To stop Trump, you must defeat the Democrats first
It's unusual in these days of Trump!Russia!Trump! that you see multiple, in-depth articles that show just how bad the Democratic Party establishment is, but today is that exception.
For instance NBC News said this:
It’s time for Democrats to re-evaluate incrementalist tactics like these, based on their actual outcomes.Our opponents are playing by a different set of rules, and Democrats must finally take a cue from the GOP and listen to their base, which skews about as progressive as the Republicans’ skews reactionary. The Overton window has not really shifted so far to the right that voters perceive Democrats taking a stand on DACA to be as extreme as Republicans taking a stand against funding Obamacare. What’s the point of amassing endless political capital if you never use it for anything?
When you look at which Democrats brokered the deal to fund the government — Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill, lawmakers up for re-election in 2018 in purple states that went for Trump over Clinton — it's clear that these politicians hope to repeat the 2016 strategy of pandering to moderate Republicans in wealthy suburbs to save their seats.
But the real article to read is this one by the Intercept.
It has a great breakdown of how the DCCC consistently block and undermine progressive candidates in a single-minded focus on money.
It turned out the Democratic Party had other ideas — or, at least, it had an old idea. As is happening in races across the country, party leaders in Washington and in the Pennsylvania district rallied, instead, around a candidate who, in 2016, had raised more money than a Democrat ever had in the district and suffered a humiliating loss anyway.
...
In district after district, the national party is throwing its weight behind candidates who are out of step with the national mood. The DCCC — known as “the D-trip” in Washington — has officially named 18 candidates as part of its “Red to Blue” program...In many of those districts, there is at least one progressive challenger the party is working to elbow aside, some more viable than others.
...
If money isn’t necessarily the best path to victory, that smart Washington-based operatives continue to make it the key variable regardless raises the question of what other motivations may be in play. For Lynch, the answer is simple: It’s a racket. “The Democratic and Republican parties are commercial enterprises and they’re very much interested in their own survival,” Lynch said. “The money race is probably more important to them than the issues race in some cases.”
The article then gives you a list of progressive candidates and details how each of them are being either ignored or undermined by the DCCC in favor of wealthy, conservative, establishment candidates.
It may not surprise you, but it's unusual to see it spelled out like this. You should read it yourself.
The Democratic establishment has backed unpopular Republican policies time and time again.
Whether it was giving the Pentagon more money than it asked for, and spying on the American public or deregulating Wall Street.
And then there's predatory payday lenders.
People need to stop thinking that the other party is the enemy.
It's the Dems that stop progressive policies, not the Repubs.
Comments
Winning is not the real objective.
The Democratic Party establishment is playing to big donors who really don't care which party wins, as long as they (i.e big donors) remain in control, the #1 objective being to stop the left at all costs, even if that means losing elections.
Mike Taylor
bing! exactly. n/t
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Hard hitting report
but it's another "democrats need to.... article. I'm sure that they know what they need to do, the question is will they ever do it?
Here we have the same people who pretty much always vote with the republicans so their votes aren't surprising.
How would they have voted if their votes were needed? I'm thinking that they wouldn't stand their ground and this was just more theater.
The Intercept article shows that the democrats are proving Pelosi's point. She isn't going to change anything about what they are going to do. The DCCC isn't going to back progressive candidates and they have often let republicans run unopposed, even in districts where they could win. They were quite okay with the number of seats that they lost during Obama's tenure because they didn't have to pretend that the republicans were blocking their legislation. We saw what they did when they had all 3 branches of government and how during the health care debates they let the republicans water down the ACA and then let them ramble on all summer about death panels and misrepresent what it was without one person coming out to set the record straight.
The biggest tell was that they have spent the last year saying how horrible Trump is and that he is not to be trusted, yet Pelosi and 64 others voted to give him more power to spy on us and gave him money for his secret police force.
"We can give up and let them to take it from there like we did with Obama, or we can keep the pressure on."
We did pressure Obama for years to do what he said he would and how did that work out for us?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Heh.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
DNC and Money
looks like the consulting class still rules
Grants
"Of course, we will be expecting these grants back immediately for the Hillary Victory 2020 "It's Really Her Turn This Time" Fund."
"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
Revealing Intercept article.
Yah the first question is not what do you stand for, but how big is your bank account and those who know you.
