Various items I read on Twitter
First, a journalist has actually been held accountable. John Ralston, a powerful Nevada journalist who, over and over again, promulgated the lie about BernieBros throwing chairs in Nevada, has been fired from NPR for his extremely lousy and damaging lack of responsible reporting:
While Ralston’s insistence of Sanders supporters throwing chairs was secondhand, as he left the convention early, the claim was still taken at face-value due to his status as a respected journalist in Nevada. Despite the lack of verifiable evidence, national news media ran with Ralston’s claims and printed numerous stories falsely claiming that Sanders supporters threw chairs, including trusted outlets like the Associated Press, the New York Times, and CBS.
However, it was later revealed that no chairs were thrown, as the only video evidence involving a chair showed a man briefly holding one up before putting it down again.
In the linked article, Ralston tweets:
Some personal news: I'm parting ways with PBS. It's clear that I ruffled feathers, and I understand PBS' need to protect its donor base. 1/?
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) June 21, 2016
Classy.
* * * * * *
The second Tweet of note is really a series of Tweets by David Sirota.
Remember how all the HillaryBots howled when Bernie demanded that both Barney Frank and Dannel Malloy be removed as head of the Rules Committee and Co-chairman of the Platform Committee, respectively?
Well most of the howling was about how homophobic BernieBros were so horrible to attack Frank, but Sirota has been following Malloy, and has found a pile of corruption that really stinks:
The vote this week by Connecticut ethics officials to investigate Gov. Dannel Malloy’s insurance regulator was not the first time conflict-of-interest allegations have plagued a locale known as the insurance capital of America — and as “Corrupticut.”
I read Sirota's tweets which broke this story over a period of a couple of weeks or so. It's a complicated story, but my understanding is that a large merger of two health insurance companies was "helped" along by Malloy's appointing of a former lobbyist for Cigna to be the supposedly impartial state insurance commissioner.
Here's a more coherent explanation of the timeline.
Democratic Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy is challenging Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyder for the title of “most disliked politician in America.” While Snyder thanks the Flint water crisis for his widespread unpopularity, Connecticut’s Ethics Board is debating whether to launch an investigation into Malloy’s administration. Under Malloy’s watch, one of the largest health insurance mergers in United States history—a $48 billion deal—could potentially increase premiums and reduce health care coverage for 53 million people across the country.
Funny, I didn't read any defense pieces about Malloy from the Hillbots, who were having too many orgasms defending Barney Frank, best friends of the bankers.
* * * * * *
Finally, I watched a very illuminating YouTube about why Black people didn't vote for Bernie and how to change that:
You must check out this convo with .@YvetteDC and .@IramiOF https://t.co/PSfWgCvxU4
— Anoa J. Changa, Esq. (@MsNonoESQ) June 21, 2016
Here's the video:
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNP8_BGvAf8]
The gist of this is that when white progressives try and tell Black voters they should vote for Bernie, they're called racist and condescending.
Given the history of Black voters in America, that's not so hard to understand.
In the video the obvious idea becomes crystal clear - white progressives need to start funding Progressive Black media. I already am following Tim Black, Ben Dixon, Anoa J. Changa (these just off the top of my head, there's more, including now the two people in the video - Yvette Carnell and Irami Osei-Frimpong).
Many of these folks have also featured people from Bernie's campaign such as Nina Turner.
So that's my latest information sharing with the Caucus. Things are happening -- sorta!
Comments
Thanks Npk!
I gotta say, all day long I have checked into this site and have found one post after another that was informative, like, EYE POPPING testifying to we congregants.
I must add Malloy to the ever growing list of Democrats who have become piles of shit.
May he rest in prison-style peace.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Malloy needs a Clinton Admin Job...
He won't be getting a 3rd term as Governor in Connecticut...
He went from a Progressive's Dream Governor to an Austerity 'R Us Governor trying to turn us into Kansas...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
save yourself
the hand cramps and just keep a list of those who haven't become piles of shit.
We are not embracing a politics of envy if we reverse a politics of greed. - Joseph Stiglitz
Funny about Ralston
All we ever heard was how above reproach he was. The whole big picture of the primaries is stinky.
We are not embracing a politics of envy if we reverse a politics of greed. - Joseph Stiglitz
If Ralston hadn't surrendered to his ego ...
... he would have worked hard to take responsibility for his actions. Instead he just doubled down and is still doing so.
Beat in the USA.
John Ralston is the Dean of Nevada Political Reporters
... and he's a damn good one! Here's proof.
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
He did his job, as ordered,
to slander Bernie.
The story of the "thrown chairs" is now a "known fact" and no after-the-fact confession will change it.
Lies, once established, are difficult if not impossible to "retract".
"Mission accomplished." He'll get amply rewarded for his services to Hillary's campaign.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
They Pounced on the Narrative
It seems a known ploy: corner them and when they lash out blame them.
The Hillary camp pounced on the narrative, gained 25 yards on the play, and the after-the-fact facts of the transgressions become immaterial - they have a half-life, if you will.
There's precious little instant replay in American electoral politics! I'm all for paper ballots and the repeal of Citizens United. Of course!
Bernie is a win-win.
Haven't you heard? Hillary is going to go after
Citizens United after she is elected, but for that to happen she has to take advantage of it in order to beat the republicans because if she doesn't then donors like the Koch brothers and others will spend more money than she will and won't be elected.
Yesterday at LOF there was Another diary about Bernie and the black caucus saying that they don't want stop using super delegates.
People were defending their us (Remember when they were against them over there?
I posted this picture there.
And people actually defended these people and said that some SDs do good work. I asked the poster if she thought that these 5 did good work? Of course, she didn't answer my question of course. They never do when confronted by facts or someone else pops in with a straw comment that had nothing to do with what I wrote.
Is he now jobless?
The Tell will be his payoff. Where will he end up? Small town newspaper? Nah.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Clinton's Press Secretary...
If she makes the scene...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Funny, I just glanced OT, first time in weeks
No mention of ralston, of course. And any mention of b-word* gets its tip jar hidden. I still can't rec, just comment. I made one, did not call the commenter delusional, but hinted at it.
* could be Bernie, could be bird.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Excellent essay
I was hammering Ralston on Twitter during Nevada - am really happy to see him knocked off his 'totally neutral expert on all things electoral Nevada' pedestal - way overdue.
The guy is an arrogant jackass.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Exactly.
And I think NPR would have canned him if he had reported the truth. This way, he has a career!
These are interesting and heartbreaking times.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
No matter what ...
... this is a blot on his "career." He spread a lie that he could easily have confirmed was a lie had he not been so biased against Bernie. Instead he has damaged his journalistic reputation and nothing is going to remove that blot.
Beat in the USA.
"Blot"
reminds me of the English euphemism,
"to blot one's copybook"
which is nowhere near as benign as it may initially sound.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
When You Do That..
..when you promulgate half-truths and lies to further a self-serving propaganda, you alienate all the Bernie fans. We revere the truth, we honor objectivity, and we welcome honest dialogue about the issues facing this country.
What we do not cotton to is the propagation of lies in the heat of the moment to further a narrative that we are somehow thugs or something..
He really does not deserve the mantle of journalist. Shit, who does any more?
Bernie is a win-win.
Sometimes life is fair...
Thanks for posting this.
With all the Establishment attack dogs ...
... so constantly barking at us, I find it easy to forget we are in the majority. We really are. Most Americans agree with what Bernie is saying. The election fraud is pointing more and more to the reality that Bernie won the primaries.
Strange times, strange times.
Beat in the USA.
Any news of a HRC or DT voter being frauded?
Only people I have read about or heard of who have been victims of voter and registration fraud have been people who were wanting to vote for Bernie Sanders.
My case is of me and my husband who have been at the same address for ten years, been voting in all elections and in the closed primaries and have been registered as Democrats since being registered here for ten years and (run along with the run along sentence) and having had our registrations confirmed just weeks prior to the closed primary only to find we had our registrations history wiped out.
