only with the volume turned down a little bit. Remember, though, that those who vote third party are totally in league with that party that wants the volume turned up slightly higher.

And now for the history lesson:

http://caucus99percent.com/content/important-dates-history-lesser-two-ev...

as a lesser evil when the evil hits the degree we have globally these days. Cheney once said we need to go the dark side and we sure did. I missed your excellent OT yesterday so I'm glad you posted this essay today. I had bookmarked a comment is free article I found at The Guardian by Thomas Frank to post on your Wednesday series but it actually fits better here.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/19/revenge-against-el...
The world is taking its revenge against elites. When will America's wake up?

And so President Barack Obama did an interview with Business Week in which he was congratulated for his stewardship of the economy and asked “what industries” he might choose to join upon his retirement from the White House. The president replied as follows:

" … what I will say is that – just to bring things full circle about innovation – the conversations I have with Silicon Valley and with venture capital pull together my interests in science and organization in a way I find really satisfying."

n relating this anecdote, I am not aiming to infuriate because the man we elected in 2008 to get tough with high finance and shut the revolving door was now talking about taking his own walk through that door and getting a job in finance. No. My object here is to describe the confident, complacent mood of the country’s ruling class in the middle of last month.

On the morning after British voters chose to leave the European Union, Obama was in California addressing an audience at Stanford University, a school often celebrated these days as the pre-eminent educational institution of Silicon Valley. The occasion of the president’s remarks was the annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and the substance of his speech was the purest globaloney, flavored with a whiff of vintage dotcom ebullience.

Franks takes on our home grown complacency with neoliberalism and meritocracy. What is the matter with people who think that screw you I've got mine and global bloody endless war for profit is the inevitable way the world works.

It’s easy to see the problems presented by a cliquish elite when they happen elsewhere. In the countries of Old Europe, maybe, powerful politicians sell out grotesquely to Goldman Sachs; but when an idealistic American president announces that he wants to seek a career in venture capital, we have trouble saying much of anything. In Britain, maybe, they have an “establishment”; but what we have in America, we think, are talented people who deserve to be on top. One wonders what kind of a shock it will take to shake us out of this meritocratic complacency once and for all.

It's a good read not to long and right to the point. I understand what the ruling global elite is about. What I don't understand is why Americans acquiesce to this world order that is anti-democratic, brutal, violent and cruel. Human and planetary life and human misery means nothing to the global ruling class. They deserve to win they are 'doing god's work' as the man from Goldman Sachs said.

Axelrod described this horrible new order as 'The World As We Find It' as though this worst of all worlds was some kind natural phenomenon or the inevitable way forward of human society. Why do we the people think this is an acceptable reality and just the way it works? It blows my mind how quickly the public has acquiesced and given their consent to the formerly unthinkable.

Sorry to rant on but lately with all of our politics no one, even those aware of what's going down, has the guts to take them on. This includes Bernie with his foreign policy from hell and his incremental reforming of the irredeemable partisan system. They by-partisanly broke any checks on power and took away the rule of law. Those pesky inalienable rights humans had developed over centuries to protect themselves from the hoards of power hungry psycho who always say they are inevitable. There not they need to be taken on and we the people globally need to stop them.

Hell yes I care about what's in the Mad Bomber's e-mails. Never in my long life have I seen such a disconnect between the politics were engaging in and the world we are all being forced to live in. Wake up people! None of this is worth supporting.

that all that is wrong with the world we have made, not the least of which is the problem of overpopulation, that this planet earth has driven people to madness in order to rid itself of us.

Yeah -- I know. Hippie -- Gaia stuff. Look what happens when you have too many rats in a cage.

...one thing that constantly hits me over and over is how much the neo-liberal ideology has been little by little stripping us of our humanity.

Isn't it clear by now that WE. DON'T. MATTER???

Unless we are wealthy, we have no value in the neo-corporatist world. Being stripped of our humanity makes it easier for us to be declared surplus. Surplus inventory gets scrapped or discarded. But if for some reason we haven't seen fit to eliminate ourselves for the greater good of the greater profit (perhaps like in Soylent Green?), it will become the duty of law enforcement to do the job. The outrageous shooting of Charles Kinsey of Florida for absolutely no reason is but the beginning.

I was told today (but haven't checked into it yet) that somewhere police are to be granted even more rights to shoot with impunity. If anyone knows anything about this, please provide the link in the comments. Better to know who the current-day fascists have declared to be untermenschen.

ATM's and Self Checkouts. Yes, they're convenient. Quick and easy. No cranky busy body bank teller noseying into your business to deal with, and no waiting in line to check out. Sweeet! But, they pobably do more than any other gizmo to isolate us, keep us in our cocoons.

And haven't for some 25the riff raff enlist for war. Most Americans do not know one soldier serving in the military, let alone serving in a war zone. Not. A. One. And haven't for some 25 years - a whole generation - at least. So, why do I care - or anyone care - what wars we're fighting? I have no blood invested. Not a drop.
We can blame Uncle Walter. That bastid, with the help of that other bastid, Dan Rather, brought the Vietnam War into America's living rooms every fucking night! And had the balls to tell Americans we were losing! Then, to add insult to injury, televised those dirty hippies protesting the war! The bastids!
Well, the MIC would have no more of that. No Draft - an All Volunteer Army - would end the horse$hIt of hippies protesting any future wars. And keeping The Media off the battlefield would end ant Dan Rather wannabees - and end nonstop coverage every night. Americans would only know what the MIC tells them, and the MIC ain't saying jack.
With a buttoned up military the MIC could - and can - do anything it wants and Americans wouldn't know d!ck. Chances are, unless they're from The South or the Mkidwest they don't know a single soldier, becuz kids from those regions the only ones enlisting. Well, kids from those regions easily represent 77% of all enlisted. The rst of the country - the northeast in particular - likely knows zero people in the military. None. I would be one of those. And, with zero blood in the game - thanks to that all volunteer army - well... not many of us give a damn if we're fighting a war, or ten wars. We don't have a drop of blood invested. Hell, most Americans think we won the Iraq War when G. Dubya declared "Mission Accomplished."
Elimination of the Draft - and keeping The Media out of the War Zone(s) - was Mission Accomplished for the MIC. They now could execute any amount of wars they wanted to execute without pesky Americans whining about their mission. And, they would get tons of conservative patriots from The South and the Midwest to fight them for them.

My firstborn son.
He is one of the 90% of soldiers in a support position.
He has a BA, an MA, and is ABD. He can be sent down range at the command of the CiC.
I know many Muslims, too. I live in a diverse neighborhood and teach at a diverse public school.
Consider me, please, the exception to your rule.

espoused principally by neoliberals that allows for excuses about why we are not doing the things that need to be done (or increasingly often why we are doing the exact opposite of what we should be doing). Anyone that can afford to elect someone that they don't want just to preserve the status quo, i.e. what little they have in life, is far better off than the vast majority of people at this point. It's like kicking the can down the road for another four years with the justification that we can try again later, except things always get worse and power only becomes more entrenched because we gave our consent to it.