What struck me was the utter elitism of the DCCC. They never followed up with people who while rejected were obviously party or grass roots activists and could have helped out with other offices or acting as campaign coordinators, etc. They recruited money and not people.
And these are the people who are going to defeat the gop?
Resistance™ is Feudal.
Wow, man...
The Teachout comment about 26 year olds making decisions... I think I know who she was talking about; a real asshole consultant who insulted me with his complete obtuseness to real life.
He was, however, scoring drunk chicks at closing time at the local brewery's on cheap beer night for a few weeks.
They are friggin' looney if they think they can continue on this path.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Just seems to prove what Thomas Frank wrote
About what the democratic party has become and who controls it. I read right after the election how union people and activists were trying to tell the national campaign that MI was in trouble. The response of the national committee was to "forbid" the locals from contacting them as they knew MI was not in trouble. Thank ye young professionals with Ivy League degrees.
Ivy League degrees....
Well, I have an Ivy League degree. While you can still access the halls of power from that direction, it's no guarantee, believe me. There's actually a fair amount of anti-higher-education snottiness I ran into in DC.
You can meet the right people and get connected at an Ivy League school, but there are plenty of other ways. The important thing is that your loyalties are solidly in the right place and they can count on you to always advocate for more power and money landing in the hands of those who already have it. In other words, don't ever tell them anything they don't want to hear.
That's the reason I was shown the door--I didn't "have the right personality for politics." When I asked what that meant, I was asked "If you disagreed with your boss, would you tell him?"
"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, they can and
will. They doubled
down on this m.o. when
Tom Perez was shuttled into place
and they purged most progressives from the party apparatus. "They" have zero intentions of moving from their 2016 strategy, hence "Russia!" to justify their status quo pathway, Pelosi giving it her stamp of approval. After all, it's not about winning, they could give a damn about winning. It's about maintaining their Beltway mojo, their invites to all the "right" cocktail parties, their favorite tables at the best D.C. restaurants. "We lost?!" "No matter, we'll get 'em next time! Dahling, don't we have that exclusive movie viewing tonite... thanks, everyone! We'll get 'em next time!" or not.
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.
"Channeling Harry Truman is a damn shame"
The Game Continued
Here's Claire McCaskill showing her outrage over what Pence said.
(in the video)
When you look at which Democrats brokered the deal to fund the government — Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Schiff and Feinstein are either two of the biggest liars
to leave a slime trail across our nation or they are fricking insane. (I go for the former.) They’re sending letters out now saying it’s the freaking Russians who are the source of the Nunes memo. Its a three pager.
https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/7/9/795216b6-455c-4...
The lies are getting crazier and craziet.
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 think we have to forget the dems...
I found this British diplomat turned anarchist to have a good perspective...
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20927:Real-Media%3A-Former-British-Diplo...
I keep hearing we need a revolution, and I would remind everyone about the privatized militarized corporate police we saw Ferguson and Standing Rock.
-from David Harvey in last weeks intercepted podcast-
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/intercepted-podcast-white-mirror/
So I keep circling back to the idea that building relationships in our communities has more effect than all the politics in the land.
PS gjohn you mentioned using TOR last year. Tom Drake caught my ear when he said anyone using the encrypted version of TOR is automatically on the NSA watch list. Tom Drake explains - ... that anybody that's using TorVPN is automatically suspect by the way. It doesn't matter whether you're an American. You're automatically suspect in engaging in "wrong behavior" because you're using encrypted communications, or anonymized communication.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20920:Whistleblowers%3A-Congress-Has-Ent...
All the best, and thanks for the democrap confirmation and links!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
More OT
We have been trying out Kapersky free anti virus and since we only have mobile internet and take advantage of open hotspots when we can, we are using their connection protection.
Lots of interesting history in the wiki on Kapersky and worth the read imo.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspersky_Lab
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Thanks ...will do
And for another perspective on how to change the Dems is Jim Hightower the optimistic populist. Just read his publication the Lowdown this AM with this article
https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/ordinary-winning/
On the other side of the spectrum is Jimmy Dores take on the dems caving...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcL8HpecVmU (25 min)
Sad state of affairs. I awoke this am thinking about the Syrian situation where we openly stay in a country where we have not been invited aiming at regime change (ie take out Assad in replace him with our puppet) and positioning ourselves to invade Iran. How can we be so blind....there's not any discussion on the MSM corporate propaganda machine.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Thanks so much for the link to Hightower. I need to read more
Of his work, haven’t done so in a while.
He was a fabulous Agriculture Commisioner in TX before losing to big AG money and Rick Perry, and have always loved his plain folks humorous writing. Years ago Jb and I once went to meet him at Threadgill’s in Austin where he was doing a radio show in order to thank him personally for his courage and his voice.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Thanks for this article,
needed this like a breath of fresh air. Reading all the terrible news from what we are doing all over the world made this a welcome read.
Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.
This ain't no dress rehearsal!
Change the Dems?
That's what I keep seeing here. A lot of complaining about how corrupt and hopeless the democratic party is countered by constant assertions that electing the right (progressive) politicians can turn things around.
I really don't get that.
Maybe becuz, short of
full blown revolution,
there is no other alternative. None.
I don't get the objection to this.
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.
There are alternatives. Not voting for either duopoly party
is one option based on the fact that both parties are controlled by the establishment and voting for them is basically giving in that establishment, allowing it to continue ruling the rest of us. Not to mention voting for either those parties is de facto support for U.S. imperialism which both parties officially support.
But my main point is the hypocrisy of claiming the dem party is hopeless and corrupt while still seeking to elect more and better democratic politicians. I saw enough of that on Daily Kos.
Well, the way I look
at it is elections
are going to happen whether
I vote or not, or if anyone votes,
or not, and people are going to run for those offices.
And somebody is going to win. That being the case, I will vote for the "more and better" Democrat, where they exist, and where they don't I'll vote Green or pass.
I see no point in not voting. but, ymmv.
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.
Out with the bad; in with the public good
Not just 'more and better Democrats' (gah!) but bringing in responsible and involved people specifically running for public office in rejecting the destructive corporate control and bribery of their public servants.
The effort is toward replacing the corrupted corporate representatives infesting the Dems with actual Progs, in rebuilding the Party with those who actually believe in government of, by and for the people and all of that absolutely essential jazz. Can't do that without having actual people representing the public interest forming the political parties of an actual democratic government.
If none of the Dems - or at least very few, especially having none within an honourable leadership - were corrupt, the Party, being merely a vehicle to be filled with people for specific purposes, obviously wouldn't be.
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.
Theoretically, but it doesn't work that way.
A two party representative government for 330 million people will never represent anyone but the rich, that's been proven. We have quotes from Sinclair (1904), Debs (1920) and Dubois (1956) and many others complaining about the same thing we do today, that both parties represent the ruling class. The system itself was set up by those "founding fathers" to insure the power remains with the controlling oligarchy. So it's going against historical patterns and evidence to believe that it's possible to elect the right kind and number of politicians to actually make change things. Especially now when everything is so controlled by big money, not just in the election process but the entire system of governance.
This could be the last chance, before complete censorship.
When was the last time that a horde of Progressives were able to effectively crowd-fund, provide interviews and information about themselves and what they stand for as political candidates to millions of people on the internet, with Bernie gaining access to the corporate media and various town halls across the country to speak commonsense and of intrinsic human worth with those not on the internet, more and more of The People realizing that yes, they need an actual democracy to act in the public interest, instead of against it?
And that this is possible to achieve, even in America, while a number of The Progressive People run for public office - as public servants - against the regressive corporate politicians in an organized fashion, on their sane and often formerly existing policies, and win, thanks to more and more of The People working together and more directly toward this goal?
People are seeing past the brainwash to remember that elections and governments are not about Parties, they're about the character and policies of the public servants who form a government serving the public interest, no matter what political label they may bear.
And a landslide win is harder to cheat a winner out of.
All pacific avenues toward democracy must be attempted; little time remains, as we know. The threadbare gloves are being removed from the fascist monster to dish out further 'austerity' and stripping of human rights to Americans and the world, to make all ready for further and more extreme abuses. And this at best.
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.
Tell you what.
I'll vote for any democratic party politician that campaigns against U.S. imperialism and promises to vote against all defense spending bills and work towards ending U.S. imperialism.
I.e, ain't gonna happen. Which is the big tell when it comes to progressives.
