@briebriejoy: What? Ilhan raising money to fight against AIPAC trying to unseat her is “democrats fighting against Jewish people”?

Centaurea · 2023-12-08T22:14:21+00:00

The Congressional Progressive Caucus is fundraising, saying "Republican-funded AIPAC is trying to unseat progressives!"

I got a fundraising text from them last week, in which that's what they said. Framing it as "We have to beat those mean Republicans!"

Centaurea · 2023-12-03T04:02:33+00:00

I hate to think what they'd have done to Carlin.

Centaurea · 2023-12-01T23:44:44+00:00

It's been happening ever since Jacob stole Esau's birthright. That's a long time to believe that you had a right to cheat and steal because god loves you best.

Centaurea · 2023-12-01T02:52:36+00:00

I'm getting a security warning when I try to open the link to that website. Can we have an archive link, please?

Centaurea · 2023-11-30T10:37:21+00:00

I'm remembering the Town Hall televised the night before the 2016 Michigan Democratic primary election. Hillary Clinton started waxing nostalgic about her beloved mentor, Henry Kissinger, and how we need more people like him.

To his credit, Bernie went ballistic, in that cranky way that Bernie used to do a lot more of. "Well, I'm not going to stand here and say good things about Henry Kissinger, I can tell you!"

I don't expect the 2023's version of Bernie to say anything bad about Kissinger. Maybe he'll just make himself scarce while the canonization of St. Henry takes place.

(Bernie ended up winning the Michigan primary handily, to the shock of the corporate news media, who refused to call the election for Bernie until over 90% of precincts had reported in.)

Centaurea · 2023-11-30T10:24:50+00:00

Unfortunately, there are still a whole bunch of them in the US State Dept.

Centaurea · 2023-11-30T10:22:04+00:00

R.I.P. Henry Kissinger

🤔
Reside In Purgatory?
Reward: Infinite Perdition?
Rotten Iniquitous Person?

Personally, I think I'd go with "K.A.B. Henry".

Karma's a bitch.

Centaurea · 2023-11-30T02:56:29+00:00

Canonization of Saint Henry Kissinger incoming.

Centaurea · 2023-11-28T08:41:20+00:00

But Biden, the oldest president in history, has never polled well with younger voters.

Certainly demonstrates the wisdom of the DNC in cramming him down the gullets of the Dem base and of the American public. [/s]

Centaurea · 2023-11-23T11:14:16+00:00

The US is not a victim.

Centaurea · 2023-11-22T05:28:40+00:00

One path leads to our merger with machines. The individuals who take this path will not remain individuals for long; their identities will be subsumed in a vast computer-aided organism capable of spreading out into space and colonizing other worlds.

Putting on my Rod Serling hat for a moment:

Consider, if you will, the possibility that this kind of colonization has happened on planet Earth; that the human species has developed as a result of a similar colonization many millennia ago by a computer-aided (AI) organism.

Centaurea · 2023-11-22T03:05:02+00:00

The Dems know Biden would not make it through a second term. They're using this as an opportunity to position their next Chosen One, his running mate, who as VP would take over as POTUS when Biden resigns or otherwise ceases being president.

(It will be interesting to see who the DNC puts up as Biden's 2024 running mate.)

Centaurea · 2023-11-21T11:17:03+00:00

I'll give this a listen tomorrow. In the meantime, reading the transcripts confirms what I've been thinking: these developments are going to be a good thing for the world. It potentially could be good for the US, too, depending on what we do with the opportunity to transform our economic system. The destabilization and uncertainty are kind of scary, too. I can see and hear the American public feeling that right now, the fear and anxiety. I'm seeing a lot more ads and new products for insomnia. Anxiety and a revved up neuroendocrine system will do that to you.

TPTB are doing their best to try and gaslight us. A couple of weeks ago, our local newspaper published an AP piece, trying to convince us that the US economy is doing great, and that Americans are in great financial shape and thus feel optimistic about the future.

The reason they gave? The individual net worth of "median" income Americans has risen recently, because the value of their corporate stock investments has risen, as well as the value of the homes they own.

The blindness is baffling. I guess the people writing this BS are in the upper 10%, who own homes and have big incomes and high value investment accounts, and they believe their own BS.

