By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
Readers, I have an eye exam during the time I would normally be doing Water Cooler, and so this post will be extremely abbreviated. Since the Democratic National Convention is currently the most spectacular of the many spectacles unfolding before us, I’ll put up a couple tweets that summarize the state of play.
TPP/TTIP/TISA
Any doubt about where the Democrat Party really stands on TPP?
The DNC has also informed Sanders delegates that they will have their credentials taken away for holding up anti-TPP signage as well
— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) July 28, 2016
2016
Alea iacta est (or, in the vulgate, “Reid went there”).
Cotton stmt on Reid comments re: Trump security briefings pic.twitter.com/HpQ6v1Xqut
— Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) July 28, 2016
I suspect that when, or if, historians look back, they will take note of many points of no return in 2016. (Mike Duncan’s podcast, The History of Rome, describes how Julius Caesar came to his decision to cross the Rubicon with his army — an illegal act, rather like flying an airplane over the Capitol dome today — and ultimately overthrow the power of the Roman state, having triggered a civil war; one reason was that he wanted to avoid being prosecuted for “irregularities” that occurred in his consulship, and for war crimes committed during his conquest of Gaul. Readers may wish to mull over any historical parallels….)
Passing the baton of hope:
This moment/photo should give so much hope. On so many levels. pic.twitter.com/peIlr11Z77
— Darrias (@ImJustAce) July 28, 2016
Talk amongst yourselves! (Note, however, that on my return I’d be pleased to see reports of agency. For example, do we have any interviews with Sanders delegates who walked out? Do we have a reliable, attested account of how many did? Did all delegations really participate? Even more importantly, did anyone attend the People’s Convention at the Arch Street Friends Meeting House, where they ratified a five-point platform? Are there any reports?
Stats
International Trade in Goods, June 2016: “Exports rose 0.9 percent led by gains for foods and for consumer goods. Exports of capital goods, which have been weak, posted a solid monthly gain” [Econoday]. “Gains in imports of consumer goods point to business confidence in consumer demand.”
Jobless Claims, week of July 23, 2016: “Ending three weeks of especially low readings, new jobless claims jumped” [Econoday]. “The Labor Department cites no special factors in the results though seasonal auto-retooling, which has yet to impact claims this summer, may be behind the week’s gain for new claims. Still, claims are very low and are pointing to strength for the July employment report.” Where is the missing auto retooling?! And: Rolling averages improve [Econintersect].
Wholesale Trade, June 2016 (preliminary): Unchanged [Econoday]. “These results, together with this morning’s data on goods trade, are part of the government’s new ‘advance economic indicators report.'”
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, week of July 24, 2016: Unchanged [Econoday].
Coincident Indicators: “May 2015 Philly Fed Coincident Index Rate of Year-over-Year Rate Of Growth Continues to Slow” (charts) [Econintersect].
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 (Lee):
Moar lichen!
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! Adding, I got another one today! Please keep sending them; they will ultimately appear!
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344 comments
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What a bizarre and surreal experience it is watching the American Empire dissolve into a brutally farcical banana republic.
“so far it’s been a fairly drab dystopia” — pretzelattack
The Rubicon is such an apt analogy and one definitely gets the sense it has been crossed.
also, i feel like a rube that’s been conned.
I expected it to be sooner.
The longer it takes the worse the consequences.
But compared to climate warming it’s almost a sideshow.
Here is a new Thomas Frank piece:
Hillary Clinton needs to wake up. Trump is stealing the voters she takes for granted [Guardian]
Stealing? Or winning over?
I suspect Hillary, the Decromats and the OverClass will be the ones trying to steal . . . the election. Trump will need a huge voting majority, too big for digital fraud to overcome . . . in order to be overtly declarable as the winner.
The thought of a President Trump is unpleasant. The question begins to emerge: are the Clintonites and the Obamacrats and the Overclass such dangerous traitors to America that they need to be crushed in this election? Is a “President Trump” a price worth paying to avoid a case of Terminal Clintonitis? Is Trump the Chemotherapy we need to purge and burn and kill every last cell of metastatic Clintonoma from out of the political system?
They (the OverClass) need to be crushed in *every* election. Pity that Trump is the only tool to do it with at the moment, but that will change eventually.
I am asking you sincerely. I have made my views known already. No need for me to go over it again here.
How, exactly, do you suppose that the OverClass will be crushed if Hillary loses?
What specific events do you foresee?
I invite others to chime in too. Perhaps there are a variety of scenarios anticipated.
Clinton is just the figurehead, but an important one. The presidents office does set the overall tone and agenda. Including particularly the TPP and various “gimmes ” to Wall St.
Sanders grass-roots movement working at *all* levels of government is what would put the stop to the manipulation of the US economy and the US political process for private gain.
Defeating Clinton is just a beginning, and would be an important victory. Sanders can’t do that anymore, but his supporters can, both in the short term and in the long term.
Thank you for your civil and thoughtful answer.
To take the example of TPP, that issue may be presented to Congress.
I respectfully suggest that Republicans will not be concerned with Bernie’s grass root activists. They may have sufficient numbers to pass TPP without help. But maybe not.
That leaves Dem congressmen and Senators. Some are quite conservative. Presumably you intend to affect these votes. How exactly?
Do you think they will automatically cowed by Hillary’s defeat?
This is unlikely.
A more effective deterrent is the prospect of future primary challengers.
But even this will not work in conservative safe seats.
Moreover, there will be issues where Bluedogs and Progressives historically make common cause. If Bernie grass roots are viewed as nothing more than threatening, it will be hard to get cooperation from Dems in safe seats that do not need Bernie supporters.
Carrot and stick works better than just stick, I believe.
Progressives should become powerful within the Dem party, not destroy the Dems and turn power over to Repubs, in my view.
On the other hand, and considering the long run and not just the short run TPP and other immediates, an HRC victory will all but guarantee a severe purging of any progressives in the party now that worked against her, thus assuring another long long winter of Clintonites and their version of “progressive democrats”.
Either way we lose in the immediate future, but I believe a Clinton victory will go a long way out in time ensuring the Sanders movement will be all but crushed for quite awhile… and then we’ll get whatever replaces Trump. Think about that!
A well reasoned worry, but I do not agree for this reason: party structure is not the key to most elections.
The main action that will drive Dems is the prospect of primary challengers. If we run a few and win, others who feel vulnerable will trim their sails.
So can Hillary prevent challengers? She tried this year and it did not work.
Hillary will control some campaign funds, but not enough to prevent challengers for Congressional races.
With dedicated grass roots, we can win.
Win a couple, and our influence will grow.
Hillary will control some campaign funds, but not enough to prevent challengers.
“Some”
.5%, one-half of one percent, of all the bundled donations was returned back to the 30-some states (that made a deal with the DNC) and the rest was transferred to the HVF for the Queen’s campaign.
Not only will this prevent certain progressive “challengers” from running in this election and future ones, but it will prevent the down ticket democrats, progressive or not, from mounting challenges against Republicans, throughout the ENTIRE country. Almost 1,000 seats (house seats, Senate seats, governorships, statehouse seats, etc.) have been lost since DWS & the Clintoonista wing consolidated control of the party.
I can list the cliches of “he who counts the votes” and all that, but that should be unnecessary by now. It’s already likely that the dedicated grass roots, supporting a progressive challenger were already beaten down and destroyed by the very people and party structure you think is okay to vote for. Locking down and entrenching that power, rewarding corruption, blocking progressive challengers from everywhere in the party, even on non-binding things like the platform, gives you optimism that we should vote for her and like magic, presto change-o, we can win a few down the line and our “influence” will grow.
Incrementalism hasn’t worked in decades (except in the opposite direction) and it won’t work in the future with the institutional and corporate barriers that exist today.
As I said earlier, I think it is early days for the Progressive movement.
But thank you for your thoughtful post.
DWS will have some bucks for the 50 state plan. Hillary doesn’t get to keep all of it.
Well said.
Remember that Kaine was the head of DNC when they abandoned the last 50 point plan in 2009. It’s not happening again unless/until the current party “leaders” are gone, and then their taint is gone too.
This election proved to my satisfaction that Progressives will not ever be able to become powerful within the Dem party. Rather they should splinter it and form their own thing.
Trump is gaining because he is speaking some truth to power *and* because he is to the left of the Dems in some ways. Never thought I would see this in a million years, but there you go. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that. And my enemy is not a political party, nor is it any given politician. Rather it is their platform of ideals and their actual voting record.
At this point I plan to pull 3rd party and then sit back and watch Trump win anyhow. I’m pretty sure that’s what will happen.
You may be right about Trump winning. You are definitely right about Trump tapping into economic frustrations with his slogans.
As I have said before, I think the slogans are a con.
Even if sincere, Trump will bring Republican rule.
But go in peace. And thank you for your courtesy.
I dislike the language you use. You remind me of a professor that has never actually worked in their area of study. In this case it is actual on the ground political work. I have been a committee person (only for 6 months) worked on Local, State, Senate, and Congressional campaigns and was a co-lead on a congressional campaign. I have been out of that arena for 8 years. I could not stomach working for Obama. The progressive movement was purged from the Democrats under Tim Kaine and Obama. As long as the Democrats are sponsored by Corporations they are inherently counter revolutionary ie anti-progressives unless it is identity politics.
If you have not watched the Conventions the Democrats are moving to position themselves as a center-right party and form a coalition of moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats who are all just old school Rockefeller Republicans. Left leaning independents are not moderate Democrats. They are progressives and will never return to the Democratic party. The only option is to form a 3rd party. I personally lean towards the Justice Party. The name is fantastic and their politics are to the left of Bernie Sanders.
On to Hillary Clinton. Hillary is a war criminal. She advocated for a war of aggression against the people of Libya. Her server was a clear violation of multiple laws. She placed personal convenience over national security. The latter disqualifies her from the Presidency in my view.
Her accusation against Russian is incredibly dangerous and not short sighted. Neo-Cons like Hillary want a war with Russia. She will get her war but she fails to realize that the only war Russia will fight with the United States is a nuclear war.
Russia’s show of force in Syria has demonstrated that Russia has a superior military but NATO is positioning strategic bombers in Poland. Russia will view any air space intrusion as an act of war and their response is nuclear.
In short, Clinton is demonstrably dangerous to the world and human existence. A Trump Presidency will have constant push back from the left and right. I doubt he will get much done domestically AND if Democratic Senators have any spine they will stop Trump from placing socially reactionary Judges on the bench.
As for the Sanders movement. I expect Nina Turner to challenge Brown in 2018. Warren is also on the list. Berniecrats need to challenge Democrats in safe seats. If this fails join a 3rd party.
In the end if Clinton loses the Democratic Party will either go to the Berniecrats or die. I prefer that it dies.
I respect your experience, and do not doubt your frustrations and concerns. As someone involved with Capitol Hill for 20 years as a progressive, I have felt the slights, and, at times, seen horrible things.
As for policy, I have long supported Bernie — long before he ran for President.
I disagree with your conclusion that Trump will not facilitate a rightwing Republican agenda on the Hill. For the reasons I have posted earlier.
