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A few more thoughts on left and right
(cobbled together partly from responses to JtC)

If you have to ask whether you're in the 1% or the 99%, you're probably in the 99%. Contrary to popular belief (and left-wing wishful thinking), that designation doesn't come from your advocating for one policy or another, nor from belonging to any particular political philosophy. It comes from the fact that you don't have the power to affect either the policy decisions that get made or the debates that get airtime. You can root for one political "team" or another, just like when people watch the NFL. Some NFL teams have considerably more resources than others and amount to being the League's special favorites. That doesn't mean that any of the teams are owned by anyone outside the 1%. It doesn't mean that any of the teams are serving the interests of the 99%. Neither does it mean that any of the fans have any control over anything except which side they cheer for.

The 99% has been divided into camps: "left" and right, Democratic and Republican, pro-vax and anti-vax. Neither side is "the 1%." It just suits the 1% to create those sides. It's easy to do when you have a 24/7 media cartel willing to do your bidding, to say nothing of the country's politicians (also willing to do your bidding).

One side has the function of standing in for, and defending the interests of, the 1%. The other functions as a target for hatred and blame. Sometimes the target of that hatred and blame is innocent of the charges laid at its feet--as when left-wingers and Democrats were accused of being terrorist sympathizers under Bush. (I think it likely that extremely few people in the United States were on the side of Osama bin Laden after his people flew planes into buildings, killing thousands of us.) Sometimes the target is guilty, at least in part. But actual innocence or guilt has little to do with the way in which these narratives are deployed.

It suits the aims of the 1% to give one side a great deal of resources and the other just enough resources to make sure it continues to be a threat. The side openly defending the wishes of the elites gets the most resources, of course. The other side has two functions. First, as I said above, it represents a threat: something to hate, fear, and blame. This enables the elites to divide the populace and to ask for continually higher levels of "security" spending and an ever-more authoritarian and expansive police state. Secondly, it represents the hope of resistance. It dangles the possibility that there will be a successful shift of power away from the current oligarchy, and a whole set of policy changes that the people long for as a man in the desert longs for water.

I am sad to say that I fell for this strategy during the Bush years. I wish I had back all the heartbeats I invested in the Democratic party (and all the money). Back then, the left and the Democrats were the despised brand, the scapegoats. But they also represented the possibility of political transformation, the dethroning of the current oligarchy, and that set of policy changes so needed by the American people. Hope and Change.

Under Bushco, the right-wing brand established with Reagan burned out. Or the American people burned out on it. The elites knew it was going to take considerable work to rebuild that brand's credibility. So the 1% flipped American politics on its head, using the so-called "left" as the dominant faction that works for and defends the priorities of the rich, while keeping the "populist right" around to be a convenient target for hatred and blame.

What's horrifying is how easily the powers-that-be took control of what remained of leftism in this country. It's not just that they controlled the Democratic party (that was kind of done and dusted by the early 90s). They have also taken control of left-wing discourse. Of course, from one point of view, that is the brass ring the elites always wanted to grab: creating a self-justifying political discourse that advocates for their interests and has no discernible outside. But they also had no choice but to strip left-wing discourse of almost all of its ideas and precepts. Most of those ideas cannot be used to justify the kind of oligarchy the elites are perpetrating, and they had to be dumped in order for the elites to be able to use the left as a tool.

So they stripped the left wing of every precept except its opposition to bigotry. Then they changed what it means to oppose bigotry. Before 2010, you could not oppose bigotry and endorse the current economic system, or the current financial system, or the current prison system, or the current legal system. Now, opposing bigotry merely means scrutinizing the words of carefully selected operational targets, or, in other words, hiring some people of color, LGBTQ people, and heterosexual white women to proclaim that critics of the elites are bigots.

The vax/anti vax divide is the most recent iteration of this political mechanism--and a really good one, too. It activates people's survival instinct, which historically leads to people demanding authoritarianism and blood. I, personally, am in cautious support of vaccination, in the sense that I believe it's the best dice roll I'm likely to get. This decision comes from my particular circumstances, as the relation of a person taking immunosuppressant drugs. That being said, I understand (of course!) why people feel less than trusting of both the pharmaceutical companies and the government. And as far as I'm concerned, C99 has more than enough room for all.

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On " a few more thoughts on the left and right," in which I agree with your view entirely, and how it may relate to all our work here at c99-----

It seems to me that we, too, are ready to quibble around the edges of truth rather than uniting behind the truth that matters. We are responding to our training and our brainwashing.

