Much has happened in the world in the past few months. Especially since November 8, when the “left” or the “progressives” in the USA and indeed the world have been crapping their pants about some orange skinned person with homunculus like hands winning the seat of most powerful person in the world. While as concerning as this is to me (it really is), what has been more concerning to me has been how the Democratic Party and it’s supporters have been acting even before the election and their actions since. What I mean by that is, what difference does it make if Trump is in power if the alternative to him is no different or perhaps worse in some ways.
Enter Caitlin Johnstone into my radar a few weeks ago. Not only is she saying everything I have been noticing going on with the progressive side of the USA, but she does it with style and a flair that is beyond my writing skills. Her voice needs to be amplified by people who feel that the left has been co-opted by the neo-liberals in a drive to make the choice between neo-liberal and ultra-neo-liberal.
Here are some excerpts of what I love about her:
Caitlin Johnstone on the corporate media:
“It’s been a trippy last few days, and if you’ve been listening to mainstream media it’s even trippier because everything’s on fire and we’re all about to die. In real life though, the world is still turning, the sun is still shining, and Republicans are just doing a somewhat milder version of the same idiotic dance they’ve always done. We’re essentially getting the same anti-science, anti-environment, pro-billionaire schtick we would’ve gotten had any other Republican won the presidency, minus the wars and predatory trade deals that the neocons love.
This is hardly the goose-stepping, minority-incinerating dystopian apocalypse that the establishment media was promising us in the event of a Trump win. They’re still trying to paint it as though their alarmist prophecies have come true, but they have not. Sure it’s weird and stupid and kind of uncomfortable, but we are unquestionably living in a safer world than we would have been under a President Clinton. This is important for progressives to notice, because by cranking up the alarmism to eleven and freaking out about literally everything Donald Trump says and does, the neoliberal establishment is setting us up for their next move”
This safer world being talk about is because the No-Fly-Zone in Syria is something Candidate Clinton routinely said she would impose. In debates even.
“To this day, the elites of the Democratic party are doing everything they can to avoid addressing the DNC’s brazen assault on American democracy the way everyone knows they should. In any sort of functional democratic political system this outrageous scandal would have been met with unequivocal condemnation from the top to the bottom, with the President personally overseeing a complete overhaul of the Committee and all the party’s leaders apologizing profusely to the American people and doing everything they could to make it better, including a complete re-do of the primary under close, stringent oversight. Instead they’re babbling about Russian hackers and trying desperately to get the average American to care about Kremlin operatives more than they care about having to work three jobs to make ends meet in the Walmart economy.”
Caitlin Johnstone on just how awesome Tulsi Gabbard is:
“Gabbard somehow refrained from unleashing the torrent of shrieking, profanity-laced vitriol I definitely would have blasted him with had I been in her shoes, maintained her composure without batting an eye, and patiently explained why Tapper is stupid and wrong about everything. She swatted aside the limp pundit’s feeble protestations as she finally spoke of her findings in Syria, the people’s unbelievable suffering at the hands of the terrorist insurgents, their confusion as to why the United States is backing terrorist factions, and the fact that she did not meet a single person who believed that there were moderate rebels in Syria. It’s definitely worth a watch; here’s a hyperlink if you missed it the first time.”
On why Obama doesn’t deserve special credit for commuting Chelsey Manning’s sentence:
“In terms of what’s left of his legacy, all that Obama gets from me is one less thing to hate him for. When I’m going to bed at night, there will be one less thing on my extremely long list of evil things that he has done for me to rage about. He’s still the guy who got Chelsea Manning tortured and nearly killed. He’s still the guy who chose to let her rot in isolation long after the United Nations special rapporteur on torture Juan E. Mendez stated unequivocally that Manning’s treatment was “cruel, inhuman and degrading” and after 295 legal scholars signed a letter declaring that she was being “detained under degrading and inhumane conditions that are illegal and immoral.” He’s still the guy who left her in that hell hole after not one but two suicide attempts. He’s still the guy who promised to protect whistleblowers and have the most transparent administration in history, then went on to prosecute more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. The man is evil, and his ceasing to inflict more evil in this one particular area does not change that. He’s probably only doing it to bait Assange out of political asylum anyway.”
“The Democrats had taken a severe beating starting with the neoliberal establishment’s evisceration of Jimmy Carter back in the late seventies and early eighties, but Bill Clinton figured out that you can still rake in big bucks from the donor class and give them everything they want in exchange as long as you pay lip service to the things the political left cares about. Under Slick Willy’s leadership, the so-called New Democrats took on the mantra of “fiscally conservative, socially liberal,” which was another way of saying they don’t care what you do in your bedroom or what color your skin is, as long as you help them crush you to death with the Walmart economy and sell your life blood to Wall Street.”
