The Week: Ryan Cooper: Conservatives Vastly Exaggerate The Unity of The Left

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

I agree that there isn’t a liberal version of the Tea Party as much as I wish there was as a Liberal myself. Occupy Wall Street obviously is not it for a few reasons. They are so much smaller because they aren’t able to raise money. Because they are not only anti-business, but are much further to the left than the average American voter. Which makes to difficult for them to even raise small contributions because the people who would give them money tend to either work for non-profits. Or are political activists generally on the far-left. Or are civil service employees who can’t afford to make major contributions. Occupy Wall Street represents somewhere between 10-15 percent of the population . Sort of like MSNBC talk.

But another big one and not so obvious Occupy Wall Street is not a liberal movement. Yes they are on the Left, but certainly not center-left and represents Social Democrats and other Socialists and to a certain extent Anarchists. The Democratic Party is a broad-ranging leftist party that represents center-left Liberals such as myself. And far-left Socialists people like Senator Bernie Sanders who is technically not a Democrat yet because he doesn’t believe the Democratic Party is far enough to the left. And FDR New Deal Progressives like Senator Elizabeth Warren a bit to the left of me.

But the thing I’m really interested in is why isn’t there a liberal and I mean a real liberal version of the Tea Party. Especially with all the money that is in the Democratic Party with Democrats ability now to raise a lot of money from business’s, labor and individuals. With all the liberally owned for-profit business’s and not just the ones that are in Hollywood. But in Silicon Valley and Seattle and Starbucks to use as an example. With all of the wealthy liberal individuals like George Soros. I mean the Democratic Party is now the party that reaches everyone from the lower classes economically to the super wealthy.

It was President Barack Obama that raised the most money from Wall Street in 2012, not Mitt Romney who you think would be Wall Street’s best friend. And President Obama is not only the man who pushed for financial reform of Wall Street in his first term, but signed the Dodd-Frank financial reform act of 2010. And with the New Democrats taking over the Democratic Party from the New Left McGovernites who took control on the party in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but then lost control of the party in the late 1980s and early 1990s you would think you would see this liberal center-left version of the Tea Party. But that hasn’t happened at least yet.

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Patrick J. Buchanan: ‘Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy and the Big Liberal Lie’

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

I first saw Pat Buchanan’s column about Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy over the fourth as I checked my email that day. And because of other things I’ve done the last few days it’s just now that I’m replying about it today. But I just read Mr. Buchanan’s column about the Southern Strategy today and didn’t see much of anything in it about the Southern Strategy. Other than calling a piece in the New York Times about it calling it a “big liberal lie”. Most of what Pat Buchanan had in it was about racist policies from previous Democratic presidents from the 1940s, 30s and President Woodrow Wilson.

But let’s be real the Nixon Southern Strategy was real. Dick Nixon whatever you think about him was a brilliant man and politician and saw how America was changing politically and how he could breakthrough and complete probably the greatest comeback in American political history. Pre-civil rights movement the Democratic Party was the Southern Party representing the bible belt. And no not with Liberals, Progressives and Socialists as we see today. But with people who are called today Neoconservatives, classical Conservatives, and the Religious-Right today. As well as the far-right especially as it related to civil rights, equal rights and segregation as just flat-out racism when it came to African-Americans. And bigotry when it came to non-Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans who weren’t from the South.

The Republican Party pre-civil rights and into the civil rights movement was both a progressive and a conservative party. But there Conservatives were conservative in the classical sense and probably would be called Conservative Libertarians today. People like Senator Barry Goldwater a perfect example of that and even when House Minority Leader Gerry Ford and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen. With the progressive wing of the party representing the Northeast and to a certain extent the Midwest. Senator Jacob Javits from New York comes to mind.

The civil rights movement and the civil rights laws of the 1960s changed that with African-Americans now backing President Lyndon Johnson and other Progressive Democrats who had similar politics. With the Southern Democrats and their voters bolting to the Republican Party. Which started to a certain extent in 1964 with Barry Goldwater for President winning a few Southern states. That campaign was a disaster in the 1964 general elections both for president and Congress with Congressional Republicans getting hammered and Senator Goldwater failing to win forty-percent of the national vote. And barely winning his home state of Arizona.

But what we saw in 1964 was Southern right-wing Democrats moving away from Lyndon Johnson and the progressive and liberal wings of the Democratic Party. And moving to the Republican Party and supporting Conservative Libertarians like Barry Goldwater. But what we also saw was what would is called the Neoconservative and religious-right base of the Republican Party today, but back in the 1960s these Democrats were simply called Southern Democrats, or the Southern Caucus in Congress, Democrats like this politicians and their supporters bolting the Democratic Party for the Republican Party.

