Be sure to check in later this AM. Lambert will have a post on the primary results.
Dog owners warned about new tick disease BBC (David L)
What’d You Call Me? Meet the Bony-Eared Assfish National Geographic
Egg-Cam Watch: Bald Eaglet May ‘Pip Out’ In D.C. Tuesday NPR (David L)
Antarctica’s ice is being carved up from below Washington Post (David L)
Developers don’t get it: climate change means we need to retreat from the coast Guardian. (resilc). Except in Maine, where there are hardly any beaches (although a ton of docks would need to be rebuilt….)
An AI with 30 Years’ Worth of Knowledge Finally Goes to Work MIT Technology Review
NFL acknowledges link between football and brain disease for the first time Boing Boing
Antibiotics becoming ineffective at treating some child infections Guardian
Leaked: Commission giving inside information to car lobby on new emissions tests failed evolution
China?
Why China’s Bad Debt Solution Isn’t Magic Wall Street Journal
China Grapples With Job Cuts and Wage Gains as Congress Closes Bloomberg
‘Negative rates hugely unpopular in Japan’ CNBC
Refugee Crisis
HUNGARY’S VIKTOR ORBAN SEES BRUSSELS PLOT ON MIGRANT INFLUX Associated Press (Chuck L)
Macedonia forcibly returns thousands of refugees to Greece Guardian
Russia/Ukraine
Putin: The Rule of the Family New York Review of Books Resilc: “Russia has one, USA USA has two crime familes, gop/demos=crips/bloods.”
Syraqistan
Don’t Trust Putin’s Syria Pullback Bloomberg (furzy)
Russia & Hizbullah begin withdrawal from Syria Juan Cole
Iran Says It Recovers Information from US Sailors’ Devices Military.com
Imperial Collapse Watch
A Spymaster Forgets the Bush Era American Conservative (resilc)
Negative Publicity: Artefacts of Extraordinary Rendition We Make Money Not Art (For the Win)
The ‘Credibility’ Argument Isn’t Credible American Conservative (resilc)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
The Very Existence of the NSA Is Illegal0000 Readers Supported News
And let me include this long tidbit via e-mail from reader Bill B:
It’s come to light that Facebook’s WhatsApp uses technology from Open Whisper Systems, Moxie Marlinspike’s outfit, which received a boatload of money from the BBG (similar to how Tor is funded by the U.S. govt).
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2732024-Otf-fy2014-Annualreport.html#document/p4/a281309
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2732024-Otf-fy2014-Annualreport.html#document/p21/a281310And look who’s on the advisory council: Bruce Schneier:
The same guy who thinks that covert ops are fine so long as they’re targeting high-level officials (never mind the constitutional threats from pervasive secrecy or all of those Pashtun wedding parties that get crashed in the hunt for so-called “high-value targets”):
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/03/wikileaks_publi.html
This may help explain why Bruce gets so much bandwidth in the mainstream press. He’s an active part of the Govt-Corporate nexus, the Kabuki theater which serves as damage control in the wake of Snowden era leaks.
2016
Defeat in Ohio clouds path for Trump Financial Times
Clinton clobbers Sanders in Ohio, Florida Politico
Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Advance, Even as Doubts Grow Wall Street Journal
Hillary’s Email Defense Is Laughable POLITICO. Furzy highlights this 2015 story, and I separately remember it due to its subtitile: “I should know – I ran FOIA for the US government.”
GOP meltdown will put a telling coda to Obama presidency Atlanta Journal-Constitution (furzy). A bit smug. It’s only a meltdown of the orthodox Republican party. Hillary has shown all of her tricks as a pol, while Trump keeps improvising, and he’s got months to refine how to go after her, and 24 years of material to use.
Donald Trump’s volunteer contract forbids all criticism of Trump DailyDot (furzy)
Rahm Emanuel’s Disastrous Stint as Chicago Mayor Is Officially a Campaign Issue Charles Pierce, Esquire (flora)
What Really Made the Right Nuts Washington Monthly
The strange history of opiates in America: from morphine for kids to heroin for soldiers Guardian
Vermont Finds Widespread Contamination in Wells Wall Street Journal
Video shows Fort Worth cop pepper-spraying passing bikers from roadside Boing Boing
5 Things to Watch at the Fed Meeting WSJ Economics
CEOs Plan Less Hiring and See Growth Slowing in 2016 WSJ Economics
The Untold Story of Why the SEC Paid Whistleblower Eric Hunsader $750,000 Pam Mertens and Russ Martens. Not a great headline but a good piece. Another example of SEC window-dressing, this time on HFT.
The Stunning Facts on Crime and Imprisonment Everyone Is Ignoring Washington Monthly
Valeant halves in value on default alarm Financial Times. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.
Bankruptcy Examiner Finds Plausible Claims Against Caesars Wall Street Jounral
US banking industry body calls for rate rises Financial Times
Class Warfare
Accused Kalamazoo Gunman Told Police He Was Possessed by Uber App at Time of Deadly Spree Gawker (resilc)
How Disney and Pixar mislead your kids Yahoo Finance (furzy)
Housing: Part 128 – The Hollowing Out of Middle Class Housing Idiosyncratic Whisk
New Zealand plans to give everyone a ‘citizen’s wage’ and scrap benefits Independent
Antidote du jour (furzy):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
253 comments
Comments are closed.
FYI, new Koch Bros fund
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-15/the-billionaire-koch-brothers-have-a-hot-new-number-1888
“Originally operated out of the treasury division of Koch Industries, 1888 incorporated in Delaware in 2014 and has since registered to do business in California, Florida and the Kochs’s base of Kansas.”
Look out, CALPERS!
numerology watch–3 lucky 8’s
RE: Bald Eagle watch
Here’s a link to Bald Eagle nest on one of the Channel Islands (30 miles south of Santa Barbara):
http://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/photosmultimedia/bald-eagle-webcam.htm
The video (current) shows mom and pop feeding two new chicks.
https://www.facebook.com/City-Hall-Falcons-1429400834042093/
City Hall in downtown Philly is home to Falcons. Don’t know why or what they eat, but they have fan club and are taken care of by the State Game Commission. Visitor observation deck has a special display all about them. Better than pigeons.
But, there are also Bald Eagles nesting in the city and can be seen flying around. Apparently, hundreds of Bald Eagles have made a comeback in the state, all due to Federal Wildlife Endangered Species Protection Acts. At first they were an anomaly on the local TV news, and now they are just a regular feature of wildlife in the area, including way too many deers running around the city and across roadway for may taste. Obviously, the Eagles have a pre-existing fan base in the city as well as the sentimental patriotic favoritism due to historic events.
——————————————————————————————-
“Prior to January 2009, I’d never seen a bald eagle in the wild. Generally speaking, I’d thought that unless you’re on some remote river in Alaska, seeing one in the wild was a rare treat indeed. In the three months I’ve been back in Philadelphia, I’ve already seen three.
Gary Stolz, manager at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge in Southwest Philadelphia, credits the Endangered Species Act of 1973 with the remarkable comeback of the bald eagle. “Back in the 60s and 70s, bald eagles were completely gone from Pennsylvania,” he says, adding, “they’d been gone from Philadelphia proper for over 200 years. Now there are over 250 nesting pairs across the state.”
http://hiddencityphila.org/2013/05/the-philadelphia-eagles-comeback-story/
Urban Peregrines in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley CA prey primarily on pigeons. A friend of mine and I located a Peregrine nest near Jenner CA in 1967. It was the only such sighting reported that year in the entire state. They have made a dramatic comeback since then.
So confused…I thought the Falcons were from Atlanta. Also, you don’t know why they eat? I thought we all ate for the same reason: so that we can get the enjoyment of pooping later on. Isn’t that why everyone does it? It’s too early in the morning to be trying to figure this stuff out…
I WAS going easy on everyone, I deliberately left out the sighting of The Hawks! And don’t get me started on The Vultures that have reared their ugly heads! And no, not Trump supporters, sheesh, stay on topic!
———————————————————————-
THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD!
” This so-called “urban heat island effect” is helpful to birds that require rising columns of heated air to locate food. “There is actually a new, manufactured thermal corridor that extends from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia and on to New York,” says Bildstein. “Warmer urban areas create thermals, and there is no question that soaring birds are using them to great effect.”
Global warming may well be bringing them north, too. Black vultures soar higher than their turkey kin, and they tend to feed on larger prey. As overall temperatures inch upward, so does the thermal boundary at which carrion freezes, which makes it unusable to avian scavengers.”
http://archive.audubonmagazine.org/features0811/horrorShow.html
I always like the various eagle-cams, seeing the care the parents take. Twenty years ago I believe I saw my first wild bald eagle in northern Minnesota. Now they’re common enough even in Iowa, chomping on deer carcasses in corn fields, that most folks don’t pay attention anymore A real success story.
Here’s our peregrine falcon live cam at the University of Pittsburgh. The eggs haven’t hatched yet.
http://www.aviary.org/PF-NestCam1
And here is Pitt’s magnificent Cathedral of Learning, tallest Cathedral in the world dedicated to learning (if you do not count the spindle Russia attached to theirs to beat our record) and built during the Depression.
http://www.tour.pitt.edu/tour-categories/cathedral-of-learning
Here is the treat you find inside.
http://www.nationalityrooms.pitt.edu/
Downtown Richmond, VA also has an awesome peregrine falcon cam.
Ass-Fish from Down Under: The Rupert Murdockization of the National Geographic has begun.
Hillary Do You Do? Can a felon serve as President from jail?
Re Hillary; the more appropriate question is “Will the Elites allow Hillary to be sent to jail?” After all, big swathes of Wall Street should be behind bars, but are still doing their “Masters of the Universe” gig.
theywe should just put bars around the entire beltway and be done with it. time to put the “pen” in pennsylvania ave.They should all sleep with the bony eared assfish, but the bony eared assfish would say, Not in my ocean!
Wonder how fast the word will work its way into presidential debates?
“My opponent is a donkey…an onus.”
to frosty zoom:
Great idea.
How ’bout we take Donald’s “wall” & construct it there, instead. Makes much more sense. Much better for the country.
to ambrit:
Hellary? Jail? Ha, ha, ha.
I’ll believe it when I see Jamie Dimon, Eric Holder, Lenny Breuer, & others of their ilk holding a place for her.
They’re all above the law, as has been proven over & over & over &…………..don’t ya know?
GRRRRRRRR!!!
To fresno dan:
Great one! I’m still laughing. (“Not in my ocean!”)
I totally agree with you, BTW.
Following Robert Reichs thread on FB. The talk is intense and the support Hillary movement is getting slaughtered, even if it means a Trump Presidency.
If the Donald is for real, Hillary will walk and the same group that have killed off all potential destroyers of the financial status quo over the years will ensure his demise, using an unknown “patsy”.
If the Donald is an elite Trojan Horse, then Hillary will be destroyed.
There’s always a Plan B.
Another possibility:
Donald is real and he picks a renegade MIC type person as his VP.
‘Escape from D.C.’ soon to be released
Were is John Carpenter when you need him?
Legal impunity — how the pros do it:
President Hillulary: graft is her craft.
GPS ankle bracelets have made jails obsolete, so Hillary can be President, as long as she stays put on White House grounds. Which ain’t bad – 3 squares a day cooked by your own French chef, a rose garden, nice office, plenty of bedrooms, maid service, and your friends can come over and visit.
Almost forgot. Pays more than 27 cents an hour too. Not anywhere near what Hill is used to making, but it’s something.
She has her own Email server
Another year, another major oil spill in Peru
The 20th leak in just five years from a pipeline owned by state oil firm leaves indigenous communities distrustful.
wait for it…………………………..Asked why spills have become so common, the man in charge of Petroperu’s clean-up operation blames it on everything but the company itself.
“It’s happened several times,” Victor Huarcaya, leader of an emergency response team, told Al Jazeera, “but because of natural causes in the majority of cases or because of sabotage of the pipeline.” http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/year-major-oil-spill-peru-160305151737783.html
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” E.B. White
about the Antidote…is that from Fukushima with Love?
To me it looks like a Gurnard (that’s what they call them here in Australia), their nickname is “carrots” because of their shape and color. Equivalent of what they call a Sea Robin in the Atlantic.
I’ve caught quite a few, and they are very beautiful in reality (unfortunately for the larger specimens among them they are also very tasty indeed, light fry half butter half rice bran oil in bread crumbs with a dipping sauce of chipotle mayo).
Thanks Dave…i do feel better (this time’).
“Hope is such a bait, it covers any hook.” – Oliver Goldsmith
Many Clinton voters are apparently ignoring Obama’s bait-and-switch lesson.
I mistakenly turned on the electric teevee machine to MSNBC last night in time to see useful idiot Chris Matthews, getting yet another thrill up his leg, promoting his dream Hillary/Kasich presidential ticket.
Not a good night for Bernie. Sigh!!!
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops at all.“ – Emily Dickinson
Looks like the 2016 election will be between a millionaire fake progressive and a fake billionaire conservative. Sigh!!!
“Hold fast to dreams,
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird,
That cannot fly.” – Langston Hughes
What if they held an election and no one came?
No one will say it for fear of being labeled a racist by Obama’s cultists, but there is an element of buyers remorse. The last candidate who promised change was Obama. To the average voter, he probably sounded like Bernie. People still claim they were betrayed despite electing a champion of word salad and Reagan admirer.
Perhaps there is an element of diminished expectations, that real change is impossible
but all the more reason for Bernie to lay out the facts about Obama and why he could not get things done (he didn’t want to and his real funders instructed him not to) and how the Dem Party threw Progressives under the bus so that Dems stayed home and Republicans won both houses (which might be a strategy to give the impression Obama wanted “hope and Change” but was obstructed).Bernie needs to stress the utter corruption in both parties quoting Durbib,”They (the banks) own the place”. He needs to more forcefully show that Hillary has very poor judgement and no moral compass. The average voter knows very little about Bernie due ironically in large part to Bill Clinton’s Communications Act which allowed for our mendacious media consolidation. Or perhaps it is simply a lack of historic knowledge. Most of the black parents at my daughter’s school are Hillary fans.
Oh I’m not certain Bernie wouldn’t betray, just he has a cleaner record on most issues, and actually HAS a record period which Obama never did. But we need to try this again to keep trying to turn the country left. But if Bernie got elected and could do little whether for that reason or more likely just because Congress was not made of social democrats (but he can still block legislation), this country is probably going to elect a full blown f-ist (more so than the Trumpster) next time. Because if the entire system is set up to allow no left turns (and the entire system including the money and the front-loading of southern primaries seems to prevent even really rather moderate left turns), it will eventually turn hard right.
If the leftist solution, which is far more likely to offer the real solution, is thoroughly blocked what else is left for people to try as an improvement (for some provided you aren’t a minority etc.) over neo-liberalism?
Maybe we should try Thomas Paine’s method, circumvent Big Media with pamphlets
and posters in poor/middle class neighborhoods? Get people like Naomi Klein, Ellen Brown, Liz Warren,Michael Hudson, Michael Brenner (Univ. of Pittsburgh), Bill Black, Stiglitz to put on Info Rallies. Maybe Phish and like minded artists could play some music.
if you make two right turns one after another, you’ll be going left!
that”s not quite right. :-)
anybody still pissed about Tie Guy? That was quite a journalistic coup by Jacob, that’s for sure. Who woud have thought that priviledge could be so hidden in plain sight. But I wonder why Jacob didn’t hammer Skirt Woman the way he did Tie Guy. maybe Jacob is a gay guy. It could be! you’d think a guy with a blank circle for a face wouldn’t have sex appeal, but i guess if your flamer who likes the corporate dude look then Tie Guy could be your thing. Skirt Woman looks like she’s probably hot, but it’s hard to tell.. if i see her on the bus I’ll let the gallery know. she may be laying low for a while now staying far away from the subway after all the bad PR.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three rights make a left ;-).
It’s noxious versus putrid. Two old white oligarchs driven by greed and racism. The Rs are nominating someone who has been a D. The Ds are nominating someone who’s always been and R.
Does anyone get why BS is still in other than money?
re: antibiotic resistance in E.Coli causing pediatric UTI. Many unanswered questions:
re: antibiotic resistance… Can these UTI’s be prevented?
I am wondering what role hygiene and diet play in this I don’t know much about UTI in kids. This is a huge meta analysis study (compilation of over 40 studies) so I can see why it is getting attention. No mention of how antibiotic use in the beef industry may contribute to widespread resistance in E. Coli which is the bug mentioned in this press releas. Press release seems to imply that docs should not treat these kids with UTI at all.
Why can’t guys like Martin Shkreli get their lucre by working on issues like this??
“Why can’t guys like Martin Shkreli get their lucre working on issues like this?”
Well now, guys like Martin are getting their lucre working on issues like that. Unfortunately, just not in the manner you are implying. (Money can be made with engineering “shortages” just as easily as with innovating “surpluses.”)
When the public regulators are blocked from working on behalf of the people in general, decay results.
I’d argue that engineering “shortages” to make money is significantly easier then innovating “surpluses”.
The Guardian article re: anti-biotic resistant E. coli in pediatric UTIs
How did this get published without a word about the food system? The author actually blamed GPs for overprescribing antibiotics, which happens, but it’s not the whole story.
The global food system is awash in antibiotics. The question of just how much is fed and administered to animals goes unanswered due to lack of data and oversight. Until recently (at least in the US) even organic producers used tetracycline to fight blight on apple and almond trees. The same antibiotic is still used to raise pork. Do antibiotics wash off of fresh produce or denature when cooked? My husband, who has a known tetracycline allergy wasn’t eating his pork raw or his apples unwashed. Nevertheless, he was breaking out when he ate these foods. Neither of us eat meat or dairy anymore. His allergies stopped. Now that antibiotics have been discontinued in organic agriculture, he can eat organic apples again. Hmmmm…
I’m not convinced that the use of E. coli in transgenic engineering is safe. It’s part of a normal gut biome (although antibiotics are desertifying even that) and there are other ways for it to show up in food (ick). Still, it warrants more scrutiny. It’s been used in gene transfer since the 50s? but that’s a relatively recent development.
