There are some things I had missed as I did not watch any part of the convention and avoided muc of the news about it. The masks to block out Sanders supporters was about the saddest and scariest thing I have ever seen. People may choose to call Trump a neo-Nazi, but this DNC/HRC is much, much closer to how Hitler started out, staging events that hid the truth.
Please, people, HRC cannot, must not be elected!
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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
because the majority of voters are either ignorant or assholes, politically speaking. That's the cold, hard truth that we will have to face eventually.
As I keep saying, the Clintons and Trumps aren't the real problem - the voters who vote for these assholes are the problem. This is why we have two shitty candidates, why we still have first past the post, why we have money dominating politics, why we don't have universal health care. If even just 34 million people would say "I've had it, these things need to change, NOW", imagine what we could accomplish.
They are why she's the candidate in the first place.
Mark Halperin & co. Were talking about the crap that's come out about her this week, how the drip drip drip will continue to the election, how she's a very vulnerable candidate.
The supers chose to go with the weaker candidate. We tried to tell them. But no.
I don't give a flying fuck about the Democrats. Why are they still relevant? Because people vote for them. Stop voting for them! It's not rocket science.
the majority of voters are either ignorant or assholes.
Hillary stole the nomination. The majority of actual voters voted for Bernie.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
If only 34 million people would care enough, there would be no Clinton presidency, and the DNC would be done as the party in charge.
We basically need a nationwide strike, with tens of millions of people involved, for any of this to change. Instead, enough people keep voting for these assholes that things continue as normal, and Clinton gets the presidency. Congratulations.
But blaming them is pointless - they don't care that we blame them. As the voting collective, we need to focus on our own responsibilities and not worry so much about what the other side does. This includes voting for candidates whose positions align with our own. Only that way will we achieve accurate and meaningful representation.
to add I'm Still surprised at the voter apathy, given the importance of 2016, but... just disappointed instead. josb is right. If deadbeat voters would just get off their dead ass and vote we could change the world. Instead we watch as Rome burns. "Wink... Wink... Wink... both parties are the same, nothing changes... thanks, but I'll sit this one out. Again."
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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
When people have no confidence in their government or in the candidates running for office, voting loses all meaning or context in their lives or futures. They reach a point where denial and wishful thinking can no longer sustain their hope.
Likewise in the US, symptoms of apathy and demoralization are intense. Three of the largest demographic groups of voters believe they are not represented at the Federal level. Over the years, the Party platforms have aggressively rejected their needs and concerns. This applies to America's worker class, who have been betrayed and turned away by both parties. Meanwhile, the Millennials can find no acceptable future for themselves in either party's policies. The distress their generation suffers due to the crushing austerity imposed on them, elicits only scorn from the establishment. Any vote they cast in 2016 will pulls them further into the social darkness. The Left has no real influence at all among the political elite in Washington. Politically, they are disenfranchised and pointedly ignored and discredited. The very suggestion of an incremental remedies or non-wholistic approaches to the the nation's looming dystopia — is to them, a further assault on their intelligence and humanity.
After you sort the Independents into the mix, you are looking at the majority of US voters, a much larger group than either the Republican or Democratic Party. Yet they have no one to vote for and no reason to vote. Against a backdrop of hostile voter suppression and exit polls that invalidate the election process, why would they vote?
They are not lazy, however. They would climb over each other to vote if there was a chance they could overthrow the Democratic bosses and rebuild the political process. If Hillary and her party suffer a loud and crippling defeat in November, the power will pass to the people. The people will have toppled both corrupt Parties.
A world of possibility would open. The energy and optimism that was on display during the Sanders campaign would burn again once the people saw that a true and just democracy of the people was within reach. That a credible voting system could be put in place across the nation, and all votes would be counted.
I actually don't believe the people need a leader like Bernie to transform the nation into the kind of place where a nurturing and evolutionary society can grow. All the people need is a little taste of their own size and power. Their governing coalition would naturally emerge.
What would you propose that they do in November 2016?
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The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Many of them think they are doing research. I have a friend who believes that since she watches the news & reads the newspaper that she is doing her research. She isn't aware of how much of a propaganda tool the msm is. So many people are so trusting.
I, too, can come up with a long list of excuses, but it doesn't help anyone. Newsflash: being an adult is hard. We are in this bind precisely because the media is able to easily manipulate people like these. As a result, we have what amounts to mob rule where the elites manipulate these gullible people to do their bidding ("Vote against Trump!"), to the detriment of almost everybody.
Why don't they do a tiny bit of research, and vote Green?
Or did the math, at least. Unless Stein is the closest competitor on Election Day, a vote for her will only assure Hillary Clinton and the Dem bosses will win the White House. The Party will harden itself against future challengers.
The proposed strategy is to decided how to vote on Election Day. The strategic goal is to defeat Hillary by voting for her closest competitor. In that way, the people can retake the weakened and discredited Democratic Party and clean out the corruption.
The closest competitor could be Stein. Or perhaps not. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Hillary and the Party are out and the Neocon's stumble in their never-ending war.
"More of the same"will not be on the menu.
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____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
The Party will harden itself against future challengers.
. Man, that train has already left the station. First with Slick Willie, then a brief intermission by Shrub, until we get to Hopey-Changey BullShit Obama. There has been systematic rat-fucking of the Left by the DNC since Slick Willy was first elected. I cannot vote Trump even though he is anti-TPP. I would love to see Bernie back in the race after Hillary suffers status epileptics during a campaign rally forcing even the twits in the DNC to pull her out of the race.
Enough with the tribalism already. It's very simple: vote for the candidate whose policies most closely align with your own. All other strategies result in a representation which is unlikely to match the electorate's views, and thus a misrepresentation. That is what we've had for decades; how's that working out?
to look up alternative parties that they don't know exist?
If you're an activist or a political blogger, or whatever, of course you know, because you've met Greens, or talked to them. If you're an average Joe or Jane, why would you go looking for something that you don't know exists?
