There's A Very Dynamic Synergy Going On Now With Online Left Media, #BoycottMSNBC Is Trending Too.

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 11/23/2019 - 10:24pm

This feeling has been present with me for a long time now. I've been trying to pinpoint it but can't really. It must have been around the time of the 2015-2016 Democratic Primary that it began to become more apparent and coalesce as a tangible thing to me. Perhaps two of the biggest examples have been the success of Chapo Trap House and the Jimmy Dore Show, both unapologetic, hilarious and radical shows (the former more dashingly radical than the latter) with tons of subscribers.

The affirmation was there again this week, when I went to a panel discussion hosted by Lee Camp, with Aaron Mate of the Grayzone, Margaret Kimberely of Black Agenda Report and Max Blumenthal. 200 or so people filled up a good portion of what I discovered was a refreshingly progressive community church in midtown (who would have thunk it? Downstairs from us was also a Sierra Club meeting that when I peeked in was discussing the grotesque gentrification of Brooklyn with an onslaught of "luxury" apartments and also how to enact more green infrastructure citywide). My People, I thought, I'm deep in the midst of them. And there's nothing quite like that feeling, with like-minded comrades everywhere, willing to get in the trenches to shut shit down, which was what it was like in every direction at Zuccotti Park in the fall of 2011.

(h/t to Raggedy Ann for the clip)

Have you noticed the extent of this online media synergy?

We see Glen Greenwald on Jimmy Dore, Dore on with Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper, Halper on "Rising" with Krystal Ball, Ball at a Jacobin panel with Michael Brooks, Brooks hosting guest Prof. Richard Wolf, Wolf interviewing the Chapo Trap House guys, Chapo interviewing Greenwald, Taibbi is on Hedges'show and then Hedges is on Taibbi's show, Aaron Mate has become a regular guest on Jimmy Dore's show and Mate has had Dore on the Grayzone, and around and around it's been going lately. Not to mention Tim Black appearing on panels with the above, same with Kyle Kulinski (who just appeared with Brooks at a Yale for Bernie event), Niko House, The Rational National's Dave Doel, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist, Jordan Chariton, Abby Martin. And I'm sure there's even more I'm forgetting.

The public appearances are an integral part of it too, as the video attests. To wit, a friend of mine was on the panel at Jimmy Dore's appearance in Brooklyn over the summer. He described the room as "electrified," with thunderous ovations of appreciation throughout the night. He said there was an undeniable and very palpable sense of solidarity among like-minded progressives unified around a disgust with RussiaGate propaganda, the MSM and the feckless Democratic Party.

(Addendum 10:51AM 11/24/19: it just occurred to me the oversight of not mentioning the many really good podcasts that are proliferating right now too. Many of these I've found through the Chapo Trap House reddit page. A quick rundown of the ones downloaded onto my phone include: Belabored by Dissent Magazine, Best Of The Left, Citations Needed (really excellent), Counterspin, Current Affairs, Dead Pundits Society, Pod Damn America, Proles of the Roundtable, Revolutionary Left, Srsly Wrong, Street Fight Radio, Struggle Session, The Guillotine, Trillbilly Worker's Party, Verso Podcast and Working Class History. Lots of very bright, committed and passionate people engaging in edifying conversations, many times academic observations and amazing historical context that will help usher in this movement. Some of them also do a good bit of pubic appearances, adding to the overall synergy we see with the YouTube shows mentioned above)

Yet it seems just a few years ago there was pretty much only TYT (who I still can't totally forgive for shilling for Hillary in 2016 instead of being courageous enough to call out the blatant cheating of Bernie), and maybe a few others scrapping for viewers.

Now it's obvious something really is afoot. It may seem like the cable news MSM and newspapers are getting some viewers back due to the #TrumpDerangementSyndrome, but I don't see it being anything more than a temporary blip for a moribund sector that the public won't forget sold its soul the way Les Moonved admitted to in propping up Trump for ratings. This new online Left Media is agile, passionate and exciting to watch. Jimmy Dore is now getting as many viewers as the corporate-sponsored network he left, doing shows out of his garage. Just in these least few months the synergy of being on each other's shows has really come into a recognizable force.

I can't see how this isn't yet a major story. Then just as I've said that I realize it's purposeful. Their whole, growing success is a direct correlation to the public's distrust of the MSM and hunger for unabashed truth-tellers (who are often very funny too - check out Max Blumenthal's appearance on the video above). Someone has got to do a piece on it. I guess I now realize that this would be a something for the above-mentioned to do, because no one else will.