I'll use my recent experience to illustrate my point in the hope that it will not anger or upset anybody.

Yesterday I wrote about the perfidious behavior of the USA towards France. My central idea is that the USA puts its own interests first second and always, at the expense of countries we pretend are our allies. The USA intervened in a contract worth 66 Billion dollars that France had with Australia. France is furious.

Moreover---France lost a contract to supply 12 diesel fueled electric submatines to Australia.

Instead, we will build nuclear subs for Australia and France was not given a heads up by USA that their rich contract had been revoked.

Here are my questions: 1) Does Australia need a nuclear necklace surrounding their continent? According to ggersh, No, there is no current threat.

In that case, 2) wouldn't the Aussies be better served by a fleet of 12 NON nuclear, less dangerous subs? common sense tells me Yes to this one.

and, 3) Does our alliance with France or any other nation matter at all to the USA? Or is pushing WAR and MILITARY Spending our only values? Betrayal and abandonment seem to be features of our foreign policies, not bugs.

The feedback about this central issued devolved into lengthy remarks about China. Which was hardly the point. China is the current designated star of War Follies and directed Fear.

Nothing requires the kind of useless buildup the USA is planning for. It feels like the WMD nonsense we used to enter Iraq. China is not a poor little country and 100 nuclear subs lurking beneath the waters will not deter a nation that can build out their own land, as well as destroy us with cyber, etc.

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NYCVG

Raggedy Ann's picture

@NYCVG . I found it quite interesting. Patrick Lawrence describes America’s last stand beautifully.
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/09/20/patrick-lawrence-the-empires-last-...

Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

CB's picture

@Raggedy Ann
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-aGZmcwF-s]

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@Raggedy Ann take on the USA/France split. The premise is sound. Thank you for sending it on.

France has signed agreements with India and Iran is part of the Shanghai trade alliance which includes Russia.

What's not included in the clip, is that the French Backing Away is part of a larger new dance called the Step Back from the USA which seems ready to go viral.

Humphrey has written about the AMLO agreements and Mexico's meeting with Cuba's President this week. Not as earthshaking as the French Matter, but significant, nonetheless.

Israel has been shattered to hear that $1 Billion from USA to fund Iron Dome defensive shields, has been cut from the new budget proposal. (c99 probably will cheer with me on this news.)

Each day new info about alternatives to bowing down before the USA is coming to us.

And Biden seems like an angry old man yelling at clouds.

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NYCVG

CB's picture

@NYCVG
the US went with Australia instead of France. How would it look for their military alliance to spell out FUKUS instead of AUKUS? Besides FUKUS had failed miserably in the ME.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@CB

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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

@CB

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NYCVG

enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

be well and have a good one

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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 --

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@NYCVG

however tyrannical and imperialist the Chinese have been over the centuries (and within my own lifetime), I don't see why I should be scared of them. What are they going to do to me that our own elites won't?

I'm not sure how the U.S. can proclaim itself as a defender of human rights without eliciting the mightiest belly-laugh in human history, globally.

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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

ggersh's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

I'm not sure how the U.S. can proclaim itself as a defender of human rights without eliciting the mightiest belly-laugh in human history, globally.

you asked, Joementia answered s/

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBPqqnTrvn8]

It's fucking outrageous that tptb use a guy w/dementia to be the face of evil

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

@ggersh from McCain's bellowing.

Another old man yelling for kids to get off his lawn.

Bomb Bomb Bomb Bomb bomb Iran. OMG

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NYCVG

magiamma's picture

@NYCVG
[video:https://youtu.be/_lmdNUsq5iE]

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

@NYCVG I would differ on the transformation of the Dem Party. I don't see it as elite-driven, top-down forced change by some faceless PTB, but rather as a more organic, internal and pragmatic process.

Following the liberal D wipeout elections of 1980, 84 and 88, and the rise of New Dem Bill Clinton in 1992, the party's remaining solid liberals took their defeats and Clinton's success a little too much to heart and decided, for political survival, to tack somewhat to their right on some issues, seeking to look tougher than the pantywaists the Rs said they were. Often FP was chosen as it's usually a safe area where most people aren't heavily invested or informed, but where liberals can posture and show a tougher side to go with their softer domestic politics.

Take e.g. Gary Hart, ex senator from CO, former campaign mgr for Geo McGovern, coming from the progressive left wing of the party. He drifted somewhat more to the center by the time he ran for prez in 84, as a technocratic Atari Dem. His major opponent, ex VP Walter Mondale, representing the old school libs, the New Deal Dems, was actually running to his left on many issues.

