My Not GBCW at DailyKos
After a one month timeout, I finally got on again, and made a post on friendly turf (Bookflurries) announcing that I would not be around again until DailyKos is less toxic, which I assume will be years from now or never.
https://www.dailykos.com/comments/1700827/67883741#comment_67883741
A Not GBCW note:
I don’t want to lose this account, so I should make clear this is not GBCW. But I won’t be back kn DailyKos again for probably a long time. The atmosphere here has become too toxic. I thought, late last year, after the election, that everything would sort out around here eventually as the topic moved to our enemy, Donald Trump. But DailyKos has become more and more bitter and factional, a pointless intra-party shit-flinging contest where our worst attacks are on each other.
I got timed out for a silly diary I wrote a month ago as Harvey was about to make landfall. To sum it up, I mocked Texas Republicans by saying, effectively, good luck finding immigrants to fix your houses. I was still angry about Katrina. In fact, as I watch the treatment of Puerto Rico, I’m even madder. No police posses stood guard at bridges in Texas to shoot homeless refugees from Houston. I wonder why.
I understand about being flagged. But the time-out message was so personal that it bothered me. And the ending phrasing of “You won’t get as much leeway on this site in the future.” Bothered me even more. Leading me to conc!ude my time out was less about the insensitive timing of my diary, and more about whatever beef was in the moderator’s gunny sack. Leeway?
And the comments in the diary made that even clearer. Like:
(quote)
This disgusting person is now on TO. He’s been a consistent spreader of hatred and divisiveness, especially during the last two years. He’s had numerous comments flagged (19 in the past 12 months) but others of similar mind too often rec his nasty, hate-filled comments so only 6 of those were actually hidden. He had 22 flagged comments in the previous 12 months. The fact that he’s still here at all is troubling
(unquote)
This from a person who obviously was referring to matters relating to intr-party shit flinging over the past 12 months, which includes summer of last year. Only six successfully hidden comments in that landmine-saturated time. I think that’s pretty damn good, but not to certain people holding long grudges over past differences of opinion.
So, for me, the atmosphere that should have cleared up since then has only become worse. I read the diary about Peter Daou’s Verrit, with “verified” posts basically blaming last year’s Bernie supporters for Tru!p’s victory, which is demonstrably pure bullshit and only serves to divide us. Then Hillary’s book, which was divisive. And divisive leadership at the top of DailyKos making almost as many poorly thought out foot-eating tweets attacking other liberals on a regular basis, here, 11 months after the election. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, of course, but, this place is just no longer the site I have loved for the past 13 years.
I’ve heard it said it only takes 21 days to break a bad habit. Well, I’ve had 32, so that’s enough for me to stop making this place as necessary for daily functioning as coffee. I’m moving on from an deteriorating situation. Some people here actually think I’m a “consistent spreader of hatred”? Just absorb that. And I’ve read worse personally directed omments than that. I was accused multiple times of being a Russian KGB agent. It took various forms, but it wasn’t couched in weasel words at all. That seems to have stopped, finally, but nobody ever got timed out for that. Strange, because you would think Markos’s attorneys would have advised him that letting users accuse each other of treason like that on his site wouldn’t be a good thing. It was tolerated by the mods for a long time.
So, I might not be around for a while. Maybe things will be better by 2020.
end of paste
... Further downstream I posted:
I just want to get Dailkos out of my life, so that wouldn’t help.
It’s funny, roamong around, I’ve found a lot of my favorite posters of the past who either tuned out or were banned were big in other places. For instance, I was feeling morose again a few weeks again, thinking of how much I missed DallasDoc, one of my favorite Kossacks, who was a regular and a strong supporter of the weekly Classical Music series I ran here for years. About 90% of the diaries I wrote for DailyKos were music community diaries, not “spreading hatred.” I received a PM one time (might still have it) informing me that my diary analyzing Beethoven’s Symphony #7 in A was referred to and quoted in the concert program notes for some orchestra, St. Louis I think. A great many of those diaries were also community spot-lighted. But to some people, that was then, this is now. Or still spring of 2016, something like that.
