Striking a blow against fascism with commentary on current events, finance, economics, politics, music, art, culture and how to deal with our economic lives being bartered away by the elites who have our financial future all figured out: We'll be paying off their debts forever.
Cirze's World
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Conservative Animus
_________________
Conservatism is the theoretical voice of this animus against the agency of the subordinate classes. It provides the most consistent and profound argument as to why the lower orders should not be allowed to exercise their independent will, why they should not be allowed to govern themselves or the polity. Submission is their first duty, agency, the prerogative of the elite.
- Corey Robin
The Conservative Mind
_________________
“Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense.
Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
- Winston Churchill _________________
“Imperial privilege is this strange ability on the part of the U.S. public to ‘shrug off’ the consequences experienced by people impacted by the direct and indirect result of U.S. militarism.”
— Ajamu Baraka
_________________
Current Readers
Politicus USA on GOP Fascism
_________________
The entire GOP apparatus is slipping toward fascism and millions of Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that the Bible none of them have read takes precedence over the Constitution none of them have read.
Eco Farm Shitakes, Squash, Kale - Cindi, Nicole & Eddie
Ukraine Disinformation Battle: Little Green Men, Hamsters and the Fog of War
________________
There has always been a gap in how media on both sides of the former Iron Curtain have reported world events, and it’s growing as the crisis in Ukraine escalates. It has become increasingly difficult to obtain reliable information from any side — west, east, or further east — about what is going on in Eastern Ukraine.
While powerful propaganda machines fill the public space with smoke and mirrors, one of the few facts that can be positively established in Eastern Ukraine is that the body count is steadily growing: a testament of just how easy it is for self-interested foreign powers to start, either intentionally or recklessly, a civil war in the heart of Europe. Continuing coverage is available at this link and this link.
Cirze's World
Red Roots Farm - Kristen & Jason - No Sprays/Delicious Veggies!
Fukushima, Japan Disaster Worsens and Spreads
________________
While the American reactor industry continues to suck billions of dollars from the public treasury, its allies in the corporate media seem increasingly hesitant to cover the news of post-Fukushima Japan. Continuing coverage is available at this link, this link, and this link.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Cirze's World
Paradox Farm - Goat Cheese Louise!
Blog Against Theocracy
(h/t Darkblack)
Cirze's World
Red Wolf Organics - Jordan & Sylvan sell basil, chard, peppers - 10% of Profits Support Syrian Refugees
My Blog Fights Climate Change
Cirze's World
Working hard at the Farmers' Market - Grand Hope Farm
Animal Rescue - Click Everyday!
Cirze's World
Paul Krugman:
I don’t think many people grasp just how raw, how explicit, the corruption of our institutions has become.
Yesterday I had a conversation with someone who, like me, spent most of the Bush years as a voice in the wilderness. And he pointed out something remarkable: although those of us who said the obvious — that the Bush administration was fundamentally monstrous — were ridiculed by all the respectable people at the time, at this point our narrative has become everyone’s narrative.
Cirze's World
Paul Craig Roberts:
_________________ US Media
_________________
"Anyone who depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media is totally misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto Ministry of Propaganda."
"The uniformity of the US media has become much more complete since the days of the cold war. During the 1990s, the US government permitted an unconscionable concentration of print and broadcast media that terminated the independence of the media.
Today the US media is owned by 5 giant companies in which pro-Zionist Jews have disproportionate influence. More importantly, the values of the conglomerates reside in the broadcast licenses, which are granted by the government, and the corporations are run by corporate executives — not by journalists — whose eyes are on advertising revenues and the avoidance of controversy that might produce boycotts or upset advertisers and subscribers.
Americans who rely on the totally corrupt corporate media have no idea what is happening anywhere on earth, much less at home."
_________________ War On Terror
_________________
Roberts asked "Is the War on Terror a Hoax", and claims it has "killed, maimed, dislocated, and made widows and orphans of millions of Muslims in six countries". Roberts called the attacks "naked aggression" on civilian populations and infrastructure which constitute war crimes.
