Greenwald: Democratic Party is 'broken and failed'

Glenn Greenwald has delivered a devastating critique of the inept, corrupt, and sickly response of the Democratic Party to the 2016 election debacle.
The whole article is great, but there is one juicy item that stands out.

Perez was in Kansas campaigning for votes from county leaders and was asked about the need for the party to retain the support of the Sanders contingent. Perez unexpectedly blurted out a truth that party functionaries to this day steadfastly bury and deny even in the face of the mountain of evidence proving it. This is what Perez said:

We heard loudly and clearly yesterday from Bernie supporters that the process was rigged and it was. And you’ve got to be honest about it. That’s why we need a chair who is transparent.

That’s quite an admission from the party establishment’s own candidate: “The process was rigged.” And he commendably acknowledged how important it is to admit this — “to be honest about it” — because “we need a chair who is transparent.”

But Perez’s commitment to “transparency” and “being honest” had a very short life-span. After his admission predictably caused controversy — with furious Clinton supporters protesting the truth — Perez demonstrated the same leadership qualities that were so evident when Zaid Jilani asked him about Israeli human rights abuses.

He quickly slinked onto Twitter with a series of tweets to retract what he said, claim that he “misspoke” (does anyone know what that word means?), apologize for it, and proclaim Hillary Clinton the fair and rightful winner:

So in Tom Perez’s conduct, one sees the mentality and posture that has shaped the Democratic Party: a defense of jobs-killing free trade agreements that big corporate funders love; an inability to speak plainly, without desperately clinging to focus-group, talking-points scripts; a petrified fear of addressing controversial issues even (especially) when they involve severe human rights violations by allies; a religious-like commitment never to offend rich donors; and a limitless willingness to publicly abase oneself in pursuit of power by submitting to an apology ritual for having told the truth.

That is the template that has driven the Democratic Party into a ditch so deep and disastrous that even Vox acknowledges it without euphemisms. That is the template that has alienated voters across the country at all levels of elected office and that enabled the Donald Trump presidency. And it is the template that Democratic Party establishment leaders are more determined than ever to protect and further entrench by ensuring that yet another detached, lifeless functionary who embodies it becomes the next face of the party.

The rigged Democratic primaries is the infected, open wound of the party.
You don't have to have a medical degree to know that pretending an infected wound doesn't exist won't make it go away.

The day before Greenwald delivered another biting critique regarding the Dems anti-Trump movement.

And it is important to resist them. And there are lots of really great ways to resist them, such as getting courts to restrain them, citizen activism and, most important of all, having the Democratic Party engage in self-critique to ask itself how it can be a more effective political force in the United States after it has collapsed on all levels. That isn’t what this resistance is now doing. What they’re doing instead is trying to take maybe the only faction worse than Donald Trump, which is the deep state, the CIA, with its histories of atrocities, and say they ought to almost engage in like a soft coup, where they take the elected president and prevent him from enacting his policies. And I think it is extremely dangerous to do that.
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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

but we throw it away when inconvenient and let the CIA save us from outcomes we don't like?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

TheOtherMaven's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
More to the point, who can save us from ourselves?

:rolleyes:

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@TheOtherMaven

Who will save us from ourselves?

More to the point, who can save us from ourselves?

Russia.

/snark

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

TheOtherMaven's picture

@thanatokephaloides

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven Every day I'm more convinced I've awakened in a Soviet Bloc country.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

@TheOtherMaven

The answer to that is, of course, that only we can save us from ourselves. Or would be, if it was actually real people doing this, rather than the Parasite Class.

But we're still left with 'how' and 'when', especially because 'when' kinda went back several decades and there isn't a whole lot of 'when' left anymore. Or pacific 'how', come to that.

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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.

Bollox Ref's picture

Greenwald is a Ron Paul supporter!?

/s

(An oldie, but a goodie. Ah, TOP... so many good memories.)

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Bollox Ref A Putinite Naderite Tea Party Ron Paul supporter. Smile

Let's see how long we can keep it going....the words "rainbow" and "pony" should go in there somewhere...

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Bollox Ref's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Bollox Ref A Putinite Naderite Tea-Partying Ron-Paul-supporting pony-demanding purist.

Any other suggestions? I take requests!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Bollox Ref's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

gulfgal98's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I want a few unicorns in there too, preferably in pink and purple! Wink

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@gulfgal98 now you're just talking crazy

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gulfgal98's picture

@gjohnsit I am just trying to represent the "nut case" element of this site. Wink

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@gulfgal98 LOL that would be me, you beat me to the unicorns. Thanks.

Incredibly Tucker Carlson concludes why: It's the economy? Stupid? Yo! Calling James Carville, retread needed on aisle five or whatever. It is not like the Ds, the Clintons don't realize wtf they created. I am just never going to forget the immediate collapse of the Clinton Global Fund, why is no one going to jail for that laundering operation? Russia! omg

PEACE

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riverlover's picture

@gulfgal98 so I guess I am in the nutcase group as well.

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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.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gulfgal98 A Putinite Naderite Tea-Partying Ron-Paul-supporting purple-unicorn-believing pony-demanding purist.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Strife Delivery's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Going to need a bigger bumper for that sticker

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gulfgal98's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Yahoo

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Better check out that angle pronto.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@irishking Oh, YEAH! You're right, we can dump worries about racism and anti-Semitism strategically, when we like, and then pick it up again when it's useful--we're Democrats!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

UNICORNS!

Edit: ninja'd ages before I hit the thread, as I would have expected. Still, as long as I qualify for another purple-preferring nutcase. (Except for hot pink. Love hot pink.)

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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.

@Bollox Ref @Bollox Ref

let's say he was a Ron Paul supporter. So what?

Would that mean that nothing he's said since he supported Ron Paul can be correct, or even worth consideration?

Sure, some sources should be avoided, like an KKK or Neo Nazi website.

But source shaming on message boards that implies that everything from a Republican or Libertarian (or Naderite, or Green, or Russian, etc.) source should be dismissed out of hand is ridiculous. It's a modern type of book burning.

If any comments about the Democratic Party should be discounted, it's comments from Party insiders, because of the obvious self-interest. The first rule of news is objectivity and Party insiders are incapable of being objective (at least publicly) about the source of their livelihood.

If something is putting food on the table for my kids (or grandkids), I'm likely to be all for it (within reason), aren't you?

However, we should not discount them entirely. We should consider them, but taking into account the self interest. We should also consider what perhaps less biased sources have to say about the subject. On after that, should we make up our own minds.

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divineorder's picture

@HenryAWallace not supporting RP, which was a short period compared to his stellar career imo.

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

divineorder's picture

@divineorder

Democrats bracing for town hall protests directed at them ask Bernie Sanders for help

The request to Sanders came during a meeting with Schumer and a leadership team that stretches the ideological spectrum of his caucus. In addition to Sanders, a self-described socialist, and the moderate Manchin, the group included Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), among others.

Manchin is among the most imperiled Democrats facing reelection next year — one of five senators from states that Trump won in last year’s presidential election. In total, 25 Democrats face reelection in 2018.

Manchin insisted on Tuesday that the Democratic caucus is “unified in not wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It’s unified! So why would [protesters] spend any energy on any member who’s already committed to that? They might not like those of us who come from other parts of the country that doesn’t adhere to everything they say or want done, but on the big items, put your energy somewhere else. Bernie can deliver that message better than anybody else.”

In a statement, Sanders made no mention of the Democrats’ request and did not deny that it happened, but he also said that he would keep lobbying for a measure that would make it easier to reimport cheaper prescription drugs from Canada — an issue that has divided Democrats. Last month, when 12 members of the Senate Democratic caucus broke with Sanders, they took a larger-than-expected amount of friendly fire from progressive activists.

“The good news is that during the budget debate, 34 Democrats voted with 12 Republicans to substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs through reimportation,” said Sanders. “During the last several weeks, my office has been working hard with those Democrats who voted against this amendment to write a strong bill that they could support. We also will be working with Republicans who voted against the amendment.”

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

@divineorder

IIRC, Greenwald himself wrote something refuting that, but I don't feel like researching it right now.

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this country has gone to the desperate extreme of electing a brain-dead reality TV star as President. Obama is still mucking around in the background. Nothing can change for the better until we replace the Democratic Party.

The GOP in Michigan is seriously looking to run Kid Rock for the US Senate. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if he won. Besides being a nut, he's done a lot of good things for Detroit. Thank god it isn't Nugent.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@dkmich Honestly, compared to the Clinton/Bush machine, Kid Rock looks like a good choice.

Fuck's sake.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Alligator Ed's picture

@dkmich Let's all remember that Rock and Roll Never Forgets. People get sick of government Leanin' on their dreams!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGR677oQfG4]

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@Alligator Ed "no one loves me here anyway" Maybe he stayed home. Thanks for the great memories, he made a great live show back in the day.

PEACE

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Alligator Ed's picture

@eyo ...and then, and then...He went back to the Motor City:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYygx1F0Bmw]

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gulfgal98's picture

@dkmich he'll probably run with a confederate flag in the background.

Oh well, with a "reality tv" con man as President, Kid Rock may be a step up. Shok

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

but I think people, even Greenwald, misunderestimate (heh) the American people when they limit it to being only a concern about their paychecks.

Equal in concern to Americans, in my experience, is the rampant corruption, the fact that they see establishment politicians as lying, cheating, bastards who will say anything in order to get what they want.

Trust has been broken at a fundamental level, and putting populist-sounding economic messaging into Hillary's mouth--or any of the usual suspects' mouths--ain't gonna cut it, because nobody believes a word they say.

Bernie was popular not only because he preached a message of economic populism, but because people--even those opposed to him, like Trump supporters--believed him to be honest and sincere. That's actually one reason why there was some crossover support, with people supporting Bernie and then turning to Trump. Now I happen to believe that Trump is a liar. But the American people KNOW that Hillary is one. And they're not going to vote for someone they know to be a liar. They'll vote for the greatest chance of honesty they can get.

And this is not an idealistic position, or at least not as idealistic as it seems. It is a deeply pragmatic one. Because if you can't trust a person's word, what the hell difference does it make what they say?

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

thanatokephaloides's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Now I happen to believe that Trump is a liar. But the American people KNOW that Hillary is one. And they're not going to vote for someone they know to be a liar.

Tom Perez's pants smell a bit smoky at this point also.....

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

shaharazade's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal It makes me laugh or cry, when i read the party big wigs nattering on about messaging being the problem. Good luck putting lipstick on this pig (as they used to say) when people have had to live with the results of their agenda/policy and 'way forward' for 16 years as Obomber's administration was jut a painted blue PC version of the Bushie regime. Don't they look at the congressional approval numbers?

Fear did not carry the day with The Insane Carnie Clown vs. The Psychotic Mad Bomber so how is doubling down on The Third Way's 'radically centrist' brand of anti-democratic messaging going to get people to give their consent to govern? Perez? Lordy! Everybody but the brainwashed or addicted to fear can see that the whole political system is a rigged farce. None of the above is the mode these days.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@shaharazade Now that DHS has taken over our elections, I suspect they'll just do without our consent.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Trump being honest in his duplicity and Hillary lied about hers.
A point up thread: I think the 2012 election would have been scarier if Ron Paul hadn't been Bernied (ok, i say Bernie was Ron Pauled) by the Rs and media. Even when he had pulled into 3rd place he wasn't even mention. Media would drop straight to 4th and 5th. A lot of people were already wising to Obama, and luckily Mitt was so broken.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@ghotiphaze Mitt was the worst candidate I've ever seen, other than Hillary, who is to campaign politics as a black hole is to light.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Strife Delivery's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Well she did suck up a billion dollars that vanished beyond the event horizon.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Strife Delivery We need a TARDIS.

satanpit2.jpg

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

shaharazade's picture

@ghotiphaze @ghotiphaze but i would have prefer Ron or Rand Paul to either Obomber, Romney, Clinton or Trump. I know the Paul's are a strange brew of the worst of Libertarians but at least they are not gung ho war and have a limited grasp on civil liberties. I think the whole problem for most of us regardless of our place in the tweaked political ideological spectrum is why we are forced to consent to any of these political charlatans including the DC courtesans.

They seem to never go away it's the same players as the last batch we thought we had gotten rid of. They lose and are discredited, a new broom is announced and voila the next thing you see is Summers, Rubin, Cheney, Clapper, Difi. Nancy and even freaking Kissinger back on the podium. Whack a mole. And it's not just the pols we get the same strategists and rich dudes with too much money and power and their mouthpieces in the media get to continue on, ad naseaum.

Then you say well now that the old guard has been changed we will have some change we can believe in. Thank god I won't have to listen to the discredited political hacks and partisan propagandist's on my TV or online anymore. And yet Rachael is still doing her 'but that's not good enough for the Republicans' partisan blather and the likes of that moron Chris Cillizza or that well known political hack and plagiarist Richard Wolf posing as a reporter for The Guardian, Wolfie the Blitzer or the bevies of scary female robot's they slap in front of you as news reporters or readers just never goes away. Because tptb own it all.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous in an endless procession across all media. Anyone who diverges and tells the truth as they see it or analyses the issues and dares to confront the 'fake news' is not trust worthy and should not be read or watched. RT Whoa! Russian propagandists. Wilkileaks? Well who trust's that rapist Assange. WaPo now that is real news and who can dispute that bastion of liberalism the NYT.

Sorry to rant but your comment triggered my knee jerk rant button.

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@shaharazade You have been on fire lately, Shaz. Please proceed with the rants.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@on the cusp Rants, rather than pants, on fire. Smile

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@shaharazade That gave me a good smile (the apology for the righteous rant).
You go! and carry on with carrying on.

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There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.

gulfgal98's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Perfect summation. I would add that the large outpouring of younger voters for Bernie was due to the fact they get most of their information via the internet and are skeptical until verified. It is very hard to bullshit them and they saw right through Hillary.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal But people are so easily manipulated, especially when there are so many competing discourses, many intentionally deceptive. And especially when "truth" telling has become a rare and, then, retracted occurrence.
For instance, people still believe that Trump will "drain the swamp", but I see the same banksters and corporate shills still in charge. He said he would pull back from global hegemony, but has now said that he fully supports NATO and he is speaking about regime change in Syria. He is supposedly interested in better relations with Russia, but expects Russia to return Crimea. The list goes on. His talk is erratic but his walk is straight neo-con.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@crescentmoon He's a liar about most of the domestic econ stuff, I think, but I think he was sincere about Russia. Trump won't profit from a world war, and he's not crazy in the right way to want a nuclear war. But he's probably come under intense pressure from the MIC to give them what they want, and standing up to those guys is, uh, hard to say the least. Do it too much, and you'll end up riding out of DC on a rail...or worse.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@crescentmoon

the swamp,' from everything that I've heard him say. While he was a candidate, he consistently boasted that he would appoint the best, brightest and most successful folks from the private sector. He often gave the example of Carl Ichan--whose net worth is $21.1 billion (Bloomberg). BTW, Ichan has accepted an informal advisory position (no pay), which doesn't require confirmation. He will advise DT on which regulations to kill.

IOW, DT was ridiculing career politicians--especially, FSC for her kowtowing to Goldman Sachs, and raking in extravagant speaking fees--who kiss up to folks 'like him' and Ichan. He wasn't knocking his own billionaire class, at all. He was mostly trying to make the point that wealthy folks like himself won't/don't have to sell out to rich donors, and therefore, will work for the good of the American People.

(This is his thinking, not mine--to be clear.)

Unfortunately, a lot of conservatives agree with him--including working class ones. Joe posted an excellent article by Paul Street on this topic a while back. As Street put it, whereas progressive lawmakers/leaders may point to the very wealthy as a 'villain,' conservatives often have more animus toward the managerial/professional classes who more directly affect them--adversely, in their minds.

Hey, I have given up even trying to reason with most conservatives. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a million times--"A poor man doesn't create jobs." Whew!

Bottom line, DT's base hasn't been duped at all (on this topic). For whatever reason, they share his worldview, and likewise save their contempt for pointy-head liberals/academics/professionals/lawmakers/Democrats from Ivy League backgrounds--instead of for the billionaire class, or the One Percent.

Mollie


"Every time I lose a dog, he takes a piece of my heart. Every new dog gifts me with a piece of his. Someday, my heart will be total dog, and maybe then I will be just as generous, loving, and forgiving."
____Author Unknown

“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore–to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
____Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

Available For Adoption, Save Our Street Dogs, SOSD

Taro
Taro, SOSD

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Unabashed Liberal Well, except for the fact that while they like big business, they don't care for big banks, especially after the unpleasantness in 2008. The bankers broke their moral frame, big time. They really, really don't like them now, though of course they try to put the bulk of the blame on the Fed.

They weren't looking for Trump to put Goldman Sachs throughout his cabinet. Tillerson wouldn't be a problem for most of them. Lloyd Blankfein....well....

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Bernie was popular not only because he preached a message of economic populism, but because people--even those opposed to him, like Trump supporters--believed him to be honest and sincere.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@irishking For a lot of people, yes. They feel they got Berned.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Big Al's picture

What about having a president who can sign orders like candy? What about having 537 people elected to represent 330 million? What about the fact that its so rigged third parties can't compete? What about a referendum system? What about direct democracy?
I think most people know both political parties are FUBAR, the questions we should be asking now are about our political system as a whole. I'd like to see Glenn address that.

