Russiagate believers are Bernie-Hating\Hillary Dead-Enders
When I say "Russiagate Dead-Enders equal Hillary Dead-Enders", I mean there is a one-to-one ratio. They are one and the same.
The reason that is important is because Russiagate\Hillary Dead-Enders are anti-Bernie\anti-progressive and pro-establishment tools.
So don't believe that Russigate has\had anything to do with "the left", despite what Trump and the GOP is already saying.
Let's start with the Queen of Russiagate, Rachel Maddow.
Maddow’s audience has dipped on her two days back on the air since Attorney General William Barr reported that special counsel Robert Mueller had found no collusion between Trump and Russia’s efforts. Her audience of 2.5 million on Monday was 19 percent below her average this year, and it went down further to 2.3 million on Tuesday, the Nielsen company said.
Maddow got behind Hillary, and against Bernie, as early as February 2016.
Then there is Jonathan Chait, who believes that Trump has been a Russian asset since the 1980's.
Chait was attacking Sanders even before the primaries started.
Chait continues to hate Bernie today.
Then there is Joy Reid, who currently believes that the Mueller report "feels like the seeds of a cover-up".
No one lied and smeared Sanders more than Reid. She lied, lied again, and doubled-down on her lies about Sanders.
Reid rationalized the rigging of the 2016 primary, while her fans told Bernie supporters to leave the Dems and vote for Trump.
Bernie and his followers are like that college friend who stays at your place for weeks, pays $0, eats your food & trashes your aesthetic.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 12, 2017
Ironically, Joy Reid did a show titled “how to spot a bot” in order to discredit black critics of Kamala Harris and Cory Booker as Russian bots.
It's ironic because actual Russian bots love Reid.
According to an analysis of the raw data by Law&Crime, Joy-Ann Reid–recently and glowingly profiled as a heroine of the #Resistance by the New York Times–received some 267 total retweets by the private sector Russian troll brigade.The next closest pundit favored by the Russian trolls was Sean Hannity–who received only a handful of their retweets during the 2016 election.
...
Reid was also heavily mocked after she tweeted that Russia is still communist in 2016–it is/was not.In fact, Joy-Ann Reid has made somewhat of a sport out of criticizing Sanders’ over the Russian issue in particular. Last year, she criticized Sanders and his supporters for repeating claims of Democratic National Committee fraud as little more than a Russian plot.
All in all, Reid was elevated by Russian trolls above Sanders by a ratio of roughly five-to-one.
Finally there is Neera Tanden, president of the neoliberal think tank Center for American Progress and a Clinton policy advisor appointed to lead the presidential transition team, who said, “The fact that Donald Trump has colluded with Russia is by and large already proven at this point.”
The walls are closing in. https://t.co/1sQLXNDW56
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) January 12, 2019
“I would do whatever Hillary needs always. I owe her a lot. And I’m a loyal soldier.”
- Neera Taden, 2008
Let's never forget where the Russiagate disaster came from.
New book by 'Shattered' by Clinton insiders reveals that "blame Russia" plan was hatched "within twenty-four hours" of election loss. pic.twitter.com/NDUk90Jp5q
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 11, 2017
This wasn't a "progressive" or "leftist" konspiracy theory.
This ridiculous theory came straight from the centrist, "pragmatic" Clinton-wing of the mainstream Democratic Party establishment.
It's important to make that distinction. Remember all of the times the MSM almost begged the real left to get on-board with this garbage.
NYMag: "It is very strange that the self-styled populist wing of the left is so indifferent to this project."
Atlantic: "If Blumenthal and Greenwald are indignant about Kris Kobach’s efforts to limit Americans’ ability to choose their leaders, they should be indignant about Vladimir Putin’s too."
NYTimes: "But as the investigation led by Robert Mueller closes in on more Trump associates like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, it seems clear that the Russia story is only going to get bigger. Rather than downplay or deny it, the left should embrace it."
Week: "But the Russiagate story matters, and the left should be paying attention."
Of course everyone who got kicked off of DKos already knows this.
Russiagate was a konspiracy theory for the comfortable, overeducated, suburban liberal.
All of those dirty, undereducated leftists that comfortable liberals despise somehow managed to not fall for the lies.
Comments
When a strategy fails...
It's not the time to do the same strategy over again, just with a twist. It's time to step back, rethink, and replan. Continuing to pressure in the same direction is just an invitation for the opponent to exploit your momentum.
In this case, the dead enders have been harping on their conspiracy theory so long that they can no longer claim to have any shred of balance remaining. They're losing their best pieces left and right, (ADL, SPLC, AIPAC, and ACLU) at least as far as usefulness goes, since they're all seen as corrupt and incompetent now. And anybody who says they aren't seen that way, well... I know who you're voting for. Their balance is so far off, that even trying to use them means that I can anticipate the move. You mention them, you're going to try to silence the argument by screaming antisemitism or racism.
See... move anticipated and ignored, since I don't care when they call me a NAME which is an infinite set.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_kWtI9EUg]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
The music!
An electric shamisen - Whoa! Where do you find this stuff? That instrumental clip is awesome. (Wagakki Band?)
