Open Thread - 11-18-22 - And You May Ask Yourself

"Well, how did I get here?"

I was looking for answers. The Bush II administration was in the full process of changing the world as we knew it. I shouldn't have to revisit those years, I'm sure you all remember it vividly. I couldn't believe what was happening in and to the world as those lunkheads made history.

I was surfing the web. I don't remember how I stumbled upon it or what the article was about, but I had taken my first bite of the acidic orange blog, Daily Kos, around or about 2003. It made sense to me then, what the writers were saying about the strange new world that the neocons had concocted for us all. I read there every day from that point on.

Many a diary I agreed with, some I did not. I found the comments interesting and many times appalling. At times I would cheer internally at the truth to power some of the authors laid down. Other times I would cuss and spit at my monitor over the vitriol of some of the yahoo-ic numskulls that had the absurd temerity of laying their ill formed ideas to print. Again, I bet you all know exactly what I'm talking about. The site was enlightening and maddening at the same time. It didn't take long to develop a love/hate relationship with la naranja amarga.

blogosphere.jpg

I lurked and read at DKos for years. Many times I almost registered but didn't, too much vitriol, division, and psychological and emotional manipulation. Then one day in 2009 I followed a link from one of buhdydharma's comments and found my self at his blog, docudharma. That was exactly the site I was looking for and I joined immediately under the username gotterdammerung, I'm a huge Ring Cycle fan. It had some of the best writers from DKos and it was a blast. I made some long lasting online friends at that site. All was good at docudharma until it imploded a couple of years later. It was then, in late 2010, that I relinquished and finally registered at DKos under the username Johnny the Conqueroo.

I had also joined other sites after my stint with docudharma. I was a regular at Pfiore's writingintheraw again as gotterdammerung. I also joined Dianne G's The Wild Wild Left and another blog that the name eludes me, but I think it was Firefly Dreaming or something like that, both as gotterdammerung.

All the while I continued participating at DKos. I had started hanging at joe shikspack's, I think around 2011, Evening Blues. I became a regular to the point where, at times, I filled in for joe and eventually ended up doing the Evening Blues Weekend Edition. Then one day, out of the blue, I was invited to join a Google Group that was started up by c99's Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal, whose moniker at Dkos at that time was liberalinMD, if I remember correctly. That invitation eventually lead to the forming of caucus99percent.com after many iterations, from Google Group to a phpBB forum to c99 as we know it now. I've written about that journey from DKos to c99 before and wont bore you with it again.

That, my friends, is how I got here. Same as it ever was.

Share
up
27 users have voted.

Comments

how did you get here?

up
14 users have voted.

@JtC

like we were gifted with the opportunity to cogitate the news
and 'talk back' or maybe at least have a conversation about whatever
was streaming on the headline front. With an audience similarly tuned.

Then, once the bias-sphere started kicking-in, it became more of a
shouting match. Lines were drawn in the sands of internet time.

This format (c99%) appealed to me for the acceptance of minority
views. Plus the music! So have adopted it as a way to express and
hone writing ideas. Priceless.

Thanks for keeping it alive brother.

up
14 users have voted.

@QMS
how the blogosphere brings front and center people's need to expound upon their self importance and their inner troll.

On the other hand blogs can fulfill the human want for fitting in somewhere. The downside to that is the prevalence of the echo chambers across the net. Thus and therefore, c99's free range policy.

up
11 users have voted.
dystopian's picture

Hi Fridayers, Hey JtC! Hope all are well!

I was quite late to all this blogosphere stuff... Perhaps a few years before the Ides of March decree I started visiting the orange satan site. It was such a mixed bag there. Some great posts and comments, and others not so much. I never registered just lurked. The comments often seemed to go off the rails. But there were some great progressive voices. Until March of what 2016? Then it went into the commode. It went from being fairly free and open, to having an agenda, in a little tiny box. Sycophantly fellating the Dems and DNC. I still go occasionally to read the aviation posts, only.

It was posts there that I saw someone mention C99 in a comment, as the hammer of DNC fellater chipmunk boy (apologies to chipmunks) came down. And so y'all are stuck with me now. It was my first (and remains my only) registration to a social media site. Sure I have been (are) in bird or reef-keeping groups, but that is special interest, not general politics. I do not recall who the poster was that said 'check out Caucus 99'. Within a year of the great departure of progressive voices from 'the other orange turd' a couple other sites I lurked at were JackPineRadicals and FeelTheBern. Just to know there were others outside the brainwashed box was great.

So, thanks to you JtC, and Joe with the Blues, for creating the place and keeping the lights on for all of us. It is a great thing and place to have. I wish I could do more to help, but am totally spent of time and money. I'm running late now so gotta fly.

Have a great day!

peace and love all,

up
17 users have voted.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian
I'm glad you found your way here. Your wit and wisdom is always refreshing.

Open discussion boards are scarce these days, especially from the left-o-sphere. That free thinking policy leads to a lot of derision from the true believers, a phenomena old as civilization.

I used to get a kick out of searching the comments at la naranja amarga when certain posters would pound their chests in a virtue signalling swell of how terrible c99 was, in hopes of gaining brownie points from the assorted peanut gallery. Easy mojo for the ladder climbers. I used to push back on some of it and then decided that it was a waste of time and effort. You can't reach the unreachable.

Thanks for weighing in on your busy day.

up
11 users have voted.
Lookout's picture

I couldn't bring myself to join the orange satan, but I lurked there especially on the BNR (Bernie news roundup). When the ides ban was announced I think it was Gulf gal and Raggedy Ann that recommended C99. I liked this place and have been a resident since March 2016.

I very much appreciate this community and a special thanks to you JtC for keeping the lights on and the place operating. This is the only social media platform where I participate...no facebag, twittersphere, googleplex, etc. for me.

Take care and everyone have a great Friday!

up
17 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
your writing is the blogosphere's loss and c99's gain. Your Sunday OTs have become a pillar of the c99 standard as far as I'm concerned. Please keep it up.

Have a great Friday and weekend!

up
12 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

I suppose it is improper to start with my mom and dad's participation in the process, heh, So, at some point in Junior High, careening down the highway of life on foot, I took a left. That was kinda it for me. It wasn't long before I realized I was in completely the wrong town and after High School I headed north to Mecca Berkeley and the Bay Area just in time for FSM and decades of wild experiences.

Much later I found myself involved in a couple of political forums on Compuserve and wound up on staff on them and one other apolitical one, but AOL bought them out and it turned to shit and I bailed, but with a tendency to roam around on line a lot. At some point I stumbled across one or more communiques indicating that there was a great new online home for progressive thought, discussion, organization and all that: Daily Kos, so I went and had a look. After lurking a bit I joined, in part with an agenda to improve the level of discourse which I found disappointing in the high number of fallacies and other illogic in many of the comment threads. This was during the HRC v Obama pre-primary wars. If this was the epitome of lefty thought, thought I, then we're all doomed.

Though I originally intended to subtly (unfortunately I am not very capable of subtility) working to simply push back on illogic and afactuality, but wound up writing a lot of diaries on a lot of things and got invited to positions of some responsibility in a ton of forums. This was even while the place was becoming more repressing, restrictive and confining. Meanwhile I finally became aware of the evening blues and began hanging out there as it was quite refreshing and enjoyable. At some point, iirc, I may have assisted Joe with the evening greens, and at some point JtC got me involved in the weekend edition.

There was a lot of discomfort and discussion around the DK issues and plans for relocating at some point as a result, and at some point CSTMS asked me to participate in an alternative she was building and, on paper, I did. My participation was minimal because of the format and interface and god only knows what else and then I got an email from JtC who said that he had a substitute and I was approved but he needed an email to which to send my credentials, so I gave him one and here I is.

be well and have a good one

up
12 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris
at the Evening Blues back in the day when it was at DKos, did we not. I miss some of the folks that participated. Much of the c99 core group came from the DKos EBs as well.

Please tell us more about mom and dad's participation in the process. Nah, don't do that, I was just joking.

You've been a good friend and a steadfast supporter all these years. Thanks for that, mi hermano.

up
12 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@JtC

up
8 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris

old enough to remember when Free Speech was a leftist thing...

