The Self-Serving Stupidity of Denise Oliver Velez

In the days to come, there will be many discussions of how Donald J. Trump ascended to the presidency. Just at a glance, many factors come to mind: the economic straits faced by much of America and the Washington elites' failure to address such problems, the Democrats' nomination of the one candidate Trump could actually beat, and lingering resentment among some white people of the presidency of Barack Obama.

Daily Kos front pager Denise Oliver Velez, however, has a simpler explanation for what happened: racism. People did not vote for Hillary Clinton because they hated African Americans and Hispanics. That simple.

For those who have the temerity to suggest that if the DNC had nominated a different candidate for president, they might have won, Oliver Velez has this to say:

This movement of ugly angry white people and their deluded not-white lackeys should be a wake up call to you all.

You can keep on posting diary after diary on how this loss is Hillary’s fault, Obama’s fault, Markos’ fault, black people’s fault, latinos fault — but in the end it ain’t gonna change things.

You can keep fantasizing about Bernie woulda... coulda.

Nothing will change till the white left decides to embrace anti-racism and anti-misogyny.

Got a message for you.

Denial is not a river in Egypt.

My Gut Reaction: Wake up, Denise. This past election was the Toilet Bowl, and you backed the turd that sank.

Analysis below the fold....

No sane person will claim that white racism did not play a role in Trump's victory. The man clearly appealed to anti-Hispanic racism with his immigration policies and to anti-black prejudice with his law and order comments. His track record of misogyny speaks for itself.

However, the claim that racism alone accounts for Trump's victory does not stand the test of scrutiny. As Nate Cohn, a journalist for the New York Times, pointed out on Twitter, the election was ultimately decided by people who previously voted for President Obama. Not exactly stereotypical racists. Cohn has also noted that Latino turnout for Clinton was not stronger than Latino turnout for President Obama. Furthermore, as fellow C99er gjohnsit has pointed out, almost thirty percent of Hispanics voted for Trump. Were they anti-Hispanic racists?

You are entitled to your own prejudices beliefs, Denise, but not to your own facts. The statistics do not bear out your theory of racism being the sole driver of Trump's victory.

Although Velez's conclusions are driven in part by her own ideological commitments, they also represent a rationalization of her own stances on the 2016 election. Oliver Velez was hostile from the get-go towards Bernie Sanders and his supporters, depicting them in her diaries as privileged whites and suggesting they should not have any real say in the election. She continues this tradition in her latest diary by claiming that the white left is somehow hostile towards anti-racism and anti-misogyny.

Before blaming others, Oliver Velez should take a step back and look at the failed strategies she embraced.

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detroitmechworks's picture

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lzqRVuRqN0]

DOV will always harp on the same fucking issue no matter WHAT the subject is.

She's everything WRONG with those who think they're fighting for social justice but just come across as elitist, entitled pricks who would know they were wrong if they ever stepped out of their ivory tower and spoke with somebody they didn't have authority over.

I had her soul-clone as a college professor once. I got an A in the class for simply re-stating "White people are the devil and we all really talk like villains in a Tarantino film in private", but not in those words.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

DOV is a particularly ugly exemplar of Clintonian identity politics. The Clintons serve the interests of their sponsors. This is what they do, and they have been extremely handsomely rewarded for it. But New Deal Democrats they are not. They killed that party, personally and with a small cabal of corporate sponsored plotters.

Even Republicans know that there is no market for erstwhile moderate Republicans. Business friendly tools of the country's owners -- nobody wants to vote for those anymore. So they have to disguise their real agenda with social wedge issues to get voters to believe these tools represent them. The Religious Right; white nationalism; raw racism; nostalgia for the narrow patriarchal worldview of the 1950's (if not the 1890's): these are the masks more recent Republicans have used to pretend to support their voters, while working against their interests. Republican voters have finally gotten wise to this game, which is how Donald Trump won in the first place. (They're not that wise, really.)

Under Clintonism Democrats have done precisely the same thing. They used to pretend to be New Dealers, but this has become too implausible to even pretend anymore. So now they do divide-and-conquer oligarchic games, stoking fears and resentments of some groups of voters against others. Be Vewwwy Vewwwy Afraid. That is where the Democratic party is now. It is the essence of Clintonian triangulation. And Denise Oliver Velez is a particularly nasty and arrogant practitioner of this type of politics. This politics demands that anyone not on board is racist, or misogynist, or purist, or some "-ist" they've been carefully trained to hate.

The really stupid thing about this is that DOV maligns 70+% of the electorate by stoking resentments and fears among the rest. That's particularly stupid, because it alienates the majority to try to capture the minority of voters. This is what Hillary Clinton did, and she succeeded. She captured a minority of voters.

DOV doesn't realize she's not essentially different from Louie Gohmert or Steve King. She's just as divisive and toxic, just as blind to anything not coming out of her own mouth, and just as counterproductive. She should shut up and go away, along with the rest of the Klinton Klown Kar. But she won't, so she should be marginalized and mocked.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

She pegged me as a racist. I don't remember what the issue was but it didn't matter to me. That charge pretty much shuts down dialog, just as your post suggests DAllasdoc.

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Encountered one of her "fall in line or get the fuck out" diaries, and started angrily scrolling through the comments. I found one of those dismissive comments flinging a dishonest charge at someone making a reasoned rebuttal.

I responded to her, explaining that her diary illustrated what a fucking hypocrite she was for her sig line ( which pointed out that if you're comfortable in a coalition, it's too small). She tried to pedanticize me by pushing an implausible explanation of what the person she quoted "really" meant. I told her she was full of shit. The quote was simple, straightforward, and in plain English. She wasn't Humpty Dumpty, and didn't get to make words mean what she wanted them to mean. I told her she was a liar as well as a peddler of hate and divisiveness.

Almost instantly one of her acolytes appeared to scream at me. I told him to go fuck himself, and called Denise a coward for calling in someone else to fight her fight. Didn't hear from her again.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

virtually all the time and she reminded me of a crabbed high school English teacher. The fact that she was wrong way more than she was right only added to her repulsiveness.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

solublefish's picture

on a couple of occasions, and observed the same characteristics you all have already identified.

But though I often disagree with her, I maintain my respect for her and have always been civil. As I understand it, she was a Young Lord and associated also with the Black Panther Party in NYC in the early70s. She was, in other words, once on the front lines of the very sort of revolution we here hope to see and make, committing herself body and soul to the kind of change WE believe in. That WAS a revolution - a worldwide revolution of peoples who had been systematically oppressed by Western European mercantile and liberal empires, in some cases for centuries. And it was brutally crushed here in the US - as elsewhere - by the application of extralegal (illegal) state power. DOV lived through that, and lived it fully, as a committed partisan and not as a fellow-traveler or mere observer (she was present in NYC through the BPP split over tactics and the subsequent collapse of the party, I understand). That kind of thing has to take a toll on a person: few people are likely to escape undamaged from such an experience. I don't know about any of you, but I know I have never been through anything like that.

There are many people from "the 60s" who mellowed as they aged, and made their peace with a system that gave them the privileges and material rewards that they once fought to extend to others. For all her faults, DOV is not the worst of them. She is not our enemy - nor others like her - she is our temporarily alienated friend. We want to convince her and those like her to our side, not crush them - because you do not beat racism by beating up those who stand against it. Peace.

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Amanda Matthews's picture

healthcare coverage 'talks' were going on, I said(in so many words) the final product would be crap. You can guess how that went. I said that because I was a racistttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They have a one-word excuse for everything. Racist! Misogynist! Sexist! Hater!

Se

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I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

DOV is a particularly ugly exemplar of Clintonian identity politics.

Is that this awful, divisive ideology took a big hit, both philosophically and tactically.

Imagine if Hillary had won. How obnoxiously empowered these people would feel.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

not racism

Once again it was the economy, stupid.

Despite lots of focus on Donald Trump’s remarks about women and Hillary Clinton’s emails, it appears that the election might again come down to jobs and GDP. According to early exit polls from Edison Research, the economy was the top issue with voters again in 2016. The economy, well, trumped foreign policy, immigration, and terrorism as the leading issue among voters.

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movie buff's picture

and they're taking home half of what they used to, and you start talking to them about properly-gendered restrooms, they're going to rightfully look at you like you just dismounted a flying saucer and you're communicating in a bunch of weird clicks and beeps. These academic arguments the left is always having with itself shrivel up like a slug that just got salted the moment they're taken out of academia. So that is probably where they should stay. I'm not going to excuse the right's racist, paranoid fantasies, but they can win the day when the left allows itself to become so completely incapable of talking to people in their own language, about things they care about. Well, some people on the left, at least. There was one guy, and he was pretty good with the kitchen table issues...

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

Damnit Janet's picture

their main concern isn't who can shit where.

We need to be and we are strong on social justices... it's just the damn Democrats are horrible on messaging as well as priorities. That is why they lost a lot of working class people.

Also I heard more about what Hillary wanted and needed and how this was HER time... when I wanted to know what Hillary was going to do for our hungry, our homeless, our schools .... our fucking planet. The people did not matter. Not our anger. Nor our hope.

We just never mattered. The rapepublicans at least have dialogue with their people. They speak to them. They seem to hear them, too.

Democrats are - "just shut the fuck up and vote for us"

Edit: I have to go but want to share that I support inclusive bathrooms. I just think the progressives could have done that better and included it for all. Do you really want the govt telling Dads they can't take their daughters into the bathroom if they are and about? Do you really want the govt telling you you cant feel safer using a bathroom that isn't full of drunken cowboys? Instead it was made divisisive, special instead of inclusive.

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

SHE lost. SHE didn't break the glass ceiling. SHE is disappointed. SHE hurts - boo hoo.

DOV is just as self-centered and divided from the real world only in an different way. She is the biggest racists I ever ran into, but because she is black, she claims it is racist to say so. Academics like her are why people sneer at academia.

I can't imagine how I spent so many years at that hell hole. I do not miss the bullies, beligerance, stupid, censhorship, gang attacks, childish moderating system, and phony claim to progressivism.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

solublefish's picture

I can't imagine how I spent so many years at that hell hole. I do not miss the bullies, beligerance, stupid, censhorship, gang attacks, childish moderating system, and phony claim to progressivism.

For a moment there I was sure you were still talking about academia...

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Runaway CEO pay in 30 seconds

Episode 682: When CEO Pay Exploded

GOLDSTEIN: So the government here is, like, hey, you want to keep paying those multimillion dollar salaries for CEOs just showing up and collecting a paycheck? You're going to pay a tax penalty for that. But you want to try out this new idea this pay-for-performance thing? We like that. As long as the pay is clearly tied to performance, there is no limit. No matter how much you pay, you can deduct it all.

VANEK SMITH: Bill White remembers when the tax law changed. White, at the time, was the CEO of a company called Bell & Howell and served on various boards of directors.

>>GOLDSTEIN The law that created this rule, was that a big deal?

BELL WHITE: You know, at the time, it probably didn't look like it. But in retrospect, it was huge.

GOLDSTEIN: Yuge (ph).

VANEK SMITH: Yuge.

WHITE: Well, it was huge because it changed the way that you know, we compensated our top executives. [...]

Thank Bill Clinton for fueling that fire.

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Cassiodorus's picture

if the neoliberal Dem ideology of the Clintons took a hit this Tuesday. I don't really think, though, that the Democrats can all of a sudden distinguish up from down, right from left, or good from bad. Barack Obama, for instance, stands on the political spectrum not far from George W. Bush. But Barack Obama is an effective orator, a representative of the Chicago Machine, and a great snake-oil salesman, and so he's popular and nobody can say anything bad about him while maintaining their political status within the Democratic Party. I don't think even Bernie Sanders said anything bad about Barack Obama as much as once. You just can't do it if you're a Democrat.

What happened Tuesday is that the nice white rural working-class people in the Midwest, in Pennsylvania and in Florida, who supported Barack Obama -- those same folks didn't support Hillary Clinton. The Oliver Velezes of the world are going to blame it on racism and move on without the least glance at their crap candidate.

My candidate got 1 fkn percent of the vote. But you don't see me out there in Oakland or NYC or Chicago protesting the rest of the 99 percent that voted for crap candidates Clinton and Trump, do you? On the eve of the election I was being harangued by a climate activist who was laying into my candidate Stein because Clinton was such an obvious improvement over Trump and Stein was just taking away votes. This guy quoted a climate scientist, complete with video of said scientist, saying stuff like "fracking (which Clinton supports) is okay because it's less bad for the climate than coal."

Let's be clear, shall we? The vast majority of the engaged public, all the way down to the climate scientists, is sold out to some form or other of political crap because of the common illusion of money and property and commodities that we all share. They all believe, hell, we probably believe it too!, that the world is a collection of individuals whose common duty is to play the game and that "activism" constitutes (at best) doing well by doing good within the parameters set by the game. And the world is going to go to Hell in a handbasket as long as we continue to equate "activism" with playing the game. Money? Property? Commodities? Yours will be stolen by the most effective thieves the system can produce. Climate change mitigation? You're not getting any, as long as you think that enriching the powerful is the way to get it.

So Hillary is gone, and Hillary is the woman who held the basket with all of the nice Democratic Party eggs in it. What suffered will be careers. Ideology is still king.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

The whole neolib network has been severely disrupted and discredited.

Hillary has no power and without that the entire corrupt international patronage system collapses on itself. Why should the King of Morocco give her $12 million now?

And since she can't protect the Clinton Foundation from investigation, the entire scam will be bared for everyone to see - all the shady pay-to-play deals with all the shady donors. And all of that redounds right back on the party, with all of the current leadership from Obama to Pelosi to Schumer and on and on getting splattered with madras.

The DNC band will play on for a while, pretending like its all smooth sailing, but the iceberg has already struck hard below the waterline, and very soon I expect to see a lot of the officers commandeering the lifeboats.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Cassiodorus's picture

Politics is still a commodity, and so it somehow has to be packaged and sold. Business failure isn't going to change that.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

The current crop are done whether they know it yet or not.

And anyone who comes after them is going to have a tough time rising to even close to the obscene level of corruption this crowd has reached.

Let's face it; the CF makes Teapot Dome look like a minor bookmaking operation.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

"But THIS system won't last." Uh-huh, believe it when I see it. Until then ...
Clinton Trump.jpg
because I couldn't find the one of Donald and Bill yucking it up on the back nine together. ~shrug~

Peace

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pretty cheap now.