Their Top 10 left me exhausted.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pO4aL9WiVI]
The energy of Koto Drummers, the exotic instruments, and the kick-ass guitar solos - and the authentic instruments and costumes. This stuff makes US rock look like the cheap ass corporate ripoff that it has become.
Wow!
Folk Metal is pretty much ALL excellent.
I have yet to find a folk metal band that doesn't rock their hearts out. What's even crazier, is that nearly every country has them, and they all have unique twists on the "Metal" genre incorporating old school instruments and creativity.
You will never find this kind of music on American Media. I find this stuff in particular through Judo, because there are folks there who occasionally jet back to Japan, and they clue me in on stuff to listen to. Japanese music has become one of my recent obsessions, because the craftsmanship these days is pretty awesome.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Folk metal - now I see where your affection for Alestorm arose
I commuted to Japan for ten years, but in a super-corporate milleau. All I got was the サラリーマン (Sararīman) view of the place. It left me feeling as though I had missed the entire culture.
This band is the living culture, but it respects all the original culture. I'm intrigued. I've gone off on a tangent about Vocaloid music - how typically Japanese, obsessive, group oriented.
I see that W-band has a gig in NYC in June. I doubt I would go. The ticket prices will probably be astronomical; and I am way to old to go to a concert. But too many of the videos are not only jump cutting the video, but they seem to be jump cutting the audio. It doesn't let me appreciate the music, the costumes, and the excellent choreography.
Any way, thank you for this really interesting music. Domo arigato gozaimasu!
Before there was folk metal, there was gaelic rock
Not a lot of frenetic guitars, mind you ... though soon enough (as in the Spirit of the West song below), bands emerged with some serious flutes and/or fiddles.
We'll grease the pan with a sedate mob of scots -- 25 years later, these would have been the folks whose hearts were broken when scotland voted to stay in the UK, and then had their injury doubled when england voted to haul them out of the EU:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WoFql0vwQA]
Here's another Runrig song (not their recording of it), in Gaelic, used to herald BBC Alba going on the air:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs07sYQqc1c&list=RDbs07sYQqc1c&start_rad...
And here's a band mostly of Scots raised in exile (ie., Canada):
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crIk87-mPzY]
And OMG, here's an all-star Canadian megajam on that same song:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wY3DfQ2EUk]
And of course, the Pogues, featuring the single worst mouthful of teeth in the British Isles:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzHGTIPl310]
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Ah, Gaelic Music...
Truly, there is a whole other world out there, away from the over-manufactured, over-hyped performance art/soap opera of corporate music.
Thanks for the interesting tunes. As you say, not a lot of screaming guitar, although some screaming flutes.
Here are the best fiddlers I've ever seen. They're from Cape Breton Island, in the far boonies of Nova Scotia. Caught them at the Lowell Folk Festival, the largest free festival in the country.
Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy, "Fiddler's Despair"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx9f9IGQq7w]
After watching that, let me inform you that they are married and have six kids - who all play the fiddle! If you could bottle that energy, you could power a small city.
Here is another clip by Lahey, "The Call To Dance"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqg0l43dbv4&list=RDxx9f9IGQq7w&index=7]
Complete with...Irish Dancing. The fiddler can dance! Top that, Lady Gaga.
I've experienced the joy
of Natalie MacMaster live as well! Incredible, uplifting energy and amazing talent.
Gaga
I must admit, I'm a fan of hers, too -- in terms of her raw talent.
Oh, I think LG has tons of talent
and the way she built and exploited her "media gestalt" is very impressive from a marketing POV.
Its too bad her venue is pop/performance art, as she has shown what a great voice she has when she did The Sound of Music at the Oscars.
But pop is the only billionaire-level moneymaker in town. So sad.
It seemed to me that....
their live playing was even faster than the videos. It sounded like they were double-hitting each note (don't know the music term for that).
An unforgetable performace that cost me $0 to attend! Maybe we should hope that folk music doesn't become popular again, because we couldn't afford it then.
Agree!
(Although I paid for my ticket, lucky duck!)
Macmaster is Cape Breton fiddling royalty.
Seem to recalling reading that she learned to fiddle at her grandmother's knee. Leahy is from a notable Canadian folk-music family of Irish origin.
I first saw Macmaster when she was only 15 or 16, doing a tour with 4 other championship fiddlers (yes, she was a champion by then), including a 16 or 17 year-old Alison Krauss. That was an eye-opener.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Re: Cape Breton
I did some research about it. Apparently, the major employer used to be some gigantic coal mine, which obviously closed.
Now they are trying to repurpose themselves, and music is a big part of that. Also, if you want to freeze your butt off for most of the year, they have some generous incentives to come and move there and set up a business.
And, yes, I agree that McMaster and Leahy come from a long line of musicians.
Glad I could share something that people enjoy
I find that I'm really getting into "Traditional" stuff these days, from a lot of different cultures. After all, that is what "Culture" really is, to my mind. Shared experience and craftsmanship in a particular style. One of the reasons I want to set up a forge/workshop so much, actually. Group creation in almost any form creates culture.
