We Sure as Hell Could Use Martin Luther King Today

Not pictured, President Elect Trump not showing any damn respect

Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day. MLK Day has always been a big deal to me.

As a kid, it was fun because I did not have school, but the older I got, the more I came to realize how great of a man Martin Luther King Jr truly was. He was one hundred percent a man that took charge and was for the people. He fought the good fight no matter what he had to deal with. He fought harsh racism, corrupt policemen and politicians, people not believing in his cause, the constant threat of death and he took it all in stride. He was a man with a plan, and he would be damned if he let anyone step in his way. He needed to get his voice out there, and the people back then needed it, and we need it now as well.

MLK would have staunchly fought the new government, and I would love to have seen him do it. This new crew of "politicians" that will be taking office on Friday are some of the most corrupt and racist since MLK was still alive. I know I said I was done with politics, but I cannot in good conscious of one of my idols, sit by and not say anything on this day that we dedicate to him. MLK would have fought tooth and nail with what is coming upon us. Just look at what the great John Lewis is doing right now. Multiply that by 100, and that is what MLK would have done. He would have gathered up so many protests and fought this "establishment" with everything that he could have. And I would have done everything I could to help him out.

I idolized MLK as a child, teenager and now an adult, so if he was still with us, you are god damn right that I would have stood by his side. Like I said, people like John Lewis and Bernie Sanders are doing what they can, but man oh man, if we still had MLK, just imagine the phenomenal speeches, protests and anti government things he would have been able to accomplish. MLK was a singular person in this fight.

Many people stood by King's side in the 60's when he was fighting injustice, but he was the one that stood out. He was charismatic, an exceptional speaker, a great organizer and a natural born leader. I encourage everyone that feels disillusioned and saddened by what has happened since November 8th to go watch one of MLK's old speeches. I have watched three different speeches of his, and damn it, I want to start a revolution. Hearing what he had to say in the 60's holds so much weight right now with what we have coming to us in 4 short days. I was moved to tears a few times because MLK was such a great, great man, and these speeches were just one of the many exceptional things he did in his short life. He spoke with such eloquence, but also urgency to get up and stand up for what you believe in.

King was also a non violent protester, another thing I loved about him. He was never there to start any fights. Most protests that he organized had him and the people with him locking arms and walking slowly. Go look at pictures of Selma and tell me that isn't one of the most breathtaking and strongest things you have ever seen. And it was a non violent protest that corrupt police turned violent, not MLK.

I have three idols in my life, my dad, Jackie Robinson and MLK. Unfortunately for the other 2, they don't have days dedicated to them, but at least MLK does. And I celebrate this day. I celebrate the man that MLK was. I was grocery shopping earlier this morning, and I was telling my 4 year old all about what made MLK such a great man, and he listened to every word. Every time I log on to Facebook or Twitter and see all the great words people are saying about him, or using his quotes, I am filled with joy. The only thing that makes me sad, we need him now more than ever. He would have been a great leader for people that have sense.

For those of us, 56 percent, the majority of us, that did not vote for this incoming administration, he would have been the best person to speak for those of us that cannot, or do not, have the platform. Bernie Sanders and John Lewis are awesome, and I commend and appreciate everything that they are doing right now, but MLK would have done so, so much more.

And by the way, any conservative that sits back and tries to say nicethings about MLK, stop it. You are the monsters that wanted this administration, and MLK would have HATED each and every one of you morons. The people involved with the incoming "government", and anyone that voted for this monstrosity clearly does not stand for, or believe that what MLK did was of any importance. That is sad and disgusting.

MLK was a great, great man that shaped many of my political and social beliefs. I love you and I miss you. You were a revolutionary Mr. King. Enjoy and celebrate this day that we dedicate to this marvelous man. You were truly one of a kind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There will be no one else like you ever.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Stop Waiting for Congress to Pass Gun Laws

The Congress could not regulate this over 200 years ago. Why trust them now?

This week the Democrats in the United States House of Representatives, led by Georgia Congressman and civil rights hero John Lewis, did something amazing. They took a seat for the American people. On Wednesday, June 22nd, Representative Lewis gave a fiery speech lamenting the inaction of Congress on doing anything to help curb the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. After his speech, Lewis was joined by other Democratic party members of the House and they all took a seat. The sat right down on the floor of the US House of Representatives. The Republicans, led by Speaker Paul Ryan, ended the session and cut off the live video feed provided by the cameras of the Cable-Satellite Public Access Network (C-SPAN). The Republican party wanted to block the images of the Democratic sit in from the American people. Unfortunate for Speaker Ryan, 21st century technology allowed the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution to live on. Many House members used Twitter's Periscope live video app and started to stream the images out to the internet. C-SPAN started to air these Periscope streams out through their airwaves. Many more Democrats, including Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and current Presidential candidate (as of this writing he has not conceded) Bernie Sanders, joined their colleagues on the floor of the House of Representatives. The Democrats were finally fed up with Republican inaction on any meaningful firearm regulation, and all of America was able to see the spectacle going on in the nation's capital. Things were about to change in Washington DC.

Twenty five hours after Representative John Lewis's sit in started, it was over. The US House of Representatives adjourned for an extended break, and the American people were promised by the Democratic party that the fight for gun regulation would resume when everyone got back to Washington DC. Once again America had another gun massacre answered with anger, spectacle, and inaction. Our elected representatives, who make around $174,000 plus expenses paid by the taxpayers each year, left the nation's capitol to take another mandated break. Over the next two weeks there will be no chance of any reasonable firearms legislation. The current batch of firearm regulations will be forgotten. Inaction will once again rule the day.

The next time the nation will see something like the Great Sit-In of June 2016 will be after the next horrible firearm massacre. Unfortunately the next massacre is more likely to occur within the next few months. The bodies will be dead, and the nation will once again cry out for answers to an all too common occurrence. The Republicans, backed by their NRA handlers, will ask for a moment of silence and not want to "politicize" the issue. The Democrats will look at the recent shooting, and try to build conversation about what could have prevented that one singular incident. Once a week has passed, the NRA will have helped sell thousands of more firearms, the Democrats will have forgotten about any meaningful legislation, and the dead will be forgotten. We will be witness to the whole process again once the next firearm massacre occurs. 

Why do we look to Washington DC to solve our gun violence problem? As more people die needlessly, the inept process never changes. Twelve dead at Columbine High School, no action. Thirty two dead at Virginia Tech, no action. Nine dead in Charleston South Carolina, no action. Twelve killed at the Navy yard in Washington DC, no action. Thirteen dead at Ft. Hood, no action. Three dead at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, no action. Twelve dead in Aurora Colorado, no action. Nine dead at Umpqua Community College, no action. Fourteen dead in San Bernardino California, no action. Twenty-six dead, twenty of them children, at Sandy Hook Elementary, no action. Forty-nine people dead in Orlando, no action. (ed note: these are the shootings I remembered off the top of my head. There are many, many more Here is an excellent look at the recent history of US mass shootings from the LA Times.) The killings continue, and the government does nothing.

In the aftermath of the Orlando shooting we are experiencing one of the rare instances when the national government does try to pass meaningful gun regulations. The law being proposed is so flawed it would be better if it never passed. The Great Sit-In was centered on two laws the Democrats were championing. One was to make all gun sales subject to a background check. There is currently no requirement to perform a back ground check on a private gun sale. That  type of law has never passed in the history of the United States. The other law would ban the sale of guns to anyone on the United States government's no fly list. This bit of new gun regulations was first brought to the nation's attention by presumptive Republican Party Presidential Candidate Donald Trump. The NRA at first seemed to be behind the law. A bill was introduced in the US Senate, one written by Republican Senator Susan Collins from Maine, that would ban people on the no fly list from purchasing firearms. The bill received 52 votes in the Senate, but since every controversial bill is threatened with a filibuster, the bill needed sixty to pass. The US House had yet to take up debate, or voted, on the no fly no buy bill. The Great Sit-In happened, and ended. Representative John Lewis has vowed that the House will take up the legislation when Congress gets back from their well deserved vacation.

The No Fly No Buy Bill has the best chance at being the first meaningfully firearm regulation to be enacted into law in over twenty years. Unfortunately it is a very bad law. Many Democrats just want a political victory, and they have rallied behind a bill that at best is ineffective and at worst is racist. The bill is one of the few laws in history to be opposed by both the NRA and the ACLU. The NRA just wants to sell guns, the ACLU is worried about people's actual freedom. The No Fly list is a secret list administered by unknown persons. The list became part of US policy after the attacks of September 11th, 2001. Many non-terrorists, like children, former Senator Ted Kennedy, and sit-in leader Representative John Lewis, have had their names appear on the federal no fly list. No reason is given if one's name appears on the list, and there are no standards in place to have your name removed. The government claims that over 98% of the names on the no fly list are not American citizens. If you are a non-citizen, you cannot buy a guy already. Legal visa holders with proof of state residence (i.e. students) can purchase a firearm, with a background check. The No Fly No Buy bill is not only potentially racial profiling, it is utterly useless. There is no possibility for preventing any future massacre with the No Fly No Buy law. It is political theater being used to try and convince the American people that Congress is compassionate. It is worse than doing nothing.

The United States government has proven absolutely incapable, and unwilling, of protecting the American people from firearm massacres. Decades of inaction has led to political stunts being carried out for the passage of ineffective and racist laws. We must accept that there will not be the passage of any meaningful gun laws by the US government. The faith of the American citizen needs to be put elsewhere. Congress is filled with failure, America should not continue to look towards failure. There needs to be a new way.

The state of Hawaii just recently became the first state to have gun owners registered in a federal database. The Aloha state is doing something to keep its 1.4 million residents a bit safer. The rest of the country does not have politicians with a will to protect their citizens like Hawaii does. What can be done by the American who is not represented by the thoughtful politicians of the Hawaiian Islands?

