Election Postmortem Turns Crapfest, Again

There are so many left-leaners self-immolating right now, all this talk of an indivisible resistance is heading straight for that tired old sack of "yeah right" I fear.  

Occupy; enough said.

The right are grabbing media attention for their sometimes hilarious internecine struggles, but fuck those guys. They don't want us and reciprocity dictates not wasting one drop of energy right back at them.


We on the left have a dilemma. It's not as simple as if it were just Bernie/Hillary and the two supposed factions they have left to drag in the wake of 2016. (That has to cease or neither will get a shot in 2018/20.) No, it's that it's Bernie/Hillary and the two factions they have left dragging on and on in the wake of 2016.

Realizing that, you'd think the Democrats could arrive at a wider consensus without incentivizing third or splinter parties. And you'd be wrong. Four wheel low range might not be enough for that hill.


Speaking of fours, I've been thinking about how well our two party system has lived up to the framers' disdain for political parties. Republicans and Democrats agree only to keep the fight between them, and the rest is pretty much up for grabs each contest.

I drew a little diagram to help me make a point about fours having to get political as twos. I used Cartesian coordinates with an "x" and a "y" axis and will admit up front that choosing suitable opposites to juxtapose, without relying on the words Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative was a project unto itself. The savvy reader could no doubt find better.

The conservative/liberal dichotomy is hackneyed times infinity. I chose libertarian/progressive to run the gamut from limited government to a commonweal with subsistence and good health an entry-level birth right. 

The "y" axis is meant to strip the financing of government from the confusion which years of co-option of language has left muddy at best. The free-spending end refers to willingness to increase the debt; it would be a matter of such importance. The penny-pinching end budgets to pay down the national debt while adding nothing in deficits.

Democrats picked a bad time to be thrashing about for a consistent principled identity. Ben Ray Lujan of my former state (the Bill Richardson seat) sent shock waves through the keepers of the flame by suggesting pro-life candidates might find shekels in the party's coffers. I say let there be those zones of the Venn diagram we'll just stipulate. We don't want them. 

Which is why every time a perceived slight is voiced by one of the two drags in the wake I scream. 

The roman numeral quadrants are populated by points, placed by each registered party member from progressive free-spending to progressive penny-pinching in the Democrats camp. For me, the two quadrants of a libertarian bent, I think we can do without. I'd put Rand Paul and his daddy in III and the Kochs and their ilk in IV.  Because, boy howdy, they will gladly not tax nor spend on the one hand, or free-spend your taxes right straight into their gluttonous maws. How much of a Democrat is bedfellows with either of those?

Who's at the origin? 

A guy who votes every time, has withholding cover any surprises, pays taxes like everyone, reluctantly but for the greater good, likes the Interstate to the lake, thinks CNN is for the airport lounge, juggles an amazing portfolio of debt but has a decent job, lets people be and wants to be let be, likes football and pie. 

If you're a strategist who wants to poach that for your whiteboard, substitute freely: skin pigmentation, ethnicity, gender and the rest; but essentially the area around the cross-hairs are by definition reachable to any political party with shiny objects.

The Democrats, if there's to be an outreach or an embracing, might consider putting the emphasis on shared progressiveness. As if the arc of America hadn't lost its mind starting in 80's. 

The cleft left by the culture wars is stronger than any disagreement over "tax and spend" which is the other side's framing. So fuck that. Yes, we tax. Yes, we spend. The Republicans are doing it right now. And the culture wars were often smoke and cover for plutocracy, so double fuck that.

Are Democrats going to patiently and without snark make the case to the purists within that given an infinity of revenue such and such? It ain't happening, with all due respect. And to the "your father's Democrats" a word of caution. These kids who are no longer kids really have something. They can find the north star from inside the tent. And those who are Bernie's age, you know, 39, it's gotta seem like it's about fucking time to them. They can probably say "government without sausage making" in Latin.

You don't get your own facts but you do get your own reality. Mine says we're on the same team, though I voted for she who must never make a speaking fee. 

I'll put myself to the outer margins of progressive but I have to confess to hugging the axis. Another great band name.

A guy who votes every time, has estimated payments cover any surprises, pays taxes like everyone, reluctantly but for the greater good, standard deductions, thinks news media sell soap - journalists report on the day's events, juggles an amazing portfolio of cats and meal planning, lets people be and wants to be let be (although vive la resistance hawh hawh), likes Premier League football and Serrano peppers.

I've thought for a while that those voices of re-hash, from both drags in the wake, might just be troll-bot-pranksters from a parallel reality, but judging by the screaming and yelling it's probably genuine animosity.

And that's why I'm putting Descartes before the hoarse.

Bits from the Dustbin: Part 1

time-stamped by flickr upload on February 27, 2015

Okay, Who Let the Harpies Out?

time-stamped by flickr upload on June 16, 2015

Now with Even More Tяump

time-stamped by flickr upload on January 31, 2016

My Cat Wrote That

Reason - What a Concept!

" … there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign, but I can always speak for myself - and the Russians, zero." -D.J. Trump-


When words are applied in Orwellian ways, one may freely parse.

Also, if there were a sin tax on his syntax, he'd owe so much money. Believe me. A lot of good folks are saying this.


He categorically denies any collusion but qualifies it in such a way that anyone who is hurled under the bus as a stopgap measure anytime in the future will have blindsided him with their violation of trust, such as. We'll have to see if that's resolved by season three, god help us. Meanwhile: a tweet?!

We're told there are people still believing one word from this man. I don't get it, but I'm an unapologetic sentient.

Better healthcare with lower cost (campaign trail) has become repeal the ACA with no forethought or afterthought (something to chew on over the long holiday weekend). Promises to 'replace with something much better' has morphed into a predicted 32 million put squarely back into that haves and haves not situation like the before-time as the haves dip into this new pool of money as if it were their entitlement.

Is it a game among them to clear the most loot each year? 


So what do we do about it? Republicans have a branding problem, but hardly as damaging as if Coca Cola had stuck with New Coke. They have that ability to react to anything you put to them or that befalls them such that they always mount a comeback. One year's Heritage Foundation idea to derail universal coverage (Hillary-Care) has become that pot of money which can be raided, post-demonization.

Just as with Trump's cohort, Republicans' self interest is gratifying their donors under the guise of something terrific that you're really gonna love because freedom. They have resented Franklin Delano Roosevelt with the institutional memories of elephants.

So there's one thing we could do about it: put them in a chain gang and parade them through the FDR Memorial. Panel by panel. Sculpture by sculpture. Written in that green patina that will never accompany their legacies: “We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”

One could argue we now have both.

The savvy reader has fleshed out thing 2, 3, 4 and 5 by now because, you know, sentience. Though I'll bet a week's wages they involve actual meanings for words.


Here in Oregon, I'm lucky to have a triumvirate  of representatives who vote as I wish them to. It's fruitless and also a denial of service to try to reach the office of anyone else, so I don't. We can only hope those skeevy ones who fill up those committee rooms in 3 banks of 17 get an earful from within their constituencies. And sooner is better.

If the recent town halls were as foreshadowing and genuine as they felt from afar, falling in line with leadership may no longer seem so attractive as 2018 looms. It's a long slog to wait for 'Republican' to be seen as toxic as 'New Coke' to the once loyal voter base, but fear of it may be the only tonic.

Factor in as well that this whirlwind of self-interest isn't meant to include us, so if any one of you says this assault on the republic, domestic or foreign, has some merit here or there, I'm calling Stockholm Syndrome.

Correlating Anti-Intellectualism with Ignorance

It's a science thing

I'm going to do something this Saturday that I haven't done since the Vietnam War days. I've got my sign and we will make our way to the county courthouse by 1:00. After a half hour of rallying, as folks get parked and form a random file line, there's a march toward campus and then back to the city's Central Park for a lengthier rally. Not having an area of scientific expertise to add to the demographic, I registered as a "science enthusiast." Happy Earth Day and long live the scientific method.

See you there

"Originalists" Subvert Framers' Text

All Roads Lead to Kent State

 

"They" have too much invested

It's not that we tax. It's not that we spend. But if you lump them together, whoa, boy howdy you got yourself an epithet. If you're so disposed.

As many the savvy reader might recognize from experience, there's a blend of disbelief and PTSD in the days' events. This just in: to save just shy of 34B (with a B) annually, "they" are going to throw north of 24 M (7.5%) citizens back to the dark ages of everything the ACA tried with some success to remedy.

When what would make it even better, if one were so disposed one must hastily add, is removing profit motive from health care, period.

Like in the civilized nations.


So will Trumpites hire a Blackwater/Academi type goon squad to handle the inevitable protests in the streets, growing in number exponentially as all but a select few exceptions within the demographics gets the message that they've been had? Will it be the National Guard doing Trump's dirty work?

Hey Paul Ryan: why so rammy crammy down our throats overnight in a brown paper sack, huh? You will pay for this anyway someday, unless you try to take away the vote, then god save the republic. (Wait - you already do. I forgot.) Rephrasing c-a-l-c-u-l-a-t-i-n-g ... unless you try to take away the vote from consequential citizens. Ones whose civilization can't be replenished with someone else's babies.*

"They" have too much invested in controlling the conversation. Steve King is protected by the "calling someone a racist is racist" amendment to the LaPierre/Norquist Accords of 2010? you might ask yourself; and the sad truth is: yes. Immune as a racoon with a macaroon in a spittoon. (Put in a way which will give those with a vested interest in recording the events of the day at the White House the chuckle they so eminently crave.)