It serves the purposes of some people to further divide Democrats. The fiasco of 2016 has fractured the once monadic Democratic establishment, and the splinters of what remains is fighting with itself. The number of establishment figures that signed on to Bernie’s Single Payer bill and the confused outrage of other Dems over it is ample evidence of that. I think thats why things won’t settle down. Dems are going to fight Dems over who are the real Dems until the next election. If we are really unlucky, the party will suck on its sore tooth so long that we get a repeat of 2016 in the next election, but with different avatar candidates.
You know, I never liked John Kerry, never thought he was a good candidate, but we didn’t spend 2005 to 2008 beating each other up over Dean versus Kerry. We HATED Bush and Cheney and what he was doing too much to waste time on that.
end of paste
Comments
You should hang here instead.
Real liberals/progressives/leftists/humans of non-evil alignment have been rather scarce over in Kosland ever since the Ides of March Decree of 2016.
Those of us whose loyalties lie with principles, humanity, compassion, and a genuinely livable life for everyone have bailed on the "Democratic" Party (which has become decidedly non-democratic in recent years!). The values my mother and her ancestors taught me to admire in the Democrats of that age have been trashed in favor of the same servility to Goldman Sachs et al. as their Republican counterparts.
Here on c99, on the other hand, most of us have "DemExited" and are seeking alternative ways of getting genuinely leftist values into power in our country and others.
And we welcome all the cultural Diaries here, too.
So I trust we'll be seeing more of you here on c99, please?
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@thanatokephaloides I'll be peripatetic for a
I'll be peripatetic for a while.
My first diary/thread/whatever at talkclassical.com got nuked without comment a few days ago. It was on the topic of which types of c!assical music are most amenable to listening while stoned. Maybe I'm too cool for the Internet in general.
I remember a few weeks ago on DailyKos, there was outrage by some because I called the crybaby Nazi in that youtube video, crying he might go to jail, "that little punk ass bitch". That started a debate about the evolving dictionary definition of "bitch" (which now officially includes usages like "prison bitch" and "This job is a bitch.") It amazes me how some people can draw the line and pick their battles. That guy was a fucking Nazi!
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
peripatetic
My point was (and is) that we make a real effort not to nuke people around here, hard-core assholes alone excepted. Even the strongest disagreements are discussed with respect and compassion, at least as far as we can do it. It's something that c99 has made a point of pride.
As for your classical music Essay (we call 'em Essays here), I daresay it would be well received, and discussed with much love and respect. Especially with all the Trans-Siberian Orchestra freaks we've got around here, much less the Grateful Dead heads we've got around here! (Guilty on both charges!) So, might we have a cross-post, please?
Meantime, know that you are welcome hereabouts, and I await your next posts!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
If you're going to get stoned and listen to music
Listen to the Master, Ludwig van Beethoven. The last 3 string quartets including the Grosse Fugue will be real mind-benders. And he wrote that sublime music while deaf.
@Alligator Ed Beethoven is the
Beethoven is the absolute worst for weed-listening. When you're high, things like narrative and large scale architecture get less attention.
I suggest more modern music, or Bach. Charles Ives Symphony #4, for example, is usually tough going when you are sober, but for weed-listening, it's a blast.
Schoenberg's atonal Pierrot Lunaire is great when high.
Anything from Stravinsky's neo-classical period is great. Lots of sparkly choppy sounds.
Some impressionist orchestral music can be great. La Mer is good, but the outstanding one is Jeux. Jeux while high is like the fourth of july and people are throwing sparklers at your face.
I would recommend all those even to people who don't normally care for classical music. I would also recommend them to classical fans who normally hate modern music.
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
My personal stoned classical favorite...
are the ones that helped my daughter pick Cello as her instrument. (She's getting GOOD too. Unfortunately the school wants to hold a pie sale to buy orchestra formal wear, and it's either participate or fork over money that I don't have right now.... grumble...)