Anyhoo, I think it's going to be interesting and even exciting to see how this unfolds. I really hope the US can get its act together.

Centaurea · 2023-11-20T09:06:18+00:00

The immediate priority for the United States has to be to ensure that Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan have the weapons they need to defend themselves. These are the players with the most skin in the game at present. The best hope for avoiding a general conflict is that these frontier states will be so plucky and prickly that aggression is stopped or deterred before it can spread.

Oh, brother. Trying to scare the American public into going along with their hegemonic agenda.

The United States should be straining every nerve to prepare for this scenario in hopes of deterring conflict but ensuring that Americans are ready for it if it comes.

This guy and the people for whom he is progandizing don't have a clue what the American people would need in order to "be ready" for a global war. They don't have a clue about what the American people need, period. They don't have a clue about what the American people are thinking, feeling, and experiencing at present.

They don't have a clue about anything, and they 1) are too mentally disordered and ignorant to understand that they don't have a clue, and 2) don't give a damn about the American people anyway.

This is who we've got running things.

Centaurea · 2023-11-19T00:35:24+00:00

WWJD, amirite?

Centaurea · 2023-11-16T20:20:57+00:00

In 1968, the Dem party managed to permanently crush the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s. We'll find out if they can do it again.

Centaurea · 2023-11-16T08:11:28+00:00

.... using him.

Centaurea · 2023-11-16T04:38:07+00:00

So near and yet so far. The author makes some good points, but she has some mental blind spots.

We're surrounded by people we care about who can't change to save themselves, no matter how bad things get. They can't bring themselves to do anything different. They can't operate on a more realistic worldview. They can't break with their political party. They can't wear a mask. They can't demand clean air. They can't update their vaccines. They can't call out genocide when they see it.

She rightly says that we need to question lies and stop justifying systems and institutions that lie to us. She points out that cognitive bias often keeps us from seeing clearly and being open to change. But in this article, she displays her own cognitive biases that prevent her from fully questioning those systemic institutional lies herself.

Changing means you're forced to admit things aren't working, that the institutions and even the people you trusted have failed.

Physician, heal thyself.

Centaurea · 2023-11-16T00:45:37+00:00

In our current system of financialized capitalism, every action is taken based on very short term effects centered on a very narrow range of financial interests.

"How is this going to impact corporate share value tomorrow?" Not "How is this likely to impact the wellbeing of the US in the future?"

In other words, they're addicts. All they can see is their next fix.

Centaurea · 2023-11-15T06:40:42+00:00

I think the geniuses in D.C. believed (and apparently still believe) that the US is the sole ruler of the universe, and that everyone else in the world would be content to remain our servants forever.

Centaurea · 2023-11-15T06:33:11+00:00

Heck, I guess we could go back to the 1950s, when the US began turning post-war Japan into a US vassal by having them manufacture goods to be sold here. That's when "Made in Japan" was printed on all sorts of crappy stuff.

Centaurea · 2023-11-15T06:22:19+00:00

Looking at the byline of this NBCNews piece:

By Kevin Collier and Ken Dilanian

A DNC propagandist and a CIA asset. Move on, citizen. Nothing to see here.

Centaurea · 2023-11-15T05:17:01+00:00

People have become addicted to their devices and the incessant, constant external communication and stimulation provided by the technology.

"All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."

Blaise Pascal was right about that, in ways that he couldn't have imagined when he said it during the 1600s.

Centaurea · 2023-11-15T05:08:25+00:00

I think this judge made the wrong call. However, there's a simple way to make sure your car's manufacturer doesn't intercept your text messages: Don't download your text messages to your car.

Centaurea · 2023-11-15T03:31:20+00:00

Who could have predicted this when the US offshored its manufacturing to Asia, starting in the 1990s?

[/s]

Centaurea · 2023-11-14T04:24:28+00:00

It's kind of superiority complex that characterizes malignant narcissists.

Centaurea · 2023-11-12T11:48:22+00:00

Manchin suggested his political career may not be over as he said he will be “traveling the country and speaking out to see if there is an interest in creating a movement to mobilize the middle and bring Americans together”—which former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro translated as: “Stay tuned. I want to run for president.”