Screen Shot 2019-11-23 at 6.49.43 PM.png

An hour later it was 71k tweets.

Ostensibly it's a Yang hashtag. But it's blown up to reflect the legitimate frustrations and accusations by the Left for their continued shilling and obfuscating against Bernie, which is very apparent again in his second run for president.

Steve fucking Schmidt. The failed Republican campaign manager, who picked Sarah Palin. Twice on this same broadcast he used the surely Luntz-generated, alliterative slogan, "If the choice is between a sociopath or a socialist for president the sociopath will win every day of the week."

They've crossed over into another dimension a long time ago. It's fucking whiteout blinding to see that they're still slinging this RussiaGate bullshit.

He's scared because he knows he's corrupt himself. A walking newsstand tabloid, who gets paid $millions & lives in a giant McMansion outside of DC, whose biggest decision all week is which cocktail party he goes to. He's paid to defend that world. #Bernie2020 seriously impacts his free ride on the gravy train.

Doesn't get more hypocritical than this. Neoliberal insider club appearance show features the Father of the #MeToo movement, gratuitously piling false accusations on Bernie, for the thing he'll himself forever be at least minimally tarred with.
Back in good ole days of 2016.
When he still had major Neoliberal gravitas, and anyone who opposed Her was a misogynist.

And for anyone who needs it this is such a great takedown of this perfect Frankenstein of Neoliberal Identity Politics, and soon to be the Herman Cain of the 2020 Dem Primary, as the Chapos put it:

The Rising continues to establish itself as a bigger factor in this burgeoning Left Media movement because of these types of pieces:

Best thing all day may have been this, at the Yale-Harvard football game:

Fucking beautiful, all of it. Maybe it'll finally wake up this sleepwalking citizenry like the #ExtinctionRebellion has for the UK. The world continues to percolate while we continue to masturbate with commercial consumption.

The whole #NobodyWins thing just got very, very real.

If these opposing football teams stick together to force their school presidents to divest from fossil fuels by threatening to not play - the way the Mizzou football did after unifying behind a protest already in progress that called for documented campus racism to be addressed by their university's president had gone unheeded, forcing him to resign amazingly within 48 hours - it would literally be a whole new ballgame in the world of worker (in this case, to add insult to injury, unpaid ones) vs owner power.

We may look back on this period as one in which a new Left Media fully began to blossom into a movement and carried Socialism into its rightful place as the long-overdue ideology and political/economic system of this country.

Tags: 
left media
Lee Camp
Aaron Mate
Max Blumenthal
Propaganda
Michael Brooks
Krystal Ball
Jimmy Dore
Tim Black
Matt Taibbi
Katie Halper
Glen Greenwald
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Submitted by Mark from Queens on Sat, 11/23/2019 - 10:35pm
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But will leave you with this passage, in honor of Jack London's appearance at Yale in 1906, in which the great radical historian Philip Foner writes in "Jack London/American Rebel":

From Harvard, London went to New York where he addressed and exclusive group of extremely wealthy men and women. He was to use the incident several months later in the brilliant chapter of The Iron Heel, "The Philomaths."

"You have been entrusted with the world; you have muddled and mismanaged. You are incompetent despite all your boastings. 1 million years ago the caveman, without tools, with small brain, and with nothing but the strength of his body, managed to feed his wife and children, so that through him the race survived. You, on the other hand, armed with all the modern means of production, multiplying the productive capacity of the caveman 1 million times – you are in incompetents and muddlers, you are unable to secure to millions even the paltry amount of bread that would sustain their physical life. You have mismanaged the world, and it shall be taken from you.

Who will take it from you?
We will!
And who are we?
We are 7 million socialist revolutionists...

"There was a loud murmur protest and dissent," Wanhope continued, "and one or two respectable looking person's choked up, but it seemed as if they were about to have apoplexy. London walk down from the rostrum through a sea of blasted purple faces distorted with rage, but no attempt was made to detain him… it was not until he was well out of earshot that some of the stunned audience plucked up enough courage to remark that 'he ought to be in jail.'"

Jack was gleeful. He wrote back to Bamford: "Oh I have some stories to tell you when I get back about my clashes with the masters of society!"

