Little Johnny came home from school one day and his father asked, "what did you learn in school today Johnny?" "Well", Johnny replied, "the teacher is trying to teach us the difference between, potential and reality, but I am having a hard time trying to learn the difference." His Dad then said, " Well Johnny, I'll give you a little assignment that should help you out. Go to your sister, your mom and your brother and ask each one of them if they would sleep with Brad Pitt for a million bucks." "Ok" Johnny replied. So he dutifully went off on his assignment. First he approached his sister. "Hey sis, would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million bucks?" The sister shot back, "Sure I would, I mean he is gorgeous no problem." Then he went to his mom. "Mom," Johnny said cautiously , "would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million bucks?" "Well son, your Dad and I have been married for 30 years and I never cheated on him once but a million dollars could really help this family out, so I guess I would." Then finally he went to his brother and said, "Hey bro , would you sleep with Brad Pitt for a million bucks?" At first his brother said, "What the hell is the matter with you? Do you think I am some kind of queer or something?" then he thought about it for a bit. "You know, I could get a lot of stuff with a million bucks, Ok I would do it once."
So Johnny went back to his dad and his dad said, "Well what did they say?" Johnny replied, "Well they all said yes but I don't understand how this helps me distinguish between potential and reality!" Then Johnny's dad sighed, "Well son, let me put it to you this way Potentially we are multi-millionaires....the Reality is, we live with two prostitutes and a homosexual."
The potential and reality of the Hillary Clinton campaign after the orange punch line....
When Hillary announced her campaign for the 2016 presidency the other day her rhetoric reminded me of that joke. Her words almost sounded like Elizabeth Warren, decrying the fact that hedge fund managers pay less taxes than a truck driver. I thought to myself, am I the only one that sees through this B.S.? Well, it turns out, no, I am not. Matt Taibbi Has an awesome piece called ,"Hillary's Fake Populism" in the Rolling Stonehttp://www.rollingstone.com/.... It is an awesome read as usual. The real gem of the article is right here:
....
Hillary's first official week as a presidential candidate went exactly as her handlers must have hoped. At launch she talked a streak of anti-elitist rhetoric that was taken seriously for a few days, until the punditry took the temperature of her populism and declared it to be the right kind: the fake kind, the purely strategic kind.
Tabbi's thesis is that Hillary, and others democrats before her, love to sound that populist tone in their campaign because as he rightly points out:
...<
blockquote>the American populace is ready to run through a wall for anyone who makes the obvious observation that they're being screwed by someone up above--it takes about two or three days before the "Let's let cooler heads prevail!" editorials start trickling in. They declare that populism is all well and good, and of course a necessary strategy for getting elected, but the reality is that once in office, one has to govern.
As Tabbi goes on to point out in his article, the press treat idealism and electability as two different things, mutually exclusive of each other. Well sad to say, they probably are, since idealism rarely attracts the big money donors who are more than satisfied to keep the status quo.
By the way the reason the hedge fund managers pay less taxes than the nurse or truck driver is because of the carried interest tax. Obama talked about that tax too, but even when he had the power he and the Dems did little to repeal it, even when they had the power. Does anyone at Kos think Hillary will repeal this tax so that hedge fund managers don't get to pay 15% while the rest of us pay almost double? It sure sounded good in the speech though, didn't it?
Yes folks, Hillary's announcement sure gave us the look of a potential
progressive candidate, but I think the reality is we will be let down again. Potentially I could be wrong, the reality is I think we are going to get screwed again.