By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
TPP/TTIP/TISA
“BREXIT MADNESS:…. After an unusually trade-focused presidential primary season in the U.S., with candidates on both sides of the aisle taking shots at TPP, it is now starkly clear that the anti-globalization fervor is, well, a global force” [Politico]. Globalization is a bloodless abstraction. The people who engineered and benefit from it, by contrast, are not.
2016
Brexit
“Distrust with political establishments cannot be overstated, on either side of the Atlantic.” [Dan Balz, WaPo]. “Distrust” doesn’t even begin to describe it.
“In the end those who placed their faith in the “experts” were always going to be disappointed. The pollsters were wrong; the currency traders were wrong; the pundits were confounded. People who did not feel they had been heard have not just spoken. Given a one-off chance to tell the world what they think of how they are governed they have screamed a piercing cry of alienation and desperation” [Gary Younge, Guardian].
Trump: “The people of the United Kingdom have exercised the sacred right of all free peoples. They have declared their independence from the European Union and have voted to reassert control over their own politics, borders and economy” [MarketWatch]. And Clinton: “We respect the choice the people of the United Kingdom have made… Our first task has to be to make sure that the economic uncertainty created by these events does not hurt working families here.”
The Voters
So far this election cycle, vociferous pledges warning against a vote for either Clinton or Trump have been found in 119 obituaries [WaPo].
“Uprising in the Rust Belt” [Politico]. Another genre piece where a Beltway reporter goes out among the working class (this has been Chris Arnade’s beat for a long time). This form is an improvement on talking to the cab driver (hat tip, The Moustache of Understanding), is long form, has many anecdotes, and does allow our remaining reporters to stretch out a little and do some writing and reporting. This quote caught my eye: “‘In the past, people here have turned to the Democrats,’ said Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Allentown, Pa., 200 miles to the east. ‘They were the ones who looked after working-class interests, in their minds. But there is a belief that that isn’t the case anymore—and now they’re shopping around for an alternative.'”
“To say that Democrats have become a party of the wealthy is simply stating a matter of fact. Democrats have made steady gains with the wealthiest income brackets over the past 25 years. Political contributions from CEOs of major corporations, once dominated by Republicans, have steadily moved towards the Democrats. Political observers like Thomas Edsall and Thomas Frank have been documenting the party’s transformation into the party of an economic and social elite for decades. These changes are epitomized by the Hillary Clinton candidacy, as Clinton — herself a fabulously wealthy woman — has been dogged by questions about her coziness with Wall Street” [WaPo]. “All that makes the party’s traditional self-definition of economic populism harder and harder to maintain, given this capture by the wealthy. Could you call Democrats an anti-austerity party? A pro-labor party? A social democratic party? It’s hard to say yes to any of those.” This pudding has no theme.
“‘Latinas for Trump’ is a ‘coming out’ party” [McClatchy]. McClatchy is the pick of the litter, so it’s possible the Trump campaign didn’t plant this. If they did, it’s sign that the Trump campaign is starting to right itself.
Our Famously Free Press
“Nevada Reporter Who Falsely Claimed Sanders Supporters Threw Chairs Just Got What He Deserves” [US Uncut]. “[T]he cancellation of Ralston’s show could be an indicator that PBS felt enough pressure from aggrieved Sanders supporters that the network needed to take action. His example may also serve as a deterrent to other journalists contemplating riding on their brand and credibility to spread misinformation.” Instant karma!
“Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski is joining CNN as a political commentator, according to a source familiar with the arrangement” [Politico]. $500K. Ka-ching.
The Trail
“Sanders’ idea, it appears, is to help nurture down-ballot candidates for ‘school board, city council,’ state and national seats and recruit progressive candidates, a role that progressives in the Democratic Party such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren [sic] have sought to play as well” [Time]. “‘We’re going to go all over this country because that is what the political revolution is about!” Sanders said.” If the operational definition of endorsing Clinton and fighting Trump is a poisoned chalice for the Democrat Establishment, I’ll be a happy camper.
“Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Friday morning on MSNBC that he will cast his vote for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November, his strongest comments to date that he is explicitly supporting his primary rival” [McClatchy].
” Bernie On The Campaign Trail Today– For Eric Kingson In Syracuse” [Down with Tyranny]. Zephyr Teachout?
“Look, Mr. Trump is not Ronald Reagan, I said. Reagan served two full terms as the governor of a state so vast that if it were a country it would have been one of the important economies in the world. He was a union president who served seven terms during the most fraught time in Hollywood’s history and emerged respected by all sides. He was no novice” [Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal]. “He was the leader of an entire political movement (however nascent) for more than a decade before taking the White House. Yes he had been an entertainer, an actor, and had loved it and seen himself as an artist. And it is true that he was looked down on by liberal elites. But it is not true that nobody respected him. The people elected him in landslides. … Trump supporters, please stop this. The man you back has never held office and has not proved himself as a leader of men. You have to include that in your arguments.”
Clinton Email Hairball
“‘Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible,’ Mrs. Clinton wrote in response to Ms. Abedin’s suggestion that she obtain a government email account” [Wall Street Journal, “Hillary Clinton Failed to Hand Over Key Email to State Department”]. Gee, that’s odd.
“Clinton Email Discussing Her Personal Email Address Omitted From Thousands Given to State Department” [Slate]. “‘Secretary Clinton had some emails with Huma that Huma did not have, and Huma had some emails with Secretary Clinton that Secretary Clinton did not have,’ Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said.” Love “Secretary Clinton” vs. “Huma.”
The Hill
“This is not the first sit-in in the House in recent memory; an action by House Republicans in August 2008 to push for a vote on offshore drilling elicited an adjournment from Pelosi, and a handful of House GOP members remained as the lights and microphones and cameras were switched off” [Nonprofit Quarterly]. So the so-called House “sit-in” — love the picture with the comfy carpet, although the cops, armored vehicles, LRADs, and tear gas clouds seem to have been cropped out — isn’t “historic” after all. I’m shocked. Political theatre then, as now.
“Congressional Democrats didn’t get the gun-control votes they demanded. But during a 25-hour sit-in on the floor of the U.S. House, they got something else: eyeballs” [Seven Days]. So, it was a stunt? “‘We focused attention on the obligation of Congress to act,’ said U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who joined his colleagues for much of the protest [sic]. ‘The response I got on social media from Vermonters — the calls to our office — has been greater on this event than anything else since I’ve served in Congress. And it’s been overwhelmingly positive.'” And that social media response was totes organic [***cough*** David Brock ***cough***]. One might consider that an additional stacked function: A dry run for further manipulation of our famously free press through social media during the election (and, I suppose, after).
“Thursday’s reviews of the Democrats’ unorthodox street-style protest in the House of Representatives seemed to suggest it was a hit. The longer it went, the more the social media world cheered them on.” [McClatchy]. “People even came to the Capitol grounds to show support. The ravenous 24-7 news cycle couldn’t get enough.” Like I said, totes organic; the Democrat Establishment has successfully appropiated “street style.” So awesome.
“Democrats have decided to take a stand so tough, they’re staging a sit-in on the literal floor of the House in protest — not over the expansion of war; not over accepting refugees or deporting immigrants; not over increased domestic surveillance, which recently and yet again proved worthless to prevent a mass shooting; nor over anything productive or effective in any significant way” ‘[Anti-Media]. “No, Democrats are taking a stand because they want to strip those listed on the ubiquitous and utterly flawed terror watch list of the right to purchase legal firearms.” Ironically, John Lewis — now running on brand fumes — was placed on the same watch list he know wants to place other innocents on. For some definition of “innocent,” that is.
Stats Watch
Durable Goods, May 2016: “May proved to be a generally weak month for the factory sector. Minus signs spread across the durable goods report with total new orders down a very sizable 2.2 percent and ex-transportation orders, which exclude aircraft and vehicles, down 0.3 percent” [Econoday]. “The decline in capital goods is certain to pull back second-quarter GDP estimates which, in the 2 percent range, aren’t that strong to begin with.” But: “The headlines say the durable goods new orders declined. The unadjusted three month rolling average improved this month and remains in expansion. Our view of this data is mixed but better than the headline view” [Econintersect].
Consumer Sentiment, June 2016: “Consumer sentiment was solid going into Brexit, at 93.5 for final June vs 94.3 in the mid-month flash and against 94.7 in May” [Econoday]. (These people really think Brexit is going to affect consumer sentiment? In the middle of the summe?) “The current conditions index, at 110.8, is higher than May’s 109.9 for a positive on June’s spending outlook. The expectations component is down 2.5 points in the month to an 82.4 level that, outside of May, is the best since January. Strength in expectations points to confidence in the jobs outlook.” And: “[T]he latest sentiment number puts us 24.2 points above the average recession mindset and 5.9 points above the non-recession average” [Econintersect]. “This is a survey, a quantification of opinion rather than facts and data. The question – does sentiment lead or truly correlate to any economic activity? Since 1990, there seems to be a loose general correlation to real household income growth.”
Brexit: “Brexit: U.K. Votes to Leave EU —Live Coverage” [Wall Street Journal]. Hillz, Barry: Nice work on the blowback from those Middle East war refugees! And Macrodigest has a link aggregation.
Brexit: ‘Opinion: 7 reasons not to panic about markets’ reaction to Brexit” [MarketWatch]. “This too will pass. Markets are panicking? Markets often panic. They’ve panicked a lot worse than this many other times. And each time in the past they recovered and then some. Anyone who bought stocks after Lehman Brothers has made a mint.” On the other hand, if panic weren’t an adaptive behavior, nature wouldn’t have selected for it.
Brexit: “For Treasuries traders, it’s as if the Federal Reserve’s December interest-rate increase never happened” [Bloomberg]. “The yield on two-year Treasury notes, the coupon maturity most sensitive to Fed policy expectations, plunged as much as 0.28 percentage point, the most since 2008, over the span of eight hours as Britons voted to leave the European Union.”
Brexit: “Shipping industry figures react to Brexit” [Splash247]. “Dr Martin Stopford, the president of Clarkson Research, called the news ‘an exciting prospect because, as every Greek shipowner knows, change creates opportunity.'”
Brexit: ” The British are frantically Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it” [WaPo]. Translation: Credentialed professional lays groundwork for reversing a democratic outcome. “They didn’t really know what they were doing.”
Brexit: “The question then is whether current arrangements are allowed to remain pending negotiations, or if trade itself is halted pending negotiations. Seems the former is in the best interest of both sides, which is not to say that’s what they will do, of course” [Mosler Economics]. “As for other EU members leaving, it’s a whole lot more problematic as it would entail creating new currencies, which has not had the support of the majority of the voters in any euro area member nation. Wouldn’t surprise me if the whole thing falls out of the news cycle over the next week or so.”
Shipping: “In fact, the Baltic Dry’s numbers are telling a critically important story… The drop reflects a portentous shift that not only has been overlooked by most economists but would seem unimaginable to anyone casually following the election-season narrative about free-trade agreements and job loss. The story is this: growth in global trade is stalled, and is slipping to levels unseen since the end of the Second World War. ‘I stopped following the Baltic Dry Index in 2012 because of its [vessel over-]supply issues,” [Howard Simons, the president of the economic consultancy Rosewood Trading] told me. “But its numbers for some time have been clearly indicating a weakness in trade that is alarming and that many economists, and virtually all politicians, act like doesn’t exist” [The New Yorker].
Shipping: “Cross-border trade between the North American Free Trade Agreement nations has been slowing as ocean and pipeline shipments of crude oil have plummeted, but the trucking business is holding its ground” [Wall Street Journal].
Shipping: “Union Pacific Railroad’s failure to maintain track and track equipment resulted in the derailment of a crude-oil train in Oregon earlier this month, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced in a report released yesterday” [Progressive Railroading].
Shipping: Moody’s downgraded the shipping sector from stable to negative in its latest assessment, … and said combined industry earnings could dive as much as 10% this year. The cloud is hovering over both container shipping and dry-bulk carriers, which have seen their balance fray under the commodities downturn” [Wall Street Journal]. “Moody’s writes that the one sector riding high on the seas is the tanker business.”
Supply Chain: “Seeking ways to boost productivity in its distribution centers, the express and logistics firm DHL Corp. is testing a fleet of collaborative robots from Rethink Robotics Inc. in an unspecified number of its warehouses” [DC Velocity]. “DHL said its goal is to free up human employees for “higher-value work.” Uh huh.
“[F.Y. Eric Lam, Shujing Wang and K.C. John Wei} concluded that their results [paper here] suggest misvaluation—as well as its subsequent correction—plays an important role in determining the profitability premium…. The fact that we now know pricing errors—more than rational risk-based explanations—contribute to the profitability premium does not mean it’s doomed to disappear. Anomalies can persist because of limits to arbitrage, which prevent mispricings from being corrected. A good example of this is that the momentum premium has persisted for more than 20 years since the publication of the first paper exploring it” [ETF.com].
Political Risk: “Organizations are not unitary decision and action bodies; instead, they are networks of people linked in a variety of forms of dependency and cooperation. Various sub-entities consider tasks, gather information, and arrive at decisions for action, and each of these steps is vulnerable to errors and shortfalls. The activities of individuals and sub-groups are stimulated and conveyed through these networks of association; and, like any network of control or communication, there is always the possibility of a broken link or a faulty action step within the extended set of relationships that exist” [Understanding Society]. “Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error.” –Frank Herbert, Dune. An excellent read.
Honey for the Bears: “Investors who’ve come to depend on steady income checks from leveraged municipal-bond funds are starting to feel the pinch from the narrowing in the difference between short- and long-term borrowing rates” [Bloomberg].
The Fed: “The Yield Curve as a Leading Indicator: Some Practical Issues” [Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2006)].
Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 50, Greed (previous close: 75, Greed) [CNN]. One week ago: 53 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Jun 24 at 11:45am. Mr. Market is having a mood swing.
Class Warfare
“The Chicago accent was most widespread during the city’s industrial heyday. Blue-collar work and strong regional speech are closely connected: if you graduated high school in the 1960s, you didn’t need to go to college or even leave your neighborhood to get a good job, and once you got that job, you didn’t have to talk to anyone outside your house, your factory, or your tavern. A regular-Joe accent was a sign of masculinity and local cred, bonding forces important for the teamwork of industrial labor” [Chicago Reader (Butch in Waukegan)]. “A 1970s study of East Side steelworker families found that housewives were less likely than their husbands to say ‘dese, dem, and dose’ because they dealt with doctors, teachers, and other professionals. After the mills closed, kids went to college, where they learned not to say ‘dat,’ and took office jobs requiring interaction with people outside the neighborhood.”
“In September 2015, James P. Hoffa, general president at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, wrote to CSPF’s executive director to urge the fund not to file its rescue-plan petition. ‘I can appreciate the need to help the Central States [Pension] Fund avoid insolvency,’ he wrote. ‘But it is nothing short of outrageous that to do so, the Fund may propose draconian benefit cuts that will impose significant hardships on the very people the Fund is supposed to serve.’ Hoffa said he instead supports the proposed Keep Our Pension Promises Act, spearheaded by Sen. Bernie Sanders, which would nullify the provisions of the MPRA that allow benefit reductions for troubled funds. But under that legislation, the deficits would be funded by the closing of tax loopholes used by wealthy taxpayers, so that solution seems to be somewhat of a stretch” [DC Velocity]. The Teamsters, says the Google, have not yet endorsed a Presidential candidate.
“[W]orkers who appeared mostly identical in 2007 — and, by virtue of having the same jobs, probably had similar levels of education — ended up in very different situations seven years later, depending on where they started the recession. The data suggest that it was the fortune, or misfortune, of where people lived in 2007 that had a large effect on whether they were employed in 2014. Hard-hit areas may have ended up depressing the employment prospects of people who lived there” [WaPo]. Just like ObamaCare: Some go to HappyVille, some to Pain City: Randomly.
“Dead military working dogs piled up like trash after contract terminated in Kuwait” [SOFREP]. Neoliberalism at work. And workers are different how, exactly?
“Social Network Analysis in the Study of Terrorism and Insurgency: From Organization to Politics” [International Studies Review]. “Few studies investigate how differences in network structure lead to divergent outcomes with respect to political processes such as militant group infighting, their strategic use of violence, or how politically salient variables affect the evolution of militant cooperative networks. Consequently, we propose a research agenda aimed at using network analysis to investigate the political interactions of militant groups within a single conflict and provide illustrations on how to pursue this agenda” [
News of the Wired
“”We need to accept ‘they’, and we need to do it now,” came the linguist’s cry, and at that moment an otherwise apolitical event took on an unexpected edge” [BBC]. I support “they.” It’s not hard.
“Queen’s ‘Green Screen’ Dress Starts A Hilarious Photoshop Battle” [Demilked].
“Ron Cobb’s Semiotic Standards for Alien…” [Joe Blogs]. Signage on the Nostromo…
Algorithm visualizer [Jason Park].
“In Japan, it’s called ‘techo (planner) culture.’ Happily oblivious to the decline of yuppie filofaxes in the West, paper brands like Midori, Hobonichi, Kokuyo and other modern shrines to stationery nurture a steady demand for beautiful agenda books” [Quartz].
Music to watch the tape by:
Readers, feel free to contact me with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, and (c) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. And here’s today’s plant (KB):
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Readers, if you want to send me some videos of plants in whole systems (bees and blossoms, for example, or running streams) — I can use them to practice with FFmpeg and hopefully post them. Because of download times, they’ll have to be measured in seconds, rather than minutes. Thank you!
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I like the distinction between “Secretary Clinton” and “Huma.”
We haven’t descended to the stage where Huma is referred to as “that woman.”
Yet.
Call her Assistant Abedin. Or something like that.
Jim Haygood
June 24, 2016 at 2:07 pm
I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again. I did not have emails with that woman, Miss Abedin. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time–never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people.Thank you.
It depends on what you mean by email.
The kind that multiplies, of course.
Happy Huma??? Sounds like a Geisha parody.
Clinton threatening families and the WORST Greenspan: “This Is The Worst Period I Recall; There’s Nothing Like It”
like its aaaall new to him…makes me puke
Mr Magoo is still alive??
Greenspan?
Soaking in the tub doing saduko puzzles smoking opium balls while adrea mitchell hangs out in a loose kimono giving him a backrub while drinking white wine …
Oh wait, that was a nightmare i had (and im not referring to the opium balls).
Ghastly visual!
And his re-animation therapist with Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting, Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,– For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble
A bardolotrous LOL!
Bardolatrous, I mean… *blushes with shame*
Now I can’t unsee it.
“…hangs out in a loose kimono…” That would be a dream, for everyone involved.
So, opium is the economics of the “important” people?
Yeah, and the ‘unimportant people’ know when bananas in the superneoliberal market marked apples are bananas! See the latest: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/284873-former-treasury-secretary-paulson-will-vote-for-clinton
So much for reform….so much for ‘progressive’ Hillary……LOL……not……….
Andrea Mitchell? How about Margaret Thatcher…
He’s tapped into Cheney’s secret stash of virgin blood
More code-is-law in the form of an online shooter reducing players’ abilities to designate whom they won’t play against.
This is the future we are being conditioned for, no? You can always choose, so long as you do so correctly.
We’ve been there for a long time. It’s just masquerading as two choices.
Note also the subtext of “Because meritocracy.”
You’ve got that exactly right – it’s immensely thought-provoking. What do inferior gamers owe the leet? According to Blizzard, quite a lot.
California primary as of 10:26 AM PT 6//24
Clinton 2,591,566 54.2%
Sanders 2,150,460 44.9%
Unprocessed as of 4:54 PM PT 664,941 (468,928 provisional)
SF Chronicle: Sanders edging closer to Clinton in slow California vote count
marym,
thanks for this. I bet that once it becomes clear that the total number of uncounted ballots are not enough to overcome the current difference between the vote totals of Clinton and Sanders things will speed up miraculously.
Meanwhile in the UK, they manage to process 33 million paper Brexit ballets by hand and have the results the next morning. Fancy that.
Paper ballots, marked with a pen or pencil.
This, among other things, should be what Sanders calls for. But hey, he’s going to vote for Shillary, so he’s dead to me now.
Bernie voting for Hilary.
Corbyn for Bremain.
Liz Warren endorses Hilary.
The “non-Vichy Left” needs a completely new set of heroes.
P.S. Read the transcript of Donald’s speech and decide whether you disagree with a single word of it.
Well I actually watched most of the Donald’s speech re Hillary… a lot of it was spot on of course. Shame about the messenger. Apart from the emails etc, her role in Libya should disqualify her from any public office whatever. “Smart use of power” indeed.
For some reason Jill Stein doesn’t get much attention from the MSM. Gary Johnson (who is pretty pathetic in most respects, and his VP is dire) however is making a few waves, and I wish he would pursue this line of attack. Instead I think he calls Hillary “a friend”. Bah bloody humbug.
If he’s libertarian there’s likely Koch money behind him. That’s been the case since John Anderson in 1980. That probably explains how his inanities make “a few waves” while Steins don’t. The system is really deeply and profoundly rigged.
Well, the moving average on polling is actually evening out between Stein and Johnson, despite the huge gap in coverage. 7.0 for Johnson vs. 4.6 for Stein. Johnson only averages 8.6 in the 3-way polls that exclude her.
I think it’s more likely that Johnson gets into a debate, but Stein’s polling is getting closer to the point where she’ll be included in polls and might get some attention. She’ll continue to be ignored by the other candidates unless something major happens, even Bernie wouldn’t return a call reportedly.
Talked with a friend who went canvassing with a Green. The Green didn’t want to collect names, on privacy grounds. Can’t build a party that way! And people wonder why the Greens don’t get anywhere….
The basic assumptions of Libertarianism are hopelessly contradictory. You cannot have property without both government and aggression. Most of the rest is contradictory in that the policies they propose are opposed to the principles they talk about. And, of course, there’s Koch money behind it all. I would say Koch delusion, too, but I’m not really sure the Kochs believe any of that shite.
The non Vichy Left needs to ditch the idea that there is a such thing as a hero.
They need to recognize that change means hard grunt work by millions of us, not just one or two people in DC.
If we want to be saved from neoliberalism we’ll have to save ourselves and to stay saved we’ll have to be vigilant over and over.
Exactly
Thomas Paine comes to mind.
It might also help to ditch the term “Left”. For that matter using a two-dimensional axis of reference should be a clue that the political thought is being compartmentalized and crippled.
Achieving common goals doesn’t require cooperation, only convergence.
Exactly.
#ImWithCWaltz
Henry the IV said: “Paris is worth a mass.”
If the price of driving a wedge between the liberals and the left in the Democrat Party is Sanders mumbling a meaningless endorsement, then have at it, say I. That’s already happening in the platform commitee, as the regulars vote down a $15 minumum wage. They don’t even care enough to fake it!
I’ve “purism” deployed against me often enough not to use it here, but to me, the criticisms of Sanders on this thread evince a certain lack of realpolitik. The Clintonites are still kicking the left and whining that Sanders has not kowtowed sufficiently. Surely that’s a good test that Sanders, from his perspective, is doing the right thing?
NOTE And I like the idea of Sanders fighting Trump by endorsing causes and candidates Democrat regulars get heartburn about.
+1 Its good to have integrity about what you believe in, but a ridiculous sanctimonious purity about issues is one of the biggest failings of the left. Sanders did magnificently well, but he did not win the election. Now he has to use his position wisely. That might mean ‘Paris masses’.
I just wish people wouldn’t use the word “win” to describe what happened in the Democratic primary, as that describes something that is relatively fair, i.e., winnable. The polling showing that more than 50% of the electorate preferred him despite the media being massed against him is as close as we can really get to deciding who actually “won” some kind of contest.
No, he’s not. That’s not what he said. I just jumped into this thread, so maybe that’s been covered. But MSNBC asked him an absurdly complicated hypothetical, than chopped up and misrepresented the interview.
What, MSNBC?!
I know, right?
I am shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you!
Apparently Correct The Record trolls swarmed social media saying he was voting for her at the exact same time. So it was probably “unofficially” prearranged.
I’m still trying to process the picture of all those Democrats sitting on the floor of the House, singing “We Shall Overcome,” and using tough words to express their commitment to protest – with what followed: “oh, it’s time for recess – well, let’s go, then!”
Reminds me of the time one of my Jewish colleagues, when asked if he would be fasting for Rosh Hashanah – the highest of Jewish holy days – replied, “Yeah, until I get hungry.”
And let me add this: John Lewis’ heroism, while no small thing back in the day, has now gone past its shelf life; he has, er, demonstrated on more than one occasion lately that he is is as susceptible to being co-opted as anyone. And he has taken no half-measures in that regard.
Bonus: did Elizabeth Warren finally figure out what “photobombing” is? Because lately, if there’s a camera in the area, she’s somewhere in the shot. Enough already, Betsy: you are weakening your brand the more you devote yourself to becoming Hillary’s purse pet.
It’s been a long week, I’m tired and cranky; thank God it’s Friday…
So, just an fyi, Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year.
Oh, rats, of course it is…d’oh! The high holidays begin with Rosh Hashanah and end with Yom Kippur…
Told ya it’s been a hellacious week!
“Hillary’s purse pet”…Ha, ha……
…….Priceless!……
So shes the pet in the purse that Huma Abedin carries around for Hillary?
At least the woman in Legally Blonde could carry her own bags around.
DINOs having a “conversation” about “owning” gun control. That’s all. Sad spectacle.
If Democrats aren’t secretly on the take from the NRA, I’d be flabbergasted. These guys work hand in hand with the Republicans to maximize the number of guns sold. I believe that there are a few Democrats who are genuinely afraid of guns though–such as Hillary. Anyone so egregiously corrupt is probably terrified at the thought of an armed and pissed public.
After years of perfecting her cookie recipes, Hillary does NOT want them ending up in WikiLeaks.
You should try her Yulin dog biscuits.
She always has a tray of Victoria’s secret cookies ready as a back-up…if she burns her own!
Re: Clinton Email Hairball (WSJ)
I wonder how that message fits in with the widely spread e-mail of Huma stating that Clinton didn’t want two devices/accounts. From the limited preview of the article, it seems as if the ignorance play gets thrown out of the window. The longer this drags on, the more I fear that she will personally suffer no retribution for this, but the IT guy or Huma will take the fall.
I honestly really don’t see how or why ANYBODY would take the fall for Hillary Clinton. Make a deal. Get immunity—a get out of jail free card. I mean, sure, they’ve been working for HRC. It’s a job for money. But how could anybody actually LIKE her? Am I missing something?
A bunch of future penitents took the dive with Tricky Dick, Crooked Hillary has the same kind of anti-charisma.
Huma high enough and of knowledge enough would take a dive but not make it alive to the big house. Security is at stake.
Susan MacDougal may have gone to jail for Bill Clinton; the Clintons do have a gift for inspiring loyalty. Also too gravy train.
The US News and World Report has an opinion piece that is truly cringe-worthy:
A choice quote from the “article”:
What makes his bias so clear is that he then goes on to praise Sanders’ infrastructure proposals for being good, but clearly fanciful, ideas. But then excoriates him for proposing to weaken the finance sector which would of course devastate the American economy. Thus he fits into the increasing pattern of establishment types who get that Americans are hurting but can’t, or rather won’t, understand why they blame finance for it.
In the esteemed view of USN, people are just reacting out of misguided anger and should be happy with Hillary Clinton who has views that are just so gosh darn close to Sanders that USN can see no difference.
Incrementalism! Don’t fix the roads, fill the holes with tar rocks!
Cement and legitimate work is flighty stuff dreamers talk about.
What they fail to understand is this: A lot of Sanders supporters aren’t Democrats. A lot of us are Independents and some of us are (gasp!) Republicans. Or Greens.
Yep. I’m looking forward to the realization dawning on them though.
Or Socialists :)
Yup, independent. I’m looking forward to the General election.
Brexit? Flexit!
You can see immigrants. You can’t see NAIRU or flexible labor market policies. Most people wouldn’t know a NAIRU from a Nehru jacket and have probably never heard of flexible labor market policies.
There is a simple logic behind the “growth through austerity” policies beloved by Cameron and Osborne: “wages are too damn high.” But there is also a more technical-sounding obfuscation. This more convoluted explanation is that there is a long-run, “natural” rate of unemployment that is unaffected by aggregate demand, therefore fiscal stimulus will result in inflation. Thus the only non-inflationary way to reduce unemployment is to fine tune this hypothetical natural rate by removing labor market rigidities.
Sounds plausible? What it means in practice is “wages are too damn high.” In the 19th century, this superstition was known as the wages-fund doctrine. Also known as this magazine of untruth.
Another euphemism for these “flexible labor market policies” (i.e., “wages are too damn high.”) is “structural reforms.” In a press release from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Mark Weisbrot pointed out the connection between Brexit and these so-called structural reforms:
Apparently the “wages were not too high” for the 10,000+ bureaucrats at the EU earning more than David Cameron.
But forming a government that will implement this non-binding referendum will be the trick. Corbyn is for Bremain.
Nevertheless it is a flicker of life and a blow to the billionaire war-monger globalist extra-multi-national system of rule.
Does that include all of the sources or are there other irons in the fire?
Gary Younge’s piece at the Guardian resonates with several of Yves’ earlier points and is worth reading in full. I was especially struck by Younge’s claim that
“Britain is no more sovereign today than it was yesterday. We will leave the EU but remain within the neoliberal system. Left to the mercy of the markets we are arguably now less capable of directing our affairs than we were. We are not independent. We are simply isolated.”
It brought home to me that, even in a country as “developed” as the U.K., the rejection of an already globally dominant neoliberalism might just amount to a different kind of subjection to the same. As was also the case with the (very different) situation in Greece, I do not know whether the Brexit is on the whole to be cheered or lamented. I fear it is not so much a sign of change in the direction of (say) the political-economic vision of Sanders and Pope Francis but rather a harbinger of many worse crises to come. Our children are fucked.
Like the man said. Elections change nothing.
Most modern intellectuals and other so-called experts are prone to one dimensional thinking. They cannot fathom a different world other than the present status quo, nor do they pay any attention to history, hence the only obvious way is forward. Whether that’s with free trade / globalization, regime change, or automation. They’re wrong and this is the beginning of the end for neoliberalism.
Ahh, I’m starting to feel the spirit of ’48. 1848.
that didn’t end well though.
I sincerely doubt this has a happy ending regardless of the ultimate outcome. We’re well past the point where pain can be avoided. In any case even necessary changes inflict a certain amount of discomfort no matter how welcome they may be.
I have the sinking feeling that bondholders will be made whole at all costs. Bank deposit holders, not so much.
Actually, 1848 did produce a lot of quiet reforms over the following decade.
He is referring to the mass murder committed by the state to maintain the status quo. The reforms also did not help people like me who are essentially debt serfs for the privilege of getting a worthless scrap of paper known as a BA and/or BS.
People in your economic and social strata did benefit from the reforms but the benefits I needed did not come to pass until much later and were due to even more bloodshed and economic crises.
Piaget’s theory of cognitive development seems to offer a salient distinction: formal-operational vs. concrete-operational. In other words, the bourgeois intelligentsia are either stuck in, or making a great persuasive show of modeling the behavior of getting stuck in, the concrete-operational stage, with its fewer degrees of freedom and incapacity to consider higher-order effects.
That said, elections change the people who vote in them. Arguably, that’s the reason the overseer class lets us participate in the secular Eucharist.
I believe you’re giving the liberal bourgeois a dimension of sophistication they do not possess. They’re acting like any other clueless ruling class in history that are on the verge of being thrown into the dustbin.
Yep, on Monday the layoffs will begin. The first will be in the public services for the serfs and then? Yes, let the beating continue until the serfs admit their foolish mistake. Oh they’ll promise everything will return to normal but the new normal.
I suspect that depends really on who takes the reigns after Brexit.
Some but not all of the candidates for Cameron’s job are also skeptical of neoliberalism. If enough of them sieze the moment then the UK could change course or at least move away from the internal neoliberalism of Osbourne’s austerity doctrine.
However, if Boris Johnson takes over…
So basically youre saying we should pray for Farage? Not exactly encouraging.
He doesn’t have a Parliamentary seat. He is not a member of the Conservative party. It is not possible for him to succeed Cameron. Thank whatever or whoever passes for a god in this scenario.
RE: BIernie will vote for hillary McClatchy
I have not read all the links on this, but I did watch the interview.
One area I have not seen discussed:
Bernie was asked what he would do in a case like Carrier’s moving its manufacturing to Mexico. He said they should not be permitted to bring their products back into the country without penalties, and used the word “tariffs.”
He also discussed companies like United Technologies, recipients of $5 Billion in government contracts, off-shoring their production. He suggested that under those circumstances, the president should have a conversation with the CEO and suggested that such governmental largess should require more consideration of jobs here in america.
When tenured wall streeter steve RATtner mentioned that these were Trump’s ideas, Bernie barked, “So What?”
Even Bernie can’t get around the fact that the clintons own “free trade.”
I truly hope I am wrong but I feel more and more like those that called Bernie’s run an exercise in “sheepdogging” for clinton may be right. If he Gives up email list = definite sheepdog in my mind.
I believe there is still to much hope (I was guilty of this myself this cycle) in the idea that somehow True change can implemented within the system when it just is not possible.
Even if Bernie had been elected what really would have changed, he would have spent 4 (8 years is unlikely) years being hamstrung by TPTB and none of his platform would have been implemented. Yes I know he would and has brought many populist and positive progressive policies to the forefront but if history is any indicator this usually leads to absolutely no change or the TPTB toss some scraps to the plebs and then quickly snatch them back when things “cool down”.
Look at Australia’s Gough Whitlam for an illustration of what likely would have happened (minus mini coup). Has Australia risen above neoliberalism because more people were made aware of the problems and tried to address them within the system. Not really.
Until things get much worse and alternatives outside the system to achieve change are pursued, things will remain as the are (at varying degrees of neo-horriblism of course). Or things will get really bad and TPTB will implement some temporary improvements FDR style and then quickly take them away.
But we had new deal policies and labor benefits for over 60yrs! Yeah, and the only reason you had them that long is because American corps had a profit orgy until the mid 70’s because we were the only (developed) one who’s country wasn’t a heap of rubble after WW2. Take that little benefit away and I guarantee those new deal policies would have been gone within 15years. They only lasted past the mid 70’s because they had been in effect for so long it was harder to remove them and social security is a harder nut to Crack but it’s being worked on.
The system is built to ensure the masses (or our saviors) cannot change it from within.
The Neolib opinion these days seems to be that those measures were “old” and “temporary” fixes to the Great Depression. That withstanding, your guess is most likely right. “Whoops! Time for some of those New Deal temporary fixes.”
I doubt that it was sheep-dogging. If it was he would have endorsed her by now, and she would have made some token concessions to get him into the fold.
Since he has not endorsed her but has continued to highlight substantive policy differences he is hurting her campaign by reinforcing the 45% of his supporters who are not interested in supporting her. Even if he personally will vote for her his continued lack of a formal endorsement is a huge issue.
Likewise since she has shown no willingness to inch towards him even symbolically it means that she is not party to any sheepdogging effort. She may just be inept at this but more and more it looks like she has opted either to discard his supporters in favor of the “centrist” Republicans or to continue to believe that all of his supporters owe their allegiance to her and will “come home” as Kos snidely put it.
Or to put it another way. If it is sheep-dogging, it ain’t working.
His continued focus on “stop Trump”, especially in the face of the Greens’ decent polling and apparently stronger-than-expected push for ballot access, is not inconsistent with him sheepdogging for the Party, which is not exactly the same as sheepdogging for Hillary.
Or, taken with the not-long-ago whines of pain from Clinton surrogates chastising us for daring to venture outside the lines of their org chart and to lobby regular delegates and superpredators ourselves, those facts could be a sign that such lobbying is working to Bernie’s advantage.
The convention will be revolting. “Look at this kindly old man, he brought up some really good ideas! Now now, old man, shuffle yourself back to Vermont, we PROMISE we’ll do some of that stuff you wanted”.
A hostile takeover of the Democrat Party isn’t such a bad idea. And you can’t do that anywhere but from within the Democrat Party.
I know that the Democrat Party is “where movements go to die,” but I can’t think of an example of a movement the size and scope of the Sanders campaign. So maybe that rule doesn’t apply in this case?
He’s keeping his supporters on the sidelines by ‘going to the convention’. He has run out the clock on running green/third party (he was never going to) but he’s run out the clock on his supporters getting behind another general election candidate like Stein. He is focusing his voters on Trump… he’s repeating history. He voted for the first Clinton and declared that it would provide time to build a movement… groundhog day. ha!
> provide time to build a movement
Well… It did, didn’t it?
And getting behind Stein is just a bad idea; Sanders showed good judgment in not doing that. The Greens are a dysfunctional non-profit.
Maybe they wouldn’t be “a dysfunctional non-profit” if Sanders decided to take Jill Stein’s offer and run at the top of the Green Party ticket. My guess is that alone would catapult the Greens into high double digits, get Bernie into the presidential debates, knock the Democratic Party on its ass, and quite possibly wreck the corrupt political duopoly that is strangling the nation. I fail to see how Sanders endorsing Clinton is the better option.
No, then they would become the La Brea Tar Pits into which Sanders would sink out of sight. I am very glad Sanders has so far not allowed those preening dilettante suckfish to attach themselves to him or his movement.
I just don’t think this is fair to him. I don’t see how this hurts the Greens. Name something that’s time sensitive that deadlines before the end of July. They’re supposedly working on getting on more state ballots. I haven’t heard of a deadline impacting that process that ends before the Democratic Convention, and there are already plenty of Sanders supporters working to help her, as far as I can tell.
When the odds are against you, it means you’re likely not to win. That doesn’t mean your strategy is bad or that you’re acting in bad faith. If he wasn’t “going to the convention” he’d have to concede his delegates to her right now. That means we’d be getting EVEN LESS information about her various crimes and corruptions. Today, her people voted down every single Bernie plank at the platform committee. That’s meaningful. It means if he decides not to endorse and possibly go third party, it’s harder for them to misrepresent him and the progressive movement. It’s harder to say “Oh, their positions are really the same. It’s just the details.” That’s now demonstrably untrue. There aren’t details in the platform. Planks are basically big picture ideals. Now the Democratic Party is on record as being pro-TPP, anti-$15 minimum wage, anti-single payer health care, pro-death penalty, pro-fracking. She’s been trying to fudge all that. Her mouthpieces — both volunteer and paid — will still say crap like that. But it will be harder to do, and easier to disprove. It will be easier to get more people to realize they can’t give in and vote Democratic. It is those soft progressives whose spines need stiffening. They need to be peeled away from the Democratic Party, and going all the way to the convention was a necessary condition for that, if we to have any hope of breaking the neolilberal hold on the country peacefully.
Bernie doesn’t own his supporters. He doesn’t herd or direct them. He has explicitly been teaching people not to ever fall for that line from any politician. He never says “I’ve got this.” He says “We’ve got this.” He’s not keeping anybody on the sidelines. He’s teaching people how to organize and connect who might never have done it otherwise.
Stop talking about him like he’s a savior or a martyr. He has done absolutely nothing to deserve the scorn or screams of betrayal I keep reading all over the place. He may fail. He probably will fail. To expect one elderly pol from Vermont with the entire global elite against him to crush hegemony and bring forth a new political order is asking entirely too much. He has done something brave. There is value to his strategy. You are free to help gather signatures for Jill Stein right now. There is plenty of time for people on the sidelines to learn about her and vote for her. The kinds of people you are fretting about were not going to be doing signature gathering for the Greens in June anyway.
Your comment really resonates with me. I helped Sanders get on the ballot in Illinois by circulating ballot access petitions. Now I am doing the same for Jill Stein in Illinois. I know Sanders has to see this thing through to the end of the convention and his delegates must exert as much pressure as possible when they are given the opportunity.
From the original Bruce Dixon “sheepdog” article:
I’d say that the sheep-dogging has worked quite well so far. I’d love to be proved wrong by millions of Berners leaving the Democrats tomorrow. Sanders, however, has made clear that he sees his revolution occurring within the Democratic Party, not outside it. For example:
Which sounds exactly like the sheepdogging Dixon described.
Or a “Tea Party”. Without the Kochs behind it.
Problem is Hillary dooms us in the first 100 days, then it’s downhill from there.
The other thing about Bernie being a sheepdog and sucking all the energy outta the Green Party – um, has anyone noticed if Stein is running? Like did I miss all the campaign speeches around the country?
Ok, I did read they got ballot access in all but a few states. And why would they spend precious campaign funds before the General.
But it doesn’t jive with the timeframe Bruce Dixon is taking about.
Also, Bernie can still do his/our Tea Party if Trump is Prez.
Tho I’m grappling with how do you get wage slaves to run for Congress?
And Dixon is a Green. So that’s the party line. But while I think Dixon is a great writer and BAR is a great site, I couldn’t disagree with him more about the organizational capacity of the Greens. And I think the idea that all that it takes for Greens to succeed is for a celebrity to parachute in — in this case, Sanders — shows how weak they are.
If the Greens were a serious party, where was the effort to recruit Sanders supporters at every damn rally? Where was the Green signage? Etc., etc., etc.
I strongly disagree. You can argue that his strategy is not optimal, but it is not the same as sheepdogging. He has not yet said anything that endorses Clinton. The establishment is so desperate to get that they asked a misleading hypothetical question this morning, chopped up the interview, and then misrepresented it in the reporting.
Her strategy involves getting her elected at the expense of the rest of the party. The worst case scenario is her being elected with enough corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans to push through her disgusting plans. We can’t keep relying on the Freedom Caucus to block neoliberal swill. Getting actual progressives like Kingston and Teachout and Canova into the House could be vital to creating enough of an obstacle to such stuff. If they get in, they’re beholden monetarily to Bernie and his donors, not the Clintons. All that stuff matters.
If it was all that easy to build a robust third party by now, the Greens should have done it. Working Families is only now expanding into California. It is very hard to build a third party on a national level that could actually win the electoral college. Very, very hard. You need to get the attention of lots of people who have tuned out, or can’t imagine a better party, or believe the mass media. Bernie’s campaign woke A LOT of people up. He showed that Clinton’s claims to representing progressive policy was misleading mush. He taught people — accidentally, I suspect, but the lesson was still important — not to trust the mainstream media. He got a lot of people who were operating in siloed movements working together. I really thought after Barack Obama’s con job, it would be impossible to get people to trust any politician again. The Sanders campaign did incredibly important work vital to establishing a national third party. He isn’t sheepdogging for Clinton. I’ve been in the Democratic Party for 38 years. I’m leaving. I’m not alone. People with a far less radical background than mine say the same thing, and I believe them. There are going to be Sanders voters drifting back to Clinton. That was inevitable. But that is just more evidence of how hard it is to do this. The majority wants these policies, but some of that majority is uncomfortable with being outside the mainstream. That’s a factor in why building a third party entirely from the outside is so hard as to be apparently impossible.
At this point, trying to reform the Democratic Party is like pissing into a gale-force wind. This primary proved beyond doubt that the corruption is too embedded, and with the Clintons officially retaking the reins (thanks for keeping the seat warm, Barry!), there is zero chance the party will move away from neoliberalism. The Democratic Party must be destroyed. There is no other way. To paraphrase the Democratic Party fear-mantra that Sanders now parrots: Defeating the Democrats is the most important thing. IMNSHO, of course.
He hasn’t said that.
You may indeed be correct that the Democratic Party is unsalveagable. I was arguing against the notion that Sanders is acting as a sheepdog. I see no evidence of that, and you haven’t provided any.
He’s in a bind: the best way to win now and stop Clinton is to get the Democratic nomination — especially after the Democrats have revealed more of their capability to steal elections. To get the Democratic nomination, he has to demonstrate his greater ability to vanquish Trump. That may be increasingly unlikely to work, but the odds are not yet zero. Maybe you’re not paying attention to direct information. Bernie isn’t saying nice things about Hillary Clinton. He hasn’t endorsed her. He said he was very disappointed in the platform committee outcome.
And you’re backing up my point about what needs to be done if we do end up with the dreaded Trump vs. Clinton: Clinton must be stopped. Not only because she personally is the greater evil, but because that is the most effective way to weaken the Democratic Party to enable either a hostile progressive takeover, or a progressive beat down in 2018.
Come sit by me and have virtual tea and crumpets, Yves.
Quick comments: 1) She backed out of the final promised debate with Sanders. Broke her word. 2) IIRC, she hasn’t had a press conference in over 300 days. She may not like the press, but that seems excessive, and one can only speculate if there’s a reason for it, like being unable to function well unless scripted. It’s noteworthy that she’s dealt with protesters badly, relying on offended amour propre, but not really directly engaging.
Are you suggesting meaningful cognitive deficiency? I know about the possible stroke. I had been assuming it was more hatred, entitlement, and the knowledge that her numbers always go down when she campaigns publically.
That’s interesting that he used the ‘tariff’ word. In the past I’ve noticed he always criticizes trade deals like NAFTA but doesn’t go one step further and say “and we should pull out of these awful trade deals”.
I also wish I could hear the word “anti-trust” come out of his mouth once in awhile. It’s a great idea and an easy sell. EVERYONE hates monopolies.
I checked, and “antitrust” doesn’t appear very often at his web site, although there is this:
https://berniesanders.com/issues/improving-the-rural-economy/
His co-sponsorship of S. 1709, which would restore the Glass Steagall separation of banking functions, could be considered a type of antitrust support.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1709
Good for Bernie. Keep on barking, my man!
Bernie is not going to be able to campaign effectively against Trump on at least those two examples – Carrier and United Technologies.
And it’s not his style to talk about Trump University or casino.
I suspect he’s going to campaign against Trump the individual and will stick with things like Trump’s aversion to America as a melting pot.
I am hoping he sticks with his main message – wealth inequality.
“Look, Mr. Obama is not Ronald Reagan, ……….
Clearly Nooners would have been no fan of the famous Doonesbury strip, “The Mind of Ronald Reagan.” Let’s be clear that not everyone “respected” him. Indeed Ronnie was fodder for my theory that bad actors turn into Republican politicians because good acting requires a certain amount of empathy.
One might find optimism in Trump being no Reagan but Trump himself has said he wants to be the new Reagan and Obama said that too. Still this is better than wanting to be the new Kissinger like Trump’s opponent. Hillary does shoot low.
Then what does one say about such empaths as George CLooney???
…He may not be a politician….but he IS an actor….who threw his support for a corrupt neocon/lib candidate for Pres.!
He and the wife just wanted a cool post like ambassador to France. Just watch.
Well I did say bad actors although Clooney’s a lot better than he used to be. Practice makes perfect. He sounded sheepish when he was defending that high dollar HRC fundraiser.
I thought in the water cooler quote here he was trying to make the case that Trump has no experience, so Hillary is the obvious choice. So I stuck Obama’s name in the quote, and it reads just as well.
Every R president since Ronnie has run on being the new Reagan, as far as I can tell. The first thing I thought when I listened to Trump’s first anti-Hillary speech – when it morphed halfway thru into what sounded like Trump’s new and improved stump speech and Vision for America – was that his speech writer found some old Reagan speeches and dusted them off. I always marvel at how easy some people’s jobs are.
Accepting “they.” There are a couple of references in the article to the lack of pronouns in English. English just doesn’t have enough pronouns. Someone mentioned in the article proposed thirteen genders.
Again, English has few pronouns as it is. We already have dispensed with the T-V (thou / you, informal / formal) distinction, which is awfully handy.
And then there is the issue of singular and plural. In editing, I find that pronouns have to be in accord with antecedents. The issue of singular / plural matters. “They told me” is an excuse our mothers never accepted. “And who is they?” This is where I bump up against the singular they in ways that affect meaning too much.
I like the suggestions for ze or ve. Ze zer zis / ve ver vis. Singular. Easy. Doesn’t trump the issue of how many, which matters. Turkish has o, but I suspect that in English, o is already taken.
And what about the languages that have inclusive we and exclusive we? Now that could be fun.
Top down language prescriptivism is not how you get the masses to accept that you’re proposing adding thirteen genders to their language.
Pfft. Japanese doesn’t even have third person pronouns. Enough of bourgies making up their own titles like children of aristocrats. I hate talking to people. Especially bourgies. When I talk to them, I want to establish a shared understanding with them (singular) or find out it’s not possible, preferably sooner than later. Not scratch their personality deficits with designer genders and pronouns.
English has plenty of pronouns. Just mostly the wrong ones. The lack of an exclusive “we”, for example, is what makes the royal “we” possible.
Well, not exactly. These pronouns exist in Japanese, they are just used very infrequently. Whenever it can be understood from context the pronoun must be omitted, and in third person although it is possible to use pronouns, the pronouns are usually dispensed with,the names or titles being directly used instead. Side note: the words for he/she in Japanese are the same as the words for boyfriend/girlfriend.
As far as I know there isn’t any rule that says the pronouns MUST be omitted if they aren’t needed for clarity. It’s simply customary to do so. Murakami is notable for using them frequently as a means to focus in on individuality, and it’s one of the things he’s attacked for; it’s not ‘properly Japanese’.
“They” singular (with their and them as needed) is already used by millions of people and has been around since at least the fourteenth century. Chaucer used it, and Thackeray still used it, even though some officious eighteenth-century grammarian had barred it and declared that “he” was the inclusive singular pronoun. There might be some awkwardness to get over, but familiar usage is far easier to spread than arbitrary inventions (cf. Esperanto).
Good. It’s one of the best parts about English. Someone or other once praised the language for having the simple, straightforward “I” and nothing else. Intentional or not, I find it most refreshing that English gradually purged itself of nonsense like grammatical gender and distinct levels of formality. For the exact opposite, see something like Japanese, a language so far up its own ass it’s incredible.
As for adopting new words for every special snowflake; screw that. You have ‘they’, make use of it if you really don’t want to use the other two. I disagree with you: this is entirely an issue which literally doesn’t matter. It’s the ultimate expression of vacuous identity politics. Nitpicking about the language to divert focus and energy away from things that are of actual substance.
Oh, I’m sorry (not sorry) offended people, am I triggering and oppressing you because I won’t use a completely made up term to refer to whatever LGBTQIblahblah (they tack a new letter on every few years it seems) hyper specific category you’ve invented for yourself? Grow up.
We have “they” already. There’s no reason to invent a new word.
Um, is that Jimson Weed? If it is, you might should remove it from your garden!
Don’t knock Jimson Weed. Years ago scientists reported that Jimson Weed is capable of absorbing radioactive plutonium–in other words, nuclear waste. Tea plants can absorb aluminum, a substance that would be toxic to most other plants, not to mention humans. If we don’t destroy our planet first, there is still a lot to learn about the benefits of various flora.
could be a Brugmansia…….we had a 10ft cultivar with big 5″ pendent yellow blooms when we lived in Ca……beautiful…but frost tender! Zone 9 and up!
I believe that Brugmansia and Jimson Weed are in the same family…..
Yes, they are both members of the Solanaceae family (Nightshade).
It doesn’t actually harm anything, it’s not toxic to the touch like poison oak/ivy (it can be toxic only when consumed internally, it’s a risky way to get what I’ve heard isn’t always that great a high). So yea remove it from your garden if you have kids playing in it, but if there aren’t any kids around it’s harmless and in many places as good as if not native.
Re: class warfare and the Chicago accent:
If you graduate from a college or university you don’t need to talk to people in a factory or tavern. A University degree is a sign of intellectual purity and international cred, bonding forces important for the teamwork of reshaping the world order. After the vote for leaving the EU it is now time to put that degree to work and help the credentialed ones undo the “will of the people”.
“People even came to the Capitol grounds to show support. The ravenous 24-7 news cycle couldn’t get enough.”
This was the point that it could have become organic, like the Madison WI protests were in 2011.
Instead, the Democrats pulled the plug so they could go on Fourth of July break.
A lot of Democrats are not impressed.
Well, peeps, they’re going back to their districts. Where they’re probably going to be for a while. Call their offices. Show up at their events. Voice your displeasure.
Slight modification:
There is nothing the ‘Party of the People’ fears so much as the People.
A friend of mine pointed out that when Taiwan’s congress pulled a similar takeover, they opened the doors of the legislature building and let the people inside
Now that’s democracy in action
Assuming the “people” weren’t Democrat staffers, like the “bourgeios riot” in Florida 2000 (except, as it turns out, Republicans).
But Liz Warren brought donuts!
Organic on behalf of secretive police-state blacklists. That was a very clever sleight-of-mouth bait-and-switcheroo the Democrat sitter-inners pulled on people . . . using the Trojan Horse of Gun Control to get DemParty Followers to cheerfully and willingly support the Greek Soldiers of Secret Arbitrary Blacklists.
What the hell does it take for the SEC to shut a company down???
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Merrill Lynch has agreed to pay $415 million and admit wrongdoing to settle charges that it misused customer cash to generate profits for the firm and failed to safeguard customer securities from the claims of its creditors.
What I’d like to know is when these banksters pay billions in fines for screwing over working families by rigging markets and fraud (never having to admit guilt), why doesn’t the fine go to the people that were hurt by the crimes committed??? Where does it go? My guess into the MIC.
When they sued the tobacco companies, it said on the complaint it was People vs. those corporations.
The Justice Department was like the attorney for the People.
And yet, the money went to the government.
You don’t want to mess with Mary Jo.
Unless your CEO summers on Martha’s Vineyard.
It’s very nice that Ralston’s gone, even if the mainstream media won’t cover the fact. More interesting is whether or not PBS has learned anything from their rush to judgment.
It isn’t clear that he was fired for the reasons we’d like. He also thumbs his nose at Sheldon Adelson a lot. Given NPR’s current proclivities, without actual evidence, I wouldn’t assume NPR decided now was a good time to regain some journalistic integrity.
Great analysis of the Brexit vote by Pepe Escobar over at CounterPunch and he discusses the impact on The City (that uniquely British enclave of privilege and corruption, with its own set of rules):
Goodbye to All That: Why the UK Left the EU
Like many others here, I’m sure, I stayed up until the wee hours following the vote count, and was stunned by the final result (I thought Remain would just squeak by). But given the the UK and EU financial elite, the IMF, Goldman Sachs, Lord Rothschild, Tony Blair and other members of the establishment all begged for Remain, I’m pleased at the result. There will be a lot of pain, and mostly for those who don’t belong to the elite, but ultimately this is for the best. And if Scotland breaks off as well, so much the better. Let’s return to smaller, weaker (in the military sense), gentler, more autonomous countries.
You mean like there was in the 1930’s? There is a reason that the smallest European countries (even the Greeks) tend to be the most europhile – they know what it means to be small, especially with bigger neighbours. The EU, at least as originally designed, allowed small nations to deal with big nations as equals, without fear of retribution or military action. Dismissing the EU is the logic of libertarianism – that somehow everyone following their own interests will somehow produce a fair society. In reality, libertarianism leads to the strongest and most ruthless dominating the others. And this is what will happen if the EU breaks up. The EU has been a desperate disappointment in recent years, but anyone who thinks a Europe without any transnational agreements will be better hasn’t read much history.
Greece?
Or is that no true Scotsman?
I’m thinking along the lines of the Danes, the Swiss, the Swedes… none of them is perfect of course (though compared to the USA, Denmark is a paradise). They mind their own frigging business (at least militarily, with rare exceptions) and focus on improving their own citizens’ lives — and, more recently, on improving the environment. Greece alas is at the other end of the prosperity spectrum.
The Danes and Swedes chose the EU and are (relatively) enthusiastic members. The Swiss, like the Norwegians, are members in all but name, they have everything but voting rights.
By ‘nations’, btw, I also mean those who are not independent. From Scotland to Catalonia, the smaller nations would join the EU immediately if they were independent – and they would do so with mass popular support. When you have tight land borders, being part of a larger organisation provides far better security.
This is the reality. The EU has been hijacked by neoliberalism, but it has its origins in true European liberalism, of the social democratic kind. It has dragged many backward countries into fairer employment policies, environmental protection and better governmental forms. Few who have experienced the benefits would argue with that. And the benefits of free travel and work across the EU are enormous, which is why the young are overwhelmingly pro EU, even in England (it was older people who swung the vote).
Ummm…about greece and ww2…sorry to burst your mindset…but had the british troops held their position on the metaxas line instead of doing a dunkirk by picking up their skirts and running, thus allowing the germans to “win” by shooting greeks in the back without the brits bothering to tell the greeks they were in full retreat…
there is a reason the german high command had no interest in going up against the defenses created by “little moltke”…the war might have been over in april of 1941…
perhaps that is not as bad as when Montgomery forgot to mention a deal was struck with the gerries, with the brits taking up positions in athens to protect the nazi collaborators from reprisals so the german units could run up to engage in some little thing called the battle of the bulge…
although patton fixed that little problem…
I tend to think of it more like a puddle in a hole that you stomp on and splash all the water out of the hole, but gravity (forces of nature) eventually brings it all back to where it started. They need their sovereignty, like we do ours.
“Democracy, national sovereignty and global economic integration are mutually incompatible. It’s possible to have any 2 but not all 3. It’s the inescapable trilemma of a world economy” – Dani Rodrik.
Which 2 would you choose?
Why would the common person care about global economic integration? Seems like a slam dunk choice to me…
Exactly. I don’t understand the confusion about it, it’s pretty plain and simple with a perspective outside the 1%’s.
To me global economic integration is multi-national corporate rule. No thanks.
Regarding the Chicago history, I was one of those kids who went to college and stopped saying ‘dat’.
From a good friend:
LOL
Of course, if the joke had Hillary at the center, you can bet the Clintoon toadies and sycophants would be screaming, “The Catholic church declares Hillary a Saint!!!” You can’t deny it – Saint Hillary!!!
Stunning that Hillary referred to “We Methodists …” in her economic speech on Wednesday, thus conferring the roseate glow of religious piety on herself.
Nothing like emphasizing her common ground with our beloved former president George W. Bush, also [ostensibly, nominally] a Methodist.
What’s the difference between a Baptist and a Methodist? The Methodist will say “Howdy” when he sees you in the liquor store.
After making your first million, you’re supposed to turn Episcopalian, I thought.
D—! That makes me appreciate the Quaker President, (Nixon,) even more.
Just to say that over here in the EU, Eurozone (French contingent, Bonjour!) we are very shocked (I’ve been on the phone all day) by the British voters’ decision to leave us. It’s been on the French web, radio and television all day. We are very, very worried about what comes next. Holland has left us in the lurch by subscribing to the EU Commission recipes for new anti-worker laws, in direct conflict with the PS and moderate Left base. Marine Le Pen looks like the only antineolib alternative but is she really who she says she is and who we want governing us? The rest of her party are thugs. The far Left leaves us only anti-Semitic clowns (Melenchon, Besansenot). I’m at a loss. We may be in a very, very, troubled time.
You are unlikely to receive much sympathy from citizens who are faced with Trump and Clinton. That said, Hollande is a loser of the first order and Le Pen is an unknown. Eurozone or no Eurozone, each country still has to work out its problems from within. At least you have more than two parties to choose from.
Weren’t most of the accusations of Anti-Semitism against Melenchon mostly slanderous though? That’s the impression I got from across the pond.
It has ALWAYS been good British strategy to try and keep the Continent divided. Are you more worried about the loss of $350M per week that Britain was paying into the EU “project”? Looks like the last bagholder will be Germany, how long before their electorate decides writing a weekly check of that size to places like Portugal and Slovenia is not so clever? I get that “collective security” would be on your minds, but why not do something about it? The massive checks Uncle Sam writes to NATO may not last forever, either. And maybe rethink the whole “lapdog to Anglo-Americans” thing, I mean is it really a clever idea to provoke Russia with sanctions that hurt the French economy? And after all, what was the word the next US Secretary of State used about the EU? (Started with an “F” and ended with a “K”). France needs to worry about her own destiny first and her collective destiny second.
Time to channel DeGaulle and stand up for French interests, not the interests of foreign paymasters and carpetbaggers.
Nice choice of recording.
“[Reagan] was a union president who served seven terms during the most fraught time in Hollywood’s history and emerged respected by all sides.”
Interesting find in the used-book clutter. “Dark Victory: Ronald Reagan, MCA, and the Mob.” Seems his seat on the SAG board was arranged, since he wasn’t eligible, having worked as a producer. And he used it to champion the studios, up to and including giving away millions that would have been paid in royalties for past work. His union brethren still call it “The Great Sellout.”
It seems Ms. Noonan considers her side all sides.
I was wondering since the serfs in once Great Britain are no longer going to fallow the path of the liberal neo-conns when is the New Amerika going bomb and invade?
Datura Stramonium – aka Jimson weed?
Interesting choice of plant picture the day after Brexit.
“The plant has been described throughout history as a toxin famous for its mind-altering properties.” – From Clinical Toxicology Review, Dec 1995.
I chose it because I thought it was the prettiest and I liked the composition!
@ “Dead military working dogs piled up like trash… And workers are different how, exactly?”
Employers don’t cover euthanasia for workers.
In regards to the Brexit, the Globe and Mail paper print in BC had as lead story the numbers inverted with vote to stay at 52 and leave at 48 with the story following that perspective of a remain vote winning. Just checked their online version though and it runs opposite as in the leave vote won. Just interesting as it caught me off gaurd
We don’t call it the Grope and Flail for nothing.
Why would Bernie say that he will vote for Hillary before the convention? Isn’t his leverage in the possibility that he and his supporters will not vote for her unless she supports most of his policies?
It really doesn’t matter who Bernie votes for, he’s obligated in a way to vote for her. That certainly doesn’t mean he supports her or her policies, it’s that Trump is the worst candidate in his opinion – even though they agree on many issues. I think the tactic is to keep himself relevant with the Democrats so he can change how they do business and their platform. You can’t win if if you don’t play the game.
I really think that Bernie should invoke the nuclear option and break away from the Democratic Party and join Jill Stein. The volatility induced by the Brexit vote will favor Trump over Clinton. Right now Voters will have to choose between an erratic Trump and crooked Hillary. Bernie at the Green Party will be a sane choice by comparison. A third party vote is very viable at this point. Bernie as a Green will not win and will ver well hand over may the Presidency to Trump but Bernie’s presence ir will propel the party to the national stage and make it a viable in the long run. If this action breaks up the Democratic Party, so be it. They deserve to be broken up.
Going for 34% of the vote almost seems viable at this point. But Sanders seems to think Trump is the worst thing that could happen to this country.
Ya, know – he did have that fight with Rosie O’Donnell and then Megyn Kelly.
Well, I guess there are more Trump issues than just that. But I’d wouldn’t mind if Bernie was less risk adverse and gave us a choice with a third party run.
True ’nuff. But why is Bernie affirming the false dichotomy between a narcissistic carnival barker and a incompetent, corrupt, inveterate liar?
Agree with David that Bernie could call bull shit on this nonsense and say “None of the Above! Vote for the one candidate remaining in this race who is a genuine progressive – Jill Stein.”
I was thinking Bernie as Green Prez, Stein VP.
That’s the only chance to get to 34%, methinks.
Go for it.
By resigning his senate seat, he would really be going for it (because the Democrats would have nothing to do with him at the point, in any case). Do it on your own. Don’t be forced out.
He said early in the campaign he would endorse her. On brand identity issues alone, he can’t back out on that.
Personally, I like the way he’s dragging it out and qualifying everything; I’m sure the Democrat Establishment finds the slow torture excruciating. Maybe he’ll make his endorsement in the very last sentence of the very last paragraph of the speech on the convention floor his ~1900 delegates earned him. Ha.
When it comes to Trump, a Republican Treasury secretary says: Choose country over party
Hank Paulson op ed
Mr. Goldman Sachs plans to vote for Hillary? What a surprise–not.
This is all you need to know about his love for HRC:
“It doesn’t surprise me when a socialist such as Bernie Sanders sees no need to fix our entitlement programs. But I find it particularly appalling that Trump, a businessman, tells us he won’t touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”
Greenspan was on CNBS pushing same meme….the funny thing is when he needed to save his firms ass and his tbtf friends and family accounts the bazooka came out…oh well, go ahead and vote for HRC and those Greeks you see without medical attention and scrounging the streets for food will be us as their sharp knives go cutting. What balls.
Hillary for TARP 2!!!!
America rejoices.
Greenspan’s still alive? Can they tell?
“They” use the ‘Fed Ouija Board’ that meets the 13th of each month in the Annexe to Fort Knox.
The endorsements continue…
Coffin lid opens, Nesferatu levitates to the podium
“Nixon Now, More than Ever”!” ….er… I am sooo sorry…
Ahem.. “I’m with Her!”
groan…. [shuffling back to coffin muttering] i am soo sorry..i am getting too old for this…
Someone… Please…a wakeup call please?… make it 2020, not too early.. Huma , is that a wooden stake? Really? REALLY? Folks, I am sooo sorry… Really I am,
Huma, sorry about the neck, it wont scar, i promise. Hey, you can keep the black dress no hard feelings?, right
Many might just vote Trump with that endorsement.
“Hope” – 2008 U.S. presidential campaign slogan of Barack Obama during the general election
.
Mary, mayhaps you can flesh that Hope thingie out a bit this time around?
Remember when the left was anti-globalization?
Those were the days….
But all they had to do to make them love neoliberal global capitalism was to paint opposition to it as “racist” and “bigoted”.
Ian Walsh just posted that opposition and i agree but ‘short’ term history reflecting is so – so – weeell YESTERDY…
“Now some people will scream “racism”. Well, perhaps, but I return to this simple fact: racism, nativism, fascism and all that nasty shit thrives when large numbers of people are destroyed economically.
Go read a book on the rise of Hitler. Or Mussolini. Or whoever.
This is not controversial, or shouldn’t be.
If you did well from the EU and Thatcherism and did not push hard for the losers of the economy that you did well by were taken care of, I don’t want to hear it. You created the circumstances for this.”
Aby, I tried to explain this to English(grew up in London) coworker and Frenchman coworker this morning, and they had no clue what I was talking about. They just stared at me. I tried to explain about decades of neoliberal policy, politicians not listening and regular people having no other way to get their attention, etc. They literally screamed “ignorant, uneducated, narrow-minded racists”. So did my German friend. Thought his head was going to explode-“They’ve ruined the future for their children and grandchildren!”, etc. All frothing at the mouth blaming it on racism and nothing more. I could not get through to them-they did not want to hear it. It just *had* to be racism and couldn’t be anything else! So much for PhD’s, Masters degrees, and MD’s. “I got mine, so screw you poor slobs that got left behind-you deserve it.”
And the inevitable reaction: “‘Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed / When not to be receives reproach of being.”
The Dem party platform committee has just voted down $15 per hour and opposition to the TPP, two amendments brought up by Bernie’s folks on the committee. They really are itching to lose in November.
I saw that!! Disgusting. But maybe it will help Sanders make the right decision and give Stein a call
Yes. If he has to go back to his supporters and say that in spite of winning 12 million votes and 22 states the Dems don’t want to support any elements of his platform, why should any Bernie supporter vote Dem?
Exactly right–
His current strategy paints him very near a petulant child, refusing to walk beside but willing to follow. No faster way to leave a movement rudderless-
TsWkr at 6:25PM above mentioned that Sanders wouldn’t return her call, reportedly.
Ok, this sez the progressive vote is taken for granted. Sad, but true. The convention in July in Philly won’t be contested whatsoever, it will be a yawn.
Really, progressives need to grow a spine and opt out of this lesser-of-two-evils charade.
This is a wedge issue between the liberals and the left. Drive it deep.
And forget the mewling about sheep dogging. It’s just not so.
Thank you.
Also, I believe they have officially now voted down EVERY plank from Bernie’s side. Opposition to the death penalty, which apparently got some Clinton votes, was then tabled by the Chair, rather than being allowed to pass. Can’t have democracy in the Democratic Party.
Clarity is always a good thing. This is a Republican platform, plus some civil rights platitudes, if what I have read is correct. That will definitely excite the base. Well, the real base. But that isn’t very many actual voters. Can Diebold supply the rest?
I have never for a minute thougiht Sanders was sheepdogging…. Especially these months since the primary elections started. Why would a man of any age — much less in his 70s when most people I know are slowing down very dramatically — push himself through the most gruelling campaign I have ever witnessed (and my parents had me volunteerng in JFK’s election) … For the benefit of someone else? That is inconceivable.
When I made the comment above, I meant that I hope if Hillary is the nominee AFTER the convention that Sanders accepts Steins offer to go on the Green ballot as Pres. …. This depends on them actually getting on the 47 State ballots as promised.
I totally get what you say about the disfunction of the Greens (they are not yet on the ballot in Kansas).
I just think it would be wonderful for Sanders supporters to be able to vote for him in November. And a Pure Independent option is impossible.
Again. They’d have to do the work to get on the ballots for this to make sense.
It may still happen that one of the Big Two brand name candidates is so much scarier than the other one that I will find myself forced to vote for one against the other in hopes of raising the country’s survival chances for the next few years.
But if each of the Big Two are equally scary ( in their own different way) , then “which one” becomes a Sophie’s Choice that I won’t be able to make. At that point I would likely write Sanders in on the Democratic line, and then vote picky-choosy downticket and on referrenda and initiatives. If millions of people “wrote Sanders in”, one of the Big Two would still win regardless. But could eleventeen millions separate Sanders write-ins be entirely ignored by the System and its spokesmouths?
just read Ian’s piece on Post Brexit…eye on the ball momo:
“The people who lost the vote, #Remain are screaming that the sky is falling. A drop in the pound or the FTSE is NOT a big deal, it really does not matter much. Wait 6 months and see the economic effects. As for reports that some are leaving the “City”, well the City of London has been a parasite on England as a whole.
Now let us discuss WHY.
Since 1976 a lot of Britons who do not live in London (or not the nicer parts) have been doing very badly. The economy is trash if you aren’t connected to the various London money spigots because Britain insisted on de-industrializing.
So, we have a very large number of people who have done very badly for 40 years. They were given an opportunity to vote against the status quo, and they did so.
Now, I am going to tell you a very big secret. It’s a secret that the great sages and the sensible people have been telling humanity for thousands of years.
The secret of living in a good society is leaving no one behind.
Sshhhhh. Actually, scream it to the wind, because no one will believe you. We think that being assholes and hurting people and making their lives miserable then saying “vote for more of this if you know what’s good for you” is the secret to prosperity.
A lot of people in Britain won from neoliberal policies. Those people mostly voted to stay in the EU. If those people had insisted on policies which did not leave everyone behind, especially post 2008, then they would not have lost the referendum.
Now some people will scream “racism”. Well, perhaps, but I return to this simple fact: racism, nativism, fascism and all that nasty shit thrives when large numbers of people are destroyed economically.
Go read a book on the rise of Hitler. Or Mussolini. Or whoever.
This is not controversial, or shouldn’t be.
If you did well from the EU and Thatcherism and did not push hard for the losers of the economy that you did well by were taken care of, I don’t want to hear it. You created the circumstances for this.
http://www.ianwelsh.net/more-on-post-brexit-and-why-it-happened/
Someone who belongs in The Hague writes
Brexit’s Stunning Coup
How dare the little people?
How dare the little people believe the country belongs to them.
How dare the little people think money created belongs to them, and is for them for spend.
I was stunned today when a supposed liberal lefty who supports things like Medicare and single payer was all how could a vote just over 50% do this. I finally just went what part of majority do you not understand, since you buy the bullshit that exit is going to destroy the western world the position that fewer people voted for should rule. And this wasn’t like in America where people got mysteriously dropped from the rolls and have insecure machine counts. It was paper ballots hand counted. This was Democratic in the original sense of the word. I don’t think they took it well. The result or the reminder how little they believed in democracy.
This Globe and Mail editorial swallows whole every neo-liberal trope in the book. It also excoriates Farage and Boris Johnson and conveniently leaves the villainous Cameron and Brussels bureaucrats unscathed.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/the-brexit-vote-is-complete-folly-but-there-is-still-time-to-reverse-it/article30608142/
It does mention Cameron, calling his decision to hold a referendum a Chamberlain-like “mistake”. Yes, letting the people have their say = mistake.
The sheer amount of hatred being spewed in the direction of ‘leave’ voters is breathtaking. They are apparently dumb, xenophobic, racist, fossils of a bygone era (that last one must be the liberal version of the evangelical ‘left behind’). I now firmly believe, following Brexit and the primaries, that there is such thing as liberal hate speech.
once you start appeasing the people, they will only be emboldened.
Poor Cameron. One could almost feel sorry for the man. Almost.
Hell hath no fury like a pig scorned.
Dear Pig;
I’ll bet you appreciate the Frog more now.
Love,
The Boys from ‘Deliverance.’