Democratic Debate in Detroit Night Two

Night One


Alright ladies, gentleman and non-binary folks....Night 2 of the Democratic Debates in Detroit! I look forward to Joe Biden receiving a mudhole stomping Stone Cold Steve Austin style. As I did before, I will do this blog bulletin style as the event goes on.

Joe Biden told Kamala Harris "Go easy on me kid!" when she got on stage lmaoooo. 

Let's see if anyone can top Marianne Williamson's answer on race/repartations from last night. I doubt it severely. 

I am not feeling this womans voice singing the anthem. 

Michael Bennett is taking a nap while he is giving his opening statement. He must be taking advantage of the fact he lives in Colorado, or he visted one of the fine Michigan dispensaries...

Jay Inslee is saying the right stuff on the issue of climate change. I like it!

Jello Brand is flexing her record, smart move to open up the debate, showing what she has done.

Tulsi got applause before even speaking, that's a good sign. Detroit knows whats up. 

Julian definitely took some cues from Bet on my Stork, with the whole "whisper certain words loudly so it gives dramatic effect" speech style.

Andrew Yang will not talk about anything other than UBI, which is important, but bro. C'mon. Give us SOMETHING else. 

Corey Booker got NO LOVE. LMFAOOOOOOOOO. And the crowd is now heckling him. This is an awesome start. 

Topic 1 is healthcare.

"Insurance companies have been jacking up the prices for too long"...so your solution is to keep the private companies running healthcare? Cool story Kamala. Joe Biden is ready to go toe-to-toe with Senator Harris, but he's failing already. She's about to eat him up, again. She talking to him like a professional e-mail at work.

Joe Biden is REALLY trying hard to defend the whole "But how do you pay for it?" argument. He is a REPUBLICAN. 

Bill de Blasio is about to come out being fake progressive and say all the correct things.  His rhetoric is pretty good, although again, I don't believe him. Joe Biden's trying to defend Obamacare, and says it's working (conveniently leaving out the fact that there are still 44 Million uninsured Americans) and insure "the vast majority of Americans are covered", rather than ALL AMERICANS. 

I'm glad the moderator called out Kamala Harris for saying her plan is Medicare for All even though it's not, due to the whole "private insurance still being a part of it" thing. Kirsten Jello Brand is correct in what she's saying about for profit companies not working for the average citizen. 

Cory Booker is on some BULLSHIT. Why are you bringing up Trump right now? The question was "How is your plan better than Medicare for All when Med4All will do everything you say 

you want to do?" Everything he said right there was a deflection from the question. "Can't we all jsut get along?" No Cory. No.

Tulsi nailed it. "We don't have healthcare, we have sick care." She also just called out Kamala for having one of the Healthcare Industry executives endorse her bill, and said nobody from these industries should be a part of the drafting process. Absolutely correct.

Michael Bennett, you just said you think it will be MORE DIFFICULT to beat Donald Trump if you push for Med 4 All? You are a clown, sir. You and all your corporate buddies need to stop lying about private insurance being "illegal". That is a lie. 

Julian, you can't have for profit private companies AND low drug costs at the same time. I don't know what's hard about this. 

Kamala, we want choice of doctor and hospital, we don't care who's paying for it. Stop with this "choice of coverage" argument. Everybody wants everything covered. Which Bernie's bill does. 

Jay Inslee brought up mental health in the discussion, which is the first time I've heard that subject brought up tonight.

Andrew Yang had a good answer, especially from a business owner perspective. Bill de Blasio followed up by basically pulling a Liz Warren from last night. "How are there democrats who aren't support universal coverage?" He then proceeded to call Michael Bennett a fear mongerer on the issue of healthcare. Yikes!

Joe Biden is really laying it on thick with the "Your taxes will go up!" stuff, (while ignoring the fact that deductibles, co-pays, and premiums go away)

. 

FINALLY, next topic...Immigration.

Julian Castro wants a pathway to citizenship, and wants to decriminalize illegal border crossings. Solid.

Kamala Harris is acting like locking people up isn't her thing. Remember when you were locking up parents for not taking their kids to school? Where do you think those kids ended up? You were separating families before Trump, maybe not in as harsh of a manner, but stop with the act.

Kirsten Jello Brand wants a civil infraction rather than a criminal offense. I can get with that. 

Joe Biden out here sounding like all the republicans, talking about "send them back." Somehow, all this is Trumps fault (even though Obama and Biden were locking people up in camps at the border too). Julian Castro just checked him quite nicely. 

Tulsi, I need details Sis. All of that sounded good, but you didn't say how you would do any of it. 

Andrew Yang brought up a good, but obvious point, that immigrants are being demonized and scapegoated. 