Only 1/3 of American households and 1/4 of individuals even own guns. Regardless of what the NRA, or the government says, gun ownership is not very popular in the United States. The number of smokers in the US is close to the number of gun owners. The large majority of non-smokers were able to make smoking an anomaly. The same can happen to gun ownership. Privately the nation sees owning a gun as an odd thing, publicly we can do the same. Having a firearm is not a normal thing, and gun owners should know that. If we want gun owners to responsible, the non-gun owners should demand it. There are plenty of non-smoking areas, there should be areas where we do not accept guns. Many public places have designated spots for the smokers to gather and poison each other. The same should happen for guns. Let all the gun owners gather in the spots designated for guns, and our society will know who these gun lovers are. Hunters are already well known as gun owners due to the season and attire required for their hobby. If one has a gun that is an antique, is unusable, and has no ammunition, they do not have to gather in the designated live gun zone. The professionals who require guns for their employment, i.e. police officers and military personal, they are already known by society as carrying a live firearm. A non-government registry of gun owners would quickly be created when everyone in their neighborhood knows whose house has all the guns. Knowing that one's guns are acknowledged by the public will make these gun owners a lot more responsible. It may even cause these gun owners to give up their mythical need to protect themselves with weapons designed for mass killing. The very small minority of gun owners would shrink to a much smaller, and manageable number. Owning firearms designed for killing a whole lot of people would not be an NRA marketing campaign, it would be a source of shame.

The Democrats who sat down this week deserve our admiration. They were trying to bring attention to the inaction that has plagued our nation for decades. Their intentions were good, their law is bad. The NRA has used the government to create a sense of gun ownership being vital and normal. It is not. Since the NRA has used money to buy most of Congress, the American people can not rely on the elected representatives to protect us. We must rely on ourselves. Stop waiting for Congress to act, they will not. Start creating a safer world in your neighborhood. Our actions will be stronger than the money, and ineptness, of Washington DC. We can stop gun violence today. Yes we can.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.He wants to hear the counter opinion on owning guns. Write for us.  

2016 and the End of the 1968 Political Revolution

I am the one who makes American Great

The Presidential primary election is usually a boring, anticlimactic, process the country goes through ever four years. There are a few legends of divided presidential nominating contests. In 1800 Thomas Jefferson handily beat incumbent John Adams in the election for President, yet due to some quirks in the process of electing the executive, the victorious Jefferson had to fight it out in the US House of Representatives with his own running mate, former Senator Aaron Burr. The electoral stalemate was broken only when Jefferson's rival, former US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, threw his support behind the Democratic-Republican candidate from Virginia. Jefferson went on to become President, and Burr killed Hamilton in a duel a few years later. The second Republican Party convention of 1860 famously saw relative unknown former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln go from a third place finish on the first ballot, to winning the nomination on the third. The 1948 Democratic Party convention ended in a split within the the party when the pro-segregationists left to form the Dixiecrats. Other infamous political icons like South Carolina's John Calhoun, Nebraska's William Jennings Bryan, and New York's Horatio Seymour have at times made their party's nomination contests somewhat of a circus.

Not one of these historical episodes compares to what happened to the Democratic Party in 1968. Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson choose to not seek the party's nomination due to increasing public dissent over his administrations role in escalating the war in Vietnam. Senators Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota and Robert Kennedy of New York were challenging for the nomination by running on an anti-war platform. With President Johnson out, the establishment of the Democratic party was rallying behind Vice President Hubert Humphrey. In the lead up to the convention in Chicago, the nation was in the grip of never ending tragedy and violence. On April 4th, civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee. June 5th, shortly after claiming victory in the Democratic Party's California primary, Robert Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman. Many cities across the United States were experiencing riots due to the discord in the country. The baby boomers were beginning to reach voting age, and many of them were tired of seeing their family and friends coming back from Vietnam injured, mentally damaged, or dead. They wanted their concerns to be heard, and the politicians was ignoring their voices. The Democratic Party Convention in Chicago was marred by constant protests and violence in the streets. Things were made even worse when the party nominated the pro-Johnson Humphrey over the anti-war McCarthy. The nomination of Hubert Humphrey was seen as a manipulation by party leaders because the sitting Vice President had not even competed in a number of state primaries, and the anti-war McCarthy, with the primary votes won by the recently deceased Kennedy, had garnered over three quarters of support from actual Democrats. Party insiders had gone directly against the will of the people, and nominee Hubert Humphrey was destroyed in the general election by Republican Richard Nixon. 

Is 2016 shaping up to be another 1968? The two parties are getting ready to nominate candidates who have extremely high disapproval numbers. The primary process itself has been marred by political insiders trying to subvert the will of the voters. The parties are ignoring the millennial voters and their concern about economic security and opportunity. There has been more talk about convention rules and superdelegates than there has been about the will of the voters. Violence has been erupting at events associated with Presidential candidates. The anger and fear of the younger generation of voters is being ignored by the establishment candidates. The summer of 2016 is starting to look like that of 1968. What has happened to bring us back to this point almost 50 years later?

The road to the nomination for New York businessman Donald Trump mirrors the 1968 Democratic Party nomination. In 2016, like in 1968, the party was divided along many different ideologies. The insane number of Republicans who competed in the early primaries caused a fracture in the central GOP philosophy. Voters were split and would gravitate towards candidates based a few issues. No consensus candidate could be rallied behind. Trump emerged as an alternative to the establishment Republican ideals by speaking directly to the fears and anger of the Republican voters. Unlike in 1968 when the Democratic establishment was able to force their preferred candidate to the nomination, the republican voters of 2016 were able to elect their man. The incompetence of the Republican National Committee, and the cheerleading from the press, led directly to the embarrassment that is Donald Trump's candidacy. The dangerous and un-American  rhetoric from the New York businessman is leading us into a summer of discord. The Republican Convention in Cleveland is getting ready for 1968 Chicago levels of disruption.

The eventual nomination of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by the Democratic party has more in common with the ascension of Richard Nixon to the GOP nomination in 1968. Nixon easily won the nomination in 1968 because he was the party's most reliable national figure. The former Vice President had been around Washington D.C. for decades. He was a well known commodity for a party that did not have a strong bench of nationally renowned figures. Nixon was mildly challenged by an upstart in California Governor Ronald Reagan, but no one in the Republican establishment were taking any of Reagan'a new conservative ideas seriously. The former Vice President also devised the "southern strategy" during the primary season to make sure that core republican voters were solidly in the Nixon camp. Richard Nixon was not a popular choice, but he was the best the party could do. Plus, with  the problems in the Democratic Party, Nixon could be presented as the sensible choice for President. 

Secretary Clinton has been presented as the "next person up" since she announced her candidacy is 2015. The Democratic Party insiders have done their best to smack down the different ideas of the Bernie Sanders campaign. The primary plan for Clinton has been a bizarro southern strategy where the former Secretary of State has secured the support of minorities who tend to be traditional Democratic voters. Her campaign uses these tactics to drown out and ignore the disaffected millennials. Clinton may not have secured the nomination with the same ease that Nixon did, but her inevitability followed the same path.  The Democratic party have already adopted the GOP 1968 talking points by insinuating that Hillary Clinton is the sensible choice for President in 2016. Core voters, establishment support, and being the most acceptable person available, that is how Hillary Clinton won the primary.

As the Primary season ends, and the party conventions just around the corner, the United States is living in a new era of public frustration. The Republican Party is being fueled by anger and violence, while the Democratic party is catering to the establishment while it ignores its younger voters. The nomination process of 1968 fatally injured the Democratic Party, and cut a small wound in the GOP. Both parties were forever changed by what happened. Forty-eight years later, 2016 has seen the Republican Party fall to pieces with the Democrats starting to accelerate their demise. Donald Trump will hurt the entire Republican Party in 2016, like Humphrey did to the Democrats in 1968. Hillary Clinton will easily win the Presidency in 2016, following the same path the fates set for Richard Nixon. Many voters on both sides of the political spectrum will feel left out. The discord and anger in the country will get worse. The election of 1968 started a political revolution that lasted for almost 50 years. How long will the revolution of 2016 last?

ed note: The original article misspelled Senator Eugene McCarthy's name. We have corrected the mistake.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He wants to know how in the world Hillary Clinton will not win the 2016 election. Come on and tell us.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Empire of Dirt

Time for some rehab on DNC HQ

Current Democratic National Committee chairwomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz is not a very popular person these days. Vermont Senator, and current candidate for President of the United States, Bernie Sanders has endorsed the challenger in the Florida Congresswoman's Democratic primary. Most of the reports surrounding her tenure as the DNC chairwoman have not been flattering. The Democratic party has lost an extraordinary amount of down ticket races since the chairwoman took over the DNC. Many of the millennial voters who identify as Democrats view her unfavorably. Even Bill Moyers, a highly respected member of the Democratic Party intelligentsia, has repeatedly called on the chairwoman to resign. With so much discord, and an awful electoral track record, what kind of influence can Debbie Wasserman Shultz have in the 2016 election?

To the dismay of many democrats, Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz is one of the most powerful people in the current election cycle. Her influence has already helped steer the party in helping to make Hillary Clinton the party's Presidential nominee. During the early days of the 2016 primary season, Wasserman Schultz worked to get the number of Democratic Presidential Candidate debates very limited. Many political insiders felt that the debates hurt Clinton in the 2008 primaries. By reducing the number of debates, many felt that the DNC was trying to save Secretary Clinton from making any mistakes that could alienate Democratic Party voters. In one of the first DNC sponsored debates, Clinton did slip up by blindly defending Wall Street when the she was questioned about her ties to big money. This early slip up has stayed with Clinton the entire primary season. Any more debates would lead to more slip ups. 

Once the DNC and Chair Wasserman Schultz were called out on their obvious tactics to help Secretary Clinton, more debates were added. These new debates were scheduled at times not known for being friendly to television audiences. The Chairwoman was called out again for being biased towards the Clinton campaign, and once again the DNC was losing support of many Democratic voters.

