Open Thread - Thurs 19 Mar 2026 - We Can Hope!
We Can Hope!
Some writers, for instance David Sirota at the Lever, are seeing a bit of good news in all the crap coming from United State’s current politics - like the Democratic Party's Moment of Reckoning. Some of the new candidates are ‘radical’ compared to the usual Democrat stock-in-trade, and more of these ‘radical’ candidates are appearing. And that is a good thing.
Sirota begins his article with:
A decade after Bernie Sanders almost tore the presidential nomination out of the decrepit hands of the Democratic establishment, the party’s old guard, ancient political formulas, and outdated corporate politics seem to finally be facing a moment of comeuppance. The long-overdue reckoning appears to be happening not just in a few predictably liberal locales, but across varied swaths of the country that seem ready to embrace populist politics.
I have to admit, I am not so hopeful about the Democratic party changing. But… I’ll read about that hope, and pass on the article to others just in case we need a bit of a laugh, or maybe, a tiny bit of hope!
On the other hand, here’s an article by Corbin Trent about the ‘War We’re Not Fighting’. You know, the war to actually make America a good place again. Basically, he’s calling for another fight like FDR was forced to have, where the leaders have to care about the people. It’s ironic, in his talk about how America doesn’t produce anything but war anymore, about the changes that the ruling elite have made… I can remember back in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s protesting about how manufacturing and so on was being moved to China (and other Asian countries) because it was ‘cheap’. How us workers, yes, I worked testing integrated circuits for what is now a huge semiconductor company, said that if they shipped jobs overseas there’d be nothing for us here and eventually the country would lose control over manufacturing and development… and we weren’t just talking about semiconductors, we were talking about all manufacturing.
As Trent says:
The United States of America in 2026 is a country that has completely lost the ability to build, to produce, to create, to maintain the systems that keep a society alive. And because we can’t do any of that, because we’ve emptied ourselves out so completely that the only functional institution left is the military, war is the only card we have to play. We can’t compete economically so we compete with bombs. We can’t build our way to relevance so we bomb our competition or their allies. We can’t imagine a future where American power comes from what we make and what we offer the world so instead we make sure the world is afraid of us.
Can the US change? Or are we on the beginning of the decline which all empires suffer? Who knows. I do know we need a different Democratic party, or other parties, if we are going to achieve that change.
And, here's the open thread! What's up, whatcha doing? Reading? Thinking? Listening to? Remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
Happy Thursday!
Hope all is going well! It's been rainy and stormy and windy here, but, not bad overall. The frogs have really started their nighttime chorus, and it's great. Daffys are blooming, other flowers are starting. Yay! So, what's up? Let us know!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Just finished sending out a group email
.
to 36 people who are part of our local organization called
Farm Coast Voices for Democracy. I have volunteered to be
the communications director. We are becoming associated
with a regional group named Indivisible. These are building
blocks toward gathering progressive voices in pursuit of
establishing a peoples coalition to maintain democratic
actions. There will be a local gathering on the 28th for
No Kings Day. The last one drew about 500 souls, which
is pretty large for such a small community (about 3000).
We aren't listed here, but some other locales are.
https://www.mobilize.us/nokings/?tag_ids=29581
Zionism is a social disease
Good work, good work!
I'm probably going to two No Kings protests, on the 28th. They are localish and at different times. One's in the morning, so I might not make that (no mornings for me anymore) but the afternoon one is for sure. I am hoping to meet some other people who are interested in the same things.
I was part of a farmer's group for quite a while here in the PacNW, but, it got very... well, the government basically took it over. Used to be one could sell produce grown on one's own farm without trouble. Now we have to be inspected and approved and... yea, that's one of the reasons I retired. Small farms, producing locally grown produce that sells for maybe 200-400$ a week during the productive season are NOT the reason why thousands or hundreds of thousands of people get poisoned by whatever... Sheez. But no, we have to be inspected and pay for those inspections and whatever else. Because our 20 customers might get sick!!!!!
Ahh well, thanks for the great comment and for the work you are doing in your community. You rock!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning...
I must admit to having little hope of "fixing" our system. To my mind we live in a post-constitutional farce of a republic that recognizes no law.
However, I do have hope we can unite with our neighbors and help one another survive the collapse of the US empire. I think that is a better use of our energy and efforts. Remember Rome took about 500 years to finally crumble. The decay is likely to continue the rest of my life. The foolish war of choice with Iran is hastening the decline.
Get to know some local farmers is the best advice I can offer. At a minimum you gotta admit we live in interesting times.
Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I thnk uniting locally
with our neighbors, and maybe like minded people around the county/state/country, is the only way. I too feel little hope that we can 'fix' our system. But I'll try and do whatever I can.
I guess I gotta get back to growing food again. I retired from selling my produce, from farming for a 'living'. Now I'll just farm on a small patch of land (the rest of my fields are pasture) to grow food for family and friends.
Ahh well, thanks for stopping by and your great comment! Have a good weekend if possible!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
In a sane world
.
no billionaires would exist.
We are living in a crazy world.
