Divided We Fall.
Trump is an odious sack of shit. How the hell the Republicans and their supporters elected this turd sandwich I will never be able to fully comprehend. Ignorant, petty and spoilt are his finest qualities, rightfully he should lose this election in a landslide. There is nothing positive in the whole of his character that you can even highlight to make a modicum of a case for him, zero charm, zero credibility and filled with a vileness beyond description. He does not care who he targets, who he belittles in his never ending narcissistic need to promote his own puss filled persona.
The dear old Democrats presented, even when they had a choice, the establishment candidate personified. The establishment that has embedded the sense of entitlement ring fenced by the term "exceptionalism" whereby we overthrow governments at a whim, torture, bomb hospitals and drive never ending wars. Nobody pays for our national crimes, we easily pardon ourselves and move on to committing more of the same. The problem is we have never stopped to think of "why do they hate us" which is probably the easiest question of them all to answer if a modicum of honesty was applied. The clutching of flag pins with tears in the eyes over the fallen that would not look out of place on a crocodile.
Our pathetic and corporate controlled media whose only objective is viewership/readership has failed completely to either inform or to investigate. It is no longer a question of balance but one of actively exacerbating the divides with a total disregard for the truth. Whistle-blowers are hounded without mercy, intellectuals and analysts ignored, the only thing that matters is who wins and not the why. The never ending drip that there are only two viable choices in the fiasco is a fallacy protected by corruption of power. All that matters is how much you can raise with total disregard as to what is being bought.
The final straw for me was the MSF Hospital bombing,. It wasn't the actual crime that surprised me it was the reaction to such a crime that flabbergasted me. There was nationalistic and partisan pardoning of murder, the punishments were a facile disgrace in their insignificance. The descent started with the embedding of journalists in a war of aggression to report what the military deemed they should report. The lies that got it into the war were pardoned. The crimes we committed during that war were pardoned. The proof of those crimes was deemed to be too disgusting and upsetting for us to see, yet they were still pardoned. We throw charges at others joyously yet refuse to maintain credibility when asked to account for our own. The result is crimes by others are treated in the same way, with verbiage.
When our livelihoods were assaulted by the establishment we bailed them out, nobody was punished, few real changes made and the great economic divide widened further. Occupy and Black Lives matter are treated with disdain only arousing the minimum of lip service when the noise becomes too loud to completely ignore. The circus of broken and meaningless promises continues. The way to control has always been to divide, wedge issues replaced policy, religion became a flail all to prevent us striving for what the vast majority of us want, a decent livelihood, reasonable security and help when we need it to overcome temporary difficulty and even catastrophe.
We have become base enough that arguing that thousands of unnecessary deaths through guns and other weapons have become an accepted part of our culture, if it wasn't then something would have been done by now. The divisions and divides driven by the nature of our politics and media has ensured that it is impossible to talk sense such is the entrenched and entwined hatred created. Reason has taken a sabbatical and not just in the US, xenophobia and nationalism are on the rise, discussion has been reduced to impossibly cretinous slogan flinging. Intelligence and expertise are ridiculed when confronted with partisan requirements, dare to question at your peril, shut up and get with the program. The partisan blogs have become mini fascist states demanding total conformity of thought, questioning a crime, censoring de rigueur. Orwell would be amazed with the ease that it has been accepted as the norm, welcomed even.
Not surprising then that we cannot even confront the existential threat of climate change without frothing at the mouth politics
Divided we fall.
Comments
I was reading an article yesterday about how friends and
relatives are being split up because of this election. One person actually told someone they could no longer be a friend because that person was voting for Trump. You see, if someone votes for Trump, they're a racist. On the other hand, if someone votes for Clinton, they're a warmonger.
I'm not sure how we can cure that. Party politics certainly exasperates the problem but humans are going to have different opinions and perspectives and that is going to divide us no matter the political system.
Maybe the best we can do is try to end Rule by the Rich and institute real democracy. Maybe if we trust in the basic instincts of people to do the right thing, and get rid of the sociopaths at the top, we can unite in solving our biggest problems.
Of course, maybe monkeys will fly out of my butt too.
Butt monkeys are a favorite of mine
beats counting sheep
lol - I'm dumping Hillary supporters.
