A Ghost From Decembers Past

Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled Oh, He's Such a Trump.

Being the old fart that I am, I had forgotten that I had written a post covering the same subject in February of 2017 - Trump : Are We Finally On "The Road to Understanding" ?

Can one plagiarize oneself?

At any rate, it gave me the idea of looking at previous posts with the idea of possible updates. I began by looking at what might be called the ghosts of Christmases past, or at least the ghosts of Decembers past.

That look brought me to this jewel from December of 2014 - The Warren/Clinton Slugfest , when some felt that Elizabeth Warren might make a good POTUS. That was four years ago, and I think there are very few today who would give Warren the same chances in 2020.

That being said, the highlight of that previous post was my inclusion of a Youtube video called "Run Liz Run". When I added the video, I said that, if I were a Hillary Clinton supporter, I would make every effort to make "Run Liz Run" go viral.

The song in the video is horrible. It still remains to be seen if Hillary will make another attempt at the White House, but should Warren test the waters, any Democrat opponent should encourage this video to sweep the Internet.

Warren Upset Over Stalled Indian Casino Project

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe would like to have a portion of their land taken into trust for purposes of operating a resort casino in Taunton, Massachusetts, but U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young has blocked an Interior Department decision to hold land in trust for the tribe (a condition for building the tribal casino) ruling that the tribe was recognized about 73 years too late to qualify under the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act.

Leading the fight to prevent the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe from building a casino was Rhode Island, Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) and the entire Rhode Island Congressional delegation.

According to indianz.com -

"Rhode Island was behind Carcieri v. Salazar, the disastrous U.S. Supreme Court decision that cast significant doubt on the land-into-trust process. According to the 2009 ruling, only tribes that were 'under federal jurisdiction' as of 1934 can seek to have their homelands placed in trust."

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe did not gain federal recognition until 2007.

Rhode Island successfully fought a ten-year legal battle with the Department to limit the Secretary's power to take land in trust ... only for those tribes under federal jurisdiction as of 1934. The motive behind the legal fight is that the proposed Mashpee Wampanoag casino would be about 20 miles from a new, non-Indian facility that opened in Tiverton, Rhode Island. Rhode Island could lose out on $26.1 million in the first year of the facility's operation and $6.6 million in the following year.

After the Bureau of Indian Affairs admitted defeat in the legal battle, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren blamed it on........you guessed it, Donald Trump.

Protesters Block Access to Shell Oil Rig at Seattle Port.

An estimated 200 protesters gathered at the Port of Seattle on Monday to block oil workers’ access to a Shell drilling rig temporarily docked there on its way to the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast.

Shell has been given approval to begin exploratory drilling in the area by
His Royal Highness President Barack Obama.

"I think it is important to also recognize that this is going to be a transition process,” he said. “In the meantime, we are going to continue to use fossil fuels, and when it can be done safely, and appropriately, U.S. production of oil and natural gas is important."

Are the "Progressives" who voted for Obama -twice- feeling buyers remorse yet?

I'm waiting to hear Hillary Clinton's plan on Arctic drilling. I'm sure she'll remain quiet as long as she can. Rocking the kayak might cost her too many votes.

Of course,the Progressives' not-so-wunderkind, Elizabeth Warren would most definitely support the protesters, if for no other reason than by doing so, she will have an opportunity to dress up like a Native American.

Time For Democrats to Switch Gears?

Even as she coasts toward coronation, not everyone in the Democrat Party supports Hillary Clinton for their Party's nominee for POTUS. There are so many Democrats unReady for Hillary, if fact, I had prematurely created a label for posts on this blog entitled The Warren/Clinton Slugfest. Unfortunately, we have as little chance of being entertained by that match-up as we were by the recent Mayweather - Pacquiao love fest.

In a piece for Al Jazeera, co-founder of US Uncut, Carl Gibson writes that the draft Warren movement needs to end. Gibson contends that, contrary to the wishes of Progressive Democrats, Senator Elizabeth Warren has no intentions of running for POTUS and those folks believing otherwise are hurting the chances of Democrats more suitable than Clinton.

The highlight in the article for me was Gibson's quote from Late Night host Seth Meyers regarding those who won't take Warren at her word, "If you asked a girl to prom this many times without a yes, they would ask you to transfer schools".

Gibson's solution?

In Gibson's plan, Democrats should immediately switch their allegiance from Warren to..........Bernie Sanders.

Without realizing it, Gibson has hit on a plan that will equally please hard Left wing Progressives and hard-line Conservatives on the Right.

I can hardly imagine any Democrat that Republicans would rather run against than Bernie Sanders.

Even when we disregard the Left versus Right component of a race between Sanders and any Republican who might win their Party's nomination, there is a recent YouGov poll showing that 92 percent of Americans prefer a presidential candidate under 60. News flash - Bernie Sanders hasn't fit that demographic for a long, long time.