I wonder whether he would do this as a Democrat, Republican, or something else?

Centaurea · 2023-11-11T12:25:28+00:00

Bernie, Bernie, Bernie.

Centaurea · 2023-11-10T08:30:01+00:00

“Democrats have multiple pathways to protect and strengthen our Senate majority and are in a strong position to achieve this goal," [DSCC spokesperson David Bergstein] said.

Including Chuck Schumer's favorite pathway, which he elucidated in 2016: "For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”

Centaurea · 2023-11-10T08:22:09+00:00

To what US "democracy" is she referring?

Centaurea · 2023-11-10T06:25:59+00:00

I don't donate to any political campaigns anymore, but I would vote for her. (Same as I did in 2016.)

Centaurea · 2023-11-08T09:20:07+00:00

I wonder what that guy's neighbors think about his own neighborliness.

Centaurea · 2023-11-06T07:29:14+00:00

It might be interesting to see Krugman's investment portfolio.

Centaurea · 2023-11-06T03:19:40+00:00

the person who is now in charge is a US puppet.

That would be current Filipino president Bongbong Marcos, son of former presidente (and US puppet) Ferdinand Marcos and his magnificently-shod wife, Imelda.

Centaurea · 2023-11-05T00:46:50+00:00

Ukraine is so 2022.

Centaurea · 2023-11-05T00:44:52+00:00

threats to the homeland

I'm really tired of that dystopic, overly sentimental, emotion-jerking "homeland" label. No one in the US ever referred to the US as our "homeland" until TPTB trotted it out after 9-11. I thought it was creepy the first time I heard it, and it's creepier now, knowing what they've done with it.

Not to mention, it's an inappropriate use of the word. "Homeland" is correctly used by people who have left their home country and set up camp elsewhere. Not by people who have never left home.

Centaurea · 2023-11-04T07:20:37+00:00

That Putin is so clever, darn him.

Centaurea · 2023-11-03T05:06:21+00:00

I will remind you that Israel and the land of Judea was G-d's idea.

God, November 2, 2023: What the hell was I thinking?!

Centaurea · 2023-11-03T04:59:00+00:00

This, is a stupid person.

It's not just a stupid person. It's a crazy person.

"God loves me best, and hates everyone else! Everyone must bow down to me, give me your land and property, and do whatever I say! If you don't, God, who loves me best, will smite you! It says so right there in that book that God wrote!"

Seriously, that's bonkers. Straitjacket-worthy bonkers.

Centaurea · 2023-11-02T23:01:15+00:00

So basically, our public health agencies are not investigating the reason for this. They, and the media's "experts", are making assumptions and presenting their speculation as fact.

Dr. Tracey Wilkinson, an associate professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine who is an expert on women's access to reproductive health care, told ABC News she's not surprised by the findings and that she sees a couple of reasons for the increase in infant mortality rates.

One is maternity care deserts -- where’s there a lack or absence of maternity care -- which limits the ability to care for infants properly. The second is limiting of access to abortion, particularly following the Supreme Court decision of Dobbs v. Jackson in June 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Centaurea · 2023-10-29T03:56:32+00:00

Meanwhile, in Tel Aviv, the president of the United States made a speech in which he said: "As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone."

"The US will stand forever." That's what POTUS said. Unlike anything else in the universe, unlike everything that has ever existed or will exist, the US is eternal.

These people are nuts. Bonkers. Crazy. This is who we've got running things.

Centaurea · 2023-10-29T02:19:18+00:00

Time proved him right.

Sure didn't take long for this user to show their hand.

Centaurea · 2023-10-28T22:23:16+00:00

Here's the thing about malignant narcissists, who project everything in their psyche onto the world and fight it there (in the psychology world, this is known as "projection" and "splitting black and white"):

They are never satisfied. And it never stops.

Centaurea · 2023-10-28T09:22:30+00:00

Hey, they've got as robust a democracy as the US has.

Centaurea · 2023-10-28T09:20:57+00:00

To sum up what this article says, in two words:

They're cowards.

Centaurea · 2023-10-28T06:36:38+00:00

I maxed out my contributions to Bernie for the second time in January 2020, a couple of months before he turned around and bent the knee to Biden. That was the final time I made a political donation to anyone. No more of my $$ being devoured by the endlessly ravening maw of the Dem consultant class.

Centaurea · 2023-10-28T02:39:27+00:00

I know the feeling. I could use that $5,400.

Centaurea · 2023-10-27T05:53:04+00:00

Maybe they don't think they need to, given the current state of the collective American psyche. We the People have been trauma-bonded into a submissive stupor.

Centaurea · 2023-10-27T05:49:53+00:00

That horse left the barn a while ago.

Centaurea · 2023-10-26T05:35:42+00:00

6 hours prior it blew up to Cat5 165mph w 205mph gusts from nothing and a small TS forecast.

It's unprecedented for a storm to grow from minor Tropical Storm status to being a Category 5 hurricane within the space of six hours.

Centaurea · 2023-10-25T03:04:36+00:00

This is pretty impressive, especially since the Kingdom of Jordan has been considered a reliable western ally for the past several decades. Jordan is fairly westernized culturally. Rania's husband, King Abdullah II, is half British through his mother, the former Toni Gardiner.

Centaurea · 2023-10-24T11:18:08+00:00

The Livermore Police Department observed that the alleged robber “then attempted to rob the gun store by taking a firearm while armed with a hammer.”

NBC Bay Area noted the store owner then fired two rounds, at least one of which struck the suspect, who died at the scene.

Sounds like that guy didn't think through his robbery plans very well.

Centaurea · 2023-10-24T03:14:33+00:00

Well, my first thought was the Civil Aeronautics Administration, which displays my ever-advancing age. 😅

Centaurea · 2023-10-24T03:04:12+00:00

They'll probably get huge bonuses for saving the company $$$ by hiring underage immigrants and thereby increasing corporate share value on Wall Street.

"We're capitalists, and that's just the way it is." ~ Nancy Pelosi

Centaurea · 2023-10-23T05:12:48+00:00

I pre-ordered Dr. Wolf's book last month, and she's posted a few excerpts on her substack. Looking foward to receiving the book in November.

Centaurea · 2023-10-20T06:46:20+00:00

Comcast is part of the corporate oligarchy. No surprise that its "news" arm (tentacle?) serves the empire.

Centaurea · 2023-10-18T22:04:53+00:00

the verdict against Amber Heard was a disaster for free speech

I hadn't realized that he thought this about the Heard verdict. I haven't seen his reasoning, but I assume he doesn't realize that there is already a SCOTUS-recognized exception to the First Amendment for cases of slander and libel.

In any event, the blame for that would rest on Heard. One of her attorneys wanted to focus their case on the First Amendment issues, but in her quest for high drama, she insisted that the focus be on the things she alleged Depp to have done. So they built their case around that. Unfortunately, their case was poor.

Centaurea · 2023-10-18T21:51:45+00:00

Tyson added that “insect-protein inclusion” can be beneficial to both the “planet and animals.”

Tell that to those poor bugs.

Centaurea · 2023-10-18T21:46:45+00:00

"We're capitalists, and that's just the way it is." ~ Nancy Pelosi

Centaurea · 2023-10-15T09:43:21+00:00

It's hard to use madame la guillotine on a faceless blob.

Centaurea · 2023-10-13T01:30:08+00:00

As much sense as anything going on in the world right now.

Centaurea · 2023-10-11T05:46:15+00:00

There's nothing like getting advice from AI on how to examine one's mindset.

Centaurea · 2023-10-09T10:34:46+00:00

Sounds like the DNC's highly-paid consultants need to escalate the messaging.

Centaurea · 2023-10-09T10:30:37+00:00

The Dem base actually believes this. I know someone (unfortunately, a family member) who has been carrying on today about "OMG, Trump is giving state secrets to Putin!" This same person ironically has no hesitation about using the pejorative "conspiracy theorist" against people who say mean things about Big Pharma. Truly amazing to observe.

Centaurea · 2023-10-09T07:02:24+00:00

Asking cui bono? might be a good place to start. Who benefits?

Centaurea · 2023-10-07T10:20:55+00:00

And another one bites the dust.

