Why I'm Pissed Off
Anger can look like hate. It's not. Hate is the face we give to fear when we don't want to look afraid. Hate is also the title we give to other people's anger when we don't want to acknowledge why someone is angry.
Hate is a proactive, destructive act, and we [feel we] must destroy what we hate.
Different than being "upset" at a loss that we knew was a potential outcome to any event, anger is a reactive state to a loss that shouldn't have happened.
I'm upset Bernie lost. But I'm angry that the party I identified with for so many years has abandoned so many of the principles that I thought it stood to champion, principles that I used to believe distinguished it from those who I thought were our adversaries.
I'm angry that Bill went from averaging $150,000 a speech as an ex-president to $500,000 a speech as soon as Hillary became Secretary of State. I'm angry that an ex-president's foundation has collected billions of dollars from special interests, many of which are foreign interests with shady terrible human rights records, with active business before our government - from weapons to uranium to fracking - while his spouse maintains an active pursuit of the presidency.
I'm angry that the spouse of a former president can pretend that nepotism represents any form of breaking a glass ceiling, as if "You too can marry a president and then one day become president yourself" is a proper message for the advancement of equality we want to tell our sisters and daughters.
I'm angry because I've spent half a lifetime supporting the party that rallied on about reducing the role of special interest money in politics, only to see... the poster child for special interest money elevated to our the Democrats' champion.
I'm angry because I wanted to believe that we at least had the Democrats to fight for open and honest elections, only to see the ongoing DNC leaks prove otherwise.
I'm angry because I'm being told everything I thought I was fighting for, issues that affect the health and well being of 99% of the population, has to be given up or I don't care about a handful of largely settled social issues that have as much chance of going back into the Genie's bottle as meaningful gun control does of passing anywhere.
And finally, I'm pissed off because we had a once in a generation chance to elevate someone who truly walked the walk, and our "allies," who also spent their lives listing all the positive qualities they wanted in a mate, tossed them all aside for an arranged marriage (or a hormonal rush) and are now justifying why this was okay, dismissing their "perfect" match because they weren't really a member of their race religion social class party.
And now rather than fight the one party over their obvious corruption and their kowtowing to economic elites that are stratifying society by exacerbating poverty and hollowing out the middle class, I have to fight both parties while the one says their shit sandwich is so much better because they put lettuce and tomato on it.
And if you don't like it? Why do you hate lettuce and tomato?
(Cross-posted in its entirety from WayoftheBern.)
Comments
Fine diary - thanks. "So Pissed Off" by The Nips would fit.
The Nips( or Nipple Erectors) was Shane McGowan's first band before the Pogues. Nips are pretty good punk.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
What was it?
Pogue Mahone(sp?) kiss my ass in Gaelic.
Yeah, that's what the dems can do. And they can do it in any language they want. Elevate Joe, sheesh!
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
Yes, in Irish it means what you say.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
And
Because you're a sexist. Or white male privilege. or something like that....
Spot on and well-stated
all the way through. Particularly at the very start:
That's a valuable distinction to understand. I get called a "hater" all the time, and I know it's always been a bullshit trope meant to inflame and change the subject. But I never had a really great response, which that is, in spades. Its pithiness is so pointed it might be painful to try to deny it at any time--but it might burn when it's stated to a person calling you a hater because you dare to be angry over these morally and ethically-bankrupt people.
Or not. I don't care, I still wanna borrow it and hope that's okay
Open Source
I wouldn't be on the intertubz if I didn't want all of my material reused.
"Polls don't tell us how well a candidate is doing; Polls tell us how well the media is doing." ~ Me
That's a good way to look at it
I like how you think, Thumb
I am really glad to hear you don't mind reuse
Because I am stealing the hell out of this:
And this:
Probably steal more too, but that's as far as I've read.
Now interviewing signature candidates. Apply within.
A wise person once told me that anger and fear are two
different sides to the same coin.
I think they were right.
~OaWN
Hate is also the title we
That one fits so many Clinton supporters/trolls... although it often seemed to be used to dismiss legitimate concerns...
(But, regarding the OP: as always, appreciate your posts and perspective, Thumb! Thanks - and know that you'd have a million or so more recs for so many of your posts, if only I could give them.)
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Thanks!
I post a Daily Rant every few days at WayoftheBern - today's is called WayoftheTroll where I go off on how Hillary's supporters are her worst enemies.
"Polls don't tell us how well a candidate is doing; Polls tell us how well the media is doing." ~ Me
Perfect essay, thank you
I'm printing out in hard copy to have on my desk, the words lunachickie has highlighted. Really have to think a lot more about that.
Meanwhile, this 71 year young happy Crone, is very, very, so close to the edge it's probable, of giving up. Not giving a fuck multiplied by a lot. Decades of caring, working for, everything which seemed to come to fruition with Bernie and Jane Sanders - hadn't felt that hopeful since 1968, yes, Robert F. Kennedy.
So many things, and what keeps coming to my mind, what's left of it, is the way Hope&Change sold us out. Big Time. Was he too inexperienced? Were we too eager to elect the first Black POTUS? Were we too damn scared of McCain and the Tundra Tart?
Obama seemed scared too. Relying on Rahm, Tim Geithner ( he of the NYFEd who SAW what was happening & did nothing prior to 2008,) and we've seen how the Two Davids so quickly now have joined the ClintonClan. Don't know if I'm allowed to say on this site, who the fuck cares which "party" wins. Neither of the candidates seem to even notice the rest of us weren't invited to their party!!
Hopefully, we aren't to the point
where we aren't allowed to say things like what you said, and I agree with you on who cares with party wins. We don't win anything at all, so what IS the point?
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Oh sure, this site isn't about any person or party, it's about
issues. I hope to convince everyone to vote for Jill! But everyone is certainly free to disagree.
The main parties seem to me the same on economic issues (including not doing nearly enough to stop wars or climate change, because the corporate overlords want to make their money). They differ on a few social issues. I think the economic issues override the social issues so prominently that we have to vote for neither party.
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Luckily for them, both
Luckily for them, both corporate parties have been freed of the need for more than enough voters than are required to make a 'win' look plausible, so they don't need actual progressive voters. They can manufacture their own votes, as we've seen displayed on both sides now.
Luckily, there is a non-corporate Green Party, to vote for a change toward democracy, if the propaganda doesn't yet again convince people that voting for citizen representation rather than pathologically greedy and destructive evil might get them the 'wrong evil'.
Obviously, a people who can overall be endlessly conned into voting to have evil befall them will definitely get what they vote for, though - no cheating even required. A very sad waste of what's likely the last opportunity to try...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
That's sexist!
Don't believe me ? Check this out.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
OMG!
Looking at that feels like running into a dysfunctional ex and wondering how I ever got into that relationship in the first place - and feeling SO much healthier for not being there any longer.
"Polls don't tell us how well a candidate is doing; Polls tell us how well the media is doing." ~ Me
poison link
Not going there. I'm not helping their traffic. Fuck them...
Please place a warning next time.
I didn't know it was a DK link. I never wanted to see that place again.
i've learned to avoid certain links by....
...hovering the cursor over the link and the address will show up somewhere on your screen. for me it's the bottom of the webpage. i quickly learned to do that with Reddit when a link would send me off to some unknown (and maybe malicious) website. lots of folks here on 99 were linking to DK when the latecomers made the shift back in March. i avoided DK links using the same method.
Absolutely!
I do that all the time.
Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos
Yes -- merci!
In Firefox here it's at the lower left corner of the screen.
How to Quarantine TOP
If you use FireFox, there is a nifty free add-on called LeechBlock that will allow you to specify as many as six sites you wish to partially or fully block access to. I installed it after unwittingly clicking on a link to DK once too often, and since then no longer have to worry about accidentally giving that site any more clicks. Applied the same treatment to Huffington Post, which I have also come to despise. My life is all the happier for being able to permanently and completely cut myself off from any exposure to their vile bullshit.
inactive account
Your antivirus/internet
Your antivirus/internet security software probably has a 'blocked sites' feature.
My interweb is a much more pleasant place because of that feature.
eeeeuuuwwwwwww.....
it went there.....
how has that site survived this long???
Oh boy ....
Hillary Clinton was 24 years old when she met Bill Clinton. Neither she or him had a career back then. She was a very politically active student, a political hawk from the very beginning. I think most of them were at that time period. They were a student couple like thousands of others. What she did "on her own" was her undergraduate studies. She married Bill Clinton at age 28 in 1975 and moved with him to Arkansas and her own career at that point had been her gig as a congressional legal council for two years before she moved to Arkansas with Bill Clinton. Two years later Bill Clinton became Attorney General in Arkansas. His career. Not hers. Then he became governor. His career, not hers. That doesn't mean she had not her own career and did a lot of good stuff, but nothing that would have lead her to political career on her own to the level she is now in, if she hadn't been married to Bill Clinton.
I can't stand the gender
warscompetition in the US. I still can't figure out why that is. Sometimes I feel its more destructive than constructive. At some point women in this country must have been way more oppressed or disrespected than somewhere else. It's something that puzzles me.It's Identity Politics, pure and simple.
Identity Politics is a US invention, Divide and Conquer is its purpose and it worked in this case.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
It may not be portrayed that way in the press, but
democracy does seem to be working as designed in the German parliamentary system.
For all the alarm about the AfD, its success shows — just as the success of the Greens did in the 1980s — that, in Germany, if the Powers That Be say, “Well, if you don’t like it, why don’t you leave and start your own party?”, people can indeed get together and take them up on the challenge, with meaningful results.
The two-party system in the U.S. ensures that no election is ever actually about the things everyone pretends it is.
That part of this essay nails exactly what I'm most angry about
As a woman, I find the representation of Hillary as any kind of icon of feminism or advancement for women to be offensive and supremely ridiculous. Thumb nailed it perfectly.
Hillary has not only ridden Bill's coattails, she's actually treated women horribly in her pursuit of protecting Bill at all costs and advancing her own ambitions.
I gave up on the Democratic Party long ago and haven't identified with them since the 1990s when the Clintons first took it over, so I guess I'm lucky to have not expected anything better from them, thus I'm not really experiencing anger over their actions now.
I mostly just feel the same sense of disgust and lack of interest in the dems as I have for years. I did have a brief fling with them again when Obama first showed up, and I'm more disappointed in him (and myself for being taken in by him) than anything else.
Hear, hear!
That is exactly how I feel!
Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos
I regret clicking on that link.
I should have hovered before I clicked. Please post a warning that it is to DKos when you link to them. I have stayed away for months and I just gave them a click. Regret, regret, regret.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Damn, should have had a
Damn, should have had a trigger warning on that, lol. I've been pretty much staying off DKos and other open septic fields for some time and the ugly was a shock.
Edit: mind you, I'm speaking as the Young White Male BernieBro I was converted into. Although luckily my jockstrap remains unloaded as I'm sure any junk in there would fall right into the toilet (eeeeeuuuuukkkkk!) if I ever remembered to put up the seat before sitting down. Oh, wait...
The place became a running joke as well as a cesspool, so I suppose that it had its uses when it made itself so bizarrely and disgustingly irrelevant.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
It's really sad to realize what a sap you've been.
That's what I'm left with. The Dems have played me and many liberals for decades and we fell for it every time. How crummy is it when you realize that Sarah Palin's taunt "how's that hopey changey thing working out for you?" is one of the most on target insults ever hurled at you.
Remember those little ads in the back of comic books? Sea monkeys and magic crystals and so forth? There was one that said "Have your own log cabin!" as a fort, a clubhouse, etc. It had a drawing of a kid in a Davy Crockett coonskin cap poking his head out of the window of his great new log playhouse. In reality, anyone who ordered that ended up with a plastic tablecloth with logs printed on it designed to throw over a card table or box. That's kind of how I view the Democratic Party now.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Perfect!
This really is it, isn't it?
"Polls don't tell us how well a candidate is doing; Polls tell us how well the media is doing." ~ Me
Yes, but the X-ray glasses really worked!
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
and sea monkeys
are brine shrimp! They are kind of cute, though, despite not being crown-wearing monkeys!
sea monkeys are brine shrimp or...
...a nifty browser for viewing Caucus 99 Percent.
I got snookered into purchasing
A "telescope" for, I think, around 10$.
Turned out to be two cardboard tubes and a few glass lenses for objective and eyepiece, all in bits and pieces to be put together yourself. No detailed instructions, of course not. It was a b**** to assemble and focus.
What a crock.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
I did much better than a telescope
For about $9, delivered straight to my door, I got a BIG BANG CANNON. I still have it and it still works. You only need bauxite, water, and a flint to make it go off. I got it in around 1962. They still make them, but they aren't $9 anymore. Check it out:
http://www.bigbangcannons.com/product-i14987-q10118-g12-b0-p0-6F_9L_Spec...
I'm 63 and still take it to work every now and then just to amaze everyone. Don't worry -- you can't hurt a fly with it.
(EDIT - just to say it is aptly named! VERY loud!)
That's just AWESOME!!1!!1!
But ... 100$?? I can't believe inflation since the mid-50s (?) has been 1111% (100/9) !!
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
Inflation, yes
I know. I was rather shocked to see that price, too. However, I'm learning not to be so shocked by some of this. A while ago, I was looking to replace our four-sided kitchen food grater. Having learned the hard way that many Chinese-manufactured products were of shoddy quality and/or materials, I wanted to avoid that. So, I searched for a USA-built food grater. Simple enough, right? Well, I found one. It was even made by the same company who made our broken one. Guess what? The price - even on sale - will mortally wound a $100 bill. These things used to be around $5.
Not going to spend the best part of $100 for a grater. I found one made in Sweden for under $20 that looks good, and hopefully I can trust the quality. Probably will get that.
I will note that not everything coming from China is shoddy. I've been a musician since childhood. One of my instruments is guitar (of course LOL). A couple of years ago I thought I would augment my range by learning the electric bass guitar, so I went shopping for an instrument and amp. I didn't want to spend much, as I won't live long enough to be that proficient with it. Bought a Chinese-built Fender bass and Chinese-built Ampeg amp. Frankly, I am astounded at the quality of each, especially the Fender. I paid a pittance for each when the quality is considered.
I WANT MY 2 PERSON SUBMARINE!!! NT
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Brilliant! Thank you.
You would not believe the torture my mind inflicts on me with its video of Sarah Palin uttering those words.
I always wondered what the log cabin turned out to be.
Anger or fear
seems to the emotional choice we have. How many Democrat's are still flogging the dead horse out of fear? A lot. Lot's of don't like righteous anger it scares them. They prefer to stick there heads in the sand and believe that the dark is light. Some understand the anger but feel it's irresponsible or selfish to get angry and refuse to accept the reality that we're living in. Do you want to disenfranchise the poor, women, poc and help the enemy who is much worse and scarier then the Democrat's who will fight for our rights?
Maybe they are doing okay and do not want to rock the neoliberal boat. Then again the Democratic Party is bleeding members at a alarming rate. I think that they convince themselves that this is what democracy looks like and therefore since they see themselves as socially liberal or progressive they do not want to look at what is going down. They are frightened by the truth so they go with the fictitious story line that the Democratic party is the party that fights for social justice.