Bill Clinton himself started out as a liberal Gov in his first term in AR. Then he lost for re-election in the liberal wipeout year of 1980, and in his next run began moving more to the center and of course won several more terms.

It's possible even the leftiest of current D senators, Bernie Sanders, took notice of those above trends and so decided to take it easy on pressing the establishment too much on FP matters. He decided to save his ammunition for strictly domestic issues and remain silent, or at least a day late/dollar short on FP.

We saw the resulting weakness and voicelessness of liberal Ds when Russiagate came along -- most said nothing in disagreement with the natsec/MSM playbook for 4 yrs. Today, we see more spinelessness by liberal Ds on Covid issues like vaccine mandates and media censorship. Actually some Ds have gone so far off the rails that they are actively encouraging censorship in our modern commons of social media outlets. It used to be that Rs needed to be carefully watched as they might endanger our freedoms, but today the roles are reversed and Ds seem more the threat, and it's all of their own doing.

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CB's picture

Breakthrough cases increasing. It is becoming apparent that the 2-dose regiment has failed to stop infections and they will now be mandating a 3rd booster despite no authorization from CDC.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPLLdLzept4]

Kim Iverson's video suggests that a good portion of the deaths shown in the following graph are from breakthrough cases.

Share of the total population that received at least one vaccine dose vs. daily new COVID-19 deaths per million people - Israel, USA, Bangladesh, India. (I've included Bangladesh and India as control groups due their lower vaccination rates, use of ivermectin as prophylaxis and relative population size.)

covid-vaccinations-vs-covid-death-rate_0.png

NOTE: It is interesting that the deaths on my graph are tracking Iverson's graph towards the end showing most of these breakthrough cases are the cause of deaths.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@CB

or anybody from their medical association(s) or any of their major hospitals state that most new cases and deaths are among the vaccinated?

be well and have a good one

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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 --

CB's picture

@enhydra lutris
- the vaccinated or the unvaccinated. Most of the information I have found is that it is mainly the elder and those with co-morbidity that are dying. But, at the same time it is mainly this very same group who are the most vaccinated - some with even 3 shots. Booster shots had begun at the beginning of June. Israel is now committed for going for the booster for everyone in order to keep their health passes valid.

Pfizer has a lot riding on the overall performance of their vaccine in Israel. I doubt Israel will ever reach "herd immunity" - even with 3 shots.

Vaccines For Data: Israel's Pfizer Deal Drives Quick Rollout — And Privacy Worries
January 31, 2021
...
The nation of some 9 million promised Pfizer a swift vaccine rollout, along with data from Israel's centralized trove of medical statistics to study "whether herd immunity is achieved after reaching a certain percentage of vaccination coverage in Israel," according to their agreement.

"We said to Pfizer ... that the moment they give us the vaccine, we'll be able to vaccinate at the speed they've never heard of," Israel's health minister Yuli Edelstein tells NPR.

Israel's small size and technologically advanced public health system offer an attractive model for Pfizer to demonstrate the impact of the vaccine on an entire population. Pfizer has not signed a similar agreement with any other country, company spokesperson Jerica Pitts says.
...

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I’m sick of labels. Labels divide us. It’s all done on purpose, as your essay illustrates. I’m just a woman with thoughts and ideas based on personal research. Otherwise, I’m nothing ~ no label of left right up down good bad introvert extrovert ~ see what bullshit it is? People love to label. It “others people,” which is the intent.

Listening is a skill few Americans are capable of.

Enjoy your day! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Raggedy Ann

To have no labels is to have no identity within the political conversation. To have no identity within the political conversation is to be excluded from that conversation. That's why the elites control the labels so assiduously--the labels define political reality, who is part of it, and who is silenced to the point of virtual nonexistence.

To me, saying you're above labels is like saying you're above money. Is there a problem with labels and money? Sure. Should we act like we can do without them? Maybe, in a Temporary Autonomous Zone kind of way. But acting like we're outside of those forces doesn't reflect the historical truth we inhabit. It might reflect a larger, higher truth (which is why I think it might be instructive to do what you're doing in a TAZ kind of way).

But homo sapiens has defined itself through language for thousands, maybe tens of thousands of years. I don't think it's possible to simply shrug that tendency off on a permanent or semi-permanent basis, certainly not en masse, and I'm not even sure we should (unlike the money economy, which I wish were at the bottom of the ocean, and which is far less intrinsic to our species).

But we agree on the labels we currently have, where they come from, and whom they serve.

