To stop Trump, you must defeat the Democrats first

It's unusual in these days of Trump!Russia!Trump! that you see multiple, in-depth articles that show just how bad the Democratic Party establishment is, but today is that exception.
For instance NBC News said this:

It’s time for Democrats to re-evaluate incrementalist tactics like these, based on their actual outcomes.

Our opponents are playing by a different set of rules, and Democrats must finally take a cue from the GOP and listen to their base, which skews about as progressive as the Republicans’ skews reactionary. The Overton window has not really shifted so far to the right that voters perceive Democrats taking a stand on DACA to be as extreme as Republicans taking a stand against funding Obamacare. What’s the point of amassing endless political capital if you never use it for anything?

When you look at which Democrats brokered the deal to fund the government — Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill, lawmakers up for re-election in 2018 in purple states that went for Trump over Clinton — it's clear that these politicians hope to repeat the 2016 strategy of pandering to moderate Republicans in wealthy suburbs to save their seats.

But the real article to read is this one by the Intercept.
It has a great breakdown of how the DCCC consistently block and undermine progressive candidates in a single-minded focus on money.

It turned out the Democratic Party had other ideas — or, at least, it had an old idea. As is happening in races across the country, party leaders in Washington and in the Pennsylvania district rallied, instead, around a candidate who, in 2016, had raised more money than a Democrat ever had in the district and suffered a humiliating loss anyway.
...
In district after district, the national party is throwing its weight behind candidates who are out of step with the national mood. The DCCC — known as “the D-trip” in Washington — has officially named 18 candidates as part of its “Red to Blue” program...In many of those districts, there is at least one progressive challenger the party is working to elbow aside, some more viable than others.
...
If money isn’t necessarily the best path to victory, that smart Washington-based operatives continue to make it the key variable regardless raises the question of what other motivations may be in play. For Lynch, the answer is simple: It’s a racket. “The Democratic and Republican parties are commercial enterprises and they’re very much interested in their own survival,” Lynch said. “The money race is probably more important to them than the issues race in some cases.”

The article then gives you a list of progressive candidates and details how each of them are being either ignored or undermined by the DCCC in favor of wealthy, conservative, establishment candidates.
It may not surprise you, but it's unusual to see it spelled out like this. You should read it yourself.

The Democratic establishment has backed unpopular Republican policies time and time again.
Whether it was giving the Pentagon more money than it asked for, and spying on the American public or deregulating Wall Street.
And then there's predatory payday lenders.

People need to stop thinking that the other party is the enemy.
It's the Dems that stop progressive policies, not the Repubs.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

The Democratic Party establishment is playing to big donors who really don't care which party wins, as long as they (i.e big donors) remain in control, the #1 objective being to stop the left at all costs, even if that means losing elections.

up
0 users have voted.

Mike Taylor

Wink's picture

@Mike Taylor

up
0 users have voted.

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.

snoopydawg's picture

but it's another "democrats need to.... article. I'm sure that they know what they need to do, the question is will they ever do it?
Here we have the same people who pretty much always vote with the republicans so their votes aren't surprising.

When you look at which Democrats brokered the deal to fund the government — Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill, lawmakers up for re-election in 2018 in purple states that went for Trump over Clinton — it's clear that these politicians hope to repeat the 2016 strategy of pandering to moderate Republicans in wealthy suburbs to save their seats.

How would they have voted if their votes were needed? I'm thinking that they wouldn't stand their ground and this was just more theater.

Among the Senators who voted on Monday to stand firm and keep the government shut down are Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Bernie Sanders, I-V.T., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — i.e., every liberal openly eyeing a presidential run in 2020. These politicians are not necessarily more progressive than their colleagues — some have records heavily marked by centrist triangulation and capitulation — but they know which way the wind is blowing in the party.

The Intercept article shows that the democrats are proving Pelosi's point. She isn't going to change anything about what they are going to do. The DCCC isn't going to back progressive candidates and they have often let republicans run unopposed, even in districts where they could win. They were quite okay with the number of seats that they lost during Obama's tenure because they didn't have to pretend that the republicans were blocking their legislation. We saw what they did when they had all 3 branches of government and how during the health care debates they let the republicans water down the ACA and then let them ramble on all summer about death panels and misrepresent what it was without one person coming out to set the record straight.

The biggest tell was that they have spent the last year saying how horrible Trump is and that he is not to be trusted, yet Pelosi and 64 others voted to give him more power to spy on us and gave him money for his secret police force.

"We can give up and let them to take it from there like we did with Obama, or we can keep the pressure on."

We did pressure Obama for years to do what he said he would and how did that work out for us?

IMG_1234_2.JPG

up
0 users have voted.

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

divineorder's picture

@snoopydawg

up
0 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg
looks like the consulting class still rules

The Democratic National Committee will distribute $1 million to 11 state parties from its new State Party Innovation Fund, days after questions about the grant process spilled into public view.

Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia will receive the first grants.

“This is the largest investment in competitive grants ever offered by the DNC,” said party spokeswoman Sabrina Singh. “The SPIF grants have been underway since late last year as we receive proposals. We look forward to approving more grants to states in the coming weeks.”

The new grants are coming five days after Vice News reported that the party had “not delivered” them, raising questions about the DNC’s fundraising under chairman Tom Perez and making party leaders in swing states anxious.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gjohnsit "Of course, we will be expecting these grants back immediately for the Hillary Victory 2020 "It's Really Her Turn This Time" Fund."

up
0 users have voted.

"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

Yah the first question is not what do you stand for, but how big is your bank account and those who know you.

What struck me was the utter elitism of the DCCC. They never followed up with people who while rejected were obviously party or grass roots activists and could have helped out with other offices or acting as campaign coordinators, etc. They recruited money and not people.

And these are the people who are going to defeat the gop?

up
0 users have voted.
k9disc's picture

Wow, man...

The Teachout comment about 26 year olds making decisions... I think I know who she was talking about; a real asshole consultant who insulted me with his complete obtuseness to real life.

He was, however, scoring drunk chicks at closing time at the local brewery's on cheap beer night for a few weeks.

They are friggin' looney if they think they can continue on this path.
@MrWebster

up
0 users have voted.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@k9disc About what the democratic party has become and who controls it. I read right after the election how union people and activists were trying to tell the national campaign that MI was in trouble. The response of the national committee was to "forbid" the locals from contacting them as they knew MI was not in trouble. Thank ye young professionals with Ivy League degrees.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@MrWebster Well, I have an Ivy League degree. While you can still access the halls of power from that direction, it's no guarantee, believe me. There's actually a fair amount of anti-higher-education snottiness I ran into in DC.

You can meet the right people and get connected at an Ivy League school, but there are plenty of other ways. The important thing is that your loyalties are solidly in the right place and they can count on you to always advocate for more power and money landing in the hands of those who already have it. In other words, don't ever tell them anything they don't want to hear.

That's the reason I was shown the door--I didn't "have the right personality for politics." When I asked what that meant, I was asked "If you disagreed with your boss, would you tell him?"

up
0 users have voted.

"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

Wink's picture

will. They doubled
@k9disc
down on this m.o. when
Tom Perez was shuttled into place
and they purged most progressives from the party apparatus. "They" have zero intentions of moving from their 2016 strategy, hence "Russia!" to justify their status quo pathway, Pelosi giving it her stamp of approval. After all, it's not about winning, they could give a damn about winning. It's about maintaining their Beltway mojo, their invites to all the "right" cocktail parties, their favorite tables at the best D.C. restaurants. "We lost?!" "No matter, we'll get 'em next time! Dahling, don't we have that exclusive movie viewing tonite... thanks, everyone! We'll get 'em next time!" or not.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

snoopydawg's picture

The Game Continued

Here's Claire McCaskill showing her outrage over what Pence said.
(in the video)
When you look at which Democrats brokered the deal to fund the government — Joe Manchin and Claire McCaskill

up
0 users have voted.

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

Amanda Matthews's picture

to leave a slime trail across our nation or they are fricking insane. (I go for the former.) They’re sending letters out now saying it’s the freaking Russians who are the source of the Nunes memo. Its a three pager.

570E8754-2328-419B-94CE-F94AD111E008.jpeg

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/7/9/795216b6-455c-4...

The lies are getting crazier and craziet.

up
0 users have voted.

I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa

Lookout's picture

I found this British diplomat turned anarchist to have a good perspective...

I think that the way to explain it is just talk about the practicalities of it. Forget the labels. I mean I will call it anarchist, but other people can it communalism, they can call it self-organization, they can call it bottom-up democracy. I'm not at all attached to what people talk about and when you talk about the practical stuff, get away from the theology and the philosophy and the history, you talk about practical things. Like people sharing the enterprises that they work in, people governing themselves, taking decisions about the things that matter for them, whether the future of the local hospital or their local school, everybody gets that. That's not a complicated idea to understand whether you're from the right or the left.

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20927:Real-Media%3A-Former-British-Diplo...

I keep hearing we need a revolution, and I would remind everyone about the privatized militarized corporate police we saw Ferguson and Standing Rock.

-from David Harvey in last weeks intercepted podcast-
https://theintercept.com/2018/01/17/intercepted-podcast-white-mirror/

I think the future of the U.S. in so far that it has a radical future, lies more with some sort of what I would call almost non-ideological anarchism. I don’t think that it’s ready for the kind of collective endeavor that would really be required to confront the power of the Federal Reserve and find an alternative. I don’t think it’s ready for thinking about a mass movement of some kind that will actually start to redefine how the economy works.
I think if there’s going to be any real kind of left, it’s going to be a kind of a socialist-anarchist kind of left politics that will remerge, which has, many redeeming features.
….
I mean the thing that struck me about Ferguson was the sight of those militarized police — I mean, there’s no way, it seems to me, that a political movement could imagine taking to the streets and storming the barricades and getting anywhere. They would simply be mowed down. And so therefore politics has to start to think about a kind of progressive transformation which does not involve confrontation and violence of that sort. Because, quite simply, I think any movement of that sort would lose. And therefore, we have to think of something that is an alternative kind of movement.

So I keep circling back to the idea that building relationships in our communities has more effect than all the politics in the land.

PS gjohn you mentioned using TOR last year. Tom Drake caught my ear when he said anyone using the encrypted version of TOR is automatically on the NSA watch list. Tom Drake explains - ... that anybody that's using TorVPN is automatically suspect by the way. It doesn't matter whether you're an American. You're automatically suspect in engaging in "wrong behavior" because you're using encrypted communications, or anonymized communication.
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:20920:Whistleblowers%3A-Congress-Has-Ent...

All the best, and thanks for the democrap confirmation and links!

up
0 users have voted.

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

divineorder's picture

@Lookout We have been trying out Kapersky free anti virus and since we only have mobile internet and take advantage of open hotspots when we can, we are using their connection protection.

