Libertarian vice-presidential candidate Bill Weld, a running mate for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and the better half of the Johnson-Weld presidential campaign, ignited a scathing ruckus within the Libertarian Party by stating that he “vouches” for Hillary Clinton, given the fact that he has held a great deal of respect, admiration, and love for Hillary, and all those things have been absolutely apparent. This was on the heels of last week’s campaign statement by Weld in which he stated the following:
Of course this was met with disgust by a number of Libertarians, including Jill Pyeatt of the Independent Political Report who was disgusted with his tone which according to her sounded like he was “giving up” and he was “kind of” endorsing Clinton.
After that Jill wrote the next following statement:
Of course, blogger and longtime on-again, off-again Libertarian activist Thomas L. Knapp of KN@PPSTER and founder of The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism, as exemplified in the first screenshot above, took Pyeatt to task for her comments on her disillusionment with, dismissal of, and turning her back on the campaign because of Weld’s ludicrous statements. Pyeatt and Tom responded back and forth to each other, with other commenters including George Phillies, a longtime Libertarian member and activist, commenting in the thread as well.
Sadly but truthfully the “statist liberal Democratic media machine” was right. Why were they right? Because, as opined by Brett Chandrashekhar on TLR, Weld is campaigning for Hillary.
I took the liberty of dialing that number and the access, and, with my phone muted, the following discussion was made. The entire time Johnson campaign manager Ron Nielson and his motley crew of cronies didn’t waste any time making excuses for Weld, as he urged everyone to “see the big picture” and the ruckus was “a miscalculation.”
Johnson appears on Fox Business’ Kennedy to justify Weld’s demeanor on the talk show circuit:
Because of what Bill Weld said on the TV circuit, any chance of the LP getting 5% from the national ticket at the state level will never come to pass. This incident has proved one thing: Weld is a disgrace to the Party. He’s shilling for Clinton. He doesn’t give a damn about the Libertarian Party and/or even any of the members who are a part of the activist base in there. He’s the reason why the Party will never get anywhere – not today and not tomorrow, not even in the far future. As long as we as members of the Party keep churning out candidates like this, it will always be doomed to fail.
The Libertarian Party, because of what happened, might as well drop the ‘Party of Principle’ moniker because that principle is rather pretty homeless these days. The Party that was the home of radicals, purists, and David Nolan is now a shadow of its former self.
Weld is a turncoat in the eyes of many Libertarians. And that’s the sad, unfortunate reality that has become endemic of this political organization. It’s hard *NOT* to notice this fact, and it’s maddening to think otherwise.
The Party needs to decide what kind of a Party it wants to be. Does it want to be a Party so that it will house the hearts, minds, and souls of the member base that is ideologically pure libertarian, or does it want to be a Party so that it will operate as a statist, collectivistic entity to dilute and eviscerate its own principles, not to mention its rules, so that it can and will become a corrupt third major party?
We all might as well be tyrants, and I mean the Raspin and Ghengis Khan kind.
Leave a light on for tyranny, social engineering, and an autocratic society, right? Yup, yup, yup.
This blog piece is dedicated to Michelle “Shelly” Gregoire who has just left the Libertarian Party due to what William Weld has done and how many of his apologists have treated her and what they said to her. This piece is a hat tip to her.
The most recent ruckus involving the surfacedvideos of and allegations against Donald Trump has been a top subject of supreme discussion and debate all around the nation. Media pundits and journalists have been on record, including top Republican officials such as governors, congressmen, and senators, as blasting Trump over the comments he made circa 2005 regarding a conversation he had with then-Access Hollywood star Billy Bush (who’s a current, although now suspended, co-host of NBC‘s Today Show) – a conversation regarding a woman that Trump failed to hit on (who turns out to be none other than then-Hollywood Access lead star Nancy O’Dell) that was caught on a hot microphone in which he stated the following:* {*Note: A video is included as well.]
Donald Trump: I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it.** [**Second Note: The tape was recorded several months after he married his third wife, Melania, who was pregnant with their son Barron.]
Another Voice: Whoa!
Trump: I did try and fuck her. She was married. [Continues.]And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, “I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.”
Trump: I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”
[At that point in the recording, Trump and Bush begin to notice and see Arianne Zucker, the star of Days of Our Lives who is waiting to escort them into the soap opera set of the show.]
Billy Bush: Your girl’s hot as shit. In the purple.
Trump: Whoa! Whoa! I’ve got to use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.
Billy Bush: Whatever you want.”
Trump: Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.
