.
.
.
Sarah Silverman is a bit irked.
Yesterday’s opening of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia was marked by several significant things happening off of the stage — but onstage it was marked by a remarkable succession of effective speeches by people who had one thing in common: they each would have made better Vice-Presidential selections that Tim Kaine. (And I like Kaine for how he humanizes Hillary — probably his most important function over the next fifteen weeks — even though his socially liberal and economically anti-populist policies make him an ideal match for the ruling faction of Orange County Democrats. (Except for the some of the anti-union portions.) Embedding seems to have become forbidden overnight, so enjoy these links to speeches from Vice-Presidential candidates from parallel universes, all of whom but the first and last were on the long list considered in our own:
Parallel universe 1: Michelle Obama kicks off her 2024 Presidential campaign
Parallel universe 2: Elizabeth Warren promises banking reform from Hillary
Parallel universe 3: Bernie Sanders graciously calls for a revolution to continue
Parallel Universe 4: Cory Booker preaches on the triumph of Love over Hate
Parallel Universe 5: Al Franken returns to his comedic roots as a Trump U. alum
Parallel Universe 32,107: Sarah Silverman tells Bernie-or-Bustiers to not be “ridiculous”
For what it’s worth, I think that protesting at a Democratic National Convention is fine — for a while. I don’t think that it’s “ridiculous” to challenge Hillary, especially in the wake of the leaked DNC emails ripping both the mask off the face of the DNC as “neutral arbiter” of the party and the scab off the wound of Bernie supporters. Nor do I care whether Putin do it; as someone commented on Facebook, turning the topic from substance to process is like when Spouse 1 who, after Spouse 2 read through texts on Spouse 1’s cell phone and discovered multiple ongoing sexual affairs, tries to turn the conversation to one of “trust” over respect for one’s privacy. (“Sure — and shut up.”) BUT, after a while — 2-3 minutes, say, and surely no more than 5 — one has to give up or else one is exercising a “heckler’s veto.” Pepper the speech with staccato bursts of “Bernie! Bernie!” if you must, but let the speaker get enough words out of their mouths to express concepts with some sort of flow.
I’d certainly like the protesters to cool down by Thursday, if not Wednesday. But they don’t have to cool all the way down today. Hillary needs to see how outraged people on the Left are. It will make her a better candidate — less likely to screw up by dismissing us in a debate, as I fear will happen — and, if she wins, a better President. Economic populism doesn’t come naturally to some politicians; sometimes, like an unwanted Presidential candidate for a voter, it has to be pushed upon them repeatedly before they succumb. But this year, she’d better.
No, I’m GLAD she didn’t choose Warren, Booker, Franken or Sanders for VP. They’re needed in the Senate.
ESPECIALLY Warren and Booker, who would be replaced by Republican governors.
yup
Ugh. Just realized Kaine will be replaced in Senate by that horrible DINO McAuliffe… not much better.
….” Hillary needs to see how outraged people on the Left are…”
Oh, I’m sure that’s keeping her up nights as much as the CA primary did, with help from her buddy “Provisional” Padilla. Did any investigation (?) ever see daylight, or just get a “really sincere” apology and promise not to get caught again, after the “Certify” was rubber stamped? Did I miss any news about that ? Wash, rinse, repeat ?
….” like an unwanted Presidential candidate for a voter, it has to be pushed upon them repeatedly before they succumb. “…..
You mean like in places like Iraq and North Korea, where the election is conducted until the unopposed “winner” gets 100% of the vote ?
As I prefer my video masochism at the local level, (Anaheim Council Meetings), I (NPP)have not viewed either convention, but noticed on Yahoo this afternoon that Clinton mentor (?) Madeleine Albright was to speak. I wonder how many of the audience remembered anything about her besides her preceding HRC as SOS ?
A few ironic refreshers from Wikipedia-
In Shake Hands with the Devil, Roméo Dallaire claims that in 1994, in Albright’s role as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N., she avoided describing the killings in Rwanda as “genocide” until overwhelmed by the evidence for it;[54] this is now how she describes these massacres in her memoirs
During her tenure, Albright considerably influenced American policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Middle East. According to Albright’s memoirs, she once argued with Colin Powell for the use of military force by asking, “What’s the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can’t use it?”[60]
According to several accounts, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Prudence Bushnell repeatedly asked Washington for additional security at the embassy in Nairobi, including in an April 1998 letter directly to Albright. Bushnell was ignored.[62] She later stated that when she spoke to Albright about the letter, she told her that it had not been shown to her
…. “In spite of Bushnell’s request for a new building, a State Department evaluation team concluded that a renovation would suffice. Bushnell’s fears proved to be well founded when on August 7, 1998 a car bomb was detonated next to the embassy by al-Qaeda agents.