Lots of interesting history in the wiki on Kapersky and worth the read imo.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspersky_Lab

up
0 users have voted.

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

Lookout's picture

@divineorder

And for another perspective on how to change the Dems is Jim Hightower the optimistic populist. Just read his publication the Lowdown this AM with this article
https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/ordinary-winning/

On the other side of the spectrum is Jimmy Dores take on the dems caving...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcL8HpecVmU (25 min)

Sad state of affairs. I awoke this am thinking about the Syrian situation where we openly stay in a country where we have not been invited aiming at regime change (ie take out Assad in replace him with our puppet) and positioning ourselves to invade Iran. How can we be so blind....there's not any discussion on the MSM corporate propaganda machine.

up
0 users have voted.

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

divineorder's picture

@Lookout
Of his work, haven’t done so in a while.

He was a fabulous Agriculture Commisioner in TX before losing to big AG money and Rick Perry, and have always loved his plain folks humorous writing. Years ago Jb and I once went to meet him at Threadgill’s in Austin where he was doing a radio show in order to thank him personally for his courage and his voice.

@Lookout

up
0 users have voted.

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

@Lookout needed this like a breath of fresh air. Reading all the terrible news from what we are doing all over the world made this a welcome read.

up
0 users have voted.

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Big Al's picture

@Lookout That's what I keep seeing here. A lot of complaining about how corrupt and hopeless the democratic party is countered by constant assertions that electing the right (progressive) politicians can turn things around.

I really don't get that.

up
0 users have voted.
Wink's picture

full blown revolution,
@Big Al
there is no other alternative. None.
I don't get the objection to this.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Big Al's picture

@Wink is one option based on the fact that both parties are controlled by the establishment and voting for them is basically giving in that establishment, allowing it to continue ruling the rest of us. Not to mention voting for either those parties is de facto support for U.S. imperialism which both parties officially support.

But my main point is the hypocrisy of claiming the dem party is hopeless and corrupt while still seeking to elect more and better democratic politicians. I saw enough of that on Daily Kos.

up
0 users have voted.
Wink's picture

at it is elections
@Big Al
are going to happen whether
I vote or not, or if anyone votes,
or not, and people are going to run for those offices.
And somebody is going to win. That being the case, I will vote for the "more and better" Democrat, where they exist, and where they don't I'll vote Green or pass.
I see no point in not voting. but, ymmv.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

@Big Al

Not just 'more and better Democrats' (gah!) but bringing in responsible and involved people specifically running for public office in rejecting the destructive corporate control and bribery of their public servants.

The effort is toward replacing the corrupted corporate representatives infesting the Dems with actual Progs, in rebuilding the Party with those who actually believe in government of, by and for the people and all of that absolutely essential jazz. Can't do that without having actual people representing the public interest forming the political parties of an actual democratic government.

If none of the Dems - or at least very few, especially having none within an honourable leadership - were corrupt, the Party, being merely a vehicle to be filled with people for specific purposes, obviously wouldn't be.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Big Al's picture

@Ellen North A two party representative government for 330 million people will never represent anyone but the rich, that's been proven. We have quotes from Sinclair (1904), Debs (1920) and Dubois (1956) and many others complaining about the same thing we do today, that both parties represent the ruling class. The system itself was set up by those "founding fathers" to insure the power remains with the controlling oligarchy. So it's going against historical patterns and evidence to believe that it's possible to elect the right kind and number of politicians to actually make change things. Especially now when everything is so controlled by big money, not just in the election process but the entire system of governance.

up
0 users have voted.

@Big Al

When was the last time that a horde of Progressives were able to effectively crowd-fund, provide interviews and information about themselves and what they stand for as political candidates to millions of people on the internet, with Bernie gaining access to the corporate media and various town halls across the country to speak commonsense and of intrinsic human worth with those not on the internet, more and more of The People realizing that yes, they need an actual democracy to act in the public interest, instead of against it?

And that this is possible to achieve, even in America, while a number of The Progressive People run for public office - as public servants - against the regressive corporate politicians in an organized fashion, on their sane and often formerly existing policies, and win, thanks to more and more of The People working together and more directly toward this goal?

People are seeing past the brainwash to remember that elections and governments are not about Parties, they're about the character and policies of the public servants who form a government serving the public interest, no matter what political label they may bear.

And a landslide win is harder to cheat a winner out of.

All pacific avenues toward democracy must be attempted; little time remains, as we know. The threadbare gloves are being removed from the fascist monster to dish out further 'austerity' and stripping of human rights to Americans and the world, to make all ready for further and more extreme abuses. And this at best.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Big Al's picture

@Ellen North I'll vote for any democratic party politician that campaigns against U.S. imperialism and promises to vote against all defense spending bills and work towards ending U.S. imperialism.
Smile

I.e, ain't gonna happen. Which is the big tell when it comes to progressives.

up
0 users have voted.

@Big Al

what options remain to any politician trying to stay in government and the media, to work from the inside? How many have the guts and dedication to sacrifice themselves to do this in the first place?

We have to deal with the global psychopathic fascist Mafia we have, not the limited, localized, merely rabid, purely political situation we may wish was all we had to deal with.