Hence the old joke among actors that "Theater is Culture, Film is Art, and Television is Furniture."
Noting some of the responses below, I'm proud to say I am considered to be one of the "Ignorant masses". However, I find that it's the ignorant masses that keep culture alive. The working people who maintain their identities while the supposed intellectuals who consider themselves the gatekeepers rail against the lower classes for thought crimes.
Because almost all culture is very CHEAP to make. It just requires work and emotional investment, two things that academics became academics to AVOID.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Theater is Culture, Film is Art, Television is Furniture - LOL
Thanks for that laugh.
I applaud your engagement with culture. I'm too much a computer techie to go back to iron mongering, much as I am fascinated by the tangibility, physicality, and comprehensibility of mechanical devices. The 3D/maker stuff is interesting, but the materials used are IMHO inferior - just some meltable plastic - unless you step up to $30k-$100k industrial equipment (UV curing, metal sintering).
These days, the cutting edge is materials science - how to make alloys, compounds, and "metamaterials" with interesting properties. Unfortunately, that's all at the microscopic level. Very hard to see without an electron microscope. Impossible to do as a hobby, unless you are a multimillionaire.
Harry Smiths
Anthology of American Folk Music is pretty good. It's from a time when regional music first got recorded or broadcast and made it from regional to national.
I was actually lying when I said that gaelic rock
came before folk metal, because the TRVTH of it is that the very first metal song ever was folk metal -- and the very first metal solo ever was played on harmonica:
the original is just a teensy little 2:33 taste, with scorching harmonica:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT7Hj-ea0VE]
then this guy realized what was really there:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY]
and guess what? Traditional Lakota singing is so metal:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UHHc7POovg]
The music of the angels? (minor spoiler if you've not watched the rebooted Battlestar Galactica)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BigolJfoANw]
Possibly my favorite take:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwLtFjvS7-s]
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Excellent "comment," Arendt!
Yours truly REALLY enjoys seeing this type of creative musicianship. And, the sheer talent is nothing short of mind-blowing. Thank you!
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
All credit is due to DMW, I just google based on his comment.
I am heartened to see so many alternative music lovers here.
Folk never died, it just got put on the blacklist by corporate America.
@arendt Wow. Japanese
Wow. Japanese Grateful Dead
@arendt Wow. Japanese
Wow. Japanese Grateful Dead
Did you catch Eric Holder.
He is outraged with the 'maga' theme.
After all, id pol, id pol, id pol, id pol happened in the past.
No outrage over the loss of jobs to other countries, no sorrow over his contributions to the banking fiasco, and on and on. And didn't he lie under oath to Congress?
dfarrah
Ayup.. Holder lied to congress
about a few things. And he obstructed justice in the fast and furious issue and probably in the bank investigation. Too big to jail is a definite lie in my book. Do the crime, do the time. They did the crime.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
russiagate is about white democrats
Massive black voter suppression has not stopped and yet the white democratic party base and leadeship is more concerned over Russian tweets than fighting the gop on their assault of black people to deny them the very right to vote. Black vote suppression is here and now and much more real than Russian tweeters, and yet the white leadership, and yes, again the white base is more concerned over imaginary Russians then gopers destroying the voter rights of their african american supporters. Deference must be paid first to the concerns of white democrats like Hillary.
Great point about the democrats and the black vote
I don't remember a time when democrat pushed back against the things republicans did to make it harder for blacks to vote. It was the black vote that got Doug Jones his win and he paid them back by making it easier for banks to screw them so it's not just not trying to make it easier for them to vote, but once democrats get back their power they sure don't seem to want to do anything that makes their lives better. Ours either.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
The uniparty votes
the way their paymasters tell them to.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
I find that an astute observation and tragic comparison.
Thank you.
Holder couldn't find his own ass...
with both hands and a flashlight.
Same move, every freaking time. I feel so bad for him that I'll even HAND him the best move to make in this situation. INVESTIGATE YOUR OWN TEAM. Seriously.
Right now, they've got a lot of people who are off message, running away with the story and not falling in line. If he really wants to keep using the Idpol tactic, he has to make sure his own position is secure. Hence, get all of the crimes out in the open, address them, and show that you really DO have zero tolerance for racism, sexism, corruption, etc...
It's the only way the DNC can even think about continuing to use that move. But, of course, they WON'T because they don't really want to win.
Again, you can tell their intent from their actions, which telegraph what they want. What they want is for everybody to shut up and vote for them because of fear of being labeled.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
A Very Incomplete List of Sinister Things Vladimir Putin/Russia
Russia!
At TOP, already on election night 2016
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/8/1593031/-Election-night-2016-...
So happy I bailed before that.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q8hAb230OE]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
How funny
The comments are hilarious and there are so many that made me LMAO.
This comment...
There are a number of people who think that Herheinous lost just because she is a woman and it's all because of sexism and misogyny. Not the baggage full of things that Hillary did to us. Nope. It's just because she is a woman and people don't want to vote for a woman for president. 3 million more people voted for the woman candidate than the man one. Okay..how does this make sense?
