This was my last diary on ToP/GoS/Daily Kos [from July 22nd 2016]

I will be writing no more there, so I bolded some lines that seem still pertinent.

An Ugly and Dangerous Speech
By LaFeminista
Friday Jul 22, 2016 · 8:41 AM GMT
135 Comments (69 New)
87

Some have called it a fact-less speech, that is not strictly true either:

CLEVELAND — Donald J. Trump’s acceptance speech here was filled with Trump-like hyperbole and the kind of vague political rhetoric that is hard to pin down.

But there were also facts.

It was however authoritarian and xenophobic in the extreme.

It reinforced the current narrative that the president is the ruler of the US, it simplifies the role of the President within our particular form of democracy. It took the role of executive power to the extreme, there was little talk of working with congress, it brooked no compromise.

It will also be be popular. Will it be enough to win an election? That remains to be seen
. Brexit was also underestimated and many of the same issues came into play during that campaign. Indeed many xenophobes have seen the “exit” referendum as a justification for their hate. The same fears are being stoked by the right across Europe and recent events have only reinforced the fear. The left has been in disarray, inclusion has almost become a dirty word.

Neo-liberal policies on both sides of the pond have increased the perception of powerlessness of large sections of the population, their exclusion from the political process pointed; now coupled with an ever increasing recognition of the inequality generated. However the target is not those that created the disparity, but those who have also suffered from this system; the other, it is them that have taken the riches, the jobs, the opportunities and created the associated crime and violence. This has often proved to be a successful tactic in the past, vilify those least able to defend themselves and thus protect those responsible for the disconnect.

The left has repeatedly appeared unable [or unwilling] to confront the real issues, indeed when someone such as B Sanders has attacked it from a populist left position, they are rejected by the establishment as unrealistic. Hence the right are then able to take up a distorted version of these issues and claim them as their own, that is what Trump [his speech-writer anyway] did.

The hilarity and danger of this is that D J Trump somehow represents the disenfranchised and H R Clinton the establishment and if his speech-writers and handlers can focus the campaign down this line, the election may well be closer than many predict. Focussing hatred to the “foreigner” under a different guise is more effective than racism per se; xenophobia isn’t a white only phenomenon.

I will not be watching Trump so much, but those that coagulate around this hate filled campaign, just as Cheney was the one to watch in the G W Bush set up.

Some may say that it is good to have all this ugliness out in the open, I’m not so confident; it’s a dangerous concoction in dangerous and unpredictable times.

I am watching the coagulation with interest.

God, how we tried to warn them and I was as polite as possible. Dammit.

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the most pathetic part is how many clintonistas ive seen on social media post-election just blaming everyone else.

wonder if the clinton foundation will keep raking in the cash now that clinton lost? hmm.....lol...

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did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war

of Chelsea.

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Lily O Lady's picture

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"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"

Doesn't Chelsea have offspring?

But we should make room for Michelle first. And then Chelsea, and then the Obama Kids.
By that time, Chelsea's troop will be ready to go.

And that is just one wing of the Party.
I won't go through the possibilities for the Trump dynasty .
But there would a lot of beautiful women around the White House, for sure.
Melania in heels! ow.

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Lily O Lady's picture

give that up.

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"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"

snoopydawg's picture

where you want to give your subscription to someone and there were numerous people asking for you to stick around. Did you see that?
Of course there were a few that said since you were over at KFS and 'said that you were going to vote for Trump' that you weren't welcome there any longer.
Draxum (?) was the biggest d*ck in there and got quite a few HRs Smile
I didn't know if you saw those comments about your writing and a lot of people said that some great diarists left the site and the site is worse off because of it.
A few people wanted to know if you are writing elsewhere.

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

reflectionsv37's picture

So many asking her not to leave and stay around or take some time off and come back. Apparently, many of them hadn't noticed she's been gone for months now. Not to mention the fact that we were driven away by some of the same people asking her to stay. It will be very interesting to see what's left of that place a month from now.

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

place and analysis of what went wrong and why the Democratic Party at best needs to be raised to the ground and rebuilt, personally I would start afresh.

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Wink

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If in fact donations go way down, I think we can say that the Clinton Foundation was a pay-for-play scheme. Donate millions and get nothing out it but good will? Nope.

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reflectionsv37's picture

from making a speech with Hillary as president? Poor Bill!!! No wonder they were wearing black when Hillary gave her concession speech, although the purple was really weird! Bill was looking forward to moving on up from the multi-millionaire class into the billionaire class. Probably already had a brand new shiny jet picked out so he didn't have to ride around on ones owned by his friends and CF donors. I wouldn't be surprised if he already had a named picked out for it. Probably the Lolita Express II.

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

I believe Hillary did not say Bill would stop giving speeches. This was debated at TOP, and I was a bit surprised that most people supported Bill giving paid speeches as they absolutely saw no bad optics coming out of it.

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fees now, as i presume they are no longer $250k per hour?

Smile

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did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war

fees now, as i presume they are no longer $250k per hour?

Smile

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did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war

dervish's picture

There was no chance of saving them.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

There is no way in helping them in their bubble.

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Pricknick's picture

proud and loud and tell them thanks for believing you have such power.
I've gladly accepted the blame for her losing and him winning.
Yet, I voted for neither.
Gives them what some call a conniption.

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

I simply say, we warned you it was Bernie or Bust!

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

sojourns's picture

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"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage

else ire:

Bernie, BernieBros, Bernie supporters who refused to fall in line to "stop Trump!", basement-dwelling Millennials, Jill Stein and those "wasted protest" votes, Comey, wikileaks, Russians. Even Susan Sarandon (who's having none of it and put things in perspective here: https://twitter.com/SusanSarandon/status/798944467399147520).

All in a circus-worthy contortion to avoid introspection and placing of blame where it belongs:
--on the weak, scandal-ridden, arrogant, disliked, and distrusted candidate;
--on her oversized, clumsy, and tone-deaf campaign;
--on the corrupt DNC that was shown to be ignoring its charter criteria for fair treatment (Wasserman Schultz, Brazile & co.; rerouting of down-ballot money right back to the Hillary Victory Fund);
--on polls skewed to keep pulling her cratering numbers up; and
--on MSM reading from identical Clinton talking points to close the loop and seal the echo chamber of pundits and pols talking to each other and not listening to us because they knew better.

An exercise in CYA and defense against subversive thoughts that challenge bedrock beliefs.

And now there seems to be reason to think that the Republicans used election fraud to steal the White House from Hillary Clinton, who was widely abetted in a possible theft of the nomination from Bernie Sanders. Whose karma runneth over whose dogma?

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

CB's picture

performing a circle jerk. The following pile of shiite got 523 comments with 347 recommends.

NSA chief: 'Nation state' intervened in presidential election 'to achieve a specific effect'
Note that he didn't specifically say "Russia" and he didn't indicate that it was a reciprocal arrangement—there's no indication from this statement that Trump was colluding with Russia. But with enough evidence of all that already in the public sphere, he didn't really have to.

The thing is, though, Russia just meddled in our presidential election. Directly and in full view. And they did to help the candidate, who has many ties to Russia, get elected. Shouldn't somebody do something about that?

BTW, has Markos himself also been inflicted with Putin derangement syndrome? If he keeps this up, DKos will turn into a complete joke and end up doing even more damage to the Democrat brand with his condoning of conspiracy theories.

Sign the petition to DOJ: Investigate Donald Trump's ties to Russia
Petitioning
Loretta Lynch, U.S. Attorney General
Sponsored by
Daily Kos
34,731 Signatures Collected

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reflectionsv37's picture

the carnival barker of the three wing circle jerk over there? Admit that he was wrong? I had to laugh when he posted his grieve, cry and fight diary. My favorite quote... "I never saw that coming!" Yeah, no shit Sherlock! Had he been paying attention to some of the long time posters on his site, he might have "seen it coming" Instead he drove us all away. Cry me a river of tears Markos!! The only bright side for him is that he gets to keep all the money from the DNC, DCCC and the DSCC. He's the highest paid shill on the site!

