Bernie Should Beg For Forgiveness!!!
He should prostate himself before the almighty Democratic Party and plead to be pardoned for daring to fight for the weakest!
He should grovel before the anointed one for daring to take on the DNC!
He should donate a pound of his flesh to the Party grandees and pray to be absolved of all his sins!
He should abandon all hope like the rest of you oiks!
We won, so fuck you!
Oh and by the way
You should get on the bus in the name of #partyunity!
Hillary is not as bad as Trump!
This is the vibe I am getting after this primary season from the winners as I watch the Democratic Party congeal around their choice.
As many on the left know all too well:
If she wins it will be in despite of us.
If she loses the easiest election in living memory it will be our fault for making the primary competitive.
No matter who wins in November we will be given nothing but Lip Service until our votes are needed in 2018.
If we dislike both of the most dislikeable couple of people to ever run for the highest office in the land and yet fail to vote for either we are a disgrace.
You know what
I don't fucking care any more, it's the same bloody song every time, all they want is our cash and votes, after that we can go to hell.
They are starting to point out that if they also get majorities in the House and Senate that somehow recent history will become irrelevant and the Democratic Party will magically change and support progressive policies, like that happened in 2008. My view will be that the lessons from 2010 and 2014 will be that the Democratic party was too far to the left and further re-centring will be necessary.
Last time at least Democrats voted for hope and change, this time they have voted Status Quo or bust.
The only reason the Republican Party is still breathing is because the Democratic Party is still clinging to "we are not as bad as" as a winning strategy. The reality is: that both parties like things just the way they are thank you very much, it keeps the cash registers ringing.
The revolution is here and now, not when one party or the other says it's convenient.
Comments
Zhizhek's anaylsis of the far-right
and its relationship to neo-liberalism especially in interviews for a wider audience since the 1990s. Several videos on Youtube contain this anaylsis, perhaps as part of a wider-ranging presentation.
I believe the problem lies with the fact that so long as we have a pre-packaged culture, we are faced with the dead-end of identification through dialectic.
Psychoanalysis is really not where it is at, in my view. You can do a lot to empower people without all of that baggage, which is of dubious theoretical merit.
Peace and love be with you, reader.
Great presentation of the argument
It's been very revealing the past few presidential elections how far the Republicans have to go in presenting a foil for the neoliberal Democrat running for the White House. We get an angry old militarist, who's not bad enough so he has to travel to a carnival sideshow to select a chicken head-biting geek to run with. Then we get an actual living, breathing plutocrat, so dripping with disdain he could have stepped out of a Dickens novel. Finally we get a remake version of Chaplin's Great Dictator who is almost explicitly throwing the election. At this rate Clinton will be running for re-election against Louie Gohmert.
As the Democratic Party gets more corrupt and oligarch-driven, the Republicans (or Washington Generals, if you prefer) are forced to get more cartoonishly evil and incompetent. The Potemkin Democracy show is getting more implausible, the plot lines more strained and forced, with every passing season. It's past time we cancelled the show and switched to a different channel.
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Not to make light of your legitimate anger at the circus
recent elections have presented, but I must tell you I laughed out loud at your descriptions of the most recent Republican candidates. They were spot on. Speaking of Dickens novels, have you thought of writing as a career? I'm sure you're a great doctor, and God knows we need all of those we can get, but you're an incredibly talented writer.
Twain Disciple
Heh. Thank you
I'm too old for a new career, and the one I have keeps me quite busy enough. But thanks -- I'm glad you enjoyed the descriptions.
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Love your writing also Dallasdoc
After I sobbed uncontrollably for an hour, I printed out the diary you posted at GOS about the Nancy Reagan gratuitous cruelty by HRC. I knew then that I would never betray my friends who died in the Silence before the cocktails were available. They lost their lives because of the Reagans' silence, inaction and lack of compassion and those of us who loved them and cared for them can never forget.
So very glad I don't have to go back there to read your writing.
I hope I didn't trigger the sobbing
That whole episode reminded a lot of us how close to the surface the pain and anger still remain. As Sigmund Freud famously observed, the subconscious has no sense of time.
I reposted that diary and my previous one, about Clintonian corruption, over here in case I go back there and get banned. Thank you for the kind words.
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Zizek on Brexit
I have tons of respect for Zizek, particularly those explosive first books in the 1990s.
If psychoanalysis is the study of why we desire what we desire, why we often sabotage ourselves, and how we can read the signs that show what is going on the black box of the unconscious, I would say we need more of it, not less, especially in the US, where we seem to take pride in our ability to lie to ourselves (and call it marketing). The unraveling of Daily Kos would offer an instructive test case.
Anyway, Zizek continues to write and publish at his usual frantic pace. But he is still brilliant. His recent short letter on the Brexit seems rather applicable to our electoral situation here in America:
More here:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/04/dear-britain-letters-from-...
It Is Time
The only way Hair Drumpf can stay in office longer than four years (assuming he lasts that long) would be to declare a dictatorship. He did just tell the GOP to shut up and let him rule by himself, so somewhere under that dead Chinchilla the thought lurks.
But to successfully create a dictatorship, Drumpf would have to have the support of the military, something which many recent reports indicate he doesn't enjoy. He thus will be toppled if he so much as attempts to take power.
James Kroger raises some very valid points for following the strategy of withholding our votes from Hillary:
I don't, however, see much hope of transforming the Democratic Party into a people-oriented party, a return to the roots of the New Deal party. Too many Democrats have tasted the forbidden fruit of unlimited campaign money. You can't escape being tainted by that experience. As corporations are moving into a phase where their quest for global dominance is within reach -once Obama/Hillary completes passage of the TPP and TTIP through a traitorous Congress- their next move is expanding automation and throwing even more people out of the means of sustenance. They will have robots and not people, for robots can work 24/7/365 PROFIT über alles!
Beginning with NAFTA, the Democrats showed which side of this issue they stand upon. Too many current Democrats have graduated through the ranks, and those in the pipeline were educated in politics by them. They all have to go if there would be a chance to reform the party.
It would be far easier to created a new party than it would to de-corporatize an old and very corrupt party.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
You look at CSTS' summary of the rigged election against Bernie
and you wonder -- to what extent do we still live in a democracy? And we're supposed to be terrified of the pathetic Donald?
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
No, we don't 'still' live in a democracy
And I'm not sure if we ever actually did.
Remember how the founding fathers set up our voting system with the electoral college which meant that the popular vote was never the way elections were settled.
And further back from the robber barons days our government has always been sold to the highest bidder. Now instead of people being able to buy our elected representative's votes, lobbyists do it for individual people.
And the only way that this is legal is because congress voted for it to be legal.
We saw during the Bush/Gore election that the election was stolen from us.
The first one by the Supreme Court and the second one by the votes being close enough in Ohio for Rove and his minions to be able to steal it.
You have to ask why with so much evidence of people's votes being rigged in Florida and when many members of congress stood up and told Gote about it, why did he sit there and not respond to them? I watched this happening and wondered why Gore didn't fight it. Then when the Ohio votes wer stolen, even though Kerry promised to fight the results, both he and Gote did nothing. Why didn't they? I believe now that they were either threatened or were in on the scam.
Now during this election, we have seen the election blatantly stolen from us with numerous counts of election fraud.
Bill Clinton went to 4 pro Bernie voting sites and hindered people from being able to vote, yet nothing happened to him.
And the final two proofs for me was that the exit polls didn't match up with the votes, and the Nevada caucuses was so full of illegal shenanigans with the way it was ran. The lady started it 30 minutes before it was supposed to start and when it was obvious that when she took a voice vote, the NO votes won yet she just stopped and said that it was over and closed it down.
And now the TPP and the two other trade agreements are going to finally break down all country's borders and the new world order will finally be accomplished. Bush Sr. spoke about the NWO during one of his state of the union addresses.
The trade acts, which in my opinion are treasonous, will be the final barrier that stood in the way of the corporate coup that they have been working on for decades.
Countries that have great health care will be unable to continue them because of what the pharmaceutical company's rules will block them from being able to use generic drugs for years.
The IDSD will see country's regulatory agencies become toothless along with many more jobs being offshored.
The coup that started when Kennedy was assassinated will finally be accomplished.
I hope that people see my comment as well as others that have commented since this morning.
I m going to leave a comment in tomorrow's open thread and director people back to this excellent essay.
