You are very probably right, Miriam. The level of interest, along
with the heightened level of support that borders on hysteria, for
Donald Trump and the likes of Ted Cruiz, convinces me that people are
now totally conditioned to living by "Sound Bites". Knee jerk
reaction rather than having to spend energy and time actually
Thinking.
But that does not absolve us of our job of promoting Thinking. Like
you, I seldom waste energy on attempting to "discuss" issues with
someone who has spittle flying from their lips as they proclaim their
love of Donald or his look alike. But I do try to ask questions that
might cause them to peek back behind their superficial mouthings. If
I can get a person to think, it is the beginning of a new adventure
for most of them. And even if they do not come to my conclusions,
they have one foot out of the Mire.
But back to the debates. If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination and
the election, she will do what Obama and Bill Clinton did, bend under
the pressures of the Corporate Empire. But we might hold the line on
some very critical social issues, such as Planned Parenthood and
Social Security and Obama Care. We might find enough support to block
the mass sellout of our public holdings such as Public Education.
But we have to remember that Clinton is not our friend, and she can
turn on us at the drop of a Wall Street Hat. That may be our fate
following this onslaught from the Corporate Empire's Media Machine.
Meanwhile, we're off to put another band aid on the open wound of an
elderly lady, struggling to understand how to cope with blindness.
Carl Jarvis
On 2/2/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'll tell you something. The people whom I encounter, vote for emotional
reasons completely. They have absolutely no understanding of history or
political movements or anything. They respond to candidates on a gut level.
I encountered another Trump supporter today. I don't have political
discussions with these people. But they say stuff. And many people just
don't like Hillary. They have an aversion to her. It has nothing to do with
her policies or her history. They don't like her personality. We can
analyze
why this is, all we want, but this is what so called democracy is all about
in a mass post industsrial society. So it is horribly conceivable to me
that
given what I've been reading about dark money and the manipulations of our
plutocrats, a Republican, one of these extreme racist chauvinist war hawks,
might win. I haven't thought so before. But I do think so today.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2016 5:27 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Bernie Sanders' super PAC, I think
The "Dirty Games" have just begun.
The strong showing by Bernie Sanders will be a wake up call to the Clinton
camp.
After listening to some of the last couple of Republican "Debates", and
taking a look at some of the people attaching themselves to Cruz and Trump,
I am beginning to waffle on my vow to never vote for Hillary Clinton.
If Sanders fails in his bid for the nomination, and Clinton is the
Democrats
choice, I had planned to simply vote for Stein. But even considering that
Clinton is all schmooze and no substance, and understanding that under her
guiding hand it would be business as usual, the thought of losing so many
of
our hard earned gains under Cruz or Trump, is unbearable.
As I say, I'm having second thoughts, but still...
Carl Jarvis
On 2/2/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yesterday, I felt like I wanted to give a small donation to Sanders,
just to encourage the campaign or to show the Democratic Party
establishment that they do have a fight on their hands. But I found
Bernie's website too difficult to deal with in terms of donating. I
did see a phone number listed on the website. It was a phone number
for a hot line. I wrote it down, thinking that if these websites were
giving me a problem, I'd donate $10 by phone. Then I saw that Move On
was also collecting money for Bernie. I donated money to them a few
months ago for an anti Trump ad and it was easy to use their website
so I thought that perhaps I could use their website to donate money to
Bernie. It did seem easier to use. But them I saw a statement that
half of the money I donate through that website goes to Move On Action
and half to Bernie. I didn't want to do that. I wanted all the money
to go to the Sanders campaign. So I called the phone number that I'd
gotten from Bernie's website. The representative to answered the phone
said "Socially United". I asked what she'd said and who was the group.
The group is Americans Socially United. She really didn't know
anything about what she was doing, who the group is, what it does,
etc. But when I asked about if they were collecting money for the
Bernie Sanders campaign, she checked and said yes. I asked if all of
the money goes to his campaign. She said that most of it did, but some
goes for administrative costs. Because I'd found the number on his
campaign website and because it was easy, I donated the money. Then I
googled the group. The first thing I found was a slur from one of the
dark money groups that I'd just finished reading about in Jane mayer's
book. It was one of these groups with a very respectable sounding name
but I recognized it as a right wing front group. There was a quote
from its website which said something like, "who is the shadowy
group, Americans Socially United who is behind..." So I realized that
Americans Socially United must be a political action fund that has
been formed on Bernie's behalf. He's certainly not hiding it because
the phone number is right there on his website. and I did remember
seeing the name and address of the group, located in Las Vegas, at
the bottom of the website. But I don't understand if it is just the
fund raising arm of the campaign or a political action group or what.
Miriam