_________________ Republican Party
_________________
Roberts is seriously dismayed by what he considers the Republican Party's disregard for the U.S. Constitution. He has even voiced his regret that he ever worked for it, avowing that, had he known what it would become, he would never have contributed to the Reagan Revolution.
_________________ American Democracy and Oligarchy
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Roberts has been increasingly critical of what he deems as the lessening of democracy in the U.S.; instead accusing it of being run by oligarchs by stating:
"The west prides itself that it is the standard for the world, that it is a democracy. But nowhere do you see democratic outcomes: not in Greece, not in Ireland, not in the UK, not here, the outcomes are always to punish the innocent and reward the guilty.
And that's what the Greeks are in the streets protesting. We see this all over the west. There is no democracy, there are oligarchies, some of these smaller European countries are not even run by their own governments, they are run by Wall Street... There is probably more democracy in China than there is in the west.
Revolution is the only answer... We are confronted with a curious situation. Throughout the west we think we have democracy, we hold ourselves up high, we demonize China, we talk about the mafia state of Russia, we talk about the Arabs and so on, but where is the democracy here?"
Roberts effectively announced his journalistic retirement. The article, published at Counterpunch.org, begins:
"There was a time when the pen was mightier than the sword. That was a time when people believed in truth and regarded truth as an independent power and not as an auxiliary for government, class, race, ideological, personal, or financial interest."
It proceeds to a bitter chronicle of the demise of American intellectual integrity, particularly that of financial journalists and economists. These have been thoroughly corrupted by monetary inducements to misrepresent and ignore what has been, in effect, the systematic dismantling of the nation's productive life, in the name of globalization.
He holds the members of his own journalistic profession largely responsible for abetting relentless outsourcing of American industry, thereby gutting the American middle class and effectively dooming the nation's future.
He describes his own ostracism from mainstream media access, the consequence of his relentless and unflinching criticism of the demolition process over the past decade. His column ends, "The militarism of the U.S. and Israeli states, and Wall Street and corporate greed, will now run their course. As the pen is censored and its might extinguished, I am signing off."
_________________
Cirze's World
Liberal?
"If by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal."
John F. Kennedy, 1960
________________
Citizen's United
"[T]his Court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy."
The Earth Will Feast on Dead Cicadas
-
Two cicada broods, XIX and XIII, are emerging in sync for the first time in
221 years. Birds, trees, and dirt are about to get the banquet of a
lifetime.
You can’t fool Mother Nature
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Back when we lived in Chapel Hill NC, we made a few trips to the Outer
Banks where my wife had an uncle who built fishing boats in Buxton NC. Back
then, ...
Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,588
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This is the grave of Joshua Hill. Born in 1812 in Abbeville, South
Carolina, Hill went to the common schools, then studied for the law, and
then passed t...
All Bets Are Off
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A long time ago, in a small German town along the Rhine, my oldest nephew
(shown in accompanying photo) was my bagman. We were in Europe for a month,
and...
BBC framing of a story that has yet to happen
-
On February 9th Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office put out a statement: “It
is impossible to achieve the goal of the war of eliminating Hamas...
The post B...
BBC framing of a story that has yet to happen
-
On February 9th Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office put out a statement: “It
is impossible to achieve the goal of the war of eliminating Hamas...
The post B...
A World Going in the Wrong Direction
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The converging crises facing our world today shout out the fact that their
roots are systemic. Tinkering around the edges won’t solve these problems,
bec...
The Red Line for Journalism
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I wonder why Speaker Johnson is so passionately weighing in on the Ronna
firing… oh… https://t.co/Ek1OdMBDyN pic.twitter.com/uh7JEewLpr
— Mehdi Hasan (...
Is America a Rogue Superpower?
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“Unipolar” used to mean that the United States was, at least in theory,
alone in leading the world. Now “unipolar” means that the United States is
alone ...
March Madness In The Courts - Trump Style
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Stephen Colbert's writers were having a field day with a ton of one liners
as they picture all of Trump's legal problems being reported by sports
announc...
The Conversation -- March 28, 2024
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*Michael Sisak* of the AP: “*Donald Trump* lashed out Wednesday at the New
York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money
crim...
The French Road To Nuclear War
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Europe needs to understand that France is leading it down a path of
inevitable self-destruction.
The American people need to understand that Europe is le...
Joe Lieberman has died
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He’s expired. I’m either happy or sad about that, and I’m not sure whether
he’s in heaven or hell. He’s probably vacillating between the two.
Links 3/27/24
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Links for you. Science: Four years on: the career costs for scientists
battling long COVID Controlled experiment finds no detectable citation bump
from Twi...
Letters regarding disinformation!
-
*WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2024*
*What's up with the New York Times?* Misinformation has been playing a very
large role in our modern-day politics.
(Sometime...
Liber Artificiosus Alphabeti Maioris
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The previous post reminded me of this, one of my favourite examples of
ornamented alphabets from the 18th century. Liber Artificiosus Alphabeti
Maioris (“A...
I Won't And You Can't Make Me
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Well it finally happened.
Having covered a lot of stomach-churning nonsense sharted out by cosseted
Conservatives on the op-ed pages of *The New York T...
Open Thread March 27, 2024
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Yesterday, one of the stories reminded me of my mother’s Uncle Fred, who
died before I was born, so I never met him, but was told a story about him.
Fred w...
Literary Corner: Just as Phony as It Can Be
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To the tune of:
Gee but I'm happy to be back
Back at the Mar-a La... go
Where I have all the stuff I lack
When I'm on the road and fighting the Gesta.....
On the Crocus City Hall Attack
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Vladimir Putin spoke publicly about the Crocus City atrocity yesterday, in
a video conference with security officials and regional government heads....
Weekly Review
-
Lawyers for Donald Trump indicated that the former president was too cash
poor to post his $454 million bond, and that none of the 30 would-be
lenders he...
Our Economy and Politics Are Broken
-
*Awakening from the dream of painless financial / political solutions, we
find the status quo is not the solution, it is the source of our decay. *
*Our s...
Dear Ghost, What Shelter in the Noonday Crowd
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I'm stuck, manic, between my least-favorite favorite place and favorite
least-favorite place, talking myself into ambitious goals while
simultaneously te...
United States v. Apple
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Apple is being sued by the DOJ, but most of the complaints aren't about the
App Store. I think, though, Apple's approach to the App Store is what led
to th...
In Blob We Trust
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“In terms of the Moscow terror attack, the fact that those who carried out
the attack were captured is now causing a huge headache for those who were
ult...
They’re all laughing at you Trump!
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Two of Trump’s worst nightmares are happening right now, he’s broke and
people are laughing at him.It’s glorious! I’m enjoying these 24 hours of
knowing ...
Degenerate Art in New Normal Germany
-
One of the first things totalitarians do when they set about transforming a
democratic society into whatever type of strictly-regulated, utterly
soul-deade...
No World This Week
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As you know by now, James Evan Pilato got sick last week so we weren’t able
to record New World Next Week as scheduled. And as you’re already aware,
I’m go...
Cartoon: Hey did you hear? Biden is old!
-
One of my occasional non-evergreen cartoons. I’ve drawn “Media” as a guy
with a TV for their head at least once before. But the design of the
character is ...
A Mistake About Campaign Finance
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I have seen a number of posts and articles lately expressing a considerable
degree of satisfaction over the fact that Democrats seem to be outraising
Rep...
Saving Democracy By Killing It
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The New York Times reports that the Biden administration is dispatching a
whole "army of lawyers" on a special mission to aggressively seek and
destroy a...
Come now, gentleman, I know there's some mistake
-
"Pink Flower 11" by Rosi Roys is from the rose collection.
Some excellent news to get rid of judge-shopping: "Conference Acts to
Promote Random Case Ass...