But anyway, I like to listen to Cello.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCicM6i59_I]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_oaPY0Brrw]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
As to what to listen to while stoned
the classical rock and roll like Clapton, Traffic, etc. can't be beat. Love those long solos, like Statesboro Blues or Remembering Elizabeth Reed by G. Allman. But if it is to be classical, then as they say in the EPA, your mileage may vary. A good Bach fugue is great and so is Mahler Symphony number 2. We could do a poll--so pass around the weed and let's do it.
Best rock weed music I've experienced
is Zappa's Uncle Meat.
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
Yeah, those tools think fighting over words
is really doing something.
If you were to use the word for a female dog to describe that bunch, you would be insulting the poor dog.
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
Frankly, it's a wonder that anyone posts
at Orange Dead State anymore.
I would comment on Bruckner's 3rd Symphony, but I can't find my copy.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I used to like Bookflurries.
I read a lot and I was a regular there for awhile. Sad that they've politicized that too.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
I liked Backyard Science
And Dawn Chorus on Sundays. But I haven't been over there in ages.
" In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry, and is generally considered to have been a bad move. -- Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy "
I absolutely LOVED Objiwa's posts on
the history of different cultures, places, and discoveries I would go read his posts for a long time after my posting privileges got zonked.
Is he still there posting that stuff? (I'm not going to go look. I don't care that much.)
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
I too miss DallasDoc
I felt like I had a special relationship with him, but I think that is how many people felt about him. A rare person, indeed. He is just one of the many people who I got to know at DK. There are so many others that I miss and not only because they felt the same way as many of us here. I have seen a few of them on the other sites that were created after the mass banning or the ides of March.
Many of the people on DK who are viscous about blaming Bernie and his supporters are some of Hillary's correct the record trolls who found others that stroked their egos. They are quick to jump on anyone who is critical of Obama and Hillary. They love to write comments that degrade others and can't admit that Hillary was a horrible candidate. And that Obama was a horrible president.
Visit with as often as you can and let others know about our little corner of the internets.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
@snoopydawg I saw DallasDoc recently
I saw DallasDoc recently on Reddit, so he's still out there, posting. I haven't figured out Reddit, yet, so I haven't engaged there.
For a thrill go back and read DallasDoc's GBCW on DailyKos from last December. Rather prescient about where things were going.
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
There are quite a few Kossacks at Reddit
Lots of political places are going through changes. There is a vast shifting in audiences. The river of change runs through Reddit swiftly, as well. It changes people. Just tonight, I noticed that reddit's "Conspiracy" board has changed. It used to be about conspiracies of the doubtful variety, but now it's all about American politics; people starting to realize what is going on. That board was a natural fact-checking place because it was filled with debunkers of misinformation. The facts of American politics look like conspiracies these days, and the fact checkers are not finding much to debunk.
The board headlines are here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/
Later I'll make a list of Reddit places where I've seen familiar faces. That might help you get started over there.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
I have seen a few of his comments there
Reddit used to have a way to send messages to people, but they must have changed it or I don't know how to do it. I have left comments to him, but I don't know if he read it. There are many other ex DK members on both of the Bernie Reddit sites. I would love to see them wander over here.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
DallasDoc's GBCW from TOP
For those wanting to do so, the article in question can be found here.
EDIT: Found out that the Article in question was available here on good old c99! Edited the link to point to it, and eliminated the Daily Kos warning as it was no longer needed!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
@thanatokephaloides
Don't think I posted a thank-you earlier for posting the diary here to spare the rest of us, so I'll do that now. It was truly great and I'm grateful to have not missed out on it.
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.
How about you write book flurries here
or write about other things that interest you. I would love to see book essays here and maybe some of the DK members who are staying away from DK's toxic environment would gravitate here.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
Dkos has been infiltrated
with Russian agents. Spreading fake news. And putting ads on Facebook.
I'm pretty sure they peed in my cereal.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Well...yeah.
The Ides of March was the tip off.
With the realization that in most possible futures Bernie was going to win, they got rather pissy. My oatmeal hasn't been the same either.
Full confession: I miss some of that community. And, I'm glad that I see the important parts of that resurrected here.
Those fuckin' Russians though. Spending $150K on Facebook ads and changing history...
Our democracy is at the mercy of facebook ads.