Anyone dumb enough to vote for her is too dumb to be my friend. At least [some] Trump voters are trying to blow up the system. Hillary voters are protecting the status quo.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
That kind of captures my gut feeling right there
If I were to vote for Trump, I would feel I was using him to send a message / disrupt a system that’s proven itself to be beyond reforming.
It’s like voting for Brexit (or Scottish independence or Catalonian independence).
If I were to vote for Hillary, I would feel she and her Deep State, war party, and bankster backers were using me.
yep. n/t
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.
Unfortunately I can't dump family members
But those who are voting for Hillary will be hearing about it from me nonstop for the next four years, you betcha. She will be "your girl Hillary," and maybe they'll be a bit more courageous in 2020 and vote third party.
People assume that other people agree 100% with their
candidate. Most elections, we actually do choose the lesser evil. Did you agree 100% with Kerry?
I did agree 100% with Obama except for thinking he didn't go far enough, then he turned around and bailed out the banks, expanded the war, and started attacking Social Security. I should have sat out 2008, but voted again for the lesser evil. Never again. I don't have to agree 100%. I'll vote for a good person that I agree 90% with, but no more known evil.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I agree that Kerry is 100% a war criminal that should be
in prison.
My problem is my grandpa told me when I was a kid that all politicians are liars and I haven't been able to shake that since.
I Don't Care If People Vote Clinton.
I can't quite blame them. I mean, I think they are completely wrong, but I can't blame them for believing the Big Lie.
Same for Drumpf, for the most part, although it's a bit harder.
I will not end a friendship for the voting. I may lose friendships based upon the ugly they throw around or the authoritarian they leverage, but that doesn't have to do with a vote, those are actions and behaviors.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
It's a good question, are people to blame for voting
for someone because they don't know any better? Is it their responsibility to know better? Relative to Clinton, all one has to do is do simple searches on the internet and you can find out all you want about her and her hubby's criminal actions.
So now all these people that believe the lies and don't know any better are going to elect a criminal as President, someone who may be as dangerous a person as there is on the entire planet. The rest of us are going to have to live with it.
Are they to blame?
At some point I think they have to be.
What and Who Should You Believe? The Internet? The TV or
your lyin' eyes?
It's not nearly as clear cut as you lay out here, Al.
Between the lack of time for properly employed people, family, and recreation, I don't blame people for not being where we are at this time. I can't blame them.
The sheer volume of the corporate media, in both throughput and decibel values is tough to counter.
I think it would be a completely different story if this stuff, like the bucket of losers, were really out there and readily available.
The media has done a masterful job of shifting from misinforming to sowing confusion since the advent of the internet. I saw it, I called it, but who am I? A dog trainer who specializes in dog sports and dog frisbee? Don't make me laugh...
I thought the transcripts from Hillary's quarter million dollar speeches were going to be this kind of ugly.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
I blame my brother for electing Bush, twice.
And he accepts the blame. I blame myself for voting for Obama, once. I don't know, with information so easily available now and if one thinks citizens have a responsibility to be informed and educated, there's a fine line.
On the other hand I can understand why people are ignorant. I'm retired, but I worked 30 years in a highly demanding job with the fed, raised two kids as a single father and was very active in many things, sports, kids activities, owning a home, etc. I don't know how I managed it all now. I know I didn't get enough sleep, that's for sure. I read USA Today, watched some of the political shows, read my local newspaper. Then I retired, had time, and did a lot of research. So ya, there is a correlation.
But I still blame myself for not knowing better. I don't say, oh I had too much to do so you can't blame me for voting for a war criminal.
I guess it's the way you look at it.
It's similar to those serving in the military. Do they deserve blame for joining a global killing machine or are they just pawns who have no choices and therefore are not to blame? Or cops.
Maybe if we're to break thru, we need to start assigning accepting blame.
I'm just positing here, asking questions.
I. too, blame myself
for not paying attention. I thought the paying attention part was on the newspapers, was on me to buy a paper. I didn't realize 'til G. Dubya that democracy requires work.
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.
I see plenty of people who are where we are.
Thing is, that's not something a lot of people want to see, because we're not "winning." As if we could, in a Wrestlemania event.
"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
winning
Like Charlie Sheen, you mean?
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
So the options are, AFAIAA,
[1] Leave top blank and only vote downticket for the most progressive candidates; if none are progressive enough for you, then leave blank [which I should do were I an American, but YMMV]
[2] If allowed, write-in whomever you please
[3] Decline, reject or spoil your ballot
But don't "not vote", make a statement by 1 of the above.
