Thursday Stuff (update)

I give you this NYT video about Charlottesville (and sorry, President Lincoln’s memory, but any time these clowns want to secede, I’ll help them – that means no more Social Security, disability payments unless they qualify for Medicaid – which probably would be cut anyway – they have to raise and pay for their own army, their own clean air and water, take care of their own air space for flying planes, infrastructure, etc., etc., etc.)…



…and any non-violent push-back, in whatever form, can only be positive at this point as far as I’m concerned…

VIDEO: @MarkRuffalo, @MMFlint, and @OliviaWilde held an impromptu protest outside of Trump Tower earlier this week pic.twitter.com/7sT8Oc7Wwx

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 17, 2017

…including this (and I’m not going to be snotty and say it’s a “Johnny Reb” issue, because, though I don’t have any statistics on this, I’m sure there are plenty of them “above the Mason-Dixon line” too)…



...and Rachel Maddow tells us that the Russian political disinformation campaign against Democrats has never really ended, by the way…



…and Lawrence O’Donnell reminds us that, prior to #45, presidents who managed to ascend to the White House with a minority of votes tried to build coalitions while in office, but of course, forget about any of that with our Impulse Control Issue Nazi Sympathizer In Chief…



…and I think Green Day pretty much calls all of this here.



Update: And by the way, I’m seeing some usage out there of the term “Alt-left.” To me, it’s utterly vile and repugnant for ANYONE who shares ANY kind of common political cause with Democrats/liberals/progressives/whatever to throw around language that connotes any feigned linkage whatsoever with the white nationalist crazies of this country (more here) – I detest the term “Alt-right” because I think it tries to sanitize those monsters – I have to admit that I’m a bit flabbergasted that anyone on our side would see a benefit of any kind to a term like that.

Do I think people like David Sirota need to get a grip once in a while? Yeah, but I’m not trying to invalidate his points (nor that of people like Kyle Kulinski, who, potty mouth and all, backs up his arguments).

Yeah, I can see the shouting matches right now:

“OH YEAH, YOU ALT-LEFT BERNIE LOVER?”

“OH YEAH, YOU CORPORATE DEMOCRAT?”

Oh for sure, I can SO DEFINITELY see us building an enduring, governing majority for all time if we keep having the equivalent of a political “food fight” like this. I can DEFINITELY see the voters of this country trusting the Democratic Party while we continue to rip ourselves apart over this childish spat!

Do the DNC and the DCCC perpetually piss me off with their RIDICULOUS fundraising Emails, even those from Nancy Pelosi with the subject line of “Not A Request For Money,” then you open it, take a brief survey, answer when they ask what you’ll do in the next election, and then – SURPRISE! – they DO IN FACT ASK FOR MONEY? Is the Pope from Argentina?

That being said, can’t we for God’s sake just sit down in a room and try to hash this all out like grownups? And yes, I side more against the corporate Dems to be sure, but that doesn’t mean that either side has a monopoly on virtue.

As I and others who are much smarter than I am on this stuff have pointed out, the Republican Party and movement conservatism was flat on his metaphorical back in 1964 after Lyndon Johnson was re-elected. For a lot of reasons and through different underhanded means IMHO (mainly the Repugs becoming experts in exploiting our divisions – thanks, Tricky Dick Nixon!), the other side took 16 years to re-emerge, but they did so in 1980 and ushered in the utterly ruinous conservative ascendancy which continues its sordid abominations to our utter detriment to this day, with no foreseeable end in sight.

In fewer words – if they can pull this off, then we can too.

I just don’t want to see us piss away the opportunity of a lifetime, that’s all.