Several Ossoff/Warnock ads in one video

Share them please.


Ossoff shows us how to handle Pox Views

He turns every Pox spin around by redirecting the narrative. This is how its done.

Cowardly Dems cave on $2000 stimulus checks

We knew they would. They always do. And no, it's not 'practical' politics or 'reaching across the isle" in good faith: It's cowardly caving like they always do. Bernie and a few progressives stood firm that they would not give unanimous consent to override the veto on the military budget unless checks to we the people were raised to $2000. That was repeatedly blocked by McConnell and Repugs so 41 Dems finally surrendered by voting for a motion to proceed. Only Sanders, Merkley, Warren, Van Hollen and Wyden voted against it, while Schumer and Kamala were among the 41 cowards. 

This is exactly what we the people are sick of from a Party that has abandoned us, and exactly why we didn't vote for them in droves in the November election. But did they learn from the last election? No, they did not. They keep harping that "we won" meaning the Presidency, but the main reason we got that far is many were voting against Twitler. The results in the down-ticket races gave a clear message that once again the Party refuses to acknowledge. And here we are yet again, with them capitulating to the disgusting Repugs.

We must defeat the Twitiots

One more time in Georgia.


Goodbye 2020

And for f*cks sake, good riddance. Natasha Leggero Reads Goodbye 2020 from the Yearly Departed Comedy Special.

Robot dancers

Pretty good, eh? I'm guessing their movements are programmed to the song, not spontaneous musicality. The latter is rare even in human dancers, usually mostly only pros and advanced social dancers. Otherwise, the robots danced better than most human social dancers; both are programmed and the former have better programs and movements. Then again, the robots stand no chance (yet) against the likes of this pro performance.


Seems rather obvious

Since you take an oath to uphold the Constitution, not your religion. Do the latter on your own time, not on my dime. If you can't separate them then get TF out of government.



The Dem Party are hypocrites

Most recently in the way they're handling the $2000 payment to individuals in the stimulus package. See Barry's FB post copied below. My response: Thank you. Your statements are irrefutable. And yet we're supposed to kowtow to our own establishment Party line about unity (with their cries of a circular firing squad) when they do not want unity with Bernie or their own progressive wing and do not hesitate to fire on us. 

"Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat (or a Republican) so he doesn't bluff. He stands up for what 98% of the people need. Trump was not pushing for $2,000 relief payments until last week when he sought vengeance upon Mitch McConnell for failing to comply with his 'stolen election' routine. Biden has been non-committal at best, answering 'yes' when asked if he supports the $2,000 payments. But in true Centrist fashion, he does not bring up the subject voluntarily and pushed Pelosi to pass the bill with $600 payments.

"Pelosi and Schumer are for it because it's politically expedient and has the potential to make Mitch McConnell look even worse than he already does (if that's possible). But in true Centrist fashion they were fine with $600 payments and have never previously backed $2,000 payments. 100 percent of the Republican Party and 66% of the Democratic Party are 100 percent motivated by their donors and the political expediency that demands. There's a reason that the political parties and their respective media outlets demean Bernie Sanders, but it's not because he's a 'socialist.'"

My bladder is ferocious

Every two f___ing hours too. If I don't heed the demand I get shanked.



Govtrack rates Kamala as one of the most progressive Senators

As you can see from their page on her,  she is the 3rd most progressive behind Bernie and Gillibrand.





Honest Government Ad: QAnon

This one is a couple of months old now but still hits home on the ongoing Twitiot conspiracies.


Sheryl Crow - Woman in the White House

This song came out Aug. 2020 and now we got Kamala in there. Granted she ain't Prez, yet, but could very well be next time around. And something tells me she'll play such a big role in this Admin. that she'll be the popular choice in 2024 after Joe retires.


Jon Ossof: Where is David Perdue?

Good question, good ad.

AOC on Repugnantan opposition to humanity

 You tell 'em.



Uygur and Sirota on #forcethevote

In this clip they discuss how Sirota and other progressives have been attacked by their own for not going all out on #forcethevote. Without naming names they are responding to Jimmy Dore's inflammatory rhetoric implying Sirota (and AOC) are traitors for not doing it in the way he proposed. 

