A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

27 January 2016

Malheur ends in blood, Obama and Bernie, Hillary’s selfishness

Malheur rebellion ends in blood. Ammon Bundy’s locoweed rebellion went from black comedy to tragedy in minutes yesterday when scofflaw Robert LaVoy Finicum was killed resisting arrest. Presumably the shootout was recorded by dash and body cameras. Finicum, incidentally, wrote a strange novel that was reviewed on Talking Points Memo.

There are still occupiers at the refuge, probably confused and angry, and reportedly still defiant. I suspect they’ll stand down without resistance after further thought, a good breakfast, and some daylight.

Obama and Bernie go one-on-one in the Oval Office today. Obama will, I suspect, try to nudge Sanders into conceding the nomination to Hillary Clinton before the primary voting really gets going. I think it’s too late for that, especially given the Democratic establishment’s scorched earth campaign against Sanders — a campaign that makes Sherman’s march through Georgia seem like an urban renewal project.

Hillary’s selfishness could result in the New Deal’s repeal. There are several younger Democratic leaders — for example, Martin O’Malley, Sens. Sherrod Brown, Martin Heinrich, and Sheldon Whitehouse — who would make good candidates and Presidents, but HRC’s fanatical ambition, aided by Clinton loyalists who wanted to serve in another Clinton administration, and by “we want a woman President” gender identity fanatics, cleared the field so that she could, at 68, have another crack at the White House.

If she truly wanted to serve the country, she would have concluded after 2008 that she just didn’t have the political skills and reputation for honesty and openness that being a successful Presidential candidate, and President, requires, announced her retirement from politics, and cleared the way for a new generation of Democratic leaders. Instead, she became all the more selfish, all the more determined to become the first female President, and pretty much demanded the nomination because it was her turn. Now all that stands between her and the nomination is 74-year-old Bernie Sanders, one of the last New Dealers, an honest man who’s catching fire with the voters, especially younger voters, mainly because HRC is such a weak and flawed candidate.

If this election become HRC’s last hurrah, it will also become the New Deal’s last hurrah. If Republicans control Congress and the White House, Social Security, Medicare, fair labor laws, the entire legacy of FDR and LBJ, will be repealed. HRC’s filthy rich. The demise of Social Security won’t hurt her. Perhaps that’s why she doesn’t care about the consequences of her selfishness.