Weekly Comments Archive
Archived Issue
Sunday, March 13, 2016
ISSUE #861
Disruptions in politics is nothing new

This Presidential election is coming down to another “Super Tuesday” that will likely be a “make or break” day for some of them. Trump and Clinton are winning, but this week will decide whether they are pushed ahead to an insurmountable lead or pulled back in the pack. Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois and Missouri are the battleground.

In Chicago a few rowdy guys who were too lazy or bored to go see their own candidates decided to gang up on a candidate they don’t like and cause a ruckus. MoveOn.org sponsored the disruption but they had a lot of help. And Trump deserves part of the blame for holding an event on a college campus where more so-called students major in “studies” of various cultures (Blacks, Women, Hispanics…) than engineering, business or agriculture. If he had held the big rally at Northwestern, for example, the students there are too busy studying to waste time organizing protests against a businessman running for President.

The Chicago young people who don’t like their current economic condition should be complaining to the Mayor or Governor or President Obama. Trump and the other candidates didn’t create their misery.

Ohio State University hosted a CNN Town Hall tonight with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but not at the same time. It was peaceful and apparently nobody from the other party caused any disruptions. I didn’t hear the whole 2-hour Q&A, but I did hear this question for Sec. Clinton. She was asked how she was going to help poor people, including poor whites. Part of her answer was, “We’re going to move away from coal. We’re going to move away from all fossil fuels.” Huh? Eliminating high paying coal mining jobs and shutting down the oil and gas industry will wipe out the cheapest sources of electricity and transportation fuels. Instead of helping poor people, she would create a few million more of ‘em.

Here’s good news for all of us who like to eat. Recently I attended a couple of events with about a thousand farmers. In discussions on politics I never heard a one of ‘em say they would leave the country if so-and-so is elected. That’s a relief because we need all our farmers. On the other hand, the prospect of losing a few hundred Hollywood folks for the same reason is no problem at all.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“The trouble with Chicago is there ain’t much ‘better element.’ There was no shooting in Chicago on Election Day, but it will drop back to normal right away.” DT #219, Apr. 6, 1927

“The locusts I saw swarming in the Argentine are houseflies compared to the destruction caused by a Presidential election.” WA #516, Nov. 13, 1932

“This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.” DT #1948, Nov. 1, 1932

“It’s getting so if a man wants to stand well socially, he can’t afford to be seen with either the Democrats or the Republicans.” WA #26, June 10, 1923

 “You know the more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other.” WA #3, December 31, 1922

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