Hey everybody, this is Michael. I was originally going to do my blog as an old
school written blog of the sort that I've done in the past. The problem with that
is when I've done it that way in the past, I've usually lost interest in it
fairly quickly and stopped doing it. I'm hoping that the novelty of doing this
this whole video thing, I'm not gonna call it a video blog, I refuse, this video
whatever the hell it is, we'll call it that, I'm hoping the novelty of it
doing it this way will keep me interested enough to keep doing it and
hopefully what I'm talking about will keep you interested enough to keep
watching it for however long I keep doing it. Now what is it going to be about?
Well pretty much whatever the hell I feel like talking about at a given time.
It could be something serious, it could be something not serious, we'll see how
it goes as I do it. So and the best thing about it is you know since I'm doing it
as a video you'll get to see my bright and shiny smiling face all the time.
That's as close to a smile as you to a smile as you're ever going to get for me
on this thing probably so a snapshot that you know take a picture won't happen
around. But anyway, since this is my very first one ever you're probably
wondering what is going on in Michael and what's percolating Michael's head, what
does he want to talk about? Well as I'm filming this I'm thinking I want to talk
about what happened last night actually which was the Democratic debate, the first
one for this four year, every four year go around where we picked the manner in
this case possibly women who would be came. So what do I want to talk about from
the debate? Well I'm not going to bother going into like some long detailed
analysis of it because there are plenty of people who've already done that. I
will go into my general impressions of it which is to say didn't really play out
much differently from what I expected. Hillary Clinton I think did win but the
thing that gets me is that how everyone keeps commenting about how polished she
was, how prepared, how smoothly she handled things. Here's the thing folks
saying Hillary Clinton was polishing prepared for a debate is like saying
the New England Patriots were polishing ready to play a football game. They've
done that before and Hillary Clinton has done this before so I seem to recall
she even ran for president once before maybe I might be wrong. So of course she
was polished and ready. You know people were saying Bernie Sanders didn't look
as polished as her is you know under control or presidential whatever. Here's
two things about that though. Stay going into my impressions of how Bernie Sanders did.
I think he came in very close second to Hillary. He definitely in my opinion had
more substantive answers to questions and definitely more the sort of answers I
wanted to hear personally but think about Bernie Sanders is that no matter
how hard he tries bless his heart he always comes off as you know the angry
old man you know the angry school teacher who's just perpetually disappointed
you and is going to tell you exactly how things need to be done. That's just
Bernie. He's not shiny happy. So you know there is also the fact that Bernie Sanders
I don't think has had to engage in a serious campaign or a serious debate
since I don't know some time before the first Apollo mission. So yeah but did
very well in his answers. I think he kept pretty good pace of Hillary Clinton
considering how out of practice at this he probably is. Martin O'Malley was there.
He did one thing that I remember because it annoyed me we'll go into that more in
a little bit. Lincoln Chaffey was there but I honestly think he was kind of
there as the free-stuished sort of comic relief especially given his answer
concerning Glass-Steagall but well I'm not even going to that that speaks for
itself. Lincoln Chaffey pretty much just guaranteed he probably won't even make it
to another debate much less to the nomination. Enough said about Lincoln
Long. Jim Webb didn't come across as the comic relief like Lincoln Chaffey did.
Jim Webb came across as you know the crazy uncle nobody ever invites to the
family's parties but still shows up. The man seems absolutely nuts. The only thing
I can really remember other than the fact that he talked about his family
members and that he killed some guy once is that he complained a lot about how
he wasn't getting any time to speak even though he seemed to be using all the
time he was given to speak to complain about how he wasn't given time to speak.
Okay enough said about Jim Webb another guy who will never probably even make it
to another debate much less the nomination. So let's just focus on the
three who well actually the two because really it's only Hillary and Bernie
who stand a shot. Martin O'Malley is playing for second place at this point
he's playing for vice president he may not even get that but good show Martin so
yeah it's really only Hillary and Bernie as it's been this whole time as it will be
this whole time until the convention. So no more need at least my opinion for
detailed analysis that that's the impression I got it really went about as
I expected it was Bernie it was Hillary and some other guys who looked like they
just kind of wandered on stage and security forgot to usher them off. Okay
so but also I want to talk about for the debate well there's three things I want
to talk about three things I want to talk about because they're the three
things that pissed me off most from the entire debate. So let's talk about it.
