april fools

 

Today is April Fool’s Day. Last month, while trying to decide whether Donald Trump was serious about his presidential bid or not, I dreamed that he’d “come out” on April Fools Day and announce that we were all suckers for falling for his crap, which he’d then take and turn into a new reality show, “The Great (Presidential) Race”. It seems I wasn’t too far off!

 

Ahh, if only that were true. But sadly, it was back to reality today.

Yesterday, I ranted about Rachel Maddow’s selling out by misrepresenting Bernie Sanders’ take on the Donald Trump “punish the abortion women” insanity to Hillary Clinton in the second part of their interview. 

Today, I’m shaking my head over what happened next. Hillary Clinton, at a rally at SUNY/Purchase yesterday afternoon, took Maddow’s mischaracterization of what Bernie said and used it in her stump speech, not only twisting what he said, but blatantly lying about it.

And I want you to hear this, because last night, Sen Sanders agreed that Donald Trump’s comments were shameful, but then he said they were a distraction from, and I quote, a serious discussion about the serious issues facing America. To me this is a serious issue. And it is a very serious discussion. I think, I know Sen Sanders supports a woman’s right to choose, but I also know that Planned Parenthood and NARAL endorsed me because I have led on this issue I have fought on this issue and I know, given what’s happening in states across our country that we need a president who is passionate about this, seeing it as a top priority because women’s health is under assault across our country.

And that, my friends, is why I’m finding more difficult with each passing day to say that, if she’s the nominee I’ll vote for her. 

I was there. After all, I live in the ultimate swing state of FloriDUH- a state who actually elected as governor the guy responsible for perpetrating the biggest Medicare fraud on the US! 

 Every word of Bernie Sanders’ response to Maddow’s question about Trump’s idiocy is transcribed in yesterday’s post.  Not only did he NOT chalk it up to “just another stupid comment from Donald Trump” as Rachel has been twisting it, but he never said it was a distraction from anything. In fact, he never used the word (or any form of the word) “distraction” at all.

After that same rally, she was questioned by a Greenpeace activist about taking money from the fossil fuel industry, and Hillary Clinton wagged her finger in the activist’s face and yelled at her about being “I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me. So sick.”

 

Oh my. Keep wagging that finger in faces Hillary. You’re losing every last one of us. And Bernie Sanders deserves an apology, now. 

By the way, Greenpeace weighed in and stated, quite clearly, that this didn’t come from Sanders, it came from Greenpeace. 

Again, Bernie or Bust is making more sense to me as I watch Hillary Clinton lie her way through the country, accusing Bernie Sanders of doing what she and her campaign are actually doing to him. Rubber/glue anyone?

I read the following essay on Bernie Sanders Facebook page, written by someone named John Crowe. He makes a lot of sense…

I am Bernie or Bust. I keep hearing pundits and career politicians tell me that I’m behaving like a child because of this. I’ve read the critiques plastered all over the internet about how I am simultaneously too immature to fully grasp the political landscape and too privileged for my own good. I have been lambasted for my inflexibility while being told to quietly acquiesce to what these same pundits and career politicians are telling me what’s best for me. And through it all, I am Bernie or Bust.

I joined the U.S. Navy in November of 2001. When the Twin Towers fell, I did the only thing I could think of: I enlisted. As the son of a career soldier, I followed in his footstep to protect the country I loved from terror. At the end of my 5-year enlistment – for which I received an honorable discharge – I began working in the financial sector. I worked for a Fortune 100 banking institution during the financial meltdown. I used the G.I. Bill to attend undergrad. I am now a graduate student making just over poverty wages. I have been well off, and I have been flat broke. I say this not to garner an emotional response from you, but because it is important that you understand that I was in the military during a war, I was at a bank during the recession, and I am a student during a time when even the government is trying to wring every last penny out of me. It is for these reasons that I am Bernie or Bust. War is horrific. The financial sector has run amok and there is no oversight. And students – on whom our future should be built – can’t excel. And I’m told that I have the mindset of an infant because I’m Bernie or Bust. 

I’m not going to patronize you by giving you a breakdown on why Bernie’s message resonates so strongly with me. What I will do is explain why it is offensive that the DNC, Hillary’s supporters, and the establishment believes that I owe them my allegiance. Yes, I am a Democrat. But let’s be very clear on one thing, neither Bernie nor Hillary are. Bernie is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist and Hillary is a Republican. However, due to our country’s two-party system, they are both running as Democrats. And that is perfectly fine. But neither of them is owed my vote. No party, institution, nor individual is owed my vote. My vote is earned. And you’re going to have to work damn hard for it. 

In America, the vanishing middle class has so very little voice. Our purchasing power is one, and our vote is another. So when I hear Bernie talking about class equality, student loan debt, withdrawing from wars, environmental protections, equal rights for LGBTQIA+, and an honest government, of course that resonates with any rational person. But, and this is more important, when I look at his record and see that he has, for the better part of 5 decades, fought on the right side of history for all of these things, that earns my vote. When I hear Hillary talking about class equality, student loan debt, withdrawing from wars, environmental protections, equal rights for LGBTQIA+, and an honest government, of course that resonates with any rational person.

But when I look at her record and see how she has failed so miserably on every. single. one. of these topics, that does not earn my vote. You see, I don’t have to vote for a Democrat. I don’t have to “make sure the party stays in power.” Because it’s not my party.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the DNC, and the corporate media has made sure of that. And, look, I get it. Bernie won’t make deals. He won’t play your shell game. And that pisses you off. It should. Because once We The People begin to have our revolution, the echo chamber you have on Capitol Hill will be drowned out with Our voices. And that just won’t do. So, yes, I’m Bernie or Bust. Not because I’m a petulant child who will take my toys and go home if my candidate doesn’t receive the nomination. But because I understand all too well what is at stake. So yell at us. Tell us we’re wrong. Educate us on how you think we should understand the role of government in our lives. Convince us that you know what’s best for us. Please. You’ve been trying for months and you are failing. You discounted us, then you derided us, now you’re trying to convince us we don’t exist. But we do. We are Bernie or Bust.

-John Crowe

Seven months till November.

Today on the show 

Boca Britany Somers hung out with me in the studio to talk all the nonsense I just recapped above, and to weigh in on the new anti-LGBT law in North Carolina.  Yes, we were a day late and a dollar short, as yesterday was International Transgender Day of Visibility. So, we celebrated today… but the camera did fail during the second hour of the show, so it was back to invisible for Boca anyway.

And we closed out the week with Kelly Carlin, yes, George’s daughter! She wrote an amazing book, A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up With George, and is in town for a few performances of her one woman show of the same name at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach. I’m going tomorrow night… don’t miss this show if you have a chance to see it!

I’ll be back Monday morning to kick off another week, radio or not!

Today’s preshow April Fools Day music: