Dear readers and/or comrades of this here café,
Are you familiar with the Alex Jones Effect? Do you know who Alex Jones is? If so, my condolences, though for the purposes of this contribution, it would help.
Put succinctly, Alex Jones is a conspiracy theorist (who knew, aren’t we all?). The diff here is that AJ (which I’ll use to refer to him from here on, so pay attention) has a far-reaching voice. Yes, he is loud and obnoxious, but to the point, he has established himself on radio and built an audience much like “media giant” Rush Limbaugh managed to do back in the nineties. Funny, you don’t here much obsession about Rush these days, at least I don’t. Unless it has something to do with whether or not the condition of Geddy Lee’s voice has made performance of their music irredeemable, but I digress.
So AJ is a loudmouth who trades in all-things-conspiratorial as it relates to “the globalist agenda” and, in doing so, manages to make very real concerns sound insane. As a general example, his treatment of America’s favorite holiday, Nine-Eleven (it’s coming up, I can’t wait! I’m gonna go as a fireman again this year), by not just exploring every bizarre angle only somebody continuously hopped up on speed and steriods could dream up after 72 hours of sleep deprivation, but giving them the air of scientific discussion, whether it be things that are entirely outside the possible realm of empirical consideration like holographic arrow planes or Illuminati ceremonial majicks — or stuff that is part of the record like the dancing Israelis, the story of which, should make any thinking person come to the conclusion that the planes were literally, if indirectly, guided into the towers by a nexus of operators including those doing the cheering. The fact that one guy who had the least amount of evidence presented against him was ultimately tried in absentia and sentenced to disappearance while another part of the nexus, the Saudis, are staunch allies in the war on knowing why so much American tax revenue funds their continuance is, well, might be hair raising when presented in Perry Mason fashion by the most expensive arbiters of what used to be called The Fourth Estate.
Many of you, I’m sure, know the drill. Even a mention of the word Mossad in relation to this most precious American holiday (did you know that the first pilgrims were art students dressed as Arabs?) is likely to garner a sarcastic reply that includes all of the strawmen I’ve so far stooped to using and then some.
What does this have to do with Trump? you may ask. Doesn’t everything have to do with Trump? I know, I have been saying, or thinking, at least, that Trump is beside the point, what with my resolute belief that he is a full paid member of Shillery United (which means paid up and being paid, cuz’n that’s how the economy works for rich folk, don’cha know). But this does not preclude the need to explain some of his odd behavior.
While it’s true, or so I maintain, Donald playing the buffoon only makes Clinton more inevitable, one should certainly ask: How on earth is his introduction of the risk of the incitement of gunplay into the process supposed to work? Well, I think I answered that question adequately here, but in case my allusions come illusory, which I know they often do, lemme just add that his invoking the SCotUS argument shores it up for those who normally invoke it when all else fails: The Democrats (who’ve been using the SCotUS argument since they decided they didn’t want to be racist anymore). So Trump’s thinly veiled implication: that as a champion of the Second Amendment, one might view a bullet as a solution to the lifetime appointment of a Supreme Court Justice when the ballot box fails to get them the right Appointer — well, that might get Dems on the fence to march-shake in their boots all the way to “being with her”, if just for one day.
Now to my main point, which is not as much a head scratcher: Why would The Don accuse the current US President and his former Secretary of State of having founded this thing they call ISIS? Obviously my first answer is – because it’s yet one more thing to keep him in the news for being all over the place, particularly when he does his patented “I was being sarcastic” within a day or two of the story remaining, apparently, the most relevant thing in the news. But this time there is no “oh shit” factor for disenchanted liberals. It’s just more “crazy”.
Here’s where the Alex Jones cum DJ Trump effect kicks in: Aside from the just mentioned co-option of the news cycle that, among other things, keeps focus away from US Saudi weapons deals, or renders to the equivalent of page eleven of the Arianna Huff’n’Po the American approved killing of schoolchildren, it takes a truth and renders it whacky.
What truth?! That Obama and Hillary founded ISIS?!! Why, of all the all-caps worthy ABSURDITY!!!11
One thing I hope to enjoy about being subject to comments here at the café is that I can ask rhetorical questions and get answers. So here goes:
- What was it that was credited with the expansion of – what were they called – Al Qaeda into Iraq? Who with a seat in the Senate chamber voted for that?
- When was the first time the terms ISIS, ISIL, and other variations thereof began to appear in the media? During whose administration was that and who was Secretary of State when reports of their prevalence in Libya became, as the kids say, a thing?
- And (just because I don’t know when to leave well-enough alone) do you recall not all that long ago a serious establishment floating of the idea that Al Qaeda, being the enemy of the new enemy, might just be the lesser of two evils?
For all of the anti-racist, anti-anti-immigrant, and anti-anti-Muslim rhetoric the current Democratic public relations response team spouts from their to-the-brim filled coffers, if the GOP had the White House, Libya’d be Dem Campaign Strategy #1, complete w/ un-ironic !Benghazi! sloganeering. As things stand, any serious discussions of the war on terror (generally) and the presence of terrorists (wherever) has been placed into a drawer marked “Republican obstructionism”. Now, we can bury deeper in the rabbit hole a Trumped-up Alex Jones-ing of the notion that ISIS is an (for want of a crazier label) American creation.
Yours in Berlin,
davidly
café babylon 
woot, and welcome to the café, davidly!
zo…the trumpster is a (self-and-clinton-friends-w/benefits-designed) psyop a la alex jones? as i found, he is ‘infowars’, which i’d forgotten.
yes, the left went faux-outrage, i tell ya; outrge! over that ‘second amendment’ comment, but if the fourth estate hadn’t been so intent on *trumpeting* their collective outrage, they may have reminded us that such comments have a longish history in USian politics. sure, it keeps folks from wondering why there’s such scant coverage of things that actually do matter, and keeps the Queen as: the only realistic choice!
now the timelines of any iterations of isis, etc., aren’t clear to me, nor are the travels from location to location likely mono-linear, but others here will know. fist in iraq, i believe, post-one-of-the-gulf-wars. and sure, clinton and ‘obie’ have strengthened the groups by their endless wars on terror antics. and the West aids al qaeda in syria as ‘the better, more moderate’ something er others. yes?
now, just today, telesur is reporting, and has video, of the trumpeter on a talk show, and the text says this in part:
“Trump first made the accusation at a campaign event on Wednesday and then repeated the charge during a radio interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday.
Hewitt even tried to give Trump a lifeline, asking if he meant Obama created the conditions for the Islamic State group to arise.
“No, I meant he’s the founder of ISIS. I do,” Trump told Hewitt, suggesting he sincerely believed Obama started the militant group.
Facing bipartisan backlash, Trump backed away from those comments on Friday, only to return to them on Saturday.”
zo…i dunno if hewitt had narrowed his question to the comprador-in-chief or not, or the text just left her out. what.a.blowhard. but i do see why you believe he’s practically on C’s campaign staff.
i gotta go turn into a pesto-factory; i’ll be back as i’m able.
Good launch, davidly.
American foreign policy of the duopoly indeed. Competitive chest-beaters all.
But the criticism of Trump comes from understanding that his motives are delegitimization of the commander-in-chief and the potential commander-in-chief to the point of mutiny by the military or uprising by the public. That is not an accepted conventional role for the duopoly. In fact, although both play with delegitimization, as we saw after 2006 and in the current gridlock, neither go full out to the point of destruction of the system. Although they might misjudge at some point with their byzantine narratives and hardball politics.
The fight over spoils really is the equivalent of the Roman gladiatorial games in our political culture, isn’t it. Alex Jones is only one of many grifters who have glommed on to color commentary of the sport.
BTW, Jones plays on the lingering notion that you couldn’t find 19 guys so committed to something to commit group suicide by flying jets into buildings in suicide attacks that also incinerate the perpetrators. The suicide tactic takes away the object of vengeance and drives Americans nuts; no one to hang high. The summary assassination of Osama bin Laden outside of international law sucked out a bit of that frustration but hanging the continuing chaos on the most recent commander-in-chief and on the Secretary of State who is candidate to be the next commander-in-chief taps into that frustration over no one to punish. It also drives the march of folly towards intense, long war to punish the region or the religion or the ethnic groups responsible.