Brought to you by the false economy.
Keep your head above the surface.
At any cost.
Zionism is a social disease
Crazy world...
Exactly. Billionaire? Trillionaire? Why? Why? It's so stupid.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning Sima, thanks for the information and OT.
Each time the Democratic party has actually changed since Johnson, it has been for the worse, so I'll withhold judgement on that. Seeing i believing, all else is but faith and I'm long past that. We will, no doubt put in a bit of time at the local no kings day event, but will not expect any actual change. A newish group named indivisible is asking for coin, no rea; change there, but we'll see.
Weather Underground says it's headed for 90, which means over 100 in our backyard, just like yesterday and the day before. It also says pollen is moderate, in our yard you can cut it with a knife. Yesterdy we had to run errands in North Berkeley and Albany (North North Berkeley, not NY) so we decided to stop for lunch at a place called Skates on the Bay, a waterfront bar and grill hanging over the water right next to the Berkeley Marina access channel. That was nice as was the weather in that exact spot, but we eventually had to come back home
Gnus - The Guardian says that a Rus tanker full of oil is on its way to Cuba. Lets see who gets first dibs on attacking it. I've been hoping for such an event, but also hoping that it would be accompanies by a flotilla of warships and subs.
be well and have a good one
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 --
This weather is madness.
6 inches of snow last Friday (the first precip in weeks, and only the second all winter, here just south of Denver!), and now this: it is going to be 89degF on Saturday, and still dry as a bone. We really shouldn't see 90s until June, in a normal year- we typically get some good snow in early May. The grass is greening up, the trees are leafing in earlier than I've ever seen it... When we get our heavy April snows, and we will, we'll lose even more trees this time around. There will be branch-strippers, and they will be Biblical.
Madness. This chaotic local weather pattern is the clearest expression yet of the impact of anthropogenic climate change. Sorry, deniers: it is real, and one need only look at how chaotic the weather patterns have become (warm dry winter here, cold snowy winter barely east of here, absent hurricane season, yadda yadda) to come to an understanding that we do not know what the full impact will be...
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Perhaps this chaos in the weather you mentioned
is not entirely, or even majorly, caused by we humans. Our sun, and every planet in our solar system seems to be currently experiencing a cosmic ripple that messes with the stability of our planetary magnetosphere; ergo the unusual appearances of frequent lower latitude aurora activity. (some more on the way in a day or two, fwiw)
The CO2 explanation for “global warming” does not cover the magnitude of recent increases of ocean temperatures. Perhaps this may account for the rebranding of human’s blame for messing up the weather, is now known as “climate change”. The weather might be warmer here, colder there and universally chaotic. But it will still be considered anthropogenic, and our fault.
Tuning into Space Weather might shed some new light on what’s shaking up Mother Earth.
“Even in science, falsehood can not live for too long.”
- Immanuel Velikovski - Bonds of the Past (1972) https://youtu.be/kkS-jDzxnrU ]
I completely agree:
Here there is madness too, different, but madness. Our winter lake is almost completely non-existent. The birds which used to live on it, for years and years they'd arrive during migration, some would stay, they'd all leave in the spring... well, they aren't here, and haven't been for about 5 to 8 years. All winter I'd love listening to them calling, most were sea birds, or other water fowl. Now, nothing. All I can here are a few geese and the 'tree' frogs. Our winter snowpack is under half of normal. Where are the insects? Remember when they'd hit the windshield while we'd drive in the country? Not any more. So sad. So scary.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Almost 100??
That's nuts! Yikes.
Ahh, Berkeley. Or, Beserkley, as me and my friends called it (after the local record company, of course). Darn, those were the days! Greg Kihn, Rubinoos, Earthquake... I was young!
Changing the Democrats is gonna take a LOT of work. Dunno if it'll happen, and I'm not super hopeful.
I'm a bit too young to remember the particulars of the Cuban Missile Crisis as it happened. I learned a lot about it later. I Do NOT want us to do that stupidity again. For f*cks sake, can't we just let the Cubans be? Can't we just be a good neighbor? Damn. So danged depressing, how stupid our 'leaders' are.
Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Regrettably, the Democrats
will not be part of any hypothetical solution, any more than the Republicans will be.
Both parties will fight against any potential hypothetical solution with every fiber of their beings, and they will do so to the death.
The cavalry, as we know it, is not coming. Sorry if that causes any inconvenience.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
I think we're well past the decline
I found my concept of what constitutes a nation is not recognized as such. Most of the definitions use ethnicity and political structures to defend territorial boundaries as a nation. It seems the French and American revolutions most recently touched on a nation also existing for the benefit of it's citizens. I don't see that today. What I see is what the power in the U.S. wants this country to be. The political aspect of our nation is neglectful, lazy and ultimately hostile to it's citizens no matter who is elected. The rulers massage ethnic rivalry because it's cheap and deflects blame from themselves, and anger and hatred deflects our own shortcomings, because after all, if we're not rich we're stupid and lazy, and besides it's those undeserving people down the road that are gobbling up everything.
Today George Will, a Bezos whorehound, is expounding on what the real crisis is, the national debt. The cause of the crisis? Social Security. So hate your parents, hate your kids, hate those brown people, those poor, sick and unlucky people because they're what's wrong with America.
Unfortunately there will be a lot of people that will agree with that.
I suspect that ethnicity based definitios are the result
of long years of (apartheid) zionist propaganda. I can't recall when I first heard the rhetorical whine "why should the Jews be yhe only people without their own country?" based on the implied lies France is for the French who are and always were one ethnic group and so on for every other country on the globe.
be well and have a good one
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 --
Maybe I'm misreading this
.
Perhaps the reason jews do not have a 'home state' is because
they refuse to meld into other cultures. Some do, but some don't.
Claiming a right to possess real estate by virtue of some story
written 2000 years ago is a bit of a vague justification to kill thy
neighbors.
Zionism is a social disease
Precisely. n/t
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 --
Exactly
They've been doing this stuff since before the Roman Empire. And that 'traditional' land was not really theirs, they invaded and conquered it. Bleh. Very good point you made.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
To brighten your day? Jewish customer has victim card declined
https://x.com/Haqiqatjou/status/2034609510749249711?s=20
That is very funny
.
Entitlement meets justice.
STFU, oops to late. Patience
only lasts so long bozo.
I'm Jewish! He's Palestine.
No, won't float. Glad the cop
diffused the situation.
Zionism is a social disease
Heh, that made me laugh...
Thank you!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
George Will is still alive?
How old is he, 100? Climate change caused by human pollution is for real. So is global warming. I’ve lived in ECFL long enough to be a cracker ( native). You couldn’t pay me enough to swim in any lake or river here. Florida is a sandbar peninsula so we have plenty of both. Over-development has almost killed this state ecologically. There are times when I almost weep cos I’ve witnessed the slow destruction. We had absolutely no tropical storms nor hurricanes last year. That is unreal here. We aren’t getting our usual cooling daily rains. Low humidity and winds/breezes l like what you would experience in a desert. Climate change scientists hit the nail on the head warning about it. And do not get me started on the political garbage running/ruining our state in Tallahassee. Sorry about the ranting. Guess what additional biped pollution we have down in Palm Beach? Yep, the slowly dying rabid maggot brained cur called Donald tRump. He’s nothing new, believe me. Rec’d!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
National Debt?
Caused by Social Security. Damn, George Will doesn't even know what Social Security is and how it works. It's paid for by the workers, it's got nothing to do with 'taxes' which pay for, what is it, 1.2 million dollars a bullet? (sarcasm, but that's what it seems).
Damn.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Both RT and SCMP say that Iran claims to have hit
an F-35 with air defense weaponry. It appears that CNN has claimed that the story is true and that the plane made an emergency landing at some US air base in the area. To the best of my, admittedly limited, knowledge, none of the local area basis can do material repairs to those puppies, so tht one is probably out of action. Scott ritter might be well worth a look today.
be well and have a good one
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 --
The F-35 is an almost flying albatross
.
hear it takes 35 hours of maintenance for every hour of sky time.
Turkeys would have a better effectiveness if they strapped some
ordinance on their drumsticks.
Zionism is a social disease
Hahahahahah!
Lol 'Turkeys would have a better effectiveness if they strapped some
ordinance on their drumsticks.'
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
This is almost pathologically humorous
.
.
“Both Kent and Gabbard have had less and less influence,” said one GOP lawmaker,
granted anonymity to speak candidly. “They’ve been sidelined.”
Because they questioned the motives of the Iran war? Gabbard would be more
honorable to resign as well. This mess is way beyond sensible appraisal. Eat your
excrement emperor trumpet. You started this in-extractible engagement. Now you
suffer the consequences.
Zionism is a social disease
We are in decline.
We are swiftly headed for a version of society in which people do not matter. (The logic-minded among you might ask, "wait a minute. Don't people actually make up society?"
Yeah. They do.)
"I don't think the United States of America will last much longer than 2030." -- Indrajit Samarajiva
I think we are already there, cass.
Soldiers die. Oh, well, it happens. People will suffer and die, but "we" (we know they are) are making lots of money. Fight for the End Times.
Homelessness is a crime. Powell said new job creation is near zero.
Eat ze bugs, sez a man who interrupted his prime rib dinner to scold us about global warming.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Sabrina Salvati's motto for tonight's speech:
"Stand for something."
Here's the talk.
Well, okay, I reasoned when I saw this. Standing for something is better than standing for nothing.
"I don't think the United States of America will last much longer than 2030." -- Indrajit Samarajiva
I will likely have the time to watch it
tomorrow, cass.
Thanks.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Hey, sima!
Nice OT!
My dream is making it illegal to contribute to a candidate and to make insider trading a crime.
Free elections not influenced by money will get us something better.
Lots of food for thought, chica.
Thanks
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Hello!
Illegal to contribute to candidates... good idea! Insider trading should definitely be a crime.
Love the idea of free elections. Wish we could do them, as a country.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so