Political ads have become weaponized!
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
The so-called late night comedy shows
which often had political barbs in them cast at just about anybody, now have degenerated into purely "HHTI" (How horrible Trump is). Most recent glaring example is Jimmy Kimmel outright blasting Senator Cassidy for being the lying piece of shit that he is. While true, it is not funny. So comedy, instead of allowing ourselves to laugh at the mess, has also become weapon iced (mainly by HilBots) into vicious partisan spouting. BTW, Cassidy is a flaming anus. The left-over hot air not exiting his oral orifice, now escapes via the colon.
@peachcreek
And I read that Jill Stein benefited from one of those ads and threw the race to Trump. It appeared to be serious and I can't tell with this lot because all of the claims sound like parody of the utterly insane...
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.
Hi there and welcome
Please feel free to post whatever you wish here. Caucus99% has only one rule and that is to treat your fellow members with respect. We encourage good discussion and all points of view as long as they are presented respectfully. If you have previously read some of our more lively essays, you will have seen that we can vigorously disagree on certain points without being disagreeable.
C99 is a forum in which the majority of us lean further left than the norm, but we do not ban those who may not have that point of view. Very few people have ever been banned here, most of them for being obvious trolls.
I encourage you or anyone else who may be lurking here to write essays on whatever topics you wish. While most of our essays are political in nature, we welcome essays on topics outside the political realm. Jump in and post away!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
@gulfgal98 I'm not complaining I was
I'm not complaining I was censored. It was a crappy little diary I wrote that got me in trouble. No, what finally got to me was the insane bitterness. The people calling for my head, the usual Hillary grudge holders, were exploiting the opportunity, and the mod's timeout message reflected that same sentiment.
Ya know, fuck it all. I spent fourteen years there and for most of that time, I felt liked or even loved, whether I really was or not. Now it's just a cess pool of bitterness.
At the root of it is panic. I've compared it to an anthill where the queen has died and all the ants are running around screaming, "The queen is dead! Some villain has betrayed the queen! Everybody sting everybody else!"
An establishment faction that was supposed to be an unsinkable ship hit a big obvious orange iceberg and went down like a rock, to everybody's surprise, including the iceberg's. Rather than considering the possibility that the unsinkable ship was poorly designed, Dailykos is focused on finding flaw with the passengers.
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
Really great analogy!
Sure seems so. And this:
Well, you just summed up the Democratic Party as it stands now.
I was over there a little shorter time than you (really was more of a lurker and I didn't post much under this handle at all) but when people talk about it, I think back to the pie fights of 2008. Things got really heated, but eventually calmed down and everyone went back to the business at hand. This time though, not only was there a strong preferential treatment given to one candidate and Her supporters, but they're continuing an all out war on on supporters of the "wrong" guy. Had Obama lost, does anyone really think the PUMAs, more of whom actually did flip for McCain than Sanders supporters for Trump, would have been held personally accountable and censured on the site? No way!
I don't see a change over there without management changing. I think what we've seen is the curtain pulled back and there's the Wizard pulling the levers. It's a shame because there's definitely writers I miss and points of view I enjoyed reading, but I am not welcome there and I see no need to try to censure myself to be allowed in.
Oh and chalk me up as another who'd appreciate the classical and book postings too!
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Oh the irony and hypocrisy of DK
It's true that there were huge pie fights during the 2008 primary and most of the worst fighting came from Hillary's PUMAs who couldn't understand how she was losing to a person who hadn't even been in the Senate very long.
However, after the pie fights died down and Obama was president, anyone who had problems with the way he abandoned his campaign promises were told to STFU and get on board with him and his ll dimensional chess cop out.
This is still happening now that he is out of office, But instead of telling everyone to watch the magnificent chess game, they call people racists now because he he's the first Black President. No he isn't. He is the first mix race president. That we know of.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
All the cool kids hang out here Dumbo
and most of us are ex-kossacks.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I keep forgetting about DK, and how this place started
Thanks goodness about the first part of that sentence, always grateful for the second. Thanks a lot JtC and the mods who came over to start c99 and keep it going. Big thanks. DKos moderation system is evil I think. Not the people, the system itself. I guess Markos is the one to blame for that, he is the decider, it is his income.