Of course the Donald was on the Howard Stern Show circa 1997, making horrendous comments about women with whom he has had sex, referring to the acts as his “personal Vietnam,” which can be viewed in the following video:
Here’s a YouTube of that video as well:
It doesn’t help the fact that People Magazine journalist Natasha Stoynoff recalls her encounter with Trump, in which she claims that the Donald “sexually assaulted” her. This is how she details it:
Once the videos and the allegations came out, it’s become a media storm ever since. U.S. House of Representative Jason Chaffetz, according to Politico, told CNN in the following video:
Celebrities like Emmy Rossum and Rosie O’Donnell became outraged by what Donald said. And they kept tweeting, becoming angry by what they had seen and heard from a man who thinks grabbing a “woman’s pussy” is A-okay.
(I’m also including three videos that aired on CNN which happen to be on-air, publicized clashes between anti-Trump Republican Ana Navarro and Trump shill Scottie Nell Hughes.)
Video 1:
YouTube:
Video 2:
YouTube:
Video 3:
YouTube:
And here’s a posting of tweets Rosie made on October 9:
MY THOUGHTS ON THE TRUMP VIDEOS AND ALLEGATIONS MATTER
Here’s the reality that everyone seems to be forgetting. I condemn what former President Bill Clinton did to Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey, and Juanita Broaddrick. The fact that he had a much-publicized dalliance with a White House intern made me nauseas for days and months on end in the mid-to-late 1990s; however, it was consensual, despite the fact that it was shameful of him to cheat on Hillary at the time. But rulers in positions of powers have done that for centuries. Has anyone heard the sexual activities of England’s King Henry VIII? Did anyone know that Ann Boleyn was raped while still married to the King at the time?
At the same time I condemn what Trump has said on these videos and also condemn him for making these statements. After all, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are morally-bankrupt, ethically-bankrupt, and anti-freedom reprehensible reprobates, and Hillary is a war machine-producing, pro-military (yet anti-troop), anti-freedom reprobate as well. They all are vicious liars – pathetic to the core, corrupt in mind, body, and soul, and evil to the bone. The Trump supporters are trying to make excuses for Trump’s putrid and repugnant behavior. That doesn’t sit well with most of the electorate, and I think that matters in the grand scheme of things.
Trump supporters say that this was “locker room talk” and that women do the same thing when they talk to other women in private, even if the conversation’s on hot mike. Personally I don’t know a single woman who has told her girl friends their version of a so-called locker room talk the following: “See that guy Tim Tebow over there? I would love to have his hot and juicy hard cock bouncing around in the back of my throat while I’m gagging off of him. I mean, who wouldn’t dream of his Ball Park hot dog squirting mozarella cheese into the back of my throat? Man, if he squirted his chewy semen into my mouth, I would swish it around like it was Crest mouthwash.”
But that’s just it. A woman would have far more dignity than that to say that about a guy whom she just saw, and a guy would have far more dignity than to say that about a woman whom he just met. No guy and girl would ever say that about anyone. I don’t know anyone who would say shit like that. Some guys and girls might joke around a bit, but they know their real limits. The questions that no one is asking are these: would anyone say these things in private, let alone in public, whether you’re on a hot microphone or not? If you were a woman, would you say them? I don’t think so. If you were a guy, would you do the same about a woman? I don’t think so either. I don’t in public and private. I’m better than that, and people should be, especially about people whom they don’t know from Adam.
Sheldon Richman, writing in his Free Association blog, pens the following:
He’s right and wrong. He’s right in saying that Obama’s murders and havoc at home and abroad are the real issues, and not the sexual assault matter. But sexual assaults do matter. They matter more than anyone else will ever know.
And it’s time – high time – that we address this concern for what it is. It is a problem here in the U.S.
What I find objectionable from the left and the celebrities talking about Trump is that, while they condemn what Trump has done and it does need to be condemned, they don’t condemn what ISIS and other Arab leaders and Arab men in their native homelands do to women, as far as raping and sexually assaulting them. Rape culture is predominant there, not here. The Patriarchy exists there, not here.
Can’t we all just be honest for a change? Please? Is that too much to ask?
HBO‘s Real Time with Bill Maher host Bill Maher, while interviewing show guest and comic Sarah K. Silverman, went on a “whiny-liberal-prick-and-bitch-fest” over Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson because a poll directed at a demographic of 18 – 34 years old people was issued with results indicating Hillary Clinton was at 31%, Donald Trump at 26%, and Johnson….at 29%. That pissed off Bill Maher, who immediately with the help of Silverman called Johnson “a fucking idiot.” Of course Maher proceeded to state that Johnson was in Maher’s “basket of fucking idiots.”