Thanks LaFem for starting this. The many ideas presented here and in CSTS's essays were both brilliant
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Exactly.
How much scarier could it get than it already is?
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
James - YES, thank you
1)For that reason, because she has made it such a toss up for us, we are actually free this election season to show our resentment at how we were treated by fully depriving them of any of our support, no matter what Bernie has to say to us.
2)Trump may still say something that truly terrifies me between now and then, but there is at least one scenario in which I would do the unthinkable---vote for a Republican---simply because of the good it would do for the future of the Democratic Party and the prospects of defeating the Oligarchy in the long run.
YES. Short term loss, a consequence easier to face, than the Clintons continuing to hold power in the Democratic party.
I can still hear Bob Herbert, many years ago, saying "Cut him loose." Now, it's CUT THEM LOOSE!
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/26/opinion/in-america-cut-him-loose.html
I'm 63 and have voted for a Republican twice in my life
Both times the "Democrat" in question was spouting Republican talking points. If there's one thing I hate more than a Republican, it's a Republican pretending to be a Democrat.
Twain Disciple
Wasn't it Harry Truman
who said that given the choice between a Republican and a Democrat pretending to be a Republican, the people will vote for the Republican every time?
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Yes. I've seen that speech on grainy old film.
It's a great one.
Twain Disciple
Yanno... I haven't seen any discussion of what happened IF
The GOP nominee ISNT Trump
There seems to be a renewed effort to dump trump at the GOP convention
W back out on the campaign trail
Rubio back in the news
Kasich too
Makes we wonder if the GOP is going to make a serious move to nominate someone else... Someone who might actually beat HER.
Orwell was an optimist
Not Trump, probably not Clinton
Expect Trump will be replaced, think he's in it for the money - and not for the job of POTUS. Will find a way to blame it on someone else, and go back to his "day job" on reality TV.
If Comey has even a bit of courage, and our AG isn't totally corrupt - after Shrillary has her 15 minutes of fame being nominated - bet she's out too! Wouldn't be surprised to see Warren head up a ticket, and Kaine be her VP. Warren is just doing too much pandering, to settle for a "warm bucket of spit."
Interesting times...
I'm no political tactician
But at this point the DNC cannot lose unless Clinton and Trump both lose. Third Way politics have defined the DNC through 7 presidential elections, including twice when they lost to an imbecile. Losing to Trump means they go even harder for large donors, giving out more idiotic goodies to the 1% in the process. I'm voting for neither Clinton nor Trump, but really a vote for Trump would be the single dumbest thing I could ever do (and I've done some really foolish things).
Your post was fantastic except IMO one thing.
Biden. Joe Biden is a snake. Go back and look at his record. He's done as much harm to this party, the poor, minorities, and us plebs who are unable to use bankruptcy to get a clean start like Donald Trump does, as any other neo-liberal in the 'Democratic' Party. I watched all three nights of the Anita Hlll hearings.
The man is a snake.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
honest serpents
That statement is dead-on correct as common American English colloquy would have it.
But it's still a slur on honest, hardworking actual biological serpents, who have done nothing to deserve being likened to Joe Biden!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Anita Hill
think Uncle Joe was standing up loudly to cover for his friend Ted, who didn't dare say a word.
Like any politician, his weakest part is when he panders to his constituency - which is credit card haven in USA
Let's face it, he was in Delaware all his life, and knew what he was doing, and what he had to do to keep his Senate seat.
Reminds me a lot of what Elizabeth Warren is doing now. But she's real turn coat - supporting what she supposedly fought for years. Everyone has a price - wonder what her price is now?
(No subject)
Hmm...won't delete...
James Kroeger
This comes to mind more often nowadays
especially regarding those screaming for Sander's head on a plate at TOP
George Orwell, 1984
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
So much Orwellian logic coming to fruition
throughout the "west" it's almost as if they are treating it as an instruction manual.
I am reminded of The Lottery
which I should re-read. Several other mid-century novels come to mind.
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The Lottery I remember was a short story.
The ending shocked the shit out of me.
Are we talking about the same thing?
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Yep, IIRC, someone is almost torn apart @ end
but my memory of teen reads is not good.
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No. They were stoned, and NOT in a good way.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Stoned, and not the good kind of stoned.
With real rocks. Everyone in the village had to choose a stone they'd use to do the deed - and they held the lottery yearly.
My favorite short story assigned during same class as The Lottery is The Yellow Wallpaper, but it's nothing to do with creepy pack mentality or political brainwashing.
The older I get
the more I admire Orwell. Things that he wrote about that seemed impossible to me thirty years ago seem far less impossible now. He really did understand the nature of power.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
William Pitt the Elder's vesion
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it"
We read both "1984" and Animal Farm in high school,
45 years ago. 1984 seemed like a fascinating, but highly exaggerated cautionary tale. Exaggerated, my ass. America 2016 is closer to the world of 1984 than we are to the one that existed in 1971 when I first read that book.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
and perhaps on the brink
of a Brave New World where you are genetically bred for your role.
You're correct... Big Brother is watching! 1984 was Richard Burton's last film (of course the book is better).
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
If you haven't read This Perfect Day by Ira Levin
I highly recommend it. Rebels against the monstrous power structure fight tooth and nail to invade the citadel, finally succeed, and lo and behold, [spoiler alert!] those who are smart enough and brave enough to break free of the chains and attack the power elite become members of the power elite. It's an initiation. Our hero is met by a banquet of congratulations and a gang of cheering dictators: "Congratulations! You're one of us!" That's how he finds out why no previous rebellion has succeeded and no previous rebels have ever come back.... I will not tell you how it ends.
I kept thinking of that book when I was listening to Huerta and Lewis and Dean.
Twain Disciple
My original anti-establishment hero was Mark Twain.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. What a book. Wrote my Junior year high school term paper on it. The English teacher said it was too 'good' for me to have written it, too deep. So she made me do another one because she couldn't PROVE I didn't write the one I turned in. I was the only person in that f*cking class who had to write a term paper on a subject she CHOSE FOR ME and that I hated, and that was 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'.
I was going to a private Catholic girls boarding school at the time. I think my paper was a little to 'subversive' for her tastes and I KNOW she picked that piece of literature to get even with me for my original paper.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
As a former English teacher
I am appalled that your teacher did that to you. What a great way to sour a bright kid on literature. Ugh. An in-depth conversation with you on the subject matter should have satisfied any doubts she might have had; but if she knew you, she should have known you wrote it. So many teachers don't know how to LISTEN.
BTW, I did a term paper on Mark Twain in high school too. I've loved him since my mother gave me her old copy of Tom Sawyer when I was in elementary school. Now, there's a book that can be read on many levels.
Twain Disciple
When he tackled politics Twain was eviscerating.
The two collections of his socio-political essays that blew my mind and ones I often go back to are "A Penned Warmed Up in Hell" and "Mark Twain On the Damned Human Race."
All the classics are there, from "To the Person Sitting In The Darkness," about the murderous deceit of Catholic missionaries and American imperialism in the Philippines, to the many anti-war short stories and essays including "The War Prayer," "As Regards Patriotism" and "A Defence of General Funston."
He wrote scathing pieces about slavery, "The United States of Lyncherdom" and "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It," and many anti-religious/nationalism/supremacy pieces.
For me apropos today in this second Gilded Age, "Banquet for a Senator" reminds me of how fawning we are in the face of wealth, no matter how it has been accumulated. In his inimitable way, he exposed and eviscerated the oligarchs of his day:
Like Hunter Thompson, a Southerner gripped by a fierce commitment to defend the disenfranchised, the brutalized and hunted, all in the name of fairness
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Twain could breathe fire, and was never afraid to do it
Sadly, his work will always remain relevant.
Twain Disciple
I wanted to write
a paper on silence for a college english class, the teacher wouldn't allow me to do it ... complete utter lack of imagination on her part ... I could write 100,000 words on the topic easily
Funny thing. It was a civilian who did it, not one of the
'penguins'. That's girls Catholic boarding school lingo.
She was almost worse than the the crazies who made bad boarders scrub the gym floor with toothbrushes. (I never got that one, but I did get hit on the head once for wearing coulottes (sp?) on a rare day we didn't have to wear our wool, two-piece, butt ugly uniforms.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Thank you!
I was just thinking of that book yesterday and for the life of me could not remember the name of it. Off to find a copy somewhere...
Sounds like the Hunger Games was a redo.
With the hero-girl twist.
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#SheSucksLess
That sums it up but it's still a bit of wishful thinking sorry of like "hope and change".
This campaign is going to be historic: the worst in living memory.
The problem with #SheSucksLess is that it is arguably not true..
While it could be argued either way I have decided that she in fact sucks MORE than Trump, not less, at least as far as long term big picture goes...
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
He may destroy the country
She may destroy the country too, but she'll certainly destroy the Democratic Party. Decisions, decisions.
Twain Disciple
LOVE your sig name. Twain, for all his quirks and
foibles, is one of my biggest heroes and I see him as an equal to Orwell in his portrayal of politics, politicians, government, and TPTB. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was the book that shaped my opinion so much in life. Politics, governments, society, racism, it was all in that book.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Huck Finn is my favorite too
My favorite moment in literature is the moment that Huck casts off his own chains and tosses his whole rotten society overboard when he decides to do whatever it takes to set Jim free: "All right, I'll go to hell!" Would that there were a bit more of that sort of independent thought in our society today.
Twain Disciple
My disillusionment has
My disillusionment has returned. I am disappointed in Bernie. He needs to be bold, and take bold action. I believe the window of opportunity has closed! I'm so fucking tired of wishy washy politics. Bernie needs to rock the damn boat, and rock it hard! Goddamit man seize the day!
Wishy washy? Bernie?
Have you missed the shit he has weathered since the day he announced he was running? He has run the most energetic campaign in recent history. He's 74 years old, and decided he had to run. Not for himself, or for power, for us. Carpe Diem looks to be his daily meditation. WTF?
'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "
Probably best
to stop expecting polticians (Even Bernie) to be heroes and to start looking to how you can help advance the revolution.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
In Bernie's talk last night
the wisest thing he said [in my not so humble opinion] is that we should go out and run for office.
Of course, since I often become short of breath after making the trek from the kitchen to the bathroom, I probably don't have the energy to run for office.
But perhaps we should turn our attention and support to Brand New Congress. It's real, it's practical, and it could be effective.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
I am starting to suspect that
the R's will parachute somebody marginally more electable (by R standards, anyway) in at *their* convention: maybe Romney, maybe Kasich, maybe a steamed artichoke. It'll be ugly and come to blows, but they have to see the handwriting on the wall that predicts the imminent demise of their party if they really do back Drumpf. Which means that Drumpf will run third party, unless they do something like duct-tape him to a post in a basement somewhere. What happens on the R side will be very interesting to watch: but the bottom line is that I think that the dems are preparing Her Inevitableness to run against the wrong person.
Then, the question becomes: What Will Bernie Do?
I don't like Trump, but wow that Drumpf stuff is already old
and hypocritical…
I'd respond in kind, but as luck would have it,
I can't be shamed by someone I don't respect. And have a nice day!
LOL
As if I anyone would need your respect or validation.
What a list we could create:
Ralph Lauren = Ralph Lipschitz
would be the top of my list, he who creates "nostalgia" for that which never existed
Ah, but I have lived in that fantasy-land.
Never went to a Disney park, however.
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The justification for it in Trumpf's case is that he
loudly declared that Jon Stewart should use the name "Liebvitch" or whatever it was his grandfather changed from.
(I see I mixed German with something further east in trying to recall the name but whatever.)
I Agree, but Trump will not run 3rd party
I agree, but Trump will not spend his own $$ to run 3rd party. His businesses are already losing $$. My thought is Kasich/Nikki Haley. Kasich was the last to drop out and was on the ballot. Cruz is poison to the Repubs. Romney lost in 2012. And Kasich is the governor of Ohio, which he won big. Maybe I've been reading too many mystery novels.
I'm kinda leaning towards
the steamed artichoke, myself.... (;-)
Kasich is an over steamed artichoke
Kasich is an over steamed artichoke. Look how long he's been cooking.
Now that's really terrifying
Kasich/Haley.
Ooohh...worse than gooseflesh...creepy shaking fear! They'd win
I agree, don't think the Republicans will let Trump be their nominee.
Wish whatever Julian Assange has will be released soon...
That could beat Hillary.
Hell, I might even vote for it. Not because I have any illusions that they are not corrupt.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Well, Kasich did expand Medicaid in Ohio
He probably did it to make sure Ohio hospitals, shareholders, and insurance businesses didn't lose any money, but hell, he did it. I doubt he'd dispose of it if elected President, and I pretty much figure Hillary wouldn't either. That makes them roughly even, in my book. I don't expect any other minimally progressive action from either of them.
Twain Disciple
Kasich signed medical marijuana bill
Kasich just signed a medical marijuana bill this week.
Dang. Good for him!
Twain Disciple
I think that we could depend on Assange more than the FBI.
He probably will come through, although I don't know if it will be in time.
The Feebs may never come through.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
That would make a 5 person race
if Trump ran as a third party / independent. That would really open the door for Jill Stein. I think the current 4 person race (Shillbot, Drumpf, Johnson and Stein) makes the door ajar for her...assuming that the general election won't be rigged.
Beware the bullshit factories.
He will do the same as now....
Win this election
'Well, I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years, Doctor, and I’m happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd "
They can't dump Trump
The Republican powers that be hate him because they can not control him. However, the rules don't allow anyone to be parachuted in because Trump will win a majority on the first ballot. If they did somehow parachute someone in, Trump supporters would leave the republican party in droves guaranteeing electoral defeat. They will nominate Trump, hope for an HRC win, giving them the policies they want and an easy target for demonization and try to get back in control for 2020.
He can step down
Trump can always step aside and release his delegates.
That's my new bumper sticker...
Knew I could count on you LaFem; you're a national treasure
"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."
-- John Lennon
Let me fix that for you
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
What a breath of fresh air!
Unlike crap like this from a blogger I used to respect. http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2016/6/17/02625/7097
Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
The silver lining in the Booman Tribune article
..... was this wonderfully tasty, addictively snarkotic rush (in Japanese!) from Mike Diva:
[video:https://youtu.be/ZbM6WbUw7Bs width:640 height:360]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Sent to son who has visited Japan a few times.
His Taiwanese gf will get it, too.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Son and gf
Even if you have no Japanese, the parody's still pretty damn funny, if you ask me!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Some of us can't afford to teach Democrats a lesson.
My family is struggling and there are many more in our same situation. We manage to make it month to month but not without a lot of worrying, not without examining our grocery list (again) to see what else we can do without, not without looking at our few remaining possessions to see what's left that could be sold for immediate cash. We visit the public library daily for access to the internet, job listings, community resources, and for the rare moments of escape books can offer. The four of us take it a day at a time. Our victories, when they come, are very modest.
That's why it's so depressing to read the rants of those who would blow up our one hope by encouraging others to stay home or by voting for Jill Stein in November. I don't want to be preached to by those who, unlike us, will survive if Trump is elected. People in our situation can't afford to teach the Democrats (or anyone) a lesson, because we're barely hanging on as it is. I am not a fan of Hillary, far from it. We phone-banked for Bernie over three weekends because we couldn't afford to even send the $3 his campaign asked for and wanted to contribute something. We prayed that his calls for urgency would be heard, because we URGENTLY need a hand up. But if the alternative is allowing Trump to sever the few remaining threads that now keep my family off the street, you can bet your ass I'll vote for Hillary. Anyone who throws away their vote "on principle" must have a secure income or be supported by others, because principles don't feed children, or keep the lights on, or buy bus fare.
Consider families like ours when you talk or write about driving our collective car off a cliff, because there are a lot of innocent people who struggle just to make it through this day. If you don't lose sleep worrying about how you'll get through tomorrow, consider yourself fortunate. You might be able to survive the devastation Trump would bring. We won't.
Why do you think Hillary won't
"sever the few remaining threads that now keep my family off the street?"
That's a real question.
What makes you think she won't make the cuts that Trump will make?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
and if Hillary proposes the grand bargain
to cut/privatize Social Security, the Dem establishment will fight Hillary, just like they've been standing up to her this primary season? Right?
This argument that Hillary is better for the middle/working class is just a bunch of flea-bitten tattered rags at this point. Not that Trump is any great shakes, of course.