Alex Jones does the twist toward the “enemy within”, either within the establishment or within subcultures in the US of various types or within fictional conspiratorial networks of hidden people. (Apparently blowback of CIA manipulated terrorist groups is not sufficiently sexy for his audience or would fail by being bad PR of powerful agencies and contractors or maybe even too close to the truth.) And the failure to have actual evidence one way or another except for dribs and drabs also drives folks nuts in a variety of predictable ways.
long ago in my days of naivete, like last year or so, even then i found alex jones’ style annoying as hell. that’s not an argument against his show but here’s one: one of the few times i endured AJ’s show, he had Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins as guest. he said, Alex the problem w/you is never offer any solutions to or even offer any possible course of action for people.
Billy C is right. it’s disaster/conspiracy porn. if there is a course of action for peeps to follow, what is it? stocking up on guns & ammo? and in the little i’ve watched him, i get a “white supremacist” vibe. Like w/someone shooting back at the cops in Dallas recently, i caught a blurb of him screeching about how the New World Order is inciting “race war.” i’m all like, bitch please. what you, AJ, mean by “race war” is people shooting back that you happen not to like. try telling someone like him there are 2+ million POW’s of the “race war” right now in Uncle’s “NWO” prisons and watch the incomprehension. But I could be wrong about the white supremacy thing, more of an impression, not based on lots of empirical evidence.
welcome to team babylon!
Thanks all.
wd: Interesting. The Hewitt cat tries to give him “a lifeline” and he doesn’t take it. So, either he’s really friggin mega-dumb, or he ain’t in it to win it. I certainly don’t think everybody’s gotta buy my bullshit theory — cuz maybe I’m stuck in my own reality tunnel (seeing the same patterns wherever I look because that’s what I want). Obviously I don’t think that’s the case.
ThD: Certainly what people fear about Trump (to the extent the fear is legit and not just when it’s personality pissing) is his on-again/off-again threats to undo everything. Interesting point about his crowd eating up the no-frills responsible pair bit as part of their unfulfilled need for vengeance.
jason: You’re definitely right about AJ being a conspirotainer and I suspect you’re right about his race whisper-shouting at his audience. I am not too familiar with him but am familiar with the charges of race war inciting as you describe them, which include “the media not shutting up about Black people getting killed”.
I recently had a conversation with someone about whether or not someone who knowingly spouts bullshit can come to believe it. I suspect short of a complete personality break that they do not, but will continue to push if it’s because they feel they have a job to do. I think both these dudes believe in their jobs, which vary ever so slightly. Trump’s is more dangerous but he makes it look so much easier than Jones with a vein bulging from his forehead.
i finally bit the bullet (so to peak) and went back to telesur to watch the videos to see what he’d really said. only the videos weren’t of the interview, sigh. so…i let my fingers do the walking, and found this at yahoo via business insider, iirc. and nope, i didn’t watch the embedded video, but here’s some text:
“The New York businessman added again that he would characterize Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, as the “cofounder.” He had previously referred to her as the founder of the group.” and:
“The Republican presidential nominee, mirroring Hewitt’s argument, contended that Obama’s policies allowed ISIS to form. “Therefore, he was the founder of ISIS,” Trump said.”
some featured tweet by a clinton staffer aid he’d said that ‘people like this” (the comments, i assume). the transcripts are being circulated widely by the Queen’s minions, of course. moar contributions, of course.
jason: did AJ really pour out that horror show racist rubbish? i love your response, but my stars. i reckon both he and trumpet are just playing their parts, AJ for the mega-bucks of it; seems they know what sells to the demographics they’re trying to reah.
davidly: harry frankfurt is sorta the expert on ‘bullshit’. i’ve watched some videos of his, dunno if he writes as well. but IF i remember correctly, he maintains that bullshit is far more effective than outright lies, but i forget the reason. just binged: yes, he has a book, but several videos are on the same page. tunnel vision? i resemble that remark! here’s a quickie; forgive me if i don’t take the time to watch. plus: it doesn’t answer your question.
but somewhere in that psychological model is ‘cognitive dissonance’, which definition most folks get wrong, imo. i think it involves any actual discomfort produced when one holds two opposing views, but it might even extend to lying all the time, or…spouting bullshit. ;-)
anyhoo, fun post; i loved the tone.