If I didn't like Christianity or Hinduism or Islam, I wouldn't necessarily go Google "alternative religions;" it makes no sense to demand of me "Why don't you do a tiny bit of research, and become a Gardinerian Wiccan?" I'd be more likely to just do my own thing--unless I knew somebody who was a Wiccan, or ran across a book. Case in point: I left Christianity in the early 90s, and only found out twenty years later about Universalism--which, if I'd known about it, might have prevented me from leaving Christianity at all. Why didn't I do research about various Christian sects until I found an agreeable one, rather than leaving?
Because that's not what most people do.
And I'm somebody who was trained as a professional researcher! I have a mind trained to ask questions and dig up evidence. Guess what? I still, most of the time, don't think to ask the questions I don't know to ask.
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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
Google "political parties in the US", gives you a list. Look at each of the party's platforms, and decide which one most closely aligns with your views. Not that hard, no?
Do you really want people to vote that are this ignorant about the political landscape in their country? This is exactly what the people in charge want. So the only solution I can think of is that people HAVE to educate themselves more thoroughly, starting from the premise that the news and newspapers are owned by large corporations with an agenda, and thus any reporting from them should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Yes, this isn't easy, and it may be a bunch of work people don't want to do, but the alternative is that they will buy the Clinton spin and continue to vote for them. Is that what you want?
If you have a better solution, I'm all ears. And please don't tell me "politicians have to be honest" because that's not going to happen first. People HAVE to wake up first in sufficient numbers for change to happen.
Responses to some of your questions and points:
1)Do I really want people to vote that are this ignorant....?
Well, yes, I want everyone to vote, because I believe in democracy. But while I believe in democracy, I don't believe we have one here: I think we have a fraudulent pile of shit pretending to be a democracy here. So, since the democracy ain't real, the votes aren't really real either. They don't amount to anything. Rearrange as needed. So in this case, I can understand why people don't vote.
2)This is exactly what the people in charge want.
The people in charge want enough people going to the polls that they can take pictures of it and put it on TV and pretend we have a democracy. Or a republic. Or whatever you want to call it. Which oddly, makes me think that NOT voting might be the better choice.
For TPTB (the powers that be), voting, and voters, are a matter of optics, nothing more.
3)The only solution I can think of is that people HAVE to educate themselves more themselves more thoroughly, starting from the premise that the news and newspapers are owned by large corporations with an agenda, and thus any reporting from them should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
You are more right than you know. As JimP said long ago on DKos, "as long as the corporate-controlled media controls what we see, we lose, don't matter what we do." We should probably only read them to find out what the enemy's doing, at this point, although occasionally one can find interesting facts in the propaganda.
But the applications of indie media on our politics are going to be much more important on non-electoral issues. And the primary effect of the education you're talking about doesn't need to be "Wake the stupid idiots up from their hypnotized daze!" but rather "Give the people a wider range of choices from which they can ascertain a well-founded hope." Or, failing that, give them this:
The problem here is not stupidity, blindness, or daze. Nor is it indifference, laziness, or apathy. The problem here is exhaustion, demoralization, lack of imagination. Also isolation, distrust, inability to communicate.
Also the fact that we really are in a terrifyingly bad spot and it's difficult to come up with a scenario offering even a small chance of success. But that's what must be done, or there will be no political activity at all. None worthy the name, anyway.
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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
need Bernie back in it. Not as a cheerleader for his "revolution," but as an actual candidate. And, if not Bernie his self, some high profile Dem raising the Bernie banner high. We need Bernie, or a surrogate carrying his banner, to take on the two corporate candidates. They don't need to win. They just need to be out on the trail, bellering, "if we don't get them this time we WILL get them next time!" Becuz the alternative voice needs to be out there, and the message needs to be, "this ain't over in November. Get on board the Bernie Express!" Short of that, short of Bernie or some Berniecrat out on the trail bellering the message, voters WILL just stay home, again knowing "ain't nothing nobody can do about it."
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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Any effort directed towards them is wasted energy. They would never allow this anyway. The last bit of hope is that the general isn't completely rigged. If it turns out that it is, it's time for massive civil disobedience to crash society, because it means we have proof at the federal level that we live in a dictatorship where our "elected" officials act with impunity.
"They" could stop it. "They" being the DNC or "The Party." Should Bernie or a surrogate get out on the trail it would once again waken a sleeping dragon.
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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
So let's agree to disagree, shall we? But thank you for the excellent dialogue!
The optics are obviously for the benefit of the rest of the veal pen. I don't think TPTB care what we do, as long as there's enough pressure to keep the people in line. The rest is just show.
Thanks, just what I was thinking. Of course, how many do not have internet access or sufficient knowledge to discover their options, something unmentioned by the corporate media busily brainwashing all within range?
Bernie won the Dem nomination and would easily have won the Presidency if not for blatant cheating and corruption every step of the way. If his voters all went Green and voted against the hostile corporate takeover in process under either corporate Party's evil, President Jill Stein could begin repairing not only America but the chances of democracy and survival for the world. At the very least, those concerned with her lack of invasion and depredation experience might appreciate the fact that the Green Party is not out to drain and destroy the world for the 1% and believes in actual democracy, unlike the corporate reps of the corporate parties.
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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.
If deadbeat voters would just get off their dead ass and vote we could change the world.
As someone who gave up my career to spend the years 2005-2010 involved pretty much entirely in electoral politics, and remembering the elections of 2006 and 2008--2008 especially--I think there's some pretty strong evidence against your claim.
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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
If all the people who won't vote would vote for Stein, she would likely win. Of course, even better would be if people who will vote for Clinton would vote for Stein - then she would definitely win.
I personally think people who vote for Clinton are either ignorant about her record and corruption, or assholes who are fine with both. Both are obviously problematic. The reason the Democrats are in charge is because people vote for them. If we want a better world, that will have to change. The people who voted for them will have to stop doing that. It's really that simple.
people are in despair. Feeling powerless, seeing no options, they accept the election fraud that foists "candidates" upon them. Sometimes they do this by not voting, by ignoring the debacle before them; sometimes they act like they have no choice but to pick between the two rotten choices offered. I suspect that's the behavior that's pissing you off, and rightfully so; I don't get it either. I understand turning away in disgust; I don't get acting like Moses has come down from Mt Sinai with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's names on tablets of stone, and is demanding that we make a choice or we will be struck down by God.
That said, our inability to get good government has as little to do with voting for bad candidates as our inability to get a good economy has to do with our personal vocational choices. When people do show an inclination to vote for a better candidate, they are systematically purged from the rolls through various means, or their votes are flipped.
It's a lack of revolution, not a lack of civic engagement, that is the problem. Oddly, civic engagement seems to spring up mightily every time it's given the least little bit of oxygen--the recent Bernie campaign demonstrated that. That's why Clintonistas are so hyped on doctrines of inevitability--the only way they hold down civic engagement is by denying the people a choice (or controlling the menu, which is the way I look at it), and constantly harping on despair.
Americans actually have a remarkably persistent impulse to civic engagement, given the circumstances; it's amazing that at this late date millions of people would make personal financial sacrifices to contribute to any politician's campaign, much less one running under the banner of one of the two major parties, even if it was Bernie.
Sadly, civic engagement is not enough to deal with the situation. We need, at the very least, a revolutionary mindset, and, perhaps, civic engagement of another kind: strong local communities based on trust, which are very difficult to build under the current conditions.
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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
just to make it clear that I don't disagree with your proposed action; I just don't think voting for Stein, or anyone, is enough to get us out of this mess. Not by a long shot.
Voter purges, exit polls indicating vote-stripping, and voter registration fraud aside, we just watched the media basically declare Clinton the winner when she had not reached the magic number of 2300-and-whatever delegates. Later, with the rigging of CA, she "reached" that number, but they declared her the nominee well before she did, using the superdelegates as a pathetic attempt at cover for the fact that they had just made her the nominee by fiat.
The media made her the nominee because they said so. If this sort of blatant bullshit is allowed to stand, all of us voting for Stein wouldn't be anywhere near enough to get us out of the mess we're in.
These are revolutionary times. While I don't advocate picking up guns, I do think we'd better start thinking more like revolutionaries and less like good citizens of a republic--because they ripped the republic out from under us and have been systematically dismantling it for the last 35 years or so. We all know this, but we've got to start incorporating it into our thinking and planning.
We were raised to be good citizens of a republic, but the Clintons and Bushes and their friends took a giant dump on the republic we were raised to uphold. We can't get out from under using standard civic means.
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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
and thank you for taking the time to write down your thoughts in response to what I wrote.
I'm terribly frustrated seeing millions of people voting for these destructive, awful candidates. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. Yes, it's the shit that's on the menu, but goddamn I'd look very hard find some other morsel of a candidate with these two assholes. I also get that people are so bamboozled by the media that they basically don't do this, and just give up. But please, please, don't vote for the shit sandwich! I just don't understand how people are so eager to give up their integrity by supporting these highly ethically challenged individuals. I would much rather, as you say, have them turn away in disgust. Voting for someone you don't really agree with is throwing a wrench in the barely functioning gears of democracy.
I'll go one further: what you are describing is a failed state. This is incredibly alarming to me. It means that we have arrived at a system of government with little accountability for the people at the top, and consequently they will do whatever the hell they please, at our expense. How do we alert people to this? How can we get them to realize what is going on at this scale, when they shrug their shoulders at massive scale voter fraud?
He won. He beat Her Highness. That his win was stolen from him is a whole 'nuther story, but the fact that a lone nobody took on The Village - and won - says something. A bernie presidency - along with a Dem Senate - may not have changed the world, but it would have been on its way.
Is why Bernie needs to get back on the trail. No, he won't win. Can't win. But, he sure can fuck up Hillary's campaign - and cheer on his "revolution" as he's doing so. "I can't do it alone. This doesn't end in November. We don't beat 'em this time we beat them in 2018 and 2020. Charge!"
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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
'Deadbeat' voters burnt out and dizzied with circulating at the bottom of the oligarchical upward drain, struggling for daily survival in a poisoned environment, knowing that the system is rigged and that their votes don't count anyway?
How many even know that they could vote Green and then have proof needed to have the then-blatantly-cheated-in corporate candidate not recognized by other countries internationally? There's supposed to be a way to do this - and American elections are already recognized as being major farces, so the facts shouldn't be a hard sell - depending.
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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.
There's no use blaming the people. The majority of them are disgusted w/both candidates.
Hillary didn't win. This is something that apparently is very hard to hold in the mind. Remarkable (and scary) how difficult it is to remember, consistently, that Hillary is not where she is because of persuading voters to do anything. Remarkable (and scary) how difficult it is for us Americans to remember that an election being fixed means the will of the voters means exactly nothing.
If 34 million people would say "I've had it, these things need to change, NOW" we certainly could accomplish a lot; but not at the ballot box. Not till after we'd won, anyway.
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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
if voters insist on verifiable ballots, and very few voters vote for her? What if all those millions who will vote for Clinton will vote for Stein? How does Clinton realistically still win? I would think if she declared herself the winner she would be lynched, and there would be violence in the streets.
The fact that we don't have verifiable ballots is a result of voter apathy. Who really cares about this? Yeah, the people here, but how many others, really?
I'm not sure what you want to call the lack of outrage about the primaries having been stolen, but the fact that there's no way to validate the results should have raised a huge red flag years ago. Yet people are strangely OK with it. This kind of apathy is dangerous.
I know the primary was stolen. Yet, millions of ignorant people (I'm being charitable, in the age of Google) will reward the Democrats with their votes. And that's a problem. You may say they are disgusted - how does it make sense to vote for someone you don't agree with?
Also, why doesn't a voting system which creates an opportunity for so-called spoilers raise another huge red flag? People that complain about people voting for Stein handing the election to Trump should really direct their anger and effort towards fixing the voting system which is to blame here. It's the voting system that's broken, not the Stein voters (I suggest instant runoff voting as a better alternative). Voters are SUPPOSED to vote for the candidate whose policies most closely align with their own - that's how we get proper representation. The Stein voters may in fact be the only ones doing it right!
