Rand is rumbling!

YouTube removed the video due to terms of service noise. Go figure.

George, get a grip. The media needs to do its job in a much better way if this country is to heal

Dancing in the streets for Biden now, but what about in 1 or 2 years?

 John H posted:

Now that Joe Biden has been declared the victor by the media and people have been euphorically dancing in the streets in eager anticipation of the wonders of a return to normalcy in America, perhaps it is time to take a good look at just what a Biden/Harris administration will actually look like.  It may well be that all of the dancing and celebrating may not be as happily remembered a year or two down the road – only time will tell.  It may be that the new normal Biden is promising to bring to the nation and the world will be much too much like the old normal which gave us Donald Trump to begin with – and that could bring him back in 2024, or even something much worse.

John

“Organized Greed Always Defeats Organized Democracy."  --  Matt Taibbi

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Fwd: Tulsi Gabbard at Brown Univ. & Cenk Uygur on the media

---- Forwarded message ---------

From: John H

Linked below are two excellent videos.  The first is Tulsi Gabbard speaking and answering questions at Brown University's Watson Institute last month.  The second is a dynamite speech given by Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks on the establishment media at its heart the National Press Club.  This speech was given just before the 2018 election, but it is exceptional in its analysis of the establishment media and establishment politicians.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa5_4CK-lz8

 John

Fwd: An awakening is happening . . . maybe

----- Forwarded message ---------

From: John H

Perhaps the American public is finally beginning to wake up to reality.  I realize that this might be too much to hope for these days, but Adam Levine and Paul Street seem to offer at least a miniscule amount of hope.

John

Link, Ilhan Omar Owes No appologies

Link, 31 Actual National Emergencies

Abby has some words about the political landscape.

The Democratic Party's 'Abysmal Failure'

Fwd: Introducing: The Global Girls Alliance

---- Forwarded message ---------

From: Michelle Obama

a new way to support adolescent girls

Hi Mark, Today, more than 98 million adolescent girls around the world aren't in school. What could those girls accomplish if they were allowed to unlock their full potential? What could they achieve if the hurdles that keep them out of school—scarce resources, early marriage and pregnancy, a toxic mindset that says they are unworthy of an education—were swept away? We're determined to find out. Today, on International Day of the Girl, I'm proud to announce the Obama Foundation's launch of the Global Girls Alliance, an effort to empower adolescent girls around the world through education, so that they can support their families, communities, and countries. As a part of the Global Girls Alliance, we're taking a fresh approach to support the grassroots leaders who are already working in communities all over the world. First, we've created a network that will allow these leaders to connect with one another, share best practices, and, ultimately, scale their work. Second, we've partnered with GoFundMe to create a new crowd fundraising platform—a place where anyone, anywhere around the world, can support efforts to empower girls in places like India, Guatemala, or Uganda. And finally, we're looking for your help. Everyone can be an ally. I hope you'll follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and visit our website to educate yourself on this issue, read about the tremendous work already being done, and get started taking whatever action you can. Learn more about the Global Girls Alliance, and how you can be an ally today: https://go.obama.org/global-girls-alliance Thank you so much. Together, we can help these girls fulfill their boundless promise. Sincerely, Michelle

Fwd: Lest we Forget

------- Forwarded message ---------

From: John H

Lest we forget how it is that we came to this current crisis of confidence in government, Marshall Auerback takes us back through some relatively recent history to point out that the criminality now being touted as a reason for the impeachment of a president (no matter how deserving that might be) is really small potatoes compared to that which Obama and his administration managed to studiously overlook following the 2008 Great Financial Crisis.  The Democrats managed to ennoble crime and criminals, not only enabling them to escape prosecution, but also allowing them to keep their positions and all of their ill-gotten gains – and more!  The result, as economist William Black as said, is a purely criminogenic society which can only find the nerve to hold low-level white collar and street criminals, particularly if they are of color, accountable for their crimes.  And, I don't know about you, but this was not the America I grew up admiring.