Long before being Trumped; I maintained that ISIS’ meteoric rise from September 2013 to July 2014 was a CIA (Company) psy-op boogeyman US’ shakedown (and It’s WORKING, STILL, at homeland and abroad)! The meaning of the word ISIS : US’ CIA; and Mobfather Poppy of the burning Bushs, adopted in-laws Billary, sonny Dubya and his whipping boy, Barry-0 are ALL Company, perping their serial PNAC attacks!! And have been, since engineering their ‘New Pearl Harbor’ “early in the next century”, previewed (or whatever the spooks call it) in Company rag, Parade Magazine in the closing days of the 20th.
I tend to agree, Bruce, and am partial to your turn of phrase.
Seymour Hersh’s latest, an interview with Truth-Out.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37223-seymour-hersh-on-white-house-lies-about-bin-laden-s-death-pakistan-and-the-syrian-civil-war
ha; if only a mossad deep-throat had told him that he knows al-nusrah had access to the sarin and used it. funny, the guardian link claimed (contra hersh):
“Elsewhere – notably in the Guardian – evidence has been produced to show that the Syrian military have indeed stockpiled the same type of sarin, whereas there is no evidence that al-Nusra had any track record with it. These points matter.” (they gave no link to their story.)
But on ‘related stories’ below the interview is: ‘Chemical Weapons Experts Still Skeptical About US Claim That Syria Used Sarin’ 15 June 2013
even tony cordesman of the SCIS! but a hella lot of doubts that ad up to: nyet, imo. comedy: after jason had mentioned that organization, and i couldn’t remember what it stood for, i giggledied, clicked into their website, and it crashed my IE.
i’d hoped you might have >> the times and travels of IS, beginning in iraq, i’d thunk. which gulf war; first or second? bomb libya isil seems pretty open-ended now; first it was: three weeks?
on edit: check that; the wsj is reporting that isis is fleeing sirte now, so, its all over, see?
two tweets, one a special gift for jason, who’d reference this nationalist outrage by hillbots and others. hope it’s okay to go a bit OT, davidly.
before the end of the day, trump’s Viagra-infused rape brigades will have dumped Christian, military, incubator babies out on some VA hospital floor while Trump wades through a porn collection as voluminous as the Library of Congress. ok, that doesn’t actually work for Trump, but it’ll be something equally as awful! who was it that said the NYT has gone full John Birch on Trump?
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/08/12/the-cockburn-brothers-the-press-the-military-and-the-soviet-union/
From Nov. ’88. I really enjoyed Andrew Cockburn’s presentation here. he’s the middle presenter of the 3 frères. the whole thing is good, but Andrew is very funny, lots of juicy historical anecdotes & he rightly predicts that the end of the Cold War won’t mean shit for the DOD’s threat manufacture (he was off on how the DOD budget would continue to explode, but still.) and look where we are now.
no, wasn’t it “bin laden’s porn” that was the main thing? see how evil he was? and hiding behind the wommyn and chirren? oh, tiddly-pom; i’d seen the video up, but ye crikey, over an hour? i wish i had the time; i have a couple of alex’s quotes stashed on a blogging help word doc he was the man, wasn’t he?
well, okay; maybe i can watch it it parts er something…it’s history, after all, while i was still…a democrat! ;-)
Hi Wendy. WRT your “longish history” reference, one need not go back to Jackson and Lincoln to find precedence for one’s righteous fake outrage.
As recently as 2008, when HiLiary was losing her primary fight against Obummer, a reporter asked her why she did not just drop out of the race. Her answer, IIIRC, was, “Well, RFK was assassinated . . .”
So, I guess she was hoping for an immediate assassination to save her personal political bacon, not just waiting for Obummer to win and get around to appointing SCOTUS judges some months or years later.
