What always drove me nuts about the Obama slogan, "Yes we can" is that the object was missing from the sentence. This was a carefully crafted non-message that was intended to let the voters "fill in the blanks" for themselves. So one voter might think he was talking about environmental issues, or another might think "Yes we can end wars". I found it to be highly deceitful and pretty typical of the Obama years, where everything was deception. My favorite was, when talking about past crimes of the Bush administration, he said "we need to look forward, not back". Obviously, in that alternative Obama universe, no crimes can ever be prosecuted because that would be looking back.
John, my wife and I were riding our BMW motorcycle in Africa when news came out that Obama was elected. Every town we were in the natives were cheering, dancing and singing and celebrating late into the night. I will never forget it. My wife had voted for Hope and Change.
But sadly, when we got home, we quickly found out we had voted for GW Bush 2.0. Obama was the worst president of my 41-years living in the US. And we had lost nearly half of our 45-years retirement saving we had trusted to the professionals while we were away.
Your 'frend' is like so many others I've heard or whose comments I've read. The died-in-the-wool Blue folk who are so smug in their moral superiority that they can not even imagine that they might be wrong in their assessments. The ones who actually think Biden cares and has made progress on those matters that they might think important. The ones whose reading of the NYT and WaPo, or tuning into MSNBC, NPR or PBS, etc. will never allow them to think any differently.
Actually I think I agree with you that Cornel West would be a better choice than Jill Biden. Oh I meant of course Joe Biden. And I guess I should have said "Doctor" Jill Biden. Tee-hee.
I have a friend like yours, Bill. And also some who vehemently disagree with me on various forums. If I bring up, as you did, the lack of a public healthcare option, drilling in the Arctic, etc., I'm told that I'm a pie-in-the-sky absolutist, expecting to get everything on the Progressive wishlist. Or I'm letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, or I should celebrate Biden's many significant accomplishments against incredibly long odds.
My answer is that, yes, some good legislation has been passed, but the devil is in the details. Amid all the [drastically reduced] legislative packages, Big Oil is still being subsidized, public infrastructure will move toward privatization, Medicare continues to be more privatized every year, and so on. There are any number of poison pills scattered among all the omnibus bills.
Like you, I'd never vote red, but as it now stands, I agree that blue isn't the answer, either.
I'm saying, "never" in my lifetime, because I doubt I'll live to see the GOP change its ways. The last sea change that happened in the party occurred about 55 years ago, and unless something drastic happens long before a similar period elapses, the GOP will "never" earn my vote.
Sure, if the GOP espouses strict gun control measures; gets 100% behind eliminating fossil fuels and plastics, along with boosting renewables; supports a ban on trophy hunting; gets 100% behind combating climate change and ensuring species survival; approves single-payer healthcare; abandons threats to the debt ceiling; abandons all attempt to control women's bodily autonomy; openly endorses the complete separation of church and state, including public financing of religious schools; abandons all ties to and support of Christian nationalists, white supremacists, and militias; champions equality and diversity; cuts ties with the Heritage Foundation; stops appointing religious fanatics to SCOTUS; agrees on strict rules of conduct for SC justices, including disallowing gifts and perks; supports unions; supports an expanded social safety net; publicly and privately disavows racist, misogynist, and religious fanatical followers' threats and intimidation; disallows book banning and disavows the religious-nut proposed restrictions of groups such as Moms for Liberty; condemns mistreatment of immigrants, a la DeSantis and Abbott; ejects from the party George Santos, MTG, Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Kari Lake, and all the other vicious, gun-loving, pseudo-Christian agitators, plus all those who voted against certifying the 2020 election---just for a start.
Basically, similar topics to the GOP list in terms of making it happen: getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies and shunting all the money to renewables; acknowledging that climate change is the most critical issue facing the planet, and acting accordingly (banning new drilling and all fracking, as just a start); implementing single-payer healthcare once and for all; serious trust busting; helping those who are food- and shelter-insecure; actually protecting endangered species; actually standing up for the working class; boosting funding to education exponentially; codifying abortion rights; standing up for rights for all, including equality under the law. But both parties need to agree to make big cuts to the Pentagon budget; to get the money out of politics; to stand up to Israel regarding Palestinian rights (i.e., cut all aid to Israel, at the very least); stop condoning other human rights violations in the name of profit; and to agree to a foreign policy built on cooperation, not domination---seek to ally with China to mitigate climate change, for instance.
Yes, you are right on there. No way ami I going to vote for Biden again just because I'm supposed to--not this time. I'm not going to vote for Trump either. I would seriously consider Chris Christie if he hadn't made the trip to the Ukraine. I would vote for Robert Kennedy in a primary against Biden.
Bill: Based on Your belief in a multi-color world and the hearty acceptance of Green as a more than merely acceptable color, permit me to offer the following. It speaks directly to people of “Green sensibilities” such as Yourself… :
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” ~ H. L. Mencken
The Preface to Max Borders’ UNDERTHROW: HOW JEFFERSON'S DANGEROUS IDEA WILL SPARK A NEW REVOLUTION reads as follows:
Imagine a gorge cut ages ago by the river Time. Two tribes live, one on either side of the gorge: the Reds and the Blues. A thick rope connects the two tribes as each pulls in a seemingly endless game of tug-o-war. The walls of the gorge are steep. When one side starts to gain an advantage, tuggers from the other side fall into the river below. Those who remain tug harder, so they start to gain an advantage.
This game has been going on for so long that few question it.
Behind each tribe, ghoulish spectators yell, “Pull!” from comfortable perches. The ghouls promise goodies to the tuggers should their side win. Some tuggers fall with a splat onto the muddy banks that flank the river. A few land in the water and get carried away by the current. Dirty and disheveled, fallen tuggers from team Red or Blue make their way back to shore, then climb up the winding trails to the back of the tug-o-war line. There they find a length of rope waiting. Despite being scratched, bruised, and muddy, they again hear the ghouls yell, “Pull!”
So they pull.
A few just watch the whole thing with disgust. Occasionally, an onlooker joins in the tug-o-war. Otherwise, they shake their heads. Some tuggers have been dragged into the mud enough that they refuse to participate. All this pulling for Red or Blue seems pointless, especially for those with Purple or Green sensibilities.
“If you don’t pull the rope, you have no right to complain,” say the Blues.
“Pulling for Purples or Greens is wasted effort and ensures Blue wins,” say the Reds.
The Blues’ general hypothesis is that one day, their team will muster the strength to pull all those horrible Reds into the gorge once and for all. The Reds’ general hypothesis is that one day, their team will muster the strength to pull all those horrible Blues into the gorge once and for all. Both sides agree they have to recruit bystanders to win, even though the game offers little to the bystanders. It’s winner-takes-all for Red or Blue, so pick a team. Or so the theory goes.
Enter the Blackshirts.
The thing about Blackshirts is they never pull the rope. Blackshirts earn their color because they question the whole god-damned thing. So, of course, the Reds and Blues reject them utterly. But the Blackshirts are clever. They know that tug-o-war is wasteful. Indeed, the rope stays taut because both sides pull so hard. How might that fact be exploited?
What if, one day, the Blackshirts decided to shimmy out onto the rope, each with a dagger in clenched teeth? The Reds and Blues would want to stop them, but they couldn’t. If either side lets go of the rope to go after the Blackshirts, the other side would gain the advantage. So they would keep pulling while yelling curses at the Blackshirts, who would ignore the obscenities. Some Red or Blue ghouls would no doubt hurl stones at the Blackshirts. But maybe there would be enough Blackshirts for one to make it. If one succeeded in cutting the rope, the Reds and Blues would fall. The tug-o-war would be over.
The point of this colorful allegory is simple: This book is for Blackshirts. It’s not just a call for readers to don subversive colors. As H. L. Mencken wryly put it in the quote above, we yearn to fly the black flag (better, of course, to cut ropes than slit throats). Blackshirts earn their colors because, like Mencken, we remain skeptical of the whole bloody enterprise. We must therefore muster the courage to climb out over the gorge. And cut.
For too long, we’ve been fattened on a steady diet of civic lore about democracy, but that system only helps lock partisans in perpetual warfare. The war is meant to settle two questions: Who gets the resources? And who gets control? Each team holds out hope that one day, they’ll get to shove the One True Way down everyone’s throats. They just have to pull harder.
Blackshirts see things differently.
I wrote this book because I am a pamphleteer by nature. When I look at the absurdity of the world around us, I imagine how Thomas Jefferson and old Tom Paine must have felt. I have an obligation to expose the absurdities, articulate the alternatives, and call others to action.
Where there was once civic consciousness among the people, there is now little but partisan animus. Despite widespread attachment to voting and elections, innovators are figuring out better ways to organize themselves outside tug-o-war politics.
One of these days, Bill, there needs to be a discussion about the difference between Capitalism and Corporatism, which is in fact huge. Those "quasi-capitalists" You list are in fact Corporatists to the bone, and not Capitalists at all, quasi- or otherwise,
Hi Bill. You closed this article with an asterisked invitation to readers to offer our own “nautical metaphor” on this, and here is mine.
It comes not from a “Navy brethren,” but from somebody who has lived on a sailboat for almost 35 years, and has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean twice, the Gulf of Mexico seven times, and on the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay as far south as San Diego and as far north as Seward, Alaska, and am now living on my boat in Sitka, Alaska.
The Ship of State America has crashed into a rocky shoal with such force that the hull has been demolished in several places. While it is not in any immediate danger of sinking, a Category 5 Hurricane with 180 mph winds and 80-foot seas is due to arrive at America’s location in 36-to-42 hours.
The American People are not the Crew of this vessel, but its Passengers. And like any ocean-going cruise liner, it has varieties of classes of Passengers: From those 1-to-10 percenters up in the penthouse suites, down thru different levels of lesser accommodation and comfort, all the way down to those consigned to the bowels of the ship and very little, if any, accommodation or comfort.
A “Mayday” has gone out from the bridge, and within 12 hours, a number of helicopters will arrive to evacuate the Captain and Crew.
Unfortunately [but predictively], there are not enough choppers available in the period of time before the Hurricane arrives to evacuate any Passengers but those up in the penthouse suites.
So the question becomes: What are the rest of the Passengers, the ones to be left behind when the Hurricane hits, to do?
i realize that this is a very negative and very pessimistic scenario, but sometimes there is a very fine ~ often indistinguishable ~ difference between Pessimism, on the one hand, and Realism, on the other.
The time for the Passengers to have “mutinied” was long before America hit that rocky shoal.
And in fact, America has not yet hit that shoal, but it is dead ahead and being closed on fast. So there is still time to alter America’s collision course with Reality. But not much. Not much at all.
Hi Bill. i never sailed solo, nor ever had any real desire to. i always had at least one or two fellow Crewmates; the best for the boats i was on being three.
One of the best parts of offshore and deepwater sailing is being able to share all those incredible moments the Ocean and Sky ~ day or nite ~ make available.
But even with a Crew, there is plenty of time alone when on a two- or three-hour "wheel watch": time steering the boat and keeping it on course, tending to sails and rigging with wind shifts, etc, while the rest of the Crew is sacked or chilling out down below deck.
And ~ like You said ~ another one of those particularly best parts was that unspoiled night sky. i have no words to adequately capture how totally and completely mind blowing that was and, every time i think about it, still is.
Indeed. That's the second most important reason why solo sailing has never appealed to me. Getting sick or injured while on a boat out of immediate touch with land is tough enough even when there are other people on board, let alone when the victim is alone.
But, like You say: Having other people along that get along is The Key. i've only had one experience where the Crew did not get along, and i am very thankful that it was only that one time. As You can no doubt well imagine, that was bloody, fricking AWFUL.
If You've never done any sailing, it would definitely be worth the effort to give You and Your Wife the opportunity to see if it is for Y'All. But remember that there are two distinct kinds of Boat People: Sail Boat folks and Power Boat folks. And the overwhelming majority of the people i have known who are into Boats are either one or the other, and very, very seldomly ever both.
And the key factor for me ~ and lots of folks ~is the availability of an engine when there is insufficient wind to move a sailboat. A power boat needs an engine All the time to move and get anywhere.
It didn't have to be this way. Imagine that instead of pursuing NATO membership for Ukraine and regime change in Russia, the following had occurred. Imagine that in December 2021 sanity had prevailed, and Biden had a "JFK moment" and realized that negotiation was the only way to walk back from the brink. Imagine that he decided to accept the Russian appeal to negotiate a new European security structure that respected the rights of all countries, and agreed to a neutral Ukraine outside of NATO, and agreed that the best way forward to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine was to implement the Minsk II agreement. All of this was possible. Not only would it have been possible to avoid all the tragic death, destruction and waste of resources, but such a "JFK moment" might have created the conditions for future negotiations on nuclear disarmament. Moreover, imagine that instead of spending almost $150 billion on pursuing and prolonging the war all that money was spent on providing Medicare for All, canceling student debt, implementing the Green New Deal and committing to 100% renewable energy by 2050, raising the Federal minimum wage to $15, etc. Had all of the above been done, our world would have been transformed in almost unimaginable ways. And had this alternative scenario occurred, today Biden would be looking at a landslide win in 2024. Again, all of this was very possible. But instead, due to Biden's addiction (and it is like a heroin addiction) to war, his allegiance to the MIC, and his belief in the pernicious Ideology of American Exceptionalism, Biden has sown death, destruction and misery. Let's face it--he is an inveterate war monger, and it seems that nothing can cure his addiction. We have no choice but to vote for anyone except Biden or Trump, both poisonous options.
I've spent about 10 months devouring independent media after reawakening in November 2022, when Biden presented a railworker contract to Congress that railworkers had already voted down. Then I watched Congress force this sham contract through without anything the workers wanted. THEN, after all that, I had to watch those same lawmakers SAY it was Republicans' fault that the railworkers didn't get what they wanted.
All this to say, none of them are fighting for us anymore. None. Of. Them. It's not that they don't understand. It's not that they don't know that 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. THEY KNOW. They are all bribed by corporations which transforms them into people who never fight for what they said they were fighting for.
The only way we're going to get the stuff you mentioned in your comment is if WE DEMAND IT. I highly recommend you check out the Socialist Program with Brian Becker, particularly the regular episodes with Richard Wolff, a Harvard educated Marxist economist. They actually just did a great episode today. This is the real left, btw.
You sound like someone who is on the left, and I would love it if you could re-locate the "real left". It all got messed up in the last 20 years, particularly with Obama. I understand why you think it's a "Dems wish they could help us" thing. God knows how many billions of dollars have been spent to dupe the public into thinking that Democrats are leftists. But sadly, it is a scam. All of it. Power to the people!
Rest assured I have never thought for one minute the Dems would do all the things I said that could have been done. Believe me, I have no such illusions because, as you rightfully say, 99% of them are loyal members of the corporate controlled political system. And because of that control, they never do the things that would actually bring about social and economic justice but instead do what their corporate masters, particularly the MIC, want them to do. Similarly, the MSM could actually report truthfully on what is happening in the world, but they never do because they too are part of the same corporate controlled political system. Spending close to $150 billion and counting to provoke and prolong the proxy war in Ukraine to promote death and destruction is an egregious crime, yet anyone who speaks out against the war is considered "unpatriotic" and a "Putin apologist." Julian Assange who did nothing more than publish the truth about the crimes of the US National Security State is left to rot in jail. None of these things are inevitable or pre-ordained. They are decisions taken by the politicians who are beholden to their corporate masters. Unfortunately, too many people think that "there is no alternative" to this dreadful reality and still believe in "American Exceptionalism" and all that that stands for. Unless and until this stranglehold is broken, until the majority of the people give up all their illusions and rise up and demand an end to this scam, nothing changes. The question for which I have yet to see an adequate answer for is, How? It's easy to point out what is needed (i.e., socialism), but simply saying "people need to get organized and educate themselves" seems woefully inadequate for the task at hand.
It's interesting, I agree how "rising up" seems insurmountable. But at the same time, it simply means saying no, together. Did you see that Caitlin Johnstone piece about us gov destruction of leftist groups? If no I'll find it and link it. But she says something like, if people knew just how much money and resources the government uses to quash leftist movements, they'd realize how much power the people actually have.
If only it were as simple as you make it out to be, things would have changed a long time ago. It has been a common assumption among very well-meaning Leftists for the last 100+ years that "if people knew just how much money and resources the government uses to quash leftist movement, they'd realize how much power the people actually have." This is not a strategy; frankly, it's nothing more than an assumption. To end this corrupt, all-powerful plutocratic system, which has proved over and over again just how ruthless and resilient it can be, will require a more sophisticated analysis and a very comprehensive strategy. This is why I keep asking the question, How? But I have yet to find anyone or any organization that can provide an answer beyond the same assumption, It's easy to talk about what is needed, and there are tons of articles posted every day all over the Internet that just keep repeating what must be done or needs to be done. But no one ever answers the question, How? As a result, the Left has been spinning its wheels for a long time without much to show of it. And when there are glimpses of the people rising up and resisting, such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, such spontaneous movements quickly fade into oblivion. Unless and until there is a serious answer to the question of How?, the same cycle will just go on and on, and in the meantime the plutocrats will just keep filling their pockets and the wars will go on. Way back in 1915 Rosa Luxembourg said that “Society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism." Over a hundred years later, the same holds true today, but even more so as the planet burns up before our very eyes.
If I made it sound like I think this will be easy, I did not mean to.
But. The less you have, the more you're willing to go to extremes. Because you have nothing left to lose.
BTW. Any internet articles that are easily found won't have solutions. It's propaganda. That's why it's so boring and blah blah blah-like.
Let me give you an example of an idea I heard yesterday. Homeless people are starting to organize. In California and NYC in particular. Imagine making a list of all the vacant apartments and buildings in the city. Giving the addresses out and the homeless go to these properties and squat.
Sure you could say, "well the police will come". And you'd he right. But Imagine this happens in large cities across the county. Imagine the headlines. "Homeless occupy vacant buildings"
I TOTALLY understand your depression, for lack of a better word. I feel it too, often. Sometimes I want to fight and talk about what we can do. Sometimes I want to disengage completely and leave. I think that is okay. The anger is legitimate. The sadness and hopelessness is legitimate. But that's kind of a life choice anyways isn't it? You could forget about politics completely and still have plenty to feel hopeless about.
Some relevant articles/quotes from Caitlin:
<<This is what Terence McKenna was talking about when he said "The cost of sanity in this society is a certain level of alienation." And it's what Jiddu Krishnamurti was pointing at when he said "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society." A lucid perception of reality today will necessarily be accompanied by the ever-present smell of bullshit.>> from
<<In our civilization most people are thinking, speaking, gathering information, working, shopping, moving and voting exactly as our rulers want them to, because these mass-scale psychological conditioning systems have been imposed to keep human behavior aligned with the empire. We are trained to believe we are free while behaving exactly how our rulers want us to behave, and to look down on other nations and shake our heads at how unfree their people are.>> From
I've been trying for an hour to find you an article Caitlin wrote that said something like, "If you only knew just how much effort the government puts into suppressing the left..." and she talks about the thousands upon thousands of government agents who infiltrate leftist groups to destroy them. I think I heard a figure of 1/3 of participants in leftist groups are actually government infiltrators.
I will keep looking for that article because it's comforting in a very messed up way.
"As the USS Trump takes on water from multiple torpedo hits (indictments)" - his Approval Ratings in all the polls continue to skyrocket.
How is the professor doing in the polls Bill? Breaking double digits yet - against a dead man walking?
None of the things you are discouraged about are going to be mitigated, or changed, by wasting your vote on an outlier 3rd Party candidate. On election day you might as well take the "George Carlin Option" and stay home.
"There is no Bernie Sanders this time around to rally the youthful crew to rock and re-float the boat" - actually there is! But Hillary and Barrack will ensure he does not become their candidate.
Leaving Trump as the ONLY choice for critical thinkers. He at least has some chance of changing things. The rest are just a sideshow - bread and circuses' for the masses. More Hope and Change. And that includes Cornel West.
"Goofy"? Why "goofy"? Are all professors "goofy"? Sounds like reflexive anti-intellectualism.
I served in the Air Force for 20 years, taught as a professor for nine years, was educated as an engineer and later as a historian. Does being a retired professor make me "goofy"?
Most in Washington seem to be lawyers, e.g. Biden. Is that a better profession?
Trump failed at running casinos where the odds were literally in his favor. He was a reality TV star whose signature line was "You're fired!" That sounds goofy -- and very unfriendly to workers -- to me.
No, not all professors are goofy Bill. My daughter is a professor of medicine. And on many things is clueless! Sorry Michelle!
And in my life I've met more than my share of goofy professors. "If you can't do it - then teach about it!" Watched them too many times being humiliated as "expert witnesses" in court trials by clever lawyers.
And I've listened enough to West's rambling narratives to know that in the wide circle of Americans I worked with he comes across as boring, condescending and naive - and not to be taken seriously.
To compare Wests achievements with Trumps is a non-starter. I have not seen West's Boeing 757! And how many jobs has West had? A red flag on any bodies resume.
With all due respect, the "wasting the vote" narrative re 3rd parties is empire propaganda. The truth is the opposite. Why? Money! If a candidate receives 5% of the vote share, he or she receives millions in federal funding in the following election. They need this money because so much of 3rd party campaign funds are spent in court fending off lawsuits from the Democratic or Republican party.
Really, if you saw data on how much money Democrats spend to keep 3rd party candidates off ballots, I feel like you would see another side to this. If Democrats truly have more noble intentions than Republicans, why would they feel the need to conduct lawfare on the likes of Matthew Hoh and other 3rd party candidates?
Excerpt from FEC website:
<<Minor party candidates and new party candidates may qualify for partial general election funding, based on their party's electoral performance. Minor party candidates (nominees of parties whose Presidential candidates received between 5 and 25 percent of the vote in the preceding election) may receive public funds based on the ratio of their party's vote in the preceding Presidential election to the average of the two major party candidates in that election. New party candidates (nominees of parties that are neither major parties nor minor parties) may receive public funds after the election if they receive 5 percent or more of the vote. The amount is based on the ratio of the new party candidate's vote to the average vote of the two major party candidates in that election.>>
Can't disagree with any of that Rachel. You have it right.
But let's be pragmatic eh - when was the last time a 3rd Party won anything in the US Presidential elections?
In the 59-Presidential elections since 1788, third party or independent candidates have won at least 5.0% of the vote or garnered electoral votes only 12-times. Not one of them went on to become the President - even after receiving public funds. Do I have that right?
What makes you thinks these odds are going to be defied this time?
I agree 100% with Matthew Hoh. (And Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader) But a pitiful number of voters voted for him after all his hard work.
What did they achieve in the big picture of things? Nothing.
It sucks that so much attention is paid to electoral politics, but that is by design. This is how the empire managers maintain the illusion that we (ordinary people) have any say. This is how they prove we are a democracy. (Eye roll). It's a charade. We really should spend more time talking about how ridiculous our living conditions are, and about examples or workers who successfully stood up to their bosses.
It's not about winning. It's about forcing the conversation. Forcing the topics the media refuses to cover.
Like, do you ever get frustrated how msm rarely talks about the economic reality of most Americans? I mean, maybe they'll do a report on a homeless camp. But do they ever report on the working poor? Do they ever say that the jobs report looks great because Americans now need to work TWO jobs to pay their bills?
That is what third parties do. They force those a$$holes to pay attention to the destruction they've wrought.
I will say that the only way this country can be saved is by the workers refusing to accept this deal anymore.
I don't think electoral politics will do a damn thing. So I just try to lurk in corners of the internet and put the idea in people's heads that we could actually say no to all this. Withdraw our consent. That's why the New Deal legislation happened. Workers were going crazy. They were mad. The workers were very very very mad, sick of unions selling them out. The owners and the rich pushed the workers too far.
I definitely see that coming in my lifetime. They've gone too far. It hasn't happened yet because of censorship and media control, but it will happen. I'm actually amazed they continue making it worse for us, it's utter stupidity on their part to push us further.
They achieved giving voters the opportunity to actually vote for the person they wanted to be the next President and not simply voting against the two Lessers, both of whom were entirely Evil. That's what they achieved in that "big picture."
And if Trump is "the ONLY choice for critical thinkers," perhaps You can define for us exactly what You think a "critical thinker" is, and cite a current example or two of one.
So Trump has "at least some chance of changing things," does he?
What exactly did he change when he was sitting on the throne as POTUS Maxximmuss XLV?
Can You name even one element of America's Deep State and its Ruling Political Class that wasn't significantly better off after Trump left office than they were when Obama left office?
How'd the MICC do during his reign? And how about Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Food, Big Banks, Big Media, and the Surveillance-Secrecy-Security Panopticon?
And how did America fare with The COVID Event with him in charge? Here's a hint: With 4.2 % of the world's Total Population, the US has suffered 16% of the Total Cases and 17% of the Total Deaths.
And how did the National Debt do on his watch? See "Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years" at https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump for all the gruesome and gory details.
And what did he do to reign in the slaughter of 14,000 Ukrainians by the Kyiv government that Obama had installed in 2014 with the overthrow of a democratically-elected government? Thus paving the way for what's happened and is happening in Ukraine today?
And finally, how'd he do with his relations with China? Was the US ~ or China or Anybody ~ any better off as a result of his actions and noise?
The "only choice for critical thinkers," eh? Heh. GMAFB. And have a Great day.
Old saying Jeff - "A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer."
If you are naive enough to think one man was going to change all those things you rant about in this diatribe - in one term being fought all the way by the Deep State - I have a bridge to sell you.
But he is the only one who even has a chance. Who is your choice my friend?
Is that another one of Your gems from Dale Carnegie, Dennis?
You're the one claiming that Trump "has a chance of changing things."
So wise one, can You answer that one simple question?
What changed when he was President? Anything? Other than giving the Rich their tax break ~ which fed the record Deficits and growth of the Debt on his watch ~ what did he change?
i'll let You know when i find a candidate who has a platform that addresses the real problems and crises confronting this nation, Dennis.
But i'm curious: Do You agree with RFK Jrs position on vaccinations in general, and that The COVID Event was designed to spare "Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people"?
"Former President Donald Trump's latest indictment on Monday fell right in the middle of an important political event: the Iowa State Fair. It's a tradition for presidential candidates to visit the fair and talk to voters ahead of Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Trump attended the state fair on Saturday, drawing thousands of supporters.
Polls show Trump maintains a significant lead in Iowa — a stronghold of Republican support — even as the former president has now been indicted in four separate criminal cases. More widely, there's no evidence that the indictments have hurt his status as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
At the fair, some Iowans expressed sympathy for the former president, portraying him as a victim of too many investigations, while others believe the legal challenges have left him wounded and distracted — and that it may be time to move on."
You're right, Dennis. i woke up this morning with a severe case of being totally and completely fed up with Bullshit. And You just happened to be the first person i ran into who was selling it.
I still see Biden/ Harris winning a Second Term nonetheless incumbency is a powerful advantage whether or not he finishes this second term is another matter entirely. My Kids aren't even Voting saying no dice to the "Octogenarian Election!"...lol
Matt Taibbi prefaces his current article IS AMERICA A WAR STATE?, with a lead-in question: “Thirty years after Bill Clinton ditched the "Peace Dividend," we seem to be in conflict everywhere, with no end in sight. Do we need a fundamental re-think of our foreign policy priorities?”
And in his article, he asks a particularly important supporting question: “But where are the antiwar liberals?” And notes:
“They were numerous once. Recent polls about war and military spending show the same bizarre pattern of neatly reversed partisan attitudes we’ve seen with civil liberties and support of spy agencies.
“A just-released CNN survey shows 55% of Americans opposed to more funding for Ukraine, including 71% of Republicans — but 61% of Democrats say we should “do more.” This comes as Joe Biden asked for another $24 billion in spending for Ukraine, and the White House has seemed peeved at questions about declining support.
“’WE HAVE SEEN THROUGHOUT THIS WAR SOLID SUPPORT FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,’ said National Security spokesperson John Kirby, adding: ‘WE’RE GOING TO STAY FOCUSED ON THAT.’”
And Mr Taibbi concludes:
“There’s been much eye-rolling in media of late about Republicans complaining about Ukraine aid after wildfires in Maui or the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and maybe those complaints are just partisan potshots. But there’s a real conversation about distribution of resources that’s been dropped ever since Bill Clinton abandoned the idea of spending a ‘Peace Dividend’ at home, as institutional Washington pressed for more funding for Pax Americana instead.
“… keeping national security spending high was a crucial policy goal after the collapse of communism. ‘Although there was some hopeful talk among the few remaining ‘Come home, America’-type progressives,’ he says, it was soon very clear that, even without a Soviet enemy, the bipartisan foreign policy establishment thought the main contours of US national security strategy had to remain intact.”
“As a result, we have vast new Departments like Homeland Security and annual monster defense expenditures, but still no Department of Just Got Foreclosed On, or a Central Still Living With Your Parents at 40 Agency, or even a National You Can Clearly See I Can’t Afford a Dentist Service. But we’re securing the hell out of the “periphery.”
“A week ago, snippy Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said America has ‘a lot of talented journalists,’ but ‘since they unleashed this war against us, they absolutely live in a state of military censorship.’ This prompted an immediate fact check from Voice of America over which country really is living under military censorship (I would have fact-checked the ‘lot of talented journalists’ part). OF COURSE IT ISN’T TRUE THAT WE’RE LIVING UNDER LITERAL MILITARY RULE, IN A STATE BUILT FOR PERMANENT WAR.
“STILL, LOOK AT OUR PUBLIC CONVERSATION AND OUR POSITION AROUND THE WORLD, AND ASK YOURSELF: WHAT WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF WE WERE?
This is soooo true. I honestly think some "Democrats" I used to interact with on FB are actually keyboard warriors for the government. Randomly came across this bombshell last night.
<<The explosion of Pentagon cyber warfare, moreover, has led to thousands of spies who carry out their day-to-day work in various made-up personas, the very type of nefarious operations the United States decries when Russian and Chinese spies do the same...
The newest and fastest growing group is the clandestine army that never leaves their keyboards. These are the cutting-edge cyber fighters and intelligence collectors who assume false personas online, employing "nonattribution" and "misattribution" techniques to hide the who and the where of their online presence while they search for high-value targets and collect what is called "publicly accessible information"—or even engage in campaigns to influence and manipulate social media. Hundreds work in and for the NSA, but over the past five years, every military intelligence and special operations unit has developed some kind of "web" operations cell that both collects intelligence and tends to the operational security of its very activities.>>
This article ties in very nicely with Yours, Bill, and concludes:
“In the end, future historians may agree that Trump was a clear and present danger to liberal democracy, but only because Democrats made him one. The Democrats’ effort to prosecute Trump for crimes that Republicans could one day prosecute Democrats for risks turning our independent criminal justice system into an extension of our partisan political one. Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election did violate longstanding democratic norms, but that fell short of the destruction Democrats are wreaking on democracy by prosecuting their political enemies.” ... :
FEAR AND HATRED OF THE MASSES BEHIND DEMOCRATS’ WAR ON LIBERAL DEMOCRACY; Why the party supposedly most committed to democracy is pursuing tyranny by Alex Gutentag, Madeleine Rowley, Leighton Woodhouse, And Michael Shellenberger / PUBLIC 081623
President Donald Trump was and is a clear and present danger to liberal democracy, say Democrats. Trump broke laws against conspiracy and fraud in an effort to steal the 2020 election and should go to prison, they add. Trump also violated longstanding democratic norms, including against the peaceful transfer of power, they say, by instigating a riot at the Capitol. The bottom line for Democrats is that nobody is above the law, and it would be far worse not to prosecute Trump than to prosecute him.
But the riot at the Capitol building was largely due to security failures, and Trump’s election denialism and manipulations, while bad, were not qualitatively different from the behaviors of Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams, and former Democratic National Committee Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz. There would have been no January 6 riot had Congressional leaders not denied National Guard troops to Capitol Police, according to its former chief, Steven Sund. Rep. Nancy Pelosi denied Sund the chance to testify during the Democrats’ January 6 investigation.
The latest indictment against Trump from the state of Georgia effectively criminalizes acts like demanding a recount, despite the fact that it is routine for both Democrats and Republicans to question election results. Democrats like Kamala Harris have repeatedly doubted the reliability of voting machines. Democrats have also directly challenged election results, notably in 2016, when liberal commentators, legal scholars, and protestors proposed subverting the electoral college vote to prevent Trump’s victory.
What always drove me nuts about the Obama slogan, "Yes we can" is that the object was missing from the sentence. This was a carefully crafted non-message that was intended to let the voters "fill in the blanks" for themselves. So one voter might think he was talking about environmental issues, or another might think "Yes we can end wars". I found it to be highly deceitful and pretty typical of the Obama years, where everything was deception. My favorite was, when talking about past crimes of the Bush administration, he said "we need to look forward, not back". Obviously, in that alternative Obama universe, no crimes can ever be prosecuted because that would be looking back.
John, my wife and I were riding our BMW motorcycle in Africa when news came out that Obama was elected. Every town we were in the natives were cheering, dancing and singing and celebrating late into the night. I will never forget it. My wife had voted for Hope and Change.
But sadly, when we got home, we quickly found out we had voted for GW Bush 2.0. Obama was the worst president of my 41-years living in the US. And we had lost nearly half of our 45-years retirement saving we had trusted to the professionals while we were away.
Dennis: Are You saying that Obama was responsible for the 2008 "Too Big To Let Fail" financial "¢risi$", and Your loss of Your retirement savings?
Nope.
Good.
With you 100% on Cornel West. He be the best option I see to date. Biden is not left of center. Not even close.
Cheers
Your voice rings true. Thanks
Hey! I like the metaphors... well done, sir.
Your 'frend' is like so many others I've heard or whose comments I've read. The died-in-the-wool Blue folk who are so smug in their moral superiority that they can not even imagine that they might be wrong in their assessments. The ones who actually think Biden cares and has made progress on those matters that they might think important. The ones whose reading of the NYT and WaPo, or tuning into MSNBC, NPR or PBS, etc. will never allow them to think any differently.
Actually I think I agree with you that Cornel West would be a better choice than Jill Biden. Oh I meant of course Joe Biden. And I guess I should have said "Doctor" Jill Biden. Tee-hee.
"Finish the job" sounds like something from an underworld hit man. Which, actually, could be appropriate in this case.
I have a friend like yours, Bill. And also some who vehemently disagree with me on various forums. If I bring up, as you did, the lack of a public healthcare option, drilling in the Arctic, etc., I'm told that I'm a pie-in-the-sky absolutist, expecting to get everything on the Progressive wishlist. Or I'm letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, or I should celebrate Biden's many significant accomplishments against incredibly long odds.
My answer is that, yes, some good legislation has been passed, but the devil is in the details. Amid all the [drastically reduced] legislative packages, Big Oil is still being subsidized, public infrastructure will move toward privatization, Medicare continues to be more privatized every year, and so on. There are any number of poison pills scattered among all the omnibus bills.
Like you, I'd never vote red, but as it now stands, I agree that blue isn't the answer, either.
Honestly I don't even know about the legislation part anymore!
Once you save "never" Denise, you are setting a trap for yourself to fall into.
Are you saying that no amount of evidence will ever change your mind?
I'm saying, "never" in my lifetime, because I doubt I'll live to see the GOP change its ways. The last sea change that happened in the party occurred about 55 years ago, and unless something drastic happens long before a similar period elapses, the GOP will "never" earn my vote.
"unless something drastic happens" - so you will change your mind then?
Sure, if the GOP espouses strict gun control measures; gets 100% behind eliminating fossil fuels and plastics, along with boosting renewables; supports a ban on trophy hunting; gets 100% behind combating climate change and ensuring species survival; approves single-payer healthcare; abandons threats to the debt ceiling; abandons all attempt to control women's bodily autonomy; openly endorses the complete separation of church and state, including public financing of religious schools; abandons all ties to and support of Christian nationalists, white supremacists, and militias; champions equality and diversity; cuts ties with the Heritage Foundation; stops appointing religious fanatics to SCOTUS; agrees on strict rules of conduct for SC justices, including disallowing gifts and perks; supports unions; supports an expanded social safety net; publicly and privately disavows racist, misogynist, and religious fanatical followers' threats and intimidation; disallows book banning and disavows the religious-nut proposed restrictions of groups such as Moms for Liberty; condemns mistreatment of immigrants, a la DeSantis and Abbott; ejects from the party George Santos, MTG, Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Kari Lake, and all the other vicious, gun-loving, pseudo-Christian agitators, plus all those who voted against certifying the 2020 election---just for a start.
Hence, my use of the word, "never."
Very well said, Denise.
So what do the Democrats need to support and ACTUALLY MAKE HAPPEN for You to vote for them?
Basically, similar topics to the GOP list in terms of making it happen: getting rid of fossil fuel subsidies and shunting all the money to renewables; acknowledging that climate change is the most critical issue facing the planet, and acting accordingly (banning new drilling and all fracking, as just a start); implementing single-payer healthcare once and for all; serious trust busting; helping those who are food- and shelter-insecure; actually protecting endangered species; actually standing up for the working class; boosting funding to education exponentially; codifying abortion rights; standing up for rights for all, including equality under the law. But both parties need to agree to make big cuts to the Pentagon budget; to get the money out of politics; to stand up to Israel regarding Palestinian rights (i.e., cut all aid to Israel, at the very least); stop condoning other human rights violations in the name of profit; and to agree to a foreign policy built on cooperation, not domination---seek to ally with China to mitigate climate change, for instance.
Yes, you are right on there. No way ami I going to vote for Biden again just because I'm supposed to--not this time. I'm not going to vote for Trump either. I would seriously consider Chris Christie if he hadn't made the trip to the Ukraine. I would vote for Robert Kennedy in a primary against Biden.
Bill: Based on Your belief in a multi-color world and the hearty acceptance of Green as a more than merely acceptable color, permit me to offer the following. It speaks directly to people of “Green sensibilities” such as Yourself… :
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” ~ H. L. Mencken
The Preface to Max Borders’ UNDERTHROW: HOW JEFFERSON'S DANGEROUS IDEA WILL SPARK A NEW REVOLUTION reads as follows:
Imagine a gorge cut ages ago by the river Time. Two tribes live, one on either side of the gorge: the Reds and the Blues. A thick rope connects the two tribes as each pulls in a seemingly endless game of tug-o-war. The walls of the gorge are steep. When one side starts to gain an advantage, tuggers from the other side fall into the river below. Those who remain tug harder, so they start to gain an advantage.
This game has been going on for so long that few question it.
Behind each tribe, ghoulish spectators yell, “Pull!” from comfortable perches. The ghouls promise goodies to the tuggers should their side win. Some tuggers fall with a splat onto the muddy banks that flank the river. A few land in the water and get carried away by the current. Dirty and disheveled, fallen tuggers from team Red or Blue make their way back to shore, then climb up the winding trails to the back of the tug-o-war line. There they find a length of rope waiting. Despite being scratched, bruised, and muddy, they again hear the ghouls yell, “Pull!”
So they pull.
A few just watch the whole thing with disgust. Occasionally, an onlooker joins in the tug-o-war. Otherwise, they shake their heads. Some tuggers have been dragged into the mud enough that they refuse to participate. All this pulling for Red or Blue seems pointless, especially for those with Purple or Green sensibilities.
“If you don’t pull the rope, you have no right to complain,” say the Blues.
“Pulling for Purples or Greens is wasted effort and ensures Blue wins,” say the Reds.
The Blues’ general hypothesis is that one day, their team will muster the strength to pull all those horrible Reds into the gorge once and for all. The Reds’ general hypothesis is that one day, their team will muster the strength to pull all those horrible Blues into the gorge once and for all. Both sides agree they have to recruit bystanders to win, even though the game offers little to the bystanders. It’s winner-takes-all for Red or Blue, so pick a team. Or so the theory goes.
Enter the Blackshirts.
The thing about Blackshirts is they never pull the rope. Blackshirts earn their color because they question the whole god-damned thing. So, of course, the Reds and Blues reject them utterly. But the Blackshirts are clever. They know that tug-o-war is wasteful. Indeed, the rope stays taut because both sides pull so hard. How might that fact be exploited?
What if, one day, the Blackshirts decided to shimmy out onto the rope, each with a dagger in clenched teeth? The Reds and Blues would want to stop them, but they couldn’t. If either side lets go of the rope to go after the Blackshirts, the other side would gain the advantage. So they would keep pulling while yelling curses at the Blackshirts, who would ignore the obscenities. Some Red or Blue ghouls would no doubt hurl stones at the Blackshirts. But maybe there would be enough Blackshirts for one to make it. If one succeeded in cutting the rope, the Reds and Blues would fall. The tug-o-war would be over.
The point of this colorful allegory is simple: This book is for Blackshirts. It’s not just a call for readers to don subversive colors. As H. L. Mencken wryly put it in the quote above, we yearn to fly the black flag (better, of course, to cut ropes than slit throats). Blackshirts earn their colors because, like Mencken, we remain skeptical of the whole bloody enterprise. We must therefore muster the courage to climb out over the gorge. And cut.
For too long, we’ve been fattened on a steady diet of civic lore about democracy, but that system only helps lock partisans in perpetual warfare. The war is meant to settle two questions: Who gets the resources? And who gets control? Each team holds out hope that one day, they’ll get to shove the One True Way down everyone’s throats. They just have to pull harder.
Blackshirts see things differently.
I wrote this book because I am a pamphleteer by nature. When I look at the absurdity of the world around us, I imagine how Thomas Jefferson and old Tom Paine must have felt. I have an obligation to expose the absurdities, articulate the alternatives, and call others to action.
Where there was once civic consciousness among the people, there is now little but partisan animus. Despite widespread attachment to voting and elections, innovators are figuring out better ways to organize themselves outside tug-o-war politics.
The only way to win is to play a different game.
Jeff, even when the blue team wins, they turn red and rule as quasi-capitalist fat cats (Clinton, Obama, Biden).
If anyone's throat was slit, it was Bernie Sanders's.
One of these days, Bill, there needs to be a discussion about the difference between Capitalism and Corporatism, which is in fact huge. Those "quasi-capitalists" You list are in fact Corporatists to the bone, and not Capitalists at all, quasi- or otherwise,
Hi Bill. You closed this article with an asterisked invitation to readers to offer our own “nautical metaphor” on this, and here is mine.
It comes not from a “Navy brethren,” but from somebody who has lived on a sailboat for almost 35 years, and has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean twice, the Gulf of Mexico seven times, and on the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay as far south as San Diego and as far north as Seward, Alaska, and am now living on my boat in Sitka, Alaska.
The Ship of State America has crashed into a rocky shoal with such force that the hull has been demolished in several places. While it is not in any immediate danger of sinking, a Category 5 Hurricane with 180 mph winds and 80-foot seas is due to arrive at America’s location in 36-to-42 hours.
The American People are not the Crew of this vessel, but its Passengers. And like any ocean-going cruise liner, it has varieties of classes of Passengers: From those 1-to-10 percenters up in the penthouse suites, down thru different levels of lesser accommodation and comfort, all the way down to those consigned to the bowels of the ship and very little, if any, accommodation or comfort.
A “Mayday” has gone out from the bridge, and within 12 hours, a number of helicopters will arrive to evacuate the Captain and Crew.
Unfortunately [but predictively], there are not enough choppers available in the period of time before the Hurricane arrives to evacuate any Passengers but those up in the penthouse suites.
So the question becomes: What are the rest of the Passengers, the ones to be left behind when the Hurricane hits, to do?
i realize that this is a very negative and very pessimistic scenario, but sometimes there is a very fine ~ often indistinguishable ~ difference between Pessimism, on the one hand, and Realism, on the other.
The time for the Passengers to have “mutinied” was long before America hit that rocky shoal.
And in fact, America has not yet hit that shoal, but it is dead ahead and being closed on fast. So there is still time to alter America’s collision course with Reality. But not much. Not much at all.
Did you sail alone or with partner(s), Jeff?
If you sailed alone, you had a lot of time to think, to enjoy nature uninterrupted, to look at the unspoiled night sky. I envy you!
Hi Bill. i never sailed solo, nor ever had any real desire to. i always had at least one or two fellow Crewmates; the best for the boats i was on being three.
One of the best parts of offshore and deepwater sailing is being able to share all those incredible moments the Ocean and Sky ~ day or nite ~ make available.
But even with a Crew, there is plenty of time alone when on a two- or three-hour "wheel watch": time steering the boat and keeping it on course, tending to sails and rigging with wind shifts, etc, while the rest of the Crew is sacked or chilling out down below deck.
And ~ like You said ~ another one of those particularly best parts was that unspoiled night sky. i have no words to adequately capture how totally and completely mind blowing that was and, every time i think about it, still is.
Yes, sailing solo strikes me as perilous; what happens if you get sick, hurt, etc. It's good to have a small crew, assuming everyone gets along.
Sailing is something I've never done. I've been on a sailboat, but only for a short cruise.
Indeed. That's the second most important reason why solo sailing has never appealed to me. Getting sick or injured while on a boat out of immediate touch with land is tough enough even when there are other people on board, let alone when the victim is alone.
But, like You say: Having other people along that get along is The Key. i've only had one experience where the Crew did not get along, and i am very thankful that it was only that one time. As You can no doubt well imagine, that was bloody, fricking AWFUL.
If You've never done any sailing, it would definitely be worth the effort to give You and Your Wife the opportunity to see if it is for Y'All. But remember that there are two distinct kinds of Boat People: Sail Boat folks and Power Boat folks. And the overwhelming majority of the people i have known who are into Boats are either one or the other, and very, very seldomly ever both.
And the key factor for me ~ and lots of folks ~is the availability of an engine when there is insufficient wind to move a sailboat. A power boat needs an engine All the time to move and get anywhere.
Very good article Bill. Linking it today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
It didn't have to be this way. Imagine that instead of pursuing NATO membership for Ukraine and regime change in Russia, the following had occurred. Imagine that in December 2021 sanity had prevailed, and Biden had a "JFK moment" and realized that negotiation was the only way to walk back from the brink. Imagine that he decided to accept the Russian appeal to negotiate a new European security structure that respected the rights of all countries, and agreed to a neutral Ukraine outside of NATO, and agreed that the best way forward to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine was to implement the Minsk II agreement. All of this was possible. Not only would it have been possible to avoid all the tragic death, destruction and waste of resources, but such a "JFK moment" might have created the conditions for future negotiations on nuclear disarmament. Moreover, imagine that instead of spending almost $150 billion on pursuing and prolonging the war all that money was spent on providing Medicare for All, canceling student debt, implementing the Green New Deal and committing to 100% renewable energy by 2050, raising the Federal minimum wage to $15, etc. Had all of the above been done, our world would have been transformed in almost unimaginable ways. And had this alternative scenario occurred, today Biden would be looking at a landslide win in 2024. Again, all of this was very possible. But instead, due to Biden's addiction (and it is like a heroin addiction) to war, his allegiance to the MIC, and his belief in the pernicious Ideology of American Exceptionalism, Biden has sown death, destruction and misery. Let's face it--he is an inveterate war monger, and it seems that nothing can cure his addiction. We have no choice but to vote for anyone except Biden or Trump, both poisonous options.
I've spent about 10 months devouring independent media after reawakening in November 2022, when Biden presented a railworker contract to Congress that railworkers had already voted down. Then I watched Congress force this sham contract through without anything the workers wanted. THEN, after all that, I had to watch those same lawmakers SAY it was Republicans' fault that the railworkers didn't get what they wanted.
All this to say, none of them are fighting for us anymore. None. Of. Them. It's not that they don't understand. It's not that they don't know that 70% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. THEY KNOW. They are all bribed by corporations which transforms them into people who never fight for what they said they were fighting for.
The only way we're going to get the stuff you mentioned in your comment is if WE DEMAND IT. I highly recommend you check out the Socialist Program with Brian Becker, particularly the regular episodes with Richard Wolff, a Harvard educated Marxist economist. They actually just did a great episode today. This is the real left, btw.
You sound like someone who is on the left, and I would love it if you could re-locate the "real left". It all got messed up in the last 20 years, particularly with Obama. I understand why you think it's a "Dems wish they could help us" thing. God knows how many billions of dollars have been spent to dupe the public into thinking that Democrats are leftists. But sadly, it is a scam. All of it. Power to the people!
Rest assured I have never thought for one minute the Dems would do all the things I said that could have been done. Believe me, I have no such illusions because, as you rightfully say, 99% of them are loyal members of the corporate controlled political system. And because of that control, they never do the things that would actually bring about social and economic justice but instead do what their corporate masters, particularly the MIC, want them to do. Similarly, the MSM could actually report truthfully on what is happening in the world, but they never do because they too are part of the same corporate controlled political system. Spending close to $150 billion and counting to provoke and prolong the proxy war in Ukraine to promote death and destruction is an egregious crime, yet anyone who speaks out against the war is considered "unpatriotic" and a "Putin apologist." Julian Assange who did nothing more than publish the truth about the crimes of the US National Security State is left to rot in jail. None of these things are inevitable or pre-ordained. They are decisions taken by the politicians who are beholden to their corporate masters. Unfortunately, too many people think that "there is no alternative" to this dreadful reality and still believe in "American Exceptionalism" and all that that stands for. Unless and until this stranglehold is broken, until the majority of the people give up all their illusions and rise up and demand an end to this scam, nothing changes. The question for which I have yet to see an adequate answer for is, How? It's easy to point out what is needed (i.e., socialism), but simply saying "people need to get organized and educate themselves" seems woefully inadequate for the task at hand.
It's interesting, I agree how "rising up" seems insurmountable. But at the same time, it simply means saying no, together. Did you see that Caitlin Johnstone piece about us gov destruction of leftist groups? If no I'll find it and link it. But she says something like, if people knew just how much money and resources the government uses to quash leftist movements, they'd realize how much power the people actually have.
If only it were as simple as you make it out to be, things would have changed a long time ago. It has been a common assumption among very well-meaning Leftists for the last 100+ years that "if people knew just how much money and resources the government uses to quash leftist movement, they'd realize how much power the people actually have." This is not a strategy; frankly, it's nothing more than an assumption. To end this corrupt, all-powerful plutocratic system, which has proved over and over again just how ruthless and resilient it can be, will require a more sophisticated analysis and a very comprehensive strategy. This is why I keep asking the question, How? But I have yet to find anyone or any organization that can provide an answer beyond the same assumption, It's easy to talk about what is needed, and there are tons of articles posted every day all over the Internet that just keep repeating what must be done or needs to be done. But no one ever answers the question, How? As a result, the Left has been spinning its wheels for a long time without much to show of it. And when there are glimpses of the people rising up and resisting, such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, such spontaneous movements quickly fade into oblivion. Unless and until there is a serious answer to the question of How?, the same cycle will just go on and on, and in the meantime the plutocrats will just keep filling their pockets and the wars will go on. Way back in 1915 Rosa Luxembourg said that “Society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism." Over a hundred years later, the same holds true today, but even more so as the planet burns up before our very eyes.
If I made it sound like I think this will be easy, I did not mean to.
But. The less you have, the more you're willing to go to extremes. Because you have nothing left to lose.
BTW. Any internet articles that are easily found won't have solutions. It's propaganda. That's why it's so boring and blah blah blah-like.
Let me give you an example of an idea I heard yesterday. Homeless people are starting to organize. In California and NYC in particular. Imagine making a list of all the vacant apartments and buildings in the city. Giving the addresses out and the homeless go to these properties and squat.
Sure you could say, "well the police will come". And you'd he right. But Imagine this happens in large cities across the county. Imagine the headlines. "Homeless occupy vacant buildings"
I TOTALLY understand your depression, for lack of a better word. I feel it too, often. Sometimes I want to fight and talk about what we can do. Sometimes I want to disengage completely and leave. I think that is okay. The anger is legitimate. The sadness and hopelessness is legitimate. But that's kind of a life choice anyways isn't it? You could forget about politics completely and still have plenty to feel hopeless about.
Some relevant articles/quotes from Caitlin:
<<This is what Terence McKenna was talking about when he said "The cost of sanity in this society is a certain level of alienation." And it's what Jiddu Krishnamurti was pointing at when he said "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society." A lucid perception of reality today will necessarily be accompanied by the ever-present smell of bullshit.>> from
https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/our-entire-civilization-is-fake-and?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=247do4
<<In our civilization most people are thinking, speaking, gathering information, working, shopping, moving and voting exactly as our rulers want them to, because these mass-scale psychological conditioning systems have been imposed to keep human behavior aligned with the empire. We are trained to believe we are free while behaving exactly how our rulers want us to behave, and to look down on other nations and shake our heads at how unfree their people are.>> From
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/05/30/propaganda-restricts-speech-more-than-censorship-does-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/
I've been trying for an hour to find you an article Caitlin wrote that said something like, "If you only knew just how much effort the government puts into suppressing the left..." and she talks about the thousands upon thousands of government agents who infiltrate leftist groups to destroy them. I think I heard a figure of 1/3 of participants in leftist groups are actually government infiltrators.
I will keep looking for that article because it's comforting in a very messed up way.
"As the USS Trump takes on water from multiple torpedo hits (indictments)" - his Approval Ratings in all the polls continue to skyrocket.
How is the professor doing in the polls Bill? Breaking double digits yet - against a dead man walking?
None of the things you are discouraged about are going to be mitigated, or changed, by wasting your vote on an outlier 3rd Party candidate. On election day you might as well take the "George Carlin Option" and stay home.
"There is no Bernie Sanders this time around to rally the youthful crew to rock and re-float the boat" - actually there is! But Hillary and Barrack will ensure he does not become their candidate.
Leaving Trump as the ONLY choice for critical thinkers. He at least has some chance of changing things. The rest are just a sideshow - bread and circuses' for the masses. More Hope and Change. And that includes Cornel West.
I don't want the biggest super-duper ship (Trump) that wallows in its own narcissism; I want the smartest, most seaworthy ship, Cornel West.
Go West, young man! :-)
"smartest, most seaworthy ship, Cornel West"... you are kidding us eh Bill?....
A goofy professor who has probably never managed more than six staff in his life! And flitted from one ivory tower job to the next.
He will be eaten alive in the swamp. No street smarts. Sending a professor out to take on the mafia! LOL
Not that we will have to worry about that.
"Goofy"? Why "goofy"? Are all professors "goofy"? Sounds like reflexive anti-intellectualism.
I served in the Air Force for 20 years, taught as a professor for nine years, was educated as an engineer and later as a historian. Does being a retired professor make me "goofy"?
Most in Washington seem to be lawyers, e.g. Biden. Is that a better profession?
Trump failed at running casinos where the odds were literally in his favor. He was a reality TV star whose signature line was "You're fired!" That sounds goofy -- and very unfriendly to workers -- to me.
No, not all professors are goofy Bill. My daughter is a professor of medicine. And on many things is clueless! Sorry Michelle!
And in my life I've met more than my share of goofy professors. "If you can't do it - then teach about it!" Watched them too many times being humiliated as "expert witnesses" in court trials by clever lawyers.
And I've listened enough to West's rambling narratives to know that in the wide circle of Americans I worked with he comes across as boring, condescending and naive - and not to be taken seriously.
To compare Wests achievements with Trumps is a non-starter. I have not seen West's Boeing 757! And how many jobs has West had? A red flag on any bodies resume.
I love the way Trump puts his name on everything. Trump tower. Trump steaks. Trump "university."
If Trump founded his own university, does that make him "goofy"?
Many famous Americans have their name on everything Bill.
Your TDS is showing today my friend.
Instead of bashing your opponent why don't you put your effort into supporting your choice.
And avoid the snarky pejoratives of others out of your comments.
Dale Carnegie always taught that was not a winning approach.
trump may be the last power to tilt with the neolib/neocon axis.
If he only had a brain, a heart, and courage.
trump is an amateur in politics!
And Cornel West must then be a rank amateur eh Ed?
seems he is an innocent
And when did he tilt with that neolib/neocon axis when he was in office? See my comments to Dennis, Trump's preeminent cheerleader here on BV.
the time he was looking for corruption and got impeached.......
russiagate was the axis going after him being an outsider.
If Trump was an "outsider," he would have never gotten the Republican nomination in the first place.
If the "axis" didn't want him in the Oval Office, he would have never lived to get there. Sort of like RFK Sr in 1968.
And how do You rate his seeking dirt on the Bidens from Ukraine?
With all due respect, the "wasting the vote" narrative re 3rd parties is empire propaganda. The truth is the opposite. Why? Money! If a candidate receives 5% of the vote share, he or she receives millions in federal funding in the following election. They need this money because so much of 3rd party campaign funds are spent in court fending off lawsuits from the Democratic or Republican party.
Really, if you saw data on how much money Democrats spend to keep 3rd party candidates off ballots, I feel like you would see another side to this. If Democrats truly have more noble intentions than Republicans, why would they feel the need to conduct lawfare on the likes of Matthew Hoh and other 3rd party candidates?
Excerpt from FEC website:
<<Minor party candidates and new party candidates may qualify for partial general election funding, based on their party's electoral performance. Minor party candidates (nominees of parties whose Presidential candidates received between 5 and 25 percent of the vote in the preceding election) may receive public funds based on the ratio of their party's vote in the preceding Presidential election to the average of the two major party candidates in that election. New party candidates (nominees of parties that are neither major parties nor minor parties) may receive public funds after the election if they receive 5 percent or more of the vote. The amount is based on the ratio of the new party candidate's vote to the average vote of the two major party candidates in that election.>>
https://transition.fec.gov/info/chtwo.htm
Can't disagree with any of that Rachel. You have it right.
But let's be pragmatic eh - when was the last time a 3rd Party won anything in the US Presidential elections?
In the 59-Presidential elections since 1788, third party or independent candidates have won at least 5.0% of the vote or garnered electoral votes only 12-times. Not one of them went on to become the President - even after receiving public funds. Do I have that right?
What makes you thinks these odds are going to be defied this time?
I agree 100% with Matthew Hoh. (And Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader) But a pitiful number of voters voted for him after all his hard work.
What did they achieve in the big picture of things? Nothing.
It sucks that so much attention is paid to electoral politics, but that is by design. This is how the empire managers maintain the illusion that we (ordinary people) have any say. This is how they prove we are a democracy. (Eye roll). It's a charade. We really should spend more time talking about how ridiculous our living conditions are, and about examples or workers who successfully stood up to their bosses.
It's not about winning. It's about forcing the conversation. Forcing the topics the media refuses to cover.
Like, do you ever get frustrated how msm rarely talks about the economic reality of most Americans? I mean, maybe they'll do a report on a homeless camp. But do they ever report on the working poor? Do they ever say that the jobs report looks great because Americans now need to work TWO jobs to pay their bills?
That is what third parties do. They force those a$$holes to pay attention to the destruction they've wrought.
I will say that the only way this country can be saved is by the workers refusing to accept this deal anymore.
I don't think electoral politics will do a damn thing. So I just try to lurk in corners of the internet and put the idea in people's heads that we could actually say no to all this. Withdraw our consent. That's why the New Deal legislation happened. Workers were going crazy. They were mad. The workers were very very very mad, sick of unions selling them out. The owners and the rich pushed the workers too far.
I definitely see that coming in my lifetime. They've gone too far. It hasn't happened yet because of censorship and media control, but it will happen. I'm actually amazed they continue making it worse for us, it's utter stupidity on their part to push us further.
George Carlin Shitting on Government for 8 Minutes Straight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZivTgCJ8hRI
Take care my dear. I like your posts.
They achieved giving voters the opportunity to actually vote for the person they wanted to be the next President and not simply voting against the two Lessers, both of whom were entirely Evil. That's what they achieved in that "big picture."
Dennis, a new Trump indictment posting from the Babylon Bee: https://babylonbee.com/news/manhattan-da-to-indict-trump-for-removing-mattress-tag-in-1997
And a new one on Biden from the same source: https://babylonbee.com/news/bidens-no-comment-praised-as-most-sensical-statement-hes-made-as-president
And if Trump is "the ONLY choice for critical thinkers," perhaps You can define for us exactly what You think a "critical thinker" is, and cite a current example or two of one.
So Trump has "at least some chance of changing things," does he?
What exactly did he change when he was sitting on the throne as POTUS Maxximmuss XLV?
Can You name even one element of America's Deep State and its Ruling Political Class that wasn't significantly better off after Trump left office than they were when Obama left office?
How'd the MICC do during his reign? And how about Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Food, Big Banks, Big Media, and the Surveillance-Secrecy-Security Panopticon?
And how did America fare with The COVID Event with him in charge? Here's a hint: With 4.2 % of the world's Total Population, the US has suffered 16% of the Total Cases and 17% of the Total Deaths.
And how did the National Debt do on his watch? See "Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before the Pandemic) That It’ll Weigh Down the Economy for Years" at https://www.propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump for all the gruesome and gory details.
And what did he do to reign in the slaughter of 14,000 Ukrainians by the Kyiv government that Obama had installed in 2014 with the overthrow of a democratically-elected government? Thus paving the way for what's happened and is happening in Ukraine today?
And finally, how'd he do with his relations with China? Was the US ~ or China or Anybody ~ any better off as a result of his actions and noise?
The "only choice for critical thinkers," eh? Heh. GMAFB. And have a Great day.
Old saying Jeff - "A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can answer."
If you are naive enough to think one man was going to change all those things you rant about in this diatribe - in one term being fought all the way by the Deep State - I have a bridge to sell you.
But he is the only one who even has a chance. Who is your choice my friend?
GMAFB. And have a Great day.
And i have already told You several times my choice for Election2024, Dennis: Your favorite "Dead Horse": NOTC.
Altho Rachel's recommendation of Yard Rock is definitely moving up.
For details, see https://yardrock2024.com/ . How does Your boy Trump compare with Yard Rock on all the Issues enumerated?
Is that another one of Your gems from Dale Carnegie, Dennis?
You're the one claiming that Trump "has a chance of changing things."
So wise one, can You answer that one simple question?
What changed when he was President? Anything? Other than giving the Rich their tax break ~ which fed the record Deficits and growth of the Debt on his watch ~ what did he change?
Compared to what he said he was going to change?
Jeff, when you resort to "your boy" and "your favorite" and "wise one" - its time to take a break from continuing to engage in debating you eh!
Have a nice break, Dennis. That's a good way to avoid answering the questions.
And let me guess who Your "Bernie Sanders this time" is.
Would it be that guy that Chris Hedges calls "The Israel Lobby’s Useful Idiot"? As described at https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/robert-f-kennedy-jr-the-israel-lobbys .
I don't agree with RFK Jr on that one issue.
Let me know when you find a candidate who has a platform you 100% agree with Jeff.
GMAFB.
i'll let You know when i find a candidate who has a platform that addresses the real problems and crises confronting this nation, Dennis.
But i'm curious: Do You agree with RFK Jrs position on vaccinations in general, and that The COVID Event was designed to spare "Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people"?
Or some of the other ideas he promotes as detailed in the Forbes article "RFK Jr.’s Family Denounces Claim That Jews, Chinese Are Immune To Covid: Here Are All The Other Conspiracies He Promotes" at https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2023/07/18/rfk-jrs-family-denounces-claim-that-jews-chinese-are-immune-to-covid-here-are-all-the-other-conspiracies-he-promotes/ ?
Dennis: Can You cite any real world evidence to back Your claim that Trump's approval ratings are "skyrocketing"?
Here's what FiveThirtyEight,com has to say on the matter as of this morning: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/favorability/donald-trump/ .
As of 2hrs ago...
"Former President Donald Trump's latest indictment on Monday fell right in the middle of an important political event: the Iowa State Fair. It's a tradition for presidential candidates to visit the fair and talk to voters ahead of Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.
Trump attended the state fair on Saturday, drawing thousands of supporters.
Polls show Trump maintains a significant lead in Iowa — a stronghold of Republican support — even as the former president has now been indicted in four separate criminal cases. More widely, there's no evidence that the indictments have hurt his status as the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
At the fair, some Iowans expressed sympathy for the former president, portraying him as a victim of too many investigations, while others believe the legal challenges have left him wounded and distracted — and that it may be time to move on."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/trump-still-leads-gop-polls-in-iowa-but-some-voters-grow-weary/ar-AA1flAWF
I'd say Trump's support is holding steady; his followers are hardcore. I don't see any skyrockets here.
I agree......"Skyrockets" was hyperbolic.
But you will agree his opponents, on both sides of the aisle, are not looking too good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jKx42wS7Gk&t=197s
Ahhh. So he's doing well in Iowa, is he? Well, that certainly settles That, i guess.
Like i said, Dennis: Read what FiveThirtyEight says about the polls and Trump's approval ratings.
I read it! Man, did you get outa the wrong side of the bed today my friend! LOL
You're right, Dennis. i woke up this morning with a severe case of being totally and completely fed up with Bullshit. And You just happened to be the first person i ran into who was selling it.
One man's Bullshit is another man's Gems Jeff.
And if I were you - I would not be throwing stones in glass houses!
I still see Biden/ Harris winning a Second Term nonetheless incumbency is a powerful advantage whether or not he finishes this second term is another matter entirely. My Kids aren't even Voting saying no dice to the "Octogenarian Election!"...lol
Matt Taibbi prefaces his current article IS AMERICA A WAR STATE?, with a lead-in question: “Thirty years after Bill Clinton ditched the "Peace Dividend," we seem to be in conflict everywhere, with no end in sight. Do we need a fundamental re-think of our foreign policy priorities?”
And in his article, he asks a particularly important supporting question: “But where are the antiwar liberals?” And notes:
“They were numerous once. Recent polls about war and military spending show the same bizarre pattern of neatly reversed partisan attitudes we’ve seen with civil liberties and support of spy agencies.
“A just-released CNN survey shows 55% of Americans opposed to more funding for Ukraine, including 71% of Republicans — but 61% of Democrats say we should “do more.” This comes as Joe Biden asked for another $24 billion in spending for Ukraine, and the White House has seemed peeved at questions about declining support.
“’WE HAVE SEEN THROUGHOUT THIS WAR SOLID SUPPORT FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,’ said National Security spokesperson John Kirby, adding: ‘WE’RE GOING TO STAY FOCUSED ON THAT.’”
And Mr Taibbi concludes:
“There’s been much eye-rolling in media of late about Republicans complaining about Ukraine aid after wildfires in Maui or the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and maybe those complaints are just partisan potshots. But there’s a real conversation about distribution of resources that’s been dropped ever since Bill Clinton abandoned the idea of spending a ‘Peace Dividend’ at home, as institutional Washington pressed for more funding for Pax Americana instead.
“… keeping national security spending high was a crucial policy goal after the collapse of communism. ‘Although there was some hopeful talk among the few remaining ‘Come home, America’-type progressives,’ he says, it was soon very clear that, even without a Soviet enemy, the bipartisan foreign policy establishment thought the main contours of US national security strategy had to remain intact.”
“As a result, we have vast new Departments like Homeland Security and annual monster defense expenditures, but still no Department of Just Got Foreclosed On, or a Central Still Living With Your Parents at 40 Agency, or even a National You Can Clearly See I Can’t Afford a Dentist Service. But we’re securing the hell out of the “periphery.”
“A week ago, snippy Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said America has ‘a lot of talented journalists,’ but ‘since they unleashed this war against us, they absolutely live in a state of military censorship.’ This prompted an immediate fact check from Voice of America over which country really is living under military censorship (I would have fact-checked the ‘lot of talented journalists’ part). OF COURSE IT ISN’T TRUE THAT WE’RE LIVING UNDER LITERAL MILITARY RULE, IN A STATE BUILT FOR PERMANENT WAR.
“STILL, LOOK AT OUR PUBLIC CONVERSATION AND OUR POSITION AROUND THE WORLD, AND ASK YOURSELF: WHAT WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF WE WERE?
Full article https://www.racket.news/p/is-america-a-war-state ; EMPHASESE added.]
This is soooo true. I honestly think some "Democrats" I used to interact with on FB are actually keyboard warriors for the government. Randomly came across this bombshell last night.
<<The explosion of Pentagon cyber warfare, moreover, has led to thousands of spies who carry out their day-to-day work in various made-up personas, the very type of nefarious operations the United States decries when Russian and Chinese spies do the same...
The newest and fastest growing group is the clandestine army that never leaves their keyboards. These are the cutting-edge cyber fighters and intelligence collectors who assume false personas online, employing "nonattribution" and "misattribution" techniques to hide the who and the where of their online presence while they search for high-value targets and collect what is called "publicly accessible information"—or even engage in campaigns to influence and manipulate social media. Hundreds work in and for the NSA, but over the past five years, every military intelligence and special operations unit has developed some kind of "web" operations cell that both collects intelligence and tends to the operational security of its very activities.>>
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-secret-undercover-army-1591881
This article ties in very nicely with Yours, Bill, and concludes:
“In the end, future historians may agree that Trump was a clear and present danger to liberal democracy, but only because Democrats made him one. The Democrats’ effort to prosecute Trump for crimes that Republicans could one day prosecute Democrats for risks turning our independent criminal justice system into an extension of our partisan political one. Trump’s refusal to concede the 2020 election did violate longstanding democratic norms, but that fell short of the destruction Democrats are wreaking on democracy by prosecuting their political enemies.” ... :
FEAR AND HATRED OF THE MASSES BEHIND DEMOCRATS’ WAR ON LIBERAL DEMOCRACY; Why the party supposedly most committed to democracy is pursuing tyranny by Alex Gutentag, Madeleine Rowley, Leighton Woodhouse, And Michael Shellenberger / PUBLIC 081623
President Donald Trump was and is a clear and present danger to liberal democracy, say Democrats. Trump broke laws against conspiracy and fraud in an effort to steal the 2020 election and should go to prison, they add. Trump also violated longstanding democratic norms, including against the peaceful transfer of power, they say, by instigating a riot at the Capitol. The bottom line for Democrats is that nobody is above the law, and it would be far worse not to prosecute Trump than to prosecute him.
But the riot at the Capitol building was largely due to security failures, and Trump’s election denialism and manipulations, while bad, were not qualitatively different from the behaviors of Hillary Clinton, Stacey Abrams, and former Democratic National Committee Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz. There would have been no January 6 riot had Congressional leaders not denied National Guard troops to Capitol Police, according to its former chief, Steven Sund. Rep. Nancy Pelosi denied Sund the chance to testify during the Democrats’ January 6 investigation.
The latest indictment against Trump from the state of Georgia effectively criminalizes acts like demanding a recount, despite the fact that it is routine for both Democrats and Republicans to question election results. Democrats like Kamala Harris have repeatedly doubted the reliability of voting machines. Democrats have also directly challenged election results, notably in 2016, when liberal commentators, legal scholars, and protestors proposed subverting the electoral college vote to prevent Trump’s victory.
Continued at https://public.substack.com/p/fear-and-hatred-of-the-masses-behind .
Voting NOTC will solve all these problems! LOL
And voting for either Trump or Biden will solve NONE of these problems; merely perpetuate them. TeeHee, Giggle, Fart.
obama was good for al nusra and isis!
Sort of like Cheney/Bush the Lesser was Great for Al Qaeda and America's moribund MICC, eh?
mujahedin
consequences, go back to inserting the shah, or further roosevelt's deal with the royals.
it was truman egged by churchill that muched up the altantic.
or when we did to indochina/serbia what we won't allow in the north littoral of the black sea.