HILLARY AGAIN AND FOREVER

 http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/278630-clinton-still-on-track-for-nomination-despite-indiana




I unintentionally went off on FB again on PISAD just as I am trying to wean myself from this campaign that Hillary has all but won.  And I just couldn't stop.  While writing I though a lot of it was well written but I need a break and am not going back to read it now.  Instead I'll post it here for posterity as it is much too long for FB.  

 Because there is no doubt HIllary will win the nomination i am trying to wean myself away from the is debate as what's the point - some of Sanders voters will vote for HRC and some won't and I am convinced there is not enough of them to make a dif in Nov. Uh-oh usually I digress in the middle not at the start but here's another stipulation. Sheila's doing a great job here, better than me and has even more facts than me. But I gotta weigh in on pet peeve #3 of the misguided neophytes inexperienced or inconsistently attentive to political developments and realities - let me recap #1) HRC is neither an oligarch or tool of wall street and never has been; paid speeches by GS are a nothing but a baseless silly attempt to smear her by demagoguery and avoid Bernie's failure to release tax returns - smart accomplished people with influence and past or future positions of authority are paid to give speeches to liven up and stimulate conference goers - they always have they always will and anyone who thinks there is more to it than that is inane and needs to read more - a lot more - and research and listen to Barney Frank, a true brilliant financial expert and also a heroic progressive civil rights advocate without whom persons with HIV would have suffered far worse stigma and discrimination for far longer - I KNOW I WAS THERE! SO WAS BARNEY AND SO WERE A LOT OF DEAD PEOPLE. Right along with the current leader of the The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law who at the time was a legal advocate.

I haven't even gotten to my point and i have to mention peeve #2 - Hillary is responsible for all the infidelity in the US for both straight and gay couples and if only she had left Bill no one would have ever cheated again. Please - go see a therapist - I have - who hasn't' been cheated on - martial issues are between 2 people alone.

OK here's the point - #3 - DOMA and Don't Ask/Tell - so many had knee jerk reactions and still do and are either ignorant of or ignore the political realities of the time. A Republican Congress - elected because Dems failed to vote just like 2010 and 2014 - were threatening to pass over the President's veto the most regressive restrictive stringent legislation forbidding same sex marriage, gays and lesbians from serving in the military and the end of welfare and social service programs as we know them returning the uS to the you're on your social policies up to the Great Depression. Instead Bill Clinton brilliantly and ingeniously coopted the egomaniacal power mad Gingrich and the R majority through shrew political strategy that avoided a debacle that would have taken decades to undo and would still be with us today. DOMA avoided a far worse fate of changing the constitution and provided the basis for the legislative and legal advocacy that have since established the right to marriage - it would not have been possible without DOMA because something worse would have been in its place and it may have still been in effect today. Similarly, Don't Ask was a compromise - ethically and morally untenable more than any other but still a compromise - while resulting in the ousting from military service underservedly of many, it allowed a legal environment that enabled many more to honorably serve and demonstrate to even the most resistant military leaders the irrelevance or orientation to service. And it was done in such away that it could be more easily undone than if Rs had their3 way. And so too Welfare Reform, after sustaining 2 vetoes with HRC's advice reform legislation was passed and signed by the President based on the inclusion for the first time in history of federal funding for child care and job training that enabled millions of single mothers to find more lucrative employment and income than welfare provided along with the benefit of self esteem. And I was there for that one too , for 38 years enforcing federal civil rights laws for the US Dept of HEW and then Health and Human Services, where for several years our priority was to monitor the implementation of welfare reform so that no one was denied benefits or services due to language barriers or mental or physical disabilities or other factors. And to the shock of so many from me to the Edelmans for the 5 years that it included the federal funding referenced above - it worked!

