Archive for December, 2018

always remember, no Russian kept Hillary Clinton from campaigning in Wisconsin

Monday, December 31st, 2018

Welcome to Hell.

Sticking to this claim:

They’ve allowed their tool to be used by a foreign nation to subvert democracy and seek to suppress African-American votes.

Leave aside issue number one — where I have seen it explained that no, facebook didn’t sell private data to corporate interests– they gave it away —

And except for the implied suggestion for the problem the NAACP head has to issue number two — leaving aside issue 3 on the lack of a diverse corporate culture and its blind spots, etc…

We come back to the problem of the Russian trolls and their army of Black Nationalist

— or whatever we can call it —

facebook pages spouting Russian propaganda to “suppress the vote” —

presumably suppressing Hillary Clinton’s vote by arguing against her to part of the Democratic base?…

and, I suppose if we’re looking at this from the vantage point of that which cost Hillary Clinton the election — her one percent losses in WIMIPA — hm… a concerted effort centered around Detroit’s inner city? —

And herein lies the problem…
… for a show that inserted the Green Party presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate into coverage of the Presidential debates…

… And here it’s worth looking at the rhetoric of the vice presidential candidate they so-championed

— the party ticket who, according to the infamous “pee tape” report (is that what I should call that thing?) made some juants over to Russia …

Or we can go to Colin Kaeperneck and his non voting stance, seeing the two candidates of Trump and Clinton as just running around debating who’s less racist

Because the Russian troll army, such as it is, is essentially aping the rhetoric of such figures, amplifying their message to the degree they can…

“suppressing the vote” (whatever that means) against Hillary Clinton…

And if we kick their facebook pages out because it’s aping Russian propaganda, they would indeed by racist…

… or sweeping about too suspiciously for content…

turf wars

Friday, December 28th, 2018

We get one of those flyers on a free box (WW or PM or one of those) mocking Trump as a 400 pound lard and a lard for Democracy, or some such…

… and an angry flyer placed in the next box declaring that “Fat shaming your political enemy is fat shaming your political comrades, you neo-liberal idiot.”

I ponder whether they know the definition of “neo-liberal”, though I then ponder whether there is a real definition of the word “neo-liberal” anyway.

Gun Talk in the liberal bubble

Friday, December 21st, 2018

“No, really I see no reason that I can’t have one, keep close in hand, for my protection.”
“Concealed.”
“Yes.  Concealed.  There are creeps out there.”

Two people — late 20s? early 30s? — talking about guns, largely positively.  Off notes shift in.

The negative notes seem to be almost perfunctory.  Cover their bases.

“Of course if I had children, the calculus would change.”
“Of course.”
“Like, the last school shooting.  Apparently the gun was just… lying around.  Or something.”
“That’s just wrong.”

“Apparently in some states you can own a gun at age four.  Can’t buy one of course, but can be passed on to the kid.”

I suppose I may mention that should the four year old actually fire the gun for any consequence, the legal guardian would almost certainly have some mighty serious legal repercussions.  Also, what does a four year old own, really?

They then plan on going shooting over the weekend.  Firing shots and some inanimate object or other out in the boondocks.
“Sounds like fun.”
“Sure does.”

Worth pointing out, perhaps, this is a woman and a man.  The woman speaks at some point of her girlfriend.  I point that out only because back in the summer, I noted at Huffington Post a story lauding some trans-gendered student associated with the anti-gun group of high schoolers behind David Hogg, speaking out and lauded as grabbing the “intersectionality” of the gun issue, which elicits a giant groan, a forced framework.  As it were, I suppose we’re still in the “white” and “cis” categories, so we’re still not fully where we need to be in the “Oppression Olympics”.  When I get the tran-woman or man nra member, I’ll be sure to note it.

2020 and … Biden.

Tuesday, December 18th, 2018

Biden / Romney 2020!!!

Um.  Er.