Personally, I don't think any politician would survive saying this out loud. Kinda wondering, (apart from the number of expediently filled body-bags since the Kennedys and quietly rotting in the Clinton's trail,) could you imagine any such survival and continued ability to reach the public through corporate and ultimately any expandingly censored and propagandized media? And the President can completely shut down the internet (and therefore Bitcoins, and banking, if desired - do not place your faith in having 'virtual' anything) in any 'emergency'... Not that the corporate media would be likely to carry any such speech, or publicly interview any politician speaking against the (forbidden word) US military 'empire' invasion force.

Maybe just wind up politically murdered, rather than physically so, but I'd bet that any such utterance wouldn't make the 5 O'clock news, if at all avoidable, and if not possible to keep utterly quiet, it would turn out to be traitorous words spoken by a nut-case RUSSIAN!!! patsy, as 'proven' by probably '17 intelligence agencies' with (trade-marked) 'Top Secret proof' and a 'for-National Security' Top Secret kangaroo court trial.

A problem which must be dealt with is that this is not simply a question of disowning corrupt politics/politicians but of strategically attempting to deal with a lawless and internationally powerful organization of fascists having often-stolen global control in many ways and areas. Spitting defiance just gets people shut down, one way or another, with no good being achieved or possible to achieve in what may be a very short future indeed.

But Bernie's current strategy enables him to publicly speak with the made-powerless people within certain, (rather heavily pushed,) boundaries to at least keep the notion of government in the public interest alive. That scares TPTB who are nonetheless aware that shutting down Bernie in any form reveals their deaths-head more starkly than they'd like at this stage of almost-complete population subjugation, so they wait, while Bernie uses that shrinking window and the remaining window-dressing of democracy at great personal risk, knowing that only The People United can bring positive change in time.

It gives us a chance to try something constructive, and preferably anything constructive that we can.

They want us - need us to be - inactive and giving up on political engagement, with a loss of faith in government and law as institutions and my personal feeling is that we should do whatever they don't want us to and work in ways they cannot as easily and brutally shut down without revealing their Black Hand too obviously, too soon.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

hecate's picture

@Big Al
most of their history, humans were egalitarians who practiced consensual decision-making. The modern two-party system renders consensus impossible as by its very nature it is duality in conflict (whether the conflict is real, or contrived). Multi-party systems theoretically edge closer to consensus, but in practice what happens is that in order to maintain "power," the dominant party must cut deals with nutbars, like these little splinter parties in Israel who get into the government and then start pushing for bizarreness like requiring people to walk around with fish in their socks. Representative government arose when there became so many humans scattered over such a wide area that it was no longer practicable for them all to get together to make the decisions. So instead the humans would select people who would "represent" them. But, these days, among many of the humans, it is no longer necessary to have any representatives, because the humans all have a tube, and can use that tube to study and weigh in on whatever decisions need to be made. Egalitarian consensual decision-making can return. And it will.

up
0 users have voted.
Big Al's picture

@hecate And that's what we should be working for right now. There is no time to wait. These fuckers with the power are dangerous as hell and will not stop. Electing a few so called progressives to the democratic party won't do anything to stop them. Participating in this charade only serves to prolong the pain and suffering.

up
0 users have voted.

@hecate

most of their history, humans were egalitarians who practiced consensual decision-making

If you are talking about pre-history tribal days then yes.
But most of recorded history involved monarchies, emperors and oligarchs.

up
0 users have voted.
SnappleBC's picture

@Big Al

I never saw any effort to elect "more and better Democrats" over at GOS. They only cared about "more". If anything, "better" was defined as "more neoliberal" -- the exact opposite of better from any sort of "left" viewpoint. So I don't think you can reasonably use that as a counter-example.

Justice Democrats is actually trying to elect more and better Democrats (I think). And I'm inclined to wish them well. My effort remains trying to promote the formation of a 3rd party. I see my efforts as complementary to those trying to reform.

up
0 users have voted.

A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

gulfgal98's picture

@Big Al which is why do private organizations, ie, the Democrats and Republicans, have the right to control our elections and even determine who gets to vote in them (open versus closed primaries)?

Until we get past that issue, the rest remains moot for me. A private organization (DNC) has publicly stated in a court of law that they have every right to determine their candidates, even in smoke filled rooms outside the public process. The last person in consideration in our electoral process is the voter and our government has no problem with that.

In other words, representative democracy and the citizens are the least important parts of the entire electoral process.

up
0 users have voted.

Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

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

@gulfgal98

Privatized elections says it all, right there.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

@gulfgal98

I'm surprised that you are unaware of the fundamental difference between a primary and a general election. A primary is not Step one in a two step election.

up
0 users have voted.

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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Big Al Neither do I.

up
0 users have voted.

"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

Creosote.'s picture

@divineorder
Runs lightly and you can generally schedule what it does when.

up
0 users have voted.

@Lookout
Fuck 'em.
I don't think that means squat.
I doubt they can even crack TOR + VPN. Not without dedicating resources they can't spare.

up
0 users have voted.

@gjohnsit
Since TOOR has its origins in the spuke community, it's likely that they have back door access to it. Massive use of it, though, will defocus survey-lance.
On the one hand, we're talking about 5 acres+ of top-of-class hardware, sophisticated al gore ithms, and many back doors. It wouldn't be hard to store interesting stuff to be addressed during slack periods, for instance.
On the other hand, we're talking about billions of people online, millions using toor.
On the third hand, if many millions of people adopted vpn, emkription, and other privacy protections and _habits_, that might saturate the hardware cycles needed to survey, and force a triage process, taking the folkus away from us ordinary folks.
Mainly, I just hope to frustrate corporate sp eye ing, and possibly defeat some net unneutrality sensorship. Probably futile, but why make it easy? I don't get targeted ads.

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@pindar's revenge Got nothing against Tor, but I do think you're right that learning encryption would be better.

up
0 users have voted.

"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 I started looking into doing it with email a year ago, but ran out of steam. Imagine 100 million email users doing it routinely. Maybe someone knowledgeable could essay it?

up
0 users have voted.

@pindar's revenge
And Snowden recommends TOR.

up
0 users have voted.

@gjohnsit I use it, too, but I don't assume it's bust-proof. At the very least, it protects (I hope) from lower-level snooping, e.g., an ISP wanting to block left content, or Giggle building and selling profiles.

up
0 users have voted.
BrutallyHonest's picture

@Lookout "...Like people sharing the enterprises that they work in, people governing themselves, taking decisions about the things that matter for them, whether the future of the local hospital or their local school, everybody gets that. That's not a complicated idea to understand whether you're from the right or the left."

This is how we move forward. We realize that "We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words". -Ursula Le Guin

up
0 users have voted.

@BrutallyHonest the party of the working class. Hate to state the obvious, but we need to repeat this concept over and over, until it is in the national conscious.

up
0 users have voted.

@BrutallyHonest In the Robinson Mars trilogy they tried to hammer out something along those lines, another fine example of sf social speculation.

up
0 users have voted.
BrutallyHonest's picture

@pindar's revenge In high school I read Red Mars and enjoyed it. Then I bought Blue and Green Mars to read. However, I found Robinson to write like J.R.R. Martin in that it seemed like he was trying to write more for a movie or TV show writing so many details that I found hard to enjoy.

Maybe I should try and go back and reread it all since I am now 34?

up
0 users have voted.

@BrutallyHonest

somewhat by the third volume, but I especially liked the details. (I haven't read any Martin besides Sand Kings, and I don't watch tv, so I don't know Game for comparison.) To me, it was the best example of tying together hard and social science, religion, politics and ecology since Dune. The main characters grew, developed and changed, sometimes drastically. I heard they're working on something like a mini-series of it, which will probably be terrible, as usual.
And again, thanks for the quotes. UKL really spoke her mind.

up
0 users have voted.
Wink's picture

grenades takes out
@Lookout
the militarized police.

up
0 users have voted.

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 Aspie Corner's picture

save for Debbie Whatshername Shill and whatever cronies are left.

up
0 users have voted.

Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

@The Aspie Corner

up
0 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@The Aspie Corner I'm scratching my head as to why I should care. So we can get more like Chuck Schumer?

up
0 users have voted.

"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

harsh

Maybe you can still feel the wetness of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s lips from when he kissed you on your cheek before selling you out. Maybe you can hear the coins jingling in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s pockets. If you can’t, it’s probably because you are so accustomed to the sound and feeling of being sold out by the same people you are willing to fight for, you’ve grown numb to the feeling.

It feels like the slave crying on the auction block because he assumed that he was part of Massa’s family. It feels like Timothy Coggins’ family wondering for a quarter century who dragged him behind a truck, stabbed him and left him dead, only to find out that the white population of your town had known for almost 25 years who committed the lynching.

It feels like canvassing for President Bill Clinton and then hearing his wife call you a “superpredator.” It feels like an 8-year old being surrounded by his friends ... until they decide to tie a rope around his neck and hang him from a tree ... in 2017. It feels like Doug Jones being elected by black people in Alabama, then voting with the Republican Party on the continuing resolution.

It feels like spineless disloyalty. It feels like the repeated treachery of someone trading your loyalty for slivers of silver. It feels like black people believing that a white person is their friend. It feels like being a black person believing that the Democratic Party is your friend.

The Democratic Party is not our friend.
...
The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party in the way that manslaughter is slightly better than murder: It might seem like a lesser crime, but the victim can’t really tell the difference. In exchange for the unwavering loyalty of black America, we get to live with the Democratic Party’s arm being shoved so far up our anal cavities that not only are we used to acting as their puppets, but we have become comfortable with it.

up
0 users have voted.

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit can convey my reaction to this quote.

Especially the next to last two sentences. Edit (the next to last full paragraph since you edited the post after I posted this, although that last paragraph is a real kicker as well). Smile

It feels like black people believing that a white person is their friend. It feels like being a black person believing that the Democratic Party is your friend.

These are the things I think but don't say in mixed company because it just isn't worth the battle. I won't elaborate further but suffice it to say, I am just too damn tired and as the recent SNL skit proclaimed, "What even matters anymore?"

It would have been better if it addressed more than Trump but SNL, like all the other MSM, is totally bought and owned.

I guess I'm just old because I don't believe anything matters anymore. At least nothing that will get us out of this handbasket that is going down at breakneck speed.

Diablo

up
0 users have voted.

Yaldabaoth, Saklas I'm calling you. Samael. You're not alone. I said, you're not alone, in your darkness. You're not alone, baby. You're not alone. "Original Sinsuality" Tori Amos

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Dark UltraValia @Dark UltraValia I know that I have been a good friend to Black people. Have I done enough? No. Nothing short of what those four white students who died in Mississippi in the 60s did could be enough. But I've been honest, and I've never sold anybody out, and I showed up, until I was asked not to, because it was no longer a situation where Black people wanted white allies at the protests. And then I stayed home.