"Oh I beg your pardon , Mr. President.
I seem to have made a mess!"

stein - baraka
now's the time.

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Wouldn't you like to know "what they offered" now.

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When asked about investigating the Foundation, they are already talking about moving forward.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

have a knowledge of the global political economy are as apt as anyone else not to realize that the only way to stop climate change is to initiate system change. Hansen, McKibben and the rest are handicapped, and fail, because they haven't taken the time to study the way the political economy works.

Thanks for making this crucial point - needs to be said as often as possible.

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Cassiodorus's picture

"Climate change mitigation in fantasy and reality" -- argues what I've been arguing here, with detailed rundown of all of the standard "climate change mitigation" strategies...

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

I am hoping you'll not be kind to the "Breakwind Institute."

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Cassiodorus's picture

Cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, triple bottom line, they're inadequate. And "decoupling" is a lie, too.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

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"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"

Cassiodorus's picture

Cap-and-trade, carbon taxes, triple bottom line, they're inadequate. And "decoupling" is a lie, too.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

solublefish's picture

Best part:

Money? Property? Commodities? Yours will be stolen by the most effective thieves the system can produce. Climate change mitigation? You're not getting any, as long as you think that enriching the powerful is the way to get it.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

She's everything WRONG with those who think they're fighting for social justice but just come across as elitist, entitled pricks who would know they were wrong if they ever stepped out of their ivory tower and spoke with somebody they didn't have authority over.

The term for such people is "Injustice Collectors".

The linked article (actually an anonymous Comment) lists several "Characteristics of Injustice Collectors". If you go to the linked article, you'll find Denise Oliver Velez described to a "T".

The most apropos items in that list IMHO:

4. Injustice collectors make the rules, break the rules and enforce the rules of the [community]. They are a combination of legislator, police, judge and jury to those they consider their subjects. They forever banish from their kingdom any subject they deem disloyal, and only grant clemency if there is sufficient (in their eyes) contrition.

10. The phrase "walking on eggshells" describes life with an injustice collector.

and:

11. The IC (injustice Collector) will prey upon your weaknesses to frame all issues in their terms.

Don't those three characteristics remind you of DOV?

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

ages ago when she basically showed me she pretty much despises whites and told me to stfu or gtfo (politely).

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snoopydawg's picture

hillary didn't have a d*ck, misogyny and Bernie supporters voting third party and the kitchen sink.
Most grownups are admitting that Hillary was a bad candidate, had too much baggage, only endorsed Bernie's policies after she saw how big of crowds he was getting and the kitchen sink.
The pay for play, the emails, the Clinton foundation's shenanigans and especially her penchant for wars were another thing that turned people off.
They have been in politics for 30 years and have been surrounded by scandal the whole time.
I don't care that no one could make anything stick to them.
Where's there's smoke there's fire.
And a lot of dead bodies.
And they are sticking to Bernie was a bad candidate that hadn't been vetted (he never did release his tax returns), yet the early polls showed him beating every republican.
Sour grapes.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Shahryar's picture

that's a quote of hers to me, several years ago at that place. I posted a somewhat lengthy reply to one of her lectures and that was the best she could come up with. I never took her seriously again.

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mimi's picture

theme in anything. I remember she didn't get the cartoon on the Charlie Hebdo title page:
CHARLIE-HEBDO.0.jpg
The only thing she could see in it was a racist discrimination of black welfare queens, she had no idea about the context of it with regards to mockery and critique of Le Pen's social policies in France. She also seemed to think that the EB is "Dreck".
That's when I gave up on her. But I won't bash her in public. She speaks for herself and that's enough for her self-destruction.

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The Aspie Corner's picture

This whole clusterfuck was about fear of the 'other', as in 'We have to vote Billary to stop Drumpf' or 'We have to vote Drumpf to lock up Billary'. That was it. The racism and the sexism were factors in that the candidates and their surrogates used them to drive people apart. All while accusing the candidate who wanted to bring people together regardless of background of doing all of those things. And now they're gonna get exactly what they deserve. No sympathy for any of 'em.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

White male was used as an insult.

Yes, racism was alive and well at Kos.

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Peace out, tmp.

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jobu's picture

The Oliver Velez dichotomy
She has written some of the best diaries IMHO on TOS. And the worst.

She has also IMHO become the antithesis of a John Dewey Democratic thinker. She has had enough of the 'polis'.
She has become the poster child of the John Dewey defined authoritarian. Fear is her weapon, whether she realizes it or not she has become an analogue of what she preaches against.

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Is very bad to steal Jobu's Rum, is very bad...

edit reply
Sat, 04/02/2016 - 7:58pm — TheOtherMavenTheOtherMaven's picture
Gazed too long into the abyss?
Nietzsche said, "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
--Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

reply

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... and surprise.
And ruthless efficiency

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

thanatokephaloides's picture

Fear ... and surprise.
And ruthless efficiency

And fanatical loyalty to the Pope!

