Saturday

Fun

Dice Roll: The Phantom Gambler


College Scandal

What the college cheating scandal says about race - No CNN, it's not about race it's about class.

More about class. We’re Losing the War on Corruption- Paul Manafort and Felicity Huffman are twin avatars of an elite that still acts with impunity.



Israel and the Golan Heights

US drops 'Israeli-occupied' designation from Golan Heights

UN rejects Israel's claim over Syria's Golan Heights: Security Council says status of the Golan will not change after Netanyahu vows it will remain part of Israeli territory.

Here's what CNN had to say about it.............................

Here's what FOX had to say about it.............................

Foreign Affairs

According to Spanish investigators, two of the men who broke into the diplomatic headquarters have connections to the US intelligence service

US Regime Change Blueprint Proposed Venezuelan Electricity Blackouts as ‘Watershed Event’

It's just a lot harder to hide this sort of activity in the internet age.

Here's what CNN and FOX had to say about this.............................

Media and Politics

Tulsi Gabbard on Colbert

Medicare for All

I read 1,182 emergency room bills this year. Here’s what I learned.

Roaming Charges: Straighten Up and Fly Right

+ Why health insurance companies secretly loved ObamaCare and will fight like hell against single-payer: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a “nonprofit” health insurance company, posted $580 million in net revenue (profits) on $29.3 billion in total revenue in 2018. It’s CEO Dan Loepp saw his compensation grow 43% in 2018 to $19.2 million.

American Crapitalism

It's Magic! Betsy DeVos' Department of Education allows Grand Canyon University to call itself non-profit while its parent company reports profit margin of 27 percent



American Corruption

Also,..... Does anyone want to bet what country this is? Confirmed: Mueller seeking subpoena, contempt citation against foreign corporation

Wednesday

Misc 

Good Stuff from Axios

Luck and Success

THE MORAL IMPORTANCE OF LUCK

"All such outcomes involve a large portion of luck. 

The promise of great financial reward spurs risk-taking, market competition, and innovation. Markets, properly regulated, are a socially healthy form of gambling. There’s no reason to try to completely equalize market outcomes. But there’s also no reason to allow hunger, homelessness, ill health, or subjugation."

Oh.... to be rich enough to just donate millions to get my kid into college through the back door instead of that illegal side door. The rich sure do have it tough.... A tax break might make them feel better.


Police State

Disputed N.S.A. Phone Program Is Shut Down, Aide Says - Sure it is......



Politics

Ian Welsh: The Democratic party establishment is still run by moderates; and those moderates still respect the right and despise the left.

Balkinization on Trumps Budget - Understanding the President’s Budget Proposal

Critics are no doubt correct that this budget proposal will be “dead on arrival” in Congress:  almost all presidential budget proposals are.  It nonetheless remains significant for several reasons.  First, it provides a comprehensive statement of this Administration’s values and priorities.  It makes the 2017 upper-income tax cuts permanent – at a cost of $275 billion in 2028 alone – at the same time it would impose 30% reductions in food stamps as well as deep cuts in Social Security Disability Insurance, Supplemental Security Income for the elderly and disabled, Medicaid, and family income support. 

Fox Propaganda

What Makes Fox News So Dangerous

Fox Lies Again - A constant barrage of little things like this built the wingnut party.

Other media outlets and our government officials lie too. NYT’s Exposé on the Lies About Burning Aid Trucks in Venezuela Shows How U.S. Government and Media Spread Pro-War Propaganda



US and Israel

Lindsey Graham has lost his mind.

“To give this territory up would be a strategic nightmare for Israel. And who would you give it to?” said US Sen. Lindsey Graham Monday on a visit to the Golan with PM Binyamin Netanyahu. He promised to work with Senator Cruz on a move to recognize the Golan as part of Israel “now and forever.” It was taken by military force “ because it served as a launching pad to attack Israel. There is rich Jewish history in this region,” said Sen. Graham. He went on to say: “I can’t tell you how much intelligence has been given us from our friends in Israel to protect the American homeland… so its security is relevant to American national security.”

From Haaretz

Medicare for All

Pharma & Insurance Gave $43M to the 129 House Democrats Not Backing Medicare for All

Tuesday

Cool Stuff






US Politicians vs Israel

A pretty good summary of the recent uproar - I am told I am anti-American if I am not pro-Israel’ and that’s problematic — Ilhan Omar stands strong amid blizzard of attacks

From the always good Naked Capitalism

Fox: The Propaganda Network

Fox News’s propaganda isn’t just unethical — research shows it’s enormously influential

The Making of the Fox News White House: Fox News has always been partisan. But has it become propaganda?

[IT ISN'T FOX THAT'S CHANGED].

"Fox is what it always was. It always shilled for the GOP, or at least the wing of the GOP that was the least conciliatory. It always used fear to radicalize its viewers and to win viewer loyalty. The only difference is that now one of those loyal marathon viewers is president."

I agree with Steve at the No More Mister Nice blog.  

Fox has been feeding fear and hate to fuel right-wing rage since day one. There was just never a wingnut candidate available to take the reins of the Fox cult and be the great leader.  

Several tried, Sarah Palin, Michell Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Herman Cain, Newt, etc. they all tried. These nuts did well on Fox, in the Iowa caucus, and a few other early primaries but the R party regulars were always against them and they just didn't have the skills or power-base to pull it off. 

Trump did! He shared (or had been filled with) all the same Fox wingnut ideas but he also had the image of a business leader and national media recognition. He pulled it off and became the leader of the Fox cult and Fox became state TV.

Socialism

US Left - "We want the government to do more to take care of people."

US Right - "That's Socialism. It sucks, look at Cuba and Venezuela."

US Left - "We don't want full Socialism like Cuba or Venezuela, government control of everything. We want Democratic Socialism like the European countries, Norway, Sweden, etc. where the free market can do what it does well and Government handles areas where the free market tends to fail, like healthcare, retirement, disabilities, education, childcare, infrastructure, etc.

US Right - "Norway isn't socialist so you can't have that! You dumb people"

Link Here: Sorry Bernie Bros But Nordic Countries Are Not Socialist

Monday

The kids are all right

Democratic party elites silence Ilhan Omar at their peril: The congresswoman’s foreign policy views are far more in line with voters than the disconnected party establishment

If Democratic leaders were incredulous at Omar’s statements, rank-and-file Democrats were just as incredulous at their party leaders. Why, many asked, is it routine to criticize the influence of NRA money but almost forbidden to question the influence of Aipac money? On top of that, how could Trump’s neocon criminal be lauded as some sort of ally while Omar was treated as a pariah? 

and

Democrats need to have a real conversation, immediately, about the party’s values and goals in foreign policy. Squelch it now and watch it resurge in 2020, with Trump the beneficiary.

Medicare for All

Jayapal Says Medicare for All Bill Coming in Two Weeks as Expert Calls Plan 'Astonishingly Strong'

Tell Your Congress-Rat to support it. Support Medicare for all


Tech

The Route of a Text Message, a Love Story: The surprisingly complex journey a text message takes every time we hit 'send.'

They missed the local police department stinger and the NSA

Terrorism

Al Qaeda-linked jihadists kill 21 Syrian soldiers near Idlib province - I guess if we call them Al Qaeda, we can claim we've defeated ISIS.

Saturday

Tech

U.S. companies put record number of robots to work in 2018

"Pressure to automate is growing as companies seek to cut labor costs in a tight job market. Many companies that are considering bringing work back from overseas in response to the Trump administration’s trade wars may find automation the best way to stay competitive, even with higher-cost U.S. workers." 

and  

“The food industry is really starting to take off” as a market for automation, said Dan Hasley, director of sales and marketing for Kawasaki Robotics (USA) Inc, part of Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries .

Thugs

Matt Gaetz investigated over threatening Michael Cohen tweets

"Gaetz tweeted at Cohen, "Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she'll remain faithful when you're in prison. She's about to learn a lot..."

I can't see why this wouldn't earn some sort of criminal charge. It seems like clear cut witness tampering/threatening. 