With The Warren/Clinton Slugfest no longer a viable option, perhaps I should create a label entitled The Hillary/Bernie Slugfest.

You Still Can't Pick Your Relatives.

There is a small part of me that can empathize with Ben Affleck, who discovered, via his participation in the PBS documentary series “Finding Your Roots”, he had at least one ancestor who owned slaves. As I wrote in a post from 2009,you can't pick your relatives. It can be disheartening to learn that one might be related - no matter how distantly - to a less than admirable person.

To say that I was upset to learn that I shared a common ancestor with former President Jimmy Carter would be an understatement.

I can't say, however, that I agree with Affleck's response to the genealogical data. While I wasn't exactly overjoyed to find out that I was distantly related to one of the worst President in American history, I didn't hide from that fact. I owned up to our distant kinship in a blog post. Affleck, on the other hand, asked that the slave owning ancestor not be included in the documentary. His fans were to be left in the dark.

I am not at all bothered by the fact that Ben Affleck had an ancestor who owned slaves. That has absolutely no relationship to who Affleck is as a human being. I am bothered, however, that Affleck would ask PBS to leave out the information about the "bad" ancestor, while highlighting that Affleck was descended from someone who fought in the American Revolution. Affleck can neither take the credit nor receive the blame for things his ancestors did.

Affleck wouldn't be the first Progressive in recent years to fudge a bit when bringing up his or her genealogy. Hillary Clinton was recently called out for "exaggerating" the number of immigrant grandparents she had. She had claimed that all four of her grandparents had emigrated to the US, although it turns out that census data and draft cards from the 1920′s and 1930′s revealed that her paternal grandmother was born in Pennsylvania, and both of her maternal grandparents were born in Illinois.

Elizabeth Warren, beloved favorite of Progressives, was once promoted by Harvard Law School as a Native American faculty member even though she has no proven Native American ancestry.

Bottom line - be who you are. You are not your own grandpa. You cannot take credit for the good they may have done or be blamed for their transgressions.

Although I can understand Ben Affleck not wanting to claim this relative.

No Warren/Clinton Slugfest?

In December, after posting a piece entitled "The Warren/Clinton Slugfest", I created a label with the same name. Now, it appears that my creating that label was premature. In spite of the fact that Hillary Clinton is catching a lot of well-deserved flack, it doesn't appear that Warren is in the least bit interested in running for the Democratic nomination for President.

Fortunately for the Republicans, the Democrats don't have a likely replacement for Clinton. Too many in the Abortion Party are in love with her and will stick with her, even to their own detriment. I say that it's fortunate for the Republicans because I don't believe she can possibly win the general election. I agree with Monica Crowley on this : "No one — not even many of her fellow Democrats and leftists in the mainstream media — likes her very much".

I've always maintained that Obama's early support in 2007 / 2008 was as much an "anti-Hillary" vote as a "pro-Obama" one.

Honestly, I am so over writing about Clinton. Is she really the best America can come up with?

UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey recently opined that she wouldn't fight a male opponent because of the negative message seeing a man hit a woman would convey.

"I'll never say that I'll lose, but you could have a girl getting totally beat up on TV by a guy -- which is a bad image to put across. With all the football [domestic violence] stuff that's been happening, not a good idea. It's fun to theorize about and talk about, but it's something that's much better in theory than fact."

Seeing Hillary battered (politically) might be just as ugly.

The Warren/Clinton Slugfest.

It's a heartwarming headline:Elizabeth Warren poses a challenge to Hillary in 2016.

Getting the opportunity to vote against either of these two would almost be enough to make me renege on my earlier statement about never voting in an American election again.  Seeing the Warren/Clinton slugfest may well turn out to be the highlight of the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign.

Both candidates' supporters have already created websites for their particular favorite. Videos in support of the two have been produced and uploaded to Youtube.

As excruciatingly painful as it is to watch the Stand With Hillary video, the Run Liz Run video has to be the worse thing put on video - or film - since Plan Nine From Outer Space.

If I were a Hillary Clinton supporter, I would make every effort to make Run Liz Run go viral.

Ready Or Not............

Via Daniel Harper at The Weekly Standard : 300 Former Obama Staffers Urge Elizabeth Warren to Run for President.

"A group of more than 300 hundred former Obama staffers have written an open letter urging Elizabeth Warren to run for president of the United States. 'We helped elect Barack Obama — now we’re calling on Elizabeth Warren to run in 2016,' the letter is titled."

Of course, the group has their own website and Facebook page - Ready For Warren.com.

Sadly, it appears that no one informed the group that their Democrat competition has already beaten them with their own Ready For Hillary website. In addition to the website, the RFH group is ready with Ready For Hillary merchandise. The Ready For Hillary Hoodie should go well with your Guy Fawkes mask, for that special protest.

One wonders which of the two groups will be the first to call on Sponge Bob Squarepants as a spokesperson.