Our communications are (mostly) under the control of a bunch of out-of-control evil oligarchs. The (d)evolution of the word "progressive" shows what is likely to happen if we choose other labels besides "liberal" and "left." They'll just corrupt those terms too. Rewriting the dictionary is what they do. I see no option but to take linguistic territory of our own by taking control of at least some of the means of communication, or inventing new means of our own. If we have our own communicative territory, we will be able to make our own definitions and disregard theirs.

To quote a man who did some really bad things, but had a few good ideas:

"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

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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

For several years, I have been arguing that the same puppeteer controls both political "parties" while favoring one and disparaging the other -- and the favor shifted from Red to Blue with the Obama Administration. I agree with you on this point and I believe it is underappreciated amongst progressives, lefties and other anti-establishment voices.
.
.

Corporate America Switched Sides in 2008
July 21, 2020
.

The election of Barack Obama consummated the transition.

From the time of Nixon's Southern Strategy until the political dumpster fire of Shrub's second term, the traditional home of Big Business, the GOP, played to uneducated white people in low population states with ersatz support for the aims of the Religious Right and The Racist White. This approach dominated politics for 40 years and the Dems could only squeeze out three of ten elections by nominating Southern Governors who appeased both of those Rs.

During this era, the Republican Party resolved its own internal discord by expelling all the Eisenhower Republicans from positions of influence. That demographic of upper middle class professionals was sometimes called Country Club Republicans.

Demographics put an end to that formula for electoral dominance and the elections of 2000 and 2004 had to be stolen.

Barack Obama solved that problem and Big Business abandoned their angry white male constituency and adopted the Identity Politics agenda. Almost entirely ignored, corporate America has run the only effective political protests of the last decade, with boycotts of states that pass wingnut legislation like the Arizona bill that made it a crime for a landlord to rent an apartment to undocumented aliens.

You see it now as the mainstream media has turned on the police during the current wave of unrest.

The social class of Eisenhower Republicans, comfortable people who fancy themselves as understanding the Big Picture, but utterly incompatible with the kind of people who like Donald Trump, have become one of the two core constituencies of the Democratic Party. The other is African Americans.

Corporate logic is privatized authoritarianism. Thus this article very astutely describes how this authoritarianism is now the driving force behind Identity Politics. #Me-too was the quintessence of corporate woke-ness. It never applied to anybody but the very famous and their retinues. It offered no means of resolving conflicting claims of truth -- the arbitrary burden of persuasion was just reversed. Instead of victims having to prove their innocence, the now the accused were presumed guilty and there is no appeal for Banishment From Fame.

(It is an interesting philosophical question whether somebody like Super Chef Mario Batali got off easy or experienced a profound existential grief when he lost his gig on network television. It could be that taking fame away from the kind of whack jobs that become famous is cruel and unusual punishment. But I digress.)

So people who call themselves progressive or liberal now support telling people with the wrong ideas to shut the fuck up and backing up that order with the fear of losing one's livelihood. Yuck.

The erstwhile Tea Party and Religious Right now make up the Trump constituency, which felt abandoned by the GOP and were never all that comfortable within the corporate dominated Republicans. Corporate America of course continues to hedge its bets and keeps its gigantic hand in the GOP and the deal they offer the public by controlling both parties is the old "heads I win, tails you lose" gag.

But everybody is free to signal their own virtue and call out the evils of unwokeness.

.

I have one disagreement with how you describe the little dustup of the last few days and JtC's thread about civility and discord on the topic of vaccine. I do not believe that there is ANY argument about whether the abstraction of "vaccine" represents good or evil. There is some talk on this board about specific players in the global health care advocacy dodge -- like Bill Gates. His enthusiasm for vaccines (plural) gets some heavy criticism, but I do not recall anybody on this board saying that they want smallpox to return or that we must stop the horror of tetanus shots.

The argument here IS part of the overall debate about how governments and their citizenries respond to the virus.

My stubborn point is that whenever I post something about the political decisions being made, multiple posters tell me how I don't know shit about science. Some do it politely and respectfully. Others are rude and sneering. Of course, whether nice or nasty, they are absolutely correct. I do not know shit about science. Hell, I wound up dropping out of my freshman level class called "Physics For Non Majors" rather than starting my college career with an F.

I have been a message board addict for 20 years and I do not worry about negativity and hostility. Its all just a bunch of pixels no matter how you look at it. To those with whom I disagree, I harbor no ill will or resentment. And a message board without heartfelt arguments is boring as hell.

.

Finally, I just want to repeat how well written and persuasive your essay is. Thanks for posting it.