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 won't end a friendship over voting Clinton
either.
In most cases, though, I do feel some blame/exasperation; depends on which friend and how they're being got at by the propagandists.
"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 won't end a friendship
but I have a couple of friends on hiatus because they know better than to buy the crap Clinton is selling and are still buying it wholesale. No hard feelings on either side about the no visiting or calling until November. We will check on Facebook to see if the others are still alive. If you think this is weird you have never seen Puerto Ricans talking politics.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
I have ditched three now, not for voting for Clinton,
But for insisting that I have to.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
That I totally get.
"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
A lot of people
are simply afraid of a Trump presidency, for entirely valid reasons. It's not all on account off the propaganda.
native
No, but I would think
people would notice that they're being manipulated.
"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
monkeys
I so hope monkeys do that
then you and the rest of us have a chance to survive if not thrive
redacted by mimi - double post /nt
Hi, Al, that's what happened to many German families
in the nineteen thirties, just that being split over the Hitler regime was accompanied by fears that even your family member could turn you in and cause harm to your livelihood. The same was true for former East Germany citizens and the fear of family members being your "enemy" was always in the back of your mind. I don't know how many people went "underground" with their thoughts out of fear.
For example, I had a cousin, who died a couple of years ago. He was a Russian/German "mix" born through rape when the Russians took over Berlin in 1945. He lived with his mother his whole life (there was no other way than to pay the rent together in a flat that his grandfather got as a low level employee for the interior ministry in the Third Reich (not being a Nazi supporter though), the rights to rent those units (they still today are government owned flats) there were inheritable to the children, my aunt and then my cousin.
He was a soul of a man. He helped anybody, who needed help, you know real work, Schleppwork. He was a biologist and took water samples from the rivers and lakes in Berlin for the city's environmental government agency for fishery. After he died, my other cousin, who grew up with him, found proof that he helped people in the underground to dig tunnels beneath the Berlin Wall and somehow helped people to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. Nothing clear about how he was involved, but clear hints that he was. Nobody knew about it. And to make it more clear (and may be unbelievable for today's younger folks), his mother actually was in the nineteen thirties a Hitler supporter.
My mother's family had three Hitler supporters and three "people who said nothing to save their livelihood". My grandfather worked in the Nazi regime, but was not a Nazi supporter. His wife, my grandmother was a "good German" and did everything to not harm her husband and children. His eldest daughter (my aunt who got raped and had my cousin (the Russian mix) was a Nazi supporter. His son (one of my favorite uncles, because he sliped me some German marks into my hands when I was a young kid and I thought that was so cool) was a Nazi supporter as a teenager and never really changed his mind about it, though on a personal level he was a good human) His second eldest daughter never got a chance to get an education, because the family didn't have enough money after wwI. She lost her husband and became a wwII widow with three kids. They all survived in above mentioned flat where they all lived together. Her husband had a furniture factory in Breslau (today Poland) and she lost everything, marched by foot to the Western Sectors (refugees always march back then and today) and after WWII she went back to Berlin.
Now, tell me, how would you know how ANYBODY in such political situations would act. How many still would speak up? Who of those who pretend to speak up are telling you what they REALLY think.
Thoughts are free, but not on a digital platform and they remain free only, if they remain unspoken for the most part.
That's the sad affair of our times.
How to change the whole stuff? May be some sane elders, who have a knack at constitutional law, sit together and rewrite whole parts of the US constitution and hopefully get out of their ossified legal texts to create a more equal and social basic law for the US that can't be discussed ad nauseam to give those profiteers within the powers to be the chance to undermine and co-opt it with bad intentions.
Thank you for sharing
this very personal story.
they are all dead by now ... and the "funny" thing is
that the only family relative, my grandfather on my mother's side, who were an adult in WWI as a poor guy taking care of the horses of his commanders above him, he had two kids my aunts born around 1901 and 1902, he got his job in the ministry of interior during the Weimar Republic. So, when Hitler came to power, he was already working there and he had meanwhile five kids. Though you would think he would have been the most ardent Nazi supporter working in the government in Nazi Germany, hea was the only real one, who wasn't. We know that, because when his son as a teenager started to get all exited of the Nazi youth organization and joined the NSDAP and even the SS, my grandfather was devastated and tried to persuade his son not to join the NSDAP and SS.
