Over Memorial day weekend Libertarians came together from across the country and around the world to nominate their president and vice presidential candidates at their annual national party convention. And for many the top of the ticket for the fall and the general election season is troubling, deeply troubling.
But lets look at it from this perspective for just a minute, shall we? My prediction is that the Johnson-Weld ticket will be Libertarian-lite in that they’ll run under the Libertarian party banner but will, instead, draw from the well of the Never Trump Never Hillary movements in a kind of “A Coalition of the Willing.” Or as Bill Clinton and Dick Morris did so infamously in the 1990’s, “Triangulation.”
In either case I like Bill Weld and have enormous respect for Gary Johnson, ever since 2011 when he first ran for the presidency. Then as now Johnson stands for some of the same things that I do, but with Charles and David Koch, through Bill Weld, pulling on Johnson like he’s a puppet and they’re the masters even I can’t stomach that!
I hate Charles and David Koch with every fiber of my being for what they have done to this great country of ours and this beautiful world in which we all live. They are evil incarnate, in my opinion, and hell itself would be a far worse place with them in it.
I call LINO – Libertarian in Name Only! And for those disgruntled and disaffected Libertarians I offer this as your Battle Cry:
Hold fast, and as Jesse Ventura says, “Stay Vigilant…”
–Rhett.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, SHARE! PLEASE? THANK YOU. COME AGAIN.
The Honorable Paul D. Wellstone, PD-MN. (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002)
Years ago PD – Progressive DemocratPaul David Wellstone very famously quipped: My name is Paul Wellstone and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party! And ever since the Democratic party has been trying to figure out what such a human qualifier like that even means?
But with the advent of Progressive firebrands like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren that human qualifier is being answered.
This weekend the Libertarian party or Libertarian National Committee held its national convention in Orlando, FL. C-Span covered the live event. I pretty much watched it all the way through, making a few exceptions for normally scheduled television and “honey-dos” for my lovely wife along the way. LOL.
I live in Kentucky and a few weeks prior to this event I sat down and made this video on Kentucky primary day for 2016. Take a look:
As most of you know I am throughly disgusted with the 2016 Democratic primary process. In particular how it is that Hillary Clinton has come so far without real question or scrutiny? Essentially, being handed my Democratic party’s nomination for the presidency of the United States of America in two thousand and sixteen.
But after this weekend and the last Libertarian presidential debate on C-span for 2016, and the epic opening and closing statements of Dr. Marc Allan Feldman and Mr. Darryl W. Perry my faith in humanity and the Democratic party has been renewed! Because it was both these men that managed to stir the echoes and fan the flames of democratic progressivism anew for me personally. Watch.
Hearing these men’s words and the stir of echoes from the late great Paul Wellstone in 1990 when it was first running for the United States Senate from Minnesota has renewed and restored my faith in the Democratic part of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party. Renewed that there is hope. Promise. And people out there filled to overflowing with a heart for the People of America and the World.
We cannot now nor anytime in the future let up folks. Our foot must stay on the gas pedal of progress, BUT not the kind of progress we’re seeing today. Instead it should be the progress that people like Senator Wellstone and so many others have advocated for, some for years some for decades, from the very beginning.
That healthcare for all is a fundamental right and not a privilege. That people deserve and have earned the right to a livable wage and a standard of living with access to housing and public transportation that is commiserate with the times. The right to organize and unionize for representation at the table of free markets. That as Americans we have a right to expect that our government will keep its nose out of our bedrooms and off our bodies. The right to come and go as we please and do business or not do business; politically, socially or ecumenically with nation’s, Peoples and places of our choosing. And the right that when we retire medicare, Medicaid and social security will be their for us in the twilight of our ‘golden years’.
To many these ideals seem ‘high-minded’, ‘professorial’ and downright nice, BUT they are ideals ‘devoid of reality’, for now. But that through the advent of time, hard work, dedication and small ball politics we’ll get there, eventually. Afterall this is not Scandinavia or the Republic of Myanmar, we are told. “Hello. I’m earth. Have we met?” And so it goes, right?
I am all for third political parties because they keep the Republican and Democratic parties honest and accountable. They hold the two-party system in this country to a full accounting of the American people. Moving forward in 2016 third political parties can and should expect more mainstream viewership.
And speaking of, “money in politics” or the epic Citizens United Supreme Court case I have to, as a Progressive Democrat, draw a line in the sand. And push back against the idea that somehow people like Charles and David Koch, Foster Friess and Sheldon Adelson, just to name a few BIG MONEY donors, will get to dictate to Us, We the American Voters that is, how our political process or Our Future should be.
BIG MONEY politics is not a march towards progress at all, instead its a means to an end.
That is WHY I am renewed, restored and resolved to making the Democratic party Democratic again. Progressive again. Giving people a viable alternative(s) that will speak to and do far more than just be this candidate or a part of that political movement because its popular or politically expedient.
Because it’s not about a person or a slogan, a campaign or a dream, instead its about us, all of us together. We are, after all, all in this thing called life together and we are only as good as the person next to us. No better and no worse.
My name is Rhett E. Column (aka David Davidson) and I represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic party! Care to join me in the march towards progressive ideals?
–Rhett.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, SHARE! PLEASE? THANK YOU. COME AGAIN.
Of late its been suggested that 2016 Democratic Socialist turned Social Democrat Bernie Sanders is out over his skies. In fact, and as has been suggested by the artist formally known as Paul Krugman over at The New York Times, Mr. Sanders is ‘Over the Edge’ in terms of his financial proposals and a few other things in terms of what keeps Mr. Krugman up most nights this election cycle.
Atop: Then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton testifies before the U.S. Senate’s Select Committee on Foreign Intelligence on Benghazi in 2013. Bottom: Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders kicks off, officially, his Campaign to become President in 2016 under the Democratic party banner in 2015 just outside Burlington, VT. USA (photos courtesy of The Associated Press/Getty Images, 2015. Photo Editing done by Rhett E. Column, Say What News?! 2016)
Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Krugman writes, may be right to intimate, as she has, that Mr. Sanders is ‘unqualified to be President [of the United States]’.
But I wanted to push back from the table for just a minute and present, as the late great comedian George Carlin used to say, “a carefully reasoned argument” as to why I think Mr. Krugman and Grandma Clinton are dead wrong about the qualifications argument.
Mr. Morris lays out an excellent argument for what I call simple civil discourse. Translation – Discussion. Talking about the issues of the day. (Contrasting and comparing the candidates records and policy positions before making a final decision on who we want as a country and as a nation to be our next Commander and Chief.) Working out the differences, the quote, unquote nuances and coming to a general all-around consensus for the betterment of We the People via the ballot box.
And in all honesty, I have, as yet, to hear that, discussion, civil discourse that is, from the likes of Hillary Clinton, Paul Krugman and those else who support the cause-celeb of the day: An American Female President.
That’s really what this is all about for Mr. Krugman and Company, the chance to make themselves feel good about their political prejudices by seeing; come hell or high-water fair or unfair, “America’s first female president” elected. And under normal circumstances I’d be all for it.
[In fact I was in 2012, as you’ll soon see and read.]
I’m all for women at the forefront. Women’s liberation. Women at the helm. Have at it ladies. Us men folk will be over here in the corner cheering you and your equal parts on.
But in the case of Mr. Krugman and Grandma Clinton they don’t make clear, exactly, WHY Bernie Sanders is the unqualified qualified candidate to be our next U.S. President. In fact they stop abundantly and abruptly short of in so-doing in amongst the usual nonsensical, non sequitur BS arguments about Mr. Sanders economic policy, which he’s good and well laid out HERE and HERE.
That his ideas, “oh that’s so nice, so sweet in an alternative world, BUT those kinds of things will never ever work in the real world…let me show you what will.”
Or.
“All that “reform,” Senator Sanders is talking about sounds nice and all, but that’s just ‘Pie in the sky’ and not ‘tenable’ in a post-9/11 world…”
Besides, I don’t think that ninety to ninety-five percent of the voting population of the State of Vermont would have elected and kept him elected since 1981 (in some capacity or another) to best represent them in the United States Congress all these many years now were their some kind or sort of doubt, do you?
Then candidate for Mayor of the City of Burlington in the State of Vermont Bernie Sanders with Jane O’Meara at his campaign headquarters and office, c. 1980
But maybe I’m wrong, maybe this is, as Mrs. Clinton and her campaign staff as well as media scrummed-out supporters say, “nuance and process”. That this is all just “delaying the inevitable”. Mrs. Clinton has her “insurmountable delegate lead over Mr. Sanders,” seemingly, and so therefore we are going to have, eventually, our first female president, historic no? Tis true! It would be historic, very historic.
You say well, except for that one time in 2012 when he said that Obama needed a primary challenger, which Mrs. Clinton has so eloquently reminded us all. Democracy much Mrs. Clinton? What, was Mr. Obama supposed to run entirely unopposed in 2012, like you in 2016? Oops! Did I say that? Yes I did. Watch.
But what do we know right?
More importantly, what do those of us who support and believe in Senator Sanders message know? And that’s just the way Hillary Clinton, Paul Krugman & Company want it. Off message. Off topic. Off kilter. So that the rest of us who don’t know any better pick up on the happy horse crap waste pile that they are shoveling. It’s doing nothing more than dividing and conquering us folks! It’s a waste of time and a political distraction from Hillary Diane Rodham-Clinton’s real and true record on issues (a video from 2008 when she was running against then Senator Obama for the Democratic party nomination) like these:
And these:
And then, FINALLY, this:
Record much Mrs. Clinton? Or do you just wanna stay home, stand by your man and bake cookies all day like you did, or at least that’s what you told us that you did “jokingly,” right?
–Rhett.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, SHARE! PLEASE? THANK YOU. COME AGAIN.
Just like ‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan they too have been flying high, flying fast and flying, most certainly, in the wrong direction.
Clearly the battle lines have been drawn. The Kentucky long-knives are out. The political establishment is entrenched, dug-in, and well-heeled to a fault. You see, they are stuck with these two candidates. Lundergan-Grimes and McConnell.
But hey! You gotta dance with the one that brung ya, right?
Truth be told neither political party standard-bearer between Frankfort, KY. and Washington, D.C. really and truly wanted these two candidates.
McConnell wishes to have his name, his political bona-fide as it were, contrasted and compared with Mr. Barkley but from the Republican side of the ledger. He’s done everything that he can or ever could to achieve such a feat. To obtain such a lofty goal. But time and memorial such has eluded him. He’s like the Chicago Cubs of Politics. Because to be Majority Leader of the United States Senate amounts to winning the World Series. It is a powerful position. Barkley himself made it a National Institution. Seconded only, so they say by, a fella named Lyndon Baines Johnson. Surely, you’ve heard of him, haven’t you?
McConnell wants his name on a U.S. Senate Office Building or wing somewhere. Can you imagine? Addressing a letter to U.S. Senator so-in-so in McConnell Senate Office Building? This is what he wants. Up there with the greats like Sam Rayburn.Richard Russell.Philip Hart.
The Russell Senate Office Building …
McConnell needs that, much to the chagrin of the establish in both Frankfort and Washington, D.C. Chief amongst the cha-grinners is U.S. Senator John Cornyn, Republican-Texas.
John Cornyn, in his own humble estimations has well-earned his stripes. Well-earned his bona fides himself. After all keeping John McCain hosed down and Ted Cruz under control is a full-time job in and of it self.
So John Cornyn feels he’s due. A lot of people feel he’s due. And maybe, just maybe he is. BUT not in Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr.’s right honorable mind. McConnell feels like this is it. If I don’t get this done. If I don’t pull this off then I’m finished, politically. And maybe he is. Maybe he should be?
To begin to just wind things down, bow out gracefully, look for the exits. Going out, on top.
Matt Bevin …
And during the 2013-2014 Republican Primary they thought, thought now, that they had found someone who would show Mitch McConnell the exits. Matt Bevin had it all. Looks. Charm. Personality. Charisma. All the things that Mitch McConnell needs wrapped up in a pulse. #justsayin
Bevin was supposed to be the one. But like so many before and no doubt so many after, until McConnell himself decides its time to leave, Matt Bevin, succumbed to the political juggernaut that is Mitch McConnell.
And so it goes…
The Democratic Party, both nationally and state-wide, in Kentucky has long feared of a candidate for high office who is all hat and no cattle.
So they are stuck with the difference. And the difference, politically socially and ecumenically, couldn’t be more telling. More compellingly due to speak out against. In my opinion anyways, and I dare say a whole lot more.
Mr. David Patterson, Libertarian Candidate for United States Senate, Kentucky 2014
He will just dry up and blow away. In state-wide polls that we conduct, we control, etc., his name is never ever mentioned even if we do talk to the ‘occasional supporter’ we don’t record their answers to phone polls correctly. So there’s that.
Cook the books as much as we can. Batten down the hatches. Yeah! We should be able to survive this one.
We are only gonna do one BIG DEBATE anyways, that was tonight, and we are just gonna play that aged-old game of ignore and snore as much as we can when it comes to Patterson. ‘Yeah you know its tough, I guess, to be a third-political-party-type person never ever feel like you are being heard from. Always feelin’ left out. It’s tough. But I’m just gonna run my race, do my best to win and go on and represent the people, all the people of Kentucky, in the United States Senate.’
And so it goes…
But I am here to tell you, here to conclude that although the battle, this battle is over with, the war to be heard, to be represented and reflect the will of the people, all of the people across the Commonwealth, isn’t!
Liberty. Freedom. Information. Knowledge. Peace. ALL are STILL HERE. STILL standing. STILL strong! We represent a Movement far greater than any one candidate. Any one ideal. Party. Faction. Fraction. We Represent Us. We The People of the United States of America REPRESENT a clear-cut majority of individuals bathed in the sunlight of disinfectant from your wanton political ways and means.
Try as you may, try as you might you cannot silence us. We are to many in number. To many in stature. Standing. Community.
We are E. Pluribus Unum. Out of many one! One nation. One voice. One Collective. And we declare war on you. War on the Establishment. War with a people, if you want to call them that, that are truly in their last throes. Their last days on this earth. Their last moment in the sun.
We have the power. We hold all the cards. They know it. They know that we know this. And it scares and pisses them off at the same time. They are loosing control. They have been waging an unwinnable war against. Living out a dream that is fast fading from memory. There time is done!
Peace.
–Rhett.
#Vote #VoteBetter #VoteSmarter #VoteLibertarian … See you at the polls on November the 4th 2014!
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, SHARE! PLEASE? THANK YOU. COME AGAIN.
For the record I have always liked and appreciated our state’s public television outlet. They have very interesting, entertaining as well as informative programming on their airwaves but when they deliberately and effectually black out or CENSOR a candidate or candidates for high office then I have a problem and frankly we all should.
CENSORED … From the David Patterson for U.S. Senate, 2014, Campaign …
What right, rhyme or reason does K.E.T. have to censor David Patterson? To put tape over his mouth, essentially, and say, “shut up, no one wants to hear from you!” Since when did they become the arbiter of information? Furthermore who placed them in such a high standing?
I have long contended that it is the Establishment, the Political Establishment, in both Washington, D.C. and Frankfort, KY. that is desirous to see that no one but Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan-Grimes are heard from. #sadbuttrue
The State Capitol Building in Frankfort, KY. U.S.A., 2014…
They have done all that they can. Pulled out all the stops! Leaving nothing to chance up to and including, and I have this on good authority, threatening ,Kentucky Educational Executive Director and C.E.O. Shae Hopkins, to pull K.E.T. funding for the rest of the year ‘if David Patterson is allowed on that debate stage with Alison and Mitch’.
Now! You can take that with a grain of salt if you want to. I would not fault you if you did because and basically its my word against theirs and I am not about to compromise my source’s safety and security per their job, home and family. I will not!
But and to me the powers that be, the political elites and ruling class of the day have some explaining to do. Some accountability in which to attend. They can either put up or shut up.
Truthfully, and you know what they should have done friends. They should have just come on out with it. Revealed their truth. Admittedly, publicly and privately, to David Patterson, “Look brother you’re a heck of a nice guy. A good public servant. You do great constable work for us over their in Harris County, KY. And you are a good friend and confident to many in your community. But the bottom line is this we just do not want you on that public debate stage with our chosen candidates. We don’t! And we would just appreciate it very much if you and your followers/supporters would just go home now and let us handle this. We know what is best for the people of this state. We don’t want to hear what third political party folks have to say, though mighty nice folks that they are, just like ole Gatewood Galbraith was, but we, we know how to handle this thing here. How to handle and conduct business by the people. We know what’s best for these people better than they know for themselves. So be a good boy and run on back home where you belong now, okay? Thank you!”
The Honorable Steven L. Beshear, Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky … 2014 photo
He would and should personally come to David Patterson and just come clean. Just confess that it is he and his Establishment Allies in Frankfort and in Washington strong-arming Shae Hopkins & Co. over at K.E.T. But and in fact he won’t because he is not a man of integrity, honesty and fairness. He does not play by the rules. He never has. In fact he makes many of the rules up as he goes along. He has for years. Respectfully.
But and in the interests of the ‘teachable moment’ here is some encouragement for him to turn things around. Watch!
Despite the rudeness of the former Governor of Kentucky turned Kentucky State Senator Julian M. Carroll, Democrat, in this video, there is a lesson to be learned, a clear-cut example of up front honesty. Julian Carroll doesn’t want 3rd political party folks to be heard from. (Especially these days.) Period. Full stop.
He only wants the two-party system to be heard and seen. Voted on, talked to and dealt with ,directly, for space, time and memorial on.
This alternative stuff has no place, and he has no time for it. I can and do respect the State Senator for his up front honesty with Independent Kentucky Chair Michael P.W. Lewis, to a degree.
Michael is a good man, and a great social media friend and political Allie of mine. But truthfully he had no business treating Michael like that. Direct and frank honesty not withstanding. Respectfully.
In the interests of full disclosure I used to be a lot like State Senator Carroll in my own way of thinking and processing toward folks like David and Michael.
I was a Republican for a long time, then I left the party after the 2004 presidential election, went to the Constitution Party and then in 2008 switched to the Democrat Party as I consider myself a LIBERAL(TARIAN) democrat.
I used to think them crazy. Think them tin foil hat wearer folks who couldn’t govern their way out of a wet paper sack for years. That was until I ran headlong into a fellow Kentuckian and now long-time friend Mr. William Edward Parker of Louisville, KY. W. Ed Parker is one of the finest men I have ever met and known in my entire life. Another political giant in the process toward freedom, justice, equality and independence.
The Constitution Party of the United States of America, Logo for 2014 …
I first met Mr. Parker when he was running for the Congress out of Louisville with the Constitution Party (of Kentucky) against than long-time incumbent Anne Northup, a Republican, to my knowledge Mr. Parker and Congresswoman Northup had no public or private debates together? Not one! But through it all. Through the blackout and censorship process Ed Parker kept his cool, his calm and his wits about him, slogged on, and still managed to give Anne Northup a run for her political money.
Former U.S. Congresswoman Anne Northup, Republican-Kentucky (Louisville’s 3rd Congressional District)
The point being here is that David Patterson has well-earned the right to be heard. Doesn’t matter if the powers that be in Frankfort or Washington D.C. don’t wish him to be heard. Rules are rules, rules by the way, long-established by the Establishment themselves, and when David good and well jumped through those hoops. Those rings of discontent, entanglement and strife the powers that be in both Frankfort and Washington, D.C. got angry and they have been angry ever since. And that’s just the fact of the matter
Don’t you think for one single solitary minute that those in Power & Authority over Us will ‘go quietly into that long good night’. They will not! But, and there is evidence that they are certainly tiring.
As and at that time they only wanted to hear from and lend space to McConnell and Grimes.
The President of Centre College said of David Patterson, “just because he’s on the ballot doesn’t mean that he is going to get to debate.” Can you imagine?
Centre College Logo, Danville, KY. 2014 …
Does such a pressure need to be brought to bear against KET? Should it? Shae Hopkins & Co. are public employees, essentially. Should We The People rise up in one accord agreement as we did against Centre College for not allowing or permitting David Patterson to debate? Should we? I think we should!
Granted we only got 19 people from across the country and around the world to sign on. But those 19 people helped and continue to help to this day to give David Patterson that all-important opportunity to be heard. That’s all! We just want to be heard.
I mean it would be one thing if David was just some crank or crackpots. Some crazy that didn’t have a good rhyme or reason to be there in the first place. I would be the first one to say good on KET for controlling the debate process, our debate process. But and alas David Patterson is no crank or crackpots much less crazy although and I’m sure David’s wife and family would give me odds, lol.
He is a good man with a plan, and although this is his first time to run for higher office he has a Platform on which to lead.
He has the ability to stand on his own two feet, talk and debate the issues of the day with a Mitch McConnell or Alison Grimes or anyone else for that matter. And to that end he should be heard.
Rightly and properly vetted by We The People. Considered fully on the basis of his merits, abilities and raw thought process. Rising and falling on all that and more throughout this whole process. The national midterm election is less than a month away folks. This is critical.
That is WHY we need #KySen Candidate David Patterson on that KET debate stage, in less than a week now from this coming Monday.
The voters need to hear what this man has got to say! Trust me when I say David Patterson is the REAL DEAL. What you see is what you will get. No freckles. No frills. Just plain Jane good old-fashioned honesty and excellence. The kind of good on you stuff that we need in Washington, and Frankfort too for that matter!
The Libertarian Party of Kentucky Logo, 2014, Ken Moellman State Party Chair … http://www.lpky.org
David is the 2014 Libertarian Candidate for Senate and is being kept from debating by Kentucky Educational Television (K.E.T.) because he did not raise $100,000.00 or more in a single campaign quarter to be allowed or permitted to debate. Despite having jumped through every other political establishment hoop in Frankfort, KY. (the State’s Capitol) and Washington, D.C. (our Nation’s Capitol) to get on the ballot across the state.
And while I have my theories here are but a few of the reasons WHY KET Executive Director & C.E.O. Shae Hopkins: http://www.ket.org/about/ceo.htm
1. The political establishment in Frankfort & Washington just doesn’t want David to be heard.
2. They have threatened, Governor Steven L. Beshear, Shae Hopkins and told her IF she lets David on that stage the State will withhold ‘Big Bird’s paycheck next month’.
Either way it is interesting to me how they have done David. He has well-earned his right to be heard, along with everyone else in this country not of Republican or Democrat stripe!
And so, I’m calling out Shae Hopkins and the Powers that Be in Frankfort and Washington. Let David Patterson Debate! #VoteBetter #VoteSmarter #VoteLibertarian #KySen
Peace.
–Rhett.
37.083389-88.600048
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, SHARE! PLEASE? THANK YOU. COME AGAIN.
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Say What News?! 