Centaurea · 2023-10-05T05:18:08+00:00

Yes! The DNC's highly-paid consultants are proud to announce that we're working day and night to focus-group the best possible ~~propaganda mindf#@king gaslighting BS~~ important and really true information from experts. 🤓 Is it working? You can trust us. Would we lie to you?

Centaurea · 2023-10-05T04:39:20+00:00

How the heck can you tell anymore?

Nowadays, Rod Serling would have a hard time coming up with outlandish nightmare scenarios for The Twilight Zone.

"Picture this, if you will. A world turned upside down, in which a country that fought Nazis and declared "never again" now venerates Nazis as heroes. You are now entering the Twi ... Oh, wait. That's been done already. Never mind."

Centaurea · 2023-10-05T00:52:07+00:00

Look at Stancil here: what is introspective for him in these tweets? Where is his introspection? If privilege checking is a self-critical exercise, where is the self-criticism here? There’s literally none to be found, just like there’s none in anything Stancil ever says about social justice issues. [...] Specifically, he’s a guy who’ll never wonder whether the way that he’s bent the critique of white men into a tool to glorify himself might not be, itself, an expression of white male privilege.

Malcolm X talked about this very thing 55 years ago.

Centaurea · 2023-10-05T00:26:59+00:00

In many cases, their parents were standing right there, smiling happily and doing nothing.

Centaurea · 2023-10-04T23:55:25+00:00

Gaslighting gaslighters who gaslight.

Centaurea · 2023-10-04T10:01:36+00:00

Well, well, well. An amazing coincidence.

Centaurea · 2023-10-03T14:54:12+00:00

The dam’s about to break on the establishment control of the party.

Those words were uttered by Ro Khanna in a Sept. 29 interview with Cenk Uygur. Those two notoriously anti-establishment progressives. 😆

Khanna said that the Democrats need to improve their messaging and sell their agenda to the American people before the election.

Right. Because focusing on "messaging" is such a non-establishment thing to do.

Whatever would the Dem establishment's well-paid consultant class do if "anti-establishment" types like Ro and Cenk have their way?

Answer: the same thing they do now. Make megabucks from their highly remunerative consulting contracts with the DNC for messaging, focus-grouping, and PR strategizing.

(To note, in many cases these highly-paid consultants are themselves members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the same body that awards to them their highly remunerative contracts. It's a big club, as Carlin said.)

Centaurea · 2023-10-02T06:58:41+00:00

They keep trying ...

Centaurea · 2023-10-01T06:57:46+00:00

I want my $5,400 back. (I maxed my donations twice, in 2016 and 2020).

Centaurea · 2023-09-28T10:22:59+00:00

Well, let's face it, US politics are a trainwreck.

Centaurea · 2023-09-27T05:05:05+00:00

Padre, not père.

Centaurea · 2023-09-27T01:49:51+00:00

Jesus wept.

Centaurea · 2023-09-27T01:02:28+00:00

Seems like it would be more appropriate to deport the members of the Canadian Parliament who think someone who fought against Canada is a "Canadian hero".

Centaurea · 2023-09-26T04:22:52+00:00

I bet Justin's padre would be deeply embarrassed by what his offspring is doing.

Centaurea · 2023-09-26T04:19:43+00:00

When your new programming tells you to congratulate someone who fought against your side in a World War. When you've forgotten that Russia was the ally of the US and UK during WWII.

Centaurea · 2023-09-21T06:55:44+00:00

Sarah Ashton-Cirillo is well-spoken in English because she's American. She was born in Florida. In the 2000s, she was active in politics in Nevada. CIA may well be her master, but she's home-grown.

Centaurea · 2023-09-16T23:27:31+00:00

So does the Democratic (sic) party.

Centaurea · 2023-09-15T00:20:58+00:00

No matter who's in the Oval Office, it's the same bunch of PNAC neocons running US foreign policy.

Centaurea · 2023-09-15T00:13:17+00:00

Workers need, require more discipline. What a surprise! ... Oh yeah. Luxury properties

Did you read either the guy's comments or Johnstone's piece about it? Because that's not at all what either of them said.