 At the time of DOMA and Don't Ask same sex marriage and military service was not even a remote possibility in the existing political environment. It advances far faster than many including me thought but it needed time. And still we do not have federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. When i started my career I thought it likely that prior to retirement legislation would be approved so that sexual orientation discrimination would be among the bases I enforced. But to this day, in most of the country, a same sex couple can get married in the morning and fired or evicted in the afternoon. Of what use is marriage to them. Because of case law advancements, court rulings, and administrative enforcement by the Obama Administration, i was able to include in my last public technical assistance presentation that federal law not prohibits discrimination with respect to gender identity or conformance based on the evolving legal definition of gender. There is new legal developments that may lead to similar coverage within gender regarding sexual orientation. but i and many believe orientation is different than gender and what is needed as passage of the New Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identify and status, a huge improvement over the weak and meager protections ENDA would have provided while a significant faction of the Democratic Party opposed adding orientation the Civil Rights Act. The next Clinton administration will build on the achievements of the Obama Administration that are far more significant in so many areas than acknowledged today. And Hillary will continue to be the progressive leader she has always been fighting the establishment, fighting Wall Street, fighting for equity for all, advancing the rights health and welfare of women children and the underserved as she always has not through unrealistic impractical revolutionary change but through the steady incremental work and steps that have been the basis for progressive development in the US for over 100 years. and continuing to "do as much as she can for as many as she can for as long as she can" her lifelong motto.

My reference to the Clinton marriage issue was sarcastic as well as referring to some folks well known for quite some time who have often posted on this page but not on this thread that they refuse to support Hillary based on their perception that she undermined and worse women who allegedly had affairs with Bill Clinton. You have never made this point but others have. On Bros 4 Hillary there was a thread the other day in which dozens if not more folks documented that many many persons have cited this reason for opposing HRC. As well I have perceived in some that they oppose HRC rather than support Bernie and many of those folks I believe will not vote for her due to their perception of the fidelity or the corporate issue and I don't' think any argument will convince them so I don't try. The reason I raised it here is complex - I wanted to reference the DOMA and DADT issue but since i referenced other annoyances without naming them i decided to name them all. If you have never heard anyone express antipathy for HRC due to their perception of her marriage good for you but i have heard it so much i am sick of it. It is not Bernie's fault either. Likewise but somewhat different, I know many friends who fault HRC on financial issues and likewise it drive me crazy because I believe it is based on false hood. I worked for her I know her not personally but i have read her books. I already listed my documentation so I am loathe to repeat it here because you will believe what you will as is your right. She got paid for speaking at GS so what - Bernie didn't release his taxes. His interview with the DN revealed he hasn't the slightest idea how to break up the bid banks his signature issue. I'll admit i don't know much about the monsanto issue but i know her well enough to know she's not going to sell out consumer safety for the sake of corporate interests. It's another thing my norcal friends raise that i think will he resolved in time. i lived in SF for like i can't even count that high 31 years and was a fed for 38 enforcing civil rights laws as i referenced elsewhere as well as pointing out my perception that your comments have been devoid of hate or insults even if i disagree with you. It is reasonable that you would have expertise on the Monstanto and food safety issues unlike me and that is important to you. Finally - ever since I retired I like to write - I don't know why - and I no longer have an editor for better and for worse. So some days like today without intention or thinking ahead i start writing and just don't' stop. i also started a blog when i retired where I stated that I write for me, whether anyone reads is of not much interest to me. I have also found it is my new therapy. My fb page is open and soon i am going to copy and paste much of what i posted here and add it to the blog and link it again on my FB page. the blog covers my career and political views and electoral political experience. I have been politically opinionated and strong willed since i was like 5, when I started counting how many peas were on each of my 4 brother's plate. Then in first grade i wanted to sue the Catholic Church for my perception that they said only Catholics could go to heaven. That went on for over a year till some one said perhaps others could if they were good but they'd have to go to purgatory first. as I was about to protest that i recognized my first concession due to my argument, stuborness or plain annoyance and I never stopped. I worked for RFK in high school, for Myrlie Evers in Pomona, for Dellums and the progressive coalition in Berkeley and then for Harvey Milk.
See what i mean aren't you happy you asked. best wishes


 i keep waiting to hear all the great things Sanders has accomplished - other than violating the Civil Rights Act and voting against gun control. Day after day post after post month after month we fill this page with Hillary's vast accomplishments her entire life but no one ever lists anything Sanders has done. His whole campaign is evidence of his incompetence and more. You have the right to believe whatever you want however baseless foolish and devoid of documentation but STOP telling us Sanders is superior to the brilliant effective accomplished Clinton or least start telling us what Bernie has ever done to show he could accomplish anything in the future.

