"He made an all-in bet on the notion that people won't be told by their elites what to do, an idea long respected in American politics but never tested on the scale of a presidential campaign."
The article also answered my question, How did Trump read the discontent in the country so accurately and way before anyone else? How did he outperform all other politicians--once they caught on--in addressing this discontent?
"For years, he had maintained an open-door policy at Trump Tower for Republicans, hearing out everyone from fellow presidential aspirant Rick Santorum to CEO-turned-senator David Perdue about where the country needed to go and how Democrats could be beaten.
He paid a staffer to listen to talk radio to find out what issues people were calling about.
Backstage at events, he was known to quietly ask everyday workers about their lives and their jobs. Trump's populism wasn't a stance; it was an informed point of view."
Based on that, President-elect Trump...
"... wove his issues into a siren call that the system-the media, the Democratic donors, the branches of government connected to special interests-was rigged."
Or, as Trump's top strategist Steve Bannon put it,
"Elites have taken all the upside for themselves and pushed the downside to the working- and middle-class Americans."
Trump asked voters for once-in-a-lifetime permission to blow up the modern American political superstructure and get back to basics. As Bannon said, "This is not the French Revolution. They destroyed the basic institutions of their society and changed their form of government. What Trump represents is a restoration-a restoration of true American capitalism and a revolution against state-sponsored socialism."
LESSONS LEARNED
You don't need a "Get out the Vote" machine if your voters are motivated by your message
The "Experts" are mostly bullshitting touts
If Trump can do it, so can a Dem candidate in 2020. If GOP moralists try to mount a revanchist campaign to claw back social gains won for gays and transgendered, they will give the Dems an opening. The same outcome will happen if a Trump presidency unleashes the dark forces of racism, misogyny and hatred progressives spent so much energy screaming about during the campaign.
Dems will refocus on the heartland and neglect their base in the big cities. Their support there is so deep they can afford to do it. The vast majority of those deep blue populations will never vote for a Republican. They worst they can do is stay home. In California, the Dems could still take the state even if three-million stayed home. In New York, 1.5 million Democrat could sit it out and the Democrat candidate would still win that state.
Exception: Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Madison, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are critical for Dems in 2020. Also Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando and Miami in Florida. The Democrats will flood the zone in those cities. That is how they take back those states Trump flipped.
The Democrat party will learn from Trump's unprecedented success and will do a good job adapting their strategy. All political victories are transitory.
"This Paris agreement... is irreversible, no one can get out of it," said Hollande during a speech in the southwest of France.
Bwah ha ha ha ha!
Well Bub, that's what happens when you let a President ratify an agreement rather than the US Senate. What you have is an executive agreement... an agreement easily rescinded by the next executive.
Nicolas Sarkozy proposed a carbon tax on American-made goods if President-elect Donald Trump pulls out of the climate accord.
The Infotainment Media Complex shat itself on election night, but Trump already owned them by then. Candidate Trump caused them to finally unmask themselves and reveal the Infotainment Media Complex to be the multi-horned, medusa-headed progressive propaganda outlet we all knew it was.
Salena Zito offered this pithy insight:
"When he makes claims like this, the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally."
"No matter how crazy this election seems, it's less crazy than the condition of our country," Thiel said. " [...] "It is not a lack of judgment that leads Americans to vote for Trump; we are voting for Trump because we judge the leadership of our country to have failed."(Weekly Standard)
Trump broke the Media's Back
The press is not silenced, but El Donaldo did drive them to such hysterics that they wrecked their vocal chords. The rumbly respectability of a Walter Kronkite or Tom Brokaw has been replaced by the hysterical quacking of Donald Duck.
People still hear them, but don't believe them or take them seriously, and if Trump does not destroy the United States and the world like the press warned us he would, their credibility will be totally shot.
The Infotainment Media Complex has painted themselves into a spider-infested corner. Their power to propagandize the nation is shattered. Dems can still rely on them to rally the faithful on the left, but not ordinary Americans in the broad middle.
But wait! There's more!
Can You Hear Me Now? President Trump takes Dead Aim
President-elect Donald Trump exploded at media bigs in an off-the-record Trump Tower powow on Monday, sources told The Post.
"It was like a f-ing firing squad," said one source.
"Trump started with Jeff Zucker and said I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed....
"The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down," the source added.NY Post
Progessives will shriek about how "Dangerous" it is for a President-elect to excoriate the press like that, but President Trump is speaking for the 70% of Americans who despise and mistrust the press. He gave them the bashing the richly deserve, and we enjoy it vicariously through him.
A psychologist has written a very long and quite exhaustive refutation of the progressive anti-Trump hysteria. You can read it here: Slate Star Codex: You are Still Crying Wolf
After knocking down every kook theory and unhinged accusation, he concludes. And he speaks for all of us normal people watching the rioting, safe space thumb-sucking, diaper rash rants, media meltdowns and hyper-hysteria heebee jeebees:
Why am I harping on this?
I work in mental health. So far I have had two patients express Trump-related suicidal ideation. One of them ended up in the emergency room, although luckily both of them are now safe and well. I have heard secondhand of several more.
Stop making people suicidal. Stop telling people they’re going to be killed. Stop terrifying children. Stop giving racism free advertising. Stop trying to convince Americans that all the other Americans hate them. Stop. Stop. Stop.
Robert E. Heller performs a similar, more concise service in his essay, Trump's Triumph, explained. The real reason the left is going crazy is because their worldview is shattered. As one of their propagandists said, they cried wolf one too many times.
And here is where we find the essential key to understanding why Trump really won. For decades, Republicans have largely conceded to false assertions that the left holds the moral high ground. This cycle, that changed. Donald Trump, who is unaccustomed to conceding anything, did not go quietly into that good night.
Voters' affection for him sprang from the same well as Abraham Lincoln's for Ulysses Grant: He fights!
Instead of silence when accused of racism, Trump pointed out that leftist do-gooders have subjected black America to horrifying inner city rates of both crime and poverty, trapped their kids in appallingly bad schools, and driven unemployment rates among their youth into the stratosphere.
Instead of meekness when accused of xenophobia, Trump insisted that "sanctuary cities" are madness when they demonstrably result in the release of caught criminals who continue to victimize innocents. Instead of conceding by lack of response that he is misogynist, he highlighted his opponent blithely receiving millions of dollars from foreigners from countries that forbid women to drive and stone rape victims. And then he put a smart, accomplished woman in charge of his successful campaign.
Trump won because many millions of people are very, very tired of the moral condescension of people who mistakenly believe that they are incapable of being wrong on fundamental moral questions - despite the relative ease of demonstrating the absurdity of that belief.
And if the left clings to that same smugness going forward, then its losing streak is just beginning.
* Stock market is up (remember the dire warnings from the left that it would crash if Trump won?)
* Senate Majority Leader: TPP is dead
* EU Trade Commissioner: TTIP has essentially been abandoned.
* Canada, Mexico "open to talking about" NAFTA
* Threat of war receding: Trump and Putin agreed "on the absolutely unsatisfactory state of bilateral relations" and agreed to move "to normalize relations and pursue constructive cooperation on the broadest possible range of issues."
* NYU strikes a blow for anti-PC free speech
* "Department of Veterans Affairs sent a letter to Congress informing it that controversial plans to pay for transgender veterans' gender reassignment surgeries had been abandoned."
What do you see as positives stemming from our election of Donald J. Trump to be the 45th President of the United States?
Hello Michigan! It's been a week since the election, all 83 counties have reported their results, and while I can understand dotting your "I"s and crossing your "T"s, just call it already, as someone famous once said "What difference does it make"?
Lots of names are being bandied about potential picks for a Trump cabinet.
Of the names I've heard for State I have to say Bolton would be my choice, if not that then Ambassador to the UN.
Kelly Ayotte would be an interesting choice for Defense, although she is a tad young.
I'm going to guess that AG goes to either Christie or Giuliani with whoever is left over getting Commerce.
I'm also going to guess that Flynn gets the DNI or National Security Advisor position rather than Defense.
Hopefully he'll spring a few surprises.
The funniest I've heard is Arpaio for Homeland, not ever going to happen, I don't think he'd ever get confirmed (and rightfully so), but it would be a great big middle finger to the left.
The Trumpening has left the The Infotainment Media Complex stunned and gob-stopped. Their view of reality shattered when Trump passed 270 electoral votes, thanks to Wisconsin *Blue Progressive Wisconsin!* I know how they feel and I sympathize. I was stunned in 2008 when the "impossible" happened: My fellow Americans chose a Muslim-named street activist from Chicago over a conservative-lite war hero.
Such events are bracing, and the mentally-healthy adjust their view of reality based upon them. Defiant leftists who are mentally-unstable are crying foul. What hurts the worse, a burning coal up their arrogant arses, is that President-Elect Trump bludgeoned them with their own cudgels:
"Trump had a way of taking to Twitter and could literally change the narrative because he had such a large following,"
"It's organized digital bullying,"
"In this way, you have untruths and falsehoods that transit through our media ecosystem and become a tidal wave."
"It became possible for him to construct an alternate narrative, I would say an alternate reality," he said.
This final whine emanating from the progressive hive was the most ironic:
"The health of democracy depends on people being exposed to both sides of an issue"
Indeed. And had the Infotainment Media Complex done that, people wouldn't have had to seek out "alternate realities"
Trumpled by Reality
While most in the Infotainment Media Complex--who get it so wrong, so often--arrogantly march on, some in the press are in a defensive crouch, worrying a Dictator Trump will exact his revenge.
Trump is challenging the legitimacy of traditional media at a time of low public standing and great financial stress for the industry, especially newspapers. In September, a Gallup poll found that just 32 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the media, the lowest level in the poll’s history.
Recovering Inkaholics?
But that's not worth wasting time on. I don't want a rightwing press, I don't want a libertarian press--I want an agnostic press, a skeptical press, a press that gets to know the big, wide, diverse world outside its cozy group-think bubble.
Here are a few refreshing and stunning bursts of healthy self-examination from some of the scribblers on the left. Both articles are worth a full reading:
This is all symptomatic of modern journalism’s great moral and intellectual failing: its unbearable smugness. Had Hillary Clinton won, there’d be a winking “we did it” feeling in the press, a sense that we were brave and called Trump a liar and saved the republic.
There’s been some sympathy from the press, sure: the dispatches from “heroin country” that read like reports from colonial administrators checking in on the natives. But much of that starts from the assumption that Trump voters are backward... (Will Rahn -- Unbearable Smugness of the Press)
"The Deplorables Got the Last Laugh"
Let's Face it: Liberals helped stoke the rage that elected Donald Trump
You can believe that half the country is racist if you want, and there’s no question that there’s an undercurrent of anger in Trump’s stunning rise. But that anger isn’t directed at any individual ethnic group. It’s more inchoate than that.
It’s rage at institutions that people believe have failed them forever. It’s rage at an economy that doesn’t work for ordinary folks. It’s rage at a cultural milieu that perceives too many non-coastal Americans as buffoons. It’s rage at the aftermath of a financial crisis and Great Recession, in which the gap between winners and losers just grew larger, and the two-tiered system of justice paraded on full display. It’s rage at an elite class that people feel is lined up against them. (New Republic - David Dayen)
Trumpled Myths, Shattered Shibboleths
President Trump can help us along our path of seeing reality as it really is by proving just how hysterically wrong the progressive alarums and ahoogah horns of calamity were.
* Fairy Tale #1, "The markets will crash!" has already fallen.
The credibility of nut-filled progressive screamers will fall further when...
- Trump fails to grow a Hitler mustache and start shoving Jews into ovens.
- No footage appears of Trump's stormtroopers dragging poor immigrants from their homes and marching them to the border
- America's Muslims and LGBTQ continue to enjoy the best life available to them anywhere on the planet, and anti-Muslim and anti-gay pogroms fail to materialize
Trump has a real opportunity to show America and the world just how wrong the hysterical leftwing lying liars and the progressive scare-mongers are. Add is some healthy self-examination and self-adjustment by the press, and perhaps we can restore some sanity to society.
Too many of my progressive friends seem to have forgotten how to make
actual arguments, and have become expert instead at condemnation,
derision and mockery. On issue after issue, they’re very good at
explaining why no one could oppose their policy positions except for the
basest of motives. As to those positions themselves, they are too often
announced with a zealous solemnity suggesting that their views are Holy
Writ -- and those who disagree are cast into the outer political
darkness. In short, the left has lately been dripping with hubris, which
in classic literature always portends a fall. Stephen Carter - Bloomberg
In a party in which “white privilege” was pro forma
disparagement, those who were both white and without it grew furious
that the elites with such privilege massaged the allegation to provide
cover for their own entitlement. Victor Davis Hanson - Hoover Institute ~ Stanford
You have no one to blame but yourselves running corruption incarnate as your candidate, a feeling I think expressed quite loudly the other day by many of my fellow Americans. Frankly I'd have voted for Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein if that was what was necessary to keep Clinton out of the Oval office.
#NotMyPresident
Got news for you, he's as much your President as Obama has been our President for the past eight years. Get Over It... if it makes you little snowflakes happy we'll send Hillary a Participation Trophy.
Anti-Trump Protests. Really? What are you protesting? The choice of your fellow Americans? Have at it, frankly we don't give care. While I respect your right to assemble and protest I'm not paying any more attention to you than I would a child throwing a tantrum.
Yes, Clinton has at the moment a slight lead in the popular vote between her and Trump of about 200,000 votes, but we don't elect presidents by popular vote and you have the same proportional representation in the electoral college that you have in the legislatures. As it stands right now Hillary Clinton has 59,814,018 votes... but 65,685,400 didn't vote for Clinton. Clearly the majority didn't want Clinton, so quit your whingeing.
Just a friendly reminder to all those that pledged to leave if Trump was elected President.
Well it's after midnight here in Colorado and the New York Times is predicting a better than 95% chance of Trump winning with 308 electoral votes, so we'll go with that for the time being:
Think about that for a moment. Tomorrow is the 2016 election, does the outcome really matter? Or is how the game was played more important?
The game, was played badly, by both sides. What are the repercussions of that going to be?
Faith in institutions has crumbled, do the results really matter? If Clinton wins vast swaths of the electorate are going to believe the fix was in. The same can be said if Trump wins.
How is each side going to view the other after this is all over? Unless one side or the other wins in an overwhelming landslide sweeping the White House, House, and Senate, the battle lines have been formed, the troops arrayed. After the dust of the initial clash clears there is going to be a long and ugly time of trench warfare ahead.
Forget who wins or loses, what do you think the next four years are going to hold politically?
“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”
22.Qf6+! was the sacrifice move in what is known in chess circles as "the immortal game" between Anderssen and Kieseritzky in 1851. Yesterday Ducky offered us a "valid Trump support profile", to that I will reply that a valid Trump support profile is anyone who does not want Hillary Rodham Corruption as the President of These United States. At this point you've probably managed to put 2 and 22.Qf6+! together and come to the realization that yes, I have voted against Clinton, I won't say who I voted for as it ought to be obvious, but let us just say it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and leave it at that. It seriously causes me to question FPTP (First Past The Post) voting. I am, I would like to think, what you would call a serious voter, for example my wife and I actually read all 17 judicial performance reviews of the judges on our ballot for retention. (In Colorado Judges are appointed, face a retention vote two years later and every four years thereafter). I can honestly say that I did not consider political affiliation in my decision on any of them, I can also honestly say that my wife and I are the exception rather than the rule. There are some serious problems with voting in America and I'm not talking about the bull that either Trump or Clinton are spreading. The average American voter is apathetic regarding the political decisions given to them, or perhaps I should just simply call them pathetic. If the majority of Americans made their football picks the same way as they vote they'd be making their decisions based on who had the prettier uniform or the coolest emblem. Yes, sadly most Americans spend more intellectual capital on their football pool than the general election.
Most of the people who come here and post are passionate about their beliefs, more so than the common man. They may sometimes get lazy and regurgitate other people's talking points, but most can also put forth a rational argument defending their beliefs, for that they ought to be commended. Make no mistake, most who come here and post are also the exception rather than the rule.
SF likens voting for Trump as throwing a Molotov cocktail, I disagree... voting for Trump is voting against Clinton, sacrificing a piece now for the bigger picture, for the end game. Trump is a Molotov cocktail that's going to go out as soon as you throw it, the flames quenched by all the Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate that aren't Trump.
Congress designates American Bison as our national mammal. Well actually they did it last spring but it only became official yesterday. You all know our national bird, the Bald Eagle but did you know our national flower is the Rose, the Oak is our national tree, there is a bill to proclaim the Striped Bass our national fish, and petitions to make the Rattlesnake our national reptile and the American Bullfrog our national amphibian.
Headline: Polls are rigged, claims Clinton as she slips behind Trump in the ABC/Washington Post Poll. ROFLMAO
Non-partisan joke...or is it a bi-partisan joke?
One thing we know is that come next year we're going to have a sexual harasser in the White House, we just don't know if he's going to be in the East Wing or the West Wing. All I can say is that this election cycle has given me a greater appreciation of monarchy.
Well, there is only a week left... what are your current predictions?
The Day of the Dead festival runs from October 31 through November 2nd. November 1 is generally referred to as DÃa de los Inocentes ("Day of the Innocents") but also as DÃa de los Angelitos ("Day of the Little Angels"); November 2 is referred to as DÃa de los Muertos or DÃa de los Difuntos ("Day of the Dead").
On one hand he could be accused of attempting to influence the election by his release of information regarding newly discovered Clinton emails, on the other hand he could be accused of attempting to influence the election by covering up information regarding newly discovered Clinton emails. It is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation, certainly a situation none of us would want to be put in. The question is... did he make the right decision? First some assumptions: 1. There are a large number of emails, some reports state tens of thousands. If it were a small number they would already know what is in them and this would (should) be a non-issue. 2. They do not know the contents of all the emails. (See 1. above). Given those two conditions, in his place, what would you do and why?
Michael Moore thinks there is a large number of unrecognized Trump supporters out there that will push him over the top against Hillary Clinton.
Many middle- to lower-income people are going to support the former
reality TV star because at least he uses language directly pertinent to
issues that have affected their lives, Moore argued.
ACA premiums to jump up to 25% as private insurers pull out of the federal marketplace leaving less competition and fewer options. MSN
In Pennsylvania the number of insurers has dropped from 15 to 8, in Philadelphia there are only 2 insurers left and premiums are expected to rise 53%. CBS
Some Coloradans could see increases of up to 40%, while those in Denver can expect a 15-25% rise. 92,000 people will need new plans in 2017. CBS
Covered California announced that rates will increase across the state by an average of 13.2% but that number can be misleading. In one case the cost of a silver-level PPO from Blue Shield the premium will rise from $162 to $254 after tax credits are applied, an increase of 57%. LA Daily News
The government likes to point out that after tax credits many individuals will not see their rates rise at all, but make no mistake, the costs are going up and someone is paying for it... and that someone is us.
A relatively new party founded in 2012 they managed to squeak past the 5% threshold to get representation in the Althing, the national parliament.
In mid-2015 they successfully managed to repeal Iceland's blasphemy law following the earlier Charlie Hebdo shootings.
Currently polls show the Pirate Party leading with 22.6% of the vote in the general election slated for 29 October.
Started in Sweden there are now Pirate Parties in 17 European countries, the US, Canada, Israel, and Australia. They have elected representatives in Sweden, Iceland, the Czech Republic, and Germany.
Donald Trump is an evil misogynist for his comments about women, yet the President parties with Jay Z, Chance, Wale, J. Cole, Ludacris, among others.
(Bitch) (Bitch) (Bitch) Don't make me say it thrice, you acting all up tight All sidity like, like you ain't a (Bitch) You ain't no better cause you don't be f*cking rappers You only f*ck with actors, you still getting f*cked backwards (Bitch) Unless you f*cked a dude on his own merit And not the way he dribbles or ball or draw lyrics You're a (Bitch), No ma, you're a (Bitch)
So this is the kind of music our President likes and Donald Trump is the misogynist?
