Socialists did pretty good yesterday; Democrats pretend it didn't happen
DNC chairman Tom Perez phoned MSNBC to gloat minutes after establishment candidate Ralph Northam won the Virginia Governor's race.
Perez proceeded to name-check Elizabeth Guzman and Hala Ayala, the first Latinas ever elected to the House, but then Hayes asked him about another candidate—one who’d barely received any national attention throughout the campaign. “There’s also, I believe, a Marine veteran who identifies as a democratic socialist who, if I’m not mistaken, is running competitively with someone in the House GOP leadership,” he said. “The House GOP whip might lose to a socialist Marine veteran? Is that actually happening?”
It was indeed. Democrat Lee Carter, a red-haired, 30-year-old Marine veteran from Manassas, won a remarkable nine-point victory to oust Delegate Jackson Miller, a deep-pocketed Republican incumbent who serves as House Majority Whip. Carter ran openly as a socialist—he and his supporters crooned the union anthem “Solidarity Forever” after their victory—and he won with almost no institutional support from the state Democratic Party. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Patrick Wilson reported last month that party leaders “abandoned” Carter after he declined to report campaign metrics like the number of doors he’d knocked and the amount of money he’d raised. Carter told Wilson he “ceased reporting to the House caucus after multiple information security lapses in which confidential information that we reported to the House caucus was leaked outside of the party infrastructure.” But he also said the party leaders “wanted a bit more editorial control over my messaging than I was comfortable with.” Wilson wrote that “Democratic Party leaders were not eager to discuss Carter, preferring to promote other candidates.” In fact, Wilson called Carter “the kind of rogue candidate that gives an apparatus like the Democratic Party of Virginia a fit.”
That is just plain f*cking awesome. Neither the Republican, nor the Democratic establishment wanted him. No one took him seriously.
The socialist still won the biggest upset of the day, and the Democrats want to pretend it didn't happen. Just like Republicans.
Miller, the Republican candidate, naturally didn’t see Carter’s socialism as part of a proud American tradition. After largely ignoring him for most of the campaign, he sent out mailers comparing Carter to Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.
...At the same time, Carter was happy to talk about socialism when asked. “If you’re to the left of Barry Goldwater, Republicans are going to call you a socialist anyway, so you may as well just own the label,” he said.
Note to GOP: The Cold war is over.
It looks like Republicans yelling "Socialism! Ahhhh!" is not working any better than Democrats yelling 'Racism! Ahhh!"
Both parties have overused and misused the labels until people no longer care.
Conservatives sent out this red-baiting, meme-based mailer attacking @DemSocialists candidate Lee Carter AND HE JUST WON HIS ELECTION ANYWAY pic.twitter.com/tfieQ04gxS
— Annie Shields (@anastasiakeeley) November 8, 2017
So in summation their points on him:
-Ending austerity
-Unpopular people don't like the idea
-Wants to give everyone healthcareI thought this was meant to be an attack ad
— ALTON (@8ALTON8) November 8, 2017
Carter worked well with his local Democratic Party throughout the campaign, but acknowledged the state party was a different story. “On the state level, it is a bit more strained,” he said. “The corporations I’m actively attacking fund the state party. It’s obviously going to create some tension.”
Bingo!
Carter's victory was the highlight yesterday, but it wasn't the only victory for socialists.
At least 12 candidates endorsed by the DSA, the country's largest socialist organization, won races Tuesday and at least 13 candidates endorsed by Our Revolution, the group started by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also won. Many of the DSA-endorsed candidates were endorsed by Our Revolution and vice versa.
Other winners backed by DSA and Our Revolution include Seema Singh Perez, who was elected to the Knoxville, Tenn. city council; Brian Nowak to the Cheektowaga, N.Y. town council; Tristan Rader to the Lakewood, Ohio city council; Charles Decker to the council of Ward 9 in New Haven, Ct.; Anita Prizio to the Allegheny County, Penn. council; and J.T. Scott and Bew Ewen Campen, who were both elected to the city council in Somerville, Mass.
Instead of running candidates in third parties, the strategy for Our Revolution and DSA has been to elect progressive candidates in an effort to push the Democratic Party left.
"Absolutely, we definitely want to primary neoliberal Democrats," said Maria Svart, the DSA's national director.
Yeh buddy!
The progressive insurgency is gathering momentum.
One last note, yesterday was a good day for marijuana legalization too.
Phil Murphy, the incoming governor, campaigned on marijuana legalization.
...
Ralph Northam, who just got a raise from lieutenant governor to the state's top job, made marijuana decriminalization a centerpiece of his campaign, often putting the issue in stark racial justice terms.
Comments
Willing to bet money that turn-out was higher...
in districts that had a socialist running. Since the MSM hasn't mentioned turnout at all, I'm willing to bet that it was far more significant than they're willing to admit.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
One socialist might get robbed
weighted voting
75%+
A great headline
The Socialists are coming? An unexpected election outcome
Can the cynics on C99P doubt anymore that there is a nationwide progressive insurgency?
