My Money Knew Who Would Win Elections

Well, my money knew who was going to win local, state, and national elections, even if I didn’t. I gave $25 to Kurt Friese, a successful Democratic Johnson County supervisor candidate, and none to any other Democratic candidates for supervisor. My $25 to Kurt Friese was for his original statement on civil governance, which I wish I’d copied word for word, because he watered down his statement on civil governance later and took out the word “intimidating” to describe current county supervisor(s?). Then, in a guest editorial for the Iowa City Press Citizen, he allied himself with fellow Bernie delegates and precinct captains (Rod Sullivan and Jason T. Lewis) as if supporting Bernie Sanders for president has anything to do with local politics.

I caucused for Bernie, but I’m not lining up with every Bernie Bro in local politics.

Monica Vernon won the Democratic primary in Iowa’s first district against Pat Murphy, the other Democrat. I repeatedly gave her money. I’m not sure how much. My giving began at former University of Iowa women’s athletics director Christine Grant’s fundraising party for Monica Vernon. I asked Vernon a number of questions and she answered them thoughtfully and openly. Imagine, asking a politician a question and having her answer the question fully and completely.

Johnson County supervisor Rod Sullivan would have ignored me and bolted past me on his way to or from the buffet table. How do I know? Past experience.

Hillary clinched the Democratic nomination for president. I gave her $100 at the beginning of her campaign when she began to speak up. I was hoping she’d mount a strong campaign, but her campaign didn’t get strong, in my opinion, until she started to talk about Donald Trump’s temperament and judgment. I gave Bernie $35 and caucused for him, but I lost my enthusiasm when I found out he didn’t know how to break up the big banks, a major campaign theme.

Hillary has received huge amounts of money from Wall Street banks. Why will I vote for her? I’ll vote for her because Donald Trump is worse, much worse. Trump has filed for bankruptcy four times. He sues everybody all the time. He’s thin skinned. He’s unpredictable and unstable. He can’t fix the economy. He has no idea how to fix the economy. He’s unable to articulate a coherent policy on anything for even five minutes. Obviously, he’s a racist, a misogynist, and a narcissist.

Bill and Hillary know how to fix the economy and I trust them more on foreign policy. I still resent Bill for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and for repealing the Glass-Steagall Act when he signed the Gramm-Bliley-Leach Act. I don’t trust that the Clinton Foundation is honest.

Bill and Hillary know they’ve been made. Pres. Obama still has a lot of Kool-Aide drinkers with the exception of Bill Press, who wrote the book “Buyer’s Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down.” We should have paid attention when Obama said he admired former Pres. Ronald Reagan and “The Godfather” was his favorite movie.

The Clintons have been made. Nobody has any illusions about them. But they’re smart. They’re experienced. And they’d better not think we’re not watching them.

I’m waiting for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to run for president if she decides to. I trust her incorruptibility so much that I send money to any U.S. senatorial candidate she endorses. I sent Sen. Warren $100. I was hoping she’d run this time. She knows how to break up the Wall Street banks.