“So we could never be a couple hun / F*ck love / All I got for hoes is hard d*ck and bubblegum.” Big L
“Bitches ain’t sh*t but hoes and tricks / Lick on these nuts and suck the d*ck.” – Snoop Dogg
“I know she like chocolate men / She got more n*ggas off than Cochran.” – Kanye West
“My little sister’s birthday / She’ll remember me / For a gift I had ten of my boys take her virginity.” – Bizarre
“Slut, you think I won’t choke no whore / Til the vocal cords don’t work in her throat no more?!” – Eminem
“It’s damn near four in the morning, ain’t sh*t to discuss / Til you ask which d*ck do you suck.” – Jadakiss
“Love a feminist b*tch, oh, it get my dick hard / So no apologies for all the misogyny.” – Danny Brown
Update: My apologies, I forgot to insert the link to the article these lyrics came from.
Voters who say they’ll back Donald Trump are more likely to be fans of
Garth Brooks, Van Halen and Slayer, while Hillary Clinton voters listen
to Beyonce, Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers, according to a survey by research firm Audiokite. Would-be Clinton voters are two times more likely to prefer jazz and
three times more likely to prefer folk music. Trump supporters,
meanwhile, are more than twice as likely to prefer country and metal. FORBES
Did you watch? I wasn't planning to but turned it on at the last minute and sat through the whole thing. My overriding thought on the matter? That out of 318 million people it comes down to these two Asshats is really sad.
Ecuador's government acknowledged on Tuesday that it cut off WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange's internet access at its embassy in London after
the whistleblowing site published a trove of damaging emails from
Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
The recognition of the reprimand comes less than 24 hours after
WikiLeaks tweeted that Ecuador had cut off Assange's access to the
Internet on Saturday after the publication of Clinton's speeches to Wall
Street investment bank Goldman Sachs.
In follow-up messages posted Tuesday, the group claimed U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry had personally intervened to ask Ecuador to stop
Assange from publishing documents about Clinton. Associated Press
Who do you think is more likely to get us into war? Clinton or Trump?
By the way, I know lots of missileers and this guy's in the minority among them. In fact, none of the missileers current and former that I know are fans of Clinton, including the Democrat that voted for Obama.
In 1998 Democrat Jill Stein campaigned for the Massachusetts Clean Election Law. The law was approved by 67% of the voters was repealed by the Democratic Massachusetts legislature in 2003 and Jill Stein left the party to join the Greens.
Who are the Greens? Here a few key points from their platform.
End destructive energy extraction and associated infrastructure:
fracking, tar sands, offshore drilling, oil trains, mountaintop removal,
natural gas pipelines, and uranium mines. Halt any investment in fossil
fuel infrastructure, including natural gas, and phase out all fossil
fuel power plants. Phase out nuclear power and end nuclear subsidies.
End all subsidies for fossil fuels and impose a greenhouse gas fee /
tax to charge polluters for the damage they have created.
Create living-wage jobs for every American who needs work, replacing
unemployment offices with employment offices. Government would be the
employer of last resort, and the unemployed would have an enforceable
right to make government provide work. Create direct public employment,
as the Works Progress Administration did, in public services and public
works for those who can't find private employment.
Establish an improved “Medicare for All” single-payer public health
program to provide everyone with quality health care, at huge savings by
eliminating the $400 billion annually spent on the paperwork and
bureaucracy of health insurance. No co-pays, premiums or deductibles.
Access to all health care services, including mental health, dental, and
vision. Include everyone, period. No restrictions based on pre-existing
illness, employment, immigration status, age, or any other category.
Guarantee tuition-free, world-class public education from pre-school through university. Abolish student debt to free a generation of Americans from debt servitude.
Set a $15/hour federal minimum wage, with indexing.
Demilitarize border crossings throughout North America.
Demilitarize the police: End training from Israeli Defense Forces on
occupation-style policing; End 1033-style programs that transfer
military equipment to civilian law enforcement and incentivize police
departments to return military-grade weapons to federal government. End
use of SWAT teams and no-knock raids for drug offenses and serving
papers.