Politics

The Intercept on Feinstein vs the Kids - The Fox News-Talk Radio wingnuts have been pulling hard on the right for years while the establishment Ds just sat there and let us drift into this mess. Now the Progressives Ds and the SDs are pulling hard on the left too. Hope they keep it up. They are our only hope to wrestle control from the corporate elite.

oh,... and Feinstein needs to go.

No More Mister Nice on pulling to the right. CPAC and the Media: Why?


Medicare for All

Is Nancy Pelosi Lying or Just Plain Stupid? - Well,... she ain't stupid. She's telling the story the donors want the US people to hear.

oh,... and Pelosi needs to go.


Iran Sanctions

India and China Defy Trump on the Iranian Oil Boycott: Instead of deterring the two countries from trading with Iran, the sanctions seem to have strengthened economic ties.

Little wonder that Iran’s oil exports in January at 1.1 to 1.3 million bpd were higher than 1 million bpd in December.

It looks like the rest of the world is give Trump a big "F**k You" on Iran.

Israel vs US

An Israeli firm spying on and threatening US Citizens.

• How a Private Israeli Intelligence Firm Spied on Pro-Palestinian Activists in the U.S.
• I was the target of a private Israeli intelligence firm, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

It sure feels like there's been a shift in how we view and how the media is reporting Israeli meddling in US issues.  Maybe it's just my media/info bubble ?

Trump, Cohen, and the Rs

Probably the best summary of the Cohen testimony I've seen: [Hail Mary] from the always good Gin and Tacos

But it's a real Hail Mary for the GOP to rally around the defense of, this man who was the close, trusted ally of the president for 10+ years and served as his fixer is a vicious lying scumbag felon. They appointed Cohen finance chair of the Republican National Committee in 2017, for christ's sake. To call that argument an insult to the intelligence of their audience is an understatement. It's beyond stupid and it relies entirely on the assumption that people will support it without thinking about it if they are told to.

Does it bring anything closer to resolution? Who the fuck knows, and frankly at this point it is probably to the Democrats' advantage for Trump to run in 2020 rather than a last-minute replacement president who would give the GOP the appearance of having rid itself of its cancer. But it's pretty clear from watching the pathetic display put on by the GOP members of Congress during those hearings that the problem runs far, far deeper than one man. Whenever the Trump show is over, I have a feeling he's going to take more than a few of these allies down with him. If you want to lose a night of sleep, try thinking about the fact that some large percentage of your fellow Americans watched that shitshow and liked what they saw. Some of them liked it a great deal.

Don't get me wrong, we're all going on a three-week bender when Trump is finished, but man, this is not a problem that gets resolved quickly or easily. The president is the symptom, not the virus.

Trump, Cohen, and the Ds

"Cohen's fear - by digby

I don't believe this. Both parties scare their base with stories that the other guy is planning on taking over. The Rs did it with Obama. The Ds are doing it with Trump. If I had to bet, Trump is getting tired of it all, or scared, and wants out. Pence has been in the news some lately on foreign policy issues. I think he's gearing up to run in 2020.

Terrorism?

US offers $1m reward for capture of Osama bin Laden’s son (Mar 1, 2019 @ 12:03)

"Hamza bin Laden, 30, has threatened attacks on the US and allies to avenge his father Osama’s death in May 2011 by US commandos. The US State Department announced a $1m reward for information leading to his capture. “Hamza bin Laden is emerging as a leader of the AQ franchise,” said the notice. Osama Bin Laden had groomed his son to take over the AQ leadership. In August 2015, he began releasing audio and video messages on the Internet calling on his followers to launch attacks against the United States and its Western allies. “On January 5, 2017, the Department of State designated Hamza bin Laden as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.  His assets based in the United States were frozen"

I'd guess we should expect a terrorist attack any day now. 

To Wednesday

History

Why Civilizations Collapse

War

The Kalashnikov assault rifle changed the world. Now there’s a Kalashnikov kamikaze drone. - wonderful. The American capitalist war-monger weapons dealers better get their own version out there, lest they lose a few precious dollars. If their terrorists are going to have them, our terrorists freedom-fighters will have them too.


Cyber War

U.S. Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms - This seems more like a propaganda piece from a group wanting more money in their next budget.


Political Economy

5. Don't worry about the national debt

"The bottom line: There is no evidence from 240 years of American history that the level of the national debt has ever really mattered. The U.S. prints its own currency, and can borrow as much as it likes, increasingly from domestic investors. Per Buffett, deficit hawks have preached doom for decades. They have never been proven correct."

BREXIT AS SYMPTOM  - This works for the US too, just replace Brexit with Trump as you read.


Media

 The U.S.-Venezuela Aid Convoy Story Is Clearly Bogus, but No One Wants to Say It

"Despite all the evidence before them, MSNBC, CNN and countless other networks and publications across the ideological spectrum refuse to frame this humanitarian gambit as an act of hostility. Instead, knowing what they know and who they are covering, they have largely portrayed Trump, Bolton and Abrams as champions of the Venezuelan people."

Tell me again about out left-wing media? They all seem to be in line with the Venezuela story.

Medicare for All

US HEALTHCARE DISGRACE: GOFUNDME-CARE SYMPTOMATIC OF EXTREME INEQUALITY

"Rob Solomon, the CEO of GoFundMe revealed this week that one-third of the billions of dollars the popular crowdfunding site has raised since its inception went toward somebody’s medical expenses.

“It saddens me that this is a reality,” Solomon told Kaiser Health News. Sure, it’s sad, but more than anything else, it should enrage all Americans struggling to make ends meet.

How is it possible that, in the world’s richest country, people have to resort to begging for money online in order to survive?

The answer, of course, is that this is happening by design. The US could provide healthcare to everybody — but those in power have chosen not to. Instead, they decided to craft a system that wrings the most amount of money out of those who are sick and then funnels that money to doctors, drug manufacturers, hospitals, and insurance providers.

Ultimately, a nice chunk of those billions will find their way back into the campaign coffers of the architects of the system"

Israel - Palestine

Kushner: US peace plan wants Palestinians under one leadership

"Washington also hopes to see “a reconciliation between the Palestinian leaderships in Gaza and the West Bank” and the Palestinians “united under one leadership.”

I guess he doesn't know Bush tried to get the Palestinians united under one leadership. Held free and fair elections where the Palestinians elected a lot of Hamas folks that Israel and the US didn't like. The Israelis spent the next few months arresting and/or killing a lot of the newly elected representatives to squash the newly elected government.  

So,...It ain't going to happen. It might be sold as "one leadership" but it has to be one leadership approved by/bought and owned by the Israelis. The Palestinian people as a whole won't have a say in the matter.

There's only room for one democracy in the middle east.

Also.... Israeli Bulldozers uproot 300 Palestinian-Owned Trees near Jenin

Sunday AM

Politics

A young progressive generation led by grouchy old people. Feinstein need to go. She's part of the problem. - Dianne Feinstein's climate change discussion with schoolchildren gets heated.

Fox and the wingers are always pulling to the right dragging along the middle-of-the-road crowd. At least now there are some lefties pulling back. ABUSIVE AUDIENCE


Israel

Netanyahu and the right-wing Likud party are the problem. Can AIPAC sell Netanyahu’s Kahanist Terrorists to Middle America?


Mr. Wolfram is organized. Some crazy stuff here. I guess it works for him.  Seeking the Productive Life: Some Details of My Personal Infrastructure


Propaganda

US Media....."Nothing to see in France but wow, look at Venezuela."   Thousands march across France for the Gilets Jaunes' "Act XV"


The War on Drugs

The drug dealers who never go to jail. Sackler behind OxyContin fraud offered twisted, mind-boggling defense

Saturday

Trump

GET OUT OF THE BOAT

"Electing Trump president was pretty much the same thing as electing Dennis Rodman president, i.e., a washed-up celebrity from the 1980s with obvious mental health issues and a bizarre affection for the North Korean regime.  Really the only significant difference now is the tattoos.  (To be fair Rodman was actually good at something once upon a time, so comparing him to Trump is kind of unfair in that regard)."

Police State

THE POLICE AND FASCISTS: A LOVE AFFAIR - Police are in general, not the friends of the general public.



Health Care

Two hundred years of health and medical care - Take-a-way from this chart? - If you think Obamacare fucked-up the cost of healthcare in this country. Fuck You! It's been on an almost direct line since 1960.

Socialism

Socialism right in the Middle of Trump Country. Wayne County Indiana

"That work paid off in a big way recently with the news that more than $4 million in federal funding will be coming to Wayne County to cover most of the price tag for three expensive bridges."

Here in the middle of Trump country*, evangelical, Eastern Indiana Teabagistan where we hate the big federal government and socialism, we like do things for ourselves or let the free market handle it. Well, except when we're the folks getting the federal cash. Oh,.. we like our farm subsidies too. 

* Wayne county was 62% Trump. All the surrounding counties were at 70% Trump.


Pence and Iran 

PENCE SAYS TIME HAS COME FOR EU TO WITHDRAW FROM IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL -

Mike Pence starting his run to challenge Trump? I wouldn't doubt it a bit, but the meeting seems to have been a bust.

"But Great Britain and Italy were the only two EU nations in attendance. Others– including France, Germany, and the EU's high representative for foreign affairs– declined to send high level officials to the ministerial, protesting the tone of a conference they claimed was designed to undermine a nuclear deal with Tehran they continue to abide." 

Also, from Juan Cole: Trump’s Attempt to Strongarm Europe on Iran Crashes and Burns

"On Friday at a Munich security meeting, Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, replied to the chiding of Vice President Mike Pence that Iran is destabilizing the region. Maas remarked that “Together with the British, the French and the entire European Union, we have found a means to allow Iran to remain in the nuclear accord. Our objective remains the lack of nuclear weapons, precisely because Iran destablizes the region.” Without the accord, “the region will not be more secure, but would in fact take a further step toward open confrontation.”

Us and Israel

Three articles on Israel's influence on US politics. note... Of course,  It's not about the Benjamins...

The New Republic - This Is What the Beginning of a Real Israel Debate Looks Like: Before Ilhan Omar came to the national stage, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer tried to discuss pro-Israel lobbying. They were shouted down.

The New Yorker - Private Mossad for Hire: Inside an effort to influence American elections, starting with one small-town race.

The Nation - This Is How AIPAC Really Works: An AIPAC and Capitol Hill veteran explains the lobby’s tactics of reward and retribution

Friday Propaganda

Fox is on it today. The biggest news story on every real news site is Trump planning an unprecedented step by declaring a national emergency to build his wall.

Here are the top headlines on the Fox Site

FBI tried plotted a coup. Dems are stupid and coming for your guns. A couple of murder stories.

Pretty close to National Enquirer.

They shouldn't be allowed to call themselves a news site. 

Thursday

Propaganda

Here’s a Fox article, (not the video I didn’t watch it.) from a front page headline that is absolute BS just designed to scare people.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dan-bongino-americans-still-love-capitalism-here-are-three-reasons-why-they-arent-flocking-to-socialism

The 3 points are all BS designed to scare people.

1. Americans enjoy eating food.
1. Hinting that…. You’ll starve under socialism
2. Americans don't want to be equally poor
1. Hinting …..You’ll be poor under socialism
3. Freedom of speech matters
1. Later line says….. under the threat of torture for speaking out.

No one…. Not one….  of the Democratic socialists has ever called for anything like this. Even the most radical people I read, and some are way out there, are not calling for this.

They simply want to expand some existing programs to help take care of people.

Medicare for all, public education, cleaner environment, Less military spending. Again the European model.

Fox jumps right to some scary, imagined, full-communist vision that no one is suggesting and never mentions the European version that really does work.

Fox should have it’s “News” designation taken away for this alone.

Thursday - 2

Establishment D's

After promising health care execs that Medicare for All was dead, Pelosi's team plans toothless pharma deal

Socialism

Is Socialism Still An Effective Political Bogeyman?