I went so far as to abandon my chosen career because of the racist election fraud that happened here, twice, at the beginning of this century. I devoted my life to ending that shit. Stupidly, I believed the Democrats were the way to end it. (I realized my mistake later).

I've been dependable, right up to the point, in 2016, when Black people started telling me that Hillary was the second coming of Fannie Lou Hamer, and that opposing her was racist. At that point, reason and truth had left the building, so I did too.

I think that guy's grandmother had good advice for him, because I think it's fairly rare for a white person to be dependable or honest toward a Black person. The percentages were with her, and if I had been a Black grandmother advising a child, I would have said the same. But it's obviously not impossible.

up
0 users have voted.

"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

I think it's fairly rare for a white person to be dependable or honest toward a Black person

I don't believe that.
I believe you are a real friend (which is rare), or you aren't (which is common).
Skin color has nothing to do with it.
People that aren't real friends are always apt to blow smoke up your a**. You just have to accept that ahead of time.

up
0 users have voted.
Thornrose's picture

@gjohnsit Excellent article by Harriot - thanks for the link.

up
0 users have voted.
Mark from Queens's picture

@gjohnsit @gjohnsit
precisely the kind of fodder present for a large coalition to be forged.

But this is how the Democratic Party operates. It is impossible to say whether they remain perpetual losers because of a lack of a plan or because they don’t give a fuck about their nonwhite constituents, but it is telling that their losses somehow always end up costing black and brown people. Always. So much so that I struggle to see how their slick-mouthed equivocation somehow keeps tricking black people into believing that they are on our side.

They are not.

The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party in the way that manslaughter is slightly better than murder: It might seem like a lesser crime, but the victim can’t really tell the difference. In exchange for the unwavering loyalty of black America, we get to live with the Democratic Party’s arm being shoved so far up our anal cavities that not only are we used to acting as their puppets, but we have become comfortable with it.

Yet there are some people so stuck in their binary thinking that they believe that not voting for Democrats, or withholding our vote from the party until we can get something solid in return, is a crazy idea. They will tell you that voting for a third-party candidate is a losing proposition.

I have a rebuttal to that, but first I will have to switch to all caps, because I am about to yell. To those people I say:

YOU ACT AS IF WE ARE WINNING!

So here we are again, left out in the cold while the Democratic Party gets warm and cozy behind the artifice of solidarity and equality. They are tricksters. They will sit at the table of our last supper and break bread with us, knowing that they have already conspired with the enemy planning our crucifixion. We know they are going to betray us, but we are always surprised when the cock crows.

They get us every time.

To me this is indicative of the kind of anger that exists all across the country, from the Rust Belt blue collar workers abandoned in the 80's and now for 3 decades, to dismissing of minorities' concerns time and time and time again. But now with the white middle class no longer seeing a way to sustain their lifestyle, dreams and hopes (i.e. steady employment, affordable college education) they're also in the mix. A massive, furious coalition waiting to coalesce. And I don't think it's crazy to get people to start thinking about boycotting the elections (see W.E.B Dubois hard-hitting piece "Why I Won't Vote")

I realize this sounds idealistic, given the authors pull-no-punches feelings about white racism and the Dems. But I know my history fairly well, I think. And there's a whole trove of examples of black-white alliance that show it's been done before.

Way before the Civil Rights movement came into existence movement The Communist Party in the 1930's were canvassing all over the South, side by side with black folks fighting for equal rights. In the late 60's The Black Panthers, under Fred Hampton in Chicago, were beginning to form a coalition with poor Appalachian white folk known as the Young Patriots, who were also ghettoized and brutalized by police.

Here's a speech of Hampton's, one month before he was assassinated by the FBI and Chicago PD.

"It's A Class Struggle, Goddammit!"

Our first allies will be the ones who have had the sense to turn off the incessant lies and divide and conquer BS of the MSM. They know the Duopoly is a charade (and that includes RW folks who are waking up that they're been duped by fear-mongering racism and resentment politics).

There's many more to be had.

(Edited to replace with correct Hampton link. Thanks CStMS!)

up
0 users have voted.

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Mark from Queens In the late 60's The Black Panthers, under Fred Hampton in Chicago, were beginning to form a coalition with poor Appalachian white folk known as the Young Patriots, who were also ghettoized and brutalized by police.

up
0 users have voted.

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

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

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Mark from Queens

up
0 users have voted.

"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

snoopydawg's picture

@Mark from Queens

on the party and moved it even farther to the right and when the democrats became the old republicans.

In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no “two evils” exist.

Third parties can't get their voices heard the way the other parties do because they are excluded from the debates. And the rest of the things he said are still happening now. Sure doesn't look like anything has changed in the half century since he said that.

Thanks for the link, Mark

up
0 users have voted.

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

Anja Geitz's picture

@Mark from Queens

The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party in the way that manslaughter is slightly better than murder: It might seem like a lesser crime, but the victim can’t really tell the difference.

In the most visceral way I've EVER heard. The takeaway line being that in either case, the constituent in this brutally descriptive metaphor is still just as dead.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

snoopydawg's picture

@gjohnsit

The Democratic Party is better than the Republican Party in the way that manslaughter is slightly better than murder.

No truer words have ever been spoken. Democrats will stand up for us only on social issues, but they are lockstep with the republicans on every other issue. Why can't more people see this?

up
0 users have voted.

