It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a lot of Americans are sick and tired of the rigged system of government we have that favors large corporations, Wall Street and billionaires. Most of us realize that we are all just cogs in the machine that can be replaced at any time. While you and I pay our fair share of taxes, the large corporations, Wall Street and billionaires don’t.

Q: What do Donald Trump and dope growers have in common?
A: Neither one pays any federal income taxes.

I get it why those on the left gravitated towards Bernie Sanders and those on the right support Donald Trump. The system is fixed and the vast majority of us are getting screwed. While Bernie Sanders gave detailed policy of what he would have done, Donald Trump is still going with “Believe me. I know.” and his sycophants are blindly following.

We are experiencing a new paradigm in American politics. I say that Donald Trump could show up at his next rally with a small moustache dyed black, wearing a Nazi armband and do the Sieg Heil salute and it wouldn’t change a single one of his supporters votes.

Using a sporting metaphor, we define an “Unforced Error” as a missed shot that is entirely a result of the player’s own blunder and not because of the opponent’s skill or effort. In a political metaphor, we call this “Stepping On Your Dick”.

Notice what Hillary Clinton has been in the news for these past few weeks? Neither have I. She keeps letting Donald step all over his dick during the most important time of his life. Leading up to the first Presidential debate, Donald had taken his “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” campaign all over the electoral map, saying and doing things that would have ended any other political candidate in history. Instead, he somehow climbed in the polls and had gotten to near even in the popular vote and Electoral College Map leading up to the first Presidential debates.

For the first ten minutes of the first Presidential debate, Donald was on his best behavior. Some thought that Kellyanne Conway, his campaign manager was backstage with an electronic dog collar, ready to zap Donald whenever he started acting like Donald, which in this debate took about 11 minutes.

Then America saw the real Donald Trump when not in front of a teleprompter or his Sean Hannity Fox TV base audience… and America got frightened. From that point forward has been the worst campaign performance in my lifetime. Acting like a bully in front of 80 million viewers, a self-proclaimed “great businessman” with 1995 tax returns that showed an almost $1 billion loss, more crazy Twitter rants at 3 am, Twitter rants against a former Miss Universe who gained weight, and now a video of Donald telling Billy Bush how he really treats women when he knew he was miked.

Then again when your voting base is older, white, angry and crazy, Donald Trump is the perfect candidate. Just watch this New York Times clip of Donald’s voter base at his rallies.

For the political newbies out there, don’t watch TV, too many biased opinions. Instead read a handful of political websites that give unbiased math, like 538. Click on the “2016 Election Forecast” (upper right side) to see daily, if not hourly updates on the latest polls and the odds for each candidate to take the respective 50 States, plus Washington, D.C. Electoral College votes. FYI: it’s gotten so bad for Donald that Arizona is now in play… for Hillary Clinton. The last Democrat that took Arizona with a majority was Thomas Dewey in 1948. Bill Clinton won Arizona in 1996, however Ross Perot was in that race as a third party candidate and Clinton received less than 50% of the vote.

It don’t take a genius to figure out the White House is gone. Short of Bernie supporters not voting for Hillary miracle, put a fork in it. I’m calling the Presidential race for Hillary Clinton in a landslide. My mother used to say, “Ya gotta lie in the bed you made.” Unfortunately for Republicans, you nominated Trump and are stuck with a narcissistic megalomaniac until November 8 at 9:00 pm (or earlier) PST when the balloons drop from a hotel ballroom where Hillary Clinton is having her election night party.

The latest rumor is the RNC (Republican National Committee) is contemplating Rule 9, the replacing of a candidate after the convention. I’m predicting the Republicans will do a “Dole”. In 1996, when the Electoral College numbers were firmly in Bill Clinton’s side, the Republicans threw their Presidential nominee, Senator Bob Dole under the bus. Senator Dole went along with this as he understood he couldn’t win the White House and he believed in “party before pride”. The Republicans focused all their money and resources on Senate and Congressional races to keep both houses and thwart President Clinton for the next four years, as one thing the Republican majority Congress is good at is being obstructionists and doing nothing.

Sadly, your candidate this year is Donald Trump and all he cares about is Donald Trump. His latest Tweets this morning were…

… because Donald Trump has been on his good behavior up to now.

Threatening your own party may not be the best way to bring your voting base together, but hey, what do I know?

The political races to watch this November are the Senate races in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Hampshire. Those three races will decide the next four years in Washington. If the Democrats can somehow get to a 50-50 tie, then the Vice President Tim Kaine will be casting the deciding vote on the Senate floor from 2017-2020.

FYI… (“little”) Marco Rubio (R) should easily win his Florida Senate race.

(Bernie bumper sticker on a local car)

To the Bernie Sanders cult-like followers I’ll leave you with some thoughts.

Quoting Sarah Silverman at the DNC, “Can I just say… to the ‘Bernie or Bust’ people — you’re being ridiculous.”


A few weeks ago I was at Costco loading my stuff when a woman walked up to her Prius parked next to me. Take one guess which bumper sticker she had?

So I asked, “Hey, I see your Bernie bumper sticker. Do you mind if I ask you why you supported Bernie Sanders?”

She replied, “Because he’s not Hillary Clinton.”

“Well that’s a reason not to support a candidate. Why did you support Bernie?”

“Because he’s not Donald Trump.”

“Once again, that’s a reason not to support a candidate. So why did you support Bernie?”

“Because he’s progressive.”

“Define progressive?”

And with that her eyes narrowed, the veins began to pulse on the side of her head and here comes the anger that I’m kind of used to when I ask follow up questions. “I don’t have time for you. I’m very busy.” She got into her car and drove away.

