Did you see Diane Feinstein address those kids the other day?  The kids – along with a teacher and an aide – came to Feinstein’s office to ask her to support the Green New Deal, a plan put forward by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey to address climate change.  Feinstein said she couldn’t support the plan because there is “no way to pay for it.”

“No way to pay for it” is politician-speak for “it doesn’t help rich people” and isn’t it always the story?  Preferably to the wringing of hands and the rending of garments, “Oh, there’s just no way to pay for it!”  Even children know it’s the epitome of bunk.  I don’t know if politicians really think nobody has noticed the limited set of excuses offered up to explain why they’re never able to even consider anything that might help Joe Six-pack but we have.  We’ve also noticed there always seems to be money for wars…and tax cuts…

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I’m becoming increasingly concerned that the Democrats plan to return The National Shame to the Oval Office in 2020.  I saw an episode of the Samantha Bee show in which she highlighted “all” the Democratic women running for President so far.  Tulsi Gabbard was mentioned only in passing, as an afterthought.  Worse, she was dismissed as part of a joke, “Sorry, Tulsi!”

Okay, I want to be fair.  Gabbard has some issues with the LGBTQ community.  She has, in the past, said some things she shouldn’t have.  (No equivocation in the statement.  Her thinking was…outdated.)  However, she’s also apologized for her earlier ignorance.  She explained that she was raised in a conservative Christian household and it took her awhile to get past that upbringing and evolve on the issue.  For me, that falls under Maya Angelou’s admonition ‘when you know better, you do better.’

But the Democrats want an excuse to crucify Gabbard and that’s the one they’ll pursue because it will work.  Here’s the thing: Gabbard, the SAME Tulsi Gabbard was once a rising star of the Democratic Party.  She was once the vice chair of the DNC fercrissakes!  She’s being sidelined now because she objected to the DNC rigging the primary against Bernie.  She quit her role as vice-chair…and supported Bernie.

Democratic Party loyalists effing HATE Bernie!  He’s the boogieman they’ve chosen to blame for that time when they backed the only candidate in the country who couldn’t beat Donald Trump.  But then, Democrats hate progressives, in general.  They’re working as hard as they can to marginalize the progressive wing of the party despite the fact that most Americans WANT what the progressives are offering…which, of course, is progress…

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So…speaking of Bernie and paying for things, I came across this little graphic of how Bernie proposes to pay for all of those pie-in-the-sky programs he proposes.  Turns out, it CAN be done…

I imagine he could wind down the war machine a bit, too – shift some money from invading and killing to helping Americans.  Mind you, I’m not crazy.  Of COURSE the United States will continue invading and killing – it’s the American Way!  But I’d just BET there are places in the Pentagon budget where a little trimming wouldn’t hurt…