Dennis the Peasant is 73 today.
Look at this tweet, I said last night to a different Hillaryite Colleague than has been in conversations here recently, this one happy dancing Hillary's chances versus Trump:
I would rather run against Crooked Hillary Clinton than Bernie Sanders and that will happen because the books are cooked against Bernie!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2016
It's fucking brilliant, I said. I think Trump has a decent puncher's chance against Hillary. But, she said, you've been saying all along Trump cannot beat Hillary. I still think he won't, I said, I still bet he'll lose in a landslide, but I've underestimated Trump from the beginning (as you've underestimated how much people despise Hillary), I'm not going to underestimate him any longer. You're kidding, she said. Look at that tweet. It's fucking brilliant. Think how that word crooked is gonna be attached to her like a ball and chain forever and ever amen, and planting and replugging the narrative in Sanders' zealots minds the nomination is stolen? Pivoting from calling Sanders supporters leftist terrorists to brazenly attempting to peel them from Hillary? But, she said, Trump has no proof, he lies, he's a buffoon, it's so transparent, it's fake, he'll say anything. Exactly, I said, he's the perfect foil for Hillary, who is every bit as shitty but pretends to be holy. The faker he gets, the faker she looks. You're fucking nuts, she said.
1) billmon, during the bush years, had a blog "whiskey bar" - title taken from the lyrics of the song "moon of alabama", by kurt weill, recorded by the doors
ReplyDeletenow he tweets - recently he wrote
REMARKS ON CLOSED PRIMARIES
BILLMON 2 MAY 2016
1) Leaving aside political stupidity of excluding indies from major party primaries, the practice relies on a myth -- one of many in system.
2) The myth (legal fiction might be better term) is duopoly parties are purely private organizations, & thus should be able to set own rules
3) But this is pettifoggery. Reality is 2 parties enjoy a privileged position within our "2 party system" -- one reinforced by state power.
4) Most states have legal barriers - usually onerous - to keep smaller parties off ballots & protect duopoly. Some still use "party lever"..
5) ...to encourage straight Dem/GOP party line voting.
6) Party primaries are treated as official elections, costs subsidized by the taxpayers.
7) And on & on. Duopoly parties hard wired into legal framework of political process in ways that make a mockery of claims to private status
8) So any further attempt to limit access of indies to primary ballots would be a systemic closure -- tightening cartel's grip even more
9) And systemic closure - like more closed primaries - to block future Sanders or Trumps would only make sclerotic, dysfunctional system...
10) ...even MORE sclerotic & dysfunctional: reinforcing everything people hate about American politics & politicians.
11) Ultimately, it's a death spiral -- an oligarchical system seeking escape from consequences of oligarchy by becoming MORE oligarchical.
12) And, ultimately, it ends in systemic collapse, when a shock (a lost war, a depression, an exceptionally skilled demagogue) comes along..
13) ...that the system no longer has the political legitimacy to survive.
in important ways, the 3 conditions in point 12 apply here and now - as a line from the firesign theatre said, "if you push it hard enough, it falls right over" - the question is, is it being pushed hard enough?
i guess we'll see
2)changing the topic, lately i've repeatedly viewed sawyer fredericks' "take me to the river"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atZLYSo89h0
it's very different from the talking heads version, also a favorite of mine
speaking metaphorically, the latter version wallows in the water, whereas sawyer and the dancers scrub up energetically
who knows if it's good or bad?
The less shitty is, methinks, becoming increasingly more shitty. Unless, of course, my own nose is failing—as all our senses tend to do over time.
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