Whenever democrats lose they blame the candidate. How pathetic!
Of course it's the candidate's fault that they lost. People do not owe anyone their vote. This is not how voting works. You vote for whomever you think is going to make your life better.
BTW. I'm watching the Good Fight and it's got a lot of anti Trump in it this season. Right now it just played a video on how Russian bots spread their work. This isn't the only show that has made Russia the bad guy. Madame Secretary has so many anti Russian episodes in this season. TV and propaganda..it's what's for dinner.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Millions of men voted for Jill Stein like I did.
We did it just because Hillary is a woman and Jill is not. Huh? Really? Jill is a very skilled cross-dressing man?
I know in my case I did it because Jill espoused policies that I mostly agree with and I never heard of any corruption complaint against her. Whereas Hillary swims in a sewer of corruption.
I don't care about a candidates gender or color or sexual orientation.
I voted for Jill Stein. I voted for Barack Obama. In Chicago on Tuesday, two black women are running for Mayor of Chicago. One is a married lesbian with a daughter. The other is a corrupt slug machine politician without anything positive to say and record of lies and insider dealing.
I support Lori Lightfoot and she would have my vote if I lived in Chicago.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Well, it was simply misogyny
that even made us SEE Her's faults, right? If we weren't women haters or self hating women we would not ever have brought up any faults on Her part. s/
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Obviously, what this tells us is that you are happy to
vote for a woman who isn't going to win!
That way, you keep your prog cred while not having to put up some uppity skirt in the White House.
See? Turns out there's a "logic" to their ravings after all.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Well the millions who voted for HRC
voted for a woman who wasn't going to win.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Ironic
since they said exit polls were lying when it came to Bernie's vote totals in the primaries.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Numbers can be sexist too
and science, and facts.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
Trump: really the president or just a figurehead?
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/03/25/now-we-will-find-out-if-trum...
(via Signs of the Times)
Hi, LL! Thanks for the excerpt and link--like PC Roberts. To
answer his question, I fully expect the DS (Deep State) to attempt--and maybe succeed--at stopping any "investigation of the investigators."
Of course, if Graham goes through with a hearing, especially, if he gets an assist from Gowdy (very strange Dude--what's going on with his hair?, but, a former federal prosecutor with a couple of major wins under his belt, IIRC) maybe the truth will come to light.
Still, won't hold my breath. The MSM is already 'warning' DT to "move on." And, several of the main DS (Deep State) actors are coming outta the woodwork (on Cable teevee) to defend their past actions/statements.
I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love. For me they are the role model for being alive.
~~Gilda Radner, Comedienne
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
I've given that some study.
Viewed it from every angle.
Look closely and you'll notice that his head comes to a perfect point on top.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
MEPS! MEPS!
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
good stuff gj
Yes let none forget the architects and purveyors of the morass of shat the country has been fed and mired in for years, thanks to them, not solving any REAL problems. Hillary, John Podesta, Robby Mook, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, Neera Tanden, Debbie Wassername, and all the MSM, the whole lot of 'em. Whores all of them would gladly help destroy the country for a sweet bank account. It was WMD all over again. Kabuki theater. These people know Seth Rich was offed for the leak.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Jeez....
“I would do whatever The Führer needs always. I owe him a lot. And I’m a loyal soldier.”
(In the style of Martin Bormann.)
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Sad, but not surprising.
I was initially surprised at how quickly people bought into the Russia, Russia, Russia narrative because I thought that even the most loyal of party loyalists had some intelligence. The Maddow/TOP crowd have become the DNC version of the birthers. Sad, because Maddow is intelligent and once had some progressive ideas on foreign policy. But conspiracy theories pay very well.
It's not too surprising
The regular campaign for office is all hysteria, innuendo, lies and platitudes wrapped in a flag. People fall for this every time. Russia fits right in.
I stopped listening when DWS said that the DNC is neutral
The Nevada caucus started 30 minutes early and when most of Bernie's supporters were still registering. The lady then took a voice vote and it was obvious that the neys carried, but she went with the yays. Then Boxer got very snotty to fellow members of the DP and then no one threw a chair. But of course the kos kids still think that there was chair throwing. Oh well. They still think that the primary wasn't rigged even though the DNC basically admitted that it was.
As the Wikileaks tweet says there was no Russian interference in the election. What are they saying is the evidence of it? The DNC computer files? Zilch.
Trump asked Russia to hack the DNC? Zilch again. "Hey Russia if you find Hillary's
deletedmissing emails let us know." You guys remember that Hillary was ordered to turn in all of her emails that she should have already turned in after she finished playing SOS. She decided on her own that she would not follow that order and deleted 30,009 because she said that they were private. Guess what? She lied.Judicial Watch Uncovers More Classified Emails in Hillary Clinton’s Unsecure Email System
See article for lots links and to read the emails that were classified and were sent over her private unsecured email server.
The next stinky story that needs lots of hit back is that Russia did interfere with the election. By what means did they do that? $40,000 ads placed on FB that mostly were about issues not related to the election. The Trump tower meeting was a setup by Hillary's BFF Fusion GPS and most of the other things that people say Russia did were also set ups by the FBI to try to entrap people from Trump's campaign.