In the middle of his prepared lecture at Yale, London interpolated a bitter comment comment on the role of American colleges and universities:

"I went to the University. I found the University, in the main, practically wholly so, clean and noble, but I did not find the university alive. I found the American university had this ideal, as phrased by a professor at a Chicago university, namely: "the passionless pursuit of passionless intelligence' - clean and noble, I grant you, but not alive enough…

And the reflection of this university ideal I find - conservatism and the unconcern of the American people for those were suffering, who are in want. And so I became interested in an attempt to arouse in the minds of our universities an interest in Socialism…We do not desire merely to make converts…If collegians cannot fight for us, we want them to fight against us. But what we do not want is that which obtains today and has obtained in the past of the university, a mere deans and unconcern and ignorance so far as socialism is concerned. Fight for us or fight against us! Raise your voices one way or the other; be alive!"

When he finished, London received a tremendous ovation from the students and was carried off the platform on the shoulders of a group of Yale men. Even some of the faculty members shared this enthusiasm. "A Professor of Yale," Dr. Irvine once remarked, "told me a few days after the lecture that it was the greatest intellectual stimulus Yale had and in many years, and he sincerely hoped that London would return and expound the same program in the same hall." The press, to say the least, did not echo these sentiments. The New Haven papers were furious that the students had been exposed to the "rantings" of a socialist and the New York papers took up the cry. The New York Times devoted a long editorial on February 1, 1906, to London's speech at Yale in which it paid Jack a left-handed compliment, commending him "for the perfect frankness with which he tells his audience what socialism is, and what it aims to accomplish."

Hope to be able to check in tomorrow.

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

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Submitted by BORG_US_BORG on Sat, 11/23/2019 - 10:50pm

If he hasn't already, we should be pressuring him to abolish the Clinton Telecommunications Act of 1996.

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Submitted by Pricknick on Sat, 11/23/2019 - 11:23pm
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Thanks for an outstanding diary. So much to partake of and absorb.
I too have observed the commingling of those who have made no advance in the awakening of the nation alone.
Together, they and hopefully we, will find the cure to the slumber this nation is in.

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Submitted by Cassiodorus on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 12:07am
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I hope they got some great networking done at the protest. Both universities ought to be nationalized and their assets sold to pay for homes for the residents of Oakland, California outdoor encampments.

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“The loyal Left cannot act decisively. Their devotion to the system is a built-in kill switch limiting dissent.” - Richard Moser

Submitted by lotlizard on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 12:42am
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@Cassiodorus  
Oh, no, there was nothing at all fishy about the 2004 race for president pitting Bones member John Kerry (Yale 1966) against fellow Bones member George W. Bush (Yale 1968), was there? Strictly on the up and up.

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Submitted by mimi on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 5:52am
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@lotlizard
Or do I have russian-asset-ishy last name? Oh, darn, did I just smear lotlizard?

I vote for an off-working day on Sundays here on C99p. Yours truly comrade mimi needs a break to read comrade Mark from Queens' excellent essay several times.

So. my Sunday's quiz question: Are Max Blumenthal, Margaret Kimberley, Aaron Maté and Lee Camp our comarades? (Ja, sie sind meine Kameraden, kein Zweifel). And they are not too Russian-asset-ishy expropriators, in my imagination at least.

With the words of Pastor Niemoeller - slightly edited:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. (shame on me)

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.(double shame on me)

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.(fubar triple shame on me- who's is on first?)

Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.

(I speak up for myself - I want to keep my garden, ma patch of land, and the freedom to do on it what I want and not get expropriated from my property, which I don't have anyway. So, there I said it.)

Teach me a lesson - in case you think I can be taught something - best thing is to not think about it at all.

I have a think-free Sunday. And wish you all the same. Nothing for Ungood, lotlizard. Your word choice just caused me some allergic reaction. BTW, when my sister and I in the fifties were pupils and travelled to England or France, we pretended to not be Germans, I tried to be from Sweden and as a student later on from France and ma sisten has forgotten how she tried to hide to be German. Just in case you thought we were not ashamed enough and still remember it sixty years later. Oh, and one last note, my father and mother weren't even Nazis or in the NSDAP or the SS. An uncle and another aunt were and for the rest of the large family we don't know. So much for the shameful past.

Expropriate Skulls and Bones? Who owns that club? Isn't it something like a secret manipulation factory for male 'Milchbubis'?

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Submitted by lotlizard on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 5:57am
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@mimi  
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=skull+bones+russell+trust

Eine sort Verbindung / Burschenschaft / Geheimloge / Geheimbund. Sehr einflussreich und mit vielen schwer zu verifizierenden Legenden umgarnt.

https://www.tipps-vom-experten.de/geheimlogen-tempelritter-freimaurer-il...