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Cassiodorus's picture

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

Nietzsche said, "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
--Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146

stein - baraka
now's the time.

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Fuck Kos, and fuck the Democaric Party and its Political machine that caters to AIPAC, th MIC, the Koch brothers. Those asshole helped the ONLY Democrat that could lose to Trump.

I got so tired of the dumbasses and the paid shills, that one day I said what I thought and got banned. I hope many Bernie supporters have given them a huge dose of what they are due. We could have had Bernie, and now we have the worst joke for a president EVER.

They helper that loser win. God, I am not sure when .I will get over the anger. This shit matters. Deportations and lost species. The moron doesn't even believe in global warming. The man is a loose nuclear cannon. Dear God, we are fucked.

Oh, and in case I didn't mention it - Fuck Kos and his minions.

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Peace out, tmp.

Cassiodorus's picture

Now Warren Buffett or Bill Gates? Well, yeah.

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

But, the Koch brothers helped fund formation of the DLC, along with a bunch of corporations, such as Merck, and sat on its Executive Council. And the Koch brothers and others like them benefit from neoliberal policies like TPP. Whether the Democrats specifically intend to benefit the Koch brothers or not, they do benefit them. And they have benefited from them.

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thanatokephaloides's picture

I don't think the Dems cater to the Kochs. Now Warren Buffett or Bill Gates? Well, yeah.

Methinks a case could be well made for Markos Moulitsas and Denise Oliver Velez, as well.

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

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thanatokephaloides's picture

Fuck Kos, and fuck the Democaric Party and its Political machine that caters to AIPAC, th MIC, the Koch brothers. Those asshole helped the ONLY Democrat that could lose to Trump.

........

Oh, and in case I didn't mention it - Fuck Kos and his minions.

Some appropriate music videos for this post:

[video:https://youtu.be/7gqFZjfFGuM width:480 height:360]

[video:https://youtu.be/jixxYx9fklM width:480 height:360]

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

it was easy to give up that site around april of last year, and not hard to find c99, for which grateful is the word

most people who think are dismayed at what can happen when the electorate is overidden with anger, resentment, worry, fear of poverty/poverty

and there's something of a comparision to be made of 2016 and 1930 something, when hitler won with an electorate very similarly shaken by economic depression

it's likely to get rougher before it gets better, so we need to have a place like dkos was, and here it is

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mouselander's picture

people like Denise Oliver Velez are Daily Kos Front Pagers. If they constructed arguments that were based on logic and rationality, and supported by objective evidence, then they would hardly be any use to Mr. Moulitsas, now would they? The esteemed blogger that Twitter's "Honest Hillary" affectionately refers to as "Baby George Bush" doesn't really like to traffic in logic, rationality, fact-based evidence and stuff like that. That would tend to drive analysis in directions in which he would prefer it not to go. So much more effective, for his purposes, to depend on those old standbys - emotionalism, stereotyping, character assassination, guilt tripping, straw man arguments, and so forth.

For being such a good and loyal soldier in the fight against those insidious and inconvenient things called facts, I hereby award Denise Oliver Velez the revered and highly sought after "Poison Inkwell" award, which puts her in excellent company, inasmuch as there have been so many previous winners from among the ranks of Markos' impressive stable of Front Page dissemblers. Denise, it might interest you to know there is a 17 cent cash prize that's included with this award (minus recipient-incurred cost of postage), so please send me a private message and we can arrange for you to send me the balance due amount via Paypal. And congratulations! You truly earned it.

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inactive account

thanatokephaloides's picture

There's a reason people like Denise Oliver Velez are Daily Kos Front Pagers. If they constructed arguments that were based on logic and rationality, and supported by objective evidence, then they would hardly be any use to Mr. Moulitsas, now would they?

1. Yeeeowwtch!!

2. Stolen!!

Smile

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Bollox Ref's picture

One of the reasons Dead State took a nose dive several years ago.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

DOV is clearly completely out of touch with the constituency whose concerns and political culture she claims to represent.

The problem is not that the "white left" is insufficiently anti-racist and anti-misogynist.

The problem is that the "white left" is ignored -- we plead for Democratic candidates and office-holders to get serious about a program to address the racism and misogyny endemic in our society, and we invariably are told that we're asking for ponies and unicorns.

The problem is that the "white center-right" -- which controls the Democratic Party -- refuses to do anything about the socioeconomic injustice that underpins American segregation.

The problem is that the "white center-right" -- which controls the Democratic Party -- refuses to denounce the war on drugs: Which war devastates minority communities and simultaneously enables and justifies the militarization of the civilian police forces that swagger like half-orcs through those communities.

The problem is that the "white center-right" -- which controls the Democratic Party -- refuses to assert, fiercely and firmly, the rights of labor and labor unions, leaving the underclass to suffer under the lash of "market forces".