I remember when Micheal Jackson was black...thought that was going back a ways.

up
2 users have voted.
Socialprogressive's picture

I don't remember how I found my way to the blogosphere but it did start at DKOS in either late 2015 or early 2016. By that time it was already a swamp. I left there when Marky Moosetits issued his Ides of March decree and have not been back since. That's when I checked out C99 and found it to be a much more accommodating community and I liked what people had to say. Having been here for six years C99 feels like home and the members are family. Thanks for all the work you do to provide us a place to express our thoughts.

up
17 users have voted.

When I offer to wash your back in the shower, all you have to say is yes or no.
Not all this "who are you, and how did you get in here?" nonsense.

@Socialprogressive
wow, time flies!

Thanks for hanging with us and for hosting the great Friday Night Photos. It's one of my favorites.

up
13 users have voted.
mhagle's picture

This is an interesting read.

How did I get here? Similar to others but like Dysto and Lookout, I was late to the blog sphere. Not until 2015 when I was following Bernie's rise did I stumble upon DK. When I learned I could write essays there, I was really excited. Did a couple of climate change ones that made it out, but quickly realized there was a weird sort of censorship. I was already uncomfortable with the place when March 2016 hit. So glad to have found c99. It's the only social media I do as well. Did Facebook for a while . . . it was great to find old friends . . . but eventually I realized it annoyed me. Great freedom to quit in 2020 and delete it all. Lost touch with some friends though.

Thank you sincerely for keeping c99 going! Thanks also to all of the regular contributors!

up
14 users have voted.

Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

@mhagle
fellow Texan. Thanks for being with us. I enjoy your writing, please do more. That is, if you have the time. I know how busy you are.

up
11 users have voted.

It was certainly refreshing to read “non-mainstream” views at a time when I hadn’t yet caught on that newspapers and cable news were promoting a pro-corporate agenda. As illuminating as the site could be, there was also plenty of partisan bunk - which didn’t bother me so much back then - and a tendency among commentators to speak in cliches (“That’s insulting to actual _____!”, “Teh stoopid! It burns!”, “Frist!”), which did annoy me.

By 2008, I was certain that the site was filled with trolls and sock puppets. Over the years, I had been castigated variously for my flaming pinko support of decriminalizing sex work and recreational marijuana, opposing the Keystone pipeline (“The American people believe it will mean jobs,” according to NO poll ever), packing the Supreme Court (“FDR already tried that”), and encouraging Elizabeth Warren to run for President in 2015 (“She doesn’t want the job!”, “We need her in the Senate!”). And of course, there was that entire contingent of alleged dedicated progressives that regularly promoted RKBA, and nothing else.

After the Ides of March, I was asked to kindly STFU, so I realized I had no further use for the place. I do miss Dallasdoc and Bob Johnson, though.

up
12 users have voted.

@FutureNow
at la naranja amarga that I actually cringed when I saw their username. They were the ones that kept me from registering all those years. It was and still is filled with trolls and sock puppets, with a large contingent of operatives.

Thanks for finding your way here and hanging with us.

up
11 users have voted.

@FutureNow

from DK (the final time) for having the temerity to claim that Trump had black supporters that were not dupes or paid shills...

My gold standard for community was always the Daily Paul and its successor (mainly just a name change) Popular Liberty which were mainly small 'l' libertarian-ish, but pretty diverse and tolerant all in all. Site imploded under unclear circumstances around 2015 and somewhere in the course of looking elsewhere happened on DK.

Handy DK feature (don't go telling them about it) is that you can still message other members on their system even after being banned - I went looking over there when C99 disappeared from radar - found a few familiar names (including JtC, who still rates big mojo there) but most had not been active for years so didn't try contacting them.

So, if there are people there you would like to contact there, that's a possible avenue to try.

up
3 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

Per my calendar I am supposed to do a fundraiser for this site either yesterday, oops, or in Monday's OT, oops again, already in the can as they say. Accordingly, I have decided to substitute this comment.