And this doesn't even begin to account for the international crimes that the United States has been responsible for over the past 60 years or so – and these are notoriously bi-partisan crimes of election which have taken millions of innocent lives.  It's long past time that all of these criminals be held to account for their actions!  And this can only take place if the American people can somehow wake up from decades of propaganda induced somnambulance and demand accountability from their leaders.

John

Article link below  

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByN94c3Pp4Bpa1hTcjhnM25UdDBocUJDUEdFMjRyMTg1dTNj

Fwd: John McCain retrospective

------ Forwarded message ---------

From: John H

Now that the political establishment and the mainstream media are steaming full-speed ahead to lionize John McCain as an indefatigable man of the people and political savant in a time of political morass, it is time to evaluate the "real" John McCain for what he was and what he really stood for.  Attached are two articles which attempt to paint a much more accurate portrayal of McCain.  

 John

Article 1

Article 2

Fwd: The civilization wreckers' next target

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tom Woods

May 8, 2018 View this email in your browser Connecticut just became the tenth blue state to pledge to cast its electoral votes for whichever presidential candidate wins the popular vote nationally. Why? Because according to the measure's proponents, the electoral college -- along with everything else that's more than 10 minutes old -- is backward and stupid. Here's one more step toward making the United States into a giant, undifferentiated blob, as opposed to the collection of distinct societies it was originally intended to be. The Constitution refers to the United States in the plural every time, and the way the Constitution and the Union were originally understood, the "popular vote" was an irrelevancy. During the World Series, for example, we don't add up the total number of runs scored by each team over the course of the series, and decide who won on that basis. We count up how many games each team won. Thus: Game 1: Red Sox 10, Mets 0 Game 2: Red Sox 15, Mets 1 Game 3: Red Sox 5, Mets 2 Game 4: Red Sox 1, Mets 2 Game 5: Red Sox 0, Mets 1 Game 6: Red Sox 2, Mets 3 Game 7: Red Sox 3, Mets 4 In this imaginary series the Red Sox scored 36 runs while the Mets scored only 13, yet everyone would acknowledge that the Mets won the series. Not a single sports fan would be running around demanding that we count the total number of runs instead, or insisting that the way we determine the World Series winner is sinister. But I think this is the correct analogy with the electoral college. How many games — e.g., how many political societies, albeit weighted to some degree by population — did you win? Also, the electoral college puts an upper bound on how much support you can earn from any one state. Even if your whole campaign is geared toward taxing the rest of the country and handing the money to California, you still can't get more than 55 electoral votes from that state. So to some extent, the electoral college forces the candidate to run a national race more than would be necessary otherwise. A group called National Popular Vote, which seeks to abolish the electoral college, claims that "presidential candidates have no reason to pay attention to the issues of concern to voters in states where the statewide outcome is a foregone conclusion." But this problem becomes much worse without the electoral college. If there is no limit to the support I can get from California and New York, then I'll campaign in those states like a madman. At least the electoral college puts something of a brake on this kind of strategy. A brief note about Trump's defeat in the popular vote: had the election been decided on the basis of the popular vote, Trump would have campaigned differently in the first place. Also, more people in, say, California would have bothered to vote for him. So we can't know that he would have lost the popular vote had those been the rules. What we do know is that every step toward making the U.S. into a giant blob instead of a decentralized collection of societies is a step toward more centralized, bureaucratic management of society, and away from liberty. We're not taught to think this way in school, of course. You know where you do learn this stuff?   http://www.LibertyClassroom.com Tom Woods Share Tweet Forward to Friend Copyright © 2018 Tom Woods, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at yourfriendsarewrong.com, tomwoods.com, bernieiswrong.com, contrakrugman.com, or nostateeducation.com, or you received a free eBook by texting various words to 33444. Our mailing address is: Tom Woods PO Box 701447 Saint Cloud, FL 34770 Add us to your address book

Fwd: The Democrats are coming on . . .