They discuss how's it's a bad idea because holding up the vote for Speaker without having an alternative progressive candidate to support is ineffective and counterproductive. Both of them do however support using the leverage progressives now have in the House to force votes on other issues with different strategies and tactics.


Bernie plays hardball

This is what's required of progressives to fight for we the people. Anything less is, as Sirota notes in his post today, once again surrendering to their abuse at our expense. We're tired of the Party's cowardly caving and approve of the necessary hardball.



The left media ecosystem

The debate over whether Congressional progressives should use their leverage to force votes on their key issues has devolved into blaming left media. Curiously one of the criticisms is that this media is all about celebrity and money, not about having any impact on the issues. One of those singled out is David Sirota, and Krystal easily destroys the criticism by showing the significant impact he is already having. She goes on the make the case that online strength is pretty much all progressives have to influence people to pressure legislators. Just relying on progressives in Congress has proven ineffective against the establishment majority, a most recent example being the stimulus and pandemic bills. 

Whereas when a firebrand like AOC gets on Twitter she riles up the progressive base so that we don't just share her posts but are motivated in droves to let our legislators know what we want. And if we don't get it a primary challenge is coming and we're going to replace them. We don't just whine about it on Facebook; we take the actions necessary to do something about it. The evidence is in the progressive caucus, which grows with each election due in large part to our passionate support.

So all this blaming of progressive media is really an establishment attempt to thwart the progressive challenge instead of addressing our real concerns and criticisms. And unfortunately, too many purported progressives are being fooled by that strategy and themselves shooting the messengers rather than the addressing the legitimate message. Progressive media is doing the necessary and effective job of fighting for the very polices that we the people want. And we will continue to support them in this fight to take back our government. If that means we must also fight the hoodwinked naysayers in our own caucus then so be it.

The next stage of natural selection for men

It used to be looks, money, security, intelligence or power that attracted a mate.  The pandemic forced us to evolve beyond that now.



 

2 Abq. churches defy public health safety with Christmas services

Both Calvary and Legacy churches held large Christmas services with little to no masks and social distancing. When asked why, Calvary did not respond but Legacy provided the following response.

"We have taken the pandemic seriously from the start, and have prudent measures in place. But when governments exceed their constitutional authority and contradict what we are called on by God to do, we answer first to His authority."

The first two statements are flat out lies and the third is insane. What kind of God requires his followers to sacrifice not only their own lives and health but all of the other people with whom they come in contact? They are a sick death cult and the law should seek criminal prosecution.


We fleece MAGA clods

Rocky Mountain Mike's parody of Feliz Navidad. Keep getting conned out of your money Twitiots.


Will you survive?

Repugnantans don't care.

Warnock and Biden in GA

Clips from their recent speeches used as effective ads.


How will Nina Turner affect the Congressional progressive caucus?

If she of course wins the open seat left by Fudge's appoint to HUD. Krystal notes that Turner is the strongest of progressives and will shore up their caucus backbone to use their numbers to force issues in the Party. This is especially so since the Party has lost seats in the House and will need progressive votes to get anything done, so they have real leverage now. Turner will only add to that momentum and hold it steadfast and strong.

Lincoln Project - Fool Me

Interesting twist strategy for them in this ad. We know they hate Twit and everything he stands (falls) for. But in this ad they focus on the establishment Repug Party, like Loeffler and Perdue in GA, who betrayed Twit for not supporting his insane election conspiracy theories and overturning the GA vote. It's a devious and hopefully effective strategy to get Twitiots to vote against the GA Repug Senators in the runoff election.

The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup

This oldie but goodie from my adolescence popped up today.


Sherly Crow - In the End

I posted this before but it's time to re-post as a reminder of how contemporary music videos are returning to social messages. And this one particularly as one of my favorite artists over the past two decades.


Why did god create atheists?

Good advice from religion on how to act like an atheist.


 

Defending progressive media

Once again, some of the establishment in the Dem Party attack progressive media. My response:

 I see The Young Turks (TYT), for the most part, as legitimate and necessary progressive criticism of the establishment Dem Party. And a key ingredient in supporting the progressive agenda of we the people so that we can win more primaries and general elections and someday implement that agenda. 

And one other thing: Sure, they ask for money because they, like progressives in government, don't get bribes from big corporations like the Dem Party does. They can only survive, like progressives in government, by donations from everyday people. And we're glad to contribute, since we know they fight for our values and policies and are not contaminated by big money. We must get big money out of government if we want a true representative democracy. And TYT, like the progressives we elect, are dedicated to doing so.

Edwards: Altitude sickness

Following up on this post, remember Mark Edwards posted something similar on altitude sickness over 10 years ago, but without the cool graphic.

"One assumption for developing an integral metastudies approach to big picture research is that there are multiple lenses that have been used to develop those overarching schemas. All of these lenses need to be included in a comprehensive view of complex social realities. One of the most enduring of these lenses is the altitude lens. This lens looks at temporal complexity through the discourse of stage-based development.

"Altitude lenses have been a common element of big pictures for many thousands of years. They typically map out some set of qualitatively different stages of growth and they propose that the changing nature of complex processes can be understood as a series of unfolding stage potentials. Altitude lenses come in a variety of forms, soft, hard, spiritual, cognitive, interpersonal, individual and collective but they all share this element of a vertical shift from one level to another. Wilber's levels, Spiral Dynamics colour stages, Fowler's stages of faith, Piaget's cognitive stages, all these are examples of the application of the altitude lens to various domains.

"As with all lenses the altitude lens is subject to different kinds of truncations and reductionisms. I call these reductionisms the varieties of altitude sickness and, in a spirit of playful finger-pointing, I will briefly describe a few of these here:

1. Lens absolutism: This is the general problem of relying solely on one lens to explain vertical development.

2. Stagism: This is where all developmental capacity is thought to be function of the whole-of-system movement from one stage to another. This ignores the evidence that incremental learning and evolutionary process can result in transformative development.

3. Developmentalism: This is the view that transformative change is the result of changes in an individual's own structures rather than the structures that exist in their social and material surrounds.

4. Immediatism: This is the lack of awareness of the role of mediation in vertical development. For example relying on Piagetian models of structural change to the exclusion of Vygotskian ones.

5. Pigeon-hole(ism): This is the tendency for stage-based theorists to assume that those who are critical of stage-based models are relativists.

6. Vertical co-dependency (student variety): This is the assumption that only those at a higher stage can teach those from lower stages.

7. Vertical co-dependency (teacher variety): This is the assumption that those at a lower developmental stage need to be taught by those from a higher developmental level.

8. Communal altitudism: This is the assumption that a community of the adequate can only be constituted by those of requisite altitudinal level.

9. Individual altitudism: This is the view that you must know the altitude of your critic to judge whether their criticism is valid or not.

10. Altitude metricism: This is the seriously mistaken view that we need to be able to measure the altitude of individuals to be able to help them develop.

11. Lack of oxygenism: This is the syndrome of delusional symptoms that the human mind suffers from when it reaches a certain altitude.

12. Altitudinal fascism: This is the illness that besets a country when those who wish to take or maintain political power view all of its history in terms of the stage-based development of an elite group.

13. Altitudinal collectivism: This is the illness that besets a country when those who wish to take or maintain political power rationalise any action in terms of the stage-based development of the collective.

14. Altitudinal leaderism: This is the assumption that we need enlightened leaders to have enlightened communities.

"There are many other varieties of altitude lens sickness. These are a few of the most damaging ones. They warn us that over-relying on any single lens for describing growth, development, evolution, progress, improvement, or advancement is dangerous. When they are closed to scientific criticism from any source, all forms of big picture research are susceptible to the many malaises that can infect meta-level studies."

TYT: Biden makes some progressive economic picks

They discuss the addition of Bharat Ramamurti to the National Economic Council. Other picks being praised by progressive groups are David Kamlin and Joelle Gamble.


Gamazda's piano rendition of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters

Wow. Great emotional performance that comes through in her superlative playing.



Another Christmas story

This one tells the tale of the northern Siberian Evenki tribe. They ate amanita muscaria mushrooms, which played a big part in their holiday symbolism as they only grow beneath certain types of evergreen trees. See the link for the rest of this interesting story.



Vote the Scrooges out

Remember this day.



Sound at all familiar?

Take off on the hubris of some in the developmental community. I've come to call this phenomenon kennilingus.