The problem is that the "white center-right" -- which controls the Democratic Party -- hasn't done a damned thing in 30 years to reel in the various forms of predatory lending that keep the impoverished in perpetual financial crisis.

The problem is that the "white center-right" -- which controls the Democratic Party -- hasn't done fuck-all to protect and expand Planned Parenthood, which would ensure that the children of underserved minority communities are wanted and receive the healthcare they require from the moment their mothers become aware of them.

The problem is that the "white center-right" -- which controls the Democratic Party -- has embraced the market-based education solutions that, among other things, replace the community-based and -controlled public schools with for-profit corporate charter McSchools, whose reason for existing is to divert the flow of public education funding away from education, and towards corporate profits.

The problem is that people like DOV confuse the "white center-right" with anything having anything to do with someone or something that can be thought of as being leftwards of someone or something else.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

The Aspie Corner's picture

The problem is that the "white left" is ignored -- we plead for Democratic candidates and office-holders to get serious about a program to address the racism and misogyny endemic in our society, and we invariably are told that we're asking for ponies and unicorns.

Most of us white folks on the left are happy to get behind causes that don't necessarily benefit us directly. Always have been. I think the problem is that DOV got a taste of that privilege she says she's fighting against. I'm sure she walked the walk once, but those times seem to be long gone. Forgotten, as can be seen in her latest posts.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

Heard that a few times. Happy to introduce folks to a couple of redneck brothers in Alabama for comparison purposes.

It's cowardice. She'd be scared shitless to tackle a forum full of Centipedes.

Still not sure why you guys worry about someone nobody ever heard of on some old site nobody reads. Who cares?

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thanatokephaloides's picture

Still not sure why you guys worry about someone nobody ever heard of on some old site nobody reads.

Because Daily Kos is still far from "some old site nobody reads". Much to our chagrin, it's still treated by those in charge of the "Democratic" Party as if it still matters the way it did when Barack Obama was just a green Senator from Illinois. Even with the de-population it suffered due to the idiocy of the "Ides of March Decree", it still has more readers than many dead-tree print publications do.

Therefore, it matters. Way out of proportion to its realworld value, almost certainly; but material nonetheless. The standard MSM problem. In this case, flavored thoroughly with DOV's incessant race-baiting, which is a problem no matter where it occurs in public, ever. An irony of this whole situation is that if DOV were ever to figure out just how much her injustice collection and related race baiting aided and gave comfort to her stated enemies, she'd halt it all with a quickness.

So, to paraphrase Alfred E. Newman, "Yes, We Worry!"

Diablo

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

riverlover's picture

if DOV were ever to figure out just how much her injustice collection and related race baiting aided and gave comfort to her stated enemies, she'd halt it all with a quickness.

She considers herself a Black Academic, smarter than the rest-of-us (even other-colored academics; I sported a good tan in summers past). Way olden days, Denice and I had good conversations back and forth OT; I did not even pick up that she was Black. Only Deoliver then.

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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.

mimi's picture

"colored academics".

Color me confused.

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riverlover's picture

to talk louder. And in academic circles, that means 'bow down, Oracle has spoken', we must listen. Much puffery can ensue. There is a general push in academia to become more inclusive. And then things can break down. OTOH, one Black researcher I knew (a gorgeous man, I gave him one of my single earrings) came from Africa, and had no baggage. He was a person who felt no historical hate or fear. Must have been privileged by smarts.

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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.

=Academics of other colors (than black).

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mimi's picture

couldn't quite understand the comment, obviously.

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no longer matters, so DK no longer matters. The DEMs are kaput, out of power. That's why DOV is pissed. The electoral equivalent of the French Revolution guillotine has rendered the donkey party irrelevant. Perfect time for a third party to swoop in and fill the vacuum.

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Enough to read my essay and comment on it.

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"You argue that you don't want to throw away your vote. That's right. Don't vote for freedom - you might not get it. Vote for slavery - you have a cinch on that." Eugene Debs

I had meant to put a paragraph about that into my essay, but it was getting late and slipped my mind. Here's what I meant to write:

Simply put, Denise, the "white left" does not oppose anti-racism or anti-misogyny. For you to say so is to insult thousands of progressives. What we object to is the exploitation of systemic racism as a cudgel to silence anyone who disagrees with you or doesn't favor your chosen candidate. Such abuse of a major issue in our society not only fails to take the problem seriously, but plays right into the hands of right wingers who depict systemic racism as a problem invented by progressives for political advantage.

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"You argue that you don't want to throw away your vote. That's right. Don't vote for freedom - you might not get it. Vote for slavery - you have a cinch on that." Eugene Debs

movie buff's picture

Because she was a BADASS back in the day. Visual proof:

There are even t-shirts featuring her Young Lords-era likeness. But it was none other than Bill Clinton who famously said, "It's the economy, stupid." I have never seen a national election won (or lost) on identity politics alone. I'm going to go out on a limb and say there will never be one in my lifetime. All the overt racist appeals in the world won't change the fact that in a shitty economy, voters will almost always throw the "incumbent" (meaning holding the White House) party out on their asses. Bernie Sanders would have done better than Hillary Clinton not because of racism or misogyny, but because Sanders had an economic narrative that made sense. It identified the problems and offered logical solutions. Team Clinton's response to this was, "No, we can't!"

