New Poem: 2020 FORETOLD

both parties have paid almost two years of rent

on the National Electoral Battlefield

so let the cable news speculation run rampant

and allow the online and print media to join in

with lots of chatter about electability

also please don’t impeach the President

because it messes up the timetable

> 

brush away any Green New Deals

plus talk of Medicare For All

not to mention Free College Tuition

keep Incrementalism alive by

dry repeats of “how do we pay for this”

> 

smash the hopes of young voters,

children and teens taking Civics classes

and the yet-to-be-born

> 

teach them how the concept of Change

doesn’t mean real change for the better

> 

instead, it’s merely a shiny buzzword 

used by a minority party

as a giant crowbar 

to separate power

from the majority party

Why progressives will always be subordinate in the Democratic Party.

Someone in media/film writing I follow on Twitter retweeted the following statement from a person I'll not name here.  It's the perfect summary of the centrist, big donation-dependent wing of the Democratic Party (who think they've become a little more liberal because Tom Perez, who talks a good game about the party's future and unity, was elected DNC head over Keith Ellison) and the contempt they still hold for the more progressive (i.e. Bernie Sanders supporting) membership.

Democrats are your friend who'll die single, waiting for a person too perfect to exist.

Republicans are the guy who fucks whoever is there.

My Hillary Clinton wishlist.

After some thought, I've decided to be (with reservations) supportive of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic presidential campaign (the U.S. can ill-afford to be ruled by the Trump/Pence/Ryan troika) .  I'm not going to castigate people who are still unwilling to support her (since they received plenty of vitriol during the primaries), but--having cast a primary vote for Bernie Sanders--I believe the seeds of future progressivism in the Democratic Party need to grow instead of being yanked in a moment of fury.  There needs to be more "democracy" in the party if it wants to be a viable alternative to Republicanism in the 2018 midterms, 2020 election, etc.

Now, onto the Hillary wishlist:

1. Please stop regarding Bernie Sanders supporters and Occupy Wall Street as irritants who bang on limousine doors during a leisurely ride through Manhattan.   Take them seriously and erect a firewall between yourself and Goldman Sachs/JP Morgan Chase/hedge funds, etc.  Government regulations to prevent Wall Street abuse of/stealing from the nonwealthy--not a bad thing at all.

2. Ensure that future government e-mails are on a much more secure government server so no further controversy over personal servers plagues yourself or others in your White House.

3. Put more distance between your forthcoming administration and your husband's past one.  It's not the 90s anymore and Dick Morris-esque triangulation and draconian welfare policies/mass incarceration/private prison support are hurtful, to say the least.

4. With regards to foreign policy, regime change causes more terrorism than it prevents--whether it's the Left's "Smart Power" or the Right's "they'll greet us as liberators" neocon values.

Re the reaction to DNC leaks.

Among the pushback rationalizations you will likely hear from those who want the Hillary train to run on time:
A. Assange is Bad Bad Bad!
B. These leaks might be connected to Putin
C. Bernie would have lost anyway
D. You're a child if you object to what the DNC did

In terms of the DNC and now almost departed chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz, I'll quote
70s TV cop Tony Baretta:
"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."

Between a Brexit and a Trump/Clinton place.

Something I wrote earlier on Facebook:
Yesterday's positivity over Democrats standing up for passing gun legislation in the House replaced tonight by the British far right deploying fear and hate to remove the UK from the European Union.

So, as the United Kingdom tilts further right, the pound drops in value and immigrants (this time, refugees) are once again damned, one wonders if many in the United States will read the gigantic writing on the wall.

As an American, I deeply resent being herded into the usual "lesser of two evils" position where the choice is between a blustering billionaire spewing geysers of prejudice and "he's not a politician" fakery to the general public AND the ethically-challenged conservative Democrat who loves regime change war (just like Bush Jr. and neocons) and counts on other incremental centrists/captains of Industry to vote in lockstep after a primary campaign where the old-school liberal challenger suffered at least 57 varieties of demonization in the primaries.

Of course, if one opts out for third party choices (the leave-business-alone Libertarian buffoon Gary Johnson and the more-sane-than-Johnson Dr. Jill Stein), there's the possibility of post-November centrist Democrat pea soup getting whirled in all directions.

(Remember the 2000-era moaning where Ralph Nader was largely blamed for Al Gore's flaccid campaign and the Supreme Court's thievery?)

Looking forward to buying a NOT SORRY I VOTED FOR BERNIE bumpersticker, if such items are sold.

New poem CENTERED.

it’s neutralized now

the challenge removed

like a jacknifed truck on a freeway

after a few hours of inconvenience

you know what your friends will tolerate

don’t say you’re with Someone Else

listen again

to the arguments favoring settle for less

or letting the monster into the house

you don’t want to have the monster’s

potential rampage

blamed on you,

do you?

The day after the progressives were neutralized.

Here's an editorial cartoon/meme from TRUTHDIG's Dwayne Booth aka mr. fish: