A funny thing happened on the way to the forum
I'm having fits of giggles at the moment.
You know when you argue about any kind of reform before an election takes place the partizans poo-poo it all the time?
Campaign finance reform: No we need as much money as THEM! We will deal with it later!
Term limits: Will give the lobbyists power!
Public financing: We need as much money as THEM!
Electoral College reform: We are going to win by a landslide!
Opening up the system to more parties: You god-damned traitor! How dare you want 2 votes!
Lobbying reform: Everyone has a right to lobby! Except when the reality says that individuals are brushed aside for the fat cats.
Transparency: Let THEM do it first! Those speeches were PRIVATE!
We will release our dirty laundry if THEY do it first!
What they said was to a PRIVATE meeting!
Look if they have a right to use revolving doors so do WE!
Look our candidate has the right to cash in when out of office!
MONEY DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING WHEN IT IS GIVEN TO OUR CANDIDATE! IT DOES NOT INFLUENCE THEM!
Until it all goes per shaped that is, then everything is back on the table.
CHANGE THE RULES SO OUR CANDIDATE WINS!
Sheesh bloody lefties talking about voter fraud, never happens, no proof, how silly, bloody conspiracy theorists the lot of you! PURISTS!
Oh wait...
OUR CANDIDATE LOST!!!
VOTER FRAUD!
RECOUNT!!!
Machines count better than humans...WAIT IT'S DUE TO THE MACHINES!! HUMAN RECOUNT!!!! TAMPERING!!!
Then once the fury dies down, all thought of reform will all be forgotten and they will remember to kick a lefty as usual.
It would be hilarious if it was not so damn predictable.
Expect the begging letters for 2018 to start soon..wait I think I have got one....
Now if their candidate had won they would all be laughing at any hint of wanting to change the rules and how fraudulent the system is ... calling it sour grabs.
Rinse. Repeat.
2018 Vote The Least Bad v20.156
Comments
I apologise for the shouting but it is hard to do an essay
through the noise.
Its not shouting
unless it's bold, italicized, underscored caps.
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
I wont go there, it might sound unhinged
word
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams
I think the Dems went to 11 on the Cognitive Dissonance Scale
this time around. They really blew it, the whole Potemkin structure just fell right over.
The coup de grace to their cluelessness was Re-Elected Head Lemming Nancy Pelosi announcing that no, Dems didn't have any desire for a new direction, they simply had to find a better way to message their non-message. Nancy and Chuck Schumer will be the last ones standing as they turn out the lights on their empty caucus rooms wondering, "gee, where'd everyone go?"
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
A yet still some cling to changing the party from the
inside, trouble is the inside has putrefied.
What the Democrats themselves want as evidenced by their
behavior is to be the Party that combines the centrist Dems with the moderate Republicans.
All of their actions and strategies lead to that conclusion. Drive away liberals and Bernie supporters by calling them racist misogynists? Check. Throw out blue collar workers in the hopes of getting suburban moderate Republican voters? Check.
Why not simply believe them? Why beat one's head against the wall trying to be part of a club that doesn't want you and doesn't share your values beyond mealy mouthed lip service about "Stronger Together" while they unite with Republicans on an austerity platform of deficit reduction and trade pacts?
Why would anyone willingly Embrace the Suck (thanks, Nancy!) that the Democrats have become?
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "
Party membership was only at 29% of registered voters before the
Wikileaks kerfluffle hit the fan. The fastest growing block of registered voters were Independents. I believe I read that that was a historic low for Democrats. Okay here's where those stats come from:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/188096/democratic-republican-identification-n...
Wonder where the 'Party' is at now? It's got to be hurt rting for money. Especially now that their money-making star attraction seems to have been put out to pasture. But don't take your eyes off her. Look at the number of times a metaphorical stake has been driven in HillBillula's supposed 'heart' only to see them come back to life greedier and more self-serving and influential than ever, just like nothing ever happened.
Bram Stoker would have been impressed.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Agree. No Labels is loaded with Clintonites. NL vilifies the
right of the Republican Party and the left of the Democratic Party. NL wants one big Party whose policies are, to channel Obama, those of moderate Republicans of the 1980s. Guess who those moderate Republicans of the 1980s elected President. Yet Obama and Clintonites pretend to vilify Republicans. They've gone Through the Looking Glass.
Stunning isn't it.
Clinton had the mass media on her side. Clooney was out there getting her millions. Clinton out-spent Trump on TV ads. Paid trolls invaded social media fighting any anti-Hillary posting. And she came out of the primaries with a media that essentially blacked out Bernie. The democrats through their candidate in no way lacked opportunities to push out a message. But as one pundit noted, nine percent of her ads were on the economy/trade--Trump around 35% I believe. Over 3/4ths of her ads were attack ads against Trump.
Absolutely right--the democrats had no message to deliver or even believe in.
Caps are necessary here
to give it the right feeling.
I don't know that I am giggling though . . . sort of feel like barfing.
I want to just ignore all those assholes now. I feel like I would like to attend a Lakota Sweat Lodge ceremony after the experience of the past two years. Don't know much about it (my ancestors were Norwegian lutherans), but from what I have read, it sounds cleansing and healing.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
Laughing helps me get the bile out.
Enough time for rage in February next year.
Ah ...
Laughing prevents barfing. Good advice!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
There's a particular herb that does wonders for nausea.
After Valentine's Day.
The Norse went in for saunas
Somewhat the same idea, but with rather less ceremony. They may have gotten the "sauna" thing from the Finns, or possibly vice-versa. (It spread all the way to Russia, where steaming baths followed by an icy plunge were considered especially healthful.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
The truly crazy Finns
cut two holes in the ice. They jump into one and come out the other.
"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."
I think they cut THREE holes - two in the ice and one
in their head......
I'm sure that an Estonian/Finnish
saun/sauna [esp. of the unisex ("sega") variety] would give much the same experience.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
While corporations make decisions via quarterly profits
the Deep State has really long-term planning. Decades, generations. There are too many people and the easiest way to take care of that problem is a big die-off.
Fucking deep state can't
even prosecute a Mid East war without drawing in the worst sorts of allies and frenemies. They are at war with themselves. More likely some global warming famine or morphed virus or bacteria. I'm voting for "giant meteor." First comes global financial melt down with various kinetic dust ups. I see your dressed in your off planet suit. Well good for you. I'm reminded of the classic line from "Alien" that "we lift off planet and nuke em...only way to be sure"
Don't underestimate your enemy.
I would remind readers that the
deep state candidate lost. Got more votes however. Aside from several crazies they are stacking the Trump cabinet with DOD and Wall Street deep state grifters so not hard to play catch up. I'm starting to think it's going to be the 80s all over again. Maybe the CIA will run some blow up from the south we could have a white xmas out here in California. Off topic I know but that's what the 80s did to me first time around.
The exquisite irony of it all
Last June, Vlad the Bad schooled Fareed Zakaria on American "democracy":
2:12 "As a side note, America teaches everybody else how to live with their lessons in "Democracy" - but do you actually believe the US elections are democratic? Twice in history was a President elected that had the most votes from Super-delegates, backed by the least amount of voters."
Many at the Great Orange Circle Jerk disagreed vehemently with Vlad at the time. Now, when Hillary has lost the Electoral College but won the popular vote, they've changed their minds and are agreeing with Vlad.
You now need to wear a tinfoil beanie to enter that blog. Don't forget, shinny side out and make sure it covers the entire frontal lobes. (You may also find a shit stick handy.)
"Great Orange Circle Jerk"
Love it!
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
And what was this about
And what was this about prosecutors chasing international observers away from polling places? Anyone got anything on this?
That video also led to this, among the selection following; I hadn't seen this particular one before, although it's likely been posted here already, as I can't keep up with all of these brilliant threads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TThkWlQsbcM
And it sounds like they've created everyone else's nightmare...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Unicorn Pinata
Because that's what they do.
Progressive to the bone.
Great article at Counterpunch
Except that the demands are
Except that the demands are wasteful bo-bunk in calling for one of the few actual life-long progressives to quit fighting for whatever good he can achieve if he doesn't drop out of a position where he can continue calling attention to what needs to be done and fighting for any of it to happen.
This was written by somebody who clearly has not been following the situation, knows nothing of strategy when fighting a massive and powerful monster few would dare tackle at all, and has been affected by propaganda intended to discredit not just Bernie and any hope of peaceful political change but of achieving democracy itself. And who evidently failed to see Hillary's reaction, when present, to Bernie's 'campaigning for Hillary' while keeping the concepts of democracy and of what could and should be done for the people in the media and the public mind, making a stark contrast between this and Hillary's 'Can't Do' where the people's needs were concerned. He endlessly repeated that Hillary knew what needed to be done - not that she'd ever do any of it, which was the first thought in the minds of all aware people listening and part of what Bernie kept alive in this manner throughout the election, which he could not otherwise have achieved.
How many times did Bernie say that change had to come from pressure from the people, that no one man could do it alone, that it was 'not me, it's us' - and how many times has Bernie finally achieved a public good said to be impossible by changing tactics as required and continuing the effort until at last something positive was accomplished?
Why would any real progressive be so set on tossing aside the contributions of other progressives on the grounds that they are not some Superman who they never claimed to be, in not overcoming a global corporate/billionaire Mafia of corruption staffed also with the US government, including the entire Justice system and other agencies, such as the head of the FBI?
How was dropping out, while spitting pointless defiance, at the Coronation going to achieve anything, when it was evident that the fix was in at all levels, that this was an unwinnable battle and that fighting it would simply have him removed from any position of fighting for his people? Bernie has moved on and is setting up to do his best for the people in an untenable situation - and that's why it's so important to TPTB that he be discredited and repudiated by those still unaware of what's being fought... Bernie never quits, he just changes strategies and keeps on keeping on for the greater good. And anyone who doesn't know that doesn't know enough about Bernie.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Excellent Comment. eom
-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962
I'll second that...
Excellent comment.
That tirade against Bernie reads like the kind of BS the Jillbots were spewing for months on Berner pages on FB.
'Come shout on the interweb with us, or you're not a real revolutionary Bernie.'
Their super-genius electoral strategy bagged their candidate 1% of the vote.
Clearly, reactionary thinking is not limited to the Repukes.
I take it that "Kick a lefty"
is much the same as "Punch a hippy" in similar contexts? I myself am resigned to being the hippy that is punched -- stood against That Damn War in the 70s, received my ration of tear gas (and punches), and just never seemed to learn --
When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.
When your principles don't
When your principles don't bow to force, neither do you, evidently. And thank you for your service to sanity, peace, democracy and the people of America and the world.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Difference between democrats and republicans
After 2000 it was very apparent more than ever that electorally reform was needed. What did the democrats and republicans do? The democratic leadership and base blamed Nader and did nothing. The republicans kept developing better and more efficient ways of essentially gaming and cheating the electoral system.
And now with 2020 approaching, the gop with even more gerrymandering and tricks will solidify their control over national and state governments. While democrats and associated pundits blame everybody but themselves.
Various democrats think that demographics will put the party back in power and permanently ease out the gop. That won't happen for a very long time--much much longer then they expect as the gop is building all sorts of barriers against that while the democrats are keen on destroying coalitions rather than building them.
Would strongly agree with
Would strongly agree with much of this, except that this seems to be a very coordinated effort between both corporate parties, albeit with some semblance of the pretense of opposition mingling with the Dem/Repub competition for the big donors/lucrative job creators which Hillary actually won prior to the general selection before making it obvious that she was not only unacceptable to the country and the rest of the world but less reliable even regarding her paymasters even than Trump.
However, I doubt the planned effects would have been much different between the two corporate/billionaire candidates, especially going by the selection for each of remarkably similar VPs and appointees by, I presume, delegates of TPTB.
However, I suspect that Trump is more likely to throw things off plan and to get more push-back. He also isn't going to fool any 'good Democrats' into thinking that his intent is good and he'll get it right, if they only passively wait things out. And, importantly, negotiations and pressure will start now, before he even enters office.
It must be made obvious that the fuck stops here and now, and that no means no.
Standing Rock is only the first step toward a potentially survivable future and the momentum needs to snowball across America and the already-collapsing world.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Difference between democrats and republicans
After 2000 it was very apparent more than ever that electorally reform was needed. What did the democrats and republicans do? The democratic leadership and base blamed Nader and did nothing. The republicans kept developing better and more efficient ways of essentially gaming and cheating the electoral system.
And now with 2020 approaching, the gop with even more gerrymandering and tricks will solidify their control over national and state governments. While democrats and associated pundits blame everybody but themselves.
Various democrats think that demographics will put the party back in power and permanently ease out the gop. That won't happen for a very long time--much much longer then they expect as the gop is building all sorts of barriers against that while the democrats are keen on destroying coalitions rather than building them.