2020

THE CENTER ISN’T WHERE VOTERS ARE - a post about Howard Shultz but the headline is the key. The center isn't where the voters are, it is firmly occupied by business, media, and donors. The D voters liked Sander's policies enough to push HRC to the limit even though the entire D machine was pushing against him. Trump beat all the establishment R's by appealing to the far-right, Fox News- Teagbagger side of the party.  The R's lost control. The D's damn-near did. The voters are the outliers.



AIPAC

Don’t blame the Israel lobby on Christians and Republicans

Ian Welsh: When Are You Guilty For The Crimes Of Your Group -


Media

Found at Political Irony

Saturday #1

2020

Tulsi Gabbard  - Except for being a bit squishy on LBGTs, she sounds pretty good.



Trump

Trump Is Wrong. When The Opposition Party Runs The House, The President Gets Investigated. - I think "Trump is wrong" is better than "Trump is Lying" here. You can't lie if you just don't know what the fuck you are talking about.

Corruption

MAKE AMERICA GRIFT AGAIN

The committee paid a total of $700,000 to the Trump International Hotel for event spaces for four days in January 2017. At the time, a consultant working for the inaugural committee expressed her concern over email that the price quoted by the Trump hotel — $175,000 per day for several event spaces — was too high, as ProPublica and WNYC reported in December. 

“Please take into consideration that when this is audited it will become public knowledge,” wrote Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, an experienced New York-based event planner, suggesting a fair rate for the event spaces would be at most $85,000 per day, less than half of what was ultimately paid. That fee did not cover catering.

Tax Cuts

PAUL RYAN, POLITICAL SUPERGENIUS

“Ask people how much they paid in taxes, nobody knows. Ask them how much they got in their refund, people know,” Howard Gleckman , a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, told the Intercept’s David Dayen this week. “Everyone focuses on size of the refund, and it does affect perception.”

In other words: It looks as though the Republican Party implemented their signature tax bill in a manner that will lead many people who received tax cuts to believe that Donald Trump raised their taxes.

Yep, people are in general, dumb as shit about taxes.  The R's tried to take advantage of it. I hope it bites them in the ass.

Israel and US Politics

Jimmy Carter believed he lost a second term because he opposed settlements, alienating Jews — Eizenstat - US politicians have to be careful with the settlements. The wrong policy stance can cost you an election.

When George H.W. Bush died last year, we revisited the idea that he was a one-term president in part because he vigorously took on the Israel lobby over settlements in 1991, and paid a price. Even Tom Friedman said that was the political lesson of the Bush presidency for Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, neither of whom did much to oppose settlements.

And everyone knows that settlements bedeviled the Obama presidency. “It is time for these settlements to stop,” Obama declared in Cairo, till he faced reelection, and reversed course two years later under pressure from Netanyahu and Jewish organizations, and vetoed a settlements resolution at the U.N. And then he reversed course again– and in one of the last acts of his presidency, Obama allowed an anti-settlements resolution to go through in December 2016 (a move that Donald Trump sought to undermine by reaching out to the Russians).

What I did not know till I read the new book, “Jimmy Carter, The White House Years,” by his former top domestic policy adviser Stuart Eizenstat, is that Israeli settlements also bedeviled the Carter administration. 

Saturday #3 - Bezos

Did the National Enquirer blackmail Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Protect the Saudi Crown Prince?
and Pecker miscalculated - This sounds more Trump collusion-y than the Russia thing.

.. another Bezos Article Jeff Bezos Accuses the National Enquirer of Sextortion

.. and another National Enquirer blackmail claim. Maybe its time for that rag to go out of business.

Ronan Farrow says he also faced ‘blackmail efforts from AMI’ for reporting on the National Enquirer, Trump

Even more on the Bezos Thing

Jeff Bezos’ investigator suspects 'a government agency' intercepted Amazon CEO's text messages

These two tweets stood out.

Even more on Bezos.  This, from last year seems relevant. or really, seems like a threat.

“TRUMP IS LIKE, ‘HOW CAN I F--K WITH HIM?’”: TRUMP’S WAR WITH AMAZON (AND THE WASHINGTON POST) IS PERSONAL - With the West Wing finally calm, Trump is contemplating a multi-front campaign against Jeff Bezos

Now, according to four sources close to the White House, Trump is discussing ways to escalate his Twitter attacks on Amazon to further damage the company. “He’s off the hook on this. It’s war,” one source told me. “He gets obsessed with something, and now he’s obsessed with Bezos,” said another source. “Trump is like, how can I fuck with him?”

