USA is irredeemable. The Dems are just going to wait for their turn to arrive, because their profession is politics, same as the Republicans, and if they aren't politicians then they are lawyers or pundits.

Bernie Sanders gave a small hint of progressive politics, but Trump captured the Progressive vote for the win. I am 95% sure that he will fall well short of the progressive, conservative, isolationist that he advertised himself to be.

Posted by: aaaa | Mar 12 2017 20:15 utc | 1

Nice of you to clear up things which needs to happen once in a while. Only heard of this Bharara character today and according to the article we are to believe he's some kind of anti-Wallstreet hero who was being persued by boogeyman Trump... but with the Friends of Syria being the enemies of it, the Mainstream media who sold us the fake Iraqi weapons of mass destruction story accusing factual alternative media of being fake news media, Syrian troops being gassed and then the presstitute media telling it's the Syrian troops who are gassing and so on... one knows that what is being said is often the complete oposite.

The kaviar left will continue the loose votes that will go to the far right and as a reaction they take over more discours moving them even further to the right. Some votes will go the real left parties but their significance remains low as most people tend to be lazy and ignorant and prefer to blindly believe what they're spoon fed by the MSM.

Posted by: tal | Mar 12 2017 20:19 utc | 2

This is a great post b. But I think you're advice to the Democrats is misplaced.

The REAL issue for the Left is NOT how bad Trump is, but how the Left has completely failed to hold the Democratic Party to an ethical standard worthy of the mission/movement. So much so, that the institutional Left has screwed themselves along with the people that they say they serve.

That has resulted in bitter former Democrats that will NEVER return to the Party. Sooner or later, it will be clear to everyone that the Democratic Party can not win elections without these fed-up progressives.

The Institutional Left has been begging disgruntled progressives to work within the Party for a decade or more. The recent election of Tom Perez as DNC chair proved that the Democratic Party is not capable of change. They are structurally a part of the money-driven establishment duopoly. Citizens United effectively destroyed representative Democracy in the US.

In this election we found that even progressive leaders like Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein were co-opted. Sanders acted like a sheep-dog, pulling punches ("enough about the emails"), and endorsing Hillary despite Hillary-DNC collusion (NB: many Republicans refused to endorse Trump - Sanders could've followed their lead). And Jill Stein demanded recounts that could only benefit Hillary - mysteriously receiving millions within a matter of days to do so!

IMO The Pirate Party's program for direct democracy is the best alternative. It offers an alternative to money-driven politics that principled and rational people on both the left and right can agree on.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 12 2017 20:32 utc | 3

Dear Americans: the Democratic Party is purely neoliberal, NOT Left!

From Tsipras to Corbyn and Sanders: This is not the Left we want

Posted by: nmb | Mar 12 2017 20:36 utc | 4

The Dems and The Repubs are BOTH austerity mongers. They both want to starve the 99% and wage trillion dollar wars. The spoiler effect induced two party system is what sustains the Deep State.

Of the now literally hundreds of "fancy" voting methods all over the Internet, strategic hedge simple score voting is the only one that specifically enables the common voters to win elections against the two-party empowered Deep State. (All of the many others treat elite interest involved elections as if they were casual "hobby club" elections.)

Too bad we don't have simple score voting. Then we could give between 1 and 10 votes to many candidates. But no votes at all for Hillary the war monger. We might place 8 votes for Bernie (since he is less bad than Hillary (or more accurately, was previously though to be)), 10 write-in votes for Jesse Ventura, and 10 write-in votes for Dennis Kucinich.

Strategic hedge simple score voting can be described in one simple sentence: Strategically bid no vote at all for undesired candidates (ignore them as though they did not exist), or strategically cast from one to ten votes (or five to ten votes, for easier counting) for any number of candidates you prefer (up to some reasonable limit of, say, twelve candidates, so people don't hog voting booths), and then simply add all the votes up.

We must also abolish Deep State subvertible election machines ("computer voting"), and get back to had counted paper ballots, with results announced at each polling station just prior to being sent up to larger tabulation centers.

Posted by: blues | Mar 12 2017 20:38 utc | 5

b.. excellent and timely post.. thank you.. i agree with the title for the most part.. the other part is those who completely give up in the voting process as they see it for the sham it is.. expressing democracy at the ballot box once every 4 years is not much of anything at this point.. either way you are voting for a continuation of corporate rule.. anarchy and rioting in the streets has yet to happen.. the food system, thanks to agri business control is very fragile at present.. if the gov't or people were really worried about their '''security''', they would be examining this very closely to see how badly it has been corrupted, and how much the soil suffers from the vision of short term gain, in exchange for long term pain..

Posted by: james | Mar 12 2017 20:41 utc | 6

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Mar 12 2017 20:47 utc | 7

It Was the Banks

... one cannot defend the actions of Team Obama on taking office. Law, policy and politics all pointed in one direction: turn the systemically dangerous banks over to Sheila Bair and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Insure the depositors, replace the management, fire the lobbyists, audit the books, prosecute the frauds, and restructure and downsize the institutions. The financial system would have been cleaned up. And the big bankers would have been beaten as a political force.

Team Obama did none of these things. Instead they announced "stress tests," plainly designed so as to obscure the banks' true condition. They pressured the Federal Accounting Standards Board to permit the banks to ignore the market value of their toxic assets. Management stayed in place. They prosecuted no one. The Fed cut the cost of funds to zero. The President justified all this by repeating, many times, that the goal of policy was "to get credit flowing again."

The banks threw a party. Reported profits soared, as did bonuses. With free funds, the banks could make money with no risk, by lending back to the Treasury. They could boom the stock market. They could make a mint on proprietary trading. Their losses on mortgages were concealed - until the fact came out that they'd so neglected basic mortgage paperwork, as to be unable to foreclose in many cases, without the help of forged documents and perjured affidavits...

President Obama didn't see this. Or perhaps, he didn't want to see it. His presidential campaign was, after all, from the beginning financed from Wall Street. He chose his team, knowing exactly who they were. And this tells us what we need to know about who he really is.

- Economist James K. Galbraith, currently a professor at the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too.

Obama, covered for, continued, enhanced & extended the crimes & powers of Bush, the alcohol-addled, Jr's 'Imperial Presidency' ... and enabled them for future presidents too. Hence:

"The 4th Amendment ?! You don't get no stinking 4th Amendment Rights, Gringo!"

10 Reasons the U.S. is No Longer the Land of the Free

1. Assassination of U.S. citizens ...

2. Indefinite detention ...

3. Arbitrary justice ...

4. Warrantless searches ...

5. Secret evidence ...

6. War crimes ...

7. Secret court ...

8. Immunity from judicial review ...

9. Continual monitoring of citizens ...

10. Extraordinary renditions ...

...An authoritarian nation is defined not just by the use of authoritarian powers, but by the ability to use them. If a president can take away your freedom or your life on his own authority, all rights become little more than a discretionary grant subject to executive will...

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 12 2017 21:08 utc | 8

Fake left le monde instead of reading the latest wikileaks starts a 5 piece series on russian cyberattacks. No comment and no wonder le pen will ve either president or prime minister

Posted by: Mina | Mar 12 2017 21:16 utc | 9

b. Excellent post. The same phenomenon is occurring throughout the Atlantic Alliance. This indicates that all share something in common. It is the neo-liberal economic philosophy of the Oligarchy who have purchased western politicians, media, think tanks and education and are superseding democracy with corporate supranational rule. Inequality and chaos are hardwired into the current system.

Posted by: VietnamVet | Mar 12 2017 21:45 utc | 10

It's interesting that the Salon piece (essentially the Sanders viewpoint) was written in response to a Vanity Fair piece (the Clintonite viewpoint) that ends with the claim that non-Party members share

. . . the belief that the real enemy, the true Evil Empire, isn’t Putin’s Russia but the Deep State, the C.I.A./F.B.I./N.S.A. alphabet-soup national-security matrix. But if the Deep State can rid us of the blighted presidency of Donald Trump, all I can say is “Go, State, go.”

So that's your Clinton Democrat / McCain Republican viewpoint - aka "neoliberal-neoconservative fascism." Rather tellingly, the Salon piece does not include the world "neoliberal" but just rehashes the stale PR-speak of "liberals vs. conservatives" that dominates mass corporate media in the United States. In reality, policy in Washington is made by politicians and bureaucrats who adhere to neoliberal and neoconservative ideologies and who are really servants of consolidated wealth - the American oligarch class - and their conflicts merely reflect disagreements among the oligarchs; for example do Warren Buffett and George Soros and the Koch Brothers see eye-to-eye on all issues? No, they don't, so their sock puppets like Bush and Clinton have their differences. However, the neocons and neolibs are so close to one another as to be indistinguishable to the average American citizen:

The main similarity between the two is that they have both become known as “technofacists”, meaning melders of corporate, state and military power into a few political elites that allow comprehensive control. The left and the right have marched full circle and met one another.

As blues@5 notes above, fixing the electoral system (paper ballots, ranked-choice voting, voting districts that are coherent regional sectors, not octopus-like, maybe drawn along watershed boundaries, etc.) is a key step in breaking their grip on power.

Another critical issue is using anti-trust to break up the media conglomerates and destroy the centralized propaganda system that controls U.S. corporate mass media, in which a handful of Wall Street-owned corporate monsters dictate what kind of news stories are fed to the American public via television, radio and print journalism.

These reforms seem highly unlikely, however, in the current political environment.

What we probably have to look forward to is more likely continued economic downturn and rising poverty. The deep state and establishment politicians are not likely to give Trump anything, and will probably try to push an economic collapse just to make Trump look bad - not that Trump's policies have much to offer; infrastructure looks dead in the water and at best will look like Iraqi Reconstruction 2.0 under GW Bush and Cheney. We'd need an FDR-scale New Deal to turn that around and neither neocons nor neolibs will ever go for that. Instead we'll likely get infighting and factionalism, maybe a war between Trump and the Federal Reserve, etc.

Honestly given the rot in the federal government it seems the only hope is for states to take matters into their own hands as much as possible and set their own policies on rebuilding infrastructure and creating jobs but the federal government and their oligarchic corporate overlords are pressing down on that as well. One hell of a nasty situation for the American people is what it is, and maybe massive Soviet-scale collapse, and a fundamental change in government (as happened with Putin in Russia post-Boris Yeltsin) followed by rebuilding from the ground up is the only way out of this mess.

Posted by: nonsense factory | Mar 12 2017 21:46 utc | 11

Outraged @8--

For too long, I've pointed out that the detailed list of grievances stated in the Declaration of Independence were currently alive and being carried out by the executive of the US federal government; and that if the Patriots of 1776 were correct to revolt from British tyranny, then the US citizenry was just as right and proper to revolt against Outlaw US Empire tyranny. I expounded that position through the comments at CommonDreams.org until I was banned because they went against that website's support for Obama then the Killer Queen HRC.

At the end of the previous thread, I wrote that society has only one tool to control human behavior--culture--and I've long argued that human culture in the great majority of its societies is dysfunctional and has been for quite some time--in what's now the USA, from the founding of Jamestown onward. My view is the culture has reached a level of dystopia well beyond the ability of anyone to return it to a functional state and find myself agreeing with Reg Morrison--The Spirit in the Gene--that humanity is what's known as a plague species, a conclusion shared by some very powerful minds, https://regmorrison.edublogs.org/1999/07/20/plague-species-the-spirit-in-the-gene/

I don't particularly enjoy reaching such a conclusion given its meaning for my progeny and the remainder of humanity. But unless we--humanity as a whole--can regain control over ourselves through the imposition of a new, stronger--perhaps seen as more ridged--culture capable of suborning vice and desire to a satisfactory fitness for all, then we will reap the results of having grossly overshot our ecological support systems and like other species die-off as Morrison describes. How to accomplish such a radical change in a very short time period given the levels of resistance to such change is really the question of the moment. We know where the root of the problem lies. But uprooting that weed that threatens the garden of humanity presents the greatest challenge to humanity it will ever have to face.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2017 22:23 utc | 12

Rats! Rigid, not ridged!

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2017 22:25 utc | 13

The demodogs will not change any time soon if ever. They the party leaders are only interest taking all the money the can from supporters small and large giving to friends foundations and consultants.

I vote Green.

Posted by: jo6pac | Mar 12 2017 22:28 utc | 14

As an example of our dysfunctional culture, I offer this article as exhibit 1, which explores a microcosm of what's essentially systemic dysfunction amid unbelievable corruption, https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/epa-chief-denies-basic-climate-science

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 12 2017 22:40 utc | 15

It's funny that pseudo-Leftists like Dems, PS, Labour, SD and others don't realize that what Kennedy once said still stands:
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
Which is why it's no wonder many of those on the shitty end of the current neo-liberal take-over are flocking to the few really leftist groups and to the numerous and vast ultra-right parties/movements.
Which is also why trying to keep them out of power at all costs - as happens in Europe, most notably in France - or trying to impeach/oust/coup/kill the elected right-wing populist - as happens in the US right now - is a suicidal move. If that sizable fraction of the population never gets anything, never any part of power, not even a bone to gnaw, sooner or later, they'll just get fed up, and when they'll have barely anything of value to lose, they will go nuts. This, of course, would be even worse in the US than in EU, considering that it's the part of society with the guns, the training to use them, and more or less the will to use them if forced to.
But then, as another US president once said, the tree of liberty must be refreshed in blood from time to time - his one famous quote who's conspicuously absent from the Jefferson Memorial. And when I look closely, I can't see any Western country where this "refreshment" isn't long overdue.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Mar 12 2017 22:44 utc | 16

You're right, b. Dems will continue to bleed out. A good place to see this will be the special election to replace in Georgia's 6th CD Rep. Tom Price, who took the job to be Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary. Daily Kos and ActBlue are shaking the can raising money for a young Dem staffer named Jon Ossoff. Here's the Daily Kos pitch for Ossof:

But while Price might love him some Trump, his district doesn’t feel the same way. In fact, the 6th saw a remarkable shift on election night. Four years ago, voters in this conservative but well-educated area supported Mitt Romney by a wide 61-37 margin. In 2016, however, hostility toward Trump gave the president just a 48-47 win—a stunning 23-point collapse. That dramatic change in attitudes means this seat might just be in play.

The "Women's Strike" on International Women's Day was a dud. The Dems are labeling what they're doing a "Resistance," as if they are fighting a guerrilla war against Vichy. But what they're "fighting" for is really a restoration of Vichy (Trump is more a caudillo) with young corporate-friendly Dems like Ossoff.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Mar 12 2017 23:06 utc | 17

jo6pac @14

Unfortunately, the Greens seem to be hobbled. They can't get past the Democratic FEAR machine. And Jill Stein's recounts reeked of collusion with Democrats.

That's why I switched from Greens to Pirate Party. Direct democracy has appeal to anyone that doesn't want rule by a permanent monied class of neolib cronys.

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 12 2017 23:11 utc | 18

Actually I don't agree that the Left has lost. There's simply a lack of ideas.

The extreme nationalist right goes in the US because geographically isolated. In Europe it is time limited. In UK Brexit has won for the moment, but it is falling apart, because it can't deliver economic success. (more to see). In continental Europe, the extreme right are not gaining in the polls (Wilders, Le Pen), rather stagnating.

Macron, in france, could have the right attitude, oriented to the young. But it could turn bad.

Posted by: Laguerre | Mar 12 2017 23:13 utc | 19

The managed resistance serves corporate interests, just as the ruling party does. Whichever party is in power. Billions of dollars in 1% money and nearly all the media are behind keeping the 'resistance' and the party in power the only two 'acceptable' vehicles for expressing yourself politically.

But it's worse ... The universities are almost entirely populated by identity politics and/or neoliberal 'left' professors, which of course generates brain-fried future leaders and cadres of the two mainstream parties. Such university environments also mean that alternative, real left research and ideas are severely underfunded and legitimized.

But it's worse ... Even the left opposition to the two party system can't bring itself to (or is too scared to) oppose open borders for economic immigrants. Minimizing immigration had always been standard pro-worker position prior to the rise of identity politics in the 1970s.

Posted by: fairleft | Mar 12 2017 23:37 utc | 20

"Real wages sink but they continue to import cheep labor (real policy) under the disguise of helping "refugees" (marketing policy) which are simply economic migrants."
Sorry B, but this is outright bullshit. No country in EU-Europe needs to import cheep labor from not-EU-countries. There are more then enough EU-Europeans in search of better wages. The EU was extended exactly in order to achieve this 'abundance' (o.k. not the only reason). The people you denounce as "simply economic migrants" are not an imported good - they enter the EU against all odds. And many, many are refguees coming from countries ruined by western military interventions.

Posted by: Pnyx | Mar 12 2017 23:52 utc | 21

I don't know why this blog has to be homophobic, but the basic point is valid - class struggle is the meat and potatoes of the Left

Posted by: paul | Mar 12 2017 23:57 utc | 22

Well, if Zero Hedge is anything to go by, in a few years automation will abolish the working class anyway. Then Bill Gates' depopulation scheme will mop up the remnants.

Posted by: Fedya Trezvin | Mar 12 2017 23:59 utc | 23

quote from the book ishmael by daniel quinn..

“The ship was sinking---and sinking fast. The captain told the passengers and crew, "We've got to get the lifeboats in the water right away."
But the crew said, "First we have to end capitalist oppression of the working class. Then we'll take care of the lifeboats."

Then the women said, "First we want equal pay for equal work. The lifeboats can wait."

The racial minorities said, "First we need to end racial discrimination. Then seating in the lifeboats will be allotted fairly."

The captain said, "These are all important issues, but they won't matter a damn if we don't survive. We've got to lower the lifeboats right away!"

But the religionists said, "First we need to bring prayer back into the classroom. This is more important than lifeboats."

Then the pro-life contingent said, "First we must outlaw abortion. Fetuses have just as much right to be in those lifeboats as anyone else."

The right-to-choose contingent said, "First acknowledge our right to abortion, then we'll help with the lifeboats."

The socialists said, "First we must redistribute the wealth. Once that's done everyone will work equally hard at lowering the lifeboats."

The animal-rights activists said, "First we must end the use of animals in medical experiments. We can't let this be subordinated to lowering the lifeboats."

Finally the ship sank, and because none of the lifeboats had been lowered, everyone drowned.

The last thought of more than one of them was, "I never dreamed that solving humanity's problems would take so long---or that the ship would sink so SUDDENLY.”
― Daniel Quinn

Posted by: james | Mar 13 2017 0:00 utc | 24

b - exactly so. Thank you.

On the question of the far right, only if substantial sections of the political spectrum are shut out is there scope for the extremists to come in and fill the gap. That is the danger to a minor degree in England and to a greater degree in Continental Europe, as we are told it was the danger in the Weimar republic. Some precedent, that.

I am not sure about the "populist" movements in Continental Europe but the Brexit vote in England and the Trump movement in America do not, in spite of the almost universal assertion to the contrary, represent a swing to the right, let alone the far right. They represent a return to the centre, a centre that has long been shut out in Western politics generally and that is now tentatively re-asserting itself. It is only if that return to the centre fails that we need fear the Neo-Nazis and the like coming in to fill the gap.

Posted by: EnglishOutsider | Mar 13 2017 0:12 utc | 25

Great post, b. Short and sweet and right on the money.

There's certainly a looming trend. Western Australia's 8 year-old (Turnbull affiliated) Liberal Govt was annihilated at the weekend.
On Saturday night the interim result was:
Labor 39, Liberal 11, Nats 4, unresolved 5.
(39 seats in a 59-seat parliament)
Malcolm Turnbull is pretending to be 'philosophical' about it...

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 13 2017 0:25 utc | 26

the 'left' is a gang of 'middle-class' would-be jacobins, directing 'the masses' while eating cake. there is no left, there is no right, there is a top - the few - and a bottom - the many. as b points out the desperately vocal few are left and/or right, they are on their own side of the top, definitely not on the side of us many on the bottom. their policies create more and more of us every day. they are our fathers and mothers in that sense. we will dance on their graves.

b, please don't say 'pseudo democrats' it sounds too jacobin, like the trots at wsws.org and their constant 'pseudo left'. 'fake' will do for pseudo. and it's two fewer key strokes - three in the same row. stick with the bottom against the top.

write what you want of course ... that's just a rant roiling my gut gaining vent.

Posted by: jfl | Mar 13 2017 0:39 utc | 27

B in case you do not know (I doubt that) "true left" has been murdered long time ago also in Europe where betrayal of working class interests by the so-called mainstream workers parties/socialists, so-called communists and trade unions in the West was fought on the streets in 1968 Paris and all over the Europe and surprisingly it spilled out to eastern Europe in a form of Prague revolt, Warsaw riots and mass strikes that swept across the eastern block in anger of betrayal of workers interests by the ruling socialist workers parties who turned into a calcified cliques and turned against socialist workers movements and ideals of egalitarianism and equality and started selling out to the Western oligarchs.

It was at that time that under the guise of fake political detente first time massive policies of outsourcing jobs from the western Europe to the Eastern Europe commenced (starting with Hungary and Poland and later in Romania where the Ceausescu’s mafia turn away openly from Russian sphere of influence in ideological, economic and political realm) in a ploy to provoke strikes in the West and subsequently shutting down the factories (in fact transferring the production to the eastern block in Europe and/or south America ruled under dictatorships) if demanded by the oligarchs concessions of lowering wages and decrease of benefits was not agreed upon by the Trade Unions.

In other words if Trade Unions did not completely capitulate they close striking factories. Similar tactics have been use in the US under environmental or productivity requirements pretension in 1960-tois and 1970-ties and later openly outsourcing for profits down south Mason-Dickson line parallel and later to Mexico and Asia.

This unified betrayal of working class simultaneously by the West and the East prompted proud vanguard of working class (leftists students of European Universities and some of the trade unions) to respond to the exigent circumstances, to respond to mortal threat to workers movements all over the Europe in 1960-ties and 1970-ties.

These were unsung heroes of last true revolutionary leftist organizations such as ETA, BR, RAF, AD, FLQ (in Canada) who took upon themselves a heroic, revolutionary responsibility for defending vital interests of working people, betrayed by mainstream leftists political parties, via a measured, targeted and restrained self-defense campaign that aimed at threatening and destruction of vital economic and financial interest of European oligarchy including direct assaults on their personal safety and welfare, as a way to, through a personal pain, humanize for them their abhorrent inhumane ways and to make them suffer as working class comrades suffered under their inhuman policies and acts including of violence, intimidation and murder.

This was the last stand of the true left against evil of spawning global neoliberalism that in following decades swept the world with no opposition to speak of left to fight it may be except for neo-Maoist guerrillas in South America and Indian subcontinent. Even anti-imperial Palestinian FATAH has been tamed while Islamic/religious movements have been supported to control leftist tendencies within populations, a consequences of such a cold decision of globalists we live with today.

This was the last stand of the true left in the Eastern and Western Europe against betrayal of the Soviet Union elites, betrayal of the programs and ideals of the international working class struggle they proliferated all over the world.

It was utter betrayal by the descendants of soviet revolutionaries who later transformed the hope for just, socialist egalitarian project into a shallow propaganda façade of a mafia state conspiring with the West to rob their own working people of the national treasure soviet/Eastern Block working class worked hard to produce and preserve for future generations.

The betrayal culminated with a western orchestrated political collapse of Soviet Union while the country was still on sound economic footing despite of cold war military baggage, western embargoes and massive theft of the corrupted party apparatchiks and cronies of Soviet ruling elite in last decade before 1991, in way resembling massive US national treasure theft by US banking mafia especially after 2008.

It is true that true left in US (decades before) and in Europe had to be murdered since it was the last bastion of defenders of working class interests against neoliberal globalist visions of a dystopia under umbrella of US imperial neoconservative rule.

Now voters throughout the world have only two “no choice” choices between full throttle globalist neoliberalism or globalist neoliberalism with national flavor of corrupted Identity Politics of race or nationality, a politics of division to prevent reinsurgency of the true leftist ideology of simple self-defense or working class under assault that naturally brews underneath the political reality of mass extermination and neoliberal slavery.

The call to International Working Class: Proletariat or more appropriately today “Precariat of the World Unite” has not been more appropriate and needed since at least 1848 after collapse of another globalization freed trade sham under umbrella of British empire.

We must unite, and not succumb to a mass manipulation and stay united in solidarity among all ordinary working people who see through provocation and manipulation of identity politics of phony left or phony right and see that they do not have any interest in this fight set up in a way that ordinary people can only lose while cruel inhumane neoliberalism will always win.

Posted by: Kalen | Mar 13 2017 0:45 utc | 28

I contributed to a progressive blog for years until I was finally kicked off for suggesting Bernie was herding progressives into Hillary's tent. I often criticized Obama's foreign policy and the local partisan blogs--when they weren't ignoring the perspective I represented--ridiculed me for being a "conspiracy theorist" when I pushed back against the anti-Russian consensus.

I spent many years working with chronic homeless people in Montana in the "progressive" utopia known as Missoula and when the Democrats that run this town aren't actively making housing more unaffordable with their bonds for parks and endless schemes to gentrify this town into being Boulder, Colorado, they are making symbolic stands against guns and enabling Uber.

now I work with aging individuals and I am learning a lot about the cruel complexity of Medicare and Medicaid. it's already really bad and, sadly, it will only get worse--just in time for the American Boomer generation's silver tsunami to hit entitlement programs.

Posted by: lizard | Mar 13 2017 0:49 utc | 29

I noticed a lot of British Proletariat have moved to the Costa del Sol leaving plenty of job openings for the Polish and Roumanian Proletariat. Not sure if this is a typical European trend.

Posted by: dh | Mar 13 2017 0:53 utc | 30

It reminds me of the attitudes espoused by Ishmael:

“The ship was sinking---and sinking fast. The captain told the passengers and crew, "We've got to get the lifeboats in the water right away."
But the crew said, "First we have to end capitalist oppression of the working class. Then we'll take care of the lifeboats."

Then the women said, "First we want equal pay for equal work. The lifeboats can wait."

The racial minorities said, "First we need to end racial discrimination. Then seating in the lifeboats will be allotted fairly."

The captain said, "These are all important issues, but they won't matter a damn if we don't survive. We've got to lower the lifeboats right away!"

But the religionists said, "First we need to bring prayer back into the classroom. This is more important than lifeboats."

Then the pro-life contingent said, "First we must outlaw abortion. Fetuses have just as much right to be in those lifeboats as anyone else."

The right-to-choose contingent said, "First acknowledge our right to abortion, then we'll help with the lifeboats."

The socialists said, "First we must redistribute the wealth. Once that's done everyone will work equally hard at lowering the lifeboats."

The animal-rights activists said, "First we must end the use of animals in medical experiments. We can't let this be subordinated to lowering the lifeboats."

Finally the ship sank, and because none of the lifeboats had been lowered, everyone drowned.

The last thought of more than one of them was, "I never dreamed that solving humanity's problems would take so long---or that the ship would sink so SUDDENLY.”
― Daniel Quinn

Posted by: Andrew Homzy | Mar 13 2017 2:01 utc | 31

Here's am investgative post that is quite revealing about Snopes and definitely worth a look.

Examining the Bizarre Facebook Page of the Snopes ‘Fact-Checker’ of the White Helmets Terrorist Ruse in Syria

https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/03/04/examining-the-bizarre-facebook-page-of-the-snopes-fact-checker-of-the-white-helmets-terrorist-ruse-in-syria/

Posted by: Liam | Mar 13 2017 2:29 utc | 32

Life isn't gonna get better for those who are not born into a solidly upper middle class family until nation states are downsized. amerika needs to be carved up into 40 or 50 - units maybe even more particularly for the large population seaboard 'states'. The one good thing about the brexit the englander tory government is gonna deliver is that it is likely to cause scots and maybe even ulster-people to leave the union.

I've lived in quite a few nation states over the years and have found that a small population state is far more responsive to the needs of its citizens than large ones - even when a mob of carpet-bagging greedheads has jerry-mandered their way into political power in a small state and an allegedly humanist political entity is running the large state this holds true.

As far as I can discern there are two reasons for this or maybe 2 facets of one reason. Firstly even the rightist greedheads cannot shit on any group be it divided by race gender or sexual preference long term in a small population state. The reason is that in smaller population units people tend to know others better and obvious injustices always reach the ears and consciences of rightist voters - even supporters of racist or sexist asshole governments and it results in a backlash. Humanist pols in large entities fall back on 'pragmatic' excuses about 'perception' at the drop of a hat - no different in action than their 'enemy'.
The second reason is the other end of the first. Because of that degrees of separation thing, when you live in a small population political unit, you find you will always know someone who knows any political aspirant. Those with a rep for being greedy, malicious or deceitful cannot hide behind press spokespeople and bullshit for long - they cop the flick quickly.

I have long believed that this is the real motive for the corporatists to support politicians' incessant centralising & empire building.
Claims about large population groups somehow being more efficient are quickly shown to be false when put to the test of reality. In nature biological systems, even those within large entities are localised and full of seemingly inefficient redundancies because one thing evolution has taught is that a system that has inbuilt alternative modes of survivability will keep the entity alive much longer than some 'simple & straightforward' system whose failure means the death or massive disability of the entity. Corporations themselves tend to be labyrinthine full of small similarly named but legally discrete modules because that is what works best, yet corporations keep underwriting politicians who strive to make their 'entity' bigger, more centralised and 'simpler' - why?

Well because political failure is a capitalist's best ally and of course when a political entity is really large as amerika is, it is possible to deceive all the people all the time. The average citizen is a stranger to any/all of the members of the political elite and as such are entirely dependent upon third party information vectors - the so-called mainstream media who push out whatever deceit their masters instruct them to.

I make the point in this thread because too many people appear to believe that it would be possible to reform the amerikan political system despite the fact that helluva lot have already tried and failed long before they got anywhere near the centre of power.

It just isn't possible because of the simple principle that anyone who is capable of convincing large numbers of people who he/she has never had any personal contact with, to support their 'character', ideas and political objectives is by virtue of their success, unworthy of anyone's vote.

No person can convince that many strangers without resorting to some form of gamesmanship and that makes them a bad choice. There is no way around that reality yet most citizens adopt the usual cognitive dissonace every election cycle and pay no heed to what should be blindingly self-evident.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 13 2017 2:36 utc | 33

Finally!...this is where all mericans eyes and ears has to be, i.e if they still have them...non is so blind as those who refuse to see.Clean your own backyards before commenting on or trying to clean others.

Posted by: Nur Adlina | Mar 13 2017 3:31 utc | 34

b's premise is that disenfranchised voters will go the polls for far right interests under the promise of nationalistic interests and the policy that springs from this. However, I do not believe that they will rue the day for this choice from being squeezed out. The Nazi party ascension was a huge success for bread and butter interests of the common kraut. Autobahn, infrastructure, industry: this nationalism scared the allies enough to go to war with Germany for asserting it's independence and own interests. Are we Weimar Germany? No, no, no. Our military is already to the hilt and yet is being halted in its advance by Russia, Iran, etc. You can't keep squeezing the same lemon and expect more lemonade. The only option for Trump is to invest in America again, period. Anything less or a further downward trajectory will only incite the deplorables more and Trump would be gone after four years, and maybe sooner to the clicking of boots marching on the White House. Something truly unpredictable and unexpected might transpire at that juncture.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Mar 13 2017 3:34 utc | 35

@ nonsense factory | Mar 12, 2017 5:46:22 PM | 11

You said:
/~~~~~~~~~~
As blues@5 notes above, fixing the electoral system (paper ballots, ranked-choice voting, voting districts that are coherent regional sectors, not octopus-like, maybe drawn along watershed boundaries, etc.) is a key step in breaking their grip on power.
\~~~~~~~~~~

Actually, what the "election methods cognoscenti" call "ranked-choice voting" always fails spectacularly. It is quite different than what they call "score voting", which can actually work, if kept simple enough.

Posted by: blues | Mar 13 2017 4:25 utc | 36

@ Debsisdead | Mar 12, 2017 10:36:35 PM | 33

Actually, there is a way around that. If a candidate has a previous "track record" from lower levels of power, then that can usually be relied upon.

Posted by: blues | Mar 13 2017 4:31 utc | 37

Like other people never heard of Preet Bharara. Appears he was called the "Sheriff of Wall Street". Looked up his record and yes, he did not put any banksters in jail. Lots of fines which were tax deductible I believe. Strange Sheriff who has no jail. I would bet he joins a Wall Street legal firm and gets paid six-to-seven figures to defend the banksters.
This is where Wall Street feared Sanders--Bernie appeared to insist the Sheriff's he appointed actually have jails.

Posted by: Erelis | Mar 13 2017 4:41 utc | 38

A safe bet: next wednesday ultra right-wing Geert Wilders will win the dutch elections, after the diplomatic row with sultan-wanna-be Erdogan. And then Marine Le Pen...

Posted by: guy | Mar 13 2017 4:57 utc | 39

In the US, the Democrats and Republicans are two wings on the same bird.
Left wing, Right Wing
The US is a democratic theme park, where the levers and handles are not attached to anything,
whose only purpose is to deceive the masses into thinking that
they make a "difference"

Posted by: Perimetr | Mar 13 2017 5:21 utc | 40

blues | Mar 13, 2017 12:31:00 AM |
Yep they can be relied upon to be corporate slaves for sure I cannot think of a single example over the past 50 years of any amerikan pol who succeeded at a national level, who wasn't a forked toungued corporate shill.
There are plenty of examples of pols whose history at a low level 'seemed OK' - where their occasional examples of perfidy could be dismissed as just having to toe the party line; "Once he's his own man/woman he will really strut his/her stuff for the people" a certain Oblamblamblam comes to mind as the most egregious recent example - when they get in power everyone gets to see what whores they always were. Whores concealing their inner asshole to get into real power. That type of duplicity is much more difficult to pull off in smaller populations - it gets found out and the pol really struggles to get past the bad reputation chiefly because a lot of voters can put a face to the 'victim' which makes the evil palpable.

What I find really odd is the way that even self described lefties who acknowledge the massive evil committed by amerika still seek to evade and/or justify the evil.
It goes to show how brainwashed all amerikans are. I guess they think everyone feels that way - when people who haven't been subjected to that level of conditioning about their homeland actually don't hold that blind 'right or wrong determination. I like where I live now and everything else being equal probably would go in to bat for my friends or family if this country somehow got into a tussle. But I would back off and advocate for the other side in a heartbeat if I felt the nation I lived in was doing wrong.
I was living in Australia when Gulf War 1 kicked off and up until that point I doubt there was a more dedicatedly loyal Australian but the cynical decision to suppoft GH Bush made by the Australian Labor Party just wouldn't wash and without wanting to be accused of the current heinous crime de jour ie virtue signalling, I like many others took a stance against my adopted nation that cost me professionally & personally. This was no great achievement by me, it was easy because I hadn't been indoctrinated into any sort of exceptionalism.
Yet I see the effects of the cradle to the grave conditioning amerikans are subjected to in the posts on virtually any subject made by amerikans.
That of itself makes the destruction of amerika essential, a prerequisite that must be met if there is to be any real change in the amerikan political structure.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Mar 13 2017 5:38 utc | 41

@ Debsisdead who wrote about ".....how brainwashed amerikans are." and
"
What I find really odd is the way that even self described lefties who acknowledge the massive evil committed by amerika still seek to evade and/or justify the evil.
"
I live in the belly of the beast you want to destroy. What exactly is it that I should do to effect your goal? I continue to struggle with knowing that. I also disagree that it is amerika that must be destroyed but the tools of those that control our world.......private finance.

I also want to state to commenter karlof1 that her call for focus on "culture" is exactly what I think I am attacking by wanting to end private finance. And I had the pleasure of studying under an anthropologist for a year and very much appreciate that perspective on our current social maladies. I think that anthropological characterizations of our species are harder to misrepresent than history....hence my reference to tenets of social organization, etc.

We need some adults in the world to stand up to the bastardization of language and communication.

Any form of social organization not based on any type of compulsion is inherently socialistic. If we can agree to socialize the provision of water, electricity, etc. why can't we do the same for finance?

Probably for the same reason we continue to prattle on about right/left mythologies and ignore the top/bottom reality.

Effective brainwashing.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 13 2017 6:10 utc | 42

b, excellent analysis. Amerika is rotten to its core. There are no cures..... just sit and watch on the sideline for these tugs NeoCon, NeoLiberal, progressive etc.. Kill themselves and blames it on Putin.

I hold two valid passports, neither better than the other. Hot frying pans, hot boiling oil?

Posted by: OSJ | Mar 13 2017 6:46 utc | 43

b said.."When LGBT claptrap, gluten free food, political correctness and other such niceties beat out programs to serve the basic needs of the common people nothing "left" is left. The priority on the left must always be the well-being of the working people. All the other nice-to-have issues follow from and after that."

You nailed b, with that one paragraph!!

Posted by: ben | Mar 13 2017 6:50 utc | 44

P.S.- When the microphones are owned by the wealthy, they're the only voices heard by the masses.

Posted by: ben | Mar 13 2017 7:01 utc | 45

41

Private finance... most countries have a reserve bank. Yours has the fed.
Your country has made private money an ideology and tries to export this ideology around the globe. The opposite extreme to collective communism.
Most countries have foreign policy and foreign ministers. When I looked up the websites of Your presidential candidates, none had a foreign policy. In place, all had war policy. Sanders had his titled war and peace.

Most countries have foreign ministers. Your country has a secretary of state. I guess when you are a country that feels it has the god given right to rule the world, no country is foreign, all are vassal states.

Your country needs to collapse, or be destroyed, to knock this ideology out of the inhabitants, and then rebuilt as a normal country.

What the US is now, is just a natural progression of its foundations.

Posted by: Peter AU | Mar 13 2017 7:17 utc | 46

Thank you b, for stating the essential question.

I think there's no left left for the simple reason that it's role in the system, at least since the end of ww2, became void after 91. No competing system, no need for niceties, back to the 30's, plenty of unfinished business, 80 years of taxes to get back. New Deal and European Social Model are obsolete. The armies of workers offshored, what is left is a kind of lumpen, busy fingering their smartphones. A highly educated lumpen, probably the highest educated generation ever, but lumpen nonetheless, Indoctrinated by all media to individualism, their atomization seems assured. I wonder if anyone under 30 reads MoA. Might be wrong but looks like most of us are over 60 considering the muppet like kind of grumpyness that erupts so often.

There are drops in the ocean, in places were solidarity still has strong roots. Marinaleda (sorry, the english wiki sucks, a machine translation from the spanish wiki is certainly more informative) 0% unemployment, equal pay to all residents, housing provided through self-building, the city council provides plot, technical supervision, building materials, charges 15 euros monthly rent. Collective economy based on farming, husbandry and industrial transformation of it's products. I repeat, equal pay to all residents 1,128 euros for 35 hours a week. Just a drop in the ocean, but a worthy one.

Elsewhere true social-democracy can be found in Latin America. Nicaragua, Venezuela, Equador, Bolivia, Uruguay pop up as examples that neoliberalism, racism and neocolonialism can be defeated, on their terms, even if there are setbacks like Brazil and Argentina. There one can find rivers of solidarity. Telesur english keeps you up to date, with better coverage on Syria than CNN.

Posted by: estouxim | Mar 13 2017 7:58 utc | 47

Sorry, missed the monthly after 1,128 euros:

equal pay to all residents 1,128 euros monthly for 35 hours a week.

better correct it before you all start flocking to Andalucia

Posted by: estouxim | Mar 13 2017 8:47 utc | 48

Very good post b,
leftists parties is a joke today there is no other way to put it, its a real shame and a real tragedy.

Also on this topic:
PROBLEMS WITH SWEDISH MEDIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t20xx5Khov0&feature=youtu.be&t=275

Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 13 2017 9:30 utc | 49

Although b you actually forgot the 2 new things the leftist parties have embraced:

*Anti-russian racism and
*Warmongering

Posted by: Anonymous | Mar 13 2017 10:06 utc | 50

All those USAG's and IG's and NO one wants or has investigated where all those Pentagon missing trillions went to?
Ditto for the MSM, who use all that print space pushing to let men dressed as women use the little girl's bathroom. The USA project has failed, it's Kaput, time to turn out the lights.

Posted by: Greg Bacon | Mar 13 2017 10:37 utc | 51

The 'Left' has been bought by the oligarchs, just like the media, the NGOs, the 'human rights' organizations, etc. Tony Blair was perhaps the most blatant example, especially with his 'third way', undefined by him to this day. I guess it tried to merge bits from the right such as Nationalism and bits from the left such as Socialism, but who knows!

Posted by: Yonatan | Mar 13 2017 11:07 utc | 52

I highly recommend Chris Hedge's book "The Death of the Liberal Class." One of my favourite reads ever.

More concise lectures are available on YouTube for those who won't pick up a book.

Posted by: FecklessLeft | Mar 13 2017 11:29 utc | 53

I am German but not living in Germany. I am disgusted with my compatriots. They seem to have bought the line that in order to atone for their parents or grandparents' crimes they have to open the doors to the dregs of the Earth and let themselves get plundered and their daughters raped without a protest. Meanwhile, the German police continue to prosecute Germans for any transgression, including speaking out about it.

Posted by: mischi | Mar 13 2017 12:14 utc | 54

So the left is good at pointing to its own flaws & decay but your simplistic view of a "static" right that doesn't evolve and alway represent the "evil" is laughable. Both the left and right have merged on most issue, it's a system of croony capitalism with a big government and where "financial capitalism" has destroyed industrial capitalism and innovations. Who would invest to hire employees or innovate if it's more lucrative to sell private bonds to a central bank or "buy back" the shares of the cies (to boost their price with a loan in order to get a "productivity" bonus?
A long, long time ago both left/right were pretending to offer a solution and improve the living standards, one faction with individual liberties, low taxes and a sound money policy (gold & silver) while the left was fighting against inequalities and proposing wealth redistribution with a big government & taxes. Both the left & right started to be coopted in the 1960's

Posted by: jfb | Mar 13 2017 13:03 utc | 55

"Real wages sink but they continue to import cheep [sic: that should be "cheap"] labor (real policy) under the disguise of helping "refugees" (marketing policy) which are simply economic migrants. (Even parts of the German "Die Linke" party are infected with such nonsense.)"

Kudos. It's rare to see someone intelligent admit that an open borders immigration policy is all about cheap labor, period. Bernie Sanders started to say that, but after a couple of days of being screamed at for his 'racism' he of course folded.

I note that by refusing to acknowledge that importing massive numbers of workers we are pushing wages down, we are also responsible for the misery in places like Yemen and Somalia etc. How can we expect people in these places to stop having more children than they can afford, when our Nobel-prizewinning whores keep screaming that more people are always better? I mean, if we propagandize that eating arsenic is wonderful (or at lest not an issue), and people somewhere else keep eating arsenic, we are to blame.

Posted by: TG | Mar 13 2017 14:08 utc | 56

The characteristics which define Right-wingers are...
1. They are are obliged to believe their own bullshit in order to sell it to the masses.
2. Bribery is an indispensable component of Modern Democracy.
3. Whenever one of their inane schemes backfires, it's ALWAYS somebody else's fault, NEVER their own.

Malcolm & the Liberals will spend the next 6 months looking for scapegoats (with their fingers in their ears - another R-W trait).

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 13 2017 14:08 utc | 57

Democrats become neoliberal Republicans, letting actual Republicans get elected. Rinse and repeat while blaming Russia for failure. That is the center-right mantra of the elite Democrats and their NGO supporters (who are well paid to represent the party line without deviation, if they deviate they get cut off). Yet my Democrat friends howl that I'm a Trump supporter because I wouldn't vote for Hillary.

The unfortunate truth is that outside of protest votes there is no political force in America for dissenters to turn to outside of what they can do on their own. The two-headed hydra of the Demopublicans appears to be fighting against itself now but in reality they still agree on most issues, to the detriment of all working people.

Posted by: WorldBLee | Mar 13 2017 14:15 utc | 58

@35 Your version of "score voting" is clearly the best approach to "ranked choice voting" as currently used. Also, using paper ballots that are counted by optical scanning machines? That's just as subject to hacking as electronic voting machines are, since nobody is going to back and hand-count those paper ballots.

But really, under current finance rules, the oligarchs tightly control the electoral process via their control of corporate media and their ability to run puppet candidates against any honest politicians who defy their agenda. Ultimately this is why politicians gravitate towards the BS issues describe by b, i.e.

"When LGBT claptrap, gluten free food, political correctness and other such niceties beat out programs to serve the basic needs of the common people nothing "left" is left. The priority on the left must always be the well-being of the working people. All the other nice-to-have issues follow from and after that."

But addressing the well-being of the working people - wages, homes, affordable healthcare for their parents and education for their children - that impacts multinational corporate profits. This is why politicians steer clear of such issues - they don't want to incur the anger of the oligarchs, who can spend millions to get them removed from office. Journalists do the exact same thing, wanting to keep their jobs in corporate media outfits controlled by Wall Street oligarchs. This is highly similar to how the oligarchs ran Russia during the Boris Yeltsin era.

There are clearly many similarites between the Russian billionaires of that era and their various American counterparts today, from the Silicon Valley billionaires to the oil & gas billionaires to the finance billionaires; they could never have made all that money without the active cooperation of politicians and bureaucrats who serve their interests in Washington as well as in many state governments. This vast extraction of wealth from the middle class, coupled with a desire to control the whole world and move money freely across borders without restrictions, and to use the military to invade and crush any countries who don't go with the program, that's what the neocon-neolib agenda is all about.

Posted by: nonsense factory | Mar 13 2017 14:36 utc | 59

When people like b start to make tremendous confusion between the Neoliberal Democratic party and the Left, I fear things will go from bad to worse ...
Confusing Neolib and Left after all these years, b? There's no light at the end of the tunnel, huh?
We've heard stupid people say that Hitler was Socialist ... after all the NSDAP had the "S", hadn't it? But they are stupid people, right?
Now this?

Posted by: Perimeter | Mar 13 2017 14:38 utc | 60

Perimeter @ 59

What should we then call left in Yankeeland?

Posted by: estouxim | Mar 13 2017 15:22 utc | 61

Well-meaning populist politicians throughout history are either bought off or assassinated.

Populist rhetoric is tolerated (and necessary for R vs. D political theater to function).

The rhetoric is one thing. BUT if anyone actually DOES anything of value for the common people, he will be maligned, castigated, shunned and soon become enmeshed in a manufactured scandal.

Corruption has totally overwhelmed the system.

Posted by: fast freddy | Mar 13 2017 15:24 utc | 62

@60 Unorthodox gringos.

Posted by: dh | Mar 13 2017 15:48 utc | 63

When the fake left embraced war (with all the money for crony war profiteers - no money for the commons) it abandoned its ideology.

The brilliantly-played Charles Manson Psyop killed the anti-war (peace) movement in one stroke.

They couldn't make Castro's beard fall off, but they got the hippies to shave and cut their hair and become Republicans.