Here’s the entire clip of the segment as follows:
This is what took place as the following in this transcript of the segment of the show:
Bill Maher: Now let me read the polls here on Clinton, 18 – 34 people. Clinton 31%, Trump 26, Gary Johnson….29%. Gary Johnson.
Sarah Silverman: Gary Johnson.
Maher: Gary Johnson….
Silverman: Listen.
Maher: ….is a fucking idiot. [Audience laughs and claps.]
Silverman: [Talking out loud through the audience clapping] I thought he was a fucking idiot.
Maher: I like him. He’s a nice guy, but he’s another in my basket of fucking idiots.
Silverman: Listen, I…I voted, and I believe you did, in 2000 for Ralph Nader.
Maher: Yes.
Silverman: But this is not that kind of time.
Maher: [Talking over Silverman while she was making her above comment to him] But he wasn’t an idiot.
Silverman: No, he wasn’t an idiot.
Maher: [Syncing his comment with hers] Right, he wasn’t an idiot.
Silverman: But he wasn’t gonna win.
Maher: [Talking over her again] No, and it was a mistake.
Silverman: [Talking over Maher at the same time] We wanted to vote our conscience.
Maher: I admitted it.
Silverman: It was a mistake.
Maher: Ok, but Gary Johnson…can I show you a little….we put a little montage –
Silverman: [Getting excited] Mmmhmmm. [Chuckles a little]
Maher: – of Gary Johnson together just to rem – and, and we all thought, thought he was a cool guy. You know, he smokes pot, he was [panelist Angela Rye snickers] for pot, but he does not make pot look good by the way.
Silverman: [Interrupting Bill as he says the “by the way” words] Pot doesn’t make you cool.
Maher: Right.
Silverman: Pot is cool.
Maher: Pot is cool, but –
Silverman: [interrupting Bill] It doesn’t make you cool.
Maher: But you know what’s also cool? Reading!
Silverman: [smiles and gives a slight laugh but also agrees with him]
Maher: Here’s a little bit of Gary Johnson for those thinking of voting for him.
Angela Rye: So weird.
Maher: Really? [Audience laughs cruelly] And….by the way, for the people, 29%, 18 – 34, who I assume were Bernie people, right? Ok, here’s some, uh…minimum wage…..Hillary’s with Bernie. Not Gary Johnson. He believes in no minimum wage. TPP [Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal]……he’s for that. Hillary and Bernie are against it. Citizens United…..all the money you want in politics! Gun control….[Johnson] wants none of that. Financial regulation, universal health care….he is for repealing ObamaCare. Free college….he’s against that. He’s for nothing you fucking people want!
Silverman: It’s not even like it’s any….no one’s misinforming them about him –
Maher: Right.
Silverman: – like they are….like with your friend. You know, it’s like people…..people of [unintelligible, because Maher and two members of the panel are laughing] what, what….
Rye: You know, that’s true.
Silverman: What you were saying was exactly right. People vote because they’re totally misinformed, and that is a real thing. You know, there is something called Brexit that people voted for totally against their best –
Stephen Moore: Yaay Brexit! You against Brexit?
Rye: Are you serious? [looking at Steve]
Silverman: I, I, um…
Moore: [Talking over Silverman] Brexit is great, self-government-wise! What were you, why were you against Brexit?
Silverman: [interrupting Steve] What are you talking about? They promised…they had huge signs on the sides of buses that said, ” You know, $325 million goes to the EU [European Union] that could, could be going to our health care.
Moore: That’s….not true.
Silverman: They had *NO* intention of sending it, no intention of Brexit voted through. Then people are Googling what Brexit is after they voted it in.
Peter Hamby: Gary Johnson -.
Maher: [Quickly interrupting Hamby] A pundit.
Hamby: A pundit!
Silverman: [Interrupting Maher] I’m passionate.
Maher: [Interrupting Silverman again] Yes!
Silverman: [Interrupting Maher once again] Oh, don’t show my neck. My neck goes crazy when I have passion.
Maher: You know, you know….
Moore: [Laughs]
Silverman: [Gives Maher a serious, dirty look]
Maher: You know what would help a lot. Exfoliating! [Then bursts in snickering laughter]
Silverman: [Smiles with her mouth open] Good! I think of you every day!
Maher: [Laughs hysterically]
Silverman: My dry brush….
Hamby: Gary Johnson is clearly unfit to be president. What exacerbates me about Gary Johnson not knowing these things – and the collective exacerbation about it – is that neither does Donald Trump.