How to Identify GI Bill Fraud
-
How to Identify GI Bill Fraud The US government offers incentives and
benefits for veterans who have served their country. Many of these
benefits, includ...
St. Patrick's Day 2024
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Happy St. Patrick's Day! I've featured "The Parting Glass" before. It's a
Scottish song, but is popular in Ireland and as a closing number for Irish
tradit...
Democracy Or Republic?
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“The US isn’t a democracy. It’s a republic.”
How many times have we heard this from election-denying insurrectionist
liars?
Of course, like ALL autho...
State of the Union: Will Biden Resonate?
-
Americans have been dealt a hand with two candidates, neither of whom they
particularly think should be President. Nonetheless, barring Trump being
crimi...
Reality Of Gaza Famine–GRAPHIC PHOTOS WARNING
-
GRAPHIC PHOTOS WARNING: The following highly distressing images depict
death and severe malnourishment. Yazan al-Kafarneh, a 10-year-old
Palestinian boy, r...
Reading Against Anti-Semitism
-
On Sunday 2.18.24 “A Poetry Reading in Response to Antisemitism” was held
at The Museum of Jewish Heritage here in New York. Cultural critic and
keynote sp...
The Trump Horror Show and Stark Choice
-
On February 5 & 6, 2024, Democracy Corps conducted focus groups with GOP
moderate women from the Philadelphia suburbs, Black men in Detroit, and
Hispanic w...
Arno Mayer, 1926-2023
-
The historian Arno Mayer, who had such an influence on my work and
eventually became a friend, has died at 97. He wrote books on everything
from the French...
In Memorium
-
Tom Degan
1958-2023
To all Tom’s faithful readers of the Rant, we are sad to announce that he
passed away on December 7th, 2023. Thank you so much for th...
Shadowproof Is Shutting Down
-
After eight years, we have decided that it is time to shut down
Shadowproof, but that does not mean that the independent journalism that we
fostered is c...
I Have Been To Heaven and Back
-
OBS chimed in on my post about mobility impairment. And therein my
capybaras, lies the tale. For early in fall, I had a swelling in my leg,
that I thought ...
Last Post, Please Read
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Good morning. This is Zandar's Dad. I am sorry to tell you that he passed
away over the weekend, peacefully in his sleep. Fortunately, his computer
was on ...
Media Say ... Gloom And Doom In China
-
The New York Times, and other western media, are running a 'doom and gloom
in Xi's economy' campaign. The latest entry is this piece: China’s Economic
Pain...
A Few Quick Announcements
-
By James As I wrote a couple of years ago, I don’t post here anymore. I
just have a couple of updates for people who subscribe and may be
interested in my ...
This feed has moved and will be deleted soon. Please update your
subscription now.
-
The publisher is using a new address for their RSS feed. Please update your
feed reader to use this new URL:
*https://www.alternet.org/feed/*
Happy 2023 To All Of You
-
I have often come back here to try to write some sort of a conclusion to
the years of activity on this site, but have not figured out what, exactly,
to s...
Ghost in the Machine
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Location Control Evasion
China In 2000 the Chinese government initiated its Golden Shield Project, a
program to control citizens’ internet use. Governmen...
November/December 2022 issue
-
Our November/December 2022 issue has been printed and is going out to print
subscribers very soon, and e-subscribers have already gotten their
electronic c...
END TIMES
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Half of yesterday's content was suppressed before it existed. There is no
point in producing content under such conditions. I Quit.
This post was unpubl...
SILENCING THE LAMBS. HOW PROPAGANDA WORKS.
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In an address to the Trondheim World Festival in Norway, John Pilger charts
the history of power propaganda and describes how it appropriates
journalism ...
American Intelligence ( via Sean Prophet)
-
There's a new and very low bar for American intelligence. Before I talk
about that, a bit of background to rank types of intelligence and modes of
think...
Intersectional Pride Day
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Today was Pride Day in NYC, and for the first time in two years, the march
was packed with participants... people were confident to step out during
this ...
