Et tu, Howard? Et tu, too, Marcos?
WHY should not old men be mad?
Some have known a likely lad
That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist
Turn to a drunken journalist....W. B.Yeats
Anyone who doesn't recall, or needs to refresh their memory and refuel their resentment, should view Howard Dean's speech at the California Democratic Convention in '03.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaXQobfaQzA
The political agenda he espoused was, at its core, almost as”progressive” as Bernie's and the energy of his supporters is something that vanished like a mirage in Democratic Party gatherings until Bernie stood up and spoke. Surely Dean recognizes a fellow Progressive Warrior in Bernie. A Neighboring-State bro and a true FDR Democrat! An upgraded unit, with Dean's Beta stump-speech-software developed into to a marketable product and installed in a bro' with more time and experience in the DC trenches.
The most cruel ironic twist to the knife Dean has stuck in the back of his former supporters is that it was Mainstream Media and The Democratic Party Establishment that killed Dean's chances, before he could get to Super Tuesday. Even the Holy Saint of Democrats, Ted Kennedy himself, hurried to Iowa to campaign for Kerry. That same “UNELECTABLE” meme Bernie is labeled with was ubiquitous. The “Dean Scream” was one of the first times I really realized what a propaganda machine TV is. His “scream” and subsequent speech about taking the campaign forward was reported with only the soundtrack from the mike he was speaking into for listeners to hear. His supporters, undefeated and roaring, were hard to talk over. With the sound of his surroundings added,, his speech is inspirational, not “crazy”.
Watch Dean's eyes and mouth nowadays, a decade-plus later, when he shills for Hillary. He knows. He knows. He doesn't have to ask, rhetorically, “What I want to know is WHY are so many Democrats supporting The Bernie Revolution?” He knows that Bernie is here now, just as he claimed to have been there then, to represent the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party. The Social Democratic Wing; the wing that is concerned with Social Issues – like Social Security. And he knows that, shivering scornfully out here in the cyber hinterland, there are working stiffs like me who gave hard-earned dollars by the tens and twenties to raise the level of his goddamn fundraising bat-icon, hoping it would help him make a hit.
Indeed, why should not old men be mad?
And let us not forget Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager and author of The Revolution will not be Televised. Current Fox News commentator and Hillary Attack Poodle. His latest studious opinion is here. Take your blood-pressure meds before clicking:
And meanwhile, back on the internet, in those not-forgotten days, Daily Kos was a one-man operation – or at least seemed to be – and was one of those rare candles of Hope I could look to for reassurance and inspiration. Surrounded by Freedom-Fry fattened hyper-patriots, red of face and neck, the sound of my 56k modem connecting was like a Progressive battle-cry. There is a reason why traders who trade ideals for money are called Traitors, not traders. Howard knows. Marcos knows. The Shadow knows.
Young men are not the only "Bros" mad.
Comments
Revolution
is not for the meek and weak. it is much easier to give In than to keep fighting when the odds are against you.We need strong leaders (and followers) so maybe its best we now know who these people are. "In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." –Mark Twain
I'm confused
I probably shouldn't be but maybe some of you can explain. I continue to get DFA email under Howard Dean's name. I stopped reading it quite some time ago after learning of his work for the healthcare industry. (Right click then hitting the "D" key is easy and satisfying all at the same time.) My confusion comes from Bernie's message in the email. I also seem to remember Dean voicing his support for Bernie. I fully get the gimme money message for DFA. This and more than a few who now reject Dean as one of the good guys doesn't square for me. So is he a friend, a traitor, or working both sides? The bastards are getting tricky and we need to have solid evidence to make good decisions. Anyone?
"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."
DFA is now Democracy for America
and it has endorsed Bernie. Also Feingold. I'm not sure what's going on now, but I once heard that Howard's brother runs DFA now. Yeah, DFA is still fighting the good fight, but Howard's on the other side. Helluva note.
Twain Disciple
Boy, do I hear you.
My handle on Dkos for years was Kentucky DeanDemocrat. No more. Howard was the first politician I ever contributed to, and I was so furious on his behalf when television buried him with that "scream" lie. Of course, they were only finishing the job that idiot Stephanie Cutter at the Kerry Campaign, Joe Torricelli and the Teamsters started with those asinine ads in Iowa that showed Dean morphing into Osama Bin Laden. And yeah, I was disgusted with Ted Kennedy too. I hated that "Democratic team" crap. And the whole "team" was turned against Dean -- and us. And now? He couldn't beat em, so he decided to join 'em. Gag. And that witch Hillary points him out in the audience at the debate as one of the Vermont politicians who knows Bernie well and decided for her over Bernie because she's better! I was sick at my stomach when I heard that. I'm no longer naïve but I can still be outraged. Howard is betraying everything he stood for and almost everyone who contributed hard-earned -- and scarce -- dollars to his campaign. And I don't even know why. He's sold his honor, and he's already rich.
