DNC = Democrats Never Change; the sad story of Keith Ellison

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 1:22pm

It's been raining profusely in my part of the swamp, which is personally pleasing. It also gives DT (delirium tremens) a chance to drain Obama's swamp and restock it with his own. The more things change, etc.

The provocation for today's comment was an email received jointly from Keith Ellison and Social Security Works. I don't know the connection, but I have had my opinion of KE change dramatically with one short debate.

Even though Bernie Sanders became a Clinton mouth piece and refused to call out the primary election fraud, which was there for all to see, I still respect him for his consistency over 40 years and for awakening the American people to the realities of modern political life, e.g., the 99%. I doubt that the formerly widely unrealized unfairness and corruption was on most people's radar before Bernie. So when Bernie, a man whom I still respect, even despite significant mis-steps, endorsed KE for DNC chair, I figured that a "real Progressive" was nominated for the vacant seat of DWS and Donna Brazile. Ah, my short-lived dreams of a new and better tomorrow populated by new and better Democrats was about to dawn were crushed by the 8 stooges, give or take, groveling for support by the party hierarchy.

Along with many here and progressives elsewhere, I had felt the mission of Bernie running in the primary to "change the D. party 'from the inside'" was doomed to failure--even before we knew why Despicable Debbie got the axe.

This aptly termed "lost cause" debate was reported by Mike Figueredo on the Humanist report: Democratic Party is a lost cause

Check out the disappointing video of the debate in the above citation. Many won't be surprised but...ah, well, some of us still believe in unicorns.

Thus I was Inspired to reply to the joint supplication by KE and SSW as follows:

Please forward this email to Keith Ellison:

Rep. Ellison, Bernie Sanders has endorsed you for DNC chair. Because of this you were, repeat were, my choice for DNC chair also. But after watching your presentation with the other DNC chair candidates, I found your responses lame, and that is being charitable. Why are you sucking up to Haim Saban? This could only be for money. Many of your answers, especially in regards to the admitted rigging of the DemocRATic primary for Hillary Clinton I found spineless. If you are going to be a progressive voice, then be a PROGRESSIVE VOICE, loud and clear. As of now, I find your candidacy no more enticing than the Hillary clones also running. Grow a spine, man!

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Ellison, Social Security Works
To: [redacted]
Sent: Sat, Jan 21, 2017 8:44 am
Subject: We must hold Trump accountable

Then, I came upon on Debbie Lausignan's best ever videos, this on the subject of spineless KE:
Democratic party is the graveyard for Progressives.

It is my opinion, after dwelling many years in the Swamp, that KE had a spine once, which was removed at Saban-Soros School of Spinectomy [spondylectomy for those of you with some medical knowledge].

The lesson from all this is: Trying to change the DemocRATic party from within is like Jonah trying to change the whale from within. Without God's intervention, it ain't gonna happen.

Tags:

Keith Ellison

spine

DNC

Vote

Comments

Submitted by duckpin on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 1:37pm

Democrats: If AIPAC opposes, it's not going to happen.

What happened to Ellison? AIPAC happened to Ellison.

—

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

Submitted by Wink on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 5:48pm

Why would the Dem

@duckpin party, or the DNC at least, give a flying fuck about Israel or its political input?

—

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.

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 6:01pm

It's always the same reason.

@Wink Follow the money!

Submitted by Wink on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 6:58pm

Well, then, if that's

@Alligator Ed the case - and I'm not doubting it - then the Dem party apparently is owned lock, stock and barrel, bobber, boat and water by Israeli Billionaires (or mob). How or when this happened, who knows, but the party hasn't been the same ol' party since Carter.

—

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.

Submitted by riverlover on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 1:59pm

Such promise. Crash and burn in the Dem graveyard.

I mispled and wrote Cash above. Yes. The slight odor of formaldehyde gets closer.

—

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.

Submitted by Wink on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 6:19pm

Indeed. Had Bernie won

@riverlover (by no means a given), it would be the Repubs looking in from the edge of extinction. Alas...

—

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.

Submitted by dkmich on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 2:43pm

David Sirota was hired by David Brock

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/20/media/true-blue-media-david-sirota/index...

I trust Sirota,but I don't know what to make of this.

—

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

Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 7:58pm

@dkmich Strange. I read Sirota's

@dkmich Strange. I read Sirota's screed wherein he thought he would get out of journalism, or take a break, reassess it's role.
I hope he doesn't do an Olberman/Maddow switch.
(Michael Moore has also forever lost me, although he isn't a traditional journalist.)

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by MsGrin on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 11:02pm

Would you sleep with me for a million dollars?

@dkmich For whatever reason, Sirota has shown us who he is at this point by this act. I would believe him. It's whoring plain and simple.

He's been relatively thin-skinned on Twitter since people are giving him grief.

—

'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 1:39am

MszGrin, would you lose all respect for me if I said yes?

@Wink @MsGrin hey, I'm barely hanging on to my house and I have places to go and people to see.

—

Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.

Submitted by MsGrin on Mon, 01/23/2017 - 11:40pm

@snoopydawg Blessings for

@snoopydawg Blessings for unexpected gifts, manna from the skies (and a bank which accepts manna as payment)... @Alligator Ed I didn't ask for permission to share their answers publicly, and I'm a bit fixated on a small subset of particulars.

It remains to be seen if ANYONE can turn the SS DNC away from the iceburgs, but I still think Ellison would be better than anything we've seen since Dean (at the time, I thought he did a good job - am not a fan of his in real time), and I hope Buckley is in the DNC's future as his loudest priorities match up with mine quite closely.

Remains to be seen if the party can keep me. The scars from last year are quite deep and keyloid. (P.S., I had missed this comment earlier - had seen another one.)

—

'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Submitted by dervish on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 2:43pm

Absolutely Ed!

The Democrats are so completely sold out to the oligarchs and lobbyists that there is no real chance for change from within. The question is, how to effect their demise quickly and efficiently, and replace it with something better...

—

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

Submitted by Writerinres on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 8:54am

Not sure ... Something's

@dervish
happened in California last week - Bernie sister and brother delegates wrested the state Democratic party from Clintonista control. This failed a while back in Michigan during a Clinton lockout and secret membership meeting (sound familiar?) but could happen in NY (I just joined as a volunteer), Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Texas, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, NJ, Washington, and elsewhere. Not hoping for much but, since the Third Way keeps talking about "better messaging" and promoting the likes of Biden, Clinton, Booker, Perez, Ellison, Gillibrand for 2020, this presents opportunities for Berniecrats.

Submitted by Pricknick on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 3:12pm

I've sworn

the party off anyways.
They can take their circular ~~firing~~ jerk squad and shove it were the sun don't shine after they jump through a rolling donut.
Don't care what they do anymore.

—

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

Submitted by LaFeminista on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 4:17pm

The Democratic Party is toxic to the progressive left

they suck the ideas up like a sponge and then when squeezed they [the ideas] have become tepid dishwater with nothing of real benefit left. It was all the could do and anyway they are not as bad as....

When they cant do it by leech-like behaviour, they resort to mocking tones and it just cant be done you know.

When that fails they flat out ignore and move on.

Time to do a "tea party" on the lot of them

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 6:03pm

Did you mean pee party?

@LaFeminista You know, as in "golden showers"?

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 4:41pm

Why are you sucking up to Haim Saban?

Could you elaborate? I for one, have no idea what you are talking about or who or what Haim Saban is.

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 6:06pm

Dear Voice: Haim Saban is a billionaire.

@The Voice In the Wilderness Haim Saban also said that if he wasn't the Evil Queen's largest donor (which he was), he would "cut my [his] balls off".

Submitted by The Voice In th... on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 2:05pm

Thank You!