But who's more likely to sign the TPP?
cuts
And more, and harsher. Trump has no real reason to decimate the social safety net and significant reason NOT to do do so (an intact social safety net is good for Trump financially; folks having the means to acquire shelter is financially beneficial to landlords and developers). And if Trump were to perform as advertised with respect to war/peace, he could easily get the budget dollars he would need by cutting the military budget.
Yes, friends, we really are that far down the rabbit hole! Trump is now running to the left of Hillary on war/peace. There is a Supreme Being, and He/She/It has developed a new interest in His/Her/Its hallucinogenic creations......
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I am a Legal Aid attorney
I help low income and marginalized people every day. My problem is, ever since Bill Clinton ushered in "welfare reform" the Democrats big achievement for regular people has been to dispossess them of their resources, rights, and dignity at a slower pace than Republicans. I will not vote for so called "third way" Democrats any more. I've seen what they've done to the middle class, the working class, and the poor. No more.
I encourage all people to vote their conscience, while giving my endorsement to Jill Stein this time around. The reason I encourage people to vote their conscience is because we live in a representative democracy, with a diverse population that holds different values. The bottom line: if the people choose Trump, that's what we get. But I also endorse Jill Stein and recommend voting for her. If enough liberals and progressives abandon their fear and vote Stein, she could actually win. But again, everyone should vote their conscience and see what happens.
I absolutely agree
I am voting my values and my conscience. Completely.
This sort of guilt-mongering blackmail is SOP for the conservaDems for a generation now.
How's it worked out for us?
"The eara of big government is over"
so now we're going to give all that money to the military and kill innocent people all over the world in the name of neoliberalism. Sick.
Clintons = the epitome of "we've got ours, but it's still not enough!"
Think the Clintons are much more dangerous than Trump.
do you know what a devastation Clinton's foreign policies
and also social justice policies will cause? There is no guarantee that Clinton wouldn't cause the exact same chaos a Trump presidency would cause. I am not sure anymore if a post like yours is "honest".
https://www.euronews.com/live
mimi, you have a perspective as an outsider
that we (at least I) cherish. You state your mind. You are afraid for you, for your son, just as I am for my adult children who are (successfully) barreling forward. My daughter bought a new dryer today. A mere $600. They will not haul off the broken circuit-blower at no charge. They get us on all fronts!
Peace, may you have a nice weekend.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
thank you kindly, same back to you - I am going to the beach
tomorrow and won't take a laptop with me.
https://www.euronews.com/live
It's how people arrived in the position they are in
by always voting in the "not as bad as".
It's just a slower decline
It's not slower though
it's much much faster. Dems are more effective at lowering the social floor.
Solidarity forever
I'm one of those people who survive from day to day starting
before the middle of every month. Too old to get a job apparently because I've been looking since 10/26/2012. Everything is fine over the phone when I get called for the interview, the minute I walk in, I can see the look in some people's eyes, the disappointment or pique, when they see how old I am. I grew up dirt poor, and I am back to being that way. AND IT'S ALL GOTTEN WORSE SINCE SLICK WILLIE. He continued the Reagan legacy, he drug it into the Democratic Party. Now his freaking wife is running? If that doesn't tell people everything they need to about the Clintons, I don't know what will.
Obama put the safety net on the table for cutting to appease the Republican Party during the budget fiasco. HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE A DEMOCRAT. Did you forget all that? Do you think that guy gave a shit about us? Hell no. And neither does the rest of that bunch of frauds. And as bad as Obama is, Hillary Clinton is way worse.
I've already seen how Democrats deal with problems. The same way as Republicans. They take it out on the most defenseless in this country. They make their bones on the backs of the poor, minorities, and the aged and have handed everything thing of value we have (the laws and our treasury) to those who already have more than 99% of the people in this country. The litmus test for worthiness for the Democratic Party has become the balance on your bank statement.
We can and we MUST do better. The 'Democratic' Party has made itself obsolete. So many of us have already seen it and are really fed up with being forced to vote for the 'lesser evil'. Independents are now the LARGEST block of voters in the country. Before this fiasco only 29% of registered voters were members of the Democratic Party, the lowest in the party's history. Those numbers are still shrinking. Right after this election I will become on of them along with untold numbers of party 'members' who are sick of being betrayed. The Third Way put the gun to the head of the Democratic Party. The Clinton's and their supporters simply pulled the trigger.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
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