I hope these paragraphs that I have shared has encouraged you to give Caitlin a visit. She’s currently talking about how to retake the Democratic Party and why it’s important to attack the neo-liberals on the left rather than on the right. I hope you find her as awesome as I do!
17 comments
January 30, 2017 at 6:51 am
makagutu
Interesting.
Do you think the people at the top of the DP are listening?
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January 30, 2017 at 6:56 am
john zande
Impressive mind
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January 30, 2017 at 3:53 pm
bleatmop
@makagutu I think not only are they actively not listening but they are doubling down on their neoliberalism. I expect them to try and shift further down that rabbit-dung hole in an effort to steal Republican voters. I also expect them to continue to blame progressive voters who won’t follow them down this path for giving the election to the Republicans rather than do any introspection.
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January 30, 2017 at 5:19 pm
Vesuvius R. Kaine
If neo-liberals are the ones making everyone apologize every time someone’s feelings get hurt, then I’m all for any changes.
Bill Maher, another liberal, speaking the truth:
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January 30, 2017 at 5:24 pm
bleatmop
@ VR – I would read the progressive vs. fauxgressive article. It perfectly explains how the neo-liberals are letting the social issues be the smoke screen for the neo-liberals to bleed us to death with the Walmart economy. The whole apology issue is just another distraction to keep us plebs busy while the ruling class laughs all the way to the bank.
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January 30, 2017 at 9:10 pm
Vesuvius R. Kaine
I’ll give the full article a read – thanks for introducing it.
The whole apology issue is just another distraction to keep us plebs busy while the ruling class laughs all the way to the bank.”
Identity/apology politics is surely one of their prized achievements and what I believe has them laughing the hardest right now, I’m sure. I’m just a pee-on compared to them and I find it hilarious, so I imagine they’re splitting ribs over it even more. Funny that people keep falling for it even when they see things like the Bush’s and Obamas being best friends, or Trump now saying he has “tremendous respect and admiration” for Bill & Hillary. Elites are elites.
In some of the well-to-do Californian and Texan circles I get to crash the parties of (haha), it’s nowhere near as easy to guess an elite’s true political leanings as one might think. There’s those who feel they’re entitled, and those who don’t. What you see at the very top is similar to what you see at the very bottom, except at the top they have a much greater sense of entitlement due to genetics/pedigree (old money vs. new money, “purebloods vs. mudbloods” sort of thing). http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/02/11/donald.trump.marriage.apprentice/
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January 30, 2017 at 9:19 pm
bleatmop
+1 for the Harry Potter reference.
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January 30, 2017 at 10:14 pm
Bernie Orbust
Just little bits of history repeating: The people were hysterical over Mulroney. Chretien promised change. Was lying. Mike Harris came along. People got hysterical. Liberals promised change. Made things worse. Bush Jr. came along. People got hysterical. Obama promised change. Was lying. Harper came along. The people got hysterical. Trudeau promised change. Is now in free-trade talks with China.
I can conclude two things from this: the establishment is not very clever and the cattle are not very bright.
Notice that Trump doesn’t fit into this template. The people who run the machine did not want Trump loaded in. He is certainly a member of the upper-crust establishment. But not one in tune with how to manage establishment interests. Not at all the kind of leader the establishment would have confidence in – hence all the mooing from the cattle. (Which appears all they know how to do. But if they ever plan on doing anything where people might begin to take them seriously, the first action they should consider: STFU.)
So I gotta say I’m delighted that Trump is now tearing up their machine just by being loaded into it. It’s a start. Better than more machine.
With the Super Predator out of the way, the people can reclaim the Democratic Party via the Bernie Sanders wing and run on a New Deal revival in 2020. Of course, they will have to establish a broad coalition like FDR did. He won 4 terms. Turned the Republican Party economically progressive. The New Deal era, based on Keynesian mixed-market economics, lasted till Reagan – 48 years. So far, so bad.
The counterpart goal is to expose, debunk and delouse Friedman’s odious neoliberal/neoclassical economic ideology. In terms of public policy, it’s a bigger colossal failure than America’s wars on drugs and crime. Equally anti-intellectual and anti-science. A tautological pre-Copernican doctrine entirely self-serving to the upper class. Its pompous priests are bottom-feeding pretend technocrats. A blood boiling form of absurdity.