Posted by: fast freddy | Mar 13 2017 15:49 utc | 64

Democrats more likely to accept gifts from lobbyists; while Republicans prefer cash in brown paper bags under the desk.

Posted by: fast freddy | Mar 13 2017 15:54 utc | 65

@ nonsense factory | Mar 13, 2017 10:36:25 AM | 58

What the "election methods cognoscenti" call "ranked-choice voting" is quite distinct from "score voting" With the score voting method I described you could give from (1) to (10) votes to up to (12) candidates. So you could give, for example, (10) votes to Candidates (A), (B), and (C), and (8) votes to (D), (E), and (F). But with ranked choice voting, you cannot do that, since you must "rank" the candidates in an "ordinal" fashion. This could look like: (A) > (B) > (C) >(D) > (E) > (F). And this forced "ranking" leads to astonishingly complex dilemmas. So, score voting is definitely not a version of ranked voting.

I did insist on "hand counted paper ballots" because ballot scanning machines are absurdly complex, and can easily be hacked. Remember that the Deep State will always completely control anything that becomes sufficiently complex. The fine print on insurance policies is an example.

While I'm here, I might as well point out that the "holy founding fathers" of the U.S. despised the concept of democracy (except perhaps for a few, maybe Franklin). You can read all about this (it's a somewhat long read, but well worth the time) at:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Enough-with-the-Holy-Founders-Undemocratic-Constitution-20150531-0025.html

Yes, it's all true!

Posted by: blues | Mar 13 2017 16:02 utc | 66

b,

"gluten free food"

Take a look at the Italian Cooking Show ladies. They aren't fat. Their immune system see gluten as an invader causing physical inflammation.

Personally if I eat gluten my lower gut blows up like an inflated bicycle tire. Gluten intolerance is not a trend. Check out online videos titled 'wheat belly.'

The wheat we eat today has been genetically modified mainly to increase crop yields.

Gluten intolerance is not a fad.

Posted by: ALberto | Mar 13 2017 16:07 utc | 67

Yep. There's a reason the Democratic Socialists of America has seen a huge explosion in growth over the past year. The Democratic Party has no soul, and the DSA, by far the most major democratic socialist group in the country, is benefiting from Bernie Sanders constantly calling himself a "democratic socialist." If Democrats don't take their cue from this and other leftist groups, they're going to lose elections for decades to come. We need policies that work for the people, not neoliberal giveaways to corporations or conservative policies outright hostile to people who aren't rich.

Posted by: Tim | Mar 13 2017 16:10 utc | 68

What do you call a Social-Democracy without social-democrats?

Although many have called the "crisis of social-democracy" in previous years (especially after the "crash" of 2007-8), so far it is James Corbett that has given us the most extensive non-scholar research on How The Left Stopped Worrying and Learned to Embrace War

Bonus reading: AD Lavelle's academic case-study on the transformation of Swedish and German social-democracy into neo-liberalism.

Posted by: LXV | Mar 13 2017 16:15 utc | 69

all I can say is “Go, State, go.”

This is disturbingly close to what a co-worker said to me, before knowing my views about the matter, when US-backed forces were overthrowing Gaddafi in Libya: "Go, rebels, go!" He said he "normally" wasn't pro-war. A lot of ditzy liberals out there.

Posted by: RudyM | Mar 13 2017 16:24 utc | 70

b states that the disenfranchised will rue the day they threw in their card for the far-right. I am not sure that this reality will pan out here in the states, though I am unsure what will ultimately transpire. My reasonING for this goes back to the nazification of Germany and the great benefits to that nationalist movement in general. Autobahn, infrastructure, industry: their new deal was very beneficial for the common kraut in addressing their concerns, though this nationalism scared the shit out of the global finance cabal and hence war. I am not entirely versed as to the legitimacy of their claim to Poland or the moral implications of that seizure, though the ethnic cleanses in the Russian steppes were evil.

My point is that nationalism could be one of the only forces that could bring down the global finance elite. This propelled me to vote for Trump and to hold out hope for a while. My thought is that we already have military spending covered and I don't see how the trickle down of more military spending would impress the deplorables too much. If Trump wants a 2.0, he will have to invest in another new deal. And what choice does he have? Continually being blocked my Russia and Iran? I am not convinced yet of his total idiocy, but if he continues along a neoconservative route, there will be little doubt. I guess tyrannies are stupid after all. Are Americans that stupid, too? We'll see.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Mar 13 2017 16:29 utc | 71

Clueless Joe 16
I've started to like that JFK quote more and more these days, too. At the time he did not mean it for the US but it truly applies here.

Posted by: Curtis | Mar 13 2017 16:44 utc | 72

1945 - 2000 +. In Europe the ‘Left’ was overcome in principally 2 ways.

1) Was the ‘red scare of communism’, i.e. against the USSR - old memes now home again. Even though there were some quite strong Communist parties, particularly in France. (Today, the ex-leader of the dead communist party, R. Hue, has come out supporting Macron.) The ‘liberals’ (economic liberalism) of course used any tool and propaganda to hand.

2) The expansion of W economies, 1950-1980 (about), that so to speak ‘lifted all boats’, and afforded for ex. cars, fridges, TVs, and at the start, just the basics like a small flat and some electricity, and water plus a flush toilet (or better services for small houses) plus universal free education (to age 14-15) and some basic health / social care. Transport flowered (fossil fuel use and railways) … As opposed to living in a hut in a filthy slum…though rurals were always better off. The economy basically boomed and jobs, even if ugly and badly paid, were available. This was all a tremendous advance and it was credited to a ‘liberal’ economic model. NOT-communist. (Though it had nothing to do with any political arrangement per se. See Hobsbawm on the USSR.)

Later, Third-wayers (Bill Clinton, Tony Blair..) tried to ‘snow’ ppl who would become ‘poorer’ with fakey Socialist-Dem party platforms, actually favoring the ‘rich’ (Corps, Finance, MIC, Big Gov..), in an attempt to keep ppl quiet. This ‘third way’ has now failed, ppl turn where they can, for now it is voting for the ‘alt-right’ (Trump, Wilders, Le Pen..) along a sort of nationalist line, which seems to contain germs of proto-fascim (as some would say), but which is actually principally directed against the PTB.

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 13 2017 16:55 utc | 73

I haven't yet read comments, but actually I don't agree with the title of this piece, though the point about no left is certainly valid. I really can't see folk just swinging far right because there is nowhere else to go, since at least in this country, the US, we were burned so badly by the right - the right took us into Iraq and we have not escaped the horrors there even now. No way we're going back to that group of crazies just because another group of crazies, and now apparently Trump as well, are marching to the same bloody tune. We are being smothered by all of them.

I'm no prognosticator - I can't see the future. All I can do is say this ongoing spilling of blood is not what I voted for, and thank heavens I did not vote for Trump. I don't blame those who did, thinking he might break the mold. In doing that, they were not 'voting far right.' They were voting for what Trump said he would do, act peacefully towards each country, take care of citizens' grievances. He hasn't, and now we know. What happens next is anyone's guess but it won't be more of the same, not in this country. Experience does matter, and when we sort ourselves out and finish licking our wounds, us deplorables will build on what has come before. And perhaps in other countries citizens facing such non-choices and aware of what has happened here will trim their sails accordingly.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 13 2017 17:00 utc | 74

The great tragedy of the collapse of the left is that there will be nobody around to protect the minorities who live in the nations of the West. As a nonwhite American, I see the polarization of politics around racial lines is a catastrophe waiting to happen. The Democrats want to play the good cop, using fear of to control their minority vote bank while doing sweet F A for their communities that they profess to love so much. The Trumpian right has now dropped all pretense and is openly embracing white supremacy, race baiting for votes and stirring up all kinds of anti-foreigner sentiment on top of the folksy old fashioned racism done by "good" GOPers. As disgusting as the smug, patronizing prejudice of liberals is, the wild vitriolic hatred found in parts of the white community is backed up with state force. Even when faced with this reality, the Democratic party views discussions of economic issues as pandering to the "deplorables"! Never mind the rampant poverty and unemployment in black and latin ghettoes, talking about jobs is racism! They will continue this political death spiral and we will pay the price. There have been two shootings I know of where Indians (mistaken for Muslims by rednecks hopped up on hate) and I'm sure we'll see plenty more. God help Europe when their right wingers crack down on the Muslims. You think the young are being radicalized now? You ain't seen nothing yet.

Posted by: Almand | Mar 13 2017 17:11 utc | 75

That of itself makes the destruction of amerika essential

You left out two k's.

Posted by: RudyM | Mar 13 2017 17:22 utc | 76

Juliana at 73 wrote about Trump voters.

I don't blame those who did, thinking he might break the mold. In doing that, they were not 'voting far right.' They were voting for what Trump said he would do, act peacefully towards each country, take care of citizens' grievances.

Yes, right on. And that extends to all the ‘nationalist’ voters. What they - perhaps confusedly for some - are trying to effect is a timid step in the present horrific political landscape, towards having a say, >> having the space, and scope, of decision-making circumsribed, and made not only smaller, but more rigidly, clearly defined - in this case down to nation size where the ppl may hopefully garner some more power.

The labels ‘right’ and ‘left’ of course are nonsense, but we all use them as ‘tags’ for e.g. Dems vs. Reps, and that’s ok, as long as everyone undertands the short-hand. Being ‘nationalist’, ‘anti-globalist’, ‘localist’, ‘community oriented’ (footnotes skipped) is not left or right, it doesn’t project to any point on the left-right polarity. Nor does it relate to an authoritarian, controlling axis. vs. a libertarian one. But of course these challengers are painted as Hitler ‘nationalist’ stooges and putative vicious invaders, war mongers, conquerers, as is for ex. Putin.

