caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

My how the world has changed.
It just changes more slowly than we'd like.
Consider these recent headlines:

TheWeek: Bernie Sanders has conquered the Democratic Party

Politico: How the Bernie Wing Won the Democratic Primaries

So, Demonratic Trump collusion story has melted like snowfall in Miami, taking 14 months to do so. No evidence is final determination of House Intel Committee as it wraps up months of wasted work, much of it wasted by two things: lying Jim Comey (and Brennan, Clapper, and a host of others) and by whining Mad Adam Schiff, appearing on 250 talk shows in 14 months--I wonder how much WE spent on his cab fare to the TV studios.

They released a new study of non-voters, and it showed that without question the strategy of establishment Democrats won't work.

Cynthia Nixon is still a long ways back in the polls, but she's moving up.

The Worthy, from newsbud.com (h/t Café denizen Jacob Freeze)

The Worthy: According to RT:  Jeffrey Sachs,  economist, UN special adviser, and Colombia University professor told MSNBC’s Morning Joe program that the current situation in Syria is a “US mistake that started seven years ago.”

Those seven years have been a “disaster,” he said, recalling a covert CIA operation called ‘Operation: Timber Sycamore.’ The US “started a war to overthrow a regime.”

You know that you have politicians scared when they overreact.
That's what Republican politicians in Colorado have done.

Last year we were told that we couldn't afford Medicare For All because it would cost an extra $1.4 Trillion in taxes a year. That number was largely accepted by the media.
I got to thinking that there's a real chance that this study was nothing but a guess.
But how would one know?

From the 'you can't make this shit up' files. Hillary had been involved in government long enough to know and understand the rules of what she needed to do with her emails after her tenure was over. As well as the rules for handling classified information with an email account. But I guess she thought that rules only applied to everyone else but her. And why wouldn't she think that she could do whatever she wanted to?

Democrats are in a full-throated cry for Russian blood, but when the G7 meets today new Russian sanctions will not be on the agenda.

I've pointed out that Turkey and the U.S. are in an armed standoff over the city of Manbij, Syria.
Largely overlooked is a dangerous escalation of tensions between two NATO allies.

Surprise, surprise! The destitute and prostitute DNC has now spread its proverbial legs (quite stubby now after HRC's embarrassing defeat) and invites the legal system to "fuck me--I got it coming!" They have filed a lawsuit that looks like the Smallville phonebook in an effort to squeeze money and propaganda out of anybody they can with their indiscriminate defendant list.

Happy Day Earth!

Like George Carlin, I find it ironic to hear pleas to save the planet. What they are really saying is save our species. St. George suggests the Earth may have created us because it wanted plastic. It sure succeeded if that's the case. But the microbes may have the last word. The idea of plastic eating microbes (well really it is a mutant bacterial enzyme, PETase) is appealing, but it seems every time we meddle it comes out bad. The story of rabbits in Australia comes to mind. George's dream of our final fate is also worth considering. None the less, I suspect we would be better off to minimize the manufacture, use, and dispersal of plastic. https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/

It doesn't take a genius to predict this outcome.
Almost no bankers got thrown in jail for systemic fraud, and few bankers lost their jobs for making stupid loans.
So with no consequences, why not do it all again but repackaged, amirite?

Charlie Pierce calls them "death funnels" and he's exactly right. He's referring to pipelines designed to transport Alberta Tar Sand, the dirtiest fuel on the planet, to refineries or ports to refineries that can turn it into technically more usable types of oil. It never gets very good, more the type you can lubricate heavy machinery with or burn in a particularly wasteful in the smoggy toxic sense power plant, barely better than coal.

It's basically asphalt, suitable for paving and not much else and it makes as much economic sense as tearing up roads or taking used tires to achieve the same effect, which is to say none at all in the current market where solar and wind are dirt cheap, batteries are getting less expensive by the hour, and fracked oil and natural gas are driving Saudi Arabia into bankruptcy. In fact the only way you don't operate at a loss simply from mining and refinery costs is if the price of crude is well over $70 a barrel. Which it isn't.

But Big Oil has all these sunk costs based on the notion of $100+ Oil and unlike a smart gambler it doesn't understand that the money you've put in the pot isn't yours anymore, it exists in a quantum state only determined at the reveal.

One of the most frustrating things this past week has been watching James Comey make the rounds of Stephanopoulos, Maddow, The View, along with other outlets and be lauded as some paragon of moral rectitude and virtue.

Jim Comey is a lifelong Republican who willingly and enthusiastically signed off on Torture (a War Crime in case you've forgotten) and who, immediately after his oh so so brave and principled stand at the bedside of John Ashcroft, personally approved a barely modified program of blanket electronic surveillance on United States Citizens THAT PERSISTS TO THIS DAY!

Thanks for nothing Barack.

so I'm going for a walk (no snow, thank goodness).

Here's Purfleet contemplating the lack of snow.

Forget Cambridge Analytica. Palantir is the real scandal.

There was a surprisingly good ABC News article about Syria recently, concerning the likely upcoming Syrian government offensive against the remaining rebel enclaves.
The article focuses on Iranian-backed militias coming closer to the Israeli border, and how dangerous that is.

The DNC threw all their konspiracy cards on the table today.

Caitlin explains why people who used to be against war are now happy about a possible one with Russia. She uses this video as an explanation for why some are dead certain that Russia interfered with the election even though it's an outlandish claim to many others.

"This is because people aren’t thinking. They are following."

When your only access to persons you have not met is through the internet, you are standing on shaky ground. With the complete collapse in trust of formerly solid leftwing institutions, due to their selling out to TPTB or being crushed by TPTB, people on the left literally do not know whom to trust.

You can see this happening right on this board. In three recent essays,

Wendy Davis's current essay spurred me into writing this essay which I have been contemplating. The fact that my essay hasn't been written, until now, was allowing an internal pressure building. Some of you may be feeling this same pressure, releasing it better than I.

I've come to realize that there's a lot of confusion out there due to people using words with very specific definitions.
For example, when a Republican talks about "freedom" they don't mean "freedom from want".
They mean "freedom from government oppression", but only government oppression.
Private oppression? Republicans will either deny it exists, or justify it.
When a Republican is "pro-life" it only refers to birth.

Taken from the comments below ‘US and imperialist allies launch strikes against Syria’ april 14, wsws.org, april 14:

“i know I shouldn’t do it because it’s bad for my health but I sometimes tune in to Louis Proyect to see what spin he is giving these events. His latest is jaw-dropping:  https://www.counterpunch.or… [‘Chemical Attacks, False Flags and the Fate of Syria’ by Louis Proyect]

“Apart from the slimy tactic of drawing a parallel between the false flag interpretation of the alleged Syrian chemical attack and the theory that the moon landings were faked, he also says this: