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ZooeyModerator
May 27, 2020 at 11:07 am in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #115359ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModeratorI’m sorry to hear that, Jack. It’s tough, I know. You will always have the memories of her, though, and they will someday make you smile.
ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModeratorKrystal said the leftist movement was ‘on the cusp of victory…’
But it wasn’t. It was a mirage. The only reason Bernie won so many states early was the Corporate-Neolibs had spread out their votes among all those Corporate-Dems.
As soon as the game got down to Corporate vs Bernie — Corporate dominated.When you add up the Corporate-Dems and the Corporate-Rightwingers…..how big is the ‘progressive left’ really?
All ya haf to do is count that actual, real-life, real-left national office-holders. There’s AOC. There’s Bernie. And a few others.
A handful. Christ there were more leftist officeholders in the 1920s.
Ah well.
Granted, as Noam noted, the left has made some agonizing, slow, progress. Medicare For All is not anathema among the Dems anymore. As far as i can tell…thats about it. Thats what we got, after all these years. That much.
w
vBernie may have won if the corporate Dems hadn’t all bailed and rallied around Biden. If the field had stayed spread out through Super Tuesday. If Pete and Amy and Mike stayed through Super Tuesday, Sanders would have won more delegates than anybody else, and had the appearance of inevitability. But…yeah. He probably still wouldn’t have had the majority of delegates, and they still would have screwed him at the convention. But it would have been a lot harder to sabotage him if he had made it that far.
It is really amazing – and discouraging – to see that the Democrats are more energetic and effective at fighting the progressives than they are at fighting Republicans and Trump. I think that is the most depressing takeaway of the entire Sanders story. Democrats have completely moved into the traditional Republican camp, and Republicans have become Fascists, and there is almost no FDR Democrats left. The unions are basically washed up and sold out. The politicians serve Wall Street. The only trace of liberal compassion left is in identity politics and marijuana laws. That’s it. The only progressive accomplishments since the Civil Rights Act are the legalization of gay marriage and the legalization of pot in a handful of states. Oh…and gays can serve in the military. Sort of.
That’s it. In the past 50 years, that’s it.
Every other political sphere has regressed. And the courts are being stacked with assholes to lock up the next 40 years.
It was nice knowing ya, wv. I hope Armageddon is good to you.
May 23, 2020 at 7:15 pm in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #115256ZooeyModerator
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I dunno though. I think the Corporate-Media would smear a leftist Veggie like Cauliflower.
They would get behind processed meat, I think. Or maybe Wheaties.
w
vSure, but they don’t take the cauliflower threat seriously yet. Besides, processed meat has consensus backing among the power establishment.
ZooeyModeratorhttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/textbook-investigation-climate_n_5ec6d26dc5b69106a7355661
Do you think this ^^^ doesn’t lead to skepticism?
ZooeyModeratorAs an example you mentioned McCarthyism and the red scare. I don’t think for a minute that was orchestrated by corporate capitalists who sat down and said lets get the American public to be frightened because it will mean more $ for us.
Chomsky’s argument is that nobody has to do that. People have inherited a schema for their world from a variety of sources – family, school, church, whatever – and that they are already conditioned to respond in predictable ways.
There ARE people who do that kind of thing, though. You must certainly recognize that the Koch brothers and several of their peers have spent a good deal of money on shaping public opinion. They’ve created Think Tanks and PACs with lofty sounding names, funded chairs at universities, and so on, all to give credibility to the horseshit philosophies and “science” that enable them to make more money.
So…it’s both self-perpetuating and manipulated at the same time.
May 23, 2020 at 11:00 am in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #115233ZooeyModeratorMay 23, 2020 at 10:58 am in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #115231ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModeratorFDR.
And Sanders basically matches his policy positions, though being more modern, Sanders would include minorities in his programs from the beginning.
ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModeratorI don’t think you can separate Americans from the media stew they grow up in. Their ignorance, apathy, and short attention spans are deliberately cultivated and exploited.
And I don’t think there was a time in American history where that wasn’t true. It may be worse now, but the powers-that-be have been massaging the message since the beginning. Part of it is that many people today realize that things are not always what they are told, but to them the lies are only coming from the group they don’t identify with. They cling to and vehemently defend the propaganda that fits their own word view, and dismiss out of hand any alternatives as fake news.
The saturation level is much higher now, both on TV and the radio, and the message is more consolidated. And I think the message is more proactive now rather than reactive.
May 21, 2020 at 1:44 am in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #115145ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModerator’m not saying it addresses your notion. Just something I thought was interesting.
It doesn’t because I’m not saying poor people are having more children. I’m saying the raw selfishness and lack of interest in current issues has to do with parents-wealthy or poor. IMO those parents who are unable to give to their children the elementary nature and value of civics are the ones producing far more children. And in order for democracy to work it needs an informed and curious public. It doesn’t work well if we are for the most part ignorant on the issues in front of us. And corporations will always have their way with the ignorant.
Well, I agree with wv that this is a systemic failure, not an individual failure. I blame this factor – this ignorance and apathy – on the media, and in particular to the dismantling of the Fairness Doctrine. There is a straight line from there to these conditions. Another major driver, imo, is the profit motive in the news media. It is no accident that the consumers of NPR/PBS are the best informed – factually – on current affairs, and the FOX and MSNBC have the most misinformed audiences. Sensationalism will draw more viewers for longer periods of time, and in depth reporting on issues is discouraged by the profit motive.
I don’t think you can separate Americans from the media stew they grow up in. Their ignorance, apathy, and short attention spans are deliberately cultivated and exploited.