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Submitted by mimi on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 6:35am
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@lotlizard @lotlizard @lotlizard
ok, then how about Socialsm ka ʻoi !! — Kelemānia not so ka ʻoi ?

heh ... I like Hawaiian dreams better than the American dreams. Peace.

[video:https://youtu.be/3BeKhlUzPUc]

PS. Thanks for the link. I get another allergic reaction. My former African husband, divorced by me 24 years ago and dead since over four years, started to have a great interest in the 'Free Masons' of the US, later he became dependent on similar African secret 'marabou networks' in Central Africa. They killed him (let him purposefully die though they could have saved him) and though I saw his body in a casket during a burial ceremony in the morge near Washington DC, the second wife and all my son's half brothers from several other women popped up at the funeral, none of them (including his African family) knows where the seconde wife buried their father.

I can't forgive that and have a rather sensitive antenna, when it comes to 'secret societies, cults or associations'.

well... over the rainbow there are no burial sites ...
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Submitted by Centaurea on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 6:46am
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@mimi

It sounds like a wonderful word, so I had to go look it up. The closest English equivalent seems to be "milksop", which is defined by American Heritage Dictionary Roget's Thesaurus as:

A person who behaves in a childish, weak, or spoiled way:

baby, milquetoast, mollycoddle, weakling.

A similar term from Victorian times was "pantywaist".

The perfect example of a Skull and Bones Milchbubi is George W. "Dubya" Bush.

I just took a quick look at wikipedia to refresh my memory, and I notice that Steve Mnuchin is also on the list of "Bonesmen". Yeah, that fits.

Skull and Bones is a good representation of the oligarchy /MIC /financial capitalist American Empire. These emotionally stunted, greedy, spoiled narcissists, and others like them, are in charge of the planet right now. And they're destroying it.

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Submitted by mimi on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 4:50pm
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@Centaurea
a slightly condencending and snotty expression for young white (like milk = Mileh) male, who tries to behave like a grown man, but is immature and insecure and so to speak is still like a little boy (=bubi).

I didn't want to write something like it in English, because it's really not that nice to say that... but everything else you mentioned in your comment I smilingly agree with. Smile

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Submitted by Shahryar on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 5:42pm
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@lotlizard

so I just learned yesterday that it was started by William Taft's father. Pres. Taft was also a Bones-er. I'd known that Prescott Bush was one of 'em. Now I see it goes back further and had its grip on American politics to the point where a Bones-er (Alphonso, the dad) could be Secretary of War by 1876 and President by 1909.

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Submitted by Dr. John Carpenter on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 6:09am

One thing struck me hard: how many of those people were describing Bernie in a manner that one would be “canceled” for saying about any other candidate, especially if they were a woman or person of color. Just imagine if someone went on TV describing HER as shrill, angry, disheveled or whatever. They’d still be talking about it! Imagine anyone saying Kamala “makes my skin crawl”. Hell, imagine someone even saying that about Biden!

Also, I think you are totally right not to trust TYT. They completely showed their ass in 2016 and despite doing the occasional good work, they strike me as the cool, edgy mainstream Dems rather than any real force for progressives.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 4:14pm
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@Dr. John Carpenter

Imagine if Brennan had said that Israel is genetically predisposed to do what he accused Russia of doing. Or if congress had spent 3 years saying that Trump is Bibi's puppet. lol..I know that would never happen, but you get my point. This goes for what people say about Tulsi too. Imagine anyone saying that about Her. That people can't see that they are being manipulated by the media is mind boggling. How did so many of us escape it? I think it has something to do with how people view Obama and Hillary. We see them for who they are. Thoughts?

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Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 6:41am
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You've put your finger on it. I've been watching the same thing but didn't connect the dots. Perhaps enough dots will be connected to make a difference in 2020 how the populace responds to what we're facing.

It's evident the MSDNC is in denial because they are doing everything in their power to demean and discount Bernie. It's groundhog day in 2019! It's going to be interesting to see how it all fleshes out.

Thanks for the essay, Mark. Keep them coming - your voice is so important here.
Pleasantry

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Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 8:25am
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I feature a bit of the meeting you attended this week in my column.

My fear about the rise of progressive voices is the threat of internet throttling. Since the loss of net neutrality they (youtube, twitter, facebook - youtwitface) can do as they please. They already are doing their best to sideline the very voices you describe pushing MSM with their algorithms.

The voices you mention I too respect, and I agree it is great to see the synergy. Jimmy is hosting many of them as panelists on his live shows too.