First thing I want to talk about the thing that irritated me first in the
whole debate I am really tired about hearing this whole electability
question I'm tired to absolute depth of hearing the word electability. Here's
why. Electability to me is a code word for saying we don't really want you so
we're gonna find a way to try to make everyone think you really don't have a
chance so you're wasting our time. It's kind of to me similar to how basically
certain people on high decree we only need six debates and don't possibly
need any more debates because six is plenty and if you don't agree we won't
let you come to the debates anymore. Yeah but really tired of hearing my
electability question Anderson Cooper seemed particularly persistent on raising
this point with Bernie Sanders kind of like them how the mainstream media has
been doing this whole time. Constant nonsense questions you know you call
yourself a democratic socialist how could you possibly get elected how could
anyone who calls himself a socialist ever possibly get elected in this country
socialism scary boogeyman scary time for Halloween dress up like a chairman
mouse scary really there's the thing about electability. You don't win
elections by picking the safe choice you win elections by picking the best
choice. The best choice right now at least from my viewpoint is still Bernie
Sanders. He's the one that's got the momentum he's the one that's inspiring
people to come out he's the one that's drawing huge crowds he's the one that
surprising people with how he's doing in fundraising especially compared to the
juggernaut in Hillary Clinton that he's running against. Who does this sound
like stop me if you've heard this before. Some guy whose name starts with a B I
can't remember what was his name. I don't know maybe our current president. Another
classic example of why I don't even want to hear the word electability because
everyone said the exact same thing about Barack Obama when he first started
running. He's named Barack Hussein Obama. He's a black man he's running against
Hillary Clinton there was no way he could possibly win really. How'd that turn out?
How'd that turn out for Hillary Clinton? How do you think it could turn out for
Hillary Clinton now? Here's the thing folks electability is a sham. Another
reason electability is a sham and something that no one on the Democratic
side of the aisle should be wasting their time on is the simple fact that it
really doesn't matter who the Democrats nominate. The Democrats could
nominate Hillary Clinton. They can nominate Bernie Sanders. They could
nominate Martin. I used to be a governor mayor O'Malley. They could nominate you
know Lincoln. I was a governor of the state that you can drive through in 10
minutes chafing. They can even nominate Jim. I'm your crazy Uncle Webb. Not gonna
matter. You wonder why it's not gonna matter. I'll tell you why it's not gonna
matter who the Democrats nominate because where the Democrats nominate is
absolutely guaranteed of being played and shredded by the smear machine as soon
as the nomination takes place. Probably the very second after nomination takes
place is when it will start. The Democrats sometimes don't work me
so much. You are running against the people who have been doing this to you
time and time again. You're doing you're running against the people who
caused the phrase swift boating to become part of our lexicon to the
point where it's actually the dictionary now. It doesn't matter who you nominate
they're going to attack that person whoever they are. The Democrats could
bring Mother Teresa back to life and run her and the smear machine on the right
is still gonna find a way to attack her. It really doesn't matter who you
nominate because they're gonna get attacked no matter what and they're
gonna be attacked by a smear machine that will do so ruthlessly,
relentlessly and without any pretense of compassion or even factuality as it's
happened in pretty much every election for the past few decades now. It may as
it be Democrats can't figure this out. Here's the thing. Say you don't nominate
Bernie Sanders because ooh crazy socialist man, scary socialist, ooh. Democrats if
you nominate Bernie Sanders, that's the thing that just pissed me off.