The raucous, pagan origins of Christmas

In case you didn't know why 'Yule' be celebrating.


The real welfare kings and queens

Couldn't be any plainer.


 

Yep, Repug priorities are quite clear

From Robert Reich's FB post:

"Hidden in the bill combining Covid relief and government spending is a cool $200 billion in tax breaks. One tax expert estimates that $120 billion of those tax breaks will go to the top 1 percent. Those giveaways include:
—A $2.5 billion break for racecar tracks
—A $6.3 billion write-off for business meals, i.e. the “three-martini lunch” deduction
—A new provision under the Paycheck Protection Program that allows forgiven loans to also be tax deductible, giving businesses the ability to “double dip” into the program
"The bill also creates an independent commission to oversee horse racing, at the behest of Mitch McConnell. There’s no question about it: This pandemic has both revealed and exacerbated our already staggering economic inequality. Republicans didn’t blink twice when they doled out $6.3 billion so their corporate backers could write off pricey lunches, but when it came to getting direct relief to struggling Americans $600 was the best they could do. Their priorities couldn’t be clearer."





House Repug leadership block $2000 payment

As expected, they did. But it was a 'unanimous consent' vote in the first place that allows for such obstruction. Now Dem leadership is planning for a stand-alone vote on the CASH Act, which would provide the $2000 payment. Which will pass the House but die in McConnell's trash bin. Twit said he'd veto the original stimulus Bill anyway, but that could just be his usual BS bluster. 

Bernie, Kamala, Markey proposed $2000 per month

Bernie, Kamala and Markey proposed checks to us for $2000 per month in May 2020. So why didn't Pelosi and the establishment go along with it then? Sure, now that Twit is suggesting a one-time payment of $2000 it's convenient for them to use as a political ploy to force the Repugs hand. But if they were serious about it they would've supported in the first place per month, not a one-time deal.



They're domestic terrorists

And fascists committing treason too.



Funny how that is, eh?

But expecting consistency from a Twitiot is itself pretty stupid.



Lindsey Stirling - Crystallize

Lindsey has long done dance choreography while playing flawlessly on her violin. Now she's stepped it up to doing aerobatics while playing. What an amazing talent. 


AOC and Tlaib are ready for $2000 payment

They've drawn up the Amendment and we're ready to go. Let's see if the Repugs are willing to follow their crime boss into this one.



Bernie: No more caving to austerity

Bernie was adamant that the stimulus bill was pathetic because of its giveaways to the rich while skimping on help to those most in need. The Repugs claim it's because of the deficit that they're so cheap. But that flies in the face of the giveaways to the rich; they're only cheap when it comes to the rest of us. The deficit is a red herring they only pull out for an excuse. 

Unfortunately it's not the case for Biden, who actually believes that austerity nonsense. Bernie is clear that this stimulus cannot be the template for future deals or we're headed for disaster. But Biden praised it as "model legislation." Sirota noted that Biden's long history of austerity led him to pressure the Dems to cut their original deal in half. As we can see, even the establishment Dems were willing to go twice as big but they capitulated not only to the Repugs but  to Biden himself. This is not a good sign of things to come.



Rhodes: "It's not just trickle-down but distilled"

Randi notes that the rationale behind the 3-Martini lunch hand-out in the stimulus bill is that it's to stimulate the restaurant business. She wonders though why it has to pass through the rich who write-off their lunch bill instead of just giving the restaurants and their workers the money directly. She nails it when she said the rich assume they're the only ones who know how to spend money responsibly, unlike we the people who will do crazy things like buy food or pay rent. That's how the aristocrats see themselves and us. Hence we only get the leftover crumbs on the plates of the rich who get their meals and alcohol on tax money they made us pay!

 

Bernie: Scrooge is alive and well

Giving lavish gifts to the rich and coal for the rest of us. Unfortunately it's not even enough coal to heat our homes for a month, let alone a winter.




 

What's at stake in the Georgia runoff election

This pretty much sums it up.


 

Picketty: Pandemic could be an opportunity

In this recent interview he notes that we could use the pandemic to address income inequality. But that would require moving our current system "into a more egalitarian, diplomatic trajectory." This would entail employing the populist economic ideas of Sanders and Warren: "We’re talking about a higher minimum wage, more investment in public universities, more progressive taxation at the top," the latter including a billionaire tax. 

If the recent 'stimulus' Bill is any example, so much for that idea. The only solution is to beat Repugs in elections. And the only way to do that is to replace establishment Dems with progressives in primaries. Otherwise it's status quo all the way to the bank for them. And to the poor house for us.



Very good question

What's your answer Madame Speaker? And don't just repeat the tired "but it will never pass the Repugs." So what, fight for it anyway. Show some spine. Show us you're with we the people. Oh wait, I almost forgot, you're not.



Let them eat cake

This meme harkens back to the aristocratic Marie Antoinette purportedly saying that. With Moscow Mitch it is updated to a shit sandwich. 



The darkest evening of the year

The above is a line from Robert Frost's "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening." 



Deficits are not the issue

For them it's about who gets our tax money: Corporations and the rich or we the people. It's also about who pays most of the taxes: We the people and not them. It really is that simple: Steal from the working class and give to the rich. Aka Reverse Robin Hood. Tired of getting robbed? Then vote progressive.










Is the Jupiter/Saturn solstice conjunction the Star of Bethlehem?

From this article at Astronomy:

"Interestingly, there’s some evidence that a pair of planetary conjunctions — not unlike the coming Great Conjunction — happened around the historically accepted time frame for the birth of Christ. That could potentially explain the Star of Bethlehem."

So I'm going to suggest (with tongue in cheek and head up my ass) that our solstice conjunction tomorrow is a sign of the rebirth of Christ on earth. Only this time, given the precession of the equinoxes and all that, that its meaning is that the notion of Christ has evolved to a more contemporary meaning of the collaborative commons as explained in the classic essay "The next Buddha will be a collective," and the more recent "From capitalism to the collaborative commons."

May the Borg be with you. Resistance is futile.

Reich: Trickle down economics doesn't work

Its theory literally comes from the notion of eating shit. Which is pretty much what the rich are telling us.

"If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows."

Reich discusses a new study by David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King’s College London which notes that "tax cuts for the rich widened inequality without having any significant effect on jobs or growth."

Reich notes that the alternative is a return to "build up economics." 

"Build-up economics reached its zenith in the decades after the second world war, when the richest Americans paid a marginal income tax rate of between 70% and 90%. That revenue helped fund massive investment in infrastructure, education, health and basic research – creating the largest and most productive middle class the world had ever seen."

Creating wealth from the bottom up also creates wealth at the top. Just not as much as screwing over everyone else. The wealthy have to learn to live with less than their greed demands and be satisfied with still being rich but with an investment in the rest of society. It's a turn away from personal sickness toward social health. I know, how awful.





Compare and contrast

Which would you prefer? Assuming of course you're not a Twitiot.



SNL: Pence gets the vaccine

Pence, responsible for spreading this pandemic to the point of genocide, is one of the first to get inoculated against something supposed to be not a big deal. Even though that is not funny, SNL manages to turn it into a tragi-comedy.

Bernie: Dem Party a reflection of Twitler

When Bernie says things like this more of us listen. When some of us suggest something similar we're accused of fighting Party unity. E.g., Bernie notes that the Dem Party doesn't really do much anymore for the working class, since they pretty much sold their souls for the money of the professional class. And Bernie emphasizes that we need to go back to representing the working class, the true backbone of our country.

"The Democratic Party is going to have to do an enormous amount of work, really transform itself, and talk about ways to bring working class people on board, and what that means is you’ve got to represent honestly their interests."





Krystal's rationale for pressuring the MFA vote

She challenges AOC's objections to do it. Using the leverage to force a vote on Medicare For All in exchange for voting for Pelosi's Speakership accomplishes a number of things. It shows Pelosi and the establishment that progressives have the courage of their convictions and are willing for fight for them. This is turn shows we the people out here that they are fighting for us which motivates us further to keep fighting and voting to elect those who will enact our intentions. This vote also makes clear those who are against it so we can primary and replace them with those who support it along with other progressive policies. While I'm generally with AOC, I think Krystal wins this argument. #forcethevote

Force the vote on Medicare For All

These progressives could do it if they were willing. Will they? Send them an email or give them a call.