ZooeyModeratorA good friend of our family recently died of COVID-19 in a nursing home in Philadelphia. He and his wife had been my parent’s best friends since I was in my teens. Our families vacationed together in the Outer Banks every summer. He was a kind and fun-loving man. He was suffering from Alzheimer’s and had been living with his son’s family, but he started experiencing “Korean War” flashbacks accompanied by a lot of screaming. He was frightening his son’s small children, and not knowing what else to do, they put him in a nursing home. I had not seen him in years, but from what I have heard, Alzheimer’s had taken the man I used to know. He no longer existed. What was left was a frightened, tormented, shell of his former self who didn’t know where he was and didn’t recognize anyone around him. Perhaps this is one case where COVID-19 was a blessing.
Oof. Alzheimer’s is the worst, I think. What meaning does life have if memory is destroyed, and the personality becomes tempest-tossed? That’s tough.
ZooeyModeratorWelcome to the Slough of Despair.
Bash on, regardless.
ZooeyModeratorI want to clarify the comment “I am afraid that many Liberals are blind to this. They think these people won’t ‘go that far.’”
I think that rich people are totally fine with wiping out the much-talked-about Middle Class.
They don’t need middle class people. I think liberals tend to overestimate the degree to which their interests align with the wealthy. A lot of Democrats worry about Sanders going too far with his social policy because they instinctively worry that it will cost them something, that they will lose privileges of some kind. They kind of feel like they shouldn’t fight for these things.
They think the system needs tweaking. They don’t realize that the wealthy want THEIR slice of the pie, too.
They are coming for pensions and all health care. They want everything commodified. And I don’t think many middle class people see what they’re going to do to them.
ZooeyModeratorOkay. Leaves out the “radical disregard for national laws and domestic lives.”
I think people are deluded who think that these contemporary conservatives have some kind of sense of noblesse oblige to their own countries. They don’t. They are actively pursuing wealth and power and KNOW that the consequence will be increased squalor.
They don’t care about us. At all. They have said so. McConnell has repeatedly stated in public that they are coming for Social Security and Medicare if Trump is re-elected. These people are quite clearly comfortable saying the quiet parts out loud now. They are comfortable with the knowledge that many people in this country can see plainly that they do not serve the interests of the bottom 90%.
I am afraid that many Liberals are blind to this. They think these people won’t “go that far.”
They will. They are. They are throwing people back to work without proper protections, and passing legislation to prevent the ownership class from liability. People are disposable. They have calculated that a million dead people won’t drive up the cost of labor, and they all know that AI is coming anyway, so there are going to be too many people. Sharing resources with them plays no part in their plans for the future.
ZooeyModeratorCongratulations, grandpa. I hear it’s a good gig.
ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModerator
ZooeyModeratorThere were not as many holes last year, but Gurley didn’t pop through the ones that were there. It’s too bad. He had HOF talent on blasted knees.
May 11, 2020 at 2:39 pm in reply to: the one-shot tweets thread (diff'rent stuff, funny angry interesting) #114807ZooeyModeratorWhen Donald Trump starts gasping and wheezing from COVID-19, I’m going to make it my ringtone.
— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) May 11, 2020
ZooeyModeratorHoward Balzer@HBalzer721
Orlando Pace rightly stirred up a hornet’s nest when Rams assigned No. 76 to 7th-round pick Tremayne Anchrum. Pace said it “speaks to the disconnect between the organization and Rams tradition.” Well, team has “quietly” changed Anchrum’s number to 72.Saffold wore #76 for years. WTF?
ZooeyModeratorHow can the interests of sociopaths be represented if they can’t hold public office?
I don’t know, Nittany. How can the interests of Seahawks fans be represented if they can’t win the Super Bowl?
ZooeyModeratorOh, fer chrissakes.
I just read the thing, actually paying attention this time.
It’s satire.
I just got so excited because it’s such a great idea.
ZooeyModeratorOkay. So. Dead serious. I have been thinking for YEARS that preventing sociopaths from working in the government is the ONLY hope for humanity, and I just thought it was logistically impossible to do. I am very interested in this.
I wonder if sitting government employees will have to take the test, and what will happen to them if they…you know…pass.
I still can’t imagine this happening in the US because…litigation.
But this is seriously the only hope.
Screw Thailand. Iceland is supposed to be a pretty nice place.
ZooeyModerator“Almost Heaven, Westylvania…”
I heard a John Denver song yesterday, and I got to thinking about our pal. He never brags about John Denver, or pens his praises.
And I figured…it’s prolly because John Denver LEFT West Virginia to go live in Aspen.
ZooeyModeratorMoldy Pesto? Dude, you have to freeze it (basil the plant doesn’t like cold, but Pesto the sauce freezes great).
We retrieved our son form Boston on St Patty’s day. He goes to Northeastern and was doing a Co-op in Boston (still working remote, which is nice, because he is applying all his Co-op income to tuition for the fall). Anyway, he has gone vegetarian on us, but also doesn’t like tomatoes all that much. It is good for all three of us, as we have sort of gone vegetarian too (but every so often, maybe once every two weeks or so, the wife and I will have a burger on the grill or a pulled pork sandwich or something like that. I think I’m going to get some PIE Mussels for Mother’s Day lunch tomorrow). Anyway, I thawed out a half pint of pesto and boiled up a bag of cheese tortellini. So friggin good, we made another batch the very next day.
Oh, we have frozen pesto. Probably a quart of frozen pesto, and I’d guess over a dozen pints of refrigerated pesto, and 22 basil plants (4 varieties, including a purple one) growing in the garden right now. I don’t care if it goes moldy. It’s a way to free up refrigerator space.
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