From: John H

Well here we go, the establishment Democrats and the DNC are, in the light of 2016's cataclysmic losses, now pushing extra hard to . . . do the same old things in 2018.  Some would characterize this as being stone-deaf to the prevailing attitudes of the electorate.  But the real culprit is almost certainly an unwillingness to wean the Party from tits of big finance and the corporate military/industrial/security complex to which the 'New Democrats' are hopelessly wedded.  Instead of supporting insurgent candidates with wide popular support, the Party is determined to run the same old tired slate of 'moderate' corporatists who can self-finance or raise lots of corporate cash.  This is both a foolish and a losing strategy and will most certainly backfire on the Party and the nation at a time when the world desperately needs progressive victories in coming elections.

The attached article is rather long, but it clearly documents how the Party has done everything in its power to discourage and defeat progressive candidates with popular support all around the nation – and, in most cases, have suffered grievous losses as a result.  The article identifies some of the third-party insider groups which cling tenaciously to Party dogma even when it means a race which could have been won will be lost.  This is a terrible state of affairs when real harm is the outcome of these losses.   It's way past time for the Democratic Party elite to come down from their high-horse and admit that the 2016 debacle was not the result of any alleged Russian interference, but their own stubborn adherence to corrupting corporate largesse from which most of these so-called leaders handsomely benefit personally – and, in particular, their handpicked campaign consultants who formulate and direct so many losing campaigns.

John

Article: The Dead Enders, PDF

BOOK PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION: Nov 14, 2017

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

6:30 p.m.

Letter Carriers Union Hall, 821 California Avenue, 15212

THE PLOT TO SCAPEGOAT RUSSIA by Dan Kovalik

How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin, while continuing their policy of permanent war

“A powerful contradiction to the present US narrative of the world… As shown here, fake news is thriving in Washington, DC.” —OLIVER STONE

Dan Kovalik is a union lawyer with the United Steel Workers (USW), and an internationally-recognized Human rights activist and attorney, having travelled more than 30 times to Columbia and Venezuala, as well as to the Congo, Iran and other hotspots around the globe. His firsthand accounts and union perspective are critical contributions to understanding US military activity around the world.

For those involved in important domestic fights, such as healthcare, the environment, labor rights and union drives, immigration, discrimination, upcoming elections, etc., the US military wars and fronts around the world, as well as the yearly increasing already bloated military budget for these adventures, will greatly impact budgets and available funds, domestic programs and every struggle down to the local and community level. We hope you will attend this important presentation and discussion.

Fwd: Matt Taibbi does Trump . . . and Hillary

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John H

Check it out, Taibbi is really good!

John

Fwd: Read carefully

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John H

This attachment is an article which should be read carefully.  It is a relatively succinct explanation of the situation of every non-ruling class American today.  It also provides a bit of history showing that not much has really changed over the years.

John

Link:

• Donald Trump, Ruling Class President

Fwd: Changed my thinking

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John H

The attached post has caused me to rethink my position relative to what can best be termed 'Hillarycrats', not the DNC or the elitist leaders of the Democratic Party and the moneyed interests they represent, but those who supported Hillary and Obama in the past three elections.  I also was duped into voting for Obama and even voted for him a second time when I know full well that he misrepresented virtually everything he promised to do as president, but I could not do so for Hillary (I did not vote for Trump).  However, Anthony Dimaggio makes a very persuasive case that dissing Hillary supporters out of some so-called 'principle' is an almost certain route to failure in the effort to seek progressive change in this society.  It has essentially the same effect that Hillary's use of the term 'deplorables' to describe working folks who supported Trump.  If we can't find some way to unite against the power of the moneyed interests and their political lackeys, failure is almost assured. 

This means not just working with mainstream Democrats (not the political elitists), but also making alliances with rural working class folks who, after thirty years of being ignored and dissed by the Democratic Party, deserted the Party and supported Trump in this past election.  The simple fact is that no single group of us can accomplish anything acting alone or simply by focusing on 'identity politics'  where each siloed interest group acts as if their particular interest is the only one which matters.  This is just what our rulers want us to do.  Acting alone simply renders all of us politically impotent.  We must make every effort to achieve a significant level of solidarity and push from the bottom up to force the powers that be to change.  This will require that we, all of us, adopt new attitudes of the collective good, to support one another wherever we can and not fight over whose movement is more important – they all are.  It is only by acting together that we have any chance of achieving our goals.