Once silenced as speaking against global military conquest,
what options remain to any politician trying to stay in government and the media, to work from the inside? How many have the guts and dedication to sacrifice themselves to do this in the first place?
We have to deal with the global psychopathic fascist Mafia we have, not the limited, localized, merely rabid, purely political situation we may wish was all we had to deal with.
Personally, I don't think any politician would survive saying this out loud. Kinda wondering, (apart from the number of expediently filled body-bags since the Kennedys and quietly rotting in the Clinton's trail,) could you imagine any such survival and continued ability to reach the public through corporate and ultimately any expandingly censored and propagandized media? And the President can completely shut down the internet (and therefore Bitcoins, and banking, if desired - do not place your faith in having 'virtual' anything) in any 'emergency'... Not that the corporate media would be likely to carry any such speech, or publicly interview any politician speaking against the (forbidden word) US military 'empire' invasion force.
Maybe just wind up politically murdered, rather than physically so, but I'd bet that any such utterance wouldn't make the 5 O'clock news, if at all avoidable, and if not possible to keep utterly quiet, it would turn out to be traitorous words spoken by a nut-case RUSSIAN!!! patsy, as 'proven' by probably '17 intelligence agencies' with (trade-marked) 'Top Secret proof' and a 'for-National Security' Top Secret
kangaroo courttrial.A problem which must be dealt with is that this is not simply a question of disowning corrupt politics/politicians but of strategically attempting to deal with a lawless and internationally powerful organization of fascists having often-stolen global control in many ways and areas. Spitting defiance just gets people shut down, one way or another, with no good being achieved or possible to achieve in what may be a very short future indeed.
But Bernie's current strategy enables him to publicly speak with the made-powerless people within certain, (rather heavily pushed,) boundaries to at least keep the notion of government in the public interest alive. That scares TPTB who are nonetheless aware that shutting down Bernie in any form reveals their deaths-head more starkly than they'd like at this stage of almost-complete population subjugation, so they wait, while Bernie uses that shrinking window and the remaining window-dressing of democracy at great personal risk, knowing that only The People United can bring positive change in time.
It gives us a chance to try something constructive, and preferably anything constructive that we can.
They want us - need us to be - inactive and giving up on political engagement, with a loss of faith in government and law as institutions and my personal feeling is that we should do whatever they don't want us to and work in ways they cannot as easily and brutally shut down without revealing their Black Hand too obviously, too soon.
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.
for
most of their history, humans were egalitarians who practiced consensual decision-making. The modern two-party system renders consensus impossible as by its very nature it is duality in conflict (whether the conflict is real, or contrived). Multi-party systems theoretically edge closer to consensus, but in practice what happens is that in order to maintain "power," the dominant party must cut deals with nutbars, like these little splinter parties in Israel who get into the government and then start pushing for bizarreness like requiring people to walk around with fish in their socks. Representative government arose when there became so many humans scattered over such a wide area that it was no longer practicable for them all to get together to make the decisions. So instead the humans would select people who would "represent" them. But, these days, among many of the humans, it is no longer necessary to have any representatives, because the humans all have a tube, and can use that tube to study and weigh in on whatever decisions need to be made. Egalitarian consensual decision-making can return. And it will.
Agree and right on.
And that's what we should be working for right now. There is no time to wait. These fuckers with the power are dangerous as hell and will not stop. Electing a few so called progressives to the democratic party won't do anything to stop them. Participating in this charade only serves to prolong the pain and suffering.
True but in context
If you are talking about pre-history tribal days then yes.
But most of recorded history involved monarchies, emperors and oligarchs.
I disagree... at least partly
I never saw any effort to elect "more and better Democrats" over at GOS. They only cared about "more". If anything, "better" was defined as "more neoliberal" -- the exact opposite of better from any sort of "left" viewpoint. So I don't think you can reasonably use that as a counter-example.
Justice Democrats is actually trying to elect more and better Democrats (I think). And I'm inclined to wish them well. My effort remains trying to promote the formation of a 3rd party. I see my efforts as complementary to those trying to reform.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
This gets to an issue I have had
which is why do private organizations, ie, the Democrats and Republicans, have the right to control our elections and even determine who gets to vote in them (open versus closed primaries)?