Yep.
I'm going to be cynical until real change happens.
I am seeing INSANE amounts of pushback against leftists all over the MSM today. (I consider Twitter to be MSM at this point.)
You know what the top hashtag is? #ThankYouHillary Yes, the full throated declaration of victory by the establishment is running full speed and far too many are believing it.
I believe in small scale victories, but that they will remain small. The issues people care about are winners, but are actively silenced where ever the MSM goes.
I want to believe. I do. But I've seen this before, and every single time the great hopes of the election proceed to quick co-option and "This is the best we can do" rhetoric, nearly instantly.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
In cities across the South, Socialism is on the ballot
don't let the bus pass you by
As long as they run as Democrats...
Socialist success will be in SPITE of the Democrats.
They will sabotage, steal, cheat, and do whatever is necessary to silence the anti-corporate feel that is gripping the country.
As I said, I want to believe, but I do not trust the Democrats. They have stabbed us in the back far too many times.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
No argument there
But if we don't give up, we WILL win.
We've got them outnumbered.
Second that.
As you have written relative few have been voting due to disgust with the duopoly. Given a candidate running on issues extremely important to them coupled with enthusiastic campaign workers with effective plans, that could change and make a huge difference in turnout.
At the national level the insurgence will continue to be up against the kind of rigging we saw with the establishment Dems' Clinton candidacy, as well as corporate media support and propaganda. Money money money.
Still, I am supporting the progressive insurgence v giving up. Even if, as many here rightly argue, the Democratic Party is a dead end worth no further support, until another alternative comes along I will continue that support.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
As I periodically interject,
it is important to distinguish between "Democrats" and the leadership of the Democratic Party. The function of the leadership of the Democratic Party is to limit how far left the Democratic Party can go, to make sure it does not attack the corporate powers that be. On the other hand, only a fraction of rank and file Democrats are corporate stooges and we will never win without them. We need to excise the cancerous leadership from the Democratic party.
@Roy Blakeley That's true.
That's true. The reason for my skepticism (to put it mildly) is that I've already been through a multi-year process of trying to get rid of those leaders, a process I invested in massively to my own detriment, and we got crap nothing out of it. We went further to the right, and normalized most of Bush's policies. Once considered extreme, they are now considered inevitable.
That's what we got for winning. What we've been living in between 2008 and 2016 is what we got for winning. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Without a new strategy for how to get rid of those people, no movement to take the Democratic party to the left has a chance, and frankly, the idea that those people in leadership are removable, or that, were they removed, they'd be replaced by anybody except people who do the same things but give better speeches (like Obama), is improbable at best. In any case, somebody's going to have to have a better strategy than "primary establishment Dems with progressives!" "turn out the vote!"
"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
any ideas?
down the rabbit hole
The biggest gains for admittedly Socialist Democrats are in the South.
The solid crimson South.
While Wisconsin still has a right-wing Governor and a Congresscritter to his right serving (the corporations) in Congress.
This seems to me as if we've really gone down Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole, and nothing is going to make sense for a while......
[video:https://youtu.be/WANNqr-vcx0]
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Actually it make
Socialists are gaining where the Democratic Party establishment isn't.
The Dems are the primary obstacle of socialism, not conservatives.
And they wil do it again.
They will do everything they can to sabotage the 2018 election, just t backstab the progressives. How and how effectively we respond will be the decider.
On to Biden since 1973
I am incredibly skeptical
That Twitter represents an accurate pulse of what Americans are thinking. Twitter, along with Facebook and Google, probably more closely represent what Twitter, Facebook and Google have decided is the narrative, as in "top" trending hashtags. Algorithms are just another way of customizing the narrative.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Very true, but it's a good preview...
of what the Corporate Media is going to be spewing a few days in advance.
And absolutely Twitter has been caught censoring algorithms and colluding to push messages. No fucking surprise there, from our corporate slime overlords.
I only worry when the people I trust start mouthing them. Which is very rarely, thank god.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
@Anja Geitz I should have read
I should have read down further--you just stated what I was trying to say, far better.
"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
Lol
Now you know how I usually feel after reading your posts
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
@Anja Geitz
"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
RE Twitter that is true mainly if you look at what is trending,
which I never do.
I follow individuals and organizations so my feed on Twitter, and on Facebook choose the option show this first. That way what I see are what I want to read, not what they want to show.
Now if Twitter and FB and Google News keep censoring ........
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Frankly, I don't see anything standing in the way
Of further censorship. And much more incentive as 2020 approaches.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Youve got every right to be skeptical
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX8Y2dN_nh4]
EDIT:Whoop's look like it was already posted, but its
still worth posting again.
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
@detroitmechworks Well, but now that
Well, but now that Twitter has admitted to outright censorship (RT and Sputnik), as well as continuing the shitty games they have been playing for a while with determining what trends and what doesn't, making people's feeds only appear to their subscribers if they don't like what the people are saying, etc.---after all that, I wouldn't expect anything else to be the top hashtag at Twitter. Like MSNBC and CNN, they are part of the Clinton/Bush political machine.
