The appointment of a longtime anti-Sanders troll to the Biden government is an impressively petty end zone dance by Democrats celebrating the crushing of their left flank
Honestly, between this article & Greenwald's latest piece about how the CIA used Saint Obama as the perfect face to sell endless war I'm starting to think it's all pretty hopeless here in our little red, white & blue trailer park/strip mall.
No matter who rises up in opposition to the corruption of our lovely leaders, they will be derailed or, like Trump, effectively impeded by imaginary scandals & intrigue.
It's pretty obvious that Trump only survived his 4 years of attack because he was such a belligerent mouthy asshole.
Any well meaning civil populist would have melted down much sooner.
The fact is there are think tanks continuously gaming every conceivable scenario that could possibly oppose corporate rule and endless war.
And they have a list of strategies to counter that opposition.
If one doesn't work they just move on to 2, then 3 & so on.
It's not that I wasn't aware of all of this I guess I just hoped the average American was smarter than that.
But watching Biden's installation as the only corporate approved candidate & then watching every neoliberal news agency spin racist, sell out, corporate whore Joe into Sir Lancelot I no longer believe this.
I used to think anyone with half a brain could see through this bullshit.
Sadly I don't believe many Americans have even half a brain anymore.
When Saint Obama unveiled his "Hope & Change" slogan I thought, "Geez, could you be any vaguer. It sounds like you're selling soda." Of course he was selling soda. The kind of soda produced by Raytheon & Dow. The kind of soda that eats out your innards & leaves you a hollow shell. Yet it worked. And it worked in a big way.
In my opinion we, as a nation, are comfy, apathetic & cowed.
What we really seem to want is a friendly face like Joe's to look at while we're being bent over the table.
What we really want is a nice polished leader who knows how to murder but makes the murders look humanitarian, freeing our consciences so we can nap & enjoy what we really like to think about which is sports & porn.
Like Greenwald said, they hated Trump, not for his lying because they're all habitual liars, they hated Trump because he was incapable of putting a friendly face on empire & he inadvertently told the truth about the American empire. 2 huge no-nos in 21st century America.
Spider, everything you suggest has been confirmed by the pandemic.
Gullible, compliant public who as a mass craves both panic porn and spiritual resurrection--no critical or independent thinking required (or tolerated).
Complicit, self-serving but equally stupid media, tripling down on the bleeding, leading Crisis of the Century! (see recent analysis that shows over 90% of pandemic reporting in the US as negative, compared to just over 50% in Europe)
Gleeful political establishment who tripped over each other attempting to claim the mantle of Savior of Humanity while serving us an endless stream of BS--which we eagerly lapped up in order to feel "safer".
We have been revealed as a nation of co-dependent idiots, addicted to the bundle of catastrophic threat and promised salvation.
So, we chatted before. Tell me what you think of this "conspiratard" theory.
The election of Trump was a fortuitous turn of events for the Democrats because, prior to his election, their left flank was getting uppity, demanding things like MFA & a UBI.
But Trump's election literally put the ball shriveling/sphincter clenching fear on many of them, quite effectively scaring them back into the warm comfy folds of Nancy Pelosi's loving arms.
If you're extra paranoid, you can also add the layer that has Trump manipulated into office expressly for that purpose.
Trump will literally be a gift that keeps on giving cautionary tale keeping many timid Democrats from straying off of the corporate Dem reservation for a long time.
The question turns on whether or not Trump was and is the genuine populist his supporters reckon him to be. It's not an easy thing to decide, what with all the mis-direction going on. Turn to the media for truth and enlightenment? Not a good source IMO.
My take: Trump galvanized a lot of people. He did it entirely on his own. Biden didn't galvanize anyone. Few voted for him, most voted against Trump and even then, Biden had to have the near total support of the corrupt and complicit media, the RINO never-Trumpers, the intelligence community and possible rampant election fraud to pull it off.
In a sense, Trump galvanized virtually the entire voting public into action. Was this planned or organic? If planned, I would have to give tremendous credit to the planners- they understood their quarry, their tool, their end goal and were able to keep it in sequence and hidden. Are they that good?
Maybe they are. I have my doubts. If one were to use Occam's razor, the simplest answer is that Trump is genuine. Many people saw that in him- and this is the critical part- in spite of a near universal effort by the media to discredit him. I think he threatened the establishment to the extent that the last 4 years was more or less one long coup attempt.
Matt does make the point in this essay that the Democrat establishment was pretty desperate to shut down Bernie's campaign and thoroughly discredit him. But as we see, they were able to do that fairly readily and Bernie caved and supported Hilary and now Biden. I can't see where they needed Trump in some capacity to put that internal squabble to bed.
One last thing. I don't think Trump's election in 2016 sent people into the arms of Nancy Pelosi. The media did that. You know, I keep on saying it- the legacy media played an instrumental role in Trump's political career. The fact that they made $ off him is not the point- any such amounts are paltry compared to the overall grift that was at risk in the system should Trump be given a fair chance at making the changes he was elected to make. The risk to the MIC budget alone was enough to scare many shitless. Add in many others sucking at the teat and you get a pretty formidable cast of people and institutions working against him.
But it all largely pivoted around who owns the media. I suspect that JFK was assassinated due to the media not being owned back then and they had to get rid of him the old fashioned way. With Trump, the assassins were CNN, MSNBC, NYT and a whole lot of blogs that had "never Trump" on their letterheads. And by no means do I exempt Fox. They were the original propaganda outlet and only supported Trump when he did their bidding (mostly MIC related). At any rate, confusion of the public is guaranteed if they are fed bullshit 24/7.
«The question turns on whether or not Trump was and is the genuine populist his supporters reckon him to be. It's not an easy thing to decide, what with all the mis-direction going on.»
But there is a way: D Trump has not appeared on the public scene from nothing in 2016, he has been a public and political figure for decades before that, with plenty of records as to his opinions and actions.
And his record has been consistent: a nationalist "one nation tory", with a good record of social progressiveness as to antiracism and pro-LGB, and a right-wing "populist" on economic issues (even if some "libertarian" leanings), a 50s style Republican. Someone in part like Perot or Buchanan.
I’m waiting for when the Dems (if they win, God help us) will create a new boogieman for the progressives to stay and vote for them again.
Now that I’ve walked away from being a progressive it’s painful to watch them stay in such an abusive relationship. If only they could see that they are being lied to... even by the progressive media. Sigh...
They already did that. They call it Q-anon and claim it influences a significant portion of the Republican electorate. Of course, most Republicans had never heard of it before Mike Pence was asked about it, and I genuinely believe he didn't know what it was at that point, either.
Thanks. You were a true progressive and unwilling to be lied to. I keep harping on the media and here's another one- there's nothing progressive about the media. They are owned 100% by the corporate PTB, the MIC, intelligence community etc. It's why they always- ALWAYS- throw the public under the bus. It amazes me how many people believe them.
You lost me at Trump being genuine and massive fraud. Trump isn't genuine about anything and there is no massive fraud. But I will give you that the media was highly manipulative. They did it for ratings in 2016 and it bit the Establishment Dems in the ass, which is hilarious. Then they pushed this nonsensical everyone is dying from covid to get the Orange one out. This administration is going to tank the US in lots of ways and there will be a red tsunami in the midterms without Orange Jesus there. The Dems got what they wanted but they aren't going to be in power very long. My bet is Dementia Joe is out in less than a year.
The media did it all for ratings? You gotta be kidding me. Nothing of the sort happened. The media is complicit all the way through. The were the blunt tool used by the big boys to beat the electorate over the head repeatedly- over and over and over again that Trump was racist, misogynist, xenophobic, ad nauseum. And a lot of you bought it- swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Matt included.
And then you fell for the decoy: "we only came after Trump for the ratings, yeah, that was all we were up to, promise!". Fer gawd's sakes, you fellas just fall off the turnip truck?
"The question turns on whether or not Trump was and is the genuine populist his supporters reckon him to be." That's not really important. What matters is if the spark of populism he ignited in the Republican party is snuffed out or allowed to smoke until the midterms. I think most Republican operatives want to walk the line between appealing to the people who bought Trump's populist rhetoric while disavowing him as a vulgarity who steered them off the moral high ground, even where the landscape is flat swampland as far as the eye can see. In truth, the typical Republican voter is a populist now.
We probably are talking a difference without a distinction, as my engineer Father would say.
Divisions will harden in the days ahead. Sides will be chosen and allies sought. Once the average Trump supporter ditches Fox news for good, as they already should have, clarity can occur.
Serious question regarding your last sentence. Who in right wing media, tv, radio, internet, social media, is a populist? That is where they get all of their information and unless there is a personality that would reinforce something populist, there is no populist right. It is culture and libertarian economics. Trump won on a populist agenda, but as soon as he got in office and ditched Bannon he was a typical Republican. 73 million people didn't vote for populism. They voted for a personality and against a perceived evil. Having been a former right winger that gobbled all that news and also important, American Christianity, I just don't see the majority of Republicans looking for populist economic items.
Actually I just listened to Jimmy Dore's interview with Glenn Greenwald & he outlines a similar scenario with the Democrats using fear of another Trump to justify all manner of "gatekeeping."
So I probably heard bits of that interview, forgot it, then re-remembered it as my own thought.
The internet is really difficult to communicate with. But folks here actually do a pretty good job of it. It's why I hang out here- agree or disagree, Matt attracts a more thoughtful bunch.
Oh and the Dems will do what they can to consolidate power- any excuse, any means. Control, baby!
Wasn't really invested in the "installation scenario."
Didn't actually mean the day of Trump's election as much his overall tenure in office. I should have been clearer.
But whether Trump was genuine or not, he will still make an excellent cautionary tale against weakening the party. Folk like Pelosi can say, "If you weaken us look what the Republicans will put in office. Just another Hitler like Trump."
Doesn't really matter whether he was another Hitler or not, many of the party faithful believe he was ol' Adolph in orange.
Although, would Sanders have caved as readily without the specter of Trump hanging over his head?
Then again, Sanders really didn't appear to have much fight left in him towards the end, so your probably right.
My theory is what happens after a day of drinking high test coffee while smoking a tad too much pot and then nightcapping it all with some Jack Daniels.
I actually woke up thinking "What the fuck did I type last night?"
Luckily it wasn't as deranged as it could have been.
It could be a cautionary tale, it could be they were scared shitless, it could be Trump was a massive threat to their status quo or it could be all three. But essentially nowhere in the DNC/deep state bubble are they at all concerned with the public. I simply see that Trump was a threat to their world and they meant to take him out. If they had to use the electorate to do it, fine, but that only makes the public useful idiots. In 1963 they didn't bother with that nicety- no electorate needed.
I won’t get into most of what you said (because I pretty much agree), but if a recent analysis of COVID reporting showed that 90% of US covid coverage is negative, versus 50% in Europe, I have to believe that that’s because the situation in the US is much more dire than that of Europe. They’re doing something about COVID in Europe. Here? Not so much.
How is the situation more "dire" in the US? Death rates in Spain, Italy, and the UK are higher, and with similar patterns and impacts. People there complain about the same questionable policies from government and issues with health care. Countries have gone through lock-down and open-up cycles.
How are they "doing something" that is substantially different? With respect, your bias might be showing.
I stand by the interpretations that Americans and American media are in a different category of stupid, and love to sell and wallow in panic porn.
To paraphrase every conspiracy guy I ever read, "Y'know people just need to wake up."
Maybe they really don't want to...
What was that Carlin line about the American Dream & snoozing?
The simple fact is if I repeated what I've typed on here since the Selection to 90% of the people I know they'd look at me like I was one of Alex Jones' interdimensional demon/aliens who just beamed in from the planet Quargziffle.
I have also come to that conclusion after having friends admit to me that they prefer only listening to left wing media because it’s what they WANT to hear. Willfully ignorant.
It truly does show us how powerful the evolutionary development of tribalism is. That people even knowing that their tribe is wrong will refuse to stand up for what is right. The horrors of collectivist thinking.
It boggles my mind. So glad I had teachers that taught me about the Holocaust.
Zat you, epierce? If so, I had you wrong. At any rate, thanks for the insight. My experiences were exactly the same. The worst was politics over friendships these last 4 years. People you thought you were at least somewhat tight with turned into raging assholes- lefties every one of them.
Let's say Joe was the best the Dems could come up with, hoping his 8 year proximity to Saint Obama's holy glamour & divine light would blind people to his steamer trunk full of flaws.
You're splitting hairs buddy. If you saw him in a mall & you didn't know him he'd look like any other old grandpa. Of course, that would last until he started following little girls around for a good hair fondle that is...
I told some HS students to look at Max Headroom and tell me what they thought and they were all like “OMG that’s Biden”, despite never having having seen Max before!
The answer to that is simple. We asked more and more of an entity that is unable to provide it. Even still, in the face of its failure, most of the country is still asking more of it.
Depends on how susceptible you are to believing a kiss will actually cure your boo boos. I'd say no but a large segment of America didn't seem to notice that Obama was continually sticking a shiv in their backs. So, I'd say that a smile & a glib demeanor goes a long way here in personality cult America.
It's a different story when old-fashioned liberal Dems like Al Franken and Garrison Keillor outlive their utility. They get the public #MeToo coup de grace--pour encourager les autres.
«our little red, white & blue trailer park/strip mall»
That's for the majority of "little people"; for significant minority it is McMansions in restricted communities, and for a small minority it is fantastic palaces in vast estates and private islands.
«It's pretty obvious that Trump only survived his 4 years of attack because he was such a belligerent mouthy asshole.»
That's a rather optimistic version, a blogger pointed out that as soon as he was elected and the "security" services started attacking him, he realized that his first priority was to stay alive, without fatal accidents for example because of a "isolated crazed loner" taking him out. So Trump started looking for a "roof", and first tried to get the armed forces, in particular I think the marines, to give him "protection", and then at the end put himself under Likud "protection".
«The fact is there are think tanks continuously gaming every conceivable scenario that could possibly oppose corporate rule and endless war.»
That's a smart point that many people don't get: the business and property rentiers are organized, forward looking, and have smart consultants on their side, for propaganda, strategy, political research, etc., and this gives them an advantage. Once upon a time the worker unions also had similar resources, but they have been much reduced.
«And they have a list of strategies to counter that opposition. If one doesn't work they just move on to 2, then 3 & so on.»
Fortunately all those expensive consultants often get those wrong, but as you say the business and property rentiers are persistent and try keep trying.
"Once upon a time the worker unions also had similar resources, but they have been much reduced."
From my experience in unions, labor history is not something that's taught so younger folk coming in didn't really understand how unions worked. Consequently they approached the union as something you buy, like drain cleaner. In other words, a member pays his dues & sits around & waits for the union to get him/her a raise. It doesn't work that way.
I can remember one union rep who called & asked if I'd be willing to do an informational picket in front of the facility.
I agreed, then I asked him if anyone else would be there. He said that loads of folk were on board. I laughed & asked him if he'd like to bet me a quarter that, on the day of the picket, we'd be the only 2 boobs standing there.
Sure enough, the day came & we were the only 2 boobs standing there.
I have to tell you, a two man picket looks fucking absurd. We looked like whiners who couldn't get with the program.
It took one or two more similar incidents of amazing human apathy for me to finally quit the union.
Hey, Buddy, leave porn out of it. It's probably doing more good for the world than any of the poisons that America manufactures, by virtue of keeping a lot of sperm from meeting eggs and increasing the overpopulation issue, unarguably the greatest unspoken cause of the ecological destruction of the planet.
That's nice. I don't actually care. And I'm sure you're wealthy enough to not care that I don't care. I did enjoy your "save the planet" justification for porn though. As if porn needs a socially redeeming pitch to yank folk into jerkin their gherkin. I suppose I could balance your green impulse by pointing out how kids are now sexualized at an early age by easy access to internet porn.
At least in the old days chronic pud pounders had to actually work to get their freak on.
It gave them adventures.
On any given night their journey to the seedy side of town could get them a copy of Bertha's Anal Squirts or a slit throat in an alley.
So glad I voted for Trump even though I voted for Bernie in the primaries. If the Dems cheated progressives, why would you EVER vote for them? Why would you EVER listen to the smears they say about Trump knowing they smeared Tulsi and Bernie?
Progressives who stayed and voted for Biden have Stockholm syndrome. It’s fine if you voted third party or didn’t vote at all. Good for you! You at least didn’t contribute to the party that cheated the progressives. But if you not only voted for Biden, but also shilled for him, you are absolutely a useful idiot.
Watching my fellow progressives, repeat the media propaganda about Trump and vote for Biden makes me feel both pity and disgust. Pity because they are buying the bullshit lies repeated by progressive leaders (why are they repeating this crap from the MSM?!) and disgust because they will still vote for a candidate who is absolutely worse than Trump on foreign policy, trade, jobs in America, and has videos of him creepily groping young girls. Gross!!!
Just go look up the “fine people” hoax. Go watch how the media edited the video of Trump. You’ll just take the word of the media, which you know to be a wing of the Dem establishment, about Trump? The same media that didn’t fact check Biden while he lied during the debate against Bernie about social security? You’d take their word KNOWING they lie about progressives and about almost everything?
So glad I’m not a progressive anymore. I refuse to stay in a voting block that grovels at the feet of the people who abuse them. Get out of the mental plantation. Stop voting Dem. #WalkAway
Tulsi and Bernie were collateral damage in the march to election. The ends justify the means. The "fine people" hoax edit might as well have been done by Leni Riefenstahl.
and the drink bleach hoax was right up there too. Problem with the media isn't really the media. It is the idiots who only believe CNN and MSNBC and their ilk and never get any fake news from the right. They only get their news from the left and they actually think it is real. Whereas many of us get the news from both sides and know that it is fake all around!
They only want the truth they WANT to believe. It is a reality I have come to accept.
It makes the Nazi propaganda all that more horrifying to me now. Instead of questioning the propaganda, the Germans WANTED to believe that everything would be solved by hating the Jews. They would not accept that there was no other way.
Imagine how bizarre our society is that part of it WANTS to believe that there are white supremacists everywhere and that our President is a white supremacist. When you say to them that he isn’t, they get angry instead of relieved.
Candace Owens in the documentary Uncle Tom says that the litmus test is for a black person to tell a liberal that they don’t feel oppressed. A reasonable response would be “I’m glad that you don’t feel that way.” But most get angry that she does not feel oppressed.
The soft bigotry of low expectations. The more insidious form of racial prejudice imo.
But don’t get so discouraged. There are many of us who have taken the red pill. I’ve seen it with #WalkAway and #Blexit.
Hopefully, those who are in our lives will one day seek the truth. I pray that it will happen, that God’s righteousness will shine through in the end.
Haha indeed. I’ve known it was ALL propaganda since the media praised the AUMF and Patriot Act. I also knew that our politicians were insane when all of Congress stood up and clapped at the AUMF passing. Not a peep from the media about how the AUMF was destroying the checks and balances in our government that gave power to the PEOPLE to declare war not one person. The media and Congress literally cheered for tyranny. 🤦♀️
If you voted for Trump and you want to make excuses for decades of abhorrent behavior -- going all the way back to his full page ad on the Central Park jogger rape, and up to and including his love for playing footsie with and retweeting White Nationalists (while offering, of course, a lackluster required condemnation to supply a fig leaf to people like you who are either cynical or naive enough to don it) - then you were never a progressive. It is one thing to, as Matt does, condemn the vulgar exploitation of legitimate social justice issues by people like the Clintons. It is another thing entirely to make excuses for - or worse, vote for - a POS like Trump. I guess the Proud Boys were also in on the hoax, because they sure believe Trump is encouraging them. I guess armed militias who show up at statehouses and plot to kill the sitting governor Trump scornfully refers to "that woman" are also "media hoaxes." He's very happy for their support. Perhaps the only honest words that ever came out of Hillary Clinton's mouth are the ones that helped cost her the 2016 election: Trump's supporters are largely deplorables. Congratulations on being one of them.
Congratulations on getting brainwashed by the media to dehumanize a large portion of American citizens. You have fallen in the trap that many of the Germans fell into when the Nazi party dehumanized the Jews.
I proudly declare I am a deplorable! Would you like to label me with a star? Am I to declare that I am a deplorable on my front window? Will you also agree that we need to be put on lists and “deprogrammed” like so many others have on the left?
Do you not see the repeat in history? Or are you that ignorant? I refuse to be part of a coalition that believes in listing people and considering them irredeemable because the media tells me.
I question authority, always have my whole life. If questioning authority and doing my own research has turned me into a deplorable, then again I proudly consider myself a deplorable.
I think what you’re repeating here is a form of voter suppression tactic used by both parties to discourage voters. I voted for Trump in CA in one of the most Dem districts in Los Angeles. I didn’t care. I voted for Trump because I wanted to and because it meant something to me.
Who knows... I believe they’ve been cheating CA forever when it comes to voting so maybe they changed my vote anyway but what mattered was that it mattered to me and the thousands of Trump supporters who went out to the Trump rallies in Beverly Hills.
Plus, I wanted to send a message to the Dems: “If you don’t change your ways here in Los Angeles, CA, more of us will start voting against you.” Can’t really make them realize that if you just vote because you’re a purple state. Plus, I always vote down ballot anyway. I know local and state votes are more important to my personal life than federal stuff anyway.
Telling people their votes don’t matter is a form of voter suppression. CA was once a red state. Based on your logic because CA is blue now, it can never turn red again. I don’t agree with that. Sorry. I still say it sounds like voter suppression.
Just because I don’t agree with your logic, it doesn’t mean I haven’t thought it out with my own POV. Your inability to acknowledge other POVs is noted.
Dude... did you ever consider the possibility that we’re both right? Of course I understand how the electoral college works and thank God for it because we’re a republic. However, I still think telling voters that their votes don’t matter is still a form of voter suppression. Even if they live in a state that swings heavily to one side. I bet many people do not vote because they are told this. That’s why I say it’s a form of suppression.
It never occurred to you that I clearly understand how the electoral college worked. You just went off on a tirade about how much smarter you are than other people while making yourself just look like a fool.
You sound EXACTLY like how the left argues. You assume that I’m insulting your argument when I’m actually saying something completely different about it. What I’m saying is that you going around saying only swing states matter is voter suppression EVEN IF it’s factually correct.
So.... when did Democrats allow themselves to become the party of Hollywood, Wallstreet & Tech Bros? And why does pop culture still accuse Republicans as being the party of the rich? We are too big of a country to have just 2 parties. How many of us are unrepresented? I’m fairly moderate and could lean toward center republicans or center democrats but I’m fully onboard with universal health care as is almost everyone I know. But neither party represents me at all.
Jimmy Carter was a disaster, Bill Clinton was very good at exploiting the tired of losing and looking like idiots Dems. The disgusting greedy nature of the Clinton white house was astounding. Renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to drunken Hollywood types that bragged about jumping on the beds. Seriously. Then of course, when they left the Secret Service had to go to Chappaqua and retreive some Govt antiques they helped themselves to from the White House decor.