AOC comments on the Dem Party back-stabbing her.

Keep up the good fight for we the people. We have your back even though the Party doesn't. We can and will take over the Party eventually and will not stop until we do. And when we do you'll likely be our Speaker of the House. That is, unless you choose to run for Senate next, and then President. She said:

"Sometimes, you shoot high and it doesn’t work out and that’s OK. But, I am disappointed to hear that at least part of the issue was my pushing for a better Democratic Party. I don’t regret supporting candidates like Jessica Cisneros. I don’t regret taking a bold stance and saying we should be a Party that pushes for women’s rights. We should be a Party that doesn’t block working people out of Washington. So if I had to go back and make all those decisions again, I would."



The back story of establishment back-stabbing AOC

Continuing this story see this article on how AOC got screwed out of a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

"Many of the representatives that came out most forcefully against Ocasio-Cortez have close ties to oil and gas."
As most of the other establishment are bribed by insurance companies and Wall Street. Makes sense that they don't want progressives in power. TFB, because we will take over this Party eventually and kick them all out. So no, I'm not going to 'unify' with them, code for submit to the status quo corruption or die. We must, and will, defeat them.



Chicken fat song

Yep, it's stuck in my brain ever since they played it in grade school PE class.


Like I said: Genocide

As of today, in the US 311,529 dead and 17,269,542 contracted. Given the comparison of horrendous crimes below, this pandemic is by far the worst and should be treated as a crime against humanity.



Twit is delaying vaccine distribution

It isn't enough that Twit's inept response to the pandemic cost so many lives, now he is holding up distribution of the Pfizer vaccine shipments to their destinations. Twit is a genocidal maniac that must be prosecuted not only for his many criminal activities but also by the World Court for genocide.

"Millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are languishing in warehouses awaiting shipment instructions from the Trump administration — even as states are clamoring for them — vaccine manufacturer Pzifer said in a statement Thursday. [...] Officials in several states said they were told Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine next week has been mysteriously reduced, CNN reported. That triggered fears by states that the Trump administration may be incapable of hitting the target of delivering enough vaccine doses for 20 million injections by the end of the year. A source told The Washington Post that Pfizer executives were 'baffled' that the Trump administration wasn’t immediately shipping out all of the vaccine. Pfizer defended itself amid the rising fears about vaccine delivery, noting that it has no production problems — and has doses ready to go."


AOC denied Committee seat

It should come as no surprise that establishment leadership doesn't like AOC and the progressive caucus. This is exactly the sort of status quo BS that countless analysts have said is why voters turned away from the Party and voted for Twit the first time, and voted against centrist Dems down ticket in 2020. After losing a number of seats in the House and not winning expected seats in the Senate, instead of realizing they needs to go more progressive they assume they need more of the same? What dense Dembeciles and  delusional Demosaurs.

"A House body tasked with deciding committee assignments overwhelmingly voted Thursday to deny progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a spot on the powerful Energy and Commerce panel, instead handing the seat to centrist Rep. Kathleen Rice. The landslide 46-13 vote in favor of Rice by the House Steering and Policy Committee—which is chaired by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)—was viewed as establishment backlash against Ocasio-Cortez over her willingness to publicly break with the party brass on key policy matters and criticize Pelosi's leadership, as she did in an interview with The Intercept released this week."



More from The Intercept AOC interview

AOC also touched on Biden's appointments. He's bringing in war hawks and corporate shills from the Obama and Clinton administrations. She aptly noted that such status quo appointments is "a huge reason why we got Donald Trump in the first place. In addition to just the racism that was waiting to be reanimated in this country, [there] was just an extreme disdain for this moneyed political establishment that rules Washington." 

But Biden and the Party just can't understand this simple fact. Hence we progressives need to keep fighting and winning primaries and general elections to replace the Demosaurs until we are the majority.



Stimulus Bill update

The good news is that employer liability protection is out. But the Dems in exchange had to give up funding for state and local governments. There will be direct payments to citizens of $600-$700, and an additional $300 to unemployment benefits. There will also be "$325 billion in small business relief, including $257 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program; and money for vaccine distribution, schools, transportation and health care."