So what started in 1964 with Barry Goldwater became an opening for Congressional Republicans both House and Senate and for Dick Nixon. A chance for Republicans and Republican leaders to break into the Democratic political monopoly in the country and bring in new Republicans to the party that were primarily from the Bible Belt. But also from the Midwest and the libertarian West. And as a result House Republicans pickup something like forty-five seats in the House in 1966. Going from a pretty small minority after 1964 to a sizable minority going into 1967. Especially since there were still a bunch of Southern right-wing Democrats in the House that could work with the Republican Leadership to stop legislation that the Democratic majority wrote.

Senate Republicans picked up three seats in 1966 going from 33-36, but it still took sixty-seven votes to prevent bills from being blocked in the Senate back them. But also there were enough Southern Democratic senators that would work with the Senate Republican Leadership to block bills from the Senate Democratic majority as well. But more importantly Dick Nixon saw this as the opening that he needed to win the presidency. Because now he saw what used to be Democratic strongholds as potential Republican pickups by appealing the religious-right in those states. What I call the Traditional Values Coalition that now dominates the Republican Party today.

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Clinton Library: President Bill Clinton’s 58th Press Conference

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Erik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

President Bill Clinton’s 58th press conference covering mostly foreign policy especially relating to China and Korea. The situation going on in between the North and South in Korea and what is called MFN or Most Favored Nation trading status with the People’s Republic of China. President Clinton essentially making the case that trading and talking to the Communist Regime in China is a better path forward in how to deal with them instead of isolating them. I wish President Clinton had the same strategy with the Communist Republic of Cuba, but that is my take.

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The Daily Conversation: President Obama at the 2014 White House Correspondents Dinner

Posted on July 6, 2014 by kireschneider

Source:The New Democrat 

I’m glad that President Obama can laugh at the year that he had in 2013 and perhaps the White House Correspondents Dinner might be the only platform where he can. Because it was really one of the worst years at least in my memory (all thirty-eight years) that a second-term president has had in his first year as a second-term president. I mean you have to go back to 2005 with President George W. Bush or even before I was born in 1973 with President Richard Nixon who was dealing with Watergate.

I like President Obama’s line about CNN where he said “that now I have to go to Malaysia to get attention from CNN”. Because CNN is too busy covering airplane crashes and missing passengers who probably drowned in the ocean. To actually cover real news. Like I don’t know millions of Americans who didn’t have health insurance now have it. Or the situation in Ukraine or the economy with the new jobs figures. “Wait we can’t report those things because those issues are real news and Americans are only interested in what is not important but what is sexy”.

The President also had a good line about MSNBC. “Glad to see MSNBC here which is probably seeing the biggest audience that they’ve ever had”. MSNBC another so-called news network that doesn’t have the resources to cover real news even though they are owned by NBC News one of the largest news divisions in the world. Which is why their ratings are south of the toilet because they do not report on things that a large percentage of the country is actually interested in and that is important.

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Phillip Lowe: Kevin Pollack As Captain Kirk

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Derik Schneider

Source:The Daily Journal

Star Trek is clearly not the best show of all time (also this just in the world of the obvious if you take a shower you’re likely to get wet) but Star Trek was definitely a very entertaining show. I would describe it as a sci-fi/comedy where you had basically a comedian for the captain in Bill Shatner. With a great cast to go around, including a first officer played by Len Nimoy who knew everything about everything except for what it was like to be a human. He seemed to lack certain feelings and emotions that the rest of us had making him somewhat distant (even for space Travel). Which is saying something since this show took place on a spaceship.

Well most likely the USS Enterprise was not a real spaceship up in space. No not a spaceship underwater if you were wondering that. (Good guess Captain) You had the chief engineer played by a drunk Scotsman. (is there any other type of Scotsman) Who never met a problem he couldn’t freak out about. With Scottie gee that’s a surprise a Scotsman named Scottie, I wonder if there are any italians named Angelo or Spaniards named Jose. Maybe I’ll google that and Captain Kirk telling Chief Scottie, dammit Scottie (or something to that effect) you must calm down man and handle the situation! Which was like Chief Scottie’s magic potion or whatever. Because they of course operated in a perfect world up in space where the good guys and girls always won.

You had the chief medical officer called Bones played by Jimmy Carter, I mean DeForest Kelly (who reminds me of President Jimmy Carter) who was basically in charge, well the health care on the ship naturally. But in his spare time to make sure there was someone always there to freak out (when Scottie wasn’t available) with his famous line, “dammit Jim I’m a doctor not God!” Star Trek was again a very entertaining show because again you had basically a comedian as the captain in Bill Shatner. Who I’m sure did a lot if improvising and improv on that show, hell I know I would’ve done the same thing.

Because the show wasn’t built around great writing, of course you know it’s a spaceship where people can live on it year round so none of the plots were believable. (Unless you’ve been drinking and been high for two weeks straight and started seeing things like Klingons or Jerry Falwell in a hip hop video as the performer. Or Pat Robertson coming out for same-sex-marriage or whatever the fantasy may be) But is was a show with an excellent cast that took place in of course in a galaxy unknown.