Not even beginning to touch the slimy rapist denying Paula Jones her civil rights in a lawsuit and having half of so called liberals rushing to portray it as insignificant for him cavort sexually in the oval office with a 20ish intern and then lie to a Federal Judge who ruled it was germaine to Jones establishing a "pattern" of behavior with less powerful women on the job.
The Clintons are a shit stain on American history.
Much like the Bush crime family that preceded them. The only answer is to do away with the entire concept of there being an elite among us. Why do we give power to these people to begin with ?
«Why do we give power to these people to begin with ?»
The "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" explains:
«"On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."»
Love Hitchhiker’s. So brilliant. I should read it again now that I’m a bit older. I read it about every 10 years. Read at 20, then again at 30. At 40, I will likely glean a lot more enjoyment than previous times. Thank you for this! ❤️
For all the credit that the Online "Left" likes to give the CIA for being master manipulators who control everything, the CIA has a demonstrably shitty record of even basic competence at the art of advertising. This is what happens when you hire your business buddies' jack-off sons.
I don't specifically know of the Bush "crime' family, I know Neil was involved with the S&L crisis and not prosecuted, maybe not guilty of anything but that seems doubtful given his role at the time and the scope of the grift.
Herbert Walker was a Director of the CIA, no? Having seen some of the intelligence spooks on a low level, I assume that means he was the most successful at being an asshole that could be identified at the time. Still, his WWII pilot gig was muy impressive.
How is that comparable to the shit stain Clintons?
You're going back to Grandpa Bush funding Nazi's?
repeat after me, "You dont have to suck the Clinton rapist knob clean. You choose to because you like to suck rapist dick if they tell you that you are smarter, cooler and better looking than republicans while you do it."
Skutch has some pretty amazing insights... honestly.
Still, in this I think they are just clinging to some whataboutism and trying to believe that the Clintons are somehow NOT part of the same globalist New World Order cunts.
They are, of course... these weasels know exactly what side of their bread is buttered.
It wasn't President Carter that was the disaster. It was that complacent, superannuated, pork-barrel Democratic Party Congressional supermajority that he had to contend with.
In the early years of his term, Jimmy, Frank Church, and Stansfield Turner got closer to busting up the permanent security state than any other post-1947 team of bureaucrats.
Then Brezhnev invaded Afghanistan due to notes he drunkenly scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin and that was it for Jimmy. You can take the nuclear submariner out of the Navy, but you can't take the Navy out of the nuclear submariner.
That's charisma. Successful politicians need it over any other quality. I always thought the dude was an obvious slimeball myself -- everything about him screamed "date rapist" -- but lots of people loved him. Date rapists gonna date rape, I guess.
it's the half the Dems making excuses and pushing to move on dot org and the other half of Dems letting them that sucks ass the most.
Bill the rapist Clinton didn't represent the party with his slime until they allowed the loud mouths to unapologetically say that Bill the rapist Clinton represented the party with his slime.
Not saying the 2 party system isn't awful. But look at what proportional representation looks like, say in Italy. Total joke. If you had 3+ parties you would make it even worse. You would probably never get to 270 electoral college votes, so the house would make the decision every time unless you changed the system. Good luck with that.
A ranked choice ballot system in all 50 states is a way of assuring both multiparty options and majoritarian victories in every national election, without the necessity for any wider structural reforms. I think that the most practical and effective way to do it in the American system would be to limit the number of ranked choices to a first and a second pick. I want the calculation of the results to be easily understandable. And also to obviate any possibility that the winning ticket might be the third choice of most of the voters.
This (sort of) encapsulates my view....which is our Constitution is wildly ineffectual at allowing anything intelligent to evolve. Factor in the idea of Originalism, where our SCOTUS appointees attempt to discern what the Founders...240 odd years ago... thought about things they had absolutely no inkling of, or even of the ability to imagine. Huxley had it exactly right when the wrote....“The early advocates of universal literacy and a free press… did not foresee… the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal…. In a word, they failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”
THE PEOPLE ARE NOT GETTING WHAT THEY WANT?? OMG!! CRISIS! SCANDAL!! CORRUPTION!!
Because the people want...
Free, limitless healthcare.
Free education, which they will ignore anyway.
Free Money.
Systemic preference for <fill in my group>.
Strict regulation and suppression of <fill in thing I don't like>.
And finally...NO TAXES!
(I left out all the sexual stuff people would like the government to provide.)
I'm not sure a government with the power OR intent to "implement popular policies" would really be a good thing, unless one asserts it is better to be misgoverned by cats of a particular fatness as opposed to some other.
trump is also a neoliberal. the D-RNC are equally aggressive neoliberals. Neoliberalism is really just another term for Extreme Libertarianism. Look into Hayek. Buchanan. Friedman, "chicago school". All, Neoliberals.
With one exception, you're right about the alignment of neoliberal and libertarian economics, but the difference is that both sides of the political establishment are far more authoritarian. Bernie is easily positioned as a left libertarian.
As such, he can form alliances with social libertarians who are not so radical right economically. This is where the much maligned "horseshoe" theory actually works and makes sense. There is a centrist libertarian coalition to be had if progressives can peg Clinton neoliberals as the corporate fascists they are.
This should absolutely be the goal. That’s a big fight to pick though, and the culture war wedge was driven so deep during the Trump era that I have little confidence we’ll be able to get past the idea that people on both ends of the horseshoe are “crazy”.
To be fair, this criticism of Nick is pretty close to the Russian bot narrative. Sometimes it's better to acknowledge that there are actually people drinking the kool-aid. I think Nick believes what he wrote, but he's reading Taibbi so I have some hope.
but keep in mind, there are actual paid psyop professionals. corporate, state, etc, milieus of teams, specifically meant to derail relevant conversations and such.
I used to be a libertarian. A social libertarian is not a socialist libertarian. There is nothing in Bernie's worldview that aligns with libertarian economics.
Yup I have a helluva time convincing my 20-something kids that Trump is the greatest President of my lifetime, simply because he enunciated viewpoints that all knew, but no previous President had the balls to state.
To me he remains simultaneously the most honest and dishonest President of my life and it is not even close. And since all other Presidents have been dishonest on both matters large and small, Trump has the decided advantage.
Let's not confuse being honest on the obvious with being hones overall or morally superior. I think it was just Trump getting revenge for never being accepted into the elite inner circle.
I'll still take his exposure as a gift, but I won't call him great, there's nothing great about being captain obvious.
Unfortunately he wasn't able to right any wrongs to speak of only publicly humiliate and verbally abuse the abusers of the public trust.
I’m not convinced of the “genius scam” part. Anyone with a shred of sense of the situation could have played this out to look like the greatest President in history. He lucked into the Presidency on the ride of pissed off citizens, not any particular brilliance. Tapping that anger doesn’t take genius; it takes shamelessness and not caring about a single consequence of one’s actions.
Not really: he is another type of right-winger, a nationalist one-nation tory, while neoliberals are globalist reganista whigs. That is why he has been so ferocious attacked by the globalist neoliberals within his party and in the Democratic party.
«the D-RNC are equally aggressive neoliberals.»
That indeed, most of them.
«Neoliberalism is really just another term for Extreme Libertarianism.»
Not quite: libertarians are mostly english Victorian Liberals, neoliberals are not quite as extreme, because they advocate a big government to intervene in the markets to give big handouts to businesses and Wall Street. They are only like Victorian Liberals for the "little people".
Just the donor class and their wannabe lackeys. When you poll ever major progressive policy, you get HUGE acceptance from 70+% who are absolutely never represented all across the spectrum. That the coalition. They are the "get off my back and out of my pocket" coalition who would gladly "soak the rich" given 1/2 a chance.
You have no idea what you are talking about. This is a communist country, but usurping the means of production has simply been replaced with usurping control of the money supply.
I think there is a big terminological confusion here: when "Nick" writes "communist" he really means "soviet".
"The Economist" magazine, a neoliberal one, once defined "soviet" as "run for the benefit of management", that is what our Matt Taibbi calls a "Griftopia", and under that definition the higher levels of USA politics and business are soviet indeed. Even the "Financial Times" describes it this way:
What the fuck do you think a communist country looks like? Jesus Christ. Communist countries are literally the definition of oligarchical. Those who control the means of production always win. In this case its the financiers and the banksters. "The state" stakes this over and then it becomes a game of rent seeking and gaining power within that apparatus. We are living in the end result of Bernie Sanders utopia already. It just that "you people" seem to think you can get the right people in power to dole out the excess in exchange for your support.
The elite have always controlled the means of production and the government going back centuries. It's so funny how idiots like you think this is a recent development.
Capitalism is just modified feudalism which is just modified slavery.
You really have an issue with the term communism when it is meaningless in today's society.
"Those who control the means of production always win. In this case its the financiers and the banksters."
Speaking of "communism", that statement might as well be a verbatim quote from Karl Marx. Although you'd have to have read some of his works in order to realize that.
The precise spot where communism and fascism become indistinguishable. Oh, is that a "horseshoe"? My bad. But fusing government and corporations, from either direction, leads to the same authoritarianism.
Its vastly important because the Sanders wing wants to extend even more control to the Federal government. Its a problem because the ideology is one of "Well, so long as we vote for MY candidate the symptoms will disappear". These folks want to replace communism with communism.
You morons think your revolution is going to happen through the vote. You're mistaken. When your ilk come through the suburbs, there will be blood, and you dont have the guns to win this war.
I just refuse to vote any more. Even voting against the uniparty does no good. It just proves how fake the system is and always has been. Why validate a democratic process or a fake republic ?
Do you know that the Trump part of the Republican Party is the populist wing of the party and they are having their own civil war like the Dems are with the progressives? Labeling Trump as the Republican Party is like labeling Tulsi or Bernie as the Democrat Party. There are even talks of Trump supporters wanting to create a third party to get away from the RINOs in the GOP.
The reason why the progressive media and politicians lie to you about Trump is they don’t want you to go to the other populist. It’s all about power.
Yes. Consistent with my observations. I have dear friends in every tribe, and I keep online involvement in several of those worlds.
Trump is not a Republican. A large percentage of his supporters are not, either. Trump is a rowdy buccaneer who assembled a huge boarding party and captured the GOP's ship. The Establishment/tradcon/chamber of commerce/neocon old guard hated his guts from the beginning and resent the hell out of him every waking moment. They have to double check the microphone OFF switch before they can let their hair down and sneer together at his supporters. The OP references the Democrat establishment's hate for Bernie and Co. You can transfer that feeling to the GOP and Trump. You would have to magnify it considerably, though, because Trump was actually successful.
The mainstream GOP conspicuously clammed up and sat on their hands when the initial calls for Biden came in. They were happy about the down-ballot victories Trump's supporters and hard campaigning gave them. They were just as happy to quietly smirk and cuddle up with the apparently incoming new guard as Trump twisted in the wind.
Trump's supporters noticed this. They started loudly asking each other if they shouldn't return the compliment by leaving these bozos in the lurch for the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff. This in turn scared the pants off the establishment GOP at the same time they noticed that the allegedly-mythical Georgia Magic Vote machine suddenly looks terrifying when trained upon the microscopic Senate majority they thought they had in the bag. So now they're mad at Trump's supporters while also needing to feign affection and beg for their help. Which inspires good old Trump to administer public wedgies to the state GOP leadership which has held trifecta control of Georgia state gov't for 15 years with no more apparent knack for power politics than a pack of Cub Scouts.
Plenty about this election chaps my hide, but watching this little sideshow from a ringside seat has been better than watching the Three Stooges while stoned. Once it plays out, the Establishment-D will get their turn in the dunk tank. You'll need to hire staff to keep up with all the material that's coming your way, Matt.
There are plenty of RINOs, but they are the minority and only sort-of succeeded in attacking Trump on character issues, which will soon become irrelevant. Trump's Republican Party is a populist Party. Democrats and RINOs are the elite. Trump flipped the script.
I didn’t vote top of ticket in 2012 or 2016. It Trump is so awful I felt I had to do harm reduction, although you can argue that isn’t the case with Biden. My swing state went red so it ultimately didn’t matter. In hindsight I should have voted Green.
At some point you have to ask if you're just helping validate a completely phony system. I can no longer bring myself to vote, no matter how I vote policy goals never change.
Really, you think most people aren't too stupid as to fall for the "existential threat" garbage again? I hope you're right, but emotional voters are easily fooled.
They should have refused in 2016 and 2020 when they watched the Dems cheat in the primaries. 🤦♀️ What new “existential threat” will the Dems conjure up so that the progressives vote for them again? The progressives will likely stay with their abusers.
Sad truth be said, Bernie had the ideology, had the charisma, had the right timing, but lacked the personal courage to lead a “revolution”. And I’m talking about 2016, post primary loss. 2020 was too late.
In fairness, that was pretty much LBJ. The rightward drift of U.S. national politics since the 1960s has been incredible. I will argue all day that Barry Goldwater was to the left of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton and some of my arguments may even not be totally inane.
To mangle some poorly-remembered quotes from Hunter S. Thompson, "Dick Nixon was so crooked he had to screw his pants on in the morning, but I can't totally hate a man who will talk football with you when you are the next urinal stall over . . . Nixon's speechwriter, Pat Buchanan, is probably a deranged freak, but I somehow cannot help liking him." The personal as political, again.
Perlstein’s 4 volume documentation of that drift is remarkable. It was not some casual slide or aberration. It was a called play by Republican activists and organizers. Not the least of the con was the cooptation of the Evangelical Right. They’re already intensely organized and ready to act. Democrats fall in love, Republicans organize, or something like that.
The thing is that the Evangelical Right is largely a spent force now, at least in my view. They got used and dumped by the duopoly in the same way as the Sandernistas.
I hate the irony of anonymous internet commentators - who probably haven't done anything at all - questioning the "courage" of a guy who went against the grain to be on the right side of history for most of his life, simply because he didnt' win the toughest battle against two corrupt parties out to get him.
He did the best he understood how to do. If you think you can genuinely do better, put down the Cheetos bag and get out there.
I think a large part of Sanders' appeal was that he was genuinely kind, sincere and consistent in his beliefs, not willing to engage in political gamesmanship, lie, go on the attack. Unfortunately, that translated to making him an easy target for the DNC and media. I do think he's naive but again, his sincerity and decency are an integral part of his appeal. He never had a chance.
Thank you, yes. As Bronowski would sometimes say, "Man is of a piece" and I think more people need to remember that perspective as you do.
I think "never had a chance" is a bit extreme. He lost because Dem's successfully bamboozled the black vote for Biden and the political shenanigans on Super Tuesday and Snake Warren. That's the most of it. Did Bernie do as much fighting back on that particular front as we would have liked? No. But that was a choice that he felt was best and MMQB'ing it as a mistake is just a luxury us peasants have always had.
I would also ask this crowd if WE couldn't have done more to HELP him. Political campaigns are infinitely complex even before you go against established power, and I think it's the absolute most small-minded thing to simplify it as the guy who's been right 99.99999% of his life making a mistake when he was just trying not to blow it by changing horses midstream.
Do you honestly believe that it's impossible to provide a valid critique of someone with personally being able to do it better yourself? That saying "X did this wrong" is the same as saying "I could do it better than X"?
Not impossible, but perhaps temper the criticism just a bit?!? Why does everything have to be this extreme "Bernie spent decades fighting with nobody including me on his side but NOW HE"S DOG$HIT!!!"-type criticism that I'm hearing from Jimmy Dore and his minions.
How about CALM T.F. DOWN.
The only thing this kind of thing does is signal to the next people's advocate that as soon as you are PERCEIVED to be imperfect, the jackyls and vultures will tear your weakened body apart.
Criticism is fine, but don't act like you'd have done better or that you are better. You're not.
In a nutshell, the Democratic power centers bet hard on identity politics to build a coalition that brushed concerns about their tightness with Wall St. under the rug. And now corporate America is returning and leveraging the favor by taking their side in the culture wars. Pay no attention to the forced Uighur labor making our shoes, we're with "the Cause" that you care about most!
It worked in the 2016 primaries and failed in the election. It would have failed completely in 2020 except for the pandemic. From the GOP's taking of 26% of the minority vote, about double what it was a decade ago, it doesn't look like it's going to work for much longer at all.
Exactly correct. It's a great smokescreen, isn't it - let's all band together to fight racism/sexism/homophobia/whatever - but pay no attention to the piles of money behind the curtain.
HRC uses it brazenly on that audience and they don't even see through it. What's even the point of her saying "is stopping the banks going to solve racism" except to push against stopping them? So transparent.
Marco Rubio is talking about an inclusive “common good capitalism.” A big anti-establishment, anti-technocrat, antiglobalist realignment underway IMO. The cell walls burst and there’s a mixing of left, right, and libertarian cytoplasm.
Hey, that's my Senator! Lil Marco would make a great Prez - of Honduras or Guatemala. But then, we may be a full-on Banana Republic before his political shelf-life is up. There is still hope, Marcky! Don't go finding a soul. There are endless opportunities for treacherous cretins in this land of make-believe.
He does, at least, understand that the US is seriously in trouble due in large part to it’s complete dismissal of anything resembling an industrial policy for the nation. He, of course, gets completely ignored in this. And, I agree, he’s not the guy to lead it. He just hasn’t got what the camera wants, and it’s the camera that decides.
I always predicted it back as far as 2008 when people said "there may never be another Republican president". I was in the corporate world at the time, and over the years before that watching the rise of incredible minority professionals in my industry. At least in my company, no one (or very few and I never saw any issue) thought of them by their skin color, but rather by their capabilities, and it was a meritocracy where good people went high fast. It is great to see all of the success minorities are having economically. People may not feel it's fast enough but it's for sure happening. And with more success, people are going to vote more conservatively, no question.
I suspect it may be a flash-in-the-pan Trump thing if they put up some guy like Tom Cotton or Josh Hawley in '24, but my record of predicting the future is lousy.
The D-RNC, a uniparty of extreme wealth, loath humanity. The 99%, are but slave labor, or even more, obstacles, to their imagined utopia, of lavish lifestyles, sycophantically in service, to the 1%. This is entirely predictable. We warned the world, tax cuts, and reshuffling capital gains, the endless creation of loopholes and shelters, would lead to the rise of an Oligarchy, where it's rarified air of inheritance, would only tolerate super transnational elites, easily able to buy and sell policy and legislators, and nations.
Economic Power is exponentially more meaningful that petty political power. And we, the people, have sponsored this disparity.
Neoliberalism or neo-liberalism is the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism and free market capitalism.
What neoliberalism is NOT, is a new way to describe “liberals” (in 2020 popular context) Both the DNC and RNC are neoliberal organizations
Neoliberalism is more closely aligned with Libertarianism, Conservatism (although there is NOTHING conservative about it, it is in fact, Extremist)
Neoliberals abhor competition, (despite promoting "free markets"),but LOVE monopolies, cartels, and organization of capital
Neoliberals abhor "public debt", but LOVE "private debt".
Neoliberals abhor organization of Labor, but LOVE monopolies, cartels, and organization of capital.
Neoliberals abhor “regulations” on business, but LOVE regulation of the people
Neoliberals abhor shared resources of “the commons” (public land, water, air, energy), But LOVE Privatization of Everything (for rent extraction purposes)
It's interesting that Trump gets lumped in with the others in that group. You may be right, but after seeing the full court press to unseat him- put on by the entire establishment- I have a tough time swallowing the idea that he is just one of them. It just seems he offered a completely different dynamic. You may think his followers were duped- there is a lot of that sort of thing going on these days.
I've said it before and I'll say it again- one only has to look at who a thoroughly owned and complicit media comes after and you will know who just might be on your side. And it's not just about Trump, for if anyone cares to actually pay attention to what Matt just wrote, he made it very clear that the DNC came after Bernie with plenty of malice and purpose.
its theater. the full court press, meaningless. sure talking head morons on tv love to hate trump, there's good money is hating trump. but do not for one minute imagine that means, he's the good guy, and because he's hated, that he's a hero. not even for a second. id the real power.. the unseen hand, didn't want him, he would have had a dallas moment long ago. of that, you can be as clear as it gets. exactly zero rogues or champions will ever be tolerated.
There is no reason to be that cynical or to hate Trump so much. Just watch the actual events as they unfolded the past four years. Fake Dossier, Russiagate, Christine Blassy Ford, Media coverage of T and his supporters (Sandman, good ppl both sides hoax), Lockdown protest vs BLM protest double standard, Total blackout of any good news about Trump's accomplishments, lackout of Laptop scandal. Big biz growing exponentially vs small biz going under, mothers quitting their jobs to teach manage their kids education.
Needs/desires of World Economic Forum (we should own nothing by 2030 - they want us all on a universal income, weakened and demotivated - they are purposely gutting the middle and working class - presumably to save the environment and for world peace?? Idk why.. bc really China is the biggest polluter so why do they want to kneecap US as a world power. Don't know why but they do.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER04dbt5p74), Cynical use of critical race theory to divide us, calling Antifa an idea when they are literally rioting everyday in Portland and threatening Trump supporters lives (stop the steal march - there are 100s of videos. NOT A PEEP BY MSM ), using Covid as a reason to push mail-in ballots on an unprecedented scale - which now will never be rolled back. Trying to roll it back will be called "racist" or voter suppression.. oh and Big Pharma announcing Trump's fast track vaccine after the election. Phew - he had a lot working against him!!! It's amazing he got anything done.. but here are a few Progressive policies he managed to roll out: https://forward.com/opinion/458172/5-major-progressive-trump-achievements-for-biden-to-build-on/
He and Bernie are two sides of the Same Coin. They are both the Good Guys. They were both against NAFTA which is the Defining thing that really ruined our country. It ruined our country. For the sake of shareholders. NAFTA was explicitly to make the rich richer - and for no other reason. Oh they said it would democratize China - haha ya right. We Really need to all get on the same side and FAST. It's little ppl ..plebes of all sorts (even those that make six figures or more) vs the Establishment Ruling Class. That is all that is gong on here.
That's all that is going on here.. Forget Left vs Right. Forget Trump vs Sanders. We need to find commonality or we will lose our freedom and what civil rights we have left. I wish this was an exaggeration - I don't think it is. This identity talk and global warming is a huge distraction. There is no way plebes will come together who are on different sides of those issues - passions run too high. There must be a way that people can come to realize that a populist Liberal order will create the best possible solutions for both the environment and for racial equality. If we could find a way around the media and get ppl on both the Left and the Right to understand each other's positions on those issues and to see that they have More in common than not - we could be an unstoppable anti-corruption populist party.
The current debate in the house is whether or not to take my family up to Canada. I am a citizen and can do so. If the picture you paint- hopelessness pretty well describes it- is true then there would be no point to staying here.
Then what is/was Trump? Bernie too. What role(s) did they play? What were their motives? It had to be something. As an 18 year old, I voted in 1972 and voted 3rd party as a protest vote. Didn't vote again until 2016. I voted for theater, huh? By your definition, theater defined both Bernie and Trump.
Where were you in '72? I had some of the theater figured out then. If what you are trying to say is that it's an imperfect world full of illusion, trickery, fuckery and various deceptions then I'd agree. Is political correctness theater? What about "woke", virtue signaling, BLM, choosing gender? Aren't they theater? None of those things existed in '72. I know, I was there.
Is everything theater? What about your life, my life, or that of the average citizen.
For certain, the legacy media is all theater all the time.
Give this one some thought- is there a reverse correlation between traditional values and theater? IE, when one goes down the other goes up.
The new young people that joined the Republican Party are A LOT better than the ones that left (Lincoln Project, Bill Kristol, etc.) Good trade. I hope you're right and a new party is formed.
The elite are neoliberals and the Trumps, Bush's, and Clinton's are careerist useful idiots. Most of the elite know better than to expose their plans and always pay someone to do their dirty work.
They only hate him because he is one of them that they shunned for decades and he exposed them because of that. He's was raised and schooled with them, played golf with them and payed their bribes up until he accidentally became president.
Trump is an unveneered version of the elite. His only motive is to convert from being a bribe payer to a bribe taker.
Haven't you read any of his books ? His whole game is gaining leverage by being an obstinate ass until he can frustrate you into paying his price.
Lame. Sorry, way too thin. If he was truly one of them, he certainly blew any future chance of regaining their favor.
Why did he even run? Maybe he saw assholes like Clinton, Bush and Obama become wealthy and wanted in on the grift. Seen any sign of that? From what I heard he gives away his salary, with no fanfare.
JFK was raised within the pinnacle of society- he had it all. But he signed on for combat duty and when it came time to think of the good of the country, he chose nation over self. It got him killed, of course. But the point is that one's upbringing or past does not set in stone future actions. To say or imply so means that you yourself can never change due to the way you once were. Don't demand of Trump what you can not deliver.
10 Dem Party/MSM rules re “centrists” vs the left in the US:
1. The left advocating for policies that most Americans want and every other major country in the world takes for granted (e.g. healthcare as a right) is “radical”, “pie in the sky”, “How on earth are we going to pay for it?”; “centrists” opposing those policies is “pragmatism”, “the adults in the room”;
2. The left is “divisive”, a “spoiler”, must unite behind a “centrist”, and must never criticize a “centrist” because that “helps the Republicans”; “centrists” can do whatever they like;
3. The left is “toxic”, “angry”, “uncivil”, “bros”, “just like Trump”, and must constantly be tone-policed and called upon to apologize; “centrists” can say whatever they like however they like;
4. The left finding common ground with Independents/Republicans on ANYTHING = “the horseshoe theory”, “fascist-enabling/adjacent”, “canceled”; “centrists” embracing and being embraced by ANYONE, including Bush-era neocon war criminals/propagandists, Islamophobic anti-choice/LGBT Republicans, lying CIA/FBI/NSA surveillance ghouls and billionaire oligarchs and their lobbyists = “bipartisanship”, “coalition-building”, “electable”; “big tent”;
5. Anyone “centrists” don’t like is “a Russian asset” and “what Putin wants”; “centrists” are “real Americans”/“patriots”, “what Putin hates the most”;
6. Identity (race, gender, LGBT etc) only matters if it can be weaponized to help a “centrist” and/or slam their opponents;
7. Anything a leftist (or anybody who endorses them) has ever said or done is “racist”, “sexist” or otherwise “disqualifying”; not “disqualifying” for a “centrist”: being funded by/doing the bidding of billionaires/big corporations, supporting disastrous interventionist wars based on lies, alleged sexual misconduct/assault, history of segregation-adjacency/racist policies/statements, pathological lying/plagiarism, corruption, cognitive decline;
8. “Centrists” fighting tooth and nail to stop healthcare as a right, a living wage, free public college and ending the wars is NOT “privilege”; the left daring even to consider withholding support from a Dem who OPPOSES all of the above IS “privilege”/“purity”;
9. Only a “centrist” is ever “electable”/can win the general election;
10. When a leftist loses, it is proof that voters reject leftist policies and Dems must move further to the right; when a “centrist” loses or underperforms, it is proof that voters reject leftist policies and Dems must move further to the right. (“Centrists” must never face accountability or suffer consequences for failure; in fact, “centrists” can never fail; they can only ever BE failed, by the (fucking!) voters.)
Healthcare isn't a right, period. Its a service. This isn't a debate unless you are redefining the word right. If someone has a right to healthcare this means they have a right to the labor of a healthcare worker, this is slavery in any other domain. You just have to look past your misinterpretation of the word right. (I know this is difficult as it blows up your entire "ideology").
Living wage isn't a policy, its a trope. There is no such thing as a living wage as everyone's cost of living is different for a litany of different reasons.
Free public college isn't free. Its college paid for by someone else.
This is why you people fail. You don't actually believe in anything real. You redefine words, and when someone disagrees with them you call them evil, racist, inhumane. Progressives are spineless, third rate ideologues with the "ideas" of a middle school debate team, on a good day. They have no place in adult discourse and should be treated as such.
Have you ever been to or lived in a country other than the US? In every other advanced (capitalist!) country in the world from Canada to the whole of Europe and Australia and New Zealand (and even many third-world countries too, actually) healthcare is guaranteed as a right to all its citizens. It’s a service, yes, of course, but it’s a service every single citizen is entitled to from birth to death, regardless of whether they can pay for it or not. Same as police or firefighters or public schools or national parks etc etc. That’s what is meant by “healthcare as a right”. You end up in the hospital in Germany or France or Canada etc, you will not be stuck with a bill afterwards (unless it’s something optional or you choose to go private etc). Same as you don’t pay at the point of service for police or firefighting services or for your kid to go to public school. It is paid for collectively by society as a whole, through tax appropriation, same as police or public schools or national defense, for that matter, because it is deemed in the public interest; having a healthy citizenry (same as having an educated citizenry) is considered a public good, something that benefits society as a whole, so society as a whole pools its resources and makes sure everyone has access to this “service”, as you say. It’s no rocket science, except for Americans who have been brainwashed to accept that 90 million people in this country being uninsured or underinsured and 70,000 needlessly dying from lack of healthcare every year is somehow normal, in a country that calls itself civilized (and is the richest country in the world to boot). The same applies to free public college etc.
Americans have been brainwashed to accept that there must be a middle man - an insurance company - between them and a doctors visit or a prescription. For this they pay multiple times more for treatment and prescriptions than the people in the countries that have universal health care, all the while paying monthly “premiums” that benefit them how? For example, I’m an asthmatic; in the US I pay (with insurance) $60 for a device that costs $9 in NZ, €8 in France, £0 in the UK. All of these with no insurance. An American visitor can walk into a pharmacy in any of these countries and pay these prices. If I didn’t have “insurance” in the US the device would cost $300. The US healthcare system is a racket.
Yup, spot on. DOZENS of private FOR-PROFIT middlemen, all with their own administrative costs, overheads, profits and huge salaries for the bosses. All costs passed on to the consumer. Instead of a single not-for-profit publicly-controlled middleman, i.e. the government.
You people act like because one opposes so called universal healthcare theysupport the current regime. That is an asinine assumption but you nitwits thrive on this garbage. Fuck me its annoying.
Jane, your premium still exists, it's just baked into the higher taxes. The nebulizer example is peanuts compared to the many thousand percent markups on drugs and certain medical services. I've personally had statements with things like:
The nebuliser example is my own personal experience. I am otherwise healthy. You are wrong about “higher taxes”. I’ve lived in NZ and France. My son lives in the UK. When you factor in State and Federal taxes in the US, the taxes in these countries are no higher. Even if they were, I’d rather pay into a government system that covers everyone and does not deny care or send people into bankruptcy simply for getting ill or having an accident. The US system is not just a racket. It’s inhumane.
I've had experience with Oz and UK healthcare systems. The NHS is bad. I wouldn't use it as a model for any other country. The US system is okayish albeit pricey if you have employer provided insurance, and awful if you don't. The NHS is bad all around, but at least you won't go bankrupt. Oz is better overall but there are some aspects of the US system which I prefer. For example it seems easier to see a specialist on short notice in the US as long as you can pay for it. And sometimes when you're not well nothing else matters. Most who can afford to do buy private insurance even in Australia, at least among those who I am acquainted with. What's really broken in the US system is the pricing. The service itself isn't bad, though quality varies a lot more overall than Oz, but the pricing is just wrong on so many levels. I agree it really is inhumane.
Don’t forget: it’s not just premiums, but also co-pays and a deductible, all of which are gone under Medicare4All. When you factor all of this in, even with the cca 4% added to your taxes for M4A, you’d likely be paying less overall (unless you make over cca $300K a year, I believe). Not to mention that nobody would be left uninsured/underinsured and that you’d have the security of being covered whether you’re employed or not, from birth to death.
The problem is, congress is so controlled by lobbyists that prices won't drop even if healthcare becomes socialized. The gov't will still pay full price, and in order to do so either the deficit blows up evne more or taxes have to rise proportionately. And the money printing party cannot go on indefinitely. If I remember correctly the gov't even gave away its right to negotiate bulk discounts w/ big pharma during the Bush years.
Like I said, you are redefining the term 'right'. Just admit that. Also, people here have universal coverage. If they need care, they get it and someone else pays for it. Sure, they can be sent to collections or bankruptcy for not paying the bill, but they get treated.
And don't sit here and lecture me on how collectivism works. I know more about this than you do.
"Needlessly dying from lack of healthcare". How about the 200k+ that die from medical mistakes and "too much healthcare"? What about them?
And there is no logic here. None of this is logical, or smart. More college doesn't make society better. In fact, as we can see, it makes simple jobs simply require a degree. You want "free college" so you can check some boxes on what you believe makes society better. So our baristas can recite Kant? You haven't actually thought any of this through. You have a shallow understanding about just about all of it which explains your position of supporting canned phrases, silly tropes and childish platitudes.
Clearly, you just like to hear yourself talk. Maybe learn about other countries and what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong and learn from that. The US is the only advanced country in the world with falling life expectancy, something unheard of in the civilized world. Not even to mention the highest inequality and poverty rates. But you do you.
The entire first world "socialized" healthcare industry is propped up by the innovation and profit talking of the US system. Clearly you just like to believe in things rather than thinking about them. Money grows on trees, technology is free, and unicorns are shitting rainbows in "the civilized world".
Its amazing how you are all the same. All of you. I'm just glad I escaped the mind virus that is progressive politics before it made me a lifer.
It’s not “socialized”/government-run healthCARE (except in rare cases, such as the UK); it’s “socialized”/government-run health INSURANCE (with predominantly privately-provided HEALTHCARE, just like what we have now). Huge difference. But again, you do you.
Nick, since you're an expert on human rights, I imagine you'd agree that human beings have a right to life, which has been a generally agreed upon universal principle for at least a few hundred years. Unfortunately for your ideology, there is no life without good healthcare. This is why, as Nenand points out, the vast, vast, vast majority of first world countries provide healthcare for their citizens. And in terms of college, do you think people are just born with the knowledge of how to build bridges, computers, astrophysics? All of this stuff, which is very important to the betterment of our society requires that people received extensive education. You know people learn more things than just philosophy in college, right?
Most is due to obesity just like COVID 19. People who can not control their weight should pay more. Then I would go for health insurance for all. Those who are flagrant should pay more like taxing cars for the maintenance and building of roads.
Most first world countries do not have the minority/poverty problem that US has. Very few fat people in Japan and Europe.
Cool, so we're in agreement. Human beings have a right to life and therefore a right to healthcare in order to keep them alive. See, that was pretty easy.
Australia - In 2018 the five largest immigrant groups were those born in England (4%), Mainland China (2.6%), India (2.4%), New Zealand (2.3%) and the Philippines (1.1%). In the 2016 Australian census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were: English (36.1%) Australian (33.5%)
In the 2016 Australian Census, 380,000 residents declared that they were born in Africa. There are approximately 123,000 Australians who are full or partial Spanish descent, most of whom reside within the major cities. 410,000. Same in Canada.
32% of our population is Black and Hispanic and get tax money back. Australia and New Zealand have no such problems.
YOU find out how they contribute to the economy let me know.
In come Inequity:
Asia/India average Household Income $80,000 - $120,000
White average Household Income $71,922 to $76,057
Hispanic average Household Income $52,382 to $56,113
Black average Household Income $42,447 to $46,073
Do you think they are contributing even enough to pay for the education of their children? Average cost is $12,000 a year, KP-12= $156,000. Hispanic family has 2.3 kids = $359,000. Hispanics in the Federal12% tax bracket x taxes would be $6,720. But $5.000 is given for Child credits.
Dec 10, 2019 — Who Is Eligible, and for How Much? ... The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a federal tax credit for low- and ... working families with children that have annual incomes below about $41,100 to $56,000 .
They get more money than they paid in. So does 60% of the population.
Can you compare Australia, New Zealand and Europe to Africa and South & Central America? The US is closer to Africa and South & Central America That's the kind of health care WE can afford.
AND are Asians suppressing Blacks and Latinos? If not why are you blaming Whites as racist, because Asians are making more than Whites. Do you hear Whites calling Asians supremacist?
I think the inequity is far more likely to stem from cultural reasons rather than innate/genetic ones. The post WWII European immigrants to Australia generally had a stronger "work ethic" to the average white Australians, and that is obviously cultural not racial. That's just one example, but I'm sure you will find lots of similar cultural causes among different demographics.
"Living wage isn't a policy, its a trope. There is no such thing as a living wage as everyone's cost of living is different for a litany of different reasons."
There are realistic measures for a basic living wage.
Back when I went to public high school in the early 1970s, I took a course intended to prepare us for the basics of household economics related to leaving the parental nest and living independently. It was axiomatic that a full-time entry-level wage was sufficient to provide a worker with food, clothing, a studio or 1-bedroom apartment and utilities expenses, with 25% left over for savings. Rent was supposed to be the largest single expense- 25%.
By the mid-1980s, the cost of rent was more commonly agreed to be more like 33%. But the minimum wage did not keep pace (Federal minimum was $3.35/hr in 1985, $3.80/hr in 1990, $4.25/hr from1991 to 1996) and that was when things started getting out of hand. That began the huge increase in workers with minimum-wage jobs who found it necessary to apply got food stamps to survive- i.e., "welfare benefits". You know, "the Takers."
It doesnt matter that there is indeed a real living wage for each person, but using the term as a policy position is a trope. Its a waste of breath. Its childish. It means nothing. Its the sign of a simpleton.
Judging by the increases in the minimum wage by the majority of the States over the preceding ten years, the effort appears to have achieved a lot of success. Perhaps prompted by the fact that the two states with the highest State minimum wages at the time of the 2009 recession- Vermont and Oregon- pulled out of it faster and had unemployment rates that dropped faster than their lower wage neighbors.
I fully support each state establishing their own minimum wage, even if, as a matter of principles I believe the minimum wage hurts low skill and minority workers.
And while your statistics on Oregon may be accurate, your spurious correlations are hilarious. Empirically, minimum wage workers lose income when minimum wages go up as business cut hours in response to them. Empirically, rents also increase as wages increase because the markets are very tight and renters bid up the prices of desirable units as they experience raising wages.
Wow. You've read our dossiers? All of them? How did you manage that feat? Even with allowance for unrestricted access, the sheer effort of that must be massive. Did you have help?
All of this, but for me in particular, especially this: “centrists” embracing and being embraced by ANYONE, including Bush-era neocon war criminals/propagandists, Islamophobic anti-choice/LGBT Republicans, lying CIA/FBI/NSA surveillance ghouls and billionaire oligarchs and their lobbyists = “bipartisanship”, “coalition-building”, “electable”; “big tent”
The funniest thing about all of this is that Putin and Xi absolutely could not give a shit. They're like, "You do you, guys, we got our own countries to run."
I don't think they're quite at that level of unconcern. But the amount of interest exaggeratedly ascribed to both of them- especially Putin- by the American media is just another feature of American Exceptionalism. Making it all about US, The Indispensable Nation.
"The left advocating for policies that most Americans want"
Hee-hee-hee - did you really say that with a straight face? Sure, that explains the broad swath of strongly left politicians in our whole political circus.
Come on, where is the electoral success? It isn't there. You really going to be like one of the Libertarians of recent vintage? The ones that were all "Libertarian Moment"(tm) a few years back? Don't know who Nick is - I guess someone else that doesn't share your fantasies?
I'm kind of digesting the article and I don't know if this is necessarily a loss for the left. The Democratic Party is slowly losing the younger vote and even some of us oldsters. We'll see what Biden/Harris do but so far it's not seeming super inspiring. What people with massive quantities of money - as most of the people who make decisions in this country are - don't realize is that those of us nearer the economic bottom know that money is power and an economic message works. I am a first generation American whose parents were immigrants from Mexico - they worked hard only to retire on $850 per month SS payments. You tell me which message they were going to hear - one of some nebulous racial justice or one of UBI...
Hey Berta, you're halfway there to switching sides...but the answer is not UBI, but a nationalist, pro-jobs, pro-family Republican Party, Trump or no Trump. The Mexican-Americans I know don't believe in handouts, they believe in opportunity and hard work. I've met several Mexican- Americans in recent months who have made the switch. You can too.
The populist side of the Republican Party that supports Trump is considering forming a third party as well. They hate the neocons of the Republican Party like we all do. It’s why I easily switched over to Trump from Bernie when the neocons endorsed Biden.
Don’t write off the Trump supporters just because they had to vote Republican just like the progressives were forced to vote Dem. The American people hate both establishment parties (the uniparty is what Trump supporters also call them) but that’s why the establishment uses the media to keep us divided and for lefties to hate Trump supporters.
I voted for Bernie as well but would never vote for Trump. He not only had neocons in his administration (Bolton, Abrahms) but also people like Pompeo. He also made a virtue of selling weapons used to kill civilians in Yemen, assassinated Soulemani for no reason, treated the environment with total disregard, failed to speak out against White Supremacists, got out of what were good if imperfect agreements - And his incompetence and non existent attention span has led to a total disaster as far as the pandemic. I can’t stand Biden or Harris but I made a last minute decision to vote for them just to do my part to get Trump out. As far as Trump voters...They aren’t my enemy- at least not from my side. I worked with two vocal Trump voters...One was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met - really liked him. The other was a total jerk but he would’ve been one no matter who he voted for. I see no reason we can’t all work together but there’s going to have to be a good dose of respect-and compromise from all involved. I would love to see more viable political parties.
And yet Trump still hasn’t started a new war during his administration even though Bolton tried to make him which is why Trump FIRED him and why Bolton hates Trump. Didn’t stop all the left from supporting a neocon like Bolton by buying his “I hate Trump” book.
You rag on Trump for having neocons yet Biden was literally endorsed by them via the Lincoln Project and Colin Powell at the DNC.
Also your belief that Trump did not disavow white supremacy means that you believe everything the media tells you. Go look up the “fine people” hoax. Go check out how the media and progressive media lied about Trump and that they edited the footage to cut out the fact that he said that both antifa and the white supremacists are bad but that the peaceful protesters on both sides are “fine people”.
Just willing to believe everything you’re told huh? Well I was a progressive because I thought they were telling the truth. I voted for Trump when I found out that the progressives were ALSO lying.
If you actually believe in truth, go seek it yourself. Don’t just believe what anyone tells you. Otherwise, you just become a tool for them. And if you won’t check, then just admit to yourself that you don’t believe in truth. You only believe in what you WANT to believe.
«parents were immigrants from Mexico - they worked hard only to retire on $850 per month SS payments.»
What did they expect? The deal was "you can immigrate as a cheap and disposable servant so to keep the wages and pensions of existing servants down", and that they are getting *any* SS payment now that they are "useless eaters" proves how generous America's capitalism is. :-(
Makes sense why Dem governors were heartless enough to put Covid patients into nursing homes. I just thought they did it to manipulate the population with an overinflated death rate. Most choices are made because they work out for multiple things.
Doesn’t stop the neolibs and neocons from being Death cultists in my mind though.
«Dems and Republicans. Overall the response has been less than stellar. A big problem has been a weak to absent central message and guidelines.»
The same has happened in some european countries like the UK but not in other european countries like Germany, and not in places like China-Taiwan or New Zealand. The difference is simple:
* The experience of literally thousands of years is that to contain infectious diseases one has to find infected people and isolate them.
* The current virus means that infectious people often have no symptoms or there is a period where there are no symptoms.
* Therefore what is critical is to test-and-trace to find infectious people and isolate them.
* That requires for the state to fund *in advance* a public health system of a sufficient size, so when needed it can do pervasive test-and-trace and isolate and treat the infected.
* That is something that reaganista/thatcherite governments will not do for ideological reasons.
So if finding and isolating the infected cannot be organized, the alternatives are to isolate everybody (lock-down), which reduces profits and rents, or for the affluent and wealthy to isolate themselves in their mansions and estates, and use their servants to deal with the necessities of life that require contact with other people, and indeed there has been a surge in sales of large isolated McMansions, palaces, private islands.
I think you’re right. The virus has revealed all our healthcare, social and economic failings. Instead of doing anything to stop the virus from spreading we immediately seemed to focus on some technological and profitable for the few solution. We have a friend from Taiwan who said everything there is open, no concerns about social distancing, everyone wears masks and they are not in a huge hurry for a vaccine. That’s called a competent government - pig parts flinging aside.
Many thousands, perhaps millions, of born-here Americans only get around $800 a month - some even less - to live on after a lifetime of working. So it's not racism that's paying your parents so little - - how much SS you get depends on the wages you got while working. Being treated equally - isn't that what's wanted?
I'm not sure I said it was racism. My point is that an economic message is not only what's needed but good politics. No one should be expected to live on what are starvation wages in a country as wealthy as this.
When you are working 60 hours per week and earning just enough to get by and are self employed - there are no pensions, 401Ks or other investments. I don’t think they were alone being in that situation . They were fortunately able to buy a house and knew how to live frugally so they were ok as far as basics. But if we think about how many people are coming up who have massive debt and no ability to save, we as a country are not in a good place.
Well done piece but depressing. Bernie failed his supporters (especially his delegates) in 2016 and failed them all again in 2020. His "lesson learned" in 2016 was to adopt inter-sectional language and to broadcast his support for less progressive candidate Elizabeth Warren --possibly so he couldn't be accused of sexism? that didn't work --and of course for his good friend Joe Biden. I wish someone would do some reporting on who in Bernie's campaign really made these awful decisions. Glenn Greenwald in an off the cuff moment in an interview suggested that Jane was behind a lot of it. Could this be? All that money and all that campaigning and the reward is the elevation of Neera Tanden and shortly, perhaps when Biden has fractured a hip not a foot, Kamala Harris as President. Hillary really won this one.