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I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@fire with fire

Historically, vaccines have not been (as far as I can tell) a contrivance of oligarchs, except in the sense that they've been turning a tidy profit from all medicine for some time. As for the COVID vaccines, I don't know to what extent they're being used as a manipulative tool rather than medicine. I don't even really know how good they're going to be for me and my family. I have taken the best gamble I can by getting the shots, for the reasons I've stated often here on this site. I'm gambling that the shots are, more or less, on the up-and-up, and that they will provide me some protection from the disease, at least until it mutates sufficiently that the shots become useless.

If Kate were not on immunosuppressant drugs, both she and I would probably have laid low and waited rather than participating in what is necessarily a medical experiment. As it is, I tend to NOT believe that the government is injecting us with tiny surveillance devices or genetically altering us in ways other than the way they all state, fairly straightforwardly, that they are doing. I do believe that the government and the media have created (or, more likely, deployed) the vax vs anti-vax controversy and the political categories that arise from it, that they are using this controversy to promote authoritarianism from above and hatred and division at the grassroots, that they are using this division and hatred to prop up their sagging political categories, and that their behavior indicates that they are much less concerned about our survival than one would desire.

Thank you very much for the link. I will read the whole article.

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

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

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
It could indeed be an "oopsie" in design or manufacture.
My mistrust of its proponents does not mean that I believe that there is a malevolent conspiracy to destroy we proles.
But there could be. And IMO, the probability is bigger than the probability of a giant meteor destroying New York City.
But remember that the geologists tell us that a giant meteor did create the Gulf of Mexico leading to the end of the Mesozoic Era.

And with Bill Gates, all bets are off on evil incarnate. I'd lay odds that he had his horns surgically removed.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

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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

Lookout's picture

make your own decision camp.

Though I was vaccinated (and am happy I did), I understand that many have had adverse reactions and there have even been deaths (1000's in fact). Medicine, and perhaps life, is a game of weighing risks vs benefits. However, with the vaccines the risks are being hidden and ignored. Wanting transparency isn't antivax, even though many have been labeled as such for illuminating the risks associated with the various vaccines. As CB above illustrated, break through cases in the vaccinated account for many of the hospitalizations and deaths (though the CDC isn't releasing (or perhaps collecting) that data. Vaccinated people can spread this virus as effectively as people who are not, but the non vaxed are killing us? It is the false messaging which I find maddening.

My radar goes off when information is being suppressed...especially as fantastic profits are being accrued. So from my view, the MSM purposely creates vax vs antivax messaging to distract from real honest conversation that might save lives. They suppress treatments that might impact those profits, and label people antivax horse dewormer nuts even creating false stories like in the Rolling Stone ER lie.

Too bad the conversation isn't focused on the evils, yes evil, of a for profit health care system. We are too distracted with false conflicts and narratives.

My 2 cents for what it is worth, YMMV.

Thanks for the OT and conversation.

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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout

I'm not in the vax nor anti vax camp...I'm in the be informed -
make your own decision camp.

Medicine, and perhaps life, is a game of weighing risks vs benefits.

My radar goes off when information is being suppressed...especially as fantastic profits are being accrued.

Mine too. Nea Nea Nea

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

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

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal CSTM & Lookout.

From the jump I was wary of a hahahaha "vaccine" created in months when effective actual vaccines have previously taken decades.

But I fell for the hype and had 2 shots. And subsequent after effects lasting many months.

Wiser now and very wary. Then and now defending those who decided against this risky somewhat protective measure, not in any real sense a vaccine, after all.

I read that they are making a weaker version for kids 5-11. Nothing will stop the drive to profit.

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NYCVG

usefewersyllables's picture

SF story that nobody remembers addressed this very nicely. It was "The Randy-Tandy Man", by Ross Rocklynne, published in Terry Carr's "Universe 3" collection from 1973.

The official bibliography notes describe it thusly: "The story is set in a society in which hate is controlled by forcing everyone to hate until they purge themselves. The protagonist, who is in the final stages of purges himself, sees the society in dystopian terms, but the story presents it in eutopian terms."

Minor spoiler: Randy-Tandy is a colloquialism for R&D-T&D, which are themselves an acronym for "Revile and despise, then taper off and deny".

It's worth looking for and reading, if you can still find it anywhere. Oh, look- here it is!

Are we there yet?

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@usefewersyllables

I will go read it. Smile

Revile and despise, taper off and deny?

Hmm. Seems like we're doing both, but not to the same people at the same time.