This was Star Trek, they had to make to funny because it wasn’t believable. They would go to other planets millions of miles from Earth where the people looked human and of course spoke perfect English. )They could teach some of our immigrants how to speak English as well) This is how realistic this show was. And they did a great job with what they had and comedian Kevin Pollack does as good of a Captain Kirk as Bill Shatner one comedian making fun of another.

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The USFL History: The United States Football League Come Back

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Ederik Schneider

Source:Real Life Journal

I have already written a blog about why the United Sates Football League failed in the mid 1980s and how it could’ve succeeded. So I’m not going to focus too much on that but the reasons why the USFL could’ve succeeded and still be in business today are the same reasons how a USFL could make it today, because there are enough non NFL markets in America, to support a USFL franchise. And enough good NFL caliber players, to make the USFL work today, who maybe aren’t ready for the NFL yet or have been overlooked and just need that one shot to make it.
The NFL is somewhat short on quarterbacks offensive lineman, defensive lineman and there are plenty of NFL players, that simply aren’t ready to be stars in the NFL today. And need time to develop and when they are sent out to play now, they simply don’t look ready to play yet, but if they are playing in the USFL and given a chance to develop and play and not have to worry about playing against the best football players in the World, then the pressure is off to a certain extent instead of trying to live up to some huge contract that they signed and would be better off starting in the USFL.

Put those players in the USFL, they would be surrounded by good young players, who just need time to develop or that shot to be a good NFL or USFL player. The USFL could serve as either a developmental league for the NFL or they could end up, however they develop their players and are able to attract players to their league perhaps one day end up being part of the NFL or perhaps merging with the Canadian Football League, the USFL and maybe we could end up with some type Continental Bowl in the future.

But in the short-term, the USFL needs to be about developing NFL players, that aren’t ready to be in the NFL yet or players that are so far down on the depth chart, that they aren’t getting a chance to develop. And they need do this by being a spring league at least in the beginning, basically starting training camp and Preseason after the Super Bowl and playing in major non NFL markets. Again a big reason why the USFL failed, was because they were in big NFL markets, like Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Detroit, Chicago etc.

The USFL can’t do that again and need to go to places like, Orlando, Birmingham, Memphis, perhaps Columbus, Ohio, San Antonio, Portland, Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, perhaps San Jose or Sacramento. Major big cities like this that want pro football but don’t have an NFL Franchise yet that would especially support a USFL franchise in the spring. And you take the players from the NFL or were overlooked by the NFL, that are simply not ready to play full-time in the NFL yet, that’s how the USFL could succeed.

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Movie Clips: Jackie Brown (1997) Ray’s Interrogation of Jackie

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Rik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

What I love about Jackie Brown is that it is not one of these stereotypical good vs. evil movies. The Saints vs. the Devils it is not that type of movie. The movie has some bad characters like drug dealers who make their money from drug addicts and murder anyone who get’s in their way. But really this is a movie about people who aren’t Devils or Saints, but regular everyday people trying to make the best out of life and a bad situation so they can make their way. And that is what you see in this scene.

The FBI and DEA in Los Angeles have a joint-operation going on targeting one of the biggest drug dealers. And killers in this area played by Samuel Jackson and his crew. It is the job of these two federal agents played by Michael Keaton and Michael Bowen and people who work under them to shut this operation down and put these people in jail. Jackie Brown not a criminal, but someone who hangs out with criminals get’s put in a tough situation. Because a man she hangs out with and is friendly with plants illegal narcotics on her that she brings to America from Mexico by plane.

What you see in this video is Ray Nicolette doing his job.  He has Jackie Brown perhaps his main suspect at this point working under cover for him to bring down. This illegal drug operation and bring back the money that this crew stole and bring them to justice. Jackie Brown and her partner in this who happens to be the bounty hunter who bailed her out of jail played by Robert Forster have other ideas that is to smuggle the money out of the mall and keep it from themselves and it is up to Jackie in this interrogation to keep Ray from finding out about that.

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NBA-TV: The Detroit Pistons Reign of the Late 1980s Early 1990s

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Erik Schneider

Source:The New Democrat 

I don’t know if there’s been a franchise that had a team of an era that better represented the city they represented than the Bad Boys Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s early 1990s. Detroit is the ultimate blue collar big city that is the second biggest city of the Midwest only smaller than Chicago. That is as working class and blue collar as any big city can be. That has every single challenge and resource that a big city could have. And that is exactly what their Pistons of this era had as well.