 t's not that complicated; approving or disapproving of HRC speaking at GS is a different point than amount of compensation; it's called equal pay - why should GS pay less to a woman speaker than a man? the speaker is irrelevant; they are paying because they believe the speaker has knowledge, are among few who have successfully attained high level positions in government or industry, achieved success in performance of their positions, and continue to exert influence among a sector the payor finds of value, whether or not you agree with the payor's opinion of the speaker. They are paying the speaker to share her/his knowledge, not to do their bidding. Asserting nefarious motives without any basis is slanderous defamatory and without merit


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=605754342916124&set=p.605754342916124&type=3&theater 


 e has no chance in CA; for comparison, here are the results of the 2008 CA Dem Primary: Clinton - 51.5% popular vote - 204 delegates (46.3% delegates)
Obama - 43.2% popular vote - 166 delegates (37.7% delegates)

 by the way - votes to date in Dem primary
Hillary Clinton - 12,135,166
Bernie Sanders - 8,968,267

Clinton up by 3,166,899 over Sanders
Clinton up by 2,078,8115 over Trump[

Clinton - 2151 delegates
Sanders - 1338 delegates


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=606529002838658&set=p.606529002838658&type=3&theater 


 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=606528722838686&set=p.606528722838686&type=3&theater

MY 1989

My 1989 (somehow inspired by seeing Taylor Swift perform her song "1989" at the Grammys in 2016)

was another horrible year

year after year after year

filled with death after death after

why am i living

when all whom i love are dying

how do I live

with death after death

year after year

day after day

day to day

what is living for

just to see

people dying

death after death

a call to see an ex for the last time

how do i do that

how do i absorb this pain

upon pain

upon pain

suddenly a flashback

a distant memory of the 70s

the days of rock and roll

and that magical white powder

that killed all the feeling

of joy

choosing joy then

but now would it kill the pain

oh to feel nothing to be numb

would be like so much joy to me now

i can get that

a phone call

a pick up

hurry up

snort that powder

smoke that pipe

more more more

kill that pain

kill that feeling

killing me inside

and finally i feel it
the bliss of feeling nothing

the pain is gone

it feels so wrong

to feel such false relief

but it gets me through the night

time after time

the pain too much

just blow it away

and feel the sweet bliss of feeling

nothing at all feeling nothing

i never felt nothing before

always felt everything too much

this nothing so different to feel

and so i found a way to live

it was ugly but it was life

and finally slowly
the dying eased

and stopped

and slowly

i began to wonder

did i really find a way to live

or rather a way to stop dying

inside me

feeling so much loss

and pain

how to live now

so the urge and the need remained

for way too long

but it just brought emptiness

so day by day

i found a way out

to lose myself in work

to help people

and find my life again

the life i used to want

the life i used to live

the me i used to be

the me i always was

still here

perhaps well hidden

and buried somewhere deep deep down

i found me again

and life

and now finally i realize

why i write

where and why this addiction to write

seemed to appear out of nowhere

just as i retired

i knew there was a connection

but i still could not understand it

till now

I write to live

and

i live to write

to let these feelings go

i watch the words appear in front of me

and i feel the pain and the tension

flow out from deep inside me

like a wind i cannot see

each word brings relief

but this relief and release is genuine

organic not chemical

i found a way to honor myself

who feels too much

and has so much passion

and as it builds again i write again

and so it goes

i found a way

to live

with the real genuine me

i live to write i write to live