At the time of the bombing, Bushnell was attending a meeting with the Kenyan Trade Minister, Joseph J.Kamotho in the Cooperative Bank Building next to the embassy. She was knocked unconscious by the blast and badly cut by flying glass. Upon regaining consciousness a few minutes later, Bushnell was evacuated to a nearby hotel where she received medical treatment and began overseeing rescue operations. Ultimately, 12 embassy staff were killed along with 212 Kenyans and 4,000 people were injured. Additionally, another car bomb exploded simultaneously in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 11 and wounding 85. In the weeks following the bombings,
In 2003, (Albright) accepted a position on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange. In 2005, Albright declined to run for re-election to the board in the aftermath of the Richard Grasso compensation scandal, in which Grasso, the chairman of the NYSE Board of Directors, had been granted $187.5 million in compensation, with little governance by the board on which Albright sat.
On May 12, 1996, Albright defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a 60 Minutes segment in which Lesley Stahl asked her “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” and Albright replied “we think the price is worth it.”[94] Albright later criticized Stahl’s segment as “amount[ing] to Iraqi propaganda”; said that her question was a loaded question;[95][96] wrote “I had fallen into a trap and said something I did not mean”;[97] and regretted coming “across as cold-blooded and cruel”.[94] Sanctions critics took Albright’s failure to reframe the question as confirmation of the statistic.[97][98][99] The segment won an Emmy Award.
I wonder if Dick Cheney tapes her head picture on centerfolds?
I’m beginning to believe that the only people dumber than the dumpf supporters are the die-hard Bernie supporters.
They need to grow up and remove the stars from their eyes.
No, that’s not true.
You just expect more from them.
As you should, but let’s not get ridiculous.
Are you votin’ blue this time around Ryan?
Sure would make me feel better if I knew you were.
I hear that Ryan is feelin the Johnson
That’s nice. And friendly, too!
Why should you care whether anyone in California votes for Hillary or not? We’re in a safe blue state.
If you want to affect the election result with your vote, move to Nevada (or, better yet, further northeast or east) while there’s still time.
I’d much rather that anyone in our state with whom I basically agree politically cast a protest vote for Stein (or Johnson if they must) and for good Democrats downballot than not come out and vote at all. And for many undecided voters, people, that’s our real choice — and demanding that they Be With Her or go to hell is a recipe for convincing them to stay home altogether.
Really … Jill Stein?
And yes, I do care how reasonable Republicans are going to vote. If they vote for reason over insanity in Ca., it may go the same way throughout the rest of the country.
You are sounding more and more ridiculous with each post. Your purity reeks of privilege.
Sad. I must vote for the corrupt Clinton because Trump is even worse?
Uh, no thanks, sweetie.
Please, Mr. Purist don’t vote at all.
We wouldn’t want you to soil your oh-so-pure self.
Wow — I presume that Zenger would probably also vote for Gary Johnson. Why are you acting in a way that pushes him towards casting his protest vote — which, in California, is all it would be — for Trump? Because that represents some sort of political victory for you?
Get onto the phone and spend the next 104 days calling into a swing state for Hillary, if you’re so riled up, and stop worrying about how Zenger votes. Seriously, his Presidential vote won’t matter. Some anonymous zhlub that you might reach in Pennsylvania has a vote that might.
“Why are you acting in a way that pushes him towards casting his protest vote — which, in California, is all it would be — for Trump?”
As they say: hilarity ensued.
I can’t be pushed to do anything by a wax-headed, anonymous blogger; and I would never vote for Trump (even as a protest because it wouldn’t be protesting the grotesquely rancid, money-fixated Clinton machine, that I never would have voted for anyhow).
My comment did not regard whether you specifically would do it, but with the anticipated effect that anonster’s sort of pitch would have on a voter generally.
I would probably rephrase it from “pushes him” to “would push somebody like him”.
Thank you for not voting for Trump.
Yes, really — Jill Stein. I know many Bernie supporters who are taking advantage of California being a safe blue state to cast a protest vote for Jill Stein. I’d be surprised if even 10% do so; most will vote for Hillary and a lot will, I expect, stay home. Are you afraid that the protest, rather than the disaffection, is going to cost Hillary our electoral votes?
