THE ABSENT

THE ABSENT
THE ABSENT - out now!

CRIPPLED HEARTS

CRIPPLED HEARTS
Out Now - For sale on Amazon and other onlne book sellers

SOLIDARITY WITH THE FLESH EATING MOSAIC AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju

SOLIDARITY WITH THE FLESH EATING MOSAIC AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju
Out Now

THE RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT NINNY AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju

THE RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT NINNY AND OTHER POEMS by Raj Dronamraju
My first book of poetry available through Amazon and other online booksellers www.rajbooks.com

Friday, May 1, 2015

ELECTION 2016 - MY ARGUMENT AGAINST HILLARY CLINTON PLUS ALTERNATIVE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES (JAMES WEBB, MARTIN O'MALLEY, BERNIE SANDERS)


I think a Hillary Clinton presidency would be the very worst thing to happen to this country. 
The recent email scandal should remind Democrats that Hillary Clinton, despite polls that show her beating everybody (largely because she’s so well known compared to everyone else), her campaign is a house of cards. Would only take one big scandal to remind everyone how dysfunctional she and the people around her are and knock it down. I don’t know if it was illegal for her to use a private e-mail account in this manner – I have read compelling arguments for both sides but it certainly was against governmental policy set by the administration she worked for. This shows an “it doesn’t apply to me” attitude which I associate with the worst presidencies in America – Bush, Nixon, not to mention some of Bill Clinton’s scandals. Another point to consider – How did Guccifer the hacker find Clinton’s private email? Thru hacking the AOL account of Sydney Blumenthal and finding emails there from Clinton. Why is that a big deal? Blumenthal is the Clinton’s dirty tricks guy. In the late 90’s, he attempted to feed info to journalists that Monica Lewinsky was a crazy stalker as well as dirt about other women Clinton sexually harassed/assaulted. More recently in 2007/2008 in the Democratic primary, Blumenthal has the dubious distinction of perhaps being the first political operative to bring Reverend Wright and Obama’s birth certificate up as issues. He’s a scumbag, a really sleazy, ugly guy and typical of how the Clintons operate. When Hillary became SOS, she tried to bring Blumenthal into the State Department and Obama to his credit said “absolutely not”. Why is Hillary communicating with someone like this thru a secret account? 

I make no secret of my extreme dislike of both Clintons because A.) They as much as anyone responsible for the Democratic Party being taken over by the corporatist, foreign interventionist, anti-working people philosophy of neoliberalism and kicking progressivism to the curb B.) They are just horrible human beings – Dishonest narcissistic sociopathic and a lot more conservative than either of them have ever let on. They are as bad or worse than any Republican.

 Hillary supports fracking, military intervention almost everywhere, the Patriot Act and NSA surveillance, thinks Edward Snowden is a traitor, took 400,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in 2013, was silent on the Keystone Pipeline, supported making flag burning a felony, and co sponsored the Federal Workplace Freedom of Religion Act (which would have made it easier to discriminate against gay people, single parents and others).  The Democratic Party can do much better.

Here’s my thoughts on three other potential Democratic presidential candidates

James Webb

All of Elizabeth Warren’s positions on income inequality with none of her electoral weaknesses, all of Rand Paul’s positions on marijuana decriminalization and justice system reform without his Republican libertarianism, wrote an op ed opposing the Iraq War in 2002 while Hillary Clinton vigorously supported it, a hard to attack personal story/background (war hero, successful author etc.) ....In this day and age of complete neo liberal domination of the Dem party, Webb’s not perfect but about as good as you can hope for.
 
Martin O’Malley

He’s got a generally good record as governor of Maryland but I think he’d be a weak general election candidate. He harkens back to the days of Adlai Stevenson, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry all good men but perceived as egghead liberals out of step with Middle America and despite changing demographicsthat favor Democrats it would be hard for him to win states Obama and/or Clinton won – Ohio, Virginia, Florida, Missouri for example. It would be easy to tar him as a tax and spend weakling. In 2012, the Maryland legislature passed a bill (recently modified) that taxed homeowners on surfaces that could hold rainwater and conceivably create drainage problems. This legislation which O’Malley was firmly behind proved so unpopular that Maryland, one of the bluest states in the country, elected a Republican in 2014 as his successor. This will definitely haunt him in a presidential campaign. Also O’ Malley’s been pretty mum about his foreign policy beliefs but he has a history with Zionist groups, has made a number of pro Israel comments over the years including chastising Obama over his relationship with Netanyahu. He also has a lot of ties to police brutality defenders such as police union and police booster organizations from his time as mayor of Baltimore when he was a firm believer in the discredited Broken Windows philosophy.

Bernie Sanders
  
Bernie Sanders for president? No thanks. Sure, he’s good on healthcare and income inequality issues but his progressivism stops at the American border. Like so many, he fetishizes the military, loves defense spending as long as it in his state and bends over backwards to praise Israel mass killing of Palestinians – He has described himself as a Zionist in the past. Like a lot of so-called American “liberals” he has a blind spot when it comes to Israel.  He's as much a socialist as Khloe Kardashian and instead of building a viable third party, he's spent his whole time in congress walking in lockstep with the Democrat Party.   A pro-military intervention, pro-defense spending, pro-surveillance state Zionist social justice socialist is an odd creature indeed!

To sum up, Webb, O’Malley, and Sanders are all much better than Clinton but as a third party supporter only Webb could potentially lure me back to voting for the Democratic Party.


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