It's easier to fear the other then face what you are supporting. The culture war has done a great job of divide and conquer by catapulting the fear and loathing. Seems irrational to me to not be angry but sadly many people have misplaced anger which they direct at those of us who don't buy the story line. We are enemies of the state and stand in the way of what they call progress. they are as upside down and willfully ignorant as the teabaggers they so fear and hate.
I was listening to this song (a guilty pleasure)
while reading what you're saying about the Democratic Party,
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd4j1Ms1VYE&index=15&list=RDILbe2DAs39M]
and I thought, yeah, that's right, I sure can't! LOL
"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
OK, I just realized that might have sounded WEIRD!
What I mean is I can't fight the feeling I have about the Democrats anymore.
And I've forgotten what I started fighting for
It's time to bring this ship into the shore
And throw away the oars forever...
"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
I got it right away
didn't seem weird to me. When it became obvious what Bush/Cheney were about and yet semi sane Republicans still refused to repute him I thought it's hard for people to admit they were wrong or that had been bamboozled. The one person in my family that voted for Bush finally after all the torture, war, destruction of the rule of law, and the economic collapse that he finally admitted he had been wrong to vote and support them. Maybe a lot of Democrat's are having trouble admitting that they got conned and that the Democrat's are not what they believed. Hard to admit you have supported and are still supporting a psycho killer and a party that's hell bent on destroying democracy and setting the world on fire.
Have you ever met one of those people that refuses to...
acknowledge when they are wrong even when the evidence is right there in front of them?
That's pretty much all that is left in the Democratic Party anymore, those that cannot admit to their own mistakes because they see it as either weakness or failure and those that are just completely ignorant.
I am done being used by political parties to forward agendas that not only fail to improve the quality of life of the majority of Americans, but in many cases actively harms both us and our brothers and sisters around the world.
Hopefully someday more of them will feel that way too, but I am not optimistic....
Admitting when you are wrong takes more moral character than they seem to possess.
"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me
Hollywood, sci-fi, and comic-book fan Democrats
One minute they’re all, like, “Fear is the mind killer” but the next minute, it’s “Somebody anybody save us OMG Trump!”
Somebody anybody save us OMG Trump except
not Bernie. How many polls showed Bern much farther ahead against Trump than Hill?
But apparently democratic socialism is scarier than fascism.
Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.
Hey, the constant stimulation
Hey, the constant stimulation of the amygdala with hate and fear worked so well in media-propagandizing many of what we term the 'right-wing', by shutting down their ability to reason and making them vulnerable to disinformation/divide-and-conquer campaigns, that it's now being applied by corporate representatives in Dems clothing as well. We're being HYP-MO-TYZED into stampeding for Her Royal Coronation and over the cliff just beyond! Well, they're trying anyway...
(Not the best example by a long shot, but I just grabbed one that came up.)
http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/p/Amygdala.htm
(Limbaugh, for example, lol.)
Edit: luckily, we've learnt to fear Clintons and Bushs even more.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Yeah, that's how I feel--
Why on earth is Trump scarier than Clinton?
People's response tends to be "You're white."
I usually say "Why do you think Hillary Clinton is going to protect POC from Trump? How do you think she's gonna do it, even if she were inclined? Don't you see that she's the best recruitment tool that a Trump movement could ever want? Don't you see that, even if she weren't, she's completely untrustworthy and will stab you in the back the second it's useful to her?"
People's response tends to be "You're white. And racist."
"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
The race to the bottom will only get worse by accepting
...societal pressures to sit down and shut up, and vote for the monster of Libya.
I was reading this piece advising Millennials to get out of the US while they still can, before their loans are declared a risk and the education they got is now US property. Before they find themselves indentured and chained to the US plantation without a passport.
Which they surely will if Hillary leads the Neoliberals to complete victory over the nation. American lives have shriveled under their reforms since the '80s and had two large effects: lowering taxes on the rich and the destruction of organized labor, resulting in declining wages and worker protections. The Millennials have been betrayed and sold-out.