Chair Wasserman Schultz influence is strongest through the use of party money and the superdelegates. The Democratic Party has used superdelegates, party insiders who get a vote at the convention to elect a Presidential candidate, since 1980. In 2008 Senator Clinton was trying to use superdelegates as a tool to give her campaign a narrow victory in the primary. At the same time Senator Obama was collecting more state primary wins and talking about the will of the people. Once Senator Obama had a majority of voters, the superdelegates were obliged to switch their support. Wasserman Schultz was a co chair to the 2008 Clinton campaign, and in 2016 the use of superdelegates is once again a key Clinton strategy. Senator Sanders won over 60% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, yet all six of the state's superdelegates have pledged their support for Clinton. Why would these Democratic party insiders go against a large majority of their own voters?

Money is almost always the answer to why someone would do something against their own people. Under Chair Wasserman Schultz, the DNC has been virtual bankrupt. The chairwoman seems more interested in raising money for her own campaign, which she always wins with relative ease, than she does with raising money for the national party.  The only thing seemingly keeping the DNC financially afloat is the influx of money coming from the Clinton campaign's victory fund. The use of a victory fund means a candidate can pool large amounts of money from a single donor. No more separate checks for the primary, party, and general election. The victory fund allows these high dollar donors to write one big check. Secretary Clinton created a victory fund in conjunction with the DNC. The money raised is then distributed by the DNC to state party leaders. The large majority of these state leaders have pledged their support to the Clinton campaign. The New Hampshire Democratic party received $124,000 from the Clinton / DNC victory fund. Senator Sanders, like President Obama in 2008, does not a victory fund in conjunction with the DNC.

The undemocratic methods being employed by Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz is not the only reason many in the Democratic party want her to resign. The horrible record of getting democrats elected around the country has been a mighty thorn in the chairwoman's side. Since 2011, Democrats have lost an incredible amount of ground in municipal, state, and congressional races. The Ohio Problem has become a national problem under the leadership of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. What used to be seen as unelectable candidates, such as Matt Bevin in Kentucky, have been winning races because the incompetence at the DNC. The Democratic party is not embracing a new and young generation of leaders. The current practices of the DNC are turning off the next generation of voters. The Democratic Party is facing an extinction event thanks to Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz.

Under the leadership of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic Party has a name, and no real substance. The Democratic Party is an empire of dirt. It is time to rebuild with new, younger, and inspired leadership. This new leadership needs to embrace a whole country approach to the Democratic Party. The President can not make any real change without a Congress of like minded people. The Supreme Court will not be full unless the majority is run by grown ups who understand how the process works. The States will only thrive when their citizens are put ahead of out of state rich donors. Chairwoman Wasserman Schultz has watched the party decay. It is time for her to go so new leaders can build a better, more inclusive, future.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Are you running for office? Let SeedSing tell your story.

Donald Trump and the End of a Center Right Nation

Our political compass has no direction

No matter how many times the political experts predicted the end of Donald Trump (see the many, many times I have said so) , the New York businessman is going to be the Republican nominee for President in the 2016 national election. This means we will have six more months of Donald Trump and his great ideas to make America great again. Six more months of the national press treating these ideas as credible ones. Six more months of the liberal pundits on HBO and Comedy Central being apoplectic about Trump's ideas.  We have six more months of Donald Trump's Republican Party. A party that can in no way claim to be conservative or center right. The days of a center right nation are gone.

Shortly after the election of Barack Obama as President in 2008, the professional media class started to use the term "center right". Center right meant that Americans did not fully subscribe to the ideals of the far right or far left, but sat somewhere in the middle. Americans sat in the middle, but were leaning more to conservative ideas. The media class thought that Americans were moving away from supporting social safety programs, moving towards national defense, and wanted to slow down on changing excepted social norms. The term center right was used to make it look like the country still believed in the brand of conservatism that President Reagan and Bush II practiced. Barack Obama may have been elected President, by a very large margin, but the country was not willing to embrace the Democratic party's plans to implement health care reform and to scale down on military intervention around the world. 

The media was invested in the idea of the United States being a center right nation because of the disaster that was the George W. Bush presidency. By the end of 2008 the US was mired in an endless war with no real purpose, an economy that had crippled the middle class, and public confidence that was at an all time low. The media of the early 2000's was built to cater to Bush and the conservatism of John Boehner, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell. The tea party had not been given a national platform in 2008. Fox News gained strength in the first part of the 21st century because they embraced the notion of being the "news channel" for the right. The other media outlets quickly raced away from journalism and into republican propaganda to try and catch ratings on the coat tails of Fox News. NBC, CBS, and ABC used their nightly newscast to gin up support for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Journalism was replaced by ratings friendly war mongering. The same "fair and balanced" media were also defending the destructive economic ideas of the republican party. Story after story of a booming housing market were being fed to the Americans, while no one was talking about the obvious coming collapse. Vice President Dick Cheney made secret deals with the energy industry, there were no investigative stories until after 2008. The media was an accomplice to the bad policies of the Bush administration, and they wanted to cover their own rear ends. Saying America is a center right nation took the blame off of the media, and put the blame on the voters.

The idea of America being a center right nation was wrong in 2008, and it is wrong today. The Republican party may hold the US House of Representatives and the Senate, but that has more to do with shady manipulation of the electoral process and general incompetence of the Democratic Party. In 2008 and 2012, President Barack Obama easily beat his republican challengers. Neither of those races was even close. Obama still won with the media allowing the right wing to paint the President as a foreign born communist who hates America. Rights for the LGBTQ community have grown at a fast, and much needed, rate. The press keeps giving the bigoted side a voice, but the large majority of Americans are on the correct side of history. Hillary Clinton is having trouble sealing the deal on the 2012 Democratic Presidential nomination because most Americans are not supportive of protecting the wealthiest of our citizens at the expense of everyone else. The media has tried to marginalize Senator Bernie Sanders, yet here in the middle of May and Clinton is still not the nominee. America was not center right in 2008, and we have been moving further and further left since then.

Now that Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee, the center right lie can finally be buried on the ash heap of history. The story surrounding Trump's ascension has centered around how much everyone got the New York businessman's rise so wrong. Even liberal darlings like Nate Silver and the people at fivethirtyeight.com have egg on their face. The real story should not be how wrong everyone was, but how in the world did the Republican party nominate someone who has held mostly Democratic Party ideas his entire life. Trump has a history of being pro-choice, pro raising taxes on the wealthy, and pro healthcare reform. The Paul Ryan's and Mitch McConnell's of the Republican party have used their entire careers railing against these ideals. Ohio Governor John Kasich could only win one state, and rarely broke 10% of the vote in any other state. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the poster boy of Republican obstructionism, only gained traction in the primaries once he was deemed the true Republican alternative to Donald Trump. No one in the classically defined Republican establishment could take Trump down. One could say that Trump's win in the 2016 Republican primary means that the GOP is becoming a center left party.

The rise of Trump is unfortunately not the rise of a center left Republican party. In hindsight it is very easy to see how Donald Trump was able to beat the rest of the Republican field. The blind hatred of the GOP towards Obama and the Democratic Party has created a lot of tiny fractures in the national Republican party. The tea party was built on blind racism. Radio and television personalities like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity demanded purity in the philosophies of elected republican officials. The right wing worship of the founding fathers (most of them were slave holders) and the original Constitution (where African-Americans were counted as 3/5ths of a person) started to show the party as being unreasonable and not have the ability to properly govern in the 21st century. The national identity of the Republican Party was split into many pieces. The fiscal conservatives never found their candidate, and that hurt voting. Kasich, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush could never gain any unified support. The religious conservatives had incompetent buffoons as their choices. Former Governors Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee, and former Senator Rick Santorum were so idiotic even the media could not shield them. Ted Cruz was hated by most of his party, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson were so bad that they helped bring the GOP brand further into the dirt. The only unique option int he filed was Donald Trump. His persona appealed to the angry white man. His ideas fueled the racist, misogynists, and bigots, in the Republican party. Donald Trump was the only Republican in the field that had a voting block to himself. This voting block turned out in high numbers, and Trump was able to survive the cage match that was the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary. His victory is actually quite easy to understand, now.

A minority of the Republican Party was able to nominate a life long Democrat to be their 2016 Presidential candidate. White male christian persecution complex has replaced conservative social and economic philosophy in the GOP. Donald Trump may be a Republican now, but many of his ideas lean to the left. The professional media created Donald Trump, and helped destroy their own narrative of a center right nation. For better or worse, America is stuck with Donald Trump and his new Republican Party. For at least six more months.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing. Hear RD and Ty talk about Trump and the 2016 Presidential election on the latest episode of the X Millennial Man. 

The Days After: I Give Up

In the beginning I had a plan to look at every single Presidential primary / caucus result and try to use my education and work experience to give the good people out there on the internet my own personal views of what the results meant. Things were going well for a while, and then the mid-March primaries made me lose interest in the whole process. Why? Because it is an incredibly undemocratic, hateful, and pointless exercise. So today I decided that the primaries do not deserve any more of my attention, because they do not respect the will of the people. Recapping the days after countless show elections, I give up. 

Elections are incredibly important. When people do not show up to vote, the results can be disastrous. No matter how toxic the process has become, we must get out and vote. Your town council decides how safe, clean, and valuable your neighborhood is. Many neighborhoods do not even offer recycling because their local officials would rather not deal with the expense and hassle of trying to clean up the planet. Your school board is directly responsible for determining how your children, and all of their friends, will be educated. Science teachers around the country are being forced to give lip service to non-science because of uninformed religious zealots being elected to the school board. Most of our judges are elected and not appointed. These judges are being swayed by private interest to send more people to jail. These jails are constantly being sold off to private companies because the governors we elect need to plug gaps in their respective state budgets. Access to good healthcare is being dictated by members of your state legislature. Most of these state lawmakers have more extreme views than anyone we see on the Sunday morning political shows. What I am saying is that elections are extremely important. You should always get out and vote.

The highest voter turnout is always during the US Presidential election. I have personally never thought the election of the President of the United States is that big of a deal. My ambivalence to the Presidency is probably directly related to the men who have held the office in my lifetime. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush I, Bill Clinton, George Bush II, and Barack Obama - that is a pretty mediocre run of Presidents. Ford pardoned Nixon and told America that the President is above the law. Carter was listless and allowed his opposition to weaken his Presidency, Reagan destroyed the economy, bankrupted social security, ignored the AIDS crisis, and represented only the rich and religious interests in the country. Bush I started the destabilization of the Middle East. Clinton embraced republican economic ideals and weakened the social safety net for our most vulnerable citizens. Bush II was one of the top five worst presidents in US history represented by his disastrous foreign and economic policy decisions. Obama has been filled with empty promises and policies that only go half way in addressing our true problems. This run of Presidents is comparable to the weak, ineffectual, and political hacks that occupied the White House during Reconstruction (without looking it up on the internet, try and name three Presidents in order between Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, not a memorable group). Why should I care about who is the President, when ever single man who has been in office the last forty years has been there to represent a very small group of rich political donors. Every four years I vote for the President, and it is the least important vote I cast.

The 2016 election has already been one for the history books. We may have the first woman to sit on top of the ticket for one of the two major political parties (we will). The first candidate of Hispanic descent could be the nominee for the Republican party. The first Jewish presidential nominee. The first brokered convention in generations. There is a lot of history being made, too bad the people making the history are uninspiring and self serving. The modern media, and the two major political parties, have given the American people the most deplorable slate of Presidential candidates.

The Republican Party has little to no chance to ever win another national election with the current state of their party. Decades after Richard Nixon's southern strategy, the Republican Party has enhanced their platform of fear and hatred. Anytime there is a push to suppress voter turnout, it is the Republicans. Any effort to redraw congressional district lines into a gerrymandered atrocity, it is always the republicans. Blame the poor or a minority group for all of America's problems, you better believe the Republican Party is creating the talking points. The modern Republican Party has been built to not grow voters, and to make sure that voting is as undemocratic as possible. The nation has taken notice of how unamerican the Republican Party has been when it comes to elections.

The three remaining Republican Presidential candidates perfectly represent a party of feudal lords. Ohio Governor John Kasich, the moderate according to the national press, embraces all the bad ideas of the GOP. Under his leadership Ohio has added a lot of low paying jobs, and lost a whole lot of jobs with good pay and benefits. The religious right, with the help of Kasich, has put Ohio near the bottom of the country when it comes to women's health. The public education system is being gutted by "moderate" Kasich so his charter school donors can get rich off of the taxpayers. Bad businessman Donald Trump is filled with hate and has no meaningful ideas to actually make America great again. His campaign has been an embarrassment to the entire country. The press keeps egging Trump on because they care about money and have killed the concept of journalism. Texas Senator Ted Cruz is a crazy person, surrounded by crazy people, and has some very antiquated crazy ideas. People like Glenn Beck paint Cruz as some kind of religious savior, and Cruz plays the part. The Texas Senator is so ineffectual and unpopular that a large majority of his own colleagues refuse to endorse Cruz for the Republican nomination. All three of these bozos can not win a national election, no matter how bad the Democratic nominee is.

Speaking of how bad the Democratic nominee will be, Senator Sanders and former Secretary of State Clinton have their own laundry basket full of issues. Bernie Sanders has captured a lot of the millennial imagination, but that really doesn't matter when half of the millennials will not even vote in the election. What really bothers me about Sanders is that the Vermont Senator is not even a member of the Democratic Party. It seems to me that Sanders is using the infrastructure of the Democratic Party for his own personal gain. With Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee has thrown all of their resources behind a candidate who has economic values equal to those in the Republican Party. Under a President Clinton, Wall Street will continue to run unregulated. When the big banks sink the economy again, Hillary Clinton will make sure that US taxpayers bail out the 1% again. It continues to trouble me that scandal and bad PR follows the Clinton's everywhere they go. Benghazi may be a show trial, but it never ends. Hillary's hubris keeps it around. Former President Bill Clinton whitesplaining his administrations horrible record on race and crime, that is another unfortunate event that seems to keep happening.  A Hillary Clinton Presidency would be a whole lot of the same we have seen the last 25 years. Endless war in the Middle East, Wall Street giveaways, and weakening of the social safety net. That sure looks like Democratic Party values.

In my eyes we have five self absorbed, power hungry rich people fighting with each other to win the pageant called the US Presidency. Like a beauty pageant, the US election is not be decided by the American people, it is being decided by a select group of judges. On the Democratic Party side we have the super delegates. Hillary Clinton only needs to win a few states, not even half, and the super delegates will giver her the Democratic Party nomination over Bernie Sanders. In Wyoming, Senator Sanders won over 50% of the popular vote and still only took under 40% of the states delegates. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has altered the rules constantly to only favor Clinton. The Democratic Party does not care at all about the voice of the people, they only care about the rich and connected. 

Somehow the Republican Party is a bigger undemocratic mess than the Democrats. Donald Trump is a horrible choice for President, but so is the rest of the field. RNC chairman Reince Priebus and the Tea Party created this fractured hateful Republican Party to win local races, and now their hate is on full display for the nation. By making your base feel like they are always under attack from terrorists, minorities, the poor, social justice warriors, children, martians, whoever, then your base will flock to biggest strongman. Kasich is not filled with enough pure hate, Cruz is a creepy fellow with very few friends, someone had to lead the angry white man. Trump is a master of marketing, and he knew that his hate filled rhetoric would inspire the very vocal persons who believe in white christian male victimhood. These people demand someone pay for their insecurities, Donald Trump has promised them restitution. No wonder they are so upset that the RNC has tried to remove Donald Trump from the Republican field. The Republican Party has been advocating Trumps positions on immigration and women's health for decades, they just soften the hate with terms like conservative principles. The base has rejected these code words and wants action. Trump promises action, and the establishment is now trying to silence the voice of the people. Trump is the reflection in the mirror of the modern Republican Party, and the party does not like what they see.

The candidates all stink. None of them care about actually fixing anything. Sanders may want to deregulate the big banks, but he still believes guns deserve more protection than people. Clinton could break the gender barrier, but she will bend over backwards to protect the richest Americans. Kasich may not seem crazy, but embraces all the same backward ideas of his colleagues. Trump may be a true outsider, but he wants to make sure we are a country of hate and fear. Cruz is, well there really is not anything nice I can say about Ted Cruz. His children are adorable, there I said something nice. The brokered Republican Convention may bring a new, or old, face to the race. It doesn't matter, the next President will be another in a long line of political hacks who care very little for the problems facing our nation.

So I give up. The Republican and Democratic Parties refuse to let the people have a say. The fact that we keep talking about super delegates and brokered conventions means that the primary elections of 2016 mean nothing to the political party elites. The election of our next President does not need the will of the people. Why should I care what the RNC and DNC think, they do not care about me. No more primary updates, it has been over a month since the last one. I have nothing more to say on a process that deserves no more words. We will continue to talk politics here at SeedSing. Our goal is to give the non wealthy and connected a voice. I am not going to waste time on the primary dog and pony show. I give up. We will talk about this electoral mess when the mud clears, or when the mud consumes us all. 

Please do not forget to vote. Our voices will only gain meaning, and the political parties will lose their power, if we ALL vote in EVERY election. Get out and vote.

RD Kulik

RD  is the Head editor at SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He may think the US President is pointless, but every other race needs your attention. Donate to the National Campaign Training Committee today and support your local candidates.

The Day(s) After: Super Saturday and Tuesday 2 Edition

The Saturdays and Tuesdays are about to get a lot more Super

Looking at the results of Super Saturday and Super Tuesday 2 one can see that the Republican and Democratic Primary season is far from over. Both political parties are facing scenarios not thought of one year ago. Hillary Clinton's clear path is becoming more and more clouded. The rise, and inability to stop, Donald Trump is  becoming more and more troublesome to the Republican establishment and the national media. The 2016 primary season is making a fool out of a lot of the self identified experts. Maybe the people are really taking the power back.

On Saturday Texsas Senator Ted Cruz took his turn as the latest Republican establishment hope to take down Donald Trump. With a commanding win in Kansas and a tight upset in Maine, Cruz won the most overall delegates on the first Super Saturday. Donald Trump scored a few more small victories in Kentucky and Louisiana to pad his delegate totals, but Cruz closed the gap on the New York businessman's lead. Once the votes were tallied on Super Tuesday 2, Trump put a bit more distance between himself and Cruz with wins in Hawaii, Michigan, and Mississippi. Cruz eked out a win in Idaho and held second place in the other contests to stay in the primary race. Florida Senator Marco Rubio again underachieved on Saturday and Tuesday, winning zero delegates yesterday. All of the love and hope the Republican establishment and national media had for Rubio is evaporating quickly. Ohio Governor John Kasich finished where he normally does, far behind the leaders. With one week to go before the big winner take all prizes of Florida and Ohio, Ted Cruz is the only hope the Republican party has in derailing Trump's hold on the party's nomination for President of the United States.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continued to separate herself from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination with the help of a few southern states and super delegates. Blow out wins in Mississippi and Louisiana added to Clinton's lead, while Sanders closed gap with wins in Kansas, Nebraska, Maine, and surprisingly Michigan. When the delegates are added from Super Saturday and Tuesday 2, Clinton and Sanders won almost the same amount. Where Secretary Clinton is separating herself from the Green Mountain State Senator is in the super delegates. These Democratic party officials do not need to follow the will of the people, and can vote for whomever they please. Clinton has spent years cultivating this valuable resource, and no matter how many close races Senator Sanders wins, she will still have the numbers advantage because of the super delegates. In order for Bernie Sanders to capture the Democratic nomination, he needs to win some of the big primary prizes, such as Ohio and Florida, and convince the super delegates to support his candidacy at the Democratic National Convention. That seems unlikely. 

Six months ago no one thought that Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Bernie Sanders would still be in this race. Cruz has received no endorsements from any of his Senate colleagues, and is generally disliked by the Republican establishment. Every week Donald Trump seems to do something that would end the political career of any other person. Bernie Sanders is constantly smeared by the national media as some sort of socialist boogeyman. Not one of these three candidates has the support of anyone of influence in the Republican and Democratic parties. How is it that we are approaching mid March, and all three men are still able to win their respective party's nomination? How did everyone get this primary season so wrong?

