“We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” President John F. Kennedy at the Yale University Commencement, 1962.

We all think the other guy listens and reads Fake News and we are right. The other guy does listen to Fake News and we are all, to somebody, the other guy. By way of example, here are a couple of headlines from June 20th. After Iran’s Drone Attack, Trump Says This Country ‘Will Not Stand for It‘ is from the New York Times, whose default position is that Trump is more dangerous than a box of snakes, and the headline and the accompanying article suggest that Trump might attack Iran any time. Over at Fox, whose default position is that Trump is close to the Second Coming, the headline is: Measured Responses Ahead – Top lawmakers speak out after Situation Room briefing with Trump on Iran Threat suggests a more reasoned response, while, over at Al Jazeera the headline also suggests Trump is more reasonable: Iran accuses US of ‘provocation’ as Trump downplays drone strike. All are factual and all are filtered news and, to a certain extent, Fake News.

There seem to be two groups of Democrats, people who are already for a candidate – and I am sort of in that camp, having several people I favor and several that, right now, I wouldn’t vote for – and people who want to wait until they hear from everybody. My pitch is that no matter what group you fall in, if you are going to vote, you should watch the upcoming debates. They will probably be the only unfiltered look at the candidates that we will ever get. I’m a political junkie so the fact that I enjoyed the 2016 debates might not count for much, but enjoyment is not the main purpose here, one of these people might end up running the country and, even if you view spending two hours out of your life watching the debates as a pain in the ass, this year we do need to pay attention. All that said, I watched both the Democratic and Republican debates four years ago and the earlier ones, especially, were fascinating; there were more people and a bigger range of answers that seemed less processed.

The first night, Wednesday, June 26 – at 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo – will feature Senator Cory Booker, former San Antonio Mayor and HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Maryland Congressperson John Delaney, Hawaii Congressperson Tulsi Gabbard, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Former Congressperson Beto O’Rourke, Ohio Congressperson Tim Ryan, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (in alphabetical order). Yikes! that is a long list – it’s hard not to drift off in the middle – clearly Elizabeth Warren is the heavyweight in this group but I am also interested in how Tulsi Gabbard and Jay Inslee will do. And why is Castro almost invisible in this race? He is a very impressive guy.

The second night, Thursday, June 27 – same time and place – will feature Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, Former Vice-President Joe Biden, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, California Senator Kamala Harris, Colorado Governor Hickenlooper, Bernie Sanders, and almost local, to me, Congressperson Eric Swalwell, along with two interesting and more serious than they, at first, might seem, outsiders, self-help guru Marianne Williamson, and businessman turned social media star Andrew Yang. Like the Republicans in 2016, the debaters who poll highest will be in the middle so Biden and Sanders will be next to each other, the archetype political glad-hander next to the political loner should be very interesting.

Watch the debates; not only is being an informed Citizen good for you, it is good for the Country. The debates are on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo, Wednesday and Thursday, June 26th and 27th at 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time.

Mike Gravel says he is running for President but what he really wants to do is stand on the sidelines and throw Truth Bombs. OK, that’s way too snide, too snide to actually encompass the bigger truth – but I liked the line so I kept it – to say it more accurately, as Gravel says on his ActBlue Donate page, Sen. Mike Gravel is trying to qualify for the Democratic debates to force the conversation to the left and criticize Wall Street Democrats like Joe Biden to their faces. He is 87, and that, among other drawbacks, make his chances of getting the nomination zero but what he has to say should be heard, in my opinion, and the way to do that is to get him to the debate which is why I’m suggesting you send him a buck.

I understand that Gravel is considered a fringe candidate but only in today’s strange main-stream media feedback loop, wherein war is considered sensible and we can’t afford the Green New Deal to save the planet because we have to give very rich people a tax cut. Gravel is considered a fringe candidate because he is supposed to be a leftist looney. That Gravel is a leftist is true, certainly by today’s standards, after all, he is against our continual war going all the way back to Vietnam – he was instrumental in getting The Pentagon Papers published – and very pro doing something big about Global Climate Change. It is pretty easy to say that he is looney – just look at his campaign ad below – but I think it is more useful to think of him as an eccentric old uncle that always tells the truth even when it is embarrassing. As FiveThirtyEight said: He is a former two-term United States senator, and while his candidacy is not plausible, it is principled. Send him a buck, it’ll be worth it.

I am in favor of Impeaching Trump. More accurately, I am in favor of Impeaching Trump if he is guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors or if he hasn’t committed any High Crimes or Misdemeanors, shutting up about the whole thing. It seems to me that what Speaker Pelosi is doing by saying: “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” is totally misguided. If Trump has committed crimes worthy of prison – and if is the operative word here – then he should not be president. This statement seems to me to be exactly what so many people hate about inside the beltway politics.

Laurence Tribe, a Constitutional legal scholar at Harvard Law School, has come up with a workaround. As I understand it, Pelosi thinks Trump is guilty of High Crimes or Misdemeanors but is concerned that most people – or so we are told by polls – don’t want him Impeached. Tribe says House Impeachment Inquiry —> House Hearing of Both Sides —> Verdict of high Crimes —> Choice by House of Representatives between (a) House Resolution of Condemnation (no Senate trial) or (b) Impeachment Trial in Senate. It is an interesting article by somebody who has actually thought about it. Check it out.

…are two movies that I really liked but have been hesitant to recommend. They are documentaries which is a plus in my book but not in everybody’s and they are political which might turn off even more people. My fear is that they are mediocre movies and I only enjoyed them – thoroughly, I might add – because I liked the plot and am stunned senseless by my infatuation with the stars, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. Maybe that is the case but I don’t think so, especially because they are garnering awards at Film Festivals. The movies are similar in that they both involve unknown women running against the Democratic establishment in the primaries; in Time for Omar’s case, it is for the Minnesota Senate in 2016 and in Knock Down the House, it is four women, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Amy Vilela of Nevada, Cori Bush of Missouri, and Paula Jean Swearengin of West Virginia running in the 2018 Federal primaries.

Both of these films take place when Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez were still unknowns before they became national figures. National heroes to some, including me, and arch villains to others. AOC, as Alexandria is almost universally known, is probably the most famous because she has been instrumental in making progressive policies, especially The Green New Deal, acceptable talking points and she is featured – in the negative – so often on FOX. Ilhan, because of her vocal disapproval of Isreal’s policy towards Palestinians, is one of those rare people to draw the ire of both Republican President Trump and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

I have written this paragraph several times, trying to explain why I think both these movies would be worth your time but I’ve come to the conclusion that my best bet is just to show the trailers. Time for Omar is available of Amazon and Knock Down the House is available on Netflix.

This election will be the turning point for our country and our planet. Time is running out to do something about climate change…Governor Jay Inslee.

Inslee is a serious candidate for President, his signature issue is the climate, and he deserves to be heard. He is the progressive Governor of the progressive state of Washington so he has actually run a large bureaucracy. The problem is that there are so many interesting people running for President that it is easy to lose a good candidate in the clutter unless they get to the debate stage. If you send him five bucks, it will help get him to the first Debate,

To be clear about where I am coming from; I am a big Bernie fan, I love Elizabeth Warren and would vote for her if I had to vote this afternoon, but I would prefer somebody younger than either of them. I think Hawaiian Representative Tulsi Gabbard is worth looking at – especially because of her consistent and well thought out antiwar stance – and then I sort of get lost in a sea of candidates that may or may not be good. The more serious people we hear give their pitch, the better.

Please go to jayinslee.com/ourmoment and send him five bucks.