This from Get Out While You Can: Why Young Americans Should Emigrate:
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
imagine
Imagine what life will be like for them if they stay.
Struggling along in some service-sector/healthcare McJob, delivering the groceries for and wiping the asses of Boomers, while simultaneously funding aforementioned Boomers' pensions and Social Security and Medicare and whatever else the Boomers will demand. You don't need to attend University to be a wage slave.
The defeat of Sanders was the first victory for the Boomers in the coming generational war.
I have to wonder if they've considered that in 10-15 years they will almost certainly be at the mercy of the same people they've just stomped-on.
Their final days may very well involve gumming on pink slime and mac n' cheese, and shitting in Chinese-made diapers in warehouse-sized death factories.
Elections have consequences.
EDIT: I just want it to be clear that I'm not advocating for the awful end-of-life treatment of Boomers I described, but that I was attempting to describe what I think the future may hold, now that so many young people feel that they've been told 'fuck your future' by their parents and grandparents. Obviously I hope it's not the case.
That's a hell of a victory--
given that one of the things Clinton will do is cut, or even privatize, their Social Security.
"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
maybe, maybe not
Keep in mind that $$Hillary will sell changes to social programs as 'saving them for future generations', which translates to cutting them for everyone born after fill in the blank.
Nobody is going to touch the Boomers' goodies.
I trust that as far as I could throw it
and any Boomer with any sense would trust it just as much.
"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
coalition building
It'll get done the same way that they 'won' this election.
By building a coalition of 51%+, and that coalition must include Boomers, because Boomers could nix the deal otherwise.
I suspect it'll be a 'catfood commission for the future'.
BTW, just read no COLA increase next year.
It was on FB. So maybe, maybe not. Congress votes raises every year for themselves. For the rest of us, no SS increase, 5 years to $12 or $15 for the bottom.
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.
yah
I wonder if the Boomers, once the majority are retired, which is pretty soon, will take this no-COLA bullshit sitting down. I guess we'll see.
When I talk about 'subsequent generations' sacrificing their benefits, I'm talking about the fact that my SS statement tells me that by 2034 revenue will only be sufficient for 79% of outlays.
Consider for a moment that polls indicate that the majority of Sanders supporters find themselves on the 'wrong side' of the S.S. 'surplus' funding the program, and then imagine if the trend of doing fuck-all about anything continues. When I refer to the 'generational war', I'm not implying that all the Boomers secretly got together and schemed to fuck over their kids and grandkids, but rather that the low-life scumbag do-nothings in D.C. have created a situation where it could very well be a 'fight to the death' situation for the Boomers, as the cash-cow of 'print money' schemes and borrowing from China dries up, and 'the kids' start getting desperate for ensuring their own retirement survival, since they've been saddled with a shitty economy that hasn't allowed them to save diddly-squat for their own 'golden years', and they realize that S.S. and Medicare will be all they've got coming.
The Dems could have spared us all this coming misery by standing up and fighting; but as we've learned recently, they don't really give a shit. They'll all still be rich and comfy in their 2nd or 3rd homes, or flying above us at 30,000 feet while we swing axes at each other in a fight for the scraps of what was once a great economy.
You are one of the handful of commenters here with whom I always seem to be nodding my head in agreement, so I sincerely apologize if my 'gritty' way of communicating offended. I will try to do better in the future.
Like an economic Kindertransport.
Jugentransport?
One more thing we could raise money for, if we ever decided we're as important as a Presidential campaign.
"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
As a Boomer who is with you, above comments are offensive
and you are dividing a class by age. CStS, you have been ranting about divisions that are artificially imposed from elsewhere, and here you are.
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.
not all Boomers of course
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/11/07/the-rising-age-gap-in-economic...
Not all Boomers are wealthy of course, and certainly not all are to blame for the current socioeconomic crisis, but let's be clear; the Boomers as a generation are the wealthiest generation ever to walk this planet.