Terminate unconstitutional surveillance and unwarranted spying, close
Guantanamo, and repeal indefinite detention without charge or trial.
Repeal the unconstitutional provisions of the National Defense
Authorization Act that give the president the power to indefinitely
imprison and even assassinate American citizens without due process.
Cut military spending by at least 50% and close the 700+ foreign
military bases. Ensure a just transition that replaces reductions in
military jobs with jobs in renewable energy, transportation and green
infrastructure development. End the destructive US economic and military intervention into the
affairs of sovereign nations. Such intervention serve the interests of
multinational corporations and global capitalism over the interests of
the vast majority of the citizens of those nations.
Protect voters’ rights by enforcing and expanding the constitutional
right to vote (including a new amendment if necessary). Enact the full
Voter's Bill of Rights guaranteeing each person's right to vote, the
right to have our votes counted on hand-marked paper ballots, and the
right to vote within systems that give each vote meaning. Make voter
registration the responsibility of government, not a voluntary opt-in
for citizens.
Democratize monetary policy to bring about public control of the money
supply and credit creation. This means nationalizing the private
bank-dominated Federal Reserve Banks and placing them under a Federal
Monetary Authority within the Treasury Department. Prohibit private
banks from creating money, thus restoring government's Constitutional
authority.
Impose an immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Use Department of Housing and Urban Development authority to grant or
withhold funds in order to encourage state and local governments to take
positive steps to desegregate housing, including ending zoning laws
that effectively prohibit multi-family housing, prohibiting landlords
from refusing to accept Section 8 vouchers, increasing Section 8 voucher
amounts so that poor people can move into middle income neighborhoods,
prohibiting the use of Low Income Housing Tax Credits to increase low
income housing in already segregated neighborhoods, and building new
public housing in middle income communities that is high quality and
mixed income.
This is nowhere near the full platform, I've picked on or two statements from each section to present here. Click on the "Platform" link to read the full document.
Well, they'll stone ya when you're trying to be so good
They'll stone ya just a-like they said they would
They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to go home
Then they'll stone ya when you're there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned.
Well, they'll stone ya when you're walkin' 'long the street
They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to keep your seat
They'll stone ya when you're walkin' on the floor
They'll stone ya when you're walkin' to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned.
They'll stone ya when you're at the breakfast table
They'll stone ya when you are young and able
They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to make a buck
They'll stone ya and then they'll say "good luck"
Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned.
Well, They'll stone you and say that it's the end
Then they'll stone you and then they'll come back again
They'll stone you when you're riding in your car
They'll stone you when you're playing your guitar
Yes, but I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned.
Well, they'll stone you when you walk all alone
They'll stone you when you are walking home
They'll stone you and then say you are brave
They'll stone you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned.
Bit of a stretch if you ask me.
Don't get me wrong, I like Bob Dylan and his music... but it's not literature, it's even a bit of a stretch to call it good poetry. Now the song above is certainly not his poetic best... I included it because I heard it on the radio on the way home today and that in conjunction with the memory of him winning the Nobel Prize for Literature actually made me laugh. We'll take a look at what many consider his more poetic works.
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
Yes, and how many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, and how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
Yes, and how many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, and how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind
Here's one of my favorites
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, what did you see, my blue eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin'
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin'
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder that roared out a warnin'
I heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
I heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin'
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
I heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin'
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
Oh, what did you meet my blue-eyed son ?
Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony
I met a white man who walked a black dog
I met a young woman whose body was burning
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow
I met one man who was wounded in love
I met another man who was wounded in hatred
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
And what'll you do now, my blue-eyed son?
And what'll you do now my darling young one?
I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin'
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are a many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
And the executioner's face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number
And I'll tell and speak it and think it and breathe it
And reflect from the mountain so all souls can see it
And I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'
But I'll know my song well before I start singing
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.
So what do you think? Is the prize warranted? Probably more so than Obama's 2009 Peace Prize.
Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon, there is no sense in trying
Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying
Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you'd just be one more person crying
So don't fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It's alright, Ma, I'm only sighing
As some warn victory, some downfall
Private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eyes of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all, except hatred
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Made everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far that not much is really sacred
Our preachers preach of evil fates
Teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred-dollar plates
Goodness hides behind its gates
But even the President of the United States
Sometimes must have to stand naked
An' all the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you got to dodge
And it's alright, Ma, I can make it
Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on all around you
You lose yourself, you reappear
You suddenly find you got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
When a trembling distant voice, unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
That somebody thinks they really found you
A question in your nerves is lit
Yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy insure you not to quit
To keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it that you belong to
Although the masters make the rules
For the wise men and the fools
I got nothing, Ma, to live up to
For them that must obey authority
That they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Do what they do just to be
Nothing more than something they invest in
While some on principles baptized
To strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise
Outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize and say, "God bless him"
While one who sings with his tongue on fire
Gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers
Cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole that he's in
But I mean no harm nor put fault
On anyone that lives in a vault
But it's alright, Ma, if I can't please him
Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares propaganda, all is phony
While them that defend what they cannot see
With a killer's pride, security
It blows the minds most bitterly
For them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
Life sometimes must get lonely
My eyes collide head-on with stuffed graveyards
False goals, I scuff at pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say, "Okay, I have had enough, what else can you show me?"
And if my thought dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's alright, Ma, it's life, and life only
NBC releases the Trump tapes, tapes that they have had for 11 years. TMZ is reporting that NBC execs knew about the tapes well in advance of the five days they claim and didn't want to release it too early in the election. The plan was to release it two days before the debate but that plan was thwarted by Hurricane Matthew. Hence the leak to the Washington Post.
Julian Assange releases hacked Clinton campaign emails and they are "a propaganda arm of the Kremlin". Does that make NBC a propaganda arm of the Clinton campaign?
I listen to a lot of different types of music but swing has always been one of my favorites. Saw these guys a few years back at The Palladium and just found out they're gonna be at Memorial Hall in Pueblo in December, might have to get tickets and wear my brown pinstripe... just need to get a hat.
What's the point of it anyway? It's not like somebody is going to vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump just because they like Tim Kaine or Mike Pence. Does anybody even really care who a candidates vice presidential running mate is? Then again... we'd all probably be a heck of a lot better off if Tim Kaine and Mike Pence were running for president.
I thought about it and I agree with Gary, what's to admire?
What do we have to work with? Obama, Merkel, May, Hollande, Trudeau, Jin Ping, Putin, Abe? Even if we venture further afield what do we have to work with? Turnbull, Key, Al Saud, Rouhani, Kenny, Renzi, Geun-hye, Nieto? Even if we move out of heads of state, what are we talking here? Bezos? Bono? Branson? Ban-Ki Moon? Pope Francis?
I'm not disparaging any of them, they are all admirable in the sense that they've become the leaders of their nations, companies, and professions yet none of them seem to rise any further than that.
Turns out that attack on a gay nightclub wasn't an attack on a gay nightclub at all, or at least its motivation wasn't. This was revealed after a Florida court ordered the release of the transcripts that were kept secret by the FBI. The domestic terrorist behind the Orlando nightclub massacre was
motivated by a Pentagon drone strike in Iraq a month before the shooting.
“Yo, the air strike that killed Abu Wahid a few weeks ago… that’s what
triggered it, okay?” said Mateen, who earlier in the conversation
identified himself as a follower the Islamic State terror group. “They should have not bombed and killed Abu Wahid,” the former security
guard declared. “Do your fucking homework and figure out who Abu Wahid
is, okay?”
Additionally, Mateen praised one of the bombers of the 2013 Boston
Marathon, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and another domestic terrorist whose name
was transcribed as unintelligible. At other points, Mateen told the negotiator that the United States needed to stop all bombing in Iraq and Syria.
Clinton lies, Trump lies, Government lies, the Police lie, the Media lie... face it, we live in a world of Pinocchios. What's exceptionally sad isn't that people lie, it's that we let them. How many of you liberals won't vote for Clinton because of her lies, how many of you conservatives won't vote for Trump because of his?