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January 30, 2017 at 10:20 pm
Bernie Orbust
Bill Maher is an establishment puppet. Said the economy was fine, Trump supporters are just evil racists. If you like being manipulated with establishment memes and messaging, BM is your guy. (Can’t swing a dead cat without hitting some POS on-the-take talking head pretending to speak for the movement.)
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January 30, 2017 at 11:41 pm
makagutu
If what you say is correct, then it is downhill all the way until when the centre can no longer hold.
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January 31, 2017 at 8:56 am
Bernie Orbust
The center hasn’t held for 40 years. The robber baron establishment reasserted its control over the economy, the government and the media producing the disastrous Friedmanian era predicated on what are essentially looternomics.
And it has been downhill all the way: falling GDP growth and real incomes; skyrocketing inequality and debt (public and private); various calamitous market manipulation schemes – the last one can only be described as a “Bust Out” (cf. the Sopranos episode which is eerily metaphorical and prescient) – i.e., all manner of barbarian banker and cheer-leading central banker colluding to defraud investors and taxpayers out of trillions of dollars causing a global economic collapse we have yet to recover from.
Therefore the task before us now – which is before the people who have to come up with a solution from among themselves – is to rebuild the center to what it was during the New Deal era – and better. This has to be an informal coalition from among the moderates in the four major political groups: liberal, conservative, progressive, libertarian.
The basis for the coalition can be described with some math. If you take the (big) intersection of the policy preferences of all the groups, you end up with a New Deal platform that can become institutionalized. (The group of policies everyone can agree on.) Because it will have super-majority support. (This is actually what FDR accomplished.) Things like public healthcare/pharmacare benefits, affordable university, student loan forgiveness – a lot of things that have broad support in polls.
So the Democrats run on this New Deal platform in 2020. If they focus on consensus issues, they will become so popular they will force the Republican Party back into New Deal territory.
Restoring Keynesian ‘New Deal’ economics is the most important thing. Keynes was a Utopian. Predicted an end to the economy: when machines do most of the work and the people are incredibly wealthy. (I.e., responsible exponential growth of human development – which, if measured in prices, manifests itself in high levels of GDP growth. At 5% average GDP growth, the end of the economy comes in about 60 years.)
Apply ‘Ikenomics’ to the energy file, i.e., massive green-energy infrastructure investments, 90% top-bracket progressive taxation – and gradually phase in green energy subsidies over a 30 year period – and we go to zero emissions by 2050. Can probably be achieved sooner as green energy technology develops. But it’s all based on tried-and-true methods.
Long story short: all that’s really required is having a rational, adult debate about the issues. The drama queens are not contributing anything. They are actually playing by an establishment script: the upper-crust pits various groups against one another to divide and conquer. My guess: this is an animal husbandry technique they developed thousands years ago.
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January 31, 2017 at 9:29 am
Vesuvius R. Kaine
One can certainly imagine where J.K. Rowling got her inspiration for that from, considering the social and economic conditions she was in when she wrote the first book.
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January 31, 2017 at 9:49 am
Vesuvius R. Kaine
@Bernie,
I don’t care how someone labels Maher, his commentary was bang-on. Plus, he’s richer and more successful than anyone here. I agree with you re: Trump wrecking the machine, though.
Even as a devout capitalist, I was rooting for Bernie. Here’s what I find with the far left, however – as “smart” as they can seem to be re: the establishment or “the system”, oddly they are still always stuck in it.
Nonetheless, I truly hope Bernie runs again (not that he wins, just that he runs with a truly fair shot this time at the title). All these protests need a figurehead and/or some true leadership – perhaps it will be him. A Sanders-Warren ticket? Time will tell.
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January 31, 2017 at 11:33 am
Meg
The misogynists are out in full force on your blog and it’s no wonder why. Men don’t like women who question male power. Men only like women who throw other women under the bus, as your new favorite journalist has done.
If you truly think Hillary would be as bad as Trump, then you are sorely deluded. If you think Bernie Sanders would have done anything for the female half of the population, you are also deluded. He couldn’t even keep his own supporters from saying “bern the witch” and accusing Hillary supporters of voting with their vaginas. They said nothing while Trump supporters wore t-shirts saying “Hillary sucks but not like Monica” and came out in full force against any Hillary supporter calling us c—-, b—–, and w—-. It wouldn’t have cost Bernie or his followers anything to simply come out and say “it’s not okay” and take a stand against sexism. They couldn’t even do THAT.