And as someone who has dived-deep into the polls throughout this election, I can attest that income and age are the bright dividing lines between those voting with everyone's future in mind, and those only concerned with their own.
I'm not trying to demonize anyone, but we have to recognize that the needs and desires of the Boomers seem to be increasingly at odds with the needs of subsequent generations. Since older voters have tended to have a disproportionate role in elections, I don't see this generational struggle ending well for the X'ers and Millennials.
What? BullShit!
I just started up my computer and this is the first thing I read:
well
That comment was intended to recognize that nothing has been done about the funding gap for SS and Medicare, and that there's no indication that anything will be done about it, other than waiting until it's too late and cutting benefits for X'ers and Millennials.
I apologize if the decent progressive Boomers here took offense to my use of "Boomers" without qualification, but since 'Millennials' is often bandied-about without any qualification, I didn't think there'd be quite so much backlash.
Obviously not every 'baby Boomer' is a selfish wingnut with no concern for the future. I guess I felt (wrongly) that the fact was obvious given the makeup of commenters on this site.
I Think the Needs Might Be the Same, But the Boomer's
wants certainly are different from the needs of Gen X and the Millennials.
Boomers want cheap fuel. Boomers want corporate and economic stability.
Boomers, on the whole, are quite conservative when it comes to neoliberalism and corporate sponsored public policy.
That is not what Boomers need though.
I am very sympathetic to the arguments that CambridgePulsar1919 poses. Too bad they were put forth in raw emotive fashion. I think it's a bit hard for us old people to hear.
I'm a mid-Gen Xer, and I think many people my age have these wants that conflict with our needs as a people as well.
I also agree with CStS, just look at the polls and it's fairly clear.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
couple of things
I'm probably just a bit older than you, based on your description of your age.
I'm aware that I frequently come across as blunt and unvarnished. I do try to modulate that tendency, but sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking that since I'm commenting on a predominately progressive site, people will assume I'm coming from a progressive place philosophically, and not judge my comments as harshly.
Clearly, I blew it this time.
Things have been a bit volatile
over the last few weeks. The other reason I didn't object to the way you put things--well, the third reason, after 1)I don't want another fight, and 2)it ain't my job, I'm not a mod, is 3)I assume that everybody's raw and on edge, including you.
People are angry and upset and near despair and can't believe this shit sandwich we're being handed.
So it's easy right now to give and take offense. I'm falling back on refusing to fight and hoping that people will see that we're all allies here.
"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
It's sad but not surprising
It's sad but not surprising how this election has divided so many 'progressives' into warring factions.
The MSM, and $$Hillary's Brockian minions have done a fine job of lobbing 'Molotov cocktails' of fear and distrust into our midst during this civil war for the left.
People tend to get pissed at each other when they
suffer a horrible, unfair, rigged "defeat."
Seen this before.
As for the cultural shelling we left-of-center types are getting, yeah, well, that's going to continue. Been going on for 30 years or more.
We could, maybe, come up with some countermeasures for this bullshit. None would be perfect, but at least we wouldn't be entirely at the mercy of the Blitzkrieg.
But in order to do that, we have to have strong communities based on trust, and we'd also have to have a willingness to deal with things strategically, not atomistically (if that's a word). What I mean is, not to just respond to individual talking points, events, etc. as they come up, but to have strategies and a persistent political and social infrastructure.
I don't see a lot of appetite for either of those things, but then again, the primary need right now is to recover from the damage done by the last shelling.
I wish we could have a nice retreat at a beach somewhere, and just relax and cry and rage and have fun together--(yeah, I do think people can do all those things at once). Money and time considerations almost certainly prevent, but I've been dreaming about that.
"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
God, do I wish this were true:
since I'm commenting on a predominately progressive site, people will assume I'm coming from a progressive place philosophically, and not judge my comments as harshly.
"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
For that to be true, there needs to be more trust--
which requires that people get to know each other as something more than words on a screen.