Wage discipline =/= imposing discipline on workers in the course of their jobs.

Deliberately creating high unemployment and homelessness as a means of imposing wage discipline =/= imposing discipline on workers in the course of their jobs.

Homelessness =/= the lack of luxury housing.

Centaurea · 2023-09-14T06:14:53+00:00

I don't fault her and her husband for making a buck. I fault her for being a hypocrite.

Centaurea · 2023-09-13T08:55:01+00:00

the Democratic-Republican Party (DeRP)

I like that acronym. I think I might start using it. Has a ring to it that "uniparty" doesn't.

Centaurea · 2023-09-08T11:16:45+00:00

CNN: There's no way to spin this, and believe me, we've tried.

Centaurea · 2023-09-06T22:16:41+00:00

I see how his ability to understand issues and weave through complex issues in a way that no one else can to make smart and important decisions on behalf of the American people have played out, she said.

Unfortunately, Kamala, we see it too. We see clearly how his "ability" has played out. (P.S. It's "has", not "have". The subject of your sentence is the singular noun "ability", not the rest of your word salad that you got lost in, as usual.)

"And so I will say to you that I think the American people ultimately want to know that their president delivers. And Joe Biden delivers."

The question is, what is he delivering and for whom is he delivering it?

Centaurea · 2023-09-06T22:10:38+00:00

Well, she's right about the second part. Her desire to become POTUS is never going to come to fruition.

That's my prediction.

Centaurea · 2023-09-06T03:58:01+00:00

Our tax dollars at work.

Centaurea · 2023-09-04T07:21:54+00:00

The cause of this collapse [of NATO and the US-Europe military alliance] would be the profound difference in outlook between the Republican Party’s populist wing—which is led by Donald Trump but now clearly makes up the majority of the GOP—and the existential security concerns of much of Europe.

The immediate catalyst for the collapse would be the war in Ukraine. When the dominant faction within one of the two major American political parties can’t see the point in helping a democracy-minded country fight off Russian invaders, that suggests that the center of the political spectrum has shifted in ways that will render the U.S. a less reliable ally to Europe. The latter should prepare accordingly.

What an amazing statement, in numerous ways.

Centaurea · 2023-09-04T02:34:09+00:00

"I'm confused did no one check the weather?" one user wrote.

Bless their hearts.

Centaurea · 2023-09-03T05:25:03+00:00

It will be interesting to see what SCOTUS does with this case once it finally makes its way to them.

(That will probably take a while, because the Appeals Court has now sent it back to the District Court for discovery, trial, etc. This "standing" issue came up at a very early stage in the process. What the appellate court has done is reinstate the lawsuit, which the District Court had dismissed on procedural grounds.)

Centaurea · 2023-09-03T01:01:08+00:00

Tony Fauci is making sure his investment portfolio doesn't fall by the wayside.

Centaurea · 2023-09-02T11:06:42+00:00

The petitioner cites Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which disqualifies individuals involved in “insurrections” against the government from running for federal office.

While Florida attorney Lawrence A. Caplan is poking around in the US Constitution, seems like he might want to take a gander at the Fifth Amendment. That's the one that says :

No person shall ... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

In the US, people accused of crimes have the right to a trial, where they face their accusers and both sides present evidence. Under US law, the burden of proof is on the person making the charge. That's the famous "innocent until proven guilty" thing.

“The mere fact that he has been formally indicted for various felonies including insurrection against the federal government mandates that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment be triggered,” Caplan said in his complaint.

Uh, no. An indictment is just a charge. It's not a conviction.

Darn that pesky old Due Process Clause. Darn the Fifth Amendment. What the heck were James Madison and his Constitution-writing buddies thinking?

Centaurea · 2023-09-01T08:29:36+00:00

👋 John Anderson voter here.

Centaurea · 2023-08-30T02:51:16+00:00

After pooping on Joe's shoulder. (And bald eagles are big birds.)

Centaurea · 2023-08-30T02:47:33+00:00

Sounds like projection on the part of Scholz and Macron.

Centaurea · 2023-08-29T19:10:23+00:00

And Strom Thurmond served in the US Senate until 2003. Thurmond died in June, 2003, 40 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Centaurea