Vladimir Putin apparently hacked the presidential election. So say intelligence pundits estranged by Tump's Washington brain-trust transplant. True or not, what they're saying is that bringing transparency to the election process and the behind the scenes emails which affirm its undemocratic nature, is meddling. What a laugh to hear DNC operatives say they feel "sucker-punched" that their off-the-record slurs of condescention were made public. And of course how rich of the US regime to accuse anyone of meddling in another country's elections.
Tag: Election
American voters want to make America great again. So let’s.
Yes America was never great for Native Americans, or slaves, or those without property. Indeed capitalism is ony great for those with capital. But I think the pride behind American Exceptionalism comes from more than nostalgia about 1950s prosperity as our mendatious corporate media would have Americans believe. And while its full privileges are enjoyed only by Anglo monied Americans, the promise of "America" as a land of justice, freedom and equality is not just an international delusion, it's a universal hope.
Trump shows us that sarcasm doesn’t translate over hostile media either.
Sarcasm does't work on the internet because the general comprehension level there doesn't rise above dense. Owing to the same common denominator, Poe's Law applies to the corporate media too, except the adage doesn't come up when content isn't crowdsourced. When the public has no hand in the content creation it has no reason to scrutinize a usage manual. Presidential election troll Donald Trump makes utterances everyday that pundits seize upon to discredit which are obviously sarcastic. But to recognize sarcasm as intended would mean conceding to the implicit truth at which he is digging. The US regime did birth ISIS. If both the justice department or the FBI are uninterested in investigating illegal official emails, the Russians may as well be called upon to check into them. If nuclear weapons are too big to detonate, we ought to stop producing them.
The Hillary Clinton War Machine banner seen by everyone at 2016 DNC but you.
PHILADELPHIA, PA- The second day of protest of the 2016 DNC was expected to dwarf Sunday's impressive turnout, so we hit the Monday rally determined to repeat our photo-op coup of the day before. This time our banner read “HILLARY CLINTON IS THE CANDIDATE OF THE WAR MACHINE” which we knew would ruffle more feathers. We wore costumes, me as American Cowboy Capitalist, my teammate as war victim, in a black burqa, Muslims being both targets and scapegoats of the US War on Islam. Shutters clicked wherever we went, whether our banner was unfurled or not. Professional photographers recorded our names and fellow activists gave us thumbs up and maneuvered to record us on their phones. Some posed beside us, asking companions or strangers to take their selfies. We gave interviews to Time Magazine, the New Yorker, several newspapers, and multiple foreign news outlets. We spoke about the undemocratic character of our party conventions and about Hillary being the establishment warmonger. Having drenched our clothes in Philly's 95 degree weather, we consoled ourselves that we had absolutely nailed the message. We’d learned the day before that getting a visual out before a march began was the most fruitful in reaching the media audience. Unless you're storming the Bastille, protest visuals are not for drawing people to the street. Visual messaging is for the benefit of local television viewers first, who can rush to join in, and news readers second, to give substance to the coverage. At first we found scant footage of our banner in the Sunday march, but our early morning bannering, meant be a beacon toward which people could gather, garnered a headline photo by the AP. That picture ran on AP articles across the globe, and dominatd images of "DNC protests" before the convention had even begun. We knew that press coverage would be best before the convention got started, when protests wouldn’t compete with the choreographed performances inside. But we were confident that the first day’s march, as the biggest and most anticipated, would float our antiwar message to the top. Our war-machine slogan appealed to Bernie supporters, to the Greens, and to the antiwar groups. We went out early and wherever we went we drew thumbs up, applause, fingers pointed our way, cellphones and cameras. Organizers of a Bernie-delegates press conference asked us to be their backdrop. So imagine our surprise when the day’s news images did not include our banner! Instead media photo editors chose images of Bernie Sanders supporters despondent about his betrayal. In reality, most protesters on Monday were not apprised of Bernie's formal capitulation. Protesters were upbeat and enthousiastic. The thousands of Berners who marched that day were exuberant about the prospects of their delegates prevailing in the convention. Press photogs must have known something about what their editors wanted, or the heat and exhaustion produced the compositions they needed. News stories of Monday's start of the DNC ran with images of solitary protesters, looking isolated and resigned. For our part, we're certain
Trump: Make America Eight Again
Hillary 2016 as Rosie the Riveter: like we really need another war-machinist.
