The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I released my pre-debate rankings a couple of days ago ( https://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2019/06/democratic-candidate-rankings-pre.html) . As I vowed, here now are my post-debate rankings, with the change in their rankings noted in parentheses: 24) John Delaney (-7) 23) Mike Gravel (+/-0) 22) Wayne Messam (+/-0) 21) John Hickenlooper (+/-0) 20) Marianne Williamson (+4) 19) Jay Inslee (+/-0) 18) Eric Swalwell (+/-0) 17) Michael Bennet (+3) 16) Andrew Yang (-5) 15) Beto O'Rourke (-8) 14) Steve Bullock (-1) 13) Tim Ryan (+3) 12) Seth Moulton (+3) 11) Bill de Blasio (+3) 10) Amy Klobuchar (-1) 9) Tulsi Gabbard (+1) 8) Joe Biden (+/-0) 7) Bernie Sanders (-2) 6) Kirsten Gillibrand (+/-0) 5) Julian Castro (+7) 4) Cory Booker (+/-0) 3) Pete Buttigieg (+/-0) 2) Elizabeth Warren (+/-0) 1) Kamala Harris (+/-0) Who should stay in? 1) Kamala Harris 2) Elizabeth Warren 3) Pete Buttigieg 4) Cory Booker 5) Julian Castro ...

Here's how I rank the Democratic candidates' debate performances from debate 1, night 2: 10) Andrew Yang : Based on what I had seen of this guy, I thought he had the potential to make a splash on the debate stage. I thought it was all but inevitable he'd provide at least one witty remark which would get talked about post-debate. How wrong I was... In a 120 minute debate, Yang spoke for approximately 3 minutes (or 2.5%). While he may have unfairly been asked fewer questions than some of the other candidates, the guy just didn't seem like he wanted to be there. I don't know if the setting was overwhelming for him or what the deal was, but as soon as the moderators called it a night, Yang sprinted out the door. Very disappointing performance. 9) Bernie Sanders : I like Bernie. I voted for him in the 2016 Ohio primary. One thing I love about the guy is he's fought tooth-and-nail for a progressive agenda for more years than I've been alive. That's part of...

Here's how I rank the Democratic candidates' debate performances from debate 1, night 1: 10) John Delaney : Some commentators thought he did a good job at making the most of his time and getting his name out there. I completely disagree. All night long, Delaney reminded me of a whack-a-mole game. No matter who was called on to answer a question, Delaney popped his head up, made a shrieking sound, and moderators attempted to quash him time and time again. Whenever I heard the guy speak, all I heard was, "Hey, hey! What about me?!? What about me?!? I'm over here! Call on me! Me! Me! Me!" 9) Beto O'Rourke : Okay, so debating is not the Texas Congressman's strong suit and once again, as I had been saying all along, I'm wondering what all the hype's about concerning this guy. He appeared nervous. There were times it looked as though he was unprepared to answer a particular question. He got shown up by Julian Castro during the discussion on immigrati...

Almost exactly 2 months ago I released my initial rankings of the 24 (yes, 24) Democratic candidates running for president in the 2020 election. With the first two Democratic debates taking place Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I thought I'd update my rankings, and then do so again following the debates. Here are my updated rankings (my initial rankings can be viewed at this link -  https://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-democratic-candidate-countdown.html ), with the change in their rankings noted in parentheses: 24) Marianne Williamson (-1): Her recent comments regarding vaccinations will need some clarification and alteration if she wants to climb out of the cellar. Even then, she'll likely only peak around 22 or 23, so... :: gives her two thumbs up and a sarcastic facial expression :: 23) Mike Gravel (+/-0): Didn't even know this guy was running for president? You're not alone. The guy is pushing 90 and is more likely to be seen at a n...

Just the other day, I saw this tweet: "Why I’m voting for Donald Trump in 2020: - 4 million+ new jobs - 400 miles of Wall Built - 450,000 new manufactuing jobs - Biggest tax cuts in history - Median household income highest ever - 3.9 million Americans off food stamps It’s not about politics. It’s about results!" As I started to continually see this very tweet posted by numerous individuals, I soon realized the tweet had gone viral and it was time for me to research its claims. Here's what I found... "4 million+ new jobs" While it's true that over 4 million jobs have been created in "President" Trump's first 28 full months in the Oval Office, that doesn't tell the whole story. Here's the breakdown: In Donald Trump's first 28 full months as "president," 5.4 million jobs have been created. In Barack Obama's final 28 full months as president, 6.171 million jobs were created. In other words, Donald Trump...

Due to a #StraightPrideParade tweet of mine, I got mentioned on several websites, including the BBC! If curious, you can check out the articles at the links below: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-48527248 http://www.religioustolerance.org/straight-pride-parade-boston.htm http://steernew.com/straight-pleasure-parade-notion-causes-scuttle/1305/ https://www.themaynepress.com/2019/06/07/calls-for-a-straight-pride-parade-cause-stir-news-2/ https://onyourdesks.com/2019/06/05/straight-pleasure-parade-realizing-causes-stir/ http://tmssmagazine.com/straight-pleasure-parade-notion-causes-rush/ You can check out all of my other tweets at this link:  https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki

As I'm known to do, I've had some fun with trending hashtags on Twitter over the past couple of weeks. Here are my posts, ordered from the most to the least popular (all my tweets can be seen at this link - https://twitter.com/CraigRozniecki ): 1) Obama reads from a teleprompter GOP: "He doesn't have any thoughts of his own! What a loser!" Trump reads from a teleprompter GOP: "What a genius! Such a patriot! He makes us proud to be Americans!" #TelePrompTer #Snark 380 Likes, 87 Retweets 2) Dear #GymJordan: Calling into question a witness's credibility is probably not something you ought to wrestle with. Just sayin'. #TrumpsWorseThanNixon 333 Likes, 107 Retweets 3) Every day is a Straight Pride Parade, as regardless of intent, heterosexuals parade privilege across the country/world, not understanding that members of the LGBT community have continually fought and sacrificed for what they take for granted. #StraightPrideParade 365 L...

On March 8th of this year, I wrote a blog titled, "Yoda: 'Time for impeachment now is not'" (Which can be read here -  https://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2019/03/yoda-time-for-impeachment-now-is-not.html ). In said post, I noted several reasons why Democrats should not go through impeachment proceedings. This was before the Mueller Report was released. Now that said report has been released, I'd like to subtly revise my previous sentiments. Donald Trump has, without question, committed impeachable offenses. The Mueller Report laid them out for Congress. Now it's time for Congress to actually do its job and hold the president accountable for his misdeeds. So the real question is, how do we go about that? Many scream, "Impeach him!" Yes, that may sound great, but it's much easier said than done and I think we'd be remiss if we didn't approach the subject matter with both caution and precision. Many seem to be of the mindset...

An idea for a Straight Pride Parade has been floated about in recent weeks and I'm here to tell everyone, regardless of the organizers' intentions, it's a straight-up bad idea. There's often debate among Straight White Christian Men's rights advocates that there's a seemingly constant societal double-standard against them. Why can there be a Black History Month but not a White History Month? Why should women's employer-based healthcare plans include contraception coverage, but not men's? Why is it okay to poke fun of Christianity but not Islam? Why can gays get their own parade but not straights? The fact of the matter is straights have a Constitutional right to hold their own pride parade. Such an event is protected by the First Amendment. That's not what this is about, though. The LGBT community doesn't hold a pride parade every year to tell the world, "Look at us! We can say we're gay because of the Constitution! Hip-hip-hooray!...