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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

usefewersyllables's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

And on the same topic, we have here Mandy Patinkin doing Sondheim/Rodgers/Hammerstein as only he can. From "South Pacific", "You've Got To Be Taught/Children Will Listen".[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owxRpV7l8Dc]

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

CB's picture

Another major shift were the neoconservatives, formerly Democrats who were dissatisfied with the pacifism that had taken hold of the 'Party of Peace' in the Vietnam era. That all switched back in the 1990's with the aggressive foreign policy of the Clinton's.

During the Bush years, it became difficult to tell the difference between the 'Peace' Party and the 'War' Party.

By the end of Obomba's two terms, the transformation was almost complete. This fundamental change became apparent while I was in DKos and argued against the Libyan and Syrian war mongering faction to no avail. I was finally given the boot when I argued against Hillary's Russigate delusions.

This transformation was set in stone when the Democrats undercut Trump's attempts to end the conflicts in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and make money not war with Russia. The only things the two parties maintained agreement on were arming Saudi Arabia, supporting Israel against Iran and blackballing/poking China. Arming SA is currently in the process of being dropped. I'm thinking they want to conserve their fire-power with the coming Pivot to War with China to preserve their world hegemony. This can only be done within the next years. 2025 will be two late - China will be much too strong (maybe it already is?).

There is no longer an anti-war party in the US. The ONLY person I can think of that has consistently pointed this out has been Tulsi Gabbard. I nominate her for President of the United States as the leader of the new Peace Party.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@CB

It might be instructive to do a series of short essays--or, more likely, medium ones--which take the political shifts of the last 35 years and put them under different lenses: this is what happened to war and peace, this is what happened to pollution and climate change, this is what happened to human rights, this is what happened to race, this is what happened to the concept of a living wage, etc. etc.

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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

Bisbonian's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal , "this is what happened to Universal Health Care."

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

Granma's picture

Only about 1/10th of one percent. The rest of the 1% go along because they have been bought off and/or as long as their own pockets continue to be kept full by the policies of the active 1/10th. I do not mean to imply they are innocent. But I remember during Occupy there were people who said they were part of the 1%, but that they agreed with the things Occupy was saying. Memory says they were young and appeared to be trust fund recipients.

What I wonder is who are the people pulling the strings? We know the names of a few of them. But there are others. They have so so many layers of corporations they hide behind that we only know the names of the vocal ones. There are wealthy CEOs in the 1% who do what they are supposed to, but they are not calling the shots except in whatever specific area they function in.

For example, people like Jamie Dimon. He does what he is supposed to do to make lots of money for his masters, and himself, of course. But is he really a policy/decision maker globally? There are far too many greedy sociopaths like him in the employ of the oligarchs. I would just like to know who the real puppet masters are. I would like to sort out who are the employees and who are the puppeteers. Does it matter? Maybe.

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CB's picture

@Granma
They had to kill him.

An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it... The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings...

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence—on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations… Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed...

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed—and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian law-maker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy... And so it is to the printing press—to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news—that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.”

– President John F Kennedy April 27, 1961

JFK didn't envision that even the printing press would eventually be compromised and neutered by that "monolithic and ruthless conspiracy".

The Anglo-American conspiracy that we now know as the Deep State originated from the conflict between Britain and the American Colonies.

Understanding the Tri-fold Nature of the Deep State

Not that long ago the United States came close to total dissolution.

The financial system was bankrupt, speculation had run amok, and all infrastructure had fallen into disarray over the course of 30 years of unbroken free trade. To make matters worse, the nation was on the verge of a civil war and international financiers in London and Wall Street gloated over the immanent destruction of the first nation on earth to be established not upon hereditary institutions, but rather on the consent of the governed and mandated to serve the general welfare.

Although one might think that I am referring now to today’s America, I am in fact referring to the United States of 1860.

The Trifold Deep State

In my past two articles in this series, I discussed how a new system of political economy was established by Benjamin Franklin and his disciples in the wake of the war of independence driven by protectionism, national banking and internal improvements.

I also demonstrated that the rise of the thing known as today’s “deep state” can also be understood as a three-headed beast which arose in its earliest incarnation under the leadership of arch traitor Aaron Burr who established Wall Street, killed Alexander Hamilton and devoted his life to the cause of dissolving the union. After having been caught in the act of sabotage, Burr escaped arrest in 1807 by running off to England where he live in Jeremy Bentham’s mansion for 5 years, only to return to oversee a new plot to break up the union that eventually boiled over in 1860.
...

