That said, with that qualifier, the word "chickenshit" is indeed apropos. Is it surprising? No. The man who gave Trump a two-hour campaign strategy meeting in early 2016, and said he wouldn't mind running with Trump as his Veep, but then later said he didn't have a lot of things in common with Trump, does have being chickenshit in common with Trump.
In reality, here's what happened, as I see it, based off that initial post and related thoughts.
First, Jesse apparently had intermediaries (we call them "minions" here) submit a letter of interest to the Green Party's presidential campaign oversight folks on or about April 23. If you look at his Twitter timeline and parse it carefully, which you have to do with this Just.Another.Politician.™ par excellence, he apparently didn't write or send this letter himself.
Why?
Per the likes of Dwight D. Eisenhower and other prezzies since on national security issues?
Plausible deniability.
The idea would be something like:
"A lot of folks have been pushing me to run for the Green Party presidential nomination. I personally thought it was too late to get in the race this year, but, in case it's not, and to satisfy these political boosters, I asked some of them to draft a letter of interest on my part to the Green Party."
Since said presidential oversight folks at the Just.Another.Political.Party™ Green Party have NOT seen fit to make this letter public — I said on the GP's official Facebook page it should be done without the likes of me having to ask and beg for it — we don't know what's in it. So, I'm going to do a bit of speculation.
(Update, June 26: A week ago, I asked the party's Presidential Campaign Support Committee, by email not webmail, to cough up the letter. Hasn't happened.)
So, second, as the Jesse-stanning was already happening in 2018, and since, as noted in my first post, Jesse is dead meat to the Libertarian Party, he knew that the Greens — unless he wanted to go someplace smaller, like the Constitution Party, which would have rejected him — were his only real political choice outside of going independent.
But, by not writing the piece himself, he could look like a disinterested bystander.
In reality, I think the interest was 75 percent organic on Jesse's part, and 25 percent on various Jesse-stanners, many of whom, like him, may have conspiracy theory elements in their background, be haters of Howie Hawkins over his take on Russia, with which I agree more than I disagree, and similar things.
I think Jesse himself has eyed the GP nomination process enough to know that there is some dissatisfaction with Hawkins but that Dario Hunter hasn't been able to gain traction.
That's that.
Third, Jesse was a hypocrite on this. He called out Primo Nutbar for allegedly posting a clickbait Tweet, and claimed all he had done was endorse the Green Party and was being misinterpreted. Yet, he had "authorized" this letter.
(Update, June 26: Primo broke the news two weeks earlier that Jesse was crapping in the bed of the Green Party and would write in his own name for prez. Here's my take on not only that basic fact, but related, and ongoing, censorship by the Green Party, since their official Facebook group IS official that makes the censorship official.)
Third, part two: Who was playing good cop and who was bad cop? Were Primo, or a Bill Cimbrelo, in on this from the start?
Fourth, then, what was likely in that letter?
I suspect Jesse was asking, through his surrogates, if delegates that have already been chosen are formally bound and pledged to a certain candidate. I think he figured if he could pick off 20 percent of Hawkins' support, and most all of Hunter's, he could pull this off.
(Update, May 27: And, I think I know what particular reasoning was/is behind that. Libertarian Party presidential delegates are NOT bound. All LP state primaries AND caucuses/conventions are "beauty contest" only. Given Jesse's Libertarian background, I think this explains why he thought he could see if something similar was the fact, or at least a possibility, among Greens.)
And, I have officially webmailed the party with a request for the PDF of the letter as well as spelling out whether pledged delegates are "bound" or not.
I have been told they are bound, but first-ballot only. I'd like official confirmation. And, I'd like clarification if that's a state GP rule, and if so, does national GP have ANY rule? (I've seen seen more that, while state parties make the rules here, with most states, they're bound, at least for that first ballot.)
I'd also like to see the letter for other reasons.
Did it ask if the convention, before voting for presidential candidates, could vote to suspend those rules?
Did it ask, "decentalization" key value aside, if the national party could intercede with state parties on any state party deadlines that were party-imposed, and not state officialdom imposed? This ties to the above. It also ties to other issues that are fixing to come to a head on this site and likely at the convention.
I have found an old set of rules for the convention, but can't find a thing about whether delegates are bound or not, or whether the national GP even has a rule if state parties do not.
Given the "decentralization disorganization" that the GP sometimes has, Jesse may have figured that it would be a lot of hassle to ask for "relief" from the rules with state parties that have already had conventions or primaries, and that, per my initial post, he'd have to hope for a lot of butt-kissing stanners in positions of power in several different state parties.
Fourth, a special sidebar: The reasons I'd like to see that letter have only been increased by new news as of yesterday. Jesse claimed "the logistics are not going to happen." He claimed he'd have to give up his job and lose health insurance. I have no idea what this claim means. If he means his RT talk show? The Fairness Doctrine doesn't exist, so no, he wouldn't have to do that, and it's questionable whether RT being registered as a foreign agent means he'd have to quit. If he means that he'd have to not work in order to actively campaign? That was always going to be the case.
This gets more "delicious" with another story from this announcement, where he says he's open to the GP nominating him at a brokered convention. Really, Jesse? But, wouldn't you still have to quit your RT job because it's RT, or else just to have time to actively campaign? In either case, the same limitations apply as if you decided to run now.
What a lying sack of shit. Or box of dicks.
Beyond that, Jesse is over 65 and thus eligible for Medicare.
There's also one other possibility. Maybe Jesse didn't want to have to file an FEC financial disclosure, for whatever reason. That TOO would make him like Trump.
Fourth, part two, whose names were actually on the letter?
Fifth, will I get an actual response? Heh, heh.
Sixth, will I write a follow-up if I don't? Heh, heh, heh.
Update to the last two points, May 16: On May 13, I got a "welcome to the Green Party" form letter email back. I immediately responded with this: "Hey, thanks for sending me a form letter. Now, send me a copy of the letter of interest that Jesse Ventura's minions sent the Party. I asked for it a full week ago or more."
Update, May 27: My response to that form letter has not received a reply.
No comments:
Post a Comment