Until we get past that issue, the rest remains moot for me. A private organization (DNC) has publicly stated in a court of law that they have every right to determine their candidates, even in smoke filled rooms outside the public process. The last person in consideration in our electoral process is the voter and our government has no problem with that.
In other words, representative democracy and the citizens are the least important parts of the entire electoral process.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Thank you - right to the heart of the issue, as usual!
Privatized elections says it all, right there.
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.
Because primaries select PARTY candidates not elected officials
I'm surprised that you are unaware of the fundamental difference between a primary and a general election. A primary is not Step one in a two step election.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
@Big Al Neither do I.
Neither do I.
"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
ESET is pretty good, though not free.
Runs lightly and you can generally schedule what it does when.
Re: TOR
Fuck 'em.
I don't think that means squat.
I doubt they can even crack TOR + VPN. Not without dedicating resources they can't spare.
LaboraTOORy
Since TOOR has its origins in the spuke community, it's likely that they have back door access to it. Massive use of it, though, will defocus survey-lance.
On the one hand, we're talking about 5 acres+ of top-of-class hardware, sophisticated al gore ithms, and many back doors. It wouldn't be hard to store interesting stuff to be addressed during slack periods, for instance.
On the other hand, we're talking about billions of people online, millions using toor.
On the third hand, if many millions of people adopted vpn, emkription, and other privacy protections and _habits_, that might saturate the hardware cycles needed to survey, and force a triage process, taking the folkus away from us ordinary folks.
Mainly, I just hope to frustrate corporate sp eye ing, and possibly defeat some net unneutrality sensorship. Probably futile, but why make it easy? I don't get targeted ads.
And yet, I'm lazy.
Got nothing against Tor, but I do think you're right that learning encryption would be 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
Me, too
I started looking into doing it with email a year ago, but ran out of steam. Imagine 100 million email users doing it routinely. Maybe someone knowledgeable could essay it?
I still trust Snowden
And Snowden recommends TOR.
No bottom to the rabbit hole
I use it, too, but I don't assume it's bust-proof. At the very least, it protects (I hope) from lower-level snooping, e.g., an ISP wanting to block left content, or Giggle building and selling profiles.
I call it Cooperative Democracy
"...Like people sharing the enterprises that they work in, people governing themselves, taking decisions about the things that matter for them, whether the future of the local hospital or their local school, everybody gets that. That's not a complicated idea to understand whether you're from the right or the left."
This is how we move forward. We realize that "We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words". -Ursula Le Guin
the democrats are no longer
the party of the working class. Hate to state the obvious, but we need to repeat this concept over and over, until it is in the national conscious.
question everything
Thanks for the quote
In the Robinson Mars trilogy they tried to hammer out something along those lines, another fine example of sf social speculation.
Welcome, but ugh the Mars Trilogy
In high school I read Red Mars and enjoyed it. Then I bought Blue and Green Mars to read. However, I found Robinson to write like J.R.R. Martin in that it seemed like he was trying to write more for a movie or TV show writing so many details that I found hard to enjoy.
Maybe I should try and go back and reread it all since I am now 34?
Yeah, he ran out of steam
somewhat by the third volume, but I especially liked the details. (I haven't read any Martin besides Sand Kings, and I don't watch tv, so I don't know Game for comparison.) To me, it was the best example of tying together hard and social science, religion, politics and ecology since Dune. The main characters grew, developed and changed, sometimes drastically. I heard they're working on something like a mini-series of it, which will probably be terrible, as usual.
And again, thanks for the quotes. UKL really spoke her mind.
A couple of hand
grenades takes out
the militarized police.
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.
The Porky Dems are almost nonexistent in Flawer'Duh
save for Debbie Whatshername Shill and whatever cronies are left.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Who loves Blue Dogs?
Can't help but wonder...
I'm scratching my head as to why I should care. So we can get more like Chuck Schumer?
"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
Democratic Party is not your friend
harsh
No words
can convey my reaction to this quote.
Especially the next to last two sentences. Edit (the next to last full paragraph since you edited the post after I posted this, although that last paragraph is a real kicker as well).
These are the things I think but don't say in mixed company because it just isn't worth the battle. I won't elaborate further but suffice it to say, I am just too damn tired and as the recent SNL skit proclaimed, "What even matters anymore?"