The Axis Mundi Navel of Earth
-
Every day in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, thousands of Muslims gather and walk
westward circles around a tall black stone cube called the Kaaba. This
Kaaba sto...
What Is a Bayonet? Or, Who Wins & Who Loses?
-
WD Ehrhardt: So I signed up, only to discover that being a man wasn’t all
it was cracked up to be, that men who are horribly mangled in battle really
do ...
Colin Kidd: Green Pastel Redness
-
With six conservatives on the nine-person court, Chief Justice John Roberts
knows that another prudent defection on his part will not be enough to save
Roe...
Trump = Roadkill
-
Surely the facts are not in dispute A New York man upset with what he
perceived as Donald Trump’s threats to democracy was criminally charged on
Monday wit...
The War on Terror Is a Success — for Terror
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Terrorist Groups Have Doubled Since the Passage of the 2001 AUMF Nick Turse
It began more than two decades ago. On September 20, 2001, President George
W....
Merry Christmas! We Got You Some Fauxmosexuals!
-
Happy holidays, everyone. People seemed to enjoy last year's riff of D.W.
Griffith's 1909 silent melodrama, *A Trap for Santa*, so we did it again,
with ...
The Blind Leading The Blind
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Nameless despair is man’s only reward for living and toiling under the
temporal sun of mortal existence. Am I right?
The post The Blind Leading The Blind...
Test Article
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur interdum
libero pulvinar pretium sagittis. Nulla at sem sollicitudin, blandit neque
nec,...
Have You Heard Has a New Website
-
TweetHave You Heard has a new website. Visit us at
www.haveyouheardpodcast.com to find our latest episodes and our entire
archive. And be sure to check out...
Whether (and how) America can survive Trumpism
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Georgetown Professor Thomas Zimmer joins us to talk about polarization and
extremism, and what insights American and world history provide as to
whether ...
Goodbye, Little Macho
-
Saturday was a year since my mom died from COVID. My sister and I got Macho
in the car, and we drove to the cemetery for the first time since her
burial. W...
Big Government Handouts
-
Recently, Elon Musk beat out Jeff Bezos for a 2.9 billion contract from
NASA to fly one of his magnificent exploding rocket ships to the moon. In
true Am...
Cancel Yourself
-
At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question:
Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge? Does a majority of the
population t...
American Carnage
-
And crows will eat your eyes. -- Motörhead, *Traitor *
I promise that I don't intend to make a habit of breaking radio silence,
especially just a couple ...
Weird Op-Ed of the Day
-
Today's weird op-ed comes from DNI John Ratcliffe via the Murdoch-owned
Wall Street Journal.
China Is National Security Threat No. 1Resisting Beijing’s ...
Noahpinion has moved to a new website!
-
Well folks, it's been a fun 10-year run at this little website. I'm moving
on to a new platform: Substack!
Here's the new Noahpinion:
https://noahpin...
‘Test & Trace’ is a mirage
-
Lockdown II thoughts: Day 1 Opposition politicians have been banging on
about the need for a ‘working’ Test & Trace system even more loudly than
the govern...
It’s a hot take, except it’s cold and doesn’t take
-
Why is David Gergen still alive? This might seem like a rather harsh
question — and certainly no one here wishes him dead — but what is
accomplished by pay...
Saturday Emmylou Blogging
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Note: Blogspot has changed its template for posting and I can't make any
sense of it so this may be my last post. Sorry. Adios. Thanks to Fuzzy
Legends Arc...
Moving the blog yet again
-
Seems just yesterday I set up shop here. Now I’m defecting from wordpress
dot com to a self hosted wordpress dot org instance. Also, I’m generating
this tr...
Standard Money Theory and the Coronavirus
-
By J.D. ALT The theme and illustrations of this essay are from the new book
“Paying Ourselves to Save the Planet.” It might seem, as we observe the
U.S. go...
Nonpersistent Memory
-
Well, this should have been composed weeks ago and posted at midnight, but
age and circumstance are not my friends right now. Happy birthday to the
officia...
Outbreak: Anatomy of a Plague
-
[ by Charles Cameron — scientific [precision meets human error in cases of
outbreak — with links to a terrific science thread by Palli Thordarson
@PalliTho...
-
*Change your bookmarks!*
We are moving to a new Wordpress site. The url is easy remember:
digbysblog.net
We are already posting over there so click the li...
Tom Hardy and a Puppy Talk About Odd Pieces
-
[image: image of actor Tom Hardy and a grey pit bull puppy licking its
nose, standing on a Hawaiian beach with a rainbow arcing across the sky
above them]
...
A Modest Proposal for a US Labor Day Every Month
-
Happy Do Nothing Day. By Edward Curtin edwardcurtin.com In a country with
Mount Rushmore that celebrates ruthless and frenetic westward expansion, it
migh...
apologies for my absence
-
skippy, his co-bloggers and his followers are among my favorite people in
the world. real life has been challenging for me these last few years but i
got m...
Embassies Embrace Fashion as Public Diplomacy Tool
-
Stephanie Kanowitz, The Washington Diplomat, May 31, 2019
[image: c1.living.fashion.charles.ron.story]Better known for high tempers
than high fashion, Wa...
Can Democrats Manage Not to Lose Again to Trump?
-
Photo source: AP, from
https://whyy.org/episodes/biden-enters-massive-2020-primary-field/
Well, here we are. It's a year and a half before the 2020 elect...
Site Announcement
-
Hey, folks. So, we've passed the Rubicon on this site. We've done the final
migration of posts. This includes over 18,000 posts I've written over the
las...
Deal Or No Deal?
-
Well, it's been awhile since I have blogged, mainly because I have been
busy and the holidays were a whirlwind.
I hope whoever is reading this had a lovely ...
Merger Of Blogs
-
*From today the blogs 'Afghanistan War' and 'Wolves In The City' will merge
into one. All future posts on the continuing Afghansitan debacle will be
posted...
Fall 2018 Development and Special Events Intern
-
Fall 2018 Development and Special Events Intern We are seeking several
well-qualified Development and Special Events interns. Our interns have the
opport...
Website is a success!
-
For those of you wondering, the Wordpress website went offline due to an
overabundance of traffic.
My web designer, who builds websites for a living, tol...
What Doesn’t Make You Stronger Can Kill You
-
Bit of self promotion here: I’ve got a piece in today’s Boston Globe, on
one of the hidden consequences of failing to deal with the antibiotic
crisis. In...
Savage Minds is dead! Long live anthro{dendum}!
-
This will be the last post on the domain savageminds.org, but the site will
live on. It will live on both at this address (savageminds.org) where there
wil...
Trump-Branded Shit
-
From our partners at DownWithTyranny! -by Dorothy ReikNever one to bypass a
branding opportunity, Donald Trump has decided to increase and extend his
prese...
Bezmenov- West Capitulated to Communist Subversion
-
Communism is the Protocols of Zion in action. This excerpt from a crucial
1985 interview with KGB Defector Yuri Bezmenov throws our predicament into
stark ...
This blog is now closed...
-
...and I'm now blogging at http://www.ecosophia.net. All of the posts that
appeared here during the eleven-year run of *The Archdruid Report* will be
issu...
The Existentialist Cowboy: Life, Logic and Meaning:
-
The Existentialist Cowboy: Life, Logic and Meaning: "An ancient problem is
unresolved by 21st Century technology: how can we as human beings learn to
think...
Responsibility Is For The Poors
-
*Paul Ryan fixing Obamacare.*
Let's talk about responsibility.
When you break something, you have a responsibility to fix it. When you do
your damnede...
America Finally Stops Being Israel's Bitch
-
Don't worry; it's just temporary. When the new Sheriff takes over next
month, America will bend over for Israel once again.
Today the U.N. Security Counci...
Surging
-
*We're Number One*
*"A major military-led surge in U.S. aid to fight"* Ebola in West Africa
will soon begin. 3000 soldiers and probably more than $500 mill...
The Newt Phenomenon, with Dr Harry Spangler
-
After two sub-par debate performances in four days, there is growing
speculation that the mysterious body known as Newt Gingrich has sprung a
leak and i...
Nickel and Dimed (2011 Version)
-
On Turning Poverty into an American Crime By Barbara Ehrenreich I completed
the manuscript for Nickel and Dimed in a time of seemingly boundless
prosperity...
Damon Galgut: The Impostor
-
Damon Galgut is one of those authors who justifies the existence of
literary prizes. Without its multiple shortlistings – Booker, Impac,
Commonwealth Write...
And the Associated Press called the SC primary for Clinton within minutes of the polls closing. She will win by 35 points or more, and the exit poll numbers are murderous for Sanders. Here's the big one (click on chart to enlarge or click on title link):
In SC, black voters were a massive two thirds of primary voters, and black women were 40%. That is gigantic. Bernie still won white voters though, splitting white women evenly and winning white men by more than 2-to-1.
And here, voters in SC overwhelmingly want to continue President Obama's policies, and of those who did, 80% voted for Clinton. And finally:
This race was over months ago. Sanders never had a chance here.
Amidst the hubbub of the Dims, try to remember how little this primary means about anything important.
Bernie knew it was meaningless. And thus he expended very little effort on this already stacked deck.
Real meaning can be gleaned from looking at the statistics stacking up nationwide.
any Democrats will tell you that there has rarely, if ever, been a more menacing or evil presidential candidate than Donald Trump. “Trump is the most dangerous major candidate for president in memory,” pronounced Vox’s Ezra Klein two weeks ago. With a consensus now emerging that the real estate mogul is the likely GOP nominee, it would stand to reason that the most important factor for many Democrats in choosing their own nominee is electability: meaning, who has the best chance of defeating the GOP Satan in the general election? In light of that, can Democrats really afford to take such a risky gamble by nominating Hillary Clinton?
In virtually every poll, her rival, Bernie Sanders, does better, often much better, in head-to-head match-ups against every possible GOP candidate. Here, for instance, is a compilation of how Clinton does against Ted Cruz in recent polls: She trails the Texas senator in all but one poll, and in the one poll she leads, it is by a paltry 2 points:
Polling data. (photo: The Intercept)
By stark contrast, Sanders leads Cruz in every poll, including by substantial margins in some:
Polling data. (photo: The Intercept)
A similar story is seen in their match-ups against Trump. Although they both end up ahead in most polls, Sanders’ margin over Trump is generally very comfortable, while Clinton’s is smaller. Clinton’s average lead over Trump is just 2.8 percent, while Sanders’ lead is a full 6 points:
Polling data. (photo: The Intercept)
Polling data. (photo: The Intercept)
Then there’s the data about how each candidate is perceived. Put simply, Hillary Clinton is an extremely unpopular political figure. By contrast, even after enduring months of attacks from the Clinton camp and its large number of media surrogates, Sanders remains a popular figure.
A Gallup poll released this week reported that “29 percent of Americans offer a positive observation about Clinton while 51 percent express something negative.” As Gallup rather starkly put it: “Unfortunately for Clinton, the negative associations currently outnumber the positive ones by a sizable margin, and even among Democrats, the negatives are fairly high.” Sanders is, of course, a more unknown quantity, but “the public’s comments about Sanders can be summarized as 26 percent positive and 20 percent negative, with the rest categorized as neutral, other or no opinion.”
In fact, the more the public gets to see of both candidates, the more popular Sanders becomes, and the more unpopular Clinton becomes.
Here’s Quinnipiac explaining that dynamic in one graph just a few days ago:
This Huffington Post chart, compiling recent polls, shows not only that Clinton is deeply unpopular among the electorate, but becomes increasingly unpopular the more the public is exposed to her during this campaign:
Polling data. (photo: The Intercept)
Polling data. (photo: The Intercept)
Or look at the same metric for critical states. In Ohio, for example, Sanders’ favorability rating is +3 (44-41 percent), while Clinton’s is negative 20 (37-57 percent).
Then there’s the particular climate of the electorate. While it’s undoubtedly true that racism and ethno-nationalism are significant factors in Trump’s appeal, also quite significant is a pervasive, long-standing contempt for the political establishment, combined with enduring rage at Wall Street and corporate America, which — along with the bipartisan agenda of globalization and free trade — have spawned intense economic suffering and deprivation among a huge number of Americans.
This article by the conservative writer Michael Brendan Dougherty is the best I’ve read explaining the sustained success of Trump’s candidacy, and it very convincingly documents those factors: “There are a number of Americans who are losers from a process of economic globalization that enriches a transnational global elite.”
In this type of climate, why would anyone assume that a candidate who is the very embodiment of Globalist Establishment Power (see her new, shiny endorsement from Tony Blair), who is virtually drowning both personally and politically in Wall Street cash, has “electability” in her favor? Maybe one can find reasons to support a candidate like that. But in this environment, “electability” is most certainly not one of them. Has anyone made a convincing case why someone with those attributes would be a strong candidate in 2016?
Despite this mountain of data, the pundit consensus — which has been wrong about essentially everything — is that Hillary Clinton is electable and Bernie Sanders is not.
There’s virtually no data to support this assertion. All of the relevant data compels the opposite conclusion. Rather than data, the assertion relies on highly speculative, evidence-free claims: Sanders will also become unpopular once he’s the target of GOP attacks; nobody who self-identifies as a “socialist” can win a national election; he’s too old or too ethnic to win, etc. The very same supporters of Hillary Clinton were saying very similar things just eight years ago about an unknown African-American first-term senator with the name Barack Hussein Obama
.
Perhaps those claims are true this time. But given the stakes we’re being told are at play if Trump is nominated, wouldn’t one want to base one’s assessment in empirical evidence rather than pundit assertions, no matter how authoritative the tone used to express them?
It’s possible to argue that electability should not be the primary factor. That’s certainly reasonable: Elections often are and should be about aspirations, ideology, and opinion-changing leaders. But given the lurking possibility of a Trump presidency, is now really the time to gamble on such a risky general election candidate as Hillary Clinton?
Seems to me that the PTB are more afraid of him than Hill. She is their candidate as far as I can tell from the news coverage and the game plan of running acknowledged scary, incompetent clowns who want to bring the world to an end with their incessant talk of bombing and war against every perceived shadow.
Hill almost seems like a peace candidate - unless you remember how she's been at the helm of most of the military madness under Obama's vast yeasty brew.
Enough mixing of the fun metaphors. Just know that at least Trump cannot be counted on to continue the unending wars.
And both candidates can be counted on to continue the reign of Wall Street and the impoverishment of the middle and lower classes.
You can almost look forward to the starving masses getting picked up by the Star Wars-dressed police battalions, can't you?
And the next stop, of course, will be filling up all those nice, shiny new prisons and working for wages that will defeat the workers in China and wherever else those poor makers of shiny trash reside who are stealing U.S. jobs.
2 comments:
just get used to hearing "president Trump'
Funny about that.
Seems to me that the PTB are more afraid of him than Hill. She is their candidate as far as I can tell from the news coverage and the game plan of running acknowledged scary, incompetent clowns who want to bring the world to an end with their incessant talk of bombing and war against every perceived shadow.
Hill almost seems like a peace candidate - unless you remember how she's been at the helm of most of the military madness under Obama's vast yeasty brew.
Enough mixing of the fun metaphors. Just know that at least Trump cannot be counted on to continue the unending wars.
And both candidates can be counted on to continue the reign of Wall Street and the impoverishment of the middle and lower classes.
You can almost look forward to the starving masses getting picked up by the Star Wars-dressed police battalions, can't you?
And the next stop, of course, will be filling up all those nice, shiny new prisons and working for wages that will defeat the workers in China and wherever else those poor makers of shiny trash reside who are stealing U.S. jobs.
What a world.
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