It's true that a lot of people who used to stand with us are now following this crap I Love Hillary Because Trump's So Bad philosophy, but I wouldn't generalize too broadly from that, no matter how depressing it is to talk to a loved one or an ally and hear that stuff coming out of their mouths. Remember that if the election were held again today, she and Trump would be neck and neck, despite the fact that the country can't stand Trump.
"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
Twitter is doing even more
They are actually censoring users from the left. It is becoming a purge of sorts over there. The left users are not buying it either and are refusing to go quietly.
I handle the C99 account at Twitter and usually refrain from editorializing too much over there because I must remember my tweets reflect all of our users here. But the wave of censorship over there prompted me to tweet this.
Everyone here knows I hate war, but I am also passionately against censorship.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Appreciate your voice over there
Although I wish some tech savvy progressive could come up with something to compete with Twitter, or somehow come up with a way that would allow us to get around the censorship that is now spreading across social media.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Same. I'm far from cynical,
but I'm less than convinced that anything special happened last night except a Yuuuuge win by Dems. Twelve or 13 wins by Socialists might be the beginning of a movement, of something special, but if that's all there was then certainly Hillary and her bots can take the credit for the big win - and do it with a straight face.
That said, twelve compared to zero last time is a good start, and I Do believe it's the beginning of something special - more wins for progressives and Socialists. Sooner rather than later. 2020 could be bigly if we get a similar turnout next year.
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.
It's not
It's not the "beginning". It's only the latest milestone.
Well, a "movement" has to
start somewhere. Let 2017 be the start.
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.
#ThankYouHillary
I wonder how much it cost Her to buy that?
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone
#ThankYouHillary mostly $hills cultists and RW zombies, but...
From TYT Politics contributor:
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Her does not buy.
Her sells!
Agree, DMW. Almost all Dems, including
Bernie, are calling for Party unity. Just this evening, he called Donna Brazile 'courageous.' (on CNN) When asked if he could support the centrist Governor of Virginia, he said that while Northam wasn't his first choice--he personally supported Perriello in the primary--all Dems have to come together to defeat DT.
My question is,
"How is it that the Dem Party rank-and-file electing a corporatist Dem officeholder, who twice voted for the President of the supposed opposing legacy party--that President also being the very person who led what's generally considered the most misguided and devastating imperialistic set of adventures in US history--some kind of 'advancement' of progressive values or goals?"
Sorry. I just don't get it.
Mollie
“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit, and therefore, to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)
SOSD - A volunteer-run organisation dedicated to the welfare of Singapore’s street dogs. We rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome strays to give them a second chance.
SOSD Rescue 'Barabas The Brave'
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
@gjohnsit Yeah, I can.
Yeah, I can.
Let me know when y'all have toppled the people controlling the Democratic party. Or when Congress passes a bill that genuinely reverses the Patriot Act, the Telecommunications Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, or the Bush tax cuts. Or when Congress ceases to operate under Obama's Paygo policy. Or when Congress passes a bill that genuinely gets us off petroleum as a civilian fuel and onto an economy driven primarily by renewables. Or when they start making military expenditures a question rather than an assumption. Or when they try to get us back to a place where we declare war, or else we are at peace, and it's Congress that gets to make the declaration. Or when they investigate a single Wall St fraudster other than Bernie Madoff.
Or when these concerns start to drive state legislatures, or even the Democratic minorities in those legislatures. Or when the state parties start to rebel (god knows they have reason enough).
What I do believe is that there are good people trying around the country, and a handful of them are succeeding. Not enough, yet, to disturb the balance of power. Once it gets close to disturbing the status quo, you will see the long knives come out, one way or another. Probably through some form of voter suppression, election fraud, or character assassination.
"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
IOW
In other words, you don't care until the war is already over and won?
Fine.
But that precludes you from being a progressive. Just a pessimist.
" 'Ya'll " ? Really?
Oh. Okay.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
@divineorder Yeah, I'm a third
Yeah, I'm a third-generation Floridian, so sometimes I talk like a Southerner. Don't know why that matters?
"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
Oh no, not use of that word at all, but the
I use it myself all my life. Can't help it.
I was just surprised at the 'us v them' .
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
@divineorder I'm not
I'm not against you. But I'm not participating in this venture (getting leftier Democrats elected). You all are. That's the only place "y'all" came from.
I support your ultimate goals, which are policy goals (if I'm understanding correctly). The politics is supposed to be a means to an end, and the end is good policy, which I bet you and I and most people here agree on. I don't support your methods, because I've tried them repeatedly with frankly awful results.
This is a very surreal day for me, b/c at the same time I'm having this discussion here, I'm having another discussion in a different essay defending the fact that this site can be non-partisan and still have partisans participating in it. That the existence of people who want to work through the Democratic party on this site doesn't mean that everybody here is marching in lockstep or that this site is some kind of Democratic party organ. That in fact we've got both people who want to save the Democratic party and those who want it to burn to the ground represented here, and most of the time, we can talk civilly to one another and even be friends. That's remarkable, almost unique on the Internet (in my experience).