John

Link 

• to PDF article, Assessing Opportunities for Positive Political Change

Fwd: The fruits of hubris

From: John H

Attached are two articles from Consortium News that are tangentially related but should each get your attention in a very visceral way.  The first is particularly chilling in that it describes a peculiar state of mind, which is apparently spreading through the defense department, in which senior military and political officials are convincing themselves that it is conceivable that the US could 'win' a nuclear war with Russia if we strike first.  More importantly, there is at least the suggestion that the sooner such an action can be taken the greater the likelihood of success.  This is clearly an insane premise.  Unfortunately, the second post, written by ex-British diplomat Alastair Crooke, describing in some detail Steve Bannon's worldview makes the premise of the first article much more likely.

I have to say that one, of the many, reasons I opposed Hillary's ascension to the presidency was her long-standing antipathy toward Vladimir Putin and Russia, along with her almost constant willingness to have the US engage in senseless wars all around the world.  Trump at least offered the case that he believed this to be foolhardy; and, while I was not in any way a Trump supporter, this at least seemed a more rational worldview.  Now we know that a Bannon-inspired Trump is no less a risk to the survival of the world than neocon-inspired Hillary.  Trump, on the other hand, has always been a greater threat to the social structure of the nation even though Clinton was no bargain herself.

John

Links

1. Dreams of 'Winning" Nuclear War on Russia, PDF
2. Steve Bannon's Apocalyptic Unravelling, PDF 

Fwd: Popularity and sclerosis

---------- Forwarded message
From: John H

Ian Welsh addresses Trump's popularity and the sclerosis of globalization.

John

Link:

•  So Trump and Republicans are STILL More Popular than Clinton and Dems

Fwd: War it is . . .

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: John H

Well, it appears that the verdict is in and . . . WAR is the in thing in the Trump administration.  This doesn't appear to be promising – here or there.

John

Link:

• The Generals vs. the Ideologues or the Generals and the Ideologues?

Fwd: Telling it like it is

---------- Forwarded
From John

Paul Street and Mike Whitney take liberals to task – and it's about time they listened!

John

 Links:

Get fleas
Lame shaming and Russia blaming

Fwd: Trump and the Deep State

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Hemington

I suspect that the first attachment will make a number either uncomfortable or angry as you may think that it is a defense of Donald Trump's presidency – it is not.  However, I believe that it is a dead-on accurate reflection of what is now taking place in this country.  The neoliberal wings of both the Democratic and Republican Parties – including all of the main stream and neoliberal media – are waging a full-court press to discredit and eliminate a sitting president.  Regardless of one's feelings about Trump, and I find him to be despicable, the propaganda war which is being waged against him sets an exceedingly dangerous precedent – up to and including the suggestion that the 'Deep State' should act to "take him out."  The tactics being employed are right out of the Joe McCarthy playbook from the 1950s.  And, don't forget, if Trump is removed in one way or another, we are left with a much smoother, more devious version of Trump in Mike Pence.  The Pence project will be no less destructive than the Trump project, but will be much more difficult to fight against.

The second attachment deals with neoliberal/neoconservative effort to intensify the chaos and destruction of the Middle East, this time in Yemen.  It focuses on the frightening silence of Western media concerning the devastation being wrought on millions of innocent civilians by US surrogates Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates using American weapons, planes and aerial refueling capacity.  This is and has been for quite a long while an unconscionable operation aimed at supposed Iranian terrorism, which actually is virtually nonexistent in the current Middle East.  Almost all real terrorist activity is Saudi inspired Sunni groups such as al Qaeda and other similar groups.  These, of course, we fund and support while claiming to simultaneously be waging war against them.  It is the murderous height of hypocrisy at its very worst and it is all transpiring in our name and the blood of innocents is on our hands.

John

Links

• Goose stepping our way to a pink revolution, PDF article
• Yemen article