Thanks for writing and I hope you find your muse here or somewhere nearby soon. If you like writing about classical music, that is great! I hate it. lol, seriously I don't hate it but violins make me anxious.
For some reason a "new" CD just came to me, the story is too long but maybe the end is a little bit funny, I thought so. It is a BMG Classic CD released 1993. 1955 and '57 recordings of Brahms and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, performed by the Chicago Symphony, conductor Fritz Reiner. The violinist is Jascha Heifetz.
OMG Russia! How horrible, oh wait. The Russian Empire is not Russia today, oops. That's so 100 years ago.
Read above
where I suggest classical music pieces for stoned listening. Even if you normally hate classical music, it's hard not to trip out overJeux or La Valse or Pierrot Lunaire when stoned.
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
When worlds collide
thanks, I found this Pierrot Lunaire channel and I like it, had no idea what is going on 'til I read the comment there:
Xiaoyong Chen-Evapora, played by PIERROT LUNAIRE ENSEMBLE WIEN
... and I just realized what a vape pen plus oil can do, LOL. Survey: Californians spent $681M on pot in 3-month period
Right now Sour Deisel is the sh*t omg the hip pain just vanished, poof! Why? I don't even care why, I don't care about anything but the honest to dog truth, it works. What's $681 million times 4? Annual bliss billions and not even fully legal yet. Wowz.
Don't destroy the illegal grows! Bring in the harvest and let citizens profit, taxes and everything why not.
peace
No weed for me, right now.
I used up the last of my medicinal pot a couple of months ago in a botched attempt to make a tincture (pot infused into vodka). Ruined the vodka, and doesn't give a buzz. Too advanced for me. Legal recreational pot stores are scheduled to open here in California in January, so I'll wait and save myself the price of a prescription renewal.
I never found it a very good pain killer, myself. I have bursitis and possible degenerative spine disorder, so when my back goes out, I'm in pain hell, and pot doesn't help me with it. Just makes it seem like the pain lasts longer.
Here's a great piece, Jeux. It seems terribly amorphous when you are sober, but when you are high, it really comes to life. It's probably the most sophisticated of Debussy's orchestral
works.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjJvZ7cWe7o]
Here's a hot modern dance ballet version of the same work, if you need a visual. Although I think it distracts from the music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lovGVYNKG_I&t=476s
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
Hey Dumbo
Welcome to the adult political blog. Non-partisan, no down flags, only anonymous tips so cliques are kept to a minimum. You even can edit your comments. Like gulfgal said, only one rule. Don't be nasty to fellow posters. Disagree as you please, hell support Trump if you want, or tell us how we never really landed on the moon. All c9 asks is that we say it with a smile.
I was at dkos for 10 years, deleted all my stuff, and left. It was hard leaving at first, but after people on an adult blog, dkos got harder and harder to take. OPOL is here on ocassion as is Ray Pensadore. c99 has a FB and Twitter account, and we publish essays from here on both. If we aren't chatting with old friends here, we are chatting with them on FB & Twitter.
I do miss some of the folks from dkos, but I don't miss the propaganda sewer hole one damn bit. The blog and its moderation system is childish, mean, and deliberately designed to be so. dkos thinks it is hot stuff, but at other social media sites, the attitude towards it is likely to be: a sneer, a jeer, or a WTF is that. I always wondered how the hypocrisy and irony of the joint went over so many heads. They would run on and on about being a community that cared about each other in one diary and beat the shit out of each other in the next.
Thanks for dropping in. Hope to see you around more. Wherever you land, trust me, you'll be much happier without the incredibly stupid and immature posters at dailykos.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Excellent comment.
And spot on for how we here at C99 roll. Act like an adult and you'll be treated like one.
I know its hard for some but you really ought to just avoid that place. Once you stop going there my bet is you really will not miss it much at all.