Maher: Right.
[The audience applauses while Hamby and Maher say those things.]
Hamby: And the problem is that a year ago people should be giving Donald Trump pop quizzes: Name me five countries of NATO. What’s the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah? How does a bill become a law? [Everyone begins to speak at once] Doesn’t Donald Trump know this?
Maher: [interrupting Hamby] No, he doesn’t.
Hamby: I don’t think he does.
And so the entire segment ends there. But it’s not a surprise given the hostile nature of the panelists involved in the Gary Johnson – and some Donald Trump – bashing.
Because of this episode, I have cancelled my DVR subscription to Real Time. I am no longer watching the show because Maher and his weekly panel of guests galore are toxic. They are filled with hatred for liberty, hatred for liberty, and hatred for individualism and free markets. They sure do love their liberal statism. And that has become the top, cardinal hallmark of Real Time with Bill Maher.
The Aleppo incident was launched by Mike Barnicle on MNSBC‘s Morning Joe to attack Gary Johnson, disparage him, and to throw a gotcha question at him, considering he threw in the Aleppo question at Gary during his interview on the show just to catch him off-guard.
The question that Barnicle asked was the following:
What would you do if you were elected about Aleppo?
Johnson was puzzled by that question. He asked:
And what is Aleppo?
Barnicle was shocked at his answer. He asked the following interrogative to Gary:
You’re kidding?
Johnson said:
No.
Barnicle replies:
Aleppo is in Syria. It’s the, uh, the epicenter of the refugee crisis –
Johnson interrupts him:
Ok, got it.
Of course, it’s not like Johnson *REALLY* didn’t know what Aleppo was. He did acknowledge that he thought Barnicle was asking him about an acronym, although he admitted that it was no excuse, and he sincerely apologized for it. But Barnicle’s question was poorly worded and quite vague. Remember, we are dealing with a hack writer who resigned from The Boston Globe over two columns written three years apart from each other. One column contained some lines that resembled jokes that were pilfered from the late George Carlin‘s 1997 book Brain Droppings.
The following Wikipedia pic evidences that in great detail.
Oh, as for the cancer-afflicted kids in the second column? The Globe was unable to find Barnicle’s sources and couldn’t publicly identify them, and yet Barnicle defended his column, saying that every word he wrote was true.
So we have a disgraced writer who is the co-host of a network morning TV show who plagarized from a deceased comic by stealing jokes and using them as his own without any attributions or references to Carlin and who deceived his readers and the Globe by writing a column that failed to identify the names of the kids’ parents, and only got this non-fact-checked story from a nurse whose own credibility can be measured by the digits of her hands.
As for Johnson’s “Aleppo moment ” on Hardball with Chris Matthews, he’s since apologized for that, but he did say he meant to tell Matthews that his favorite foreign leader was former Mexican president Vicente Fox. Matthews asked Gary, “Who is your favorite foreign leader?” My response to that is: What the hell of a kind of question is that? Asking a Libertarian presidential candidate who his favorite foreign leader is is like asking a vegan what his favorite meat entree is. No libertarian – not even a credible Libertarian – would willfully answer that question because he or she doesn’t have a favorite foreign leader. Johnson did reveal that Fox was his favorite, but my only criticism of him is that he should have said, “I don’t have a favorite foreign leader, because it’s a silly question, and I don’t idolize or even admire any of them, past or current.”
Oh, but we have to ignore Johnson’s great responses about our foreign policy of interventionism (which he argues should be one of non-interventionism), calling for the end of the Drug War, calling for the strong reformation of our judicial system, and restoring our free market. Oh, and yeah, he even had great answers regarding Syria, our crushing of foreign regimes and our giving those countries weapons which land in the hands of ISIS, and a free market would end climate change. How about that for a change?
Yes, Gary drew a blank on that question and the Aleppo question, but so what? Did Trump not have more embarrassing gaffes? Did Clinton not come up with the mediocre responses to those questions?
Yes, Bill Maher. Gary Johnson. He’s not “a fucking idiot.” It’s funny that you knock him down after you had him on your show for an interview, and you were even condescending to him then. It doesn’t mean anything to you that you cherry pick “facts” and present them to your audiences *AS IF* they are true, and you and I and everyone know they aren’t. You’re the one who doesn’t have his facts; I do. As a Johnson supporter, I know this, and yet you don’t.
If anything, Bill, you *ARE* a fucking idiot, and you’re another in my basket of fucking idiots.