@Big Al
was Diane Feinstein. And just in case I didn't get the hint, it was in 1984.

#2 It's just that when they get in your face and tell you to fuck off while they do it, like Trump is doing, that takes it up a notch.

@SnappleBC

What is there to learn?

Tell this to the many people who keep saying that the DP needs to do this.....if they want to be back in control again.,
People have been writing this since the Bush administration and before. If this many people know what they need to do, they already know what do, they just don't want to do it. This was made abundantly clear in 2006 when we put them back in power and we know what they did and what Pelosi said.

#3

One of the funny things when I read DKOS is how they all feel that I ought to have learned something from my "error" in casting a vote for a 3rd party. What they don't seem to understand is that I knew from the beginning that Trump was awful. I haven't learned anything. He's performed about as I would've expected. The Democratic party has also performed almost exactly as I expected. What is there to learn?

Of course I would repeat my same voting pattern given similar choices. I fully expect them to offer up a similar choice in 2020. My two state senators are lost causes (WA) -- ditto my representative.

@SnappleBC @SnappleBC
So far he has Far Exceeded My Expectations (Terrifyingly Horrific).

I love how the Conman in Chief always punctuates his lies with "Believe me!". And his Dumbass Supporters Marks believe him.

Most Americans are dumb shits -- still towing the two party line. Hey I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box, but even I have finally figured out neither Ds nor Rs are on my side. WTF is it going to take?

#3

One of the funny things when I read DKOS is how they all feel that I ought to have learned something from my "error" in casting a vote for a 3rd party. What they don't seem to understand is that I knew from the beginning that Trump was awful. I haven't learned anything. He's performed about as I would've expected. The Democratic party has also performed almost exactly as I expected. What is there to learn?

Of course I would repeat my same voting pattern given similar choices. I fully expect them to offer up a similar choice in 2020. My two state senators are lost causes (WA) -- ditto my representative.

@Big Al institutions.

Good messaging, framing, can make a Republican support a Lefty.

Drumpf framed his run quite well to run Left economically. Smart people should have known it was a dodge, the bait before the switch, but it was a well framed argument, for sure.

"These corporate assholes are robbing us blind. If they move their shit overseas, I'm gonna slap a tariff on them so fast it will make their heads spin. Believe me..."

Bernie's ruthless attack on the oligarchy and rigged political and economic system that benefits only the wealthy was a strong message that resonated and activated people. It dovetailed with and reinforced Drumpf because the Message from the Democratic Establishment was so un-believable.

Activating values in people is key -- the Message happens in the receiver -- you can say whatever it is you want, but the person receiving the message gets to decide what it means. It makes great strategic and tactical sense to hone a message that activates your values when it is received.

A movement without a message is doomed to neoliberal or Establishment cooption, especially given the reach and technical prowess of corporate propaganda. Too easy to wedge a poorly framed, emotional response.

The lack of a message coming from the Left for decades and the manufactured message that was trotted out as "Liberal" or "of the Left" has tamped down revolution time and time again.

The fact that Bernie and Cornyn struck the same chord at the same time is quite key to this moment in history. The message is there,"government is about people, not profits". Arguments that buttress humanity and secure a livable future run counter to the corporate propaganda and they are ascendant as corporate sponsored political and media mouthpieces are losing their grip on reality and alienating supermajorities of Americans.

They must be crafted and continue to be crafted to activate the receiver of the message and point them at the oligarchs. It's really rather easy, if we stay "on message".

Problem is that smart, creative people want to be unique in their thinking and don't really believe that the message happens in the receiver. They should have paid attention more in literature class. Because everyone knows that rain is a rebirth... and yet, many times, it's just what we read into it because 'we're so smart and creative'.

The very idea that the pedestrian argument of "maybe it was just raining..." is unacceptable, even when the author comes out and says it. That message? The one of rebirth? That happened in the receiver. Once it starts happening in the receiver, it can't be stopped. Everything fits it. So much so that they'll argue with the author about what his or her intent was while writing it.

@Big Al

#5 Messages are for political parties. A revolution isn't about an agenda, it's about changing the power structure. Most of the left have been fixated on agendas with something in it for everyone, higher minimum wage, health care, environment, etc. But few calls to actually take down this political system and those who control it, the oligarchy and plutocracy and institute actual democracy in this country.

Let all the people decide on health care, the environment, human rights, etc., in a democratic matter, not just because the left wants it. But to do that, first we need a system that gives the people the power to democratically decide, not a system that is controlled by the rich and powerful.

Nothing else really matters when we're being ruled as slaves with no say in how we are governed. That's really a proven fact at this point. I agree with the need a common goal which has been a problem on the left, particularly since Occupy. In the sixties, it was Power to the People, now it's more like Alms for the Poor.

@Big Al
Theresa May actually said (to a parliament's question) "What good is having a deterrent if you don't use it?"

#6 but still hard to believe "they" would do it, because it would have to be more than Trump of course. I remember when Trump was campaigning, one of his spokespersons went on TV and remarked how what's the use in having nukes if you don't use them. I pointed out that mentality to little avail.

Hard to say, if the MIC has as much influence on things as they say, they might feel they need something big to justify all the weapons and the massive increase in defense spending over the next ten years. We are talking about a lot of sociopaths and psychopaths that think on a different dimension.

@Johnny Q @Johnny Q @Johnny Q

The US PTB are threatening a further whole whack of countries, long listed as targeted for military/corporate take-over, with attack/invasion/annihilation and these cannot back down to suffer the same fate as other countries doing so have done. They must band together - as they are doing now - to try to deter the monster and, if attacked, might as well go down fighting back - fighting together when the next one(s) is/are attacked - rather than disarming and being dragged/bombed down helplessly, in chains for which they've then effectively held out their hands, as sacrificial victims, with their countries offered in them.

Not that TPTB have accepted diplomacy or compromise by pulling blatant military threats out of their regions or entered into the negotiations offered them - and notoriously fail to keep their word anyway.

The targeted countries have the same restriction of options as have been left to the American people by the lawless and ruthless PTB.

And unfortunately, the North American public (like the rest of the threatened world) can only wait for the nukes to start flying, because The Psychopaths That Be imagine that they can happily and comfortably survive even nuclear devastation, and that the world they've destroyed in the taking will somehow still support not only oxygen-producing life but tech.

TPTB are a hazard to planetary life and speeding up the process by these and other more independent countries surrendering to them is likely recognized as being no kindness to human or other life on Earth in allowing them to kill it off more slowly by unrestrained military and polluting industry toxins and destruction. As they already have been, at a previously unimaginable and snowballing rate.

Edited because I cleverly missed typing two words I kinda needed... and again because I missed several letters... needz moar coffeeeee!

#6 Is Kim Jong Un the kind of guy who would go for a Dead Hand scenario?