So why are you Bernie supporters so damn angry? I’m sorry you fell for the “false promises”, but did you actually read Bernie Sanders platform? While I agree with most of his principals, I’m a realist who asks the question, “Yeah great ideas. All we need is a Supreme Court ruling and/or Congress to pass laws.” Ya fought a good fight, but in the end you lost. Move on or stay angry another four years and give the election to Donald Trump. It’s that simple.

Two words keep coming to mind: “Ralph - Nader.” Back in 2000, Ralph Nader received 97,488 votes in Florida. If just 538 (there’s that magical number again) Nader voters had voted for Al Gore, we would not have invaded a country that didn’t attack the United States.

Q: Using former President George W. Bush’s logic, fifteen of the nineteen 9-11 highjackers were from which country?
A: Saudi Arabia.
Did we invade Saudi Arabia?

I’ll go one step further. If you’re a Bernie supporter in Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina or Florida (the remaining six states still in play) and you vote for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein or worse, don’t vote for President at all, you have effectively voted for Donald Trump.

# # #

HERE WE GO AGAIN…

Back in 2014 a certain local candidate had “an avalanche of letters” submitted to the Times-Standard in which 99% of the said the same thing over and over again. It was almost as if someone had sent a mass email blast soliciting the Regressives to write Letters To the Editor using these words and themes from a template, which leads us to 2016.

From Austin Allison’s campaign kick-off:

“I’m doing this because I feel inspired to bring a new fresh perspective to the City of Eureka” -Austin Allison

“Our county and city leadership has too often been dominated by representatives from the good ol’ boy network in Humboldt County. The decision makers have given too much weight to the interests of their friends, big business and the one percent…,” McFarland said. “It’s time for a different direction, for a fresh voice…” -Tamara McFarland, campaign volunteer

(May I remind you that the “good ole boys” are now five women elected to our Eureka City Council, of which three are Progressive.)

“We need a fresh voice and new perspectives…” -Sandy Farrell, Eureka

“Let’s not return Eureka to the clutches of the moneyed good old boys.” -Pam Service, Eureka

(Again, please note who the “good ole boys” are today.)

“Austin’s genuine enthusiasm and unique perspective… With support from big business and the 1 percenters…” -Samuel Silbory, Eureka

“Austin Allison can bring to the table a fresh perspective.” -Tiva M. Insolo, Eureka

“We’re not going to get where we want to be by following the same old worn out paths that got us into this current predicament. We need a fresh voice and new perspectives…” -Sandy Farrell, Eureka

(Just as a side note: who is the current “status quo” incumbent City Councilmember who’s been in office for eight years?)

In a recent North Coast Journal letter:

”Fresh Face, Fresh Ideas

Our county and city leadership has too often been dominated by poster boys (and girls) for the good ole boys network.” -Mark Mills, Eureka

See any repetition of the same words being used over and over again? Hmmm… who do we know that has a large email list, has a track record of writing Letters To the Editor that sometimes signs their own name or sometimes commits fraud by making up a name? It got so bad that Times-Standard Editor, Mark Valles had to opine:

“… but when a series of letters shows up saying the same thing over and over again, using the same words, or sentences, or paragraphs, the case isn’t hard to crack. One letter writer, formerly a regular on these pages, was caught after we found out that the whole handwritten letter was a word-for-word rip-off … from the internet … where the email lives.”

This would be sad if it wasn’t pathetic.

# # #

HYPOCRISY

But what is even more pathetic is the Yes on measure P folks who stated in the North Coast Journal, “One of the major issues (she sees) with the current system is the money it takes to mount a citywide versus ward-based campaign.” Is Yes on P running a grassroots campaign of small donations, social media and door-to-door neighborhood canvassing? Or are they relying on a local point 1 percenter to drop yet another money bomb to pay for expensive advertising and mailers (that I just received)? For the record, Sedgefield Properties (AKA: Bill Pierson) gave $5,000 and the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee gave another $1,000 to the Yes on Measure P committee.

So much for keeping big money out of local politics. I guess we’re back to the “do as I say, not do as I do” double standard of their duplicit nature. I can’t wait for the former Bernie Sanders Humboldt County supporters that morphed into the North Coast People’s Alliance to come out with strong words against the Yes on P committee for giving Bernie’s legacy a high five minus four fingers.

At a recent political forum I attended, a question was asked to the Measure P pro and con speakers.

“If Measure P passes, does this mean that I will lose 4 of my current 5 votes for Eureka City Council, effectively taking away 80% of my current voting power?”

Con speaker Eureka Mayor Frank Jager jumped all over this stating, “Yes, that is correct. You will lose 4 of your 5 current votes for Eureka City Council.” While pro speaker Allen McCloskey stated, “I don’t see it that way.” causing a groan to ripple through the crowd who could do simple math.

Linda Atkins recently stated in her Letter To the Editor, “We don’t let Utah elect our California Senators.” I ask, should we allow Eureka residents in Old Town to have a say in Henderson Center? How about Eureka residents in the Westside having a say on the Eastside? Maybe the Westside and Eastside Eureka neighborhoods are separated by thousands of miles and millions of citizens that I didn’t realize.

Either way, the voters will decide on November 8.

In closing, my favorite line from Game of Thrones, Season 6, Episode 10 - “The Winds of Winter”.

Loras Tyrell: “I perjured myself before the gods. I’m guilty of depravity, dishonesty, profligacy and arrogance.”

Sounds like a typical weekend in Humboldt County.