Trump gives Bernie some good advice

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:53am

Donald Trump The Liar is no fan of Bernie Sanders, so any advice he gives is totally self-serving. Nevertheless, he can occasionally tell the truth, if only by accident.

....for the more traditional, but not very bright, Sleepy Joe Biden. Here we go again Bernie, but this time please show a little more anger and indignation when you get screwed!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 28, 2019

Trump only cares about this primary rigging because it makes the Dems look bad, but that doesn't mean that he's wrong.

In related news, the dark money is rolling into the Democratic Party.

A group of Democratic operatives are launching a $60 million political group with plans to reclaim values-laden terms like “freedom” and “opportunity” for their party ahead of the 2020 election.
...“It’s no great secret that the presidential race will be won or lost in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio — if we can win back the narrative that the word ‘Democrat’ equals people who are fighting for folks who work hard every day, we can continue to win elections,” Riddle said. “If [Democrats] get defined as being about socialism and these other words people can hear about out of Washington, then I worry.”
Future Majority has enlisted advisers including Dan Sena, who was executive director of the DCCC for the last election, and Julianna Smoot, a deputy campaign manager on Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection effort. Two major Democratic donors are co-chairing the group: Philip Munger, son of Berkshire Hathaway billionaire Charles Munger, and Dan Tierney, founder of high-speed trading company GETGO. Keith Mestrich, president and CEO of Amalgamated Bank, is also helping fund the group.

Ah, yes. CEOs and billionaires "fighting for folks who work hard every day".
I guess the question here is who are "folks"?

During the 2018 midterm election, Future Majority briefed the DCCC on matters including strategies for talking to voters about the economy and how swing voters viewed the Democratic and Republican parties. Future Majority helped the DCCC “round out a narrative” that spoke to a broader swath of voters, Sena said, particularly when it came to discussing the economy.

Gee, lemme guess what that narrative about the economy sounded like.

Speaking of narratives, this has got to be my favorite spin so far because it is so damn elitist.

Rather than a politics financed by special interests, Sanders is drawing funds from an army of local activists, whose commitment to the cause induces them to chip in $20 here or $40 there.
... Call me a contrarian, but I have my doubts about this mode of financing, too. Again, stipulating that donors have access or influence that average voters do not possess, is it really better for activists to be the main source of finance? Corporate lobbyists are going to invest in politics for their stockholders’ interests, but activists have a wide array of ideological views that are often out of step with the rest of society. The Sanders voters in particular are far to the left of the average American — and probably the average Democrat, too.
We complain so much about political polarization these days, and I think with good reason. But to what extent does the polarization in the last generation lead back to this revolution in campaign finance? Are grassroots extremists pulling candidates to the ideological fringes by increments of $20 apiece? It’s very possible.

All of this speaks to some inconvenient truths that Americans have failed to fully grok: Politics is very expensive, somebody has to pay for it, and whoever does is going to get special access. Who do we want those persons to be? Special interests, activists, somebody else? We collectively don’t know, as we tend not to think much at all about campaign finance. Maybe if a socialist captures the Democratic nomination this cycle, we’ll think a little more clearly about whether we want our local hippies bankrolling politics.

He even manages to punch some hippies. He should get extra points for that.

Tags:

donald trump

bernie sanders

Vote

Comments

Submitted by SancheLlewellyn on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:04pm

Punching hippies puts him square in the Obama camp.

But remember, for every vote we lose in the Midwest, we gain two votes in California. So Status Quo Joe or bust!
/s

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:59pm

Makes no sense

@SancheLlewellyn "Punching hippies" should LOSE you votes in my home-state of California (and likely GAIN you votes in the Midwest)! Sure, there's Orange County, but otherwise, what the hell am I missing???

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 1:34pm

Orange Co. is majority-minority—only 44% non-Hispanic white now

@The Liberal Moonbat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_California#2010

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 10:43pm

Well, it's majority Hispanic. If Hispanics are in the majority

@lotlizard

in Orange County, they are, by definition, no longer a minority in Orange County. Whites comprise the minority in a number of places in California, with non-whites as a group, comprising the majority--Hispanics mostly, but also Asians, blacks, members of First Nations, even Inuit.

Submitted by wokkamile on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:33am

Whites, or "non-Hispanic

@HenryAWallace whites" still comprise the largest racial group in OC, 44.8%, a plurality. Definitely the Hispanic/Latino and Asian populations are increasing there. Westminster, an OC community inland from Huntington Beach, is heavily Vietnamese (a "Little Saigon"), where at local election time one can see all the signs for candidates indicating an all-VNese group of contenders. Most of the stores and restaurants are VNese-owned.

OC, where the RW movie star John Wayne lived for many years, is no longer reliably red. And in 2016, the county went for HRC.

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 8:57pm

what you're missing

@The Liberal Moonbat

Makes no sense "Punching hippies" should LOSE you votes in my home-state of California (and likely GAIN you votes in the Midwest)! Sure, there's Orange County, but otherwise, what the hell am I missing???

That, courtesy of the economic shithole this country has been since c. 1990, there are far more "hippies" everywhere. That's what you're missing.

Senator Sanders' success at a "people driven and funded" campaign, along with clear indicators from that campaign (ginormous crowds) are proof positive of that. It's that which the quoted article's neolib/neocon author fears, too.

And (s)he (the article writer) should fear it, as it's the power which can bring hir and everything (s)he stands for crashing down like Edgar Allan Poe's House of Usher!

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:07pm

Whenever they try to Hippie punch these days...

I tend to step in and try to throw. So, thanks for the Hippie slur! Some of the coolest people I know are hippies. How's it feel to work for the opposite of hippies? That would be... THE MAN... So, you know, we all make our compromises, man...

But wait, Trump is "The Man" but I have to be for "The Man" to defeat "The Man"? Sounds suspiciously like something The Man would say...

And if you can follow that logic hopefully I've tripped you up enough that you forget what you were trying to hippy punch me about... Or you're laughing. Either way, Hippies win.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiH9edd25Bc]

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:19pm

hippie

@detroitmechworks

Whenever they try to Hippie punch these days...

I tend to step in and try to throw. So, thanks for the Hippie slur! Some of the coolest people I know are hippies. How's it feel to work for the opposite of hippies? That would be... THE MAN... So, you know, we all make our compromises, man...

Thou art Hippie, amice.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Linda Wood on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:15pm

So...

All of this speaks to some inconvenient truths that Americans have failed to fully grok: Politics is very expensive, somebody has to pay for it, and whoever does is going to get special access.

So there you have it.

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:27pm

Yes. One dollar, one vote. The more dollars you have,

@Linda Wood

the more votes you get. How Democratic!

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:57pm

Let's turn reality on its head

@Lily O Lady

Corporate lobbyists are going to invest in politics for their stockholders’ interests, but activists have a wide array of ideological views that are often out of step with the rest of society.

It's simple:

stockholders’ interests = society

90% of the population = out of step with the rest of society

I wonder what the author of this article thought as his soul left his body while he was writing this?

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 1:15pm

How on earth...

@gjohnsit ...are they getting it into their heads to even write shit like this in the first place? How can they not be aware they're BEING the bad-guy???

Not just a coward, not just lazy, not just irrational or in denial or loyal or bitter or brainwashed or (especially) not even just clueless, but "HAW-HAW-HAW, I'm going to talk just like King George III/Montgomery Burns/any number of Saturday morning cartoon villains and it's totally the right choice that most people would totally agree with and nothing will go wrong!"

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:20pm

alignments

@The Liberal Moonbat

How on earth...are they getting it into their heads to even write shit like this in the first place? How can they not be aware they're BEING the bad-guy???

It's what "Dungeons and Dragons" and similar fantasy roleplaying games call "alignment". And the prevailing alignment in public life right now is lawful evil.

The article's alignment is definitely "dickish lawful evil".

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:05pm

The author of the National Review article you linked,

@gjohnsit

Jay Cost, comes across like a high school senior or a college freshman who has just learned for the first time that the government in the US is run, directly or indirectly, by the rich, for the rich. Only when I was a college freshman, my classmates and I saw that as a bad thing.

As you note, we all, of course, greatly appreciate Mr. Cost's concern for the investor and large donor classes and only those classes. /s

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 12:38pm

Politics is corrupt because of the money

@Linda Wood
Which is perfectly OK, as long as working people don't buy that influence.
Political influence should remain with the ruling elite because REASONS.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 1:08pm

Moosetits weighs in on Bernie's popularity

Bernie Sanders isn't any more popular than 'generic Democrat'

For example, it turns out that Bernie Sanders—protected by Republicans and Russians seeking to damage Hillary Clinton in 2015-16—now looks like a pretty generic Democrat once those protections are removed.
.......
So yes, Bernie Sanders is now at “generic Democrat” levels. There is nothing magical about him (or any other Democrat, including, eventually, Joe Biden) that allows him to rise above that number. He doesn’t have special sauce with the broader electorate. He is, like the rest, generic. Popularity-wise, he is a conventional politician.

The numbers that should worry the Bernie people, however, are the ones among Democrats. His unfavorables are much higher than that of the top-tier candidates. Double as high! I mean, he’s below Booker in net favorabilities, and when’s the last time anyone remembered Booker existed?

Wonder who gave Markos the talking points about Russia that he has had his front pagers spread like cow poo on potatoes? Someone from CAP or ...?

He linked this article: Not sure why though.

The 2020 Race Is Going Just Like Bernie Sanders Wanted

Still, since some political observers and journalists haven’t wrapped their head around the reality that he could be more than a spoiler who kneecaps the party en route to a complicated convention and maybe another loss to Donald Trump, Sanders has been able to do this without the attention or scrutiny that anyone else with his poll numbers, fundraising, and crowds would face.

“There’s a three-out-of-four chance we are not the nominee,” Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s current campaign manager, says he tells the senator, “but that one-in-four chance is better than anyone else in the field.”

The Atlantic.. the mouthpiece of the AC? Most probably.

So he’s eagerly gotten into fights, like one over the weekend with the Center for American Progress about a video produced by an affiliated website that speciously accused him of profiting off his 2016 run. And then he’s fundraised by citing the fights as evidence of resistance to the revolution he’s promising.

Pie fight ensues... fun memories.

edited

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 1:11pm

To which I respond

@snoopydawg @snoopydawg

Bernie Sanders—protected by Republicans and Russians seeking to damage Hillary Clinton

and now...

Bernie Sanders isn't any more popular than 'generic Democrat'

For example, it turns out that Bernie Sanders—protected by Republicans and Russians seeking to damage Hillary Clinton in 2015-16—now looks like a pretty generic Democrat once those protections are removed.
.......
So yes, Bernie Sanders is now at “generic Democrat” levels. There is nothing magical about him (or any other Democrat, including, eventually, Joe Biden) that allows him to rise above that number. He doesn’t have special sauce with the broader electorate. He is, like the rest, generic. Popularity-wise, he is a conventional politician.

The numbers that should worry the Bernie people, however, are the ones among Democrats. His unfavorables are much higher than that of the top-tier candidates. Double as high! I mean, he’s below Booker in net favorabilities, and when’s the last time anyone remembered Booker existed?

Wonder who gave Markos the talking points about Russia that he has had his front pagers spread like cow poo on potatoes? Someone from CAP or ...?

He linked this article: Not sure why though.

The 2020 Race Is Going Just Like Bernie Sanders Wanted

Still, since some political observers and journalists haven’t wrapped their head around the reality that he could be more than a spoiler who kneecaps the party en route to a complicated convention and maybe another loss to Donald Trump, Sanders has been able to do this without the attention or scrutiny that anyone else with his poll numbers, fundraising, and crowds would face.

“There’s a three-out-of-four chance we are not the nominee,” Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s current campaign manager, says he tells the senator, “but that one-in-four chance is better than anyone else in the field.”

The Atlantic.. the mouthpiece of the AC? Most probably.

So he’s eagerly gotten into fights, like one over the weekend with the Center for American Progress about a video produced by an affiliated website that speciously accused him of profiting off his 2016 run. And then he’s fundraised by citing the fights as evidence of resistance to the revolution he’s promising.

Pie fight ensues... fun memories.

edited

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 1:31pm

How funny

@gjohnsit

someone brought up Dk's declining popularity in the comments and blamed it on Kos being negative about Bernie and deliberately trying to start pie fights. Which it did of course. Then's this wonderful disclaimer:

Bernie isn't a democrat.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 1:46pm

"Team Player"

@snoopydawg

Then's this wonderful disclaimer:
Bernie isn't a democrat.

Notice how often Markos says "team".
He's not a deep thinker.

Talk about your all-time backfires:@markos - who thinks his shitty straw poll provides true insight into what's REALLY going on in Dem party politics - attempts to eviscerate Bernie/Buttigieg over Fox town halls only to get dunked on by the panel #MarkosMakesItSo #MSDNC pic.twitter.com/4XcfTuUto8

— MSDNC (@MSDNC3) April 17, 2019

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 3:12pm

I find it highly offensive that he has the gall to spew that

@gjohnsit
kind of shit posed in front of an image of the Campanile. That tower and that campus stand for free speech, including speech on Fox News, in a way that possibly no other institution in this nation can.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 4:14pm

When even Todd knows that going on Fox News is

@gjohnsit

a good idea then you know that Markos is just being a playground bully. "Wha wha wha! I can't hear you!" I don't like Bernie! And then insulting the Fox watchers. What a dweeb.

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 9:53pm

das kapital(ization)

@snoopydawg

Bernie isn't a democrat.

Snoop amice, the capitalization matters here. If Bernie isn't a Democrat, it's because he's too much of a democrat to buy into the shit peddled by today's Democrats.

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by MrWebster on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 3:28pm

Sanders is protected by Russians?

@snoopydawg What in the hell does that mean? I think the Great One was just trying to associate Russians with Bernie. A harbinger of things to come.

Bernie Sanders isn't any more popular than 'generic Democrat'

For example, it turns out that Bernie Sanders—protected by Republicans and Russians seeking to damage Hillary Clinton in 2015-16—now looks like a pretty generic Democrat once those protections are removed.
.......
So yes, Bernie Sanders is now at “generic Democrat” levels. There is nothing magical about him (or any other Democrat, including, eventually, Joe Biden) that allows him to rise above that number. He doesn’t have special sauce with the broader electorate. He is, like the rest, generic. Popularity-wise, he is a conventional politician.

The numbers that should worry the Bernie people, however, are the ones among Democrats. His unfavorables are much higher than that of the top-tier candidates. Double as high! I mean, he’s below Booker in net favorabilities, and when’s the last time anyone remembered Booker existed?

Wonder who gave Markos the talking points about Russia that he has had his front pagers spread like cow poo on potatoes? Someone from CAP or ...?

He linked this article: Not sure why though.

The 2020 Race Is Going Just Like Bernie Sanders Wanted

Still, since some political observers and journalists haven’t wrapped their head around the reality that he could be more than a spoiler who kneecaps the party en route to a complicated convention and maybe another loss to Donald Trump, Sanders has been able to do this without the attention or scrutiny that anyone else with his poll numbers, fundraising, and crowds would face.

“There’s a three-out-of-four chance we are not the nominee,” Faiz Shakir, Sanders’s current campaign manager, says he tells the senator, “but that one-in-four chance is better than anyone else in the field.”

The Atlantic.. the mouthpiece of the AC? Most probably.

So he’s eagerly gotten into fights, like one over the weekend with the Center for American Progress about a video produced by an affiliated website that speciously accused him of profiting off his 2016 run. And then he’s fundraised by citing the fights as evidence of resistance to the revolution he’s promising.

Pie fight ensues... fun memories.

edited

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 4:20pm

You haven't heard that?

@MrWebster

This is why Russia Gate is never going away. People who bought into from the start will probably buy anything else that gets thrown at them. I think this smear about Russia helping him came from some of the Facebook ads. Russia was very busy during the last election and since it worked so well they're going to do it again.

But did you notice that up to a few weeks before the midterms we heard that Russia was busy doing hanky panky, but then for some reason they stopped and let democrats take back the house. You'd think that they would want the GOP to stay in control because of reasons.... like it would have been better for Trump? But hey I guess Putin threw democrat a bone. I think.

Seriously though you would be surprised that so many people believe that.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 9:23pm

Since you posted this

@MrWebster

comment earlier today, I'm still trying to figure it out.

Sanders is protected by Russians?
What in the hell does that mean?

You're asking such a good question. I'm still working on it. Maybe it's just that anyone who opposed HRC was, and continues to be, protected (?) by Russians. Protected in what way, though?

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 10:48pm

Nailed it

@Linda Wood

Anyone who said anything bad about Herheinous was working for Russia to get Trump elected. But it's true that many people believe that Russia tried to help Bernie during the primary. It's just one of the talking points that the media spread and people sucked into it. I really wish I knew what it was that made people like us see through the propaganda from the beginning. It's mostly Hillary's supporters who have bought everything about Russia Gate. They also think that the republicans are in bed with Vlad because they were bribed by him through the NRA. And they are also very happy that the Russian woman is in prison because they think she was the go between Russia and the NRA. Unfortunately she was just a person who came here for college and met the wrong person.

Here's a great article about her and what she was doing here. Hint. She wasn't a Russian agent nor working for Vlad.

Ron Paul: Why Is Maria Butina In Prison?

Russian gun rights activist and graduate exchange student Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison last week for “conspiracy to act as a foreign agent without registering.” Her “crime” was to work to make connections among American gun rights activists in hopes of building up her organization, the Right to Bear Arms, when she returned to Russia.

She was not employed by the Russian government nor was she a lobbyist on Putin’s behalf. In fact the Putin Administration is hostile to Russian gun rights groups. Nevertheless the US mainstream media and Trump’s Justice Department are treating her as public enemy number one in a case that will no doubt set the dangerous precedent of criminalizing person-to-person diplomacy in the United States.

I hope people will read this article and see what a tragedy happened to her. It's a miscarriage of justice bigly!

Trump should pardon her, but of course if he does it will prove that he's Vlad's puppet! SMDH.

Even though Trump has been exonerated by a Mueller investigation that didn’t even view the Butina case as worth investigating, the President has been silent on her persecution. This is similar to his sudden silence on Wikileaks now that Julian Assange may be facing an eternity in a US supermax prison.

As author James Bamford wrote recently in an excellent New Republic article on the Butina case, the national security agencies are also eager to get another notch in their belts and the Russian gun activist was low-hanging fruit for their ambitions.

Lots of people who talk about Russia and Vladimir Putin have no idea what they are talking about. I knew that about Russia and guns. I also know that Vlad isn't working with neo Nazis because what happened to his family during WWII. I know that Russia isn't a communist country anymore, but this is just one of the many things people say when they're talking about Russia Gate and Russians. Idiots!

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:13am

Broadcasts (VOA) into Russia to give people the truth was good.

@snoopydawg

The possibility (which I doubt) that Russia had anything to do with informing Americans that the primary process was truly a sham is bad! Because Russians can handle the truth, but Americans can’t? Gah!

#4.2.2

Anyone who said anything bad about Herheinous was working for Russia to get Trump elected. But it's true that many people believe that Russia tried to help Bernie during the primary. It's just one of the talking points that the media spread and people sucked into it. I really wish I knew what it was that made people like us see through the propaganda from the beginning. It's mostly Hillary's supporters who have bought everything about Russia Gate. They also think that the republicans are in bed with Vlad because they were bribed by him through the NRA. And they are also very happy that the Russian woman is in prison because they think she was the go between Russia and the NRA. Unfortunately she was just a person who came here for college and met the wrong person.

Here's a great article about her and what she was doing here. Hint. She wasn't a Russian agent nor working for Vlad.

Ron Paul: Why Is Maria Butina In Prison?

