I read Ryan Cooper's article 2009: The year the Democratic Party died and I was awash in a melancholy nostalgia, not the happy kind of nostalgia of first puppies, high school proms, big promotion, etc. but the kind of reminiscence of the sort prompted by your doctor asking "when did you first notice this?"When did you get the first awful twinge that all may not be as you hoped?

Tale 1 - Make New Friends and Trash the Old, One Has Silver, the Other Lacks Gold

Another one from the Picking at the Scab files of what went wrong for the Democrats. Those manipulative lever pullers behind the scenes in Clintonville really outsmarted themselves this time in their efforts to stage manage the Hillary coronation. Little did they know that their elaborately constructed set with its paper mache ogre would topple over at the end of the third act and crush their leading lady just as she was about to take her bows.

Will we be smart enough to recognize and seize the moment? We can follow three issues to the recapture of government, but we'll have to do it fast and we'll have to do it correctly and we'll have to vow not to be derailed by incrementalists and pragmatists and it'll-never-happen folks.

This article written by Ken Silverstein that was posted at Zerohedge is a must-read IMO.

I was considering writing on a similar topic and am relieved that I needn't bother; I don't think anyone could surpass this essay on the shortcomings and compromises of "journalists" and formerly reputable entities in this election cycle. This is his opening sentence:

This is the one I would write:

The Secretary And The House Keeper

Imagine if you can, a Secretary of State, married to a former POTUS, so indolent and so mechanically incompetent that she literally cannot print an email or an addendum to an email and must have all messages requiring printing forwarded to a presumably loyal and trustworthy servant who just happens to be from a politically volatile country.

No, I can't keep up. It's not possible, is it, that I am watching a panel on Wolf Blitzer discussing Comey's latest letter and a member of the panel, David Gregory, is simply identified as "CNN Political Analyst" without any mention that he just happens to be the husband of a lead attorney for Clinton in this whole fiasco? He's the husband of a MAJOR PLAYER and he's acting like some impartial analyst?

I guess some media are concerned enough about the consequences of the Clinton email story having an effect on the election outcome that they have dropped the circumspection of calling "BS" and reverted to its fully enunciated form - BULLSHIT, thus signalling the highest level of outrage they are capable of allowing themselves. They are manning the battle stations and doing their level best to continuing tamping the story and its consequences to it's most contained level.

The Clinton Foundation is a multi-headed hydra. On the one hand it has been characterized as a money laundering and personal branding enterprise designed to disguise influence peddling in the wrap of humanitarianism, while at the same time it is consistently lauded by even its detractors as doing some valuable charitable work, particularly in regards to its mission to deliver cheap and affordable drugs to 8 million AIDS patients in the "developing world".

As usual, I am quivering with frustration at the way Hurricane Matthew is being covered. In hurricanes, most lives are lost from STORM SURGE, not wind damage. The Categories 1,2,3, etc. are important for their winds speeds, both for immediate damage, but more importantly by how much force water is being pushed into inlets, bays, rivers, etc.