The Bad Boys Pistons of course had very good players and in Isiah Thomas’s case a great player a franchise player one of the top five point guards of all time and in the Hall of Fame. But they didn’t beat you because they had overwhelming talent or just by showing up and beating you. The Pistons were a defense first, rebounding second basketball team that scored all of their points off of their defense and ability to get second chance scoring opportunities off of their defense and offensive rebounding. And then teamwork and always getting the ball to the guy with the best chance of scoring.

Other than Isiah the Pistons of this era didn’t have that great offensive creator who could create points for himself and his teammates. They didn’t have that great post player who could dominate the post and create great mismatches in the post. What they had were guys who moved very well without the ball. Guys who could pass and find the open man. And with center Bill Laimbeer and power forward Rick Mahorn guys who set great screens freeing up their great outside shooters. Which they did have with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson and even center Bill Laimbeer.

The Detroit Pistons were the ultimate team and knew themselves very well and also knew the way they had to win was by being a better team and playing better as a team than their opponents. Especially having to play teams that were simply better than them when it came to talent like the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers. And the way they did was knowing they simply couldn’t outscore their opponents. That they had to do a great job of stopping them from scoring and executing their motion team offense and taking advantage of whatever scoring opportunities that they had.

The legacy of the Detroit Pistons is that they were the ultimate team. Not a collection of stars but a collection of great team players who were all very unselfish who all had one goal in mind. Which was to win championships and many as possible and prove to the world that the Pistons can play basketball and that they didn’t represent losers and that Detroit was more than just a big city with every urban problem a big city can have. That they not only represented Detroit but a lot of America as well. People who aren’t given anything and work very hard for everything that they achieve.

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Independent Political Report: Isa Infante: Hobby Lobby Should Spur Demand For Single Payer Health Care

Posted on July 3, 2014 by kireschneider

Source:The New Democrat 

I’m in favor of eliminating the middleman or middlewomen (for the political correctness police) when it comes to health insurance. But single payer in this country wouldn’t be the way to do that because of all the costs that would come from it. Like taking Americans right to decide where they get their health insurance from. And depending on the nationalized health care system that may include government only health insurance as well as even taking Americans right to decide who their doctor is and which hospital they go to. And you can give me all the cost reductions you want from how Sweden, Britain and Canada do it. But those people lose choice as their payment for those cost controls.

Hobby lobby doesn’t deny anybody anything except for women who want contraceptives, but yet decide to work for employers that do not provide them. Hobby Lobby is about whether employers should be forced to provide their employees contraceptives even if it violates their religious beliefs, or not. It is not about getting rid of contraceptives or eliminating birth control. Just saying that employers shouldn’t be forced to provide them if contraceptives violate their religious beliefs.

Again I’m in favor of eliminating the middleman (or middlewomen) when it comes to health insurance and getting employers out of it. As long as it doesn’t lead to government-run and only health insurance. But that would mean employees being their sole financiers when it comes to their health insurance. And for that to happen American workers broadly and not just the top need to either be making a lot more money. Or the cost of health insurance needs to come down.

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The New Republic: Bryce Covert: How Americans Can Work Less

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Derik Schneider

The New Republic: Opinion: Bryce Covert: How American Can Work Less

I wrote a blog last week about paid paternity and maternal, as well as sick leave all things I believe in. And this post similar to that, but just to comment on a few things that Bryce Harper said in her column. Creating employee leave system in this country that would include all of these benefits and I would even add employment insurance to that and for anyone who is not familiar with that term (well I just made that up) I’ll explain that later. But doing these things are fairly simple.

You pass a law that says employees are entitled to these benefits that their employers would pay for. Workers would pay for part of them lets say that their employers would match. No we don’t need some new Federal insurance program to handle this. This could all be handled by the employers themselves including public employers. There’s no reason workers should be taxed more especially struggling workers to pay for the benefits of others. These are things that should be financed by employers and their workers for their workers.

Bryce Covert also mentioned in her article something about allowing for employers instead of laying off workers when their business is slow that instead they would be able to cut hours instead. Instead of being completely unemployed they would still be officially employed, but now collecting Unemployment Insurance. Well at the very least the Federal Government would have to redefine the term unemployment. If you have a job and are making money from the work you do, you are not unemployed. So under Federal law you wouldn’t be eligible for Unemployment Insurance. So that would be just one problem with that.

And here is where the term employment insurance comes in. Instead of having all of these paid leave laws, we could instead create an employment insurance system that would be much simpler. And you wouldn’t need a new government program to run it or taxes to fund it. This would be paid for by employers and their workers. When their child is born, or they get sick, or need a vacation, or when their hours get cut at work just to use as some examples, they could collect from this insurance that they paid into that their employers matched.

Just because the American capitalist system and our form of capitalism is struggling that doesn’t mean we need to scrap it and become a social democracy with a socialist form of capitalism where the Federal Government manages most if not all the benefits for the people. We are more than capable of providing the benefits that our workers need and deserve through the private sector. And regulations or laws are one way to do that.

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