Russian gun rights activist and graduate exchange student Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison last week for “conspiracy to act as a foreign agent without registering.” Her “crime” was to work to make connections among American gun rights activists in hopes of building up her organization, the Right to Bear Arms, when she returned to Russia.

She was not employed by the Russian government nor was she a lobbyist on Putin’s behalf. In fact the Putin Administration is hostile to Russian gun rights groups. Nevertheless the US mainstream media and Trump’s Justice Department are treating her as public enemy number one in a case that will no doubt set the dangerous precedent of criminalizing person-to-person diplomacy in the United States.

I hope people will read this article and see what a tragedy happened to her. It's a miscarriage of justice bigly!

Trump should pardon her, but of course if he does it will prove that he's Vlad's puppet! SMDH.

Even though Trump has been exonerated by a Mueller investigation that didn’t even view the Butina case as worth investigating, the President has been silent on her persecution. This is similar to his sudden silence on Wikileaks now that Julian Assange may be facing an eternity in a US supermax prison.

As author James Bamford wrote recently in an excellent New Republic article on the Butina case, the national security agencies are also eager to get another notch in their belts and the Russian gun activist was low-hanging fruit for their ambitions.

Lots of people who talk about Russia and Vladimir Putin have no idea what they are talking about. I knew that about Russia and guns. I also know that Vlad isn't working with neo Nazis because what happened to his family during WWII. I know that Russia isn't a communist country anymore, but this is just one of the many things people say when they're talking about Russia Gate and Russians. Idiots!

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 10:10pm

witches

@MrWebster

Sanders is protected by Russians? What in the hell does that mean? I think the Great One was just trying to associate Russians with Bernie. A harbinger of things to come.

Had I the coin, I'd have a bunch of buttons made, legend: BERNIE SANDERS IS PROTECTED BY WITCHES! . Maybe pair it with a nice, tasteful Pentagram.

I know many who would happily wear such a button!

p.s. To all my fellow Pagans and their loved ones: Blessed Bealtaine!

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 1:58pm

"Far to the left of the average American"

which of course doesn't show up in polling of Bernie's policies, which are all popular. Please see my diary for further commentary.

—

The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 2:00pm

Alt-Righties would deride “National Review” as “Cuck Central”

these days, anyway.

It’s at minimum a four-way fight — neolib-neocon Dems, neolib-neocon GOP (“cuckservatives”), Alt-Right, and “us.”

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=cuckservative

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 4:26pm

If Putin really wanted to mess with US elections

@lotlizard

...he'd come out and endorse Joe Biden right now, urging the American people to vote for him.

No hack attacks and troll farms are necessary.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 9:25pm

Brilliant!

@Pluto's Republic

Submitted by Pluto's Republic on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 9:51am

Although, he could rip the rug

@Linda Wood

...out from under the Neocons if he begged America to give Trump a second term.

Are you listening, Vlad? Trust me....

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 2:07pm

The Clkintons try to be funny

[video:https://youtu.be/VVjRPWt9GqA]

Hillary Clinton impersonating US President Donald Trump while reading excerpts from the Mueller report has sparked an outpouring of groans across the internet.

Video of the defeated 2016 presidential candidate reading the report was released as part of a promotional drive for comedian Jordan Klepper's new show on Comedy Central.

During the cringe-inducing segment, Klepper, Hillary and Bill Clinton discuss potential crowdfunding campaigns to which Klepper might donate. He asks the Clintons to advise him, given their auspicious history of fundraising for their own Clinton Foundation, and ‘hilarity’ ensues.

One potential crowdfunding campaign is raising money for Clinton to “record an audiobook of her reading the Mueller report.”

Needless to say, many commentators on Twitter responded with a collective groan.

*WATCH*
Failed Candidate
Hillary Clinton Reads Portion of Mueller Report Where Trump Says
He’s ‘F-cked

Still salty about losing 2016
pres election to @POTUS

Their desperate to appear cool & likable

These SOB's have No Idea of STORM THAT'S COMING#MAGA https://t.co/V6JjPXuOKL

—(@adriandt31) April 29, 2019

pic.twitter.com/PL0opUWXu3

— Stinkyfish (@stinkybaitfish) April 29, 2019

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 2:28pm

I wouldn't quote from Mr. McBeeVee

@snoopydawg
These people are lost.

you got that right they don't know the storm coming it's all going to come out just going to take a little time and a little patience we went this far brother will get there heads are going to roll

— ULEE (@locoheath1) April 29, 2019

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 4:23pm

Probably

@gjohnsit

Time will tell if Q is just another psyops. But he did post some great links during the silly season.

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 2:30pm

Thanks Donny!

Too clever by half meddling in this pie fight.

Trump apparently thinks a Bernie primary victory along with another year of counter-Russiagate investigations will break the corporate Dems, and give DC lobbyists no place to lay their campaign cash but at his feet. Instead of draining the swamp, Trump wants to monopolize it.

Trump also seems to think he stands a better chance in a straight fight against Bernie (lobbyist vs grass roots) than a mixed bout against Biden (lobbyist vs lobbyist), so he's looking to take down the Clinton's, Obamas, and the whole motley crew to give Bernie an easier ride to the general.

