is a "step down." This is the most religious song on the album and my favorite. It is a devastating portrayal of a very ruthless world and it has no answers. The more you listen, the more questions you have which is one of the things that people don't like about it. For me, it just makes me listen more. 

Lyrics and music by Bob Dylan:

Well the pressure's down, the boss ain't here

He's gone North, for a while
They say that vanity got the best of him
But he sure left here in style
By the way, that's a cute hat
And that smile's so hard to resist
But what's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

You know, I once knew a woman who looked like you
She wanted a whole man, not just a half
She used to call me sweet daddy when I was only a child
You kind of remind me of her when you laugh
In order to deal in this game, got to make the queen disappear
It's done with a flick of the wrist
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

You know a woman like you should be at home
That's where you belong
Taking care for somebody nice
Who don't know how to do you wrong
Just how much abuse will you be able to take?
Well, there's no way to tell by that first kiss
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

You know you can make a name for yourself
You can hear them tires squeal
You could be known as the most beautiful woman
Who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal.

You know, news of you has come down the line
Even before ya came in the door
They say in your father's house, there's many a mansions
Each one of them got a fireproof floor
Snap out of it baby, people are jealous of you
They smile to your face, but behind your back they hiss
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

Got to be an important person to be in here, honey
Got to have done some evil deed
Got to have your own harem when you come in the door
Got to play your harp until your lips bleed.
They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings
Steal a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king
There's only one step down from here, baby
It's called the land of permanent bliss
What's a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?

Hindsight 2020 - February 2019 edition

I would hope that most Americans learned their lesson from 2016 and stop to think, verify their sources, before sharing an article on social media. Just because an article reinforces what you already believe or fear, doesn't mean it is true or a real source of information. It is painful when I still see people sharing crap on Facebook or Twitter that is clearly garbage published out of Russia designed to divide us, not inform us. 

The 2020 election is creeping up on us. So far we have eight candidates officially announced that are running for the Democratic nomination for president. Some of them I have never heard of.  There are some big names that haven't officially announced yet: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Beto O'Rourke,  Sharod Brown and Kirsten Gillibrand. I will discuss them once they have, if they do.

From the midterms, the Democrats learned that if they stay on message, namely health care and environmental protection, they can win. Medicare For All and The Green New Deal are two of the big flash points for the Democrats now. For a president to tackle even one of these would be a huge undertaking; tackling both seems to be setting us up for failure. I consider myself left of center politically. I usually vote for Democrats not because I consider myself a Democrat but mostly because I hate the Republican party so much. The worst the GOP gets, the more  Democratic I become. 

It is the intent of this Blog post to a log of my thought process of my decision making about the 2020 Presidential election. Whom I will vote for and why will be documented here. Please share your thoughts with me. If you have a candidate, tell me who. No Trump supporters please. The most important issue for me, is that we pick a candidate that can beat Trump. The second most important is the issues: environmentalism, health care, voter's rights and Judiciary nominees are probably my top four priorities.

I have to say I am impressed and excited with the diversity of these candidates.

The Candidates (in order of how well I know them): 

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts: I like Senator Warren but I believe she is probably too far left for the general public. She is probably further left than Bernie Sanders, who is a Socialist. Like Bernie, I question her ideas on the economy. I also doubt her appeal to the general public. Nominating her might just fire up Trump's base to a defeat in 2020, but maybe my opinion will change. She is from Oklahoma City from a middle class family so perhaps that will help her appeal to the American centrist. She has no executive experience. 

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey:  I like Senator Booker as well. He was born in DC but grew up in New Jersey in a middle class family. His parents were two of the first African American executives at IBM. As mayor of Newark, his environmental record is not great, but overall he was a good mayor. He is a Rhodes Scholar. I'd love to see Trump go up against someone this smart. 

Ex-San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro: Castro is a twin and his identical brother, Joaquin, is a member of the US House of Representatives.  He is from San Antonio and seems to be on the correct side of the issues for me. He was also the HUD Secretary in the Obama administration. He seems to be a political light weight. We'll have to see how he does on the campaign trail. He was one of the front runners for the vice presidential nomination for Hillary Clinton in 2016.  She may have won if she had picked him over the extremely unexciting Tim Kaine. The fact that he is Hispanic and from Texas might make him the perfect VP pick for whoever wins. 

Senator Kamala Harris from California: She is from a working class Berkley  neighborhood with both of her parents being economics professors and civil rights activists. Before becoming a Senator in 2017, she was the Attorney General of CA for six years and before that the AG of San Francisco for seven years. For a lot of people on the left this is a strike against her, but this will be a great asset to her in the general election. I could imagine her legal experience will be a great tool for her in the debates. She is a first generation American from Indian and Jamaican descent. 

Senator Amy Kobuchar from Minnesota: She is a seasoned Senator and with an excellent record on liberal issues. She is the daughter of a second grade teacher and journalist/sports writer/travel writer. Before becoming a Senator in 2006, she was an attorney. She has no executive experience. 

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii: Now we are getting to the people I know nothing about.  I had to look up all of this information. She is from American Samoa and is a Hindu.  She is an active member of the Army National Guard and did a 12 month tour in Iraq. Before she became a Rep., she was in the Hawaiian House and the Honolulu City Counsel. She seems to have a good environmental record but has no executive experience. 

Former Rep. John Delaney from Maryland: He actually dropped out of Congress to run for President. He was the first to announce. Before becoming a Rep. in 2012, he was a businessman in private sector in health care and commercial lending. He has no executive experience. 

Former tech executive and author Andrew Yang: He seems to be a one issue candidate. He supports a Universal Basic Income in response to the growing labor problem due to automation. He is from Schenectady and is another first generation American. His parents are from Taiwan. He has no executive experience nor any experience in government whatsoever.

If the election were held today, I'd have a difficult time picking from these eight because I know so little about them. Right now, my pick is Kamala Harris with Cory Booker as a close second.  I am looking forward to learning more about these candidates and I am sure I will change my pick several times.  Talk to you next month.