JtC told us how he got here, but not how tirelessly and endlessly he works to keep the site a) here and b) running smoothly. Beyond that, he has expenses that require actual coin of the realm. So, we need to keep him reimbursed and compensated so that he can run the site and eke out a living and even have a few spare bux for wild women (NB, s/b singular, fix this) and song.

Ergo, please cast your eyes to the upper left corner oy the page just under the search box where you will find links and information to facilitate donations to this magnificent venue. This isn't mandatory, as you all know, but always helpful if you can handle it,

thanx mucho

be well and have a good one

up
10 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris
it's greatly appreciated. Every little bit helps.

up
8 users have voted.

@enhydra lutris

to see in there was anything there to support this crime of passion
Lo and behold, found a few otherwise (not already spent) dollahs
that could be coughed up to a good cause. Check is in the mail.
Thanks y'all. let's keep it burning..

up
10 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

German Green party… German “alternative / undogmatic Left” (1968-generation counterculture, Sponti movement)… German daily die tageszeitung (now taz.de)…

(Not a supporter of the above anymore, now that German Greens, German “progressives,” and related milieu mostly seem to have become a blend of neocon Atlanticist, neolib globalist, and woke id-pol practitioner…)

When political blogs became a thing, began posting comments at Jeff Tiedrich’s The Smirking Chimp

Registered at The Orange Place in 2005. Peak participation: live-blogging Arab Spring events in 2010 and 2011.

Fled the undemocratic Democrats’ crackdown in 2016. After brief interlude at Docudharma, ended up here following pfiore8 and Macedonian Signal.

up
11 users have voted.
enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard

be well and have a good one

up
8 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

lotlizard's picture

up
8 users have voted.

@lotlizard
That's one I visited daily. Is it still a thing?

I remember you from docudharma and writingintheraw as well, I think.

Thanks, lotl. Keep warm, my friend.

up
11 users have voted.

bored me, between trips around the globe. So, I browsed the internet a lot, happened upon a blog at a time when I had no idea what a blog was. Huffington Post. Months after joining, the place changed, and disagreeing with any essayist got you banned. I was banned, of course. It was later sold, became a news consortium.
I accidentally found Dkos. Either an ad, or some mention of it on MSNBC. I joined, supported the site, enjoyed it for OPOL, Dallasdoc, and the kitteh posts. Even before Bernie was a thing, I noticed posting was conditioning me and others to conform. There was always a concern the flying monkey squad would harass the hell out of you. I found Docudharma, spent a little time there, left Dkos at or near the Ides of March, helped fund The Progressive Way, only to find that site had lost its' format rather quickly, and I lost my appreciation of Bernie. Docudharma lost its' cachet.
Someone at Dkos said to check out this place called c99.
Now, where else could I possibly write dumb ass Couples Cooking essays?

up
14 users have voted.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

for those if you'd only film the actual cooking and include it.

be well and have a good one

up
11 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris during meal prep. Plus, we would likely forget to announce a disclaimer in the heat of the kitchen moment.
In truth, we would get more viewers showing our cooking antics on an "adult" channel.

up
11 users have voted.

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

@on the cusp
in more ways than one. Biggrin

I find your Couples Cooking essays riveting, in a vicarious sense. I can sometimes picture myself, right there, in B's shoes, whipping up those culinary delights, donning a toque blanche, of course.

up
11 users have voted.

@JtC This has been a life changing journey, and all in a good way, Master Blog Owner!

up
10 users have voted.

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

get here
coulda been when my older siblings dressed me in tie-dye
and bell bottoms(like real jeeps-built not bought) in the first grade
in midcoast Maine nah not that far back

late also to the intertubes nov/dec ‘15 got an ipad mini
had heard of dPos and logged in
started quoting quisling’s words on hellabitch ‘08 back to them
in support of Bernard’s run f@ck me
That didn’t go over At All

kept at it for a while and saw
references to the blue raft someone
actually left a response to one of my comments
that I should check it out with a link

hit that button and to Johnny’s consternation
I ended up here
so here I’ll be until booted(again)
or the lights go out

kinda feels like the island of misfit
toys a lot of times good that
glad I’m not alone hits me
many times through the day

necessary for sanity preservation others
see the same reality I seem to be living

working on it
always

Thanks j to the c
and many others
apologies that y’all have
to put up with me
gratefulness that you do

up
14 users have voted.