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

Big Al's picture

@snoopydawg democratic party stands up on social issues. That's what I was saying the other day when I said it was time to stop thinking about the democratic party as the liberal, socially conscious party vs the conservative republican party. All that does is continue this charade that we have two different parties with different ideologies, when we don't.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Big Al

The democrats will vote for certain social issues when the republicans will refuse to. Take abortion and LGBT rights as well as some other issues. I know that they do it because it doesn't cost their donors much money, but democrats at least used to appoint justices to the SC that will defend social issues. The republicans are stacking the courts with right wing wackos.

Please expand on your comment and what you mean. I'm open to your opinion.

up
0 users have voted.

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

Big Al's picture

@snoopydawg same or the charade would fall apart. What social issues have the democrats actually achieved anything with in the last forty years versus the setbacks they and their presidents Clinton and Obama have implemented?
I think it's a reputation cultivated to pretend there are differences in the two parties when there really isn't. I think the quotes from Dubois, Debs, and Sinclair from way back show that the two parties have always been "two sides of the ruling class" and the duopoly system is set up to provide the public with a false choice of two different parties.

I think it's why people have such a hard time giving up on the party because they've been trained to believe the dem party is the liberal, progressive party and the republicans the conservative party. The laws and actions don't bear that out imo. Look what happened under Clinton with immigration, health care, welfare and the prison industrial complex and under Obama also with health care and immigration, which are social issues.

up
0 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@Big Al

Smile

I see your point about Clinton and Obama. I'll go with the democrats used to be better on social issues and getting better people elected to the SC. Sotomyer and Kagen are both centrists Justices. What about Ginsberg? How do you feel about her? Kennedy blows whichever way the wind does.

up
0 users have voted.

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

@snoopydawg excuse me for butting in. I like Justice Ginsburg on the bench, she has the best words. Smile
1997 NY Times announcement: Alan Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell

Andrea Mitchell, the NBC News correspondent, is to be married today to Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court will officiate at the Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Va.

a three way

up
0 users have voted.
ZimInSeattle's picture

described the two parties back in 1904. Nothing much has changed.

up
0 users have voted.

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

snoopydawg's picture

This is about whether to vote for Obama or Romney, but it talks about the same things that I've seen people make about voting for Trump.

Engaging in democracy” seems to be code for “voting and campaigning for candidates.” It made me wonder—what is democracy? How do you engage in democracy when the system set in place by the ruling corporate oligarchy seems completely undemocratic in nature? How many votes does it take for democracy to suddenly activate? Will it activate when 75% of the population votes? When 100% of the population votes? Or must we stop participating completely and attempt to build a system not controlled by the wealthy few?

Isn't this what some people were talking about if Trump was elected?

The most interesting reason I’ve heard for voting for the two is that under an Obama or a Romney presidency, living conditions will deteriorate so much that people will be forced to revolt against the government. The advocates of this position, whom I will affectionately refer to as “anarcho-totalitarians” presumably believe that once enough people lose their homes, their food stamp benefits, their jobs, etc, there will be a revolution, and a much better system of government will suddenly appear. Of course, much of this is satire.

Especially when one of the candidates was responsible for breaking up the OWS protests.

And of course, there’s the fact that a vote for a Wall St backed candidate completely undermines the objectives of the Occupy Movement. Why would someone protest outside Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, then vote for the same candidates being funded by Goldman Sachs and Bank of America? I sure as hell know I didn’t become an occupier so I could see a Romney or an Obama presidency.

Will a big enough boycott of voting work? He covers that.

up
0 users have voted.

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

Big Al's picture

@snoopydawg "When I hear about someone boycotting the election, then I hear that person is still paying taxes and has not even attempted to stop paying, I take it as a huge sign of hypocrisy. If everyone in the country didn’t vote, it might not change the system, because the system does not require our votes to operate. But if everyone in the country stopped paying taxes and redirected the money to worthy causes, we’d see a more peaceful, democratic society in place much sooner."

I would say most of us have no choice but to pay taxes. I know I don't have a choice or for one, I wouldn't receive my pension check and two, if I tried it I would get in legal trouble that would probably ruin my life. With the amount of people on state and federal compensation systems, it's impossible for "everyone" to stop paying their taxes.

up
0 users have voted.
Big Al's picture

@Big Al votes to operate. You have to think about what this country is supposed to be all about, which is a shining democracy, the land of the free, the country that had a revolution to free itself from tyranny, the supremo superpower on earth that can tell other countries what to do because we walk the walk. We know that's not true but that how the ruling class in this country are able to conduct wars on other countries and their evil dictators, how our government can lecture other countries at the U.N. on things our own government does and how they control the people and keep them from having a valid say in things. For those us of that know the truth, the hypocrisy is unbelievable.

If the voting percentage gets low enough, which on off years it certainly is getting there, that is a problem. That shows this country isn't what our leaders are saying. It says it's all bullshit. That's a major reason why they squash or coop protests, to keep the citizenry from exposing the fraud.

I've heard some people say that even if one person voted, the system would continue. Really? If only one person voted, and everyone knew it, is it honestly possible that things would go on like usual? I don't think so. I think they depend on this system to provide legitimacy to their bullshit and if we expose the system as illegitimate by boycotting it, that would expose their bullshit.

up
0 users have voted.

@Big Al

Problem is, it's always the voter's fault for being too lazy and inert to vote, not the fact that there's nothing within the Two-Faced Corporate Party Trade-Off gang to vote for.