In the case of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the Republican party has been grooming their voters to hate governance. The rise of the tea party created a culture of obstructing anything that President Obama and the Democratic Party wanted to get done. There was absolutely no support for the smallest bits of bipartisanship. Then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in 2010 that his number one job was to make Barrack Obama a one term president. He failed. While the Democratic Party failed at supporting down ticket candidates, a new breed of obstructionist Republicans started to take office. The Glenn Becks and Fox News personalities celebrated this culture of discord. Any one who compromised was severely punished. John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, was the highest profile casualty of the new Republican Party. Boehner's failure to lead his own party was embraced by many Republicans. Ted Cruz was celebrated by the right wing media for attempting to stop any kind of legislation that required compromise. Donald Trump just yells about how other people are losers. The Republican Party embraced these tactics, and now they want to deny their champions. The voters were trained to want the bombast of Trump, the inflexibility of Cruz. The Republican voters want demagogues, not leaders. The party created this want.

The lingering campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders represents how much the Democratic Party has wasted the potential of the millennial vote. The Clinton campaign was embarrassed by the upstart Obama in 2008, and they did everything in their power to not make the same mistake again. The Democratic National Committee purposely limited the number of debates early on to help the former Secretary of State. The Clinton campaign has been raising money for years, to the detriment of many lower profile candidates. Any other Democrat who showed an interest in running for President was quickly met with scorn from the national party. Hillary Clinton's coronation as the Democratic nominee for President was one of the most undemocratic processes in modern political history. Senator Sanders, who is not even identified as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate, was so far outside of the established party that no one took his candidacy serious. The voters who identify as Democrats, but have felt betrayed by the party, flocked to Sanders campaign. The Clinton campaign has once again underestimated the voices of the disaffected Democrats, and it is costing them votes. Many thought Sanders could only win a few small liberal New England states, and now his campaign has claimed victory in Michigan. Without the advantage of super delegates, Sanders and Clinton would be neck and neck. The mistakes of 2008 seem to be coming back to haunt Hillary Clinton. The longer Bernie Sanders stays in this race, Hillary Clinton will have more pressure to talk about issues important to the millennial vote. If she refuses to acknowledge their ideas, 2016 is going to be a reminder of 2008.

The 2016 primary season has been unpredictable for both the Republican and Democratic party. Next week Florida and Ohio may bring more clarity on who will actually be on the ballot for President in November. Can the Republicans stop Trump? It looks unlikely. Is Ted Cruz the true choice of the Republican establishment? Probably not. Will John Kasich and Marco Rubio stop wasting peoples time? We can only hope.  Will Bernie Sanders be able to ride the potential of the millennial vote to the Democratic party nomination for President of the United States? Who the heck knows? The unpredictability makes this election one for the history books. 

RD

RD Kulik is the head editor for SeedSing. He is willing to admit when he is wrong, and he has been so wrong about this election. Lend your voice to the discussion and keep SeedSing on the right and true path, write for us.

The Day After: Super Tuesday Edition

Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, and Nebraska - You're next

It seems to be over, and yet the end seems so far away.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both scored numerous Super Tuesday victories, and seemed to take a giant leap closer to their respective party's Presidential nomination. Both candidates won where they were expected to win, and lost where they were expected to lose. The momentum gained in February has carried over into March for both front runners. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are on a course to face each other in November. Both candidates are already preparing to transition from the primaries and get ready for the national election. The end is here.  

Unfortunately the supporters of the losing candidates do not want to give up hope yet. In the case of the Democrats, the math is starting to cool the Bern down. Former Secretary of State Clinton dominated in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and won a very close Massachusetts primary.  Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders won large victories in Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Vermont. Clinton prevailed in the larger states with more delegates, while Sanders was victorious in the less rich delegate states. Couple Clinton's win with her enormous advantage in super delegates, there is almost no possible way the Green Mountain State Senator can win. Many Democrats may think that the very existence of the super delegates is extremely undemocratic, but it is unfortunately part of the process. As long as Hillary Clinton can keep winning states, no matter the margin of victory, she will get the support of the majority of people in the established Democratic Party. Senator Sanders long shot candidacy is becoming more absurd every day. His small state victories will not be enough to overtake Clinton. People who are feeling the Bern will need to find a new obsession. Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States.

The establishment of the Republican Party really wishes it had super delegates. New York business man Donald Trump won in Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. Trump took less than 50% of the vote in each state, but was still the candidate who finished number one. Texas Senator Ted Cruz won his home state along with Alaska and Oklahoma. Florida Senator, and establishment savior, Marco Rubio finally won his first election of the primary season with a victory in Minnesota. Even with all the victories Donald Trump has to his name, almost all of them have been close races with Mr. Trump taking well under 50% of the vote. On the day after Super Tuesday, Cruz and Rubio have enough combined delegates to beat Trump. With the addition of super delegates, the establishment of the Republican Party could really tip the scales for one of the two Senators, but alas the RNC wants to let the voters decide. A plurality seem to be deciding on Trump.

The only plan left for the RNC and elected Republicans was to rally around someone who could defeat Trump. Over the last week the core of the Republican Party, along with their national media lapdogs, started to rally around Marco Rubio. Things were so insane that Rubio was being referred to as centrist Republican. This is a man with almost no legislative accomplishments to his name and once deflected a question on the age of Earth by saying "I'm not a scientist, man". That lack of conviction and need to pander does not make for a great leader. This is the candidate the RNC is trying to elevate. The republican voters do not seem to be listening  The support and positive news coverage yielded the Florida Senator many third place finishes and one victory in the land of 10,000 lakes on Super Tuesday.

The next great hope is Cruz, and the establishment does not care for the obstructionist from the Lone Star state. While Senator Cruz did not do as poorly as Rubio on Super Tuesday, he was still almost 100 delegates behind Trump when the voting was completed. The new narrative from the RNC and media is that Ted Cruz is the only "real" republican that can defeat Trump. If Rubio, or Kasich, were to leave the race, it is believed that their support would all flood to Cruz. If that is truly the case, and it is doubtful this would happen, then the party would anoint Ted Cruz as the leader of Republicans nationwide. The Cruz candidacy would be just as, if not more, disastrous to the Republican party's national image. The Trump and Cruz supporters share a lot of the same ideas, even if Glenn Beck refuses to believe this. If Cruz is the backup plan, the Republican party is in a lot of trouble come November.

The best chance the Republicans have in defeating Trump, and saving some down ticket races, is to make sure that Donald Trump does not get the necessary number of delegates to secure the nomination. The only possible way to pull this trick off is to have Cruz and Rubio stay in the race. Trump wins a lot of primaries, but rarely gets over 40% of the vote. If Senator Cruz dropped out, many of his supporters would flock to Trump. If Rubio, or Kasich, dropped out, their supporters would probably sit out or split between the other two candidates. Keeping everyone in waters the field down, and makes it difficult for Trump to secure the nomination. Without the proper number of delegates, the heads of the Republican Party can call for a vote on new candidate at the convention in July. That is the only path available to ensure Donald Trump is not the Republican Party candidate for President of the United States.

The election of 2016 is already one for the history books. Hillary Clinton has finally broken through and figured out how to win over the needed people in the Democratic Party. Donald Trump is unbelievable still in front, but his lead is not as daunting as one would think. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz have almost no chance to be the Republican nominee, but together they can stop Trump. It is going to be epic.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man podcast. The political parties may not care about your voice, but we do. Write for SeedSing.

The Day After: South Carolina Edition Part 2

The cold of February gives way to slightly less cold of Super Tuesday

Can we finally close the door on feeling the Bern?

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predictable crushed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the South Carolina primary on Saturday. Clinton won almost every demographic by an extremely large margin. There was one demographic it looks like Sanders did best Clinton in,  white voters under 30. Unfortunately for the Green Mountain State Senator, that demographic accounted for less than 15% of the Democrats that voted in the primary. With wins in three out of four February primary states, and the large amount of committed delegates, Hillary Clinton is well on her way to securing the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States.

Should Clinton be worried about Sanders once again winning the white millennial vote? According to Pew Research, the youngest millennial is now 18, and the group makes up the largest voting block in America. They have surpassed the number of baby boomers, and have their first real chance to wield political power. They unfortunately do not vote in high numbers, like the baby boomers. Most of the boomers tend to favor the older, more conservative candidates. Hillary Clinton is that candidate for the Democratic party. Bernie Sanders has excited the white millennials by talking to them directly, and they have responded by being the vocal backbone of his longshot White House candidacy. When it comes time to actually vote the millennial turnout falls below 50%, while the gen xers and baby boomers turnout well over 50%. As long as the millennials stay home, Hillary Clinton has nothing to worry about as she confidently marches toward the nomination.

President Barack Obama was the last Democrat to really ignite the passion of millennial voters, but he also had the support of nearly all of the generation x democrats. Hillary Clinton's baby boomer support kept her in the primary into the summer of 2008, but Obama's broader message carried him to victory. That message of hope has become a reality of bowing to the established political and financial institutions who are desperate to stay in power. Eight years later the gen xers have joined the boomers in near universal support for Clinton. The former first lady is also winning every minority group in the Democratic party. Bernie Sanders appeal has been limited to mainly young white liberals. That is an incredibly small group under the large diverse umbrella of the Democratic Party. This group seems fanatically drawn to Senator Sander's message of money and political corruption. This exact same idea seems to be working more for Donald Trump and the Republican primary voters. Most in the Democratic Party have accepted that Hillary Clinton is another, in a long line of, of candidates who are beholden to Wall Street and big banks. Bill Clinton was one, John Kerry another, Chris Dodd helped protect the housing industry,  and Barack Obama has gone out of his way to keep Wall Street in power. Sanders message is an important one, but it is one that the overall democratic party is not ready to face. Not yet.

