The courageous African Americans who participated in the Bus Boycott in the 1950s were dealing with an entity which IN TERMS OF RELATIVE POWER was far more of an adversary than facing the people who would do battle with corporate media.
When OCCUPY was active in 2011 and 2012, I always thought three things:
They should have differentiated between people who tended to think along the lines of libertarians and people who tended to think along the lines of Democrats
They should have expanded their scope to include the Fourth Estate
They should have recognized the connectivity between VOTING and social change**
** The 1963 March on Washington included people interested in VOTING RIGHTS…they were not there for vacation
Hate to break it to ya Mikey, but that horse left the stable long, long ago. Sheesh! Nothing makes neocons happier. Trump is symptomatic of a party gone bad, that has lost any influence over its base not a cause as you would have it.
Excepting that the gloms really don’t want Trump elected IMO.
They’re pretty healthy as is-- and another 8yrs of a (D) POTUS is truly all they want for XMas.
It was the invasion of Iraq which lead to ISIS and don’t forget the Saudis, our ally all these years who have made the spread of their fundamentalist brand of Islam to the entire Islamic world their project. In lieu of, you know, actual development. Which comes back around to us because jihad has been part of our policy playbook since Afghanistan circa 1980 right up to Syria today. For various reasons always amounting to eliminating any chance of a democratic or even secular governments in the region.
A reasonable policy would be to boycott Saudi Arabia because of their insidious religious based propaganda campaign that is responsible to a degree for oppression all over the rest of the Muslim world and creation and recruitment of terrorist wannabes in Western countries. It’s all because of oil plus fundamentalism, plus they have Mecca. They supply about 12% of world oil production. The world could do without it at this point.
But what they have been doing is not as obvious as the rest so they get away with it.
Unfortunately, there was a story last week about donors starting to pledge support, and Adelson pledged $100 million. Fortunately, money can’t make up for a lack of organization, as it’s difficult to spend if there’s nothing set up to spend it on. I wouldn’t be surprised if campaign personnel try to pocket what they can’t spend as Don the Con’s crapfest draws to a close.
Sure, why not? We often have, thanks to remarks like this:
Which is not to say that Hayden isn’t right about the recruitment remark, but I’m not sure the coming tweet storm from Don the Con will stand out as so much worse than all his others.
I was so disappointed (a mom word, for sure) with Brian Williams when all the stories came out about him fudging his direct involvement/1st person accounting of news events he was supposed to be covering. And then I think back on how the story of W’s desertion/Pappy’s intervention during the Vietnam era was flipped on its ear and became the Dan Rather scandal instead. (and I fully believe the docs in question stunk of Rovian “plant” but where was the vetting prior to the reporting?)
We’ve come so far from the days of true journalism in just a few short decades. The movie “Network” was so prescient - when the news division transforms into a profit center, the content of the news is designed to fit the sponsors’ and shareholders’ POV. Add to that the consolidation of news outlets into massive for-profit corps and Fox’s successfully winning the right to be fact-free, it’s not wonder we can’t tell where reality TV stops and news reporting begins.
Honestly, I kinda hope that everyone continues the meme that this election is razor close, especially in the final week before election day, because Democrats have an embarrassing history of just not bothering to actually cast a vote if the outcome appears to be a done deal. It’s the “I don’t have to vote because ‘X’ candidate is going to win anyway” mentality and the best arrow in our quiver is our GOTV organizations, especially since it seems that Trump’s campaign is relying on the RNC to do that and vice versa.
No argument with the economic side. In the good old days, the networks made so much money on entertainment they could afford to hire the Eric Sevareids and let them do their work because it brought prestige. They didn’t care if it didn’t pay for itself. Now they care.
Newspapers were once the dominant way to advertise a used car, job opening, what have you. That changed too. And with it the budgeting for writers and editors. And family-owned gave way to chain-owned, with far more pressure to show profits comparable to other businesses.
Thing is, humans are a curious species; we want to know what’s going on. (I think that’s why I like cats, they’re similar.) We’ve always had sources of information. I see new forms of that emerging, and don’t entirely despair, but I’ll be quiet now and tiptoe away lest I be accused of making “excuses” for journalism. I used to think I was a fairly harsh media critic but not enough for some it seems.
I don’t know why people harbor those creatures in their homes! At least the yappy ones. I have friends with two Chihuahua-Jack Russell mixes. Dumber, yappier dogs you never met. A nice quiet dog is OK I guess. My last cat and I used to laugh, watching people walk their dogs on sleety mornings. We were warm and dry. The dog walkers just made us feel cozier. So basically it’s all good. : )
It’s the Chihuahua. The Jack Russell’s I’ve known are bright, loyal, and obedient.
Now. We have four strike that, 5 pusses (now that Mama adopted a neighborhood stray about 3 months back).
But my boy Runway– is a classic mutt. Shepherd/hound mix-- and right-brained. Acts like the cats.
Cleanest damn 80lb dog you’ve ever met. And quiet.
