Why would a moderate like a socialist candidate?

I like Bernie Sanders.  No, I didn't suddenly become a socialist, or at the very least a liberal.  I still find liberals as annoying as I do conservatives.  Then why do I like Bernie Sanders, you might ask?

1. Bernie Sanders is annoying both parties.  It's obvious that the Republicans don't like him.  He is a socialist.  Also, their campaign against the Democrats has been aimed at Hillary Clinton, much as their campaign in the 2008 election was, which is part of what allowed Barack Obama's campaign to do so well.  They do not want Sanders to be another Obama.  The Democrat establishment have thrown their support behind Hilary Clinton, and have been desperately trying to get Vice President Joe Biden to run as well, in case Hilary cannot win.  As a moderate, I have been taking great delight in watching how uncomfortable Bernie is making them all.
2. Bernie is nice even when it might be more politically expedient to not be.  I did not watch the Democratic debate,* but I did see clips of it later.  People might like to joke about an "old guy who doesn't want to hear any more about emails," but it would have been more politically expedient to either not mention the email scandal at all, or to use it against Hilary.  After all, she is his only (at this time, at least) serious competition for the Democratic ticket.  There is also the incident with the Black Lives Matter movement.  They interrupt his rally, and his response is to invite them to speak.  Sure, one could argue that he was trying to win their votes, but when has a political candidate ever invited hecklers to speak their piece at his podium?
3. He is an outsider.  Mr. Sanders is registered as a Democrat now, but that is just so he can run for President on a major party ticket (and let's face it- a socialist stands a better chance on the Democratic side than the Republican side).  He has spent the rest of his career as an Independent.

Should we be afraid that he is going to turn our country into a socialist one?  People seem to forget that the President has significantly less power than we give him (or perhaps, someday, her) credit for, as our government was set up with checks and balances.  Certainly, some of those checks and balances have changed since the beginning of our country, but the President still can't do whatever he wants, regardless of what Congress and talking heads claim.  Congress cannot stop everything, of course, as they do not have unlimited power either, but they have more power to influence things than they sometimes let on.

Bernie Sanders would certainly shake things up in Washington.  That is something most of us moderates would love to see.

*I do not watch political debates.  I could not even bring myself to watch the Free and Equal debate last presidential election cycle, and it is the only one I can get somewhat excited about.

It doesn't matter who wins the White House tomorrow...

Would you like to know why it doesn't really matter who wins the White House tomorrow?  I will give you a list:

1. Gitmo is still open, and will likely remain open regardless of who wins.
2. Torture is still used in interrogations.*
3. Warrantless wiretapping still goes on.*
4. There is still wholesale assassination using automated drones.
5. We still abduct and torture foreign nationals.
6. We bribe the leaders of other countries for our economic gain.
7. We invade other countries (Libya, Pakistan, more than likely Syria soon) without the consent of Congress and then call it something other than war.
8. Both men support Bush's tax cuts for the rich (even if Obama claims he does not).
9. Both will let the Fed continually print money based on nothing, further devaluing the dollar.
10. Abortion.  Seriously, neither is going to do anything.  It is just a political talking point.
11. We have more people incarcerated than China.

You want to know what the difference is between Obama and Romney?  Who they will choose for the Supreme Court.  I suggest you make your choice based on that, or you vote third party.  As for me, I am voting third party.

*Yes, Obama knows this is ongoing, and yes, he could stop both of these if he chose.

A bit behind...

I know I am running a bit behind... okay, a lot behind, but I did want to comment on one thing about the Democratic Convention.  They forgot all our other allies' capitals!

Where was London is the capital of England?  Where was Paris is the capital of France?  Where was Berlin is the capital of Germany?  Where was Stockholm is the capital of Sweden?

They cannot think that our other allies did not notice that they added Jerusalem is the capital of Israel to the party platforms!  Maybe it is because we've been at war with the rest... well, except for Sweden.

Disclaimer: Yes, I do know, in reality, why they added it, despite my protestations above.

The Problem With the Chick-Fil-A Problem

Chick-Fil-A is a conservative Christian company.  It has been since it began.  Members of the company on all levels have probably expressed opinions similar to the one that has got everyone in an uproar-- even the one who expressed the opinion this time.  They have given money to conservative political action groups before too (which is apparently the "real" reason so many people want to boycott Chick-Fil-A).  Why the uproar now?