Since immediacy is a key component of inciting to violence law, I suppose (gasp!) this might lead one to conclude that the Clintonistas and the media are soulless hypocrites as they now wet their pantsuits over Trump’s “outrageous” remark.
Who’da thunk it?
IMO, this is an election season well-calculated to lead the last few thinkers in the country to finally set themselves afire. Fortuitously, gas prices are down, so there’s that . . .
hola, rc; nie to see you here. yeah, what’s that acronym that indicates that it’s okay when i do it, but nt when it’s kinda/sorta turned on me? (davidly had linked to a post of his at his own website earlier, citing the Ovien (h/t jason) Queen’s simiar comment.)
soulless hypocrites? she’s the new ameikka’s mother; bite cher tongue! but fuck me, the pantsuit fabrics she chooses will all that funny-munny: so like upholstery fabric it makes-a-me wanna barf. but then, maybe she’s goin’ for the coooshy armchair or sofa vote. Oh! she is!
your last graph is indeed spit-take worthy; thanks, i needed another good laugh.
hope life is at least middling good for you; here, as they say around here, ‘it’s good enuff for who it’s for’.
Life is pretty much as good as it gets for me right now, just got back from a vacation in northern Michigan with Mary and our new beast, Rufus. Visited her home town, Ludington, and hafta wonder why she ever left, it’s a lovely place, in summer at least. (But folks up that way are so polite and civil it can get kinda bewildering to a big city boy.)
Rufus and I encountered a rather large alligator snapping turtle whilst traipsing through the woods one morning; I was surprised to find it did not have a HILLARY sticker on its back (although I did think there was a certain resemblance around the mouth and temperament lol).
Best to you from us, dear one.
zounds; a vacation! and near the canuckistan border? kewl. ha; i used to know a saint barnyard named Rufus.
but it’s good to hear you’re doing well, and mary as well, i gather. i remember snapping turtles from lake erie, but alligator ones sound awesome, if a bit worrisome. odd no Hill bumper sticker, though. we saw a trumpeter one plastered on a jackelope’s back out in the field the other day, but it skedaddled far too fast for mr. wd to be able to remove it.
of course that was before we learned that one pint-sized asshat pulled a gun on another hothead up at the corner the other day, shot, but missed…from fifteen feet. all over…water and ditch access, it was. but had mr. wd succeeded in the removal, he might be a dead man today. one tea party sorta dude made hats: “mancos: where the old west still lives.” he loved his guns, lol.
my best to mary, and to you as well, rc.
Oh, thank you, davidly, for an excellent post here (hoping for many more) and for rousing the beloved realitychecker from his Ripvanwinkle slumber, or should I say repose? Nah, he’s been having far too much fun. Lovely to see you both!
I am teetering on the edge of non-relevancy, but I appreciated also your comment Jason, on the Smashing Pumpkins leader, an idol of my youngest son. I shall read here for spirited and insightful considerations of the world we inhabit – as often as I can. Keep up the good work, folks! My elder granddaughter just played the part of Henry IV, (part one) – and she was regal at the fulsome age of twelve – there must be hope in that.
Thank you again, wendye, for all you do. I know I can’t keep up with things, but bless you all for being who you are.
well, hola, amiga! i’d just been telling the good folks here that you gave up your pricey internet service to do something far more productive. are you at the library down the road? but yes, we are all irrelevant to Out Rulers. cool on your granddaughter playing Henry IV.
welcome, and if you get a chance, you may be interested in a diary i’m working on, and might get up tomorrow. (loots of baking to do yet tonight.) you will hate it, as i do, methinks, but once again: ‘knowing is better than…not knowing’.
davidly might be having connection problems, but he had said his internet time is quite sporadic. oh, by the by, jason; that’s a constant complaint about chomsky speaking from his ivory tower. when he finally did he offered: ‘lote vote for clinton’, lol. ay yi yi.