Never interrupt your opponent when he's making a mistake, and especially when he's making that mistake against your other opponent. If Trump is so deluded as to think Biden is a more dangerous opponent than Bernie, then I say let him keep riling up Dem party insurgents and reminding Dem Exiters and indies why they want to vote for Bernie.

Because that hornet's nest he's poking today will be coming for him tomorrow.

—

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 2:31pm

Because voters HATE candidates that the establishment rejects

@Not Henry Kissinger
So Donald should keep reminding voters that both the Republican and Democratic establishment hates Bernie.

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 3:16pm

Hillary was thinking the same thing...

@gjohnsit

Because voters HATE candidates that the establishment rejects

when she helped get Trump the Gooper nomination in 2016.

And look how well that turned out for Her.

—

Submitted by WaterLily on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 5:57pm

Speaking of Dark Money

There's this latest gem from Seven Days:

Will the Revolution be Monetized? Bernie Sanders' 'Dark Money' Org

Yes, it makes good overall points about 501c4s and their lack of transparency. But the ulterior goal of the article is ludicrous. It's a little different, in my mind anyway, when a national nurses' union donates $300K to advance M4A and other key issues, than when tax-evading corporate sociopaths donate millions to protect their personal interests.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 6:19pm

The dishonest narrative

@WaterLily
This is a good example

If Sanders were the authentic socialist he believes himself to be, he would have divvied up his wealth and given it to those most in need

No, that's not socialism. That's being a monk.

Vermont is the only state in the nation has never elected a woman to Congress...If Sanders really cared about elevating women, he would resign his Senate seat and dedicate himself to the campaign. This would be a step toward giving women in his state a chance.

By that logic, every man that supports women should immediately quit their jobs. All 150 million of us. And if you don't then you are a sexist.

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 10:09pm

Actually, women in academia really do make that argument now

@gjohnsit

By that logic, every man that supports women should immediately quit their jobs. All 150 million of us. And if you don’t then you are a sexist.

. . . all in the name of diversity and inclusion, of course.

Even in the field of mathematics.

https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2017/05/11/get-out-the-way/

From the comments to that article:

We need to decouple success in mathematics from IQ. IQ is a social construct that cishet white men devised that defines “intelligence” on the basis of culture. Sadly, there is a direct correlation between high IQ and “earning” a PhD in a STEM discipline, which is all too reflective of how white cishet men have designed disciplinary concepts to reinforce their own power structures.

It is fundamentally unfair and marginalizing for IQ tests and mathematics curriculum to be designed around the same white supremacist, cisheteronormative standards, thus marginalizing women of color. What we need isn’t just “fair hiring;” we need a radical reconceptualization of mathematics in a decolonizing framework.

Our friends in the fine arts lead the way here. A century ago, white male composers like Beethoven and Mozart were considered mastered, while the authentic cultural expression of nonwhite peoples was denigrated using words I won’t repeat here. The advances of critical theory have helped guide musicians into recognizing that the music of the Bantu people is just as worthy of learning and study as that of any baroque composer…so should we not follow the same lead? Is not our problem is that we have allowed white cishet men (nearly all of whom had utterly disgusting views about race and gender) to define “mathematics,” “logic” and “proof” for us? We should recognize that there are many kinds of math, many kinds of logic, and many kinds of proof, and assemble a new concept of math from the mosaic of cultural expression that humanity affords.

It’s time for a new scientific revolution, if you ask me…this one led by the folks shut out of the last one.

Got that? “Mathematics,” “logic,” and “proof” are all just constructs white cishet men use to keep everyone else down. So says critical race theory, all the rage at colleges and universities now, as it spreads outward from ethnic studies departments and begins to dictate decision-making in all other fields.

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 10:35pm

yeah, awhile ago, maybe somewhere around here,

@lotlizard
i read about some bonehead who was worried that all the poor brown children would be triggered into math incompetence by all those eurocentric (greek & latin, y'know) math words -- so we should change them. or something.

not clear, was it made, whether "algebra" and "algorithm" might escape the great purge, being as how they're derived from the names of a book and its persian author.

how far we've come, from the days when people whose brains and imaginations were not up to the task of subtle thought had to wonder whether their omnipotent god could have created a universe where 2+2=5. (no doubt such philosophers would have looked down, with bemused contempt, on the silly people who wondered whether their dogs would be there in heaven to greet them.)

o brave new world, where our modern philosophers could never be stumped by this conundrum, because they understand what those cishet colonialist bullies could not, which is that 2+2=4 is only a cultural construct.

my god, they're the academic analogs of Storm:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U]