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@Big Al

I can't even come close to identifying a time my "representative" represented a GD thing I wanted. I think I want a direct democracy. One person one vote. No parties. All federal laws must pass by a majority vote of the people.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

gulfgal98's picture

@dkmich Gwen Graham, a supposed Democrat who voted more often with the Republicans on the issues I cared about. Now she is talking about running for Governor or Senator, banking on being elected because she is Bob Graham's daughter. I like Bob Graham but will never vote for Gwen Graham again. She was awful.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

shaharazade's picture

@gulfgal98 to represent the peoples or the nations interests make me madder then the Republican's do. I know what the republicans are about and they have managed via Trump to finally get what they have been pushing for with their lizard brained idiocrasy. How can their be any democratic representation when it gets to the point where both sides offer Tweedledee or Tweedledum. Then when you say I won't play and they fine you when you slam the door.

I'm depressed about the insane clown The Hairball being the president and 'leader of the free world' and yet do not for a minute buy into the story line that the USA! is anything but a danger to the planet and human society at large. Who knows maybe this assholes ascendancy to the evil Empires throne will trigger real resistance globally and here in the USA! USA! USA! to the trumped up global and domestic facistic corporate NWO the the USA is leading and promoting.

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riverlover's picture

@shaharazade learning about USA! and Those Other Countries like USSR and how bad they were and all of their citizens were unhappy and poor? I felt so fortunate to have been born in USA! Richest county in the world! And we display our country's wealth by making war and death and destruction wherever we want. Nothing for Americans but USA! Where was the "we" in all that? POTUS? Senators? Representatives?

Liars, all.

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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.

gulfgal98's picture

@riverlover You could not graduate from high school unless you had taken a class called Americanism versus Communism. It was good old fashioned indoctrination.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gulfgal98 I got to that class right after it was changed to "Advanced Political Systems." It was "Americanism vs Communism" as recently as two years before I took it.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

shaharazade's picture

@gulfgal98 In the 10th grade civics was a required class at my HS. The teacher was a retired Marine Sargent from WW11 who taught us the opposite approach. He taught us about how political indoctrination and propaganda 'The yellow press' was used to gear up for wars and to influence and manipulate the public. He also passed out sheets with definitions like Sword Rattling, Flag Waving, Manifest Destiny, Patriotism, and other methods employed to whip people up for whatever mendacious agenda the pols wanted support for.

We learned about the Constitution but he spent more time talking about The Bill of Rights. We also learned a lot about American political history. Tammany Hall, Cook County, Jim Crow, Hearst's 'Remember the Maine'. All in all what a great class to take to prepare young people for the barrage of misinformation they were going to face in their futures as American citizens. Required reading was Common Sense, Jefferson and other founding fathers writings. Both Roosevelt's were compared and studied.

This was a huge inner city, demographically mixed HS.in LA, Pasadena. Ironically in the 12 grade we moved to a small up scale suburban white so called liberal town Oregon where I took a class called Current Events. This was when the Viet Nam war was heating up. The teacher was young and hip and taught us the back story of French colonialism in Viet Nam. We were asked to bring in a current news story we had found for discussion. This great teacher got fired abruptly in the middle of the term. He was too subversive and Un-American about what was currently going down.

When my kids were in HS their American history text book made my hair stand on end. Don't even get me started on how they told the story of Viet Nam war or the US genocide of Native American's. Two paragraphs wherein white people we're off the hook as once again 'Manifest Destiny'. I can't even imagine what young un's are taught these days. Too bad they don't have that old Marine civics teachers sheets to help them cut through the propaganda and bs.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@shaharazade Like this, only with a Marine!

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

gulfgal98's picture

@shaharazade where the Republicans stand. I give them points for being straight up about wanting to screw us. I hate liars more than I detest folks who are openly against us. Don't talk to me sweetly during the elections only to go vote the opposite.

For example, Gwen Graham ran on a very strong environmental platform and then one of her first votes was to support the Keystone XL pipeline. That vote alone turned me off because in no remote way could the Keystone be seen to benefit the people of north Florida so she had not justification for voting for to represent her district. It was simply corrupt. The Democrats and the Republicans are sucking off the same corporate tit, but at least the Republicans are honest about it.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Granma's picture

@Big Al write to him and ask him to address it. Some of us will sign it, I feel sure. I will. I'm serious, not joking.

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@Granma

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Creosote.'s picture

@Granma
It can't hurt, and might open links to the 99 percent.

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ZimInSeattle's picture

Dollars to donuts though Perez will be selected. It's amazing to see the Deep State doing some not so deep nefarious soft coup activities. Kind of scary too.

With members of the CIA and NSA leaking materials on Michael Flynn’s communications with Russian officials, we are witnessing a slow boiling domestic coup that will transform American governance and the Executive Branch’s relationships with intelligence agencies. It remains to be seen whether these moves signal broader attacks on the Presidency by agencies long accustomed to taking out administrations threatening the Agency’s perceived interests.

This moment tells us more about the CIA revolting against a particular administration than it does about Trump’s people engaging in unusually diabolical-illegal activities designed to undermine an outgoing administration. We know enough about Reagan’s pre-election dealings with Iran to know that the CIA and NSA knew about these transactions, yet these agencies were content to remain silent; apparently glad to see Carter ousted and welcoming a new era of unparalleled “peace time” military and intelligence spending. Similarly, American intelligence agencies knew of Nixon’s efforts to sabotage the Paris peace talks before the 1968 election, and the CIA did nothing to undermine a new president who was going to give the agency the war it wanted. The leaking of Flynn’s information tells us little new about how incoming administrations act, but it suggests something new about US intelligence agencies willingness to take out an administration not to their liking.

~snip~

The left’s widely shared disdain for Donald Trump makes the current rushing national wave of schadenfreude understandable, yet there are few on the left who appear worried about what this domestic CIA coup portends for American democracy. Because of the long history of liberals’ attractions to using the CIA, perhaps we should not be too surprised at this elation, but we need to cautiously think beyond this moment.

~snip~

Bold added.

More: http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/17/rogue-elephant-rising-the-cia-as-kingslayer/

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@ZimInSeattle Well, I know what side I'll fall on if it comes to that. There's no way I can side with the carnie and keep my self-respect, but the chances are high that I will side with right-wing citizens against the CIA, NSA, and the rest of the MIC--or any other citizens against the CIA, NSA, and the rest of the MIC. It would be great if the left wouldn't line up behind the CIA because of a bad case of electoral pique--or because Trump is genuinely a shithead. One shithead, even in the Presidency, isn't nearly as bad as an entrenched system of assassins and liars.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

orlbucfan's picture

FRightwingnut garbage eat each other alive. They then choke on it, and leave the rest of us in peace!! Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Cassiodorus's picture

something neither Sanders nor his minions could bring themselves to do.

Are any of those guys honest at all? It's like the old riddle about politicians: "How do you know if your politicians are lying?" "Their mouths are moving."

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"The war on Gaza, backed by the West, is a demonstration that the West is willing to cross all lines. That it will discard any nuance of humanity. That it is willing to commit genocide" -- Moon of Alabama

@Cassiodorus I am developing a much greater respect for used car salespersons than politicians, including Bernie.
He was my last gasp, got my $2700,and ended forever me helping anybody get elected financially.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

shaharazade's picture

@on the cusp and the 3 months I worked full time for his Oregon campaign from Obama. I had never before given money like that, we used an inheritance windfall. In 2008-10 our btb business income was cut in half by the casino meltdown We also both of us spent so much time, money and effort into Democratic 'progressive' politics via our county Dem. party that was nothing but a heart breaker for us and for the people in our community we duped into thinking that 'We were the change we had been waiting for'.

The fierce urgency of now required all of us to support some change we could believe in. Why do the Demorat's think ordinary people are so stupid that they won't believe their lying eyes. Fear of the Insane Clown Pres. they helped install? Fear of the Russians who are coming again? Fear of the 'terrist's who are gonna kill yer family'? It's insult to injury to tell people that they must resist what they are complicit with.

The Democrat's can't even bother to obstruct properly or convincingly. This includes Bernie, he who railed against the duopoly and then said he believes in the two party system. Thank god or Obomber, I had enough sense to not send Bernies campaign money and remained skeptical of his intentions. I was broke anyway due to this fucked up 'economy'. Once bitten twice shy is better then thinking that 'lesser evils' will save the day. None of them know or care the global hell they create with their madness.

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was based, I think, on your statement and a play on Trumps:

You don't have to have a medical degree to know that pretending an infected wound doesn't exist won't make it go away.

Drain the Abscess!

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"misspoke," "accident," "gaffe" and "career suicide."

At some point, someone invented "misspoke" because it came in handier than "made a mistake" or "lied." But it can also mean, "now regrets having told the truth." I think Perez now regrets having told the truth.

As far as the system being rigged, the most anyone has admitted--and only because emails proving it were made public--is that the DNC favored Hillary. What state Democratic Parties across the country did, what happened at caucuses, what precinct captains and vote counters did, etc. has been reported anecdotally, but no one has proven it, admitted it, etc. I think some cases are still in court, but I'm not sure.

For me, the iconic mental image of a rigged primary is now the state Democratic Party head peeling out of a caucus site with boxes of ballots in a car bearing the license plate "Hillary 2016." IIRC, that was Iowa, but I am not certain.

On the other hand, I think the Sanders campaign could have done better. For just one example, reports of state parties having available only Hillary bumper stickers and other materials abounded, at least early on. I got angry. But, those reports were met with, it's the job of the campaign to provide those materials. The Hillary people had dropped off materials, the Sanders people had not. If true, that was on the Sanders campaign. If false, the Sanders campaign should have denied it publicly.

But, bottom line, there was plenty of bias in favor of Hillary when there should have been none. And, irony of ironies, making that bias in a Democratic primary public is being labeled "election rigging" or even "rigging of elections."

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@HenryAWallace I noticed that too. There has been a remarkable reluctance to address the most fraudulent aspect of the election I know of, which is the alteration of people's voter registration data without their consent. Though apparently there was some outright vote-flipping as well.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

As you know, with Hillary, as a former First Lady, being better known than anyone else in the field, they attempted to limit debates to a total of four, scheduled the first one when it was too late to change voter registration in NY, and scheduled all of them on the most inconvenient times possible.

Bill Clinton showing up at the polls in several Massachusetts locations, escorted in Boston by the new Mayor, and glad handing voters and poll workers, was no small thing, neither. Sanders got only one delegate less than Hillary in Massachusetts, much better than Obama fared against Hillary there in 2008. However, media did not mention that, only that Hillary won. Massachusetts, being still considered archtypically "liberal" as the only state to have gone for McGovern in 1972, would have been a nice Super Tuesday victory for Sanders.

And we all know how msm helped the Hillary campaign keep Sanders under wraps. (See the Tyndall Report, among many other things.) The biggest political story of 2016 was not why Hillary lost the election, which is obvious, but why Sanders lost the primary. Yet, hundreds of online articles covered the former while the latter is a story untold.

BTW, the Mayor is up for re-election in November and is already facing a challenge. (Boston Mayors have a history of holding office a long time.)

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shaharazade's picture

@HenryAWallace which is illegal. He pissed me off almost more then his psycho wife did. I mean come on the Clinton's and the lame nasty Dems. including the so called 'progressives' let us all see how anti-democratic they are. Why is anyone surprised that Trump won? Why are people so freaked out that Briexit won? People globally and here do not like this global anti-democratic NWO shit. It bites them personally and it is killing the planet. You do not have to be a RW bigot or a deplorable to see which way the wind is blowing. Wake up liberals. Your 401k's and NGO jobs are not worth the price were all paying for this insane concept that this world as we find it is inevitable let alone good.

I'm not a believer in the current fashion that says that if RW deplorable's are for it I'm against it. Man I hope the EU and NATO is wiped out. This sick NWO is not inevitable it's a con. The stupidity that says resistance to unfettered capitalism (globalization) is going to lead to RW fascism is bs. It's nothing but fear to keep you thinking that the neoliberal/neocon global fascist's that rule the world are somehow better then any alternative that will surely be some kind of reactionary RW fascism left over from the lead up to WW11. Excuse me, but did not the US business dudes like Granddaddy Bush or the bootlegger daddy Kennedy all line up and support the Nazis?

So maybe have some faith in humanity and stop thinking this is the best we can do. It's not it's the worst.

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@shaharazade @shaharazade

had the Mayor. At a third, a tiny crowded lobby branch, he had neither. He just strode in and glad handed people on line waiting to vote. All three were highly inappropriate. I know someone started a lawsuit about blocked access because of him, his staff, his secret service protection and his sound equipment. I don't know, however, if that lawsuit continued after the primary fizzled out.

It's no surprise that Democrats are undemocratic. Two words: super delegates.

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@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

And ballot white-out... etc.

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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.

things differently than I do.

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Big Al's picture

@HenryAWallace "The more alarmed one is by the Trump administration, the more one should focus on how to fix the systemic, fundamental sickness of the Democratic Party."

Reminds me why I don't read him anymore.

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@Big Al

the historical reality is that, despite a plethora of political parties, either a Democrat or a Republicans has won every Presidential election for the past 150 years .That doesn't mean that it always has to be that way. But, realistically, I don't think any new party will win the next Presidential election.

I don't think Greenwald is saying that Democrats are good. I think he is saying only that Democrats are the Party likeliest to defeat Trump in 2020.

Besides, I don't see anything wrong with wanting either of the two largest political parties to be much better than it is--and both can be. After all, Republicans were once the Party of Lincoln and Democrats were once the Party of Truman (not that Truman didn't have his faults. Lincoln probably did, too, but the magnitude of the Civil War and Emancipation overshadowed his faults and the poor guy had only one term during which to disappoint us).

PARTIAL list of U.S. Political Parties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_St...

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Big Al's picture

@HenryAWallace To me, that's like saying the ruling class can be better. I'm not into alms for the poor, I'm into revenge on these bastards for what they've done and what they're doing. Taking away their power not helping them keep it. I'm talking about those that control the duopoly and this political system.
I think Greenwald is saying the best option to get rid of Trump is the democratic party. We just get another dem party president and the last two have proved that's a losing proposition.
I wonder if Greenwald would be saying the same thing about the republican party if Hillary "the war criminal" Clinton was president now.

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@Big Al

was "likeliest" by 2020.

When someone develops a workable plan for changing the entire system by 2020, I will gladly go for it.

While I'm waiting, any improvement from any direction is better than none, IMO.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al Seems very unlikely to me, or at least odd, given that he usually says the Democratic party is useless. After all, they're the ones calling the loudest for his client's head.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al I didn't actually read it that way. Which probably means I wasn't reading carefully. I thought he meant that you can't consider the shittiness of the Trump Administration without regarding the endemic corruption of the Clinton political machine aka the Democratic party at the same time. They arise from the same crap. In some senses they *are* the same crap, except that Trump is a little too independent for some of the donor class' tastes. Depends on whether you want to make your money poisoning the planet slowly or burning it down quickly.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

shaharazade's picture

@Big Al is dealing with the carefully manipulated resist Trump derangement that has sucked all the oxygen right out of populist resistance to the duopoly and the global ruling class. He is after all a pundit and a muckraker. I agree with him on this point as until people stop looking at this through partisan eyes nothing will ever change. A needed revolution be it political or physically throwing the global ruling class out of power.

I don't think he is of the reform the Democratic party school of thought. He is addressing the reality of the political situation as he see's it in real time. He's not a revolutionary outsider but he sure does confront powers that be regardless of which side they are on. I respect the few voices that challenge the status quo via the media. If not for Wikileaks, The Intercept, The Black Agenda Report, Snowden, Cornell West, Chris Hedges, Jimmy Dore, RT news and other voices and outlets, people would be even more brainwashed and compliant then they are.

He at the least counteracts the fake news story line and challenges the 'progressive' blind true believers. This may not bring about the end of this FUBAR government but challenging the establishment's propaganda and Blue vs. Red divide is a needed step in the right or left direction. I'd rather people (including myself) read GG and other non-partisan media then completely rely on the likes of the WaPo and totally fake garbage that passes for political discourse. I don't have to agree with everything they say but if people listen perhaps it will help them stop Chicken Little'ing out and begin to deal with the reality of what's going down.

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Big Al's picture

@shaharazade Reading gg is better than the MSM. I really don't know his stance on party politics, I stopped reading him years ago, particularly when he hooked up with Omidyar. It's not that I disagree with him, we all have so much time to spend and after having done this for awhile, I've got my select number of sites to go for my information. But I have "boycotted" the Intercept since it started.

Hope you're making thru the winter all right. Spring is coming!

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shaharazade's picture

@Big Al @Big Al I hear you but still i'm hooked to the surreal political world were living in. I guess I could just ignore the bastards but they make it hard to do so. I have no idea what or who Omidyar is. I seem to just be stuck in a surreal world I want no part of, yet here I am. This winter in the PNW had been intense and I'm sure it's just a taste of what's to come. So hope you and yours are doing okay. I like and agree wholeheartedly with what you advocate for here. Sometimes I prefer not to get too hooked into the gory details of the political intrigues or the personas and who did what to who and all that jazz. I just want a spring in every way

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Big Al's picture

@shaharazade @shaharazade the media conglomerate they've concocted. When it was happening I did some research on him and his connections and let's just say, he's another billionaire trying to manipulate the media for his own purposes.

I'm just like that, homie don't play there.

Great song, love it, miss George.

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shaharazade's picture

@Big Al and one I take heed of. Thanks for the info I will take into consideration when reading The Intercept. What a web they weave when trying to deceive. Or something like that. Anyway thanks for the root of The Intercept. I'll consider the who of the what of this source while reading.

I also like Matt Taibbi but know damn well what source he springs from. Jan Wenner has made it quite clear where he weighs in. Rolling Stone was my first 'alternative' radical paper (Hunter Thompson) back in my youth.I read them faithfully way back when they were a weekly? monthly? newsprint rag. They also had good music reviews before they became like Time magazine the kiss of death to real alternative music.

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