Russia Gate in all forms must die. The only excuse for why Hillary lost is because she was a horrible candidate. Period. People rejected her in the states that mattered on election night. Besides there couldn't have been lots of interference if she won the popular vote by 3 million could there have been? Kill it. Stomp it out. Behead it. It has always been a lie.
BTW. What the hell happened to slinckerwink? Russia? Gawd!
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Russia gate is not about
to die. The dems have already lined up numerous investigations into all things Trump.
And contrary to the assertions in this diary, there are plenty of lefties, or those in the left range, who bought into Russia gate, like Bernie.
I hope RG doesn't die - I hope the dem party is destroyed by it so something better can arise.
dfarrah
Probably not, but we should do what we can
and hit back about the "known fact" that Russia interfered with the election. All the Mueller report said is that Trump didn't collude with Putin on it. The report starts out with "it's a well known fact that Russia...."
If that's true then how? Like I posted none of what this known fact had any effect on it. 3 million votes more than Trump and he only won those 3 states by a small margin. So how affective was that interference? It's not much work for me to say this. I've been tweeting it and I'm seeing people agreeing with me. Small snowball...
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Russiagate was started by co-conspirators at the Intelligence
...agencies to cover-up their warrantless spying operation on the Trump campaign. (They didn't get warrants until a month before the election, when they realized Trump was going to win.) Mueller knew what it was when he got involved and he proceded to waste two years crime hunting, while the assault on the 2016 election outcome continued. He knew that no collusion with Russia had taken place and that the FBI was unsuccessful in their attempts to entrap Trump.
I think this ended with the only exit they could come up with. Classify the investigation. They figured people would still believe in Russian election meddling — and would accept that Trump was not involved. But people's minds had been broken by the propaganda. Now Russia is the only explanation they will consider for the 2016 election outcome.
Did they know it would start a cold war, end nuclear treaties, accelerate the development of Russia and China? Probably not. But they are still legally responsible for these things. That's why they will never roll up the Russian election meddling lie, and why the intelligence agencies will not come forward and expose the corruption within their ranks. They have all colluded in the conspiracy to overthrow an American election. The Russia lie is their only cover.
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
This exactly, Pluto
Oh this was brilliantly set up by the outgoing admin and everyone else who was involved with it since then.
They figured people would still believe in Russian election meddling — and would accept that Trump was not involved. But people's minds had been broken by the propaganda. Now Russia is the only explanation they will consider for the 2016 election outcome.
This is precisely what we are seeing. If people wouldn't accept that Trump colluded with Vlad to steal the election from Hillary they will still believe that Putin interfered with the election to make sure that Trump won. And I am seeing sayings like this on countless diaries and articles.
As I said in a previous comment or thousands by now, Where is the Effing Prooof that the election was tampered with by Russia? Lots of evidence that the DNC and voting places did indeed tamper with the primary and the GOP has been tampering with elections going far back in time while the democrats did what?? Anyone? Bueller?
So the mind f'ck was successful. Putin is tampering still with our country by trying to divide us while the truth is that it was our own government and players that did that. I am just gobbledcrunk that people are so willingly brainwashed. I am still wondering why many of us were able to see through it.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
An even better question
Where is the Effing Proof that Russia had any significant impact on the election at all?
LOL! (NSFW)
I love this:
"And then nobody threw a chair."
Made me LOL. Thanks for the comic relief amid a topic that makes my blood boil.
Like on Queen albums, “nobody played the synthesizer” … n/t
The conservatives don't
distinguish between the conservadems and the left.
It really irritates me to hear the conservatives conflate the two. They think Pelosi is a lefty.
dfarrah
Oh I know, right? Pelosi, Hoyer, Schumer “lefties”? Puleeze. n/t
"Pelosi is a Socialist"
Every time I see this posted somewhere I response with a variation of "You are insulting Socialists. Pelosi is a Corporatist." But, sadly, very sadly, millions of underpaid American working men think that all Democrats are Socialists that want to steal their meager belongings while turning the USA into the Soviet Union and that their only hope is the Tea Party and Trump. IdPol feeds right into that.
Last night I re-watched a recording of the History Channel documentary "The Secret History of Nazi America". It's all happened here before.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
You folks are the reason I participate here.
I am appalled at what people are willing to believe despite the glaring absurdity of it. This particular essay and comments has been fun to read. (I really don't like rock music, but I must admit that Japanese band was intriguing.) All told I have had a good time with this thread.
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
Well, I'm going to fix THAT for you.
Good time, schmood time. "Really don't like rock music?" WHAAAAAAT?!?!!
I defy you to define rock music, which encompasses pretty much every kind of music on the planet. There's no music that cannot be rocked up, and no rock music that cannot be mellowed down into something else. I've claimed, more than half seriously, that the first rock musician was Beethoven.