#9.1 By that logic, every man that supports women should immediately quit their jobs. All 150 million of us. And if you don’t then you are a sexist. . . . all in the name of diversity and inclusion, of course. Even in the field of mathematics. https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2017/05/11/get-out-the-way/ From the comments to that article: We need to decouple success in mathematics from IQ. IQ is a social construct that cishet white men devised that defines “intelligence” on the basis of culture. Sadly, there is a direct correlation between high IQ and “earning” a PhD in a STEM discipline, which is all too reflective of how white cishet men have designed disciplinary concepts to reinforce their own power structures. It is fundamentally unfair and marginalizing for IQ tests and mathematics curriculum to be designed around the same white supremacist, cisheteronormative standards, thus marginalizing women of color. What we need isn’t just “fair hiring;” we need a radical reconceptualization of mathematics in a decolonizing framework. Our friends in the fine arts lead the way here. A century ago, white male composers like Beethoven and Mozart were considered mastered, while the authentic cultural expression of nonwhite peoples was denigrated using words I won’t repeat here. The advances of critical theory have helped guide musicians into recognizing that the music of the Bantu people is just as worthy of learning and study as that of any baroque composer…so should we not follow the same lead? Is not our problem is that we have allowed white cishet men (nearly all of whom had utterly disgusting views about race and gender) to define “mathematics,” “logic” and “proof” for us? We should recognize that there are many kinds of math, many kinds of logic, and many kinds of proof, and assemble a new concept of math from the mosaic of cultural expression that humanity affords. It’s time for a new scientific revolution, if you ask me…this one led by the folks shut out of the last one. Got that? “Mathematics,” “logic,” and “proof” are all just constructs white cishet men use to keep everyone else down. So says critical race theory, all the rage at colleges and universities now, as it spreads outward from ethnic studies departments and begins to dictate decision-making in all other fields.

—

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.

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:25pm

So in Germany, multicultural elites celebrate rap as world music

@UntimelyRippd
while dismissing classical as exclusionary. Beethoven? Bach? Pffft. Bunch of old white men.

People get fed up with this and start gravitating toward right-wing populists — can you blame ’em?

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:43pm

i bet snoop dogg digs him some beethoven.

@lotlizard
the artists are rarely as blinkered and parochial as the critics. almost by definition.

The Scholars -- William Butler Yeats

Bald heads forgetful of their sins,
Old, learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men, tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love's despair
To flatter beauty's ignorant ear.
All shuffle there; all cough in ink;
All wear the carpet with their shoes;
All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbour knows.
Lord, what would they say
Did their Catullus walk that way?

Others of us, unschooled, getting on in years, with thinning hair: We've learned the terrible truth, that 15, 25, 35, 45, 55 ... the birthdays count their decades, but the heart knows nothing of calendars, and love's despair thwarts equally the sleep of all damned fools, old and young alike.

—

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 12:18am

“Till human v̸o̸i̸c̸e̸s̸ voters wake us, and we drown.”

@UntimelyRippd
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-son...

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:42pm

Divided, we fall. Hence, division is being sown more than ever.

@UntimelyRippd

Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:00am

That's insane

@lotlizard

"white cishet men (nearly all of whom had utterly disgusting views about race and gender)"

Something tells me that this person thinks that anyone who disagrees with the author on any level is "utterly disgusting". This reminds me of debates on TOP, where people claim "all white people are racist" and "blacks can't be racist".

allowed white cishet men...to define “mathematics,” “logic” and “proof” for us?

If you think “mathematics,” “logic” and “proof” depends on your genitals then you are truly lost. In fact, you are a fool.

#9.1 By that logic, every man that supports women should immediately quit their jobs. All 150 million of us. And if you don’t then you are a sexist. . . . all in the name of diversity and inclusion, of course. Even in the field of mathematics. https://blogs.ams.org/inclusionexclusion/2017/05/11/get-out-the-way/ From the comments to that article: We need to decouple success in mathematics from IQ. IQ is a social construct that cishet white men devised that defines “intelligence” on the basis of culture. Sadly, there is a direct correlation between high IQ and “earning” a PhD in a STEM discipline, which is all too reflective of how white cishet men have designed disciplinary concepts to reinforce their own power structures. It is fundamentally unfair and marginalizing for IQ tests and mathematics curriculum to be designed around the same white supremacist, cisheteronormative standards, thus marginalizing women of color. What we need isn’t just “fair hiring;” we need a radical reconceptualization of mathematics in a decolonizing framework. Our friends in the fine arts lead the way here. A century ago, white male composers like Beethoven and Mozart were considered mastered, while the authentic cultural expression of nonwhite peoples was denigrated using words I won’t repeat here. The advances of critical theory have helped guide musicians into recognizing that the music of the Bantu people is just as worthy of learning and study as that of any baroque composer…so should we not follow the same lead? Is not our problem is that we have allowed white cishet men (nearly all of whom had utterly disgusting views about race and gender) to define “mathematics,” “logic” and “proof” for us? We should recognize that there are many kinds of math, many kinds of logic, and many kinds of proof, and assemble a new concept of math from the mosaic of cultural expression that humanity affords. It’s time for a new scientific revolution, if you ask me…this one led by the folks shut out of the last one. Got that? “Mathematics,” “logic,” and “proof” are all just constructs white cishet men use to keep everyone else down. So says critical race theory, all the rage at colleges and universities now, as it spreads outward from ethnic studies departments and begins to dictate decision-making in all other fields.

Submitted by WaterLily on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:05am

And don't forget "deplorable."