I’m a bit less sporadic these days, thanks not to sporadic library connectivity, guestwise that is, but rather to a generous son who doesn’t want his mum to be completely in the dark. So, now and then I shall sup at the Elysian springs (or is that a mixed mataphor?) Just saw that Meryl Streep also has gone bonkers – I did have my doubts about her all along, though, much as I enjoy quality acting – there was always something missing. . .as there is at Mount Athos, sorry to say, being Orthodox myself. Something is really, really missing there.
But I digress.
Not an empty vessel in the way that her counter-Kramer Dustin’s been — I heard from a reliable snob he’s empty upstairs — nevertheless, Mer’l lives, as do we all to one extent or another, in her own reality tunnel. I try to keep this in mind when judging the pass-tivism of others. Few are good enough on details even to necessitate denial, though I’m sure there’s some of that, too.
realitychecker1: I think alligator bumperstickers and pantsuits are in order and believe the WithHerers would embrace them with unironic ironic glee.
juliania2: I recently enjoyed a visit from friends with an eleven-year-old who is destined for the theater. I do so love the theater when it introduces itself as such.
I was debating whether or not to do a Berlin vote 2016, analysis of the local election campaign placards, but am torn between whether to do it overt my diary or here. The campaign season here is mercifully short (by dictate), but the sloganeering is just as inane.
davidly, on unironic glee, had the image of the entire Senate Democatic caucus attired in rainbow pantsuits with patches of their sponsore — it’s a NASCAR thing.
rc, glad to hear from you and glad you survived the northern creepy-crawlies in the piney woods. Resemblances can deceive; you need to look of for a cackling alligator snapping turtle. Was that one cackling? Were there any other critters with a Hill bumper sticker slapped on their butt?
So far in this area there are a dearth of signage and bumper stickers of any kind; bet that changes after Labor Day and especially in October.
i read somewhere recently that an updated version of the queen of cackle’s book is being printed as i type. the new title is said to be: ‘it takes a pillage’, iirc.
Re: the endless war on terra’ in Africa:
turse begins with what newly installed U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) chief, General Thomas Waldhauser, then works backward to commanders testify before the senate ASC; he says they never, ever, bat an eye.
“Questions Unasked, Questions Unanswered
U.S. Africa Command boasts that it “neutralizes transnational threats” and “prevents and mitigates conflict,” while training local allies and proxies “in order to promote regional security, stability, and prosperity.” Rodriguez’s tenure was, however, marked by the very opposite: increasing numbers of lethal terror attacks across the continent including those in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Tunisia. In fact, data from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland shows that attacks have spiked over the last decade, roughly coinciding with AFRICOM’s establishment. In 2007, just before it became an independent command, there were fewer than 400 such incidents annually in sub-Saharan Africa. Last year, the number reached nearly 2,000.”
quite effective for the Masters of War, Inc., no?
says it all don’t it?
it says a hella lot of it. no mention of the spooks involved, nor the contract mercenaries, either the french (they were sure active stirring things up in a few nations, claiming they might need some sort of r2p action. and they train african locals to fight…their chosen ‘bad guy’ africans. ya have hillary and friends layin’ sooo much love on paul kagame, the list of nefarious perfidy just goes on and on.
oddly, i’ve been trying to score a tweet to @glenfordbar acct., and it won’t kick up an url. i keep getting an ‘oops’ something went wrong’ messge with a bar on top saying i have to agree to twitter analyticals or some such eerie stuff. but the one i wanted he’d subtitled: “#Obama’s #Africa #Policy: use #Gaddafi & Black Libyans’ cadavers as warnings 4 other nations”
i don’t agree w/ all of it, but some makes my stomach roil again. haiphong links to a geoge washington guest post at zero hedge w/ some of the clinton emails. meanwhile, RT’s been under heavy ddos attacks all week. small wonder after the atlantic council’s recent hints and clues, eh?
ah, and i saw a twitter link i didn’t grab that was claiming juan cole is now saying that he Never, never, supported r2p libya, which is of course: bollocks. the art was bombs lighting up the sky.
on edit: i went and read the transcript of that trnn interview. ooh, he was a science guy, not a green-peacer. but what a load of dreck: ‘obama has signaled what a crisis we’re facing!’ pffffft. sorry to have send you n a worse than wild goose chase.