Theoretically, Biden is “in the lead” for the 2020 Democratic primary presidential ticket, so say national polls.  Then again, Joseph Lieberman was at this point rolling into 2004, and everyone knew not to take that seriously.  The problem this time out is…

… and maybe it’s the same problem as with 2004?…

… only more so because it seems that everything requires a whole lot of media oxygen,

Maybe even hitting around Iowa…

such that Beto O’Rourke is currently in third place in these “presidential sweepstakes?”…

And there’s this idea drifting around the Internet (floated by a longtime Republican operative, no less): a bipartisan fusion ticket pairing Biden with Utah Sen.-elect Mitt Romney, the last Republican presidential nominee before Trump.

The metamorphosis of politics, which once had Biden as a creature of 80s conservative tilting Democratic Politics — a big drug warrior and getting the tough on crime — evolving to the point where had he gone in for 2016 he’d have had his best bet arguing a point to the left of Hillary on foreign policy (as he arguably was within the Obama administration)…

… and then again, as arguably in some manners Trump was — though in places (would Trump have voted for the Iraq War?)…

Now he’s the last best shot for a Bloombergian third way, as against the encroaching Socialists of that young woman who won a House seat in New York City and that there Bernie Sanders…

… himself in second place in the Democratic Primary because… who the hell else does anyone know?

As per Romney — doesn’t the dude want to be president?
Or is he running for Senator of Massachusetts again, and as such trimming politics to …

“Unity”?

Actually, doesn’t Romney want to be a Republican?

And what of a Kennedy echo “torch has been passed to a whole new generation?”

I say Jay Inslee for President.  Just because… oh, why the hell not?

damning the dead

Saturday, December 15th, 2018

I suppose it’s not worthwhile to try to take some kind of side in …

Bill Maher slams down Stan Lee!

I suppose we can draw up a list of “comic book movies”.   Road to Perdition, Ghost World, American Splendor…

Josie and the Pussycats.

I’m bailing as I go ahead and look up a list on google and find this

“America is in mourning. Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I don’t know, watch a movie, I guess,” Maher wrote about the cultural icon responsible for many of Marvel’s most popular superheroes in comic books and movies. Lee’s team at POW! Entertainment quickly fired back at the late-night host, calling his words about man “frankly disgusting.”

Bill Maher going a faux high-brow route, and he will end up having a point.  Except a bit misplaced — unless he really hates the influx of comic book movies (he claims not to) and / or really is hearing a lot more than I heard on eulogies to Stan Lee.  One bit of fascination is that we see comic books themselves become subservient to the Hollywood productions, Stan Lee is thought of here in terms of the movies.

I’m agnostic on Stan Lee,” Maher said. “I don’t read comic books, I didn’t read them as a child. What I was saying is, a culture that thinks that comic books and comic book movies are profound meditations on the human condition is a dumb (explicit) culture. And for people to get mad at that just proves my point.”

When first I heard Bill Maher had some snotty things to say about Stan Lee, I was thinking “Oh, so he’s siding with Ditko and Kirby”, but it’s clearly not.

Marvel interjects that “He taught kids how to read and…”  hm… them flawed human nature?  Oh, within bounds, I suppose.

Curious as to whether Maher said anything about the recently deceased Bush, I don’t see anything right off the bat, but I do see the “post Trump whitewashing” effect — coming together most forcefully in a post-dated claim that if he knew what was to come next, he’d have supported Romney in 2012 — so… this does suggest a retrofitting of… I suppose all past presidents.

No longer Doubling the Square, now Halving the Square

Friday, December 14th, 2018

ITEM NUMBER ONE:  Ron Paul versus Lyndon Larouche, proxy election results

It is, I suppose, apples and oranges — though apples and oranges are similar enough to compare.  All of Ron Paul’s endorsed candidates were statewide and not necessarily running on a program — frankly, it’s a little difficult to determine Ron Paul’s modus operation.  The Nevada Independent gubernatorial candidate had a right win cause de jour behind him, New Jersey’s Senate candidate was a long time friend and associate (he ever write in one of Paul’s newsletters?), and I don’t know why he thought to endorse the Mississippi Republican Senate candidate and what separate Chris McDaniel from some other insurgent candidates.

The three Ron Paul selections
Ryan Bundy  1.4 percent  13,803
Chis McDaniel  16.4 percent  145,329
Murray Sabrin 0.7 percent  19,077

The three Lyndon Larouche candidates.  I will note, that numbers aren’t from the official source — I see a couple different tabulations out there for slightest of slight shifts.

Al Green   DEM  89.1%   135,427
Phil Kurtz  LIB   3.9%  5,898
Benjamin Hernandez  IND   3.8%  5,740
Kesha Rogers  IND  3.3%  5,005

Dusty Johnson  REP   60.3%  202,673
Tim Bjorkman  DEM   36%  121,002
 Ron Wieczorek  IND    2.2%  7,322
George Hendrickson  LIB   1.5% 4,912>

Debbie Dingell  DEM  68.1%  198,582
Jeff Jones  REP    28.9%  84,318
Gary Walkowicz  WCP   2.3%  6,684
Niles Niemuth  NPA   0.8%  2,198

Here there are apples and oranges yet again.  Not surprisingly, the candidate that did the best — Jeff Jones — isn’t affiliated with the Larouchies, is of a political party in a nation where affiliation with one or the other party almost guarantees you come in first or second, but — for whatever reason — signed on with a statement of principles to get an “in” with a speaking arrangement before the group in Michigan.

The candidate who was the “national” focus for the org, Kesha Rogers, I can only suggest — what a slide it is for her.  Once upon a time, her candidacies were nuisances to the Texas Democratic Party — two congressional nominations and a Senate run-off.  Now, she’s totally irrelevant, though perhaps by design.

There is at least one more candidate floating out there — Jessica White of New York.  For the Reform Party.  968 votes, or .5 percent.  Of course, if we’re still comparing how the “Ron Paul Revolution” did compared with LarouchePac, Paul surely has inspired candidates throughout the nation who passed that .5 percent threshold.

ITEM NUMBER TWO
The logistical problem when a history of fingering a figure of the “Get Larouche Task Force”, who “put Larouche in prison”, runs right up against the political reality of a Republican administration they’re backing refurbishes him for a new era.
William Barr as Attorney General? Either a Guy To Take Down Mueller, or a Bush Plant? Time Will Tell.
It flutters online, and then… is removed… as the Larouchies move on to space wars to figure out what, really, is their line here.

ITEM NUMBER THREE
So goes Russian tv.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, headquartered in Washington, DC, told Sputnik that British intelligence agencies сould have been behind the alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential elections. According to her, the team of then President Barack Obama and the UK’s MI6 could have worked together.

Naturally?
Evidence that seems to point to Russia conveniently fabricated, as is the way of the British
November 23, the hacktivist group released documents related to this project and said that the program had been launched in 2015 and was funded by the UK government. The Integrity Initiative’s list of participants includes Bill Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, and Vladimir Ashurkov, an associate of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, according to Anonymous.
According to Zepp-LaRouche, some stolen documents may be not authentic, however, in general, the description is consistent with the nature of UK intelligence’s methods.
“It could be that some elements may be not authentic. However, the overall story is entirely consistent with the modus operandi of British intelligence operations, and it very well may turn out, that it is this network, which is deeply involved with ‘Russiagate’ and the entire coup against [US] President [Donald] Trump,” the politician said.

Noted, a shifting of authorities for Russia’s propaganda purposes: this is not the Lyndon Larouche Movement; it’s the Helga Zepp Larouche Movement.
Meantime, Kesha Rogers is a what now?

In the early morning hours of Dec. 8, China sent a spacecraft into Earth orbit that will make history early next year when it lands on the far side of the Moon. As spaceweather.com aptly acknowledged, “if the mission succeeds, it will catapult China into the forefront of lunar exploration with a landing that no other nation has even dared to attempt.” If there were ever a reason for the U.S. to change course and re-commit to the exploration of space, this is it.