Now *there's* a message practically nobody will want to hear! LOL
"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
It is not necessary to prostrate yourself
…and coddle the people who will cry agism as a blanket counter-attack to deflect any criticism of their generation. The numbers and stats speak for themselves. The reality of the current speaks for the past.
Remarkably, the people who created this website, where you may speak your mind and opinions, are mostly boomers and the bridge generation below them. They represent the best of those generations and they are not afraid to hear the truth. They have held solidarity and empathy with the river of humanity that runs through all generations and it has not been easy, across the years. They had to stand apart from the selfish laziness and deliberate ignorance that became emblematic of their generations, whose civic neglect allowed terrible things to emerge. Global neoliberalism was a demon born out of the US culture, itself a social mutation of fully-embraced genocide. Some of every generation is destined to stand in the center of that shadow, as they did, resisting its deplorable emanations that harm the world and, thus, becoming objects of social disdain, themselves.
If you silence your words because of the same inferior criticisms used against them, when they spoke words of truth, you deny their life's work and sacrifices. Listen to your heart. The water in your stream are foul because the largest generation allowed something festering and putrid to be placed in it, upstream.
Your opinions were well stated and neutral. The facts are plain. Rights and freedoms come with serious civic obligations. Those obligations were never met with anything other that collective denial, cognitive dissonance, and weakness. That is what has put this current generation in a dilemma so serious that it must consider emigration in order to realize a meaningful life.
You're fine.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Our generation is very divided.
Which actually, is good news.
More people in my generation agree with me about politics and economics right now than ever before.
"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
First, I agree that it's an ugly, angry way to portray Boomers.
Second, those weren't my comments.
Third, I agreed with commenter's view on the youth, and that they should get the hell out of here if possible. I was suggesting raising money for that might not be a bad idea.
Fourth, you're right, I didn't call out commenter, but merely talked about the parts of his comment I DID agree with. I'm exhausted by the constant fighting. I didn't want to have another one with my morning coffee.
Fifth, "ranting?"
Sixth, "I'm dividing a class by age"--see #2, it wasn't my comment, but, while I don't agree with commenter's ugly portrayal of the Boomer generation, there IS a division along age lines in this election. It's been the most predictable piece of data--aside from the likelihood that Hillary will lie--in the entire election cycle. Hillary's numbers get better and better the older the demographic. So do Trump's, actually. That's a fact. I didn't invent it.
I think that's it.
I'm not gonna get into a fight over how horrible I am because I didn't challenge the offensiveness in the above comment, and how that makes me ageist and bigoted. I'm not gonna get into a fight over whether there's an age split in the electorate.
The first is just a redux of the same fights we've been having over the past two weeks, and it will go nowhere; ultimately, people will believe me a bigot if they want to, and not believe it if they want to. I can't do anything about any of that.
The generational divide in politics is real. You and the other #NeverHillary Boomers here are a minority within your generation, just like I've been a minority within my generation for most of my life. That doesn't excuse saying nasty things about all of you categorically, and I don't think I have.
But I'm not gonna fight about whether I have. Cui bono?
"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
I did not mean to vent on you, specifically
And those of us former Berners who are over 60 are quite common locally, so I forget that Out There is probably statistically different, just like I know whatever they are calling kids who just turned 18 who seem to be flag-waving conservatives.
My intent was not to start a rumble, but just a gentle reminder that there are a fair number of site residents who are Boomers. And I am feeling sensitive today, have to toughen up some more. I know plenty who are conservative. And some Hillarians I have given up on.
So mea culpa here.
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.
The worst are the folks who know she's terrible
but are supporting her anyway because "Trump."
The editor of my local progressive rag just had a cover story 'The 8 points in favor of lesser of two evils voting."
Pushing hard for the Hillmeister.
Peace, riverlover, we don't have a problem.
"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
we whose eyes are open to
we whose eyes are open to what's coming are trying to find a reason not to despair
at least we have each other...