You've seen meme: Hillary Clinton's face superimposed over Rosie the Riveter, the original image used to boost war production during WWII. It became a feminist icon in the 70s as historic proof women could do the job of men. Reprising the theme for Hillary 2016, Democratic party photoshoppers opted to erase the source of the original poster, as if it wasn't true now more than ever. I restored it. Hillary 2016, brought to you by the WAR PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE.
Bernie Sanders packs up his carpetbag revolution. Can you smell the bern?
There is nothing fun about watching Bernie Sanders pack up his carpet bag revolution and embrace the incumbant president. Bernie supporters fell for him like they did Obama and now have to be feeling the blush of embarrassment and pang of hopelessness. What unlookers knew was going to be the ultimate Bern. Except the Bernie dreamers I knew anticipated this all along, but figured it was worth the shot. Wasn't Bernie supposed to hold out until the convention? The media has been floating false capitulation stories everyday, but it's hard to misbelieve the latest hugs and arm raising. Bernie joins ringers Kerry and Gore as Democrats who folded before they had to, if indeed they ever meant to win for real. Bernie's place in history will be a room in a museum shared with Dennis Kucinich and other politicians who pushed big ideas but were really shepherding for the Democratic Party. Sanders was a third party democrat and thanks to him, his party, the corporate war party same as its congenital twin greater-of-evil party, will win.
A real democracy would elect Trump
A friend of mine used to say "You know who has their finger on the pulse of America? Walmart." Materialism on the cheap, zero social responsibility. It's true of American television, fast food, urban planning, everything USA. We sell immediate gratification, that's it. Success in America under declining capitalism has become courting only the lowest common denominator. I can wish it was otherwise, you can lecture it to death, but Cracker culture: insipid, racist, xenophobic culture is American culture. Love yourself, hate everybody who isn't you. For many successive Me-Generations, narcissism is WHAT MAKES AMERICA GREAT. The American mass doesn't want an Obama hued panel of multiculture-splainers saying America must be anything but stupid indulgent. An intelligencia's repulsion at Donald Trump and his common denominator campaign goes without saying, but it can't fault his sales pitch. Trump is tuned to win. Feel rueful about the lumpen masses, but you're being undemocratic.
A Hillary t-shirt says I’M WITH EMPIRE
Ask the candidates: who, as president, vows to jail Obama, Clinton and Bush?
If Americans really want to differentiate which presidential candidate represents change, a good question would be, which will prosecute America's celebrity war criminals? Who, among them, will jail past leaders guilty of crimes against humanity? Obama 2008 didn't do it. President Obama didn't even close Guantanamo, end torture, or disarm drones. By failing to curb Pax America's wars of aggression, Obama too should now stand in the docket. Wasn't it hoped, as Bush and Cheney helivac'd from the White House, that Obama's "change" meant calling that chopper back for a return to accountability? At minimum, superficially? Justice didn't happen, Obama didn't want to look back, and the villains remain to foul the political discourse as foils to perpetuate high crimes and to normalize the forgiving of greater trespasses. Is American exceptionalism fathomless? ISIS hasn't grown out of the terrible twos yet already John Kerry wants to charge it with genocide; not to haul ISIS perps before the Hague --extrajudicial assassination by drone circumvents that-- but because genocide law holds that those who do not condemn it are its accessories. How far does culpability reach among our active enablers of war crimes? It extends into our pool of candidates certainly, but how far? Does Senator Bernie Sanders, at one edge, consider himself an accessory to the crimes of past and current administrations? It's possible Sanders voted against the wars, interventions and regime changes, but will he prosecute those who did not? Donald Trump stands on the periphery as well, avaritic criminality is not alas a purview of the International Criminal Court, but he does seem an unlikely candidate for honoring the rule of law let alone conscience. Still, would it hurt to ask? An independent party candidate might have the only acceptable answer. Who, as president, will honor humanity's highest laws? Who will hold state terrorists accountable?
Scalia cheats hangman and robs voters of excuse to elect a Democrat in 2016
HAHA. The Supreme Court's most contemptible crony is dead and President Obama can appoint a more bluish replacement. Apparently that's a key reason to have your party's president in the White House. Obviously SCOTUS justices will always be pro-corporate and conservative of the status quo, in the interest of both right and center-left-of-right parties. At face value Scalia's sudden demise is a welcome development for the so-called people's party. Except it leaves Election 2016 bereft of the only reason being pitched as to why voters must hold their nose and elect another Democrat.
Hillary, Bernie, and Elizabeth Warren
I have read often that it was time for our first woman President (Hillary). As a man I would agree with that. But I would also remind the reader that Lizzie Borden was a woman and we know how that worked out for her parents, when she hacked them to pieces with an axe. If a man and woman were equally qualified for the presidency, I believe I would vote for the woman. But Hillary and Bernie are not equally qualified. I base my decision on two factors; where did Hillary and Bernie get their financial support? Hillary got her money from the bankers and corporations, while Bernie's money came from the people. We would be very foolish and naïve if we fail to understand the word "PAYBACK". When the dust of the presidential election has settled, the bankers would have their first woman in the white house. If it was Bernie, then the people would have their president. Of equal weight in my decision is Elizabeth Warren, a WOMAN that I deeply admire and respect, who just prior to the Iowa Caucus failed to endorse Hillary. When a woman like Elizabeth fails to support one of her own, it speaks loud and clear for Bernie. Hillary wants to be president for all the wrong reasons; her legacy, the bankers who gave her the opportunity, while Bernie wants to be president for all the right reasons, The American People who gave him the opportunity. Hillary wants to be the first woman president; but she is not that woman that America needs.
If you are not scared by GOP debates you are not drinking enough Koolaid.
After last night's televised Republican candidate debate there followed emails which begin: "if that didn't scare you, consider this", etc. Well, guess what? You're supposed to be scared! You're supposed to worry that any of a lineup of numbskulled fundamentalist zealots will appoint more Justice Scalias to the Supreme Court. You're supposed to worry that a racist hatemonger will lead the nation to unbriddled fascism. You're supposed to be so unsettled at the lowness of America's common denominator that you'll elect ANYONE to divert your handbasket going to Hades. Even, God forbid, that unscrupulous Hillary. You think Trump's supporters are stupid? Look at the idiot the election show-runners are taking you for! Reality TV couldn't script a more preposterous baffoon than Donald Trump. And he has followers in spite of his irrational carrying-on. Trump's appeal isn't owed to his outragious zenophobia or simpleton populism. Those play to the average liberal's fears. Trump grows more popular the more the corporate media opposes him. If ever there might be a Washington outsider to slay the oligarchs, it's Herr Trump the uber oligarch! A village idiot spews more truth than entrenched bureaucrats. Trump's act is still electoral Kabuki, but in the linear realm of possibilities, the smart voters are going for the longshot because the authorized contenders offer nothing. So how is this for scary: Trump fans are smarter than you! Calm down, it's not by much.
Bernie Sanders Hope and Change 2.016
YOU'RE WELCOME. The same civic dutyists activated by Obama 2008 are already in the trenches for Bernie, making no apologies, showing no insight about the nowhere they delivered voters the first time around. In effect, the Obama deadheads have found a new phishy bandwagon, and it reeks of the same neoliberal speciousness. Who would have thought an old white guy would be the new hope change candidate? Bernie Sanders is the Democratic Party, itself the good-cop half of the corporate capitalist imperialist machine. Bernie didn't "win" the Democratic candidate debate, the winner was the Democratic Party, which came off favorably compared to the lunatic GOP. These days the GOP is condemned by whoever is showrunning Election 2016 to play the bogeyman to the lesser of lessers. Cue Bernie Sanders. Though he talks a great game, he's never walked it. Bernie wants a political revolution, but it's a counter-revolution in populist clothing.
How about a first ANTIWAR president? America will elect a woman before it wants THAT
So we want a first woman president? How about a first anti-Monsanto president. Or a first Antiwar president. Or a first anti-usury president. How about those firsts FIRST? How about the first people-first president FIRST!
Hillary is declaring her candidacy. Are we ready for another white president?
Not that another token Black president would be better. Was it really worth it, having a first Black president, considering he expanded the Neoliberal nonsense instead of curbing it? Why do we now expect a token woman will deliver our hoped-for, bait-and-switched change? Especially from a woman who comes from within the establishment. As with Barack Obama's brief stunt in the Senate, we've had a glimpse of Hillary's record already. It's awful. It's corrupt. Hillary Clinton behaves like she's beyond the law or morality. She's a Neoliberal, Zionist, loan officer for the bankers. I know feminists want a female president. Everyone would like to see a woman in the White House. I don't know any position of authority in which I wouldn't be more confident to see a woman. Maybe even ANY WOMAN except Hillary. How about let's hold a lottery instead of an election. Ladies only. African American women only. Draft Cynthia McKinney 2016.