Diabetes, food allergies, E.coli outbreaks and antibiotic resistance are all becoming more prevalent. The Guardian has major blind spots regarding big ag and biotech.
Chelidonichthys kumu, It is known as bluefin gurnard or perhaps incorrectly as red gurnard. It is found in the West Indian and Pacific oceans.
I’ve read that such high colouration is an indicator for poison. Is this true here as well? I noticed the person holding the flying fishie is being very careful.
High coloration is also an indicator that the fish lives in muddy or silted areas.
Those boney fins do look very sharp.
Proof that fish evolved from butterflies, just as I always suspected.
They accomplished what we could not and became, probably through a magic incanting flight pattern, merflies!
1 aspect of the Sanders campaign I find confusing, is that Sanders is strongly anti-Rahm Emmanuel (“Emmanuel should resign, I do NOT want his endorsement”), while moderately pro-0bama (“I love 0bama, but on this specific issues like MedicareForAll & breaking up 2B2F banks I disagree with 0bama”).
0bama & Emmanuel are similar DLC right-wing neoliberal Reagan Jr Ds. 0bama hired Emmanuel in his Admin. IIRC both 0bama & Emmanuel share “Chicago Machine” owner/campaign funders like Prikster family. 0bama “accidentally” drone-murdered Al-Awlaki’s teenage US citizen son, just like Emmanuel covered up the cop-murder of teenager Laquan McDonald.
I wonder if Sanders is earnest in praising 0bama?
-or-
if Sanders secretely feels like I do that 0bama is deplorable like Emmanuel, but follows polling data that likely suggests that bashing 0bama would kill a D primary campaign, because authoritarian 0bots are prevalent in the D primary, & while 0bots may be less authoritarian than Trump voters, 0bots are sadly more authoritarian than Bush43 voters, many of whom stopped praising or even denounced Bush43 in ~2006.
A moot point, Sanders will not be winning the nomination. His concession speech last night was one hour long, none of the major news networks covered it, and it was 1000km away from the primary states in contest…Sanders knows the game is up, he’s just in it for the personal glory at this point.
Really? “Personal glory”? Any evidence?
Why, obviously it’s binary: personal glory or grift. And Bernie’s grift is woefully lacking.
no wonder he gets so little respect from the dnc! failure to grift is a serious charge.
Rough approximations only–It takes 2300 delegates to win. Sanders has 800 pledged delegates, Clinton has 1100.
So, out of 2600 delegates remaining, Sanders needs 1500 and Clinton needs 1200. So, it’s far from impossible though the odds certainly favor Clinton at this point.
Like I said, these are rough approximations from memory.
but ms. clinton only needs one diebold.
MSM–“she’s really, really inevitable this time. we promise.”
HRC needs inly one indictment, but that wont happen to preserve democracy, she is pretty emphatic on that.
Diebold probably figured liberally in her close win in Illinois.
Are you a Shillary Clintonite?
it’s really hard to tell the right wingers apart by party.
Last month Politico ran an article on how Sanders only needs a quarter of the available delegates to influence the platform committee and present a public dissent from the official platform to the convention.
I concede it seems highly unlikely at this point, but Sanders could still win the nomination. The remaining calendar is extremely friendly to Sanders and who knows if the private email server scandal might finally bring Hillary down. The Clintons have made a lot of enemies over the years. The longer Sanders stays in the race the longer he prevents Hillary’s hard tack to the right, which we all know she is dying to do. If Sanders goes into the convention defeated but still strong with a large number of delegates and states behind him he should be able to extract meaningful concessions/pledges from Clinton in exchange for his supporters. A Clinton pledge to protect Social Security (no cuts, no privatization) and a no-way, no-how, no TPP pledge is a worthy cause worth fighting for in my opinion. Who knows what else the Sanders campaign might be able to negotiate with the desperate Clinton Campaign? A MMT Treasury Secretary? I’m just saying, who knows, it could make a big difference. Your charge regarding “personal glory” is unfounded.
Note also that the FBI has leaked to the press that they plan to recommend or not recommend an indictment and grand jury for Hillary before June 1. Slightly better timing than after the July convention; less heat on the FBI.
Also, several veteran FBI insiders say that there is a general feeling among the 150 career agents on her case that if Hillary does not face a grand jury over what she has done, they will be happy to leak the whole sordid mess to the press anyway.
Even riding a white horse into glorious battle, you can fall off and break your bloomin’ neck, ya know.
Thanks for injecting a bright glimmer of hope into my dismal day. It’s hard to believe people as rotten as the Clintons could escape this lifetime without a day of reckoning. I’m hoping for some kind of miracle by June 1st, but I not holding out much hope for the media giving any bandwidth to disgruntled leakers. If I recall the details of the Lewinsky scandal I believe Linda Blair tried to unsuccessfully sell her story to several major news organizations, which refused to break the story, before finding an almost-unknown-at-the-time internet news aggregator site (the Drudge Report) which was willing to print the story about Bill Clinton and a intern named Monica.
Ummm, not quite, Nick. The western states are about to have their primary elections/caucus. Arizona is a western state. The speech may have taxed your attention span, but it was hardly a concession speech. Tuesdays results are definitely a setback for Bernie, but he has said he’ll continue his campaign through ALL of the states. Who said, “ain’t over ’til it’s over”?
One of many differences between Trump and Obama:
* Trump promises to kill the families of terrorists (cue OUTRAGE from the media pundits)
* Obama actually does kill the families of terrorists (as well as a lot of innocents) with drones (CRICKETS)
Its all about how you present the aural pablum, Let me be clear on this point
Nobel Peace Prize: license to kill
The families of those dead terrorists and innocents will eventually come around to the necessity of what Obama is doing and thank him later.
The families of innocent victims need to get together and have a conversation on this
You think Lula could use that prize to get out of jail?
We humans have evolved to be alarmed when someone or something is speaking or growling loudly.
Maybe it was a lion or a charging mammoth.
On the other hand, bright, beautiful mushrooms might not be so healthy for you.
Bernie’s career in politics would be over if he criticized Obama. I am a former Clinton supporter turned Bernie supporter, but I know that many of Bernie’s supporters were Obamabots. I doubt Bernie is earnest in his praise of Obama. Of course he is smart enough to know the actual truth and can clearly see the corruption within the Democratic Party. Realistically, there is only so much of the truth he can admit to out loud while still running as a Democrat and courting Democrats to vote for him.
A sure way to totally lose the black voting block, is to come out against Obama or OJ. (just kiddin about OJ… kinda)
Well….OJ has killed fewer innocent people, let me be clear on this point
It’s easy to ask of others, but is any one of us prepared to cross the Rubicon?
That would be admirably exceptional.
Personally I have already swum across, dried out my clothes on the opposite shore by the fire, and marched several miles inland with my eyes on the prize. I give no quarter to those who try to explain to me that Hilary and more corporo-fascist Permanent War billionaire business as usual would somehow be better than Bernie or even Trump.
(My circle of friends is ever shrinking but I do not care in the slightest).
I know precisely the level of foul mendacity I’m getting from Mrs. Clinton. Trump, based on past performance, will be at least as awful but more unpredictable with a bigger downside because Clinton is hedged in by the system in a way Trump may not be. Since I’ve given up on optimistically projecting hope and change onto candidates, I will certainly not vote for Trump. It will be Third Party or write-in for me.
What a treat to be able to have a dialogue with the top people on NC, please don’t ever change.
(Former American) I live in a parliamentary system where a third, fourth, or even fifth party vote can have a real impact, unfortunately the US system provides no such dynamic. If the US had mandatory voting (like we do here in Australia, $5000 fine) it would automatically move the debate to the center of the will of the people, instead we have two monoliths (one, really) that are immovable objects until overwhelmed by a popular tide, a revolution, or a civil war.
It’s one of the world’s great myths that Americans miraculously select their own leaders, a study I saw said that 72% of all votes cast were meaningless (e.g. Republicans in winner-takes-all California, etc).
Mandatory voting is hardly the cure all you claim. .
Almost everyone would vote for a candidate in the two main parties and the rest woiuld do write ins for some random person (if not fictional/cartoon character… Like many people already do).
All it does is waste people’s time when the selection is shit or they live in districts where their vote truely does not matter.
trust me, unless you have raged over the Apennines with a herd of war elephants, even though the results became a bummer, you have not lived
i’ve been thinking lately that a two-party system is the inevitable evolution of any parliamentary system. at least for several decades as information lags and it will take that long for voters to figure the game out and bring the edifice down.
basically, as seen with the lib dems in the UK, when the left and right wings converge (usually it’s because the left steeer right), they squeeze any third parties in the middle out of existence.
Good observations. Pretty clear that Sanders takes on the establishment in calculated, measured doses. Hard to say how well that works for a platform of change from the status quo vs. what is simply impossible in a corrupt system.