If you could get everyone to do the same thing, why not get everyone to vote Prog only, or Green only and get rid of the lawless buggers that way? Because a certain number of brainwashed Party animals will get get out there and vote for their team, you know, the ones who will fix everything this time, even though they're the same-old, same-old liars and thieves as they voted for/in last time.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Mark from Queens's picture

@snoopydawg
and all the electrifying energy it conjured up around the country and around the world.

vote-for-nobody.jpg

up
0 users have voted.

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Anja Geitz's picture

@Mark from Queens

The OWS movement created around the world scared the shit out of the Ivory Tower Dwellers. Proof of that was the 3am raid in Zucchotti Park where pit bulls wearing badges burned down the entire place and beat the shit out of protestors. Following that infamous raid, they went after the rest of the OWS movement with their mercenary army disguised as the police and channeled a ferocity reminscent of the Inquisition which they then repeated in Ferguson and Standing Rock.

up
0 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Creosote.'s picture

Thanks for the link GJ.

My Washington State senators bought into the fraud on the shutdown vote and of course did not join Sanders. Too controlled by conformity to hold out and fight for the Dreamers.

up
0 users have voted.
Mark from Queens's picture

@Creosote.
who as far as I can see in the past few years, was a Neoliberal mouthpiece/Kos promoter and Bernie slanderer. It was a very comprehensive piece, the hallmarks of which were Fang's, in getting people on record to admit that the Dems are still racing to the bottom with the whole "money is king if you want to get our support." Maybe Grim's had some kind of partisan-shaking epiphany, not having spent some months with the unflappable conscientious crew at the Intercept. It's possible, but considering some of his track record seems unlikely.

see "Huff(Com)Post's Ryan Grim Says TOP Experiencing A Resurgence Via The Resistance™. Commenters at TYT Video Say Progressives Left The Place For Good/Not Fooled by PR Makeover."

https://caucus99percent.com/comment/258019#comment-258019
https://caucus99percent.com/comment/258025#comment-258025

check out this story Grim wrote during the 2016 Dem Primary,"Did Bernie Sanders Botch An Interview With The Daily News? It’s Not That Simple.", in which he says:

(To be clear, I have my own view, that Sanders has shown himself to be a lousy manager of his staff on Capitol Hill over the years, which doesn’t bode well for a presidency, and has not shown much interest in organizing, or ability to organize coalitions within the House or the Senate to advance his agenda, outside of his audit-the-Fed legislation, and some improvements to Obamacare. That’s troubling, but it’s different than deciding he’s not serious and doesn’t know what he’s talking about.)

As opposed to, say, Hillary's amazing ability to organize and inspire, create coalitions, get things passed, manage her staff?..heh. Right.

She fucking lost to the worst candidate/biggest goon ever to bungle up to a politician's podium.

Lee Fang, otoh, is one of the best investigative reporters around. He's perfect companion at the Intercept for titans Greenwald and Scahill. Check out this 2014 piece in the Nation, "Where Have All the Lobbyists Gone? On paper, the influence-peddling business is drying up. But lobbying money is flooding into Washington, DC, like never before. What’s going on?"

I'm not so sure about Grim though...

up
0 users have voted.

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

@Mark from Queens @Mark from Queens

There's been a lot of that at the Intercept lately. It's clearly been infiltrated by probably the usual CIA vehicle of The Psychopaths That Be, and I read it now with a pasture-sized block of salt handy.

(I did read something on what had happened there a while back, vaguely believe there may have been a large financial transaction involved, but am still working on my first cup of coffee and trying to pry an eyelid or two open; darned if I can currently recall what was said to have happened, so just guessing above.)

Note that an opportunity is never missed to propaganda-attack Bernie purportedly 'from the left' as he's probably their one serious remaining threat as an 'in-house rabble-rouser' they don't quite dare eliminate just yet, as long as he keeps within certain lines they know damn well he'd smash, given the right circumstances where that didn't obviate all chances of attempting any advance in the public good. But in moments of panic, TPTB have been known to pull off some of the biggest cover-ups-in-plain-view ever of both individual and mass murders - which previously worked because people used to believe that nobody in government would or could do any such things as they routinely did and do, although probably most of us now know better. So, they attempt to destroy our faith in our allies, in ourselves, in the value and possibility of democratic government, public-protective law, reality itself, to con us into demanding what they want to inflict upon us.

Perception control; control the mind to create willing victims.

Edit: the 'left-wing' used to nervously laugh at the 'right-wing' for falling for this type of propaganda to vote against their own interests.

We non-psychopaths are all in this together - and we must always be watchful in avoiding the manipulations of the armies of propagandists seeking to enlist us all in the battle against ourselves.

up
0 users have voted.

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.

k9disc's picture

A while ago it hit me that the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths is that sociopaths care if you know.

Psychopaths don't give a shit regardless, but god help you if you know about the sociopath's "problem". I think they ONLY care if you "know".

It kind of sounds a bit like the distinction between Reps and Dems doesn't it?

@Ellen North

up
0 users have voted.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

@k9disc

.

..It kind of sounds a bit like the distinction between Reps and Dems doesn't it?

Does it ever!

up
0 users have voted.

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.

Creosote.'s picture

@Ellen North
My sense is that the NYRB went over earlier, after decades of good reporting.
Another reason why I am here, as we watch and feel the rot attack those old-growth joists and flooring.
Wonder how Sontag would have thought about this.

up
0 users have voted.

@Creosote.

Sontag - the writer? If so, going by what I've read just now, I'd strongly suspect that she wouldn't be impressed, and would be producing some interesting stuff...

up
0 users have voted.

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.