There is a Motorcycle Gang in Moscow called "The Night Wolves" fully colonized with Great Russian Chauvinism and given to an excess of devotion to the Nationalist Cause that is President Vladimir Putin.
And they tear around the streets of Moscow on Harley Davidson Motorcycles.
So my only note is, if you can do something like that with a straight face then Nationalism as the Opiate of the People is NOTHING compared to the numbing effects of Cognitive Dissonance.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Monday, May 09, 2016
Let Me Be Blunt...
Mitt Romney IS NOT running for President in 2016 on a "Save the GOP" third partei ticket. He hasn't the guts and something like that locks him out of any future consideration in the Republican Party Going Forward.
The rumors of "discussions" with William Kristol etc is likely nothing more than chin music with scared and aggrieved parties nothing. The Romneys, Bushes, Ryans, McConnells etc of the GOP lack the intestinal fortitude for such a move. They will likely simply withold their support for the Trump Ticket (Here, The Donald has made it easy on all of them by personally insulting almost every notable personality in the GOP in the past year) and bleed their hearts dry for the poor unfortunates that are running down ticket.
Indeed what else can any of them do?
The game plan now comes down to making sure Trump runs up an awesome smash this Fall, pose and posture as the friend of the endangered GOP down ticketers then rebuild after the dust settles. Its what worked for Richard Nixon in 1964 and seems the only play left to any of them.
Keep in mind the primary goal of this lot is retention of control over both the money supply and the ideological tone of the National GOP (they don't however as of this year seem to control the actual nomination however). They've take any setback this November as long as they can set terms over the party's revival.
They key problem here however is simple, in no ways does it recognize a historic shift within the GOP Base, the white working class southerners that deserted George Wallace for Richard Nixon and then marched for Ronald Reagan have been bought off every four years for short money when it came time to assemble a Presidential Coalition. Now they are demanding more and things at variance with Movement Conservative Orthodoxy. Its a belligerent cohort and Trump has made them his own....Ryan-Romney et al, don't seem to understand this at all.
On the other hand if the same old same old stays in power in the GOP I'm not sure where that cohort goes, they can't backtrack to the democrats and the GOP has openly proclaimed its intentions to ignore all their issues. This is prime breeding ground for another Trump going forward assuming the original does indeed go to smash and HRC's 13 point lead gives me scant comfort even now.
The rumors of "discussions" with William Kristol etc is likely nothing more than chin music with scared and aggrieved parties nothing. The Romneys, Bushes, Ryans, McConnells etc of the GOP lack the intestinal fortitude for such a move. They will likely simply withold their support for the Trump Ticket (Here, The Donald has made it easy on all of them by personally insulting almost every notable personality in the GOP in the past year) and bleed their hearts dry for the poor unfortunates that are running down ticket.
Indeed what else can any of them do?
The game plan now comes down to making sure Trump runs up an awesome smash this Fall, pose and posture as the friend of the endangered GOP down ticketers then rebuild after the dust settles. Its what worked for Richard Nixon in 1964 and seems the only play left to any of them.
Keep in mind the primary goal of this lot is retention of control over both the money supply and the ideological tone of the National GOP (they don't however as of this year seem to control the actual nomination however). They've take any setback this November as long as they can set terms over the party's revival.
They key problem here however is simple, in no ways does it recognize a historic shift within the GOP Base, the white working class southerners that deserted George Wallace for Richard Nixon and then marched for Ronald Reagan have been bought off every four years for short money when it came time to assemble a Presidential Coalition. Now they are demanding more and things at variance with Movement Conservative Orthodoxy. Its a belligerent cohort and Trump has made them his own....Ryan-Romney et al, don't seem to understand this at all.
On the other hand if the same old same old stays in power in the GOP I'm not sure where that cohort goes, they can't backtrack to the democrats and the GOP has openly proclaimed its intentions to ignore all their issues. This is prime breeding ground for another Trump going forward assuming the original does indeed go to smash and HRC's 13 point lead gives me scant comfort even now.
Friday, May 06, 2016
Was talkin' to some Well Known Spartans with
some insight on Beacon Hill and apparently everyone therein is talking about LBGT right, public transportation issues, revenue issues etc, meanwhile the one big issue that the Governor is talking about is....."charter schools".
This confirms my suspicion that having purged his own ranks this year with the State Committee Elections and having been dealt out of the RNC, that Charlie Baker's big political project this year is the Ballot Initiative that potentially lifts the Charter School Cap.
From Charlie's perspective it's a perfect GOP issue, it beats up on teacher unions and allows him to posture as a friend of education all on behalf of four percent of the student body in Massachusetts. The Charter School funding mechanism also malignly affects local school budgets and ruinously blurs the "chain of command" within and without said schools.