Please remember that the corporations/billionaire cheat their candidates in. Cheating being a category in which I include such democratic end-runs as Super Delegates and any corrupt Supreme Court appointment of Presidents.
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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.
That syrupy Disney flight attendant voice telling everyone how to be Good Little Democrats (tm) ("you won't miss the balloon drop!") was like something out of Logan's Run or Soylent Green.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Although I guess we still have a lot to learn from the North Koreans.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Green has become one of the top iconic movies defining our current state. Here we all thought it was just a movie.
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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
[Michael Palin:] Well, this we did talk about. We talked about the nature of evil, if you like, and the way it manifests itself. And Terry [Gilliam] and I both felt that it is a cliche and possibly a sort of absurd generalization to think that all evil people look evil and they have scars on their faces and go heh-heh-heh and all that. We felt that very often the most dangerous people are the ones who appear most plausible and most charming. So that was how we set about the idea of playing Jack Lint, as someone who was everything that Jonathan Pryce's character wasn't: he's stable, he had a family, he was settled, comfortable, hard-working, charming, sociable — and utterly and totally unscrupulous. That was the way we felt we could bring out the evil in Jack Lint.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Here is a good collection of memories of Bernie delegates...good stuff. Here are just two examples...
#SlayTheSmaugs (NY): “How dare delegates want to be anything on the floor beyond human props? Of course, they couldn’t enforce prop-dom; enough Bernie delegates avoided the ‘card trick’ at the end that the cameras didn’t show it, and they couldn’t make us hold up the forest of signs they kept giving us. Still, we were constantly disabused of any notion that we were present for a meeting of a political party having a substantive conversation, and the only way to opt out completely of being extras in the commercials was to simply leave, which many did.”
Hillary Colby (IL): “;I had no idea how ugly, how corrupt, how the convention was designed to keep out the grassroots people from having a voice,’ said Colby when she met with me on Monday, along with a few other Sanders delegates who wanted to share their experiences.” http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/08/trip-reports-from-sanders-delegat...
I don’t remember hearing anyone mention the CA Bernie people, led by a group of Nurses, I think union members, protecting the Bernie Whip from being ejected by security people.
A group of security types had surrounded the CA Bernie Whip, and were man-handling her, trying to escort her off the floor, when the Nurses all grabbed their phones and started recording/streaming the commotion, and insisting that the security guys let their Whip go.
The sight of at least a dozen determined Nurses, jumping into action, all wearing red T-shirts and pointing cameras, was incredible and very heartening.
They stopped the ejection of their Whip, and immediately started insisting that the security guy who led the attack had to go.
“That guy, that guy right there has to go!”
All the while pointing their many cameras and fingers at the guy who, evidently not having planned on being met with coordinated resistance, promptly fled.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
I'd like to forward this one, but it sticks out over the side bar, and clicking on the forward button (or the full screen button) hits the underlying links. I can go to a desktop and dump the source but can we do something about video widths for the less tech savvy?
Excellent content btw - that's why I want to forward it!
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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
edit: also changed the vid width to 500 px. if that helps.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
I disagree with your sig line (thought I do love it)... I think it should should be 'Clinton/Kaine 1972'. As corrupt they are and how they are willing to try to rig anything and everything by any means necessary. It is very Nixonian.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
There was this song in the musical Camelot that could use a revised version tailored to Hillary — if you’re a Broadway musical buff, you know the one —
Where are the simple joys of Clintonhood?
Where are all the adoring, daring boys?
Where's the knight pining so for me
He leaps to death in woe for me?
Oh, where are a Clinton's simple joys?
Shan't I have the normal life a Clinton should?
Shall I never be rescued in the wood?
Shall two knights never tilt for me
And let their blood be spilt for me?
Oh, where are the simple joys of Clintonhood?
Shall I not be on a pedestal
Worshiped and competed for?
Not be carried off or better still
Cause a little war?
Where are the simple joys of Clintonhood?
Are those sweet, gentle pleasures gone for good?
Shall a feud not begin for me?
Shall kith not kill their kin for me?
Oh, where are the trivial joys?
Harmless, convivial joys?
Where are the simple joys of Clintonhood?
of the Democratic Party is underway, and the convention was a revealing illustration of it. An essay titled "Americanism: A Universal Creed" posits a kind of future uniparty. Excerpt:
"...The Democratic National Convention this year was a shining example of this new shift. Tiny flags were distributed to the delegates to wave, and the crowd was specifically instructed to shout “USA! USA! USA!” if any leftists attempted to challenge the narrative being pushed on stage. Viewers at home, unaware of the cajoled nature of this patriotism, would have witnessed the sort of pro-American rhetoric that had previously been far more common at GOP conventions."
I saw BOC do this song live with a twenty foot smoke breathing laser eyed Godzilla.
I am scarred for life.
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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Comments
Wow, just wow.
There are some things I had missed as I did not watch any part of the convention and avoided muc of the news about it. The masks to block out Sanders supporters was about the saddest and scariest thing I have ever seen. People may choose to call Trump a neo-Nazi, but this DNC/HRC is much, much closer to how Hitler started out, staging events that hid the truth.
Please, people, HRC cannot, must not be elected!
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Hillary will be elected
because the majority of voters are either ignorant or assholes, politically speaking. That's the cold, hard truth that we will have to face eventually.
As I keep saying, the Clintons and Trumps aren't the real problem - the voters who vote for these assholes are the problem. This is why we have two shitty candidates, why we still have first past the post, why we have money dominating politics, why we don't have universal health care. If even just 34 million people would say "I've had it, these things need to change, NOW", imagine what we could accomplish.
Nope. Blaming the Supers on this one.
They are why she's the candidate in the first place.
Mark Halperin & co. Were talking about the crap that's come out about her this week, how the drip drip drip will continue to the election, how she's a very vulnerable candidate.
The supers chose to go with the weaker candidate. We tried to tell them. But no.
Why are the Democrats in power at all?
I don't give a flying fuck about the Democrats. Why are they still relevant? Because people vote for them. Stop voting for them! It's not rocket science.