Anderson Cooper was like come on Bernie don't the attack ads practically
write themselves about you? Sure they do. You know exactly what's gonna happen if
Bernie Sanders gets nominated. The smear machine on the right is gonna fire up
their whole scary socialist thing and by the time they're done they're gonna do
their level best to make Bernie Sanders look like a reanimated zombie of Stalin
and Lenin put together with Trotsky on the side and brought back to life to
enslave us all. But here's the thing. Say you decide to go to safe route
Democrats and nominate Hillary Clinton instead. What are we gonna hear for the
next year or more? Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi Benghazi emails email
server wipe wipe server wipe server emails Benghazi Benghazi. Oh and your husband
had an affair. That's what we're gonna hear for next year. You nominate Hillary
Clinton instead. You nominate Martin O'Malley instead. I can't imagine why you
would but say you go for the inexplicable choice and nominate Martin O'Malley
instead. What are we gonna hear for the next year? Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore
riots riots riots Baltimore Baltimore riots you nominate Lincoln log or Jim
Webb even even off of these two guys the the smear machine on the right will
find something to attack them for and we'll do it. Now here's the thing. What
are my friends on Facebook did call me out when I originally started talking
about this and pointed out that it's not fair to put all Republicans in that same
boat and it's not and I'll and I'll own up to that. There's a lot of people within
the Republican Party and a lot of people that support the Republican Party who
don't like these kind of tactics. Just as the left is not a monolithic block
neither is the right. The problem is the same mature more moderate Republicans
have all been locked in a closet by America's ISIS otherwise known as the
Tea Party. The Tea Party has taken over the asylum and they're the ones running
the smear machine. And you've seen Democrats what they do with the smear
machine. So enough of the selectability nonsense. I'm so tired of hearing it.
Electability didn't play into Barack Obama's election. It's not gonna play
into this coming election either unless you allow it to by being stupid and not
picking the best candidate. You don't want elections off of fear of
being attacked by your opponents because guess what that's an election. That's
what happens in an election. You win elections by picking your best candidate,
your opponents be damned and doing a better job than the other guy of
explaining why they're the best candidate and why you're the best party. And if
Democrats don't or can't do that they don't deserve to win in 2016. Seriously the
Republican Party is severely weak right now. If you can't figure out your stuff
enough to win right now you don't deserve to win. You don't.
Immediately the same could have been set for the last many terms but I'm not
gonna get into that subject. Okay so that was the first thing that irritated me
was the whole electability thing. Mmm enough of that. Second thing that
irritated me that I want to talk about from the debate was the whole subject of
guns. Big issue right now of course with all the shootings that have been taking
place. And as one would expect the Democrats way to left on that one. With
the exception of Bernie Sanders who dare to suggest we might actually have to
compromise with all sorts of people with all sorts of different views on guns
to get meaningful gun legislation passed in this country. You know the way we
used to pass all sorts of legislation in this country that thing called compromise.
That thing the Democrats are always accusing the Republicans of refusing to
do. And oh did the other candidates tear into him for that one. You know going
after his voting record, going after his voting on various pieces of legislation
saying he's not tough enough at all on guns. You know Martin O'Malley going so
far as to basically declare war on the NRA like the NRA cares that he even
exists. I'm sorry when a mouse declares war on you know when a mouse declares
war on you nobody notices nobody cares. Martin O'Malley has about as much chance
as Daffy Duck of being the next next president. So the NRA really doesn't
care if he declares war on them. But of course you know being way behind Sanders
and Clinton O'Malley just had to pander because it's always got left really. It's
like I the NRA is my biggest enemy. I'm gonna fight guns. Yeah good luck with
that. And of course Hillary Clinton jumps into saying basically Sanders isn't
strong enough and that she'll do more to stop guns. And how dare anyone want to
compromise on this issue. Here's the thing about guns folks. And this is
something I really in particular hope the Democrats listen to. It's not the
people on your side of the aisle you need to convince. That guns are bad and
evil and earned. You've already sold them on that argument a long time ago.
Equally you neither need to try nor have any chance in hell of convincing the
people on the other extreme of the spectrum. Namely the gun nuts who
basically believe that as soon as someone is the age of embryo they should
be given a rifle, a shotgun, a machine gun, a handgun, ICBM, a cruise missile, a
plan of annihilating weapon, and a bandolier as part of their their their
first onesie or something. You know basically the same nuts that make
normal people who want to have guns look bad by saying we should be able to open
carry everywhere. Like where you have 70 friggin Sam and it's the old west.