Thanks for the news about the Ivy league protests. Wish I could envision that happening in Alabama where football is God. I've never been a fan, so I'm a fish out of water here.

All the best to you and the family. Always nice to read your work.

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

Submitted by entrepreneur on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 9:45am

@Lookout
to billions around the world without having to pass through the traditional media gatekeepers. They are soiling themselves searching for ways to pull the plug on alternate media who are exposing the pathetic 24/7 liar shills on MSNBC and other billionaire owned propaganda factories.

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Submitted by Hawkfish on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 10:55am
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@Lookout

Sounded just like the excuses they used in the 1980s for opposing apartheid divestment. Search and replace.

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We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
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Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 11:16am
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@Hawkfish

...and probably buy more military based stocks.

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

Submitted by lotlizard on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 3:56pm
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@Hawkfish  
Meanwhile, the university was taking Saudi money — from a billionaire hailing from the literal kingdom of fossil fuel — to set up a center teaching Sharia law.

https://dailycaller.com/2015/09/14/saudi-buys-yale-a-new-sharia-law-center/

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/03/31/protestors-critique-law-school...

https://law.yale.edu/centers-workshops/abdallah-s-kamel-center-study-isl...

Harvard (founded 1636) and Yale (founded 1701) can’t divest. With roots reaching almost back to the Mayflower, the two universities are part and parcel of the Deep State and the Anglo-American imperial enterprise, of which oil is the lifeblood.

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Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 5:43pm
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@lotlizard

Ivy league is ivy league. Rich is as rich does. Their endowments are obscene.

My only real contact with the ivy league was some of my profs were Cornell grads... the only Ivy league with an ag school. Later in life I spent 3 weeks at the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute of Astrophysics. I liked Cambridge and its street music and chess games. Went some wonderful country dances there too. However students were not happy with their education. Made me feel like my Auburn and UGA experience was far superior.

Here in Alabama instead of the skull and bones they have the machine which produces most of our state legislators. There ain't no gettin' away....sad to say.

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

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 12:01pm
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@Lookout

The web domain dot. org has just been bought out by a private equity fund. And starting immediately the price controls for buying an .org domain will be thrown out. As we know when a private equity fund buys anything the outlook for whatever they purchased is not good.

But besides internet throttling we are seeing censorship that came about from the never ending gift of RussiaRussia.... So many websites saw their traffic drop off after Google changed their algorithms and FB and Twitter are now doing their own brands of censorship. The guy who was head of the Rand Paul org was booted from twitter because he called Hannity retarded even though it wasn't meant in the way of a smear.

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Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 12:12pm
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@snoopydawg

I wonder if folks will move form .org to .net - https://www.domain.com/domains/tlds/net

Of course they might pull the same stunt. That is why we need net neutrality back. Proves once again we are not a democracy. The US is a corporate oligarchy...and everybody knows.

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Submitted by ggersh on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 8:57am
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https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

One, check
Two, almost completely there
Three, check
Four, check

“Four sorrows are certain to be visited on the United States.

First, there will be a state of perpetual war.
Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal ‘executive branch’ of government into a military junta.
Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.
Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.”

Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire, 2005

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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

Submitted by Hawkfish on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 7:28pm
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@ggersh

I read the morning paper and am momentarily puzzled that it is not written in Latin and dated so recently.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 9:59am

I see the lefty media as being a growing force.
Keep those essays coming!

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Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 10:30am
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Yeah, something happened in 2016 and there's no putting the genie back in that bottle. You've given us some great stuff here, will have to bookmark and come back when I have more time.

Be well, my friend.

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Submitted by ludwig ii on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 1:47pm
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MSNBC is even worse now than in the early days when Ann Coulter, Alan Keyes, and Don Imus were the stars. More right-wing too. There is a direct correlation between how much MSNBC a person watches and their degree of disconnection from reality.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 4:08pm
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@ludwig ii

People complain about how Fox News has changed their parents because it's just right wing nonsense, but now look at what Rachel Moscow has done to the left. Almost everything that has been debunked as not true is still being repeated as if it is. All 17 intelligence agencies agree that was debunked almost 3 years ago and yet people still believe it.

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Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 5:19pm
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@snoopydawg Krystal Ball used to work for MSNBC, but she was a little too outspoken for them so she was gone like so many others who refused to toe the corporate line.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

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

Submitted by Shahryar on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 8:01pm
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@ludwig ii

this has been percolating around in my head for awhile now. There's this thing happening, sometimes called "woke", sometimes called "sjw", all theoretically leftwing, being concerned about caring for others, listening to other points of view and so on.