This is the story of which we learned only, when that son/my uncle was already way in his fifty/sixties that his father cried tons of tears, when his son was drafted by Hitler. That uncle went to Norway and later became a French POW. He was the only one, who the Americans after the wwII denazified. (Punishment was hard labor in the Hamburg Harbor, I was told). His life was saved by the family of my father and their business. They hired him and he worked for them his whole life. Unless you were "lucky" to listen to him in some private moments, you would never had thought he was a Nazi supporter.
So, it was my grandfather, who went through the horrors of wwI, who waas the only one really aware of what the Nazi regime was all about from the very beginning.
Just saying you never know something about a person til you really know. Words don't mean much. Context is everything.
Mimi, you have well-described the difference between
verbal courage and moral courage. The latter is much harder.
Thank you for sharing.
My parents were born in 1907/08 in the then
, or Baltic Governate of the Russian Empire.
As you can imagine, the lived through "the best of times" (my mother's family actually did quite well for themselves during the Tsars, as their ample farm was on the shore of the Gulf of Finland only a short horse-and-carriage ride away from St Peterburi, and they rented out their manor to the Tsarevich and his entourage every summer until the war and revolution; for not a few gold rubles, of which I still have a few), the "worst of times" (WWI and its accompanying death and destruction [not to mention loss of Tsarist income]), the "best of times" (Estonian independence, 1918-1940) when both my parents received a higher education [Dipl.] (mom in church music, dad in accounting) and then again "the worst times of all" (Soviet occupation, German "liberation", and Soviet re-occupation).
Ok, so Dad had a choice. Russians or Germans? Scylla or Charybdos? To him, there was no choice. F***ing Russians? No f***ing way. So he joined the Wehrmacht and rose to a fairly high ranking position in the SS, which was never talked about even after I saw an old photo album ( that I now recognize as an Obersturmbannfuehrer Waffen SS insignia, or LCol, )--- which I never ever mentioned having seen, but magically "disappeared" from the photo album by the time Mom passed away and I never saw it again.
Then, 1944, the Russian re-occupation. Escape to Sweden was the only solution. In a motorboat across the Baltic to Gotland, and then to the mainland. On the way Dad threw all his medals and decorations (including an Eisernes Kreuz 2. klasse) into the sea.
Finally, freedom ... until a new Social Democratic government in Sweden, attempting to stay "neutral" during the Cold War, tried to make "friends" withe USSR and almost came to an agreement to "repatriate" ex-USSR "citizens". Needless to say, this inspired great fear among North Baltic refugees (Estonians, Livonians and Courlanders) and many decided to leave for North America (Canada)
Others Balts (Latvians and Lithuanians) went South to Germany and Poland, some settled permanently in the BRD, DDR, or PRL, others eventually made their way to NA (usually USA).
Thank you, mimi, for sharing. You gave me courage to do likewise.
Alle Beste!
For ore on pre-WWI "Baltikum", see:
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.
thx for sharing your family history too ...
It's a long bygone and very sad history. Your's is so much more complex and difficult to imagine .And speaking discovering something in old photos ...
I discovered something once (my mother already over eighty years old) which also made me question some things again I had potentially misunderstood before. Unfortunately all the real proofs of those times are destroyed through the bombardment of Berlin of my fathers house he grew up in.
All I learn with that is that most people deny as long and as hard as they can and hide things they understand they have done wrong, unintentionally or intentionally. Nobody wants to lose face. Shame is a strong motivator for lying and for con artistry as is fear.
ebenfalls vielen Dank fuer Ihre Erinnerungen.
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.
He was elected because he addressed concerns
of working class people that NEITHER party has addressed! BOTH parties are owned by the 1%. They espouse opposite social policies but the SAME economic policies. People are drowning and clutching at any passing piece of flotsam. And the Democratic Party just dismisses them as racists and hopes they lose their jobs (actual quote by HRC). During the primary season, whenever one of them told me about Trump, I would listen respectfully then talk about Bernie. Except for the very old who would exclaim, "No! He's a Socialist!", often talking about Stalin, most would say "He's good too." Hillary is recognized as the slimy sleaze that she is.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
I made my own mind about Trump over the decades
I doubt he believes anything that comes out of his mouth with the exceptions of "how great he is". I have zero respect for the odious prick.