Like, I can't even imagine what you think you mean, when you say that. When you say you don't like rock music, is this the music you're thinking of?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQENfRoBgw]
or this?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJmER493F4U]
or this?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFAp3aRJ2vA]
or this?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UelDrZ1aFeY]
or this?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzdjMLKKdgk]
or this?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQDJ45qJHBQ]
or this?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxpCl_kWb6I]
or this?
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2RNe2jwHE0]
I mean, I really don't know what you could possibly mean, unless what you mean is that you don't like music. All of that stuff up there is "rock music". Most of it hardly sounds like any of the rest of it, and it's only a tip of an iceberg calved off the mighty glacier of everything that can be called "rock music".
And BTW, I feel pretty much the same way when somebody says, "I don't like the Beatles." Like, really? None of it? It seems like that's an attitude that a person needs to work on pretty damned hard, considering the astonishing sweep of their output.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Frank Sinatra said, George Harrison's song, "Something..."
"...was the greatest love song of the past 50 years." And, I really can't argue about that.
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
Something about Sinatra rubs me the wrong way...
Maybe it's that patriarchal paternalistic mafioso thing he seemed to have that as someone from the same ethnic heritage just turns me off.
On the other hand the guy who seems to stand in his shadow, Tony Bennett, I find not only a far better singer but more of the kind of empathetic human being to whom I can much more relate.
Bennett supported and participated in the Civil Rights movement, while Frank seemed to think he was evolved toting around his token sambo sidekick (wouldn't doubt he said it in private) Sammy Davis Jr. The difference between the two may as well be the difference between the lives and views of Bernie and Hillary, maybe not that stark but close perhaps.
Plus, Old Blue Eyes famously thought "Something" was "the greatest Lennon & McCartney song" ever.
George was on fire near the end of the Beatles, stockpiling many amazing tunes that would make it to All Things Must Pass, one of my favorite records.
It's always interesting to me, as a lifelong obsessed rock music fan and player, to learn of someone who doesn't like rock music. That divide, pronounced when we were kids (for me with my grandparents, who grew up during the depression and liked swing, which I love now, especially N'awlins jazz) kind of fascinated me. To bridge that gap when I was a boy I remember once playing my grandmother "Honey Pie" from the White Album and her smiling and softly dancing to please me.
Don't hear much of that these days. But Polkageist in his 80's now, was an adolescent before the birth of R&R. We all remember how those formative years really shaped what you listen to, for the rest of your life really.
So, and I hope I'm speaking out of line or for him, but he wouldn't have heard Little Richard, Chuck Berry or Elvis until he was almost 20, already shaped in his musical tastes by then. In the same way I'd often think of one of my favorite writers Henry Miller, an icon of the counterculture, born in 1891 and living until about 1979. He was a lifelong music fan, played piano and possessed a joie de vivre and evolved wisdom that few have ever had. Even as an older man he was there for the global Beatles explosion - did he not at all give a listen and recognize something very special was happening way deeper than the silly at times commercial hype, the way Leonard Bernstein did?
It's apparent to me that whatever we heard as kids is the music that will always be the most beloved, if not mostly for its uncanny ability to unlock the doors of memory wide open.
"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 feel the same about Sinatra; but I love swing.
The Mafia angle really turned me off, so did the whole Rat Pack scene. Although the guy turned out to be a good actor. Really great performance in The Manchurian Candidate!
I have to admit that jazz, and especially its descendant, swing, were way more sophisticated musically than rock-n-roll. The first five episodes of the Ken Burns Jazz documentary do a great job explaining the evolution (although the self-important pronouncements of Winton Marsallis(?sp?) were boring). (The last four episodes are a depressing account of how it all got self-referential and lost its audience.)
There was a brief revival in the 90s, with ska.
Check out the horribly named Cherry Poppin Daddies song "Zoot Suit Riot":
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZm1krVKzBY]
Or The Speakeasy Three's (they're channeling the Andrews Sisters) "When I Get Low, I Get High":
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acb-js00c40&list=PLyUKaKIB05bRZnk6sQKpls...
ON EDIT: I decided that I should post Cab Calloway doing his own song, Minnie the Moocher:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mq4UT4VnbE]
And the Boomers think they invented doing drugs. Just look at the drug references in these tunes!
Just what does "kick the gong around" mean??
----
Just for reference, swing was gone before I was born. But, the music is just amazing and really dancable. Dancing, that was another thing that rock-n-roll killed.
Really nice medley of rock music, UR.
Interesting sequence, I especially enjoyed the first and the last. Your point is well made.
I enjoy your music choices and your understanding of music, and wouldn’t mind at all if you would do a music essay ; )
You're Right. You did fix that for me.
I was commenting on the thread and incidentally complimented detroitmechworks on his choice of some music with which I was not familiar. Your rather intemperate comment did take some of the pleasure out of my participation. It is a pity that my opinion and personal musical taste is so important to you. I will keep that in mind in the future.