They are supremely panicked that the "other guy" brought to light much of what is wrong with this country and their own damned part in it. It was not easy to admit that we've been completely and utterly betrayed by those who were going to "help" us. The anger I feel for Dems right now is almost as strong as my revulsion for Repugnants. At least the Repig is honest about his ugliness, while these slimy Dems smile while inserting the knife.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
From "Reality Based" to "Reality Creation"
This last election should have been a turning point, but too many Dems can't face that. They can't accept that they've been had, that their heroes were snake-oil peddlers and that the DP has helped bring us to where we are today. So they're doubling down and acting as if Trump is an exception who has managed to take everything good in the world and destroy it, while failing to acknowledge that life under Obama really wasn't all that great for large portions of the population. It's almost amazing the amount of denial some of these people live in.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Well at least you didn't say the N word.
Right?
iPads are a civil rights issue
thanks, the program is identity. Go get one, on sale today! lol just kidding but not really. Bleeding over from today's OT comments, this is old news pardon the oxymoron. Typical D-Value needs purging: U.S. attorney won't file charges after probe of $1.3-billion iPads-for-all project in L.A. schools
Investment door revolves to prison of course: Ex-LAUSD chief John Deasy joins Broad leadership academy
Kiddie prisons, can't wait. Anyone wanna bet it's mostly non-white people he is "helping" meditate their way to justice and equality? I don't know, 25 cents is my wager. Cruel world indeed. DailyKos HQ is in Alameda now isn't it? Pretty close.
good luck
So I am a person of average intelligence
(big heart though), and I had to look up what "peripatetic" meant! I kinda figured it out from context before I checked! Anyway, I look forward to your posting and opinions on classical music selections, especially when stoned! In this little community there are so many here with brilliant, creative minds and kindness, much kindness. This is WAY better than that other place and I think C99 will eventually grow bigger. This is an off election year of sorts so when things heat up again this will be the place to be. Joe's EB here is the absolute tops for terrific daily news overviews.
Thanks for making me learn today!
O.k. When is the next meeting for the revolution?
-FuturePassed on Sunday, November 25, 2018 10:22 p.m.
You're certainly welcome here, Dumbo
If you have been looking around you've probably found sites just like Dkos, where the community is turning in on itself.
I visit many different sites. Some that center on financial news and opinion (Zero Hedge, Naked Capitalism, etc.). Some involving international points of view (Strategic Culture, Al Jazeera, etc.). And a number of right wing sites (Breitbart, Red state) to try and glean some common ground.
Over the time I've spent at these sites I can't help notices that many of the commenters are beginning to turn on each other, as you noted, the queen is dead. But it spans ideologies. It's happening everywhere.
The Yahoo comment threads are particularly horrendous, but I've noticed a change at even Breitbart, where they are starting to eat their own. So much so that some of the regular commenters there are beginning to speak out about it. Some even lamenting how far downhill that site has become.
Even Zero Hedge has become one giant pie fight. They are all becoming like Dkos, on both sides of the political spectrum.
While there is certainly division in both parties, the level of hateful rhetoric and crude verbal attacks is soaring beyond the actual differences.
It's as though a violent mental disorder has been unleashed upon the intertubes, reminiscent of "Reefer Madness", where the guy takes ONE puff and goes crazy.
Obviously, this cannot be true because everyone here at this is also exposed to the net.
Which brings me to question if the only sane people are here, in this little corner of the online universe. Is that all there is? 2 or 3 thousand of us?
I'm reading this morning how the Russians are ramping up the division over the NFL/Anthem debacle, trying to create chaos. But I don't think it's the Russians, I think it's a far more sinister malevolent force at work.
And this little community is just not worth the effort to try to subvert.
If we grew bigger, we would probably draw the attention of these malevolent forces, placing trolls, disinformation, and online manipulation.
Which is why I love this place. I can come here and talk, and listen, and converse, without the hateful shouting and putdowns that the rest of the internet has degenerated into.
What a blessed place, and I'm not even religious.
Welcome Dumbo.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
IMHO, we are being conditioned...
The NFL/Anthem debacle is meant to whip us up in a patriotic fervor. Rah rah rah for the flag. You MUST stand and be patriotic towards the flag and National Anthem. Just like after 9-11 and the run up to the Iraq War. Love it or leave it, baby! It so simple and it works on the majority of the sheep.