It's a similar question to what I wondered to myself when the Tea Party started right after Obama was elected.  The things they were, and still are, complaining about have been happening a long time.  The timing seemed suspicious.  It still does, even if I can sympathize with some of the protests the Tea Party has.

It is possible, in both cases, that the majority just honestly didn't know about this stuff until now (or right after Obama was elected, in the case of the Tea Party).  It's... possible.  It is still nevertheless suspicious.

The suspicious part of the Chick-Fil-A debacle?  It's an election year.  In fact, it is less than six months to the election, and I cannot help wondering if Chick-Fil-A's president's comment would have gotten this much attention if it wasn't, or if the majority of people would never even known he said it.  I really have to wonder if all these people would be protesting the money Chick-Fil-A donates to conservative lobbyists (and has pretty much always done so) if it wasn't.  I have to wonder if Chick-Fil-A's president would have made his comment if it wasn't as well.

I am not saying that the protesters don't have the right to protest.  I am not saying that Chick-Fil-A's president doesn't have the right to say whatever he wants to.  The Tea Party has the right to do their thing as well.  They all even have the right to do it when they want to.  I am just saying that their timing is a bit... suspicious.

Is this poll's results really all that surprising?

Poll: Party platforms a mystery to many by Jennifer Agiesta for the Associated Press

Perhaps the confusion that so many Americans have about which political party stands for which cause is the fact that in action, as opposed to word, members of both parties act the same in office.  I am not referring to the times when members of government from opposing sides have found common ground, like the Safe Haven law.  I mean the tendency of politicians to say what the constituents want to hear, and then get into office and do whatever is best for themselves.

"Platforms" are more what the parties wish the public to believe-- platforms are just words.  This has been true of American politics for quite some time.  If one is to judge the politicians off what they actually do, the lines between the parties are so blurred as to be indistinguishable.

Washington or Wall Street? Which is the problem?

I read an op-ed recently about how the real problem is not Wall Street but Washington.  Bradley Schiller was making the argument that the "1 percent" is made up of many who have made our world better, like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Steve Jobs of Apple.

Not that I want to speak ill of the dead, but wasn't Steve Jobs a huge jerk?  I have to admit, I am not an Apple aficionado, but I am also not a "hater" (though I did find it horrifying that the working conditions in one of their factories in China was so bad that workers were committing suicide-- and Apple did not do anything about it until the news media reported on it and caused a scandal).

While I have a Facebook account, and like how it helps me stay connected with friends I might lose touch with otherwise, I also find myself wishing for an alternative on a regular basis.  I also find it annoying that I need to check my privacy settings almost every time I log in, just to make sure that Facebook didn't "helpfully" change something for me, or add something new with the default setting being privacy free (surely so I wouldn't have to track it down to enable it, since I must want to share everything with the world if I have a Facebook account, right?).  I mean, there is a reason Facebook had to make a settlement with the FCC.

I'm not saying everyone who is rich is evil.  I can agree with Bradley Schiller on Warren Buffet, for example, and would like to add that Buffet himself has pointed out that it is unfair that he is paying less in taxes than his secretary.  Also, there is a group of wealthy people pushing for their tax bracket to start paying their fair share, which just made some politicians sulky-- one enough to spat out that if the group wanted to send checks to the IRS, nothing was stopping them.  Yes, Washington has plenty of the blame, and the wealthy are not all evil monsters keeping us down.

I just am of the belief that most of the time, the blame lies in a couple of places, if not everywhere.  Wall Street has a bit of blame here too, so can't we start admitting that the whole system is broken?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Read the story behind the famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

It is a pity that there is no available footage of this historic speech.  Not just because it is so historic, but because all of us need this reminder to fight against our own human natures-- the drive we all have to despise our enemies, to hate those who are different from us.  In this speech, Martin Luther King Jr. did not just speak, he preached about one of the hardest parts of his faith, to love our enemies, and masterfully wove it into the march's theme of demanding equal rights for people of color... and he did it all without preparation, as he shoved aside the notes and outline that he was originally going to speak from.