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
it's not actually important.
i just thought it would be fun to rant.
though i would be interested to know your opinion on that cross-section of music i presented -- whether it conforms to what you had in mind when you typed "rock music", or for that matter whether when you typed "rock music" you actually meant ... i don't know what, exactly, modern pop music? do you like swing? jazz? gospel? folk? blues? All of these inform and color the stuff we call "rock". or do you not like popular music at all, really, of any era?
most generally i find efforts to classify music to be a bit ... well, doomed, really, because music just doesn't have nice clean edges. seriously, is this or is this not "rock" music?:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHWcN5YxuYc&frags=pl%2Cwn]
45 years ago, the grandmother of a good friend of mine sniffed disdainfully at "modern music": "It's just 'yeah yeah yeah'". Her opinion of "modern music" was constructed from her reaction to one song recorded 10 years earlier, on the first US album by a group that over the subsequent 7 years had released a dozen or more albums, most of which reached #1, a few of which topped out at #2. The last two comprise a set of songs that are not recognizable as the creations of the same guys who wrote "She Loves You", unless one has heard all the records that came between. I'm guessing that the muzak stations she listened to played plenty of mellowed-out Beatles tunes (Yesterday, Michelle, And I Love Her, etc.), and she had no idea that she was humming along to something John and Paul had written.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Russiagate was a cover for Hillary losing to Trump
Russiagate was a cover for Hillary losing to Trump. The pro-Hillary camp invented this false narrative in order to avoid having to confront and talk about the real reasons why Hillary Clinton lost to a total moron Donald Trump. One of those reasons was that Hillary cheated in the primaries against Bernie and lost the support of a lot of folks who could have helped her win had she not cheated.
Love is my religion.
She cheated twice
During the primary and then she used her party's intelligence agencies to spy on her opponent and get them to investigate him for something that never happened. This is wrong on so many levels it'd take an election lawyer to figure it out.
Trump is saying that he thinks what was done was treason. I'm not sure I disagree with him. The kos kids have a diary up on this and the comments are just incredible. I'd post some here but there's too many I would have to for it to make sense. I hope some will look at it to see how around the bend they have gone. Okay here's one..
Isn't this kinda like what they did to Trump? How many people said that Trump committed treason? Brennan did more than once as did a few congress critters. Goose gander again.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
well, i know this has been said many times before,
but the "treason" that is punishable by death is quite particularly defined in the Constitution, and nothing we've heard of at this point comes close.
sadly, the Constitution has little to say about appropriate punishments for sedition -- for undermining the democratic processes of the Republic, and/or usurping the authority of the government for ones own purposes (a la Oliver North).
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
True
Not treason. But it sure was thrown out quite a bit during this fiasco. Sedition is a good word to use in some of what happened I think. The FBI doing what it did to try to keep Trump from becoming president and some of the things they did after he did. Depending on how involved Obama was in this would be very interesting to find out.
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
The truth is so much worse than imagined.
And she then hired a UK spy wrangler to concoct fake evidence of Trump's collusion with Russia and put it in the hands of the FBI. This was followed by endless toxic leaks to the compliant media monopolies, while fake stories were planted, written by agent/journalists, of which there are many.
And this unconstitutional assault continued after the election, all based on proven lies.
Treason much?
IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
That's the treasonous part, right?
.
Up thread treason was denied, and called sedition. But, doesn't the foreign actor part (and maybe another if you count the alleged Russian pee [proxy foreign actors?]), put it into the treason category?
Joy Reid
There's Cheetos for the brain, and then there's the machine gun version hosted by the Mother of All Mean Girls.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
educated
Genuine education, above and beyond all else, teaches the educated one to think for hirself. And actual liberal progressives fight for a just and inclusive society.
If there's one thing that over-comfortable, over "educated", suburban pseudo-liberals aren't, it's educated -- no matter how many sheepskins they have. Another thing they aren't is progressive. This manifestation of "the Me Generation" infests America. And they are a true pestilence on those of us who are educated, who still possess our souls, and who don't buy the bullshit!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
speaking as a (comparatively) comfortable
(as in, never lost my house, even after losing my job in 2008; never went hungry; never couldn't pay my bills; never went without health insurance; etc.), extremely overeducated (you don't want to throw down college transcripts with me), suburban (live on 8 acres), uh, well, okay, i'm not a liberal, i'm a radical leftist ... but anyway, the point is, being overeducated and having a decent-paying professional job isn't what defines a dumbass democratic tribalist. those attitudes bubble up across all the dimensions of the socioeconomy.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Eight acres sounds exurban.
I live on about 1/6 of an acre and had similar experiences to you.
I will never forget the so superior Jewel/Osco pharmacist announcing over the PA system "XXX your MEDICAID prescription is ready!" in a scornful voice when I was down and out and unemployed. Actually it was Illinois Kid Care, you can't have a house and have Medicaid. I never heard her announce "YYY your BLUE CROSS prescription is ready!" or "ZZZ your AETNA prescription is ready." I'd lived in that suburb (still do) for twenty five years and regularly shopped at Jewel and Osco. No more. Anyway, our lives were saved by my landing a blue collar job at that grand socialist institution the United States Postal Service. I've been retired for three years now but I still have my union dues deducted from my pension. Lot's of guys drop out when they retire. Me, I can afford three bucks a month to support my brothers and sisters in the union.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
There are a lot of places that zone "rural residential"...