It's not us vs them. It's you're trying to build something, and I don't think the blueprint's good, having tried to build off it before, and having the building come down around my head. Maybe it fell down for other reasons, and you're right and I'm wrong. Time will tell. But our disagreement over method doesn't put us on opposing sides.
"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
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Not as far
Not as far as I'm concerned, anyway!
"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
Well okay. You tried 'that way'
and it didn't work for you. Surely most of us here tried the party and have rejected the Democratic Party leadership. However coming off a bit disingenuous when one considers the changed circumstances of now, ie explosive growth of Democratic Socialists, the rapid dismantling of bureacracy and regulation, unanticipated rapididity of climate change and thus a brand new urgency for change.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
@divineorder I don't
I don't see a lot of change in the Democratic Party power structure or how it behaves, except that it has added McCarthyism, election fraud, voter suppression and outright purges of even mild progressives out of its infrastructure to its toolbox.
"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
I admit, a tiny, tiny glimmer
of hope hit me today when thinking what the young can do if they really decide to do it. Many are educated and in debt, and even the ones not formally educated know the score, most of them I've been around anyway. I hope. But I won't worship anymore, ya know? I am concerned for any of these people who get elected as progressives. They really have a tough fight. I'll hope, quietly, better than not hoping at all I guess.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
For me, Snowden’s revelations also showed urgent need for change
There are cases such as total capture of everyone’s communications everywhere where Reagan’s dictum actually does apply: the government is not the solution; indeed, along with all its corporate contractors, the government is the problem.
In office, will Democratic Socialists work to abolish this totalitarian surveillance, or embrace it by voting to renew the laws and funding that facilitate it?
Where do Democratic Socialists stand on censorship? Censorship doesn’t suddenly become okay just because your set of judges of what is censorship-worthy includes Silicon Valley bigwigs and the SPLC.
Even supposedly progressive Democrats have a way of taking things they used to think bad — such as never-ending neocon wars of aggression — and suddenly plunging into them as good; as well as abandoning as bad many things — such as free speech even for people and views one personally finds repugnant — they used to think good.
@gjohnsit No, gjohnsit. It
No, gjohnsit. It makes me someone who's just gotten through using this very strategy to accomplish this very goal. I gave a lot, my investing so much in the strategy permanently damaged my life, and what we got when we won was a normalization of Bush policy, pretty much across the board.
It's unfair to characterize me as not a progressive because I've been burned repeatedly, and last time it was third-degree burns and I'm not going to walk back into the same place where last time they soaked me with accelerant and tossed a match.
I disagree with you, that's all. And yes, my worldview is pretty grim. But I don't think there's nothing we can do; I simply think there's nothing we can do within that system.
"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
That's the same as giving up
No new system will be coming along without a chaotic collapse happening first.
It is your right to be grim, but let's not kid ourselves what that means.
More importantly, let's not go out of our way to discourage honest people who are trying hard to improve the world.
The 1% are already looting
the remains of our country under the system. We already have our places within the country which are worse off than the stereotypes of third world countries.
It's not giving up. It's not wasting energy on a game designed to delay, disempower and distract.
For example, Time Warner's buying AT&T. More corporate consolidation of media. More control over the means to resist. And what are the Dems doing? Why defending the corporate right to merge under the guise of "Protecting the Press".
Fuckers are playing for time.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXOIg2o6PA]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Playing for time.
Yup.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
How can we legislatively
Change the very electoral mechanisms in place that seek to control us when we cannot insure our votes will be counted?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
It's about understanding the difference between having power
and getting power. The oligarchs have the power. If we want to get the power, we can't do it from within. These small wins feel great right now, but they are always ephemeral. The oligarchs will run these new faces out in subsequent elections. This is why they are all for term limits. FDR stuck around too long. Their coup failed and they couldn't oust him. So term limits came about to deny the people their democracy.
Simply winning some seats in the lower levels of power doesn't give us power. And we won't wrest it from the national stage. They rig that.
Now if the progressive candidate that primaried against Northam, a hardcore centrist whose only redeeming feature is he will legalize pot, had turned around and run as an independent, the red corporatist would have beaten the blue corporatist. THEN we'd have power. Because the Dems were teetering. Now they're spreading the false meme that they're rejuvenated even though nothing has changed. This was just Trump blowback.
No, as you rightfully point out, winning isn't always equated with power. Power is power and if we want it, we have to TAKE it from the Dems. To do that, we need to knee cap them in the generals, not lose in rigged primaries. Only then will they be forced to either concede issues to the left or they will collapse and the left will fill the void and claim the power.
Fighting them from within is a waste of resources and we'll always get burned in the end.
Those that are aghast at the thought of deliberately sabotaging the Dem party are still buying into the false meme of lesser of two evils. Yes, Repugs will win because of independent progressives knee capping the Dem Party, but that's the point. That's how you TAKE power from those who have it.