Super Tuesday is fast approaching and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has a commanding lead in most of the states who will be voting. Senator Sanders is feverishly working to shore up support and eek out a few wins on March 1st, but it will not be enough. Unless over 90% of all the registered young white liberals get out and vote for Sanders, his campaign will be over by the morning of march 2nd. History says that the millennial vote will be much lower than the gen x and boomer vote. It was a fun ride, and Bernie Sanders has brought up extremely important issues, but it is over. Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. The Bern is starting to cool down.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He wishes for two things - at least one President who is not a stooge for Wall Street and for you to like SeedSing on Facebook.

The Day After: Nevada and South Carolina Edition

We know that you just voted, but South Carolina and Nevada are just not rid of us yet

Now the muddy waters are starting to clear. The Democrats of Nevada gathered and had their caucus. The Republicans of South Carolina voted their individual minds. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton started to take full control of their respective party's primary. Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio are starting to fall further out of the race. John Kasich and Ben Carson should have followed Jeb Bush out of the door. The end of February looks like the end of the 2016 Presidential primary. March will bring about the beginning of the 2016 Presidential election. Clinton vs. Trump. Who would have picked that?

The Nevada caucus became part of the national political scene in 2008. Many Democratic party leaders thought that the non diverse mostly white populations of Iowa and New Hampshire were not very representative of 21st century America. Nevada dropped their primary system and implemented a caucus. The date of the contest was also moved in order to be closer to the historically significant Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. In the two contested Nevada caucus (2008 and 2016) the winner has been Hillary Clinton, and the margin has been small.  Then Senator Clinton pulled out a razor thin victory against eventual nominee Barack Obama in 2008 and manged to defeat Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by a few percentage points last night.

Like the Iowa caucus, Hillary Clinton's ground game seemed to bring her campaign the victory that was expected. What was once again unexpected was just how close Bernie Sanders came to taking the victory. The Clinton campaign has won two out of three primary contests, is poised to crush the Sanders campaign in the South Carolina primary, and still has very large cash reserves. With all of these advantages, Hillary Clinton is the forgone conclusion to win the Democratic party's Presidential nomination, but the Bernie Sanders campaign seems to be sticking around much longer than expected. The resilience of the Sanders campaign is fed by two key factors.

The first reason Hillary Clinton has not closed out the nomination is the fact that Bernie Sanders is the only other credible choice in the Democratic Party. His message and campaign platform gets a lot of attention, but the true reason he is still involved is that no one else legitimately challenged Hillary Clinton. The idea behind the primary process is for the voters to choose the best candidate. When there are only two choices, the lesser one will look stronger than they actually are. Many people voting for Bernie Sanders are actually voting against Hillary Clinton. There is a negligible amount of people voting for Clinton who are mainly against the Sanders campaign. The Hillary Clinton supporters are loyal and will carry her to the eventual nomination.

The second reason Bernie Sanders is still a credible candidate is because the national media so badly wants a horse race that they prop up Sanders campaign and make it look stronger than it actually is. The media has had an ugly, and misogynistic, vendetta against Hillary Clinton since the early 1990's. In order to be "fair and balanced", the political media gives voice to the ugliest voices in American society. The way Sanders near losses are covered make it look like Hillary Clinton is failing again. The press has it's personally created narrative out in the public discourse, and they have the stories that the media wishes to cover.

Speaking of the ugly voices of American society, the Republican South Carolina primary went exactly as predicted. Texas Senator Ted Cruz tried to out mud sling his opponents, but Donald Trump's hate speech won over the Palmetto state voters. Many in the political press corps thought when Trump criticized former President George W. Bush for September 11th that his chances would dwindle. The consensus was that the Republicans in South Carolina loved the former President, and Trump had finally gone to far. Candidate Jeb Bush even brought his brother out on the campaign trail to hopefully gain some support because W was so beloved. Donald Trump took just under 33% of the vote, Jeb Bush took under 8% and promptly dropped out of the 2016 Republican Presidential contest. 

The big discussion coming out after South Carolina is how the Republican party will nominate one of three men, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio. Trump seems to be to far ahead, and gaining momentum. Who would have guessed that? Senators Cruz and Rubio are the only people who have been able to mount any kind of campaign against Trump. The established Republican Party has thrown in with the inept, and bad campaigner that is Marco Rubio. The Cruz campaign is being kept alive by tea party zealots and dirty tricks. Either Rubio or Cruz will falter and fall out in the next few weeks. If Ted Cruz leaves first, Trump will coast to the nomination. The Cruz supporters hate the D.C. republicans, and Rubio is the current champion of that group. If Rubio continues to fall flat on the campaign trail, Trump and Cruz will started slinging acres worth of mud at each other's campaign. Donald Trump has spent his entire career destroying people. Ted Cruz will be no match for Trump's onslaught. Donald Trump will win the Republican Presidential nomination.

The end of February traditionally brings the near end of the Presidential primary process. 2016 does not look like it will be any different. Hillary Clinton may not seem like a candidate in control of her destiny, but she is. Donald Trump's campaign may still be unbelievable, but he is on the path to victory. The parties will be switching up states this week with the Democrats in South Carolina having their primary and the Republicans in Nevada will caucus. Will Clinton and Trump come out further ahead? Will Cruz or Rubio began their exit plan? Will anybody pay any attention to the single digit support John Kasich and Ben Carson will recieve? The biggest question is what are the Republicans going to do when Donald Trump is their nominee? It will be an election for the ages.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head editor for SeedSing. Every morning he wakes up, reads the news, and goes back to sleep hoping the Trump campaign is just a weird dream. It is not a dream. Show your liking of SeedSing over at our Facebook page.

The Day After: New Hampshire Edition

Here they come Nevada and South Carolina

Well, that is finally out of the way. The New Hampshire primary has cleared up the entire 2016 Presidential campaign. Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders will get to face off in November for the White House. The internet and national media won, their chosen candidates have emerged victorious. This circus is finally over. Will you "feel the Bern" or is it more important to "Make America Great Again". November 8th will be here before you know it. Let the national campaign begins.

Once again, I wish this was true. New Hampshire tried to clear things up way more than the Iowa Caucus. The first in the nation primary has always been the freal true test of determining who can win their respective parties nomination. Iowa is all about a candidate's ground game. Fringe candidates, especially Republicans, can use local political bosses to help sway voters away from their personal choices. The Iowa Caucus is all about the work a candidate puts in on the ground. The New Hampshire Primary allows people to vote their own preferences. Party bosses can not look you in the face and make a person change their vote. The mob can not sway the individual. In 1988 then New Hampshire Governor John H. Sununu famously said "The people of Iowa pick corn, the people of New Hampshire pick Presidents". History has mostly proven Governor Sununu's words.

So that means Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination? Today is the first day that I actually started to accept the fact that Trump may incredibly be in this race until the very end. I have never believed in Trump's viability as a credible candidate for the U.S. Presidency. He does not represent the presented core philosophy of the GOP. He does however represent the ugly hate and class warfare cultivated by the Republican intelligentsia. Donald Trump is more like the zealots of the party who get relegated to being the Vice Presidential nominee (i.e. Sarah Palin, Paul Ryan and Dick Cheney).  The National Republican Committee has been very successful at getting rid of the most unelectable members of their field in years past. The Bachmanns, Santorums, Jindels, and Huckabees may have been treated as credible candidates by the incompetent media, but the less offensive John McCains and Mitt Romneys would always comfortable win out and become the party's nominee. The New Hampshire Primary is where the accepted candidate of the National Republican establishment would take control and coast to the eventual nomination. Donald Trump is not the accepted national establishment candidate. He should have stumbled in the face of the moderate Republican hopefuls.  Trump just destroyed the RNC's saviors. 

But what about John Kasich you ask? He is the RNC's hero who will slay the evil Donald Trump. That is the latest narrative of this unpredictable primary season. The national Republicans are so desperate for a "moderate" candidate that they keep promoting anyone not named Trump or Cruz. Last week, after a third place finish in Iowa, it was Florida Senator Marco Rubio. The short time in the spotlight did not do Rubio any favors. He was horrible. When the people of New Hampshire voted, Rubio was not their choice. Now with a surprising second place finish in the Granite State, the RNC will rally around Ohio Governor Kasich as their chosen one. I hate to close down this new love fest for the Ohio Governor, but John Kasich got less than 16% of the total vote. He did come in second, but it was a far distant second. If we want to anoint Kasich as a viable alternative to Trump, then you need to also consider Senator Ted Cruz and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Their margin of defeat is a whole lot closer to John Kasich than Kasich's margin of defeat is to Donald Trump. I would also argue that Trump supporters second choice for President would be Ted Cruz and vice-versa. Looking at the New Hampshire results that way gives the Trump / Cruz block just under 50% of the vote. Add in other non establishment candidates like former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and the established RNC friendly candidates polled below 50%. John Kasich, along with the rest of the "acceptable" republicans lost, and they lost bad.

So what about the nomination for the Democratic Party. It looks like Bernie Sanders, right? Not exactly. The Democratic Party's New Hampshire results were not surprising. Ever since Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders entered the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, most people expected him to easily win the Granite State. It seems like the Hillary Clinton campaign did not even put up a fight in New Hampshire, and this allowed Sanders to have a decisive victory in the primary. The Clinton campaign has seemingly unlimited resources, the near full support of the Democratic Party establishment, and a lot of states yet to vote. They did not waste time, money, or talent where they did not need to. Senator Sanders has been using his cult of personality to get great press coverage, and make the Clinton campaign sweat. That will be coming to an end very soon. The Nevada Caucus and the South Carolina primary will truly show if the Bernie Sanders campaign has any credibility. Both of those states look to be easy wins for Hillary Clinton, but Iowa also looked to be an easy win. With the money and effort saved by not contesting New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton looks like she will still easily win the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination. It was fun having Bernie Sanders around, and he brought up some important issue, but the ride may have ended in the Granite State.