...or "farmette".
In NJ, there was a tax break if you had five acres and sold $300/yr of produce. This fake farming was the excuse for putting up a McMansion and paying almost zero tax. I think Christie Whitman had one.
In general, rich suburbs are likely to have acreage minimums for houses - to keep the riffraff out by making building unaffordable.
I would say that in the urban conglomerations, as opposed to genuine empty places like Wyoming, its all a matter of zoning. "Exurban" is not necessarily correlated with acreage.
WOW, $300 a year.
I could probably get that by selling the organic peaches from my three trees at a farmer's market.
Typical lot size in Chicago is around 4,000 square feet. In suburbs it's 8,000 to 10,000 square feet depending on how far you are from the city. Multiple acres is definitely rural.
OTOH, when I lived in the Virginia suburbs near (very near) Dulles Airport, the lots were half acre. So, yeah, you are right, it depends on the area. IIRC, 4,000 sq feet is big in the San Diego suburbs.
But I definitely feel 8 acres is exurban. That's not a cultural or socioeconomic judgement, just a classification.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
yeah, it's a flexible classification.
the area i live in is a "township" that lies between the inner ring of suburbs and the outer ring of suburbs. this township has much more aggressive zoning restrictions than the either of the bands that border it -- three more miles away from the city and you're in a different county where you can build damn near anything you want on the rich, irreplaceable alluvial soil.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I also reject the stereotyping.
I wrote about this last July...
Absolutely right!
And complaints about unearned wealth are countered with protestations of hard work and long education needed to be a lawyer, teacher, doctor, scientist or engineer, ignoring that these professionals are just workers whose work is particularly valuable. Thus, as you say, deflecting criticism from the trust fund babies and hereditary executives.
GM was particularly notable for nepotism over the years to the point that even division chiefs were drawn only from the ranks of those whose fathers and grandfathers had been GM executives. No wonder they were the car company that went bankrupt in the Great Recession. It wasn't the Union contracts that all of them had.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
yes, i recall that post.
i almost responded at the time -- i think i got busy with something else and never got back to it.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
... yep, I bailed too --
once they began hunting Bernie scalps --
When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.
An excellent reminder of just how down and twisted...
...establishment Democratic Party politics are these days. The truth is that's it's been like this for the past 30+/- years. And, it IS refreshing to see a handful of folks--within the Party, at least for now--actually making somewhat of a Sisyphean effort to do something about it. Frankly, I think this is one of the more interesting--if not the most interesting--national election cycles of my lifetime.
(The entire C99P community--at least those that are still fighting this noble fight, because I know many here have given up...and then some--needs this type of "reminder," frankly, on a regular basis. It's time to send the neolibs back to the twisted world from whence they came, permanently. And, if it doesn't work out this way, this time around--and I'd say the odds are very strongly in favor of this negative outcome--it really is time to start a new Party.)
As always, thank you, gjohnsit!
"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." --Hunter S. Thompson
Late comment
Great essay per usual gjohn. Excellent comment bobswern.
Gjohn wrote:
you wrote:
Yes indeed. The Establishment Dems consider the progressives and existential threat. Not a threat to the party as a whole or the country as a whole. They see it as a threat to their power over the party and the fundraising mechanisms that ultimately enrich them.
I have lived long enough to see this dynamic flip. In the 1990 Connecticut 5th District race, local Dems put forward a tough on crime, fiscally conservative local mayor out of the 5th district caucus. Former 6th district liberal/progressive Congressman turned news anchor Toby Moffett was inserted by the DNC to bigfoot the locals. That pissed off a lot of the locals and Moffett ended up losing to Gary Franks in the general.
Where the DNC thought only a progressive/liberal could win and forced their hand picked candidate down the district's throat, now the opposite is true in the CT5th. We get New Dems like Elizabeth Esty or Bait and Switch (so far) Progressives like Jahana Hayes.
Of course, a prime example of this switch can be found in the Lamont/Lieberman race in 2006. Lamont, not a progressives progressive by anyone's standards except for his forceful anti-war stance, was bushwhacked by Waterbury Mayor and Clinton fav Mike Jarjura when he endorsed Independent Lieberman over the Dem Primay winner Lamont. Clinton's visit in July was unsuccessful in bolstering Lieberman in the primary.
Changing this dynamic back to favoring New Deal Progress here is virtually impossible from the standpoint of garnering enough interest and support at the Town Committee level. Folks will just not come out to caucus so the local entrenched pols have free reign to keep progressive candidates (if a legit one ever arises which is rare) from getting off the ground and/or becoming a delegate. Furthermore, some Town Committees are this close to endorsing Trump next time around and many openly brag about having voted for him in 2016.
Time to start a local Progressive Party
That's how the Republicans started as a brand new third party, from a coalition of local anti-slavery anti-machine parties over 150 years ago.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
“Hillary Clinton is more than a president”
https://www.lennyletter.com/story/hillary-clinton-is-more-than-a-president
Wonder how much she paid for that essay you linked to.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.