Ugh. No wonder nothing changes.
Don't blame the victims.
Hillary stole the nomination. The majority of actual voters voted for Bernie.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
But the majority of the voting machines
supported Hillary!
Stronger together. Sort of sounds like a slogan a computer program would generate doesn't it?
Good video btw. Well worth watching.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Do Androids Dream of Electric Democrats?
Thanks Steven D.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Not enough people care, and that's my point
If only 34 million people would care enough, there would be no Clinton presidency, and the DNC would be done as the party in charge.
We basically need a nationwide strike, with tens of millions of people involved, for any of this to change. Instead, enough people keep voting for these assholes that things continue as normal, and Clinton gets the presidency. Congratulations.
Blame the brain washers
Although the brain washed do carry some responsibility and need to wake the f**k up, now.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Of course they carry some responsibility
But blaming them is pointless - they don't care that we blame them. As the voting collective, we need to focus on our own responsibilities and not worry so much about what the other side does. This includes voting for candidates whose positions align with our own. Only that way will we achieve accurate and meaningful representation.
Exactly. And I'd like
to add I'm Still surprised at the voter apathy, given the importance of 2016, but... just disappointed instead. josb is right. If deadbeat voters would just get off their dead ass and vote we could change the world. Instead we watch as Rome burns. "Wink... Wink... Wink... both parties are the same, nothing changes... thanks, but I'll sit this one out. Again."
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Voter apathy is a common symptom in a failed state.
When people have no confidence in their government or in the candidates running for office, voting loses all meaning or context in their lives or futures. They reach a point where denial and wishful thinking can no longer sustain their hope.
Likewise in the US, symptoms of apathy and demoralization are intense. Three of the largest demographic groups of voters believe they are not represented at the Federal level. Over the years, the Party platforms have aggressively rejected their needs and concerns. This applies to America's worker class, who have been betrayed and turned away by both parties. Meanwhile, the Millennials can find no acceptable future for themselves in either party's policies. The distress their generation suffers due to the crushing austerity imposed on them, elicits only scorn from the establishment. Any vote they cast in 2016 will pulls them further into the social darkness. The Left has no real influence at all among the political elite in Washington. Politically, they are disenfranchised and pointedly ignored and discredited. The very suggestion of an incremental remedies or non-wholistic approaches to the the nation's looming dystopia — is to them, a further assault on their intelligence and humanity.
After you sort the Independents into the mix, you are looking at the majority of US voters, a much larger group than either the Republican or Democratic Party. Yet they have no one to vote for and no reason to vote. Against a backdrop of hostile voter suppression and exit polls that invalidate the election process, why would they vote?
They are not lazy, however. They would climb over each other to vote if there was a chance they could overthrow the Democratic bosses and rebuild the political process. If Hillary and her party suffer a loud and crippling defeat in November, the power will pass to the people. The people will have toppled both corrupt Parties.
A world of possibility would open. The energy and optimism that was on display during the Sanders campaign would burn again once the people saw that a true and just democracy of the people was within reach. That a credible voting system could be put in place across the nation, and all votes would be counted.
I actually don't believe the people need a leader like Bernie to transform the nation into the kind of place where a nurturing and evolutionary society can grow. All the people need is a little taste of their own size and power. Their governing coalition would naturally emerge.
What would you propose that they do in November 2016?
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Great comment!
Why don't they do a tiny bit of research, and vote Green?
That would require them to THINK
and they are not used to nor willing to make the effort.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
You may think it's funny, I think it's tragic
Like I said, stupid. Unwilling to use their brains. It's stupid because it's hurts not only us, but them, too.
When the choices are laugh or cry.... n/t
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Excuse me.
Many of them think they are doing research. I have a friend who believes that since she watches the news & reads the newspaper that she is doing her research. She isn't aware of how much of a propaganda tool the msm is. So many people are so trusting.
You mean gullible
I, too, can come up with a long list of excuses, but it doesn't help anyone. Newsflash: being an adult is hard. We are in this bind precisely because the media is able to easily manipulate people like these. As a result, we have what amounts to mob rule where the elites manipulate these gullible people to do their bidding ("Vote against Trump!"), to the detriment of almost everybody.
They did the research.
Or did the math, at least. Unless Stein is the closest competitor on Election Day, a vote for her will only assure Hillary Clinton and the Dem bosses will win the White House. The Party will harden itself against future challengers.
The proposed strategy is to decided how to vote on Election Day. The strategic goal is to defeat Hillary by voting for her closest competitor. In that way, the people can retake the weakened and discredited Democratic Party and clean out the corruption.
The closest competitor could be Stein. Or perhaps not. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Hillary and the Party are out and the Neocon's stumble in their never-ending war.
"More of the same"will not be on the menu.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Comment about Demonic Party disregard for the Left:
. Man, that train has already left the station. First with Slick Willie, then a brief intermission by Shrub, until we get to Hopey-Changey BullShit Obama. There has been systematic rat-fucking of the Left by the DNC since Slick Willy was first elected. I cannot vote Trump even though he is anti-TPP. I would love to see Bernie back in the race after Hillary suffers status epileptics during a campaign rally forcing even the twits in the DNC to pull her out of the race.
I disagree
Enough with the tribalism already. It's very simple: vote for the candidate whose policies most closely align with your own. All other strategies result in a representation which is unlikely to match the electorate's views, and thus a misrepresentation. That is what we've had for decades; how's that working out?
I would like to believe this:
In that way, the people can retake the weakened and discredited Democratic Party and clean out the corruption.
But I don't think the power of the Clinton Party (may as well call it what it is) comes from the voters--or from public office, really.
"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
I agree
The voters are just a prop - see the DNC convention for an example.
Why would it occur to somebody
to look up alternative parties that they don't know exist?
If you're an activist or a political blogger, or whatever, of course you know, because you've met Greens, or talked to them. If you're an average Joe or Jane, why would you go looking for something that you don't know exists?