Your second paragraph engages in magical thinking. Let’s say that Ryan is going to vote for Trump in our state — as his personal and knowingly ineffectual protest against Hillary. (As Vern said, I don’t think that he will.) Do you think that that in some way *causes* other people to do so in other parts of the country? Do you think that if you convince Ryan to vote for Hillary instead of Trump — good luck with that — votes in the swing states somehow change accordingly?
No: there’s no direct causal relationship between Ryan’s vote here — or your hectoring him into changing it — and what others do where it matters. Your “political action” is merely to terminate an (online) friendship so that you have the reward of feeling good that you ostracized a reluctant Trump voter. Among its other problems, it’s pure self-indulgence on your part — and it’s alienating enough to drive other people to vote (quietly or not) in a way you detest just to spite you. But for people who want a badge they can show people if Trump wins, maybe that’s motivation enough for you.
I can’t recall whether I’ve said it here, but here’s my current intention: I would vote for Hillary if I still lived in Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Nevada. I would probably cast a third party protest vote if I still lived in New York, Washington, or Illinois. If I still lived in Maryland, I would probably rent an apartment in Virginia and live there for a few months so that I could vote for her in that state. I might do so as a protest against my state’s overall vote if I still lived in Arkansas or Indiana.
I don’t yet know how I’ll vote in California because I’m going to try to work out an arrangement with a swing state voter inclined to vote for Stein wherein I would vote for Stein if they would promise to vote for Hillary in their state, where it matters. “Purity”? Yeah — I believe in deploying anti-Trump forces where they matter and adding to a protest vote designed to push President Hillary in the direction of Bernie’s positions where it doesn’t.
That’s not “privilege” — it’s balancing two competing interests after having been put into a rotten position by shitheel Hillary supporters like you, who nominated a basket case in the expectation that she could easily beat a worse basket case. (Whoops, make that a *formerly* worse basket case. Hopefully he’ll be one again.) YOUR basket case is hoping that the “reasonable Republicans” whose votes she’s seeking will be thinking about Adolph Hitler when they enter the voting booth rather than Antonin Scalia. And lots of them won’t — so it’s too bad she’s kissed off her base!
A “privilege” is your being able to hurl insults at me from the cloak of anonymity, but you will retain that privilege here. Don’t feel that you have to keep reading my “ridiculous” posts out of regard for me. And good luck not alienating undecided voters!
And do you really believe that I’m “hectoring” Ryan?
If so, your skin has gotten way to thin. This blog ain’t no fun no more.
Anonster out.
I’m fun, I’m fun!
Yes Vern, you’re fun and you’re a peach.
It’s the other guy. He’s taking things much to serious, like my offhand, meant to be light-hearted comment to Ryan.
Do I really think as Ryan votes so goes the nation? Hardly, but it is fun to try and gauge how Republicans are feeling and thinking about the dumpf.
This is an interesting race and tempers are running high and I know that I generally add to the heat, but the discussion used to at least be entertaining.
This blog has lost its humor, now it has all the appeal of a raw, gaping wound, way too tender to touch. In fact, none of the left-leaning OC blogs are any fun anymore as they’ve all devolved into personal grudge fests.
Oh well, c’est la vie.
Love you Vern!
Anonster out (fer realz this time)!
Actually Mr. Diamond, I have a lot of respect for you and anyone who puts themselves out there, like you did in running for DA. That is hard work, as anyone who has been involved in any democratic process knows.
That is why I’m shocked by your purist stance.
No one ever gets 100% in a democracy, you just try and move the ball forward every chance you get.
My views have been shaped a lot by my 91 year old father-in-law, a former UAW President (depression kid, WWII veteran) and scrupulously honest man. He always says: “half a loaf is better than none, just ask a starving person” and “live to fight another day”.
Democracy is hard and frustrating and depends on good people like you and Vern and everyone else on this blog who cares enough to even have an informed opinion.
So, sorry if I think your sour grapes are unproductive (because I voted for Bernie too, although I knew that Hillary would win) you need to move on.
‘purist
‘
So I guess when White House staffer Ben Rhodes spoke of creating a “media echo chamber” to push the Iran Deal, few realized the idea would be reused —- literally !
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-28/did-dnc-hire-actors-below-minimum-wage-work-convention?
Manufacturing in America is NOT dead ! The outputs have just been changed – from “Consumer Durables” and “Exports”, to “Outrage” and “Consent” !
Needed: Anthology of memorable BigBox aphorisms.
And the other 499 of 500 pages also suitable for use as a notepad, right ?
Perhaps of interest, FWIW-