MAYDAY
There is a hostage situation in the suspension of disbelief department.

"They" ought to stop speaking for "all Americans"  

Let's review. With a 42.1% tally, non-voters won the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton convinced 27.9% of eligible voters to vote for her, while Donnie Tic-Tacs'^® 26.7% was the yugest, most terrific, ever. Many people still bring it up to curry favor. The Republican Party, in its ambition to enact today and damn the torpedoes, has tipped its hand. It still speaks for greed and has a not insignificant following which believes its slice will come along soon. The rest are r-u-b-e-s. (76 tromb...so many rubes.)

So 73.3% of folks aren't invested in what they're told the emperor is wearing if he's naked. They will call a naked emperor a naked emperor.

Trum-ku

Mussolini pose
Look, I Sharpied^® up a storm
Sign, sign, sign, sign, sign



*
Steve King ✔ @SteveKingIA

Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies. https://twitter.com/v_of_europe/status/840724494113206272 …

10:40 AM - 12 Mar 2017 · Iowa, USA

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I Wear My Own Kind of Hat

Pledge Allegiance to the Republic

Vive la Résistance! (hawh hawh)

no pretending you'll come back and get it later, 'kay?

PREMISE: We Get to Take Back One Word

 

Friends Railing at the TV Machine is Like a Warm Binky

The resistance is to be waged on many fronts simultaneously, not roam from this lion-killing-happy dentist over here to some ruthless African warlord there, from an emotionally charged faith in the best ideas, to being played for chumps by false-flag trolls; sequential interest in the body politic by meme and hashtag is over.

Or it needs to be, pronto.

Because the change you can't whip up in just one election cycle is 'job one' after a crushing turn of events such as we have witnessed. I reflect on election 2016 first and foremost with the thought of what was the McGuffin in the room?

Period, to borrow some Sean Spicer. To suggest a word to put back in the lexicon from where it has been co-opted, just one, it is to have a wish list too big for the frame.

The candidates were as different as a good education with a public life of service to boot and Chance the gardener melding with high society as it re-named him Chauncey. Words from the campaign will have their day, even losing any prophecy, but it's always going to be uphill to reach the half who couldn't care less about voting. Silent Majority (my aunt Fanny) is too many words for the premise, and not eligible for any further co-option than its original meaning and utility.

 

So It Wasn't "Silent Majority?"

When looking back, pick a story line; then follow it from birth to death. Like how the president with an asterisk would scuttle any reportorial probe into his once rabid birther-ism. This was 2015, sweet Jesus, and he laid down the formula with an "excu-u-use me" here and a palm push there.

Why did Katy Tur of MSNBC back down from her line of questioning? The tapes are there. Men gone to Hawaii - amazing what they were finding - and now it's bluster, space invading and interrupting?

There's a really good one word hiding in this and countless similar anecdotes: access.

It extends throughout the entire campaign. End on an up note when you can. A "leave it right there" is as good as a "thanks for coming on" to a Chuck Todd wannabe. You'll always be welcome to repeat this monkey show whenever. However, that one word access isn't nefarious for its semantics; we can undo the reliance on it without the discipline required for a quitting smoker's triggers - just stop coveting it, for crying out loud.

 

Your Editor Has Stopped Giving You the Stretch Sign

A word more co-opted than even journalism which can often mean one-time journalists now employed by media is the one I want back.

Don't call anyone reporter without two sources and an editor.

It's a little like two wraps and a hooey to my country cousins, because the judges (We, the People) will disqualify you without it. That's the word I want nobody to trespass. Not Frank Luntz, not Joe Scarborough, not Breitbart/Bannon, not a single member of a press corps more aptly referred to as a media gaggle.

Journalism, irrespective of the crap we're supposed to accomodate in the name of the modern, the hip, the happening, is built from reporting. Bra ads are down the hall to the left, but in here, editors are at work corralling reporters into honest reporting. We need that, he said with the understatement of a much older and crankier old dude.

Now the confusion comes with this here media thing. Trumps says media dishonest. Well, some might just be. But I don't give a crap. Media got us here, true, but they have no power to get us back. Only to sell us more soap, got me? Only facts will suffice and good humor enough not to hold a grudge. One is the province of an institution with a constitutional mention; the other is evidence of the need to be placed in one.

For the facts, you had better seek out a reporter. (Ask your grandpa.) When it comes to the other, try not to go viral, 'kay?  

Now with More