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CB's picture

@gjohnsit

Coming to a city near you:

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@CB
and then spray her in the face with mace. Because she is such a threat lying on her back after falling. What brave, honorable public protectors of the peace our Aussie friends have.

Disgusting.

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Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes

CB's picture

@ovals49

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Lookout's picture

@CB @ovals49

fukus. But wait they're doing it there too... fuck us that is.

https://www.rt.com/news/534591-paris-clashes-health-pass-protests/

Demonstrators took to the streets of the French capital on Saturday to voice their discontent with the coronavirus health pass policy for the ninth weekend in a row. The protest quickly descended into clashes with police.

Four large-scale demonstrations were scheduled in Paris for Saturday. Crowds of people marched through the streets in various parts of the city, surrounded by tight cordons of police officers wearing riot gear.

The protesters were waving French national flags and holding placards that read: ‘health is not a business’. Some flags of leftist and even Royalist groups were seen in the crowds as well.

... The police responded with tear gas and batons.

Saturday was the ninth consecutive weekend of protests.... Last Saturday, some 140,000 people took part in the demonstrations, according to the French Interior Ministry.

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

enhydra lutris's picture

done. Thanks. Since it is an OT, I needn't announce digressions, but here one comes.

The White Crowns are back! Got up this morning and the platform feeder was full of them. Gonna be a lot more cheerful noise in the mornings now.

OK that said, onward. I found it entertaining that you explained and justified your reasons for getting covidvaxed, and that you have done so, for whatever reasons, before. This is an interesting new phenomena. When I was a young child, polio was running wild. I even went to school with polio survivors who were ambulatory, if only with assistance. When it became possible to get the polio vaccine everybody rushed out to get it. I recall going down to a local elementary school and standing in a huge line to get it, and looking back on the timeline, I'm pretty certain that was part of a trial. Over the years vaccines were developed for stuff and one got them if one was at all at risk. When we went to Africa, we checked with our medical provider and they called us in, pulled out a checklist and our records and began filling out this big yellow card with what we'd had, giving us additional stuff and writing it in, and offering some optional anti-malarials with explanations of the pros and cons of each. Then came the bogus autism scare and suddenly vaccinations were controversial, even after that was thoroughly debunked, and here we are today and folks feel a need or urge to justify. (Actually the great autism fraud may have started before our Africa trip, but we were adults, so "so what".)

I'm one of those who better not ever get anything worse than a cold, the likely repercussions are horrible and we had long standing plans for some spring travel. Vaccines were being given to those over 75 (I was 74), people with certain conditions but not mine, and those in certain occupations. We worked laboriously and devoted a ton of time to trying to get ours anyway, and just missed several chances, and then finally scored in early Feb, second shot in early March and hit the road asap after.

So, yesterday my wife learns that there are drive-thru flu shots at the local Kaiser for members and after reviewing our records we drove on down and got them. As we were getting them it struck me "THIS is an experimental drug" - every year's flu shot is experimental in many regards. Yet, few ever feel any need to justify getting a flu shot, especially if it is free. As with everything in life, you roll the dice, or flip a coin, and post mortems are almost always a waste of time and energy unless the decision was appallingly generic and without any specificity.

Anyway, as a public service to those who have or can readily obtain a 20 sided die (what gamers call a d20) or who have an operating system or spreadsheet which can properly interpret commands like rand -M 20 (that roll came up 9), here's the old reliable pre GWB decider, in numerical order 1 thru 20:

● It is certain.
● It is decidedly so.
● Without a doubt.
● Yes – definitely.
● You may rely on it.

● As I see it, yes.
● Most likely.
● Outlook good.
● Yes.
● Signs point to yes.

● Reply hazy, try again.
● Ask again later.
● Better not tell you now.
● Cannot predict now.
● Concentrate and ask again.

● Don't count on it.
● My reply is no.
● My sources say no.
● Outlook not so good.
● Very doubtful.

Some other fun thoughts on covid:
Yes, statistically it kills very few national or globally, but if it is your spouse, it is 50% of "you two". In any event, over the past 5 or 6 years, it is vastly more lethal than Novichok. Wink

Earlier this year, Tesla, an "experimental car" using some new tech and some new combinations and uses of old tech sold it's millionth car worldwide. To date the US has administered about 339 million covid shots.