Once the Dem Party falls, and if we aggressively knee cap them, they will, then a void will be left and at the same time, blowback against the Repugs will be at its greatest height. Everyone understands that these wins are Trump blowback. If the Dems had gotten knee capped, we'd be in the perfect situation to fill in the void and ride the tide of Repug blowback to wipe the Dems off the map completely. stun the Repugs and sweep into power.
How is that even controversial?
Under the circumstances, it is the sole glimmer of sanity I see.
People do tend to return to the thing that once worked — they return even though it stopped working. They will continue to return rather than face the unknown. The are at that one slot machine in that one casino that hit big that one time. They're back in that abusive relationship that was once the best relationship ever, trying to recapture that feeling.
It's not healthy behavior, but the Party is the device people know. In the complex system of the 21st century, I see the Party as a flawed structure, a doomsday device that will invariably undermine consensus and Democracy. Forget trying to populate the Party with new and better people, or new and better technologies. The are weak and do not function effectively when slammed by political forces in a polarized two-party system. In the 21st century, where governments are increasingly privatized and human life is largely monetized, the Party system is unsafe and unprotected. They were not designed to scale up and represent a large diverse population; instead they've become a theater of political narratives and labels. In the end, the Party represents the Party. Can they function without compromise and corruption? I don't think they can.
I do agree about the non-partisan aspect of discussing the state of the Democratic Party here. Or the Republican Party, for that matter. They have the same flaws. To me, Parties are systems that can be evaluated with numbers and facts and evidence. They aren't ideologies or philosophies. If the Democratic Party can be wired together like a Rube Goldberg device, and made to function for a few more years, that seems okay to me. Burning it down is okay, too. All paths are going to take us on the same journey. We'll transform politically and make a plan when we absolutely must, and not a moment sooner. (I'm resigned to that.)
@Pluto's Republic I agree (mostly
I agree (mostly). I do think actions could be taken now by some early adopters. But there'd have to be enough people willing and able to do the work/take the responsibility. This can be complicated by one's personal life (impacted by the horrible conditions around us). Even those of us, like me, who have a better situation than most--well, to put it bluntly, it was my choice to buy a house for my family last year. That choice has knee-capped my ability to do a lot of things I'd otherwise have done, because, under the current conditions, you need to be able to travel to do some of what I'd like to do, and I don't currently have the money for that--and it's gonna take longer to get out of this transitional phase of bringing the house up to speed than I thought. That's basically where I've been since September 2016.
I mean, I'd like to visit 99ers in different parts of the country. I'd like to rent a beach house here in FL and invite a bunch of 99ers over for the weekend. I'd like to do the things, and provide the spaces, that enable action to happen. But I don't even have furniture to sit down on in my living room! And I don't have the ability to have a travel budget right now. I keep telling myself I can make it work, but I can't. Whatever vacations I take for the next few years will be at state parks within driving distance, where I will stay in a tent. Even buying clothes fills me with anxiety, because things are so damned expensive.
I'm not saying this to complain about my circumstances, for which I should be grateful, but to say that even people in better situations are trammeled by the forty-year-long economic assault that's taken place. I hope that in not too many more months, I will be (mostly) out of this transition and able to take some action.
But that's the problem with working on the outside. One is in the position of needing to buy seeds and till soil and buy chicks to raise into hens and build a coop with your own hands so that you will in the future have vegetables and eggs so that you can cook a meal so that you can invite people over for dinner.
Meanwhile, the people inside have ready-made microwaveable dinners, and they say "You've got nothing to feed these people," and, of course, they're right. Of course, it's also true that it's not my fault some asshole bombed most of the grocery stores and took over the two remaining and turned them into armed camps run by fascists, and then put out a bulletin saying Neener neener neener if you want any food you have to play our way. I didn't want to have to grow my own food and build my own chicken coop. If I had, I wouldn't have worked my way up from a warehouse girl moving boxes off of trucks all the way up to cashier in one of those very grocery stores. I walked off the job when I saw that they were deliberately putting poison in the food, but even then I still shopped there occasionally when I thought I saw a good deal--right up to the point where they brought armed guards into the store and called half the customers--and some of the lower-level employees--dangerous thugs.
Still, the fact remains that those who work on the inside can hand out microwaveable dinners and I'm trying to raise the funds to buy seeds. That's the talking point they will pound us with until the end of time, or we stop talking, whichever comes first, because it's unanswerable.
"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
@gjohnsit I just noticed that
I just noticed that you also accused me of not caring.
Not really sure what to say to that.
"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
I assume that comes from a defensive posture
It's difficult to come to grips with the reality that we no longer have a viable means to counter those who seeks to subvert our constitutional rights.
And you're right, progressives may be allowed to move forward as long as it does not become a real threat to the establishment or change the mechanisms of power. The moment it does is when the Masters of the Universe, using their new powers under the DHS, will exercise their electoral control of the outcome that will make last years Electoral fraud and media gaslighting look like the cartoon shorts before the feature movie.