On a somewhat different topic, I would be interested in just how vulnerable the four supposed Hillary wins were to electronic manipulation (the Diebold edge). Anywhere Rahm is, or Hillary for that matter, I assume rigged electronic counting or similar digital assistance is not far off but I don’t know the specifics about the states (other than that close races always put my naive cynicism on alert).
re: Diebold. I was wondering about that, too.
Is this the new excuse? Oh please. The turning point for Hillary was the Nevada caucus. This may have been manipulated but no Diebold. In states like mine she has won overwhelmingly.
“Won overwhelmingly” among a core, insular constituency. She’s already ‘pivoting’ to the Right against Trump specifically. In the general election, where the electorate is more ‘natural,’ how would she do?
My admittedly low information feeling is that both parties will have brokered conventions. Now we need some close up and personal reporting on the “sausage making” that these conventions will entail.
The real moment of ‘glory’ for the Diebold manipulators will be in the general election.
My point is simply that Diebold had nothing to do with SC. The reason Sanders isn’t doing better is that not enough people are voting for him.
and the reasons for that are a concerted push by the media, a very late campaign start, a corrupt dnc, and a rigged nominating process. who needs diebold? now that i think of it, maybe diebold is part of the patronage network of the republicans (hands off diebold they’re our hackers), and since they made many of the voting machines.
I haven’t seen Dem turnout figures for yesterday but if they track earlier primaries then people are just not turning out enough to vote. That doesn’t support a game is rigged meme. It supports a young people don’t vote meme.
There is even a theory that some Hillary voters came out because they were afraid of Trump.
Another way Donald is boosting turn out.
Imagine, even fewer D voters without him.
people don’t turn out when they perceive the game is rigged, though. the media has been totally in the tank for clinton.
Any articles or evidence that Dem turnout is anemic because people think “the system is rigged”? And if people believe the fate of the nation and the planet hangs in the balance shouldn’t they take the time to go vote even if they do believe the system is rigged? After all they might be wrong about that.
My brother doesn’t vote and I tell him “don’t vote, don’t complain.” Needless to say he doesn’t agree.
I think the voter turnout and rise of Trump is ample evidence to illustrate that Americans don’t give a f*** about current politics and the establishment in Washington.
Your brother is smarter than you. Your vote doesn’t really count, on MULTIPLE levels. Essentially what your brother is saying is that he doesn’t want to waste his limited time on this earth voting in a system that:
a). Already limits the number of choices DRASTICALLY prior to the general election (you’ve got two extremely poor choices in EVERY presidential election)
b). Is rigged prior to the general election (*cough* super-delegates/Diebold machines/Cherry-picked primary voting locations to give establishment’s choice an edge/media blackout on anti-establishment candidates)
c). Has a two party system where the parties are essentially the same in that they both rig the racket so the elite can maintain and expand their power and wealth through government funding (free money)
d). General election can be overturned by the electoral college (and might be for the first time in a long time if Trump wins IMO)
e). President’s power is much more limited than the average American can even begin to understand (so, once again, what’s the point?)
f). General election isn’t even decided by votes, but by states, and depending on the state you live in, there may be even less of a point to vote. Contrary to popular belief, your vote DOESNT count if your STATE votes the other way, though I do find it comedic every time a news personality says “go vote”.
g). Ample evidence to suggest that many votes are mis-placed, lost, never counted, rigged, erroneous etc. So theres a good chance that your vote may be for the candidate you hate.
The correct approach to young people not turning out to vote is not to genuflect toward the fundamental attribution error with condescension and entitlement, but to look for root causes. Are you seriously claiming here that the perception of a system as rigged — and DWS is doing everything in her mortal power to give that impression — isn’t going to drive down voter turnout?
Why are you pointedly ignoring the only way to vote against the system? Because it’s an outcome you don’t believe should be on the table?
national one day primaries (not caucuses) would help in proving the system isn’t rigged though. just saying …
Anyone’s guess is as good as my conjecture, but I thought, if you weren’t going to conquer the South, you might as well get more young voters and workers excited by breaking decisively with the status quo (the last 8 years and the last two and a half decades).
I also think you wouldn’t lose any establishment Democrats you haven’t been getting so far either.
So,
1. you possibly get more voters excited
2. you set the record straight, for now, and for those to come in the future, that, AND THIS IS IMPORTANT, progressives reject the last 8 and 26 years…publicly (not what you think in private).
Yeah! You tell ’em! This is Amurrika, power doesn’t corrupt here, it purifies and gives everything the refreshing scent of Potpourri.
There was ridiculous spin around Nevada which unfortunately the Sanders supporters and campaign were unintentionally complicit in. Sanders was WAY behind in Nevada polling, but started to close in as the caucuses got nearer. They then put “rah rah, if we all work and donate like crazy, we can WIN this!” into their GOTV effort. That meant they saw a chance of winning, but it was spun as they EXPECTED to win and that Clinton scored an upset. In fact, Sanders exceeded polling expectations in Nevada by coming as close as he did. Issues like Clinton-favoring schedule and pro-Clinton coercion at the caucuses didn’t help either, of course.
I suspect the greater corruption is from the “investments” the Clinton Foundation has made to targeted leaders in various communities over the last 8 years. Money does talk.
Well, Team D is the originator of machine politics as she is practised.
Even the “honest graft”– of old Tammany hall– would be an immense improvement over the horrific looting of today’s neoliberals. :(
Prikster et al (ie, north side developers) were apparently the funding behind the grant that paid Obama’s “community organizer” salary. The people of (the now leveled) Cabrini Green were ostensibly being organized to resist the demolition of their homes by a man (Obama) who was actually in the employ of the people who were doing the demolition. Obama learned to throw black people under the bus at a very early age, and of course, passing this loyalty test eventually leads to the backing that would push Obama over Hillary in 2008.
the wheels on the bus grind down and down..
There are smart, educated Blacks who understand Obama is a tool. Shame on idiots like Beyonce and othe high-profile Blacks for continuing the charade.
Considering that much of ‘popular culture’ is a charade to begin with…
High profile Blacks, for the most part, have different class interests from the ones who would rather not attract the attention of important people, as the age-old Chinese curse goes. The former can afford to hire “executive protection” types. Furthermore, celebrities are manufactured, not born.
The Cabrini Geen projects buildings ( that were torn down) were emblematic of failed high rise publichousing in Chicago which cultivated several generations of mostly dependent residents in perpetuity that were preyed on by local gangs and violent illegitimate residents.
They were snake pits that were justifiably torn down. Unfortunaly the CHA is run by City Hall, which is the same group that can’t even project manage the construction of a ubderground parking garage with grass ib top without catastrophe, let alone a large subsidized housing/welfare program.
http://m.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2012/10/15/the-shot-that-brought-the-projects-down-part-four-of-five
This is common sense. If he came out and called Obama the Republican hack that he is, he’d likely be tarred as a racist on top of being run out of town on an Obot rail.
Voted the Bern in Ohio, sad my fellows here chose two awful candidates instead.
Trump 16′.
Like more than a few Sanders supporters, I’ve toyed with the idea of supporting Trump because Hillary is too vile for me to consider. But really, he says wages are too high? He’s considering putting 30,000 troops in Iraq?
Some choice, huh. Maybe Green again.
It’s only half the troops Hillary wants in Syria to fight the Russians.
Democrats are in a for rude awakening when they find they are even less popular than they were in 2014. With Hillary, they aren’t going to improve their standing. Hillary’s strongest asset is gross ignorance and fear. Time erodes ignorance, and fear works for so long. Young people have been the targets of fear mongering their entire adult lives or close to it. Plenty will stay home.
I agree that dem turnout will be low if Hillary is the nominee. But if young people tune out, maybe the Greens should capitalize on that and try to capture some of their Sanders energy.
A pipedream most likely given ballot access, exposure, money, etc.
People should continue to vote for Sanders in the primaries. But if he doesn’t get the nomination, they should seriously consider voting for a third party candidate, such as the Green Party candidate. Even though a third party Presidential candidate won’t win the election in 2016, if a third party’s candidate gets 5% of the vote, they qualify for general election grant money in the next election in 2020. They might even qualify for retroactive money for the 2016 election. See:
http://www.fec.gov/press/bkgnd/fund.shtml
The best scenario I can imagine right now is a Trump presidency, delivering on his promises to the 99.99% working people, AND, a congress with establishment Democrats and Republicans containing his, let’s say, impulsive urges.
So, the game is not over and as I have always stated, it’s more than two knights jousting each other.
We have to get more progressives to DC, even establishment politicians if necessary, if they can work to make the Executive branch less dominating.
The worst that I can think of is Trump in the White House with MMT, unless it’s MMT with money creation from the bottom up, and unless the government is run like a household.
The Democrats need to fire more voters.
They have.
I think what we may be seeing is the meltdown of the Dems rather than the GOP which may be reinventing itself. If Hillary wins the nom and loses to Trump the establishment Dems are finished.
The GOP knows what it is. Trump is relatively same compared to Kasich, Rubio, and Cruz, yes, what they say matters, but the “good” Republican is still like having treatable cancer while falling out of an airplane without a chute.
