Reflections on the day

So it was hot, it was humid and I ran a lot. It was really nasty, I have never been that covered in sweat before. I slowed down a lot at the end. Tomorrow, I’ll go over 100 miles for the month, so that’s good. I should have done more this month, but I never remember it being this hot and humid for this long around here.
So Bernie fully endorsed Hillary last night. No surprise. He articulated exactly what he has said all along. The only way to keep the movement going, and growing, is through her, and working to elect politicians in the future who will support the movement even more. Many people on my news feed are saying this isn’t good enough and they won’t vote for Hillary, usually because of some feeling of dishonesty. Now, I can’t understand how people can trust Bernie up to this point and suddenly say no. Do you know Hillary better than Bernie does? I don’t think so. If you believe in the movement, if you believe in socialism, if you believe in helping your fellow humans, if you believe in helping animals, fixing the environment, equal rights, stopping unfair trade deals, whatever, you get NONE of that under Trump and in many cases these things will actually get worse.
Politics is a study in compromise. Time for some personal information. In 1980 my father was a delegate to the DNC in New York City. He was not a Carter delegate. There were 18 candidates who received at least 1 delegate vote. My father’s candidate finished second to President Jimmy Carter. Even though that candidate had tried to unbind the delegates from the primary results. That candidate was Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Now, in the end my father voted for President Carter, but the damage had been done and Carter lost. Many people, upset with Carter and disillusioned that Kennedy didn’t get the nomination stayed home. Reagan won in a landslide. People will say, “well, Reagan wasn’t bad.” But ask an air traffic controller, ask a coal miner, ask anyone with HIV/AIDS, ask anyone who lived in a city, ask any of these people, alive at the time how bad it was.
Let’s look at Iran/Contra. He considered Nelson Mandela a terrorist. He funded regimes like Ferdinand Marcos in The Philippines. Manuel Noriega in Panama. And I’ll just mention one more among the dictators he supported, Saddam Hussein. Right, he supported BOTH sides in the Iran-Iraq war, that is just sick. I want you to think about this, think about all the people who died, were made to suffer, because of these people, and we, through our President’s administration supported and allowed this. I’m not even going to get into the deregulation and mess he made at home that has created the economic mess we’re in today. But here’s where all this is going. He supported these regimes, killed countless people across the world with this.
Now how does #Drumpf fit into this? Paul Manafort. Paul Manafort, my parents have met him, his father was Mayor of New Britain, CT. Paul Manafort has made a career out of supporting these dictators, and more. More than this, he most recently lobbied for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians. American politics doesn’t just stop at our borders. It has consequences across the world. I’m not saying there’s definitely a connection, but I find it funny that the evidence shows the e-mail leak came through Russian intelligence. I find it interesting that the party who told me my whole life to fear and hate the Russians are actively being supported by them now. The party who 8 years ago had a candidate claim Russia was an existential threat to the United States still, is working with them to undermine the opposition. Trump can’t handle what is coming, and there’s an honest fear from me that this will escalate quickly and will not end well. How do I know? Look at how he reacts to someone making a joke about his penis. How can he go toe-to-toe with a heavy-weight like Putin, when his other bouts with the top brass in American business have gone so tragically wrong, like when he tried to fight the NFL. The fact is, at best he belongs in the WWE, he’s great for talk radio, so many hosts love to talk about how great they are all the time, and have no facts, or real ideas to back themselves up. He’s a horrible leader, because he’s only out for himself, and when he gets in over his head, his only move is to sue people. No leadership, no responsibility. He thinks he’s great, he can handle Putin, he is wrong. It’s time to end this, and people need to start recognizing how truly dangerous he is.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you.


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