And what do you do after you accept that as the new reality? So, inevitably you don't. And you go on as if the electoral system has not been subverted and we can vote our way to a new legislative body.
Seems counter-intuitive to me and has very little to with caring or being cynical. It just is.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
That's because it isn't true
If the people decided to change the system en mass, it would simply happen like a snap of the fingers.
And then the politicians would be running to catch up.
I disagree strongly.
-Frederick Douglass
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
You are free to disagree
You are also free to be wrong in this regard. Of this fact I don't have a single doubt.
The only thing keeping the people enslaved is their own minds.
Time and time again, when the people decide that things will change, they changed so fast that few were ready for it.
France 1789 and 1792
India 1947
East Germany 1989
etc.
“We are slaves whose masters are dead. For we are mostly controlled by doctrines which were established centuries heretofore.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Well, we are on the same side...
which I remind myself of whenever I disagree strongly with an acquaintance.
I just don't believe that a peaceful transfer of power is possible at this point. Without a strong threat, the PTB will continue to tighten the screws, all the while proclaiming that positive change is right around the corner. Nearly every example you gave involved a great deal of violence, and the US is the world's greatest exporter of it.
But, I appreciate your position, even if I consider it overly optimistic. I think one of the things I love about this site is the disagreements, which always seem to focus on actual philosophy, policy, or something else of consequence, rather than invective and shitware.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
How will it change?
One thing that gives me hope is that the more decadent and corrupt a government/system is, the more easily it falls.
Peaceful as in legislatively
I agree. I don't see how that is possible, regardless of the will of the people. If we do not have the means to ensure our vote is counted, we cannot legislatively "vote" our way to change that.
Violent overthrow of present government and mechanisms of power, otoh, is an altogether different conversation, and one I do not think the OP is having.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Just one example of low scale violence:
Say a dedicated Antifa like group blew up the warehouses where they stored the electronic voting machines in key states (remember, many states have already changed back to hand counted paper ballots) just a few weeks before the elections. Too late to build replacement machines, but time enough for a generous progressive donor to implement a plan to deliver hand count ballot systems to the affected districts. The oligarchs would be helpless as the elections were suddenly unstolen.
Revolutions can be won this way.
from your keyboard.....
From your keyboard to Ceiling Cat's tufted ears!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
When the DHS took over the electoral system
That effectively gave the Establishment the means to subvert our voices with sufficient cover. How do you fight that legislatively? Are you suggesting countering mass electoral fraud with mass voting? Maybe I'm missing something in your conclusions.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
In NYC they admit to illegally purging 200,000 from voting rolls
When it comes to election rigging, that’s as blatant as it gets.
Anyone even indicted, let alone going to jail? Nope. Consent decree. “We totally promise not to do it again.”
What you say is true, though. If — to give one example where the whole power structure has been corrupted for a long time — the people decided to embrace BDS and boycott Israel en masse, yes, change would simply happen like a snap of the fingers.
But before the politicians would start running to catch up, the people would have to endure an extremely difficult and painful phase in which politicians first try to make the chosen form of resistance, in this case support of BDS, illegal and punishable — as a felony at worst, or at the very least grounds for denying rights and benefits.
Look around you, criminalization of BDS is happening right now as we speak — and Democratic governors and legislators are leading the charge.
I'm sorry
What is BDS?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
BDS = Boycott, Sanctions, and Disinvestment
in this context meaning: supporting a boycott of, sanctions on, and disinvestment from Israeli enterprises and institutions, in an attempt to influence Israeli policies by peaceful means.
On college campuses, activism typically takes the form of holding a “Palestine Awareness Week” or “Israel Apartheid Week.” Many university administrations have responded by using various pretexts to shut such activism down, establishing a de facto “Palestine exception” to free speech and inquiry.
I agree
If we could collectively use the immense power we have over where we spend our money, we could enlist real change. It was done during the civil rights era, and all the way back during the American Revolution, when after the Stamp Act, women agreed to use alternatives to the goods the British were taxing, which in the day was a great hardship for them.
Telling that Universities are squelching the BDS movement on campus. Mustn't let that lead to other areas, must we? Might give the great unwashed ideas of real self determination, eh?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
In NY state, Dem governor Andrew Cuomo bans state agencies from
doing business with any person or entity unwilling to sign away their right to boycott Israel and/or support BDS.
https://theintercept.com/2016/06/06/andrew-cuomo-and-other-democrats-lau...
@gjohnsit
Granted, I speak as One Who Knows Nothing, but is it just the politicians, or also the psychopathic Powers That Shouldn't Be selecting and backing those psychopathic politicians willing to betray their people and country by acting against the public/country's interests and rights - which they've sworn to uphold in order to qualify to hold public office - in order to steal all of the wealth and power of the people to pass to their paymasters in return for sizable crumbs as kickbacks?
The multi-millionaires/billionaires/trillionaires and corporate interests thereby controlling both parties as well as agencies such as Homeland Security, now having taken complete control over the electoral infrastructure, would seem to finally be really no more reliant on actual votes for their political front-puppets or more direct representatives in government than they are themselves.