Cory Booker: "Trump is bad! Republicans are bad! Stop fighting guys! We. Are. Fam-i-ly!"

Jay Inslee called Trump a white nationalist. Nice. He's also giving his record on immigration, 

which is pretty damn good. 

Bill de Blasio is saying the progressive stuff, but just like Tulsi, I'm gonna need you to explain. Nice call out of Joe Biden though, I like that.

Tulsi doesn't agree with Bernie on providing tuition free college for undocumented immigrants. I don't know how I feel about that answer. I understand both arguments. 

Cory Booker is in favor of legalizing marijuana. He then called out Joe Biden on his criminal justice record. Joe Biden responded by calling or Cory Booker is May oriole record, and Cory Booker about it quite nicely.

Everyone jumped down Joe Biden’s back when it came to racial justice.

Tulsi is killing Kampala’s record as a prosecutor. Took it right to her, aggressively.

Andrew Yang is doing WAY better this time.

Everyone is talking about police reform. Nobody really said how they plan to tackle it.

On to climate change, Joe Biden is again, the worst. Everyone is on board with the Green New Deal, except him.

Bill de Blasio sounds pretty good on Flint, using his record to back it up. 

Cory Booker just blamed the Russians for voter suppression? WOW.

Bill de Blasio was the ONLY candidate to say “Hey impeachment’s cool and all, but let’s not forget about the real shit, like policy.” That’s crazy to me. Everyone else basically said one form or another of “We gotta get rid of this guy!” And that was it. 

All of their closing statements were basically just advertising to go to their websites and reiterating their opening statements mixed with anti-Trump rhetoric. Tulsi’s was decent because she let you know how real it can get with nuclear war. Bill de Blasio did the best I would say, not just in his closing statement but surprisingly, overall. I have de Blasio CLEARLY winning this debate. Kamala Harris has some punch liney type moments in her close that sounded cool. But there you have it. Night two.

Democratic Debate in Detroit Night One

Democratic Debates in Detroit! 

#WhuttupDoe

If you saw the last debate, you know this will basically be in bullet point style as I watch and listen. 

Opening statements, paraphrased:

Cloud Boot Jar: I have big bold ideas, but they're realistic.  Meaning, I'm gonna talk progressive but govern moderate.

Bet on My Stork: I like good things and good people, I don't like bad things or bad people.  Progressive talking points with no substance, I'm here for everybody.

BootyJudge: Trump got elected because what we were doing hasn't been working, so what I want to do is (insert Bet On My Stork's answer).

Elizabeth Warren: Trump sucks!!!

Bernie Sanders: 87 Million Americans are lacking Healthcare, 500,000 Americans are homeless, yet Amazon is not paying taxes. Half of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, while 49% of all new wealth is going to the top percent of the country, we must transform our economy and government and defeat Trump!

Jake Tapper is already framing questions from a right wing perspective. 

Bernie just flat out told John Delaney that he's wrong about Medicare for All. Now he's hitting him with all the facts. John Delaney meanwhile is trying to rebuttal by defending private healthcare providers. Good strategy, dumb-ass. 

Elizabeth Warren is telling all the corporate democrats about themselves using right wing talking points against Medicare for All. I sort of hate when politicians do the antectdotal stories though. I feel bad for Eddie, but c'mon Liz. 

I like how she answered Tapp Jaker's question about raising taxes on the middle class. "Costs overall will go down for middle class families." That's the part people are concerned about, regardless if it's taxes or medical bills.

Kind of hilarious how Tapp Jaker is cutting off Booty Judge mid sentence. 

Beto, your plan sucks. Just shut up. You are strawmanning Bernie and Liz's position. Just be quiet Storkman. 

Cloud Boot Jar has a plan that's BETTER than Medicare for All? LMFAOOOOOOOO.

Oh she's using the "People can't wait for a perfect system, we need a realistic healthcare model" argument. Cool Story Amy.

Bernie just stepped in and put Tapp Jaker in his place, as well as Amy Cloud Boot Jar. It was pretty awesome. Detroit applauded him. He basically said "Bitch, you won't have premiums or co-pays, what don't you understand?"

John Delaney- "I don't think my colleagues understand how the business works."

Bernie Sanders- "Health is NOT a business!" (DJ Air Horns for Bernie)

HickenBickenBackBeinBoolooper spoke for 10 seconds before getting cut off lmao.

Marianne Williamson, flower child hippie mushroom queen, basically said she's scared of the right wing, even though she usually agrees with the lefty left.

Pete BootyJudge actually just said some real shit. "If we embrace a far left platform, Republicans will call us crazy socialists. If we embrace a right wing platform, they will call us crazy socialists." 

Tim Ryan (see Amy Cloud Boot Jar's answer.)

Bernie is straight up COOKING Tapp Jaker and the crowd is eating it up.

Bernie Sanders is eating everyone on stage alive, other than Elizabeth Warren who is basically him, light.

45 minutes in and we're moving to the SECOND topic. Immigration.

Mayor BootyJudge: It'll still be illegal to cross the border when I'm the Prez, but something something nice things, good things, something something not bad things or mean things. 

Storky McGhee (OK, I'm getting a little lax with these names, I know.): We're still locking those illegals up, but we'll be alot less racist when we do it. 

Elizabeth Warren: I would decriminalize crossing the border. Trump is racist, he's horrible, he's a bigot, he's breaking up families, he's a monster......

Cloud Boot Jar: Path to citizenship, immigrants are cool by me.

Bernie Sanders: (see Elizabeth Warrens answer, plus giving undocumented immgrants free healthcare and college, minus about half of the Trump rhetoric.)

I'm pretty sure John Delaney is Joe Biden's poorly created clone. 

Tim Ryan is still talking about PAYING FOR HEALTHCARE. Do not expect to see him at Debate 3. 

Topic 3. Gun Violence.

BootyJudge: Universal background checks, mental health checks, ban on assault weapons. Solid. 

HickenBackBeinBool: We passed background checks and limited magazine capacity in Colorado, what's y'alls problem?

Amy: We're taking on the NRA, it's there fault!

Bernie: See Amy's answer, but also bragging about his low grade from the NRA. Also, mixed with Booty Judge's answer, and getting money out of politics.

Wait....who the eff is Steve Bullock? I haven't heard him say anything this whole time...

Anyway, he basically said he ran the Koch Bros out of Montana and he'll do the same in Washington.

Marianne Williamson is calling out the corporate democrats who took money from big money industries. 

Holy shit, it's been an hour and 7 minutes so far. First commercial. 

Bernie is slaughtering Hickenlooper for calling his ideas radical, and becomes the angry old man we all know and love.

Moderators called out Elizabeth Warren for self describing as a capitalist, and asked her if she did that to seem like a “safe” alternative to Bernie. Ouch.

LMFAO Elizabeth Warren basically told John Delaney to stop being a pussy and drop out of the race. Amazing.

John Delaney just said the Green New Deal was unrealistic. He’s really proving to be a right wing democrat in a time where he should KNOW that’s not what we want. We basically only got good responses from Bernie and Warren on this front.

It’s insane how many times Bernie Sanders has had to explain how transition periods work with policy change. It’s ALMOST like the other candidates are being dense on purpose.

Around this time my phone died, so I wasn’t able to catch the rest, but if it went how the rest did, then this was a huge win for Sanders and Warren, and a terrible, god awful, horrendous showing from John Delaney. Holy shit he was bad.

I’ll be back for night 2 tomorrow.

How to Defeat Trump in 2020

How to defeat Donald Trump in 2020. There’s a few very important things we need to understand in order to accomplish this goal, while at the same time passing progressive legislation that will positively influence the country. Here’s my thoughts:

Run an anti-establishment candidate. That’s a big reason as to why Tonald Drump was elected in the first place. People wanted their jobs back. People wanted to leave the Middle East and re-invest the money in our homeland. Our infastructure is crumbling. And everypone knew that Hillary Clinton was the perfect representation of "more of the same". That's why progressives didn't vote for her, and people who aren't hateful still chose to vote for a bigot over her. If we run Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and realistically, even Elizabeth Warren, we are running ahuge risk for a repeat of 2016. People do not want the status quo, they want to blow the system up, which is another reason people were willing to risk voting for Tiny Hands. Giving people a real alternative to the status quo (which of COURSE if you were paying attention at all to of his history, you knew Drumpf would represent the establishment to the fullest), who will actually stand up against corporate greed, protect workers, and protect peoples jobs while fighting for a living wage. This is what people care about.

Use the current President's own rhetoric against him. This man has literally said EVERYTHING, and had EVERY position you can possibly have on EVERY issue. He wants to leave the Middle East, yet he wants to "bomb the sh*t" out of ISIS. He wants to "never forget the forgotten man and woman", yet he passed tx cut that the 80% of the benefits go to the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans. He told Ilhan Omar, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley if they don't love America, they should leave....despite the fact that he spent YEARS saying how America is a losing country, how he wants to make it great AGAIN (meaning it isn't great now), how we are the laughing stock of the world, and how we aren't respected because we are "so stupid as a country". You can remind the people that voted for him how big of a fraud he is, and I truly think it would work. Compare that to a record like Bernie Sanders, which has been consistent for 40+ years. 