Whether he is or isn't,
Trump has been labeled the "outsider" candidate. A vote for Trump [to some] is a vote to throw the tea into the harbor. I think Trump is so odious as a person and candidate that his reality as a candidate gets short shrift. I'm sure the Democrats appreciate it.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
I have argued in the past that he is the logical conclusion
to the hate filled rhetoric of the Republican Party.
The truth of the matter is that he is just really another of the spoilt aristocracy but he allows the disdain to show in public probably because he lacks the self control.
I'll be voting, but for neither of the two at the top of the list
Good point. According to the Repub donor class,Trump is outside
the realm of acceptable corporate candidates and their checkbooks are closed to him.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Yes, I agree
I was answering the question of "How can someone vote for Trump". I'll add that the Republican Party have been conditioning people to believe that businessmen are smarter than politicians for at least 36 years. It has come to the point that most white working people (and a lot of Asians) believe "the government is your enemy". And they are right! Conservative/Neoliberal government IS their enemy and management's friend.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
He was elected because he voiced those people's concerns
in a manner that won't ultimately disturb profit margins for the extremely powerful. Also because, IMO, he's actually working with the POS frontrunner on the other side.
Bernie, who was voicing those people's concerns in a way that would cut into the power and wealth of the wealthy and powerful, had massive election fraud deployed against him because, unlike Trump, his ideas (mild and reformist as they actually were) represented an intolerable insult to the 1%.
The current crop of tyrants are real Princess-and-the-Pea types; they can't abide anything or anyone that doesn't kiss their ass.
"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 agree. He's working w/ the Clintons...
it's all a huge scam on us.
People say, well, if he's a plant, why the severe criticism of her? What severe criticism? That she's 'low energy?' It gets explained off as sexism. The emails (which he really hasn't exploited)? MSM will play it down as they always have. Too connected to Wall Street? Bernie brought that up and is now supporting her, so how bad can it be?
I've noticed that he does not talk about the Clinton Foundation and its' pay-to-play con. He also doesn't drive home her regime-change/interventionist policies, despite saying that he doesn't want to continue being 'the world's police.'
He really isn't slamming her anywhere near as hard as he could be. And then he says and does some really stupid shit that makes you think he wants to lose. Really. He wants to lose? Um, yeah... cuz he was never supposed to win.
Excellent summary
The system has basically forced/reduced untenable options for millions of people. The irregularities surrounding the voting system is another item that continues to gain no traction whatsover in this Orwellian 'democracy'.
Our reality has become so sad
I remember feeling a similar devastation in the 70's when we realized the Vietnam war was raging on and on. My solution then was to turn from the main society to begin to create what made sense to me. Listen to your own reason, detach from the 'establishment', don't listen when they call you scum, know in your heart you are correct in your evaluations of their lies and treachery.
It doesn't feel like we can to that just now. Climate change is a big reason. This is coming and will affect all of us on earth. We need to change our ways and we are absolutely leaderless. There is no one that is telling us how to do this big change ( except maybe Bill McKinnon -[don't think I spelled his name right]). Certainly not anyone who has any power to stop the HUGE forces for the status quo. We are left with the beautiful people stopping gas and oil pipelines.
We still get to vote but whether they are properly counted is a real concern. I will never vote for the war monger. I will vote to strengthen third parties. Which feels like all one can do.
I think the Native Americans are showing us the way...
we just have to follow and replicate. They are focusing on the basics, like, Water is Life. They aren't "protesters," they're "Protectors." They're changing the narrative, and that is why MSM won't cover them.
I think we have to stop trying to appeal to peoples' intellect and go straight to the heart.
I deeply love my brother.
He hates Herr Drumpf so much, he is too blinded to recognize the corruption of her heinous. Yesterday, we had a conversation about her heinous in which he tried calling me out girl rejecting both if them. My reply? "I love you!" His reply, a few hours later: I love you, too. I stopped the madness because I don't want to be divided from this person I adore because of these two chumps.
America is in decline. We will watch her come down together. I want to try and stick with those I love because it's going to get ugly - it's already ugly.
It's a painful birth, but a birth it is. Will we come out in a better world or will we want to throw that baby out with the bathwater? Time will tell.
"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
The United States of America
are well on the way to being a failed state- another in the long history of failed human empires.
Pity. The only question left to answer is whether anyone will be left to record the final fall. I suspect that the best records will be drawings on the walls of caves...
You misunderestimate us
"I suspect that the best records will be drawings on the walls of caves..."