If I didn't like Christianity or Hinduism or Islam, I wouldn't necessarily go Google "alternative religions;" it makes no sense to demand of me "Why don't you do a tiny bit of research, and become a Gardinerian Wiccan?" I'd be more likely to just do my own thing--unless I knew somebody who was a Wiccan, or ran across a book. Case in point: I left Christianity in the early 90s, and only found out twenty years later about Universalism--which, if I'd known about it, might have prevented me from leaving Christianity at all. Why didn't I do research about various Christian sects until I found an agreeable one, rather than leaving?
Because that's not what most people do.
And I'm somebody who was trained as a professional researcher! I have a mind trained to ask questions and dig up evidence. Guess what? I still, most of the time, don't think to ask the questions I don't know to ask.
"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
More excuses
Google "political parties in the US", gives you a list. Look at each of the party's platforms, and decide which one most closely aligns with your views. Not that hard, no?
Do you really want people to vote that are this ignorant about the political landscape in their country? This is exactly what the people in charge want. So the only solution I can think of is that people HAVE to educate themselves more thoroughly, starting from the premise that the news and newspapers are owned by large corporations with an agenda, and thus any reporting from them should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Yes, this isn't easy, and it may be a bunch of work people don't want to do, but the alternative is that they will buy the Clinton spin and continue to vote for them. Is that what you want?
If you have a better solution, I'm all ears. And please don't tell me "politicians have to be honest" because that's not going to happen first. People HAVE to wake up first in sufficient numbers for change to happen.
Not excuses, description of what's happening.
Responses to some of your questions and points:
1)Do I really want people to vote that are this ignorant....?
Well, yes, I want everyone to vote, because I believe in democracy. But while I believe in democracy, I don't believe we have one here: I think we have a fraudulent pile of shit pretending to be a democracy here. So, since the democracy ain't real, the votes aren't really real either. They don't amount to anything. Rearrange as needed. So in this case, I can understand why people don't vote.
2)This is exactly what the people in charge want.
The people in charge want enough people going to the polls that they can take pictures of it and put it on TV and pretend we have a democracy. Or a republic. Or whatever you want to call it. Which oddly, makes me think that NOT voting might be the better choice.
For TPTB (the powers that be), voting, and voters, are a matter of optics, nothing more.
3)The only solution I can think of is that people HAVE to educate themselves more themselves more thoroughly, starting from the premise that the news and newspapers are owned by large corporations with an agenda, and thus any reporting from them should be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism.
You are more right than you know. As JimP said long ago on DKos, "as long as the corporate-controlled media controls what we see, we lose, don't matter what we do." We should probably only read them to find out what the enemy's doing, at this point, although occasionally one can find interesting facts in the propaganda.
But the applications of indie media on our politics are going to be much more important on non-electoral issues. And the primary effect of the education you're talking about doesn't need to be "Wake the stupid idiots up from their hypnotized daze!" but rather "Give the people a wider range of choices from which they can ascertain a well-founded hope." Or, failing that, give them this:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO0x7vL2T90]
The problem here is not stupidity, blindness, or daze. Nor is it indifference, laziness, or apathy. The problem here is exhaustion, demoralization, lack of imagination. Also isolation, distrust, inability to communicate.
Also the fact that we really are in a terrifyingly bad spot and it's difficult to come up with a scenario offering even a small chance of success. But that's what must be done, or there will be no political activity at all. None worthy the name, anyway.
"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
Bernie! Is why we
need Bernie back in it. Not as a cheerleader for his "revolution," but as an actual candidate. And, if not Bernie his self, some high profile Dem raising the Bernie banner high. We need Bernie, or a surrogate carrying his banner, to take on the two corporate candidates. They don't need to win. They just need to be out on the trail, bellering, "if we don't get them this time we WILL get them next time!" Becuz the alternative voice needs to be out there, and the message needs to be, "this ain't over in November. Get on board the Bernie Express!" Short of that, short of Bernie or some Berniecrat out on the trail bellering the message, voters WILL just stay home, again knowing "ain't nothing nobody can do about it."
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I think the Democrats are a lost cause
Any effort directed towards them is wasted energy. They would never allow this anyway. The last bit of hope is that the general isn't completely rigged. If it turns out that it is, it's time for massive civil disobedience to crash society, because it means we have proof at the federal level that we live in a dictatorship where our "elected" officials act with impunity.
I don't know how
"They" could stop it. "They" being the DNC or "The Party." Should Bernie or a surrogate get out on the trail it would once again waken a sleeping dragon.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Some of these still feel like excuses
So let's agree to disagree, shall we? But thank you for the excellent dialogue!
The optics are obviously for the benefit of the rest of the veal pen. I don't think TPTB care what we do, as long as there's enough pressure to keep the people in line. The rest is just show.
Agree with everything else. Great analysis.
asdf
So let's agree to disagree, shall we? But thank you for the excellent dialogue!
Thank you as well. We should continue this sometime!
"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
Thank you very much,
Thank you very much, CantStoptheSignal! You've nailed it beautifully!
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.
You're welcome!
"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
Thanks, just what I was
Thanks, just what I was thinking. Of course, how many do not have internet access or sufficient knowledge to discover their options, something unmentioned by the corporate media busily brainwashing all within range?
Bernie won the Dem nomination and would easily have won the Presidency if not for blatant cheating and corruption every step of the way. If his voters all went Green and voted against the hostile corporate takeover in process under either corporate Party's evil, President Jill Stein could begin repairing not only America but the chances of democracy and survival for the world. At the very least, those concerned with her lack of invasion and depredation experience might appreciate the fact that the Green Party is not out to drain and destroy the world for the 1% and believes in actual democracy, unlike the corporate reps of the corporate parties.
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.
It's remarkable that you believe this:
If deadbeat voters would just get off their dead ass and vote we could change the world.
As someone who gave up my career to spend the years 2005-2010 involved pretty much entirely in electoral politics, and remembering the elections of 2006 and 2008--2008 especially--I think there's some pretty strong evidence against your claim.
"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
I think the context was a bit different
If all the people who won't vote would vote for Stein, she would likely win. Of course, even better would be if people who will vote for Clinton would vote for Stein - then she would definitely win.