If anything, Trump might save the GOP especially when Team Blue doubles down on identity politics and right wing policies. Where will poorer whites go? Theybwill flood the party preaching to their identity politics with right wing policies. The youth support for Sanders wasn’t just a rejection of Hillary but of the entire Team Blue establishment who have insulted Sanders’ voters while offering nothing else besides a thoroughly despicable candidate. Young people were the great hope of Team Blue.
I must have read 100 articles on why Rubio lost in Forida. NOT ONE mentioned that the repub establishment is for ‘entitlement reform” i.e., cutting social security and that this may have had ANYTHING to do with the margins in Florida, aka geezerland (I am allowed to say that because I am a geezer)
(Will Hillary cut Social Security – usually, I would do an internet search with 3 different search engines, but I have found with the Clintons that all I end up with is “I have no plans” or “At this time, I promise not to cut social security” – you tell me what that REALLY means….)
Now I happen to know a bunch of old repubs, and the vast majority (surprise!!!) thinks social security is not welfare, or that they are getting more than they paid into it, or that it should be cut in ANY way.
Like most things, the repubs and the dems have much, much more of a consensus than the media cares to report (bailing out the rich, not prosecuting banksters, financiers, mortgageteers, timmy geithner, etc.) and entitlement reform.
Perhaps the media can only cover kabuki fights because the big corporations that own the media only WANT irrelevancy covered. The fact that the media simple ignores an ACTUAL issue important to most actual voters says something and can’t even POSIT it as a reason the repubs don’t do well in Florida indicates to me that there may be some big surprises ahead…
As opposed the the Dem establishment that aggressively seeks to expand the welfare state? Ha!
The Dems stopped being the party of FDR after the Johnson administration and are now the party of Reagan when it comes to things that benefit working people.
Obummer’s Grand Bargain will be pursued by the next Dem – book it!
Last I heard, she promises to increase social security “for those at the bottom”. What about for those “in the middle”? You know, those drawing the average ss payment of $1300. Guess they just get chained to that cpi thing.
i worry that this is wrong and that the youth enthusiasm for sanders wasn’t a rejection of hillary and team blue but an embrace of single payer and free tuition. while good in and of itself, with sanders gone, i am not so optimistic they will reject shillary.
The Establishment Dems will only be finished when the money men and media that support them pull the plug. Until then, they will be out there picking candidates (because they control the ballot lines) and holding office (because of the power of incumbency, which is 94% effective in getting you re-elected). Getting slaughtered in the Electoral College and in any but Safe Seats will not defeat the Establishment Dems. It will simply empower the Republicans and narrow the window of acceptable discourse even further. What you are looking at very soon is a demobilization and disempowering of vast swaths of the electorate. And that is exactly what the establishment as a whole wants to see.
Perhaps. But the Money Party hasn’t been having a good year. Both Jeb and Little Marco went down in flames. It’s possible, just possible, that big money is starting to lose their grip on our elections. Given the amount Hillary is likely to spend, a loss by her would just confirm this. The interesting thing about Trump–like him or hate him–is that no matter what conventional campaigns throw at him he keeps winning. Of course take away the free media and the picture might be quite different. But the endless and obsessively covered American elections have always been a way to narcotize the public and so ignoring Trump was never an option. The prob for the elites is that they use elections to give the rulers legitimacy–they need elections–but may be losing the ability to control the results.
So yes the Dems if they don’t change could become about as relevant as the Whigs.
Hard to say which would be worse, Trump or Hellery. Either will be Gawd Awful.
I posted a comment here a while back about Trump paying workers 59 cents an hour to build his golf course in Dubai — suggesting he ain’t really on the side of the workingman. The thread didn’t go well for me. Hahahha.
Watching Republicans fold before him, my only hope for a non-disastrous Trump presidency is rapidly fading which was them continuing the disfunction. While I see a great deal of obstruction for Hillary, sadly the military adventures will continue, the sell out of education will continue, the trade charade will continue and the gutting of services will continue.
On Trump’s side, at least the trade deals would be dead beyond TPP which will probably pass in a lame duck session.
It really is hard to figure out the lesser evil from this abundance of evil.
Republicans hate Hillary more than Obama, and no one really likes Hillary. Republican voters were Instrumental in stopping the Syria misadventure and efforts to dismantle Social Security while Team Blue voters lined up like sheep. The GOP elites folded and even opposed both Presidents.
Sequester was Obama’s 11th dimensional chess plan to cut social security. He included the Pentagon in future cuts which he believed GOP voters would demand do be fixed, Obama targeted cuts in Democratic districts in an effort to for force Democrats to vote against Social Security to save their district, and Obama would swoop in with a plan of a responsible social security to save the day. Republican voters support Social Security and recognize fraud at the Pentagon. Money spent in Maryland and Nova doesn’t get to many Republican districts, and Republicans saw Democrats flail about while the tried to explain cuts to their own districts in support of Obama. Republican voters refused to play ball.
Those same voters will go after Clinton Inc with everything they have. Republicans who didn’t give it the old college try on behalf of Trump will become the first victims or lead the charge against Hillary. Whatever military misadventure Hillary proposes, there is a reasonable chance Republicans will oppose her. Obama couldn’t sell a bombing campaign in Syria against Assad after a seemingly successful campaign against Gaddafi.
NotTimothyGeithner
March 16, 2016 at 10:49 am
good points and good to remind everybody how much everybody loves “entitlement reform” (except the voters)
So what happens when Trump accuses Hillary of wanting to cut social security? The establishment media will parrot all the ambiguous things Hillary has said (as if that isn’t transparent lying), and the media will be pretty much like now – dumbfounded, clueless, befuddled that no one believes them or Hillary… “why Oh why do the poorer not want us to make them even poorer????
The media isn’t trusted. There is a certain element of voters who think their particular source is trustworthy, but having the GOP nominee hammering Hillary on Social Security will play well. Hillary can deny and whine about Republicans, but Trump can bring up Obama’s 2012 perfidy, the madness of sequester, and claim this is why he ran, “he, that guy, me, Trump ran to protect, keep your hard earned dollars, folks you know social security Isn’t part of the federal budget.”
I’m not EVEN confident that Trump will go hard on Hillary. If winning is really the thing for him then he will of course, and he’s narcissistic enough winning might indeed be the Only thing he cares about, but it’s just too hard to tell until we actually see it happen. The Clintons and Trump are old buddies afterall.
The only thing Trump cares about is getting the brand name Trump on every goddamn building in the known universe, getting Trump on the headline of every newspaper in the godamn universe…basically putting Trump on everything in the godamn universe.
His main goal is what it has always been: increase brand value through clownish tactics, fiery/polarizing speech, gold leafed buildings, etc. He has no interest in politics, other in that it promotes him and his brand. Jamie Oliver’s segment on Trump was spot on.
X1000!!
My problem with even contemplating supporting Trump is that you’d be trading a known establishment hack for rolling the dice on an egotistical con artist and hoping that something good comes of it.
If I find out I have cancer, I’d rater trust a doctor, even if prognosis is poor, instead of self-dosing with random poisons in the hope than it somehow works as a sort of chemotherapy.
I’ve started to wonder if Trump isn’t a plant, design to discredit any sort of anti-establishment movement on the political Right for the next 20 years.
I thought the Tea Party discredited that?
Hmm…I would say the analogy is a little off: see if Hillary was the doctor, she would, while your under, sell your liver to the Saudi’s for a favor. Trump would just tattoo his name across your forehead.
At a cursory view, Hillary supports:
– Hedge-fund, non-profit, banks, basically the most elite of Wallstreet
Trump might support (I say might because, once again, he only cares about his appearance to the crowd directly in front of him):
– Military industrial complex, Dept. of Homeland Security
However, I honestly believe that Hillary probably supports the MIC just as much Trump but is less vocal about it. So I’ve come to the personal conclusion that, in fact, Hillary has much more potential to do immense harm to an already failing empire because she already knows how to circumvent due processes, etc. It will take Trump a huge amount of time to really get anything done, and he will probably frustrate everyone in DC 24/7 which I find humorous and a perfect response to the insanity of DC:
“You give us TBTF and QE and TPP, no prison sentences to the billionaires and Wallstreet CEO’s & Managers, no living wage, Obamacare, and in return we give you a clown with a huge ego”
Sanders disagrees with all policy matters stated.
Obama remains a charismatic leader. I love my kids but we have serious policy disagreements. It is important in implementing policy to distinguish good policy from policy based on personal feelings. Sanders is quite clear in the second quote.
The overall problem with the Sanders campaign is that the Democratic Party is just not a left-wing party, and its electorate is not a left-wing electorate. Leftists adopting it as their party, as opposed to trying to build their own party, sitting out electoral politics altogether, or joining the Republicans, is in fact a very questionable strategy, but American leftists don’t have many options.
Its clear to me that Sanders himself knows this. He himself was not a Democrat until he joined the party to run in its primaries. His candidacy, almost casually announced at a DC press conference, was pretty clearly a stop-gap effort that was put together when no actual Democrat was willing to run against Hilary Clinton. The likeliest outcome of this would have been something similar to what Ron Paul put together in his runs in the Republican presidential primaries (there is a similarity since Ron Paul is not in fact a Republican). Its really impressive that he has been getting much more support than this, and I suspect this is due mainly to some really strong weaknesses of Hilary Clinton as a candidate.
i dunno about leftists adopting the democrats, for one thing traditional new deal democrats are now apparently “leftists”, even “extreme leftists”. i got suckered initially by obama till he backtracked and voted for that secret court as a senator. i’m done with this party, the center right party is far too right (and wrong) for me. the daily howler was rightly criticised on some issues, but documented the media influence in getting bush elected during the 2000 travesty. right wing media, rigged nominating process, who needs diebold.
speaking of the journalistic overton window, the guardian has been calling argentina’s far right macri government ‘centre-right’.
how little we’ve progressed on economic issues in thousands of years of civilisation :'(
Sanders is afraid that criticising Obama will lose him millions of racial-tribalist black voters.
What has he got to lose now?
The South primaries are over.
Why not go for broke?
Big black voting populations in various northern cities. Plus the entire Shillary Sh*tocrat establishment will call Sanders racist for criticizing Obama.
Just ask yourself this. What would Sanders gain by specifically criticizing Obama? What number of voters are sitting at home, but will be convinced to vote for him in the primary because he criticizes Obama? I have to think that number is essentially 0. Anyone who isn’t convinced by Sander’s platform at this point is going to be so disgusted with politics they’re not going to vote in a Democratic primary if Eugene Debs himself was resurrected and put on the ballot.
Meanwhile, Obama is the most popular politician in the country, and especially with Democrats. Take a look at the polls: http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster#favorability-ratings
Sanders gains by being himself, as he has been for the last 40 years.
And we gain from one public figure finally calling it like it is.
“Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.”
None of us knows what the future holds, but he is an honest man and people admire him for that. Stay true.
re: Bruce Schneier
He’s been strongly on the side of tech companies resisting govt pressure to put backdoors into software to aid govt surveillance. But now that IBM has gobbled up his company, Resilent Systems, I’d expect IBM will muzzle him to some degree. IBM does a lot of biz with US govt surveillance industrial complex and I guarantee they won’t allow Schneier to speakout against their golden goose.
I noticed a few years ago that he was more than likely a disinfo propagator, willingly or unwillingly.
He’s too high profile to do anything real on security anymore. But he can speak with Authority, which is valuable.
His self censorship style was also way off, but that’s a much longer and detailed conversation.
IBM had to put its nuts in trust as a promise to operate in China (I know this is a cloudy way to state this)
Having met him, I doubt that IBM will successfully be able to apply a muzzle. He can very easily find a job.
.
Northwest Hospital: Medical Center Notifies More Than 1,300 Patients of Possible Exposure to Viruses
The Seattle hospital said more than 1,300 patients may have been exposed to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV from Dec. 30, 2011, to March 9, 2012, in connection with a former hospital staffer……………………..i feel good, like i no that i shoulds
Don’t forget aby, the best place to catch something is in the hospital itself. High population densities enhance the survival and spread of bacteria and viruses. The figures on Staph alone…Our personal experience has been that we catch colds and flues from our school age grandchildren, as in, onset of symptoms occurs shortly after family visits during the school year. There is a rationale for the school engendered illnesses, Herd Immunity.
‘little running, skipping, germ bags’
This is scary.
This isn’t casual contact exposure. This is the possible result of suspected criminal activity of a known drug addict employee with blood-borne illnesses who may have tampered with drug vials.
http://www.kiro7.com/news/northwest-hospital-notifies-patients-who-may-have-been-exposed-to-hepatitis-b-and-c-hiv/163773069
Good summary from Alan Grayson on Bernie’s prospects now that Part I of the Dem Primary is over. Next up Part II. Still over half of the delegates in play with Bernie’s states on deck.
youtu.be/XEDCgXKPqTs (5:08 mins)
I think many Berners will be itching for a new party to accommodate their grass roots organizing once the delegate counts get past a point of no return and all we are left with is Oligarch tweedle dee vs Oligarch tweedle dum…it’s hard to see what DNC can offer at this point to those they have failed over the past eight years.
Who knew the public were such sadomasochists?
[raises hand]
The time is ripe for a new third party that catches the common ground between Sanders and Trump voters and doesn’t have the established ideological baggage of the Greens or the Libertarians.
Undoing the last 30 yrs of trade agreements + single-payer healthcare + infrastructure rebuilding (jobs) program + cracking down on employers of illegal immigrants (cheaper than building a wall) + raising the income cap on SS…
There are a lot of class based issues that could get broad support by being sold to people of varying ideological bents for different reasons.
What would you call it? The People’s Party? Too Commie. The Populist Party? Too Fascist. The Party Party? It lends itself to good slogans. Join the Party! Let’s Get A Party Going! etc.
The Patriot Party.
The TBTF Party
…as an ironic slap-in-the-face to the Wallstreet “community”
Or the Berners could study how the Evangelicals conquered the Republican Party over 20 years beginning with local school boards, dog catchers, drain commissioners and working their way up. And then do the same.
I would say the Evangelicals put themselves at the table but they never “conquered” the party of business. In the end, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers got more from the Repubs since Reagan than the Evangelicals ever did.
Yep! It was fascinating to learn that Paul Ryan wanted all of his staff to possess copies of Ayn Rand’s books. He wasn’t against them reading the Bible, but Ayn Rand was more important to him. Even someone like Ted Cruz is far more devoted to Monsanto than he is to “the sanctity of marriage.”
Evangelicals have been hoodwinked into supporting amoral politicians– who are actually fervent acolytes of the teachings of a Russian atheist.
Did they get hoodwinked?
It seems like the Republican party has done a lot to prevent gay marriage and restrict abortion. I mean, failed on the former, but did try.
I think they’re getting exactly what they ask for, it’s just stupid things to ask for.
Kevin Drum wrote a while back in Mother Jones suggesting that the culture war trickled down from economic elites in the Seventies or so. Not a smoking gun, but a warm one.
Ulysses….
MPS literature is quite broad and sweeping wrt targeted audiences e.g. you might find that Rand is just sticky monkey goo candy for back sliders and potential converts.
Skippy…. the suspension of belief that constituents 90%+ of the narrative shaping thingy… “much in the same way as marginalist economics transferred metaphors from physics to the social sciences. Levi-Strauss introduced the idea of the ‘bricoleur’ as the person who engages in such constructions.” – Pilkington
You know the TPP must really be in trouble when they wheel Tom Friedman out of his megamansion
to try to sell it with humor.
Hilarity does not ensue.
Hillary will ensue, though.
no, but Hellarity will !
+1 to both of you.
Run down the check list: efficiency, check; innovation, check; security, check; competitive, check; values, check. Toss in a fluff of Obama, and call it a day.
At some point hopefully people will figure out that they have been “efficiencied” and “innovated” and “competitived” out of their livelihoods.
Inefficient supply chains and uncompetitive cross-border employment rules are much better if your goal is to employ the maximum number of people at the highest possible standard of living.
(Oh, wait, I just realized I answered my own question as to “why” we can’t have those nice things. Because stocks).
Totally confused about the Florida vote. If any state ahould know what Wall Street did, it would be Florida. The foreclosure crimes hit Floridians probably the hardest compared to the rest of the country.
-Organizing takes time or pre-existing operations. The Democratic party only exists in minorty-majority districts in the South around black churches. Hispanics are catholic, so they won’t be organized in churches quite the same way.
-Media coverage. The “liberal” media network has a liberal host who thinks a Clinton-Kasich ticket makes sense. If this was all you saw, Sanders probably would sound like Obama circa 2008 and 2012, and one of the narratives which I’m sure is whispered is that Obama was woefully unprepared for office. Why does anyone assume the First Lady and spouse of a terrible President would be any better can be chalked up to nostalgia.
-Plenty of people have given up. The Democratic Party despite Sanders’ best efforts is likely no longer seen as a vehicle for change. Just for example, gay marriage and the end of DADT weren’t efforts of the Democratic party but the work of outside agitators and organizers such as Lt. Choi and conservative Ted Olsen. How would Sanders work with democrats who have pledged loyalty to a cretin like Hillary?
-I suspect Obama is quite a bit more unpopular than is realized. Older people have been cutting land lines too for financial reasons. They are harder to reach than younger people. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were less than enthusiastic about Sanders not criticizing Obama.
Of course Florida is a Closed Primary blocking out Independents so that cuts out a lot of Berners from voting. But yeah you would think FL would understand the system is rigged and who helped rig it.
Arizona also has a closed primary system. That’s why I’m a temporary Democrat. I had to change from I to D in order to cast a vote for Bernie Sanders.
Well, guess what. Our state’s primary is next Tuesday. A week from today, I’m switching my registration back to Independent. And I know plenty of other people who plan to do the same thing.
Buh-bye, Democratic Party. I’m done with you.
Oh man, Vote for Bernie, then leave the party. Flipping off Hellery on your way out is the least you can do. :-)
Hey, I’ll raise it: why have the Jews not shown up for Sanders the way Blacks have shown up for Clinton? In Florida and Illinois you have substantial Jewish communities. Anyone think there’s a pollster out there who had the guts and insight to see how the Jewish vote broke?
And how did the Jewish vote break in Michigan? And how did different subsections of the Jewish vote break? By age? By “student” or not? etc.
Not where I could obsess over the results, I look up and find that Sanders went from being about 250 pledged delegates behind Clinton to being 300. A couple more will be added before the counting is over. Yet reading all the news I thought she got them all. While I am disappointed that both Ohio and Illinois are far closer than they should be, the only blow out for Clinton I see so far is Florida. Everything else is more of a tie. And the landscape changes as of today. The Clinton contingent NEEDS Sanders to drop out. And there is no way he should.
Here is the thing, that lead is going to drop. Sanders may not win the nomination but he can and should go into that Convention with almost half the pledged delegates (I would prefer with a majority, but half is still pretty damn important). And those delegates and his representatives need to fight to make sure that not only are their issues in the platform, put in any possible sticks and carrots in that document that they can to enforce those stands, and that they begin to make sure the party leadership begins to look like them. And they need to make it clear that THEY are not controlled by either the Democratic Party and most particularly Hillary Clinton. No more veal pen.
Sanders has spoken of building a movement. It is still happening. Clinton was supposed to coast to the nomination and was supposed to spend this primary season campaigning against the Republicans and their front runner(s). She keeps trying to, but keeps being pulled to actually pretend to represent Democrats. She made some very specific statements regarding TPP in the Ohio primary that will be difficult to walk back. I expect that to continue. And this time, there will be no coming together in silence when they are betrayed.
This time TPTB do not and will not control at least half the Democratic voters.
The possibility that this could be more than a beginning was seductive and beautiful for a time. And while that dream is not entirely dead, the real purpose of this campaign continues.
+1
What am I missing? This is vague. What movement is he building? What is the purpose of his campaign? AZ is a closed primary. He’ll get wiped. He doesn’t even have an office in CA which is supposed to be his firewall.
Sanders is going to tell voters to support ‘his good friend’ Clinton. I am voting for him, but anyone that thinks Clinton is suited in any way to be President is someone who’s judgment is questionable. His nice schtick is beyond annoying.
Your last sentence alone is worth +100
Next primaries favor Bernie.
Fbi might eject hell. If not,
Trump will bury hell.
Hell a Bill/Obama clone, I.e. Greatest evil on offer.
Yes, trump fascist.
But populist too, a good time for populist. Won’t cut SS.
My fond hope is he is willing to jail bankers and white collar criminals, which would make him more popular… And he loves being popular.
Also likely far more environmentalist than hell.
Would tell lame duck congress to turn down Tpp.
Building walls is actually a Bernie position, I.e. Tech visas cut tech wages.
So it comes down to the Wizard of Oz, versus the Wicked Witch of the West, with all her flying monkey banker buddies.
Where is the Good Witch Glenda and the ruby slippers when you really need them.
Of course we could all get a degree in Thinkology from Trump University and they will let us in on the game.
+++
I find this amusing, but Obama’s newest Supreme Court nominee said he admires John Marshall the most and wants to write like Oliver Wendell Holmes. I wonder if Holmes would slap him for being given too milquetoast.
Merrick Garland sounds like a light weight and not as offensive as Obama’s usual choices.
Echoing Bernie Sanders’ call that “Police look like the communities that they serve”,
shouldn’t Obama nominate a Protestant to the High Court?
Not one on the Supreme Court. They are the majority in this country.
All Catholics and another Jewish person means the court does not represent the population of the U.S.
Who would Sanders nominate?
NYT goes Pravda on Bernie.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-new-york-times-sandbagged-bernie-sanders-20160315
Interesting how incredibly negative the press is for Bernie following last night’s primaries. He was expected to lose by epic margins in those states, according to polls etc. He was pretty close to the half-way mark in all but Florida, and was substantially better there than the total blow out anticipated. The next several primary days favor him. But the press is all about how he didn’t get any momentum out of Michigan, she’s sewn up the nomination, bla bla bla. It baldly discounts the next large swath of states who vote, which is always a problem — namely, a handful of states that vote early determine so much of our politics. But really, looking at Bernie’s actual votes compared to what he was forecast to do in last night’s votes, the momentum is definitely there. Curious to see what they will say about the next several when he’s supposed to win. Will there be handwringing about HRC losing momentum? Or will they continue to minimize those outcomes?
Bernie has a 0.0% chance of winning the nomination, the party won’t allow it. They will do everything up to and including rigging the vote to ensure that Hillary gets the nod. The media coverage is just mentally preparing everybody for the inevitable. I mean, what would be the point of getting everyone excited about Bernie when he has to lose in the end? That would just be a recipe for civil unrest. Far, far better to keep the Queen of Lowered Expectations front and center, so that she can keep reminding everyone not to desire (much less demand) anything more than they’re already getting.
I, for one, welcome our new reptilian overlord.
Advertisers matter. The age gap is stark in this election. Older people buy less products because they’ve often already bought them. If Sanders is reaching young people despite a media blackout, advertisers will start to pull ads from “liberal” sources of record. Why would McDonald’s run an all day breakfast add on the MSNBC right now?
Sanders is providing free market research on the utility of reaching the 55 and under crowd with the msm. With cord cutting and the loss of subscription fees, many cable channels will be in trouble. Look at ESPN over the last two years, the place is a dumpster fire. It’s the only part of the Disney empire to lose money despite once being king. The primary loss was cord cutting. Podcasts, websites, teams with better pr departments, and channels such as the NFL red zone can replace ESPN full time coverage of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Why don’t Sanders’ supporters organize a boycott of the advertisers on the MSM that backs Hillary?
“I pledge to not spend one penny with XYZ Insurance Company for the next four years.”
Pair of consecutive billboards I saw a while back: first, “1 in 5 children faces hunger”; second, Subway’s new pastrami sandwich. “Hunger. Cured.”
Advertisers buy ad space because they like what the publisher is doing, which criteria includes a varying weight of how faithfully and tastefully sponsorship content is presented. Surely, if newspapers make editorial decisions based on advertisers, advertisers would make ad placement decisions based on whether said service provider is just going to spend that money on crack or Natural Light or socialism and embarrass them, possibly fatally. McDo or any other person/corporation/imaginary friend/game/etc. would rather not give someone a knife that may well end up in their own back, or with their own fingerprints and someone else’s blood on it.
+ QED
How’s the craazyman fund performing.
The press has been trying to give Bernie ‘the Dean Scream’ treatment for weeks. The press has lost it credibility with me. Credibility gap.
I think the analysis of the Washington Monthly What Really Made the Right Nuts article is very good as far as it goes, but it applies to the Democrats as well. Dems not only stood by but went along with Republican programs to cut service funding and privatize infrastructure.
It also doesn’t mention that many younger people are facing similar situations, with few attractive employment prospects or clear paths to success (college debt for a diploma that can’t cover the costs?), and high availability of opiates.
Peabody flags bankruptcy risk after skipping interest payment
Contracts are sacred. For little people.
“We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” — Hillary Clinton, last Sunday
Promises made, promises kept.
How Disney and Pixar Mislead Your Kids
Not very convincing. Those dwarves were digging their OWN mine. The notion that people shouldn’t have to do hard and dirty work is not a communist one – it’s a capitalist aspirational one.
Indeed! I found the article shocking. To equate all work with having your labour exploited is like saying all sex must be rape. Good work is good. I thought perhaps it is intended as satire? Only reason I can think of for the author spending the time to produce this ‘work’.
Indeed. Cf. Porco Rosso, by the died-in-the-wool Marxist Miyazaki, and its family-owned aircraft manufacturer.
people don’t use their hands anymore…..they use appendages!
In 1938 after the great depression, that’s what people had.
I suggest you read some Dickens to better understand squalor historically, and visit African slums.
Dickens had a lot to say about cheerfulness, too, from the ever-optimistic Wilkins Micawber to the determinedly cheerful Mark Tapley.
I hate to say it, but I don’t see how Disney movies are any worse than traditional fairy tales or any other kind of media for kids.
Childrens media has always been and always will be distorted from reality for various reasons. Trying to pin this all on Disney strikes me as disingenuous.
If there is media for children that shows terrible poverty (outside of Dickens), I havnt seen any of it.
i agree that fairy tales are harmful in general (especially the princess/prince memes) but disney is especially bad. the guardian had a much better article on the same study. http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/mar/14/being-working-class-makes-you-happy-according-to-disney
disney promotes an elizabethan order of being.
Crook county/Chicago was what put Clinton over the top in Ill Annoy. Yesterday, her husband was campaigning at polling places (highly illegal btw, same shit he pulled in Mass) with Danny Davis, a trusted member of the Black Misleadership class AND the attorney general Lisa Madigan (whose daddy Mike Madigan is the real leader of my unfortunate state) by his side..as if to say..illegal? hell this here’s the AG! Great photos of them in the high crime Austin neighborhood, which sees white faces around once every four years. All the collar suburban counties had Sanders.
There’s a ChangeORG petition calling for Madigan to indict Willy, but as she would have to indict herself, I don’t see it working..#understatementoftheyear
Can you please point us to any news articles about this? Was he within 100 feet of a polling place, as he was in Massachusetts, or was he just in some Chicago neighborhoods? I found the petition after I read what you said, but it doesn’t provide independent corroboration. I signed the previous petitions about the Massachusetts violations, but I need more information before I can sign the Illinois petition.
Okay, I found this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/15/1501902/-Bill-Clinton-at-it-Again-Illegally-INSIDE-Chicago-Polling-Station-After-Assurances-He-Wasn-t
and this:
http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Bill-Clinton-Campaigns-for-Hillary-Clinton-in-Chicago-on-Election-Day-372124682.html
Thanks for those. This was my 1st post here, though I am a faithful reader, and I need to learn to post links.
I’m still a little uncertain about this. In the comments to the Daily Kos article, some people are claiming that the photograph is from the earlier Massachusetts violation.
re: the primary results yesterday
it would be good to repost that article that explained how march 15 would be hillary’s greatest lead after which it would be eroded by bernie states voting. i don’t have the link.
stay focused, people, and don’t give up.
I’m not giving up. Bernie is saying what needs to be said.
+2! Me too! I found in phonebanking for Bernie that a lot of poor people who have no internet also have hardly any knowledge of Bernie and his agenda.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/03/clinton-will-build-her-biggest-lead-on-march-15-sanders-will-erode-it-after-that.html
thanks! forgot that it was actually posted here
He was predicting only a 184 delegate lead today, not ~300. Makes it a lot harder.
The Ohio result seems to indicate, for now maybe, the best Sanders can hope for is that Hillary runs the clock out.
51-49 wins are not going to make up the difference. I am not aware of undemocratic winner-takes-all primaries or caucuses on the Democratic Party side.
He needs decisive wins in big or industrial states…New York, Indiana, New Jersey, California, etc.
Sanders’ failure to take Massachusetts, Ohio, and Illinois indicates to me that he is almost certainly going to lose barring an indictment, and as we’ve seen from Trump voters, an indictment might actually help Clinton because of the rage and distrust (much of it earned) against Established Authority at this time. Clinton supporters will see an indictment as a brazen political act to dethrone their anointed leader, and likely flock to the polls. It will certainly be the way Clinton and her supporters will spin it. I am awfully depressed today.
He did an updated article on Mar 11 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/03/11/1498975/-Can-Bernie-Sanders-still-win-the-Democratic-nomination-Here-s-how-he-could
Looks like Sanders is going to under perform yesterday’s votes by 30 delegates. Which basically ends his chances barring some major change in this primary.
really sucks to be in california this time but i’m not giving up my support. things like hillarys comment on single payer never happening (never ever) plus the way she handled the protestor at that SC fundraiser and the audience snobby reactions to the interruption – – these things feed my focus.
Look upon thine Oligarchy, peasants, and despair.
Don’t despair! Give the bastards a mooning and choose a different set of rules to play by! Are we Humans or are we lemmings?!? Free will exists, for those with the courage to exercise it…
–Thomas Paine, 1776
And he’s in …
Lula was a liked and respected ex-president.
Now he’ll go down in history as a corrupt dirtbag, availing himself of political privilege to stay one step ahead of the bailiff.
Watch the streets erupt in fury.
pepe escobar thinks the allegations against lula are baseless and political https://www.rt.com/op-edge/334904-brazil-brics-lula-economy-regime/
also, i wonder what kind of a role the nsa played in all this. they were bugging petrobras for years
Matt Taibbi shreds the NYTimes Sanders reporting. Couldn’t happen to a nicer paper.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/how-the-new-york-times-sandbagged-bernie-sanders-20160315
Used to subscribe, both print and net, but has become of little value… All corporate all the time.
i know lots of otherwise intelligent progressive people who support Hellary for the simple reason that they do not want to look under the hood. Too painful. Obama support same thing.IGNORANCE IS BLISS
Former Federal Reserve Employee Who Leaked Information to Goldman Sachs Avoids Jail
If you attempted to create the ideal privileged, untouchable, crony mutant in a test tube you might come up with a Federal Reserve employee who stole government information and leaked it to Goldman Sachs. You’d think that someone with such a pedigree couldn’t possibly be sent to jail under America’s two-tiered Banana Republic justice system — and you’d be absolutely right.
Reuters reports:
A former Federal Reserve Bank of New York employee was spared prison on Wednesday, disappointing prosecutors who said his leaking of confidential documents to a friend at Goldman Sachs Group Inc justified time behind bars.
Jason Gross, 37, was fined $2,000 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein in Manhattan and sentenced to a year of probation with 200 hours of community service after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of theft of government property.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/03/16/former-federal-reserve-employee-who-leaked-information-to-goldman-sachs-avoids-jail/#more-32303
What a game.. http://worldofmonopoly.com/albert/images/USAjail.jpg
A Masha Gessen article on Russia? Seriously? That’s like Anne Coulter articles on BLM.
Absolutely agree. Spare me.
How do the largely materialist assumptions of the orthodox left (the primary supporters/activists linked to Sanders) explain the emergence of Donald Trump?
Here we have a supposed billionaire who is capable of rhetorically mobilizing significant working class (male and female) support in pursuit of their own best interests.
What has made such words and actions by Trump possible?
Trump is more like an old Roman patrician than the standard new money yahoos we are used to dealing with. He’s a bombastic, rich, jackinape- sure, but he’s also more interested in fame than coin. He has all the coin he could need, what he wants is adulation.
Starveling:
Are you saying the nature of American culture may have something to do with the Donald’s drive for adulation/fame?
If so, why in your opinion has most of the orthodox left viewed culture as simply an epiphenomenon of economic/material/biological reality and not bothered to develop a theoretical framework that takes into consideration, for example, that the individual human mind (that of Donald Trump in this particular case) somehow is shaped and helps to shape our collective consciousness or culture.
I am interested to know if other billionaires (if so, how many) are for him as well.
That would indicate something more profound, more disturbance at the top floor.
MyLessThanPirmeBeef:
Do you see culture as autonomous–that it is not reducible to economic/material interests?
Does most orthodox left thinking also reduce the mind to the brain and thus miss the entire symbolic dimension of our existence?
Does the orthodox left, because of its key assumptions, increasingly misdiagnose what is happening in our society?
Jim, you ask interesting questions.
You have probably thought through those and can more coherently relate them to the present situation.
I think if there are more billionaires like Trump, that would add to the idea that culture is more than just economic and material interests.
One of the reasons why I believe an examination of culture is so crucial now is because what passes for the left in this country is on the verge of making an epic strategic mistake.
In essence you now have a billionaire supporting some working class interests and the left doesn’t really have any answer for how this could have occurred.
Furthermore the resentment and hatred which this same billionaire has helped to unleash is giving sustenance to the material interests and dark psychological emotions of an increasingly decimated/middle/working class.
If this same social grouping now comes under attack by left orthodoxy (as being primarily racist/dupes) the political fallout could become catastrophic for any future left formation in this country.
WTH is “the orthodox left”?
it’s what’s left after you kick out the unorthodox left.
more rigorously, it’s left minus the unorthodox left
or it’s the complement set to the set of unorthodox left within the left set
Of course, if you want to figure shlt out the way it is this way, you have to know what the unorthodox left Is. if you don’t, well, it’s what’s left over after you kick out the orthodox left. etc.
Well said.
I’m not suicidal I’m just idling insignificantly – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa1uup8n0OQ
Emergence of Donald Trump is easy:
He’s a well-known clown, capable of ridiculing the current DC politicians with his huge ego but non-existent intelligence. It’s like America is saying:
“Make the Jester the king!”
Its because the working class knows that pretty much every other candidate save Bernie works for Wallstreet aka non-profits, hedge funds, pharma, and banks. None of these employ the working class. The working class is employed at Ford, GM, Boeing, etc. Trump routinely says he supports the war effort aka the MIC and he supports anti-immigration and is against letting companies offshore without penalties.
This, though possibly a Jester’s hot air, is at least different enough from Hillary to induce support.
Ref – New Zealand could become one of the first developed countries to scrap benefits and introduce a basic citizens’ income.
Isn’t this just one more step to Marketization – Monetizing society by privatization w/ priming the pump from the government in one step and down sizing government in another…..
Skippy… beware neoliberals bearing free will ™… methinks…
The government can have more time and energy to be active in many areas.
That has more to do with whom it is beholden too…. than cookie cutter optics…
Listen to uber-Villager Judy Wodruff try to sweep the widespread, bipartisan support
for the safety net under the rug:
How dare the little people go off-message!
Seems Judy thinks the only thing to worry about is the vulgarians in the next room…. other than that the future is bright…
I would not offer Kai Ryssdal, host of the “Groovy Business News,” as a reliable mouthpiece of the little people.
Beholden to or captured by.
I thought SCOTUS sorted that…. you can’t have two masters…
Flying iceberg frightens horse to death!
http://icelandreview.com/news/2016/03/14/fast-and-furious-iceberg-scares-horse-death
Regarding Disney, may I recommend Ariel Dorfman’s (co-author) book :
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197739.How_to_Read_Donald_Duck#bookDataBoxShow