It's a win for the Obama Dems, which Matt does not distinguish from the Clinton Dems but of which there is a division as sure as there is with Bernie Bros, I have no doubt.
Well, Bernie blew it. He should never have become an "obedient afterthought"; but he didn't learn anything from his rejection in 2016, and he suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Indeed, I don't think that he's now even an afterthought. He should have gone third party, but he couldn't face Trump being re-elected. The Democratic Party cannot be reformed. It has to be destroyed. Trump did pretty well in busting up the Republican Party (so many of them supported Biden and became liberal heroes. People like Bill Kristol, George W. Bush, and John Bolton); Trump just didn't do well enough. Sanders is just getting what he asked for. Soory, I wishe it were otherwise, but it isn't.
I wouldn’t go near the Democratic Party if it wasn’t for Bernie. The DNC arguement is basically as long as it is a Latinx Tranny telling me to go fuck myself for wanting Medicare for all, I can’t say shit as a straight Latino. You can’t message away that bullshit.
From what I've seen, the real counterculture will be overwhelmingly Latino.
I don't think most Latinos would go along with a Hugo Chavez fake election and can see this shit coming from a mile away... coupled with a strong sense of family, who are now the "enemy" of the DNC, I see the next populist wave will likely be made of brown, black and white people who somehow still believe in a nuclear family and a strong sense of community.
I say, bring it on. We need some solid and guiding principles and we absolutely NEED that Latin fire to add life to something we can all get with.
Nothing fake about the election. Biden won. Trump is notorious for stiffing contractors. He ain’t a real man. His word means nothing. Not voting for a lying punk ass Trump. That church crap is bullshit too. I ain’t listen to a faggot priest who never got his dick wet tell me what to do. Church is for old ladies.
I hate that we can’t call out people for bullshit anymore. Hell, I say stupid shit all the time and get called out for it. That is how you learn. Identity doesn’t make you inherently good or bad. If this was the real America, that Chelsea Manning would be a national hero and we would have statues for that bitch. If you support the war machine and fucking the working people, then you suck no matter what your identity is. There is no goddamn party for normal people anymore!
I've thought for awhile that the Hispanic influence could go either way. Mexico is not exactly a cultural paradise (but how much of that is the empire's influence over it?). Nonetheless, if one could get them to commit, they would largely do so as a whole and would be formidable- certainly able to flip any number of states in an election.
The government of Mexico has been grossly corrupted by organized crime for well over half a century (and my vagueness about the date is only because my knowledge of the history only goes back to around the 1950s.) I think that Lopez Obrador is the best President that Mexico has had in my lifetime- at least as far as I can tell from what's known about him- but the political system in the provinces and cities, the police, and the armed forces is so shot through with corruption that I'm amazed that it isn't a completely failed state.
Yeah, you're right. I knew talking about Mexico could be problematic.
Were it not for using the US as a relief valve of sorts, Mexico would have had another revolution by now. In the meantime, the US is responsible for many of their woes.
Honestly though, I think Mexico limps along due to what Kropotkin called "mutual aid" -- Mexicans know their elites are bullshit and help each other out. It's kind of like the late Soviet Union.
It really hasn't helped that the USA has been fucking around in Mexico ever since the guerra de independencia, although I do confess to being a fan of Abe Lincoln's "a bunch of rifles fell of a train and Benito Juarez got aholt of them? Well I never" maneuver.
Given the challenges of Mexico's history- many of them imposed from without- the amazing thing isn't that the institutions of the government are half-rotted from corruption; it's that anything remains that hasn't been corrupted. I think your comment about mutual aid is on-point. It's the parallel structure that keeps the remnant of a decent society in place. The people who aren't corrupt, or who only resort to corruption when it's absolutely necessary.
It's interesting to hear the condemnations of NAFTA from the American point of view that it hurt the US (or even "destroyed" us, per a comment I read elsewhere in the thread.) Because what NAFTA really unravelled was the middle class of Mexico. The result for them is akin to what recently happened to independent Internet retailers when Amazon blew up.
My attitude toward Mexicans and Central Americans streaming northward to cross the border illegally is ambivalent: from my point of view, it's a terrible undermining of national sovereignty. We can't just dismantle border protections and let everyone in with no accountability!
On the other hand: wouldn't you? I totally get why a Mexican, Honduran, etc. would feel the need to abandon the home of their birth and get out of there as soon as possible, taking their chances to cross the border as an outlaw resident in a new land. I don't like the criminal element, but I respect the people who just want to get away from the chaos and come north to make an honest living. Assuming the risks of getting caught, and accepting them. The US government indisputably has a lot more power to ameliorate the problems of Mexico or the Central American nations than any peasant family fleeing the paramilitary gang wars down there. That's certainly a valid reason for refugee status, in my view. Or for having a go at sneaking into the country, if the option isn't available. If the US wants to effectively reduce that sort of immigration as a problem, it needs to be addressed at the source.
Ain't my call (gringo here), but none of my Latino/Latina friends IRL use "Latinx," leading me to believe it is some made-up bullshit. Maybe I live in a bubble.
Mexican American and I don't like Latinx. Until I heard it I didn't even know how to pronounce it. Just seems silly to make up a new name - I know what I am.
Controversial opinion: groups that keep changing their name aren't entirely at peace with being what they are. The black community has gone from negro to colored to black to African-American to POC in a very short period of time. The first two changes were embraced by the very members of the group. Each subsequent change has gotten progressively less popular with the very members of the group being described. I think it' a good sign that a growing number of black Americans are fine with who they are. I guess the near-universal rejection by Hispanics of Latinx is a welcome sign that Hispanics were always happy with themselves in the first place.
Most of the naysayers probably share my reaction that Latinx is a name better suited to a trans hooker than an umbrella label of ethnic group affiliation.
I think the best & brightest Wokists who concluded that "Latinx" was a peerless coinage to solve the "gender problem" associated with the more traditional designation are on course to hit the reef with this one. Although some of them apparently do wield the power of the printing press, which indicates that it will be a while before the term fades ignominiously from view.
If the UberWokists really want to shoot themselves in one foot while sticking the other one in their mouth, I guess nothing is stopping them from making a concerted attempt to neuter the gendered characteristics of Spanish language nouns entirely.
I've never really been all that excited about Bernie. I have some old Bernard Sanders audio albums covering the life Eugene Debs. Debs and Sanders stories are of two divergent political trajectories. Debs walked away from a promising career in the Democratic Party to help start a socialist movement in the US. Bernie made his name as a socialist mayor in Vermont before moving to the "People's house" and then ultimately to the US Senate were he voted with the Democrats 98% of the time. Bernie has supported US military interventions and wars over his political career. Eugene Debs went to prison because he chose to openly oppose WWI. Bernie at the height of his political power, and after it was proven that DNC colluded with the Clinton campaign to derail his campaign, O' Bern chose to support a candidate (Clinton), of which, he spent his entire campaign exposing as a pure unapologetic Wall Street candidate. Debs ran his last presidential campaign from prison. Debs is a story of principles and courage. Sanders is a story of cynical pragmatism and political survival at all cost.
A little harsh on Bernie -- national political and economic conditions were different in Debs' time than his time -- but on the whole sadly accurate. You have to possess some level of cynicism to survive in national politics, but I think of him more as an idealist who didn't know when to stop compromising.
That said, I think our national political and economic conditions are regressing back to something approximating Debs' time. Who has the cojones to fill 'Gene's shoes?
Well what the hell was he waiting for? At the time of his 2016 campaign, Bernie was 76 year old politician that had the national spotlight on him, and real chance to do something with his political "capital". But what does he do in the face of real conspiracy to undermine his campaign by the DNC and Clinton campaign (no investigation by congress)? He capitulates and joins in on the sinking ship for political survival at 76 years old. He could've taken his considerable support and ran with the Green party. Yes, it would've been symbolic in a sense instead of a serious run at POTUS, but it could've given the Green party candidates around the country a real boost, and possibly turned it into a real political entity with serious nation support. If Bernie was serious about changing the political system, the Green Party platform lined up more along with his rhetoric than Democratic Party. And yes, the national media would've crucified him, but they were doing that anyway. He'll they politically neutered him by 2020. He absolutely had nothing to gain from his complicity with the Democrat Party and he owed them nothing. He even had a the political ammunition to attack the DNC for their proven collusion with Clinton to upend his bid for POTUS. It made no sense for Bernie to remain a loyal lackey and burn up all his political leverage in 2016. And In 2020, Bernie was a novelty act in the primaries, and went out with whimper. And all for what?
What you missed is the big payout - Bernie went from nearly broke to a multi-millionaire after 2016's self-sacrifice thanks to a book deal. The cynic in me thinks that was arranged by the Clintons to get him on board.
Had he spent the last five years building the Green Party into something worthwhile and built bridges there and even if the Greens had gotten some headway in this last election, a sudden influx of Biden votes would have shown up after polls closed and he'd have lost anyway.
His decision even hurt the alternative left media. They had gain sparse national notoriety during 2016 - hell, Bernie built his platform from the fringes while both he and alternative left media (a lot of internet media) gain legitimacy from his celebrity status as a "real" Washington Outsider, and tribune of the people. However, his decision to back and support Hillary derailed a lot left momentum, and that might have been his entire objective from the start. I hate to think in conspiratorial mindset, but what else could Bern been thinking.
Bernie was pro-2A for a long long time when he was Mister Vermont (real gun) but did a 180 to the national Dem party line on gun control when he decided to play in the big game (pop-gun).
None of the progressives do. There will be blood. This isn't just about healthcare and education. The Sanders' wing wants to reinvent the entire system. He's a communist at heart, as are his disciples, all one has to do is scratch the surface to discover this.
Really, Nick??? I am no communist. I owned a small business for 20 years, former local Chamber of Commerce president, 40 year Democratic Party activist, former Illinois State Representative, retired stockbroker....Oh...and when I retired, I earned a graduate degree in Economic History from the London School of Economics. So I know Wall Street Dem GoFer BS.... I can smell it a mile away.
Right, and I bet anyone that earns more than you do owes "us" something. I know your type. You've worked heard, you've earned it, its those "other guys" who earn <insert amount more than I do here> that should pay more!
You're all the same. The problem is, your ideology will cannibalize itself and it runs out of money from those above you.
Yes, the system is broken, but if you think the solution to this is to simply steal more wealth from the top and dole it out to the bottom as a transfer or service, your a communist.
Someone is having an online hissy fit I see. How come it's only OK when the top steals money from the bottom ? Who needs enough money for 10,000 line times ? How can society function when 2,500 people have half the money on the planet and could never rationally spend it all ?
You're so indoctrinated you can't even see reality, you want to be exploited by the elite and punch down so you feel as if you're an elite despite the fact you'll never be one.
Nick - Instead of your constant nitpicking, I'd like to hear about your ideas for how society ought to be run to help regular people. SOLUTIONS to society's problems are what we need.....may we have yours, please?
Biden cabinet is pure, utmost corporate identity politics. I voted Obama in 2008 based on his antiwar and universal healthcare stance. He did not deliver, and I soon found answers in old Matt's Griftopia. So I did not vote in 2012. In 2016 I wrote in Bernie, and this time I held my nose and voted for Biden. Next time I sure as hell will vote for Trump IF ONLY he pardons Assange and Snowden (don't care too much about Snowden since he's pretty free already). Why? Because there is no hope in this duopoly to have a president that represents middle class, so let's vote for someone who at least allows people the right to know.
Same here. Did not vote Obama in 2012 because I saw who he was and left top of ticket blank in 2016. Like your logic. I left the Dem party after 45 years.
There's no turning back what happened in 2016. Bernie is now irrelevant and even if the country supports many of his policies, they will NEVER support a weakling again. I know I won't. People talk about ending "Trumpism"...all I hear is "ending any possibility of the people having an actual say". I could give a fuck about Trump's naughty language at this point. The DNC has ensured at least half the country will never support them again and the RNC will also lose their support if they try to turn things back to the way they used to be. There will be a massive revolution if this election isn't fairly audited and I will gladly be a part of it. My (our) future is fucked. But that doesn't mean I have to watch it happen with my hands tied. I will not pretend any of this is okay for one second longer.
I don't know. I hope it won't be violent. But Antifa and BLM most likely will ensure that dream is crushed quickly. I have a feeling it will be ugly. I don't want that and I don't think most people do. You know what I want when less though? No future with no freedom. So the other side that's turning a blind eye to the coverup going on should really think long and hard about the consequences. If Biden won fairly...that's good enough for me! Why won't the other side say the same thing instead of saying election safeguards are somehow unimportant now?
When ALL of the "irregularities" and "glitches" are 100% in Biden's, (read as: the fucking War Machine's,) favor, it's not some accident -it's orchestrated.
They stole it, and they will find a way to demonize and remove the 80 or so million people who are in the way.
This wasn't about that stupid clown Trump. It was about populism. It wasn't MY brand of populism, and probably not yours, but it went against the State and to them is unforgivable.
They will continue their campaign against it and I have no doubt they will be forced to tip their hand at some point... and THEN the real mess will begin.
They're using COVID-19, "racism", "inequality" and trans-humanism as their front to create a new world where there are no borders, no countries and ALL of us are on the same tax and labor plantation.
LOL I imagine after polling closed and the millions of fake votes came in Obi-Wan staggered and said, "I just felt a great disturbance in the Force -it was as if millions of ballots cried out and were suddenly silenced".
"This wasn't about that stupid clown Trump. It was about populism. It wasn't MY brand of populism, and probably not yours, but it went against the State and to them is unforgivable."
Thanks to the 2016 Dem establishment, it was the only brand of populism on the table. I registered D for the first time since 1988 to caucus for Bernie in 2016. Ended up voting for Trump. I'll never again hold my nose to vote for whatever D or R the Establishment pushes through the system. Anything close to a genuine populist gets my attention.
Well, frankly, they have to plan the inauguration party (that takes a lot of planning, time and effort) and there's no time for ensuring election safeguards. Maybe next time.
So then....How deeply do we now have to believe that the Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere that work on safeguarding the election are total liars? There seems to be a very large number, in fact, a near total majority, of those in charge of the election, both Republican and Democrat...including several courts throwing out the RNC lawsuits....that say the election was solid. That several lackeys to Trump refuse to acknowledge defeat....is this a reason to believe the election was a scam?
"Solid"... when every other western country has made mail-in ballots illegal due to massive vote rigging?
You can go ahead and count the fake votes all you like... and recount them.
It doesn't make them any less valid.
Are you actually defending a massive election scam?
Sounds like it.
When hundreds of thousands of "votes" turn up after polling closes for the day and ALL are in favor of Biden... you don't need to be told they're pissing in your face and calling it rain.
Ummm....I don’t count any votes. Or recount them. I am not defending anything, I am asking you questions. So, the Dems, who are incapable of doing or performing anything intelligent, are suddenly capable of orchestrating the largest election scam conceivable and no one knows about it....(?). There is a thing called a fact, and there are none that I can find in your statements. That other countries made mail-in ballots illegal... Is this proof of the scam?
So...bipartisan agreement equals no corruption now? I don't know where you actually stand on all this...maybe you are just trying to understand the other side. I'm not going to sit here and list evidence because frankly -- I'm tired of doing this for other people who have fingers that can type just as easily as mine can. The recounts have all been a sham. They have done everything BUT an actual audit with signature verification. So when the side that is being accused of tipping the scales refused to allow the scales to be inspected -- I get suspicious. When the state Supreme Court starts taking power from the legislature and changing election laws before the election -- I get suspicious. When election turnout norms are wildly off in EVERY SINGLE STATE THAT MATTERED -- you guessed it, I get suspicious. There is so much evidence of fraud. Look for it and you will find it.
There’s mountains of evidence for everything. Delineating it all down into claims of fraud or credibility via typing queries into Google and choosing the items that reinforce my predilections is not my idea of research. How do we know the “recounts have all been a sham”? There seem to be a lot of credible officials of both parties certifying that they are not a sham.
Yeah...this is why I said what I said. Not trying to be a dick but there's a difference between doing what you suggested and actually researching what's going on in these recounts. Recounting fraudulent ballots = not a real recount. I'm not doing the work for you. If you need somewhere to start: HereIsTheEvidence.com
Honestly, between this article & Greenwald's latest piece about how the CIA used Saint Obama as the perfect face to sell endless war I'm starting to think it's all pretty hopeless here in our little red, white & blue trailer park/strip mall.
No matter who rises up in opposition to the corruption of our lovely leaders, they will be derailed or, like Trump, effectively impeded by imaginary scandals & intrigue.
It's pretty obvious that Trump only survived his 4 years of attack because he was such a belligerent mouthy asshole.
Any well meaning civil populist would have melted down much sooner.
The fact is there are think tanks continuously gaming every conceivable scenario that could possibly oppose corporate rule and endless war.
And they have a list of strategies to counter that opposition.
If one doesn't work they just move on to 2, then 3 & so on.
It's not that I wasn't aware of all of this I guess I just hoped the average American was smarter than that.
But watching Biden's installation as the only corporate approved candidate & then watching every neoliberal news agency spin racist, sell out, corporate whore Joe into Sir Lancelot I no longer believe this.
I used to think anyone with half a brain could see through this bullshit.
Sadly I don't believe many Americans have even half a brain anymore.
When Saint Obama unveiled his "Hope & Change" slogan I thought, "Geez, could you be any vaguer. It sounds like you're selling soda." Of course he was selling soda. The kind of soda produced by Raytheon & Dow. The kind of soda that eats out your innards & leaves you a hollow shell. Yet it worked. And it worked in a big way.
In my opinion we, as a nation, are comfy, apathetic & cowed.
What we really seem to want is a friendly face like Joe's to look at while we're being bent over the table.
What we really want is a nice polished leader who knows how to murder but makes the murders look humanitarian, freeing our consciences so we can nap & enjoy what we really like to think about which is sports & porn.
Like Greenwald said, they hated Trump, not for his lying because they're all habitual liars, they hated Trump because he was incapable of putting a friendly face on empire & he inadvertently told the truth about the American empire. 2 huge no-nos in 21st century America.
Spider, everything you suggest has been confirmed by the pandemic.
Gullible, compliant public who as a mass craves both panic porn and spiritual resurrection--no critical or independent thinking required (or tolerated).
Complicit, self-serving but equally stupid media, tripling down on the bleeding, leading Crisis of the Century! (see recent analysis that shows over 90% of pandemic reporting in the US as negative, compared to just over 50% in Europe)
Gleeful political establishment who tripped over each other attempting to claim the mantle of Savior of Humanity while serving us an endless stream of BS--which we eagerly lapped up in order to feel "safer".
We have been revealed as a nation of co-dependent idiots, addicted to the bundle of catastrophic threat and promised salvation.
Not a very flattering description of America.
But what would one expect when the media is paid so well to keep us confused, angry and crazy.
So, we chatted before. Tell me what you think of this "conspiratard" theory.
The election of Trump was a fortuitous turn of events for the Democrats because, prior to his election, their left flank was getting uppity, demanding things like MFA & a UBI.
But Trump's election literally put the ball shriveling/sphincter clenching fear on many of them, quite effectively scaring them back into the warm comfy folds of Nancy Pelosi's loving arms.
If you're extra paranoid, you can also add the layer that has Trump manipulated into office expressly for that purpose.
Trump will literally be a gift that keeps on giving cautionary tale keeping many timid Democrats from straying off of the corporate Dem reservation for a long time.
The question turns on whether or not Trump was and is the genuine populist his supporters reckon him to be. It's not an easy thing to decide, what with all the mis-direction going on. Turn to the media for truth and enlightenment? Not a good source IMO.
My take: Trump galvanized a lot of people. He did it entirely on his own. Biden didn't galvanize anyone. Few voted for him, most voted against Trump and even then, Biden had to have the near total support of the corrupt and complicit media, the RINO never-Trumpers, the intelligence community and possible rampant election fraud to pull it off.
In a sense, Trump galvanized virtually the entire voting public into action. Was this planned or organic? If planned, I would have to give tremendous credit to the planners- they understood their quarry, their tool, their end goal and were able to keep it in sequence and hidden. Are they that good?
Maybe they are. I have my doubts. If one were to use Occam's razor, the simplest answer is that Trump is genuine. Many people saw that in him- and this is the critical part- in spite of a near universal effort by the media to discredit him. I think he threatened the establishment to the extent that the last 4 years was more or less one long coup attempt.
Matt does make the point in this essay that the Democrat establishment was pretty desperate to shut down Bernie's campaign and thoroughly discredit him. But as we see, they were able to do that fairly readily and Bernie caved and supported Hilary and now Biden. I can't see where they needed Trump in some capacity to put that internal squabble to bed.
One last thing. I don't think Trump's election in 2016 sent people into the arms of Nancy Pelosi. The media did that. You know, I keep on saying it- the legacy media played an instrumental role in Trump's political career. The fact that they made $ off him is not the point- any such amounts are paltry compared to the overall grift that was at risk in the system should Trump be given a fair chance at making the changes he was elected to make. The risk to the MIC budget alone was enough to scare many shitless. Add in many others sucking at the teat and you get a pretty formidable cast of people and institutions working against him.
But it all largely pivoted around who owns the media. I suspect that JFK was assassinated due to the media not being owned back then and they had to get rid of him the old fashioned way. With Trump, the assassins were CNN, MSNBC, NYT and a whole lot of blogs that had "never Trump" on their letterheads. And by no means do I exempt Fox. They were the original propaganda outlet and only supported Trump when he did their bidding (mostly MIC related). At any rate, confusion of the public is guaranteed if they are fed bullshit 24/7.
«The question turns on whether or not Trump was and is the genuine populist his supporters reckon him to be. It's not an easy thing to decide, what with all the mis-direction going on.»
But there is a way: D Trump has not appeared on the public scene from nothing in 2016, he has been a public and political figure for decades before that, with plenty of records as to his opinions and actions.
And his record has been consistent: a nationalist "one nation tory", with a good record of social progressiveness as to antiracism and pro-LGB, and a right-wing "populist" on economic issues (even if some "libertarian" leanings), a 50s style Republican. Someone in part like Perot or Buchanan.
All things that the media either denied or distorted
Amazing points.
I’m waiting for when the Dems (if they win, God help us) will create a new boogieman for the progressives to stay and vote for them again.
Now that I’ve walked away from being a progressive it’s painful to watch them stay in such an abusive relationship. If only they could see that they are being lied to... even by the progressive media. Sigh...
They already did that. They call it Q-anon and claim it influences a significant portion of the Republican electorate. Of course, most Republicans had never heard of it before Mike Pence was asked about it, and I genuinely believe he didn't know what it was at that point, either.
Thanks. You were a true progressive and unwilling to be lied to. I keep harping on the media and here's another one- there's nothing progressive about the media. They are owned 100% by the corporate PTB, the MIC, intelligence community etc. It's why they always- ALWAYS- throw the public under the bus. It amazes me how many people believe them.
