A Golden Opportunity Thrown Away

Now I have had a chance to think about this last election cycle and putting to one side the personalities for the time being.

Premise

Republican Party Partisans
Decided that their establishment did not give two figs about them and went for something that has been coming for a long time now, an authoritarian demagogue.

Democratic Party Partisans
Decided that they would entrench themselves on the side of the establishment, with all the baggage that that entails and presented the electorate with a perfect exemplar of all that baggage.

As I said before the election this would be a toss up as this was an election at near the end of a cycle of partisan "not as bad as" being a driver. We still have partisan divisiveness driving the rhetoric but they are each shouting in their deliberately chosen bubbles. Any divergence from their specific "common wisdom" is shouted down by the partisans any warnings ridiculed. It was the first election where I was told that any vote I cast against each sides chosen was worth two votes, even if I voted for neither, well hallelujah, I was a one woman case of voter fraud.

As is usual after an election the losing partisans are looking around for someone to blame and as is also usual, they blame anybody but themselves. Being outside of that specific camp, I am of course part of the problem.

What was evident even before the primaries got under way.

  • That income inequality was a major issue, especially when the 99% bailed out the richest from a crisis of the richest own makings and even thrown out of their own homes as a very special thank you.
  • That congress and the establishment were about as popular as head lice.
  • That people felt the were not represented and even remotely listened to.
  • That all the "isms" and "wedge issues" rather than being addressed, were merely tools to be hurled as insults at each other. This rule is still in effect. Those of us that belong to a "wedge issue" group have the bruises to prove it.

What both sets of partisans managed to do very well was shout at anyone who disagreed in any way with them, eventually someone we will all regret took advantage of that senseless divisiveness. If you looked, even just glanced, you could see this coming a mile off, it took no intelligence whatsoever.

What we have now is both sets of partisans shoving their heads further up the own asses and refusing to listen, "we won" and "we blame you for losing", we are going to find out soon enough where all this leads.

A couple of quotes that spring to mind.

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”
― Sun Tzu

Revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up.”
~Hannah Arendt

We saw these in action

A couple of quotes to remember in the aftermath.

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.
~Arundati Roy

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.
~ Confucius

It's a dark time when insular "groupthink" holds sway

  • Illusion of invulnerability –Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.
  • Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.
  • Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.
  • Stereotyped views of out-groups – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.
  • Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.
  • Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.
  • Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.
  • Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.

I do hope that some involved in this recognise themselves and yes, I have at some point been guilty of being sucked in.

Time to get the hell out of this pernicious playground.

Time to fight back and avoid the current collusion.

Time not to make the same fucking mistakes.

Time to listen and not sound like a broken record.

A golden opportunity for a real debate was lost in all the noise, now we all have to deal with the consequences.

Just a thought

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And team clinton made sure everyone knew it. And made sure that everyone knew that HRC was the ultimate insider, palling around with Kissinger, getting endorsements from nearly every media outlet, and taking all that sweet cash from Goldman Sachs for 20 minute speeches.
Robby Mook should get the credit for Trump's win, not Kellyanne Conway.

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the Clinton Campaign was, among other things, a vast patronage racket.

The promise was, if you too were "with her", you too might get to meet celebrated people, attend fancy pants events; some of the flows of cash might come your way, for you to distribute. If supporters could gin enough fear of the Terrible T., they could expect to cash in.

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Mary Bennett

Been going on for decades, remember when it was called Hillaryland in the 1990's. Kept expanding, the condition always being it was centered on Hilllary - the meme was "First Bill, Then Hill." Only took them a short time to accumulate their billions of dollars, doing very little work. Threats, even for those working with them, just in case they "betrayed" ( e.g. Richardson supporting Obama, Caroline Kennedy supporting Obama, the "worst" of course, Ted Kennedy supporting Obama) - the list is long.
Clintons are responsible for electing Donald Trump. They wouldn't listen to anyone who said "it's not her turn" or "her baggage is too deep & heavy", another long list. But a longer list of people who thought they could benefit from her being elected. Tragic. David Brock, for fuck's sake!

Think we dodged a lot of bullets, their clique, cabal, sycophantic system may be done. May be.

Meanwhile, we have Caucus99% to thank for wonderful essays, information. I'm especially grateful LaFeminista is here. Very grateful. Thank you.

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Cassiodorus's picture

gjohnsit has already shown in graphs what a disaster his Presidency has been for the Democratic Party. Once his snake-oil pitch is out of the media rotation perhaps people will wake up to how bad his stay in the White House really was. And maybe they'll start to look for some sort of hope that isn't connected to Chuck Schumer.

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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

The Obama hagiography among the Democratic partisans is even more wilfully blind than their belief in Hillary Clinton's essential goodness. The man ensured that a health care reform bill would not disempower any powerful interest involved, and consequently ensured it would fail. He normalized war crimes and the notion that the powerful were above the law. He empowered a thoroughly beaten Republican party by pretending that working with those idiots was even worth considering. He never fought for anything, aside from his own political position. His reign brought about the near-destruction of the Democratic party, as he continued Clintonism without modification. He is and was a disaster.

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Cassiodorus's picture

David Brock gathering donors to ‘kick Donald Trump’s ass’

Brock on Thursday night emailed more than 200 of the biggest donors on the left — including finance titans George Soros, Tom Steyer and Donald Sussman — inviting them to a retreat in Palm Beach over inauguration weekend to assess what Democrats did wrong in 2016, figure out how to correct it and raise cash for those initiatives.

I can only imagine the titles for the breakout sessions. "How to make your whispering campaigns more effective," or "25 sure-fire fabrications guaranteed to boost your candidate's chances of success.," maybe.

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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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Lol, maybe Brock'll just take the money and run?

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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.

dance you monster's picture

Palm Beach, Where the Real Democrats Are.

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travelerxxx's picture

Was Martha's Vineyard all booked up or something?

They should have been forced to meet in a dilapidated hotel in Detroit, Michigan, drink the water and eat baloney sandwiches (made with Wonder Bread).

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In the WINTER? Hell no! The North Atlantic is freakin' COLD then. Those wusses would never consider that.
Brock Still being tone deaf I see, typical.
Thanks lafem, guilty as charged on Some of those definitions.
Workin' on it, trying to do better. Flawed human, here.

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

The OP mentioned that people felt they were not represented or even remotely listened to.

Correct The Record played a big part in that. People did try to express concerns and were shouted down by CTR (among others.) I don't think they wanted to correct the record. I think they wanted to control the record. (With Trolls)

As for David Brock . . .

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CTR really fed the rage by silencing people.

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Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

And Hillary Clinton would have continued down that same highway with her foot on the gas. It was time for a change and boy did we get one.

In that light, here's one more quote from Benjamin Franklin (in meme form) for your collection:

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Damnit Janet's picture

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

I'm relieved to be disabused of the notion that arguing with those whose minds are closed does anybody any good. That's one gift the past election season has given me. It is time to reread Howard Zinn, and realize how oligarchs have always used divide and conquer techniques to maintain power. They still do, and both party establishments are active promoters of these tactics. The two sides hate each other with equal vehemence, in very similar language, and with more or less equal justification. That hate disempowers and disenfranchises both sides, which is the entire purpose of the hate. It prevents both sides from turning on their real enemies, those at the top.

One more quote for your collection:

There is no educational value in the second kick from a mule.
~Mark Twain

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I haven't read him for a long time either, perhaps I will join you in reading his works again.

“What we have been living for three decades is frontier capitalism, with the frontier constantly shifting location from crisis to crisis, moving on as soon as the law catches up. ”
― Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

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Cassiodorus's picture

Or at least this is what Rosa Luxemburg taught us.

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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

dance you monster's picture

. . . and was there for anyone to see all along.

While (to stereotype as everyone else is doing) the comfy suburbanites protest and scream at the barely-lower-middle-class blue-collar whites, who give the middle finger right back, the genuinely lower class remains abandoned. We can't stop the aforementioned noisy partisans from sucking up the media oxygen, but we can seek out those who are and have always been abandoned (our Untouchables), listen to them, interact with them with genuine respect to seek solutions that may not turn the world around overnight but will improve a life here and there, a neighborhood here and there, until gradually all those small individual but connecting acts become the movement whose rise leaves both parties tumbling.

It's clear we aren't getting far doing the same old pitch for the media's ears and the public's eyeballs. We've allowed ourselves to be funneled more narrowly than is healthy or productive for us.

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Thanks Dallasdoc, free materials for all to pass around: https://zinnedproject.org/about/

Its goal is to introduce students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of United States history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. The empowering potential of studying U.S. history is often lost in a textbook-driven trivial pursuit of names and dates. People’s history materials and pedagogy emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history. Students learn that history is made not by a few heroic individuals, but instead by people’s choices and actions, thereby also learning that their own choices and actions matter.

Where are my choices? Never mind. Thank you Howard Zinn.

Peace

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http://www.historyisaweapon.com
as well as a plethora of other readings.
I do like the way the project.org is set up for class teaching.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

Right now Bernie Sanders is the most powerful Dem. He can get Keith Ellison in as the new head of the DNC. Maybe he can do more, but Bernie is cautious. Chuck Schumer (aka the senator from Wall Street) is a bad choice for Senate Minority Leader, but it's his turn. Matt Yglesias succinctly describes the current state of the Dems as "a smoking pile of rubble." If they are smart they will stop blaming Facebook and examine what they did wrong.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

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subject by Glenn Greenwald.

The Stark Contrast Between GOP’s Self-Criticism in 2012 and Democrats’ Blame-Everyone-Else Posture Now

This Accept-No-Responsibility, Blame-Everyone-Else posture stands in stark contrast to how the Republican National Committee reacted in 2012, after it lost the popular vote for the fifth time in six presidential elections. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus called Mitt Romney’s loss “a wake-up call,” and he was scathing about his party’s failures: “there’s no one reason we lost. Our message was weak; our ground game was insufficient; we weren’t inclusive; we were behind in both data and digital; our primary and debate process needed improvement . . . So, there’s no one solution: There’s a long list of them.”

[SNIP]

But as is true of anyone who wants to reverse their own failures, Democrats need to accept their own responsibility and blame, and stop pretending that they were just the victims of other people’s failures and bad acts. They’re not divinely entitled to support from voters, nor to an unimpeded march to victory for their preferred candidate, nor to a press that in unison turns itself into Vox or a Saturday morning MSNBC show by suppressing reporting that reflects negatively on them and instead confines itself to hagiography. In fact, this entitlement syndrome that is leading them to blame everyone but themselves should be added very near the top of the list of self-critiques they need to begin working promptly to address.

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I'd say that those showing pathological character traits, such as the Dem Party overall (along with the Republican Party, obviously,) should not ever, ever be in any position to abuse any power they can exert over others.

As we know, the time to start planning and organizing to have people worth voting for actually running for public office at every level in the next election is now, whether a new progressive Party is started or not. (Although such labels do tend to turn off people carefully media-programmed to react against them, even when they heartily approve of and dream of the actual results of progressive law in the public interest.)

And the beginning, as well as the need, is already there. With the TPP and other corporate coups (claimed to have been) stalled/delayed, there's also a chance of actual elections continuing, although obviously electoral cheating, including voter suppression, of course, must be dealt with now, using organized citizen oversight, among many other things. How this is to be worked amongst this degree of entrenched and blatant corruption never even properly officially challenged will have to be left as an exercise for the brilliant people here, lol - I have no idea!

But as has been pointed out, this unsettled and uncertain moment may be an opportunity for change - and a desperate one, indeed.

Don't think I've ever listened to Phish before, rather enjoying them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgG4bQCo9JI

Phish - 10/19/2016 - "Harry Hood"

More relaxing than Metallica, at any rate, which is probably a good thing right now.

Lol, went back to the mix I'd had on before looking up Phish to see what Bernie's taste in music was like and this, ever so appropriately in relation to the Greenwald article, came up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX3ahNg-8_w&index=17&list=PLXctIVhQimRIc...

The Pretty Reckless - Blame 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.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

that it's somebody or other's turn. How about you?

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"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

Bisbonian's picture

'cause one of these days, it's going to be MY turn. Wink

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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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Let me know when that day comes, b/c I think I'll like it a lot better than the current day.

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"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

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who was modeled on William Jennings Bryan.

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Looks to me that the Dems just want to squeeze any remaining juice out of Sanders. Like Warren, he won't actually be allowed to do anything.

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snoopydawg's picture

People should look into Ellison's history and his views a bit more before deciding that he will be the best person to head the DNC.
I was surprised to find this information about him.

Congressman Keith Ellison, candidate of progressive Democrats and many regressive Democrats for chair of the Democratic National Committee eagerly urged the illegal and disastrous violent overthrow of the government of Libya in 2011, which he celebrated as a success despite what it meant for the rule of law, despite all the death and suffering, despite the predictable instability and weapons proliferation to follow.

Ellison moved on to pushing, and using his perch as co-chair of the Progressive Caucus to push, for a similar war on Syria. For years now he has advocated for the illegal and murderous creation of no fly zones and “safe zones” — what Hillary Clinton admitted only to Goldman Sachs would require that you “kill a lot of Syrians.” Ellison was an early backer of bombing Syria in 2013. He met with peace activists but rejected their appeal.


Does empowering someone who is a Muslim erase all concern over bombing Muslims and turning their nations into hell?


http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/17/the-skeletons-in-keith-ellisons-d...

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

thanatokephaloides's picture

Chuck Schumer (aka the senator from Wall Street) is a bad choice for Senate Minority Leader, but it's his turn. Matt Yglesias succinctly describes the current state of the Dems as "a smoking pile of rubble." If they are smart they will stop blaming Facebook and examine what they did wrong.

They're not smart. If they were smart, they'd have someone else besides UpChuck Schumer (D-Wall Street) as Minority Leader in the Senate.

"Smoking pile of rubble" is exactly right.

Even Patmos John knows it's time to DemExit:

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

-- Christian Scriptures, Revelation 18:4 (KJV) source

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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

I have no enemies. Well, oil companies, but that is a given. Try to discover common beliefs first. And then gently lead or persuade or walk away, I tried. I am the calmest in my group of friends. Looking for inroads.

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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.

Song of the lark's picture

between Clinton and Trump. Underneath I'm not so sure. Look at the appointment so far. Just worse versions of what Clinton appointments would have been. It starting to look like power and money has corrupted everything. Trump seems to be from the "hookers and blow" side of the deep state. Clinton seems to be the velvet on the iron fist. We just go down the Seneca curve a little faster with Trump. One thing about the pain and rug rash we are going to get from our blow off top and subsequent hurried descent is that pain seems to clarify the mind. Maybe OWS sentiment and the tea party people will see that they are different manifestations of the same problem. Extraction and diminishing returns on complexity.

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into the swamp with the same basic objective ensuring the powerful remain powerful.

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Big Al's picture

that's exactly what's going to happen because so many people and this society are so wedded to this political system that keeps us in this ridiculous cycle of electing politicians. Wealth inequality is so rampant yet it is so not new, these are not new things we're struggling against, only bigger and badder. People seem to think the American people are "realizing", yet look at the past, it's always the same thing only different. American people knew the deal a century ago. But our only solution is to elect a new president, then talk about what he/she is going to do and how we don't like it.
The golden opportunity for a real debate is now.

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that seems to have replaced it.

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Big Al's picture

Problem is, most people on this blog are still too wedded to the democratic party. A lot of long timers here, they may not support it but they still want to talk about it. Just take a look at the community featured list any day, it's usually Dem party, Daily Kos, and Hillary Clinton.

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still messy. There was much invested in it by many, hell I am as guilty as anyone for following/falling for the "hopey changey" thing until that "look forward not back" crap.

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Big Al's picture

I've been here since the blog started, a blog that's supposed to be about issues and action. I warned about Bernie as soon as he started and was told to be patient. Bernie lost and I was told to be patient, people had to get over it.
No, it is what it is, a lot of disaffected democrats who want to talk about the democrats.

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occasionally rears its ugly head about my ex. Divorce went through in '81.
I try to forgive, haven't quite mastered the forget part.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

about people who hold the reins of political power, and the institutions by which power is distributed. Where else would you suggest that public attention be focused?

We can and criticize, analyze, and bitch about our crappy overlords. We can even monitor to some extent, their variously nefarious activities. But as long as the 99% lacks direction, cohesion, organization, and leadership, it will remain subject to the conditions that are being imposed by society's top tier of decision-makers. And the 99% are, as of the moment, all over the place -- politically, ideologically, culturally, and every other way except economically. They (we?) resemble a Tower of Babel more than any sort of unified force.

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native

Big Al's picture

the incessant focus on the two political parties and elections instead of ideas to overthrow our "overlords". You're right, more focus should be on organizing outside this political system, imo, to change the system.

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lunachickie's picture

bitching about the bitching that goes on seems just as pointless as the bitching does. To me, we aren't unified and never will be, not on this blog and not anywhere online on a discussion forum that isn't insulated from bullshit artists from Correct The Record, or Info Wars, or any other "interest group" interested in throwing shit bombs into adult discussions around the 'tubes.

Thus, the only way I see to move on cohesive action is to log out, turn off and go engage our friends and neighbors, the people we actually see and live with and live around or work with, every single day.

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I don't think so. To quote Bob Dylan:

George Lewis told the Englishman, the Italian and the Jew,
You can't open up your mind boys,
To every conceivable point of view.
They've got Charles Darwin trapped out there on highway five...
Judge says to the High Sherrif, I want him dead or alive.
Either one, I don't care.
High water everywhere.

As far as I can see, there's been very little cross-fertilization between the Left and the Right. Not even here.

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native

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

They don't come here, mostly. But I talk to them on Twitter.
We have some things in common; we have some things emphatically NOT in common.
Not all of them are racists. The ones who are--those discussions don't last long.
The ones who idolize/idealize the wealthy or think the private sector is magic b/c it's private--those discussions don't last long.

But there are a number of them who fall into neither of those categories.

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"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

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

What do you stand for?

Shattered glass ceilings and "shared values" didn't mean doodly squat to most Americans.

The other vision, if you want to call it that, was that Donald Trump was the giant turtle holding up the flat earth who would eat us all if we set sail for beyond the horizon, and a bunch of Americans saw that their lives are so hopeless and the system so unresponsive to their needs, that they looked at each other and said "Why not? What the f@#K, let's give it a shot."

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

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we'd be in exactly the same place: POTUS Trump. Because the dems could only have honestly answered: "We stand for aggregating power in the hands of Clinton&Friends (TM), we stand for quartermilliondollar speaking fees for us and $250 speaking fees for everyone else, we stand for the Banksters, we stand for pay to play, we stand for the oligarch$ around the world, we stand for sucking votes from notdeplorable minorities then jailing them as superpredators after we win office, then working them for slave labor till they drop. We stand for superdelegates and notdemocracy."

Americans tried the Clinton&Friends(TM) third way (and btw their friends include Bush&Family and ObamaNoHopeNoChange) and it brought Nojustice. Next up is Trump&Family(TM), that's going to turn things around, right?

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~annominous

Lily O Lady's picture

another form of that.

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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"

riverlover's picture

At least now tat i changes to winter in about 1 hour with ice/snow.

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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.

Phoebe Loosinhouse's picture

How have the Democrats been so unsuccessful not just on the macro National level, but on the state and local level as well? How have they managed to lose so many local and state positions as well? How have they been so universally feckless?

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" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "

it for quite awhile.

My current problem is, do I really give a shit

Wink

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riverlover's picture

But the first Town to have a tested Ban on Fracking would. Dems are replacing Dems, so it's all good, except for the Highway Dept. lol.

But look at Schumer, Cuomo, yes, clueless. For the not-wealthy NYC dwellers and Upstate, useless. Negative weight.

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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.

Lily O Lady's picture

POC messiah to turn us blue. They put all their energy into identity politics. There's no there there. Meanwhile Republicans are electing people of color.

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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"

Bisbonian's picture

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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

ggersh's picture

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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

Thanks very much for (obviously) taking the time to create it. (And, yes, this stuff does take time, doesn't it?) Your post really is outstanding!

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"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson

Obama won on Hope and Change on 08, were still vital with Trump's election. They will still be dominant in 2018 and 2020 because Trump won't do anything to upset the 1%s advantage.
Smart thing is to forge the resistance on what all Americans have in common starting now. Get out of the oligarchs left/right divide and conquer game. The first step in that is to articulate which dangers we all share, and put that understanding before the eyes of all the factions.

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Orwell: Where's the omelette?

As today I have been being trashed left and right on the book of faces for posting a link to an article that discussed the poll showing Bernie would have beaten Trump, that was taken 2 days before the election.

I introduced the article with a long caveat about polls and the fact that Bernie hadn't been dragged through the mud for the 4 months before the poll. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/2016-election-poll-bernie-sanders-tr...

Nope, that was not good enough. I was attacked by multiple "friends" just for posting it. Not because they didn't like the article, I honestly doubt most of them bothered to read it, but because they didn't like the headline. The fucking headline. And they then produced articles on the internet of people saying they wouldn't stand for anyone who is saying "Bernie would have won" because it's divisive speculation. Even though that's not what I was saying, nor the headline or the article.

I was "to blame" for sharing divisive headlines. Ha fucking ha. They're so fucking sensitive they can't even read headlines they don't agree with.

No, I don't think they are ready for the level of introspection necessary to be successful going forward. I even had one of my "friends" mansplaining to me who I should be working for and when, it's all about Corey Booker and 2020. So, it's already back to the shut up and fall in line for the next anointed one.

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Love ya, mean it

thanatokephaloides's picture

I was "to blame" for sharing divisive headlines. Ha fucking ha. They're so fucking sensitive they can't even read headlines they don't agree with.

This is the essence of Politically Correct Injustice Collection. Their so-called "sensitivity" is merely another weapon in the arsenal of those who want all genuine debate squelched.

All such easily offended persons should be deliberately offended, as often as possible. Wounding the sensitivities of all such persons is a positive moral imperative.

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

To never get on your bad side! Smile

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Love ya, mean it

. . . who needs Republicans?

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

My republican "friends" on facebook have been nicer to me than the "democrats" and in particular, the hard core Hillary people... you know the ones I'm talking about.

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Love ya, mean it

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

Not sure anymore whether that would have helped, since it seems he's OK with Schumer, Clinton, et al. OTOH, maybe if he'd won he wouldn't have felt the need to kiss their asses?

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"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

SparkyGump's picture

LaFeminista 2020

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

MarilynW's picture

and millions bought the lies. Biggest liar of course is Trump who promised jobs, he said he would "activate coal" and that "climate change was a hoax."

But we should not lose sight of the bigger picture above politics. In the world out there people are making great innovations in technology and in resolving climate change problems through technology. Human beings will continue to evolve in spite of Neanderthals in the White House and in government.

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To thine own self be true.

Recall toward the end of Jimmy Carter's administration. Around that time, British Petroleum in particular started buying up all of the solar energy patents they could. This was to ensure that a promising new technology (since proven) wouldn't become strong enough economically to threaten oil profits. It took at least 25 years for mostly foreign inventors to get around that road block, which now cannot be restored. And all that was accomplished was that American inventors sat on the sidelines watching their futures immolated in petroleum eruptions.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

lunachickie's picture

No point in fucking doing anything.

That attitude is exactly the number one reason why we cannot and will not unify and get shit done. It virtually guarantees it.

Every single time.

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The corrosive and corrupting effects of large sums of money must be countered. Do tell me how you intend to achieve that. I'm all eyes.

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Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.

I loved this election. It exposed almost everything for what it is versus the fraud we are sold. It is disorienting. It is upsetting. I will not invalidate anyone's reaction to the election.

The golden opportunity never existed because of the disconnect between the People and their government. Just as Hillary blames everyone else, the People are blaming everyone else. The People need some serious introspection about what we are doing wrong. I totally agree it's easier to state than to solve.

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