Well, every really great civilization leaves its mark, to inspire and perplex future archaeologists and historians - from the ziggurat of Ur to the pyramids of Egypt to the Great Wall of China and so on. We will do the same, and it won't be cave paintings (since we didn't make any). Personally, I think it will be Walmarts, shelves still filled with the undecaying plastic remains of a blithe culture of consumption that dredged up an ocean of oil from the rock, turned it into colorful gadgets, and destroyed the ecosystem in the process. A fitting memorial, which will no doubt be a real puzzle for all those future archaeologists, who will wonder like puzzled European mariners before the stone statues of Easter Island, in what way those little pieces of plastic might have contributed to the life and the health of the people who are no more...
Nothing will last longer
Than the hundreds of nuclear reactors constructed all over the globe with no action taken on years worth of radioactive waste. When enough of these waste rod pools dry up, there will be enough radioactivity released to kill many hundreds of thousands at the very least. Assuming of course that so many remain alive in the toxic hell we bestow upon the world.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
Nuclear reactors, but also
the immense cache of the Navy's nuclear weapons, perhaps the largest in the country, held on a base west of Seattle no more than fifty to seventy-five miles across a peninsula. Also in the massive subduction zone that stretches approximately from Vancouver, BC, to southern California.
And it's the minute ocean organisms that produce the oxygen we depend on to live that the radioactivity will destroy.
The way I see
it. Trump is a racist POS and I'd never vote for him. Having said that, I think he'd be far less likely to start a war. He's spent his career in the business world and it appears he's had very little scruples when dealing with..anyone. He'd likely screw his grandmother out of her last nickel. The question is, would he have the stomach to start a needless war knowing people would die because of his actions. I think Trump looks at the world in a businessperson sense. How can I do such and such to make maximum profit. Leaving a charred and wasted landscape probably doesn't compute well in his primal brain. He's more of a builder, however shoddy and tasteless, than he is a destroyer.
Clinton, however, is a true psychopath in every sense of the word. She's a mass murderer with clean hands. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind what she is capable of. Trump is nowhere close to being in her league when it comes to savagery in the name of profits.
If I HAD to choose only between these two because your life depended on it, we would have a racist POS for president.
But I don't have to. Jill 2016...
As a good friend of mine says
the US is in trouble and leaderless so it's time
to go to a house of prayers and pray for a miracle.
I concur.
Nice essay, can I post this elsewhere?
#Jillneverhill
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
Anywhere you like, I regard everything I write as free
Thanks
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
You don't need a house of prayers.
In fact they are not recommended: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A5-6&version=KJV
interesting
me, I always saw the hypocrisy of it all.
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
house of prayers
One opinion from the Abrahamic religion in Roman Imperial days.
Those who believe in prayer often find it is better to pray together. And there are other theisms besides the worship of the God of Abraham.
Example: If you believe in Ganesha, your mileage will vary considerably.
Come to think of it, the Deities of Mount Kailash (Shiva, Durga, and Ganesha) would be good ones to pray to for this particular miracle. We definitely need the Destroyers of the Evil, the Harmful, and the Useless (Lord Shiva and Ma Durga) to destroy the clusterfuck we have now, and the Master over Obstacles (Lord Ganesha) to show us the clear path to a better tomorrow from our altogether too fucked-up today! OM Jai!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Sacred gift
Namaste
Love that!
Thank You!
I didn't know that there was feasting on Shivratri, although I suspected as much. Most Shivratri observances I've read about involve fasting, but these didn't quite seem right to me. Shivratri wouldn't be as popular as it is -- it's right up there with Christmas in the West -- if the principal celebration was an ascetic one. But the film plainly shows distribution of rich prasadam (holy food) to all comers, especially the sadhus. So I learned something today!
And bhang, of course. I used to say that there was an explanation of why a four-foot bong worked the way it did. I called it "The Big Bhang Theory".
Thank you again for the video!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I'm Going to Katmandu
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG-wuWNIyzI]
One of my favorites!
"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"
Thank you for the quote. Love it.
I think it is also a pretty good partial explanation for her heinous...
Trump is indeed odious
Too bad there is an even more vile and venal candidate in the race, the one pretending to be a "moderate" even as she prepares to expand our wars overseas, entrap our economy in harmful trade deals and screw over the environment.