It would have been better if it addressed more than Trump but SNL, like all the other MSM, is totally bought and owned.
I guess I'm just old because I don't believe anything matters anymore. At least nothing that will get us out of this handbasket that is going down at breakneck speed.
Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos
White friends
I know that I have been a good friend to Black people. Have I done enough? No. Nothing short of what those four white students who died in Mississippi in the 60s did could be enough. But I've been honest, and I've never sold anybody out, and I showed up, until I was asked not to, because it was no longer a situation where Black people wanted white allies at the protests. And then I stayed home.
I went so far as to abandon my chosen career because of the racist election fraud that happened here, twice, at the beginning of this century. I devoted my life to ending that shit. Stupidly, I believed the Democrats were the way to end it. (I realized my mistake later).
I've been dependable, right up to the point, in 2016, when Black people started telling me that Hillary was the second coming of Fannie Lou Hamer, and that opposing her was racist. At that point, reason and truth had left the building, so I did too.
I think that guy's grandmother had good advice for him, because I think it's fairly rare for a white person to be dependable or honest toward a Black person. The percentages were with her, and if I had been a Black grandmother advising a child, I would have said the same. But it's obviously not impossible.
"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 almost didn't post this because of that line
I don't believe that.
I believe you are a real friend (which is rare), or you aren't (which is common).
Skin color has nothing to do with it.
People that aren't real friends are always apt to blow smoke up your a**. You just have to accept that ahead of time.
Well said, Mr. Harriot.
Excellent article by Harriot - thanks for the link.
The kind of vitriol toward Dems in this Root piece is
precisely the kind of fodder present for a large coalition to be forged.
To me this is indicative of the kind of anger that exists all across the country, from the Rust Belt blue collar workers abandoned in the 80's and now for 3 decades, to dismissing of minorities' concerns time and time and time again. But now with the white middle class no longer seeing a way to sustain their lifestyle, dreams and hopes (i.e. steady employment, affordable college education) they're also in the mix. A massive, furious coalition waiting to coalesce. And I don't think it's crazy to get people to start thinking about boycotting the elections (see W.E.B Dubois hard-hitting piece "Why I Won't Vote")
I realize this sounds idealistic, given the authors pull-no-punches feelings about white racism and the Dems. But I know my history fairly well, I think. And there's a whole trove of examples of black-white alliance that show it's been done before.
Way before the Civil Rights movement came into existence movement The Communist Party in the 1930's were canvassing all over the South, side by side with black folks fighting for equal rights. In the late 60's The Black Panthers, under Fred Hampton in Chicago, were beginning to form a coalition with poor Appalachian white folk known as the Young Patriots, who were also ghettoized and brutalized by police.
Here's a speech of Hampton's, one month before he was assassinated by the FBI and Chicago PD.
"It's A Class Struggle, Goddammit!"
Our first allies will be the ones who have had the sense to turn off the incessant lies and divide and conquer BS of the MSM. They know the Duopoly is a charade (and that includes RW folks who are waking up that they're been duped by fear-mongering racism and resentment politics).
There's many more to be had.
(Edited to replace with correct Hampton link. Thanks CStMS!)
"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
So that's why they killed him.
In the late 60's The Black Panthers, under Fred Hampton in Chicago, were beginning to form a coalition with poor Appalachian white folk known as the Young Patriots, who were also ghettoized and brutalized by police.
"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
Your Hampton link leads to DuBois.
"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
Dubois felt that way even before the Clintons got their hands
on the party and moved it even farther to the right and when the democrats became the old republicans.
Third parties can't get their voices heard the way the other parties do because they are excluded from the debates. And the rest of the things he said are still happening now. Sure doesn't look like anything has changed in the half century since he said that.
Thanks for the link, Mark
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
This aptly defines the "differences" between the two parties
In the most visceral way I've EVER heard. The takeaway line being that in either case, the constituent in this brutally descriptive metaphor is still just as dead.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
The essence of the Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party in the way that manslaughter is slightly better than murder.
No truer words have ever been spoken. Democrats will stand up for us only on social issues, but they are lockstep with the republicans on every other issue. Why can't more people see this?
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
But that's not true, it's a false narrative that the
democratic party stands up on social issues. That's what I was saying the other day when I said it was time to stop thinking about the democratic party as the liberal, socially conscious party vs the conservative republican party. All that does is continue this charade that we have two different parties with different ideologies, when we don't.