Stockholm Syndrome becomes Glasgow Syndrome as Scots vote no to self-rule
By now "Stockholm Syndrome" is accepted to be a misnomer, not the behavior but the geographical attribution. But the term fits the Scotish people who have just rejected independence in favor of continued vassalage to the United Kingdom. If Scotland had elected autonomy, Wales might have followed, then Northern Ireland and even England, to pull the rug from under monarchic London, the feudal center of the vampiric British empire. Scotland's "Glasgow Syndrome" proves London is in charge of the UK no doubt about it.
Hillary launches presidential bid in a duck barrel. Hard choices? Not peace.
It would appear eternal candidate Hillary Clinton has launched her presidential bid into a barrel of ducks. She's titled her campaign bio HARD CHOICES. Let's see... Doing the right thing? Not really a hard choice. Favoring human rights? Not a hard choice. Peace? Social Justice? Humanity? Morality? These are not hard choices. For a warmongering sociopath, ok, impossible. Jailing bankers or war criminals? That should be no choice at all. For an informed public, rejecting another oligarch figurehead, even in the guise of electing a woman president, should not be a hard choice.
Yes All Women except Hillary 2016 No
Are women under attack? Recent attacks on women's rights look more like straw men for feminists to stress their underrepresentation in the power structure. While the inequality is ever present, social engineers appear to be positioning women's rights as the wedge issue to divide the electorate in 2016 and insure the two corporate parties are choice enough. Yes all women, except Hillary in 2016.
If we want a first lady to become the president we can do better than Hillary
Can Chris Christie pretend he doesn’t know MOTIVE for extorting Fort Lee?
Commenting on televised politics is as meaningless as speculating about developments on reality TV. Since the Christie bridge debacle purports to effect which presidential candidate gets voted off the island, it might be worth at least delving where the talking heads are not. Of course Chris Christie's office engineered plausible deniability for their boss with the bridge blocking scheme, but Christie would certainly know WHY pressure was being brought to bear on Fort Lee. Christie's lack of curiosity on the matter betrays an untruth. If his mea-non-culpa had digressed to speculate about a motive, he would have exposed himself to being caught lying. Was the Washington Bridge closure in retribution for the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, not giving his endorsement? Was it retribution for a Democratic senator obstructing the state legislature? Retribution does seem petty. I think there's a stronger likelihood this was not retribution, but extortion, about a yet unmentioned political goal. Especially as Sokolich professes not to know why the governor's office acted why it did. What would be the point of retaliating if your mark didn't know why? A second clue is that now the mayor has accepted governor Christie's apology, still without asking why. When Christie's chief of staff emailed "It's time" to disrupt the traffic in Fort Lee, it's unlikely any of the players were in the dark about what that time was.