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

@Tall Bald and Ugly
what's the old saying? "I'll get by with a little help from my friends." (Friends may have more than one meaning if you catch my toke drift.)

Glad to have you with us, TB&U.

up
8 users have voted.

Hmm, I was hoping you would remember. I can't recall where or when but I'd been in a couple nasty bar fights in the previous forums. I was beat up pretty badly and had lost some skin and blood. You picked me up and suggested I come here.

It'd been a dicey decade or so of postings, dealing with some news outlet's comment sections which fell apart because they decided that I needed to use a Facebook identity and then somebody (nefarious, no doubt) questioned my identity and FB wanted me to send them a copy of my DL license. Like that would ever happen.

For the last few years I've been lurking here and enjoying the crowd. Got one heluva great gathering. The participants are more intellectual and help to keep me young. Everyone has to age, no one needs to get old.

You help a lot. Thanks so much.

up
15 users have voted.

@exindy
just on an off the wall reference
glad it was picked-up in retro
where the hell did she go?

up
12 users have voted.

@exindy
"Everyone has to age, no one needs to get old." Like wine, right?

Thanks for hanging with us, exindy.

up
8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

and talked about it with the nurse at the pain clinic who happened to be a friend of kos and she told me about his blog. It didn’t make sense to attack Iraq when most of the supposed terrorists came from Saudi Arabia. Everyone then seemed like they were anti war, but that changed when Obama got elected. Loved the EBs and thought provoking essays by OPOL and Dallas doc and others. I started getting dawg piled when I pushed back on how great Obama was doing and boy howdy did it get much worse when I started pointing out how heinous Hellabitch’s policies were. Especially when I kept posting kos' 2006 essay on how bad she would be as president. CTSM sent me a pm and invited me to check out the new blue blog. I sure miss those who came here in the early days. I see a lot of them back over there and I don’t recognize them anymore. I still look at the site daily but find myself reading less essays because they are basically an echo chamber. Trump, republicans, Russia bad, democrats can do no wrong. Probably because no one there is actually paying attention to what they are doing as to what they say they want to do.

Weird how democrats can never find enough votes to pass their agendas during Clinton, Obama and now Biden when they had the majority, but the republicans always can even though they don’t hold the presidency and only one house. The media is saying that they might be able to cut social security now that they have the house only and Biden’s president. Anyone else see through this bull crap? Dems helpless, repubs omniscient! Vote harder!

Thanks for keeping the lights on for us JtC. I’d be lost without this place.

up
14 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
republicans say the same about democrats, only in reverse:

Dems helpless, repubs omniscient! Vote harder!

We need a viable third party.

Thanks snoops.

up
6 users have voted.

are saying. good comment snoop.
haven't been back there since the ides of march purge
that is when I floated up here
glad you can still stomach the bs

the posters were trained to toe the line
and it worked for most except we escapees Wink

[video:https://youtu.be/aYORAUdb-fQ]

up
11 users have voted.

I think I might have found DKOS by way of BartCop. But that was a long time ago and my recollection of that time is getting hazy.

I didn't post much at DKOS. I think I tried one diary and decided I wasn't cut out for that. I found things there to be less and less friendly as time went on and my disenchantment with what passed as the left in US politics (Nelson Rockefeller would probably be too left for the modern D party nowadays) grew, and at some point after the Ides of March I saw a mention of C99% and decided I should check it out. Things aren't perfect here, but they are certainly much better than DKOS and definitely "good enough". Smile For a number of years C99% and nakedcapitalism have been the only "every day" spots that I check.

I don't post much as I'm trying to be better about not blathering on just to hear myself blather, but if I see a chance to make what seems to be a worthwhile comment, or maybe something snarky when I can't pass up on a straight line, I'll surface long enough to do so.

Thanks to the regular posters and the staff who make C99% a going concern. I sure wish there was a lot less bad/frightening news to discuss, but my hopes for that situation (and many others) changing are very low.

up
13 users have voted.