That is what everything looks like on the day after New Hampshire. Donald Trump is starting to pull away and unbelievably become a major parties nominee for President. I know the establishment of the Republican Party has to be scared. I also have a feeling  that the RNC is considering some radical steps to protect their overall electoral chances in 2016. I would not be surprised if some people of influence in the Republican Party supported a third party candidate. The Democratic Party did not change course at all due to the results in New Hampshire. Senator Bernie Sanders had a nice little win, and Hillary Clinton is ready to start dominating the primary process with Nevada and South Carolina on the horizon. I may not "feel the Bern", but just yesterday I was telling people Donald Trump has zero chance to be a nominee for President of the United States. Maybe in two weeks I will have a new outlook for the Independent Senator from The Green Mountain State. I doubt it, but you never know. See you in a few weeks.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. He encourages your voice and donations to keep SeedSing free from big money influence. Follow us on twitter and make sure to like us on Facebook.

Martin Shkreli is the Hero America Deserves

This is the normal physical reaction when one hears the words "Martin Shkreli"

The internet's latest ragefest is all about "pharma-bro" Martin Shkreli. According to the masses Mr. Shkreli is an abomination of a human being with no empathy and a total disregard for a civilized society. He is a spoiled punk brat who uses his influence to make money off of the backs of the less fortunate. He has no remorse. He has no compassion. He is a monster. Martin Shkreli is so bad, that our incompetent elected officials in Washington D.C. are being seen as the sympathetic party when it comes to Mr Shkreli's testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. When one person can make the idiots in Congress looks good, that person deserves to be demonized.

I am not here to demonize Martin Shkreli, I am here to praise him. I in no way support the idea of jacking up the price of a life saving drug in order to make another billion. That is monsterous. The question I have is what law did he break (there is the securities fraud issue, but he has not been convicted of anything)? The press likes to focus on the obscene mark-up on the life saving drug Daraprim. By raising the price 5556% ($13.50 a dose to $750.00 a dose) Mr. Shkreli put lives in danger. Daraprim is used to treat infections in HIV positive patients, and is used globally to treat and prevent malaria. The World Health Organization lists the drug as an essential medicine. This mark-up on a life saving drug, coupled with Martin Shkreli's arrogance, has made the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO a popular target for people fed up with corporate greed. The problem is that by raising the price on Daraprim, Mr. Shkreli did not break the law. He embraced a culture that is encouraged by our government and society as a whole. Plus, Martin Shkreli is not the first person to do this.

The practice of pharma companies buying generic drugs and radically raising their prices is not new. Do you know anyone with asthma? There is a very good chance that the asthmatic person uses an inhaler with the drug Albuterol sulfate. This is a life saving medicine for a very treatable illness. In 2013 Albuterol sulfate was $11 a dose. Six months later the price had gone up to $434 a dose, an increase of 4014%. Where was the public outrage towards the pharma companies? The drug was another off patent drug, but the delivery system (inhaler) needed to be redesigned because of new government regulations. The Pharma companies knew the inhalers would be protected by patents, so they jacked up the price of Albuterol to make some extra money (Mother Jones has a nice article describing the situation). I never remember seeing congress scolding at the CEO responsible for this greed?

There are many more drugs, ones not owned by Turing Pharmaceuticals, that have had their prices skyrocket. In 2014 Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland) and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) launched a Congressional investigation into the skyrocketing cost of generic drugs. They put together a list of drugs that have recently seen a drastic increase in cost (see the list) and tried to get answers from the pharma companies. There were no answers, there was no public outcry, there was no congressional investigation, there was no prosecution, and there was no change in the laws to make this practice illegal.. These pharma companies were just doing what the United States government allows them to do. 

Now the government wants to get serious because Martin Shkreli is an unlikable fellow. The Republicans (you know the free market guys) and Democrats decide to use Mr. Shkreli as their scapegoat for their own incompetence. They have no case. Representative Cummings  stupidly decided to attack Mr. Shkreli because of the purchase by the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO of the one of a kind Wu-Tang Clan album. If I had a few billion dollars I would have bought the Wu-Tang Clan album, they are one of the greatest american bands ever. What is the point of attacking the man for having great taste in music. That whole tirade by Representative Cummings proves that the government is showboating. Those Representatives created this America, Martin Shkreli is just getting rich off of their incompetence.

It is also amusing that all the supposed free market Republicans want to attack Mr. Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals for the price gouge. These bozos have been defending corporate greed for decades. Why are we not yelling at the health insurance companies who are making money off of people getting sick? They set arbitrary prices all the time just to make a few extra billion. The same charlatans in Congress who got mad at Mr. Shkreli will turn around and praise government welfare queens like Jamie Diamon and other business leaders who depend on bailouts. The only reason Congress decided to grill Martin Shkreli is because the internet is mad at him. There is nothing that can be done to stop him. Well the government could try to pass some laws to make this practice illegal, but that will never happen. The Republicans and Democrats alike would never upset their big money donors, no matter how many people need to suffer. 

Martin Shkreli is an american hero. He is the embodiment of the modern American dream. Born to immigrants who worked as janitors, Martin Shkreli made his way in the world be exploiting our inhumane economic culture. We celebrate these people as geniuses. America deserves Martin Shkreli. He is the hero we deserve. He got rich with shady legal practices, he increases his wealth with inhuman actions, and he smirks his way through life. He is a modern American creation. Plus he is also quite aware that Congress is full of imbeciles. While kids are getting poisoned in Flint, Michigan, through the direct fault of the government, the US Congress wants to scold a successful business man. That is the mark of a house led by imbeciles. Thanks you American hero Martin Shkreli for speaking the truth.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. Do you want to sing the praises of the downtrodden? Come write for us.  

How Fear Rules your Street and Hope Inspires a Nation

Republicans should really get to know the hope of the Constitution

The one thing that clearly emerged from the latest Republican Presidential debate is that we can start the plans for the Hillary Clinton 2017 Inaugural ball. I know not everyone believes Hillary will be the Democratic Party nominee, but we need to accept the fact she will be the nominee, and the 44th President of the United States. This is not a personal political statement, it is fact backed up by real numbers and math. When President Clinton, the second, takes office she will have a congress fully loaded with far right wing tea partiers who will do everything in their power to make sure our government will not function. So how is it possible that the people who vote for the misogynistic, racist, and generally hateful tea party will end up with the first female President in US history?

The original concept of democracy is dependent on a plurality of the masses to elect the candidate that best represents their views. In simple terms, if we have 3 different groups of people with their own ideas, if one of those groups has over 33.33 (and 3 to infinity)% of the entire population they will rule the seats of power. One does not need a majority, 50.1% to rule, you only need to control the largest minority group. This is how the modern Republican party, and its afterbirth of the tea party, have been able to take control of the congress, and most of the state governments. Redistricting and her ugly stepbrother gerrymandering have created voting areas that reward the most hateful groups. Districts have been created in order to reward the largest voting population, not the most populous areas. In many rural areas the most racist and hateful people will vote in overwhelming majorities. Take the southern border as an example. States like Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico demonize the immigrant culture. Voting laws are structured to make it difficult for everyone to vote, everyone except white men. If you can increase the voting group the tea party cares about, while shrinking the ones who may vote for the Democratic candidate, mission accomplished is the term the republicans like to use. 

It needs to be understood that the people who subscribe to the idea of white male christian victimhood vote in every election. The percentage of these voters will reach well over 90% of the eligible population. If the white male christian victims make up 50% of the population and the opposition groups make up the other 50% we should have a stalemate. When the other population only has 25% (or less) participate in the elections, and the white male christian victims vote in over 90%, well we have a district that will send the most racist, misogynist, and generally unpleasant person to make our laws. That is the math behind the unpleasantness in Washington D.C..

The national Republican Party has no hopefully vision for America. Their Presidential candidates all talk about how the country is going to fail. Many times it sounds like the hope for the country to fail. They love guns, gold, and powdered food. The Republican Party is heavily invested in the economics of sociological failure. These people are not patriots. The pre-primary season has awarded racism, misogyny, class warfare, and dangerous hate. These candidates are either dumb, or think that the voters are extremely unintelligent. The pathetic national media covering this clown show said the most celebrated moment of the debate was when failed New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said they were going to kick President Obama'a butt out of the White House. Thankfully incompetent blowhards like Christie will not have to do anything to remove Obama. The US Constitution has it all covered to make President Obama leave. These Republicans should really read the Constitution some time. It is a fascinating document.

The Democratic Party, and next President Hillary Clinton, need to only offer Americans hope for their country and they will win every Presidential election. Sometimes that hope is quite simply a belief in the exceptionalism of America. We take in the hungry, the poor, and huddled masses, and give them a chance to be something. Most of America feels good about this image of America.  When we allow the entire country to vote, with very little regional sectarianism, hate and fear gets put to the side. The election for President has mainly been a moment of national hope and patriotism. The constant drumbeat of American failure from the Republican Party cannot gerrymander their way into the White House. 

The Republican Party has been masterful in creating a Congress who represent less than half of white men. The lack of investment in local politics by the Democratic Party (represented by The Ohio Problem) has given voice to the most backward thinking, unpatriotic people in all of America. When it comes to the Presidential election the Republicans have ceded half of the white vote, most of the women voters, and nearly all of the minority vote. Those groups represent a supermajority.  This massive number will make the 2016 election a blowout. The math adds up, hope is much greater than fear.

RD Kulik

RD is the Head editor for SeedSing. Many of his friends cannot imagine a Presidential election without Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. They are wrong. Come state your case for your candidate by writing for SeedSing.

Tracy Morgan brings some glory back to SNL

Tracy Morgan is bringing comedy sunshine the dark landscape that has been SNL.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming from me.

I know I've been blogging a lot about basketball and sports lately, and I'm still going to do that, but now I'm going to get back into the groove and give you pop culture from a lot of different angles. I'll get back to movies, TV shows, music and everything else starting today.

