This is so exciting!
Good people are drifting in -- let's bring the memberlist to 10,000 soon!
At some point we'll want our own alternate "Netroots Nation" -- I haven't been to one before, since at some point before each of the NN events I decided that I really didn't want to see any of Markos' neoliberal hires. How about a "NN" of our own dedicated to the political revolution rather than to the preservation of the Democratic Party?
What we really need here are people like FishOutofWater (isn't he a Clinton supporter? That's why I said "like") to do the climate change science updates. I'm going to have a climate change paper published in a journal called "Knowledge Cultures" soon.
Do we know people in the opt-out movement?
Maybe we could get people from Orchestrated Pulse to come here? Or Breaking Brown?
Or how about Bobbosphere? I tried to get Bobbosphere's diaries rec'd up when I was over at Orange.
Do you think we could get reportage on legal pot around here? Or Fight for 15?
Can we get updated commentary on who's running for office, and of which party they're running in? I mean, if they hate the idea at New York Magazine, there must be something to it.
I gather nobody here is going back to Orange with its toxic ownership just because they can find Article X or whatever. And Orange will adjust accordingly. Omigod teacherken told us about a MUST-READ opinion piece by Charles M. Blow in the WaPo!
Some thoughts.
Comments
Rest and get better, dkmich
The bronchitis going on around here is a nasty virus that doesn't like to let go. It can hang on for weeks, and likes to relapse for people who don't rest long enough to get better. We all want you better.
I made the mistake of checking in at TOP last night during a bit of insomnia, and watched Meteor Blades getting attacked like a lion by a pack of hyenas in a diary going over Kevin Drum's ill-informed dreck at Mother Jones, wherein he parrots Clintonian talking points in discussing the Sanders campaign. I messaged MB, telling him I didn't know how he kept it up, and expressing my own feeling that every visit there these days makes me go read Thich Nhat Hanh to try to find some balance again. I invited him to come over here and say hello if he felt it politic.
I don't see Bernie pulling out the nomination, and have always thought the Democratic party would pull whatever shit it had to in order to deny it to him. No doubt we've only seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of the dirty tricks they've pulled to keep Hillary in the driver's seat. I'm still donating to him regularly, and will do some phonebanking before California. The more delegates he wins, the weaker the Clinton Democrats are. Whether we try to take over the Democratic party or have to kill it ultimately, weakening the Wall Street Wing of the Democratic party is the most important goal to me right now.
It's encouraging that the discussion of What's Next is already going on. This is a much more worthwhile place to put our energy than working for some random down-ticket Democrat who will be instantly co-opted should they win office. I think Bernie and Jane are prepared to help shepherd the movement forward after Philadelphia, but it's vital that new leaders step up with new ideas and new organizations. That's where the real action is. It's encouraging to see people here thinking about how we can help organize ourselves in the ongoing struggle.
Please help support caucus99percent!
I have the same thoughts about
down ticket Dems. The problem is that they can garner support, and then turn on a dime when elected.
The flip side of the coin is that nobody is going to run on a Dem Party Bernie Platform when Bernie Himself can't win on it.
As for MB coming here, I figure TOP is very aware of this site and its' content, and its' participants.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Amen Dalladoc
When I got thoroughly disgusted with the Obama administration in 2009 I took MB's advise and worked local grass roots for down ticket local Dem. candidates. We helped get so called Dem. 'progressives' elected to the state house, city council/supervisors, governors and dogcatchers.
Every damn one of these bent Democratic weasels (with the exception of Sen. Merkley) turned on a dime and are busy demolishing, wrecking and privatizing this city. ROI and growth that's the ticket. The governor after running as a environmental, healthcare for all liberal Dem. candidate announced immediately after being sworn in 'Oregon is open for business'. One of his first act's was to start shipping coal down the river to then ship to China. He had to resign as he was arrogantly running pay to play crooked environmental scams.
Yesterday I followed a link and went to dkos. I was appalled even the liberal Democratic wing of the party does not get it. Statements like, independent's and young people who refuse to unite or won't vote Democratic want to be wooed by the Democratic party not shut out. To me this is exactly why people aren't buying their song and dance. I don't want to be wooed by a lying D. pol singing songs of incremental freedom. Telling me that Killary is a liberal or that we need to get more Dems. elected or else does not cut it.
I already got wooed by Obama and co. disguised as 'progressive's. Most people with a non washed brain are hip to their jive. They are interested in how to get the partisan Dem. machine crooks out of office. I know what the Republicans are about and now know exactly what the Democratic party is about on every level. So wooing is right off. People's bs meter's are on full tilt. Have been for years. It's a small miracle that after Obama's bait and switch the people are still willing to take on the establishment political machines.
Why would the growing numbers of disillusioned voters believe the lies the Dem. pols spew to get elected. This is not electoral politics it's extortion. A partisan farce, a dog and pony show that is disconnected from democracy, representation or fighting for the common good. More duopoly kabuki is nothing I will vote for. Wooing people because they see the game in play is adding insult to injury. It just makes me mad on top of being sad.
I think Obama was ran because
I think Obama was ran because he has a fan base, of people who are like fans of movie stars, or sports heroes, and who support him for his personality, and for identity politics reasons. His followers were largely apolitical otherwise, and would support him even after he betrayed his own word, because they don't know or understand issues, and simply root for him to win, no matter what. The trouble with his fans is that they can't be depended on to vote in elections he is not running in, if he doesn't bother campaigning, thus the midterm disasters.
He is not in this election, but probably will work to elect Clinton, since his record is on the line. That is why the pitch for Hillary is to "Continue Obama's Legacy!" It is a pitch to Obama fans, who don't care about politics, so much as personality. Whether his fans will bother is an open question. The losses could be attributed to Obama's lazyness, and lack of campaigning and desire for a republican congress to pass tpp and ttip, as much as his absence at the top of the ticket.
He might have just thought he'd say all the right things, pass a Romneycare mandate to buy private health insurance. Use his fans to trash talk real activists who complained, then get a republican congress to pass his real goal of helping corporate America outsource more middle class jobs. Then campaign against them to get his good buddies Billary elected.
Hope you feel better soon, dk!!
Sorry to hear about your illness.
Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons
Please take care of yourself, and
get well soon.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Abby Martin is great!
She actually commits real investigative journalism. I love her passion.
dk, I hope you are now on your way to getting well again. Take care of yourself. We need you!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Ah, dkmich, you make me laugh and I agree with you!
Lol, may be it should even be a study in a more academic journal, like "Psychological Science"? At least I want my usage as a guinea pig for those scientists to be taken very serious and expect high quality standards in gauging my participation there over the years. /s
And I agree, that, if Stein has accepted to become the VP to Sanders and him running on the Green Party structure, Bernie should simply do it, AFTER he lost the primaries that is. It's a risk that I think the time has come for to be taken by Sanders and all other left-leaning or environmentally concerned people. I don't see any reason of why not promoting that.
You say Sanders is walking away from its own fight for a political revolution, but I hesitate to follow you in this judgment. Let's wait and see. There are many ways to Rome and which one he will go is not written in stone yet. Neither is there a guarantee that one way is the only one that could lead to achieving the goal of a political Sanders-style revolution.
Oh, and I don't want a NN-type convention for C99p folks either. I find the emotional dependency to the dailykos site, past experience on that site and relating of all your political activities as a result of your past dailykos pains and hurts there as slowly becoming an unhealthy fixation and attachment.
Please try to organize without referring back to dailykos. Makes no sense to me.
I hope you will feel better soon, dkmich. Pneumonia is not a laughing matter. Take good care of yourself.
https://www.euronews.com/live
lol - it's the demon codeine talking mimi
IF Stein is offering what I think I read, he should go into the convention with the threat to do it. IF he then loses, he should do it. If he won't do because of some promise or silly principle (yes, I said silly principle), then he's selling him, us and everything he said out.
All I know is that I am done with vote for Hillary because _________________. There are times when you have to stand and face the ugly truth no matter how scary it is. The ugly truth is that we are doomed whether Trump or Hillary are the President. The only choice is how we die. We need to stand and fight and take the consequnces good and bad. I'm ready. I want to burn the company store down.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
c99 and beyond
There are three exciting projects happening, and I'm hoping that our right and left hand know what they are doing. Yesterday I wrote to all three of these projects to suggest dovetailing their efforts and being additive rather than repetitive.
First:
Ralph Nader is sponsoring a major gathering in Constitution Hall in DC May 23-26
https://www.breakingthroughpower.org/
Each day has a different theme – Breaking through Power, Media, War, and Congress.
Speakers range from Jim Hightower to Micheal Moore
Second:
After the primaries, but before the convention June 17-19 in Chicago
http://www.thepeoplessummit.org/
Third:
https://brandnewcongress.org
I know the Nader project plans to live stream and stimulate spin off discussions. c99 might be helpful to all these efforts.
As a final thought, I was just over at the DailyLost to read the BNR...and I just want to say how much I appreciate this site...both the tone and the participants.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Right hand meet left hand...
In addition to the link I left above, Midwest Don left the link below in the BNR at dailykos.
http://www.c-span.org/video/?408478-4/washington-journal-cenk-uygur-prog...
Just speaking for me. I do not want to "build" for next time. Now is not the time for that. Now, I want to circle the wagons and finish what Bernie started dead or alive. I want him to do a Third Party run and Jill Stein has an organization she is offering to him. I am going to listen to some videos and educate myself on the options people are putting out there. I made friends with Sean Shealey on FB, and it sounds like there are a lot of activists on the left that are fed up and fucking done. Maybe revolution and not just conferencing is in the air. I am reading that some say CA could go 60/40 or Bernie. Imagine a contested convention where he gets to stand up and tell Hillary and the Dems to put up or FO. Hope he's got the balls.
Thank you all for the well wishes. I was discharged and came home yesterday. Have a few days of bed rest and recovery to go.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Just noticed CitizenofEarth has it posted too. eom.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
here's an
interesting video DK. Former bill clinton adviser talking about what progressives can do. Well worth the watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMMf_b05cJc&feature=share
Thanks,
Cenk was fantastic on cspan. My god, plain english. I know there is a video floating around about Bernie's proposal should he lose. I think his wife Janet did it. If anyone has a link, I'd love it.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Thanks that was fascinating
We do need a movement on the outside and inside, one to raise social and media awareness of issues and possible alternatives, but with another arm dedicated to contesting the seats of establishment Dems in primaries, such as Tim Canovsa is doing to DWS.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Actblue is pretty dedicated
Actblue is pretty dedicated to electing progressives like Canova, & Sanders. There is also brandnewcongress.org, but when I signed up for it, it took me to the Actblue page.
I thought ActBlue was associated with the Dem Party
Setup as a donations infrastructure and names collection for Dem candidates -- Federal, state, local levels. That's my impression. Sanders of course is forced to use it b/c he is running as a Dem.
And if that's the case, IMO, it's a not a good place to send donors. All your supporters will end up in the Dem party lists. The party is so Neo-liberal now, I don't think there is enough worth saving.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
They work within the party,
They work within the party, but do not support non-progressive Democrats, or share their mailing lists with the DNC, or democratic organizations that elect neoliberals. So they are inside game. I am still open to the possibility that the Democrats can change, but I am also open to supporting non-democratic-party-progressives, when they run neoliberal candidates. That is what the inside-outside game means. It is about not putting all your eggs in one basket.
Yeah to the insurgency
within the Democratic party. I was amazed at the comment section on this you tube. The comments on you tube are usually conservative, racist and crazy but most of the comments seemed to agree the Democratic party needs to go. People talk about 'spoilers' like Nadar if ever a political party needed spoiling it's the Democratic party as we find it. Where do we go from here? How about a massive demonstration at the Dem. convention? Or would that turnout like Chicago in the 60's where they would unleash the good squads to dish out the violent abuse?
Glad you're getting better, DK. If
Bernie doesn't get the Dem Party nomination (or run third party), we can't see any other choice but to vote Green or Socialist--depending on which parties have ballot access.