So look for that as we go forward this year, remember Charlie's definition of "progress" is always whatever allows him the maximum opportunity To Pose, Without Having to Risk Any Resources or Public Money or His Own Credibility.....
This confirms my suspicion that having purged his own ranks this year with the State Committee Elections and having been dealt out of the RNC, that Charlie Baker's big political project this year is the Ballot Initiative that potentially lifts the Charter School Cap.
From Charlie's perspective it's a perfect GOP issue, it beats up on teacher unions and allows him to posture as a friend of education all on behalf of four percent of the student body in Massachusetts. The Charter School funding mechanism also malignly affects local school budgets and ruinously blurs the "chain of command" within and without said schools.
So look for that as we go forward this year, remember Charlie's definition of "progress" is always whatever allows him the maximum opportunity To Pose, Without Having to Risk Any Resources or Public Money or His Own Credibility.....
Thursday, May 05, 2016
Today It Gets Real...
Last time I checked, HRC is up over Donald Trump, by Thirteen Points Nationally, and as far as I am concerned that is WAY TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT.
Granted the electoral college map is likely way more comforting, but we must not leave anything to chance. We lose this one and we may well all end up behind barbed wire, don't gimme any of that "speed the revolution" shit when the very survival of the American Experiment is at Stake.
Elections like this are won on three axes, Money, Volunteers and Time, we need all three to march in relative lockstep to win.
Trust me, Donald Trump is NOT gonna hand this one too us, he has been consistently underestimated all along, we will have fight to the last ballot, to the Last American.
As democrats, as liberals and most importantly as citizens, we have been the inheritors of a tremendous heritage of freedom and democracy, in 2016 we must prove ourselves worthy defenders of our Cherished Legacy.
Said Legacy comes to Us by an unbroken line of heroes and heroines, now we are summoned to our own rites of heroism, we must not be slack in any way.
Bombastic yes, not my usual snark again yes, but the times demand nothing less than the truth as I know it.
Get to work
Time is wasting....
Granted the electoral college map is likely way more comforting, but we must not leave anything to chance. We lose this one and we may well all end up behind barbed wire, don't gimme any of that "speed the revolution" shit when the very survival of the American Experiment is at Stake.
Elections like this are won on three axes, Money, Volunteers and Time, we need all three to march in relative lockstep to win.
Trust me, Donald Trump is NOT gonna hand this one too us, he has been consistently underestimated all along, we will have fight to the last ballot, to the Last American.
As democrats, as liberals and most importantly as citizens, we have been the inheritors of a tremendous heritage of freedom and democracy, in 2016 we must prove ourselves worthy defenders of our Cherished Legacy.
Said Legacy comes to Us by an unbroken line of heroes and heroines, now we are summoned to our own rites of heroism, we must not be slack in any way.
Bombastic yes, not my usual snark again yes, but the times demand nothing less than the truth as I know it.
Get to work
Time is wasting....
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
Cruz Caves In...
and withdraws from the GOP Presidential Sweeps, allegedly Kasich is soon to follow...
Um this was inevitable, Cruz and sixteen other republican aspirants underestimated Trump from the git-go, refused to coordinate until far too late and thought the answer (all but invalidated in the aftermath of the NH Primary) was to outflank Trump on the right.
It didn't work because Trump seized on the "myth of conservative grievance" and literally redefined conservatism as as a sort of one-stop shop for personal vengeance.
Audiences have been eating it up while experienced pols like Jeb Bush have been blathering on about abortion and social security privatization.
Its not that the Right Wing couldn't stop Donald Trump, it is rather that Trump reconfigured the very concept of "right wingedness" and sold it to a toxically alienated and aggrieved base.
And that aggrieved base has a point (up to a point), they are the likeliest to have their jobs abruptly outsourced, asking them to not respond as xenophobes to the perceived issues of illegal immigration seems a terrific stretch. To be sure, Trump has no answers to these issues that can work in the real world, but these people have at least been promised vengeance by The Donald and they will take that, if nothing else is on offer.
And that is what has brought a dangerously impetuous inexperienced authoritarian minded individual to the Brink of the US Presidency, the sheer mendacity of movement conservative politics and a cohort abused and sold out for far too long.
***
I also think, at the risk of a lot of criticism that it is getting time for Senator Sanders to take a good long look at the costs imposed on the Republic by prolonging his Campaign. Secretary Clinton on the other hand had best figure out a good and honest way to bring Senator Sander's base into her coalition....she is gonna need it, nothing is a lock this fall.
NOTHING.....