I have a great deal of respect for people who have ever truly walked the walk, but as you can tell, that photo is quite old. Today Velez is an academic, and she's doing what academics do: tying every single thing to her thesis. But we all need to step outside of our boxes sometimes. We need to ask ourselves: Am I supporting Candidate A over Candidate B because Candidate A has the answers the country is looking for right now, or am I doing it because it fits my thesis?

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

That face comes off, doesn't it?

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Cachola's picture

The Young Lords were cool. Shame DOV transformed back to her thuggish ways.
Wikipedia (one of this days I will learn how to block quote.)
The Young Lords began as a Puerto Rican turf gang in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago in the fall of 1960 and soon left the gang in 1967, and reorganized itself into a civil and human rights movement on Grito de Lares, September 23, 1968. During Mayor Daley's tenure, Puerto Ricans in Lincoln Park (the first hub of Puerto Ricans in Chicago) and several Mexican communities were completely evicted from areas near the Loop, lakefront, Old Town, Lakeview and Lincoln Park, in order to increase property tax revenues. When they realized that urban renewal was evicting their families from their barrios and witnessed police abuses, some Puerto Ricans became involved in the June 1966 Division Street Riots in Wicker Park and Humboldt Park.[1] They were reorganized from the street gang into a civil and human rights movement by Jose Cha Cha Jimenez. He was the last president of the former gang and became the new founder of the Young Lords as a Movement.[2] Puerto Rican self-determination and the displacement of Puerto Ricans and poor residents from prime real estate areas for profit became the primary focus of the original movement. Since there were few Latino students and no outspoken leadership at the time, the former street-gang transformed themselves, training leadership and organizing the broad community.[3]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Lords

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Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

Poser.

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other people.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

The self-promoters, or public preeners as I call them, are all over FB. look at me....

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

kicks in, i get to be really really smart for my whole life. i'm lucky that way.

a beautiful young woman will not always be beautiful. i don't begrudge her her beauty. i cherish the beautiful things in our universe, including the faces of strikingly attractive women. i'm deeply aware that every bit of beauty that i'm fortunate enough to stumble upon in my brief little trek on this earth is a transient phenomenon, whether it is a remarkable painting or a remarkable athletic display or a remarkable sunset or a remarkable face, and it is doomed to flicker away or decay into dust and slime and not-at-all-beautifulness. i would tell any beautiful young woman: Enjoy your beauty while you have it! Revel in it, just as the athlete (even the relatively ordinary athlete) may revel in the moment of astonishment-inducing grace; just as the musician may revel in the moment of the perfect note played at the perfect instant; just as the canoeist revels in the quite flutter of ripples against hull while the loons quaver to the last western daylight; just as the computer programmer may revel in the exquisitely elegant solution that transforms the incomprehensible and intractable into the clear and computable.

Beautiful Lofty Things

BEAUTIFUL lofty things: O'Leary's noble head;
My father upon the Abbey stage, before him a raging crowd:
'This Land of Saints,' and then as the applause died out,
'Of plaster Saints'; his beautiful mischievous head thrown back.
Standish O'Grady supporting himself between the tables
Speaking to a drunken audience high nonsensical words;
Augusta Gregory seated at her great ormolu table,
Her eightieth winter approaching: 'Yesterday he threatened my life.
I told him that nightly from six to seven I sat at this table,
The blinds drawn up'; Maud Gonne at Howth station waiting a train,
Pallas Athene in that straight back and arrogant head:
All the Olympians; a thing never known again.

William Butler Yeats

Yeats understood more than a little about beauty. (such an ugly word!)
Here's a worthwhile thing to know: An "old" man -- 40, 50, 60, 70 -- admiring a beautiful young woman, doesn't do so from a posture of leery lechery. Inside his head, his sense is exactly as was that of his 20-year-old self, captivated, fascinated, irrational, deluded. He desperately endeavours conversation, not to give time while plotting some odious imposition, but only so that he has an excuse to be looking at that which commands his entire conscious attention.

Here's Yeats's very final published poem (within his life), the last entry in his last collection, written in the mid-30s. I like to imagine him composing it in his head while sitting at an Italian cafe listening to Ezra Pound drone on about the virtues of Mussolini.

Politics

HOW can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics?
Yet here's a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there's a politician
That has read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war's alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms!