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 13 2017 18:05 utc | 77

Lefties fight imperialism, and by fight I don't mean metaphors.

Posted by: ruralito | Mar 13 2017 18:29 utc | 78

@60

And why should we call something "Left" in Yankeeland?
Why, if there is nothing not even close of this there?

Posted by: Perimeter | Mar 13 2017 19:07 utc | 79

Just for the record, someone seems to be attempting to use/mimic my Permetr name with post number 78.
Not appreciated, Mr. Troll.

Posted by: Perimetr | Mar 13 2017 19:11 utc | 80

And if anyone is interested, I chose the name "Perimetr" because that is the way my friend Colonel Yarynich spelled it . . .

Also known as the "Deadhand" system, Perimetr is a semi-automated system through which a retaliatory nuclear strike can be ordered by a decapitated Russian National Command Authority. Perimetr came into being in the 1980s and appears to still be functional. You can read a detailed analysis of it in the book by Colonel Valery Yarynich, "C3: Nuclear Command, Control, Cooperation" (if you can get your hands on a copy). https://www.amazon.com/C3-Nuclear-Command-Control-Cooperation/dp/1932019081

Perimetr uses emergency communication rockets to issue launch orders to any (surviving) Russian nuclear forces; such orders would automatically trigger a launch of these forces without further human intervention. The crew that mans the Perimetr launch control center requires several things to happen before they launch: (1) an initial preliminary authorization from the National Command Authority following the detection of an incoming attack, (2) a complete loss of communication on all channels (various radio frequencies, land lines, etc) with the National Command Authority, and (3) a simultaneously set of positive signals from seismic, optical, and radiological nuclear detonation detectors indicating that a nuclear attack has occurred.

At that point, the crew is ordered to launch the ECRs. This "Deadhand" launches the missiles even after those who gave the preliminary launch order have been incinerated in a nuclear strike. Valery thought that Perimetr added a measure of safety having the system, in that it would make it less likely that the NCA would launch a "retaliatory" strike (Launch on Warning, LOW) before nuclear detonations confirmed the strike was real (if the warning was false, then the "retaliatory strike" would actually be a first strike . . . hence Perimetr offers some certainty of retaliation for choosing to "ride out" a perceived attack). I took less comfort that did Valery, as I found it disconcerting that there was a non-human mechanism or means to order a Russian nuclear attack.

see "Launch-Ready Nuclear Weapons: A threat to all nations and peoples" http://www.psr.org/nuclear-weapons/launch-ready-nuclear-weapons.pdf and http://thebulletin.org/2004/may/lets-go-no-low

Posted by: Perimetr | Mar 13 2017 19:29 utc | 81

@21
The aim of importing cheap labour is to allow continued expansion of capital without depressing the rate of profit. Unless the labour force constantly expands, any accumulation of capital tends to drive down the rate of profit in two ways: 1) it raises the ratio of capital stock to national income, so if the wage share remains the same, the rate of profit falls; 2) Accumulation of capital faster than the growth of the labour force creates a sellers market for labour and allows real wages to rise. For these two reasons big business favours rapid immigration.

Posted by: Paul Cockshott | Mar 13 2017 22:29 utc | 82

@80

Are you illiterate?
"Perimeter" is graphically different of "Perimetr". In addition and mainly, interested people can differentiate one from the other ideologically. So do not worry, kid.

Posted by: Perimeter | Mar 14 2017 2:14 utc | 83

The thing is black people in USA are fed up. White people (including some jews) are fed up. Black people have been marginalized and are no longer the primary darlings of the Bleeding Heart Party. You must add as well that many of them like Carson are quite conservative and wealthy, so they go Republican. One cannot discount the very high sense of patriotism that many Afro-Americans feel for the USA. They can smell the BS.
"White's", can be racially disparaged, mocked, used and abused and it O.K.
You can call a certain segment of the population; "White Trash", white bitch, fucking cracker, honky, racist, etc, etc and they just have to take it.
You can openly say that it's no longer their country, that they will no longer be the majority, if you are an immigrant and have a short time in USA, you are toasted and cheered while saying it. So soft genocide against "whites" is ok.
This is wrong and it's true what B say's, there is nothing LEFT. I gave Obama 8 and I'm still waiting for my change.

Posted by: Fernando Arauxo | Mar 14 2017 3:03 utc | 84

- Someone in a townhall meeting asked a Democratic representitive: "What do the Democrats stand for". And the representitive replied with platitudes. and the whole thing was captured on video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9KyR86CZ1E

Posted by: Willy2 | Mar 14 2017 7:55 utc | 85

the left in America is small and estranged, like an illegitimate child. the blacks fucked up long ago when they aligned with the Democratic Party, which, as we know, is just a gaggle of pro-war liberals. their reckoning is on its way...like a bad asteroid.

Posted by: john | Mar 14 2017 12:01 utc | 86

@67 ALberto

i'd check out the relationship between the exponential growth in the use of glyphosate, decimated microbial populations in the human gut as a result of its use, and the sudden eruption of gluten intolerance. that'd get any biochemist / epidemiologist fired in short order, or demonized on publication. i'm sure that's why we haven't seen it.

Posted by: jfl | Mar 14 2017 13:07 utc | 87

jfl @ 87

Right, plus the other wonder trans, bacilus thuringiensis.

Posted by: estouxim | Mar 14 2017 14:23 utc | 88

@ Posted by: Willy2 | Mar 14, 2017 3:55:52 AM | 85

Thank you for the link. Succint & concise. Tragicomedy(sic) ... :(

What was highlighted with cutting clarity is what the average Joe & Betty six-pack, and not just Stateside, throughout the 'West' are primarily up in arms about, IMV. And the Owned & Controlled, Corporate 'Mainstream' Mega-Media will not touch it nor even acknowledge 'it' ... hopefully the scales will fall from enough peoples eyes to awaken from the somnolance induced by all-encompassing 'digital valium' ...

If locales can ever reach a critical mass re numbers ... maybe the Tumbrels will yet again roll to swing humanities 'pendulum' back the other way. If they don't ...

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 14 2017 14:33 utc | 89

There never has been a political party of the Left in America that held any political power or even a balance of power at important state or federal levels. Leaders of the emerging Left in America have been either jailed or assassinated. Any other leaders of the people, not necessarily of the left, have also met a similar fate. The American establishment has always been a repressive clique of any populous movements. Other western nations, being further from the central authority, developed at minimum Leftist political opposition that at least held a balance of power enough to effect national policies that were of benefit to the working classes as defined. In America Leftist appeal of grievances was applied through the existing two party system, mainly the Democrats with their unionized labour wing. This has all fallen by the wayside. Enough said....

Posted by: BRF | Mar 14 2017 14:34 utc | 90

RE: Perimeter | Mar 13, 2017 10:14:10 PM | 83 "Perimeter" is graphically different of "Perimetr". In addition and mainly, interested people can differentiate one from the other ideologically. So do not worry, kid.

Well let's see, would Circe be upset if someone started posting under "Circes"? Would Outraged mind if someone started posting here as "Outrages"? How about "Alberto" instead of "ALberto"??

Sorry, there are lots of other names available, so what is the point in posting under one that is essentially identical to mine, except to confuse those who might not be paying much attention?

Posted by: Perimetr | Mar 14 2017 16:03 utc | 91

@ Posted by: Perimetr | Mar 14, 2017 12:03:31 PM | 91

Concur with your sentiments, a perfectly reasonable request. Such IDs create needless potential ambiguity/confusion/mis-attribution.

So do not worry, kid.

Hm, does not augur well re civility ... nor intent ...

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 14 2017 16:59 utc | 92

@84, the racial-ethnic divides among populations pale in comparison to the divisions between classes. The Reptilian Order must rake up the former through media exploits lest the proles wise up to the latter.

Posted by: ruralito | Mar 14 2017 17:02 utc | 93

Outraged @ 89
Thanks for the compliment on the other thread.
I also value what you write.
In certain conditions it is possible to attain meaningfull goals without setting the tumbrells in motion. I linked to Marinaleda in a comment above. They din't decapitate the Duque del Infantado, they cut a substantial part of his estate. It was possible for 3 reasons, a charismatic leader, a strong sense of solidarity and a strong cultural identity. It's a tiny scale but if one looks at current examples in a multinational scale Chávez, Evo, Correa, Kirchner, Lula, were/are all outstanding leaders in nations that have strong cultural identities and a solidarity forged by resistance.

BRF @ 90
Exactly, jailed or assassinated. And when this was no longer feasible, when human rights became a tool in the cold war, the discourse was deflected to identitary policies and sex drugs and r&r

Posted by: estouxim | Mar 14 2017 18:37 utc | 94

@ Posted by: estouxim | Mar 14, 2017 2:37:48 PM | 94

My views tend towards pacifism these last many years and am totally opposed to capital punishment for common criminal acts ... the death of even one innocent due to failures of the system, injustice, or mere errors, is one life too many, IMV.

Have personally seen the dire consequences of psychopaths & sociopaths, in Military, Intelligence, Government & Corporate environments, in positions of leadership/authority. They select alike as near peers and congregate fellow-travellers, arch-opportunists & sellswords as underlings, enablers/facilitators.

Yet, long reflection on ... bitter ... experiences, have brought me to a perceived unpalatable truth, that there likely must be, long overdue, a cull of the 'Impune', via the tender mercies of such as madame guillotine, to reset the balance, for their number and reach in primarily western first world countries has become a vast cancer upon humanity.

