Asking Democrats a question usually aimed at Republicans

For the past 30 years, political pundits have wondered why working-class Republicans vote against their own interests. For their GOP backing they get “trickle-down” economics that never trickles down, cuts in social services, lay-offs as jobs go overseas, a rigged tax system benefiting the wealthy, and war, endless war, etc.

Now the same can be asked of Democratic voters supporting Hillary Clinton.

It’s easy to see where Clinton’s loyalties lie. Just look where her money comes from. Those mega donations from anonymous PACs and from the super-rich will call the shots in her administration.

The “little money” is going to Bernie Sanders for obvious reasons. He’s a populist in the best sense of the word. He’s not afraid to talk about inequality and a rigged and corrupt political/financial system.

So why is Clinton considered the odds-on favorite to win the nominations…at this point in the campaign?

Primarily because the media are creating an environment of inevitability about her success. And why would they do that? Because the power brokers, who buy ads that keep media fat, happy and blind, back Hillary, their protector. Indeed, much of the media is owned by those same power brokers.

Last year I watched Clinton quietly breeze into this city for a day and head straight for the blue-stocking, gated community of Dunthorpe. No visits to daycare centers, women’s shelters or pediatric wards. Hillary held a reception in a mansion and raked in a few hundred grand from Portland’s richest. And then she left, headed for LA. and you know who.

Just days later, Sanders rented the biggest hall he could find here, the MODA basketball stadium, and filled it to overflowing. The crowd count was 28,000. The donations were pocket change compared to the checks written in Dunthorpe for Hillary.

Then consider those six-figure speaking fees that Clinton gathers from corporate lobbyists interested in having her in their pockets. And what about the mega-donations the morally-challenged Saudi Royal Family funnels into the Clinton Foundation?

What’s the pay-off? Vote for Hillary and you’ll find out.

Meanwhile Sanders wants to break up the “Too Big to Fail” banks to avoid yet another financial meltdown and taxpayer bailout. He calls for affordable higher education and universal health care. He wants to put people to work HERE in decent paying jobs that will repair and improve our infrastructure.

So the question is the same for Democrats as for Republicans in this election year. Will you vote to solve pressing societal interests or to continue and expand welfare for the rich?

Ferrari worth a Fortune in Fables

When they announced the winning bid for the Ferrari — $38.1 million — the crowd at the Bonham's auction in Monterey, California, cheered the record price.

Sold was a rare, curvaceous, powerful, red 1962 240 GTO Berlinetta.

Bottom line, it is no more than a collection of metal parts. This one had been crashed and rebuilt. Here in Oregon its title wouldn’t be considered “clear.”

My first reaction to the fall of the auctioneer’s gavel was to ask: what might $38.1 million buy besides this?

Scholarships for the talented and gifted poor.

Retirement of student debt.

Care for the sick (think ebola in West Africa).

Wells and water for thirsty, drought-stricken villages.

Homes for the homeless.

The list is endless.

But somewhere, someone with $38.1 million in loose change decided in his wisdom that highest and best use in this troubled world was ownership of this car.

Not surprisingly, the possessor of this “pride of ownership” was not revealed. Somebody knows what hubris is.

No, I did not cheer the sale. I wondered why others would.

We are told that shock turns to anger, then grief, then acceptance.

Now, five days after the sale, I have arrived at “creative therapy.”

The sale of the Ferrari stretches the imagination.

For one thing, $38.1 million is no longer locked up in some bank account. The Ferrari had freed it. The money could go to work.

But doing what?

Who got the check? And what would that person (or persons) do with the money? After all, the the car had been owned by one family for 49 years, from 1965 to 2014. Why did they sell it? Boredom? They got tired of red? They were in the red?

I began to imagine scenarios. Some uplifting, some ironic, some funny, some even more outrageous than the sale itself.

Here are a few:

What does one do with a car like this? Where can one go and not be A, envied, B despised or C shunned? At Walmart they gawk. At the Ritz, they see uncouth ostentation.

What does one say to: “Hey Dad, can I take the Ferrari tonight?”

What does one say to the dying, emaciated ebola patient who is told the news in his crowded death tent in Liberia?

What happens when the owner is “outed”?

Call a press conference? Hire a PR firm? Subject oneself to questions about the homeless, the starving, the thirsty? About those forced to travel on foot, in the heat, without shoes or superchargers?

Auditioned response: “I’ll have to get back to you on that one….”

Too dangerous to park in public. Hire motorcycle escorts and body guards. How about trucking the beast for safety’s sake? After all, Mercedes make really nice trucks. You can even sleep in them. Try that in the GTO.

The shrewd seller, with $38.1 mil in his pocket might use the money to buy, oh 38 new Ferraris at a million a crack and watch them appreciate.

Maybe the buyer is trying to impress a certain someone. Good luck with that. Stay clear of certain someones impressed by a $38.1 million Ferrari. Then again perhaps Ferrari-infatuated couples deserve each other. But wait, who gets to drive the Berlinetta? A stablemate is needed. The Rolls will no longer do.

Suddenly you need another Ferrari.

There’s this guy I know who just bought 38 of them….There’s an auction house crowd eager to cheer as you bid up the price.

Aesop wrote fables. Why not Ferrari?

Who are those guys?

You could feel this one coming. The Romney bit about the 47 percent delivered to fellow multimillionaires.

Here’s a man who:

• admits he enjoys firing people.

• mysteriously refuses to make public more than two years of tax returns even as he accuses nearly half of us of not paying taxes.

• builds a mansion with elevators...for his cars.

• unblinkingly and in full public view offers $10,000 bets with fellow politicians. (Mormons like Mr. Romney, by the way, are forbidden to gamble, but never mind....)

• portrays his wife’s owning “a couple of Caddies” as a sign of patriotism and modesty. At least she doesn’t own a half dozen Roll Royces....that we know of.

If nothing else, this campaign has given the voters insight into the perspective and values of the isolated and insulated rich who so heartily back Romney and share his views.

Just who are these people? We are finding out, thanks to Romney and his candor.

But there’s more. We have another 50 days of campaigning and three debates to learn about this cozy culture of one per-centers who think so little of us and so much of themselves.

Pay attention, and don’t forget to vote.