I personally think people who vote for Clinton are either ignorant about her record and corruption, or assholes who are fine with both. Both are obviously problematic. The reason the Democrats are in charge is because people vote for them. If we want a better world, that will have to change. The people who voted for them will have to stop doing that. It's really that simple.
The reason the Democrats are in charge is because
people are in despair. Feeling powerless, seeing no options, they accept the election fraud that foists "candidates" upon them. Sometimes they do this by not voting, by ignoring the debacle before them; sometimes they act like they have no choice but to pick between the two rotten choices offered. I suspect that's the behavior that's pissing you off, and rightfully so; I don't get it either. I understand turning away in disgust; I don't get acting like Moses has come down from Mt Sinai with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's names on tablets of stone, and is demanding that we make a choice or we will be struck down by God.
That said, our inability to get good government has as little to do with voting for bad candidates as our inability to get a good economy has to do with our personal vocational choices. When people do show an inclination to vote for a better candidate, they are systematically purged from the rolls through various means, or their votes are flipped.
It's a lack of revolution, not a lack of civic engagement, that is the problem. Oddly, civic engagement seems to spring up mightily every time it's given the least little bit of oxygen--the recent Bernie campaign demonstrated that. That's why Clintonistas are so hyped on doctrines of inevitability--the only way they hold down civic engagement is by denying the people a choice (or controlling the menu, which is the way I look at it), and constantly harping on despair.
Americans actually have a remarkably persistent impulse to civic engagement, given the circumstances; it's amazing that at this late date millions of people would make personal financial sacrifices to contribute to any politician's campaign, much less one running under the banner of one of the two major parties, even if it was Bernie.
Sadly, civic engagement is not enough to deal with the situation. We need, at the very least, a revolutionary mindset, and, perhaps, civic engagement of another kind: strong local communities based on trust, which are very difficult to build under the current conditions.
"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
By the way, I am voting Stein--
just to make it clear that I don't disagree with your proposed action; I just don't think voting for Stein, or anyone, is enough to get us out of this mess. Not by a long shot.
Voter purges, exit polls indicating vote-stripping, and voter registration fraud aside, we just watched the media basically declare Clinton the winner when she had not reached the magic number of 2300-and-whatever delegates. Later, with the rigging of CA, she "reached" that number, but they declared her the nominee well before she did, using the superdelegates as a pathetic attempt at cover for the fact that they had just made her the nominee by fiat.
The media made her the nominee because they said so. If this sort of blatant bullshit is allowed to stand, all of us voting for Stein wouldn't be anywhere near enough to get us out of the mess we're in.
These are revolutionary times. While I don't advocate picking up guns, I do think we'd better start thinking more like revolutionaries and less like good citizens of a republic--because they ripped the republic out from under us and have been systematically dismantling it for the last 35 years or so. We all know this, but we've got to start incorporating it into our thinking and planning.
We were raised to be good citizens of a republic, but the Clintons and Bushes and their friends took a giant dump on the republic we were raised to uphold. We can't get out from under using standard civic means.
"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
I mostly agree with you
and thank you for taking the time to write down your thoughts in response to what I wrote.
I'm terribly frustrated seeing millions of people voting for these destructive, awful candidates. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. Yes, it's the shit that's on the menu, but goddamn I'd look very hard find some other morsel of a candidate with these two assholes. I also get that people are so bamboozled by the media that they basically don't do this, and just give up. But please, please, don't vote for the shit sandwich! I just don't understand how people are so eager to give up their integrity by supporting these highly ethically challenged individuals. I would much rather, as you say, have them turn away in disgust. Voting for someone you don't really agree with is throwing a wrench in the barely functioning gears of democracy.
I'll go one further: what you are describing is a failed state. This is incredibly alarming to me. It means that we have arrived at a system of government with little accountability for the people at the top, and consequently they will do whatever the hell they please, at our expense. How do we alert people to this? How can we get them to realize what is going on at this scale, when they shrug their shoulders at massive scale voter fraud?
Bernie proved me right.
He won. He beat Her Highness. That his win was stolen from him is a whole 'nuther story, but the fact that a lone nobody took on The Village - and won - says something. A bernie presidency - along with a Dem Senate - may not have changed the world, but it would have been on its way.
Is why Bernie needs to get back on the trail. No, he won't win. Can't win. But, he sure can fuck up Hillary's campaign - and cheer on his "revolution" as he's doing so. "I can't do it alone. This doesn't end in November. We don't beat 'em this time we beat them in 2018 and 2020. Charge!"
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
'Deadbeat' voters burnt out
'Deadbeat' voters burnt out and dizzied with circulating at the bottom of the oligarchical upward drain, struggling for daily survival in a poisoned environment, knowing that the system is rigged and that their votes don't count anyway?
How many even know that they could vote Green and then have proof needed to have the then-blatantly-cheated-in corporate candidate not recognized by other countries internationally? There's supposed to be a way to do this - and American elections are already recognized as being major farces, so the facts shouldn't be a hard sell - depending.
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.
I'm afraid not.
There's no use blaming the people. The majority of them are disgusted w/both candidates.
Hillary didn't win. This is something that apparently is very hard to hold in the mind. Remarkable (and scary) how difficult it is to remember, consistently, that Hillary is not where she is because of persuading voters to do anything. Remarkable (and scary) how difficult it is for us Americans to remember that an election being fixed means the will of the voters means exactly nothing.
If 34 million people would say "I've had it, these things need to change, NOW" we certainly could accomplish a lot; but not at the ballot box. Not till after we'd won, anyway.
"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
How can she win
if voters insist on verifiable ballots, and very few voters vote for her? What if all those millions who will vote for Clinton will vote for Stein? How does Clinton realistically still win? I would think if she declared herself the winner she would be lynched, and there would be violence in the streets.
The fact that we don't have verifiable ballots is a result of voter apathy. Who really cares about this? Yeah, the people here, but how many others, really?
I'm not sure what you want to call the lack of outrage about the primaries having been stolen, but the fact that there's no way to validate the results should have raised a huge red flag years ago. Yet people are strangely OK with it. This kind of apathy is dangerous.