We have no choice in this election because it is a sham. Just as our "democracy is a sham." The oligarchs have voted with their dollars and Hillary Clinton will be the next President, regardless of how the votes are actually cast in November.
Thanks, La Fem for your righteous anger at this tragic farce.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Unlike everybody else
I think this is the least divided Americans have been in my lifetime (1968-)
If the majority had a visible vehicle with even a rudimentary plan, you'd see around 60% of the electorate rallied around it.
It's like, because Bernie's campaign ended in travesty, we're now forgetting what Cornel West said: that Bernie Sanders got a stadium full of white West Virginians cheering for Black Lives Matter; that even Republicans were voting for Bernie; that it was pretty damned clear what was happening in this country.
A political cartoon summed it up well. There was a road to the right with the word Hate over it, with Trump leading a small but significant number of people down the road. There was a road to the left with Love over it, with Bernie leading a massive number of people down it. And then there was Hillary marching down the middle, with almost nobody behind her.
Some amazing political developments are happening this election cycle, but we're all so depressed we rarely notice them, or care.
EDIT to make it clear I was talking about w/in my lifetime, not all of American history.
"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
Trump Is SO Finished!
I don't normally refer people to check out RedState.com, but they are ON FIRE with articles blasting Trump over his latest revelations. They even posted an article reporting that
It's Not Nice To Mess With Mother Nature! She has one hell of a left hook!
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
Squeals of kittens in box
They could have stopped him earlier, they didn't, now they can't.
They're in exactly the same trap as the Dems - stuck with a loathsome candidate who will "win" only if enough people hate the other major-party candidate more.
You broke it, you damned fools, you bought it.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
clowns and jokers
Hence my description of the Presidential debates to my sister using the words of Stealers' Wheel: "Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right....."
[video:https://youtu.be/DohRa9lsx0Q width:480 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
No, they're working with Hillary.
Seriously. Don't forget, back when Rachel Maddow was a journalist, she caught footage of Bill Clinton and Paul Ryan cheerfully chatting about how they want to cut Social Security and Medicare.
the Bush side of the party, the so-called "moderates," are working with the Clintons. This is a planned move of rejection, which was set to happen in October from the beginning--there has to be an endgame, a way to take down Trump's campaign, and what better than comments no different than those he made on the Howard Stern show decades ago. It has the HRC fingerprints all over it: the reliance on outrage, the ham-handed idiocy of revealing something that wasn't hidden, the co-optation of social justice movements for race and gender equality...
"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
Trump could probably name his price now
Pretty sure he'll leave for 5 billion.
Beware the bullshit factories.
via Common Dreams: understanding (a segment of) Trump supporters
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/09/23/talking-strangers-journey-h...
Thank you. NT
Line-cutters and the antithesis of the common good
It's not racism (usually), it's a sense of having been cheated, little knowing that others not in your "group" are having the same difficulties and frustrations.
Beautifully said
Jill Stein vs Gary Johnson. #ForgetTrumpAndHillary . They do not represent America. They represent global corporatism, plutocracy, division, abuse, extreme elitism and exploitation.
Beware the bullshit factories.
The real division is between top & bottom, not Rep. & Dem.
Not my original thought --posted way back on Reddit. But in honor of the title of this blog, please don't forget that the primary contradiction is between the 1% and the 99%, not between Clinton and Trump, who both represent the 1%. They are laughing all the way to the bank as the 99% split over who's the vilest of their lot. It's so easy to look down at the "other side," but really we are all on the same side if we are not part of and not representing the 1%. First there is a populist movement because of the mass impoverishment and gross degradation of the 99%. Then Killary, Drump and the MSM get everyone believing that we should go to war with one another over which of these evils is the worst evil.
In driving around the Mid-Atlantic region in the past month, I have been amazed by the number of Trump signs --- thousands of them. People want change. They don't want Killary. But they've been whipped into a frenzy of blaming Blacks, Muslims, & immigrants for their sorrows instead of focusing on the 1%. If progressives also get into the slut-shaming fest of putting down the people who support Trump who have been herded into false consciousness, then we are fighting with our own brothers and sisters. They are suffering the same pain and degradation as all the members of the 99% -- they've just been misled about its source. Remember -- the basket of deplorables is big enough to hold all of us. Pay attention to the primary contradiction, no matter how irksome the secondary contradictions may be.
Mid Atlantic is Strong for Drumpf. At Least Where I Am...
I call our political poles Big vs Little.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu