A whole new level of denial
Remember when Hillary asked, ‘Why aren’t I 50 points ahead?’
No politician should ever have to ask that.
Since the election defeat the denial has gotten more extreme.
Democrats have spent the last 10 days flailing around blaming everyone except for themselves, constructing a carousel of villains and scapegoats — from Julian Assange, Vladimir Putin, James Comey, the electoral college, “fake news,” and Facebook, to Susan Sarandon, Jill Stein, millennials, Bernie Sanders, Clinton-critical journalists, and, most of all, insubordinate voters themselves — to blame them for failing to fulfill the responsibility that the Democratic Party, and it alone, bears: to elect Democratic candidates.
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.
The denial with Democrats is as bad as I've ever seen with a political party, but there is one place where the denial is even more extreme - the news media.
Suddenly 'fake news' is everywhere. 'Fake news' is a scourge that must be destroyed.
It's the only possible explanation for the election results.
The news media told us who to vote for and we didn't listen to them, so we must have been deceived by 'fake news'.
It couldn't possibly be that people don't trust the media.
“Freedom of expression is a bedrock of American democracy,” the Washington Post‘s editorial board writes in a November 18 jeremiad, “but its irresponsible exercise can distort and destabilize our politics.”
The Post‘s editors, mining the bottomless pit of mainstream media excuses for not predicting Donald Trump’s victory in November’s presidential election, think they’ve hit the mother lode with their newfound
focus on “fake news” stories going viral in social media.The Post coming out against “fake news?” That’s rich, especially given the last few months, during which the Post‘s reporters went all in for Hillary Clinton even to the extent of manufacturing “news” that Trump, and Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, were in bed with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.
Recall that just two months ago this poll came out.
Americans' trust and confidence in the mass media "to report the news fully, accurately and fairly" has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history, with 32% saying they have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the media. This is down eight percentage points from last year.
The news media seems to be under the false impression that the American public is unfamiliar with fake news. In fact fake news is what we've come to expect.
Much like the Democrats, the news media seems to have an opinion of the voters as a bunch of knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing idiots that need to be led by the nose. They have no respect for you at all. Nada. Zip. Zero.
Which is a weird contradiction with capitalism, in which the basic assumption is that everyone is making 'rational choices'.
Or maybe that's all a lie too.
Either way, the American news media is not alone with this opinion.
China's ambitions to tighten up regulation of the Internet have found a second wind in old fears - terrorism and fake news.
Chinese officials and business leaders speaking at the third World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen last week called for more rigid cyber governance, pointing to the ability of militants to organize online and the spread of false news items during the recent U.S. election as signs cyberspace had become dangerous and unwieldy.
Ren Xianling, the vice minister of China's top internet authority, said on Thursday that the process was akin to "installing brakes on a car before driving on the road".
Ren, number two at the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), recommended using identification systems for netizens who post fake news and rumors, so they could "reward and punish" them.
Maybe that totalitarian state is onto something, ya think?
Comments
Start Learning HAM radio.
Morse.
Semaphore.
Buy a few pigeons, maybe.
You'll be glad you did.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I live in the land of heliostats
http://www.discoverseaz.com/History/Miles_Helio.html
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Heliostat: (Off topic) Great Basin Natl Park preserves an army
heliostat station, its ruins anyway, atop the 13,000 plus Wheeler Peak. The system operated from Kansas to California and was quite effective before telegraph crossed the country. Wheeler Peak itself is a fairly easy walk-up and has outstanding views of Nevada east into Utah.
Heliostat - never expected to see that here. Good one.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
I learned to navigate an aircraft by sextant,
before I (officially) learned to fly...so I am a bit of a fan of low-tech, EMP-proof methods.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Flag Semaphore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_semaphore
Favorite
I thought this album cover spelled HELP.
I learned something from the BBC's Quite Interesting. 2minute 30 second clip:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLtQjuNESm8]
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
Wow. Disappearing McCartney's cigarette?
Love Stephen Fry, that was great. Poor Dr. Who got buzzered!
Hotel Echo Lima Papa, the graphically unpleasing version
Thanks
NUJV
There must be a message about what happened to Paul in those letters.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Agree. Gonna have to
bone up on Ham. Don't let the Apocalypse catch you without your Ham.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I keep saying we need a phone tree.
It sounds ridiculous, but the situation is ridiculous.
"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
Is a good idea.
I think Ham might be easier, but whatever works. Maye a combo of web radio, Ham and phone.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
‘Hillary Clinton didn’t fail us. We failed her’
No, really. That's the title of this article.
And it's not snark.
Just skimmed it...
The argument seems to be...
The election was lost because as we can see through fictitious portrayals of women presidents, everybody hates women presidents.
It's not even a good argument, since its entire gist is based off LITERARY CRITICISM.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I hate women presidents so much that...
I have voted for Jill Stein twice, and Cynthia McKinney once. Yeah, I hate black women presidents, too.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Women Vice-Presidents
I hate women vice-presidents so much that I voted for Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.
Black women presidents
I hate black women presidents so much that my very first vote for a presidential candidate (in the 1972 Louisiana Primary) was for Shirley Chisholm.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
My Mom voted for Shirley Chisholm
as a write-in in every election of her long life, my Mom's long life. I believe she continued to vote for her even after Shirley Chisholm had died.
That is such a good idea!
I was only 10, but I remember her. If I run out of women presidents to vote for, I will write her in.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Mine too!
My first presidential vote was for Shirley Chisholm in the FL primary in 1972.
I've only had one election but...
As a "hopelessly straight" white man, my response to accusations of various -isms goes:
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
As a practitioner of literary criticism
I seriously object to it being used in this crap manner.
"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
Great essay!
It had to be misogyny and sexism that did her in, because hey, what could anyone possibly find lacking in Hillary as a candidate besides that all-important Y chromosome.
inactive account
Mind Blown
Talk about an inability to see the truth. The article makes good points about how women are seen in relation to being capable of the office of president. It then fails by applying these points to Hillary with no regard to the actual facts.
Two things I noticed.
1. She isn't a crook, she's just portrayed as one.
Notice how the private server that was hacked is not mentioned. Nor the fact that James Comey chose to not seek indictments against her regarding the server (though if it were anyone else, he would have done so) because she didn't mean to risk national security and was too stupid to know what she was doing. The pay-for-play regarding the Clinton Foundation charities is also not mentioned. It wouldn't do to bring that up since it would undermine the skewed point being made.
2. It being "her turn" does not mean she expected this to be handed to her (even though she did).
Right. So in addition to it being her turn, the fact that she "won" the nomination by cheating carries no weight. I guess if she had managed to win, that wouldn't count as having "inveigled her way into it." Those superdelegates who gave her their vote before the primaries began in no way indicates inveigling of any sort.
If "failing her" means that you chose to either:
then I am guilty as charged (voted Green).
The thing that still amazes me is the fact that her cult following is willing to have the first woman president be a person who is dishonest and stupid (in their view, she is only seen as such but actually isn't). Why would anyone see that as an achievement?
Can you imagine if Barack Obama had won this way? Oh the hue and cry that would have gone up. For all his faults, the worst anyone can say about his winning both the nomination and then the presidency in the first place is the fact that there is still controversy over his birth certificate.
Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos
Hillary ran a shameful primary campaign
If she ran a hopeful, honest, issue oriented campaign, like Obama ran in 2008, she would have had a better chance of being the first woman President.
Beware the bullshit factories.
I held off on Bernie
until after T-Day last year thinking Her Highness would get off her high horse and run a campaign. Didn't happen - and it was beginning to look like Bernie could hang with her. On the Bernie Express bandwagon I hopped.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
That was my feeling too.
I never trusted or liked Hillary but if she had won fair and square, I might have been more inclined to hold my nose and vote for her.
Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos
You're not alone.
Between that and the implication she's above the law, she was toast.
"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
Obama is just a much better actor.
Once again, it's that pesky "lack of talent" problem.
to add
i see a number of news headlines today that sexist men have mental issues. so, if i didn't vote for her i'm a sexist and have mental issues. ooookay.
It's amazing how little impact the media had
in this election, at least the traditional media. They tried desperately to shape and mold the narrative, but failed miserably. They couldn't control it, let alone shape it. The new media had more impact, but even there I don't know how much narrative-shaping went on, it was rather like competing and contradictory bullhorns.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
People stopped telling anyone they were going to vote for Trump
The media seem to have accomplished that.
Though, according to the Podesta emails, the pollsters still always over-represented groups they expected to be favorable to Hillary.
More evidence of denial.
More evidence of denial. Check this out from over at the GOS if you have the stomach:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/21/1602824/-In-which-Kos-Says-B...
Didn't they used to argue against 'purity'?
They argue what ever conclusion
has already been determined by the TPTB.
Talk about your fake news
Here's another one: Kos is still relevant.
Truth: The media, including Kos, got so much $$$$ this last election that they are now desperately seeking a boogie man for not being able to deliver the goods.
If you think they have a tough job explaining the loss,
Bill and Hillary must be sweating bullets and dodging phone calls. Or maybe it's sweating phone calls and dodging bullets.
I gotta hunch that Bill & Hill aren't THE focus
of much these daze in the world of back scratchers & rain makers.
they're kind of at the end of the road as far as influence peddling goes, given they won't have POTUS etc etc etc to bribe / threaten with.
Maybe I'm just being stoooopid - I didn't mind their vicious streak at all in the early 90's, when I was in my early 30's, and I HOPED they were going ... ha ha ha ha ha HA HA ... fight for us working stiffs. Now I HOPE their foundation / racket turns into a couple of starry eyed, broken down decrepits working out of a shoebox filling system in someone's garage ... in Bumblee Arkansas ...
But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
Natural Experiment
I want to see what happens to CF donations in the coming year. If they drop noticeably, that is an argument in favour of influence peddling. Not conclusive, of course, but quite suspicious.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Giant Ego
Her supporters seem to have the same problem. I removed a local woman from my FB when she called me niave and uneducated because I suggested that economic destitution crossed all racial lines. I am a 55 year old electrical engineer that has done the whole boot strap thing twice. She is a 25 year old nanny. Ironically I am also her husbands boss. Good thing I am not the vindictive type.
I wish I had that kind of Carville fast on my feet wit for my
28 and 32 year fellow teachers.
I'm 56 & in career #3. While I have ZERO problem the contempt their age group shows the 50 and 60 and 70 somethings, because, from the 10,000 foot level, we've earned it - All of their end-of-the-world!!! "awareness" really had me wondering WTF for several days.
Don't get me wrong - Trump is an asshole & a total danger - but so wasn't RayGun & Bush Jr.
What I'm finding annoying about their "awareness" is how completely they're re-inventing the wheel, and how totally they ignore how their elders fucked things up. I hear these earnest thought out deep ideas in the staff lounge ... and there isn't enough time to say - 'yabbut... that reminds me of ____ in '88 or what ___ did in 2000 or ..."
oh well. In 100 and 1000 and 100,000 and 100,000,000 years, I'll still be dead. yawn.
rmm.
But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
Yea, RayGun was, which is why everybody old enough to
remember him feared and detested his reincarnation in a pants-suit.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
I have Yahoo News as my homepage
and it is pretty much as 'in the bag' as HuffPost: anti-Trump, identity politics, pro-democrat. Pathetic.
Another thing. This "normalization of Trump" started with Secretary Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama and not the media. More bs. from fill-in-the-blank, depending on your predilections?
I've noticed this as well. NPR had its share of "fake
news" this cycle. It's just the more insidious kind, like a lie by omission. It started with their cheerleading of Hillary during the primaries and continued straight through the general election.
All those Cokie Robberts roundups of the Democratic campaign
and she never mentioned sanders. She would go on and on how a Biden run wouldn't be successful, but nary a word about the guy filling stadiums and winning caucuses.
There's lots of factors, of course...
but when the "most qualified person to be president ever" loses to a racist carnival barker, you would think that some introspection is in order, wouldn't you?
Duh!
Make that "Double Duh!"
The almost complete lack of introspection is a big clue as to why the Dems lost.
She did not offer hope
I think that it is really simple. Trump said vote for me and I'll bring back America and along with it your jobs. Hillary said I'll give you more of the same and, according to me, I'm the only qualified candidate in the race. When voters are presented with a candidate that self-described herself as the most competent candidate ever and inevitable for the job, they get really turned off. The voters attitude is "tell me what you will do for me" period and they are amazingly willing to take a chance on an inexperienced candidate.
I live in the PRM, Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. I have been predicting a Trump victory since the primaries started. My friends thought that I was nuts, and firmly predicted a Clinton landslide. I wrote on TOP that Trump would win, maybe 7 months ago, I said that marginalizing his character would not work to defeat him. I got lots of pushback as you can imagine. The comments I got were to the effect that the most effective and quickest way to defeat him was to portray him as an extreme wacko. It worked well, wouldn't you say...not? I ended my comment with the line: President Trump, President Trump, President Trump, say it over and over again and get used to it.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
Trump put out a video today
Trump put out a video today with plans for his first 100 days. He said the words "jobs" and "working class" repeatedly. Meanwhile, Democrats are still talking, primarily, about Russia, Assange, Comey, Racism, Sexism, Jill Stein, Bernie and his supporters, etc...
Keep talking about Jill Stein and the Greens, Dems.
As someone said once in a different context, "Please proceed."
"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
Lots of pearl clutching on the front page of the NYT this AM
Democrats’ Leadership Fight Pits West Wing Against Left Wing.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
"Hillary said I'll give you more of the same"
Status quo, of which my Rep. in California, a Democrat who endorsed her the day she announced, just stated in the local rag:
"That's the system." McGuire re-elected, you can't even call it a landslide, 77% of the vote. WTF! California Dreamin' of lobbyists and private contractors galore. And now Big Labor is wanting their cut of the Cannabis action. See my sig, repeat ad infinitum.
Peace
Hillary Offered Nothing to Believe In. nt
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Drumpf Offered Positive Liberty. What a Throwback.
I was exposed to positive and negative liberty recently via "The Trap" by Adam Curtis over on ThoughtMaybe.com -- https://thoughtmaybe.com/the-trap/ .
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/
Hillary offered negative liberty, something that we traditionally associate with Republicans and freemarketeers. Drumpf offered positive liberty, something we traditionally ascribe to Democrats and the Left. Drumpf offered a purpose, Hillary did not.
Positive liberty and a common purpose creates or promotes solidarity. Negative liberty promotes or creates individualism.
Democrats have moved so far right that they have become detached from their ideological moorings.
The Trap, the piece referenced above, talks about game theory and how it took over global politics. It's pretty terrifying, at least as terrifying as Curtis' other seminal social commentary piece, the Century of the Self, which can also be found on ThoughtMaybe.com.
I've been thinking of doing an essay on these two documentaries, as I believe they have great bearing on our current political and social situation.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Fascinating. Please do write that essay. nt.
" “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 "
"A Message from President-Elect Donald J. Trump"
Transition 2017
Listen to it with a different mind, the propaganda is immensely persuasive I'd say. Hope Bernie's book tour is enough to combat the dark side of Trump, the absolute evil in some minds.
For instance "clean coal" means more cancer, so what about that? Bernie touring Appalachia with a plan to keep those jobs but convert them to clean energy? Because people can understand cancer every day, controlling the weather (a.k.a. climate change) not so much. "Curing disease to make America great again" paraphrasing but isn't that Joe Biden's bailiwick now? Cure cancer moon shot? See? Trump is scraping off support with his own best words already.
Good luck.
Two years ago I wrote a diary about your observation about Dems
becoming detached from their ideological moorings as articulated in a great Thomas Frank article in Salon making exactly that point:"We Are Such Losers which is worth a reread for anyone in a "We Told You So" sort of mood.
" “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 "
Do expand on this.
We need to have a discussion on liberty. What that word really means and what it takes to bring it into existence. I don't think liberty is possible without health care, for example. Some of the founders thought a national income for everyone could establish liberty. A full education wouldn't hurt, either.
I really like your summary.
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?"
Vanity and the other
Hate Radio talking heads like to toss around the word, Freedom to their listening audience as if to include them. Thing is, when the 1% use that word they're not including the 99%. And, they're talking about "Freedom" from regulations, freedom from government, freedom to fuck the working class.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
This is what I meant by agency
I rambled on about this a bit the other day in the context of a non-secular third party.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Hillary said things are great now
and they'll "never ever" get any better. She kep complaining about Trump's "dark" outlook. Turns out he was speaking for a lot of people.
Too many people are struggling, and have noticed that they're not the only ones ("oh, maybe it's not that I'm just an individual Loser").
HRC should have learned from BC.
After all, he was ridiculed throughout the primaries and elections, yet he won just by keeping on.
And BC prevailed over all of the people who ridiculed and bashed him in the primaries and after he became president.
IMO, people just got sick of the derision and no longer cared...just like with Trump, it seems the constant derision and hyperbole backfired.
dfarrah
... I ended my comment with
Damn, I seem to remember reading that. Do you read palms, too?
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.
doesn't the fact that every major U.S. newspaper...
...virtually assured voters of a Clinton win qualify as "fake news"?
honestly, the fact that she wasn't blowing him out of the water in pre-election polls should have been a major red flag. the major media had to keep it a horse race, i guess, to keep people tuned in and jigger the polls any way they wanted to favor Clinton. they lied.
Slanted polls, at that
"Over-representing" her supporters.
precisely what i was alluding to
maybe if they had polled a better cross section of voters they would have seen a failing campaign and not been so complacent and confident. given the radio report i heard yesterday, millenials swung this election and according to what i have read here at C99, some of those pro-Clinton polls had left out that demographic.
Meanwhile Greg Palast --
claims the election was stolen. A woman with half the owning class on her donor list had the election stolen from her. I guess it's a theory.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
I've been amused by the fact
I've been amused by the fact that, over at the GOS, they're all agog at the discrepancy between exit polls and vote totals, as well as voter suppression. All the while seeming to forget that they discounted all of that in the Democratic Party primary as conspiracy theory. Also, "you can't change the rules (superdelegates) in the middle of the game," has become, "let's get electors to change their votes and get rid of the electoral college". Of course, you're re-litigating the primary if you bring any of that up.
For the record, I do believe voter suppression is a problem, I just think it's a problem when either Democrats or Republicans do it.
superdelegates and the electoral college
are basically the same thing.
You can't defend one and denounce the other without being hypocrites
The Superdelegates failed
The whole point of the SDs (according to DWS) is to prevent what supposedly happened, namely the party choosing a candidate who would have trouble winning the general. Since they are unwilling to perform that function when the "winner" is a big risk, they have no purpose.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
bing! exactly. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I Trust Palast. Have For a Long Time. It Is More Than Ironic
that he's going to be the goto guy for proving that Hillary was robbed.
I expect him to be quoted ad nauseum in the corporate media and dKos, which is extremely ironic, as he has been considered a peddler of "fake news" and conspiracy theory for the last 15 years.
I got his donation email the other day. I found it very interesting.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
It would be nice --
if the politicians would challenge election results.
But I don't expect it.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
What Better Way to Sow Distrust and Unbelief in Government? nt
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Well it was also the Roberts Court
election, thanks to Citizens United, the truth of foreign contributions, and a ruling taking away voter protections since our advancments as a society so clearly showed that their purpose had been accomplished.
There was an election stolen, all right
stolen for her, not by her. It ended in June.
Personally, I don't give a shit if someone who stole the primary gets the general stolen from her.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The Democratic party
created a massive void that allowed the election of a Donald Trump. They failed to offer the voters anything other than to elect a woman President. In 2008, voters chose "Hope and Change" over more of the same. Sadly they got neither and instead got more wars and austerity with a strong push for more job killing trade agreements. When Obama created the cat food commission, I asked where is the jobs commission?
It does not take a genius to see that people are fed up with more of the same. Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party are hopelessly out of touch with the real living human beings who make up this country. Real people who lost middle class blue collar jobs to cheap overseas labor market. Real people who cannot afford to pay the rent while working for less than $8 per hour. Real people who once had the hope that their children would grow up and go to college without becoming slaves to student loan debt. These are the people that the Democratic party lost in this election.
All one has to do is look at the map and see the states that Hillary Clinton failed to win but Barack Obama carried. All these very same people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 did not suddenly become racist or sexist to vote for Donald Trump. These people were those folks who live in area of the country decimated by job loss due to trade agreements. Hillary Clinton did not "feel their pain." Instead, she ignored them and spent massive amounts of time in private fund raisers with very wealthy campaign donors.
And it is not just the Presidency that the Democrats lost this time. It has been electoral defeat after electoral defeat at all levels of government. The abject failure of the Democratic party and those at its highest levels to look into the mirror will ensure their continued demise. The Democratic party's addiction to neo-liberalism, meritocracy, and big donor money has rendered it irrelevant. Identity politics does not pay the bills.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Excellent post! The rout of the Democrats cannot be understood
without taking into account the malign "leadership" of Barack Obama. Although the majority of people profess a liking for him, the majority of people are suffering because of his policies and recognize that they are suffering. There were many "news" stories about the End of the Republican Party from the corporate press. If you look at the loss of seats from the presidency down to alderman, it's the Democratic Party that is dissolving.
Ford is ceasing to make small cars in the USA and leasing factories in Mexico, mainly, because of...the White Supremacy of the workers?!? Carrier shut down operation in Indiana and contracted for the work in the global south leaving 2100 workers jobless because...the Republicans wouldn't reach a Grand bargain with Obama?!?
Two years ago the NC Democratic Party sent messages to party members that it was our fault, I am paraphrasing, that the Dems lost so many seats in the state in the mid-terms. It was blaming the party members for the total failure of the part leaders to field candidates who would faithfully and honestly represent the people.
The neoliberal regime is also a public health menace. There is the unexpectedly high death rate among high school, or less, educated white males, aged 45 to 54, from alcoholism, opiate OD, and suicide - markers for misery. There is Flint and many more cities suffering the ill effects of failing water systems. Public hospitals are closing.
People are smart enough to know when they can't afford what they used to be able to buy. There are lousy health services, a huge jump in rental rates, inability to save for an emergency, the gutting of promised retirement plans and the incessant middlemen skimming profits without adding value to education, health care, etc.
People are fed up with being fed up and took a wild flyer on Trump who at least said he'd look out for Social Security and Medicare. Sure he lied, probably; but we know Clinton was out to divert money from this vital programs to the wizards of finance, major league leeches.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Trade: "There's too much money to be made from it."
In Chitown Kev's recent TOP diary blasting Bernie for not tweeting a condemnation of the Sessions appointment within one hour, the comment thread followed the diarist's lead in reaching the lowest common denominator. Trade was mentioned, and MBNYC opined that you couldn't stop trade,
Spoken like a true Kos Democrat.
... Trade was mentioned, and
Yup, money drained to the worst of the predators from everyone and everything else in what aren't really 'trade deals' at all, just a pretense of 'legalized'-because-we-say-so destructive exploitation, extortion and corporate/billionaire control exerted over the publics and complicit governments of democracies, all based on a traitor's signature in a privately made agreement with hostile self-interests, disposing of what does not belong to any individual but to the public of each country in perpetuity.
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.
TPTB are nervous. Sanders did an end run around Big Money and
both Sanders and Trump did an end run around Big Megaphone. Both candidatesand their voters were vilified by the press, pundits, parties and polls and yet one almost won their heat and the other won the election Derby in the last lap.
Remember "landslide" "over 300 electoral votes" "expanding the Democratic map"? And these are the same people wondering why they have suffered credibility loss? The funniest bit on TV is the unintentional humor when CBS This Week on Sundays introduces their "powerhouse round table" to discuss the weeks events. It's a power house of deluded punditry - to me its a miracle that they don't show up with their clothes on inside out.
Who was the person who showed the most disdain and disregard for the role of the press in this last campaign? Hillary Clinton herself who refused to have open and unfettered press conferences because she couldn't handle it. Who let her get away with it, leaving that extraordinary circumstance mostly uncommented upon? The press itself. Because I don't think they wanted to ask or pursue uncomfortable and unflattering questions of the Anointed One.
The media wouldn't inform and enlighten us in any meaningful manner, so we took to the task ourselves and ferreted out as much truth as we could mine and wrote and interpreted among ourselves through blogs, Facebook, and youtube.
The goal of shutting down "fake" news (as determined by Google and Facebook apparently) is analogous to me of the same concerns showed by owners against educating slaves, or the custom of not educating women through history and around the world - once people educate themselves they tend to deviate from the Party line and dogma and start to wonder if the world has to continue to be as it is. That's why the Masters of the Universe are so nervous - the Little People are talking amongst themselves and getting uppity.
Facebook is simply a social media site - it can be deserted and upended for something better in a heartbeat if someone wants to open an alternative without censorship - remember how My Space was once dominant before Facebook? The same cycle can happen again. The same thing for Google - if they censor links of alternative media, people will find a search engine that doesn't.
Look at Daily Kos - the pre-eminent Democratic supposedly liberal blog that embraced censorship and thought control and has become a void of original or interesting political thought and interpretation because can't talk bad about Democrats, when it's hard to conceive of how someone can speak well of Democrats in light of their current behaviors. They NEED to be criticized and lambasted and hounded to do the right thing, because history is proving that their inclination is to do the opposite.
I thought this was an insightful read - Why America Called 'Bullshit' on the Cult of Clinton
" “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 "
wow, oh wow
the zero hedge article you highlighted was the best thing i've read up to now
we've learned a lot about the american voter, not afraid to risk a guy like donald, because that's how disgusted with the machine politics we are
Great read!
Tyler Durden has been calling bullshit on the Democratic establishment this entire election cycle. Here is a passage that sticks with me. It is something I raised early on in the primaries and the discussion of which was quickly shut down by the Hillary bots. My bolding.
The f*cking idea that any politician can not fail and only we the voters can fail them really sticks in my craw. Politicians are supposed to serve the people. They are not gods nor are they royalty. The idea of serving the people and enacting policies that benefit the majority of Americans got completely lost by the Democratic establishment in this election.
Identity politics was taken by the Democratic establishment to its ultimate, illogical conclusion with the push to elect Hillary Clinton as the first woman President. There is a "special place in hell" for a woman like me who used her brain to conclude that Hillary Clinton was not fit to be President.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
+10
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
What wrong with this DKos chart?
This looks like a solar luminence chart
Coincidence? I think not! I'm sure some of the CT trolls over there are hard at work explaining it...
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
The Anointed One.
"Who was the person who showed the most disdain and disregard for the role of the press in this last campaign? Hillary Clinton herself who refused to have open and unfettered press conferences because she couldn't handle it. Who let her get away with it, leaving that extraordinary circumstance mostly uncommented upon? The press itself. Because I don't think they wanted to ask or pursue uncomfortable and unflattering questions of the Anointed One."
This is a great observation.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Groucho
Hillary didn't have ANY public events in August
Just a bunch of private, closed, fundraisers.
That's because Hillary didn't have ANY public.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Filling a High School Gymnasium is so Hard!
Especially on an Ego that large.
if trump actually does what he said he'd do:
simply get the public works programs going, like FDR did,
which benefits workers and the public
he'd have a legacy too
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