I know the primary was stolen. Yet, millions of ignorant people (I'm being charitable, in the age of Google) will reward the Democrats with their votes. And that's a problem. You may say they are disgusted - how does it make sense to vote for someone you don't agree with?
Also, why doesn't a voting system which creates an opportunity for so-called spoilers raise another huge red flag? People that complain about people voting for Stein handing the election to Trump should really direct their anger and effort towards fixing the voting system which is to blame here. It's the voting system that's broken, not the Stein voters (I suggest instant runoff voting as a better alternative). Voters are SUPPOSED to vote for the candidate whose policies most closely align with their own - that's how we get proper representation. The Stein voters may in fact be the only ones doing it right!
OK, I misunderstood you--
but I think you're mistaking learned helplessness for apathy.
Eventually, the dog just lies there and accepts the shocks.
I agree with you that this is a problem.
"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
Maybe learned helplessness is a better description
I hadn't thought of that. Thank you.
Please remember that the
Please remember that the corporations/billionaire cheat their candidates in. Cheating being a category in which I include such democratic end-runs as Super Delegates and any corrupt Supreme Court appointment of Presidents.
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.
The loudspeaker instuctions.
That syrupy Disney flight attendant voice telling everyone how to be Good Little Democrats (tm) ("you won't miss the balloon drop!") was like something out of Logan's Run or Soylent Green.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
I cringed
when I heard that loud speaker voice too. Ugh!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
The card thing reminded me of this...
Although I guess we still have a lot to learn from the North Koreans.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Yes, it was very creepy
With a little deeper voice, something like this (message is similar, too):
[video:https://youtu.be/he613E96E3E?t=1m27s]
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass
Amazing how Soylent
Green has become one of the top iconic movies defining our current state. Here we all thought it was just a movie.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
I personally thought of 1984
But definitely creepy.
Ladies and gentlemen, our corporate anthem
Keep Calm...
and watch Rollerball.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Or “Brazil” (1985)
http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/palin.html
Kneel!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFyHTU8tg_0]
"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
Glad I took the time to watch that video
Very well done, very sad, painful and infuriating. But the young woman who made this video is inspiring. Thanks for posting this.
She's a true C99er.
She just doesn't know it yet.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Trip Reports from Sanders Delegates at the D N C
Here is a good collection of memories of Bernie delegates...good stuff. Here are just two examples...
#SlayTheSmaugs (NY): “How dare delegates want to be anything on the floor beyond human props? Of course, they couldn’t enforce prop-dom; enough Bernie delegates avoided the ‘card trick’ at the end that the cameras didn’t show it, and they couldn’t make us hold up the forest of signs they kept giving us. Still, we were constantly disabused of any notion that we were present for a meeting of a political party having a substantive conversation, and the only way to opt out completely of being extras in the commercials was to simply leave, which many did.”
Hillary Colby (IL): “;I had no idea how ugly, how corrupt, how the convention was designed to keep out the grassroots people from having a voice,’ said Colby when she met with me on Monday, along with a few other Sanders delegates who wanted to share their experiences.”
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/08/trip-reports-from-sanders-delegat...
Another example from the article
Watt4Bob
August 18, 2016 at 4:11 pm
I don’t remember hearing anyone mention the CA Bernie people, led by a group of Nurses, I think union members, protecting the Bernie Whip from being ejected by security people.
A group of security types had surrounded the CA Bernie Whip, and were man-handling her, trying to escort her off the floor, when the Nurses all grabbed their phones and started recording/streaming the commotion, and insisting that the security guys let their Whip go.
The sight of at least a dozen determined Nurses, jumping into action, all wearing red T-shirts and pointing cameras, was incredible and very heartening.
They stopped the ejection of their Whip, and immediately started insisting that the security guy who led the attack had to go.
“That guy, that guy right there has to go!”
All the while pointing their many cameras and fingers at the guy who, evidently not having planned on being met with coordinated resistance, promptly fled.
Truly an inspiring moment.
Weapons of Mass Communication.
Thanks for the great war story.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Videos are too wide?
I'd like to forward this one, but it sticks out over the side bar, and clicking on the forward button (or the full screen button) hits the underlying links. I can go to a desktop and dump the source but can we do something about video widths for the less tech savvy?
Excellent content btw - that's why I want to forward it!
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
You can always just send the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0fXTURlbNUedit: also changed the vid width to 500 px. if that helps.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
I hope the documentarian doesn't end up like every other
Clinton opponent.
The Clinton Regime - there's nothing good about it.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
"My Turn"
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Clinton/Kaine 1972
I disagree with your sig line (thought I do love it)... I think it should should be 'Clinton/Kaine 1972'. As corrupt they are and how they are willing to try to rig anything and everything by any means necessary. It is very Nixonian.
War, War Never Changes - Fallout Series
It's also very Orwellian.
Hence the '84.
But '72 works as well.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
“Four more years! Four more years!”
The Committee to Re-elect the Clintonhood . . .
There was this song in the musical Camelot that could use a revised version tailored to Hillary — if you’re a Broadway musical buff, you know the one —
A definitive rightward shift
of the Democratic Party is underway, and the convention was a revealing illustration of it. An essay titled "Americanism: A Universal Creed" posits a kind of future uniparty. Excerpt:
"...The Democratic National Convention this year was a shining example of this new shift. Tiny flags were distributed to the delegates to wave, and the crowd was specifically instructed to shout “USA! USA! USA!” if any leftists attempted to challenge the narrative being pushed on stage. Viewers at home, unaware of the cajoled nature of this patriotism, would have witnessed the sort of pro-American rhetoric that had previously been far more common at GOP conventions."
native
Here, to my knowledge, is the first song dedicated to Hillary
Unfortunately they got the gender wrong--but everything else fits.[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJoy_0dJEjY width:400]
I'm not proud to say...
I saw BOC do this song live with a twenty foot smoke breathing laser eyed Godzilla.
I am scarred for life.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
Actually--
that is made of awesome.
"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
I saw BOC live with lazer show too in LA--quite a show.