Stop condescending. You are not better than anyone here. This site scores at a post graduate reading level and the demographics of the site also skew to high educational levels. I’ve tolerated your ‘tude, but it is getting worse. If you can’t control your tone, you go in moderation and only comments that are free of put-downs will be released.
Thanks Yves, for interjecting in the “PH lecture series”. I think the “P” stands for priggish. I’m not sure about the “H” though.
Two days ago, I was personally attacked for my views. Your only comment was. “Wow.”
But I agree that I made a number of tart comments, and it is counter-productive. I want to avoid that nonsense.
I have visited the site for years. I value it and regularly share articles from here.. I do not always agree, but I enjoy the challenge of bold ideas.
I am not here on an ego trip. I have sympathy for much of what is said here, and I want the aspirations of the NC crowd to be realized.
At times, I disagree with broad conclusions, or methods. Obviously. And I have said so.
Some people here have reacted angrily to dissent. I lashed back, but I agree it was wrong. I do not agree that I was trying to antagonize anyone yesterday.
I am not here on an ego trip.
Well you haven’t exactly been humble in introducing yourself either, at a very important historical juncture for which you see yours as the only way forward. To me, the fact that you failed to earned your respect here before trying to dominate the conversation means I will never take you seriously. There are people here who I disagree with yet still respect btw. Sorry.
earnedearnLater!
per PH: “I am not here on an ego trip.”
PH uses the word “I” 17 times in a comment of only 13 sentences.
Excellent short form analysis by Thomas Frank. He seems like maybe the best political writer of this rather surreal moment in American politics.
I’m having a hard time seeing which will damage the Democrat Party the most, Trump winning or Hillary. Four years in opposition to an utterly shambolic Trump administration (I have little doubt this will be the result should he win) could actually do a lot to strengthen the party, whereas four years of an unpopular Hillary selling out and kicking the base could do significant and permanent damage and clear the way for a left party.
I see no hope for the US until the Democrat Party is destroyed, it’s now pretty clear they won’t be moved off the neoliberal/neocon course their billionaire bosses have charted. Which result is more likely to move the destruction process along? Maybe we need to elect Hillary as a first step towards finally killing the Democrat Party.
I question your assumption that the Dem party cannot be changed. Respectfully, it seems to me that you assume that Progressives tried and tried for decades, and Dems just would not listen.
But it was not Dem pols who were not listening; it was the American people.
In the early 80s, many working folks bought the racism and xenophobia that Reagan peddled.
In the 90s, most of the public was on board with the Clinton Wall Street bubble. There may have been some Progressive Jeremiahs afoot, but they had no significant band of followers. There were no mobs with pitchforks and torches when Glass Steagall died.
Even when the Bush tax cut passes with a deciding vote by Max Baucus, no progressive primary challenger unseated him. Did any even file nomination papers?
Even the Iraq War authorization in 2004 prompted no significant number of primary challengers. And if they had appeared, they probably would have lost. Such was the mood of the public, stoked by propaganda.
Most pols follow public opinion. Few have hardened principles, and those few are usually in safe seats.
Bernie power arose because of public experience since 2008. It is new. Popular support is new. There is no reason to assume that it cannot be employed to gain power within the Dem party.
There are many reasons to believe that Bernie power will not grow in the Republicsan party.
The most likely path to power is by seizing the Dem party. It will take time and work and guile. And level-headed focus
There were indeed primary challenges during the 2000s.
The Democrat party stymied anyone and everyone the activists supported.
See: Ned Lamont vs Joe Lieberman or Angus King vs. his primary challenger DWS vs Tim Canova
You’re being punked with the “more better Democrats” meme. It isn’t going to happen because the Democrat Party doesn’t want it to happen and as the paper trail shows and DWS stated they’ve put controls in place to thwart activists.
Ned Lamont is a great example.
Seriously! Ned wins fair and square in the primary and the establishment can’t live with it–they had to support their right-wing nut job’s run AGAINST the rightful Dem nominee.
The party should’ve fractured THEN. Sad that it’s taken this long.
Another good one is the complete abandonment of Russ Feingold by Obomba and DNC & DWS against Ron Johnson b/c Russ had the temerity to challenge BHO about such touchy topics like domestic spying. We saw and heard the whole thing as it happened here in WI. The national and state Dems abandoned the teachers and public unions as well.
Feingold is coming back, but I believe he had to do a ton of penance. Every supposed progressive democrat seems to be going around with that same look Bernie had on his face once he finished his convention speech. Downtrodden and NOT hopeful.
The Democrats aren’t democrats. They are the identity politics wing of the Republican party. A few progressives make it in occasionally, but the moment they step out of line–the Dems–not the Republicans, take them out like the mob enforcers they really are.
Republicans make policy. Democrats get it passed by keeping the hoi polloi in line and under control.
“The Democrats aren’t democrats. They are the identity politics wing of the Republican party.”
So right on, thanks.
Agreed. I hate the phrase ‘nailed it’ but you did.
Well, we are both floating a bit free in the abstract here, but my impression is that there was not a groundswell of support for progressive positions in the 1990s and early 2000s. But on the other hand, you are clearly correct that big donors and the clique of fundraisers and pollsters who dominate the Dem party pushed it to the right and stymied the first signs of any progressive.
Hell, I have been complaining about that nonstop for 20 years. So I do not want to argue reflexively just because I disagree with electing Trump.
In the end, it comes down to a judgment about the best way to move things forward.
Maybe I am more leery of the appeal of rightwing populism. Some of our supporters can be their supporters. I seem to be more concerned about that than others here.
Thank you, PH. This is the best, and most well-expressed, statement I have seen of what can and should be done to get our country (and world) to a better place.
The Dem party has the infrastructure, and that matters. I happen to believe that the necessary turnover of the Dem leadership to a new generation will come sooner if Hillary loses in November.
Your comment re pols is false, and agnotology is against our written site policies. Politicians follow the money. Read Tom Fergugson’s Golden Rule. Clinton’s behavior is classic. She’s bought and paid for by Wall Street, Google, and defense contractors, yet she pretends she is going to fight for the little guy. All she really stands for on that front is that members of the credentialed classes who come from “out” groups get to share in the looting.
Polls have consistently, over decades, shown that policies like strengthening Medicare and Social Security, raising minimum wages, more progressive taxes, ending the wars, score large majorities or at worse pluralities (results depend among other things on poll construction and many are structured to discourage approval). Yet the political classes have and continue to govern well to the right of what the public wants.
And as a newbie here, you’ve missed our discussion for years of how the Dems have systematically gone after the left. This is a decades long-excercise.
As for racism, need I remind you that it was Hillary that talked of superpredators and refused to recant? And she and Bill have refused to own up that their policies led to mass incarceration of blacks, which in turn has worsened conditions in those communities greatly (lots of sociological work on other populations has found that when the level of young males drop, marriage drops precipitously and out of wedlock births grow because the women are so desperate to land a man that the terms of getting sex shift greatly in the men’s favor?) The least they could have done was say, “This was a response to the crack epidemic that was a good answer at the time but had bad long term effects, and we want those laws off the books.”
I am not a Clinton supporter. I abhor the influence of money, and acknowledge its pervasive influence. I know progressives have been systematically slighted, and have felt the sting personally.
I still think primaries will be more effective than a third party or Trump.
They haven’t been ‘slighted’. They’ve been taken out back and shot like the rabid dogs the party thinks they are.
PH,
I think the biggest obstacle facing the left is the press in this supposedly “free” country. The left has plenty of strong arguments and the corporatists have plenty of weak or false claims to debunk, but when does the left ever get included in the public discussions? FAIR has been documenting the flaws in our press coverage for years. C-SPAN used to offer some variety of viewpoints but now its mostly establishment types.
Jesse Ventura’s initial campaign got off the ground after he was included in a debate. Conversely, I think what killed Nader in 2000 was his exclusion from the presidential debates. Otherwise, his spiel seemed to go over pretty well with audiences.
Ventura won in a plurality when both the Dems and GOP erected putrid candidates (smarmy Skip Humphrey and windsock Coleman) for governor in 1998. His debate performance wasn’t great, but 1. he was there, and 2. he didn’t speak through his hat like the other two.
So the debate inclusion was an element in that election, but the other two candidates were utterly godawful which probably decided the election.
The opportunity is there for a 3rd or 4th party…
What are the odds the Dems and GOP can come up with candidates to match Humphrey and Coleman?
Agree the press is a big problem, for many reasons
I hear Clinton’s going full Churchill tonight (and not MLK now, or FDR).
Patriotic Muslims on now who hurled one of the sons into the fires of the Imperial Moloch.
[applause].
How about prosecuting these criminals when they break the law, either domestically or in the ICC.
I was trying to think of elections where the OverClass has been crushed. The only one that comes to mind off-hand is Bolivia (2005). Then there are moderate (mostly upper class) reformers who were elected in the UK (1945), Chile (1966), the US (1932), Guatemala (1951), Iran (1952) Argentina (1946 & 1916)…. In all of these cases, the reforms getting implemented depended much less on the election itself and much more on the pressure ultimately placed on the winner after the election.
Electing Sanders would have been nice, but it would have been the beginning of the battle, not the end.
On the other hand, electing Clinton would be the end of the battle, not the beginning.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Seriously, the suppression of the left that people like Tanden and Delong have been signalling is coming seemed to be confirmed by the way the Sanders delegates were treated during the convention — particularly banning Nina Turner from speaking at the last minute. (You could conceivably attribute a lot of the rest of iit to hamfisted attempts to achieve Deaver-style control.) I have no doubt that should Clinton be elected, leftists will be terrorized in every way possible, precisely so they cannot either make inroads inside the Democratic Party or develop a strong national alternative. “We need to elect her to build the progressive movement” is a fantasy.
Yes. We have to support Trump for these reasons. As is, the Dems think that being conniving, corrupt con artists is totally cool. They need to be taught better, like rubbing a dog’s nose in its own crap. It’s unpleasant, but it needs to be done.
different clue & jgordon seem to be implicitly assuming that a possibly fascist Trump with a status quo neoliberal Reaganomics R Senate & House, will ensure that neoliberal DLC Clinton/0bama factions are purged from the D party.
You might be correct. But recall in the 2003-05 Congress session, the neoliberal Rs ran the House, Senate, & Pres Bush43. Despite this configuration, “we” were not able to purge the DLC neoliberals from the D party.
Perhaps fascist Trump is unique relative to Bush43. OTOH Trump’s pick of VP Pence seems like a Bush43 Jr, a corporate whore first, & Christian theocrat 2nd which he implements as long as it doesn’t contradict his corporate owners.
It is unclear to me if a particular configuration makes it more likely to replace neoliberal DLCs with Sanders-style social democrats as the dominant D party faction.
Be happy to hear the clear way?
Fascist Trump? In what way? Is he a fascist because the Republican and Democratic Power Brokers are terrified of him?
They need to be taught better, like rubbing a dog’s nose in its own crap.
Why would that work better in 2016 than it did in 2008?
Because in 2008, the dog actually liked c–p.
I strongly disagree that that needs to be done, but it does provide a nice visual of the kind of attitude we are likely to see more of in an America that has been “made great again” by Donald Trump. I’m also pretty sure that many brutal and oppressive regimes have used a metaphor like that to justify what they do e.g. “It just needs to be done”.
I truly am chagrined to be at all aligned with the insane hysteria that the MSM has crossed into re: Trump. Believe me. But I have to call it like I see it, regardless. Some of what they are screeching resonates with me, unfortunately. So here I stand.
“Is Trump the Chemotherapy we need to purge and burn and kill every last cell of metastatic Clintonoma from out of the political system?”
Bravo for your savagely apt metaphor. As to the question posed, I am of late mulling over whether I hate the enemy or the traitors more.
Is a “President Trump” a price worth paying to avoid a case of Terminal Clintonitis? Is Trump the Chemotherapy we need to purge and burn and kill every last cell of metastatic Clintonoma from out of the political system?
That cracked me up.
The question I’m posing these days is: Who’s going to be easier to throw out in 4 years?
I think Trump can be ousted more easily because his party hate him, the media love/hate him and so do the Dems. With Clinton, she’s got a lock on the media and her party, even if the opposition party and grassroots voters find her detestable. She’s much harder to dislodge once she gets dug in.
We heard some top brass at the Pentagon suggest they will stage a coup d’etat if Trump orders something they disapprove. What that insanity would be is anyone’s guess. And who says these recent statements by military people supporting HRC are not from dangerous neo-cons? That’s our fall-back position? IF HRC and her minions can’t manipulate the computerized voting machines and the back-room regular vote counters and frausters to win in the General Election as she allegedly succeeded during the test-run primaries, then the Military will save us? Geesh, we can’t welcome straight-open empire run by the military and its chosen emperors too soon. Who would the Military appoint after ousting Trump & Pence? Hillary, Obama, Bush? The 2-term constitutional limits on the Presidency don’t apply to Emperors – or to any CEO’s of corrupt, crony cartels under our criminal capitalistic-oligarchic masters. I’m a white male over 50 with a valid US passport and only 2 dependents. I suspect we are flexible enough to handle anything that occurs. The next 100 to 1000 days will be most entertaining.
any talk of staging a coup or refusing to follow orders is evidence that a coup has already taken place and they’re not about to give up now.
A possibility I haven’t seen discussed is that Trump wins the election and is later assassinated or indicted. At that point Pence would be the president.
It’s been mentioned for good or bad depending on where the comment is (some regular Republicans love the idea while the more lefty probably can’t decide who would be worse.) Just as most wouldn’t want Pence, does anyone really want Kaine when Hillary strokes out or is indicted? So when you think about it neither VP nominee is someone any sane human wants in the office. They may have different liabilities than the tops of their tickets, but they are both bad choices as well.
The two major parties have produced two deadly horrible Presidential tickets for 2016.
“stealing or winning over?” Maybe both. Cliff Arnebeck (one of the lawyers filing lawsuits related to the Democratic primaries) pointed out in a recent presentation that Paul Manafort, Trump’s #1 campaign staff, was involved in the Ukrainian “elections”. He says Manafort was involved in rigging those elections.
Yeah but Trump aint very credible as an anti-free-trade crusader. His line of clothing is made in Bangladesh. His hotels, casinos, golf resorts, etc. are probably staffed with cheap immigrant labor. I wonder why journalists have not yet descended onto his hotels to interview the janitors, room cleaners, busboys, etc. Maybe they cant afford Spanish translators. Kaine should be able to help.
You need proof, not fact-free claims. Trade is one of the few topics on which Trump has been consistent in his stance, to the point of being willing to say batshit stuff like he’s willing to have the US leave the WTO if he can’t impose his equally batshit 40% tariffs on China.
You can’t be in the garment business and be a purely domestic player. PlusTrump engages in a lot of licensing. He’s probably licensed his name, which means he does not control the operation.
Aside from American Apparel, there are no clothing makers of any significance in the US, and American Apparel had been in bankruptcy. See some relevant information here:
http://jezebel.com/5915261/american-apparel-might-not-be-made-in-america-for-very-much-longer
Only “many” of their fabrics are made in America. They don’t even use the word “most”:
http://www.americanapparel.net/wholesaleresources/fabrics.asp
And even the last holdout, the NYC garment district, has been pretty much destroyed by the city. I have a buddy who ran a garment center business and was proud of the fact that some of his jobs, like cutting, paid $60,000 a year and allowed those workers (Dominicans) to send their kids to college. The garment center by law is zoned only for garment manufacture, but the city has refused to enforce that despite the entreaties over many years of manufacturers there. My contact says he’s been forced to move most of his operation overseas as a result of rising rents. And some skills have left entirely. Small high-end makers used to rely on being able to go to skilled jobbers like buttonholers. The buttonholers all left over a decade ago.
As for Trump’s labor practices, the media has been digging and all they’ve found is he used illegal Polish immigrants on a major development project, IIRC in the 1980s.
Really?!!? Are you claiming that Trump is a model employer, respectful of his workers, and is only forced by circumstances beyond his control to reluctantly outsource his apparel work?
I beg to differ, as do my union brothers and sisters in Nevada:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/02/21/3751643/trump-hotel-union-objections/
Both HRC and Trump are anti-labor. I would be delighted if that weren’t the case, but it is. I do hope that labor can regain some of the strength it has lost over the last half-century. A Sanders presidency would have been a step in that direction.
Straw man. I never said Trump was a model employer.
The topic was trade and whether he was using illegal workers. I said the only reported incident was undocumented Polish workers and that happened quite a while ago.
Look, I care a ton about accuracy. There is plenty that is wrong with Trump. We are going to have a dreadful time no matter who wins next year. But rather than stick with that and hammer it, the Trump-bashers are so eager to make him out to be Satan that they are driving people into the other camp (or not voting or voting third party). You brought up an unrelated issue apparently because you couldn’t stand to see me rebut a charge against Trump. That’s bad faith argumentation which is against house rules and is not helping your case.
Let’s not forget the magic conjuring trick Obama pulled off in 2008, the entire Repub program from Wall St to Iraq was in tatters and utter disrepute., And along came a smooth talking young brother, geez, he HAD to be on our side, this is gonna be great. But he waived his hands and all of the stuff we were against suddenly became the stuff we were supposed to be for, because hey he’s a “Dem”, right?
The point is that there are no labelling laws in party politics, all you can do is watch their actions. And study the puppetmasters calling the shots. So when I see Koch, Kissinger, Kagan, Murdoch, and Soros pulling for one team, I know the other team is the one for me.
A prediction of Trump’s success by a back burner working for Pat Buchanan
A man by the name of Francis gave advice to Buchanan, it is in the article, and the author goes on to indicate how it relates to Trump. In the last paragraph the author notes that it has been there for 20 years for the right person to come along.
Others have pointed out that Trump is as American as apple pie so the outrage is against the product of our own system.
Glenn Greenwald linked this article in a tweet.
How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996
Don Midwest USA
July 28, 2016 at 3:57 pm
I very much agree.
And with the change of one word from this sentence:
“What so frightens the conservative movement about Trump’s success is that he reveals just how thin the support for their ideas really is.”
to this:
What so frightens the DEM NEOLIBERAL movement about Trump’s success is that he reveals just how thin the support for their ideas really is.
Hillary supports the TPP – it doesn’t matter how overwhelming the majority is against it – it works for the few who pull the strings.
I think that what terrifies the neoliberal establishment is the idea of a canidate that they don’t own. Someone they don’t control somehow. Allow me to quote from an old slashdot troll: there is more than a grain of truth in his comments
“… they’re always hunting that patch of red on almost everyones’ neck. if they cannot find yours (greed, fear ego etc…) then you can go starve. that’s their (slippery/slimy) ‘platform’ now. see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder…”
As Lambert has said- there was power laying around in the street, just waiting for someone to come along and pick it up. Sanders and Trump both did this, the only difference is that the Republicans and Republican influenced media did not collude to subvert the democratic process to the same degree that the Democrats, and Democrat influenced media were willing to.
I find it interesting that a great many people continually discount Trump’s intellect. He seems to know what he is doing to me. I was never a big fan of wrestling, but I have recently watched a few clips of Trump’s WWE performances. He played the part of a heel masterfully, and WWE fans seemed to love it. I think Trump learned more than a few important lessons in his time goofing off with the WWE, and he is simply applying those lessons to the presidential race.
I plan to vote 3rd party, however if I were forced to choose between Trump and Clinton, I would certainly choose Trump- He at least speaks SOME truth (to power), and I think that the truths he speaks are a stepping stone toward the greater truths and changes we all seem to agree are needed. Truth raises awareness, and it is clear that no truth whatsoever will come from Clinton and her potential administration.
Another thing that I find interesting is that there almost appears to be some sort of inverse relationship between the Trump and Clinton campaigns. As the Trump campaign seems to become more practiced and effective, the Clinton campaign seems like it is descending to the same ridiculous and outrageous idiocy that was more a hallmark of Trump’s early campaign-perhaps that is just me though….
+1 that Trump is much smarter than people give him credit for. Clearly he has an agile mind. Now whether he would use his smarts for the greater good or for personal gain, if he were to become POTUS, is a good question, yet I don’t think he is evil like his (cough) Democratic rival.
No theft here. It has been made abundantly clear that you owe her your vote no matter she is a neocon neolib rep, and she would anyway much prefer to win with rep votes than Bernie’s.
IMO a growing number of those that think they get to vote for whom they choose will walk, not yet clear just where.
As an aside, a large number for greens will not shift her away from fracking/coal or whatever else Koch brothers want to burn; the one thing that will move her is to lose.
Right. If Hillary wins, it’s status quo until Republicans kick ass (again) in the next elections. If Hillary loses, Dems will be more receptive to the kind of change that is needed.
The Dems like a Repug Congress and Senate then they can cry “We had to do the Grand Bargain”.
Re Antidote: I’m lichen it.
Your puns absolutely rock!
Gneiss!
I laughed soooo hard…I think I just split a kidney ..stone !
Speaking of rocks, the colors of the lichen on a rock indicate changes in the chemistry on the rock’s surface. Here we see three different geochemical regions on that one rock.
Assange: Trump Is Unpredictable– Clinton Is Predictably Bad… But That’s Nothing Compared To Chris Hedge’s Analysis
It’s a nice analysis but I’m really tired of the “Trump will destroy democracy” qualifier everyone has to throw in to one of these anti Hillary rants. I’m sorry I just don’t believe that you become a crazy junta leader at 70 after a mostly normal and happy life.
I mean, we’re talking about someone who bullied the president into overthrowing the leader of a sovereign nation and then got on TV to gloat “we came, we saw, he died.” I think we’re all smart enough to know the origin of the phrase. So why don’t you go asking the people of Libya and Syria how they feel about Clinton vis a vis the preservation of democracy and see what kind of answer you get?
Really. Enough with the virtue signaling. Trump might spend more time playing golf than dictatoring….like Obama!
I can hyperventilate with Hedges a fair piece of the way from Marathon to Athens, but not all the way. I can weep with him for half an ocean, but not all the oceans. I find his attack on Sanders a wee de trop. Thirty fucking pieces of silver Chris? Really? I’m not that disappointed by Bernie, because my expectations were never raised really high. I don’t call him a betrayer and hate on him, even if I can’t believe his endorsement of Clinton is worth whatever he’s getting for it. Either he wanted a political revolution or he wants Hillary Clinton to be President – one of those positions is/was always insincere, and you can guess one I’d prefer. YES, I’d rather he was lying about endorsing Hillary. Not surprised he kept his word in the end, but anyone should be able to see how it makes him a fibber about himself and his “revolution”. He turned out to be human. Likewise, Hedges’ attack on Trump knows no limit. When Hedges doesn’t like you, you’re Judas or Hitler or Satan. Chris Hedges has many good points but you can see why he dropped out of the forgiveness biz during the bootcamp phase.
I really can’t blame Hedges for his views given his front row seat(s) to failed hawkish neo-lib policies.
Failed neo-lib policies? What’s failed about a move towards “confronting” Russia, or larger MIC budgets, or the ‘financialization’ of the military, if the basic intent of such policies is the facilitation of greed? It’s all a matter of perspective.
I was thinking more along the lines of the millions of dead people in it’s wake, but hey, that’s just me.
The right looks for allies. The left looks for traitors.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Trump being the future Baby Doc. It is about maintaining the firewall.
In many states a third party can only get on the ballot for Senate, House, or even state-level offices IF they do well in the presidential election. They never do of course because voters fear to vote for them lest Satan Himself(tm) become president.
All of those qualifiers, and all of the endless blame shifting (e.g “Ralph Nader caused the Iraq War”) are absolutely vital to maintaining the fear or avoiding blame for the terrible consequences of a third party mayor.
Gotta remember – this time it’s not just voting for the LOTE – it’s about the Lesser EFFECTIVE Evil.
Don’t forget about the Ukraine and Victoria Nuland’s famous “fuck the EU” phone call while Clinton’s State was busy installing a neo-nazi allied puppet government. And they say Trump is a bully.
Thank you. And let’s not forget how the MSM (especially the NYT) did their best to ignore the Ukraine putsch entirely and focus on the disingenuous “Russia invasion of Crimea” narrative.
The Clintonite Sh*tobamacrats plan to destroy American democracy with their TTP, their TTIP, and their other Trade Treason Agreements with their Secret Corporate Global Overlord Kangaroo Courts and etc.
So which destructor of American democracy would be more recoverable from? Trump and his Stormtrumpers? Or Clinton and her International Free Trade Conspirators?
Choose wisely, young padawan.
Since the TPP has no exit clause, I don’t know how we would recover from that particular piece of treason. Add to that the fact that Trump has nothing on Clinton when it comes to war-mongering or trampling people’s civil liberties, I don’t see how there’s any real question here.
Yep. Now we know why Hillary and other Democrats are so desperate to confiscate all guns. After TPP an armed revolt would likely become necessary.
that was kinda my point…when people where snickering about the Yehaadees..and how they deserve what come to them…because GUNS !
well……..re-read jgordon’s statement again……….
it’s the powerbrokers playing you !
Stop making stuff up. It’s against house rules. All the Dems have asked for is some weak tea marginal restraints. I want gun owners to be licensed, just like car drivers. And if you aren’t demonstrably a hunter (as in you get hunting licenses) you need to get insurance too.
Then the anti-gun movement has a severe problem on its hands, because those active in the pro-gun movement simply believe that you are lying to them. And indeed it’s a cottage industry among the pro-gun crowd, making and sharing clips of anti gun politicians proudly explaining how they want to ban all guns permanently.
At least some of the people against guns are not operating in good faith, and this taints everyone. That might be one of the things accounting for the paranoid and desperate resistance that meets any “sensible” proposal to regulate firearms.
Paranoia has that effect jgordon…. see Hayek…
At least some of the people against guns are not operating in good faith, and this taints everyone.
That’s likely a fair statement, but that street goes two ways.
Thanks, I didn’t know about the No Exit clause.
No buyer’s remorse, well, there is, but no remedy possible.
It’s like the UK but not even an illusion of Brexit.
I believe that there’s an exit clause, sorta like this creepy next-level fatuous relationship Juncker wants for the EU, in which other members, who, having jammed their blood funnels into the US market and having Interests, would not be inclined to support, get to vote on whether the US gets to leave or not.
But it appears that my research can’t cite to back it up, so retracting.
Looking through the version of the TPP released by the New Zealand Ministry,http://tpp.mfat.govt.nz/text, it does not appear there are any provisions directly for a Party (nation) to say bye-bye. There is a “Commission” with various powers, and lots of hortatory and minatory language about everyone agreeing. Here is one source that covers a lot of ground particularly with respect to US and Canada and does discuss means and likelihood of the US ‘hanging Canada out to dry’:
https://www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/Nafta2016.pdf
Reading through quickly, I am amazed at just how much of a Fokk job this document is, and what it will do to us mopes “going forward…”
Like the article says (with its interesting claim that Clinton does not support the TPP, down near the bottom) a TPPexit is possible but very very very unlikely given the “interests” in play…
Ah, apparently “exit clause” operation would be offered only by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969), in which a State may withdraw from any treaty after giving 1 year notice of intent. (But is it a treaty or not, Schrodinger? I guess we’ll just have to pass it to see what’s in it… a bit like a kidney stone.)
First time I’ve seen that Law of Treaties one year and out. Perhaps that explains why it is not to titled or referred to as a treaty.
The “trade agreements” are not treaties; technically they’re legislation, passed by BOTH houses of Congress, pursuant to an executive agreement with other nations.
Logically,that would mean Congress can end them any time it cares to, but I gather there are poison pills in them to prevent that sort of thing. OTOH: who’s going to penalize the Big Dog? There are advantages.
Wait — the TPP DOES have an exit clause. Article 30.6.
https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/TPP-Final-Text-Final-Provisions.pdf
I can’t tell whether we’d need to get a bill passed, but we can get out. And if I remember correctly, that language was lifted word for word from NAFTA, which means we can also get out of that. If our leadership wants to.
What am I missing?
I am voting for Jill Stein and hope many others do as a small act of resistance. I predict divided government with HRC as Commander-in-MsChief and a Republican Congress. The Senate is up for grabs.
HRC will continue with the descent of the USA as the first among un-equals of the nation state system which began with the financial globalization at the end of the Bretton-Woods agreement under Nixon. Nimble corporate entities will continue to plunder through regulatory arbitrage and send their rents to the corporate owners.
Donald Trump, the volatility candidate, does offer a short respite of upside for the downtrodden, if he is able to reinstate the power of the US as a nation state by taking control of the borders. This includes not only the movement of people, but also trade and finance and information. Unfortunately, beseeching through calls to the national spirit often bring forward the ugly attributes of humanity toward fascism.
Wall Street and Silicon Valley have blown away local norms with global networks of C-Suite values. Poor people are left to wander the world while trying to be useful.
A clarification might be in order. The quote you post is not from the Chris Hedges analysis. That is the final comment of the person posting at the website, Down With Tyranny. You probably understood that, but the way your post and the DWT post are laid out is a little confusing.
I prefer Hedges’ resort to Augustine:
Yes, that quote comes from Gaius Publius (a/k/a DownWithTyranny) who’s commenting on a lengthy post by Hedges.
The Russian writer Alexander Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of anarchists about how to overthrow the czar, reminded his listeners that it was not their job to save a dying system but to replace it: “We think we are the doctors. We are the disease.”
Wasn’t a major complaint about the failed ‘liberation’ of Iraq that there was no plan for the day after?
Really. The United States of America is not Iraq. No can know what would happen if the US Empire collapsed over night but that will not happen. There are too many bases and too many men with power overseas for it to all collapse over night.
If Americans overthrew the Two Party System then we’d go on to live another day and perhaps have universal health care, progressive taxes, and a debt jubilee for student debt. And I do not give a shit about what would happen to the assholes who sold my student debt or bought it.
The people who are marching for Bernie will scream they are non-violent for only so long. Eventually someone will have to deal with the real rage behind the people.
Lambert – you critiqued a tweet from Jill Stein a few days ago and got a fair amount of push back for it. Having listened to a few interviews with her, I definitely see the arrogance and condescension in her attitude. Still going to vote for her, though.
As stated previously on this site, most (all?) politicians are arrogant. At least Dr. Stein has the distinction of not being a warmonger, a racist, or a pathological liar.
or electable…..
Maybe they’re correlated? Or maybe enough people who would otherwise support her are caught in the LOTE trap?
I’m not anymore. Jill Stein will get my vote.
She will have mine as well.
How could you seriously even think about voting for anyone else? The “real” alternatives are a candidate so sneeringly, defiantly corrupt that the only possible recommendation for giving her your vote is to do irreparable reputational damage to and bring down her party. This against a guy who managed to fly straight into the idiot racist flypaper of the birther movement and get stuck on it. I’m sorry but nobody smarter than a half sack of potatoes got on that bandwagon. He’s little more than a turd thrown in the punchbowl this cycle, and about as likely to work out as a net positive as one. Yeah it’s funny and you can point at the pearl clutching and such and mock it but at its heart it’s an adolescent impulse.
The Ds and Rs are destroying themselves just fine and look to continue doing so. We need to build a place for people to go when they run screaming from the car crash and nobody but the Greens–whatever whiny criticisms you may level against them–have thus far got off their asses and started building one. I’ll look at and consider alternatives as they appear on my ballot, but in the meantime the Greens and Stein are the best alternative by a mile. The people I hear criticizing them for their undoubted institutional and organizational weaknesses have actually accomplished nothing even close to what they have already accomplished this election cycle and thus those criticisms generally strike me as petty and empty. Join them and make them better, or build a superior alternative and replace them on merit, or, you know, you can probably figure out what I’d recommend as a third option.
X1000!!
I just don’t see that their core, defining, signature issue is a vote-getter, people will not worry enough about global warming until the waves are lapping at the door thresholds in lower Manhattan.
Its the same reason I do not like her. I will vote Green but ultimately I am going to register with the Justice Party. I hope more people will learn about that party.
Speaking of TPP, the Chamber of Commerce is happy with both VP candidates…so that’s good.
http://www.uschamber.com/above-the-fold/tim-kaine-also-has-great-track-record-trade
And that’s “US Chamber of Commerce” to yous folks.
I’ll call ’em the Council of Corporations just a) to watch their foreheads blow a vein b) for truth.
Sanders Delegates Stage Walkout in Protest of Clinton Nomination (Real News Network)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16864
Sanders’ Delegates Stage Walkout Protest on Hillary Clinton Nomination (Wall Street On Parade)
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/07/sanders-delegates-stage-walkout-protest-on-hillary-clinton-nomination/
I can’t find a lot of details, like how many people/ delegations walked out, however.
I received an email from Credo Action today, requesting that I sign their petition in support of Reid’s view that the intelligence community should deny Trump briefings. This was my response:
I won’t sign your petition for several reasons. 1)I can’t believe you took that, to me, clearly humorous comment seriously. 2) Whether you like it or not, Trump is the legitimately selected nominee of a major Party, and is just as entitled to briefings as any other nominee (in fact, he is a more legitimate nominee than his Democratic counterpart, as those very leaked emails prove) and 3) If we’re going to deny security briefings to anyone, it should be to the woman who has already demonstrated a callous disregard for national security and securing classified information.
I am not a Trump supporter, but this campaign smacks of the DNC’s misdirection strategy to divert attention away from their own blatant, systematic (and now proven) wrong-doing. I will not be used as a tool by the Democratic Party. I thought Credo was better than this.
I received the same appeal and said the same as you did, but not quite as kindly. I also unsubscribed telling them I wanted no more democrat-inspired black propaganda infecting my email.
To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure how I got on their email list in the first place.
nippersmom, I loved your response to Credo Action! Truly excellent in the way you stated the facts. I especially loved #3.
Hmmm. Perhaps the plebes aren’t buying the Trumputin meme? Time to throw Debbie under the bus. Conveniently omits how quickly she was snapped up by team Clinton, and what that telegraphs about same.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/dnc-debbie-wasserman-schultz-226352
Some delightfully jaundiced convention reporting from Jeffery St. Clair over at Counterpunch:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/28/night-of-the-hollow-men-notes-from-the-democratic-convention/
(includes some Hunter Thompson references)
“Night of the Hollow Men” is a great read: insightful and funny.
Thank goodness other people get it, just how bad the Clintons and the DNC establishment are.
Man, that is an awesome rant. Hilarious and still bitingly on-target.
Agreed! A fabulous rant.
Leon Panetta? Dear God. Talk about B-Team. They couldn’t get Paul Wolfowitz?
Yeah it would have been nice to see some of the new recruits to the Democrat fold: Robert Kagan, William Kristol, Max Boot….
#Unity
This is off the top of my head late at night after a horrible week. But I remember reading something about how Panetta’s kid was playing a very important role in handling the primary for Clinton. Now given how it all played out, whatever he was doing in the primary was presumably on par with and in support of what Padilla was doing. So giving dear old Dad a speech was probably the actual least she could do.
I agree! That was a great read.
Good stuff, thanks for the link. I added him to my read list. Like me, Jeffery St. Clair must have worked in a stable at some time and can recognize the same sights, smells and substance no matter where it comes from.
Thnx for this link — I actually laughed out loud several times. Didn’t want the fun to end, so I looked for st Clair’s Tuesday coverage.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/27/the-humiliation-game-notes-on-the-democratic-convention/
+ Leon Panetta sniveling about Russian hacking is the best laugh of the night. Didn’t his own hackers, working with their cohorts in Mossad, unleash the malicious Stuxnet worm on Iran?[…]
+ In a strange cinematic interlude, the big screen behind the stage just aired a surreal film warning that Trump couldn’t be trusted with the “nuclear button”, which was partially narrated by … the nuclear bomber himself, Harry Truman![…]
+ The neoliberal ticket is now consecrated. The nomination of the unapologetically pro-fast track, pro-TPP Tim Kaine approved without objection. Change (of positions) you can believe in. “At least he’s not Putin,” Jelle Versieren told me. “Nominating Putin would definitely be worse.”
etc. Fun stuff!
thanks for the link. great read.
Great! I did not watch the DNC at all, but I feel I got everything I need to know from this piece. The insanity… I think we’re really in uncharted territory here as far as lunacy. I can’t see how anyone is seriously still listening to the narrative, it’s careening so far off the tracks at this point.
History could be made today, comrades: the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index is within 0.1% of its Nov 3, 2015 record high close.
It could be made into a monster, if we all pull together as a team.
And we all know which one is Pink!
New record high close: 4,721.
Have a cigar! :-)
16 year project?
mature unicorns and sparkle ponies are so yummie
Passing the baton:
Well, she looks happy…
She’s just thrilled. The man has accepted her.
I hope that is not an inside the belt(way) joke.
That picture is so paternalistic, even an old curmudgeon such as myself am amazed.
Obama has the look of a man who doesn’t like being upstaged.
“I am the president. This is the last time I attend as a president. Next time, I will be just another civilian, albeit with secret service protection.”
Quite nostalgic.
The day before he left to attend the convention was also the last time he experienced a ‘1 day before convention as a president.’
And 2 days before he left to attend the convention was also the last time he experience a ‘two days before convention as a president.’
Etc.
There should be a little warning at the top of the page if we are gonna get surprised with a Obama hugs with Hillary pic downpage.
Right. An image like that could give you PTSD. I had to repress my gag reflex when I saw it.
I couldn’t…and now have to clean my shoes……
Are you sure that isn’t photoshopped?
Yes. Unfortunately.
Hillary really has a problem with the uncanny valley, doesn’t she?
Josh Fox, best known for his Oscar-nominated anti-fracking documentary Gasland, captured inside the DNC with his cell phone and placed the video on Facebook. The place is half empty. Then there are reports the DNC is hiring seat fillers at $50 per night. Looking to hire 700
On the youtubes:
“Like the entire California delegation is like gone”
“This is the prime-time of the convention, right after the nomination of Hillary Clinton and the place is empty”
I guess scalping tickets on craiglist isn’t working out?
Bill should try the escorts page.
I posted this article from our local paper this morning. Here it is again, as it seems fitting for what Lambert was looking for. Obviously there’s more in-depth than this in the article. It was interesting.
“All three delegates said they’d encountered personal animosity among Clinton supporters that made it more difficult to embrace the Democratic party’s first female candidate.
Nelson said that, when she politely responded in the negative to a question about whether she was ready to support Clinton, the questioner responded with “whatever, Ted Cruz,” a reference to the Texas senator’s pointed non-endorsement of Donald Trump during last week’s Republican National Convention.
“It’s very hateful. Certainly not effective,” said Andreas, who said that, while seated on the convention hall floor, she was holding a sign signaling her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an international trade agreement that Sanders opposes. “I had a gentleman sitting behind me, in the Maryland delegation … . He told me it was stupid and I should put it down. He told me that we should leave.”
Detzer said he’d had mostly civil conversations with Clinton supporters, but that he was irked by what he saw as an air of superiority.”
The full list of ratifications from the people’s convention (I believe).
https://thepeoplesrevolution.org/ratified-platform/
Their democratic, Healthcare, and racial justice platforms are quite good, unfortunately (to me) the environmental platform stays wholly in the everythings all good if we just build turbines and solar panels, window. But they do go after facking and environmental criminals.
Fracking*
Stop it auto correct!
Interview with delegate about walk-out
Here is a terrific interview with the Vermont delegate who nominated Bernie Sanders and then walked out in protest immediately following his motion to nominate Clinton by acclamation. She was asked to be a spokeswoman for the “Silenced” sit-in in the media tent. She also happens to be one of the co-founders of Election Justice. If there is a more clear and articulate interview, I haven’t seen it.
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/27/former_vt_delegate_who_joined_sanders
I don’t know where to begin with this:
By November, Russian hackers could target voting machines
Are voting machines connected to the internet now? I thought the theory was that vote machine hacking could be done locally using special SD cards.
Russian H1-B programmers are all over the place. It’s like the Y2K problem, except with voting machines. The Trump Virus goes active on election day, and can’t be detected before. We need trusted representatives to operate these voting machines for us. They are trained to detect and clean the Trump Virus.
“Columns of Russian tanks” are prepared to influence the voting machines.
(Trump) potential first president that is a zero day exploit by the ruskies of course
Some are through wifi I guess. Depends on the precinct network hardware I ‘spose. However, the normal rigging is done through the maintenance company, who appear to be controlled largely by republicans. So, good luck with that.
On voting machines controlled by Republicans: When last I looked at this seriously, the industry was just getting started and this was true. Is it still true today? Can I get a link?
How about a Lambert hobbyhorse: paper ballots, counted by hand?
(But yeah, wtf?? My tinfoil hat is starting to think Mr. Robot is an incredibly sophisticated psyop ; ) )
They’re good enough for Germany. Machines are illegal there.
Good enough for Canada and the UK as well. And how long did it take to get the California primary results?
Better check your prescription medications to make sure Putin isn’t tinkering with them … no doubt Hillary is already checking her’s.
And if the commuter train seems off schedule and late, you know why.
Excellent projecting. This way if Team Clinton can’t “target” enough voting results to make her the winner, they have a ready excuse who to blame for their loss.
So are we graduating from “Chuck Norris” jokes to “Putin” jokes?
Progress!
Yeah, in fact, the only way to prevent Putin stealing the election for Trump is to arrest him for treason and declare Hillary the winner now. We cannot be too careful when it comes to defending our way of life!
crossing the Dneiper, that has a ring
Yeah, just ask the last two outfits that tried that.
cough..bezos..cough…….
Widespread robocall bomb threats to polling locations have already been mentioned here at NC in this same context
But what is new is a foreign government interfering with a U.S. national election on a large scale. Our democracy cannot tolerate it, and we as citizens cannot accept it.
The US public is being introduced to the idea of an election result repudiation.
Sadly, it has been done and still is being done…with money.
Wow, they’re confirming that elections can be hacked? Right on the heels of admitting that the Russians have the capability to hack private e-mail servers. Reminds me of something, I just can’t think of it…
“Election security is now a national security issue; federal officials need to take the lead, and they need to do it quickly.”
There ya go. Coup d’ etat, Patriot Act style.
All our elections since 2000 have been hacked, at least on the prez level. Nothing to see here.
So the Russian hacker hysteria continues even as they’re throwing DWS under the bus. Except Clinton immediately hiring her kind of steps on the narrative.
Seriously. How bad are those internal polls?
Link from Politico further back up in the comments. Excerpt below:
Wasserman Schultz battled to the end. But the dysfunction within the DNC had been mounting for months, according to interviews with over a dozen people in and around the organization. Wasserman Schultz’s detractors extend from party officials to the White House to the Clinton campaign — even though she was widely viewed as favoring Clinton. And many of them say they worry that the email drama has obscured the full picture of went wrong on Wasserman Schultz’s watch, which they worry won’t be fixed unless there’s a more complete airing.
“This [WikiLeaks release] didn’t peel back all the layers of the onion of incompetence,” said one person inside the DNC. “But it broke the fever.”
Detailed critique of NPR
Most have noticed how timid they have become. NYU journalism professor takes a narrow topic, the plagiarism of Melania Trump and how NPR would not call it plagiarism because it was not intentional.
This is a long article for a narrow topic, but it takes a lot to make the case.
One point: This occurs and there is a confusion about higher and lower – in one of the comments a reader noted that they had to read it 6 times to understand it. So the hint is to realize that they mean the opposite of what you thought when you first read it.
Here is the article and the comments are excellent also. Warning again that it is nerdy which probably won’t slow down people who hang out around this blog.
Getting granular with NPR’s culture of timidity: NPR would not call it plagiarism when Melania Trump’s speech to the Republican convention took passages from Michelle Obama. But there was a revealing moment when its people defended this policy online
Back in the early days of this campaign, I thought the Wizard of Oz, vs. the Wicked Witch of the West was a good metaphor, but watching the establishment demonize Trump, I’m thinking its a vote between Dr. Frankenstein and his Monster.
The election contest is shaping up the way Trump wants it, like a WWE match, with the Democrat party walking right into the thrown folding chair.
We’ll see if there is any bounce in the polls. I suspect not, given Trump managed to show he wasn’t the devil incarnate, but not much new or unexpected is happening here.
Bill= Smooth as Pam on teflon.
Obama=blahblahblah
Isthar vs. the Philstine.
Ishtar? I would have thought Hermaphroditus was a better “fit.”
David Dayen: DNC One Big Corporate Bribe
https://newrepublic.com/article/135564/dnc-one-big-corporate-bribe
Hillary Clinton Talks Tough on Shadow Banking, But Blackstone Is Celebrating at the DNC
Blackstone, the giant Wall Street private equity firm, will hold an invitation-only reception before the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. The event, at the swanky Barnes Foundation art museum, includes the usual perks for attendees: free food, drink, and complimentary shuttle buses to the final night of the convention.
What’s unusual is that the host is precisely the kind of “shadow banker” that Hillary Clinton has singled out as needing more regulation in her rhetoric about getting tough on Wall Street.
But Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Hamilton “Tony” James doesn’t seem the least bit intimidated.
James has been a stalwart supporter of Barack Obama, holding fundraisers for him at his home, even while other Wall Street titans criticized him — in fact the co-founder of James’s own company, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, once likened Obama’s push to increase taxes on private-equity firms to a “war,” saying: “It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939.”
Last December, James hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for Hillary Clinton that featured Warren Buffett. He’s made six-figure donations to the Center for American Progress, known as Clinton’s White House in exile, and sits on CAP’s Board of Trustees. And he has made no secret of wanting to hold a high-level position in a future Democratic administration, perhaps even Treasury Secretary.
The head-scratcher here is that James runs a private equity firm, exactly the kind of “shadow bank” that Clinton has derided as a scourge to the financial system.
Clinton argued during the primaries with Bernie Sanders that they were more dangerous than the big banks, because of the lack of scrutiny on their risk-taking. That was the linchpin of her argument that Sanders’s plan was too myopic, and that her plan, which sought to crack down on shadow banking and deny it sources of funds, was more comprehensive.
James has not only actively engaged in defending the whole concept of shadow banking, he created the original private equity trade group, formerly known as the Private Equity Council. The group later quietly changed its name to the more innocuous-sounding American Investment Council.
https://theintercept.com/2016/07/28/hillary-clinton-talks-tough-on-shadow-banking-but-blackstone-is-celebrating-at-the-dnc/
bet Hamilton wouldn’t have become “Tony” if he knew how cool that was
I know, Ham doesn’t work for an investment banker
Could it get any crazier? Russian ships displayed at DNC tribute to veterans.
http://nation.foxnews.com/democrats/2012/09/12/russian-ships-displayed-dnc-tribute-vets
troubled waters indeed !
I recognize the water. It’s beyond any doubt the Potomac River. What’s Trump trying to do? Intimidate Hillary? I’ve had enough. Let’s nuke the Potomac River. It’s the most effective evil thing to do. Let’s face it.
How about a Jonestown, all the beltway types walk down and take a slug of the Potomac
“OMGAWDZ!!!! They hacked the convention floor too!! Stop Ra-Ra-Trumputin”
About that photo, I don’t think I’ve seen a photo between two more disconnected people in I don’t know when. To me they are both very clearly in their own heads with no thought toward the other. (And I would say Obama looks to be not so happy about it.) And how I’m missing how that photo signals HOPE in any manner, even taking the idea that they are the ‘firsts’ the only way it emotionally reads is hope is if someone is placing that on it. Now that might be appropriate for both of them, as so many people paste ideas and stands on them that have nothing to do with them in reality, but I just don’t see the image supporting the idea.
kinda makes one wish photography hadn’t been invented yet !
Is this better?
http://tinyurl.com/ht2o8lu
From where I sit, that does NOT look like a friendly hug. Stage managed, yes. But that’s all.
all they needed..were the powdered wigs & rouge…….
…oh…and a chin mole for bad measure !
The expression on Obama’s face seems to say `This is all you get. Deal with it. I’m out of here suckers’
That’s the TPP-promise-to-pass hug.
In Sanders speech this week at the DNC, he qualified standing against the TPP. They are only playing along during “the lame duck session.” As we all know, that means they do the screwing after the lies of the electoral campaign.
The only way you get rid of the TPP after 2017 is a concerted effort to remove any incumbent in any party that voted for it on 2018 amd 2020.
That means prepping alt candidates NOW and strengthening reisistance at the grassroots rather than focusing any energy on this year’s scam
More DNC shenanigans. The seats that have been used by Sanders delegates in the California delegation have been blocked by “Reserved” signs on the seats. The arriving Sanders delegates were told by other (presumably non-Sanders) delegates already there that the DNC had asked them (each) to block off ten seats. The person recording the video also identifies a panel hung from the ceiling as a “white noise machine” to be used to drown out voices from that area.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Kossacks_for_Sanders/comments/4v2kaf/california_sanders_delegates_all_blocked_from/?st=ir6ssvar&sh=e28997f6
The noise cancellation machine – mentioned here the first night of their convention. NC was way ahead of the DNC on this one.
I’ve been watching the video feed. Fortunately, the woman who is recording the theft of democracy at a national convention tagged her video as “public,” since I don’t participate in Facebook. Hillary’s goons have been hiring “actors” to pretend to be delegates. They don’t have proper credentials to be on the floor, but they are being allowed in anyway. Of course, no one from the security staff is challenging them. Meanwhile, Bernie delegates from numerous states, with legitimate credentials, are being denied a place to sit. In fact, they were actually being kept from entering the seating area until Hill’s Shills could get in and place white placards that say “reserved” on all the seats. These are real brown shirt tactics. Scary.
Chilling stuff. People need to know it’s gotten this bad.
And they say Trump is the ‘fascist’?
Trump will get us out of Hillary’s Stalingrad.
“Field Marshal Paulus, I am ordering you home.”
from their email bunkers built upon sand foundations
The world is witnessing the ‘triumph of the will’ in achieving a finishing victory.
The documentary will come to a theater near you soon.
“Hillary, Hillary, über alles in der Welt. “
I forget who first coined the term “Mayberry Machiavellis” for the Geo. W. Bush White House.
Is there such a thing as a “Mayberry Leni Riefenstahl”?
john dilulio according to wiki
Finally Argentina has exported the concept of the choripanero* to the US. Our next exports shall be financial crises and debts in foreign currencies.
*Choripan=sausage sandwich. Choripanero = someone allegedly brought to a political rally in exchange for a sausage sandwich or other low-cost bribes.
Love it.
This one thread has already give me choripanero and (hat tip to Jim Haygood above):
Hillary to her $50 a day actors:
“I don’t know who you are; I don’t know what you want.
But I assure you I’ll find you and give you a choripan.”
http://tinyurl.com/heg3fe4
Oooooh. And la Presidenta is using the “tu” form of address. How insulting. But, we must admit, if one wanted the best salchicha, a legislature is the place to go.
Hillary launches a War on Hunger:
I suspect she will announcing many more wars. I haven’t seen a lot of Hillary, but when I have seen her speak, her eyes really light up when she talks about ‘threats’. That, I truly believe, is her real interest. The domestic stuff – she’s neither here nor there unless it affects the banks.
This country, I’m afraid, made a truly epic mistake. I don’t even have the words to express how truly epic it is.
What I am hoping for is that at the conclusion of her acceptance of the coronation, Hillary will reprise that famous moment of Sally Fields, finally collecting her Oscar:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rl_NpdAy3WY
“You like me! You really really like me!”
AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiieeeeeeeeeeee…..
I was gonna link to that, but i got here late today, so I figured someone already beat me to it.
Caesar was entitled, by a law duly enacted and agreed to by his rival Pompey, to stand for the consular election in absentia. He had also agreed, with Pompey, to a compromise sponsored by Cicero that committed both generals to disband their armies. Under intense pressure from Cato and the most reactionary oligarchs, the anti-Caesar Senators declared Caesar a public enemy and physically brutalized Tribunes of the People (despite their “sacred” immunity under Roman law). Caesar had no choice, therefore, but to act in response to the overwhelming support he enjoyed from the Roman People. So overwhelming that the moment the news reached Rome the oligarchs fled not only Rome but all Italy in panic fear of the people. In such panicked haste that they left behind the entire state treasury!
Nice work. I would add that the retention of office for purposes of avoiding charges of corruption or abuse of power was quite common in the late Republic. The brutalization of the tribunes of the plebs began with the murder of Tiberius Gracchus ca. 130 BC.
that was an oversight
People seem to forget that Caesar was a populares, just like his uncle Marius. He favored land redistribution, public works (or as we would say now, “infrastructure”) projects to reduce Rome’s high level of unemployment. He was opposed his entire life by the reactionary party (the self-proclaimed optimates), who viewed him as a threat to the hereditary privileges of the senatorial class.
Of course they wanted to get rid of him.
TPP – Stieglitz tells Democracy Now that HRC is honestly against it and won’t support a lame duck passage http://m.democracynow.org/stories/16469
Honestly.
I saw that. Couldn’t’ even finish watching the full segment. Talk about a guy peddling his integrity for something totally worthless. So many economists ready to sell themselves for a pittance.
So many economists ready to sell themselves for a pittance.
it’s the wisdom of the market!
Every day, to earn my daily bread
I go to the market where lies are bought
Hopefully
I take up my place among the sellers.
“Hey, that’s my usual spot!!!!’
which is more valuable, money or integrity?
Clinton lackey Brad deLong’s threatened a post-election purge of the left.
Democracy Lost: A Report on the Fatally Flawed 2016 Democratic Primaries
The full report by Election Justice USA, Google doc:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6J1ecILnk3UUy1KZ2FUT29iQ1E/view?pref=2&pli=1
Obama passionately defended Hillary and the mainstream — but he also knows activist mojo is the party’s lifeblood
Happy hour sure begins early at Salon.
Obama also plagiarized Trump Jr, the latter claimed.
hope there is a mojo room at the 0 presidential library
he certainly beat the blue team into a quivering invertibrate mass of protoplasmic jelly
I just finished reading the WSJ review of J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy.” Mr. Vance now works for an investment firm in Silicon Valley; his origins you can guess from his book title. It sounds like an interesting read (however since my origins are cheap Yankee/Uke I’ll wait til it’s inexpensive). The big question is – why don’t people try harder to “escape” their working class roots? My question is, why don’t people look more often at the social science research on the topic? It really does seem that upward mobility (in the U.S.) doesn’t make you happier.
From Science Daily (study re both British and American upward social mobility, which have different upshots):
“People who grew up in a working class family are more satisfied in later life than those from a higher class background according to new research from The University of Manchester.
The study by Dr Bram Vanhoutte and Professor James Nazroo, published in the Journal of Population Ageing, also found that English people who climb the social ladder are more content and happy when they get older than people in the States who are similarly upwardly mobile.
The research sought to find out whether social mobility makes people happier in later life while taking into account people’s living conditions.
Dr Bram Vanhoutte said: “Everybody believes that in the US it is easier to climb the social ladder whereas in England there is less social mobility. There is some truth in that, while almost half of those born in a working class family will retire working class in England. This figure is only a third in the US.
“We’ve discovered that English people who do manage to upgrade their social status substantially end up with a greater sense of autonomy and control. In America on the other hand, people who have risen in society’s ranks are less satisfied than those who haven’t, raising serious questions on the practical merits of living the American dream.”
The study also suggests that growing up in a highly educated household in the US, does make a difference to the sense of happiness in later life.
Following this research, the team will begin to investigate in more detail exactly how occupational careers and partner histories shape levels of wellbeing in later life.” (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150723083851.htm)
So, maybe Mr. Vance’s companions growing up weren’t so mistaken in not leaving their class of origin – if their goal was happiness. Though not everyone’s goal is happiness. Maybe Mr. Vance would be a lot happier if he had just gotten the education (education seems to be an unalloyed good) and skipped the upward mobility. My father (a retired social psych prof) has made huge efforts over the years to stay in his social class of origin (poor immigrant) for this reason, despite the cultural, economic and status disadvantages of it. Despite this, his childhood friends (who mostly have working class jobs and alcohol issues) are clearly happier than he is. I suppose you could argue that the sort of people who try to “move up” in the U.S. are by nature miserable people, while in Britain it is a different self-selection process. And that if the American “successes” had stayed in their milieu of origin, they would be even more wretched. But I’m not so sure of that.
(Please understand that I am not saying that people ought to be poor, for god’s sake.)
In the process of traversing the social classes over the last 30 yrs or so, the one thing I have learned is that happiness is a choice.
Currently, I am near the bottom of the US, about to fall off; but I still converse and dine regularly with multi-millionaires. Its not the first time and probably won’t be the last.
True, it is easier when we are free of worry; but that is not absolute. I recall that Viktor Frankl had some similar observations in “Man’s Search for Meaning”.
Hmmm. My conclusion from reading happiness studies and looking at my miserable relatives, is that one’s happiness level is largely genetic/innate, and isn’t changed much by life experiences (other than severe untreatable physical pain). There was a study of people who were up for tenure; they had a particular happiness level before the decision; the decision dramatically affected their happiness level but only briefly (those who were denied were very unhappy; those who were accepted were very happy), but that didn’t last very long at all; soon enough they returned to their personal baseline level. Vis a vis money, it seems that once one gets to a certain income level (which while not high, is a lot harder to hit these days), additional money does not bring additional happiness. I don’t have a sense of what choosing happiness would consist in, but then I don’t really believe in free will. In any case I hope that you either do not fall off the edge or that if you do it is not too horrible.
Tax Avoidance & Inquality: if you have to ask, then you can’t qualify.
http://ritholtz.com/2016/07/fortune-500-firms-cash-offshore-havens/
Harry Reid Opposes Ramming TPP Through In Lame-Duck Session
He won’t take a bullet for President Obama on this one.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/harry-reid-tpp-lame-duck_us_579a4ddae4b0d3568f86895f
Anyone taking bets on this?
“Most worrying for opponents of the deal, TPP establishes an investor-state dispute resolution system, which means that companies that feel aggrieved by a certain law ― say, a tax increase on tobacco products ― can sue the relevant country in an international court. The system basically elevates a corporation’s desire to operate free from regulation or taxation to the level of a human right ― the only difference being that this right could actually be enforced.
“That said, the U.S. has traditionally resolved investor-state disputes in foreign countries by staging a coup and installing a friendlier government. So maybe TPP represents progress after all. “
traditionally resolved investor-state disputes in foreign countries by staging a coup
love the smell of burning cynicism in the morning
I knew TPP would lead to world peace.
The peace of the grave…
I don’t want to be more cynical than need be, but I look at all this as pre-negotiation posturing.
If you follow the lobbyists, they are moving along without a care in the world.
Not just the ISDS Star Chamber part. There’s the whole bit about “regulatory coherence,” and the behind-closed-doors double-secret “commissions” that will arrange it so that all national and local “regulation” is pre-set to the bottom peg in all places where “investors” seek “anticipated profits” by that old mercantile looting game: http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade-agreement/transpacific/TPP-text/25.%20Regulatory%20Coherence%20Chapter.pdf
I suspect that Harry will be made to see reason.
The squeaky wheel with the most power gets the best grease.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=16878
Very interesting discussion on this Real News interview between a couple of Bernie delgegates, both lawyers, one immigration the other Bernie’s campaign lawyer.
Putin IS listening!
Russia to U.S., Trump: Sort out your own pre-election hacking scandal
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-to-us-trump-sort-out-your-own-pre-election-hacking-scandal/ar-BBuZxtU?li=AA4Zpp&ocid=spartanntp
Crowd now chanting USA USA! To Colorado Governor Hickenlooper, a former Marine Corps general. Bombastic militarism always a plus.
Triumph of the Hill
Hamburger Hill!
benny hill.
“USA” was the officially designated chant to counter the insurgents’ chant of “No More War.”
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/758858618779217921
As I suggested above, Mayberry Leni Riefenstahls.
That was frightening
Hickenlooper (roaring loudly): “To our enemies: You will fear us. And to ISIS: We will defeat you.”
You’d almost think this was a military establishment that hasn’t lost two major wars, along with cratering the EU with a refugee crisis created by the minor ones.
The Democrat elites have really lost their minds.
Maybe John McCain will show up and calm everyone down?
Riding a white horse.
nope, he’ll be comin’ round the mountain riding an h-bomb à la major t. j. king kong.
Uhh……um..I think a black horse is more fitting…..all things considered…
A pale horse?
Ok…a horse of a different hue….a…rorschach horse??
You’ve noticed this?
Sadly, seemingly intelligent people have lost their perspectives and their minds.
But keep up the good work
Wait just a minute. Isn’t that “we’ve got the biggest army and we’re going to use it” a platform plank of the Cthulhu for America campaign? Straight out of the “Biggest Evil” playbook.
“Ia! Ia! Hillary fghatn!”
Tweet from convention: “Check out the sign in the back.”
https://twitter.com/JDauray/status/758831337692246016
Obama’s DNC letdown: The president needed to hit it out of the park, but he surprisingly fell short Amanda Marcotte, Salon
Marcotte throws Obama under the bus. That’s hilarious.
I don’t know, I think the author is delusional:
Who in the world thinks they are friends? Maybe someone completely ignorant of the 2008 Democratic Primary?
I’m sure Trump will mention that she was the person who floated the idea that Obama was not a US citizen at birth…ie the original Birther.
She was?
Another ‘first in her class’ in her family…
Have we set a date for their apotheosis?
“You will be performing a card stunt that will be creating the picture of a unified party….”
“When you see audience leaders holding up ‘Ready: Card Stunt'”
“Hold your card up and look through the cut out.” <– great metaphor
“Thank you for being a big part of this historic event.”
Is anybody else hearing this totally creepy announcer voice? (I’m watching at the NYT, which is on PBS).
* I typed in the words above as I heard them, hope they’re right…
No. I’m watching on http://www.demconvention.com. Listening to Pacifica, they’re doing other weird things.
Dang, I thought you were riffing on Angela Lansbury’s lines from the Manchurian Candidate.
It’s just frightening
And now Chelsea. First time I’ve seen her give a speech.
She certainly has that sincere laugh thing going, doesn’t she?
Adding, whoever miked her did a poor job. Not as bad as Trump inhaling.
I’m listening on the radio. No one told Chelsea that lip smacking sounds bad?
The crowd is certainly going wild after that sappy film.
I just tuned into see what she’s wearing. White. Not flattering. Looks cold. No ill respect to nurses but that’s what she looks like.
I’m just looking ahead, trying to figure what the post convention bounce will be.
Negative 3 points?
Would that be a first in history for this historical event?
No one told Chelsea that lip smacking sounds bad?
Nobody dared.
the funny thing is that ms. clinton is the whitest noise machine of them all.
I wonder if you play a recording of her acceptance speech tonight and, simultaneously, a recording a Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech, they cancel each other out…
Bee-mergency:
So on waking this morning heard a very loud insect-buzzing sound from the bedroom window (which I closed ~7am to keep warm air out, as another hot day on tap) above my desk – figured it was some large stray fly that had flown in the open entryway door (left open for cooling) last night before I closed it and went to bed.
On getting up found it was a solitary bee buzzing against the windowpane, furiously trying to get out. Figured no point sliding window open, can’t open the window screen on the other side of it anyway, and since window needed to be closed during day, why let the bee spend the afternoon in the hot space between glass and mesh?
So get home ~4 … in the semi-darkness (I’d left curtain and blinds half-closed when leaving) of the BR see about a dozen dark jellybean-sized shapes lying on BR carpet, then notice that several are moving … uh-oh. Turn lights on, bees crawling all over the room. Luckily, not aggressive, many seem dazed (probably exhausted from hours of trying to get out). No time to try to mess around with the Vacuum – stored in the other room – just then, just grabbed a roll of duct tape from my desk, tore off a piece, used it to sticky up the ones littering the floor right around where I was. While doing that, noticed several crawling thru the grate over the ceiling vent in the bathroom adjoining my BR, and a *really* loud buzzing – sounded like hundreds of bees – coming from the ceiling where the bathroom vent-pipe runs to the outside wall. In emergency mode, tore off lengths of duct tape, stood on closed toilet lid and used tape to cover the vent grate. Called apt-complex-mgmt to tell them to send help, then got the vacuum and vacuumed up all the bees I could see, dozens all over floor, window area, bathroom ceiling. Complex mgmt had mentioned they already had “the bee guy” on site elsewhere in the complex (~50 buildings, ~500 units total), around 6:30 he showed up, said he’d just finished up with same kind of problem in building next door. He uses natural methods (old honeycomb as an attractant, bitter almond oil as a repellent) for bee control, quickly found a gap in the vent-covering mesh thru which the bees were going into the vent. On removing the outer grate to get at the vent pipe, even he was stunned – “this is the worst one I’ve ever seen”. (I’m mentally picturing the “hello, Queenie” scene in Aliens at this point). I would have heard the buzzing when I was in the bathroom this morning, so that solitary first bee must have been an advance scout or something, the main swarm must have all come in during the afternoon when I was gone. He figured there were around a thousand swarming inside and around the vent – I’d vacuumed up around 50 that had gotten inside before we sealed the inside vent.
He figures it’s a single large swarm – “terrorizing this complex” were his words – that is trying to find a spot to colonize, said he’d already done 3 other buildings in the complex today, and had at least 2 more to do. “I’m gonna be here all night”, was his resigned expression. He mentioned it was odd because the normal time for new-colony swarming is in the spring.
Oh, one more funny thing – this was our parting exchange as he was collecting his gear and loading in the back of his pickup truck:
Me: “How often do you get stung?”
He: “Every day.”
Me: “I guess your immune system is pretty used to the venom by now, huh?”
He: “You know it’s funny – I never get sick during bee season, I always feel really good … but in the winter when I don’t get stung I feel really depressed.”
Me: “I’ve heard of some kinds of venom actually being a booster against some kinds of disease…”
He: “It’s actually the adrenaline your body produces after you get stung.”
Me: “I guess you’re an adrenaline junkie just from your work.”
He: “Definitely. During the off season and on weekends I jump out of airplanes.”
Thanks for this comment. Back to reality for one moment at least!
“There is more than enough of the American Dream to go around”
— HRC
(…but we’re gonna keep it for ourselves and a few of our wealthier TPP supporters)
This is without a doubt the most sugary sweet promotional bullshit I have ever heaved Jonah on and the most Gawdawful 7/11 appeal I’ve ever listened to.
And if you haven’t gotten your share, you haven’t worked hard enough.
“She is a hard worker.”
How many from her team have said that this week?
Dream sharing?? Inception confirmed for favorite Hdawg film. (BWAAAAAAAAAAAMP)
The crowd is not with her. I am still waiting to hear a “Walk Out!” chant.
I’m a bit disappointed in Bernie delegates but at least I can see that they are not reacting to her. Bright green was a good idea.
I’ve got so many priors here, but I’m having a hard time hearing this speech as Presidential.
Adding that a political party framing itself as being for “love” makes me want to throw up. Ultimate perversion.
Yeah. Not sure what’s wrong with it. More hard-luck childhood stories. Someone said it earlier: she’s a work horse. That’s how she’s managed to stay with Bill, I think. She’s a workaholic so she didn’t have to deal.
She’s going over her meager accomplishments. One favor, er, person at a time.
Still don’t know how she could have not read the NIH before her vote on Iraq War. So out of character for her who’s so devoted to details.
Just tuned in. Kinda sounds like a 2008 Obama speech to me – but that was so long ago I’m not sure.
Apparently there is a counter chant list, which explains the odd timing of chants
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/758858618779217921
Ah. So it’s like Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young? Stronger…. chanting in harmony.
Now I understand.
I think they are misreading the mood of the electorate — this is the wrong speech for the moment
Very much a speech of the past.
Didn’t watch a minute of it, but wouldn’t it be more likely to be that it accurately reflects the mood of her donor base? Or perhaps, the mood her donor base need to have inculcated in the electorate aka the suckers?
Clinton tells story of Fall River, covered by Thomas Frank in Listen, Liberal.
Osama bin Laden too? Very militaristic tonight.
Are they gonna get him again?
Working the White House situation room photo hard. Thing is, we can’t see what’s on the screen. For that, we have to rely on Seymour Hersh…
How is that book? Have you read it?
Now the populist part. “Join us.”
Which is odd, since why would they have left in the first place? Strange messaging.
Full speech if anyone cares:
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/full-text-hillary-clintons-dnc-speech-226410
My corrections in bold:
“Bernie, your campaign inspired millions of Americans, particularly the young people who threw their hearts and souls into our primary.
You’ve put economic and social justice issues front and center,
where they belongmuch to our disgust.And to all of your supporters here and around the country:
I want you to know, I’ve heard you.
Your cause is our cause ,until we win the election, that is.
Our
countrycampaign needs your ideas, energy, and passion.”Hillary’s still talking… and I got an email from Planned Parenthood to donate to Hillary. I unsubscribed.
Yay!
Courage Campaign sent me something today about #TrumpTreason. You know, because jokes about Russia are so much worse than breaking espionage and campaign finance laws and stealing elections. I unsubscribed.
She looks angry. Grumpy. Like she was woken up from a nap before she was ready. She just wants to get her talking points over and go collect some money.
She’s thinking, “Grrr. I’ve made more money from speeches shorter than this!”
See, here’s what I’m banking on: we can sit here all day, till November, and point out very specifically what is wrong about the mainstream Dems and the media, ad infinitum… BUT the average guy/gal won’t be able to point to specifics as easily. They’re probably getting most of their news from the MSM — and we know how they are. But Hillary *cannot* hide her countenance; she doesn’t come off very well, and people will be suspicious. Deep down, she knows — and she’s terrified of having to confront the reality of herself. Perhaps this is why she is avoiding press conferences: they can’t be completely scripted, and her body language, etc works against her. Her mannerisms fairly scream “manipulator”. And guy/gal average *will* pick up on that via TV even if they don’t get all the words, or know any of her record.
Sadly, many of my previously unpolitical(but oddly very well off) friends are swooning over her tonight. It’s sickening. I don’t understand how so many can be so willingly blind.
It’s that or admit we live in some version of a totalitarian oligarchy or fascistic state. What’s easier to do — admit that, or pretend Hillary Clinton is a nice lady?
For me, the truth is easier. But I get why that’s not the case for a lot of people, especially those not directly harmed by Democratic governance.
They are doctors and attorneys, go figure. The doctors are from Germany and Argentina, now living the high life(huge houses and money to burn) and working in the US. The attorney has always had a cushy life since birth as daddy was a corporate attorney. I’ll have to say it’s been interesting to observe-I just wish I wasn’t neck-deep in the middle of it.
“Feeling better ya?”….”Now tell me……Is it safe??”
Okay, she just quoted Hamilton. I’m sure Lambert has just knocked himself out to get some relief.
OH, and Firework for an exit and a repeat of the weird smile double thumbs up to some unknown.
I’m glad I missed most of it.
I’m watching all the balloons. The balloons are pretty.
When you watch that, think money. No expense was spared. One can only wonder where that money came from (and we won’t know for, IIRC, 60 days…)
There really wasn’t. The money was on conspicuous display all four days.
Not bad, I liked the ones at the Trump coronation. Even when it was happening I thought the Trump balloon and confetti drop was one of the best I’ve ever seen, if not the best.
I didn’t bother watching, so I missed it. But sure. Trump would have the most beauuuutiful balloons.
And all those pretty balloons were filled with nitrous oxide, courtesy of the Medical Industrial Complex.
Even if you think Clinton’s economic proposals are made in good faith, and everything won’t be blown away in a war, where the heck where the Democrats in the last eight years? All of these problems were visible in 2009.
Every once in a while I would love a glimpse of the alternative time lines in our world. What would Clinton’s speech and proposals have looked like if there had been no Sanders? If Trump were not the nominee but it was Jeb or Cruz? Considering where she was at the start of her campaign, I have no doubt most of the economic proposals we see today would not be there without Bernie, the TPP would still be the gold standard of trade deals and in this reality most of the better proposals will be history by Thanksgiving of this year. But then there could be the timeline where Obama broke up the banks and used the Defense budget to do a major infrastructure program in 2009, which would probably be depressing in how much better it is.
(So I can be really depressed, it would also be “nice” to see what a winning nominee Sanders would be like.)
The rate at which I am watching my friends create justifications for their cognitive dissonance that comes with purchase of a Clinton vote is sad. It has worked before, it won’t work this time. No matter how you spin it, you are voting for Clinton.
When will we learn?
“What do we learn, Palmer?”
Wow, haha! This is an incredible scene. Is the rest of the film this good? I am going to have to check it out.
Totally depressed.
“And so it is with humility. . . determination . . . and boundless confidence in America’s promise… that I accept your nomination for President of the United States!”
••
“It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love the Republic. Once this crisis has abated, I will lay down the powers you have given me!”
It’s not nearly as entertaining in real life as it is on the big screen……
Sigh…..
Well-crafted emotional & tactical manipulation. Of the speakers I saw, Rev.William Barber seemed more connected to himself than many of the others. The crowds were being whipped up, but I didn’t feel any of it. It felt so different from the Sanders rallies.
Hillary Clinton is also a human being. It’s hard to feel sympathy for her, even though at the human level she deserves the same respect as anyone else.
Nina Turner’s presence & energy were sorely missed. I sense the DNC felt it too much of a risk to expose the crowd to her high-voltage positive radiation; it would expose the convention’s lavish show for the empty shell it is.
Was it my faulty hearing, or during Clinton’s speech did she substitute Sanders’ name when she meant to say Trump in the middle of her speech where she talked about how much Sanders liked to talk about himself but never had any plans? Maybe I heard it wrong. . .
If Barber thinks Hillary is going to do anything for him, he’s going to be sadly disappointed. Again.
I’ll give Hillary the same respect she gives the 90%. Which is not much.
What a great way to “watch” the convention! Thanks, all.
I look at the Democratic Party as having contracted a serious disease—Clntonitis. To attempt to cure the patient, surgery, chemo, plenty of rest, a complete change of life style is needed. This can only come about if the Clinton democrats are defeated and discredited. In my opinion , it’s sad but true that Trump is going to have to win in order to begin the Democratic cleansing and rebuilding process.
Btw, I don’t think I’ve seen it over here (but maybe I’m wrong) – Alan Grayson’s race seems to have completely imploded his race with his ex-wife accusing him of domestic abuse. The PCCC and DFA both pulled their endorsements and are asking for their money back. Sad. His new wife is running for his Congressional seat.
Guillotine watch: Hillary donors to Bernie supporters: Shut up Politico
Their behavior won’t help advance the liberal causes championed by Sanders, asserted Nancy Beeuwkes, a Massachusetts activist who along with her husband has donated nearly $6 million to Democratic candidates and causes over the years.
“I was upset that they made noise while Michelle Obama and some others were speaking. That didn’t do them any good,” said Beeuwkes. “And I think most older people thought it was rude.”
Ron Feldman, a New York art gallery owner who has donated $186,000 to Democrats over the years, traced the stubbornness of some Sanders’ supporters to their youth.
“I never want them to give up their dreams, but they’re young and there’s a lot to learn,” said Feldman. “And they will learn how to compromise and get things done.”
“Compromise and get things done” is the new “sit down and shut up.”
Nancy Beeuwkes: ” I was upset that they
made noisedidn’t just cheer but called bullsh*t when they saw it while Michelle Obama and some others were speaking.Yes, I’m quite sure if the noise they made were excitement about being told they just weren’t working hard enough, and calling Michelle the bestest thing ever! all those young people would have been a vision of how bright America’s future is by someone who can throw $6 million dollars at political candidates and still have a home, food and send their kids to the very expensive college.
I apologize for the lateness of this. I discovered it last night before bed.
Bernie Delagate Speaks Out Against Fraud at DNC *Seat Fillers*
Has anyone else seen reporting of seat fillers at the convention? I particularly thought that the roaring Kaine and Obama crowd was a little odd (but what do I know). This Bernie delegate carefully claims that he is seeing unknown people in seats who were not there before and that individuals were barred from leaving or entering at a certain point in the night, regardless of delegate/guest status.
Bezzle link
SRSLY: Why Make Something When Nothing Sells Just as Well?
Sen. Diane Feinstien’s husband was barely one step above this particular operator.
“We can’t allow Trump to get classified security briefings!”
I’m going to point out, yet again, that Hillary Clinton has literally destroyed a country, in addition to a host of other bloodshed. Whereas, as far as I know, Trump has never killed anyone.