No, that's not really a jab at the GOS. It is my little term summing up all that has been going on with the DNC and All Trump All the Time.

I had a very nice lunch with OPOL and nancyjones last Thursday. We met at Pho Dai Loi #2 on Buford Hwy in Atlanta. We talked about the state of things with TOP and with the Primary. They ordered Bun Tom, a vermicelli salad with shrimp; I had pho bo vien. It's very good.

Nancy and I independently noted that OPOL's been absent from TOP of late. He indicated he had become so angry with the ay TOP is being run, with the de facto policy of bullying and shitting on Bernie supporters and Kos's own terrible articles about Bernie.

Kos's writings do seem to be encouragement to bully and harass Bernie supporters as a means of shutting down discussion of Clinton's possible weaknesses as well as shutting down the discussion of more progressive ideas and values.

I have come to the conclusion that the DNC plan has been, aside from the appearances of establishing her as the nominee more than a year ago, to DWS essentially anti-progressive values, engaged in an All Trump All the Time 'strategy.

I recall that in the run-up to the election in 2000, Team Bush had bought up a few unflattering websites. I get a strong impression the DNC has somehow coordinated a variety of things with a variety of online communities, a la what we have seen with TOP since about March 15th. Clearly everybody here from TOP is aware of the wide-spread bullying and baiting there: it's at a variety of other places too.

I have had relatively innocuous comments pulled in significant numbers by a moderator at Disqus/Raw Story. Mildly anti-Clinton, nothing terrible, just less than thrilled. Poof. Gone. Worse, profanity-laced stuff untouched. Priorities.

Nancy expressed some frustration with an onslaught of Clinton fans and I agreed. It's like the days when W was in office and wingnuts were crowing about this and that and there was no talking to them. She said some of the stuff made her feel like she was frequenting RedState versus a liberal blog.

After kicking this around for a bit we created a new oxymoron for the George Carlin Memorial List of Oxymorons: Up with "Jumbo Shrimp" and "Hot Water Heater" goes "Clinton Liberals" They say they're 'liberal' but they certainly don't act that way.

Maybe its just the mean season of a presidential primary. I think that this stuff appeals to certain personality types and ego structures. I have no need for a cult of personality. I admire whom I admire but I don't have posters of politicians on my walls. (I actually have Vietnamese silk prints on the walls....)

Some of the fervor with which I have seen pro-Clinton fans trolling posts make it seem more like a religious worship. Some of them might even actually be foaming at the mouth, they seem so wildly intense.

All Trump All the Time

ATAT appears to be the main DNC plan to (A)unify the democratic party behind a common cause, (B) stifle complaints about various policies and such, and (C) keep the focus off of her.

It is fearmongering in its basic, plain form: Donald Trump would be a disaster if elected. Hyping this is largely the plan

It is true he would be an unmitigated disaster, such that W would be pushed down to the Second Worst President of All Time, but really, it doesn't stand to reason he would win.

And I strongly believe he isn't going to win. It's just too preposterous. No koolaid for me, thanks.

Even Bush had his brother as governor of one of the important states and the fledgling FOX news. Trump has no relative in government to come to his assistance and he's cultivated a crappy relationship with FOX. The GOP is generally up in arms about him, CNN staff are revolting over CNN hiring Trump's ex-manager, so on and so forth. George Will told him to pound sand. He's dug a hole for himself in Scotland and England. He's absolutely hated by Latin Americans, a rather huge voting block, I am told.

Nobody's doing a better job of destroying Trump than Trump. He is like a roving toxic spill, moving from place to place, issue to issue, befouling everything he touches.

I mean it really looks like a farce.

The koolaid is that we are asked on one hand to view her as brilliant and experienced and awesome and on the other hand somehow mysteriously vulnerable to a cheeto with funky hair and zero government experience who is alienating everybody with an IQ above room temperature. It just doesn't wash.