Fraud case reported, expected to find out anything in 5 months now. We may not be able to register for the GE.
Talk about fucked up. There is NO election. Not with this much fraud. But funny how you don't hear about this happening to people who voted for for Donald Rodham.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Don't have a cite handy ...
... but I believe a Stanford study just came out that is showing strong evidence of election fraud. Lee Camp is really pounding on this story.
Beat in the USA.
Thank you NPK nt
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
Black Agenda Report $ Latino Rebels
Great articles and a weekly podcast I never miss. http://www.blackagendareport.com
Latino Rebels: http://www.latinorebels.com
From the Light House.
I second the Black Agenda Report.
First I've heard of Latino Rebels. Thanks for the link.
Edited to add:
I suggest, Alex, that you PM JtC to ask him to add both the BAR and Latino Rebels to c99's blog roll on the left column.
The more people know about these alternative media voices the better - for all of us.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
FB Groups, Feed and Twitter
One of the reasons I stay on FB. There are too many groups and feeds to mention. But they keep me abreast of the local and ethnic news. Things like The Black Youth Project and B'Tselem בצלם . Then there is Twitter of course. Its no wonder that reporters are spending the whole day on Twitter. Unfortunately I was offed from Twitter during a Bernie twitter storm as a "robot". LOL.
I keep my friend list down to family, real life friends and some who consistently post excellent information.
Just randomly from #BlackLivesMatter twitter feed is http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/donald-trump-and-the-central-...
I do have to say that many Americans are often hyper-sensitive to race and ethnicity on a personal level.
From the Light House.
An Emancipation Proclamation for the Digital Age
http://thiscantbehappening.net/emancipationproclamation
From the Light House.
Regarding the elephant in the room
which is black people rejecting everything white people say: I know that's a generalization, and it's not true of everyone.
However, if you have the right to be who you are, I also have the right to be what I am. If you don't like me, that's your privilege but I'm not too concerned about it.
Besides, in South Carolina, Bernie spent tons of money hiring black advocates to work the black community and explain his position. And they voted against him anyway.
So I think that all those sweet little suggestions those two people made in that video are just so much shit. Members of the AA community have as much right to talk shit as anyone else, but shit is still shit.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Well, I disagree strongly.
It's not about who's talking shit but about who can reach people and start a dialogue.
The video is pretty much making the claim that it's up to Black people to reach other Black people when it comes to changing the status quo in the Democratic Party.
I agree with that. Obviously, YMMV.
Beat in the USA.
If I may be so bold...
You both may be saying the same thing. And the video may still be wrong. Yes - it is obvious that many black people do not trust anyone who states the obvious - the Democratic Party takes you for granted and uses your fear of the GOP to work against your self interest. Black people, it seems to me, do not trust anybody delivering that message, black, brown or otherwise - because there is a sense of community and tribalism there. If a bunch of wealthy white people start funding black alternative media, I'm not sure that will work either. They can simply say that the benefactors of the white largess are just doing the bidding of their white socialist masters.
It's hard to ask a people who have been at the far-end of the American Dream to engage in any sort of self-reflection that strays far from existential survival. It is hard lesson for much better off white folk like myself to swallow. It is the same on the other side with the fundamentalist and the GOP. They are willing to vote for an amoral serial philanderer because he is not 'one of those people'. People are people and they tend to surround themselves with like-minded thinkers.
My question is this: are there any young socialist minded people of color who can step up and spread the message? As a white person, I am totally ready for someone like that - even if the message is tinged with a reverse racism. The survival of the species is on the line. And pretty much the financial survival of anybody who is not in the 1%.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
Sure, there are a lot of pitfalls ...
... when it comes to a project like this. But I believe they make a good point in the video. I was never angry about Bernie not getting the Black vote in the south - I've read my history and understand this is a difficult issue to deal with and truly understand. When it comes to voting, the Black experience has been unbearable in so many ways. I know as a Jew that tribalism is one of the strongest responses to real oppression and there's nothing rational about it and everything human about it.
I think there's a whole lot of people of color who are stepping up right now - I've listed a few in my essay and I think that's just scratched the surface.
When it comes to "white millionaires" funding this kind of thing - well white millionaires fund a whole lot of things. Why not lefty Black media?
Beat in the USA.
To be clear...
My emotion is not anger, but more frustration. I get it. Democrats play blacks and other minorities in the same way that the GOP play fundamentalist and whites. I have very hard time talking to family and neighbors about the latter, so it is no surprise the former is so hard. And there are signs of encouragement. Younger people have less hang-ups over color, ethnicity and sexual orientation. It is much harder to 'divide and conquer' this group because they don't buy into it. My anger is more reserved for professional or educated white women who are voting for Hillary because 'it is her turn!'. That includes my own liberal, socially aware mother.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
NPR
Too little, too late. If they had any integrity, he would have been canned the second time he went off about the chair business.
Black media funding... yeah, can't really see any better way. But it is worrisome to me that this could just further cement the racial divide in our nation.
This country's fucked up. Needs to face an actual crisis for a change.
Please,
be careful what you wish for?
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
NPR befouled itself.
On Ralston: Mainstream media has had an agenda with respect to Sanders and NPR is no exception. Early on, the Clinton camp opposed anything that might increase Sanders name recognition, be it Democratic debates or news coverage and media obliged. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/tyndall-report/
NPR was notorious, both in its lack of coverage of Sanders and its denials that anything was wrong with its lack of coverage of Sanders. Early on, Sanders was doing jaw-dropping, unprecedented things, like running a Presidential campaign without PACS or corporate donations, which we sheeple had been told for decades was impossible; like pulling in tens of millions of dollars a month in small donations; like filling venue after venue with tens of thousands of people long before the Sanders campaign began running TV ads. Yet, when Sanders supporters pointed out to NPR that NPR was not covering Sanders, NPR sniffed that it was not covering Sanders because Sanders had done nothing newsworthy and when he did something newsworthy, NPR would cover it!
I have only anecdotal hearsay for this, but, with that caveat, I will post it. Supposedly, NPR told its employees early on that its funding might depend on a Democrat winning the general and Hillary had a much better chance of doing that than Sanders. I have no clue how NPR determined whose chances of winning the general were better well before either campaign got underway.
In any event, given NPR's conduct during the Democratic primary, it's no surprise that firing Ralston took too long. (Hmm. Does Jonathan "Make a Huge Deal Over Who Is or Is Not in a 60 Year Old Photo and Don't Back Down" Capehart still have a job?)
I would *really* like to address the video, but cannot do that right now. I hope be back with a separate reply.
Excellent news about Ralston. I wrote to NPR
and let my displeasure about that false report be known. I told them to get it right or get off the air. Hmmmmm.....someone won't be on the air for a while, anyway.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
I'm done with NPR
national pro-corporate radio and PBS news too. I always thought they represented the people. How wrong I was.
I wrote to both entities with my displeasure and a reminder of my longtime support. No response.
It's Democracy Now that fills my hour news time (and gets my donation money), but I still don't have a progressive radio news broadcast. What radio news or podcast do you listen to? Thanks in advance for your ideas.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Don't cry for John Ralston...
He'll get a cushy job at Fox or in the Clinton Administration.
Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?
Here's a Bernie supporter to support whose name we all know
https://www.facebook.com/EgbertoWillies/
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
I follow Twitter and the same people you do.
It really is the go to place for what's going on. I also love that on twitter, you can talk directly to people you never would be able to otherwise. I actually had a twitter encounter w/ Ralston. He tweeted something and I replied "Aren't you the reporter who lied about the thrown chair at the NV Dem Election? He liked my tweet. LOL That was a few weeks ago. I bet he wouldn't find it funny today.
My big issue is campaign finance reform, so I subscribe on FB and twitter to the Center for Public Integrity.
https://www.facebook.com/publici/?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/Publici
I am @PrincipalAZ on twitter.