AOC: We need new leadership in the Democratic Party

And she is of course right. The leadership is not only old but status quo and out of touch with the general public, particularly the young. At the very least they should be grooming newer, younger leaders who represent we the people. But they are apparently so stuck on their own influence and power, and the income and perks it generates from special interests, that it is their sole priority.  Quotes from this article:

"I do think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party . [...] I think one of the things that I have struggled with — I think that a lot of people struggle with — is [that] the internal dynamics of the House has made it such that there’s very little option for succession, if you will. [...] The left isn’t really making a plan. [...] There are folks more conservative than even [current leadership] willing to kind of fill that void."

"The hesitancy that I have is that I want to make sure that if we’re pointing people in a direction, that we have a plan. And my concern — and this I acknowledge as a failing, as something that we need to sort out — is that there isn’t a plan. How do we fill that vacuum? Because if you create that vacuum, there are so many nefarious forces at play to fill that vacuum with something even worse."

 


How was your 2020?

Let's just say that I hope 2021 is better.



Moscow Mitch's corporate liability protection

This interview discusses the liability protections Moscow Mitch demands in any stimulus bill. It operates retroactively and places onerous new hoops on a litigant. This statement sums it up:

"I’d say the current language pretty much removes the possibility of successful COVID-related employment claims all together. I believe the bill says no violation so long as an employer 'explored options to comply.' It might as well say 'employers are completely immune so long as complying crossed their mind at some point.'"





AOC on the next stimulus package

 This is what a true progressive position looks like.






A Merry Christmas from Moscow Mitch

Bah humbug!



Hartmann: McConnell wants to let corps kill you without consequence

And that is not hyperbole but a fact. Moscow Mitch will not let any stimulus Bill on the Senate floor that does not protect corporations from any and all Covid liability. He doesn't care that they force us back to work or get fired. And if we go back to work he doesn't care if we get covid, only that we cannot seek any employer liability for negligently giving it to us. It cannot be any more obvious that the corps who bribe him are his only concern, not our lives and health. It is fair and accurate to call him evil.



Progressives have valid criticism of Biden's picks

But instead of listening the establishment blames progressives for their own failures. So 'unity' to them means either go along with everything we do or you're the problem. "The real party unity on display is the lockstep vilification of the left." And no surprise, corporate media is taking the same attitude. Sure, Biden's picks are 'competent,' but at what? Maintaining the status quo, which is better than the previous fascists. But sorry, that just ain't good enough for we the people. See the linked article for details.



AOC: Pay your fair share

Speaking of personal responsibility, corporations and the rich have a responsibility to contribute to the society that helped them get that way by providing all the public services upon which they depend. All we're asking is that they pay their fair share of taxes. Is that too much to ask?



The limits of personal freedom

With all rights come responsibilities. I wonder if Repugs, previously an advocate for personal responsibility, remember that? The meme below highlights that they surely demand that food preparers and servers have a duty to ensure their food is clean and safe. That's how public responsibility to others works. So wear your damned mask Twitiot!



Krugman on the Repug Party

See his whole scathing diatribe about the Party of Wackos. 

"The point isn’t that the G.O.P. believes untrue things. It is, rather, that the party has become hostile to the very idea that there’s an objective reality that might conflict with its political goals. [...] Notice, by the way, that I’m not including qualifiers, like saying 'some' Republicans. We’re talking about most of the party here. [...] At this point, you aren’t considered a proper Republican unless you hate facts."

"There has always been a conspiracy-theorizing, science-hating, anti-democratic faction in America. Before Reagan, however, mainstream conservatives and the Republican establishment refused to make alliance with that faction, keeping it on the political fringe. Reagan, by contrast, brought the crazies inside the tent."



Wake TF up Repugs

The nightmare is over. The evil witch is on the way out.



WI Supreme Court barely beats back Twitler

The vote was 4 - 3, with one conservative Justice (Hagedorn) joining the 3 liberals. If not for that Justice Wisconsin would have thrown out 220,000 absentee ballots in the heavily Democratic areas of Dane and Milwaukee counties thereby throwing the win to Twit. Interestingly, the Repug suit did not challenge any absentee ballots in the other areas where Twit won, thereby amply demonstrating the whole thing was about stealing Democratic votes. All of the Repug suits claim the Dems are cheating but have failed to prove it at all, while their suits are the very cheating they project. And 3 WI (In)Justices went along with it!