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

I suppose they are in the air, or else"flying" doesn't matter. How in the world?

Is it like a skydiving team? But if they hold hands to form the circle, then how do they...?

Great. Now I have a troop of frustrated monkeys flying around in my head.

Thanks, and you have a nice day.

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CB's picture

who does the narcissist’s bidding to inflict additional torment to the narcissist's victim.
It might consist of spying on the victim, spreading gossip, threatening, painting the narcissist as the victim and their target as the perpetrator.
Despite this, the narcissist does not hesitate to make flying monkeys their scapegoats when and if needed.
Flying Monkeys

It's derived from the "winged monkeys" in

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Winged monkeys (often referred to in adaptations and popular culture as flying monkeys) are fictional characters created by American author L. Frank Baum in his classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

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CB's picture

who does the narcissist’s bidding to inflict additional torment to the narcissist's victim.
It might consist of spying on the victim, spreading gossip, threatening, painting the narcissist as the victim and their target as the perpetrator.
Despite this, the narcissist does not hesitate to make flying monkeys their scapegoats when and if needed.
Flying Monkeys

It's derived from the "winged monkeys" in

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Winged monkeys (often referred to in adaptations and popular culture as flying monkeys) are fictional characters created by American author L. Frank Baum in his classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

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Since DKos was long since converted into an unfunny (and irrelevant politically, regarding accurate information and discussion) joke, I'm guessing you're hoping that it'll become a funny joke with the Putin derangement thing - and the avoidance of any mention of such things as Secretary of State Clinton facilitating the sale of 20% of America's strategic uranium resources to 'so-scary' Putin in the Russia (among other not easily invaded countries) she/Obama wanted to nuke at, one suspects, the behest of various of her big donors?

I hate to imagine what would already - and blatantly - be underway had the Clintons gotten in again... not that Trump doesn't scare the pants off me...

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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.

a few have done more than expected.

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Let me provide you with the list:

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Thanks for the chuckle!

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Choice or Command? I called Denise Oliver Velez a rapist apologist to her face (wouldn't have if it wasn't true) and earlier Mike S a "Good German" (likewise).

Sounds pretty conciliatory to me, but I am who I am and not to be trusted on matters like that.

If it bothers you (and it did me for quite a while, more the first time than the second), I sympathize with your loss. Lots of fun times and nice people along with the trolls, most gone now.

They have found, as I have, that if Calliope really moves you it's best to have your own thing happening and a safe space or two for the really good stuff. If the interaction is what jazzes you (and for some it does, I mostly felt exposed) there's always the Twitter machine.

As for remedial reality education you need both patience (got that) and diplomacy (fail!) as well as a high tolerance for stupidity and stubbornness (some days more than others).

It is both hard (as in requiring discipline) and not hard (as in they'll never catch you and if they do, so what?) to sock, but it's seldom worth it except for amusement. Lately I've been too busy, however I've never failed to get trusty and wrecklisty when I needed the ego boost of proving I still could.

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than enter into slanging matches with the fixated. There is no point.

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There's a real antipathy toward even basic facts. It kills me how everyone there accepts it as an article of faith that the MSM press was more favorable to Trump. Even Charlie Cook had to chide journalists for the race to say the worst about Trump that appeared mandatory for "acceptable" journalists. Cook said it would have garnered an "F" at any journalism school in his day. But at TOP, the press was out to get Hillary.

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dervish's picture

believe that the media favored Clinton, and that over 95% said that the coverage, whether positive or negative, wouldn't alter their views about either Trump or Clinton.

The MSM might not have made a difference, but I think Wikileaks might have.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Pluto's Republic's picture

…when you posted there, LaFeminista.

Always memorable.

Yr friend, Pluto

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IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
MarilynW's picture

I am always interested and delighted by what you write. Your contributions to the other site are not lost. People read them and shared your ideas. We are in for interesting times, very interesting and we need writers like you more than ever.

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To thine own self be true.

Steven D's picture

Blessing to read LaFem here.

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"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Agree with all of the above regarding LaFem - more like the blaze of an Tolkien-style Elvenstone than a meteor, though, I'd say.