You lost me at Trump being genuine and massive fraud. Trump isn't genuine about anything and there is no massive fraud. But I will give you that the media was highly manipulative. They did it for ratings in 2016 and it bit the Establishment Dems in the ass, which is hilarious. Then they pushed this nonsensical everyone is dying from covid to get the Orange one out. This administration is going to tank the US in lots of ways and there will be a red tsunami in the midterms without Orange Jesus there. The Dems got what they wanted but they aren't going to be in power very long. My bet is Dementia Joe is out in less than a year.
The media did it all for ratings? You gotta be kidding me. Nothing of the sort happened. The media is complicit all the way through. The were the blunt tool used by the big boys to beat the electorate over the head repeatedly- over and over and over again that Trump was racist, misogynist, xenophobic, ad nauseum. And a lot of you bought it- swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Matt included.
And then you fell for the decoy: "we only came after Trump for the ratings, yeah, that was all we were up to, promise!". Fer gawd's sakes, you fellas just fall off the turnip truck?
I lost you because I'm moving forward and you are staying put, although I do like some of the scenery you are looking at
"The question turns on whether or not Trump was and is the genuine populist his supporters reckon him to be." That's not really important. What matters is if the spark of populism he ignited in the Republican party is snuffed out or allowed to smoke until the midterms. I think most Republican operatives want to walk the line between appealing to the people who bought Trump's populist rhetoric while disavowing him as a vulgarity who steered them off the moral high ground, even where the landscape is flat swampland as far as the eye can see. In truth, the typical Republican voter is a populist now.
We probably are talking a difference without a distinction, as my engineer Father would say.
Divisions will harden in the days ahead. Sides will be chosen and allies sought. Once the average Trump supporter ditches Fox news for good, as they already should have, clarity can occur.
Serious question regarding your last sentence. Who in right wing media, tv, radio, internet, social media, is a populist? That is where they get all of their information and unless there is a personality that would reinforce something populist, there is no populist right. It is culture and libertarian economics. Trump won on a populist agenda, but as soon as he got in office and ditched Bannon he was a typical Republican. 73 million people didn't vote for populism. They voted for a personality and against a perceived evil. Having been a former right winger that gobbled all that news and also important, American Christianity, I just don't see the majority of Republicans looking for populist economic items.
Actually I just listened to Jimmy Dore's interview with Glenn Greenwald & he outlines a similar scenario with the Democrats using fear of another Trump to justify all manner of "gatekeeping."
So I probably heard bits of that interview, forgot it, then re-remembered it as my own thought.
Sorry.
The internet is really difficult to communicate with. But folks here actually do a pretty good job of it. It's why I hang out here- agree or disagree, Matt attracts a more thoughtful bunch.
Oh and the Dems will do what they can to consolidate power- any excuse, any means. Control, baby!
I don't disagree with your assessment.
Wasn't really invested in the "installation scenario."
Didn't actually mean the day of Trump's election as much his overall tenure in office. I should have been clearer.
But whether Trump was genuine or not, he will still make an excellent cautionary tale against weakening the party. Folk like Pelosi can say, "If you weaken us look what the Republicans will put in office. Just another Hitler like Trump."
Doesn't really matter whether he was another Hitler or not, many of the party faithful believe he was ol' Adolph in orange.
Although, would Sanders have caved as readily without the specter of Trump hanging over his head?
Then again, Sanders really didn't appear to have much fight left in him towards the end, so your probably right.
My theory is what happens after a day of drinking high test coffee while smoking a tad too much pot and then nightcapping it all with some Jack Daniels.
I actually woke up thinking "What the fuck did I type last night?"
Luckily it wasn't as deranged as it could have been.
It could be a cautionary tale, it could be they were scared shitless, it could be Trump was a massive threat to their status quo or it could be all three. But essentially nowhere in the DNC/deep state bubble are they at all concerned with the public. I simply see that Trump was a threat to their world and they meant to take him out. If they had to use the electorate to do it, fine, but that only makes the public useful idiots. In 1963 they didn't bother with that nicety- no electorate needed.
I won’t get into most of what you said (because I pretty much agree), but if a recent analysis of COVID reporting showed that 90% of US covid coverage is negative, versus 50% in Europe, I have to believe that that’s because the situation in the US is much more dire than that of Europe. They’re doing something about COVID in Europe. Here? Not so much.
How is the situation more "dire" in the US? Death rates in Spain, Italy, and the UK are higher, and with similar patterns and impacts. People there complain about the same questionable policies from government and issues with health care. Countries have gone through lock-down and open-up cycles.
How are they "doing something" that is substantially different? With respect, your bias might be showing.
I stand by the interpretations that Americans and American media are in a different category of stupid, and love to sell and wallow in panic porn.
It's either the Fourth or Fifth Great Awakening, depending upon how one chooses to classify Great Awakenings.
To paraphrase every conspiracy guy I ever read, "Y'know people just need to wake up."
Maybe they really don't want to...
What was that Carlin line about the American Dream & snoozing?
The simple fact is if I repeated what I've typed on here since the Selection to 90% of the people I know they'd look at me like I was one of Alex Jones' interdimensional demon/aliens who just beamed in from the planet Quargziffle.
I have also come to that conclusion after having friends admit to me that they prefer only listening to left wing media because it’s what they WANT to hear. Willfully ignorant.
Wow...
It truly does show us how powerful the evolutionary development of tribalism is. That people even knowing that their tribe is wrong will refuse to stand up for what is right. The horrors of collectivist thinking.
It boggles my mind. So glad I had teachers that taught me about the Holocaust.
Zat you, epierce? If so, I had you wrong. At any rate, thanks for the insight. My experiences were exactly the same. The worst was politics over friendships these last 4 years. People you thought you were at least somewhat tight with turned into raging assholes- lefties every one of them.
Old Joe will finger you in the hallway and his sycophants will tell you you're one of the lucky ones. You could have ended up like Corn Pop.
People want a kinder, gentler machine gun hand. Keep on rocking in the free world.
"a friendly face like Joe's to look at"
Joe looks like The Joker in Ray-Bans with a spray tan.
Let's say Joe was the best the Dems could come up with, hoping his 8 year proximity to Saint Obama's holy glamour & divine light would blind people to his steamer trunk full of flaws.
And it did.
You're splitting hairs buddy. If you saw him in a mall & you didn't know him he'd look like any other old grandpa. Of course, that would last until he started following little girls around for a good hair fondle that is...
Nah, most grandpas I know didn’t get facelifts.
Ok he'd look like any other grandpa who is delusional enough to think he's still attractive to 12 year....oops...I mean 22 year old women.
Sorry but I've met some weirdly groomed grandpas in my life.
Or hairplugs.
Nice!
That is extraordinarily creepy
Max Headroom come to life. New face of the Matrix.
I told some HS students to look at Max Headroom and tell me what they thought and they were all like “OMG that’s Biden”, despite never having having seen Max before!
C-c-c-c-coke!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzxHDqUz8Sk
His hair is that of an 80 year old, which he is, which is insane that they were able to push him through the nomination process.
Push him through... as in, "rig the whole game so he couldn't lose"?
Yes, insane, but not unrealistic.
Not sure who wins the hair department. Joe vs Donald? That goes to overtime for sure.
Great take. But if you add the real possibility of massive election fraud, the American voter may actually be in agreement with you.
Your description of our political system sounds a lot like Oceania in 1984. How the hell did we get here!?
I'd also add that America is incredibly adept at manufacturing nifty diversions for its citizens.
And when they fail there's always porn.
Do other countries have actually porn titles named/inspired by their presidents/politicians!?!?
The answer to that is simple. We asked more and more of an entity that is unable to provide it. Even still, in the face of its failure, most of the country is still asking more of it.
“ What we really seem to want is a friendly face like Joe's to look at while we're being bent over the table.”
Does this mean it won’t hurt?
Depends on how susceptible you are to believing a kiss will actually cure your boo boos. I'd say no but a large segment of America didn't seem to notice that Obama was continually sticking a shiv in their backs. So, I'd say that a smile & a glib demeanor goes a long way here in personality cult America.
Ask Tara Reade.
"It's OK when it's OUR rapist. "Same deal with Billy C. Blind eyes conveniently turned.
It's a different story when old-fashioned liberal Dems like Al Franken and Garrison Keillor outlive their utility. They get the public #MeToo coup de grace--pour encourager les autres.
Well, if your hair is being sniffed, that might take some of the sting out of it.
"Hey! That tickles! OWWWW!!!!!! MY ASSSSSS!!!!!!!"
"It's pretty obvious that Trump only survived his 4 years of attack because he was such a belligerent mouthy asshole."
Lot of truth in that observation.
Absolutely what I believe and why I don’t care about his characterization by the media but by the policies he’s implemented.
First president in my life that didn’t start a new war even though the media desperately wanted him to when they fawned over him bombing Syria.
«our little red, white & blue trailer park/strip mall»
That's for the majority of "little people"; for significant minority it is McMansions in restricted communities, and for a small minority it is fantastic palaces in vast estates and private islands.
«It's pretty obvious that Trump only survived his 4 years of attack because he was such a belligerent mouthy asshole.»
That's a rather optimistic version, a blogger pointed out that as soon as he was elected and the "security" services started attacking him, he realized that his first priority was to stay alive, without fatal accidents for example because of a "isolated crazed loner" taking him out. So Trump started looking for a "roof", and first tried to get the armed forces, in particular I think the marines, to give him "protection", and then at the end put himself under Likud "protection".
«The fact is there are think tanks continuously gaming every conceivable scenario that could possibly oppose corporate rule and endless war.»
That's a smart point that many people don't get: the business and property rentiers are organized, forward looking, and have smart consultants on their side, for propaganda, strategy, political research, etc., and this gives them an advantage. Once upon a time the worker unions also had similar resources, but they have been much reduced.
«And they have a list of strategies to counter that opposition. If one doesn't work they just move on to 2, then 3 & so on.»
Fortunately all those expensive consultants often get those wrong, but as you say the business and property rentiers are persistent and try keep trying.
"Once upon a time the worker unions also had similar resources, but they have been much reduced."
From my experience in unions, labor history is not something that's taught so younger folk coming in didn't really understand how unions worked. Consequently they approached the union as something you buy, like drain cleaner. In other words, a member pays his dues & sits around & waits for the union to get him/her a raise. It doesn't work that way.
I can remember one union rep who called & asked if I'd be willing to do an informational picket in front of the facility.
I agreed, then I asked him if anyone else would be there. He said that loads of folk were on board. I laughed & asked him if he'd like to bet me a quarter that, on the day of the picket, we'd be the only 2 boobs standing there.
Sure enough, the day came & we were the only 2 boobs standing there.
I have to tell you, a two man picket looks fucking absurd. We looked like whiners who couldn't get with the program.
It took one or two more similar incidents of amazing human apathy for me to finally quit the union.
❤️❤️❤️
(!)(!)(!)(!)(!)(!)
So there....
LOL
Hey, Buddy, leave porn out of it. It's probably doing more good for the world than any of the poisons that America manufactures, by virtue of keeping a lot of sperm from meeting eggs and increasing the overpopulation issue, unarguably the greatest unspoken cause of the ecological destruction of the planet.
Also: It's porn. It's really great.
I'm assuming you're a one handed typist?
I founded Pornhub.
That's nice. I don't actually care. And I'm sure you're wealthy enough to not care that I don't care. I did enjoy your "save the planet" justification for porn though. As if porn needs a socially redeeming pitch to yank folk into jerkin their gherkin. I suppose I could balance your green impulse by pointing out how kids are now sexualized at an early age by easy access to internet porn.
At least in the old days chronic pud pounders had to actually work to get their freak on.
It gave them adventures.
On any given night their journey to the seedy side of town could get them a copy of Bertha's Anal Squirts or a slit throat in an alley.
Life was such a gamble then.
Now everyone is soft and whiny.
Good point about ass lownery as psychic armor for Trump.
Well done.
The bad guys have quite the arsenal. Let's hope it hold the seeds of its own destruction.
So glad I voted for Trump even though I voted for Bernie in the primaries. If the Dems cheated progressives, why would you EVER vote for them? Why would you EVER listen to the smears they say about Trump knowing they smeared Tulsi and Bernie?
Progressives who stayed and voted for Biden have Stockholm syndrome. It’s fine if you voted third party or didn’t vote at all. Good for you! You at least didn’t contribute to the party that cheated the progressives. But if you not only voted for Biden, but also shilled for him, you are absolutely a useful idiot.
Watching my fellow progressives, repeat the media propaganda about Trump and vote for Biden makes me feel both pity and disgust. Pity because they are buying the bullshit lies repeated by progressive leaders (why are they repeating this crap from the MSM?!) and disgust because they will still vote for a candidate who is absolutely worse than Trump on foreign policy, trade, jobs in America, and has videos of him creepily groping young girls. Gross!!!
Just go look up the “fine people” hoax. Go watch how the media edited the video of Trump. You’ll just take the word of the media, which you know to be a wing of the Dem establishment, about Trump? The same media that didn’t fact check Biden while he lied during the debate against Bernie about social security? You’d take their word KNOWING they lie about progressives and about almost everything?
So glad I’m not a progressive anymore. I refuse to stay in a voting block that grovels at the feet of the people who abuse them. Get out of the mental plantation. Stop voting Dem. #WalkAway
Tulsi and Bernie were collateral damage in the march to election. The ends justify the means. The "fine people" hoax edit might as well have been done by Leni Riefenstahl.
and the drink bleach hoax was right up there too. Problem with the media isn't really the media. It is the idiots who only believe CNN and MSNBC and their ilk and never get any fake news from the right. They only get their news from the left and they actually think it is real. Whereas many of us get the news from both sides and know that it is fake all around!
Truth! But you literally cannot convince people of this very obvious fact. I have tried so many times. No one really wants to take the red pill.
They only want the truth they WANT to believe. It is a reality I have come to accept.
It makes the Nazi propaganda all that more horrifying to me now. Instead of questioning the propaganda, the Germans WANTED to believe that everything would be solved by hating the Jews. They would not accept that there was no other way.
Imagine how bizarre our society is that part of it WANTS to believe that there are white supremacists everywhere and that our President is a white supremacist. When you say to them that he isn’t, they get angry instead of relieved.
Candace Owens in the documentary Uncle Tom says that the litmus test is for a black person to tell a liberal that they don’t feel oppressed. A reasonable response would be “I’m glad that you don’t feel that way.” But most get angry that she does not feel oppressed.
The soft bigotry of low expectations. The more insidious form of racial prejudice imo.
But don’t get so discouraged. There are many of us who have taken the red pill. I’ve seen it with #WalkAway and #Blexit.
Hopefully, those who are in our lives will one day seek the truth. I pray that it will happen, that God’s righteousness will shine through in the end.
Haha indeed. I’ve known it was ALL propaganda since the media praised the AUMF and Patriot Act. I also knew that our politicians were insane when all of Congress stood up and clapped at the AUMF passing. Not a peep from the media about how the AUMF was destroying the checks and balances in our government that gave power to the PEOPLE to declare war not one person. The media and Congress literally cheered for tyranny. 🤦♀️
Outstanding, not a word out of place. Here's to hoping Matt reads the comments and gets some ideas for future articles.
If you voted for Trump and you want to make excuses for decades of abhorrent behavior -- going all the way back to his full page ad on the Central Park jogger rape, and up to and including his love for playing footsie with and retweeting White Nationalists (while offering, of course, a lackluster required condemnation to supply a fig leaf to people like you who are either cynical or naive enough to don it) - then you were never a progressive. It is one thing to, as Matt does, condemn the vulgar exploitation of legitimate social justice issues by people like the Clintons. It is another thing entirely to make excuses for - or worse, vote for - a POS like Trump. I guess the Proud Boys were also in on the hoax, because they sure believe Trump is encouraging them. I guess armed militias who show up at statehouses and plot to kill the sitting governor Trump scornfully refers to "that woman" are also "media hoaxes." He's very happy for their support. Perhaps the only honest words that ever came out of Hillary Clinton's mouth are the ones that helped cost her the 2016 election: Trump's supporters are largely deplorables. Congratulations on being one of them.
Congratulations on getting brainwashed by the media to dehumanize a large portion of American citizens. You have fallen in the trap that many of the Germans fell into when the Nazi party dehumanized the Jews.
I proudly declare I am a deplorable! Would you like to label me with a star? Am I to declare that I am a deplorable on my front window? Will you also agree that we need to be put on lists and “deprogrammed” like so many others have on the left?
Do you not see the repeat in history? Or are you that ignorant? I refuse to be part of a coalition that believes in listing people and considering them irredeemable because the media tells me.
I question authority, always have my whole life. If questioning authority and doing my own research has turned me into a deplorable, then again I proudly consider myself a deplorable.
I think what you’re repeating here is a form of voter suppression tactic used by both parties to discourage voters. I voted for Trump in CA in one of the most Dem districts in Los Angeles. I didn’t care. I voted for Trump because I wanted to and because it meant something to me.
Who knows... I believe they’ve been cheating CA forever when it comes to voting so maybe they changed my vote anyway but what mattered was that it mattered to me and the thousands of Trump supporters who went out to the Trump rallies in Beverly Hills.
Plus, I wanted to send a message to the Dems: “If you don’t change your ways here in Los Angeles, CA, more of us will start voting against you.” Can’t really make them realize that if you just vote because you’re a purple state. Plus, I always vote down ballot anyway. I know local and state votes are more important to my personal life than federal stuff anyway.
Telling people their votes don’t matter is a form of voter suppression. CA was once a red state. Based on your logic because CA is blue now, it can never turn red again. I don’t agree with that. Sorry. I still say it sounds like voter suppression.
Just because I don’t agree with your logic, it doesn’t mean I haven’t thought it out with my own POV. Your inability to acknowledge other POVs is noted.
Dude... did you ever consider the possibility that we’re both right? Of course I understand how the electoral college works and thank God for it because we’re a republic. However, I still think telling voters that their votes don’t matter is still a form of voter suppression. Even if they live in a state that swings heavily to one side. I bet many people do not vote because they are told this. That’s why I say it’s a form of suppression.
It never occurred to you that I clearly understand how the electoral college worked. You just went off on a tirade about how much smarter you are than other people while making yourself just look like a fool.
You sound EXACTLY like how the left argues. You assume that I’m insulting your argument when I’m actually saying something completely different about it. What I’m saying is that you going around saying only swing states matter is voter suppression EVEN IF it’s factually correct.
You are an arrogant pos.
So.... when did Democrats allow themselves to become the party of Hollywood, Wallstreet & Tech Bros? And why does pop culture still accuse Republicans as being the party of the rich? We are too big of a country to have just 2 parties. How many of us are unrepresented? I’m fairly moderate and could lean toward center republicans or center democrats but I’m fully onboard with universal health care as is almost everyone I know. But neither party represents me at all.
Jimmy Carter was a disaster, Bill Clinton was very good at exploiting the tired of losing and looking like idiots Dems. The disgusting greedy nature of the Clinton white house was astounding. Renting out the Lincoln Bedroom to drunken Hollywood types that bragged about jumping on the beds. Seriously. Then of course, when they left the Secret Service had to go to Chappaqua and retreive some Govt antiques they helped themselves to from the White House decor.
Not even beginning to touch the slimy rapist denying Paula Jones her civil rights in a lawsuit and having half of so called liberals rushing to portray it as insignificant for him cavort sexually in the oval office with a 20ish intern and then lie to a Federal Judge who ruled it was germaine to Jones establishing a "pattern" of behavior with less powerful women on the job.
The Clintons are a shit stain on American history.
Much like the Bush crime family that preceded them. The only answer is to do away with the entire concept of there being an elite among us. Why do we give power to these people to begin with ?
«Why do we give power to these people to begin with ?»
The "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" explains:
«"On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."»
Love Hitchhiker’s. So brilliant. I should read it again now that I’m a bit older. I read it about every 10 years. Read at 20, then again at 30. At 40, I will likely glean a lot more enjoyment than previous times. Thank you for this! ❤️
Oh come on... They're all part of the NWO neolib scam to gobble up the entire planet.
ALL of them.
"New World Order" sold about as well as New Coke so it got rebranded as "The Great Reset." Everybody likes resetting, right?
We should rename Great Reset to "Blue Screen of Death"
For all the credit that the Online "Left" likes to give the CIA for being master manipulators who control everything, the CIA has a demonstrably shitty record of even basic competence at the art of advertising. This is what happens when you hire your business buddies' jack-off sons.
"Graphic design is my passion"
New coke is better than old coke. Because it's new.
I don't specifically know of the Bush "crime' family, I know Neil was involved with the S&L crisis and not prosecuted, maybe not guilty of anything but that seems doubtful given his role at the time and the scope of the grift.
Herbert Walker was a Director of the CIA, no? Having seen some of the intelligence spooks on a low level, I assume that means he was the most successful at being an asshole that could be identified at the time. Still, his WWII pilot gig was muy impressive.
Look up Preston Bush(grandpa). He got his bank shut down for funding the Nazi's.
How is that comparable to the shit stain Clintons?
You're going back to Grandpa Bush funding Nazi's?
repeat after me, "You dont have to suck the Clinton rapist knob clean. You choose to because you like to suck rapist dick if they tell you that you are smarter, cooler and better looking than republicans while you do it."
Skutch has some pretty amazing insights... honestly.
Still, in this I think they are just clinging to some whataboutism and trying to believe that the Clintons are somehow NOT part of the same globalist New World Order cunts.
They are, of course... these weasels know exactly what side of their bread is buttered.
Union Banking Corp. 1942 A web well-woven, with Dutch bank, ties to directors at BBH,
Prescott Bush
How quickly America forgets the real fake news; WMDs to justify the Iraq war.
Oops, thanks.
It wasn't President Carter that was the disaster. It was that complacent, superannuated, pork-barrel Democratic Party Congressional supermajority that he had to contend with.
In the early years of his term, Jimmy, Frank Church, and Stansfield Turner got closer to busting up the permanent security state than any other post-1947 team of bureaucrats.
Then Brezhnev invaded Afghanistan due to notes he drunkenly scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin and that was it for Jimmy. You can take the nuclear submariner out of the Navy, but you can't take the Navy out of the nuclear submariner.
Brzezinski is a stain that will never wipe off.
Very well stated. Clinton could have pulled it on live TV and he would have had half the country saying how great it was...
That's charisma. Successful politicians need it over any other quality. I always thought the dude was an obvious slimeball myself -- everything about him screamed "date rapist" -- but lots of people loved him. Date rapists gonna date rape, I guess.
it's the half the Dems making excuses and pushing to move on dot org and the other half of Dems letting them that sucks ass the most.
Bill the rapist Clinton didn't represent the party with his slime until they allowed the loud mouths to unapologetically say that Bill the rapist Clinton represented the party with his slime.
Unrepresented? According to a solid peer-reviewed Princeton study 99+% us the electorate is entirely unrepresented when popular policy is compared to what is actually enacted. The problem is, the majority of people THINK the one-party duopoly represents them. The poor fools simply don't know any better. https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Good one, Charles. I bookmarked and shared that link constantly. from the pdf:
“the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero,
statistically non-significant impact, upon public policy.” Princeton – 2014
“Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”
Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page - Pg.575
https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/mgilens/files/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
Thanks so much for sharing this. Been looking for that link for going on 5 years now.
Not saying the 2 party system isn't awful. But look at what proportional representation looks like, say in Italy. Total joke. If you had 3+ parties you would make it even worse. You would probably never get to 270 electoral college votes, so the house would make the decision every time unless you changed the system. Good luck with that.
A ranked choice ballot system in all 50 states is a way of assuring both multiparty options and majoritarian victories in every national election, without the necessity for any wider structural reforms. I think that the most practical and effective way to do it in the American system would be to limit the number of ranked choices to a first and a second pick. I want the calculation of the results to be easily understandable. And also to obviate any possibility that the winning ticket might be the third choice of most of the voters.
This (sort of) encapsulates my view....which is our Constitution is wildly ineffectual at allowing anything intelligent to evolve. Factor in the idea of Originalism, where our SCOTUS appointees attempt to discern what the Founders...240 odd years ago... thought about things they had absolutely no inkling of, or even of the ability to imagine. Huxley had it exactly right when the wrote....“The early advocates of universal literacy and a free press… did not foresee… the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal…. In a word, they failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”
that’s a great article. thnx.
I know I'm deadthreading but I don't care.
THE PEOPLE ARE NOT GETTING WHAT THEY WANT?? OMG!! CRISIS! SCANDAL!! CORRUPTION!!
Because the people want...
Free, limitless healthcare.
Free education, which they will ignore anyway.
Free Money.
Systemic preference for <fill in my group>.
Strict regulation and suppression of <fill in thing I don't like>.
And finally...NO TAXES!
(I left out all the sexual stuff people would like the government to provide.)
I'm not sure a government with the power OR intent to "implement popular policies" would really be a good thing, unless one asserts it is better to be misgoverned by cats of a particular fatness as opposed to some other.
A slide back into Clinton-era neoliberalism just ensures a 2022 House flip and likely a 2024 presidency lost.
trump is also a neoliberal. the D-RNC are equally aggressive neoliberals. Neoliberalism is really just another term for Extreme Libertarianism. Look into Hayek. Buchanan. Friedman, "chicago school". All, Neoliberals.
With one exception, you're right about the alignment of neoliberal and libertarian economics, but the difference is that both sides of the political establishment are far more authoritarian. Bernie is easily positioned as a left libertarian.
As such, he can form alliances with social libertarians who are not so radical right economically. This is where the much maligned "horseshoe" theory actually works and makes sense. There is a centrist libertarian coalition to be had if progressives can peg Clinton neoliberals as the corporate fascists they are.
Wanting big government is NOT libertarian.
This should absolutely be the goal. That’s a big fight to pick though, and the culture war wedge was driven so deep during the Trump era that I have little confidence we’ll be able to get past the idea that people on both ends of the horseshoe are “crazy”.
Bernie is an authoritarian communist through and through. Just stop.
good money, being psyop professional, nick?
To be fair, this criticism of Nick is pretty close to the Russian bot narrative. Sometimes it's better to acknowledge that there are actually people drinking the kool-aid. I think Nick believes what he wrote, but he's reading Taibbi so I have some hope.
but keep in mind, there are actual paid psyop professionals. corporate, state, etc, milieus of teams, specifically meant to derail relevant conversations and such.
true. thx for reminding to detach and ignore the more caustic voices. there's nothing to be gained in engaging them.
Its amazing to me that you people can't see Sanders for what he is. The most dangerous man in America.
Right, anyone that doesnt toe your line is a paid shill or a troll. You people are pathetic.
So are you Nick, anyone that doesn't know the difference between communism and authoritarianism can't be terribly bright.
I used to be a libertarian. A social libertarian is not a socialist libertarian. There is nothing in Bernie's worldview that aligns with libertarian economics.
Trump is a neoliberal who won using socialist rhetoric. The TDS people love to call the guy stupid, but it was a genius scam.
Trump is, to many, a great president primarily because all of the ones before him were terrible presidents.
Yup I have a helluva time convincing my 20-something kids that Trump is the greatest President of my lifetime, simply because he enunciated viewpoints that all knew, but no previous President had the balls to state.
To me he remains simultaneously the most honest and dishonest President of my life and it is not even close. And since all other Presidents have been dishonest on both matters large and small, Trump has the decided advantage.
Let's not confuse being honest on the obvious with being hones overall or morally superior. I think it was just Trump getting revenge for never being accepted into the elite inner circle.
I'll still take his exposure as a gift, but I won't call him great, there's nothing great about being captain obvious.
Unfortunately he wasn't able to right any wrongs to speak of only publicly humiliate and verbally abuse the abusers of the public trust.
Because he spent his entire presidency playing defense against the swamp he pledged to drain. He exposed just how deep the swamp is - bottomless.
agreed! his '15 rallies, tweets, all populist, pro worker, etc. but then, he arrived in DC. the end.
I’m not convinced of the “genius scam” part. Anyone with a shred of sense of the situation could have played this out to look like the greatest President in history. He lucked into the Presidency on the ride of pissed off citizens, not any particular brilliance. Tapping that anger doesn’t take genius; it takes shamelessness and not caring about a single consequence of one’s actions.
You also just described Bernie Sanders, except for the president part.
Ridiculous.
Yeah. Bernie has a single skill, which is knowing which way a political wind is blowing.
That last sentence is a perfect description of Trump.
«trump is also a neoliberal.»
Not really: he is another type of right-winger, a nationalist one-nation tory, while neoliberals are globalist reganista whigs. That is why he has been so ferocious attacked by the globalist neoliberals within his party and in the Democratic party.
«the D-RNC are equally aggressive neoliberals.»
That indeed, most of them.
«Neoliberalism is really just another term for Extreme Libertarianism.»
Not quite: libertarians are mostly english Victorian Liberals, neoliberals are not quite as extreme, because they advocate a big government to intervene in the markets to give big handouts to businesses and Wall Street. They are only like Victorian Liberals for the "little people".
Wow, that's an impressive amount of political compression. So you're talking what, 75 to 80 percent of the public? Who's left?
Just the donor class and their wannabe lackeys. When you poll ever major progressive policy, you get HUGE acceptance from 70+% who are absolutely never represented all across the spectrum. That the coalition. They are the "get off my back and out of my pocket" coalition who would gladly "soak the rich" given 1/2 a chance.
Uh huh - it polls that way, but they don't VOTE that way. Pfffffffft.
No shit! That's the job slacker! Lol
You have no idea what you are talking about. This is a communist country, but usurping the means of production has simply been replaced with usurping control of the money supply.
There's nothing communist about this country. It's an oligarchy and always has been. Read a book please and stop watching faux.
I think there is a big terminological confusion here: when "Nick" writes "communist" he really means "soviet".
"The Economist" magazine, a neoliberal one, once defined "soviet" as "run for the benefit of management", that is what our Matt Taibbi calls a "Griftopia", and under that definition the higher levels of USA politics and business are soviet indeed. Even the "Financial Times" describes it this way:
https://www.ft.com/content/a2ea734a-2e7f-11e2-9b98-00144feabdc0
https://www.ft.com/content/abc02fd5-2549-3b3e-a8ba-bcc3eef9c07e
What the fuck do you think a communist country looks like? Jesus Christ. Communist countries are literally the definition of oligarchical. Those who control the means of production always win. In this case its the financiers and the banksters. "The state" stakes this over and then it becomes a game of rent seeking and gaining power within that apparatus. We are living in the end result of Bernie Sanders utopia already. It just that "you people" seem to think you can get the right people in power to dole out the excess in exchange for your support.
The elite have always controlled the means of production and the government going back centuries. It's so funny how idiots like you think this is a recent development.
Capitalism is just modified feudalism which is just modified slavery.
You really have an issue with the term communism when it is meaningless in today's society.
Ahh...feudalism. Takes me back to that scene in The Holy Grail:
https://youtu.be/ZtYU87QNjPw
Its not recent. Your messiah, FDR, started it all.
"Those who control the means of production always win. In this case its the financiers and the banksters."
Speaking of "communism", that statement might as well be a verbatim quote from Karl Marx. Although you'd have to have read some of his works in order to realize that.
It's the same thing no matter what economic "title" you want to apply to it. Marx gets a bad rap for calling out capitalism's BS.
The precise spot where communism and fascism become indistinguishable. Oh, is that a "horseshoe"? My bad. But fusing government and corporations, from either direction, leads to the same authoritarianism.
All the "isms" lead to authoritarianism because all the isms were designed and perpetuated by the elite.
Authoritarianism is far older than any and all of the isms.
The isms are only wedge issues to keep the plebs divided and fighting each other so the elite can continue their parasitic behavior.
Who cares what you call it if you agree on what it is doing?
Its vastly important because the Sanders wing wants to extend even more control to the Federal government. Its a problem because the ideology is one of "Well, so long as we vote for MY candidate the symptoms will disappear". These folks want to replace communism with communism.
Matt's gonna grade em an F and hold em after class, Cletus
lmao. thanks for sharing. :p
You morons think your revolution is going to happen through the vote. You're mistaken. When your ilk come through the suburbs, there will be blood, and you dont have the guns to win this war.
Ouch. Truth from the strangest places.
You're the next unibomber and are too stupid to know it. Shut off that device and go outside before you hurt yourself or someone else.
If only we had listened to the Unabomer. He predicted that the devices would ruin us and he was right.
I would concur. Many Sanders supporters will refuse to vote Dem in 2024.
Hell, I refused to vote Dem in 2016 and 2020.
I just refuse to vote any more. Even voting against the uniparty does no good. It just proves how fake the system is and always has been. Why validate a democratic process or a fake republic ?
Do you know that the Trump part of the Republican Party is the populist wing of the party and they are having their own civil war like the Dems are with the progressives? Labeling Trump as the Republican Party is like labeling Tulsi or Bernie as the Democrat Party. There are even talks of Trump supporters wanting to create a third party to get away from the RINOs in the GOP.
The reason why the progressive media and politicians lie to you about Trump is they don’t want you to go to the other populist. It’s all about power.
Yes. Consistent with my observations. I have dear friends in every tribe, and I keep online involvement in several of those worlds.
Trump is not a Republican. A large percentage of his supporters are not, either. Trump is a rowdy buccaneer who assembled a huge boarding party and captured the GOP's ship. The Establishment/tradcon/chamber of commerce/neocon old guard hated his guts from the beginning and resent the hell out of him every waking moment. They have to double check the microphone OFF switch before they can let their hair down and sneer together at his supporters. The OP references the Democrat establishment's hate for Bernie and Co. You can transfer that feeling to the GOP and Trump. You would have to magnify it considerably, though, because Trump was actually successful.
The mainstream GOP conspicuously clammed up and sat on their hands when the initial calls for Biden came in. They were happy about the down-ballot victories Trump's supporters and hard campaigning gave them. They were just as happy to quietly smirk and cuddle up with the apparently incoming new guard as Trump twisted in the wind.
Trump's supporters noticed this. They started loudly asking each other if they shouldn't return the compliment by leaving these bozos in the lurch for the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff. This in turn scared the pants off the establishment GOP at the same time they noticed that the allegedly-mythical Georgia Magic Vote machine suddenly looks terrifying when trained upon the microscopic Senate majority they thought they had in the bag. So now they're mad at Trump's supporters while also needing to feign affection and beg for their help. Which inspires good old Trump to administer public wedgies to the state GOP leadership which has held trifecta control of Georgia state gov't for 15 years with no more apparent knack for power politics than a pack of Cub Scouts.
Plenty about this election chaps my hide, but watching this little sideshow from a ringside seat has been better than watching the Three Stooges while stoned. Once it plays out, the Establishment-D will get their turn in the dunk tank. You'll need to hire staff to keep up with all the material that's coming your way, Matt.
There are plenty of RINOs, but they are the minority and only sort-of succeeded in attacking Trump on character issues, which will soon become irrelevant. Trump's Republican Party is a populist Party. Democrats and RINOs are the elite. Trump flipped the script.
I agree. Makes little difference.
I didn’t vote top of ticket in 2012 or 2016. It Trump is so awful I felt I had to do harm reduction, although you can argue that isn’t the case with Biden. My swing state went red so it ultimately didn’t matter. In hindsight I should have voted Green.
At some point you have to ask if you're just helping validate a completely phony system. I can no longer bring myself to vote, no matter how I vote policy goals never change.
Really, you think most people aren't too stupid as to fall for the "existential threat" garbage again? I hope you're right, but emotional voters are easily fooled.
They should have refused in 2016 and 2020 when they watched the Dems cheat in the primaries. 🤦♀️ What new “existential threat” will the Dems conjure up so that the progressives vote for them again? The progressives will likely stay with their abusers.
I hope you're right. I'm not so confident.
Ok, so let's say it's a loss. But a loss to whom? What does the winner look like? I'm thinking, sausage.
Sad truth be said, Bernie had the ideology, had the charisma, had the right timing, but lacked the personal courage to lead a “revolution”. And I’m talking about 2016, post primary loss. 2020 was too late.
Many people are saying this, but Bernie was just too nice. Nowhere is the old adage "Nice guys finish last" truer than in politics.
If there's ever going to be another Bernie, I hope she, he, or it is one mean motherfucker.
I always said I wanted an LBJ with Sanders’s policies.
In fairness, that was pretty much LBJ. The rightward drift of U.S. national politics since the 1960s has been incredible. I will argue all day that Barry Goldwater was to the left of both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton and some of my arguments may even not be totally inane.
It HAS been incredible. I agree. I said that Nixon’s to the left of Obama.
He was!
To mangle some poorly-remembered quotes from Hunter S. Thompson, "Dick Nixon was so crooked he had to screw his pants on in the morning, but I can't totally hate a man who will talk football with you when you are the next urinal stall over . . . Nixon's speechwriter, Pat Buchanan, is probably a deranged freak, but I somehow cannot help liking him." The personal as political, again.
Perlstein’s 4 volume documentation of that drift is remarkable. It was not some casual slide or aberration. It was a called play by Republican activists and organizers. Not the least of the con was the cooptation of the Evangelical Right. They’re already intensely organized and ready to act. Democrats fall in love, Republicans organize, or something like that.
The thing is that the Evangelical Right is largely a spent force now, at least in my view. They got used and dumped by the duopoly in the same way as the Sandernistas.
That is because you dont hold the political compass properly.
I hate the irony of anonymous internet commentators - who probably haven't done anything at all - questioning the "courage" of a guy who went against the grain to be on the right side of history for most of his life, simply because he didnt' win the toughest battle against two corrupt parties out to get him.
He did the best he understood how to do. If you think you can genuinely do better, put down the Cheetos bag and get out there.
I think a large part of Sanders' appeal was that he was genuinely kind, sincere and consistent in his beliefs, not willing to engage in political gamesmanship, lie, go on the attack. Unfortunately, that translated to making him an easy target for the DNC and media. I do think he's naive but again, his sincerity and decency are an integral part of his appeal. He never had a chance.
Thank you, yes. As Bronowski would sometimes say, "Man is of a piece" and I think more people need to remember that perspective as you do.
I think "never had a chance" is a bit extreme. He lost because Dem's successfully bamboozled the black vote for Biden and the political shenanigans on Super Tuesday and Snake Warren. That's the most of it. Did Bernie do as much fighting back on that particular front as we would have liked? No. But that was a choice that he felt was best and MMQB'ing it as a mistake is just a luxury us peasants have always had.
I would also ask this crowd if WE couldn't have done more to HELP him. Political campaigns are infinitely complex even before you go against established power, and I think it's the absolute most small-minded thing to simplify it as the guy who's been right 99.99999% of his life making a mistake when he was just trying not to blow it by changing horses midstream.
Do you honestly believe that it's impossible to provide a valid critique of someone with personally being able to do it better yourself? That saying "X did this wrong" is the same as saying "I could do it better than X"?
Not impossible, but perhaps temper the criticism just a bit?!? Why does everything have to be this extreme "Bernie spent decades fighting with nobody including me on his side but NOW HE"S DOG$HIT!!!"-type criticism that I'm hearing from Jimmy Dore and his minions.
How about CALM T.F. DOWN.
The only thing this kind of thing does is signal to the next people's advocate that as soon as you are PERCEIVED to be imperfect, the jackyls and vultures will tear your weakened body apart.
Criticism is fine, but don't act like you'd have done better or that you are better. You're not.
for sure.
Maybe if he had been younger
In a nutshell, the Democratic power centers bet hard on identity politics to build a coalition that brushed concerns about their tightness with Wall St. under the rug. And now corporate America is returning and leveraging the favor by taking their side in the culture wars. Pay no attention to the forced Uighur labor making our shoes, we're with "the Cause" that you care about most!
It worked in the 2016 primaries and failed in the election. It would have failed completely in 2020 except for the pandemic. From the GOP's taking of 26% of the minority vote, about double what it was a decade ago, it doesn't look like it's going to work for much longer at all.
Exactly correct. It's a great smokescreen, isn't it - let's all band together to fight racism/sexism/homophobia/whatever - but pay no attention to the piles of money behind the curtain.
HRC uses it brazenly on that audience and they don't even see through it. What's even the point of her saying "is stopping the banks going to solve racism" except to push against stopping them? So transparent.
But is the increase in minority support really a GOP thing, or is it a flash in the pan Trump thing?
Marco Rubio is talking about an inclusive “common good capitalism.” A big anti-establishment, anti-technocrat, antiglobalist realignment underway IMO. The cell walls burst and there’s a mixing of left, right, and libertarian cytoplasm.
I favor this realignment but I don't think Rubio is the guy to lead it, putting it mildly.
Hey, that's my Senator! Lil Marco would make a great Prez - of Honduras or Guatemala. But then, we may be a full-on Banana Republic before his political shelf-life is up. There is still hope, Marcky! Don't go finding a soul. There are endless opportunities for treacherous cretins in this land of make-believe.
In fairness to Marco, he's got more political credibility than Juan Guaido.
He does, at least, understand that the US is seriously in trouble due in large part to it’s complete dismissal of anything resembling an industrial policy for the nation. He, of course, gets completely ignored in this. And, I agree, he’s not the guy to lead it. He just hasn’t got what the camera wants, and it’s the camera that decides.
I always predicted it back as far as 2008 when people said "there may never be another Republican president". I was in the corporate world at the time, and over the years before that watching the rise of incredible minority professionals in my industry. At least in my company, no one (or very few and I never saw any issue) thought of them by their skin color, but rather by their capabilities, and it was a meritocracy where good people went high fast. It is great to see all of the success minorities are having economically. People may not feel it's fast enough but it's for sure happening. And with more success, people are going to vote more conservatively, no question.
I suspect it may be a flash-in-the-pan Trump thing if they put up some guy like Tom Cotton or Josh Hawley in '24, but my record of predicting the future is lousy.
The D-RNC, a uniparty of extreme wealth, loath humanity. The 99%, are but slave labor, or even more, obstacles, to their imagined utopia, of lavish lifestyles, sycophantically in service, to the 1%. This is entirely predictable. We warned the world, tax cuts, and reshuffling capital gains, the endless creation of loopholes and shelters, would lead to the rise of an Oligarchy, where it's rarified air of inheritance, would only tolerate super transnational elites, easily able to buy and sell policy and legislators, and nations.
Economic Power is exponentially more meaningful that petty political power. And we, the people, have sponsored this disparity.
Neoliberalism or neo-liberalism is the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism and free market capitalism.
What neoliberalism is NOT, is a new way to describe “liberals” (in 2020 popular context) Both the DNC and RNC are neoliberal organizations
Neoliberalism is more closely aligned with Libertarianism, Conservatism (although there is NOTHING conservative about it, it is in fact, Extremist)
Neoliberals abhor competition, (despite promoting "free markets"),but LOVE monopolies, cartels, and organization of capital
Neoliberals abhor "public debt", but LOVE "private debt".
Neoliberals abhor organization of Labor, but LOVE monopolies, cartels, and organization of capital.
Neoliberals abhor “regulations” on business, but LOVE regulation of the people
Neoliberals abhor shared resources of “the commons” (public land, water, air, energy), But LOVE Privatization of Everything (for rent extraction purposes)
there is no easy way out of this condition.
folks seem to fail to understand. Trump, the bushes, clintons, mcconnel, etc etc.. they are all Neoliberals.
It's interesting that Trump gets lumped in with the others in that group. You may be right, but after seeing the full court press to unseat him- put on by the entire establishment- I have a tough time swallowing the idea that he is just one of them. It just seems he offered a completely different dynamic. You may think his followers were duped- there is a lot of that sort of thing going on these days.
I've said it before and I'll say it again- one only has to look at who a thoroughly owned and complicit media comes after and you will know who just might be on your side. And it's not just about Trump, for if anyone cares to actually pay attention to what Matt just wrote, he made it very clear that the DNC came after Bernie with plenty of malice and purpose.
its theater. the full court press, meaningless. sure talking head morons on tv love to hate trump, there's good money is hating trump. but do not for one minute imagine that means, he's the good guy, and because he's hated, that he's a hero. not even for a second. id the real power.. the unseen hand, didn't want him, he would have had a dallas moment long ago. of that, you can be as clear as it gets. exactly zero rogues or champions will ever be tolerated.
There is no reason to be that cynical or to hate Trump so much. Just watch the actual events as they unfolded the past four years. Fake Dossier, Russiagate, Christine Blassy Ford, Media coverage of T and his supporters (Sandman, good ppl both sides hoax), Lockdown protest vs BLM protest double standard, Total blackout of any good news about Trump's accomplishments, lackout of Laptop scandal. Big biz growing exponentially vs small biz going under, mothers quitting their jobs to teach manage their kids education.
Needs/desires of World Economic Forum (we should own nothing by 2030 - they want us all on a universal income, weakened and demotivated - they are purposely gutting the middle and working class - presumably to save the environment and for world peace?? Idk why.. bc really China is the biggest polluter so why do they want to kneecap US as a world power. Don't know why but they do.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER04dbt5p74), Cynical use of critical race theory to divide us, calling Antifa an idea when they are literally rioting everyday in Portland and threatening Trump supporters lives (stop the steal march - there are 100s of videos. NOT A PEEP BY MSM ), using Covid as a reason to push mail-in ballots on an unprecedented scale - which now will never be rolled back. Trying to roll it back will be called "racist" or voter suppression.. oh and Big Pharma announcing Trump's fast track vaccine after the election. Phew - he had a lot working against him!!! It's amazing he got anything done.. but here are a few Progressive policies he managed to roll out: https://forward.com/opinion/458172/5-major-progressive-trump-achievements-for-biden-to-build-on/
He and Bernie are two sides of the Same Coin. They are both the Good Guys. They were both against NAFTA which is the Defining thing that really ruined our country. It ruined our country. For the sake of shareholders. NAFTA was explicitly to make the rich richer - and for no other reason. Oh they said it would democratize China - haha ya right. We Really need to all get on the same side and FAST. It's little ppl ..plebes of all sorts (even those that make six figures or more) vs the Establishment Ruling Class. That is all that is gong on here.
That's all that is going on here.. Forget Left vs Right. Forget Trump vs Sanders. We need to find commonality or we will lose our freedom and what civil rights we have left. I wish this was an exaggeration - I don't think it is. This identity talk and global warming is a huge distraction. There is no way plebes will come together who are on different sides of those issues - passions run too high. There must be a way that people can come to realize that a populist Liberal order will create the best possible solutions for both the environment and for racial equality. If we could find a way around the media and get ppl on both the Left and the Right to understand each other's positions on those issues and to see that they have More in common than not - we could be an unstoppable anti-corruption populist party.
The toughest thing to watch is the level of crazy in the country. So much near-cult activity, even in otherwise decent intelligent people.
I credit the media (and some religion) and until people realize it and change how they obtain info of their world, it won't improve.
Your cynicism is unrivalled. I respect that.
The current debate in the house is whether or not to take my family up to Canada. I am a citizen and can do so. If the picture you paint- hopelessness pretty well describes it- is true then there would be no point to staying here.
Then what is/was Trump? Bernie too. What role(s) did they play? What were their motives? It had to be something. As an 18 year old, I voted in 1972 and voted 3rd party as a protest vote. Didn't vote again until 2016. I voted for theater, huh? By your definition, theater defined both Bernie and Trump.
The whole system is theater now and was in '72. Does that answer your question?
Where were you in '72? I had some of the theater figured out then. If what you are trying to say is that it's an imperfect world full of illusion, trickery, fuckery and various deceptions then I'd agree. Is political correctness theater? What about "woke", virtue signaling, BLM, choosing gender? Aren't they theater? None of those things existed in '72. I know, I was there.
Is everything theater? What about your life, my life, or that of the average citizen.
For certain, the legacy media is all theater all the time.
Give this one some thought- is there a reverse correlation between traditional values and theater? IE, when one goes down the other goes up.
But trump was still a disrupter. Which was valuable. A new, more aware populist party could be created out of it. Don't be to cynical!
And Bernie could have been a disruptor, but as Matt pointed out several times in his essay, Bernie didn't have the balls
The new young people that joined the Republican Party are A LOT better than the ones that left (Lincoln Project, Bill Kristol, etc.) Good trade. I hope you're right and a new party is formed.
The elite are neoliberals and the Trumps, Bush's, and Clinton's are careerist useful idiots. Most of the elite know better than to expose their plans and always pay someone to do their dirty work.
Again, why put Trump in with that group- they hated him and pulled every dirty trick in the book to get rid of him.
They only hate him because he is one of them that they shunned for decades and he exposed them because of that. He's was raised and schooled with them, played golf with them and payed their bribes up until he accidentally became president.
Trump is an unveneered version of the elite. His only motive is to convert from being a bribe payer to a bribe taker.
Haven't you read any of his books ? His whole game is gaining leverage by being an obstinate ass until he can frustrate you into paying his price.
Lame. Sorry, way too thin. If he was truly one of them, he certainly blew any future chance of regaining their favor.
Why did he even run? Maybe he saw assholes like Clinton, Bush and Obama become wealthy and wanted in on the grift. Seen any sign of that? From what I heard he gives away his salary, with no fanfare.
JFK was raised within the pinnacle of society- he had it all. But he signed on for combat duty and when it came time to think of the good of the country, he chose nation over self. It got him killed, of course. But the point is that one's upbringing or past does not set in stone future actions. To say or imply so means that you yourself can never change due to the way you once were. Don't demand of Trump what you can not deliver.
Being a cynic is ok, but try to be a smart one.
that is a better summary, thank you! well said
10 Dem Party/MSM rules re “centrists” vs the left in the US:
1. The left advocating for policies that most Americans want and every other major country in the world takes for granted (e.g. healthcare as a right) is “radical”, “pie in the sky”, “How on earth are we going to pay for it?”; “centrists” opposing those policies is “pragmatism”, “the adults in the room”;
2. The left is “divisive”, a “spoiler”, must unite behind a “centrist”, and must never criticize a “centrist” because that “helps the Republicans”; “centrists” can do whatever they like;
3. The left is “toxic”, “angry”, “uncivil”, “bros”, “just like Trump”, and must constantly be tone-policed and called upon to apologize; “centrists” can say whatever they like however they like;
4. The left finding common ground with Independents/Republicans on ANYTHING = “the horseshoe theory”, “fascist-enabling/adjacent”, “canceled”; “centrists” embracing and being embraced by ANYONE, including Bush-era neocon war criminals/propagandists, Islamophobic anti-choice/LGBT Republicans, lying CIA/FBI/NSA surveillance ghouls and billionaire oligarchs and their lobbyists = “bipartisanship”, “coalition-building”, “electable”; “big tent”;
5. Anyone “centrists” don’t like is “a Russian asset” and “what Putin wants”; “centrists” are “real Americans”/“patriots”, “what Putin hates the most”;
6. Identity (race, gender, LGBT etc) only matters if it can be weaponized to help a “centrist” and/or slam their opponents;
7. Anything a leftist (or anybody who endorses them) has ever said or done is “racist”, “sexist” or otherwise “disqualifying”; not “disqualifying” for a “centrist”: being funded by/doing the bidding of billionaires/big corporations, supporting disastrous interventionist wars based on lies, alleged sexual misconduct/assault, history of segregation-adjacency/racist policies/statements, pathological lying/plagiarism, corruption, cognitive decline;
8. “Centrists” fighting tooth and nail to stop healthcare as a right, a living wage, free public college and ending the wars is NOT “privilege”; the left daring even to consider withholding support from a Dem who OPPOSES all of the above IS “privilege”/“purity”;
9. Only a “centrist” is ever “electable”/can win the general election;
10. When a leftist loses, it is proof that voters reject leftist policies and Dems must move further to the right; when a “centrist” loses or underperforms, it is proof that voters reject leftist policies and Dems must move further to the right. (“Centrists” must never face accountability or suffer consequences for failure; in fact, “centrists” can never fail; they can only ever BE failed, by the (fucking!) voters.)
Healthcare isn't a right, period. Its a service. This isn't a debate unless you are redefining the word right. If someone has a right to healthcare this means they have a right to the labor of a healthcare worker, this is slavery in any other domain. You just have to look past your misinterpretation of the word right. (I know this is difficult as it blows up your entire "ideology").
Living wage isn't a policy, its a trope. There is no such thing as a living wage as everyone's cost of living is different for a litany of different reasons.
Free public college isn't free. Its college paid for by someone else.
This is why you people fail. You don't actually believe in anything real. You redefine words, and when someone disagrees with them you call them evil, racist, inhumane. Progressives are spineless, third rate ideologues with the "ideas" of a middle school debate team, on a good day. They have no place in adult discourse and should be treated as such.
Have you ever been to or lived in a country other than the US? In every other advanced (capitalist!) country in the world from Canada to the whole of Europe and Australia and New Zealand (and even many third-world countries too, actually) healthcare is guaranteed as a right to all its citizens. It’s a service, yes, of course, but it’s a service every single citizen is entitled to from birth to death, regardless of whether they can pay for it or not. Same as police or firefighters or public schools or national parks etc etc. That’s what is meant by “healthcare as a right”. You end up in the hospital in Germany or France or Canada etc, you will not be stuck with a bill afterwards (unless it’s something optional or you choose to go private etc). Same as you don’t pay at the point of service for police or firefighting services or for your kid to go to public school. It is paid for collectively by society as a whole, through tax appropriation, same as police or public schools or national defense, for that matter, because it is deemed in the public interest; having a healthy citizenry (same as having an educated citizenry) is considered a public good, something that benefits society as a whole, so society as a whole pools its resources and makes sure everyone has access to this “service”, as you say. It’s no rocket science, except for Americans who have been brainwashed to accept that 90 million people in this country being uninsured or underinsured and 70,000 needlessly dying from lack of healthcare every year is somehow normal, in a country that calls itself civilized (and is the richest country in the world to boot). The same applies to free public college etc.
Americans have been brainwashed to accept that there must be a middle man - an insurance company - between them and a doctors visit or a prescription. For this they pay multiple times more for treatment and prescriptions than the people in the countries that have universal health care, all the while paying monthly “premiums” that benefit them how? For example, I’m an asthmatic; in the US I pay (with insurance) $60 for a device that costs $9 in NZ, €8 in France, £0 in the UK. All of these with no insurance. An American visitor can walk into a pharmacy in any of these countries and pay these prices. If I didn’t have “insurance” in the US the device would cost $300. The US healthcare system is a racket.
Yup, spot on. DOZENS of private FOR-PROFIT middlemen, all with their own administrative costs, overheads, profits and huge salaries for the bosses. All costs passed on to the consumer. Instead of a single not-for-profit publicly-controlled middleman, i.e. the government.
It’s a racket, plus it leaves tens of millions of people uninsured and even more underinsured. The power of propaganda is frightening.
"The power of propaganda is frightening."
Then you act as if you are above the fray. Its frightening.
Higher education is another one of these rackets...
You people act like because one opposes so called universal healthcare theysupport the current regime. That is an asinine assumption but you nitwits thrive on this garbage. Fuck me its annoying.
Jane, your premium still exists, it's just baked into the higher taxes. The nebulizer example is peanuts compared to the many thousand percent markups on drugs and certain medical services. I've personally had statements with things like:
Amount billed to your insurance: $1745.54
Reduction due to negotiated rates: $1735.54
Amount you owe: $10
The nebuliser example is my own personal experience. I am otherwise healthy. You are wrong about “higher taxes”. I’ve lived in NZ and France. My son lives in the UK. When you factor in State and Federal taxes in the US, the taxes in these countries are no higher. Even if they were, I’d rather pay into a government system that covers everyone and does not deny care or send people into bankruptcy simply for getting ill or having an accident. The US system is not just a racket. It’s inhumane.
I've had experience with Oz and UK healthcare systems. The NHS is bad. I wouldn't use it as a model for any other country. The US system is okayish albeit pricey if you have employer provided insurance, and awful if you don't. The NHS is bad all around, but at least you won't go bankrupt. Oz is better overall but there are some aspects of the US system which I prefer. For example it seems easier to see a specialist on short notice in the US as long as you can pay for it. And sometimes when you're not well nothing else matters. Most who can afford to do buy private insurance even in Australia, at least among those who I am acquainted with. What's really broken in the US system is the pricing. The service itself isn't bad, though quality varies a lot more overall than Oz, but the pricing is just wrong on so many levels. I agree it really is inhumane.
Don’t forget: it’s not just premiums, but also co-pays and a deductible, all of which are gone under Medicare4All. When you factor all of this in, even with the cca 4% added to your taxes for M4A, you’d likely be paying less overall (unless you make over cca $300K a year, I believe). Not to mention that nobody would be left uninsured/underinsured and that you’d have the security of being covered whether you’re employed or not, from birth to death.
The problem is, congress is so controlled by lobbyists that prices won't drop even if healthcare becomes socialized. The gov't will still pay full price, and in order to do so either the deficit blows up evne more or taxes have to rise proportionately. And the money printing party cannot go on indefinitely. If I remember correctly the gov't even gave away its right to negotiate bulk discounts w/ big pharma during the Bush years.
Like I said, you are redefining the term 'right'. Just admit that. Also, people here have universal coverage. If they need care, they get it and someone else pays for it. Sure, they can be sent to collections or bankruptcy for not paying the bill, but they get treated.
And don't sit here and lecture me on how collectivism works. I know more about this than you do.
"Needlessly dying from lack of healthcare". How about the 200k+ that die from medical mistakes and "too much healthcare"? What about them?
And there is no logic here. None of this is logical, or smart. More college doesn't make society better. In fact, as we can see, it makes simple jobs simply require a degree. You want "free college" so you can check some boxes on what you believe makes society better. So our baristas can recite Kant? You haven't actually thought any of this through. You have a shallow understanding about just about all of it which explains your position of supporting canned phrases, silly tropes and childish platitudes.
Clearly, you just like to hear yourself talk. Maybe learn about other countries and what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong and learn from that. The US is the only advanced country in the world with falling life expectancy, something unheard of in the civilized world. Not even to mention the highest inequality and poverty rates. But you do you.
The entire first world "socialized" healthcare industry is propped up by the innovation and profit talking of the US system. Clearly you just like to believe in things rather than thinking about them. Money grows on trees, technology is free, and unicorns are shitting rainbows in "the civilized world".
Its amazing how you are all the same. All of you. I'm just glad I escaped the mind virus that is progressive politics before it made me a lifer.
It’s not “socialized”/government-run healthCARE (except in rare cases, such as the UK); it’s “socialized”/government-run health INSURANCE (with predominantly privately-provided HEALTHCARE, just like what we have now). Huge difference. But again, you do you.
Nick, since you're an expert on human rights, I imagine you'd agree that human beings have a right to life, which has been a generally agreed upon universal principle for at least a few hundred years. Unfortunately for your ideology, there is no life without good healthcare. This is why, as Nenand points out, the vast, vast, vast majority of first world countries provide healthcare for their citizens. And in terms of college, do you think people are just born with the knowledge of how to build bridges, computers, astrophysics? All of this stuff, which is very important to the betterment of our society requires that people received extensive education. You know people learn more things than just philosophy in college, right?
More than 859,000 Americans die of heart disease, stroke, or other cardiovascular diseases every year—that’s one-third of all US deaths.
https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/resources/publications/factsheets/heart-disease-stroke.htm#:~:text=More%20than%20859%2C000%20Americans%20die,productivity%20from%20premature%20death%20alone
Most is due to obesity just like COVID 19. People who can not control their weight should pay more. Then I would go for health insurance for all. Those who are flagrant should pay more like taxing cars for the maintenance and building of roads.
Most first world countries do not have the minority/poverty problem that US has. Very few fat people in Japan and Europe.
A right to life is no different than the right to die. Human beings should be afforded both.
Cool, so we're in agreement. Human beings have a right to life and therefore a right to healthcare in order to keep them alive. See, that was pretty easy.
Australia - In 2018 the five largest immigrant groups were those born in England (4%), Mainland China (2.6%), India (2.4%), New Zealand (2.3%) and the Philippines (1.1%). In the 2016 Australian census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were: English (36.1%) Australian (33.5%)
In the 2016 Australian Census, 380,000 residents declared that they were born in Africa. There are approximately 123,000 Australians who are full or partial Spanish descent, most of whom reside within the major cities. 410,000. Same in Canada.
32% of our population is Black and Hispanic and get tax money back. Australia and New Zealand have no such problems.
YOU find out how they contribute to the economy let me know.
In come Inequity:
Asia/India average Household Income $80,000 - $120,000
White average Household Income $71,922 to $76,057
Hispanic average Household Income $52,382 to $56,113
Black average Household Income $42,447 to $46,073
Do you think they are contributing even enough to pay for the education of their children? Average cost is $12,000 a year, KP-12= $156,000. Hispanic family has 2.3 kids = $359,000. Hispanics in the Federal12% tax bracket x taxes would be $6,720. But $5.000 is given for Child credits.
Dec 10, 2019 — Who Is Eligible, and for How Much? ... The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a federal tax credit for low- and ... working families with children that have annual incomes below about $41,100 to $56,000 .
They get more money than they paid in. So does 60% of the population.
Can you compare Australia, New Zealand and Europe to Africa and South & Central America? The US is closer to Africa and South & Central America That's the kind of health care WE can afford.
AND are Asians suppressing Blacks and Latinos? If not why are you blaming Whites as racist, because Asians are making more than Whites. Do you hear Whites calling Asians supremacist?
What if the inequity lies in innate inability?
I think the inequity is far more likely to stem from cultural reasons rather than innate/genetic ones. The post WWII European immigrants to Australia generally had a stronger "work ethic" to the average white Australians, and that is obviously cultural not racial. That's just one example, but I'm sure you will find lots of similar cultural causes among different demographics.
"Living wage isn't a policy, its a trope. There is no such thing as a living wage as everyone's cost of living is different for a litany of different reasons."
There are realistic measures for a basic living wage.
Back when I went to public high school in the early 1970s, I took a course intended to prepare us for the basics of household economics related to leaving the parental nest and living independently. It was axiomatic that a full-time entry-level wage was sufficient to provide a worker with food, clothing, a studio or 1-bedroom apartment and utilities expenses, with 25% left over for savings. Rent was supposed to be the largest single expense- 25%.
By the mid-1980s, the cost of rent was more commonly agreed to be more like 33%. But the minimum wage did not keep pace (Federal minimum was $3.35/hr in 1985, $3.80/hr in 1990, $4.25/hr from1991 to 1996) and that was when things started getting out of hand. That began the huge increase in workers with minimum-wage jobs who found it necessary to apply got food stamps to survive- i.e., "welfare benefits". You know, "the Takers."
It doesnt matter that there is indeed a real living wage for each person, but using the term as a policy position is a trope. Its a waste of breath. Its childish. It means nothing. Its the sign of a simpleton.
Judging by the increases in the minimum wage by the majority of the States over the preceding ten years, the effort appears to have achieved a lot of success. Perhaps prompted by the fact that the two states with the highest State minimum wages at the time of the 2009 recession- Vermont and Oregon- pulled out of it faster and had unemployment rates that dropped faster than their lower wage neighbors.
-but that goes against Teh Dogmah- it cannot be-
I fully support each state establishing their own minimum wage, even if, as a matter of principles I believe the minimum wage hurts low skill and minority workers.
And while your statistics on Oregon may be accurate, your spurious correlations are hilarious. Empirically, minimum wage workers lose income when minimum wages go up as business cut hours in response to them. Empirically, rents also increase as wages increase because the markets are very tight and renters bid up the prices of desirable units as they experience raising wages.
I only accept empirical data support for claims like those. Not blackboard Theory. Including blackboard theory that's labeled as "empirical."
"This is why you people fail."
Wow. You've read our dossiers? All of them? How did you manage that feat? Even with allowance for unrestricted access, the sheer effort of that must be massive. Did you have help?
I've just watched democrats lose enough "sure things" to simply laugh in their faces.
if you were simply referring to the Democratic Party, I've been offering criticisms of my own on that situation for around two decades.
All of this, but for me in particular, especially this: “centrists” embracing and being embraced by ANYONE, including Bush-era neocon war criminals/propagandists, Islamophobic anti-choice/LGBT Republicans, lying CIA/FBI/NSA surveillance ghouls and billionaire oligarchs and their lobbyists = “bipartisanship”, “coalition-building”, “electable”; “big tent”
your post deserves a billion likes
Thanks, man!
5a. When "extremists" (of both parties, actually) get out of step, they're "Russian assets." That's because Russia is really bad.
When Establishment-D and Establishment-R types are caught throwing their panties at China, it's time to talk about Russia some more.
The funniest thing about all of this is that Putin and Xi absolutely could not give a shit. They're like, "You do you, guys, we got our own countries to run."
I don't think they're quite at that level of unconcern. But the amount of interest exaggeratedly ascribed to both of them- especially Putin- by the American media is just another feature of American Exceptionalism. Making it all about US, The Indispensable Nation.
Nail on head. Thank you thank you,
"The left advocating for policies that most Americans want"
Hee-hee-hee - did you really say that with a straight face? Sure, that explains the broad swath of strongly left politicians in our whole political circus.
How many accounts do you have on here, “Nick”? Clearly, not a troll. 🤣
Come on, where is the electoral success? It isn't there. You really going to be like one of the Libertarians of recent vintage? The ones that were all "Libertarian Moment"(tm) a few years back? Don't know who Nick is - I guess someone else that doesn't share your fantasies?
Yes to the above. Who controls the dialog?
I'm kind of digesting the article and I don't know if this is necessarily a loss for the left. The Democratic Party is slowly losing the younger vote and even some of us oldsters. We'll see what Biden/Harris do but so far it's not seeming super inspiring. What people with massive quantities of money - as most of the people who make decisions in this country are - don't realize is that those of us nearer the economic bottom know that money is power and an economic message works. I am a first generation American whose parents were immigrants from Mexico - they worked hard only to retire on $850 per month SS payments. You tell me which message they were going to hear - one of some nebulous racial justice or one of UBI...
Hey Berta, you're halfway there to switching sides...but the answer is not UBI, but a nationalist, pro-jobs, pro-family Republican Party, Trump or no Trump. The Mexican-Americans I know don't believe in handouts, they believe in opportunity and hard work. I've met several Mexican- Americans in recent months who have made the switch. You can too.
No. I don't like either party. I do find the People's Party interesting but these third parties never seem to be able to get going.
The populist side of the Republican Party that supports Trump is considering forming a third party as well. They hate the neocons of the Republican Party like we all do. It’s why I easily switched over to Trump from Bernie when the neocons endorsed Biden.
Don’t write off the Trump supporters just because they had to vote Republican just like the progressives were forced to vote Dem. The American people hate both establishment parties (the uniparty is what Trump supporters also call them) but that’s why the establishment uses the media to keep us divided and for lefties to hate Trump supporters.
I voted for Bernie as well but would never vote for Trump. He not only had neocons in his administration (Bolton, Abrahms) but also people like Pompeo. He also made a virtue of selling weapons used to kill civilians in Yemen, assassinated Soulemani for no reason, treated the environment with total disregard, failed to speak out against White Supremacists, got out of what were good if imperfect agreements - And his incompetence and non existent attention span has led to a total disaster as far as the pandemic. I can’t stand Biden or Harris but I made a last minute decision to vote for them just to do my part to get Trump out. As far as Trump voters...They aren’t my enemy- at least not from my side. I worked with two vocal Trump voters...One was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met - really liked him. The other was a total jerk but he would’ve been one no matter who he voted for. I see no reason we can’t all work together but there’s going to have to be a good dose of respect-and compromise from all involved. I would love to see more viable political parties.
And yet Trump still hasn’t started a new war during his administration even though Bolton tried to make him which is why Trump FIRED him and why Bolton hates Trump. Didn’t stop all the left from supporting a neocon like Bolton by buying his “I hate Trump” book.
You rag on Trump for having neocons yet Biden was literally endorsed by them via the Lincoln Project and Colin Powell at the DNC.
Also your belief that Trump did not disavow white supremacy means that you believe everything the media tells you. Go look up the “fine people” hoax. Go check out how the media and progressive media lied about Trump and that they edited the footage to cut out the fact that he said that both antifa and the white supremacists are bad but that the peaceful protesters on both sides are “fine people”.
Just willing to believe everything you’re told huh? Well I was a progressive because I thought they were telling the truth. I voted for Trump when I found out that the progressives were ALSO lying.
If you actually believe in truth, go seek it yourself. Don’t just believe what anyone tells you. Otherwise, you just become a tool for them. And if you won’t check, then just admit to yourself that you don’t believe in truth. You only believe in what you WANT to believe.
«parents were immigrants from Mexico - they worked hard only to retire on $850 per month SS payments.»
What did they expect? The deal was "you can immigrate as a cheap and disposable servant so to keep the wages and pensions of existing servants down", and that they are getting *any* SS payment now that they are "useless eaters" proves how generous America's capitalism is. :-(
I actually at times suspect there are secret discussions as to the benefits of many elderly dying from COVID. Think of the savings...
Makes sense why Dem governors were heartless enough to put Covid patients into nursing homes. I just thought they did it to manipulate the population with an overinflated death rate. Most choices are made because they work out for multiple things.
Doesn’t stop the neolibs and neocons from being Death cultists in my mind though.
Dems and Republicans. Overall the response has been less than stellar. A big problem has been a weak to absent central message and guidelines.
«Dems and Republicans. Overall the response has been less than stellar. A big problem has been a weak to absent central message and guidelines.»
The same has happened in some european countries like the UK but not in other european countries like Germany, and not in places like China-Taiwan or New Zealand. The difference is simple:
* The experience of literally thousands of years is that to contain infectious diseases one has to find infected people and isolate them.
* The current virus means that infectious people often have no symptoms or there is a period where there are no symptoms.
* Therefore what is critical is to test-and-trace to find infectious people and isolate them.
* That requires for the state to fund *in advance* a public health system of a sufficient size, so when needed it can do pervasive test-and-trace and isolate and treat the infected.
* That is something that reaganista/thatcherite governments will not do for ideological reasons.
So if finding and isolating the infected cannot be organized, the alternatives are to isolate everybody (lock-down), which reduces profits and rents, or for the affluent and wealthy to isolate themselves in their mansions and estates, and use their servants to deal with the necessities of life that require contact with other people, and indeed there has been a surge in sales of large isolated McMansions, palaces, private islands.
I think you’re right. The virus has revealed all our healthcare, social and economic failings. Instead of doing anything to stop the virus from spreading we immediately seemed to focus on some technological and profitable for the few solution. We have a friend from Taiwan who said everything there is open, no concerns about social distancing, everyone wears masks and they are not in a huge hurry for a vaccine. That’s called a competent government - pig parts flinging aside.
Many thousands, perhaps millions, of born-here Americans only get around $800 a month - some even less - to live on after a lifetime of working. So it's not racism that's paying your parents so little - - how much SS you get depends on the wages you got while working. Being treated equally - isn't that what's wanted?
I'm not sure I said it was racism. My point is that an economic message is not only what's needed but good politics. No one should be expected to live on what are starvation wages in a country as wealthy as this.
When you are working 60 hours per week and earning just enough to get by and are self employed - there are no pensions, 401Ks or other investments. I don’t think they were alone being in that situation . They were fortunately able to buy a house and knew how to live frugally so they were ok as far as basics. But if we think about how many people are coming up who have massive debt and no ability to save, we as a country are not in a good place.
Well done piece but depressing. Bernie failed his supporters (especially his delegates) in 2016 and failed them all again in 2020. His "lesson learned" in 2016 was to adopt inter-sectional language and to broadcast his support for less progressive candidate Elizabeth Warren --possibly so he couldn't be accused of sexism? that didn't work --and of course for his good friend Joe Biden. I wish someone would do some reporting on who in Bernie's campaign really made these awful decisions. Glenn Greenwald in an off the cuff moment in an interview suggested that Jane was behind a lot of it. Could this be? All that money and all that campaigning and the reward is the elevation of Neera Tanden and shortly, perhaps when Biden has fractured a hip not a foot, Kamala Harris as President. Hillary really won this one.
Jane Sanders likes Jill Biden..see, as dear George Carlin said, "It's a big CLUB and we're not in it!"
No way. It will gall her every moment of the President Kamala Harris term.
She is exceptionally greedy in personality and has worked to be the first female President for 20+ years. hahahahaha
Bitch will never be Prez. hahahahahahahahahahaha
If you see Babs Boxer, flip her off for me, will ya? hahahahahahaha
It's a win for the Obama Dems, which Matt does not distinguish from the Clinton Dems but of which there is a division as sure as there is with Bernie Bros, I have no doubt.
Tanden has to be approved by the Senate for that post, no?
Well, Bernie blew it. He should never have become an "obedient afterthought"; but he didn't learn anything from his rejection in 2016, and he suffered from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Indeed, I don't think that he's now even an afterthought. He should have gone third party, but he couldn't face Trump being re-elected. The Democratic Party cannot be reformed. It has to be destroyed. Trump did pretty well in busting up the Republican Party (so many of them supported Biden and became liberal heroes. People like Bill Kristol, George W. Bush, and John Bolton); Trump just didn't do well enough. Sanders is just getting what he asked for. Soory, I wishe it were otherwise, but it isn't.
I think so too. Matt describes it so well; the money networks of jobs makes it difficult.
I wouldn’t go near the Democratic Party if it wasn’t for Bernie. The DNC arguement is basically as long as it is a Latinx Tranny telling me to go fuck myself for wanting Medicare for all, I can’t say shit as a straight Latino. You can’t message away that bullshit.
From what I've seen, the real counterculture will be overwhelmingly Latino.
I don't think most Latinos would go along with a Hugo Chavez fake election and can see this shit coming from a mile away... coupled with a strong sense of family, who are now the "enemy" of the DNC, I see the next populist wave will likely be made of brown, black and white people who somehow still believe in a nuclear family and a strong sense of community.
I say, bring it on. We need some solid and guiding principles and we absolutely NEED that Latin fire to add life to something we can all get with.
Unite.
Tell everyone you see.
estados unidos
Nothing fake about the election. Biden won. Trump is notorious for stiffing contractors. He ain’t a real man. His word means nothing. Not voting for a lying punk ass Trump. That church crap is bullshit too. I ain’t listen to a faggot priest who never got his dick wet tell me what to do. Church is for old ladies.
I hate that we can’t call out people for bullshit anymore. Hell, I say stupid shit all the time and get called out for it. That is how you learn. Identity doesn’t make you inherently good or bad. If this was the real America, that Chelsea Manning would be a national hero and we would have statues for that bitch. If you support the war machine and fucking the working people, then you suck no matter what your identity is. There is no goddamn party for normal people anymore!
I've thought for awhile that the Hispanic influence could go either way. Mexico is not exactly a cultural paradise (but how much of that is the empire's influence over it?). Nonetheless, if one could get them to commit, they would largely do so as a whole and would be formidable- certainly able to flip any number of states in an election.
The government of Mexico has been grossly corrupted by organized crime for well over half a century (and my vagueness about the date is only because my knowledge of the history only goes back to around the 1950s.) I think that Lopez Obrador is the best President that Mexico has had in my lifetime- at least as far as I can tell from what's known about him- but the political system in the provinces and cities, the police, and the armed forces is so shot through with corruption that I'm amazed that it isn't a completely failed state.
Yeah, you're right. I knew talking about Mexico could be problematic.
Were it not for using the US as a relief valve of sorts, Mexico would have had another revolution by now. In the meantime, the US is responsible for many of their woes.
I'm amazed Obrador hasn't gotten Kennedy'd yet.
Honestly though, I think Mexico limps along due to what Kropotkin called "mutual aid" -- Mexicans know their elites are bullshit and help each other out. It's kind of like the late Soviet Union.
It really hasn't helped that the USA has been fucking around in Mexico ever since the guerra de independencia, although I do confess to being a fan of Abe Lincoln's "a bunch of rifles fell of a train and Benito Juarez got aholt of them? Well I never" maneuver.
Given the challenges of Mexico's history- many of them imposed from without- the amazing thing isn't that the institutions of the government are half-rotted from corruption; it's that anything remains that hasn't been corrupted. I think your comment about mutual aid is on-point. It's the parallel structure that keeps the remnant of a decent society in place. The people who aren't corrupt, or who only resort to corruption when it's absolutely necessary.
It's interesting to hear the condemnations of NAFTA from the American point of view that it hurt the US (or even "destroyed" us, per a comment I read elsewhere in the thread.) Because what NAFTA really unravelled was the middle class of Mexico. The result for them is akin to what recently happened to independent Internet retailers when Amazon blew up.
My attitude toward Mexicans and Central Americans streaming northward to cross the border illegally is ambivalent: from my point of view, it's a terrible undermining of national sovereignty. We can't just dismantle border protections and let everyone in with no accountability!
On the other hand: wouldn't you? I totally get why a Mexican, Honduran, etc. would feel the need to abandon the home of their birth and get out of there as soon as possible, taking their chances to cross the border as an outlaw resident in a new land. I don't like the criminal element, but I respect the people who just want to get away from the chaos and come north to make an honest living. Assuming the risks of getting caught, and accepting them. The US government indisputably has a lot more power to ameliorate the problems of Mexico or the Central American nations than any peasant family fleeing the paramilitary gang wars down there. That's certainly a valid reason for refugee status, in my view. Or for having a go at sneaking into the country, if the option isn't available. If the US wants to effectively reduce that sort of immigration as a problem, it needs to be addressed at the source.
Ain't my call (gringo here), but none of my Latino/Latina friends IRL use "Latinx," leading me to believe it is some made-up bullshit. Maybe I live in a bubble.
Mexican American and I don't like Latinx. Until I heard it I didn't even know how to pronounce it. Just seems silly to make up a new name - I know what I am.
Nobody knows how to pronounce it.
Controversial opinion: groups that keep changing their name aren't entirely at peace with being what they are. The black community has gone from negro to colored to black to African-American to POC in a very short period of time. The first two changes were embraced by the very members of the group. Each subsequent change has gotten progressively less popular with the very members of the group being described. I think it' a good sign that a growing number of black Americans are fine with who they are. I guess the near-universal rejection by Hispanics of Latinx is a welcome sign that Hispanics were always happy with themselves in the first place.
I live in a bubble (deep blue San Francisco) and I have yet to meet a Latino/a who likes "Latinx."
Latino and Latin-x is racist. There, I said it. And I'm a L..., never mind.
Most of the naysayers probably share my reaction that Latinx is a name better suited to a trans hooker than an umbrella label of ethnic group affiliation.
It doesnt matter if the minority groups accepts. The white, uppity, over credentialed, liberal "intelligentsia" is all that matters.
I think the best & brightest Wokists who concluded that "Latinx" was a peerless coinage to solve the "gender problem" associated with the more traditional designation are on course to hit the reef with this one. Although some of them apparently do wield the power of the printing press, which indicates that it will be a while before the term fades ignominiously from view.
If the UberWokists really want to shoot themselves in one foot while sticking the other one in their mouth, I guess nothing is stopping them from making a concerted attempt to neuter the gendered characteristics of Spanish language nouns entirely.
Don't ask me. I still don't know what a "cis" is. Worse yet, I'm proud of that. So don't spoil it by telling me.
I've never really been all that excited about Bernie. I have some old Bernard Sanders audio albums covering the life Eugene Debs. Debs and Sanders stories are of two divergent political trajectories. Debs walked away from a promising career in the Democratic Party to help start a socialist movement in the US. Bernie made his name as a socialist mayor in Vermont before moving to the "People's house" and then ultimately to the US Senate were he voted with the Democrats 98% of the time. Bernie has supported US military interventions and wars over his political career. Eugene Debs went to prison because he chose to openly oppose WWI. Bernie at the height of his political power, and after it was proven that DNC colluded with the Clinton campaign to derail his campaign, O' Bern chose to support a candidate (Clinton), of which, he spent his entire campaign exposing as a pure unapologetic Wall Street candidate. Debs ran his last presidential campaign from prison. Debs is a story of principles and courage. Sanders is a story of cynical pragmatism and political survival at all cost.
I agree. That Bernie is the standard bearer for “Progressives” is pathetic, and somehow appropriate.
Ugh. How sad.
A little harsh on Bernie -- national political and economic conditions were different in Debs' time than his time -- but on the whole sadly accurate. You have to possess some level of cynicism to survive in national politics, but I think of him more as an idealist who didn't know when to stop compromising.
That said, I think our national political and economic conditions are regressing back to something approximating Debs' time. Who has the cojones to fill 'Gene's shoes?
Well what the hell was he waiting for? At the time of his 2016 campaign, Bernie was 76 year old politician that had the national spotlight on him, and real chance to do something with his political "capital". But what does he do in the face of real conspiracy to undermine his campaign by the DNC and Clinton campaign (no investigation by congress)? He capitulates and joins in on the sinking ship for political survival at 76 years old. He could've taken his considerable support and ran with the Green party. Yes, it would've been symbolic in a sense instead of a serious run at POTUS, but it could've given the Green party candidates around the country a real boost, and possibly turned it into a real political entity with serious nation support. If Bernie was serious about changing the political system, the Green Party platform lined up more along with his rhetoric than Democratic Party. And yes, the national media would've crucified him, but they were doing that anyway. He'll they politically neutered him by 2020. He absolutely had nothing to gain from his complicity with the Democrat Party and he owed them nothing. He even had a the political ammunition to attack the DNC for their proven collusion with Clinton to upend his bid for POTUS. It made no sense for Bernie to remain a loyal lackey and burn up all his political leverage in 2016. And In 2020, Bernie was a novelty act in the primaries, and went out with whimper. And all for what?
What you missed is the big payout - Bernie went from nearly broke to a multi-millionaire after 2016's self-sacrifice thanks to a book deal. The cynic in me thinks that was arranged by the Clintons to get him on board.
You hate to hear that kind of thing, but it is the most likely motivation for Sander complicity.
that and the FBI investigating Jane.
The spooks were all in with the Clintons.
And Biden this 'go-round.
Had he spent the last five years building the Green Party into something worthwhile and built bridges there and even if the Greens had gotten some headway in this last election, a sudden influx of Biden votes would have shown up after polls closed and he'd have lost anyway.
It's fucken rigged, hard.
His decision even hurt the alternative left media. They had gain sparse national notoriety during 2016 - hell, Bernie built his platform from the fringes while both he and alternative left media (a lot of internet media) gain legitimacy from his celebrity status as a "real" Washington Outsider, and tribune of the people. However, his decision to back and support Hillary derailed a lot left momentum, and that might have been his entire objective from the start. I hate to think in conspiratorial mindset, but what else could Bern been thinking.
Maybe harsh, but well-deserved.
Sanders was never in my mind a "viable candidate".
Plenty of people can fill up stadiums and "give the people what they want" -even Justin Beiber in his hey day.
This doesn't make them GOOD or worth a flip if you don't like their brand.
The fact that Sanders remains silent...says it all....Bernie doesn't have the guts to lead a progressive revolution. He's pop-gun revolutionary.
Bernie was pro-2A for a long long time when he was Mister Vermont (real gun) but did a 180 to the national Dem party line on gun control when he decided to play in the big game (pop-gun).
None of the progressives do. There will be blood. This isn't just about healthcare and education. The Sanders' wing wants to reinvent the entire system. He's a communist at heart, as are his disciples, all one has to do is scratch the surface to discover this.
Really, Nick??? I am no communist. I owned a small business for 20 years, former local Chamber of Commerce president, 40 year Democratic Party activist, former Illinois State Representative, retired stockbroker....Oh...and when I retired, I earned a graduate degree in Economic History from the London School of Economics. So I know Wall Street Dem GoFer BS.... I can smell it a mile away.
The "Bernie would abolish capitalism" rhetoric is simply astounding. He's an FDR Democrat.
Of course, the Wall Street goons also screamed that FDR was going to abolish capitalism, so...
Well, they were right. We no longer live in a capitalist society.
What's not capitalist about it ? Name a time when capitalism wasn't cronyism please.....
Please....
Right, and I bet anyone that earns more than you do owes "us" something. I know your type. You've worked heard, you've earned it, its those "other guys" who earn <insert amount more than I do here> that should pay more!
You're all the same. The problem is, your ideology will cannibalize itself and it runs out of money from those above you.
Yes, the system is broken, but if you think the solution to this is to simply steal more wealth from the top and dole it out to the bottom as a transfer or service, your a communist.
Someone is having an online hissy fit I see. How come it's only OK when the top steals money from the bottom ? Who needs enough money for 10,000 line times ? How can society function when 2,500 people have half the money on the planet and could never rationally spend it all ?
You're so indoctrinated you can't even see reality, you want to be exploited by the elite and punch down so you feel as if you're an elite despite the fact you'll never be one.
when in History was the wealth more equitably distributed?
of course it can continue this way.
In this country, the wealth was more equitably distributed as recently as the 1960s.
You clearly worship the dollar and believe it represents something real. That is your folly. You dont know what a dollar actually is.
let me guess: in your definition, a REAL dollar = 17.25 milligrams of .999 gold dust.
It represents slavery of the masses by the elite. Like any other currency it is used to create debt and steal time and energy.
Stop. I never said the inverse was ok either. You're acting like a child.
Nick - Instead of your constant nitpicking, I'd like to hear about your ideas for how society ought to be run to help regular people. SOLUTIONS to society's problems are what we need.....may we have yours, please?
no, he isn't any kind of revolutionary. nor did he ever claim to be one.
Biden cabinet is pure, utmost corporate identity politics. I voted Obama in 2008 based on his antiwar and universal healthcare stance. He did not deliver, and I soon found answers in old Matt's Griftopia. So I did not vote in 2012. In 2016 I wrote in Bernie, and this time I held my nose and voted for Biden. Next time I sure as hell will vote for Trump IF ONLY he pardons Assange and Snowden (don't care too much about Snowden since he's pretty free already). Why? Because there is no hope in this duopoly to have a president that represents middle class, so let's vote for someone who at least allows people the right to know.
Same here. Did not vote Obama in 2012 because I saw who he was and left top of ticket blank in 2016. Like your logic. I left the Dem party after 45 years.
your'e my ideological twin
There's no turning back what happened in 2016. Bernie is now irrelevant and even if the country supports many of his policies, they will NEVER support a weakling again. I know I won't. People talk about ending "Trumpism"...all I hear is "ending any possibility of the people having an actual say". I could give a fuck about Trump's naughty language at this point. The DNC has ensured at least half the country will never support them again and the RNC will also lose their support if they try to turn things back to the way they used to be. There will be a massive revolution if this election isn't fairly audited and I will gladly be a part of it. My (our) future is fucked. But that doesn't mean I have to watch it happen with my hands tied. I will not pretend any of this is okay for one second longer.
So, let’s speculate the election isn’t fairer audited, and there will be a “massive revolution”. What does the revolution look like?
I don't know. I hope it won't be violent. But Antifa and BLM most likely will ensure that dream is crushed quickly. I have a feeling it will be ugly. I don't want that and I don't think most people do. You know what I want when less though? No future with no freedom. So the other side that's turning a blind eye to the coverup going on should really think long and hard about the consequences. If Biden won fairly...that's good enough for me! Why won't the other side say the same thing instead of saying election safeguards are somehow unimportant now?
When ALL of the "irregularities" and "glitches" are 100% in Biden's, (read as: the fucking War Machine's,) favor, it's not some accident -it's orchestrated.
They stole it, and they will find a way to demonize and remove the 80 or so million people who are in the way.
This wasn't about that stupid clown Trump. It was about populism. It wasn't MY brand of populism, and probably not yours, but it went against the State and to them is unforgivable.
They will continue their campaign against it and I have no doubt they will be forced to tip their hand at some point... and THEN the real mess will begin.
They're using COVID-19, "racism", "inequality" and trans-humanism as their front to create a new world where there are no borders, no countries and ALL of us are on the same tax and labor plantation.
Cue the Imperial March theme...
"Obi-Wan, an Alliance between left and right populists is our only hope."
LOL I imagine after polling closed and the millions of fake votes came in Obi-Wan staggered and said, "I just felt a great disturbance in the Force -it was as if millions of ballots cried out and were suddenly silenced".
"This wasn't about that stupid clown Trump. It was about populism. It wasn't MY brand of populism, and probably not yours, but it went against the State and to them is unforgivable."
Thanks to the 2016 Dem establishment, it was the only brand of populism on the table. I registered D for the first time since 1988 to caucus for Bernie in 2016. Ended up voting for Trump. I'll never again hold my nose to vote for whatever D or R the Establishment pushes through the system. Anything close to a genuine populist gets my attention.
Well, frankly, they have to plan the inauguration party (that takes a lot of planning, time and effort) and there's no time for ensuring election safeguards. Maybe next time.
Sure... "next time". HAHAHAHA
So then....How deeply do we now have to believe that the Republicans in Georgia and elsewhere that work on safeguarding the election are total liars? There seems to be a very large number, in fact, a near total majority, of those in charge of the election, both Republican and Democrat...including several courts throwing out the RNC lawsuits....that say the election was solid. That several lackeys to Trump refuse to acknowledge defeat....is this a reason to believe the election was a scam?
"Solid"... when every other western country has made mail-in ballots illegal due to massive vote rigging?
You can go ahead and count the fake votes all you like... and recount them.
It doesn't make them any less valid.
Are you actually defending a massive election scam?
Sounds like it.
When hundreds of thousands of "votes" turn up after polling closes for the day and ALL are in favor of Biden... you don't need to be told they're pissing in your face and calling it rain.
Ummm....I don’t count any votes. Or recount them. I am not defending anything, I am asking you questions. So, the Dems, who are incapable of doing or performing anything intelligent, are suddenly capable of orchestrating the largest election scam conceivable and no one knows about it....(?). There is a thing called a fact, and there are none that I can find in your statements. That other countries made mail-in ballots illegal... Is this proof of the scam?
You are assuming this is just the DNC. Where were you for Russiagate?
So...bipartisan agreement equals no corruption now? I don't know where you actually stand on all this...maybe you are just trying to understand the other side. I'm not going to sit here and list evidence because frankly -- I'm tired of doing this for other people who have fingers that can type just as easily as mine can. The recounts have all been a sham. They have done everything BUT an actual audit with signature verification. So when the side that is being accused of tipping the scales refused to allow the scales to be inspected -- I get suspicious. When the state Supreme Court starts taking power from the legislature and changing election laws before the election -- I get suspicious. When election turnout norms are wildly off in EVERY SINGLE STATE THAT MATTERED -- you guessed it, I get suspicious. There is so much evidence of fraud. Look for it and you will find it.
There’s mountains of evidence for everything. Delineating it all down into claims of fraud or credibility via typing queries into Google and choosing the items that reinforce my predilections is not my idea of research. How do we know the “recounts have all been a sham”? There seem to be a lot of credible officials of both parties certifying that they are not a sham.
Yeah...this is why I said what I said. Not trying to be a dick but there's a difference between doing what you suggested and actually researching what's going on in these recounts. Recounting fraudulent ballots = not a real recount. I'm not doing the work for you. If you need somewhere to start: HereIsTheEvidence.com