Right Wing Jerks

David Brooks’ recent Op-Ed is a flaccid and flailing attempt to denigrate democracy without denigrating democracy. The ghost of Eddie Bernays’ circular sophistry permeates this snoot-fest like a cheap uninterrogated suit. We recall Mr. Ed in one of his more breathtaking loopty-loops:
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”–from Propaganda 
The impudence!

There is no need to argue for the US Senate to provide “Advice and Consent” for presidential appointments to the Supreme Court.  It’s right there in the U.S. Constitution:  Article II, Section 2, Clause 2.

“Hillary slams the door on Bernie,” screamed a headline after Bernie Sanders failed to win in Ohio.  Once again, the left most Democratic Party candidate has been thwarted.  Most of the super delegates, an anti-democratic rule employed to keep a leftist candidate from having a chance, have gone to Madam Clinton.

On Wednesday March 9 the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has accepted an invitation to speak at their March 20-22 annual policy conference in Washington DC. Two days later they announced that Republican candidate, Donald Trump has also accepted their invitation to speak. AIPAC relishes its ability to trot out leading politicians who then jostle to outdo each other in proving their “pro-Israel” credentials.

In the steamy summer of 2012, at the Irving, Texas, megachurch that helped elect Ted Cruz to the U.S. Senate, Rafael Cruz summoned followers to take dominion over leadership of our country. He named his son, Ted Cruz, as one of the anointed. Ted, he said, is one among the evangelical Christians who are anointed as “kings” to take control of all sectors of society and “bring the spoils of war to the priests,” in this way bringing about a prophesied “great transfer of wealth” from the “wicked” to righteous gentile believers.

Donald Trump is occurring. He’s no longer merely a punchline. Only a fool can say that his antics are not worth talking about (my line during the first few months of his campaign). Despite the GOP establishment’s best efforts, which were necessarily lame (we’re talking about the GOP here), Trump is the probable Republican nominee. Unless the “true” conservatives like Mitt Romney can manage to swing a brokered convention, The Donald’s got this in the bag. His opposition tells us a lot about how this happened.

I’m not here to announce my candidacy for office…. America will remain, as it is today, the envy of the world….
If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished….
A person so untrustworthy and dishonest as Hillary Clinton must not become president….
I understand the anger Americans feel today…. Mr. Trump is directing our anger for less than noble purposes…. This is the very brand of anger that has led other nations into the abyss.

America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
— Allen Ginsberg, America

In March 2003, just before the US invasion of Iraq, about one hundred CODEPINK women dressed in pink slips weaved in and out of congressional offices demanding to meet with representatives. Those representatives who pledged to oppose going to war with Iraq were given hugs and pink badges of courage; those hell-bent on taking the US to war were given pink slips emblazoned with the words “YOU’RE FIRED.”

It might be worthwhile for supporters of Hillary Clinton to consider that, as of the last week or two, they are bedfellows with members of the most odious U.S. political movement in recent memory: neoconservatism. That’s right—in a not-so-surprising twist, America’s most vocal and unapologetic war-lovers are starting to imply allegiance to the doyenne of the Democratic Party.