The North Korean nuclear war scare mongering is about justifying the huge military and nuclear arsenal build up, not to mention poking Russia and China to accept our hegemony. There's really no need for Russia and China to take the bait though, all they need do is bide their time and slowly bleed the petrol dollar and the US will eventually implode from within.
In my over-simplified humble opinion anyway.
This is my great hope...
And yes, I can be quite a naive optimist at times too.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I don't think you're wrong at all.
Colin Kaepernick unknowingly opened a door that TPTB are using for the same kind of propaganda schtick they had in the post-9/11 days. We haven't quite reached another Dixie Chicks moment, but I don't think we're far from it either. I appreciate that the NFL didn't just kick him out and try to destroy him, but they've also helped make it about Trump not pushing around the NFL rather than the original intent, protesting the treatment of people of color in the country.
And of course it's the Russians behind it all! I was just waiting for that revelation to come out. It will be interesting to see if the Dems take the bait, because the GOP leading the way on that charge puts them in an awkward position as far as I can see. (Then again, I haven't heard any McResistance actually supporting the protest, just the usual TRUMP BAD mess.)
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
@Dr. John Carpenter
Hah, we all know that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by smoking - but did you know it's been discovered that the Russians!!! got them hooked in the first place?
This has been vouched for by someone who saw it happen.
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.
I think the deterioration
of the DKos community mirrors a fundamental divide within the Democratic Party itself. Over the years it has drifted ever-further to the Right, and ever-closer to Wall Street and the MIC. HRC's blatant pandering to these, and other wealthy globalist interests, became finally too much to tolerate, for many of us.
And then there was Sanders, who lit a brush fire he could not control.
I think a parting of the ways was inevitable, and perhaps overdue. Markos himself evolved from reformer to Party apparatchik, leaving the Left-wing of his own "community" in the lurch, to fend for themselves. And so here we are -- somewhat discarded and somewhat disrespected, but certainly not alone. I remember very well Dumbo, your many excellent comments at DKos. IMO you were one of the smartest contributors there.
native
it's a sewer over there
and, like any sewer, if you look around while you're in it you might say "gee, this is a sewer".
I check it out maybe once every three months, just sightseeing. I went not that long ago and found a great article (being sarcastic here) title something like "Charles Schwab, Billionaire Born in Ukraine, Donates to Republicans". Incredibly most of the comments were about how rich people like Republicans and what a shame that is. Finally one guy said "Wtf!? Ukraine?" because what, Charles Schwab is a Russian plant? And Russia is not Ukraine.
Like I said, a sewer.
Welcome Dumbo
I’m sorry that you felt compelled to leave a place that had provided so much inspiration and satisfaction in the past, because of its present toxic state. The Book diaries and community spotlight diaries are still inspiring and nuclear free. There will be many people missing you.
I would welcome a Book or Music essay from you here. You may not find a large audience (although who knows what you might inspire to come out of the woodwork), but you will always find thoughtful, informed and respectful people.
[video:https://youtu.be/i3Z6LHtxN3U]
I can't do the kind of diaries I used to do
because I've been without a PC for years now. Tablet only. No tools for photoshopping or video editing. I wanted to do a series on basic music theory (the theory of harmony), but I can't even slap together an image of a keyboard with a C Major chord highlighted. It's hard to do anything decent without the proper tools. To add to the mess, I have no permanent residence right now and have been homeless or hospitalized a few times in the past year, which isn't conducive to keeping a multimedia PC tower.
I mentioned this one time on DailyKos, and a very kind user offered to send me a few hundred dollars. I turned that down, though, because it just felt wrong. Not the taking charity, but that whole can of worms.
"Bi-polar? I'm Bi-winning!!!" -- Charlie Sheen
Sharing your knowledge and individual perspective
will be a valuable contribution here, no matter what format it takes.
It sounds like you have enough to bear for now. I hope you will continue to find more tools and means to feel secure and engaged in ways that are meaningful, and feel right to you. I wish you all the best.