Stop Me Before I Vote Again

I'm sure they will be back to the "lesser of two evils" routine shortly. This asshole DD needs to expand his reading list. He cites the fucking Huffington Post and ABC in the very first paragraph then wins the trifecta with the NYTimes.

That would be true to form. Get out in front of discontent, fan it a little, then stop abruptly just at the point where something meaningful could take shape.

Yup this looks like claim staking by the Trojan horse brigade

Even if this particular tongue wags with conventional sincerity

The site is pure Trojan Horse shit

Leading a movement
Crying

hands off our earned entitlements

Will in time and under press amped yahoo battering

become

A fair play for social security committee

One needs to speculate some

But

imagine you face a solid majority preference
for single payer
Higher and earlier social security payments
Higher minimum wages etc etc
Like this poster enumerates

Perhaps you can defy it
But maybe it's better to betray it
With cheap promises Full of side exits
To protract the Roosevelt legacy
Nicely combined with frenzied gestures toward a horrific ghoul led alternative
Already celebrating while
Urinating on the white house door

Re Ryan, liberal "logic":

"Ryan will cut Medicare."

"But Obama wants to cut it too."

"Yeah, well, it does need to be cut. Costs are unsustainable, you know."

Two representative comments here:

Too many of us focused elsewhere–until it was too late and the Christian fundamentalist crazies took over America. So this time I’m paying more attention–late as usual, but maybe there’s still time to head off the worst that’s yet to come...

I agree in part with your sentiments. However, let's be clear here–the left is dead as a political force and unlikely to resurrect–does anyone really disagree with that? The reasonably egalitarian moves the United States has made since TR (in fits and starts) is not going to continue. The people no longer want that kind of society–their vision and desire, it appears, is to live in some form of authoritarian and/or neo-feudal state and both parties are supporting that movement. We will have masters–democracy will subside and be gone fairly quickly at least as a fact–the illusion and the appearance will continue for a while longer. The question now is which masters are going to own us? I prefer the more civilized masters who at least recognize science, culture, art, logic and so on–at least to a degree. The other party is the party of nihilism, tribalism and anger directed at the victims of predatory capitalism around the world. That is the difference. I'm not sure I can manage to vote for the more civilized party but there is a real difference between both parties–particularly now–it matters who wins in November quite a lot.

Sk

The second passage is the triumph of the old line
The mission of philosophy is not to change the world it's to mis undertand it

The first passage might go any number of ways
Some even put the ball in fair territory

Last time I checked, the only people who were fully mobilized to protect their social democratic entitlements to the point of almost physically assaulting elected representatives --- and surely scaring the shit out of them --- were town-hall Tea Partiers defending Medicare. The left mocked their rallying cry, KEEP YOUR GOVT HANDS OFF MY MEDICARE, rather than hail, and emulate,, their insurrectionary zeal. If the left is indeed dead, it's because we have lost the will to scare anybody. The commenter's defeatism is self fulfilling.

Couldn't mantra of the "party of nihilism, tribalism and anger" chanted with metronomic frequency every few years itself be "a kind of solution"?

sk, my thought: FUCK the lesser Evil bullshit, Evil is Evil. ... Of course the UZ (et al, in other countries) have an ancient history of ‘educating’ otherwise, and requiring persons to bow to that lesser Evil concept in order to stay afloat and make coin, particularly in the skoolz and on the jawb.

(and okay, I'll hold my nose and jump in those attributed to SAPPY pink 'female's waterz ... on a predominately 'male' (as in ying or yang, I can never remember which is which, and both energies have their equal advantages and disadvantages) place: ... We hope you're okay Michael and Al, we've missed you, Owen showed up yesterday, or the day before, so we know he's at least alive (though he might have had the decency to cue those of the rest (AND THAT IS CERTAINLY: NOT ONLY THE SAPPY femalez!) that ya'll are okay ....fuckin assholes ...., i'm kidding. (not!) )

Comrade SK, my first reaction to the two samples you posted above was, these guys are on crack! Blaming the Christian fundamentalist crazies for the mess we call America is too simplistic and absolves the guilt of the silent majority that supports the atrocities of the empire within and abroad. The second commentator is only right in his assertion that the Left is dead. There is no opposition in America, organized or otherwise. His justification for the Democrats as the guardian angels of science, art, culture, and logic is a classic case of Cognitive Dissonance. And yes, I agree with you that the mantra itself is a solution.

It's a given that every four years we elect a government that is worse than its predecessor, Democrat or Republican. Knowing that Obie 2.0 would be by far worse than its debut release, do I really give a shit if Romney wins the election? No. As crazy and perverse as it sounds, I would actually enjoy the specter of him loosing to Mitten. Certainly a small penance for the miseries he's brought upon us and the rest of the world.

Of course in this life one never can be sure about tomorrow, as Cockburn's recent departure reminds us. But to offer some small hope to those in their first cycle at SMBIVA, August is yachting season for MJS.

He may be becalmed somewhere in L.I. Sound hoping for some wind to take him to Maine. That has been the trend for several years. Sometimes he makes it and sometimes he don't.

Usually there is an announcement of his departure, however.

Al is probably doing another summer refresher on counter-revolutionary suppression at Dzerzhinsky U.

But, who knows? It could be they are just bummed out about Madonna's take on l'affaire 'Pussy Riot'.

Suggestion: Start your own scrap here and have fun, like girls just wanta.

thanks, Boink. I did check back, before my comment, as to prior breaks taken; at least to last year, where, as you noted, the departure was announced.

And yeah, as you imply also, recent unexpected, back to back events, tend to cast shadows.

As far as scraps go, I did momentarily scrap with Owen, the other day, directly below, but he's chickened out from replying.

Al is probably doing another summer refresher on counter-revolutionary suppression at Dzerzhinsky U.

These seminars tend to be deadly dull, but they let me deliver a keynote lecture on ice axes. The demonstration was a crowd pleaser.

Well said, compañera Merkin. Cognitive dissonance levels tend to be high in Empires in their late phase. Certainly a lot higher than they were during reign of, say, Eisenhower. As for culture, that rare filmmaker of integrity, JLG who knew '2 or 3 things' about its instrumental uses was on to something:

What I want above all is to destroy the idea of culture. Culture is an alibi of imperialism. There is a Ministry of War. There is a Ministry of Culture. Therefore, culture is war.