OTOH, sorta wish that Bernie and Jane would form a new Party for 2020--inviting other third Parties to join them!
If they chose not to do so, we're hopefull that a movement outside the Dem Party will be able to get traction.
Take it easy.
Mollie
elin karlsson @ WordPress
"To Thine Own Self Be True, And It Must Follow, As The Night The Day, Thou Canst Not Then Be False To Any Man."--William Shakespeare
Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.
Gosh, I have never had the happiness
of going down a thread and tipping everyone! It is so like my home here.
There was mention above (sorry, poster) about circling the wagons. That has a defensive connotation from TV, but in reality, joining is strength. And unlike the Conestoga people, we are connected, air or wire, across time zones. In semi-real time. Which we get.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I know that a key player in the opt-out movement
is the BadAssTeachers group, (badassteacher.org). BAT is very involved in the opt-out movement, and in the efforts to stop all of the privatizing of public education money.
"Stand Up! Keep Fighting!" - Paul Wellstone
privatizing of public education - About as Neoliberal as it gets
Squeezing kids education for Profit$. What could go wrong. Look what that has done for US Healthcare. (cough cough)
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
MI GOP is a ramming vouchers through Michigan....
without hearings and despite the fact we voted them down. neoliberal/gop, hillary is trump and trump is hillary.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Some of you are getting a major point --
about this diary -- that the idea of what counts as "acceptable topics" at DKos was way too narrow, especially under the DK3 software with its tight requirements for getting on the Rec List.
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Growth is good ?
Says my favorite fabulous socialist blogger. This site will grow as it should it's a great place. I do however have qualms about turning it into an alternative dkos. Yesterday I followed a link to dkos and got really disgusted with some commenters who I actually do respect. I got mouthy and thought, good I'll get HR'ed into oblivion and then won't have the option of logging in and get involved in their useless crap. Let's do the cooked up numbers the demographic political game that's unhinged from the reality we will end up with no matter how many fake progressives you can fit on the head of a pin.
I didn't get punished flagged or punished but I got a lot of hooey about electing better Dems. and wooing the indies and young'uns back to the fold. Wooing people who are hip to their jive is not what's needed I like cc99% because it is not partisan. It helped me make the break not with just dkos but with the Democratic party and banished any fear of Republican loonies that was lingering in my unconscious mind. It gave me the courage to let it go.
I'm still a political junkie but cannot find one redeeming value in working within the rigged duopoly. Arguments about Bernie's revolution continuing via the Greens or whatever after he loses in a rigged farce of a primary leave me cold, so does running and electing better Dems. First off it's not Bernie's revolution it's a people's movement. I look at it as the start of something better beginning as the song says.
Sometimes I get upset that Bernie still caucuses with the Democrat's. Why play by the rules of mass deception that our electoral party system has become when the machine has slammed the door in our and Bernie's face. You know when Bernie says shit like yes it's legal to have a kill list and drone weddings, Bob Dylan's lyrics come wafting into my mind. 'Don't follow leaders and watch the parking meters.'
I realize this is election season. I take heart in the movement Bernie has engendered just as I did when Labour managed to get Corbyn as a leader or when the Greek leftist Syriza party briefly was voted power. This is a globalized coup by the oligarchical collectivists and these fuckers are going to stamp out any democratic populist movement anywhere it shows signs of growing or gaining traction. In that sense I'm in but I do believe I've had enough of the dkos mentality that advocates for propping up a dead system that just eats votes and money and fines you when you slam the door.
My interest is more in helping and figuring out how to take these fuckers down non-violently. There is no political partisan vehicle for people to address there grievances both sides are complicit and the dismantled it. We have to create our own. The church of Bernie without Bernie needs to be founded. Inside and out of their gates. I for one will keep voting but have little faith that either Jill Stein , The Green's or Bernie are willing or able to seriously take them on. I guess I'm saying I'm really tired of this farce of an election and think we the people ought to quit dancing to their tune.
Yes indeedy it is exciting to watch this place grow and bloom but i want it to stay our garden and not a replica of kos's without kos.
A political revolution requires a crowd.
Let's form a crowd!
Anyway I'm glad you rate me highly!
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
I rate you
as one of the best blogging encounters I have ever read. A crowd is required and there seems to be one gathering despite the duopoly's grip on democracy. I am only saying the crowd gathered at dkos is one I do not want to rejoin after having extracted myself from it's delusional reality.
I think your excellent diary's from long ago on the Mexican state of Chiapas about “La Vía Campesina" and the modern Zapata's that hooked me into reading every anti-capitalist diary you wrote I staggered on. That hooked me and I read you whenever I see you on this world wide web.
http://www.schoolsforchiapas.org/teach-chiapas/zapatista-timeline/
Crowds are important but so is the content that motivates the crowds to swarm. I'm retisant at this point to join in on crowd swarms that tell me I need to not be an ideological purist and use whatever bs. pragmatic politics this rigged fascistic system regurgitates and calls reform or incremental change.
I support the movement Bernie has engendered but I've had enough of crowds that cannot connect the humanistic dots. I'm not a fan of data and scienceman. Fish out of water is one of the few that does not declare me a anti-science, fundy, RW, asshole ignorant teabagger cause I don't believe in massive vaccinations of newborns or GMO's or Nukes. I'm a organic wholistic crackpot from way back Man I don't even have a microwave or a cell. Don't even get me started on freaking numbers/demographics/stats of mass deception. Which by the way my income is derived from, as we crunch those numbers and stats daily.
So I'm stoked this place rocks and it's numbers will grow organically as we all need someone to lean on. A crowd is needed. I notice it's out there looking for a home. I just don't care anymore about even the smart people who buy into this farce. So your a better man/woman then I as your willing to take on the 'crowd' as they are... I got no interest in convincing anyone from dkos to give it up. Which is what the crowd gathered should do give it up as far as the established system goes.
hugs for that comment, shaharazade,
the only darn thing I see is that now I HAVE to read all of cassiodorus essays. I am drowning ...
Emotionally I can hear you well. Good Night.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Rock on, Shaz!
I could not agree more.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Thanks again shaharazade!
At present I'm trying to achieve lift-off in several ways -- ditching Daily Kos for an archive on Wordpress, publishing in academic journals (I'm getting a lot of book reviews published in a journal called "Capitalism Nature Socialism"), and maybe writing a book...
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
Hey Shaha!
There's been other break ups with that place, so many times the creator of the blog said some shitty things. I had left it twice before during other conflicts. But this is not that. It wasn't just Markos. It's the shutting down of any free though.
I knew trouble was brewing when I started questioning why drones were okay with Dems.
Also...too.... Kos never cared for "street action", I was told to be very careful about some of my older Codepink stuff because the Great One didn't believe in street protests.
That place didn't want to talk about OWS they just wanted to criticize.
Very critical but probably not very active.
I look forward to see you again out in the street.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Code pink rocked. They sure impressed me!
(edited for clarification) if you would hear msm
TV news producers talking about them, you just knew that the code pink people must have been really great. The amount of ridiculing and efforts to put them down verbally in the news studio was very "telling".
https://www.euronews.com/live
Agree with every word
and think that the next part of the drama will happen in the streets. I really hope that it is non-violent but suspect that it may be a very long hot summer. There has been a huge change over the last eight years - more internet consumption and less network news and proof positive that Democrats in power do pretty much the same as Republicans in power (aside from a little social issues kabuki) has lead to a much more sophisticated public. The toothpaste is not going back in the tube.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
what's the point of daily kos now?
as it exists now, dailykos is nothing more than a subreddit for hilllary users.
anyone who is pr0-bernie posting there will be treated as the enemy
did 9 months in California prison, because Neoliberal Democrats and GOP maggots work together to profit off the drug war
Try to get the memo out --
to bobswern if you can...
“When there's no fight over programme, the election becomes a casting exercise. Trump's win is the unstoppable consequence of this situation.” - Jean-Luc Melanchon
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