@gjohnsit

Submitted by lotlizard on Fri, 05/03/2019 - 6:05am

Sofia Leung, with the title of expert librarian at MIT, writes:

@gjohnsit

In 2017 (yea this goes way back), for a white AF conference, I shared an AirBnB with Vani Natarajan, an amazing librarian of color whose thinking continues to push me and who I respect and admire so much (she was able to convince her library to send their student workers to the Joint Council of Librarians of Color conference – she’s a real one), and we had some really interesting discussions where I learned a lot. One of the mind-blowing things she shared was this idea of how our library collections, because they are written mostly by straight white men, are a physical manifestation of white men ideas taking up all the space in our library stacks. Pause here and think about this.

Library collections continue to promote and proliferate whiteness with their very existence and the fact that they are physically taking up space in our libraries. They are paid for using money that was usually ill-gotten and at the cost of black and brown lives via the prison industrial complex, the spoils of war, etc. Libraries filled with mostly white collections indicates that we don’t care about what POC think, we don’t care to hear from POC themselves, we don’t consider POC to be scholars, we don’t think POC are as valuable, knowledgeable, or as important as white people.

https://sleung.wordpress.com/2019/04/15/whiteness-as-collections/

https://libraries.mit.edu/experts/

Submitted by Snode on Fri, 05/03/2019 - 2:21pm

Hmmm

@lotlizard Sounds like the next step is righteous anger, then book burning.

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:40pm

I don't support the argument by any means, but,

@gjohnsit
by its own terms, it applies only to jobs no woman has ever held. It's obviously a frivolous argument anyway, nothing but baiting. If anyone in Congress is not hypocritical about equal rights for everyone of all colors, genders, orientations, religions, etc., it's Sanders. His voting record on such matters is impeccable. IIRC from 2016, his voting record on women's issues was even slightly better than that of Her.

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:47pm

When Planned Parenthood went all in for

@HenryAWallace
ovaries in preference to a lifetime of fearless and outspoken advocacy ... well, that's probably the moment I lost hope.

—

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 7:28am

IIRC, not long after Planned Parenthood endorsed Her,

@UntimelyRippd

Hillary put on the table a Constitutional amendment to overrule Roe v. Wade, provided that the health of the mother was a consideration. In so doing, she espoused the position that Republican Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had taken decades earlier. And, of course, that would have significantly modified one of the few remaining reasons for for people to vote for Democrats.

I don't believe that Bernie ever would have done that.

Submitted by wokkamile on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:16am

Say wha???

@HenryAWallace I don't think that's so. Earlier this year, HRC joined Gov Cuomo to propose codifying Roe v Wade firmly into NY law, including a later NY constitutional amendment proposing same. Doesn't sound like she has turned against R v W, eau contrary.

Submitted by TheOtherMaven on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 1:39pm

Herheinous said she was "open to it"

@wokkamile

Didn't say she'd do it, didn't say she wouldn't - but the mere suggestion that she might is enough to destroy the last shreds of any "progressive" cachet she could claim.

—

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:16pm

From the National Review article, written by Jay Cost:

All of this speaks to some inconvenient truths that Americans have failed to fully grok: Politics is very expensive, somebody has to pay for it, and whoever does is going to get special access.

LMAO. To which Americans, other than Mr. Cost, is this breaking news?

As to the politico article, written by Maggie Severns, either an idiot or a propagandist:

..“It’s no great secret that the presidential race will be won or lost in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio — if we can win back the narrative that the word ‘Democrat’ equals people who are fighting for folks who work hard every day, we can continue to win elections,” Riddle said. “If [Democrats] get defined as being about socialism and these other words people can hear about out of Washington, then I worry.”

If you don't want Democrats defined as being about socialism, stop trying to smear and discredit Sanders by referring to him as sssocialissst and explain that Democratic Socialism means programs like Social Security and Medicare, within a capitalist system, as practiced in Scandinavian nations, whose peoples are among the happiest in the world.

Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:35pm

Capitalist Gollums say Bernie Baggins out to steal the Preciouss

@HenryAWallace

sssocialissst

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Mon, 04/29/2019 - 11:46pm

That is how Chris Matthews pronounced it during the

@lotlizard

primary, hissing it out like a snake. Guiterrez as well, pretending he could not remember Sanders' name. "What's his name, the sssocialisst."

Meanwhile, Guiterrez had been a member of the Progressive Caucus, which Bernie had not only founded upon his arrival in Congress, but chaired for it first EIGHT years.

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:20am

Sssshameless!

@HenryAWallace

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by Linda Wood on Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:21am

I know

@HenryAWallace

you know this, but Maggie Severns saying,

"... if we can win back the narrative that the word ‘Democrat’ equals people who are fighting for folks who work hard every day, we can continue to win elections...”

is just breathtaking. Her statement is that it's a "narrative," not a truth based on evidence. So, how can we win back that "narrative"? Hmm. Let's see. What can we say that will make people think the word ‘Democrat’ equals people who are fighting for folks who work hard every day? Hmm. Let's work on it. Any ideas?