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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.

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return, always find your comments interesting and insightful. I'll be here.

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snoopydawg's picture

but now they are the pillars of honesty when they tell people that Russia was interfering with the election and that Putin and Donald were pals.
Oh well, things are going to go back to 'normal' once Trump is president.
If he ramps up the war machine or uses drones that kill innocent civilians, then they can get back to writing how bad those things are.
They were only okay when it was Obama doing them.
Read this article to see what I mean.

Ever the accommodating neoliberal conflict-avoider and lifelong Republican-enabler, Barack Obama has dutifully proclaimed his readiness to gracefully oversee a peaceful transition of power to the second President Elect in this century to gain the nation’s highest office without winning the popular vote (how about that U.S. Constitution, fellow citizens!) – to a man who started his sick march to the presidency by questioning the national location of Obama’s birth and who announced that he wouldn’t accept the results of the election unless he won.

http://thefederalist.com/2016/11/11/donald-trump-just-made-10-things-cool/

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There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

The hilarity and danger of this is that D J Trump somehow represents the disenfranchised and H R Clinton the establishment and if his speech-writers and handlers can focus the campaign down this line, the election may well be closer than many predict.

Insane. Voting data shows Trump won the gender and class war.

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solublefish's picture

And prescient.

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wilderness voice's picture

Reads like a post-mortem except it was written in July.
It is just sickening how the dKos crew bought in, sold out, and made a mockery of a "reality based" site.
I envy you your French connection.
Wishing you the best, divine LaFem.

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I noticed your sayonara over there today and read the comments with interest. I think your announcing you won't be around there anymore let a lot of the air out of the place's tires. Thanks for doing that. It made me wonder if I should do one more post-mortem/fuck you to the divisive hypocrites over there. Maybe I could drive down their traffic a little further by letting people know I won't be coming back.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

dclawyer06- "LaFeminista's leaving but Draxinum's staying. This bodes well for daily kos." (from a hidden thread, told ya so).

I'd recommend against a spectacular flameout DD. Many people look to you as a voice of sanity and reason and so far you seem untouchable. If you are strong enough you are needed and I (for one) understand and appreciate the effort.

I'd recommend the same to La (though not as untouchable still a 5 bar) except they seem to be fixed on their path as I am on mine.

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Even the site owner decided that contrary commentary was not welcome.

The sites attitude to imperialistic war and war crimes changed based on the letter after the President and that really sealed the deal for me.

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dervish's picture

It'll be more powerful then.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

Yours was one voice that I would always read and appreciated over there.
I left around March and haven't looked back (much).
As an aside, I was amused today at a few tweets taking Glen Beck to task for trying to reinvent himself as a leftist or something given the election results. Just like Kos.
Fuck both of them.

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SnappleBC's picture

The current play seems to simply deny that neoliberalism exists.... as if political scientists don't use the word regularly. What blows my mind aren't the ignorant guy and girl on the street. Them I can understand living in a propaganda bubble as they do. But when I look at better informed Democrats like... say... the folks over at DKOS I have to start asking some questions. They all behaved as if Henry Kissinger's well documented history simply did not exist. They behaved as if Wall Street & DC aren't rigged despite the fact that one single glance at an income inequality chart makes a mockery of that position. Now, it's as if the DLC had never happened despite the fact that they were not covert. For crying out loud, the organization published magazines. All of the posters over at DKOS ought to know better on all of these points yet they profess not to. Is DKOS really that encrusted with paid propagandists or is the Democratic thought bubble so tightly constrained that it can withstand even easily documented reality?

Oh... and how many of you remember their reaction to Gilens & Page which was not to debate the substance of the report but to challenge the label "oligarchy". Nowadays they like to challenge "neoliberalism" as if it's the label which is the problem.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

Azazello's picture

because Markos told 'em. Here's a thread from back in August: DKos

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Azazello's picture

if you read Capitalism and Freedom. In my mind, the classical distinction between Liberal and Conservative still holds but conventions change. These days I'm using Progressives for people like me. Liberals make me gag.

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.