I hope there was a bigger donor! @Alligator Ed

—

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Submitted by dervish on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 6:33pm

He's one of about a dozen oligarchs

@The Voice In the Wilderness whom the DNC is beholden to. He owns Univision, but became infamous by how heavily he was featured in the leaked e-mails on Wikileaks. He is one of those whose phone calls always get answered, and whose suggestions are taken seriously, down to the level of how speeches are phrased.

The issue is, why does his opinion count, while ours doesn't?

Bernie's fund-raising model renders schlubs like Saban obsolete.

—

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

Submitted by Arrow on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 4:43pm

What was so discusting to me was..

Back at the convention when west coast delegates for Bernie started a chant for peace and were drowned out by a jingoistic dispay of ...USA! USA!

—

I want a Pony!

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 4:57pm

Thanks for this info, AE. Taken with O's new media organization

(that I posted about in another thread), I'd say that left activists will more than have their work cut out for them.

Disturbingly, it appears that we'll have to spend as much time fighting 'fake news' from the Dem Party Machine, than from the right.

Anymore, I'm convinced that all so-called left media have a price. At this point, I'm not sure if there's a fighting chance to push back on corporatist Democrats. It appears that they are determined that they will not be forced to relinquish 'power' to the left wing of the Dem Party.

Certainly, all the steps that they've recently taken, seem designed to ensure that they won't have to.

Mollie

"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."
____Author Unknown

—

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by chuckutzman on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 5:59pm

Ellison is a bad joke. The Sane Progressive called him out for

his support for regime change when his name was first floated He's just another party hack. I'm glad to have left the Dem party. It looks like the need to lose some more before they get it.

—

chuck utzman

TULSI 2020

Submitted by sojourns on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 7:02pm

Well put and that is what it takes

in great numbers. To be called out on their bullshit.

—

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

Submitted by Bollox Ref on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 7:53pm

Keith wants to be a 'Playah!'

Why do think he ran for office?

As my Father always says, 'The last person you want to vote for is a politician.'

They don't do it for us, they do it for themselves, and all the cushy opportunities that suddenly 'turn up'.

—

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Submitted by karl pearson on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 10:36pm

Fathers

@Bollox Ref Fathers are very smart. When my father went to vote, he always said:

I'm headed to the polls because I want "them" to know I'm out here.

Submitted by Strife Delivery on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 8:26pm

False Hope

Ellison is merely another in a long line of potential sheep dogs to corral people back to the veal pen of the Democratic Party.

Centrists are calling for UNITY UNITY... God if there are some sets of words I never have to hear again they would be:
Unity
Purity

Centrists had every conceivable advantage they wanted in this election and almost hand picked their opponent...and they lost. So utterly pathetic, almost cause you to laugh so hard your sides ache. And then you realize suddenly that they go from such hubris of winning in a landslide to saying the election was impossible to win and all the odds were stacked against Ol' Hillary.

I just can't deal with such blindness. It seems a few places on the web exhibit such blindness, though more are often saying that yup Clinton had no chance, Bernie would have won. But Bernie, you are desperately trying to keep the corrupt carcass of the Dem Party afloat. All your Independent talk...and you've become nothing more than a shiny toy the establishment Dems trot out to say look how Progressive (tm) we are now.

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 8:41pm

Please do not publish such comments at dinnertime

@Strife Delivery

And then you realize suddenly that they go from such hubris of winning in a landslide to saying the election was impossible to win and all the odds were stacked against Ol' Hillary.

I choked and rolled on the floor. Please leave your observations til after dinner. Thank you.

Submitted by Strife Delivery on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 8:58pm

@Alligator Ed Sorry that one was my

@Alligator Ed Sorry that one was my fault.

I didn't know alligators could choke. I need to be more sensitive to my reptilian brethren.

Submitted by Bollox Ref on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 9:56pm

I didn't know alligators could type

@Strife Delivery

But I'm glad they can.