 

Electoral College votes for Biden

Ok, we passed this phase of the election process without a hitch, with Biden getting the necessary electoral votes.  Now let's see how many of the traitorous Repugs are willing to admit that Biden won.

"Joe Biden officially clinched the presidency after the Electoral College confirmed his victory Monday, capping a tumultuous period sparked by Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge he lost with the help of Republicans willing to support his unsubstantiated claims. Monday’s vote puts pressure on Senate Republicans and others who have refused to recognize Biden’s overwhelming victory -- and in some cases worked to overturn the will of the voters -- to finally acknowledge that Trump lost and Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president on Jan. 20."



Repugnantans are cowards

And their Oz behind the curtain is a con man full of smoke, mirrors and bluster. Unfortunately when exposed their Oz continues to be a fake and his Twitiots remain cowards.





Honest Government Ad: Australia's climate cheating

They do it again, this time focusing on the Aussies.


Liberal Redneck - Georgia Senate runoff election

The Liberal Redneck is introduced by Buttercream Dream. 

The best of World of Dance

Here is a collage of the best performances from last season.


Oh yes they can

There are good reasons for calling them Twitiots.



Mike Murphy on his Party

Here's Republican strategist Mike Murphy on members of his Party signing on to the TX Supreme Corp lawsuit.

"They have declared war on the institution of democracy [...] and now they're getting close to the treason business."


Schiff is wrong about fighting back

Given that numerous Repug House members signed on to an overthrow of democracy, it was suggested that Pelosi use procedure and not seat them in the House. Schiff argues against it saying we don't want to become like them. He further argues that the Dems won by not using those sort of procedural tactics but instead by making the case to the American people about how bad they are. 

But we only won the Presidency because Twit is soooo rotten, not because Biden was soooo attractive. And the Dems using his strategy lost quite a few seats in the House and lost expected seats the Senate. So no Schiff, you're wrong about using procedural tactics to defeat the enemies of the American people. And you're wrong that the establishment messaging worked as evidenced by the results of the down ticket races. The ones who won were the strong progressives who are willing to stand up and fight fiercely using whatever procedural tactics are necessary.

And we must be willing to hold accountable those who commit treason against our country, for that's exactly what those House Repugs did. Just letting it slide with your usual ineffective framing not only doesn't hold them accountable, it further enables them to continue on their traitorous slide into fascism. Sorry, your excuses are exactly why Dems lose and it makes you complicit in the accelerating lose of our democracy. We need a progressive spine, not your noodle excuses.


Epistemic battle over scale-freeness

See this article on the epistemic divide on the issue of scale-freeness in network science.  It explores the "tension between" two views on the topic that might find syntegrity in a shared "trading zone," ideas I've explored in this article and elsewhere. 

However, the scientific method requires that theory, when tested and empirical results do not validate it, must change in accord with the results. It seems to me that some theorists though refuse to budge on their predetermined theories and instead try to invalidate the results. It's true that some experimental designs might be themselves biased with a pre-determined result in mind. But when the experimental design is improved and agreed upon by consensus and the results still contradict the theory, then the fault lies with the theorists.
This seems to be what's going on in this epistemic divide over scale-freeness. The nomothetics refuse to accept the ideographics statistical methodology, while the latter refuse to accept the former axioms based on their methodological results. The thing is though that the ideographics have created a metanarrative big picture to account for the results. It is not just focused on local results of particular experiments. And that 'universal' metatheory is as noted in my paper, i.e. the cognitive science of how we perceive and conceive which allows for a plurality of lenses that are nonetheless syntegrated via that theory and method. But again, the nomothetics refuse to even acknowledge it. Or if they do, attempt to invalidate it by using their biased premises as given in a circular argument. And worse, if you don't accept their a priori premises then you *must* be engaging in relativistic postmodernism, even though the cogsci aforementioned also critique that very thing while providing universals!

Songs, lyrics, poems

Songs, lyrics, poems and other writing/media

Here are about a dozen songs I've recorded at YouTube.* And this link is to my lyrics and poems folder at Google docs, mostly from my ...