How so?
The democrats will vote for certain social issues when the republicans will refuse to. Take abortion and LGBT rights as well as some other issues. I know that they do it because it doesn't cost their donors much money, but democrats at least used to appoint justices to the SC that will defend social issues. The republicans are stacking the courts with right wing wackos.
Please expand on your comment and what you mean. I'm open to your opinion.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Well it's all a ruse. The two parties can't be exactly the
same or the charade would fall apart. What social issues have the democrats actually achieved anything with in the last forty years versus the setbacks they and their presidents Clinton and Obama have implemented?
I think it's a reputation cultivated to pretend there are differences in the two parties when there really isn't. I think the quotes from Dubois, Debs, and Sinclair from way back show that the two parties have always been "two sides of the ruling class" and the duopoly system is set up to provide the public with a false choice of two different parties.
I think it's why people have such a hard time giving up on the party because they've been trained to believe the dem party is the liberal, progressive party and the republicans the conservative party. The laws and actions don't bear that out imo. Look what happened under Clinton with immigration, health care, welfare and the prison industrial complex and under Obama also with health care and immigration, which are social issues.
But Lily Ledbetter!
I see your point about Clinton and Obama. I'll go with the democrats used to be better on social issues and getting better people elected to the SC. Sotomyer and Kagen are both centrists Justices. What about Ginsberg? How do you feel about her? Kennedy blows whichever way the wind does.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Ginsburg, It's a big club, and she's in it
excuse me for butting in. I like Justice Ginsburg on the bench, she has the best words.
1997 NY Times announcement: Alan Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell
a three way
"Two wings of the same bird of prey" as Upton Sinclair so aptly
described the two parties back in 1904. Nothing much has changed.
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020
An excellent take on voting for the lesser evil
This is about whether to vote for Obama or Romney, but it talks about the same things that I've seen people make about voting for Trump.
Isn't this what some people were talking about if Trump was elected?
Especially when one of the candidates was responsible for breaking up the OWS protests.
Will a big enough boycott of voting work? He covers that.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Shows a little naivety with this:
"When I hear about someone boycotting the election, then I hear that person is still paying taxes and has not even attempted to stop paying, I take it as a huge sign of hypocrisy. If everyone in the country didn’t vote, it might not change the system, because the system does not require our votes to operate. But if everyone in the country stopped paying taxes and redirected the money to worthy causes, we’d see a more peaceful, democratic society in place much sooner."
I would say most of us have no choice but to pay taxes. I know I don't have a choice or for one, I wouldn't receive my pension check and two, if I tried it I would get in legal trouble that would probably ruin my life. With the amount of people on state and federal compensation systems, it's impossible for "everyone" to stop paying their taxes.
I also have to disagree that the system does not require our
votes to operate. You have to think about what this country is supposed to be all about, which is a shining democracy, the land of the free, the country that had a revolution to free itself from tyranny, the supremo superpower on earth that can tell other countries what to do because we walk the walk. We know that's not true but that how the ruling class in this country are able to conduct wars on other countries and their evil dictators, how our government can lecture other countries at the U.N. on things our own government does and how they control the people and keep them from having a valid say in things. For those us of that know the truth, the hypocrisy is unbelievable.
If the voting percentage gets low enough, which on off years it certainly is getting there, that is a problem. That shows this country isn't what our leaders are saying. It says it's all bullshit. That's a major reason why they squash or coop protests, to keep the citizenry from exposing the fraud.
I've heard some people say that even if one person voted, the system would continue. Really? If only one person voted, and everyone knew it, is it honestly possible that things would go on like usual? I don't think so. I think they depend on this system to provide legitimacy to their bullshit and if we expose the system as illegitimate by boycotting it, that would expose their bullshit.
But it's never their fault turn-out's low.
Problem is, it's always the voter's fault for being too lazy and inert to vote, not the fact that there's nothing within the Two-Faced Corporate Party Trade-Off gang to vote for.
If you could get everyone to do the same thing, why not get everyone to vote Prog only, or Green only and get rid of the lawless buggers that way? Because a certain number of brainwashed Party animals will get get out there and vote for their team, you know, the ones who will fix everything this time, even though they're the same-old, same-old liars and thieves as they voted for/in last time.
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.
Thanks for linking that, Snoop. Made me wistful for Occupy,
and all the electrifying energy it conjured up around the country and around the world.
"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
I will always believe that the wonderfully infectious energy
The OWS movement created around the world scared the shit out of the Ivory Tower Dwellers. Proof of that was the 3am raid in Zucchotti Park where pit bulls wearing badges burned down the entire place and beat the shit out of protestors. Following that infamous raid, they went after the rest of the OWS movement with their mercenary army disguised as the police and channeled a ferocity reminscent of the Inquisition which they then repeated in Ferguson and Standing Rock.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
That Intercept story is tremendous reporting.
Thanks for the link GJ.
My Washington State senators bought into the fraud on the shutdown vote and of course did not join Sanders. Too controlled by conformity to hold out and fight for the Dreamers.
Weird that the Intercept piece was co-authored by Ryan Grim,
who as far as I can see in the past few years, was a Neoliberal mouthpiece/Kos promoter and Bernie slanderer. It was a very comprehensive piece, the hallmarks of which were Fang's, in getting people on record to admit that the Dems are still racing to the bottom with the whole "money is king if you want to get our support." Maybe Grim's had some kind of partisan-shaking epiphany, not having spent some months with the unflappable conscientious crew at the Intercept. It's possible, but considering some of his track record seems unlikely.
see "Huff(Com)Post's Ryan Grim Says TOP Experiencing A Resurgence Via The Resistance™. Commenters at TYT Video Say Progressives Left The Place For Good/Not Fooled by PR Makeover."
https://caucus99percent.com/comment/258019#comment-258019
https://caucus99percent.com/comment/258025#comment-258025
Lee Fang, otoh, is one of the best investigative reporters around. He's perfect companion at the Intercept for titans Greenwald and Scahill. Check out this 2014 piece in the Nation, "Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone? On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding into Washington, DC, like never before. What’s going on?"
I'm not so sure about Grim though...
"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
The Intercept has, unfortunately, been captured.
There's been a lot of that at the Intercept lately. It's clearly been infiltrated by probably the usual CIA vehicle of The Psychopaths That Be, and I read it now with a pasture-sized block of salt handy.
(I did read something on what had happened there a while back, vaguely believe there may have been a large financial transaction involved, but am still working on my first cup of coffee and trying to pry an eyelid or two open; darned if I can currently recall what was said to have happened, so just guessing above.)
Note that an opportunity is never missed to propaganda-attack Bernie purportedly 'from the left' as he's probably their one serious remaining threat as an 'in-house rabble-rouser' they don't quite dare eliminate just yet, as long as he keeps within certain lines they know damn well he'd smash, given the right circumstances where that didn't obviate all chances of attempting any advance in the public good. But in moments of panic, TPTB have been known to pull off some of the biggest cover-ups-in-plain-view ever of both individual and mass murders - which previously worked because people used to believe that nobody in government would or could do any such things as they routinely did and do, although probably most of us now know better. So, they attempt to destroy our faith in our allies, in ourselves, in the value and possibility of democratic government, public-protective law, reality itself, to con us into demanding what they want to inflict upon us.
Perception control; control the mind to create willing victims.
Edit: the 'left-wing' used to nervously laugh at the 'right-wing' for falling for this type of propaganda to vote against their own interests.
We non-psychopaths are all in this together - and we must always be watchful in avoiding the manipulations of the armies of propagandists seeking to enlist us all in the battle against ourselves.
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.
Psychopaths vs Sociopaths...
A while ago it hit me that the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths is that sociopaths care if you know.
Psychopaths don't give a shit regardless, but god help you if you know about the sociopath's "problem". I think they ONLY care if you "know".
It kind of sounds a bit like the distinction between Reps and Dems doesn't it?
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
OMG
.
Does it ever!
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.
Thank you, EN - immensely valuable analysis
My sense is that the NYRB went over earlier, after decades of good reporting.
Another reason why I am here, as we watch and feel the rot attack those old-growth joists and flooring.
Wonder how Sontag would have thought about this.
Lol, had to look up Sontag.
Sontag - the writer? If so, going by what I've read just now, I'd strongly suspect that she wouldn't be impressed, and would be producing some interesting stuff...
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.