—

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Submitted by MsGrin on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 10:00pm

I believe in peanut butter!

Ok, I will watch your videos, but I heard him in TX and I had an opportunity to speak with him for nearly 10 minutes on my pet peeves with the party and he clearly agreed with my priorities.

For my money, Ray Buckley is the TRUE progressive. I am going to go look for the link to Ellison's talk in Austin in December and will add to this when I find it.

—

'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Submitted by MsGrin on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 10:54pm

@MsGrin Ok, look. I think

@MsGrin Ok, look. I think Humanist Report has maligned Ellison, frankly. I disagree with his assessment. If Ellison says the party put their thumb on the scales for Clinton, there's no way in hell he'll get the Chairship.

The truth is that the folks who are DNC voting members are overwhelmingly Hillary supporters. Ellison is running as a unity candidate.

I happen to believe that Ellison would do his DAMNEDEST to get the party to AGREE that corporate and mega-donor money is GONE. I believe this from my discussion with him. I may be deluded, but that was my strong sense from his answers to my questions privately. I agree with the Humanist Report guy that the Brock line of 'unilateral disarming' in terms of big money has been taken for granted by most Hillary Democrats, so he can't speak as plainly in a forum such as this as he did with me privately.

The bit about how Ellison should dis Haim Saban is nonsense - he's well respected by the party. It's just that Haim should only be allowed to give what the rest of us can afford to give and have less accessibility accordingly. This guy is sounding like the Unicorn-chaser to me, frankly.

BUCKLEY, however, DID espouse much more clearly progressive values in his talk in Austin and also in Arizona, especially about funding. I spoke with him privately as well, and he's the real deal. I don't think he has a shot at the Chairship at this point. I'll have to dig for his talk in TX.

—

'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 4:24am

I respect your analysis

@MsGrin You are probably the only c99 member who has directly spoken to some of these DNC candidates. Hopefully, the private conversations were more revealing than the public pronouncements. This is especially true if you ask open-ended questions which do not support a particular viewpoint.

Submitted by MsGrin on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 11:09pm

I can't get through Debbie's piece

@MsGrin and she's taking a HUFF PO piece to ascertain what the candidate's view's are. She's not even listening to what they've said for themselves. She likes the sound of her own voice an awful lot, and it's generally mostly hot air. I asked him directly about the questions nearest and dearests to my heart and mind, and I got answers that I liked. But the things I care about are below the radar to most newswatchers and voters. This is a race which has to be won before someone can lead. It ain't gonna be easy. I'm watching this crap happen at the County level and it's exhausting me. I do not know where I will stand when it all plays out where I am.

The HuffPo debate was a horrible way to showcase who these guys are, and they ALL sounded worse than they did elsewhere. The 1 - 2 minute answers don't give them time to actually explain their vision for the party. The Texas and Arizona forums were much more thorough and interesting.

Consider the sources.
*shaking head*

—

'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Submitted by Amanda Matthews on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 10:01pm

There is only one Democrat that I think has any integrity

and that is Tulsi Gabbard. I'd vote for her in a half a heartbeat.

To Hell with the rest of them. They've gotten used to the Third Way Grift Money.

—

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

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Submitted by travelerxxx on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 11:10pm

Yes, Tulsi Gabbard

@Amanda Matthews

Tulsi Gabbard for my money, too. The more I find out about her, the more I like her.

Submitted by MsGrin on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 11:20pm

Please listen to Ray Buckley in Texas

—

'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 4:40am

Buckley: small state, big record. Truly neutral? Dunno.

I like what I heard better than mealy mouth Keith who sucked up to Saban.

Submitted by orlbucfan on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 7:08am

Ellison

I have one big concern about this guy. He's reputed to being a warmonger. True or just what? Saw Perez on Bill Maher yesterday. Not impressed. Rec'd!!

—

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.