But I keep getting the feeling that it's not left at all but, actually, very rightwing. One example is a recent "question" that came up. "Should we boycott Gauguin?"

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-art-divided-gauguins-legacy

It's a fall-in-line mentality that bothers me. It's akin to "Russia!" The charge of "cultural appropriation" is, to me, absurd. It would have meant no Carl Perkins or Elvis Presley, who were influenced by r&b, and no Chuck Berry, who was influenced by hillbillies and western swing. The "cultural appropriation" movement invites and praises discrimination and segregation.

Then there are those pink hats...

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Submitted by Reverend Jane I... on Mon, 11/25/2019 - 6:55am

@Shahryar

There's a sort of og/original "woke" which is a great concept (along with the other jargon-y words and phrases, like "cultural appropriation", which is not what Twitter says it is either), and which were distinctly leftwing. But now there's this Twitterspeak where all these words are almost entirely divorced from their original meanings and being abused by people who really only care about their own AGIs/hanging with the in-crowd/getting that next dopamine hit.

It's a fall-in-line mentality that bothers me.

This is actually a great way of making the distinction between the original concepts and some asshole who's twisting and abusing them -- someone working with the leftwing original version of "woke" (or any of these other terms) wouldn't take an authoritarian approach with someone who doesn't understand them. The closest they'd get to that would be a Socratic approach; either they'll teach you something or they'll walk away. Someone working with the co-opted version does not care whether you actually understand any of it, or what you think about it, they just want your voice and your power on their message. They're bullies, treat them accordingly, but please don't confuse those people with actual proponents of social equality movements.

Basically it's the same predatory model they use to run their businesses -- at some point they realize that they can put a tight squeeze on or outright eliminate competition if they buy up/control all the raw materials needed to make a particular product. They've used this same method with every other decent grassroots movement that regular people have seen a need for and done the work to put together. Once the movement gets some power underneath it the monied class takes it, keeps "the brand" but twists and hollows out the thing until the popular version of it is nothing but their tool for their purposes. Once "everybody knows" the popular version of the thing is terrible, no one wants the real version either.

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Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 4:05pm
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The best part of this for me are the people defending MSNBC from the boycott.

Arguments basically boil down to:

1) Putin! A Russian bot op attempting to meddle in the election.

2) Trump! Helps Trump and Fox News by removing a counterbalance.

3) Splitter! Dem Party needs Unity to Save America!(tm)

4) Rachel! Is just so swell.

At some point soon we'll hit the event horizon for those with any skepticism at all that the corporate media may not be telling the whole truth.

Past that point lies the netherworld of the truly brainwashed, steeped in a Lotus Eater's paradise of hallucinatory narratives crafted by clever men with other agendas.

For these poor wretches, there truly is no Hope. They WANT to be lied to.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 4:33pm
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But don't forget to vote blue no matter who folks. Why does Neenah Neenah think that she can insult the base and then expect people to vote for her heinous candidate? How many deplorables moments is she going to do?

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Was Humpty Dumpty pushed?

Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sun, 11/24/2019 - 5:39pm
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Thank you for taking the time to provide us with such a wonderful and comprehensive essay, Mark. I have not yet watched the video of the panel discussion but hope to do so either tonight or tomorrow. There is no one better to debunk all the Russia nonsense than Aaron Mate whom I deeply admire.

I firmly believe that we are in the end stages of capitalism which is why the oligarchs are in a state of panic and are throwing everything they can against the wall to discredit the voices for change. In the current climate, those voices are the political voices for change which include Bernie, Tulsi, Yang, and Marianne Williamson. Each one brings something to the table that destroys the current paradigm under which the neoliberal oligarchy has been allowed to flourish.

Bernis bring his passion for domestic policy that will equalize the gross inequality in our society and benefit the common man. Tulsi brings her leadership and exceptional courage to stand up to the military industrial complex which is bankrupting this country and impoverishing the people. Yang brings his innovative ideas which pushes the establishment outside the traditional box. (note: I do not agree with many of Yang's policies, but his take on problem solving is refreshing.) And Marianne Williamson brings her compassion for humanity which is something that has been lost in our highly competitive dog eat dog society.

I keep going back to the Occupy movement which so many said was a failure, but I saw it as the spark that to the new synergy we are seeing now. Movements and change often have many false starts and setbacks, but as long as we are coalescing and becoming of one voice, we have a chance against incredibly powerful forces. Right now, it appears they are scared as hell which can mean only one thing. We are on the verge of winning.

Thank you for this incredible essay.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

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