This election cycle prove Bernie Bros including the women DO NOT CARE for women in fact they HOPE women suffer for not bowing down and sucking Sanders dick. They NEVER WILL CARE if women and girls die as a result of extremist Republican agendas. All they care about is their own political agenda which revolves around the wallets of first world white men, and currying a better place in the class hierarchy rather than doing away with it entirely.
American Democrats owe Bernie nothing. Bernie didn’t run for the good of the country. Bernie ran for the same reason Obama did in 2008 because Hillary was running. He hasn’t done anywhere close for the Democratic party as Hillary has, if you’d be bothered to check the facts:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/donald-trump-bernie-sanders-parasites-213676
“True to his parasitical nature, Sanders loves the idea of the party but has little interest in actually supporting it. He has raised only $1,000 for the Democratic Party’s fundraising alliance, while Hillary Clinton, who is many things but assuredly not a parasite, has raised $26.9 million.”
Oh! But I guess if he’s MALE then he’s just entitled to have whatever he wants and to hell with women’s contributions. Remember the Bernie or Bust people on your blog are the same ones who accused white women of being racist if they didn’t vote for Obama. They shoved Obama down everyone’s collective throat and now they’re here whining about it. LOLOLOLOLOL what a joke. They have no business criticizing anyone since they are the ones who would rather Trump destroy America than give women the tiniest bit of political representation.
And FYI Maher is one of the worst misogynists to walk the earth. He thinks rape is hilarious. Yet here he is, on YOUR blog, in your comments. Great job making this blog a haven for MRAs.
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January 31, 2017 at 3:09 pm
bleatmop
@Meg Hi Meg, thanks for commenting. I would like to address some of your points.
1.
If you think I said that, you should read again. I think Hillary is a war hawk, something that is demonstrably true. I also think she was gearing up for a war with Russia, a nuclear power, as was evidenced in the main body of the article. Other than abolishing the TPP, I don’t think Trump would be better than Clinton on anything, nor did I say so.
2.
I guess we can only take Mr. Sanders’ word for it. Here it is. https://berniesanders.com/issues/fighting-for-womens-rights/
I guess we will never know what a POTUS Sanders would do now.
3.
Except he did exactly that. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sanders-condemns-bernie-bros_us_56b75a28e4b08069c7a79b1e
4.
It’s odd that you pick that article to support attacking Sanders while defending Clinton. A quote from the same article:
It seems your own source doesn’t think much of Clinton either.
5.
Wat? TIL I’m making this blog a haven for MRAs by not censoring commenters from quoting Bill Maher.
But back to reality. Thank you again for commenting. I don’t think your arguments have been fair nor have they been charitable. I understand that you are upset that Clinton didn’t win. I understand that you are upset that Trump is being a giant misogynist (I am too). However, I will not back off from attacking the neo-liberal shifting of the progressive parties. Current Democrats are sounding like 90’s Republicans. If you don’t want the Democrats of 2030 to sound like Trump today then you should also be trying to weed out the neo-liberals of the progressive parties.
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January 31, 2017 at 10:19 pm
freerlives
Thanks for this post- it poses some issues we badly need to discuss and debate.
Yes, the millions of new protesters have huge illusions in the decency of the Democratic elite and of US policy at home and abroad. They are deceived by appearances. But appearances matter – the violation of them has driven millions into action against sexism, racism and other issues. Mass action changes people, it reveals the the strength and joy of collective involvement on the ground, something they never dreamt of before. They feel empowered, for good reason. So they are suddenly far more open to radical ideas, which for the first time might make sense to them. Now is the time when radicals can finally make a difference – if we get out there, stand shoulder to shoulder with the new activists, and talk to them. But if radicals fold their hands and sneer the protesters will either melt away or follow the lead of the Democrat grandees. The moment is now.
The journalist you admire aims to conquer the Democrats. One of the roles of the Democrats is to swallow and digest oppositional forces, to make them safe for capitalism. A whole generation fought for the leftwing presidential candidate George McGovern in 1972. They disappeared into the political desert. The Left needs its own party.
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January 31, 2017 at 10:45 pm
bleatmop
@freerlives Thank you for the insightful comment. I appreciate the information on McGovern, and it is someone I should read about it seems. I agree about reaching out to those that are protesting right now. One thing we can learn from the neoliberals is that any disaster is also an opportunity. This “disaster” of Trump being in the presidency has engaged people like I’ve not saw before and now is the time for progressives to stand up and become leaders.
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