If one can be reviled by the community and dealt with at Law for a simple common murder, why can one who abuses the authority of the State, or delegated thereof, order policies or acts that result in dozens, 100's or thousands or more deaths of innocents, yet be impune, wholly and forever, unassailable, unaccountable ?

When exactly was it that Presidents & Prime Ministers once again quietly assumed the pseudo-Regnum like Majesty & Dictatorial Imperium of Caesars, Emperors, Kings/Monarchs of history past ?

Had thought the last 'Sun King' was in France ~160 years ago ...

Technology has opened a Pandora's Box of expanding destructive forces & potentialities at the behest of these psychopaths that, as Karlof1 somewhat similarly fears, will have a singular end result, if left unchecked.

Do not believe a little pruning of wealth/capital will any longer suffice ... Iceland alone, started tentatively upon the right path, after the GFC.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 14 2017 19:56 utc | 95

@ Posted by: estouxim | Mar 14, 2017 2:37:48 PM | 94

My views tend towards pacifism these last many years and am totally opposed to capital punishment for common criminal acts ... the death of even one innocent due to failures of the system, injustice, or mere errors, is one life too many, IMV.

Have personally seen the dire consequences of psychopaths & sociopaths, in Military, Intelligence, Government & Corporate environments, in positions of leadership/authority. They select alike as near peers and congregate fellow-travellers, arch-opportunists & sellswords as underlings, enablers/facilitators.

Yet, long reflection on ... bitter ... experiences, have brought me to a perceived unpalatable truth, that there likely must be, long overdue, a cull of the 'Impune', via the tender mercies of such as madame guillotine, to reset the balance, for their number and reach in primarily western first world countries has become a vast cancer upon humanity.

If one can be reviled by the community and dealt with at Law for a simple common murder, why can one who abuses the authority of the State, or delegated thereof, order policies or acts that result in dozens, 100's or thousands or more deaths of innocents, yet be impune, wholly and forever, unassailable, unaccountable ?

When exactly was it that Presidents & Prime Ministers once again quietly assumed the pseudo-Regnum like Majesty & Dictatorial Imperium of Caesars, Emperors, Kings/Monarchs of history past ?

Had thought the last 'Sun King' was in France ~160 years ago ...

Technology has opened a Pandora's Box of expanding destructive forces & potentialities at the behest of these psychopaths that, as Karlof1 somewhat similarly fears, will have a singular end result, if left unchecked.

Do not believe a little pruning of wealth/capital will any longer suffice ... Iceland alone, started tentatively upon the right path, after the GFC.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 14 2017 19:56 utc | 96

Outraged @95--

"When exactly was it that Presidents & Prime Ministers once again quietly assumed the pseudo-Regnum like Majesty & Dictatorial Imperium of Caesars, Emperors, Kings/Monarchs of history past?"

I don't believe the Divine Right of Monarchs was ever completely expunged as it continued to operate in the shadows until it retuned to the surface at WW2's end with Truman.

Don't know how much you agree with my assessment above @12, but one of the smartest people I've ever known--the late Lynn Margulis, Carl Sagan's first wife, the superior microbiologist who proved symbiosis within species and agent of evolution to be fact--wrote the forward to the paperback edition of Morrison's work I cited, agreeing with him.

It's easy to observe and analyze the situation then prescribe the remedy. But said remedy must be applied by millions of currently very disparate individuals having almost no solidarity or in agreement about said remedy, or even knowing a remedy exists. I'd do more, but my responsibilities limit me to my current activities--writing and exhorting those able to act.

The great irony of our dilemma is humans have overcome Nature in almost every sphere, yet that triumph is precisely what threatens humanity and the biota--a triumph driven by Nature itself. So, to overcome our overcoming of Nature, we must again triumph at overcoming our Human Nature by limiting the impact of Nature on our actions through the use of a very ancient technology--culture, by making certain actions by humans taboo and their violation punishable by death as the Polynesians practiced.

Yes, radical, controversial, requiring a great deal of prior knowledge to comprehend the logic driving the remedy. Yet, as Spock would say, there it is: Long life and prosperity lies down remedy's path; massive destruction, pain and eventual oblivion if the status quo continues.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 14 2017 21:16 utc | 97

@ Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 14, 2017 5:16:09 PM | 96

... it returned to the surface at WW2's end with Truman.

... we must again triumph at overcoming our Human Nature by limiting the impact of Nature on our actions through the use of a very ancient technology--culture, by making certain actions by humans (Leaders/Leadership) taboo and their violation punishable by death as the Polynesians practiced.

... massive destruction, pain and eventual oblivion if the status quo continues.

Concur.

Yet, would take that slightly further re amending formal application of Law & Sentencing & Punishment.

A number of Navies apply Mandatory MAXIMUM punishments for any offense, where found guilty, committed outside the parent nations 12 Mile limit, for good reason re discipline under a Captain's authority ... the ship becomes the nation and the crew the 'people' thereof and the ultimate survival of all dependent upon such.

The greater the status, rank, education, authority, experience, length of service of the 'Taboo Breaker,' (Leaders/Leadership), the less any mitigating circumstances can be considered, and the proportionally higher the punishment, towards the maximum. Such should be able to plead no excuse, ignorance or misunderstanding, or lack of comprehension whatsoever, compared to a 'Constable/Trooper/Sailor/Airman'.

The pyramid of actual accountability & consequent punishment, must be inverted, by society.

If one looks carefully throughout humanities recorded history, across cultures, down thru millennia, sooner or later the stone (society) could be squeezed no further, and there was inevitably blowback and a, culling.

Yet, since the inter-continent telegraph and the widespread ubiquitous distribution of the mass 'Press', concurrent with the machinations of the Bankers & War Profiteers behind the scenes since the late 1800's, IMV, the ability to manipulate, divide & rule, society has become an artform, ever accelerating in scope, scale & effectiveness, preventing the necessary 'cull' in the 'International Community' of the 'west'.

IMV, the old grey men may have misunderstood/underestimated the accident of the 'net, hence desperation of such as ProPornOT etc, which provides alternate independent voices re communication & re perceived reality ... it may be enough, a small window of opportunity given the obvious accident of 'Trumps' ascension, to possibly enable a reckoning, there are a few discordant shrill cries and desperate pleas arising amongst the 'narrative' from the Globalists/Atlanticists (US/EU/UK/AUS/CAN), to believe & trust TPTB ... but only if there is a true, not faux, accounting.

Otherwise, yes, almost inevitably, your last. Faint hope ...

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 14 2017 22:20 utc | 98

@ Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 14, 2017 5:16:09 PM | 96

... it returned to the surface at WW2's end with Truman.

... we must again triumph at overcoming our Human Nature by limiting the impact of Nature on our actions through the use of a very ancient technology--culture, by making certain actions by humans (Leaders/Leadership) taboo and their violation punishable by death as the Polynesians practiced.

... massive destruction, pain and eventual oblivion if the status quo continues.

Concur.

Yet, would take that slightly further re amending formal application of Law & Sentencing & Punishment.

A number of Navies apply Mandatory MAXIMUM punishments for any offense, where found guilty, committed outside the parent nations 12 Mile limit, for good reason re discipline under a Captain's authority ... the ship becomes the nation and the crew the 'people' thereof and the ultimate survival of all dependent upon such.

The greater the status, rank, education, authority, experience, length of service of the 'Taboo Breaker,' (Leaders/Leadership), the less any mitigating circumstances can be considered, and the proportionally higher the punishment, towards the maximum. Such should be able to plead no excuse, ignorance or misunderstanding, or lack of comprehension whatsoever, compared to a 'Constable/Trooper/Sailor/Airman'.

The pyramid of actual accountability & consequent punishment, must be inverted, by society.

If one looks carefully throughout humanities recorded history, across cultures, down thru millennia, sooner or later the stone (society) could be squeezed no further, and there was inevitably blowback and a, culling.

Yet, since the inter-continent telegraph and the widespread ubiquitous distribution of the mass 'Press', concurrent with the machinations of the Bankers & War Profiteers behind the scenes since the late 1800's, IMV, the ability to manipulate, divide & rule, society has become an artform, ever accelerating in scope, scale & effectiveness, preventing the necessary 'cull' in the 'International Community' of the 'west'.

IMV, the old grey men may have misunderstood/underestimated the accident of the 'net, hence desperation of such as ProPornOT etc, which provides alternate independent voices re communication & re perceived reality ... it may be enough, a small window of opportunity given the obvious accident of 'Trumps' ascension, to possibly enable a reckoning, there are a few discordant shrill cries and desperate pleas arising amongst the 'narrative' from the Globalists/Atlanticists (US/EU/UK/AUS/CAN), to believe & trust TPTB ... but only if there is a true, not faux, accounting.

Otherwise, yes, almost inevitably, your last. Faint hope ...

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 14 2017 22:20 utc | 99

Outraged @97--

"... it may be enough, a small window of opportunity given the obvious accident of 'Trumps' ascension, to possibly enable a reckoning..."

Like using The Force to guide a missile into the exhaust shaft of the Death Star. But that was just one victory amidst many losses prior to the decapitation of the sole Evil Leader. I believe our task just as daunting with our enemy best depicted as The Hydra. In both myths, Good triumphed. In both tales, the multitude of innocents had no idea what was taking place or why. I don't think we can prevail unless the multitudes know what's happening and why. All too often they seem to differ little from my Alzheimer's afflicted mom. But her fate is determined; it's just a matter of time. Our fate's in the balance, with time being of the essence.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 15 2017 0:10 utc | 100