Guns. Yee-haw. You're not gonna convince those people of anything either
because they freaking hate you. Neither side is one you need to work on. Who do
you need to work on Democrats when it comes to the issue of gun control? It's
people like me. Let me explain why. I'm pretty much in the middle. On the one
hand there is one hand. On the one hand I am from Texas so I do believe people
have the right to own firearms for their self-defense and to defend the people
they care about. I believe the Second Amendment exists for a reason and I
believe that it is something that makes this unique around the world. A lot of
people around the world even a lot of people here in America question that. But
I believe there is a certain overriding human law that says human beings have
the right to self-preservation. They have the right to self-defense and no
government has the right to take that away from them. So I will never in my
life ever support an outright man on guns ever. Not gonna happen. But here's the
thing. That does not mean I think every single person should be strapped down
with enough hardware to freaking invade a small country. There is no reason on
this planet. Any normal person should have to have an assault rifle. None. You
don't defend yourself with an assault rifle. You take out platoons with an
assault rifle. You don't protect people you care about moving assault rifle. You
can do that just as well. Well not just as well. But you can still protect people
as effectively in most cases as you will ever need to with a handgun or a long
gun or a rifle or a shotgun. All things I think people should be able to have.
Solve weapons? Not so much. But that's the thing. I think most Americans would
agree with me on that. I think most Americans agree that we do need things
like expanded background checks. Better coordination between the various levels
of government and law enforcement to make sure that people who shouldn't have
firearms such as mentally ill people and criminals don't have them. Well people
who aren't mentally ill or criminals can still have access to reasonable weapons
to defend themselves. I believe most people agree there's no need for most
people to own an assault rifle. I believe most people agree we need to crack down
on things like straw purchasers and unregulated gun show sales. I think
those are reasonable things people can agree on. And here's the thing. That's
pretty much all Bernie Sanders is saying. At one point he basically said we're not
gonna get anywhere if we just keep shouting at each other about guns and
don't actually try to come to some kind of compromise. And to come to some kind
of compromise you have to look at everybody's views on the issue. And that
right there Democrats is where talking the talk to people like me comes in.
Because I'm that middle. I believe gun ownership and the right to defend
yourself is an inherent right. Not just guaranteed by our Bill of Rights but
basically guaranteed by human rights. But at the same time I don't think anyone
needs to have an assault rifle. And I have no problem with background checks. And I
have no problem with you know reasonable regulation. And I think that's where most
Americans are on this issue. The problem is when you go all apeshit on the issue
and refuse to compromise basically everyone other than Bernie Sanders who
was up on that stage not only made Bernie Sanders look like a wannabe
Republican on the issue of gun rights because he dares to believe we should
have compromise on the issue. They basically made it clear they wouldn't
compromise at all. Not one bit ever. We're gonna fight the NRA. We're gonna
take them on. We're gonna take away everyone's guns.
Guess what? You don't win by doing that. That's the exact same kind of nonsense
Democrats are always criticizing the Republicans for. Not wanting to
compromise. Not wanting to meet in the middle. Not wanting to talk about these
beings and respect other people's desires or opinions. That's basically what
the Democrats are doing when it comes to guns. And guess what? That's not gonna
work any more than it works for Republicans half the time. It's just not
gonna work. So yeah, enough of the freaking pandering. Enough of going on and
on about how we're gonna take on NRA and we're gonna take away guns. We're gonna
change everything so where basically people can only defend themselves with
a pencil. Not gonna happen. Not in this country. I don't personally think it
should. So seriously, enough of the pandering on that particular issue and
enough criticizing of Bernie Sanders for daring to suggest we should compromise
when that's exactly what we are going to need to do to pass anything resembling
meaningful gun legislation in this country. If we keep going the way we're
going, we're not gonna achieve any kind of meaningful gun legislation in this
country and people are gonna continue to get shot. Not exactly what I think the
Democrats want to accomplish. So yeah, let's let's try that compromise being
what we're always saying the Republicans should do for once. Enough on that
subject. Third thing that irritated me during the whole debate was the thing
that irritated me most of all actually. And since it's the third thing, it's
appropriate that it revolves around free words. We're not Denmark. That's where
Hillary Clinton said in basically dismissing everything Bernie Sanders
wants to do is I guess being impractical for a country our size or a country like
ours. And it's the same tiresome argument I've heard from people time and time
again. America's just too big. America just has too many people. We're just too
spread out. It's too hard. We can't do that. We can't possibly provide people
health care the way they do in Europe because we're just too that there's too
many of us. We can't possibly provide a decent transportation infrastructure in
this country because oh, we're just too big. We can't possibly build railroads
even though we did it in the frickin 1800s. We can't do any of that. We're
too big. It's so hard. America is so big. We can't possibly do any of the things
we should do like provide college education to anybody that wants it
because oh, there's just too many people here that want it. It's so hard. Oh, we
can't repair even the crappy infrastructure we've still got left
because oh, it's just so hard. America is so big. There's so many bridges and
stuff. What a self defeatist bunch of crap. Seriously. So tired of this argument.