Do not insult all of his voters. Yes, there are die hard racists out there who love all the anti-immigration stuff, die hard evangelical christians who love the anti-abortion stuff, and some who are just genuinely mis-lead because they don't watch good news sources. But insulting all of them will immediately turn them off, even if your message is one that will ultimately benefit them. If they feel as if our candidate has some moral superiority complex, it doesn't matter how much money Medicare for All will save their family compared to what they pay now for private health insurance. They won't vote for you.

Focus on the two time Obama voters. If you focus on who we can get, the voters who aren't unreasonable, the ones who just want there families to be safe and secure. We can get those voters by explaining to them how free college will benefit them, how Medicare for All will save them on healthcare costs, how re-investing the ridiculous military spending into infastructure projects and a Green New Deal, will not only help slow down climate change, but also will create new jobs all over the country. This is the message that will win over the ones we lost in 2016.

I think if we follow these basic steps, we can not only defeat the Orange Clown in Chief, but we can also pass progressive legislation that will not only help the average American, it may literally save all of us from a firey burning death. 

Gangs and the Government

Gangs and the Government. Stop and think for a second. How different are they really? I am going to show you in very plain language how our government and other world governments essentially ARE gangs, they just wear suits and carry briefcases rather than urban fashion and carry measures of protection. Let’sreview, shall we?

The Flag-

For the United States of America, the flag is Red, White and Blue, with 13 stripes and 50 stars. The flag for the Bloods is a red bandanna. The flag for the Crips is a blue bandanna. Wearing a flag is a clear indication of loyalty, and non-verbally allows everyone within eyesight to instantly develop an understanding of what it is you represent. 

Territory – 

The United States government is constantly telling us that the reason we are going to war with 9 countries (hopefully we don’t get to 10 with Iran) is to protect the homeland. We have to protect our borders. We have to keep Americans safe. Why? Because they live in America, and that is the territory that we occupy. On a much smaller scale, that is exactly what street gangs do. GD’s and Vice Lords are doing what they view as protecting their neighborhoods, and they do so by going to war with other gangs who they view as a threat. 

Money – 

Gangs sell drugs, commit robberies, and pimp sex workers to earn a pay day. But think about this. Big Pharma lobbyists donated close to $200 Million dollars to various campaigns, in order for the lawmakers who win different positions in government to essentially do their bidding, which would be reducing the amount of regulation and reducing the tax burden they pay. This is mostly about the lack of regulation, which has turned the Midwest into a heroin den. So government (at minimum) facilitating the sale of narcotics? Check. Every heard of civil asset forfeiture? That’s when a cop pulls someone over, notices a “suspicious” amount of money, and confiscates it from a person without an arrest or a charge. Then it is on the person of interest to prove they weren’t going to use the money in a crime, otherwise the police department gets to keep it to purchase things like coffee machines, and new equipment for themselves. Sounds like robbery to me. And as far as pimping? The Dictionary.com definition states “a man who controls prostitutes and arranges clients for them, taking part of their earnings in return.” Replace the word “prostitutes” with “employees”, and tell me what is different between that and any 9-5 job in corporate America, which is regulated by….the government. 

Military – 

Obviously, the government officials aren’t on the front lines in these wars, risking their lives to take bullets. Of course not. Sowhat they do is send much younger, desperate people who see no way out to participate in the violence for them. What does that sound like? That sounds like OG’s who don’t want to do a crime, so they send the impressionable “little homies” to do it for them to prove themselves. Then what happens when soldiers return home or the little homies go to jail? Everyone who sent them on these missions forget about them, and they waste away in society as if they never mattered. 

The whole point of this post is basically to say this. I understand gang culture. I get the appeal, I get the benefits of being a part of something bigger than you, I get the family aspect, I get the financial aspect, I get all of it. Trust me. What I do NOT understand however, is conservatives who are super pro-military and super pro-gun ownership that have absolutely no idea why gangs exist. Our government is currently the biggest, most dangerous, wealthiest gang on the planet. So either be against what our government is doing on a mass scale, or don’t be so quick to judge what one set of Piru’s does on a very minor scale, comparatively speaking. Is gang violence a problem? Yes. Is United States militarism a problem? Damn right. But let’s be principled. You cannot view one as “patriotism” and the other as “criminal”, when I just broke down why being in a gang and being in government in the USA is the same thing. 

#Whoop

Calling A Racist Racist is Worse Than Being Racist

It’s worse to call a bigoted white person a racist than it is for that bigoted white person to actually commit acts of racial bigotry, also known as racism. 

That’s basically what you get whenever you watch Fox News, listen to Tonald Drump, listen to Ben Shapiro (unless it’s a Muslim calling out AIPAC, then calling out bigotry is all good), or follow Michael Tracey on Twitter. 

Calling a white person racist garners the reaction that calling a black man a n!gger does. They get UPSET when you say they did or said something racist. As Splinter explains: 

“Martin Luther King, Junior’s leadership of the civil rights movement has not been the actual accomplishment of the movement’s broadest goals—America remains a racially segregated and unequal society—but rather a shift in the nation’s conventional wisdom about what falls within the bounds of acceptable, respectable thought. Within the span of a single generation, outright public racism went from respectable to disreputable.”

The basic idea here is as long as you are not super openly acting in a prejudiced manner, then it is not REALLY racist. However, when you cover the language up and disguise it in other phrases, then you have enough plausible deniability to say “What, me? No way, I don’t have a racist bone in my body.” The Root actually has a hilarious article about “Racist Bone Disease” that you should check out. 

My main reason for this piece is due to the fact the republican approval ratings for Tonald Drump have actually gone UP since this whole “Go back to where you came from” bullshit with the 4 best congresswomen currently serving, 3 of which were born here, and 1 (his main target) immigrated here at age 12. I don’twanna hear shit about the right wing not being racist, bigoted, prejudiced, or none of that. Yes you are. There’s levels to everything, and maybe we can get along, maybe we can laugh together, we might even be able to hang out. But you will 100% NOT convince me that you don’t view non-white people as “the other”. You almost certainly view the people of color you are friends with as “the good ones”, while the rest of us are criminals and rapists like Drump said. 

I really wanted to give a good portion of Tonald’s supporters the benefit of the doubt that they aren’t racist, or even cool with racism, but that they just needed the establishment to be broken up so bad that they were willing to risk for voting for a racist.  I actually understood that.

But….

TODAY, on July 18th of 2019, if you still approve of the job this man is doing, it has nothing to do with the establishment. You are either: A. Very rich and those tax cuts were your wet dream, or B. You aren’t the biggest fan of people who are darker than you.

Trim The Democrat Fat

Alriiiiiiiiiight! Finally, we are shedding some of the extra weight around the Democratic Presidential primary season. 

Eric Swalwell has, or will be (as of 7/8/2019) dropping out of the race. This is great news. Now all we need are the following people to drop out so we can have a legit battle of ideas.

1. Pete Booty Judge

2. Bet on my Stork

3. John BickenBackBeinBoolPooper

4. Kirsten Jello Brand

5. Cory Barack O’Booker

6. John Del-Lame-ee

7. Andrew Yang (Can’t think of anything creative for him, and Kyle from Secular Talk hasn’t created one yet either.)

8. Marianne “Flower Child” Williamson

9. Amy Cloud Boot Jar

10. Jay Inslee 

11. Tim “Al ’Qaeda and the Taliban are the same” Ryan

12. Michael “Not the Singer” Bennett

13. Bill “Seriously Guys, I’m a Lefty” de Blasio

14. Handsy Uncle Joseph Biden

All of these candidates basically are the same as each other, so we can just throw them under some categories. 

There’s Team Kamala, which I would say includes Booty Judge, Beto, Hickenlooper, Jello Brand, Cory Booker, John Delaney, Amy Cloud Boot Jar and Michael Bennett. The Centrist Dems who are not going to fight against big money interests, will not end the wars, will not get medicare for all or tax paid public college and university tuition. They’ll be cool towards minorities and women, but they also won’t fight for legalized cannabis or clearing the records of non-violent drug offenders.Joe Biden also fits this category. 

There’s Team Bernie, which you can throw Marianne Williamson and Bill de Blasio (rhetorically) in the mix. Again, strong caveat with Bill de Blasio, I don’t believe him. At all. But if you listen strictly to what he is saying in the debates, he sounds like Bernie. 

Tulsi is basically on an island as the only super anti-war candidate, and as much as it saddens me to admit, as of now it doesn’t look like she’s got much of a shot. However, her strong antiwar voice is completely needed on these stages, so for that reason alone I hope she doesn’t drop out yet. 

Elizabeth Warren is still going strong, and the only reason I want to see her stay in the race is because if Bernie doesn’t win, she’s got to. Otherwise, we will see no substantial change. Although Elizabeth is a little closer to the center than I care for her to be, she’s still overall pretty good. If Bernie Sanders gets a 90% from me, Liz is a solid 80. If I agree with 80% of your record, I feel ok voting for you. So with all that said, let’s keep trimming the fat and get this race down to a reasonable amount of candidates.