This must be the “New Sputnik-Chang’e-4 Shock,” for the United States, said LaRouchePAC National Policy Committee leader Kesha Rogers, from Houston where she is an international spokeswoman for advancing space R&D. Rogers called today’s launch, “A wake-up call for the future … it is a unifying mission for the nation.”

And So says Harley Schlanger to Russia tv. Lauding the Chinese Model… see too here.  And… say this?
The Schiller Institute is a political and economic think tank founded in 1984 via the philosophies of political activist Lyndon LaRouche and German poet Friedrich Schiller.

Was Friedrich Schiller a devotee of the style of cut-up poetry later employed by William Burroughs?

All to be able to put this phrasing… Numerous Russian media published lengthy reports on Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s explosive comments to the press in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation last week, in which she emphasized that it was the British that had interfered in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and are engaged in “a planned coup” against President Donald Trump; that Trump wants to improve relations with Russia, and that the upcoming summit between Putin and Trump could “bring some amazing results”; and that cooperation among the leaders of Russia, the U.S., China and India could solve the systemic crisis and open a new era of technological advance for humanity.

And EIR pleas with Trump:
President Trump has got to understand the folly of placing any credit in the foolish arguments of the “China-bashers” in his administration and face the reality that China, with its capabilities and experience in the field of infrastructure, can become an asset rather than a liability for US economic revival. But then President Trump has to extend the hand of friendship and not the “cold shoulder” of new tariffs when he meets the Chinese leader next month.
“Tarriff Man”.  (Odd, as they sure love China’s Dear Leader.  Or are willing to schill for him.)

William Jones, Washington bureau chief of the Executive Intelligence Review news magazine, said ending poverty had long been regarded a major task for humanity but until recently, was seen as a Utopian dream.
“With China, that dream is now becoming a reality,” he said.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR
The legacy is that their causes bob and weave, cited decades later in the oddball “rare species of exotic floral” studies.  Improbable Research, as it fills a quota of daily material, skips back to the great c256 cause.
See too Illinois elections 1986… and ongoing comparisons

You probably also know that in the “LaRouchie” election droves of people of all races voted for a name they liked more than the other names without knowing a thing about the candidates.–
Huh. Wonder why that guy with the nice name “Drury” didn’t do better.
Maybe voters weren’t “hazy’ as to who he was.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE

Beethoven Choral Fantasy & Mass in C Major – St. Bartholomew’s Church.

ITEM NUMBER SIX:

Bill Nye, popular kids science show host of the 90s, weighs in:
“This whole idea of terraforming Mars, as respectful as I can be, are you guys high?” the science educator asked in an interview with USA TODAY. “We can’t even take care of this planet where we live, and we’re perfectly suited for it, let alone another planet.”
Will the Larouchies declare Bill Nye a British Agent?  What say the International Spokeswomen for advancing space R & D Kesha Rogers?  Is Bill Nye wrong?
ITEM NUMBER SEVEN
Craig Unger, author of the “House of Bush House of Saud” moves on to a new book “House of Trump House of Putin” — interestingly enough, he probably coulda stayed with the original Bush thesis (and see the larouchies move from “But Obama” to an odd “was Khassogi really a WAPO reporter?”)  but whatever…
And… Good lord these cast of characters of “EIR”, and Roger Stone are just dancing all over the place.

Upon his return from Russia, the cast of Trump characters expanded to include Roger Stone and Paul Manafort: “On July 24, 1987 … an article appeared in a highly unlikely venue, the ‘Executive Intelligence Review,’ that strongly suggested something mysterious was going on between him and the Kremlin. ‘The Soviets are reportedly looking a lot more kindly on a possible presidential bid by Donald Trump, the New York builder who has amassed a fortune through real-estate speculation and owns a controlling interest in the notorious, organized-crime linked Resorts International,’ the article said. ‘Trump took an all-expenses-paid jaunt to the Soviet Union in July to discuss building the Russians some luxury hotels.’