Twain Disciple
Who was funding those Kerry ads???
Anyone else remember the Kerry campaign was VERY LATE in finally getting their financials out after Iowa, and we learned Swannee Hunt was a major funder of those campaign ads. Had to laugh, remember when SOS Hillary Clinton took credit for the Vital Voices organization, putting her friend Melanne Veveer in charge. VV was created by Swannee Hunt when she was Ambassador in Prague - and her musical conductor husband would perform in a country, she as USA Ambassador has to get "official permission" to enter the county, so she asked & organized for "woman activists" to get together and meet with her - voila, Vital Voices. She kept the organization going. Hunt then went on to teach at Harvard Kennedy School.
They're all SHARKS - taking what ever they can get, and accumulating what power & money they can. Folks like Hunt ( silver, Texas) have it to begin with, bought their way, othesr made it out of the power they managed to accumulate.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH...how many times can we say that. What's so important to me, now, is Bernie Sanders is the catalyst, who has brought all the activists of the years ( my thoughts go back to WTO, I know more folks credit OWS) all seem to now be coalescing = we must, MUST, not give up any of this power.
WE must keep fighting, crucially important, feels almost like our last chance, know the young people, millennials may not feel that way, but this 71 year young woman does.
The Boss: "No retreat, No surrender." No more Clintons in the White House. Never again. NEVAH again.
Go Bernie.
Comes A Time
There comes a time
In the life of a pragmatic man
When idealism outlives its usefulness
Bumped to the side by hard-headed practicality
And the siren call of a soft life
Becomes more compelling than
The further servicing of ones ideals
There comes a time
When going along to get along
Is the more tempting and agreeable option
Than vainly swimming against the tide
When thirty pieces of silver
Seems a fair recompense for securing ones future
At the cost of selling ones past
There comes a time
In the life of a pragmatic man
When accusations of betrayal carry no sting
And conscience has no power to torment
Conscience now conspicuous by its absence
Merely one more thing handed over
In exchange for that satchel of coins
inactive account
An ancient proverb says,
"Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad."
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First Nations News
I feel your pain, Twain Disciple
It's hard as hell to take getting your assumptions about people, or events, punched in the gut. I was leaning Dean, myself, back then. Things have changed. He's an establishment loyalist now, a Vermonter against Bernie. Wow, is that a lonely job. Look at the primary numbers from Vermont, and you'll see that real people love Bernie, no matter what anybody's propaganda machine may say. So Dean has had the fight knocked out of him. It's sad, but he's made his choice. He wanted to be part of the establishment, more than he wanted the honor. -Or maybe they just beat him up enough that he folded. We can't keep looking back for his sake. But we can learn from his mistakes. Propaganda matters. He was beaten with superior propaganda, not superior ideas. -And the Net was not as mature or ubiquitous back then. It would be much harder to smear someone with a doctored/ limited recording or video these days. Showing the real thing would go viral, and make the original manipulators look like fools. Just sad that Dean was too early, and got side-swiped in that fashion.
And the convention in 04 said it all. An anti-war floor watching a saluting military combat vet "reporting for duty" on the podium, and wondering what the fuck happened. -And then Kerry NEVER busted W on sitting that war out! -And NEVER contested Ohio, where the exit polls showed a 4% variance from the "official" vote. Fraud, anybody? That election was the Dems to lose, and damn, did they ever! Ye gods, but that whole election cycle blew!
"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
Dean only wants to be a member of the club.
It's his whole motivation. Nothing else matters. He thinks it makes him relevant. Sad.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I remember sitting in a hotel in Exmouth, England
watching the famous 'Dean Scream' and wondering why anyone thought it consequential. Just a bloke celebrating, right?
The good breakfast and company put it out of my mind almost immediately.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I was a sucker too!
I feel a little like Charlie Brown. I voted WJC twice. Supported Dean the screaming turn coat, and Edwards the philanderer.
Then I voted Obama twice. Thinking it was the party of FDR. What a fool.
I believe in Bernie. I hope it is real this time!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”