Um this was inevitable, Cruz and sixteen other republican aspirants underestimated Trump from the git-go, refused to coordinate until far too late and thought the answer (all but invalidated in the aftermath of the NH Primary) was to outflank Trump on the right.
It didn't work because Trump seized on the "myth of conservative grievance" and literally redefined conservatism as as a sort of one-stop shop for personal vengeance.
Audiences have been eating it up while experienced pols like Jeb Bush have been blathering on about abortion and social security privatization.
Its not that the Right Wing couldn't stop Donald Trump, it is rather that Trump reconfigured the very concept of "right wingedness" and sold it to a toxically alienated and aggrieved base.
And that aggrieved base has a point (up to a point), they are the likeliest to have their jobs abruptly outsourced, asking them to not respond as xenophobes to the perceived issues of illegal immigration seems a terrific stretch. To be sure, Trump has no answers to these issues that can work in the real world, but these people have at least been promised vengeance by The Donald and they will take that, if nothing else is on offer.
And that is what has brought a dangerously impetuous inexperienced authoritarian minded individual to the Brink of the US Presidency, the sheer mendacity of movement conservative politics and a cohort abused and sold out for far too long.
***
I also think, at the risk of a lot of criticism that it is getting time for Senator Sanders to take a good long look at the costs imposed on the Republic by prolonging his Campaign. Secretary Clinton on the other hand had best figure out a good and honest way to bring Senator Sander's base into her coalition....she is gonna need it, nothing is a lock this fall.
NOTHING.....
Tuesday, May 03, 2016
I was the Unwilling but Patient Recipient of a Telephone Push Poll
which all but promised me free hookers and gratis heroin if I just applauded loudly for lifting the charter school cap this November. There is as you may recall, a question on the ballot this November.
I made my indifference to the institution and my dislike of the funding mechanism plain but the whole turgid exercise staggered on for twenty minutes before petering out.
Disheartening I wonder who paid for this exercise in ideological warfare? Moreover aren't "push polls" antique weapons since they target land line telephones owners? Unless the plan is to get everyone fifty and over exercised about Dreaded Long Arm of the Teacher's Union.
I'm guessing its a little early spadework by the Governor whose lavish love for Charter Schools is a known fact, he is pretty much shut of of the RNC at this point so I wonder if Charter Schools aren't his big political project this year?
I could be wrong, again I have no evidence to back up these speculations....anyone who has some hard data feel free to comment.
I made my indifference to the institution and my dislike of the funding mechanism plain but the whole turgid exercise staggered on for twenty minutes before petering out.
Disheartening I wonder who paid for this exercise in ideological warfare? Moreover aren't "push polls" antique weapons since they target land line telephones owners? Unless the plan is to get everyone fifty and over exercised about Dreaded Long Arm of the Teacher's Union.
I'm guessing its a little early spadework by the Governor whose lavish love for Charter Schools is a known fact, he is pretty much shut of of the RNC at this point so I wonder if Charter Schools aren't his big political project this year?
I could be wrong, again I have no evidence to back up these speculations....anyone who has some hard data feel free to comment.
Monday, May 02, 2016
Well Charlie Bakers appetite for Funny Money
continues unabated, the Globe reports he is indulging out of state donations from PACs representing interests with connections to State Government...some reformer eh?
Money is an intimidation tactic, pile enough if it up and you scare off rivals within and without your own party.
I suspect Baker is running his own private "money primary" he wants a big pile for re-election in 2018 and after that a fat rolodex to draw from should he set his sights on the US Senate.
Remember Bill Weld was Baker's chief sponsor and mentor back in the day, he tried to hand off an incumbent Governorship to his Running Mate Paul Cellucci in 1996 via a Senate Challenge to John Kerry....who can say if something similar isn't Charlie Baker's plan in 2020?
There is no other way to explain this save to note that "Charlie Baker Loves Money The Way a Hog Loves Slop" and nobody collections cashola like this unless they are either personally corrupt or else Have Big Electoral Plans, I myself tend to the later view.
Money is an intimidation tactic, pile enough if it up and you scare off rivals within and without your own party.
I suspect Baker is running his own private "money primary" he wants a big pile for re-election in 2018 and after that a fat rolodex to draw from should he set his sights on the US Senate.
Remember Bill Weld was Baker's chief sponsor and mentor back in the day, he tried to hand off an incumbent Governorship to his Running Mate Paul Cellucci in 1996 via a Senate Challenge to John Kerry....who can say if something similar isn't Charlie Baker's plan in 2020?
There is no other way to explain this save to note that "Charlie Baker Loves Money The Way a Hog Loves Slop" and nobody collections cashola like this unless they are either personally corrupt or else Have Big Electoral Plans, I myself tend to the later view.
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