ITEM NUMBER EIGHT
Belated review of Operation Chaos… and, hmMy show went fine, but in July the LaRouchies escalated the attack by publishing a whole dossier on me. “In the early 1950s,” it claimed, “Paul Krassner was recruited to the stable of pornographers and ‘social satirists’ created and directed by the British Intelligence’s chief brainwashing facility, the Tavistock Institute, to deride and destroy laws and institutions of morality and human decency.” (For the record, I was never in England.)

Although LaRouche and I both taught at the Free University of New York in 1966, we didn’t cross paths. Even then, he had his devoted fans: One student there told me that “LaRouche presented the most credible, most articulate, and best-argued version of Marxist economics that I ever heard.” My own class was titled “Journalism and Satire and How to Tell the Difference.”
With all due respect to Paul Krassner… Who hasn’t been fingered into the vast “Get Larouche” conspiracy web?
I thought I remembered him passing away a few years ago. Can we work the “Mandela Effect” into his conspiracy theories somehow?
The Mandela Effect for Lyndon Larouche?  Just as with Mandela and a false memory of his passing and the hooplah surrounding his death in the early 90s… for Larouche that would be — what?  We falsely remember seeing in a NYT obituary that him dying sometime in the mid-90s, make a crack about the Queen of England, then … no hooplah whatsoever.
After decades of thinking about it, I realized LaRouche was mostly right about the British.
I went to college in the early 80’s – a long long way from home. Spent way too much time at O’Hare Airport remembering the LaRouchies (“More nukes less kooks”), the Moonies (“love bombing”), and the Hare Krishna all competing to see who could make life more unpleasant for those stuck at the airport waiting for flights out. Airplane! is still the best documentary of that era.
For a while there it wasn’t safe to walk through an airport. LaRouche fascisti and Hare Krishnas were everywhere hawking magazines and incense. Now that we have the Transport Sozialist Arbeiterpartei gropers instead, there’s room for a little nostalgia.

Fucking Boomers. I would rather have the CIA of the 1960s and 1970s than the Deep State that your generation created.

Most of you were never fighting for Liberty or freedom, just your brand of authoritarianism.

Just stop with the propaganda.

ITEM NUMBER NINE
Tell me all your thoughts on George Soros, recipient of unwanted terrorist threats

NYT:  As his activities grew more prominent in Europe, and he began funding drug reform efforts in the United States, he started being cast in the 1990s as a central figure in a shadowy Jewish cabal by extremist figures such as the fascist presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. and allies of repressive Eastern European leaders who were targeted by groups funded by Mr. Soros.
The theories were initially confined to the anti-Semitic fringe, though Mr. Soros is not closely associated with Jewish or Israeli causes, and in fact has been accused of being anti-Israel and was criticized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

THE CBC
For what it’s worth, Soros is funding political causes worldwide.  Controlling what — less than the Koch Bros, I suppose.
The strange thing about the origins of “cultural marxism” is… I’ve read enough to see the basic idea from that there right of the design of degenerating the culture as a Marxist plot precedes the “Frankfruit School” and the Larouchian denunciation of said.
So say Larouche:  The CBC is a Crown Corporation owned by “the Sovereign” of Canada, who is Queen Elizabeth, herself.
The cause of the focus on the story of “The Right’s attack on Soros” — not the threats against the man, mind you, but the Russian media appearances of Hegla Zepp alerting the news that it’s the British that Did It All, not the Russians.
ITEM NUMBER ELEVEN
Oddly the most viewed video out of the last dozen or so? A Jacques Cheminade video they put out a few days ago about a Mass Strike in France. In fact it’s been their most viewed video in a month or more.
Yellow Vest Protests.  ‘Tis topical.  Burrow into any civil unrest that’s out there… Still, this isn’t so much the Lyndon Larouche Movement as it is the Jacques Cheminade Movement.
Maybe in the US they’ll get far with this old new line…
 when contemplating the new “politico-duo” of Sen. Bernie Sanders and his sidekick, no-longer resident Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. As they play out their media-promoted “plot” to create the “Progressive International” (PI), one quickly finds out that the real intent behind their play-acting routine is, in fact, not to help the poor and disadvantaged worldwide, as they claim, but rather to revive the pro-Nazi designs of Britain’s pre-eminent economic wizard, Lord John Maynard Keynes. Studying the interactions between the two, one cannot help but wonder: have Abbott and Costello, or perhaps a new version of the Marx Brothers, suddenly reincarnated themselves, this time with the evil intention of using the cloak of the “entirely absurd” to finally drive you, me and the rest of humanity, quickly, into a terrible New Dark Age?
Keynes.  What was his role with the original Bretton Woods?

The 5 big winners and 5 big losers of Election 2018

Monday, December 3rd, 2018

5 Winners

(1)  The Prohibition Party.  The nation’s oldest third party has opened up a state party in New York, and is gearing up to tear away at the Cuomo beer guzzling machine.  And with the warring Old Guard passed on, it’s gearing up to a rock em sock em three way presidential nomination contest for 2020.  Fun times ahead.

(2)  Zombie Dennis Hof.  One way to beat back scandal.  Die.  Then no one can speak ill of you, and you can cruise to election.  We’ll see if this strategy in crisis management takes off.

(3)  The Beto O’Rourke vice Presidential caravan.  I can’t tell if comments by various pols saying that O’Rourke’s senate bid loss benefits a possible presidential bid by not tying him to the Senate and Senate duties is a facetious commentary on modern politics or not.  As it were, I see comments that Beto’s loss is good for the Dems, because it removes a sure-fire loser from contention.  Funny that.  So.  Does this leave him veep timber?  Noted: Texas swung closer for the Dms than Ohio in 2016.

(4)  Rocky De La Fuente.  Ran in nine Senate races.  Winning anywhere between .3 percent of the vote and 12.3 percent of the vote.  If you’re committed to political office seeking as a hobby, might as well do it on this scale.

(5)  Communism.  Fascist forces are slinging it out with antifa on the streets of Portland, as bourgioise liberals are alayed in the cross winds.  The fascists swing their praises for old time authoritarian regimes — Pinochet and Franco.  The antifas have an honest to gosh Hammer and Sickle flag, showing that… yes… Communism is on the March!

5 Losers

(1)  The Natural Law Party.  Ceased operation nationally in 2004, but Party Boss Doug Dern hands out a ballot line in Michigan for the asking.  What do they stand for?  Is anyone advocating the square root of one percent of a population for a troubled area mediating for peace approach anymore?  Nay.  The party strays from its roots, and has only three candidates to show for itself.

(2)  The Modern Whig Party.  David Brooks, beleaguered Never Trumper Man without a Party, pines for the days of Zachary Taylor and Henry Clay and so spotted the “Modern Whig Party” a nod of approval in an August column.  The party failed to capitalize, running as many candidates for office as their nineteenth century historical inspiration did: zero.  We see what happens in a year and two years.

(3)  The Lyndon Larouche Movement.  They ran two candidates, the flagship being the most successful candidate of the Obama eara — Kesha Rogers — who acted the irritant to the Texas Democratic Party by winning two congressional nominations and forcing a run off for Senate nomination.  In 2018, the party got to ignore her completely.  Oddly, the lesser candidate, from the org’s perspective, did better in his rural climes — and against more overlapping competition that could dip into pro-Trump support.

(4)  Taylor Swift.  Her political neutrality makes for good business sense.  Want everyone to buy her music, right?  But the odd thing about endorsing Phil Bredesen — the Democratic candidate his Republican supporters had slyly called “The Best Republican Governor Tennessee ever had” — on progressive grounds is… it does clash against Bredesen’s political posiitioning.  On the plus side, she lost her weird “White Nationalist” supporters who had embraced her, deciding to read white pride into her lyrics off of her political non stances and a couple over sensitive politically correct criticisms… maybe they’re now having to go over to Kanye West?

(5)  Ann Coulter’s love affair with Kansas.  After Kansas elected a Democrat for governor, she tweeted “Kansas — you are dead to me.”  Poses some odd questions — Was Kansas ever really alive for Ann Coulter, and if so — why?