Saturday #2 - Propaganda

Presenting right-wing Fox News contributor as "WSJ Writer"

Fox plays up that a "WSJ writer" slammed AOCs Green New Deal without mentioning that the WSJ writer is a Fox News contributor and basically a conservative hack. It makes it easier to convince the rubes that everyone is against AOCs plan if they can show articles from non-Fox sources.

Drudge implies Bezos is the problem here.....

Fox Misrepresents Democratic-Socialists vs Communists

Showing "Democratic-Socialists" who want the US to be more like Sweden, Norway and other European countries. Misrepresenting living in a "socialist" country. The person grew up in communist, not socialist, not democratic-socialist, China. China, who by the way, now seems to be beating the US at capitalism.

Fox primes the hate/anger pump.

One school is stupidly politically correct so you are right to hate the education system and political correctness

Fox twisting things around

I don't remember Hillary's testimony being "Political Theatre"

I hear a lot of D's calling for D resignations. I don't remember any R's not sticking with Kavanaugh

Remember what they did to poor Roger Stone.

Progressive are hypocrites because their billionaires exploit workers too. Maybe we should just leave the billionaires alone.

Dems are dumb, hypocritical, and weak on homeland security, especially Muslim Dems.

Wednesday

Trump

Gin and Tacos with a great description of Trump as the President. CalvinBall

"Donald Trump isn't even trying to be president in any sense that the job of the president is understood. An analogy might illustrate my point best. Imagine you wanted to rank the (53 x 2) 106 quarterback performances in the Super Bowl. But you didn't have 106 quarterbacks – you had 105, and then this one guy who showed up on game day wearing a loincloth, swinging around a baseball bat, and making no effort to play the game at all. He simply showed up, preened for the crowd, and screamed "Fuck you!" at the referees for three hours."

The Tax Returns - We may finally see Trump’s tax returns, and Republicans are panicking


Propaganda

GOP LEADERSHIP INSTRUCTS LAWMAKERS TO PLAY UP GRUESOME MURDERS AND RAPES BY IMMIGRANTS  -  The Rs have beat the shit out of the Ds in the propaganda war for years.

Pulling the Rope - A damned good couple of paragraphs that explain the Establishment D's ineptitude. It doesn't hurt that the Rs have a major "news"network to prime the pump, still the Ds suck at this. Bernie, AOC, and the new crop of progressives can only help.

"Here’s what conservatives have always understood: in order to win at politics you pull as hard as you can in your preferred direction all the time, no matter what the immediate consequences. You don’t pick some arbitrary point on the righthand side of the line and say, “let’s shoot for that target.” Because if you do that you’re limited your ability to haul the rope as hard as you possibly can. Democrats have never understood this. They chase the center, thinking that this will make them more popular and give them more power. But the center they’re chasing is getting pulled to the right. Because their opponents know: all you do is pull the rope. Liberal thinkers wax poetic about how a health political society includes something like balance across the rope so we can have a Burkean parlor blah blah blah. And conservatives tug the rope."

Free Speech

Every Senator who voted for this should be run out of office. Free Speech except when speaking about Israel


Socialism

Fox Propaganda doing its best to support the orange one and scare people away from "Socialism".

What they won't tell you is that we are "socialist" now. We fund our military, support our old and disabled folks, build roads, bridges, teach our children all with socialist policies. The Bernie and AOC crowd just want to move the line a little to include a few other things like healthcare for all, cheaper college, etc.

NO ONE.... NO ONE.... is calling for for pure socialism, government control of all means of production.

Bernie and AOC want to let private business and markets provide the things they are good at, iPhones, cars,  consumer products, etc.  But,... They want to have the government handle the things where the market is not so good, healthcare, education, etc. That's the European model of democratic socialism and it works.

Anyone who talks "Socialist" without explaining this is trying to mislead you.

Vote Democratic socialist.