Hi to old friends, so nice to be remembered. Hugs to all. ;-)
THD–No, the damn ugly thing didn’t cackle, nor did it crackle, but it did snap with a pop. Several times. Brought many aged politicians to mind, but at least it didn’t claim to be my friend lol.
Vote alligator snapping turtle as a write-in?
here ya go, davidly: ‘Yes, Obama and Clinton Created ISIS – Too Bad Trump Can’t Explain How It Happened’, glen ford
@ rc: now how in hades would we forget a curmudgeon like you? ;-)
question: do you have editing windows in the comment stream? took me about three days to solve the riddle of not getting emails of comments last week. (wordpress isn’t always reliable that way.) er…this wasn’t my diary, so i reckon you’re getting them?
In reverse order: Yes, I do. Not that I wanna edit anyone. Seems weird, but I guess there are reasons.
Yeah, I read that. It’s nice to have GF say it. And, in the vicinity of Black Agenda, it is a tad disappointing to have read Adolph Reed recently opining about the necessity of lesser-evilism this time around. He voted for the Rama in ’12 for the same reason (who knew? not me). The commenters ain’t having it, tho’.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/18/vote-lying-neoliberal-warmonger-its-important
youch; rubbish couched in historical reasoning! too many clip-worthy apologist phrases, but ooof: this is almost the funniest, imo:
“From that perspective, it’s a little disappointing to notice how common the “never Hillary” line seems to be and the appeal that Jill Stein’s quixotic campaign seems to have for more than enough people on the left, including more than enough who are politically experienced and otherwise sophisticated themselves.”
i’ve seen bold headlines in which he’s touting ‘workers as the only thing…”, yada, yada. disconnect much? he seems to believe the queen’s campaign rhetoric whole hog. (no ttp! now, etc.) ‘no worse than obama’? pfffft. he’s trying to do a better, more erudite ‘oh, dismal left’ schtick, isn’t he? ah well, he admits that trump isn’t actually hitler,s o…it’s all good.
an edit window helps me to add style tags, create hyperlinks, and also…to edit in what i’d forgotten in my haste and slow-brain stuff. or to trash actual spam, although it’s rare here. at one time i used it to delete repeat comments from a commenter i’d asked politely to stop posting six, seven, or more comments of his condescending mockery, but again, that’s rare.
on edit, lol: i put up a new open menu thread if ya have anything to feature that might not meet the necessity of a whole diary.
we’ve been digging into dostoyevsky the past day or two here, and i thought i’d bring his opinion on lying to you:
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
hope you and yours are well.
best,
wd
Thanks. Nice quote. I hope to see a version of this very play at my fave house here, before the old man running the joint gets schlepped off next summer after 25 years as artistic director. Whole ‘nother story, ‘at.
I’m reading, just not apt to comment save for in phases of frenzy.
you’ve piqued my curiosity, to say the least. fave house of theater? well, best on what’s going on. ach, reading is fine, and i love ‘phases of frenzy’. ;-)
i’m still in restoration mode after three days of a visit from our far-away son. last one before before he’s ‘deployed’ somewhere over yonder. you might be able to imagine the conversations we had, but at least we managed to have them in loving/caring.
i keep forgetting to ask: you’d mentioned that you were considering a diary about possible (satirical, i’d imagined) slogans and bumper stickers for parties and/or candidates on your home turf. i’d meant to ask even then if given we might nt know some of the peeps and parties, you’d explain them to us.
anyway, given that you are living in the bosom of the EU under Frau merkel, and likely know a hella lot more that at least i do about whassup in europe, anything you might write about would be very kewl w/ me. we used to follow greece and syriza a lot, but now….well, you know. ;-)
It’s just the local election. Berliner mayoral and associated seats. I’m having increasing difficulty getting my heart in it and my mind won’t likely go with that, let alone the fingers. Maybe I’ll manage a scaled down version. It’s a mere pair of weeks away.
ah, i hadn’t meant to pressure you, davidly; i apologize. it sounds as though waiting for your muse to fire you up is in order. ;-)