What they are reliant upon is the continued financial support of customers for the businesses supporting their corporations and the draining of their own (and the public purse) by buying their products and services and the acceptance of their drain upon The People convinced of their own powerlessness.
I don't know how they think they'll continue to make money in a greed-foundered economy where ultimately virtually nobody will be able to afford to purchase these goods and services, or what they think their money will be worth at that point, since this involves an obvious obsession with the endless accumulation of wealth up to the destruction of not only civilization but life on the planet, but we re not dealing with the sane. And if boycotts and divestment do not cripple them now, while any money still remains outside of the top fraction of the 1%, that option may very soon be gone.
It seems to me that either the corruption goes entirely, or they take the rest of us out with them in what's a rapidly accelerating process, regarding both the economic/power drain and the die-off of the natural life support system due to industrial/military pollution and destruction for immediate increased profits they're making worthless to themselves in the nearing future.
Why has the 'good cop' Dem leadership been so darned happy about their massive loss of seats, bringing the 'bad cop' Repubs so very close to the majority required for the Constitutional Convention for which a PR push appeared some time back?
https://www.alternet.org/economy/alecs-scary-corporate-agenda-7-their-mo...
Interestingly, while the titles of everything I'd recently collected or re-collected on this Constitutional Convention issue show in my drafts, (often the whole thing is simply found blank when this occurs,) only a blank page appears when I click on them. However, other, non-political draft messages are being retrieved. A lot of the Clinton-related stuff seems to vanish from my drafts, either entirely, or from compilations leaving the rest, as has been occurring for some time. Not sure if I'm just 'lucky' but under the circumstances, I don't think that there is much time of actual usefulness remaining for the internet.
Edited to add:
https://www.alternet.org/alecs-scary-plan-electing-your-senators
And this, for the reference and link, in case one vanishes and the other hasn't, as another more recent Alternet article on this has yet to show in my searches, although I'd quoted from it before and it's one of those seemingly not showing in my drafts.
https://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2017/07/alecs-scary-plan-elections
We have to get this stuff out now, while we still have links and an internet...
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.
So why am I here?
I regularly spend several hours a day reading and commenting in this space. I have a mystery 3 feet away that I'm enjoying. There's fascinating new material coming out in astronomy every week.
It seems to me that if you're correct we're all wasting our time. I'm not interested in venting.
Unfortunately, I can't speak to that specifically,
...my friend.
I am here because, 1) I still think it's important to have a place where we can speak truth to power, 2) The writers here often give me a snapshot of some of the things that are happening in the country that I'm not getting from other sources since I gave away my television 15 years ago and unplugged from social media after the inauguration, 3) I enjoy being in the company of smart and funny people who have collectively experienced the same tectonic shifting in their worldview as I have during last years election.
As to what I plan to do moving forward, in the absence of knowing how to fight the larger problems we face peacefully, I will continue to build strong ties locally in the spirit of creating value within my family, at work, in my neighborhood, and in my community.
But as I said in my previous post, I do not envision a way of how we confront this, change this, or suggest a solution for this peacefully or legislatively:
https://caucus99percent.com/content/it-happened-end-game-russia-hacking-...
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
I agree with you entirely . . .
about the importance in building local community networks. It will help no matter what the future brings. My father's generation got together on summer evenings to play softball. If one person was sick a lot of people knew it within 2 days. Today, people come home and sit at their keyboards, not all of them blessed with the wisdom we find here, or worse turn on the television.
Nationally, there are places beyond which I will not be pushed. I could not vote for Her. But a lot of times I do settle for a few extra crumbs. At least for the moment I don't need the crumbs, but I have serious reservations about taking them from those who do.
If anyone comes up with an idea that is likely to produce significant leftist change, count me in.
Pessimist progressive
Actually, it doesn't, as pessimism and progressivism have been long in each others' company in this country.
Progressivism means that one believes in the kinds of things the Democrats (and even some Republicans) believed in between the Administrations of Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson (the latter in domestic policy primarily). A peaceful foreign policy coupled with a reliably prosperous economic system at home, equally and generously accessible to all.
Over the past five decades, life in America has been pretty pessimistic for those who maintain the political stance of which we speak. While our erstwhile allies in the "Democratic" Party waste all our precious political capital on politically correct labels and shoving Romneycare down our unwilling throats, Wall Street has sold both parties on austerity and never-ending wars for their profit and our loss.
But that doesn't mean we're not progressives. We still advocate for the better life we know damn good and well we can have, if we could but raise the national political will for it.
But we're seriously discouraged, as most of us can't even vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs.......
And therefore many progressives are pessimistic. Some of us, like myself, are still seeking a way out.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
But if you don't believe a better world is possible
then you may as well consider it a religion, instead of a political value, because you have only the "sweet release of the grave" to look forward to.
It's frustrating to me to see people who are unable to enjoy a solid victory, however small it is.