Here's the thing. First off, I'm tired of people even on the Democratic side of
the aisle, much less the Republican side of the aisle, because they both do it.
Basically comparing us to Europe like Europe's a bad thing. I'm sorry folks.
Europe's doing a lot of things right that we're doing wrong. In a lot of European
countries, you actually get health care. You actually get college education. You
actually have a shot at living a decent life. Something we used to have here in
America, but that's going away. So enough comparing us to places like Denmark or
France or England or Germany, like those places are horrible because they're not.
They're actually pretty decent. Enough comparing us to places like Scandinavia
like oh, they're so horrible. No, actually not bad places at all.
Seriously. Just, and on top of that, just seriously, just enough of this whole self
defeatist attitude that we can't do it because America's just too big or too
spread out or too many people or too this or too that because it's too much
because we're not Denmark. We're not Europe. They're small. We're big. We just
can't do it. We can't do it so hard. Enough of that. You know what Hillary
Clinton, you're right. We're not Denmark. We're the United freaking States of
America. That's who we are. We're the country that dreams big. We're the
country that does big. We're the country that practically freaking invented big
in the modern age. We have never been the country that says oh, it's just too
hard. We can't do it so eh. It's bad enough when I hear this from the party of
no, which is what the Republicans have basically become since, you know, our
modern-day American ISIS, the Tea Party, infiltrated them and tore them
on you one to where now the Republicans pretty much just say note
everything. Note everything, including even picking a speaker of the house. Note
everything. I'm not even going to go into that subject, but that's just hilarious
and of itself that we can't even pick a speaker of the house. But seriously, I
expect to hear no from the Republicans. I don't expect to hear no from a
Democratic candidate for president. I don't expect to hear this kind of
self-defeatist crap from a Democratic candidate for president.
Here's the thing. If Hillary Clinton seriously does not believe
America has the resources or the ability or the people
to make big things happen anymore, she doesn't deserve to be president
because the only person that deserves to be president is someone who has that
vision and actually believes in this country. And when you just kind of
blithely throw off, yeah, well, we're not Denmark, so we can't do something that
Denmark can accomplish. We're not as good as Denmark. If that's
seriously your attitude, you don't deserve to be president.
You don't deserve to be freaking any political position.
I am so tired of hearing this defeatist argument,
and it absolutely infuriates me more than anything to hear it from a Democrat.
Note that at no point did Hillary Clinton say we shouldn't necessarily do
any of the things Bernie Sanders wants to do. It's just, oh, we can't do it.
It's so hard. Enough of that crap. I don't want to hear that.
From someone who thinks they deserve to be the leader of our country.
If you don't think we can do these great things anymore,
then if you apparently think we really suck that bad now, maybe I don't think
you deserve to be president. How about that?
Sorry, not sorry.
Just infuriates me. I'm so tired of hearing that from both sides of the aisle.
It's just too hard. America can't do it.
Suck it up. Enough of that nonsense.
So that was my first video. I hope you enjoyed it,
and I will be doing more of these, probably not as serious all the time, but sometimes probably.
So yeah, I hope you enjoyed it. If you like, feel free to leave me a comment,
or let me know what you thought by shooting me an email, and I will respond.
Thanks for watching, and that's all I've got to say about this nonsense right now, so bye.