@MichaelSF
blather on, my friend, we'll listen.

Thanks for the support and your participation.

up
6 users have voted.
usefewersyllables's picture

I have dabbled in online/social media from time to time over the years. Spent some of the mid-80s doing online support for my then-employer, in the Performing Artists Network on Delphi, and did the usual Usenet dance of the era through the rec. and alt. groups. Thought the whole Web thing was just a flash in the pan (still do...).

Got away from digital time-burning a few years after The September That Never Ended, for being too toxic (what a quaint thought). Kept mostly to myself and far too busy at work, but then stumbled across the Orange Crush (under a different nom de net) in the runup to 2008. Mostly lurked there, only posting a few comments. Thought that the people were relatively cool, by and large, and were somewhat like-minded. Ignored the occasional pogrom from the flying monkeys. Really enjoyed interacting with some of the folks, like Plutonium Page and Major Kong. Paid for a lifetime membership, bought the book, posted a few recipes, yadda yadda. More fool, me.

Left before the banhammer in 2016, and discovered Reddit. Went to a couple of different subs, contributed a little bit under a couple of different names (one of which got me doxxed on one of the subs), and got away from digital time-burning for a while for being too toxic (what a quaint thought).

Went back to Reddit for a while under yet another new name, and found out about C99% through one sub or another. Started my first account here, but mostly hung out at WOtB under that different name. Posted a few recipes. Changed to UFS about that time, and contributed more to WOtB than C99% for a while. But finally had to give up Reddit altogether at the start of Covid, for being too toxic (what a quaint thought).

This is the only place I still do social media. Hell, I don't even interact digitally with my own *family*. Too toxic. But at least I can come here and post recipes...

up
10 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables
zig-zagged your way to c99.

The voting system, with the hide rates, is what made that site so toxic. Toxic is as toxic does, it starts at the top.

Thanks UFS.

up
7 users have voted.
Creosote.'s picture

Vietnam era, and missed it when I got to the NW.
Had found the NYRB when the Times went on strike in the sixties.
Then lost years growing up and evicting inappropriate people, jobs.
Other history got me a sort of secretary/art magazine typist post.
Out west, did some proofing for Adobe when they still put out a magazine.
Found Eudora there, then university press level editing got electrified.
Even DK seemed like a place where some outsiderness was not a fault.
I got to the floating plank just in time; it's my irreplaceable home.
Enormous thanks to JtC and everyone here for your observations, warmth. and grit.
Warmest wishes and good health to you.

up
10 users have voted.

@Creosote.
Creosote. And thanks for the support over the years. Glad to have you floating with us.

up
6 users have voted.

life during perpetual war

[video:https://youtu.be/jShMQw2H2cM]

is where we are at bud

up
8 users have voted.

@QMS
good tune, dude.

up
5 users have voted.
Cassiodorus's picture

It was adequately safe to post there until the Ides of March of 2016. Why this was the case, why Daily Kos wasn't always a no-go, is still a mystery. My guess is that before Bernie's candidacy it didn't matter a whole lot that Hillary Clinton was an incredibly toxic candidate. Toxic Dems had been exposed before by Ralph Nader, but Nader wasn't a Democrat, and so Nader and the Naderites could be disposed-of through rules Markos had already had in place before 3/15/2016.

The fact of the matter was that even if one left out the sort of frightening stuff about the Clinton Foundation that David Sirota exposed, what you had left was what Doug Henwood exposed, which was that from any sort of liberal Democrat perspective Hillary Clinton was a really pointless candidate whose only real allegiances were to the religious Right, to the warfare Establishment, and to money. It's got to be that stuff that explains Markos' cowardice in shutting down his blog to those not in the hate-the-left wing of the party.

Hillary Clinton could never really explain why she was running, and even so, it can be easily shown that had she been an oh-so-slightly better campaigner she would have been the first woman President. Instead of the soul-searching about "why Hillary didn't win," they might have gone over the long list of things, ONE of which she might have done a little bit better, to, you know, win.

up
4 users have voted.

"I'm starting to believe that they want Donald Trump to get elected." -- Compton Jay