Maybe it's time you started accepting that the way out
may not be as palatable as you'd prefer, but it is all that exists. Instead of supporting failed attempts to take the Dems from within, support aggressive attempts to knee cap the Dems as Indie's. Instead of trying to legislate away the rigged system, accept that's not possible and we have no actual real elections, our votes don't count and figure out how to eliminate that system by any means possible.
Why would I accept that?
When the only successful effort at reform in the past 150 years was done within the parties?
That's like asking me to not believe climate change by ignoring the evidence.
It's frustrating to me to see people eating crumbs
and happily calling it a victory.
Would it be less painful . . .
to watch people starve for lack of crumbs?
NYT discounts Dem establishment wins.
Basically, the establishment Dem wins are mostly elections they SHOULD have won. Like crowing about holding serve in a game of tennis.
The biggest establishment Dem win was probably the Washington State Senate race - a 10%er suburban district that saw a lot of outside money duking it out. That one race flipped the State Senate.
The Maine win to increase state Medicaid funding is encouraging for Progressives, although the Ohio loss in capping drug prices hurts.
FYI: Aspie Corner featured Socialist Ginger Jenen (running for the Minneapolis City Council) n an essay last week. She finished first in the initail runoff voting and thanked the Minneapolis Star Tribune for NOT endorsing her.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Nice work. :) 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.
One less corporate whore in the VA House
Give 'em Hell Carter!
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
LOL
Anyone One Who Bad Mouths Socialists
should immediately commit to not receiving social security and medicare. Or they get "Total Hypocrite" tattooed on their forehead.
I love that Young Carter pic.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
Really.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Elite media message is that "Trump-ism" was rejected
Totally neglected was progressive policies even establishment dems supported. But the media is pushing (the Clinton-wing message) that the vote was not "pro-good policies" but instead people voted against Trump.
So will establishment democrats get the message?
And also, need to watch the elected governors to see if they actually follow up on their supported policies, or if they simply mouthed progressive policies, but like Rendon in Ca, and the Baltimore mayor, actually reject and stop progressive policies they ran on.
he “ceased reporting to the
he “ceased reporting to the House caucus after multiple information security lapses in which confidential information that we reported to the House caucus was leaked outside of the party infrastructure.
Kinda like guys at the Pentagon stopped telling the Clinton State Department things because leaks kept making their missions fail?
Not that I support those missions (at least, it's highly unlikely I would). Just commenting on the way leaks keep happening around that group of people.
"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
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Mundane rules, laws and national security concerns Do Not Apply To The Clintons/Those Who matter...
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.
When did Mao Tse Tung
become Mao Zedung? But yeah, last night was mighty sweeeet!
My guy, locally, running for city council here, came in third in a 5-way race for two seats. (sigh). Got about half the votes of the two winners. His first race ever, and ran a Great campaign. Just didn't happen this time. He'll be back out there next time! Congrats to all the Dem winners yesterday - progressive and Establishment - replacing all those red fannies with blue ones!
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.
Mao Zedong
Early 1980s, I think.
Anglo-Chinese Pinyin -- the source of all this -- is constantly being revised for better function at its job: making it possible for Chinese and English speakers to do business (pinyin is a Chinese distortion of the English word "business"). Nouns are hardest hit.
Another example is the name of the Chinese capital city as expressed in English. When I was in sixth grade (in 1970) it was "Peking". By the time I had graduated high school in 1976, it was "Beiping". It's "Beijing" today.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
I think you are confusing “pinyin” with “pidgin”
As for Peiping / Beijing, that was a matter of expressing loyalty to the old regime, Chiang Kai-Shek’s “Nationalist” or “Kuomintang (KMT)” government. The KMT regime’s capital was in Nanking / Nanjing.
The thing is, the syllable 京 “-king” or “-jing” here means “capital.” Translated literally, Nanking / Nanjing means “southern capital” and Peking / Beijing means “northern capital.”
As already mentioned, under the KMT the capital was Nanking, so Peking was neither “the” capital nor indeed any kind of capital. Accordingly, from 1928 to 1949 the KMT changed the name to Peiping / Beiping, literally “northern peace.”
With the communist victory in 1949, Mao moved the capital back to Peking, so the “capital” notion became appropriate again and the old name was restored.
When I was a kid in the 1950s and early 1960s, for Chinese-Americans it was very important to know this because of anti-communist paranoia / McCarthyism. If someone noticed you talking about or writing “Peking” instead of “Peiping,” they might report you to the authorities: “Using the communist name for the city, not the Chiang Kai-Shek name! Must be communist sympathizers!”
I have a vivid TV memory of seeing / hearing Walter Cronkite sonorously intoning a news report containing the phrase “Peiping radio.” No doubt that was a rule at CBS: always refer to the city as Peiping (virtue signalling as anti-communist), never as Peking (commie!).
Burnin' down the house! But this may help Corp Dem fundraising
because skeery socialists.
FWIW
Here's their sign up page in case anyone is interested:
https://dsausa.nationbuilder.com/join
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
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