Ergo, I call this nonsense the Orange Koolaid. Some recognize it and stay away, some drink it, and some gargle in it. Some at TOP appear to shower in it.

This leads to some of the bullying. If you haven't drunk the koolaid you will be chided for speaking out of sync with the Koolaid values. Your dissent is weakening her and letting Trump win.

One part of this I call "It is impossible to not like Her unless you are a bad person". You've probably seen the diaries purporting to explain how you were mislead into not liking her. But they mean it: if you are dissing her it's because you have some personal short-coming. They get defensive and pissy when this is pointed out to them.

This mindset plays into the bullying too. Bernie's supporters are accused of a hell of a lot of strange and terrible things, and I suppose there are isolated things that have happened that are being generalized to smear Bernie supporters, but mostly I think it fills an ego need to (A) be superior to others by (B) scolding them and flexing some desired self-righteousness.

Purging the Democratic Party of Progressives?

Scolding is a HUGE part of the ugliness, to me. I am so sick of certain personalities haranguing every word I write with THAT TONE they have. The names change but the final product is annoyingly consistent. Thank God at Disqus they implemented user blocking. It is just so awesome to turn these people off and go about my day. I have maybe blocked 6 people so far.

It annoys me because site rules always forbid the exact replies appropriate to this nonsense, which, in and of itself, exacerbates the problem by encouraging baiting with hopes of getting some to post something hasty and get banned.

One of my conspiracy theories about TOP is that Kos refuses to do user blocking because flame wars generate ad revenue. I could be totally and completely wrong. Kos may really care about community...as long as they support her. It's probably why there is a hidden list to begin with, so some can go and gloat or pile on or whatever. Can't do that with discus.

Aside from the ATAT the other significant thing going on may be/appears to be a purge of the more progressive and liberal elements in the Democratic party.

As I was typing this I recall that thing Kos did a few months ago encouraging people to write up things they fear about Trump. This may have created a substantial number of new posters. There was quite a large turnout with "trump" diaries clogging the recent list, shutting out the 'real work' established people were doing. I am there a whole lot less and I see lots of new names I don't recognize, all gargling the koolaid.

The bullying and scolding and fear of time outs and banning cause self-censorship. Worked on me. I post a lot less now and few things related to the primary. I actually posted something this morning and then unpublished it because that place is just choking on the primary. I just didn't want to deal with it today.

OPOL talked some about being uncertain if he will ever post there again. We both noted that is just not the place we found back during the dark ages of the Cheney Administration. It was a haven for me in 2005. In 2016 it is NOT the same place. I have suspended my blogging contract with them. Wondering if the place will return to itself or if this is a permanent change. I have had the musing that maybe it would be jacked up in readership and visits during the Primary and after she won, Kos would sell it while emotions are high.

I know that Caucus99% is largely TOP ex-expatriates so I will assume that many recognize what I am getting at. Hell, some have probably written far more and far better about this and I am just unaware. Oh look....here's one by Cassiodorus.

The DNC does not care about the 99%
So the Orange Koolaid is the DNC plan to get her elected no matter what, and to bury this whole 99% thing.

It's built on stifling dissent through fearmongering and bullying, it is All Trump All the Time to suck the air out of real issues discussion and to motivate people out of fear to chide those who refuse to drink said koolaid in general, and Bernie supporters in particular., and to smear their memories going forward.

It's not enough to chide - condescension and belittling are used in large quantities to smear Bernie's message. Because he's a horrible, crotchety old man with too much ego who should have given up years ago, and shit like that. It actually reminded me of some of the so-called liberals who despised and denigrated Occupy Wall Street and that whole message.

Which really seems to have been reincarnated as "Bernie's Message". Those same personalities appear to be against this 99% message: holding banks accountable and breaking them up, improved minimum wage, and things like this that help the common person.

The DNC wants to have nothing to do with it, outside of maybe plagiarizing some of it as campaign promises that we will find in boxes underneath the bus with us once the Great Fascist Cheeto is vanquished and the Coronation is complete.