William Butler Yeats

I'm glad that DOV looked like that, and I'm glad that some photographer had the wit and skill to capture it, so that the transience might be attenuated, and the odd passing soul like myself would have a chance to see it.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

I am not smart, as in highly educated, but I am quick and sharp. I am not a genius, but I do have a substantial IQ. Not to publicly preen even more, but I was also born attractive. I definitely consider myself lucky to have been born me, but I wish I could have appreciated my attributes more along the way. I'm still guilty of it. I also had a hard time with self-promotion, and I still do. This is why I have such a problem with the people who do it on FB.

Aging is hard on beauty and the ego without a crew of plastic surgeons and a personal cook and trainer. Looking in a mirror, it is hard to accept it is me. Harder than the first time I realized I wasn't immortal somewhere in my 40s. You are absolutely right about brain power though. It lasts until dementia carries you away. Life is quite the trip.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

movie buff's picture

Something about that comment doesn't sit well with me.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

that there then was one gorgeous person, and the hint of intimidation added to the charisma;
that all seems to have gone absurd

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want anything to do with who Denise Oliver Velez has become?

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"You argue that you don't want to throw away your vote. That's right. Don't vote for freedom - you might not get it. Vote for slavery - you have a cinch on that." Eugene Debs

on the lapel of DOV.v.2016

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

solublefish's picture

Really classic. I love it.

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She is unable to understand non-black-and-white concepts. She lacks the ability to think in terms of not being persecuted.

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You know, while she is up there, she might as well check for polyps. At least that would be useful.

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Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

ROFLMAO - thanks for the giggle, I need that, having started at the bottom of the comments after posting at the top right after reading the OP. And I hate going to bed this pissed off and disgusted...

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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.

What does she make of the fact that the same voters that rejected Hillary likely voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012, particularly in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania?

I have a good number of friends in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania who voted for Obama both times, but refused to vote for Hillary. Most just stayed home. A couple even voted for Trump. They all would have voted for Bernie. It's been amusing to hear all the "Bernie wouldn't have won either" bullshit when there's no way that he would have lost the solidly blue Industrial Midwest to Trump.

I'm pretty sure that we told the neoliberal shills that this is exactly what was going to happen with Hillary as the nominee. It's not our fault that they refused (and still refuse) to listen. They're a lost cause at this point.

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voted for Trump.

Mostly, they just disengaged -- thus, HRC garnered 6 million fewer votes (9%) than Obama. Trump garnered 1 million fewer than Romney.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

riverlover's picture

and drove off voters with two unpopular candidates. Fewer votes for either than in past Presidential elections? Neither above 50% of vote totals? No mandate. Have fun, Mr Trump.

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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.

Now Kos wants Bernie to take over the DNC.

Why the fuck can't they ask themselves: what would Bernie do? And clean up their own fucking mess.

Diaries like those being front paged NOW mean they haven't learned a god damned thing. Nor do they want to learn...so dependent on scapegoatism they will do anything, no matter how illogical and truly revealing, to defend their shit-in bubble.

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RejectingThe3rdWay's picture

I don't miss Orange State

Now the topic of this discussion is DOV

I have ZERO respect for that antisemitic bigot!

She wants to play identity politics, but some minorities aren't as equal as others in her screwed up book

She is a two bit hack who wastes bandwidth on the internet with her ramblings!

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When I was a kid, Republicans used to red scare people, now it's the Democrats. I am getting too damn old for this crap!

do you have for saying she is anti-Semitic?

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"You argue that you don't want to throw away your vote. That's right. Don't vote for freedom - you might not get it. Vote for slavery - you have a cinch on that." Eugene Debs

Bisbonian's picture

that she (DOV) did not write, but heartily recommended, and long after many other reccers realized (once it was pointed out to them) that it had various anti-semitic comments and ideas in it, and removed their recc's, DOV adamantly refused to do so.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

RejectingThe3rdWay's picture

And not making me wade through tons of Orange State shit to find it!

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When I was a kid, Republicans used to red scare people, now it's the Democrats. I am getting too damn old for this crap!

Great essay, thanks!

Although I would add that Velez herself should take a step back and look at the racism revealed in this statement quoted (emphasis mine):

... This movement of ugly angry white people and their deluded not-white lackeys ...

Sounds as though she thinks that a darker skin somehow makes people unable to think and act for themselves unless directed by someone of lighter skin tone?

One good dark tan takes away individual intellect, personal priorities, considered opinion and distinct personality and turns you into a 'lackey'?

What about White people with blotchy/reddened skin tone, or are they just 'ugly' rather than 'somebody's lackey'?

Enquiring minds don't really care enough to know, since she's given herself away in this area as well.

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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.

She's wrong.

Hillary got 88% of the African American vote & did worse with Latinos than obama.

Last I looked, those 2 groups aren't white.

My jaw dropped when I saw the 88% number for African Americans. The floor is 90% with Dems - that's about what gore & Kerry got. She.did.worse.

Dems always lose the white vote. They rely on their owning the African American vote to offset this. But if you don't win at least 90%, and if their turnout is down, you won't win.

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