Today, I'm going to tell you about the sheer greatness that was last Saturday's SNL. Tracy Morgan, making his triumphant return to TV, crushed as the host of the 41st seasons third episode. The season premiere, featuring Miley Cyrus wasn't very good, and Amy Schumer did a better job on the second episode, but Tracy Morgan, hosting the third episode, hearkened SNL back to it's glory days. He seemed so comfortable and calm on that stage. This was the perfect place for him to make his official return to TV. As I written before, he's most comfortable at 30 Rockefeller Center and that's where his career took off, both on SNL and "30 Rock".

I did want to touch on the cold open before I get to the meat of the episode. My wife and I usually never watch cold opens because they're always political and we, quite frankly, don't care for humor involving politics. But, due to some social media searching, we both found out Larry David would be making an appearance. I'm a HUGE Larry David fan and this piqued my interest. So, we watched the cold open, hoping that it would be worth it, and boy was it totally worth it. David played Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. I can't think of a better character for him to play besides himself. This was a grand slam, getting David not only to appear, but also to play his doppleganger, Bernie Sanders. He was absolutely hilarious, and had you told me the lines David was reciting were actual Sanders quotes, I would've believed it. Bernie Sanders is a total nut job, and Larry David played that almost as perfect as comedian James Adomian does. Seriously people, if you liked David's impression, check out James Adomian's impression, it's better. Needless to say, the cold open set the tone for this being a really, really good episode. Oh, and I didn't even mention that Alec Baldwin showed up playing, a senator I think, named Jim Webb. But, David's appearance outshined everyone else on the stage.

Now, let's get to the return of Tracy Morgan. First of all, during the monologue, he started to talk as if he had a stroke. I was taken aback, but he immediately said he was joking and I was already laughing. The monologue was very good. None of the singing that usually goes on now, in fact, he talked about his old show "30 Rock" being prophetic about his accident. Which reminds me, he said that maybe the accident made him smarter because he now knew what prophetic meant and how to use it in a sentence. Back to the "30 Rock" episode. It was on the same stage, obviously it wasn't a real "30 Rock" episode, and cameos were made by Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and Alec Baldwin once again. They all reprised their roles from the show and talked about Tracy Jordan being in an accident. Morgan appeared as Jordan and let everyone know he was okay. This bit was played to many laughs. And, it's always good to have old friends and cast members appear on SNL. Pretty much all of the sketches were hilarious, and they brought back two beloved characters that Morgan played while part of the cast.

The first character they brought back was Brian Fellows. They did the Brian Fellows Show and anyone who watched when Morgan regularly did the show, knows how insane and bizarre this sketch is. It was just as crazy, with Fellows at one part, accompanied by a dream bubble, thinking about a beaver smoking cigarettes. He also yelled his titular line, "I'M BRIAN FELLOWS!".

It was great. During Weekend Update, we got a cameo from Tina Fey, hilariously making fun of Playboy not being a nudie magazine anymore. She even showed off some of the poses she always wanted to do, if she ever got a chance to pose for Playboy. During Weekend Update, while Michael Che was talking to his always upbeat neighbor, Willie, Morgan showed up as the bum who thinks he's way more important than he really is, Woodrow. Woodrow was Willie's life coach and the two of them sang a sweet, but very sad song. This was a great use of this character.

Some of the other good sketches were, one where, it was set up like a musical and all the cast members were joyously singing what they were doing. Well, when Morgan showed up, he sang what was literally on his mind. For example, one of his lyrics were, "I just peed". It was so weird, but Morgan made it funny because that's what he does. There was another weird sketch that Morgan made work called "Where's Jackie Chan At?". Morgan and Keenan Thompson played two guys that simply asked the question, where's Jackie Chan at. They had callers and even a person to person chat with Chris Tucker, played excellently by Jay Pharoah, and no one knew where Jackie Chan currently was. I loved this sketch, because I'm still trying to figure out, where's Jackie Chan at. They did one of their premade videos and it was very funny. The "movie" featured Pharoah, Shasheer Zamata, Taran Killam and Morgan. Killam and Zamata are a couple at the bar and Killam's character is clearly upset. Apparently, Morgan's character said something to her in passing and Killam was waiting for the right time to broach the situation. He finally does, and it's revealed that Morgan's character wants to dance. They keep saying, "you want to dance", insinuating a fight, but Morgan literally means dancing. He even has ballet flats on to prove how serious he is. They get into a whole back story about how Morgan's dad never let him dance, and made him act tough, and finally Zamata says she will dance with him because his story is so sad, but Morgan says he needs to dance with Killam because, "I can't lead, I don't know how". It ended with the two of then getting ready to dance, it was pretty funny.

The best sketch of the entire show was the first sketch after the monologue. They did a "Family Feud" sketch and I was in stiches the whole time. First of all, if there's a better impersonation of Steve Harvey than what Keenan Thompson does, I haven't seen it. He does a spot on Harvey impression, going so far as to call everyone player. It's great. During this sketch, we find out that the two families involved in the game are Tracy Morgan's new family, he got divorced six months prior, and his ex wife and three kids. This was a very, very funny premise for a sketch. We first met Morgan's ex wife, played by Leslie Jones. She's a star and needs to be on this show much, much more often. The kids are played by Pharoah, Zamata and Che. Morgan's new wife and family were as lily white as they come. His new wife was played by Cecily Strong and his kids were the new cast member, his name escapes me at the moment, and Vanessa Bayer. The only question asked during the feud was, "name something someone forgets". Jones rings in first and exclaims, "COMMITMENT!", clearly still upset about the divorce. She gets the answer right and her family gets to play. Pharoah answers, "not coming to your son's clarinet recital because it's not manly" and Zamata says, "not being there as a male role model, so now I have to strip". They each get strikes, and when they get to Che, he's gone to the other family because, "they're happy and always smiling". The whole time, Morgan is yelling back at his ex wife and children and it's hilarious. This was a great sketch to open with.

Obviously, I loved this episode. Tracy Morgan was phenomenal and exceeded my expectations by a million miles. I'm so, so happy that he's healthy and back doing what he loves. The comedy world has missed you Tracy Morgan, but your future looks bright after your triumphant return to SNL.

Welcome back.

The Fallacy of Hillary's Inevitability

Hillary Clinton will not be President of the United States.  Hillary Clinton will not even be the Democratic Party nominee.  Will I be the first person to say this? I'll check back in a year.

Hillary Clinton vs the republican clown car.  That is the grand narrative from a broken and lazy national media a year before the final state presidential primaries will be wrapping up. You cannot stop it.  Hillary 2016, I'm with Hillary, Hillary's time, whatever the work shopped slogan may be - IT IS HILLARY'S TURN.

I could have written those exact same words (substitute Hillary 2016 with Hillary 2008) back in 2007.  I was working in the political field at the time, and that was all I heard from my Democratic Party friends.  Hillary had the experienced staff. Hillary had the money network. Hillary had history.  There was no denying her ascendancy.

Problem is that Obama won the primary, and he became the President.  Hillary waited, she is ready, and nothing will stop her now.  I am telling you that 2016 will end exactly as 2008 (not with Obama, but someone different). 

Why am I so sour on Hillary's inevitability.  Because the exact same narrative is playing out, and technology has changed the world.  I will explain.  I have many friends who have gone to work for a "Hillary Clinton Exploratory campaign" over the course of the last year.  I myself have been approached a few times to "work" on a possible presidential campaign.  The experienced Democratic Party talent has all been gobbled up by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Along with the talent, the money has also been holding for the Clinton campaign.  I have a whole trunk full of problems with the talent and money at the states being held out for a national election, and I address those issues here.   The tactic that the Hillary campaign seems to be employing this time around is to gather all the resources and starve out any potential challenger. That seems to be the grand strategic plan.

Hillary Clinton, along with most national political figures, have yet to figure out how to capitalize on free social media platforms.  The current political, and media, models are all built around catering to the Baby Boomer generation.  The Generation Xers and millennials have yet to be considered in a Hillary Clinton campaign, except for lip service on issues that have become politically beneficial(i.e. LBGT rights).  The non-boomers want more.  We want consideration for student debt issues (Hillary is silent), we want government surveillance to be reigned in (Hillary is silent), we want an end to the endless wars (Hillary has not completely owned up to her support for Bush's wars), we want to be considered.  The boomer culture will not relinquish control of the political culture, and Hillary Clinton feeds off of this. She needs to start addressing these issues to create excitement for her presidency.

The boomer only kind of pandering is what caused the non-boomers to flock towards an unproven, and unknown, Barack Obama.  The allure of words like "change" and "hope" spoke to the non-boomers.  We were ready for anyone who was not part of the insipid boomers who have told us how worthless we were. The Hillary 2016 campaign sure as stuff cannot use words like hope and change, especially after the Obama presidency. How is the Clinton campaign going to reach the non-boomers.  Being able to get campaign info through our smart phones was infinitely more valuable than the constant door knockers asking about my feelings on the Democratic Party. I keep hearing more about the canvasing plans for the Hillary 2016 campaign and I cringe. Where is the innovative social media campaigning.  Why have they not learned?  The boomers are still a large voting block, but the gen Xers and millennials can win you the election.

These systemic issues are not the only thing that can derail Hillary Clinton's inevitability.  There is always the stink of the Clinton brand. The Clinton Cash issues, and the history of Bill and Hillary may seem minor to many loyal Democrats, but they always produce smoke.  The lazy media will want a horse race, and they will keep these scandals burning.  An enterprising Democratic Party candidate can take advantage of these scandals, and media unprofessional-ism, to move up in the public perception. 

I have yet to see a candidate who could capitalize on Clinton's shortcomings.  Missouri Governor Jay Nixon had the ability, then he decided to muck up everything about Ferguson. Martin O'Malley will have the same issues with Baltimore. Bernie Sanders has some excitement, but he has a very small percentage of the party and its money (let's pray he does not become another Ralph Nader).  The Hillary Clinton campaign seems inevitable now, but there is a ways to go in this horse race.

Stay tuned.

RD Kulik

RD Kulik is the Creator and Head Editor for Seed Sing. We want your thoughts on the 2016 election.  Write for us.  RD is looking forward to the day boomer culture does not constantly infect his politics.