Chamblee54

What follows are two posts from January 2016. One of them features a video by Robert Reich, and Moveon.org. This past week saw this story: MoveOn calls on Sanders to renounce Joe Rogan endorsement. Chamblee54 does not know, or care, what Robert Reich thinks about Joe Rogan.
When you have a political contest based on what people say, it is not surprising that a lot of what they say is nonsense. Yesterday there was an video on facebook, Six responses to Bernie skeptics. Important person wannabe Robert Reich writes a bunch of stuff on a board. Mr. Reich is on the screen by himself, without any attempt at perspective. Many people do not know that Robert Reich is four foot eleven, just like many people did not know FDR was crippled. The video script is widely available, which will make this counter commentary a bit easier.
The video has comebacks to six things Bernie naysayers might offer. The first is that Bernie cannot beat Donald Trump or Ted Cruz in a general election. Mr. Reich has polls that say BS would beat the Donald, and control Cruz. The election is November 8, two days after the clocks are turned back. This is a long time from now. There will be time for Repub dirty tricksters to come up with dirt on Bernie.
As Hillary Clinton found out, the popular vote is meaningless. The election is decided by the Electoral College. Most states are written off as solid red or true blue. Only “swing state” voters get a vote. A national poll in January cannot predict what Ohio voters will do in November. (BS has been silent on the issue of electoral college reform.)
Reason number two is pure number two. The simple truth is that Republicans control congress, and will defeat the BS agenda. (Those are the initials of Bernard no-middle-name Sanders. Any similarity to bovine excrement is coincidence.) The Republican presence in government is reinforced with gerrymandering, money, lapdog press, money, lawyers, guns, money, Jesus exploiters, and more money. The Reich answer: “But there’s a higher likelihood of kicking Republicans out if Bernie’s “political revolution” continues to surge around America, bringing with it millions of young people and other voters, and keeping them politically engaged.”
Number three is semantic shade. “America would never elect a socialist.” “What we have now is socialism, and people don’t realize it.” Both statements are true. It is just that we don’t call Social Security communism. Just like people say they support small government, while sending half a million boots to a desert eight time zones away. There is a lot of “irony” in today’s political circus. That is how the game is played.
Number four is about the cost of single payer healthcare. The truth is that nobody knows. We have a broken system, and installed a compromise fix. When we finally go to single payer healthcare, there is no way to know how it will play out. Maybe the BS proposal will be cheaper, maybe it will be horribly expensive. The current system is too unfair to live, too profitable to die.
Number five is an argument that few have heard. ““His plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules.” When you make up an argument, it is easy to make up the reply. In this case, there is more rhetoric and semantics. The federal government has sent money into the education pipeline for years. The money comes with strings attached. This is no surprise to anyone except Sarah Palin.
Number six is a doozy. Yes, BS is in his seventies. No, we don’t see him huffing on an oxygen tank after he gives a speech. We just have to take the word of his supporters that he is the picture of vigorous health. Why would Robert Reich ever want to lie to you?
“In any event, the issue isn’t age; it’s having the right values. FDR was paralyzed, and JFK had both Addison’s and Crohn’s diseases, but they were great presidents because they fought adamantly for social and economic justice.” FDR and JFK were known by their initials. FDR helped get us involved in World War Two. JFK, who served less than three years, was presented as being full of vi-gah, when in truth he was seriously ill. Both FDR and JFK had extramarital affairs, which only the staunchest BS groupie wants to know about.
Pictures for your politically incorrect repost are from The Library of Congress. These pictures are soldiers from the War Between the States. They did not post food pictures on facebook.

@BernieSanders “I got into politics not to figure out how to become President. I got into politics because I give a damn.” The old tweeter sent this message December 11, 2015, at 4:42 pm Sanders Standard Time. At last glance, it was retweeted 25,901 times, and liked 44,263 times.
What exactly is a damn? When you give one, do you gift wrap it? The dictionary says that damn is a verb, meaning “condemn to a punishment or fate; especially : to condemn to hell.” Giving a verb is not good grammar. Damn is considered a mild profanity, which adds polemic punch.
History gives us a second opinion. “In 1665, Aurangzeb, or Abul Muzaffar Muhi-ud-Din Mohammad Aurangzeb. (A real mouthful of a name!) was the emperor of the Mughal empire. He ruled from 1658 until his death in 1707. Aurangzeb had coins minted in precious metals as well as copper. The copper denominations were one Dam and one half Dam.”
At some point after the invention of the copper dam, Great Britain conquered the Mughal empire. By this time, the dam was worth twice as much as a half dam. According to some unverified sources, British soldiers would say that something was not worth a dam. Some said they would not give a dam. The profaning n was added, and a saying for apathy entered the english language.
How much is a dam/damn worth? To people living downhill from the lake, a dam is valuable. As for the numismatic value of an ancient copper coin: “By looking at both catalog values for copper Dams minted in the Mughal calendar year of 1075 (Western date 1665) … we can provide the following very approximate values for copper half-Dams and Dams minted in the name of Aurangzeb: worn: $4, average circulated: $7, well preserved: $30.”
Getting back to BS, he probably used the conventional meaning of GAD, which is that he cares. Or maybe, he meant that he gives a dollar. If current economic trends hold up, the dollar might not be worth a dam. The welfare state proposals of BS, according to the admittedly biased Wall Street Journal, would cost $18 Trillion. This would effectively double the national debt. If we get mixed up in another war, or if a nuclear power plant blows up, another few trillion might go down the tubes.
Only the most deluded Bernoids expect college tuition to be free in 2018. BS is talking a good game, but most people know his pants are on fire. One person who is offended because BS won’t step up the lies is Ta-Nehisi Coates. If reparations are added onto free college tuition, then the value of the dollar might go below a half dam. Pictures for snowstorm Saturday are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.