Letter to Michael Moore, indelible hero, retrograde Occupy Obama supporter
Dear Michael, I write you as a longtime, enthusiastic fan, and please pardon me if the deference and affection I'd like to convey have been overcome by my shock at your recent emails. My question may sound rhetorical, but I would really like to know: what the hell compels you to shill once again for Barack Obama? Beside the campaign pablum. When you visited Occupys across the country, including ours in Denver, I defended you to friends who dismissed you as the usual shepherd's crook for the Democratic Party. No no no I assured them, he gets it. But did you? We weren't protesting eight years of Bush followed by an ineffectual Obama, we were protesting Obama and the economic system under his watch. We weren't protesting the Democratic Party being insufficiently adversarial to the Republicans, we were protesting the corporate party system, the Democrat face being the more two-faced. Most significantly, while our anger was vented at Wall Street, the repression we were dealt, and which dissenters continue to suffer, came directly from the agencies of President Obama. Yet now you presume to accuse the same audience of cynicism about the election, and urge us to support Democrat Obama, the wolf in sheep's clothing, out of fear of the Big Bad Wolf, as usual Republican. Maybe as the election draws to a climax you've become privy to an unseen power struggle you need to tell us about. Because it's at odds with your earlier giddiness with Occupy. Then your enthusiasm was unclouded by your pragmatism today. Please do tell, because Mitt Romney seems more a sheep in wolf's clothing to me. He's a cartoonish straw man villain spouting wedge-issue threats to scare us crows from lighting upon the real corporate agenda. The banking kleptocracy doesn't care about gay/women's rights except to restrict all rights, the easier to pursue its grand thefts. If the GOP had wanted to pick a winner, I'm certain the average doctor or teacher you come across everyday would have made a more suited contender. Could the GOP have chosen a greedier more callous thug, who didn't pay his taxes, tainted by so much scandal that a new one emerged every day to titillate and offend? Obama had to sluff the first presidential debate because they'd chosen such an unbelievable, lame duck opponent that the ratings threatened to tank. When the Neocon Washington Post endorsed President Obama, I knew the stooge from the ringer. The empire would be screwed without Obama to placate its victims. As Glen Ford argues, Obama may appear the lesser evil, but he's the more effective evil. He'll sell what arrogantly-white Romney never could: more war, austerity, privatization, fossil fuel. Without Obama, the global populace would push back. I don't favor a Romney win, but for another reason than you. A Romney presidency would mean another cycle of voter outrage, with MoveOn once again rallying Democrats, as if they were any different, and you probably among them. But the election is not even going to be close. The six billion
If President Obama is not reelected, the US empire’s happy face is screwed
NOT A BIG IF. Who else can dictate austerity, deal justice with drones, and spout mendacious doublespeak without rousing a backlash?
For Presidential Debate No 2, your reflection on television is dumber than you appear
If Mitt Romney's candidacy serves one purpose, it's to highlight what fools Americans have become. Without question, Romney shows his supporters to possess a thinking deficit virtually unfathomable. But more dispiriting, Romney's opponents run from him like Team Scooby Doo from a masked ghoul, Saturday after Saturday never wiser. Tonight's second presidential debate was no exception, with Romney contriving ever more spookier hogwash, to an audience and media taking it seriously. As a result tonight, people who otherwise pretend to know better were cheering for a "clean coal" fossil fuel president who's "all about pipelines" because they're afraid of a GOP foil who can't prove he'd be better than Bush. If tonight's town hall questions were vetted, can we not guess they were also ordered? Two subjects, the so-called Libya debacle and Anyone-but-Bush, seemed pedestrian enough to boost the illusion of reality television, but suited campaign camps rather equitably. Are we to believe Romney was left to improvise deficient answers? Any middle schooler could disprove Romney's math, but that's probably more schooling than we can attribute to the corporate media's pretend audience. The public, polled to believe they're as dumb as the level to which pundits condescend, think they have to chose a lesser of two color-coded evils. Most people, uncomfortably above the charade, are given to conclude that America's foolish public could never govern itself, demand a responsive leader, or even crawl unaided from a paper bag. And that's to confuse reality for television. Next, illustrious talking heads pronounce the winner. NPR had this handicap prepared to suggest a Romney win: it was a tie, but a tie is a victory for the last person in the lead. Then come the fact-checkers, as if a debate is adjudicated based on facts. Are we really to expect that either candidate does not know the facts? A lie on national television used to mean immemorial disgrace.
Two presidential seeking clowns vie at China Bashing contest to delight the US’s White Racist population
Both US corporate parties work hard at whipping up White America's racism, and White racist America loves it. They want to blame a non-White race for the US's economic problems. The US Black community knows this all too well so you will never hear or see the Black community echoing this White American, anti-Chinese blame game. But the US White population is another thing altogether, and the US's 2 corporate politician clown 'leaders' are pre election bashing the Chinese non stop for supposedly dragging White America down. White racist populated America laps the drivel right up. 'Liberals', too, need to bash China to help provide Barack Obomba an excuse for his Pentagon occupying Afghanistan war, front line for the future bipartisan planned war against the evil Chinese hordes, who steal jobs supposedly away from all us e'er so nice USA people. So Yap Yap Yap the 'liberals' growl at China, right beside the likes of Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, and Mitt Romney. ...and when Barack and Joe offer up, together with Mitt and Paul, yet more China Bashing the racist White America public laps it up like they're small kids drinking Pillsbury 'Chinese Cherry funny face drink'! USA! USA! USA!