Have to go reload me feeders, but, there never was any right or left except on a French seating chart. In this country it is especially inapplicable we have the controller-perps and the victims, and perhaps some enablers thrown in.

be well and have a good one

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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 --

this is different

U.S. forces carried out a strike on a “senior al-Qaida leader” in Syria today, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said.
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enhydra lutris's picture

@gjohnsit

be well and have a good one

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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 --

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

enhydra lutris's picture

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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 --

usefewersyllables's picture

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

hopeful1's picture

Dear Signal Wave --

Your final message that we should not niggle around on minor issues on C99 is right on point!
(note my tag line!)

Your argument is also quite compelling. I am mostly a lurker on this site (but I'm not new ... no Troll I!) so I am not as tuned in to the things "everyone knows". My question about your argument is where some supporting sources are (You mentioned JtC ... not sure what that is). It is tempting to believe that there is a cabal that "decides" how things should be (e.g. decides which party should support their interests and which should be vilified), but I think it likely (w/o sources as well!) that this arises more organically than that.

Both political parties want money and therefor they naturally suck up to the 1% ... they don't need to be told. Because party leaders want to stay on the gravy train (such as it is) they quash dissent (if they can). You could imagine that the insanity of current Republicans was planned (it might be reassuring to think that), but I think they did it on their own. Trump brought out the crazies. In fact, I don't think the 1% wanted Trump ... an assumption that is pretty common around here. I don't say that C99 supports Trump, because he is an evil nut-job, but they recognize real well that the Dems were not providing any reasonable alternative in 2016 or 2020 that would actually fix real problems (as opposed to just not making them much worse!).

So ... your post makes a good story. Do you consider it just a convenient mnemonic for how we go here ... or do you think there is an any consciousness in our politicial drift?

Your stuff about the left being completely stripped of all of its thoughts on economics and class and the environment is dead on ... regardless. Isn't that perhaps a corporate media problem? Many of us on C99 are left or very left ... and we are CLEARLY wll aware that it's way more than BLM!!

All the best ... Keep on thinking great thoughts!

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Do not let the plutocrats divide us!

via Socratic method than other times. Never more than now with the vax proposition.
What are the issues? What are the supporting, unimpeachable facts presented? How many unimpeachable facts are presented by one side or the other? 5 solid facts beats the crap out of other sides 4 facts.
Then, motive. Facts undergoing intense scrutiny, motive being the challenge to presented facts.
I am not a scientist, have no desire to be one, but put them to the same tests as everyone else.
Hope everyone who got the jab is safer, and more at ease with their safety.
I wish the same thing for anyone who rejects the vax.
Today, a client came to tell me his unvaxxed 25 year old daughter died from COVID. He is poor, needed $20 to make it through the week. He said his 55 year old, vaxxed sister was extremely ill from COVID. He needed some gas money to get to work, so I made that "loan". He is jabbed.
Years of hugging was today merely a fist bump, visit out on the office deck in fresh air and sun.
As he cried about his daughter, I wanted to give him a hug.
The truth will out, and we are not getting it now.
I can guarantee the daughter had no health insurance, or money to get to a doctor.
We can bitch all we want about m4all forever, but with the protocols of no care until almost dead are in place, the accepted system, just put up with some family members tears, fist bump then, and walk away with a soul full of hatred for TPTB.
Maybe everyone on this site has COVID info, charts, videos, but day after day, I get the stories, the face to face.
This gives me a much different perspective than the average bear, so to speak.
Great essay, chica.

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

Thank you.

From my pov the vast majority of US politics is an obvious clown show and I have a really hard time having serious conversations with people who view it otherwise, so I'm keeping a low profile here because I don't want to offend or create more conflict. (I've never been formally diagnosed but all the self-assessment tests clock me for autism and it's true that I don't always see a communication problem soon enough.)

Personally, I've never trusted either Democrats or Republicans, always been an independent/nonpartisan, but for awhile I did buy into some lesser-evilism and tried to organize with Democrats, sort-of from the left margin. This was basically how I learned that the power distribution in the kind partisan structure they inhabit and viciously defend cannot be overcome through electoral means.

I especially loved this bit from the comment thread:

I see no option but to take linguistic territory of our own by taking control of at least some of the means of communication, or inventing new means of our own. If we have our own communicative territory, we will be able to make our own definitions and disregard theirs.

Master's tools, house, etc. Don't know how long it's been since you read Audre Lorde but she's always worth another looksee.

In any case, while you and I have had some differences of perspective on some of these issues, mostly the inside-system/outside-system stuff and things like "legitimacy", I don't think we have much/any substantive disagreement about the bigger concerns. I just wanted to pop in to say how much I appreciate your work and your voice. Please don't feel any pressure to respond! Smile

Best wishes to all.

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